Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition!

by The Dark Dragen

How would things change if Sword Art Online had magic in some form? Read, as this story tries to show this through alchemy, where those who are alchemists can create magical items & gear from crystals and other items. How would things change? What if there was a hidden agenda in adding this ability? This story will tell about the first month of being trapped in SAO & beyond. Harem.

6. Chapter 5 - Forest Quest (Part 1!)

Summary: Now trapped in the Sword Art Online, Kirito strives to survive the Death Game that he found himself in. Knowing that he needs the best sword that he can get, he goes to a village to complete a quest to get one.

Chapter Five…

Secret Medicine of the Forest Quest - Part 1!

Death Game.

It was two words that Kirito never thought he would hear outside of movies, games, anime, and manga. But here he was stuck in a Virtual Reality game, where if he dies in-game or someone removes the headset that he was wearing in the real world, it would kill him.

It was something that Kirito was having a hard time getting his head around. This was just meant to be a fun game to pass the day.

It wasn't meant to be something that he had to be careful of, where a player's mistakes and defeat could lead to their death.

But the game Sword Art Online, the game that Kirito had been waiting to play for a long time, had become just that. It was something that Akihiko Kayaba had personally made that clear declaration without the slightest hint of doubt, not too long ago.

That if their HP were to reach zero-that is, on defeat, it would kill them. Or if the Nerve Gear were to be removed-that is, to violate the rules, it would also kill them. It didn't feel real. Not that it should. Countless suspicions still swirled about my mind, even now.

Is something like this even possible? Was something that kept going through Kirito's mind as he ran. After all, it merely used a game machine fit for households, the Nerve Gear; could it have the ability to destroy the cerebrum of human beings?

Why do something like this? Was another thing that got Kirito thinking. Hold players hostage in a virtual world. From what Kirito can gather, there was no ransom in play, which would make sense. But with no ransom at stake, it made no sense. Why put the lives of players at stake for the sake of clearing the game? It serves absolutely no tangible benefit for Kayaba to do this.

On the contrary, it would make him lose all the reputation he had as a game designer and quantum physicist, degrading him into the worst criminal recorded in history.

Kirito didn't get it. He can't make any reasonable sense of it.

But at the same time, his instincts understand.

Kayaba's proclamation was completely true. The nature of the stage where SAO takes place, the Floating Castle Aincrad, had changed from a parallel world overflowing with passion and excitement, into a cage of death trapping nearly eighty thousand people within. The words uttered by Kayaba at the end of his tutorial earlier, "This situation itself was my final purpose." That phrase was likely his absolute true intentions.

That outrageous genius had, merely for the sake of realizing this death game, created SAO... and thus, the Nerve Gear.

Sure, this might have been the man's purpose, but why? Why would someone like Kayaba want to put so many people's lives at risk? Was it because he just could? Wanted to show that he could do so? Or was there another reason for this? A reason that only Kayaba knew of, something he wasn't willing to share for what reason.

Whatever the reason was, here he was, a level 2 adventurer, was presently running with his life at stake.

All by himself, in the middle of the vast grasslands. Abandoning the first friend that he made in this world. All to keep his own self alive.

But he knew that to survive, to beat the game, he had to. Right now, there are only a limited number of quests and monsters that everyone can do or defeat. And with so many people in the game, he had to look out for himself, even if he felt guilty about it. Until he and the others could get to the next floor, giving the others a chance at getting stronger on floor one, he had to do this.

To be able to get stronger and have a chance to clear all hundred floors of the Floating Castle Aincrad and escape this world, he would have to use every bit of information he had for the next eight floors. Whilst he was able to get to the tenth floor, he only got there a few days before the beta closed. So he didn't know much about it. The other floors he knew well enough to get stronger than most here.

He knew that if he wanted to stay alive, like many others might do, they would stay within the walls of the Town of Beginnings. That would eliminate the chance of death. But that would mean they would be stuck, unable to leave the game, hoping someone else would free them.

But he wasn't that type of person. Was he afraid of dying? Yes, but who wouldn't? But the problem is that he couldn't trust staying safe in this town forever. Things had already changed in the game. What if the safety of this town changes one day? What then? Not only that, he wanted to avoid the discord and mistrust that would surely be born between players over time.

But the most important thing was that he was an MMO gamer, so this sort of game was ingrained into his very core. It had been years since he played a decent MMO, about four years, in fact. Since the NerveGear came out. Kirito enjoyed being part of the game, instead of playing them on a console. So, to finally get a MMO game on VR, Kirito couldn't stand back and let others level up, do the quests and defeat the bosses, when he sat back and did nothing. The gamer within wouldn't allow it.

And if he was honest with himself, this was like a dream come true in a frightening way. He did like death game themes in fiction, and had gone through many novels, comics, movies, and such from all over. Of course, the games he had tended to cover a large variety of themes, but he did believe it to be a common theory existing within them.

In regard to death games, it was always a trade-off between safety and overcoming. If the starting location is a safe area, there would be no danger to one's life if one were to remain there. But if one were to shrink away from danger before even trying to brave through it, it would become impossible to overcome the situation. It was a no risk, no gain sort of situation.

Kirito wasn't the type of person to be a hero, where he would cut all down those hundred boss monsters with his own sword, so as to clear this game. But at the same time, he couldn't wait for the others back in town to overcome their fear of fighting and glow stronger. But he also knew he couldn't stay around town, as sooner or later players would leave and hunt the surrounding area, seeing how it would be safe to do so.

