Puttin' a lotta thought into this and I like it. We'll roll with that since its way more plausible.
But I do wanna keep in mind that each floor of Aincrad is gargantuan. I originally had a unit of measurement that just said "hella" on it. 
What do you think would be an acceptable amount of time to travel in this area, given that teleportation is possible.
I'd thought of saying there were signposts or something that acted as a teleport location to certain safe areas across the first floor. Because walking everywhere one end to another in my mind would take up days. From start zone to the floor boss it would take a week of travel at least. I'm talking about on foot, overnight, walking.

The potential for people making camps during the initial exploration phase is very high so there needs to be areas, despite being in the forests or deep in the tunnels of the gorge, that are considered minor safe zones. 
Monsters dont come close.