Part 2 – The Lower Floors
Chapter 1: Two groups, three cows
The second floor of the museum was far more standard as for layouts. A semi-open layout with a high ceiling, bright lighting and an obvious path that led one in a circle to where the stairs up the third floor was. The theme of this floor was proclaimed as 'The Difficulties of the Lower Floors'.
There was an unmissable diorama planted in front of them. It was labeled the split of the second floor. One side was colored a forest green, the other a deep blue. Where they clashed and met, a small barrier of black split them and tried to hold each side back. In each of the halves were the outlines of two dozen or so adventurers, both sides holding aloft a flag with an emblem upon it that Alice did not recognize. In the black section was an inverted outline of white with the distinctive shape of two-hilts poking out from behind the shoulders.
Following the defeat of Illfang the Kobold Lord, the former raid group split into two distinct parties. Alice read. These were headed up by Kibaou, the anti-beta tester, and Lind, Diavel's best friend. Both groups collected a roughly even 20 or so members and similar influence and skill.
From there, Alice read a few displays about the mentality of the player base, and the sudden uplift of spirit as the first floor was cleared. There also commentaries about the theme of the floor that was a lot shorter than the large focus on the first floor. That was understandable, Alice thought. After all, they had spent a month on the first floor, the second floor lasted around ten days from what she knew. The circle led them to a larger, circular theater looking section. As a new museum though, this would be another VR theater.
Curious, Alice approached the edge and read the label. Learn the story behind the Legend Braves, their rapid rise and fall, and the story of their Blacksmith's Nezha. From the man's very mouth, listen to his tribulations and reformation with the help of the Black swordsman.
Curiosity piqued; Alice did not need to look over to Yui to know what the girl wanted to do. This was an event that she had heard nothing about. Shrugging, she entered and found a chair. That was starting to get repetitive. Looking at the time, Alice blinked in a surprise. She had been in the museum for more than two hours at this point. Wondering if they would be done before close, Alice joined the virtual movie.
Once again, Alice was left bodiless, able to move and observe, but not interfere. It was a plain room with grey walls and windows that looked into nothingness. The only feature was the man sitting on a chair in the center of the room. He had a fairly thick beard, but warm eyes and smile. He looked like a kind father that one could rely upon.
"Hello," the man waved. "My name is Nakamura Akira, better known as Nezha, or Nezuo, to my Sword Art Online friends."
Alice settled down into a chair prepared for her and listened to the exposition with half an ear.
"When I logged into SAO on that fateful day, I received an FNC, a full-dive non-conformity. These have been largely eliminated in our modern world as the technology improves and becomes more individualizable. My defect when I logged in using the first-generation Nerve Gear was an issue with depth perception. Although minor to some, this makes fighting in Sword Art Online essentially impossible. Only throwing weapons or potentially long lances are usable for me. In other games, I would have classed as an archer or cleric or mage and had little issue. Those roles were not possible for me in SAO."
Alice repressed her yawn. This was horrifically boring. Why exactly did this person have the largest story center for the second floor?
"I did try to fight at the beginning, slowing my party's start to the game. However, sensing their growing frustration, I suggested role swapping to a blacksmith. Simply hitting the ingots with my hammer was the extent of my vision!"
Yawn coming int three, two…
"When having this conversation, the bringer of evil, PoH, approached my group."
What!? Alice jerked. It was not a distant name, that was someone who had come to the underworld, wreaking havoc upon its citizens and real-worlders alike. She knew that he came from SAO, but this was the last place she thought the man would show up.
"With Charisma I have not seen the like of again, he convinced us to begin a scam. Come with me and I will show you how it is done."
The room faded and Alice found herself facing a figure sitting cross-legged on the ground behind a vendor's carpet with a portable forge on it. Two indistinct figures stood before the blacksmith, one holding out a weapon towards him. "Upgrade please."
"A-Are you sure? And you are…?"
"Here are enough ingredients for max chance, to accuracy please."
"Y-Yes, as you wish." The blacksmith drooped visibly as he took the weapon.
"That voice…" Alice breathed, rushing over. She should have known from the story, but he was just so different here. Yes, it was the same Nezha.
"Watch closely," the ghostly voice of the older Nezha rang through the air. "Can you see how it is done?"
So, Alice watched. She did not understand what she was watching for. It was not like it was easy to steal a sword. Even when the blacksmith was upgrading it, they did not have owner permission. How in Stacia's name could—Snap!
With one final hit of the hammer, the blade twinkled into ruin. What!? The blacksmith bowed and scrapped excessively in front of the sword's owner. Alice heard little of the exchange. She did not understand this scam at all. It made no sense. Was the point to break the weapons of the raid group so his party could catch up? What a stupid trick.
"I am guessing that you are confused." Old Nezha continued. "I do not believe that anyone has ever noticed the trick here the first time they see it. To do this, I am using the quick-change mod to replace the sword being upgraded with a blade with no attempts left that can be obtained for far cheaper. Each of these turnarounds can generate a massive amount of profit.
"At the same time, I was rapidly improving my upgrade abilities. With the money, we were able to afford the ingredients needed to upgrade my parties Armour and weapons. This led to the party I was a part of, the Legend Braves, to make a swift rise through the ranks. We were even included as the third party for the field boss fight."
The scene changed again, and Alice saw a massive Cow prowling a narrow valley. It likely was a pinch point on the floor separating it into different sections. The cow rampaged with predictable moves. Hard to solo, but Kirito and her could have dealt with it. In this fight, two parties, one of green and one of blue fought for aggro of the boss, acting as competing parties rather than a cohesive raid. Honestly, one party may have been doing better than the two that got in each other's way.
