SAO: Roleplay

I thought for a moment, thinking back to the claws I'd used in the beta.
"Do you think you can make claw weapons? For the Wild Dance skill?"

"I might, depends on if I 'ave the right materials." Niko nodded his head thinking through the process.

"Right, well, if you can I'd be happy to buy one off of you." I said, quickly examining him. He looked quite a bit older than I did, his hair was about as long as mine was at the back and he looked about a foot taller than me. That, combined with his well-built stature, would have made him imposing in the real world. Here in Aincrad, though, I would've had a chance at beating him in a fight. With Tavi behind me, we'd probably win. Sometimes people reacted violently to being told they were trapped and probably going to die; the Beta had been difficult enough.

"We were heading back to Tolbana now, I can send you the map data if you want. We've pretty much cleared everything, though they'll have respawned by the time we start the raid."

"Nah, I've already got it. I might be able to give you some map data, actually, I've got quite a bit of the surrounding area. Always looking for more materials, and better materials..." Niko pulled up his inventory. "I have some of the materials for the claws, I'll probably have to get some material from the town though."

"I'll pay for them," I said, "You'll have to tell me which ones though." I set off walking towards the dungeon exit, bringing up my inventory and checking the weapons I'd found last week. It'd become almost like a ritual. I brought up my skills page, checking how much longer it'd be before I unlocked Wild Dance.

Following Astra to the exit, I felt pretty calm. I could remember her Wild Dance skill from the beta, and that had been one of the more impressive moves in the game.

"If you want, if you don't like the stats you can always help me get better materials, I think the really interesting smithing stuff begins on Floor two (2) or three (3). Like the speed enhancing ore or agility and toughness. Stuff like that. But there's good stuff here, if you know where to look." He smiled half heartedly.

"No, it's fine. I can wait until after the raid," I said, "I still need a few more levels in one handed anyway."

It didn't take long for us to reach Tolbana, and apart from the occaisional monster, it was a pretty easy walk back.

As we walked, I kept an eye out for any dangers besides monsters. Like other players. Once people had come to grips with the reality of SAO, some began acting like bandits on the road, their fear and desperation making them attack other players and try to steal their loot. We hadn't had any encounters yet, but that didn't stop me from being wary. Besides, it gave my detection skill some practice.

We reached Tolbana's inn in a relatively short amount of time, and like usual, I opened my inventory and selected the flute, intending to train my music skill.

"Oh hey, you play an instrument? I play the lute. Keeps the brain active." Niko smiled nonchalantly.

When Astra brought out her flute to start playing, I couldn't help but chuckle a little as I went over to the counter to buy some food. Granted, eating food here didn't give real nourishment, just made your brain think it wasn't hungry anymore. It really made me wonder how our bodies were doing in the real world, as far as food went. No doubt hospitals were packed full with SAO players, all on life-support with feeding tubes stuck in them. Including me. Man, that was just.......that was terrifying. Mostly since I once told my parents I never wanted to be kept on life-support, just seemed too cruel to keep me alive like that.

But at the same time....I wasn't brain dead. I had hope to get out of this alive. I knew that, and I hoped my parents knew that too.

Bah, dwelling on this stuff was going to get me depressed again. I knew what my goal was and still determined to get there. Didn't need to get bogged down in all the negative stuff. So when I got the food, I walked back over to Astra, placing her plate in front of her for when she was ready, while I heartily dug in to mine.

I smiled back at Niko, whom we had shared names with on the way back, and brought the flute to my lips. I played it as well as I could, making a couple of mistakes because I was playing a harder song to level it up faster. Despite the mistakes, a couple of conversations died down as the players started to listen.

I finished the song after a couple of minutes, and put the flute away, getting ready to eat my well-earned dinner.

"You're getting better," I said to astra, smiling a little. Despite some faults, it was still a good song.

"Yeah, music is definitely the best thing for free food." Niko said as he pulled out his lute. "Let's see here..." Niko begins to pluck a few strings, "what do I remember..." He begins to play a melodious tune then stops. "Hm, I know too many songs." He begins to strum the strings of the lute decisively, deciding the tune he wanted to practice, and play*. With a few missed strings he still earns his free meal from the keep. "So, do you realize your name means star in latin, Astra?"



* reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2g8fkwiyGo

"I do," I said, swallowing the food I'd just eaten. It felt like it eased my hunger, but it didn't do anything in the real world. "That's why I picked it."

"Oh? Are you the star of someone's world, is that why?" Niko chuckled, eating the stew he received for his musical performance.

"I like to think I'm the star of everyone's world," I answered jokingly, "I picked it because of the phrase 'sic itur ad astra'. It means 'thus you shall go to the stars.'"

"Thus one goes to the stars!" Niko said amiably. "A good phrase. Pretty common motto too. non est ad astra mollis e terris via, there is no easy way from earth to the stars. I studied latin quite a bit when I was in university."

"I don't do latin at my school," I said, "I just use Latin phrases or words to make myself seem smarter than I already am."

"Haha," Niko laughs. "I hear that a lot. "Yeah, it really helps with grammar and just improving your english. So if you ever get the chance, take a swing at some latin classes, you might enjoy it."

"I might do," I said, "If there's any where I live and if I survive this thing."

"Yeah," Niko finishes his stew. "Right well, I need to do some smithing. I'll see you around the town." Niko smiles as he stands up to leave.

While Astra and Niko talked, I mostly kept eating, listening in here and there. It wasn't like I had much to contribute to the conversation anyway.

"Oh, alright. Here, I'll add you as a friend so that I can message you once we get to the next floor." I opened the friend request screen and sent it, smiling at him when it appeared in front of him. "See you."

"So, looks like we're making friends," I said to astra after swallow some of my food.

"Well, how else are we going to get out? Make enemies?" I asked Tavi sarcastically as I finished my food. "Plus, it's always nice to have somebody you can count on."

"Well if the past week has taught me anything, it's that you are oh so right," I said. "It's good having a partner to watch your back."

"Yup," I said, standing up and pushing my chair away from the table, "You should know by now that I'm always right." I stretched my arms out and pushed my chair back to the table. "Ready to hunt some more monsters?" I asked.

"But.....I just ate," I said, though the smirk on my face said otherwise. Standing up and twisting my neck a little, I nodded to her. "So, where do we go? Not the dungeon again right?"

"No, the dungeon won't respawn for a while yet," I said, opening a map of the surrounding area. "There's the woods to the south, and I think that's where the next highest monsters are. Wanna head there?"

"Sure," I told Astra. We left the tavern, walking through the town. "Wanna stop by the shops first, get some healing crystals? Just in case."

"I still have a couple left, we shouldn't need many more. We're already nearly six levels above the raid, so field monsters shouldn't be a problem."

"Right." Still, it never hurt to be careful. This game was full of surprises, and walking in to face monsters without caution was a risky gambit.

It didn't take us that long to reach the forest, and there were a few monsters here, though there definitely should have been more, and despite the relatively normal looking area, I felt uneasy about the lack of monsters. After a couple of kills, I spoke up about my concern.
"Hey, don't you think there should be more monsters here?"

"Yeah, for a place as populated as this one it should be loaded. Maybe they've already been hunted down?" I said, and as if in response, they came out from behind the trees. I counted five, no six different players. Some had swords and shields, axes, spears, or daggers. Armor was in various types. "Oh, hey there," I said. "You guys already clear the place out?" Silence, was my only response. Then one of them spoke, and his voice was a mix of bravado.....and fear, maybe nervousness. "You two.....hand over all your gear, now," he said. "Weapons, armor and items. Col too. Give it to us, and we won't hurt you."

That made my eyes go wide. Hurt us? What the hell, didn't these assholes know what that risked?

I glanced over at the new players, hearing one of them speak.
"Orange players," I said to Tavi, noticing their colour crystals. I turned to face my body towards them. Their gear looked quite low level, which meant they were either low-level themselves, or that they were just poor and had bad luck with drops. "I'm not giving you anything. Un-equip your weapons and leave." I said to them, sword in hand. I'd dealt with orange players in the beta, and apart from the addition of death, this shouldn't be any different.

