"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

The world was a blur. The plaza was plunged into chaos but the screaming and crying sounded hollow to me. Some kept trying to press the disabled Log Out button, hoping against all odds that it would work. But it didn't. A surge of overwhelming anxiety and fear encroached on my heart as I began processing Kayaba's words. 'Clearing all one hundred floors without dying? It's impossible.' There were monsters in this game that could one-shot a player from full Health and some even roamed the lower floors. 'One wrong move and…' Suddenly, I started to feel nauseous as I pictured my death. I doubled over and clutched my mouth, but nothing came out. There was no release, only more terror. My heart was beating so hard that I felt like my chest was being hammered by a giant's fist. 'I'm going to die.' The air in my lungs was slowly being choked out as the act of breathing became a laborious process. 'I'm going to die.' There was a flash of heat that drenched me in sweat followed by ice-cold chills that left me shaking. 'I'm going to die.'

"Kirito? Kirito!"

A pair of warm hands wrapped around mine and pulled me out of my trance. The first thing I saw was her amber eyes that were on the edge of tears. "Asuna." Every ounce of energy within my body was spent as if my very soul had been drained, and without thinking, I collapsed into her embrace. I was a drowning man and she felt like a lifeline.

"Your hand."

I didn't know what she was talking about until I looked down and saw the blood that was running down my wrist. The mirror that Kayaba had given us now held a cracked reflection of what I looked like in real life. I had been clutching it so hard that I was cutting myself with the broken glass. At the top left of my head-up display (HUD), my HP dropped by one and at that moment, I had a moment of clarity. No matter the circumstances, SAO was still a game. Apart from one, the rules of the game have not changed which meant in order to survive in this world there was one simple thing to do. 'Get stronger. Strong enough that nothing in this game can even hope to drop my Health to zero. To do that, I will need levels and gear which meant EXP and Cor.' The fog started to clear and I was beginning to see a path in front of me. 'I can do this. I can survive this game. If I head over to Horunka now, there won't be any competition for farm and from there I ca-'

"Kirito? Are you okay?" Asuna's voice snapped me out of my thoughts and at that moment I made a decision.

"Come with me," I said as I grabbed her hand and led us away from the plaza. Once we got into an alleyway that was out of sound and sight, I turned to her, "Okay listen, I'm heading out right now for the next village and I want you to come with me."

"What? Didn't you hear what he said?"

"I heard what he said."

"Then why…"

"With this many players in such a concentrated area, the amount of resources is limited." I opened up my menu and navigated to the map of Floor 1. "The fields around the Town of Beginnings are going to be hunted clean soon. If we stay here, we're going to be fighting for scraps along with everybody else but if we head to the next village now, we'll have an easier time collecting Cor and EXP. I have the knowledge and experience from the beta test to safely navigate us through the first few floors. If you stick with me, you'll have a higher chance of surviving."

"Why risk it though? I mean, shouldn't we wait for the outside world to rescue us?"

I shook my head. "This is a hostage situation where the goal of the culprit is to keep the hostages. What happens when an outside force tries to free these hostages? I wouldn't be surprised if he issued out a statement like, 'Don't interfere or else I will kill all of them.'" Asuna's eyes widened in fear and although I felt bad for tearing the little bit of hope she had away from her, this was something she needed to hear. "There's more. Clearly, he wants us to play the game, otherwise, he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of making it. What happens when we refuse to cooperate? You saw what he did to the Chamber of Resurrection; there are no safe places in this world, not from him." I grabbed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eyes. "Are you going to live in fear of him or are you going to fight?"

I saw her slowly digest the news, it wasn't an easy thing to do but she was a fighter in every sense of the word. The light in her eyes slowly came back and there was now a fire in there that wasn't there before. "I'm going to fight."

"Good," I said with a smile, "then I'm going to be counting on you from now on, partner."

As we embarked on our journey, I didn't dare to look back at the Town of Beginnings we were leaving behind. It was not simply the location that I was putting behind me but also the 9,785 other players that were still in that plaza. They were living, breathing people that had families and friends waiting for them back in the real world but I chose to abandon them all the same. A million different questions were swirling inside my head but all of those questions dissipated when we encountered our first monster.

