Tsurei

Alright, no gimmicks or tricks this time round, he grinned at the boar as it rushed back towards him, Rei side stepped it a third time in a row, at the very least, it appeared that mobs on the field were not intelligent, repeating a simple pattern each time. As the boar went past him, Rei lunged after it with a sweeping slash across it’s side and back, with pure dexterity and strength alone without the use of the system was able to create a significant digital red scar across it’s body, a glance at the health bar told him that it did almost as much damage as [Rage Blow]. He glanced at his energy, it didn’t decrease.

A constantly regenerating energy, Sword Arts that cause burst damage but used a lot of energy, extra energy is spent if an attack misses, combat without Sword Arts seems the best, though it would be a slow process, he might just have been lucky with that one. But once he starts getting good gear and Skills, he’d like to avoid Sword Arts if possible, it felt like it ruined the fun a little.

ID# 132868
BD: 10 = Crit +2
MD: 4 = Miss

Damage Dealt = 2+2 = 4

Rei: HP: 140/140 | EN: 7 (+1-1)/14 | 2 DMG | 5 MIT | 0 EVA| 0 ACC

Boar: HP: 2/10 | 3 DMG

This time as the boar charged towards him, he once again easily side-stepped the board, he drew his blade back in a reverse grip behind him, allowing it to charge with the blue energy before he slashed upwards, to his surprise, the system forced him to leap into the air with the force of the swing, launching him forward and up, his arm short in a upwards diagonal slash with a huge blue arc like a crescent moon, the movement was so surprising that he missed his mark entirely, misjudging the speed.

He landed back on the ground, stumbling,

“Whoa, whoa, holy crap,” he scrambled to recover into his combat stance, he let out a heavy breath, that skill used way too much energy! He’s not using that again, he needed to be careful, back to [Rage Blow] it was. Ah no, he should try a few normal attacks and see how that went first.

ID# 132862
BD: 5 = Miss [Fell Crescent]
MD: 1 = Miss

Rei: HP: 140/140 | EN: 7 (+1 - 6)/14 | 2 DMG | 5 MIT | 0 EVA| 0 ACC

Boar: HP: 6/10 | 3 DMG

It was simple for him to find a random wander boar monster and run over, quickly he raised his weapon over his back, allowing a ocean blue energy to charge and sheath the blade, when the particles gathered and with a sheen completed charging, he was prepared. The boar rushed towards him, it’s large tusks ready to gore into him along with it’s head strong charge. Leaping to the side easily, Rei brought the blade downwards with a loud crash, leaving a arc of blue light trails, the blade slashes through the monster leaving a red gash in it’s side, upon contact, it created a explosion like a crashing wave of water. He watched as his energy bar went down a bit and the Boar’s hp drop by nearly half.

So that’s how it is… not bad… It would take time to get used to it, the charging mechanics were meant to be intuitive, as the boar growled angrily and turned for another charge, Rei moved to the next step.

ID# 132858
BD: 7 = Hit [Rage Blow]
MD: 2 = Miss

Damage dealt= 2 x 2 = 4

Rei: HP: 140/140 | EN:12 (-2)/14 | 2 DMG | 5 MIT | 0 EVA| 0 ACC

Boar: HP: 6/10 | 3 DMG

When the next day came, Rei was able to quickly throw off his covers and leap to his feet, when he got downstairs he saw that the time was still early, 6AM. He could go on ahead and go buy some cheap weapons off the NPCs and go out for some practice near the town gates to make sure nothing would go wrong.

It wasn’t hard at all to buy a generic weapon and armour from one of the NPCs, simple beginner gear that was next to worthless, he got a broad Chinese Dao, a type of curved sword and some light dark brown leather armour that protected his chest, wearing it under his jacket. Prepped and pleased to see his stats increase as he equipped the right equipment types for his Skills to take hold, he also noticed the Sword Arts and headed off for some testing, his heart thrumming in barely contained excitement, finally, it was time for some action.

Late into the night, Rei laid on his bed, warm under the covers of his bed, one hand behind his head and the other outstretched, flipping through the menus, at the skills he could take. By his calculations, he could take 3 Rank 1 Skills or 1 Rank 2 Skill. It was hard, there was a variety of support skills and he could see their uses, but immediately for their survival, it can hold off, right now, they needed damage boosters against their opponents and avoid enemies that could blow through their hp. They needed to be able to kill before being killed, as the first fight he observed told him.

