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EXPOSITION!!387 words
Every Adventure has a Beginning3,856 words
Meetings and Tours4,418 words
Preparations (Unedited)4,602 words
A Change of Clothes (Unedited)4,170 words

Every Adventure has a Beginning

Chapter 1

Thousands of tiny flakes sparkled as they drifted through the air. The scene was beautiful, and serene. The only sound to be heard was what seemed to be the sound of millions of tiny bells ringing in the breeze. The calm seemed to last forever…

In reality it was about three seconds. With the tell-tale electronic ring a gigantic ‘Congratulations’ sign appeared over where the beast use to stand as the group burst into ecstatic cheering.

“We did it!” Yelled out Recon while falling to his knees, “I thought we were done for!”

Jumping back up the energetic Sylph flew over to Lyfa, a whole five feet away, throwing his arms around her “I was so worried when you went-.“ He came up short on account of Lyfa’s hand being shoved into his face.

Lyfa and Recon, whose real names are Suguha Kirigaya and Nagata Shinichi, were currently playing their characters ALFheim Online, Slyphs are a fairy race denoted by green and known for their wind magic and speed.

A very exasperated Lyfa held her admirer away with one hand saying “I know, I know it was stupid of me to charge in there… But I couldn’t let Asuna hog all the glory again.”

Floating back a foot Recon gave Leafa a very confused look. “What are you talking about? Asuna is one of the most humble people Iv’e ever met, especially around your brother.” A very oblivious Recon stated, receiving a glare for his blunder.

“I know,” fumed Lyfa, “she’s so perfect with her perfect hair, and her perfect smile, and her perfect cooking, and her perfect swordsmanship, and her perfect-“

“Still sore from when she saved your behind on floor 54,” cut in a voice from behind the duo, “I remember you oh so boldly jumped into an obvious mimic trap just to get that golden tiara, which ended up only having a basic speed buff.” Purred a very enticing Cait Sith, “I seem to remember you saying something about it being a very high level item that should make your base movement skill so high that we wouldn’t be able to see you when you are walking down the hall.”

This is the lord of the Cait Siths, a species of cat like people from ALFheim Online who specialize in beast training, Alicia Rue. She has been joining the party from time to time with her 7 player dragoon guard in their dungeon crawling.

“Ya, and didn’t the room not only end up being a teleport trap, but also home to about ten invisi-spiders?” Chucked a very amused swordsman. “And wasn’t – .“

“SHUT IT KLEIN!” Snapped Lyfa turning to the katana wielding rogue.

This is Klein, Tsuboi Ryoutarou in real life, he met Kirito on the first day of SAO and they ran into each other from time to time over their time in SAO. He still uses his avatar from the original SAO, a normal human that looks eerily similar to his real world body only with fairy wings.

“Yes Asuna saves my but from time to time, and YES I made a mistake going for that tiara… although it does match my cape of the swift wind quite nicely” Lyfa added while admiring herself “You too Alicia, I do not care that you are in charge of an entire species, WHY-“

“Alright, we get it” chuckled Klein putting an arm on Lyfa’s shoulder, silencing her “let’s check on our fearless leaders and see where we stand from here. HEY KIRITO, ASUNA!! WHATS THE PLAN?” And adding as an afterthought, “HEY WHO KILLED THE BEAST ANYWAY?”

Across the room Kirito and Asuna sat on the floor leaning their backs against each other for support trying to catch their breath. Kirito, Sugu’s (Lyfa’s) older brother, hero of SAO, and boyfriend to Asuna, was a black clothed Spriggan avatar of Kirigaya Kazuto. Asuna is the Undine avatar of Asuna Yuki and Kazuto’s girlfriend in real life. On Kirito’s shoulder sat the navigation pixie Yui, a rogue program from the original SAO game who became close to Kirito and Asuna during the original game and considers them her parents.

“These dungeon bosses seem much easier now that we aren’t actually fighting for our lives.” Chuckled the black robed Spriggan.

“Ya, and it’s almost like we have a party of people we actually trust and know to be good players or something.” Replied his in game wife and real life girlfriend, “Still, I’m glad we didn’t lose anyone.”

“Yeah, the death timer would have been annoying.” Added Yui.

“The death timer would have been annoying. Oh, and,” Kirito echoed, and then as he turned to Klein across the room “,EVERYONE GATHER AT THE PORTAL TO THE NEXT LEVEL… AND I BELIEVE LIZ KILLED THE BEAST, BUT I AM NOT SURE... LIZ?”

