Lost Realm Online

November 6th, 2035

A huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky. That was all this world was. It took a group of craftsmen one month to survey just the base floor; the diameter was about 100 kilometers. Above, there were 100 floors stacking straight upwards; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.

Inside, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests and plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways existed in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed; so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone made a breakthrough and arrived at a city of the upper floor, the [Teleport Gates] there and at every cities in the lower floors would be connected, making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.

The name of the castle was «Aincrad», a world of battles with swords that continued floating and had engulfed approximately one hundred thousand people. Otherwise known as...

[Lost Realm Online].

Kazuto Kirigaya, aged 14, was one of the lucky ten thousand people to be chosen as a beta-tester, and gifted with a free copy of this brand new, inter-planetary Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, or VRMMORPG. On launch day, 100,000 people logged on. Within several hours, everyone became aware of the fact that they could not log back out.

The creator of this game, Kayaba Akihiko, alerted all of the players that this was not a defect, but a feature. Until all 100 of Aincrad's floors had been cleared, the players would not only be trapped within the game, but worse, death within the game would result in death in real life, the VR headsets, NerveGear, frying the user's brain. Then, as a 'gift' to everyone, he altered every player's in-game avatar to look as they truly did in real life.

This was the situation that Kazuto, Kirito in-game, was faced with. He was an avid gamer, but now, he was focused only on surviving. For that reason, he needed to get as strong as he could, as quickly as he could. This was why, shortly after the announcement of this 'death game', he left the beginning area. Most people would be staying around the starting town and hunting the lower level monsters. A lot of people would be struggling to get experience, with all the monsters being killed faster than they could respawn.

