First Days

'Shit.'

Despite the rage boiling inside Battousai, he clearly felt when his sister lost her balance and fell to her knees. He needed to get her out of here. Horunka was their best bet for survival, but Saike wasn't in any shape to travel. Maybe he could rent her a room at an inn and strike out for the Anneal Blade quest on his own? It might be worth a shot, except he didn't want to leave her alone. Growling in effort, Battousai bent and lifted his sister from the ground. Once he was sure she would be alright, they could leave for the next town. He wasn't naive enough to think they would be the first there. Other beta testers would try for the sword, but it was a necessary move. The Anneal Blade was strong enough to last him until at least the end of the Fourth Floor.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before he found the both of them a room. He'd moved quickly enough that he was among the first to rent a space in the town and the grinding they'd done earlier made the small room more than affordable. Now, he just needed to get Saike's attention. After he'd set her down on the room's small bed, she'd immediately curled into a ball and refused to talk to him. She didn't shy away from his touch, thank god, but until she recovered enough from her shock to start talking, he wouldn't leave.

Silently, Battousai cursed Kayaba. Not just for trapping his sister- or for turning what was meant to be fun into a terrifying death trap- but for ruining the plans he'd had for his build. It was selfish, he knew, but he could chalk it up to his own dose of shock if asked. Originally, he'd planned for a Rurouni Kenshin-type build. Now, his build would never match his name. He'd switch to a One-Handed Sword build- maybe even use a shield- and protect his sister, no matter the cost.

It was hours into the night before his sister finally stirred and Battousai silently thanked whoever watched over them that she hadn't gone completely catatonic. Saike sat up and rubbed at her red, puffy eyes. Despite being completely still and utterly quiet, she'd still been crying. He couldn't blame her, though he only felt a detached ambivalence once his anger had faded. Aside from the part where they'd die in truth, he was planning to spend almost every waking hour in this world anyway. He just regretted bringing her into this waking nightmare.

"D-Dan…?" The brother leaned over and hugged his sister tightly. She returned the gesture with as much strength as she could muster. "Are we… really stuck here?"

"I'm afraid so." He opened his menu to try logging out once more, just to be absolutely certain. No luck. Sighing, he closed the menu and returned his arm to the hug.

"Your hair…" Saike's whisper was barely audible.

"What?"

"Your hair," she clarified, a bit louder this time, "You changed it to match mine. Why?"

Battousai pulled back and tried to hide the growing blush that colored his face. He should tell her, shouldn't he? Their father had always told him that it wasn't his place, but… the man wasn't there now, was he? He started to open his mouth but stopped as he saw the innocent curiosity sparkling in his kid sister's eyes. No, he couldn't tell her. Not yet, at least, but soon. She deserved to know. Instead, he told a half-truth. "Just wanted to see what I'd look like with the same hair and eyes as you."

"But I like how you look!" Saike pouted but he just shrugged and gave her a pat on the head, a wry smile plastered on his face.

"If it makes you feel better, you can use my real name when we're alone. But out in public, it's any variation of 'aniki'. Got it?" It warmed his heart to see the small smile that formed on Saike's face as she nodded.

Suddenly, as if the weight of their situation had hit her all over again, Saike slumped with a whimper. "We're really trapped here…"

"Yeah…" Battousai wanted to encourage his sister, but denying reality wouldn't help them. Instead, they needed to accept it and move forward anyway. "But it's possible to beat this game. We can go home. I'll get you home. I promise."

. . . Loading Perspective: Kirito . . .

'Death Game…'

Even regular sports carried risk of injury, but this was something more. Sword Art Online now carried the very real penalty of death as a consequence. Even the simplest mistakes could be fatal. And Kirito was no stranger to making mistakes. Back when he'd been participating in the beta there were times he'd underestimated an enemy. Early on, he'd even fallen to the Frenzy Boars and Dire Wolves that populated the fields of Floor 1.

