Chapter 2: The Calm Before the Storm

A/N: The story will mostly follow the timeline of the anime, (if you haven't seen, go do so). However, thanks to this great thing called "Poetic License" I will tell the story from my perspective based on what I would do. If you don't like how I run the show, write your own story and I would love to read it.

Disclaimer: I forgot this for chapter one, I DO NOT own Sword Art Online. This will be the last time I do this disclaimer.

I slowly sat up in my cot and turned to look out of the window to my left. The sky was still dark; the sun of this virtual world hadn't even begun to rise. I stretched my arms over my head and let out a silent yawn. I tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes as I checked for any messages that I may have received last night. I wasn't surprised to see a few messages from my friends, nor was I surprised to see that there was nothing new to report. I released the breath I didn't realize I was holding and looked out the window again. I was in a corner room at the Tolbana Inn. Tolbana is the nearest town to the labyrinth. This makes it the closest town to the first floor boss, who we have yet to find.

We were still on the first floor; we haven't even found the boss room. It's been nearly a month since the game started, in the same amount of time during the Beta I reached at least floor six. I had a feeling I wasn't the only Beta tester who was disappointed in our lack of progress, but I guess slow and steady wins the race, right?

Though it wasn't from lack of trying, plenty of parties go up into the Labyrinth every day, not all of them return whole, or at all. I go into the Labyrinth every other day or so, and not always with a group. When I do go solo, it is more of a scouting mission than anything. Get in, expand my map, and get out.

Back to the present.

I am currently level twelve and my friends are around same area. I am by no means the highest level person out of my group of friends. If we were to average the levels, it would be around ten or eleven.

I still fight with my single handed sight sword but I am developing a liking for something… smaller. I see the need for a shield, but using a shield doesn't fit my style. I really tried to use one, just to see what would happen. It was during the Beta testing, I found myself relying on my shield too much and taking loads of damage. The way the game was designed didn't allow me to use the shield to its fullest potential, mainly being able to use it for both defense and attack.

As for armor, I am trying to keep away from heavy armor because even in other games it never fit my playing style. Currently I am wearing a basic set of leather armor. It is dark brown in color and looks similar to a biker jacket. Underneath the jacket is a piece of armor that covers my upper torso. I have basic fingerless gloves on my hands and a single bracer, under the jacket, on my left forearm with an Old Republic Jedi Order symbol engraved on it.

Mattias, currently level fourteen, is stuck between using a two-handed claymore and using a sword and shield combination. His favorite attack used to be just charging in and taking down everyone or everything in his path. He has since become more methodical, but still relies heavily on a berserker barrage.

He enjoys using heavy armor and being a tank. His armor is quite similar to Diavel's, in that it is large and covers more of his body than the average piece of armor. It is different in that it is red in color and suited better for a left-handed swords man. Engraved on his heavy gauntlets were symbols of suns, and when he used his shield there was a large sun off center to the left.

Tenebris, currently level twelve, has abandoned his sword in favor for a dagger, which honestly surprised me at this early stage in the game. He keeps his dagger concealed behind his back with the hilt angled out to the right. He prefers sneaking behind his target and then dealing massive damage with a single blow. Due to his need to be behind his target before attacking his sneak skill is higher than any one of my other friends.

His armor is very light, but then again he doesn't see as much combat as the rest of us. It is made mostly of darkly colored leather, with a large full length black cloak that he almost never takes off. The dark cloak only boosts his sneak skill, making him very difficult to find if he doesn't want to be found. He wears a headband embossed with a strange symbol, an infinity sign with a two bar cross pointing upward. He tells me that it will make more sense later in the game.

Thor, level thirteen, has traded in his mace for a War Hammer, which doesn't surprise me at all. He finds a perverse thrill in smashing things with his hammer. This had led to many of us staying well clear of him when he has it in his hand. His strength skill is the highest of the group due to his hammer and its smashing habits.

His armor is also fairly heavy, but not as heavy as Mattias'. The armor itself his overlapping scales that should assist in deflecting damage away from him. He has managed to find a red cape that he wears attached to his shoulders. On one side of his War hammer is the symbol of Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. He proudly stands on the front lines for many battles.

