Hello there, people of the internet, I am DxDBourne and I have finally uploaded again!
However, this joy is to be short-lived as I must reveal to you all that with this chapter, we have finally caught up to where I am currently with the story. Yes, my writer's block is that bad.
It's not the end of the world though, this just means unless i can get back my motivation, uploads will be even farther and fewer. I promise you here and now that I will try my absolute best to not take too long to upload but please don't hold me to that, i, unfortunately, can't guarantee it.
P.S Thanks for 11,000 views! Hope you're enjoying it so far :)
Congratulations!
It took everyone a while to process it, but when they realized what it meant. Everyone started cheering and celebrating. The relief they all felt was definitely worth the effort. However, most people very quickly turned their attention to Maya.
"What the heck was that!?" "I've never seen anything like that in this game before!" "You didn't tell us you could do that!" The flood of questions made Maya a bit embarrassed but she slowly explained how she received it as a lucky dungeon drop a day or so ago. All of a sudden, Ranta came up to Kirito.
"Dude, you solo-ed that orb like a badass!" He exclaimed, then Kaano followed suit.
"Yeah dude, you gotta teach us some of those moves!" Kirito appreciated their praises but he didn't think he did anything that special.
"I agree, the way you kept it's attention away from Maya was nothing short of impressive," Kaba said surprisingly. His words seemed to shock both Ranta and Kaano.
"It's not every day that Kaba praises someone for being awesome, well-done man," Kaano said, causing a light laughter to fill the room. Then, Maya approached him as well.
"Thank you very much for helping me, I'm sorry it was so sudden but you definitely saved us," Maya bowed as she spoke to show her thanks, but Kirito just couldn't see it that way.
"No way, you were definitely the one to save us, Maya. We never would've won that fight if not for your attack," Kirito said, causing her to blush slightly. Everyone then agreed with him by complimenting her themselves.
"If only Jin could've seen that. He would've been super impressed as well," Ranta said suddenly, causing the mood to drop just a tiny bit, but he managed to bring it back by talking about how well everyone did and stuff that each of them did well as they walked towards the door to the next floor.
"Hey, let's not forget when Toran sacrificed his shield to counter that hammer attack," Maya said, to which everyone praised Toran for.
"Indeed. Though to be honest, it was a little reckless," Kaba said, causing Toran to smile awkwardly and scratch the back of his head while everyone else laughed together. When everyone reached the door to the next floor, they all agreed that Maya should be the one to open it, so with a sigh of relief, Maya pushed the door open. What was revealed was a sunny area entirely littered with enormous trees. Lakes and flat-top mountains also scattered the landscape but otherwise, the entire floor was nothing but giant trees. The group that hadn't played SAO before was enthralled by the landscape and features, while Kirito. Toran and Kaano just watched the others experience the floor for the first time, as they had done some years ago. As they walked, a loud announcement could be heard.
"The second floor of Aincrad has been cleared. Repeat, the second floor of Aincrad has been cleared. Floor three is now available to all players," It said. The floor announcements were really just for the people on the second and first floors who were doing their own things and unaware of the boss fight. So Kirito and the rest of them ignored it.
"So, where to now?" Ranta asked after sightseeing for a while.
"Zumfut," Kirito said. "It's the main settlement of the third floor, I'll show you guys the way," He said as they wandered through the giant woods until arriving at three absolutely massive trees that were much, much bigger than the normal trees that littered the landscape. More than thirty meters wide to be precise. The insides of each tree were hollowed out into multiple floors and rooms which made up the settlement. Inn's, taverns, homes and all things as such took up all the upper tree areas while most of the consumer markets like weapons were either much lower or on the ground. Though, most of what the town had to offer was in the upper tree areas. They greeted the NPC guards as they walked in through the big iron gate and noticed that a fair few amount of people had already teleported to Zumfut and were cleaning out all the player homes already. Realizing this, Kirito quickly hurried up the trees without a word, leaving the rest of them a bit confused.
"He's probably just seeing if a specific player home is still available," Toran said, calming the others.
"Well then, thanks again for helping us out with that boss raid. We really couldn't have done it without you two," Kaba said, with nods of agreement coming from the other four. "But that being said, we don't want to be a party who relies on other people to get us through things,"
"Yeah, we obviously gotta get a lot stronger so we can start fending for ourselves," Ranta continued with a fist of determination.
"But I'm sure we'll run into you guys again soon, cause we're friends now," Maya added a bit bashfully but with a lot more confidence in her voice. Toran nodded in reply.
"We'll be seeing you! Please pass on our regards to Kirito when you see him next," Kaano shouted as they departed through the teleport gate. Toran waved them off as they teleported back to the Town of Beginnings to seek out their now under-leveled friend. Meanwhile, near the top of the largest tree in the town, Kirito keeled over in depression at the discovery that his favorite player home in the settlement had been pre-bought by someone else already.
