January 15th, 2029

"They're all gonna die," a man said. He tossed his pen on the large oak desk. "We don't know anything. We don't know who did it. We don't know how they did it. We couldn't hazard a guess as to why, and we haven't a clue where to start in terms of saving them."

"We've considered trying to alter the programming of the VirtuoSphere directly, performing a direct hack. But we're worried that we may break the coding and accidentally kill the players."

"An investigation was launched by our research team in Kyoto to try and figure out how it's possible, even with all of the modern safeguards. But so far… nothing."

"The CIA sent us a report this morning on every known terrorist network and their involvement and progression into cyber-attacks since the Cold War. We can't share much of the content of the documents, but so far, we can't determine if any modern groups have any real motivation behind this attack."

"Assuming it is an attack. The last time this happened, it was just one person who was, quite simply, insane."

"Well, what do we know?" The man who spoke was at the end of the large desk. Before him was a nameplate that read "Director of Operations: Kojji Makatawa."

Kikuoka stood up, and read from a paper he had in his hands. "We know that as of DGRD plus two, a total of 86,491 players of ages ranging from eight to sixty-one were trapped in the unknown virtual world. As of last night, the death toll reached 2,134."

"DGRD?" Another agent asked.

"Death Game Release Date," Kikuoka stated. "We also know that whoever did this took advantage of the fact that players would still be logging in for at least a few hours after they began, unwary of the dangers. Of the over two thousand who died, nearly eight hundred died within the first hour of gameplay. After researching the causes of death, we determined about three hundred of those were accidentally performed in the real world. Friends and or family members removed the dive gear from players. The number of deaths verified to be in-game in the first hour measured exactly five hundred."

"Five hundred?" There was a lot of chatter among the suited men and women at the table. "Why Five hundred?"

"It sounds like it could be important, like whoever did this intended for that many people to die. What's the significance of that number?"

"As far as we can tell," Seijiro said. "Nothing. It appears to have been chosen at random, or at least almost at random."

"Are they sending a message?" another person asked. "Are they letting us know that that they're killers? Or perhaps we should consider five hundred to be significant to them in some manner."

"It's also possible that choosing such a nice, even number like that was just coincidence. Maybe they weren't thinking of sending us a message."

"Alright," the director said. "Does anyone have any ideas on how the VirtuoSphere could be killing people? Any idea of who might know?"

"During the months following the SAO incident, it was discovered that one Sugou Nobuyuki lead a research team, using three hundred trapped players as lab rats for experiments with human consciousness. That might be a good place to start."

"I agree," Seijiro said. "In fact, I've already asked some friends back home to look into it. I haven't heard back from them yet." As if on cue, his cell phone rang, and he took it out. "It's them."

"Put them on speaker." The director pointed to the center of the table with a pen. There sat a speaker with audio plug-ins.

"You're on speaker phone with the board. What have you got for us?"

The voice on the phone spoke through the speaker. "Right, we went looking for the lab workers that worked under Nobuyuki. At least two of them are missing from their cells as of two months ago, and another three acquitted at trial are unaccounted for, one of whom has been labeled as a missing person for four months."

The group of agents all acted in surprise at this. "Why wasn't your team kept up-to-date on their whereabouts?" one of them asked.

"There's more," the voice said over the speaker. "As of last night at eleven sixteen pm, Sugou Nobuyuki is dead. They found him hanging in his cell, but they suspect foul play. That's all I have for now."

"Origato." Seijiro hung his phone up and put it back away.

"It looks like we need to question the remaining members of Nobuyuki's team," the director said. "Seijiro, that's your area. Everyone else, keep trying to find out more information however you can. Don't perform any tests on the players or the VirtuoSpheres in-use without my say-so."

"Hai." The meeting adjourned, and everyone left the room.

January 18th, 2029

Kirito and the gang emerged from the forest a full week later. Once they rode back into the plains they slowed down to a trot. "It's good to be back," Tex said. "That forest was getting dull."

"Nothing but wild animals and trees. Lots and lots of trees," Klein said.

"At least we got some xp, though," Leafa said.

"Hai," Kirito said. "Tex is level ten now. And I'm up to sixteen."

"What's that?" Silica said, point into the distance. There were buildings there, and from the looks of it, people. They all continued their ride, approaching the small town.

