Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online

My name is Tanaka Niten, and I am seventeen years old. I tell myself this every day, just to keep remembering. It's been over two years since I logged into a game called Sword Art Online and couldn't log back out. Two years I've been fighting digital monsters and leveling up, just to stay alive and maybe get out of this death trap. Two years since Kayaba told everyone we can't leave until we beat the last floor and that we can really die in this world.

Two weeks has passed since Klein discovered the third Unique Skill, Battoujutsu, and as Heathcliff predicted, progress on the game has slowed significantly. All the best players are searching desperately for a Unique Skill of their own to claim, even though no one really knows how to get it. Kirito and Heathcliff aren't telling anyone how they got theirs, and Klein got his from the last kill bonus on a floor boss.

Me? I don't bother. Although there are other archery skill users in Aincrad, none are even close to my level, so it's as good as a Unique Skill. That being said, I need more arrows after that last battle, so I've been grinding in Greenwood.

"DIE, YOU UGLY LITTLE FAIRY!" I scream whilst hacking an elfling's head off with my sword. I've got plenty of arrows, but I'm trying to get more Death Rain arrows. I could craft it myself, but that would take so much longer.

The elfling bursts into pixels with a horrifying screech, and I pick up the item drop. No Death Rain arrow, but I do get some nice flammable ones.

"Aren't you supposed to be the Lone Archer?" A voice behind me calls. It's my old buddy Rogers. I actually know him from outside the game. Morita Ryoukaza and I went to the same school before all this started. Yeah, yeah, I may be called the Lone Archer, but that doesn't mean I don't have friends. I just choose not to be part of a guild or anything like that.

"What of it?" I reply, turning to face my friend. He's taller than I am, almost Agil's height, with short blond hair and blue eyes. As always, he's wearing blue armor. Don't know why he colors his avatar that way, but to each his own, I suppose.

"Well, if you are, you don't show it."

"Oh, what gave it away? The sword?" I've been told by many people that I'm far too sarcastic, but hey, who cares?

Rogers throws a rock at my head. He knows I can dodge it, and I do. "Look man, I'm actually not here to fool around."

"Neither am I. What do you want?"

Rogers looks around quickly to check that no one else is looking, and pulls me in close. "Naitama, you know how high my Defense Stat is, right?"

I nod. Rogers's Defense is the highest of anyone I know, possibly even the highest in the game. "What's your point?"

"Last week, I got a mission. I didn't talk to any NPC for it, or anything. It just showed up in my mission log, telling me to find samples of a metal called adamantine from every tenth floor. It also said that I'd maxed out my Defense Stat, and that's why I'd been given this mission. I think it might be for a Unique Skill."

"Gee Rogers, I didn't think you'd get caught up in the Unique Skill craze." I deadpan. "And, let me guess, you need my help with this?"

"Nah man, ya think?" Rogers looks rather annoyed. "But seriously, I do need your help. I've already started the mission, but I need a party of at least three people for the 60th floor. You're one of the only people I trust to keep a secret."

"And what's in it for me?" I grin. I'm only kidding, I'm not a mercenary. Besides, the drops we'll get from doing the mission together will be enough for me. So it's a surprise for me when I get a gift message from Rogers. I open it to find five familiar arrows, each of which is three times as thick around as a normal arrow.

"I know how much you like Death Rain arrows, so I got these for you. Even if you don't want to join me, thanks for hearing me out at least." Rogers smiles.

"Dude, you didn't have to." I am in awe. It must have taken forever to collect this many Death Rain arrows, and even longer if he crafted them. "Thanks. I'm in. One thing though. You said we needed a party of three. Who's the other guy?"

"I haven't actually thought about it." Rogers admitted. "I'm not sure who I can trust that's skilled enough to help us out."

"Hm." I ponder. "There's Klein, but he's probably got his hands full with his new Unique Skill." In the two weeks that followed that battle, I'd gone monster hunting with Klein, and we'd become friends. It's pretty clear that he's an all around decent guy. "Or Kirito, he can keep a secret." The Black Swordsman and I had met many times in the past and gotten along well enough. And even though he's no longer a soloer, he still does his own thing instead of sticking with his guild.

Rogers shakes head though. "I know Kirito can keep his mouth shut, but he's married to a sub-leader of the KoB. There's something about Heathcliff that I don't trust."

I sigh. Rogers is too stubborn to change his mind, so I'm not about to argue with him on this. "Fine. What about Khai?" Khai is my brother's best friend in the real world. We're still in contact, and fight on the front lines together.

