Thanks to the anonymous that reviewed. I believe his name was Flying Daggers. Anyways on to chapter two.
Disclaimer: I don't think I own Sword Art Online. Otherwise I'd be rolling in cash from all the anime moneys.
Chapter II: The Long Grind
I wiped my brow as a level ten Ratman burst into tiny crystals. It's been about two and a half months since Sword Art Online's death game began. As I sort of expected, more than half of the players were too afraid of death to even leave the first town. I couldn't really blame them though. Why leave safety? Let other people finish the game for you. It almost seemed like Kayaba expected that to be honest. The beginning city was massive, and held the 5000 or so people with absolutely no problem at all. Another group, of about 4000 or so formed a massive alliance, that eventually gave rise to a guild, The Army. I guess they hoped strength in numbers would help them survive. This group ended up being rather weak due to the spread of experience among them. The third group, and arguably the strongest in their group were the guilds. I didn't belong to any of these groups. I never have in any MMO before, and I wasn't going to change my habits now. I was one of the tiny minority of soloers, most of which were beta testers. Of course out of all these groups, around 2500 people had died already.
By this point, the first few floors had been cleared by a few brave groups, and the majority of players had moved up to the 4th floor via the Teleport Gate. I was currently level sixteen, and now had three skill slots. They were filled with One-Handed Sword, Scan For Enemy, and Parry.
I opened up the weapons tab in my inventory to replace my sword that had just run out of durability, and found myself stopping on the strange weapon again. I always found myself wondering if putting that skill into a skill slot would make the weapon and the skill legible, but survival always took priority over curiosity lately.
No matter. My +10 Peerless Edge got the job done well enough. I'd never have gotten it that high, but a up and coming blacksmith named Lizbeth saw me grinding one day and straight out demanded that she work on it. She wouldn't take no for an answer, not that I cared when she got it all the way without failing a single time. The monster dropped sword was good and all, but having it at +10 made it a lot more viable to carry for a couple more floors.
Ultimately it would be my cockiness that would be my downfall, rather than the equipment I had on me.
Ten Giant Spider monsters had surrounded me in the secluded part of floor four's labyrinth I had been grinding in. Unfortunately, I used my last teleportation crystal last week while mapping out floor three. At this point, my health was low, and I was out of options. One spider was now holding me down, while the others spit poison on me, almost mockingly, causing me to scream in terror.
The sharp noise of cold steel caused the spiders to scatter. Through bleary eyes, I could see a small group of players slowly and systematically destroying the group with oddly oiled teamwork. While the others fought, a man with an unshaven chin and odd red hair ran up to me, and without hesitation pulled out an antidote crystal. The man activated it with a quick word, and then drained a health potion into my mouth.
"T-Thanks," I spoke, even though my throat was raw from all the screaming, "I'd have been...well you know... dead"
"Heh." the man scratched the back of his head, "Heard the screams while me and my guild were mapping this floor out, figured we'd try to stop this game from taking one more life."
"W-well," I struggled to my feet, feeling the healing potion slowly restore my strength, "I appreciate it...?"
"Klein." the man put on a massive grin and stuck out his hand, "Nice to meet ya!"
"A-aurain," I took his hand in mine and shook it with a small grin myself. I still couldn't keep the nervousness out of my voice though. It'd be nice if I could have a normal conversation without stuttering and feeling all jittery.
By this time, the rest of the guild had finished off the spiders, and had made their way over to where Klein and I were standing.
"You going to introduce us buddy?" an extremely tall, gaunt man with brown hair, in about his 20s, came up to Klein and rested an arm on his head. By this time I noticed they had a large diamond separated into four smaller diamonds on all their gear. Must be the guild emblem.
"Ah yeah." Klein got to his feet and shoved his guild mate's hand off of his head, "This is my guild Fūrinkazan."
"Yo!" the same gaunt man from before, dressed in leather armor, "My name's Issin! Glad to see we got to you fast enough mister soloer."
"M-my name's Aurain." I couldn't keep the growing grin back any further despite the situation.
Soon after, the rest of Fūrinkazan introduced themselves. There was an overweight man that funnily enough had one of those headbands on I sometimes saw sumo wrestlers wearing on TV. That white twisted one that was knotted in the front. His name was Dale. Next, there was a man almost as tall as my five feet ten inches height. He wore heavy metal armor and also carried a spear. At the time, I could see many of his other features due to all the armor. His name was Harry. The second to last member had one of those japanese mustaches you'd always see on Japanese emperors in old pictures. He had a red bandanna on his head, obscuring all his hair. He carried a basic sword and shield, and his name was Dynamm. The final member of the party was like a tank. He had a massive shield, a long spear, and was decked out in full armor. His name was Kunimittz.
