Corvo

It rushed at him again, and he batted the tusk away with a slap of his dagger. The blade ricocheted off, and the beast brought its head back around. Corvo let out a grunt from the impact and braced for a pain that never came.

His eyes narrowed in disappointment. "Make it feel real, at least," he seethed between gritted teeth. Corvo gripped his dagger tighter and shook his head out to dispel the ennui.

The assassin fell back on one foot as the creature swiped again and escaped a second strike, narrowly. Corvo let out a snort. "What, you thought I was gonna lie down for you?"

He threw up a single finger for the creature to observe. It remained oblivious to his taunting. Still, Corvo found satisfaction in the gesture.

Boar: 4/10 HP

Corvo: 16/20 HP // 0/2 E

"Finally! he called out, exasperated as he pulled a material from the dirt and sent it to his inventory. "That only took forever to find."

It also meant he had only one left to gather. That bit gave him a refreshed sense of purpose, and he yawned loudly as he considered his next course of action. There were a few directions to choose from, each of them as promising as the last.

"If I go that way," he glanced toward the forest, "I might end up getting into trouble with the Nepents. Not strong enough to deal with that, yet."

His eyes traveled over the path and toward the small safe zone several kilometers away. That road was straight and quick, and promised the fewest altercations. Of course, it also took him further away from town, where he had to go to turn the quest in.

"Maybe..." he looked toward the edge of the floor, where several boars did spawn, but was close by. "That might be the way to go."

(4/5)

"Sheee-" Corvo bit his tongue as another material slipped through his fingers and returned to the ever constant stream of data that made up Aincrad. 

The redhead stood himself back up and stretched his back, stifling his annoyance. There was no use in getting worked up, after all. "You wanna get stronger, ya gotta play the game," he told himself.

Then he laughed, abruptly.

"I'm gonna have a bad habit of talking to myself by the time I get home. Hope my family understands-" He stopped short, and his sentence turned into a sigh. His eyes were glass and distant, and he relaxed his shoulders as he glanced up at the sky. How long had it been since he last saw them? When would he see them again?

His expression instantly soured. "They're gonna say a whole lotta I told you so's," he lamented at a grumble. That made him kick another material, instantly destroying it without ever touching it. "So much for just wanting to spend more time with friends." 

And not a damn friend in sight.

(3/5)

But it looked like the menu was blank, for now. The boar evaded his reckless attempt to eviscerate it in a single go, and Corvo kicked at dirt as his gambit failed. Fortunately, in the process of getting out of the way, the boar gave up its own opportunity to deal any damage.

The assassin lurched forward as he turned about, and his body swayed with the motion. Everything about it felt real, and it made him want to let go of rational thought and give himself over to the fight. That was something he would do only if he became comfortable.

He wanted that, so desperately. It was the only thing about this world that he could actually relate to. "Skin and bones get traded in for pixels, and suddenly nothing is sacred," he spat. The ground was sullied, no different than if he had spit in the real world.

"Give me something interesting to do, piggy," Corvo drawled, "and I'll get this over with quick like."

Corvo: 18/20 HP // 0/2 E

Boar: 4/10 HP

The next blow landed effectively, slamming into the chest of the creature as it lunged at him. It thrashed on impact, making every possible attempt to strike out only to fail. When it collapsed to the dirt, it shuddered before weakly working to its feet.

With a defiant grunt, it wheeled around and trotted away, then turned about to face him once more. It seemed the creature had a one track mind, and that track was "let's kill Corvo."

Fortunately- or rather, unfortunately for the boar- its chosen prey had similar instincts. He slumped over after the initial carnage, allowing his body to relax rather than tense up. His joints loosened and everything moved fluidly. With several sickening cracks, the assassin finally rose to his full height, and he bounced on the balls of his feet.

There was amusement lit up in his eyes, and malice evident in his grin. "Round three," he cackled hellishly. "Bring it ON. I WANT SOME BACON!"

Corvo: 18/20 HP // 0/2 E

Boar: 4/10 HP

He had almost forgotten that it was a prime dating spot.

Almost as far as he could see, couples compromised of low level players dotted the horizon, looking over the colorful, blooming flowers and surveying the seasons of Aincrad. "Piss off," the Crow cawed as he pushed shoulder to shoulder with another male player.

