AN: Whoops! Too much procrastination. Had to write this in three days to keep up with my weekend posting. I promise that future chapters will get closer to a full week of work like the last four did (though some got more than that, before I published Chapter 1).

November 7th, 2022 – 11:56AM AST. My math was off by one hour.

It would be two hours before both of the major quests in Horunka would open up again. I suppose that I had just been so tense for most of the morning, after accidentally killing someone in front of several players, inside the safe zone that is the town.

After Kirito and I were introduced to Argo – by herself – as an information broker, we gave her our beta info, and she told me where I could get limoncello. And I brought back more than just that, in from the Town of Beginnings.

I found Kirito where I expected to – sitting around with little to do. He glanced in my direction, and stood up as I approached. "Hey, SAUER. Uh… Who are these two that you brought with you?"

I looked back at the boy and girl behind me, with differing levels of brown saturation in their hair.

"Oh, they're not from the beta, for one," I chuckled as I then pointed to each of them, "The boy is Nautilus, and the girl is Yuna. Nautilus wants to get strong quickly, so he can protect Yuna. But I convinced him to let Yuna get stronger too, so that he'll have more time to protect her."

Kirito blinked. "Okay… Uh, so, how will we help them?"

"Well, they're both Level 1, but so were you when you got here."

"Well, yeah," the beta tester hesitated, "But are we going to carry them for most of the encounters for two hours?"

I laughed as I glanced back at the two. "Not if your sword runs out while we do so."

Kirito groaned. "Then how will I contribute to the quest we'll be doing after?"

I shrugged. "What is the durability at, actually?"

"Somewhere in the middle."

"Oh," I coughed a smile, "That'll be enough if there's four of us."

Kirito sighed. "I had thought that, to begin with…"

Nautilus rubbed the back of his head. "So, will you do this with us?"

Kirito nodded. "We don't have much else to do until 2PM."

"Well, 1:45, but yeah. Got to give ourselves five minutes to spare."

"Right," Kirito smiled as he sent party invites to the three of us, "Just that little bit less time."

Yuna hesitated before accepting the invitation. "There is one thing you might want to know, about what to expect when we're with you."

Kirito glanced back as he was about to move. "Yeah?"

Nautilus took a deep breath. "She's right. When I'm afraid, my avatar locks up, even though I know what I want to do, and that I could do it if not for that."

Kirito tilted his head. "So, your body might get stuck sometimes, when fear begins to sneak in?"

"I don't understand why it has to happen. But SAUER gave me a reasonably-sound explanation."

I looked to Kirito. "You saw Kathleen last night when we spoke to her, yeah? Did you ever see her back during the beta?"

He shook his head. "I wouldn't even know what her avatar was like."

"Well, she couldn't feel the texture of human skin in-game," I explained as we began to walk with Kirito through the village, "Unless she was looking at it, at least. Support team told her there were occasionally mishaps with achieving 1:1 immersive performance. They ended up calling the issue FullDive Non-Conformity."

"Huh…" Kirito nodded slowly. "Alright. Well, Nautilus, just try to stay calm, and maintain your confidence that you can survive – whether you think you'll win, or you have to flee."

"I'll try," Nautilus sighed as we showed him and Yuna around, "Now, what are we doing first?"

I pointed to one of multiple NPCs. "We're going to take all of the generic objective quests."

"Things like just killing a number of one enemy type, or gathering items," Kirito clarified.

These were the quick repeatable quests, of which there were enough to wear us through time, to roughly 1:42PM when we returned to turn them in. Nautilus made it to Level 3, and Yuna to 2.

"Nautilus, I appreciate that you're letting Yuna do something," I told him after turning in the last of the quests, "But you have to give her a chance to keep up with you."

Nautilus nodded. "Right. Sorry, Yuna."

"It's okay," Yuna giggled softly, "I'm just glad we're getting somewhere today."

Nautilus began to smile. "Yeah… We are making some form of progress, aren't we?"

Kirito chuckled. "Now, it'd be nice to have you two help us with the next quest, if you don't mind."

They both made sounds of agreement as we returned to the house that Kirito and I had known by playing the beta.

