Preface: Hi all,

Back again for chapter 2 and just wanted to mention some things before you get into it. The particularly observant ones may of noticed I moved the release date of SAO from Oct 31 to the 30. This is obviously because they can't very well stand in line all day on a school day.

Next, as you will encounter in this chapter, I've made minor edits to the SAO works. A prominent one is paralysis which will pop up later. This is in an attempt to make it more like a standard MMO. Where possibly I've left it the same and since Reki does so little this the monsters I've fleshed some of them out a bit.

Finally, I'm still pretty open to changing the romantic path of this story. If you have strong preferences for a harem (and its composition) or a certain pairing, let me know.

All the rights and privileges of Sword Art Online belong to Reki Kawahara.

PS. I came up with this Goblin Slayer name completely independently from the, anime? that was recently released. I thought the name sounded suitably cool yet corny that no one would actually use it. Shows you what I know.

Chapter 2

Stunning. That's the only world that came to Naruto's mind as he wandered the streets of the starting city. It was so big, and so detailed. It didn't seem possible. Goblin Slayer in its entirety was a path a little over ten meters wide and a little over a hundred long. From the little research Naruto had done, this was large for most full-dive virtual reality spaces. It was just too hard to program and took up too much space to make anything larger. Everything about SAO defied that logic, it was incomprehensible the difference between the games. Like comparing a black and white television to a 3D one the difference within the technology had decades between them. Or at least that's how it should have been. SAO was only possible because Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the nerve gear himself, had basically built SAO alone.

The rest of the world was still in shock at the advent of such an advanced BMI when most estimates put the technology another two decades away or more. It's only naturally for game producers to be out of their league when trying to build hardware for it.

Noticing a red-haired man looking at swords, Naruto decided to introduce himself, "Yo, see anything good?"

"Yo, yourself," the man answered back with a grin, "the name's Klein, and I'm trying to decide what category of weapon I should use. I've heard this game is pretty harsh when it comes to choosing skills."

"I'm Naruto, and really…" was as far as Naruto got before Klein broke into raucous laughter when he learnt his name. "Come on dude, it's not that funny. And tell me about why this game is so cruel about picking skills."

"Ah, sorry man! But I think you definitely should have let that name age a few more years before pulling it out!" Klein managed to get out after composing himself.

"I'm bad with names, alright? And the skills?" an irate Naruto replied, not too pleased to realize that most likely everyone in this game were hardcore gamers and would recognize the name.

"Right, that," Klein wiped the remaining tears out of his eyes before continuing, "You see, us as level one players only get two skill slots. And if you fill both of those up and then later decide you want a different skill and remove one… well."

"It's gone forever!" Naruto finished, aghast at the harsh system.

"No, just let me finish dude," Klein scolded Naruto.

"Sorry, you teach, I listen, gotcha."

"Indeed, my young Padawan learner!" Klein responded happily, stroking the scruff on his chin. The gleam in his eyes made it quite apparent that he quite enjoyed getting to instruct Naruto in the ways of the game. "As I was saying, equipped skills earn mastery points which let you unlock mods and bonuses at certain ranks; and, all of that is on top of the passive bonus you get while performing the skill due to its presence. Now, when you unequip a skill for another one, you lose all of the progress you made towards that previous skill. For example, If I was a tank, I might run heavy metal armour and one-handed club as my first two skills. But say I was in a party against an enemy where we needed more reach? Well technically, I could switch my club skill to spear, but alas all my club experience would be gone, and I'd only have the base spear skills! This game locks your character into a build!"

"Hmm, so it's like real life in that scenario then," Naruto chimed in, "One person can only be good at so many things. Makes sense to me."

"W-While that's true," Klein was forced to agree, "don't we play these games to escape from our reality and have adventures with friends? It doesn't really make sense to me to add elements to a game that will restrict the players' enjoyment just because that's how it's done in real life."

"True. I just hope they didn't make the death function work like it does in real life. Now that would suck." Naruto told Klein with a grin.

"Ah, don't say stuff like that! This feels so similar to my real body that I imagine dying will be terrifying. Is it really okay to let kids play this?" Klein was forced to wonder.

Naruto shivered despite the heat of the sun beating down upon him, "Totally dude, last game I played you couldn't die but it was still creepy as hell watching those weapons fly towards you."

