Sao rewritten

by Nicolastheconqueror

From getting stuck in a death game to enjoying live in the world of fairies. From stopping a murderer IRL tobeing forced to live in a virtual world like no other. Follow this group of friends as they fight their way through different virtual worlds, make new Friends and find love.

4. Floor 2: New skill, scams and feelings

Hello readers. So after the last chapter I realised I was wromg about chapter 2 being the longest of this story. It was the shortest. Chapter 1 was the longest. Anyway I know last chapter was really long. This chapter is gonna be around the same lenght. In fact most chapters will be around that lenght. I hope you guys won't mind. Like I said my way of writing has changed. Most chapters of the Aincrad portion will be clearing floors and quests with some characters moments and eventually the boss fight. Now one thing I've been brainstorming about is wheter to keep the 'Legend Braves' and their blacksmth scam in. I decided to keep it in but change it up a lot. Again I'm taking some creative liberties here. But yeah this chapter will feature a lot of Lisbeth and the main crew which means little if any screen time for the other main characters. After all this is gonna focus on the blacksmith scam and Lisbeth would not like a scam like that. And it would mess with the flow too much if I switched POV's this chapter. Ariël and Darros will make some appeances troughout the chapter aswell though mostly just quick cameo's. From around floor 7 they will become important characters. And the other groups will get their time in the spotlight soon aswell.

Speaking of characters I said I would introduce Arianrhod in the last chapter but decided agains thst in the end instead introducing her here.

I'am also gonna be giving more explanation on how exactly the skill system works. It is mostly the same as in SAO Progressive.

I also realised I never gave description of the new 4 people. So here they are before answering questions.

Arsene: a short, brown haired man with green eyes. He wears a leather curas, a yellow tunic and black pants.

Lupin: a tall, blonde haired man with red eyes. He wears a full body set of purple iron armor.

Clasour: a t all, black haired man with blue eyes. He wears a heavy metal armor.

Deliah: a short, chestnut-brown haired girl with green eyes. She wears light metal armor, a purple tunic and a blue skirt.

And now for the questions.

One question was where Ariël had gone to. While I didn't mention her throughout the chapter I can safely say she was with Kibaou's group acting like one of the retail players. So she's alive and well and will make some appearences throughout the chapter like already mentioned.

Another question was about making Asuna a healer. One critisism I and many others had was that Asuna became more of a support character then a badass fencer like in season 1. I want to basicaly try and balance those two sides. It will be though but I think I can manage it.

As for two other scenes mentioned. First off Sachi stating she'll fight despite her fear. I basicaly took a lot of inspiration from the Sachi of Hollow fragment where she was in the hollow area. There she temprarily teams up with you. I thought making her the one to say she would fight instead of cowering would be a good start to my version of Sachi.

Then there was the Asuna telling Lind off scene. Let's be real here, Asuna would 100% tell him off if she had the chance. She hates Lind and the way he and the others treat the man who does their dirty work for them i.e. Kirito. For reference I'm talking about SAO progressive where Asuna isn't too pleased with Lind or Kibaou. That is why I decided to make her the one to defend Kirito. Also I just think the entire beater thing was easily avoidable if Kirito allowed others to help him for once. Anyway onto the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own the show or most of the characters. Those rights belong to Reki Kawahara, Aniplex and A-1 pictures. Please support the original release.

Back in Tolbana.

Lisbeth had just opened her store for the day when she saw 35 people walk into the safety of Tolbana. She was the first to welcome them back. She was a bit afraid about the news. She knew 44 people were supposed to be among the clearers. So 9 were missing.

"How did the battle go? Where are the others?" Lisbeth asked as more people began to form a crowd around the clearers. It was Lind who spoke up. "Kirito and his party are going to the main city of floor 2 right now to open the teleport gate." "Wait, floor 2? Does that mean that the boss fight was a succes?" "It was. After 2 months we've finally beaten floor 1."

A loud cheer erupted from the crowd. Everyone was overjoyed about the fact they finally beat floor 1. However Lisbeth quickly realised that someone else was unaccounted for. "Where is Diavel? Did he also go to floor 2." She asked. Lind shook his head. "Diavel is dead. The boss killed him."

This made everyone stop their cheers. Diavel, the leader of the first boss, was dead. "Then who is leading you guys now?" Lisbeth said. Lind gritted his teeth and Kibaou just decided to stay silent. Neither were particularly happy with the person who took charge but both knew she was invitably going to lead every boss raid.

"Asuna is likely to be the leader during the next boss fight. She was the one who led us to victory after Diavel's death." Agil said. The rest of the clearers murmured amongst themselves. Most weren't exactly too stooked about the fact their new leader being pro-beta testers. Even though there was an argument to be made that some were good people the majority did still just leave the retail players to fend for themselves. There were even stories of former beta testers challenging others to duels and killing them. Because it was during a duel they remained green players. It made a lot of people both afraid of and hatefull towards former beta testers.

"So what will happen now?" Lisbeth asked. This time Lind did speak up. "We'll head to the Town of Beginnings and wait there until the teleport gate opens. Once it does we'll head to floor 2. There we will first just get settled and then we'll discuss how to continue."

Everyone yelled out in confirmation. Lisbeth started getting her stuff ready to head to floor 2. She hasn't been this excited since diving into SAO. Finally a new floor to discover. She wondered just how well she would do up there. She was the joined most sought after blacksmith along with a mysterious blacksmith called Nezha. They were the top dogs. She hoped that one day she was gonna be alone on that top step. The best blacksmith in Aincrad.

On floor 2

Asuna hadn't laughed as much as she was now since diving into the game. They were in the safety of Urbus, having fought a few mobs here and there, and decided to go get something to eat at a local restaurant before activating the teleport gate. Mostly to esct in peace. During this they decided to tell some stories about certain adventures in SAO. Kirito was the one telling most of the stories. Most were funny memories from the beta. Kirito had now told them about one time where he and a bunch of others managed to lose their hard-earned treasure.

The 5 of them went into the 7th floor dungeon. Most were damge dealers but they also brought a thief with them. The 5 of them found so much treasure worth into the 100s and even millions of col that they had no idea how to sell it. But then they got attacked and their thief accidently dropped his dagger which was then picked up by a Snatcher which as the name suggests had the 'Snatch' skill. This skill worked similarly to when a item you previously equiped got traded to another player or ordered something from a blacksmith. As long as you didn't equip anything else of that weapon type you still had owenership of that weapon. With treasure and unequiped items you had 1 hour and with equiped items you had 3 hours. So you either needed to killed the Snatcher, materialise all your items or use the quick change mod. But because the Snatcher was already gone and the thief didn't have the Quick change mod he panicked and materialised all his items. Of course Rovers then came in and took his items including the treasure. Because Rovers had the 'Thieving' skill the owenership instantly transfered to the Rovers. This meant he lost a bunch of equipment and all the treasure. Kirito remembered laughing his ass off while the others were frustrated with the poor thief.

The group he was with now had the same reaction. It was just too funny to hear. But Sinon eventually turned serious. "I just hope nothing like that never happens to anyone in the retail title though. Imaging losing a important weapon or item. That spells death in here." Everyone's laughter stopped. They it was true. Imagine if one of them lose a important piece of equipment because they panicked. The possibility of one of them dying would be emormous.

"Let's not dwell on matters like that shall we? We still have to open the teleport gate after all. Aswell as celebrate the fact we're finally on the second floor. So happy thoughts people." Asuna said getting everyone out of their gloomy moods.

It was true after all. Today they managed what for the longest time was thought to be impossible: beat the floor 1 boss Ilfang the Kobold lord. However it came at a price. The original leader, Diavel, died. His last words still resounded inside Asuna's head. "You know who will lead them Asuna." he had told her. As if possesed she then started barking orders at everyone there. And, with some tactical help from Sinon and some risk taking from Kirito, she managed to lead them to victory. She knew it was know expected of her to succeed Diavel. But deep inside she was scared. Scared that if she made a nistake it would unnecessarilly cost a life. But she had brought it upon herself so she was going to do what she could.

"Where exactly is the teleport gate Kirito?" "Right in the centre of town. All you'll have to do is touch the pillars and it'll activate." Got it. Thanks Kirito."

They went to the teleport gate, activated it and waited for the people to enter. Immediatly the remaining players swarmed the 8 players that opened the gate with congratulations and hugs. However Kirito noticed 3 people running away from the plaza. To be more precise he saw 1 small person he instantly recognised ran away from 2 people chasing her. The person being chased being none other then Argo the rat. He knew something was. Yeah people hated her for her motto but if they were chasing her around like this it meant something bad. He excused himself from the group and chased after the 3 using the roofs of Urbus.

He opened up his Search skill menu, selected 'Pursuit' and entered the name Argo. One thing Kayaba forgot to mention in his interview was that each player had skill slots. These skill slots were used to acces your proficiancy trees in those skills. Your class started with 2 skills slot: one for the selected weapon type and one free to choose. Of course there were excaptions. Blacksmiths start with the 'Blacksmithing and 'Appraisal' skill instead of a weapon slot and a open slot, the Merchants started with a weapon slot and the 'Appraisal' skill and the Thieves started with the 'Steal' skill and those were also the only skills that could never be unlocked. Magic did not belong to the skill list. You get a extra skill slot at levels 6,12, 20 and from then on every 10 levels. Kirito picked search as his first skill. Just like with sword skills they leveled individiually from ones level. And also like sword skills you could pick certain mods to strenghten the skill for some of them. 'Pursuit' was one of those mods. It allowed one to see a path of small, green footprints to follow.