"Hey, watch it!" the brown haired youth scowled as he turned to face Corvo. The girl on his arm pulled at him, but he tugged his arm free. "You blind?"

The redhead turned his head slowly and glanced back over his shoulder. "You don't hear so good, do ya?" Corvo asked as he fixed the man with his single eyed stare. "I said piss off. I ain't tellin' you again, boyo."

The redhead tugged his dagger halfway free of its sheath.

"Woah man," the other threw up his hands disarmingly. "Look, I don't want any trouble."

"Trouble found you, kid." Corvo pointed at the path and spat. "Kick rocks, or I'll kick yer ass."

Corvo watched the two players flee in a hurry, no satisfaction evident on his features. "I feckin' hate people like that," he muttered to himself. 

The feeling's mutual, he recalled someone telling him, once. The thought made him laugh aloud. "The games don't change much," he muttered fondly, "neither do the people, and neither do I."

He tried to steer clear of any other couples, more interested in his entire reason for being there. His gaze centered on the gazebo that overlooked the central lake, and Corvo made his way toward it intently. "From there, I should be able to see..."

It tagged him first. 

Before he could fully mount his attack, the mob was already in motion. Corvo did his best to get his own legs moving, but it was moments too short. "Got to work on that reaction time," he noted as the red line flickered across his leg. 

"But one good hit deserves another."

He pressed off the wounded leg and twisted tightly in the air, bringing the blade around and into the path of the creature as it raced past. The boar let out a high pitched whine as the weapon tore deep, and a bright red light burst free of the newly opened, gaping wound.

Corvo alighted on the ground feet first, knees bent, and his fingertips last. He glanced up to see the enemy shaking its head, reeling from the attack. "That one looks like it hurt," he nodded approvingly.

The blade spun end over end in his grip, switching from a forehanded grip to a backhand. He felt familiar weight as the weapon landed evenly in his grip. "I'm getting used to this."

Corvo 18/20 HP // 0/2 E

Boar 6/10 HP

The boar appeared so quickly, he barely had time to register it before he swing and missed. Respawns ran rampant across Aincrad, and their frequency and random nature were a leading cause of player death in the game. Luckily for Corvo, the boar was just as oblivious as he whipped past and landed in the dirt with a loud thud.

"Okay," he muttered to himself as the Sword Art he had readied flickered and faded out of the weapon. It marked his failure at his first attempt, sure, but also gave him a nudge along the learning process. Corvo was adapting.

He staggered over himself and rolled skillfully to his feet, landing low and with his weapon at the ready. "So that's how it works," he muttered to himself. The feeling was different from exerting himself in reality, and the expenditure of energy seemed to have no ramifications other than an inability to utilize any skills until he accumulated more. That caused him to smirk wryly.

"I get it now," he said, as if speaking to his newest victim. The boar reared its head and stared at him with beady, red eyes. "Which means bad news for you, porky."

Corvo: 20/20 HP // 0/2 E (used Sword Art, missed)

Boar: 10/10 HP

"Alright, so to test out how those Sword Skills work, I guess I should find another boar and stab right into it." Corvo smacked his fist against his open palm as if he'd made a major breakthrough and turned his gaze to look across the open plains of the first floor. Nothing was readily apparent in his field of vision, but that did not mean there were no mobs to be had.

It simply meant he'd have to do some looking around to find them.

"Well, I expected that," he muttered to himself. This early, they rarely grouped together except out in the more isolated areas, where people with more experience went for training. "If I take one more down, it out yield just enough to level me up one good time. That'd be ideal, because I don't want to take any risks with my health this early on."

It was true, the mobs on the first floor weren't immediately deadly, but as one faced more of them, numbers added up. Luckily, health accumulated quickly if one invested the time to increase their level and skill. He wasn't sure how much exactly, but anything would be a step in the right direction.

"Right now, I have twenty," he pondered aloud.

Corvo: 20/20 HP // 2/2 E

Another material evaded him as he plucked it, and it dissipated into the immaterial. He recognized the frustration that many established Crafters felt when they went into the field for their trade, and it only made him want to not deal with that at all.

"Guess the game's trying to tell you that you can't just live on fighting mobs," he said with a humorless laugh. "Oh well, though," he glanced at the ground where he found the item, and wondered if there were more to it than just scooping up items. 