When they arrived there were a little less than a hundred people in the town, and only a handful of buildings around a small, central courtyard of dirt. After dismounting, Kirito and the others each tapped their horse and opened a menu. After a few more buttons, the horses vanished.

"This is definitely new," Lisbeth said. "Think they have a forge?"

"Of course we have a forge, newcomer!" A player had walked up to them. He was of average height, blonde, and wore bronze armor. Behind his back was a bronze spear. "This is Eastown. We only started building it a few days ago. It serves a dual purpose: as a mining town for the mine back westways, and soon it'll be a logging base for the forest to the east."

"We were just over there," Asuna said. "And you'll be happy to know that there are no major threats for a good chunk of it. Just your typical wildlife. It should double as fertile hunting grounds too."

"Oh, you must be from the scouting union!" the player said. "My name is Hachi. Or at least that's what my gamer tag says. This town was built over the past few days."

The group was somewhat amazed, looking around. "You're expanding pretty fast then, to already have small towns all the way out here," Kirito said. "And yeah, I guess we're the scouting union."

Hachi looked at Kirito's gamer tag, and blinked at him. "Hey wait a second. You're the group that cleared the mine!"

"Yep, sure did," Tex said. "You're welcome. Now, is there any place to stay for the night around here? Or are we gonna hafta keep roughin' it?"

Hachi pointed towards a building a few yards away. "That's an inn. If you've got something to contribute to the town's stockpile, you can stay there."

Asuna opened her inventory, and scanned through all of her food materials. "I think we can manage. We had nothing much else to do besides hunt out there since we didn't happen upon anything big like a dungeon."

"Food is always nice. What's really nice is a cook!"

Asuna smiled brightly, and raised her hand. "I can cook! I can cook!"

The group all looked at her strangely. "Calm down, Asuna," Silica said.

"No, I'm excited, I barely needed to cook at all for just us. Ever had deer meat? Or how'bout lizard steak?"

Hachi laughed at that, and raised his hand behind his head. "Actually, I think as long as it's not pork, the whole town will love you. You could probably open a restaurant with that stuff."

Kirito looked around, and then back to Hachi. "Does that mean you've really not been able to find anything except for pigs and hogs?"

Hachi shook his head. He seemed down at the thought. "There's rumors that they found sheep to the north-west, and cattle to the south. Someone even said there were chickens somewhere. But around here, nothing. It's expected to take a long time before there's any real livestock farms to mass produce food."

"Well then, I guess we'll take the deer, turkey, lizard and bobcat meat, and prepare a grand feast for the whole town!"

"Really?" Hachi said. Now he was excited. "Oh that'd be wonderful. Unfortunately we can't offer much besides a place to rest in return. We're just getting started out here."

"Sure," Asuna said. "I've been wanting to cook it, and it's not like we'll eat it before its durability vanishes."

Before the conversation continued, the bell tower above what looked to be a town hall rang. Hachi turned towards it, and started heading to the building. "Come on," he said. "They use the town bells to call important meetings. We weren't expecting one today so this might be extra important."

The group shrugged and followed Hachi into the town hall. Once inside they leaned against the back wall. The seats filled quickly, and many townspeople had to do the same, or even sit on the floor. Two people went up to the podium, and then one waved a third person up.

"Uhh," the first person spoke. He was no public speaker. "Well, he found something, so I'll let him tell you."

The third person nodded and went up to the podium to speak. "I was looking around north of here towards a group of trees to cut down, and I saw it. In the forest to the north… north-northeast, there was what appeared to be a house on a hill. I went towards it and there were high level monsters walking around outside. They had on iron armor, but didn't appear to have anyone inside of the suites. I think… I think it may be the first dungeon we've found."

"How high level?" Kirito asked from the back of the room.

"I saw a lot of thirteens and fourteens, and a couple fifteens."

Another townsperson stood up. "We should form a raid party, and clear it out for loot!" Many others cheered at that idea. "I'll lead the party. We'll need about ten people, and gear for all of them."

Kirito stepped in further at that, and spoke up. "No, no," he said. "That's not nearly enough." The whole group turned around to look at him. "You should let some more experienced players clear it out. I can lead an assault team consisting of my group, and another fifteen to twenty of you."

"Don't you think that's a little overkill?" the man asked.

