Disclaimer: I'm a huge fan of the SAO series. I really enjoyed it and I feel it was a great story. However, what was an amazing concept got caught up in the restrictions of its genre and lost out on the huge potential it had. This story is intended to build on the ideas and questions introduced in the original show from the perspective of an OC. Constructive criticism is more than appreciated as this is my first time putting my work on the web, and I figured here is as good a place as any.

Stage VI: Blindness of a God

TIMESTAMP: 07 November 2022, 09:10:18, Floor 001, Tolbana

The wooden end of Auran's spear bit into the dirt as he finally crossed the threshold into the next town. He sighed and looked up into the tiny village. There were people milling about—some half of them had gray markers over their heads. Riku had told him that indicated they were NPCs, or programs operated by the system. Everyone else had green markers, meaning they were actual players. It was pretty easy to spot the difference even without the markers—players were generally walking around in groups or doing something without that little repetitive quirk the NPCs seemed to have. They just seemed to have a purpose to what they were doing. The rest of the small band came up behind him.

"We finally made it," Balti breathed. Their pause of victory completed, the small group entered Tolbana.

Almost immediately all of Auran's senses were assaulted left and right. An NPC blacksmith yelled something at him about the finest daggers this side of Algade, somebody else started screaming about a trade gone wrong, yet another player was…changing his clothes in public?

"Good job," Riku announced. "Let's go find a place to stay the night before we head out again."

"Head out?" Auran questioned. "Where are we going to go?"

"Well what the fuck do you think?" his friend responded. "We're going to go—"

A fist slammed into the boy's arm. It didn't seem to be thrown very hard, but Riku still stumbled a bit.

"What—"

It was Balti. He was glaring at the pudgy axe-wielder angrily.

"What the hell are you doing?" he sputtered.

Balti took a step forward and leaned in.

"Watch your language. We have a kid here."

Auran had almost forgotten about their small travelling companion. He spun around, scanning the crowded town.

He sighed. There she was. The little girl was staring off into the distance, looking up into the sky—

No, that wasn't it. She was looking at something. He squinted a little bit and looked.

It was a butterfly. There was a bright flap of wings, and the computer-controlled creature continued flitting around the town. Elia's eyes followed it attentively before it disappeared between two buildings. She must have not noticed Riku's harsh words.

He sighed. She didn't belong here. She belonged with her friends, on a playground, with loving parents. Not here. Not in this death game.

"Alright, alright," Riku was complaining. "You didn't need to punch me."

Balti smiled and laughed. "Sorry, you're right. Let's get going." Auran was confused for a minute before he realized the girl had turned around and was paying attention again. That must have been the reason for the sudden change of tone.

"Come on, Elia," the leather-clad swordsman said cheerfully. "We'll get to sleep in a real bed tonight." The party began moving towards the center of the small town.

Auran noticed his friend was holding the little girl's hand, swinging it along happily.

TIMESTAMP: 07 November 2022, 13:27:10, Floor 001

He thrust, left, right, and center. He spun, thrust again. Another one came up behind him, he took a step back. The thing leaped at him. He knew what to do. He knew what he had to do.

He knelt, slamming the butt of the spear into the soft dirt. The force activated the skill, and the supernatural force took control of his muscles again. It was like being grabbed by someone much stronger than himself, whose control and precision were precise and flawless. The bladed pole locked onto the approaching rush of teeth and claws, completely without his knowledge. It adjusted itself, like a sentient creature, and aimed itself directly at the enemy. Yes, the enemy, the monster that must be killed. And with a yelp of computerized surprise, the attacking wolf's body ran itself completely through on the spear braced against the ground.

Little squares of light, representative of defeat, exploded with a sound Auran was getting far too tired of. The skill ended, and he was frozen in place for a few milliseconds. Finally, the system released his body, and the spearman stood up.

They had been killing. Killing for hours now. Again and again and again. He swiped his gloved fingers to bring up the menu.

There was his level. After hundreds and hundreds of consecutive strikes, shattering monster after monster, the little orange-yellow bar had only moved about halfway to the next level.

