Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online nor any of its assets. All rights are retained by Reki Kawahara, A1 Pictures, and Aniplex USA. Any reflection of real characters or names is coincidental. Please support the official release!

Chapter 1: Lucky

I can't help myself as the smirk crawls across my face as the skeleton before me explodes in a shower of crystals, quickly fading into nothingness. I turn my blade to face the final skeleton between me and the entrance to the next chamber. It's only a mid-level mob and isn't even armored so it really shouldn't be a problem for me but I can't afford to let myself become complacent.

Not in this world.

When Sword Art Online first went live it was the hottest new development in gaming. A full dive virtual reality world? Sign me up! I waited in line for hours to make sure I got a hold of a Nerve Gear. On day one around 10,000 players logged on to an exciting new world with high hopes. But by the end of the day we had discovered a terrifying new reality. We were trapped in the game. The game's creator, Kayaba Akihiko, appeared to inform us all that there was no way to logout of Sword Art Online. It was a trap. And to die in the game would mean the Nerve Gear headset we were wearing would initiate a high intensity brain scan and kill us.. The only escape was to clear the dungeons on all 100 floors, a goal that seemed impossible. In the first two months nearly 2,000 players died on the first floor alone before even clearing the first dungeon. Be it to suicide, hostile monsters, traps, or even other players. Since then another 49 floors have been cleared and the death rate has lowered dramatically. However, every floor grows increasingly more difficult. Over 2,500 names have already been etched into the Monument of Life back on the first floor. Though only one matters to me...

The skeleton lurches forward with an eerie creak of bones, telegraphing its strike and snapping me from my thoughts back to reality. It raises it's blade high and slices the rusted short sword down towards me with an honestly apathetic amount of force.

I raise my blade and parry the skeleton's strike up and away, pulling a throwing knife from its sheath on my left thigh and under-hand tossing it into the shoulder joint of the skeleton's sword arm, temporarily stunning its ability to fight back. I lower my blade to my side as a light blue glow envelops the blade and baths the dungeon hallway in an azur light.

Vertical Square - 4 Hit

A mid-level sword skill tracing the shape of a square.

The system takes over, my muscles and limbs moving at speeds faster than I could ever hope to reach as it unleashes 4 powerful slashes directly across the chest of the skeleton, depleting it's HP in seconds and shattering it into thousands of crystals. After a moment I slide my blade back into the sheath on my hip while pinging the hallway with my detection skill for more enemies.

"I know Riku said this was a fairly easy dungeon, but so far nothing but skeletons? This is honestly a joke."

My detection skill finding no further enemies I push around the corner and step into a large chamber lit with hanging braziers. The fire light casting flickering orange hues across the stone walls and loose rubble in the room. Though for all intents and purposes the chamber seems to be entirely empty of mobs or loot. I take a few cautious steps into the chamber, my hand tight on the hilt of my blade. I ping my detection skill again and before I can begin to react a thunderous roar accompanies a powerful strike that rips square across my back and launches me across the chamber.

"What in the love of?"

I groan as my vision slowly begins to come back into focus. At first I can barely make out the braziers that hang along the walls of the chamber, casting beams of light across the otherwise pitch black room. The searing pain of the blow to my back begins to fade and as my vision slowly comes back into focus I can finally make out the creature that just gave me the biggest bitch slap I've ever felt.

"A minotaur? I just had to open my mouth didn't I?"

The creature looms large, casting a shadow across the dungeon and seemingly sucking the air out of the room. Its very presence fills the room with a looming sense of dread and doom. I feel a chill slowly slither it's way down my spine as the Minotaur's name appears before me, along with four glowing bars of hit points.

The Embodiment of Rage

"This is gonna be my whole day, isn't it?"

I force my way to my feet, drawing and gripping my blade tight, casting a glance to my health to see that it's down deep into the red. Moments ago I was at full health. And within an instance I was smacked within an inch of my life.

"That lying son of a…"

I picture Riku's smug smile as his words echo in my skull, still buzzing from the impact. "You will not regret it, my guy!" Yeah, right. It's painfully obvious now that his intel is full of lies. No dungeon boss, my ass.

