Chapter Summary: In this third and final part of Second Day, Kirito meets up with the last two people he would ever expect in the game. Where he'll gain advice and things to think about.

Chapter Twelve…

Second Day - Part 3!

We begin our chapter with Kirito nearing the Town of Beginning, the quest to protect the merchant's cart and driver, was easy enough. A few monsters here and there, but nothing that he couldn't handle. Unfortunately, because he didn't have the hunting skill, Dismantle, Kirito wasn't able to get anything from the monsters other than from the Swamp Kobold Rat Hunters, where he got Cor, Potions, Spears and cape.. Kirito tried to get items from the monsters, but without the Dismantle skill, almost everything he tried to harvest from the monsters were either too damaged to sell or destroyed.

In the end, he was only able to gain a handful of stingers from the wasps, and a handful of tusks from the boarsThis just give Kirito another reason to go to the Hunter's Guild as soon as he finished getting the Alchemy Chest, so he could get the Dismantle skill. As he'll be in big trouble otherwise.

Whatever the case, he was now in the open land leading to the Town of Beginning, he would be there real soon. By that time, it would be almost 3pm, giving him about two hours to go to the Sword Training School there to get the one permanent Strength Point. After that, he would go to the Alchemist Store to see if anyone got the iron hinges yet, if not, he would go to the blacksmith to get the quest started.

Now as Kirito was waiting to arrive at the town, he was looking at his new items that he was using at the moment. The items that he got from the Kobold Trapper: The Trapper's Iron Grappling Hook, the Trapper's Leather Armguard and the Trapper's Leather Shoulder Guard. Sure, the Trapper had a cape and dagger, but they were useless to Kirito and so he didn't use them. Looking at the stats of the Armguard and the Shoulder Guard, he wished that he waited a bit longer before buying his past armour, as these items were slightly better. Sure only by a few points, but every point added up and with this Death Game, Kirito needed every point he could get his hands on.

Trapper's Leather Armguard

DEF:

15

Trapper's Leather Shoulder Guard

DEF:

20

For beginner armour, these items only had basic defence. To get more stats or a chance to gain status bonuses, Kirito would have to wait for either finding uncommon or higher armours or wait until he got to higher floors.

Trapper's Iron Grappling Hook

:

5

Skill:

The Weapon Dropper (10 SP per use.)

Note:

This item is upgradeable.

Whilst this item could be considered as a weapon, it wasn't, it was more like a tool. And whilst it had a low attack power, but that wasn't why Kirito was using it. He was using it because of the skill, for a few Soul Points, he could use its ability to make an opponent drop their weapon. It only lasts until the opponent picks up the weapon again, but within that small time frame, a person has the chance to attack and keep the opponent away from their weapon. They could even use the item to keep the weapon away from its owner. So whilst not useful for attack power, it is decent help in a fight.

Although it was a useful item, other than the low attack points, it had two other downsides to it. The first is that you couldn't use it at the same time as your main weapon, you have to use skill and swap to your main weapon to use it. So, you would have to be fast to use it. The other problem is that even if you do have a high attack stat in the first place, it wouldn't change the weapon's attack power. It would stay as a weak item. So it is useless to take hit points from monsters.

Although, the interesting part was the note on the weapon: This item is upgradeable. There are a lot of items in this game that can be useful in battle, but very few were upgradeable. So to have a tool that was upgradeable, it would be very useful and Kirito couldn't wait to see how this Grappling Hook could be upgraded. When he had the time. Kirito would see about talking to a blacksmith about the hook.

Either way, it wasn't long before Kitio arrived at the Town of Beginning. The thing was, the outside of the town seemed bigger from the outside than he remembered it from Beta Test. He wasn't sure if it was because of the excitement of joining the live version of Sword Art Online, having more people in the town, or the fear of learning about the Death Game, so he didn;t realize the change from the beta version of the game to this one. Or if there was an update overnight that no one knew about. But Kirito now realized that the town seemed different from the outside.

