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As I slashed through another boar I felt confident enough to adventure a bit further. Ashley and I have been destroying every single boar that dared to spawn. In fact Ashley was doing way better than I was. Her longer reach meant she could kill the mobs faster. While I concentrated my stats into Agility we were still only level 1 so it's only a single point difference.

While we were having a rather easy time farming the boars I knew this was not optimal. On the other hand, this is a death game and I should not gamble her life on false bravado. I did have an effective method that should tell me the best route. I summoned a single cor from my inventory and flipped it. I trusted Fortuna beyond anything else and she would never guide me poorly. It landed on heads which meant we could move on from killing boars.

"We got a hang of things so let's move on to better mobs." My comment was noted but Ashley had a boar in front of her that needed impalement so she did that first. Ashley and I were complete noobs in this game but in combat we were like fish meeting water. I even managed to figure out how to use sword skills. The skill managed to explode the boar I was fighting without a crit but the wasted second of being frozen was not optimal. It was nice knowing I had something in the back pocket when dealing with higher tier mobs or bosses.

The parry mechanic was fairly easy to discover and use but it sucked. At its current level I still took damage if I parried a blow. I was better off just dodging as the parry only negated forty five percent of the damage. It sucked taking damage in a death game when I knew I could have just avoided the hit. I only used it when I had full health and even then I just did it to grind the skill. I knew that I needed to use it as much as I could to grind even if it did suck now. Just you wait Kayaba I will parry every single one of your shit tier slashes and merc you for this bullshit.

Ashley turned around and twirled her spear and rolled it over her shoulders. How she managed to go from I don't know how to use a spear to showing off like a Lancer I don't know. All I can say is being a Demi-god was bullshit and that was coming from me.

"It was getting kind of boring killing the same thing over and over again. The boars make nice targets but I was hoping for something more human like to take my anger out on." She spoke out as she gave me a toothy smile. Right, Ashley had some rage she wanted to take out on random shitheads. Ashley was the type of player that would one hundred percent join Laughing Coffin. I would have to talk her out of killing random dick heads. This game can not be won by a villain. Kayaba would not allow it. He made this whole world to create a true hero in the modern age.

Maybe that was giving him too much credit. I actually don't remember what his motives were other than he had a boner over Kirito. I never really bothered watching SAO as I heard the first season sucked. I did watch the Abriged but how was that going to help me here?

"So where are we off to captain?" This time she gave me a cheery smile as she walked towards me. That was a good question. I knew that we were capable of moving on from here but that's it. We were in a fucking field in the middle of nowhere. If I just walked in a random direction I was likely to just wander nowhere. I really wish we had Kirito as his obsession with this game would have been really helpful. Sadly he was helping BallsDeep69 fight boars right now. Well, when I had no idea what I was doing Luck is the answer.

I threw my sword into the air and watched as it spun and landed on the ground, The tip of the sword was pointing eastward so there is where we had to be. Seriously fuck Deadpool luck is a super power.

"Seriously that's how you are going to decide where we are going. What are you a five year old?" Ashley spoke out as she laughed. Right, she did not know about Fortuna. To her my actions were probably really childish,

"If there is one thing I am confident in it's my luck. Or did you forget my point tally and what I pulled in the Gacha." I announced smugly. I could tell her what the source of this supernatural luck was but I could not find it in me to do so. I think I could trust Ashley but I thought I could trust her as well. The ending to that was not something I wanted to deal with again. Then again even if she knew about Fortuna Ashley could not use Fortuna to hurt me like she did.

She looked like she was about to say something before pausing.

She then shrugged and marched eastward.

"You do you magic man." She announced in a nonchalant manner. I was not sure if she believed in my luck or was just used to my bullshit. I suppose it did not matter as long as she followed my lead. Although I would appreciate her trusting me on this as opposed to just going along with it.

We marched along for a fairly long time. There were some boars in the way but the both of us could decimate boars with zero effort. So the walking was not a complete waste of time. The boars dropped more leather and cor but I did end up getting some meat. Food was not something I was looking forward to. This death game had a hunger system so we were going to have to eat meals. At our low levels the only thing we had access to was fucking bread. Not soft bread either fucking medieval bread that could be used to brain someone. Even the try hard Kirito was eating bread a month into this game so good food was a long way away. 

Having meat as a drop was good on that front. The thing is the meat we got was very raw. Sure I could cook it but I needed the cooking skill for that. I was not exactly willing to waste a slot on cooking when there were so many other skills I needed. Like blacksmithing or battle healing so I could use parry more often. Cooking might be good later on as most food crafting systems had buffs at higher levels. Even then I would not invest in a cooking skill until much later. Ashley could pick it up but I wanted her to have the best chance at living through this.