"That's how you play a death game like this. You go in with large groups, and play it slow and steady… and safe."

"Hey, how do we know you don't just want the best loot for yourself?" another player asked. Many seemed to agree with him with nods of their heads and chatter among the crowd.

"Asuna…" Kirito looked back to her.

Asuna blinked, and pointed to herself. "Me?" She didn't know what she should say at first, but then spoke up. "Oh, right. Umm, hi. My name is Asuna, and I'm a cook. We've been out in the forest to the east checking it for monsters. We didn't find any that were too tough, by the way, so it should be safe for logging and… Oh, yeah. We found lots of deer and stuff, and collected a lot of meat. So as a token of our gratitude for letting us take the lead on the dungeon, and for letting us rest in the inn, I'll be hosting a great feast!"

The whole room suddenly burst into a great cheer. They were more excited at the idea of good food than by the idea of looting the dungeon. With nothing but charred pork to eat since day one, they were very thankful to have Asuna cook for them. As the night fell, Kirito's group all helped Asuna in her cooking, making huge dishes of stews and steaks and every kind of platter for the town.

As they prepared and ate, Lisbeth and Agil set out to go to the mines with other players in town, and they mined a great deal of copper and tin from which they made bronze armor and weapons for the people of the town who were to join the raid party, and for the rest of their own group who were yet to be fully geared up.

At dinner, a player sat down at Kirito's table, with the rest of his group. The man was large, and muscular. "Greetings, strangers," he said. His voice was very plain and he spoke at a calm, even pace. The manner in which he spoke sounded scripted and almost fake. "I am Sampson. I'll be joining the raid party tomorrow, and I thought I'd like to greet the heroes of Sword Art Online."

The group looked at him like he had two heads. "Hi," Klein said. "Thanks, but… it was mostly Kirito here."

Kirito shook his head, and waved his hands, denying his deeds. "No no, it was everyone. And the raid party that went was forty-nine players strong. Don't act like it was just me."

"However it turned out," Sampson said. "I know that most of you here are skilled veterans in the death game scenario. Whether or not you were the ones who fought in that final battle or not doesn't change your status as heroes, not to me anyways."

Lisbeth had her eyes all over the brutish looking player. He wore only a tunic and pants, and so the muscles on his arms and shoulders were exposed. Not to mention that even through his clothes, his muscular form was readily apparent. "I'll take a compliment like that from you any day," she said.

"A good friend once told me that a hero is judged not by their deeds, but by the company they choose to take pleasure in. A kind young woman who cooks food for a whole town sick of pork, a blacksmith who uses her skills to provide weapons and armors to rising warriors, and a leader who selflessly supports complete strangers. You are all heroes indeed." He had a drink in his hand, and once he put it up to his lips, it didn't come back down until the wooden cup was empty.

"That's very nice of you," Asuna said. "Origato."

"Yeah, so nice." Lisbeth pinched Sampson's arm, but he didn't even seem to notice.

"I hate to be ungrateful," he said. "But not a single weapon I looked at today has made proper use of my strength."

"I can see why," Agil muttered under his breath.

"Blacksmith, my lady, what may I call you?"

"Oh, and polite too," Lisbeth said with a short laugh. "My name is Lisbeth."

"Lisbeth, I would be most grateful if you were to craft me a great axe that required all of my strength to wield. I cannot repay you with any material possessions, as I have none. But the moment I am able, I would repay you, with interest."

"Is this guy serious?" Kirito asked, nearly whispering to Asuna.

"What?!" Klein seemed to protest his request. "If you're putting all of your strength into holding a weapon, you won't be able to wear metal armor!"

"I don't wear metal armor," Sampson explained. "I rely on my strength, my vitality, and my courage to carry me through a battle. You've heard the saying that the weapon makes not the warrior. But I say, neither does the rest of his gear."

"Oh, and I wouldn't doubt that a guy like you doesn't need protection," Lisbeth said.

Silica rolled her eyes and got up from the table. "I think that's enough table talk for tonight. I'm going to get some sleep."

"And oh, I would be happy to make you an axe. About how big an axe do you think you can lift?"

"Yep, I'm done," Agil said. He got up and left.

"Me too." Klein went shortly after.

"I bid you goodnight, heroes. I hope most to see how you fare in the field of battle," Sampson said.

