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This was bad. I knew enough about how Kayaba killed that it would be ineffective on me but it was not me that I was worried about. Ashley was here because I could not muster the courage to hurt her to save her. She was a Demigod but she was a perfect target for this death game. I could not even use my overwhelming strength to protect her. She was trapped in a death game and there was not a thing I could do about it. 

As the panic rose I realized I was feeling again. That I could not hide behind my Occulemency as this body was not my own. It had no magic of its own to provide me with what I needed. So I was left to deal with the swirling emotions but the most prominent was the panic. I brought one of the only things I cared about into a death trap.

She must have read something from my face as she gave me a quizzical look.

"What's got your panties in a twist? It's just a game we will beat this in no time." She threw a peace sign towards me and smiled smugly. She knew nothing about this world. She did not know that she was trapped with her life on the line. Just because a madman wanted to create a world of his own creation. To be a god as he dictated the lives of thousands.

How do I deal with that? How do I tell her that we now had to fight for our lives? That we would face creatures from fantasy with nothing but a sword and grit on our side. How could I face her and announce that I could not protect her so she should stay in the starter village. How could I tell her that she was safe in this death game as I charged into battle away from her? That was the whole reason she was here. I could not walk away from her for her own good. God I never imagined that walking away from someone for their own good was something I needed to do so often. Yet every single time it has come up I made the same choice.

"I know a little about this world. This may be a game but if you die here you will really die. There is no resurrection here." I spoke out with all the seriousness I could muster. I was desperate for a solution that I knew would not come. There was nothing I could say or do that would perfectly protect her. If I left her alone it would break her but if I brought her with me she very well could die. My self loathing was boiling at the mere thought.

She looked at me and grabbed my face forcing me to lock gazes with her.

"If I die I die, Calm down I get enough worry from Andy already I don't need you piling on top of that." She spoke out blandy as if her own life was nothing to really worry about. I hated that as that was what I had felt for ages. I cared if she died. I cared that she felt like her life was worthless. I cared if she was in danger. I cared about her. I wanted to convey that but how could I? We have known each other for such a short time how could she trust these empty words? I would have never accepted such platitudes so why would she?

Still, even if her words have me worried for an entirely different reason they did make some sense. I needed to calm down. My worry and panic will not change the situation we found ourselves in. I needed to face this crisis with a calm and steady mind. I may have been trapped here like every other player but I did have advantages. I had reflexes that dwarfed any other human alive. I was unbelievably lucky. Both of those things would make a truly monstrous opponent to fight in games. Even if I knew jack shit about this game and how to wield a sword.

I was lucky that I could still feel Fortuna's ever present love. She resided in my soul not in the sack of meat I called a body. So even in this digital construct, I could feel her. It was another thing stabilizing my mood. To know that something loved me oh so deeply.

Any and all of my attacks should hit crits just because Fortuna said so. All of the monsters would suffer minor little accidents right when I needed them to. I could get the best loot from what ever I killed. I could enchant our weapons to the max without even really trying. I could craft gear that went well beyond the norm. Was that enough to make sure everything turned out well? I was not sure but It would have to be. I knew I was not capable of telling her to stay safe in that town. It would not be what she wanted.

I looked back at her with my resolve settled. It may not be enough but I will put all of me into protecting her. She was my friend she deserved that effort. I grabbed her shoulders and faced her with all the care my black little heart had.

"Ashley things might get tough here but I will fight tooth and nail to make sure you survive." I wanted to say so much more but it was not my place to do so. I would just have to say those things with my actions.

She looked back at me blankly before she smiled brightly at me. I was not sure if she understood my intent but she seemed happy which was good enough for me.

"That's the spirit how could a Prince worry about dragons when he had a princess to protect." She wore that same cat like expression that I felt was oh so charming. I just smiled softly back at her. Why was I dealing with smug women so often nowadays?

"So how do we play this game Prince? I don't exactly have anything to fight a dragon with. If only I was holding that rocket launcher you sent me." She pouted at me as she showcased her empty hands. It was a good question I knew very little about SAO other than the anime was trash. I just understood the premise. If this is a game we should have some starter gear but we showed up dressed exactly as we were in the real world.

I think I vaguely recalled that the menu was opened by swiping your hands in the air with your hands doing something. It took a couple of guesses at where my fingers needed to be but I opened the menu.

[Main menu.]

[Inventory.]

[Stats. (+)]

[Skills. (+)]

Well, the main menu should hold crap like settings and the unusable logout button. So it might as well not be there. Here is hoping that the inventory had a starter pack. I was not looking forward to boxing these boars until Kayaba summoned everyone.

[Starter Weapon Pack.]

[Starter Armor Pack.]