That left him with weapons. He needed to get a Katana and Rank 1 Curved Swords before he could even unlock the Katana tree. That was… annoying to say the least.

There were so many choices, possibilities and uses for everything, it was hard for him to make a decision, but for now, he learned [Rank 1] [Curved Sword] and [Rank 1] [Light Armour]. He wished Dual Wielding weapons was something he could do, like he was used to, however, there was only one weapon slot. What kind of RPG didn’t have a dual wielding option? He sighed before he went to sleep.

When the food eventually came, it was a bowl of steaming stew with loaves of garlic bread, who needed vegetables anyway? In this virtual world that managed to simulate taste, so long as you ate something, even better if it tasted good, nutrients don’t matter here, though Rei was aware that Player made meals had buffs, it didn’t really matter since it that was too expensive for them right now anyway.

It wasn’t luxurious, but for people like them, the meal was a first, it actually tasted good and they scarfed it down in a good mood, when Rei looked up, he could almost see colour in the world again, heh, things were probably only going to get better from here on out, he would make sure of it. After eating and chatting for a few hours, they went to their rooms to sleep, well except Takumi, he would be bored out of his mind reading the manual like Rei until early morning.

Suddenly their stomachs gurgled, all of them, it appears none of them had eaten since morning, Rei and Kenji were out and Takumi and Yuta were too worried. But now that everything was settled and they relaxed, it all suddenly kicked in,

“I’m bloody hungry,” Takumi sighed, slumping in his chair,

“I could eat a horse,” Yuta mumbled,

“Don’t,” Rei rolled his eyes, “Let’s get some good food and we’re off to the second step tomorrow, get’s get some good rest so we can be up early tomorrow,” he eyed Takumi,

“Don’t ask for the impossible,” Takumi shrugged, “I can’t sleep until after 3AM, if I’m lucky.”

“You really need to fix that habit…” Rei sighed,

“How did that even happen?” Kenji frowned,

“One too many nights drinking, that’s for sure,” Takumi chuckled,

“Speaking of, we can’t get drunk in here, can we?” Yuta wondered,

“Nah, we can’t, not really anyway,” Rei shook his head, “You can make yourself believe you’re drunk, but you won’t actually be,”

“This might seem like reality, but it’s not, we should be prepared for normally impossible feats and actions, let’s not get blindsided,” Rei warned carefully, “Next up, is our plan for tomorrow, we’re fighting Boar Pups and hoping that they drop their tusks as materials for the quest, it’s a 50-50 chance and the Pups are easy to kill and don’t do all that much damage, for us right now, we could take them bare handed.”

Takumi and Kenji grimaced at the thought of kicking around some helpless boar pups, it just seemed… off.

“Even if it doesn’t actually help, we need to buy some Vanity items,” Rei stated,

“Vanity?” Yuta frowned, “As in, just for show?”

“That seems pointless, it does the same damage, right?” Takumi noted,

“Yeah, but the point is, they count as a weapon or armour class, we’re levelled up now, we can start learning Skills, even if it’s a vanity item, so long as it’s the right skill…” Rei trailed off,

“it can still be used and benefits will stack,” Takumi realised,

“Yeah, that’s the plan for tomorrow, we need to get used to using weapons and experimenting with their Arts. We have the money, we’ll buy the items from NPCs since they only cost money and don’t require materials from us as well. Think hard about what Skills you want tonight,” Rei nodded.

“Is that bad?” Takumi asked,

“Wait, so we can’t just fight without them?” Yuta cried out,

“It might seem a small concern, but consecutive battles are definitely not create for Sword Art users,” Rei explained, “They use a lot of Energy, and that means it’ll tire us out more, meaning even fighting or running away whilst low on energy would be difficult, but Sword Arts are necessary for their damage multipliers or we’ll never get anywhere with the stronger enemies, especially if they hit hard. It’ll be a matter of killing them quicker than they can kill us,”

