Chapter 2: Friend or Foe? Part 1

POV: Wolfen

Eastern Fields

"Eat this!" I cried as I craved my blade into a wolf mob. It whimpered before it burst into a shower of crystals. I hope this is enough… A window flashed up and showed that I had leveled up.

"Alright! Look out Aincrad, a level 5 badass walks these fields!"

"Woopie…" a dull voice cheered. That voice belonged to Amy, the resident killjoy of our little group. She sheathed her rapier before turning towards me, hands on her hips.

"Why are so happy?! Don't you realize that we're trapped here?!" she berated. I could only grin sheepishly and sheathed my sword, not before twirling it around a few times.

"And stop doing that! The last time you did that, you almost decapitated yourself!"

"Alright, alright. I'll only do the twirl in an Area next time, ok?" Amy looked like she could explode but before she could say anything, someone cut her off.

"What are you two doing? Agent and Jess are waiting back in the inn," a voice called out. That was Wallace, the nice guy of the group.

"Sorry, thought I could get some last minute training in. Is Agent mad?" Agent was the planner of our party and after his spectacular breakdown a week ago, we kinda treated him like an emotional landmine.

"Nah, he just seems tired. He did come back late last night from some grinding," Wallace explained. That did make sense but Agent never got tired. Period.

Town of Beginnings, Inn

We headed back to the inn in record time, even with the crowd, since the layout of the town was already familiar to us. We went into the inn and sat down at the table where Agent and Jess were discussing something.

"Yo, what'cha guys talking about?" I asked. Jess looked up and greeted us with a smile while Agent looked like he's glum. Sheesh, talk about a personality change.

"Nothing much. Just discussing the plan we discussed yesterday," Jess answered. Wait, what plan?

"Judging by that blank look, I would guess that you forgot. Right?" Agent said quietly. I could only nod sheepishly in reply. He just sighed before talking out the field guide we got yesterday. Apparently it was written by a Beta Tester and was given away for free in NPC shops.

"Look, we have to shift town. According to the guide, the fields will run out of mobs to hunt. No mobs means no XP and Col. No XP and Col means we cannot advance onwards. So, I planned to move on to another village before the mob field here runs dry. However, the path is rather dangerous and since some players have to same idea, we are going to be traveling with"

"Us!" a cheerful voice called out. I turned to see a cheerful looking girl about Agent's age, 2 guys who may or may not be brothers and cute looking lass who looks like she's a college student.

"Okay… So who the heck are you guys?" I asked.

"Well, I'm Chiro," the girl answered.

"I'm Kin and this is my younger brother Gin," the older one answered while his brother, who blushed a little for some weird reason, just waved before returning to mauling his toast. And Amy says my eating habits are bad…

"M-my name is K-Krystal… N-nice to meet you…" the cute lass answered. Oh wow. I think I'm falling for her… Dammit Wolfen, get yourself together. Stay cool. Just say your name and you-

"-and that dorky guy there is Wolfen. That should cover everyone." Dammit Amy! I was even preparing a cool move!

"Y-yeah! That's me! The one and only. Wolfen…" I must really look like an idiot now, I thought as I facepalmed at my weak intro.

"Well, now that everyone knows each other, we should go get some supplies at the market," With that, we all got up and left the inn.

Town of Beginnings, Market

The streets were rather packed with players. Some were running around while others were looking at the NPC shops for weapons and supplies. One particular weapon caught my eye, a sword which was slightly shorter than the standard starter sword but was slightly wider with a tapered point near the top. The tag under it showed the cost to be 1750 Col.

"What are you looking at Wolfen?" Chiro asked. Her question snapped me out of my stupor.

"Oh n-nothing. Just admiring that sword…" I liked, no, loved it. It looked perfect for me, like as if it was made for me.

"Wanna buy it Wolfen?" I jumped at the voice and turned to see a figure in a short green cloak. Before I could ask, he lowered the hood to reveal a smiling Agent.

"Talk about creepy, what's with the cloak?" I asked. He simply smiled.

"Nothing, just wanted to try it. But I'll ask again, do you want to buy that sword Wolfen?" I hesitated for a moment. Agent was being like his real world nice guy self. A literally non-existent sight the past few days but a welcome one. I nervously laughed.

