[F1-SP] The Will To survive

[Iron_Lion 1]

Most players didn't pay much attention to a child.  If they did it was to give them a treat, greet them pleasantly, or show pity to them.  In the realm of Sword Art Online, it is more often pity than the former two.  This was Akio's experience for a long while, and it was getting sickening.  When he first got locked into this digital prison, he had spent a great deal of time crying in the corner.  An orphanage was built and he stayed there for a while as he recovered.  However, at some point he recalled his mother's creed.  The creed she wrote for him so he could survive.  'Don't stay in one spot for too long.  You'll become a target eventually.'  When he did in fact leave the orphanage, he began hearing rumors of children disappearing.  His mother was never wrong.  It had been months since he left the orphanage.  Months since he had chosen to start working his way up and making himself strong enough to survive.  Stealing from players to purchase weapons and armor.  It wasn't the best, but it was a start.

[Iron_Lion 1]

Akio had with him a messenger bag.  A tent.  His dagger.  And a decent amount of food with him as well.  He was planning on going training in the woods.  He was told of a certain section of the map where the mobs were less than normally powerful.  He needed a way to practice with the new physics and rules of this world if he wanted to survive in it.  Akio adjusted the strap on his shoulder so it would be a bit more comfortable as he walked down the path.  It was really weird for him.  How he couldn't feel pain, but could still feel things like hunger, being uncomfortable, and other things.  Pain was something he'd learned how to handle a while ago, so to be without it was odd indeed.  As he walked he looked around before pulling out the long dagger.  He had practiced using a dagger with one of his tutors in the real world, so a dagger was the most familiar to him.  And it was also something easy to hide in his cloak as well.  He wasn't sure if that impacted combat in any way, but it was still worth a short.  Better to use something he was used to and skilled in than something else after all.

[Iron_Lion 1]

Akio hadn't been outside the settlement until recently, so up until now he couldn't harm or injure himself.  Now that he was out, he needed to test all of the mechanics.  He started by taking the dagger and cutting his hand.  The first thing he noted was the lack of pain even though he expected it to be there.  Or more accurately, he only experienced ghost pain.  The second interesting note he made was the lack of blood.  Despite this being a rather violent game, it only had a red mark where his cut was.  And it wasn't even a graphic mark either.  Even if it was for if kids ended up playing the game, it was stupid.  If you want kids to play a video game, then don't add violence to it.  And especially not actual death.  If you're going to go that route, commit to reality.  The third thing he checked was his health.  He dealt two points of damage to himself, dropping his health from twenty points to eighteen points.  If he was right, that was...  Eighty percent of his total health?  Or was it ninety five?  If he had a paper and pencil he could write the equation quickly.  Doing it in his head was hard.  He sighed as continued walking.  Math was something he could do, but wasn't one of his favorite subjects.  Not by a long shot.  Still, his mom always told him it would be vital in life.  Now here was the evidence.

HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He took a moment to think about this experiment of his.  If no one could feel pain, that was both a pro and a con.  The pros would be the ability to keep pushing forward as pain would not exist to interrupt the individual or throw off their focus.  In addition to this, it would be impossible to torture someone in here.  The only way you could extract information would be through persuading them or threatening their life or an ally's life.  The con however was that it made it easier to forget the fear that keeps us alive.  'It'll be important for me to remember the consequences of life.  I'll need to make some sort of reminder when I can...  But what it should be...'  There were different methods he could use of course.  He could wear a piece of jewelry, cloth.  Or perhaps use something that he would be using often.  It had to be something that reminded him of some consequence from the real world.  He'd want to take some time to determine exactly what material he'd be using, and what he wanted to use.  He still wanted outfits and equipment that he enjoyed of course, hence why he went with an assassins' creed outfit.  But besides that he still needed a reminder or two.

