Chapter 2

Dec 1st, 2022

Character creation had been a headache to say the least. Sword Art Online boasted a skill list that seemed to stretch into eternity. Upon first creating your character you were afforded two base slots. A third was unlocked at level 6, another at 12, then 20, and finally every 10 levels after that. You could change skills at any time, but the penalty was that you would lose all progress on the skill you chose to drop in favor of another. In essence it was important to stick with what you chose and work towards unlocking further slots to increase your skill range. This was even more important now that the game had become deadly.

Jayce looked over the two he had settled on when he first began. One handed swords and Mixing were the two he chose. All skills gained experience through use beginning at 0 and working all the way up to 1000. Along the way new attacks were learned for weapons, or recipes in the case of crafting skills. It was just one more reason why dropping a skill was a serious matter. Starting over was a setback that could take large amounts of time to recover from.

He set the small glass vial down on the desk and looked at its contents closely. After setting the crude looking Beginner Mortar and Pestle down he touched the vial with his finger bringing up the item details window. The blackish blue liquid inside had settled and remained motionless as he inspected the Lvl. 1 Contact Poison carefully. Arranged further along the table were a few other vials of different colored liquids.

The Mixing skill allowed for the crafting of potions, tonics, elixirs, and on a more aggressive side, poisons. It was a skill that Jayce had always enjoyed in other games although it usually was called Alchemy or something similar. Potions were always an in demand item for all levels and more than once he had made a fortune off the craft. That had been the plan when he first created this character. Now that things had changed he spent the morning hunting the creatures outside the Town of Beginnings and his afternoons collecting plants and sorting through materials the creatures dropped on death.

At this stage in the game the recipes he had access to were very few. He could only create the most basic of potions and poisons which in the grand scheme of things did not add up too much. What it did provide, however, was valuable experience to the skill line which would allow more effective concoctions. Unfortunately, with higher level recipes meant higher material requirements. Materials that could only be found in higher level environments or off more dangerous creatures.

With a long sigh, Jayce gathered the vials and equipped them to the open slots on his belt. After a few moments to prepare himself mentally he turned and walked out of the room closing the door behind him. He had already paid the innkeeper for the night so there was no danger of anyone taking the room while he was gone. The system prevented such things from happening so it was one less thing to worry about.

He descended the stairs onto the landing at the bottom that opened into the main tavern section of the first floor. Numerous tables were scattered throughout the establishment lit by the soft glow of candles and a hearth burning in the center. It reminded him that back home it was December and as if on instinct he pulled his cloak a little tighter around his body. NPC patrons chatted idly on specific speech patterns meant to emulate a social atmosphere. A number of players also sat at tables together perhaps discussing their day, or the more common, reminiscing about the real world.

Jayce walked quietly along the wall until he reached the door of the inn and opened it, exiting out into the night of the Town of Beginnings. Already his heart was beginning to speed up. Right about now he should be locked up in his room trying to sleep. Content that he had survived just one more day. Tonight was different, however. He pulled a small book out of his inventory and flipped through the pages until he found the one he was looking for. A detailed description including pictures of a plant called Amberthorn.

According to the book, this plant only appeared during certain hours of the night. The purpose of this plant was linked to Jayce's Mixing skill. To continue gaining skill he would need to make increasingly difficult vials. Amberthorn was the rare ingredient required for Enhanced Lvl.1 Healing Potion. Healing potions were not instantaneous in SAO. Drinking one allowed your health to recover at a slow rate until full or the designated amount of health the potion level allowed was recovered. There were recipes that allowed for greater amounts to be healed or even a faster rate. An increased rate of healing was a much sought after item.

Increasing the rate at which you healed meant you could return to a fight faster, or avoid a fatal blow that a normal potion would not have been able to heal quick enough. Gaining access to a supply of potions like that would serve to create a larger safety net for Jayce. He would have to hunt harder enemies soon. There was no way around it, and he wanted to take every precaution before venturing out into unknown territory.