As he followed Argo's footprints he noticed they left Urbus and where on the plains. The plains of floor 2 were filled with wild Oxen with a lot of attack power. Kirito grimaced as he realised that a agility based player like Argo could get seriously hurt aswell as the fact that if the chaser were still chasing her it meant even she couldn't outrun them.

"I told you a milion times already and I'l tell you again, I'm not selling that information to anyone! Could you just stop chasing me know? I think 3 days is 'nough right?" That definitely made Kirito's stomach churn. Not only were they chasing her for information she wouldn't sell but they've chasing her for 3 days. Kirito was willing to do a lot of things but chasing a girl shorter then he is for any lenght of time wasn't one of those things.

"And you'll have to understand that we need that Extra skill to finish our skill set! We're ninja's of the fuma clan after!" "Ah so that is what this is about. Kirito thought. He now knew two things. 1. The people chasing Argo were the Fuma. A bunch of Thief and Swordmaster class players that acted as if they were elite ninja's. Essantially they put all their work into enhancing their agility stat. Because of this they became quite infamous for their ambushes. And the second thing he now knew was that they were after a Extra skill.

"And I'm still not gonna sell that information! I don't want any unnecessary hate coming my way because I told you about that Info! And you aren't the only one's who I haven't sold this to! Hell you're the first to know about this skill!" Argo retorded with. This piqued Kirito's interest. Argo sold any information aside from who was a beta tester. But apperantly this info was so bad it would cause unnecassary hate to come her way. And apperently this skill was something only dhe initially knew about.

"The only reason we can think off is that you want to inflate the price of that info! Now just selff it!" Before it could escalate further Kirito jumped in between the ninja's and Argo. The 3 players were shocked someone had chased al the way here.

"As a spy from the Shogun I can't let you take this any further!" Kirito said. It was meant as a light hearted joke to life the mood. But clearly it wasn't taken that way by the ninja's. "You Iga dog! You'll pay for getting in our way!" "Wait what?" Kirito said taken aback. He didn't think it would actually escalate this further. He had really hoped it would lighten the mood but once more he proved to himself that communication wasn't his strong suit. Luckily, or maybe unluckily depending on how you look at it, something came to help him and Argo out.

"Behind you." You think we would fall for such feeble trickery? Are you mocking us?" "I'm not! Now look behind you you dumbass'!" Kirito yelled getting pissed off. They did exactly that and saw a Trembling Ox coming right at. They weren't exactly powerfull but they have a pretty long attacking range. "Oh shit!" one of the ninja's said. They jumped out of the way and Kirito and Argo took this as a chance to run away and hide.

"That was a close one Kii-boy. Maybe a bit too much showboating from your side." Argo said. Kirito simply nodded not really paying attention. Then suddenly he felt Argo hug him from behind. "Argo? Why are you hugging me?" "Because I was worried about you. You nearly forced your big sister to break the first rule of a information broker." Kirito wanted to asked questions but refrained from it. Right now wasn't the time.

After a minute Argo sighed. "I guess I owe you and A-chan huh? In fact I owe you twice." she said. "Why exactly do you owe us?" Kirito asked genuinely confused. He couldn't see the look on Argo's face but he knew it must've been hard for her getting chased the entire time. "For getting us here of course. And in your case I owe you for rescueing me from that bunch of idiots. I'll give you two free pieces of information. Anything you want."

Kirito was quite shocked by this. Never before has he heard of Argo giving out free information. "Well can I immediatly ask for both?" "Of course." "Ok. I want to know about the reason of your whiskers and what exactly that skill was they were talking about." Kirito said before immediatly smacking himself around the head. He thought he finally had worked up some tact. And then he went and asked Argo about that sensitive information. "Great job me. I really am bad at this."

"If you're blasting yourself about asking about my whiskers don't bother. I told you that you could ask for any information which includes that." Argo told Kirito. This surprised Kirito. The entire reason she put that 1000 col price tag was so no one would buy that info from her. "You sure? You don't have to give it if you don't want to." he told her. But Argo shook her head. "I keep my promises. Oh and I'll bundle both your requests as both lead to the same answer. So you still got one free piece of info alomg with A-chan's." Argo said. Kirito sighed, relenting. "Ok, if you're ok with it I'll listen."

The two waited a bit longer untill they were certain no one was there. When the coast was clear they came out of their hiding spot. Atleast Kirito wanted to but Argo told him to stay here for a littke while longer to tell him something. "Before we go I need to show you something: my face without the whiskers." she said. This caught Kirito off guard. Not only was he about to get to know the reasons behind Argo's whiskers but he would also get to know how she actually looked. Before Kirito could respond the paint was already off her face and her hood was down. Kirito was quite stunned. He always thought Argo would look good without them but he didn't expect her to look as good as she did.

"So this is your IRL face huh? You're quite pretty." he said. Argo grinned. She had hoped this was his answer. "Thanks Kii-boy. But flattering me won't get you a discount." she said teasing him. "I didn't mean it in that way." Argo simply let out a laugh at his response. "He's still as easy to tease as back then. Somethings never change." she thought. She was glad he hadn't change one bit. He was one of the few friends she had in this harsh world. She wanted to keep it that way.

"I need you to promise one thing. That you won't hate me for this. Otherwise I refuse to give you the information and will simply allow you to keep the two free pieces." she told him. Again Kirito didn't exactly knew what she meant. But if he had to promise herbthis she would. "I promise ok. You were one of the few friends I had in the beta and I want to stay befriended to the few friends I have." he said. Argo simply nodded and lead the way to their destinition after Kirito messaged Asuba he would be gohe for a while longer and that they didn't have to worry about him.

The two went to a mountain shrine where a man with whiskers was meditating. Kirito looked around him and noticed several different pieces of equipment he swore he recognised laying in what seemed like a dojo build inside of the shrine. He was about to enter the dojo before Argo stopped him.

"First I need to tell you about that skill they were after. It was a skill that would perfectly fit a ninja style build. It is the 'Martial Arts' extra skill." Argo told him. This surprised Kirito. He had never heard of a 'Martial Arts' skill in the beta. So it was probably something only Argo knew about. "So the quest this man gives allows you to use the Martial arts extra skill?" "Yep. Pretty cool huh?"

Extra skills were rare skills that for the most parts had unknown unlock methods. The only known ones where 'Dual Wield' and 'Katana', where you needed a certain profiancy for in 1-handed swords and 1-handed curved swords, aswell as 'Meditation' where you needed to do a quest for. However no one knew the exact profiancy to unlock the sword based Extra skills and 'Meditation' was only really usefull to Mage Fighters. No other Extra skills were discovered but according to Kayaba there were 10 Extra skills. This was the fourth Kirito knew about.

"So how do you unlock it?" "First you have to accept the quest of course. You'll immediatly discover the reason for my whiskers aswell." Argo had a sly grin on her face. Kirito knew that she was scheming something if she grinned like that but saw no way out of this situation. He sighed and went to the quest giver.

"I see you've traveled from afar. Are you here to study under my supervision?" the person said. Kirito nodded and thus accepted the quest. Suddenly a rock appeared in front of him. "Break this rock and your training will be complete." "That is it? Wow ok. Maybe Argo was exaggerating when talking with those ninja's." Kirito thought. He attempted to break the rock but instead hurt his hand. He didn't even chip the rock. He howled in pain and Argo couldn't help but laugh. "What is that rock made off?" Kirito asked aloud. He never felt a rock this hard before. "I knew that would happen. That was exactly what happened to me." "What do you mean? Did you try this quest aswell?"

Kirito set a few steps to the door before the quest giver started talking. "I can't let you leave untill you complete your training." Kirito turned around and saw paint and a brush come his way. The brush painted three whiskers like the ones Argo had on her cheeks on his. "What the hell is going on?!" He shouted as Argo howled in laughter. "Those whiskers will stay painted on your face as long as you're training here. When your training is complete I'll erase them."

That is when Kirito realised. Argo knew of this quest because she attempted it herself. And just like Kirito she tried to leave but the man painted whiskers on her face. After a couple of daysvshe took her losses and continued on with the whiskersvthat would become her trademark.

Thankfully for Kirito he didn't have to spend the rest of his days in SAO with irremoveable whiskers. He managed to complete the quest in 3 days. However now he was scared of something else. Something much more terrifying. "Asuna is gonna be so pissed."

A couple of days later in Urbus.

"Y-you bastard! Put it back!"

Lisbeth was walking to her shop and getting ready to open her shop when she heard someone shouting at a person. Not just any person though. It was her closest compatitor Nezha, a master blacksmith. And she also recognised the person that was shouting at him. Rufiol, a proper frontline player. She also recognised the sword as a 'Anneal Blade'.

"That sword was upgraded to +4! Give me those upgrades back!" Rufiol shouted. Lisbeth immediatly knew what happened. Rufiol had trusted Nezha, a master blacksmith, to further upgrade his weapons. Probably because he already upgraded his weapon to +4 so he knew what he was capable of. But apperently he had failed several times. If Lis had to guess he failed 4 times in a row. And she knew exactly what that meant.

The way upgrading worked was that there was a set number of upgrade attempts possible. If you succeeded the requested stat would be raised but if you failed it could have two consequences. The first being that it wouldn't raise the rank from +0 to +1. The other being that it would downgrade to a lower upgrade slot. So if it was a 'Anneal Blade +4' and he failed 4 times it would mean the blade was now officially back to it's original state.

"How did you fail four times?! You were supposed to be one of the best blacksmiths in the game! And I gave you everything you needed!" Rufiol said as Nezha didn't look at him. Lisbeth now knew her prediction was correct. But she didn't understand how Nezha was capable of messing up twice let alone 4 times.