Asuna whispered to Kirito. "I'm sorry, I'm a little behind… mentally. He's being serious right now?"

"I think Asuna and I are going to go to sleep." The two of them left the table. Sinon looked around, and to Leafa before shrugging and getting up as well. Leafa sighed and left.

"Where is everyone going?" Lisbeth asked. No one responded. "Fine!" Lisbeth got up, and pulled at Sampson's large arm. "Let's go make you a new axe, shall we?"

"Of course!" Sampson got up, and the other end of the table dropped down to the floor with a light thud. He didn't seem to notice, and headed off with Lisbeth to the forge.

"How much strength is required to wield a weapon is proportional to the type of metal that's put into making it, and how much of it." Lisbeth and Sampson were in the town's forge, a smaller building lit up by a furnace. There were two anvils in the middle of the room. On one side, there was a stack of bronze bars, and on the other, a series of casts. "So first. I'll need to know exactly what your strength is."

Sampson opened his character panel, and read the number aloud. "One hundred and ten," he said.

Even with his physical size, Lisbeth was surprised by the number. He was the only player she'd yet seen with any core stat over a hundred. Even Kirito's strength was a measly fifty-eight by comparison, and his agility was sixty-one. Agil and Ironclad, who were previously the strongest in their party, were tied at a strength stat of sixty-seven. "That's… that's strong for your level." Sampson's level read fourteen.

"Don't give me too much credit," Sampson said. "My agility is at thirty-two, and the rest of my stats are all below twenty. My avatar is a real min-maxer."

"I see." Lisbeth started piling bronze bars into a bucket, and then another, and another. A total of twenty bars of bronze, and each of the smelting buckets only held eight. She loaded them into the furnace, and gave them time to melt before pulling them back out. "An axe," she said.

"Yes. I don't care much for looks, just make it strong."

Lisbeth looked through the options in her skill pane, but selected an option labeled "Custom Design." She started by making the handle from one of the buckets. It was thick, and heavy. Then she poured the rest of the contents into a cast for a double-head. Being a game world, they cooled to a point where she could hammer them rather quickly.

Sampson sat quietly and watched the process. As Lisbeth hammered out the shape, she gave it a bit of flare. By the time she was finished, one side was much larger than the other, and at the middle of the blade, was serrated. The lower point on the main head was stretched, so it was like a giant hook, and the top was flattened out. The smaller head of the axe was square in shape, and serrated down the length of the blade.

Once finished, she attached the pieces, and wrapped some cloth from the town's resources around the handle, and used whatever glue like substances she could find, primarily tree sap, to make it stick, and hold firm. Now finished, she gave the axe to Sampson, and he caught it with one hand.

He felt the weight of the weapon, and gripped it with two hands. Even compared to him, the axe was very large. "It has no name," he said.

"It's a custom weapon," she said. "You can name it yourself."

"Ah. I see," he said. "Then I shall name it 'Gratitude,' because I am thankful for your time and effort, and it will remind me that I am in your debt. Also because I shall be thankful for how it destroys my enemies in the fields of combat."

Lisbeth laughed a little at him. "You know," she said. "You don't have to owe me anything. I could collect right here."

"My lady, I have nothing to give." Sampson put his hands together, and bowed before her. "Nothing but my respect."

Lisbeth sighed, and shook her head. "No no," she said. "I'm sure we could think of something." To emphasize her point a little more clearly, she tapped her fingers to her lips. But of course, her efforts were lost on the giant.

"Tomorrow!" Sampson suddenly shouted, standing up and raising the axe high over his head. "I will promise you every last piece of the treasure I loot from the dungeon! That is how I will repay you."

Lisbeth raised her hand and buried her face into her palm with a light smack. Eyes closed, she shook her head, and then moved her hand back down. Sampson was already leaving the forge. "Hey, wait!" Lisbeth ran after him. "That's not what I meant."

"I bid you goodnight, my lady," he said. "We will both need plenty of rest before approaching the field of battle tomorrow!"

Lisbeth sighed, and decided to give up on her endeavors for now. "Alright, good night."

The next day, the group approached the dungeon. They were all armed, and many had proper armor. Kirito was at the head of the party, and when they approached the hill, he dismounted, and turned to the group of players behind him.

"Alright, everyone. This is our first dungeon. A lot of you, I expect, will underestimate it. But you can't! If you underestimate it, you will die. I cannot express this enough: you cannot let your guard down here."