"I swear, when I get out of here…"

I let the words trail off into the void as I force the boss's image back into focus and begin to analyze what I've gotten myself into. The minotaur towers over me, easily two to three times my height and probably four times my weight. After launching me across the room with a strike from its blood stained cleaver it continues to block my path back out of the room. I dart my eyes around the room quickly with my detection skill.. Nothing. My only way out... is back through the door behind that thing. And I'm likely very outclassed. Between the name and the 4 health bars, I can only imagine I ran smack into a dungeon boss level mob. In a dungeon that supposedly had no boss. I reach for the pouch on my thigh to grab a healing crystal.. And find the pouch to be empty.

"So my only way out is through him. I'm fresh out of crystals so I need to buy some time to let my battle healing work. I can't take another hit like that and I don't think I can match its strength head on. This oughta be fun."

Almost as if on queue the minotaur raises it's bloodstained cleaver, letting forth an ungodly roar before bolting towards me. So much for time to think and heal huh.

I only barely manage to raise my blade to block in time before the Minotaur's blade falls hard and lands home, launching me across the room once again, this time impacting me into the wall.. The sudden impact cascades pain across my back and through all my extremities.

"No way… is this really how I'm gonna go out?"

I peer up to my health bar and see nothing more than the thinnest of a sliver remaining. And my battle healing skill won't refill enough to save me from another blow…

The Minotaur slowly turns to face me again and slowly begins moving towards me, preparing to strike again and seal my fate. Every step it takes shakes the chamber with a mountainous thud. I desperately try to get my feet under me but my legs refuse to support my weight and I collapse to one knee, propping myself up on my blade. This next blow will finish me.

"I guess I wasn't strong enough was I? Forgive me Hardo, Sayo... Petra... I hope you all make it out of this game one day.. I'm sorry I broke my promise to get you all out of here. You can tell me... you told me so… wherever we meet next"

I close my eyes in acceptance of my fate as the Minotaur raises his blade, prepared to claim my life…

My eyes shoot open at the sound of clashing steel, to the sight of my savior.

Time seems to slow as I try to make sense of the scene before me. Between me and the minotaur stands a hooded figure, parrying the Minotaur's blow with a gilded spear. The weapon seems to shine in the brazier light, its golden surface reflecting beams of light back towards it's wielder. Their identity is hidden below a dark cloak and hood but their skill is painfully obvious. To appear so suddenly and parry such a devastatingly powerful blow takes more than just high stats.

"Where.. How did you…"

The mysterious spear wielder says nothing before raising their spear to strike back. Their blade glows a bright orange and they charge at near superhuman speed and strike a deep thrust to the minotaurs chest.

"WATCH OUT!"

I yell out in warning as the Minotaur's blade begins to fall back towards my mysterious savior but my warning proves to be needless. They quickly reposition their spear and effortlessly bat away the incoming attack before positioning to utilize another Sword skill. A teal glow emerges from their spear as they unleash a flurry of thrusts into the chest of the minotaur. I lose count of the number of strikes as the Minotaurs' health steadily depletes. They continue to pour on the damage, using skill after skill bathing the chamber in swaths of light. However the game mechanics eventually catch up to them. Usually after using a sword skill the user is caught in a post motion delay, leaving them vulnerable to counter attack. I don't know how they managed to use so many consecutively but their luck seems to have run out as their last skill finishes, and the minotaur is still standing with the slimmest sliver of HP left.

"They're gonna get caught in the motion delay.. "

An old, suppressed memory slams its way to the forefront of my mind. I can still hear the way she screamed as the blow landed. The fear in her voice as her health drained away. And the way her goodbye was cut off as she shattered into hundreds of those damned azure crystals...

"I can't let another person die in front of me. Not again. Not. Ever. Again."

Vorpal Strike: 1 Hit

A heavy one-handed sword skill with a reach that is double the length of the blade and has high attack power. It has a long cool-down

I force my way to my feet as my blade springs to life, as an orange glow shoots down the length of my blade, filling the chamber with a bright light. I throw myself forward, charging forth as the sword skill takes control, thrusting my blade forward and connecting with the Minotaur's shoulder, emptying the remainder of the beast's HP, shattering it into crystals. I begin to try and catch my breath as it fades back into the code from whence it came.

