The Apathy of a Gamer

This is the second half to Chapter 8. 

Please enjoy.

---

---

It was the next morning and the news of the boss raid had spread fast. Word got around quickly thanks to Argo publishing her paper and not a single soul in Aincrad was unaware of the event that took place yesterday. The newest town, «Rovia», was filled with many gloomy players. Most of them were looking at their feet as they walked through the streets and the few making conversations spoke in short whispers. Kirito was among those players, silently making his way through the depressing atmosphere of the town.

If the changes the beta had on the game were unknown before, they definitely weren't now. Not because of the information that had leaked about the third floor boss's attack patterns changing, but because the entire fourth floor was completely different than it was in the beta test. Before, the floor was a bland desert with massive reddish-brown canyons that were impossible to scale. Now, those canyons were completely filled with water, creating a massive river throughout the entire floor. What was once rocky mountains were now lush green fields with trees and a forest just to the east side of «Rovia», the floor's largest town. The town was previously made of rock and built into a perfect square next to one of the large canyons. After the update, the town kept its square shaped theme, but was now a bright white with pretty stone decorating every house. The biggest change to it was that directly in the middle of the town was a giant river that went completely through the square. The river was so massive that it lead outside of the town and continued throughout the entire floor, cutting off into several streams that would lead the player to other places. There were now walls that surrounded and protected the town and were made out of the same pretty white stone that formed the square it was iconic for.

The floor's design was completely different than before, which not only scared new players, but beta testers as well. In the beta, players had to traverse and fight through the canyons and into tunnels to get to the fourth floor. Because those canyons were filled and players now roamed on top of those canyons, they had to find new ways to travel through the floor. New meant unexpected and from Kirito's point-of-view, the players definitely weren't motivated enough to try.

With his noob armor equipped, the pro made his way to the east, heading towards the «Bear Forest» so he could complete the quest he accepted. With his high level, Kirito didn't need to do the quest. Completing it would do little to his xp bar and the col it gave would be irrelevant to his massive cash stack. If he truly wanted to gain fast xp and money, he could just go back down to floor one into the secret dungeon and grind again. However, Kirito decided against that. Truth was, he was nervous to go back so soon. Not because he was scared to die or anything, but because he wanted to be available in case Sinon messaged him. If she needed him, he would be there in an instant. He wasn't going to let the dungeon stop him from getting her message twice.

His bad thoughts were really starting to get to him as he walked in silence, causing the boy to sigh. He tried getting his mind off it and spared a glance towards a small area with gondolas. Since a good part of the floor was just a river, it made sense to travel with one. Any player could go up to the npc and rent a boat from him. This probably wouldn't be the only place where a person could rent one, too. If he needed to travel far for a quest or something, he would certainly remember to pick one up.

However, the small distraction did little and soon enough, his bad thoughts had returned. No longer able to distract himself with sightseeing, those thoughts began to torment him. Sure, maybe what Sinon said was right and it wasn't just his fault for all those peoples deaths. Even so, it still killed him to think about it. Knowing you could have done something to prevent a tragedy and didn't had made him feel more guilty than he had ever felt in his life; including that time when he had missed Suguha's kendo match.

The thought made him raise his head. "That's right... Sugu..." Kirito mumbled to himself. The boy wondered what she was doing right now, out in the real world. It was about noon, so she was most likely in school at this time. What was she learning? What did she pack for lunch? He really wish he knew.

God, he missed her. Its been so long since he'd' seen her face. Did she still look the same? Probably. It had barely been a month since they had all been trapped here and he doubted anyone could change that fast without plastic surgery. Thinking about her made another depressing thought plague his mind.

'Maybe she's forgotten about me.' Kirito thought, feeling tears come up. He quickly wiped his eyes. He wasn't going to cry, but if he kept thinking like that he knew he would. 'Come on, think happy thoughts.' He told himself. He wanted to think about «Rovia», but his thoughts kept pulling him towards Suguha. It was winter season in the real world, so maybe she was sick today and stuck in bed. Man would she hate that. She couldn't stand missing a day of school. She definitely couldn't stand missing a day of kendo practice, either. That put a smile on his face, remembering a few years back when he had forced her to stay in bed because she was sick. She thrashed and kicked her blanket off every time he put it over her. Thinking back on it now, that was a really good memory.

The crunching of the grass dragged Kirito out of his thoughts. The fourth floor had a gentle breeze to it. It was probably about seventy or eighty degrees. Every other floor they had been on had about the same temperature as well. 'Would winter come in Aincrad?' Kirito thought with interest. There wasn't anything like weather changes in the beta and the season had still yet to change. Would the weather change? Were there even seasons? Did every floor have a unique type of weather?

He had put countless hours thinking about the game and how it was made, but he had never thought about anything like that before. Even a simple game mechanic like weather changes would have been extremely difficult to program. If there is anything like that in the game, then he knew that the hundreds of people working on it must have put a ton of work into it. Thinking about the creators of the game, he knew they were most likely innocent. Kayaba was the one overseeing project SAO and the creator. There was no way he could have orchestrated all of those people to willingly place thousands of people of all ages into a life or death scenario. Even if he bribed them, it would have been impossible for them all to have kept a secret like mass genocide. Kayaba probably kept his motives a secret until he finally announced them on the day they became trapped here, manipulating things so that they would work in his favor behind the scenes and when the game was done, he went through with his plan.

"He's a sneaky bastard, I'll give him that." Kirito said aloud. He wanted to hate the man and some part of him did hate him for killing those people. However, there was a good part of Kirito that had respect for him. He created a real, perfectly functioning VR and SAO with it. Kayaba was someone he had truly admired. Even with all of the awful deeds he committed, he just couldn't bring himself to completely loathe him.

Subconsciously feeling better than he had before, Kirito continued to contemplate about the game and its creator before finally coming across an enemy npc. What stood ahead of him was the mob be needed to kill to complete the quest: a «Forest Bear». It roared at him before getting downed in an instant. The beast was ten levels too low to even think about challenging him.

The swordsman continued to thrash the mobs long after his quest had been completed to the point where the sun was going down. Slaying the last «Forest Bear» in the clearing, the boy took a moment to look around. Finding no more bears, he sheathed his sword and continued to look for more. Not realizing it, Kirito had already walked across the entire forest three times and was halfway through his forth.

The boy quickly tensed up when his «Searching» skill went off, telling him that a player was nearing him. He quickly dived into a bush near a tree, using his own «Hiding» skill to hopefully avoid the player. 'It is a new floor. I guess someone had to come here eventually.' He thought. It wasn't that big a deal. He'd just wait for the player to walk past him and continue on like nothing happened.

About five seconds past before the player began to approach the clearing. "It says he's around here." The player said, catching Kirito's attention. That sounded like a woman. He tried peeking through the bush to try and steal a glance at them, but the player was standing behind a tree. "Um... are you there, K-Kirito?" The player had asked, walking past the tree and closer to him. The player seemed to be looking for him and were clothed in a red cloak.

Wait a second.

"Asuna?" He said as he popped his head out of the bush.

"WAH!" Asuna screamed and fell on her butt, the hood on her head falling off. She looked up at the boy, her face morphing into one of anger as she realized what had scared her. "Why would you do that! You scared the crap out of me!" She yelled at him, getting back up on her feet.

"Oh, right." He replied. "My bad."

"Whatever." She huffed and turn away from the boy, crossing her arms. "And here I go all this way to look for you and you just HAD to spook me."

"I didn't mean to scare you."

"Well you did." She mumbled, her cheek contorting into a pout.