As Kirito thought about it, he did think that whilst the layout of the town was the same, it did feel as it took him a bit long to get to places. He didn't think about it as he was trying to rush through the town to get the things he needed and leave so he could play the full game. As the town was for beginners as it didn't have much that Kirito wanted, so he had no reason to look around. Now though, it felt to him as a good idea to keep an out and see what changes, if any, were made to the town.

Either way, once Kirito got off the merchant's cart at the front gate, the quest was complete and the merchant gave him his rewards. From there he checked to see if there were any changes to the Alchemy Chest Quest, seeing how after getting the iron hinges, there should only be one more job to do. To get some leather and fur, which would lead them to an important quest, to go to the Hunting Guild to learn how to dismantle a monster. With how the game is right now, these skills are inessential to make money and create items.

As he got to the shop, he found out that the quest was still going on. In fact, a few people have been sent to get to the hinges, but none of them brought them back yet. Kirito was glad about this, but as he thought about the events of the last twenty-four hours, it wasn't too much of a surprise that this quest wasn't finished. They had lots on their mind, mainly trying to stay alive and figuring out what was happening and levelling up. Finishing a quest like the Alchemy Chest Quest would be the last thing on their minds, levelling up surviving would be.

With that in mind, Kirito left the store with plans to go to the Sword Training School, to get the extra stat point in Strength. But as he got to the Sword Training School, Kirito saw that it was much bigger than in the Beta. Before, the place was an empty area with a pitch of land with twenty training dummies, the only building structure there was the entrance of it and a small building where the practice swords were kept. It was a long wall, with an archway for people to come and go.

But now?

Whilst it still had its entrance structure, it now had a large hut there. It was a one story hut, but it had an eating area and a bar. Not a bad place to sit and wait for your turn at the training dummies. As for the dummies, instead of twenty as like in the Beta Test, there were forty of them. Not only that, but they had four areas called Fighting Pits. This was an area that was surrounded by logs that were in the ground, or planks of wood connected to the logs.

Upon seeing all this, Kirito now understood why the town was so big. It would seem some of the areas have gotten bigger.

Now as he was about to walk towards where the School Master was, to use the dummies, Kirito was shocked to see a familiar face. The last two people he would have thought would be in this game: his kendo master, Ichigo Kurosaki and his step-daughter Ichika. Both of them were wearing a black shihakushō, somewhat the ones they wore in the real world. It somewhat surprised Kirito that they would wear them in the game instead of the normal clothing that was in the game.

For weapons, Ichika was using a katana, similar to what she used in the real world. The only difference was that instead of a plain tsuba, on her weapon, she had a large tsuba in the shape of a lightning bolt. Her father, though, was a big surprise, his sword was a huge broadsword in the shape of a khyber knife. He must have placed most of his stats when starting up into Strength so that he could use that sword.

"Sensei, Ichika, this is a surprise." said Kirito as he walked up to them, "I didn't think that you would be interested in playing this game."

"Oh, my daughter wanted to play the game." explained Ichigo, "And wanting to make sure she was safe in this game, and out of interest myself, I came with her."

"Ah I see." said Kirito with interest. Ichika was a year older than him, but she never really showed any interest in gaming, mainly kendo. She never talked about what she liked outside class for some reason. She was a private person, just like the rest of her family. "I wasn't suspecting to see you here, Ichika never seemed the type to like video games."

"There's lots that you don't know about me, Kazuto." Ichika said with a smirk, "I like lots of things, I just don't show them off like others. Unless they are close friends of mine."

"Fair enough." Kirito said with a smile. He knew her well enough to know that she was confident and loves a good fight, but only hangs around those that she trusts. "And please, call me Kirito whilst we're in this game. I prefer that no one knows my real name in the game."