"Well, the beta testers seemed to have survived so I'm sure we will too!" Klein's forced enthusiasm helping to snap the pair of them back into the present. "What weapon are you going with? I've decided to go for the curved sword. I was hoping for a katana, but it seems like they don't have them, and this is the next best thing."

As Klein exchanged his starting token for the 'Small Curved Sword' Naruto looked over the selection again. Mozuri was right, Naruto decided, I should really use a weapon that will help with my kendo skills.

"The size of the shinai is more similar to the one-handed sword, but it's used primarily with two hands." Kazuto muttered out loud still having problems deciding.

"I've read a lot of forums, and from what I've heard you're better off with a one-handed sword than a two-handed one," Klein helpfully added. "Apparently the beta testers struggled to get used to the weight of the two-handed sword and no one could use it really well."

"Yeah, I think you're right. Plus, shinai can also be used with solely one hand at high levels of competition." Kazuto told Klein to his complete indifference.

"Right, whatever you say dude. Just get your sword and let's get to the hunting!"

After equipping his sword across his back Naruto realized he had forgotten about Mozuri. "Dammit I didn't tell him the name I was going to use!" Naruto had mostly held off on doing that due to not wanting to be subjected to another laughing fit when he found out.

"Hmm? Something wrong Naruto?" Seeing that he wasn't being followed Klein turned back to see what had held his new disciple up.

"Yeah, I got a friend who should be logged in, but I forgot to tell him what I was going to name my character, so I guess I have to go find him." Kazuto explained.

"Oh, is that all? Well just open your menu and send him a message." Klein brushed off. "You do know his character name. Right?"

"Yeah, I'm not that stupid Klein, he said he was going with Arthur."

"Isn't that name kind of lame…" Klein got out before realization dawned on his face, "Oh like King Arthur! That's ballsy, it's basically declaring that he's the best." Klein muttered his appreciation for Mozuri's genitalia quietly.

"Whatever you say. Now help me with this menu, I've never dealt with something this complicated before."

After helping Naruto send his message and add Arthur as his friend, Klein couldn't help but comment, "Wow, you are seriously bad with technology," Klein said while looking impressed. "I could have sworn you were making fun of me a few times there, but you were actually serious!"

"Trust me, I know. Now, let's go meet Arthur and get to the fun part of this game." Naruto's enthusiasm to fight building up and overwhelming his ire at his incompetence to work technology.

Due to the friend search function Arthur was easy to pick out in the crowd, his avatar glowing, and his green cursor had an extra flair to it. Turning off the search having found his target Naruto greeted him, "Hey Moz, you ready for this."

"Oh definitely… Naruto," The laughter in Arthur's voice was clear earning him a scowl from Naruto. "So, you planning on making yourself a ninja? What's with the name?"

"Ugh, NARUsaka KazuTO, get it? Now let's go," Naruto harshly shut down Arthur and attempted to walk past him in to get out of town and start the hunting.

"Yeah, I get it," Arthur told him, "I just still can't believe that you actually went with it."

"By the way, you should be a little more tight-lipped about your personal information and that of others Naruto," Klein told him. "A lot of people turn to games for an escape and don't need you dragging real world problems into it. Ruins the illusion I suppose."

"Ah, yeah, my bad. Sorry Moz, I mean Arthur." Sighing Kazuto told him, "couldn't you have made your character look a little less like you? Then it wouldn't be as hard to remember," Naruto complained to his companion.

"Are you kidding me? Change your hair and take a couple inches off, you'd be identical!" Arthur shot back.

"Actually, I did the same thing," Klein added, "also I heard that changing your height causes a lot of coordination issues." At this the three of them looked around at the imposing six and a half feet tall avatars that walked around with a grimace on their face as they struggled to even walk normally.

"It really does ruin their image of being a hero when they start tripping over nothing, doesn't it," Naruto told his friends with a smile.

"Yeah, pretty hard to look intimidating when you have to stare at your feet to remain upright!" Arthur added, joining in on the laughter.

"Though I'm surprised to see so many girls," Naruto lightly commented, "I only remember a couple in that line to buy the game, but I'd estimate over 30% of the population is female."

At Naruto's innocent statement Klein and Arthur looked at each other before they both began to laugh at their friend's ignorance.

"Ugh, just tell me what stupid thing I said this time," Naruto grumbled.