Hastam, currently level nine, is sticking with his spear, (I don't think he ever picked up a sword in the first place). He is wearing a set of medium armor, not too heavy or light. A single piece of armor covers his entire torso, while he wears light bracers on his forearms. A blue surcoat, with a weed leaf embossed on the front, covers his armor. He seems far too easy going for the situation that we are in. I honestly don't know how long he will survive if he doesn't change his attitude.

(Don't average these numbers, these are just the people we met last chapter.)

I head out of town just as the rays, but not the sun itself, begins to crest over the horizon. It is easier to do things early in the morning because there aren't as many players roaming around. Today I will be going solo around the nearby fields in search of a worthy monster opponent.

I stroll leisurely through the fields before I encounter a pair of boars. I don't even bother to draw my sword; instead I rapidly throw throwing picks at them until they disintegrate into a shower of triangular pixels. It took about three picks each, but I have plenty more where those came from. The experience and money is small but is better than none. A strong breeze blows through the fields and I pause to take a deep breath while closing my eyes. When I open my eyes again, there standing in front of me is the mother of all boars. Standing easily twice my height and many times my weight, it shook the ground when it walked. I drew my sword with my right hand and held it horizontally at shoulder height pointed at the boar. While my left hand selected three throwing picks from my belt and stayed at the ready near my right ear. We stood facing each other as the wind blew past us, as if we weren't even there. A stray tumbleweed bounced between us to further set the mood.

A loud squeal was my only warning before the behemoth charged. I threw my picks but they just bounced off of its hide and I dodged to the left letting my sword cut into its hide as it ran by. It didn't even seem to feel my sword as it turned around with any even angrier look in its eyes. I tried a different tactic, this time when it charged I stood shock still with my sword poised for an uppercut attack. I waited until the last moment, and then I jumped vertically. Landing on the boar's snout I thrust my sword to the hilt into its left eye. It thrashed its head and threw me off before I could pull my sword out. I rolled to break my fall before looking up to see the boar still struggling to get my sword out of its eye. A quick peek at my health bar showed that I had lost about fifteen percent of health. Since it was distracted I took the opportunity to equip my next strongest weapon, a dagger. It was long for a dagger, more like a short sword, but it just seemed to fit my hand perfectly. I held it in my left hand for now while I selected a single throwing pick with my right hand. The boar had stopped thrashing and was looking around for me. When it saw me, oh man, the look it gave me would have made a lesser man shit his pants, but then again I'm not a lesser man.

I took the pause in its movement to let loose my throwing pick on the now stationary target… it founds its mark, in the boar's right eye. The boar was now completely blind. It was not going to find me, despite the size of its snout, because this was a line-of-sight monster. It charged at me, but I didn't have to move because it was not going to hit me. It missed about five meters to my left. It continued to randomly charge without getting anywhere near me.

It took me another thirty minutes to kill it with just my dagger. While I checked to see how much experience and Cor I earned in the fight, a little box popped up indicating that there was an item drop. Two items in fact. The one drop was a very rare item, something I had never seen before. It was a dagger called "Sword Breaker." It was too high a level for me to equip it right away so I threw it into my item storage. When I go back into town I'll see if it's worth anything. Funnily enough, the other drop was the sword that used to stab the pig in the eye. Imagine that.

After re-equipping my sword, I left the fields and headed into a nearby forest. The rest of my time in the forest was fairly uneventful. The sun had reached its zenith and shone brightly through the tree branches overhead. The sunlight left a dappled pattern on the path that I was following. I continued down the path, not really paying attention to where I was going, when I noticed a small stone structure ahead of me to the right. It was a series of small stones stacked on top of each other, about the height of my knee. This was not something that happened naturally.

