A/N: I procrastinated a lot this week. I'm gonna try a lot harder to focus more time on writing, so these can come out faster.

"Okay, people!" called a blue-haired, knight-looking player in the semicircle in front of the stage of Tolbana's ampitheater, "Now that everyone's here, let's get this meeting started!"

There were 42 players on the blocky, Greco-Roman seating around the semicircle, as the man who was warming up the crowd clapped twice for their attention.

"So anyway, I wanna thank everyone for coming – good to see you," he continued before properly introducing himself with a proud thump of his fist on his chestplate, "My name is Diavel, and in this game, the job I rolled is Knight!"

The crowd laughed. "Dude, there's no job system in this game!"

"You guys wanna hear this or not?" Diavel pressed, and they settled down, "Right. Now, here is the organizer of today's meeting: a man who reached this town three weeks before anyone else could, managing a solo victory against a dungeon boss through sheer will. It's SAUER!"

I received fairly mild applause as I emerged from the rectangular frame at the back of the stage, and hopped down beside Diavel, before shaking his hand with a smile as he remained beside me.

"Adequate attempts to lighten the mood notwithstanding," I began as I glanced at him, "This man is the real deal. I had Diavel speak with as many of you one-on-one as was feasible, and it is clear that this is the guy who should lead the frontmost portion of our collective, against the boss – the boss whose room should be on your maps, assuming you received copies of my data."

A good handful of players leaned forward, presumably those who hadn't been in the crowd around me yesterday morning.

"Today, on December 1st, we will take measures to ensure that all of November pays off. After all of our struggles to reach comfortable levels, and have this tower in our reach, we will soon proceed all the way up, to open that door, beat the boss, and reach the second floor of Aincrad."

Some players nodded as Diavel picked up from where I just left off.

"The next step is, we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings, that it is possible to beat this game! Fact is, it's our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree, or not?"

More players nodded, and they then gave us a light applause, including some whistles. I glanced up toward Kirito far at the back, and saw him smiling – hopeful for the crowd's cohesion as a unit.

"Alright! We've got sound minds," I chuckled, stepping back, "Here's the plan. Diavel?"

"First off, we'll team up into parties of six." Right as he said that, I saw Kirito flinch. "A typical party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group, made up of multiple parties!"

With a smirk, I flicked my hand down to open the menu, and glanced up again to watch the boy. He then looked down at the popup that appeared before him, and hesitantly tapped on it. After that, a second HP bar appeared under mine in the top-left of my HUD, along with his name. Many others in the ampitheater would now have five bars added below their own.

"Alright! Looks like everyone's teamed up," Diavel resumed after a moment, "Now then—"

"Hold up a sec!"

I recognized the voice from late yesterday morning. Galloping down the rows of seats, came a man with spiky, cactus-like sienna hair, landing beside me on the opposite side from Diavel.

"My name's Kibaou, got that?" he introduced hastily, "Before we take on the boss, I wanna get somethin' off my chest! We all know about the two thousand people who've died so far, yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to 'em right now!"

Several players murmured in the front rows, and Kirito visibly became tense.

"Kibaou, I think I know who you're referring to," Diavel clarified, "You mean the ones who are former beta testers, right?"

"'Course I mean them!" the artistic interpretation of a 'prick' snapped, "The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished, right?! They ditched all us beginners!"

I rolled my eyes as he went on. "They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests, too! They were the only ones gettin' stronger in here. This whole time, they've ignored us like we're nothin'."

He then glared toward the rows of seats. "Hell, I bet there's some of 'em here! Come on out, beta testers! We should make 'em apologize to us – and we should make 'em all give up their money and the items they got! They can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us. Why should we?!"

I slowly nodded, cupping my chin theatrically in thought. "Very observant, Kibaou. I understand that you directed some suspicion at me yesterday, since I had been in Tolbana long before anyone else."

The other players returned their attention to me, as I continued. "I did explain that I did not expect a bear to be in that cave. I did not prepare for one – the potion I drank after defeating it, was my very last one at the time, before I bought more here. Pure coincidence that I had just enough to survive."

Kibaou turned to me with new suspicion. "You said the cave without a bear was four hours. Was that too much of an inconvenience for you, to come back and let us know there was a way open?"