"Fair enough, Kaz, I meant Kirito." Ichika said with a smile, correcting herself as she almost used his real name. She was tempted to tease him about his username, since it was made from parts of his last name and his first name, but decided not to. It's not like no one else did this. They had bigger things to deal with right now, like getting out of this Death Game. "So if I'm going to call you Kirito, please call me Yoruichi." Yoruichi was the name of one of her father's teachers, she was like her aunt too. Yoruichi was a cool person to be around with, she was playful and loved to tease her father

"Well, if we're going by our usernames, then you should call me Zangetsu." Ichigo, now known as Zangetsu, told Kirito.

"Zangetsu?" asked Kirito, "Do you mind where that come from? I've never heard of it before."

"It's the name of my first swords teacher and the name of my first sword." Zangetsu explained, "Zangetsu didn't teach me kendo, but how to fight with a sword for real. But in real life fighting with a sword, I learned about kendo later. You could say that Zangetsu gave me the sword which had the same name."

Kirito could feel that there was more to it, but felt it wasn't his business to ask, he wasn't bothered about it to be honest. If his sensei wanted to tell him he would.

"So, Kirito, what are you doing back here?" asked Zangetsu, "I thought because this town would have quests for beginners, you would have left for some of the harder quests to get stronger."

"True, but I've come back here for two reasons, one is to finish off a questline that I'm doing. But the other reason I've come back, and why I've come to this school, is because I learned that there have been many changes in the game since the Beta Test. Changes where I have to get stronger." Kirito admitted with a sigh.

"Like what?" asked Yoruichi.

"The monster's fighting style is different for one, another is that the quests also are different too." explained the black haired teen, "I had plans to come here sooner or later, but I wasn't planning to come here so soon. But with the changes that have been made to this game, and it becoming a Death Game, I had to change my plans to come here sooner to get stronger."

"How can a Sword School within a game help you?" asked Yoruichi, curious about how this gaming school would help with getting Kirito stronger.

"You know how your father uses training dummies at the dojo to make sure we get our kicks and punches right?" asked Kirito in which both Yoruichi and Zangetsu nodded at this, interested in where Kirito was going with this. "It's the same here, people use these dummies to train their Sword Skills here. A lot of people do this so that they can properly use them in the fields without worrying of getting killed in battle trying to figure them out."

"That's an ideal idea for newbies, it'll help a lot of people who desire to learn about their skills under a trainer instead of on their own." admitted Zangetsu, liking that sort of system in games. He might not have played too many games in the past, but the ones he did play, he wished that they had such a system in them. As whilst there have been tutorials to help with learning what the players needed, there are some things that tutorials didn't teach. Having a place to practise these skills and things that the tutorial would miss, would have been useful. To have one here would be good, especially with the game now being a Death Game.

"But how would this help you?" asked Zangetsu, "Don't you already know how these skills work thanks to the Beta Test?"

"Sure, but there's a hidden feature that most don't know about." explained Kirito, "I found this out whilst I was bored, and wanting to train my skills. After two hours of practising I found that I gained one Strength stat point. After a few tries I realized it was an ongoing thing, how long I don't know, just that if I wanted I might have been able to do so for a while. I know that it isn't much, but I say every free stat point we can get the better."

Zangetsu sighed at this, knowing how Kirito put himself and his beliefs down because of his lack of self-confidence. He had hoped that thanks to training with him, Kirito could have built up his confidence, but it didn't seem to be the case.

"Listen, Kirito, in a fight, it doesn't matter how much stronger you are, just that you are." explained Zangetsu, "Be it by strength, speed, smarts or whatever, if you have something that your opponent doesn't have, use it. Let's use this game as an example, as long as they don't have skills to buff themselves up, having a point or two in the right stat can be more than enough to win a fight."

Kirito wanted to deny it, but he had to admit that his sensei was right about it, as long as you had the right stats. Even without armour and a decent weapon, whilst difficult, you could win a fight. But he still thinks that every free stat point they can get, the better, as it would give them a chance to get stronger.

