Yo, welcome to chapter 5.

Rhewi Mountain Range Foothills
December 13th

Kirito had finally come out of the ‹‹Northern Forest››. He had spent three days travelling deeper into the forest and trying to learn how to ride at the same time. Eventually he had come across a clearing in what he assumed to be the center of the forest.

Flashback

Kirito knew he was far into the forest. The further in he got the better his control of his horse had become. He now felt confident enough to weave between trees quickly. The mobs had left him alone as he travelled. The difference in level's scaring them off. The trees were so thick around him he couldn't see the sky. The clock on the menu screen kept him on a regular sleep cycle.

Eventually he entered into a large clearing. His location changed to ‹‹Heart of the Forest››. The remarkable thing wasn't the clearing, or the name of it but what filled the clearing. There was several dozen wagons pulled by horses and nearly 100 npcs milling about the wagons. As Kirito approached several of the men stepped into his path. Their nameplates read ‹‹Merchant››. When they got within speaking distance both groups stopped. One of the npcs spoke.

"You there stranger. Do you mean harm to our group?"

He had a deep gruff voice and a full beard. All the npcs were dressed as if they had come from a very cold place. Kirito assumed the mountain range he saw beyond the forest must be very cold.

"No, I was just travelling in this direction and found this clearing."

The npcs seemed to understand most of what he said so it replied.

"Well if you are going to continue north you should wear warmer clothing. We have just set out on a journey to sell our wares. If you are interested please come browse and you might find some equipment to help keep you warm."

Kirito smiled and agreed and followed the npcs back to their wagons. When he got there he was set upon by almost the entire group who were all eager to sell their individual products to the traveler. Kirito asked for space and the npcs complied. He then began to slowly go around in the circle and inspect each merchant's wares. All their products were named something of the affect, ‹‹Graig xxx››, like ‹‹Graig Leather Cap›› and ‹‹Graig Iron Sword››. Kirito decided to ask what he was wondering. Looking at one of the older merchants he said.

"Why do all your wares have the name Graig?"

The npc woman smiled at him and replied.

"We are from the town of Graig, it is within a valley in the Rhewi Mountains."

Her answer shocked Kirito, at this point he had come to honestly believe the only town, city, or village within the game was Aincrad. Kirito was broken from his thoughts when the npc asked him if he wanted to purchase anything. After finishing his survey of all the merchants' wares. Kirito ended up buying some ‹‹Graig Throwing Pick››. He bought 20.

When thrown, a weapon has a 10% chance of being retrievable. But the higher you go in the throwing skill the higher the percent chance of retrieval. Kirito had been surprised when he had managed to get all his daggers back from the first event. He was only just over 200/1000 on his throwing skill so he only had a 20% chance to get them back. He couldn't wait to be at 1000/1000 and have a 100% chance.

The Graig version of the throwing pick had a different style. Instead of looking like a large iron nail as the standard ones appeared. The Graig ones were larger and heavier. They didn't have the circle on the back like the standard ones either. It was fletched like an arrow at the base. In total these picks were about six inches long compared to the four inch long standard picks. They also dealt nearly twice the damage of a standard pick. When he finished his purchase the npc looked at him and spoke.

"Young traveler. My husband makes those darts. We are both very old. My husband never took an apprentice and he will most likely be dead by the time I return from this trip. He wished for me to pass on the recipes to craft his work. So I humbly ask you to take this recipe and give it to one who you know can do the most good with these."

Kirito was stunned but accepted. This npc had just given him a recipe to craft throwing picks that were basically twice as good as the regular ones. The woman spoke again.

"All I ask is that you keep the name of Graig with them. Let all know where the picks originated from."

Kirito ended up also buying a heavy fur coat, a large fur hat and a sturdy pair of boots. The coat would just cover his armor and still allow his cloak to be on, while the hat wasn't a problem either. He would have to replace the boots he wore but the new ones had better stats anyway. Kirito also bought a pair of thick gloves.

He restocked his food and some grains for Midnight. Kirito spent the rest of the day in the clearing. It had been early evening when he first entered and he had no problem trying to squeeze any info he could out of the merchants. What he did find out is that they were heading to Aincrad to sell, and try to re-establish official connection between the two settlements. As such there were several Graig diplomats along for the ride. They also mentioned something about plans for "easier travel" between the two places should the two become friends.

Kirito took this to mean something along the lines of a player or several player reaching a ‹‹Friend›› status in terms of Graig reputation. Already Kirito could see from mingling and buying from the group he had a new bar in his reputation section labeled ‹‹Graig›› and he was labeled ‹‹Neutral›› Kirito was 150/1000. At 1000/1000 he would move up to ‹‹Acquaintance›› 1/1000. It would be a long grind to get near ‹‹Ally›› or even ‹‹Kindred››.