A few [Frenzy Boar] with blue fur and glowing red eyes were grazing the grass field near the road. They were medium-sized, about a hundred and twenty centimeters long, with a flat snout and sharp tusks protruding from either side of their mouths. They were perfect as a first level combat encounter since they didn't attack unless provoked first. "We're going to take these guys out," I said and Asuna instantly tensed up. "Relax, these monsters are the weakest of all enemy monsters in the game. They only have 50 HP each so they'll die in a few hits. They will pose less of a challenge to you than the practice dummy you defeated."

"Okay," said Asuna as she swallowed nervously.

I picked up some nearby pebbles and threw them at the closest [Frenzy Boar]. The monster flinched as the small rock struck it right on its behind and it turned to rush at us. It was rather fast in contrast to its bulky size, and despite my calm front earlier, I was just as nervous about the prospect of dying. On its first charge, I made sure to dodge an extra meter just to be safe, and only when I was sure of the parry did I counter with my katana. The boar never got the chance to attack again and I was able to finish it off in three strikes.

I let out a sigh of relief, feeling a lot more comfortable now that I've confirmed that it was the same as it was in the beta. Just because it became a death game, didn't mean monsters suddenly got stronger or faster. They behaved the same way, died in the same number of hits, and gave the same amount of rewards. This was still the same game I poured my soul into. I turned to Asuna, "Your turn. Start with one first and see if you can work your way up to taking on two or three at the same time."

She copied my motion and soon another [Frenzy Boar] came charging at us. Naturally, she was jumpy at first, but similar to how she handled the practice dummy, after analyzing its attack pattern for a few rounds, she became more comfortable. Three quick strikes from her rapier followed by a flurry of blows and the boar was down for the count. "Very good, if you approach enemies the same way you approached that tutorial, you won't have much trouble with the wild monsters on Floor 1. One quick tip though, don't waste skills on enemies that are almost dead. You don't want to find yourself short on Stamina or have your skills on cooldown when things get hectic."

"Got it." She had a serious look in her eyes, and I could see that she was trying to absorb everything I said. She would learn quickly if she kept up that kind of hard-working attitude and soon she won't be needing me to tell her what to do anymore.

"Let's move on then." I kept an eye on her as we spent the next hour hunting a dozen more [Frenzy Boar] together. We were both drenched in sweat and completely exhausted from the physical activity by the end but the gratifying feeling from the tangible progress more than made up for it.

You have acquired [Sword Mastery Lvl.1]!

Sword weapons do 10% more damage.

You have acquired [Light Armor Mastery Lvl.1]!

Armor rating of Light Armor increased by 10%.

Level-Up!

I wiped my face with the bottom of my shirt as I turned to Asuna, "Let's call it a day and head to Horunka. There I'll explain to you the important things you need to focus on for the Level-Up." She was still trying to catch her breath so the only response I got was an 'okay' sign she held up.

It took us another hour and a half to get to Horunka and by then, the sun had already set. It was a quaint little village that had about a dozen small houses, an inn, and a weapon shop. The forest surrounding the settlement was quiet and the dirt road was sparsely lit by a few lanterns. After checking into the inn and getting a room each, we decided to save some money by grilling the boar meat the [Frenzy Boar] dropped in an outdoor campfire. Unfortunately, with our non-existent cooking skills and lack of seasoning, the boar meat had a gamey taste to it. It was somewhat bearable when paired with the plain bread and cheese we bought before leaving the Town of Beginnings but for two teenagers who were raised in a first-world country in the 21st century, this was not a meal to be excited about.

"I thought you said you were good at cooking. This is burnt," I said as I pointed to the blackened meat.

"Oh my bad, I'll make sure to grab some monster meat from my local grocery store and start a fire in my backyard to improve my cooking skills for you princess," she said with a smile on her face, but I was feeling a murderous aura coming from her.

"N-Never mind that, let's talk about the Level-Up." I made a mental note to never make fun of her cooking ever again. "When you Level-Up, all your stats are increased across the board. There is no distribution of points so you don't have to worry about a perfect ratio of attributes. These increases will play a big role in the early game but as we go into higher floors, items will become increasingly more important."

I continued, "Now comes the important part so listen carefully, each time you Level-Up, you get one skill point. The skills you can get using these points are unique skills that are related to your Sword Art. As far as I know, these are non-refundable, so make sure to think about what kind of playstyle you want and pick skills that complement each other."

[Duelist's Dance]

A novice wields a blade, a master dances with one.

You can identify the weak points, or Vitals, of enemies you see. When a Vital gets triggered, the target takes true damage based on your level and their max Health.