Kirito turned back to the house, which was less of a house and more of a huge mansion. The grounds were patrolled by disembodied suits of armor, and they wielded spears, mostly. A few had swords, maces and axes.

"Our enemies appear to be of the type: animated objects. They are not beasts, so don't expect them to act like them. Animated objects have no sense of fear or mercy. These enemies will act as soldiers, nothing more or less. It may seem like they're strong, and will be hard to kill, but I think that won't be true. Animated objects will fall apart once broken, so one good hit should be able to knock any of these smaller guys down. Now, as we discussed previously. Group A will go in first. They will pull the trash on the outside back to us one or two at a time so we can get a feeling for how to engage them. Once we're inside, expect the space to move around to be tightened up. Now, let's do this. Move in!"

Five of the players, including Tex and Lisbeth, headed forward. They opened a large, black fence gate in front of Kirito, and walked onto the grounds. Tex pulled out the knife she had picked up in the very first day of the game. Lisbeth of course had her shield and short sword. They went up to a pair of animated suits, and started attacking. They surfaced minimal damage, but all only attacked once before heading back towards the main group.

Once they returned, the larger group all swarmed the suits, and overpowered them easily. "Okay," Kirito said. "More this time!"

Next, the pull group collected five of the suits of armor, and brought them back. It was slightly more challenging. Agil, Ironclad, and Lisbeth all focused on three of them, while the party overpowered two, taking hits at the suits until they knocked pieces of the armor away, killing them. Agil managed to knock his target onto its back, and then finished it off by crushing the helmet.

At this point, it was mostly the lower level townspeople who were doing the damage. Kirito had decided that the more experienced players needed only to watch at first, since they could adapt to the combat better.

"I think we've got the hang of it guys," Kirito said. "Group B, help Group A pull. Bring back eight-to-ten this time."

Ironclad, the leader of group B, nodded, and led his group out into the field. Ironclad led his group left, and Lisbeth went right. Together they brought back nine of the animated armors. This time, everyone fought.

The three tanks held the attention of two monsters each, while the players swarmed the remaining three. Klein knocked one of them out in his first hit. Kirito and Asuna both teamed up on another, and would take turns hitting its backside until it broke. The third was mobbed by a series of players. Then, everyone went to the remaining six.

Silica managed to hit a vital weak point, severing a leather strap on one of them and destroying it. Meanwhile, the animated armors attacked Lisbeth, Agil and Ironclad. Weapons clanged against shields and Agil's battle-axe. As Agil focused heavily on one, pushing it back to be killed by the group, the other got a hit on him, clubbing him with a mace.

Agil took damage, and a step back. Before he could make his own move, more of the party had mobbed the suit. By the time they turned to move against the remaining four, they were already downed.

Kirito looked up at Sampson, who was still on a horse. "Are you going to fight today?"

Sampson nodded. "I thought the rest could use the experience. But if you insist." He got down from his horse, and charged into battle. He ran right through a suit with his shoulder, knocking it in two, and then swung his large axe across his front, cleaving through two more suits. "Haha! Taste my might, toy soldiers."

The group watched, and many seemed impressed by the display of raw strength. Kirito didn't seem all that impressed. He only thought Sampson was being a show off. "Good, only…"

A helmet from one of the animated armor suits got knocked into a crowd of more of them. Those suits all drew their weapons and charged back at Sampson. Sampson took a step back, bracing himself. "I think I have made a mistake!"

Kirito decided to show off a little himself now, and charged into combat. Asuna followed right away. "Lisbeth, Ironclad, Agil! Get their attention and keep them away from the lower level players!" He dodged one of the monster's attacks, spinning around the swing of an axe to strike at an enemy behind that one, easily knocking away its helmet.

Silica performed a similar move, but slightly more impressive. She grabbed one of the suits by its hands, and pulled it close. Then, in a stunning feat of acrobatics, she pulled it down, and flipped over it. With her blade, she struck one enemy, and then turned it back on the one she'd leapt over, killing both.

Asuna was the most straight-forward in her assault, thrusting her iron spear through one of the monster's chests, causing it to fall apart.

