A little over 10k words. Wow, this is the longest chapter I wrote up until now.

Sorry for the late chapter, but this just chapter began to write itself and didn't want to stop anytime soon. The good news is that I was able to finish it before new year's.

Over 100 favorites! Thank you for the support it means much to me.

Angron: I really didn't like or dislike Sachi's character at first, because I felt that she was simply wasn't given enough 'screen time' to show her character. As I said, the survival of Sachi is still undecided, it would happen on which way I want to go with the plot when I reach that part chronologically.

I think most of the time, there is a little part of the author is in self-insert in the main protagonist or some other character.

I also really like Argo, I read some pretty good stories in here with her on it, so expect her to be back in later chapters.

Now, onto the story.

Level 5: Adventure Time

"Switch!" rang out Natsu's cry as he jumped away from the oncoming attack of the enemy mob, catching Basil's almost silent grunt as he stopped the charge with his shield.

The blind cavern wolf was one of the strongest mobs on the 5th floor, usually spawning in groups of three, a vicious foe that most of the cleaners tended to avoid. It was a large wolf, matching Ken's height, who was tall for his age, with thick gray fur that had a black stripe running along its spine and milky white eyes. It also had fangs quite capable of tearing through a player's arm and health bar. When he first encountered it, Natsu hid behind Agil with a frightened yelp.

It's been a few weeks since Basil joined their little family and a lot of things happened. They faced the boss of the second floor, now prepared for any deviations from the beta. Thanks to that they weren't caught off-guard when the bull boss' starting pattern was different than what they knew. The veterans of the previous boss fight were able to keep the raid party together and defeat the boss.

The frontline stayed on the third floor for only four days before the boss was found and consequently defeated. Nobody was in the mood for Christmas, so instead of spending time with their family and preparing for the new year, team Natsu and other groups explored the fourth floor and farmed. Because of this, after almost a week, the fourth boss fell under the combined might of the clearers.

That was two weeks ago, but the 5th floor is proving to be quite a challenge. Deviating from the large open areas of previous floors, this floor was a giant maze of intersecting tunnels and large caves. They weren't in total darkness, but the dim lights provided by the system limited their field of vision, causing the players to move and fight with even more caution.

Progress was slow and frustrating, so Natsu, along with Ken and Basil took a day off and went to farm for materials. Cavern wolf fang was the ingredient they needed to raise Ken's Windcutter to +4, so while Agil was at a lower level bantering with other merchants and Buzz was meeting with a few cleaners, they went hunting wolves.

As he came to a halt, Natsu observed their surroundings. They were in a larger cave, where they found another group of blind cavern wolves. While Basil held back the wolf that charged him, Ken was swiftly dodging the swipes of a second wolf. Thankfully the third enemy had been already defeated thanks to their initial attack.

When Basil was able to repel the wolf's charge, with a cry of "Switch!" they once again traded places. Raising his sword high, with a blue glow Natsu activated the one-hit charge type sword skill, Sonic leap. With a yell he charged forward, guided by the system toward the wolf that was frozen by its own cooldown. Reaching his target he let louse a vertical slash, sending the wolf's hp into the red zone.

But it was not enough to end the beast. Now it was Natsu who was caught in the cool down and was open to any counterattack. The wolf seemed to smirk at him as it opened his mouth and prepared to bite him. That moment was broken when a sword skill caught its side and eliminated its remaining health points.

Natsu instantly recognized the red glow of the curved sword skill, Heavy Slash. As the wolf burst into polygons with a final cry, he caught the eyes of a grinning Ken who stood there nonchalantly with his sword resting on his shoulder. It seemed that while he charged wolf A, Ken and Basil traded places against wolf B.

"Thanks for the save." said the brown-haired boy with a small smile.

"no problem." came the cheery response.

The growl of the last blind cavern wolf reminded them the fight was far from over. Pulling themselves together, the two raced towards it, ready to assist Basil.

-0-

"Sweet! We got two fangs" exclaimed Ken as he scrolled through the drops they received.

After they dispatched the last wolf the three of them retreated to a nearby safe zone to take a breather. Natsu sat next to a wall, greedily drinking from a water bottle. Even though their physical bodies were looked after at the hospital, the game still recreated the feelings of thrust and hunger. It could be ignored, but in a life and death battle, it was not a welcome distraction.

"Are you alright Natsu-dono?" asked Basil, worriedly hovering at his side. The young boy integrated into their group easily, though it was a battle of its own to convince him that Natsu could safely hold his own in battle. He still insisted to be at his side whenever he left town.

"I'm alright, thank you." assured the brown-haired boy.

"All of us are fine. We are an awesome team. Don't worry so much." said Ken, catching Basil's neck in a one-armed hug, electing a surprised squeak from him.

They fooled around for a few minutes before Ken mentioned they found more than enough fangs. Three of them decided to go back to the previous floor where their favored blacksmith resided. As they began to walk, Natsu trailed behind them giving a sour look to his sword.

He worked well with Ken and Basil, but playing solo was out of the question. In the last two floors, he failed to find a suitable replacement for his weapon, having to use less than stellar swords. His damage was simply not enough as shown in the previous fight. It's not like he wasn't doing anything. They worked well together, able to face tougher enemies, but sometimes Natsu still felt like he wasn't contributing enough.

He did his best to close the gap he felt between himself and the others by focusing on his base stats and skills, but right he was now at the point where a good weapon meant everything.

'Hopefully, Argo soon finds something.' he thought as he quickened his pace to catch up with his friends.

-0-

The trio exited the teleport gate, the blue light of the gate slowly dimming behind them. Though the city of the 5th floor was available, because of the general dreary atmosphere of the floor, most of the players preferred to stay on the 4th floor.