With the introduction of this criteria, Sword Art Online had become a Death Game. He and nearly 10,000 other players had all been in the central plaza of the Town of Beginnings as the creator and ruler of Aincrad, Kayaba Akihiko, had dropped this tremendous weight on his shoulders.

If Kirito's Hit Points- HP for short- reached zero, he would die. The game's code would cause the NerveGear's built-in safety precautions to fail and allow the hardware to essentially melt his brain. If he or someone on the outside broke Kayaba's rules, he would die.

It didn't feel real.

Yet, it was Kirito's admiration- though, perhaps misplaced- in Kayaba that had him convinced the situation was actually happening. That belief had spurred him to leave the Town of Beginnings behind. He was alone, having left his first and only friend behind at the man's own request.

There were many reasons why. The uncertainty of if towns would remain coded as Safe Zones, to avoid infighting over resources. He also had to admit his instincts- grown over years of obsessively playing MMOs- caused him to fixate on leveling up. Getting stronger.

In a world such as this, the players themselves could also be Kirito's enemies. Outside towns, killing others- known as PKing- was enabled. He wasn't naive enough to think that the entire player base would abstain from committing murder, or at least threatening it to get ahold of a person's money and items.

Kirito panted hard as he burst past the gates of Horunka. It had taken him a full hour of constant running, but he'd made it. If he was going to stay ahead of the pack, he'd need to leave the "relatively safe" areas for more dangerous territory.

The thought of someone with stats and a level that eclipsed his own was terrifying. Besides, with the spawn rate of monsters being fixed, he knew the fields around the starting town would soon be overrun with hunters.

'If I hadn't participated in the beta, this would be way too risky.' Kirito thought as he finally caught his breath. He made a beeline to the nearest merchant and sold all of the items that had dropped during his trek.

Next to the counter, set reverently in a simple wooden weapon stand, was a Bronze Sword. Kirito hesitated as he thought about the starting Small Sword he'd gotten earlier in the day. The sword the merchant was selling was more powerful than the one he was currently using, but it had less Durability and was weak to the corrosive attacks that nearby Plant-type monsters had. For now, the Small Sword was better but he'd need to replace it as soon as possible. Kirito shook himself from his thoughts, bolted out of the weapon shop, and headed towards a small house at the village's outer perimeter.

With a bit more force than was necessary, Kirito opened the door to the house. Inside was a woman sitting in front of a fireplace. The flame that burned was heating up a mid-sized cauldron filled with a foul-smelling concoction of medical herbs. The woman noticed him after a second and turned towards him with a kind smile.

"Good evening, nomad; you must be exhausted. I'd offer food but all I have at the moment is water." The NPC picked up a mug and pitcher, offering it kindly as Kirito made his way inside and sat down.

"Water is fine." He carefully took the mug and sipped at the cool liquid inside. He could have said a simple 'yes' or 'sure', but Kirito preferred to approach his role a bit more seriously. 'I bet if I'd been polite and said "Don't mind me", the system would've taken me quite literally.'

The woman smiled and turned back to stirring the bubbling pot beside her. Since she'd only offered him water, despite something being in the cauldron, was a hint. However, Kirito waited patiently for a few seconds as he sipped his water. Before long, the sound of a child's coughing came from a nearby closed door. Hearing this, the woman slumped dejectedly and a golden question mark appeared above her head. This signified the presence of a quest.

"Is something the matter?" Kirito asked, gently placing his mug of water on the small table in front of himself. The phrase was one of many that the system recognized as accepting an NPC quest. The question mark above the woman flashed as she turned to me.

"It is my daughter." The woman explained. "She's been very sick. I have tried all the herbs available at the market, yet nothing's worked."

Kirito nodded as he listened to the woman. This was dialogue he'd heard in the beta, of course. He'd need to hunt for a rare item in the forests nearby the town. The woman explained briefly that the item was an ovule that could be harvested from the ovule of certain carnivorous Plant monsters. The task was far too dangerous for her, so she requested for Kirito to obtain the medicine for her. In return, he would be rewarded with a sword that had been passed down through her family for generations.

