Chapter 7

Last time

Everyone starts murmuring and I look to my group and nod, notifying that we should continue on to the next floor and try our best not to let this beat us down. And that is exactly what we do.

This time

It's been two weeks since the boss fight on floor 1. In that time, people have gotten much more attentive and productive when it came to finding the dungeons; in fact, a group has already found the dungeon but, no one can take it on yet because no one is skilled enough or has high enough levels. My group and I have also gotten over the whole Kirito incident, and Asuna left to play solo for a while; thank god, to be honest, she was so quiet and kind of ruined the mood (no offense).

So, now we are one floor two. Fiena, Izalea, Erin, and I have bonded more in that time, becoming even more coordinated in battle and being closer than ever; literally, we now all share one inn room. Today was a big day for us, though. We finally go on a quest together!

Now, I know. You must be asking, 'So, in the two weeks you all have been together, you haven't gone on one single quest together?!' and the answer is simple. Yes. Because there is this thing called 'hunting spots' that I really think you should look into. They really work miracles. We each leveled up 3 TIMES!

But, as I was saying, today we go on our first quest. We are already at the quest giver though, who appears to be a little girl with pig tails and crying.

"Jesus. You'd think that with 'SUCH ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY' they'd at least come up with an original quest giver." I say with a roll of my eyes.

"Shut it, the girl is crying." Fiena says.

"She is also an NPC. Meaning her emotions aren't real." I respond with matter-of-fact tone.

"Shut it." Erin says to me in a demonic voice.

"OKAY! AND I AM QUIET!" I zip my mouth shut and we all look back towards the quest giver.

"P-p-please help me. My puppy ran off into the cave and he hasn't come out. Please help me." She says with a loud sob. A quest box appears in front of me and I click the blue button, accepting it. The quest specifications show up on our HUD.

Quest: Lost puppy

Objective: Find the little girl's puppy

Reward: Rare drop, 50,000 Cor, 50,000 ExP.

I turn back to Fiena, Izalea, and Erin. "Jesus, a bit much for something as easy as this, huh? Anyways, I sure am glad I don't have to actually talk to the NPCs. I can't believe we didn't figure this out until just recently." Fiena punches me for that and we all start our walk through the cave, weapons drawn.

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that we all somehow found better weapons and armor. Looking even sexier than before, I know, it's hard to believe. We now all wear a sort of cloak with our real armor hidden beneath. As for our weapons, I have a rare, bulky, long sword that I picked off a monster drop that boosts my strength and agility by 5 points, Erin has a cool katana with an insane agility boost, Fiena has a curvy dagger with a health boost and has a very slight chance to paralyze, and Izalea just has a rapier that she bought at the market with all her Cor because apparently monsters on floor 2 are anti-rapier.

Anyway, back to where we were, walking into the cave for the quest.

"It's so dark… Do you think there is a torch we can grab-?" right as Izalea finishes her question, torches all along the wall light up, lighting up the whole cave.

"Hey, do you guys hear that?" I ask as I suddenly hear the sound of dozens of shuffling feet. We stand still and on guard as we see a pack of 20 goblin like creatures rushing towards us with their weapons raised and them snarling.

I gasp, "It's like The Hobbit all over again!"

"SHUT UP, SEAN!" They all yell at me and start rushing forward at the goblins.

"It's called comic relief, jerks." I mumble and rush forward as well. We all charge our sword skills at once and at the same time we all swing our weapons, taking down half of them in just one swing and our combined power. After that, Fiena and Erin rush forward at the same time and quickly slice and dice through the rest as fast as they can. Using lots of acrobatic flips and attacks.

"Nice work!" I say as I suddenly hear more coming. "You ready, Izalea? It's our turn." She nods and gets in her offensive stance, positioning her rapier so it looks as if she is about to thrust the blade forward. I get in a similar position, except have it pointed down a bit more so I can swing the blade.

Another pack of 20 goblins come up and we dash forward at the same time. Izalea shish-ka-bobs a couple, piercing them with the tip of rapier with blinding speed, taking out her half. I rush forward next, using a more tactile way of fighting as I constantly switch in and out of slashing, stabbing, and thrusting, moving smooth as water and skill fully. I soon take out my half as well.

As soon as we take out them out, I hear ANOTHER GROUP. I soon realize that this is going to be one of those quests where the enemies keep on coming until we reach our objective. "GUYS! WE HAVE TO RUSH THEM AND GET THE PUPPY! WHICH I AM ASSUMING IS AT THE END OF THIS CAVE! YOU READY!?"

"YES!" they each yell at once and we group up next to each other in a line, in our offensive stances. We see the goblins rush around the corner.

"GO!" I shout and we all rush forward at once as fast as we can with our sword skills charged.

About 30 minutes later

We finally made it to the fucking dog, out of breath. Who knew this cave was so fucking huge! No wonder no one else wanted to do this infernal quest. I pick up the puppy in my arms with a grumble.

"I can't believe we fought through 20 waves of goblins just for a stinking puppy, guys."

"At least it's cute." Erin points out and pets it with a smile.

I sigh, "True. Come on, let's get this over with." I say and start leading everyone towards the exit.

Once back to the quest giver, we give her back her puppy.
"THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" the little girl hops up and down in joy and we get the Quest completed box. We each get part of the reward and level up once but, I get the rare item, which was a ring named Ultimate Bond. And if it is worn, everyone in the group gets a vitality boost of 50 points, which is actually lifesaving in this game.

"Nice." I equip the red and gold ring and immediately everyone notices the effects. They all look at the awesome effects in awe and smile.

"Hey, Sean. We all work pretty well in a team. Maybe you'd like to start a guild so when people see us they'll remember us by something instead of just 'THOSE COOL GUYS!'" Fiena puts up the idea and I nod.

"Yeah! That's smart. From now on, we'll be known as The Aincrad Saviors!" I chuckle.

A/N: The birth of a new guild. will they make true to their name now? I guess we'll just have to find out! :D