In contrast to the newest floor, the whole floor was a sunny, mountain region, with its main city, Arkadia built into the side of a mountain. It had a very regal air to it, the city full of beautiful fountains and sculpted statues of faceless heroes. If the city of beginning was the humble beginning of a hero's journey, Arkadia was the capital of a kingdom where the heroes of old were displayed.

Natsu looked around with a smile on his face as they began walking. The streets were filled with players. Some merchants sold various items collected by frontliners, the few who decided to work as blacksmiths selling their own creations and leveling the items of the players. Most of the other players were those who refused to go out to the fields and remained spectators waiting to be rescued. But on the bright side, after the last month of progress, many passive players gained the courage to began to train to eventually join the frontline. It was less than they would have liked, but since the cleaners have yet to lose even one of their number, it was still promising.

Their destination was one of the blacksmiths, who they usually go to if they want to improve their gear. In SAO after everyone's true face and gender were revealed, the ratio of gender and age drastically changed. While there were kids around Natsu's age despite the rating of the game, the average age moved to around 30-35 years. Likewise for about every 20 male players, there was only one female player. Because of that female players tend to gather more recognition than normal. Most notable the rapier user Asuna who worked with the beater, Kirito, the infamous information broker Argo and the blacksmith Lisbeth.

The trio arrived at Lisbeth's relatively modest stall which was thankfully not swarmed by other players. Lisbeth or Liz to her friends was a 15-year-old girl who decided to support the frontliners in her way. She was around Basil's height, had short pink hair. Her blacksmith uniform looked more like the uniform of a waitress: a dark red top with puffed sleeves and a flared skirt, combined with a white apron on top of it.

Lis brightened up and gave the boys a big smile when she noticed them.

"Hey, guys! Back again?" she greeted cheerfully one of her most frequent customers.

"Hi Lis." they greeted back, with Ken scratching his head sheepishly.

"Sorry, but I would like another try."

Once before they tried to raise the level of Ken's weapon but it resulted in failure. This is because the system is the one determining if a strengthening was successful, based on random chance. Ken was not particularly bothered when it failed, unlike Lis who became downtrodden. It took them a while to cheer her up, before promising to come back to her after they gathered up the needed ingredients.

"Who am I to send away paying customers?" asked Lis good-naturedly.

While Ken transferred the necessary ingredients and Lis made her preparations Natsu asked how her business and the other players were doing. The pink-haired girl shrugged her shoulders.

"Not much business for me these days. Almost all the top players are on the 5th-floor mapping, the mid-level players are busy raising their levels and everyone else is waiting for the boss room to be found."

Natsu nodded at that, he heard something similar from others as well. They chatted a little more, talking about the hope that they would be able to beat the 5th boss before the new year. She seemed so cheerful, Natsu didn't have the heart to tell her, according to his last talk with Kirito, the black swordsman estimated a minimum of three years before they could reach the 100th floor.

A few moments later Lis was ready. Now that the preparations were complete, the only thing left to do was for the blacksmith to hit the weapon ten times with her hammer. They looked on with bated breath as the hammer struck down, time and time again. As the tenth time approached Lis was visibly sweating and the boys were leaning closer in anticipation.

After the hammer fell for the last time and the notification of a successful upgrade appeared the four of them let out such a huge cheer, that several people looked at them weirdly.

While Ken gave a few practice swings with his sword, a huge grin on his face, Lis turned to Natsu curiously.

"Don't you need to upgrade your sword Natsu-kun? It could use a little improvement from what I see."

The young boy was about to reply that he did not want to use this inferior sword for much longer when a message notification pulled his attention away. As he read through the message he slowly gained a very big grin, causing Ken to blink curiously towards him. When he finished reading he turned towards the perplexed girl with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"No need! We're about to get my new sword. We will be back soon to upgrade it. Bye Lis-chan." with that he took off like a bullet, Badil desperately trying to keep pace with him.

"We are?" asked Ken completely clueless before realizing he was being left behind. With a quick goodbye, he ran after his friends.

Lisbeth could only shake her head with exasperation at the three kids.

-0-

After the fight against the 4th-floor boss, Natsu decided if he wanted a good sword that he felt comfortable using, it was about time he took matters into his own hands. He employed the services of Argo using a lot of col along with a few personal favors (why does it feel like he sold his soul to the devil?) to track down a suitable weapon for him. Be it quest reward, potential drop, or even some player selling it. He knew that the infamous rat was the best person for the job.

Finally, she came through. Just now she messaged him about a new quest found on the 5th floor which promised a sword of legend as its reward. Of course, there were risks involved. For their current level that floor still held many dangers for them, not to mention any traps that awaited them. This quest was also not in the beta, not that the testers' information was all that reliable anymore. It further complicated things that it was only found, no one completed it, at least no one came forward with any info.

"Natsu-dono, please wait up." a voice called out to him. Stopping his march towards the teleport gate, he met with a panting Basil who reached him at last.

"You took off so fast. Where are we going in such a hurry?" he asked when he finally got his breathing under control. Strictly speaking, they did not need to breathe in this virtual world, but it was an instinctual action.

"Ah, sorry." Natsu scratched the back of his head sheepishly, steadfastly ignoring the exasperated look Ken sent him who also caught up with him. "Argo messaged me about a lead for my new sword. It's a new quest on the 5th floor. I guess I got excited." he gave a small laugh in the end.

Basil only frowned in response. After a short battle with himself, he voiced his concerns.

"Shouldn't we meet up with Agil and Buzz before venturing in? There are many possible dangers and they would be of big help to us." told them the blonde-haired teen.

Natsu failed to suppress the wince at hearing this. A part of him wanted to stop depending on the two older men. He wanted to prove that he needed no protection, that he was their equal. Thankfully, Ken was able to understand his feelings. He threw an arm around Basil, causing the other boy to splutter in surprise while he simply laughed.

"Don't worry so much. It sounds like fun, so why don't we try it, just with the three of us?" Ken's words were confident, sure in their ability to battle any threat they might come across.