Zangetsu just let out a silent sigh, seeing the face that Kirito was having, thinking that stat points were more important than anything. Not that he blamed the kid. To him it was just like a game, where you need to level up and make sure to die, it's unlikely that he had to use his training the way that he, Zangetsu, had so far. He might not have the stat points like the others in the game, but thanks to his training and experience, whilst a little more difficult than suspected, he was able to defeat the monsters.

Although this was the case, Zangetsu believed that other than his daughter, if anyone else could do this, it would be Kirito. All he needed was experience and confidence in himself. Sure, others might be able to do this, but it would take time, whilst Kirito could do so sooner than the others. All he needed was a push in the right direction, as he suspected that his words alone wouldn't make the teen believe him. That stats alone wasn't needed to fight in this game.

"Hey, Kirito, I have a favour to ask of you." Zangetsu informed the black haired teen, "I want you to use the kendo skills that I have been teaching you to defeat the monsters in this game whenever you can instead of the game skills."

"Err?" Kirito asked in shock, not believing what he heard from his teacher. He needed the Sword Skills to defeat the monsters. This wasn't a normal game where he could play around and do whatever he liked and not be afraid of dying, and use kendo like that. No, this was a real life Death Game, ones that you would only read or watch about, he needed Sword Skills to survive this game. "But I need those skills to beat the monsters."

"I'm not saying not to use them, but only use them if you can't do so without them." clarified the kendo teacher, "You came back to kendo to learn how to use the sword so you can fight monsters properly, to stand out. If you decide not to use those skills now, it would be a waste of both mine and your time. It would be a disservice to you after all the hard work that you did to learn to fight with a sword."

As Kirito thought about it, he realized that Zangetsu was right. He did go back to kendo after so long to fight the monsters in this game properly, to have an out of the box idea of fighting them. After so much work over the last two years really would be a disservice to him, and a waste of time both for both him and his teacher. It would be a great dishonour to let his training go to waste. But at the same time, with his life at risk, he wasn't sure if he should be doing this

With that in mind, he said, "I can't promise you anything, other than that I'll try and use my kendo skills in my fights to defeat the monsters."

"That's all I can ask for." Zangetsu admitted to the teen. Then hoping that he could push Kirito in the right direction, he gave a hint to Kirito. "In fact, once you can kill the monsters with kendo skills, you can add Sword Skills into your fighting style. That way you can mix it up, so that your opponent is left guessing what you'll do next."

The hint worked. As Kirito thought about it, he realized that Zangetsu was right. If he was able to use both kendo and Sword Skills, there would be nothing stopping him from defeating the game. But at the same time, he shouldn't be over confident, who knows what changes that Kayaba has made so far. Not only that, he had no idea what was above the tenth floor, learning how to use Sword Skills with kendo would only be a start. Kendo alone wouldn't be enough, not against the more skilled human or human-like fighters that were in the game. They had different fighting styles, and hence he would have to adapt as time went by.

With more on his mind than before, Kirito nodded in acknowledgement to his teacher's words. He feared that if he asked more about this he would have more on his mind. Instead, he thought to ask a safe question, one he wanted to ask anyway, "So, Zangetsu, why are you and Yoruichi here? I thought that with your experience in sword fighting, you would have been able to do well in this game. I wouldn't think you would have problems learning the skills in this game."

"That's true," admitted Zangetsu, "however, when Yoruichi and I were out there, we saw how many people were barely handling a sword that they needed to be saved. We also saw that there were too many people who were afraid to fight. To help these people to grow stronger and not afraid, we thought that we should teach them how to use a sword or other blades. So, once I learned about this place, I came here to see if I could train players here. I was surprised to find out how easy it was to get permission to do so."

"I have to admit I was shocked at how real the NPC acted when dad talked to them." Yoruichi told Kirito, "They had a full discussion before the NPC agreed to allow dad and me to train people here."

"I have to admit, I wasn't suspecting a conversation with a computer character." Zangetsu admitted, "After having a strange conversation with this NPC, it was agreed upon that as long as no other players wanted to use the Training Dummies or the Fighting Pits, I can use them as I saw fit."

