Ramblings and Dribbles

by WolfgangNH

This is a posting of ramblings, dribbles, one-shots, unfinished ideas or other stuff I just don't think deserves it's own storyline. Some I plan to finish someday, others are what they are. This is mature reading for some posts. Some items may be well developed, others are not yet, and may never be. There will many different pairings, and sometimes none.

56. Sword and Wand, Part 2

Sword and Wand, Part 2

Rambling and Dribbles: A dribble that I hope some enjoy. All updates are now in chapter 1 of Rambling and Dribbles.

Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter does not belong to me.

A/N: I have no clue if I will finish this story, which is why I am posted what I have. If I do, I will only leave Ch 1 and 2 up at that time.

-oOo-

Premise:

This is an SAO/HP cross that will focus on getting through SOA. Harry will be a key player, but he may not be part of the assault team. That is undecided at this time. He will change the game though, whether Kayaba likes it or not.

I want to give a feel of a game with more, but mostly from Harry's perspective. There will be many OC's, but Harry's story will intersect the main characters, and maybe eventually merge everyone. The outside world will show up occasionally, but mainly to track Remus and a few others as the story goes on.

It will be a mix of the books, movies and cartoons.

I am not a game writer, so as I have in my rules, it will be a mix of what I know of SAO, WOW, D&D and other tabletop RPG's. Hopefully this will not throw some people off.

This is inspired by jgkitarel's excellent series Mystic Knight Online, but I plan to do this differently as the story progresses. I also don't have much for plans after SAO.

Base rules:

1) SAO/HP cross

a) Not a huge game mechanic writer, but will work to include the proper terms and feel

2) Date/Cannon changes:

a) The general story is 26 years shifted. Some changes will be known from it, but on the whole, figure HP cannon happened about the same up until October 31, 2008, when Harry defeated Voldemort

b) Sirius got Harry out. Remus found Harry at the Dursleys when he was about 4 and rescued him. Ran to a place that no one would think to look for him and where werewolves are not as feared: Japan.

c) Harry is 15 (born July 31, 2007) at start of story

d) Attends Mahoutokoro, which allows him to go home on the weekends. He working on both his magical and mundane education

e) Japan integrates magic/technology more. Lessons of isolation from WWII

f) Likes to play games, especially VR games.

g) SAO will not be exactly like the books or shows. I have bastardized the game system a little into what I understand, which a little more in line with gaming like WOW and some D&D. If you don't like it, then tough. I will try to be as true to the SAO as possible, but I just don't it that well.

h) Magic will be added later…

-oOo-

Chapter 3

-oOo-

November 23, 2022

Aincrad, 1st Floor

They had run the dungeon three times now, but each time, they found something new.

It was a dank place made of roughly hewn passages with caverns and a few hidden rooms. Today they were walking through the dungeon with a few others. He would prefer to be in front, but the one that had invited us was tanking and was determined he was the best.

Harry was looking all about. He didn't like having the six of them walking in the long line as were going to be approaching a cavern that usually spawned some kobolds. Sakami moved up next to him.

"Heroku, I don't like this," she told him.

Like him, her eyes were moving all about. He had an unsettled feeling as well. "I don't either, but they aren't listening to us," Harry said.

"I know, but none of the traps were set. Either there is another group before us or something has changed again," she said.

Harry knew that something was bothering him, and he now knew what.

"Gojuru, stop," Harry called out.

The tall man with a goatee turned. "What is it this time, Heroku? The last to times you had us stop because you though it would be an ambush nothing happened."

"That's the issue," he said, moving towards the front of the line. The others with Gojuru were just as arrogant as the leader.

"I don't understand. You said that this place always had some good monsters and loot and so far we've only found six kobolds," a shorted man with a mace said.

"There should have been a lot more. All the traps have already been sprung or something has changed. Sakami and I think something is off," he told them.

Gojuru huffed. "For being guides, you haven't done your job yet. Are you saying we turn around?"

Sakami stepped up next to him. "Yes. Or you let us scout ahead," she replied.

Gojuru scoffed. It was obvious what he thought about a girl telling him what to do. "I am the tank. You just stay back there and polish your nails."

Harry bristled. "Don't you dare say she doesn't know what she is doing."

Gojuru stepped forward, jamming his war hammer into Harry's shield. "So far you and her have done nothing. Either find us some loot or I will talk to you and your girlfriend anyway I want."

Harry wanted to punch the man, but with the three others on Gojuru's side, he knew he couldn't win a brawl. They wouldn't be able to kill him unless it was a duel, but they could rough him up, which would not be good in the dungeon.

Sakami put her hand on his arm. "Heroku, let's scout ahead," she suggested. They had both investing in stealth, which was essential for a scout, and they had become scouts with Daviel's encouragement. Only a few others had found more than them in the month they had been here.

"I will be in the lead. You cover our behind. Not that there is anything there," Gojuru ordered.

Harry had seen where this type of attitude could lead, but he was not about to abandon a group that had asked them to come along. He shared a quick look with Sakami. Her dark eyes showed anger. "Fine. There is usually a trip wire coming up soon that drops some spikes from the ceiling. The next cavern usually spawns a half dozen to a dozen kobolds in minimal armour and picks."

"We'll see," Gojuru said, clearly not believing them.

Harry huffed, then moved to the back of the group. He opened his inventory to take out his spear. He had put it away while they were in the narrow tunnels, but it would work when they got to the cavern.

"There is something wrong here," Sakami said again.

"I know. Make sure you have your potions ready. If we get stuck in the tunnel, we will have to push through," he told her. Harry doubted the four with them were level six yet. Sakami and him were pushing level ten.

"Tomorrow we go off on our own. I want to go back to the second tower to the east of Tolbana," she told him.

Harry nodded. She had a feeling the floor boss was in that tower dungeon. There was enough nastiness there for Harry to agree.

They had only walked another twenty feet when Sakami stopped. She was very good at detecting traps. He stood over her as she knelt down. "What is it?"

"New runes," she said as she pulled up her interface.

Harry rose a brow. "Runes?"

He hadn't heard her say that before. She stiffened. "I mean writing."

That was the first time he had a clue that she might not be normal.

She traced what looked like runes along the cave wall. "This is not in any of the guide books."

"What does it say?"

She frowned. "I don't know."

There was a yell from down the tunnel. He turned to see runes lit up along the floor, racing towards them. It stopped at the chain of runes they were at. The sound of steel on steel echoed down the tunnel.

"We need to help them," Harry said.

She got up, pulling her rapier and dagger out. "Be careful. We don't know what this is."

He nodded, then ran to get around the bend the others had disappeared behind.

The tunnel opened up into a cavern. "Oh, bloody fuck," he muttered.

Sakami had a colourful phrase he had never heard before.

He had never seen kobolds where a breast plate or one that was almost twice as tall as the typical four foot tall creatures. There must have been twenty of the monsters.

"Gojuru!" one of the others yelled out.

Gojuru was in the centre of the mob. "He's going to get himself killed," Harry snapped, but the two nearer him were in more trouble.

They stepped into the room and the tunnel closed behind them.

"Heroku, it's a field boss," she snapped.

"Damn it. Minju and Wourgu, fall back. Sakami, Eredu!"

He moved forward to pull the agro from the three kobolds attacking the nearest players. He had faith that Sakami would pull Eredu back. The group had separated, and that was not good. Sakami dashed to the left to help the one that had been pulled off that way.

He charged forward, pushing between the two long swordmen. They were sloppy in their work. His shield bashed into the face of one kobold as his spear stabbed another. The spear killed the kobold, which exploded into a pixelated cloud.

He pulled back as Minju got in a lucky strike into the third kobold. Harry finally got a look at the name. They were Kobold Lancers.

"Move back. Take my right flank," he ordered the two.

"We have to save Gojuru!" Minju yelled back, moving into the fray.

"GOJURU! PULL BACK!" Harry yelled out. "Minju! You idiot!"

Gojuru roared in rage. His war hammer bashed in the head of a kobold as the leader, Mungrun the Vast, move in.

"Sakami!"

She turned to see him. Harry had to move in to engage the two Kobold Lancers that tried to flank Minju. He was able to get one of then in the armpit with his spear, cutting it's health in half, while the other one attacked his round shield.

"Get him a healing potion," Sakami ordered behind him before she moved into to finish the one he had tagged while he pulled off three more.

He saw the larger man, Minju, try to get to Gojuru.

Gojuru had been defending himself with his shield and hammer, but the man was surrounded. Harry caught the swipe from Mungrun hit Gojuru's shoulder. He had to take his eyes off the man to block a pickaxe and then stepped forward to jab his spear into the monsters neck.

He stepped back, as Sakami moved into to take care another kobold. A mace came down on the head of the third from Eredu.

A death scream echoed in the cavern. Harry turned to see Minji taking a pickaxe into his back, then another in his head. Gojuru was still standing, but he had red streaks from hit all over him. For a lower level, the guy could take a hit. He must have sunk most of his stat points into his health.

"Pick off these four first," Harry ordered as he charged a group on the outskirts of the main scrum. His spear glowed as he activated punch. His spear hit the centre of the chest plate and then punched through. The kobold cried out before it shattered into pixels.

He blocked a pickaxe and then spun, hitting the butt of the spear into the one that had attacked. It was knocked to the floor. Sakami rushed past, stabbing it in the back. She then started to stab at another, her rapier glowing before she blocked a swipe of a pickaxe with her dagger. Harry moved in to hit the one that had moved in behind her.

This time the spear tip dented the plate, and had the kobold stumbling back. Sakami spun around and her dagger cut it across the neck. Two more disappeared into pixels.

He turned to the remaining group. Gojuru took a pickaxe to the base of his spine. It punched through his leather armour. A look of surprise was on his face.

"NO!" Harry cried out. The sword that Mungrun had came down, cleaving down the front of the huge man.

Harry had seen it three times now. Each time it cut through him to see a player die. Now he had seen two in this fight. He couldn't focus on that right now. He gave out a battle cry that caught the attention of the last six kobolds and the field boss. There was a power in it that had the smaller kobolds taking a step back. He had never done that before.

Mungrun snarled back.

"Heroku, we have to end this," Sakami said.

He did a quick look. Eredu was looking at them with wide eyes. Wourgu was against the wall, his sword on the floor and his hands over his head. The guy was having a break down.

FUCK! He yelled in his head.

"Eredu, you support Sakami. Keep them off her. I'll pull the big guy until you two can move in," he ordered. Mungrun pointed is sword at them. His minions took heart and moved forward.

Harry didn't have time to know if they followed his orders. He hefted his spear. It glowed as he pulled it back. Taking a step, he threw it at the big guy. Mungrun didn't dodge it. It impaled into the monsters shoulder. He noticed the health bar drop to yellow.

It roared in pain and moved to pull it out. Harry pulled his short sword. Charging the group, he put his shield forward, knocking over two of the front line and moving in to bring his sword down on the arm trying to pull the spear out of its shoulder.

A deep red gash appeared.

Harry blocked the sword that came down, then started to spar with the thing. He was at a disadvantage to the big guys long sword. He was blocking and getting in scratches as Sakami and Eredu took care of the riffraff.

One of his blocks missed and the sword cut down his right leg. Harry cried out. It wasn't really painful, but he still felt it. He blocked the next blow, then saw where his spear had been thrown.

He maneuverer closer to it.

"Heroku, pull back and heal," Sakami told him. She moved past him, her dagger blocking a sword swipe while her rapier stabbed Mungrun in his arm. She parried a few more times before getting in another hit.

He took the time to take a healing potion. He must have been hit a few times as his health was down to 286HP out of the 500HP he had. He rushed over to his spear. "Sakami, pull back," he ordered.

She jumped back as he moved in. His spear dug into the giant kobold's side. It cried out, grabbing the spear. Sakami took the distraction and came in from the other side. She stabbed the knife into its back and then her rapier into its head.

Mungrun paused and he watched the health bar go to zero. A second later, Mungrun the Vast exploded into millions of pixels and then was gone. Harry spun around, just make sure that there was not other danger. The tunnels on each end of the cavern opened up, the rock that had blocked them pulling back into the earth.

Scanning quickly, he only saw the crying Wourgu. He had a sinking feeling. "Where are the others?"

"Dead," Sakami said, her voice sounding hollow.

Harry closed his eyes for a moment.

"I should have never done this. Oh, god, they are all dead. They are all dead," Wourgu was saying.

Harry felt a surge of anger come from deep inside him. He threw his head back and screamed at the world. His spear tip pointed to the floor and the metallic clang echoed in the cavern as his shoulders hunched.

Sakami put a hand on his shoulder. "I want to get out of here," she told him.

Harry looked up. There was a congratulations over their heads. A quest box was in the air. He hadn't even known they were on a quest. Gojuru hadn't told them that. Anger coursed through him. The rewards were decent, but what the hell did that matter if people died!

He shook her hand off him and marched over to the older player that was having a complete breakdown. He grabbed the man under the small leather armour plate on his chest and bodily lifted him up. "This was a fucking quest! You know you are supposed to tell the group everything. What the fuck were you playing at!"

The man was crying. "Gojuru wanted gear to catch up to the Beaters."

"What the hell are Beaters?"

"The beta players that are leaving all the rest of us behind," Wourgu said. "This was just supposed to be fun. The group of us play games on the weekends. This was never supposed to be like this. I have kids. Who is going work to make sure they have what they need?"

"FUCK!" Harry yelled out and dropped the man.

The quest and loot screen were still hovering before him.

"Heroku?" Sakami asked.

He turned to her. He could see how close she was to loosing it after this debacle. He was as well.

"I have two kids. My mother watches them but she is getting older. Gods! This was just supposed to be fun!"

"HEROKU!" Sakami suddenly yelled. She was looking past him.

Harry tuned in time to see Wourgu take his knife and stab himself in the stomach. He was frozen in horror as the man pulled it up. His health bar quickly went into the red. Just as he realized what was happening, he reached out, but it was too late.

Wourgu burst into a million pixels like the kobolds had, and then it dissipated.

He was stuck in mid motion, horrified by what he just saw.

It was dead quiet for a moment. Then he heard a soft sob. Turning to Sakami, she was standing there with her hands over her mouth. Harry had never been part of anything like this.

"I want to go home," Sakami said in a sob.

For the first time, he could tell she needed more than just him to stand by her side. Forcing himself to moved, he reached out. She jumped when he touched her arm, then threw herself at him, her arms curled to her chest as she put her head to his shoulder and began to cry.

He wrapped his arms around her. Her whole body was shaking.

Harry put his face into her hair. A few tears left his eyes.

The sound of shuffling feet echoed down the tunnel they had come from. He shot his head up.

"We need to go," he told her.

She was still shaking, not moving from his arms. "Sakami, we need to go," he gently said.

She pulled back, wiping at her face. He picked up her weapons and handed them to her. She moved close to his side. He picked up his spear, then finally just hit accept on the message boxes, not even looking at what they got. That was unimportant to what just happened.

He put his spear back into his inventory as they were going to enter the tunnels again. Before he could pull his sword, Sakami took his hand in hers. He looked down at it, then at the dark eyes, Japanese girl. She held his hand tighter.

They walked out of the dungeon still holding hands.

That night, he met Devian in the tavern below where they were staying. Sakami had changed into shirt and short shorts and had said she wanted to be alone as she curled up on her bed. Harry let her be, going down to find a dark corner and send a message for Devian to meet him here.

When Devian showed up, Harry was into his third tankard of the piss tasting beer and wishing he could get drunk, but the game didn't work that way. Devian sat, and regarded him for a long moment. "Are you alright, Heroku?"

Harry looked into the half empty tankard. "I wish we could get drunk."

Devian gave him a sympathetic look. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Harry looked up. His green eyes were blood shot and he knew he looked worse for wear. "You know, I thought the top gamers would have already beat this by now. Have you known any game that took longer than a few weeks to beat? I mean, there were beta testers that knew everything, right?"

Devian's face grew long. "I know you played before, but how far did you get?"

"Third floor, Level 8. The same level I am now. Did you know there was a field boss in the dungeons?" Heroku asked.

Devian frowned. "We cleared that field boss the first time we went through. It was a big nasty troll."

Harry… ah, fuck it. He didn't want to be Harry! "A group of low level players found a quest. They didn't tell Sakami and me about it. We knew something was off, but the leader, Gojuru, was a real arse and asked us to go with them. It was different. We had maybe a dozen kobolds by the time we reached the third cavern."

Devian's frown grew. "That is unusual. What was the quest?"

Harry opened his interface, then sent of the details. The Missing Miner

Devian's brow rose. "How powerful was the boss? This is some serious col for this."

Heroku drank the last of what was in the tankard, really wishing he could get drunk. "Strong. One good hit took my health down by half."

Devian let out a low whistle. "You and Sakami are some of the best geared out here."

Harry scowled as his stomach churned. "They were all level five or six. None of them had great gear. Sakami and I had to carry the entire fight."

Devian nodded. "Well, at least they had some experienced players with them. How did they make out?"

"Dead," Heroku said in a flat tone.

Devian closed his eyes. "Damn it. We keep telling them to be careful and how to approach things. What happened?"

Heroku just shook his head. He scrolled through his inventory and then selected something. A long sword appeared on the table. "This was the last hit drop. Sakami doesn't want it. Give it to someone that needs it."

Heroku stood up. Devian looked a the sword, then at its stats. "Heroku, this is a class B blade. Why are you just giving this up?"

"I don't want to see anyone else die. They were trying to solo the quest without support so they could catch up to the gear of the top players. They called the beta testers Beaters," Heroku said. He really didn't want to be Harry right now.

Devian sighed. "Many are blaming people like us. I'll see who can use a blade like this. Here, take this."

Heroku held up his hand. "I don't want any col or anything else. I only want to go home."

Devian didn't say anything as he walked away.

It was a warm night. Even though it should be fall, maybe winter, back home, it was like summer on the first floor. Normally he would stay mostly dressed because of Sakami. Tonight he just wanted to feel like he was home… or anywhere else. He put all his gear and clothes into his inventory, climbing into bed in only his shorts.

Her lay there, looking at the stars. The moon was just about full again. He watched it until there was a soft rustling for the bed next to him. He turned to see Sakami sitting up. She still looked devastated from what happened earlier.

"Sakami, are you alright?"

She looked at him. Part of him though he should be perving on her in her shirt that highlighted her chest and her long legs. Instead, he just met her eyes. He felt as lost as she looked.

"I don't want to be alone," she told him.

He was confused. She was in the bed next him. They weren't alone. "I'm right here," he replied.

She continued to stare at him. "Can I sleep with you?"

Heroku blinked. "Ah, sure," he said after a moment.

She took her pillow. He moved to the side of the bed so that his back was against the wall. She climbed under the covers, her back to him and her head on her pillow. It was odd, but nice at the same time, to have her close to him.

After today, he needed to know there something worth all this.

She reached over and took his hand. "Hold me," she softly asked.

He moved so that her back was against him. Her put an around over her side, being very careful to not touch anything. She put her hand into his, her fingers meshing into his and holding his arm tight to her stomach.

He thought he should feel awkward. Instead, he found himself feeling protective of her. So far in the last month, she had been the only one he had been able to rely on, and she had stuck with him.

He soon found his eyes closing as her breathing steadied.

He would get a few hours of sleep before the first nightmare about the day hit them.

-oOo-

November 24, 2022

Aincrad, 1st Floor

A bird was annoyingly singing a song outside the window. He groaned, not ready to get up today. He felt a little warm. Shifting to put a hand over his eyes to block the early morning light, he was made aware of something on his chest and hugging his side.

His first reaction was to reach for his wand while his other hand went for his sword.

His hand landed on the side table to find nothing. His other hand grabbed the thin blanket.

A girl moaned against his chest. "I don't want to get up."

Harry froze.

Nearly a month in here had already trained his body to react.

To have a girl with an arm around his waist, her head on his bare chest and a leg over his was shorting his brain out. He was trying to figure out what was going on until he registered it was Sakami.

He blink again to remember how this had happened. His face reddened to understand what was pressing into his side.

"I don't want to go out today," she said.

Harry forced himself to relax. "Alright. We don't have too."

Harry wanted to get out here, but they hadn't taken a day off and he was feeling tired. Truthfully, he was feeling like he was stretched thin.

"Hold me," she asked.

He pulled his arm that had searched for his wand to wrap it around her shoulders. She shifted so that her hand was on his chest. It felt too warm and his body was responding to having her pressed against him.

Harry… because he was Harry again today, swallowed. "Are you alright?"

Sakami nuzzled her face into his chest. "I want to go home."

His hand squeezed her shoulder. "I do too," he admitted.

