AN: Two chapters in less than a month, and now this one?! Is Authoress getting a schedule? Pft, no, I just got really struck by inspiration, hence the almost 10,000 word 10th chapter, and writing that out got me in a groove. And don't get used to the almost 10,000 word chapters, because I'm not guaranteeing it'll continue. Also I don't know how to write accents, so Fleur's speech is written normally.

Review responses:

Dragonlily22 aka the guest who keeps writing 35(I counted) 'please's in a row then asks me to continue my stories: I appreciate the enthusiasm, but you're getting a bit spammy. Please tone it down a bit. I'm not mad or anything, but you've posted it five times on Nephilim Witch and once over on Unbound. Like I said I appreciate the enthusiasm, just dial it back a bit please. Still, glad you like my stories so much. Plot bunnies attack me at all times of the day. I usually just let them play out in my head a bit then move on, but Jurassic Kunoichi was a particularly persistent one, and it started a domino effect causing Nephilim Witch, Unbound, and Scarlett Rose to be born. I've also got the beginnings of two other stories on my phone, but I don't want to post them till I've gotten the four I've got now sorted out. Which considering I keep adding to them when I get inspiration for them, means I'm probably going to have a lot prewritten by the time they each get their first chapters up. So, since you seem to like my fanfics, keep an eye out for them. They'll show up eventually.

Mike blinks rapidly as he wakes up. He's still sitting in the chair by Marzanna's bed, but he'd slumped over at some point. While he was busy catching up with Marzanna, both their bond catching up and them doing so, a new man had appeared in the room with them. The man tilts his head at him, and when he speaks it's in accented English, "Are you alright?" He nods hesitantly, "What happened?"

He glances at his tense mother, "Who's he? And why's he here?"

Lily's tone is clipped, "Didn't say. All he told us is that he's a government official."

The man flashes a placating smile, "I also said I didn't want to repeat myself. Now that the young man is awake I'll explain. My name is Kikuoka Seijirou, or rather by your customs, Seijirou Kikuoka. My current job is with the SAO task force, which keeps tabs on all those people trapped. We're also trying to find a way to shut down Sword Art Online and release the players. For this conversation, you should also know I'm a squib, so you don't need to worry about the statue of secrecy. There are 23 players who are magicals. Due to that whole business of magic and technology not mixing very well, we keep a closer eye on them. So when the magic detecting runes placed in this room started going off, I came to find out what was going on." He pauses to let them absorb that, then focuses on Mike, "So, I'll ask again, what happened?"

Lily eyes Kikuoka in suspicion for a minute, then nods, "Marzanna and Mike are twins. They haven't seen each other in eight years, so their magic and bond were resynchronizing."

Kikuoka looks incredulous, "Eight years? But if they're twins-"

Lily cuts him off, "They don't share the same father. It's complicated, and none of your business. The only thing you need to know for the purpose of this conversation is that a spell allowed me to become pregnant with Mike while I was less than a month pregnant with Marzanna. Like regular magical twins, their magic entwined together, and the twin bond was created. Since they don't have the same father though, their bond is much weaker than most. This proved to be a boon, since it allowed them to be separated without consequences." She gives him a moment to think about that, then continues, "Now, there's something I want to know before you question my son. Since some of your little task force is aware of magic, and you guys are in charge of the SAO players, what precautions are you taking for the magical players? After all, you people surely realize that while they'd normally be too old to have bursts of accidental magic, the extreme circumstances could cause discharges of magic."

Kikuoka hums, "Yes, we did realize that. Do you see that purple IV drip? The nurses attending magicals have been told it's for a medical condition, and to never let it run out. It's actually a potion that inhibits magic. We're hoping that it'll be enough to stop or curb any pulses of magic from messing with the NerveGear and potentially causing it to kill them. In case it isn't enough, our next priority is to minimize casualties. So the rooms with magical players are laced with magic absorbing runes, so that none escapes the room and possibly kills other players as well."

He turns back to Mike, "If your minds were trying to match back up, then surely you know something. The SAO task force may have nearly all the information available on SAO's players, but we know practically nothing about the game itself. We don't even know the rules and conditions of the game. When Kayaba released the instructions not to attempt to remove the players NerveGear, he only told us that whether or not the players returned was up to them. We don't even know how they'll come back. So anything you know would help."

Mike blinks then sorts through the information he got from his sister's mind, "The rules are simple, but brutal. Your health bar is your life. If your HP drops to zero, in other words if you die in the game, the NerveGear kills the player in real life. To get stronger and increase their chances of survival, players have to level up. The cities are safe zones. Unless you accept a challenge to fight another player, which is called a duel, it's impossible for a player's health to drop in a city."

He pauses to think for a moment, noticing Kikuoka writing everything down, though his phone also seemed to be recording the conversation. Much like the computers in her mindscape, he only knows that it's a phone, and what a phone is, from Marzanna's memories, "I might be forgetting some of the more complex stuff, but those are the most basic rules. The conditions are simple in concept, but difficult in practice. There are 100 floors in SAO. Players start on the bottom floor in the Town of Beginnings. To advance to the next floor, players must first make their way to the labyrinth of that floor as while there's a Teleport Gate network at least one player has to have been to the town to unlock the option for people to teleport there. A labyrinth is a massive tower connecting one floor to the next, making them all 100 meters tall, and the only way to reach unexplored floors."

He frowns, "To even enter the labyrinth, players must first defeat a field boss blocking the entrance. Once they enter they need to navigate the labyrinth, since it's not exactly called a labyrinth to have a pretty or fantasy sounding name. All labyrinths have twenty floors each, and as their name indicates, the labyrinths are mazes filled to the brim with winding paths, traps, monsters, hidden rooms, and dead ends. After finding their way to the 20th level of a labyrinth, players must then fight the floor boss to access the next floor. The main goal is to make it to the 100th floor and beat the final boss. If even a single player can do that, every player will be released. Those are the rules and conditions made by Kayaba Akihiko. What else do you want to know? If I have the answer I'll tell you."