"Yeah, I've found the A.I for the NPCs in this game much more advanced than I ever imagined they could become." Kirito admitted to his teacher, "They seem to have their own backgrounds, personality, likes, dislikes and ways of doing things. I met one NPC who disliked the player because of the way he acted, for not listening to her and for nearly killing her and me by trying to lure the monsters at us. There is another who didn't act the way they should." Kirito left out that this NPC had sex with him, "So we should suspect anything when it comes to these NPCs and try not to upset them."

"Kirito." Zangetsu said with worry and concern at how Kirito was acting with the fact that someone tried to kill him, "Are you really alright? Someone did try to kill you."

"All honesty, I don't know." admitted Kirito, "I'm trying not to think about it, the betrayal and the attempted murder and the person's death where I couldn't save him. There's too much else to think about, like getting stronger so I can finish this game as soon as possible, so that no one else needs to die, or as few as possible."

"I'll admit, whilst that's not a bad idea of doing this, it's also foolish." Zangetsu told Kirito, "Sure, if you can, keep what happened in the back of your mind until after we're out of here. But if you need to talk about it, find someone to do so, I've seen people break down after such things. As for not wanting too many people, you can't always get what you want. Like it or not, death is going to happen until this game has been finished. Either by accident, by monsters, simply not being strong enough or as much as I hate to say it, from other players too."

Once again Kirito was faced with a truth he didn't want to admit to as he thought about it. As he hoped that people wouldn't die at all, but his teacher was right. Either by accident, by monsters, or simply not being strong enough, people were going to die because of that. He was glad that his teacher was going to train the players to know how to fight so they could get stronger.

As for players being killed by other players, he didn't want to think about it, even if he already faced someone who tried to kill him. He truly hoped that it was a one time thing and that people would be better than that. That they'll realize that they need each other if they want to survive this game. So, he couldn't think of people killing each other for whatever reason.

"Whilst I might have a bad experience with one player, it doesn't mean that the other players will be the same." Kirito said in denial, "Why would the others want to kill each other when having more players would help finish the game sooner?"

"Kirito, I'm sorry to bust your bubble and destroy your innocence like this, as it's best to keep it as long as possible at your age. But, life isn't like that." Zangetsu said with a sad sigh, not liking the idea of destroying Kirito's innocence like this. But for the teen to survive in this new world, he had to do this to him. "Like it or not, people will kill in this game, and the way I see it, there's two reasons for this. The first reason is because there'll still be people who'll think that this is still a game, even if we can't log out. There's no real proof that we'll die in the real world if we die here, so they'll act as if this is a game and act like a gamer instead. Then there are gamers who'll think that killing the other players will set them free and out of this game."

"What?" Kirito asked in shock. It wasn't the fact that people could still think that SAO was still a game, as there would be a few people who thought that. But that you could kill someone and that they would be forced Logged Out like in the Beta, where you couldn't log back in for a few hours after a death, "If you are right and there are people like this, why wouldn't they just kill themselves to logout?"

"Some might just do that." admitted Zangetsu, "But some might be too afraid to test it out themselves and as such, kill others in the hopes that they might be able to logout."

"How do you know this'll happen?" Kirito asked suddenly, as he realize that nothing like this had happened before and so his teacher couldn't think of something like this so soon.

"I don't know if it'll happen," admitted his teacher, "but I've read enough books and manga in the past with this sort of plot, and seen enough human reactions to certain things, that I can make a very good guess about certain things. This is human nature. When something is forced upon them, some will get ro a breaking point and they'll act in a certain way to handle things. And as such, I believe this is one way they might act to handle things."

Kirito could see this. Not killing other people part, but killing themselves to escape this world. He was still in denial that people would kill others in the game. His mind wasn't ready for it, even if the facts that Zangetsu was giving him made some sense in a deep part of his mind.

