39Player 6243 - Chapter 2
November 10, 2022
Harry stumbled back into the Town of Beginnings nearly exhausted from his 4 day grind. SAO was turning out to be a lot different than he expected, but since Harry had very little experience with MMORPG he didn't have much to go on. Unlike most games he had played, this one didn't give you a guide or map with where the Floor Boss or quest givers were so after a couple days Harry trudged back to town to get some information and sell off his inventory.
A couple of players waved at him, and Harry waved back simply to be polite. It wasn't until a large shadow blocked his path that he stopped.
"Harry right?" Agil asked and received a nod in response. "Man, I thought you died days ago. How have you been?"
Deciding that a cheerful player might have his answer, Harry began to question Agil about MMORPG's and SAO in particular once the other player agreed to a meal on Harry's col.
Agil was surprised at what Harry didn't know since many of the inexperienced players were still hiding in town or making very cautious attempts at adventuring. Over the next couple of hours Agil took the newby around to several NPC merchants and helped Harry sell off his 4 days worth of loot.
Harry was surprised at the amount of detail Agil knew about SAO. When the sun started to set Harry bid Agil goodbye and rented a room at one of the Inn. Throughout the day Harry had gotten enough equipment to cover his entire character in medium grade armor. Agil was quick to explain that the vendors in a town would usually have a slightly better or different looking armor from the last one on the floor. So Harry was now dressed as a middle ages foot soldier. His weapon remained the spear, though Harry carried some throwing knives he had found off of a monster as well. He decided to rush to the edges of the explored area tomorrow and see if he could find some quest rather than just grinding his way through the day.
November 12, 2022
Harry held himself ready as the last of a pack of wolves shattered before him. An NPC limped around the wagon stuck in a ditch. "Thank you adventurer." A small screen appeared and Harry selected the choice for food and water instead of Col as a reward. "Might I bother you for your assistance in getting my cart back home?" He accepted the quest and closed the loot windows. Harry had leveled quickly once he started taking quests that other players avoided because they were not rewarding enough, but he found out that he gathered enough experience and loot drops to equal his grinding if he followed the open chains.
After helping the NPC get his wagon unstuck the two of them started pulling, since the horse was the first casualty of the wolf attack. "My daughter and I live on a small farm just down the road. You are welcome to visit when you have time." Harry now understood that this NPC was a Daily Quest giver, something to give the players busy-work during updates and in between patch releases. "Our farm is not much but we could always use an extra hand."
After several more attacks by the wolves and once by some NPC elf highwaymen, Harry finally drags the cart into a glowing spot next to the farmers barn and completes the quests. His passive awareness skill had steadily increased in points because of the ambushes. Harry spent the rest of the day helping around the farm, earning himself some food and a room in the barn for the night.
November 13, 2022
Harry woke with a start as he heard something new moving around. Looking over the edge of the loft he was sleeping in he saw the yet unnamed farmers daughter feeding the animals. Harry dropped down behind her, causing the teenaged npc to start. "I am sorry adventurer, I did not expect you to be awake yet."
Harry just smiled. "It's okay miss. I needed to be up anyway. Do you need some help?" Harry collected the several quests that suddenly appeared. Each one was just a simple chore but was numbered 1 of 10 so Harry guessed that if he completed ten days worth of these quest something special would be rewarded.
"Thank you sir." the young woman blushed before turning back to her chore. "My father may also have more work for you if you have the time."
The farmer gave Harry a quest to travel his fields and eliminate the pests he found there, forcing Harry to go kill off 15 dire-rats. By the time he had finished hunting the pests down, since there were also wolves and evil crow flocks that attacked, and dealt with the chore quests a day had passed. Harry once again accepted room and board as his reward from the farmer.
November 23, 2022
Over the past ten days Harry worked the farm. Gaining several levels as the chore quests gave a greater return in experience each day and also unlocked the leatherworking, foraging, and pottery skills. Today's reward was a farmer scythe polearm weapon that could be enhanced up to 7 times. This weapon had a special ability that allowed its damage to carry over to the nearest enemy whenever a creature was slain by it. Because of the main daily Harry's tracking and awareness skills increased each day, as well as his characters carrying capacity and endurance.
Today his main quest was to escort the farmer back to town, which would grant him a larger adventures backpack, several crafting materials, and a portable crafting table. After helping load the wagon the Farmer and Harry bid goodbye to the still unnamed farmers daughter. Before they could leave though the daughter handed him an Item with a blush before running back into the house. Both adults just smiled at the girls actions.