Rogers nods in agreement. He knows Khai as well, and trusts my judgement. "Let's go find him."

Finding Khai isn't very easy. He doesn't respond to messages for days at a time. I can get his general location from my friends list, but after that, it's not easy. "He's on the 91st floor. He must be trying to clear it."

"So he's still on the front lines?" Rogers asks. "Let's go join him then."

We return to Avalon, the largest city on the 83rd floor, to teleport to the 91st floor. It takes us well over half an hour, but Khai hasn't left the floor yet, so I'm confident we'll find him.

"What the hell?" Rogers exclaims as soon as we arrive. I understand his surprise. Up until this point, Aincrad has mostly been temperate, with lots of plant life and moderate temperatures. Floor 91 however, is a full on desert. We're in Mos Eisen, the main settlement on the floor. Few buildings here are more than two stories in height, and like everything else in the terrain, all structures are a dusty sand color.

"First time, huh?" I comment as we step out of the Teleport Gate and onto the road out of Mos Eisen. For miles around us, endless dunes of sand stretch into the horizon, broken only by the occasional cactus. "Everyone reacts the same way when they first get here."

"Damn, it's hot." Rogers unequips his cape and helmet. "How long do you think it'll take to find Khai?"

"Not long." I reply. "He's probably at the front lines, and progress has been slow lately."

"Oh, right." Rogers has the decency to look sheepish. Even though he may actually be on the verge of gaining a Unique Skill, he's abandoned the front lines like most of the other clearers.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, we come to the entrance to a cave. "Last time I was here, we'd just managed to get to this dungeon." I explain to Rogers. "The clearers probably haven't gotten far."

"Hey, as long as I'm out of the heat, I'm good." Rogers is sweating really heavily now.

As I predicted, the front line hasn't moved very far. Just a few meters in, we find several players hacking away at giant beetles. I wave to one of them, a rather short guy with long black hair and bright green armor. "Hey, Khai!"

Khai stabs a long dagger into a beetle viciously and hurls a throwing pick into another one before turning to face us. "Naitama! Where've you been?"

"Been grinding for arrows. You been here the whole week?" I call him over

"All day, everyday. Let's go grab some lunch." And so, we began the trek back to Mos Eisen, much to Rogers's displeasure. We head to a restaurant that Khai has been to before, and are served some food I've never seen before, called kibbeh. It looks like a fried dough ball, but it's got triple-humped camel meat inside.

"So what brings you two out here?" Khai asks. "Thinking about joining the front lines again?"

"Actually, no." I point to Rogers. "He's got a mission that requires him to have a party of at least three, and we were wondering if you could help us out with it."

Khai considers for a moment, then shrugs. "Eh, it's not like I've got anything better to do. The front lines can do without me for a while. What do we need to do?"

"I'm supposed to find a piece of adamantine metal from every tenth floor. So far, I've gotten five, but I need you guys to go with me to Firecliff Mountain on the 60th Floor and fight the Magmanite."

Khai nearly chokes on his kibbeh. "The Magmanite?! You want to kill the Magmanite with just three people?! Rogers, five clearers died trying to fight that monster, and they were all at least level 80!"

I should've known there was a catch to this. "Rogers you moron! You didn't say anything about trying to kill the Magmanite!"

"Wait, just hear me out." Rogers holds up his hands in a sign of peace. "We're all level 95, and we don't have to kill the Magmanite. I just need you guys to distract it while I grab the adamantine, then we get the heck out of there. If we're really lucky, we might not even run into it."

"How long will it take?" Khai narrows his eyes.

"About five minutes, give or take." Rogers says. "It has to be mined with a diabone pick, and adamantine's durability is insanely high."

"It'll take longer if the Magmanite sees you and attacks." Khai's already done the math in his head. "I'll mine the metal. My Stealth stat is higher than either of yours, so I can sneak past the Magmanite more easily."

Rogers hesitates, then nods. "Sounds like a good plan."

But as always, easier said than done, especially when you're standing on the peak of an active volcano about to jump in. Rogers goes first, landing on a small rocky ledge inside the mouth of the volcano. Khai follows, and I bring up the rear. Firecliff Mountain has a maze of tunnels that twist through the volcano. Fortunately, they're mostly mapped out up to the Magmanite's lair.

"The adamantine should be inside the Magmanite's lair. Khai, you hide right outside while Naitama and I aggro the monster and kite it out. Once we're gone, you go in and mine the metal. After five minutes, teleport out, even if you haven't gotten the adamantine. We'll meet up at the Starting City."

