Chapter Two: Twos a Company, Three Hundreds a Crowd
November 21th 2022
It had been about two weeks since the death game started and the death rate was still rising. Over a thousand had died in the first week due to the panic from Kayaba's announcement. About t half of them had been suicides, while the rest were players who were killed by monsters. Almost a dozen were killed by other players.
Robert (Lucian) POV
Leaping to the side, I dodged the leaping spider that came from the thick branches that covered the sky. Slashing at it with my dagger, it dissolved. Hearing a hissing, I turned around to see another spider jumping at me.
Seconds before it hit me, it impaled from the air by Daniels new spear. "Thanks Buddy," I called to her as a pair of spiders scuttled down the worn trunk of a nearby tree. "Almost makes up for getting us into this mess."
"HEY! It was a bloody huge spider, normal bugs creep me enough, you just have to scream when that happens!"
"You are such a girl"
"DO YOU SEE THE BREASTS BUCKO!"
Lashing out with my dagger at another spider, I sliced off two of its legs, as it exploded a squirting sound echoed through the forest. Dodging out of the way, I was not fast enough as my hand got hit by a sticky substance, glueing it to a tree.
"SHIT!" I yell as I see a spider, bigger than the rest with a red stripe on its back crawling along the floor, a unnaturally bright green liquid dripping from two abnormally large fangs at its front.
Looking at my HP bar I see it going down slowly as my hand burned from the acidic web that was coating my hand.
"What the heck! That Kayaba is just really encouraging Acrophobia to faint isn't he?" Daniel muttered as she activated her basic stab skill, hitting the stronger spider.
Cutting through the web with my dagger in my free hand, I jumped the weakened enemy, stabbing my dagger into its back, finishing it off.
"Well at least they probably won't get any bigger" I tell her, looking around at the now silent clearing in the middle of the woods.
We were heading through the woods to try our hand at some of the tougher enemies in the mountains or the ruins which could be accessed by going through the forest. While it was possible to go to the mountains via the Lake, it was a much further walk from the direction of the town we were staying at.
We had bought some new gear from the town before we headed out. Daniel had got a spear with a quite high durability which he used to stab and slash with the edge of the point and some stronger armor. I bought several daggers since they broke quite easily. We also had grabbed several health potions, which I mainly had due to my lower defence.
"Yeah, you're right," she replied as she looked around. "I'm just glad that there is no more."
Suddenly movement caught my eye as a spider that easily dwarfed both of us moved into view. It was dark brown with two massive fangs on its head. its legs held its body of the ground as it stalked its way through the trees. It was easily eight times as big as the spiders we had been previously been fighting with.
"Shit," was all I could say as I saw the that its was a lvl 7 and called The Spidersaurus. Obviously some type of boss monster for this area.
"Run?" Daniel asked me. "Yep." Was all I could say before we both turned and fled the area, the spider chasing after us.
Turning sharply in hopes to lose the spiders attention, I saw light breaking between two trees ahead. "Over there!" I yelled to Daniel.
Sprinting through the shadowed maze of trees to the golden glow, I looked behind me to see Daniel failing to keep up with me, my higher agility pushing me further away from her strength based feminine character.
"If you don't keep up, I am not going to call you Daniel again till you get your balls back!" I yelled back at him, as the considerably faster spider slowly caught up with her.
Since this spider was faster than the smaller versions and Daniels was slow, there was a high chance he wouldn't make it to the gap in the trees before it caught her.
Acting quickly I used a tree as a springboard to leap over Daniel. landing on the spiders back, I started to slash the spiders leg repeatedly until I eventually managed to severe it. As the now unbalanced spider fell to the ground, I lept off its back and landed next to Daniel.
"Looks like I had to save your ass. Again." I grunted as we broke through the end of the forest into a wide open area that was cluttered with ruins. A overgrown stone pathway that twisted up the side of the mountains stood out over the green grass and a few packs of wolves walked around the grassy fields.
"Well sorry for not being able to catch up with you Road Runner," she grumbled as she started to walk along the overgrown path, longing to get away from the spider infested forest.
"Does that make you Wile E Coyote?" I asked with a grin, causing her to huff in response.
"Touche my friend, Touche" she mumbled,
"So what now?" Daniel asked me, I thought a bit, around here was a hidden dungeon that I had discovered during Beta. I had been exploring the zones for the last day when I came across it. I had decided to leave it alone due to the fact that it was the last day of the test.. If my theory is correct, it should have been untouched by anyone, and if so, thank the gods.
If only I had known that the stakes of this game would become a life or death I would of at least looked inside it.
But no turning back now, things were tense on floor one due to overcrowding, and the door to the boss had not been found yet. Since the door to the boss room had been changed since Beta, no one had any idea where it was. Even the Beta Testers were clueless.
This Sub-Dungeon on the other hand was never discovered, so it was a possible gold mine in loot, but also a death trap. It was in the back of a bear cave where a lvl 7 Brown Bear lived. Most people ignored it since it was a bit out of the way and most monsters were further into the mountains.
But it was also better than sitting around with our feet up, we needed the experience if we wanted to survive this. After we looted everything, we could report it to the other players with a clear mind.
Telling Daniel about it we started to head over to the cave with little to no fuss. After a few minutes of walking, we made it to the cave.
"So, Where is momma bear?" asked Daniel, I frowned slightly, the bear was scripted to charge out the cave as we approached.
