5 Gathering Allies

"Alright, Karasu... first part of our plan to get people on our side. You're going to put on a little show; because I figured it out last night. You're the Runner, aren't you?" These were the words that Trevon had spoken that morning in the inn... why Karasu might have been called a Runner was a story for another time, but it was true regardless, and right now, he was gathering stares, players following him toward the center of the town... far below him.

The Shinobi leapt from a rooftop and nimbly ran across a chain between the roofs, there to support a great wooden sign. Making it to the next roof, Karasu moved faster, sliding down the shingles and leaping, catching himself on a window sill. Really, without any kind of stamina gauge to worry about, this was a lot easier than he remembered it being... the man didn't always worry about efficiency, instead making sure to, as Trevon had said, put on a show. When he reached the Central Plaza, he sucked in a breath and relied on the skill he'd upgraded with some of his excess points; Shinobi's Step Lv. 3, which protected him from fall damage up to thirty meters. Taking a flying leap, Karasu spun through the air... and alighted on the top of one of the stacks of crates lining the area- mainly just decoration if he had to guess. He felt a bit winded... but in the same breath, he'd had a good time, putting some old skills to use.

Slowly, a crowd of players began to form, spilling from one of the side alleys and surrounding him, shouting things like;

"How'd you do that?!"

"You got us here, what's up?"

"Wow, that was crazy! Are you a level eight or eighty!? How'd you get those skills?!" Before long, Trevon and Silica caught up, and Karasu began to speak, earning himself a relative silence. If he had to guess, roughly six hundred players were here, with a few more trickling out of alleys here and there.

"Alright!" Karasu shouted, ending the last of the chatter. He'd never been much of a leader, outcast he was... but he was going to try, here and now, to see if he could rally these people. He felt hot in the face but otherwise calm, and he'd equipped his mask again to hide any redness. "We, ten thousand players, have been trapped in this game! What do we know? That if even one of us dies in here, that's a loss to the real world!"

"We don't know that!" Somebody called out to him.

"Why risk it? Why would Kayaba lie? Wealthy men can get away with anything at least once, and because nobody knew until too late, all they can do is hope we make it out on our own; Which is why that's exactly what we're going to do! Trevon, come here!"

The crowd parted, and Trevon sheepishly made his way up to Karasu, ascending the crates to stand beside him.

"Here," the half-Japanese man spoke, "-is a beta tester! He knows where the first several floor bosses are, and there are ninety nine like him out there who can do this for others! He knows everything about the first few floors, and Trevon will be our guide as we CUT DOWN the bosses, climb the floors and make our way to the top! We aren't going to sit around and do nothing, we're going to carve a path, and make sure that nobody dies!"

There was silence for a moment, and Karasu continued, taking advantage as his heart beat a little louder in his ears.

"Aside from obvious laws, there is one that we must value above all else! None of the people who come with Trevon, Silica and I may die! I don't care if Hell's king himself opens his jaws at you, not a single damn one of you are allowed to die on my watch! Together, as one, we leave today at noon! If you're with us, you'll come to the plains outside the East Gate, and we'll begin to march!" Karasu shouted once more, then held his silence for a moment before hopping off the crates to where Silica had settled herself to wait.

"Wait," somebody spoke, stepping forward. He looked familiar, but Karasu wasn't sure why; almost as tall as the Shinobi, this guy had a mess of red locks held back by a headband, a severe case of five o' clock shadow, and comfortable looking casual wear. "Nobody dies? Man, that's a hell of a rule and all, but how do we know you can follow it?"

"You don't. I can tell you this, though; I trained in Hokkaido under Master Iseei Bell for thirteen years, and I've achieved a higher rank than most people three times my age in Japan. I've spent my life fighting, and I can watch your back. I WILL watch your back, no matter what it takes, so that nobody has to die as long as I could do something about it..." Karasu trailed off. He probably sounded lame, but these were his heartfelt emotions.

"Alright, man!" This guy said with a grin. "I think I've heard of you, actually, I've got a cousin that trains in that dojo... uh... Kurusu? Karasu?"

"It's Karasu, yes," the blonde one blinked once, surprised he was known. The next words to leave this man's mouth would surprise him even more.

"Yeah, you're kind of a celebrity, talk of the town in Shibuya. They call you the Dragon Prince, because of the dojo name, Steel Dragons or whatever. I'm Klein, and it's nice to meetcha!" Klein held out a hand, grinning like a rambunctious family member, and Karasu took the proffered palm, shook it tightly before releasing.

"Nice to meet you, Klein. I'm glad to hear we'll be seeing you at noon, then?"

