Sword Art Online: Enhanced - Chapter 4.2 (Patreon)

Well things were looking urgent. So, you sent a pm to Agil, letting him know you were going to meet up with a friend from the beta test and that you'd meet him back at base later on today.

Then, you used the one teleport crystal you had and teleported to the Town of Beginnings. In a flash of whirling blue light, you found yourself appearing in the middle of the town square, Cu by your side.

A couple of people yelped and jumped away at your sudden appearance, but you ignored them and let out a whistle, "Man she wasn't kidding." you noted when you saw the sheer amount of people crowding the place.

There had to be a couple thousand at least. Fucking morons. Panicking and rioting in the middle of the town wasn't going to get them anywhere.

"Moan, Cu." you nodded your head at your wolf companion and took off walking. As you did, you brought up the map of the town, and located the only green friend dot within the city on said map. It had to be Argo since Agil was back in Tolbana.

...Well, it could be that Kirito guy, but you doubted it.

Well, she wasn't far away at least. In the inn closest to the west entrance to the town square, right beside an NPC Merchant store. Perfect, you could pick up some teleport crystals while there.

You pushed through the crowd and people started giving you a wide berth. You cut a pretty different figure from the rest with your huge dire wolf by your side after all.

The general noise and hububb didn't calm down at all, even with your entrance beyond a few others who stared after you. But, you didn't expect a simple entrance to do anything. You were tempted to start barking orders and tell all these damn pansies to man the fuck up.

..But quite frankly, you didn't want to have to lead all the fuck ups. You were fucking fourteen and you had your own life to protect first. Sure, a few people, you could probably carry? But thousands? Fuck tae the naw.

Someone did catch your eye though as you reached the west entrance. It was a girl, an inch or so shorter than you, standing listlessly, swaying about almost drunkenly in a daze, she was dressed in a red cloak with the hood pulled up over her head. A thin iron rapier was sheathed at her waist. Her face was quite well hidden, but you could see her eyes, and they looked pretty dead. A shame, from what little you could see of her face and body underneath that cloak, she was an utter stunner.

Argo's message was fresh in your head. Was she another contemplating suicide?

Honestly you weren't even sure how to approach someone who looked like they wanted to kill themselves. So, you figured, you'd just go full on blunt and try and take their mind off of things.

"You look fuckin' terrible." you commented blunted bluntly, making your way over to her, "You alright?"

The girl blinked, "Excuse me?"

You held a hand up, "Not looks wise, on that front you're definitely a stunner," you shrugged, "Yer eyes though, yae look dead on the inside."

She snorted, "A reflection of the outside," she replied, and you could hear the bitterness in her voice, "We're just waiting here to die after all while our bodies rot away in the real world."

"Man you're fucking depressing," you replied with a snort of your own. You crossed your arms, "It's hardly as bad as you make it out. It's a big arse game, but a game all the same."

That did it, the dead look in her eyes was replaced by a fierce glare, "And? So what? How much time of our lives do you think we'll waste in here even the game is cleared!" her voice rose until she was shouting.

All around you, you noted people beginning to quiet down and listen into your conversation, "Yer lookin' at it all wrong." you replied simply. After all, whether it was in the real world, or here, this was your life.

"And how am I!?" she gripped the pommel of her iron rapier tightly, "...The exams at my school are coming up in just a few weeks! I'm going to miss them! All that time spent studying say in and day out wasted and I won't get into a good college!"

...What seriously messed up priorities!

"Get a grip!" you shouted back, "Like it or not, but whether you're in here, or in the real world. This is your life. Suck it up like people do every damn day in their life and get oan way yer life!"

Her eyes widened and she reared back in shock, "...This is my life?" she muttered.

You sighed and nudged Cu towards her.  The big furry wolf padded over to her and licked her palm, before sitting in front of her. On instinct, you noted her palm reach out and pet him across his furry head and a light smile spread across her face.

"..A dog.." she muttered, "Mother never let me have one. Your fur is so warm." Cu gave a happy bark and nudged his head into her palm.

"That's right, everything in here right now, is as real for us as the real world was before," you said, "You can do anything you want in here, it's up to you. You can hide away if you want. You can play about with the hobby skills. There's plenty of reference material book wise to study even in here and plenty of people to do it with, though why you'd want to is beyond me. You can even try and clear the game with all your strength if you want to, but either way, yae should be living your life in here to the fullest just as yae would in the real world."

The girl suddenly giggled, "..You're kinda funny aren't you?"

You raised an eyebrow at her. "It's just..I recognise your voice now, you're that guy who was shouting threats at Kayaba Akihiko last night," she explained, "You're accent is so thick and rough, and even when you try to speak without it, you always slip back into it. I've never met someone from Scotland before."

You smirked and shrugged your shoulders, "As yae can see, we're made rough and tough," you replied, "You awrite now?"

She bit her lip and nodded lightly, "..I guess...It's just, I still don't know what to do from here," she said, "..I kinda want to try getting stronger after all you just said to me. But I don't know how."

She yelped a moment later as she found herself thrown over your shoulder, "Ehhh! What the heck are you doing!?" she screamed, beating on your back with her dainty fists.