Kirito wanted to sigh, but stopped himself in case it made her more angry. It was their first time meeting up after they'd parted ways from that restaurant and she was already mad at him. Now that he thought about it, Sinon also had a similar reaction when talking to him. Why did he always have to piss girls off? Was it his personality?

Ignoring that, why was she even here? "How did you find me?" Kirito asked, the question beginning to gnaw at him. She called out his name, so it couldn't have been a coincidence. So then how?

His question made the girl smile in what looked to be pride. "The friend tracker, of course!" Unknown to Asuna, her words had barely registered in the boy's head because her smile had paralyzed him. Keeping himself from blushing, he processed what she said.

'Oh, right. That does exist.' Kirito thought sheepishly. The friend tracker was an application that only players who were friends with each other could use. It allowed for each of them to track each other anywhere in Aincrad. Kirito, of course, had never used it a single time, so it had slipped his mind. The only time he ever even thought about it was recently when he couldn't be tracked in the secret dungeon and had left Sinon alone and afraid when she needed him. Actually, that was the whole reason he was even in the forest grinding on trash mobs. 'I'm an idiot.' He thought. Still, Asuna seemed way too happy over something as simple as tracking him on her friends list.

"So?" He said back at her.

The girl's smile faltered. "What? You're not proud of me?" She asked, his apathetic response befuddling her.

Kirito shrugged. "It's a simple application. I don't see how anyone could screw it up."

Her earlier scowl reappeared. "There you go ruining my fun!" Asuna yelled at him again. "Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?"

He shrugged again. "I'm not-" Wait a sec. She was happy a few moments ago. She only got angry because he'd opened his mouth. If he didn't say anything, she would probably still be happy. 'It really is because of my personality!' He thought as his eyes widened.

The angered girl noticed his surprise. "What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just realizing something about myself." Kirito said back, shrugging once more. For a short moment, he pondered if he should just be the guy to just nod along and smile at whatever the girl said, but scrapped the thought. Doing something like that would only last so long and she'd be super pissed if she ever found out. It would be best to just act like himself. He was already able to become friends with her. If he continued to be who he was, then she probably wouldn't hate him. "Anyways, why did you decide to track me?" He asked, getting back on track.

Asuna huffed at him, turning away and crossing her arms again. "I was concerned about you." She then gave him a glare. "But you look just fine to me!" She yelled, making him shrink. Wait, she was concerned about him? Why? He was the most capable player in the game by far. He could play with just an arm and a leg and still be on top. He was honestly the last person she should ever be concerned about. Seeing the total confusion on his face, the girl sighed. "Seriously? I'm not concerned about your fighting strength!" She barked at the boy, making his eyebrows shoot up.

"Wait, how'd you know I was thinking that?"

"Because it was obvious!" She rubbed her forehead, a headache beginning to make itself known. "I wanted to know if you're alright? What, am I not allowed to check up on my friend?" Asuna asked him in her typical haughty tone.

Kirito deadpanned at her. "Of course I am. I'm completely fi-" He stopped, remembering why he was even in the forest. He was venting out his stress and trying to keep himself from being depressed. A melancholic expression appeared on the boy's face, confusing the girl. "I'm fine." He whispered low enough to where Asuna couldn't here him.

He swiftly turned away from her and climbed up the nearby tree. He sat on a long, tough looking branch. "Wanna have a seat?" He asked, jestering to the spot next to him. She didn't respond and instead did what he asked by climbing the tree and sitting next to him. The branch didn't budge an inch, even with both of them on it. The tree was clearly strong and the trees nearby blocked out the sun just right so that the light shined directly onto them. "This is better than I thought." Kirito said rather surprised. He didn't put much thought into it when he decided to sit on the tree, but it was actually quite nice.

Asuna lightly giggled. "Yeah, it is nice." She commented. They sat together watching the sunset. Even with the impending conversation, Kirito enjoyed her company. He wanted to forget. He wished his talk with Sinon had rid him of his awful thoughts. Sadly, they continued to linger inside of him.

The chestnut haired girl watched him struggle with himself internally, feeling more and more confused by the second. Why in the world did he suddenly look like a beaten dog? What the heck could he be thinking about? Did she say something weird? What the heck was happening?

With multiple thoughts running through the girl's head, it didn't take long for her to get discombobulated. If he wasn't in such a poor mood, Kirito would have laughed at her. He decided to give the girl a small explanation. He took a couple of seconds to choose which words he needed to use with her, as she still didn't know that he was the one who had beaten the first two floor bosses. He had to be more careful with her than with Sinon. "I feel bad about what happened to the people on floor three." He said truthfully. Just because he was withholding the full truth from her didn't mean he had to keep his feelings a secret.

Hearing what he had said, Asuna's eyes widened in understanding. She wanted to reply, but her mouth closed as quickly as it opened. What exactly was she suppose to say back? It was a tragedy unlike any she had ever heard before. She thought it was some sick joke at first and wished it was. It made her feel sick. The thought of that many people dying was surreal.

Asuna had fully understood from the very beginning that once a player dies in game that they would die for real. But after hearing that out of the one hundred and fifty-two players who had walked into that room and only twelve had walked out, it just didn't feel real. Unfortunately, it was. She had felt many emotions after finding out what happened that day. Out of all of them, one clearly stood out. If she had to summarize her feelings on the event in a single word, she would say...

"Discouraging." Asuna spoke up softly. "The whole thing is really discouraging." She repeated. Kirito watched as she too began to struggle with her thoughts. A frown appeared on the girl's face as she looked down at the ground below them. "To be honest, that's kind of why I wanted to see you." She mumbled, catching Kirito by surprise. It didn't take long for him to come up with a response.

"I get it." The sole purpose Asuna had gone out of her way to track the boy down was because she was scared. She, like many others, was all alone in a real life or death situation and was terrified with what had happened. She felt guilty for not being able to help. And worse, she was scared about what was going to happen with the rest of them. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to play this stupid game. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see her family; even her stupid mother who she almost hated. Right now, more than ever, she needed someone to talk to and comfort her.

She needed a friend.

It was at this moment that Kirito had realized something important. Something his mind had simply glossed over. Just by watching this one girl try to keep herself from breaking down, he understood.

'It's not just me.'

All he could think about was how guilty he was for not helping those people, knowing he could have potentially saved all of their lives. What he didn't fully realize was that everyone felt that way. In fact, they probably felt even worse than he did. All he could feel was guilt and anger. They felt guilt, anger, fear, helplessness, and more. He had no right to complain. After all, he was the only one truly enjoying this game. You can't have your cake and eat it too. People were going to die and that wasn't going to change. He needed to understand that now so that he wouldn't beat himself up about it later. He needed to get over it. Not just for him, but for her. She needed him right now. Wallowing in self-pity wasn't going to help her.

It was time to man up.

"It's okay to feel remorse, but don't let their deaths discourage you." Kirito lectured her. Asuna turned towards him in surprise, not expecting his sudden mood change. 'Remember what Sinon told you.' He said to himself. "It was their decision to go out and fight. They went in knowing that they could have died." Asuna looked like she wanted to rebuttal, but he cut her off before she had a chance. "They died not just for themselves but for us! We can't dishonor them by giving up!"

His words stunned the girl. 'They died... for our sake?' She reflected on his words and what they meant. Each and every player went out on their own accord to fight. It didn't really matter what their motivations were. What they did would have benefited them all. Because of their sacrifice, they were now one step closer to beating the game.

Honorable warriors, each and every one of them.

Kirito's words continued to echo in her head. They replayed on loop, filling her with courage she'd never felt before. They died, and now it was up to the remaining player's to take up the mantle.

She wasn't going to let their deaths be in vain.