"Come on Rufiol. Let's head to the first floor and do the quest again." "I would advice against that. At this point a unupgraded 'Anneal Blade' is gonna take too long to upgrade and isn't worth doing the quest for." Rufiol initially wanted to start yelling at her but stopped as he noticed who she was. No sane individual was gonna yell at Lisbeth as long as she was considered the top blacksmith in the game.

"I'm truly sorry sbout your weapon. Sadly I have no replacement to offer you. Instead I would be willing to buy it off of you so you can replace it yourself." Nezha said. Lisbeth felt bad for the small man. He was trying his best but he simply was struggling to cope with the presure it seemed. She knew the feeling. Despite the fact that she was confident in her ability she too felt that presure. She knew that if she made even a single mistake it could spell death.

Rufiol had calmed down somewhat luckily enough. "Sure. How much are you paying?" "8000 col" Nezha responded with. To others that seemed surprising but to Lisbeth that was absolutely insane. A 'Anneal Blade' was worth No more then 35.000 col when fully upgraded. So paying 8k for a non-upgraded 'Anneal Blade' with no upgrade slots available was just ludicrous.

"You're sure? I mean 8k is a lot." "Yes, I'm sure. It's for the best for both us."Lisbeth really started to pity Nezha now. She had never before seen a blacksmith fall from grace like this. Rufiol reluctantly accepted the trade and Lisbeth and on her way.

"Hey girlie. Lisbeth was your name right? Do you have any weapons in store? A 'Stout Brand' or something?" This made Lisbeth stop dead in her tracks. She had made it a point to never brag about her stock in front of colluageus. But right now she really had no other choice. It could mean a potential permenant customer after all.

"I do as a matter of fact have a number 'Stout Brands' that were sold to me by players that already had either one of those or another weapon as their prefered weapon. Of course I have a few 'Anneal Blades' if you prefer those." Lisbeth said smiling fakely. She hated doing this in front of her rival. It went against her policies as a blacksmith. "Great! Bring us to shop." Rufiol said not noticing how she felt. They went to move for her shop. When she looked back she saw Nezha had retreated back into his store.

Just around the corner stood Kirito and Asuna who had heard everything. The two were quite shocked by the exchange. They didn't know much about Nezha but surely he wasn't this bad at his job?

Anyway the reason they were there was because they were gathering supplies. They were actually heading for Darros, a merchant Kirito knew well, to restock on potions. They would then meet up with their 6 friends.

"Well of it isn't my best customer! How can I serve you today my old friend?" Darros said. He looked completely different from his beta avatar. Instead of the beard he had on his beta avatar he was shaven completely clean and he was also bald. This initially made Kirito think he was someone completely different before hearing his gruffy voice.

"Just the same as always. So a punch of potions. Hè do you perhaps know something about that Nezha fellow?" Kirito said. "Only that he is apperently the same level of blacksmith as that girl Lisbeth. Why? Is something wrong?" "Well he apparently messed up four times in a row."

The 2 of them explained to Darros what had happened back there. To say Darros was surprised was understatement. Nezha was a popular and briliant blacksmith, being one of the go to's for anyone with serious aspirations to become a blacksmith. So this was a fall from grace the likes of which weren't often seen.

"So what is gonna happen now? The only other top level blacksmith is Lisbeth and I don't know if she can cope with the presure to help out every frontline player." Darros said concerned. Kirito himself didn't have an answer to that. It was a though situation for everyone. "Maybe he just had a bad day? That can happen to the best of us" Asuna said. But of course she knew that a bad day could lead to death and Nezha would likely be held responsible for those. "For now let's not talk about this. Thanks for the potions by the way. Who is mixing them for you anyway?" "Merida of course. Her 'Mixing' skill is pretty high already."

The 'Mixing' skill was the skill required to make potions and poisons. Only magic users could learn it but quite a few refused to as they wanted to focus on other magic based abilities like healing or wind magic. Of course those who used the 'Mixing' skill and leveled could learn to make incredibly powerfull potions and poisons. And Merida was a master potion maker back in the beta.

"Well tell her we appreciate it. See you in a bit." "See you later Darros. Hope business will run smoothly for you around here." Darros for his part just waved towards them as he was in deep thought. "What on Earth could've happened to Nezha? We'll need to get to the bottom of this soon otherwise there might be deaths due to pure neglicience."

Eventually they met up with the group who were talking with a female player using a rapier. Her long, blonde her shining in the sun. However it was thanks to her clothes and voice that Asuna recognised her. She started running and hugged the woman from behind.

"It's been so long since I last saw you Ariël. I thought you might've died." Asuna said before Ariël could ask who suddenly bear-hugged her. Ariël instantly calmed down. Just like Asuna she easily recognised the other's voice. "It's only been two months and a week. But I'm still sorry. I just left you with that weapon without any explaining. You have some top tier leadership capabilities by the way." Ariël said. This made Asuna look at her confused. "You were there during the battle?" "Yep. I was with Kibaou's group. Tried to hide among the crowd the best I could. But I would rather talk later. I know you guys have some grinding to do and I don't want to hold you up."

With that she left. The group waved at her and she waved back. Then the focus went back to the task at hand. Asuna wanted to upgrade her 'Wind Fleuret' to +5. For this she needed to kill 100 Windwasps. However Asuna had a idea to make the hunting more fun.

"hey guys how about a little challenge? The first one to kill 50 Windwasps will be allowed to choose where we eat for the night." "That way all our skills stay sharp and we have a bit of fun. Let's do it."

Everyone pretty much agreed with Sinon way of thinking. They headed to the plains and started hunting Windwasps.

In the plains 5 minutes

Windwasps were mostly just annoying. They had a attack with their stinger which could stun someone for 2 to 3 seconds aswell as a bite attack. If one staightened it while it's mandibles opened would go for the bite attack and when it formed a arrow shape it went for the stinger attack. Both had a 5 second cooldown. But ehat made them annoying was the fact they were flying monsters aswell as the fact they could ambush a player with a swarm. Luckily that didn't happen to Kirito's little group of 8.

They had agreed to a challenge of Asuna's: whoever killed 50 Windwasps choose were they ate that day. Kirito initially thought it would be a pretty easy win for him. He was wrong.

Asuna's 'Wind Fleuret +4' had 2 Accuracy upgrades, while Leafa's 'Anneal Blade +6' and Sinon's 'Astral Arc +6' had 3 upgrades to Acurracy. Every upgrade to Accuracy gave them a extra 10% critical hit chance. Kirito didn't know how potent this was as he alwzys went for Sharpness and Durability for the sole reason that they didn't have any interferance from the system. However he clearly underestimated the Accuracy stat as the 3 with Accuracy upgrades were well ahead of the rest. Both Leafa and Sinon had 8 kills while Asuna had 11. By contrast Kirito only 4 kills while the rest each had 3 kills. He himself wasn't shocked Asuna was in the lead. Her speed and already insane pinpoint accuracy without the added 20% Accuracy, 30% if you counted her 'Linear' skill, left her well ahead of the pack.

"There has to be something I can do without revealing the 'Martial Arts' skill." Kirito thought. He hadn't told the group much about his adventure with Argo. Mostly because as he feared Asuna was pissed that he had stayed away for that long. The rest either silently laughed at his situation or symphatised with the poor sod. Espacially because a angry Asuna was scarier then they imagined. But that also meant no one knew of his 'Martial Arts' skill. And the best case scenario was that he didn't have to use it at all.

"That is 5!" Kirito shouted right as Asuna killed her twelfth. Now he pretty much knew that if he wanted to win he needed to use his 'Martial Arts' skill. So right as his next target came at him with a stinger attack he didn't dodge unlike before. Instead he used the 'Martial Arts' sword skill 'Meteor Impact' followed by a 'Horizontal Arc'. This leveled the playing field somewhat as he managed to more efficiently kill the Windwasps.

After 2 more minutes the competition finished. Apart from Asuna everyone seemed exhausted. "That was fun. We should do things like this more often to spice up our grinding." "Fun for you perhaps. I was this close to winning! And in the end Asuna steals it!"

Leafa was right. She, Sinon and Kirito were just 1 kill removed as Asuna killed her 50th Windwasp. Deliah and Clasour managed to kill 37 while Arsene and Lupin killed 34. "Well sorry Leafa. But the truth of the matter remains that I won. Let's head back and get something to eat. I know just the place aswell. Oh and you better tell us about that new skill Kirito. I don't think I saw anyone else with that skill yet." Asuna said. Kirito simply nodded. It was gonna be a long talk.

Back in Urbus

"This place huh? Good choice." Kirito said. It was a place he had visited often in the beta. It sold a Blueberry Spongecake that gave a Luck buff aswell as a assortment of different specialty items. Of course Asuna wanted that Spongecake more then anything. Not because of the buff but simply because she wanted to try it. She had spongecakes before IRL and loved them. Considering SAO had a suppposedly great taste simulator she wanted to try it out even if it was just once.

"Thanks. Now here is my question for you four. A table for 8 or two tables for 4?" Asuna said looking at Arsene and his group. "2 tables for 4 would be nice. And besides it seems like they have 4 seats max here anyway." Arsene said. Upon further inspection it seemed true.

Asuna ordered the same thing for everyone. As they ate they started talking about several things: their experiance in SAO so far, how much they liked or disliked certain people inside of SAO and really anything about the games mechanics. Then the spongecake came. As it came into his view Kirito began focusing quite intensely at the cake.

"Ok Leafa, he's your brother. What is he doing?" Sinon said. Leafa simply gighled begore answering. "One of his more obscure hobbies is that he loves calculating random things. Right now he is calculating the volume of the cake to do how much he is eaiting if we split it evenly." Leafa said. The others couldn't help but chuckle at this. They knew Kirito was quircky but this wasn't what they expected.

