Hello there people of the internet, I am DxDBourne.

Considering the lousy upload schedule as of late, I feel honored to have this chapter out this soon. You'll be happy to know that some good progress has been made and my writer's block hasn't gotten in the way too often.

I'll spare you the details but in a nutshell, I've had some more time on my hands recently so I've spent a good portion of the last few days catching up on some Manga (i finished Quintessential Quintuplets and boy that end made me salty af) and writing this story.

But none of that's important, onto the chapter :)

P.S I do not own SAO or any of its characters

"I have a feeling that voice is going to get annoying rather quickly," Sinon whispered audibly to herself.

"Without further ado, welcome to the first puzzle room! This room is called Gravity! If you look up you will see a key on the roof," Both Sinon and Toran looked up as requested to find there was a key seemingly glued to the roof. "This key is affected by normal gravity. Find a way to reach the key and it will open the door. You may now begin!," The voice finished explaining. Sinon and Toran took a good look around the room for anything that might help them in reaching the key on the roof which was roughly twenty meters high.

"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything in plain view to help us," Toran claimed.

"I noted that the voice made a point to specifically mention gravity and the fact that the key is affected by it just like anything else. So it must be stuck to the roof somehow. Either that or there's something else that I'm not seeing," Sinon deduced. Toran was in awe at Sinon's smarts but didn't do anything to show it. Instead, he put his mind to the test and took another more sharp look around the barren room in search of something that could help them.

The room itself was made of a sort of yellowy-bronze smooth stone with little indentions on the walls. Toran studied all of the decals but nothing proved to be of use to the puzzle.

"You'd think Asuna might've told Kirito about how to solve the puzzles so that he could, in turn, tell us," Toran complained as he sighed.

"So I'm assuming these are different from the kinds of puzzle games you play then?" Sinon asked. Toran was confused for a second but quickly recalled the previous conversation from before they entered the cave.

"Y-Yeah, I'm usually into puzzle games like Tetris or Sudoku," Toran flutteringly replied before shaking his mind off it and returning to the puzzle in front of them. After a short while, Toran noticed Sinon hadn't said anything in a while. When he looked at her, she had her arms crossed and was tapping with her elbow with her finger, meaning she had something on her mind.

"You all good?" Toran asked her curiously.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking…The voice said this was a mystical cave, right?" Toran nodded as she continued, "That would mean that, despite the normal look, this cave probably has abnormal attributes. So maybe its gravity works abnormally as well. For example, our gravity is normal because our feet are pointed at the ground, so maybe if I point my feet at the roof?" After she surmised this, Sinon put her hands on the ground and lifted herself into a handstand. A few seconds of nothing went by before suddenly, she started falling upward. Toran was utterly amazed as he watched her land on the roof and pick up the key to the door. "Wow, the actually worked!" She exclaimed

"Seeing someone fall upwards has got to be one of the strangest things I've ever seen, nice job!" Toran hailed her with praise as she resumed normal gravity and returned to the floor. She put the key in the door and it opened without hassle.

The two were happy for the moment but that happiness went away after noticing that the second puzzle room was ready and waiting, as was the voice.

"Congratulations on beating the first room, and in record time too! Welcome to the second puzzle room! This room is called Maze! In front of you are two entrances to a large maze. Your goal is simply to find the end of the maze where the next room is waiting. But be warned, there is a switch that must be turned on somewhere within the maze and only one of the two entrances will lead to it. You may now begin!" The voice finished its explanation and vanished again.

"Okay, so obviously we both need to go through different entrances. Any takers?" Toran asked.

"I'll go the left one," Sinon suggested.

"I'll go right then," Toran said as he made his way to the right entrance. "See you on the other side of the maze," To this, Sinon just nodded before disappearing into her side of the maze. Toran didn't expect that. Maybe a 'yeah, you too' kinda deal but he guessed not. He had a horrible thought that maybe that moment when he ignored her before they entered the cave got to her a little. He made a note to apologize to her once they were out of this thing and continued into his side of the maze.

