Notes: Apparently, SAO Progressive will be getting an anime, now that Alicization is over. Looking forward to finally seeing Argo get animated. Ha!
Sword Art Online III: Asgard
Ten
As Kirito and the others were advancing through the dungeon, other guilds were challenging the first floor and trying to catch up with them. Log Horizon and the Salamanders were the two major players, but others were going in too. Some being more successful than others...
'Fortune Hunters' was the name the one guild registered under, though many people who knew them described the group as 'Fortune Lovers.' They were skilled adventurers, but they sometimes got tangled up in romantic drama.
"Everyone ready? Let's go!" Geordo Stewart declared, the golden armored blonde beaming.
"You're not party leader, remember?" Alan Stewart reminded him frostily, the silver haired man frowning.
Alan and Geordo were real life brothers who both played ALO, but each did so in different ways. Geordo was as good player but somewhat impatient, so he invested real world money to buy the best gear and weapons. Alan, on the other hand, did good old fashioned level grinding to build up his character and mildly resented him.
"Now, now," Katarina Claes said as the pretty brown haired woman played peace keeper. The swordswoman was quite unaware most of her guildmates were interested in her.
Nicol Ascart, party leader and a year older than the rest, nodded. The elegant black haired man noted, "Make sure the buffs are ready, I heard there are elemental monsters."
"Yes, big brother," Sophia Ascart smiled, the pretty albino casting spells. She was a real life friend of Katarina, and the two of them had helped found the guild months ago. 'Sophia' also had a crush on the real like Kat, but sadly her friend seemed oblivious to love.
"Right," Mary Hunt frowned. The good looking Salamander wore a tunic that was cut low to show off her breasts, and her armor highlighted her long legs too. Annoyingly, Katarina didn't seem to notice it at all...
Keith Claes roleplayed as Katarina;s brother, and was one of the group's 'tanks' alongside Alan and Geordo. Their job was to soak up damage while the others attacked. "Do we need to upgrade our armor and such?" he asked.
"It'll be FINE," Geordo waved it off. "Besides, we have the Miracle Healer, Maria."
Maria Campbell frowned slightly. YES she was a talented healer, but she couldn't save everyone if things went very wrong. Really, if it came down to it she'd just save Katarina then try to get them both out.
"All right," Nicol declared, "we're going in!"
"Banzai!" Katarina cheered excitedly as they charged in.
Sadly the group had NOT bought a copy of the new Argo guide, nor had they actually upgraded their weapons. They suffered a total party kill in a few minutes...
They 're-spawned' at their last save point, all looking a bit stunned.
"That was SO COOL. Let's do it again!" Katarina declared.
"NO!" everyone yelped.
"We're going to buy the Argo guide and prepare, this time," Nicol added seriously.
"I can't believe how FAST our armor went," Alan muttered.
"I'm totally complaining to Agil for selling me this gear," Geordo noted.
"BROTHER...," Alan sighed.
Mary moved over to where Maria was standing, "Did you try saving Katarina and running off with her?"
"Well, yes," Maria admitted.
"I've clearly underestimated you," Mary noted then walked off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Converting your character from one game to another was actually fairly simple. The biggest complication was storing any rare or exclusive stuff you may have. Thankfully, Pitohui had a house in GGO where they all could put their stuff.
"I feel NAKED without my P-chan," Llenn mourned the absence of her usual gun. She was also REALLY TALL, which was NOT helping.
Pito gave her a sympathetic look, "We'll get this handled." She looked at the other woman questioningly, "Fuka?"
Fukaziroh nodded briskly, "Right, I'll be back in a minute."
M looked around them warily. He was HUGE, much like his GGO avatar, though the fairy wings on him just looked damn odd.
"This is go cool," Clarence declared. She looked down at her leather catsuit clad body, "Hey! I got tits this time!"
"Do you HAVE to be so crude?" Llenn sighed.
"Yes," Clarence grinned.
Shirley calmly smacked her comrade. She looked around warily as she said, "I'm going to do an archer character. Okay?"
They had encountered Clarence and Shirley in the second Squad Jam, where both women had tried to kill them. And both had gone on a rampage in Squad Jam three, too, improving Pito's opinion of both. Llenn was startled that Pito decided to recruit them for this adventure... but she supposed more folks couldn't hurt?
"Here we go, character editing potion," Fuka returned a few minutes later.
"How does it work?" Llenn asked, taking the vial nervously.
"Just think what size you want and drink," Fuka explained, "the fulldive system will 'read' it and adjust your avatar to that."
"Oookay," Llenn drank, then rapidly shrunk from a amazonian 6' to around just 4' tall.
"That's a relief," Clarence noted, "no insult meant, but you look weird tall."
"Whee!" the now short Llenn spun around.
"Okay," Shirley drawled, "we're going to need equipment and such, and we only have starter cash. How do we pay for it?"
"It doesn't work like over on Gun Gale, but M and I secured funds for everyone," Pito used the 'gift' system in game to send shares of money to everyone.
"Eeep," Llenn blinked as she saw how much it was.
"Marry me, sugar momma!" Fuka cried, glomping Pito.
"Back! Back! My heart belongs to Llenn," Pito growled.
"What," Llenn yelped.
M grunted, but was content to be Pito's bottom anyway. Long story, don't ask.
Calming down a bit Fuka then addressed the group, "So, who studied the magic system here, like I asked?"
The other five looked sheepish.
"Shit. I'm the only magic user too!?" Fuka complained. "We're buying lots of potions, then..." Fuka said with a sigh.
"Ok, off to shop! Then we'll tackle that new Dungeon I heard about," Pito declared.
"We are SO screwed," Clarence or Shirley muttered, but everyone willingly followed Pito.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"We are SO screwed!" Touya yelped, the samurai dodging frantically.
"Language!" Maryelle chided cheerfully as she rapidly cast healing.
Shiroe grinned, even as they fought the first 'boss' of this new dungeon.
(Until someone completely cleared the dungeon, monsters and bosses would continue to re-spawn. Thankfully loot drops from monsters continued, and after awhile treasure chests refilled too. So even though they were following Kirito's group, they still profited.)
"But THREE health bars? Seriously?" Isuzu the Bard complained.
"We've faced worse!" Naotsugi quipped, playing tank and calmly drawing the enemy strikes down on himself.
"Naotsugi, Touya, keep drawing attacks! Minori, Maryelle, concentrate on healing the tanks! Isuzu, Henrietta, keep up the buffs! Everyone else, ATTACK!" Shiroe ordered.
They had managed to clear one health bar already, and were about half through another.
"ASSASSINATE!" Akatsuki yelled, the tiny black haired ninja girl managing a perfect Back-stab along with her attack. The bonus for that feat along with her usual damage nearly cleared the second bar.
"Nice!" Nyanta congradulated her with a grin as the twin sword using buccaneer attacked, polishing off the health bar.
"It's attacks will probably change now that it's on it's last health," Shiroe warned.
"Got it, Villain in Glasses!" Henrietta teased.
Shiroe sighed, "I wish people wouldn't call me that..."
They defeated the final bar, thankfully with no one dying.
"And there's three more floors of this?" Maryelle asked breathlessly as she healed up Naotsugi from near zero life.
"They get smaller as they go up," Shiroe noted.
"AND HARDER," Maryelle pointed out.
"Well, we gotta try, right?" Naotsugi noted wryly.
To be continued...
Notes: YES, that's the cast of 'My Next Life as a Villainess, All Routes Lead to Doom.' Might even expand that bit later into a full fanfic. I do need to figure out their types of characters etc etc.
At some point I want Naotsugi and Asuna to bond over using their real names as their character ones.