SAO part 2: Leveling and start.
SAO first floor, the largest floor in the whole Aincrad floating castle.
Because of Aincrad's conical shape, the first floor is six miles wide with a surface of over thirty square miles.
This huge size gives this floor a lot of variety in its terrain. At the southern tip of the floor is the starting town, a city with half a mile across and surrounded by walls. Outside the city is plain that filled with different kinds of mobs like boars and wolves, as well as insect monsters like bees and worms.
In the northwest, there is a large deep forest that leads towards other towns on the floor, but because SAO just started, people are taking this easy and check the game while gathering informations.
But in a part of this forest, there were some weird sounds coming from it. The sounds were like the cry of a horrifying beast filled with hatred and anger while there was a sound of a person suffering in the middle of it.
People that passed near the forest left immediately because of the sounds while thinking this is the sound of a powerful monster. Some of them prayed for the poor soul of the player that dared to anger this monster at the beginning of the game while others laughed at his stupidity, but no one dared to go there.
After a while, the sounds stopped, and the forest returned to its calm atmosphere while the players outside in the plains breathed a sigh of relief, but they chose to wait for a while before entering at least they should level up first.
*Crack*
With the sound of broken glass, a player died because of a knife in his head before disappearing from this world.
The knife falls to the ground in the middle of the fragments before a tall man with blonde hair leaned over and picked it up.
"forth-fifth of durability remains while the knife I used for the boar only lost one-tenth... It seems the durability lose is related to target" Akashi(DIO) said while looking at the knife in his hand.
Akashi(DIO) already got his information after the kind player cooperated with him.
"He was a very kind person, he only needed four Muda's rush before telling me very valuable informations. I, DIO, should thank him next time after he respawns" Akashi(DIO) said while putting the knife inside his sleeve.
This guy kept hitting that player until his HP turned red before waiting for it to refile and hitting him again until he spit everything he knows.
Akashi(DIO) thought before away.
Akashi wanted to see the level of game space players in SAO, but these two were completely lost cause. The first one had some high DEX but the way he swung his sword was like a mace, so the SAO system didn't respond while the other one didn't seem like a close fighter at all, that why Akashi(DIO) was able to hit his eyes and picked him as a target.
Akashi(DIO) discovers that his eyes don't work normally in SAO because his eyes calculate the future by the smallest movements and body changes like sweating or heartbeats, but these things don't exist in SAO which makes Akashi(DIO) need some time to study how polygons move.
Akashi(DIO) looked at his hands while thinking that his biggest weakness is that his hands are without protection. If those two guys were at least powerful they would attack Akashi hand to block his attack and do damage on him. This is why he made sure to knock their weapons first.
The motion system for SAO can guide players and show them the correct way of movement, but for the true martial artists that prefer to fight on their own, it seems very rigid.
Akashi(DIO) feels that his skills will never level up if he continued using this system and even thinking that the level will go down.
Akashi didn't want to use his zone, at least before the game truly starts because that Kayaba might be watching all the players now and see their reactions and if he saw the explosion of reflex by the zone, Akashi(DIO) might get in trouble.
This is why Akashi(DIO) tried to act like a player only looking for information from another player while saying he'll wait for him to respawn, so Kayaba doesn't get suspicious. And acting like a DIO with Eighth-Grader Syndrome really works well as a cover.
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Mission world: Sword Art Online
World rank: 6th Rank(SAO).
Mission difficulty: 7th Rank/6th Rank (The mission Rank will raise according to who will you face)
Number of participants: 100
Number of tasks: 3
Task 1: To the top.
Description: As a player in the biggest game in the multiverse, how can you not defeat this game easily. Go there and climb these floors.
Reach 50 floors to succeed in this mission.
The floor reached (1/100).
Task rewards: 100 coins for every floor the player reaches while slightly increasing the final evaluation with every floor over 50 one.
task 2: Level up.
Description: Go and level up, it isn't complicated.
Reach level 50 to complete the mission.
Task rewards: 100 coins for every level and slightly increase the final evaluation for every level above 50.
Task 3:Boss killer.
Description: As a true player beyond the human limits, how can you be satisfied with little mobs.
Task rewards: 1000 coins for every boss slain and slightly increase the final evaluation.
Failure penalty:5000 coins for every task failing and lower the final evaluation.
Mission rewards: according to the final evaluation.
Mission failure penalty: losing one life chance.
Note 1: the player can finish the mission after completing one of the tasks.
Note 2: if the player gave up or fail the three tasks the mission is automatically failed.
Note 3: the player that his coins reach negative need to repay the game space or they will lose a life chance.
Warning: don't reveal the game to anyone in the mission world as they will forget what you said and you will have to pay 1000 coins for every time you expose it.
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Side Task: If you are ready to kill, then you should be prepared to be killed.
Description: Because you didn't attack first and chose to fight back and kill those orange players, why don't you continue?
Kill all that you can from red to orange player.
Task rewards: According to the number of kills.
Note: because you chose the green side, if you ever turned red or orange then this mission will fail and you can't get the other side one.
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"..." Akashi(DIO) watched the two screens before he held the mission one and looked at it back.
Although it is good to be a green player, but it makes you lose the advantage of surprise attacks and stabbing from the back while even if you can join the raider team, Akashi(DIO) knows that it will be chaotic because other players will be there.
'Back to the serious mode, I see' Suddenly, Akashi(DIO) heard the voice of the arrow.
'Do you really think this is a game... Don't answer that' the arrow said quickly after he saw Akashi(DIO) almost answering.
