I sat up there around Seven in the morning, hearing a player named Diavel and two other players, Agil and Kibaou argue about Beta Testers and their significance within SAO. Kibaou has been arguing to Diavel and Agil for a good Fifteen minutes about how Beta Testers are insignificant since they know a majority of the first few floors. I won’t lie, I would agree with him about our knowledge, but so much has changed since our beta testing days.

Besides that, Diavel had originally made this meeting because this floor labyrinth was located and searched thoroughly. Sato and I sat through this argument as Agil (Or as I call him Tiffany) had tried to break up the conversation but got caught in it himself.

I looked past Sato as I glared again at Kirito, sitting at the other side with a hooded figure that was sitting nearby. By looking down a bit, I noticed that the figure was a female player, due to her skirt being visible and the cloak being unable to fully hide a player's body.

After about an hour and thirty minutes of nonsense argument we all decided to do a vote, in which the majority vote goes to two to three days before the raid starts. Most of us were okay with this and hence we never debated about it, after most players left, including Sato, Diavel recognized Kirito and I as we were leaving.

“May I talk to you two?”

Diavel said to us as he took us back to the coliseum to talk privately. “Thank god there were more beta players that are alive” He said with relief in his voice, we both looked at him weirdly and confused as he then explained the situation to us.

“When you two walked in at separate times, I was glad to see familiar faces from the beta. I thought we had all died out because of the news rate of how many players had already died.”

He said with a concerned look on his face and having a sort of shiver in his tone, clearly scared but relieved at the same time. “Yeah, I didn’t think I’d run into you two either.” I said to both Diavel and Kirito, Kirito just looked at me and said “Me neither, But let’s just stick close as long as possible.”.

“Good Idea, we have 2-3 days to get better items either way, Let’s get going then”

I said to them as they nodded, we all walked out of the coliseum and headed our separate ways. I walked over to a NPC, accepting a quest that I had knowledge of down to the item given, The Item given is called Shinestone Rune, an item that reduces the Stamina that sword skills take by five percent. With a really strong passive on an item, it has only 5 active uses so it’s needed in dire situations. The item however, scales off the user’s stamina, which means that If I have more stamina I can burst out more sword skills without worry. Some beta testers know about this item and would most likely use a method called Skill Burst with this item.

I accepted this NPC quest and headed off towards Windstallen Fields. The Fields held blood wolves all across the fields, but also some wild boars and a certain mini-boss NPC. I ran through the field, following a pathway that led to a small village that was almost 2 to 2 ½ miles off from Tolbana. I then opened my menu, pushing onto my maps and clicking my tasks menu. I looked at the task again as I needed a reminder of where I was supposed to go.

“There is a monstrous being over at Windstallen Fields! I’ve heard rumors that the monster that terrorizes Windstallen Fields also terrorize Horunka Village, taking young men, women, and children alike to the darkness of the night.

I have sent a messenger pigeon to Horunka Village that I am sending someone to solve the problem. In return I will give you the Shinestone Rune. I beg of you, defeat this monster for the greater good!”

I then swiped up, closing my menu and headed towards the village. On my hud, a large text appeared above the town as the text said “Horunka Village” pointing down onto the village. I walked into the village as a safezone effect had turned up. I walked to an NPC shop and looked at the items, an Item particularly caught my eye as it was a sword that looked unique in a way.

I tapped onto the sword, the sword was called Stonegail Sword with some good stats (18 STR, 10 DUR, 10 AGI, 5 WGT) as the price was pretty decent, only 142 COL in which I had 209 from the dungeon earlier.

I bought the sword as a text box popped up saying “Added to inventory”, I opened my inventory and equipped the sword. I then walked out of the village around noon to sundown, waiting almost 8 hours at Horunka Village. I opened my menu once again and checked my stats just in case I was underleveled

Name: Kirin

HP: 282/282

LVL: 8

EXP: 208/304

STR: 20

VIT: 18

AGI: 15

DEX: 6

LUK: 8

I was nowhere near underleveled as I swiped the menu away and waited until my mission menu had updated. Moments later, my mission logs did update and I immediately headed out, running out of the village and looked at my mission logs.

“There has been a disturbance in the nearby fields, check out what disturbed the area”

The updated mission log said as I quickly ran over there, I then showed up at where the disturbed area was and quickly jumped back and away from a club swing. I stumbled backwards rolling back a bit before catching myself, I looked at the beast as the name showed up in red, A Cyclops that was way stronger than my own level. I got up and pulled out my sword, hearing a bellowing scream coming from the Cyclops.

