//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Speedrunning // Story: A Hundred Floors in the Titan Castle // by TurtleWithoutASoul //------------------------------// Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. Wait! The boss wasn’t like this in the beta!   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   For a minute or two, Twilight forgot where she was. Probably because her eyes were still closed. Even so, something felt different. This bed… was kind of hard. She could feel that well enough, but even though she was used to a soft mattress, nothing ached. Twilight slowly opened her eyes to wooden walls and a solid white bed sheet. The events of the day before slowly came back to her.   She was still alive, meaning her family didn’t try to take the Nervegear off of her head when they woke up in America. It was the afternoon there, so they were surely fully aware of Twilight’s situation. The fact that Twilight was safe in that aspect set her heart at ease a little bit. But that username still worried her massively. It couldn’t be the same Sunset, could it? She just… tried to forget about it for now.   Twilight sat up and instinctively stretched her arms above her head, even though there was no real point to it, since muscles didn’t become sore in SAO.   After Kayaba Akihiko’s welcome yesterday evening, Twilight met Lucky, read just about everything you could read in the menus without completing any prerequisite skills, and went to sleep. She hadn’t eaten anything at all since entering the game, and her stomach heavily reminded her of this.   Players couldn’t starve to death in virtual reality, but their stomachs would start hurting something fierce after a while. Fortunately, food wasn’t ridiculously expensive as long as you didn’t go above floor 10, where it started slowly shifting from survivability to luxury. This is what the tutorials seemed to imply, at least.   Twilight tossed off the thin bedsheet that didn’t actually serve much purpose in keeping her warm, and stood up, changing from her plain white nightshirt and pants that every avatar was gifted at 7:00 last night back into her starting gear: her purple turtleneck-esque shirt (as was her color of choice) and leather tunic with pants that were pretty much khakis. The night clothes didn’t do much to keep her warm either. Thusly, she was pretty cold last night.   “Priority one, food.” She spoke aloud as if to keep herself sane. “Two, new stuff to wear. Three, next town.”   Twilight left the inn and headed to the center of town.The general mood was… not great. Unsurprisingly, not many people were talking or even smiling. It was like everyone had already given up. Twilight had felt ready to do the same yesterday though, so it wasn’t like she could judge anyone for it… it just made her sad. I’ll do my best to help clear this game, She thought. Don’t worry, everyone. We can do this.   Twilight found a stand with pictures of different shaped rolls and loaves of bread on a sign. The old grandfather-looking NPC greeted her with a warm smile and the trading interface appeared in front of her. Town of Beginnings fare… not overly impressive. For 1 cor, she could get some rather unappealing black bread... I guess this would obviously be the worst food in the game… for 3 she could get a dark brown roll, or for 6 she could get a semi-normal looking tan roll. Somewhat fearing for her safety, she opted for the 6 cor roll. “Note to self,” she murmured. “Never eat in the Town of Beginnings again…” She waved to the old man and walked off, taking a bite out of the bread. It was a little tough, but not bad.   Since it was more of a snack than a breakfast and the quality was… questionable, Twilight decided the Town of Beginnings wouldn’t have much in the way of better clothing, so she decided to head in the direction of the next town right away.   Swallowing the last of her food as she crossed the gate of the town, Twilight equipped her wand. Reading about all of the skills last night made Twilight want to practice magic a lot more, but at the same time, she loved swinging a sword around. Twilight figured that the best way to play the game would be to choose one and allocate her stat points towards only using magic or swordplay, but she didn’t want to limit herself like that. At the end of the day, it was just a game. She’d put some in both. Wait, is that kind of thinking dangerous…? Surely it can’t be a bad thing to use both magic and swords, right?   Starting down the path, Twilight activated the practice mode for spell incantations. When she spoke the magic words, her mana didn’t decrease and a spell wasn’t actually cast, but the system showed her a window of her projected minimum and maximum damage on an enemy of the exact same stats as her based on her speed and clarity of her words. This was a way the game let you practice getting better at using magic without having to wait for your mana to regenerate. Twilight didn’t really expect to be using that basic fireball for very long, but it was also a way for her to just get used to the language a little better.   Twilight practiced speaking the words for the fireball spell over and over until her projected damage increased by about ten percent, then the dirt path under her feet changed to a grassy field. At this point monsters would start approaching more often, so she turned off the practice mode. There were very few players out and about as it was still early morning and most people didn’t seem to have decided what to do just yet. One of the people she did see, though, was a certain short brunette from yesterday…   Twilight stopped walking and watched Lucky somersault over a blue lizard on two feet and stab it in the back, shattering it into pieces. Now facing Twilight, Lucky scowled.   “You again. Guess I got to ya, huh? Don’t want to quit already?” She sheathed her weapon, which looked a bit too short to be a sword, but too long to be a knife.   Twilight sighed. “Did I… do something to you?” She put a hand on her hip, giving the girl a flat look.   Lucky crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side like she was trying to figure Twilight out. She probably was. She was silent for almost a full minute and didn’t move. Only the gentle breeze told Twilight that everything wasn’t completely frozen. After a time passed, Lucky’s arms dropped to her sides with a heavy sigh. “Alright, I guess you’re not that bad. Come train with me.”   “Uh, I was heading over to the next town.” Twilight pointed in the general direction, which caused Lucky to stop in the middle of her stretch and stare into space for a second.   “Yeah, what the hell am I still doing here?” She whispered to no one in particular. Then she started running north. “C’mon, Sparkles, keep up!” She called behind her.   “Wh-” This girl is a mystery… Twilight shook her head and started running after her.   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   When the 26th Lizard Barbarian fell, Twilight fell to her knees and then rolled onto her back, completely out of breath.   “Is that all you can do? We’re not even there yet!” Lucky stood over Twilight and looked down at her. “Why are you giving up already?”   “Maybe if you would…” Twilight coughed twice. “Stop aggroing every single monster on our way… How do you have so much energy?!”   Lucky stared into the horizon with squinting eyes. “Kayaba’s got me fired up. I want to break everything there is to break in this game.”   Twilight groaned. “You know that they spawn infinitely, right?”   Lucky leaned down and yanked on one of Twilight’s arms. “Up you get! I want to get to level 3 before we get to Horunka!”   “Give me a minute.” Twilight leaned her head back as Lucky pulled her to her feet. Something about this seems familiar…   What should have been a half hour trip to the next town had already taken 45 minutes and they were still only two-thirds of the way there. This was due to Lucky’s running up to every single monster she could find, which so far included 26 Lizard Barbarians, 14 Lesser Dire Wolves, and 60 something Slimes. Twilight lost count of those. Lucky never seemed to run out of energy. What was even more impressive though, was that Lucky hadn’t taken a single hit yet. Of course, Twilight hadn’t either, but she hadn’t been fighting nearly as much. It was enthralling just watching Lucky. Her small stature allowed her to jump around monsters like a gymnast. It was incredible. She likely put most if not all of her points into agility.   Lucky pushed Twilight towards a wolf. “You haven’t done almost anything yet. You fight something. I need to know if what I saw yesterday was right. Put your wand away. It takes more skill to use a sword than to speak fancy words.”   Twilight rolled her eyes but switched to her sword, then walked closer to the Lesser Dire Wolf. It bristled its gray fur and snarled at her, lowering its back and widening its stance. Twilight drew her sword from its scabbard at her side and held it low. Lucky stood back and leaned against a tree, crossing her arms.   The wolf crept up close and raised a front paw. Twilight angled her sword from the bottom left. The system sensed the initial position for a sword skill, and Twilight’s sword started glowing red with a small hum. The wolf sprang forward with its jaws wide, aiming for a bite on her left leg. Twilight cancelled the skill and kicked upward, knocking the wolf backward. It missed the bite but lashed out with a paw and clawed at Twilight’s side.   Pain coursed through Twilight’s body. She gasped and her legs crumbled beneath her. Out of the corner of her vision, she saw Lucky lean forward.   “Twilight?!”   The wolf faced Twilight and started to rush again. Twilight scrambled to her feet and activated the same skill as before, this time unleashing the basic single-hit sword skill ‘Upwards Diagonal.’   Her sword connected and the wolf shattered into pieces. Lucky rushed over to her side.   “What the heck happened?!” She grabbed Twilight’s shoulders and looked at her torso at the single glowing red line that had appeared where the wolf scratched her.   “I don’t know. It… hurt.” It hadn’t hurt that bad, but the fact that she wasn’t expecting it to be possible made it a bit worse. She gingerly touched the mark. The pain had already completely subsided, but she was shaking a little. Her health bar hadn’t even gone down that much.   Twilight gently removed Lucky’s hands from her shoulders. “I’m okay now. It just felt like a paper cut. It’s already stopped. I… guess it’s just a part of this game now.”   Lucky held her own sides and shrunk a bit. “I do not like this.” She shook her head. Where was all that bravado that she had just a second ago? Twilight reminded herself that even though she seemed like she had really thick skin, Lucky was still pretty young. She wasn’t even the one that got hurt. Lucky quivered slightly, and Twilight’s heart melted.   “Lucky, listen. Kayaba can sting us with paper cuts. But that’s about as bad as it gets, and it doesn’t really inhibit our ability to fight at all. I was just surprised. And besides, you’d have to get hit first, right? You’re the most incredible fighter I’ve seen. Just watching you, I- wait, are you laughing?”   Lucky had gotten a bit louder. Indeed, Twilight heard her chuckling under her breath. Suddenly, she glared up at the sky and started shouting.   “Akihiko Kayaba, you son of a bitch! I’m gonna climb up to the top floor myself and tear you limb from fucking limb!”   Twilight stared at her, speechless. Lucky whirled around and gave her a determined look. “Let’s get a move on, Sparkles! We’re going to floor 100!”   Twilight shook her head clear. “What makes you think Kayaba’s there?”   Lucky overexaggerated a roll of the eyes. “What else could possibly be there? It’s so obvious! Either a player avatar controlled by Kayaba himself, or a boss monster he commands.”   “Why would he be inside the game? That’s basically suicide.”   “Well, where else is he supposed to hide from the police? They can’t really do anything to him if he’s trapped the same way everyone else is. Also, what, you think he’d actually let his own game kill him?”   Twilight didn’t really have an answer for that. Lucky had a point. She sighed. “You’re hard to keep up with. In more ways than one. Let’s go, then.” Twilight started walking towards Horunka again, which was now able to be seen in the distance. Lucky sprinted around, getting monsters’ attentions, and drew them into a group and started fighting them all at once. Twilight... calmly kept walking.   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   “So what’s even the point of doing quests? Can’t you just fight monsters to grind levels?” Lucky took a drink from the glass she was holding.   Twilight and Lucky were sitting at a table in the only inn in Horunka, next to a window. Lucky had taken the seat in the sunbeam, facing the door. Twilight was sitting opposite Lucky with a glass of grape juice.   Upon their arrival to Horunka, Lucky walked right over to the center of the town, which wasn’t very impressive with its meager 10 buildings, looked at Twilight, crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t look at me!” Twilight had protested. “We need to pass through here at some point! If you don’t like it, let’s just keep moving on!” to which Lucky in response had made a beeline for the inn, claiming that she was finally tired and in need of a break. Lucky was… a very strange character, to say the least.   “Well,” Twilight said after taking a sip of juice, “You could just fight monsters for hours on end, but quests generally give more experience than the time you could have spent on just monsters. You can also get unique items and weapons, like ones you can’t get from monster drops.”   “If you can just get your level high enough though, fancy items and tricks shouldn’t matter,” Lucky deadpanned, taking another large mouthful of her drink. “Just pure skill.”   Twilight sighed. “I guess everyone has their own playing style.”   Lucky looked out the window with an irritated expression. The pair sat in silence for a few moments until Lucky started sighing every ten seconds, gradually getting more and more exaggerated, obviously trying to get Twilight to ask. Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Something the matter?” She questioned, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Lucky leaned back and slammed her palms on the table, causing a few NPC’s to look over at her.   “This game is too easy!” She declared. “Is there a boss anywhere around here?”   Twilight sighed and shook her head. “At our levels, any boss would kill us with two or three good hits.” She crossed her arms on the table. “The online wiki describing floor one recommended waiting until you were level 5 before challenging one.”   Lucky pointed a finger right at Twilight’s nose. “Answer the question, Sparkles! I didn’t ask for a lecture!” Twilight’s eyes narrowed.   “I refuse to just let you go fight a boss on your own. Typically, you should bring at least 2 full parties of 7 members each to fight a field boss, and for a floor boss, you should always bring a full raid group of 6 parties of 7 members. Taking on a boss of any kind alone is absolutely suicide. It takes a minimum of 3 players together to block a blade that they swing. Their parameters are just too high. Also, to have only 2 players for a field boss means your damage per second is a lot lower, so you’ll have to fight it for a lot longer, compared to a minimum of 10 minutes with 14 players.”   Lucky glared at Twilight. “Don’t know if you noticed, mom, but I’m not blocking anything. No one can even touch me.” She exhaled sharply through her nose and crossed her arms, looking to the side. “I guess you have a point though.”   “Good. The forest to the east has higher-leveled monsters than we were fighting earlier if you-”   “So we’ll just have to find some other people to fight a boss with us!” Lucky grinned and stood up suddenly, almost knocking her chair over. “Let’s go!”   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   Why does she insist on being so reckless?   “Anyway, you know like, way too much useless crap about this game.”   And why am I letting her drag me around like this?   “You’re like… for lack of a better term, a super-nerd. But...”   Am I just trying to keep her from killing herself? I can’t quite tell.   “I mean, like… The people with the highest grades in school are usually worse at video games, but you’re different. Somehow. Maybe not as great as me, but, y’know.”   And what is with that in-your-face attitude?   “Are you listening?!” Lucky whirled around, forcing Twilight to stop in her tracks.   Lucky had grabbed Twilight by the arm and pulled her out of the inn. She led her back along the cobblestone path in the direction of the Town of Beginnings, intending to find other people that were trying to progress through the game already. They assumed they were alone in Horunka as it was still pretty early in the morning and not many people apparently wanted to get going yet. So Lucky was going to drag Twilight all the way back to the Town of Beginnings trying to find some people to fight a field boss with.   Twilight sighed. “Sorry, I’m kind of distracted,” she admitted lamely.   Lucky made a face that looked halfway between a pout and a glare and looked away with an “Ugh!” She crossed her arms and leaned over a wooden fence on the path. “Can’t believe I was about to open up to you,” she mumbled.   Twilight stood behind her. She felt… really awkward. Twilight dug her toe into the ground, unsure what to say. After a moment, Lucky raised her arms above her head in a stretch.   “You’re an open book, you know that, Sparkles? I guess you’d like being a book, but be careful about it. It could get you into trouble eventually.”   “Wh- huh? But…” Twilight stammered.   Lucky turned around to face her. She sighed and shook her head. “I’m really good at reading people, okay? No pun intended. Let’s go.” She turned and started back towards the Town of Beginnings without another word.   Twilight stared at her for a second, wondering what exactly it was that Lucky was able to glean about her.. ...What just happened? She was about to call Lucky’s name when another voice from behind her startled her.   “She is troubling you?”   Twilight turned around. The person standing before her was another girl quite a bit taller than Twilight. She was wearing glasses, even though they had no effect in SAO because everyone’s avatar had perfect vision. Twilight quickly looked up and down at her. She wore a purple turtleneck shirt similar to Twilight’s, but hers was a much darker shade than Twilight’s lavender. Her hair was also a dark purple, and her green and brown eye-colored gaze probed Twilight with an analytical sense. She also still had the khaki-like pants that everyone else did, but she had some silver-colored (probably polished iron) shin and thigh guards over them. Also, instead of the leather tunic most players still had, she had already upgraded to a black metal chestpiece. It wasn’t anything fancy; it just looked like a metal version of the starting leather one. Even so, Twilight was impressed. She couldn’t see what kind of sword she had equipped, but the hilt looked like the starting one.   “N-no!” Twilight said, remembering to speak. “I’m just… not used to her type I guess?”   This new motherly-looking face tilted to the side inquisitively. “Her type? I do not understand. It would be human, would it not? You are not used to other people?”   “No, I- that’s not what I mean. She-”   “Yo, Sparkles, what’s the holdup?” Lucky approached from behind Twilight. “We’re going back t-” Lucky looked around Twilight at the tall girl, who in fact seemed nearly double Lucky’s height. There was a moment of awkward silence. “...Good god, your tits are huge.” Twilight facepalmed.   “...I am assuming that to be a greeting? Your names are?” She questioned, looking at Twilight.   “Uh, Twilight. S-Sparkle. I-I’m sorry about-”   “Usually you give your name before asking for someone else’s, y’know?”   Twilight turned her head and looked at Lucky, whose arms were crossed. She was glaring, not at her face, but a bit lower.   “I see. My apologies. I am Kotori. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” She spoke nearly in a monotone.   “Jeez, she’s like a Twilight Mk. 2 or something…” Lucky mumbled.   Kotori brushed her long and flowy plum-colored hair behind her shoulder with one hand. “And you are?”   The shorter girl exhaled sharply through her nose. “Lucky.” She said tersely.   “Lucky. You are experiencing envy at my proportions? Perhaps there exists within this game magic that can-”   “Are you good at this game? You’ve already upgraded your armor.”   Twilight could feel her face getting redder and redder. She leaned against the same fence Lucky was a minute ago and covered her face with one hand. Whyyyyy is this conversation happening?   Kotori tilted her head. “I would not consider myself more experienced than anyone else in the game. I have upgraded my armor because I am choosing to play the style of a dark knight. Exceptional defensive capabilities, both physical and magical, with low-moderate attacking power. Able to wield either swords or magic at approximately equal prowess. Usually mounted on horseback, though I do not know if that is possible in Sword Art Online. One of few classes referred to as ‘tanks.’ As official classes do not exist in Sword Art Online, however, I am forced to improvise my stats.”   “Well, you could certainly block a few hits with those knockers of yours…” Lucky mumbled. Twilight grabbed Lucky by the shoulders and turned her towards the Town of Beginnings.   “OH-kay, we’ll just be on our way now, sorry to bother you, great to meet you, maybe we’ll see each other again sometime!” Hopefully not with Lucky here! Twilight screamed in her head, forcing herself to keep a semi-pleasant looking smile.   Lucky pulled away from Twilight and turned towards Kotori again. “We’re gathering people to go fight a field boss. You want to join us?” She looked none too happy about it, but her desire to fight something difficult apparently won out over whatever rivalry she felt towards Kotori. “And more importantly, do you know anyone else who may want to join?”   “A field boss? Already? Typically, you should wait until-”   “Ooohhh my god, I’ve heard this already.”   Twilight piped up. “She originally wanted to fight with just the two of us. I stopped her.”   “No, you didn’t, you’re just refusing to tell me where to find one until we have enough people to make you happy.” Lucky poked Twilight in the collarbone as she said this. Then, without waiting for an answer, she faced the Town of Beginnings again. “Come on, you two, let’s get moving!” Lucky sprinted off. “I’m not turning around this time!” She shouted.   Kotori and Twilight stood silently for a moment. “I believe I understand what you meant now, when you said you weren’t used to her type,” Kotori spoke and then started walking after Lucky. Twilight breathed a tired sigh and followed.   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   “You want to fight a field boss?” Hikaru asked, his arms crossed.   Hikaru didn’t look very different than the avatar he had previously designed, surprisingly. Kayaba’s mirror didn’t change him much. Twilight guessed he didn’t want to look very different than he did in real life. Well, no need to worry about that anymore. He had blue eyes and short, sort of spiky hair. His turtleneck color of choice was also white, and he was only a couple inches taller than Twilight, who was 5’6”.   Twilight sighed. She seemed to be doing that a lot since meeting Lucky. “Not particularly, but I’m just trying to keep Lucky out of trouble.” This elicited a raise of an eyebrow from Hikaru, but no words, so she continued. “She wanted to fight one with just me, but I convinced her to gather a bigger group.” She looked around the field they were in, scanning for the short brunette. Her eyes found her talking to a group of three guys. One shook his head and Lucky pointed at him, probably verbally berating.   “So you don’t think she’s capable of fighting one?”   Twilight turned back towards Hikaru. “No, no, that’s not what I mean at all! The way she fights is actually amazing! She’s like an acrobat, the way she dodges attacks. It’s just that the bosses are way too strong for one person. One misstep and bam. Game over.”   “But isn’t the first field boss just…?” Hikaru tilted his head to one side.   “It doesn’t matter what it is. That boss actually killed me when I fought it in the beta. Twice.”   “To be fair though, you had no idea what you were doing. If what you say about Lucky is true, she’s definitely better than you were back then, at least.”   “You’re not helping!”   Hikaru chuckled and let his arms fall to his side. “Sure, sure, I’ll join up.” Twilight glared at him. “What? Don’t give me that look.” He was still smiling.   Twilight opened her mouth to fire a comeback at Hikaru when someone crashed into her. Or, was pushed, would be the better term. Hikaru met a similar fate.   “Two more party members!” Lucky exclaimed proudly with a cheesy grin.   The body separated from Twilight and stepped back. The person who stood before her looked about as average as you could possibly get, like Lucky had found a background character from an anime and dragged him into the spotlight. He had short dark brown hair and brown eyes, was an average height and build… and didn’t really have any eye-catching qualities. It was almost scary. Looking over at the figure who had bumped into Hikaru, she saw basically the same person. Hikaru looked about as wide-eyed as Twilight felt. She didn’t really know what to say. Hikaru apparently didn’t either. One of the background-character looking people spoke.   “Let me just say you aren’t the first to have this reaction. I’m Ryota, this is Ryoka. We’re twins.” Cookie-Cutter Boy One gestured to Boy Two as he spoke and they bowed in turn.   “Just so we’re clear, you’re going to help us fight a field boss? Lucky didn’t lie or mislead you? I just feel like I need to make sure.” Lucky glared at Twilight but didn’t say anything. Ryota laughed. Or… was it Ryoka? Darn it, she already lost track.   “No, we’re good. The party is up to five now, right?”   “Nope,” Hikaru spoke up. “Six. I’m joining too. I’m Hikaru, and this is Twilight.” They bowed back to the Twins. A moment later, Kotori approached the group with another person trailing behind.   “Twilight!” She ran forward and attacked Twilight in a bear hug.   “Uhf!” Twilight stumbled backward. “H-hi, Kaiya…” Kaiya let go of Twilight and stepped back to Kotori’s side.   “You’re gonna fight the boss too? Figures. You’re really good at this game!”   You didn’t even really watch me for more than one fight… Kotori looked at Twilight. “You know of her?”   Kaiya crossed her arms proudly for some reason. “I met Twilight yesterday! I was about to get my butt kicked by a boar but she swooped in and saved me and gave me some tips on the game! Now that I actually know what I’m doing, I can even help fight the boss!” Kaiya grabbed Twilight’s hands. “Thank you so much by the way! I’d probably be dead already if it wasn’t for you!”   “No problem…” Twilight said with a sheepish smile.   Lucky pulled Kaiya off Twilight and pointed at the latter. “We have seven now! Is this enough?! We’re all pretty skilled! We could take down a boss!” Her tone was demanding, but her words made it seem like she was asking Twilight for permission. Twilight saw Hikaru grinning out of the corner of her eye. She ignored him. Instead, Twilight looked around at the group. Against her better judgment, she relented.   “All right.” She said with a sigh.   “Yes!” Lucky jumped in the air and pumped a fist. After this brief excitement, she pointed at Twilight again. “You know where it is! Let’s get a move on! No dilly-dallying!” Knowing that Lucky wouldn’t be happy unless she picked up the speed, Twilight addressed the group.   “Let’s run.” Twilight turned around after watching everyone’s expressions to make sure they were on board and started jogging back towards Horunka.   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   Once they reached the entrance to the small town, Twilight slowed to a stop and turned and faced the group. “The field boss is about ten minutes away from here. Take the opportunity to upgrade your gear as much as you can and make any other necessary purchases. We leave in fifteen minutes.” The group nodded and split into three groups to head to the inn, tool shop, and blacksmith. Hikaru and one of the twins went with Twilight to the blacksmith.   As they entered the NPC shop, a girl looking to be in her 20’s waved at them from behind the counter. Twilight stepped up to her and opened the trading interface, looking to get some better armor. She replaced her leather tunic with a dull iron chestpiece. Her defensive power only went up a few points, but those points meant a lot more so early in the game. She also bought a slightly longer sword, even though it was about the same strength as her old one. Lastly, she sold her old gear to the shop.   That was about as good as the shop had, so Twilight closed the trading interface and the mute NPC gave her a smile and a bow as her new purchases appeared on Twilight’s body. Hikaru and… Ryota, Twilight guessed, had bought the same armor and sword that she had due to the relatively low variety of options. Twilight was scrutinizing the list of available purchases to make sure she wasn’t missing anything good when she felt a tap on her shoulder. “Was wondering how long it would take you before making fun of me,” She said matter-of-factly without looking up.   “Making fun of you?” Hikaru asked with a chuckle. “Why would I make fun of you for that?”   “I don’t know, maybe I seem like her mom or something.”   “Well, she obviously respects you.” Hikaru sat on the counter.   “For some unknown reason, she apparently does, in her own weird way. And with Lucky’s respect means being appointed leader of a party against your will. I guess.” Twilight turned to face the door. “I haven’t bought any potions; let’s go to the inn.”  Hikaru hopped down to the floor, visibly irritated that he was kicked off his seat so quickly. Twilight waved to the blacksmith and left the store with Hikaru. The twin had already left the blacksmith and Twilight now saw him chatting with Kotori next to the fountain in the center of town. He looked intimidated.   Twilight and Hikaru entered the inn right as Kaiya knocked a chair over. “Told you,” The other twin told her with a smug grin.   “Oh, I don’t need your sass, pretty boy.” She rolled her eyes at him and set the chair back up.   Twilight stepped past them and approached the NPC’s counter, but not before uttering a “What’s the matter?” to whichever of the two felt like answering.   Kaiya leaned on the counter next to Twilight. “Oh, don’t worry about it. A small bet. That I lost. Whatever. Which one are you again?” She asked, looking over at the twin now sitting on the armrest of the chair Kaiya had previously knocked over.   “Ryota. And don’t worry, I’m not gonna hold it over your head or anything.” Out of Twilight’s vision, Ryota waved a hand dismissively.   Kaiya shrugged. “So I’m a bit of a klutz. Nothing I’m not used to.” Twilight finished her transaction with the innkeeper and closed the window. She waited for Hikaru to do the same and turned to the rest of the few around her.   “Everyone ready?”   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   The group met at the fountain in the center of town. “Is everyone done preparing?” Twilight spoke. Everyone nodded without a word. Most of the faces looked nervous. Twilight opened her menu. “Okay. First, we should form an actual party so we can see each other’s hit points.” Twilight sent out party invites to everyone else. “Don’t do anything reckless. We can always run away.”   “Run away? Ha!” Lucky piped up. “We’re gonna kick that thing’s ass!” Twilight saw Hikaru and Kaiya roll their eyes. “What is the boss anyway?”   “The boss itself is just a giant slime. However,” she said quickly, sensing Lucky about to flip out and raising her arm, showing Lucky her palm in a ‘wait’ gesture. “The challenge of the fight comes from getting over to it. It’s surrounded by smaller slimes and lizard footmen. Tons of them. A hundred, at least.”   Lucky pondered this for a moment before nodding slowly. “I guess that’s okay.”   “That doesn’t mean it’ll just roll over and die once we kill all the small fry though. It can stun, poison, burn, blind, and paralyze you.”   “That’s kind of a lot of effects…” one of the twins said, shifting on uneasy feet. “Will we really be okay?”   Twilight gave a reassuring smile. “I think we’ll be just fine. Besides, we have magic now. It’ll be easier than it was in the beta. We can attack from a distance.” The twin nodded and once Twilight made sure she saw seven health bars in the corner of her vision, indicating that everyone had successfully joined the party, Meaning it was that quest after all that was keeping me from being in a party, as Twilight silently noted, she turned to face the north exit of Horunka. “Let’s go.”   