"Don't you remember your character creation dude?" Klein asked him not giving him an easy out, "It was the very first option when creating your character…"

"The first option? It was selecting your characters gender, but how does that…" Naruto trailed off as the reality of the situation dawned on him. "They're… Those girls are…" was the extent of what he could manage. Naruto started doing double takes of the female avatars he saw with his mouth open.

Arthur coughed embarrassed, refocusing their attention, "Actually, I was thinking of running a female avatar for awhile," Arthur admitted, "I mean I thought better of it in the end, I mean I don't really want..."

"Men hitting on you?" Klein commented dryly. "Yeah, that's something better left for 2D games I think."

"Haha, yeah, that's what I figured," Arthur finished lamely while scratching his head.

As they continued to walk through the city, Naruto finally noticed the weapon that Arthur had sheathed on his back, a spear. "What are you doing with a spear? What happened to practicing kendo?" Naruto asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"You think I was serious about that?" Arthur laughed back. "I'm using a spear because I always thought they were kind of cool, and I knew I'd never be able to match you in sword skills anyways," Arthur shrugged.

"If you were going to use a spear why name yourself Arthur? Wouldn't something like Cu Chulainn have been more appropriate?" Klein asked seriously.

"I thought about it, but I also wanted to give myself some more flexibility. Also, the weapon Arthur uses to kill Mordred looks like a spear in that one painting." Arthur added on as he continued to defend his name choice.

"Ah yeah, about switching weapons…" Klein began to give Arthur the same lecture about skills that Naruto had already received.

"Are you kidding? I thought half the fun of this game would being able to try out lots of different weapons!" Arthur complained bitterly.

"So, did I," Klein added, rather upset, "Apparently, Argus was willing to change it to make raising up different weapons more practical, but Kayaba vetoed it." Klein told them, showing off the remarkable amount of time he spent researching the game despite not having been in the beta test.

The three friends continued to walk through the city streets laughing at each other's jokes, Klein's easy personality letting him fit in comfortably. Naruto was wondering if the city would ever end when he encountered the city wall with gates that stretched over 6 meters tall. "Wow," Naruto's awed voice was shared by his companions as a moment of silence stretched between them at the spectacle that was the main gate of the Starting city. "Thank you, Arthur," Naruto spoke, breaking the silence. "I can already tell that virtual reality will change my life. This adventure, it's the next step for humankind and I want to be there to see it happen."

"No problem Naruto. Now what do you say to getting this thing started." Arthur exchanged a grin with Naruto before the two clasped hands, symbolizing the start to their partnership as fellow warriors out to conquer the world.

"Onwards, my disciples! I still need to teach you two how to fight!" Klein broke in snapping the friends out of their moment.

"Aye, aye sensei!" the two replied in sync.

"He has no idea how to fight, does he?" Arthur asked Naruto with awe thick in his voice at just how bad Klein was.

"Well, he... uh, knows a lot about the game?" Kazuto fired back, trying to defend his friend, but as the boar knocked Klein over once again, its aggro reset and it went back to eating the grass.

Sighing, Naruto decided it was time to come to his friend's aid. "Hey Klein, leave the boar alone and come over here for a bit."

Head hung low in defeat Klein trudged back over to the them. "This is going to harder than I thought it would be. I've never been super athletic, and this feels a little to close to reality."

Naruto smiled back at his dejected friend, "Fret not our teacher, for we have found a tutorial on how to use these sword skills!" Naruto informed Klein happily.

"A-A tutorial!" Klein practically screamed back. "Why didn't you say something earlier!"

"Well you did say that you knew what you were doing," Arthur added helpfully, "We just thought maybe you needed a little more time."

"Cut the bullshit," Klein glared at them, "you just wanted to watch me suffer."

"Well you did assume that you would know more about fighting than us, despite knowing that both of us are kendo practitioners," Naruto told Klein blandly.

"Haha, yeah, that was my bad," Klein admitted, scratching his head embarrassed.

After the three of them had completed their sword skill tutorials and were able to successfully activate them on their own, they decided it was time to start back on the boars.

"Let's see the kendo master himself defeat the mighty 'Blue Boar'," Arthur casually joked.

"Alright, should be no problem," Naruto answered easily, unsheathing his blade as he approached the nearest boar.

Sensing his approach, the neutral monster aptly named 'Blue Boar' looked up and Naruto was stunned once again by the detail in this world. From the moisture on its snout to the way its eyes followed him it seemed to be alive. The boar stood 80 centimetres tall and about 150 long. While its tusks didn't appear menacing at a little over 6 inches, they still tapered to a sharp point that spoke of the damage they could inflict.