"Let's go." I take the lead now. I've actually been down in these tunnels before, so the others follow me deeper into Firecliff Mountain. I recognize the surroundings and stop my friends. "We're here. The Magmanite's lair is through the tunnel on the left. We'll wait until you give the signal, Khai."

Khai nods, creeping over to the opening. He gives us the thumbs up and vanishes from sight. Rogers and I head through the tunnel, ready for a fight. I nock an arrow to my bow and take aim at the glowing crimson mass in the center of the large cavern we enter. Almost subconsciously, I release the bowstring, and the arrow finds its mark.

The Magmanite rises up with a roar of fury, a fiery pile of sludge three meters tall. Rogers and I make a run for it, dodging the blob of lava the Magmanite throws at us. We race through the caverns, occasionally stopping to make sure it's still following. I'll shoot my arrows at it, while Rogers will block any incoming lava bombs with his Kite Shield. Eventually, we manage to kite the Magmanite to the ledge we started at.

"How much longer?" I shout to Rogers over the Magmanite's screeching. "I don't think we can hold it off for much more!" The thing about the Magmanite is that, because it's a nonsolid entity, physical attacks do less than half as much damage as they normally would. So even though this monster has only three health bars, we've only managed to get it down to two and three quarters.

"Khai still needs another minute!" Rogers calls back. "Try getting around it, maybe we can lead it back down into a side tunnel!"

"We can't! The ledge is too narrow!" The Magmanite gives off an intense heat, so much so that even being within half a meter will start to drain your health. That, and you stand a greater chance of being hit by lava.

I'll cover us! GO!" Rogers charges forward, and I follow closely behind. A lava blast slams into his huge shield and nearly sends him flying, but I steady him and we make it past the Magmanite and into the tunnels. After a few seconds however, we realize that the monster hasn't been following us.

"Shit, do you think that it teleported back to its lair?" Rogers asks.

I shake my head. "No, we haven't gotten far away enough that it would do that. But then-" A moment later I remember how one of those five players died. "We messed up. RUN!" I start sprinting down the tunnel as fast as I can.

"What?!" Rogers stands there for a moment before he notices a wave of molten magma surging down the tunnel. "AAAAHHHH!"

See, if a player somehow gets lower in the tunnels than the Magmanite, it will flood them with lava. We manage to get back to the Magmanite's lair, but there's no other way out.

"We have to teleport out!" Rogers shouts.

I run over to the entrance to the lair. I can't see Khai, but I yell as loud as I can. "Abort the mission! The tunnels are flooding with lava! KHAI!"

Rogers is already gone, and I can see the lava approaching. I've got no choice left. I hold the Teleport Crystal above my head. "Teleport Starting City!" Blinding white light fills my vision and the next thing I know, I'm standing in the courtyard where this death game started.

Rogers sprints over to me. "Did you find him?"

I shake my head. "No, I couldn't see him." I open up my menu, my heart pounding. There's still a chance Khai could be alive. If he is, he'll show up in the party members list. But when I open the list however, there's no sign of his name. Only my own and Rogers's are listed.

I feel blindsided. I've known Khai for years, way before SAO. When the game started, and we couldn't log out, he'd looked after me, making sure I didn't get killed. He was one of the strongest players in the game. And now, he was dead.

"He might still be alive." Rogers interrupts my thoughts. "There might be a bug that caused him to quit the party unexpectedly. We should check the Monument of Life."

Numbly, I follow Rogers to the black stone that lists every player in SAO. Part of me wants to be angry at him, to blame him. It was his mission that brought us to Firecliff Mountain. But the rational side of me explains that Khai knew what he was getting into.

"Kotona... Khan... Khaleesi... Khai! Naitama, his name's not crossed out! He's still alive!" Rogers points excitedly at the name etched into the stone. Sure enough, Khai's name is intact, with no death date or cause listed next to it.

"Wow. Thanks for believing in me, you guys." Khai says from next to me. I do a double take, because he was not there a second ago. "Got the adamantine, by the way."

"But how?" I'm so confused now. "You didn't show up in the party members list. We really thought you died."

"Huh?" Rogers looks just as confused. "He's back on the list. Maybe it was a bug?"

"Oh, yeah..." Khai laughs. "It's been doing that lately, whenever I activate my Stealth. See?" He vanishes from sight, and his name also disappears from the list.

"Dude, that's not normal." Rogers shakes his head.