Lost Realm Online

Emus nodded to that. "Right." It had been annoying so far with these things but as he consoled himself it could always be worse in one way or another. The new guy didn't seem that bad, if they got lucky maybe they'd end up joining as a normal thing after.

This variant of Little Nepent turned out to be a bit stronger than the average, but the combined attacks of the party dealt with it quickly. It was almost anti-climactic. When loot drops were distributed, it was Kirito who ended up with the quest item. Kirito turned to Emus. "Alright, each item only works for one person, so we'll have to find and kill two more of those to get you two the item. It shouldn't take as long as-"

"Still too long." Kirito blinked, and looked to Copor to see him strike and break the fruit on the other Little Nepent, before diving into the shadows and using his Hiding skill. Immediately, Kirito realized what had happened. Copor was drawing the monsters in to kill him and Emus, so that Copor could take their items afterward. He didn't have time to be angry, however, as Little Nepents began swarming in. And then Copor was screaming as he was surrounded. The Hiding skill was useless against enemies that did not rely on eyesight; enemies such as the Little Nepent. Kirito turned to Emus quickly.

"We need to clear a path before we're fully surrounded!"

"Son of a bitch!" Emus hissed once he realized what was going on. If one thing Emus absolutely hated was a backstabber, and after they had saved his miserable ass too.

"Don't worry, don't have to tell me twice!" His sword hummed white as it usually did when the monsters approached to cut them down so they could get through; he worked in concert with Kirito to get through. No way. No way he was going to die here and like this.

It wasn't easy, but after what seemed like hours, the two of them managed to brek through and escape, though their health bars were each in the red. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Kirito pulled out two healing crystals, tossing one to Emus while using the other on himself. "Had hoped I would have to use these before I had more, but there's no other choice. We can't risk walking back to the Inn in this condition... damnit, I can't believe Copor did that to us..."

Emus gave a heavy sigh. "I thought..just once I could trust people to at least not backstab others if it went against their chances of surviving and self preservation. Guess greed trumps all, but I knew that already." He shook his head, shifting a bit. "I had a feeling but I ignored it and gave them the benefit of the doubt. No use bitching about it, but still." What Emus was talking about 'trusting them just once' was another story.

Kirito shook his head slightly. "That... nevermind. Well, I'm leaving it to you. We can either turn in the quest now, though only I would get the sword, or we can go back in there to get another one of the item. If the first, I'll do what I can to get you a new blade anyway."

Emus shook his head. "We'll just turn in the quest. Today's been a shitty time all around." It still pissed him off what happened, and a dumb part of him felt slightly bad for the dumbass. Even if he brought it in on himself. Whatever.

Kirito nodded, and led the way back. "I say, we stick together. We'll watch each other's backs, to make sure that neither of us gets taken out by someone who's willing to kill another person for their own greed..."

Emus agreed, walking along side him. "Yeah. I didn't really plan on leaving you, we'll unless you wanted me gone for some reason. It's better for a group, even a small two person group to survive then on their own. I got the nickname 'Emus the Dog' back in the 'real world' but that's another story. Dogs are pack animals, so kinda fitting being in a group."

"Emus the Dog? Interesting... I won't ask though. I didn't have any nicknames, myself. I was just... me." A pause. "Wait... so Emus is your real name?"

He nodded a bit, looking kinda sheepish. "Heh..yeah. I know, I know, its not original but I was just excited and wanted to give this a whirl so I just used my name but not my last one. As for why I'm called 'Emus the Dog'. We'll, I was born on a planet called Hihat and down in sector three, the poorer parts of the city where me and my sister grew up were rough. Long story of it short, I had to crawl my way up for myself and my sister's sake. People mocked me, put me down and spit on me. I got called a dog."

"But, I kept getting up no matter how many times they knocked me down or spitted me. People always use 'dog' as a insult but it isn't if you think about it. What are some of the traits dogs are known for, positively? Loyalty, integrity, and you can't ask for a better friend. I can't say the same for people, so it stuck. I got a half decent job and got me and sis out of that shitty waste basket we called home. I already proved I could make it despite what those dipshits think, joining the Myriad Crusaders would just be the cherry on top." He shoved his hands into his pockets once again. "Sorry man, I got sidetracked. I didn't mean to unload everything on ya. It was just suppose to be the cliff notes."

Kirito stared at Emus for a moment, then grinned. "...I'm... actually from Hihat as well... when we get back to the real world, we'll have to meet up and hang out some time, then."