Therefore, Kirito was heading to stronger areas. Higher risk, but higher reward, as well as less people to 'compete' against for experience. He knew he could get there; he knew the way due to his beta-testing, and was confident he could get around safely. He had to survive!

~~~~~

In the real world, people were in a panic, particularly the loved ones of those trapped in the game. A feature of the game had been that the goings on were able to be watched by people on television and online. Many people were trying to figure out a way to remove the players safely from the game, or at least to save their lives should they die in-game. So far, there was no luck. Either way, people across many planets were watching, and praying for their loved ones to make it through safely.

Emus had next to know experience with how things worked in a virtual MMO, hell he had never even played a normal one as he couldn't even afford a normal video game with how things were. Being one of the 'lucky few' to win one had been nothing short of a wet dream. Except for the 'dying for real part when a monster maims and rapes your body' part but couldn't have everything. And if he was honest, as odd as it was it added a strange thrill to the whole thing.

While that might have been true, he still had a healthy dose of self presevation instincs; he just choose to ignore them half the time for adventure sake besides obvious things such as 'don't touch fire, it will burn you'. Or 'don't pick fights with people who can bench press a truck'. But he couldn't really help that one, he hated bullies but that was another story.

That, at the moment, was the least of his problems.

He had taken to go 'further in' after thinking the beginning areas would be too crowded with people. If he was going to survive and go back to his family he needed to get stronger and that seemed like a risk worth taking.

It just bit him in the ass quicker then he'd like.

The first monster he ran into was a giant wolf, at least nine feet tall and twice as long. It's skin was red and overall the features were demonic. He hadn't been doing so well against it, but he had damaged it, getting at least a quater of his health down as he picked himself up, the creature snarling at him.

"Heh..Back at you big guy." He slid back into a practice stance, sword in front of him. "But I'm not going to die that easily."

..Really need to think of something though..

Kirito had not at all expected to see someone else out here, though he supposed it wasn't completely surprising. Generally, it was polite in games like these to not interfere in someone elses fight without being asked. This, however, was a special circumstance. This was a game where losing meant true death, and Kirito wasn't willing to wait for a request for help. As the wolf took another lunge, Kirito rushed in, sword flashing red as he used a Sword Skill, shooting past the wolf as he cut through it's hide. The wolf was too strong to take out so quickly, but it was enough to take out a good chunk of health, and divide the wolf's attention between himself and Emus. That was when he called out.

"This is a Dire Wolf, it's attack pattern is pretty basic! I've got it's attention; when it lunges at me, I'm going to dodge, and you'll have a window to attack! Then it'll focus on you, and we'll repeat until it's down!" As he finished, the Dire Wolf lunged at him as predicted, and Kirito quickly dodged out of the way at the last second.

Emus tensed, seeing the creature about to come when a newcomer suddenly jumped into the fray before it could finish its lunge. Some guy with a flashing sword had struck it and moved to the side. He didn't know who he was, but he was grateful and gave a nod to what he said.

"Sounds fine to me!"

Come on, let's get this going.

While it was distracted, his sword glowed a faint silver as he went for a forward lunge at the beast side.

Kirito nodded as well, watching Emus' attack. When it landed, and the Dire Wolf turned to Emus to attack, Kirito moved in for his own attack. This pattern continued until the Dire Wolf was defeated, and with no further injuries for either. Kirito quickly sheathed his sword, and let out a breath, sighing.

Emus did the same once it seemed the wolf from hell had finally been put down for good for now. Sure there would be other monsters but in this area they didn't seem to spawn as quickly or as often..which was a good thing. Exciting as battles may have been, he needed to keep alive.

"Man, that was pretty wild huh?" He put his sword away. "Hey, thanks for the help and not letting me become wolf chow. My name is Emus, obvious on the screen but its kinda different seeing people in person so I still like formally introducing yourself." Some might find it strange but he honestly didn't care.

Kirito turned to Emus, and smiled. "Kirito. And it's not a problem. Considering these new rules for the game..." He shook his head. "Anyway, what are you doing out here? This area is too dangerous for people our level if you don't know where you're going."

Emus rubbed the back of his head looking a bit sheepish. "We'll...I had the 'bright idea' that since everyone else would be grinding at the beginning levels, I could try a bit higher. Just play it cautiously and try to take the bottom tier things in this area and work my levels up more without the crowd. Course, my dumbass almost got myself killed instead. I admit I can be kinda reckless at times and not think things all the way through. Sister got on me about that.." He seemed to trail off at that but shrugged it off quickly. "You play the beta or something? You seem to know what you're doing. Or maybe you have more formal fighting experience then me."

Kirito paused, then nodded a bit. "Ah... yeah... both, kind of. I trained in kendo when I was younger, but it's been awhile... mostly, I was a beta-tester, yeah. I was heading to the next village for the same reason as you. There's a couple of quests that are good for gaining experience, as well as better gear..." He hesitated, thinking about things, then... "...Why don't we go together? Two people can handle things easier than one, and it's not so many people that experience would be lowered for kills." Not to mention, less people, meant less lives he was responsible for. He couldn't handle such a burden... but one person, he could handle.

Emus thought about it, then grinned. "Sure, why not?" He seemingly touched the air as a yellow menu popped up and he scrolled down before tapping a button that read 'form party' in bold letters. "I'm more of a solo person but I know when its best to work with other people."

Kirito chuckled a bit. "I'm the same way, actually." A message popped up, asking if he accepted the party invite, and he hit the accept button, nodding. "I actually know of a quest that has a pretty good sword as a quest reward and some Col.. that's the currency of Aincrad, by the way. That wasn't mentioned in the manual, for some reason."

Emus shrugged slightly. "They might of done some last minute changes to throw people through the loop. Wouldn't surprise me. Anyway, what's the quest about and does it say how hard it is?"

Kirito shook his head. "The quest involves finding rare version of a common monster, and getting the unique item drop it has. It's a plant type monster called a Little Nepeta, they are around level 3. We should get a little stronger before doing it, since we'll likely have to fight a lot of them before the one we need shows up. Either way, first we should get to town. We'll take on any monsters we see, though avoid large groups."

"Sounds like a plan, I'll just follow your lead for now until I get more of a hang of things." Emus wondered how big this place was, but he guess it didn't really matter. What mattered was getting through this whole alive and being with someone else mean their chances of surviving went way up.

"So anything else I need to know about this 'world' I'm in? This is my first time I've been into it."

Kirito nodded a bit. "Be careful of duels. If someone challenges you to one, make sure the rules are set so that it ends at first hit or something, you don't want to risk accidentally getting killed. Hunt monsters in groups, or if going solo, go after monsters that are on their own. You know how to work the menu, so that's good. You can rent rooms at Inns and stuff, or even buy your own home, set up your own shop, things like that. Uh... what else..."

Emus crossed his arms. "Probably should be careful of people who act funny. If in a normal game, you got nothing to lose but the guy or girl being a prick. Here though..'player killer' got a whole different meaning. In one game I was in, they had 'red' or something over their status that let people know. They probably have it here but since I hear about the fact you can get all kinds of skills here, maybe people can hide it? Guess we gotta just trust our instincts."

Kirito nodded. "Here, you notice the green crystal symbol above my head? If it was orange, it would mean I was a 'criminal' player, such as attacking other players. If red, however, it would mean I've killed other players. So yeah, avoid red players. Orange, just be careful. Orange can mean they've killed, but red means they do it a lot, which means it was definitely on purpose. There's no way to hide it, either. Killing someone in a duel doesn't change your status though, so be careful there as well."

"Don't worry, I don't plan on getting into a duel with how things are anyway. You'd think there wouldn't be a huge worry about that, since you can die for real here but never underestimate crazy people." Emus shoved his hands into his pockets. "Lead the way man. Might not be the best fighter now but I'll get better and watch your back."

Kirito nodded a bit, feeling a bit better. It's be great if Emus did indeed get stronger and was able to fully take care of himself here. He wouldn't have to worry about him. "Alright, lets go then. I know the safest paths, so it'll make this a lot easier."

Emus followed Kirito, going more by his side then the back. He could see things better that way and looked less 'strange.' Or at least it didn't look like he was a lost puppy or something.

"Only problem I see is we have to eat in the real world don't we? Then again, since this is on the news they probably moved all the people so they could get stuff through tubes." Emus shrugged, he shouldn't worry about things out of his control but his sister must've been freaking out. He tried not to think about it. "If I'm lucky, really lucky, then the Myriad Crusaders will be watching this and I'll prove I got something in here." He pointed to his heart. "Even if I got next to no experience. You've heard of them, have you? Not sure what planet you're from but they're pretty decently well known in most parts. East galaxy anyway, I think."

Kirito nodded to that. "Yeah, I've heard of them, but let's focus on surviving in this world. It doesn't matter much what is going on in the real world. For all intents and purposes, this is the 'real world' for us for now. If we don't survive here, then what happens out there is unimportant." He glanced back. "Get as strong as we can, enjoy our lives here while we can, and get home. Just because we are trapped here doesn't mean we can't enjoy ourselves."

"Yeah. Don't worry, I know we need to focus here on what we have to do and that its not gonna be easy. But I got too much to do just die here." Emus continued to follow, he wondered how far the town was. Guilds where something he heard about and while he liked the solo aspect, if they both were going to survive that might not be a bad idea to join one.

It wasn't overly long before they reached the next town, which appeared to be deserted aside from NPC's. Kirito led Emus to one quest giver, who actually had a dialogue box appear above their head to describe the quest. It wasn't the quest for the blade, but it was good for experience.