"Hell yeah you will! I'm gonna spread the word on who's asking us there, I'm sure we'll get more people that way!" Before Karasu could protest the starting of rumors, Klein bounded off, never once looking back. Some of the crowd lingered, watching Karasu and company, but most of it started to disperse.

"Man, you were awesome," Trevon spoke quickly as they began to mill down the street they'd come from. "The speech, I mean, it could've been better, but I'm talking about your run on the buildings. That, my guy, was totally awesome."

"You really were great," Silica said innocently, smiling up at him like she was meeting a celebrity. It made him squirm a bit, and both Silica and Trevon laughed.

"Thank you, you two. Ah, and Trevon, of course the speech could have been better; I've never given one. I have like, six friends?"

"Right, the Dragon Prince is also a handsome loner," Silica stated teasingly. "That doesn't scream anime at all~"

"Maybe you just read too much manga, girl~ but seriously, do not start calling me Dragon Prince, it does scream anime..." Karasu sighed and shook his head. Now that he was away from prying eyes, he felt drained. Truly, he wasn't a public speaker, but it would be worth it if he could unite even twenty people and ensure they didn't die.

"Alright, alright, I won't~"

"Good, or I'll tell Trevon here about that time with the coffe-"

"NO! Sh-Sh-Shut up!!!" Silica blushed furiously and punched Karasu in the ribs, but because it was a game, he didn't double over as he would in the real world. Even so, he put on a show of pain for her sake, then patted her head slowly.

"Don't worry, I'll keep my mouth shut."

"Nah, my guy... I'm curious. What happened with the coffee?"

"It was the creamer, really..."

"SHUT U-UP!!!"

"So anyway, Trevon, you've fought this boss before, right? What do you suggest we do when we get to it, in the way of strategies?"

"Well, the boss is a giant Kobold, we haven't really fought any of those. He's at the back of this weird castle... we could reach it by sunset tomorrow if we move fast. They're tricky, because they can use weapons like the skeletons, except they're a lot better with them. So uh, the boss, giant Kobold, and he has about twenty smaller kobold minions that come out to make things difficult. All in all, I'd say that no matter how many players we have when we get there, we should try and go in with about thirty players at a time. You and I are obviously more skilled than most, my guy, and Silica, you ain't half bad either. I say we should spend the day in the boss chamber, taking only a kill or two each time, and play support for anyone at a lower level than us. You want nobody to die, that's probably the best way to go." Trevon spoke calmly and confidently, what he said making sense.

"Plus, we'll gain some more levels!" Silica added. "Each of us should get to kill the boss at least once; it resets every time a party enters, right?"

"Right," Trevon agreed. "We'll make a few stops in towns around the floor on our way to the boss, because once we find the center waypoint things in them, we'll be able to teleport back to them any time. I don't think I said yet, but you can teleport between floors if you have the right waypoints unlocked, so we gotta remember to do that when we get to the first town on the second Floor. You asked about actual strategies though; we're gonna wanna put tanks up front, archers in the back and have fighters swap out with the tanks every so often. The tanks can take the heavy hits, then the fighters can swap in and let the tanks recover... there are plenty of Kobolds before the actual boss room, too, so we'll be able to get some good practice in."

"Spoken like a true strategist," Karasu said, hoping that his praise wouldn't come across as rude or patronizing. "I mean, I can handle myself in a fight, but I don't have any experience leading a team... so I'm glad to have you here, my guy," Karasu added what seemed to be Trevon's favorite nickname onto the end, smiling.

"Man, don't get all sappy on me now, alright?" Trevon laughed, blushing lightly.

"I ship it," Silica suddenly whispered into his ear, truly a modern teenage girl.

"Silica, there are so many things wrong with those three words coming from you, right now, it's not even funny," Karasu muttered with a quiet laugh, throwing his arm around her waist. "First and foremost being that I'm straight and dating you. Now quit with the homoerotic jokes, please," he added, remembering her bout with the tentacles.

"K-Karasu! Don't you support your girlfriend's love for the fine art of Yaoi!?" Silica shouted jokingly, but then she blushed at her own volume and went scarily quiet, red in the face.

"I do, love, but I'm not going to participate in it," Karasu replied calmly, patting her head.

"Okay so what the fuck." Trevon's voice brought them both back to reality.

"Hey!" Somebody called out, and Karasu looked to their right. A girl was running toward them; a girl with short, chocolatey hair and warm eyes to match.

"Hello," Karasu spoke cautiously, unsure what the girl wanted. She had on a massive backpack, and a quite literally wore three weapons at each hip.

