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Chapter 3

-Kirito-

One month.

One month, and four days.

That's how long we had been trapped in Sword Art Online, that's how long it had been since Akihiko Kayaba told us of how to get out of this Death Game of his. What did we have to show for the month?

Still living on the first floor with no clue as to where the Boss Room is, people losing hope let and right, and the cherry on this cake of disappointment was two thousand players dead, three hundred of which were fellow Beta Testers.

Argo had confirmed half of those Testers were killed by other players, the thought made my fist tighten.

Of all the people in the game, Argo "The Rat" was probably the most prosperous in her ventures. She had set up an information network within the first two weeks and had been coordinating things behind the scenes, trying to keep people safe, sometimes for a price, sometimes for free. Despite her efforts, people still died, the majority of them not heeding hers and other Beta Testers warnings. Those deaths had dropped significantly recently when that information was released by the Argo Network.

It was equally amazing as it was disturbing how it took so many deaths for people to finally start listening.

Not that it's my problem really. Sure it disturbed me that so many were dead, but they died because of their own actions or the actions of others that refused to accept reality. We Beta Testers did all we could to help prepare the new players, and even we weren't ready, what more do they want?

I knew it wasn't entirely their fault, when things were bad people naturally looked for something to blame, this something happened to be us Beta Testers. Making themselves believe that it was somehow it was our fault that so many had died, thinking that we had taken all the good grinding spots for ourselves before anyone else could get to them.

They weren't wrong, but they had the wrong reasons.

"Hey there Kii-bou~" I withheld a totally not girly yelp of surprise as a pair of arms wrapped around my shoulder, a smaller form pressing against my back.

"Argo, what have I told you about doing that?" I didn't have to turn around to know she was grinning like a mad cat.

"Not my fault you were not focused on your surroundings-na!" Huffing as she pulled away, I turned around and leveled the girl with a glare.

She was shorter than me, with short curly blonde-brown hair and brown eyes. Her most distinctive feature was the three whiskers like lines across both her cheeks, mysterious markings no one knew the origins of. She wore light armor and a simple tan cloak with the hood currently down, a rarity for her, as she liked to hide her image from others.

She had been one of the few people I had talked to and befriended back in the beta, someone I most likely would have never met or given thought about had it not been for the intervention of a certain freeloader living with me and my family.

"What are you doing down here, Argo? Is there some special item I haven't found out about?" The Rat shook her head making me raise a brow.

"Nothing of the sort Kii-bou, I'm just delivering some info to ya personally, free of charge-ya!" I frowned as the grin she had been wearing was dropped, a serious look entering her eyes.

"The entrance to the Boss Room has been found."

My heart stopped for a minute.

There were no words spoken after she had said that, my mind processing the new and admittedly exciting information. After all this time, after all the death and hysteria, of one month of searching for it, the Boss of the first floor had finally been found?

I didn't bother wanting to fact check it, Argo had undoubtedly done that a thousand times before coming to tell me, she probably already went to the room personally to see it with her own eyes.

"When was it found?"

"3 hours ago, the player that found it instantly contacted me. The fool tried going in alone but I ordered him to wait or I'd skin him alive-ya." I blinked in surprise at the annoyed tone Argo took when she talked about the player.

"Friend of yours?"

"Unfortunately," The hostility one would expect with that answer wasn't there. I filed this info away for later.

"How many of the others know?" I asked.

"I spread the info out for free through my Brokers an hour ago after confirming everything, I've had to go tell people that a newer version of the guide book was released as well, the Boss has changed since the Beta."

"And you know this how...?"

"The idiot didn't listen to my order and went in." My eyes widened at that, who was suicidal enough to try and take on the boss by themselves? "He's okay, thankfully, and I got him out before anything could really happen to him-ma."

I nodded, taking it all in. It was nice to know that some things had changed with the Boss, even if it could have cost a player their life, of their own accord, it would save us some potential danger down the line.

