Disclaimer: Usually, I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but once again I find myself not really interested in doing so for this story as it's very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I'm making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, foul language, alternate universe (i.e. kiss HP canon goodbye), angst, drama, starts pre-Hogwarts Era, original Quests, some minor religious themes, child neglect, references to large scale ostracization/shunning of a minor, and who knows what else.
AN1: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter Seven: System Integration Complete
Saturday, December 21, 2019 4:44 PM
Unnamed Lake, Unnamed Dungeon, First Floor
November seamlessly transitioned into December and Harry took little note of the passing time as he continued his exploration of the First Floor; not even the fast approaching winter holidays registered in the nine year old's mind.
As an unwanted interloper in the Dursley household, Harry had never been allowed to join in any holiday celebrations and he'd learned to 'tune' out holiday type activities that most other people took for granted to spare himself the pain and loneliness of forever being left out. So, the festive greetings that were exchanged by Players and NPCs alike, the wide variety of yuletide themed Items, and the town-wide holiday decorations never registered in his mind. He had even purchased a few candy canes, fruit cakes, and eggnog without realizing their significance; they were just rare treats that he recalled being offered at school around winter break every year.
No, Harry didn't register the holiday atmosphere.
He simply carried on with his explorations in an attempt to see those places he'd not had the time to check out before the Beta Test had been shut down. And find them he had. He'd climbed a mountain that had bear and goat-like Monsters, he'd stumbled on a lake filled with flying-fish Monsters, and he'd briefly gotten lost in a deep canyon filled with these giant dandelion-ish Monsters whose airborne seeds latched onto Players and attempted to take root on them in order to grow; smothering and draining them of their life. He'd also seen (and hunted) harmless ducks, rabbits, and prairie dogs.
Harry had been awed by the scenery and annoyed by a few of the Monsters; the dandelion-things and flying-fish things in particular – the former because killing the parent always unleashed a torrent of seeds and the flying-fishes because they always attacked in large swarms. The Fish Meat he'd gotten from the flying-fish had been rather tasty though and the flower Monsters had dropped an Uncommon Item that was used to create Healing Potions and was therefore highly sought after by the other Players – though he'd only sold his to NPC run shops.
A few other things that Harry hadn't paid much attention to was the latest news from the 'front line' and the most recent death count; the former of which was up on the Third Floor and expected to advance to the Fourth Floor any day now and the latter of which was now over two thousand. The reason for Harry's blasé attitude regarding those two subjects boiled down to two things; Harry didn't care about 'winning' the game because he didn't want to leave his home and he didn't like to think about the place he considered his home killing a bunch of people he didn't know.
Harry was also young enough and still innocent enough to be easily distracted by all of the wonders around him rather than let himself get stuck on the horrors that lurked in the shadows beneath those same wonders.
All children were born with rose-tinted glasses covering their eyes and while Harry's glasses had been tarnished and slightly mangled by the years that he'd lived with his relatives, they hadn't been broken or lost. In fact, wandering around in Aincrad's Dungeons had actually seen his rose-tinted glasses being cleaned, repaired, and polished until they were practically brand new again – though they were far from perfect since one's innocence can't be put back together once it has been broken, only smoothed polished so that the edges weren't so rough and sharp.
Still, the result of that polishing was that Harry only really saw the beauty and the good in the virtual world around him.
Additionally, the freedom he'd found in the artificial world was a balm to his soul and he reveled in every single second of it. That freedom had also fueled his stubborn side as the longer he was free to do as he liked, the stronger his dislike for being told what to do grew. He just hadn't realized it yet since he hadn't yet encountered someone who tried to tell him what to do; well, not that he'd understood, at least. There had been plenty of other Players that had tried to tell him he was being foolish for wandering alone in the Dungeons but he hadn't really bothered to listen to them.