The next morning came quickly and before leaving Kirito asked for directions to Graig. He was told to jump continue in a straight line north from here. Graig was located in a valley and had a road leading to it from the forest's edge.

End Flashback

Now Kirito found himself outside the forest. He had found the remains of an old worn out and overgrown cobble road leading out of the forest and had followed it. He hadn't run into any mobs and he had come out of the forest in decent time. He now felt secure enough to ride his horse without any voice commands.

When he emerged from the forest he had found himself looking at a maze of brown hills that led up to the large mountain range he had been heading towards. He checked his location and found that the mountain range was named Rhewi. The road he had been on continued out of the forest and into the hills. Along the way he spotted bears roaming the hills and decided to investigate. He got off Midnight as he didn't want to risk losing his mount for the rest of the day and left him on the path. He then crouched and walked towards a large brown bear.

‹‹Rhewi Yearling›› The name surprised Kirito.

'This bear is only one year old? Just how big do they get?'

For this one year old bear was already the size of a full grown massive Kodiak grizzly. Kirito ‹‹Scanned›› it and found it was level 20 and it had 2,000 hp. Compared to Kirito who was level 22 and had 3,550 hp. It could be a close fight.

'Well these mobs should really help me level up.'

Since a mob's xp reward is scaled off their difficulty and their level. Having seen the importance of a strong throwing skill. Kirito began the fight with one of his new picks and then raced towards the bear who was currently on its hind legs roaring its anger after being struck in the side with a pick.

Kirito initiated a ‹‹Sonic Leap›› and came down with all his weight behind the sword blade on the bear's back right leg. He sliced clean through it and his sword embedded itself into the soft loam that covered these hills. Kirito easily yanked his sword out and finished the bear with a strong downward stab into the rear of the downed animal's skull.

"Sweet."

Kirito said out loud. He went back to Midnight then brought him to one of the trees on the forest's edge and tied him up. With one last pat on the neck Kirito bid farewell to Midnight and went off to do battle with the bears in the area. He figured as long as he kept the road in sight he would wind up at Graig eventually. And he really needed to start grinding mobs again or he wouldn't be strong enough for the coming event.

-[S]-[A]-[O]-

December 16th
Graig

After several days of wandering the foothills and hunting the bears and the occasional orc camp, Kirito found his himself before the gate of Graig. Two large cliffs flanked the valley on either side. There was a stone wall that stretched the length of the entrance with a giant stone gatehouse tower over a very thick stone door. Npc guards patrolled along the walls.

The weather had gotten cold quickly once Kirito could no longer see the forest. Smatterings of snow could be found here and there. A harsh wind would blow through his coat every now and then giving him a strong chill. It was much more reflective of the time of year here then back down near Aincrad.

The guards had large halberds and wore heavy furs. Kirito couldn't tell whether they wore armor underneath but he would guess they did. There was a stable outside of the gate. As Kirito approached the gate he heard a loud war horn blare out behind him. He saw all the npcs freeze. Then they immediately started scrambling every which way. One npc who was dressed differently appeared above the gatehouse and began shouting commands.

The stable master got the help of several of the soldiers and they grabbed all his horses' reins and hurriedly rushed them through the gate. Upon a closer look Kirito could see large scorch marks on the stable and chunks of the dirt around the gate were torn up along with burned patches of grass.

Turning around Kirito saw several dozen, probably 50 in all, orcs rushing down a hill in his directions. The part that got to Kirito however was how they all had a short bow in their hands. Kirito was well aware that he was nearly in their range. So he turned tail and sprinted towards the gate of Graig. Kirito watched as he got closer how the gates started to close.

The last of the horses and npcs were through and the npcs either didn't care about Kirito or their programming hadn't noticed him yet. Even though he put nearly half of his points into his ‹‹agi›› stat Kirito still wasn't fast enough to close the distance in time. Kirito knew he was a strong and skilled player. But he really doubted he could charge down 50 archers that were around his level and defeat even half of them before he would die. So Kirito ran as fast as he could to the gate and yelled up at the commanding npc who still stood there.

"HEY OPEN UP!"

The npc took notice of him and stared at him blankly for several seconds. He then turned and gazed at the oncoming orcs. Then he looked back and Kirito and winked.

'...Did he just ...wink at me?'

Kirito was really confused. Why would an npc wink at him? Much less in this situation. But before Kirito could worry anymore, a hailstorm of arrows came from the walls and slaughtered 3/4's of the oncoming orcs. The survivors continued on with no fear and were quickly downed by a 2nd volley. The npc on the wall began laughing at Kirito.

