To preempt things, yes the beginning of this chapter is very reminiscent of SAO. I couldn’t find a better way to do it and also get across the information I wanted to, so I just rolled with it.

As always, comments are appreciated!

-Tas

Part 4

Chapter 3: Ilos, Day 1

I was back in the plaza in front of the Palace, the agony I had felt just a moment ago gone without a trace. I didn’t die, that’s not what death feels like here, but I’m back in the plaza. What is going on? Confused and still shaking, I looked around. The Call to Arms was rung, but the city doesn’t look like it’s under attack.

The ground was made of pitch black stone with a large white Centerstone in the middle, located just in front of me, engraved with something I couldn’t read from where I stood. There were players standing around looking confused and some still appearing in glimmers of light, many with different armors than the starting equipment I still wore. Except for that, everything was exactly as it had bee-

I frowned, cutting myself off. The floor hadn’t been black before, it had been white, and there had been no engraving on the Centerstone. I took a step to go look at the inscription, just a few feet in front of me, but stopped abruptly. Something was wrong, everything felt… weird. I looked down, praying I wouldn't be able to see the black stones through myself like a minute ago outside Ilos.

I was still dressed in the normal beginning 'armor', though it was a light reddish hue now, there was the dull short sword belted at my left hip, and I could feel the throwing daggers I had bought still in their places. The thing that got my attention was the rather prominent protrusions under my shirt. I hesitantly moved still-trembling my hands up to touch them, flinching when I felt the pressure from both sources. My hands were… different. The fingers longer, more delicate; my palms soft and lacking the calluses I had had for all my life.

The hell…?

Now that I had noticed, I could feel the pressure against my chest, the softness and smoothness of my skin against the rough cloth of my tunic and pants, the faint tickling on the back of my neck that I was sure was hair, the lack of anything between my legs. It was overwhelming. My hands shook more violently, and my breath caught in my throat for a moment.

I shut my eyes and forced myself to take a deep gulp of air. “Okay.” I whispered to myself and let my breath out slowly, pushing out the sudden onset of emotions and dispelling the shaking from my sudden transport here and subsequent shocks.

Let’s worry about this later, I can always just log out and create a new character. First I need to find out what’s going on and find my friends.

I opened my eyes and looked down again, ignoring the, ah, obstructions, in my field of vision, and crouched down to read the odd inscription on the Centerstone at my feet. Of course, the hair I had felt dropped down in front of me, obscuring my view with its silky midnight black strands. Annoyed more than anything, I tucked it behind my ears so I could read the engraving.

I blinked. Those looked like words of power like one would use to cast a spell, but they were longer than any I had ever seen and I didn’t recognize any of them. Another new thing to puzzle over. What was going on here?

I rose slowly back to a standing position, looking around at the other people, and got yet another shock. I was short. Very short. I was a pretty tall guy, both in the real world and in Ilos, and I was used to only ever seeing a few people taller than I was, and then not my much. Now however, it seemed everyone practically towered over me, those I could see anyway.

A few players seemed to be moving, but most were just looking around in confusion as the number of people appearing dwindled, then ceased. Too few. There were not nearly enough people to number a million. The plaza would have to be full to hold that many, and there was plenty of space around me. What happened to the rest?

A deep rumble shook the plaza, cutting off any other thought as I struggled to keep my balance with this new body, running into several other people before one caught me just short of falling. I looked up, having to crane my neck because I only came up to his chest, peering into a face around my own age, about twenty or so. He had black hair and dark blue-purple eyes that blinked at me, as if surprised. I clutched a double handful of his jacket as the courtyard shook harder, making both of us dance to keep our feet. When I looked up again most of the players were on the ground, and my companion and I were of the few still standing.