He didn't think about it at the time, but it was a good thing that he left the Town of Beginnings to level up. That's because this game has become a death game.

In death games, what opposes players wasn't the basic rules, traps, and monsters. No, they would also have to face players, just like them, as enemies as well. From what Kirito could remember from such death games, there wasn't a case where players wouldn't go against each other. These players would do so for fun, or it was easier to get items than going out to get them themselves.

Kirito didn't want to think of it, but PKing was very likely.

But at the same time, he didn't think that the people would go to the extent of murder. Until now, they had been living a normal life, without the need to do such things. So it was unlikely they would start, not unless they are some crazy bastard. But whilst they might not commit cold-blooded murder, his fears were something else altogether. That they would resort to threatening others with weapons to steal away items.

Kirito didn't have the confidence to say that not a single such being would exist, unfortunately. Just imagining the possibility of some certain person with stats overwhelming his own becoming his enemy caused him tangible fear and terror, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

And based on those reasons-

The choice of staying in the Town of Beginnings, abandoning the strengthening of himself for safety, offered no advantage to Kirito. Thus, if he were to aim to level up, there was no time to stand around idly. The relatively safe grassy fields around the city would likely soon be filled with those who decided to move forth, like him.

The problem was that for every area on each floor, monsters could only be in that area for a certain time frame and only have so many monsters in that area. After they hunted the initial targets down, there would be a cool down until the area is reset. Each area was different, with the time frame, and some areas have two sets of time frames, a daytime and a night-time, where you would face different monsters.

Take Town of Beginnings, for example. It had one time frame, between 8am to about 3om, the monster in that area would spawn at random. Monsters would start to appear at 8am and the final spawn for monsters would be around 3pm. Any monster found after 3pm would be monsters that the ones that hadn't been defeated yet.

Now let's take the village that Kirito was going to. Like most villages and settlements, these had two-time frames, a night and day. The daytime frame would be 8am to 4pm, and the night-time frame would be 7pm to 3am. The time between each time frame is to allow the players to defeat the remaining monsters that weren't killed or allow the monsters to return to the area they sleep. With some monsters that don't have a burrow or hive to sleep in, it would be possible to kill them whilst they were asleep, but if you make too much of a sound or don't kill all of them in time, they would wake up and attack you.

The problem is with respawns, they can be instant, a few minutes or, in a worse case, an hour or so. Whatever the case, be it a long time respawn, or the time to hunt in that area is over and no monster in the area or wasn't respawning, it would become a frenzy to search for an area with monsters.

Another problem that players would have was other players stealing their kills and so taking the EXP instead. Kirito could unfortunately see this happening really soon. Until the players were high enough level or were confident in fighting, they would stay around the Town of Beginnings, which would be a long time. Then they would go to a new area and the same thing would happen again. Kirito knew that until Floor 2 was open to them, it would be hard to level up. He would have to go to hidden areas to level up, something he would have to wait until he got a new sword and was a bit higher level, as the hidden areas had high-level monsters in them.

To avoid having trouble levelling up, it is necessary for Kirito to aim for beyond the relatively safe area and head towards the slightly dangerous area.

Normally, in a game where one had just started, not having any sense of direction, would be a suicidal act. Thankfully though, due to the fact he beta tested the game, Kirito was familiar with the first nine floors. So, he wasn't too afraid of the monsters at the moment.

Because of needing to level up, Kirito was making his way through the vast grasslands, to the village called Horunka. Horunka was a small village with around four hundred people. It may be small, but it certainly had an inn, a weapon shop, and a tool shop within the boundary, making it sufficient to serve as a hunting base. In the surrounding forest, there were no monsters that had dangerous paralysis, poison, or equipment destroying skills, so it would be unlikely to die by accident, even with solo play. Kirito believed that if he set up a base at the village for a while, he could level up a few levels before needing to head out to higher-level monsters. Or if the area had too many people preventing him from levelling up.

The other reason that Kirito was going to this village wasn't just to set up a temporary base, but to do an important quest. This village had a quest where he could get the best sword for a few floors. So he was going there to get it and upgrade as well as he could on this floor.

The current time was quarter past six. The surrounding grasslands were dyed golden in the setting sun from the outer circumference of Aincrad, and the forest seen across was sunk into a pale blue by the dusk. But luckily, even at night, strong monsters would not spawn around Horunka. If Kirito continued hunting without stopping until nightfall, Kirito would probably be able to gain enough stats and equipment to head for the next location before the village was filled with other players.

As he was running towards Horunka, killing whatever monster he came across, his thoughts drifted back to Klein. When he invited her to head towards Horunka together, Klein mentioned that she couldn't leave behind her comrades who were in the same guild as she was in a previous game.

Part of him wanted to suggest that they come with them, but he didn't. Thankfully, Klein said that they would make their own way in the game now, before any awkwardness could happen. It's not like he didn't want to help them, but he knew that it would be too dangerous.

Unlike the grasslands, where only wild boars or caterpillars or a few wolves that could be easily defeated, even at level 1, appeared, the forest and beyond was a different story. These areas had dangerous types of monsters spawning, such as poisonous bees and predatory plants. If the wrong response was made towards those special attacks, it would cause the HP to drop to zero in a flash... in other words, one might even end up dying.

The chances of Klein's friends ending up dead, no, the gaze that Klein might give him if that moment that happens; that was what he was afraid of. Kirito didn't wish to have any unpleasant thoughts. He didn't want to be hurt; with that belief and nothing else in his mind. He abandoned the one who called out to him and invited him to play as a party for the first time in this world...