He was at level four. He was three-quarters of the way to level five.

Of course, the last time he leveled up (earlier this morning), he hadn't noticed anything. At least not until Riku informed him that he had to choose where to place the stat points he got.

There were only two options. STR or AGI. The former affected how strong he was—literally, as in he could actually lift heavier things in the game with a high enough STR stat. The latter affected how fast he could move—literally, as in he could physically run faster and change direction quicker. Not wanting to commit to either, he placed one point in each.

He expected to feel the difference immediately, but he did not. Instead, it was as if nothing happened. The only effect was the fact that once every couple of hours, he would kill another wolf slightly faster than before.

It didn't exactly inspire him with hope.

He scanned the small field the five of them were in. Riku had insisted that they operate extremely close together in case of something unexpected happening. Apparently there were somewhat more difficult enemies known as "mini-bosses" that would appear if certain conditions were met. He hadn't seen one yet, but when he asked about them more, all his friend would do was cut off the conversation and inform him that they dropped slightly more Col and items than usual.

They were instructed that if one did happen to spawn, their primary object would be to escape the immediate area before calling for assistance. Under no circumstances were they to fight one, even with the entire group.

He looked in the other direction. Thirty or forty feet away, Balti was with the little girl Elia. They had been training the same way for a while—he could use his one-handed steel sword to lower a monster's HP to almost nothing, before holding it in place and allowing her to target it with a sword skill and deal the final blow, thus earning the majority of the experience points.

The scene held a somewhat ridiculous quality—there was a small child, roughly nine or ten years old, holding a literal sword. It was an actual blade as well—as Auran had found out rather unpleasantly when he cut open his thumb on a dagger for sale in the market.

That wasn't the strangest thing about it though. It was that it didn't hurt.

In the hours they had spent slaying monsters, he had taken more than a few hits. Every time he did, he would immediately sprint away at breakneck speed in an attempt to escape the enemy's targeting radius. So far this tactic had not failed. Riku would break off his own attacks before calling the entire group over, where they would take up a defensive position. As quickly as he could, he would bring out a small healing potion from his inventory and apply it to Auran, regenerating the few points of health he had lost in the strike.

It was an insane overreaction, but Riku insisted they repeat it over and over with each mistake.

No matter how many times 5% of his HP disappeared, the procedure was the same—a lot of yelling and screaming at the rest of his teammates and hurried utilization of a somewhat-costly item. Of course, the frequency was further increased each time Balti or Worm took a hit.

Speaking of Worm, the black-haired boy was walking tiredly towards him now. The default leather boots dragged on the ground, and it looked like he was barely able to hold up the steel dagger he had been using so far.

"Uh…hey, Auran," Worm said, exhausted.

He planted the butt of his spear in the ground. "What's up?"

"Aren't you…getting tired? He's been driving us like…slaves or something."

In truth, he was beginning to feel the effects of their hours at work, but he didn't particularly feel like appearing uncommitted in front of his friend.

"Nah," he said lightheartedly. "I'm just getting warmed up. Don't tell me you're done already?"

"Bleh." Worm stuck out his tongue. "This is killing me. I swear, he'll get to me before the monsters do. It's only been a day and a half!"

"Hah!" he laughed. "Come on, we're not done yet! Tell you what, let me help you with some of that experience. I'll run 'em down and you stab 'em in the gut!"

"I…" The younger boy waved his hand. "Eh, fine. I owe you one."

"Don't worry, I've got your back," Auran said. "Let's kill some monsters."

The virtual grass waved back and forth in the wind as five avatars hacked and slashed away at the enemies provided for their amusement.

TIMESTAMP: 10 November 2022, 06:13:07, Floor 001, Tolbana

"Hey, sleepy-head, up and at 'em!"

Auran squeezed his eyes closed tighter and attempted to pull the covers further up his body. This t-shirt seemed really…scratchy for some reason…and why was he wearing pants rather than shorts? He never wore pants to bed…speaking of which, wasn't today supposed to be a Saturday? There wasn't supposed to be school today…

"Auran, get your ass out of bed!"

