Sword Art Online: The Demon In White

Monster

<<20th floor, Sunshine Forest>>

"So this is where you lost Crystal-san?"

Luna nodded as Corvalt began inspecting the area. It was a dense part of the forest and since this is a virtual reality, traces left by players would be erased quickly. Corvalt then turned towards Akise with puppy eyes. Akise sighed, understanding that message way too well.

"Crystal... if she's not here that means she could have been chased by mobs and hiding somewhere for safety. Put yourself in her shoes Luna, where would you run to save yourself?"

"Probably around there I guess..."

She pointed to where the bushes cleared up to show a path slightly hidden by dry leaves.

Suspicious...

"Okay, so we'll go that direction. Luna, lead us to where you think where Crystal has ran off to. We'll back you up should any mobs come."

Luna nodded and the two of them followed her, up to higher grounds. The journey was treacherous, mobs kept spawning in groups and they kept hacking at them until Luna leveled up twice. Finally, they journeyed down to find themselves in a gorge. At the end of the gorge, three paths lay, each one looking similar to the other. They stopped right there, in front of the three paths separated by foliage.

"There's no telling which one your friend might have taken. We might have to split up and find her ourselves, but there's no telling what sort of mobs will appear."

Corvalt didn't join the thinking party, he seemed to randomly pick one and began walking towards it.

"Let's just try all three then, let's start with the left one-"

"No!"

Corvalt and Akise stared at Luna, who quickly shook her head and regained her composure. She fiddled with the ends of her hair nervously.

"What about... the middle one? After all Crystal doesn't really pay attention when she panics so she must have ran non-stop and onto the middle path."

Suspicious...

"...You have a point, the middle one does look very likely. C'mon Corvalt."

With a sulking Corvalt, they continued on the seemingly endless path, only to reach a dead end. Looking around properly, up above the high ledges were the safe areas. Looks like they had reached the sides of the floor already. It seemed like an open area where a surprisingly high level mob might appear, so Akise braced himself. Sensing his wariness, the other two followed suit. True enough, something came out of the shadows. But it wasn't a mob.

It was a player. Soon, one by one they came out of the shadows, totalling to about five of them. Something was amiss, the look in their eyes didn't seem to be a good sign and they looked ready for battle. One of them smirked at Luna.

"Well well thank you Luna-chan, maybe you'll see your friend sooner than you think."

"A-Akise? What's going on? Why Luna-san?"

Akise gave a huge sigh and tighten the grip on his <<Flame Blade>>.

"The second hunch I had was right. Luna seemed way too sure of where she was going, so I got suspicious. The moment she said 'No!', I knew that she wanted us to go a specific spot for something. Besides, she avoided the question as to how she got separated from her friend. This was her intention from the start. To get us killed by PK-ers."

"P-PK-ers?!"

<<Player Killers>>, or PK-ers for short. A term for players who kill other players for loots. They exist in about most games but never viewed as highly dangerous because meeting them was a one-in-a-million chance and of course, you can resurrect with only the loss of your valuables. But in SAO, it was different. PK-ers became one of the reasons why players preferred to stay in town rather than venturing outside. It could cost their lives, like literally, cost their lives.