LV: 1  Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]  
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

While testing to see how pain would work in this world was done and over with, he still needed to determine how to participate in combat.  He knew that there was health and energy.  That was often in video games.  However there was another aspect to this digital world as well.  He'd heard around the settlement about a system called sword arts and had been told how they worked.  However to keep up the image that he was a helpless young child, he made sure he didn't practice it at all.  So now that he was outside of the settlement...  He looked at his dagger again and stopped walking.  He opened up his menu and looked at the description for the sword art [Round Accel].  What was annoying was that it was the only one he could use.  Not just cause he only had the first rank unlocked, but because he only had two points of energy at level one.  Which was the cost for the sword art.  Sighing, he dashed forward and slashed then stabbed in the air, watching his dagger glow as it did so.  Watching his energy hit zero as well.  So it glowed when he used it?  That was, concerning.  Players could see a sword art coming very easily.  And what about stealth?  Would their stealth be shattered because of this?  In addition did different sword arts glow differently?  That revealed what type of sword art you were using if it was the case.

LV: 1  Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]  
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He sighed as he sheathed his knife.  He'd have to figure that out another time.  With the damage mechanics finished, he needed to move on.  Walking forward again he wondered what other mechanics there would be in this world.  Before his thought process could continue however, he spotted something interesting.  He saw a flower that had purple, yellow and pink flower petals, with what looked like a shiny and sparkling ball of pollen on the top.  He smiled when he saw it and ran over, kneeling down to observe it.  It was a really pretty flower, though he was weirded out by the shiny and sparkling pollen.  Was this a video game thing?  It looked nothing like a flower from real life.  And the color scheme was certainly interesting.  He picked the flower and checked it's flavor text.  Apparently it was a flower that gray boars craved.  It wasn't a material unfortunately, but he could worry about finding materials at a later date.  He stood up and put the flower gently into his bag and moved on.

[ID#  117662  LD:  8]  =  No material

LV: 1  Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]  
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

There were other flowers around him, but he decided to leave them behind.  Not only because he needed to make progress, but because he wanted to leave them for other players as well.  Then he realized something.  Would the flowers just, respawn after a while?  Upon realizing this he stopped dead in his tracks.  He turned his head to look at the flower patch again and smiled.  He ran back over and collected quite a few flowers.  Once he had about thirty of them he realized something..  He didn't have room to carry them.  Looking at his bag it took a second for him to remember his inventory and opened his menu.  Once he dumped the flowers in the digital storage he closed it and wiped the dust from his hands.  Man.  It may be a hell hole, but it was very useful at the same time.  Akio wondered if he should start a flower collection, or garden.  Yeah, he'd like that...  But he'd need a place to stay for that to happen.  And of course there was his mother's creed:  'Don't stay in one spot for too long.  You'll become a target eventually.'  Though, he supposed...  'If I could find a place that no one else can find, maybe I could purchase a house then.  I'd love to own a garden.'  Smiling at the thought, he continued to walk down the path.

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He had heard that there were several mechanics in the game that affect every day life besides not feeling pain.  Immortal objects.  And having stats.  He heard about it while at the orphanage and listening to gossip and rumors on the street.  How houses had certain rooms that could give certain buffs or special effects, and that there was a system for weddings.  Specifically quests.  He even heard there was one group of players who got married only for the quest rewards and benefits of being married, though he didn't know what those were.  It was the talk of the month since the two were both guys, but they weren't gay.  He giggled as he thought about what that must have looked like at their wedding.  At any rate, he wasn't near ready for any of that.  He was too young to get married, and he didn't have any col.  Not to mention he needed a good place to hide his home when he was ready to do something like that.  He wondered what kind of house he would want.  Maybe something like home in the real world?  Though he could design a more fantasy styled version of his house.  That would be cool.  Maybe have a playground nearby for him to practice his exercises too.  That would be fun.  Yeah sure, he was eleven and was too old for a playground, but mom wasn't here.  He could have fun if he wanted.

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He smiled, starting to get more excited as he thought about what he could do in this world other than playing house.  He could go on actual adventures and explore the world!  He could climb mountains, cross valleys, sail oceans.  He had so much he could go do!  He drew his dagger again and imagined a black knight from the dark realm.  He pretended the dark knight was attacking him, swinging his massive great sword.  Akio rolled to his left to dodge the invisible blow and thrusted his weapon towards the evil man's knee.  He pretended he was dodging more blows and returning them before he finally finished him off.  He stood there panting with an excited smile on his face.  Then he remembered..  Yeah, he should have fun.  His mom would want him to have that.  But he needed to be careful as well.  His mom wasn't here.  They were both separated.  He needed to beat this game in order to see her again.  His smile faded as he stood there, pondering this.  He was alone...  He couldn't have fun just yet...  He needed to do everything he could to ensure he would be safe...  That was, and had to be, his first and foremost priority.  His mom and fun needed to wait.  'Don't worry mom.  I'll get out of here...  Just hang in there, ok?'

