{Hey guys, thanks for reading! Sorry for the lack of updates- I've been busy.
If you have any suggestions, or want a character put in to help fight the boss battle, comment on here, or pm me!}
One. Month.
That was how long the 10 000 people had been trapped in SAO.
Heidi found it dispicable. Not the people within SAO-(though she did have some rather strong thoughts about some people, but that was for another day) but SAO in general; she wanted out.
They were still on the first floor.
Heidi sat up on the hotel bed, yawning, stetching up her arms. Once again, she had woken up before her 7am alarm- it was 6:30. Her dark blue hair fell ofer her shoulders, changed from it's natural golden brown state. There was a hairstyle option, that she and Max had found two weeks back. The trio had gleefully took turns changing their hairstyle to wild options. Finally, Heidi had settled with her first character's hairstyle- dark blue, with the front two strands tied with ribbon. Max, liking the color blue as well, settled with a bright shade of periwinkle, though keeping her curly hair. Remi, had simply turned her pigtails a brighter shade of red.
All three of them had the same armour and cloak set- a guild uniform, to keep them in spirit. Max had been the one to suggesst it, and Remi had suggested the colors- navy blue, black, and crimson red. Heidi had chosen the style, and had gotten the outfits from a custom tailor located on the west side Of The Town Of Beginnings. It had cost them a buttload of money, but having form, and the sense of connection had brought up everyone's spirits- they were able to gain 10 levels that week! Now, with everyone at around level 18, it was getting harder to gain the appropriate amount of XP to level up fast. They would need to move up a floor to actually gain proper XP.
Thankfully, a boss raid was going on today- at last, the boss room was found in the dungeon.(All locations from the beta tests had been changed) Heidi, Max, and Remi were going to take part in it today, something that made her heart pound with excitement. A bunch of other people were joining, so they would be able to take down the boss no problem. Plus, the trio was overleveled- Heidi blamed it on them being beta testers; they knew the secret spots, and good XP grinding places to level up. So in theory, they should be fine. Even so, Heidi worried at the bit a little. That was why she had spent most of her time yesterday, while Max and Remi were upgrading their weapons, buying healing potions, crystals and three teleport stones, for an emergency. Since only a portion of the Col gained through beating a monster went to the guild Col storage, Heidi had a fair amount of money in her own account. She had used it up to upgrade her sword from the shaudy "Level. 1 One Handed Long Sword" to the second-best sword sold in The Town Of Beginnings- "Level. 5 One Handed Long Sword." She had tested it out a little in the shop, and was satisfied, even though she would have liked something a bit stronger, but the only way to get a better sword was to go on a mission nobody had found yet.
Heidi looked at her sword now: it was a sturdy silver thing, with a simple black handle, trimmed in red. It would serve her well for the rest of this level, and a little way on the 2nd floor. She looked at the clock: it read 6: 59 AM, one minute before her alarm would go off. Pushing herself off, her bare feet hit the cold, wood floor. She shivered, looking around the hotel room. Max's and Remi's beds were to her right, a few meters away. They had actually been able to buy a room with beds- it was a miracle. Her alarm went off, playing a popular Japanese song through her head- the alarm systems were designed that way, so nobody else around you would wake up. Humming along to the Japanese toon, Heidi recalled watching the show ( it being named Shingeki no Kyojin) where it came from- she remembered it being her favourite. A yearning ache came from within her- part of Heidi missed being able to simply watch TV, and it made her terribly sad.
Max and Remi woke up, yawning, and muttering the cutsomary "Good Morning's".
"Morning guys." Heidi said, briskly, pushing away her feelings. "I have breakfast ready- I bought some last night, eat quick, get ready and then let's head out to the meeting spot."
Going through her inventory, she pulled out three croissants, smothered in honey. Handing them to her peers, she took a quick bite out of hers- it tasted alright, but it felt like it was missing something. Looking at the quality of it, she noticed it was only 1.5 out of 5, so that was probably the reason why. The higher the quality, the better the food would taste, almost like from the real world. Apparetly the best meal you could get was called Ragout Rabbit- an S Rank meat (the rarest meat) rumors had it, from beta testers that had gotten higher than them in the beta test, it tasted like chicken. It sold for 100 000 000. Heidi wondered what she would do with all that money.
Once everyone was finished their meals, they quickly changed out of their comfortable clothes (which for Heidi, was a loose pair of trousers and a stitched blue shirt) and into their armour. It didn't take long for them to head out. As they walked, Heidi transported all of the healing potions, crystals, and teleport stones into the guild's shared inventory- so everyone could easily access them.