He closed the book which featured a very feline esque face on the cover complete with whiskers before returning it to his inventory. He touched the handle of his sword taking comfort that it was still there before heading towards the Northern exit of town. According to the guide, Amberthorn could be found relatively close, but it only appeared near Kobold Scout Camps. These camps only appeared at night and served as the initial player interaction with the enemy race called Kobolds

Small almost draconic looking humanoids that wielded crude melee weapon. Their armor was equally weak, but for someone like Jayce who had never faced one before it made him shiver uncontrollably. Until now he had hunted the wolves and boars around the Town of Beginnings. Simple creatures with very few attacks or hit points. Kobolds wielded weapons and used sword skills which made them far more dangerous. The camps should be no higher than level 3, but that was already triple the level of enemy Jayce was accustomed to.

The constant doubt and worry dragged him out of the town on this personal mission to try and make one more step forward towards self-sufficiency. He couldn't continue to survive how he had been up until this point. That was the motivational speech he continued to repeat in his head as he crested a hill and was able to look down at a small fire burning between the hill he was on and another further ahead. Three humanoid creatures milled around the fire making high pitched screeches and yelps. Above their heads Jayce could see the light red colored indicator that not only identified them as enemies, but revealed how strong they were in relation to himself.

The easiest of enemies would be a pale pink. This meant that they posed no real challenge or danger, but in turn they rewarded you with little to nothing. The more difficult the enemy the darker shade of red the cursor would become. A red so dark it could almost be called black meant certain death, so Jayce felt relieved seeing the light red color to the cursors above the Kobolds' heads. Now, the issue was the three on one odds against him.

"Probably too many to handle alone." Jayce nodded in agreement hearing the voice behind him.

"Yeah…wait…Uwah!" He turned and instantly fell backwards seeing another person standing nearby just below the top of the hill. A green cursor above the person who seemingly materialized out of nowhere meant it was another player. Long white hair was pulled back behind the person's head tied back in a ponytail. Dark colored clothing covered the body as well as a leather cuirass similar to Jayce's.

"Sorry about that." Jayce watched as a very rare Creature leaned forward offering a hand. In SAO, and most other MMO games, the population was always predominantly male. If Jayce had to guess he would say that it even went as far as 95% of all players were male. Even if the avatar was female there still tended to be a man controlling it behind the computer screen. In SAO that illusion was shattered the day they were trapped inside the game.

When the developer, in the guise of a game master, informed the entire player base that they were now hostages of Aincrad he gave everyone a single item. A mirror that revoked your user created avatar appearance and replaced it with your real life self. The Nerve Gear's sensors could identify a person's face and the initial setup called for you to calibrate the machine by touching your body in various ways that mapped your body type to the game.

Short brown hair, average height, and thin was the avatar that stared back at Jayce on that day. To be honest he was average in all ways which was neither good nor bad. He didn't stand out or draw attention and so far life had mimicked his physical self…average. The shining star of his body he was thankful for was his metabolism. Eating whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted typically led to obesity, but miraculously he maintained a thin stature. Given that he played video games regularly he was completely thankful for such a bodily function.

For an average person like Jayce, staring up into sparking silver eyes, long hair, and a beautiful face forced a non-game inflicted Stun effect. It took many moments for him to finally reach up and take her hand. An instant feeling of regret washed over him that he wore a pair of black leather gloves which made feeling the softness of her hand impossible. She seemed so calm and uncaring to what was going on around them in the world. Her mouth hovered between a smile and amusement as he regained his footing.

"I should have said something sooner. I really didn't mean to startle you like that." She said. A blade hung off her hip reaching down to just below her thigh. Too short to be a sword, but longer than a knife. A Dagger wielder then was what he figured.

"N…no problem." He muttered once more resting his hand on the pommel of the sword on his hip. The girl's eyes narrowed slightly while she stared at his face that was slightly obscured beneath the hood of his cloak. He instinctively adjusted the edges and turned away from her.

"Not from around here are you?" Her voice was soft and pleasant to listen to. Young, but mature enough that she wasn't a child. Her question would seem odd to most in this setting, but since she had been staring at him before he turned away it was clear she had noticed.

"Not exactly." His speech would be a further giveaway since he knew the language, but had a foreign accent. To someone like her she would know instantly that he was a foreigner. He felt her presence next to him and he glanced at her from the corner of his eyes suspiciously. To his surprise she didn't press the subject any further. Her voice was excited and bordering on anxious.

"So, how we gonna take em?"