SAO: Roleplay

"Maybe....but does that make it any better?" Staring her back, my hands grabbed her shoulders as well and in a clear voice I said "They were kids like us. Had parents. Maybe siblings. We just......just took them away from their families."

"And they would've taken you away from yours. It was us or them. I don't know about you, but I'm always going to pick 'us'."

Still quiet, my gaze looked away from hers to the grass at my knees. "Doesn't make it right.....or wrong. Just is," I finally said.

"Come on, we should go back to town." I said, standing up and holding out my hand to Tavi.

All I could see then was her feet, before slowly I turned my gaze upwards to her face. Sunlight came down through the trees, an open patch in the branches letting in a large chunk of light. Her face eclipsed it, but was somehow illuminated and the effect gave her a near halo. She wasn't smiling of course, her expression somber. But that did little to detract from the overall effect.....and I reached out to take her hand, coming to my feet. "Sorry..." was all I could say then.

"For what?" I asked him as I let go of his hand. I picked my sword up from the ground and put it back in its sheath on my back.

"For breaking down just now," I said, wiping my face to remove the phantom tears.

"It's fine," I said, waving my hand to dismiss his apology, "We should hurry back, they might have friends."

"Right," I mumbled. I was more than happy to get away from that place.

A week went by at an almost sluggish pace. Word began to spread about the raid, and we got word that plenty of players were coming to join. I leveled up a bit more, though none of the new gear I got was quite better than what I had. The memory of my.....kill, still clung to me, making it hard to sleep sometimes. After all, kind of a hard thing to get over. But at least I was able to keep playing, keep staying in the league of top players.

For the past week I had been preparing for the raid by training as hard as I could with Tavi. The idea that people were willing to attack over things like money was bizzare to me, I had no idea why they'd do that. I could tell that Tavi was still messed up over what had happened, but there wasn't anything I could do, and as the raid got closer, I had to focus on trying to work out a strategy. Like now, I was already at the meeting site, going over the last details with Zasha and some other players.

A week flew by. As did Nikos' skills. He leveled up, increased his smithing to something just short of incredible for the amount of time he spent on it. His forge, in that time, also increased in size. Many players began to visit him for his weapons and armor. Many new non-beta players received decent armor and weapons from him without charge or for dirt cheap. For many players he accepted payment in raw materials from which he could make weapons and armor. With word of the raid ever spreading, the demand for higher level weapons and armor increased. Niko made lots of Col from people, those who could find his shop, purchasing his swords, rapiers, or leather armors. For a day, during this week, another frontiers' blacksmith came to Tolbana and to his shop where they agreed that while one crafted a weapon to the max of his (her) ability, the other would improve the weapon. This meant that for that entire day Niko improved (boosted) the weapons crafted by this other smith.

I looked over the begginer's guide again, which had the boss's move set on it, gathered from the beta.
"So we have team A taking down its health, then team B switch in to tank it," I said, trying to remember exactly what was going to happen. "When they reach half health, we switch them for team C. On the last bar, we have team D go in and kill it, right?"
"Yeah," One of the others said, "It says here that it switches to a katana at one bar health, so we'd be better off having a fully healed team finishing it, just in case."
"I think everyone's here now," Zasha said, looking at the crowd of people sat on the steps, "Ready?" He asked.
I nodded again as he told everyone else the plan. People began to party up, and I sent a request to Tavi.

During the meet, I listened quietly, paying attention to every detail. Most of it was simple stuff, and I had a feeling we'd do alright on this. Astra sent me a party request, and I accepted it.

Niko never went to the meeting. Instead, he packed all of his things, or all that he could carry, and moved temporarily to the room before the boss chamber. Clearing the dungeon as he went, with any luck, the boss party would make it here before the enemies, the kobolds, the skeletons, etc. re-spawn. Helping in any way, when it suits him. He nearly died many times, but it only fueled his will to fight, to annihilate the mobs in the dungeon.