"So what's the second reason why you think people would kill others?" asked Kirito. Whilst he might not want to believe it, he was interested in his teacher's thoughts about this subject.

"That's simple. Because they want to kill others." Zangetsu told his student darkly, "There might be a few here who have thought about killing people before, but before now, never did. As they knew that if they tried to kill someone in the real world, they might get caught and arrested. And for that reason, most of them keep their dark desires in control. But now that they are stuck in this Death Game, it could be the very thing that might allow them to cut loose."

This was something Kirito didn't know what to think of. He can agree that there were jerks who would make life hard for others in games, but those who want to kill but wouldn't for whatever reason, being in the game. He wasn't sure if that was true or not.

Instead of saying anything, he listened as his teacher continued to say, "As there's no real way to prove who killed who in this game unless developers are keeping track of everything in this game, which I doubt they are. Because of this, there could be deaths from these people in the game, as they'll be able to do something they couldn't in real life and get away with it."

"Say for a moment that what you are saying is true, what do you suspect us to do about it?" Kirito asked in concern, "Kill them instead?"

"If you're unable to escape, yes." Zangetsu told his young student simply, with his step-daughter nodding in agreement, "I hope I am wrong and that none of this comes to pass, but if it does, then if they try to kill us, we should be willing to kill back if we can't escape."

"But wouldn't we be the same as them if we killed them?" asked Kirito.

"No, as we would be doing it to defend ourselves and others, whilst they would be doing it because they want to or have some sort of twisted views about killing people." this came from Yoruichi.

"That's true Kirito," Zangetsu acknowledged his daughter's words, "if the time comes where you can't escape, it would be a matter of kill or be killed."

"But isn't there another way for this?" asked Kirito.

"I don't know, you tell me." said Zangetsu, "Are there any prisons or jails in this game, where we can keep criminals from escaping by using items or skills?"

"From what I can remember from the Beta Test no, there is no place like that in the game." Kirito informed his teacher and Yoruichi, "But that doesn't mean that there isn't one now or on one of the higher floors."

"That may be the case, but until we find such a place, the best we can do is either escape or kill if we have no other option." Zangetsu told Kirito, seeing the frightened look on Kirito's face, he decided not to say what he was about to. About his thoughts on how these killers might create a guild of their own. Instead, he went on to say, "I know it is frightening and I hope you don't have to kill another person, and all you have to do is run. But, I thought that I should warn you about it just in case one day you can't run and have to kill."

Kirito wasn't sure what to think about all this. His teacher had just told him that he and the other player might become killers if they wanted to survive, as it would be the only way to defend against players who want to kill other players. Kirito didn't want to think about it. There had to be another way to survive this other than killing other players, even if they were killing other players, there just had to be. He knew right from wrong, and this felt so wrong. But at the same time, he feared that this might be the only way to do things.

He had a lot to think about and all that was how to survive this Death Game, from levelling up, all the way to possibly killing someone. This latest part of it all was too much, his mind was blank, he needed to think. So mumbling that he needed to train and finish off a quest, Kirito walked off

As Kirito left, Zangetsu looked at Kirito sadly as he put everything that he had into beating the dummy he was training on. Taking all his anger, stress and frustration out on the dummies. Zangetsu felt sorry that he told the young teen what he did, but he knew that Kirito needed to know and prepare for what is to come. He himself had been through enough to know the dangers of being unprepared.

"Do you think he'll be okay dad?" Yoruichi asked her step-father, worried about her friend.

"I don't know, only time will tell." Zangetsu admitted with concern, "This could either break him or make him the person he needs to be to survive all this or all both."

"Would you like me to keep an eye on him?" asked Yoruichi.

"If you don't mind Ichika." Zangetsu said with a sigh of relief. He was thinking of asking his daughter to do so, but he didn't think that Kirito would like someone following him. But at the same time he was worried for the young teen, he wanted to make sure that Kirito would be fine.

