The Lightning Swordsman (Book 1)

Others

After the first-floor boss was killed, other floors were much faster to be cleared. Right now we have reached floor 16, I shouldn't say us though. After all, I haven't been in a single raid since Max was killed. Many of the other players look up to the people who clear the floors, we call them the assault team. The assault team was formed to bring hope to the players on the lower floors. If only they knew what a boss fight was like.

Instead of joining up with the assault team I've been levelling up. Day after day, the only thing you catch me doing is grinding, eating and sleeping. I've shut myself off from everyone else. I mainly level at the floor under the front lines. Today was like any other day, I just reached level 32.

When I was about to leave when someone called out for me. Naturally, I went to investigate, behind a tree a saw someone sitting on the ground. I greeted them but they didn't answer. When I got closer my already broken heart broke even more. Sitting there was Max.

"Max" I call out "is that really you"

Max didn't move, I went to hug him but instead, I face-planted into a tree. When I stood back up he was gone. It must be an illusion I'm going crazy. I started walking out of the dense woods I was in. When I arrived in town, I saw Agil walking toward me.

"Hey man, you know you need to talk to people," He tells me

I just look at the ground and continue walking

"If you don't talk to anyone the pain won't go away," he says following me.

"What do you know about it, it's not like you know what I'm going through," I say sharply

"I may not but there's a chat group that does" he responds

"O my, what are they gonna do, put a crying emoji after every sentence they type" I snorted back

"Really dude, I know you're better then this," Agil tells me

"If your interested the chat is called MindSword and the password to it is true friends." He finishes

"I'll check it out later," I tell him to get him off my back.

I walk into the place I'm staying at and stroll to my room. I flop on my bed after a hard day of levelling up. I try to sleep but Agils words keep echoing in my head "if you don't talk to anyone the pain won't go away". Honestly, I've tried everything I could to rid myself of this feeling, it's unbearable.

I figure since I'm not going to get to sleep anytime soon, why not try out this group. I open my menu and scroll to chats, I input MindSwords in the search bar. I click the one and only result that comes up. I find that only 7 people are in the chat, how did Agil come across this information? I hit join and put in the password

Fuji: Look, another has joined

Jam: welcome!

If I had a phone I'm sure I would track Agil down and shove it up his ass. Who the hell does he think I am. However, this is what I was kinda expecting.

(U/N):yo

Fuji: ever since your here I figure that you lost someone close to you?

(U/N):yea

Fuji: will don't be afraid to talk about about it, all of us have lost someone too.

(U/N): hmm

Jam: we fit together like peanut butter and jam!

(U/N): funny(not)

Qweep: funny follew aren't ya

(U/N): my comedic level is off the charts

Liz: we all noticed

I talked to them for quite sometime until I was tired beyond believe. Agil was right I guess, it feels good to talk to people again, even if it's in words and not face to face. I guess they have a policy to not meet up, I'm not sure why but it's there. There is 8 people in the chat: Jam, Fuji, Qweep, Liz, Punisher, Harry, looky and of course myself.

Jam seems to be the head of the group, they by far talk the most and has the most self confidence. While Fuji is very awkward toward me and says some strange stuff. Qweep, well the name says it all he is a dweep. Liz seems to be like the under aged mother of the group, she keeps everyone in line and makes sure everyone is alright. In fact she probably the most kind player I've meet in the game so far. Punisher is well.....should I say...... a hard ass?not on others but himself. Harry is an assault team member and is quite easy going. Finally we get to looky, she mainly just watches people which is a little creepy but o well.

This little group has meet the same fate I have, it's hard to believe how people deal with stuff differently. This little rag tag group is probably the best thing that has happened since Max died, and I couldn't be happier. After a few weeks we really bonded to each other with our similar experiences.

Jam came in with her boyfriend, but he died on floor 5 when they came across some high level player killers. Since then she has devoted herself to removing high level player killers from lower floors. This gave her a reason to live, and she was happy doing it, it gave light on her dark world. That's the reason why she started this group, to help those who are badly hurt.

Fuji is a NEET(Not in Education, Employment, or Training) which explains her slight awkwardness. When she came in, she meet with a bunch of players who she'd know for years on another game. When they found out about SAO being a death trap they all committed suicide leaving Fuji behind alone.

Qweep, Punsiher, and Harry all have story's that match mine

Looky heard that her crush was paying SAO, so naturally she wanted to play with him. But things went south, a month after the death game started he died. Looky had a mental breakdown that lasted for weeks until she found out about this chat

And Liz, well she came in with her whole family, and I'm sure you know what happened. She has no one to come home to.

I loved talking with everyone, they all are so sad but have so much fun with all the others. I slowly found my self rushing to get my quota of 10'000 XP a day done so I could talk to them.

Everything was going great, that up was until around the time floor 27 was cleared

Hello it's the dear auther, I hope your liking the book so far, comment below about theories about what might happen, who knows, one of them might became true🤔

PS: Liz is not Lisbeth, just to clear up confusion for later on in the story. They are not the same person. Don't worry though, I have a reader x Lisbeth story up already