5. Second Level.

3rd POV...

"The only thing I need to do now is to increase my vitality. The agility is just making me fast" Asuna said to her friends making them look at her..."What?!" She said when she saw them looking at her.

"You can evade the attacks so why defence?!" Willow questioned.

"But some people are also fast like her." SILENT said.

"Is this the first time you're supporting me?" I joked causing SILENT to glare at me.

They chatted for sometime and Asuna asked Deathnote how he learnt about the eating in the game and how he knew that Asuna ate the Dead Queen.

Deathnote answered all her questions. He told her that he saw a girl eating monsters in the forest so he also tried it and got a skill before going to the dungeon. He explained how he paralyzed the boss.

"[Must be Maple or maybe a random girl who also knows]" Asuna thought.

"We are going to become powerful if all of us get the bosses' skills. So should we go to the second level or you want the bosses from the first level." Asuna said to them.

"Who said we are going to eat those disgusting things." SILENT said making a weird face.

"You always wanted to become powerful than me right? Then you have no choice" Asuna said smirking.

"We will be okay like this!" They all said at the same time.

Asuna looked at them surprised..."O-okay"

Asuna told them to go to the dungeons themselves but she had something to do so they left her alone.

Asuna sent Maple a message. She told her that she wanted to hang out. Maple agreed and told her where she was.

Asuna decided to run towards the location. Asuna sprinted towards the location.

~~~Maple~~~

Maple and her friend Risa logged into the game. Risa looked at her surroundings in awe.

"Ooh! So this is what it's like!" Risa said amazed.

"Isn't it great? I was pretty shocked when I logged in, too." Maple replied.

"I figured Kaede-- Oh, Shoot!" Risa stopped herself from mentioning Maple's real name.

"Is there a monster?" Maple asked her confused.

"Not that. It's bad forms to use real names. So remember to call me Sally, My real name in reverse. Sally." Risa said pointing to herself.

They talked for sometime and Asuna finally arrived.

They both heard heavy breathing behind them and turned to look at the person.

"H-hey" Asuna waved at them. She was tired due to all the running although she was fast.

"Do you know her, Maple?" Sally asked Maple.

Maple answered her question and Asuna also introduced herself. They all came to know each other.

"Now then, first things first" Sally said.

They all went to a nearby inn.

Maple and Sally were sitting on a bed in thee inn talking about their class. Asuna was also sitting there quietly listening to them.

"But since I want to be really fast, I put most of mine into agility." Sally said.

"You really gave it some thought" Maple said causing Sally to smile.

They began to talk about Maple's shield and how she would go to the underground lake, south of the city to farm for materials for her new shield.

"Okay! Let's go check out this underground lake." Sally exclaimed.

"What? Really?" Maple asked.

"Of course! Oh, but first, we gotta buy fishing rods somewhere." Sally answered.

"I know where to get some" Asuna said smiling. They all smiled at her and began to walk outside.

"Hey, wait up! You're too fast!" Maple said from behind Asuna and Sally. They both looked back to see her now coming from the inn.

"Whoops, sorry." Risa apologized..."That's too fast for her?" Risa put her hand on her chin thinking.

"I can instantly get you there." Asuna said causing them to look at her.

"How?" They both asked looking at each other.

"I have a skill which makes me move fast so if you hold on to me and I use it, I can get you all there quickly." Asuna said smiling that she could be useful to them.

They both held Asuna's hands and she used her {SWIFT} skill.

They instantly appeared in front of a shop. Asuna let out a breath and looked back to see them dizzy.

"Umm" She bought the fishing rods and used the skill again to send them to a cave.

"We are here" Asuna informed them. They recovered from their dizziness and each of them took a fishing rod to feed.

"I'm going deep to see if I'll get more scales." Asuna told them and they both nodded.

"Hurry and get back, I want to know where and how you got the swift skill." Sally said childishly.

"Sure!" Asuna said and jumped into the water.

"[I can't breath?! I thought this wasn't real]" Asuna thought..."[I wish this would work]"

She used {VENOM CAPSULE} to cover herself with poison. All the water got out through the poison and Asuna could now breath again.

The poison spread in the water and killed all the fishes. All the scales scales that the fishes left came to Asuna.

She was surprised when she saw notice.

"Don't tell me--" Asuna took in a deep breath and destroyed the venom capsule. She saw that the poison has spread in the water..."[Knew this would happen]" Asuna thought.

She received the rewards and swam deeper. She saw a dungeon when she reached the sea floor. She studied the area on her way back. She decided to tell Sally about the dungeon so that she will go and defeat the boss and get better equipment.

Asuna reached the her destination and gave them the scales.

"How did you survive the poison?" Sally asked.

"Poison Immunity" Asuna quickly answered.

"Oh OK! Seems like we have two Maples here." Sally said causing Asuna and Maple to smile.

~~~~~~~~~

Asuna told Sally and Maple about the dungeon.

Since that day, they always came and fish for the scales and Sally would go and scout the area.

