It had been a week or so since Kirito and I had started our grinding in Aincrad, he showed me some good quests and mob spawns, we level up a lot, I got to level 13 and he got to level 10, we joke about the exp divide (although I still haven't told him about The Gamer), he also introduced me to Argo an information broker that buys and sells info on mob spawns and other things.

Then one day we were assisting Argo in checking a rumor, someone was saying there was a secret log out location and using Argo's name as some sort of verification. Argo was pissed when she found out and dragged us along to make sure nobody was immediately going to die, probably a good thing to considering we found a girl on deaths door at the hands of some werewolf looking thing.

Kirito immediately ran into action, his sword blurring from its sheath as he leaped into an overhead slice. I threw a signature rock with a Sword Skill, a yellow blur streaking into the wolf mobs hand, forcing it to drop the club as Kirito's blade cut it in half, killing it in one (assisted) blow.

Kirito sheathed his sword as Argo walked up to the downed girl and held out a healing potion, mumbling about the info house using her name to spread rumors. Kirito and I decided to take our leave, walking back to town to get started on more grinding, the grind never stops with Kirito on the block, and as long as he never finds out I grind more mobs while hes asleep? I'm fine with the arrangment.

A couple more weeks of grinding happened, I told Kirito I'd spend a couple days just getting map data for the whole labyrinth, he gave me the ok and told him to message when I got bored of it.

Its my second day of mapping the labyrinth, grinding the mobs that attacked me, and picking up more rocks, when I encountered something interesting. The same girl as before being attacked by a horde of mobs, she was dodging pretty well until she got an axe in the back. I pelted the closest enemies with rocks as I ran into battle, charging up my newest "Sword" Skill, an Unarmed skill apply named "rushing punch", with a yell I flung my fist into the back of a mob and watched they shatter to polygons. My other hand glowed with another skill, Low Jab, as my left hand sunk into the gut of another mob they were flung back into their fellows and met the same shattering fate of every other mob I fought.

Just as I got near the girl in peril a Sword Skill shined in the dim light, and a familiar swordsman with an anneal blade carved a path through the horde. "You idiot. If you fight like that, you'll die." he's even got some one liners I see.

He spotted me just then, "Oi Nokraz, what are you doing here?" "Saw the lass in trouble and figured I'd lend a hand." "Alright then, back to back Fencer, Nokraz." "Roger that boss."

"Don't order me around!" said Fencer replied with a very annoyed shout.

"Maybe when you aren't on deaths door 'Fencer'" I replied with a cheeky grin, rocks in my hands.

"Alright guys, on 3..." Kirito started counting down, the mobs filled in their shredded ranks and boxed us in, we prepared our Sword Skills and faced the horde head on.

Rocks flew through the air with the occasional cheap knife and throwing pick as I threw myself into the horde, my fists Slamming into their chins, stomachs, and other weak points. Unarmed Sword Skills swinging around me in an aurora of colors, a blue haymaker here, a red straight arm there, a yellow backhand, a green uppercut slamming a mob into his fellows. It was liberating to fight a horde, their weapons doing nothing to my hp, my armor and perks allowing me a nigh unbreakable defense this early in SAO, occasionally another rock would fling off into the distance, striking a kobold trying to strike Kirito and 'Fencer' in their blind spots.

Kirito's anneal blade flashed around him, making mince meat of the kobolds, slashing through artificial flesh and parrying blades of shoddy iron. A Horizontal, a Slant, a Vertical, and other Sword Skills lash out from his blade, turning the area around him into a zone of death for any mob stupid enough to attack. His free offhand allowing him to grab and push any spear or polearms haft away from his body, opening them up for a wicked retaliation.

'Fencer'(or her real username Asuna)'s rapier lashed out in hundreds of stabs and slashes, her sword skills were like lightning as she dodged around her enemies, it was impressive considering she isn't as fresh and fighting fit as me or Kirito.

Within minutes we had slain all the kobolds and other assorted mobs, as Kirito and I turned to regard Asuna she passed out. "Hey! 'Fencer'!" Kirito ran towards her fallen form as I hurried over. "C'mon we gotta get her to the safe zone." Kirito explained while picking her up. I followed close behind him as we dashed to the safe zone, laying her down gently Kirito took a blanket from his inventory to use as a pillow for her. We each picked somewhere to sit down and rest for a minute or so.