"...!"

Emotions of disgust, unable to be covered up by even Kirito's self-torturing monologue, swelled up from the bottom of his mind, and he gritted his teeth, forcing his right hand onto the sword equipped onto his back.

In a clump of bushes slightly ahead, a single blue wild boar walked out of it. This must have been one of the few boars that haven't been defeated yet, or gone to its sleeping area with the rest of its kind. They were non-aggressive monsters, and Kirito had planned to ignore them all until he got through the grasslands. But out of impulse, he unsheathed the simple straight sword from his initial equipment, starting the motion for the single hit sword skill, Slant.

Reacting to being targeted, the wild boar glared at Kirito, and violently scratched the ground with its right foreleg. The motion for a charge attack. If Kirito were to falter here, stopping his skill, he would end up receiving a large amount of damage instead. With mixed feelings of calmness and irritation towards himself, Kirito stared at the monster, letting loose his skill while aiming at its weak point, at the back of its head.

The sword blade faintly glowed light blue, and along with a sharp sound effect, Kirito's virtual body moved, half by its own accord. The system assist, unique to sword skills, was forcibly correcting the slashing motion. While taking care not to go against the movement, he intentionally accelerated his leg and right arm, increasing the power of the skill. Merely for the sake of mastering this skill, Kirito once spent close to ten days using the skill for empty attacks on the practice dummies in the town.

The stats of a level 2 along with the specifications of the initial equipment was obviously extremely weak, but still, if a boosted Slant were to deal a critical hit at the weak point of the blue wild boar-its official name, Frenzy Boar, the HP reduced in a single hit would be just a little more than what it has. The slash that Kirito released head-on hit the mane area of the wild boar that came charging in, returning a strong recoil, and the beast with a total length of around a metre, twenty centimetres, was sent flying towards the back violently.

"Giiiiiii!"

Screaming as it bounced off the ground, it stopped in the air, unnaturally. *Bashaa!* An intense sound effect, along with a light effect. Kirito sighed as he kept on running, wishing that he had the Hunting Skill, as right now, he had to leave the boar behind and only getting the EXP from the kill. The reason for this was that without the Hunting Skill, he had to wait for a short time before the monster disappeared by itself and so getting the loot. But Kirito knew he couldn't spend too much time waiting here. He needed to level up and get the quest for the sword before anyone gets it. As if someone else gets the sword, he would have to wait for twenty-four before he could do the quest again.

To Kirito, a day was too much time for the reset to happen. He needed the sword as soon as possible so he could live. Then again, the boars didn't drop anything important, so he wasn't too worried about skipping the loot from them. So Kirito continued running toward the village as fast as his agility stat allowed him to.

It didn't take Kirito to get to his destination, Horunka Village, right before the setting sun went down.

As Kirito quickly surveyed the village. At the entrance, Kirito could see many buildings, inclusive of both private houses and shops. The colour cursors floating in Kirito's vision were all tagged as Tians. It seems that he was the first to arrive. But he thought about it. That was only to be expected. After all, he did dash off at full speed with only talking to Klein for a few moments to give her a few tips, and he did wait for the monsters to disappear and get any loot from their defeat.

After checking in with the guards at the village gate, Kirito made his way to the weapon shop that was facing the narrow plaza. Here, he sold all of his loot that he gained during his hunt with Klein to the Tian there. Then, using nearly all of his gold, which had just recently increased, he bought a brown leather half coat, which had decent high defence, and equipped it without a hint of hesitation.

Above the white linen shirt and thick grey cloth vest that were Kirito's initial equipment, a leather piece of equipment that gave off a feeling of durability came to be while releasing light. Kirito caught his breath for a bit, dwelling in the slightly increased sense of stability, then glanced at the large full-length mirror installed onto the weapon shop's wall.

"...It's... me..."

Kirito unconsciously muttered so, and the elderly shopkeeper polishing a dagger's scabbard at the counter raised his eyebrows, before returning to work straight away.

The avatar reflected in the mirror, aside from the height and gender, was one extremely far away from the Kirito that Kirito went to great pains to create.

The body was shorter and had less muscle. Long black forelocks hung down. The eyes were black, or darker than that. An appearance just like his in reality, reproduced with an astonishing level of detail-

Just by imagining this avatar, like what the previous Kirito had on, equipping dazzling metal armour, a vehement reaction of denial surged through his entire body. Luckily, in SAO, even with lightweight leather equipment, speed-type one-handed sword users were able to gain sufficient defence. Of course, they were unable to become tanks, the ones able to pull monsters' attention to their own selves, but there was no need for a tank-type build for a solo player.

From now on, Kirito was going to stick to leather equipment as far as the situation allows it. Not to mention those as plain-looking as possible. Deciding this in his mind, Kirito left the weapon shop. The only thing that improved was the Leather Coat, with the Buckler set aside for now, and Kirito's weapon still remained as the initial sword. Rushing into the tool shop next door, the young man bought as many recovery and antidote potions as he could, turning the money in his possession to an absolute zero.

The one and only one-handed straight sword sold in any of the weapon shops on this floor, at least for the moment, was the Bronze Sword. The Bronze Sword had more power than the initial equipment, Small Sword, but its durability easily dropped, and it was weak against the corrosion liquid fired by plant monsters too. If one were to go against them frequently, staying with the Small Sword was a better idea. But even saying so, it's not like I could not stay with the weak initial sword forever.