My back pressed to Astra's as the orange players surrounded us. "You're beta testers aren't you?" one of them sneered at us, clearly the more confident of the group. "You abandoned us and hogged all the good stuff. Well payback's a bitch, because now we're here to get everything you stole from us!" This was bad, if only because they outnumbered us. They were at least two levels below us, at least some of them anyway. If their weapons were any good, then this would be a game of quantity over quality. "Walk away, now," I said in a commanding tone. "Otherwise we will fight back, and trust me you do not want that."

"If we've hogged all of the good stuff, then you'd better walk away before I kill you with it," I said, raising my sword. "Are you actually ready to die over this?"

I saw one of them, a guy with no hood or helm like the others. The look on his face. He looked tired, weary, and strained. The look of a hungry, desperate animal. And in a brief instant, I realized what these men were: desperate. Desperate and afraid, backed into a corner and left with the only option that in their minds was justifiable. Which was why that same guy screamed, surging forward with his spear in a vicious lunge straight at me. I darted forward, slicing my sword up and cleaving the haft of the spear in half, destroying the weapon, before I knocked him to the ground with a kick. "That was a warning," I snarled, voice seething with anger.....and fear. I didn't want this to happen. "We are all prisoners here. We should be WORKING TOGETHER, NOT TURNING AGAINST EACHOTHER!" I screamed at them.

"Too late." I said to Tavi, activating a sword skill that hit twice. I aimed it perfectly, scoring a critical on the first and second hits. I was right, and they were quite low-level. On the second hit, the player I'd stuck exploding into red pixels.

I didn't have time to register what Astra had just done. Already someone screamed "MURDERER!" and they descended upon us. Bobbing to one side, avoiding an axe swing, I used one of my sword skills and hacked off a players arm, resulting in a scream of pain. His partner came at me and I parried the attack of his sword before I thrust my sword into his chest. His life-bar plummeted.....and in an explosion of pixels, he died. He died. He died. HE DIED. Oh god, ohgodohgodohgod I killed him. What did I just do? The moment he died the other retreated, the fact we killed two of them enough to make them run.

It didn't matter to me, I had already collapsed to my knees, a stunned, disgusted look on my face.

music:

Niko hammered away in a small forge he had in Tolbana. He had acquired quite a bit of materials from his journeys. With each ping of the hammer, a weapon was forged. He made claws, if only to practice making them, the skill was seldom used by players on account of how close you had to be to use them and the skill required to use them. He made some anyway, the shopkeepers around here, the NPC's, would take them. He made swords, improved them, and then made armor, mostly light leather, and improved them. He hammered at his forge with the goal of improving his skill at least twofold. He had no visitors, he seldom had anyone visit his smithy. He didn't exactly advertise his skill. Not yet. He gave, on occasion, free weapons to the newer players still figuring out the game. Helping out in his way. Not now though, now was the time for work.

I kneeled down facing Tavi, putting my hands on his shoulders.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, ignoring the loot pane in front of me.

Astra was in front of me, saying something. It all came out like mumbled gibberish to my ears though. Staring at her, wide eyed I could only try to move my mouth, mouthing the words 'I killed someone.'

"Yeah, you did," I said to him, "Why? Because they'd have killed us. They were orange players, Tavi. They've already attacked and maybe killed at least one other player."

I found my voice then, and said in a whisper "But I killed one of them. I didn't want to kill someone. I just wanted to get out of here. Just wanted to go home with no blood on my hands."

"It's not on your hands, it's on Kayaba's hands. If he hadn't trapped us, this wouldn't have happened." I answered him, looking him in the eyes.

No, I couldn't afford to think like that. Yeah, Kayaba locked us up in here and that in turn pitted us against each other. But the choice to kill, that's always on us. "Still.....I chose to kill," I said. "I could have just taken an arm or leg, disabled them and let them run away."

"And then what? They wait two minutes, get that limb back, then come and kill us?" I asked him, "You shouldn't feel bad for defending yourself." My hand tightened on his shoulder slightly as I tried to stop my arms from shaking as the adrenaline I could feel started to subside.