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

Akio continued onward as he saw a cluster of trees in the distance.  His mood picked up again, getting excited as he finally reached it.  He could finally start training and getting stronger!  His walk changed to a sprint as he powered his way over there.  Despite him being a fast runner in the real world, he learned the hard way that being level one meant he couldn't sprint as long.  It was weird cause the fatigue was more or less forced on him than naturally draining him over time.  Made sense for a video game but it was still frustrating.  He eventually made it however and he looked around at the massive trees.  There were lots of different kinds of plants around this area as well.  "Wooooow..."  He walked a bit slower so he could admire the place.  He saw more wild flowers, but he needed to pick them later on.  He had to level up as soon as he could.  He could pick flowers another day.  Now then..  Where were those weak mobs he was told about?  'What did the player say again?  Anything but the gray boars?  That sounds right.  I wonder if there are deer or other herbivores.  Maybe they can get me experience.  That sounds like a weak mob to start with.'

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

After exploring for a while and not seeing anything, Akio decided to climb a tree to get a better view.  He ran up to a tree and ran up it's side two or three steps before reaching up and grabbing a limb.  He then pulled himself up and kept himself balanced.  He then reached for the next limb, and the next.  Continuing to climb until he was at the top of the miniature tree.  He leaped over to a taller tree and repeated these steps until he was at the top of a very tall tree.  When he finally reached the top his hood swung off as a strong breeze hit his face.  He almost fell off the tree when it initially hit but once he adjusted his eyes widened.  He'd never visited a forest often.  Kind of hard when you lived in Japan with a mother who was very protective of you.  They went on trips and such, but this was the first massive forest he'd seen that wasn't obstructed by buildings or roads.  Once he got past the awe of just seeing the forest from above, he spotted a small clearing not too far from here.  Perfect spot for training!  And a perfect spot for camping too!  He started climbing down, grabbing onto branches on his way down.  He let go of one branch and let himself fall to the branch below.  When he grabbed it however he received some damage.  He frowned.  'Maybe there's a skill for athletics or something?  I need to check that.'

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

Upon landing on the ground safely, Akio looked up at the branch he lost his one point of health from.  So if you fell too hard, or fast, then regardless of if you're grabbing a branch successfully to break the fall, you'd still receive damage?  There had to be a skill or mod somewhere in the menu to fix that.  He opened up his menu, which he had mastered after figuring out how it worked.  Once he had figured it out he made sure he memorized every part of the menu...  Which took a good while since he got distracted by more interesting and fun things to do while in town.  He'd seen all the skills and mods, but it was hard to remember them all.  He looked through the lists and eventually found the mod athletics...  But it didn't seem to state anything about the ability to perform athletic abilities.  Then he saw the mod acrobatics which seemed to be what he was looking for...  Why was it called acrobatics though?  Gymnastics would be a better word for it he thought.  Or just straight up parkour.  Skills and mods..  He was guessing they were one of the most important aspects of this game, which made sense.  He wondered which skills he should get...  Stealth he probably would need.  As for the rest...

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He scrolled through the different skill types and would slowly browse them all.  He didn't think he'd be using nearly any of them save for a few he noticed.  Quick change he didn't really care for.  Extended mod looked like a good one for later.  No extended weight, and...  "There's a fishing skill?"  He was so confused why there was a fishing skill, but whatever.  He never liked fishing, but he supposed people who did would like it.  Gatherer was interesting but wasn't a surviving skill.  Why would anyone get such a useless skill he wondered.   Hiding was an obviously good choice.  Picking had stood out to him until he read that it's only useful for chests in the wild?  'Why would it...  So boring, what about other locks?'  Searching seemed to have multiple uses but wasn't something he'd likely get.  Until later at least.  When he hit combat skills that's when he was getting a bit excited.  Battle healing he knew he'd want eventually.  Block?  He'd rather not get hit by anything..  That actually scared him a bit.  Charge looked interesting, but it was disappointing how it only increased damage once.  Energist seemed-  His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a sound.  He looked around until he saw a, yellow cursor?  It was residing over what appeared to be a deer.  A mob!  He watched the animal carefully, not wanting to scare it.  He wondered if he'd get experience points for destroying it...  If he could, it would definitely be a great way to train for newbies.