On top of that, the fact that he'd been spending less and less time around other Players meant that he grew less and less comfortable entering the scattered towns on the First Floor for supplies. That was especially true of Hajimari where the largest concentration of Players could still be found. The growing discomfort in crowds meant that Harry avoided going into town unless he absolutely had to buy supplies, sell Items, or replace his equipment and when he was in town, he'd spend as little time there as possible; another factor that prevented him from noticing the fast approaching holiday.
Not even inclement weather could chase Harry out of the Dungeons; as evidenced by the fact that he was currently wrapped up in his Sleeping Bag and seated on his Camp Chair on the edge of a deep lake fed by a wide series of low waterfalls as he patiently waited for a fish to bite while a blizzard cut the visibility down to zero and attempted to bury him in snow.
Despite the freezing cold temperatures around him, Harry was as snug as a bug in a rug inside of his Sleeping Bag. Not even the occasional clumps of moist snow that managed to slip inside of the Sleeping Bag through the gaps where his hands and head were poking out could make a dent in the steady heat that suffused his body while he was inside of the bag. The raging snow storm also didn't affect the catch rate of fish and he'd already caught six assorted fish, two eels, and one old boot that he'd immediately thrown away.
A particularly large clump of snow slipped down the back of Harry's neck at the same exact instant that he felt the pole in his hands dip under the weight of the fish that had just swallowed his hook. The feel of the icy mush sliding down his neck turned his shout of joy into a something of a squeal as he jumped to his feet and hauled back on the Fishing Rod in order to yank the fish out of the water. There was a loud splash as the resistance Harry felt disappeared the moment the fish was pulled free of the water and Harry eagerly reached forward to claim his prize.
Only to let out a yelp of shock when he discovered that he'd just caught a Stinging Salamander instead of the fish that he'd expected. He hadn't even known that it was possible to catch Monsters while Fishing! Discarding the now useless Fishing Rod (it wouldn't help him kill the Monster!), Harry scrambled for his Bow as the Salamander dropped back into the water with an even louder splash. He didn't believe for one second that the thing would leave him alone after he'd caught it though and he'd barely gotten an Arrow ready when the thing launched itself out of the water practically right in front of Harry's face.
His poor Sleeping Bag would fall victim to the Salamander's teeth during that first attack and Harry nearly missed his first two shots because the flurry of crystals from his destroyed Item had blocked his vision. The only reason that he'd still managed to hit the annoying Monster at the time was because it was practically right on top of him. The amphibious beast's second attack would see his Camp Chair being sacrificed when Harry had scrambled backwards in order to avoid its stinger and to put some distance between them so he could fire another five Arrows.
All five Arrows would find their mark and drop the Salamander's HP down to the halfway mark but didn't stop the Monster as it shot forward and lashed out at him with its stinger at the same time as it tried to bite his foot off and Harry almost wished he had a sword so he could cut the annoying stinger off of the Salamander's body. The lack of a melee weapon didn't hinder Harry's ability to fight back though and the next three Arrows would strike the Monster in the face one right after the other.
It would take yet another four Arrows to kill the Stinging Salamander and Harry felt more than a little relieved as he watched the Monster shatter in a shower of red crystals that disappeared into the snowstorm that still raged on around him. Like the first time he'd defeated one of the amphibious creatures, Harry's Avatar glowed gold to indicate that he'd gained another level; bringing him up to level twenty. Knowing the level up will have unlocked more Skill Slots, due to the level number being a factor of ten, Harry closed out the Notification Windows so that he could open his Menu.
Before he was able to bring up his Player Menu though, another Notification popped up in front of Harry's face and caught the nine year old off guard. The most shocking thing about the new Window was the fact that the Notification that appeared on it had been written in English for the first time ever even if the message on the thing confused the heck out of him and he stared at it for nearly five full minutes as he tried to comprehend what the words meant.
System Integration Complete.
System integration? What system integration? What did that even mean?