“Welcome to Ilos. I am Xynus, the one who has summoned you here.” A deep voice boomed, filling the plaza, seeming to emanate from everywhere at once. “You are the ten thousand of the Silver Key, offered the priceless gift of extra time. Do not waste this time attempting to return to your previous world, you cannot get back of your own power until the remaining champions join you. The clock is your enemy, and the final trial will begin regardless of your wishes when the time you have here expires. This is no longer the illusionary world that you were previously shown, and as it continues its journey it will need to be protected. Even now the wild inhabitants have begun to emerge from their lairs, and will seek to hold Ilos when the final challenge begins. Be wary, for while this city is a great stronghold, the Great Sleep is failing, and your enemies will grow more powerful and may overwhelm you given time.”

At the end of the beta, there had been an attack by goblins on the Capitol. Weak little things, but there were many thousands, and more than that, while the city was being attacked respawns had been disabled. They had been repelled of course, pretty easily, but I had a sudden vision of the city being taken permanently, and then dying, never to return. A chill swept through me, and I looked up at the boy whose jacket I was still gripping, his eyes wide as well.

“Shit.” We both cursed at the same time.

“Death is not the end here while my power still lasts. However, beware; should you remain dead for a significant time, there will not be enough left of what is you to be reconstructed. Let this be very clear: you are all stuck here until the end, be that your own end or the end of the final trial. You cannot log out. I have done all I can for you, so go! Grow strong, for the fate of two worlds rests in your hands.”

The rumbling voice faded out, and silence reigned. Nearly everyone I could see simply stood or lay where they had fallen. Then some began shouting, others pleading with this unknown entity to let them go home, but the reaction was much more subdued than I would have guessed, many unable to get over their shock.

I was paralyzed, holding fast to the boy’s tunic as my mind refused to process this new information. There was no retreat, no logging off, and most importantly, no changing characters. Which meant I was stuck as a chick! I had read plenty of fiction dealing with being trapped in a virtual reality, hell, I even had harbored a small hope for this kind of event to happen, but I couldn’t spend the next who-knows-how-long as a girl! Was this world worth that price? The tunic moved, and I gripped it harder reflexively, my feet following of their own accord. Its owner was moving somewhere and was yelling something at me, but the words just didn’t make sense to my brain. What about Nick and Jess? Where were they? This was only the people who had silver Keys, so what happened to those with the regular black Keys? Were they returned to Earth? Or-

A rough shake snapped me out of it and I let out a small noise in surprise. It was definitely not a squeak!

"Let go of me little girl! I can't run with you hanging off of me!"

My eyebrows dropped and I glared up at the guy, confusion erupting suddenly into anger. "I'm not a little girl!"

"Whatever. I don't care. Let go of my shirt I have places to be."

I loosened my grip, but a moment later grabbed his shirt again as an idea struck me, the sudden anger vanishing like morning mist. This guy was in the beta and was probably pretty smart to have drawn the same conclusion I had about the goblin raid on the city, and was now rushing off to get ahead of the rest of the players. I wasn't a fool; I knew that PKing was common outside of the city, and if I didn't get ahead I would probably be robbed or killed at some point, especially with what I suspected I looked like now. However, I was having trouble just moving around, and the time I would have to take to get used to fighting again would set me behind. Therefore, I needed a partner or someone I could follow around until it was safe for me to solo again, preferably someone who wanted to get ahead as much as I did and also knew how to fight.

"How-" I hesitated, startled for a moment at how high pitched my voice was now that I was thinking more clearly. "How far up did you get during the beta?"

He rolled his eyes and started dragging me down the street towards the north gate. "Will you let go if I tell you?"

"...Probably."

"I had just reached the Dread Castle Hamelin when the call went out to defend Ilos from the goblins. Now let go of my shirt."

Good, Hamelin was just two islands below where I had gotten to; this guy obviously knew what he was doing. Granted, I didn't get very high compared to the number of islands above Ilos, but I had certainly gotten higher than anyone else. There were hundreds of floating islands above mainland Ilos, and the higher you went the harder the monsters and the better the loot became.

"Well then I'm going with you."

He stopped and looked down at me again. "What?"

"I'm going with you. You're going out to Riskmarl to the north right? I need someone to go with, so I'm going with you."

"No you're not; I can't have a little girl slowing me down. Let go of my shirt." He said, trying to pry my hands off of him.