"Yeah… I kinda wanna get it. It looks great and-" I began but he silenced me by rising his hand. He opened the menu and materialized his coin pouch. He took out about 950 Col worth of coins and gave it to me.

"I'll sponsor some Col. Go get it, buddy," he said with a quick wink before turning and walking to where the others were stocking up on potions and other miscellaneous items. I entered the shop and was greeted by the NPC blacksmith.

"Welcome stranger! See anything you like?" I thought about it for a bit. With the money I have, I could get quite a few recovery items and a decent set of armor but after thinking for about 5 seconds I went with my original plan.

"Hey mister, I'd like to buy that sword you have on the display," I said, pointing towards the window. The NPC's face seemed to light up with joy. It's like as if he's an actual person, I mused.

"Ah yes, you have a fine eye for weaponry, my boy. This here is an Arming Sword. My best piece yet. Favored by swordsmen and adventurers in these parts. Here, try it out and see." He held out the blade and I took it by the handle. It was slightly heavier but still manageable nevertheless. I tried it out with a couple of Slants and Verticals. Man, I am loving this sword already.

"I'll take it," I said handing it back to the NPC. His smile grew wider and his eyes sparkled with glee. This is getting uncomfortable…

"That will be 1750 Col my boy." I handed him the coins and he gave me the sword in a nice brown sheath.

"Pleasure doing business with you! Come back again soon!" He bode as I left the shop with my new sword strapped across my back. A quick look around showed Jess and Krystal having a conversation nearby, Gin and Kin looking at some wares, Wallace and Amy standing around and Agent quietly listening to Chiro blabber away nearby. Hehe, that looks rather ironic. Agent was the silly, talkative type in real life.

"Hey guys, notice anything new?" I asked while nudging my head towards my new sword.

"No… Not really…" Kin replied in a bored sounding tone. His brother on the other hand, rushed over.

"You got a new sword! Can I have a look?! Please?!" Gin excitedly pleaded. The others didn't seemed that surprised or impressed but Agent had a knowing smile on his face.

"Sure, stand back," I said as I unsheathed my sword and held it up. Gin was close to drooling while Kin simply whistled in amazement.

"Cost me around 1750 Col for this bad-boy," I proudly proclaimed before twirling it a few times and sheathing the sword.

"Well, if you guys are done admiring swords, no innuendo intended, we should get going," Agent called out. We all gathered together and headed off.

Town of Beginnings, Outskirts

"Alright, so before we head out, I'd like for all of us to do a final inventory and Skill settings check," Agent suggested as he opened his menu. We all followed suit and I checked to see my stock of potions before checking my Skill slots. I set my weapon skill and the Sprint skill in the other before closing the menu.

"Everyone ready?" Agent's question was answered by mix of nods and cheers, mine being the loudest of course. "Then off we go then."

West Path

For the first ten minutes, nothing much happened. It was rather boring but the weather setting was nice and there was a light breeze. Then a pack of wolf mobs materialized ahead of our group.

"Finally, some action," I said as I drew my sword out. The others also readied their weapons, except for Agent who just stood back. Weird, what are you up to?

"TO THE ABYSS WITH YOU!" Gin shouted as he charged with his axe ready. His brother quickly followed to assist. Heh, amateur.

"You call that a war cry?! You got a long way to go kid!" I shouted as I dispatched a wolf with a charged Horizontal. Pretty much everyone was fighting but a quick glance showed Agent still just watching, his scimitar in hand but lowered by his side. The heck is he doing? I thought as I kicked away a mob and dispatched it. Suddenly I heard a gasp and turned towards the source. Apparently, Jess' attack missed and her spear got lodged into a tree. Kin also saw what happened and we both rushed over to help. However, Agent suddenly appeared and stopped us.

"Watch, you might learn something Kin," he said before we could protest. We watched to see the wolf charge at Jess. She suddenly lunged towards the wolf. The wolf staggered as a red cut appeared before it fell over and burst into a shower of crystals. Jess turned and we finally saw the dagger in her hand.