"Hi! Um, Karasu, did you unlock the prerequisites for that armor? Or something like that, when you were loading up the game?"

"I did!" Karasu grinned, glad to meet someone who knew what was going on. Silica, meanwhile, frowned slightly toward the girl, evidently not liking how friendly she was being. "Why, did you meet some weird requirements too?"

"Well, my Uncle runs a business forging weapons, he does a lot of cosplay swords and makes a decent living. So I've helped out in the forge a lot since I was young... and well, I didn't get any fancy outfit, but I unlocked the prerequisites for the first half of the smithing skill tree, which you're not supposed to be able to start until level ten, I think...? So, well, I'm not a huge fighter, and I don't plan to try in a life or death situation like this, and well, I want to run a smithy for players, to help them in my own way!"

"Yesterday I was gathering materials, and I fell into this weird cave. I got out okay, but I found this weird metal, right? I have a skill for appraising metals, and apparently this one has like, a zero point zero zero zero two percent chance of dropping from a monster? I killed these creepy spiders to get it... and I forged this ridiculously good sword, it should even make quick work of the floor boss! I want you to take it with you, wear it, use it, all for free... and if anyone asks about it, I want you to tell them it was made by the startup Smith, Lizbeth! Advertisements, you know? Actually, I think I happen to have something that would work for all three of you! Please stop walking?"

Karasu and company obliged, and Lizbeth sank to her knees, pulling her bag between her legs, opening it and starting to dig through. "No, must have left them in my inventory... careless, Liz..." She opened her menu and began to sift through. After a moment, a short, glowing spot appeared in the air before Silica. When she reached into it, her knife was unequipped, and a new weapon appeared at her waist. Trevon had the same experience, and then Karasu reached into a glowing spot, evidently called a "Gift", to find his weapon in his inventory, replaced by something better.

Silica now carried a gleaming, double edged knife, slightly curved in the way that a scimitar would be. The metal itself looked like steel, with an iridescent blue sheen.

"It's Spider Thread," Lizbeth explained. "Apparently the stuff can be forged into a strong metal! I was experimenting most of the night... these were some of my best results!"

Now, Trevon had a short, leaf shaped sword of the same material as Silica's knife, and the round shield on his arm had been replaced with a slightly larger, slightly more narrow shield, somewhat reminiscent of a classic knight's shield. Karasu, meanwhile, had whatever strange, rare metal she'd found... slowly, he drew the short Katana. It wasn't quite the weight he was used to, but it was only slightly lighter, so it shouldn't be a problem. The blade itself was a light shade of purple, catching the light to the point that Karasu could see himself in it. With a strip like silver running down the edge, the grip was gray wrapped in black, and the cross guard carved into a gorgeous shape, arching downward toward his hand a bit, intricate like a...

"Weapon acquired; Violet Rose", read a small notification.

"I love it, Lizbeth. Thank you," Karasu added as the smith slung her backpack over her shoulders again and took the hand he offered her, pulling herself to her feet.

"You're welcome! All three of you, but especially you, Karasu, have the gear and skills to cut through anything on the floor, based on what I've heard. There's a durability boost on each, but even the NPC blacksmiths can repair them for you once they break. So yeah, just make sure to advertise me, and keep yourselves safe!" Lizbeth waved, already turning and trotting off. "Hopefully we'll meet again, sometime; I'm going to try and sell some of this stuff!"

"Hm... she seems nice," Trevon muttered. "Ain't she cute, man?"

"Objectively, she's pretty, but it's not like I felt anything for her," Karasu answered shrugging. "Why, Trevon? You wanna get under that skirt?"

"So what if I do?" Trevon asked in cocky tones, wiggling his eyebrows.

"You two! No sex talk! I'm just glad you answered that question the way you did," she spoke to Karasu, looking off to the side.

"No sex talk?" Trevon pouted like an anime girl. "Damn girl, you really just tryna kill the fun, ain't you?" He laughed softly, and Karasu found himself sharing the sentiment.

"Sex talk is for respectable adults who don't sleep around, and you seem like some kind of harem protagonist, you know?" Silica teased, sticking out her tongue. "Unlike Karasu, who-"

"Alright, alright," Karasu cut in. "Even playfully, don't compare people. It's a good way to seriously hurt some feelings, depending on what you say."

"Sorry, sorry~" Silica smiled and kissed his shoulder, falling quiet. "So, what do you say we all get some early lunch? I didn't eat breakfast, and I'm hungry." Indeed, they'd skipped the morning meal to get going faster.

"Sure, let's do it," Karasu agreed.