Everyone is silent for a few minutes, then Dante makes an agitated growl, "Fucking hell! They have to beat that entire twisted game in one life? I mean, I've heard of one life runs, but most people can't do that in regular video games, where you push a button and your character completes the action for you. In this game they have to actually do everything themselves."

Kikuoka nods wearily, then sighs, "Do you know the general mental health of the players? How many floors have they cleared? And how many players are actively trying to clear the game?"

He sighs, "Given the circumstances, it's not surprising that depression, fear, and anxiety run rampant through the majority of the players. For the first month of the game almost all of the players were either too scared to leave to Town of Beginnings, or too focused on grinding to level up to actively make attempts to clear the game. Only a measly 40ish players were mapping the labyrinth looking for the boss room." He pauses and glances at Marzanna, "Marzanna and her party member Kirito were, and still are, in that group that's focused on clearing the game. Anyway, because there were so few players mapping the labyrinth, they didn't find and defeat the boss until almost a month later. Since the first boss was beaten though, the number of players dedicated to clearing the game has risen, but it's still a tiny 200ish people. They're currently on the fifth floor, and averaging," He thinks for a moment, "eight and a half days per floor."

Nero curses for a minute in a brutal sounding language, a moment later he realizes that while he can't understand him, he recognizes it as the Devil dialect of the demonic language. A moment later Dante says something in the same language. Nero angrily snaps back and they argue for a few moments. Then Nero explodes in English, "Don't tell me to calm down! Think about what Mike just said for a minute Dante! Even if they keep that eight and a half average, it'll still take them almost 25 months to complete the other 95 floors! Almost two and a half years Dante. And that's only if they keep their current pace, as the game gets harder they'll probably take longer!"

Deafening silence follows Nero's outburst, and he finally loses his anger, slumping in defeat. Kikuoka shifts, "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but an eight day average to beat a mini-boss, navigate a massive twenty floor maze to find a boss, and grind until they're strong enough to safely beat the boss is actually a pretty good time. They're moving rather quickly."

Nero glares at him, all but hissing, "I know that. That just makes it worse though, because it means they probably won't be able to cut that time down."

There was silence for a few minutes, then Mike remembers, "Oh yeah. I talked to Marzanna."

Nero, Dante, and Lily snap their gazes back to him. Nero speaks in a hurried manner, "What'd she say?

He tilts his head, "She said to tell you guys that she's fine, and she loves and misses you." Turning to Nero he continues, "Also she told me she had a book on water related magic in her Devil Bringer, and wanted you to retrieve it for me. The second task of that stupid Tournament I'm being forced to compete in will probably have something to do with water by her reconing given the clue we got, so she said I could borrow it."

Nero nods, then moves over to Marzanna, and grabs her left hand. He closes his eyes in concentration, and a moment later a blue glow passes from Marzanna's hand to his. He pulls his hand away and with another flash of blue he was holding an incredibly thick and very old book. In thick bold black letters on the front was its title, 'Wæter Wiccedom'(1). Mike took it carefully. He was a bit annoyed with his sister. She hadn't told him the book was old. He didn't care how old the information was as long as it helped him, but what if he damaged the book? A book this old wasn't easily replaced. It would be just his luck that after eight years apart, the first thing he does is destroy an irreplaceable belonging of his sister's.

Mike walks into the library. He had gotten back from visiting his sister half an hour ago. The first thing he did was go to his dorm to grab the egg, a change of clothes, and a towel. He put those and his sister's book in his school bag, after emptying it of course. Then he went to find Hermione. The library was always a good place to start. Sure enough, he finds her in the third out of the way table he checks. He hadn't even known those tables were there until Hermione showed them to him, they were so out of the way they were practically hidden.

She looks up when he sits in the chair next to her. He was a bit happy when she uses her finger to hold her place and closes the book she'd been reading to give him her full attention. Hermione doesn't do that far just anyone. She looks him over for a minute, "You look happy. I take it your sister's doing well?"

Mike grins, "It seemed like she was more than fine to me." She gives him a baffled look, so he elaborates, "Since we're twins and we've been separated for so long, our bond immediately tried to repair itself as soon as I got close enough to the hospital. Due to that, when we got to her room I ended up seeing some of her memories and talking to her. She's definitely got a crush on her party member, though she's completely in denial." Hermione's lips twitched in amusement, then he grew serious, "Anyway, I know she saw some of my memories too, because she knew about the tournament, and the egg without me telling her."

Hermione immediately leans towards him in interest, "Did she have anything to say about the egg?"

He glances around and casts a quick muffliato, "Apparently, the screeching is Mermish. So she figures the second task has something to do with water. She told me I'll understand the egg if I listen to it underwater."

Hermione nods, "She thinks it's a water based task then? Understandable, and I agree that it's likely. Even muggles know mermaids are aquatic creatures. Have you listened to the egg yet?"

He shakes his head, "No. Not yet, I just got back a little bit ago. I stopped by my dorm, then came straight here to talk to you. My sister let me borrow this for the second task. I don't think I need to tell you this, but I'll say it anyway. This is very old and belongs to my sister, so be careful with it."

He pins her with a serious, heavy look for a moment, then pulls the book out and gently hands it to Hermione, who takes it with equal care. She's wide eyed as she looks the book over, then glances at the first few pages, "This is in old English!" At his confused look, she exclaims in exasperation, "It means it has to be at least nine hundred years old!(2)" She runs her fingers over the page it was open to in near reverence, "Where'd your sister even get this?"