So, whilst the Small Sword was the better sword to use for this floor, to have a decent chance of surviving, he would need to get a decent sword: the Anneal Blade. It'll help him for the next few floors. Whilst its attack power and durability was better than any sword that you could find until you get to the end Floor 3, the main reason that Kirito wanted this sword was because of the enhancements that he could put on it. Unlike most swords that he'll find until he gets to Floor 4, where you can put up to five enhancements on it, the Anneal Blade was different. With the Anneal Blade, you can put up eight enhancements on it. Meaning until Floor 4, this sword could become one of the most powerful swords a player can use..

But as Kirito was about to leave the shop, it surprised him to see the female NPC from the beta test who gives him the quest for the sword come into the tool shop. She looked like she was in her late twenties, with black hair and eyes. Kirito had to admit that she was good looking for her age.

Upon entering the shop, the Tian shopkeeper greeted the quest giver, "Hey Aiko, how's Rukia doing? Is she getting any better?"

"Not that good Roronoa, not that good." Aiko told the shopkeeper, she was upset about this, "whilst the potions that I get from you helps, it's only slowing it not curing it. Unless I can find someone to go into the forest west of here to find the monster, Little Nepenthes, with the flower Little Nepenthes's Ovule, I fear what might happen to Rukia."

This turn of events shocked Kirito. In the beta test, he would have gone to 'Aiko's' home and start the quest from there. But here she was here, where he heard what she needed beforehand. Kirito had to wonder, did the designers change it so that players could learn what the woman wanted beforehand, so that they would search her out for the quest, instead of players going from house to house looking for quests?

Whatever the case, he heard Roronoa say to Aiko, "I'm sorry to hear that, with the hunters dealing with the recent high increase of monsters, they can't do much. But I have heard that some new adventurers have appeared in the Town of Beginnings today. I can send a message to the town requesting for an adventurer to come and help you."

"I appreciate it, Roronoa." Aiko thanked the man, "As for a reward, tell them I'm willing to give them my grandfather's old sword, the Anneal Blade."

"Are you sure about that?" asked Roronoa, "The sword is a family heirloom."

"But that's all I can offer as a reward." explained Aiko, "Not that I care. As long as it saves my daughter, I'm willing to give the adventurer whatever I have."

"I understand, dear." said the shopkeep, "I'll send the request in the morning. And if I see any adventurers before that, I'll send them to see you."

"Thank you, Roronoa." Aiko thanked the shopkeeper, "For now, can I have the potions so that I can get back to Rukia?"

"Of course, dear," the man told her as she handed the potions to her, "and don't worry about the cost. You can pay me back when you can."

"Thank you, Roronoa," Aiko thanked Roronoa again, "I'll see you in a few days." and with that, the Tian walked out of the shop, leaving behind a shocked Kirito.

The young man couldn't believe how much feelings and emotions were put into these Tians. If Kirito didn't know any better, he would have thought that these characters were real. He had to wonder why the A.I in these NPCs were so lifelike? Did Kayaba really want this game to be as realistic as possible, that he programmed the A.I to be like this? If so? Why?

So many questions, but no one to answer them. So, with a sigh, Kirito decided to put it all to the back of his mind and leave the shop and head to Aiko's home to get the quest.

o0OoO0o

When he got to Aiko's home, instead of walking into the home as he would normally do, he knocked on the door. The reason for this was simple: with the Tians acting like real people, he didn't know how they would act if a stranger walked into their home. Doing so might prevent him from getting the quest, depending on how realistic this game was.

"Yes, how may I help you?" asked Aiko. Although she had a feeling that she saw him somewhere before.

"May I come in?" asked Kirito, "I would like to talk about your daughter. You see, I'm an adventurer that been summoned to the Town of Beginnings"

"Oh, you're from the Tool Shop," said Aiko, as she remembered where she saw him before. "Please, come in." Here, the question mark that Kirito could see above her head became an exclamation mark. Making her into a quest giver, instead of a person of interest.

As Kirito entered the house, the Tian said, "Please Adventurer, take a seat, you must be tired. I do wish to offer you some food, but I do not have any at the moment. All I can give is a single cup of water or so."

"Thank you, I would like a cup." Kirito said with a smile.

With that, Aiko poured water into an old-looking cup from a water jug and set it down on the table before Kirito with a clunk. Sitting on the chair, he drank that down in a gulp.

With a slight smile, Aiko turned towards a pot that was on the stove and poured the potions that she brought into it. As this was happening, Kirito heard the steady sound of a child's coughing that could be heard from the other side of the door to the next room.

Aiko's shoulders fell with despair upon hearing the coughs.

"I heard you in the Tool Shop that you need help with finding a flower called Little Nepenthes's Ovule to help your daughter." Kirito told the woman, "I might be able to help you. But I was wondering, how can this flower help her?"

"You see, my daughter has an unknown illness, and whilst the potions that I get from Tool Shop help a bit, it doesn't seem to cure it." explained Aiko, "So, I want to try to get the flower Little Nepenthes's Ovule, as it is meant to cure nearly any illness. There are two problems with that, though. The first is that the flower is rare to find. The other problem is that to get the flower, you need to get it from a monster called Little Nepent, but not any old Little Nepentthough, but a rare one that has the flower blooming on top of it. Because of it being rare and dangerous to get, I'm unable to get it myself, which is why I'm looking for someone to help me to get it. So, if you're able to get the flower, I'm willing to give you my grandfather's old long sword, the Anneal Blade."

