A loud clang echoes throughout the open field as Jyenka and Acherons blades collide for the first time. Jyenka's arm shakes from the impact, meanwhile Acheron remains calm and collected, gripping his blade firmly.

"Your quite fast" Acheron said while smiling. "Your name is Jyenka correct? I'll be sure to have your grave named accordingly" Acheron said sadistically. Jyenka gritted his teeth and leapt back, creating some distance between the 2 of them.

"Sorry, but I won't be dying here." Jyenka exclaimed while staring down Acheron confidently. "I won't die, not until I've conquered this world and saved everyone." Acheron smiled sadistically.

"Ah, the delusional hero. My favourite!" Acheron's double-edged sword then lit up with a bright green glow and he lunged forward at Jyenka with incredible speed. Jyenka's eyes widened and he quickly threw his own double-edged sword out in front of him in a desperate attempt to block the attack. Another loud clang rang out across the field and Jyenka went sliding back. His body felt weak and he found himself panting, he then checked his HP bar. It had been cut in half. 1 strike, and Jyenka was already at half health.

"Do you realise now, Jyenka the hero?" Acheron said while slowly walking towards him, dragging one of the edges of his sword across the grass and dirt of the field. "You stand no chance, so I'll return to my previous offer." Acheron points one of his blades at Jyenka. "Join us... Or die..." Jyenka thought for a second and then raised his left hand.

"Hold on." Jyenka said as he quickly opened his inventory. Acheron gave him a puzzled look before Jyenka quickly took something from his inventory and threw it at Acheron. "You hungry?" Jyenka asked as an apple landed in front of Acheron. Acheron stared at it with a confused look.

"What are you playing at-?" Acheron was cut off by the apple suddenly exploding, it was one of Silvia's bomb apples. The explosion didn't do very much damage to Acheron but it did catch him off guard. "Where the hell did he go?" Acheron thought but suddenly Jyenka appeared behind him, ready to strike. Jyenka had used the distraction of the explosion and a sword skill he'd picked up from Shoko, a skill for stealth takedowns, to sneak up on Acheron. Jyenka swung his blade at Acheron, landing a clean strike across his back. Acheron stumbled and Jyenka bounced back, creating some distance between them so he can observe the damage. A red streak spread across Acheron's back and his HP bar had dropped about a quarter. Acheron straightened himself up and a wicked smile spread across his face. "That wasn't bad, Jyenka." He turned around to face him. His eyes staring at him now, seemingly crazed through bloodlust and a dark obsession with battle. "I'll have you know, I've never actually staggered while fighting an opponent before." Jyenka then froze up with realisation.

"How many people have you fought?" He asked with a concerned tone.

"15 players, some of them were members of the assault team" Acheron replied.

"Did you kill them?" Jyenka asked, his voice sounding shaky. Acheron chuckled before replying.

"Yes Jyenka, I killed them." Jyenka felt his stomach sink and his grip on his double-edged sword tightened.

"Why... Those were real people... so why? Why would you kill them!?" Jyenka shouted. Acheron's smile faded and he replied in a more relaxed tone.

"Why do I kill? You know, I don't kill people just for the fun of it." Jyenka relaxed slightly as well.

"Then, why?" Jyenka calmly replied. Acheron began to pace around Jyenka.

"Tell me hero, why do you fight?"

"So I can save everyone and free them from this death trap." Jyenka replied. Acheron stopped pacing.

"There it is, that word." Acheron said coldly.

"What word?" Jyenka asked.

"Free. you fight for freedom. What is freedom to you?" Acheron asked.

"Well..." Jyenka thought for a moment. "It's being able to have the choice to live freely, not having to obey some higher being." Jyenka replied confidently.

"But, what if this is living freely?" Acheron replied with the same calm tone from before.

"What do you mean?" Asked Jyenka.

"What if this world we live in now is my idea of freedom? you see Jyenka, you and me are more similar than you might think. Both of us are fighting for one thing, freedom. I kill people who get in the way of me preserving my freedom in this world, people like you." Jyenka shuddered.