Auran? What kind of a name was that? Sounded cool, though…

With a grand, sweeping motion, the scanty covers flew off of his body. His legs jerked in surprise, and with a weird noise, he scrambled about on the mattress.

"Mom, what the hell?"

Instantaneously, laughter erupted all around him, in varying levels of deepness that were all…distinctively male.

He squinted in the bright morning sunlight, then brought his hands up to his eyes. The laughter had not died down.

Oh. Right.

There, all around him, were his three friends from school, each one in complete hysterics.

He flopped back down onto the bed. "Come on, guys, that wasn't funny."

"I…ha ha, oh my God…I…uh…I beg to differ," Balti said, wheezing out the words.

"Hmph," he grunted, sitting up with obvious effort. His hand limply raised itself to chest height and swiped in the familiar motion to bring up the game menu.

The logout button was still blank.

He sighed before navigating to the items menu and equipping the beginner gear, which had unfortunately not been replaced yet. Riku kept nagging them to replace it as soon as possible, so he had placed that at the top of his priority list.

On the plus side, it was a lot easier than getting dressed normally. And he didn't have to shower, or go to the toilet, or…

He shuddered, thinking about how they were handling that in real life. Did they have to…?

Quickly he shook his head, brown hair flapping back and forth. The pair of tan shoes materialized in a stream of data and he stood up.

Apparently he was the last one awake. Everyone else was up and ready to go.

His mouth opened wide as he suppressed a yawn. "Wow…isn't this a bit early?"

Riku's let out a chuckle. "Auran, I've been up for two hours."

He would have felt surprised, but it was becoming harder and harder to be surprised at any of the crazy things the gamer was doing now that he was trapped here.

It had been three days since the insane Japanese developer had locked their minds away in his game. Each day, the high school senior with an axe strapped to his back was waking them up, pushing and shoving to get them out on the fields, and having them kill monsters over and over again. Two other seniors, a sophomore and…a little girl.

Auran snuck a quick glance over at the child who called herself Elia. She was leaning against the wooden wall of the inn room they had rented, standing next to the small pile of blankets Balti had assembled for her. Another copy of the starting sword was strapped to her back. Her mouth was a flat line.

Inwardly, he shook his head in amazement. Looking back on the past three days of intense grinding, he didn't think he had heard one word of complaint out of her. Certainly far less than the young dagger-user.

"Eh…sorry," he mumbled. "Let's head out. Say, Riku, what were you doing for two hours?"

"Ah, that," his friend responded, standing up with a grunt. "I have big plans for today. First, I want everyone to read me their level. Worm?"

"I, uh…level 4," he read off. "Don't worry, I'm almost to 5 though. Today should do it."

"Hmmm," Riku muttered. "Balti?"

"I'm at 5," the swordsman proclaimed. "Ready for anything, captain!"

"Good. Auran?"

It was amazing how quickly his fingers had grown into the habit of sliding open the menu. They had been here…what longer than 72 hours now? The bells rang.

"I…I'm at 5 as well. Just barely though." That was another thing he had noticed. Each and every enemy they had defeated so far had been level 1. And with each new level they gained, their victories meant less and less. While he had been able to run halfway from 3 to four in a day, it had taken him the same amount of time to make it less than one eighth of the way from 5 to 6.

"Very well…what about the girl?"

As far as he could remember, Riku had refused to address Elia by her username. He never stated the reason why. Auran found it rather ironic, since he insisted on being called Riku rather than Andrew.

The question was snapped out of the air by Balti.

"She can handle it. I've been keeping an eye on her experience," the pony-tailed boy answered.

The slight hint of a frown appeared on the corners of Riku's mouth. "Yeah, well…whatever. Anyway, we're going to move into the tower today."

"We're going to what?" Worm spluttered nervously. "As in, the actual tower? Nobody's even made it to the second floor yet! Are you saying we're going to?"

"No, no," Riku clarified. "We're just going to train in there. We should hit slightly higher-level monsters. I get the feeling we're reaching the leveling cap for the first floor."