Asuna had an amazing Sword Art. Compared to the ones I remembered from the beta, it would be in the upper-tiers. Armor, shields, high HP, none of those would be of any use against her true damage. If she improved her attack speed and accuracy, even monsters with high tank stats will be a piece of cake to farm.

"What's [Sword Mastery Lvl.1] and [Light Armor Mastery Lvl.1]? I got these when we were fighting those boars earlier," she asked.

"Those are common skills that all players can get and they improve as you use them. The beautiful thing about this game is that the list of unique skills you can pick from will adapt based on what kind of common skills you are raising. For example, if I decided to be a blacksmith and only improved my smithing skills then I would have unique skills that are more crafting based rather than combat-based."

"You mentioned different types of playstyle, what are they?"

"The three main categories are damage dealer, tank, and support. The support category is broken down further into crafting and battlefield. There are also subcategories such as assassin, DPS, bruiser, off-tank, and so on."

"Which one would you say is easiest to play?"

"Hmm," I paused to think for a moment, "they all require a high degree of skill to play well but the battlefield support is probably the hardest. It requires the person to be highly adaptable since the support's job is constantly changing from battle to battle and during the battle itself."

Asuna groaned, "So complicated."

"If you aren't sure yet then a movement skill is a safe pick. No matter what we encounter, a movement skill will always be useful. Also, if we ever get into an unfavorable situation, you can just use it to run away."

"What if I maxed out my cooking skills and only picked unique skills that improved my cooking?"

"…" My heart sank at the thought of such a good Sword Art being used for a cooking build and the pained expression on my face must have been funny to her because she doubled over laughing.

"Relax, I'm just messing with you. I'll go with [Lunge]."

[Lunge]

Dash a short distance and stab a nearby enemy if one is present.

*This skill can trigger Vitals.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Nice choice." I went to select my unique skill but before I could do so a system message popped up in front of me.

The art of kendo has been detected during your last combat encounter.

Do you wish to adapt your Sword Art?

O Accept / X Decline

To say I was surprised would be an understatement. 'Yet another thing that's different from the beta.' I had always thought that the Sword Art assigned was unchangeable, but clearly, that wasn't the case. Furthermore, I've used kendo techniques during the beta as well and this choice was never offered. I wasn't sure what to expect but I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. I was confident in my kendo abilities and the more advantages I could give myself in this game the better.

'Accept.'

This decision is irreversible. Please confirm your choice.

O Accept / X Decline

'Accept.'

[Blood Arts] has been adapted to [Curse of Muramasa]!

[Curse of Muramasa]

Thirst for blood.

Skills no longer cost Stamina and are more effective, but you lose a large percentage of your current Health on cast.

Health cost is reduced when assuming the correct Stance.

A valid strike to the Men (head), Kote (wrist), Do (torso) or Tsuki (throat) deal more damage and refund the cost of the skill.

Skills may only be used when wielding a katana.

'The Stance must be referring to the five kamae (stance) of kendo: Jōdan, Chūdan, Gedan, Hassō, and Waki. The valid strike probably has the same requirement as a yūkō-datotsu. If I don't stick by these new requirements, then the Sword Art is probably worse than it was before.'

When I went back to pick my new skill, the entire offering changed to kendo related skills and many had new conditions attached to them. In the end, I went with my advice and picked a movement skill as well.

[Flash Step]

After channeling, teleport to a nearby space you can see.

*Only usable with proper ashi-sabaki

*All stances

"What now?" asked Asuna.

"I don't know, that's all there is to talk about for leveling up, what do you want to do?" I responded.

"I asked first," she smirked.

"Fine, let me think." After a small pause, I suggested, "Why don't we get to know each other better? If we're going to be together for the foreseeable future, it'd be weird if I didn't even know your name."

"What? My name is Asuna."

"Your real name."

"Yeah, my real name is Asuna. Yuuki Asuna."

I sighed, "Figures you'd use your real name too considering you didn't even bother changing your appearance."

"Wait, what's your real name? Oh yeah, and are we going to talk about the fact that you tried to catfish me?" she said as she poked my face.

"Kirigaya Kazuto," I said as I pushed her hand away. "And I wasn't trying to catfish you. Most people change their appearance, you are the anomaly."

"I thought you were like 23, but you look like you're 16."

"18."

"Hehe, still younger than me, I'm 19."

"Are you in university right now?"

"Yup, first year at Kokushikan University, majoring in engineering."

"Setagaya, huh? That's not super far away from where I'm at in Kawagoe."