Ironclad was the first of the tanks to run in, and the other two followed on either side. He took a swing at one enemy, but missed, and stumbled forward. That same monster wielded a sword, and simply thrust it down into Ironclad at the back of his neck, where his armor was weak. The poor soldier's journey ended quickly, and blood spilled all over the ground. His health bar nearly instantly dropped to zero and that was the end of it.

After that, the whole group seemed to lose morale, and many didn't have the guts to continue the charge forward. Some though, like Silica and Leafa, displayed no such fear. They ran into the fray, and started fighting the floating suits.

Lisbeth saw the death, and had to shake herself out of the trance of fear. Two of the monsters were already attacking her, and she moved a shield up to stop one attack, and side-stepped out of the way of another.

Agil took swift vengeance on Ironclad's killer, and made a solid strike right through its body, knocking it apart. Then he got back to his role, grabbing the attention of more monsters.

Sampson seemed incredibly disheartened at Ironclad's death. He didn't know him, but felt a great burden of guilt, feeling that his actions led to this player's death. Many of the knights were still attacking him, though. And they gave him no time for a mental recovery. Two of them made successive attacks on him, hitting him and knocking his health down below fifty percent. He retaliated, cleaving through the two attackers and one other suit of armor, destroying them.

While more of the knights were going down, Kirito noticed more approaching. They seemed to have collected too much attention, especially since half of their raid party was frozen in fear. He looked back to them, and noticed that their spirits had all been lowered. "Fight!" he shouted at them. "If we all die, they'll come for you next, so fight now!"

Their spirits went up a little more, and they each yelled as they charged into the fray. Once there were more of them, the tide of the battle was back in favor of the players. They won that battle, and the yard was now clear.

"Alright," Kirito said after the players had rested a little. "I expect the house to be harder than the yard. So keep your guard up, and don't stop fighting. The boss is going to be in one of those rooms, so don't enter a room until you open the door and look inside. Let's move." Kirito then attempted to open the front, double-doors, but they wouldn't budge.

"Is it locked?" Asuna asked.

"I think Sampson has a key," Lisbeth said.

"I do?" The whole group looked at the giant of a player. He then nodded. "Right, yes!" He approached the door, and swung at it with his axe, busting it open for the players to enter.

When they got inside, they found themselves in a large anteroom, with a huge chandelier above their heads. Straight ahead was a wide staircase, and on the staircase was a long rug, going down the stairs and all the way to the front door. To either side was a set of doors, and down the sides of the stairs were a set of hallways.

"Okay," Kirito said. "Split up into groups, and start exploring. If you find the boss room, send a mass message to the party to meet you there."

With that, everyone moved out. Kirito's group went around the stairs, and down the hall. The walls had picture frames, but no pictures, and the structure seemed to be all built of old, yet expensive woods. After rounding a corner, they found another stair case, this one seeming to go down into a basement. They all followed him down.

Another group of players, went upstairs. With every step, the house creaked. They found themselves suddenly in a library. The leader of that party spoke up. "Books. A whole library. There's bound to be some information here, or a secret passageway. Search the room."

A third group searched through the rooms to the left, and the last searched the ones on the right. One found a dining room, and a fireplace. The other made their way to a kitchen. They began to look through things for items to keep.

Kirito's party found themselves in a cellar, where they found a boiler, and a locked chest sitting before it. Sinon stopped suddenly after she entered the room, and turned to face a far, dark corner, and drew her bow.

"Sinon," Leafa asked. "What is it?"

"I don't know…" She loosed her arrow, and it clanged against a stone wall. "Maybe nothing."

The cellar area was lit by torches, and so Asuna took one, and moved over to that corner. There appeared to be nothing but cobwebs. On the wall, there was an unlit torch, so she lit it to keep light in the area. When she did however, the walls and the floor moved, spinning around and she found herself in a secret room.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted, running over to the spot. The wall spun again, and Asuna returned while Kirito vanished.

"Guys," Asuna said. "I found a secret room!" She looked around, and the group stared at her. "Where's Kirito?" Without warning, the wall shifted again, and she was back on the other side.

Kirito was there now, and quickly jumped away from the moving wall, and with another spin, Asuna was back. "There," he said.

Back in the library, the players were digging through books. "Whoever lived here had a serious infatuation with nineteenth century literature. This is the third Poe book I've found. Anyone else find anything useful?"