"Wait, did Sinon-san just say you and Kirito-san were siblings Leafa-san?" Lupin suddenly asked making the others look at them. "Well yeah we are. We didn't tell you yet mostly because we typically don't talk about it. This begs the question though: how on Earth did Klein not know we were related? He straight up told me and Kirito he didn't know how we were related despite me accidently calling Kirito Onii-san right in front of him." "Knowing Klein he decided to act oblivious because he knew it was a mistake from your end." "True enough Onii-san."

They ate their Spongecake and noticed a icon appear next to their HP bar. "Uhm Kirito-san what is that icon next to our HP bar?" Deliah said. "It is a Luck buff. It basically increases your chances of getting a weapon upgrade done." He said. Everyone nodded in understanding. Upgrading weapons depended on numerous factors one of which being the Luck stats of both the Blacksmith and the other player. Every point of luck increased the chance of a succesfull upgrade slightly.

"We don't really need it considering Lisbeth is quite good. But still it is nice. Makes her job easier." Sinon said. "Hè, we were getting upgrade items for Asuna's 'Wind Fleuret +4'. So with this isn't the upgrade guarenteed?" Leafa asked. Again everyone looked towards Kirito. "Sadly no. The cap is at 95% succes no matter your Luck stats or the quality of your items." again everyone nodded. "Well, now that we're done here let's go upgrade my weapon shall we" Asuna said. They each nodded in confimation and went on their way to Lisbeths store.

At Lisbeth's stores

"Hey guys! How have you been doing on this floor?" Lisbeth said smiling at the group of eight that entered her store. "We've been doing fine to be honest. How about you?" Asuna said. "Fine I guess. I've just been thinking about something. But before that I want to get to the orders. So who wants to have their weapon upgraded." "Just me today Lisbeth."

While they were talking Kirito started thinking about what had happened with Nezha. He refused to think it was as simple as a fall from grace. He definitely wanted to talk to Lisbeth about this. But right now Lisbeth was focusing on Asuna's rapier.

"So what do you want to upgrade?" "Sharpness please. I think 2 Accuracy is enough." "Got it. Did you bring your own materials?" "I did yes." "Ok, so we'll use those then. Give me a few minutes and I'll have your weapon upgraded." "Thanks Lis! You're the best."

Lisbeth went to work. First she melted the materials. She had of course noticed the increased chance so she knew Asuna had a Luck buff. She didn't really need it as the chance of succes was a pretty good 92.45% anyway but a added boost would always calm any Blacksmiths head aswell as boost their confidence. As the materials were melted she first put the sword into a see of beautifull flames which caught everyones attention. Once she had done that she set to working on the upgrade. To complete the upgrade she needed to hit the sword 5 times with her hammer. So she did exactly that.

1 smash. No sign of failure yet. 2 smashes. Around here is where most frontline Blacksmiths got nervous. However Lisbeth knew she would succeed. 3 smashes. Halveway there now. 4 smashes. Almost there now. And the final smash.

As per usual Lisbeth's work was truly remarkable. The upgrade succeeded. Lisbeth let out a sigh and smiled while handing over Asuna's sword. "There you go Asuna. A 'Wind Fleuret +5 (3S2A)' just as you requested it." "Thanks Lis! This may sound mean but this is why most prefer you over for example Nezha." Asuna said. "I actually wanted to talk about him with you Lis. Is that ok?"

Everyone looked at Kirito. "That is a nice coincidence. I wanted to talk about him aswell" Lisbeth said. This surprised Kirito. Did she also suspect the same thing? "Let's go to my place. There we will have good sight on Nezha." everyone nodded. Lisbeth closed up her shop as she always does if she heads oyt and went with them to her place.

In Lisbeth inn room.

The room was your pretty standard SAO Inn room. There was enough room for everyone but for safety reasons Clasour, Deliah, Arsene and Lupin decided to wait outside. You never knew if someone had a high eveasedropping skill or not.

"So what exactly do you want to talk about Kirito?" Lisbeth asked. Though she had a pretty good idea already. "I'm thinking that he might be scamming people. No way is he this bad at his job if he originally was supposed to be your closest compatitor."

This caught the other girls their attention. While walking over here they briefly talked about Nezha. A unasuming looking Blacksmith with a equilly unasuming personality. No one like that could pull off a scheme like this right? "Something is happening again. Look."

Lisbeth pulled the 4 of them to the window where they looked out at Nezha's shop. Kirito recignised the girl as the Ariël they spoke to in the morning. She wasn't too plseased if Kirito saw how she held her body. Lisbeth opened the window slightly so they could hear the conversation

"My 'Sun's Dance +6'. You actually managed to destroy it while upgrading. But how? How is that possible?" Ariël said. Asuna felt for her. It was a important weapon to her. Asuna had learned your weapon could feel like a part of yourself from Arïel so she knew how she must feel. Kirito himself simply couldn't belief a weapon actually could get destroyed while upgrading it. Lisbeth herself was already thinking about numerous possiblities.

"I'm truly sorry miss. All I can do for you is give you a free Iron Rapier but I know that compared to that weapon I broke it's worth nothing." Nezha said. It was true. A Iron Rapier was worth very little in comparison to a powerfull Rapier like the 'Sun's Dance'. Arïel thought the same and politely declined his offer before heading home. Lisbeth closed the windowvand they started talking about what just happened.

"That is just too suspicious in my eyes. Espacially because he is succesfull most other times. I don't know how he does it but I feel like I'll know it if I keep looking at his work. I just don't know what to focus on." Lisbeth said. The others nodded. It was weird. A sword that broke while upgrading isn't something that happened often. In fact this was the first time they ever saw this.

"You hired a Inn room slightly further from here right? Did you hire this room solely to watch over Nezha?" Sinon asked. Lisbeth nodded. "I initially stayed at the same Inn as that girl from just now. But I heard more and more stories about how Nezha kept screwing up after several succesfull attempts. In fact I hired this room the moment I heard he had broken someones sword in a upgrade. If only I knew how he did it I could stop him from continuing but I have no clue whatsoever."

While the 4 girls were talking Kirito was deep in thought. If it was just failing to upgrade weapons he could have some idea on how to begin. But then he realised something. "Didn't he buy Rufiol's 'Anneal Blade'? Maybe that was part of the scam."

This made Lisbeth think for a minute. "I don't think so. Unless he foumd some handy way to implement a weapon that used all of its upgrades into a scam he..." Lisbeth suddenly stopped. "Lis, what is wrong?" "I'm going to contact Argo. I have something to ask of her. Will you guys pay attention to Nezha for me?" "Sure but-" "Thanks guys. Talk to you later."

With that Lisbeth left to talk with Argo. The other 4 entered the room and were promply told about the situation. The roles were then devided. Asuna would talk to Ariël, Kirito would follow Nezha if he ever went somewhere and the others would grind and get some upgrade materials for Deliah's 'Stout Brand +4' and Lupin's 'Lion's Roar +4' to upgrade them to +5.

At Ariël's room.

Ariël felt like shit. She had used that sword pretty much all the time on floor 1. Her trusty partner for which she had given the powerfull and rare 'Wind Fleuret' to Asuna for was gone forever. She knew she could just try the quest again but it wouldn't be worth it. Just like with a unupgraded 'Anneal Blade' it would take to long to upgrade a 'Sun's Dance' to the level it was before.

She then heard a knock on the door. Arïel went to open the door and saw a familiar face. She smiled sadly as she let Asuna in. "It's good to see you Asuna. I could certainly use some support right now." She said. "I know. I saw what happened. I can understand your frustration. I just hope I can do something to aliviate the pain a bit." Asuna said. The sad smile never left Ariël's face. She was really just happy to see a friendly face.

"I never knew it was possible to break weapons in SAO other then during battle. Huh, I was so wrong." Arïel said her shoulders slumping a bit. It was as Asuna thought. That weapon was like a extansion of herself. "I would feel awful aswell if I lost my 'Wind Fleuret +5'. It has become my trusty partner in battle. And yes I've upgraded it 3 more times. Twice in Sharpness and once in Accuracy. And of course I let it get repaired as much as possible." Asuna said. Ariël was truly glad. She herself was actually thought the importance of taking care of ones weapon IRL but she wouldn't tell anyone that. "It is good to hear you didn't forget about that lesson. Most people see their weapons as nothing but tools. But the greatest fighters are one with the weapon of their choosing. That is why I thought you that. But let's stop talking about weapons. What have you been up to?" "That is a long and fun story."

With Kirito

Kirito had been waiting in a dark alleyway for a few hours now. He knew Nezha would inevitably move somewhere. When that time came Kirito would follow him using his Hiding skill aswell as simply using the roofs of the town.

There he was. Nezha closed his shop and moved to some place. Kirito immediatly started following after the Blacksmith he was suspecting of scamming others. He followed rather closely, using the darkness of the night and his Agility stat to his advantage. Nezha never really looked up, focusing more on finding out if people were following him using the alleyways. The few times he did look up all he saw was empty roofs. Kirito made sure tonever walk too close to the edge of the roofs he walked on. Both to stay out of sight and to make sure he didn't fall and took unnecassery fall damage.

Eventually Nezha entered a Inn. Kirito silently made his way done from the roofs and went to the door and opened it slightly There were 4 more people in the Inn along with him.

"Nataku, come on in! Here have a drink.", the man closest to Nezha said. "Nataku? I'm sure I heard that name somewhere before. But where?" Kirito thought. He knew her heard that name before.

"How was business today?" "It went quite well. I got a lovely 'Sun's Dance +6' which we can sell." Nezha said. They all seemed rather satisfied with the result. "But I feel like we should stop this as soon as possible Orlando. We've aqcuired more then enough money through this already."