It looked like a path marker, but I didn't see any paths other than the one I was walking on. I wasn't really doing anything today anyway so I turned perpendicular from the main path and walked straight past the stone marker and into the forest. After about twenty meters or so a real path began to take shape out of the trees. The path was small at first, only room for one person abreast, but then it grew wider to be able to fit four or five people abreast until it finally ended in a medium sized clearing. On the other side of the clearing was a cave entrance flanked by two tall stone guardians. They were genuflecting towards each other with their heads bowed. Each held a sword with the point in the ground and their hands wrapped around the hilt. Both of them wore full suits of knightly armor.

I moved into the clearing crouching cautiously with my hand on my sword and my eyes scanning surrounding area, ready for an ambush. I didn't remember this from the Beta test, but then again, I wasn't forced to stay in the game like I am now. Standing from my crouch but not taking my hand off of my sword I advanced to the entrance of the cave.

The stone guardians were as still as, well… stone. They gave me a weird feeling, like they would drop their peaceful personas and attack me. Nothing happened. I continued into the cave, but my eyes never left the guardians. I was finally forced to turn around so that I could see what lay inside the cave.

Before proceeding any further, I quickly equipped a dark green cloak to boost my sneaking skill. (I know black is better, but green is my color.) I checked my map to see if I could get a better idea as to where I was, but now such luck. My map was blank, as if I had just walked into a new dungeon. That did not help my confidence because as far as anyone else knew this place didn't even exist. If I was attacked, there would be no way for my friends to find me. I was flying solo into thick cloud cover. With a true reason to be scarred I drew my sword. I continued apprehensively until I saw a faint glow of light from around a corner. I approached slowly, hugging the wall to hide myself as best as possible. I tried to use the flat of my sword as a mirror to see around the corner, but it didn't work. I slowly rounded the corner and what I saw took my breath away.

CLIFFHANGER!

Nah, I wouldn't do that. (Not yet anyway).

It was a large, ornate, double door inlaid with gold, silver, and various jewels. It was flanked on either side by torches that never extinguished. I approached apprehensively anticipating an ambush. When I reached the door and reached out to try to open it a message popped up. It was from Mattias, he marked it as urgent. Before I read his message I opened my map and placed a marker where I was so that I would be able to return later. This was his message,

"Found the Boss room. A meeting today in Tolbana. Be there."

I read it again, not sure that I had read it correctly. There was nothing wrong with my vision; I was just so surprised that we had finally found the Boss room. I turned from the ornate door and ran as fast as I could to get back to Tolbana. I ran so quickly that I raised my speed stat a few levels.

Only when I finally reached the outer limits of Tolbana did I begin to slow my pace. Not one to attract attention to myself I used side streets and alleys to get to the meeting place. Before the meeting began I searched for Mattias only to find him in the front row, and I sure as hell wasn't going to sit in the front. Scanning the other assembled players I found Tenebris and Thor. Thor was right in the middle of everything while Tenebris was keeping to himself far away from the other players. He saw me and we exchanged nods of greeting. I took a seat way in the back under one of the pillars and waited for the meeting to begin.

A little ways into the meeting…

So far he was a good public speaker, he really knew how to get everyone involved and motivated to go defeat the boss. However, he lost me when he suggested that we form parties. I prefer to be a solo player so being in a party wasn't really my thing. I quickly looked around to see if my friends had already formed parties, which to my shock, they had. Mattias was already in a party with Diavel, that much I knew. Thor was shaking a large black man's hand which probably meant that they were in a party. Tenebris straight up left and I was getting desperate. I frantically looked for a group of less than six people when I saw two people sitting to my left. One of them had a dark red cloak that obscured their features; the other had a blue shirt with sword strapped to his back. They exchanged what I assumed to be pleasantries before they formed a group. I jumped down a few steps to get on the same level as them and then slid over. I tapped the blue shirted one on the shoulder to get his attention and said to him,

"Hey I noticed that you two are a small group and could benefit from another player. I'm a solo player so I'm not that good at this," I scratched the back of my neck and quickly added. "It would only have to be for this fight."

