AN: Alright, the title for this is a work in progress so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

AN2: Everything I know about SAO comes from the Anime and what I can find on SAO wiki pages so if there is a person out there who had read the manga and is willing to give me a hand when needed, it would be greatly appreciated.

Dark Wolf

Chapter 1

-Kirito-

"Link Start!" he called out eagerly, wanting to enter the realm of Aincrad again as his vision went white with streak of color shooting towards him, or maybe he was shooting towards them? Soon he saw a round symbol with the word touch, followed by identical circles with the words sight, hearing, taste, and smell as the nerve gear connected to his senses. He quickly selected 'Japanese' as the Language for everything to be displayed and heard in for him before finally getting to the log in screen as he put in his username and password.

Looking at the screen that floated in front of him he saw two options.

Beta-Character (Normal): Physical appearance and name shall remain as they were in the Beta but the players level and stats will be reset to beginner levels, any and all items and Col in their Inventory will be removed, and any unique or extra skills deleted.

Beta-Character (Advanced): Physical appearance and name shall remain as they were in the Beta as well as the characters level and stats. The play is allowed to keep one item from their inventory and half of their Col along with the starting amount. Any unique or extra skills gained will remain the same as they were in the Beta. NOTE: only accessible if the quest 'Secret of the Dark Tower' was completed.

Grinning he selected the advanced option as well as his Queen's Knightsword which was plus twenty along with its normal damage and its ability to have a decaying effect on the durability of the weapons and armor of his opponents (AN: Note I'm not sure if this is the ability the sword had in the actual anime or manga as I couldn't find it ANYWHERE, and I did look, but I saw the idea on a fanfiction called "Alpha, not Beta" by Kandescent Shades-13 so shout out to them).

The quest 'Secret of the Dark Tower' had been the hardest quest he had done in the Beta and for a very good reason. Kayaba had anticipated the Beta testers wanting to be allowed to keep their stats and skills from the beta when the official game came out so the creator of SAO had put together a quest to test them. When there was only a week left in the Beta Kayaba opened the quest and told every Beta about it and the rules involved which were:

Solo players only, no guild groups or parties allowed for the quest

If you die doing the quest then your Beta test was over and your account would not allow you to log back until you got the official game

Once you entered the tower for the quest you couldn't leave

Any attempts to PK another player inside the tower would result in your character dying

Healing crystals and potions are not allowed inside the tower

The quest involved the player having to solve twenty different floors, each floor consisting of a puzzle or riddle, followed by a swarm of monsters. Of the thousand Beta testers three hundred had already decided to not buy the full version, four hundred had decided they wanted to start over with a completely new character, while the remaining three hundred, including himself, undertook the quest. A hundred and twelve died in the first five floors, not being able to solve the logic puzzles quickly enough which released the monsters before they could heal enough. One hundred and thirty eight died over the next ten floors for the same reasons while the remaining fifty dwindled down until only himself and seven other players remained at the twentieth level which he was the only one to solve. After completing the quest he still had a few hours left in the Beta so he went to the highest level town he could find and sold everything he had except for his Queen's Knightsword to have as much col as possible, the rules for the level transfer having been explained after beating the quest.

Now though he was finally going back to the world of SAO, where he was truly free. His vision turned grey as the worlds 'welcome to sword art online' swam before his eyes that faded away and turned into blue and white streaks of light that seemed to arc with lightning that shattered around him as he breathed in the air of SAO once again.

Quickly he took off through the arches of the plaza he spawned in and entered the market, watching the other thousands of players trying to decide what to buy with their starting col and who to party with. Unlike them though he already had eight skills slots with skills that were a decent level, having the starting three as well as the extras he gained every five levels with the last slot being two levels ago. Weaving his way through the crowds with a practiced ease he went to a vendor he knew sold quality items, the NPC vendors having variants with some focusing more on price, some on quality, some trying to balance, and a rare few having both. He bought a set of senbon throwing needles from the weapons vendor as well as a belt to store them and other items in along with a few throwing knives before heading to an NPC tailor and bought an outfit close to what he wore in the Beta, a black trench coat over a black t-shirt, with black jeans and black combat boots…so he liked the color black, sue him. His last stop was a general supplies store where he bought a rope, a shovel, some wire and a few other items for trap making.

