April 8th – Kirito joins Moonlit Black Cats

June 22nd – Front lines get through the 30th floor

June 22nd 5:45 pm – Death of the Moonlit Black Cats

Terms to know:

Hai – Yes

Ohayo – Good morning

Sayonara – Goodbye

August 5th 2023 – 29th Floor Candlelight Inn

Early in the morning, Aiden wakes up inside his room at the inn.

"I guess it's time to get up." He stood up and changed out of his sleep wear, equipping his comfortable clothes, a green t-shirt and tan pants, keeping his tough jade boots on. He looked in the mirror and checked his hair. "I wonder if people ever have bed head in this world." He asked noticing his practically flawless hair. The topic didn't keep his interest for long as he left his room and walked to the one across from his.

*knock knock*

"Hai?" A sleepy voice called back to him.

"Ohayo! Ka-chan. Are you up yet?" Aiden asked, placing his hands on his hips.

"Ohayo Niisan. I've been up all night. The beds here suck." Kaori said as she opened the door for Aiden. He looked down to her and couldn't help but laugh. She pulled him into the room and quickly closed the door behind them, all while trying to quell his laughter.

"Shut up, it was a really rough night." She said, defending her appearance. Her hair looked as if she had just got shocked by electricity, it stood up in every and all directions. Heavy bags were under her eyes as well. She was wearing a large white t-shirt and some green shorts under it.

"Alright alright, I'm sorry." Aiden started to apologize. "What was wrong with your bed? Mine was fine." He questioned her.

"I just told you already, it sucks. I've had comfier beds in lower level areas." She said kicking her mattress. "You would think for as expensive as this inn is we could get a decent bed here too, or at least breakfast. But I guess that's to much to ask!" Kaori was clearly heavily sleep deprived and grumpy on top of that. Aiden scratched his head in confusion.

"How can you tell the differences in beds? The game makes it all simulate, so you just sleep then wake up." Kaori looked at him with a glare that would make undead type monsters run away.

"Well I guess we can check in to a different inn if you want tonight." Aiden offered as an option, hoping it would help get him out of the current situation.

"No." Kaori fumbled with her hands to think of how to ask him and decided being blunt was the best way. "I want us to get a house." To which Aiden thought she was joking.

"Well that's an amusing idea. Come on, get dressed so we can start our day, we'll look for an inn later tonight." He turned to leave the room but felt Kaori grab his wrist with both hands, stopping him from leaving. As he turned to look at her and saw a very sad look in her two colored eyes, almost like a neglected pet that wanted attention.

"Ah jeez, not with the puppy dog eyes again." Aiden put his free hand over his eyes, but still peaked at the girl through two separated fingers.

"Niisan, let's find a house. Please?" Aiden caved in and put a light smile on. He grabbed her hands in his own.

"Okay. Get dressed, then we'll go look for one." After hearing the approval, Kaori became revitalized and jumped to hug him.

"Thank you Nii Nii! I can't wait!" He hugged her back then left the room so she could have some privacy. A few minutes later she came out with her hair in it's pristine ponytail and wearing a green dress that went down to her calves. It had white flowers flowing down the side that wrapped around to the front. She wore a large white sun hat to compliment it all.

"Well doesn't Ka-chan look cute. But we're going house shopping, not on your first date." Aiden teased the girl as her cheeks puffed out in a pouting fashion. He held his hands up to her signifying he gave up. "Okay you win, but seriously do you really want to wear a dress while riding on my shoulders?" He asked her, a little concerned what others may see. She stared at him annoyed and shook her head.

"B-baka... It's fine. I planned to walk today." Kaori walked up next to him and grabbed his hand.

"Alright then. What floor were you thinking of? Do you want to start at the bottom and work up? Or should we just go straight to Sten?" Aiden offered her as they started walking down the stairs of the inn.

"I had a few levels in mind. They seem nice enough and hopefully not to expensive. Can we go check a few out before we see Sten?" Aiden shrugged at her notion.

"I don't see why not." He briefly said.