As they walked out the hotel doors, and down the cobblestone roads, people were just beginning to get up and the streets were filled with a fair amount of people. The trio walked briskly through the street, their guild cloaks standing out, against the croud. Even though Heidi felt a tad shy, from standing out so much, she couldn't help but enjoy the attention a little. The Wanderers were getting popular within The Town Of Beginnings- they had some of the highest levels, and were girls. The boy to girl ratio within the game was very uneven, getting even more so, as more people died.
Max sped up a little, as they turned the corner- the atrium of the meeting place now in view. Around 40 or so people were already there, chatting with eachother on the stone stairs, waiting for the meeting to start. Rays of the morning sun lit up the place, making it look cheery. While most everybody looked happy, and chatty, two people sat alone, their heads down. One, looked to be a girl, with a red cloak on, the hood up. Heidi could see aburn hair peaking out. The other, seemed to be a swordsman- he had black hair, and black clothes. Somehow, his cool demeter and expression reminded her of the tall boy she had seen in The Town Of Beginnings, striking the thought that it might be him. She pondered sharing a word with him, but decided against it- while he didn't look angry, he simply looked like he didn't wan to start a conversation.
"C'mon guys, lets sit down." Remi said, hopping down a few steps, and plopping herself down. Heidi and Max followed after, seating themselves next to her. Smoothing down her red skirt as she sat, Heidi noticed the Swordsman looking at them. Awkwardly looking back at him, their gaze met. Her cheeks pink, with a faint blush, she looked away, this time settling her gaze on the rally leader- a man with long blue hair, and silver armour. He smiled, and greeted everybody.
"We're going to fight the boss tomorrow, using groups of switch people- everybody find at least one other partner- groups of three are permitted." He boomed, looking around the group. Everybody started partnering up- including Heidi, Max and Remi.
Heidi's gaze brushed through the croud- looking for the black swordsman. She quickly found him- seeing he paired up with the hooded girl. They seemed to be talking.
"Hey, Heidi, who're you looking at?" Max questioned, following Heidi's line of sight. "Oooohh, you're looking at a guy!" She snickered, elbowing her.
"Ah, no, no! I was just... Gazing that way, that's all!" Heidi stammered, making the two giggle. "Shut up! We're here to fight anyways."
"But that doesn't mean you-" Max's words were cut off, by a booming voice coming from a man a few stairs above them. Heidi Believed his name was "Kibaou."
"There's Beta testers in this group! They left the rest of us to die and refused to help the starters!" He exclaimed, hands of hips. His spiky red hair formed lumps on his head, and in Heidi's perspective, he was quite short. "So, they should give us all of their items, and crystals so we can trust them!"
Max's face was turning red, as she clenched her fists, and looked towards the ground, furious. Remi held her head low, avoiding everybody's gazes- a few people were starting to stare. Heidi felt a blush form on her cheaks, and she looked away, realizing that everybody though they were beta testers- which they were.
"Hey, hey, hey." Came a low voice, emitting from a huge guy, with dark skin, sporting a battle axe. "We can't blame those beta testers for the death of people- they were the ones handing out manual books out to everybody. That way, things would be fair, right? Doesn't everybody have one?"
The situation seemed to defuse, and everybody nodded, even Kibaou, who looked furious, but was not about to sstand up to this guy.
"Thats right!" The leader with blue hair called out, taking out his own copy. He opened it up, turning a few pages. "So, we're fighting a boss called Illfang, the Kolbold Lord, along with some of his minions. He uses an Axe, and has a Shield. When his last HP bar is down to one third, he'll discard his axe, and switch to a talwar, changing his attack pattern, so be careful. We'll split up into 7 groups, 6 partners per group, with you-" he pointed to the black swordsman and girl, "as support, for group G, let's get organized!"
It took a while, for everybody to be sorted- there was one group, being tanks, and others as attackers. Heidi and her group managed to get group G- with the leader in it, and the swordsman and girl. That meant they would be main attackers, and would be responsible for dealling a lot of damage. Even though Heidi was a bit scared, she felt strong with the group.
"Alright, everyone, since we spent so much time planning, we'll meet here at 10 am tomorrow- be on time! The meeting's closed!" The leader shouted. Everybody began to clear off, walking away with their friends. Heidi noticed the swordsman talking to the girl, looking a little awkward, before being tugged off by her friends.
Their first battle was tomorrow. Heidi found waiting for it like a storm brewing.