Now, this was the general synopsis of Aiko's speech that Kirito heard from the beta test, with a slight change of words here and there. And like in the beta test, the quest wouldn't go any further until she finished this speech. Even though this was the second time of hearing this, Kirito was unable to bring himself to harden his heart against the sporadic dry coughs of her daughter during her story.

What didn't help was the emotions coming from Aiko. She had tears and sounded sad, and full of despair, worried about her daughter. This was something that wasn't in the beta test. Kirito had to admit that he liked this change in the game, making it so much real in his eyes. This got him wondering once again, why did Kayaba do this for? What was his aim to make these Tian feel so real? Other than wanting to make this game feel more real, Kirito had no idea why. And honestly, it was a question that he couldn't afford to ask or think about right now. He needed to get much stronger and faster.

So he looked at the Quest Window that popped up:

Secret Medicine of the Forest Quest

Defeat a Little Nepent with the flower Little Nepenthes's Ovule!

Reward(s):

Anneal Blade

65 EXP

Accept/Decline

If it wasn't for the fact he came here for this sword, he would have agreed to do this quest anyhow. So, with a sad smile, he said, "I'm more than happy to help you." With that, accepting the quest.

Now Kirito was about to rush out of the home, but there was something he wanted to ask. Something that he tried to ask in the beta but the NPC in that wouldn't say anything, but Kirito was hoping that this Tian would, seeing how they were trying to keep things as real as possible. So he asked Aiko, "Before I leave, do you mind if I ask you something?"

Here is the moment of truth. Would this Tian say anything or not? To his surprise and delight, Aiko said, "If it'll help you with your quest."

Kirito was happy to hear this, as he wondered what the backstory of this illness was. So, he asked, "I don't know if it'll help me or not, but I wanted to know is this, how did your daughter get this illness? And has anyone else got this illness?"

Kirito wasn't sure if he was going to get an answer or not, seeing how it wasn't connected to finishing the quest; but he didn't have to worry though, as Aiko said, "I honestly don't know how she got it. All I know is that a few months ago, when Aincrad shook, children began to slowly get sick for no reason. Over the months, I know of six children, including my daughter, in this village who caught this illness. I've also heard from others who come here, that there are others from other villages and settlements who got it. Whilst none died here, in the small settlements who don't have much, some of them died."

Kirito was shocked. He never suspected a storyline like this for the illness. He always thought that it was something the daughter, who he never met, ate something she didn't mean to, or some sort of monster ailment that she caught it from. He never thought other people might have gotten it. He only asked out of interest. It got Kirito thinking, could it be possible with such a story, that there was a monster involved and at some point, there would be a quest for a player to find and defeat it?

So, wanting to see if he would get another quest and hence getting a better reward, he asked, "Do you think that there's a monster involved? I was summoned here because some sort of great evil was in Aincrad. So, do you think this illness was connected to this evil?"

"Honestly, I don't know," admitted Aiko, "but it would make sense if it were true. Since Aincrad shook months ago, the Floor Guardians have been corrupted, making it impossible to go to the other floors, and the monsters got more aggressive. So, it would make sense that there might be a monster behind this illness, but as of yet, no one has seen such a monster. Until we have, we can't do anything other than, all we can do is help the children who are ill as well as we can."

Seeing how no quest window appeared, it would seem that he wasn't going to get a quest out of this information. But it was worth a try, as in any MMO games, you sometimes must ask questions to get a quest. Sure, not like this, but you would have to go down a line of questions before getting a hidden quest.

Either way, Kirito bid Aiko goodbye and left her home to go to the house. As the young man made his way out of the village, the time bell melody played throughout the village from the small watchtower in the middle of the village. Evening, seven o'clock.

Looking up at the watchtower, Kirito was wondering how things were going in the real world now. There was no doubt that a huge uproar had occurred. What about his own body? Was his mother or sister, or perhaps both of their figures lying down on his bed in his room with the Nerve Gear on his head? Or was at a hospital getting whatever treatment that Kayaba had set up for the games?

Kirito was wondering just what his mother and sister were feeling right now. Shock? Doubt?

Fear? Or maybe grief...?

However, the fact that he was still living here, within Aincrad, is proof that his mother and sister have not forcibly torn off his Nerve Gear. In other words, they probably do believe in it. In Kayaba Akihito's warning-and that he would return alive.

In order to live through this death game and return. There is no choice but for someone to break through to the top floor of this Floating Castle Aincrad that roughly reaches up to a hundred levels and defeat that monstrous last boss of a form that Kirito can't even begin to imagine about, to clear the game.

Of course, Kirito didn't have a single thought of achieving that deed himself. He knew better than that. Even with the bosses in the beta being weaker in the testing, players in groups still had a hard time defeating them. With the game now live, the bosses would now be stronger, and so they and everyone else would have to be too. Not only that, but they would need to be in a bigger group to defeat them.

For that very reason, Kirito knew that he would have to do everything that he could to struggle for his life with all his might. That's all there is.

First of all, as planned, he would have to become strong. At the very least, on this floor, regardless of the type and numbers of monsters coming at him... or perhaps to the extent where he was able to protect his own life even when a malicious player assaults him. Kirito can think about anything beyond that when he reaches there.

"...Sorry, mother. For making you worry." Kirito called out as he looked up at the tower, "Sorry, Sugu. For having something like this happen through those VR games you hate. I'm also sorry for treating you the way I have for the last few years."