"She has two weapon skills?" Kin said in awe. To be honest, I knew she had the dagger skill as she bought the dagger yesterday and trained with it but I didn't know you could equip more than one weapon skill. Jess calmly sheathed the dagger and yanked out her spear.

"All clear here," she called out.

"Same thing here," Chiro replied.

"I guess we got them all," Wallace said. We all sheathed or kept our weapons. I turned towards Agent.

"Why didn't you fight?" I asked as we continued onwards towards the village.

"Yeah, why didn't you help back there?" Chiro added on. Agent simply smirked and opened his menu. Chiro and I took a look. Wait, what?!

"Oh wow, you're level 6…" Chiro said in awe.

"The fruits of my late night training. Besides, if I did help, I'll just be an XP sponge," Agent said, as he materialized a potion. "Here, Wolfen. You lost some HP."

"Thanks…" I said as I accepted the potion. I was feeling a little envious. I worked hard to get to level 5 but then again, Agent did spend his entire second night out training till dawn. We continued walking until we reached a forest.

"Hmm…" Agent hummed as he stopped.

"What's the matter?" Wallace asked. Agent took out the field guide. He flipped through the pages, read a certain page and frowned. That's not good.

"We should take a detour. The forest has some rather dangerous mobs lurking in it and the guide strongly suggests that we all be at least level 5 before entering it," Agent explained, stowing the guide away.

"Well, I'm level 5," Kin spoke up and frowned before continuing. "But Chiro and the Gin are level 4 while Krystal is still level 3…"

"Last I checked, we are mostly level 5 except Jess who is still level 4 and Agent's level 6," I said, mentally weighing our chances.

"Either way, we should take a break," Agent said before sitting on a nearby rock. The other group seemed doubtful while ours just chose a comfortable spot to sit.

"Well, no choice seeing as how we should stick together. Right guys?" Chiro said as she sat down. Krystal sat next to her looking rather relieved. Heh. Cute.

"Well, I got some food for everyone," Jess said, materializing a bunch of bags from her inventory. "Help yourselves."

"Thanks," I said as Wallace passed me one. I opened it. Urgh… Black bread again… Oh wait! I quickly checked my inventory and procured my lifesaver, Berry Jam I bought from the inn's shop. I tapped the top of the jar and traced it over the bread and a sweet, slightly tart jam spread on the bread. I saw Krystal looking at me curiously.

"Here," I said passing the jar over to her. "Try some, makes this damned thing slightly more flavorful.

"Oh. T-thank you," she said with a smile. Yup, I'm in love.

"You like her so much then say something," Amy suddenly whispered, nudging my ribs. I gagged on my sip of water and felt my face heating up.

"Shut up Amy. I don't like 'like' her," I hissed. I immediately thought of a comeback. "Well if you like Agent so much then you say something." Hah, take that. She didn't look impressed.

"Wow. Nice comeback Puppy," she teased. I targeted her tagging along with Agent for the past few grinding sessions. I kinda saw it as a sense of her liking him but I guess it wasn't that. Damn...

"Ah shut up, Rattata." Her face suddenly lit up, I swear I could see steam shooting out of her ears as she was visibly resisting the urge to strike down right there and then. Her hand was twitching dangerously close to her rapier. Oh shit...

"Amy. Calm down, I would want you of all people to turn into an Orange player," Agent quickly commanded. Amy slowly moved her hand away from her weapon and turned away from me with a 'Hmmph!'. Nice save Agent. I shot him a thumbs up but what he said next... scared me.

"When we get into an Area, I'll let you hit him as much as you want while I'll personally hold him down." TRAITOR! Amy looked towards me with an evil gleam in her eyes and what may be the most evil smile I've seen on her face. The others looked on with a mix of pity and amusement. Chiro and Gin were even snickering, those devils. If someone said that I was more afraid of reaching the village then facing the forest mobs.

They were right.

Player levels
Agent: lvl 6
Wolfen: lvl 5
Amy: lvl 5
Wallace: lvl 5
Jess: lvl 4

Ally levels
Chiro: lvl 4
Kin: lvl 5
Gin: lvl 4
Krystal: lvl 3