He shrugs, "No clue, but if the fact her mindscape was half enormous library was any indication, I think you guys would get along like a house on fire. Not to mention I'm pretty sure it's not the only stupidly old book on magic she owns. I know for a fact she has a scroll on ancient Egyptian magic purification rituals from ancient Egypt." He grins at her, "Anyway, since you would've demanded to read it anyway, I figured I'd drop it off with you, then ask McGonagall if I can use the prefects' bathroom, since the regular dorms don't have tubs, and I need to listen to this egg. Just remember to be careful with the book. It's not like Marzanna can replace it easily if it gets ruined."

Hermione snorts, "You don't need to tell me that. I'm well aware how fragile the book is, and the impossibility of replacing it. Now go. McGonagall should be in her office this time of day."

February 24th, 2023- 110 days since SAO launch:
The second task was starting soon. Apparently, he was supposed to retrieve 'something he'd sorely miss', according to the egg anyway. Marzanna's book had been a godsend. It didn't just have spells, it also had mentioned plants and enchanted objects. Hermione read the entire book in two days, and promptly told him about gillyweed. He asked Snape where he could buy some, but the Professor just gave him enough to last two hours, then taught him a spell to change back into a human before the gillyweed wore off. His only explanation was that gillyweed was difficult to obtain, it was impossible to breathe out of water under gillyweeds' influence, and that Marzanna and Lily would kill him if he let anything happen to him.

Now he was anxiously waiting for the task to start. He wants the tournament over and done with. When Ludo Bagman starts the countdown, he puts the gillyweed on his mouth. After swallowing it he started to grow flippers and gills. Bagman announces the beginning of the second task before the transformation is complete, but he jumps into the water immediately anyway, as he already couldn't breathe because of the gills.

As soon as the transformation finishes he casts one of the many spells he learned from Marzanna's book. It detected human shaped beings within five miles of the caster. He'd learned it to be able to find the mermaids, but it also showed him where the other champions were. To his shock the spell also revealed four humans in the Mer village. Swimming in that direction, he keeps the spell active and an eye on the other champions' progress. When he's about halfway to the village, his spell shows Fleur Delacour thrash for a few moments then shoot towards the surface. He figures she must've been attacked by something, and forced to forfeit this portion of the tournament. He hadn't even known he was allowed to forfeit until the previous day. Needless to say, he'd been rather annoyed no one had told him before, given the disaster that had occurred with the dragon breaking free in the first task. The only reason he was even trying to complete the second task is because he wants to know who the hell was trying to kill him, and he suspects that the only way he'll find out is if he wins the stupid tournament. He just hopes he doesn't end up getting himself killed.

Upon reaching the hostages, he immediately sees Hermione and starts swimming towards her. When he gets close he sees that they were in some sort of sleep, and a fine stream of bubbles was coming from each of them. Cutting Hermione free with a spell, he glances at the other hostages and freezes. The hostage to Hermione's right is a little girl who looks almost exactly like Fleur, enough so that he can only assume they're sisters. The girl looks to be about eight years old. The problem is that unlike the other three, she's wide awake. She was also staring at him with pleading terror filled eyes. Why is she scared? Surely they'd explained what they were doing to the four before tying them to the bottom of the lake. Why was she even awake though? A moment later it hits him like a bludgeoning curse. At the wand weighing Fleur had said the Veela hair was from her grandmother. Which meant Fleur and her sister were part Veela. Righteous fury immediately burns through him. It was common knowledge that water magic never takes correctly to Veela, due to them being fire elementals. And they stupidly tied one to the bottom of a lake?!

"You're Fleur's sister, aren't you?" He doesn't like the way the water garbles his speech, but the little girl apparently understands anyway, because she nods, "Then you're Veela." She nods again, "Hold on. I'll free you."

However, when he moves to cut her rope, one of the mermaids near the hostages points their spear at him, "Only one! No more. Not yours."

He shakes his head, "She's part Veela, she won't survive down here, and her sister was already forced to retreat."

The mermaid hisses, "Veela?! In our waters?! No one said anything about Veela!"

She, at least he thought it was female, shouts for a bit more, drawing a crowd, then subsides into angry muttering. A few moments later the crowd parts for another mermaid. It looks between the muttering mermaid and him for a moment before focusing on him, "What's going on here?"

He glances at the other mermaid before hesitantly explaining, "This little girl is part Veela. Her sister was supposed to rescue her, but got attacked and had to forfeit. I'm assuming any unclaimed hostages will be returned once all champions have left the lake, but she won't survive that long. From how slowly my spell is showing me Cedric moving, she'll drown long before he arrives. So I was trying to take her with me. It's not her fault, she doesn't want to be here."

The newly arrived Mer hisses, "How dare they put a little Veela in our lake?!" There is agitated murmuring from the crowd for a few moments, then the one who had spoken visibly forces itself to calm down, "Very well. You may take the Veela. Now go."

Nodding his thanks, he cuts her rope with a spell, grabs her and Hermione, then swims to the surface. As soon as he breaks the surface, Hermione wakes up, and the little girl coughs up water, then flings her arms around his neck clutching him tightly. Hermione shakes her head to get rid of her disorientation.

She gives him a questioning look when she sees Fleur's sister, so he explains before she can ask, "She's Fleur's sister. They're both quarter Veela at least. Fleur was forced to forfeit."

Hermione's eyes widen in understanding, "In that case, let's hurry and get her out of the water. Her family's probably worried sick about her anyway."

It's more than a bit difficult to swim with Fleur's sister clinging to him, but she won't let go, and was terrified, which he can absolutely understand, so he makes it work. As soon as they were close enough, the commotion from the docks resolves into Fleur screaming and shouting hysterically in French. She keeps shouting the name Gabrielle, so he shifts the girl clinging to him until he can see her face, "Is your name Gabrielle?" She nods, "You should call out to your sister. She hasn't seen you, and she's scared for you."

