SAO: Roleplay

"Unless it was part of the game," I said. "For all we know, this game we're in uploaded software to the NerveGear's that deactivated the safeties." Sighing, I closed my eyes and said "But true or not......we can't escape the fact that we're trapped here. That if we want out, we fight our way out. If Kayaba wants us to fight then we're gonna give him a bloody war."

"Yeah. We need to get out of here and get stronger, like you said," I told him, steadying myself. "Lead the way."

"I'm no leader," I said, with a faint ghost of a smile. "We move together without a lead, unless you want to lead us?"

"One day, you'll have to take my orders," I answered him with a faint smile of my own, "But so will the rest of the raid members." I said, extending my hand, "Team?" I asked, looking him in the eyes.

"Team," I said, taking her hand and shaking it. "And I doubt I'll be following any of your orders," I added before letting go. "Defeats the purpose of being a lone wolf."

"Lone wolves usually have a bad time in MMOs." I pointed out, smiling fully now. "Let's go."

"We'll see," I said before I started walking. "So, where to first? I could do with a new sword, something better than this basic blade."

"There's nothing really good on this floor that's easy to get. I think the next town's our best bet." I told him, setting off at a walk.

"Yeah that's where I was planning to go," I said. "Come on, we should run. Everyone else is already moving and we need to keep up."

I nodded and picked up my pace, changing into a slow run, a sprint would just exhaust us.
"How long do you think it'll take to clear the game?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"No idea," I said. "If we just focus on trying to clear each dungeon and the boss......a few months? This isn't a typical single player game, and the enemies on the higher floors were tough enough....I don't want to think about the enemies on the other ninety-two floors." Not to mention that since this was an MMORPG, the bosses would be astronomically hard to beat, mainly because they and the dungeons they occupied, were the whole point of raids.

Raids were all about ganging up on incredibly tough targets. You only went solo in them, if you had a deathwish.....and here in SAO, as I realized, that was no longer going to be a figure of speech.

"We'll clear the 100th floor together, okay?" I said to him, glancing over my shoulder as I ran, "No matter what guilds we're in, or any other obligations, we'll make a party for floor 100, alright?"

"Sounds like a plan," I said, running now as I tried to remember possible locations. "Should we hit a quest first on the way to the next town? Rack up some skill points and Col?"

I nodded, it was better to gain XP on the way to the next town as well, and we could probably finish that quest and still get to the next town tonight, seeing as it wasn't too late yet.
"Then we'll probably have to rest at the town, but tomorrow we'll have the full day to get ahead."

"Right," I said. "There should be a quest further down by the woods, something about dealing with a pack of wolves. Feeling up to it?" I asked.

"AHAHAHAHAHAH - AGHAHAHAHAH!" A man who laughs in the face of death is in control of himself, the gravity of the situation has not broken him. A man who cries in the face of adversity has been broken by it. As I killed a bunch of plant-like monsters, I laughed. Going solo was hard, but it was my style. If any of my martial arts training in the real world did anything for me, it was how to stay in control of myself. As well as how to be aware of your surroundings. I had my ass handed to me far too many times by one of my sensei's because I would always end up walking into something and he would also tell me to be aware of what is around me. This applies to people as well as objects. Like trees. Especially in forests. They were great things to jump behind when an enemy attacked.

Especially when the enemies are Nepents. They were pretty low level, but if they had one thing, it was numbers. I had to constantly dash about to not get surrounded or swarmed. But they just kept coming. It didn't help that I was looking for a special type of Nepent. One that had a special quest item. Every time I think I see one it turns out to be some other variant. The kind of little Nepent with a fruit on its head. Or, postule of some kind. Thinking it was probably filled with some poison, or worse, I avoided ever hitting the fruit at the top when I killed them.

I eventually had to back off, retreat to a position where I could rest for a bit. So, I climbed a tree and activated my hide skill. Hopefully, over time, the Nepents would forget about me. But of course, they didn't...

I nodded to Tavi, wanting to reach the next town and put this day behind us.
"Let's do it."