"Well, we should…" I trailed off as I saw a dozen or so players waiting outside that house. And of many parties arguing with seven minutes left on the cooldown, were Sarako and the three players whom she had picked up in the Town of Beginnings.

As we walked up, several players formed a half-ring around the door. "Now, slow down. I know the way to work this out."

"What do you know?" "Who died and made you the guy to call the shots?" "You have your sword!"

Multiple voices called out in frustration over the cooldown, and my efforts to get the first Anneal Blade in official service. I shook my head and pointed to the e-girl and her new party.

"Sarako here had come to Horunka around the same time I had. She was the first to see the new cooldown timers, right after I accepted this quest."

Most players looked to her, and one of her white knights stepped forward. "This man speaks little more than fair reason of 'first come, first served'. If any of you have a problem with it—"

"What about Kirito?"

"…Huh…?"

Sarako pointed to the black-haired boy beside me. "He's been working hard all morning, and desperately needs a new sword. Don't you, Kirito?"

Kirito flinched and glanced at me. "W-Well, I…"

The man who stood up for Sarako laughed. "If it's her call, let's put it on the table. SAUER, if you so choose, you will represent Kirito in a duel against me, representing Sarako. Winner gets the quest. What do you say?"

"Well, I assume this is either Half-Loss or First Strike," I sighed as I sent him the request, "Even with the former, we should be careful; your HP may continue past half before the duel will end, and my last challenger died as a result."

The simp nodded. "Sarako explained as much. I trust that you know how to hold back."

"Of course." And as players backed up to give us half of the street, he chose Half-Loss.

Surprisingly, Kogan – as his name showed on the duelling notice – only had to take one Slant by my Anneal Blade, to dip below half. I returned the sword to its scabbard, perplexed.

"I assume you're Level 1?"

Kogan leaned back on the fence, beside Sarako. "I was lost without Sarako. What level was the guy that you accidentally killed?"

I shook my head as I glanced at Kogan's basic green shirt under the default chestplate. "Two. And I was six, like I am now."

Sarako giggled. "Well, it's Kirito's quest. Have a ball!"

I chuckled as I turned to Kirito. "Well, the party restrictions on this quest still apply. But we'll stick close and help out, regardless."

Kirito nodded as he disbanded the party from his menu. "Alright. Make your way there, and I will catch up."

As the other players returned to the square, and a handful rushed off to wait for the calf quest's cooldown instead, I took Yuna and Nautilus out of town and guided them into the western woods surrounding the village. A little casual discussion and slow walking brought us near the areas where the Little Nepenthes – the related quest monster – would spawn, and we waited there for Kirito to arrive, after he had waited out the remaining five minutes of cooldown, and the minute or two of cutscene before he could accept the quest.

While I could one-shot the Nepenthes myself, Kirito was bringing them down in two or three, and Nautilus worked with Yuna together on each one they fought, taking about the same 40-second interval that Kirito was taking per Nepenthe. We explained to them how the shade of the enemy cursor functioned, which helped to reassure Nautilus, to a degree.

After 150 Nepenthes in roughly an hour, Nautilus reaching Level 4, and Yuna making Level 5, Kirito finally slew a flower-bearing Nepenthe and claimed the flower. But around the same time, another Nepenthe had spawned – the two rarer varieties never spawned together in the beta – bearing the fruit which would attract its brethren when split.

And someone got to the fruit before I could kill its plant.

As I attempted to lure the fruit-bearer away from the party, a throwing knife flew past my ear and pierced the fruit. Out poured the fluid within, quickly evaporating into strong-smelling mist upon landing in the grass.

Without hesitation, I killed the fruit-bearer anyway. It would not stop attracting Nepenthes, but at least one of them was out of the way. I ran back to the others, and helped them clear the swarming plant monsters before the four of us made our way back to Horunka.

Since I had to back up my allies, I couldn't pursue whoever had thrown the knife. And the game did not have fingerprints, so I just had a slightly acid-damaged throwing knife now. We all agreed that there was no reasonable way to investigate, as the effort to round up everyone who had the Blade Throwing skill would be far too great, and even then, it would be the only evidence. So, we decided that we could let it slide for the time being.

Kirito turned in the quest, and came out ten minutes later with his new Anneal Blade. …Ten?

"Kirito, what kept you?" I had to ask.

