? Years: ?+? Days: ? Hours: |\ Minute: /-? Seconds Remaining
The sand slowly wormed its way between my toes as I sat on the white sand beach. The blue horizon of the ocean stretched out as far as I could see, quite contrary to the skies of Aincrad which open up into an endless sky. While most people love the beach, I couldn't quite bring myself to enjoy it. Instead of getting up and splashing in the water, I sat on the beach slowly becoming more and irritated with the sand that was working its way into every crevice of my body that it could.
A short distance away my m0ther and s1ster were playing in the surf. I watched as they were both knocked over by a rather large wave. In either direction were people of many ethnicities enjoying their time similarly. In fact, it almost seemed like I was the only one on the beach that wasn't having fun.
All I could think about was I'd rather be in bed or playing an online game. The sun's rays seemed to drain my energy rather than replenish it, as it seemed to for so many others. Whatever it was, the beach seemed to make me feel alone and empty despite being surrounded by so many people.
I was on a trip to Hawaii, something that most people would never get to experience, and my par3nts were actually spending time with SuguhA and I. Normally they're never home. My fath3r worked across seas in the US and my m0ther had a full-time job and was almost never home. You would think I would be happy to spend time with my family, but nothing we did made me feel any better. Even on a tropical island, all I wanted was to stay in the hotel. Despite the fact that the trip was supposed to be a time for us to bond, I felt as if we were growing further apart.
3 Years: 176 Days: 11 Hours: 24 Minute: 55 Seconds Remaining
I return from my memories of the past to the town of Rovia, the main settlement on the fourth floor. Between the beta and the official version, the fourth floor got a massive revamp. Originally the landscape was a desert of reddish dirt crisscrossed with massive canyons. The canyons themselves were covered in sand, and because the game forced players to navigate the floor from inside in the canyons it was very difficult to traverse. Despite the fact that the textures for the canyons were well designed, the rest of the floor was pretty boring and mildly infuriating. The new design filled the canyons and valleys with water and changed the red soil to pleasant green fields.
To match the new water-themed floor, the main settlement was also revamped. Most of the buildings in the town are made of white marble and the town was built on a lake, meaning that traversing the city is done by way of a gondola, similar to those in Venice. Currently, I'm here with Iota and one of the people he's been questing with lately, whose name is Xaxa. Although I enjoy the city design enough to come here to relax, we're currently here with a goal in mind.
Recently we heard of about a new, minor campaign quest that wasn't in the beta. The clearers went through the floor very quickly initially and managed to miss the rather important quest. Personally, I remember being a bit disappointed that the gondolas couldn't be taken outside of town. As it turns out that very fact is actually part of the quest. The rumors that I've heard (most of it through eavesdropping), say that you actually get an unregulated gondola as part of the quest along with a shipbuilding permit which is supposed to be used on later floors.
We're currently in a gondola on our way to the starting point for the quest. We paid for a ride from one of the various gondoliers around town. I notice the gondola start to pull off the side.
"Here we are. The residence of Romolo", the Gondola driver states.
Iota, Xaxa and I get off the gondola and onto the small platform that provides access to the door. Iota raps on the door a couple of time before a young man with sandy brown hair answers the door.
"I don't think we've met before", Romolo says. "What business do you have with me?"
"We'd like to build a gondola", Iota replies.
The phrase is the key to activating the quest.
"Why don't you come on in", Romolo says.
The NPC proceeds to explain how the Water Carrier's Guild monopolized shipbuilding and is forbidding people from taking their gondolas out of town.
Romolo finishes his explanation with, "I could probably make you a gondola if you collected the materials for me. The Water Carrier's Guild doesn't have jurisdiction over independent shipwrights but I can't leave the town to restock materials and they can undercut my prices by a significant margin. If you're okay with that I can build you a gondola."
A prompt pops up in front of Iota, our party leader, asking if we want to accept the quest. Iota answers affirmatively.
"Great then I'll need you to collect these materials."
Each of us is sent a quest prompt displaying the materials we will need. We begin to look over it.
"Wow, this might take a while. We'll have to kill a fair number of bears to get all this", I say.
"It'd be nice if we had a few more people to make farming enemies more efficient", Iota replies.
"It also might be better to farm Magnatheriums instead; that will get us a higher quality version of all these ingredients", I respond.
"If we wait until tomorrow, I could probably get some of my other friends to help us out", Xaxa supplies.
"That would be nice. At the very least we could get the lumber today", Iota suggests.
At this moment we hear another knock on the door. Romolo goes to answer it and lets another party of players in. The second I see their faces I curse my own terrible luck. It's Jackson and Matrix's party and they look none too happy to see us.