As they walked Harry inspected the Item he received. Idony's Token was a simple charm that granted a +2% increase in drop rates and allowed access to 'Farmer's Daughters' quest chains if presented to the NPC's working a farm on the first floor.
Halfway to town they were stopped by a pair of players. Each wore a mask and the heavy cloak of the NPC rogues. "You have to pay a toll to get by us." the one on the right said.
The Farmer just cowered a bit. "Please Adventurers, I do not have much and must hurry to make my deliveries today." Harry just glared at the pair.
"You can go Farmer, we will take the toll from your companion." the left hand rogue said. "You are going to to pay right?"
"You go on ahead, I will catch up." Harry told the farmer and the two let him pass. "You do know that this is a Death Game and attacking me like this could be counted as attempted murder. Your icons will change color and everyone will know what you did." He shifted the scythe into his hands.
"You think that tool is going to be as good as our swords!" the rogues yelled. "We will just beat you nearly to death then make you beg us to take your items."
Harry parried one fast attack and watched for the activation light of a weapon skill before countering. As the simple, but overpowered, thrust cut a quarter of his life Harry's return strike completely removed the players leg. Harry slammed the handle of his scythe into the face of the second player just as he finished activating a skill. Ignoring the first player, who was on the ground screaming about his missing leg and freaking out at his dropping HP, Harry pushed the second backwards to get some distance.
"You bastard!" the rogue tried to attack again, but Harry just parried. When the player tried to activate another sword skill is when Harry attacked. With two swings of the scythe the second player lost his sword hand and seventy fiver percent of his life. Harry never noticed that his icon turned from green to orange during the fight.
With both bandit players down, Harry quickly applied what he knew of first aid and unlocked the skill. Once their HP bars quit dropping Harry tied them up and started dragging them after the farmer. By the time they had reached town the players limbs had regrown and their HP was back in the yellow. Outside the city Harry completed the escort quest and reported the players to the NPC guards.
Harry received a bounty bonus from the guards for reporting the players and the Guards took them away. Harry noticed that some of the players in town were now giving him looks of concern or fear. A taller man in his early twenties dressed in red with a scruffy looking beard stopped Harry after about an hour of selling his extra materials.
"Hey you!' the player stepped into Harry's path. "Why is your icon orange?" A handful of other players joined the man in surrounding Harry.
Harry sighed, luckily he knew that the towns were safe zones so all these people could do was threaten and knock him around if things got violent. "I was attacked by two players who ambushed me on my way back to town. I just defended myself."
"Did you kill them ?!" one of the others asked before the obvious leader could.
"No, I just disabled them then dragged them back to town and turned them in to the guards." Harry explained and the attitude of the surrounding players quickly changed. "You can check with the gate guard if you want."
"I'm Klein and these are my friends the Fuurinkazan!" Klein smiled and wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulder. "And for your generosity in not killing a couple of stupid players I am going to buy you a drink!"
Even though he was twenty years older Harry was taken in by Klein's friendly personality. They spent the rest of the day sharing stories of what they've done in the game so far and talking about what they would do when they got out. Harry just enjoyed the atmosphere as Klein reminded him of his roommate in college, always talking about this girl or that part-time job.
December 2, 2022
Harry slammed another kobold into the wall causing it to shatter, before swinging his scythe through two more that tried to attack him. He was exploring the Floor Dungeon in an effort to find the boss. The dungeon was filled nearly to the brim with Kobold monsters and Harry was making a lot of Col since humanoid monster dropped more than animals.
December 2, 2022 : Real world.
Andromeda Tonks stomped her way through the hospital. It had taken just under a month for the SAO Case Victims Rescue Force to contact her about Harry, and the exiled Black was beyond pissed. Teddy and a Goblin accountant trailed behind her as Andromeda hunted for the person in charge.
For the past twenty years Andromeda had done everything in her power as Harry's guardian to make sure things like this didn't happen. The Dark and Light families tried to force him back to Great Britain but she stopped them by pointing out you couldn't make laws that only affected one person anymore. Even the Ministry tried to get him to be their poster boy after they were allowed to reconvene. Luckily Andromeda was Harry's proxy on the Black seat and had convinced him to let Narcissica be his Proxy on the Potter seat.