I glanced over my newest milestone perk again, Vitality is a pretty good stat.

Due to reaching 10 vitality you have achieved a milestone!

Iron Skin: Your skin is as tough as iron, your defence has increased by an additional 10% and your unprotected parts gain half the defence of your most armored part.

Now I only have to spend money on some really strong gauntlets and I get full body protection! And if I spend a bit more I can get those gauntlets to deal better unarmed damage! A fantastic combo for later when blacksmiths can make better gear.

As I finished up my musings I heard Asuna get up and have a short conversation in which Kirito stuck his foot in his mouth and almost got stabbed (even despite the safe zone). Eventually he got her to calm down with some black bread and cream, "You want one Nok?" "No thanks, I got my own food, you keep it." "Suit yourself!" Kirito got himself a piece of bread as I drew a small piece of cooked boar meat from my inventory, chowing down on the tasty pork on a bone. As I ate i heard Asuna and Kirito have a small argument about why Asuna wants to "die satisfied" in combat.

The bells of the nearby town Tolbana rang out, startling Asuna as Kirito explains whats going on. We're having a meeting on the boss battle at 4pm, and considering it was 3pm we decided to split up and go do our own thing. As we split I spotted Asuna get harassed by Argo, ha not my problem.

The ampitheater was crowded with players, all in various types of gear. I sat down and swiped through my inventory and sorted my items, swapped rocks out of my sao inventory into the gamer one alongside most of my food, as the gamer inventory prevents food spoilage unlike the sao one. And equipped a new set of bracers I got upgraded, leaving me with twice the defence I had before, perfect for an upcoming boss battle.

After 4pm had come around I spotted Kirito and Asuna walk into the theatre and waved them down.

*Clap!*

A blue haired man stood in the center of the theatre, an air of friendliness about him as he spoke. "Thank you everyone for responding to my call! All the top players of sao! My name is Diavel, and I like to consider my 'Job' as Knight!" he got a couple laughs at the joke, after the laughs died off he put on a more serious air.

"Today, our party found the boss room at the top of the tower. We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor, and tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that is it possible to beat this game. Everyone present here shares this duty! Do you all agree?!" everyone in the audience glanced around, nodding heads with each other and clapping at his speech. "All right, then let us begin our planning. First, divide into parties of six. An ordinary party has no chance against a floor boss. We'll need to form a raid group using multiple parties." as everyone grouped up with their friends I gave a look to Asuna and Kirito, and sent them a party invite each, they gave a smile and both joined my party, now I could stop calling her 'Fencer' at least.

"Did everyone finish making their parties? Alright then-" "Hold it!" a man with spiky orange hair jumped down the steps. "my names Kibaou, an I wanna say something before we take on the boss."

"opinions are welcome Kibaou, what did you want to say?" with an inhale Kibaou turned towards the audience and shouted out "SHOW YOURSELVES YOU COWERING BETA TESTERS! BECAUSE OF YOUR SELFISHNESS HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DIED! APOLOGIZE TO THOSE WHO DIED AND HAND OVER YOUR MONEY AND ITEMS!" the audience was stunned for the most part but one man stood up and approached Kibaou.

"Can I say something? Name's Agil. You're saying that beta testers should compensate for the beginners who died because they didn't receive any care from the beta testers, is that correct?" Agil was a tall bald black man with a goatee and a large axe on his back, he had an intimidating air as he questioned Kibaou.

"Th-thats right. Since the day this game began they abandoned most of the beginners, they all left the starting town. Do you know people like that too? That take the good hunting spots and steal the easy quests for themselves?" Kibaou hesitated at first but stood his ground, Agil calmly responsed as he drew a book from his inventory

"Its true that sao has limited resources on a floor, not enough for everyone to grind to be strong enough safely, but beta testers did help us." he held up the book as he spoke, turning towards the audience. "has everyone seen the Guide Book in the shops inventory? Its been in every town ive seen. It was free and it was made by the beta testers. Its true that many people died, but that's not on the fault of the beta testers, they left information for us to use, if they didn't I could agree that they were selfish. But the beta testers DID leave the book for us, its as accurate as they could make it." Agil finished up his speech as Diavel retook the conversation.

