Punch.

Harry punched the giant rock.

Punch.

This was tedious. He'd been punching the rock for the last couple of hours.

Punch.

"Hey, Harry." Ron called from his spot over out of the way.

"Yeah?" Punch.

"This is boring." Ron observed.

"Yes. I am well aware of that." Punch.

Kirito had, eventually, messaged them telling them he'd cleared the quest. Harry and Ron had shared a look, before heading over here as fast as they could. Which, given they could teleport, was pretty damn fast.

Punch.

"There's not even any wasps around here to beat up." Ron complained.

"You could help." Harry pointed out through grit teeth. Punch.

Ron blinked, "Really? Wouldn't that interfere with the quest?"

"No idea." Harry admitted. Punch.

"Better not risk wasting the time you've put into it so far." Ron decided.

Harry stopped punching, shaking with anger. Martial Arts sounded fun, but this was tedium bordering on sadism! "Damn it!" He shouted, swinging his hand back to throw everything he had into the punch.

The rock shattered.

Harry and Ron blinked, staring at the dispersing polygons.

"Huh." Ron observed.

"…"

"Harry? You there?" Ron jumped up, waving a hand in front of Harry's face.

"…Ron. Did that remind you of anything?"

"Huh?"

"The shattering, did it remind you of anything?" Harry asked softly.

"Err, of every time we kill something in this world?"

"Of a spell." Harry clarified.

Ron blinked, looking at the space where the rock had been. Several moments passed. "The reductor curse?"

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "That's what it reminded me of."

"Did you cast the spell?" Ron asked.

"…Accidentally." Harry admitted.

Ron winced, that was like magically wetting the bed at their age.

Something important occurred to him, "Do you have the skill?" he asked.

Harry navigated his menu, "No. But it says to talk to the old geezer."

"Let's do that then." Ron said eagerly.

Harry smiled weakly, "Yeah, let's go."


The atmosphere in the fields of the second floor was serious. It was the frontline in the effort at clearing Aincrad. It was filled only with brave players willing to put their life on the line. They treated the threat seriously, not playing around.

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting!" Ron sang, his hand glowing as it slammed into a wasp, turning it into pixels, "Nuhnuh nuhnuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh"

Well, it was mostly true, Harry amended, shooting forward to destroy a wasp of his own with his glowing foot. "Their kicks were fast as lightning." Harry sang.

It had taken a day for the quest to become ready to be given again, and Ron had wasted no time with trying to reducto the hell out of the giant rock. Failing that, he began punching it, to see if frustration would make it easier.

It hadn't been so simple. Harry had, however, really enjoyed trying to piss Ron off enough to blast it, figuring that intense emotion made it easier to do magic windlessly.

"You're both idiots." Hermione snapped.

Ron and Harry grinned at each other, before turning to their friend, "You're just jealous that you don't have wicked kung-fu fighting skill." Ron taunted.

"I don't want 'wicked kung-fu' fighting skills since you'd just drag me into your nonsense" She sighed, rubbing at her head. She really shouldn't get worked up at every stupid thing her friends did, she'd make her hair worse than it was, if that were possible.

Speaking of, "Why aren't you wearing armour, Harry?" she asked wearily.

Harry grinned at her, "I didn't like it."

She rubbed at her head, "You realise, that armour serves a very important purpose. It's not something that you can just decide not to use."

"Except I did." Harry pointed out.

Hermione grit her teeth.

"Oy, stop teasing her mate." Ron called out, punching the last wasp to pixels.

"Fine fine." Harry grumbled.

He walked over to Hermione, opening his menu to the skills page, before making it visible to her.

She stared at his skill list.

Unarmoured.

She stared at him flatly.

Harry chuckled.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Alright, so I got rid of the armour, and after taking a few hits, I noticed this appear in my skill list." He admitted.

