Katharine

"Oh, okay. I'll buy that." I said.

"I'll be right back, just give me a minute or so." The lady said, then walked to the blacksmith area.

I glanced over to the male, who seemed to be enjoying this.

"You seem to be enjoying this." I asked the male.

"I would like a chestplate, nothing too expensive, but make sure it does not hinder speed.", I replied to her.

Once I entered the shop, I felt very warm, which was nice after walking in the snow for so long.

'Probably from the fire or something.'

I looked around the shop, it had nicely done swords and armor, all put nicely in place.

'This looks way different from Ashley's shop.'

"How may I help you?" A lady came and asked us, The male just shrugged his shoulder, irritating the lady.

"I'm here for some light metal armor, what do you have in stock?"

"I know right! You look so different from how I first met you!" I said, laughing.

Before Aoi could answer me, Night gave me a wave.

"Oh, so I was correct, it is you!" I exclaimed.

'He sure has changed...'

"Long time no see, time sure flies huh."

"Why are you staring at Night?" Said Aoi.

I stop staring at the male after hearing Aoi's voice.

"W-Wha? Oh, its nothing...He just seems familiar..."

I got a quick glance at the male before asking Aoi a question.

"His name is Night?"

'His first time coming here, huh..'

Once we got there, I stared at the shop.

'Izzi's Smithshop huh...'

"Well, shall we go in?" The male asked.

"Yeah sure, lead the way." I replied.

I stop smiling and raised a eyebrow in suspicion, but I followed him anyway.

"So what's the shop like?" I said, while putting on a cloak as it was getting extra chilly.

I got up after falling on her.

"Big lug? Are you trying to get my conscious about my weight?!" I playfully smacked her on the head while laughing, picking up Charcoal at the same time.

I saw the young male Aoi was with, before curiously staring at him.

'He seems familiar...'

I cocked a eyebrow at him, before giving him my signature smile.

"Well, at least your not some creepy stalker. Do you know any good blacksmith shop? I kinda need some armor..." I asked.

After watching Aoi and another male chasing the PKers away, I made my entrance.

But it failed, and I instead fell on Aoi. With Charcoal landing on his butt, mamking a soft 'yelp' sound.

"Seriously?! Again? Can't you land on someone else for a change?", Aoi said, laughing.

"Well I'm sorry for being so clumsy."I replied her, sarcastically.

"Anyways, you guys were pretty cool when you were fighting those Pkers." I said.

"Well, unlike you, I'm actually quite under leveled." I replied him icily, shooting him a ice cold glare.

"What are you doing here?"

I stopped walking and turned my attention to a young male, who had just asked me something.

"O-Oh, nothing. I'm just walking around to see if there's anything to buy."

I woke up, feeling groggy, my eyes were drooping and I was drooling.

"Arghh...."

I stared at the clock, and my eyes widened.

"ITS ALMOST 9 IN THE MORNING?!"

I snapped wide awake, and quickly changed into my battle clothing.

'Dammit, dammit, dammit, DAMMITTTT'

I ran down the stairs as fast as I could, and quickly made my way down to the diner.

'Phew...I got there on time...'

------------------------ Break-------------------------

After eating breakfast, I walked around the town, just to see if there was anything to buy.

I made a few turns to see if there were any shops, but most of them just sold food or weapons.

I made a slight turn to the right, I saw a small tailor shop.

'There are tailor shops in this game?'

When I walked into the store, I saw a young female player, probably in her twenties, making clothes.

"Um...This is a tailor shop right?"

I saw her jump slightly at the sound of my voice.

'Guess she didn't notice me.'

"I'm so sorry! I didn't notice you! W-Welcome to Ashley's tailor shop! What would you like from h-here?

"Uh, nothing really..I'm just looking around..."

"O-Oh...Well please take the time to look around here.."

"Ah no, I kinda need to go, so I'm so-"

"PLEASE! I beg of you! You are my first customer ever since I opened this store! You are the only person who bothered to visit this store, so please I beg of yo-"

"Woah, woah, woahhhhh. Calm down."

