Sword Art Online: A New Beginning

[Zarkon90]

Amara smiled and shook her head.

"I appreciate it Yamen but you have enough to worry about now. Besides, its my job to worry about the guild and keep everyone in line. You worry about your new princess, leave the rest of the guild to me."  

[Mega90]

Yamen gave a short laugh before leaning back against the wall, looking up at the ceiling.

“I appreciate your dedication to the guild, but that’s just not true. You don’t have to take all the burden of the guild on your own shoulders. That’s not what Crestfallen does. We are all in this together. This guild is everyone’s responsibility, just as the Princess is now everyone’s responsibility. That being said, you don’t have to worry about training her. I’ll take care of that for the most part. I have a good feeling that she won’t be weak for very long. I saw a lot of progress and skill while I was training with her.”  

[Zarkon90]

Amara closed her eyes and nodded.

"I certainly hope so Yamen. For all our sakes. If you bring a weak princess to the guild not only will it harm our reputation, it may just destroy the guild itself. But you already know all that, don't you?"  

[Mega90]

Only the extremely perceptive would notice the small smile that played across Yamen’s lips as he pushed off the wall and began to walk away. His voice trailed back as he rounded a nearby corner.

“People can be so fragile.”  

[Mega90]

Rin had spent the next half an hour in an inn resting and taking some time to recover after the intense hours of training from the morning. She now walked through the streets of the Town of Beginnings. Even though her level had grown past the opening monsters that could be found in the attached fields, she still liked the Town of Beginnings. It had a positive energy to it. Filled with the eagerness and anticipation of new players and veterans alike, it had an atmosphere quite different from anywhere else in the game that she had seen to this point.

Upon the recommendations of Yamen and several others that she had spoken with, she had followed the thread for Ripley’s Rumor Mill, and it was from this publication that she now received an alert:

Breaking News: Rumors have begun to circulate that a new in game event is coming up known as the Gloria in Dolore. This is to be a point based system where teams can compete to attempt to reach a high score. The team with the highest score at the end of the event period will be declared the winners, and will receive generous rewards for their efforts. Details on the event are still sparing, but we’ll keep you updated as we find out more. For all your news, events, and rumors, keep it locked to Ripley’s Rumor Mill.

Rin’s eyes scanned quickly over the post, though she did not have long to spend on it before a familiar, though unsettling voice echoed from behind her.

“My, my. The Gloria in Dolore; that does sound exciting, doesn’t it? So many players all trying to accomplish their tasks before their friends can so that they can have more points. It will be a veritable circus.” Rin spun around to see a tall man with long green hair standing behind her. To his right, the familiar white haired girl stood, absently twirling a knife in her fingers. “What do you think, Misery, should we take part in the event when it goes live?” The young girl smiled and spun the knife one final time, catching it this time and holding it reverse ways, allowing the high noon sun to reflect in the silver blade. “What about you, Rin? Do you have someone that you want to do the event with?” Rin recoiled slightly when she saw him, though the distance did not change between them, as he took a step forward for every step that she took back.

“Y..you again?” The words came out before she could think and she clasped her hand over her mouth, a deep blush painting her expression. The man laughed and waved it off.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed. While your response could be construed as rude, I understand where you are coming from. I do seem to keep popping up. My apologies for that. You see, I was just coming to give you a hand. The spell that I gave you earlier will go a long way towards helping you to win a fight, but I came to realize that while you may have strong teachers, there aren’t too many powerful magic users in Crestfallen. At least not many that are around currently.” He paused for a moment and dramatically placed his hand on his forehead. “So I said to myself, Vyathan, what are you doing? You are leaving an aspiring young lady to fend for herself in a gang of melee focused brutes. You know spells. Go out there and teach her how to fight with magic!” Again he paused and taking a deep breath, leaned in slightly closer to her. “So, here I am.”

Rin took a half step back, holding her hand to her chest in trepidation. Vyathan’s smile grew and he also stepped back, placing some more distance between them.

