Chapter 5

Last time

Let's do another quest, okay? I wanna test this bad boy out!" she says very enthusiastically and I nod.

"Alright! That's the spirit! LET'S GO!"

This time

It's been a month since this game started and already 2,000 people have died. In that time though WE did not give up or get discouraged and we, without even knowing, worked our hardest to level up, not changing our happy attitudes a bit, even if almost everyone else was freaking out. We also did, in fact, buy new armor since that was an issue we REALLY needed to solve; now they are more cloak like, so Erin and I look more rouge-ish then before. As for our weapons, they didn't change at all since we couldn't find anything better, though that was probably because weapon shops don't exactly have rare weapons on hand, then that would just make them common I suppose.

Apart from all the deaths, and an update on our level, weapons, and armor, a group has finally found the boss of this floor. The leader of the group has decided to schedule a meeting to discuss how to defeat the boss. After hearing this news, we definitely had to go. That then brings us to here, at the meet place in a colosseum like area. Everyone was sitting in the stands except for one man who was standing in the center of the colosseum. He is tall, around my height, has blue hair, and has a sword and shield, which is actually quite common in this game to have. We guessed that this was Diavel, the leader of the group that found the boss room, because why would some random guy be standing in the middle of colosseum during a meet?

We sat near the middle of the stands, where most of the people were because we wanted to make some friends; we may not seem like it, but we are social people, socially awkward people at that. A couple rows above us was a girl wearing a red cloak, which hid her face and whole upper torso, and a guy with short black hair that has what appears to be the starting clothes; he must be crazy skilled, or just plain crazy.

Diavel starts speaking, "Okay, people. Now that everyone is here, let's get started!" straight to the point, I like that. "So, anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diavel, and in this game, my job is known as 'knight!'" okay… there are no jobs in this game, but I can roll with that. Sometimes I like to think I am a bad-ass assassin or whatever.

Some people laugh at what he said though and mock him, saying that there is no job system in the game, which is technically true.

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diavel says silencing the crowd. "Right, anyway, here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Everyone puts on a face of shock and murmur to each other, finally realizing that this meeting isn't a joke. Me and Erin just smirk though because we're cool like that.

"First, we need to defeat the boss and make it to floor two. The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the town of beginnings that it is possible to beat this game." He says, continuing his meeting. "Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?"

The people that attended look at each other, nodding and mentally agreeing at what he said, some people even start clapping and whistling.

"Okay! Glad to hear you're all with me on this! Now, let's figure out how to beat the boss! First off, we'll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties." Diavel says this first part of his plan and people already start to socialize and start making their groups.

The black hair kid above us looks around frantically for someone to form a party with and the red cloaked girl doesn't move at all. We, however, smile and stand up; being the social butterflies we are, this should be a piece of cake. But, boy were we wrong. Most of the people there have already formed their parties, except for a very small group of people.

Two short girls, only a little taller than Erin, one with short red hair and one with really long silver hair, hop down beside us out of nowhere. Their faces match almost perfectly, almost like twins, and their choice of armor and weapons didn't change a bit either. The only difference between the two was the color of their hair and armor, and their weapon of choice. "Hey, there! My name's Fiena!" the one with red hair speaks first. She has a short, curved sword, kind of similar to a Wazakashi.

"And my name is Izalea!" the one with silver hair soon introduces herself. She has a more regal weapon; a rapier.

"We're sisters!" Fiena soon says, explaining why they are so familiar.

"We couldn't help but notice that you are a couple members short. Mind if we join your party?" Izalea says in a bit of a formal manner.

"Oh, sure! We'd appreciate that a lot." Erin quickly answers, cutting me off completely from saying something sarcastic. She sends the two a party invite and they gladly accept.

"Excellent. That only leaves us to find two more members." Erin says, perhaps maybe a little too pumped.

"Well, we could always have black hair and red cloak join our party. I just hope their social skills are made up for in combat." I say pointing to the two above us.

"Good idea. Why don't you go and invite them to the group." Erin pats me on the back and urges me towards them.

"Okay. On it!" I say and then hop up to the two with a smile on my face.