Looking inside I saw no sign of the bear still, but saw the gloomy hole that had the short drop into another cave, from where you could enter the dungeon from climbing down some vines. I had tested the drop in beta but declined myself further exploration.
As I jumped down the hole, I decided not to question the avoided fight. Seconds later, Daniel followed me down. Heading over to the vines, I grabbed hold of one and used it as a rope to descend deeper into the cave. Waiting for Daniel I looked around the room. Set into the wall with a burning torch next to it, was human sized double door.
It was the made out a black shiny metal, large enough for a relatively tall man to walk through. The door split down the center, having symmetrical markings on each side, joining up to make strange pictures and flickering light of the torch making the metal shimmer in the dreary room.
However, the lock that normally kept the door closed was gone.
"This is not good..." I mutter, as I hurry towards it, the locks were to show when a door had been entered or not. Since it was gone it meant that someone had went through it, looks like we are getting leftovers... yet again.
But then again...
I knew that I couldn't have been a group of people, too many opinions on what to do, it would have got out to the public immediately. Most likely it could be that a group recently just stumbled in before us, or it is a solo player, and considering how draining and dangerous a dungeon can be, especially alone...
"We're in luck."
"How so?" Asked Daniel next to me, I felt my mouth twitch, and decided against saying that it was lucky that a person had died for our benefit, Daniel is not one for seeing advantages in others suffering.
"Just that we didn't have to face the bear upstairs, they might of taken it out after the Beta"
She nodded and I reached my hand forward to push open the door, a responded click was heard and it slowly opened, we both walked inside and squinted in the darkness.
It was a conjunction of many different openings among other things, split into several paths. This was not good, if we wanted to get anything useful. Soon though, we might need to split up, and that was suicide. We would have to take it slowly for now, with a mental game of spin the bottle, I chose the third path from the left.
"This way" I told Daniel, and activating my night vision skill, I trekked forward.
"Goddam rats!" Daniel screamed for the fifth time as another swarm of rats came rushing along the corridor. For some reason swarms of rats all at level two seemed to inhabit this dungeon. They also seem to love Daniel.
Lucky stamping on them seemed to kill the ridiculous weak creatures.
"This is really getting annoying, it has to be that comment from school of being a 'spec-y rat'" she grumbled, "I mean seriously, why do they go after me?"
"Maybe they are just as big perverts as you are?" I smiled, these rare jokes were what kept us from falling into depression here,
"Fuck you man!" she retorted back,
"No thanks, woman" I retorted,
Daniel then slumped briefly, "I just realised something"
I raised an eyebrow, "What?"
"What floor did the people in the Beta get to in the two months they were there?"
I thought a little, "Level eight, close to proceeding to nine but..."
At this she seemed to slump a little more, "In terms of calculation, that means 25 months, two years and one month, and every one will be fearing for their lives"
Even in the worst situations, Daniel had been able to bounce back, and she still does here, but with the life and death game, coupled with the fact that he is stuck as a girl, he gets depressed quite regularly.
"Heh, you know what would be a bitch? Waking up from this game and then being hit by a car, same principles apply to the real world remember," I mutter to him "If a human gets stabbed with a sword, here or back home, death still happens"
"I know, but still, death... is scary"
I looked at him with sympathy, missing the reckless, adrenaline junkie I knew. When I warned him about getting arrested for hacking into the numerous things over the years, he would always compliment the cells and how cosy they looked, now look at her, him, whatever,
Looking further down the tunnel, I see movement. "Hey I know what will cheer you up," I say with a smile forming on my face
"What?" She asks questionly
"Giant rats!" I say excitedly, point down the tunnel at the rat running towards us. It looked like the stereotype giant rat. A very big grey one.
Looking ahead Daniel got her spear ready, point facing towards the rat. As it got closer it leapt towards her, exposing its underbelly. With a quick forward jab, her spear impaled itself in its stomach. Crouching, she let the rat continue its jump over her head, pulling the spear out and letting it fly down the tunnel before dissolving into polygons.
"I hate rats..." she grumbled as she turned back to face me.
"Good job," I say as we continued deeper into the dark cave system. As we approach another fork on the path, a scream echoes through the cave.
Daniel rushed down the left pathway just as I shouted to him, "Hey wait!"
But it was too late. As Daniel went deeper into the corridor, he tripped a trap causing the way behind him cave in.
Jumping back just before I was crushed, panted a second at my close call with death.
"Hey are you ok?" I call out to her.
"Fuck me and my damn saving people thing" I heard her grumble,
I chuckled despite myself, "I'll find a way around, just don't get into trouble Harry Potter"
I didn't stay standing still for a second before running off down the next cave opening.
After several minutes of running and killing rats of all sizes I turned down another pathway and stopped stunned.
The once dark and dreary cave was now full of plants. One or two of them were producing light. Looking around in awe, I walked forward slowly.
The place had some sort of natural beauty to it. Vines on the ceiling and strange flows on the lower walls. The light was coming off a pale white flower, which seemed to glow.
Small firefly like bugs flew around the place. Deactivating my night vision skill, I walked deeper into the cave. Hearing a grunty snort sound I looked around a corner to see a brown boar, much healthier looking than the ones at the starting town. It was called a Guardian Boar and was lvl 6
Thats when it noticed me. With a squeal it charged towards me. Rolling out the way before it hit me, I spun around and slashed its back with my knife. With a grunt it charged at me again.