Kirito sat through the whole speech. The quest could only be taken if he listened to the entire thing. Besides, hearing the child's coughing in the background made it hard for Kirito to want to be rude.

"Leave it to me!" Kirito stood and shouted as the Quest Log updated on the left side of his vision before darting out of the house. The outburst was unnecessary but he was in character.

Immediately, the clock at the center clearing of the town began to chime. It was 7pm and Kirito found himself wondering what the real world was like right then. Society had to be in chaos. His real body would be laying on his bed in a coma-like state. He could practically see his mother and sister sitting at his bedside.

'I wonder what they're feeling. Shock? Maybe fear or doubt? Perhaps even grief…' Still, he was grateful to them for not succumbing to the urge to rip off his NerveGear. The fact that he was still alive and conscious proved their restraint. It meant they believed in both Kayaba Akihiko's threat and my eventual return.

In order to leave the death game alive, someone needed to reach the hundredth floor and beat whatever final boss lay there. It was an unfathomable task.

Of course, Kirito wouldn't entertain the idea of doing it himself. It was all he could do to struggle enough to ensure his own survival. He needed to get stronger. After that, he could consider other options.

"I'm sorry for worrying you, mom… Sugu." His eyes widened in surprise at the word that slipped out. 'Sugu' was a nickname he hadn't used for his sister for at least 3 years. Then and there, he made the decision to live. He'd return to the real world and call her 'Sugu' again.

With that, Kirito made his way out of the town's gates and into the eerie forest.

The lower floors of Aincrad had little to no sky, only the underside of the floor above. There was only a brief window when the sun and moon were visible. Despite this, it wasn't as if the world was dark during the day and pitch-black at night. This was a game, after all, and the system took advantage of that fact to provide adequate and accurate lighting at all times of day. Even in a forest at night, there would be enough ambient light to prevent someone from tripping if they walked carefully.

However, that was separate from the inherent creepiness of the dark. No matter how cautious he was, Kirito still felt as if he were being watched. 'Of course, now I wish I had party members…'

At Level 1, a player started out with 2 Skill Slots.

Kirito had used the first for One-Handed Straight Sword upon spawning into Aincrad. Even before Kayaba's betrayal, he had planned to think hard about how to use the second. The added danger of being trapped in a death game only made the decision that much harder. It also removed the fun from the choice.

Certain skills were invaluable when playing solo. Two of the most important were Searching and Hiding. Both would increase his chances of survival but had very different strengths. The former let Kirito hunt more efficiently, while the latter had less utility for now. He chose to equip Searching first and save Hiding for when he got his next Skill Slot at Level 6.

Neither skill was very useful in a party setting, however, which basically locked him into solo play. Maybe he'd regret the choice one day, but for now Kirito felt this was the right call.

Kirito was just about ready to head back to the village when he noticed a small cursor pop up in his vision. Search increased his detection range, so it would be a few seconds before he ran into the cursor's owner. The icon was red, indicating the presence of a monster.

NPCs had yellow cursors, friendly mobs were green, and enemy mobs were red. The shade of red was a rough indicator of the mob's strength, and the cursor in front of him was close to magenta.

The mob it belonged to was a pitcher-plant monster called Little Nepenthes. Despite its name, the mob was nearly 5 feet tall. It was Level 3, which explained the color of its cursor seeing as Kirito was still Level 1.

It wasn't a foe to be overlooked, but Kirito wasn't cowed. After all, the monster's cursor had the telltale gold border that marked a quest target.

He slowed a bit to scan the area for more mobs. When he was satisfied that no more were near enough to crash the fight, Kirito renewed his sprint. Stealth wasn't an option against monsters without eyes like Little Nepenthes. The system gave them a sort of 6th sense that made them all but immune to surprise attacks from behind.