Basil was reluctant at first, but in the end caved in, on the condition they inform the adults about it. After a quick message to Buzz they had his agreement, provided Agil won't learn of this until the three of them safely returned from their adventure.

Permission was obtained and potions refilled, their quest began with Ken's enthusiastic shout.

"Team Natsu Advance Adventure Squad, NaBaKen, ready to go!"

"You're not allowed to name things anymore." shouted the supposed leader exasperatedly. "

-0-

"Will you help me, brave heroes? Will you save our city?"

An elderly man, with long white hair and a beard that almost reached the floor bowed down before the three players. He wore a tattered cloak and held a damaged dirty sword sheath in his hand, the sword inside probably in a similar condition. The question mark that appeared above his hand signaled that the old man was an NPC, a quest-giving NPC at that.

They were at the outskirts of the 5th floor's main settlement, Dokut. Compared to previous floors, Dokut was relatively small for a city housing the floor's teleport gate, but appropriate for the theme of the whole floor. Larger buildings were built into the wall of the cavern, while smaller structures filled out the rest of the large cavern that housed the whole city of Dokut. A large underground river split the city into two parts, the water giving a serene blue tint to the whole cavern. Four tunnels were leading from the cavern to the rest of the floor, south, west, north, and east. Natsu and his friends were near the east tunnel's entrance where the NPC in question tended to spend his days.

When an NPC has a quest, you need to say the correct phrase for the system to recognize your intent. There were situations before when it took quite a long while and a lot of tries to find that particular phrase with an NPC. Thankfully, with a direct question like that, it would be easy.

Natsu stepped closer and bowed a little in reflex.

"We will." he said and the old man visibly brightened up as the question mark above him changed into an exclamation mark.

"Thank you, brave heroes." With that, the man straightened and ceased all interactions with them. In front of Natsu, a window opened up with the info and requirements of the quest.

"So, what's the quest?" asked Ken as he waited for the brown-haired boy to read through the information. He closed the window and turned to his friends.

"Most of it matches with what info Argo gave me about the quest. Some kind of monster is terrorizing this city population and we are asked to stop it. The reward is along with the col is a 'Sword of a Hero'. Probably there is a mini-boss at the end of the quest we have to defeat." the two boys nodded at that, it was basically what Argo already told them. "The quest comes in three stages. First, we have to slay 30 Enraged Moles."

Basil couldn't hide his wince as he heard that. Enraged Moles are not the most dangerous enemies on this floor, but they were definitely the most annoying. They usually attack in pairs and have the annoying habit to burrow themselves into the earth if they lose a large enough percentage of their health in quick succession. They don't go away, but they could attack from anywhere.

Their 'underground attack' also causes a short stun, so these little monsters are the nightmares of solo players. Basil especially loathes them because a few days ago they caught him by surprise and got stuck in a mole hole, with only his head remaining above ground. Buzz laughed himself silly while the others tried to get him out. They spawn sporadically all over the map, and there is yet to be found a definite spawn point. Finding and defeating 30 of them will be time consuming and tiresome.

"It will be good practice." laughed Ken, trying to keep up the positivity."Should we start now? We still have most of the day, maybe we will be lucky and get them all today."

It was barely after lunch. Basil was able to talk to Natsu and Ken to eat something before venturing out. A miracle in itself, seeing how insistent his charge was on completing the quest as soon as possible.

With bellies full of virtual food, the trio left Dokut, through the east tunnel, ready to hunt down all the moles the floor has to offer.

-0-

Natsu stabbed his sword in the ground and leaned into it, as he watched the last of the Enraged Moles break apart into polygons. He was panting heavily, exhaustion clear on his face. His armor was so dirty, it looked brown instead of the original orange. His equipment has reached the lower half of its durability. A look to the side showed that the others didn't fare much better. Ken was inspecting his weapon, his face littered with small scrapes. Basil was nervously looking around, shield placed in front of himself, fearing another attack from the moles. This little hunt didn't help with his slight phobia against them.

They were hunting for about 4 hours. They traveled from one 'common' spawn point to another, trying to encounter the enraged moles. Thankfully they found quite a few of them, and along with other monsters they defeated in hopes that their targets spawn instead of them, they collected quite an amount of col, material, and most of all experience. After this last fight, Natsu had a window pop up and inform him that he leveled up, a boy letting out a tired smile in response.

"How many are left?" came a question from Ken, after he too was able to get his breathing under control.

Natsu swiped down his menu to check the progress of the quest. He frowned when the number came with only an 18 out of 30. It was an impressive number, considering the random spawn of the mob, but he still felt that it wasn't enough.

"We still need twelve more of them," he answered back a little dejected.

Ken frowned at that and began to think. Natsu already knew what he would say and he didn't want to hear it. In the end, it was Basil, finally accepting that no more moles would pop up, who spoke up.

"Let's go back." when the two looked at him in question, he calmly shrugged his shoulders."We've been at it for quite a long time. Face it, we are exhausted. We are also running low on potions and our armors are wearing down. We can continue it tomorrow, the quest can wait."

While Ken nodded in agreement, Natsu bit down his lip in worry. He didn't want to wait, he wanted this quest done today. According to Argo, there was a chance that this quest and most importantly its reward could be a one-time thing. It's not something that's done in normal MMO's but it was already clear that this game was not a normal MMO.

Before SAO was officially launched, Kayaba made several references that players would have 'individual' growths while playing. There's also the fact that last attack bonus items became unique items because as far as they know, there is no way to repeat a boss fight that has been concluded, while in the beta there was a two-week cooldown, 'respawn' period for the floor bosses. In a sense it made things more real, more pressing to use available resources.

