Sword Art Online III: Asgard

One

Word spread fast through the gaming community. ALO was a popular game, with lots of players, and everyone who witnessed the new section opening called their friends. Those friends also spread the word, as well as posting on online bulletin boards and so on, and soon everyone had at least heard about it.

Kazuto Kirigaya (often known as Kirito) hurried down the hall towards the school cafeteria, bento in hand. However he wasn't much concerned with lunch, instead he was headed to a informal meeting of several friends who were also players of ALO.

Rika Shinozaki (Lisbeth) looked up with a cheery smile, the brown haired cute girl sipping her drink. "We're still waiting on Asuna," she told him.

Keiko Ayano (Silica) smiled up at him shyly, "Hello, Kazuto. Were you online when the new section opened?"

"No," Kazuto sighed, "Had homework. The forum posts about it alerted me..."

"It was pretty spectacular," Rika said. "It was like the sky opened up, then the island appeared and settled down atop the World Tree," she said eagerly.

"Hmm," Kazuto nodded, "I looked it up. That's sort of the Marvel Comics version of Asgard. Wonder if that will reflect on how that section plays?"

Both Rika and Keiko were giving him a odd look.

"What?" Kazuto asked.

"Do you have no poetry in your soul?" Rika had to ask. "I was describing a gloriously designed sequence and all you're concerned about is game-play mechanics?"

"Well, that's Kirito for you," Keiko said dryly.

Before he could try to defend himself Asuka Yuuki hurried in, the brown haired young woman smiling impishly. "You KNOW he has no soul, just a game CPU," she teased.

"Gee, thanks," Kazuto sighed.

Rika and Keiko giggled as Asuna settled down beside Kazuto. "I struck out on getting inside info, but Agil is shaking down contacts he has at Ymir. He said he'd mail us once he hears something," she told them.

"Thanks," Kazuto smiled at her, his eyes going more tender than usual.

"Do NOT get lovey dovey at school, please," Rika rolled her eyes.

Both jerked apart a bit, looking sheepish.

"So how do you get into the Asgard region?" Keiko asked curiously.

"There's a new dungeon level that is a stairway that connects Yggdrasil to Asgard," Asuna revealed, "and it looks to be very, very tough."

"Oh?" Kazuto asked. He liked tough dungeons, generally speaking. At least when it wasn't actual life or death stakes anyway.

"Yeah, a group of mid-level players rushed in, hoping to get the jump on exploring the dungeon and getting any new items there," Rika nodded, "two rooms in, they hit something called Rock Trolls. High armor, high hit points."

"The whole party got wiped out, though some of that was they rushed in without preparing," Asuna pointed out.

"Not enough magic restoration and healing potions," Keiko nodded wisely, despite being the youngest one there. On the other hand she too was a veteran of SAO, and that tended to make you grow up a lot very quickly.

"It's been half a day," Kazuto noted, thinking of several aggressive players he knew in ALO, "someone has to have made some progress..."

"Not a lot," Rika shook her head, "people are sharing into, but they haven't even mapped the first floor yet, and I can bet you there's more than a couple of floors."

Everyone looked thoughtful at that. This resembled the dungeons that connected floors on Aincrad, and you needed to fight up several levels before reaching a Boss room. You won there, the doors opened to the next floor.

"Do you think there will be a floor boss?" Keiko asked what everyone was wondering about. And worrying over too.

"There's almost always a boss monster at the end of quests in both Aincrad and Alfheim, so yeah I think we can bet on it," Asuna nodded.

"So," Rika looked at Kazuto, "when are we going to go take this dungeon on?"

"What makes you think I want us to do that?" Kazuto tried to sound like he really didn't care about it at all.

EVERYONE just gave him a look.

"Okay, yes," Kazuto conceded, "I'd like to at least try. Why don't we try to get together one or even two parties, and see if we can go this weekend?"

"Start Friday night and see how far we can get by Sunday?" Asuna asked, having developed a good idea for how Kazuto's mind worked.

"And that gives us a few more days to do research too," Rika nodded. "There was no announcement at all from Ymir that this Asgard module was coming, and they're usually pretty good about doing that."

"It is odd," Kazuto agreed, "maybe Agil can find out what's happening." Before anyone else could say anything the warning bell rang, and they broke up to head back to classes.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Several weeks earlier...

Logging in to ALfheim Online and creating a character had all been pretty simple, really. Her difficulties had more been in acquiring a Amu-sphere without anyone knowing (she had a reputation to maintain after all) and finding the time to actually play it.