Standing a few yards away were two girls and a small dragon. The girls were Lizbeth and Silica, in real life Ayano Keiko and Shinozaki Rika, two of the original SAO players. The dragon, Pina, is a pet of Silica in game, and has a main ‘attack’ of a health breath.

“YA I KILLED IT… broke a perfectly good mace on it… but YA I KILLED IT.” Replied a slightly disgruntled blacksmith, “thanks for supporting me Silica, without Pina I don’t know what I would have done.”

“Hey, no biggy, it’s what I do” Replied the younger girl “besides, it feels good to do more than just be the mascot for once.” She looked over to see that everyone was moving toward the portal gate to the next level of the dungeon and motioned to Liz to show that they should join.

As the group gathered at the portal gate the quite banter died down till at last there was silence as Kirito opened the gate. “Now everyone,” He said turning to the group of about 30, “I know some of you are high enough level to take on about half of the 67th floor in pairs or as solo players, but I know that I have an exciting meeting with my pillow in an hour and would like to go home, so I am teleporting back to the inn at level 50 and logging out… It never gets old to log out.” He said with a smile, getting a smile and a nod from a good third of the group. “Whenever you guys are ready to tackle the next boss contact the rest and we shall talk strategy.” A round of ‘ya’s and nods confirmed the deadline. “Alright, see you on the other side.” And with that he pulled out his blue teleport crystal and teleported back to the lobby of the inn.

Turning to go up the stairs he was not surprised to see that most of his party had joined him. Doing a quick head count he found that they were all there: Leafa, Reon, Asuna, Klein, Lizbeth, and Silica. With a smile he walked up the stairs to his and Asuna’s room opening the door for her and receiving a smile in return from her. As he turned around the back of his head received quite a strong glare from both Lizbeth and Lyfa. Sadly the back of his head was not all that receptive to glares. As the girls sighed Klein walked past laughing full-heartedly at their expense.

As Kirito closed his own door and walked to the bed and then flopped down next to Asuna on the bed. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheak before they both logged out.

*^~~~~~~~~~^*

The café was calm as the team quietly celebrated another victory over yet another dungeon boss with a round of drinks (mostly tea). Smiles and stories were shared as the team sat back and relaxed after another hard day of dungeon crawling. Ryōtarō, Kazuto, and Asuna sat at one small table near the bar sharing a plate of nachos while Naga, Sugu, Rika and Keiko sat at another table nearby the one male at the table beaming at a fuming Sugu while the other two girls laughed at her expense.

“I saw that quick well-placed mace attack that you used to finish off the boss, nice work Rika, though why you went with the extra sharpness mace instead of the heavier mace is beyond me.” Commented the happy owner of Dicey Café.

Said owner was a large tall bald black man named Andrew Gilber Mills. He was one of the original players of SAO and went by Agil in game where he became good friends of the Kazuto and the group. He owned and worked the café along with his wife.

Turning to the bartender “I wanted to try out my new mace.” Retorted a disgruntled Rika, “Besides, how was I supposed to know that Gantruna had an armor level of 38? If it was below 30 the sharpness would have cut through the armor and done extra damage of up to 300!!”

“Well you would have known if you read the guidebook.” Commented Ryōtarō casually from the other table.

“I did read the book.” She huffed “but there were no actual stats on the armor for Gantruna. I guess I am just not as good a smith as I thought.” She said looking down and sighing.

“Hey hey hey,” he franticly said trying to cheer her up, “I didn’t mean to put you down! You still fought great, it is just something to think about next time.”

Turning to her friend, Keiko added “Ya Rika, you couldn’t have known. And if anything it is my fault for being a poor support and not having all the stats on me… Ah ah ah.” She added holding up a hand cutting off Rika’s obvious denial, “If I want to be a great support I need to know everything about every battle and make sure you know exactly what you are doing and are at your most prepared at all times.”

Smiling at Keiko, Sugu asked “where do you get all that information anyway? You always seem to know exactly which weapons we should use and are always ready with a health potion, crystal, or the right status effect crystal.”

Blushing Keiko replied with a smile “well I memorized the guidebook, plus I talk to Yui on the downtime. That and I just try to stay stocked in general.”

“Hey guys, have you seen this?” Asked Kazuto gesturing toward the television hanging on the wall.

“And with us here we have Professor Karamazato Azimeo, the leading researcher in the exciting new world of Alternate Dimensions, Professor Azimeo.” Gestured a lovely young reporter woman toward a well-built elderly man standing on her left.

“Thank you Amaya, and you are only partially correct. The correct term is Alternate Universe, because if it was Dimention it would me a method of moving, which is not what my research is about.” He laughed jollily, “ No, what my colleagues and I are researching right now in this very building are methods of seeing, and hopefully one day contacting and traveling to alternate worlds. Worlds where physics is different from ours, worlds with people completely different from us, worlds beyond my or your wildest imagination.”