"As the fledgling guilds fought, the Legend Braves threatened to break through as the prominent third group on the frontlines, and potentially the strongest." Nezha continued to narrate. "Our role in this fight was not massive, but we made an impact. In our victory, I moved my operations to Taran, the town closest to the labyrinth tower."
Alice got a sped-up version of the Legend Braves rushing in and roaring, attracting the boss to themselves and soundly withstanding its charge. They were not particularly impressive warriors, but their gear made up for it.
"I should mention, we were already on edge. A weapon I had stolen, from Lightning Flash herself, had disappeared from my inventory. That only made the rest more sure that I had to get as many weapons as possible so that no one could threaten us."
"A scary prospect…" Alice muttered. She had heard something once and thought that it was a pretty telling saying. That if someone is willing to cheat once, they will always be a cheater. Alice believed people could change, after all she had. But the Legend Braves were clearly not trustworthy as a group, duped or not. No matter the charisma of the one proposing it, people like Kirito and Asuna would have had a visceral negative reaction to the proposal.
"As operations resumed in Taran," Nezha continued as Alice's view once again changed to a rustic town and the now familiar blacksmith hammering away, "my business boomed. My odds were better than NPCs and no other players had managed to get this far to compete. I had cornered the market. That should have been enough, even without the scams I was making more than any two of my companions did hunting.
"But they wanted more now. They had experienced being at the top and were enthralled by it. They could see a future where the five of them stood atop all of SAO, real heroes. A future where I was not a hero, but their personal blacksmith, able to get them the best gear possible. It clouded their eyes, blinded them. So, with their pressure propelling me, I continued to scam players.
"My soul mourned each time a weapon broke in my hands. A miserable, heart-rending period of time that still gives me nightmares and wakes me up with tears in my eyes. Do not think though that I blame them for this. I wanted to be useful, I wanted to be a part of their heroic rise to the top. I was young and made a mistake.
"But one day, it came to an abrupt end at his hand."
Into the square in the evening light, a figure in full plate walked up to the vendor with an anneal blade. The cheapest possible heavy armour was at odds with the high-quality sword. Not an impossible combination, but highly suspicious, nonetheless. Rolling her eyes at the poor disguise, Alice watched as the exchange played out. The blacksmith breaking the substitute weapon, Kirito removing his helm and summoning his blade back.
"I should have been called out at this point, ostracized, forced to work to pay back what I had stolen. Mercifully, the black swordsman instead offered me a way fight. By giving up forging, he showed me where I could acquire a hidden skill, Martial Arts, that would allow me to use a chakram."
Chakram. Alice was not familiar with the weapon. It definitely was not something that was present in the underworld or Alfheim. But she still had to frown at Kirito's actions. This was an extremely… generous action, to put it mildly. He had just discovered—and was able to prove—how someone was scamming frontline players out of valuable fear. Of course his response was to make the scammers dream come true.
The scene shifted to a boss room. It contained around fifty people and two big monsters. Alice had learned about these Tauruses from her time in Alfheim. They were half-bull people from old Real-world legends. Alice thought it was a little rude to put them on a cow floor…
As the larger of the bull Tauruses dropped to its last health bar, a large gong sounded and a third form began to materialize. A tall, pitch-black Taurus with a crown of horns signaling its status as king. This was the true boss of the second floor, Asterius the Taurus king. A flurry of activity later, the two sub bosses were defeated, but they did not realize the terror of Asterius.
Leaning back, its cheeks puffed out, eyes glowed light blue, and a bolt of lightning paralyzed almost half the raid. There was little that the others could do at this point. This time it would not just be the leader of the raid, there would multiple casualties.
Then, a streak of light pierced the air.
"I finished just in time, rushing to the boss room with help from an infamous information broker." Nezha narrated as his weapon struck against Asterius' horns. The floor boss stumbled back having been stunned from the hit to its weak point.
The blacksmith walked into the vast boss chamber and caught his weapon. Despite his dwarvish looks, the young Nezha managed a somewhat heroic appearance as he stuck up his arm and caught the bright silver weapon. That gave Alice her first view of what a chakram was. It had a handle that he grabbed and looked somewhat like pugilist knuckles. That handle was in the middle of a metal circle which enabled it to be thrown or punched into someone, hence the martial arts.
As the raid slowly recovered, Nezha led the plodding boss off in a different direction. And when it went to use its breath weapon, Nezha expertly dodged with a well-timed dodge. His arrival and weapon had single-handedly turned around the fight. The thief had become a hero.
"By interrupting the boss from consistent attacks to its weak point, Asterius the Taurus king never managed to pose a serious threat. My arrival had saved the group. Furthermore, during the fight the Legend Braves distinguished themselves with their excellent gear. Having higher status resist than any other group, they shook off the stuns and paralysis that the others had to worry about."
"Obviously, when the fight ended, questions were raised. My presence did not go unnoticed, and they called me out. Appreciated, but suspicious. So, I admitted to my guilt…"
The voice of the narrating older Nezha drifted into nothing as the younger voice started. The blacksmith prostrating himself before the frontliners and admitting to his guilt. "I sold the stolen weapons and used the money to pay for large buffets. I will accept your punishment… whatever it may be."
Whatever it may be… Alice could not help but wonder if this was the true reason that PoH had revealed the scam. Forcing the players to deal with something that they had not been forced to face yet, meting out justice. The justice in a game was determined by its game masters, SAO had none. If the frontliners allowed themselves to execute people, it became a slippery slope.
Alice's worries seemed unfounded at first as the players were only interested in getting paid back for their weapons. It looked like the result would be peaceful, even if the wrong person was being condemned. Then, as if her sigh of relief was a sign, someone brought up people that had died as a direct consequence of losing their man weapon.
Fool! Alice cursed the dead. Before you thought about fighting, you had to determine the capabilities of yourself and your gear. One could not fight in battle wearing leather as if they had plate. It had been one of Uncle Bercouli's first lessons and why the integrity knights were so dominant. Complete mastery over their weapons.
