2nd December 2022
Tolbana, 1st Floor
From my point of view, there were three groups of players that distinguished themselves in the first month SAO was launched.
The first group of players were what I personally called the ' town dwellers'. They never did much to leave the Town of Beginnings, and only survived because of the safe zone the Town
had. Some of them felt despair, and desperately wanted to escape this game as soon as possible. The only way for one's HP gauge to reach zero in the safe zone is to jump off the edge of the first floor, and I heard stories of players having done that. None of them got revived.
Aside from confirming what Kayaba said was truth and fact, the second group of players slowly accepted the harsh reality of this game and started to go out to earn EXP for themselves and level themselves up. This happened 2 days after I started my own journey to progress the 1st floor, when I started to notice a definite increase in the number of players near me while revisiting areas for the purpose of completing quests that pop up in my 'Quests' section of my menu after exploring each area. These kind of quests usually yield great rewards, and I had to suppress my frustration to backtrack to the area just to complete it. There might be even more quests yet to be found on the 1st floor, but I guess only the beta testers would know how to trigger them.
The third group of players leveled up much faster than the majority of the players, and had the strongest determination to clear the game among the player population, which by then had shrunk to about 8000, after checking on the player name board that belonged to a place called the Black Iron Castle in one of my visits back at the Town of Beginnings.
Looking at the crossed out names really reminded me of the truth that SAO was a death game, and it had to completed no matter what.
Guilds also started to form during the first month after the SAO launch, such as [The Army], which wore matching uniforms, for reasons I never did bother finding out.
SAO was no doubt a death game itself, but it gave us players a valuable asset to survive : Sword Skills. They deal more damage than just hurling raw swings at enemies, and were a must to acquire.
In my case, the first Sword Skill I could use when starting off with a spear was the 2-hit spear skill Twin Thrust. Many other spear sword skills were unlocked as I leveled up my Spear skill, and as long as I had enough skill points, I could use them to my heart's content, only worrying about how much SP (stamina points) they would use up.
Defeating monsters and using items causes them to disperse in shiny blue pixels that either drops materials that were needed to upgrade or craft weapons, or grants you something positive to happen to you, depending on what item you used.
In each floor there was a giant pillar which connects to the floor above it, called a Labyrinth due to the maze-like structure of the place. The main goal on each floor is simple : defeat the final boss there, and the next floor opens up to every player either via the Teleport Gate Plaza or taking the stairs from the boss room where the boss was defeated. But defeating the main boss on each floor was never something either of the players could do on their own.
As I stepped into the settlement of Tolbana, which was nearest to the Labyrinth on the 1st floor as a Level 9 spearman, spear strapped to my back, I felt the satisfaction to have finally completed all the quests found in this place. The NPCs here really are quite demanding, I thought, though maybe I was the only player thinking that way.
Anyway, after forming a considerable number of temporary parties with other players while doing those quests (I was never one to stick around with any player a lot), I still had to show my gratitude to the free guide that I got back at the Town of Beginnings, which was reproduced and issued by a beta tester, who goes by the name of 'The Rat'. Who ever resists free stuff that can help you progress safely in a death game?
Tolbana offers way better crafting and upgrading services than the Town of Beginnings. Plus it's aesthetically appealing, complete with a town square and what seemed to look like a threatre from the Roman times.
As I was walking along the top curve of the threatre back to my recently rented inn, I heard what sounded like a shout across the threatre.
"Tomorrow we'll have a meeting at the threatre about defeating the main boss on the 1st floor! Those who are strong enough to raid the boss are welcome to join the meeting!"
I turned and saw a seemingly middle-aged man with blue hair and blue attire, complete with armor and all. A great example of a ready-for-war fighter, in standardized terms at least.
I wore nothing of that sort. I only wore a light brown coat that was just long enough to touch my knee joint, and opted to wear the shirt and jeans that I was wearing when SAO was launched.
My light brown coat, which granted a boost in my agility and dexterity stats, was a lucky monster drop during a quest to collect boar meat for an NPC butcher. It really covered up my weakness in combat, where using a spear generally slows you down while attacking, despite its damage output being higher than an one-handed weapon. Also, I preferred to dodge enemy attacks rather than block them anyway.
I walked up to the man amid my curiosity. The man, who saw me moving towards him immediately brought out his hand for a handshake, " Have you come to ask about the meeting? My name's Diavel."
"Zenalyth." I replied, being a little taken aback by his highly sociable attitude while receiving his handshake with a slow hand. I definitely wasn't the type of guy to introduce himself to a stranger confidently.
Based on what I could hear from the voice translation program, Diavel must have been a native Japanese. Plus the way he moves his mouth proved my guess to be correct.
"Well, Zenalyth, what level are you now?"
That was a really direct question right in my face. It just doesn't seem right to reveal my level, especially with passer-by players walking around me in town.