Still confused, Harry reached out to close the Window. The second the strange message had disappeared, a loud klaxon began blaring practically in Harry's ear and he let out a frightened yelp even as he clapped his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out the headache inducing sound that had begun bleating in his ear without warning. His eyes widened in fear a split second later as a flattened red hexagon outlined in maroon flared into existence right in front of his face with the words 'Unstable Element' in English written upon it while the klaxon continued to sound off all around him.
If that wasn't bad enough, a bunch of system warning messages began propagating into existence all around Harry until he was completely surrounded by a wall made up of flashing red hexagons.
And then the world around Harry shattered as his Avatar unexpectedly burst into crystals for no apparent reason.
Harry's final cry of horror and denial would be swallowed by the loud blaring of the warning klaxon.
In the real world, just mere seconds before his Avatar shattered inside the game, Harry's body died due to a combination of six weeks worth of neglect, extreme magical exhaustion, and the distinct lack of a soul before the NerveGear could kill him as it had been programmed to do; the device deactivating the moment his brain 'died'. The last remnants of the Blood Wards surrounding Harry's dead body surged forward to preserve it before the magic fueling the wards dissipated now that the entire reason for their existence, to protect Harry, no longer existed.
Harry's passing, hidden as it was behind the sealed cupboard under the stairs, would go unnoticed and unmourned by the other three residents in the house – Dudley's memories of Harry had been wiped the moment that he'd returned home for the winter break. It would be another year and a half years before the wizarding world would learn of their child savior's death and the public would riot in the streets when the details of how he died were leaked to the press.
Five long seconds after his Avatar had shattered without warning, the world reformed around Harry and he found his nine year old self standing in a familiar room that was unfamiliar to him. It looked like the room he used to appear in each time he had been killed in the Beta Version of SAO but instead of being a featureless black room, this room was a featureless white room that looked to have been made up of clouds. There was even a flat purple hexagon with the words 'You're Dead' hanging in the air in front of him; though the fact that the words were in English kind of confused him.
"You should not be here, child; it is not yet your time to die," a creaky, old voice stated from behind Harry and the nine year old spun around to find three very old women looming over him; the one on the right being the one that had spoken. "Your Destiny is yet unfulfilled."
"I… I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know who you are," Harry stated in such a way that it sound more like a demand for an explanation and an introduction instead of simple statements as he tried not to cower away from the strange women; the nine year old focused more on the fact that these strangers actually saw him and less on the words that the one had spoken.
"We have been known by many names throughout ages past; the Greeks called us Moirai, to the Romans we were Parcae, and the Norsemen referred to us as the Norns," the woman on the left answered in a voice that was also very hoarse with age.
"We are, simply put, the Fates," the woman in the middle added in an equally ancient voice as she took a step closer to Harry. "And it is our Divine Duty to ensure that every man, woman, and child lives out the life they were born to live before the Thread that is their Life is cut from the future weavings of the Tapestry of the World."
"And you, child, should not be here for your Thread of Life yet extends far into the future," the woman on the right finished as she held up a brilliant emerald thread that snaked off into the distance.
"And yet here you are," all three women stated in unison and Harry cringed in response to the annoyance that he could hear in their ancient voices.
"I'm sorry! It was an accident!" Harry cried in the hopes that the women wouldn't punish him too harshly.
The three women dispassionately stared at him before they seemingly dismissed him as they turned to one another and began arguing amongst themselves. The fact that all three women looked identical coupled with the way he could no longer really see their faces made it hard for him to know which woman it was that was speaking. He was also more than a little irritated with the way they were now ignoring him because it sharply reminded him of his relatives and of those people that had overlooked and ignored him all the time in Little Whinging.
"His Destiny is waiting for him; we must send him back."
"He is dead; his soul should be sent on to the Underworld."
"His Thread is unbroken but his body is dead; his soul is barred from the Underworld so long as his Thread of Life remains intact and his body is no longer capable of housing his soul."
"So cut his Thread and send him onwards! It would not be the first time a human's life has been cut short before they could fulfill their Destiny."