"I don't get it... that still doesn't mean you should kill people..." Jyenka replied, stumbling over his words with fear.

"Of course you don't get it." Acheron replied sternly. "Because your not a hero, your just a naïve child." Acheron's words made Jyenka freeze, he felt fear rise inside him as he stared at Acheron who stood menacingly before him. It was as if he'd been forcibly snapped out of his heroism and all his confidence simply melted away. Before Jyenka had time to refocus one of Acherons blades on his double-edged sword began to glow yellow and he lunged at him, landing another strike. Jyenka went flying back. He quickly got up from the ground, his survival instincts kicking in, but Acheron was on him again before he could even think. Acheron struck him again, and again. Jyenka's HP bar drained into the yellow zone.

"Shit! I have to do something!" Jyenka thought to himself. Acheron wound up a massive strike and slashed at Jyenka, A loud pang echoed through the field as Jyenka was able to parry the strike. He went to strike back but then, his body froze. Jyenka checked his HP bar for Debuffs but there were none. He was free to attack so why couldn't he? Then, it dawned on him. He was too scared to move. Acherons words had cut him deep. Acheron recognised this weakness in Jyenka and struck him with another sword skill. Jyenka went flying back, his HP bar was now in the red zone. One more attack, and he would die. Jyenka sat up, he saw Acheron walking towards him. His mind began to race with thoughts in a panic. "No! I don't want to die! I don't want to die!" But then Jyenka saw, in the corner of his eye, his friends fighting. Taijou was holding his own against Deimos and Silvia was slowly rising to her feet as the paralysis Debuff began to wear off. They were still trying, they weren't giving up. And Jyenka, sure as hell wasn't going to give up. Jyenka slowly rose to his feet. "You know what? Your right. I am just a naïve child. In fact, I don't even know the first thing about being a hero. All I've done is be reckless and throw myself into danger. But, naivety only comes to those who refuse to learn. I'll get stronger and smarter, I'll continue to grow until I have the right to call myself a hero!" Jyenka shouted, now standing up. his legs were shaking, his heart was beating at a million miles an hour, but he was standing his ground. Acheron looked slightly impressed.

"I see, that's too bad. Because your journey ends here." Acheron charged up one last sword skill to finish off Jyenka when suddenly, a battle cry could be heard in the distance. Everyone turned around to see what it was and to all there surprise, it was Shoko and ThirtySix followed by the entire goblin army. "Tch!" Acheron jumped back and Jyenka just stood there in disbelief as the goblins they were sent out to kill charged into action along side his friends. Jyenka then also realised that he was in the firing line of the goblins assault. Suddenly, he was swept of his feat like a damsel in distress and moved out of the way of the charging goblins. Jyenka slowly opened his eyes and like a knight in shining armour, he saw ThirtySix's face staring back down at him.

"You ok Jyenka?" he asked casually.

"Y-Yeah... I think so..." replied Jyenka, still trying to process what was happening.

"Here, take this." ThirtySix jammed a healing potion into Jyenka's mouth. Jyenka drank the whole thing and his HP was restored.

"Thanks ThirtySix... you can uh... put me down now..." ThirtySix was still carrying Jyenka like a princess. ThirtySix gently put Jyenka down. Meanwhile, Silvia was back on her feat and her, Taijou and Shoko stood in front of Acheron and Deimos with the whole goblin army behind them.

"Damn, guess we should retreat for now..." Deimos said through gritted teethe.

"Yes, let's" Acheron said with a smile and the two took out there teleport crystals and vanished. They both arrived back at the mansion.

"They were stronger than we thought." Deimos said calmly.

"Yes, they were!" Acheron said excitedly, still with a smile on his face.

"Your still smiling, the fighting is over you know." Deimos said as he entered the mansion.

"Yes well, they were some incredible fighters. That Jyenka, he has potential. Lots of it." Acheron said excitedly as he followed Deimos into the mansion.