With everyone clear on the plan, the raid group moved out in their individual parties. Everyone had detailed maps of the area and the dungeon, so it didn't take us that long to reach the boss room. Pausing outside for a few minutes to let everyone manage their crystals and gear, as well as go over the plan in our heads, we ran in.

Illfang screamed at us from the other side of the room, the kobold guardians around him charging at us. They were bigger than normal Kobold, and a lot more dangerous, but the damage group killed them quickly enough. Next was Illfang, though, and as he was the boss, their weapons were a lot less effective. As the support group, Tavi and I were mostly keeping the lesser mobs away, though we had to be ready to attack the boss in case of it damaging the attackers.

At one bar of health, team D switched with team A, just like the plan had said. I noticed something, though, as Illfang switched out his weapons. He didn't use a talwar. I tried to shout, but it was too late and the group was nearly wiped out, the leader being killed straight away, and the rest of them on low health as Illfang sliced through them. The raid was panicking, the tanks were trying to back away as Illfang continued to destroy the attack team.
"Tavi!" I shouted to get his attention as I ran forwards at the boss.

Just killing one of Illfang's minions, I heard Astra shout to me, and saw her charge the boss. Nodding, I ran after her, charging one of my powerful sword skills to strike at the boss.

I struck the boss with a skill, taking away a small amount of its health. I jumped back, hoping Tavi would catch on and switch so that the attack could be avoided.

By the time astra jumped back, it was a bit late for me to avoid getting hit. Illfang and I both struck each other, my attack being a long slash that hit him across the torso and created a flash of light, painting the impact. He hit me with his mystery weapon, dropping my health down to just above nothing and sent me flying back, where I landed on my ass.

When I saw Tavi's health drop, I panicked. Diving forwards with a skill charging, I struck Illfang with my double strike and jumped back.
"Team D! Switch!" I shouted.

Team D moved forwards and took the brunt of the attack, while I took out a healing crystal and pointed it at Tavi as I said 'Heal'. His health bar moved back into the green as I heard the tank team call for a switch. I dropped the used crystal and attacked Illfang again.

There wasn't time to thank Astra for healing me, not verbally anyway. I showed my thanks by getting back in the fight, attacking Illfang when his back was turned. His health continued to drop, and I said "We've almost got him!"

I hit Illfang again, watching his health drop even lower.
"Once more." I thought to myself as I readied another skill, not bothering to switch. I smiled as I charged forwards, draining Illfang's health to nothing. It was short lived, though. As Illfang approached death, he charged me down, a single strike landing a critical hit and sending me across the room, health draining at an alarming rate. I hit the wall and slumped, watching in horror as my health kept draining.

"Astra!" I screamed. Taking out a health crystal, I aimed it at her like she did me, and said "Heal!" The crystal exploded into pixels while her health bar began to climb, and with a cry of rage I turned on Illfang, activating my sword skill, another power attack. My sword glowed, a crucifix shaped aura surrounding the blade as I shot forward, and ran the boss through. His health dropped to zero, and he exploded in a massive shower of sparks. Then there was a sound of a trumpet, and a pane opened above us all saying:

'CONGRATULATIONS! FLOOR 1 CLEARED!"

I was breathing heavily from the massive state of panic I'd entered, having my health go down so much, so quickly. With the victory notification, I breathed a sigh of relief. I could see the Last Attack Bonus window appear in front of Tavi, and I wondered what he'd get, but the cheers of the surviving raid members distracted me. We'd cleared the first floor.

I had gotten the last hit bonus, and a screen appeared before me. Clicking the accept icon, I got a new sword. The Ebon Blade of Midnight, a sword with a white mother of pearl handle, and a jet black blade. It felt a bit heavy, but not by much in my hands and the grip seemed almost natural. A longsword like the one I had equipped, I swapped it out, feeling the satisfying weight on my back. Then I remembered Astra, and all but ran to her, ignoring the fact I leveled up, along with the dozens of cheering raid members. "Astra!" I shouted. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," I panted, standing up, "I thought I was going to die."

Smiling, but faintly, I said "Glad you didn't. Otherwise I'd have been the sole survivor of the group."