As they walked the beaten dirt path out of town and through the grassy hills, nothing seemed to bother the group on the way to the battleground. After two minutes of silence, Kaiya spoke up. “Guess we’re getting lucky with the monster spawns, huh?” No one responded. Twilight looked over her shoulder at the group. Only Lucky’s and Kotori’s eyes met hers. Everyone else was looking at the ground. Lucky gave her a solemn nod. Kotori blinked once, but that was it.   Twilight faced forward again. She needed to break this silence or everyone would drown in their own worry. “All right, let’s talk strategy. First of all, does anyone have any general questions about the game that someone else may be able to answer?”   “...Yeah,” Twilight recognized Hikaru’s voice. “Refresh my memory: What’s the difference between stun and paralysis?”   “Paralysis,” Kotori spoke up, “Prevents you from moving at all while being stunned merely locks some of your joints at random intervals. Players still have some limited mobility while under a stun effect, however battling effectively is practically impossible, so anyone who gets stunned should make an effort to retreat immediately. Paralysis, however, if inflicted in the middle of battle, is effectively a death sentence unless other party members are nearby to protect the victim or administer an antidote. Manipulating the menu is also impossible under the paralysis effect. Even if a player were to manage to lift their hand high enough to open the menu, it would not open, as the menu is completely disabled to a player who has the paralysis debuff. This means that a paralyzed player cannot heal themselves without assistance.”   Twilight didn’t know that last part. She swallowed. Hopefully, not many monsters in the game had paralyzing effects. If a lot of bosses could, that would be… bad. Long story short. “Okay.... a-any others?” No one spoke up. “Alright. Let’s get to strategizing. People capable of ta-”   “How does the slime boss actually attack?” Lucky interrupted. “You know, if slimes can’t really move very much?”   Twilight tilted her head, trying to remember. “It, like… dropped blobs of gunk on you? Yeah, that was it. Those will damage you and can inflict all of those status effects on you randomly, and then they became more smaller slimes if you didn’t destroy them fast enough.”   “Gotcha. Sorry. I would’ve forgot to ask if I didn’t.” Twilight nodded in response to this, but still faced forward.   “People capable of taking a lot of hits should stay in the front of the party. Kotori’s already said she plays like a tank. Does anyone else?”   “I do,” One of the twins spoke up.   Oh… great. “Right then... Which… one are you?”   “Ryoka.”   “Ryoka. We need a better way of identifying the two of you. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s… been having trouble.” Murmurs from behind her told her she was correct.   “I don’t really know what to do about that,” Ryoka admitted.   “I have something!” Kaiya nearly shouted. Twilight turned her head to see Kaiya raising her hand. She opened up her inventory and removed two long strips of colored fabric about an inch wide. She handed a red one to Ryoka and a green one to Ryota. “Headbands!”   The twins smiled and nodded. They exchanged glances and switched their headbands. Ryoka tied the green strip around his forehead, and Ryota the red.   “Thank goodness,” someone mumbled.   Twilight faced forward again and took a deep breath, speaking in a militant-like tone to quell her own nervousness. “Okay. Kotori and Ryoka should stay in the front of the group and mow down as many of the smaller enemies as they can. For the first few minutes of the fight, we stay as far away from the boss slime as possible. It has a very short range of attack. The higher damage-dealers spread out from either side of our tanks and hit anything that they miss. Hikaru, you’re on healing. We don’t have magic that heals other party members yet, so you just pass out healing potions.”   “Roger, captain!” If you’re saluting, I swear…   “If the group stays together, we shouldn’t be at very much risk. Hikaru stays in the center of the formation and won’t be fighting as much. Once the majority of the minions are down, we can focus the boss, but don’t break form. We circle the boss, dodging what it tries to throw at us. It takes a few seconds for us to be able to attack the piles of slime, but by the time we make a full circle around, we can destroy them. Tanks, that is not your job. You ignore them and whittle away at the boss. I’ll deal with the piles myself. They have extremely little hit points before they turn into slime enemies. Damage dealers, attack with magic from behind Ryoka and Kotori. Watch your mana, and don’t let it get too low. If another monster spawns, ideally we shouldn’t wait for someone’s mana to regenerate before blasting it. If we follow this strategy, we’ll be just fine. This is similar to how I beat the boss in the beta, and now it’ll be even easier with magic. Objections?”   No one spoke up. Opening up her menu, she continued. “Everyone give your healing potions to Hikaru. This way, you won’t have to mess with your menu while under attack.” She sent her potions to Hikaru’s inventory.   Twilight felt a hand on her shoulder, and she stopped and turned around to face the group. Hikaru was giving her an encouraging smile.   “I get what you’re trying to do here. You’re trying not to show any fear to reassure the rest of us. You don’t have to, okay? We all know the risks of fighting… basically anything in this game. I wouldn’t still be here if I doubted anyone’s skill or your strategy. I’m sure everyone here feels similarly. Like… come on. It’s the easiest boss in the game. Do we really even need a strategy?”   Twilight frowned. “You never know what will happen. Of course we need a strategy.” Also, you don’t really have a good reason to be so confident in everyone… you haven’t seen them fight enough. Twilight kept that thought to herself.   “I know. We’re still using yours. Just relax a little, okay?” He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze and pushed it a little to turn her around. “Onward!”   Twilight took a deep breath. She steeled herself and continued walking. “Thanks. I needed that.”   “Anytime.”   It took about another five minutes of walking to reach the boss’s field area. It was... just a really flat, circular grassy field, which looked to be about a hundred yards in diameter. Guess that’s the first floor for you… I’m getting tired of being disappointed.   