"What are you doing here", Jackson snarls at me.
"Uh, activating this quest, what else."
"Don't get smart with me."
For the most part, I don't really care what Jackson thinks about me, but he's the only who I felt still had something on me. Even so, I'm a bit annoyed with the fact that he talks to me like a disobedient child. Despite what I've told him in the past, Jackson still always acts like he has the moral high ground. In all honesty, I'm getting a bit fed up with him. Then, I have an idea. A way to kill two birds with one stone.
"Jackson, don't you think it's time to bury this hatchet. We're both decent players and discord in the front line is only going to hurt our chances of beating the game. As a token of good faith, how about we help each other with this quest? We could get higher quality materials easier, it would be mutually beneficial."
"As if we'd ever work with you", Matrix snorts.
"Look. I'm not saying we need to be friends. Jackson, I know you probably hate me for what I did to you on floor 2, and for that I'm sorry."
Jackson looks taken aback for a moment.
"However, I won't let you blame me for Diavel. I realize that you don't see it this way, but there really wasn't anything I could do about him, not without risking even more lives. Even if we don't agree, let's try to understand each other's opinions so that we can work together. We're in a bad enough situation as it is, let's not make it worse."
The entire room is shocked. Personally, I am as well. Jackson looks at me with a flat look. After a moment he replies.
"Alright, fine. We'll work together. This doesn't mean I forgive you, but you have a valid point. At the very least, I'll try to trust that you're working for the good of the players. We'll meet you outside the south entrance of the town after we're done."
Jackson then turns away and begin to interact with the Romolo as if to end the conversation and we leave the house.
While we're on the ferry Xaxa says to me, "Not bad. I wouldn't have apologized for hurting him, but you handled that well. We should go questing together more often."
Xaxa smiles at me.
"Sure", I reply, feeling strangely satisfied with myself.
Iota is oddly silent.
3 Years: 176 Days: 7 Hours: 31 Minute: 1 Second Remaining
Unleashing a final 'Overhead Strike', the Magnatherium shatters into polygons. For the past four hours, we've been grinding away at the massive bears. We have to get enough animal fat for the boat as well as claws and teeth to fashion nails.
"Alright, we're getting pretty close", Jackson says. "Let's move on."
Over the course of our hunting trip Jackson hasn't talked to me much aside from anything specifically pertaining to the quest, but to honest, that's okay with me. Matrix, on the other hand, seems to trust me even less. While Jackson seems to be concerned with the welfare of the players above all else, Matrix seems to have a personal grudge against me. Even so, besides the dirty looks Matrix keeps shooting at me, the hunting has been going well. The weather setting on this floor is decent. Why then am I enjoying this less and less? I usually love this sort of thing, grinding away at monsters and using the skill set I've spent so long refining. Instead, the artificial sun seems to fill my actions with lethargy.
"Everything okay?"
I turn to my side to see Iota.
"You're looking a pretty down", he says.
"I'm fine", I say. "Probably just a bit tired."
That was a lie and I know it. I actually got more sleep than I ever do last night, but I'm desperate for something to explain the feeling.
"Are you sure-"
Iota is cut off by the sound of Jackson's voice.
"There's another one up ahead. Get into formation."
Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see a look of annoyance on Iota's face, but it's gone in an instant as he gets into position. The ten of us surround the creature and take turns attacking and parrying the Magnatherium's attacks. One of the beast's claws come crashing towards me and I use an X-slash. The first strike to first alter its course and the second to damage its arm. At the same time, the rest of our group dashes forward to release a sword skill. The bear whirls and attempts to lunge at Matrix, but he jumps forwards and blocks the attack. Slowly we fall into the routine of attacking and defending, and a feeling of monotony returns to me. Every attack feels dull and I slow down to the point that one of the Magnatherium's attacks grazes my arm. That manages to spur me into action just enough for a final push. After the beast falls we check over our resources.
"That just about wraps things up. We need to cut down a couple more trees and then we'll have enough for both of us to finish the quest."
We spend the next fifteen minutes chopping down trees and trading materials so both parties have everything that we need. After we finish, our two groups separate and head back to town. Iota comes back up to me.
"So, what's up? You normally don't mess up that much while you're fighting."
"Oh, it's nothing really. Probably just tired."
He looks at me questioningly for a minute and then shrugs.
"Suit yourself then."
I know he's right. There's definitely something wrong; I just don't want to admit it. This kind of thing happened to me a lot in real life. All of a sudden, I would get really lethargic and I couldn't motivate myself to do anything. Video games were always my way to escape that feeling though. I guess now that I'm living my life as a part of one it's just not as exciting.