"No luck…" Kirito growled as he stepped slightly off the forest path and rounded an old tree. While his target was a Little Nepenthes Ovule, it required killing a Little Nepenthes with a flower blooming atop its head to drop. And the spawn rate for that specific version was less than 1%.

Fortunately, Kirito could just keep farming Little Nepenthes until one with a flower spawned. The only thing he'd need to be careful of was a Little Nepenthes with a round fruit atop its head that had the same spawn rate as the flowered one.

The Fruited Little Nepenthes was a trap. Whether it was killed in one hit or not, the fruit would explode and release a foul-smelling smokescreen. While the smoke itself wasn't toxic, it would attract all other Little Nepenthes in the vicinity. If this forest was regularly farmed, that wouldn't be much of a problem. But that wasn't the case, this early into the game.

Kirito nodded in satisfaction as he made certain no fruit was present and drew his sword. Once he'd gotten close enough, the Nepenthes noticed him and readied two long vines.

The mob was designed to strike out with its whip-like vines and spit out a corrosive liquid. That gave it more variation than Frenzy Boars, who really only blindly charged ahead, but it was still easier to deal with than Kobolds and other humanoid foes. Those would be able to use Sword Skills of their own.

Most importantly, mobs like the Nepenthes were geared more towards attack than defense. In the beta, these mobs were Kirito's bread and butter. As long as he avoided getting hit, they were easy to kill.

"Shaaa!" The Nepenthes hissed and flung its right vine forward, causing Kirito's instincts to kick in. He jumped to his left, avoiding the strike entirely, and sliced at the area connecting the thing's vine to its pitcher- a weak spot.

Kirito smiled as he skidded to a top and watched his foe's health bar drop by nearly 20%. The hit had been a good one.

The monster roared again and started to puff up its pitcher. Kirito recognized it as the warm-up action for the Nepenthes' corrosive spray. An attack like that would not only do a number on his health and armor durability, but the sticky goop would impede his movement. The spray shot out a good 15 feet but had a narrow, 30 degree spread. Kirito could dodge the attack by moving to the sides.

He waited for the precise moment the pitcher stopped expanding before jumping to his right. The sickly-green liquid shot out but not a single drop hit Kirito. Instead it fell onto the grass where he'd been, hissing and steaming harmlessly.

Once Kirito was on the ground again, he readied his sword and slashed his foe's weak spot once again. The Nepenthes arched its back and screamed in pain as yellow static encased it- he'd managed to stun the monster. A plant being stunned was an odd idea to Kirito, but he wasn't about to waste the opportunity.

He drew his sword back wide and to the right, readying a Sword Skill. The blade glowed light blue as Kirito set himself and aimed the strike carefully.

"Haah!"

With a ferocious battle cry, Kirito released the Sword Skill with a little extra effort. [Horizontal] was a flat slash that made it easy for him to strike at his foe's weak spot.

The blade gave him a bit of resistance before it sheered the pitcher from its stalk with a satisfying Thwack. As the Nepenthes' main body tumbled through the air, it and the stalk glowed a bright blue-white before shattering into countless polygons. It filled Kirito with relief and pride to watch as his foe's health bar dropped into the red before fully depleting.

Kirito came to a stop in the skill's follow-up pose, naked sword still in hand. A window appeared to inform him of the items and EXP- nearly twice as much as the boar- gained. Overall, the battle had only taken 40 seconds. If he kept with the same pace, Kirito figured he'd get quite the head start on the non-beta player base.

Still, he needed to hunt as many Nepenthes as he could before other players arrived. Scanning the area, Kirito saw a few more Nepenthes at the edges of his Search range and no players. He had to admit the thought of drying the area's spawn rate alone was egotistical, but there was no such thing as a generous solo player.

Just then Kirito finally noticed the golden glow emanating from himself, along with a pleasant bit of fanfare. The Nepenthes, along with the EXP he earned earlier in the day while hunting Frenzy Boars with Klein, caused him to reach Level 2. Had he been in a party, Kirito would've been met with a rousing round of applause or 'gratz' for the feat. Instead, there was only the light breeze rolling through the leaves as he sheathed his sword.

