Disclaimer: I don't own SAO

The clocked man disappeared with the air now silent and tense. I could see it all around. There was going to be panic. I had to control myself, we can't clear the game if we panic and do nothing. Everyone ran for the town as they were screaming their heads off. I had no time for this. Through all the bumping and grabbing I fought through the crowd. Everyone was going to be panicking for a while, but not forever. Once they stop the area will be full of players trying to level and get out of the game. The competition will stagger my experience growth rate and I won't be able to level clearly. I had to go. I made my way to the west side of the fields. I need to level, I need to level. I repeated that phrase in my head as I slashed through mobs over and over. I had a look around to see that I wasn't the only one that was grinding. I saw others there as well. These are the people that have potential to beat the game.

One month later

After a month of the game coming out people had finally calmed down and accepted it. One of the things I didn't expect was more than I thought had risen up from despair the first day and had levels almost equal to mine. I was at a confident position right now. I could take out any mob I wanted in one shot. In the month a managed to reach level thirteen. I was confident, I felt as if I could actually make it. I could make this climb to floor one hundred. All I needed to do was keep my levels up and play smart. I've memorized the first floor and I was ready for the boss. We hadn't known were the boss room was until just recently when a beta player found it out. They decided that some of the best should form a huge party and go fight the thing.

The crowd was small. I honestly expected more. We sat as a man with blue hair spoke. He wore armor and looked not much older than me. The information he was giving was about the boss so tuned him out. I wanted to take a look at everyone around me. There were about thirty nine of us. few of them looked like they were the same level as me. I didn't need the info on the boss because I was a beta and I knew. The only thing that has changed from the beta was the boss's whereabouts. In the beta we used a team of twenty to clear the boss, but we lost five so it was better that we had almost double

"I would like you all to group in pairs of Six." The blue haired knight told the rest. Everyone obeyed and teamed up into teams of six fast, so fast that I was left out and alone. It looked like I wouldn't be participating in the boss fight. Going in without a team member to switch into so that you can recover points is suicide.

"I looks like you've been left alone just like us." A figure approached me. He had black hair. The boy had a blue shirt under some armor, he was around my age, and I could tell by his equipment that he was one of the few around my level, if not higher.

"Would you like to join up with us?" he sent me an invite, a screen appeared before my eyes that read

You have been invited to a party. Accept? Yes or no?

I had to think about this. If I don't join I could be safe from any danger, but if I do I could get a lot of experience. I wanted to be safe so much, but no… I couldn't miss out in the experience.

I accepted I believed that we could do this. In the beta I was level ten when I attempted it. This time I'm level fifteen, I was definitely ready.

Right below my HP I saw two more bars of HP show up. By the HP bars appeared the names, Kirito, and Asuna.

Once everyone was ready we were about to leave when a guy with orange weirdly spiked hair jumped into the center of the area. He was spouting out some crap about beta testers. He was saying how beta testers would take all of the good missions and monsters. His speech only had a bad effect on me. It made me want to take more of this guy's experience. The blue knight protected us.

Money will be divided equally, and all exp and items go to the group who killed the monster. We started tomorrow.

I took the time we had to enjoy myself. They were having a party, drinking what might be their last drink. I on the other hand used my time to spar with other players. We could spar with each other safely by using option duel, which allows us to fight without any real danger. There was only a few who wanted to spar, three to be exact. I fought first and I was up against a bigger player in his later twenties. The countdown was in the air and above that it was flashing our HP gauges. We had to wait a whole minute before we could start. The timer finally was at the last three counts. Three, two, one, it started. I was the first one to act. I believed that the first one to land a strike in PvP is always the one with the advantage. If you can land strikes, then it causes a threat factor within the opponent. He wated to have the first strike as well, but he wanted it for a different reasons. He wanted to end the battle fast and in one strike. He had a two handed sword, so since I had a one handed I was faster. I let him swing first, in which he did. He swung vertically trying to take my arm off and end the duel/ o dodged tp the ;eft amd swung with my left hand up towards his face. I was to far to do any real damage, but I was able to cut his face. My attack left me open which would have been bad if he had a one handed weapon, but his two handed was still stuck in the ground when I cut his face. Once he ripped his sword out of the ground I had to back up to max distance of his sword to be in a safe situation. I had to be ready for his next strike. I was waiting for it, but then I realized my strike worked. He was too afraid to be the first to swing. I had this won. I charged sword ready. I predicted that he would be afraid of my strike and hesitate. He did, I used my sword to strike his hands holding his sword. The force of my blow smacked the blade out of his hands. Once the blade hit the floor the man fell to his knees in defeat.

