Author's notes.

Well, here we go. (again)

..

I can't be bothered about level comparisons to canon, and honestly, you shouldn't either. Making levels up as I go.

I honestly wanted to skip ahead but the story must go in order…

This wasn't exactly the vision I had when I started writing SaOtoshigami. I wanted to focus more on the NPCs rather than the system. But eh, I wanted Keima to have some start impact, because it'll be important much later on.

Edit: damn it, turns out I researched into level again -_-. Hmm… is progressive canon? Eh… probably not, but why not.

Edit2: fuuuuuuuu ended up giving tsukihime the spotlight. Totally not in my intention. I promise more Keima after this. He's just not the sort whom would give an outburst.

Edit 3: I need to gather keima quotes… I can't get a grasp on them.

SaOtoshigami 2 :The first boss fight

It has been a month since the start of SAO. Keima's level was at 10, and he was hard pressed to find mobs strong enough for him to obtain an efficient way of leveling. He was fine with a little grind, but when one calls for the death of five hundred mobs in order to level, he had to throw in the towel.

Not that he was the only one feeling this way. Other players whom were at level nine or eight were all feeling this pressure to level. This impatience. Among one of those players were Tsukihime12, whom had stubbornly refused to let anyone call her by her true name. Not that it mattered to him, but he had long since realized that they needed all the help they could get to defeat the first floor boss.

It worried him, how long the progress took. The layout of each floor in the game was as follows. Town, with fields outside, and then a floor dungeon which is guarded by a field boss, and inside of the floor dungeon there were multiple levels.

Levels within levels, Keima hated that. It was a mechanism to slow down a player's progress. If there's twenty levels at floor 1, how many levels will floor 100 have? One thousand?

He hoped that Kayaba was not that sadistic of a game designer.

Regretfully, he had missed the sight of the field boss, and it's death but he had managed to find the entry to the floor boss room. He had tried to solo it, but realized soon after that doing so would be horribly inefficient and ran away. Also, there was a hidden risk here. In day two, an information broker named Argo had created and somehow distributed a pamphlet in SAO titled Strategy Guide by Area, and being a death game, it told all the players on the many risks and basic playstyles of SAO.

It appeared that the boss in the first floor would switch it's weapon to a Talwar once two thirds of its hp was depleted. But when Keima had fought against it, the weapon that was strapped to its side was too slim and too narrow to be a talwar.

So, here he was, at the first floor boss fight meeting, feeling bored out of his mind. Unexpectedly, a familiar looking name sat next to him, though Tsukihime12 said nothing as she focused on the speaker ahead.

He paid little attention to the inspiring speech that Diabel, the organizer gave, but his eyes sharpened upon Kibaou whom interrupted the gathering.

"In this group, there should be about 5 or 10 people that need to apologize."

"Apologize? To whom?" Diabel inquired.

"Ha, isn't it obvious. To the 2000 people who died up until now. Those guys had a monopoly on everything, and so 2000 people died in one month! Isn't that right?!"

"—Kibaou-san. Those guys who you're referring to are the original beta testers, right?"

"Those beta testers, on the day this shitty game started, dashed from the Starting City and disappeared. They left behind over 9000 people who didn't know left from right. They monopolized good hunting grounds and profitable quests, got only themselves stronger equipment and then always feigned ignorance about it afterwards…There should also be some in this group, some sly people hiding their beta status and thinking of joining the Boss Fight.

I say we should make them kneel down and spit out all of the gold and items they stockpiled for the sake of this operation, and that they cannot be entrusted with the lives of our party members!"

What a shameless mock cruel antagonist and right about now, wouldn't there be a protagonist? True to his predictions, a man named Agil stood and spoke up.

"Kibaou-san, what you mean to say is that many beginners died because original beta testers did not take care of them, and that they should accept that responsibility and apologize along with giving reparations for it, is that correct?"