A yawn escaped him. He knew he hadn't slept well last night. Visions of what happened yesterday, and the few times they had come close to dying themselves, was getting to him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. There had grown an unspoken rule that no one talked about their lives outside of here. He did it as much to keep his own sanity as to have a goal to fight for.

His reason to fight was to keep from what happened yesterday from happening anymore. He had also promised Sakami she would get out of here.

Sakami sniffed. She wasn't crying, but he could tell she was emotional. You didn't spend nearly a month with someone without learning something about them. "I heard there is a shop on Daichi Street that sells appearance mods."

Harry had heard that too and seen some people with off hair or eye colours. Daviel had blue hair, which Harry doubted was his real hair colour. "We can go find it after we eat."

Sakami didn't say a word.

Even though they had been adventuring, Harry was realizing he actually knew little about her than to tell when she was feeling down and they worked well as a team. "Sakami, do you think there is anywhere that has good food?"

She shifted. "I want udon."

"That will be nice. We will find a place," he promised her.

She buried her face into his chest again. "Can't that bird stop singing?"

Harry chuckled. "We could make it."

She hit his chest. "I won't kill an innocent bird. Kayaba could at least make it so the sun didn't shine straight into the floor this early in the morning."

Harry frowned. He couldn't agree more.

-oOo-

November 29, 2022

Obihiro, Japan

Remus had talked with a few people he knew from the project. They had found a way to access the live feed in the headsets, but they hadn't made it public yet because it required a direct link to the NerveGear and a computer that most wouldn't have.

Remus had spent the last week getting a laptop and modifying it.

Sitting on Harry's bedside, he put the link from his computer to the auxiliary USB on the side of the helmet. He had been assured that this would do nothing to endanger Harry.

Opening the program, he did the search for the IP and MAC addresses of the headset on Harry. Once he had that, he connected the program to the addresses.

When the feed started, Remus was disorientated for a moment.

The view was obviously directly from Harry's eyes. He caught various icons and other information that he was looking at. Harry was in a stonework corridor. A Japanese girl with blonde hair with pink tips was looking at some writing on a wall.

"What does it say?" Harry's voice came over the speakers.

Remus had a surge of emotions. He looked to the still boy on the bed. He was hooked up to monitors and had two IV lines in him. The most devastating to him was the feeding tube in the nose. Looking at the screen, he could see Harry was as active in the game as he would have been in real life.

"It's in that Sumerian script we got form the book seller. It's a riddle to open a door," she replied.

"Is it a treasure room?" someone next to Harry asked.

Harry turned to regard a man that looked to be in his early twenties. Four others were behind him. "I don't know, Klein. It could be a trap. Are you going to go running in?"

Harry's voice was hard.

The young man with the goatee and lighter brown hair held up his hands. "Devian told us to follow your lead."

Harry nodded. "Sakami, do we keep moving on and mark it or do we go in?"

The girl, Sakami, must have been about the same age as Harry. Fifteen or Sixteen. When she looked up, she had purple eyes. Remus really took her in as she stood up. She was maybe five feet tall with a rapier and knife with a wide hilt on her side, a leather chest plate, a leather reinforced skirt with pink material and a white cotton shirt under her armour.

"If we just look, I don't see the harm," she said. "We are only looking."

"Yeah, that's fine. We only want some better gear for when we find the floor boss. I heard they think it will be found any day now," Klein said off screen.

"Damn it, Harry, why didn't you just stay where it was safe?" Remus asked, realizing they must be in a dungeon and they were putting themselves in danger.

Of course he knew that Harry would never do anything the like. He may have been an abused and cowed child when he saved him, but in the last ten years, Harry had shown more and more of his parents in him, and neither of them would have just sat this out.

A knock came at the door.

He looked up. A smile came over his face. "Officer Yumoto, I wasn't expecting you."

He turned the volume down on the computer.

"I was stopping by to check in on all the patients and give the families an update." Her eyes went to the screen and then the cord between the computer and the headset. "How did you do that? Is that Harry's live feed?"

Remus grinned. "I was able to talk to a few friends."

She pursed her lips. "That was very dangerous, Mister Lupin. We lost one the first time they tried to get the link."

He paled. "I was told this was safe."

He had been desperate to find out anything about Harry.

She sighed and walked over. "If the link took, it should be. I was told once the link took, there were no other complications. How is he?"

Remus looked back at the screen. Harry had called up his interface to quickly get something from his inventory. He noticed that there was a five slot hot bar with three healing potions, one cleansing potion and a spear. His health bar was full. Remus eye brow rose.

"I think he's doing well. He's with a group in a dungeon," Remus told her.

She looked at the screen. "Do you mind if I watch for a few. If I can find out anything about these people, the Ministry of Defence would like to know. I'm going to have to report this too. A team is being assembled to see if they can find a way to get then all out."

Remus nodded. "I understand. How many have you been able to link up?"

"More than a dozen before one of them was killed when the link interrupted the live feed to the servers," she said.

Remus wasn't sure if he was going to be sick or not. He had almost killed Harry!

The sound of metal clanging had him looking back at the screen. The group had entered the room and where not engaged in a pitched battle against some kobolds. Harry was at the front of the group. "Merlin, damn it!" he cried out the second he realize that Harry was working as the tank of the group.

He saw Sakami supporting him. It was obvious they had worked with each other already. The others were not as skilled, but were keeping their own. Neither of them said a word to watch the teens and the young adults clear the room.

Harry's spear glowed before it pierced through the armour and chest of the Ruin Kobold Trooper. Remus' eye brow rose. He hadn't seen that before.

In just a few minutes, the room was cleared and Klein and the ones with him were cheering.

Sakami was searching the room, as was Harry, ignoring the screen that had appeared announcing they had just gained 312EXP, 562 Col and a few items.

"That was impressive," Officer Yumoto said.

Remus nodded. "It was. His father was an Auror. He was always at the front of a fight."

Officer Yumoto started to write things down. "Did you catch the names of all their companions?"

Harry accepted the screen and looked back at the other five that were animatedly talking with each other. Sakami put her weapons back into their sheafs. "We shouldn't stay long. The room may reset," she said to Harry.

Remus was paying attention as he called off the names of the others from the bars over their heads.

"Give them a moment."

Harry put his spear back into his hot bar. His brow rose to see the girl take his hand. Harry squeezed it before they quickly let go of each other when Klein turned to them. "I know we should be here long. How much further to the end of the dungeon?"

"We have only explored the first five floors. We can go as high as the fourth floor," Harry told them.

Klein smiled. "Then what are we waiting for?"

Sakami had opened her interface again. "Let Daviel know we will have more data tonight."

"I will. Let's get through this first."

Remus was worried, but felt a certain pride as well. Harry had always been a little more on the practical side, and it looked like this was driving him that direction. At the same time, he had the thought that Harry's childhood was done.

Remus had done all he could to give Harry a happy childhood after what the Dursley's had done to him. He knew Harry was more mature than many of his peers. In that one encounter, he could see Harry wasn't really a child anymore. Or wouldn't be much longer.

"Do you know the girl is? A possible friend from school?" Officer Yumoto asked.

Remus regarded her as Harry gave her another look before they left the room.

"She isn't one of his friends. At least not one he's spent any time with outside of school," he said. He knew everyone Harry spent time with at Mahoutokoro. That didn't mean he knew everyone. The school was large. It hosted all the children of Japan. Each class had a few hundred.

"They seem close. Could he know her from somewhere else? Are you familiar with the name Sakami?"

Remus shook his head. "I don't recognize her and they are all using their player names. Harry's never mentioned anyone by that name."

She closed her notebook. "Thank you."

Remus got up and bowed to her. "Thank you for checking in on us."

"I'll be doing that from time to time. I would expect investigators from Tokyo to contact you soon about your link," she warned him.

Remus sat back down when she walked out of the room. He watched for the next two hours as they cleared the dungeon and went back to a town. He breathed a little easier then they walked past the town walls. He knew enough about the game they were in a safe zone now.

Watching Harry with Sakami, he was certain there was something there, but they didn't act like they were sweet on each other except a worried look here or there, or a few times when Sakami took his hand, usually after the group got through a fight.

Harry stood tall, leading them, until he went up to a room in an inn. He watched as Harry put his shield down, sat heavily in a chair, and then put his head in his hands.

Remus could tell the stress his pup was under. He just hoped Harry made it through, especially since he seemed to be on the front lines of getting through the game.

-oOo-

Chapter 4

-oOo-

December 3, 2022

Aincrad, 1st Floor, Tolbana

They sat to the side of the small amphitheatre. Daviel was laying out the information that Sakami and him had stumbled upon during their exploration two days ago. He was surprised it hadn't gotten out, but they did their task to see what the boss, Illfang the Kobold King was like and pass any information they had.

Making it to the eight floor had not been easy. They had now topped level nine. Most of the top players were level nine or ten.

Harry was pleased because they had found two more hidden rooms. One of which had given him a better shield and a jain sword. It was a longer than his short sword, but not the length of the long swords the game seemed to favour.

Sakami had made out with a new rapier that had a better cross bar and gave her a boost to her agility and strength.

Harry was looking at the others here. By the looks of it, there had to be a few beta's, but most looked to have learned the mechanics of the game quickly. He wouldn't say anything about being a beta though. The backlash against them was getting bad in the Town of Beginnings and by some of the adventurers that had made it this far.

Sakami elbowed him as a boy with spiky sienna hair charged onto the stage.

Harry paid attention to the angry young man. "It was the beta testers that left us to just die in the Town of Beginnings!"

A tall black man stood up. "I think I've heard enough. Kibo…"

"Kiboau," the young man snapped.

"Kiboau. Not all the beta testers are bad. I've had a few help me and others. If you want to talk bad about them, then don't do it here," the big man said. Harry wished he had a build like that to tank. He was at the smaller end to do so, but he was doing it.

"You don't understand! They just left us!"

"I've heard these arguments before," Daviel said. "This is a meeting about the floor boss. If you wish to be part of the party, then that is what are talking about. If not, please leave."

There was an edge to Daviel's voice and the big black man was glaring at the angry young man.

With a huff, Kiboau returned to the stone steps. "Thank you…"

"Agil."

Daviel nodded. "As I was saying, scouts have found the floor boss. He's known as Illfang the Kobold King on the eighth level of the tower. If you have a guide book, the known attacks and when he changes them is in here. We did find out that he also has some Ruin Kobold Sentinels. We will have to control them before we can move in on the boss…"

Harry eyed Kiboau. He felt guilty for being a beta, but Sakami and him were doing their part to get them all out of this.

He noticed that Kirito was sitting towards the top middle seats. They shared a nod before Daviel started to organize them into groups. "I want to work with Agil," Sakami told him.

Aside from Klein and his four team members, Harry didn't trust to work with anyone else. Sakami and him had spent two days with the group and found they worked well together. They had declined to join their party permanently. At least for now. Klein wasn't here today though. If he had to choose anyone else, then Agil looked to be a solid choice as well.

Daviel nodded as he was surrounded by a few others. Harry discretely sent a request to the man that had helped them survive. He accepted.

"Just remember, we will meet here tomorrow at 10:00. Use this time to top off your supplies and repair your gear," Daviel called out as people were leaving the square.

"We should go see the smithy in Horunka. He has the best prices and the fasted service for repairs," he said to Sakami.

"I also heard that there is a vendor in Media that sells Superior Healing potions. They are supposed to restore 300HP and then another 500 over ten seconds," she replied.

Harry nodded. Teleporting to the Town of Beginnings and then running to Horunka would be the fastest. They should just be able to get back, go to Media and get a few hours of sleep before the group headed out at 10:00.

-oOo-

December 4, 2022

Aincrad, 1st Floor, Eight floor of the Labyrinth

They stood outside the room. Forty-four of them. Sakami and him were in the central fast-assault group led by Devian. Three others were with the raid leader. He probably would have been better with Agil and his tank group, but Heroku wouldn't leave Sakami on her own.

"Tank team 1, support the right wing and take on the sentinels. Tank team 2, you are to occupy the boss as we mob up his guards. Kiboau, your assault team is to support the right flank. My team, support Tank team 2. Engage but stay far enough back to avoid any major damage until we can all engage," Daviel ordered. "Support team 6 and 7, keep everyone's health up and pull anyone out if their health goes below fifty-percent."

Kirito was in the right wing fast-assault team. Hopefully with at least four beta players this fight would go well.

"My group should be in the main assault against the boss," Kiboau demanded.

"Take out the sentinels first. We can't afford any distractions when we make out push," Daviel said.

Sakami pulled out her sword and knife. He hade sure he had his short sword for now. He didn't know how to handle the jain yet, and that could be bad in a boss fight.

Daviel turned to them. "Keep your distance until we can start cycling groups," he told him.

The others with him nodded. They seemed the most skilled aside form Kirito. Harry couched his spear on his shield. "Sakami, stay close."

She stepped to his side. "I have your back, Heroku."

Daviel pushed the door open. A kobold that was about four meters high was sitting on a giant stone throne on a raised dais on the other send of the room. Five sentinels in half plate were at the base of the dais. He knew this was going to be a tough fight.

"Remind me why we decided to do this?" he whispered to Sakami.

"We want to go home," she told him.

His resolve hardened.

He would have no shame in admitting that he was scared almost witless when the giant kobold king jumped off the dais and covered half the distance to them. For its size, the thing moved faster than Harry had thought it could.

Daviel stepped into the middle of the group. "Teams 1, 4 and 5, go! Team 2 and 3, keep the boss occupied."

Many gave out war cries as the boss roared at them.

Harry followed Agil and his four tanks in. Ten of them should be able to hold off the boss until the others could join in.

Things were going well until the boss got down to his last bar.

Well, Harry thought it was going well on the whole, though many of their party was looking shell shocked at the battle so far. Illfang had been harder than most expected and he had just knocked all the tanks and the front line people down.

"Everyone heal up!," Devian ordered.

The kobold king roared at them, then threw his shield and axe away. Devian ran forward. "Support me," he called out.

Harry helped Sakami up. She looked a little shaken. Her armour had mostly absorbed the hit she had gotten, she had a bleeding DOT on her. "Take the clarifying potion and heal. Stay behind me until…"

"DEVIAN! Don't! That's not a tulwar. It's a nodachi!"

Harry turned to see Daviel rushing forward. His sword was glowing yellow. The giant cleaver blade came down. Daviel blocked it, but was slashed across his chest when Illfang quickly reverse its grip and swung the nodachi up.

Daviel was sent flying and most froze to see the raid leader flying through the air with a huge red slash from his hip to his shoulder. "DAVIEL!" Hirito called out.

The kobold king roared in triumph. "Sakami!"

Harry saw the giant kobold moved to rush the stunned crowd. He moved forward to keep it from ripping through their ranks before anyone could recover. She got what he was after as he charged forward. The kobold king has just planted his feet to do the same. He brought his spear tip down onto its foot. Sakami rushed past him to target the same leg.

She jumped back as the giant fell to a knee, it's skill interrupted. He just got his spear out and shield up as the meter and a half long nodachi came whistling at him. It felt like a truck hitting his shield. He was sent flying.

"HEROKU!" Sakami cried out.

He landed hard and slid into the wall.

Illfang got back to his feet.

"Asuna!"

He sat up as Sakami got to his side. "Bloody fuck!" he let out as he tried to put weight on his left arm. Looking down, his shield had been bent and it was obvious his arm had been broken.

Sakami dropped to her knees. "Of all the stupid, moronic things you could do," she scolded him as she materialized a healing potion in her hands.

Everyone else was watching Kirito and a girl, Asuna, begin their assault on the king. Most had missed what Sakami and him had done to save them as they had been watching Devian.

"I'm alright," he told her. His health had only dropped by 50HP. His shield wouldn't last another hit though.

They heard steel on steel. His arm snapped back together and his health recovered. He watched Kitito and Asuna take on the boss. They worked together much like Sakami and him did. He got up, tightening his grip on his spear. He knew not to get in the middle of the fight. Everyone else was watching the fight with some awe.

They were holding their own until Kirito over extended himself.

"Oh no," Sakami said, seeing it to before Kirito was hit across the chest then thrown into Asuma.

Illfang didn't let them recover. It went in for the kill. Harry pulled shifted his hold on his spear. Her launched it at the giant nodachi came down. It hit Illfang in the side as Agil blocks the glowing attach with is axe.

"We have to finish this," Sakami told him.

He nodded. Illfang threw the spear away. The others rushed the boss to keep them off of Kirito and Asuma.

He rushed for his spear. Sakami was at his side. Six others engaged Illfang. "From the back."

She nodded. Illfang was obviously too much for the rest of the people here. Harry was wondering if he had miss calculated their levels and experience. Three were knocked down by the hug nodachi. He charged in, his spear glowing as he thrust it not its back. Sakami attached from the other side. Illfang roared in pain as it wildly turned to strike at them.

Sakami jumped back as he fell to the floor. The sensation of air passing just over his head told him how close that strike had been.

"Attack its back," Agil called out.

Illfang increased his speed. Harry jammed his spear into the monsters leg as Sakami did another fast hit and run. This seemed to really upset the boss. It spun around, the nodachi striking all the players around it.

They were all knocked to their feet. Harry rolled over. He quickly checked on Sakami, who was in a crouch. He saw the final hit coming for Agil. He hefted his spear to interrupt the attack. It missed as Illfang launched himself into the air.

"Shit!"

He scrambled to move, pulling his short sword. Sakami rushed next to him. Suddenly, Kirito was there. His sword was glowing a bright blue, and when he swung, Illfang was thrown off his path and hit the floor hard a few meters from the closest player.

"Let's finish this," Kirito said.

Sakami put a hand his arm to stop him. This was a fight the two others were to finish. He watched them work together and was amazed at the way Kirito finished the boss. He had to wonder how much higher a level Kirito and Asuna were than them. He knew that Sakami and him were near the top, but those two where probably at the top.

Sakami took his hand as they watched Illfang shatter into pixels like all mobs did when they died. A giant 'CONGRATULATIONS' banner flew of there heads and the loot and fight screen came up.

Most started to cheer. Sakami let out a long breath, then let go of his hand. Harry understood, but found he was starting to like when she took his hand.

He took a quick look at the screen. This was a big battle. 1100 EXP, 8067 Col, a dozen rare mats and a new leather breast plate. He started to walk towards the other side of the room to retrieve his spear.

Sakami walked with him. He had just picked it up when the lights in the room dimmed.

Agil and Asuna had walked up to Kirito. "It was thanks to you we won today."

Kirito shook his head. "No. It was all of us."

The others started to cheer. Harry was ready to leave the group. Sakami looked to the stairs that led to the next level at the back of the throne room. He brought up the stats on his equipment. He spear was still in good shape, but the shield was only had a few durability points left.

"Why are you all cheering! Why'd you do it! Why'd you let him die! Why did you let Daviel die! You knew what the boss was going to do."

Kirito and others looked shocked at the accusation. Harry felt a pit in his stomach. In all the heat of combat, he hadn't realized they had lost anyone. He looked around the room, looking for the teal hair of the man that Harry had started to see as a friend. The beta that had been trying to help the others.

"I KNOW! He was a beta tester!"

The accusation immediately turned the crowd on itself.

"I bet he's not the only beta tester here! Come on, show yourselves!"

Harry felt a little off footed at the turn in mood. He had done what had been asked of him. He had offered to help others, and the few times he had, a few had gone disastrously wrong. It was why Sakami and him weren't that interested in joining the few guilds that had already sprung up or a more permanent group.

He was about to speak up when Sakami put a hand on his arm. Kirito was looking at them. Daviel had probably told him. He made a small shake to his head. He had a look to his eyes that Harry recognized. Kirito was going to take all the blame. He pleaded with him silently. Kirito accepted whatever message was before him.

Agil had moved to calm Kiboau and his group. Sakami shifted to support the big man and Harry got her que. Kirito shook his head again before he started to laugh. It sounded deranged.

"Yeah, I was a beta tester, but don't compare me to those noobs. Everyone here is better than most of them. They didn't even know how to level," Kirito said as he got up and started to walk through the others to Kiboau.

Harry wanted to speak up. He couldn't let Kirito take all the blame. Sakami tightened her grip on his forearm.

"I'm nothing like those guys. I made it higher than an other tester. I saw areas and fought bosses that no other player has. I know things. I know more than any guide or info broker," Kirito said.

Kiboau was shocked for a second before angrily saying. "if that is so, then you are worst than any beta tester. You are cheater!"

The shock of the confrontation had most just staring at Kirito and Kiboau.