She sighed again, looking at the skill. From what she could tell, it gave a slight boost to agility attack speed, and skill cooldown, but only if the user had absolutely no defence bonus from armour type objects. It might be a good skill, but with 'literally' no defence, it would require absurd reflexes to be able to dodge or parry everything. A single hit from even low level enemies would do serious damage, a boss might even one shot him. It was too risky. She opened her mouth to tell him to use his armour, when he tilted his head and smiled at her.

She sighed, she recognised that look; the 'I'm going to do something stupid and nothing you say will stop me' look.

"Fine, but be careful." She conceded.

Harry's smile turned into a grin, "Of course!"

More wasps spawned. Hermione frowned, a quick tally revealed that there was almost twice as many wasps as before. Harry and Ron exchanged a glance, before equipping their weapons.

"I'd noticed it before, but I think the system doesn't like us using magic. It's spawning more enemies around us. And what Kirito said, about the boss not switching aggro has me concerned. There's something I need to test out." She drew her weapon, a staff, walking forward to fight the enemies with her friends.

"Oh? Something about fighting?" Ron asked.

"Not exactly, I'll have to message someone, to see if they'll help me test it."

"Cool."

Hermione didn't reply, simply swung her staff at the nearest wasp.


After Hermione had levelled up a couple of times, they'd gone back to the town so Hermione could continue grinding blacksmith and start on tailoring, and Dudley wanted to get started on cooking, and Harry and Ron had said they were going back out exploring. Of course, went unsaid was that they were taking the opportunity to explore a higher floor.

"Hey Harry."

"Yeah?"

"There's nothing here."

"Yeah."

The two of them stood on the seventh floor. They had apparated up to the floor, expecting a thrilling battle, but they were disappointed. There were no enemies in sight. They'd walked for about half an hour, coming to a town, yet nothing. Not a single monster, not a single NPC, not a single damn thing. It was like a ghost town, only without ghosts.

"This is really annoying." Ron complained.

"I know." Harry snapped, "I guess nothing appears until we beat the boss on the floor below."

"That utterly sucks." Ron muttered.

"Come on." Harry sighed, "Let's go back. There's nothing to gain here."


Unspeakable brown stared down at the Potter boy. He had to admit, as a professional, he dearly wanted to run some… experiments on him. Surviving the AK, all the things that had happened to him since, his body was a veritable treasure trove of possible information. Unfortunately, the department wasn't on the fondest terms with him, his destroying a bunch of delicate equipment during his fifth year put several projects back several years.

He idly considered what he was about to do. Technically, it was illegal. It was an idea he hadn't even considered. If he hadn't decided to attend Unspeakable Poker Night at the last minute, he may never have considered it. It required magic which he would freely admit wasn't his specialty, so he should get the department's specialist to assist, unfortunately, there was a problem with that. The man was a total arse. Any time people spoke to him he would strike a dramatic pose, and say what they wanted to say to him, moments before they said it. It was really annoying. He didn't want to deal with that guy.

He drew his wand, pointing it at the body in front of him, whispering a word, "Legilimens."

He was stood across from some kind of large cow. He stepped to the side as it charged at him, swinging his sword out, carving deeply into its body, and its HP gauge.

He was impressed, the game was really lifelike, wait, that wasn't his thought, ot rather, not a thought he'd had in at least a month, wait, this sort of thing was familiar, and now that he was paying attention, he could feel it, someone attacking his mind! Panic built, there was nothing he could do to the intruder. "Switch!" he shouted.

Unspeakable Brown grinned slightly, he'd been counting on Potter being able to detect it. He focused on an image, constructing a memory to force into the boy's mind, if he was skilled, it would meld seamlessly, but his inability to do so was actually good, he wanted the boy to realise what he was doing.

There was a cloaked figure, he recognised it as an Unspeakable. It was strange, he couldn't recall having talked to one before. The figure spoke to him. "I am Unspeakable Brown. I have been put in charge of your case."

The storm of emotions slowed slightly, it made sense that someone would be put in charge of his body.

"You're in the special Unspeakable wing at St Mungo's. We're considering means to extract you from the system, but we haven't found a safe method. Well, we have run into issues testing the safety."