Then, one player pulled out a book, but it wouldn't come out all of the way. The whole shelf then creaked, and opened up—a secret door.

The players all nodded to one another, and went through it.

Back in the cellar, the group had all gone into the secret room. There, there was a single desk with a single book on it. Sampson picked it up, and started to read. "Edgar Allen Poe. I see someone has a taste in classic horror."

As he flipped through the pages, a note of paper slipped out. Lisbeth picked it up, and read it to herself first. "Aww, it's a love letter," she said, eyeing Sampson, who was more enthralled with reading the works of the late great writer. "My dearest Roderick," she began. "Oh, how I have missed you so—"

The line caught Sampson's attention in a bad way. He dropped the book, and looked panicked. "We need to run, now!"

"Are you really that afraid of a little romance?"

"Roderick Usher…"

The group blinked.

"Edgar Allen Poe… Roderick Usher," Sampson stammered a bit. "As in The Fall of the House of Usher. The boss isn't in the house. The boss is the house!"

In the kitchen, the players were looting dishware and pots and pans. Suddenly, all of the items in the kitchen began to float eerily. The players noticed and stopped.

In the dining room. The fire pit suddenly started up. The players looked at it funny, and before anyone could react, a chair suddenly flung itself across the room, hitting one of the players and knocking him back. Everyone jumped, and the fire roared and exploded, filling the room with smoke.

In the upstairs secret passageway, a wooden panel from the wall flung out and smacked one player in the face. The rest immediately began to run only to have the secret door shut in their faces.

Kirito and the party didn't quite understand Sampson at first. But then suddenly had a wakeup call at the sound of screams from all over the house, and the sound of fire roaring and furniture flying. They each all ran out of the secret room in pairs of twos through the swinging secret revolving door.

The boiler was active, and racketing, making loud noises and shooting heat out into the room. They ignored it and ran up the stairs. Players were running around screaming. All sorts of objects were chasing them, being flung in every direction.

Silica ducked to dodge a chair, and then started to run towards the front door. "Everyone, outside!" Kirito shouted.

"The doors are locked!" another player shouted back. The door was not only locked, but totally intact.

Sampson charged for the front door to bust it open again. He succeeded, but only to have a carpet draped across the stairs lash out at him, wrapping around his feet and pulling him in, keeping him from leaving.

Other players ran towards it, but stopped suddenly as they saw the front porch had become a gaping hole, and at the bottom of this pit, there were spikes. As more players rushed the door, the first that reached it was pushed over the edge, and fell down on the spikes, dying instantly.

The sound of his screams was warning enough for the other players to step back. Everything was chaos.

"Everyone, stop!" Asuna shouted. Suddenly, all of the players halted, and looked at her. "Tanks! Stand at the hallways and knock away incoming projectiles. Rangers, back them up with arrows. Melee fighters, attack the carpet, free Sampson."

The sudden leadership was more than enough for players to get behind. Everyone did as they were told. Agil and Lisbeth defended the main group from things being flung from the halls. Sinon, and three others stood behind them, shooting as many as they could. Everyone else started attack the carpet.

It wasn't easy, it flung Sampson around, and then tossed him into a wall before grabbing another player. "Help us!" there were screams from upstairs.

Asuna looked up the stairs towards the cries. "Silica, Leafa, Kirito. Come with me!" The four nodded, and followed Asuna' charge up the stairs.

"Hey! What about me?" Klein asked.

"Stay with the others!"

Klein nodded, but sighed. Asuna led the charge into the library. She looked around, trying to figure out what to do.

"Secret door!" Leafa suddenly shouted, and started ripping books from the bookshelf. The rest followed, but before long, the books started attacking. They flew from the shelves, from the floor, from everywhere. When they hit, they didn't do much damage, but it was enough to keep the group from their mission.

Kirito stepped up, taking swipes at incoming books. "I'll keep you covered. Find the way to get in!" Kirito said.

It was Silica who finally found the special book that unlocked the secret passageway. When the door opened, the players all stormed out, and ran towards the stairs to join the fight.

When they reached the top of the stairs, more animated suits of armor appeared, five in total, coming from other rooms in the house. The carpet however, seemed to have been defeated. Down the stairs, the melee fighters were engaging more suits.