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He could try to charge right up to it and attack, or try to stalk his way there.  Or he could just wait here until it came...  No, not the third one, that was way too boring.  Plus he would never level up that way.  And stalking it, he didn't have the skills to do that just yet.  He knew how to hide from others, not how to shadow someone without being detected...  So he was just going to chase it.  He leaped out from the brush and raced after the mob.  Surprisingly it didn't move as fast as he had anticipated.  Allowing him to keep up...ish.  He panted as he ran after the deer.  "Wait!  Please come back!  You'll respawn in an instant, I won't if I die!"  No reaction.  Eh it was worth a shot!  Eventually he couldn't sprint anymore and stopped to just stand and pant.  Watching the mob run off and...  Get, ko'd by what looked like a brown boar?  His eyes widened when he saw the action, and that it had a red cursor.  He gulped.  "N-nice boar-"  It turned and saw him.  It's red glowing eyes piercing his heart.  'Why do I feel the need to say something?'  The boar turned and charged directly at him this time around.  Now...  He had two options.  He could either fight.  Or take flight.  And he'd choose 

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

Instincts told him to run.  His body was screaming for him to just bolt in the other direction and never come back.  'If you're facing a fight you know you can't win, don't start it.  Find another way out.'  At the same time however, he was going to need to fight at some point or another.  So it was imperative he start taking risks at some point.  'If you always shelter where you think you're safe, you only make yourself weak and ripe for the picking.'  So that was that.  Akio took a deep breath and took a stance, holding his dagger out and ready to fight.  He didn't know how he was going to fight a boar yet, so he was just going to improvise and rely on his instincts...  Assuming his instincts were to fight once the fight had already started.  The creature squealed with rage before charging at him.  Akio closed his eyes for a split second before opening them again.  Determination in his eyes.  And the intent to kill.  He charged as well and:...  Well you could say this ended up being another experimentation.  Of a sorts.  This time, the topic being how realistic is the physics of this world.  Answer?  Not very.  Cause he was pretty sure a boar this size wouldn't have knocked him back as far as it had.  Nonetheless, the mob dealt...  Two points of damage?  Soooo, it was like.  One of the weakest mobs in the game?  Well then.  Since he wasn't winded or anything like that.

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

He watched as the boar waited a few seconds, giving him time to get back up on his feet.  "Th-that was just me testing you and your strength out.  You won't get me a second time!"  The boar snorted in response, which actually surprised Akio.  Did, did it know what he was saying?  Maybe it was the tone...  No, no it was a coincidence.  There was no way an npc, nay just an ordinary mob knew what he was communicating in any shape or form.  He watched as the boar entered yet another charge but this time he didn't charge forward.  Instead he just jumped to the side, and ended up stepping onto the ground wrong.  The result would have twisted his ankle in the real world but only dealt one point of damage to himself in the game.  Beyond that, it caused him to fall down onto his back while the boar ran it's head into the tree Akio was knocked into earlier.  He rubbed the back of his head as he watched the boar seem to be stunned for about two seconds.  Interesting.  The boar turned to him again.  'Uh oh.'  He scrambled to his feet and leaped head first to the side again.  This was on purpose though so he was able to stand up before the boar could figure out what was going on.  Then Akio did something really stupid.  He ran over to the boar while it was stunned, jumped onto it's back, and thrust his blade down between it's shoulders.  Causing it to go into a frenzy.