"Is there some specific way I have to touch them?" he pondered aloud. He went for another softly glowing material in order to test his theory. The item shivered the way they all did when he got close, and he picked at it slightly higher than he had before. When he pulled, it snapped pitifully, and as it entered his hand, it disappeared the same way the other two had.

"Must be something to do with pressure," he guessed, "or handling. They seem to be pretty delicate."

(3/5)

The red haired assassin glanced over at his diminished health bar and across his HUD to energy. His lips turned downward slightly as he realized that in this world, his stamina was relegated to points and set to a standard metric. Just like in the real world, his ability to perform tasks was limited by his endurance.

Unlike the real world, however, that number was absurdly limited. "Only two points?" he questioned. "That pool undoubtedly rises over time as level increases," he postulated, using experience from other games as a basis. "So, the Sword Art system must run off that same stuff, and consume more of it."

He looked through his list of attained skills and scrolled over the highest one available. It appeared to add a nominal amount of damage to his base attack, and so he would use that information to increase his output as he grew more familiar. "So, if I chain this one in with my automatic attack," he scratched at his chin as he reviewed the numbers and crunched away.

"I should be able to keep a fairly consistent stream of damage, provided I find a way to keep that energy replenished."

Surely, a skill existed to that effect?

Corvo: 20/20 HP // 1/2 E

The boar pressed what advantage it had. In the slow moments before Corvo managed to get ahold of his own movements, the creature raked him with its tusks and drew two thin lines of crimson across his avatar. The knicks flickered and data scattered outward from them, but it was the assassin who would have the last laugh.

His dagger plunged into the beast, so deep he thought it would burst simply from the absurdity of the impact. It did something almost like that, but instead of inflating like a balloon and popping comically, it shimmered faintly and discolored before scattering into a stream of data.

Wordlessly, Corvo slid the dagger back into its sheath and huffed.

The first kill was always the most iconic in a game. He remembered several times in other situations where he was getting used to skills, pressing buttons and auto attacking. None of them felt this real. None of them gave him the satisfaction of actually using his own thoughts, impulses, and reactions to win the day.

It was chilling to think that this could stimulate him so much.

But the grin on his face was wide, wider than he wanted it to be. Kill more, he told himself. Take all the experience you can. Rip everything apart.

He exhaled, loudly.

"No," he reminded himself. "Gotta think smart. Too dangerous. No second chances if I screw up."

Boar: DEAD

Corvo: 14/20 HP // 0/2 E

Yet another success.

The moment he waltzed out into the meadow on the first floor, Corvo had seen largely triumph. He hardly believed it to be possible, yet he felt the sinking sensation that it would not last. If he could manage to harvest one more item in a row, he figured he'd try his luck at a lottery or something.

No use in letting them hot hands ice over without yielding some pay out, after all.

The assassin carefully sent the fourth of five collectables to his inventory, where it would wait in safety for him to turn it over to Zackariah. "So, what do I do once I collect it all, I wonder? Seems like a whole lot of work just for him to get a couple of materials."

That thought gave him pause. Would Zackariah put the materials to use himself, or would the older man put Corvo to work trying his luck at the craft himself? Those thoughts only caused him to shake his head. "I'd probably end up poisoning myself," he muttered.

(3/5)

The red headed deviant took one last drag from his pipe before he noticed it. A young kid in a hurry to get some place, running toward him and looking everywhere but straight ahead. He raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to call out, but it was too late.

The kid was moving too fast. Corvo lifted an arm and held it out, connecting with the shoulder of @Pinball as he barreled into the redhead. "Oughta watch out for what's ahead of you if yer plannin' on running through a crowded area."

Not that he cared, of course. Corvo only spoke up because he was the one who took the impact. He grunted as he pushed the boy gently away. "Not everybody's as nice a guy as me round here," he added, "might be you coulda ran up on someone who decided to hunt you down later. Being careful could save your life down the line."

As he finished speaking, the assassin pried the pipe from his teeth and turned to leave.

"That's all for the free advice," he added as he began walking away.

"Ack!"

The successful blow quickly fumbled into a sloppy failure as Corvo rushed past the boar. His feet carried him faster than his torso could twist, and he swiped hard, wide of the beast. "Gah," he muttered to himself as he managed to right his direction, but ultimately fail in doing any damage to the mob. "Some of these moves are a little sloppy."