"Then he must pay the price of his crimes!"
"Pay the price!"
And with just that, the mob mentality began. Emotion had taken over and rationality fled from the surrounding players. Anger coated expressions that was not only from this. Most should have been completely neutral but now demanded blood as well. Anger at their lives, anger at how unfair the world was.
Through it all, Nezha did not move. His forehead on the ground, he waited for judgement with a soft smile on his face. Finally, the other Legend Braves approached. Surrounding Nezha, they laid down their weapons and accepted judgement with the blacksmith.
"This," narrator Nezha spoke softly, "was the end of the Legend Braves. Despite some continuing efforts, they were not good enough players to fight on the front lines without a level and gear buffer.
"What this really was though, is an example of the selflessness and importance of the black swordsman in the frontline dynamics. With an antagonizing force hampering our progress and actively killing people, I firmly believe that we never would have made it to even floor ten without him."
With those words, the vision ended, and Alice was left alone in the museum's room. Yui by her side was likewise opening her eyes with a soft smile on her face. Anyone praising Kirito lit her face like they were talking about her.
"This game was pure chaos…" Alice muttered to her.
"Ah, but Dad and Mom brought them through it all."
Alice nodded and stood up. "Well, let us continue."
Chapter 2: The Cardinal system's double-edged sword
On the third floor, the cardinal system began to flex its abilities. So far, all major changes from the beta, as far as we are aware, were changes made by the Argus team or Kayaba himself. While minor glitches and inconsistencies were continually corrected, the cardinal system maintained balance.
However, on the third floor, the first major case of its 'Quest Creation' system running wild was observed. The Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash initiated this by defeating a scenario that was an Auto-lose in the beta. Form a party and join the virtual reality fight as a party and see if you can deviate the quest by winning the fight!
Alice simply waited. In three… two… one…
"Let's do it!" Yui declared. "Just like my parents, the two of us!"
"Hmm…" Yui wanted to tell Yui she was being silly as a group of six walked out disgruntled claiming that it was impossible. Kirito had probably used his game knowledge and stupidly creative mind to create some situation where the fight became winnable.
"Aunt…" Yui plead.
"Fine!" Alice gave in. Afterall, what was five more minutes at this point?
That was how Alice found herself weathering the attack of an elven light soldier. The enemy was fast and powerful. She could tell that the stats she had been given paled in comparison to what was required to defeat this opponent in a fair fight.
Thankfully, it was not. She had Yui and a Dark Elf soldier on her side. Unfortunately, the dark elf was cautious and would not fully trust them and Yui was a complete beginner. That left Alice enduring the attacks, trying desperately to use Sword Skills to meet sword skills.
In less than half a minute she had lost close to forty percent of her HP while dealing maybe 5% of the opponent's. "This is pointless, Yui." Alice growled. "I would need a full party for this."
"No, we can win!" Yui declared, stepping in front of Alice to try and grab aggro. The problem was that with a rapier, she could not stand against the heavier curved sword of the elven light soldier. "Miss Elf! Please work with us. Only if you trust us and fight with all your might can we all survive!"
Pointless, Alice sighed internally. As she expected, the Elven Warrior easily knocked aside Yui. Not letting her defense go to waste, Alice scored a free hit upon him. Again, the damage was minimal, but with five or six skilled people this would not only be feasible, but quite easy.
"You care for my life, girl!?" The dark elf growled, shifting in place. "Why? Why do you help me and not him?"
Oddly, this seemed some kind of important exchange as the Forest elf backed off as well, not lashing out at Alice again.
"Because the dark elves helped my parents!" Yui responded as bold as ever. Alice wondered if the girl had forgotten that she was talking to basic programs of a small instance.
"Very well!" The dark elf spoke in the affirmative. "I shall grant you assistance as we bring down this evildoer."
"Curse you, Lysulian knight, getting aid from these humans!"
Alice could tell that the fight had changed. The Dark elf took center stage now and Alice could assist her, interrupting his skills and providing damage. Yui helped by yelling encouragement and throwing out the occasional linear.
So, this is the answer… Alice wondered idly. By treating the simple NPCs as humans, the cardinal system modulated their algorithm to reward the player, maybe? To her, Alice noticed that this fight was probably far from impossible to win, it more had to do with the belief that it could not be won. Players had entered it expecting a set outcome and so fought for that, not this decisive outcome, but Kirito as a beta tester…
Alice exploded forward with a powerful sword skill, reaching further forward than she had been willing to go before. Yes, this outcome was not because of Kirito, this was Asuna's influence. That woman… Cursing mentally, Alice drew the elf's aggro and next sword skill. Still upset, she did not think but reacted.
Dodging her head to the side, Alice slipped beside the lunging sword skill. Close to the elite elven warrior, Alice did not bother with a sword skill but plunged her sword straight into his chest and grabbed onto his armour to prevent the forest elf from pulling away.
In her mind's eye those light green eyes softened to Asuna's brown and his pale hair changed somewhat to match. The feminine bone structure was already similar enough. "You think you're sooo much better, don't you?" Alice ranted at elf-Asuna. "Ruining quest lines, bossing people around!"
For a brief moment, Alice thought she saw confusion in the elven features. Then, as expected, he thrust her sword through her chest. The two of them remained locked there as their health declined, Alice's far more rapidly.
"Aunt Alice!" Yui unleashed a sloppy Linear that did minimal damage.
"I will not let your sacrifice be in vain, human." The dark elf dashed behind them and slashed with a beautiful strike that trailed bright blue light. It cut across the elven warrior's neck for a critical hit. He screamed as his health hit zero and exploded. Alice followed a moment later.