This caught the others attention. So far they hadn't really talked about stopping. In fact they thought they could easilly continue. "No can do. It is true we've aqcuired a lot of money but we can use more. Espacially after beating the field boss. And besides you are the most usefull to us while Blacksmithing. No offense to your skill as a player." Orlando, the apparent leader of the group, said. Nezha just nodded his head.

"We also want to become the best players. Those 8 players from group E of the last raid will never be caught in terms of levels so it's best for us if we continue like this. We of the 'Legend Braves' must become the top players in SAO." another member of the group said. "The 'Legend Braves' huh? I will need to let Argo do some research on them that much is for sure."

"Hey, does that door look suspicious to anyone else?" sure enough the door looked like it was open. Orlando made his way to the door as Kirito quickly hid somewhere else. As he opened the door Orlando saw nothing. "It was just our imagination it seems. There is nothing here." he said, closing the door. Kirito immediatly started sprinting towards the Inn Arïel was renting a room in. "If I remember correctly from the beta we can still save her Sun's dance."

Kirito sprinted to where he knew her room was. Instead of entering through the door like a normal person he climbed up the wall and jumped through the window scaring the two girls inside of the room. "Kirito, what are you doing here?" "No time to explain. Ariël did you equip another weapon after giving Nezha you 'Sun's Dance'?"

Ariël of course knew thanks to Asuna that several people had seen her weapon get destroyed. So she wasn't surprised the man she had called her 'second-in-command' knew about it. "No I haven't. Why?" "That is good news? Do you know how to materialise all you items?" this question came out of seemingly nowhere. Arïel just nodded and started materialising all items. A pile of equipment suddenly lied on the ground. Without warning and without thinking Kirito began digging trough Ariël's stuff.

"Kirito, what is the meaning of this? Explain this to us at once." Asuna said, her voice icy cold. Kirito paid her no heed. He had to find that weapon. And sure enough the 'Sun's Dance +6' lied at the bottom of the pile. Kirito gave it to Ariël who equiped the sword, stunned that her partner was found. Kirito and Asuna looked at eachother until Asuna eventually sighed and shook her head. "Ok, ok. I'll forgive you for barging into our room and searching through a girls stuff. But if I were you I would explain what just happened." "Send a message to the others. I'll explain it to them aswell."

The next day

The 8 man party and Ariël were part of a 24 man party that went to fight against the field boss known as the 'Bullbous Bow'. But they were still thinking about what actually had been told to them

Kirito told them he had followed Nezha to a Inn where he talked to a group calling themselves the 'Legend Braves'. They apperently were the ones that along with Nezha were scamming others out of their equipment. They didn't know how yet but they knew it required several skills. Lisbeth explained to them when she opened the store that she has a idea of how they did it but she wanted to make sure she was right. So she had hired Argo to look into ways of destroying ones weapon. Kirito meanwhile had hired Argo to get some information on all of the 'Legend Braves'.

He also explained what happened exactly with her weapon. Basicaly it worked like dropping a piece of equipment. Giving your sword to a Blacksmith didn't instantly transfer owenership over to him which was lucky enough. However it still meant they onky had 3 hours. Kirito had spent 2 hours and 58 minutes on making sure he could save Ariël's weapon. If he had been only 2 minutes slower she would've lost her weapon forever.

They had agreed to talk about it when Argo got the information she needed. Until then their focus was on beating the 'Bullbous Bow'.

"A field boss battle should be a lot easier then a actual floor boss. Just keep to the plan and we'll be fine." Asuna told the party. While most weren't very enthousiastic that a pro-beta tester player was leading the charge they could definitely admire her leadership abilities. She had split into 3 teams of 8. Her own A team consisted out of her usual partners, Lind's team B consisted out of Klein's group, Ariël and 2 others and Kibaou's team C consisted out of Agil's group and three of the 'Legend Braves'. The 'Sleeping Knights' and 'Moonlit Black Cats' decided to sit this one out. The plan was simple. Agil's group would pull the agro while the remaining 20 would deal the damage. Every 2 minutes they would switch players as Asuna said she thought it smarter to fight with 5 damage dealers at a time. In reality she didn't want the 'Legend Braves' to get their hands on the LA.

The fight went as planned. Unlike against Illfang the ranged fighters were largely left unprotected due to the fact this boss didn't have any minions. The 18 attackers only needed to make sure they didn't get hit.

While fighting Kirito noticed that Orlando, the apperent leader of the 'Legend Braves', used a 'Anneal Blade'. One that was possibely upgraded further then his. But right now he had to focus on getting the LA.

When the boss was defeated Asuna immediatly looked at each of her 7 party members but they shook their heads. They didn't get it. "Who got the LA?" Asuna said. It was agreed on that if someone asked who had gotten the LA the person who got it would have to say it. "I did boss lady!"

Asuna gritted her teeth as she realised it was one of the 'Legend Braves' that got it. Despite doing what she could to not allow them to get it one of them still got it. "Damn it. Their weapons must do way more damage then I had anticipated." Asuna thought. She knew their weapons would be upgraded further then most but she still didn't expect them to manage to get it. "Maybe I should up the switch time to 4 minutes next time." Asuna thought.

"Well, good job guys. Kibaou, if you and your group would be so kind as to head back to Urbus to alert them the field boss has been beaten that would be lovely. The rest of us will had for Taran." Asuna said stretching her arms a bit. Everyone just followed the orders except for the 'Legend Braves'.

"I'm sorry but isn't it the best if we join you guys? That way you have some people that can ho straight into the labyrinth." Orlando said. Asuna was having none of it. "I'm the leader. I told you to head back to Urbus so you're heading back to Urbus. End of discussion." With that her and Lind's group headed for Taran while Kibaou's group, including the iritated 'Legend Braves', headed back to Urbus.

Deliah sighed, really getting annoyed with the 'Legend Braves'. In her eyes they were no better then orange players. "Those guys should be happy they're not getting used as cannon fodder" she muttered to herself. "What did you say Deliah?" Lind asked, having heard her muttering. "Nothing important Lind." "What a wannabe. Even going so far as to paint his hair blue."

Lind was one of the 3 that were seen as the 'heirs' to Diavel. Asuna because of her incredible leadership, skill and courage. Lind because he was Diavel's closest compatriot. And Kibaou because of his way of thinking. The three have a quite fiery rivalry but none of them were about to go ballistic on the others. They each knew there were some that were loyal to one cause and would join the guild they wanted to join. However Lind took the entire 'heir to Diavel' thing a bit too serious.

Just like Diavel he had dyed his hair blue and wore all blue aswell. He didn't use a shield but he did use a 1-handed sword. This led to some wanting to join him and those that were already against him to simply laugh at him behind his back. Deliah for her part though just thought he tried too hard. And she wasn't a fan of tryhards.

"We should wait until the Blacksmiths and Merchants head for Taran. Atleast most of us should. I'm willing to take Leafa, Sinon and Kirito into the dungeon for some quick recon." Asuna said. Lind's group began to murmur amongst themselves. While atleast 5 of his group were perfectly fine with Kirito the other's were a bit iffy. Was it really smart to let him off with three pro-beta tester players.

"How convenient. I actually want to get in the labyrinths myself." a voice suddenly sounded from behind them. Unbeknownst to them a young female clad in typical thieving attire had sneaked up ln them from the forest. They each had their weapons drawn. "Sorry about that. I didn't mean to startle you guys. But anyway I would like to follow those 4 into the labyrinth." the thief said. "Sure you can join us. The name is Asuna. These are Kirito, Sinon and Leafa. You are?" "The mame is Philia. Philia the treasure hunter."

Kirito had to hold in a gasp. Was this the Philia Argo told him about? Philia looked at him and mouthed something to him only he could see. "I'm the one she told you about." was what Kirito thought she mouthed but he wasn't a adept lip reader. But Asuna had already decided she would go. So the groups split up. Asuna's group + Philia would enter the labyrinths of the floor 2 dungeon and Lind's group would head over to Taran.

"So Philia can I ask you something?" Kirito asked as they were walking to the tower. Philia looked at him, a knowing grin on her face. "If you question is 'Are you the girl Argo told me about?' then you already know the answer. You should have a bit more confidence my guy. You lip reading skills are good enough." Philia said. Of course everyone looked at them. "Is there something we missed?" Leafa asked. "Nope. Just a master thief meeting a master swordsman through a common ally." Philia responded.

They continued walking in silence until Sinon suddenly reminded them of a rather important detail they haven't discussed yet. Well 2 important details really. "Kirito, I've got two questions. 1. When are you planning on telling us about that new skill you got? 2. What are fighting in the dungeon?"

They stopped moving for a moment and looked at Kirito. He simoly sighed and started talking. "The first question has a simple answer. It is the 'Martial Arts' extra skill. It was also the reason I stayed away for three days but I'll explain that another time. The second question has a even simpler answer. So I'll let you guess. I'll give you a hint. Consider the other mobs we've fought so far and then think about certain mythologies that have that mob in them."

Of course Sinon, Asuna and Leafa were already thinking about exactly tge myth he was talking about. "We're fighting honest to goodness Minotaurs? Really Onii-san?" Leafa said. "Yep. Well Taurus' would be the right in-game term ." "Yeah I know that. They're the 'Taurus' monster type. But my main question is wheter or not they are as giant as in the myths." "Some yes. But the mid and floor bosses are the largest by far."