The goblins turned around to face the group. Jyenka was the first person to ask how this happened.

"So... what did you do to them? why are they on our side?" Jyenka asked. Shoko gave a mischievous smile.

"It's the bomb apples." Shoko said.

"What about them?" asked Taijou.

"They're delicious!" A particularly large goblin who was standing behind Taijou exclaimed. Taijou let out a little yelp and jumped, the goblin had caught him off guard.

"Sorry, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Grok, I'm the goblin general. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"So dignified..." the entire group thought.

"You see, the reason we wished to invade your town is because of your delicious stock pile of bomb apples. Us goblins love it!" Jyenka thought for a second then spoke up.

"So... your telling me... the reason you invaded was because of-"

"Achoo!" Cleric sneezed as he flipped through books in his library, he quickly adjusted his monocle. "I didn't know you could have allergies in this world..."

The goblin general stuck out his hand. "Thanks to you fine adventurers there will be no need for us to invade your town. Consider this a sign of peace." Silvia shook the his hand.

"We appreciate this. By the way, if you ever want more I can always have Shoko steal- I mean, grab some more for you." As Silvia finished her sentence a prompt appeared in front of everyone as well as a fanfare of trumpets, it red:

'Quest Complete!'

The goblin army took their remaining bomb apples and began to walk away. Silvia and her party used there teleport crystals to return to the town.

"Hey, can we talk? like, as a party?" Jyenka said when they all got back.

"Sure thing Jyenka, what's up?" asked Taijou with a slightly concerned tone. Jyenka bowed his head.

"I'm sorry, for always being so reckless." Everyone seemed slightly surprised by Jyenka's apology.

"Hey, you don't have to apologise-" Taijou was quickly cut off by Jyenka.

"No. I do. This whole time, I thought I was being brave and acting like a hero whenever I threw myself into a dangerous situation without hesitation. From now on, I promise I'll be more careful. I still want to be a hero, but I want to make sure you guys are happy. I'll work hard, so I can earn that title!" Everyone paused and then Silvia broke the silence.

"Geez, took you long enough to realise. You can't just say your gonna be this worlds hero and expect it to happen over night." Jyenka rose his head to meet Silvia's gaze.

"Yeah... I know that now." Jyenka said in a sorrowful tone. Silvia smirked.

"Good, because if you want to be this worlds hero you've got a lot of work to do. Watching you get your ass handed to you by Acheron taught me that much." Jyenka knew she was right but was offended anyway.

"He was like 10 levels higher than me! I was only buying time so that your paralysis could wear off!" he retorted.

"True, I suppose I'm grateful for that." Silvia said.

"You suppose!? I risked my life dammit!" Jyenka shouted.

"You could have easily tossed me a flask of basic Debuff remover." Silvia replied.

"Well... I didn't have one on me..."

"And who's fault is that?"

The two of them continued to bicker while ThirtySix, Taijou and Shoko watched.

"Look at them go..." Taijou said with a sigh.

"They're like an old married couple..." Shoko added.

The group of adventurers had gone through there toughest trial yet today, conducting in player vs player combat were your life is on the line. However, things would only get harder from here...

January 29th, floor 15, 8am game time. Kirito and his party were out scouting for quests on the latest floor reached by the assault team.

"See anything yet?" Klein asked as he cut through vines and branches to help them navigate around the floor. Kirito used his search skill to detect anything around them.

"Nothing yet... hold on! there!" Kirito rushed in front of Klein and sliced through the remaining branches. When he had cut through all of them, it exposed a small camp of enemies. They were called 'Living Tree Soldiers' and looked to be made of bark and branches.

"These guys look pretty low level, you wanna take them out?" Asked Lisbeth.

"Sure, I could use the Exp points!" Said Klein while readying his sword.

