Chapter 2: The First Step

It took all of us players that were trapped inside this death game around a week I believe to settle into the world of Sword Art. There have been around 2000 more players that have lost their lives to never live again in the real world. And the first floor had not even been cleared. This is insanity. It's sheer and utter madness. But these thoughts that shroud my mind are going to have to wait because today is the day when we attempt to tackle the first floor boss. I know I could solo this boss, after all, I was a beta tester, I could solo all the way up to the 70th floor. I could even solo past that. No, 'could' would imply that I would struggle to do so. I know I can solo past the 70th floor. But in this game, going solo can only get you so far...

I sat on the stone step, the feeling sent cold vibrations through my body. There were no actual chairs of such, just stone steps to sit on as said before.

"So this is the plan" Diavel said clearly. Diavel was the man in charge of leading us through the first floor to beat the boss.

"We shall form parties, this way, we can attack the boss with small forces whilst the other parties can take out the Ruin Kubold Sentinels. Once the Sentinels are dead, they should have around a minutes timer before the next wave come to attack, so make sure your on alert, all while not getting yourself killed. Illfang is very large and very strong as it seems." Diavel explained.

'I already know how to kill Illfang the Kubold Lord, His blade has a long reach and he moves around his room.' I thought. 'So all I have to do is dodge his swings and strike so that when he's recovering from his 'Fury Swing' with sword skills' I thought to myself.

"Everyone party up, parties of more members are better but you'll still have to be prepared. We will be taking on this dungeon tomorrow noon." Diavel told us.

I trust Diavel's judgement. He's been trying to keep people calm in this horrific situation. I've been talking to Diavel for about a week abut the current events and how to tackle the first floor. He was saying that he's already been to the boss room multiple times but nobody would listen and rush in just to be killed.

I noticed Kirito in the corner of my eye who looked to be partying up with another player in a red hood. I could see that the players name was Asuna.

'Hmm, Kirito and Asuna are partying up, it looks like Kirito is helping her out, I guess.' I thought.

"Umm... Hi there..." A faint voice spoke to me. I turned my head to notice a small girl who looked around the age of 14. She had long lilac hair that frizzed at the bottom and around midway with two small drops of hair on each of her shoulders and lilac eyes to match.

"Hey there." I responded openly, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"Umm... My name.. is.. Izume..." She said in a quiet timid voice.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Izume. I'm Akito." I said smiling. "I'm guessing you want to party up?" I asked her still smiling to see if it took away any of her shyness.

"Y-Yes... Would you..?" She asked looking at the floor. I looked at her level and saw that it was way below what everyone else's levels were.

"Yeah. Sure." I responded politely and smiled again. I could see people looking at me confused to why I accepted her to join a party. "Here." I opened the menu and sent her a party invite. "You know how to accept it, right?"

Izume nodded, accepting the invite. I felt some relief to know that she wasn't completely hopeless, but her level did set me at an uneasy feeling. How can someone with such a low level survive for over a month trapped inside of a game where you can die at any time? Then it hit me, She barely left the safe zone and only killed boars and slimes to gain experience points.

"Izume?" I asked.

"Yes..?" She replied with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Why is your level so low?" I asked even though I knew the answer.

"I-I-I... I-I'm afraid t-to f-fight monsters..." She replied looking very emotional.

At this moment, I felt I needed to comfort her, like I do with my sister in the real world, I needed to make her smile or laugh or at least keep the tears away. "Hey. It's okay. Look, I'll help you level up so at least if you are hit by the boss you won't die." I told her.

"R-Really..?" She said with a slight smile on her face.

"Of course. I'l try as best as I can to help you out." I said to Izume. But the truth was, I couldn't be sure if I was going to protect her. Anything could happen.

We trained in the fields for around 3 hours with a few intervals so that Izume could regain her strength.

"Hiyaaa~!" Izume shouted as she sliced away with her short sword at the enemy slime. The slime shattered into hundreds of shards and this confirmed that Izume had leveled up enough to finally take on the boss.

"You're getting good at this Izume, you've finally found your groove." I said with a smile on m face.

"T-Thanks.. Truth be told... I'm still very scared.." She said looking a little nervous still. "How is it th-that you can k-keep your calm at a time like this..?" Izume asked, confused on how I can remain so calm in such a terrible time.

"I guess the reason would be, that I try not to think about it much. I think of how proud my family would be to know that I'm fighting on through this terrible time and that I won't be easily defeated." I explained. "No matter how many negatives are stacked against you, you have to find the positives otherwise there's no point fighting at all." I continued.

Izume looked at me for a couple of seconds before looking at the ground. "Find the positives..." She whispered to herself.

"Well, it's gotten quite dark, I say we rent out an inn for the night and train a little in the morning so your even more prepared. What'cha say?" I asked Izume, who seemed to still be in her own thoughts.

"Izume?" I tried getting her attention. After a few times of calling her name, I went up to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Wha-?!" Izume jumped in shock.

"Sorry, you weren't responding so I got confused and slightly concerned." I told her with a concerned look.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have spaced out." She said, I could tell her confidence was building every time she spoke in a sentence.

"I said, it's gotten quite dark, I say we rent out an inn for the night and train a little in the morning so your even more prepared. What'cha say?" I asked again.

"You mean, sleeping in the same room?!" She said looking very distressed.

"Yes, but we'll have separate beds." I told her.

"Well... Okay..." She agreed.

We headed to an inn that I knew quite well, being that most shops and inns are NPC buildings, this means they are run by NPC's or Non Playable Characters. I paid for our room and we headed there immediately.

"Here is our room for the night. It's not all that decorative but hey, it's cosy enough." I said with a smile.

"Okay... I'm going to change into my night clothes so turn around..." Izume told me.

"Alright." I said in response as I turned around to not watch a woman change clothes. She gave me the all clear to turn back around andwhat she was wearing was a lilac silk nightgown. I took off my armor and hopped into my bed and turned out the light as Izume got into her bed.

"Goodnight Izume." I said to her smiling.

"Goodnight..." She responded.

Izume must have fallen asleep in a mater of moments, however, I stayed up a little while longer contemplating the fact that me or Izume could die at any moment. Which was the scariest part about SAO. It sent slight shivers down my body but I moved the thoughts aside so I could enjoy a good nights rest...