December 25th, 2022 (Floor 1: Town of Beginnings)
"Why are we here again? There's a labyrinth with our name on it," Maisie whined as we walked through the streets of the Town of Beginnings. I ignored her for the most part, glanced down alleys and streets looking for something in particular.
"You know, she's got a point," Heidan said slowly. "I'm surprised Kirito and Asuna are even here still."
"What's that suppose to mean?" Asuna demanded angrily. Heidan chuckled nervously.
"Only that you've got your eye on the prize?" he answered cautiously. Asuna huffed but didn't unsheath her sword so Heidan took a relieved breath. "But serious. What are we doing here?"
"I've got a meeting with someone."
"And you neglected to tell any of us?" Blake drawled. I pouted.
"Okay, I forgot! But this is important, trust me!" Finally, I caught sight of who I was looking for: an assuming kid walking around a courtyard, scooping fruit off of the ground. I swiped into my inventory and took out a piece of paper with a victorious grin before approaching the boy. "Hey, are you one of Sasha's kids?"
"Yeah. What about it?" the boy asked warily. I smiled politely, trying to disguise the new waves of hatred I felt for Kayaba. SAO had a 14+ age limit but, like always, kids got their hands on it. The boy in front of me couldn't be older than 12 but he could die in here if he made the wrong move. What sort of a life did that leave him with?"
"Can you do me a favor and bring this back to Sasha? There'll be so cor in it for you," I offered. He scanned my gear appraisingly before asking the only question he cared about.
"How much?"
"I'll give you three hundred now, and another seven hundred if you come back with a reply." The kid's jaw dropped ever so slightly. The fruit he'd been collecting to sell couldn't have been worth more than five or ten cor. He's probably never even seen a five hundred cor coin.
"Deal," he said very quickly, holding his hand out. I passed it to him and, upon materializing the money from my personal funds, handed it to the boy as well.
When he had scarpered off, I turned to face incredulous and confused looks from my guildmates.
"What was that about? Are you really giving some kid a thousand cor for being a messenger?" Maisie asked with a frown. I shook my head and looked to Asuna. She nodded sadly.
"The SAO orphans, some people call them," Asuna said quietly. "There's one woman, Sasha, who's trying to take care of all of them in some church but I doubt they're doing anything but scraping by."
"That kid isn't going to keep the thousand. He's got brothers and sisters at Sasha's that need to eat," I explained with a shrug.
"What was the paper?" Blake asked. I grinned and pulled out another copy, offering it for her to read. "Christmas from the Clearers: Join the Hunters of Artemis for a free training session. Receive combat, non-combat, or craft skill training by six top clearers. All players are welcome, regardless of level or expertise. Location: West Field outside Town of Beginnings. 10-6 pm, December 25th."
"We're training the kids the fight?" Heidan asked, nodding with approval. "Sounds good to me."
"What about kids fighting sounds good?" Kirito asked hotly. I interrupted before Heidan could take it the wrong way.
"Kirito. If someone doesn't go out and fight monsters, how do they get col? They need money to feed themselves and have a safe place to sleep. With places like Sasha's, they're relying on a few older kids to go out and hunt while the rest either sit around or gather fruit to sell to NPCs. If they lose those few kids to monsters, what happens to the rest? They need training to know how to survive outside of this town."
"So why are we in town? Couldn't you have just message someone about it?"
"I did," I shrugged. "That ad was the front page of Argo's newspaper. We're in town because I wanted to go to the blacksmith and see what I can throw together before 10 o'clock. If players are spending their money on food, they're probably not upgrading their weapons, right? Who knows what they look like this far along."
The clearers, as the strongest players of the game, generally had some sort of duty to beat the game as quickly as possible. People had different reasons-some desperately wanted to return to the real world, others felt that it was their responsibility to save everyone else in the game- but all clearers had a sense of purpose driving them onwards and upwards. Most clearers were so focused on the ultimate goal of beating the game that they began to lose touch with the reality that existed within the game.
The Hunters were like that. We had spent so much time on the front lines that we had forgotten how the rest of Aincrad functioned. We spent so much time trying to get through the next level that we didn't spend any time interacting with the people on the way and the people we left behind us. We were only working on the 4th floor now, but we were still so disconnected with normal players. What would happen to us when we started getting into the higher levels? Would we even be recognizable as the same sort of people by the hundredth floor?
I wanted to stay connected and, if I could, help those people stay alive till the end of this game.
"So how many people do you think are going to show up for this thing?" Blake asked, reading over the article once we were back in the field.
"Hopefully a lot. I've also messaged some other clearers to see if they're interested." With the field boss being taken down yesterday, the 4th floor was probably going to use some cool-down time until everyone wanted to get the boss fight over with.