Hitting me square in the chest, I saw my HP bar deplete by a chunk, almost taking me down to the orange zone. Realising I couldn't risk being hit any more, I lunged at it with my knife.
Activating a sword skill, I streaked towards it in a flash of light. A orange gash appeared along its side, before it shattered like glass. Checking the XP I gained from the fight, I saw I had enough to level up again, reaching level 7. After I quickly put the majority of my three stat points into agility and the last one into strength, I drank a potion of healing before continuing down the corridor.
As another boar charged me, I dodged it more fluidly this time, hitting it twice before it passed by me. Reducing it health as it dispersed into blue particles.
As I continued deeper the plants seemed to increase in amount and life. Another Boar charged at me. Lashing out to cut it, my blade disintegrated before I could even scratch the beast. Swearing out loud, I reached behind my back to pull out my spare dagger before I was attacked again.
Repeating my previous move again, I stabbed my blade through its skull as it ran past and walked away as it died. Moving further on, I saw another Boar Guardian ahead. Preparing myself for another attack I moved towards it.
Eventually, I reached a ledge above a wide open cave. Looking down I could see that it looked nicer than the rest of the plant caves before. A large pond was in the top left and the rest was a mixture of flowers. Vines came down along the sides off the walls and the ceiling was covered in some sort of glowing plant which made the whole room shimmer unnaturally.
Jumping down I looked around the room, it was empty apart from a strange golden rock. Sighing I sat down on the ground with my back against the rock for a quick breather. It seems I had gone the wrong way or missed a pathway that connected with Daniels route. I hoped she was ok.
Standing up I kicked the rock, so I was surprised when it shook. Kicking it again, I jumped back as it shook and looked up in horror. The rock wasn't a rock. It was a Massive Boar.
To be precise it was a lvl 8 boss monster named The Boar Spirit. While I could deal with a normal Level 8 monster solo, but a boss would be near enough impossible. So I voiced my thoughts in two words.
"Oh shit!"
Daniel (Charlie) POV
"Oh shit!"
I can't believe this, why does god continuously seek to piss me off, I mean really, why is it always fucking spiders, always goddamn fucking GIANT spiders!
"We must have been terribly fucking cruel to puppies in a previous life to deserve this"
I can't agree more.
Male and Female Dungeon spiders as they were called were attacking me ever since I last was with Robert, and they just kept coming, since Robert kept the majority of the health items, I was left with running most of the time to save my twindeing supplies, not to mention the fucking fact I was struck by sticky web that made it harder to move around, and from what I know of females, they were bigger when it came to spiders, and seemed to try and bite me, which meant they were poisonous, I didn't want to try and test how poisonous so I hightailed it.
On the bright side I gained another level on the way, and three stat points that I put into Strength and Vitality, I was seriously wondering why there were so many freaking spiders tho.
When I turned a corner I met more of the buggers.
Quickly backing up, I took the other way, but found it blocked as well, too many web spitters for me to not get pinned down, and I knew the way I came was crawling with more trying to get me.
"Trapped like a son-of-a-bitch rat you are"
That joke has already been used.
"And it will be the last you hear as well faggot"
Okay, forgetting about my schizophrenia for a second, I found my escape, a large door that I had missed sitting next to me, I just jumped at it when several scuttling noises were coming closer from all sides, and shut it behind me, the lock on it disappearing when my hands touched it.
That was really goddamn close.
Sinking to the floor a bit, I took a deep breath, seriously, I will develop a severe fear of anything with eight legs after this, it will scar me so much I won't be able to smile when my little sister puts on that cute spider costume she had got for halloween next... year.
I choked back my bubbling sob and just focused on the task at hand, first, find who screamed, save them, ask on date if cute (okay, scratch that, act serious) find Robert, get the heck out of here, get rid of clumps of webbing stuck on shoes and...
…
…
Almost mechanically, I turn slowly around, and the shiver down my spine was working on overdrive as I looked at the scene, webbing, lots and lots of webbing, filling every corner of the room, so think it could be mistaken for a carpet, if it hadn't been for the giant spider eggs laying into the folds of them.
Okay, I told myself, calm down, there are no reason to panic, momma spider here right now, just-
"Get your ass into high gear out of here and NOW!"
But before I could try to look for an escape, I heard a muffled moan coming from the expanse of white string, I snapped towards it to see a lump that was log shaped, but I saw slight movements showing that there was a human in there, most likely the girl who screamed before.
"Fuck, forget about it, you wouldn't have a chance with her anyway, that fat guy Jamison with the pimples gets more ass than you in highschool, so get the fuck out of here!"
I was sickened by my inner thoughts and ignored them as I nimbley tip toed over the large spider eggs and ignoring the dry crunch under my feet as I made my way to the trapped girl.
"Can you hear me?" I whispered as quietly as I could, glancing over my shoulder to check for any dangers.
The muffled sounds from her became for erratic and I quickly shushed to keep her quiet.
"I'm going to cut you out, keep quiet, they might still be here..."
When she became still, I opened my inventory and cut slowly through the threads that bound her to the floor...
By chance, it was from the legs up.
Complete coincidence.
Taking away the carpet of threads bit by bit as I worked my way up, I tried not to stare at the figure of the woman as I unraveled her.
"Well would you look at that, long blond hair, you're in-your-dreams girl feature"
I tried to not flinch at the true words and took the rest off, to be greeted by a pair of mismatched eyes.