"You have won." He sighed "I'm glad you're on our side." He stood up and offered his hand for a shake. Before I could shake his hand another person interrupted us. I had another challenger, and another, and another. My battle was the start of a really long night.

The next day

We were in the dungeon now looking at the boss door. It was a jungle dungeon so we had the players avoid any dangerous looking plants or fruit or berries. We had an idea of what this battle was going to go like, but plans do always go as planned. It was finally time for me to spend my skill points. I spent a majority of them on my one handed, half of the rest on speed and the rest on strength.

"I'm ready" I told Kirito

"Ok, how about you" he looked towards Asuna. She just simply looked towards us and shook her head yes. Kirito left to tell the leader that we were ready. It left me and Asuna alone. She was for sure a female, but she had a cloak on with a hood. I couldn't see any of her facial fetchers and her age was a mystery. I only could see some of her orange hair that occasionally draped out of the hood. She had a rapier and had great fighting skills, but she had the game logic of a noob. She didn't know what a switch was. We were about to enter the room and then the leader, the knight with blue hair spoke.

"Listen up everyone. I have only one thing to say you. Let's win!" this got everyone pumped. He opened the door revealing a dark room with the boss sitting on his throne. The boss jumped from his throne and the lights turned on. Once the boss landed on the floor I was able to see his name clearly. ILLFang the Kobold Lord, the name appeared above four gauges of health. The boss looked like a humanoid monster with red skin. He had the head of a dog and in his hands were two huge weapons, an axe and a shield. They were just like I remembered him in the beta. His minions appeared and they looked armored and had clubs as weapons. The enemies were the first to charge.

"Commence attack!" the blue headed knight yelled as everyone sprang into action

We were locked in combat Kirito would be the one to knock the enemies back while Asuna and I finished them off. Our targets were the minions that spawn until the boss reached thirty percent HP, but when the boss reaches ten percent he brings out his stronger weapon that can kill most anyone here, plus he gets a buff in defense. Kirito staggered another and I shoved my sword into its heart to finish it. Kirito staggered another and another. Kirito was fast, if I didn't have Asuna helping me I would have been able to keep up. What amazed me was that Asuna was even faster than Kirito. I was baffled. I turned to see that the boss was finally under ten percent and I had finished the last minion. He threw away both his weapons, but didn't grab its sword yet.

"Stand back I got it." the leader said as he charged the boss. It was strange because that was not the plan that we had one we first came into the room. The leader charged a skill and got ready to do the final blow. The boss finally grabbed his sword, but it was not the one I remember. This was trouble. In the Beta he had a talwar, but now he had No-dachi, which was not only stronger, it had the passive that increases speed.

"It's no good!" Kirito yelled. He had spotted it as well. The leader charged in, but as he did the boss jumped on pillars that were in the room. The speed boost made him seem like a blur. He stopped mid air and landed right on top of the blue haired knight. The boss had brought his sword down through the knight's chest, then using the speed boost the boss jumped behind the airborne knight and slashed his back. Once he was done with that he moved onto his next target. Kirito ran to the leader's assistance. While he was gone I had to protect the rest from the danger of this boss. The boss was jumping around again. He went for his next target, but found his sword blocked by mine. He roared at my face and jumped back. His speed boost had expired. I looked over to see that our leader was dead, he shattered into pieces like glass and my heart sunk. Kirito walked up to me and Asuna joined

"Let's kick this boss's ass" I mumbled. All three of us ran towards the boss.