I smiled, maintaining my death grip on the fabric. "If I can beat you to the North Gate, will you let me come with you?"

"Yeah, fine, just let go of me."

"Alright! See ya there!" I shouted over my shoulder as I dropped his shirt dashed off towards the North Gate.

Getting out of sight was easy, getting up to the rooftops like I had planned? Not so much. I knew my body well because of my freerunning, but in this case that was a bad thing. Trying to run up an alley wall to the roof was a disaster; I took two steps up and pushed off of the wall, but instead of clearing the roof I slammed into the house on the other side.

“Owwww. Why'd that...?” I had a moment of clarity. “Oh.”

I picked myself up off the ground, then crouching, jumped straight up. My head cleared the roof, and I felt a smile grow on my face as I landed softly. "Ohhh, this is going to be fun!"

I took a few steps back and restarted. Three steps up, jump and twist, land on the rooftop, keep running. Everything was stiff and awkward for the first minute or two until I managed to force myself relax and just go with the flow.

Running was so much different in this body, things I should have been able to reach easily I now had to lunge for, and gaps that would have been a short skip before were now half-jumps because of my significantly reduced stature. On the other hand, gender and body type didn't translate to strength in Ilos, it was based solely on the amount of experience you had. Therefore I was just as strong as the 6'1" 200 lb rather muscled adventurer Cariss I had been before, but now only about half the weight.

The movement of my body itself was also much different. The way my hips moved from side to side much more than I was used to, the way my long black hair tugged at my scalp as it streamed behind me, the way my skin felt the wind more than ever, the way everything seemed so much bigger now that I was smaller.

The way your chest shifts and bounces under your shirt as you run.

I tripped, almost missing the next jump between rooftops. Shut up brain! You're supposed to be running!

I spotted the boy from the plaza below and a little behind me and did a flip over the street, a seemingly impossible jump, giggling as I saw him below me following the fastest ground route to the North Gate, a zig-zagging affair. He probably thought he’d beat me by a lot.

How could I do jumps and flips already even though I was in a completely new body different in practically every way when I was having trouble just walking earlier? The System Assist present in Ilos. All you had to do is decide what you wanted to do, and the assist would guide you through it if you didn't know how yourself. Well, if you trusted it and followed the small pressures it used to guide you anyway, like I did almost automatically now. It was the greatest tool ever; it’s just that most people didn't think of using it for anything but attacks.

Ten or so minutes later I leapt off the edge of the last rooftop, landing lightly before strolling over to lean against the wall of the nearby gatehouse. A smile tugged at my lips and there was a glow of pleasure flushing my face the way exertion in this world could not.

"Damn! I knew you champions were crazy, but that takes the prize!"

I looked over to the left, seeing a large guard staring at me and shaking his head in disbelief.

"What? It wasn't that hard."

"Xynus! 'Not hard' she says! What is your name little thing? I am Gudrun. He reached out his hand.

"I'm Car-" I frowned, "No, I can't use that name anymore can I? I'm... Aria. Nice to meet you." I replied as I shook his hand, going with the first name that popped into my head. "But if you ever call me 'little' again I'm going to hurt you."

"Oh? And how do you plan on doing that little cutie?"

I scowled at him, planning exactly what I would do here. I flourished my right hand, making a dagger appear in it and lunged. With the reaction speed I expected of a guardsman, his hand swept across and pushed my arm off course, but it distracted him from the blade I was using with my left hand. I twisted with his push against my arm, using his own strength to drive my left hand dagger faster, cutting right through the straps that held his leg armor up. While that side sagged, I reversed the direction of my right hand, cutting the straps on his left side as well. With the support gone, the weight of the armor pulled it to the ground, revealing his underclothes.

Finishing my step, I spun the daggers in my hands before making them vanish again with a flourish. "I never said what I'd hurt, in this case, your pride seems appropriate." I smiled brightly up at him as he tried to pull his pants back up to the laughter of his friends standing in the door of the gatehouse.