Taking the lead, I went down one of the branching paths of the road. Most I knew about this one was we had to find a troubled looking farmer, which was easy enough since it was just the one guy standing outside his farm with the quest icon. We went up to him and he called to us. "Excuse me, can you help me? A pack of wolves has been killing my flock of sheep." Then we got the quest which was basically wipe out the pack of wolves in the nearby woods. Most of this was bland but then again......Floor 1, it was kinda he basic floor.

Floor: 1

Short cropped black hair. Amber eyes. Aether saw herseld, and dropped the mirror..as it shattered on the ground and disappeared, she ran. Ran past a boy standing there, ran past everything. She really had nothing...no...no, she had her family. Her family was out there and despite her misgivings they were all she had.

And so, as monsters camenonto the trail, she drew her sword. Felling boars and the occasional wolf, she fought on. The next town...she had to get there. A few qussts could nab her Col. Fourth town had a sword, Cilica. It would do until she got the Avarice Blade.
Plans forming and molding in her mind, Aether paused to down a potion. She wasn't dying here. Not on Floor one.

My stomach growled as I finished off one of the wolves. I realised that I hadn't eaten in game, and that translated to me feeling hungry in game.
"After this, do you wanna get something to eat?" I asked Tavi, looking over my shoulder at him.

When we got to the quest location, we were predictably attacked by a pack of wolves, maybe ten in number. They were more dangerous than boars, but we covered each other's backs. When I had a moment to breathe after killings wolf of my own, I said "Sounds good. I'm feeling hungry myself."

I opened up my quest window, checking the progress on the quest.
"Two more," I told him, "You?"

"Just one," I said, flying forward as my sword skill carried me into a wolf, the blade aglow with blue light as it struck the beast. It exploded in a shower of pixels, and I stood to look back at Astra.

I hit the first wolf, causing it damage and for it to aggro onto me, then carried onto the second one like I'd done countless times in MMOs to save time. I hit the second wolf with another skill, putting it near death. As I turned to face the other, I felt an unpleasant sensation in my leg, and as I finished turning, my health bar depleting. The wolf had bitten into my leg. I quickly hit it with a skill and it let go. I hit them both once more, which killed them and looked over to Tavi.
"Done?"

After the last wolf, I sheathed my sword and stood straight, though still alert for any more wolves. "Yeah," I said, then I saw her health bar. "Astra, do you have any healing crystals?"

"No, there's no point in buying them at a low level," I said to him, "The damage is too low to be enough of a risk." I started walking again, "We should go, we need to get as much XP as possible."

"Right," I said, following her through the woods. I didn't want to dwell on it.....but the thought of what was happening in the real world simply dominated my mind and controlled my mouth to say "So....what do you think is going to happen to our bodies in the real world?"

"Didn't Kayaba say we'd be moved to hospitals?" I asked, "It'd be hard to move so many people at once." I said, thinking out loud.

"Did he? Mostly he just said we won't have anyone remove the helmets and that we were trapped in a death game," I said, carefully stepping over an exposed tree root. The woods were clearing up, and the next town was in sight......and it was still an odd sight. Each town was perched on these platforms, raised above the ground by a single, curling staircase. How they were balanced, was beyond me......but then again, it was a video game.

Sure, a video game we were trapped in and would die in real life in if we died in the game....but still just a game.

"So, food?" I asked, "Then we could either go to bed or we could train a bit more. Your choice."

"Food.....then bed, I guess," I said casually. Then I quickly added "Guess it goes without saying, that we're getting separate rooms?" It was a rhetorical question really, since he really just wanted to be alone. The whole day had left him with, despite his calm and relaxed demeanor, anxious and in need of rest.

"Are you coming on to me, Tavi?" I joked, laughing as I did, though feeling slightly disappointed. Sleeping early would leech into training time, and potentially put us behind more dedicated players.

"Hah, no. Kinda a bad time to even think about that, don't you think?" I asked her. The lack of training time would be bad, though.... "If you want, we can eat, rest for an hour, then go out for some late night hunting?"

"Sure, maybe we can learn something from the NPCs here. Or at the very least, we can get started on a couple more quests." I answered, though I wanted to be as far into the game as possible, food sounded better right now.