Deciding to forsake sword skills for now, Naruto showed off his physical prowess by swiftly sidestepping the charge and landing a solid strike on the boar's flank. To Naruto's disappointment, the strike only took off about 10% of the boar's health. "It's seems that its coarse hair can take a hit!" Naruto laughed to his companions.

"Wow," Klein breathed out, his amazement evident in his voice. "the way you move your body… its so smooth!"

"It seems that you've seduced Klein with your body, Naruto," Arthur chipped in with amusement.

"Don't tease him," Naruto replied as the boar turned around, "I did the same thing to you last year. Must be why you wanted to make a female character, right?" Naruto teased him.

"Shut up and deal with the pig already," Arthur muttered, face crimson.

This time when the pig charged, Naruto didn't move out of the way, but lifted his sword above his head into the starting position for 'Vertical'. A one-hit slashing type sword skill unique to one-handed swords. Along with 'Slash' and 'Horizontal' they made up the three starting sword skills that Naruto currently had access to.

The sword began to glow with an intense blue light as it recognized the pre-motion for activating the sword skill. Naruto followed through with the sword motion raising its speed to the maximum as it caught the boar's snout right before it started its tusk swipe skill. This resulted in a critical hit taking off another 80% of its health bar and leaving it stunned. Walking over to the stunned boar Naruto calmly jammed his sword into the boar's side lowering its health to zero.

As the boar burst into polygon shards Naruto turned back to his party mates, "Well, its time to hunt us some boars, friends! We each need 5 tusk drops as well as 19 more kills!" Naruto's enthusiasm starting to bubble over in his words to his friends.

"You heard the man! Let's do this!" Klein chanted as he echoed Naruto's enthusiasm.

"Yes! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Arthur fist pumped as he also got caught up in the excitement.

Facing down the charge of another boar, Naruto raised his sword over his right shoulder in preparation to unleash a sword skill. This time as the translucent blue light covered his sword, Naruto swung it from the upper-right to bottom-left, the motion for 'Slant'. The sword struck true hitting the boar's tusk repelling its attack.

The interaction left both participants in post-motion delay allowing for Klein and Arthur to release 'Reaver' and 'Thrusting Strike' respectively. While the weaker curved sword only hit for about 30% of the boar's health, the powerful two-handed spear hit for another 50%, finishing off the poor boar.

"Well that's the last of my drops, how about you guys?" Naruto asked, quickly picking up the gaming lingo.

"Yupp," the synchronized answer from both Klein and Arthur caused the three of them to break into laughter.

"So, the boar dropped three tusks, eh?" Klein asked with a laugh, "so much for the game mimicking reality!"

"Well, quest drops are unique to each party member. It would be pretty stupid from a game balancing standpoint to limit the number of members that can get a drop." Arthur reasonably added.

"Well, duh," Klein replied harshly, "But that's balancing around the game, not reality." Klein's ire manifesting itself against Arthur over the game's strictness about skill slots.

"Easy Klein," Naruto interjected still euphoric over the feeling of fighting in game. "Let's head back to town and hand in the quests, they should level us up and let us start on the next enemies, right?"

"Right you are my young apprentice!" Klein confirmed for him, his good nature already overcoming his bad mood.

"Wow! It's already after 3!" came Arthur's shocked voice interrupting the pair.

"Really? Well I got until 5:30 before I need to break, so if you guys are up for it, I think we should head back to town, level up, and head out for one more hunt." Klein helpfully advised.

Arthur sighed in response to Klein's 'advice', "that's literally what Naruto just said."

"Enough talking, more walking guys!" Naruto chimed in walking past them across the plains back to city.

"Oof," a nasally voice grunted as Naruto felt something small hit him.

Looking down Naruto saw the figure of small girl sitting on the ground, "Ah, are you okay there miss," he asked with concern in his voice. When she took his hand to stand up Naruto grunted in surprise. There were whiskers on her face. Naruto stupidly said this out loud earning himself the ire of the girl.

"Well aren't you a bright one, and watch where you're going!" the girl scathingly replied before trying to leave with a huff.

"Ah, wait! Let me make it up to you," Naruto plead while holding onto her cloak to prevent her from leaving.