"There's going to be a meeting tomorrow about going to the Boss Room, all capable players are encouraged to join to talk-ta." Argo pulled up her hood. "I won't be attending, I have... other engagements at the time-ma."

"Like wha-" She was already gone by the time I looked up from my thinking. She was seriously too good at that.

Well, I might as well finish up what I was here for. Turning, I made my way deeper into the dungeon.

-Third Person-

Yuuki Asuna was many things in life.

Daughter of Yuuki Shouzou, CEO of RECT Inc, as desired by her mother.

Daughter of Yuuki Kyouko, the woman who made her - Asuna - into the prim and proper young woman she was in the Real World.

A Perfect Student, getting nothing but top marks in all her classes, as dictated by her mother.

Truthfully, anything she was in life, she had her mother to thank for it, all of it.

Since the day she was born, Asuna had her entire life planned out for her by her beloved, mother. From what school's she would attend, what classes she would take, what company she would inevitably work for, to even the type of man she would marry when the time came.

But here? In Sword Art Online, the greatest Death Game ever devised?

She was Asuna, Slayer of Monsters and Explorer of Dungeons!

At first, it had all been so terrifying, to the point she locked herself in a room for the first two weeks after the announcement by Akihiko Kayaba that the only way out was to clear all One Hundred floors, and death would mean finding out if there truly was an afterlife.

It was at the end of the second week that she made up her mind to finally take fate into her own hands. No one she knew was around to tell her what to do, her mother wasn't there to command her to stay safe and wait things out until someone, somehow, rescued them or cleared the game. For the first time, she could do as she pleased of her own will.

She chose to die fighting.

For another two weeks she stayed in the first dungeon she found, fighting day in and day out until her body gave out, resting for only the minimal amount of time it took to heal up and regain herself. She had reached the deepest pits of hell and kept going, and going, and going.

She had lost all sense of time within the Dungeon, it had felt like years and the dank and darkness of the place did little to aid her deteriorating mental health.

Finally, her actions caught up to her, she had gone too deep before she was ready and prepared, and found an enemy that had easily overwhelmed her. It had beaten her into a corner, breaking her armor and shattering her weapon.

Death had finally shown itself to her.

And promptly ran away.

Asuna could not remember exactly what happened, her memory being fuzzy from the lack of proper rest. Someone had appeared in a flash, batting the monster away from her and ending its digital life. Someone had saved her, by chance or fate, Asuna did not care anymore, nor was she mad about the fate she decided for herself being taken away from her.

"At this rate, we'll reach the bottom of the Dungeon Sona-senpai!" Asuna said cheerfully as she rested against the wall of a Safe Zone within the dungeon, downing a bottle of Healing Potion. The taste was odd, but sweet, unlike medicine in the real world.

Across from her was a girl roughly Asuna's age, clad in light armor that consisted of the shin and lower arm guards, as well as a breastplate all a shining grey color. Underneath the armor pieces, she was clad in black long sleeved shirt and matching pants with purple accents running down the length of them. Her hair a pure black cut in a cute bob cut and stunning purple eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses accessories she had found.

This was the young woman that had saved Asuna's life, as well as the person she looked up to the most.

"From what info I bought from that Broker, we're just two levels away from reaching the bottom," Sona said, staring at a map of their current floor, marking off all the locations they had been to. "We'll head back to the surface for now and gather more supplies, and sell the info we gained to another Info Broker about the enemies changed on this floor, they do not match the intel provided by the Guide the Beta Testers put out anymore." She glanced over at Asuna, feeling her stare and saw the girl giving her a pout.

"Don't look at me like that, we have been down here for three days already."

"But we're so close! Why turn back now? We still have plenty of potions and our armor is still in decent shape!"

"Perhaps, but that could take another three or four days to clear the next level of this place between the two of us and I do not want to split up again after you-"

"It was one time! Once! Plus that slime was something else entirely!" Asuna shuddered, hugging herself. Sona shook her head, repressing the memory of the sight she saw when she found Asuna in the odd monster's clutches.