The group stopped before they crossed a line in the grass. Twilight turned to the group again. “See that line where the grass changes color? That’s the boss’s spawn zone. Once we cross that, the battle starts. Everyone ready?”   Various nods and smirks told Twilight the affirmative.   “Then get in formation. Let’s do this.”   The group formed up. Kotori and Ryota stood in the front just before the line where the grass changed, Hikaru stood behind and between them, and the rest got on either side of Hikaru.   Twilight, Lucky, and Kaiya equipped wands, and Ryoka, Ryota, and Kotori drew swords. Twilight’s and Lucky’s wands just looked like twigs, but Kaiya’s was a polished rod of a dark-colored wood with a round, green jewel at the base. Twilight poked Kaiya’s shoulder.   “Where’d you get that?”Kaiya made a face like she was thinking. “Monster drop. It has a bit higher damage, but my mana cost is a little more, too.” She sighed. “I don’t really like being limited on how often I can attack. I’ll probably mostly stick to melee weapons, but I can’t really take chances fighting a boss.”   “Huh… fair enough.” Twilight then raised her voice to address the group. “Everyone, forward!”   -._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-   The group advanced and entered the circular arena. Monsters began appearing in flashes of pale blue light, scattered all around the arena. There were slimes of a yellowish-green color and red lizards that stood on two legs wielding branches for swords and slabs of tree bark for shields.   “Remember, everyone,” Twilight spoke again, “If it looks bad, there’s absolutely no shame in bailing. Don’t be a hero. Just… let everyone else know so we don’t end up a man short when we don’t expect it and fall apart.”   The lizards, being faster on their feet than the slimes on their… slime, reached the group first. Kotori and Ryota lashed out with their swords, hitting the first two lizards at the same time. They staggered back but still lived. Lucky lobbed a fireball at one of them and set its shield on fire when it tried to block. Twilight looked through the few of the mob that was approaching to the center of the field, where the boss slime had appeared.It looked to be about six of the smaller slimes tall. While obviously more threatening than the other monsters, it still looked pretty stupid.   The group had killed 4 lizards in the time it took Twilight to process this. Maybe this wouldn’t be that tough. Twilight swung her sword downward at a slime that had dared to venture near, cutting it in half and destroying it in one hit. Even at their lower player levels, the slimes could be taken care of easily. Good to know.   The battle against the horde seemed to be going by rather quickly and without much incident. The group managed to keep their distance from the boss while they were cutting away at the numbers of the mob. It took some getting used to the fact that the game could make its players feel pain, but it wasn’t anything fierce enough to cause anyone to stop moving.   As Kotori knocked a lizard’s branch upwards and Twilight stabbed it in the chest to finish it off, Twilight spoke. “Hikaru, have you needed to pass out many potions?” Twilight recalled that she had needed one, and she saw Kaiya take one, but she wasn’t watching everyone the whole time, so she wasn’t quite sure how everyone was really doing.   “Nope. Still have plenty.” Hikaru sighed. “This is getting boring. I’m not even fighting.” His hand was resting on his sword hilt, his fingers tapping it impatiently.   Ryoka piped in as he knocked a tree bark shield to the ground. “Think he should join the fray? These monsters aren’t much of a threat. We may not even need a healer at all.”   There might have been some truth to what he said, as Twilight’s potion was more of a precautionary measure than a panic-induced heal. Even so, the sound of the fighting around her just made her a little nervous. She shook her head. “Sorry. I really don’t feel comfortable with that idea. Think you can hold out?” She looked at Hikaru with a supportive smile. He sighed in response and rolled his eyes, but it was lighthearted.   “Sure, sure. I shouldn’t be complaining about boredom in a game that can kill you, anyhow.” he gave a sarcastic smirk.   Twilight turned to face a lizard that had approached her and was rearing back to swing at her. She quickly blocked the blow and tried knocking its weapon out of its hands, but it held onto it. They held their weapons together for a second, both pressing hard. Twilight could see the rage in its eyes. They were glowing red, like all the others, but it felt different, being this close. When you’re busy running around and swinging wildly, it’s a lot less impersonal. With their weapons locked like this, Twilight felt a different type of adrenaline than the usual. Some people might be intimidated, but not Twilight. Instead, she smiled.   “Those guys in monster design are really good at their jobs, huh? It’s like you’re almost real.”   As if it could understand her, it hissed at her, pressing its branch even harder against her blade.   In response, Twilight lifted her foot and kicked out at the lizard’s legs, knocking it off balance. It fell on its back, and Twilight swiftly stabbed her sword downward into the beast’s heart, killing it instantly.   “Not very sure that hiss was realistic, though. Don’t think lizards do that.”   Surprisingly, nothing else bothered her while she was locked with that lizard. It seemed that the monster AI on the first floor didn’t understand that concept of swarming an enemy or something, despite swarms already existing as a monster type of their own. Weird.   The battle against the mob was fairly uneventful. Twilight watched Hikaru out of the corner of her eye, and she didn’t see anyone else take a potion. The group managed to stay away from the boss the whole time, as it was pretty slow. Eventually, the mob was down to nothing.   “How’s everyone doing?” Hikaru asked, deadpan. He was very bored. He made it obvious.   Lucky rolled her shoulders around. She had switched to a sword at some point. Twilight thought it suited her much better than fighting from afar. “I’m good. Now we just cruise, right?”   “Well… pretty much. The boss isn’t very threatening. We should probably stay in formation, though.”   Ryoka grinned. “You kidding? If that thing couldn’t even catch up to us the entire fight, I don’t think we need to worry about a thing.”   Kotori adjusted her glasses. “It would be unwise to battle without a strategy. A situation can change in an instant.”   “We have a strategy. Can we just get it over with?” Hikaru sighed.   