Gabriel nods slowly, then twists a bit in his arms and starts yelling in French as well. Fleur immediately whips around to look at them, then yells Gabrielle's name in sobbing relief. As soon as they reach the platform, Fleur yanks out of a confused Madame Maxime's arms, and pulls Gabrielle up out of the water and into her arms.

The swim had not made him forget his fury. So as soon as he was on the platform, and certain Gabrielle was safe, he rounds on the judges, "Who the fuck thought it was a good idea to put a Merlin damned Veela on the bottom of the lake?!"

Maxime's eyes widen as her expression twists with horror, so she had either forgotten the Delacour heritage, or hadn't known in the first place, which is unlikely since that would've required her to miss Fleur's mention of it during the wand weighing. As much as he didn't like the man, Karkaroff clearly hadn't known either, and had turned almost as white as a ghost. Bagman looked nervous, and Dumbledore gave him a disapproving look. Fuck him. He could be as disapproving as he wanted, this was not ok, and he wasn't dropping the issue anytime soon.

Dumbledore was certainly going to attempt to get him to though, "Now Mike, there's no reason-"

That just makes him angrier though, "No reason for what?! You people almost killed an eight year old girl! Or are you seriously trying to tell me you don't know that supplemental water spells don't work on Veela?!"

Maxime bows her head, apparently willing to take his well-deserved fury, Karkaroff glares at Bagman and Dumbledore, while Bagman was nearly cowering behind Dumbledore, who was now looking at him sharply, "Be that as it may, this is not the place-"

Mike growls, "What's wrong. Don't want to admit you made a mistake? Well you fucking did! Or is it that you don't want people to know that the great Dumbledore messed up badly, almost killing a little girl? Too fucking bad. You-"

To his surprise it's Potter who cuts him off, he hadn't even known the man had come to see the tasks, "That is enough Mike! You are way out of line! I doubt Dumbledore knew she was part Veela. You're blowing this way out of proportion."

Hermione explodes before he can, "Out of proportion?! A little girl almost died! This reaction is entirely justified. And even if they didn't know, that's still a horrendous mistake to make! They should've made sure it was safe to put her down there first!"

Potter glares at her, but before he can respond Fleur beats him to it, as she moves so she's standing next to Mike, "You idiot's stupidity nearly killed my sister. An eight year old girl. And not just that, but one that has nothing to do with this. You should be ashamed of yourselves." She glares at the judges for a few more seconds, then turns to him and gives him a smile full of gratitude, swooping in to press a firm kiss on each cheek, then pulls him into a hug, "Thank you. Thank you so much. I don't know what I would've done if my sister died because of me. You didn't have to save her, but you did. So I'll be grateful for the rest of my life. The Delacour family owes you a life debt."

He flushes and looks away, he doesn't dare try and say they didn't owe him the debt though. It was a grave insult, as it implies you don't believe the person worth saving. So instead he simply says, "I only did what any half decent person would. Anyway, will she be ok?"

Fleur shakes her head, "You'd be surprised at what knowing the person you're looking at isn't completely human does to people. Gabrielle is with your school's healer, Pomfrey. I think that's her name anyway."

He nods, "It is." With a final dark look at the judges and Potter, he grabs Hermione's hand and Fleur's arm, then leads them away, "Come on, let's go get some pepper up potion. I don't want to catch a cold, and I don't want you girls to either."

Hanna was staring at the entrance to a sub-dungeon on the tenth floor, the current front line. Argo had gotten info that there was a sub-dungeon, called «The Catacombs of the Damned», that the beta testers hadn't discovered. The beta testers had only been on the tenth floor for two days before the beta ended, so it wasn't surprising. What was surprising was the fact no one had made it past the first room since it had been discovered, most didn't even make it through the hallway leading up to the room. The only players on the tenth floor were the clearers, whose current average level was 31. The fact they couldn't get too far was telling about how difficult the dungeon was.

However, with their new routine of grinding in the labyrinth at night, Hanna was currently sitting at level 39, and Kirito had just reached level 40(3). They hadn't hidden their grinding strategy, but no one had started doing it despite the results. It had the side effect of changing people's opinions of them. People hated them less, instead thinking them insane. Which meant the term «Beater» had changed a bit. Instead of just meaning someone who's a beta tester and cheater, it had changed to someone who's a beta tester, cheater, and is also utterly insane. Which was nice. An unwanted and unintended side effect of making themselves out to be bad guys, and subsequently coining the term Beater, was that other people started being labeled Beaters. The addition of insanity being a requirement of Beaters had all but put a stop to that. Which was great as far as Hanna was concerned. Kirito had started the Beater thing to stop discrimination against beta testers. So they had begun hearing of other people being labeled Beaters, he'd blamed himself. The things it'd done to him... Hanna doesn't like to think about it. She was grateful it was mostly over.

Anyway, due to their levels they decided to take a shot at the catacombs. The decision may have also been partially made because they actually were a little crazy, not that either of them would ever admit it. Right at the moment though, Kirito was eyeing the entrance to the catacombs, "Think it's cooler in there?"

She snorts. The tenth floor, as it turned out, is a desert. Which had led to Hanna discovering that Kirito hated the heat. He got moody, irritable, and was generally a complete grouch. She can't help hoping there wasn't another desert floor later, but since there was a limited number of biomes, and 100 floors, she wasn't counting on it. Thankfully different types of forests were the most common floor theme, so she wasn't expecting to come across very many of them. She may not know if there were any more, or how many there were, but she definitely knew one thing. They were not participating in clearing anymore deserts, Kirito's grouchiness was ridiculous. He'd told her that he loved the cold, so she was really hoping the next floor was a tundra or something, if just to get Kirito to stop being moody.