The words that unintentionally sprang from Kirito's lips caused him slight surprise. The last time I called out my sister's name in short form was three years ago, or maybe even longer than that.

If-If he were to live on and return, he'll face her directly and call her Sugu once more.

Deciding so meaninglessly, Kirito passed through the village's gate, striding towards the forest covered in the ominous night.

o0OoO0o

As Kirito made his way to the forest, he looked at the clear night sky, with the stars and such, and had to remind himself that there was no sky within Aincrad. All that was in its place was just the bottom of the next floor stretching out a hundred metres overhead, hence the only times when the Sun could be seen directly was restricted to the mornings and evenings. Of course, the Moon follows suit.

But instead of seeing the bottom of the next floor, the designers made it so that the sky was like the outside. Meaning that you would see clear sky, clouds and stars. There was a day/night rotation, along with a weather system in the game, making it so there could be rain, storms and snow.

Tonight, it was a beautiful clear night and whilst obviously not to the level of day, a pale blue light illuminates all the way to one's feet, posing no inconvenience even while running.

Shaking his head, Kirito put these thoughts to the back of his mind. The attention to detail wasn't important right now, what was important was levelling up. As a solo player, it was more important than if he was in a party. As what he had planned would need as many skill slots as possible as fast as possible.

You see, for Sword Art Online, you have up to twelve skill slots where you can use twelve skills at any time. But there are two main problems with this system. The first problem is that at the start of the game you only start off with two slots, and you would need to level up to get more. You get the third slot at level six, the fourth one at level twelve, and the fifth one at level twenty. After that, they get an additional slot every ten levels afterwards, until they get all twelve.

The next problem is that when you switch one skill with another, they are reset to zero. There were only three ways to prevent this from happening. The first was to get the skill to level one thousand, at which point you are considered to have mastered the skill and can switch it at will without worrying about the skill resetting. This was the hardest and for most in the beta test, not many tried to do this unless they wanted to become an alchemist. They gave up after a while.

Because of this, players used the other two options. The second was to level them up to either two hundred and fifty, five hundred and seven hundred and fifty. Once you get to one of these levels, once you swap the skills around instead of resetting to level zero, you would only get back to whichever one you passed last. This is why most people would normally try to master their skills until they got to level five hundred. It was a decent place to stop.

The last option was an item that you get on the third floor. The item was called Crystal Bottle of Kales'Oh. It's a multi-use item that can be used to store the proficiency of an equipped skill to open up a skill slot without losing progress in the removed skill. You could only get this bottle on floor three during certain quests and defeating elves on that floor. It was rumoured that there were other ways, that there was an Elf Alchemist that could make the bottles. But Kirito couldn't find the elf, as it would be useful if he could.

Getting back to the present, Kirito had already filled one of the slots with the skill, one hand sword, the moment that he started the game

He had plans to think hard about what to put in the other empty slot. However, after experiencing that nightmarish tutorial and leaving behind the Town of Beginnings, the chance to mess around with skills has been robbed from Kirito.

For solo players, there exist several indispensable skills. The ones most important among those were Searching and Hiding. Each of these skills would raise his rate of survival, but the former is also able to contribute to increasing the efficiency of hunting, while the latter has its efficiency falling faintly in this forest, due to a certain reason.

However, before he could even consider equipping either of them, he first had to get them. Unlike other games where you get a set number of skills at the start of the game, with Sword Art Online, other than a few sword skills, the rest of the skills you would have to find before you can use them. Thankfully, there was a Hunter's cabin near the entrance of the forest. So, the first stop before going into the forest was the cabin, to learn these skills.

However, as he got to the cabin, he found that this place had changed too. It became a small two-story hunting lodge, with the second floor having a balcony with tables and chairs on it. When he was about to enter the lodge, as he put his hand onto the door, there was a warning window pop up:

Warning- Teaching Area!

You're about to enter a place where you can learn a skill from a 'teacher.'

You have two options from here.

Option 1:

Enter and learn Hunting from a hunter.

Option 2:

Get the Hunting Skills automatically.

(Warning, whilst learning the skills automatically is faster, you might miss out on some extra skills!)

Which would you want?

Option 1/Option 2

Kirito was in two minds about this. Whilst learning the skills automatically would make things easier and allow him to level up faster, he could miss out on new skills. But learning from a 'teacher' might teach him new skills that he might not learn normally, but at the cost of time. Something that could cost him dearly, as it would be a matter of time before people would leave Town of Beginnings to hunt new areas to level up; And if he wanted to get stronger, he would need to level up fast.

Kirito was leaning towards learning the skills automatically, as time was against him right now and he needed to work fast. But then he remembered that levelling was the only way to get stronger. Whilst it was one way, the other was to learn and master the skills, earning stats and possible new skills.

He couldn't believe that he almost forgot about this, that levelling up his skills would give him stats and attributes. So, by getting as many skills as possible could be better than levelling up.

Realizing this, Kirito decided, for Option 2, to learn from a teacher, in the hope of learning extra skills and in turn, gaining extra stats and attributes. With that in mind, Kirito pushed Option 2 and entered the lodge.

As he entered the lodge, it was more or less as he remembered it, but bigger. A place full of trophies from monsters that they defeated, with books on monsters and the like. The only difference is that instead of one person in the place running it.