I shook my head with a sigh. "I can't even look at the exit, anymore. You don't come out of winning a solo battle against a boss-class monster, with the stakes this high, without some emotional scars."

"A big bear would be important for a beta tester to remember…" Kibaou admitted, glancing back at the crowd, "Well that's your name cleared. What about anyone else here?"

I simply shrugged. "It's not feasible for a thousand testers, if that many logged in, to each hold the hands of nine new players. I imagine for the sake of actual testing, the beta phase probably didn't have cooldowns on the quests, and most testers probably didn't think there would be any added in the release version, let alone ones as outlandish as 24 hours for a damn sword."

I turned to the crowd as I continued. "Not to mention, humans coined the term 'hubris' for a reason. Whether by arrogance, or despair blurring memory, many beta testers must be part of those 2000. Seconds, like the few Kibaou took to hijack the meeting, are enough for a significant change. Now, consider the six-hundred or more hours between launch and today, where single lapses in decisions and retained knowledge, can mean the end in the same time it took for this guy to hop down here."

I glanced at Diavel for a moment. "Finally, it's more than likely that the beta testers would probably come to this meeting because they know the boss. This could easily take a few more meetings to narrow down as many facts on a strategy, if not for the presence of three or four testers. And would the notion that they also want to escape, like us, be incorrect? They have grieving families, too."

Kibaou turned toward me again, before a rich, baritone voice emerged. "Can I say somethin'?"

The three of us – and the seated crowd – looked at a dark-skinned, tall bald man with a hand raised, as he stood up and approached. The only other hair on him, aside from eyebrows, was on his chin.

"Hey, my name's Agil," he began, towering over most of us, "Kibaou, right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page – you say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help 'em, and you want 'em to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't."

Agil retrieved a small, leather-bound handbook. "The item store hands these out for free. It's a guide book – you got one, didn't you?"

"Sure, I got one," Kibaou answered, slightly more calmly, "So what about it?"

"You know who was handing these out? The ex-beta testers."

Some players in the front rows murmured in jest of Kibaou. "Cool story, bro," or the nearest similar phrase in Japanese, at least.

Agil turned to the crowd. "Listen up – everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here 'cause I wanna learn from those players' deaths. I'm here because I wanna find out how we're gonna beat the boss!"

Kirito breathed a sigh of relief as I glanced up at him. I then turned to Kibaou to speak again as Agil turned toward him as well. "Hardcore gaming blogs also reported on details spilled by beta testers, from during the test itself, all the way up to the hard copies hitting shelves. As expected, they could not give away intricate details, such as the identities of bosses, but even so, piecing together bits of various blogs' entries would give you a good picture of the first floor. No mention of bears, ever."

Kibaou glanced at each of us, and then sat in the front row, with Agil beside him.

"Okay, can we get back to the meeting, now?" Diavel asked, met with collective nods.

I pulled out a now-familiar book. "I just got my copy yesterday evening, but my eyes were glued to it all night – the latest issue of the same guide book you just heard about."

Kibaou leaned forward attentively, and I rolled my eyes as Diavel opened his own copy.

"According to the book," he began paraphrasing as he read aloud, "The boss' name is «Illfang, the Kobold Lord». Also, he'll be surrounded by his minions, the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels»."

I nodded as he continued. "Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar."

I took it from there. "His attack pattern changes accordingly, which warrants some shuffling from us. And on the topic of party composition, since I chose Diavel to engage Illfang directly, he will help to arrange the forward parties accordingly. I will take the remaining parties to handle the Sentinels, to streamline their elimination so that the rest of us can move in with Diavel's grouping. Keep in mind that three more Sentinels appear after each bar before the last is emptied out. That means twelve."

Diavel glanced briefly at me, with hesitation in his eyes. "As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss, gets the XP – and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it. Any objections?"

He was met with silence, so he gestured for me to take back the floor.

"Right. Tomorrow morning, 10AM, we meet at the square. For now, the day is yours."

As Kirito was pretty much set, he left. But the rest of the group stayed, as parties talked amongst themselves, while Diavel, Kibaou and Agil returned to my side.

"Hey, SAUER. I wanna thank you for setting this up," Kibaou relented, rubbing the back of his head while I opened my guide again, "I couldn't have gathered people like this."