She tilts her head, "Probably, but it's equally likely that it'll smell horrible in there. I hope you're not scared of ghosts. The mobs in there are undoubtedly types of undead."

He snorts, and pushes the dungeon's door open, "So? Come on, I want to get out of this damn heat."

She rolls her eyes at Kirito's rude tone, and follows him inside. She finds herself in a hallway that was bare for the first 20 feet. After that there were upright coffins that were inside alcoves in the walls. Going down the hall connected to the door, it rapidly cooled. She sighs in relief as Kirito, who was walking a bit in front of her, slowly relaxes. The peace is broken by an inhuman shriek as one of the coffins bursts open. Out of it stepped a mummy looking creature. It was thinly wrapped, patches of decayed gray skin could be seen, and it was dragging a large ax. A red cursor appeared over its health bar and name, which was «Revenant Executioner».

They both immediately draw their weapons, and ready themselves. With another piercing shriek it begins to lumber towards them. It was slow, but if the large ax was any indication, it probably traded speed for damage, and she'd be willing to bet it also had a large amount of health as well. If this was just the first mob she could see why others failed. The hallway was very narrow, so once the Revenant swung its weapon the only way to dodge would be backwards. Which would quickly become an issue for parties of four or more. It would hamper her and Kirito too, especially since the hallways were so narrow that switching would be nearly impossible, but they'd manage.

Still short tempered and irritable from the heat, Kirito quickly loses patience and rushes the Revenant. Her first instinct was to get closer so they can switch quicker, but she knows that would just limit Kirito even more than the narrow hallway does, so she stays back. As soon as Kirito gets within range the Revenant begins shifting its weight and pulling the ax into position to swing. Kirito gets five quick slashes, then jumps back as the Revenant swings its ax. Even though Kirito was level 40, he barely took a little less than an eighth of its health. As soon as the Revenant was done with its swing, Kirito jumps back in to continue his attack. The process repeats until the Revenant was down to a quarter of its health. Then Kirito risks a sword skill that finishes the Revenant off.

After that they encounter sixteen more Revenants. She lets Kirito deal with most of them, since fighting seems to be a stress reliever for him, but she kills five of them that came up behind them while he was fighting. It was clearly meant to be a trap that encloses players attempting the dungeon, and could easily be deadly. Especially if the Revenants get close enough to each other, as that would limit the already tiny space further. Players leaving before they even reached the first room made a lot more sense after that.

The hallway ends after that, opening up into a room full of coffins, about a hundred of them. They were neatly lined up in rows of ten, and they were all full of Revenants. Thankfully they didn't all come out at the same time, but a quarter of them came out to start, and every time they defeated one another would awaken. She decides it's a tricky dungeon. The hallway had been designed to give bigger parties trouble, while the first room was made to be difficult for smaller parties.

She glances at Kirito after finishing her last Revenant off, he was waiting for her, having already finished. Thankfully he wasn't being impatient anymore, having calmed down after a good fight in the cool room. Though it was cooler in here, she'd been right about the smell. It smelled of stale air and decay. Which was not pleasant. Even less so when combined.

She rolls her shoulders, then sheaths her falcata as she moves over to him, "So do you want to just keep going, or see if we can find anything hidden in here?"

He tilts his head in thought for a minute, "Let's look around. That last hallway probably forced most people to come back with smaller parties. So, the most likely reason no one made it past this room was because they couldn't clear it out before retreating. There probably were a few parties who cleared it, then retreated. But even if they searched the room, they might not have found everything, if there's anything to find to begin with."

She nods, and they separate to search the room. After twenty minutes with no success, Kirito huffs, then starts towards the door to the next area, "I guess there's nothing here. Let's just go." She makes no move to follow, which Kirito notices quickly. He walks back to her, "Hanna? What's wrong?"

She shakes her head, "Nothing, just... With the coffins, how dim it is, and the fact they just fought undead in here, this room would creep most people out. Enough that they'd leave as soon as they were done fighting. Which makes it the perfect place to hide something, because only the players brave enough to stick around will find it. It just doesn't seem right for it to be empty."

Kirito narrows his eyes, "Creepy. Bravery. Don't tell me..." She gives him a questioning look, "Did you look in the coffins? I didn't."

Her eyes widen, and she slowly shakes her head. She looks away from him, back towards the coffins. There was silence for a moment, then she shifts, "So. Up for some grave robbing?"

Kirito snorts, "'Grave robbing'? They're just places the mobs were hiding. They're not actual graves. No, I'm actually more concerned about how stupid I'll look if I'm wrong."

She laughs lightly at his admission, "Don't wanna embarrass yourself in front of a girl Kirito? Don't worry, I won't laugh at you."

He grins at her briefly, then turns back to the coffins, "So, you start on this end going left to right, and I'll start from the other end going right to left?"

She nods, and they split up. There turns out to be nothing in the coffins, so they go through the door to the next hallway, which was just as narrow as the first. It also has upright coffins like the previous, but none of them open as they walk along. However, after two minutes of walking, an ominous breeze starts up.

She glances at Kirito, "There shouldn't be any wind in here, but it is a video game. So, the question is why?"

He shrugs, and lifts his sword just in case. A few tense moments pass, then the wind kicks up harshly, blowing all the torches out, plunging the corridor into darkness. She hears Kirito shift, "I've never seen any as items, but I don't suppose you have a touch?"

She starts to shake her head, then remembers he can't see her, "No." Pauses as something occurs to her, then activates a sword skill with her claw, it immediately starts to glow green, and she's careful not to begin the motion that will actually start the skill, "All I've got is this. It's not very bright, but at least we can see."

Kirito sighs, "Be careful where you step. This would be the perfect spot to put traps."