"Really? Man, small world after all huh?" Emus smiled. "Okay, I'm gonna hold you to it once we get out of this game in one piece."

Kirito grinned a bit at that. "Deal. Now, let's get this quest turned in, so we can get started on finding you a better sword than that starter one."

Emus fully agreed. They needed to get as strong as they could and get through this. He was confident they could do, just had to be careful.

December 13th, 2035

A month passed. In that time, a little over twenty thousand people had died. One fifth of the entire population of Aincrad.

And nobody had even cleared the first floor yet.

Today, however, was going to be different. People were gathering in the town of Torubana to discuss finding and taking down the floor boss. Kirito and Emus had arrived as well. While Kirito wasn't wearing any armor different from what he had been, the Anneal Blade across his back gleamed brilliantly. He glanced at Emus. "Well, we should get going, see if this meeting is going to work."

Emus had gotten stronger during that time, and so had Kirito. Their fighting and team work had improved overall too compared to what it was at before. "Yeah. What we're doing now isn't working. I don't remember what the level cap is, but I doubt anyone can get high enough to solo that place. It would kinda defeat the purpose of that douche who sent us here."

Kirito shook his head. "The level cap, near as I can tell, is 100. You and I are both level 11, and this is just the first floor. It's true that nobody currently could solo it, I think it's possible for those of much higher levels. Possible, but not likely."

"Figures. Joining a guild has its own problems too, gotta know who's in charge and make sure they're trustworthy." Emus said, his sword was different from his other one, but seemed more of a plain Broadsword. "Anyway, let's go to this meeting and see if we learn anything from it."

Kirito nodded, and led they way. They ended up in a smallish amphitheater, with a large group of people gathered about in smaller groups, and one man standing on the stage. Kirito took a seat near the back.

Emus took a seat to the side, but still somewhat close to Kirito as he leaned back, and relaxed. He was going to keep a open mind about this and see how it went. Hopefully who ever was hosting this had a clue of what they were doing, one too many people had died already.

After it seemed everyone who was coming was seated, the man on stage, in relatively simple armor but with blue hair, equipped with sword and shield, clapped his hands and called out, gathering attention. "Okay, let's get started, people! Thank you for coming today. My name is Diabel.... Today, our group found the boss room at the top of the tower." This instantly got people's attention; nobody had been able to find the boss room until now. "We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it IS possible to beat this game. Everyone present here shares this duty! Do you all agree?"

At first, there was just quite murmuring. Then people began to nod seriously to each other, getting more fired up, before someone started clapping, which spread. Kirito simply smiled. "Hey, maybe this'll work out. The guy certainly is motivated, and he's got everyone else fired up... besides, he's right. If this is going to work, we need everyone working for it, but they never will if we don't show them it can be done...."

Emus admired the guy's passion, at least his heart and head was in the right place. Now more then ever people needed something to rally behind otherwise there was a chance nobody was going to make it out of here alive.

"Maybe so, but I agree. What people are doing now obviously isn't working so something needs to be changed." He just wished so many people hadn't had to die for that to happen.

Diabel nodded a bit once things died down. "Alright, let's get started with planning then. Everyone, divide into parties of six." Kirito's eyes widened. "An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss." Kirito looked to Emus, then around at the various small groups. "We'll need to form a raid group made of multiple parties." Kirito quickly became aware that he and Emus were the 'odd men out' so to speak. Everyone else seemed to know eachother and were already forming their parties. He looked around frantically, and spotted one single person in a hooded cloak, sitting off to the side, away from everyone else. He glanced at Emus, motioned for him to follow, and quickly scooted his way over.

"..You got left out, too?" The responding voice was distinctly feminine.

"I wasn't left out. I just stayed out of it because everyone seemed to know each other already." Kirito blinked, glancing at Emus.

"A solo player?" He wanted Emus' input on this. Over the past month, they had started developing a series of hand-signals, and one of the first one's they'd developed, was a way of silently asking the other about adding someone to the party, which Kirito did now.

We'll..crap.

Normally it was just him and Kirito but that wasn't really going to work out with how things were going so they needed to find another person. If a certain douche who-won't-be-named hadn't messed things up, they might've had a three man crew by now. Oh well.

When Kirito found someone else standing by themselves, they moved over and with a mental shrug he did as well. At the request if it was okay for them to join, he returned it answering with a 'yes'. In a situation like this, unless you were succidal you couldn't turn on your partners anyway and he didn't feel any bad vibes from them.

Course, some of my powers don't work here. My senses are crappy. Compared to how they were anyway.