"Great! Let's start at floor eleven, I saw a cool place there we can check." Kaori's excitement was unrivaled at this point. It was as if a kid had got everything they truly wanted at Christmas in the middle of July. The two made it out the door and started heading towards the warp gate.

"Well I guess if we want a house, we might as well start in a city." Aiden pointed out as they stood on the teleporter. Then, at the same time they both shouted out.

"Teleport Taft!"And just like that they were gone from the 29th floor and down to the 11th. Once they got through the gate they saw a familiar face, who was passing by.

"Eh... Kirito? Long time no see. What are you doing down here?" Kaori asked their friend.

"Oh. Hey there. I-I'm just passing through." Kirito said emptily while the two stepped down from the gate. Aiden and Kaori exchanged a glance.

"You alright there man?" Aiden asked his strange acting friend.

"Hai." That was the last thing Kirito said before leaving the two.

"Niisan..." Kaori started.

"I know. I'll leave this one to you. In the mean time, I'll go look for a house on a lower level. You can check this area when you're done. Sayonara." Aiden said saluting a good by with two fingers next to his head. He walked over to the teleport gate and called out.

"Teleport Lobaria!" And just like that, Aiden was off to the fourth floor. Kaori turned and began running after Kirito. She had hopes he wasn't to far off ahead. Sure enough, just on the other side of the small market center he was there, slowly wandering as if he was dead. She followed him, trying to be as discrete as possible, but her hide skill wasn't that high at all. For a time it worked. But Kirito stopped occasionally, she knew he was aware of her presence. Then Kirito turned down an alley. He walked just far enough down and stopped once more to call out.

"I know you're following me. You should just come out." Kirito turned to face his pursuer and sure enough Kaori came into the alley to see him, much to his surprise.

"You weren't the one I thought was following me." Kirito said with some relief. Kaori walked up to him.

"Who did you think it was?" She asked him.

"It doesn't matter. Why are you following me?" He quickly shut her question out, something she found intriguing, but decided to leave it alone for today.

"I wanted to see what was wrong with you. You're not your normal self and I thought I could help." His face became blank and he turned back around.

"You can't help. Just leave me alone. I'm a solo player after all." Before he could get to far, Kaori closed the distance between them, grabbing onto his arm and stopping him. She took a deep breath to gain her composure.

"You lost somebody didn't you?" Kirito, shocked by her accuracy, froze in place.

"I understand." Kaori continued. "It's not something you can get past easily. But I'm sure you'll be able to. After all, you're the strongest solo player around." Kirito turned to see Kaori. The small girl now had tears forming in her eyes.

"In the real world I was never into these games. I preferred to be outside or something else. But my Niisan wanted me to play with him. So we picked up two copies of SAO together. When this all started..." Kaori paused for a moment to clear the tears from her eyes and the lumps in her throat.

"About two weeks in he wanted to clear the game as quickly as possible. But it cost him his life." Kirito stared at the ground with a saddened look on his face. He may have his own sadness to deal with but now the feeling that he made Kaori bring up such a painful memory was predominant.

"I didn't know what to do." Kaori continued. "I gave up. Selling all my gear one piece at a time. I didn't want anything to do with this game. But suddenly, a new person came into my life. Aiden." Kaori looked up to Kirito, still crying, but with a smile on.

"That baka, he always has a smile on. Even though we're in a death game. Says he's just grateful he can't hear his mother in law constantly telling him he's a free loader. Even though he really is." Kaori wiped away the reformed tears in her eyes. "I needed Aiden to help me when I lost my Niisan. And soon after Aiden became my new Niisan. You just need to find somebody to protect you is all. Just don't think nobodies there for you. You have plenty of friends that care for you. Like Aiden and I... even Asuna-san cares and I'm sure you have others." Kaori gave Kirito a firm hug and quickly let go.

"I'll see you around Kirito. Be safe!" Kaori ran off leaving Kirito, and for a split second, he had a smile. As Kaori made her way back through the market, she came to a stop to get rid of the last of her tears. "If Niisan new I was crying he would be really upset. Got to get it together." She pulled down her friends list and tracked Aiden's location.