"No I don't mind, he is a friend after all." Ichika reassured her father, "In fact, by doing so, I might find out a few things about this game to help us."

Ichigo smiled at his daughter. It was just like her to help a friend out. Not only that, she also liked finding out new information whenever something new came about. So, this was two birds, one stone sort of deal.

Before either of them could say more, four people came up to them. These players heard about them willing to fight with a sword, and so they came to see them, so they could learn to fight.

o0OoO0o

For the next few days after that day, Ichika watched Kirito.

On the day that she began to follow him, she learned that all the players were given a quest to help a NPC build an Adventurer's Hall. A place where information for basic quests can be found, where NPCs might talk about rumours of rare quests and the like. It would also be a place where you can sell items that you can't normally sell in the normal shops. All the players had to do was hand in wood, ore and other materials to the NPC until he says he has enough.

The main reward would be the Adventurer's Hall itself. But there meant to be a special rewards for those who helped the most, but the rewards wouldn't be known until after the quest was done.

Although Kirito took up the quest like many others, he had no plans of doing it right away. She found out that he had a mining quest to get some iron from a mine about an hour or so away from the Town of Beginning. The problem was that once at the mine, before he could mine anything, he had to defeat some monsters like bats and rats. Even then, finding the iron he needed wasn't easy, as he would normally find copper. When that happened, he would have to move to another area to check for the iron,

Ichika did learn one thing that night, to be able to use abilities like mining or logging, you needed to have the proper skills to use them to their fullest. Sure you can still do the actions without the skills, but you wouldn't be able to level it up and get better items. Not only that, but you might not get as many decent items or as much without the skill. So it was for the best to get these skills.

Ichika learned that for the quest, Kirito had to find fifty iron ore. But was only able to find thirty of them from the mine, before going to bed for the night.

The next day, Ichika watched Kirito finish off the iron ore quest line, he was able to keep the pickaxe and hammer that he got to mine, before returning to turn to hand in the iron. He would have to wait for a while before getting the items he wanted from the ore. Which would be in a few hours. To wait for this, he went back to the sword training camp to get the extra stat point he talked about. After that, Kirito relaxed for a bit before getting the items from the blacksmith, where he then went to the alchemist shop.

After that, she overheard of the next quest where Kirito needed to get fur and leather for lining for the chest he wanted to be made. For this, he needed to learn how to field dress a monster, or as they call it in the game, Dismantle. To learn this, Kirito went to a village called Horunka Village. However, as he got there, Kirito decided to do a small quest to get some bread and cream, before spending a night in the village.

So on the third day of keeping an eye on Kirito, she revealed herself to him, not to let him know that she was following him, but to learn Dismantle. Ichika informed Kirito that she overheard him talking to her father earlier about needing to learn the skill to get items for the game. So she decided to come here to learn the skill so that she could get the items from monsters.

Doing this quest, they did indeed learn how to skin and gut a few Frenzy Boars. Here, they got the hide of the boar so that Kirito needed. Not only that, but they got the tusks and some of its meat. The trainer that was teaching them, an NPC that Kirito knew by the name of Aloy, informed them that with their skill level, that's the best they could get. But as their skill level rose, they would get more from a monster and so wouldn't need as many to get something from that. As for the fur that Kirito needed, they needed to hunt and dismantle the Dire Wolves on this floor. They got the meat and fur from these wolves.

After learning Dismantle, Kirito was willing to give some half of what they got to Ichika, but she turned the offer down. She told him that she was more than happy to help him to get what he needed, she got a skill that would help her out in the future.

Once they returned to the Town of Beginnings and Kirito turned into his quest, she realized after asking him what he had planned, that whilst he would be distancing himself, he would be fine. Because it would take at least a week for the chest to be made, Kirito told her that until he got it, he would be going back to the Hunter's Guild to learn the skills he would need.

With his plans of being a Solo Alchemist, he would need to learn to do things differently than a normal swordsman. And learning the skills of a hunter might be useful.