He blinked. "What do you mean…?"

I smirked. "Did you find that secret cutscene?"

The boy glanced down, and slowly nodded.

"Okay, well, how was your reaction to it?"

Kirito took a deep breath. "It made me think about my real family. When I heard that little NPC girl call me her big brother, I was reminded of helping my sister in real life, when she was ill."

I chortled and gave his head a pat. "Well, you'd best ensure you get to see her again."

Kirito gently brushed my hand away with a smile. "Y-Yeah. You're right."

We barely got to turn toward the square before a player ran up to us. "You! That's a fresh Anneal Blade you just got, right?"

Kirito flinched at the sudden appearance of the young man. "Settle down! The cooldown begins on accepting the quest, not completing it."

"I know, I know!" The male clasped in hands together in desperation. "But it's another 23 hours off and I can't take it anymore! I'll give you 20,000 Cor for it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Ain't no way you even have ten yet."

The second Anneal Blade owner shook his head. "Even if you did, I can't afford not having a sword anymore, after wearing out my default blade on the quest."

The desperate player sighed. "I understand. I hope it takes you far."

The player left, and I turned to Kirito. "Well, I guess you can go do things, again."

He nodded with a smile, and then looked at Nautilus and Yuna. "What about you two?"

Yuna shrugged. "Well, what is there for us to do?"

Kirito sighed. "I suppose we could help you get to a level where you can beat the other major quest available here. And then we'll show you the way through that quest."

Nautilus glanced at Yuna, and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Kirito and I took the two on another run through the generic set of quests, and then after checking the time, we did it again. By then, it was 6PM. We decided to sit down in Horunka and have some black bread for a lackluster dinner.

"24 hours…"

I glanced at Kirito. "I assume you're talking about Kayaba's announcement this time, and not still whining about the cooldown on the sword quest."

He turned his head and squinted his eyes at me. "I don't plan to get another Anneal Blade."

I exhaled in amusement. "I get what you're saying. It's crazy to think that we've had to live like this for a full day, already."

Nautilus sighed. "And there will be many more days like this ahead."

Yuna nodded. "Well, we should still put the effort of all our days in here, towards seeing days out in the real world again, right?"

We all nodded in agreement. "That said," I began, "It's still another two hours before we can do the other quest. So, we can do another cycle of the generic quests."

After eating – with a bottle of limoncello each – we did exactly that. And around 7:30, we headed down the eastern road to the ranch, where three other parties waited.

Sarako walked over, with two of the followers she had before, and one new guy. "Wow, after this quest as well, huh?"

I chuckled and leaned my forearm on Kirito's shoulder. "That's the idea. Uh… Where's Kogan?"

The classic MMO thot sighed. "I'm afraid he got a bit ahead of himself on the previous cycle of this quest. Got between the trapper and the cow."

I slowly shook my head. "Damn shame. So, you went and got another one?"

"It's Kozue," the new simp answered, "And if you think I'm missing out on questing with this wise young lady, you've got another thing coming."

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed with a roll of my eyes, "Let's not have another Kafuka moment."

"Oh, I'm not gonna let that slide," Kozue sneered as he sent me a challenge to duel, "It's high time that we stopped risking it on Half-Loss."

I nodded in agreement, and chose First Strike mode – this would end on a clean hit for at least 10% out of a participant's HP bar, but if no-one could do more than 10% per hit, the duel would simply conclude when the loser reached half HP.

Players stood back to give us space, and as the duel began, Kozue ran in with «Vertical», one of the basic One-Handed Sword skills. As it was a simple downward swing, I rolled beside him, into the activation pose for Horizontal. His body regained motion just as I executed the move, and he slid beneath my blade and behind me. But he had to get up onto his feet, and by the time he activated Slant, I could move again. I glanced back to see the position of his hand and, predicting the path of Kozue's sword in a straight line, dropped to my knees.

I felt the blade catch my scalp, but since it was a glancing blow, it took less than 10% of my bar, and the duel would continue. As the blade passed my head afterward, I popped up to my feet, and then activated Slant – just as Kozue was locked into post-motion delay. I took a third of his bar.

As the result window appeared, I put my sword away, and Kozue sighed.