Slowly I look around at my surrounds. It's not perfect sure, but the assets for SAO are incredible. Then I get a little spark of inspiration. With such a vast world around me, there has to be enjoyment I can found somewhere.
"Hey, Iota?", I ask.
"Yeah?"
"I just had an idea. I want to explore every inch of Aincrad. I want to understand Kayaba and why he put so much detail into this game. I want to discover everything Aincrad has to offer."
Iota puts a satisfied smile onto his face.
"That sounds like a great idea. Mind if I help you?"
"Not at all."
It was at this point that my emotional breakthrough was interrupted. As the city was coming back into sight our party of three was surrounded by a group of elves. However, they looked far different from normal elves. Their skin was pale to the point of being sickly and their clothes were tattered and torn. Most unnerving of all was that their eyes were either red or pitch black.
"Foolish humans", one of them snarls, "trespassing on the territory of the fallen elves."
"Part of the elven campaign?", Xaxa whispers.
His question is answered moments later when another says, "Wait, these look like the humans that partnered with the dark elves."
"Then they are twice as foolish for meddling in the affairs of elves", the previous elf, who appears to be some sort of leader, replies. "Even so, that just makes this many times more interesting."
We all draw our swords. We're outnumbered close to three to one, but that doesn't stop us from fighting. After my earlier declaration, I feel rejuvenated. I dodge several blades, thrust forward at on one of the elves, and then drop down to sweep the feet out from underneath another, replicating the move Iota showed me the night we met.
"Nice!", he calls out.
Jumping back up, I use an X-Slash to cut across the chest of one of the elves. I feel myself get nicked by one of the other swords and use a roundhouse kick to send to elf sprawling. Noticing that Xaxa is in a bit of a bind, I execute my newest and possibly favorite skill in the game: "Vorpal Str1ke". Lunging forward I turn myself into a torpedo and rocket forward with a massive jump. I hit one of the elves in the chest and it shatters into polygons.
"Thanks!", Xaxa yells.
After a few more strikes the leader of the elves calls out.
"R-retreat!"
The remaining four elves dash away.
"Whew, you two are amazing", Xaxa sighs. "I barely did anything. You should teach me some of those martial skills sometime."
"Sure thing", I reply.
Iota looks out towards the retreating elves.
"What do you say we follow them? Who knows what we'll find?"
Smiling I reply, "Time to take things seriously, eh?"
Grinning like maniacs we sprint off to follow them.
3 Years: 163 Days: 6 Hours: 26 Minute: 36 Seconds Remaining
That was two weeks ago. Currently, I'm standing in a war conference that serves as a cutscene in the Elven War campaign. Ever since the New Year, we've been maintaining a floor clearing rate of about one per week. In fact, we just cleared floor 6 about three days ago.
Floor seven is composed of mountainous terrain. The southern and northern ends are both at the base of a mountain range that divides the floor. To get from the main village to the dungeon, players must cross the mountains. Although the distance between floors limits the height of the peaks, they still pose a significant challenge to climb. They also happen to be one of the big barriers impeding the elven war.
As the story goes, the dark elves are fighting for more representation in the elven system of governing, the council of elders. Although each side has a royal family, most decisions are made by the council. At the start of the war, seating on the councils was delegated based on population size. The dark elves, who were in the minority, always had lower representation under that system, and since decisions were made based on a vote, the forest elves could easily outvote the dark elves. Essentially, the argument boils down to sticking to tradition versus reforming the system to be fairer to the minority. Either way, I chose the dark elves because I personally prefer the loot on this side. If you were to ask me about the political debate though, I personally don't think there really is a right answer, at least not on one of the extremes. You can't have something without giving something up. Giving power to one side means taking it away from the other, concentrating power in the minority can be just as bad as concentrating it in the majority. What a system like this needs, are measures in place that prevent one side from taking advantage of the other.
Regardless, my thoughts currently reside elsewhere. To be more specific, with the fallen elves we fought on floor 4. After giving chase to the party of fallen elves we ended up in a sort of camp of theirs. Clearing the camp itself wasn't an issue, but I don't remember fallen elves anywhere in the elven campaign during the beta. They seem to have been given a deliberate role in the storyline, which means I can probably expect them to reappear.
After a moment of contemplation, I begin paying attention to the elven commander who is going on about how the mountains are causing a stalemate in the war. Since large forces can't go through a teleport gate at once, most of the battles have been fought in smaller skirmishes. The dark elven castle is on the third floor while the forest elves have their castle, along with the council of elders, on the ninth. The seventh-floor mountain range creates a natural barrier that makes it difficult to transport troops and materials without a teleport crystal. Therefore, our objective on this floor is to explore the different passes and tunnels to find one suitable to move larger amounts of resources.