"Ok then. Remember though, this is still a game were our lives are on the line. we need to be careful." Kirito said to the party. They all nodded there heads in agreement. "Alright, on my call. Ready... set..." Before he could say go a flash of red shot past him, It was Asuna. She drove her rapier straight through one of the enemies, killing it in one hit.

"Wow... looks like Lightning Flash Asuna is back..." Said a slightly startled Silica.

"You can say that again, if we don't get in on this she'll take all the good stuff for herself." Klein said while rushing in after her. Kirito looked at the remaining party members and shrugged before following them. The group were able to swiftly eliminate the enemies and rack in some good drops as well.

"Check it! This material should be perfect for smithing!" Lisbeth said triumphantly while holding up a piece of bark dropped by one of the enemies.

"If you say so..." Said Kirito, he didn't know enough about blacksmithing to make an actual judgment. Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake. The group turned around and saw the tree nearest to them come to life. It was a mini boss 'Living Wood Behemoth'. It struck the ground with one of it's branches, then charged at the party. Klein jumped foreword and landed a solid blow on the creature. It let out a cry of pain and stumbled back, now missing a quarter of it's HP Bar.

"Your not so tough huh?" Klein said confidently.

"We do enough DPS to just be able to beat it while it's down, everyone attack!" as he did this all of his party rushed in and struck at the mini boss. It's HP dwindled until there was only a sliver left. Then, something unexpected happened. The creature let out a strange roar and a burst of red energy exploded out of it, knocking everyone back. Kirito looked up at the creatures HP bar and it was vibrating and seemingly glitching out. "This wasn't mentioned in the DLC description..." thought Kirito

"Kirito watch out!" Klein called out. Kirito looked up and saw that the creature was about to crush him with one of it's branches. Kirito quickly jumped out of the way.

"Thanks Klein. Where the hell did that speed come from?" Kirito asked.

"No clue, but something tells me we should kill this thing. Now." Klein said through gritted teethe. The creature was now seemingly going wild and swung more attacks at the party. It had a strange red aura around it and it seemed to be far stronger than before. Kirito began to dodge before he noticed something.

"Everyone! Hold still!" He yelled.

"What!? are you nuts!? That thing will kill us!" Leafa yelled.

"Just trust me!" Kirito yelled back. The whole group looked concerned but listened. They all stopped moving. The creature continued to attack, but this time it wasn't really 'attacking'.

"The attacks, they're all missing..." Lisbeth said with a confused look. "Why won't it hit us?" Suddenly there was a flash of blue light and the creature was cut into 2 pieces before exploding into thousands of blue polygons. Kirito had swiftly eliminated the mini boss. He put his sword back in it's sheathe and turned to face the group.

"Let's head back to base, we should discuss this privately." He said while holding out his teleport crystal. The group nodded and the teleported to the town located on floor 15. They entered the main hall in the town and began to discuss.

"So, what do you think that power was?" Asked Klein.

"Whatever it was, it looked like the creature couldn't control it. Judging by the fact that all of it's attacks were missing us." Lisbeth said.

"But why could it not control it? it's an A.I. It should be programmed to use these kinds of things because it's in it's coding." Asuna said.

"What if... It wasn't in it's coding..." Kirito suggested while looking around at everyone.

"What do you mean by that?" Asked Klein.

"I mean... what if it was put in there... but something that goes against the cardinal system." Kirito explained. The whole group seemed confused by this.

"Put in there? by the admin? Because you'd think he would have done a better job if he did." Lisbeth commented.

"But, what if he didn't intend to put it in? that's why it was acting so erratically and why the HP bar was glitching." Kirito said.

"Are you suggesting, that the game is bugged? Because that shouldn't be possible, the cardinal system would step in if it detected any bugs right? " Asuna said with a tone of concern. Kirito looked at everyone with a very serious expression on his face.

"I'm not confirming anything, this is all just what if's and speculation. But it is entirely possible that the game might have a defect of some kind. Something that the cardinal system can't fix."

"You mean like a glitch or a bug?" Asuna asked.

"I mean like...

...A Virus..."