Teddy graduated from Hogwarts, went to colledge, and was now an apprentice lawyer in Great Britain. While he knew Harry was supposed to be his God-father they were close enough in age that he was considered more of a long-distance cousin. Teddy was being groomed to take over the Black seat when he reached the age of twenty eight. Right now he just wanted to keep his mother/grandmother from killing whoever was in charge here.
The goblin Slickgut was under heavy glamors to appear as an incredibly short human and ordered to assist in what ever Andromeda decided to do here. He was also the most receint Account Manager for the Black and Potter accounts.
Andromeda ignored the secretary even as Teddy tried to explain their desire to see Harry. She palmed her wand and cast a very low powered "clamarem tota die" (Guided Path) which showed her the quickest path to Harry. Andromeda stopped at the door way and watched as one of the nurses moved the boy through exercises and changed his bedclothes.
Teddy and the case worker caught up to Andromeda a few minutes later. After everything was explained and the current treatments offered Andromeda lapsed into silence while holding Harry's hand. Once the case worker left the Lady Black focused her glare on Slickgut.
"Everything this Argus company has, everything this Kayaba Akihiko claims is to be purchased." Andromeda was cold. "I want a fund set up in the name of Rikona Momo to take care of these trapped people."
Slickgut tried to interject. "The Japanese Government is ..."
"I don't care what they are doing. Get Lucius over here to oversee the company and fund if you have too." Andromeda was not to be denied. "Harry Potter is not going to die because of some game and we are going to make sure that this Kayaba Akihiko pays for what he has done!"
"Let us take care of it Grandma." Teddy said. "You don't speak the language here. So please leave this to me. I'll see if Uncle Lucius can come over but that means that you would have to return to Great Britain to handle the Black Seat."
Andromeda nodded as her gaze softens. "Thank you Teddy, your right. I will leave the business part of this to you. Just get control of this Argus company quickly and keep these people safe. If the business world is anything like the political one then someone is getting ready to take over and they may not have the best interest of these people at heart."
Slickgut grunted. "Potter will be cared for and the funds can be set aside for the care of these victims." He was using a tablet that was connected to the Gringotts World Network. "Rikona Momo was cremated by her family, who are currently fielding the bills for Mr Potter. We shall reimburse them and get permission for the Relief fund."
Teddy nodded at his own tablet. "Several of the Argus directors have already made statements that they will be willing to sell as soon as the investigation into Akihiko's actions is complete. I will offer all the investors a buyout price above the market value before this tragedy so that they will sell to me quickly." He was lucky that Andromeda forced him into business law during college. "So far the only public offers are at a severe drop in price." Teddy put his tablet down and clasped Andromedas hand. "We can keep him safe."
December 3, 2022
Harry sat with the thirty other players who received a message to meet to discuss the Floor Boss. Harry knew that the party limit was seven people so he was looking around for the other odd ones so he could join up with them. He ignored most of the meeting since he had watched the scouting party fight the boss before they retreated. Until some jumped over his head to the center platform.
When Kibou started bad-mouthing the Beta testers and demanding their items Harry got angry. "Who are you to demand anything from the Beta Testers? Some pathetic fool that needs others beaten down to make himself look better!" Harry stood up and challenged the loudmouth.
Agil quickly got between them and explained about how many people were contributing to the players guide that every vendor gave away for free. The large man did his best to cool the tempers.
As everyone else was partying up Kibou confronted Harry. "Your a Beta tester! You should be glad to help out the less fortunate players since you know where all the good drops are!"
Harry steps away from Agil so he wouldn't get drawn deeper into this argument. "My girlfriend was a Beta tester and she died on the first day." A cold rage settled around Harry. "She had the idea to dual to the death between us before Kayaba made his big reveal. I drove a simple spear through her chest and watched her shatter expecting her to be coming down the road in a few minutes. Instead I have to live with the fact that the best person I have ever known died by my hands because of some megalomaniac."
Kibou and the others were shocked silent by this. Agil tried to comfort Harry.
"You do not get to dishonor her by claiming the Beta Testers owe anyone anything. If you want something you go get it. Like Mya told me before the duel. In this world violence is the only answer to your problems." Harry drew his scythe, which caused everyone to back away. "If you keep badmouthing people because of your lack of skill someone is eventually going to call you out on it. So tell me Kibou, do you want to keep going?"
Kibou drew a spiked mace before the raid leader Diavel stepped between them.