She nods, and they start to move. However, they had barely taken twenty steps before something came out of a coffin, but it isn't a Revenant. It's a ghost of some sort, though it wasn't like what most media depicted ghosts as though, nor what actual ghosts are like. Instead of being a luminescent pearly white, it was darker than night. Covered by a ragged cloak of some sort, the only things visible were its clawed hands, its red glowing eyes, and its mouth full of needle sharp teeth, the inside of which was emitting a glow similar to its eyes(4).

Its name and health bar appeared a moment later, revealing that it's called a «Vengeful Wraith». Two more join the first almost immediately. The Wraiths quickly proved to be the opposite of the Revenants. They move extremely fast, but did little damage and had a small amount of health. Hanna takes point for these, as she's faster than Kirito. She was limited to her falcata though, as while their eyes and mouths glowed, she didn't want to fight them in the dark.

The first one falls quickly, as she turns to the next one though, she quickly finds it slashing at her with its claws. The other was coming up behind her, and with the narrowness of the hallway as well as its closeness and speed there was only one way to dodge. Down. So she instinctively cartwheels out of the way, using the down bend before the kick off to duck the blow and let it go sailing over her from the height it likes to hover at, but flipping out of range in case it's fast enough to recover from just a duck. The mobs nearly crash into each other, and the first's attack hits the one that had been coming up behind her. She narrows her eyes. The second one's health dropped a little. Mobs could hurt each other? She hadn't thought that was possible, but the proof in the second Wraiths health bar was right in front of her. Interesting. At that point the second one charges her, but seven lightning fast slashes shatters it into polygons, and the third falls quickly after.

Kirito walks up to her, and she quickly looks at him, "Did you see that? After I cartwheeled?"

He gives her a confused look, "No, I didn't see anything in particular. Why? What happened?"

She narrows her eyes, "The one that was attacking me actually hurt the one that was at my back. I saw its health drop from the attack."

His eyes widen for a split second, then narrow in thought as he slowly speaks, "Well, players have to be careful not to hit each other, and while this game is many things, it's also surprisingly fair for a death game. If we can accidentally hurt each other, it makes sense the mobs can as well. Still, that's something we need to tell Argo. While I doubt it'll be a huge help to anyone, it might. So we should get her to add it into the latest guidebook."

She nods. As they make their way down the hallway there are in fact a few traps. Even with the low light from her claw they manage to see most of them, but they accidentally activate a few they don't notice. One of them almost goes through Kirito's neck, and while decapitation won't happen unless you were low on health, being a neck shot it would've taken a huge chunk of his health points.

Soon after, they find out that the Wraiths had a special ability. They could make a Banshee-like scream, and if you were too close when they did you became momentarily paralyzed. While a bit of a bother, it wasn't a huge issue until they reached the second room, which was pretty much exactly like the first, only with fifty more coffins. However a sixth of the coffins contained Wraiths. Their screams were very troublesome then, as the paralysis gave the Revenants time to hit you. Thankfully, only three Wraiths emerged at a time. Even so, by the time they'd cleared that room both of their health bars were in the yellow.

Kirito glances at her, "You wanna check the coffins while I check the rest of the room?"

She shrugs, "Sure."

She starts near the hallway they came from and slowly makes her way towards the door they'd be leaving through. On her thirteenth row of coffins, she hits the jackpot, "Hey! I found a button!"

Kirito looks over, "Well, push it then."

She does exactly that. Immediately there's a click followed by the sound of stones heavily grinding against each other, and the coffin slides to the side to reveal a chest embedded into the ground. Kirito walks up, "Do you wanna open it, or should I?

She shrugs, so he leans down and opens it. The inside was empty, but all chests were. Instead a window pops up in front of Kirito. It was solid gray to her, since he hasn't made it viewable to other players, but he immediately changes that. She reads the widow over at his side,

'Chest found! Items received:

50,000 col

Three Teleport crystals

Cloak of the Void'

She tilts her head, "Cloak of the Void?"

Kirito glances at her, then gets rid of the chest menu. As he stands up, he quickly makes his way to the cloak, then makes his menu visible to her. She leans over to read over his shoulder again, at the top is the item's name, followed by its stats, which were rather high. Below that was the item description, 'Created from the cloaks of one hundred Wraiths, the Cloak of the Void makes its wearer nearly invisible, and boosts damage dealt from the shadows, making it the perfect cloak for an assassin.

+20% to Hiding

+20% to Tracking

2x damage done while undetected

2x damage dealt with daggers and claws'

Kirito hums, "Nice." She nods, and he glances at her, then starts manipulating the widow, "Well, I've got my coat already. So you can have the cloak."

She tilts her head, "You sure? I mean, I know you use the coat so people can identify you as 'the beater Kirito', and are kinda attached to it, but that cloak's stronger."

He nods, "Yeah. Besides, my Coat of Midnight has a hiding buff too. Admittedly, it's only a 5% boost, but it still has it. Plus, it boosts claw damage, so it's better suited for you anyway."

She nods, then clicks accept when a trade menu pops in front of her without adding anything, "If you're sure." Opening her menu, she quickly equips her new cloak, "With loot like that in here, I doubt there's anything else hidden, but let's check anyway."

She ends up being right, as there's nothing else in any of the other coffins or anywhere else. So they move on. The next hallway is thankfully lit, as well as wide enough for two people to fight together comfortably, but the tradeoff, they soon learn, is that there are both Revenants and Wraiths, and they always attack at the same time. Without speaking, it's decided that she would deal with the Wraiths while Kirito took the Revenants. After half an hour, they reach a massive golden door. It was definitely the dungeon's boss room.

Sharing a quick glance with Kirito, she pushes her hand against the door, but it doesn't budge. She scowls, "Are you kidding me?! It's locked?! What, beating the rest of your stupid dungeon wasn't enough for you?"