"S-Sorry..."

"Nono, its nothing."

I could not help but look at her disappointed face.

"Geez...Fine! I'll order a custom made outfit!"

"W-Wait really?Thank you so much!"

She held my hands together and kept bowing to me.

"G-Geez...Getting so worked up ov-"

"I know! Since you're my first customer I'll make it for you for free!"

"W-Wait! How are you gonna make money?!"

"I make money somehow!"

'This girl...'

I sweat dropped.

"O-Okay..."

"Thank you very much!"

With a sigh, I quickly took out a pencil.

"What are you doing?"

She looked at me curiously.

"I'm ordering a custom made outfit right? You need to know the design in order to make it. Do you have a piece of paper?"

"O-Oh, uh yes"

She passed me a piece of blank paper, I started to sketch my outfit.

Without looking up I asked her, "Your name is Ashley right?"

"Y-Yes."

"Can I add you to my friends list? It'll be easier for you to contact me on when the outfit is done."

"U-Um..Sure."

Finishing my paper, I passed her my sketch and opened up my menu, and send a friend request to her.

She took the paper and pressed accept.

"We are friends from now on?"

'She must not have any friends...'

"Yuppp!"

She soon started smiling, I swear I could see sparkles everywhere.

"This will probably take a few days, I'll give you a message when its done."

"Thank you Ashley."

"Um... Your name is Kathaine right?"

"Yeah, but you can Kat."

"O-Oh ok.."

"See you around Ashley."

"See you!"

She waved at me as I left the store.

'What a nice girl...'

What should I do now...

After killing a few more monsters, I found a tree to rest under.

I gently lay down onto the soft grass, staring at the leaves.

I quickly sat up a ate apple that I picked along the way, munching it slowly while deep in thoughts.

'I almost died there...'

The memory of the battle was still fresh in my mind, so I decided to read the handbook as a way to forget about it.

When I finished reaading the book, I had not realized how late it had become.

'Its 6.17 pm!?'

'Oh crap, I'm gonna miss dinner!'

I took out my teleport crystal and teleported back to the town.

I made a run for it and quickly got to the pub, just on time.

You see, there is a free breakfast, lunch and dinner at a certain time for us players every day at this pub. That's why it is always packed with people here.

Squeezing my way to a table, I ordered my dinner and put on my headphones to listen to my music, slowly falling asleep.

"Madam, here is you food."

I snapped awake at the sound of the waitress, and said

"Ah, thank you."

The waitress made her leave and I slowly nibbled my food.

Food in SAO had always been weird to me, I'm not actually eating, yet it makes me feel like I'm full. The food itself taste like how it should be in real life.

After that, I went upstairs to my room, and I smacked my face onto the soft sheets.

'I have to shower...'

I dragged myself to the shower room, and closed the door.

When I was done, I walked out in a light white panda T-shirt and some shorts and plopped onto the bed.

The sensation of the water in SAO is much more different from the real life counterpart.

I don't how to explain it, its just feels weird...

With that, I plumbed into a deep sleep.

"Buzzzzzz...."

I heard a slight buzzing sound from afar, wondering what it was I ran in the direction it was coming from.

I saw a bunch of hornets at a small hive, all together as if they were hugging.

'Oh no...I have to get out of here, but...'

I screened around my surroundings to see if there were any other horents flying around

'Here's my chance!'

I somewhat stealthily walked away, hoping to not get any of the horent's attention.

But the laws of karma and the universe decided to say nope.

A horent noticed me and I was soon swarmed by a bunch of angry horents.

Ah dammit.

With no choice, I started to attack them.

They swarmed me and they was fast, but I manage to keep up as I was a speed fighter.

I quickly killed all of them, only to see my rapiers durability was as low as my health.

To make matters even worse the Queen had arrived, challenging me to a boss fight.