"It was worth a shot," he chuckled as he sheathed his blade, "But I guess Sarako's out of this one as well, for tonight."

Sarako walked over with a giggle. "It's no big deal. I got through its afternoon cycle without Kogan."

The other two waiting parties approached. "You've had your lot, then," one party's leader said, his arms crossed impatiently, "Now give us a go at this SAUER hotshot!"

"Slow your roll, hothead," a member of the other party interjected, "We can't go after him at once, you know? Why don't we choose reps from our parties to duel each other, and the winner gets to have a duel with SAUER afterward?"

"Ah, like a bite-sized tournament. Sure, that works." The first leader turned to one of his allies and pointed to him. "Kuon, you're up."

"You got it," answered the standard-clothed rapier user, "And who will I be up against?"

The other party leader pointed to the guy who spoke for him. "Kinzaza, you seemed up for it."

Kinzaza shrugged. "Why not."

Interestingly, it was rapier to rapier. Both of them struck each other with Linear, but Kuon was left with more HP after the simultaneous first strike, so he won.

He must have been a lower level than myself, as my previous experience duelling a rapier user the previous day had paid off rather quickly. With that victory, I had earned the right to the quest.

There wasn't much else that went on that night – the other players went back to the square, Kirito and I took Yuna and Nautilus on «The Heifer Strikes Back», I pulled the latter out of the way of the mother cow as he froze up at the sight of the Kobold Trapper, and we turned in the quest. After it, Nautilus was Level 5, Yuna was Level 6, and Kirito and I reached Level 7.

When we got back, word had got around as to how we resolved conflict about who got to do the quests with long cooldowns. A handful of players approached us to ask if we would be present to catch the next cycle for the calf quest at 2AM.

I shook my head. "I can't imagine we would. But I'll tell you what: between 11PM and 6AM, it can simply be left at 'first come, first served'. There's no need to put in effort to manage so few people willing to keep going so late."

Kinzaza emerged from the crowd. "What about the rest of the time, then?"

I wrapped my arms around Yuna and Nautilus. "These two will host eight-party tournaments in the half-hour before a quest becomes available. If there are less than eight, they'll enter, unless their participation still doesn't bring the total to two, four or eight parties."

Nautilus slipped out of my arm and pulled Yuna from the other. "I'm not too sure about this. But if there still aren't two, four, or eight… What do we do, then?"

Yuna glanced at him, then to Kinzaza, and then to me. "Yeah… What happens in that case?"

I held my hand out for a chance to answer. "Simple. Yuna and Nautilus, you will do the quest, and then auction off the Anneal Blade. Unless Nautilus needs a fresh weapon."

"Wait, what about this quest?" asked Nautilus.

"Oh, the calf quest," I chuckled while shaking my head, "If there aren't eight, four or two, and the inclusion of you two would make it one of those numbers, join in. Otherwise, default to late-night rules and remember who showed up first."

Most of the players listening, slowly nodded in agreement. Kinzaza then led them to the square to explain my idea to the rest of the beta testers, and anyone else who had made it to this town.

The following day at 7AM, an effort was made to gather participants for the calf quest before 7:30, giving them time to compete before it became available at eight. Three parties arrived, prompting Yuna and Nautilus to become the fourth.

With how closely I hovered over the two, the day before, Yuna was able to keep up with the other participants in the tournament. However, she lost to Sarako, who chose to represent herself. And without further hesitation, Sarako sat in front of the ranch's NPC to wait off the rest of the quest's cooldown, then took off with her party after accepting it. This time, she still had all of her party members when she came back.

Later that afternoon, at 1:30, players gathered at the edges of the town square to watch the eight parties who were the first to speak to Yuna and Nautilus half an hour prior.

"Alright guys, the rules were discussed this morning," Yuna began as she stood in front of a table, over which lay a sheet of paper onto which the tournament brackets were drawn, "All duels are in First Strike mode, and eight separate parties must be represented. Meaning, one fighter per party."

Nautilus looked down at the paper on the table. "Runner-up finalist gets the calf quest. Now, let's have our first and second seeds, Sarako and Kuon."

Sarako didn't have much duelling experience, but she was Level 6 and Kuon was Level 3. And it was roughly how one would expect. Seeds 7 & 8 were next, as Kinzaza faced a man called Kaibara.