Stopping for today and continuing tomorrow was the sensible approach, Natsu knew that all too well, but the instincts that helped him stay alive since the first day of the death game, told him, that if he came back tomorrow to finish the quest, he would miss a great opportunity. He opened his mouth to argue with his friends when the sound of steps reached their ears. Turning towards where the sounds came from, they were met with a sight of three people walking into the tunnel they were resting in,

All three of them wore red and black armor, reminiscent of samurai armor. The supposed leader, who walked in front was an older man with spiky red hair, a hooked nose, a slight beard on his cheeks and chin. He had a roguish air around him, but Natsu didn't feel any danger from him. He also had a curved sword resting on his hip.

The other two men who followed him reminded the younger boy of Biggs and Wedge for a short moment. The one on the right was a rotund man with a two-handed sword on his back. He had short brown hair and an overall peaceful expression on his face. The other man wore a bandana like his leather, had a small beard on his chin, and a small mustache. He had a shield on his arm and a one-handed sword sheathed on his hip.

The three of them were talking with enthusiasm when they noticed three young kids. The leader blinked in confusion before he addressed them.

"Hey, kids, what are you doing here? Are you lost?" he asked them, his voice not rough or mean as his appearance suggested.

Not trying to threaten them, but Basil still stood instinctually before Natsu in a way to shield him if they were attacked. Ken instead remained relaxed, giving a sheepish grin at the newcomers. In the past weeks, he understood that Natsu just had an unexplainable sense to detect if someone was trustworthy or not. That was why he was instantly alert when they first encountered Kibaou, yet trusted Kirito despite his less than stellar reputation. That his friend remained calm, meant that the three men were good. Probably.

"Hey." he greeted them with a smile."We are not lost. We are doing a quest right now."

They seemed to be shocked by the revelation. At a closer look, they realized that their gear was high-level, instead of lower-level not suited for this floor.

"Didn't know there were kids so young amongst the top players." their leader scratched his head in astonishment before regained his wits."Ah, sorry about that. I thought all the younger kids remained on the first floor, avoiding monsters. Where are my manners? My name is Klein." he introduced himself before pointing at his companions, first the larger man and then to the other."They are Dale and Dynamn. We are from the guild Fuurinkazan."

"Hello!" the other two greeted them kindly.

"Don't worry about that." assured them Natsu, with a small smile. Interestingly enough, the leader's, Klein's name was familiar for some reason."I'm Natsu by the way, nice to meet you."

"I'm Ken, nice to meet you." Ken greeted them with a small laugh, before throwing an arm around a still tense Basil. "And here is Basil." the blonde teen only gave a nod to the members of Fuurinkazan."We are Team Natsu Advance Adventure Squad, NaBaKen!" he told them with a childish grin.

"You are still not allowed to name things!" cried out Natsu in dismay, causing the older men o laugh at their antics.

"I think that's a cool name." told them, Klein with a friendly grin, ignoring Natsu's groan. "What quest are you doing? We are doing the Mole disaster quest, hunting for Enraged Moles." he told them, much to their surprise. Other players tended not to divulge others about their quests, especially those on the frontline. They always were looking for an advantage against monsters and sometimes others as well. This made Argo many business opportunities because everyone went to her for accurate information.

"We are doing the same quest." answered Basil in surprise, who still not learned certain 'etiquettes' among the high-level players.

"Really? We were hunting for an hour but only found 4 Enraged Moles. You guys having any luck?" Dale asked them, his voice surprisingly high for a guy that big.

"I know!" before they could answer, Klein cried out, who had a face as if a light bulb lightened u pin his head."Why don't we join forces and complete the quest together? With twice the people, the enraged moles would be easy to take care of. You guys can even be the ones who share the quest." said Klein with a sincere look in his eyes.

Sharing a quest meant that the people in the same party would work together for the same objectives. For the most part, it wouldn't matter who shared the quest initially because every member would receive the col and exp reward. But it is different with a quest that has item rewards. Only the player who accepted and later shared the quest would get the items, while col and exp are still shared. It was made to avoid players breaking the game's balance with mass-acquiring high-level rare items.

"You mean, you don't want the sword that's the reward for the quest." asked Natsu with narrowed eyes. It was not common to let go of a possibly high-level weapon so easily.

"We have good enough equipment, so we don't really need it." said Dynamn, the only who of the three of them who used a one-handed sword. "We are hunting the enraged moles for copper moleskin that we need to upgrade the boss's armor." he pointed his thumb at a sheepish Klein. "We only accepted the quest on a whim, if we were already hunting them, why don't we do it for a little more experience.

Basil still looked a little wary, but Ken was grinning with a large smile.

"It sounds fun. We could use the help. With six of us, we could probably finish the quest today."

"Didn't you agreed with me that we should go back just before now?" objected the Italian boy."We are exhausted and should return to a safe zone."

"That was when it was only the three of us." answered the curved sword user absently. "But with the guys from fuurinkazan, we could easily take on the moles, without overextending ourselves. What do you think boss?" he asked from Natsu with a teasing grin.

Though he blushed a little at being called out, Natsu responded with a grin.

"Sound like a plan. Let's do it." he agreed while he sent out party invites to Klein, Dale, and Dynamn.

"Alright!"Klein grinned with enthusiasm.

-0-

Enraged moles were moles the size of a larger dog with coppery black fur. They didn't cause too much damage by themselves but they were very annoying and problematic to fight against.

With a yell, Dale activated the two-handed sword skill, Overhead Strike, and swung his blade vertically, catching the mole at its side. Thrown back by the effect of the skill the mole laid on the ground for a few moments before bursting into polygons, its HP reached zero.

Basil who was weathering the mole's attacks, let out a sigh and lowered his shield in relief. Ken at his side patted his back, while Klein, Dynamn, and Natsu who were dealing with the other mole walked next to them. All of them looked a little dirty, but far from exhausted. The three younger boys took a small break, to recharge before jumping into the frame, thanks to that they were able to function properly.

"Good work!" said Klein cheerily as they reached each other. Basil gave a small smile, the kind nature of the older man eventually put even him in ease.