I blinked slightly, the red and blue eyes were quite a looker if I had to say, very unique, even exotic, with a slight hourglass figure, C to D Cup breasts, her face was cute, kind of full and roundish in shape, her hair was long and put into two large pig tails on either side of her head, since she was Japanese this was a surprise.
Her clothing however had my temperature rise a little, she had a kind of Gothic Maid thing going, the dress a cut above the knees and showing off her slender legs, of course it wasn't all fashion, she had small plates of armour on her elbows, stomach and chest.
If I had to guess, she seemed to be fifteen, but that might be cause of her childish clothing, maybe sixteen or something.
Realising I was googling at her face I shook my head and quietly gestured for her to slowly get up, she complied and we crouched down low and started sneaking to the other side of the room, luckily there was another door there.
"Thank you so much" she whispered to me, I looked back to see slight tears in her eyes, she must have been more scared than anything.
I nodded and we tiptoed closer to the door, but then something made me pause.
"Wait a minute..." I looked back at her, "Why did the spiders just wrap you up? Not just finish you in the corridors?"
She flinched slightly and just shrugged, I apologized for the bad choice of words and put on a thoughtful expression.
I thought about spiders, they were loners, they went out into the world and put up nests for themselves, hardly care for another.
But there are so many here, if anything the teamwork and number of them make them like a...
Hive.
And with every hive, there is a...
I craned my head to look above us, and would you believe it, there was another spider, another fucking huge spider.
"A FUCKING HUGE, SON OF A BITCH SPIDER QUEEN!"
And here I am, standing in her nest.
Robert (Lucian) POV
Diving out the way as the giant charged at me again, the room shaking as its hooves pounded the ground. A thunderous boom echoed through the room as it smashed into the cave wall, its thick skull protecting it from any damage.
I had been dodging the Boar Spirits attacks for several minutes, thinking of a solution to the situation I was currently in. I had observed that the boar was stunned for several seconds after crashing into the wall, so using this to my advantage.
Running up the side of the wall, I flipped backwards landing onto the stunned creatures back. Using my dagger I proceeded to stab it several times in the back. Watching its HP slowly decrease from my weak attacks to it, I was unaware that the Boar regained full awareness.
As it started trying to throw me off, I grasped for someway to stop myself from flying off. As it started moving erratically around the room, I stabbed my dagger into its back for a extra grip. It wasn't enough.
As I slid slowly down its back, my dagger cut a long gash along it only removing half of its first health bar. I Eventually leapt back to the floor before I fell from its back.
Waiting for it to charge again, I realised that if this creature had weak points like some normal monsters, I could have a better chance at surviving.
Looking ats hairy face and massive tusks as it face me again, I realised that stabbing it in the eyes might be a better idea, If I could get some clean strikes onto them it might do some serious damage. Thats when boar finished scraping the floor with its hoof and charged again at me.
Proceeding to do the same move I did earlier, I moved in time to see the small shockwave of the impact of hard bone meeting solid rock. Getting onto its back again, I sprinted along it until I reached its head and climbed onto its snout.
If it started to try to throw me off now, I had no hope of staying on I realised as I saw the small amount of space I had. Moving as fast as I could while staying balanced, I got as close as I could to its eye. Leaping foolishly towards it, my dagger prepared to attack, I stabbed the great beast.
With pain filled squeal the boar shook its head, trying to dislodge me. Holding onto its hair on its head, I lunged at its eye again, before being thrown off.
Looking up at its HP bar, I realised that it still had its one HP bar left.
Thats when it changed. Its tusks seemed to elongate and its muscles bulged. Its remaining eye seemed to bulge out from its socket and was all bloodshot.
All of a sudden, it rushed forward, faster than before, barely giving me time to dodge.
Unfortunately, just as I dived to the side, its tilted its head and its tusk gave me a gash on my leg, I felt myself spin from the forces inflicted b the charge and found myself lying flat on the floor.
Seeing my HP decrease all the way to the red zone, I realised that if I took one more hit I was as good as dead.
As it I tried to reach for a HP potion, I had little time to dodge to the side, barely avoiding its as it tried to gore me with its tusks again. Its single eye practically shining with hatred towards me.
If I dodged to the side, its tusks would make short work off me. Unfortunately I had little time to think as the sound of its feet furiously pounding the ground as it stampeded towards me.
Thats when I had an idea on how to finally beat this creature. I had done only half a bar damage when hitting its body, but took one and a half bars out from two hits to its eye. So, running towards the boar foolishly I prepared to go through with my plan.
Daniel (Charlie) POV
The spider struck out at me with its long legs, striking at where I once stood, as me and the blond haired girl ran in different directions as the thing towered above us.
It stood and six-possibility seven metres tall, and only its outline was visible, barely since it was pitch black and gave it a seeming invisibility in the dark cave, its legs however were shape and deadly, trying to stamp on us like a sword would stab.
Every few seconds it would choose between me or the other girl and try and stamp on us, I thrust deep into its legs with my spear and looked up to see its three health bars, with the name Nest Mother perched on top of it.
It went down a little, very little.
"SHIT!"
Wasn't I supposed to be the strong one?
Robert would get more damage than that.
"Thats because he isn't a motherfucking pussy who is afraid to fight"
I grit my teeth to ignore that as I rolled out of the way of another attack.
Squish! Crack!