"That was not how we were supposed to do that," Yui informed Alice back in the real world.
"Ahaha," Alice scratched her cheek and avoided the girl's very direct and piercing stare. "My emotions got the best of me."
"Yes, I saw that," Yui rolled her eyes, looking very, very human at the moment. "And I thought you had gotten more level-headed over the years."
Alice, for once, was glad for her robotic body at the moment. No blush rose up into her cheeks. "I have always been level-headed."
"Right. Definitely."
"I am!" Alice assured Yui. "The only problems occur when your parents are around. Kirito does stupid things that require me to berate him and Asuna… well, she is Asuna."
Yui's anger faded a little. Sighing, she looked around at the museum, yet her eyes were clearly not taking any of it in. "I always thought that Mom and you would get closer with time. That's how it went with all of the others…"
Alice did not think she was meant to hear that final sentence. She did not want to think about it. She was alive, she had a sister, it was enough. "Let's continue." Standing up, Alice forced them to continue moving. With noon approaching, the museum was reaching its maximum capacity. Mainly Japanese people were pressed in shoulder to shoulder, trying to read displays and look at the objects that were set up and created for this place. There were, however, a large number of foreigners, some even in suits that were learning with attentive expressions with their in built translators.
So, Alice took their example, and settled in to learn. This section jumped around and seemed to follow examples of how the cardinal system began to turn Sword Art Online from a VRMMO into a true alternate world.
The Elf War questline that the Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash derailed spiraled into a massive change in how Sword Art Online proceeded. The first change was the recruitment of the dark elf Kizmel. As an elite Dark elf soldier, she enhanced the rate of quest clearing and safety during travel.
Furthermore, the bond with the dark elves led them to gaining benefits that enhanced the safety and speed with which the frontrunners could clear the floors. As early as the third flood, the elves warned them that the boss had a new poison attack. Most notably however, was that both Viscount Yofillis and Kizmel joined in on the fourth-floor raid boos nullifying its special ability to fill the arena with water and trivializing what should have been an extremely difficult fight.
That was from an article on the benefits that were gained from Kirito and Asuna pulling the quest off the path that it should have taken. Two bosses that had lost their bite due to deviating a single quest. The pay-out was incredible.
The next section was titled 'The Cardinal Systems Iron-fisted Fairness'. An ominous way to start a section.
The balances the cardinal system placed when weaving its story were made most apparent on the sixth floor. Not appreciating the disappointing ending to the Curse of Stanchion quest, the cardinal system removed all players ability to complete the quest after Red players killed the mayor in the Black swordsman's questline in an effort to kill him.
Leading theories believe that the cardinal system not only gave access of a unique Fallen elf questline to the red players, but completely altered the sixth-floor boss to make it essentially undefeatable. Through sheer luck, the frontliners managed to reach the labyrinth tower fast enough to reach the mayor's old lover before she tried to solo the boss which would have made the game unbeatable.
"Unbeatable?" Alice whispered. She had not heard about this. Curiosity piqued, she scanned further, her eyes flicking back and forth between a head sized cube of gold and the text.
The door sealed behind the raid and was locked by a 27x27 square of sudoku puzzles with a hole in the center for a lock for a total of 728 puzzles each of maximum difficulty. Solving this without aid would take about the same number of manhours. Furthermore, these puzzles reset every day. As such, there is no realistic way for normal players to clear this.
"Absurd," Alice gasped. "Did you know about this?" She asked Yui.
"No," The girl growled, still sounding upset. "This is completely ridiculous! Did the players realize how close they were to never progressing? How did Kayaba lose control so badly?"
Alice nodded her agreement and finished reading. The mayor's lover and her daughter happened to be there. As NPCs with access to the answers, they were able to clear a puzzle is about forty seconds. Even at this speed, the raid had to stall a boss that could not be damaged for an hour.
When the puzzles were finished, the door unlocked and opened allowing the raid to escape. Thankfully, the Black Swordsman noticed the pattern change and convinced everyone to remain. With the door closing and locking again, there were now only 27 Sudoku puzzles. Another round of solving shifted it to one puzzle. That puzzle then resolved into 9 digits arranged in a grid.
The raid now had to hit the boss monster in specific ways to line up the numbers on one face of the cube to match the nine numbers. By doing this through leadership from the Lightning Flash, the raid was at last able to begin dealing damage to the sixth-floor boss.
Use the AR station to try and solve a face to the required pattern!
"What the…" Alice saw the hands of AI all over this boss fight. There was no way a human could look at this and think it was anywhere near fair. Trying on to think on it, she sauntered over to look at one of the floating cubes. Her and Yui were probably the only ones here that could interact with it like it was a physical item. Others would not have a sense of weight or coolness to it.
Playing with the sides, it only took her about a minute to arrange the numbers on one side so they lined up with the guide. Still, it took her multiple times comparing to where they should be and scanning the cube to find what she needed. It was easy as a challenge, incredibly hard in a boss fight.
"No wonder is had to be scaled back," Yui said, "I did not realize that happened. Maybe tuning it was the real reason Kayaba joined so late."
"I wonder if we will ever know…" Alice said. With little left to comment on, they continued their journey. The end of Elf war was ahead.
Chapter 3: The Unknown Hero Strikes again
"Of course he did," Alice sighed, rubbing her head. Yui looked oddly proud as she stared up at the silvery spear replica. Alice did have to admit it was impressive that the museum curators had actually made replicas of the weapons rather than doing full AR exhibits.
"Well, he is a little dramatic…" Yui agreed.
"Do they know that you can talk to people." Alice raged quietly, still drawing gazes in the silent but packed space. "But no, he organized a two-party raid against the fifth-floor boss, a milestone boss, got lucky that it had a stupid design that definitely would have killed people in a full raid and then kept the…" Alice had to forcefully cut off her words as she realized something. "He calmed down by the time I met him…"
"Ahaha…" Yui laughed weakly, not commenting on the matter.