Kirito sighs, "Calm down Hanna. I know this dungeon is frustrating, but losing your temper won't solve anything. Let's just look for a way to open it here, then make our way back to see if we missed something important."

She huffs angrily, then at Kirito's pointed look forces herself to take a calming breath, "Ok, let's just look for the stupid thing. I'm completely done with this dungeon. I'll take the left side."

Five minutes later Kirito calls out to her, "Found something."

Looking over, she sees Kirito crouched on the floor, staring at the wall. Walking up to him, she sees he's looking at a circular hole in the wall. Crouching next to him, she leans over to look in, but sees nothing in its completely dark depths. Activating a skill with her claw and holding it up only reveals a few inches inside. What little she can see is bare.

They both stare for a minute. Then she lets her skill fizzle out, and lowers her claw, "Whatchya wanna bet you gotta stick your arm in there."

Kirito snorts, "Not a single col." He pauses, "It is my arm going in, isn't it."

His tone is a bit defeated, and it's definitely a statement rather than a question. Hanna nods without hesitation, "Yup. Don't worry. I doubt anything will happen." At his deadpan look, she rolls her eyes, "I'm serious. Think about it. The Revenants, the coffin switch, the dark hallway with Wraiths and traps, the Wraiths themselves. This entire dungeon is designed to scare people. It's less of a test of strength, and more of a test of nerves. So even if something does happen, I doubt it'll be that dangerous. It'll probably be more scary than anything. The worst it can do is cut your hand off, which a healing potion can grow back in a few hours. Besides, in case you've forgotten, you can't feel pain, so even if it does take your arm off, it's not like it'll hurt."

Kirito sighs, then nods. Just as he was about to put his hand in, he pauses, "Ok, I'll admit everything you said is true, but what if it doesn't just take my hand off? What if it also poisons me or something? The combination of a poison and lost limb status effects could kill me rather quickly, depending on the poisons level."

She pauses as she realizes he's right, then quickly opens and manipulates her menu. Pulling out a healing crystal she holds onto it, "Then I'll just use this. It'll regrow the limb instantly, which will buy us enough time to deal with any other debuffs."

Kirito nods, then reaches into the hole. A moment later there's a click, and the boss door begins to open. Kirito freezes, "Hanna?"

"Yes?"

"Something just grabbed my arm. I can't pull it out."

She frowns, "Did it grab you as soon as you pushed the button, or was there a small delay?"

"Immediately."

Her frown deepens, "I swear, this better not be a trap designed to make parties leave someone behind while they fight the boss. If it is, I can guarantee you it won't let go until the boss is defeated."

He purses his lips, "I think it might be. After all, if something was going to happen, it would've done so already. Right?"

She shakes her head, "Not necessarily. There could be a wait so that the player either has time to panic, or so they're tensely waiting for something to-" There was a large click from the wall, then a loud metallic grinding noise started, "...happen."

Kirito shifts as best he can, "Saw about to cut off my arm, or loud noise only meant to scare me?"

She glances at him, "50/50."

"Figured as much."

They wait in silence as the grinding noise slowly gets closer, and Kirito begins to instinctively tense up. It lasts about a minute, then the noise abruptly stops. A moment later there's a loud click, and Kirito quickly pulls his completely intact arm back. He frowns as he rubs his wrist, "Hanna?" She hums as she pockets the health crystal. She's already pulled it out, so she figures she'd keep it out in case they need it for the boss fight. Kirito shifts, "This dungeon sucks."

She snorts in amusement, "Come on. We've got a beat down to give to a boss."

He grins lightly. Then stands up and follows her. They pause in the doorway as they get a look at the room. It's enormous, with intricate carvings on the walls, and equally intricate pillars neatly lined up in two rows, one row each on either side of the room, ten feet from the walls. Other than that it was almost completely bare, as the only thing in the room was a massive stone on a raised platform at the end of the room.

Kirito tilts his head, "Let me guess, the stone is really a massive coffin and when we get close the boss will burst out."

She shakes her head, "Nah. They did the bursting coffin thing for the Revenants. It'll try to jump scare us, by popping up out of nowhere as we make our way to the stone coffin thing."

Kirito tilts his head, then nods in agreement. They share a look, then ready their weapons. Twenty feet in the door closes behind them, but they only spare it a glance. Halfway to the maybe coffin, the ground cracks open five feet in front of them, and a massive claw of bone tries to crush them. As they jump back to avoid the attack, the ground begins to break apart, and a large dragon pulls itself out. It was almost entirely bone. What little skin there was, covered its neck, then followed the spikes jutting up from its spine to its tail, and was between the bones of its wings, but there were many holes torn into it. Its claws were razor sharp, and its tail ended in a needle-like point. Its large head had a spike protruding from between its eyes, which were glowing blue(5). It had two health bars, and its name was above them, «Livjatan the Dracolich».

Kirito glances at her, then takes point. Darting in he slashes at its head four times, then is forced to jump back to avoid a lightning fast bite. She darts in as he darts away, then starts manually going through the motions of a six hit falcata skill. After the fifth one though, she abruptly shifts to a different skill. When the boss froze as its algorithms try to figure the attack out, she charges an actual skill, a ten hit medium damage falcata skill called «Ember Song». She unfreezes from the skill use, then jumps back when Kirito calls for a switch. He rushes by her with a skill ready, then hits the boss with it. She recognizes it as the heavy damage four hit skill «Vertical Square». At that point the boss unfreezes and swipes at Kirito. When he jumps back it uses the momentum from its attack to stab its tail at him like a spear.

Kirito blocks, but her jaw drops when it takes an eighth of his health anyway, 'This is a mini-boss on the tenth floor, and Kirito is level 40! It shouldn't be able to do that much damage when Kirito blocks!'