"We'll hit him just like we did the minions!"

"Got it." Asuna and I were in sync.

The boss charged a skill once it saw us. To counter Kirito charged a skill. They collided and both became staggered.

"Switch!" Kirito Yelled. Asuna was in, but the boss recovered too fast his swung hard towards the ground. Asuna managed to dodge but just barely. The swing ripped her cloak right off revealing a girl with long hair that went to her hips but was partially tied in the back. she was wearing a red sleeveless jacket that went with her orange eyes.

Asuna took the moment after she dodged to charge a skill and jab her sword right into the bosses chest.

"Switch!" she yelled putting me in. I charged a skill and planted it right into his stomach which made him fly a few feet back.

"He's coming back!" Kirito yelled as the boss ran towards me. Kirito was fast enough to intercept the boss and stagger them both again. Kirito and the boss were going at it one on one for a while until the boss's speed boost came back and he got a shot of through Kirito's stomach. Kirito lived which seemed really weird to me. it was a clear indicator that Kirito was at least two levels higher than me. Asuna was the one to catch Kirito when he was sent flying by the boss, but the boss attacked them while they were down. I blocked the attack for them and used a skill to hit to boss. The boss jumped back

"Recover quick and get back in this." I told them both. I turned to the boss and charged. Everyone here besides Asuna and Kirito charged with me. The boss was highly defensive as everyone banged on its sword. It used a defensive skill to blow everyone back and jumped into the air. It was going for a kill when Kirito jumped and cut through the boss. The boss landed violently on the ground. His health was going to give. He had only a few hits left Kirito and Asuna charged it and I followed. Kitito staggered it for the last time and Asuna charged a skill. Asuna was going to get the kill and the bonus, but Kirito charged in front of her and violently ripped the boss in half with his sword. The air was I sign showing that we had defeated the boss. It read congratulation

Everyone started cheering as we got our experience. I got a level up myself so why not cheer? A bald guy came up to Kirito to congratulate him for a job well done and everyone gave him a round of applause.

"Stop cheering!" the guy that was against beta testers spoke up. "Why…why did you let Diabel die?"

"Let him die?"

"Of course! You knew what technique the boss would use! If you'd given us that information up front, he wouldn't have died!"

"I know how he knew!" a random spoke up. (Shut up random. You're not helping anyone) "he must be an ex-beta tester! He knew all the boss's attack patterns! I bet he is not the only beta tester here ether! There's gotta be others here to right? Come out!" the tension in the crowd was thick. It felt like everyone was going to turn on each-other. This is no way to win a game. The tension was broke my a maniacal laugh. I turned to see Kirito having fun with this.

"I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies." Kirito spoke up "most of the one thousand people who won SAO beta test slots ere beginners, who didn't even know how to level up. Even you guys are better than them. but I'm not like those guys. During the beta test, I made it to higher t=levels then anyone else was able to reach. The reason I knew about the boss's sword skills, was because I fought tones of monsters with those skills on the floors far above us. I know lots of other things too. Way more than any information broker.

He started a commotion and was trying to get everyone to hate him. If they hated him they would also have to hate me as well

In the crowd I heard the word beater and Kirito did to.

"A beater… that's a good name. All right I am a beater. From now on don't confuse me with the other testers." He put on the item he got from the boss and started to leave to the next floor Asuna chased after him and I followed

"How did you know my name?" Asuna asked Kirito

"If you look under you HP gauge you'll see two names. I should be the one right under yours." She looked

"So it was written there all this time!" she laughed

Kirito turned towards the second floor door. "you two can become powerful. So if someone you trust ever invite you to join a guild, don't turn them down. Because there's an absolute limit to what you can do as a solo player." Psh me join a guild? We'll have to see about that Kirito then walked up to the door and disbanded our party. Afterwards he walked to the second floor.

After Kirito left everyone went back to the town of beginnings to tell those that the game is actually beatable. As for me I went through the door. I was now in floor two. It was one of the most annoying dungeons that almost every game has… A cave dungeon.