"Stay up here and fend them off, I'm going down to see what else we need to do!" Asuna said. When she charged down the stairs though, they suddenly moved, opening up and dropping her back into the cellar. She screamed, and took some fall damage.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted before jumping down with her, landing on his feet. The stairs closed after him.

On the main floor, Sampson and Klein made quick work of the incoming mobs. "What do we do now?" Klein asked.

Before anyone answered, the room to the left opened up, and a being of pure fire emerged. "I guess we handle those, next!" Sampson shouted.

"I'm out!" Sinon shouted. Then she pulled out a bronze dagger and turned to help the other fight. "Wait… how do we fight those things?"

Klein didn't hesitate, he took a swing, and dealt damage. Only a fraction of the fire elemental's health was taken off. "It's all we got, just keep swinging!"

Half of the players that attack the monster we singed with flames, taking a small amount of damage as the elemental lashed out. Several hits later though, it was down.

To their dismay, another fire elemental soon took its place. "Where are they coming from?" Sinon asked.

"In the next room, there was a fire pit!" One of the players who was in that room pointed in its direction. "Maybe if we destroy that, they'll stop coming!"

"I really wish we had a third tank," Klein said. "We need someone to keep these elementals busy while we kill that fireplace!"

Just then, one of the players from upstairs jumped down, over the stairs railing, and landed in front of Lisbeth. She started to use her melee attacks to strike at the objects being thrown. "Go!" the player shouted at her.

Lisbeth nodded, and turned to face the fire elemental, grabbing its attention. "I got it, go now!"

The rest of the crowd charged the room, and all began to attack the fire pit, though they all took damage as flames billowed forth.

Downstairs, Asuna and Kirito were recovering from their fall. Asuna shook her head, and turned to the stairs. "That was unexpected… and totally unfair."

Kirito stared at the boiler. "Asuna."

"Hai."

"Look." He pointed at the boiler. "Listen…" The boiler clanged and racketed, but the more they listened, they realized that the pace of the sounds it made were at regular intervals.

"It's like… it's the beating heart of the mansion."

Kirito smiled. The two of them drew swords and started to attack the boiler.

On the second floor, the group of players had finished off the animated armor, and was getting ready to move back downstairs. The group that had first been attacking the fire place had retreated, everyone's health down, in the red, below twenty percent.

The rest of the players hopped over the railing rather than using the staircase. "You guys!" Klein yelled. "We got the fireplace down below fifty percent, but we had to run. Go finish it!"

The players nodded, and all charged into the room, attacking the fireplace. They took damage like before, but they destroyed it. The flames snuffed out shortly after. But the fire elemental remained.

In the cellar, Asuna and Kirito beat the boiler mercilessly, but to no avail. "It's not working, Kirito!"

"I know. Can you think of a way to overheat it?"

Asuna shook her head. "We'll need more help! Let's go!" She ran up the stairs to the main floor, and was more than thankful that there wasn't a trap on these steps like before. Kirito stayed behind, and examined the chest near the boiler in her absence. It was locked, but the game system allowed him to pick up the whole thing and store it in inventory.

Once Asuna got up the stairs, she had to dodge flying objects to reach the main group. Then, she saw the fire elemental, nearly defeated. "Wait! Bring that downstairs!"

The players stopped their attack. They didn't understand her, but Lisbeth didn't have to understand. She knew Asuna had a plan, and trusted her, so she made a B line for the stairs going down. The woman holding off the flying objects pushed forward so that Lisbeth could reach the stairs, and she led the monster down to the cellar.

Kirito saw it as it came down. "Lisbeth, bring it here!" he shouted. She did so, backing up slowly towards the hot boiler. Kirito jumped in, and pushed the elemental into the metal contraption while Lisbeth dove out of the way.

It hit the boiler, and died. Following that, the boiler turned red.

"Run run run!" Kirito said.

They bolted back up the stairs and towards the front door. Without warning, the chandelier overhead fell, and nearly crushed a Kirito. Klein, however, pulled him away at the last second. He smiled at him, and nodded his head before jumping up and moving around the fallen chandelier to jump over the pit outside.

The rest of the players followed, and soon, everyone was out of the house, running toward the front gate. They all stopped once safe, and looked back to see the house collapse, caving in on itself after the sound of a huge explosion.

Everyone cheered, and many players exchanged hugs and high-fives. Above the house, an icon appeared. "Dungeon Cleared!"