I looked behind me to see that I had crushed several eggs in the nest and they were leaking out green and yellow goo.
I hurriedly wipe the gunk off me before hearing a rumbling roar.
I looked up to see the Nest Mother looming over me, looks like momma spider doesn't like omelettes.
I duck as a spray of poison erupted from above, nearly hitting me, I looked from the corner of my eye to see the blond girl hacking at the big spiders legs with a sword, by now the thing was halfway done on its first bar.
The Nest Mother then shot out a string of web towards the blond girl, wrapping around her chest and pinning her to the way, with a shriek, she hit the wall with surprise.
The spider however turned back at me and I dodged another leg, and another.
This was taking too long, so I struck again with my weapon to try and get her down, by some form of luck, I had whittled her down to the second one, but my victory was short lived as it turned its attention back to the trapped girl.
Desperately, I tried to put its attention back to be, repeatedly stabbing at its legs, but it didn't even react as it was down to half the second bar.
I saw its leg rise from the ground, aiming at the girl who struggled against her bindings, I then found the world seemed to slow, with the scene unfolding in front of me.
"Bastard, acting the hero and freeze up when you meet a real challenge, fucking coward you are"
But, I'm afraid.
Same principles apply to the real world remember
Roberts words echoed in my head as I looked forward.
"Piss head, your weak and always will be, in the head and reality, don't make a difference"
I grit my teeth and leap forward.
I might be weak, but I'll sure as hell try, again and again until I succeed.
I drew my arms back with my spear glowing fiercely, I then jumped as high as I could, barely getting into range of the Nest Mothers head and I thrust forward.
And again, and again, and again, and once more, a flurry of strikes pierced into the insectoid skin of where its face was and a loud screech rattled through the room as it stumbled backwards.
I took out my dagger and cut at the webs around the girl quickly, as the giant spider wasn't done yet.
"Thank you again," she said, as she looked at me, "That was amazing, you're so brave!"
I blushed at the compliment, I never got one before from such a pretty girl.
Our moment of peace ended suddenly as another screech ripped through our eardrums. We looked back to see the Nest Mother rippling and changing in front of us, its features become recognizable as its body was turning a sickly green, the fangs visible now on its face were now dripping of venom and getting sharper.
The abdomen on its back was large, but now seemed to swell and bulge and the bottom of it seemed to burst open. Several eggs and body juices fell from it and landed on the ground, after several seconds the eggs cracked and many hatchling spiders took their place as the shells disappeared in polygons.
The place seemed to pause again for a second before I just took a deep breath and readied my spear again, blondie was next to me with her sword in a tight grip.
"What's your name anyway?" I asked her,
"Akari" she answered shortly,
"Nice to meet you, I'm Charlie" I told her back, I then turned my attention back to the monster horde.
"Big ole family reunion huh?" I asked as they crawled forward, "I just have to say tho, that birthing in front of us? Was really motherfucking gross."
And then me and Akari rushed forward.
Robert (Lucian) POV
As I got closer to the the charging Boar Spirit, I leaped a few seconds before it hit into me. Landing on its snout, seconds before it smashed into the wall.
The impact shook me as I tried desperately to stay on the creatures hairy head. As I regained my balance, I started to shuffle along its nose towards its one good eye.
Reaching the bloodshot bulging orb, I stabbed my dagger into it. Hearing the squeal of pain, I saw the boss's only HP go down 75%.
As I prepared to stab the creature one last time to finish it off, I realised how lucky I had been. If I hadn't put my points in agility I would have been dead long before I destroyed the first bar. It should have been impossible to kill a creature like this alone at my level, as if could probably kill multiple players with one charge.
With a relieved sigh that I had survived this fight, I drew back my dagger for the final strike.
Unforintaly before I could finally kill the creature, its head jerked upwards, sending me flying into the wall. Hitting the wall, I felt my HP drop a tiny bit more, leaving me with less than 10% of my life.
As I struggled to get to my feet, I looked up at the touch of the snorting breath of the Boar Spirit on my head. Struggling up to my feet, I scrambled away towards the water.
As I prepared to jump in, I saw a long silver eel swimming under the clear water. Its length at least twice that of the Boar Spirit. Deciding to take my chances with the boar instead of some unknown monster, I turned around to see it preparing to charge again.
Coming up with a idea on the spot, I ran towards the rampaging beast as it prepared to finish me off. Before it could hit me, I dropped to the ground in a slide under it, using my dagger to cut a gash through its underbelly.
I felt the damage of me hitting the rough ground at speed cut through my health bar once again, dropping my HP by another 3%.
With a hiss at the dropping of my health, I jumped to my feet as the boar passed over me. Turning around to look at it, I saw it stumble for a few seconds before emitting a pain filled screech and then at the exact same time as my dagger, it exploded into polygons.
Breathing heavily, I looked around before quickly drinking one of my health potions.
"Im glad thats over," I mutter to myself in relief. If I had been hit by anything at the moment I would have been dead with only 2% hp remaining.
As my HP recovered I looked at the loot menu that appeared after the fight. It had dropped two items. A armor piece called the Dusk Cloak and a weapon called The Soul Drinker .
Quickly equating the new armor piece, I found it was very similar in design to my old cloak but was a dark purple with black embroidery down the side. The pattern followed the side of the cloak all the way around, the outside and up to the hood where it joined.