I shrugged with a smile. "You can certainly gather people for something, Kibaou. Maybe not arrange strategy meetings, but you could definitely unite players for a cause."

Kibaou seemed to feign a chuckle. "Thanks. I didn't doubt my ability to draw a crowd."

I turned to Agil after a deep breath. "Agil, you're a pretty good mediator. Though you do end up on one side or the other, you're able to clearly see both for what they are."

The bald black man nodded. "We need as many people understanding each-other as we can get up through the castle and out of the game. Our player cursors all have to stay green."

I knew that, for sure. I was orange once in the beta, and the quest to turn green again was usually pretty tough, especially since it was given by a wandering NPC, and it was almost impossible to get supplies for the quest when NPC guards attacked any orange player entering a safe zone.

"Well, you've shown that you can be ready with a tangible argument," I complimented him as best I could think to phrase it, "I already planned to bring up the blogs, but knew that they wouldn't have been useful at this point, and I wasn't sure when would be a good time to bring it up. You had great timing in bringing up the guide books available from in here."

A man with long brown hair, tied in a thin ponytail with silky, tusk-like bangs hanging in front, made his way down to us and shook hands with Diavel before turning to me.

"Hey, I'm Lind," he introduced himself with a smile, "I'm in Diavel's party, so I'll be with him in the forward group tomorrow. Did you know we'll be setting up a neat little gathering this evening, to aid in boosting morale?"

"That's a pretty good idea," I commented as I looked at the clock in my menu, "I guess I should be there to chill with the raid group, and figure out how Diavel is arranging the parties."

Diavel nodded in confirmation. "Well, I know my party will be one for the DPS role. Agil, what kind of party do you have?"

Agil looked back at the players talking up in the seating area. "We should be good as tanks."

"We'll discuss it in detail, in the evening," the blue-haired leader suggested, "And Kibaou, you're kind of giving me the impression that if you were fighting the minions, that they will go down sooner, and allow the minion-fighting group to catch up with us against Illfang."

"Sure, makes sense," Kibaou affirmed as they shook hands, "Will we have a support role for catching attacks and knocking off defenses?"

I nodded without hesitation. "I've only got one other guy in my party, but we'll take your Sentinels' attacks and after Diavel sorts the front parties, I'll figure out how to position the back parties."

"Sounds good. Diavel can send me your way when he finishes talking it over with the group."

Kibaou then walked off with his party, and Agil did the same. Lind sat in the front row again, while Diavel and I continued to discuss how to distribute each six-member party.

We finalized the plans during the morale-boosting event that evening: Parties A & B were the tanks, the latter being Agil's. Parties C, D & E were DPS parties, with C & D engaging Illfang. Party C was led by Diavel, and included Lind, while E was led by Kibaou, and would engage the Sentinels.

Parties F & G were support parties, cancelling enemy attacks by disrupting their AI and animations, in addition to knocking them off-balance for the DPS players to attack. Kirito and I made up party H, and would play support to Kibaou's party in particular, which itself was one member short of a full party.

While the rest of the group spent the remaining evening being casual together, Kirito and I opted to both head to the tower for one last warmup, after each hastily scarfing down rolls of black bread.

We didn't really have much of a plan – just hunting more monsters, possibly farming some drops, maybe refresh our memory of the layout. We got in just after 7PM, and were prepared to spend two hours inside before making our way back to town by ten to rest for tomorrow.

However, we were only in there for about an hour before coming across a scene that puzzled both myself and Kirito, in the form of a fencer pummelling a «Ruin Kobold Trooper» with four uses of the Sword Skill «Linear» from the Rapier category. As the enemy shattered, the fencer stumbled back to lean against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor while breathing heavily.

While I distantly observed the movements of the player, in a light bronze breastplate over a deep red leather tunic, tight-fitting leather pants, and knee-high boots – Kirito began to approach the hooded figure after some hesitation.

"A little bit overkill, if you ask me," he commented.

The hood of the cape turned slightly in our direction, and we saw two sharp, light brown irises. After recovering from the piercing feeling in his soul, I followed up on Kirito's statement.