A large black man leapt forward, slamming his axe into the cow with a roar, using the 'Howl' skill to draw aggro. The cow ignored him, trying to continue its assault on Harry. He jumped to the side, slashing at it, as the black man struck it again, cutting its HP down to zero.

He felt a large amount of concern for the other players, would they be able to be extracted the same way? Unspeakable Brown guessed that was his question anyway. He constructed another memory.

The figure spoke again, "We will not be able to extract other players." It said, "The Japanese ministry has concluded this is a muggle affair, and will not be interfering. They have likewise, at least thus far, refused to put us into contact with the muggles dealing with this affair. We are creating a false organisation to make contact through muggle channels. It will take time, and we still wouldn't have authority to interfere with the muggle victims."

A sense of hurt, a feeling of comradery. Unspeakable Brown assumed he wanted to help the other players. The method of communication was too limited. They were working on something, but it wasn't anyway near completion. Had to make do. A new memory.

"We are far from any safe extraction method, so we'll put that aside for now. This was mainly to get across that we are doing what we can on our end. Stay safe, and please observe everything carefully. The department is interested in this technology, and anything you can share when we are able to speak directly would be appreciated."

Unspeakable Brown cut the connection. Ideally, he would have asked the boy if there was anything he wanted to ask, of any aid they could offer, but the method of communication was too limited. Still, it was good to know the boy was doing fine, and that his mental state wasn't filled with negative emotions like despair.

He pulled out the project journal and a quill and scribbled down his new observations, before vanishing silently back to the department headquarters.


Harry frowned as the rest of his party fought. Hermione had invited Agil to join them; she had wanted to test a theory. Said testing had involved the four of them drawing aggro on different mobs, and then switching with Agil, and letting him draw aggro.

It hadn't worked. Once a mob was attacking one of the four of them, it wouldn't stop. They could draw aggro from each other, but Agil couldn't. All of them could draw aggro away from Agil, but they couldn't then lose it. Of course, then the Unspeakable had interrupted, which was a whole other kettle of fish.

"You look distracted." Hermione observed. They were headed back to the town, having completed her observations. There was a field boss, and there was going to be a planning meeting to deal with it. Harry kind of wanted to attend.

"Yeah." He looked over at Agil. "Hey, Agil, do you know anything about a 'Department of Mysteries'?" He asked. Hopefully Japan used a similar name.

He scratched his head, "It's a research group, or something, right?"

Harry nodded, "Right. I was just contacted by them."

"Really?" Agil blurted out. The others looked interested, but less surprised.

"Yeah, the British one. Apparently the Japanese wizards have declared this mess has nothing to do with magic, and thus, nothing to do with them."

Agil frowned, but nodded. "That's disappointing, but not unexpected. Saving the eight thousand remaining players with magic would be a risk to their secrecy."

"Right. The guy who contacted me said they were working on something, but didn't have a safe way yet." He hesitated, "He also said that they wouldn't have the authority to extract anyone but the four of us."

Agil clenched his fist, "Damn. That stings."

Harry shrugged, "I couldn't really talk to him, it was," how to explain the method? "he could get a feel to my thoughts and implant fake memories, I couldn't really ask questions. He did say they were working on a better communication method. Well, I don't think I'll abandon everyone in here."

They continued walking in silence for a while.

"Hermione, what have we found out here?" Harry forcefully moved the conversation on.

"I can only guess it's due to magic, but I think the system is trying to prioritise our deaths over the other players. It explains the extra mob spawns when we're nearby, and the refusal to switch aggro." She explained.

"What about me? I don't use magic." Dudley explained.

Hermione hesitated, "I think it detects errors around us, and you're almost always nearby. I think if you party with other people frequently, the system will reassess you as being unrelated to the errors."

Dudley frowned, "I don't want to leave you guys."

"Dudley." Harry spoke, gathering their attention. "I'd ask you reconsider. It would be safer for you, and it would allow you to participate in something I'm thinking about."