Asuna swiftly stood up on the tree branch with a confidant smile. "You're absolutely right, Kirito!" She refused to suffer anymore. No longer would she just sit back in fear and cry herself to sleep. She was gonna fight with everything she had! "Thanks!" She beamed, the sunlight shining on her face accentuating her beauty even more. Kirito just looked at the girl in awe. The smile on her face had been perfect; outshining all of her other ones. However...

That wasn't what was drawing his eyes.

Not hearing a response, Asuna looked at the boy to see he was staring at her lower half, sporting a massive blush. She followed his gaze until in landed on her skirt, or more specifically, under her skirt. Her standing position had given the boy the perfect view of her underwear. If his pants were anything to go by, he was certainly enjoying the view.

Asuna stood silently with a blush, her right hand twitching. Slowly but surely, it began making its way to her rapier. Kirito yelped and jumped from the tree branch in a hurry. He could hear the tree crack from behind him as the girl jumped off of it. "GET BACK HERE!" She screamed, the sounds of her blade being withdrawn. Her words didn't reach him, as he was enraptured with the memory of what he saw.

White

Pure white.

---

One Week Later

"Where is this damn thing." Kirito said under his breath. He paused and looked around a bit with his «Searching» skill. Not finding what he was searching for, he sighed and looked up at the moon. "At least the sky is pretty at night." The player told himself. He had looked up at the night sky almost everyday since being in the game and hadn't gotten tired of it once. On each floor, the sky would look a little different to fit its theme. On the first floor, it was usually like any normal day and night. The second floor usually had a pale blue sky and the air was chilly, while at night the stars were hard to see. On floor four, the mornings were warm and at night, the stars were popping and very pretty to look at. The moon especially was nice to look at; a pale blue and in the shape of a full moon.

In his time in SAO, the moon would change between floors. Sometimes, the moon looked yellow. On other floors like the fourth, it was a pale blue. Someday, the boy hoped it would be a colorful red or a lunar eclipse. It always impressed him to see how much the developers had worked on the game.

That thought made the boy sigh again. "Although, I think I'm the only one who actually takes the time to appreciate those things." He said unironically. Most people were worried about death which was fair. That said, he wasn't gonna let that beauty go to waste. "Now, if only I can find that dumb butterfly." Kirito grumbled, feeling more annoyed as time passed without finding it.

The young gamer was currently on a search quest where he needed to find and catch a creature called the «Midnight Butterfly». It was a quest that gave a huge amount of skill points into the «Searching» skill because the butterfly was super hard to find. Even with the hassle one had to go through, it was still a quest that anyone with the «Searching» skill should try to do. Unlike with the quest Kirito and Sinon did together, this quest didn't have a cap on the number of times it could be completed, so it would normally not be a problem for any player to do.

However, there were actually many, many problems.

The first and most obvious was that no one knew about it. Just like the secret dungeon on floor one, Kirito was almost positive that he was the only one who knew. Similar to how the secret dungeon was hidden, this quest was also hidden. Not in the same way the dungeon was, but in a way much more unique. Rather than having to piece together a small puzzle to unlock it, the player only needed to have a simple thing: timing.

Perfect timing was key to finding this quest, which lead to the second problem. The quest appears in a small house inside of «Rovia». Just like most npc houses, it looked nothing out of the ordinary. Any player could walk in at anytime before 10:00 p.m. to look inside. After that time, stores would close and npc's would lock their doors and sleep and would only open back up at 6:00 a.m. Since the only npc's who react to players were quest givers and ones that held some kind of importance, it was almost pointless to just wander into a random npc's home. The sole reason a player should even do so was to see if the npc had a quest symbol above them.

The npc that gives the hidden quest «Butterfly in the Night Sky» typically did not have a quest symbol. They appeared to be an average npc. However, if a player came to the house at a specific date and time, the door would not be locked and the npc would give them the quest. Since most betas went inside the house at the wrong time and saw nothing, they ignored it entirely, completely missing out on the npc's quest.

Which lead to the third problem. The quest only had a two hour window to accept and complete it, lasting from 11:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The reason for this is because the quest giver states that the «Midnight Butterfly» only appears around midnight on a full moon. Since the insect only appeared around a certain time and since a full moon only happened once a month, the npc would not give the quest until the appropriate time.

To even attempt it, the player had to know they could walk into the npc's house after nighttime, know the exact date the full moon would appear, and know about the two hour time limit to complete it. And even after all that, there was still a fourth problem. You needed to have a good «Searching» skill to find the butterfly. The npc says that it appears in the field south of «Rovia» but the player still needed to search for it. If your skill wasn't high enough, you weren't finding it, period.

The quest had such a small window of opportunity to attempt and complete it that it was borderline impossible. The quest was almost made harder with how simple it was to find the quest giver. People look for secrets in secret locations and the npc's house didn't stand out at all. Even with the updated map, the house was still inconspicuous. Add to the fact that it had already been searched and wrote off as just another npc house, no one would be looking inside it, especially at midnight.

There was only one possible way anyone who wasn't aware of the quest's existence could even learn about it: a light, which is exactly how Kirito found it. One day during the beta, he had logged into SAO past bedtime; against his aunt's rules of course. He was turning in a quest and was walking past the house when he noticed that the light outside of the house was a low cyan color.

At night, like any other large town, «Rovia» was lit up with candlelight cast from windows and street lamps, making the town seem alive. After 10:00 p.m. while the street lamps were still on, the candles inside homes and outside were blown out. Very rarely would a lamp outside a house be on. If it was, it usually meant that the house had a quest a player could do, even after npc houses were locked. However, it was the first time Kirito had ever seen a blue flame come from a porch lamp, or any lamp for that matter.

It was almost unnoticeable. It had the glow of a bug catcher that was about to run out of power. Most people would have probably ignored it because they were desensitized to seeing blue lights in the real world and not think it suspicious to see one in SAO. Kirito wasn't like most people, though. He had studied the game to its core and knew everything about it's fantastical setting. Knowing he had never seen any kind of blue light come from a house before, he wandered inside and had found the quest. He didn't know it was a hidden quest until he logged in the next day to see that it was no longer assigned and the porch lamp was no longer blue. That was when he realized how lucky he was.

Chance. It was by pure chance that Kirito happened to log in at the exact time and find the quest. Despite the chances, it was still possible that someone would find it. Out of the original one-thousand betas and the new nine-thousand players, there had to be at least one person who would stumbled across it eventually. Whether it was in the two month beta, or a year in the actual game. Someone was going to find it.

And it just so happened to be Kirito.

Kirito of all people.

The one guy who wouldn't tell a soul about his findings.

"Well, maybe someone else will find it someday." Kirito said to himself before laughing maniacally. No they wouldn't. Most people wouldn't even come to «Rovia» after they completed it. Even if they did, the timing had to be perfect. A month from now they would be even further into the game and even further after that. What were the chances someone would walk down the street in the two hour interval, see the blue flame and get curious enough to check it out. The only person he could ever see doing that was Argo and even he didn't believe she'd be lucky enough to time it right. If someone did ever find it, he would genuinely be impressed.

Even if it was based on luck.

"It's getting late. I really need to find it soon." It had already been an hour since he'd been looking, so he only had another hour to find it before the quest would disappear and he would have to wait another month. It was a painful experience in the beta. Not having a high «Searching» skill at the time, he'd failed the quest. The boy sobbed as it vanished from his quest log, the one-hundred «Searching» points eluding his grasp.

The only reason he even knew it rewarded that was because the quest outright told him. It had been the same with the quest on top of the mountain that had rewarded him with the «Martial Arts» skill. It told him everything he needed to know so that he could hopefully beat it; including the time limit.