"He's saying that your fourth Linear was unnecessary. With how little health the kobold had left after the third, you could use a manual strike to finish it. We should all be minimizing our strain each day, especially an hour deep into a dungeon like these floor towers. Spare some energy for getting back to town, so you can properly rest. And then restock on potions and maintain equipment…"

"Rest?" answered the ragged, yet clearly feminine, voice, "I get it at the nearby safe area. I haven't taken any damage yet here, so no need for potions. And I bought five of the same sword."

"The safe area isn't meant for real sleep, though," I began refuting her tactics, "It's more like a… uh, a checkpoint, yeah – like somewhere to gather yourself for a moment before you continue. Hard stone floors, zero bedding, constant growls from the open doorway. How can you call this efficient?"

The fencer shrugged. "It's worked for three days, so far. Are you done? The next monster's going to spawn soon, so I need to get moving."

I shook my head with a sigh as she unsteadily climbed to her feet, hand propped on the wall.

"Listen, lady, you can't hang out here all day. Tomorrow morning, a raid group is coming up through this tower to confront the boss and get to the next floor. If you die here, it's gonna be on both of our consciences, and that guilt will slow us down in the fight. Come back with us, get some rest, and you can help us there. Then you might see that this whole ordeal is worthwhile."

"Worthwhile…?" Her hoarse, cracking voice pondered, "After 2000 people died in a single month, if now is the time for someone to prove that it's possible to make it out…"

I stepped closer, and looked at her sword in her hand, held in such a way that it looked as heavy as a two-handed sword – if she had been here for five hours more, she could have collapsed in here.

I opened my menu and tapped about with a smirk. Kirito then received a notification that he had a gift waiting for him: checking it, he saw a Wind Fleuret – one of many dropped for me by monsters higher in the tower, in the rapier category. Kirito looked at me, and I nodded.

"Hey, how about this?" he asked the fencer as he approached, "If you agree to rest properly, and accompany us into the boss raid at the top, at 10AM tomorrow, I can give you a better weapon to use right through the next few floors that it should last."

She stared at him, and then at me, before taking a deep breath.

"Tomorrow, 10AM?"

We both nodded as I offered some clarity. "If we get back to Tolbana quickly, we should find the rest of the raid group still having a good time in the square. I'm sure they'll accept more help."

The fencer sighed, and began walking past us, though fortunately it was seemingly in the direction of the way back. Kirito and I shrugged, and followed from a short distance, hoping to look as if we were simply heading back ourselves.

Sure enough, the three of us ended up back at Tolbana around 9:30, and as I expected, a good chunk of players from the raid group were still in the square. After briefly bringing it up to Diavel, the extra hand was quickly accepted. With Kirito having another party member, I left his party and filled in the last spot of Kibaou's, meaning I would fight the Sentinels directly. As promised, Kirito gave her a new weapon in the form of the Wind Fleuret I secretly gave to him, and we found a blacksmith for her to enhance it to +4 – I didn't stick around to hear which attributes were enhanced.

The next morning, as I walked with Kibaou's party to the tower after the 10AM rendezvous, I looked back at Kirito and the fencer as they talked between themselves. I assumed he was telling her what their role was at the back of us, as I returned my attention to Kibaou.

"Pretty lucky that that kid was able to still keep a party, huh?" he commented to me.

"Yeah, well, it was my idea to bring the other one along. I could only see the light of the Sword Skill animations, but not the actual rapier – massive potential in that player."

12:30PM, December 2nd, we arrived at the top floor of the first-floor tower. I drew my Anneal Blade while Diavel approached the big doors, and we turned to the rest of the group.

"You know, we've come this far," I prefaced with a smile, "What else is there to say? There's only one way to win: Just play."

Monika, unseen by anyone else, winked at me, and giggled before vanishing again, as Diavel pushed open the door, and proceeded in with the two tank parties and two frontward DPS parties, before I sent in their two support parties, then finally accompanied Kibaou's party at the back – with Kirito's two-member party behind us. The door remained open even as all of us continued across the large chamber's floor, and the room suddenly filled with illumination, revealing a pristine white floor with walls bearing a pattern made to resemble large rainbow cobble, a wide purple-green strip all down the middle of the floor from the door to the throne at the end, and purple ring patterns along the middle strip. And across the whole floor of the room, rainbow gradients moved across every texture like it was coated in an extremely thin layer of oil, enough to produce an aesthetic effect without slipping.

