"Could somebody tell me why the hell are we walking inside this godforsaken forest for an hour and still haven't reach the town!?" Asuna yelled out frustratingly, and for once, I agreed with her.

This is way too far. It shouldn't have taken more than half an hour from the hill we rested earlier to Mayfair.

"Did it was like this the last time you went through here, Agil?" I asked Agil, who looked just as confused as me.

"Something's wrong." Agil said. "It wasn't supposed to be this long."

"Thanks for telling the obvious!" Asuna complained.

"Either that, or we're lost in the woods." Keita said.

I glanced around. There is nothing but trees in sight. The sun's starting to go down.

"Wait, I got a new message." Tetsuo said, before opening his message window.

"Now's not really the time to check the message, Tetsuo..." Sasamaru said, but Tetsuo just kept staring at the message, his eyes that always seem to stay shut opened wide.

"Wha!? What the hell is this!?" Tetsuo shouted.

"What's happening?"

"L-look at this message!" He pointed to the message window in front of him.

Suddenly, the 'message alert' window popped up in front of me.

"Hey, I just got a new message, too!" I said.

"Me, too." Keita added.

"We all got a new message." Agil said.

"B-but what's the meaning of this? We all got a new message at the same time." Sachi asked.

"And they are all the same message, look at the sender's name." Izumi replied.

I looked at the message's name:

(NEW) Message No. 20, Sender: SAO Administration, Subject: Patch 1.01 Update

What's the meaning of this!?

I opened the message, while my friends do the same.

Dear our beloved Sword Art Online players,

We're happy to inform you that as a result of the 'intense online gaming experience' during the past two years, we've finally released a new update patch for Sword Art Online. The update is taking place simultaneously all over the server and will change some aspects of the gameplay. This included:

-Fifteen new weapons and eleven new items

-New quests

-Balancing monsters stats. For more detailed information, please press here

-Remapping dungeons. For more detailed information, please press here

.

.

.

"That's it!" Agil said. "That's why this place isn't the same as when I first came through here!"

"Damn that Kayaba!" Asuna cursed. "What rights did he has to toy with us like this!?"

I pressed at the 'here' to see more information.

-Remapping dungeons

We've redesigned some of the dungeons in order to balance out the distance between towns in each floor, as well as reducing the number of monsters in the dungeons in favor of giving a chance for players to explore the areas and enjoy sightseeing.

What kind of reason was that!?

"Hey Agil, what's the name of this forest again?" Keita asked.

"It's called Tranquil Forest. Normally, there's not much monsters in here so people from all around the place came here to enjoy sightseeing." Agil explained.

I looked at the message again, and scrolling to the list of dungeons that got remapped.

.

.

Trail of the Wind, floor 41

Tranquil Forest, floor 24

Turlop's Den, floor 62

.

.

"So this place's changed as well..." I began. "The message mentioned that it reduced the number of monsters in the dungeons. Well, if it was already low in the first version, then the patch should've remove almost all the monsters here."

"Might as well as making this place the safe zone, darn it..." Asuna said. "Anyway, back to the point! How are we gonna get to Mayfair now? It's getting dark already!"

"The message said that the redesigned maps were enlarged to balance out the distance between the towns. It was only a few minutes away from the hill we rested and the teleport town so...well...you know the rest." I guessed, which caused Asuna to groan in frustration.

"There must be some way we could get to that town faster!" She continued. "They can't expect us to walk longer distances like this! It's unfair!"

"Wait!" Sachi spoke out. "Look!"

She pointed to the road in front of us.

There is one thing stood there...

A horse.

We all slowly walked toward it.

"The heck? I didn't know this game has horses." Sasamaru said confusingly. "Well, I mean, those that aren't hideous monsters or something..."

We stared at the horse for a while. It doesn't show any sign of fear or hostility.

"It's so cute!" Lamia adored. She slowly moves her hand to touch it, but the horse simply galloped away into the nearby forest clearing, where stood a herd of about a dozen horses.

"Why are these horses here? They weren't here the first time around." Agil said. "Heck, they weren't suppose to be in the game!"

"Well, clearly something's changed since then after the patch update," Izumi replied. "Just continue reading the message."

I did as she said.

.

.

.

-New combat skills. For more detailed information, please press here

-Enhanced item effects. For more detailed information, please press here

*-New transportation method. For more detailed information, please press here*

I pressed to show more details.

-New transportation method

As a result of the dungeon remapping mentioned above, the distances between locations have become longer, so we decided to add a new method of transportation for the players who would like to fast travel between places without having to spend the Return Crystal or any warping items. From this moment, horses of all breeds will be found randomly in outdoor maps, and can be tame to provide a faster mean of travelling. You can ride a horse by using a new item called 'Saddle', which is added to everyone's inventory for free for one time use and can be bought at any NPC item stores. Just walk up to the horse you wanted and use the 'Saddle' to be able to ride it. You can ride a horse for as long as you wanted but as soon as you get off, the 'Saddle' will be gone and you won't be able to ride it again unless you have an extra 'Saddle'. Those with enough money can rent or buy a personal horse from 'Stable', currently a new location added in some towns. Be warned, horses cannot be use deep inside special dungeons or while fighting a boss. Some new quests also required horses to complete them.

"T-they're joking! They're actually telling us that we're now able to...ride horses?" Asuna said in disbelief.

"What, Asuna? Aren't you complaining all the time that you're tired of walking around?" I teased her, while opening up my inventory menu to check for the new item.

"Just shut up!"

After a while, I found it, the 'Saddle' item, which appeared out of nowhere inside my inventory.

Better give this thing a try.

I walked up to the black horse eating grasses nearby, and press the 'Saddle' item.

Do you want to use 'Saddle'?

Yes/No

Hell yes.

I pressed 'Yes' and the 'Saddle' item disappeared from my inventory, and reappeared on the black horse's back.

The horse stopped eating, before turning toward me, and bow its head.

"Whoa...is this for real?" Keita said in awe. Others started to do the same with the nearby horses.

I use my hand to pet its head. The horse just simply closed its eyes and whinny happily.

"All right, kiddo. You ready for some fresh air?"

The horse whinny again, which I took it as yes.

"Let's do this, then."

And I climbed onto the horseback.

Editor's Note: Well, a little tweak in the system won't hurt, or is it?

So I was checking out the SAO episodes again and SURPRISE, there ARE horses in SAO! Damnit! What's wrong with my memories!?

Well, to be honest, I've entirely forgot that there were horses in SAO, seeing that they rarely appeared in the game and almost nobody seem to ride them. Arrg, now I feel so embarrassed...(Note: From one reviewer mentioned to me, Kirito once rode a horse when he was investigating about a murder in the safe area, and if I remembered correctly, that was the ONLY scene in the entire anime showing horses.)

But alas, as much as I wanted to rewrite this damn chapter, I can't...Well, there won't be another mistake like this again, I promise! Just...pretended that Kirito solved the Murder in the Walls using different means, and that horses were just recently added to the game in this story. Argg, I feel so stupid...

And the horses in this chapter, well, I decided that they'll be Swiss Warmblood, a native breed found in Switzerland.

Next chapter's gonna be a while. A major test's coming up soon and my schedule's all f***ed up. So you guys will have to settle for this for a while.