They notice me before I even get to them and they just stare as I approach them. "Hey, you two. You seem to be about four members for a full party. Well, you're in luck, because I just so happen to have the four you desperately need. How about you join my party and we can work together?" they just give me a weird look because of my awkwardness; not exactly what I was looking for.

"Uh, sure. We'll join your party. Does that sound okay with you?" the black haired one speaks up and looks at the cloaked girl next to him when he asks the last part. She just gives a simple nod, clearly not a woman of many words.

"Great! I'll send you two a party invite." I say and open up my menu and send them both a party invite, in which they accept it. Their names now appear under Fiena's and Izalea's, appearing in this order in the top left corner of the HUD.

Sjaer

Auechols

Fiena

Izalea

Kirito

Asuna

Cool names, in my opinion. "Hey! They accepted the invite! Come up here, guys!" I yell back down to Fiena, Izalea, and Erin, waving them up here. I hear a small chuckle come from Kirito.

They quickly come up and sit down next to me. "Question," Fiena says, "how do you pronounce your usernames?"

"Oh, uh, the correct pronunciations are Suh-jare and Ow-chuh-ools. But, please just call us by our real names, Sean and Erin. It's easier." I say and they all nod.

Diavel starts talking again when everyone gets partied up, "Alright, seems like everyone's teamed up! Now, then-"

Everything was going pretty good until, of course, someone has to ruin it.

"Hold up a second!" a short man with orange spiky hair at the top of the stands yells loudly, then jumps all the way down to Diavel. "My name's Kibaou, got that? Before we take on the boss, I wanna get something off my chest." He says standing up straight and facing the people in the stands, "We all know about the two-thousand people that have died so far, yeah? Well, some of you need to apologize to them, right now!" he points at the crowd. The people in the stands start murmuring.

"Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones that are ex-beta testers, right?" Diavel says to him.

"Of course, I mean them!" Kibaou yells back in an 'it's obvious' tone. "The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just vanished, right? They didn't start as beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests, too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they've ignored us like we're nothing." He growls, "Hell, I bet there are some of them here! Come on out beta-testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them all give out their money and the items they've got!" he folds his arms, "They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?"

Kirito seemed to be struggling at this point for some reason.

"Can I say something?" a deep voice says from the crowd. It is owned by a rather tall and muscular black man that wielded a large double bladed axe. He stands up and walks down to Kibaou, towering over him and putting him in his shadow. Kibaou looks up at him, obviously intimidated. "Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You're saying the ex-beta testers should be blamed for rookies' deaths, because they didn't help them, and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. Did I leave anything out?"

"N-no, you didn't." Kibaou says stuttering.

Agil pulls out a small leather book and shows it to Kibaou, "The item store hands these out for free. It's a guide book. You got one, didn't you?" well, I didn't grab a guide book, but I sure as hell don't need one since I read the official and full guide book, explaining everything, back and front already.

"Sure, I got one. So, what about it?" Kibaou says.

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers." Agil explains and everyone gasps. Kibaou scoffs and Agil turns to look back at the crowd, "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information, even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I want to learn how to beat the boss." He then turns back to Kibaou, who gives him a threatening look before going to the stands and sitting down with his arms crossed. Agil sits next to him and Kirito gives a sigh of relief.

"Okay, can we get back to the meeting now?" Diavel asks and everyone nods. "For info on the boss, it's all in here. The latest issue of the guide book you've just heard about." He holds up his own guide book and people gasp again; how could info on the boss already be in the book if the boss was just found today? "According to the book, the boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler, he has four health bars, and when the last one turns to red, he switches to curved sword-type weapon called a Talwar. He can change his patterns of attack, too." He closes the guide book, "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of the loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the ExP, and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?" he looks amongst the crowd.

My party is smirking at this point, all except for Asuna, who is basically the black sheep of this group.

"Good! We leave tomorrow at ten in the morning! Meeting adjourned, people!" he waves everyone off. Some people leave and some people stay and talk, my group was one of the people that actually stayed and talked, and Kibaou actually apologizes for what he said.

"This is gonna be awesome, guys. I know it." I smirk as I talk to my group.

A/N: Ah! cant wait for the next chapter! THEY FIGHT ILLFANG! :D