I glanced around, I counted six less people than I had back in Tolbana. Six deaths.
"What the fuck?!" Someone was shouting, "The beta testers gave us bad advice! That wasn't a talwar!"
"They probably knew, they wanted less competition for loot!"
"No," I said, "He used a talwar in the beta. It was changed." I'd spoken to quickly, and realised my mistake when the room went silent.

"Liar!" Someone shouted, and the room erupted in shouts that I was a cheater, a murderer and a beta tester. It was pretty disgusting to see everyone pinning the blame on beta testers, when all of this was Kayaba's fault.
"I'm not a beta tester," I said, "Beta testers are almost as bad as you lot. The weapon was changed from the beta, but it was pretty obvious that Illfang had a nodachi," My heart was in my throat, or at least it felt that way as I made my lie. The only person who knew my username was Tavi, so at least there'd be no lasting damage to my reputation. "The beta testers here should be ashamed they didn't know something that simple." There were more shouts, some saying it was my fault that a few people were now dead, because I hadn't shared anything about the talwar. It was all a lie, of course. I'd only noticed the nodachi after it had killed one of the A group.

Somewhere in the ocean of insults, the words beta tester and cheater got mixed, ending with angry shouts of "Beater."
"Whatever," I said to them, walking to the door to the next floor. "You noobs aren't going to get to the third floor."

As more of them kept shouting, I turned around and yelled at them, "She's right!" A few of them shut up, but long enough to think of something to say before they yelled I was like her and on her side. "So what if I am? At least I'm working with someone more competent than you idiots! We're all trapped in here together so we should be working together. Instead you're all just pinning the blame on the Beta testers, just because you lack the skill to win." That drew even more shouts at me. I held my sword up and said "I won this, because I worked with someone. Because I put aside any gripes or differences I had, because getting out of this game, is a hell of a lot more important than doing a fucking witch hunt!" With that, I turned on my heel and left them, following Astra for the door. But the last I saw that gave me some hope, were the quiet ones, those that nodded in approval. Maybe there was hope.

December 24th, 2022 - Just over a month later
Floor: 2

After the raid, I settled back into a routine of training, though I'd suggested that Tavi and I part ways for a while to let some of the heat about us being "Beaters" die down; people were going to remember a pair of beaters, and might have had less of a chance recognising us if we were alone. That came with the higher chance of dying, but I liked having peace of mind more. I messaged him at least once a week, keeping up with him on discussing things like new gear and level ups. I sometimes sent him map data of an area he'd asked about that I'd been to, and he did the same for me. It was almost like levelling together, just with less conversation and a higher amount of XP.

One thing I never mentioned, though, was that another orange player had tried to rob me. This one had been wearing a black cloak, and had apparently killed a few other players. I didn't even flinch when he shattered into red pixels, in fact, I was glad he was dead. I'd even grinned a little, winning meant I was better at the game than they were.

I'd made a couple more friends, one being somebody Zasha knew, who in turn, had introduced me to another player. I'd spoken to them all a few times now, and I found myself agreeing with almost everything they'd said.

In the month that followed, I got way stronger than before. I still had the same sword, that thing much stronger than any of the weapon drops I got. Astra and I parted ways, and it hit me a little. Having her close was comforting, made me feel safe. Now I was on my own, soloing things. On the bright side we stayed in touch.

[Floor:2]

It was a snowy december day. A month had passed since the first floor was cleared. Niko was well on his way to becoming a well known smith, as well as an isolationist. Finding him was hard. He never seemed to stay in one place for very log. He was almost mysterious, except for those rare few he friended. He continued to give weapons free of charge to those newer players in need. Now, however, he explored the floor. He freely gave his map data to any he passed, complete with notes. He was quite the frontiersman. Caves and corners he explored, treasures and wonders he beheld. However, there were some secrets that he kept. He, unbeknownst to many, started an information line. People would learn of quests and things, not sharing it with others unless paid for. He became the focal point for this group. He learned many things, he sold names, places, opportunities for quests. It was, moreover, only three (3) weeks in the making. Yet it had members, the beginnings of a guild, as it were, but nothing formal.