“I covered my ears as I then looked up to roll away again from a stomp. “They expect me to kill this thing?!!” I shouted as I got back up and waited for the next attack. The Cyclops then swung their club as I was forced to brace for impact, getting smacked around and being flung around from the strength of the Cyclop’s swings. I coughed a bit to catch my breath as I stood up weakly this time, my health had dropped down to 160, I then opened a potion and drank it, healing up to 208 and running in onto the cyclops.

It roared out towards me as it slammed its club and missed me. I ran up to its knee and aimed for its heel instead of its thigh, cutting just above the heel of its foot. Making another sharp turn I activated a movement skill, speeding myself up at the cost of minus 5 STR, I then began rapidly slashing the cyclops all around while it was on a knee.

I kept swinging my sword at it, growing more and more exhausted as I kept swinging. “C’mon Stun!!!” I thought as my passive skill Adrenaline had activated, restoring a good portion of my stamina within 5 seconds each time. I kept spamming sword skill after sword skill, chipping away at the Cyclops health down to red. By that point, my passive skill was on a long cooldown of 3 minutes, and I was fatigued beyond what I could have normally achieved.

The Cyclops then began to chuckle and what seemed to laugh at my attempt, This shook me to the core, a NPC acting almost sentient to what could be a pre-written interaction.

The Cyclops stood up and raised up its club and swung the club sideways and swatted me away, crashing into a large tree and dropping down to red. “I…I don’t want to move… I’m too tired…” I thought to myself as I saw its health was red, so close to killing it.

“I…I have to kill it…For the quest…” I muttered underneath my breath as I had to force my virtual body to get back up, I was screaming my lungs out trying to stand up to my feet. I then raised up my arms as I had dropped my blade after being overly fatigued, “Come…Come on you ugly…one eyed…Bitch..!” I shouted as I forced myself to charge up a martial arts skill.

Hearing the footsteps getting louder I thought to myself “I have to kill him so I can move on with this goddamn quest!!” as I heard trees being pushed to the side rapidly, hearing the thumps of footsteps getting closer. “HAAAAAHH!!!!” I shouted my virtual lungs out as the Cyclops rushed through the last parts of the trees and furiously swung their club. I then threw the martial arts skill, Meteor Impact at the Cyclops’s large abdomen.

A Bursting sound could be heard as my fist had punched a small impact hole and an exit hole the size of a large rock. The Cyclops then began to glow bluish cyan as it then shattered to pieces. Bunch of text then popped up saying “Congratulations!” as I didn’t care about my victory. I lost my balance and fell face first into the leafy grounds, My vision began to blur up as I saw a figure walk by and began to slowly run up to me, every second felt like it had slowed down as I closed my eyes and finally began to rest.

“So… This is how we are going out huh..?”

A voice said as I woke up in a pitch black, void-like space. I looked around as the voice talked again “Over here..” As I turned around and saw myself standing there, In-Front of me. “You’re…Me” I said as he nodded. “We are the same person at the core, but we act like two different people…” He said as I looked at him as he put his palm out to me.

“Look.. Even our hands are different…” he said as I put my hand out and showed my palm, seeing that mine was more roughed up than his. I then looked up from his palm and saw that he was gone. I backed up as my back hit something solid as he said “I…I really hope you can make it out of the game…” as I turned around to look at him as he turned around and I saw that his skin grew more pale, a little thinner, and his hair grew out slightly.

His smile was small but genuine, He then said “Please… For the both of us, don’t die…” as a single teardrop came out of his right eye, going down his cheek and dropping off his chin. The Teardrop then hit the voidless ground as I awoke in bed at 5 in the morning. I touched my face and felt the tear from my right eye, thinking to myself “Did…Did I…give myself a pep talk..?” as I was filled with mixed emotions.

I then heard a wind chime sound as I checked my menu, seeing from the communications Icon, I saw that there was something pending, I checked it and saw a name I wasn’t familiar with. “Toru?” I muttered underneath my breath as I clicked it and it was a friend request. I accepted it as I was genuinely confused at what happened within the timespan of when I blacked out and when I woke up.

I got up and out of bed, looking at my quest seeing that it was completed, I then put on my gear and walked outside of the Inn at Horunka Village. “Oh right my sword” I said to myself as I checked my inventory, seeing that it was gone from my inventory and sighed in agony a bit. But to my surprise, I saw a new item in my inventory.