They suddenly turned to Natsu, who let out an uncharacteristic whoop. The boy was checking out the quest's screen, after the defeat of the last mole. He faced the other members of their party, with a large smile on his face.

"We did t. We just defeated the 30th Enraged Mole." his statement was met with a large cheer. They spent another two hours since the party expanded, hunting moles and any other mob they encountered. Klein and his friends managed to gather enough moleskin for their upgrade, but stayed, to see this quest through.

"What's the next objective?" asked Ken, after they calmed down a little.

Natsu was about to answer his friend when a window popped up before him. His eyes had widened and he tried to call out to the others when a deep rumble went through the cave they were in. Before they could react, the earth caved in beneath every one of them and then they were falling.

Letting out a loud cry, the brown-haired boy tried to find something to hold onto around him, but his hand only found air. As abruptly as the ground disappeared from under him, he soon landed with an audible thump. A few other pained groans around him told Natsu that at least their group remained together. From where he was lying he saw the comical sight of Klein being squashed beneath the big-boned body of his guildmate, Dale.

As he slowly sat up, his hands instinctively tightening around his sword, he noticed two things. One, from the corner of his eye he saw he didn't suffer any hp loss. It was probably by design because for all the risks and disadvantages they had against the game, there was always a way to win. It wouldn't be a proper game if there was no chance of winning after all.

The second thing he noticed that the ground beneath his fingers was trembling ominously. Remembering what he read before he fell down, Natsu instantly became alarmed.

"Guys!" he shouted, causing the others who also tried to get up turn to him."Hurry, we have to get ready.

"What are you talking about, what's happening?" asked a confused Klein, who was able to get free.

"The second objective!"told them Natsu as he looked around frantically."We have to survive against the onslaught of a horde of enraged moles for 5 minutes before we could face the boss monster. We don't have much time!"

Basil, Klein, and Dynamn paled rapidly before scrambling to get up and get into a proper stance. Dale, who looked a little afraid was able to move around a little more calmly, while Ken didn't give out any visible reaction save for the grim look he wore.

The cave they landed in was massive, maybe around half of the cave that gave a home to Dokut. There was no way out, save for the few holes in the ceiling from where they fell. The cave itself bare, with a few rocks of various sizes standing out of the ground.

"There!" cried out Dynamn pointing at a flat rock in the middle of the cave. It rose a little above the earth around it, but not high enough that they couldn't climb up there."We can make our stand there."

It was a good idea in theory. The enraged moles could burrow into the earth with no problem, but they couldn't do the same with stone. By staying at the top of the rock, at least they could avoid any surprise attacks from below.

Following Dynamn's suggestion, they climbed up to the rock, thankfully they had plenty of space, even with six people. They formed a loose circle, facing outward, with Dale given a bit more room to be able to swing his sword without problems. Natsu was standing between Ken and Klein, his attention on the timer that appeared after they fell down.

"Thirty seconds and the wave starts." he warned them, his grip tightening on his sword."We don't need to defeat them, only to survive for 5 minutes. Focus on defense."

The others looked around nervously, before steeling themselves for the upcoming fight. The ground began to tremble more and more violently, but their rock was more stable than it seemed and they didn't have to worry about their footings so much.

They were running out of time, with only fifteen seconds left when a window popped up in front of Natsu. It was a trade window from Klein. He turned towards the samurai to question him when an item was placed on Klein's side of the window. A teleport crystal. An extremely useful item, capable of teleporting the user to a chosen city's teleport gate on any unlocked floor, even in the middle of combat. But they were very rare too. According to Buzz, around the 8th floor, it would be available to buy from NPCs for a very steep price, but until then the only way to get one was from monster drops. From the corner of his eyes, he saw similar windows appear in front of Ken and Basil, presumably from Dale and Dynamn.

"Take it." Klein was not looking at him, but surveying the cave for any enemies. In contrast to the earlier slightly comical and funny behavior, the man was completely serious. His eyes were hard, there was no fear, no nervousness in him, only a firm resolution. "Take it and get out of here if it seems we are getting overwhelmed."

Natsu froze when he realized what he offered. Considering how rare and expensive teleport crystals were, there's no way they would have six of them. The teleport crystal could only take a person and if they had only three of them...they planned to stay. Klein, Dale, and Dynamn planned to stay while allowing them to run away.

His left hand was hovering above the accept button, fighting a war with himself. He didn't want to abandon anybody. The three guys from Fuurinkazan were really kind and funny to be around. But he didn't want to die, and if they were ever overwhelmed it would be over, without leaving anything of themselves behind.

Natsu found his answer when he spied his reflection from the blade of his sword.

Klein looked at him in confusion when the trade was canceled.

"I won't run away!"Natsu told him, his voice not even wavering a little.

The older man looked surprised and from the corner of his eyes, he saw Ken and Basil also declining the trade requests. There was no hesitation in their eyes, only a resolution to fight. It was not him, but Ken who gave voice to the feelings of the three younger boys.

"We will not run away if it means leaving anyone behind." he was staring out towards the vast cave, his body already tensed for the upcoming fight."I want to go home. I want to be together with my father again. But not if it means leaving someone to die. If I run away now, then it wouldn't have mattered if I never left the town of beginning. All that I achieved up until now, will lose it's meaning if I give up when it gets tough."

Basil only gave a single nod in agreement, but it was enough. Natsu couldn't help but smile at his friends.

"We will all survive. All six of us." he told them, causing Klein to chuckle.

"You sure are stubborn." he flashed Natsu a roguish grin. The brown-haired boy saw in the corner of his vision, the timer reached zero. As soon as this happened numerous enraged moels burst from the earth, there were at least thirty of them."Come and get me."Klein taunted the moles who began to rush for their position.