Someone in the crowd stared to call Kirito a Beater. If Kirito was like that, what did that mean about Harry and Sakami? Where there other beta-testers here? He doubted that Davien wouldn't have tried to get as many as he could. Everyone else was staying quiet. Harry didn't blame with how most thought of the beta testers, but he thought them cowards.

Harry thought of himself as a coward.

Kirito laughed. "A Beater. I like that. Yeah, I'm a Beater. Deal with it."

Sakami didn't let go his arm. It was only her slight shake to her head and his need promise to protect her and see her out of the game that kept his mouth closed. His jaw was set in anger though.

Kirito turned and walked towards the stairs. He caught Harry's eye as he walked past the group. There was a sadness there, but a resolve to do what he must.

Harry made the same resolve. He would do all he could to see the other players elevated up and to see everyone get out of the game.

Asuna ran after him as a general murmur broke out. Agil and a few others approached him and Sakami. He gripped his spear and she let go of his arm. While the others started to argue amongst themselves, Agil stepped in close. "Davien wanted me to give you a message if something happened. Seek out Argo."

By the look in Agil's eyes, Harry knew he knew their secret. He just didn't know if Agil was a beta tester or not.

Agil then nodded to the three others with him. "If you need anything, or want to sell, let me know. I'll also be willing to help with quests, if you need."

Sakami tight grip on her rapier lessoned. She looked to him. As much as Harry liked how strong she could be, she still deferred to him, like most Japanese did to authority. He nodded his head. This one was up to her. He would work with them, but it was her that needed to feel comfortable with this.

She nodded her head. "Thank you, Agil. Tak my friend request. We will be in touch."

Agil accepted the request. By now, the raid party was breaking up. Most were heading back towards Tolbana, talking about resting and gearing up before they went to the next level. A few were moving toward the door that was now open. Asuna was on the stairs, looking at the door.

Agil looked towards the stairs. "I've worked with Asuna a few times. I'll take care of her."

"Thank you," Sakami said.

"We are going to go take a look. See if there is a warp point or not," Harry told Agil.

Sakami gave him a look. "You need to get your shield replaced or fixed before we go."

Agil opened his interface. "If you need a shield, I got a good one from a field boss the other day."

"How much?"

Agil send a transfer request. Holding up his hand, he said, "I know what and Davien were doing. Take this one for free. I'm just paying it forward."

Harry got the implied message. Agil must know about the gear he had given Davien to give to the lower level players. Agil put a hand onto his shoulder. "You did good today, kid. You and Sakami were the best out there behind Kirito and Asuna."

Harry frowned. "It wasn't good enough."

"It was good enough. Most of us survived because of you and the other two."

Harry nodded. Agil gave Sakami a respectful bow. She returned it.

They followed a group of five that were still upset over Kirito and the beta testers. Harry hefted his new shield and gripped his spear. The shield was a good weight, with a +6 AC and 100HP bonus. The durability was also triple his last shield. It would help.

"I want to find the skills masters in Urbus," Sakami told him.

"If this is like the beta, we will come out in Urbus?" he said, thinking of his beta days. The others went through the portal, not paying them any attention.

"I need to learn more of the runes for looking at traps and disarming them," she told him.

Harry was thinking about it too. He had yet to use his intellect stat, and it was still highest stat. If he remembered, crystals became available on the second floor. He could maybe used his schooling from Mahoutokoro on potions and crystals?

It also brought up his suspicions on Sakami. She seemed to understand the runes and other hints of magic that had been scattered on the first floor more than anyone should unless they already knew.

She reached for his hand. He took it before they walked though the portal.

-oOo-

December 6, 2022

Aincrad, 2nd Floor

It had taken all of a day for Ubus to become as busy as Tolbana. Hundreds of players were wandering around town and making their way out of the city.

Harry was following Sakami as she searched for the NPC that had given them the quest to learn crystal crafting. They both wanted to learn the skill as the guide said crystals would not be available to the general public before level four, but could be crafted before then.

As far as they knew, they were the first two doing the quest chain.

"Do you see the shop?" Sakami asked.

They were looking for the Crystal Orb, a jeweller on the west end of town.

He was looking, but there was something that was tickling in the middle of his back. It was like they were being watched, but all towns were supposed to be safe zones. He caught movement in a side alley. He reached out and tapped Sakami's shoulder. His hand reached for his sword.

Sakami stopped and her hand reached for her weapon as well.

A girl stepped out of the shadows. She was in a long cloak, cloth armour and had two knives on her hip. "You're good. Most miss me," she said.

Harry stepped forward. It was his natural stance when they were in the field. "Who are you?"

The girl grinned and leaned against a wall. She had brown eyes and curly golden-brown hair. "Some call me the Shadow. You can call me Argo."

Recognition caught them both. "Agil told us to look for you," Sakami said.

"Did he now? I'll have to talk to him about ruining my fun. I usually seek people out," Argo said.

Harry relaxed a little. "What do you want?"

Argo smirked. "All business, this one," she said towards Sakami. "Don't you want to know what I do and why I am looking for you first?"

Harry rolled his eyes. Argo's smirk grew. "And what is it you do?"

"Thought you would never ask. I'm an Info merchant, gatherer and disseminator," she said.

"And you want our information?" Sakami surmised.

Argo winked at her. "That I do. I heard you worked with Daviel."

Harry frowned and squeezed his hand into a fist. "Were you working with him?"

"Daviel. Agil. Others. I hear you are some of the top scouts. Daviel was a little less than forthcoming with his sources. I also understand you've been helping the less fortunate," she said.

"We have," Harry replied.

"We gave most of the best gear we get and don't need to Daviel," Sakami told her.

Argo held up her hands in peace. "I was told. You don't need to explain yourselves to me. Kirito is taking most of the heat off us beta players, and I am keeping his help network going. For today, I offer a fair trade. All my data on the first, second and third floor for what you have."

His brow rose. "You have data on the third floor?"

"Only what I have gotten from other beta testers and what I remember, but I can't guarantee it's reliability. Things have changed," Argo replied.

"They have," he agreed. He looked Sakami. She was the one that was compiling most of the notes and had become the trap detector and disarmer of the team. She nodded after a moment, then opened her interface.

"What are you two up to right now? Not many come to this side of town. It's too far from the main gates still," Argo asked.

"Quest."

"Which quest?"

"Vassily the Jeweller."

Her brow rose. "And what is that for?"

"Gem and jewellery crafting," Sakami replied. "This is all our data. We scouted the southern highlands yesterday and have been tracking this quest down most of the day."

Argo called up the data. Her brow rose again as she let out a low whistle. "You mapped almost the entire region in a day?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "It was a long day, and we didn't try the dungeon or take on the two mini-bosses we found."

"Still, impressive. This is the most comprehensive map I've seen. You will help a lot of people with this. How long before you want me to tell people about the dungeon entrance?"

"Can you give us one day?" Harry asked. He wanted to explore it, even if they weren't the first.

"Sure. If you two can finish this quest, you will be the first crystal makers. You can turn a good profit quickly," Argo told them.

"Let us get it first and see what it takes," Sakami said. "Do you where the potion making quest starts?"

Her brow rose. "No ones looking for it yet, that I know of. There are a few that talked to the blacksmith. I think people forget how important potions and crystals are. When I find out, I'll let you know."

"Thank you," Sakami said.

"Argo, if we get loot to pass down, do we see you?"

"Look for Agil or another player called Hino. They are part of the underground that is supporting the noobs," she replied.

"Alright. We'll contact him," Harry said. He would send Agil a message later. He didn't want to look at his friend list at the moment. Last night had been a surprise to see the first two he had met in the game to be black. He felt guilty for leaving them behind, but he was proving to be a good scout, and they needed people like him and Sakami.

Argo nodded. "If you need anything, contact me," she said. She sent them a friend request. "I don't give this to just anyone."

"Thank you. We don't either," Sakami said, returning the favour. In the last month, they had become far more discerning in letting people know who they were.

Argo nodded her head, then started to walked in the opposite direction in what they were headed.

Sakami commented, "She creeps me out some."

"Yeah, but if Agil trusts her, I'll trust her," he said.

She didn't reply, instead turned to look at the signs on the street. They continued their search. She walked by a sunken stair. Harry looked down. "Sakami?"

She stopped. Usually she was the one to see this stuff. He pointed down the stairs. She walked back. "I thought it would be a nice shop on the street."

"Apparently not," he commented. This was the third stop in the quest chain. So far they had had to hunt down two other NPC's to find this place.

The shop was well lit and had some display cases with what he recognized as healing and teleport crystals. If this place sold them, Harry was surprised that someone hadn't found it yet, or was keeping it a secret.

An older man came out of the back room. "Good afternoon. Welcome to my store. Do you see anything that catches your attention?" the grey haired man asked. He took a look at them and smiled. "Are you looking for something nice for the lady? Maybe a nice bracelet or engagement ring?"

Sakami flushed while Harry spluttered, "Engagement! No, no. Nothing like that," he quickly said.

"All the same, what can I interest you in?"

Sakami was still quite red in the cheeks when she said, "We are looking to learn about gem cutting."

The man smiled. "Ah, yes. I have long looked for a pupil. To learn to cut the gems, you must first get the materials. On the southern mountains, you will find and old gem mine. Bring me a gem heart and I can teach you how to make these beauties."

The man indicated the gems in the case. Harry had a feeling this wouldn't be easy.

Sakami accepted the quest. Harry had the same conversation and accepted the quest as well. It was one that couldn't be shared with other players.

Walking out, the sun was already shining over the side of the floor. Sakami looked to the west. "There is an hour before sunset," she said.

"We can go there. If its that dungeon we found, then it will take up about and hour to get there. Do you want to do this at night?" The night mobs were usually more dangerous, but you got a higher reward for venturing out in the dark.

He knew that look on her face. In the last few weeks, she had hardened. Losing Devian and the group in the dungeon had really changed her. It had changed him as well. She put her hand on her sword. "We have some bread and those sausages. We can eat on the way."

Harry pulled his shield from his inventory and then his spear.

They were waylaid by a few mobs on the way to the mines they found, but they easily dispatched the hyenas and the giant beetles. When they got to the mine, Harry was looking at it from behind a small rock outcropping.

Sakami looked concerned.

Night was coming in. Outside the mine were two eight foot all minotaurs. "I can't see what level they are from here," Sakami said.

"Was there anything in the guide?" he asked.

She opened her interface. After looking through it for a moment, she said, "They are called Taurids. There is some data for a Lesser Taurid Scout, but that is on the plains to the east."

"Stats?"

"About as tough as the Sentinels from the first floor boss fight," she answered.

He wasn't that concerned then. They had capped level nine yesterday and he knew they could each single one of them. "I only see two."

"Same."

"I'll pull aggro," he told her, hefting his shield and preparing his spear.

She got her weapons ready. Stepping out, he did his standard charge to get their attention. Sakami quickly moved in form the side. The two Ragged Taurus Slavers gave them decent EXP and some mats.

Lights from torches could be seen inside the cave. "We need to find the Heart Crystal."

"Yep. It's in the deepest cavern," she said.

"Of course it is," he said, not expecting anything else.

Moving into the mine, they quickly took down a few more Taurids and got a new quest to free the NPC's that were being forced to mine the crystals.

The Ragged Taurus Foreman was only twice as tough as his slavers, so the fight was over before Harry even really got into it. He was disappointed when a Heart Crystal wasn't part of the loot.

"Where do you think it is?" Harry asked.

Sakami was looking at a large crystal outgrown. "There is something glowing over there," she said.

"I don't see it," he said.

She moved over to the crystal outgrowth, then pulled out red crystal about the size of her hand. "I think we both need to defeat the foreman."

"How long to you thing the respawn is?"

She put the crystal into her inventory. "I don't know. We can go back up. We still need to rescue two more of the village NPC's."

"Alright."

It was a half-hour later the foreman respawned. They had killed more than fifty of the other Taurids and freed the fifteen townsfolks by the time they were on their way back to town. It was close to midnight by the time they walked back into the jeweller's.

Holding out the red crystal, the old man smiled at Sakami. "This is a rare and precious find. I will teach how to mine them, cut them and the basics of crafting them into something more useful."

Sakami smiled as the quest reward came up. When he did the same, he found that the three subskills in the Crystal Crafter skill, as well as the recipes for a minor healing crystal and a minor clarification crystal. Unlike potions, the crystals were double the instant value of the same healing potion. There was also a boost based on your skill.

"We will need to go back to the mine tomorrow," Sakami said.

"Yeah, but now that we know about it, it should be easier."

Having the use of crystals two floors earlier than the first NPC vendors was going to be a huge boost. Argo was right. It would be a good source of income, and allow them to take it easier while still helping people.

"We also need to find the potion maker quest," he said.

Crystal crafting and potions was the nearest thing he could find to magic, and Harry was missing magic. He was missing his wand.

"You should learn the trap skill. The runes in it might help with this," Sakami said.

"Sakami…?" he started.

"Yes, Heroku?"

The question was on the tip of his tongue, but a lifetime of it being beat into him to not mention magic, he just shook his head. "I'll learn the trapping skill."

She smiled. "I'm hungry and want a bath now."

For the third time, Sakami climbed into his bed that night. The first time had been after the dungeon. The second had been last week after the boss. Harry didn't complain. He wasn't sure how he felt for her, but having someone so close, it felt like he could feel someone. Feeling it the game really wasn't that great. You felt pain if the wound was really bad, but it was hard to really feel things like you did the real world.

Her hand felt hot on his chest and her breathing tickled his neck.

He missed the outside world, and Sakami seemed to be the only one that helped him connect to it.

-oOo-

December 11, 2022

Aincrad, 2nd Floor

Agil had asked them to meet him at noon. The directions they gave him led them to a small workshop near where the jeweller's were. It smelled and sounded like a smithy when they walked into the place.

"Agil?" Harry called out.

"Down here."

Harry looked over the railing. The big man stood against the wall. By a furnace on the other side of the room was a short stocky man banging on an ingot on an anvil. Harry was interested. He had heard a few blacksmiths had taken up, but this was first time he seen a player blacksmith.

"Hello Heroku and Sakami. Let me introduce you to Molokai. Molokai, the first gen crafters of Aincrad," Agil said as an introduction.

Heroku walked down into the well that the workshop was built in.

Sakami followed right behind him. "It wasn't that hard to get the skill."

"Not that hard, she says. The Taurids at the mine are some of the strongest on the floor. I'm level eight and had a time with them," he said.

"We can't be that much stronger. Nothing like Kirito or the other top players," Harry agreed.

"You are among the top. Argo says so and she knows," Agil said.

"Are you going to just talk or are you going to give me the price?" Molokai asked.

"Right. You two have crystal crafting. I wanted to buy what I can off you," Agil said.

"We don't have much. It's not easy to get the supplies. It takes the crystals, silver ingots and some other monster mats," Harry told them.

In the last week, he had done all he could to get any recipe that came available and get his skill up. He was already topping 100. Sakami was only half his skill because she was adding more runes to her trapping skill. Harry was only level 30 to her 150 level.

"The deal was three healing crystals," Molokai said.

Agil nodded. "Do you have that?"

"That will be half my inventory. You know they are going for 20,000 col each, and these are only the minor ones," he told him.

"It's still better than nothing. I don't have that much, but I have a trade or two," the man offered.

Sakami looked to him. "It's up to you, Heroku."

"I would prefer mats, if you have them," he said.

"Not many are farming the mine. The quest to free the NPC's isn't worth much and the Taurids, though tuff, don't drop what people want," Agil said as he pulled up his menu.

Molokai was hitting his hammer on the anvil twice before hitting the ingot.

"I don't mind giving you them, but Argo said that a few teams are already pushing on the tower," Harry told him, opening up his own inventory. He had made eleven of the crystals so far. Farming and mining them was time consuming, and Sakami needed to explore actual dungeons to advance her trapping skill, so they hadn't spent much time at the crystal mine.

"Don't you dare. You two are the only ones that have done the work. I said not many are farming the mine, but those that are, well, they don't see the need to hold onto the crystals," Agil said.

A screen popped up on his interface. Harry opened it to see more than two hundred crystals. Most of them were green or red, good for healing, cleansing and antidote potions. There were a few blue, which he didn't have a recipe for yet, and the last was purple. His brow rose. "This is a class C mat. What is it for?"

"You tell me. So far no one else has found a use for the crystals and Argo has been holding the secret to the quest for a good amount of col. Once everyone finds out what you can do, I would expect high demand and for others to follow," Agil said.

"Agil, this is enough material for us to make a few hundred crystals. We just need the other materials."

"Well, I know where to get silver ingots. What else do you need?"

Sakami was looking at the list. "Boar tusks. Butter flowers. Hornet stings."

Agil nodded and opened took out a book to write in it. "I've started to buy and trade. You let me know what you need, and we can work out the price. If I donate these crystals, do we have a deal?"

Harry shared a look with Sakami. She nodded. "Yes. We are still looking for the potion makers quest," Harry said, adding in the three minor healing crystals and accepting the trade.

"You need to talk to the shaman on Hyena Hill. I hear it starts there," Molokai said. He hit the ingot he was working one more time and then it glowed. They watched as it turned into pair of steel forearm bracers.

Agil smiled. Molokai investigated the armour. The man sighed. "My skill is getting better. These will only be a little bit better than what you have, but they have four enhancement slots."

"You give me two enchantments and you can have all three crystals," Agil said. He pulled them out of his inventory. They were long rectangular green crystals with silver bases and runes in them.

"If you have the mats, it's a deal. Otherwise ten thousand each. This is a higher level set," Molokai said.

"Deal."

Molokai nodded. "You can make crystals?"

"Yeah."

"You need silver ingots?"

"It would be best if the ingot is cut to tenths," Sakami said.

Molokai looked at their gear. "If you get me three more healing crystals, I have ten ingots I can cut down."

"Do you have any of the butter flowers left?" he asked Sakami.

"Eight. It will only be enough for two healing crystals," she said.

"Two crystals and 10000 col."

For what they needed, Harry thought that a fair trade. It would give them enough material to make up to eighty crystals. That could be a lot of col and help to the front lines.

"Two minor healing crystals, 5000 col and you fix all our armour," Harry countered.

Molokai regarded them. After a moment, he nodded.

"If I can have two of those cut down ingots, I can use your crafting table," Harry offered.

Molokai opened his inventory and took out a silver ingot. He hit it with the hammer five times, and it split into ten equal smaller ingots. He handed two to Harry.

He took out two of the green crystals. "Sakami," he asked, handing her the silver ingots. She had a steadier hand for making the runes.

Molokai and Agil watched them as Harry took out a small jewellers hammer. He had to tap the crystals ten times. He was finding where and how he tapped was making a difference in the quality of the formed crystal. After the nineth tap, he put three butter flowers onto the crystal. This was where the power was infused. He tapped each flower, crushing it. On the last tap, the crystal glowed. It morphed into a rectangular shape about five centimetres long and a centimetre on each side of the square.

Sakami had done the rune inscription on the silver. Her own hammer sounded out eight times, and then it formed into the basket that would go on the bottom of the crystal. This was where Harry found he enjoyed this skill. As he fit the silver base over the crystal, he felt a pull. It was like his magic was infusing into it. Her tapped the base four time. The crystal glowed and he knew it was done.

Using his crystal appraisal skill, he could see it would restore 412HP. That was better than any potion he knew of so far. When they were done, he handed the minor healing crystals to Molokai.

"Now that was impressive. How did you get so good so fast?"

Harry shrugged. "It just seems to come naturally."

Of course, his +25 to skill from his intellect helped.

Molokai hefted the crystals in his hand. "A deal is a deal. Let me see your gear and then I'll do your enhancements, Agil."

Agil nodded. "I'm in no rush. I'm not going to open my stall until a little alter when most people start coming back to town."

"You have a stall?" Sakami asked.

"In the main square. I know buy and selling better than exploring," Agil said.

"Good to know. I have some gear to give you to go to the orphanage and the lower levels," Harry told him.

Agil nodded. They made the swap.

Molokai held up Sakami's sword. "This seems a little below your level."

"How would you know my level?" she asked.

"I know you are part of the scouts. You don't get there without knowing what you are doing. This only has two enhancement slots. Do you want me to upgrade this? Otherwise, I can find you a new sword. Your knife too," Molokai said.

"We don't have a lot of col left right now," she said. They had spent a lot of it the last week to level their skills.

Molokai looked at the sword again. "If you promise four more healing crystals and two clarifying crystals, I have a rapier that is twice what this is, with two enhancements and two empty slots."

Sakami looked surprised. "Where would get something like that? This is one of the best drops we know of."