"He was less idiotic and suicidal by the time he… By Stacia's light, I want to strangle him even more now!"
"Oh, surely Dad isn't that bad…" Yui said, trying to calm Alice down.
Raising an eyebrow, Alice read from the last paragraph of the story. "Claiming the Guild Flag for himself, the Black Swordsman faced the impromptu New Year's Eye ALS raid in the vacant fifth boss chamber by himself. Upon meeting their leader, Kibaou, he presented two conditions upon which he would surrender the weapon. One, they merge with the DKB and create one guild for the advancement of the game. Two, a second flag drops."
"Seems reasonable." Yui shrugged.
"He flaunted a guild's objective in front of them. Did he even consider the fact that they could have killed him for it? One crime and they would be the strongest force in Aincrad. It is honestly a miracle he survived long enough to meet me."
"That," Yui smiled conspiratorially, "is something we agree on."
Sharing that secret smile, Alice and Yui walked on past the guild flag that was left white, a sigil never imprinted upon it. They had moved past the story of Nezha, who had shown up again in that fight against the fifth-floor boss, the exploits of the cardinal system on the sixth floor and had one last part on the second floor of the museum. This section, as far as Alice could tell, was dedicated to Kirito's exploits. More specifically, it appeared to be on the end of the Elf War quest, the formation of the killing guild Laughing Coffin, and the end of the initial stage of the game.
With absolutely no set-up or suspense, the first display was titled 'The Quest for the final Key'. On the Ninth floor of Aincrad, the seventh and final sanctuary key, the props for the Elf War quest that has shaped the progress of Aincrad since the third floor, can be found.
This set up a final climatic quest where the Dark elves, Forest, and Fallen elves were fated to meet in a final clash. However, as the cardinal system was playing with the path that everything would take, this was also the perfect chance for the red players to strike a decisive blow against the frontline players.
From there, Alice was able to view a map of the ninth floor. Using inbuilt AR features she expanded and extended it into 3-dimensions. The floor had two distinct halves. The east side was a thickly wooded mountainous region with a majestic palace placed on the eastern edge. Oddly, the Western side was a forest as well, but the forest had a lighter feeling with more streams, brooks, and clearings. On a Western edge was another castle with a different but related architecture. The curves were softer, more flowing like the natural curves of a tree and accented with pillars of white.
The most prominent feature of the floor was the massive tree at the center. The place where the sanctuary existed. While not Yggdrasil sized, the tree reached at least seventy meters towards the tenth floor and had a girthy perimeter. It stood in the exact center of the floor. What she could not see was a location that the key could be. Luckily, the museum was here to answer questions.
On the South side of the floor, very close to the labyrinth is a dungeon. In that dungeon, exists a magical contraption that can spawn dangerous traps and enemies in the labyrinth tower. The Fallen Elves and their Red Players assistants were the first to arrive and got control of the device. With this, they threatened the lives of potentially the entire raid group.
"What the…" Alice rubbed her temple again. "This game got completely out of control. These poor players…"
"If my parents had not been there…"
"They never would have escaped," Alice agreed. The only way they could have was if Kayaba took pity on them and altered things heavily. Maybe after a long enough break and a new group of players they could have broken through, but the progress would have slower and the deaths far higher.
The story continued near full-sized displays of three people. One was clearly a Dark Elf woman wearing knight's armour. Another was a Fallen Elf Alice assumed to be General N'ltzahh mentioned earlier in the museum. He wore a bright red cloak and a black mask, bright eyes glowing from beneath it. The third was a Forest elf with a regal appearance and a crown on his head. Alice could only assume that the king of the Forest elves himself came to secure this key.
It was a dramatic, fitting portrait as the three races came together for the final clash, ideals and philosophies playing out on a grand scale that only two players got to witness. Yes, this was why Alice had come to this museum. These were the stories and moments she wanted to hear about.
So, slipping into the cramped VR room, Alice sat down for another movie.
Immediately, the vision was chaos. A small contingent of dark elves fought desperately against anyone that approached, be that Forest or Fallen elf. The dungeon was filled with a loud cacophony of metal on metal and the screams and shouts of the dying and scared. In the center of the room stood one figure that completely upset the balance of noise.
Laughter. Rich and pure, the woman stood proud with a long katana of pure blackness, ash-gray hair covering half of her face. She may have been a fallen elf but had a beauty on par with the other elves. She wore armour the color of blood and bore an exuberant smile.
Fighting against the fallen elf were two women, a circle in the melee cleared out for their brawl that no one else was worthy of entering. One was the dark elf from the statue in the real world, Kizmel. The second was hidden under a red cloak and bore the name Lightning Flash, AKA Asuna.
It may have been a two-on-one, but the two women were clearly at a disadvantage. They moved cautiously giving respect to their foe, too much in Alice's estimation. Asuna's main strength was in her ridiculous stabbing speed, having her wait and react was a mistake.
As if they could hear Alice's thoughts, the girls rushed their foe perfectly in sync. Asuna dashed forward; the sword skill Quadruple Pain queued up in an instant. Likewise, the Dark elf started the skill Horizontal Square, the wide-range multi-hit ability waiting to deal massive damage if the Katana-user tried to dodge toward her.
The Fallen elf, however, darted toward Asuna and the side. Only one hit of Quadruple Pain hit lightly against her armoured shoulder. With Asuna past her and the Dark elf no longer able to attack, the Katana-user began an exaggerated motion.
Alice still did not know all of these skills. Klein used a katana, but that sword category had so many unique abilities that one often had to pick and choose which ones they learned well enough to commit to muscle memory. A blood-red aura surrounded the Fallen elf, matching the glossy colour that surrounded her blade, oozing out of the black steel like the weapon itself was bleeding.