Noticing a new timer appearing and count down from 5:00, Natsu felt himself slip into what he called 'battle mode'. The world around him slowed down as the moles neared them, all his panic, all his concerns faded into the background. Only the serious, methodical thoughts of a warrior remained. In times like these, in the middle of a fight, that he felt as if instead of Tsuna playing as Natsu, he truly became the swordsman Natsu. This is when he felt most comfortable, the most at ease within his skin.

After this battle, Ken would tell him that his entire posture changed as he went into battle mode, soon earning him a nickname that would become just as integrated into his being as being called Dame-Tsuna was. But that story was for another day.

-0-

Nothing existed. Just his sword, the enemy surrounding them, and the allies at his sides. Thankfully, the moles couldn't break through stone, so the monsters they needed to watch out for were in front of them. Natsu felt into a rhythm of block, push back, attack and retreat. They made sure to look out for each other, whenever someone advanced a little, the others moved around accordingly, ensuring no enemy could get between them. Before he realized it, only two minutes remained from the wave and they were standing strong.

Placing his weapon horizontally before him, Natsu was able to block the charge of a mole. Taking a deep breath, he used all of the few points he put into strength to push the mole away, directly into one of Ken's sword skills. As the monster fall apart into polygons, he used the small pause to chuck down a health potion, before lashing out and catching one of the moles attacking Klein in the side, allowing the red-haired samurai to drink a similar potion.

They were doing really well. Their circle hasn't been breached yet and no more enraged moles appeared. From the initial thirty of them only around sixteen, maybe seventeen remained. Thankfully, without being able to burrow into the ground and attack from behind they were not that hard to deal with even with their increased number. They drank health potions often, to regenerate lost health and because of that, no one slipped into the red zone yet. Ken, Klein, and Natsu were in the yellow zone, but all of them had around 40-45 percent of their max health. The shielders, Basil and Dynamn, and Dale were doing better, all were in the green zone currently healthwise, having around 70 percent of their health remaining.

"Keep it up!" he yelled out to the others as he once again engaged a mole."It's almost over."

Sadly, no matter how well they fared until now, they began to tire. While it did not reflect on their stats, the oncoming horde of monsters attacking them, the fighting they done earlier today began to take its toll. Mental fatigue slowed their reactions down, made it harder to raise their swords after each strike. Even the smaller number of moles worked against them. With fewer of them, the moles were free to maneuver around them and to dodge their attacks. It was only a question of time before one of them made a mistake.

They had less than a minute on the timer when the inevitable happened. A cry rang out in the middle of a battle. Natsu turned towards the sound and found Dale lying on his back, his sword a few feet away from him. He timed a block wrong and lost his balance. Unfortunately, a mole was almost on him, ready to attack the unguarded player. Not far from there Basil tried to reach Dale, but he himself had a mole on him that he was barely able to hold back.

Surveying the situation, he quickly reached a decision. He caught Ken's eyes and the other boy seemed to know what he was planning. With a nod Ken slashed at the enemy Natsu was fighting against it, forcing back and giving the brown-haired boy room to move.

"Basil!" he cried out, the shield user reflexively turning his attention to him. "Switch!" with that Natsu began to run in Dale's direction.

As they passed each other, Natsu raised his sword atop his shoulder and despite the distance of a few feet, he activated a sword skill. Sonic Leap is a charge-type Sword Skill that consists of a single top to bottom vertical slash, and also allows the user to charge from over twice the distance in an instant. His sword shining with blue light, Natsu soared through the air, reaching Dale just before a critical attack could land on the downed man. Catching the mole above him completely unaware, Natsu was able to strike it with his attack, pushing away the mob. Unfortunately, the skill cooldown left him defenseless against the mole that a moment ago was fighting Basil, a basic attack hitting him on the side.

His side flared up in agony, Natsu gritted his teeth trying to fight the pain. He was able to stay on his feet and as soon as his body responded to his thoughts, he spun around and sent a Horizontal against his attacker. By that time another mole neared him to attack him, but a large two-handed sword cut off its path, pushing back the monster.

Natsu smiled in thanks at Dale who gave a thumbs up in response.

"Thanks for the save." he told the younger boy."Let's get back to it."

With that, they continued holding back the monsters. Thankfully after this, they were able to hold out without incident and the next time Natsu looked at the timer, it just reached zero once again. He wanted to tell the others, but the moles stopped their attacking as a huge earthquake shook the whole cavern. It was so powerful that they had difficulty not falling to the ground. Klein almost lost his balance but was able to stay on his feet with some weird dance-like motions.

Natsu was worried about the remaining enraged moles, but they weren't attacking. They looked scared. As soon the trembling stopped the few that survived the past five minutes retreated to their tunnel and disappeared without trance. At the same time, a new window appeared before him.

"What's going on?" asked Dynamn who looked tense and ready for a surprise attack.

"The third part of the quest." answered Natsu, who once again stared at a new timer."The last enemy is the mini-boss, Berserker Mole. It'll appear in less than a minute. Everyone, drink up potions and get ready."

The others followed his suggestion and drank the last of their potions, Hopefully, this fight wouldn't go on much longer, it was doubtful if they will be able to keep up.

"That's some intense quest alright." commented Klein as he swiped the sweat off his brows. He, like the others, looked very haggard and tired."Fortunately, we have a full party, instead of half that we started or it would be much much worse."

Basil shot Natsu a look that basically said 'told you so'. He wanted to leave the quest half-finished, to rest and prepare, but Natsu was very adamant on finishing as soon as possible. He blushed a little at that, but ultimately the brown-haired boy ignored this, focusing on the fight coming their way.

They once again formed a loose circle on the top of the rock. Sadly they did not have any information on their last enemy, save for its name. They had to figure out things on the fly, not their preferred tactic but it would have to do. As the timer slowly counted down, Natsu began to feel an itch on the back of his neck, a feeling as if he was not safe where he was. The feeling grew and grew, until every part of his body told him one thing: move away!

"Move!" he yelled out, earning confused glances from the others."Get away from the rock." he told them as he quickly jumped down to the ground.

