Sword Art Online: The Other Victims

Chapter III: Ilfang the Kobold Lord: Part I

        It's been two months and over two thousand people have died, either by being slain by a monster, or someone removing the NerveGear, and in some cases suicide. The worst part of it all is that we're all still on floor one... Nobody has found the boss room. Satiel and Castor were all thinking of starting a guild if a few others joined, which I don't think is a bad idea, but not really sure if I want more people around.

        I heared a rumor while walking to the hotel everyone, including myself, stayed at last night, that there was a meeting discussing the floor one boss' whereabouts at noon today. After hearing this I quickly rush to the Inn and barge into the room Satiel, Dom and I shared. "Guys... Oh hey guys." I say seeing Sly, Teras and Castor also in the room. "Good. Everybody's here. I heard talk about a meeting, about the boss." This caught everyones attention, since we ourselves have searched the dungeon for the boss room. "We might be close to a fight. Are we all good on levels?" I ask looking around the room, everybody opening up their menus.

        "I think we're all about the same levels..." Castor says looking up his character info. "We should all be in the teens? Ya. I'm level 12." He finishes.

        "12 too." Satiel says directly after Castor.

        "13." Dom says.

        "11." Teras says, looking embarrassed.

        "I'm level 14." Sly gloats, thinking he's all mighty.

        "I'm level 14 as well." I say closing my menu. "Alright. Let's get going. It's almost noon, and I don't want to be late."

        We arrive at the arena, now used as a stage, and we all sit at the front. A light blue haired man walks up onto the 'stage' and begins to talk. "Okay, let's get this started people." He begins. "Thank you for responding to my summons today. My name is Diabel. My job, in my own mind, I like to think i'm a knight!" He continues.

        The crowd starts laughing and a person across from us says. "There's no job system in this game!"

        "Guys," Diabel continues. "we should take this seriously!" He's talking over the laughter, then it dies down. "Today our party discovered the boss room at the top of the tower." He says, then all I hear are gasps of disbelief, even though it's true. "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! And that's the duty of every one of us here now! Isn't that right everybody?" Everyone stops there questionable murmurs and everyone is eventually cheering and clapping. "Then without further delay, I'd like to get this boss raid meeting started. First, I want you to team up in a group of six."

        "Good thing we're already a group of six, none of that awkward social interaction stuff." I say laughing.

        "I'll be the leader." Diabel continues. Conceited. I think to myself. "We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties. Alright! Are you about done forming your parties? Then--" he gets interrupted.

        "Hold up a second!" A man with orange spiky hair yells and jumps from the crowd onto the stage area. "My name is Kibau. There's something I wanna say before we take on the boss." He pauses for a moment, pointing to the crowd. "Some of you here need to apologize to the two thousand who have died so far!"

        "Kibau..." Diabel says, breaking the awkward silence surrounding the arena. "Those people you're referring to... Do you mean the ex-beta testers?"

        "Of course I do!" Kibau snarls. "On the day this stupid game started, the beta guys ditched us beginners, and they all disappeared. They took all the good hunting spots, and easy quests so they were the only ones getting stronger. And since then they've just ignored the rest of us! There's got to be some of them here! Guys who were beta testers!" I hold Doms arm, and he puts his hand on mine and looks at me and smiles lightly. I smile lightly back. "We should make them get on their knees and apologize, and give up all the items and money they've hoarded!" Another awkward silence. "As party members, we can't trust them with our lives... And they can't trust us."