Waking up to the sensation of a wet rag being slapped around his face, Kirito woke up, sputtering for air.

"Gah!"

Sitting up in his bed, the hero wiped his hand down his face and grimaced as he could taste dog slobber.

"Snowy! No!"

The dog yipped in realization of having his name called, and spun around in a circle, his tail wagging hack in forth, a million times a second.

"No." Kirito scolded, rolling back over into his bed.


Angirly glaring ahead as Kirito walked down a cobblestone path with old fashioned wooden buildings on either side of him, he recalled the events of the morning. After attempting to get at least another five minutes of sleep, Snowy, however, had a completely different agenda and decided to lick Kirito's face like as if it were a tasty popsicle.

And so, the Swordsman and Husky walked down the rocky path, with irritation painted across the latter's features.

"Snowy, you're lucky you're cute." Kirito admitted, walking into a building known as Agil's Shop.

"Ah, Kirito!"

The mentioned player shifted his glance around the place looking for whoever called his name until he saw a man.

The man was burly, but his vibe and appearance said he was friendly. He was bald and wore an apron over a white shirt, with grease marks decorating his attire. He was bald, but it suited him well. He was a darker man and had a southern accent.

"Agil, how's it been?" Kirito greeted, his hands already swiping through his inventory and pulling out items from thin air.

"Meh, business as usual," he commented, folding his arms, "How's it been for you?"

Swiping out of his inventory, Kirito continued:

"Well, I met with Liz yesterday and got my weapons upgraded. Oh, I almost forgot-"

Hefting up 'Snowy the Husky' to the counter between him and Agil, he introduced her.

"This is Snowy. Argo gave me her as a gift and I was wondering if you had anything for her."

The mentioned husky sat obediently on the counter, her eyes staring ahead.

"Oh, well… I'm sure I have something around here…" Agil mentioned as he dug around in the boxes behind him.

Around ten minutes and a couple pieces of bread later, Agil managed to find something. Pulling out what could only be described as dog armor, the chrome object shimmered magnificently in the light. The plates even came with a similarly colored helmet.

"I present, dog armor!" Agil joked, hefting up the polished iron from the floor to the counter, "Some schmuck came in and traded this for a couple of bows. It's a level eighty-two, with nothing else noticeable about it. It'll upgrade and break just like any other piece of clothing."

Kirito inspected the shiny piece of armor, picking it up and rotating it for good measure.

"How much?" Kirito deadpanned.

"Straight to the point, as always," Agil nervously laughed, "I was thinking around five thousand col, but if you had ten or so silver bars I could lower it to three thousand."


Strolling out of the blacksmith's shop with a husky clad in new armor closely strutting behind, Kirito quickly checked his messages and finding a couple new ones, two of them from Argo. Quickly glancing over the heading of the messages, Kirito decided not to open them as it would most certainly not benefit him.

The other message was from his old friend, Klein.

Why would Klein message him? The only time he got a message from his old friend was when he asked for some money, because apparently a women up and robbed him during a date. Deciding to answer his question himself, he tapped the message.

Message from: Klien

Kirito, theres a meeting this afternoon. Its about Asuna.

Kirito's breath hitched and his heart skipped a beat.

Reply: Klien

I'll be there.


Morning came and went, with Kirito having to chase his dog nearly four times. Why did Argo have to give him the weird things? First it was the flying shoes, invisible blanket (impossible to find), and now we have a stubborn dog that wouldn't listen if it's life depended on it.

Moving on, Kirito strolled briskly down a gravel path, his shoes crackling against the rough ground. His dog was at home, as the swordsman decided it was best not to bring a ill listening dog to a meeting. Kirito entered The Knights Blood's (TKB) main base.

Their grey castle has barely changed since his last visit, save for a couple new faces doing mundane chores across the castle. Kirito disregarded this information and entered the main area of the fortress.

Entering the dimly lit room, Kirito took note of the architecture, his eyes unconsciously scanning the environment. The castle was very traditional, with painted windows letting in sunlight, with walls made of cobblestone bricks. A gleaming chandelier decorated with at least thirty candles hung above the circular table in the middle of the room, swinging a little from side to side.

At the table sat three people.