Alice's stomach tightened with worry. Logically she knew that Asuna did not die. She could not have. But that did not help the emotions that assaulted her. Asuna's post-motion ended as the sword skill started. Her reaction likely saved her as Asuna twisted hard, her left hand supporting the flat of her rapier as she held it across her body.
The long-charge Katana skill exploded with the power of a greataxe. With the sound of shearing metal, Asuna's rapier was snapped as the katana dug deeply into her lightly armoured chest sending her flying. She stayed on the ground groaning as her arms struggled to support her.
Alice held her breath as she watched the health bar decrease rapidly. It stopped around 20% from a little over half. It would have easily killed her if she had not sacrificed her weapon. "Retreat." It was the only option. Run away and come back.
"Lightning Flash!" The dark elf cried. She did not throw herself on top of Asuna though. She acted out her title of knight and stood in front of her, blade raised.
"Hmm, you should run, but you can't, can you?" The fallen elf mocked them. "You can't let us kill the humans in the labyrinth or secure the sanctuary keys. So, knight of Lyusula, will you die first or watch your friend die."
Oddly, the dark elf laughed. It was beautiful and dissonant in the dark atmosphere. "You do not understand, Kysarah the Ransacker. I have been living on borrowed time from the day I met the Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash. I have often wondered why I was spared and thought I understood before. Now, I am certain."
"Ohh?" Kysarah taunted.
"It was to kill you."
"Still so cocky." Narrowing her one visible eye, Kysarah entered an Iai stance, katana pointed backwards as she leaned forward and was set to lunge. "Let me teach you a lesson."
"No, Kizmel, don't do this!" Asuna pled, still struggling to stand up.
"I am a knight of Lyusula! Face me Fallen!" Assuming a high stance, the knight entered the pose for Sonic Leap.
Alice groaned. "No! The Katana will cut straight through you before your sword skill goes off!"
As a master of the blade and combat, Alice could only watch as the scene proceeded exactly according to her expectations. As Sonic Leap began to glow, the delay for activation still ongoing, Kysarah moved. The sword skill was a blur of red light. It struck Kizmel's middle and continued barely slowing.
Completely cut through, Kizmel was forced back a meter, running into Asuna, then Sonic Leap activated. It was not powered by any additional movements, but it had not been cancelled as the activating stance had not been interrupted.
Alice's eyes widened with understanding. The Katana had cut too cleanly. There was not enough sideways force to knock her out of stance.
The lunge activated and Alice got her second surprise. Like it was the real world, only Kizmel's upperhalf moved. The entire lower body was left behind as it twinkled and exploded into nothingness. Kizmel fell on top of Kysarah, bringing them both to the ground, her blade buried into the Fallen Elf's chest.
"Gah!" The Fallen roared in pain, her bangs slipping to the side revealing an eyepatch. "Idiot! You killed yourself. I will ensure your death, I will!"
"Shut up," Kizmel growled with the throaty deadliness of a hunting feline. Slamming one metallic fist over Kysarah's mouth, Kizmel kept her weight firmly on her sword keeping it buried inside Kysarah's chest.
The Fallen elf's health was rapidly sinking under 50% and then 30. She had around ten seconds more to pull the blade out. Finally, Kysarah growled, regained her senses, and pushed at Kizel, flipping them.
Having no legs to secure her position, Kizmel was tossed to the side. With just over ten percent of her health remaining, Kysarah stumbled to her feet, no longer taking damage. "Bitch, I will have you screaming in pain for years for the injury you have dealt me."
"Will you?" A soft male voice asked.
Kysarah whirled, "you! Finally finished up, have you? Leave me human, I don't need your—Gurgh!"
Alice blinked. She had missed the slash. Kysarah fell to her knees clutching her throat where the human in a poncho had cut it. She did not miss as he rammed a dagger to the hilt into the fallen's only remaining eye and kicked her body to where Kizmel lay with Asuna weeping over her. The fallen may have been their enemy and Asuna would have done the exact same thing, she still looked on in horror at the now eyeless corpse that shattered a few moments later.
"Lightning Flash, run…" Kizmel coughed out. Her Health was at the very bottom and continuing down. Despite the health potions that Asuna had fed her, Kizmel's health went up slightly then ticked down further than it had risen.
"No, Kizmel, you can't! You can't die on me! You can't…"
"Here, a little help." The man laughed as he threw. Asuna's raw scream caused Alice physical pain to witness as the body in her arms exploded into polygons. The man that Alice identified as PoH now seemed to pause a little, as if surprised. "They aren't real, you know that right? Maybe good for a nice ride now and then but they don't quite make the right expressions."
"How dare you!" Asuna exploded, rising to her feet. "They have feelings, she was my friend and you killed her!"
"Hah, you are lying to yourself girl. They are lines of code. The sooner you acknowledge that the sooner you can fight properly in this world."
It was like his words had some magic applied to them as the muscles in Asuna's face loosened. She seemed to almost go into a trance. "Yes, if they are fake then nothing so far has mattered. Yes, nothing in a virtual world can matter. Haha… Why didn't I see this before? How foolish can I be?"
"NO!" Alice screamed at her, "how dare you abandon your bonds! How dare you forget your friend!"
"HAHA! I almost want to let you live." PoH laughed loudly, flourishing another knife with no care. "Oh boy, I can't believe I managed to break Lightning Flash this easily. What to do, what to do…"
At that moment, the ambience of the chamber changed. Alice had not even noticed the soft red light suffusing the runic walls. Now that it faded, Alice just noticed how creepy the place had been. It felt…. Normal now, despite the still ongoing fight to the death.
"Tsk, I'll find you later. I can't believe that foolish boy managed to win."