It had extremely interesting interesting effects, The cloak gave a 20% boost to both sprint and acrobatics and a 50% boost to hiding and a skill called stealth which I didn't have at the
moment.
The final effect I could read was that the entire cloak could change colour at will to a midnight black. This was a very useful feature for were a few more effects listed but they were all blurred out.
Putting it on, I set it to black and looked at my reflection in the water. I saw that it was the perfect size, not going past my ankles so it did not constrict my movement. Pulling the hood over my head, I looked back at my inventory for my other drop. The Soul Drinker.
It felt my eyebrow raise. Interesting. It was a bow, the only ranged weapons were in the throwing variety, daggers and throwing picks, but bows? It looked pretty basic, if it wasn't for the name I would call it a stick with a string, but it said in the description that it would gain the strength of the souls it drank...
That was certainly dark. Reading more I saw it said LVL 1/500. It seems the more monsters I kill the better weapon gets, I guess..Looking back at the description, I notice a small bar that was currently empty. I guess thats its XP bar.
Then I noticed an exclamation mark next to my skills, looking into it, I saw there was a Bow skill now, Strange tho, Since Kayaba didn't mention bows as a weapon in game.. For some reason instead of the blocked slots, it had been added onto the end of the list. Some sort of extra skill I guess.
Well, better not look a gift horse in the mouth they say, well, Daniel says anyway, since it was better not knowing that his high school crush was into S&M.
Yeah, he wasn't the same a week after that.
Anyway, a big problem with this weapon was the arrows. How will I get more of them.
Hopefully I could retrieve the ones I shot at enemies. Luckily the boss dropped a couple of hundred for me to start with.
Wait... shit. Daniel, she was still out there.
I quickly looked around for a way to get out. Thats when I noticed that a boulder that had been there earlier had been reduced to rubble. I guess it was there to stop people escaping the boss fight.
Thats when I heard the noise. Hundreds of hooves pounding on the stone floor. Looking up to the tunnel I had been in earlier, I saw several dozen cow sized boars pouring out off it.
Turning towards the recently opened cave, I ran.
Daniel (Charlie) POV
"I..."
SMASH!
"REALLY..."
SQUISH!
"HATE..."
BISH! SMACK! POW!
"SPIDERS!"
I screamed after every hit, the crowd of the buggering buggers were really starting to piss me off, Momma spider wasn't dancing around either, she was using a combination of web and acid to try and take us down. I had passed one or two health items to Akari when she was getting low. It seemed like she was more of a work-at-home player than someone who fights in the front lines.
But that didn't mean she was sloppy, she slashed and thrust into the little demon babies with vigor as we ran around the room, but I noticed she seemed to instinctively raise her left arm as if to try and ward an attack, but quickly dodged before the attack hit. I guess she must of had a shield before she lost it.
I occasionally slashed at the Nest Mother when I could, but her offspring were starting to be a nuisance, she layed at least thirty of them, and two minutes after she would lay another set when we had nearly killed them all.
Right now she only had 60% left, and it was really annoying.
"Okay you maggots with legs, I am really getting mad now!" I then used my new Flurry attack to kill five at once, then again to kill another five.
As there was only a few more left, Akari then shouted to me, "Hurry! I'll hold them off Charlie-chan, you get the big one!"
I nodded while ideally trying to remember what chan meant...
Wait, it means cute...
A hurricane of a blush nearly unfolded on my cheeks as my brain processed that.
"Fucking virgin"
You're one too asshole.
I shook that off and ran as fast as I could towards the Nest Mother, who was looking at her numbers and its back was in the process of creating a new batch.
"Oh no you don't!"
I appeared next to her leg and swung my spear sideways, the side of the point catching at the parts of her legs her foot came right off her body.
A vile shriek erupted again, briefly seeming to stop the eggs she attempted to lay, I took the advantage as I ran to the next one and slashed that as well.
With two of its eight legs out of commision, the Momma spider tried to attack me with a web and acid combo, both caught me on the shoulder but I moved on regardless of the burning acid ticking away my health slightly and I cut the third leg away.
The thing was starting to unbalance now, trying to use the stumps of its legs as much as she could, but slipping from the green blood pouring out of them, cutting number four left her with two on either side now, so it was time to finish this.
I made it to the last legs on her left side, and with my spear seemingly filled with power again, I rotated in a circle, the legs didn't cut all the way like I expected, but they were knocked back easily.
With only one side being supported, the giant fell to the ground with a crash and several pops of the spider eggs getting destroyed, amazingly, the thing was still trying to get up, erratically as it struggled from the ground, not slowing as several more eggs were destroyed from upside down.
"Guess Momma dear isn't the best mother in the world" I taunted the giant arachnid as it kicked and screamed.
Taking this as the time for a finishing one liner, I jumped as high as I could in the air above the Nest Mother. It became nearly instantly mute from its tirade as I came into its view.
I took my spear and had the sharp tip facing downwards, the skill charge was filling the spearhead again as gravity took hold and it plunged me into the deep soft skin from under the abdomen of the creature. I unfortunately broke the skin as well, sinking up to my waist. The spider screamed and shrieked in pain as I had dug deep into it, impaling it on the ground.
"This is a final fuck you!" I shouted it to you, "Right in the egg sack!"
One final twist with my weapon drove me even deeper up to my breasts, it gave one final screech before stopped, and slumped to the ground, the familiar light filled my vision again as the polygons of data disappeared in the air. I felt the resistance between me and the ground fade and I spread out my legs quickly to land on the web and blood green covered floor.