With a gleam in his eye he continued “Think of the advances for our people, for our race! And think of what we could do! We could travel and settle on other worlds we could form trade agreements with other cultures for their sciences and maths, goods and services, and ideaologies philosophies and religions completely different from our own!! It boggles the mind… Why…”

Tuning out old man’s energetic theories and tech mumbo jumbo the group turned exasperated looks to Kazuto.

“Really brother? Alternate Universes, parallel dimensions, other worlds? I know we live in a virtual fantasy world most every day, but even you must realize that this is a silly childish pipe dream.”

“Ya, it’s all still theory anyway. I have heard they still haven’t gotten anywhere near a working prototype yet.” Said Ryōtarō, “Tell him Asuna, never gunna happen.” He said with conviction

“Well, it is a nice idea.” Asuna contributed while leaning on her boyfriend, Kazuto. “But I agree, it will probably never happen. And even when it does there is going to be such a horrible political and public backlash that I don’t think would make the research be anywhere near worth it.”

Nods and ‘Yeah’s were given by all in agreement to Asuna’s comment. Kazuto harrumphed and crossed his arms with a small smile “True, but it would still be cool to go to a completely different world with actual people there, not just AI and to see things that a human could never have imagined…”

“You know, they did have some interesting codes in their viewing machines you have to admit.” Naga commented out loud to which the group gave a collective huh.

“What do you mean by that?” Asked Keiko.

“Well, my father is actually working on this project… not a high ranking official of course… but he does get to do some basic code crunching, and I was allowed to have a look at it. It doesn’t work right now so they saw no harm in a kid like me taking a copy to play with at home...” Naga ended awkwardly with a bashful look on his face.

“Well” Sugu said poking him in the shoulder “What was so interesting about the code?”

With all eyes on Naga he started to explain, “the code takes several very advanced number generating algorithms and details about our world to try and find other worlds.” With a gleam in his eye he continued “They do not know what they are doing, or what they are looking for or anything yet, so they are just punching numbers and figures into the code hoping to get some sort of sequence of figures that correlates to an ‘alternate universe.’ So far they have found several possibilities for worlds, but there is still no way to view these worlds besides sheets of papers with millions of numbers on it that the lower level scientists, like my dad, are currently trying to make heads or tails of.”

“Wow, that’s kind of cool.”

“Interesting.”

“I wonder if you could plug in a code to find a world completely filled with Egg Rolls…” Rika trailed off dreamily looking off into the distance. She quickly noticed the silence and when she refocused she noticed everyone giving her an odd look, “Oh come on I like egg rolls!! And I know you guys want all want some sort of odd thing in a different world.”

As the group became lost in thought Naga continued “So anyway, I took the code and tried to make a virtual world from it. But I am not sure if it works yet…” He quietly added when the room when silent again.

“Please continue.” Requested the bald barkeeper.

“Um, ok, well, um I haven’t tested the world out yet, so I have no idea what it will do, but I took the random number generators from the alternate universe world code that the scientists gave me and punched in some information about our normal world, but then some other things I thought would be cool, like ancient Roman Mythology. I really liked that section in school. And Medieval kingdoms and added some sort of danger…”

“So wait, let me see if I am getting this right.” Said a very serious Ryōtarō, “You took a highly advanced and brand new scientific code that is meant to find alternate universes and changed it into a world seed that will create a random virtual world that has whatever basic parameters that you want it to have?”

“Pretty much. *gulp* Is that ok?”

“Ok, that’s awesome!!” Exclaimed Kazuto, “Why haven’t you tried it yet?”

“Because I haven’t had a server to test it on… also… because I am afraid of looking like an idiot when it doesn’t work…” Timidly replied Naga.

“Can we try it tomorrow?” Asked a wide eyed Keiko.

“If he gives me the code I can add it to our server, and cut that section off of the main grid.” Said Andrew, “The café tends to be light enough for my wife to tend to on her own, I can monitor your progress from here and try to manually fix anything or pull you guys out if things look bad. Do you have the code on you?”

“Ya, here.” He said as he handed the barkeeper the flash drive. “It should be in the folder titled Test_1 in the worlds folder.”

“Cool, I will upload it tonight. And tomorrow you guys can try it out. But first I am sorry, but it is really getting late and I gotta close up.”