Kaibara was a curved blade user like how I started, but he failed to account for the forward launch included with the «Reaver» Sword Skill, and Kinzaza got him with Linear. Next were seeds 5 & 6, featuring Kentaro and Krystof. Two straight one-handed sword users, with Kentaro advancing to be Kinzaza's semifinal opponent. After seeds 3 & 4, a man called Kletos earned the right to face Sarako after Kinzaza faced Kentaro, with the former advancing to the finals.

As we saw in Kletos' first duel, he was a One-Handed Axe user. Sarako was more than eager to take advantage of his weapon's shape, catching her sword under it and giving his shoulder an unassisted jab, then she hit him with Vertical while he was reacting to the previous hit. Hence, Sarako was to face Kinzaza for the Anneal Blade reward quest. And though beating person A after they had beaten person B before, doesn't always mean you can beat person B – Sarako did in fact beat Kinzaza with the same effort it took her to beat Kuon earlier. Thus, she was next to take that quest – although, Kinzaza still won his party the right to the calf quest.

Sarako accepted the medicine quest, and took off with her three boys. I then turned to Kirito, as Nautilus and Yuna approached us.

"So, we can now go and do our own thing, right?" Yuna asked.

I nodded. "Well, Kirito and I are going to the Swamp Kobold village, so if you two are looking to get stronger like us, you'll want to come and fight kobolds as well."

It took us about ten minutes to get ourselves ready to head out that far, and to wait for Kinzaza's party to be far enough with the mother cow, that they wouldn't think we were tagging along on the calf quest. But in the time that it took us to prepare, Sarako had returned – minus Kozue.

"Damn, no Kozue?" I inquired with disappointment. "I thought you guys were high enough that you could use the fruit to speed up spawns."

"We tried to do that," Sarako interjected as she held up a damaged throwing knife, "Someone beat him to the fruit as we were clearing house."

I stared at the knife, and pulled out the one I had picked up. "That happened to me, too. I didn't bother to buy any throwing weapons; I'd been trying to level the skill with rocks. Little progress."

"What is the importance?!" We heard complaints south of us, as Kuon approached us, his party following behind him. "What difference will it really make?"

Kuon turned to the party, looking rather smug. "You losers just don't get it. Sarako's the real deal when it comes to leadership."

Kirito tilted his head. "Why are you so quick to switch parties?"

Kinzaza chimed in as his party followed. "Maybe he just doesn't believe in his old party."

"Back off, calf milker," Kuon suddenly raised his voice, "Sarako lost one, she can only gain one!"

Sarako held her hand out towards Kuon to interrupt him. "Now wait a minute. I never said I would only have a party of four."

Kinzaza shrugged. "And I do believe in my party. I never showed interest in Sarako's."

"You did in the beta!" People turned to look at Kuon as he pointed to Kinzaza. "And you don't turn your back on a woman like her!"

Sarako sighed. "Please, my attention is not worth people's lives."

"Oh, please. You didn't care about Kozue," fired back Kuon as he shook his head, "He died, and you only cared about not being next."

The platinum blonde blinked. "You… couldn't glean that much from a reaction you wouldn't admit seeing up close."

Kuon realized what he said, and doubled down. "What? I was here when Kafuka died, and you went back to the Town of Beginnings to pick up the suckers you have with you now! Why should I think Kozue's death affected you any different?!"

I rolled my eyes. "Because you shouldn't have seen the latter event."

Kuon went on digging his hole. "You should have just given Sarako your Anneal Blade so she didn't need to risk Kozue's life to those Nepenthes!"

"Enough of this!" Sarako snapped at him as she sent him a request to duel. "You've shown me that you don't even think I feel for others. Well, let me show you how I feel about you."

Kuon stared at the request, and chose Total Loss. "That is clear enough to me."

All eyes were fixated on Kuon as they saw the duelling mode he chose. Some players moved in to keep the two combatants apart, but Nautilus kept them back.

"It's not fair on Kozue," he pleaded to the crowd, "Kuon has shown that he's not above death."

I shrugged and helped Nautilus make room for the duel, and it began after 60 seconds. Since she already had beaten Kuon in First Strike mode before, it ended up being a foregone conclusion.