"The guide book also has information we can use for the first floor boss. It says here its name is 'Illfang the Kobold Lord' and has estimates of his hp, gear and minions, so we should start figuring out a strategy for this boss. I don't want any casualties understand? Zero deaths." The crowd started pulling out and sharing the guide books they had, while giving a short cheer for Diavel. After everyone had partied up he approached our party of 3.

"I assume you are all a party of 3?" "Ah yeah." "May i ask that you all focus on fighting the kobold guards? It would be safer than going after the boss with a smaller party." I shared a look with my party before turning back to Diavel. "Yeah that's fine, I'd be happy to help." "Fantastic!" Diavel then walked back to the large group of players to give more direct advice and tasks. I turned to Kirito and Asuna as we left the theatre.

"So you two have any plans for the rest day tomorrow? I'm probably gonna grind and repair my gear before bed." I asked stretching my arms above my head as I walked.

"This isn't the most important role. Fighting the minions and calling it support. Am I really even a part of the raid?" Asuna seemed kind of mad about it, but Kirito spoke up.

"It cant really be helped, in a smaller party there wont be enough time to switch and use potions." Asuna stopped and look at him with confusion in her eyes. "Switch? Potions... what?" in the back of my mind I completely forgot Asuna isn't a pro clearer yet. Kirito replied with only a bit of hesitation.

"I'll give you the run down, we can go to the ba-" "No. I don't need your help." "Well I guess I'll head back to my room at the inn, with all the milk you can drink and a nice warm bath, but nobody really uses it..." Asuna turned around and grabbed Kirito by the collar. "What! What did you say?" "the room? The Milk?" "No! The other thing" "the bath?" And with that Asuna all but forced Kirito to show her the bath he had. I followed because it was funny to see him deal with that, and we can chat more when shes done.

Asuna had been in the bath for a while as I chatted with Kirito about what we've done while going solo. Turns out he got max upgrades on his anneal blades, he even got an offer for one of them and sold the other to a mystery buyer through Argo. He offered me some of the money for it but I turned him down. I have plenty of money from grinding mobs. I can safely coast on my wallet for the next two floors or so if I didn't spend all of it on random junk.

Eventually Argo came knocking, asking about where Asuna is, when she caught sight of me through the doorway she dashed by Kirito and ran up to me with a feral grin. "Hey Rocky! Gonna tell me how you got your Martial Art skill now? I'll pay 10k col right now!" Argo had been pestering me about my unarmed skills ever since she found out I can use them, since they look similar to the Martial Arts skill you unlock after a quest on the second floor. I've been trying to avoid her and run but now I'm trapped in a room... Kirito did have a smirk on his face over there, watching me suffer...

A plan has been decided! "Kirito invited Asuna to use his bathroom." the shock on Kiritos face was incredibly soothing, as Argo rounded on Kirito with a teasing grin. "Is that so, Kii-bou?" As Kirito stammered out an answer Asuna walked out of the bathroom fully dressed. After Kirito got a hilarious ribbing from Argo, we all agreed to group up for tomorrow to help Asuna learn some party strategy for the boss raid, and with that we bid each other goodnight.

After training Asuna in how to do party maneuvers like switching and potions and such, the day of the bossfight had arrived. As the raid group walked up to the large door signaling the boss room, Diavel gave the group one last chance to ask questions. Kirito pipped up "Just one. In the case that a situation is different than whats in the beta tester's guidebook, what will we do? Diavel, as our leader, will you give us the signal for withdrawal?" Kibaou cut in before Diavel could answer. "You don't need to listen to them Diavel, these guys don't realize your amazing commanding skills, since they didn't come to the joint practice and all." Diavel kept a calm face in spite of Kirito's question and Kibaou's cut in. "Thank you all for your confidence in me, but to answer your question, I wont let anybody die. I promise on my honor as a knight!"