"Oh, maybe one day you can come to visit, I'll give you a campus tour, show you all the good restaurants, and if you call me senpai, I can even put in a good word for you with the professors."

I scoffed, "In your dreams."

"This disrespectful brat, I need to teach you some manners!"

"Ow, ow, owww!" I yelped as she pinched my cheeks. "Mercy!"

"Keep going, this is fun."

"We're supposed to take turns asking questions."

"I don't have mine yet so keep going."

"Alright, uh, do you play any sports?"

"I'm on the varsity volleyball team for my school."

"Impressive, no wonder your form was so good when you jumped."

"You were checking out my form, huh?" she said with a little tease in her voice.

"Stop being a weirdo, it wasn't like that."

"Uh-huh. What about you, do you play any sports?"

"I'm into kendo. There's a dojo in my neighborhood that my sister and I have been training at since we were little." I was going to go on and tell her about how our kendo club made it to the national competition before I realized I wasn't part of that anymore. "Well...I guess it's more like I used to be into it."

"What happened?"

"Family stuff," I said, not wanting to go into it.

She seemed to understand and moved on to the next question, "What's the first thing you're going to do once we get back to the real world?"

"Probably ruffle my sister's hair," I smiled to myself, trying to picture Suguha's face in my mind, "and, uh, give my… give my mom a hug. Tell her I'm okay. We didn't part on the best of terms so, yeah, I would like to make amends. You?"

"Hmm, probably go down to the local government office."

I laughed out loud at how random that was. "What, why?"

"To get a divorce from whichever psychopath my parents married me to while I was too unconscious to refuse." I paused, unsure whether she was serious or not. "I'm just kidding...I hope. I know they love me. They just have a really weird way of showing it sometimes."

A silence settled between us. Both of us were tired but neither of us wanted to go to sleep yet. I probably wouldn't even be able to fall asleep after all that has happened. The night had fully settled in at that point and an aquamarine nebula covered the dark expanse of the night sky like a beautiful painting. The vibrant colors combined with the light show the stars were putting on for us gave off a feeling of coziness. "Do you think we have a chance of escaping?" she asked as she gazed up at the sky.

"Does it matter?" I answered as I laid down on my back. She turned to look at me with a surprised look. "If I told you no, would you give up and just accept your fate?"

"I'm not sure. I think I would still try, since I would have nothing to lose, right? Every second we are trapped in this world is a second we lose in the real one. I would rather die trying than to slowly have my life taken away from me," she said with determination in her voice. "What do you think?"

"A second in this world and a second in the real world are the same. They're both a second of my life and I'm going to spend it living it to the fullest."

"But how do you live it to the fullest if this world isn't real?"

"Lying here watching the stars and talking with you feels pretty real to me."

She paused for a moment as she reflected on what I said and then slowly turned back to face the sky. "You are...not wrong."

"Also," I added, "this game is beatable, so get rid of this 'die trying' nonsense from your head, got it?"

"Got it," she answered quietly, "thank you."

Behind the Page:

1. Jōdan-no-kamae translates to upper-level posture and is one of the five stances in kendo. The sword is raised above the head with the tip pointing back and the blade facing up, in readiness to strike. It is the most aggressive of the five stances. This stance is also associated with fire according to the five elements philosophy.

2. Gedan-no-kamae translates to lower-level posture and is one of the five stances in kendo. The sword is held out in front of the body pointing at the waist. The German school of fencing refers to this stance as "Fool's guard" as it serves to bait the foolish with apparent weakness. This stance is also associated with earth according to the earth elements philosophy.

3. Hassō-no-kamae translates to all directions and is one of the five stances in kendo. It is an offensive stance, named for one's ability to respond to a situation in any direction. The left foot is forward, and the sword is held pointing upright with the hilt in front of the right should. This stance is also associated with wind according to the five elements philosophy.

4. Waki-gamae is one of the five stances in kendo. The swordsman hides the length of their blade behind their body, only exposing the pommel to the opponent. It serves to conceal the length and orientation of the blade to one's opponent. This stance is also associated with void according to the five elements philosophy.

5. A valid strike in kendo is defined as an accurate strike or thrust made to an appropriate target area with the cutting edge of the top third of the sword. The competitor must also display high spirits, correct posture, and zanshin (continuation of awareness).

6. Ashi-sabaki translates to Kendo footwork. There are 5 ashi-sabaki in kendo: suri-ashi, okuri-ashi, tsugi-ashi, ayumi-ashi, and hiraki-ashi.