Floor 2 had both a mid-boss and a floor boss in the massive boss room. The two bosses were called Nato the Colonel Taurus and Baran the General Taurus. Aside from size and color both were essantially body doubles. Nato was 2,5 meters tall and blue in color while Baran was 5 meters tall and wore a red pelt while being red in color. Both used a massive hamer and were bare from the waist up. They of course each had a special ability. Nato's was 'Numbing Impact' which was standard for the 'Taurus' mobs while Baran's was the stronger 'Numbing Detonation'. If either lifted up their massive hamers they would eventually start smashing it into the ground elicting spark from the impact. Those who were directly hit would get damaged while those who got hit by the sparks would get a stun effect that lasted 3 seconds and, if hit twice, would also be paralysed. The only difference in the skills was that the effective range of 'Numbing Detonation' was twice as large as that of 'Numbing Impact' making it more difficult to deal with. Both would frenzy once they entered the red zone and use their stun skill as much as possible. Their weaknesses were their massive horns.

"Let's just head into the dungeon. I want to see these Taurus' up and personal." Asuna said. "Yeah, let's go see the Taurus'. They have some fun surprises waiting for you milady." Kirito said. No one knew what he was talking about. Kirito would quickly come to wish he had just told them about the design of the first 'Taurus' mob. Espacially when it comes to the leader of their little party.

In the dungeon

"Stay away from me!"

Asuna, to put it simply, was disgusted at the design of the 'Lesser Taurus Striker'. She had expected that they were atleast clad properly from the waist down but they only wore underwear. The other girls didn't mind as much but the rich girl of the bunch was royaly pissed off.

When the Taurus came closer despite her warning she killed it in one hit using 'Oblique', a rapier sword skill. When she killed she turned towards Kirito. But not with a enraged face but with a cold smile which terrified everyone.

"So Kirito, was this the surprise you were talking about? If so I'm sorry to tell you I'm not impressed at all. Oh, and I'm also gonna need a quick talk with you about our different interpretation of 'fun surprises'. Because that wasn't a fun surprise." Asuna said, the smile never leaving her face. Kirito merely nodded.

"You're so screwed Kirito. Well that is what you get if you taunt our all mighty leader. Have fun when we're done here." Sinon said teasingly towards both. She tried to look like she was unaffected by the scary looking Asuna but like everyone else she was shaking. "Oh, was that a tease Sinon? Perhaps I need to talk to you aswell? Maybe about the right time to tease me?" Asuna said. Now it was Sinon's turn to be absolutely terrified. "I'm sorry. Please have mercy." Sinon begged. "Nope. When we're done here you two are having a talk with me."

The treasure hunting went well after that. Philia got a load of treasure which she gladly gave half of to the group of 8. For most it would be remembered as the day a single group mapped out a good 65% of the dungeon.

But for the group of 8 that day would also be remembered as the day the group led by Asuna decided to never tease her again. Well, for the most part. Kirito and Sinon were too stubborn not to tease everyone in the group. Espacially eachother.

The next day.

Argo had send a message to Asuna and Lisbeth to meet her at a Inn at 8:30 in the morning to talk about her discoveries. They invited Ariël aswell The 10 of them of course met with her and used it as a excuse to start the meeting later then planned.

"Hey you guys! So what do you lot want to talk first?" Argo said as the group began ordering their breakfast. "If Lis doesn't mind it I want to stsrt with the 'Legend Braves'." "Sure we can start there." Lisbeth agreed surprisingly quickly. She herself actually had a idea about what Argo was gonna say about the scam.

"Ok so you all know the names of Nezha and Orlando. The others are called Beowulf, Cuchulainn, Enkidu and Gilgamesh. I think atleast some of you already know why they're called the 'Legend Braves' now." Argo said. Leafa didn't dissapoint.

"Beowulf is referancing a hero from a European epic, Cuchulainn is the Irish son of the light, Gilgamesh and Enkidu are from Mesepotaniam legends and Orlando is the Italian version of Roland of Charmelagne. So they're based around heroes of myth and legend. But of which hero is Nezha based off of?" Leafa said. She swore she knew. However it was the other black haired girl that came up with the answer.

"Nezha is know as Nataku in Japan. He is from Chinese folk religion aswell as from a Ming-dynasty novel. But why that sort of name for a mere blacksmith?" Sinon said. She was honestly confused about the naming.

"That is up to you to figure out. Even I couldn't get my hands on that information. Now onto the scam. I discovered but one way of destroying a weapon during a upgrade. Do you want to take a guess on how Lisbeth?" Argo said. Lisbeth was confident she knew the answer. "I thought it possible after Kirito brought up the sword Nezha bought. A weapon can only be destroyed if has no upgrade slots left."

Everyone but Argo looked at her in surprise. Argo just let out her laugh. "You really are a master huh. Yes, a weapon can only brake if no more upgrade slots are available. Which begs the question: how does he switch out a perfectly fine weapon without having to search trough his inventory?"

Kirito already knew the answer. "He uses the 'Quick Change' mod while his cliënt is looking into the flames doesn't he?" "Ding ding ding, we have a winner. A elaborate and tricky to pull off ruse that has worked everytime. Of course he still needs to succeed more often then he fails if he wishes to pull it off succesfully. Now the question remains: how to stop it? But of course A-chan has a plan." "I do. But first I need to watch it for myself. If I know how exactly it works it will be better in the long run. And we have a merting to attend now." with that They said their goodbyes and went on their way.

At the meeting

48 players would meet today. A full raid party. The first in SAO. However Kibaou and Lind hadn't joined yet. So Klein, Ran, Agil and their groups first had a quick talk with the group of 8 that just joined. Ariël had decided to sit this raid out.

"I think this is the first time I actually spoke to you without some dimwit name callimg you isn't it Kirito? My name Yuuki. I'm Ran's little sister." "Nice to meet you Yuuki. I saw youduring the fight against Ilfang. Nice going. You're a really good swordsman." I try. I always want to be the best. However I want some competition so don't let me down." "Right back at ya."

A bunch of small talk continued before the last two parties arrived. "Took you guys long enough. We agreed to meet here 10 minutes ago" Asuna said. This got her a glare from Kibaou. "I'm sorry. But I thought you guys moved the meeting first." Lind said. "Yeah we moved it. We had other important matters to handle. And besides moving a meeting is better then showing up later then agreed on, you Diavel wannabe." Asuna shot back. This pissed Lind and his compatriots off. Kibaou just kept out of it. He found himself agreeing with Asuna surprisingly enough. Though other then Asuna he didn't exactly have the highest level players on his side. So he couldn't exactly call him a wannabe without fear of the players turning on him.

"Let's start the meeting shall we?" Sinon said, being the voice of reason. Asuna shot both Kibaou and Lind a final glare before moving into the middle with her party and the other 2 leaders.

"So Philia, the thief we met yesterday, found yet another trap. 2 in fact. This time on the 15th and 20th floor. There is one hidden passage way on the 15th floor but we'll have to spring the trap on the 20th. Luckily it isn't like the previous trap. It just spawn 3 'Taurus Ringhurlers' and 4 'Taurus Ironguards'. Also the design of the 'Lesser Taurus Striker' isn't exactly the most appropriate so be prepared." Asuna stopped to glare at Kirito who sheepishly grinned. Asuna just sighed before continuing.

"As you guys know we are facing two different bosses. Nato the Colonel Taurus and Baran the General Taurus. Both have skill that cause a stun effect if hit by the sparks and frenzy when their final HP bar is in the red zone. This means they'll start using their skills as often as possible. Be prepared for that. As for the teams. I suggest 8 teams of 6. 4 offensive teams, 2 support teams and 2 tank teams. Kibaou, Lind, Yuuki, and myself will lead a offensive team each, Siune and Ran will lead a support team each and Agil will lead 1 of the tank teams. Which brings me to my next concern. Who will lead the second tank team?"

No one immediatly gave a answer. Asuna was nearly going to try a offer a different aproach. "I can lead the second team if nobody else wishes to."

Every MMO player knew that voice. As they looked at her they saw a tall woman with greyish hair. She wore fully plated metal armor, a large 1-handed sword and a a large kite shield. No one would've recognised her by her looks but her voice gave it away. She was Arianrhod, the legendary tank player everyone had atleast heard of before. Her nickname 'The Moving Fortress' being given go her because of her insanely high defensive skills: it was said she had never dipped below a quarter of her health before.

"Sorry about not being there during the first boss fight. I was getting used to this way of playing. But I'm here to make amends for that." she said. "It would be an honor to have you fight alongside us Arianrhod." Asuna said smiling. Arianrhod smiled back. "The honor is all mine Asuna."

"So now that is decided let's split the teams shall we? I will lead Kirito, Deliah, Sinon, Leafa and Lupin . Lind, you will take Shivata and Klein's group. Kibaou you'll take the Keita's group and 2 of the 'Legend Braves'. Yuuki will take the offensive players in her group and the remaining 'Legend Braves' and the tanks and supports will be picked by their leaders."

After just 2 minutes the parties were officialy created. Asuna couldn't help but feel sorry for Clasour and Arsene. The two were valuable member of the team but right now their best use was elsewhere. They knew this of course. They had already agreed on this. They would join Agil's group and be picked as the tank group of Asuna's. Of course it didn't go exactly as planned as again Orlando was being hard to handle.

"My team and I would rather stay together. So-" "Your team isn't the only one being split Orlando. Stop complaining about everything and do as ordered." Asuna was well and truly fed up with the 'Legend Braves'. She really hoped they would just follow orders already. Orlando for his part just mumbled something. Asuna couldn't hear it but it was probably him cursing her out. She didn't care. He was a scammer. And she little patiance with scammers.