“So we can’t get away with not using them then?” Yuta sighed,

“Unfortunately not, without weapons, we’re doing a total of 1 damage. Even if we had the best weapon around, it wouldn’t go up by much, but we’ll cover that tomorrow, I have an idea,” Rei waved his hand dismissively, “It’s a problem just yet, moving on, the Sword Arts used are as expected, extremely game like, the moves executed are assisted by the system and are not physically possible, slashing several times faster than the eye can see, leaping into the air several meters, not humanly possible feats,”

They sat down at their table, Rei and Kenji on one side, and Takumi and Yuta on the other,

“So? What did you get for taking the risks?” Takumi sighed,

“Hm, we’re up to Level 7 now,” Rei mrumured, flipping open his menu,

“W-we… got some money and snake venom?” Kenji shrugged when he got to the last part uncertainly,

“Snake venom?” Takumi raised a brow,

“it doesn’t have a great chance of activating, but in a long drawn out fight, it could be useful,” Rei nodded, “Apart from that, seeing a high level player fight was enlightening,”

“Like how?” Yuta frowned,

“Energy, is literally that, our physical stamina, over use of Sword Arts will actually tire us,” Rei explained, holding up his fingers for each points, “Sword Arts may be our only way of fighting in the upper levels, against enemies with a ton of HP, base damage won’t cut it, we’ll need the Art’s multipliers sooner or later,”

They sat down at their table, Rei and Kenji on one side, and Takumi and Yuta on the other,

“So? What did you get for taking the risks?” Takumi sighed,

“Hm, we’re up to Level 7 now,” Rei nodded flipping open his menu,

“W-we… got some money and snake venom?” Kenji shrugged when he got to the last part uncertainly,

“Snake venom?” Takumi raised a brow,

“it doesn’t have a great chance of activating, but in a long drawn out fight, it could be useful,” Rei nodded, “Apart from that, seeing a high level player fight was enlightening,”

“Like how?” Yuta frowned,

“Energy, is literally that, our physical stamina, over use of Sword Arts will actually tire us,” Rei explained, holding up his fingers for each points, “Sword Arts may be our only way of fighting in the upper levels, against enemies with a ton of HP, base damage won’t cut it, we’ll need the Art’s multipliers sooner or later,”

Their eyes shot towards the entrance when they heard the wooden door being open and shut behind them, Yuta’s face flooded with relief and Takumi let out a small breath, both quickly standing up to walk over to them,

“What were you thinking!?” Yuta cried out,

“I didn’t think you’d actually go,” Takumi nodded as calmly as he could manage,

“I-It went okay, everything went fine,” Kenji replied, trying to persuade them,

“Yeah, in the end, it all worked out, she was hiding things but she was actually a good girl,” Rei shrugged nonchalantly,

“You two….” Yuta frowned, grinding his teeth,

“You could have died,” Takumi stated firmly, “a few levels is not worth the chance if you’re going to die,”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Rain scratched the back of his head, “My bad. So, what did you guys do? Did you complete the second quest?”

“Of course not!” Yuta cried out, “We were too busy worried sick about you guys!”

“I thought you would simply come with us when you saw we weren’t coming with you,” Takumi nodded,

They walked through the night streets and soon arrived at their inn, when they walked in, the scenery was the usual, people huddled around tables, food and drink steaming the air, their faces like stone, red nosed and devoid of hope. The NPCs went about their jobs tirelessly, the bar maids stood to the side, cleaning the tables, handing out drinks and food when appropriate, the bar tender was a large burly man that polished the mugs and cooked food and poured drinks on the occasion, everything seemed brighter somehow, or maybe it was just because of their change in perspective, a little bit of confidence in their chests.

They cast their eyes to their usual table to the side near the windows and surprisingly enough, there was a restless Yuta, tapping the ground with his shaking, jerking leg and arms folded, his face furrowed with a frown. Takumi seemed to be nearby, shifting though his menu distractedly.

When Cordelia hurried waved goodbye to them, they stared after her for a moment before using the teleportation gate in the city to return to the town of beginnings, the girl brought them along on a whim under the guise of helping, but even so, her worry for them seemed somewhat genuine, Rei chose to believe in that at the very least, they got the exp and didn’t die, one step closer.

It was when they arrived back in town did they realise that they had missed their chance to keep the momentum to complete the second part of the chain quest, it was already late and evening was upon them. Even this medieval looking city had lamp lights scattered across the streets.