"Leveling cap?" Balti asked.

The axe-wielder waved his hand. "Yeah…it basically means where you're so much higher-level than the monsters you're defeating, the experience is worthless."

Balti nodded. "Makes sense."

Elia remained silent, standing passively next to the other sword-user.

"Anyway, we've been in a party this whole time. Although we should be able to operate efficiently there, I don't want to take any chances. The maximum size for a party is seven, so I've recruited two others to assist us. They should be waiting outside."

Auran frowned. "How do we know these guys are competent? That they won't be dragging us down?"

Riku crossed his arms as he headed towards the door. "I've checked their stats. They're good. One of them is better than me."

Balti let out a low whistle as he followed Riku out, Elia in tow. "Impressive. Hurry up guys, don't want to be late!"

He and Worm looked at each other before shrugging and heading out the door behind the rest of the group.

TIMESTAMP: 10 November 2022, 06:29:37, Floor 001, Tolbana

Auran's booted feet made dull thuds on the wooden stairs as he entered the lobby of the inn a step at a time. Except for the motionless NPC, it was empty, just like always. Riku opened the heavy door and pulled it farther to allow everyone through.

Balti headed out first, holding onto Elia's hand tightly. Auran was right behind him. The sun was just beginning to come up, and it was casting its rays of virtual light across the small town of Tolbana. There were a few people up and about—most of them appeared to be adult males though. He didn't think he spotted one older than 26 or younger than 18. Each one had a sword strapped loosely to his back, ready for combat at any given moment, alert and attentive, although still clearly walking with a purpose.

Those—those must be the beta testers.

Riku had told him about them. The ones who, whenever a new game came out, were the first to get to play it, even before it was finished, just to make sure it worked. Apparently this applied to VR too, and these people were the ones who knew what to do and where to go.

He had a feeling his friend was just following their lead instead of forging his own way.

But it didn't really matter. As long as they got out of this game alive, that was all that mattered.

A cough interrupted his musings. He turned to see Riku introducing two unfamiliar faces.

Quickly he scanned them up and down taking in as much information as he could from their appearance alone.

"As I was saying, this man is Calin. He's…uh, a one-handed sword user. Right."

The man nodded respectfully. He was clearly Japanese, just like everyone else in this game, but definitely older—career-age, and he seemed to have mixed blood, probably only half. He had scruffy black facial hair around his chin, and short-cropped black hair. His body seemed to be in very good shape as well, although it was of course obscured by the default leather armor. He reminded Auran of an actor he had seen in an old movie, something ancient his parents insisted he see. Some guys who would jump in and out of a primitive VR system, only most of humanity lived in it.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. No use laughing at the irony now.

His gaze turned to the other member who would be joining their party, and his eyebrow raised slightly.

It was a kid—maybe twelve? Thirteen? If he was inside the age limit to be playing this game, it was by a very small margin. He seemed to be only somewhat older than Elia, for God's sake. The same standard issue blade was attached to his armor as well.

Suddenly, the kid's head jerked up slightly. It was an almost undetectable movement, and it would have certainly not been noticed by anyone who wasn't looking at his face at that moment, but his eyes looked directly into Auran's. The spearman hurriedly turned back to Riku, rushing to cover his embarrassment.

"And, um, this is…how do you say it again?"

A smile appeared on the boy's face, and he spoke up as if nothing had happened.

"My name is PoH. It's an acronym, but you can just pronounce it like Poh. Glad to be working with you guys."

"Ah, that's right," Riku said.

"Hey, welcome to the team!" Balti laughed cheerfully. "Bet I'll get more kills that you!"

"You're on!" the boy laughed, breaking into a grin.

Calin looked dismally at the ground. Auran wondered why he looked so…depressed. Although he was certainly out of place, fifteen years on anyone around him, that was no reason to look so—

"Auran? You coming?" He looked up to see Worm peering at him quizzically.

"Yeah…sorry," he said as cheerfully as possible. Somehow he got the feeling that it fell flat.

The seven players began the short trek to the tower.