"Oh my, aren't you a gentleman?" the girl smiled at Naruto, her personality appearing to have done a 180. Leaning in close to his ear she whispered, "but how do you know I'm a girl?"

Unfazed by the girls teasing behaviour, Naruto answered back with a smile, "Of course you're an actual girl, a guy would have been nicer."

"Oh really?' the girl replied, back to her scathing tone, "and why should I be nice to some newbie who doesn't pay attention to his surroundings?"

"Well I'm waiting for my friends to return so we can go do some more quests." Naruto replied still unaffected by her harsh tone.

"Hmf," the girl snorted, "the name's Argo, look me up if you need info, ight?"

"Will do, name's Naruto, look me up if you need stuff killed!" he replied brightly, sticking out his hand to make their acquaintance official.

Argo stopped with her hand partially extended to accept the offer. "T-that was a joke, right?" Argo asked having been finally put off kilter by the strange man in front of her.

"Nope! Naruto's the name, and fighting's the game" Naruto confirmed for Argo while managing to keep his tone light despite more disbelief directed towards his name.

"Oh… I see," finally shaking his hand. Naruto was relieved that Argo accepted his name easier than most.

"Well if I wasn't already, you just confirmed that you're a female by not breaking down laughing upon hearing my name!" Naruto cheerfully told her.

"Hmm, yeah I guess I did," Argo replied in a tone distracted tone while sizing Naruto up. "You say you're good at fighting yeah? Well I could actually use your help with something."

"Really? and what help could a newbie like me provide," Naruto asked teasingly.

"I'm an information broker you see, I sell info, but I also need levels, so I can keep exploring places and get new info to sell. So, I need to level up, but I can't spend a lot of time on it. I'll give you this information for free, but the fastest way to level up is to complete the quests for slaying elite monsters." Argo told Naruto quickly.

"And what's an elite monster?" Naruto replied confused, earning himself a facepalm from Argo.

"Wow," Argo replied scathingly, "You really are a noob. An elite monster is like the normal ones that wander around in the field, but they're bigger and tougher than the normal creeps, they require a party to take out."

"I see," Naruto replied sagely, "In that case I have a deal for you!"

"Oh really? And what's that?"

"I will take out the elite monster solo for you. Then you will forgive me for knocking you down and…" Naruto drew out the final point of the deal, "you will add me to your friend list!" he finished dramatically.

Argo simply laughed in reply. "Well since it's a win-win for me, I'm in!"

"Then let's go, I'll just message my friends to start the hunt without me."

"Well, well, this should be interesting," Argo said with an evil grin as she followed Naruto out of the city.

"It's just a bigger boar," Naruto whined to Argo, "you brought me out here to fight this?"

Argo simply cackled evilly and continued to smile believing wholeheartedly in Naruto's imminent defeat.

Put slightly off balance by how Argo thought a boar would defeat him, Naruto took another look and reassessed the situation. It's a trap he realized with sudden clarity. At the middle of the clearing stood the 'Big Blue Boar' grazing with three of the traditional 'Blue Boar's at various positions around it.

"Silly question here, but I attack the big one, will all of the little ones attack too?" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"So, you're starting to figure it out, eh?" Argo replied triumphantly, "If you keep underestimating the game your death toll is going to enter the hundreds before hitting the next floor."

"Tsk, this could be a problem." Naruto complained to himself. The issue is in the post-motion freeze of the sword skill Naruto realized. At 10% of their health on a normal swing, that's ten swings a boar, a lot of hits to get off in a four on one scenario. Using sword skills will lower that to two hits but leaves him open to being gored by the boars. "This is what you meant by win-win isn't it? Either I pull out a miraculous victory and you get what you want, or more than likely, you get to watch me die a stupid death." Naruto asked with a sigh.

"You got it in one, Nar-boi!" Argo happily chimed back.

"Nar-boi? Well, whatever, let's see if I can make a miracle happen here." Naruto grumbled, ignoring Argo's new nickname for him.

Naruto realized, correctly, that the small ones would have to die first. Swiftly approaching the one farthest from the center, Naruto unleashed a vertical aiming for that one weak point, the snout. Luckily, the boar did not move fast enough resulting in a critical hit. With the power gained from his level up, the boar's health decreased rapidly ending up with a little more than 10% remaining. Released from the post-motion before the boar could recover Naruto released a cry and thrust his sword into the boar sending it backwards again. Unfortunately, the boar survived with a silver of health.