After a while, Toran noticed something. Backtracking was a serious damn issue. Every single wall looked so similar, he had no idea if he was even still going the right direction. He was just waiting for the moment that he turned a corner and sees the beginning of the maze again. He tried making markings on the wall to help his progress but the sword marks would just disappear immediately after he did it so that was a no-go. After a couple more corners, he suddenly heard a faint but familiar voice.

"Toran? Can you hear me?" It was definitely Sinon's voice, though he could only barely hear it.

"Yeah! What's up!? Have you found the switch yet!?" He asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing so I guess not then," Sinon expressed with disappointment. This maze was obviously a lot bigger than they both thought. As Toran was making his way around his nth bend, he heard Sinon shouting something.

"Hey! Cave Voice! Can you give us a hand here!? This is getting old!" She exclaimed with clear annoyance. After a few seconds, the familiar cave voice came back.

"A hint you say? Well, say no more! For your hint, I shall inform you that whoever entered through the right entrance is getting rather close," it stated.

"Close to what?" Sinon shouted back.

"Maybe the switch, maybe the exit, nobody knows and that's the fun of it!" The voice heaved another laugh before disappearing again. Toran could faintly hear Sinon heave a defeated sigh.

"Toran, if you can hear me, I reckon you're close to the switch so try to continue in the direction you think is forward," She shouted just enough for him to hear clearly.

"Loud and clear!" Toran shouted back. He managed to re-steel himself and continued down the path in front of him. It took about four turns until suddenly, he saw a just slightly wider room with a torch in it. He ran towards the room and in it, he found a concrete switch that was currently facing upward, indicating it was turned off. Toran heaved a huge sigh of relief and let Sinon know of his discovery, to which she too made an exclamation of relief. Toran pulled the switch downwards and heard what sounded like a multitude of turning gears. After a few seconds, one of the walls next to him slowly opened and he found himself face to face in a wide room with an open door. Toran freaked out just briefly, thinking that he was back at the beginning but after looking through the door, it looked like the next room. "Hey Sinon, I found the exit as well!" He shouted.

"Oh good, you sound close too," She replied in her normal voice as even Toran noticed that she sounded much closer than before.

"See if you can make your way towards my voice," Toran suggested. After around five minutes roughly passed, Toran saw Sinon come into view from the other exit. And waved her over. They both sighed with relief together and made no hesitations to move on to the next room.

"Alright, halfway there," Sinon said happily. After she said that, the door behind them closed and the trusty old cave voice came back again.

"Congratulations on beating the second room! Welcome to the third puzzle room! This room is called Pressure Plates! In front of you is a large grid of pressure plates. To make it to the end, you must find the correct path through the grid by stepping on the correct plates. But beware, stepping on the wrong plates could cost you," The voice explained.

"Cost us wha-no, nevermind, forget I asked," Sinon caught herself before finishing her sentence. Toran let out a quiet laugh at that.

"Now, of course, you will need to have something to help you determine to correct path," The cave voice continued, "For this, I have prepared some keywords for you which you will find on a piece of paper in the chest to your left, you may now begin!" And once again, the voice vanished. Sinon leaned over and opened the little box that was right next to her. In it was a small piece of paper with a bunch of words on it.

"What does it say?" Toran asked.

"Ahem," Sinon fake coughed before reading the contents of the paper which were as follows.

"Natural,

Notable,

Economy,

Native,

Enemy,

Engine,

Serenity,

Easily,

Effect,

Notice,

Narrow,

Nervous,

Weapon,

Wedding,

Wheel,

Weak,

Weight,

Number,

Name,

Element,

Night,

Nation,

Wealth,

Nearby."

"That all sounds like a bunch of nonsense," Toran complained.

"Well, it's gotta have some sort of meaning," Sinon reminded.

"I'm gonna try just stepping on a couple and see what happens, you never know. It could be that the whole puzzle is just a trick," Toran suggested as he made his way to the starting plate.