"Fourth floor? I guess if we're going to find a home, I should finish checking this floor. The search for a new house turned out to be a bust. And after a few hours the two friends met back on the seventeenth floor inside of Sten's shop.

"So you're looking for a house huh? Do we even have enough col for that yet?" Sten asked his fellow guild members.

"Yeah we do for a small house. It's not much but it can get us a few different houses on lower levels. Or we could save up a bit more and get a bigger house on a higher level." Aiden explained to his friend.

"Well. We are all in a guild. Why don't we get a guild house up higher? There cheaper than actual houses and bigger. Then the money we have left over we can use to decorate." Sten's offer took Aiden and Kaori back a little, but his logic was sound.

"Why didn't we think of that?" Aiden tried asking rhetorically, looking up at the ceiling.

"Because you're dumb," Sten quickly quipped. He closed the distance between Kaori and himself, grabbing her hands and easily breaking her comfort zone. ",but I'm sure Ka-chan already thought of it, she just wants a life of luxury though. Which I can provide." Kaori backed away a bit, but Sten still held onto her hands with a creepy smile. Aiden came and grabbed Sten's head with one hand.

"Sten, I thought I told you to leave her alone." Sten turned to see his friend, but instead of Aiden's normal look, he looked like a shadow monster with terrifying yellow eyes. After a few girlish shrieks, Sten retreated behind his counter to where he felt safe.

"Back to the subject at hand," Aiden trying to get back on track. ",a guild house would make it nicer. But how much col could you add to ours?" He asked the merchant.

"Well you guys have around three million right? I could make yours up to at least five million." Sten crossed his arms with a rather arrogant smile.

"How do you have two million col just from selling general junk and crappy items?" Aiden questioned his sincerity. Sten glared over to him.

"Well for your information I would sell my shop and move it up to the floor we were going to. So with all that, we could have a guild house and a merchants shop in the same place." Aiden placed his hands on the back of his head and looked around the place.

"What do you think Ka-chan?" He asked the girl sitting on top of the counter now, yet as far from Sten as she could muster.

"Well... as long as that baka's room is on the other side of the building from me then that's fine."

"Your words wound me fair maiden but I know you mean well!" Sten's comment gave off a small chorus of hurl like noises. Sten, doing his best to ignore the understandable yet rude noises, got excited about the new place to be.

"Alright!" Sten jumped into the air and threw his fist up.

"Well then, let's go buy a house." On that note, the group headed out to search for their new house.

August 5th – Jade Skull decides to get a household on the 35th floor.

November – ALfheim Online is created.

December 1st 2023 – 40th Floor Wasteland Dungeon

Deep inside the dungeon of the 40th floor, the small guild of the Jade Skull was leveling against some mobs while on a quest. It was another training day for Sten as well. He started to get the hang of the fighting system and how to use sword skills, however bravery certainly wasn't his forte. Shortly after they bought their house, Aiden met up with Argo and found out about a hidden room on the 40th floor, where the chest had some crazy rare weapon. They fought their way into the dungeon, fighting against different undead type monsters, ranging from skeletons types to zombie types and any grotesque thing in between. The most common being the «Wasteland Warrior» a skeletal type monster. What they carried varied from a mace to a straight sword, but in the opposite hand they always had a small buckler as a shield. Sten was currently fighting one of these monsters now, with his guild members backing him up. Well sort of.

"Guys really, I could use a little help here!" Sten called frantically to his friends, despite his health still being well into the green. Aiden stood behind him, arms crossed, and smiling at his friend.

"Sten don't be so timid, these things are a much lower level than you. You're doing fine." Aiden instructed and encouraged at the same time.

"That's easy for you to say! You don't mind fighting these gross creeps! Ah!" Sten ducked under a swing from the monsters mace, and immediately swung a hit back at the creature, dropping it's HP down into the yellow.

"See? You've almost got it, just use a sword skill and then you've won." Aiden turned around to find Kaori. He found her using her massive hammer to crush multiple skeletal creatures with one swing downwards, no thanks to her vast skill set of AoEs. Aiden enjoyed watching one of his friends devastate these monsters, while the other honestly seemed afraid of them. He turned back right as Sten got hit in the chest, loosing a small portion of his health.