The general plan was that each of us would take a group of up to five into the field in waves, with at least one of us staying behind at the base. Once each lower-level player in a group had either levelled or killed five monsters without outside help, the group would return. All Cor or items collected through the hunt would be distributed evenly throughout each member of the party. If the players that came were at a higher level, I would take them all to the second floor and train in those fields until we finished.
It was a simple plan, but it was one to ensure that everyone could at least defend themselves if they needed to go to the field. Like I said to the others, there's no way to survive without the cor to buy food and shelter.
I had a table spread out in front of us that was covered in scattered weapons. Everything from a basic dagger to a greatsword was there, ready for the taking.
"Here's our first customers," Maisie said, pointing off towards the city. And there they were: a veritable mob of eleven, twelve, and thirteen year olds that were being shepherded to us by a woman with mousy brown hair and world-worn eyes.
"Hello," I greeted politely when the group was close enough. "Are you all here for the training session?"
"Yes," the woman said, a relieved smile flickering onto her face. "I hope we're not too early."
"Nope! Right on time," Heidan said, jumping in and shaking the woman's hand. "Name's Heidan. The clumsy looking one is Maisie, frowny-face is Kirito, too-cool for school is Blake, miss prim and proper is Asuna, and this is our illustrious alpha, Riva."
"Oh, so now I'm illustrious?"
"What do you mean, 'too cool for school'?" Blake shouted, slipping in out of nowhere and punching Heidan in the jaw. He flew back comically and some of the kids laughed.
"Ignore the peanut gallery; I do," I jokingly advised to the woman in charge. She was laughing too, though, so I figured I'd let the gang have fun. So long as no one was challenged to a duel, we were fine. "My name is Riva."
"It's nice to meet you. I'm Sasha," she introduced warmly. I shook her hand and glanced out over the crowd.
"Argo's told me a lot about you. I'm glad there's someone back here working for the kids' best interest."
"Yes... The Army protects us but..."
"Not everyone does it out of the kindness of their hearts," I finished. Sasha nodded and I smiled sadly. "Some clearers are like that. But not all of us... Blake is hardly more than a kid now. If Maisie and I hadn't been here... I'm glad there's someone like you here that has been willing and able to help out."
"This isn't about wanting to fight," Heidan was announcing. He had somehow reigned in the two dozen or so kids and was busy dazzling them with his general knight-in-shining-armor routine. "This is about protecting yourself, and those around you. This is about needing to be strong enough to survive in a world populated by sellswords and cutthroats. People like that won't care that you're kids. They won't care what level you are, so long as they can get the upper hand. Because of that, I'm not going to tell you all to sit in the corner while the adults take care of everything. I'm not a hell of a lot older than you and no one is telling me to take it easy. No! Everyone has a duty to themselves and to everyone waiting in the real world to get strong and smart enough to survive this world.
"Max party size is six players so we're taking groups of five trainees and one trainer into the field. Get yourself separated! I want level ones right here by me and Blake. Level twos and threes head over to Asuna and Maisie. Level fours and up, get yourselves to Riva and Kirito!" Heidan ordered. After a few moments of chaos, the twenty-odd kids had dispersed into more manageable groups. The level one group was the largest, made of fourteen kids who probably hadn't ever stepped out of the Town of Beginnings before today. Asuna and Maisie had only five kids between them while Kirito and I had the more trained group of four kids and Sasha.
"Maisie, switch to level ones," I decided. "Heidan, take the first home shift. Go out when one of us comes back."
"Got it, boss..." he said sullenly, disappointed to not be on the first wave out, but he quickly cheered up. "That means I get to show you all the cool types of weapons we've got here! Fall in, kids! This'll be fun."
The training event, overall, was a great success. Argo and a couple of other info brokers showed up to distribute info guides to players that hadn't received their copy yet. Players from level one to eleven showed up to learn. Most of the trainees were kids who had never stepped out of the Town of Beginnings, but a large number of player-smiths and merchants showed up as well to round out their combat skills. I spent most of my time training to keep track of the event from an administrative standpoint and I was more than glad when Asuna stepped in for me and reorganized the event in a matter of minutes.
At the end of the event, which lasted longer than we expected because we couldn't easily determine a stopping point, we had 227 players registered as attendees, with 13 other clearers or mid-clearers showing up to help out. Out of those 227 players, we had a recorded ninety-six players who advanced at least one level. By the end of the event, with help and more donations by some other clearers, over a hundred low level players were given new weapons. Over 30,000 Cor had been marked as monster loot and was divided up evenly between the attendees to help make sure everyone was fed for a while longer.
One of the most insistent questions we were asked, with everything happening all at once, was if we would have another event like this.
It felt good.
Updated 22.07, 1.27.2022