Kirito swiped downward in the air with the index and middle fingers of his right hand to open the game menu. He navigated to his Status tab and distributed his Attribute Points. 2 into Agility and 1 into Strength. With the exclusion of magic from SAO, these were the only stats Kayaba Akihiko had deemed necessary to show players. To offset this, the game's creator had programmed in a near-limitless number of Battle and Crafting Skills to choose from. Once Kirito started unlocking extra Skill Slots, he had to wait for the truly big decisions.

For now, his focus needed to be on surviving the next hour. He had to build up a good safety margin before he could consider the future.

Done with his level-up, Kirito closed the menu. He settled on his next target and continued the hunt.

. . . The Next Morning . . .
. . . Loading Perspective: Saike . . .

My first night in Aincrad was spent fitfully trying, and failing, to sleep. My mind kept flashing back to the horrific image of blood oozing from the cracks in a scarlet dome made of System Messages. Of that blood clotting together to form the ghastly, haunting figure of Kayaba Akihiko. Of the players around me- some my age or even younger- screaming in terror or just simply falling to the ground, limp as despair overcame them.

I put on the NerveGear- endured that embarrassing process called 'Calibration'- expecting to find a game that, at worst, would fail to capture me like so many others before it. Instead, I was thrust into a waking nightmare.

Pushing myself into a sitting position, I stared across the room at Dan. He was sleeping peacefully on the inn room's couch, as if all was fine. Thinking about it, he must've spent plenty of nights asleep in Aincrad during the beta test. I quietly got out of bed and opened my menu to change. The process was much more simple when compared to the real world, requiring only a few clicks. In a second, I was in the game's starting clothes with my Iron Kata fastened to my hip.

Our room was on the inn's second floor and came with a relatively spacious balcony. I decided to take advantage of it and slipped out through the sliding glass doors behind the couch. The scene outside was surreal. I knew this world was virtual but there were so many NPCs that the bustling streets and shops almost felt real. Other players, however, were rare. I could see a few wandering around but it seemed most people had holed themselves up in inns.

I couldn't exactly blame them. If it weren't for Dan, I'd do the same. His presence calmed the hurricane of panic and terror in my head. And if I know him, we won't be staying here long. The door behind me slid open and I turned to see Dan joining me. He was dressed in the same clothes as yesterday.

"Brooding?" Dan asked. I rolled my eyes and turned back around.

"I guess…" We let an awkward silence hang in the air as he leaned on the railing with me. I turned to see him staring into the sky. I followed his gaze to see the bottom of Floor 2 through a haze of blue atmosphere and clouds. The sheer scope of the task ahead was enough to crush me. "So… What's the plan?"

"Horunka." Dan answered, turning his attention to me. I gave him a look that conveyed my confusion. "Ah, right. Well, it's a town to the northwest. There's a quest there with a really good reward. It'd be best to grab it before too many people make their way there. Besides, the fields around here are gonna be full of people before too long."

It was a little past 4pm before we reached Horunka. We'd kept a medium pace that allowed us a little extra time to farm whatever mobs spawned. As we reached the town gates, I yawned and had a good stretch. Horunka was rather unimpressive when compared to the starting town, but it held a certain coziness that I enjoyed. To the south was the rolling green hills I'd grown used to. However, the north and east directions were covered in thick woods.

Dan led me to a small weapons shop so we could sell unnecessary items and restock on potions. Despite running into a few Field Wasps, we hadn't needed to use a single antidote.

Dan sold his katana and replaced it with an Iron Sword. Unfortunately, the merchant didn't sell any katanas. Not even the basic Iron Katana.

"If I remember right, the NPC is this way." Dan said, heading towards the back edge of town. "Come on, Saike."

I shivered a bit as Dan said my in-game name. Using real names was impolite, but I still hated that my own brother wasn't using my real name. Still, it beat some rando tracking me down once we made it back.