"I'm off to drop off the information I compiled all last night of the monsters and shit outside the town, a friend of mine is going to publish an information guide in the next few days to teach all the noobs how to play," you explained as you began walking away, and you deliberately kept you voice very loud so everyone could hear you, "I'm a beta tester, and was the strongest of all the beta testers back during the beta. I'll teach you."

"That's all fine and good! But put me down first you moron!" the girl over your shoulder shouted angrily, just as the general people around you exploded into whispers with the bombs you just dropped.

There, that should pass around quickly. The strongest beta tester was out testing shit for everyone and compiling a guide for them to learn how to play. A little white lie since you were only a contender for the strongest beta tester between a few others, but sometimes a little lie could be of the good. Besides, in pure combat, your raw ability was above anyone else solo wise in the beta from what you remembered.

_____________

"Hey what are you doing?" Asuna, as she had introduced herself asked you as you set her down outside the merchant store and made to enter it, "I thought you were going to meet a friend of yours to give information to and stuff?"

"I am," you shrugged, "But I used up my only teleport crystal, so I need to buy another one, maybe multiple, wait here, I'll be back in a sec." you continued as you made your way into the shop. You'd stock up on healing potions, but the npc's in the Town of Beginnings only sold the lowest tier that healed one hundred health points.

Since you already had Battle Regeneration, you didn't exactly need such a low tier potion when you had that. by time you pulled it out of your inventory and drank it, your skill would have healed that amount and more.

You you quickly dropped two hundred col for a pair of teleport crystals, then made your way back outside where you left Asuna and Cu.

She looked up from petting your pet wolf, her face still shadowed by the hood, but a light smile on her face, "So we going now then?" she asked, crossing her arms, and you got the feeling she was arching a brow at you.

"Yeah, come on." you bid her to follow you and led her inside the inn right next to the merchant shop.

You pulled your map function up and led Asuna and Cu up the stairs towards where Argo was on the the map. When you reached her door, you knocked on it sharply, three times.

You idly wondered what Argo would really look like. Odds are, she, might even be a he.

"Go away, I'm busy!" a familiar feminine voice shouted back.

You blinked, 'Huh.' before shaking your head and rapping your knuckles against the door, harder this time, "It's me idiot, hurry up and open the door. I've got shit to do, and I already came all the way here since you asked me to."

There was a yelp behind the door, and you heard some rapid footfalls padding about the room, before a moment later, the door swung open revealing a familiar face. Familiar blonde hair under a cloak, familiar impish grin, familiar whisker marks - which you knew she got from the martial arts quest in the beta, why did she have them now? - and all too familiar Argo.

You generally weren't the type to explore much during the beta, too interested in the combat system. So you were always supplying this chick with col for information and map data so you didn't need to search for it all yourself.

You were just lucky you remembered it all. Memorization had been a very important aspect of your studies growing up because of all the shit your family had their hands in and you would be expected to deal with when you took over.

"Hehe! Well, if it ain't Cae-bou! You sure came quick! It's only been a half hour since I sent you that message!" grinning impishly Argo bounded forward and began patting your boisterously on the shoulder. That is, until she caught sight of the wolf and the girl behind you, "Hoho what's this! You already have a tamed monster? And you've got yourself a girlfriend too!"

"I'm not this idiots girlfriend!" Asuna denied instantly. You looked over your shoulder to see her cheeks under the hood she was wearing flushed red.

"Don't get so flustered Asuna," you told her, "It will only make her tease yae more."

Argo pouted at you, "Ah Cae-bou, you're no fun!"

You rolled your eyes and pushed her back into her room and entered alongside her, Cu and Asuna following in behind you. "I'm plenty fun," you retorted as Asuna closed the door behind her, "I was actually having fun levelling up my Battle Regeneration skill when you dropped that bombshell about everyone panicking so hard on me."

Argo blinked, "How the heck do you have that already?" she gaped.

You shrugged, "I just kept stabbing myself with my weapon until my health was low, then spent an hour parrying attacks from a Dire Wolf until I got it." you replied.

If possible, Argos' eyes widened further, "..You're kidding me right?..no, course not, you were as big a crazy as this back in the beta, but I didn't expect that kind of crazy now, not with the pain sensors being on."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Asuna piped in, making Argo look at her, "What's this Battle Regeneration? What's it got to do with pain sensors and why is it so shocking?"

Argo sighed, "You're a total noob huh?" the information dealer shook her head, ignoring Asuna's affronted grunt at being called a noob, "The thing is, any hit we take in this game, we feel the pain. It's been halved overall, but getting stabbed is still gonna hurt. And to get Battle Regeneration, you need to fight for extended periods of time when you have barely any health left. This crazy idiot basically just admitted to hacking himself up with that sword on his back until he was near death and then fought a monster for over an hour to get it."

Asuna gasped, and you saw her hands fly up to her mouth to cover it up. She stared at you in shock for a few moments, before her voice erupted out of her, angry sounding, "W-Why would you do that to yourself!?" she demanded, her voice sounding totally horrified.