"Well, I totally had that in hand but, thank yo…"

I turn to speak to the spear user who saved my life, but the words trail off as I find nothing but a freshly spawned loot chest. I activate my detection skill and scan the room but find nothing. Whoever saved my life, disappeared with as much ease as they had fought the Minotaur.

"Well, I don't think I hallucinated that, but that will be a problem for future me. For now let's open that chest and get the hell out of here before I get ambushed again."

Riku's smug little grin reappears in my mind almost as if he's taunting me. As if nearly dying down here wasn't bad enough.

"I need to find that Intel Broker… he's got some explaining to do."

I walk over the chest and swing it open…

/Received: 1 Handed long Sword The Lycoris Blade

/A solid, reflective crimson blade with black trim. The crossguard is reminiscent of the spider lily flower. 3 lightly curved arcs with bulbed ends forming an S shape.

/+15 STR +20 AGI

/ Unique Ability: Crimson Burst

/Unleash the power of the Lycoris. Activation of this skill releases an AOE burst attack that does significant damage and stuns all enemies across a greater range.

"Whoa… okay. This is is something I can work with"

I can't help but smirk as I open my menu to equip my new blade, but find myself pausing for a moment. I gaze over my current blade, The Valiant Blade. A simple hand and a half sword but it had taken me a long way and had… sentimental value. An old friend had given it to me back on the lower floors. And honestly, while it was definitely underwhelming for the 50th floor, I hadn't been able to bring myself to replace it just yet. But they say necessity is the mother of invention right? And after the events of today I especially can't afford to keep relying on something purely for sentimental reasons. I let out a soft sigh as the Valiant Blade fades from my hip back into my inventory and I equip the Lycoris Blade in its stead. A dark crimson sheath appears at my side and I reach down and draw the blade from its resting place.

"The description wasn't kidding, this thing really glimmers."

The deep crimson metal matches that of the sheath, and shimmers in the brazier's light, gleaming as if ready to spring to life. A midnight black trim runs down the center of the blade from the tip all the way down to the cross guard and spirals around down the handle into a bulbous pommel at the bottom. Lines curve out from the center trim to the edge of the blade, alternating on either side of the center line from the crossguard all the way to the tip. A true masterstroke of bladesmithing and I imagine being more than capable of handling the beasts on not only this floor, but floors to come.

I take a few practice swings and slide the blade slowly back into its sheath and turn back to the passageway out.

"Time a little intel broker rat learns a lesson…"

I retrace my steps out of the dungeon, turning corner after corner through seemingly endless stone hallways trying to remember the path I took before encountering that monstrosity of a dungeon boss. I keep pinging my detection skill to try and avoid getting caught off guard again and hoping to run into that spear user but with the light of the setting sun shining warmly upon my face again I shove that thought onto the back burner.

"Never thought I'd be so happy to see that fake sky again"

I step outside the dungeon to the more familiar sights of the 50th floor fields. The sprawling rolling hills and thin woods stretch out before me. The floor town Art Teria sits in the center of the floor and the labyrinth spirals its way into the sky in the north. I'm sure some members of the Assault team are there now trying to find the boss room and get us ever closer to escaping this world.

A chiming musical ring alerts me to an incoming message so I swipe open the menu and click over to the messages…

"Oh god, I'm never gonna hear the end of this am I?"

/15 Unopened Messages

/Sayo - 11 Unopened Messages

/Petra - 3 Unopened Messages

/Hardo - 1 Unopened Message

"I guess that dungeon blocked the incoming messages. Or I was too busy trying not to die to even notice them."

I open a message box and shoot off a brief reply to my friends

"Hey guys, Sorry to worry you all but I'm fine I promise. Meet me in town at our usual spot as soon as possible. I have a lot to tell you guys. In the meantime, don't believe a word Riku has to say. I'll explain when we meet."

As the sun slowly continues to fade in the distance I turn towards Art Theria and rest my hand upon the hilt of my new blade. Plenty of mid-level monsters in the fields between me and town. As good a time as any to test my new blade. And to test just how strong this "Crimson Burst" really is.

I almost died in that dungeon because not only did I overestimate my strength, but I trusted cheap intel. But I will not allow that to happen again. I am gonna be strong enough to join the assault team and help clear this world. And Riku is going to learn the consequences for selling bad intel in this game of life and death.

I'm not gonna let anyone else fall victim to his bad intel.

And I have a debt to repay...