It was rare for a quest to give points into a skill. Most quest gave experience points so that a player leveled up, not points into individual skills. Those had to be trained manually by the player. Because the quest gave skill points rather than xp, it wouldn't matter what level you were. Whether you were level one or level one-hundred, this kind of quest would always benefit you.

All skills in the game capped at one-thousand. It didn't matter which kind: combat, support, weapon, or others. This included «Searching», so completing a quest that filled the «Searching» skill by ten percent was an enormous find.

"I really do hope I find it, though." He had made extra sure to level his «Searching» skill high so he could try to complete the quest, but he still wasn't sure. Kirito had found out about the quest on the last month of the beta, so he didn't have another chance to complete it. He would just have to hope for the best.

A small chill ran through him as the wind picked up. Kirito pulled his coat tighter against him, glad to have it. Even though it was a trench coat, it still wasn't exactly made for winter. That didn't mean it didn't do a good job at warming him up, though. A small thought crossed him, wondering if other players would be cold outside.

It was unlikely. He knew there was a brown trench coat a player could buy at some npc shops. It qualified as light armor and was a little more expensive than most current equipment, but it was a decent item to have at this stage of the game. Although shops did have item caps, they usually restocked weapons and armor once every thirty minutes. There shouldn't be a shortage.

On the topic of players, Kirito hadn't seen many as of late. Just as he predicted, their motivation for clearing the game had begun dwindling quick. He'd managed to cheer Asuna up and she had been sending him many positive messages over the past few days, but he couldn't do that for everyone. Even if he tried, it was impossible. A small smile graced Kirito's face as he recalled the messages he and Sinon had been sending each other.

For the past week, Kirito would occasionally shoot Sinon a message to see how she was doing. At first, he sent many and would even check up on her. Now, he had only been sending a message about every eight hours or so. She seemed a lot better than before. She hasn't been able to go back out into the field, but she was definitely making progress on getting better.

Out of those who survived, it seemed like she was one of the few actively trying to recover. Most of them had adamantly refused to play anymore. They had every right to quit after what they had been through. No one could argue with their decision. That choice alone had to have demoralized others from playing. At least, that's what Kirito thought.

«Rovia» almost seemed like a wasteland now. When the newest floor was unlocked, it was always buzzing with players. It was like that on the first day it was unlocked as well, but had done a complete one-eighty on the second day. It was uncommon to see another player walking on the same street as you and it was even rarer to see a whole group of players. What impacted Kirito the most was the silence. Every time he walked into and outside of «Rovia», it was dead silent. It reminded the boy of «Urbus» on floor two when he had just unlocked it and was by himself: a ghost town.

He found out from Asuna that some players had went back to the «Town of Beginnings». Since it was still by far the largest town and had the most inns, as well as being located on the weakest floor, players decided to head there. Apparently, the town was packed. Being curious, Asuna had investigated about it and learned about a lot of things. The girl had messaged him about the whole ordeal and things weren't looking too good.

She estimated that there were at least a thousand players and that was being generous. Half of them were still level one and had never left, the others were the ones who had journeyed out but had decided to quit playing. The only people who ever left the town were ones to grind easy but very little col on the boars located just outside of it. Since the inn rooms were almost filled, people began sharing rooms with each other. Rooms that were made for a single person were now being occupied by two or three people. There were many little kids in the game who had never left the «Town of Beginnings» and with the unexpected rush of players coming in, they were being kicked out of their inn rooms. To counter this, a bunch of players combined all their col so they could rent a church and they were now being housed there. It was definitely something added after the beta as Kirito knew that players could not buy property in the «Town of Beginnings».

"I guess Kayaba must have expected this to happen as well." He said. The term was called 'fight or flight.' Even if you were some crazy mastermind who forced thousands of people to risk their lives, there would always be people who couldn't do it. They would rather sit inside the beginning town for the rest of their life than die out on the battlefield. Some people just couldn't fight. They had to run away. Others would fight until they died. Whether it would be in a day or a year, they wouldn't stop fighting. However, they probably wouldn't get very far, leaving the remaining players trapped.

Which was why Kirito had come up with a plan. Even though he considered himself a genius, his plan was actually quite simple.

Solo the floor boss.

And every floor boss after that.

Truth was, he had found the fourth floor boss yesterday and he had been contemplating on what he should do. Unlike with Baran, he wasn't in a rush because he knew no one would be fighting it this early. The results for being unprepared like last time were evident. He wanted some time to make his decision and had finally made it. Fighting it alone had already worked out for him the first two times and he could easily say he had better results than literally everyone else who tried. Instead of waiting around for the few brave players to work up the courage to fight and inevitably die, he would spare them the effort and just do it himself.

Fighting the boss by himself was perfectly fine by him. He was good and was confident in his abilities. Sure, one person fighting every boss on their own sounded crazy, but Kirito knew he could do it. In fact, it was just what he was hoping for. He wanted to play alone and was more than happy to fight the bosses alone. He was a thousand percent sure that he currently had the strongest equipment and was the highest level out of all the players, so he would be able to defend himself. There wasn't a chance in hell that he would get cornered in a battle, but even if he did, there was no way he would get scared and panic. They were in a game, so there was always a way to get out of something like that. If anything, the experience would drive him to improve and never duplicate it. Unlike the rest, he wasn't afraid of losing his life because he knew he wasn't gonna die.

You beat the game, you don't let the game beat you.

That said, Kirito was far from being a fool. Charging into a fight completely blind was sure to get him killed. He had cut the fight with Baran pretty close and had learned a lot from it. He would enter fully prepared and analyze everything the boss had. Whether it was the same boss in the beta «Wythege the Hippocampus» or a new one, he would be ready. If it was the same boss, he would see what moves stayed the same and what had changed. If not, he would learn what the new boss had. Based off what he knew, Illfang had a different weapon once he was on his last health bar and Baran's ice attacks changed into fire. Nerius previously attacked from underground, but instead spawned several minions. Even though he wasn't sure what would change, he was certain that it would. Even if it took him multiple tries of going in and running away, he would learn everything it had to offer and defeat it.

"This is getting real irritating." Kirito spoke, spinning in a full circle to look around him. He was using his «Searching» skill to its maximum capability, but he still had no luck finding the damn butterfly. It wouldn't be much longer until he would lose his chance at catching it. Was he doing it wrong? No, the quest would have told him any specifics on how to find it before he attempted to.

Or at least that's what he hoped.

Kirito stretched his arms over his head with a yawn. This quest was making him exhausted, despite him not even being that tired. His arms fell to his sides and he let his gaze linger on the stars.

Ping

His «Searching» skill went off and his vision honed in on a name that was slowly moving around the sky. The name was almost too hard to read thanks to how high it was and the night's dark lighting, but he knew the moment his skill went off that it was the «Midnight Butterfly». Even with his «Searching» skill activated, Kirito still could not see the bug clearly. Skill or not, it was very easy to miss. The butterfly used the night sky and the light it gave off as camouflage to blend in perfectly. It was black in color and had white spots on it that shifted around to mimic the stars. When it flew under the moon, the light on it's body would glow fiercely to blend in with the moon's blue light. Even if the bug was hard to see, he still thought it was beautiful.

All in all, it was a clever gimmick. However, it was realistically flawed to the point where it made the boy chuckle. A quest like this really does prove that they were truly in a virtual world. Sure, the butterfly had the perfect weapon against predators who were below it. However, one of the butterfly's biggest predators are birds; animals that would fly above it. It's camouflage works well to those under it but to those above, it would stick out like a sore thumb. A black insect with white dots trying to blend in with green grass? Yeah, no. In the real world, the butterfly would have been extinct a billion years ago. A smile graced the boy's face. As interesting as the concept may be, the quest wasn't really thought out. Oh well, Kirito didn't mind. If it rewarded well, Kirito would do any quest, no matter how dumb.