Molokai smiled. "I have me means. Do we have a deal?"

Sakami looked to him with pleading eyes. "I don't know when we will have the mats."

"Unless you die, I figure your good for it," Molokai said. "I will through in an enhancement for your shield as well. I don't have anything that is better than your gear right now."

"Sure," Harry said.

-oOo-

A/N: From this point on, the story will go more off plot from SAO. I just thought the first floor boss was a pivotal point that I didn't want to change.

-oOo-

Chapter 5

-oOo-

December 14, 2022

Aincrad, 2nd floor

It had taken then a day to find the hedge witch Grizelda. She was just a potions master. The issue was, to become one was a five-part quest that had taken then the last two days to complete.

With the potions skill, they now knew herbalism to find the ingredients they needed, how to brew a few simple potions and how to identify them. Walking into the inn they had called home for almost two weeks, they immediately noticed that it full of people and they were all celebrating.

Sakami moved a little closer to him as they approached the bar. It was the only place with seats. When they sat, Harry asked, "Why is everyone celebrating?"

"The floor boss was defeated and level three is open now," someone replied.

Harry looked to Sakami. They had only made six more crystals and had sold them to Agil.

"Did anyone die?" Sakami asked. He could see the same concern in her face.

"Not that we know of. It is rumoured that the raid team had some crystals and they saved a few. Now everyone wants them," the guy replied.

When they made it back to their room after a meal, Sakami sat on her bed. Harry opened his inventory to look at his gear. They had been in the field for the last two nights and had faced some tough mobs, especially that Hornet Matriarch to get a large stinger.

They would have to get their gear fixed.

"Horunka?"

He looked up to see her purple eyes intently staring at him. He could tell she had something on her mind. "What's up, Sakami?"

She wrung her hands. "I have to ask you something."

Harry could tell this was very important to her. He closed his interface and leaned forward. "You know you can aske me anything."

She linked her fingers together, and held her hands tight enough together to make her knuckles white. "Why did you act so strange when Grizelda mentioned magic and that was how potions worked?"

Harry put his hand on his knees and squeezed tightly. The way she had described potion making, it was just a little to close to what actual potion making was like. But this game didn't do magic.

She needed an answer though. "It just reminded me of something."

For once, she didn't look away. She was holding his gaze. "Would you know what a giant Storm Petrel was?"

Harry's eyes went wide. It could be an innocent question about a monster in SAO, but he knew they hadn't come across anything like that yet. Harry swallowed. "The runes. You know what they really mean, don't you?"

Sakami nodded after a moment. "And the storm petrels?"

"They are the only way to reach the top of the mountain," he replied.

Her hands stopped their death grip. "I recognized you that first night, but I didn't think it could be."

Harry was shocked. "I… I don't recognize you," he said.

"I'm not surprised. I'm the year ahead of you."

"Oh," was all Harry said. He had suspicions over the last six weeks. He had thought she was his age, but hadn't asked. While was fifteen, she was sixteen.

Sakami smiled. "My real name is Ukisoro Sachi. And you are Harry Potter."

Harry nodded.

"if you don't want to stay with me, I understand," she said.

Harry shook himself. "I made you a promise I would get you back home."

She gave him a small smile. "I know, but I should have told you the first night."

Harry shook his head. For once, he reached out to her. Her hands were still tight balls of nerves. "No, you didn't need too. You didn't even need to tell me your name now. So you caught how much like real potions that system was?"

"I also know the runes that are inscribed in the crystals. I can feel your magic when you make them," she told him."

His eyes widened. "You can feel…?"

"I was always a sensitive that way. At times it was overwhelming at school so I was usually in small classes. It's probably why you don't remember seeing me," she said.

He let out a long breath. "I'm sorry I don't recognize you."

"It's okay."

He was finally able to work the ball of her hands loose and hold her hands in his. "So, what does this mean?"

"I don't know," she said.

He shook his head. "You understand the runes. Can you teach me?"

"Yes. Do you want to keep scouting?" she asked.

Harry rose a brow. He knew they had to get stronger. He found himself wishing that he had been at the floor boss battle today, but at the same time, he was relieved because Sakami… Sachi… was not there. It was an odd feeling.

"What about what we do to help the other player?" he asked.

She opened her inventory and a crystal and potion came into her hand. "I will keep up our skills and our level, but we can do more good my making these," she said.

Harry understood that. Their crystals had been used in the boss raid and no one died.

"I want to stay at top level," he replied. He needed to keep them safe. He had a feeling they would have to farm many of their own mats. He also wondered if they could use their outside knowledge to make more recipes than what was in the game?

"We will. I know you want to be at the boss battles. We can supply the raid team," she said.

He knew shew as skilled player, but the life and death of a scout was more danger than she seemed to want right now. He squeezed her hands. "If that is what you want."

She let out a long breath. "I came here to play and have fun. I like grinding and raid battles, but I don't want to die."

He could understand that. He enjoyed much the same. It was why he wanted to play this game so much. If Uncle Remus was looking, he figured he would be happy if Harry wasn't always out front.

"You won't die," he promised.

She squeezed his hands back. "I want to take a shower. We should head to the third floor at first light. I'm sure there will be more quests for more recipes," she said.

He grinned. She didn't want to be the first into an area, but she was still to competitive to not be near the top. "Sure."

When she left he room to go to the bathroom down the hall, he flopped on the bed. His mind was whirling with what he had just found out. It was also going over the possibilities of what they might be able to do.

SAO didn't have magic, but they had both found ways to express it. He knew she felt the magic in the runes. He could feel the magic in the crafting. He wondered if it would be the same for potion making.

If they could find new recipes, could it be possible to pack a fireball or lightning into a crystal? Ot to make exploding potions or ones that have a longer HOT effect or initial healing?

The possibilities could be huge. It would also help more than the people they already had.

It might also help to get rid of the stigma of being a beta tester.

-oOo-

December 15, 2022

Aincrad, 3rd Floor

Zumfut was a unique place. Built into three huge baboa trees and connected on a few levels by bridges, the small town on the edge of the forest was better suited as a forward operating base than a place to really stay.

For once they were not on the forefront of mapping the floor that was completely covered in giant trees. Harry wasn't sure he liked it, but Sakami was a little more relaxed. That was worth it. That hadn't meant they had hadn't been busy.

According to their skills, there were many materials they would need on this floor to level up their early skills in potions and gem crafting. They had mapped out much of the eastern forest, finding a few spots to collect filber worms, sage and monkswood. Some of the ingredients were too much like real potion making. Harry was wondering if another wizard or two, like Remus, had worked on the project.

It would explain the use of Runes and other concept that Sakami and him recognized.

Word had gotten out to a few key players what they were, so it wasn't too surprising when they got back to Zumfut that a dark hair figure in a black leather coat sat at their table. Harry gave the young man a nod.

"I hear you are Heroku and Sakami," he said.

Harry bowed his head. "We are. And you are Hirito."

The black hair boy looked a little surprised. "You know of me?"

They were sitting in a far corner of the inn and only three other players were in the room so he didn't think they would be overheard. "We were part of the group that took on the boss on the first floor. We've also seen you around since the day after all this started."

A light of recognition came over him. "I thought you looked familiar. You didn't have blonde hair with the pink tips or the eyes then, did you?" Hirito asked towards Sakami.

Sakami smiled. Harry was starting to find it appealing. He was also starting to realize how attractive she was, even if she was barely five feet. "There is an appearance shop in Tolbana. I like blonde hair and the colour pink."

"It looks good on you," Hirito said. It sounded as much a compliment as it was a social nicety.

Harry found an unfamiliar feeling bubbling up in him. They had had very few interaction outside of just getting through the game, and this felt different.

"Thank you," she said, with a tinge of colour on her face.

Yes. There was something inside him he didn't like how it made him feel.

"Can I ask what you want?" Harry said, his voice cooler than he meant.

Hirito looked up to him, an insrutible look on his face. After a moment, he opened his screen and after a few taps, a blue crystal appeared in his hand. He put it on the table. "I understand you are a crystal crafter."

Harry's brow rose. Sakami answered, "We both are, but Heroku's better than I am."

Hirito nodded.

Harry wanted to know though, "Who told you?"

"A player named Argo. She was able to get a few for the raid leaders when we took on the second floor boss. It saved three players," Hirito said.

Harry felt a little better. They had done good even if they weren't at the boss fight. "Is she telling everyone?"

Kirito shook his head. "Not yet. Word is you are low on mats and just getting started. Even so, you two are the only ones to complete the skill quest so far."

"You want more?" Sakami enquired.

"The field boss was found today. There is a Clearing meeting at 17:00. I want to know how many crystals you can make by then and how much," Kitrito said.

Sakami opened her menu. Harry knew what he had in his inventory. "We have the gems to make several hundred, but only enough small silver ingots for about seventy and no butter flowers to make the healing crystals. We can make more of the clarifying crystals and some antidote crystals."

"We also can make potions. It isn't much, but the minor healing potions are about ten percent more healing than what you can get at the vendors. We are looking for more NPC's or quests to get more recipes," Sakami added.

Kirito went through his interface. It looked like he was going through his inventory. "There is a silver mine on the western edge of this floor. I have the mats to make several ingots. How much to make small ingots?"

"I don't know, but you can make ten small ingots from a normal ingot," Harry replied. He didn't have the smithy skill and hadn't asked when they had met Molokai. He was kicking himself for not doing that.

"I think it was twenty nuggets per ingot. I have enough to make several. I traded all my crystals to Agil, but I have a bunch of flowers and herbs that I usually just sell off," Kirito said. "I can give you all the I have for 10000 col."

He looked to Sakami. She shrugged her shoulders. "Do you have butter flowers?"

"Several hundred. They were a common drop in the fields on level two. How much for each crystal?" Kirito asked.

"We were told 10000 col, but I don't want to take advantage of anyone. Would 5000 col be good?" Harry offered.

"I would pay 20000 if you can get more of the ones that about 500HP gain. I have enough for five," Kirito said.

Harry blinked. Sakami almost choked on the beer was drinking. Harry patted her on the back.

Kirito still had on an impressive game face. "That is too much. Five-thousand col each, especially if you give us the mats," Harry said.

"Deal," Kirito said. "How many can you make by 17:00?"

Harry looked at the system time. That was only eighty-seven minutes away. "Probably a dozen. Maybe fifteen," he said, knowing it took about eight minutes. "What type?"

"For now, healing crystals. I can get potions for clearing DOT's and poisons," Kirito said.

Harry looked down at his unfinished meal. It was a little better tasting than the first two floors, bit it was still rather blande. Sakami pushed her plate away. "We can get a big dinner."

Harry nodded. "We need a work space."

"I heard you can rent out crafting shops on the lower level of the east tower," Kirito said.

"Alright. And you need as many as we can make by 17:00?"

"I have found two quests that can only be done at night. I am heading out after the meeting," Kirito told them.

"Where is the Clearing Meeting?" Sakami asked.

"Here."

"Do you need help with the quests," he asked.

Kirito had a long face. "I'm sure you heard I'm a Beater. I don't work well with others."

Harry let out a snort of dark mirth. "Welcome to the club."

Kirito raised a brow. Then he looked like he remembered. "You were the two that Daviel said were his scouts?"

"Yeah. We scouted most of the first two floors. We are pulling back a little from the front line to work on our skills," he replied.

Kirito nodded. "Good. We need people like you."

Sakami sighed. "I agree with Heruka. If you need help, we will go with you."

Kirito shook his head. "I work better alone. Let's meet up again tomorrow about dinner time. I'll see if you need any of the mats I get. Do you want me to spread word of what you are doing?"

Sakami shook her head. "I would prefer to work through Agil and Argo for now. We'll be mobbed once word gets out."

Harry couldn't disagree. The fact that there were crystal crafters was already all over the messages they were receiving.

"No one will find out from me," Kirito said.

When they left, it wasn't long to find the crafting shops. Three-thousand col for a twelve hour rental was steep, but they didn't need it for that long, and they would easily make what they spent back. If they wanted a months rent, it would be 35000 col. Much more reasonable, but he didn't really want to stay on the lower levels.

Sakami and him quickly laid out the tools. Working together, they managed to make sixteen healing crystals before they had to go to the meeting.

Walking into the bar, Harry was surprised to see several hundred people. It was as near standing capacity. Hirito was sitting at the same table in the back. Harry was surprised to see who was sitting with him. Klein and his five other team mates were there as well.

Klein gave them a big smile. "Well, if it isn't the avenging duo!"

Sakami rolled her eyes. "Hello, Klein."

Harry noticed Klein and the others look Sakami up and down. The same feeling of anger bubbled up like it had ealier. "You know each other?" Kirito asked.

"Heroku and Sakami helped to teach us how to do a dungeon on the first level and got us through it with our first good gear drops," Klein said.

The other greeted them and Samheil got up to let Sakami have a seat. Harry stood behind her against the wall. He didn't realize he was staring down the other men, who all dropped their gazed after a moment.

"It's good to see you up here. Are you scouting again?" Klein asked.

"Something like that," Harry said. "Kirito, I have twelve of those things, if you want."

He would save some for Sakami and him. If Kirito turned down their offer to go with him again, they were going to go back to the shop. They had enough supplied to make another twenty-two healing crystals. Harry would do his part to keep people alive.

Kirito nodded and opened his interface.

Klein's eyebrow rose. "What are you selling?"

"Just some loot that we agreed upon," Harry replied.

They finished the transaction before a man in the heaviest plate armour breast piece he had seen yet stood on a chair in the middle of the room. "If I could have all your attention!"

The bar slowly quieted down. There was something about this man that Harry didn't care for. "Thank you all for coming. I am the leader of the vanguard from the Iron Palace. We wanted to gather all the frontline players to come up with a strategy for clearing the floor."

Klein snorted. "Great, a ponce from the Aincrad Liberation Front, or whatever they are calling themselves."

Harry pursed his lips. He hadn't really heard about this group yet.

There was some other grumbling from around the bar. Harry had the sense that this group was not well liked by most of the frontline.

He caught Argo leaning against a wall by the stairs. She looked as impressed as the people at the table they sat at.

"We understand that it's only been about twenty-four hours since the floor was opened, but we already have sittings of a major field boss blocking a passage to the other half of the floor and a major dungeon to the west. We want to organize teams to tackle these quests. A squad of the Iron Palace guard will accompany each group…"

There was a loud chattering of angry voices. About thirty players in the same heavy chest armour stood up around the guy.

Kirito stood up. "I've heard enough. Be safe, Klein. You too, Heruko and Sakami. All of you."

Several others left the meeting as well. In the end, it was clear there were three factions. The solo players that balked at the commands of the Iron Palace Guard, the groups like Klein's that didn't mind working with people, but wouldn't be told what to do, and then those that were followers and flocked to the IPG.

Most of the ones on the third floor already were more like Kirito and Klein.

As the meeting was breaking up, Klein nodded to them. "We found a quest about the elf wars up here. The third part of the chain is a raid on the Night Elf village. The entrance only appears when the moon is out. Are you interested?"

Sakami bent her head to look up at him. They needed to keep their level up and get mats as much as they needed to expand their skills and provide crystals. "When are you leaving?" he asked, getting the small nod from Sakami.

Klein's eyes drifted to probably look at the system time in his display. "We need to eat and see if we can get some of out gear repaired. How about 20:00?"

Harry nodded. That would give them the time to make a few more crystals, eat and then get this quest line done with.

Argo caught his eye and followed them to the workshop they had rented. When the door closed, she leaned against the work bench. "I heard you pulled back from the front lines?"

"Only some. Do you need a few crystals?" he asked her. Sakami and him were laying out the supplies again.

"I won't say not to one or two. How much?"

"If you have any mats, 5000. If not, let's say 8000," he told her.

"How about 4000 col and the map I have the floor so far?"

"I say take it," Sakami said. She had her scribe and was already making the rune for life on the small silver ingot.

"Sure. I'll give you what we have as well." He transferred over their data.

Argo exchanged a much more complete map than he expected. She must have noticed his surprise. "Since clearing the last two bosses, the top players are moving faster, though your map is still more detailed. I noticed you marked places to collect mats."

"Please don't give those out to everyone. I don't want them getting picked over," Sakami replied.

"I can keep quiet, but it will get out," she told them.

"Just give us a few days," Sakami requested.

"Three days. After that, the information may become useless to me," Argo replied.

"Fair enough. I have two healing crystals and a clarifying crystals already done," he told her.

"I'll take the lot," Argo replied. He sent over the request and quickly got 12000 col as payment. The map she gave them was easily worth a few thousand col already.

"Anything else? I want to craft a few more and we need to get dinner before going out," Harry asked.

"I heard Klein's group is doing the Forest Elf quest. The main battle was already completed yesterday, but I hear its still worth the exp and minor drop for doing the regen quest," she said.

"Who completed it?" Sakami asked. "Heroku, the first ingot is ready."

He moved to the seat to shape the base of the crystal and start working on the others.

"Kirito and Asuna. They make quiet a team and probably the highest players so far," Argo told them.

"How high?"

"Asuna is level twelve. I'm unsure about Kirito, but most likely level fourteen or higher," Argo said.

They he whistled. "We are only level ten."

Argo nodded impressed. "That puts you in the top one or two hundred players. Not many are that far ahead already. There were more at the meeting tonight than I expected."

"I saw there was a system wide message about it about and hour before the meeting. I bet many came up for it," Sakami suggested.

Argo nodded her head. "Very astute, by young apprentice."

Harry chuckled. "We aren't some padawans."

Argo laughed. "I guess not, but you aren't any masters either. To let you know, I heard there was another one completing the crystal crafter quest."

Harry shrugged. "We knew we wouldn't be the only ones."

"No, but you were the first. There is something to be said about that," Argo said.

He finished tapping the silver ingot and it turned into a base. As he did, he got the thrill of feeling his magic. He was really coming to miss how much he used it on a daily basis. He could sweat he was starting to feel with Sakami used hers to inscribe the runes or use her trapping skills.

"Are you going to keep gabbing or let us work?" Sakami said a little curtly.

Argo grinned. "I'll let you at it. I'll see you in a few days and see how you are doing."

"We may have more gear to pass down to the lower levels by then," Harry told her.

She gave a sad smile. She opened her interface and a few seconds later he had a screen offering them both 20000 col. "I know it's not much, but I have limited funds at the moment."

Sakami went to reject the offer. "We don't need the money."

Argo grabbed he hadn before she could reject it. "There are very few that are as altruistic as you two. Take is as a thank you from the Orphans Guild."

He gave her a questioning look. "The Orphans Guild?"

"I take it you've heard of the Aincrad Liberation Army? They are doing good things, but require some type of payment in return. Usually service with them or taxes if you are going outside the walls. The Orphans guild is run out of the Crystal Palace in the Town of Beginnings. It's where all the donations are going to help with the orphans or those player that don't or can't venture out of the cities. They don't' ask for anything in return. They also help to gear and train the noobs that want to get out," Argo informed them.

"I'm glad we are helping people," Sakami said. "Heroku, you need to work."

"Right, dear," he said jokingly.

Sakami's neck flushed and Argo laughed. "I knew there was something between you too. When should I expect my first neice?"

Both their heads shot up to look wide eyed at Argo.

"He is not my boyfriend?"

"It's nothing like that."

They both protested at once. Argo laughed and waved at them. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Come to thing of that, that isn't much."

Sakami sounded like she was choking as Argo closed the door behind her.

The blonde girl with pink tips was beat read from her neck to her hair line. He wasn't sure he wasn't much different. "Sakami, I would…"

"Not now, Heroku. Work. I'm getting hungry," she demanded, leaning down over the small silver ingot she had been working on. He turned to his task. When they met with Klein's group, he gave them each a healing and clarifying crystals. They were all stunned and agreed that Sakami and him would get first choice of loot for the night.

-oOo-

December 21, 2022

Aincrad, 3rd Floor

The last six days had been a blur of long days, long nights and little sleep. Everyone on the front lines were pushing themselves to increase their skills as fast as possible and to keep moving up. If they could keep this pace of clearing a floor every seven days, then…

Harry didn't want to do that math. It meant almost two years before they could get out of here.

But, if they could keep at the pace that seemed to be going of eight days, and then seven, then maybe they could cut it down to six days…

Harry sighed as he sat on the edge of his bed. That would still be more than a year and a half to clear the game. It was a depressing thought that Argo had put into their heads last night. She had visited their shop again.

They were now two other crystal crafters, but Sakami and him seemed to be the most skilled, and their crystals were worth twenty percent more on the bonuses than the other two. Rianmar and Quilen were both working out of the second floor, and from what they heard, were swamped with requests. Their prices were also far higher than what Sakami and him wanted to charge.