"What's that?" Dudley asked.

"I can't say yet. I still need to think things over."

"We can help you." Hermione reminded softly.

"I know. Just trust me for now."

"Alright. So, the field boss?" Ron interrupted.

"Right. We'll go to the meeting and see what's up." Harry agreed.


The male player glared angrily at him. Harry recognised him; the player who had claimed Kirito was responsible for Diabel's death. While he'd held his tongue about spreading that grudge, he was clearly angry at Harry about it. Well, that was fine.

"I'll leave it to you." Harry said.

There were two main teams in front of him. One was led by Kibaou, decked out in green colours, the other was led by the male player, Lind, and were decked out in blue, like Diabel. They had formed around the named players, apparently acting like a guild until that function became available. (On that note, Harry looked forward to making a guild.)

There were other players around, a few teams, and a couple of players standing on their own, including Asuna.

"What, not going to fight yourself?" Lind snapped.

"No." Harry answered. "I'll take point on exploring the labyrinth when you defeat it. We'll try and find the boss room as fast as we can. We'll be on standby if it has any tricks, but I believe that you can take it.


The field boss had been defeated fine. The groups had a little friction, but it would probably work itself out. Harry had wasted no time in advancing into the labyrinth. He had Ron and Dudley with him; Hermione still wanted to do some experimenting with the crafting skills.

"I feel a bit like that Theseus chap." Harry commented as he stepped past the minotaur's hammer swing, slashing at its exposed back, cutting a chunk off its HP bar. It turned, to swing again as Dudley rushed in, using a skill with his two handed sword, causing it to stumble and drop into the yellow. Capitalising on the chance, Harry swung his sword, chipping more off its HP until it was in the red, and Dudley's next attack destroying it.

The two of them turned and ran, assisting Ron who was fighting another minotaur. It was swiftly vanquished, causing the congratulations pop up to appear.

"Cool, new items." Dudley exclaimed with a grin. He pressed a couple of invisible buttons, and was engulfed in a flash as first his armour disappeared, and then a new thing materialised on him.

Harry and Ron stared. What he was wearing couldn't be called 'armour', since it was just a metal ring on his chest, with four leather straps coming off in the shape of an 'x'.

"Err, that's, nice, I guess?" Harry said.

Dudley flexed his arms. "I kinda like it." Dudley said, looking down at himself. Well, given he'd lost weight, and was a training boxer, he certainly had the physique for it. He had also equipped a two handed hammer, likely dropped by one of the minotaurs.

"You really have that Conan vibe going on." Harry observed.

"You're just jealous of my dashing good looks." Dudley retorted.

"My looks are way more dashing than yours." Harry cut back.

"Are not." Dudley said childishly.

Harry didn't dignify it with an answer. "Come on, let's just get a move on."


It took most of the night, but they steadily progressed through the labyrinth, finally arriving at the boss room. The large double doors stood in front of them, giving off an aura of menace. Well, that's what it felt like.

"Hey Harry." Ron said into the silence.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Do you wanna fight the boss?"

"…"

"It's too dangerous." Dudley replied. "We should just send out a message and form a raid party."

"Or," Harry said slowly, "we have a go at fighting it ourselves."

"No. That's too stupid." Dudley argued.

Harry and Ron exchanged a look, before turning to Dudley.

"I'm not changing my mind." Dudley insisted stubbornly, "Please trust me on this."

Harry sighed, before turning to Ron, "Can't be helped huh?"

Ron shook his head, "Well, it would be boring without Hermione I guess."

"Fine, we'll head back to town." Harry opened his menu, sending a message to all his 'friends' on the frontline, 'Found Boss, returning to town. We'll hold a strategy meeting tomorrow.'

"Let's get a move on then. Perhaps it's better this way, I suppose if we did beat the boss, the others would resent us." Harry said.


A.N. As it stands, I'm almost certainly going to skip the boss fight, and next chapter should begin the same sort of floor skipping as the actual series.