Her employer was a little surprised she asked to reduce her work load a bit, but even he acknowledged she had been working exceptionally hard. (Which caused a pang of guilt, tho she didn't show it. Guilty over leaving her work, but also guilt over how badly she had let work outweigh everything else in her life.)

Her office, thankfully, was private and had a door that could be locked. She set up the amu-sphere connections there, and the room got remarkably good internet connection. With some nervousness she had reclined in her leather chair, put the headset on and vocalized "Link start!"

Youko looked around her, taking in the vivid scenery as the redhead stood beneath the trees. Alfheim was certainly a vivid place, just like she remembered from her first log in. The red armored Salamander gestured to make the flight controller to appear, then took to the skies.

So far, Youko had stuck to areas near the capital of their territory, Gattan. She was still getting used to her long sword and round shield, and the monsters around the city were fairly low level. But she had progressed far enough to face tougher monsters. Besides, she had to meet her senpai at Alne...

On the way across the deserts in the Salamander territory she had a few monster encounters, all of which dropped money and in one case a item, and without much trouble she made it to the city, dropping down to the gate as she saw a familiar figure.

"Klein-san!" she called, smiling.

"Hey, Youko-san! Have you decided to marry me yet?" the young man teased.

"Not in a million years," she winked, clouting him on the shoulder.

Klein laughed, "So cruel. So, are you ready to master flight without the controller? You'd have a easier time in aerial fighting."

Youko put her hands on her hips. "You are going to insist I learn it, aren't you senpai?" she asked, sighing.

Klein scratched his head, "Well, I know a couple of players who manage with the controller, but it really is much harder to play." He shrugged, "And really, don't you want to feel what it's like to fly free?" He blinked as the oddest look crossed her face. 'Did I say something wrong?' he wondered.

"Always," she murmured. Youko shook herself and smiled, "Teach me, senpai."

"Alright!" Klein grinned. "Okay, extend your wings. Not try to imagine virtual muscles connecting to your wings." He watched the wings quiver and nodded, impressed by how fast she was getting it. "Now focus harder, harder..."

With that he pushed her, HARD. "Aeeiii!" Youko screamed as she was launched skyward by the power of her buzzing wings.

"Way to go!" Klein cheered.

"HOW DO I STOOOOP," Youko wailed.

With a laugh Klein took off to intercept her, and soon had her flying under some degree of control. "See, nothing to it," he congratulated her.

"You will pay for that later," Youko vowed, but was clearly enjoying flying.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Good afternoon, Kazuto-kun," Kathy smiled as he entered the Dicey Cafe.

"Hello, Kathy," Kazuto waved back a bit nervously. He liked her, but he got the sense she kind of resented the SAO players who were constantly hanging around her husband.

"Andrew went out for a errand, but he'll be back soon," Kathy reassured him.

"Thanks," Kazuto said. He ordered a soda, paid, then waited at a table, opening his laptop and doing some homework while he waited.

Not long after Andrew Mills (Agil) hurried in, carrying a grocery bag. "Hey Kazuto. Let me just drop these off," he said.

"Thank you, dear," Kathy smiled, taking the bags and going in the back.

"Thanks for seeing me," Kazuto smiled slightly. Somewhat more seriously he asked, "Did anyone at Ymir get back to you on this Asgard thing?"

"Apparently they didn't introduce the Asgard module, the system did," Andrew said grimly.

"What." Kazuto blinked.

"The programers were developing the Asgard module, but were only part done," Andrew revealed, "somehow, it added itself in."

It took Kazuko only a moment to get it, "The Cardinal System."

"Yeah. Apparently it decided the programers were taking too long and added the module itself. And apparently completed it," Andrew added.

"And who knows what elements Cardinal stuck in on it's own?" Kazuto wondered aloud, shaking his head. The last time Cardinal had gotten 'creative' it had introduced a quest that, if they failed, would have triggered Ragnarok and ended ALO. "We need to get into that section fast, before something bad happens," Kazuto noted.

"One other thing," Andrew added, "The developers at Ymir noted that the Cardinal system also accessed a LOT of data from the old SAO server when it set Asgard up. Could be we'll be facing a greatest hits of SAO villains in Asgard."

"Even better..." Kazuto sighed.

To be continued...

Notes: Youko is NOT a original character, she's a existing character from the series who's chosing to game for the first time. I THINK I dropped enough hints that it's pretty obvious who she is, but if not I'll reveal it in a few chapters.