To my surprise, he started laughing, a great booming sound. "I deserved that! Well played Aria! Come by again, when you get back!" And then he waddled back into the gatehouse, still trying to get his pants back up.

"That is what flirting with champions gets you Gudrun!"

"Stick to the barmaids big guy!"

"Hey just cause none a' you have the guts-" Gudrun's voice cut off as the door slammed closed.

I blinked a few times. People, not NPCs. Right, gotta remember that.

My face flamed suddenly. Wait, he was flirting with me?

Just then the guy from the plaza ran up, sparing me an annoyed glance as I fell into step with him when he went past me, and saving me from my embarrassment. I matched his speed, though I could probably run faster with my lighter body. As we ran down the road leading north of Ilos, I looked him over fully for the first time, considering he obviously didn’t want a conversation with me.

Athletically built and handsome like practically all of the male players in Ilos, he looked just ‘normal’ enough that you wouldn’t be able to really tell if he was a player or NPC. His footsteps were light and only slightly louder than my almost silent ones, and that probably only due to the difference in weight. His short black hair was just long enough to rustle in the wind, and he had a slightly tanned skin tone, probably a shade or two darker than my own. Comparing him against the other players in the Plaza I’d seen, I guessed he was a few inches above the average height of 6 ft.

Damn, and I only come up to his chest? Am I even five feet tall?

The thing that set him apart from the players I had seen was his grace and ease of movement. Most players were a little stiff when moving with weapons attached to their waist, back, hands, etc., but this guy seemed completely at ease with the pair of swords strapped to his hips. That alone was incredibly impressive, dual wielding was very difficult to do effectively with anything bigger than long knives, I had yet to see anyone do it right. However, the familiarity with the burdens as he ran at his top speed meant he was at the very least practiced with them. I kept watching him, pleased at my decision to follow this guy from what I saw so far, until we entered the forest just outside of Ilos.

-----

A bit after we entered the forest, I noticed we were heading towards a small wolf cave directly in line with our path. The wolves, unlike most enemies in the area, would attack once you entered their small territory and were significantly stronger as well. They wouldn’t be a big problem unless we allowed ourselves to be surrounded, but it would slow us down a bit if the goal was to reach Riskmarl quickly.

“Um, you know there’s a hostile wolf den that we’re headed straight towards, right? It’d be much faster if we went around it.” I said, looking up at my so far silent companion.

He glanced down at me before turning his purple-blue eyes forwards again, but continued to run straight towards the den. “Hmm, I wonder…” My ears caught.

Before I could voice my doubts again, two grey wolves leapt from the foliage. Without thought, I drew my short sword and slashed, catching the wolf in midair across the throat. However, because of my lack of ‘experience’, my blade only left a shallow cut instead of beheading the thing.

I shook my black hair out of my face.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed my companion engaging the other enemy with both of his swords, but couldn’t really watch considering there was a snarling slobbering wolf trying to bring me down.

Being a starting area, the wolves didn’t have complicated attack patterns, so I concentrated on learning how to fight in this body. Dodge the bites, parry the claw strikes, slash at the throat whenever possible.

Avoid getting hair in face.

I did manage to watch my partner fight a little bit after I settled into a pattern, and felt a small bit of pleasure knowing I had totally been right about him. He not only knew to dodge the bites that could lock up a weapon if parried and leave you open to the claws, but also wielded both of his blades to great effect, doing much more damage and killing his wolf well before mine. Then he looked over at me, turned, and walked off into the trees.

I scowled, the previous pleasure evaporating, and laid into the wolf in front of me. I beat him fair and square to the North Gate! Is he trying to ditch me? I mean I guess I did kind of force him into it, but he could have just told me to go away instead of aggroing wolves as a distraction so he could leave me!

It took me another minute to finally do enough damage to the wolf to kill it, and by that time the boy was long gone. “You jerk.” I muttered as I skirted around the wolf den and picked up the pace. “I bet you think I’ll just be dead weight. As soon as I get my quarterstaff I’ll kill things just as fast as you can.”