Over the course of the next three months the clearers, as we had now been dubbed, worked hard to clear many floors. Despite wanting to train hard and explore the floors we had seen some of the clearers were more active than others and we were now on floor twenty five.
This floor seemed to be giving the clearers troubles. Try as they might no one had managed to find the boss labyrinth.
While many floors had been cleared in a matter of days we had spent ten so far on this floor. A rumour that some of the clearer's were becoming restless was circulating and another rumour was that a new guild had been formed and was hiring many of the once solo clearers.
As March came to an end we cleared floor twenty six. The rumours about a new guild were proven true. Knights of Blood they called themselves. They were led by the greatshielder known by many as Heathcliff.
Asuna had also made the decision to join the KoB since their main focus was clearing the game. So caught up in her work we rarely saw Asuna outside of boss battles.
After their creation and success in leading the raid on floor twenty six the KoB gained a lot of favour in the clearer meetings.
Before floor twenty five a guild that goes by the name Aincrad Liberation Army had the most influence but on floor twenty five they suffered heavy losses and left the front lines.
Rumours have it this is what made Heathcliff decide he needed to make a new guild of his own.
Constantly coming head to head with the ALA was the guild that goes by the Divine Dragon Alliance. This guild had by far the most members being around the longest. Since around floor 10 the DDA had been leading all of the meetings to discuss floor battles.
With so many members they were often the first to master the labyrinth. And find the boss rooms.
So when the KoB came along to lead the raid on floor twenty seven, a mere two days after arriving on the floor, DDA were not too happy.
This led to a change in how these meetings were held. We went from one guild leading the meeting to a few of the lead guilds meeting and discussing together the best way to succeed.
Our guild, while only having four members, was allowed to participate in these meetings due to the strength and skill we had displayed in the fights.
Since our formulation many people had asked to join us but we wanted the guild to be a place filled with friends and despite asking to join us they had made no move to befriend us.
Well that was until we arrived on floor twenty seven. It was a pretty normal day for Me and Kazuto. We were out trying to find materials for Lizbeth.
Agil and Lizbeth were once more trying to build their reputations in their respective fields.
The materials we needed took us back down to floor twenty five. We knew from coming through here the first time that this floor was filled with swamps and these swamps had traps.
We had intended to trigger a specific trap that summoned Stonewater Crocodiles, their hide made good armour. When we arrived at the location however we heard a piercing scream.
Not needing to look at Kazuto I knew we were going to help whoever had screamed. Dashing into the swamplands where the trap was we saw a small group of people fighting the crocodiles.
A girl who looked to be around Kazuto's age was currently getting her leg chomped by one of the crocodiles. With no hesitation I dashed forward and decapitated the crocodile.
Trusting Kazuto to have my back I forced the girl to drink a potion to revitalise her.
Once I was sure she was in no danger of dying I joined Kazuto in murdering the crocodiles. It did not take too long to dispatch them since our levels were far above the crocodiles.
After defeating the mobs that were troubling the group we escorted them back into town. They had wanted to gather more but we suggested that they get the girl back, she seemed pretty distressed.
We headed to a popular inn on floor twenty five where the leader Keita refused to let us leave without thanking us properly.
We shared some good food and drink, on Keita's dime, non alcoholic of course. We spoke about Keita's goals and desires while we enjoyed our time together.
As we were about to leave Keita all but begged us to train his guild teach them how to be as strong as our guild is.
He knew who we were of course most people had heard of us by this point. I wasn't sure if training his guild was something we could do. They didn't particularly show any talent during the fight.
Kazuto seemed to be thinking along the same lines for he did not answer right away. I leaned into him so we could discuss a little.
After some time Kazuto had made up his mind and we decided to help the group of friends. After deciding to help we messaged Agil and Lizbeth and asked them to help, thankfully they agreed.
We spent the next three days helping The moonlit black cats, Keita's guild. While they lacked a natural talent they had a drive to move forward and fight to clear the game. Well except the girl.
Her name was Sachi and while she was a nice girl she didn't seem like she wanted to be on the front lines at all. This led to a distinct lack of growth initially. It was hard to get her proficient. I decided to take her aside and speak to her alone for a bit and I learnt that she was fearful of dying and didn't feel like she could help at all.
She would have been more than happy to stay in the town of beginnings but she did not want to leave her friends and they wanted to join the assault team, another name for the clearers.
After talking to Kazuto about Sachi we decided to train her by herself and left the training of the others to Agil and Lizbeth.
Sachi didn't really understand why we had chosen to train her individually but came along with us anyway. My goal was to show her with our training she would have the skill to kill enemies alone if needed, so fighting in a group would be easy.