“If you want to take part in the upcoming event, and if you want to prove yourself to your guild, you’re going to need to get stronger. If you are interested, I can help you with that.” Rin had spent enough time in MMO’s to know how the game was played, and she was especially warry of this man for reasons she couldn’t’ explain.

“Why would you help me? What’s in it for you?”

“As I told you before, I have a vested interest in you doing well in the Crestfallen guild, so if I can help you achieve that goal, then why wouldn’t I. More than that, though, I just enjoy helping new players get their footing, as it were. Those new players may go on to set new game records, or push the system in new ways which will result in new content for us all.”

Rin considered for a long moment, weighing her options. While she had a bad feeling about the man, he had never given her any reason not to trust him, and if he would be able to help her improve in ways that Yamen couldn’t, she needed to take advantage of those opportunities. Taking in a deep breath, she stood tall.

“What sort of training did you have in mind?” As her question finished, he turned his back to her and gave the signal to follow. Taking another deep breath, she followed after him, making her way to the teleport gate.
§

Fire burst through the area as Rin stumbled back. Gaining her footing again, she ducked behind a large tree that stood to her right, and did her best to catch her breath in the moments reprieve. Before long, however, another blast of fire split the tree and sent her sprawling across the forest floor. Her vision blurred as her hit points dropped lower and lower.

“You’re trying to use the environment to your advantage, and that’s good. Unfortunately, my attack is strong enough to destroy this area, so it isn’t going to be of any use to you. Recognize when a strategy has failed and adapt.” Rin nodded and rose to her feet again. Vyathan raised his glaive into the air and began to chant a spell with extreme speed and ease. In another moment, three vicious spears of fire formed in front of him and shot forward towards Rin.

Raising her sword towards the incoming attack, she began to chant a spell. A burst of red light erupted from all around her, dispelling the attack and vanquishing the flames almost immediately. Her MP level dropped to near zero, and she felt her knees give out. She never reached the ground, however, as Vyathan had used his own attack as cover to lunge in at her. Now within striking distance, he gave a strong uppercut with the glaive, catching her blade and wrenching it from her hand. The silver sword danced in the sunlight as it twirled through the air before digging into the soft forest floor. Panicked eyes followed its arching pattern, only diverting when she felt a strong kick impact her stomach.

The pain was secondary as she felt the sensation of being lifted off of the ground and thrown backwards by the impact. She traveled for quite a distance before slamming into the massive trunk of an ancient tree that stood behind her. Air escaped her lungs and she closed her eyes and grit her teeth in pain.

A gentle blue rain rose from the ground all around her, and she felt the discomfort in her body subside, and her HP gauge once again began to climb.

Her gaze fell upon Vyathan as he completed a healing spell, restoring her to above 50% health.

“Not bad, not bad at all. Dispel was a good tactic, however, you don’t have adequate MP to cast it against an attack as high level as my Fire Spear. In the end, all you did was drain yourself. You evaded one of my attacks, but it left you completely open to counter attacks. Keep practicing with those new spells that I showed you, and you’ll be stronger in no time. Remember, you are a balance class that can use melee and ranged attacks, so manage your MP, and you should be fine. Don’t be afraid to mix in some close quarters combat with it, especially if you can enchant your weapon with elemental magic.” Rin nodded, taking careful mental notes of all that he was saying. At length he stopped and looked up at the sky, judging the time based on the location of the sun. “In any case, I’m afraid that I must go for now. Keep working at it, and maybe we’ll train again someday.”

With that, he gave a short wave and began to walk away, disappearing quickly into the forest and vanishing amongst the trees.

§

Hiroku’s feed quickly became a cacophony of beeps and warnings as he received several emails, a news alert, and the Ripley’s Rumor Mill post all in the span of a few seconds. Checking his mail revealed that there were several messages from Legacy, each sent only seconds apart. The first read:

From: Legacy
Subject: There’s a demon in them there hills.