Now he only had one problem.

How was he going to catch it?

The butterfly was up way too high for him to jump and he was in an open field. There wasn't anything to climb up and he didn't have «Blade Throwing» to try and shoot it down. Even if he did, he had to catch the thing not kill it.

Wait a sec...

Was it flying down?

The more he stared at it, the more it seemed to get closer. Kirito rubbed his eyes and opened them to see that it had seemingly flew back up to where it was, softly fluttering it's wings in the sky.

That's weird. He could have swore it was getting closer to him. He still had «Searching» on, so was that making his vision zoom up to it? He didn't have a zoom feature for the skill yet, though.

...

There! It's getting closer again!

Kirito blinked once more and the butterfly had once again reverted to its spot up in the night sky. Repeating the same process a few times, the player's mouth opened in realization.

He wasn't exactly sure why, but the butterfly was drawn to eyesight. It was kind of like a fishing rod. Staring at the butterfly would reel it in and if he blinked it would try to run away. Again, not really making much realistic sense, but a neat game mechanic none the less.

Staring down the butterfly, he watched as it slowly flew towards him until it was within arms length. Kirito reached his palm out and let the critter land on it. It nestled its wings against him and suddenly began to glow a faint blue, just like the moon. It began to shine brighter before turning into dozens of balls of light that flew into Kirito's avatar, giving him its power.

Quest Complete!

"Just barely made it." Kirito sighed in relief. He only had ten minutes left before his window of opportunity would disappear. He read his reward for the quest. One hundred points into his «Searching» skill, just as the quest said. He had never seen a menu screen that rewarded skill points, so that was nice to see. It was also the first quest he had seen rewarding zero combat experience and zero col as usually one or the other would be given after completion. Kirito shrugged. Even without a secondary reward, it was still worth every bit of his time. Despite being boring, he was glad to have it done.

"Another one to add to the quest log." The swordsman spoke, marking it down in his brain. At this point, it was kind of a habit for him. He remembered every quest he did to the order he did them. From how hard it was to how long it took him, he remembered them all. There wasn't a need to do so, he just did. No matter how boring or tedious, he would cherish every quest he completed. It was just in his nature to do so.

Because he truly did love this game.

---

"Okay, I'm all set." Kirito said, closing his menu. His equipment was fully repaired, had potions on his belt for quick access, and his lunch was packed and stored away in his inventory. "Although it's just a loaf of bread and water." He sighed. Only a little further and he could buy sandwiches on floor five. The thought of eating a good sandwich every day made him drool.

He shook his head, now wasn't the time for food. It was boss time. He stood up from the bed and placed his hand on the exit to his room. 'Do I really want to do this?' He didn't mean fighting the boss, he was confident he would be okay taking it on. What made him nervous was that he had his real equipment on. If he walked out of his room, his «Coat of Midnight» and his Defiance armor would be on full display. Of course, his «Anneal Blade +10» was there too, but that didn't draw much attention anymore. He could easily just equip his armor when he was in front of the boss room, but he wanted to be fully prepared. Monsters were sure to spawn on the way there and he wanted to dispatch them as fast as possible.

No, he had already made his decision. No backing out now.

Kirito swiftly opened the door and stepped out. Since they had access to more floors, more gear had become available to them. He had wanted to wait to equip his real armor at floor five as even more equipment became available then, but this would have to do. If he got stares then fine. It wouldn't matter because they wouldn't have a chance to ask him about it.

He'd be gone the moment they saw him.

Using his «Sprinting» skill to its max, he booked it out of the inn he was staying at. The swordsman in black was down the stairs and out of the door within a few seconds. That was weird. Even running at his speed, he was sure he would at least see one person on his way out. Either in the hallway or in the lobby, there should have been at least one person. 'Maybe I just missed them.' He thought to himself. Doesn't matter. He shouldn't focus on other players who would see him.

He ran down the streets of «Rovia» and rented a gondola. His «Sprinting» skill was faster than rowing a gondola. However, he couldn't keep the skill activated forever and it would need to cool down. That drawback would add up and inevitably take him longer than using a gondola. He had to traverse the river to get to the boss, so this was more efficient anyway. The river would eventually take him to the dungeon with the boss, but he had a lot of rowing to do. Not wanting anyone to have a chance at approaching him, Kirito rowed the gondola as fast as he could. He gave several strong strokes and was practically skating through the river. He continued for several more strokes before pausing, the gondola slowly coming to a halt.

'Okay, back at the inn was one thing, but now I know something is up.' Once again, not a single person was around. Sure, «Rovia» was a lot emptier than it was before, but this was ridiculous. He had traversed nearly half the town and hadn't seen a single player around.

What the hell was happening?

It was beginning to creep him out. He usually liked not having anyone around, but this was just weird. Surely they hadn't all given up, not yet anyway. Asuna seemed to be doing okay and Sinon was recovering. They couldn't be the only players who decided to stick around.

"I'll look into it later." Right now, he needed to focus. It was just him against the boss. No one else would step up. No one else could. Kirito steeled himself. Once again, it would be just him.

Alone.

---

...Or maybe not?

Standing in front of the boss room doors were dozens of player heads all standing tall and shouting, weapons held above their heads as they hyped themselves up.

What the hell were they doing?

Kirito stood dumbfounded at the sight. Why were there so many people here? Weren't they all suppose to be cowering back in the «Town of Beginnings»? They realize that if they die they stay dead, don't they? Aren't they scared? Do they plan to just rush in there without a plan? Don't they remember what happened last time? Are they fools? Better yet, who the hell told all of them where the boss was? And how come he wasn't aware that all of this was going down?

More questions spun throughout his mind as he stared at the players before him. The crowd would pause and then continue shouting every so often. It was hard to see because of his short stature and all the heads in the way, but he managed to make out a single player dawning shiny armor standing in front of the group. The player was preaching to them something he couldn't quite hear, but whatever it was sure managed to rev everyone up for the fight they were going to partake. Kirito sighed and scratched his head.

What was he going to do now? He planned to fight it alone, but now there were so many people here to do just that. Some of them looked nervous. Hell, one of them was so scared that his legs were shaking. Regardless, they were all here ready to fight. Trying to stop them would be pointless. Besides, even if he wanted to stop them, there was no way he was gonna risk drawing attention to himself. Should he just leave them to it? If he did, some of them would no doubt die. They may be brave, but they were still amateurs. Could they even win? There was about a hundred players here, but is that enough? It sure wasn't last time...

Pondering about what could happen made his choice obvious. He would stay here with them and fight. Sure, he may get some looks about his equipment and he already had a couple people glancing and whispering about him, but it would probably be okay. Equipment was starting to vary a lot between players. Even if he stood out a little, that was fine.

Suddenly, nerves began to effect Kirito, too. It wasn't that he was scared to die, or even because he was in a crowd of players. This would be the first time he would actively try to prevent people from dying. Trying to cover up their mistakes and doing everything in his power to save someone from death.

Like what a hero would do.

It gave him a weird feeling in his stomach and he wasn't sure if it was good or not. Either way, this wasn't something he planned on doing a lot. He didn't want to become known as the player who safeguards others from certain death. This would be a one time thing. He was here, so he might as well do his best to help. Of course, he wasn't going to outright fight the boss. Everyone was in groups and he was solo, meaning he would likely have to attack on his own. If the others saw him doing massive damage to it, that would out him as a skilled player and worse; his real identity. His plan was to stay further back and keep an eye on both the players and the boss. When something bad happened, he would stop it and continue watching them. It was going to get hectic in there so he would do his best to blend in with the crowd. It would be hard watching over everyone and he would have to sprint the entire time to make sure he'd be there in time to save someone in case they messed up and were about to be killed.