"Tch," Naruto exclaimed angrily, having had his assassination fail. Finishing off the boar now was impossible due to the presence off the other two reaching him while the big one watched from the center.

Naruto backed up to get a better angle in order to dodge both boars. Now, Naruto thought and rolled hard to the left barely slipping past the one boar causing the two to collide.

"I can do this!" Naruto thought to himself. "The low health boar is right there." Extending his sword to impale and finish off the one boar, Naruto felt a presence on his left.

"Oh shit." Was his only thought before he was airborne. Landing heavily on the ground Naruto watched his health gauge with trepidation as over 40% of it slowly emptied due to the attack he took.

Getting up with a groan, having been disorientated from the hit, he saw that the boars were lining up for another charge. Naruto had to admire the simplicity of the boar's strategy. The small ones attack recklessly forcing the player to either dodge or repel them with a sword skill. This leads to the large boar having free access to maul the defenseless player.

Naruto immediately noticed a flaw in the boars' tactics thanks to his years of kendo. Utilizing it should buy him some time to recover. It was impossible for units to pass through each other, as the small ones had just shown by colliding into each other. This means that as long as there is a boar between him and the big one it can't attack.

"Well, here goes nothing," Naruto muttered out loud. As the boar charged him, Naruto caught its charge with the blunt side of his blade and pushed it back using his strength. To his shock, the boar's attack ended, and it just stood there looking at him. Not only did this stop the other two boars from attacking him but it gave him time to remove a potion from his pouch and drink it quickly.

Potions in SAO, Naruto had learnt from Klein's whining, sucked. They restored health per second. The problem was that these beginning ones restored 0.33% per second for two minutes. That totaled 40% health regen and took two whole minutes. Not exactly great, but better than nothing.

"Now then," Naruto said while grinning, "it's time to thin your numbers."

This burst of resolve snapped a cackling Argo out her disinterest. Could this boy actually take down an elite monster solo? No, it's not possible Argo thought. But a part of her was starting to believe, despite having never seen the monster before he was doing surprisingly well and adapting fast. Yes, he is definitely a player Argo would be fascinated to watch grow.

After simply dodging around the boars for a while, Naruto finally got the opportunity he was looking for, a chance to finish out the low health one. To Naruto's dismay it seemed the big boar had an aura that healed the small one meaning it was back up over 20% again.

"Huh, guess this is why you said it's impossible solo!" Naruto called to his silent spectator, "but watch this!" Double checking his positioning, Naruto caught the low health boar's charge on his sword and allowed it to push him. While it cost him almost 5% of his health it was a fair trade as it cancelled the other two boar's charge and allowed Naruto to unleash a vertical to finish the first boar all without exposing himself to the large boar.

Having the number reduced to two made things easier for Naruto. It allowed him to position himself directly between the two charging boars. After evading, the boars collided causing a stun effect to take place. Not letting the opening to go to waste, Naruto used sword skills to remove over 50% from both boars.

Repeating the endeavor flawlessly allowed Naruto to remove both boars at the same time. Rising with a grin from his post-motion delay, Naruto looked into the eyes of one very large, very angry boar.

"You're all alone now bud, whatcha going to do?" Naruto taunted. "A charge, how predictable." In response Naruto lazily charged up his sword skill to cancel the charge.

Upon seeing the sword glow with a blue light, however, the boar did the last thing Naruto thought it would, it stopped.

Repeating his mantra from earlier, Naruto released an, "oh shit," before his sword skill went off leaving him in post-motion delay right in front of the boar. A surge of primal fear shot through Naruto as he looked into the boar's eyes. He could have sworn he saw the flames of righteous anger at Naruto for killing its companions.

Naruto was expecting to take damage, but he had to do a double take when he saw how much damage he had taken. Naruto had been sitting comfortably in the green at around 80% and climbing when the boar struck him. The sight of his now blinking red health bar caused him to swallow.

Getting up unsteadily, Naruto now fully appreciated Argo's advice, he had underestimated the game. The praise he got in Goblin Slayer along with his status as the best back in school had convinced him of his invulnerability. He was now being shown by a pig just how wrong he was.

Refusing to quit now, Naruto once again faced his opponent, "I will not be beaten by swine," Naruto growled, "I will eat you," he dramatically told the elite monster while pointing his blade at it.