Currently, I'm partied with Iota, Xaxa, and two more of his friends; Johnny Black and PoH. I did one other mission with the whole group a few days ago and I thought that Johnny and PoH were pretty cool, if a little bit unfocused and rowdy. Iota wasn't kidding about these guys loving practical jokes. They sprung a trap on an unexpecting weaker player, and even though they didn't really do any harm the guy, they looked pretty rattled. Even so, they're all talented players and this quest should be fun with a bit of extra help.
"Our first objective will be to explore Bronx Pass. It's closer to the edge of the floor so it's not very heavily used. It's still decently sized, so if we can secure the pass it should serve our purposes well. Now then, let us be off."
The elf, Kizmel, finishes her speech and we all get ready to go. She serves as a quest companion on floor three, and depending on how you play, she'll either get killed or will get promoted to a higher command with your help. It's a pretty interesting concept in a game and I'll begrudgingly admit that Kayaba programmed excellent AIs for his NPCs, which makes these campaign parts of the game even better.
We all step out of a wooden cabin on the edge of the main settlement, which is made primarily out of wooden cabins and gives the overall impression of a homely kind of town. To our south is the impressively rendered mountain range. Currently, it's about three and the snow that covers the mountains glows in the sun's light. From here, I can just barely make out Bronx pass. Technically our goal is the small town of Bronx that exists not far below the pass. Kizmel begins leads the way across a trail that's almost completely covered in snow. Traversing the seventh floor requires players to buy or complete a quest for snow boots or snowshoes (I chose to get boots because they augment my kick strength). With the time we have left, we should be able to get to the town by sunset as we can travel mostly in a straight line. We quickly fall into step behind Kizmel and our small little journey begins.
"Anything important you remember from the beta?", Iota asks me.
"If I remember correctly, this pass ends up being blocked by an avalanche. Eventually, we end up battling a small encampment of forest elves on another pass to secure passage."
"Hmm, the campaign has deviated enough from what you say about the beta that it's probably safe to check regardless", Xaxa comments.
Besides the gondola quest, I've done two other quests with Xaxa, one with just him and Iota, and one with everyone, so it's safe to say that I know a little better than the others. He's a little quieter by comparison to Johnny and PoH, but he's probably the most skilled. PoH is a natural talker. He carries himself with more confidence than even Iota could muster, much less myself. Hopefully, I'll pick up some tricks from him. Even if I've gotten to the point where I can speak up for myself, it's still pretty easy to get bogged down by the rest of the players' complaints against me.
Suddenly we hear some rustling and I catch a snow hare dash away out of the corner of my eye. I turn back to see that most of my party have their weapons drawn.
"Relax. Just a nonthreatening animal."
"Oh", PoH says, sheathing his long daggers. "I don't really ever see passive mobs."
"Yeah, you usually have to raise your detection skill a fair bit to detect them", I reply. "I guess the idea is that in the wild, animals are usually quite afraid of humans. I have a theory that Kayaba focused more heavily on making SAO truer to real life than an actual MMO."
"Hmm, that would actually explain a lot of nonsense this game puts us through", Johnny comments while chuckling.
Kizmel seems to have been listening "I don't know what you mean when you talk about this Kayaba, but let's keep moving."
As we begin to move again, I take note of the confused smile that she had on her face. As well made as the AIs in the game are, they're not perfect. From the interviews I've read on Kayaba, he used the top-down approach to build AIs. Essentially what this means is starting with the big picture and slowly breaking that down in its components. Conversely, there's the b00tem-up approach, which involves starting with basic components and adding to them. In Kayaba's case, he started with the main goal of interacting with players and gave his computers a function known as machine learning in order to allow them to find ways to perform their task better. According to his interviews, this was one of the big focuses of the beta test. Removing the AIs from an isolated state in order to help them replicate human speech and interactions. It seems it worked pretty well because the AIs work even better now than they did in the beta. Even so, there's this pretty common look they have to put on their face that represents confusion. It's a good reminder that however perfect this world seems, there are always flaws. My musings about Kayaba's world continue to carry me to the small town of Bronx and the rest of the night passes uneventfully.
3 Years: 162 Days: 16 Hours: 48 Minute: 57 Seconds Remaining
"Man, this is pretty unexpected. I thought you'd already be halfway across the floor by now. Glad to see you're running a bit behind your usual breakneck pace."