„What's the big idea?" asked Dale confused, but Ken grabbed his arm and began to drag him along. Ken and Basil knew Natsu well enough to obey him when he tells them something like that. Luckily Klein and Dynamn followed suit even though they didn't get what was wrong.

All of them left the rock and thankfully just in time. A moment later the timer reached zero and the rock they survived on the 5-minute wave of enraged moles was blasted into tiny pieces before even those pieces burst into polygons. From the hole that remained a huge body jumped out, causing the six players to pale as they caught sight of it.

The Berserker Mole, because it couldn't be anything else was unlike any of those they faced before. It was huge, the side of a small house actually, with angry red fur covering its body. It was also littered with scars of various sizes, spreading through most of its body, especially near its face. Two full health bars appeared next to it. Thankfully while it was stronger than the average mob, it wasn't a 'proper' boss at least. Also, the Berserker Mole is yet to notice them.

"That was a close one, thanks Natsu." said Klein who watched the place where they stood a second ago with absolutely no expression on his face."Hopefully, this big guy can't go underground, right?" he tried to joke, but it fell flat on the others who stared at the mole in shock.

As if that was its clue, the Berserker Mole turned towards them, huffing as if it was a boar. Natsu watched the monster for a silent second as it began to charge towards them, before jumping into action.

"Basil, Dynamn get ready to block. Everyone keep your distance until we know more about its attacks."

They reacted accordingly, the two shield users successfully blocking the first charge. After that they carefully positioned themselves, trying to get a read on the boss.

They were in luck, the boss didn't seem inclined to burrow into the ground. It also lacked any special skills, but what it had was brute strength. An attack caught Ken unaware, the glancing attack sending him flying and taking out a good chunk of his hp. They placed the two shield users on the opposite part of the cave, the two used their taunt skills alternatively, not letting the boss focus on one player too much. Meanwhile, the others attacked it from the side whenever they could, gradually decreasing its health. They tried to keep a distance from each other, not wanting the boss to use an AOE attack, like what happened with the first-floor boss.

Slowly but surely, the boss was on its last legs. But Natsu and the others were the end of their ropes too. What few health potions they had left, were mostly used up by now, and the exhaustion began to take its toll more than ever. Basil looked ready to drop down, and honestly, Natsu felt the same, but they needed to hold out, they were so close.

The Berserker Mole charged once again, but Dynamn was able to block it, though he almost lost his balance due to the sheer power of the monster.

"Don't let up! Finish this!" yelled out Klein as he and the others charged the boss, sword skills lighting up their weapons.

Because the Berserker Mole had so little health left, they had Dynamn stop its charge so while it suffered its own cooldown they could land their strongest attacks and end this fight. Ken and Klein from the left, while Dale, Basil, and Natsu attacked from the right.

Natsu reached the boss, his strongest sword skill, Sharp Nail already initiated and ready to use. The three-hit combo skill's first attack was a diagonal slash from the bottom right to the top left that landed just behind the mole's right foreleg, Next, he unleashed a horizontal slash before made a full clockwise spin ending it with another diagonal slash, this time from the top left to the bottom right.

The Berserker Mole tried thrashing around, but t was in vain. As all of their sword skills dealt damage one after another, soon its hp reached zero. With a last cry, the monster burst into polygons, much to the relief of Natsu and the others.

Exhaustion finally succumbing to him, Natsu fell on his back, not feeling any strength in his body. The others likewise lied or sat down, trying to get back their breaths. Thankfully, a silence enveloped the cavern and no more enemies spawned.

Dale, who was sprawled out next to him, asked the most relevant question.

"This is the end of the quest, right? Please, tell me there won't be another wave of enemies."

Natsu strained his neck a little to see the window before him properly and let out a relieved smile at the words 'Quest Successful'.

"This is it." he told them."We've completed the quest."

The others let out laughs and cheers at the news, despite how tired all of them felt.

"Then, there is only one question left." muttered Klein who was lying face down, apparently too tired to roll over."How do we get out of here?"

Nobody answered him until they heard a creaking noise. At the other end of the dave, there was a door that none of them noticed until now, which was slowly opening, hence the noise.

-0-

"Were you successful, brave heroes? Did you stop the menace that terrorized our city?" asked the old man who issued the quest when the six players walked up to him.

After they rested for a while, they set out to see where the tunnel led them to. Interestingly enough, they ended up near the east tunnel entrance of Dokut. All of them were dirty and tired, but they walked up to the old man with large smiles on their faces. Since he was the one who shared the quest in the group, Natsu stepped forward.

"We did. The Berserker Mole is defeated." he reassured him.

As soon as the words registered, the old man's body relaxed and the worry lines on his face softened. When a single tear rolled down the side of his face, Natsu absently wondered how lifelike the game was.

"Thank you, young heroes." he told them heartfully."I will be forever in your debt."

When he finished speaking, the exclamation mark above his head disappeared, signifying the end of the quest. A window opened before everyone informing them of their success and giving out the necessary col and experience reward. Natsu was confused at first because he didn't see the promised weapon, but before he could voice it, he caught movement from the old man. He was holding a clothed bundle in front of him, offering it to Natsu. A part of the cloth fell away revealing a sword sheath.

"I am old. I wouldn't have much use of it anymore. But it will serve you faithfully." with that he handed the sword to Natsu.

"Thank you." he said as he touched the sword. The sword disappeared, sent directly to his inventory. With his task done, the old man simply stood back and stared motionlessly.

The others gathered around Natsu, wanting to know what kind of weapon he got. In response, he unequipped his current sword and began to scroll through his inventory to equip his newest find.

As the weapon appeared in his hands in a show of light, Natsu widened his eyes in wonder. In his hands rested a beautiful longsword. It did not have a crossguard, instead, the blade widened a little where it met the handle to offer some protection to the user's hand. The handle was blue, with some gold at the crossguard and at the pummel. The blade's edge was shining silver, while the inner part was a lot darker. There was a green line that ran through the middle of the blade, from how the light broke on it, Natsu through it was some kind of gem. All in all, it was an impressive piece of work.