She put her Anneal Blade away, and shook her head. "That's not how I wanted to start using this sword by a longshot. Let's not have that happen again."

The other players nodded, and returned to what they were doing before. Kinzaza came back to apologize to Sarako for not sticking around in official service.

"Don't worry about it," she suggested to him, as she looked back at her remaining party members behind her, "Just look after the people you've chosen to work with, and I'll do the same for mine."

"Understood." Kinzaza shook her hand, and left with his party. Then, Sarako turned to me, looking over my shoulder at Kirito, Nautilus, and Yuna.

"So, there's three Anneal Blades in play, now. What's your next move?"

Yuna decided to answer. "It's been suggested that we go to the wetlands and fight kobolds."

Nautilus nodded. "Since we're at equal level to the weakest kind, we can stalk those and steer clear of the others for a while."

I placed a hand on Sarako's shoulder. "Before we think about bringing you along, though, I'd like to remind you that you knowingly went for the kill. What is it like?"

Sarako hesitated for a moment. "Well… I knew that one of us was going down. And I'm not about to let it be me, no matter the circumstances."

Kirito turned to me. "Your mind doesn't seem to dwell on Kafuka, though. Or are you just better at containing it?"

Nautilus and Yuna looked at Kirito, and then to me. "So, it was you?" asked the former.

I nodded slowly. "I challenged him, and he chose Half Loss. It was then that we learned that the HP bar continues to scroll past half when calculating the final hit's damage."

Yuna tilted her head. "And you…?"

I took a deep breath. "It was a lesson for us. One that Kuon didn't take to heart, and he paid for it. Recklessness is dangerous to more than just those who partake in it. If he didn't out himself as the guy who tried to kill me, and who successfully killed Kozue, he likely could have got others killed."

The group looked at each other, and then to me. "Well, let's try to make progress," Sarako advised.

The rest of us nodded, and Sarako's party merged with mine. So, it was her, Kirito, Nautilus, Yuna, myself, and Sarako's remaining two followers – named Kojiro and Knut. But then, Kaibara walked over to us, with a young woman an inch taller than him.

"You're bunching up like nobody's business," Kaibara chuckled, as he waved to us, "What's the plan for today, huh?"

I shrugged. "Now that you mention it, this is a bit much just to farm kobolds in the wetlands."

Kirito looked around at all the people he'd be playing with. "Yeah, I didn't plan on being in a group this big… Or, in a group at all, really."

The girl with Kaibara giggled. "Well, if we join, that makes nine. We may as well scope out the Field Boss while we're at it, don't you think?"

"Oh! That's an idea!" I gleefully agreed. "Three Anneal Blades should be enough to back six without, right? Let's go for it, and then everyone will know what we need."

Kirito shrugged. "Sure, that's important. Maybe we should just do that, come back, tell everyone what we learned, and then go fight kobolds."

That sounded like the best call for all of us, so Kaibara – and his girlfriend, Kay – joined us in the scouting effort for the first floor's Field Boss. We had to pass by the wetlands anyway, so we did get some time to kill kobolds, but we mainly went for the area held down by the boss. It wasn't much of one, though: basically, a boar like the Frenzy Boars outside the Town of Beginnings, but bigger and stronger. The most we would have to do is kite its movement and never be in front of it.

When we got back, it was agreed that we needed more Anneal Blades. The fact that the bronze weapons from Horunka's shop didn't last long, didn't help – most players had to go all the way back to the Town of Beginnings just to get something else.

After a decent number of players had levelled up, and enough days had passed to yield yet more Anneal Blades, the plan was made to go for the field boss. We ended up having to back out, as multiple players weren't prepared to grasp their mortality, let alone at the mercy of a creature that appeared bigger than them, and was – for all intents and purposes – as real as them.

Worse yet, players who had Anneal Blades and some other good gear, had fallen as well, meaning other players had to do the quest before we had the numbers to tackle the boss again. Among the players lost, whose names I had seen at least once, were Kinzaza, Kaibara, Kentaro, Kay, Kletos, Krystof, Knut, and Kojiro. However, they were but a third of the players whose avatars shattered before our eyes – at least, in total across both of our attempts at the boss, and in the effort to clear the first floor via the labyrinthine tower near the town of Tolbana in the northeast, past the middle point of the floor which was guarded by the boar.