"Klein?", I asked, looking at him and his grinning group of wannabe samurais.
"Yeah, we wanted to meet up with you and do another quest. We haven't really played together since the first floor. Besides, we could all use a few pointers from someone who actually knows what he's doing."
I was told afterward that the look of surprise on my face was a sight to behold. Not because I was particularly surprised about the chance encounter, but rather because the person in question had specifically tracked me down. Something just seemed a bit off about the whole thing.
"Okay", I replied, hesitantly. "What did you have in mind?"
I had actually just woken up not even an hour ago. It was still a couple of hours before sunrise, because I had told my party that if we made it to the pass before daybreak, the sunrise was incredible. I still wasn't sure if the avalanche that had been there in the beta would block our view, but I figured that it was worth a shot. Besides, none of my party really had anything against being up this early.
"Well, it looks like your about to go on a quest right now. Mind if we tag along."
Looking at Klein's party, they looked underleveled. Their stats would be just fine around early floor 6, but I wasn't sure about a mid-floor 7 quest. Their level wasn't the only thing I was concerned about though.
"Well, it's a campaign quest so unless you already accepted it and you guys chose the dark elves side, it wouldn't work. Besides are you sure you guys are prepared for something like this?"
"Well, we chose the dark elves", the one named Dynam replies. "And we're pretty well equipped."
"We haven't accepted any quest, though", the one name Issin follows up.
"But that wouldn't stop up from tagging along, right?", Klein interjects.
I turn back to the rest of my party.
"You guys okay with this?"
"Go ahead", Iota says, apparently amused by my reaction to the situation.
Xaxa, Johnny and PoH also seem to enjoy my reaction and they all give varying degrees of consent. PoH doesn't seem to be thrilled by it, but not particularly against it either.
"Alright, you guys can tag along", I say, smiling.
"Nice!", Klein says.
All of sudden a notification pops up in front of Klein's screen.
"Wow, it's giving us the option to accept the quest as well."
"Really? I've never seen that before."
"Probably because you rarely play with anyone else besides Iota", Klein comments, getting a laugh out of everyone.
"Yeah, yeah", I say. "I guess increased player freedom means the system has to be more adaptable."
PoH then decides that it's his turn, "I take it you're just going to keep acting like an awkward cross between a walking encyclopedia and a pretentious philosopher?"
This garners an even bigger laugh. Dale comes up to me and puts his hand on my shoulder.
"Look man", he says in that one, completely overused hippie voice that everyone has grown immensely tired of by now, "You gotta just relax and take life how it comes."
At this point, everyone loses it and starts laughing uncontrollably.
"I get it, I guess it's just rag on Kirito day", I say, laughing a bit myself. "We should get going if we want a shot at seeing the sunrise though."
"Fine, fine", Klein said, "But now that we've officially declared this rag on Kirito day you better be prepared."
So we take off, all the way the rest of them having multiple laughs at my expense. Regardless I feel like I'm enjoying myself, not fighting or playing a game just for the sake of it. Along the way we have to fight a couple of wolf-themed mobs and a mountain lion, but nothing we couldn't handle. Eventually, we make it to the top of the pass. Examining it I can see the avalanche that I remember from the beta has blocked off the pass. However, the snow does look climbable. Overall, not an option for the dark elves, but we can still get a decent view.
"I must admit", Klein begins, "the sunset and rises are spectacularly rendered in SAO."
"Now don't you go start sounding like Kirito", Dynam mocks.
We all make our way towards the barrier ready to climb.
3 Years: 162 Days: 13 Hours: 57 Minute: 12 Seconds Remaining
I look up to see two large boulders of snow fall from above with no warning. I freeze and my brain speeds up by about a thousand times. One ball will hit Xaxa directly while the other is heading for Dale and Dynam. I want to yell but I can't make my voice work. It's exactly like Diavel. Everything in me locks and…
3 Years: 162 Days: 13 Hours: 57 Minute: 9 Seconds Remaining
The snowballs hit almost exactly where I thought they would. Dynam and Dale are lucky and the ball misses them by inches. They still get blasted back and take massive amounts of damage. Xaxa isn't so lucky, the snowball hits him directly and crushes his avatar. From behind various rocks and chunks of fallen snow, a large force of fallen elves streams towards us.
3 Years: 162 Days: 13 Hours: 57 Minute: 7 Seconds Remaining
[Player d9ad0257-99f9-4499-aeb6-f6331aa25a74 has died.]
Shattered polygons explode from under the massive chunk of snow. I suddenly remember why giving compliments to Kayaba's game just seems instinctively wrong.