Asuna always found an excuse to be with Maple and Sally. She always came with them to fish and level up.

~~~The next week, Friday.

Sally finally defeated the boss in the water and got her equipment. The three of them then completed dungeons together and leveled up.

Dorazou appeared in the middle of the town and made an announcement about the second level.

Maple did not know about the second level so she asked and Sally and Asuna explained it to her.

Sally decided they should explore the first level before going to the second level.

"Then let's take a look around today!" Sally said.

They went to many places. Asuna and Maple bought skill scrolls from a certain shop in the town.

There was this place they went where there were zombies and ghosts all around and Sally was afraid of the ghosts and the zombies so she insisted they leave to another area but Maple refused.

Asuna saw a damaged house and told them to go inside but the zombies won't come there.

They all were in the house quietly when Sally made a scared noise. She pointed the table.

"S-Something's there! B-By the table!" Sally said making scary noises.

"The table?" Maple pushed the table away and removed the mat to see a basement.

They went inside and saw a man tied to a chair.

"It hurts! It hurts!" The man said in pain and started screaming.

"He doesn't seem like he's hostile." Maple said to Sally who is hiding behind her.

"Maybe this is some kind of quest" Asuna said with her hand on her chin.

"What now?" Sally questioned still scared.

"Since he's saying he's in pain, maybe we'll have to fix that." Maple said.

A thought came to Asuna..."Maybe I can use the health potion to heal him."

Asuna used the health potion, the man started screaming in pain again. Asuna looked at the man scratching the back of her head.

"Huh? That didn't work?" Maple said surprised.

"I could... try healing" Sally said and moved towards the man quietly.

She used her {HEAL} skill to heal the person.

"It worked" Sally asked with her eyes closed. The man screamed again and put his head down.

"I guess it's not enough unless you keep at it." Maple assured her.

Sally used the skill four times before the man was released and floated upwards. He said thank you and disappeared.

"Do you think this means he's resting in peace?" Sally asked looking upwards.

"This looks like a skill" Asuna said pointing the scroll on the chair

Sally took the scroll and read what was written in it.

"It's the Super Speed skill! I think we did the quest just now!" Sally exclaimed.

They all smiled and quickly left the place. Sally led them to a place with a large tree on the ground.

They walked into the tree. Sally used her {FIREBALL} skill to light up something in the tree. A bright light blinded them and they appeared at an area with the sun now setting. There were sunflower everywhere and the sea was reflecting the light from the sun.

"A never-ending sunset area. I heard you can come here anytime and see this scenery." Sally said smiling..."Um, Lisa, why do you always have the hood on. You can remove it right? Sally questioned catching Asuna by surprise.

"Ehhh, umm, I like it like this." Asuna smiled at Sally.

"Oh It's okay, I just wanted to see your face." Sally said and changed the topic.

Asuna informed them she was logging out. She logged out and left them there.

"I'm never going to log out this late again." Asuna said tired after removing the equipment.

She quickly took her bath and went to sleep.

~~~Saturday~~~

Asuna completed her everyday things as usual and went to take a shower. She wore the same gym clothe she wore for the first event. She then logged into the game.

KingKai and the others informed Asuna that they wouldn't be able to play the game for the next 2 months but they had very important things to attend to. This was because they all went to the same school and the school will be hosting some important activities for some time.

"I think it's time for me to move up to the second level. Should I go with Maple and Sally...or maybe they're already gone." Asuna said silently when she appeared in the town.

There were less people today. "[They have probably gone to the second level.]" Asuna thought.

She started walking when a guy with a large axe asked her to help them reach the second level.

"What do you mean by us? I can see only you" Asuna said looking at the guy.

"You have enough people, so you can do it" Asuna said with her thumbs up. She began to walk away when the guy started again.

"We are weak!" He said behind Asuna.

Asuna looked at them and said something which annoyed them. "Then stay on level one and power up."

The guy frowned and was about to insult Asuna but one of his partner stopped him.

Asuna noticed it and agreed to help them. They followed her to a cave. There was a large tree at the end of the cave with water flowing from it.

"Have you come here before?" She asked them. There were six of them.

"How would we know if we would defeat something when we have not been here?" The guy with the axe said harshly. One of his partners elbowed him and made a sign to shut him up.

"So you came here?" Asuna asked eyeing the person who elbowed the guy with the axe..."Then get ready to fight." Asuna said smirking.

The water ceased to flow and one of the people following Asuna said that the boss is about to appear.

Roots emerged from the ground and formed into a reindeer. The reindeer kicked the ground, roots came out from the ground towards Asuna and her unknown teammates.

She used her {SWIFT} skill to move all of them out of the way. She sent her {FIREBALL} skill towards the reindeer. Three circles appeared in front of the reindeer making Asuna's skills do nothing.

"Huh?!" Asuna said perplexed.

"This is why we couldn't defeat it." They all said at the same time.

The reindeer made more of the roots come towards Asuna. Asuna unsheathed her short swords and used her {DEVOUR} skill to make the roots disappear.

"[I forgot I even had this skill]" Asuna thought. She then used her {STAR} skill she got from the Dead Queen to send multiple glowing arrows towards the reindeer.

The circles appeared again making some of the arrows do nothing but three arrows hit the middle of the circle at the right side. The reindeer screamed and more roots came towards Asuna.

"[So I have to hit the middle to damage it?!]" Asuna thought.

She used her {FIREBALL} skill to hit the center of the middle circle making all of them disappear. The reindeer screamed. The roots kept coming towards Asuna.

Asuna dashed forward evading the roots. She neared the reindeer and used her {SWIFT} skill to move to the back of it. She then used her {DOUBLE SLASH} skill to hit the reindeer's legs.

The reindeer kept screaming as Asuna used her skills to hit it. She finally defeated the reindeer.

"Nice" The guy with the axe said. They all thanked Asuna and all of them were sent to the second level.

They went their ways. Asuna made a decision to explore the second floor before going to any dungeon or doing any quest.

She passed by a certain house and heard crying. She moved back to take a look in the house.