"Sten be careful! If you're not going to use a shield you need to evade as much as possible." Aiden's tutoring of Sten had come a long way. The odd merchant had almost maxed out all of his skills involving mercantile life, but his actual level wasn't moving fast at all. Sten managed to defeat the monster and sat down from weariness. Aiden came and crouched next to him and pat his back a few times.

"Nice work buddy! I guess now I can tell you that skeletal types don't get damaged very much from slash or cutting attacks." Sten looked up to his tall friend with a goofy smile, with annoyance. As much as he wanted to hit him, the fight got him some decent experience and money.

"That's why Ka-chan over there is destroying them with one or two hits, they're weak to blunt type weapons. Every monster has a weakness to one type and strength to another. Undead, rock, and metal type monsters are typically weak to blunt and bashing type hits. Where as insect, humanoid, serpent, and most other monsters are weak to slashing and cutting type hits. Only a few types have no weaknesses and strengths. Those are the toughest enemies and typically bosses and named monsters. Come on, that's enough SAO lessons for today, we should be getting near this hidden room." The small guild wandered on through the halls of the dungeon, fighting against the occasionally respawn of mobs. After an hour of back tracking trying to find this hidden room, boredom, as of other things, started setting in.

"So are we even certain this is a legit thing? I mean, everyone knows Argo is a good info broker, but has anyone actually seen this place?" Sten's groans kept flowing, Kaori and Aiden did their best to ignore him but some times were harder than others.

"Sten. Enough okay, we get it." Aiden turned his gaze back to his merchant friend briefly. "This place is hard to find, I wouldn't have had to pay so much for it if it weren't. But there's something I'm certain we're missing, a quest item, NPC, something, I don't know." Kaori slowed her pace down to match Sten's speed.

"Sten, we're getting a good amount of experience, you've leveled up twice even. It's a good day even if we don't find anything." She tried her best to bring the man's spirits back up. But his insentient moaning continued.

"Look I don't mind grinding for experience. I've learned and gained a lot. I just don't like looking for a specific thing, and not finding it for so long." Aiden stopped walking, not moving a muscle. Kaori took a step towards him and tried to understand.

"What-"

"Quiet." Aiden violently shut her down, facing her holding his finger to his lips, asking for silence. His eyes twitched and he looked down the dark tunnel and noticed several torches coming towards them.

"We have company, there's seven of them in total." Aiden finally said to his group. The larger group finally came into full site of them and Aiden was able to look at them. They all were wearing random arrangements of armor except one mans armor stood out. He was wearing intimidating black plate armor and held a spear over his shoulders. His shaggy strawberry blond hair was draped down covering his eyes occasionally. He looked like the leader of the group and stepped toward the Jade Skull.

"Well well well, look what we have here, you're the Jade Skull guild aren't you?" His unsettling cheerful voice called out to them.

"So what if we are?" Aiden called back, completely monotone.

"Well I'm just happy to finally meet you face to face." The man stepped forward towards Aiden. "I mean, you have made quite a name for yourselves in the boss raids as of late. I figured I should meet you at some point." The man was getting closer to Aiden, but stopped and kept out of arms reach. Aiden looked down to the shorter man and smirked.

"Your name is Yohara if I recall. Name's Aiden, it's pleasure to meet you, but we're on a tight schedule so I think we'll be going." Aiden started walking past the man, followed by Kaori and Sten. Yohara smiled and began laughing out loud.

"Oh, I don't think so, we just met. Why don't we have a chat." The other six members of the group formed a blockade, stopping the Jade Skull's movements. Aiden dropped his head and clenched his fists tightly. Kaori and Sten walked up close behind Aiden, leaving no distance between them. Yohara spun around on his heal and faced the group.

"You see, Aiden," Yohara spat. "You all seem to be in real favor of that trash beater. I think you guys should rethink who you associate yourselves with. Not to mention that KoB bitch, Flash. Most people in the raids hate those two in particular. But you came in and made yourselves all buddy buddy with them."

