104 chapter 5

After the death game has been announced and the barrier that trapped all the players

dispersed, a girl screaming out of fear, which set off a chain reaction among the players- which then caused mass panic and chaos.

Noticing this, Kirito quickly headed off and dragging Klein and Leonard along with him into the same alleyway where they all first met one another.

"Ok listen, I'm heading out right now for the next village, I want you guys to come with me." Kirito suggested that Leonard and Klein should both follow him.

Klein however, remained confused.

"If what he said is true, and I think it is, then the only way we're going to survive in here is by making ourselves as strong as possible," Kirito said as he quickly brought up the map of Aincraid first floor, where he and Leonard along with Klein already explored a few hours back.

"We have to do it quickly, or else all the surrounding monsters will be hunted down by the other players and we will have nothing left but dust to chew on, there are only so many monsters going around at one time, if we head to the next village now and start grinding, then we should be having an easier time in the future," Leonard told the two men.

Kirito nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry, I know all the paths and places we should avoid, even if I'm a level 1, I can get there easy." Kirito then added.

Klein, however, looks quite downcasted by all of these events.

"Why...thank...but...when I started to play Sword Art Online today, my friends from another game also tagged along for the ride as well...they're back at the plaza right now...somewhere.I can't leave them." Klein told Leonard and Kirito.

Kirito thought was in conflict, having at most two people who are newbies tagging along with him toward the next village is already dangerous enough.

"Sorry, can't ask a guy who you just met to risk his life for a bunch of strangers can't I? So don't worry about me, get your ass to the next village." Klein quickly broke Kirito out of his thought by reassuring him that he and his friend will be fine.

Leonard walked up to the man and place his hand on Klein's shoulder.

"Alright...be safe my dude," Leonard told him.

"Yeah, good luck to the both of you." Klein gave him a thumb up before he ran back to the plaza to find his friends.

"Alright, let get going Kirito, you lead on- I can follow you from behind," Leonard suggested.

"Yeah, stay close behind me, it's going to be quite dangerous," he told Leonard before quickly picking up speed and ran across town and quickly left it behind.

"We should pick up speed Kirito, the sun is setting, and I have bad news for you, I really hate running in the dark!" Leonard said in a sarcastic tone as the two of them were running across a grassland while the sun is setting.

"Alright then!" it was then that the two of them ran into a wolf which spawned right on the road.

"Shit!" Leonard curses out, seeing that the wolf level was higher than the both of them combined, however, Kirito did not stop charging forward, he pulled out his sword and readied his skill.

"Die you mutt!" Leonard too pulled out his sword and readied his skill while charging alongside Kirito, quickly he used Shadow Step to get behind the wolf and stabbed it in the back, Kirito then finished it with a frontal strike, causing it to explode into a million little data pieces.

After which they began to quickly pick up speed to arrive at the next village, along the rest of the way there, they unsurprisingly encountered more wolf, but with the two of them working together, they manage to kill off any they encountered, which give them enough experiences to level up and money along with some items.

When Leonard leveled up, he was quite surprised that the stats from his original world got fused along with the stats that was given to him in SAO, making him physically a lot stronger than any players on the same level as him.

"...oh I can see how this will unfurled." he thought.

Basically, he was invincible against an opponent of the same level, even if they're better geared than him, Leonard could literally just pulverized them with raw stats point alone.

"Should we continue to go out killing monsters for more experiences?" Leonard asked Kirito now that they had arrived at the next village ahead of most other players by a day or two at least.

"No, we should find some place to rest for the night now, you don't want to overstress everything, it could be really bad if the mental fatigue were to kick in, also I already found us a place to stay," Kirito told him.

"Alright, you go have some rest then, I'll continue heading out for some more killing, the more experience I can grab now, the better. " Leonard told Kirito before he quickly dashed out of town again.

"Be careful out there!" Kirito shouted at him from behind.

"Yeah! I'll be fine!" Leonard shouted back before he quickly disappeared from Kirito sight.

******

Midnight, Outside of the village in the grassland.

The moon was shining brightly in the sky, how was that actually possible with a closed-off world such as Aincrad, that question could never be answered.

But right now, a figure holding a broadsword was currently surrounded by a pack of wolves which numbered in the dozen, among them was a much bigger one.

The figure in the center was breathing heavily, his body was covered in virtual injuries.

"Damn...that was totally unexpected...a level 2 player...actually encountered a pack of wolves, among them, included a rare spawn monster...which probably didn't exist in the anime."

He cursed his luck, this figure was none other than Leonard.

"Alright, then doggy...come to papa."

Leonard once again showed his sadistic grin while readied his sword once more.

"It's time to test out some of the newly created skills...first one...Negative Slash!" he cast the skill while unconsciously activating his dark power out of instinct, just like how it happened back in his world.

Immediately his power exploded and the blade of the sword began to shined dark purple along with black gases expelling from the blade.

When he swung his sword, it sent out a wave of dark energy which washed over the wolves in front of him, included the big one that was leading the pack.

Soon, he could hear their howl of agony before they exploded.

The weaker one died, while the stronger one remained on low hit point.

Of course, the one leading the pack only suffered a bit of it hit point, which was still remained on the green.

"Heh...you're not bad!" he shouted at the creature while grinning from ear to ear.

Further away from the battle between the wolves and Leonard, a shadowy figure was hiding within the tall grasses, witnessing the scene of Leonard using his magical skills unfurled before his eyes.