"That's right! If they had not left us behind, 2000 people would not have had to die! Moreover, they were not just any 2000 people, most of them were top-ranked veterans from other MMOs! If those stupid testers had properly shared information, items and money, then there would have been 10 times as many people here right now…no, by now we would have broken through the 2nd or 3rd floor!"

"That's what you say, Kibaou-san. I don't know about the money and items, but I believe that there is in fact information from them."

The man, Agil opened his item menu, and within seconds, a book materialized in his hands, and he showed it to the crowd. "This book was free, and it has information, all information that was given to us all within days from the start of SAO. This information, the Strategy guide by Area was surely from a beta tester."

The crowd was silent as they waited for Agil to proceed, but to all of their surprise, he sat down instead.

Kibaou fist was clenched tightly, and he shouted back up. "So what! Even if they give information, they should still be the support when we most needed it! Those bastards left us alone! They should beg for forgiveness, and give us their gold and equipment in return!"

*STOMP*

All eyes were on Tsukihime12 on his right when she stood, having jumped once to attract attention to herself. She raised a finger, pointing it at Kibaou in defiance.

"You bastard! The deaths of two thousand people. Do you seek revenge for their sake or do you only wish to get the gold and equipment for yourself? Those whom put effort into the game will get far. Those who do not will remain behind. I'm a beta tester, and on the second day, I gathered together a group of ten people and trained them!"

Her face was angry, and she dropped her hand, looking to her right, where her 'friends' were, and nodded to them.

"I wasn't alone! Many others were like me! We gathered and taught and helped as many as we could to survive! I wanted to train more people, but do you know what happened? Those that I approach, all of them were still moping in misery, moping in sadness and they were unable to act. There's no point in teaching those useless ones!

Don't blame only the beta testers. Blame those whom died themselves! Blame Kayaba, blame this damn human nature whom each found a way to cope! Those whom have good equipment right now, they earned it! I rather leave it in their hands where they can deal DPS! Don't you dare blame them for the deaths!"

Kibaou scoffed, but he looked away. "I'm leaving. I refuse to cooperate with a beta tester."

He walked out, leaving the rest of the players alone.

…

Diabel had regained control over the boss discussion soon after. It seemed that after the mishap, the discussions proceeded without a problem.

"So once again, when the boss life falls to its final hp bar, 3 Kobold would appear and it will switch it's weapon to a talwar and be in a berserk state. Now, the skills of a talwar is a single target AOE smash.. so we have to be wary about that."

"Hey wait." Keima injected, being in group F. "I scouted the boss by myself. The weapon at its side, it's not a talwar, the boss was holding onto a Nodachi. "

The group turned as one onto Keima. Many voices spoke as one, and he could only get a glimpse of the words that they say.

"You scouted the boss?"
" Ha, brave man! How did you survive?"
"Weren't you worried about your life? Did you go in alone? You'll be killed."
"Not just the boss, but there were four monsters in total in that room, did you kite?"
"That man is insaneeeee!"
"Why did you do it?"

Keima raised both of his hands, shouting to have his voice heard over the rest.

"Hmmth. Let me teach you something. I've lost my fear for my life after the sixth day.. also…"

Keima took a step back, pushing his glasses up as he activated the 'gloom' emoticon, causing an anime style raincloud to appear over his head.

"If there are no flowers in the world, seek flowers in heaven."

"…"

Once more, it seemed that he had to explain things to them...

"Basically, there are no girls to be conquered on floor 1. I've searched through all 60 km of this floor just to be certain. So, there's bound to be a girl to be saved on floor 2."

A random girl interrupted him in curiosity. "Um… you do realize this is a mmorpg right? There are no girls to be conquered or saved here."

"Oh foolish lambs of low belief. Let time show us who'll be right."

"…"

A cough sounded out, as Diabel regained control over the discussion once more.

"Right, so about the Nodachi skill… what are they?"

"Ah, there's this AOE skill, where you will slash around yourself and stun mobs whom get hit. It has a super long cooldown though."