Quickly running out of the side gate he jogged in the direction of the west field, wanting to get a good feel for the battle system again before going for real challenges, before hearing a voice call out behind him "Hey, wait up!". Turning around he saw a teenager with reddish pink hair, a scarlet and gold bandana, and the starting outfit with the leather chest armor. When the read head managed to catch up, albeit doubled over and panting, his follower stated "You seem to know your way around here, you were in the beta test, weren't you?".

"Uh…yeah." He said somewhat surprised, before realizing that he was wearing an outfit that was completely different from everyone else's, had a unique sword on his back, and had run through the market like he owned the place…not exactly newbie behavior.

"Cool," the stranger remarked before looking somewhat sheepish "listen the name's Klein and I was hoping you could give me a few tips to get me started here on the lower floors. I haven't used Nerve gear before and I don't understand the system yet.".

"I don't know," he said cautiously, not sure exactly how much help 'Klein' was wanting or if the guy just wanted to mooch and try to get his rare items.

"I don't want much," Klein panicked, probably having figured out his hesitation "I just wanted some help getting the battle system explained and maybe a few tips on shops and stuff like that if you're willing.".

Sighing in amused exasperation he smirked and said "Fine, the names Kirito.".

-West Field-

-Five minutes later-

He watched as Klein, his new 'apprentice' got launched back by a boar giving a full charge and slamming the guy between the legs, sending Klein flying with a yell of shock and, imagined, pain before the red head began rolling on the ground, clutching himself between the legs and groaning in pain.

"Oh come on, seriously?" he deadpanned "You can't feel any pain.".

Like a switch Klein stopped groaning and got to his feet "Oh yeah, you're right." Klein said sheepishly "Sorry, habit.".

Shaking away his thoughts about how he could have a habit from getting kicked there, some things were better left unknown, lectured "Remember what I said? The first move is the most important.".

"Yeah that's easy for you to say," Klein groused "but the bloody walking piece of bacon just won't stand still.".

Shaking his head he plucked up a small rock from the ground and pulled his arm back, the stone taking on a sinister red glow "If you do your initial motion right, and activate a sword skill at the right time," he launched the stone with a hard throw striking the boar on the flank and dropped its HP down to the red, "the system pretty much guarantees you'll always hit your target.". As he finished the mini lecture he gave a mental sigh of relief that he hadn't one-shot the boar with the rock as he knew would have happened if he used one of his senbon or knives…or any sword skill besides the basic one he had. He didn't want to show off too badly what his level was.

"Initial…motion…" Klein muttered softly before the red head seemed to have a breakthrough as his stance changed and the teenager rested the curved blade on his shoulder, causing it to glow with a dull orange light before Klein lunged at the boar, taking out the rest of its health.

As the boar shattered a screen popped in front of each of them, showing the Experience gained, the Col gained, and the number of items dropped, twenty four, thirty, and two in this case. As Klein jumped around cheering, and trying out a few sword skills, he opened his menu to check on his skills which read:

One handed straight sword (286/1000)

Dual wielding (124/1000)

Thrown weapon (189/1000)

Battle healing (275/1000)

Parry (280/1000)

Hiding (204/1000)

Searching (205/1000)

Sprint (232/1000)

(AN: I tried to make the skills as believable as possible based off what Kirito had in the Anime along with him being level 27 at the end of the Beta and the Beta testers only getting to the tenth floor)

Quickly he swapped out Dual wielding for 'trap setting' as he wanted to keep that skill, one he had unlocked a couple of days before doing the Dark tower quest even if he wasn't sure how, a secret. Closing out the screen he looked up to see Klein still having his rather…enthusiastic celebration causing him to shake his head and say "Nice going," making the bouncing red head pause and grin before he continued "but that boar wasn't very challenging, it was about as weak as slimes are in other games.".

"Holy crap you've gotta be kidding!" Klein gapped at him "I thought that thing was a mid-level boss!".

Chuckling he said "Not even close." gesturing to the spawning boars across the field, taking amusement in Klein's clearly injured pride. Taking pity on the man he pulled out his new trap making supplies "I'm planning on working on my trap setting skill, how about I trap em and you slice em?".

In way of answer Klein flipped his sword up and shot him a wide grin that promised a lot of pain for the nearby boars.