"Benevolent." breathed its name Natsu, completely overtaken by its appearance.

"That's some cool looking sword, alright." whistled Klein in amazement."Just be sure to take good care of it.

Natsu nodded, with a firm expression as he sheathed the sword.

"Look at you, a proper hero, ready to take his first step." teased Dynamn, causing the young boy to erupt in a blush. The others laughed good-naturedly.

They continued teasing the poor boy until they slowly walked up to the teleport gate. Here, they disbanded the party, ready to go their ways.

"Well, time to split. I had fun with you guys, call us if you ever need help or just want to hang out." said Klein, while he sent friend requests to the three boys."Take care alright. We will meet you at the top of the castle." he joked, causing Ken and Natsu to laugh at his antics.

"Thanks for the help." said Natsu, as he accepted the requests from the three older men."The same for you. Let's meet again."

"Just maybe not in the middle of a dungeon next time." joked Ken, causing the others to laugh.

Natsu made a face as if he suddenly remembered something.

"I remember now. I know where I heard your name before." he said to a surprised Klein."Kirito-san told me about you."

Hearing the name a soft smile appeared on the samurai's face.

"He did? Is he doing okay?"

"Yeah, last I saw him." nodded Natsu.

"Good to hear. If you saw him, tell him I told him to take care." said Klein, before all of them said their goodbyes."Later."

As the members of Fuurinkazam walked away, Natsu couldn't find it himself to stop smiling.

"Let's go. Before Lisbeth-san closes for the day." Basil reminded him, spurring him into motion.

-0-

The sun was going down, and Lisbeth was ready to close up shop and go home to the inn she was staying in. She was one of the last ones still out in the market, almost all of the players left by now. She only stayed because she hoped Natsu and his little group would be back since they left in such a hurry. They were some of the few friends she found in this game and thought she could at least wait for them. But seemed like their quest took a little much time.

"Well there is always tomorrow." she said in the end and began to put away the few weapons she had out on her stall as merchandise.

Before she could get very far however she was interrupted by a loud voice.

"Lis-chan! Wait!" running towards her from the other end of the market were three young boys she knew very well. They were dirty but had large smiles on their faces and the blacksmith could see a mile away the new sword on Natsu's back.

"Hey guys, you sure took your time." she greeted them with a smile.

"Sorry, the quest took some time." replied sheepishly Ken, while he scratched the back of his head.

"Don't need to tell me twice."Lis said, before eying the sword proudly displayed on the brown-haired boy's back."Is that?"

Natsu proudly drew his sword, before twirling it a few times just to look cool.

"It's the quest reward, Benevolent. Check it out." he said, while he showed her the sword to be able to see its stats. Lis's eyes widened as she examined the blade, a beautiful craftmanship.

"No kidding. That's a lot more powerful than most swords available in the 4th and 5th floors." after that, she gave a pointed stare to the boy."And you want to try your luck even more by upgrading it now?"

"What can I say, I'm feeling lucky." answered Natsu, a little blush forming on his face.

"All right then. Let's do it!" said Lis, completely fired up, before grabbing her trusty hammer.

-0-

As dinner time arrived, all five members of Team Natsu gathered together. When Agil discovered about their adventure, they were subjected to the lectures of lectures, while Buzz was sitting on the sidelines 'pleading the fifth'.

By the time Agil seemed to think that they had enough, all three boys wanted to hide in a deep hole. Since the game began, Agil and Buzz mostly were treating them as equals. They were able to prove that they could fight, and after a while, something like age became irrelevant if they wanted to survive. So for Agil to scold them as if he was their parent, it a very strange experience after so long. Especially for Natsu and Basil, the first because his mother rarely scolded him or told him that he was doing something wrong, and for the latter, it had been a few years since anybody treated him like a little kid.

After he finished his tirade, Agil looked at the guilty faces of the three kids, before he let out a sigh.

"At least you came back safe and sound and that's what matters in the end. Now, show me that sword, was it worth the risk?" he said and in the end, Natsu gave a sheepish smile.

He handed his sword to the older man, letting him appraise it.

"That's one fine sword, that's for sure. Have you upgraded it yet?" he asked as he gave the sword back.

"Yeah, we were able to catch Lis just in time, to give it a few." nodded Natsu as he put the sword into his inventory.

"Did you sent Argo the info on the quest?" asked Buzz, finally taking part in the discussion.

"It was one of the first things we did after we arrived back to Dokut," said Basil with a nod.

"She said, she will tell me if the sword reward turns out to be a one-time deal or not." added Natsu.

That was the end of the discussion, so they went to eat. They eat some kind of miso soup or something resembling it in the inn they chose to stay. It was at the end of the meal, that Agil once again spoke up.

"I almost forgot." he said, gaining the attention of the others."I spent the majority of the day looking for a suitable guild base."

"A guild base? What for?" wondered aloud Ken.

"We thought it's time to make a guild." answered Buzz, speaking as if that was not a big deal. "We have all the prerequisites for it and sooner or later it will be the guilds, not individual players that will fight on the for the few solo players who can keep up." he added, probably thinking of a certain black swordsman."And we thought it would be better to have our guild to be able to stay together."

"It sounds good. It would also nice to have a place of our own." added Basil, nodding in agreement.

"What would our name be?" wondered aloud Natsu.

"I know!" cried out Ken with enthusiasm."Why don't we take the first letter of all of our names." he then began to contemplate it, before he brightened up once again."I got it. We will be the NKABB!"

Even though he had such a proud expression on his face, the other simply deadpanned at him, with Natsu audibly groaning and lifting his head toward the ceiling as if asking for help from the heavens.

"You are still not allowed to name things!"