As the room finished lighting up, a large red kobold leapt from the throne and landed about 30 feet from the front group, roaring with axe and buckler in hand as his name typed itself out above his red enemy cursor: «Illfang, the Kobold Lord». At the same time, three traditional kobold-sized kobolds spawned around him in helmets and plate armor – the Ruin Kobold Sentinels.

The four began running toward us, and I pointed my Anneal Blade +6 forward.

"Move in on your respective targets!" I instructed the whole raid, "Engage!"

All 44 of us ran in, as Diavel led the front group against Illfang, while Kibaou made the first clash of this battle against one of the Sentinels. I closed in on another Sentinel as I prepared «Slant».

"Diavel, the forward unit's all yours, now," I told him, then looked back at Kibaou's party, as well as Kirito and the new fencer, "As for us at the back, let's take the Sentinels!"

"Right, you got it!" Kirito answered as he and the fencer ran to the third Sentinel, while I unleashed Slant on mine to cancel its mace-based Sword Skill. Two of Kibaou's party members joined me, one knocking the kobold's morningstar aside as the other struck it in the throat. As soon as I regained motion, I then activated Horizontal, and as the kobold steadied itself, I swung at it.

True to Monika's theory, my sword pulled my arm slightly upward, guiding me right across the Ruin Kobold Sentinel's throat – thanks to the Accuracy enhancement, she was able to fix the roll on its critical hit rate to always give me the right number. With this strike, I emptied the enemy's bar, and watched its model become glassy and then shatter.

Looking over at Kibaou, I saw him also finish off a Sentinel, while Kirito and the fencer girl also took theirs down – right as the next wave of Sentinels spawned as Illfang's first HP bar of four had been emptied out. The rear support party cancelled the wave's attacks and then drew them back into our reach, as we repeated the pattern for that wave, and then the other two waves.

Just as the rear group finished the 12th and final Sentinel, Illfang roared from ahead, as his last bar turned red with barely a third of the bar's total length remaining. As stated in the guide with info curated from beta testers, he threw aside the axe and buckler, each landing with a hard thud.

"Looks like the guide book was right," Kibaou commented.

"Stand back!" Diavel instructed as I looked in his direction as he ran ahead, "I've got it!"

I waved the rear unit, including Kibaou's party, into the rest of the raid, since we were done with the lesser mobs, and then navigated my way to the front of the group to see Diavel engaging Illfang. And then Illfang reached back, and pulled out a weapon very-much unlike the familiar.

Not so much of a weaponry nerd, I didn't know too much of the specifics, but compared to the dull cast-iron look of the talwar in the beta, this sword had a more slender, subtle curve, and had a luster like polished steel. This was no Indian saber – this was a nodachi.

The key difference was how the game categorized weapons. While a talwar was just a One-Handed Curved Sword, a nodachi was a large Katana – a typically two-handed weapon with a vastly different moveset available to its wielder. In the beta, we only got to see this category on the tenth floor.

"It's not the same!" I called out to Diavel, "Get out of there!"

He didn't hear, but he was taken aback as he saw Illfang leap over him, twisting himself in the air to gain momentum for 360-degree slash upon landing – striking Diavel and a few others.

Not only did their bars all plummet to yellow, but they all gained a stunning debuff after being struck by the six crimson waves splitting off in every direction from a circle around the boss. This was the omnidirectional attack Tsumujiguruma, or Whirling Wheel.

Seeing Monika briefly appear at the corner of my eye, I knew what I had to do. It was risky, but she could rig it in my favor. Besides, Illfang had already recovered from post-motion delay.

Just as the Kobold Lord lowered his katana, it lit up red, and I pulled my body low and leaned forward with my sword parallel to my right leg to activate «Rage Spike».

As Illfang turned with his move ready – Ukifune, or Floating Boat – toward Diavel, I executed my own Sword Skill, which shot me ten meters forward to pound my blade against his, disrupting the attack.