All he could do was hope it all worked out.

Kirito scanned the crowd again, trying to get a good grasp on the player's equipment. If he knew what kind of armor and weapons they had, he would probably be able to guess what level they were around. From what he could gather, most would be around levels 10-15. He continued to look around until his gaze fell upon a person with a red cloak. They had their hood up, but looking closely would reveal the person's auburn hair falling out from it.

'Don't tell me.'

Kirito quickly pushed through the crowd, ignoring the complaints that were thrown at him until he reached the figure. He lightly shook the figure's shoulder. "Asuna?" He said, just loud enough for the person to hear him.

"Huh?" Turning around, Kirito got a full view of the girl's face; which was startled. "Kir-" Her mouth was stopped by a quick palm clamping to her face.

"Shhh!" Kirito hushed her vehemently. Asuna realized that she had once again nearly said his name aloud in the presence of other people and mentally slapped herself. She needed to be more careful! How many times was she going to do this!

"What the hell are you doing here?" The boy seethed, anger and worry plaguing him. "You know you're at a boss raid, right?" He said as he let go of her mouth. "You promised me you wouldn't partake in one." He glared at her. "You promised." Kirito said, trying his hardest not to shout.

Asuna looked at him with guilt. "I-I know, bu-

"But nothing. You lied to me. How do I know you can keep your promise to me if you lied to me." The two of them started attracting the attention of other players and were getting whispers. He didn't care. This was necessary.

The cloaked girl looked down at her feet, her shoulders slumped. "You're right." She didn't have an excuse. She did lie and she felt awful for it. "I just..." she paused, trying to prevent herself from squirming under Kirito's harsh gaze. "I just couldn't run away anymore." Asuna told him, only loud enough so he could hear.

"..." He didn't reply. His anger had almost taken control of him, but he managed to keep it under control. The boy processed what she had said to him. He did know that she wanted to improve herself and be a better player. But...

"You'll die." Kirito stated.

"I won't."

Her words made his eyes shoot up. He'd never heard her so confident before. Did she really have that much faith in herself? She almost sounded as confident as he was. She looked up at him, catching his eyes from under her hood. "I won't be scared anymore." She said not just to him, but herself as well. "I have to do this for myself. I won't sit idly by as everyone else tries their hardest to get out while I stay in town where it's safe." She clenched her fists, steeling her resolve. "I'll fight until my very last breath."

Asuna's words struck a cord inside him and her resolve was so potent that he could feel it. Why hadn't he noticed that before? It wasn't just her, but everyone here had a resolve harder than steel and was more than ready to fight. He let his own ego project what they were all thinking and feeling. He thought they would all cower away, but that wasn't true in the slightest. Sure, some people had fled into the «Town of Beginnings», but not all. He'd thought «Rovia» was empty because they ran away, but they had all been training themselves for this moment. Kirito had vastly underestimated them. They weren't so hopeless after all.

A small chuckle escaped the boy, making Asuna tilt her head cutely with confusion. Why was he laughing? She didn't say anything funny.

"You're all brave, I'll give you that." Kirito spoke up as he opened his menu. "But that doesn't change the fact that you're noobs." Asuna was caught off guard when a menu screen popped in front of her.

Kirito has invited you into a party.

The girl stared at the menu with another confounded look. "Hurry up and join before someone sees." Kirito snark'd. Not wasting anymore time, Asuna pressed the blue circular button on the menu.

"Okay, now what was that supposed to do?"

"You really are clueless, aren't you." Kirito sighed. "Look at the top left corner of your vision. You should see a name under yours, yeah?" He pointed to the area he was talking about and Asuna did indeed see a name. "Before you ask, a party means that were in a group and will share experience and items with each other." Kirito pointed at their health bars once again. "It also lets us keep track of each other's hp so we'll know if the other is in danger or not."

Asuna puffed her cheeks after he finished his explanation. "I may not have known, but you could've at least let me ask before going on a rant?"

"There wouldn't have been a point. I knew you didn't know." Kirito replied, earning himself a slap on the arm. The girl began to pout as she folded her arms and turned away, unamused by his antics.

Kirito shrugged it off. "By the way, you owe me for breaking your promise." He said. "At the very least you could have messaged me or something. You know I would've come running." He said seriously.

Asuna looked back down at her feet. "I know." She mumbled back. "I guess I wasn't thinking straight." She said with a sigh, disappointed with herself. "Okay, what do you want?" She asked. She knew how important certain promises were to him, so she was prepared to face the consequences.

"Hmm..." Kirito let out. He honestly thought she might put up some sort of fight, but he was glad she didn't. Now what to do, what to do... "Oh!" Kirito palmed a fist. "You could show me your underwear again."

Asuna's mouth fell open. Her face became red in mere seconds as she tried to squeak out a reply. "A-A, I-, W-W-" The girl stuttered as swirls appeared in her eyes.

'Did I really just say that!?' Kirito thought with disbelief, amazed he was able to hold onto his cool. He had more balls than he gave himself credit for. The boy watched her try to respond out of the corner of his eye, fearing that if he looked directly, he would lose his composure. 'It was just a joke. I should apologize.' He thought, feeling bad for her.

"O-O-Ok-kay." She managed to stutter out.

...

Huh?

Kirito's head snapped back towards her as she tried finishing her sentence. "I-I'll do it, b-but later, o-okay?" She asked him, not even sure if this conversation was even real or not.

The boy stared at her in complete shock. 'Oh my god.' What did he just do!? 'I was joking!' He couldn't take it back now or she'd flip out! And if he went through with it then that would be sexual harassment!

"W-Well, is that okay?" Asuna asked him. Kirito jumped. Why was she asking him for confirmation? Did she really just say that? Was it okay for what? It wasn't like he would ask her to show him now in front of everyone. Did she think he was going to ask her to do that?

What the hell!

Kirito swallowed the lump in his throat. He let out a small nod. "W-We can uh, settle the details later?" He asked back, causing the hooded girl to slowly nod back, her red cheeks still easily visible. The swordsman shook his head. Damn it. He would have to something about it. However, now wasn't the time to joke around. "It's starting." He told her in a serious voice.

"H-Huh?" She mumbled, still feeling discombobulated. "W-What?"

"Come on Asuna." He shook her shoulder, snapping her out of her funk. "It's gamer time."

"G-Gamer time?" She quoted, nearly laughing.

"W-Whatever, lets just do this." Kirito replied back, wanting to slap himself for saying that.

The leader of the raid had pushed opened the boss room doors. Everyone slowly moved forward at a synchronized pace, weapons drawn and ready for anything. The room was dark and hard to see. Nearly everyone had filtered inside of the room before the lights had come on. There in the middle of the blue room laid a large sleeping horse-like monster. Its underside and face were colored white while its back, tail, and mane were an azure blue just like the room. The monster was the strangest horse anyone had seen, with smooth skin in the front and scaly like a seahorse in the back. It quickly awakened once it noticed the players in the room and stood up in bravado. It gave a strange neigh as four healthbars and its name appeared above it.

«Wythege the Hippocampus».

The leader of the raid yelled out orders for players with heavy arms to charge in first with tanks near them. He told them to target the boss's front legs to knock it off balance and avoid getting behind it or else pay the price of getting your life donkey kicked out of you. Kirito didn't really care what he was saying. He didn't plan to follow what the man said and instead watched what moves the boss was making. He had planned to keep a close eye on everyone, but now that Asuna was here, he had to protect her. This was her first boss fight and she hadn't told him what level she was. For all he knew, she could get one shot here. The boss's attack patterns would no doubt be changed like they were in the beta, so he couldn't let his guard down for a second.