Seemingly taking offence to Naruto's statement the boar reared up on his two back legs and charged him at a speed that far exceeded anything he had faced before.

Realizing there wasn't enough time to use a sword skill, and the charge was obviously unblockable, unlike the small boars', Naruto did the last thing the boar was expecting. He jumped straight up.

With the hump on its back a little over a metre and a half high high, Naruto needed to jump over eighty centimetres to completely clear the boar. A perfectly possible jump for Kazuto, unfortunately, Naruto's jump height was limited by his strength and agility. Thankfully, the jump let him clear the tusks preventing him from taking damage, however, the back still hit him which resulted in Naruto flipping head over heels before landing roughly on his back. This is probably why the boar wasn't expecting this maneuver. It let Naruto avoid damage, but he was more disorientated than ever.

"Ugh," Naruto grunted still woozy from the flips, "You really are a pain in the ass, aren't you?" Glaring at the boar which had just finished turning around, Naruto got back into his sword stance ready to defeat the pig for real this time.

"Hah! Take that you porky bastard!" Naruto yelled having finally landed a clean hit on the pig. "Man, I could really go for some party mates right about now."

"You would have some if you didn't ditch them in attempt to impress a girl." Argo replied smartly from the sidelines.

She wouldn't tell him, but she was impressed. Unless he made a mistake, he would most likely win. The only problem was how slow he was dealing damage to boar due to limited opportunities to strike it. The standard strategy in defeating it was to have a tank absorb the charges with a shield and have DPS wail on it from the sides. Naruto couldn't absorb the charges and therefore had no chance to strike it with sword skills.

"That is a fair point you make there," Kazuto replied panting heavily from exhaustion, "but I will have you know that making you swoon will be worth every second of it!"

Argo had to avert her face so that he wouldn't see the blush creeping up her cheeks. "Stupid men think they know everything," despite sounding unhappy the smile on her face said the opposite.

Argo's life had been far from easy growing up. Passed from relative to relative, unwanted everywhere she went. Argo was used to men scowling and telling her to leave. To have one want her around… well it was different, that's for sure.

"Your spot on my friend's list is on the line here Nar-boi, so you better win this!" was all the encouragement Argo gave to help Naruto finish the boar.

It seemed to be all he needed though as he flashed her a smile, "don't worry, I won't let an honor like that pass me by; and I have an idea now." If Naruto couldn't stop the charge himself, he needed something that could. Leading the boar to the edge of the clearing, Naruto baited it into charging again, instead of leaping out of the way, Naruto turned around and ran until he reached a tree and leapt to the side.

The boar hit the tree with a thunderous crash removing close to 5% of his health points. Utilizing the stun effect that the boar was under, Naruto unleashed a vertical on it with a shout. With a satisfying thunk another 5% of the boar's health was slashed off leaving it with just under 70% remaining.

After rinsing and repeating the strategy another two times, the elite monster finally entered yellow health. "GuRoh!" fiercely cried the pig as Naruto swore he could see a red mist start to envelope the monster.

"Just stay calm and keep it up. It'll work," Naruto told himself trying to convince himself of this fact. While running for the tree though, Naruto knew it didn't work.

"Watch out!" came Argo's strangled cry from the side too late. Thankfully, Naruto was already aware that the boar was running faster and was going to catch him, so he dove aside early.

The frenzied boar didn't realize that his target had left and plowed head first into the tree undeterred despite Naruto not being there to guide it. The crash from the collision rattled his teeth as the increased speed of the boar took off more than 10% of its health and left it not only stunned but on its side with the tumble status.

Determined to make use of its vulnerability Naruto flung himself over to the boar and unleashed a Horizontal across its exposed stomach. The contact resulted in a chiming noise indicating a critical hit. "Well, well, well, it would appear you have another weak point." Naruto grinned evilly while staring down at the pig.

As he unleashed his second Horizontal, Naruto thought he saw fear enter the boar's eyes at last, but Naruto was beyond caring. This thing was dying and that was final. With a shriek the last of its health bar emptied and the elite monster 'Big Blue Boar' exploded into polygons having been soloed by the level two Naruto.

With a flourish Naruto sheathed his sword to the sound of clapping from his partner. "Well I'll be, Nar-boi you sure are something else. 1,000 people in the beta and not once have I heard of someone doing what you just did."

"Haha, I did tell you I'm the best, didn't I?" Naruto replied brazenly despite looking like he could collapse any minute. "Now then, we have a quest to hand in and a friend to register I do believe."