Should I pick up a random person to cook for us? I was not really that willing to invest in a random dipshit who would likely be panicking at being in a death game. Any of the named characters I could think about are likely to not want to pick up cooking this early. Even Asuna who originally had the cooking skill would not have picked it up as she would be wallowing. She is a teenage girl thrust into a death game wallowing should be expected. She would get over it only to switch into suicidal reckless determination. She would only get out of that when Kirito started to make his moves on her. So she was likely to be useless for a good while.

I was in a similar place and I had far more advantages. I was wallowing for entirely different reasons but I was doing so. So I could understand Asuna's actions.

I did not want to pull dead weight but I also did not want to eat hard bread for a month either. Then again Kirito is a try hard who can't socialise. I could certainly understand that so maybe he only had bread because he could not be bothered to talk to people. There was bound to be someone out of the ten thousand players who took cooking. I would not have to take them with us I just needed to funnel ingredients to them. They would get xp from crafting in a nice safe town while I got to eat something edible. The problem with that was I would still have to find a person in that ten thousand large crowd. Maybe I could put up a bounty? I was bound to get a good amount of money with my luck so it should be doable.

As I contemplated the fate of our future meals we arrived near a forest. The forest was fairly average. The trees were sparse enough that we could maneuver through it without struggling. All in all it just looked like a regular forest which was odd. You would expect a forest filled with dense foliage and towering trees considering this is an MMORPG. This is only the first floor so maybe my expectations were too high. Disregarding its mundane looks this was the forest that Fortuna led me to so this was the best route.

We walked into the forest with far too much confidence. Ashley and I managed to level up on our way here so I was feeling slightly less concerned. Almost too soon I heard a small growl.

I looked around and found the creature making said noise. It was a large wolf that honestly looked starved as it was rather bony. It prowled around us as it paced. It had bright red eyes and patchy fur. It was a step up from the boars but it was clearly not a healthy wolf.

Ashley also spotted it as she twirled her spear into position. I walked forward to catch its attention and motioned for her to flank it. If I could not take care of it both of our attacks should do it.

As I grew close it stopped pacing and bared its fangs. It then charged towards me likely wanting to rip my neck open. Ashley may have been complaining about fighting animals but there was a good thing about it. Animals tended to have moves that were a lot more rigid and easy to read. So while the wolf was faster than the boar it was equally easy to handle. As it got closer to ripping my throat out I parried it and used its momentum to launch it into the air. I then activated the slash and hit it while it was airborne. When it did not immediately dissolve into pixels I was worried but the mark flashed as my crit popped and the wolf died.

That was good while the starved wolf was a higher tier mob it was still easy to handle. With her increased skills Ashley should have no problem killing these mobs. The loot I got was four hundred cor and a wolf fang. 

"Well, that was easier than expected. We should be able to take care of these mobs but we should still be together just in case." I winched as my health was almost in the red. I did not have healing potions so parrying that attack was not a good idea. It was rather reckless to parry a mob when I had no information on it. I was going to have to use my head a lot more if I wanted to win this death game.

"You think?" She spat out sarcastically as she used field treatment to raise my health slowly. Her opinion on my reckless actions was noted. It felt nice having an actual person care about me even if said person was berating me. Fortuna was not happy about that distinction. 

"Sorry about that I was not really thinking." I smiled sheepishly at her as she healed me. She just huffed at me and continued to berate me. I was just going to have to take this one on the chin. I did do something stupid after all.

Once she finished healing me we got back to grinding. It was a little slower than our boar grinding but the xp we got was nearly double that of a boar. I was not able to grind parry here but my sword mastery leveled up a fair bit faster.

After we killed a decent amount of starved wolfs I heard a loud girlish scream for help. My first instinct was to search desperately for Ashley but she was right beside me. She only gave me an amused look as she caught me looking for her, Once that brief panic settled I wondered who the fuck was out here. Sure most people still considered this a regular game so going to higher tier mobs for grinding was common. The thing with that was why would a person scream for help if they were here for grinding? If they thought this was a game then death was nothing scary and we did not feel pain in this game. So screeching out for help was odd behavior especially since it was unlikely that another player would hear said plea. It was far too much of a lucky coincidence that we heard said cry for help.

Since it was a lucky coincidence I traveled towards the cries for help. If Fortuna was guiding this then saving this person was something that needed to be done. 

Ashley and I soon found ourselves in a small glade. In said glade was a young teen who was cowering in fear as five starved wolves prowled around them. As soon as I saw the young girl in the glade I knew what was happening. This was not a player screaming for help as they feared death. This was an NPC who was issuing a quest. The girl had the title Scared Girl above her head. I looked back at Ashley who relaxed as she got a read on the situation.

Killing five wolves at once would be difficult but not impossible. I gripped my blade and got ready to fight. Seeing that Ashley gave me a bland look before rolling her eyes as she got ready to fight.

"I'll gather their attention and you use attack skills to pick them off." I spoke out lowly as I did not want to pop the event that was going on just yet.