"Asuna, stay near me for now." Kirito spoke up, gaining her attention. "We'll follow the raid leader's plans for now, but if I give you an order, follow it. Even if it contradicts what that guy says, do it without hesitation, understand?" He commanded. She nodded back to him almost unconsciously. She didn't tell him, but Asuna was relieved when Kirito had shown up and decided to party with her. She honestly had no idea what to expect or what she was supposed to do. To have someone who knew what to expect and what to do really reassured her. But still, even if he didn't know what to do, she probably would listen to him anyway.

She trusted him.

Not that she would ever tell him that.

EVER.

The horse monster took several hits to it's front legs and responded by standing on its back two. The raid leader announced the players to move back as it was going for a heavy attack. An obvious move which no one fell for as its hooves struck nothing but the ground. Using the opening from its cooldown, it was rushed again and bombarded with frontal attacks. A larger man with a greataxe was the one to take out it's right leg. The horse whined as it fell; it's left side being exposed.

"Take down its left leg!" The leader yelled out to them. Once one leg was taken down, there was only a small window of opportunity to take out the next before it would stand up again.

"Let's go Asuna!" Kirito said as he bolted toward the shaky leg. "Use your strongest sword skill!" He announced with a small glance behind him to see her following with her rapier positioned for a lunge. A few players ahead of them unleashed their own skills in a collection of light green, light blue, and orange colors. Since they were still in the beginning phase of the game, they could only use one hit sword skills. Depending on the weapon used, the skill would have one of those three colors. Kirito's own sword skill lit up a light blue as he prepared his own assault.

'Good, no one is paying attention.' Kirito thought as he charged up his own strongest sword skill. His blade was raised above him for a diagonal slash and came down on the beast's leg. 'One more!' He spun around and made a second slash horizontally through it's joint, right as Asuna came up and stabbed it with her own skill. Their cumulative attacks was enough to bring it down and the horse fell flat on it's belly.

"Now attack its sides!" The raid leader yelled with his own attack ready. Plenty of players ran at the horse with a battlecry and began to sink dozens of sword skills into it. However, Kirito had other plans.

"Fall back for now, Asuna." Kirito spoke out, hopping back for his sword skill to cooldown. Even though she wanted to help everyone else who were currently attacking the boss, Asuna obeyed him. They clearly had an opening to help do some damage, so she wondered why he had decided against attacking.

'So far so good.' Kirito thought to himself, glancing at Asuna at his side who waited for his instruction. He wasn't sure if they would be able to drop it, but they did. It was thanks to him that the boss had fully collapsed in the first place. There were more people attacking the boss's right side than its left. When it was time to knock down the left leg, there wouldn't have been enough people to do it. Kirito saw this and purposefully chose to target Wythege's left. If not for his two-hit sword skill «Vertical Arc» it wouldn't have fallen. The skill was currently his newest and strongest and he didn't want to show it off yet because it wasn't a skill anyone else had. That didn't matter here because the boss fight had more than enough chaos to mask it among the other skills. Now if it had glowed a red or purple, he would have definitely outed himself.

Kirito waited and watched people nail the boss with several one-hit sword skills. Even after his cooldown timer ended, he stayed put. He knew that now would be the time someone would likely mess up.

And he was right. After everyone had finished with their attacks, some cheeky guy thought it would be a good idea to try to get the boss with a second sword skill, right as it was recovering. Kirito sprinted at the guy and tackled him out of the way of a nasty kick that would have easily taken him out. The player gasped in surprise as the two of them rolled to the ground with Kirito above him. "Don't be a hero man." Kirito said, standing with a hand out to help him up.

The guy looked absolutely terrified. He only seemed to be a year or two older than him. The kid realized his mistake and grabbed Kirito's hand. "You're right, thanks." He replied.

"The boss still has three health bars. Don't do any risky attacks like that unless you're sure they'll finish it off, okay?" Kirito said, before returning to his position next to Asuna. The raid continued on like this and every minute or two Kirito would have to stop a player from getting themselves killed. One player had tripped over his feet and fell flat on his face, making Kirito have to block a strike for him. Another guy's shield broke and he nearly ate an attack, but Kirito pulled him out of the way in time. He gave a small lecture to them each time, hoping they would take it to heart so that it would help them survive.

Several minutes had passed and people were getting into a rhythm, adapting to the boss's attack patterns and following orders. "Fall back!" The raid leader announced to them once again. Kirito and Asuna stepped back and looked at Wythege's health. It was nearing its last hp bar.

'What will it do?' Kirito thought to himself. Wythege's attack patterns would definitely change, but what would they be? Without knowing, he wouldn't be able to do anything but protect himself and Asuna. People would most certainly die. Maybe there was some clue he could figure out that would tell him? He thought about it many times, but he couldn't figure it out. All he could do was think back to how the other three boss's had been changed. Illfang's weapon changed from a short one to a long one. Baran's ice element was changed with fire. Nerius fought on its own and attacked from underground and changed by fighting with minions that sprouted from the walls.

Was there a clue there? It was his only guess, but it appeared as if every boss did the opposite of what it did in the beta. Wythege was supposed to shoot water jets from its mouth as a surprise long ranged attack. Does that mean it would change to have a powerful close range attack? But the boss already centered around close range combat. Wouldn't it be more effective if it kept it's long range attack?

Kirito shook his head. No, it wouldn't. The difference was that player's were expecting a long range attack. One of the few things Kirito had learned from playing this new version of SAO was that the game was actively trying to kill you. If you knew what to expect, you probably wouldn't die. If you went in thinking you knew something but it turned out to be different, you almost certainly would be killed. After all, the element of surprise is always effective. Then that settles it. Whether he would have used the same attack or not, Wythege's last attack would not be long ranged. It HAD to be close range.

The reason he knew was because even if the game is trying to kill you, it ALWAYS rewards you for being a good player. The boss's were created for many people to take them on at once. So even if lots of people died, there would still be those who survived. Then those people would be able to learn from that experience and adapt to it. For example, if you took part in a boss raid and survived, learned that the fight had changed from the beta, and fought another boss that had also changed and survived that, it was possible that you would be able to figure out HOW they were being changed. And if you did figure it out, you would know what to expect and be rewarded with survival.

'The only thing to do now is to see if I'm right.' Kirito thought with a grin, before it slowly morphed into a grimace. Just how exactly was he going to test it? The plan was that half of the dps group would rush the boss from behind in hopes that they would land a bunch of hits while every one else fell back. In the beta, rushing it was the best course of action because it attacked with long range. If you were close to it, Wythege wouldn't be able to hit you or be able to defend itself from your attacks. Since the raid group didn't know what the boss would do once it was on it's last health bar, they only wanted to send half of the attacking squad forward.

That plan would surely fail and everyone who rushed it would get killed. The one who came up with the idea was the raid leader and it obviously wasn't well thought out. It would be best to have everyone fall back and be on guard.

"Alright, attack squad B, get ready to rush it!" The leader announced to them. Of course, he and Asuna were apart of the rushing group and attack squad A would get to chill back with everyone else and watch them die. They were positioned behind it, so it wouldn't be able to hit them with its mouth, but Kirito knew that it probably didn't need to. What was he supposed to do? He could yell at them to stop, but that would also bring attention to himself. Did he have to choose? Whether he wanted to stay anonymous or save lives? Wait. Maybe there was a way to have both.

"Asuna." Kirito said, getting the hooded girl's attention. "I need you to yell at everyone in our group not to charge."

