An Escape from Reality Ch 11: Flying Solo

I walked through the streets towards the inn I was staying in, hearing the mutters of "Ice Queen" and other unflattering remarks. Ever since Kirito's self-imposed exile as a beater and a disagreement with Sinon which lead to both of us going our separate ways, I avoided contact with people as much as possible. Sinon had yet to delete me from her friends list, I guess we're still friends. Since we haven't talked since that day, I don't know if that's true or not. I had gotten multiple friend requests, party requests and even a few marriage requests all from random guys I've never met. After turning down every request, I started getting call "Ice Queen" and worse. It's gotten so bad that I started going out at night to level grind, just to avoid people. However, since stores were only open during the day, I didn't have much of a choice but suffer the name calling if I wanted to shop.  I still got messages from time to time from Kirito, Klein, and Argo. but the only player that I really talked with often is Lizbeth, one of the better player blacksmiths, and that's only because I have no real interest in increasing my repair skills right now.  As I got to my room, I made a mental note to go see her again tomorrow. My main sword, a Barbaric Longsword, was starting to get low in durability again and I ran out of throwing daggers a couple days ago. I decided to take a nap until ten-ish and grind til dawn using my alternate sword, the Engraved Warblade for now until I could get my Barbaric Longsword repaired. I set my alarm for nine-thirty, laid down and fell asleep.

Several hours later

I woke up 5 minutes before the alarm went off. After turning off the alarm, I left the comfortable bed and went into the bathroom to wash up. Refreshed after my bath, I changed and got ready for my nightly grinding for levels. It was a little mind boggling how easy some things were in here. All it takes is a couple presses of a button and you're changed or cooked a meal. Sometimes I miss being able to actually cook, even if it was just a box of mac and cheese for Anna and I. God, I missed Anna so much. I stopped for a second, thinking about her. I wondered if she missed me too, or if she was glad I was gone. I mean, we didn't exactly leave on the best of terms. We had a big argument the night before I got trapped in here. She wanted to skip school to play this game, and I won't let her. For a second I wondered how different it would been if I had let her stay home. I shook my head and quickly wiped my eyes. Now wasn't the time to worry about that kind of stuff. I had to get out of here alive, and to do that, I needed to become stronger.

After double-checking my equipment and made sure I had enough healing and teleport crystals, I decided that now was as good a time as ever to head out. The inn I was staying at was on the 18th floor even though we had just opened up the 19th floor a week ago, so I had to make use of teleport gate. The walk was relatively uneventful. Given the late hour, the shops were closed and most people were in their beds. Even though it took longer, the path I took avoided all the bars, so I wouldn't have to deal with those types. Suddenly, a guy came stumbling out of the shadows, obviously drunk. I quickly jumped into a side alley, trying to avoid him. He looked around for a second and then proceeded to stumble away, presumably to his inn room. After a couple minutes of trying to quiet my rapidly beating heart, I left the alley and moved towards my destination. I made it the rest of the way to the teleport gate without incident. I stood on the teleport gate and stated my desired destination.

After I finished materializing on the 19th floor, I headed to a small town called Vrochester on the eastern side of the map. The monsters there were a level or two lower than me, but they attacked in pairs and gave almost 4,000 exp per monster. As long as I didn't aggro too many at once, I would be fine. I slashed at the first pair to get their attention, and finished them both with a horizontal. I repeated those tactics and slowly cleared the field. I moved from field to field, clearing out the enemies two at a time, using the few trees as cover. One hour became two became eight. I was so focused on grinding that I didn't hear the sounds of another battle until I was almost on top of it.

After noticing the battle I'd almost got into, I backed up a bit and watched the group battle. They had a good handle on combat, letting the two tanks do the heavy lifting while the three lighter fighters weaved in and out of the battle. They were mostly quiet, only shouting out to switch. Suddenly, one of their fighters was crippled by an attack. Both monsters loomed over him and it looked like he was going to get killed. Now, I don't like jumping into other peoples' fights, but I do when it looks like he or she needs help and this person definitely needed help and I was the closest one. I sliced at the pair, grabbing the aggro, while he scrambled back and used a healing crystal. His companions rushed in to help him up, then turned and nodded their thanks. Both monsters went down relatively quickly due to my superior weapons. I turned to walk away when one of the tanks yelled to me.

"Hey, thanks for the assist."

"Of course, no problem," I quickly replied, hoping to be done with this and start heading back to town. Lizbeth's shop would be opening soon, and the sooner I got that done, the sooner I could grab some food and go to bed.

"No really, thanks," the guy I saved piped up, " can I buy you a meal or something?"

I smirked slightly, "sorry,  I don't do dates with strangers."

He turned crimson while his friends laughed. "That's not what I meant. I mean I'm already taken. This is just as a repayment for saving me. I'm technically Icemaster, but everyone calls me Kristoff."

I froze. Kristoff was one of Anna's friends, her boyfriend if I recalled correctly. I had seen Anna talking to him a couple of times,  but it didn't look like he recognized me.

"I'm Frozone," the tank stated, "I'm the leader of this motley group we call a guild. That is Blizzard, Iceman, and Jack Frost." They all nodded as he said their name

I politely nodded. "It's nice to you all."

"I couldn't help but notice that you are a solo player, Miss ..?" Frozone asked.

"Fuyuko. You can call me Fuyuko." I replied.

"Would you like to join our little group? We could use your strength." Frozone inquired.

"Why not. I was getting bored being alone all of the time." I responded.

He sent a guild invite and I quickly accepted.

"Welcome to the Sentinels of Ice, Fuyuko," Frozone stated.