"Okay, but be careful," Sinon said timidly. Toran slowly pressed a foot down on the first plate…nothing happened.

"Alright, that's a good sign," He said nervously as he slowly moved forward to the next one. As he gently pressed his foot down on the next one, he braced himself for something to happen and…nothing happened again. "Wow, maybe my theory is right,"

"I'm still not sure, maybe just come back and we'll try and figure this out before something happens," Sinon worriedly asked.

"I'll just press this third one and if nothing happens then obviously the plates are duds," Toran determined as he slowly moved his foot forward, every so gently placing his foot upon the third plate. Suddenly, before he could even put his foot down properly, a spear came shooting out of a hole in one of the walls and in the blink of an eye, impaled Toran right through his abdomen. The spear didn't go completely through him but the head of it burst out of Torans back, sending little data particles that simulated blood all over the place. Not only that but the force of the spear knocked Toran all the way back to the starting area, right next to Sinon.

"TORAN!" Sinon screamed and ran to his aid. As she kneeled down next to him, the spear in his stomach turned into data particles and disappeared, leaving a red grid looking hole in Toran's abdomen. Sinon quickly opened her inventory and pulled out a healing gem to use on Toran. As she did that, the red grid hole slowly disappeared.

"Bloody hell, that was a shocker," Toran said after snapping out of his shock.

"Are you okay?" Sinon asked him as she held his hand with both of hers. "Do you know how much HP that took down?"

"I was in such a state of shock I kind of forgot to react, to be honest. But I think it was about just over half my health," He replied as he began recuperating his nerves. Sinon continued to caress his hand for a short while before Toran was ready to get back up again.

"Probably a good idea to try and work this one out before we try again," Sinon chuckled with relief. "Don't really want to see that happen again,"

"Yeah, me neither," Toran said as he stood up again.

"But I'm not sure how we're going to do that," Sinon pouted as she studied the piece of paper again. "I'm not sure how natives or engines are supposed to help us find a path through this thing," The pair thought together for a moment before suddenly, Toran clicked.

"Hang on a minute, what were the first two words on the paper?" He asked. Sinon quickly looked at the paper.

"Uh, natural and notable, why?" She asked back.

"This is just a guess but both of those words begin with the letter N, just like the word North," Toran explained. "Two words beginning with N, two steps North, at least according to the room. So what does the third word begin with?"

"E for Economy," She replied

"No, E for East," Toran said as he made his way back over to the pressure plates. Sinon nervously pulled out another healing gem for a worst-case scenario. Toran walked on the first two plates and nothing happened once again, but instead of going forward again, he took a step to the right, a.k.a east of the room. He pressed his foot down and braced for impact and…nothing happened. Toran chuckled with relief. "Okay, what's the next word?"

"Native, so North," Sinon replied, finally seeing his thought process. Toran took a step forward and once again, nothing happened. They had figured it out. From then, it was a slow but sure process until the end. Once Toran had made his way across, Sinon followed suit. Once they both reached the other side, they entered the door to the final puzzle room. As they did, the cave voice returned once more.

"Congratulations on beating the third room! Welcome to the fourth puzzle room! This room is called Secrets! The door to what you seek is before you, however, in order to open it, you must tell me your deepest, darkest secret! You may now begin!" It said. Both Toran and Sinon were a bit taken aback by this, and for a multitude of reasons.

"That's not much a puzzle!" Sinon shouted at the voice. "You can't just make me say something I don't want others to know!" The voice just chuckled at her as it spoke.

"The door will not open unless you tell me your deepest, darkest secrets," Sinon looked away in embarrassment. Of course, she didn't want anyone else to know her secrets. Especially Toran. She couldn't fathom the idea that he might think differently of her if he knew what had happened in her past. She considered herself lucky enough that Kirito was able to maintain his trust in her after finding out but she never wanted anyone else to know.