And I was covered in green blood as well.
Ewwww.
"That...was..."
I turned to see Akari standing next to me,
"SO COOL!" she shouted, and then hugged me in a tight grip, I felt myself blush again as I felt her definite D-Cup pressing against me.
"You really need to get laid"
SHUT UP! I'm only seventeen!
"Yet you blush like a pre-teen"
Godaman pervert.
"Your one to talk fucktard"
I snapped out of my inner argument when she let go of me.
"Thank you, again, I don't know what would have happened to me if you didn't come along" her smile was nearly cute enough to cause my heart to skip as I looked at it.
"Uh...well i-it was no problem at all!" I said quickly in an embarrassed tone, "I mean, a-anyone could have done it"
"But you did" Akari said, "And I am very grateful"
She then moved her face closer to mine and...
Kissed my cheek...
…
…
"Charlie-chan?"
SYSTEM REBOOT NEEDED/SYSTEM REBOOT NEEDED
"Huh?" I asked, then looked back at her, "O-oh, n-nothings wrong at a-all"
She giggled at my stammering, when people laughed at my shy nature around girls as a joke, I was always ticked off, but I just felt really happy right now as I was talking to a cute girl.
A REALLY cute girl.
And she isn't backing away, well, of course I am in an avatar but thats beside the point.
"Well, um, I guess we better get out of here" I said quickly, I then realised that I must of got a lot of experience for killing all those little spiders and the Momma one as well, so I checked my menu, sure enough, it now said I was level 7.
Yes!
Curiously, I checked the loot table from the kill, Gauntlets of the Final Stand and Arachnid Fang Spear.
Opening my inventory to look at the spear, a weapon that would set me back due to no slash damage that can be done with the blunt edge, but it is stronger and has a chance to poison at least 10% with each hit. It was a long stick with patterns carved in it of several spiders, a fang stood on the top, tied down on it, the size of my forearm and all greenish.
Useful I guess, I'm not one to wait out my enemy to die tho.
I then pulled up the gauntlets, they fit around my wrist tightly and crawled up my arm loosely, it was a kind of a grey iron plate material with rusty bolts screwed into the top and a faded pattern engraved on the outside of a pair of wings stretching out into a circle with a half a diamond in the centre, I had to squint to make it out however.
From the description, it says that if I go below 20% health, my strength points would double, but couldn't go past than the maximum strength, I don't know why they had to make that clear however. A dangerous risk to take.
But hey, double my strength? That would be a good way to end a match.
Talking about health, I found that I was in fact at 16% of it, I guess I did feel kind of lighter than usual...
But before I could continue with my thought process, Akari interrupts it.
"What's that sound?"
I look at her and tilt my head to listen, scuttling, lots of scuttling.
I whip my head around to see hundreds of spiders, and lining up from the door on one side of the wall, I gulped slightly at the sight, sure we fought hoards of spiders from the boss battle, but those were level ones, this guys and a lot more power instead of biting.
As I readied myself for another fight, I felt sudden tremors under my feet, and the sound of hoofs on stone, I looked the other way to the door on the other side of the room and through the door came out Robert, with a new cloak maybe, but it was still him.
I felt a grin on my face, "Hey! Its good to see-"
I was cut off however as he ran forward and to our position and the doors crashed open to reveal several boars the size of cows charging in, they stopped after they got closer.
I blinked, and looked between the eight and four legged monsters on either side.
"This was not the sandwich you were expecting was it?"
Not the time.
I then turned to Robert, "What the fuck did you do?"
He glanced at me before looking around for an escape route, "I wouldn't talk if I was you, those spiders aren't my fault"
"Yeah, but they just found me, I didn't bring them here!"
"Did you defeat a giant spider or something?"
"Uhhh, yeah?"
"Yeah, same thing happened to me, they seem to attract a bunch of their larger children after they are defeated. These ones chased me for a while to this location"
He then noticed Akari, "Oh, pleased to meet you, I am this idiots friend"
"I am NOT an idiot! And I just defeated a giant spider! Show some respect!"
"Heh, I had a Giant boar"
"Those things are easy to kill"
"It was like, eight meters long and five meters wide"
"Mine was seven meters tall with one big ass"
"Really? What level?"
"Seven!"
"Eight!"
"Mine spewed little devil mini spiders!"
"Mine looked like it was on the pig version of steroids!"
"PLEASE!" shouted Akari, we looked at her "Is this really the time?"
"Yes" we both answered together, she blinked.
"Okay, carry on"
"Okay, let me tell you something-" I begin to say, but I was interrupted by the sudden end of whatever was keeping the spiders and boars moving, as they both charged to the centre of the room.
Just as we prepared ourselves for the worse, a roaring sound was heard through the caves, and the ground shook, stopping the spiders and boars from advancing slightly, and the wall behind us suddenly collapsed.
We looked at the wreckage and saw another tunnel revealed from behind it.
Not wishing to question whatever the roar was, we all ran towards the new exit, while the enemies that tried to catch us in a crossfire slammed into each other from behind.
I glanced back to see both sides actually fighting against each other, with the spiders climbing on the boars and biting them while the boars trampled the spiders to the ground, but I didn't dwell on that as we kept going down the dark corridor.
We turned the next corner to be greeted by a brilliant light.