After a few more minutes of walking, we came to a house that seemed to be a bit on the older side. The roof looked like it needed a bit of maintenance, the front door seemed slightly rotted, and vines crawled up the exterior walls. It must've been our destination, since Dan stopped to knock. I chose to lean with my back to the building, basking in the day's warmth as Dan walked inside to presumably start the quest.

I didn't have to wait long. Not 15 minutes later, Dan was walking back out.

"What's the damage?" I asked.

"We need to find a Little Nepenthes Ovule for the woman's sick daughter." Dan explained.

"Easy!"

"Not really. The version of Nepenthes that drops it has a spawn rate of around 1%." My shoulders slumped. "That isn't all; there's a version with fruit on its head that summons a hoard of Little Nepenthes if attacked."

I let out a loud groan and let myself slide down the wall until I was sitting. "Great!"

"We just need to be careful." Dan said, holding a hand out for me to grab. I did so and he hauled me easily to my feet. We were a little over halfway past Level 2 and Dan had distributed his Attribute Points evenly so he'd have a value of 3 in both Strength and Agility. We decided that I'd be more speed-oriented so my own allocation was 2 in Strength and 4 in Agility. "We should be done by nightfall, at the latest."

"That's something, at least." I growled as Dan and I headed into the forest.

Dan's estimate was more or less correct. It was 9:30pm when we found our target. It was different from the others but still obviously a Little Nepenthes. Its pitcher was a brighter shade of yellow and had a large flower atop its head.

"Finally!" I cheered as I resheathed my blade. Dan stood to the side and watched me as I squared off against the gnashing monster.

"Try and take this one on your own!"

"You just wanna be lazy!" I barked, turning to give Dan the evil eye. He just stood there with a smug smile, pointing behind me, and I turned just in time to see a whip-like vine shooting my way. The momentary distraction caused me to sidestep too late and take a glancing blow. A mild slice was cut into my left arm and my HP dropped about 4%.

I slid to a stop and growled low and deep as I rushed the overgrown pitcher plant. It tried to strike at me more as I closed the distance but I was too fast for its targeting system. Despite my brother's many warnings, I was playing it fast and loose with my dodges, leaving the barest amount of space between me and the Nepenthes' attacks.

This style of fighting made the enemy AI expect me to be in a certain place. I took advantage of that fact and dodged a corrosive spray the foe tried to release at point-blank range. I'd grown used to the attack patterns of this mob over the last few hours of hunting and watching Dan hunt. This close, the angle of the spray was a mere 5 degrees.

I blew past the Nepenthes with a small dust trail and performed an iai strike that left a deep, red gash in its weak spot. The monster screamed in pain as I turned to see its health bar drop by about 23%.

'A Sword Skill or two should finish it.' I pulled my katana over my right shoulder and set my feet. Not a second later, my blade started to glow a brilliant lilac.

I kicked off the ground and let my attack fly. It was [Reaver], a 1-hit basic Sword Skill belonging to the One-Handed Curved Sword category that caused me to charge forward to deliver a swift and powerful thrust. The strike hit my foe center-mass, lodging my sword in its body and leaving it with a meager pixel of health.

"Get out of there!" I gritted my teeth and ignored Dan's cries. I got myself into this mess and I would see my own way out of it. On the bright side, I was too close for the Nepenthes to unleash its corrosive spray.

Unfortunately, however, that didn't stop it from whipping me with its vines.

I felt two strikes cut across my back as I held firm to my weapon and in the corner of my eye, I saw my health drop by a worrying 16%. Panic shot through me like a bolt of cold lightning as I remembered that even a glancing blow had shaved off 4% of my HP.

"Hyah!"

I screamed in rage and defiance, once the post-motion delay from [Reaver] wore off, and swung my arms hard to the left. It was the side the cutting edge of my katana was pointing and the motion allowed me to carve fully through the Nepenthes. As the last pixel of its health bar depleted, it glowed blue-white before bursting.