~~~~~

It wasn't until the next day, the two having rented two rooms at the Inn, that Kirito took Emus to their 'goal'. [Secret Medicine of the Forest] was a retrieval quest of sorts; the players had to retrieve a medicine ingredient, a seed, from a rare variant of Little Nepent; one with a flower on it's head. The item, [Little Nepent's Ovule] would then be returned to the quest giver.

The difficulty came in the fact that drawing out the rare variant required killing many of the common variety, and getting overwhelmed was a possibility. However, fortune smiled upon them. On their way toward the forest, a young man of about Kirito's age approached them. As it turned out, he was looking for help with the exact quest; he was a Beta-Tester himself, and had wrongly assumed he could take on the quest alone at this point; he'd barely escaped. He introduced himself as Copor, and requested to join their party. Kirito was unsure, and glanced at Emus. "...What do you think?"

Emus didn't see a yellow or red, but then that didn't mean much of anything. He doubted anyone had developed the skill fast enough to hide it(then again you never knew). He seemed all right. If Kirito had never given him a chance, he'd be out on his own, possibly dead.

"I think we should give him a chance." Emus said after thinking about it. "At least until the quest is over."

Kirito nodded to that, and sent Copor the party invite. Once done, they headed off into the forest.

~~~~~

The Little Nepents, on their own, were not that tough, attacking with slashing vines, but were a bit slow, allowing the three swordsmen to dispatch them fairly easily. Unfortunately, they had gone through over a hundred of the creatures before finally encountering two different one's. One had a flower on it's head, while the other had a fruit. "Hey, ignore the one with the fruit, just go after the one flower one. If you break that fruit, it'll attract a swarm of the things."