"Ok so let's get on with splitting between Nato and Baran. While I would much rather fight Baran our group and Yuuki's group need little EXP. So I will let my team A and Yuuki's team D fight against Nato with Agil's team G and Ran's team E helping us out with pulling agro and healing/buffs/debuffs. The rest of the teams will fight Baran. Lind, Kibaou, I trust you 2 can work together like adults. Arianrhod, Siune, you two make sure their groups don't mess up for no reason. I'll lead the teams that fight Nato while Lind keads the teams thst fight against Baran. In 5 days I wish to fight the bosses so prepare yourselves well in that time. We've come a long way already. We've spent roughly a week here at this point. So make your preperations and get ready for everything. We're getting out of this ravenous wasteland."

A loud cheer erupted from most players. Asuna glanced at the 'Legend Braves'. On the 1th of December they would've lost their primary source of income. Sweet revenge for scamming so many players.

At a Inn

The 8 players, aswell as Lisbeth, were looking at Nezha store in Taran. They expected he might've moved here. The scam still wasn't made public after all. Shivata was currently trying to upgrade his 'Stout Brand' in Heaviness. Right at the expected moment they noticed he used 'Quick Change' and replaced it with a spend 'Stout Brand'. Lisbeth gritted her teeth in anger. As a daughter of a weaponsmith and a blacksmith herself she was disgusted by the disrespect Nezha showed his wares. She couldn't wait until the 11th.

"Did any of you notice Nezha's exprassion when he took Shivata's weapon?" Sinon asked. They each shook their head. Sinon couldn't help but sigh. "He was sad, distraught. And remember he didn't want to continue. I genuinely think he loves his craft but that he is forced to keep going with this scam. He hates it. He just wants to help people out."

This made Lisbeth rethink what he thought about Nezha for a little bit. But ultimately she still didn't manage to forgive him. He ruined a lot of people's chances of becoming full-time frontline players just because of a stupid scam. She didn't care for the reason he would give. It was a unwritten rule among master blacksmiths to deliver weapons worthy of their creator and live up to their name as a master blacksmith. But he didn't. And she was going tongive him an earfull.

2 days later

Kirito had never worn a helmet before. It felt really heavy and he didn't like it. But for the plan he would do it. The plan was for Kirito to ask for a upgrade to his 'Anneal Blade +6' and then, when the spend sword was destroyed, he would reveal himself and use the 'Quick Change' mod to re-equip his weapon. He typically would've waited untill profiviancy level 15p for the 'Quick Change' mod but because of Asuna's plan he had no choice but to use equip the 'Quick Change' mod. That and the stunt in the dungeon made everyone agree Kirito should be the one at the forefront. Of course the rest were lying in wait for Kirito to make his move.

"Good evening sir blacksmith. I wish for a upgrade to Quickness for my 'Anneal Blade'. Could you help me?" Kirito said, his voice distorted by the helmet. Nezha looked at his direction and nodded. "But of course good sir. I'll ge right there." "This is hoing easier then I thought." Kirito thought to himself.

When Nezha finished with whatever he was doing he took Kirito's weapon. He instamtly noticed how well it was taken care off aswell as the fact it was upgraded 6 times. "A marvelous blade. You truly know how to show respect to your weapon. Did you bring your own items or do you wish for me to use my wares?" "I show the respect your friends apperently lack." Kirito thought. He didn't want to put any blame on the poor blacksmith. Not after realising his feelings towards the scam. "I'm willing to give you the items to upgrade." Kirito said, handing over the items and col required for a upgrade. He instantly noted that Nezha was indeed saddened like Sinon mentioned. He really hated breaking those weapons and purposefully failing upgrades. Even someone as lacking in social skills as Kirito knew this.

Nezha began the usual procedure. However he used the 'Quick Change' mod at the time he needed to. Kirito noticed it. However now wasn't the time to strike. Nezha hit the spend weapon untill it broke. He turned to apologise but saw Kirito unequiping the helmet and using the 'Quick Change' mod to retrive his 'Anneal Blade +6'. "End of the line Nezha. I have to say it was a smart scam. No one would expect a blacksmith to unlock the 'Quick Change' mod. In fact most don't unlock untill later. And using the red carpets here to hide the menu is a sign you were prepared for everything."

Every 50 proficiancy you could unlock a mod for your one of your skills. For example Kirito's 1-handed swords had unlocked him the 'Skill Cooldown 1'. He intially wanted to go for 'Increase Critical hit rate 1' but again the plan was to use the 'Quick Change' mod and expose the scam.

Nezha had made his mind up. "I'm truly sorry, but surrendering isn't enough to atone for this. All those weapons are sold for money. The only way to atone is..." Nezha ran out of the back door. Kirito followed and eventually saw Asuna and Lisbeth block his path.

"Get out of the way. The onky way for me to atone for this is to die." "Your death isn't going to atone for anything. Your actions after this are. And besides you managed to do what thousands were afraid to do. Go out of the Town of Beginnings. So you've still got something to fight for. You can make a difference but only if you stay alive. I know how it feels to think likd you. I thought, and still often think, about my reasons for even bothering. But because of a few people I managed to fight and continue onwards. That is why I want you to stay alive and atone through your actions."

Asuna's words struck a corde within Nezha. He thought himself completely useless outside of this scam. But someone who didn't know him, who had no reason to reach out to him, was trying to get him to stay alive. "How about we continue this in Lisbeth's room. I'm sure she has some things to say." Lisbeth nodded. As a blacksmith it was her job to gife him the scolding of a lifetime.

In Lisbeth's room

"Let's immediatly start off with the obvious. You made a complete mockery of our craft. I know you were forced into it but it still is mocking a craft many love. You purposefully failed several different several upgrades to buy weapons from people just to break them to steal other weapons to sell them. But not just that. You endangered several players, including yourself, because your group had no confidence in themselves. They thought they couldn't bridge the gap to the actual top players and so made you their scapegoat. And you just went with it. I don't really care about any excuse you could possibly think of. No excuse makes me less mad at you for scamming players with asperations to become the best players in this game of death. Those players could be dead. And you would, unfairly, be considered as their PK'er. That is all I had to say."

Lisbeth was full of passion in her scolding of Nezha. She knew he wasn't entirely to blame but she just couldn't forgive a person that went along with such a plan even if he was forced to. Now however it was Kirito's turn to talk with Nezha.

"Nezha, could you please tell us why you did what you did? I simply don't belief you came up with it one day." he said, much calmer then Lisbeth. Nezha seemed reluctant but decided to continue anyway.

"As you know there were several games for the Nervegear before SAO. I met the 'Legend Braves' in one of the FullDive games that were really just there to test just how potent FullDive technology was. We became good friends. However we never really leveled up far because of my FullDive Non-Conformity."

This made Kirito's eyes go wide. "You have FullDive Non-Conformity? What kind?" "My depth perception is particularly bad, making me unfit for combat." Kirito nodded. Now atleast he understood why Nezha was a blacksmith. "Uhm, excuse me. But what is FullDive Non-Conformity exactly?" Asuna asked. The others wanted to hear aswell as they each looked towards Kirito. "FullDive Non-Conformity, or FNC for short, is basically a problem that happens when going into FullDive. It is usually a lag of communication to the brain or improper function of the senses. Though there were cases of people being unable to enter at all." this made the others definitely wince a bit. Hearing there were people with such massive issues. They didn't expect it.

"You may continue." Kirito told Nezha. "Thank you. When SAO came out w ceach wanted to play it. I decided to become a blacksmith completely in service of the group. However because they often had to look for materials for me they couldn't grind as effectively as they wanted to. Then one day a man in a black poncho suddenly showed up. He was the one who gave us the idea for the scam. I'm truly sorry. I know that what I did was disgusting but I had no choice."

He was desperate. He just wanted to be helpfull to people. Kirito knew there was little he could do for Nezha. There were no quests to allow class changes and even if there were there was too great a risk in letting him fight on the frontlines.

"Maybe I could help." Lisbeth said. They looked at her. It was obvious she was saying this reluctantly but she knew the poor sod needed help. "How about we tell them afterbthe batlle what exactly happened. They won't be happy, and some will want your head, but I guarentee that if the 'Legend Braves' have any shred of dignity they'll aid you. You won't have to tell them about the man in the black poncho but you'll need to ve honest about what happened. You will have to give up blacksmithing however. Instead you'll becone my store clerc."

Nezha simply nodded. He knew there was little anyone could do for him right now. But he had to tell the truth. The others deserved atleast that much.

"The boss fight is in three days. Get all you wares out of your store and grt resdy to move to the third floor. And just lay low untill the boss fight is over."

Those were Lisbeth's final words before she left. Nezha hung his head in shame. "She truly hates ne doesn't she?" "Yes, she does. But not because of who you are but because of what you did. And she simply wants you to prove to her you can do better. She knows you aren't a bad person. But as a blacksmith she simply hated the disrespect you showed other people's weapons. So show her you have that respect."

With those words from Kirito the conversation drew to a close. The party of 8 had 3 long days to prepare themselves. And they would make the most out of those.

On the deadline day

"You were right about those lesser strikers. No wonder you have to be 13 and up to play this game."

That was Sachi, one of the girls who were equally as unimpressed by the design of the 'Lesser Taurus Striker' as Asuna. She was one of the players that hadn't ventured into the floor 2 dungeon before now and she wished the person who designed the weakest Taurus mob had just designed them like the others. While their upper bodies were exposed they were fully covered beneath the waist.

"Atleast I warned you about them before coming here unlike someone I know." Asuna said. Sachi looked at Kirito who just whisleted. Sachi giggled a bit. "Those two are really good friends huh? They remind me of Keita and myself back in the real world."

The group easily fought their way past the expected ambush and took s quick breather outside of the boss room. There Lind took the opertunity to talk with Asuna and Kirito.