After the introductions were over, Klein suddenly dragged me to my feet.
"You should probably get back to the town and get some mental rest even if you physically fine," Klein's face turned serious, "There's been rumors of players having a lot more trouble with players attacking them for their money. I've even heard rumors of player killing."
"Really?" I could feel a bit of rage building. I never did like PVPing when you could actually kill other players for their items in the first place. But in this game, player killing was actually killing. It put a sour taste into my mouth.
"W-well alright." I started heading towards the exit of floor four's labyrinth, "I'll be seeing you guys later then."
I picked up my sword off the ground and gave a quick little nervous wave goodbye before hoofing it out of the dungeon. Why is it that I have to feel so bloody awkward. Those guys were nice. It would have been nice to make a few friends in this world. I don't think that crazy blacksmith lady counts, even if she did add me to her friends list.
I gave a small sigh, before turning the corner and seeing the wonderful light that signaled the exit from floor four's labyrinth, which was a maze of mossy stone ruins. Suddenly my Scan For Enemy sensors went completely haywire. I whipped out my sword and instantly switched on my basic Parry skill. I flowed with the system, managed to block a large knife and shoved the weapon to the side. Right in front of me was the exact type of person Klein had just warned me about. A player whose color was... wait red!? Does red mean what I think it means!? It has to mean player killer. The man in the black cloak let out a slow evil laugh.
"Well now." He quickly jumped back, "Looks like I didn't choose easy prey this time. It's been awhile since someone was able to see through my Hide skill with their Scan For Enemy skill.
"Thanks." the adrenaline kept my voice steady, "I've been focusing on getting it up as high as I can. It's kind of important for a soloer."
"Oh?" the cloaked man sheathed his large knife that almost looked like something you'd see in a butcher's shop, "Then I think I'll leave you to your devices... Mr. Beater."
"Wait what's a beater!?" the man had already faded into the shadow, his signature quickly fleeing away from my range of sensing.
"Tch." I spit on the ground, "Coward."
I quickly pulled up my friends list, and tapped the add friend button. I typed in Klein and waited for a response. A minute or two later, when I was now sitting in the field just outside the labyrinth, the confirmation response came back. I quickly tapped the messenger button and waited as a little phone tone rang for a few moments. After a moment Klein picked up.
"Yo!" Klein sounded a bit out of breath. Probably just finished up a fight, "What is it Aurain? I was surprised to see the friend request."
"You guys need to be careful." I spoke with urgency. "There's a fairly high level pker in the labyrinth right now."
"Really?" Klein replied, "Did someone come after you or something?"
"Yeah." I got to my feet, "I was barely able to detect him. He ran away after seeing how strong I was. I'd recommend keeping an eye out."
"Hey thanks buddy!" I could hear the grin in Klein's voice. "We'll make sure to get back to town before dark so we don't have to deal with night penalties to our detection skills."
"A-alright" I didn't want the guys who had just saved me to die to some pker loser.
"Hey you want to meet up in the tavern after this?" Klein asked, "You've got nothing better to do right?"
"I-I guess not," ah to hell with it. I might as well talk to these guys. I could use some friends to talk to. Talking to yourself gets boring.
"Alright then!" Klein sounded pretty happy, "Meet us at that one tavern on the south side of town."
To my surprise, I found myself sitting in a back corner of the tavern at a big oak table. I had headed there as soon as it turned to night, since Klein didn't give me a specific time. At around seven pm game time, the entire six person guild came loudly into the bar, laughing about something. I'd be lying if I didn't shrink into my chair a little bit.
I forced my voice up from a now very very dry throat, "O-over here guys!"
I had no idea what I was getting my poor shy self into.
I actually found all of Klein's guild member's names off the SAO wiki. No clue how accurate they are. Also if anyone cares, Fūrinkazan, literally "Wind, Forest, Fire and Mountain", was the battle standard used by the Sengoku period daimyo Takeda Shingen, quoting chapter 7 of Sun Tzu's The Art of War: "Move as swift as a wind, stay as silent as forest, attack as fierce as fire, undefeatable defense like a mountain." (from Wikipedia) It's actually pretty bad ass for a guild name. Aurain's nervousness sorta goes away when he's angry or on edge. So if anyone was wondering about the Kayaba talk last chapter.
As a last side note, reviews are great motivators. I'm not begging for them or anything, but any writer is motivated by criticism both negative and positive.