'Honestly, I never thought you'll act like that' the arrow asked Akashi(DIO).
"MUDA!!!" the poor wolf didn't even turn to look back before a merciless punch hit him in the back and taking half of his HP.
'You have a do list ?' the arrow said while Akashi(DIO) hit the wolf that jumped towards him with a kick.
Akashi(DIO) said before killing the wolf and moving forward.
'Don't make a soul link sound like a chat program! And you didn't answer m-' Akashi(DIO) closed his connection with the arrow before he finished his words.
Akashi(DIO) said before rushing forwards to kill all the mobs in his way.
killing mobs at the start is faster than doing quests, so Akashi(DIO) plans to level at least one time before SAO start because the leveling up in SAO is hard.
Akashi(DIO) thought while rushing towards two blue boars.
Akashi(DIO) kicked a boar and throw a knife at the other one eye, killing him.
The arrow plan was very secure and good, but he forgot one thing and that is Akashi has spies(D4C, Metallica) in the enemy lines.
One of the reasons he did this DIO face and acts is that he wants to see the arrow reaction when he sees that all his work was useless.
"But... I never said I'm stopping this DIO act" Akashi(DIO) grinned before rushing forwards.
*Time skip 3 hours*
"After all of this killing, I only got... One level, seriously Kayaba?" Akashi(DIO) said while looking at a wolf turning into fragments.
Akashi(DIO) now is level two after killing mobs for 3 hours, making him realize how hard this game is.
"Add three points into agility and one in strength and vitality" Akashi(DIO) moved his SAO menu and add his stats points.
SAO stats are rather simple and only separate into three. STR, AGL, VIT.
STR determines the attack power and the weight the player can carrier be it in their weapons or the loot in their backpack.
AGL determines the speed of players and reduces some damage they take while it also increases the damage of critical hits.
VIT determines the player max HP and its recovery and damage reduction while it is also responsible for the player's stamina and how long they can fight at their max power.
The player only gets 5 stats points with level so they can increase their stats.
"Well, back to leveling I guess" Akashi(DIO) said before killing mobs again but at this moment he heard some sound behind him.
Looking over, Akashi(DIO) saw a player killing mobs in the distance.
The player was swinging his rapier accurately and at very fast speed hitting all the mobs weak spots showing that he is a great fencer, but what made Akashi(DIO) wary is that he sees from the player movement that he not only trained in using a rapier, but his movement shows the shadows of axes, spears and a lot of other weapons.
Akashi(DIO) noticed the player saw him but even if he noticed him, Akashi(DIO) didn't care about him and moved to kill mobs because it pointless to start a fight now and his mission limit him.
Akashi(DIO) and the player started to kill the mobs around, but after Akashi(DIO) killed two bees, the other player rushed and killed three elegantly.
Akashi(DIO) atmosphere turned menacing while his hair covered his eyes that started to shine with red light like DIO is going back to blood phantom.
The other player looked at Akashi(DIO) skills before he stopped in his place and Akashi(DIO) gave him 'get on my level' look.
Akashi(DIO) saw the other player's expression darkened before rushing to other mobs, and so did Akashi(DIO).
And with this, a pointless race started between two players for who will kill more or who is better.
*Time skip 5 hours*
It now the sunset, the golden-red glow filled the sky of Aincrad while making a beautiful picture with some clouds there.
Some players kept leveling and playing the game while a lot of them started to notice something wrong.
The log out button was messing. The player thought this is just a bug that will be fixed soon, but after waiting for hours nothing changed.
The players bombarded the GM channel with complaints, but they didn't get any answer or even an announcement about this bug.
Some players started to get angry while others started to feel worried because of this event while some of them started to prepare themselves.
Everyone had their reaction to the missing log out button except two guys in the west forest.
"...*Pant*...*Pant*..." Akashi(DIO) and the other player were panting while looking at each other and holding their weapons with all the glass fragments and loot around them.
These two guys kept killing the monsters non-stop in this place for 5 hours straight that the game monster respawn lagged a little now.
"You are not bad...*Pant*..." The other player with blond hair and handsome look said.
"Humph... I, DIO, acknowledge your little skills...*Pant*..." Akashi(DIO) said before looking at the blond player that didn't seem to attack or even have a battle stance.
"It seems you are also a green light" the blond player said while recovering his energy a little.
"Without my consent" Akashi(DIO) said as he recovered a little.
"Hahahah... Actually me too. Hi, I'm golden cat" golden cat said while pointing at his username above his head.
"... What a stupid name" Akashi(DIO) said directly as the golden cat's eyebrow twitched.
"Oh yeah? Then what yours!" Golden cat said before Akashi removed the username hide and pointed at his head.
Golden cat looked at the DIO above Akashi(DIO) in silence because even if it was written the same as his username that DIO seemed to bring it own special effects.
"You wrote it in Italian because the English one is already taken... Clever very clever" golden cat had a face full of regrets while looking at Akashi(DIO) user name.
"So because you're a green light like me let me make sure of one thing" Akashi(DIO) said bringing Golden cat attention.
"... Are you approaching me?" Akashi(DIO) said while raising his hands and releasing a menacing aura that shocked Golden cat.
"Eh? No" Golden cat said while Akashi(DIO) nodded.
"I see, then I have better things to do" Akashi(DIO) said before walking away.
Golden cat stood in his place in confusion, but at this moment a bell knocking sound filled the whole first floor made Akashi(DIO) and golden cat look at the direction of the starting town.