He seemed to understand where I was coming from; maybe he was a solo player too? He turned and looked to the cloaked player who only gave a slight nod, indicating that it was okay for me to join. He sent me an invite which I quickly accepted. I took a minute to read the names my new party members, Kirito and Asuna. Neither of them made an indication as to who they were, so I was left to guess that Kirito was the blue shirted one while Asuna was the one with the cloak. I thought things were going well, but then another player shouted down from the top of the stands,

"Hold up a sec!" He then quickly jumped down the stands to take the stage next to Diavel before he continued,

"My name's Kibaou. Got that?" He was a small stocky looking player with a large long sword on his back. His hair was spiky like that of a medieval jester's hat and his brown eyes were filled with hate.

I thought with a small smile to myself, 'This outta be good.' The smile faded as he continued to talk, blaming the Beta testers for not helping the new players and causing their deaths. He even assumed that there were Beta testers here. I shrugged my shoulders at that statement. Well he wasn't wrong. He did cross a line when he suggested that the Beta testers should give up all of their earnings to the new players because it would be the only way for them to "earn our trust."

I could tell that Kirito was having trouble dealing with what he was saying, as he cringed at every accusation and statement that Kibaou made. Me? I was about ready to stand up and say something when someone beat me to it. It was the same guy that Thor was in a party with. His name was Agil, and boy was he big. He was at least a whole head taller than Kibaou, and way more muscular, the battle axe strapped to his back was just daring someone to mess with him.

Repeating the gist of what Kibaou had said to be sure that they were on the same page; he then calmly showed Kibaou what was available for free at any the item store, a guide book. Agil then, just as calmly, told Kibaou that is was the ex-Beta testers who were handing out the guide books. A collective gasp from the audience was all Agil needed to continue. He went on to explain that everyone had an equal chance to obtain the guide book, and even so many players died.

Kirito looked calmer after Agil had made that statement, perhaps he too was a Beta tester? I couldn't see the expression of Asuna because she, I had to assume she was a she, was wearing a hood. Agil finished by saying that he was here to figure out how we were going to defeat the boss. He gave one last look at Kibaou before both of them took their seats. Thor gave him an encouraging fist bump after he sat down. Diavel, with the consent of the group, continued on about the boss. All of the information was in the latest edition of the guide book that Agil had mentioned.

His name: Illfang the Kobold Lord. Number of health bars: Four. His weapons: An axe and buckler. His minions: the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. And what happens when his last health bar is in the red: He switches to a curved weapon called a talwar instead of his axe and shield. The last thing he said caused the most commotion: that Illfang can change his patterns of attack. A quick glance towards Mattias revealed that he too was unsettled about the news.

He finished the meeting with how we were going to divide the loot. Money will be divided equally amongst everyone, experience will go to the winning party, and anyone who gets an item gets to keep it. When no one objected he officially ended the meeting.

Neither Kirito nor I noticed that Asuna had begun to leave until we heard her footsteps receding away from us. I got up and made to leave as well but before I left I turned to Kirito and told him,

"I know how tough it can be to be a solo player. So if you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask."

He looked a bit surprised by what I said. His response was hesitant while looking down and away, "Thanks, but…"

I cut him off before he could say anything else by raising my hand, "Hey man, even solo players need friends, and who better to be friends with than another solo player? Let me put it this way: If I can help you, I will. If you can help me, you will. OK?" I had a feeling that he could become a very powerful player in this game, and the more we helped each other, the better our chances of survival. He understood what I meant with a curt nod. I held out my hand and we shook on it. I added him to my friends list before finally walking away.

Diavel said we were going to meet again before the boss raid tomorrow, which meant that there was a party planned for tonight.

Later that evening….

Never being one for parties, I went to a nearby hill and lay down to watch the stars in the sky. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what I would be doing in the real world right now, probably studying for midterms and/or finals in my university courses. For a second, just a fleeting second, I was glad that I didn't have to study for finals. I realized with a frown that while I wouldn't have to study for finals, I would have to study attack patterns on monsters hell bent on killing me. That was made harder by the fact that if I was defeated, I died IRL. In college, if you fail an exam you can always retake it (after paying a large amount of money), but you don't die. Here, in this world, if I fail… it wouldn't matter how much money I could pay, there are no second chances. If I ever wanted to see the real stars again we would have to defeat Illfang the Kobold Lord, his defeat was the first step on a tall stairway to heaven. If we failed, we would be in the fast lane of a highway to hell.