Meanwhile, Toran was no different. The thought of Sinon finding out all about his story and realizing how much he's been lying to her would no doubt be hurtful. He also considered it a miracle that Kirito and Leafa didn't think differently of him when he told them at the colosseum a while back. Not only that, but even if she didn't somehow think differently of him. The thought of her being sad at his expense was painful. He never in his life ever wanted to see her cry. A long awkward silence filled the cave with the only noise coming from some torches on the walls. After a while, Sinon suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, Toran," she spoke softly and nervously. "If…If I tell you my secret, can you promise not to think differently of me?"

"Sinon…I'll never hate you, no matter what," He promised. She smiled but continued to look away. "I'll even…I'll even tell you mine afterward as well so you're not alone," It took a large amount of will power to promise something like that but he knew it needed to be done. Sinon relaxed her shoulders and sighed.

"My darkest secret is that…in real life when I was younger, I killed someone," she admitted. Toran's eyes widened at her admission. It definitely wasn't what he expected her to say. Before he could react, she continued her revelation. "It was at a post office a few years ago. My mom and I were there sending a package when a guy wearing a ski-mask walks in with a gun. He shot the roof a few times to scare us and told the receptionists to give him everything. At some point after that, he dropped his gun on the ground and picked it up. He asked me to give it back to him but I was so scared, I froze. Then, he suddenly charged at me to take it off me and in a moment of panic, I pointed the gun at him and p-pulled the trigger…the bullet went through his head and killed him instantly. It made me utterly terrified of guns for an insanely long time," She explained. "That's my secret, now open the door," Sinon walked over to the door to open until suddenly, the voice came back and said something horrible.

"Sorry, but as I said, the door won't open until you tell me your deepest, darkest secret," It chuckled. Sinon stepped back in horror.

"B-But I just…," She was on the verge of tears, which caused Toran to get really involved.

"Hey, you stupid door! She just did what you asked so let us in!" He shouted as he banged on the door.

"No can do, you still haven't told me your deepest, darkest secret," It said, and that really made Toran mad.

"Did you not hear her you shitty voice!? She just said it!" Toran once again shouted as he summoned his sword and started to charge up an attack.

"Hit me with that sword and I won't open at all!," The voice suddenly boomed in a much more serious tone than normal. Toran still thought about doing it but ultimately unequipped his weapon.

"How are we suppose to get in then if we do what you ask but still won't open?" Toran asked seriously.

"Because you haven't done what I asked of you. You haven't told me your deepest, darkest secret," It suddenly laughed in its normal voice.

"What the hell are we su-" Toran got this far in his sentence until Sinon put her hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay Toran, I just figured it out anyway," She said as she walked up to the door.

"Your deepest, darkest secret," Was all Sinon said. Toran was confused until suddenly, the door opened. Then he was even more confused. Sinon slapped herself angrily. "Damn it, I should've known it was going to be something stupid like that," Toran was still kind of shocked as the voice boomed one last announcement.

"Congratulations on beating the Mystical Puzzle Cave! What you seek shall now be in the chest in front of you!" The voice paraded.

"Let's just get this thing and go," Toran said as he walked up to the chest. Just as he was about to open it though, a skeleton jumped out of the ground in front of him and he fell over backward.

"Interrupting my slumber, eh? I'll show you, young adventurers, what pain is like!" The skeleton shouted angrily. As the skeleton was throwing his axe around, Toran noticed a shiny ring on one of its fingers and could only assume that it must be the old man's wedding ring. Sinon must've noticed it too as Toran turned to see her covered in a sort of lightning aura.

"Keep your head down," Was what she said before surrounding her arrow with lightning and shooting a shock bolt towards the skeleton. The arrow hit it in the head, causing a shock explosion and annihilating the skeleton completely in one hit. Toran looked at Sinon in awe.

"Nice job," He said as he stood up.

"Last few times we've done battles together, I've always forgotten to use my shock gem so this time, I made sure to use it right off the bat," She said, though her tone since that whole fourth room drama was a lot more standoffish and serious. Toran went and picked the ring up off the ground while Sinon opened the chest.