They needed the col to survive, but they wouldn't use it to get rich when it could mean someone could die with a crystal.

Agil and Argo where their main brokers to keep their identities secret. Sakami and him debated about meeting the other gem crafters, but just weren't sure they could trust them. Not with how openly they were advertising themselves.

After running the dungeon on this floor a few times, Harry had finally gotten his trapping skill up enough to learn the Magana and Er-li-tou texts. He had no idea where the Er-li-tou was from, but the Magana seemed to have roots in modern kana. Understand that, he could make the base runes for the crystals. Sakami had taken to focusing on potion making.

There were a half dozen they knew of that made potions, but they were not in high demand. Not yet, when the NPC's sold ones that were almost as good as the current player supplied potions. They figured that would soon change. Especially since Sakami was experimenting with the limited ingredients they had to see if she could recreate simple potions they had both learned at Mohouatokoro.

Today, though was not a day to practice their craft. They had been requested to join the raid against the floor boss. Sakami was close to his side as they entered the labyrinth towers. They had explored the first few floors yesterday.

Klein was with them. They were all following the rather cocked up Aincrad Liberation Squad, the ALS. The second largest group was one Harry hadn't seen before who looked mostly like barbaians.

"We are group D," Klein said to his group.

"We know, boss," one of his friends said with a smile. "They want us to be the cleanup."

Klein hit him off the back of the head. "Don't get snarky with me, Kuboto."

"Hey!"

Harry smiled. A certain death gallows humour was taking among the front line. As group D, they were set to the the second assault group. They were supposed to keep the tree roots off the main tanks and the assault group B and C.

They were towards the back of the group. He knew that Agil had made sure everyone had atleast one crystal. With sixty-three people, that had been a lot of crystals they had made. Klein put an around around his shoulders. "Heroku and I will take the lead. You just watch our backs."

Harry snorted. "I trust Sakami more than I trust you," he snarked.

Klein grabbed at his chest as though offended. They both knew that out of most of the raid, Klein's group trusted Sakami and him more than most. "You wound me."

Sakami shook her head. "You can't be that easily offended?"

"Quiet back there! We are getting closer," the leader of the ALS leader snapped.

Harry made a face as the guy and Sakami had a silent giggle. Klein leaned over. "If you want to drop this lous, I'm always open for dinner."

Harry gave Klein a dark look. Sakami looked Klein up and down. "I think you a little too elderly for my liking."

His crew broke out laughing and started calling Klein 'Pops'.

Harry moved to keep her a little more behind him. Sakami didn't protest.

When they made it to the doors, the ALS leader stood out front. "Remember your roles. Team A, you are the main tanks. Team B and C, we focus on the trunk. Team D and E, keep the roots off us. Team F and G, you keep us alive."

He turned to the doors. "Open the doors."

Harry wasn't sure this was going to go the way the raid leader thought.

Kirito and Asuna were on Team E. They gave them a look and Harry had the feeling they would be bailing out Team B and C. Agil was leading Team A, so Harry had some faith in him.

The battle wound up going better than expected until the third health bar dropped into the red. "Sprouts and Elders to the side," someone called out.

"Damn it," Klein swore as he used his sword to cut off a root hat was trying to grab him.

"Ignore them. Keep on the boss," the ALS leader called out.

One of the ALS people were suddenly grapped by a Treant elder and tossed towards the edge of the battle field.

"Klein, we need to stop them," Harry called out.

Klein nodded and pointed his men to the right flank. Harry turned with him. Two of Klein's men also used shields, so they took up close to the boss the block the long roots while Klein and Sakami flanked the smaller Treant saplings and eldars.

It was a pitched battle that had one of Klein's men pulled up and then grabbed between two Treant Elders. Sakami and another were able to cut him out of their grasps before he was pulled in half. They had just manage to beat the last elder when there was a loud gong. He turned his attention to the boss, Nerius the Evil Treant, to see Kirito jump over a blue flame shooting out of the treant's mouth and then drive his sword between its eyes while glowing teal.

He landed on his feet as the boss shattered into millions of pixels. The now familiar huge 'Congratulations' over the field and the reward box appered before them.

Harry let out a breath. "Are we all here?" he asked.

Klein was helping up one of his men. "We're all here, thanks to you and Sakami."

Harry shook his head. "I only did what we had too. That ALS guy was going to get us all killed though," he commented. Said commander, a player by the name of Gorgo, was chewing Kirito out because he finished the boss.

Klein frowned. "No, I don't like him either. Listen, we are forming a guild when we get to the next town. Are you interested?"

Sakami shook her head. He fully agreed with her. He liked working with Klein, but didn't want the limitations that seemed to come with it. Though, not all guilds were run like the ALS. "Not right now. But if you need us, just give a message."

Klein smiled. "Great. We are going to head to the next floor. Are you coming?"

Sakami stepped up next to him. About half the players were now moving towards the stairs. "We had planned to head back to the second floor first. We need more supplies. I bet the crystal usage was high."

Klein nodded and they grasped each others forearm. "Alright. We'll let you know what it's like."

"We will be there tomorrow at the latest," he agreed.

Sakami took his hand as they headed back towards the doors out of the chamber. The group heading back would most likely keep the path clear, but they would be on the guard anyways.

-oOo-

That night…

Aincrad, 2nd Floor

The main inn that most used in Urbus was busy. More people were making there way up from the first floor and those that wanted to become tradesmen were now busy with all the skill quests. Looking at the hundred or so people in the tavern, Sakami took his hand.

"I don't feel like a busy bar tonight," she told him.

"Sure," he said. "We could find a restaurant and somewhere quieter to stay."

So far their explorations of the town had only been to find quests and explore the shops.

"A restaurant would be nice."

They walked away from the busy tavern. There were stalls of sellers and the central square was quiet busy for sunset. Many were out of there armour in casual clothes. Everyone still had a weapon easily at hand though. Sakami and him didn't think about changing. He got that she didn't seem to want to be near people.

Pulling her hand, he led them towards the west side of town. He remembered a little café or two by the NPC merchants there. She didn't question him.

When they got outside the main square, things grew quieter as the setting sun set a few windows blazing. "Today could have gone better," she commented.

Harry nodded. "No one died."

"No one died," she agreed. "A saw quiet a few crystals used though."

"I was too busy to notice. I'm just glad I didn't have use any," he replied.

"I could tell the ones you made compared to the others."

He looked at her. Her purple eye were looking ahead. "Was it that much different?"

He knew what Argo had said, but he hadn't seen it yet.

"I think the difference was more like forty-percent, not twenty."

His brow rose. "That is… a difference."

She nodded.

"I also think I know why there are so few crystal crafters."

They were approaching café that only had two other couples inside. They could see them through the window. "Why is that?"

She pulled him so that he had to stop and lean down. Her mouth can close to ear. Her breath tickled and he had to shy away a little. He heard what she whispered though. "Magic."

He turned to look at her. "There was a seller at the square."

"You felt it, didn't you?"

She gave a little nod. Harry knew she was sensitive, but the seller he remembered was on the other side of where the inn was. He was doing a good business though.

She squeezed his hand. "I'm hungry."

"I am too," he replied, opening the door for her.

The place was cozy. The tables small. Sitting near the display case, they were far enough from the other patrons to not be overheard if you talked low. After ordering, she asked, "Did you look at everything that dropped yet?"

"I wanted to get back. You?"

"I only did a cursory glance," she said. They both opened their inventory. "There are two new potion recipes and a good amount of mats. I got a repeat for the minor healing crystals."

Harry was scrolling through his loot. He stopped towards the bottom of the list. Looking up to her, he cast a glance at the other patron. She rose a brow. He shifted to show her. She had to lead in so that her torso was pressed to his arm and her chin was on his shoulder. When she read the two recipes he had, her eyes widened. "Your skill is that high already?"

He looked at the requirements. "I'm at seventy-three. I'm sure I can get it to a hundred in the next week."

She snorted. "Only if that is all you do."

"Teleport crystals though," he said in a whisper. To be able to quickly get out of a bad spot would be huge. Why the game designer waited to give crystals at the fourth floor, he didn't know, but the guide that Argo and Devian had put together mentioned teleport crystals were not supposed to be available until the sixth floor.

He also had a recipe for a normal healing crystal. It was a forty percent boost over a minor healing crystal. Looking at the mats, Harry knew they didn't have everything they needed, especially since the teleport crystal called for a medium green crystal and a spirit wisp. He could only make small crystals. They would have to stop by the jewelers later to see if new recipes or quests were available.

When she moved to sit back into her chair, Harry was surprised to find he missed having her pressed against him, even if they were still in their armour. The waitress put their soups and the bread that seemed so standard in the game so far on the table.

She looked about to say something when he looked up at a motion outside the café.

Walking in a loose column was a squad of ALS people. They were rather sloppy in how they were walking, trying to keep a double line of the ten people and one leading them. They were looking about. If anything, it felt like an army patrol but why would that be needed here?

Sakami noticed it as well. Her lips pursed.

"I don't like them," she said when they were out of sight.

Harry moved a little closer. His protectiveness of her was growing. "We don't need to work with them."

Sakami put her hand over the top of is, squeezed it, then turned to the soup. It was an onion soup. So far most of the food was more European in style. She had said she wanted a good ramen. Harry would find that for her.

They stayed long enough for the other two coupled to leave. When they did, Sakami looked out the window. It was full night. The yellow glow of gas lamps were illuminating the town. He had gone back to looking at his inventory to see what they needed for their recipes and to see if the data from Argo had any information on where to find it.

"Harry?"

Her using his name immediately caught his attention. He turned his head to look at her. She was still looking out the window. "Yes, Sachi?"

She had a small smile. "I know we aren't supposed to talk about the Outside."

He put a hand over hers. "I don't care about rules. Never have."

Her smile was a little more genuine. "I think that is why you stand out and why you have a hard time fitting in most of the Japanese I see you with."

Harry shrugged. "I have friends."

Truth be told, he hadn't really thought about them. Or, it was more like he hadn't wanted to think about it.

"I was thinking about my family. Christmas and New Years is coming up," she said.

Harry blinked. He hadn't really been paying attention to the date. Thinking about it, it showed up next to the system time. It was in Aincrad date, but it really was just a renaming of the normal month. Christmas was in a few days. Most in Japan didn't celebrate it like elsewhere, but Uncle Remus had always made a big fuss about it. Most of their family friends celebrated the New Years more.

"Do you want to tell me about them?" he asked.

She had a sad smile. "Not yet. I was just thinking about them…"

Looking at her sad eyes, he made a decision. "If you want, we can find a Christmas tree and decorate it."

Her smile turned more wistful. "I really want to have the big family party that we do on New Years. I just hope they know I miss them. I like to think they are missing me."

"I'm sure they are, Sachi."

Her smile grew more pleasant again. "I like when you use my name. Can you call me that in private?"

"As much as you want. Ukisoro Sachi."

He liked her smile. She turned to him. Her purple eyes were glistening. She wasn't crying herself to sleep every night anymore, but he could tell she didn't want to be here.

"I'll get you home," Harry promised her again.

-oOo-

Chapter 6

-oOo-

December 25, 2022

Aincrad, 4th floor

It wasn't much, but Harry put a paper wrapped package at the foot of Sakami's bed. He didn't know what the traditions were in her house, but this was Uncle Remus did every year.

He hoped she liked it.

Looking to the head of the bed, Sakami had her blanket pulled up tight over here head. She was curled up as though she was cold. The blanket rose and fell as she slept, her face just visible.

He had to admit that this was chilled in the room. Outside, it was winter time in Aincrad. There wasn't any snow on this floor, but it was cold. Out the window, he had seen frost on the grass.

He had heard that this floor had been a desert. All the guide books from the betas were totally wrong about level 4. Which was a good thing as it was providing mats that they both needed. Including the field boss yesterday.

Klein had dragged them along, and he was glad he did, even if it had been some hell beast of a double headed turtle the size of a house.

A turtle shell shield was not leaning against his bed. He hadn't put it away last night because he liked the pearly shine on the inside and the deep green on the outside. It had to have been one of the better drops from the battle.

Sachi had won out with potion materials. Tongue, liver, heart and claw pieces. Not to mention a recipe for normal healing and a minor disillusionment potion. It would raise your stealth skill by 150 for five minutes. That was nothing to scoff at.

See that Sachi looked cold, he took the blanket off his bed and put it over her. She was not an early riser like him, though she was usually up by nine. When he turned to go sit at the table, a sleepy voice said, "You get up way too early."

Harry grinned as he turned around. "Was trying to be quiet."

Sachi buried her face in the blankets. "You were. I woke when you put the blanket on me."

Harry understood. He was getting that same sense of always having to be on his guard. They may not be on the frontier anymore, but they were still very active in clearing the floor. They needed to be to get the more advanced mats and to find the new quests and recipes.

"I'm sorry, you looked cold."

"It is cold," she said.

Harry chuckled. "It's not bad once you get dressed."

"I don't want too," she whinged.

As she said it, Harry suddenly got a picture in his head he hadn't had before. He only meant for her put on her traveling clothes or armour. Not that she was in her all…

The pile of blankets moved. Scratching her head and making her blonde hair with pink highlights messier, she sat up. Sachi was wearing a long sleeve shirt that was large enough to mostly hide her shape, but it was still obvious she was girl. The fact he could see where ethe peak of her breasts were…

His mind was still thinking of her without the shirt.

Her purple eyes opened and blinked a few times. When she focused on him, she asked, "Why are you just standing there?"

Harry knew the game usually showed your emotions in some way. The reddening of his neck was probably a good sign he was feeling a little embarrassed, which she obviously didn't understand.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," he said, the blush creeping up his neck as his voice cracked. That hadn't happened since he was thirteen.

She cocked her head, as though trying to figure something out.

He moved to the edge of her bed. He had to stop looking at her. He wasn't sure what this was, but he was suddenly aware that he was far more invested in her than just seeing her get out of SAO.

"Ah… Happy Christmas," he said, picking up the package.

Sachi looked surprised. When a small smile crept onto his face, his heart beating hard against his chest. "Oh. It's Christmas. Oh, I got something for you too."

She opened her interface and few seconds later a round package materialized in her hands. Harry took if from her as he handed the one to her.

She looked at him expectantly. "Open yours first," she said.

She was obviously excited to see what he would think.

Curiously, he opened the package. As first, he wasn't sure what he was holding. It was a glass sphere with a blue light in it. She was suddenly nervous as he looked at it. Holding it up, a dancing blue fire could be seen through the thick glass.

He was even more confused.

"It's the heart of the Nerius the Evil Treant," she said.

His eyes widened. "Are you serious? How? Where?"

A smile returned to her face as she watched the wonder on his face. "It was a drop that one of the ALS got. Argo got it and gave me a good deal, thinking you might use it some day."

A huge smile was creeping onto his face. "Fireballs in a crystal," he said.

"That was my thought."

"This is great!"

He had to wonder how much she had spent on it or what she had to trade for it. "Tell me it wasn't too much. This has to be a unique item. What does it give if you used it for an upgrade? Merlin, Sachi, this must have cost you everything."

He looked up to her with pleading eyes.

Sachi laughed. "Argo likes us. Oh, and you owe her a teleport crystal once we can get the spirit wisps."

Harry blinked. "How does she know about that?"

Sachi shrugged her shoulders. "I don't. How does she know everything?"

Harry laughed. "You are getting one first."

Sachi grinned.

"Are you going to open your present?" he asked, feeling very nervous.

She took the wrapped package. Opening it, she was surprised with something made of a white material fell out. Picking it up, she held up a dress she had been eyeing in a window along the main road out of Rovia.

Her eyes widened. "Harry, this was 40000 col," she said.

Harry grinned. "The crystal business is doing well."

She looked at the dress. It was a long, thick woolen dress with an embroidered bodice meant for the cooler weather, but he thought would be rather flattering on her. She had looked at the window for nearly ten minutes yesterday. As much as spending that much on gear or mats would have been better, Harry felt she needed something special.

Sachi hugged it to her chest and squealed. "Get out."

Harry blinked. "What?"

"Get out. I'll be down in a bit," she told him.

He rose a brow. "Ah, sure."

When he left the room, she was flipping through her inventory.

-oOo-

Christmas Day…

Obihiro, Japan

Remus sat on the side of the bed. He was holding the cooled hand of Harry watching him be a stupid teen with a pretty girl. He had gotten here a little before noon to see Sakami, or Okisoro Sachi, in a very flattering white dress with a pretty blue and red embroidered design on her chest. It was reminiscent of a more Germanic country dress, but she filled it out well.

They were sitting at a table in a small café talking about their plans for the next day. Earlier they had had a small conversation about their families, but that had ended quickly.

Remus felt he was watching something very private, but he wouldn't let Harry be alone on Christmas day, even if he didn't know that Remus was here.

He had been vetted for the team working on trying to free them all from the SAO servers, but he wasn't that deep into coding. Instead, he was fulfilling his contract for the next VR game when he wasn't at the hospital. He would be here all the time if he could, but he still had to pay the bills to keep the house.

He smiled to see Sachi demurely look down. He missed what Harry had said, but she was obviously blushing. Harry hadn't shown much interest in dating yet, from what he knew, so this was good to watch.

A soft knock came at the door.

Remus looked up, surprised to see Officer Yumoto. He quickly got up. "Officer Yumoto, I wasn't expecting to see you today."

She gave him a small smile. "Mister Lupin. I've heard its not a good thing to be alone on Christmas."

He returned a sad smile. "I'm not alone."

"Maybe not. Would you mind some company?" she asked him.

"I may not be the best to be with today," he said.

She motioned for someone to join her at the door. A middle ages woman who was about five feet tall with black hair and dark eyes in a blue skirt and mint green top came into view. He could see the relation to Sachi.

"Mister Lupin, can I introduce Okisoro Kyomi? "

The woman bowed to him. Remus returned the gesture. "Misses Okisoro, it is good to meet you."

Okisoro stepped into the room. "Mister Lupin, Officer Yumoto has said you can see my daughter, Sachi?"

He turned the computer to face her. "Your daughter has become a companion of my nephew."

The woman approached the screen. A hand went to her mouth and tears came to her eyes.

"We shouldn't waste all the day," Sachi said.

The green-eyed, black hair boy got up and held a hand out to the girl. "It's Christmas. We can take a day off."

"What are we going to do?"

Harry replied, "I don't know, but I don't want to think about this today."

"That's Sachi," the woman said in a hushed voice.

Officer Yumoto gave him a little bow. "I'll just leave you to be."

Okisoro approached the screen. "Does it really look that real in there too?"

"Yes. You feel like you are in the world," Remus told her as she reached out for the screen.

She let out a small sob. "Is she alright?"

Remus didn't know how to answer that. He could see the stress the two teens were under. He could see it in most people they interacted with. "She is in a safe place for now."

Mrs Okisoro looked up at him. "What do you mean for now?"

Remus ran a hand through his hair. He should know better than to say something like that.

"Why is she holding that boy's hand?" She looked at the screen, then Harry on his bed. "Is that your nephew?"

"Like I said, Harry and Sachi have been travelling together."

"Travelling? Where are they travelling? Don't they know they can die in there?"

Remus said in a as calm a way as he could. "They know."

"Then where are they travelling too? Where is this boy dragging her off to?"

Remus sighed. He didn't like the accusation against Harry, but he felt much the same. "He isn't dragging her anywhere. They are both helping to get the others out of the game. Kayaba meant it that they had to clear the game to get out of it. Harry and Sachi are doing what they can to help."

There was a horrified look on her face before her eyes rolled up into her head. Remus moved fast, just barely grabbing her arm and pulling her up before her head hit the floor.

A little while later, he was standing outside the room as a now recovered Mrs Okisoro was watching Sachi and Harry traveling around the town in a gondola. Officer Yumoto came out of another room.

He nodded to her when she noticed him. Walking over to the door, she peered in. "How is she taking it?"

"Better now. She passed out when she found out what Sachi was doing," he replied.

Officer Yumoto had a passive face as watched the woman. "The team has found a way to access the feeds without a direct link into the headsets. It's supposed to go live after the new years. We are going to give all the families links, but we need to match all the names to people. So far we know about a hundred people by looking at the feeds we have."

Remus nodded. "Can't you use facial recognition? I know its not always accurate, but you should have a closed set of data, so you should be able to get a high degree of match."

She regarded him for a moment. "Did you mention this to the team?"

"I was rejected from the team. I was only a modeller," he said.

"I'm going to mention your idea to my captain."

They were silent for a few. "Why aren't you with your family today?"