Dan nearly tackled me to the ground as I stood stone-still. It was the closest I'd ever come to dying.

I barely registered the results screen that popped up for me and Dan.

Both of us reached Level 5 once we turned in the quest item. I wasn't paying attention to the dialogue and instead focused on allocating Attribute Points. Now, my Strength value was 6 while my Agility was at a comfortable 9.

However, my sense of accomplishment died once I saw the reason for the quest.

Staring at the calm form that was the NPC's daughter, I silently wiped my tears dry with the sleeve of my tunic. Unlike in the real world, my shirt was dry after just a moment or two without interacting with liquid. A 12 hour timer appeared above the mom's head and color was swiftly leaving her daughter's complexion.

"She's just code. She won't get better." Dan said solemnly as he placed a comforting arm across my shoulders. He tugged me out of the room and spoke softly, "Come on."

It wasn't fair. The girl may have been nothing but data and pixels but it still seemed cruel. She was forever resigned to a cycle of being deathly ill, getting cured, then falling ill once again. I moved my gaze up to Dan as we stepped back out onto Horunka's streets. Rather than the Iron Katana that had donned Dan's left hip, a dark scabbard and hilt hung horizontal across his lower back instead. I hadn't noticed him equip it.

"Is that the new sword?" I cleared my throat with a cough and not-so-subtly craned my neck to one side for a better look at the weapon. Dan nodded and chuckled as he pulled the blade free of its scabbard before holding it out for me to study. The weight of the thing nearly toppled me. "Is this what you were getting?"

"Yupp!" He nodded in the affirmative before taking the sword and resheathing it. "It's the Anneal Blade. Honestly, it's the best weapon outside of the Floor Boss's loot. With the right upgrades, it should easily last me until the end of Floor 3."

"Wow." I gaped in wonder at the strength it must hold. The scabbard itself wasn't all that special but the blade that it housed had been beautiful. It was a One-Handed Sword made of dark steel with a black leather-wrapped hilt. "Do you think I could get a sword like that?!"

I looked at the Anneal Blade with a hunger that caused Dan to back away from me slightly. My gloom hadn't been completely forgotten but it was momentarily replaced with excitement. 'With strong weapons like the Anneal Blade, we're sure to survive!'

"I have just the weapon in mind for you, sis." My smile widened even more, while Dan's face held a sour expression. "We… need to complete a quest for it, though."

Surprisingly, his words didn't seem to bother me too much. Instead, I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him out of the house and into the town.

"Wait, where are we going?"

"To get that sword, where else?!" I explained. Dan sighed but followed me.

"Fine, but wait! The quest NPC is in Medai, a village far to the east of here." Dan sped up his gait just enough to keep pace with me as I tore through town like a woman possessed. "There should be an inn, or at least a guest room in an NPC's home we can stay in. First thing tomorrow, we'll make for the next town."

{A/N}

And that's Chapter 2!

I know that, in canon, Kirito has a confrontation with Coper during the Anneal Blade quest, but I have other plans for him.
Hence the rehashing of the quest without that bit.

Still, I wanted to give Akemi a bit of showtime, so I hope it was satisfying seeing Kirito kill a regular Nepenthes while Akemi was shown killing the flowered version. Dan will get his share of glory moments, too, but not until a little later.

The chapters taking place daily in-world won't last too much longer, so don't worry if that isn't something you like.

I also plan on changing the series of events that befall Mito and Asuna during their own encounter with the Nepenthes, too, so expect that relatively soon.

A lot of this story is going to be wish-fulfillment for me because there are a lot of things from canon that I love and a lot of things that I would've done differently (read "better") than Reki Kawahara.

As of right now, its uncertain if I'll go into the Fairy Dance Arc and beyond but keep me posted on your opinions.
If there's enough demand, I can definitely make it happen. Also, don't hesitate to comment on inaccuracies and spelling/grammar errors.