"What's in it?" Toran asked.

"Aside from the usual Cor and XP, there's a special item…a sword and shield," She said, causing Toran to get all excited. "It's unappraised so you'll have to appraise it somewhere but it's all yours," As she said this, the cave voice returned one last time.

"Congratulations on beating the Mystical Puzzle Cave and the secret boss! You have completed the quest and are now being transported back to the entrance! Farewell adventurers!" The voice said right before both Toran and Sinon were enveloped in light and transported back to the old man at the entrance of the cave. They barely realized where they were before the old man started speaking to them.

"Ah, young adventurers! I don't suppose you've returned with my ring?" He asked politely.

"Here you go, found it on a skeleton," Toran said as he gave the old man his ring.

"Oh, many, many thanks, my good friends! My wife will be overjoyed to see it returned," the old man bowed in thanks. "Now as for your reward, you can have this," Toran watched as the old man pulled the newer ring off his finger and bestow it upon him. "Please take this other ring I had made as thanks, it may look normal but wearing it will give you and your special someone large stat boosts if you're together," Toran took the ring and thanked the old man profusely.

"Thank you, this is a welcome gift!" Toran said as he bowed. Suddenly, the old man pulled a hammer out of seemingly nowhere and looked towards Sinon.

"Say, you didn't happen to find any unappraised items in the cave, did you?" He asked.

"As a matter of fact, we did," Sinon replied as she opened her inventory and showed the old man. "Do you know a place where we can get it appraised?"

"Well, not to brag, but I happen to run an appraisal workshop not too far from here. If you want, I can appraise it here and now," Neither of the two expected him to reveal that but it was a welcome surprise.

"Yes please," Sinon summoned the unappraised gem and gave it to the old man, who took it over to a nearby anvil and hacked away at it. After a few minutes, the gem suddenly turned into an orb. Once that had happened, the old man returned to Sinon.

"It appears to be a rare sword and shield, a lucky find indeed," The old man said before waving goodbye and disappearing in a flash of data particles.

"I guess this is for you," Sinon said as she sent Toran the rare sword and shield. Toran added it to his weapons menu to see what it was called.

"It's called Rosemary's Guardian, sounds pretty cool," Toran said as he summoned his new weapon into his hands. The sword itself was made of silver with a bunch of little engravings on it. The hilt of the sword was mostly gold with glass decals around it. As for the shield, it too was mostly gold but in the middle of it was a glass decal in the form of a flower. Its attack power was pretty similar to his previous sword and shield but the defense was crazy high.

"Alright, time to head back and see what the rest of the group is doing," Sinon said as she started walking away. Toran, however, wanted to do something first.

"Hey, Sinon, I-I wanna give you something," Toran said. Sinon turned around and saw Toran holding out the ring that the old man in his hands. "I want you to have the ring," Sinon's cheeks went redder than a tomato when she heard him say that.

"A-Are you asking me t-to-" Sinon could barely contain her heart fluttering.

"Well, I want to give it to you as an apology for what happened back in the cave, I know it was hard for you to tell me something like that and then for that to happen-" Toran was in the middle of speaking when out of nowhere, Sinon suddenly embraced him in a big hug. Toran was shocked for a moment but quickly reciprocated it.

"That's not something you need to apologize for," Sinon spoke softly. "I'm just glad you don't hate me after finding out about it,"

"As if I could ever do that," Toran replied.

So yeah, a decently long chapter this time. Almost 4.5k to be exact.

Unfortunately, though, this means that the next couple of chapters will go back to being around 3k words since I want to try and maintain a gap between where the story is at and how much I've uploaded so I hope you enjoyed it.

I have nothing more to say now. Anything I may have missed out will be in the next chapter. So long!

pls, excuse any and all grammar mistakes. Proof-reading ain't my strong suit despite my best efforts to be better at it.