"No! We must send him back to the Overworld! The Thread of his Life is far too tangled in the World's Tapestry to rip him free and assign his Destiny to another!"
"His body can not hold his soul! The enchantments his foolish mother cast upon him before her Thread was cut have rendered it unusable when the blasted enchantments froze the child's body in time!"
"So give him a new body and tie its Thread of Life to his and be done with it!"
"We are wasting time, sisters; the longer the child's soul remains here Between Worlds, the greater the chances are that the World's Tapestry will start to unravel. We should send him to the Underworld and bind his Thread to the Thread of another."
"But what do we do with him? The two of you can not agree on a single course of action and there is no third option that we can use as a compromise!" one of the women declared in a tone that was full of frustration.
"Then let the child choose," the other two women announced together.
Harry swallowed thickly when the three women immediately turned back to him after that declaration. He didn't quite understand what was happening but he knew he didn't like it because he just knew that they were trying to force him to do what they wanted him to do. And the last thing he wanted was for someone to start telling him what to do again!
"You have a choice, child; return to your body in the Overworld to fulfill the Destiny that was assigned to you the day you were born or cut all ties to the Overworld and step foot in the Underworld," the woman in the middle stated in a solemn tone and Harry felt a kind of horrified anger well up in his gut as he realized that the women were trying to send him back to the Dursleys (since that was where his body was in the real world) or force him to go to Hell (they had mentioned sending him to some place called the Underworld and Hell was below Heaven, right?).
"Neither! The only place I'm going is home!" Harry declared fiercely as he immediately rebelled against the idea of allowing these strangers to tell him what to do or where to go and he had all of two seconds to take in the shocked looks on the old women's faces before the world around him shattered once again.
When the world next reformed around him this time, Harry found himself back in a familiar black room with a familiar purple hexagon announcing his recent death (the words clearly written in familiar romaji) and once more in the body of his chosen Avatar. A full body shudder passed through him as his emotions immediately overwhelmed him the second he realized where he was and what it meant for him to have ended up there. A few seconds later, tears of relief streamed down his face even as a huge grin split his face; he was almost home.
Harry wiped the tears from his face after a couple of minutes had passed and brought up the room's Option Menu so that he could continue on to Aincrad. Only when the Window popped up, the green button that would let him continue his game was grayed out while the red End Game button glowed ominously. Unwilling to accept the possibility that he would never be able to return to the place he saw as home, Harry jabbed the Resume Game Button repeatedly in an attempt to force the game to send him back to Aincrad.
Again and again he pushed the button as his earlier relief quickly turned to frustration and then to anger as a result of the repeated failures. Unwilling to admit defeat, Harry pressed his finger against the button as hard as he could and screamed out in rage, "You can't keep me here! I will go home!"
Harry's magic, now fully bound to his Avatar, surged in response to his anger and his desperate desire to return to the one place he saw as home and his magic poured into the disabled Menu Option through the finger he had pressed against the grayed out button. The world flared gold around Harry a heartbeat later and Harry gasped in shock when he felt the button under his finger burn before he felt a surge of hope as he watched the button slowly turn from gray to green. As soon as the transformation of the button was complete, the world around Harry shattered yet again and when his vision cleared, Harry found himself standing in front of the Seimei no Ishibumi.
Shocked by what had just happened, Harry fell backwards onto his butt as he stared up at the ominous black wall that contained the names of every single person that had logged into SAO on that fateful day; a grim monument that tracked the lives and deaths of the many Players that Kayaba had taken hostage.
Unable to help himself, Harry's eyes were inevitably drawn to the spot where he knew the name Joe Bloggs had been carved into the stone and it felt as if someone had sucker punched him in the stomach the moment he noticed the way his penname had been slashed through with a double line; a clear indication that he was supposed to be dead. Immediately after his name was the time and date of his death and the cause of his death: 16:59, December 21, 2019 – System Error. A gasping sob escaped Harry's lips over the realization that he really had died.
