Exile stayed quiet for a while, formulating his own opinions. It sounded a lot like Crepus's plan was essentially everyone else's; pick an area for mobs then grind the hell out of them. Not that it was a bad plan, and to be honest there probably weren't any better ideas, but it seemed a bit too generic for Crepus to be making a big deal out of it. Then there was the matter of the group having been "hand-picked." Exile figured Crepus knew what he was doing, but SAO went online less than a day ago. How would he know who was good at what in that period of time, let alone who would be best for something like this?

As everyones' friend requests got sent out, Exile accepted them, almost without thinking about it. Crepus stood up and began to lead the others out of the tavern. Exile followed as Crepus took them through the streets of the Town of Beginnings and into the outside world. A friend of his who was in the beta test had told him a bit about the area, so he was able to recognize some of the landmarks, though his knowledge didn't extend farther than that. He knew the road they hadn't taken led to another town, but he knew nothing about this much grittier road leading into the forest. He gripped the sword on his back in case some animals decided to attack them, but that didn't seem to happen at any point. The walk was relatively peaceful, and quiet. No one seemed to care much about small talk, which sort of surprised Exile, though maybe it was because the shock of knowing you were trapped in this world was still setting in for most players.

When they arrived at the mouth of a cavern, Exile couldn't help but be somewhat surprised. "Not sure if you noticed, but caves tend to be a bit too dangerous for beginners like us, even with seven players," he said to Crepus, taking a moment to sit down and take a look at everyones' stats. At that moment, a thought occurred to him about what the GM had said. "You know, those news stories the GM showed us could have been faked," he said to no one in particular. "Think about it. Technology has come a long way. We're all wearing helmets that take our minds to this virtual world, one that's almost indistinguishable from reality. Who's to say that he didn't create those stories to scare us?" he asked.