The 1st floor boss discussions went on.

…

The day eventually came.

Once again, forty five members gathered together. Their hearts were set, their goals were steady and they marched in excitement towards the boss. Sounds of chatter and laughter was heard endlessly from them, even as they dispatched the few mobs that dared attack the group. They were all in good spirits.

Well, perhaps not all of them. Walking alone at the very front of the group, Keima Katsuragi was feeling very impatient with the group. They were all walking to slow! If it was just him…

Not for the last time, he forced his feet to slow down.

"Anxious?" Someone spoke behind him. He looked back, nodding to the short black haired girl. Her once unruly kept hair was combed neatly, and her hair was at shoulder length now. Her green eyes showed her amusement. "Why are you so eager, Keima?"

"In all the games I've played." He paused. "In dating sims. In sport games. In tactical games, in action games. Even in real life baseball, never, never have I been in a one month tutorial!" His teeth were visibly gritted together. "Also! There's no PFP in this game. Not only can't I play my game, my website is being outdated…." He looked depressed for a moment. "Furthermore, I thought it was all over after five days… But now, it's been one month…. I'm also not sure how I'm still alive or still here."

"Hmm, what do you mean?" Tsukihime12 questioned.

"…. Never mind." He walked quicker, leaving the girl behind.

*Friend request! Tsukihime12 wants to be your friend!*

Yes/No

A Mmorpg was naturally a social game, and there was no benefit to denying the request. Yet, there was no benefit to accepting the request as well. Hmm… this scenario felt very familiar to him… It's like he was in 'Nami-nami panic' … only, the girl was far cuter, and there were guns instead of swords.

In that game, regardless of the choice here, she would be a potential love interest to him. He didn't want that. Honestly, he didn't want to have a relationship at all. So the best thing to do here would be to press "Yes" and ignore all messages that she would send him.

And that's what he did.

….

The boss fight went very well. Players were all around, taking a single hit, switching, healing and repeating the process over and over. The boss attacks were telegraphed, and all the players easily dodged, forewarned by the shouting voice of Diabel. Finally, it came to the last life bar on the boss, and it threw the axe away, drawing the nodachi that was on its belt.

"Defend!"

Shields were raised as everyone braced themselves. The rapiers and sword users ran back as shield users took their places, kneeling with their shields held against the boss.

And not a moment too soon, for with the nodachi in hand, Illfang leaped high into the air, the sword in his hand releasing a crimson beam of light as it started to swing from left to right. It struck down among all the players in front of it, shield users and sword users alike.

Three hundred and sixty degree ranged katana sword skill. The heavy ranged attack Tsumujiguruma

They had already discussed this, anyone whom was hit by the skill would be stunned , but there was a way to block it, and that was too block your eyes from the skill…. Due to this, only a few players were affected by the 'stun' affect.

The shield users stood, all taking drinks from a potion before they spreaded out. They didn't surround the boss, all of them carefully noting to not do that to it. Once more, they maintained their strategy. Taking hits, switching, and healing up. Though 4 more Ruin Kobold Sentinels had spawned, and even though the boss were rapidly using skills that had high damage, it could not defeat the determined and prepared party of forty five.

Soon enough, the boss fell. The biggest obstacle which had kept eight thousand players confined in the first floor had finally been removed.

Cheers had resounded, cries of happiness from all players as the laughed. Exp, loot and the like were distributed to everyone.

Keima didn't care about any of that. Without looking back, he stepped forward. His footsteps soon broke into a run as he ran up a staircase and opened the door to the second floor of Aincrad. A splendid view welcomed him. Seeing the mountains at the distance, and breathing in the scent of cleanly cut grass, the view lifted the burden on his heart.

Now… where were those heroines hiding? He ran to the right, heading off the road and towards a destination that only god knows.

…

Author notes

That wraps it up! Fun parts start next chapter.

45 players is intended.

^not a grammar error.