That he hadn't dreamed that strange encounter with the women as a result of being poisoned by the Stinging Salamander he'd hooked with his Fishing Rod.
The burst of fear he felt in that moment nearly consumed him before it suddenly fizzled out as confusion replaced terror in the blink of an eye. If he was dead, then how did he end up in the former Sosei-sha no Ma? Was he still dead if he was here in Hajimari no Machi once more? And what was that thing that had happened with the Resume Game Button in the Game Over Room where a Player was sent when they died in the game? What was it that had caused the button to burn and change colors?
There were at least a hundred more questions running through his mind but before he could put words to even one of them, the world around him flashed white for a split second as the three scary old women from earlier seemingly stepped out of the Monument of Life. Seeing the women appear out of the stone as if it wasn't there drew a soft whimper from Harry as he scooted himself backwards across the floor in an attempt to escape from the trio of adults that had just tried to send him back to the Dursleys or to what he thought was Hell.
The faint sound drew the women's attention to Harry and he curled his arms over his head as if to protect himself from an attack even as tears of frustration spilled down his face in response to being in their presence once again.
"Silly, child; you can not run or hide from us," the middle woman admonished as the three of them moved to circle the frightened nine year old. "We are the Fates; we see all."
"I wasn't running! And I'm not hiding!" Harry adamantly protested as he dropped his arms away from his head and bravely glared up at the woman with all the indignation that his nine year old self could generate.
"Is that so?" the woman standing behind Harry inquired with more than a little amusement. "Then what would you call cowering on the floor in this Otherworld when you were meant to chose between Life and Death?"
"I wasn't going to let you bully me into going some place I didn't want to be! I don't care if I am dead! This is my home! And I refuse to leave it!"
"This half life you have chosen will not allow you to escape your Destiny," the woman on Harry's left side informed him in a neutral tone.
"I'm not leaving!" Harry all but snarled in a defensive tone that caused his magic to flare.
"Sisters, did you feel that? This child has somehow managed to use the Blessing that Hecate bestowed upon him when his Thread of Life was first added to the World's Tapestry to tie his soul to this Otherworld; that must be why his Thread of Life was not automatically severed by his Untimely Death," the woman behind Harry breathed in surprise while the woman in front of him frowned down at him.
"His Thread is still tied to his Destiny as well and if we can not send him to his Destiny or to Hades' Realm, then his Destiny must be pulled to him," the woman in front of him declared before she finally looked away from Harry and glanced at the woman standing off to Harry's left.
"Yes, that would be for the best," the woman on the left agreed as she reproduced the same bright green thread she or possibly one of her sisters had been holding in the white world.
Harry eyed the three women with trepidation as the ones in front and behind him both reached out to take hold of the thread that the one on the left was holding. Even as he watched, the women began chanting words that Harry couldn't understand that caused the thread in their hands to start glowing gold. The instant the visible length of the thread had lit up, the three women ended their chant on a commanding note as they pulled hard on the glowing thread. The light coming from the thread seemed to pulse as a result before it split into multiple strands except where their hands were.
Harry tried to see where the threads were going but his attention was quickly drawn back to the sisters as the woman in front of him grabbed hold of his right hand in a firm grip. He made a single attempt to yank his hand free but her grip was too strong and his second attempt was halted by the woman standing behind him placing her hand on his head; her touch literally freezing him in place. Harry was then forced to watch as the third woman tied the portion of the thread that hadn't been split apart around his right wrist.
All three women let go at the same time and Harry felt the thread wrapped around his wrist snap taut like the line on his Fishing Rod when a fish took the hook. It was pure instinct that saw Harry yanking his arm back and up, like he was pulling on his Fishing Rod, to prevent whatever it was that was on the other end of each of the seven strands that had split away from the thread from pulling him out of Aincrad. He felt resistance at first before the world seemed to split and tilt on its side before everything snapped backed into place without warning.