A round of approval and confirmation was given from the group of friends as they slowly got up said their goodbyes and left for their homes excited about the new worlds and new adventures they hoped to be having tomorrow.
The next day

The gang had gathered in the upstairs room of the Dicey Café getting ready to dive into the virtual world for an exciting adventure into an unknown territory. Naga was visibly nervous. Ryōtarō stood by Sugu glaring at her in an attempt to get her to cheer up the shaking boy, at which she glared guiltily back until she finally gave in and went over to comfort him, putting a hand on his shoulder and talking quietly to him. Rika, Asuna, and Keiko stood nearby debating whether or not Rika should bring Pina. Kazuto stood on the other side of Ryōtarō smiling to himself observing the group waiting for Andrew to show up and give them the all clear. Everyone was completely oblivious to Naga’s nervousness.

After several long minutes of waiting Andrew came up the stairs with and told them that the code had been added to their server and should show up as a door that only they can open.

“I tried to add it near to your position, but because you were in the middle of town I went for the next best thing… The Fields of Peace on the 18th level of the dungeon. Sorry about that.”

“Na, it’s all good.” Said Ryōtarō, “Let’s get this show on the road!” Cheered Ryōtarō.

With some light cheering everyone lied down in their designated bed and slipped on their respective NerveGear or AmuSphere and logged on.

*^~~~~~~~~~^*

After getting out of bed, meeting in the lobby of the Inn, and briefing Yui on what was going on they ventured to the center of town where they could teleport to a village close to the Fields of Peace. After teleporting to Caragferkas they ventured west to the Fields of Peace. The leaves were beginning to show their fall colors and there was a slight bite to the wind. Sugu was in awe at the beauty of the virtual world, and commented as such.

“Ya,” replied Kirito “this place may have been a prison for us for two years, but it was and still is very beautiful.” He laughed, “I remember teaching Asuma that important lesson.”

Asuma smiled moving closer to Kazuto. “And I am very happy I listened to you.”

“Well I personally like spring better in Sword Art Online.” Commented Lizbeth.

Turning Lyfa asked, “Why? Is there something special about it?”

“No no. I just enjoy the life, artificial it may be. I always enjoyed that even in a place so bleak and dark there was always life and new beauty. So many good smells.”

Conversation continued in that manner until it was broken by the appearance of a large door on top of a rolling hill.

“This must be the portal… It is strange, I have no idea what this is, and the programing is very complex. I feel so much life and energy on the other side.” Yui said while touching the golden door frame. The door stood ten feet tall. Rounded at the top with a golden frame. The door was etched with colorful depictions of what appeared to be small horses dragons griffons, unicorns and pegusi with a large depiction of a dark blue horse creature with a horn and wings on the left standing in front of what appeared to be the moon and a similar depiction of a white horse creature on the right shadowed by the sun. “Apparently whatever world you have created it is called Equestria. But I do not know any more about it than that. I can probably find out more when we are inside the program.”

“Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Said Kirito.

Yui pushed open the double door and through the door all that could be seen was a bright light. The party looked at each other with a smile and a not before they walked through the portal.

*^~~~~~~~~~^*

“Ok, so now you guys are going through the door. No problems… Wait, what is this? This makes no sense? Where is all this information coming from?” A very confused and slightly worried Andrew asked the air as he monitored the surprisingly high amount of data from such a small world seed. “Well kid…” he said leaning back in his chair, “let’s see what you have made huh?”

*^~~~~~~~~~^*

The first Kirito noticed was the high ceilings. Huge gothic arches similar to the grand gothic cathedrals of ancient Europe. The second thing he noticed were the beautifully detailed stained glass windows showing very artistic depictions of what he guessed were supposed to be backstory to their quest. The third and probably most important thing he noticed was a very perturbed looking horned and winged horse creature sitting on what appeared to be a thrown flanked by two smaller armored unicorns with shocked looks on their face, and another regular horse (naked he noticed) looking completely shocked sitting in front of the larger white creature. The rest of the party stood by him admiring the new world until Yui broke the silence with a disturbing fact.

“Daddy? I’m scared. I don’t know where we are, and I am worried… This isn’t in game… There are no programs here… No code.” Yui said with a very scared expression on her face. “Mommy, hold me!”

The group stood there in shock as the white creature on the thrown broke the ice.

“As interesting as that fact is… I have no idea what that means.” She spoke with a feminine voice, rich in grandeur. She stepped down from her throne and walked towards the group, keeping more poise than Kirito thought a horse could ever pull off. She stopped and continued when she got close enough to look down on the group. “But I am more curious in who you are, what you are, and how you managed to get here.”

Author's Note:

Wow, my first fic...

This was an idea that I had in my head and just had to write down, I hope someone enjoys it... if not, I don't blame you guys! I do not think of myself as a good writer! XD

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