Hey, Hiroku,

I know that we never made this a part of our deal, but I just wanted to let you know about a new Emia event that has been detected. We haven’t published a Rumor Mill post about this yet, so try to keep it private for now, if you could. Apparently, there have been weird sightings and strange occurrences in the Northern sections of the Thirteenth Floor. Rumor has it that there are even strange invisible walls blocking anyone’s ability to get to that part of the map.

Like I said, I know that we didn’t agree that I’d give you a special heads up or anything, but I thought you might be interested in the information.

Have a good one,
Legacy


Two seconds after that message had been sent, he had received another one.

From: Legacy
Subject: About that thing we talked about……

Hey, Hiroku,

Hey, so I looked into that thing we talked about, and there is a player registered with that name. Their account is still active, though there is some weird stuff going on with that account. I don’t know exactly what’s up with it yet, but there is some anomalous activity surrounding that player. I’m sorry to report that I don’t have a location for you, but I’ll keep looking until I find something more.

Hope this helps,
Legacy  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku jumped slightly, as the various beeps and alerts stirred him from the light sleep he had fallen into. His eyes quickly scanned the new messages and alerts, a soft frown played across his lips as he stared at the posts. After a moment he got slowly to his feet, casually making his way tot he teleport gate.

"Floor Thirteen hmm?" He thought to himself as he walked.

"These events seem to be happening more and more frequently.. Perhaps it is time I take a more active role regarding them." Hiroku mused thoughtfully to himself as he walked on in complete silence. Upon reaching the gate he initiated the teleport command and vanished, rematerializing moments later in the root town of floor 13. He made his way through the town and out into the twisted forest, making his way toward the last known sighting listed for the event.  

[Mega90]

What Hiroku found when he arrived at the described location was not what he had expected. Instead of the invisible wall that had been described previously, a wall of black smoke stood in a line several miles wide. It towered into to the sky, rising impossibly high, preventing anyone from flying over it. Pressing against the wall also was futile, as though it appeared to be only a fog, it had a solid mass that was impossible to penetrate.

There was a large form of a castle visible behind the wall, but no details could be made out.

“Strange, isn’t it? All of these weird events happening in such close succession? Makes you wonder what’s going on with the dev’s, eh?” A deep voice spoke from beside Hiroku. Turning to look where it came from, he saw a tall man with long, spikey dark brown hair. He had strong, handsome features, red eyes, and a devious smile. “Did you come out here to check the anomaly as well?”  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku nodded, glancing at the stranger that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Indeed, I heard whispers of another event being spotted but wanted to check on it myself."

Hiroku glanced back at the towering wall of ashen smoke.

"Though this is the first time I have ever seen or heard of this happening. Usually it is immortal monsters or field bosses being in the wrong areas or floors.. but this..."

The teens voice trailed off as he stared at the massive dark castle behind the wall.

"This time it feel...different." Hiroku said softly, more to himself then anyone else.  

[Mega90]

The man nodded, crossing his arsm and leaning his weight back on one leg.

“You’ve got a point there. There haven’t been events that have affected an area on this scale before. Then again, who knows, perhaps this is actually closed off by the Dev’s for that new event that is supposed to be coming up.”  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku nodded thoughtfully.

"I suppose, though it isn't like the devs to implement something of this scale and just block off an entire area of the game while they work." He mused softly.

"At least not that I have heard of in all my time playing."  

[Mega90]

The man rubbed his chin thoughtfully before looking in Hiroku’s direction.

“That’s true. It’s not really their style. So, that must mean that this is indeed another Emia event.” He stared a moment longer before turning his back to the wall and taking a few steps away. “Very interesting indeed.” Without another word he continued walking, making his way towards the teleport gate.

The air was still for several minutes after he left. Then, suddenly the stillness was broken as the air rippled for but a moment. A loud explosion sounded from the left side of the field that Hiroku now stood in. The field was a long and empty one, and the area where the explosion originated held a massive cave opening. At the angle that he was standing, Hiroku could not see anything of the caves contents, but another large quake soon came from that direction, this time sounding as though it came from deep inside.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku's eyes narrowed and he took of running in the direction of the quakes, quickly making his way tot he large caverns entrance. The teen slowed to a stop at the mouth of the cave, staring down into the darkness. He remained there only a moment before sighing and making his way into the cave in search of the sounds origin.  