Whilst the cold here was different from the mountain ranges, it was cold nonetheless, and more so when they noticed faint small white shapes falling from the sky.

Snow?

“huh,” Rei murmured to himself as he watched the serpents leave, was enemy detection range truly that short? Either way seeing that the encounter ended safely was a great relief to the both of them as they both let out a breath.

“N-no! we're fine, none of them came near us,” Kenji hurriedly raised his hands, that such a confident and competent person, let alone a girl, was so apologetic to them, useless layabouts that they were, made him panic.

Rei couldn’t help but be surprised by the girl's constant worry for them, what were they doing? Making a girl younger than them worry about them? They were technically adults now and it was a little pathetic of them. it reminded him of the state of the world they were now in.

Still, it made Rei showed a warm gentle smile, “we're safe thanks to you. Don’t worry about it, knowing that you tried to pull us along to help us is more than enough. it's important that all of us were safe, good work." he raised his hand to pat her on the head automatically when he suddenly stopped himself with a jerk. Right, she was an acquaintance, not his little sister.

“y-yeah, definitely, we owe you,” Kenji nodded, “it’s not much but...” he flipped through the menu and offered to give her some potions, (over-health and damage potions)

his mind briefly thought back to his family before shaking himself, “so then, is the quest done? Then let’s head back before we get accosted.” Rei looked around, also going through the menu, but to send a friend request, “we might not be much now, but we're getting there, if you need a hand one day and have use for us, let us know,”

Two lazy diagonal strikes, the blade was then lowered to her side and unleashed in a enhanced spin strike overwhelmingly quick, executed several times faster than physically possible with the help of the system. When the whirlwind died down and the dust settled, both serpents were still standing, one of the serpent’s drooped it’s head low, it was injured. The second one… didn’t seem to change, did the attack miss?

As the two snakes lunged for Cordelia continuously, tirelessly and repeatedly, it was clear from her stance, from her breathing, that this was not going well, usage of Arts definitely reduced real physical stamina, this was troubling news. Was it impossible to fight without sword arts?

Rei frowned, strange. Were these serpents hardier and faster than the quest boss she had just killed so effortlessly? No, that would be overstating things, she unleashed a powerful Art, was it her strongest attack? In a bide to nova the enemy before they could do anything, now faced with another battle, she was running low.

Her glance back at them was filled with slight worry and a hint of relief, even now she was still concerned with them? That being the case and this fight was turning sour, they needed to run.

If they ran now, they would be out of her hair and let her safely retreat as well without being concerned with their safety. But If they ran now, would it look like they were abandoning her? He couldn't call out either, it would distract her.

What should he do?

As the sound of a slicing whirlwind cried through the desert sands, ripping through the howling of the gale that whipped at their clothing, Kenji and Rei both grimaced as the racket of hundreds of metallic slashes, cracks, zings and whooshes gathered and expanded into a visible torrent, shredding the bodies of the two serpents, adorning them with a myriad of small red gashes all over their body.

The serpents did not fall after the first attack and they don’t seem particularly injured either, if injury is even something that can happen or whether it’s just based on numbers and little else. As expected, multi-target attacks were weaker than single targets, more over, he wasn’t entirely sure what the energy consumption must be like for her right now. People get physically fatigued in this world, but does it happen if energy gets too low as well? Or is it just a mp bar to take note of?

Either way, the pair were in the way and decided to heed her words and retreat somewhat. their eyes locked on the combat, in Kenji's case, he was awed, he didn't see much action nor did he play many games, this kind of display was far beyond what he imagined or experienced. Rei glanced around the area in case of an ambush, it was hopeless to try and hear the rumble of another sand serpent as well, so he crouched down and pressed his hand on the ground at least so he could feel it coming. His eyes glanced over at Cordelia's movements, he may not be high leveled or anythimg and this may not be reality, but at the very least, he's had some sword training in real life.

Seeing the techniques and moves that people developed in the higher floors due to fighting for their lives would be educational

“Y-yeah…” Kenji murmured, his mouth agape. Before Rei answered, he was right to take a look at his friend’s reaction, hiding a small smile he also agreed,

“Yeah, that was pretty impressive, you're definitely used to this, huh?” Rei chuckled slightly before opening up his menu, his eyes flitting through until he found the spot he was looking for. Amphis Serpens, 175hp, 45 mitigation and a whole 70 points of damage, certainly, if they got hit by that, there was very little chance of survival. It was great that it turned out so easy for the lady, it was an awesome fight, though short lived and extremely one sided.