It took half of the day to even make progress with Sachi but by the end of the day Sachi was able to kill mobs on her own. She would keep checking to make sure we had her back but that didn't matter as long as she trusted her friends to have her back.
By the end of day three the Moonlit Black Cats had made quite a substantial amount of Col fighting enemies that they would not normally fight.
This gave Keita the Idea that they could buy a home instead of renting inn's all the time. After discussing it with his guild Keita left.
His guild decided to go hit a dungeon in the hopes to get some more Col to buy furniture.
Sachi decided that she wanted to train with Kazuto and myself so we left the other three with Agil. Lizbeth had gone to make equipment for their new friends.
When I arrived back with Sachi and Kazuto, Agil was clearly distressed. Walking over to him we learnt that Tetsuo, Sasamaru and Ducker had fallen into a trapped room. The room had prevented crystals being used.
Agil was feeling guilty he had not been able to protect them, they had refused to listen when he told them not to touch the chest.
When Keita came back he was wracked by grief. He was not foolish enough to blame Agil but he fell quickly into a dark depression.
That night we held a candlelight vigil for the fallen and when we woke up we learnt that Keita had taken his own life, unable to deal with the loss of his friends.
Sachi was racked with sorrow upon the loss of her friends and did not know how to handle what she was feeling. Knowing staying in this town wouldn't help her we took her back to our inn room on floor twenty seven, but not before Sachi sold the house not wanting it if she couldn't share it with her friends.
For the next few days I took time to try and comfort Sachi, Kazuto had stayed too to try and help. I thankfully had not lost anyone to this world, well no one I knew so I could only imagine how she was feeling.
During our time training trying to console Sachi we didn't realise we missed the floor battle of floor twenty eight and a week later when Sachi felt able to focus on getting better we was just in time to take on that floor's boss too.
We arrived on floor thirty just at the start of June but finding a way forward seemed to be proving difficult. We decided to focus on levelling up as much as we could, leaving the other guilds to find the boss chamber.
While Sachi had improved vastly she had a long way to go to match me and Kazuto. Over the course of the time we had spent together I started to notice Sachi was showing feelings for Kazuto.
I had been doing as Kazuto asked and was trying not to push him into a relationship with me. But now Sachi was making her feelings known. I couldn't help but try to confess again to Kazuto.
One night after a long day on the front I asked Kazuto to take me to lunch. He was astute so I was sure he knew exactly what I wanted to talk about.
We ended up eating a really nice meal and had the finest non alcoholic wine. By the end of our dinner I was sure Kazuto was aware of what I wanted.
We didn't talk about it over dinner. I couldn't bring myself to ask and potentially be rejected again. When we returned to the inn we sat by a fire provided by the inn room and I could feel my heart pounding.
Just when I knew I had to say something, Kazuto pulled me close and kissed me rather passionately. I had never had a kiss like this but I didn't want it to end.
I threw my arms around Kazuto's neck and returned the kiss as best I could. I didn't know If the kiss could be considered good having no experience but to me it was more than wonderful.
We kissed for much longer than I ever dared to believe I would with Kazuto and when he pulled away he smiled at me.
"I'm sorry Sugu, I shouldn't have kept you waiting so long. I have seen how you act around Sachi lately. But I have heart only for you"
I leaned in and kissed him once more hoping to silently convey he need not apologise. This kiss was less intense but just as good as the one before.
Kazuto after sometime suggested we head to bed. Smiling, I agreed but only if we shared a bed. Him blushing was kind of cute but soon he had me blushing.
He came close to me and started taking off my armour. Blushing hard and dark red I clicked the no button on a harassment prompt that popped up trying to flag Kazuto.
"Is this okay Sugu? We're not going to do that but I thought it would be nice to undress the normal way."
I smiled at him and felt true happiness that he had asked before continuing. I had not intended to stop him but I appreciated him asking.
"I don't mind if it is you Kazuto, but I am not ready for that so no funny business." I tell him giggling and letting him continue to remove my armour and under clothes.
As he undressed me I looked at my body. I have grown a little since we came here but not much. I was still pretty flat and wondered how Kazuto would feel about that.
"You know your body is unlikely to change here." He told me to see where I was looking.
"Our avatars do not grow with us; we can't exactly recalibrate our bodies."
I understood what it was he was saying and blushed at the question I wanted to ask.
"Does my body please you still Kazuto?"
Upon hearing my question Kazuto kissed me lightly. It felt a little naughty being kissed while I was just in my underwear but I let him kiss me anyway.
"Your beautiful Sugu. I mean it."