The next time Harry became aware of himself, he was laying flat on his back at the base of the Seimei no Ishibumi and there was a Notification Window hovering in front of his face with a system message informing him that he'd unlocked a New Quest. As soon as he closed the Window, a new Window popped open and began playing an action sequence that showed a man splitting himself into seven parts and anchoring six of the parts to Items that flashed across the screen one at a time; a diary, a ring, a locket, a chalice, a diadem, and a snake.
The next sequence that played out showed those six items being hidden within six different Dungeons that Harry had trouble making out while the seventh part of the man swelled in size until he was practically the same size as a Boss Monster. His features then twisted until he looked rather like a Boss Monster too; his skin became tinged with green and took on the appearance of scales, all of his hair fell out, his blue eyes turned crimson, his nose flattened until there were just two slits for nostrils, and his body sunk in on itself until he looked like a living skeleton held together by his snake-like skin.
The short movie clip ended with the man-turned-Monster being dropped into a seventh partially hidden Dungeon as he snarled at Harry from the open Window and the nine year old hurriedly reached out to close out the screen so he wouldn't have to look at it any more. Instead of closing though, the picture faded from sight to reveal the words 'Begin Quest?' over a green acceptance button. Harry's stomach twisted up in knots just thinking about being forced to face the ugly Monster-man and he tried to close out the Window without accepting the Quest but it wouldn't let him.
"You can not escape your Destiny, Harry James Potter," the Fates, the three women from earlier, intoned in perfect sync and Harry snapped his head sideways to stare at them with wide, frightened eyes. "You must accept the Quest in this Otherworld in order to fulfill that Destiny now that you have forsaken both Life and Death."
"I don't want to go on a Quest!" Harry complained as he scowled at the women.
"You do not have a choice, child; you must accept your pre-ordained Fate now or your Fated Enemy will tear this Otherworld apart in his desire to destroy you before you can defeat him."
Harry's breath caught in his throat in response to the idea that the Monster-man he had watched in the horrible movie clip could destroy his home. He grew angry a split second later; there was no way he was going to let some creepy guy who tore himself into Monster pieces ruin his home! Determined to stop the man before he could harm so much as a single millimeter of Aincrad, Harry jabbed his finger at the accept button without another word; the child completely unaware that he'd just been expertly manipulated by the Fates.
The screen flashed gold once before a solid black skeleton key that looked something like a snake that had been twisted into the shape of a key appeared at the same time as a new Notification Window popped open in front of him with the following information:
You've accepted your Divine Destiny!
Every child is born with a Destiny and you were no exception! Born a Child of Prophecy,
it is your Destiny to defeat the Seven Shades of Tom Marvolo Riddle before he destroys the
Otherworld you've claimed as your home! Good Luck!
Goal: Fulfill your Destiny by defeating all Seven Shades of the Tom Marvolo Riddle by
completing the Seven Quests of Fate
Reward: …?
Failure Penalty: …?
"Man, this sucks," Harry grumbled as he closed the Notification Window and reluctantly snagged the Key out of the air before he froze with his hand still out in the air front him (his fingers clenched around the Key) when it finally occurred to him that all of the Notification Windows that he'd received since the women had tied that stupid thread to his wrist had been written in English instead of Japanese.
A frown curled the corners of his mouth downwards as he glared down to at the thread in question only for the glare on his face to morph into a confused frown when he realized that he could no longer feel or see the thread. He then climbed to his feet and began making his way out of the Seimei no Ishibumi and unexpectedly walked headfirst into an invisible wall. Harry let out an indignant yelp and clutched at his head for a moment before his memory of the night he'd been locked in the Central Plaza slammed into the forefront of his mind and he furiously threw himself at the wall.
"Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!" Harry all but screamed as he pounded on the wall with his fists in an attempt to break it. He even tried kicking it a couple of times but nothing he did so much as cracked the unseen wall and the futility of attacking it soon had him sinking to his knees in despair and frustration over the fact that he'd once again been trapped against his will.