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

The boar squealed again before entering a charge.  But it wasn't aiming for a tree or Akio this time.  It was running in a circle trying to knock him off.  Akio hung onto the dagger for dear life, pushing it deeper in so it wouldn't slide out.  He even worked hard to tilt the blade so it went into the boar at an angle.  How did it- wait, it was an animal.  It made sense for the developer to install a pattern to knock players off if they tried to ride the boar.  Akio was starting to fall off, his legs hanging behind him.  Closing his eyes he began to pull his waist and legs back up onto the pig, and grind his knees against its sides.  This drove it even more crazy but gave him a better hold on the animal.  The boar started running into trees now, causing Akio to receive even more damage.  The plus side was it was hurting itself in the process.  Even still..  Could he really keep this up?  He wasn't sure he could-  He noticed something odd.  Why was the boar's health dropping continuously?  He looked down at the dagger in the monster.  'So leaving a weapon in a target still harms it?  That makes sense I guess.  In that case.'  Akio let go.  Another dumb idea.  He hit the ground hard and rolled across the soil for a little while, groaning.  His health was just under half at this point...  Why him?  He looked up and watched as the boar circled around before starting to charge, it's health slowly decreasing.  Just before it hit him it shattered in to pieces, his dagger flying over him due to momentum.  Oh thank goodness...

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

Akio slowly pushed himself up to his feet, watching his health slowly begin rising up again.  Where was he even?  He looked around and noticed that he was in the clearing he had seen earlier.  Oh...  Cool...  He looked at his stats, noting that he still had two points of energy.  Huh.  Maybe that was only spent when he used sword arts?  But then where was his stamina bar?  If he was seemingly running out of stamina but his energy wasn't dropping, he felt like there would be another bar somewhere.  He didn't, see one though...  He sighed as his breathing and adrenaline ran out.  So he lost, eleven points of health?  That was bad...  But, the plus side was that he did get experience points out of it...  Not enough to level up just yet, but he did see the bar go up a substantial amount.  Akio wiped the dirt off his white cloth until he heard a twig snap and turned around quickly, holding his dagger out in case he needed to defend himself...  What he saw was unexpected.  Instead of a boar, it was a player...  What?  Did they come to train like he had?  They were wearing what seemed like their own unique armor and a straight sword.  "Oh why'd you have to go and notice me?  This is not going to be a fun day.."

LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]
XP: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

Akio's initial reaction was:  Why was there another player out here with him?  It was a huge map how did they run into each other.  Sure there were a lot of players, but most of them moved up from the first floor.  Then another thought crossed his mind:  'he was upset that I noticed him.  Why...'  He looked up at the player's cursor.  It was green.  He frowned in confusion, not understanding the situation at all.  'When you can't be sure, expect the worst.  If your always ready for the worst possible outcome, not only will you not be surprised, but you'll be ready for it.'  He would most certainly be ready for the worst...  Which in this case, was that he was secretly a player killer.  He ignored the green cursor, for all he knew there was a way to fabricate one or disguise their cursor.  The player noticed the stance and rolled his eyes, drawing an ax himself.  "Look kid, you aren't anywhere near strong enough to block my path.  I've watched you fight that boar, don't make me cut through you like a ribbon."  Akio was really scared right now.  He doubted he could outrun this player, and he could very well be telling the truth about being stronger.  What was he going to do?...

 LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]
XP: [                    ]

[Iron_Lion 1]

The other player sighed and made the first move, charging forward at Akio.  Akio didn't fight back, recognizing the glow of a sword art he knew he'd be dead within two, maybe three hits.  Heck, if he was a tier three player he'd probably kill him in one hit!  So he jumped out of the way, trying to roll to his feet but failing, ending up on his back.  He didn't wait to see if the player was confused or running over, he rolled to his right onto his feet and dashed for the woods.  From the sounds following him however, the player was almost on him.  He saw a fallen hollow log and dived head first into it.  Ignoring the one point of damage he got from the splinters inside.  Once he stopped sliding he started crawling through it to the other side.  He stopped however when he saw the player's ax bury it's way in front of him.  As soon as he recovered he pushed off from the ax pulling himself back out of the log.  When he did he rolled backwards, narrowly avoiding the ax again but started rolling downhill uncontrollably.  He eventually hit a tree and sat a bit dazed.  'I can't die.  I can't die!  I have to get out of this world!  I need to see my mom!  But what do I do?!  I can't beat him!'  As the player walked over to Akio, ax swinging by his side, he spotted something in the woods behind him...  A..  Boar.  His eyes widened and slowly pulled out a flower.  When he pulled it out, the boar seemed to catch it's scent and was starting to smell the ground for it.  If he could plant this on the player........

 LV: 1 || Iron_Lion
HP: [                    ]
EN: [                    ]
XP: [                    ]