"You want to gather the attention of all of them? Did you forget what happened when you parried just one blow?" She hissed out and narrowed her eyes at me. Again I felt warm at her worry but it was unneeded.

"Don't worry I only took damage because I parried. At their speed, I should have no problem dodging." That was the bonus of this VRMMORPG using your body to dodge instead of using numbers.

She looked at me intensely before nodding slowly. She may not like me putting myself in danger but she accepted it for now. That was good enough for me.

I walked towards the glade and the event finally activated. The NPC scream switched to just crying and the wolves targeted me. I stood in the center of the glade and waited for them to charge over. Instead of charging me all at once, the wolves circled around me. This was not optimal but it was workable. 

The wolves circled closer and closer. I knew eventually one of them would charge over when it thought I showcased weakness. When they did that the other wolves would attack from blind spots. So I took the decision out of their hands when they got too close. I charged towards one and swung my sword. The wolf was startled and the other wolves charged but I was able to take a good chunk of its health. I knocked the wolf in front of me out of formation and Ashley took the initiative to kill that one.

I looked back quickly it was only my monstrous reflexes that saved my life. A wolf was already a foot away from my neck so I crouched and swung my sword upwards hard as it passed over me. The wolf let out a startled yelp and again it was sent flying.

The other three wolves narrowed their eyes and snarled at me. I heard the wolf I sent flying yelp again as Ashley took it out. Three was a lot easier to handle than five they tried to circle me but with their low numbers Ashley came out of hiding. She used a spear skill to one shot a wolf. She was frozen for a moment so a wolf charged at her while the other one charged at me. We were close enough that I was able to dodge out of the way of the wolf and use my own sword skill to kill the one charging Ashley.

That just left the one that missed its attack on me but Ashley was no longer frozen so she took care of it quickly. Once the final one was killed I relaxed and let out the breath I was holding.

"See five wolves were no problem." I looked at Ashley who only rolled her eyes at me. Whatever she knew I was right that was all that mattered. We even managed to level up. Ha, take that Kirito Ashley and I are already level three while you wasted time. It was a little risky but this is a death game we were always going to have to take risks if we wanted to win it.

"We could have just farmed the mobs but instead we had to save this dumb cunt." She looked over at the cowering NPC. Apparently, Ashley's rampant misogyny also applied to nonsentient beings. I should be shocked but I really was not.

"It was not about saving her it was about triggering a quest." I smiled at Ashley as I approached the NPC. Ashley should have already gotten a good reading about the situation but she was not known for being the most rational. She just narrowed her eyes at me and huffed. I can't imagine if I actually wanted to save the life of a random girl. How salty would that make her?

I just shrugged back at her as we reached the NPC. The young girl seemed to come alive as she rushed over and hugged me as she sobbed. I could already feel Ashley staring at the back of my head but now I had to deal with a sobbing girl who was showering me in her thanks and tears. I was not sure what to do about this. I should comfort her but the very real glare on the back of my neck was throwing me. I just did not want to deal with further salt for an NPC of all things. Thankfully the choice was taken out of my hands as the girl finally calmed down and stepped away from me.

"Sorry. I was just so scared." The teary girl gave me a shaky smile as she hugged herself.

"Thank you. I can only imagine what would have happened to me if you did not show up." She shuddered as she spoke out shakily. She then looked back at me and Ashley and looked away in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry to ask you this but do you think you could escort me out of these woods?" She looked frightened at the prospect of me not agreeing to her request. I figured something like this was going to happen considering her situation. Before I could respond a screen popped in front of me.

[Quest The Scared Girl received.]

A young girl has found herself trapped in the depths of Malin Valley. She needs an escort out of these woods or she will surely perish. Escort the frightened girl out of Malin Valley.

Rewards: 2000 XP, 50,00 Cor, and a Fine Blade.

[]

That certainly makes this worth it. I looked back smugly at Ashley but that smug smile faded as she was glaring at me. I gestured towards the open quest and she read it. She huffed but grabbed the girl and started to drag her out of the forest. Seeing that I just laughed. It may have been rude to drag this scared girl but she was just an NPC. She also just gave me a fucking escort quest so she kind of deserved the rude treatment. Even if she did give me a nice chunk of Cor and another level with that XP boost. I was not sure if Fine Blade is a good weapon but it should certainly beat the lousy starter blade I got.

As Ashley dragged the poor girl away a starved wolf would spawn every once and a while. When that happened the girl would screech and cower. Ashley would only give her a deadpan look as I attacked the wolf. Sure the cowering slowed us down but only a couple of wolves would spawn at a time so it was not really that hard.

We managed to escort the girl out of the forest without getting into any real trouble. Which meant Ashley and I managed to get another level and I got a brand new blade. Like I thought the blade was a lot better than the starter blade. With this bad boy, it should be a lot easier to level up. I would have gone back to grinding but the sun was setting in Aincard which meant it was time for Mister Masterplan to summon us.