1st Floor (Aincrad)

The First Floor of Aincrad is geographically the largest floor. It is almost completely circular with a diameter of 10 kilometers (80 square kilometers). The First Floor is roughly the same size as Saitama Prefacture Kawagoe City (population 330,000).

The main settlement on the First Floor is Starting City, but there are also numerous other towns and villages.

Geography
Unlike the higher floors of Aincrad, the First Floor does not have a particular theme or dominant geography. As the starting location of all new players, the great expanse of the First Floor is quite diverse.

Starting City is located on the southern end of the floor and rests over the edge. The settlement as a diameter of 10 km, and it is the focal point of the floor. Its walls form a semi-circle to the north.

Grasslands surround Starting City, and they are populated primarily by boar and wolf-type monsters. Worms, beetles, and wasp-type insect monsters also inhabited the grasslands surrounding Starting City.

To the northwest of Starting City, there is a deep forest region. The northeast is a lake region. Players must pass through either of the two regions before reaching a significantly more dangerous mountainous region containing ruins, valleys, and more difficult monsters.

The first floor maze is located on the far northern edge of the floor. It begins at part of a large 300 meter wide by 100 meter tall tower that is a portion of the dungeon that leads to the 2nd Floor. The first floor maze has twenty floors before the boss room.

«Starting City»

 * See article: Starting City

«Tolbana» Town

 * Tolbana is the second largest town on the First Floor, at approximately 200 meters wide. It is the closest town to the First Floor Dungeon, only 30 minutes distant from the maze entrance, and it is the site of the first «First floor boss strategy conference». The town is lined with large windmills. Players first arrived at Tolbana three weeks after official service of SAO began.
 * Tolbana has several bars and restaurants, 3 inns, and a number of NPC houses. Kirito rented the 2nd floor of a farmer's house once for ten days. Tolbana also has several fountains and an ampitheatre-like meeting place. Its main plaza is known as «Fountain Square».

«Horunka» Village

 * Horunka Village is the second village on the First Floor. Kirito offers to show Klein the way to Horunka Village on the first day, but eventually procedes on his own. It lies to the northeast of Starting City.