In the month he traveled, he trained, he learned, he grew. He made weapons and boosted them, he augmented them, he found ore that augmented speed, agility, sharpness, and made almost exotic weapons from them. One such weapon he practiced forging were claws. He only had one person in mind when making them too. Each set of claws he made he had astra in mind. He saw how she fought during the raid on the boss. He figured agility, speed, would be her style of choice. As for Tavi, Oc-tavi-an, he wasn't quite sure. Just a single sword no shield? It was something to think about.

Today, I had formed a party with Zasha and his two friends. His friends were a few years older than I was, being in their twenties while Zasha had turned nineteen while in the game. Nin was his friends name, and he was the one who had introduced me to PoH. Right now, they were talking about what killing another player really meant. PoH had said that it was fine, as the blood would be on Kayaba's hands, and that it was a feature in the game, so we shouldn't be forbidden from it. I'd found myself agreeing with him more and more whenever these conversations came up, to the point where I'd agreed to join this party.

We were going to rob another party that were passing through, using another player in their party to lure them into a trap. Right now, we were waiting. PoH had taught me how to make poisons, and had helped to power-level my hiding skill. We were almost invisible. I was excited, because I knew that if these players were any good, they'd fight back like I had, and I knew that I could win, either by being smarter or more skilled than them.

"Do you realize how nice today is?" Niko said as he pounded on an anvil, creating swords from ores. "You don't see many days like this." He continued, "Many days are pretty average, they aren't good, they aren't bad, they just are, but some days, like today, are just beautiful." He was talking to himself. He stood on a pavilion, on a mountain in some edge of the map. Almost entirely alone. Only mobs and the occasional NPC came up to where he was. Even then, the occurrence was scarce. Many of the mobs, minotaurs mostly, were too high-level for many players. Not for Niko. He crept past them, attacking them in stealth, or attacked them outright. He used the environment against them too, leading mobs to cliff faces and having them fall off. It was dangerous stuff, after all, he could fall off too. Then where would he be? Dead.

A notification popped up in his HUD, a message. He looked at the sender and realized it was from someone he had met and exchanged information with. They had learned something, and were want for clarification. "Well, if you really want to know, you know what to do." Was his response, a normal response. He was far from the realm of other players. So finding him wouldn't be too difficult, just look where no one is. Which is a daunting task. People congregate on roads, cities, towns, safe places, homey places. Not many people chose to live outside of a safe-zone. Those that did, well, who knows what happens to them. Niko, he made sure that very few people could be able to get to him. A place of solitude, surrounded by high-level mobs. Almost like Dungeon mobs actually, except he wasn't in the dungeon. Though, he had gone through it, as far as the boss chamber. Then he left. He had the map data, hadn't shared it, but held on to it, kept it secret, for now. Until another raiding party begins to form, anyway.

"Another day in paradise," he looked across the land, as far as he could see from the mountain pavilion, "I wonder what those two are up to now..." As he pondered the fate of the two he had met one day in the dungeon on the first floor, another message popped up. It read: Someone in ————— is saying that he wants to kill you. I guess one of his friends was killed by a weapon you made, or poison you made or something. Says he's going up to the mountains to find you. "Well, that'll be interesting." Niko thought aloud. He responded to the message and awaited for a reply, a few minutes later he got one, it read: I'll tail him, he's going to meet up with a party apparently, then search for you, I'll send updates as I learn more.

"Hm, what an interesting event this will turn into." Niko said to the wind.

A couple of orange players had joined us, PoH's friends, apparently. He said he had an idea for a way around the system, but he couldn't do it until he had his third crime, so they were here to make sure that we could kill them before they killed us. I was a little disappointed, it meant I'd have to switch with one of them to win the fight.