"Curses!" He cried out in sadness.
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-~- 45 DAY TIME SKIP (A MONTH AND A HALF) -~-
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After the third floor was made available by The Moonlight Cats plus Kirito and Toran, the clear rate for floors started to increase. In fact, Kirito hadn't even been involved in any more of the single-digit floor boss fights after they had defeated Asterius. He eventually did join in the raid party of the 10th floor boss fight, though he didn't do much except land the killing blow, and after that, he pretty much left the bosses up to the other thousands of players.
The same went for Asuna and the rest of them, though Leafa and Sinon were a lot more involved in the boss raids than the rest of their gang. On the other side of things, Kirito and Asuna once again did the Elf War campaign and, true to his word, they took the Forest Elf route this time. It was a bit difficult for them to watch Kizmel die seen as they had been so close in the first SAO, but they had to remind themselves that Kizmel was an NPC and also didn't remember them at all.
On the brighter hand, they met a new NPC called Reila who lead them through the forest elf campaign, such as Kizmel had previously, and they made pretty good friends with her. Upon completing the campaign, their rewards were a ring that protected against ailments, which Kirito gave to Asuna, and a sword called the Wavering Wisp. Obviously, both Kirito's and Asuna's swords were way more powerful so Kirito decided to pass it down to Leafa, whose Anneal Blade had by now been broken. Toran got himself a new shield from a field boss drop, Sinon bought a new bow, etc. Basically, everyone had new weapons by now except for the ones who still had their original equipment.
Speaking of which, Kirito couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a bit of a spark between Toran and Sinon as he found out that they would sometimes do two-player quests together. However, he deemed the current evidence to be inconclusive and would wait longer 'till he confirmed there was something between them. They had also run into the Moonlight Cats again on the 19th floor in Ralberg. They had apparently been the ones to clear the 17th floor by themselves which meant they finally got what they wanted so they were taking a break from boss raiding for the next few floors. Jin was looking in good shape and apparently Maya and Ranta had hooked up at some point.
Another thing that Kirito noted was that ever since the weird boss battle change on the 2nd floor, only one other boss had been different. That being the 10th boss. Which lead him to believe that Kayaba was somehow finding out which bosses that he, in particular, was doing and altering them for shits and giggles. It was one of the reasons he hadn't been in a boss raid since the 10th floor. So on that note…
"…Why isn't this boss any different?" Kirito all of a sudden spoke out of nowhere, causing Asuna to whirl around in the middle of combat.
"Kirito! Less yapping, more fighting!" She shouted as she barely dodged a claw coming down on her. At some point in the fight, Kirito must've just zoned out for some reason.
"Right, sorry!" Kirito apologized before shaking himself awake and returning to the fight. They were currently in the middle of fighting the 21st-floor boss, Kyrlgon the Mantis King, which was basically just a Killer Mantis from the sunshine forest on the 20th floor but on a ton of steroids. It also had multiple claws on each leg that could extend a bit which made attacking it from any direction a bit difficult. But as the battle had waged on, they had managed to get it down to its last health bar and even cut off a couple of its legs.
"Asuna, if I can lock its front legs with my dual swords, you can finish it from above!" Kirito announced his plan as he deflected another claw.
"Got it!" Asuna briefly said in reply as Kirito prepared for a clash.
He rushed in and brought his swords out in front of him. Kyrlgon brought it's front two claws upwards in an attempt to crush Kirito with them, but the black swordsman successfully parried and captured the beast by getting his swords stuck in its claws.
The capture didn't last long but it was enough time for Asuna to launch herself into the air from behind him and unleash a powerful sword skill that she traditionally shouted when she used it. "Mothers Rosario!" The flash of purple followed by a shower of deadly piercing attack from above cause Kyrlgon to cower and retreat, but considering how close they were to victory, Kirito wouldn't let that happen.
He simply cross-cleaved forwards through the beasts head and with that, depleted its health bar. Kyrlgon momentarily cried out in pain before exploding into billions on tiny crystal shards. A big text box popped up in the middle of the room congratulating them on their victory. But while Lisbeth, Silica, Leafa and everyone else celebrated, Asuna was already dashing towards the door to the 22nd floor. Kirito almost had to ask why she was in such a hurry before remembering that their log cabin was on this floor and promptly followed suit, although nowhere near as fast.
"The twenty-first floor of Aincrad has been cleared. Repeat, the twenty-first floor of Aincrad has been cleared. Floor twenty-two is now available to all players," Is what the announcement said but Kirito ignored it again for the twenty-second time as he was too busy trying to catch up to his in-game wife. No wonder she was nicknamed the flash. After speeding through the treescape atop the floor's many raised wooden pathways, they finally laid eyes upon their cozy little forest cabin. Asuna raced up to it, eagerly wanting to buy it for the third time. But when she got there, she realized something was wrong.