"Save the fight for after the boss is defeated." Diavel shoved Kibou backwards. "We are the highest level players currently. We need to be the ones that show the others this game can be beaten and that Kayaba is not going to keep up here." He gave a stern look at Harry, who nodded.
Harry walked away. "Your right Diavel. Kibou please accept my apology and keep your bigotry away from me from now on."
Harry say two teenagers sitting in the stands and went over to them. Kibou and all the other players just watched the older man move. "Hello would you two like to party up with me for this upcoming fight? A three man squad is better than two and I don't think anyone else will be willing to let me help."
The teens nodded and a three man party was formed. Harry treated the two to dinner and laughed as Asuna dragged Kirito back to his hotel room to claim his bath. Harry couldn't believe that Kirito didn't notice that Asuna was a girl.
December 4, 2022
Harry knocked another add off balance the switched out with Kirito and Asuna who finished it off. So far the Boss fight was going as planned, the three of them would deal with the Bosses addon spawn while the other four teams battled the Giant Kobold lord. That was the last of the recent spawn so the three took a breath and watched the boss battle.
"Everyone Back!" Diavel ordered. "He should be switching to his talwar now!"
The players gave to boss room as it tossed aside the axe and shield it had been using and drew the sword on its belt. Kirito noticed that the sword was different from the Beta. Before he could call out though the boss started jumping around on the pillars and attacking random players.
Diavel charged in as the boss knock a couple back "Leave the last bit to me." Diavel tried to block the blow but was staggered and Ilfang hit him multiple times.
Harry drew a clay pot from his inventory and threw it in the bosses face just as Diavels HP hit the red zone. The pot exploded and covered the boss in oil before busting into flames. While the boss staggered back and shrieked in pain Harry dumped the Potion Diavel was refusing from Kirito down the wounded mans throat.
"Kirito, Asuna with me!" Harry ordered. "We will keep the boss busy while they figure out what changed! Just like with the Smaller ones!"
Harry, Kirito, and Asuna quickly tore away the bosses remaining health. Kirito got the final hit in on the boss, earning him the last hit reward. Everyone looked at the trio in shock. The trio just walked towards the stairs as they broke up their party.
Diavel walked to the center of the boss room. "Kibou!" everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the Raid Leader."You said that Beta Testers were to give all their loot to the weaker players as an apology right?!" Diavel started dropping equipment and materials from his inventory. "Well come take it! I am a Beta tester. I was going to use you all to get the best gear and become a hero! But those three, they are the heroes we should look as role models. Three solo players handled the toughest part of the boss and it wasn't even their job!"
Kibou knelt before Diavel and started handing back his equipment. "I was wrong. You expected the boss to be easy and it almost killed you because the weapon was different. If it wasn't for them more of us would have died instead of none." He turned to look at the trio, and everyone looked with him.
They all stared in shock as the doors at the top of the stairs slipped closed and the announcement that the Second Floor was now available was given by the System.
Harry watched as the two teens held the doors shut for a second before they slipped down in exhaustion. Using the player interface Harry sent each of them a friend request. "I know you probably don't want someone old enough to be you parent on your friends list but if you two decide you want to do this again or that you need help just send me a message. You both did amazing back there."
Asuna accepted the request. Though she was confused "This says Squire requested to be friends, I thought your name was Harry?"
Kirito also accepted the request then he put on a black coat. "That is a lot of trust to give people your real name in an MMO like this. You sure you aren't afraid that we will use the information in the real world."
Harry just smiled. "My avatar name doesn't really match up anymore since the person who was supposed to be teaching me died on the first day. And I would be more than happy to host you two to a dinner with your families when we get out of this game."
"Should we stay as a party?" Asuna asked. This was her first time playing a game like this and she wasn't sure what the normal thing to do was. "I mean we worked well together and shouldn't we stay close together as friends?"
"I am a solo player, Asuna." Kirito stepped out of attack range, just in case. "While I am more than willing to work with others I am going to go as fast as I can, for as long as I can without stopping. You should watch the other players and see if any of their groups are strong enough for you. If a strong guild or group asks you to join them you should without worring about us." Harry had already started running down the road towards town. "Someday we will meet up and you will be an amazing player surrounded by her friends. Until then don't let a couple of low-lifes like us hold you back ok?"
"But, what if thats the kind of life I decide I want?" Asuna whispered as Kirito took off on his own. Asuna flipped her hood back up and started running down the road as well. A bit of determination giving her a little boost with every step. "I'll get to the end first then they can be the ones watching me." She promised herself.