"I don't really celebrate Christmas, and I agreed to take Mrs Okisoro here," she said.

Remus blinked. "Does she live nearby?"

"Sachi is the room at the end of the hallway. She can only afford to come here about every two weeks, so this was first time I had a chance to take her up from Sarabetsu since you found Sachi's real name," Officer Yumoto said.

Remus gave her a sad smile. "As you know, Harry is all I have."

"And I can tell you have done a good job by him," she commented.

"He is turning into a stronger man than I ever was at his age. I just hope he's alright when this is over. He can't miss much more school."

"We are all hoping this will be over soon."

An alarm sounded down the hall. A pit formed in Remus's stomach. A nurse and a doctor were soon rushing towards the room. "Tell me that's not…"

Officer Yumoto had a sever face. "It's not."

There was a sense of relief it wasn't Harry or Sachi, as well as a self-loathing for being so selfish. That was the second one since Harry had been taken here. There were now eighteen on the floor.

-oOo-

December 29, 2022

Aincrad, 5th Floor

Harry bashed his shield into the shield, The Shell of Archelon the Lesser, into the skeleton. It fell to the floor of the ruin street, shattering into pixels. Sakami was next to him. Her sword and dagger not as effective against the Ruin Skeleton Guards that were found in the giant ruins around Karluin.

The floor had been open for two days now, and when word had filtered down that spirit wisps had been found, they left their mat gathering expedition on the fourth floor to come here. They were currently looking for the mini-boss, The Ruin Guard Captain, on the south-west side of town. It was a crystal crafter quest that he hoped would give him something more than the few designs he had now.

The last skeleton took his spear through its mouth before shattering.

Sakami looked around for a moment. "It is not easy to hit them when they are all bones," she commented.

Harry shrugged. These monsters weren't as tough now that they were level twelve. "Well they are skeletons."

The look she gave him said he was being an idiot. He just grinned at her.

Huffing she moved over to a tuft of grass at was growing out of gap in the crumbling cobblestone. He saw her open up her herbalism skill. It scanned the grass with small green flowers. "Sage weed," she eventually said and then picked it.

Harry hadn't really focused on his potions yet, and it was showing. Where she was capping 80, he was barely at 20. His rune crafting, on the other hands, was a little higher than her potions. "Anything good?"

"I think I can substitute it for flux weed," she said.

His brow rose. "Besides polyjuice, what good would that be?"

He had to admit, potions was not his favoured subject. He much preferred his artithmacy, transfiguration and charms.

"It is used in more than just polyjuice, though I don't know if I could do that here. It's also used in potions to reverse transfigurations and for smaller changes, like hair colouring, minor cosmetics and to change clothes," she said. There was a slight mischievousness to her tone that wasn't usually there.

"Oh. I forgot about that," he said. They had written an essay on it last year. He just wished the game used more of the European or Middle East rune sets. He was a little more familiar with those.

She found a few more of the tough looking sage weed before they moved towards the wall of the city. There was a tower in the direction and Harry figured that would where they find the Ruin Guard Captain.

Three more times they ran into small groups of skeleton guards. He had been able to get three of the spirit wisps as drops. This was going to be a slow process as it took five wisps to make teleport crystals. Once they found the guard captain, they would have to farm the area for a while.

Approaching the towers, they found it was an old barracks. The thick wooden doors were faded and ravaged from time, but unlike most of the other ruined building around, they were still there. A broken roof covered some of the barrack buildings. Looking at the courtyard from the open doors, he blinked a time or two to use his trapping skill to scan the area. It just seemed like the spot for one to be.

"Do you see it?" Sakami asked.

He caught a faint line across the entire courtyard about half between the gate and the entrance to the tower. "It's just a thin line. I don't see anything else."

She took a tentative step into the courtyard. He was a step behind her. This a situation for the one with the higher trap skill to go first. He should be able to easily jump before her if mobs spawned. That usually took a few seconds.

Too their right was an old stables and a smithy. The furnace had sat cold for many year, but there were still marks of carbon around it from the coals and fires that once make the weapons and repaired the gear of the guards that lived here. The rest of the empty window holes were most likely barrack rooms and administration offices.

Sakami moved to within a metre of the trap line. He looked down at it. All he saw was a thin line, like a trip wire. He doubted this was a trip wire though. For one, it lay flat against the ground. For two, it glowed a faint green. "Do you see any runes?"

She looked up and down the line. "I think it's just an event trigger. I don't see anything to be overly worried about."

That statement made him worry. One didn't usually tempt fate like that in this game. She seemed to understand what she said almost immediately and gripped her rapier.

"Do we trip it or come back?" he asked her.

She drew her blade. "We can atleast see how strong the guard captain is."

He nodded. Bracing his shield and leaning his spear on the edge of it, Sakami moved to his right. He moved his left foot just enough to break the edge of the line. Nothing happened for a few seconds, then the creaking of the gates closing has his senses going wild. He chanced a glance back to see the heavy gates close, then glow blue for a few seconds.

They were stuck in here now until this was done. Sakami shifted so her back was towards him as the distinctive chiming of an event trigger came to them. Balls of light, then pillars of light about six feet tall, sprung into existence around them. He counted a dozen. They were larger than the skeletons they had been fighting. He had thought that since this was a crafters quest, it wouldn't be that dangerous.

Kayaba Akihito had a perverse sense of humour to think this was going to be an easier crafting quest.

Sakami moved so her back was touching his. They were in the centre of a circle of the Rear Skeleton Gaurds. He let out a guttural scream, which the skeletons returned. Sakami moved with him when he charged at the nearest skeleton. His spear punched though its ribs, glancing off its spine, but his shield punched into its center, collapsing its ribs. It was enough to bring its health bar to zero. He spun, extending his spear. His latest one had a foot long sword like tip. It slashed under the raised arm. He powered his sword skill slash. The tip of the spear glowed and cut through the bone spine. The skeleton crumpled in half.

Sakami had engaged a skeleton behind him.

He turned and took the step he needed to close the distance to her. She was staying close so they could support each other. His spear shot over her shoulder, piercing the skull. She jammed her dagger into its ribs as her rapier parried a blow.

He let out a sharp hiss as a burning sensation went across his back. His turned to his right, using the haft of the spear to deflect another blow. He chanced a glance at his health. It was almost thirty percent down with that one hit. These guys were tough.

He jammed his spear butt into the skeletons face. It stumbled backwards. Sakami had engage again. He turned to see her parrying three blades. He quickly changed the grip on his spear and launched it at one of them. It glowed, going right through its head.

It shattered into pixels.

A motion out of the corner of his eye had him raising his shield. A sword swiped down. He missed the one from the otherside and hissed at the sting of the blade that cut through his arm, leaving an angry red mark. His HP slid down to fifty-eight percent.

He stepped forward, blocking the next hacking slice and ramming his shield into the skeleton. It stumbled back again. He spun around to knock the blade with the rim of his round shield. The momentary pause of the strikes sending the skeletons off balance allowed him to reach for his sword. The straight, double edge jain made a distinctive slingge as it came free.

He turned to see Sakami backing up towards him. Her health bar was in the yellow as well. She had picked up a third attacker again, but he could only see five skeletons to the twelve they had started again. He sliced with his sword. The blade was easily a third longer than his old short sword and he was able to slice through one of his attackers, which dissinintigrated. "Behind me!"

Sakami's blades glowed. She did a complex block and then jammed her sword through the skull of the middle skeleton. All three were stuck for just a second. It was part of the combat system. Anytime a serious skill was activated in combat, there was a slight pause in the actions. Sakami recovered first and jumped back. He turned, bashing his other opponent with the shield again before slashing his sword across the skeletons chest. It wasn't enough damage to kill it, but its health bar was now in the red.

He shuffled back, Sakami stepping behind him

There was a brief pause in the battle as the remaining three skeletons moved to form a line.

. "Potion," she ordered.

He quickly tapped his hot bar. The potion appeared in his hand and he was able to down it before the skeleton on the right ran at him with it sword poised to strike. His health recovered to eighty-two percent, or 712 HP. It then started to slowly raise again.

Sakami must have down the same because when she dashed around his left side as he blocked the blow, her health bar was back in the green. He would be thankful for that later.

Harry gave his battle cry, getting the attention of all three skeletons. Her dagger severed the spine of the skeleton that was attacking him before her rapier was jamming up under the chin of the one behind it. Harry stepped to the right, his sword deflecting the wild swing of the last skeleton before it glowed and he swiped up.

A bright red streak lit across the chest bones. The skeleton stopped in its motion before shattering.

Harry turned his head. Sakami was looking around too. A battle message came up. He let out a small breath of air. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Take another potion and make sure your bar is full. I don't think the guard captain is going to be easy."

He looked back at the closed door. "No way of getting out until we beat him, supposed?"

She was looking around the courtyard, most likely looking for more traps. "Not until we get teleport crystals."

"I have enough spirit wisps now to make one for each of us," he told her.

She gave a quick nod before turning to the tower. "It looks all clear here."

It was understood between them to end the event, then they could see if there was other loot here.

He retrieved his spear. Looking at the tower, it was going to be tight quarters. He put it into his inventory. The jain was a good sword that he found he used well. Sakami looked at her rapier. "I suppose I should learn mace skills if we are going to be tackling more skeletons."

"You do well. It is better to level what you do best right now," he assured her. "We can worry about other weapon skills when we max out our primaries."

Sakami nodded. "You're right."

They didn't say anything else. Entering the tower, they found a wide room with a curved stairway leading to the next floor. The tower was about six meters across. It would be a tight spot to use his spear. The second they both crossed the door way, five more of the Rear Skeleton Guards.

Being able to confront them from only one direction, they were able to disbatch them quickly. The second floor was much the same. On the third floor was the real challenge.

The walked out onto the top of the tower. The Guard Captain was an imposing figure that was standing still with a large hand-and-a-half sword and in a tattered bronze chest plate. They were getting ready to fight, then instead of roaring or making another sound that most monsters would, it talked when its jaw opened.

He stood there stunned for a moment.

"Well met, warriors. You have fought your way through the guards to the last bastion of the city," the skeleton said.

Sakami gave him an odd look. So far no monsters had spoken, and only NPC's that looked like normal people had.

"The city of Eresdun was once the jewel of the empire. All trade, all culture, study, magic and all citizens flocked to the city. The guards where among the elite of the force, and none more so than the Rear Guard. We helped the weary traveler, saved those waylain by brigands, and defended the people under the King's reign."

"For four hundred years, Eresdun was the jewel of the empire. Then came the foul witch king, Morgoth. In his greed and arrogance, he laid waste to the city. To stop him, the king's wizards did the unthinkable. They destroyed magic to destroy the witch king's power."

Harry shared a surprised look with Sakami. This was a lore he had never heard of. As far as he knew, there had never been magic in SAO.

"Though the witch king's power was broken, so too was the once great city of Eredun and the nation of Aladris. But the prophets spoke of a magic reemerging once day. The Rear Guard was tasked with protecting the last great treasure and secrets of the last king."

A treasure chest appeared midway between the Rear Guard Captain and them.

"You have fought your way through the last of the guard. Only those that would be worthy of receiving this last gift would be able to do so. Take your reward, warrior. Magi," the skeleton said before collapsing into a heap of bones. A few seconds later, there was sound of shattering glass as the bones became pixels, then blew away on a cold wind.

Two months ago, maybe even a month ago, they would have run up the chest, assuming it was alright. That since learned that anything that looks too good to be true, most likely was.

He activated his trapping skill. "Sakami?"

She was doing the same. After a moment, she moved a little closer. He could see runes on the lock.

"What is it?"

She knelt down, intently staring at the lock on the chest. "It only opens with magic," she said.

His brow rose. Moving to stand over her and guard her, he said, "Be careful."

Putting her rapier and dagger down where she could easily grab then, she hesitantly reached out to touch the lock. Nothing happened. He was listening for slightest change to the eerily quiet ruins. Only the wind was making any sound. She closed her eyes. After a moment, he looked down, swearing he felt something stirring in him.

There was an audible click, then the chest popped open. Unlike what usually happened when a chest was opened or a quest was completed, there was no reward box or message saying it was completed. She pushed the chest open. Sparing a glance, still suspicious of this change, he saw that there was two old leather-bound books about the size of a diary at the bottom of the chest.

"Sakami?"

"I don't see any trap or anything."

She picked up the one that had an embossed flower on its cover. It glowed, and then an item menu popped up. She quickly read what it said, then accepted it. The book didn't disappear into he inventory. When she went to pick up the book but her hand was blocked by a blue barrier of light.

"Heroku, I thin that one is for you," she said.

"Make sure we aren't pounced on," he told her. She was still holding the book in her hand as she picked up her weapons. "Can't you put that into your inventory?"

"The message box said I have to take it to the old Herbologist in the greenhouses," she told him.

Well, he now understood why the quest chain wasn't completed. When she took up guard, he reached down for the other book. There was an embossed uncut gem on the cover that he didn't recognize. The game allowed him to pick it up. The message box showed the item was a purple, class S item.

Shock didn't cover what he was feeling. This was a unique item. Class S were one of the highest items, according to the few things he had read on the game design.

"The Book of Kelasdur. To unlock its knowledge, talk to the librarian in the Chapel library," the box said.

"Where do you have to go?"

"The Chapel library."

The sun poked through the side of the floor above them. That mean there was about and hour and a half of sunlight left, and maybe and hour of twilight before it got dark. During the day skeletons were the biggest threat. Gouls and spirits were supposed to roam the night. Without a Blessing of the Blade from the church in Karluin, they would be a large disadvantage against those. It was something found out the night before when three players were killed on an exploration party.

Calling up the map, he found the Chapel and the old greenhouses marked on the map already. He felt a little guilty for not being one of the first to explore the area, but what they were doing could be far more important.

Sakami had done the same. "We can make it to one of the two places before it gets dark."

Putting the book between his arm and his shield, he said, "The greenhouses are closer. We can visit the Chapel tomorrow."

"Heroku, I think the crystals are more important," she said.

"And we both know what real potions can do. We do the greenhouses first," he told her.

After a moment, she nodded. When they got back to the ground floor, they decided to come back to explore the rest of the abandonded barracks later. At least the gates were open again.

-oOo-

That night…

Aincrad, Administration Centre

Since the unexpected delay in conquering the first floor, Kayaba Ahkaiki, was feeling satisfied with the progress.

A part of him was enormously pleased at the largest closed audience social experiment in history. Never before had so many people been summarily cut off from their lives and plunged into a completely new world like Sword Art Online.

Going through the stats, he found it interesting that there were a few distinct categories of players.

Some weren't even trying. There were more than three thousand still in or around the Town of Beginnings.

Others were slowly heading towards higher floor. Most of them were late starters, only venturing out after the first floor was cleared.

The ones he was keeping the closest eye on were those that were not just laying down. So far, more than eight thousand players had gone beyond the Elysium fields just outside of the Town of Beginnings.

Far less than he wanted, but more than he could have probably hoped for.

Of those, six thousand-eight hundred and seventy-three were still alive.

He wasn't sure how he felt about the stat of deaths. The game went live on October twenty-eight. Since then, two thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four had died. Most to monsters, but there were a few to other players, being disconnected from the outside and more than four hundred to suicide. He found those people to be cowards. The point of the game was to fight for your life and win the game. If you didn't want to do that, then you should never have bought SAO.

In almost two months, the top players had cleared out the first four floors and were well on their way to finding the secrets of the fifth floor. Maybe another two or three days if they keep the pace they had set since defeating Illfang the Kolbold Lord?

As he was looking at what the players were calling the assault team, he was satisfied with the progress of the top two hundred players. A few stuck out, like Kiritio, Asuna and the Dragon Knight Brigade for their sheer determination to level and be at the forefront. Others were just as notable. The Brotherhood, a newly formed guild led by a player called Klein, were showing to be strong players after getting a rather rocky start.

Going down the list, he felt a little disappointed to see two names had dropped in the rankings. The team of Heroku and Sakami had been in the top twenty players up until two weeks ago. They were taking on bosses and dungeons that would normally take four to six to defeat and clearing them on their own. Together, they were almost as good as Kirito alone, and better than Asuna when she was alone. Since then, they had fallen to 41 and 42 respectfully.

Of course, that might be because they had taken up profession skills.

Personally, Akahiki thought that a waste for such talent, but this game was about choice, and if that was their choice, he would let them have it.

Turning his attention to look at more promising players to help, he looked at the stats of the Aincrad Liberation Squad. Now that was an ambitious group that was almost able to solo a floor boss on their own… if they could learn to work together better. Right now they were still rather individual and selfish in their play.

Perhaps they could make up the core of the Knights of Blood guild that would soon be appearing.

He longed to play with players. What creator wouldn't want to play in his creation? The issue was, even though SAO had a four month shake down before going live, he was still dealing with bugs and errors. It was getting to a more manageable level now, but it was still more than he had expected. He was thinking within the month he would be able to step out of the day to day operations and walk among his people.

Until then, players were pushing the bounds of what he had intended or what the system could originally handle. He had to constantly adjust skills and enhancement to not make anyone over powered without working for it. He also had to make sure that all players knew the rules.

He may have no qualms about someone dying or killing another when out in the game world, but even he knew that there were certain bounds that were required to keep some civility. The moral codes was one.

No player could 'accost' another, meaning inappropriate touches, unless they allowed it. For those that wanted to go further, there were ways to adjust the code to allow others as close as you wanted. But only if you wanted. In here, No meant No.

If someone violated this, they would find themselves in the prison of the Black Iron Fort for a period of time. There player marker would then be yellow for two weeks, just to let other know.

Stealing was treated just as harshly, though those players were marked orange and only sent to the prison if they were caught by another.

Then he had the PK rules. Inside a protected area, no player could be harmed.

You could knock them around. Harass them. Find other ways to make their life miserable, but no one could be physically harmed inside the bounds of a safe area. Even duels were non-lethal in safe areas. Once outside a safe zone… that was a different story.

These rules were so hard coded into the system, that not he could change that functionality without breaking the source code.

And that was the trick, wasn't it. He was essentially god inside the mainframes of SAO, but even he had some limits. If he could have created this world all on his own, that might be different, but the project had been too big for even someone of his genius to manage all on his own.

He was finding out that lesson as the game progressed. He could affect almost anything, except the base source code that made the world. And inside that base code, he was finding that others had put their own spin on the world that was supposed to be only his.

On the whole, this wasn't a large issue. It meant there were towns, NPC's, monsters and some gear that he hadn't planned on, but did nothing to effect the overall world or gameplay. He had already found more than two dozen quests and events he had no fore warning on. At first he thought Cardinal had made them, but upon inspection, he had found them to be Easter Eggs from some of the more than three hundred programmers that had worked on the game. In all, more than two thousand people had worked on SAO. He was finding their fingerprints everywhere.

As this game was supposed to evolve as the players evolved, he let those that found the Easter Eggs to keep their spoils and he would usually just shut the quest down.

Out of all the Easter eggs, there were two that were perplexing him. He had not agreed to allow any gem crafters or potion makers in the game outside of the NPC's. That had been a hard point he had put his foot down on.

Finding that those professions were part of the base code had made him furious.

Magic was not supposed to be part of Sword Art Online!

That had not been his vision.

He had always dreamed of being a swordsman, and that is what the game was supposed to be.

He had tracked the team down that had worked on that part of the code from Cardinal's records. It was led by a man named Sotobo Riana. He led a subteam of twelve programmers that were supposed to only add the crystals and potions to the game. They had done a superb job of their main task. Potions were a must have item. Gems were supposed to become that too on the sixth floor.

Hadn't that been a surprise to see them used on the third and fourth floor boss battles?

Once he tracked down how crystals had been found so early, he found that Sotobo's team had also done a superb job of perverting his vision to add in two professional classes that were not supposed to exist!

An orange system message came up. "What is it now, Cardinal?"

It was the fifth one today. Orange messages were signs of these Easter Eggs popping up or system errors that needed to be addressed quickly.

The only control he had over the Easter eggs was to restrict what the new abilities did or to shut down the quests. He could kill the players as well, but the idea was the players were supposed to live, until they died of their own actions. He wouldn't be a vindictive god. Not like that.

He could be benevolent in his own way.

"You asked to be notified when another player found out about the blessings available at the church in Karluin," Cardinal said.

He made a sound in his throat. As a construct of electrons and data, he shouldn't still be holding onto his human roots, but he did, and found the audible sound helped him to cope with these unexpected annoyances. "What did the blessing give this time?"