"Listen, I know we agreed on a split but can we really not change teammates? Kibaou is a really difficult person to work with." "Sorry Lind, but orders are orders. Do you really think I can work together with that guy? No way." Asuna said. Lind just sighed and went on his way. Asuna sighed. Unlike Diavel she didn't plan to hold a speech before the battle. There was nothing to say. Just beat the bosses and head over to the third floor. Easy right?

"I want to say one thing real thing real quick." Kirito said. Everyone looked at him, some friendlier then others. "If you end up dropping your weapon don't pick it up untill you're certain it is save. Remember, getting hit twice means you're paralysed." everyone nodded in affirmative. The second floor was about to get cleared.

Several minutes later

"Switch!"

That was Asuna shouting at her second-in-command Kirito. The tactic remaind mostly the same from the one against Ilfang. Deal damage, switch out, rinse and repeat. The main thing that helped here was the fact they had more support players. Asuna herself mostly healed herself using her basic 'Heal Self' spell that lasted 3 minutes but recently she unlocked thd 'Healing Aura' spell that allowed her to heal those within 2 meters in any direction from her for 1,5 minutes. This eased the presure on Ran and her healers a bit. The issue of course was the cooldown. It had a 3 minute cooldown so she couldn't spam it like she would want to.

Other then that the fight agains Nato went as planned. The smaller Taurus was hampered a lot by Sinon's archery and Leafa's magic. Both were always ready to hit the horns if he started gearing up for 'Numbing Impact'. The fight against Baran wasn't going as well. The DPS from the players was lower and Sachi was the only source of ranged combat that they had over there. All other ranged fighters joined Yuuki's team. This meat Baran had gotten off his 'Numbing Detonation several times already. Some even had gotten paralysed. But this was mostly them trying to pick up their weapon despite Kirito's weapon.

Compared to the stun effect paralysis laster longer, a full 10 minutes, but was healable. However only your dominate arm could move and very slowly at that. This meant that just getting a potion out was a task in and of itself. And to make matters worse you would only gain healing magic against paralysis on proficiancy 250. No one had reached that far yet.

"Kirito, go relay this message to Lind: make a easier path to retreat with the paralysed players. Otherwise we'll have a massacre on our hands soon enough. If one more get's paralysed we're getting out of here." Kirito nodded and headed to Lind. He delivered the message and Lind started ordering the teams on his side to make an easy escape path. Asuna did the exact same on her end.

Eventually the Nato team managed to kill him. Kirito got the LA, once mire finishing off the boss with a 'Horizontal Arc'. They decided to take a quick break before heading over to help with Baran which didn't seem neccasery. However when he hit the yellow zone of his HP bar Asuna noted something.

"Hey, didn't we fight a lord on the first floor?" "We did yes. why?" Kirito said. "Well I just find it strange that-" "Guys, look at the throne! Skmething is spawning!"

Everyone looked at the throne like Yuuki said. On the throne a massive black Taurus had started spawing. It had had 6 horns instead of two, wore chainmail around it's waist and a beard. It wore a crown and had 6 HP bars. It was named Asterios the Taurus King. The real floor 2 boss.

"Shit! Everyone head to the Baran teams. We need to kill him now! Stay out of Asterios' agro range if you can!" "Yeah thanks for the advise Asuna. Question, where is his agro range?! We'll definitely enter it if we're not carefull!" "Then stay on the other side of the room! And for god's sake Sinon, right now is not the time for quips!" "I'm sorry! But right now my mind is going haywire!"

The group of 24 headed over to Lind and his team and set about killing Baran. "What is ta meaning 'f this?" Kibaou asked. He didn't need an answer as he saw Asterios heading over. "Oh shit! Everyone, kill Baran quickly! We've got a third boss incoming!" Lind shouted. They didn't need to be told twice. With the extra range help they managed to stagger Baran time and again. However there were already 10 players paralysed. And no one knew about the slow moving Asterios' abilities.

Eventually Kirito, with a lot of help from the ranged players, Yuuki and Asuna, managed to kill Baran and thus he got the second LA aswell. Now all focus was the the terrifying Asterios.

Asterios immediatly showed just how much the game hated it's players. He pulled his head back, sucked in a massive breath and used a ability that had never been seen in the beta. A thunder breath attack.

Breath attacks wereva staple of MMORPGs and SAO was no exception to that rule. Howver the first breath attack was a poison breath on the 7th floor of Aincrad. No thunder breath was in the beta. And now they were fighting a thunder breath using boss on the second floor. From what Kirito coukd see it didn't do any direct damge but it instantly paralysed a player. And to make matters worse it quickly revealed it could also use the 'Numbind Detonation' skill.

Kirito saw how several players were already paralysed. Aside the 10 players paralysed by Baran there were now 7 more players paralysed. But when Kirito saw who were also paralysed he thought that it might be over for real. Both Lind and Kibaou were out. Kirito initially was ready to give up but then saw Asterios's next target: Asuna, the girl he had subconsiously sworn to protect.

Out of instinct the he leapt for Asuna and took the attack to the ankle. He could vageuly hear Leafa shout "Onii-san!" from the loud chaos. He then realised that due to the fact he layed on top of her Asuna couldn't move. "Why did you save me just now? You risked your life for someone you met not even a month ago."

Asuna didn't understand. But Kirito had seen in her what Diavel and, unknown to him, Ariël saw in Asuna. A leader, the ability to become the best player in the game. But more importantly a reason to keep living, keep fighting.

Subconsiously Kirito saw in her his one reason to survive the game of death. Yes, Leafa was important aswell and obviously he tried to survive for her. But he knew that he did it more for her then himself. If he died he wouldn't mind it aslong as Leafa survived the game. But Asuna was different. He didn't know why but he saw something in her that was special. Even though they just met he wanted to protect her, to be by her side to help her if she needed him. And unbeknownst to him, Asuna subconciously felt the same way towards him.

But neither would ever understand those feelings. They would die here, and never see those they cared about again. Asterios was talking towards them. His worns weren't his weakness and no one knew what was. It was over.

"Hit the crown Sinochi! That is his weakpoint!" a familia voice shouted to Sinon. She did and immediatly he staggered. It was then that 2 people help out Kirito and Asuna. Those two were Lisbeth and Nezha. Argo and Philia, who arrived a bit later, meanwhile used their agility to help people use their potions before Argo talked to Asuna, Lind and Kibaou about Asterios' paterns and Philia started harrasing Asterios. She was a surprisingly good combatant using her dagger and agility to great effect.

"What are you guys doing here?" Deliah asked. "We were planning to head through the dungeon as planned when Argo told us about the new boss. We came here as soon as possible. We met Philia along the way." Nezha said. "It was quite lucky Argo and I can fight. I can use my mace quite well while they are master dagger and claw users."

"Ok everyone one listen up! The ranged combatants will aim for his crown as much as possible! Watch out for his hoves! Once he starts stomping is when he will use his skill!" Asuna shouted. The three leader started barking orders as Asterios' HP steadily dwindeled. The players that were paralysed now were back in the fight. Victory was near.

After 5 grueling minutes Kirito killed Asterios and hot the LA. A massive cheer erupted. The players were still all alive.

"Ok so we had out euphoria. Now time for some answers. We all need to know something Nezha. What happened." Lind said. Nezha then bowed making. "My sincerest apologies. I scammed you out of important weapons. The reason I bought a spend 'Anneal Blade' was to use 'Quick Change' and break it, making it seem like I broke the weapon. Every weapon stolen in that way were sold."

This caused an uproar among the players not in the know. Some even shouted for his head. "I'm willing to pay all the col I stole from players back and I've given up smithing to become a simple clerc for Lisbeth. I know it doesn't mean much but it is all I can do."

That calmed most down. It was, again, a very small payback. And Lisbeth was trustworthy. She would make the weapons and he woukd sell them. All was going according to Lisbeth's plan. However one thing she didn't expect was what happened next.

"If you wish to focus your anger on anyone, focus it on us. We forced him to continue with a scam he hated. We'll give all the equipment we got from this back to players who deserve it." Orlando said. Even Nezha was shocked. The group that started it due the man in the black poncho, who hsd seemingly no respect for the weapons they stole, were now bowing, begging for forgiveness. But not for them, but for the man whoes reputation they ruined.

They accepted the trade. Asuna and her 7 usuall party me,bers then went to the third floor, having what they needed. "What sort of mobs will we face on the third floor Kirito?" Clasour said. "Dryads, spiders, mostly elemental mobs. Aswell as more humanoid mobs."

This piqued his sisters curiousity. "Humanoid mobs? Like what?" "You'll see. However, I'll tell you now that this is were SAO truly begins. Guilds can be created and we'll start the first campaign quest."

This got the group excited. Espacially forbthe guild thing. However it would be the campaign quest that would hold their attention.

So that was long. And far from as good as I hoped it to be. But I think it is still a solid chapter. I will of course go over the important bits real quick.

Frist off the scam. This was again from Progressive with a few changes. Most notably Ariël getting her sword stolen instead of Asuna, Lis playing a role in it and a few more. Lis will show up a lot again next chapter by the way. I hope I didn't make her too out of character but I don't think I did.

Then the rivalry of the three leaders. It is gonna become even fiercer then it is so be prepared. The KoB will be formed next chapter along with the other two major guilds.

Then there is the boss fight. Not much was changed really. It wasn't as climactic as the fight Ilfang but I hope you enjoyed it.

And before someone asks yes the man in the black poncho is Vassago. He won't be introduced in the flesh untill floor 5 but his presence will be felt.

Anyway that was all I have to say. Onto the trivia.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu, Kirito's voice actor, has often said Lisbeth is his favorite SAO girl