As he ran away, leaving the now broken Asuna behind, Alice felt the vision shift around her, forcing her to keep pace to the man as he dashed through contests to a pair of massive stone doors that were cracked open. He slipped through them at the same time Alice passed through the rock and got inside the chamber.
Slumped near a central column with a wooden lever on its front was Kirito. His left hand was gone, and his HP nearly completely depleted. His opponent was nowhere to be seen however. It spoke to the fact that Kirito had achieved total victory.
"…You killed Morte did you?" The man said, not attacking, not sounding upset either. If Alice did not know better, she would have said there was a hint of awe in his voice. "What happened? Did you snap? Cut down both Morte and the Fallen general in a fit of rage? Hahaha, I missed it! I was gone and you snapped and killed everyone!"
"…You…" Kirito pushed himself up off the wall, his face shadowed, and head bent. He walked with his longsword scrapping along the ground with a sharp metallic sound. "You are the last one left."
"Hmm, yes, I need to see this. I may have missed it this time but never again! Stay alive Black Swordsman! Next time you give up on society and join in on your murderous impulses I will be there. Wait for me."
"You aren't getting away!" Kirito yelled. "This time you will—"
"Teleport, Darnet." Alice did not recognize the town name, but the man was coated in blue light and vanished.
"NO!" Kirito screamed, collapsing to the ground. Alice wanted to hug him. Asuna was not the only person that had been broken today. Yet, despite that, he stood back up. Alice could see where his eyes were directed. To the party health bars. With a grim expression, he pushed back out to face the losses.
Chapter 4: Kaguchi the samurai lord.
In an abandoned corner of the museum, near an emergency escape, Alice held Yui as the girl cried. Alice rubbed her back, knowing that the artificial contact was not helping. Wishing that she had a real body. "You know your mother is not like that anymore, Yui."
The crying did not abate.
"She was distraught at having lost her friend. Her mind was searching desperately for an avenue of escape."
"I just… did not want to believe it." Yui sniffled. "She warned me that she was a different person in SAO. That she hated NPCs… NPCs like me."
Alice's arms tightened around Yui's shouders. For not the first time today, she wished it was Asuna's throat. She had had the exact same surge of emotions watching the scene as Yui had. It was hard to believe that the real-world girl that had just cast off her bonds with the dark elf was the same one that had stood up for and fought so hard for underworlders.
The answer really, was simple. Kirito. The boy had been the one that had changed her way of thinking. Dangerous thoughts were threatening to flood into Alice's mind when Yui pulled away.
"Let us continue, we are running out of time and there is a lot left."
"Agreed." Alice needed to focus on something else.
The Milestone Floor
In Aincrad, every multiple of five is a harder floor, with the tens being even harder. Furthermore, the quarters add extra danger. As such, the hardest floor is the one hundredth, then the fiftieth, then the seventy-fifth, twenty-fifth, and so on. As such, the tenth floor was the hardest obstacle by far that the players had to conquer.
This floor introduced a new type of weapon wielded by monsters not seen since Illfang the kobold lord, the katana. A class that was locked for players behind a number of prerequisites that would not be reached until the twentieth floor. This left the players with no way to study the skills except by putting their lives in danger.
As a result of this, the tenth floor had the most deaths since the first floor to monsters. Many of the elite players had their lives cut short by these weapons that had hard-to-read, unpredictable skills. Form a party and face these katana skills for yourself.
For once, Alice and Yui skipped a VR opportunity. It was packed like the others, and they did not need it. SAO's sword sills had spread into many different places and the Katana skills were very popular for how unfair some of them are to deal with. It made sense now to Alice that they had been locked behind many prerequisites.
Moving on, Alice stared up at a life-sized replica of a samurai snakeman. Its blade glistened with a high-quality steel, its eyes sharp and focused. These were what they fought in a dark, complicated labyrinth trying desperately to reach the next floor.
The Hero in Black.
Take part in this Virtual move and witness the events unfold as the black swordsman single-handedly salvages the raid against the Tenth-floor boss. Notably, The Lightning Flash is not present for this boss. Also, this is the first boss fight with more than one raid group. With the long period of time spent clearing the floor and the labyrinth tower, other guilds managed to catch up to the frontlines, most notably of them being Furin'kazan and their enigmatic leader Klein.
"Shall we?" Alice asked Yui doubtfully. While she felt they needed something positive, a large mass crushing in made it hard to work up the motivation. Still, it was scenes like this that had brought her to this museum. Even 'Spoiled' about the fight from reading the signage, Alice still wanted to see the recreation of Kirito's fight.
"I don't see any other choice," Yui grumped. It was clear that she was still extremely upset from the vision that she had seen. Regardless of the rest of what the museum showed, Yui and Asuna would be having a long conversation tonight.
So, they waited in line. And waited. Thankfully, the vision was only a handful of minutes. After a couple cycles of patrons, Alice and Yui were able to grab sits and enter the tenth-floor boss battle.
As she was used to the transfer, Alice barely blinked as her vision changed from the packed, eerily quiet museum room to the loud, similarly packed boss chamber. People shouted at each other, it seemed to make little difference if they wore the same colours or different. Parties panicked, backing away from imposing snakemen samurai, the gaps in their ranks evident.
Summarizing the situation quickly, Alice looked at the far end where the boss should be. It stood maybe four meters tall wearing what Alice could know identify as old Japanese Samurai armour, burnished with a red gleam. Despite having the frame of a giant human, its eyes were reptilian, and its forked tongue slithered in and out of its mouth like a snake's.
Standing in front of it was a single person, Kirito. The boss glared and unleashed a Katana skill that Kirito countered. This thing, however, was not Illfang. Kaguchi the Samurai Lord did not pause and instead opened its mouth wide, tongue spraying out meters ahead to attack Kirito.