Hearing this plan of action, Ichika knew that she didn't have to worry about Kirito. That he would be fine. With that in mind, she left the black haired teen alone, knowing that she wouldn't need to keep an eye on him any longer. Her time would be better spent helping her father and getting stronger herself. Whilst she might be strong in real life, in this game her strength meant very little until she levelled up. So that's what she had to do.

With that, she bid Kirito goodbye, not knowing what fate had instored for her friend. A fate that would one day make him one of the most powerful players in the Death Game. That his fate would slowly alter a handful of other players too. But that'll be years away from now.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note: Here ends another chapter of Sword Art Online - Alchemy Edition and the end of the second day. I hope you enjoyed the story and if you got the time, please leave some feedback to what you think of this story so far. I hope you like the idea I had with Ichigo. I wanted to have someone teach the people in the game how to fight with swords, and seeing how I had added Ichigo to help Kirito, I thought I would use him for the others too.

To be honest, I've got a few ideas for Ichigo and Ichika in this story. So far,I'm going to use some of the background story from Bleach in this story, but the way it'll be set out for Kirito to learn about it will be different to how it is in the anime. However, I'm not sure if I'll actually use the fact that Ichigo and Ichika are Soul Reapers or not in this story, or just have the story they tell as a reference to the anime and not actually happen in this world.

Because of this, I'm setting up a poll: Should I create a full crossover with Bleach or just have references from it?

I'm in two minds seeing how I'm going to make this story more fantasy-like as the story goes along. I won't tell you how, I'll let you find out as the story goes along, but I have a few ideas that I'll be adding to this story. The real reason why Alchemy was added into the game.

Anyway, just so you know, the next chapter will have the first time skip in this story. One where Kirito well becomes an alchemist, and where more changes begin. I would also like to ask, how should I have the players become an alchemist? For the players who want to become a Warrior Class, they'll meet someone at the Training School to become a warrior. ButI was wondering, how should a player become an alchemist?

(You can skip this rant, this is just me blowing off some steam.) I'll be honest with you all, I really disliked how they did each floor after the first one. It took them a month, 4th of December, to clear the first floor, as Kayaba changed the layout of the floor and made other changes to the game. But yet, by the end of December, they were able to defeat four more floors with ease. That to me is shit. Don't get me wrong, most of them got their shit together and got a fair idea what they are doing. But still, I feel as if they should only be able to clear one more floor, two floors at most, for that month. What about doing quests and fighting monsters to level up, so that they can be strong enough to defeat the bosses?

Over four hundred beta testers, if I remember rightly, were killed before the first floor was cleared. So, you're telling me that those who have no clue what they were facing or had to do could clear four floors in that short amount of time, when the four hundred who knew what the game held and what to do couldn't figure out how to clear the first and died within the first month? Sorry, but I call BS there. Sure, the monsters' fighting style changed and the quests were altered, but they should be able to deal with that thanks to Argo's guide warning them, seeing how quick see seemed to get the guides out.

Which is why I'm changing things slightly, so that it takes longer to clear the floors. As that to me would be more believable. It would take time to level up and gain the skills to fight the bosses. Kirito was at least level ten by the first boss fight which I found was strange. He was level five or six by the end of day two, from what we know from the bonus story Second Day.

So, you're telling me that by the end of the month, he only got to around level ten. What BS is that? He knew the floor, he knew where to find the monsters, and he wanted to become a high level so that he wouldn't die, but all he could get up to is level ten? Sorry, but that plot sucks balls, there was no way someone who wanted to live would and was able to get to level six, would be level ten by the end of one month.

Sorry about the rant, but as I was writing this chapter, this came to me. Might have wrote this before, but still, a good story like this with somewhat twisted plot like keeping Kirito level low for within a month and was able to clear four more floor by the end of December, when it took them a month to clear the first floor, just got to me as I thought about it. As such, I had to say something. I just hope that I can write about this better. I doubt it, but I can hope.