"Its the way out!" shouted Akari from in front of me, damn, she can run faster than me, I need to get this sprint skill up-
What was that?
I looked behind me again.
"FUCK! STEP ON IT!"
I ran even faster as a giant torrent of water was flooding the way behind us, on instinct I grabbed Akari but not Robert as he could run faster. I kept on it until the light of outside washed over us and I made a ninety degree turn to the right of the opening.
And from the corner of my eye, I swear I saw something long, scaly and slimy in the water, but I didn't see much more as the rocks above the cave gave way and sealed the opening with a crash. Dust exploded from the area and I was left on the ground coughing.
Damn, at least I had a...soft...fall?
I looked down to see I was on top of Akari, also coughing slightly from the dust, and I was on top of her... and my hand... was...on...
"SPIDEY SENSE TINGLING"
FUCKING BAD JOKE!
I heeded the advice however and jumped back before she could gain her senses, ignoring the words and images running into my head.
"Soft and subtle, having a nice feel?"
Seriously, that is getting old
I held out my hand for her to grasp and we both got up, I turned to look at where Robert went and saw him come out from the bushes he must have fallen in, I tried not to outright laugh at the ridiculous flower that was perched on his head from wherever in the undergrowth he picked it up.
I couldn't not smile however.
"Well, that was not the training experience I was expecting" he said to me as he looked at the destruction "Kind of a disappointment really"
"Disappointment?" I asked him with a look that questioned his sanity, "We got attacked by rats, boars, spiders, a daddie giant boar and a fucking huge momma spider I may add and you think it is a disappointment?"
"Yes, exactly summing it up"
I face palmed,
"But Charlie-chan got that cool spear and pair of gauntlets didn't she?" asked Akari who joined the conversation,
Robert took a moment to look at my equipment, as I did with his cloak and-
"Wait, I thought you said there wasn't any ranged weapons except throwing daggers"
He lifting his bow, which looked more like a stick with string to be honest, and showed it to us.
"Yeah, I got it and the cloak from the Boar Spirit as it was called, it looks weak now, but it says that it will get stronger the more I use it, I don't know what the Bow skill is exactly, except that it lets me handle this"
"A self leveling weapon?" asks Akari as she looks at the bow, "That is really cool, wait, you told Charlie-chan that there were no ranged weapons so"
She then pointed her finger at him dramatically, "You're a Beta tester!"
We sweatdrop at the random accusation.
"Yes, I am" he replies back with slight amusement, his head turned to me,
*Charlie-chan?* he mouthed the question to me,
*Fuck you* I mouthed back,
"So, what is it like, a floor up?" she asked, with very cute look of attention.
"Where the hell did that come from?"
Okay I admit, I am smitten with her cuteness.
"Fucking pussy"
Imaginary voice.
"Flat topped mountains, lots and lots of mountains, not the place that you would like to fall from. There is a savannah and a wasteland, not a very nice place for lower levels though."
He gave me a sly look, I just mouthed *fuck you* again before he turned back to Akari,
"Who are you anyway" he asked her,
She grinned, "Well, I'm Akari, the Blacksmith of the... Dandy Duo..."
She then pulled up short as her face then fell from her smile, I had the sudden urge to hug her,
"WARNING, WARNING, we got a Dyke here!"
SHUT UP! THIS IS SERIOUS!
"I guess, you used to be with someone?"
She nodded her head slightly, looking at the ground.
Ok, fuck it.
I put my arms around her in a hug as she made throaty sobs and cries into my shoulder, Robert stood by, looking slightly awkward.
I shooed him with my head and he complied quickly, I didn't try to comment that he was just watching from behind a tree.
After a few minutes she regained her composure and looked at me with red eyes.
"So... who was he?" it was definitely a he, you would be sad for a friend, but you would be this depressed for a lover.
"He... his name was Daiko-kun, he is... was *sniff* my childhood friend" she took a shuddering breath.
"We... bought SAO together, it seemed like so much fun... but... then Kayaba announced the...death game and..."
I patted her back.
"Thank you" she intoned, "I was so depressed, but, Daiko-kun always kept me going, so much support...*sniff* and, even if it was only two weeks... I think I began to feel for him"
Then her face scrunched up, "Then we found this dungeon, we beat the bear and we... went inside... and we saw so many monsters... they surrounded us... and Daiko-"
"Shhh Shhh, its okay, its okay," it was weird, I was never the comforting sort, but I guess we fall into the role when needed, as I hugged her tightly, I felt her go limp in my arms.
With slight alarm, I quickly checked her. She was asleep.
I breathed a sigh of relief,
"She must of fallen unconscious after everything" I turned my head to see Robert walking towards us, "I think we should drop her off at the next town and get moving"
I frowned at him, "Wait a second, you aren't actually thinking of just leaving her alone are you?"
He looked at me with a steely gaze, "We already have enough trouble ourselves, scraping up experience, surviving, are you prepared to take the responsibility of protecting her?"
I looked at Akari's peaceful face and red rimmed eyes as she slumbered in my arms, and then I looked at Robert with determination.
"Yes I can"
He stays still for a second, then nods before walking towards the forest with a slight smile,
"Well, hurry up then, before I leave you two lovebirds behind, your trouble enough by yourself"
I blushed despite myself at the lovebirds comment,
"Hit second base and you still turn red like this?"
I-SHUT UP!
I quickly followed after the my cloaked friend with Akari in my arms, easily holding her, as we made our way back to town.