It stood to reason that without any ranks in weapon skill, he would be subject entirely to the game's algorithms even with his previous training. "Looks like I'll be spending plenty of time investing points in stuff, later."

He skidded to a halt nearly five feet from the beast. It stared back at him, health bar flashing danger as it heaved to take in each and every breath it could. Victory was almost certain-

"Just don't screw this up," Corvo told himself.

Boar: 1/10 HP

Corvo: 16/20 HP // 0/2 E

He saw the tusks, but did not feel them. Red light roiled outward from the dual wounds, and the rogue grit his teeth as he was forced backward. "Good hit," he grunted. 

Corvo brought the blade down and jammed it into the beast as it drove into him, intent on making the creature pay in blood for every drop it spilt.

"But I can hit just as good, dontcha think?"

The smirk on the redhead's face only grew as the beast whined loudly in protest. It reeled backward to get free of the blade, which gave Corvo room to take a step and get his footing back.

He drew a line across his palm with the blade to test its sharpness, visibly displeased when the game's settings disallowed him from taking damage that way.

"Some things just ain't as good when you're gaming."

Boar: 1/10 HP

Corvo: 16/20 HP // 0/2 E

"Another good pick, looks like," the redhead commented as he crouched down and scooped up material. The item practically evaporated between his fingers. Corvo frowned.

Hmm...

"Maybe I should slow down a little," he snickered as he pulled the pipe from his cloak and lit the tobacco. Two long drags later, he was back on track and puffing out large plumes of black smoke. "Looks like picking these things requires a more delicate touch than what I've been giving it. Don't wanna ruin any more of these materials."

The assassin stood upright and let out a massive yawn, stretching both arms skyward, fingers knitting between each other as his back cracked loudly in several places. "If'n I take my time here, I can probably get a bit of experience in before the next leg of this quest. All in the name of personal growth, right?"

He fumbled with his dagger for a moment and unsheathed it, taking a look at the weapon and opening the menu to view its statistics. "I'll need to be getting an upgrade here, soon," he commented blandly.

(2/5)

No sooner had Corvo turned than did he spy another, distant shimmering orb. "Looks like it's my lucky day," the assassin mused as he picked his pace up to a jog. Though it wasn't far to go, he wanted to be sure that he grabbed the item before anyone else.

When he reached down to pluck it, the item blossomed into a brilliant light in his hands. The material took shape and he sent it quickly to his inventory. "This one looks a little nicer than the last," he observed. "Wonder if that makes a difference?"

He glanced up and around the meadow again, eyes peeled for any sign of more crafting materials to give Zackariah. "I wonder what he plans to make with these," the redhead pondered aloud as he pivoted in place. Certainly, it was some sort of potion or other conconction that utilized herbs. That's why he was gathering from the field, and not from creature drops.

Or that was what he gathered, anyway.

(2/5)

His first few steps into the field yielded fruit. Rather, he instantly saw a collectable appear in front of him. It took the form of a gilded, shining orb that beckoned him to reach out for it. "What have we here?" the red haired boy asked rhetorically as he reached out and plucked the material from the grass. "A fairly decent quality ingredient, too? Lady Luck is on my side today!"

He sent the material to his inventory and directed his attention back to the field. There was plenty more to gather, and a lot of ground to cover. Success early on was a good sign. It meant that he would be able to finish more quickly-

Provided he continue to come across the more bountiful harvest of the first floor. 

"If this is a chain, then the next quest will likely follow the story from this one, or use an item I gain as a reward. We'll have to see what Aincrad has in store from me when that time comes, I guess."

His grim monologue reminded him that he was in a game, despite how he acted toward others. Corvo had to stay human somehow.

Somehow.

(1/5)

The High Fields of Crossing were still outside his field of vision, but the minimap function indicated he was headed in the right direction. While technically not a safe zone, mobs rarely spawned there, and they were renown for being a quiet place to reflect or enjoy the scenery when there was a lot on one's mind.

Sometimes he imagined that he would go there and find Arc, hidden someplace far away with all his friends. The pipe dream ended when he glanced back over his opened messages and saw the last message that Tobias had sent him.

I'm going, Ev. Don't bother following me. Don't even bother trying. Don't worry, I'm not planning on dying or doing anything crazy. This is just... something I have to do. You know how it is, right?