Kaiya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s like… getting closer, so we should kinda, you know, be ready?”   Twilight was watching the boss slime. With each passing second feeling like an eternity, it slid closer. Very… very… slowly. Annoyingly so. It hadn’t done anything special at all the entire time the group was fighting the monster army. It was almost funny how little of a threat it seemed to pose. Well, time to deal with it. “Kaiya, is your mana restored?”   “Good to go!” Kaiya twirled her wand in her hand like a baton.   “All right. Everyone, face the boss.”   “You mean the slime,” Lucky muttered. Apparently now that the challenging part was over, she was instantly bored. Reluctantly, though, she did as she was told.   The group approached the giant mound of green. It hardly seemed to notice them until they were less than ten feet away. Well… it’s hard to tell what a slime is thinking. It seemed to… jiggle a little faster when they got near, though. It shook madly for a second and flung a smaller blob of slime towards the group, narrowly missing Kaiya. “Ew?! What in the-”   “I told you,” Twilight chided. “Come on, let’s move around it. Those blobs won’t take damage right away.”   The group circled the boss, sword fighters in front slashing at it, and magic users in the back lobbing spells. Twilight destroyed the piles of slime every time they made a full circle around the boss. It was going really well. No one was even getting hit.   Until the boss was knocked down to half of its health.   The second its hit points reached fifty percent, it let loose some sort of shock wave, pushing everyone back a few feet. It let out a cry, almost like a screech. Twilight lowered her sword and stared at it in bewilderment. It started vibrating madly, and the shade of green started turning darker, and it was getting… more shiny?   “Twilight…? What’s going on?” Hikaru asked.   “I- I don’t- This isn’t-”   The slime screeched again, and pieces of it began melting off, slowly revealing a figure underneath.   Twilight’s heart skipped a beat. Wait! It wasn’t like this in the beta!   The rest of it melted off the figure, leaving some sort of giant knight-looking monster. It was entirely green, and looked like it was made of glassy, crystallized slime. It stood up on two legs and wielded a sword and shield which looked to be made out of the same material the knight itself was. Its health bar reappeared, full, and it had a name now. Calamus, The Gelid Warrior.   It roared and slashed its sword down into the ground in the direction of the party, causing the ground to shake and a couple of them to fall over. Twilight looked at the faces of her friends. Fear, in all of them. They looked to be completely frozen. Even Lucky, with her daredevil self. Twilight faced the knight again, who pulled its sword out of the ground and glared at the group with its glowing red eyes through its green crystal slime helmet. Twilight could already tell, this was not a fight they could win. It had to be way stronger than before. She swallowed.   “Ret- Retr- Run!”   Those who had fallen over scrambled to their feet and the group scattered, just as the boss swung its blade around again. Twilight felt the rush of air the blade pushed around. This was real. For the first time in the game, she felt genuinely terrified for her life.   The boss didn’t seem to be targeting Twilight, so she looked around the field for her friends in a panic. Lucky was rolling under its sword, dodging everything like usual. “Everyone!” She shouted. “It won’t chase you past the field! Remember where the grass changed color? That’s the aggro zone! Leave that circle and we’ll be safe!”   Lucky looked at Twilight like she wanted to argue, but she too seemed to realize they wouldn’t be able to win right now. So instead, she shouted something too. “I’ll keep it focused on me! Everyone else, go first!”   Everyone else started running towards Twilight, and Lucky ducked under the boss’s giant blade and ran between its legs to get behind it.   The boss, instead of turning around, jumped up and stomped down hard, causing the ground to quake. Twilight was far enough away to be fine, but it slowed a couple others, and Lucky went down. The boss raised its arms and a cold wind emanated from it. The grass around it turned icy. Lucky stood up again and stabbed the boss in the back of the leg, and it finally turned around to face her.   Everyone else had reached where Twilight was, just about halfway from the boss to the edge of the field. They were far enough away to not be in any danger, so Twilight called out to Lucky. “Start moving towards us!” She got a “Roger!” in response.   The other six slowly backed up towards safety, watching Lucky dodge swing after swing with bated breath as she followed after them.   “That girl is nuts,” whispered Ryoka. “In- In more ways than one.”   Twilight had to agree. Lucky was amazing, but it was so nerve-wracking watching her. Just one bad mistake, and…   They were only a few meters from the edge of the circle when Lucky tripped. She stepped on her own foot and tumbled to the ground.   The slime knight raised its sword above its head and Lucky stared up at the weapon. She only had time to climb to her hands and knees…   “What are you doing?!”   Before she was pushed out of the way.   The person the knight stabbed was Ryoka. The blade went completely through his body and into the ground. His eyes widened and there was an audible grunt of pain. Before his life points hit zero, he managed to lift his head and say to the group:   “She’s… a lot more valuable to everyone than I am… Make it out alive.”   Those were his final words, before he shattered into nothing.   Some movement in the corner of Twilight’s eye forced her to turn her horrified gaze away from the spot Ryoka used to be.   Ryota took a step forward. Tears were welling up in his eyes, and his mouth was agape.   “No… NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!”   He raised his sword above his head and tried to rush forward, but Hikaru and Kaiya grabbed his arms and held him back.   “Let me go! Let me GO, damn it!”   With the boss’s sword stuck in the ground, Lucky was able to get up and everyone left the circle, Ryota unwillingly. With no one left to fight, like a switch was flipped, the knight retreated to the center, and the slime regenerated around it, leaving it in its unassuming state.   Kaiya and Hikaru let go of Ryota, and he fell to his hands and knees. No one seemed to know what to say. Twilight had sort of forgotten the risks here throughout the day, but reality now hit her like a ton of bricks.   Someone… just died.