Ah dammit.

I quickly chucked down a potion, and dodged her first attack. But I wasn't so lucky the second time.

I got a quick jab in the stomach, making me green health of to orange.

Due to the pain, I could not dodge the third attack, making me health bar drop to the red zone.

'I can't lose! I don't want to die!'

I started at the queen with a frighten face.

'I'm so weak....'

Images of the incident flashed through my head, along with the image of my crippled sister in the hospital.

'Sis...'

The queen raised her hand, preparing for the final strike.

'She was waiting for me, in the real world.'

'I owe her so much, and now I have to die?'

'I can't leave her alone. I can't.'

"I JUST CAN'T!" I screeched.

With a feeling of adrenaline rush, I quickly gave quick jabs at the queen, dropping her health to red.

She attempted to hit me again but it was dodged.

I ran towards her to deal the final blow, stabbing her through the head, killing her.

A small window popped up telling me how much I got from the battle.

What caught my attention was a rapier called, 'Hornet's stab'.

And as if on cue, the rapier in hand shattered into a million pieces.

I quickly chugged down another potion and equip the new rapier, it felt much lighter yet was much well-shaped and sharper.

I decided to keep going around this area, I checked my profile again to see if my battle healing had more points as the handbook said battle healing gets higher every time my health falls into the red zone.

It did get higher, just slightly.

I closed the menu and started walking.

The boar screamed before being silenced with one quick stab at its heart, a small screen then popped up infront of me.

"Looks like I leveled up."

I saw a extra slot on my profile, so I used one of my points to get another skill.

'Battle healing huh...thats gonna be pretty useful, but acrobatics might help...'

'Geez...'

I decided to get battle healing, it then appeared on my slot moments later.

I quickly sheathed my rapier and walked back to the Town of Beginnings, as I wanted to stock up on some potions.

After 20 minutes of walking, I arrived back to the town.

"Lets see, where is the shop..."

I quickly made a quick turn, remembering where I bought my items from.

I walked into the shop, to be greeted by the Shopkeeper NPC.

"Hello young lady! Welcome to our shop! What you like to get today? We have many items in stock, including this small handbook with information on the game given to players for free!"

Well, he sure is cheerful..Wait, a free handbook? With free information on the game?

"Can I get one of that handbook? Along with some potions and a teleport crystal."

"Ok sure! I'll be right back, give me a moment!"

I watched as the NPC moved into the backdoor to get my items, I can't help but feel a tingling sense at the back of my spine.

I stared out of the window, parties walked passed the shop.

I could not help but feel a sense of loneliness and jealousy.

'If only I was in a party...No, no, no, I should not be thinking that! I have to quickly beat this game and escape!'

"Sorry if I took too long, here are your items, a handbook, some potions and a teleport crystal!"

I quickly snapped out of my trance after hearing the NPC's words.

"No, no, you were pretty quick, and thank you for the items."

With that I pressed the buy button and the items magically appeared into my inventory.

"See you Mr Shopkeeper!"

I quickly stepped out of the shop and ran to the exit to get to the grassfields to grind some more.

I shouted a battle cry before stabbing my Rapier into the boar's heart,instantly killing it.

'This should be enough...'

I looked at my character profile, checking my stats and experience.

'Leveling up in this game is so difficult...I'm not even at Lvl 2 yet...'

With a sigh I closed my window.

'I should probably walk around and get used to this area, and maybe stock up my potions on the way....'

Sigh.

I stared into the ceiling with soulless silver eyes.

Its been 1 week since we were trapped in this game, already, 300 players have died, most players cause of death were suicide.

What fools, thinking they could escape by dying?

Why are we cursed? What have we done to do this?

But I can't just sit here and rot, I have to keep going, my sister wouldn't want this.

My sister. She must be so worried about me, she's been there ever since we were in that hell house.

I can't.

I will fight on.

My eyes blazed with passion and determination, as the equipped my leather armor and rapier.

This is my fresh start.