"Very true, Nar-boi. Also, with that I shall forgive you for knocking me over. Later!" With that final farewell, Argo ran back to town and left a tired but satisfied Naruto standing alone in the clearing.

Opening his menu, Naruto was shocked to find that it was already 4 o'clock. "Damn it, well it shouldn't be too hard to catch up to those fools."

"That was impressively bad," Naruto commented idly while observing the panting forms of his friends lying on the ground with their health slowly climbing out of red zone.

"How was I supposed to know the wolf mobs were pack monsters?" Klein retorted hotly, attempting to preserve Arthur and his dignity after Naruto had barely arrived in time to save them from a pack of 'Small Wolf' monsters.

When both boys only gazed at him with blank faces realization finally dawned.

"Wow… where did you find this guy Kaz?" Arthur muttered with awe.

"Shut it you!" Klein grumbled with embarrassment, "just because wolves are pack animals doesn't mean the game will set them that way. I mean, they're the second enemy in the game!"

Naruto still undecided on Klein's sanity decided to focus on the other problem, "you called me Kaz by the way, Arthur."

With the heavy inflection on his name, Arthur scratched his head embarrassedly, "my bad, but it's habit, you know?"

"I believe you brushed me off when I said that last time," Naruto coldly replied, shutting down Arthur's ability to get out of the situation that easily. "Also, why didn't you realize that this would happen?"

"W-well you see by the time I noticed, Klein had already aggroed it and…" realizing his bullshit story wouldn't be bought Arthur gave up on it halfway through and simply hung his head.

Having tortured the poor boys enough, Naruto finally asked the two the question that was really bothering him. "I've been gone for almost an hour, how was that your guys' first fight this hunt?"

This statement caused Klein and Arthur to look at each other in confusion before Klein figured it out first. "You never turned in the boar tusk quest, did you? It's a repeatable."

"Repeatable? So, you can do it again? Makes sense I suppose, but it really took you guys that long to get five more tusks?"

"Nah," Klein waved Naruto's statement off easily, "it increased the experience reward and made us get 10 tusks this time. AND in our defense, these weren't the first wolves we fought."

"Just the first ones without the stray debuff," Arthur muttered dejectedly ruining Klein's last-ditch attempt at keeping his dignity intact.

"Well, with the three of us here a pack should be no issue anymore!" Naruto told them brightly hoping to restore their energy.

"That is correct, oh disciple of mine!" Klein told him with a grin and a slap on the back. "with your damage thrown in we can thin the numbers quickly and avoid getting surrounded."

Sighing Arthur joined Klein in standing up. "When are you going to cut the whole teacher routine, dude?"

"Probably when we ditch him for being annoying," Naruto told Arthur with a wink.

"Haha, that was a good joke there Naruto," Klein stammered with nervous sweat beading on his forehead. "It was a joke, right? Guys?" The innocent smiles that Klein received only served to increase the amount of sweat pouring off him.

"Ah, well I suppose that's me done for now," Klein said while stretching, despite stretching having no tangible effect in the virtual world.

"Oh yeah, it's almost 5:30 already, you better get going, on that note so should I." Arthur admitted.

"Same," Naruto added, joining Klein in the stretching. "So, where's the logout button in this menu anyway?"

"Uh, seems like it's this greyed out one at the bottom of the main menu." Klein replied slowly as if doubting his own words.

"That's a bug, right?" Naruto answered, happy he knew the correct terminology for the game error.

"But a bug that prevents us from returning to the real world? That's a little freaky." Arthur laughed nervously, trying to dispel the bad feeling that was tying his stomach into knots.

"Isn't this strange?" Naruto added on, anxiety rising, "I mean even Goblin Slayer didn't have this issue…"

Silence reigned among the group until the clock ticked over to 5:30 and Klein fell to his knees with tears streaming down his face. "My teriyaki-mayo pizza and ginger ale! I shall never forget you!"

Unfortunately for Klein, his rant was cut short as a bell sounded out across the fields. Seconds later the boys let out startled yells which were silenced as they were teleported away.

Author's Note : Well, that's a wrap on chapter 2!

As I have the first arc of this story written, I will update fairly regularly for awhile.

Please leave a review so I can improve my writing for you!

I hope you all enjoyed getting the opening of the game from a different viewpoint.