With held breath we all stepped over the threshold into the boss chamber, Ilfang the Kobold Lord stood in the center of the room, he was twice my height, muscular but with a large gut, red fur covered his body, his head covered by a metal helmet that left his snout exposed, he also wore metal boots and a weird pair of shorts. His hands held his Bone Axe and his leather shield. From his back hung a nodachi, although the guidebook said it would be a tulwar. It was flanked by 3 Ruin Sentinel Kobolds. Also red furred but almost fully covered by metal armor, two had halberds and one had a large mace, they charged towards us as Illfang stood back and waited for us to approach.

Kirito, Asuna and I all charged towards the Sentinel on the right, a pair of rocks flung from my hands at the other two Kobold adds as Kirito's Rage Spike skill launching him towards the mob, the blade flashing blue as he slashed a big red gash into its chest, as the angry red pixels receded Asuna's Linear skill tore through the helmet of the sentinel, shattering it into particles. I faced towards the boss to see Illfangs health drop to his 2nd health bar, more sentinels spawning in with the new phase.

This time I took the lead with a mighty strong right hook, sending the kobold spinning before charging my "Rising Thunder" skill, a simple green glowing uppercut sent the mob sky high as Kirito finished it off with a Sonic Leap skill, essentially a Vertical skill but you leap at the target before attacking. The sentinels seemed weaker than I thought they would be, as the other support parties were taking longer than we were.

We ran through this song and dance twice more as Illfangs hp lowered to the 3rd and 4th hp bars. Then after we say Ilfangs health bar dip into the red and Illfang drew his secondary weapon with a mighty roar. His nodachi shined in the rainbow lights of the boss room, Diavel ran ahead of everyone with a shout of his own "I'll go!" he charged to the head of the group and prepared a sword skill, Kirito and I were already sprinting towards him.

Kirito shouted at Diavel as I charged up a knife I've been upgrading, the Silent Slash was a simple looking black dagger with a silver edge, a lack of guard made it look similar to a kitchen knife, but its damage was one of the best daggers on the first floor. "Diavel that's not a tulwar hes going to use a katana skill! Look out!" Kiritos shout fell on deaf ears as Diavel slashed towards Illfang.

Unfortunately the Kobold Lord was faster, and his katana skill severed Diavels arm, not enough to kill him thankfully but it sent him sprawling with his health in the red. I sent my knife screaming through the air into Illfangs face, spending mana to ensure it hit. He reared back in pain and let out another ear piercing roar. Kirito lashed out with a perfectly timed Rage Spike to counter Illfangs attack, with a cry of "Switch!" as he rebounded off. Asuna took the chance to land a powerful sword skill on Illfangs chest before backing off. I grabbed Diavel and forced a health potion into his mouth and threw him towards the other clearers. Illfang swiped at my party with a sword skill, sending them both reeling from using their own skills to block.

My fist slammed into Illfangs snout with my own version of a dash skill; "Piston Step" the red glow of my fist sent his head back with a growl as Kirito landed a "Vertical Arc" skill, his sword slashing in a V shape, as Asuna prepared to counter Illfangs next attack with a Linear skill.

I grabbed my Silent Slash off the ground while Asuna and Kirito parried and punished Illfang, before joining in with another Piston Step. Aimed at his sword this time. Allowing Kirito and Asuna to both hit him with sword skills. We all backed up and prepared for his next combo, my fist glowing purple with a Skill. As Illfang threw a vertical slash, with the intent to slam me into the floor if I blocked, I swung my fist upwards and unleashed another skill; "Hard Counter" an anti weapon skill that does more stun if Im being hit with a weapon attack, and allows my body to actually block said weapon rather than be dismembered.

With Illfang off balance Kirito and Asuna slammed more skills into his body, keeping him off balance. When he tried to use another skill I used my own throwing to parry his attacks. Causing him plenty of stun and leaving me almost free to reload and reposition. I glanced back to check the rest of the raid party. Kibaou was in shock at our seamless teamwork despite not joining the training. Agil looked impressed, Diavel looked... not mad? But resigned to what we were doing.

As I turned back to the battle all I could see was a roaring Kirito cutting Illfang in two. Turning the boss into shards of polygons and light. And that was the end of Illfang the Kobold Lord. The first floor boss of Castle Aincrad...