To the left of where Kirito would normally sit, was Daizen, current co-leader of Knights of the Blood. He was a fairly large individual, donned in his standard Knights of the Blood attire. His hair was slicked back and he was tossing a bag of coins back in forth between his hands, obviously bored.

Across from Kirito, sat his old partner, Klein. Wearing sparkly red armor, Klein twirled a strand of his also red hair in his finger, his other hand flying through his menu.

Two seats to the right of Kirito was Thinker, currently slumped over the table, lightly snoring.

"You're late," Daizen commented, "By about fifteen minutes."

Kirito grimaced as he realized that he was very much so, late.

"Sorry, I got caught up in some things." Kirito disregarded.

Daizen huffed at the boy's reply, choosing to stay silent rather than jeer him. Kirito nervously smiled and sat down next to him.

"On with the meeting, then!" Klein proclaimed, while bringing his hand down to wake the sleeping Thinker.


"Ah yes! We're having a meeting!" Thinker sleepily bumbled, exhaustion evident in his features.

I contained a snort as he attempted to organize himself and wipe the sleep out of his eyes.

"Alrighty, since everyone seems to be present-"

Daizen leered over at me as he continued,

"-and awake, let the meeting commence. Today we will talk about the recent discovery concerning the Caustic Caves, among other things."

The Caustic Caves. I went there looking for the rumored herb of healing and found nothing save for a couple of very dangerous and very unfriendly looking pools of acid. Maybe they found the medicine?

Daizen noticed how he suddenly had Kirito's full attention.

"Sorry to be a Negative Nancy kid, but they didn't find any medicine down there. But, what they did find was a weird NPC. They tried to talk to him but he kept saying, "Bring me the strongest one," over and over. And well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you are the strongest one here, Kirito. I've already organized a group of three to lead you to where the man is. Give the word when you're ready."

Kirito nodded in agreement, and was already sorting through his inventory of items he may need for this quest.

"Now that that's sorted, onto more pressing matters," Daizen started.

"Ah, yes," Thinker commented, "I've heard of the dwindling player count. Shall we increase the standard level allowed for clearing parties?"

The standard level. It's what level you had to have to be a part of the main clearing group. Now, of course you could go to floor seventy-five and be a level twenty, but that wouldn't go very well. The current standard level was five levels above the current floor. So, if we were on floor eighty-three, you had to be at least a level eighty-eight.

Sensing this conversation would lead to him falling asleep, I quietly dismissed myself and readied my gear for the poisonous caves.


Stepping out of the dark castle, Kirito found the aforementioned people talking quietly at the castle's gates. The first person was a man with brown hair and hazel eyes. He was wearing a leather tunic that went down to his knees. He carried two daggers in sheathes that were hanging by his belt. Kirito could deduce that this character was focused around speed, judging by the lack of armor and daggers he carried.

The second person was a girl. Platinum blonde hair flowed freely around her back and occasionally brushed up against her full iron body armor. Her helmet was in her hand, the other one resting on the hilt of a greatsword sheathed at her side. She had pale blue eyes and was somewhat cute in face complexion. She was a person centered around the tank build.

The last person was also a girl. She had somewhat short black hair flowing freely. On top of her hair was a pointy witch hat. She wore a tunic like the first man, but it was much more decorated with things like pins, badges, and such. Her eyes were a dark brown, and seemed to pulsate purple at times. On the side of her hat, there was a name that read Aki. it looked poorly stitched but it held.

"Hello," Kirito greeted, "Ready for the quest?"

All three players immediately perked up at Kirito's sudden appearance.
"Oh, hey," the first player replied, "We're all ready to go."

Kirito nodded and let out a high pitched whistle. Snowy, the white husky, suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere and sat down next to Kirito's side.

"Let's go, then."


The walk to the cave was uneventful, for Kirito at least. There were a couple of minor monsters, as Kirito called them, and cut through them as one would do with bread.

The entrance to the underground caverns was ominous and not-very-friendly looking.

"Well, we better get started." Kirito sighed.

And so they begun their descent into the cave.

I think its funny how the world works. Last week I suddenly remember that I used to write porn on this website and decided to do it again, minus the porn part. Exactly 375 days ago, or Jan 10th, I finished chapter one and left it to sit in an folder titled SAO, not to be touched for another year. This chapter is my last prewritten one, so we'll see where my writing has gone in a year :).