"Man... you're just... just..." Aiden tried thinking.

"Baka." Kaori helped out.

"Yeah! Thanks Ka-chan. But seriously, who doesn't like Asuna? She's one of the most popular people in all of Aincrad." Aiden placed a hand over his face to hide his laughter, leaving Yohara fuming.

"Shut it you piece of shit!" Aiden's laugh dropped and he turned to look at the irritable man.

"But that's what this is about? Because we don't like the same people?" He responded to the potential threat. A distant noise stopped the conversation as they all looked around to see where it was coming from. A grinding like sound, confused most of the players, resulting in quiet talks between the six members blocking the way. After noticing the noise was still going, Yohara finally decided to ignore it.

"Hmmm, well when you say it like that you make us seem like really bad people. But yeah, more or less. Also because ya look like you have some nice gear. I've always found taking has always been more fun than giving." Yohara's smile hadn't dropped and it seemed to only grow. Aiden knew what was coming and he gently pushed Kaori behind him and whispered to her.

"Kaori." She looked up to him and knew he was dead serious. "I want you to teleport out of here. Right now." Kaori quickly tried to grab a crystal and called out.

"Teleport Mishe!" She yelled, only to stay exactly where she is." Yohara took note to her actions.

"Well look at that, you can't teleport here. Thanks for the helpful tip, as a reward we'll kill you fast. Now, should we get this started?" The group of seven readied their weapons for an attack. Sten and Aiden switched sides and stood back to back with Kaori in the middle, Sten facing Yohara, Aiden facing the other six. Aiden spoke to his group.

"We're getting out of this. I'll make sure of it."

Two girls wandered the halls of the 40th floor, Ryo and Nene. Ryo was a scary girl that often drew most players away from her. Typically looming over those she looks down upon with a dark aura, even if they're taller. A slender girl, Ryo's around the age of seventeen standing at five and a half feet, with straight brown hair that covers her left eye, and barely went down to her shoulders. She has a serious yet bored look in her blue eyes majority of the time. And her twin sister Nene, a girl with a sick and twisted sense of fun. It's almost scary how excited she gets when it comes to killing mobs. She always has a smile on, no matter what, in contrast to Ryo. Much like Ryo, she had straight brown hair that lead down to her shoulders, but hers was beautifully combed back. Outside of her brown eyes and different hairstyle, there really weren't any major differences in the twins faces. The easiest way to tell would be that Nene always wore a circlet on her head with an amethyst in the middle of it.

Ryo and Nene wore interesting armor, things that most other girls in the game avoided for one reason or another. Ryo had on a purple tank top, that seemed to emphasize her breasts and cleavage, with yellow gauntlets and shoulder plates. She wore purple tights that if looked at from the right angle, could be see through straight to her underwear. The exotic clothing choice just called out to Ryo and she brandished it like it was always her style. Nene wore a yellow shirt that was protected by a purple colored breast plate, wrapped around her chest and shoulders. It provided as much defense without effecting maneuverability. She wore a matching yellow skirt that went just down to her mid thighs that would often flutter higher than wanted. A purple belt sat diagonally around her waist with a large buckle in the front. The thing that made the two unique was their identical rare drop weapons; double bladed pikes. The purple shaft of the weapons had two black grips on them for their hands. Above that, the two blades of the U-shaped pike were jagged and shaped for large amounts of damage. The only difference between the two identical weapons were the feathers that were hanging right underneath the blade. Ryo's feathers were white where as Nene's were black. Ryo's pike was named «Light's Might» and Nene's sister pike was called «Darkness Fright»

They had heard of a special room that held a rare weapon. All they had to do is get past the boss guarding it. That and find the room...

"Oh man, we've been wandering around these caves for three hours now. Where is this silly place." Nene cried out to her sister

"Maybe it's behind like a fake wall or something." Ryo offered as some form of idea. Nene looked at the walls and shrugged.