His eyes glanced over to her, just what was her level? What did it take to make a monster like that trivial? Well, he was still tackling the 1^st floor, he’ll give it time, maybe one day, he and the others could become someone that can help others, particularly those that come from the 1^st floor.

“By the way-“ Rei wanted to ask her about the katana and what sword art she just used but his words were cut short as the ground began to rumble all around them, “…There was only one of them, right?” he slowly forced out the words with a half smile as several sand serpents erupted from the ground around them, though not as large as the boss, they were probably minions of a kind.

The eruption of dust as a huge twin headed snake shot from the ground beneath Cordelia’s feet was akin to an explosion, their venom dripping fangs seemed to barely miss as a faint blueish light from her enhanced equipment helped her avoid it by a hair’s breadth. She skidded to a halt and leapt several meters into the air, drawing her blade as she went down light a lightning strike, a flash of light and a thunderous boom, the earth rumbled as the snake tunnelled back into it’s safe zone.

Rei barely had the time to see the snake’s appearance, sure it was two headed, but certainly not in the way he first thought, it was like twin snakes coiled together, rather than a conjoined mutation as he thought, the monster was like a serpent or a dragon, it had small front clawed legs and comparatively small leathered wings that boosted it’s speed when it charged above ground.

When the strike landed, creating a huge single red digital gash across the snake’s body, Rei was in awe, this was a game after all, feats like that and monsters like that were nothing out of the ordinary. This was the first floor, just what kind of monsters thrive on the 20^th? The 50^th? The very top?

The pair quickly held their breathes, calming their rapidly beating hearts in an attempt to listen out, no matter how pointless it would be in the end considering the snake’s speed and their lack of reflexes for this situation.

“A-a giant snake!?” Kenji cries out,

“Venom, how great,” Rei sighs and chuckles helplessly,

They both breathe in sharply as the shockingly cold, fresh air fills their lungs and hits their face, like a wave of tiny little daggers cutting into them,

“Whoa!” Rei exclaims,

“Brrr!” Kenji immediately shudders so hard, it nearly looks like he’s convulsing,

“Even in game, that never changes,”

“Y-yeah…”

Rei’s eyes widen as he realises from their previous mission they have some potions, if they were lucky to not get one-shot, they might still have a chance to recover. Of course, Rei glanced over at Cordelia, seeing her getting equipped with her rather retro Japanese gear, he smiles slightly, a Haori is pretty old fashioned and colourful, it fitted her rather well, oddly enough, his eyes fall to the katana and his eyes glint slightly, there it is, a katana at last, he hardly ever seen one though he knows they’re in the game, it must be a rare item of some kind, probably given a lot of love considering this was a game made in japan.

In any case, the scenery was certainly awe-inspiring, he breathed as he looked around, if he recalled, screen-shots could only be taken by special crystals. Pity. The pair quickly follow after Cordelia keeping a certain degree of distance and closeness.

"What was the quest called?" Rei wonders flipping through the system to get the guidebook,

“Heh, if you were a real PKer, I think by now you would be orange,” Rei laughs, “But even still, those guys made the right decision to leave, I don’t really hold them against it,”

“Y-yeah…” Kenji nodded,

“So the 7^th floor and we’re just to stay with you and out of your way, sounds easy enough. Hopefully,” Rei concludes,

“W-what kind of monster are we f-facing?” Kenji worriedly asks,

“The teleport gate huh… I’ve never used it, don’t we need to have visited the floor beforehand?”

The 7^th floor… the mountainous floor, full of mountain ranges and horrible terrain, the monsters there have the very least have over 50hp and attack power in the 20s… for low levels like them, the weakest monsters might not kill them outright, but any quest monster up there is like to destroy them several times over, what was it… 90+ damage was the max for that floor?

The beta tester’s guidebook gave him a good idea of what to face for the next 10 floors, though he read it over and over, he only bothered to remember for the 1^st floors he would face for the moment, he looked at the structure of the gate and smiled wryly, he should’ve remembered, if only he had good memory like Takumi.