Sotobo's team had also snuck in that Easter Egg to get blessings. It was a system he could not shut down, but he had implemented an ever increasing tithe needed to gain one, and it would only last for twelve hours. Unfortunately, he could only increase the tithe by ten percent each time a player received a blessing. It would help to limit a player from constantly seeking one as it would soon get prohibitedly expensive.

"The Light of Angbar. It will double any damage to any spirit class entity," Cardinal told him.

That one wasn't too bad, and since normal weapons suffered a twenty-five percent handicap against spirit class mobs, he could live with that one. It was far less game unbalancing than ones like Holy Hammer. That one adds a two-hundred percent increase to crushing damage. No mob is supposed to be that easy to defeat.

"Increase the likelihood of the Light of Angbar to ninety-percent."

"I am restricted from making it more than a forty-percent chance," Cardinal told him.

He made another aggravated sound. He was supposed to have complete control over the game. He wouldn't punish the players though. They had nothing to with this. If he still had a body, he would push those that were befouling his grand opus over a cliff onto to jagged rock and hope they suffered before they died.

"Game Master, there is another message."

"What?" he said a little curtly.

"A non-registered quest was just completed," Cardinal told him. Those would be the Easter Egg quests.

"And what is it this time?"

"It was called the Knowledge of the Plants. It opened a new lore module, enhancing the potion profession. The base chain, The Path of the Magi opened a unique prerequisite," Cardinal told him.

He blinked. "What new lore module? Right now the players should be following the Elven trail until they complete the Final Battle on floor six," he said.

"The ruins of Eredun on the fifth level opened up the Path of the Magi. It is a lore path that explains why magic does not exist in Sword Art Online, and introduces a limited system of magic," Cardinal informed him.

"Damn it! I specifically shut down all talk of magic in this game! Can you shut it down and delete the code?"

"It is part of the source code modules. It is linked to the player life source code. If this module is shut down, then eighty-four players will be terminated, and all potions and gems will be removed from the game," Cardinal replied.

Akahiki bowed his head. There was no way that he could do that. Players were supposed to have a chance at defeating the game. If he removed all potions and gems then be was condemning everyone to die. He doubted that they would reach the sixth floor without suffering catastrophic casualties, never mind finishing the game.

"Is there anyway to isolate the code?" he asked. He had designed the NerveGear and much of the interfaces, but the code was done mostly by others. He had to rely on Cardinal to help him manage the system.

"I have analyzed it. Without a system shutdown, I do not see anyway of isolating the code. I expect it to take six hours and fifty minutes to complete this task. I also do not see a way of isolating the code without removing all potions and gems," Cardinal told him.

Even though he couldn't feel it, he still pinched the bridge of his nose. There was no way they could shut down the system. That would kill everyone within two hours.

"Can we isolate the players that uses this code?"

"If you were to terminate the players, then all potions and gems would be removed from the game."

It was like listening to a broken record.

He wanted to strangle Sotobo and his team.

"What does this mean? What does the lore and quest open up?"

"There are now eight hundred and sixty-three potion recipes, four hundred and sixteen gem crafting recipes, three terabytes of new lore and skills related to both professions, the trapping skill now has a subskill called Runes, a subskill combination of Runes and Gem Crafting called Warding and a new subskill that is a combination of Gem Crafting and Blacksmithing called Enchanting. Two-thousand five hundred and sixty-four unique items have been added related to these skills. Four hundred and ninety-seven new mats have been added, starting on the fifth floor. I am still unpacking all the lore and information. More items, recipes and lore will become available when the player Heroku completes the quest chain The Magi Awakens," Cardinal told him.

"Fucking bastards! I'll rip out their innards," he swore. There was not supposed to be any magic in SAO!

"That will be quite impossible without having a physical body or the programmers being in the game," Cardinal said in her calm, monotone voice. Even so, he swore he heard a slight laugh. The main program running SAO was a partial AI. Though, he was starting to suspect she was more aware than he had thought.

After getting his temper in check, he tried to think logically about this. "How many players can use these skills?"

"Eighty-four."

"What prerequisite do they need?"

"Magic," Cardinal said.

He blinked. "This new lore introduces magic." He knew the confusion was trickling through.

Cardinal took a moment to respond. "There is an additional sensor in the NerveGear. It initially identified One hundred and three players as having an electrical signal labels 'Magic'. Eighty-four are still in the game. Potion and gem crafting skills are open only to those players. They will be able to make many items that the NPC vendors do not have. Starting on the tenth floor, unique gem abilities will start to spawn on boss battles. Any blacksmith can learn Enchanting and any Trapper can learn Warding, but will need the proper gems to enhance gear or use the Warding skill."

There was some silver lining to this as there were some restrictions.

"How much can I restrict the use of these items and skills?"

"You many influence the cost, mats and requirements of learning the skills within a ten percent window of the source code," Cardinal informed him.

A nasty look crossed his face. "Do it. Max out all costs, mats and requirements. I want this as restricted as possible."

"I will do as you command, Game Master."

He stood over the console, fuming at the perversion of HIS world.

-oOo-

Chapter 7

-oOo-

December 30, 2022

Aincrad, 5th Floor

Harry sat at the bench of the rented work space. Next to him were two cauldron merrily bubbling away as Sakami lain out her mats. She looked at the book they had retrieved yesterday then tapped the ingredients. Unlike the painstaking skill one had to learn inside a potions room, the small worms, flies and plants glowed for a second and then were cut.

Sakami grimaced. "I know I could cut these better if I have my real silver knife," she whinged.

Looking at the sloppily cut parts, he grimaced as well. "It's probably related to your potions skill. I'm sure as you level it up, it will get better," he assured her.

The cute blonde girl with pink tips and purple eyes huffed. "It looks like I don't know what I'm doing."

"You don't. Not here yet," he pointed out and earned some narrowed eyes.

He turned back to his book. They had ventured out to the Chapel at first light and he was now anxious find out how much they had gained. The quest seemed to have been a unique event. He wondered if that meant they had both gained skills and recipes unique to the game or it if opened up all the possibilities to all the players?

Taking out four of the small blue crystals, he made sure he carefully read the instructions to combine them into a medium crystal. Unlike all the other skills so far, they had to actually read and actively memorize the recipes. It was like the game system was making it harder than it was supposed to be.

Part of him thought it was. SAO was not supposed to have magic, and yet what they were after clearly was magic. He knew it was. Since Sachi had pointed out she could feel his magic, he had tried to feel it every time he crafted. He could feel it now at key points. He also felt how Sachi had to use magic in some of the potion making or when she disabled traps.

Eventually he would focus to catch up with her, but for now, they were better served if he focused on gem crafting and she focused on potions and trapping.

Laying the pieces into a rough diamond shape, he pulled out his jewelers mallet. He wished it was this simple in real life. He tapped each one twice going clockwise, repeated it counter-clockwise and then going top-bottom-left-right.

There was a bright flash.

A larger crystal appeared. He smiled, thinking he had it, when it suddenly fell apart, then pixelated.

He let out a huff. That had been the second try and had cost him eight of the sixty-three blue crystals he currently had. Sakami looked equally as frustrated as one of the cauldrons suddenly had a tar like substance before the bad potion disappeared.

"That is the third time! I swear its because the sloppy cuts," she cried out.

Crafting in Aincrad was easy. Leveling your skill to craft what you wanted too… that was not.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Just take a deep breath. We have more mats and can get more. Just think about how worth it it will be once we can get this all the time," he told her.

She put a hand over his. "It's just so frustrating. I didn't have this much of an issue when I started at Mohautokoro."

They were alone, but anyone could walking into a shop or craft stall. He spoke in a low voice, "I know, Sachi. We shoudn't mention that outside a guarded area."

She huffed, then nodded. Letting go of his arm, she poured more water into the cauldron and started the potion again. "What are you trying to make?"

"Fire Releif Cream. I thought it would help if we fought another monster like that treant," she said. "Beside the basic potions, I don't have the mats for much else yet."

He understood. He needed mats he was sure was on higher floor as well.

"Are you having issued making the teleport crystals?"

"I haven't figured out the proper way to hit the crystals yet. Or even if there is one," he replied.

"Show me," she said.

He laid out four more small blue crystals. He thought they looked like large sapphires, but the game only called them blue crystals. Reading over the instruction in the Book of Gems, he started tapping the table in a steady beat. "It says to use the same timing and force. I swear I am."

She leaned over and put her chin on his shoulder. Her breath brushed against his neck. He swore if felt hot and she smelled like the cinnamon buns they had found at a stall along the canals.

A flush went through his body.

"What if you do it to a rythim?" she suggested.

"What do you mean?"

She reached around and took his hand. He took in a sharp breath. Since Christmas whenever she touched him when they were not in the field, his heart rate increased at was like a fire was racign through him from where her skin contacted his.

She tapped the small jeweller's hammer on the table. She started to hum. It was a tune that had been popular just before they had been trapped in the world. He liked how the vibrations radiated through his body and awakened something in his groin.

"Something like this," she said a little breathily.

She kept his hand going to the slow tune.

Harry turned his head slightly. She had shifted her head so that her lips were close to his when he turned. He could feel her breath across his lips. Her eyelids drooped a little. There was a certain sultry quality to it that had his heart quicken more and the sensation in his groin become a little pleasurable.

Her lips were slightly parted. He tipped his head towards he. Her eyes closed and her tongue licked her lips. He did the same.

He was just about brush her lips when the door suddenly opened. Sakami jumped back. He shot out off the stool. It clattered the floor. They were both reaching for their weapons, even though they had put them into their inventory while working in here.

His hand came up empty when he expected to grab the handle of his jain.

They all froze.

A figure in slightly ratty clothing and a long murky green cloak stood in the doorway. She rose an eyebrow at them and a smirk came to her mouth. "Did I interrupt anything important?"

Sakami blushed from her neck to her cheeks at the suggestive wink Argo gave them.

"No, we were just leveling our skills," Sakami said. She quickly turned, slammed the Book of Plants and then returned it to her inventory. He was a little more circumspect in reaching behind him to close his book.

Argo looked curious. "What do you have there?"

"Quest items we won't talk about," he told the Info Broker.

Argo had a sly smile. "I get it. You don't want me reading your journals and finding out all the fun stuff you two get up too. By the way, are still getting two beds or is one enough?"

He felt his neck heat up. They had done that five times. Each time had been after a particularly bad day. Not that he didn't think about it often.

"That is none of your business," Sakami snapped.

Argo was grinning like a Cheshire cat as she stepped in and closed the door. "With you saying it that way, you now most will think you are sleeping with him."

"That's enough, Argo," he said in a cool tone.

She looked to him and held up a hand. "I come in peace."

He snorted to see her make a 'V' with her fingers.

"Barge in here like that again and you'll be in pieces," Sakami threatened before turned back to the work bench. She was till beat red and wouldn't meet his eyes.

Argo was still looking highly amused. "I might be scared if I thought you would actually hurt me."

He snorted. The girl was way to overconfident. "What do you want?"

"I heard my two favorite scouts had returned early today. I wanted to see if everything was alright?" He had a feeling that even though Argo was a bit of a gossiper, she seemed to honestly care for some people, and they had made her list.

"Yeah. Everything is going well."

"Do you have more map data? Maybe more crystals?"

Sakami moved his book closer to herself. He got the message. "We have information, but I can't give you all of it."

Argo was surprised. They had never hidden anything before. "I heard there were a few special things found on this floor. Is if anything dangerous to other players?"

He shook his head. "No. I think it will help a lot of players, but we need time to figure it out."

Argo eyed him for a few, then looked to Sakami as she prepared more ingredients. Instead of pressing them, she asked, "What do you need?"

"Mats. What do we normally need?"

Argo nodded as she leaned against the wall next to the door. "So, what you normally want."

He opened his interface and packaged everything except the Path of the Magi and the Spirit Within quests. He made sure the monsters were included, but something was telling him to not give that information out to just anyone.

She opened the screen and started to scan it. "You haven't covered the ground you normally do. There is some good data on the ruins though. I think you have covered most of it. Have you explored this entrance to the catacombs yet?"

"We were thinking of doing that tonight or tomorrow. If its dark, then it might have sprit class monsters, and we here the blessings from the church are good for that type of thing," Sakami answered. She passed the book to him as Argo looked through their data and he put it back into his inventory.

"Alright. If you go tonight, I'll hold off until morning about selling the location to the entrance," she told them.

"If you want to come, we won't say no," he offered.

Argo snorted. "I'm not a frontline type of girl."

"Is that supposed to be an insult?" Sakami questioned.

"A recognition of my limitations and a nod to those that can do," Argo countered.

She sent over 5000 col. He accepted it and would split it with Sakami later.

"Do you have more crystals? Some of the big groups are burning through them," she enquired.

"Twenty-four minor healing, ten clarifying and eight antidote crystals," he told her, opening his inventory to give her what he could. He made sure that they each had their own stock before he sold the others. Five healing, two clarifying and two antidote crystals each.

"I'll take them all. Yours are by far the best. I wonder what it will be like once we can access the NPC's on the next floor?" she said.

"We'll find out then. Have they found the labrynth and the boss yet?" Sakami asked.

"No word yet, but I can't imagine it will be much longer. The ALS, Dragon Knight Brigade and the Beaters are keeping far ahead of you now," Argo stated.

"We are doing what we think will help more," he said, hating the term Beater. All three of them in this room were in that class.

Argo shrugged he shoulders. "I agree without. How much for the crystals?"

"Are you still selling them for 8000 col each?"

"A woman needs to make a living and those buying them can afford it," Argo said.

"Seven-thousand each," Sakami said.

"Sixty-five hundred." Argo countered

"Fine. We also have some potions you may want."

"Really? Is that what you are doing there?"

"This is an experiment. I've found the recipe for a normal healing potion," Sakami said. "Give me like twenty minutes and I can give you a dozen or so."

Argo's eyebrow drifted up her forehead. "How much more powerful is that over the minor healing potions?"

"Forty percent," Sakami said. She put two more caulldrons out from under the table. "I also have some dissolusionment potions."

"What the hell do those do?"

Sakami grinned. "Give you a five minute, 150 point boost to your stealth skill."

"Shit! How much for those?"

"I can give you a preferred friend's price."

Argo laughed. They ended up more than more than 330,000 col richer by the time Argo slipped out of the room. Harry ended up frustrated by wasting another four crystals before he did the rhythm technique. After that, he was able to make the first three teleport crystals in the game.

A lot of their new found fortune would go into mats when they found Agil later that day. He had pulled off the frontlines to become a merchant. He was still spending enough time adventuring to keep his level up, like them. Aincrad needed merchants and crafters. They were becoming as essential as though willing to take on the big fights.

That night, Harry would toss and turn to think about how close Sachi had been to him earlier. She sounded restless too that night…

-oOo-

January 3, 2022

Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan

Remus woke to an email that had caught his attention. It was an appointment for a job interview at company called RECT Progress Inc. He knew he hadn't submitted any applications or contract quotes since Harry had been taken from him.

He was still working on the design models for the new VRMMORPG that had been planned for the NerveGear, though a new model with better protections was supposed to be in the works.

Most would have run from the technology that had their child trapped in it, but Remus was throwing more and more time into his programming skills to see if he could find a way to get Harry away from the NerveGear. He had the insane thought to apparate him away, but there was no way that you could apparate without bringing everything you were wearing. The magic just didn't work that way. He didn't know why, but it didn't

Officer Yumoto said that it had been tried twice before they knew what was happening, he had been horrified to know that both children had died.

It had crushed him that day. At one time, he probably would have just curled up with this tail between his legs and given up. After knowing James and Sirius, and having to be a parent to Harry in the last ten years, he was not going to lose the only one he regarded as family.

Normally he would ignore emails like he had received this morning, but it the right words to catch his attention. Mainly 'NerveGear', 'Sword Art Online' and safety measures.

Thus, at two in the afternoon, he found himself sitting outside an executive office in Kyoto. He had to get a portkey to be here, but he was here.

A rather short Japanese man walked into the waiting area precisely at two. Remus detected the smell of a wand. "Mister Lupin?"

Remus stood up and greeted the man with a bow. "I am Remus Lupin."

The man returned the courtesy. "I am Director Sotobo Raina. I remember meeting you when we worked together on Sword Art Online," the man said.

"I was lead for the model team on most of the creatures," Remus said.

The man held out his hand to indicate Remus to enter the office. "Yes. I remember. I also remember you were instrumental in my teams request for adding a magic system into the game, even if I was turned off."

Remus nodded. The door closed behind him, Sotobo soflty closing it. "Mister Sotobo. I can tell you are a wizard."

The man nodded as he moved to take a position behind his seat. "As you know, Japan has a much more progressive lean towards us not hiding form the world. Like you, I was from a non-magical background and kept up with both my studies."

Remus grimaced. "I am actually what you would call a pureblood from where I am from, but do to my affliction, I was marginalized. A dear friend from a non-magical background introduced me to the normal world and helped me get into university. Back in Britain, it is almost impossible for someone with lycantrophy to get any normal job in the magical world."

"I had heard it was that bad, but hadn't quite believed it. Please take a seat." Remus sat and the Sotobo slid a folder towards him. "I'm sure you are curious why I asked you here on such short notice."

"It is the only reason I've left Hokkaido to come this far," he replied. "You mentioned SAO."

The man sighed. "I did. This is not public knowledge yet, but in two weeks RECT Progress will be taking over the SAO server management. I am going to be in charge of that project."

Remus's heart quickened. He wanted to be closer to helping Harry. "I am not a programmer like I was told people were working for."

Sotobo leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk and his his chin on his hands. "I am not looking for a programmer. I am looking for something else."

Remus was confused. "What are you looking for?"

"I was told you had an idea for a facial recognition program. When RECT Progress takes over the servers, we are going to make the feeds available to all the players. We want to make this available to the families first. I have been told I have until mid-Februrary at the latest to identify as many as I can. March first, the feeds will be made public. Personally, I hope to not get to that point, but I am told that the AI and protection protocols on the SAO servers will not be hacked by then. Given your back ground in programming models and your teams rather unique solution to allowing an infite paint mapping of the models, I want you to head up the recognition program," Soboto said.

Remus blinked. "That is only six weeks. Not even, is it?" he said after a moment.

"You will have a team of twenty and all the computer processing you need form RECT mainframes until the release date on March first. You will be offered seven million yen for the first two months, with options to extend your contract after that," Sotobo said.

Remus's eyes widened. He usually made twice that in a year, but in two months he would earn a half a year's salary? He wanted to go see Harry though. He had not been to the hospital in two days. New Years night he got pissed and yesterday he had visited Kyomi to see about getting her a link to Harry's NerveGear since he was with her daughter almost all the time. He had a link to his own computer at home so he could keep an eye on his nephew.

"When do you need an answer?"

"Mister Lupin, I have as much invested in this as you do. Two of my grandchildren are trapped it the game. My youngest son is already dead because of it. I helped to get them the gear so they could play together. I want to find my grandchildren. I don't know their screen names. I want to see them. I want them out. I have a team ready to meet with you today. Overtime is not an issue," Sotobo said.

Remus licked his lips. This would allow him to do something to help Harry. "When can I meet them?"

Sotobo tapped the folder. "As soon as we process the legal work. I will let the team know to be ready for a meeting in an hour."

-oOo-

January 6, 2023

Aincrad, 7th Floor

Harry walking at the front of the column with of Klein's friends in half-plate. He was now in chainmail with a spear that had an 50 cm bladed tip. He was working on gaining the poleaxe skill so that he could use the spear in a more utilitarian way. They both had shields and where taking point as they approached the Halin Arboreal Palace.

The quest was to rescue the princess from the Dark Elves. As far as they knew, they were the first to take on this quest, but not the first to the area. The ten of them in the party should be enough for the quest. Even a field boss should be able to be handled by the group.

Sakami and him were along to find more mats and gear. They had missed the last three floor bosses and felt they should be part of the raid party on this level. He was still supporting the turtle shell shield from level five and it was now maxed out on enhancement. He was loath to get rid of it though as he liked the look.

The other two tanks were midway through the party. Klein didn't want to be ambushed. Sakami was a little further back than normal. Klein wanted her to be at the rear because she was a good fighter and wanted to ensure there escape path would be clear if needed. Sakami and him had teleport crystals, but he was still struggling to get enough mats and the ones available from the NPC's were way too expensive.

He knew he could by the mats for about 9000 col. Selling them for 15000 col was a good profit. He had a feeling the cost of mats would go up once people understood what some of them were used for. The NPC's wanted 50000 col. Most players that were on the frontlines could afford that, but that might also be the price of a much needed gear piece or upgrade at their level.

As they approached the fortress built into the trees under the dark canopy was foreboding.