As Alice should have expected though, Kirito was not the same person that had fought Illfang either. His fist glowed and he punched the tongue. Like some sort of pugilist. The fighting style was like an affront to swordsmanship. It was worse than his dual-wielding shenanigans!
Somehow, the boss looked just as upset. Kirito had found a method that allowed him to counter a two-part combo that no one else could. Just like Illfang, Kirito had entered a deadly solo stand-off against a floor boss. This one, however, was completely unwinnable for him. Kirito was doing no damage and had no party to add it. The rest of the raid was in shambles, and no one could reunite them after the losses they had suffered.
So, Kirito fought. Tanking the mightiest floor boss so far revealed in the game with zero aid. Alice could not see his face, but his emotions were carried through the dead sword skills. Confusion, grief, sorrow. The emotions threatened to cripple him and so he fought on autopilot. Alice had heard about this from Uncle Bercouli. The Knights of the Dark Territory had ascribed to this philosophy, the empty blade.
It required memorizing your slashes so thoroughly that you could execute them with no conscious thought. It was an exquisite technique but paled to incarnation, in the underworld at least. In a world without incarnation, the empty blade may be the strongest technique available.
Alice rebelled against the thought silently as Kirito blocked another exchange. She could not fathom fighting like that. Was there any point in locking blades with someone if you were going to zone out and not focus on the fight? No, Alice fought only to defend something important to herself. Emotionless warriors were the garbage that RATH had been searching for to pilot drones.
In an instant, the fight changed. The boss's eyes snapped up towards the open double doors and they glowed with a haunting red light as it locked in on something. It made a sweeping strike with its blade trying to push Kirito to the side.
"No! Block its path!"
Kirito, of course, did not hear her and fought optimally. As such, he stepped to the side and opened a path for the boss. It took it without hesitation. Near the door, trying to leave were two people. Both were fairly heavily armored, but their armour was torn and in a bad state. Helms off, Alice could see that one was a girl in the green colours helping a taller boy in blue out of the boss chamber. The reason was obvious, he had lost his right leg and would need to retreat until the condition was fixed.
The way she smiled up at him, the loving but embarrassed glance down that he returned. This was a precious bridge, a connection across the two main guilds that kept the frontlines together. A mediatory that could resolve differences and keep the players focused on clearing the game.
Kaguchi headed straight for them.
"Don't…" Alice plead pointlessly. She was already crying. She did not need to see this. She did not need to see more bright young lives snuffed out. She had witnessed that before, done it before.
The boss's already fast sprint blurred as it used a lunging sword skill to propel it faster, Zekku. Both of the lovers noticed at the same time, leaning in to shove the other out of the way. As a result, they got stuck together, armour grinding against armour as they twisted and began to fall.
Kachunk!
With a sickening sound, Kaguchi impaled them both with his katana. Their remaining armour shattered into polygons leaving the vulnerable humans writhing together on his sword like worms on a hook. Forced into an embrace with each other as their last moments ticked away.
Now, the room quieted. A soft tinkle declared their passing as their HP ran out at the same time and the warriors died. There would be no future for them.
"LITEN!" A deep masculine voice yelled, pain coursing through every syllable of the name.
Kirito on the other hand, did not say anything. Alice watched him as he tilted his head, looking at where he had been, where he had let himself get pushed. Still saying nothing, his head fell, chin to chest, his sword touching the ground.
"Someone draw aggro!"
"Retreat!"
"No! It is almost dead!"
The confusing commands came almost one on top of each other. They were surviving mostly because it seemed that Kaguchi would rather revel in its kill than slaughter the rest of the raid party. Into that mixture came another voice that Alice recognized.
"Come on, let's get it guys!" Klein, using a curved sword ran at the floor boss flanked by his five friends with pale faces.
Receiving a new challenger, Kaguchi unleashed another sword skill right at Klein. The boy stopped and allowed his tanks to meet it, shields out in front of them to share the burden. They lost HP but it was minor. Behind the two tanks poured forth the other two unleashing quick sword skills as they dashed past dealing minor damage.
Kaguchi turned to follow them when Klein hit its back with a more powerful skill bringing its aggro back to him again. It was a perfectly executed maneuver that had taken a couple percent from the final health bar.
However, Kaguchi was surrounded. So, like all Katana-wielding monsters, it fired off Tsuruguruma to punish the attackers. Again though, Furin'Kazan showed their mettle by not panicking. Klein hid behind the tanks while the others simply hid behind weapons to reduce the damage. As a result, no one was stunned from the attack, only pushed back.
This was going to be a long, tense fight at this point. They would need help, they needed—
"GAAAAH!"
Alice froze in place. It was a scream of pain that she knew well. Kirito had awoken. Or maybe snapped was a better way of describing it. The usually happy boy with a fondness for naps and spicy food burst forward golden eyes filled with an insane rage.
There was only one thought in that expression, revenge. A dark bloodlust that erased all conscious thought and drove him to the brink of madness, or more than likely, beyond it.
The fight changed in an instant. Kirito began unleashing sword skill after sword skill of the highest degree that he had unlocked. The four hit attacks Horizontal and Vertical Square, even a five-hit sword skill. It should have been impossible, but the skills were accelerated to such a ridiculous degree that the damage output was consistently making the boss fumble its counters.
When it did a regular slash or tongue attack, Kirito side-stepped while preparing his next skill. He was not quite soloing the floor boss again, but it was an incredible display of talent that made it look fair and beatable.
Less than two minutes later, it was over. Kaguchi had exploded in a burst of blue polygons, its red eyes still wide with what looked like disbelief. As soon as it died, the room exploded into celebration. Ten percent of the game was done. In the center of it all Kirito crumpled to the ground, last attack bonus successfully acquired.