"How can we help you today?" asked one of the hunters. This was the hunter that Kirito knew of. He never caught his name in the beta, more than likely like the others. He didn't have a name. Not that he cared about before, just got his skills and left. Like before, this man was a tall redheaded man, with a slim but muscular body. He wears a hooded cloak, black pants secured by a rope belt, and black shoes. He didn't wear a shirt, instead his chest was bare, showing off the scars that he had. The last noticeable thing about him was that his hands all the way up to his shoulders were covered by bandages.

"Hey, I'm an Adventurer that's been summoned to this world." Kirito told them, not sure if this would be the right wording, but had to try. "I'm here to learn some hunting skills so that I can enter the forest."

"Then you need to come back in the morning," explained the man, "it's getting late and it would be too dangerous for you to enter the woods during the night."

"I understand, but Aiko asked me to get a flower called Little Nepent's Ovule from a rare monster in the hopes of curing her daughter." explained Kirito, "So, I would like to get it as soon as possible."

"Grand Master Giraud, I understand the risk, but I'm willing to train and take this Adventurer into the forest." said a female, who came down from the stairs from the second floor. This lady was slightly smaller than Kirito. She had long purple hair, and she had freckles on her cheeks and nose. Her hair was pulled back with braids in the back and on the sides. She also had accessories in her hair, such as beads. Her eyes are green, and her eyebrows are narrow.

This lady was wearing a white hooded bolero, which underneath it she was wearing a dirty fitted crop top with leather breast shields, protecting parts of her breasts. She also had a belted low-rise miniskirt with shorts underneath. Not only that, but she was wearing a pair of full-length mesh fingerless gloves, and mesh knee-high stockings. Lastly, she had studded steel toe high-top boots,

"Are you sure about this Aloy?" asked Giraud, "We few need to protect the village should any monster's attack it, seeing how the rest and other Hunters are dealing with the monsters around the First Floor."

"I understand, Grand Master," acknowledged Aloy, "but what if this flower is a cure to the illness that's going around this floor? We'll be able to cure every child that has come down with this. So, it would be for the best if we help this and the other Adventurers. Don't forget, Little Nepentsare more active at night than during the day. And whilst it is dangerous, this is an Adventurer that we're talking about. They are stronger than us. So, we should be fine in the forest."

Kirito wanted to say that he wasn't that strong just yet, but he didn't. As he knew that more than likely, they wouldn't believe him, as they were programmed not to. But still, it sounded as if this Tian was coming with and that she was going to teach him in the forest. So, he asked to make sure, "Are you saying that you'll be teaching me how to hunt in the forest?"

"Sure, whilst it's dangerous, it's also the best place to learn things." explained Aloy, "As I can show you things that I can't outside of the forest."

Kirito had to admit, it would make sense to train in the forest, even if it is dangerous. Not that Kirito minded. In fact, having an extra person with him, even if she was basically an NPC, would be useful. He would have someone who would have his back and help him fight.

"I understand." Kirito simply said, no need to say more. All he wanted to do right now was to learn these skills and get into the forest.

"So Grand Master, will you allow me to take this Adventurer into the forest in the hopes of finding a cure for the illness that the children have?" asked Aloy.

It amazed Kirito at the detail that the Grand Master had in his face. Whoever created this NPC did a great job. The Grand Master was showing signs of how foolish it would be for him to deny this request, that if he did, people would go against him should a child die when a cure could be found. So, with a deep sigh, the Grand Master said in defeat, "Fine, but I want both of you to be careful."

"I understand Grand Master." Aloy said with a bow.

"I understand sir." said Kirito.

With that, Aloy picked up two diggers and put them behind her back, as she and Kirito left the cabin and went into the forest.

o0OoO0o

As Kirito and Aloy got to the entrance, Aloy stopped and asked Kirito, "So, which skill do you want to learn first?"

"What skills can I learn?" asked Kirito. Sure, he knew of Searching and Hiding, but those were from the beta testing and with how things are now, he wasn't sure what the skills were now. Were they the same or were they different, it was better to ask before deciding.

"Well, there are two group sets of skills that Hunters have, Hunting and Survival, each either their own skills." Aloy explained to Kirito, "But seeing how we're going into the forest tonight, the two skills would come under Hunting: Tracking and Stealth. As the names suggest, one allows you to track the monsters whilst another allows you to hide from them."

Kirito was a bit surprised by this. They had the same skill as Search and Hide, but with a different name. He wondered if there was more to this than just the name change.

"Which skill will you teach me?" asked Kirito. Although he already knew which skill he wanted to use, but he wanted to hear what this Tian got to say about this.

"Either you want. In fact, I can teach you both of them tonight." Aloy told him, "Both skills are useful in the forest, but I would suggest using Tracking. Using Stealth would be useless against the Little Nepents that you're looking for. As they don't see the same as we and the other monsters do, they have no eyes to see. Because of this, they seem to have another way of sensing things around them. Some say they see by sound; some say they see through vibration. So whilst I can teach you Stealth, it's best to use Tracking to hunt for Little Nepents."

Kirito smiled at this, glad to see that Aloy was programmed to say such things to help the players out like this. Now as Aloy talked about these Little Nepent's being able to sense others by sound or through vibration, Kirito had wondered how they fought too without sight. He thought it had to do with something like Bio-Sonar, using sound waves and using the echoes that return from various objects to locate and identify the objects.

"How long will it take to teach me the Stealth Skill?" asked Kirito. He wanted to learn both skills tonight, but if it was going to take time to do so, he would learn Tracking now and Stealth later.