The man next to him said, "She's probably in the highest room, isn't she?"

"Most likely," Harry agreed.

Five tall dark elves came out of the shadows as they approached the ramp to the palace.

"Halt!"

Five more walked out of the shadows behind them. "Turtle up," Klein ordered as he moved forward to talk with the gaurds. As much as the NPC's were computer generated, most could carry on simple conversations, and the quest ones could almost be mistaken for players at times.

"Who approaches the king's palace?" they were challenged.

Klein stepped out front. Harry looked behind him to see Sakami between the other two tanks as they watched the five Dark Elves behind them. Harry didn't know if this was a fighting or diplomatic quest. Most quests turned into battle.

"I am Klein, of the Brotherhood guild. I come from Count Renlin to seek his daughter's release," Klein said, holding out the parchment they had been given.

The taller Dark Elf scoffed. "The princess waits in the highest tower to marry the king. Tell the forest bottom dweller she is a spoil of war."

"Did I call it or what?" the guy next to him said.

Harry shook his head. He liked Klein's group, but in situations like this, he didn't feel like cracking jokes.

"Is that your final answer?" Klein asked, his hand going to his sword. He was now sporting a katana.

"Be gone and tell your master we do take demands," the elf said.

"Well, fuck," Klein stated. His sword came out and sliced through the NPC. "I didn't want to talk anyways."

The assault on the palace was on. It was more direct than Harry liked, but the mob generation of the Dark Elves was reasonable enough for the group to stay together and no one dropped to dangerous levels. They had all had to use atleast one potion and crystal, but the team all had the best crystals and potions.

Harry had a little bit of pride to know he and Sakami were keeping people alive.

It took them more than tow hours to fight their way through the ramp, the palace halls and to the room that straddled the three trees eight levels up. By now, Harry was feeling the strain. His stamina bar was recovering slowly. Most of the others were looking as drained. Standing at the doors to the throne room, they could see the Dark Elf king siting on a obelisk throne with the princess tied to a smaller throne on his right side. He was just watching them as they recovered outside of the room.

"Damn, this was harder than I thought," Klein said as he leaned over and was breathing hard. Most players subconsciously showed their fatigue like they would in real life.

Sakami stepped up next to him. "Have something we can try, but I don't know if it will work."

Klein looked up. "I'll try anything," he said.

She opened her inventory. When the trade appeared before him, Harry looked at her a little surprised. She looked slightly sheepish. They would be talking about this later.

The potion that materialized was black. It was no the right colour what what he knew a pepper-up potion to be.

"What is a pepper-up potion?" one of the others asked.

"It's a stamina potion. It should bring you up to full stamina and give you an 10 point regen for ten minutes," she said.

"Should?" he Klein asked.

He could see her uncertainty in her eyes. Harry shrugged. "If Sakami says it works, then it does."

He downed the potion. Everyone looked at him expectedly. It took about ten seconds, then his stamina bar started to climb and he stood up tall. "It works."

There was a collective sigh of relief as all their stamina bars filled.

"Right. I want to setup two rotations. Samheil, you work with Heroku," Klein ordered.

"Sure, Pops," Samheil said. There was general round of laughter from those that knew the joke. Sakami gave a soft, almost hidden smile as Klein sputtered.

"I want Sakami with me," he told Klein.

"Where ever she wants," Klein replied. "Oka, you work the left flank instead. Everyone have crystals and potions ready?"

After they were settled, Klein marched into the room. "Evil King Turein, hand over the princess."

Samheil groaned. Harry laughed, though he probably shouldn't. "Is he's always this dramatic?"

"He's getting worse."

When the Dark Elf King stood up, he revealed a large two handed sword. The laughter died. This was not going to be an easy fight.

"Emissary of Duke Harforth, I have claimed this maiden through right of conquest. If you wish to take her back, you must defeat me," the Dark Elf king said. It was a classic MMORPG type of script. Unlike the games Harry used to play though, if you lost here, you couldn't just go back and repeat the fight.

With a war scream, the Dark Elf king ran at the group. Klein quickly stepped back at Samheil and him stepped forward. Looking at the single HP bar, this boss wasn't as strong as most field bosses. He would think they were doing anything less than a floor boss though. His shield moved to block the heavy blow of the long two handed sword. His long spear would prove helpful. Even so, on the second attack, he couldn't totally block the swipe and he took a fifteen percent hit to his leg.

The pepper-ups ran out before the fight was done, but at the twelve minute mark Sakami got the last hit in. As the small congratulations announcement came over their heads, most of the group dropped to the floor, their stamina almost spent.

Klein fell to his back, his arms outside and his hand loosely around the hilt of his katana. Harry took a knee. He was feeling it. Sakami was a few metres away, breathing heavily. This had been a marathon fight that none of them had experience until this point.

"Did we all make it?" Klein asked from the floor.

"Gachi lost an arm, but it will grow back soon," someone said.

There was a relief that passed through the crowd. Movement had Harry looking up. The princess in a rather low cut dress was walking towards them. "Thank you, my heroes. My father will reward you for freeing me. Please let me show you my thanks before you escort me back."

She walked over to Klein, knelt down and kissed him.

Most started to laugh. "This is the only girl you'll get, Pops?"

Another made a loud whistle.

When the princess pulled back, Klein had a huge smile on his face. "I don't care if she's an NPC. It's more than any of you have gotten lately," he shot back.

This brought out more ribbing between the group. Sakami caught his eye. She was smiling, but had a small gleam to her eyes that he was finding harder and harder to resist.

After escorting the princess back, Sakami and him decided not to party with Klein and his guild. It was getting close to 20:00. They had been going almost non-stop since Christmas and was feeling it. Their days had spent scouting, their afternoon and evenings crafting and often doing mat runs before getting a few hours of sleep. Sakami looked to be as well as she flopped on her bed in full battle armour. Cleaning was an easy job in Aincrad. Dirt was gone with a simple command. You didn't need to take a bath. You could change your smell with a simple spritz of perfume that was now available.

Even so, Sakami was usually very meticulous about keeping herself clean and not flopping on her bed still in full armour of her silver threat mail shirt and reinforced leather skirt that reminded him of old Greek hoplite skirt.

He sat on chair at the table in the room.

"We should atleast eat," he said to her.

"Just give me a few hours."

He gave a her a small smile. "We haven't taken any time off since Christmas."

"We can't. The clearing teams are moving so fast we need to make more potions and crystals tonight," she said.

He didn't disagree. "Would you like to at least go to dinner?"

Her head rolled over to look at him. "That means I need to get up."

"I could bring something back," he offered.

She put an arm over her face. "We should go out."

When Sukie didn't move, he said, "Go take a bath. I'll find some food."

"Sashimi would be great," she said.

He knew of no place to get sashimi. "I'll see what I can do."

An hour later he was returning with his find of some fish dish from Rovia on the fourth floor. It wasn't the best, but it was the closest he could find to her request. He knocked on the door before opening it incase she was in the middle of changing or doing something he shouldn't see. When she didn't say anything, he gently opened the door.

The gas lamp was still on. His bed in the rented room was still a crisp as when they had walked in. Stepping into the room, Harry caught Sukie on her bed.

She had changed into the white dress he had gotten her at Christmas. Laying on the bed, she had on arm over her face. The last time she had worn the dress, she had put on stockings so they could outside. Tonight her legs were bare. He wasn't trying to perv on her, but he followed her bare skin up to her knees before her legs disspeared into the folds. He was spread out wildly over her pillow.

Harry hadn't realized she had gotten a longer hair style because the hair was clearly over her shoulders now. She had also changed the pink tips to green.

Watching her sleep, the worry of what was going on erased from her face, Harry felt something in his chest that was warm and fuzzy.

Putting the paper box on the table that held the take away, he closed the door, moved over to her bed and made sure she was covered. He had a crazy urge to kiss her lips, like some long ago fairy tale of the prince waking the beautiful princess.

"You are an idiot," he softly chided himself.

Instead, he leaned down, placed a feather light kiss on her head and whispered, "Sweet dreams."

He was tired, but wasn't ready to go to sleep yet. Opening the box, he at what was supposed to be a seaweed salad, that was rather bland with a bad after taste, and the lightly cooked fish that had a slight seasoning to it that he liked. He hoped the food got better as they advanced through the game.

-oOo-

January 23, 2023

Kyoto, Japan

Remus sat back in his chair. Aside from having to take two days off because of the full moon earlier this month, Remus had been working at the RECT Progress Full Immersion Division for nearly twenty days straight.

It had been many years since he had pulled hours like this. But it had also been many years when he could.

Rubbing his eyes, he found himself missing those sleepless night when he had to sit by Harry's bed when he would have his night mares. The first few years had been very rough on both of them.

Learning to live in a new country that didn't easily accept outsiders.

Dealing with the trauma Harry had from the Dursley's.

Establishing himself as a top graphics game designer.

Yes, the first few years in Japan had not been easy.

He wouldn't give it for anything. He found he was missing those stressful days for the far more stressful days he was going through right now.

The team he was leading had had the original beta source code and Cardinal system made available to them to establish the recognition program.

The gamer data as to who owned each account was behind a firewall that no one was willing to breach on the chance it could endanger the players. They did have pictures of all the people know to be in the world of SAO, and with his knowledge of computer graphics and models, and the help of the near AI Cardinal, they were now running a bare bones graphics on the nine feeds they still had unlimited access too.

At one time, there had been thirteen, including Harry, but SAO had continued its relentless onslaught on those stuck in it. The death count had now climbed to more than three thousand people. The death rate was going lower, but people were still dying.

That is what had pushed them so hard to get what they had hobbled together in only twenty days.

"Remus Lupin," the monotone voice of Cardinal came to him from the speakers at his desk.

"I'm up," he said, sitting up.

"I have come up with twenty more identifications that are ninety-one percent positive," the AI said.

He blinked. "Please show me," he asked.

Pictures of online characters with the pictures of the actual person were on the screen. He looked at each one, agreeing that eighteen looked right. Two of them he couldn't tell. After sending the matches to one of his programmers, he picked up the phone.

It was 2:10, but Sotobo was asked to notified the second either of his grandchildren where found. A tired voice answered the phone. "This better be dire," the older man said.

"Mister Sotobo, this is Remus Lupin. I found your grandchildren," he said.

There was a long pause. "I'll be there within the hour."

Once they identified the person, the team linked the open port feed they were able to establish between the server and the NerveGear. It only piggy backed the signal, instead of disrupting it.

After getting two more positive responses, Remus called out, "Cardinal, can you please link user name Ryoku to Sotobo Goro and user name Fukiyaki to Sotobo Kumiko. Please start compiling any data you have and their location."

"Yes, Remus Lupin. I will add them to the database of confirmed players," Cardinal replied.

"How many does this make now?"

"Six hundred fifty-two. Will you authorize the use of the monitored connections?"

"Not until we can confirm that it will not interrupt the signal," he said.

They had a scare the first two days when they had tried to do something like that. The Cardinal in the SAO server had noticed there was more than just a passive use of the information and had cut the data stream for thirty minutes. He had thought they killed fifteen people until the connection came back.

He took that as a warning and that the Cardinal on the SAO server was more aware than they thought.

"Cardinal, please go back into sleep mode until there is something new to report or you are called," he said. Having a near AI program like Cardinal was extremely helpful, but at the same time he couldn't keep a certain animosity away because it was a different incarnation of the same program that was holding Harry and the others hostage.

"Yes, Remus Lupin," the computer voice said.

He shifted in his chair. It had only been the last forty hours that the program had started to make positive identifications. Knowing that Sotobo would want to see his grandchildren, he had one of the programmers that were still here at this time of the morning clear off a station.

Once that was done, he pulled up a monitor on his own screen.

The live feeds that came and went from SAO mainframes were a little different than the direct links. The direct links were witnessed just the same way the player did: through their own eyes. There were no filters except the ones the player had themselves.

The live feeds showed a view from behind their head. It also didn't give any of the icons, health data or even let you view when the player opened an interface window. It also adhered to the Moral codes that had been put in place. The image would blur out whenever the player or one nearby changed or entered a private room, like a room at an inn.

He called up the monitors for Mister Sotobo's grandkids. They were blurred, meaning they were sleeping. Game data traced them both to the second floor in Urbus. At least they were safe for now. His grandson was fourteen and his granddaughter twelve. She was one of the youngest players in the game.

Remus felt a pain in his heart.

Their father had been a beta tester, one of the programmers on his father's team. He had entered the game with his kids to have a fun time. Like he should have done with Harry. The man was killed the first day.

He sent the feed and their information to the station awaiting Mister Sotobo.

He next called up Harry's link. Even while sleeping, the direct link would still transmit the data of the area. Remus frowned. They were not in bed…

-oOo-

About the same time…

Aincrad, 10th Floor

The floor was filled with snakes and snake people. For Harry, it had been a jarring experience. For someone that was a natural parselmouth, the ability to not understand or talk to the snakes in the game had not been a good experience.

Apparently, computer generated VR snakes were not like living snakes. It had been a surprise when one stuck out at him. He had never experienced that. Sakami cut the snake in half before it could bite him.

He had been shaken from that.

He was just happy that she had accepted his reason when he told her that night.

Now they stood outside the doors of the boss on the seventh floor of the labrynth.

Most of the players were working together, but there was still an obvious competition between the main leaders of the Assault Team. The ALS wanted lead, while the Dragon Knights did.

After a contentious start to the raid meeting yesterday afternoon, a new party appeared. No one had heard about a player called Heathcliff, but he showed with a ten man party. He had mediated the conflict and was some how now the raid leader.

The fifty-four person Assuault team was split into eight groups. Harry had refused to be in the Group A tanks. He would never do a raid like this without Sakami at his side. Most of the people there already understood that. It was now an established fact that where one went, the other did as well. It had kept them alive to this point and he wouldn't risk fate to break that up.

Thus, they were in support group G. He would have preferred to be in the Assault Groups, but he would do the task assigned.

Sakami took his hand. He squeezed it back.

"Just remember, cycle through. Group A, C and F will be the first assault group. Group B, E and G is the second assault group. Group H, you will support the first assault group. Group I, the second," Heathcliff ordered.

Harry wasn't sure how much he liked Heathcliff. He had a commanding presence, but there was something about him. Looking around, he spotted Klein's group Group E. Kirito and Asuna were in Group C. Agil was with them again and heading Group A.

He made sure he had a few crystals and potions in his expanded hot bar. They had found a Bag of Plenty, that doubled his options.

When the doors opened, Sakami let go of his hand. He grabbed his spear. He now had a svardstav, or sword staff. Essentially, there was a short sword taking up about 35 cm of his tip. Having learned the stave skill, he was able to use his spear in a few different ways now.

Sakami pulled out her slightly heavier Quiote rapier. The blade was thicker than the more fencing style blades she had been using, but it was a little better against armour and had a big enough blade to make swipes a more viable attack.

They were also in much better armour. He still preferred armour that gave him movement, but he needed more protection because he liked to tank. Scale armour made of iron plates was a trade off between plate, like of the players were not sporting, and the chain mail he preferred.

He had a full chest piece with reinforced greaves and bracers, while Sakami was wearing a lighter scale amour torso piece that left her arms free. She still preferred the reinforced leather skirts with leather greaves.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

Sakami nodded.

"First assault group, forward!" Heathcliff yelled out.

The room was a giant sandy area, like the floor itself. As they moved in, a large dune of the sand at the other end of the circular room started to shift. Harry watched as a twelve meter long sand viper, The Death Adder, lifted its head. It was the same colour as the sand.

"Forward!"

With a yell, the first group charged forward. Like most boss battle, the tanks pulled the aggro while the assault teams came in from the side. Sakami shifted. He could tell that she wanted to move forward, instead of just sitting back to save players that were in trouble or to come in as reserves.

About ten minutes in, Heathcliff called out, "Assault group 2, switch out."

They moved forward. The four of them in the support group didn't do much the first two rotations. The giant snake was rather predicable as they whittle down the first two bars of health. Within forty minutes, they were entering the last phase of the battle. He had to help a few players.

Mostly that meant that he moved in to block the snake trying to strike out with it fangs while another of the party pulled the troubled player out, then he would retreat while the player used their own healing resources or they were forced to give them something.

"It' entering into its third bar. Assault group one, pull back," Heathcliff ordered, yelling over the din of the battle.

Everyone pulled back at the viper pulled back. It hissed at them. Then it moved to pull its head back. Harry moved a little closer, his shield ready. He felt like something was going to be different. Most braced when the snake threw its head back. Giant flaps peeled away from its neck. It would like a cobra. When it extrended his head to hiss at them, it suddenly spit out a spray of liquid form its mouth. A few people were hit by it. Two of the tanks started to scream.

"It's a poison," Sakami said.

"Get more antidote out," he told her. The snake charged the assault team.

It stuck faster, catching someone in their torso. The girl screamed in agony before the snake clamped its mouth shut. She shattered into millions of pixels.

This jarred many and the raid started to descend into chaos as the leader tried to maintain discipline.

"Damn it," Harry swore.

He opened his inventory, quickly finding what he was looking for. The snake lashed out again, biting another player. This one was able to scramble back. Sakami rushed in with the support teams to save him.

He found what he was looking for.

The tenth floor had opened new possibilities for him. He had a small sphere in his hands. The gold ingots were new, and the blue sphere, about five centimetres in diameter, had a fancy golden cage around it. The run on the top was for fire.

Rushing forward, he made sure he was clear of players that were backing up as The Death Adder was charging them. Planting his feet, he raised the crystal over his head. "FIREBALL!" he cried out.

The crystal sphere dissolved in his hand. He poured as much magic into it as the game allowed. A second later, a fireball the size of a basketball was dancing in his hand.

It was like time slowed down. Most of the players stopped, surprised that a player was able to hold a ball of fire in their hands. The snakes mouth opened, it foot long fangs ready to rip him in two. He threw the fireball into it's mouth.

It swallowed the fireball as though it was nothing.

Harry had the momentary thought that he was going to die. "I'm sorry, Sakami," he whispered as the giant snake lunged at him.

A metre and a half from him, the snake stopped. A blue light, then a blue fire, erupted from the centre of the twelve meter long monster. The health bar of The Death Adder, already in the red, dropped precipitously, then went to zero.

It shattered into the now all to familiar pixelation of something dying.

As the health bar of The Death Adder dropped, so to did his stamina.

Harry staggered back as the screen came up saying he had gotten the last hit bonus.

The world spun and he stumbled and fell flat on his back as his stamina bar hit zero…

-oOo-

Kyoto, Japan

About the same time…

Remus was watching the fight. It was going well until the boss was down to it's last bar of health.

Remus could remember making the model of this boss. Watching the players attack it, he was regretting the realism his team had put into it. Though, they had designed the skin flats or animated the spitting venom.

He put a hand to his mouth as he watch as player die. Every time he saw that, he prayed it wasn't Harry or the girl he was with.

His eyes grew wide as saucers as he yelled out, "Harry, if you do what I think you are…"

He didn't finish that sentence to watch his nephew, his son, rush to front of the battle. He held something over his head. A second later, a huge blue fireball was dancing if Harry's hand.

Remus had seen magical combat.

He had witnessed Dubledore and Voldemort duel on two occasions. He never seen a blue fire ball like that though.

Harry through it like it was ball.

When the snake exploded. The room was staring at Harry as he stumbled back. Remus saw his stamina drop to zero. The next thing was him looking at the ceiling as Sukie rushed up to him. Reus was fairly certain that Harry had passed out in the game.

Remus was still stunned. He knew that Harry and Sukie were working on way to bring magic to SAO, but he hadn't realized they had done it.

"Ah, I see that someone found our little surprise," someone said from over his shoulder.

Remus started. He pulled his wand and snapped it around to the man that had snuck up on him. His boss, Mr Sotobo, was non-plushed. "How long has he been able to do that? The supplied weren't supposed to be all available until the tenth floor."

Remus blinked. "What?"

"The Magi Awaken. It was a quest to unlock the use of gems for magic. Kayaba didn't want magic. I can't imagine life without it. Was that your boy?" Sotobo asked calmly.

"That was Harry. I knew they were working on gem crafting and potions, but a giant fireball?" Remus said.

"Well, its supposed to scale depending on how much stamina you put in. We couldn't sneak in a magic bar. Oh, he must have sunk all his stamina in," Sotobo commented.

Remus looked back at the screen. Sakami was giving Harry a black potion bottle. He had seen it enough times to know it was something equivalent to pepper-up potion. Looking at the screen, Remus asked, "What else will they be able to do?"

The man smiled. "Many, many things. Now, you said you found my grandchildren?"