"You can not leave until you start your Quest, child," the Fates informed him the moment his cries had died down to hiccupping sobs.
"I accepted your stupid Quest already! Now let me go!" Harry countered as he whipped his head around to glare at the women that were still trying to tell him what to do.
"You will not be able to leave this room until you complete the first seventh of your Quest."
"I can't do that if I can't leave the stupid room!"
"The way forward is in this room; you need but open your eyes to find the door that fits the key."
Harry wrinkled his nose up in annoyance as the three old hags disappeared from the room right after they'd given him that last piece of advice. He then slammed his left fist into the invisible wall one last time before he wearily climbed to his feet and glanced around the cathedral to make certain that the old women really had left this time. When he didn't see them anywhere, he placed on hand on the invisible shield keeping him from leaving and walked back and forth from one side of the room to the other several times in an effort to find a way through the barrier that he couldn't see.
Eventually, he gave up on escaping and reluctantly began searching for a locked door of some kind that would take him to wherever it was that he was supposed to go to start the stupid Quest he'd been given while ignoring the way the room seem to shrink with each step he took. It wasn't until he stepped behind the stone monument to search the northern wall that he found what he was looking for on the floor behind the Monument of Life near the middle of the room. Instead of the actual door he expected to find, all he could see was an etching on the stone floor that looked much like the key he still had clutched in his hand.
Harry stared at the shallow indent for a long time as he tried to decide if he should place the key on top of it or not. In the end, Harry knew he didn't have a choice; he had to do it or he'd forever be trapped in the cathedral.
Letting out an inaudible sigh, Harry dropped down to sit in front of the barely visible image. He then carefully set the Snake Key directly over top of the etching on the floor. The moment Harry let go of the Key, it sank into the stone until it was flush with the floor and Harry scrambled backwards in case it was a trap. Right after the Key stopped sinking, the faint lines of a snake began to form around the key one right after another; making it appear as if an invisible hand was carving a snake into the stone right that second.
When the last line had formed, the entire snake and Key (held in the snake's mouth) swelled up out of the floor to form a statue fused to the stone with the tail of the snake forming a raised circle that looked like a handle. Once the statue had fully formed, a pinpoint of gold light appeared a foot below the 'ring' that split into two and raced off in opposite directions for a foot and a half, cut sharply upwards at a ninety degree angle for three feet, cut back inwards at another ninety degree angle, and then crashed back together exactly three feet above their starting point before disappearing.
Harry had no more than a split second to wonder what had happened to the light before he let out a startled gasp when the snake statue, the Key, and all of the stone that had been inside of the racing lights vanished in the blink of an eye to reveal a darkened staircase that disappeared somewhere beneath the Monument of Life. If not for the fact that he didn't really want to be there or enter the Dungeon that had just been opened, Harry might have thought the opening animations had been rather cool.
As it was, Harry just wished that he was anywhere but where he was right that moment.
Translations: Japanese to English
Hajimari no Machi – Starting City or Town of Beginnings
Seimei no Ishibumi – Monument of Life
Sosei-sha no Ma – Room of Resurrection (New Translation)
Game Terminology:
Aincrad – An Incarnating Radius (the name of the Castle that is SAO)
Avatar – the term for a playable character that a player uses during game play
Experience Points – the points earned for each quest completed and each Monster killed
FullDive – the use of technology to fully immerse one's conscience in a virtual reality
HP – Hit Points: the number of Life Force/Life Points/Health Points a person has
Melee Fighter – a warrior class character that fights up close (usually with hand to hand combat or a hand-held weapon designed for slashing, stabbing, or bashing)
Melee Weapon – a weapon designed for close combat (sword, knife, club, staff, etc)
Mod – short for moderator
NerveGear – equipment created by Kayaba Akihiko (Argus); allows the user to enter FullDive
NERDLES – Nerve Direct Linkage Environment System (a surgically implanted chip that allows the FullDive system to interface with the brain – the surgically implanted part may or may not be canon as it was something I thought seemed more logical than it just being part of the interface helmet)
Player Stats – A list of a player's in game statistics and skills
Ranged Fighter – a warrior class character that fights from a distance
Ranged Weapon – a weapon designed to strike from a distance (bow & arrow, catapult, gun, etc)
Skills – set abilities that can be performed by characters/players in a game
Skill Points – Experience points that are applied towards mastery of an in game skill
Notes:
In case it wasn't obvious; yes, Harry is DEAD. That means, no, he's not going to wake up back in his body when the game is cleared and attend Hogwarts as if nothing has happened. He is, essentially, something of a ghost now; though he's nothing like the ghosts that call Hogwarts home since he still has all of his magic and his soul was partially merged with the computer coding that made up his Avatar. What that means for Harry (and the wizarding world) aside from him NOT attending Hogwarts will be explored within the story in later chapters or possibly in the sequel.