"I can teach you the basics real fast," Aloy informed the young boy. "the rest of the skill is just mastering it. And for Tracking, that'll take time as you would have to learn the monster's tracks to know which one, you're following. There are other things to learn about too, which I can do over time."

Hearing that he could learn basic Stealth real fast, Kirito was more than happy to learn Stealth now. So he said, "In that case, could you teach me about Stealth please?"

With that, Aloy began to teach Kirito about Stealth. That having light and soft clothing was important, as having clothing that has rough parts could make a nose, which could alert the monsters and the people you were following that you were there. She also taught him that keeping low was important too, how much he should walk before stopping and how if you do make a sound of any type, you should stop and look round to make sure no one or thing noticed him, before moving again. There were other tips and such, but in about half an hour, Kirito learned Stealth. He now could push the button to use it or use it manually.

Although, if he used the Stealth button, Kirito would have a better use of the skill than he would if he did so as a normal person. At least until he mastered the skill normally.

But what shocked Kirito was that he gained a passive skill called Breathing:

Passive Skill - Breathing (0000/1000)

Helps with controlling your breathing for certain skills.

As you level up, the better control you have.

This shocked Kirito, as in the beta testing, there was no such window for Passive Skills. Take Inventory Expansion, for example. He got that at level ten. It was a sort of skill that you only need to be in your Skill Slot to use, so you could say that was a Passive Skill. As he levelled it up, more items he could have in his inventory. Whilst a good skill to have, it took a slot that could be used for another skill. If this new system was for Passive Skills, it would make things very much easier for him. And he hoped that Inventory Expansion goes into this window and not a skill slot.

Kirito would ask the Tian what it meant, but he didn't think she would know about this. Instead, he wanted to know about this new skill, one that he never saw in the beta test. So he asked, "Aloy, I just got a skill called Breathing. Do you know what this is about?"

"Yes Adventurer, it's a skill that should help you with skills like swimming and hunting." explained Aloy, "With swimming, which I'll teach you about later, as you level it up, you can breathe underwater for longer. Whilst with hunting, as you level it up, it can help to lower your heart rate and breathing, making it harder for monsters who use their hearing to sense heart beats and breathing to sense you."

Kirito had to admit that was an interesting skill to have, even if it was a passive skill. Especially when he got the skill to swim. On the fourth floor, it is like Venice in Italy, where the floor is more or less a water floor with only a few places of land. The rest of it is a city built upon an underwater city. You had to travel on a gondola to get around. But because no one had the skill to breathe underwater for a long time, no one was able to search the underwater town. But with this skill, if he was able to master this new skill, he might be able to search the underwater city and see if there's anything of interest there.

"So how do I level up this skill? Do I only need to breathe or something?" asked Kirito, wondering how to level this skill up, hoping it would be that simple.

"Unfortunately, no," Aloy informed him, "the only way to level up this skill is to use the skills connected to this skill."

"I understand." Kirito told her, and he did understand. It would have been too easy if he only had to breathe normally. He would have been able to level it up in no time. So, the developers of this game had to prevent it somehow, and this was it.

Either way, with one skill down, there was one more skill to learn tonight: Stealth. "Can we learn Stealth now?" asked Kirito.

"Sure, let's go into the forest." said Aloy, and with that, the two of them entered the forest.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note - PLEASE READ: Here ends another chapter of Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition. I hope that if you enjoyed this chapter and you have a few moments to spare, could you please leave some feedback and let me know what you think of this story. As what you say does help me with this story, be it ideas or just comments about what you think of this story. Did you like how I'm trying to make the NPCs more real than the little we have seen in the show? (Never read the light novel, so I don't know how the NPCs were in it. But from what I read from First Day, they did seem different, but making them more so in this story.)

Now, for those who read First Day in the light novel, Volume 8, of Sword Art Online, what did you think of this chapter? Did you like the changes to the story? This chapter took longer than I hoped for because I altered a lot of things from the original version of First Day, so I hope you like what I have done.

I would like to ask those who read the LN and know about the story, what did you think of my change with the Passive Skills? From what I have learned, skills like Battle Healing which could be called Passive Skill, would need to be in a Skill Slot so that you could use it. To me, that would be a normal skill and not a Passive Skill. But in this story, as you can see, I'm making it so that Passive Skills have their own skill window. So, what do you think of that?

Once again, I would like your help. As I'm trying to make this Sword Art Online seem real like in the VR, I would like ideas as to how I can do this. Got two ideas already. The first is that, other than your basic quests where you can respect them in a short cool down, there'll be quests like to create the Alchemy Chest Quest, where you can't get more wood until the carpenter asks for it when he runs out of wood again.

The second way I'm going to make it more real, is like the quest like in this chapter, the Secret Medicine of the Forest Quest. I'm planning it so that they can't do this quest again, so that the girl won't be ill again. Before you say anything about other players unable to get the sword, because they will be able to, but from a different NPC/Tian. I'll be having it so that the players have to do a different quest or the same quest but someone else is ill. But there'll only be a certain amount of Anneal Blades going around about five hundred or so. Meaning that once all the blades are gone, no one else is able to get them - at least on the first floor anyway. Thinking about doing this for a few quests, to keep it real as possible.

But I'm looking for other ways to make the game more real. So if you have any ideas, I would like to hear it. As I had Kayaba say, this is no longer a simple game that you play. There's more to it than it first seems. So, I want the plays to understand this and I want ideas as to how I can show this.