"My point exactly." The amethyst eyed girl stood up, putting her map back in her inventory. "Plus, I would like to take a bath."

The mention of a bath made Asuna perk up and Sona stopped a tiny smirk from appearing on her lips. A bath was one of the few pleasures SAO allowed, and Sona had quickly realized she could use it to get her companion to agree to anything she wanted to do.

"A bath sounds nice..." Asuna muttered to herself, standing up.

Humans are such fascinating beings. Sona thought as they walked towards the exit of the safe zone. They always found ways to catch her interest.

A month ago she had been irritated by them, they had driven her friend and rival, Rias Gremory into a frenzy with a new invention that the other Heiress would not stop talking about, a machine that could "put you in a completely different world, made by human hands!" she had described it. Sona had of course done proper research out of curiosity and found the machine, NerveGear, powered by something called FullDive did in fact transport ones mind/consciousness into a completely virtual world that you could interact with.

It was so fascinating, mere humans had been able to create such a device that typically only Magic could do, and they intended to use it for entertainment? Had any other race created such a device, they would have used it to imprison and torment others.

Which was why Sona was certain that the creator of the NerveGear wasn't human.

Sona long since regretted steal- borrowing, the NerveGear. The Sitri Heiress had no interest in actually playing SAO, but her curiosity about the device and what it could do got the better of her, and now she was paying for it.

Not that it was all bad for the Devil. Sure she could not use her magic of Devil abilities in this world, but what made it better was finding a candidate for her Peerage, the very girl she saved and was walking next to. After getting Asuna out fo her defeatest mentality, the human girl had proven to be not only reliable but highly intelligent and adaptable, constantly challenging Sona to adapt and learn herself, something that both annoyed and thrilled the girl.

Sona would not say Rias was dumb or anything, she was very smart and clever, but compared to Asuna, Sona did not think she could go back to playing chess with the red-head Gremory Heiress.

"Just how many of you are there?!"

Both girls stopped momentarily as they heard a voice echo throughout the corridors of the dungeon. Sharing a glance the two kicked off, racing towards the source of the voice that might be in trouble. Rounding a corner they both stopped to find a boy clad in black driving his sword through two monsters neck at once, making the mobs flicker before shattering into digital bits.

He immediately spun around to parry a strike from another, pushing it off balance and going for another strike from the opening he created.

Sona was the first to react, shaking herself into focus and dashing forward with a dagger in hand. Seeing her friend jump into action Asuna followed suit, drawing her rapier and lunging into battle to help the mysterious boy out.

To be continued

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Lots of stuff going on, new projects started, and a tad bit of laziness on my part. In truth I had 3/4ths of this Chapter written for months now, just sitting, waiting to be finished. So, here you go. As for spelling mistakes and stuff despite sitting here for so long, I don't really go back and check things, I skim over it and if I catch something, I'll fix it.

Anyway, got some Kirito in, as well as Argo, Asuna, and Sona.

This will probably be all there is for a long while. My new focus is my Dragon Ball story, and I want to try and get through the Frieza Saga by the end of Summer. After that, I might focus on this on during the Fall and Winter. Or I'll finally get one of my Original Stories off the ground after all these years of planning and creating. Who knows.

I will be answering one Reviewer as they've been waiting for a while and some answers are going to be a while.

DarkJackel: Why Sirzerch cannot hunt Kayaba down - It's not like he isn't trying to, it's just the Kayaba is good at hiding. How can you hide from a Maou? Be smarter than one, as well as have the advantage of not letting anyone, even your closest friend, have a clue as to where you could be. Earth is massive, and that's not counting the other Realms he could be hiding in without anyone's knowledge. That's not to say he and Grayfia aren't busy doing the best they can now though, I assure you. Plus, he is a Maou with other responsibilities to take care of. As for what Millicas will bring... Tis a secret.

Your second Review - Issei is fully aware he is still streaming, it'll come into play later. This is all I will answer, everything else will have to come from future chapters.

Until next time everyone, take care. If you want more from me, you'll find me in the Dragon Ball Z section.