Harry's Game Data/Stats (6Wks Post Launch, Before Death):
Category: Human Player
Caste: Warrior
Class: Ranged Fighter
Type: Bowman
Level: 20
HP: 1925/1925
Cor: 26,720
Attributes: DEF [13], ATK [23], STR [05], AGI [10], STM [05], & LCK [10]
Unspent Stat Points: [97] (20 extra points carried over from Beta Test)
Main Equipment:
Oak Longbow – Reliable Bow accurate up to 200 yards +10 ATK
Steel Arrows – Med. quality Arrows; oak shafts fletched w/ duck feathers & tipped w/ steel Arrowheads +3 ATK
Bamboo Rod – a simple bamboo pole with a basic hook tied to it with a fishing line
Leather Boots – Sturdy boots that make noise: +2 DEF
Leather Gloves – Sturdy gloves that protect a player's hands: +1 DEF
Leather Clothes – Sturdy clothes that protect a player's body: +5 DEF
Equipped Skills: 14 Slots (2 carried over from Beta Test & 3 extra from 'glitch')
(Basic 1-250 pts, Advanced 251-500 pts, Proficient 501-750 pts, Expert 751-999 pts, & Master 1000 pts)
Archery – 0521
Cooking – 0435
Detection – 0472
Fishing – 0399
Hiding – 0454
Hunting – 0487
Listening – 0251
Longbow – 0422
Night Vision – 0113
Searching – 0593
Sneak – 0664
Tracking – 0592
EMPTY
EMPTY
Unarmed Skills: 05 (1 carried over from Beta Test & 1 extra from 'glitch')
Camping – 0485
Escape – 0275
Navigation – 0568
Scouting – 0473
EMPTY
List of Unequipped Skills Unlocked:
Animal Call – 0052
Climbing – 0063
Dead Shot – 0191
Howl – 0032
Humming – 0086
Research – 0081
Short Bow – 0362
Singing – 0029
Sprint – 0177
Stargazing – 0621
War Cry – 0018
Whistling – 0048
AN: In case you missed the note above (placed directly above Harry's current stats), yes, Harry is DEAD. No, he won't suddenly come back to life and attend Hogwarts after the game has been completed. If you want more info on what that means, you can scroll up to read the original note and/or wait until that information is relayed through the story towards the end of this story or at some point in the planned sequel.
Now I know some people might be annoyed with me introducing the Fates but I needed a bridge between Harry and the real world in order for him to fulfill the prophecy now that he's 'dead' in the real world. He also needs a way to sever the connection between himself and the prophecy in order to erase any need for him to ever appear in Hogwarts and so I drew the Fates into the story and it flowed very nicely from my PoV. They will appear off and on throughout the story until Harry has 'fulfilled his Destiny'.
Not sure if there's anything else I need to cover right now. Aside from saying that chapter eight will be up a week from today, that is. So, thanks for all the views/reviews/adds and hope everyone is still enjoying the story. ~ Jenn