Shaking the thought off and refocusing on the dangerous as all hell boss, she darts forward when Kirito calls to switch again. Left slash with her falcata, right slash with her claw, diagonally up then down back the same path, back to her sword for three rapid back and forth slashes while she charges a skill with her claw. Release the claw skill, «Lions Fury», which causes a stun debuff for ten seconds. With that she buys Kirito the time to use a potion, then switches with him once more. He immediately hits the boss with five rapid slashes, then seems to shift his balance before following it up with three more hits. The boss freezes again, and with a jolt she realizes he'd used her tactic of manually starting a sword skill, then switching to another partway through.

Chancing a glance at the Dracolich's health, she's relieved to see it only has half of its second bar left. With how overpowered it seems, she'd been starting to worry it had a ridiculous amount of health too. She supposes it kinda does. Being a level ten boss, which she was beginning to doubt, it should already be dead due to the level difference between it and them. She's beginning to think this dungeon was one you were supposed to come back to later. She wasn't going to complain though, it was almost dead, and if she was right they'd get some amazing gear incredibly early. Actually, this being a dungeon you were supposed to return to later would explain the «Cloak of the Void». While she'd been looking at its health, she charged up Ember Song again. Then switches with Kirito so he can charge a heavy skill. Switching one more time so Kirito can hit it with his skill just as it unfreezes and end the fight.

To their horror though, the boss isn't finished off, and immediately lunges for Kirito just as the glow from his sword starts to die down. She's too far away to interfere in time. Just as she steps forward to try and reach him anyway, Kirito's fist begins to glow blue. Thrown by the panic, it takes an embarrassingly long second for her to comprehend why. The «Martial Arts» skill they'd gotten together. But he shouldn't be able to use it at all, and he'd freeze in a second from using the previous skill anyway. That second proves to be all he needs to activate the skill, and punch the boss in the face full on. It freezes, then a moment later shatters into millions of blue polygons.

Hanna stares at Kirito's back. Game or not, he just killed a dragon, by punching it in the face. Punched a dragon. To death. In the face. An undead dragon to boot. She'd known he was kind and sweet, that he was playful, if a bit of a sleepy head, and he was highly intelligent too. Apparently being all those things wasn't enough for him though, he's gotta be a badass too. She flushes, hoping desperately he won't turn around right at the moment, at least not until she can get a hold on the heat in her face. Damn her family's weakness for stylish badassery! She'd almost managed to convince herself she didn't have a crush on him, as she thought the death game situation made it entirely inappropriate. There went that down the drain. She'd never be able to deny it now.

Kirito turns to her as he unfreezes from the skill, though thankfully he either doesn't notice the heat that makes her feel like her face is trying its hardest to compete with a tomato, or the torchlight is poor enough that he just can't see it. She does her best to shake herself out of her thoughts and drag herself back on track, "What was that?"

He shrugs, "I don't know actually. I guess if you charge and release it before the skill cool down kicks in, you can chain skills together. I wanna do some experimenting with it later."

She nods, grateful that the conversation allows her to distance herself enough from the onslaught of feelings to force the heat in her face to subside, "Sure. If you need any help just ask."

He smiles gently, "I know. Now, how about we stop ignoring these windows and see what our troubles got us?"

Hanna nods with a grin, then looks down at the window. The usual large 'Congratulations!' banner was at the top. Under that it said, 'Congratulations on beating Livjatan the Dracolich! Please select your reward:

Cursed Claw

Blade of Decay

Tainted Scythe

Bloodbound Ax

Scourge of the Damned

Star-crossed Whip of Misfortune'

The scythe and ax were mildly tempting, but the time it took to reequip made them unworth it. She glances at Kirito, "I've got Blade of the Damned and Cursed Claw over here."

He nods, "Same. You take the claw, I'll take the sword, and if it's a falcata it's yours."

She nods, clicks the claw, then confirms her choice. Opening her menu, she quickly goes into her equipment to check out the new weapon. Clicking the weapon to looks at its stats. She stares. Then she laughs. Maniacally. Kirito gives her a strange look that's a weird cross between concerned and wary. She stops, then coughs awkwardly while looking away from him. A glance at her menu has her grinning insanely though.

Kirito shifts away a little, "Should I be worried?"

She pushes the button to make her menu readable to other players, then pushes the menu towards him, "Read it out loud. I wanna make sure I'm understanding it correctly."

He gives her one last wary glance then turns his attention to the menu, "Cursed Claw." He frowned briefly as he looked the stats over, "This thing is weaker than the claws in the Town of Beginnings." Hanna makes an impatient 'go on' gesture, and he sighs, "This cursed weapon absorbs the souls of its victims. With every mob or player the wielder slays with it, this claw's strength grows. The stronger the slain, the bigger the growth, this claw's potential is nearly limitless. Claw level: 1 Xp: 0%(6)"

Kirito gapes at the menu for a minute, then starts laughing incredulously. Hanna grins at him, "I know, right?!"

He shakes his head, "That's-" Cuts off for a minute, then huffs another small laugh, "Damn. You really are a goddess of luck."

(1): Old English, it means Water Witchcraft.

(2): I looked it up, old English is dated to have been used from 450-1150.

(3): This level gap won't grow that quickly anymore, but it will pretty much stay there, since it's because of how they grind, and no one else is willing to do the same thing.

(4): I looked up wraiths, this description is based off this image- vignette4. wikia. nocookie forgottenrealms / images / f / f3 / 4e _ wraith. jpg / revision / latest? cb = 20081013213240

(5): looked up undead dragons. Image the Dracolich is based off of- vignette3. wikia. nocookie forgottenrealms / images / 7 / 7e / Dracolich _ -_ Fred _ Hooper. jpg / revision / latest? cb = 20090519092335

(6): Idea gotten from rougehunter11's fanfic 'The Beaters' and used with their permission.