Velvet Wing: Aincrad

Red Eyes

Grabbing Jose's arm, making a beeline for the town gates. As soon as the Town of Beginnings was long behind us, I let go and nearly passed out from exhaustion.

"W-where are we going?!" He asked.

After having a second to catch my breath, I chuckle to myself as it all settles in for me. That chuckle eventually becomes an unnerved laugh.

"Nomuru?" Jose asked worriedly.

"That son of a bitch, he really did that..." I laughed again, "He locked us in a video game!"

The two of us sat in place for a while, the wind blowing through the trees.

"I... I don't know..." I breathe, "My best guess is that we need to get stronger. Find the best equipment available as soon as possible, be the highest level we can be."

"Level grind? I know I'm not really in a position to complain, but are you fucking crazy?! You have any idea how long that will take? And you heard Kayaba, one screw up and we die!"

I shoot Jose a smirk and he groans, but he gets it. We have no choice. Lucky us that I know where to start a side quest that will raise us a few levels, easily.

One thing about this game is that everything functions off Real-Time, as in everything is operating all at once all 24 hours of the day. All the NPC's have schedules, and the mobs respawn after a set time depending on difficulty. A level 99 elite dragon theoretically should respawn after 7 hours, likewise, a level 5 kolbold should respawn after 45 minutes.

The reason I bring this up is because level grinding is probably every other player's strategy right now, so there's no guarantee to find easy enemies to dispatch of. But side quests net guaranteed EXP and Col. It's not the fastest solution, but it should be enough to get us started.

"Nomuru, please. Explain something to me." Jose asked.

"What is it?"

"Why do all this? You didn't seem the type and even now, it seems weird that you're going to all this trouble for me."

I look back at Jose, thinking back to a few hours ago. He triggered a sense of nostalgia in me, when I got to be a decent older brother to Goichi. But as time went by... I don't know, those days were long behind me. Goichi and I don't really talk that much anymore, and maybe I just want to experience those feelings again.

"You're gonna think I'm such a sap..." I grunt.

"Just tell me, I'm not gonna laugh. Think I'm in too much shock to laugh." Jose smirks at me.

I sigh and glance to the distance, "You... you remind me of my little brother, kinda look like him too."

Jose's eyes widen in baffled curiosity as I sit next to him, continuing my story.

"My dad is a programmer and rarely leaves his office, and my mom owns a cafe... so Goichi and I... we were basically inseparable. I'd play with him, I'd patch him up if he got hurt, and I'd make dinner for us whenever our parents were too tired."

"Sounds like you have shitty parents, dude."

"No, they didn't hate us, they had responsibilities. They'd talk to us about why they do what they do, and always make it up to us whenever they could. Dad was actually the reason I was able to beta test this game." I explained, "He was on the programmer's team, though I'm not sure what role he filled. Anyways, he was my ticket to play this game, and-"

Before I said anything else, I heard the sound of crunching leaves behind me. Jose notices and follows my gaze, a man in a black cloak approaches us.

"Hello there." He says in a raspy voice.