Eventually, the decision was made to find a player willing to take up smithing, and we found more than one, as luck would have it. Our plan involved buying bronze equipment from Horunka, melting down the metal, and having the blacksmiths reforge it. Sure, bronze was bronze – but it worked out for us, one way or another.

Regardless, we couldn't forget the mistakes we made along the way. Though we had defeated the Field Boss and opened up the other half of the floor, we still had to make it to the next. It was just surreal to imagine – in the time it took us to almost finish the tenth floor in the beta, we were soon approaching the same span of time just for the first.

Sure, we could see the tower on the horizon, all the way back from the Town of Beginnings. But it took us three in-game weeks to reach the town closest to it. In that time, Kirito had split off from everyone else, Sarako had replaced her simps twice, Yuna and Nautilus decided to remain in the wetlands to level up off of Swamp Kobolds, and after a couple of days going back to the Town of Beginnings for more limoncello, news arose of what replaced the Room of Resurrection which had existed in the beta. And I went to see it – what was now known as the Monument of Life. A giant stone tablet with 10,000 names on it. The names of every player in the game.

We had seen that the names of dead players would be crossed out on this tablet. We were able to highlight a name, and see the date, time, and cause of death. To see what amounted to a memorial for us – formatted in a way that would memorialize future deaths – further hammered home the point made by Kayaba on November 6th: this was it. We had this life, and we could lose it at any moment, with the slightest wrong move.

I found the positions of names I knew – ones I had known were alive at that point. And I took a moment to look at the names surrounding them.

Then, my attention was drawn to a name I saw get crossed out. «Kitaro». Right beneath Kirito. My spine seemed to vibrate under my skin at the thought of those two lines being a few inches higher than where they appeared.

We had to get moving. Someday, something had to change. And there was no way I was going to stand by as this list began looking more and more like the world's largest bingo card.

And Kayaba, I thought aloud as I departed the Town of Beginnings once more, if you are playing bingo with our names, rest assured that you will find your prize in the depths of hell.

With his name stuck in my head again, I returned to Tolbana, and after a few days of grinding XP on the higher floors of the first-floor labyrinth, I ran into Kirito again, around 11:30PM or so.

"Hey, look at you up and about as usual!"

Kirito groaned as I patted his head. "I know you understand me being up this late, but why you?"

I chuckled as I took my hand back. "After we each brought our Anneal Blades up to +6 by this point, you're going to deny me the opportunity to get in some celebratory hunting? Please."

In the weeks since launch, many players had taken their weapons to player blacksmiths, who would enhance the weapons by one of five attributes: sharpness, 'quickness', accuracy, 'heaviness', and durability. Of course, each enhancement got harder with each success – but each weapon had a maximum number of attempts; another would break it. The Anneal Blade's maximum was eight.

While I didn't bother to pry into Kirito's choices, I went for durability for all five of mine so far. As I had put the most strain on it since launch, I felt that I had to work harder to make it last to the third floor, where it was meant to start falling out of favor.

"You've yet to go for your sixth, though," Kirito pointed out to me, "But you're right. You can work hard just like the rest of us, if you really want to make your effort count."

I nodded. "Well, I'd have to. Got to make up for the ones I had to put down."

Kirito blinked a few times. "Sure… If that's the way you want to put it."

I shrugged. "Maybe I'll donate some of the Wind Fleurets I get."

We went to the labyrinth, and made the most of our time there – roughly five hours. For all it was worth in our minds, at the time, we could have stayed longer.

But we later learned that we weren't the only ones putting all of our energy into fighting our way through the early morning. And in the moment, we figured that maybe we should have been.

Oh, how right we were to reconsider.

AN: You may have noticed that there were a lot of K names in this chapter. Go and look at the post-credits scene of the anime's first episode. Yes, it's lazy. But I needed something out. And I couldn't just write 30 chapters before the setting even exits November. So let's just get there, already. There's very little baseline to follow before December, and I don't want to depart too far from the source material - that doesn't mean I'm adhering closer to canon events, though. I want to take it slow, while also making sure there's a clear vision forward. I haven't done that good of a job with that, so far, but that's the consequence of your first fanfiction.