I didn't need any more clothes to remove for bed so I took my turn to start undressing him. His face turned red as I undressed him and I blushed just as hard seeing him in his boxers.
To prevent any further embarrassment we got in bed and covered ourselves up, cuddling and we fell asleep. I was truly happy at that moment.
When I woke up Kazuto still had his arms around me, I felt safe in his embrace and didn't want to move at all. I stayed still not wanting to wake him and enjoyed our closeness.
As Kirito woke up he pulled away from me a little. I looked at him slightly confused before I realised just why. I felt embarrassed but giggled a little at the same time.
After giving him a moment I passed him my clothes and armour pieces. This action made him laugh and he started to dress me. I smiled happily and made sure to dress him after he had finished.
Once we were presentable we headed downstairs to speak with the rest of our guild. We wanted them to know we had stopped dancing around each other and were together.
Agil and Lizbeth were both very happy for us. As I watched Sachi I could see that she looked a little put out by the news.
She tried her best to act normal and be happy for us but her demeanour had definitely changed a little.
After officially going public with each other I felt extremely happy. I got to hold Kazuto's hand anytime I wanted or kiss him if I wanted to.
As we progressed closer to Kazuto's birthday we managed to clear more floors. In fact, when Kazuto's birthday arrived we were on floor thirty seven.
On Kazuto's birthday I dragged him away from everyone else. In secret I had been practising my cooking skill and I felt like I was finally ready to cook for him.
I rented a house for the night and we hid away there. Kazuto was very confused when I told him to sit and wait for me. Thankfully cooking in SAO was pretty easy as long as you had the skill.
I made Kazuto a nice steak from a boar we had defeated. Once I was finished Kazuto looked shocked and I could see his happiness radiating off him.
We enjoyed the meal together and I am happy to say it turned out well, with Kazuto asking for seconds. After dinner I presented Kazuto a new sword I had Lizbeth make. I made sure it was made with heavy metals how he liked it. For the level we were at it was a really good blade and I had to thank Lizbeth more than once.
Kazuto was overjoyed by the present and the food and decided to show me by picking me up, spinning me around and kissing me quite passionately.
During our night we had been sharing more kisses like this and I loved every one of them. We decided to head to bed and as had become our new ritual I let Kazuto undress me.
Normally he would leave my underclothes on but this time he pulled off my top too making me blush a dark red. I looked up at him and he just responded by kissing me.
We got in the bed and I felt a little exposed not wearing a t-shirt but I also found it somewhat liberating. I moved close to him and let him spoon me.
Despite my undress, Kazuto kept his hands to himself which made me more comfortable being with him like this.
The next day it was business as usual. The floor boss had been found and we were apparently going there this very day. After making sure I had everything I would need we went to join the fight. To our surprise Sachi insisted on coming with us.
The thirty eighth floor boss turned out to be a fierce foe. His defence was almost impeccable with heavy armour guarding most of its fleshy organs.
Knowing that this was going to be a long fight I didn't go all out from the start like most others. After a long half hour most of the people gathered were faltering.
The boss was in the low yellow but barely any groups were still up. Looking around I was not surprised to see some members of DDA up, Heathcliff and Asuna were the only ones from the KoB left standing as far as I knew.
Looking at Klein's group he had him and one other. In my group Sachi was down and Lizbeth probably wouldn't last too much longer. While Agil was still up he has used many potions to keep his health up.
Knowing that this fight needed to be ended fast I started attacking with a new vigour. I could see people watching us once more.
Kazuto, who had seen me charged, joined me. Heathcliff and his insanely strong defence took over taunting the enemy into attacking him.
We managed to defeat the beast not too long later and I was completely wiped out. I fell into Kazuto's arms and we sat down together. Looking over at Kazuto I could see a small window being dismissed.
"Get anything nice?" Instead of answering me properly he just kissed me, a short kiss.
"Later."
I nodded my head, not willing to dispute it while feeling exhausted.
"I think stamina training might be needed if more fights are going to be like this." I heard Lizbeth say as she sunk onto the floor next to me.
The next person to join us was Heathcliff. He looked intrigued and for lack of a better word proud. I didn't know the man well but somehow being in his presence made me feel slightly inferior. He was the only player who's health bar had not dropped into the yellow.
"I really wish you two did not have a guild you would do well in the Knights of Blood. I am glad we had you with us this fight."
He seemed to have no more to say to us because he turned around and left. Asuna gave us a small wave before following her commander out the area.
After spending fifteen minutes sitting recuperating we made our way onto floor thirty nine.
After the last floor boss Sachi finally felt ready to let go of her past. She disbanded the Moonlight Black cats and joined us in our guild.