I sat up and took one last long look at the stars in the sky before I turned my attention to the celebration occurring in the town. I decided that it would be best if I was fully rested for the fight tomorrow instead of fighting a virtual hangover. Walking past the town square I saw Mattias throw back another virtual drink before stumbling around and finally falling face first onto the ground. The crowd laughed at his antics, I simply smiled and turned toward the general direction of the inn. On my way there I noticed Kirito and Asuna sitting together outside of the party, assumedly talking. I let them be and continued on to the inn. When I got there, there was someone already waiting for me. It was Tenebris.

Approaching him with my hood drawn, we stood silently for a minute before he nodded his head in the direction of the tavern. Without any words spoken we both turned and went into the tavern. It was late and I wanted to get some sleep so I cut the small talk 'Hellos' and got to the point,

"So to what do I owe the honor? We have hardly spoken outside of a few messages here and there, so why meet now?"

We sat in a corner table in an effort to not be overheard. The tavern was dimly lit and quiet, because of the party currently going on outside. Aside from the two of us and the NPC bartender wiping the bar down, there were only three other people in the entire tavern.

He took his time responding to my question, the gears in his head turning. When he did speak, it was slow and calculated,

"I have a way for us to… obtain… money and items."

I leaned forward slightly in my seat to show he had my undivided attention. His head was down as he continued,

"It's kind of a dicky way to go about doing it, but it is proven effective. Here is the idea: We ambush a low level traveler, threaten his life, take his valuables, and leave." He looked up trying to read my expression, while I did my best to maintain a neutral one.

It was now my turn to have gears turning in my head. Immediately, I thought that it was an dishonorable thing to do, but as the gears kept turning, another thought popped into my head. The idea continued to grow, it was just missing a few pieces.

He seemed to take my silence as a sign that I wasn't on board with his idea, "If you don't want to do that you don't have to. We can pretend this conversation never-" I cut him off by raising my hand and leaning further in. I looked both ways before I said in a low voice,

"Your idea, is terrible. But the premise, the premise, is spot on. We have you "attack" a low level player in your cloak so they don't know who it is, you take everything that they have, but before you can "finish" them off… I step in and save the day. I would "kick" your ass and save their lives, which they would then owe me. This can be more profitable than we think."

I leaned back in my chair as I finished and steepled my was now a plan that could be set in motion as early as the next morning. It would take time no doubt, but then agian Rome wasn't built in a day.

His expression was one of mild shock. He said,

"I didn't really think you would have agreed to something like this" he took a pause and looked at me with a critical eye, "What are you planning?"

A small smile appeared on my lips as I said, "Don't worry about it. Have patience. In time, all will be revealed."

He looked at me suspiciously and was about to comment on what I said when he appeared to think better of it and drop the topic. He changed gears and asked, "Are you actually going to fight in the boss battle? I think I'm going to sit this one out."

I appreciated the change in gears and responded, "I joined a party believe it or not." I leaned forward in my chair and continued, "Don't really know much about either of the players but they seem like a capable bunch." I thought to myself, 'It really shouldn't matter, everyone who is going to be involved in the raid is at least ten levels above the boss.'

We both had a lot to think about for tomorrow so it was no surprise when Tenebris rose from his seat and strode towards the door. Just before he left I jumped up and called out, "Hey! Remember, no "finishing," you don't want a bad rap."

He smiled and nodded before leaving the tavern. I sat back in my chair and thought some more on this idea I had floating around in my head. It wasn't long before I paid for my drink and left as well. The last thing I remember before falling asleep was that it would be best if I didn't let anyone know about what I was thinking.

The next morning…

Tenebris ambushed his first target…

I was with the raid group…

We were going down a path we might never return from…

A/N: Please review as you see fit, be it harsh or kindly, I will read them as they come and attempt to respond, attempt being the key word. As you can probably tell I'm new at this and would benefit greatly from any and all help.