AN: Thanks for everyone who has favorited this story, I didn't expect the sudden response. This is my first attempt at a fan fiction, and I am treating this as an experiment to improve my writing. Because of this, please review with any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism you have. I will also accept ideas about where to go from here, although I have a vague idea about where I'm going. FYI, this story will most likely loosely follow the first few episodes before I will branch off into a few different arcs. Thanks for listening to this rant, and please review, follow, and favorite.

3 weeks later

"Duck Kirito!" I yelled as a arrow went whizzing over his head. As soon as the barrage stopped, both of us ran forward, Kirito distracting it before I snuck up behind the orc slashing the archer's throat, chopping off its head. As the body and head exploded into polygons, I stepped through the body, giving Kirito a thumbs up, signaling that the surrounding area was clear. As Kirito checked his drops, I looked at my drops, sighing in relief that this orc dropped the only meat that can sedate my hunger for human flesh.

We slowly walked to the fringe of the forest that we had just cleared, making our way to the outskirts of what looked to be a farming town. As we walked along the cobblestone path surrounded by golden stalks of wheat, barely, and corn, Kirito started to become anxious, as this was the first major town we had visited.

"Ready to return to civilization?" Kirito joked.

"More than you'll ever know" I retorted, pushing him off balance before running off to the town.

Gengura Town

As we entered the town, we were met with the gloomy, depressed faces of around 500 avatars, staring blankly at the beautiful town square, which also functioned as the town's marketplace. As we approached a stall, some of the players walked towards us with a glint of curiosity, wondering what kind of gear those who were brave or just foolish enough to hunt in the surrounding forests. Ignoring their stares, I approached an NPC, and tried to trade with him directly through the menu. As Kirito realized that I was struggling, he smirked saying,"You have to trade to NPC using the physical object, not the item in your inventory screen." As he saud this, he pulled the many weapons, armor, and food drops, and set them in a pile. The NPC walked out from behind his stand and offered Kirito a sac of gold that looked like it would destroy the cloth sac at any second. As I repeated Kirito's actions, our group of onlookers had grown to almost everyone in the market. While we transferred the gold to our inventories, a short, fiery haired man gained the courage to approach us and asked,"what are your levels, if I may ask?"

Kirito quickly replied,"Oh us, we're both level 12, why?"

At this, the man literally fell on his ass. Once he had stood back up, he opened his menu and invited us to an event named ,"Raid Meeting". As he turned to leave, I swear I could hear him mumble,"I hope these two strong people show for the boss raid, or leader PoH will punish me!"

End AN: Yes, I plan to make PoH a major character in this story, along with having the Laughing coffin play a prominent role. Along with that note, I will have several minor OCs appear in it as well, but this is all in another time and chapter. Thank you for reading, and please follow, favorite, and most importantly review!