It wasn't that much longer when the party passed by us, none of them having a high enough Searching skill to see us. When the last one was in front of me, we all deactivated our skill. The leader stopped, and the one at the back turned to run, only to be blocked my me. I was smiling, adrenaline starting to go through my body.
"Drop all of your items before we kill you." PoH said, his weapon in hand as the party reached for their own weapons.
"How about you give us your items?" The leader replied, grinning at PoH.

In a few short minutes, two of them were dead and three more on the ground, paralysed from poison as we let the two orange players finish them. We were all orange now, but because we hadn't killed them, it'd change back in a few hours. We went through the loot of each one, sharing it out between us. I got some col, a nice set of armour named "The Banshee's Gown". It was white, with splashes of black and red on the trim. It had a white cloak that reached to about the back of my knees, complete with a hood that obscured my face. I was in love with it, I decided that any armour I had a smith make, would be based on this set.

One of the two paralysed players was crying, but it was stopped as soon as the PKer's axe came down.

The minotaurs axe came down at me like I was a piece of wood on a chopping block, and I didn't bother trying to parry. Instead I dodged, so fast that the monster lost sight of me for a moment. It gave me a shot to land a pair of strikes at the back of its cloven feet, making the beast stumble forward and cry out in pain. It wasn't alone though, another Minotaur swinging a fist at me. Instead of dodging, this time I struck the hand and cut it off at the wrist. I was fast, faster and stronger than before and moving between them like it was high speed pong, each time I'd get close I'd land a hit. It was high speed attrition and the fight lasted all of one minute before both exploded into pixels, and I was left in a finishing pose from the skill, sword in hand.

"Ole," I murmured with a grin.

With the last players dead and the loot shared out, we set off back to our base, basically it was a cave out in the middle of nowhere, with a fire and some makeshift beds around it; orange players couldn't go into towns. There were actually a few more people there, all of them wanting to band up with us or somebody who had joined us. We always had a few people to keep the cave clear now. There was food, drinks, and there was a lot of conversation. It was fun.

It was also Christmas eve, which meant I had to find Tavi to give him his present. A ring I'd found that offered +9 STR. It wasn't a top-level item, but it was a very good item for this floor. One of the others would probably head into the town with me to get started on a new target and I'd be a green player again, so it wasn't like there was any danger to me.

The item pane opened in front of me, showing the loot I got. An axe I'd never use, greatsword that certainly had great stats but just wasn't my style, a pair of boots that added to my speed, definitely keeping that. And the Minos Mantle, basically a cape made from Minotaur hide. I was good with my current item already, so I stashed that away to be sold later, before making my way back to the central town. Floor two was kinda....stale. Just the one major town, and a bunch of rocky hills all around. I'd have to start exploring the dungeon, map it out and find the boss room.

It was starting to get late, so we'd have to set off soon. As we stood up to leave for town, I opened up my friends list and selected Tavi, and 'message'.

Astra wrote:

Are you in town?

Walking back along the beaten path by myself at sundown wasn't the greatest idea, monsters being stronger at night. But I had a teleportation crystal handy, plus my level was high enough that I got a few perks that'd give me a slight edge. So the only thing that did surprise me, was the message pane popping up, and it was from Astra. I replied immediately.

Tavi wrote:

No, but on my way back. Out in the fields from some farming.

Astra wrote:

Get back before midnight. I have your present.

I tapped out the message as we walked, my party mate leading the way.

Tavi wrote:

Ooh a present? How thoughtful, and I didn't get you anything either.

Grinning, my pace quickened a bit. Using the teleportation crystal would have been faster, but they were expensive and rare, so they were only used in emergencies. Which this was not.

Astra wrote:

What a gentleman.

We were nearing the main road now, and once we got to it there would be less chance of a monster attack, and a more direct route to town.

Tavi wrote:

Well you know me, always eager to please.

As I topped the current hill, I saw the town of Urbus. It was situated in a crater, and on all sides were wide open plains. We had to beat a boss to get to the city, a giant bull of some sort. That had been an odd match to say the least. Still nowhere near the main road, I continued down the trail with caution, since the night had now just started and more powerful monsters would spawn.