I looked at the name as the name said “Darkened Mace” as I didn’t really have a good proficiency in Mace. I left it in my inventory and headed off towards Tolbana.

I rubbed my face a bit as my shoulder had bumped into someone that was passing by, “Sorr-” as I was going to say but I then saw who it was. The person I had bumped into was Kirito, we looked at each other dead in the eyes as what seemed like the air tensing up a bit. “Hey…” I said to him as he replied “Hey…” sounding a little concerned.

We both stared at each other for a few seconds before we turned our attention to some oncoming footsteps. I saw the person and it was the same girl that was wearing the hood over her head. I could barely make out her facial features as all I saw was her mouth under that red hood, I looked at her as I saw that she had a rapier equipped and holstered at her waist to her hip. “Is this girl a rapier user?” I said to Kirito as he replied “Yeah, I just noticed that too”, The girl seemed to be in a little haste as she said “Let’s just go already!” as she stormed ahead with Kirito following right behind her saying “Asuna wait up!!”.

“Asuna?”

I thought to myself confused as my train of thought kept going, “Is that her name? Well I guess that's new information to keep in check” as I then walked the other way towards Tolbana again. I met up with the NPC and collected my item from the quest, ShrineStone Rune was equipped as its skill was an active skill. “I should be ready for this raid now, depending on when we can get this done…” I thought as I headed towards a blacksmith shop within Tolbana.

“Hey can you make my sword better, I have some Smithing Stones for it”

I said casually as the NPC nodded and replied “Sure thing, I’ll have this weapon forged up and ready for you sir” as the menu opened up for the upgrading station. The Upgrading station was a unique station for upgrading your weapon, I put most of my COL and Smithing stones into STR but also some into WGT (Weight) so the sword didn’t weigh me down as much. The sword was now upgraded as I picked up the newly upgraded weapon and checked its stats.

Stonegail Sword (+3)

ATK: 18 (+2)

DUR: 10

AGI: 10

WGT: 5 (+1)

“Alright, a pretty good sword from a town upgraded”

I thought as with a little smile as I put away my sword, I then looked at the sky as I saw the clouded blue sky. “Huh… I still got time to kill” I thought as I then heard a wind chime sound again, checking my menu and seeing a notification in my communications tab again. I seemed overly confused as I clicked it and saw a message and a bright orange circle on the name “Toru”. I was a bit confused when I clicked Toru’s name, seeing the message screen open up as a message from Toru had appeared.

“Hey, can you meet me at the coliseum, make sure your alone please”

I was shocked at this message, I looked around both ways before I quickly typed with a virtual keyboard “Sure, I’ll head over there right now” as I closed the communications tab.

I quickly headed towards the entrance of the Coliseum and checked inside it, a bit exhausted but full of virtual adrenaline. “Where is this Toru person??” I thought as I looked around before hearing a voice from above “Up here dummy” they said as they jumped down from the top and landed onto their feet, but since we’re in a safezone, they took no fall damage.

The mysterious Toru stood up, seeing that it was another female player, wearing a poncho, a steel breastplate over a jacket along with some pants rather than the default skirt.

“I’m Toru!”

She said with a confident smile, I was nothing but stunned and awed at her for a bit before snapping out of it, “I-I’m Kirin, Are you…the one who took me back to Haruka Village?” I questioned as I rubbed the back of my head a bit awkwardly. “Yep! Man you were knocked the hell out back there” she said with a bit of an accent coming out as she covered her mouth and cleared her throat. I looked at her confused as I said to her “Is English not your first language?” as she looked at me and tried to laugh it off.

“What do you mean, I can speak English fine, see!”

She said in her confident tone again, and I clearly sensed a red flag of her accent, noticing a small break between some phrases. I pieced these two things together and told her “Are…Are you Japanese?” as She looked at me, stared me down for a bit before she shook her head repeatedly. “No! I am not!” she shouted covering her face.

I had a good look at her face and did notice some features that showed her of asian descent, noticeably her silky hair and her seamless skin. I then asked her “I know a little bit of Japanese, but not too much” as she looked at me and was a little confused. I only said that to comfort her as she seemed obviously embarrassed that her identity was found out already, “You..do..?” she stuttered with a low and seemed like a curious tone to my ears, I nodded trying to say “Ara…Aragato” as she shook her head chuckling.

“It's not like that, It's…” she said as I asked her, “Can you teach me then?”, she nodded saying “Sure, here’s the actual way to say it..” as she took a small deep breath. I stood there to listen to her low tone, calm, cool and satisfactory voice.

It’s…Arigato…