The weapon pack was just a selection of the available weapons people could start off with. You could only pick one of them and the rest would disappear. I went with a one handed sword as that was what Star Burster Star Blaster was. If I was going to be trapped in a death game I might as well hone my sword skills for when I get back. The Armor pack was worse as the only option was the color of your undershirt. I went for a rather bland red as none of the other options really looked that good.

I explained what I found to Ashley and she pouted at the lack of variety. She decided to go for a spear as it increased her rather small reach. Unsurprisingly she went for a black outfit. 

I then looked over the other menus. The Skill menu was just two empty slots that I could fill with a frankly ridiculous amount of skills. Why in God's name would I want to fish right now? Why was hearing even listed as a skill? What the fuck does trash talk do? Whatever I picked one handed sword mastery and parry. The mastery should up my damage with my chosen weapon while parry should not need any explanation. With my reflexes, I could parry like a filthy casual even if it did not fully negate damage. Come on Kayaba let a player play my guy. If I can't pull off twenty perfectly timed parries in a row am I even playing a game?

I knew blacksmithing was a skill but I did not need it out here in the middle of a fucking field. I could swap out any skill I had for blacksmithing later. It would reset the progress I made on my skills so it was probably better to wait till I get a new slot. I was not really willing to lose progress on important skills like sword mastery and parry. 

I was not really able to offer Ashley any advice here as I knew nothing about SAO. I just went with what felt right. She ended up choosing spear mastery and field treatment. 

Finally, we ended up at stats and I was surprised. There were only two options. Strength and Agility what the fuck Kayaba. What kind of trash tier RPG only had two stats? I should have expected nothing less from the dumbass. For every level I would get three points so I invested one in Strength and two in Agility. Strength affected my base damage and Agility affected how fast I could move. So I concentrated on speed with my non stop crits I did not have to worry too much about base damage. This was not a viable option for Ashley so I suggested the reverse for her.

That did not take very long so we still had a rather long time before Kayaba did his dumbass speech. Ashley and I should have logged in like everyone else. Even if we ended up in the field instead of the starter town. I looked at Ashley as she tried to spin her spear. She was not too successful at that but she was getting better at a rate visible to the eye. Maybe I did not give her the credit she deserved. As a Demi-god she would grow in skill far faster than I could. She might be the one carrying us to the boss.

"Alright, this is a game so we need to kill these mobs before everything turns to shit." I pointed at the boars as Ashley stopped twirling her spear. She just nodded and gave me another smug grin. I rolled my eyes and walked towards the Boar. 

As I approached it charged at me. Objectively I knew it was a rather fast charge but to me, it looked oh so slow. I allowed the Boar to get as close as it could before I sidestepped it and swung my sword heavily into its flank. My side step was not the smoothest but it worked. The sword swing was not the best either but it worked. A bright red line appeared on its flank but the boar shattered into pixels as the line shone brightly.

That was easy. Way too easy. I knew SAO had sword skills that dealt massive damage in exchange for forcing you to freeze when you finished them. The thing was I dealt enough damage with just a regular attack that I did not need to use those skills. I was better off spamming regular attacks instead of getting frozen from a dumb skill.

That might change as I faced higher level mobs but against these boars? Well they might as well call me the Boar Slayer as these chumps were screwed. While I could slaughter these pork chops I was more worried about Ashley so I motioned her to face off against another boar as I checked my loot.

It was nothing much just a scrap of leather and a two hundred cor. I had no context if this was good but I could only assume that this was the best you could get from them. I trusted Fortuna over my own knowledge.

Ashley was not nearly as reckless with the boar as I was. She walked towards the boar with slow and hesitant movements. Eventually, she must have hit the agro range as the boar came charging at her. She did pretty good at reacting to that, she got her spear ready for a strike instead of freezing up like a newbie. She did have that killer instinct after all fear was not something that really affected her. Other than the crippling insecurities she has inflicted on herself that is. 

Her strike was a bit smoother but not as quick as mine but she managed to nail the charging boar right in the head. Since she did not use a skill I was about to go hit it myself but something else happened. The mark indicating damage flashed and the boar exploded. She also hit a crit. Was that just a coincidence or was my luck good enough to also affect her? This needed further testing. So Ashley and I took turns slaughtering pigs making sure to watch out for each other if the other needed help. After the 5th kill I was certain that Ashley shared my crit ability. That meant as long as we were just killing boars we did not need to worry about each other.

So we went to town slaughtering every single boar in the tri-state area. We did have a rather long time till Mister Masterplan monologued at us. I fully intended to milk this period as no other player felt the urgency I felt. Even Kirito the try hard that he was decided to help Klein learn the basics. So Ashley and I should be able to gain a large amount of experience.

Then we just needed to follow that edgy loner for a fair bit.