"Oohh Laddie,"

The commander got out in between fits of laughter.

"You should have seen your face when I winked at you."

The npc burst into a new fit of laughter and was now joined by more npcs who appeared and looked down at Kirito. These npcs had strong Scottish accents and Kirito was completely baffled. After about 30 more seconds of laughing the npc commander managed to tell them to open the gate and then he left to come down to greet Kirito. As the gate opened the commander strolled forth flanked by several guards. Behind them followed the stable master and the guards who helped him. They were leading the horses back.

"Welcome to Graig, Stranger. Sorry to give ya a right scare there but I couldn't help myself. I get so little chance for humor these days and those orcs were never going to get close enough to hurt ya. But we don't get many visitors here. In fact we haven't had a visitor in years."

With that the npc stared at Kirito.

Kirito saw his nameplate and it read ‹‹Gatehouse Commander››. Kirito then spoke up.

"My name is Kirito, and I am an adventurer from Aincrad. I ran into a group of merchants from Graig on my way through the forest and they told me I could stop here while I am in the area."

The guards looked at him with surprise on their faces. The commander spoke up again.

"Aincrad you say? We haven't heard anything from Aincrad in years. I almost thought it had been wiped off the map or something. But these are some dangerous times to be travelling here. Orcs from further north in the mountains have been raiding the area. All our farmers who worked beyond the walls have either been killed or run back behind the wall. Now the orcs watch the gate and as far as I can tell are gathering for an assault on us. We managed to sneak those merchants off south."

The surrounding npcs had stopped listening and had gone back to their normal tasks. But the commander continued speaking to Kirito.

"For some reason the orcs won't go into the forest. We are hoping the diplomats can recruit us help from Aincrad. Within several weeks I fear they will mount an assault that we won't be able to withstand without help. But hey you look like a warrior, would you be willing to help us drive these orcs off somewhat? The least it could do is delay them for longer. You would be greatly rewarded for your bravery."

'Hmm this must be some kind of quest chain. I definitely need something to do, as long as I don't have to fight groups of 50 at once I should be fine. Who knows maybe being the first to do this will reward me with something unique.'

"I will gladly help out the town of Graig, and your rewards are greatly appreciated. I need to restock then I will be back later if that is fine with you."

The npc understood that Kirito had accepted so he gave Kirito the quest.

"Thank you warrior of Aincrad, to the east of here you will find a large camp of orcs. They have about a dozen wargs there. These wargs are large evil wolves that are bred by orcs as mounts. If you could infiltrate and kill these wargs then the orcs would lose a great asset in their mobility. Also they have all their supplies stocked in a single tent. Burn that tent down and the orcs will be in a dire situation."

Kirito verbally accepted the quests and saw there were several bonus quests alongside it. One was to kill 100 orcs around the camp. The other was to kill their leader, ‹‹War Chief Ulgud››.

Kirito then walked past the guards and went into the valley. The cliffs were high on both sides, as if Kirito were walking into a giant crack in the earth. They were very narrow just past the gate. Wide enough for four men to walk side by side. After a short walk through this tight section, Kirito entered into a wide open valley.

Houses were piled up the cliff sides and a large section of the valley was farmland as a river ran through a section of the valley making a waterfall as it entered and left. Kirito found several other quests while inside the town. Some people wanted him to collect certain things they had left behind in their haste to flee the orcs. Others needed certain herbs that grew outside of the town. One man wanted the head of a certain orc who had kill his wife. Another had heard Kirito was going to kill the wargs and asked if he could bring back their hides and teeth.

Kirito found the blacksmith whose wife he met in the caravan. The husband gave him a discount on a bulk order of throwing picks once he heard how Kirito had the recipe.

The npc was very kind, but Kirito was no craftsmen himself. So he had to turn the man down when asked if he wanted to learn the several other tricks to the trade. Kirito found a nice general store and bought himself more food. He found a place to vendor off all his loot and he kept some of the better items to sell at Agil's when he returned.

All stocked up Kirito ventured back to the gate. He walked down the road to the top of the hill several hundred feet away from the gate and when he looked outwards to the east he saw the camp a good couple miles away. Kirito let a smile grace his lips as he imagined the great battles he was going to engage in to clear that camp of its quests. Giving out the call he summoned Midnight, fed him quickly then mounted and spurred himself forwards.

AN: Whelp that's chapter five hope you enjoyed it.

Feel free to leave a review, write me a pm, or anything else. I always enjoy the feedback from you guys. And I try my best to respond to everyone.