We arrived in Urbus after about half an hour of walking, which meant that it wasn't quite midnight. I had a chance to get some more supplies for things like poisons and weapon repairs while I waited for Tavi.

Astra wrote:

I'm in Urbus now, message me when you get here.

Tavi wrote:

That may take a while.

I had just sent the message before the first of a pack of Direwolves, wolves the size of a freaking Great Dane, came charging at me, snarling with spittle pouring from its maw of teeth. Fur of dark blue and eyes gleaming red, its packmates all howled and joined the fray.

Drawing my sword and going on the defensive, I sidestepped the first attack and slashed at the wolf as it passed me by, drawing a yelp of pain from it. Then another wolf came from behind me, paws audible over the rocky gravel on the hillside and threw myself to the side, rolling as I hit the ground before coming to my feet just as another wolf charged me. It was like fighting a single creature, and I found myself liking the challenge. Darting back and forth, using my speed to keep them out of reach, I waited for an opening before darting forward and lopping off a head. One down, five to go.

Another message popped up. Niko looked up from his forge but didn't open it. He finished the swords he was working on then he opened it. It was from the contact who followed the man who wanted to kill him. The message read: Update: the party the man was going to meet up with is missing. I have a feeling they were PK-ed. The man seems pretty emotional about it, maybe he knew someone in the party. He's not going to head to the mountains anymore though. He's probably going to be one of those suicide-types now. Niko frowned. Player killing is murder. It may be a feature in the game, but it's a choice as to whether or not you kill someone. You make a decision of your own free will to hurt someone. It was this very reason his search and listen skills were high. Avoiding players altogether meant a less likely chance of him being attacked, and not killing the attacker.

Niko sighed and took out his lute. He recorded a song and sent it to his contact, with the directions of giving it to the man who was going to kill him. It was christmas after all. Giving was the time of the season.

I sighed at Tavi's message. It was only a couple of hours until midnight, but most of the shops were still open. I went to the alchemy shop first, buying some ingredients for paralysis poison and a more lethal one, before I stopped at a blacksmith's forge to repair my gear. It was pretty cold, and I could see my breath in the air. My partner was probably already at the tavern, finding a party to join and lure out into the wilderness where PoH, Zasha and the others were waiting. I'd probably have to set off with them tomorrow or the day after; it was pretty unlikely that they'd go now, they'd probably stay here for Christmas too.

The five wolves growled at me, and came at me again. So far none of them had touched me and I had no intention of letting that change. Dodging the first attack and then countering the second with a swipe of the sword, one of the wolves exploded into sparks. Four left, they grouped into a formation which gave me an opportunity to use a new skill I had. It wasn't really an AOE attack, but I had a feeling it would do just fine for this situation. Holding the sword behind me, it began to glow as I charged it up. The wolves charged me, coming as one to attack. When they got in range, I let got of the skill and let it take over. Spinning in a circle like Link from the Legend of Zelda games, the skill brought me in a circle as my sword, leaving a spectral trail of blue light, arced out and caught the four wolves in midair and destroyed all four of them, their health weak enough from my whittling. When they died, I got some Col, and continued on my way, breaking into a sprint and giving my speed skill some extra work. Urbus grew larger as I got closer.

With gear repair and alchemy ingredients taken off of my to-do list, I headed to an information broker I'd met. I was supposed to sell her a rumours about a PK guild forming though it wasn't actually formed yet, even though PoH had said he wanted to; we just needed a way to form one without registering it. I found her by a park where I'd been told to meet her, and as usual, it was straight to business. What the information was, what it was worth, and then the trade. She was definitely worried about the information herself, which almost made me smile, and we parted ways, the amount of col I owned quite a bit higher.

Passing through the gates of Urbus, I was panting lightly as I came to a stop. There was a time that would have left me gasping, but my skills were getting better......but it wouldn't always be this way, me being powerful. New floors, new challenges. I opened my message box and sent Astra a message.

Tavi wrote:

Hey Astra, I'm here in Urbus now. Main gate.