The shock of the impact flung me away, but it was enough for the blue-haired knight to realize just how close he came to the end. I landed on my feet nearer to the other stunned players, as Illfang turned our way with another roar. Lowering himself in a different stance, katana held downward in similar fashion to Ukifune, I recognized the next move as Hiogi – Scarlet Fan. Knowing that the first swing was an upward slash, I immediately readied Horizontal again, hoping I noticed early enough that the skill would activate in time. As Illfang and I clashed in a plus-shaped cross, my sword was pushed back, leaving me open for the downward swing of the three-hit move.

However, as the katana changed directions, Kirito passed by me, his own «Sonic Leap» shoving the blade back up as he sailed over Illfang's shoulder, landing beside Diavel.

"You alright?" he asked the front leader, whose stun debuff had expired.

"Yeah, I'm still alive," he answered as he stood up, "You get back in there, I need to retreat."

Illfang regained his footing and held his sword to his left for Tsujikaze – or Whirlwind – as I then saw Kibaou catch the blade, this time. He was knocked back a fair distance, but then the fencer in Kirito's party sailed past to follow up. Just as Kirito got back around to this side of him, Illfang once again had found his balance, with another Sword Skill ready.

"Asuna!" called the boy in alarm, and the fencer seemed to react, pulling aside as Illfang's slash cut away the hooded cape, revealing the long, chestnut hair of the young beauty underneath. And then as she drew back her Wind Fleuret, she still executed a powerful thrust of Linear into the right side of Illfang's stomach.

Kirito then unleashed Vertical Arc, cutting a large letter V into the boss, and I followed up with Slant. The fencer – Asuna, as she answered to – struck with Linear after Agil caught another of the kobold's swings with his two-handed axe, leaving enough HP for me to strike with Horizontal Arc, cutting two strokes into the boss' chest which resembled a 'greater-than' symbol. At that point, Illfang's model glowed as bright light poured from the shining red wounds, before he exploded into a cloud of glass shards, showering over the party in a harmless, glittery fashion.

A large «Congratulations!» text appeared overhead, and everyone began celebrating, as I glanced back to see a great number of players in the raid surrounded by the golden light of a level-up – which included myself, to Level 12. Monika appeared again and kissed my cheek, but I still couldn't feel it.

"Nice job," I heard in the healthier-sounding voice of the fencer.

"That was some fine swordsmanship," Agil added as he approached, "Combined with your leadership behind Diavel, today's victory is all thanks to you. Congratulations."

I shrugged with a smile, and pulled Kirito toward us. "Give this guy a ton of credit, too. If it wasn't for him, I would have simply been taking Diavel's place."

"You should try it, sometime," the knight with silvery-toned armor commented as he walked back to the group after a potion, "I may have been calling most of the action, but your quick thinking is what raid groups need. As far as a command position goes, I have some work to do."

Looking at the leaders of each of the six full parties, I could only shrug again.

"…You have a lot more of what it takes than I do, Diavel. The small window of time between when I recognize the situation, and when I actually decide the action to take, only works in similar moments when a calculation needs to be made right then and there. You, on the other hand, you have all the planning and tactical stuff on lock. Even if you simply came up with the strategy for me to run with, you would still have to come along to make sure I fully understood what you meant."

I turned to him again with a smile, and offered my hand. "At that point, you may as well stick by us."

Diavel glanced at Kibaou, Agil, and their parties, and back at Lind in his own, before turning to me again and shaking my hand. "You've got it. I can't work on my weaknesses if I'm not learning it all at the front lines. I'll fight with you all, the whole way up!"

The raid group cheered again, relieved to not only pass the boss with no casualties, but with every player in the group continuing to press on.

"Don't forget what else turned the tide of this battle!"

We all looked over at Kibaou, as he pulled out his copy of the guide.

"Diavel came real close to dying, there's no denying that – but what you also can't deny is that the information given to us, does not match what happened… and yet, this guy still saves him."

I blinked a few times. "Yeah, I did as much as I could, and it was enough."

"But your efforts were very well-coordinated," the cactus-head pointed out, "Almost as if you knew exactly how to stop the boss from killing him. You were always ready to counter with the right thing and you had to have had that knowledge coming in!"

I chuckled my way through a sigh. "It doesn't take much more than vision, to tell the difference between a talwar, and a katana. I was just as shocked, which was why I wasn't able to step in before that first attack hit. But as soon as I saw the way things were going, I resolved to try and keep up."