Reaching the town was fairly easy, no monsters around to hamper us. Yet, anyway. But we got in just fine, and there were plenty of NPC's with quest icons over their heads, but we needed to eat. I mean, we wouldn't get any nourishment from it, but at the very least it would stave off the feeling of hunger. There was an inn, cheap apparently by the look of it, but the food was decent. At least, it looked decent, for myself I just got a sandwich and had yet to touch it.

I bought myself some soup and bread. It was cheap, looked nice, and smelled nice. I paused for a second though, trying to remember how food worked in the beta.
If I tap 'use' on the bread... I thought, tapping the 'use' option and selecting the soup, combining them. I smiled, and tore a piece off of the bread and dipped it into the soup.
"We should check how much rooms are and whether we have enough money." I said to Tavi, having stopped eating for a moment.

"Right," I said, before tearing into my sandwich. "Hopefully we've got enough......otherwise we may have to pool our money for a shared room.

Floor: 1

It took far too long to find that little nepent with the flower. So off I went to complete the quest <<Secret Medicine of the Forest>> so that I might gain the Anneal Blade. As I journeyed back towards Horunka Village, I activated my Hide Skill, I didn't want other players to know where I was to PK me. The only downside to this death game was that player interaction was sketchy at best. Anyone could turn on you and kill you for your items. Unless you were within a safe-zone, such as a city or village. Which justified the hiding. At least, to me.

Horunka wasn't that far from where I fought the Nepents, but I liked to play it safe. Though, as realistic as SAO was, I really wished the hide skill was more effective for enemies that don't use sight as a means of detection. Ah, but realism.

As I crept through the woods, carefully maneuvering around areas that might have people, I was spotted by a dire wolf. The wolf nearly got the drop on me, but I heard the rustling of leaves as the wolf dove through the bushes. As the beast lunged at me I fell back to let its momentum carry it, and struck it with my sword as it missed me. It shattered into experience and Col. I breathed deeply to calm myself. Though it was a weak monster, I needed to survive. Letting monsters get the jump on me like that will mean that I won't live long...

"Then you'll get your wish after all," I told Tavi, laughing, before I stopped, adopting a more serious look, "You've been very... okay with all of this," I said, "Are you okay?"

Shrugging, I leaned back in my chair, arms folded in front of me. "I....I'm not sure, Astra. Maybe it just hasn't hit me yet. Not looking forward to when it does." Staring at my sandwich, I was silent for a bit before I said "I miss my home. My parents, my friends. It's only been a few hours but....dammit I wish I was there."

I put my hand on my forehead and leaned on it,
"Yet you'd rather have spent time here than there," I said with a sad smile, "You never know what you have 'till it's gone."

"Ain't that the truth," I mumbled. "I love them all but here....well, before Kayaba, this was like a dream come true. Explore a fantastic world and fight monsters? Who wouldn't go for that?"

"Someone who doesn't like fantasy games?" I offered jokingly, with a small smile, "What do you think our chances of getting out of this alive are?"

"Honestly?" I said. "In the beta, we only ever made it to Floor 8, and the monsters were definitely tough. They're bound to only get harder as we get higher.....but I think our odds are good.....if we can get everyone to work together. Focus on working as an army and fight to clear the floors together, covering each other and striking together."

"But when things get a little bit hard, what's stopping everyone from turning on each other?" I asked him, "I mean, look at us. We've only been looking after ourselves up to now."

"I guess.....but we gotta hope, right? If we can't pull together.....we'll all die here," I said.

"There's always gonna be people who won't work together," I said, "We can hope all we want, but the world doesn't work that way."

"I know, and it sucks," I grumbled. "At the very least....we have to hope that people working together on the dungeon and boss raids will be a thing." Looking out the window, I saw how late it was getting and said "Hey, should we get our rooms?"

"I'll go see how much they are," I said, walking over to the NPC who rented the rooms. After checking the price, I walked back to Tavi. "50 Col. Do you have enough?" I asked him.

"Yeah, definitely," I said. "Wait, was that for a pair of separate rooms?" I added a bit nervously. What? I just wanted to be sure this wasn't going to be a joke.