[Mega90]

The interior of the cave was far more subterranean than it appeared to be from the outside. There were stalactites and stalagmites protruding from the rocks of the cave, moss grew thick on the walls, and there was a slight blue glow that permeated the space. This glow emanated from dozens of small blue mushrooms that dotted the caves interior.

Pressing on further into the cave revealed a labyrinth of twists and turns that all appeared to have been formed by rushing water that had flowed back when the surrounding field was still part of the lands floodplain. There was a natural curvature to the space, and Hiroku’s foot falls echoed with each step that he took. The banging had ceased for some time now, but as he neared a corner from which light could be seen, another large explosive blast rocked the cavern, causing bits of dirt and rock to fall from the ceiling. It took Hiroku’s eyes a moment to adjust to the light which stood in contrast to the dim darkness of the rest of the cave, but when his vision cleared, he saw a break in the cave. It was a tunnel like area that had a moss covered path which stretched across a massive expanse. Below this natural bridge, two large crevices could be seen extending down into the darkness below. Above him was a web of holes where bits of stone had fallen away from the ceiling, allowing the sun to shine through, creating colorful rays of light to peer through. The bridge was by no means treacherous, but it gave a slight feeling of unease as there appeared to be no supports for it from below, leaving those who dared to cross it with a feeling of weightlessness as they were surrounded by an expansive void on all sides.

As Hiroku’s eyes traveled over this viaduct, they came to rest on a young girl who stood near the far end of the crossing. A series of massive crabs danced in front of her, scuttling back and forth in defensive forms. Her back was to him, so he could not make out her features, but he could see that she bore a very slight frame. In her hand she held a thick rapier, the blade of which was more akin to a long sword, but that bore the guard and composition of a foil.
She raised the blade, holding it towards the crabs, before giving the slightest of flicks with her wrist. As she did, the blade glowed with a light, blue-green hue, and an arc of energy shot forth, slicing through the defenseless crabs. They shattered into thousands of shards of light, each one vanishing in sync with the momentum of the attack. It carried with it a large crash as it tore through the hard crustacean bodies and left large gashes in the walls before her. As the final monster vanished, she lowered the blade and turned towards Hiroku.

It was then that he saw her. A young girl clad in a dress made almost entirely in a deep purple color. It was made of a fabric that reflected light, appearing at times to contain hues of pink. She wore a sleeveless dress that extended to roughly an inch above her knees. Lace hemmed the chest area, while a string of pearls hung double about her waist, hanging loosely so that it was angled on her slim midriff. The skirt appeared to be created nearly out of scales spanning down her legs in rows rather than as one flowing piece of fabric. A pink underskirt of translucent fabric could be seen extending out the bottom of the skirt, and high leggings covered from just above her knees downward. These too were purple, and they were covered with a light pink damask pattern. This fused nicely with the rest of the outfit, seeking to blend in rather than stand out. From about the middle of her upper arm to her wrists, a long deep purple sleeve stretched. It fanned out near the top and bottom of the garment, partly obscuring her hands from view. Two strings of light pink pearls hung around her neck, and a dark purple choker closed around her throat, fastened in the front by a single ruby rose clip.

Her hair was a long lavender whose bangs were long and shaped her face. The remainder of her hair was pulled into a long, thin ponytail that stretched down her back to just below her tail bone. A soft red rose fastened the hair into the ponytail, matching the style of the one that closed the choker around her neck.

Soft, ruby eyes stared out, and her pale lips were slightly parted. Her features were youthful, though they bore a sort of distant expression.  

[Zarkon90]

Hiroku's brow furrowed slightly as his gaze rested on the strange young girl.

"Well, I can't say as I expected to see another player down here. Are you investigating the source of these tremors as well?" Hiroku's tone was calm and soft as he slowly made his way across the large stone bridge, heading for the player opposite him.