"Oh, come on!" cried a high-pitched voice from Kibaou's party, with shoulder-length, frizzy white hair down the whole circumference of his head, except some stubble on his chin, "Clearly, this guy's using knowledge straight from the beta. Some of those attacks were so quick that he would have to have seen them before in order to successfully counter them! And yet it wasn't in the guide!"

I sighed in frustration. "I did mention those blogs. How many of you were so busy in August, that you couldn't read free journalism on the internet? Surely, some of you have seen a couple pages."

The divide of shrugs and awkward nods, was split fifty-fifty. The squeaky guy sighed.

"At the same time," I continued, "They had to be careful about what they posted. I'm sure some of them were from burner accounts made by actual gaming journalists. Some of you may even have heard about the blogs but were unable to find them. I remember late August, reading through a blog when the page automatically refreshed, and I got a 404. I wish the other 2000 got a real chance."

The rest of the players looked at each other for a moment, and then returned to regular post-raid activity, like talking with their own parties, sorting loot, and such.

Kibaou walked over with a scrunched expression. "I'm sorry I doubted you, man. You really did do a great job, saving Diavel like that."

I patted his shoulder with a smile. "Hey, some things just look a certain way, sometimes. But what matters, is how well you take the truth. And after a surprise like that, any of us could hardly think of ourselves as ready to hear it. Imagine how much the emotion would have affected our reactions if Diavel did die – I can hardly picture myself getting time to speak."

Kibaou silently nodded, and I proceeded to walk past the group, up the stairs to the tower's exit. Then I heard light clanking behind me.

"Hey, SAUER," Diavel called from several steps back, "I want to thank you again."

I turned to face him, and then glanced down at Kirito and Asuna at the base of the steps. As I gave some of my focus to their voices, it sounded like they were discussing the latter's name, and how to see basic party information in the upper-left corner of one's vision. As far as I could tell while still listening to Diavel for the most part, it sounded like Asuna was indeed the fencer's name.

"Hey, you think you could tell me what the Last Attack Bonus was?"

I returned my attention to Diavel just as he asked me that, and I flinched slightly, hoping there wasn't anyhting important in the stuff he said while I was listening to the other two below. If I was lucky, maybe Monika was listening, and could tell me later.

"I figured as much, that you were like me," I answered with a smile, "You knew what could happen, should they find out who was who. We both learned how to mask it."

"You knew I was trying to be the one to finish it off, huh?"

I nodded with a chuckle. "For sure. Anyway, it's the Coat of Midnight. It boosts the «Hiding» skill."

A skill which I didn't have, and which I didn't intend to assign to my new fourth skill slot, gained at Level 12. I was saving that spot for something else – although, I could still get Hiding later. But then, what if there was something else I wanted at that moment…?

I saw Kirito walking up the steps again, and I smirked, before waving to Diavel and departing. I then saw a pop-up for a friend request, and upon seeing it was from Diavel, I accepted right away. I knew that he would want to get a hold of any notable players from a previous raid – he would likely also send requests to Agil, Kibaou, Lind, and Kirito if he'd accept. Maybe even Asuna.

Since I already had my menu open, I watched Kirito catch up behind me as I navigated through my inventory once more. As he passed in front of me, a pop-up appeared before him, and he turned to stare at me again. I simply shrugged one last time, and patted his head as I passed by.

He'd get more use out of that coat, on the mountainous second floor of Aincrad.

A/N: There wasn't much opportunity for me to include Monika this time around. Once she agreed to rig client-side RNG, and without much else that she can access, there isn't much for there to talk about. I do know of a lot of stuff that will come up later, though.

Wanna roast my writing in real-time? Inspire me? Talk to other, far superior SAO fanfiction authors and readers? Check out the SAO Fanfiction Central server on Discord with the invite code Nq8xrbYFEw and tell everyone how you got there. A good number of the better authors also put the server invite code in their works' notes, too. Many servergoers tend to come from Unyielding by Ikell – I don't really have the time to read such a massive, intricate work myself, but it's unanimously one of the best and most memorable SAO fanfictions. Hopefully y'all have a lot less going on than I do... at the time of this chapter being published, I know that the LA fires are still going, so I imagine people down there are a lot busier than I am, admittedly, but they also probably don't have a moment to do much reading. All my love goes out to California.