"Um...not strong enough to fight the boss yet....I guess." I paused my words not because I was afraid Diavel would see me as a weak player, but because I didn't want to disclose my level that readily to anyone yet.
Seemingly oblivious that I gave an indirect answer to his question, Diavel replied," It's okay, when you get stronger come find me tomorrow, which we'll discuss the plan to commence the boss raid the day after."
It was then I realized that nighttime was approaching.
Diavel noticed it too, so he bidded me farewell and went on his way back to whichever inn he was staying in (at least, that's what I thought).
I let myself fall onto my inn bed after a few minutes of travelling to the inn I was staying in, which thankfully was consideringly near to the town square. Sleep was still needed in this world, even when I was already technically sleeping in the real world.
With my Wooden Spear +4 tucked away in my inventory, I readied myself for another good night's sleep.
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3rd December 2022
Tolbana, 1st Floor
The morning breeze brushed across my cheeks as I walked to the NPC blacksmith's smithy 5 blocks away.
I needed a better spear to take on the monsters dwelling in the 1st Floor Labyrinth.
The weapon enhancement system in SAO uses 5 kinds of enhancement parameters : [Sharpness], [Quickness], [Accuracy], [Heaviness] and [Durability]. Each weapon in SAO can be enhanced with any of these parameters one at a time, depending on what parameter you want your weapon to be enhanced for.
Every successful attempt of the enhancement of any weapon would add a '+1' to its weapon name. Enhancing the same weapon multiple times adds on that number.
For example, my Wooden Spear +4 was successfully enhanced 4 times, but had an enhancement breakdown of 1S2Q1D (Sharpness +1, Quickness +2, Durability +1).
There were times that I was unlucky, when some enhancement attempts on my spear failed miserably. Frustrating as it sounds, the enhancement materials one uses during even a failed enhancement attempt gets lost forever, prompting you to invest more time to get the materials you needed again for the enhancement of your weapon.
Of course, the smithing skill level of the blacksmith enhancing the weapon for players was also an important factor for enhancement attempts to be successful.
It was my first time changing my Wooden Spear +4 to a better spear, and to do that I had to scrap my current spear into materials, and get the blacksmith to craft a better spear with additional materials I had in my inventory.
I must have been quite lucky, seeing that I got a better spear in the end, according to its item description. I wasn't really particular about the base stats of my new Sharp Javelin, but I cared more in how I would upgrade this spear in the long run.
Satisfied at how successful the crafting of my new spear was, I had the NPC blacksmith enhance it by Quickness +1 , before setting off for the 1st Floor Labyrinth. I intended to level myself up by 2, maybe even 3.
The sky seemed sunny by the time I reached the threatre, though it was actually the ceiling of the 1st Floor and the surface of the 2nd Floor, a reminder that I was living in a giant floating castle.
As I walked past the top curve of the threatre, which was part of the way towards the Labyrinth, I noticed the threatre being occupied by players, who were sitting on the threatre steps watching Diavel, which I instantly recognized due to his blue hair, standing on the bottom stage making a speech I couldn't hear.
Apparently, that was the meeting Diavel had talked to me about.
A short while later, a player with orange spiky hair stood up and seemed to be talking about something quite sensitive, for the players near him started to make some noise about what he had said. The only words I could hear him say were,"beta testers".
Did that guy have any grudge on the beta testers? I had assumed that was the case.
The only player who talked back at Spiky (can't help using that nickname for a while) was a player with a muscular build. He took out a book the size of a hand and showed it to Spiky, who sat back down, looking frustrated.
Diavel then took out his own book and continued his speech. So that's the strategy guide distributed by The Rat, huh...., I thought to myself.
Having thought that I should really get going, I checked that my Sharp Javelin +1 was still strapped to my back before continuing my trip to the Labyrinth.
As far as I know, fighting the boss of the 1st Floor , Illfang the Kobold Lord, was definitely no joke. A 49-player party, which was the maximum number of players that can raid a floor boss was strongly recommended, for them to minimize the possibility of even a player death in the boss room.
As I swiftly took down the Kobold Sentinels in the Labyrinth, I can't help thinking about wanting to take part in the very first major boss raid in SAO. Some player had taken the risk of mapping out the place and eventually finding the Labyrinth, and I want to use that chance to experience fighting a boss too.
I had fought sub-bosses with players I temporarily partied with, which were scattered all over the 1st Floor and its Labyrinth, but none of them were ever terrifying than a boss which needed so many players to beat.
But I wanted to experience floor boss raiding at least once, if not twice in this game, despite the risk I'll be taking.
Frankly speaking , I only wanted to survive in this death game.
But I wanted to do something the front line players were doing now, at least once.
The night before the 1st Floor boss raid, I approached Diavel, who was in the town square with his friends, hoping to be invited to the biggest boss-raiding party in SAO.