Rei looks at Pacco with a small smile, familiars were a thing he remembered seeing in the manual, dragons, wolves and the like, he wondered what familiar everyone would end up with if given the chance.

…

Yeah, if given the chance, they needed to survive first and foremost. Besides, people no longer killing for fun, preposterous. But in the off chance they were going to get help without a catch, they should take it, they’ve already decided to walk on this road anyway, and he couldn’t image that the four of them would be able to handle everything on their own, noobs as they were.

“Alright, alright,” Rei sighs as he backs off to a comfortable distance, “We’ll take whatever we can get. What’s the quest?”

“Rei! Are you serious!” Yuta cried out,

“This could be a trap and we’ll die, it’s not worth it,” Takumi stated,

“H-hey… maybe she really does just want to help?” Kenji weakly persuades,

Yeah, they have a prime example of someone right here who was too willing to help others for his own good. They share this message with a knowing glance and inwardly sigh,

“Look, we need to get stronger, the faster we do, the less problems we’ll have, for a while,” Rei looks at her with a carefree smile, “Well, if you’re gonna kill us, do it painlessly, yeah?”

“Rei… Don’t be an idiot, I’m not going with her,” Takumi strides past,

“… Sorry, it’s a trap, I can’t come with you either,” Yuta follows after him.

Rei looks over at Kenji with a raised brow,

“I…I’ll trust her as well,”

“Well then, I guess that’s that, ball’s in your court,” Rei shrugs, looking back at Cordellia. "How are gonna do this then?"

Yuta very awkwardly shakes her hand, stunned as Rei glanced around and at her cursor, it was green, she was high levelled and yet to kill anyone, that probably has some merit to it at least, still, as cheerful as she was, it struck a cord, people who moved on beyond this town were strikingly different from the ones that remained, stuck in their despair. It was both a warming and awe-inducing sight, but it also seemed odd.

“What’s in this for you?” Takumi asked carefully,

Indeed, there seemed to be no benefit to this for her at all, and at the very least, no one here believed in the good of someone’s heart. Everything had a catch, without exception.

They levelled up now, they can take a hit, but that wouldn’t remain true for the floors above. The proposition was appealing, if strikingly one-sided beneficial.

“Well, we won’t say no to some experience points, it’ll certainly make lives easy for us, but yeah, what’s the catch?” Rei smiled amicably, still believing that this could just be a joke or a trap.

Just as they were about to make their case, resolve themselves and head onto the next step of their first proper introduction to the game, A voice that didn’t belong to an npc rang out in the chilly afternoon, it was nearby and it seemed to be directing itself at them so they quickly jumped slightly, casting their gazes around they fell on a strange young woman. On this chilly day a simply dressed woman with fierce looking eyes and a determined expression, of silver hair, light pink-purplish eyes, and on her sides were rather impressive blades approached them.

 This was the first floor, anyone that looked that impressive should be far from here by now. In this place of despair and hopelessness, a cheerful voice and beaming expression like hers seemed greatly out of place. Their guards were quickply even knowing that this was a safe zone and if it came down to it, sheer statistics of the system applied, they wouldn't be able to do anything if they tried to resist.

“…And who are you?” Yuta frowned, asking the question directly as Rei looked around to make sure it was actually them being addressed.

"Floor 7 seems a little out of our league," Rei smiles awkwardly.

@Cordelia

Rei and the others started on their way through the cold city, keeping their eyes forward and trying to not glance over at the children scattered along the streets and alleyways, they served as a constant reminder of the state of the place and even their elation and relief at finally completing their first quest, levelling up a bit and getting some money, was beginning to dampen and drop.

Their Quota was essentially met, at the very least, it was at the point where they could sit back and relax for today.

But, they had all made a decision, it was time to act. Their levels were high enough to brave the simple wilds beyond the town walls, they were moving forward, well, all but one of them.

“Hey, we have enough money for a few days now, right? Let’s head back,” Takumi yawned, stretching his limbs,

“What? Weren’t we going to do the second quest with the blacksmith or whatever?” Kenji frowned,

“Yeah, come on, don’t be lazy,” Yuta nodded,

Rei couldn’t say that the thought of lazing around after that passed through his mind...

Summary