"Maybe. I guess we can try it. The wall should make a different sound right?" Nene spun her pike around and placed it gently on the wall as Ryo mimicked her movements and did the same on the adjacent wall. As the two girls walked down the dark dungeon the sound of grinding metal on rock echoed off in the distance. Small sparks came off of the wall from time to time and briefly illuminated their path a bit more. They pulled their weapons off the wall as the sound became to much.

"Oh Ryo, this isn't working. I'm starting to think this... this... meany face place doesn't even exist." Ryo walked over to her complaining sister.

"Look around, no monsters have popped. We're near the room." Nene looked around the cave walls. Something was off about the surrounding area. It felt different and Ryo was right.

"There!" Nene hopped over to a small ruby on the wall. As she touched the gem it warmed up and began to glow. Ryo stepped up next to Nene and the girls looked at the now separating wall. The rocks slid violently out of the way and opened up the room. Inside a massive wingless dragon's silhouette showed. As it's eyes opened up, an intense purple shined from them. It let out a loud howl and the torches in the room ignited burning brightly. The force from it's howl blew Nene and Ryo's hair all over. Nene couldn't figure out if she wanted to hold her skirt down or keep her hair neat. So she frantically shifted her hands from one location to the other. After the dragon stopped it's bellowing. Nene and Ryo grabbed each other tightly, screamed and ran down the hall, far away from the boss. They came to a stop, breathing heavily and doubled over.

"That... that thing was... massive." Ryo tried saying through her heavy breathing. Nene looked over to her.

"Why does it have to be a lizard? There so gross and slimy!" Ryo's head just shook in response.

"No, that was a dragon. Also lizards aren't slimy they're usually dry or have scales."

"Not now Ryo!" Nene's quick words made Ryo slightly chuckle and the two girls shared a laugh.

"Alright then, what should we do?" Ryo asked standing up and helping Nene to her feet.

"Well we could try to fight it, but odds are it's to tough for just us." The twins looked at each other and sighed, knowing that their adventure for today was for not.

"I guess we can just head home then." Walking down the halls the girls moral for the day had dropped, being in a group of only two had its downfalls when it came to sub-bosses. They could just barely handle some named monsters but when it came to most monsters with more than two bars of health forget it. The girls came to a quick halt after hearing a scream.

"What was that?" Ryo questioned the odd noise. Nene brandished a terrifying smile.

"That was the sound of somebody dieing. We should check it out." The two girls ran off down the corridor the soon found a group of people fighting, not monsters, but each other. Two men fought each other one on one furthest from them. One man with blond long hair and the other with spiky brown hair. Closer to them there were five fighters against two. It seemed the fight was frozen as the small girl had her hammer slammed hard into the ground and was shaking with tears in her eyes. No doubt she was the one that caused the scream as she took the life of somebody for the first time. Nene and Ryo came running quickly through the larger group and stood in between the five remaining fighters and the two others, weapons held out at each side.

"What are you all doing!?" Nene yelled out, her spear pointed at the five people.

"You know that if you kill in here you'll kill in real life right?" Ryo followed up with her spear pointed towards the unarmed muscular man.

"Maybe you should tell them that, they just killed one of our friends!" A guy stepped forward from the group, pointing his sword at the girl with the hammer. his long brown hair was easily the most noticeable thing about him as it went well down to his lower back.

"If you still want to fight then keep coming! I'll take you all out! But remember you brought this upon yourself!" The muscular man yelled back to him, holding a firm fighting stance.

"I think you should all settle down. It wont end well for any of you if we get involved." Ryo threatened the surrounding fighters.

"Oh please let us get involved, it's been a while since we've been able to kill." Nene followed up, leaving a terrified look on the larger groups faces. However it was not to the liking of the larger brawler.

"If you threaten my guild like these fools did then I'll take you down just like them. Nobody hurts my friends and lives. I suggest you choose a side or get out of here. Either way, if you want to live, stay out of my way!"

Ryo and Nene are fun new introductions yeah? But what will happen to them? Will Kaori ever be able to recover after killing a man for the first time at such a young age? I guess you have to keep reading to find out!

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