"Have you bought it yet?" Kirito called out from a bit aways. At some point, he had stopped running because, despite his high stats, even he still had a relatively normal stamina bar.
"I can't, it won't let me," Asuna replied as Kirito caught up. "Normally there's a little virtual text box in front of the door that asks you if you want to purchase, right?" Kirito thought for a moment before realizing what was happening.
"Oh right, I almost forgot," Kirito sighed as he facepalmed himself. "We have to do that wizard of oz quest in order to unlock this house, remember?" At his words, Asuna to kicked herself for not remembering beforehand.
"Right, I forgot about that," Asuna briefly made her own sigh of annoyance before suddenly unsheathing her sword and marching towards the door. "No matter, we'll just do the quest now,"
"H-Hold on Asuna, we've barely re-grouped after that boss fight," Kirito said while grabbing her arm to stop her. "It would be a lot more beneficial if we actually prepared for it, seen as we know what to expect," Asuna eyed her beloved log cabin but understood that nothing should be rushed and reluctantly agreed to return later.
"Fine, but we're definitely doing this quest today, understood?" Asuna threatened as she gripped her rapier to show she wasn't playing around.
"Loud and clear ma'am," Kirito said sharply as she stiffened up. Asuna giggled briefly at this as they made their way back to everyone else at the main settlement of the floor, Coral Village. The couple decided to circle the giant lake in the middle of the floor as Coral resided on the southern coast. Kirito always enjoyed the peacefulness of the 22nd floor.
As far as difficulty went, it was the second easiest floor in the entire game beaten only by the first floor. Plus, it had very little NPC quests meaning that he didn't have to worry about intruders interrupting his napping on the edge of the lake. In fact, the hardest quest on the entire floor was catching and killing the local fish-god in the massive lake they were currently walking around, a quest that Kirito had done with Asuna and someone else called Nishida previously. As they entered the small village of Coral, they met up with everyone else and hatched a plan for the quest to get their house back.
"We all know the original Wizard of Oz story, right?" Kirito asked, to which everyone nodded. Especially Silica and Lisbeth, who both very energetically announced that it was their favorite story when they were younger. "It's basically that but with a bit of an RPG touch to it. First off, we need to find Dorothy's dog, Toto, who should be running around in the forest around the house. Once we do that, we need to enter the house with Toto. If Toto isn't in the house with us, the tornado won't take us anywhere and will just leave us suspended in the air indefinitely," Suddenly, he was politely interrupted by Klein.
"Quick question, how many players does the quest allow?" He asked, to which Kirito didn't know the exact answer, but he had a rough idea.
"I'm pretty sure it only takes three people max. We can try to take some more and see what happens but that's my guess," Kirito answered, after which, Asuna suddenly spoke up.
"You don't need any more than three people anyway, so I say two of you will go with Kirito on the quest while the rest of you either help with the boss raid or attempt the King of Lakes quest," Silence filled the room after she spoke. Unaware as to why, Asuna voiced her confusion. "What happened, did I say something weird?"
"Um, yeah. Why'd you make it sound like you aren't going on the quest with Kirito?" Lisbeth asked.
"Oh right, I forgot to tell you all. My mother wants me to come with her to an important gathering in Kyoto this afternoon so I need to log off in a few minutes, so I won't be able to do the quest," Asuna was clearly annoyed as she explained but they all knew how strict her mother was and disobeying her would only cause Asuna more trouble.
"Ok then, how about me, Silica and Lisbeth do it then," Kirito suggested, to which the two mentioned girls almost squealed in delight. "I mean, Silica and Lisbeth know the story best, I know the quest best. It makes the most sense at least,"
""Leave it to us,"" Lisbeth and Silica shot up in a salute. Asuna giggled a little at this.
"He's all yours then," She said as she said her goodbyes, gave Kirito a kiss on the cheek and departed the virtual world. Once the blue sparkles had dispersed, they continued explaining the plan.
And there you have it, all you readers are now fully up to date on the progress of the story so far.
Now, there's obviously a big 'Oof' in this chapter, and that's the time-skip. When I started this fanfic, I originally made a promise that I wouldn't skip a single floor but considering how much time I spent on just the first two floors, and how little information there is on some of the earlier floors in the novels and on the wiki's, I felt this was the best direction for the story to go in.
However, you have my truthful word that this will be the only LARGE time skip in the story, any other time skips will only be a few floors maximum.
Otherwise, nothing much more for me to say. Thanks again for 11,000 views and I sincerely hope I see you somewhat soon :)
pls excuse any and all grammar errors, proof-reading is not my strong suit and it never will be lel.