But he didn't. Corvo had no idea what he meant. This wasn't real life. This wasn't like their world, where there were just "things you had to do."

Was it?

Had the others learned something in their time here that he just couldn't? Somehow, the redhead doubted it. "You guys got lost," he murmured, "but that ain't me. I'm not going out like that."

His grumbles carried him along the path forward.

In a raid, managing your aggro can be pretty tricky. Even with tank skills for threat gain and taunting, there's always those times when DPS can run away with itself and get a little too fast and hard for one guy to keep up with.

So, most MMO games allot for those players to have an "oh crap" option, just in case. 

These skills don't necessarily reduce hate to zero, but they deflate it by a significant enough degree that it becomes manageable. To achieve this, there is an added cost (it takes an action, and expends some form of energy or currency to perform). 

There are players who will utilize this as a strategy to go all out with damage and then reduce mid combat, and there are the more conservative types who use it for it's intended purpose. Either way, it has it's trade offs, and remains balanced. (There's also a cool down in place to ensure people aren't just spamming it.)

Just an idea, of course, but I thought you guys might enjoy tinkering with it.

"Crap!" He snarled as the boar slid past his reach, and the second attempt at a quick thrust failed. Corvo brought the knife under his own gut and up to his side, safely out of his own danger zone. It was a precaution to ensure that his momentum would not see him impaled on his own dagger.

He landed on three out of four limbs, eyes fixated on his prey. The boar had already wheeled around for another pass. Corvo shuffled quickly to his feet and brought the weapon up. "Come on," he growled. "Come ON! I AIN'T GOT ALL DAY, PIGLET!"

The redhead shook his head quickly and let out a sharp snort. "You want a piece or dontcha?"

It barely missed, but miss it did.

And so did he. He brought the dagger downward in an attempt to catch the beast as it raced past him, but because of a miscalculation- or the failure of the boar to stay remotely on course- the counterattack was equally ineffectual.

"Well," Corvo spat, "at least it's somewhat realistic."

Boar: 3/10 HP

Corvo: 18/20 HP // 0/2 E

"Alright," he huffed as the boar picked up speed again. He perceived the angle and took a half step right, staggering his gait so that he could evenly distribute weight between both feet. As the mob encroached, he ducked his weight backward slightly, and he let it rush past his chest, dangerously close.

He was rewarded with a high pitched squeal. 

The pigsticker in his hand skewered upward and into the belly of the beast, illuminating its pixelated form with even more red spots. When he pried it free in one clean stroke, the boar gave a heavy grunt.

It's health meter had run from green to yellow with the last blow, and following this one, it had flickered red. The battle was all but won, provided he keep at it.

"I don't see how these things cause folks so much trouble," he muttered. Of course, there were people in SAO with a great deal less gaming experience than Corvo, and a good number of those had already been culled.

He didn't bother counting.

"Alright, fat lady," he tossed the blade in the air, let it spin twice, then snatched it back. "Time for you to sing."

Boar: 3/10 HP

Corvo: 18/20 HP // 0/2 E

"Y'said we'd make it there together, Cap," Corvo muttered bitterly to himself as he passed through the gates of Urbus and out into the wide, open world of floor two. There were dangers aplenty for a low level character, but he had his own reasons to brave the dangers. "Then you went and died. Serves me right for putting my damn faith in someone else."

He chewed on his bottom lip and spat out another plume of smoke, this one more gray than black. They had all been friends. It was a hard thing to accept, losing that bond. Even harder, perhaps, than accepting he was against this world on his own now.

"Used to tell me exactly where to put the blade," he snorted, and shook his head. "Even though I was better at it than you were. You liked giving us all a part on the team, even though some of us were notorious loners. It was Alky who brought the Brothers together. Should've seen this coming when I heard that damn floor boss took you out."

Corvo threw his hands out to the side and screamed at the top of his lungs.

"I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!" he roared. "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!"

But it wasn't.

His shoulders sagged in defeat as he slumped forward and continued on his way. People who had barely known the man had moved past it long ago, and even Arc somehow managed to move forward after the loss of his real life best friend. For Corvo, it was a different kind of loss. It was an utter failure to be there for someone who he befriended, and who he said was like a brother to him. Corvo was a man of few friends, but the friends he had, he would happily bleed for.

Now, he had only himself to fight with.

Alkor × Hydra