"H-Huh?" She said back. She had to yell? At everyone? But that would be embarrassing!

"Do it or they'll die." He replied, making her freeze.

They'll... die?

Everyone..?

"Alright, charge it now!" The leader announced to them as the boss hit its last health bar. Player's raised their weapons and started with a battle cry.

"DON'T CHARGE!" Asuna screamed louder than all of them combined. Her yell stopped each and every one of them in their tracks. Some of them held their position with their weapon raised as if time were frozen. Others had paused to turn at her with an incredulous look. All of the other raid members just stared at the girl in surprise. Asuna was beginning to feel self-conscious and glad she was wearing her hood before suddenly...

BOOM!

The sound of a giant water geyser shot out around Wythege. The fierce vortex spun into a perfect orb of water that surrounded and concealed the beast inside. Everyone gasped at the sight, awe struck at the devastating attack. The orb spun so fast that anyone who got trapped inside of it would be ripped to pieces. Not even Kirito thought he could survive it more than five seconds.

The attack lasted for a total of ten seconds before dying down. Wythege stood completely still for a few seconds before lowering its raised head and moving, roaring at the tanks positioned in front of it. Kirito nudged Asuna with his arm. She looked back at him. Snap them out of it. His eyes told her. She nodded.

"EVERYONE CHARGE!" She yelled out, snapping people out of their trance as they too yelled out a battle cry. The fight presumed as if it had never stopped with tanks blocking the horse's frontal kicks and everyone else waiting for a good opening.

"Asuna." Kirito called to her as they were running anti-clockwise around the room. "It raises it's head and looks directly at the ceiling when it does that water tornado attack. When it stands on all fours and does that, tell them to fall back. When it dies down, that's our moment to strike." He said, low enough so that only she could hear him.

The girl nodded back. "Got it, I'll tell them when that happens." She said. Despite the intense situation, she couldn't help but let a small smile slip out. Even though it was embarrassing, she was actually being useful. Not just to the raiding group, but to him, too.

Kirito caught the smile she made from under her hood. It didn't take him long to figure out why. 'She understands why I asked her to do it rather than doing it myself.' A small blush crept up on him, making her giggle. Kirito groaned. "Just do your job." He mumbled out.

"Roger that." She giggled again, hearing him groan a second time.

Asuna did what Kirito told her, commanding everyone to fall back at the right time and waiting for their turn to strike. Once the boss had exposed itself, the attacking teams rushed it to deal damage, knocking Wythege's last health bar down a third. "Okay, now tell group C to lure the boss east." Kirito whispered next to her. She commanded the players once more, allowing the attackers the ability to target Wythege's left and right flanks, knocking its health bar down under half. "Tell them to fall back." Kirito said after he saw Wythege's head raise and she did.

Kirito continued to whisper her commands to give everyone and Asuna continued doing so without missing a beat. Neither of the two noticed, but Kirito had forced her into a leadership role. Everyone in the raid was listening to HER orders. Even the man in charge of the raid was obeying her orders like he was never in charge in the first place. No one had said anything about it, but they had all unconsciously made her the leader. Maybe it was because of how confident she sounded, or how it almost seemed like she knew exactly what the boss would do, but regardless, they listened to her without question.

After several more commands and many more sword skills, Wythege began to glow a luminescent blue before exploding into thousands of triangle particles.

Congratulations!

"Squad B, t- huh?" Asuna's voiced died down as she read the message, slowly realizing what had happened. "It's dead?" She questioned to herself. "It's over?" The room was silent as other players went through the same thoughts and feelings Asuna was. A few more seconds past before cheering ensued. It was a long fought battle and there were plenty of mistakes, but they had won. This was a day of triumph. After over a hundred lives lost in the last raid, they had defied SAO and had beaten this one without a single casualty. Asuna gleamed in pride and excitement and looked over at the one who made it all possible. "We won! K-"

A swift hand had closed over the top of her mouth, once again cutting her off from accidently revealing a certain secret. The swiftness of the hand had blown off her hood and she had again realized her mistake. "S-sorr-"

"Shh." Kirito shushed. That little act he did with the now leader of the raid had earned him more than a handful of looks. Not just him, but Asuna too. Her fallen hood had exposed her pretty face and many guys were staring at her in shocked blushes at how beautiful she was.

Asuna began to blush at everyone staring and whispering about her. 'I guess I can't hide anymore.' Asuna thought to herself. After all the work she went through hiding her face and avoiding people, she ended up exposing herself in the biggest way possible. 'At least SOME people get to hide in the shadows.' She peeked at Kirito in the corner of her eye and would have totally huffed had she not been a deer trapped in headlights.

"That was some nice leadership you have, miss." The large man with the greataxe spoke to her.

"Yeah, you're awesome!" Another guy shouted out.

More comments and cheers were sent her way, making her blush deepen as she gazed at the ground. Some who had caught wind of the interaction with Kirito had pointed at the two of them and whispered if they were together or something. 'No! Of course not!' She wanted to say. More importantly, she couldn't let people make a link between her and Kirito. If she did, then he would also start getting attention from them. "I-I u-um." She stuttered. What exactly was she supposed to say? She peeked at Kirito again.

"Eh?" He was gone.

What?

HE ABANDONED HER!?

'Kirito you jerk!' Asuna thought with pseudo anger. Actually, it kind of made since why he would leave. At the very least, she now understood why he didn't want his fame. Everyone was surrounding her, either praising her or asking questions and all she could do in return was smile and laugh nervously.

A few of them began to quiet down as a man approached her. "That was very impressive. I didn't expect a random person to start taking command of the raid." Asuna stared at the man who she recognized as the original leader of the raid. He appeared to be around eighteen and had blonde and blue eyes, dressed in shiny armor that seemed even more eye-catching than Kirito's. "Great job. If it wasn't for you, a lot of players would have lost their life today." He smiled at her.

Asuna blushed as other people began clapping for her. What was she supposed to say to that? "T-Thanks I guess." She replied as a few other players began whistling. 'I really hope they're not catcalling.' She thought, concealing her annoyance with another forced smile.

"By the way," The man spoke up again. "How were you able to tell what the boss was going to do?" He asked her, making her freeze. Oh no! She wasn't prepared to answer a question like that! She began to hear murmurs amongst players. She heard the term beta tester start to get thrown around.

"I'm not a beta tester." The words slipping out without her realizing. People began to stare at her in suspicion, making her even more self-conscious. 'Now's not the time to back down. I have to stand up for him!' She told herself. "The boss had changed from the beta. If I were one, I would have fell for its surprise attack." She announced. Several players eyes had widened as they realized what she had said was true. "I didn't rely on the beta test and instead relied on my instincts. I thought that rushing the boss wasn't a good plan so I yelled for you all not to." Slowly, Asuna began to gain the support of the other players.

"Hey, you're right! We don't need to be betas to beat the game!"

"Yeah, she's right!"

She began to receive cheers once more which returned the blush to her face. She really wished she could just lift her hood up over herself and walk away. The girl sighed in relief. 'I'm glad no one seemed to notice the giant hole in that statement.' She thought to herself. If anyone had put two and two together, they would have realized that what she said didn't mean she wasn't a beta tester. A beta tester could just as easily ignore the info in the beta and gone with "instinct" as well. Her logic was flawed, but no one seemed to be calling her out on it. 'Good, because I don't know what I would say if they did.' She smiled, happy she had pulled one over on them all.

"I see." The leader announced. "If you're that good, do you want to join my guild?"

"Eh?" Asuna questioned. "Guild?"

The man smiled. "You don't have to decide immediately, but I think it would be in your best interest if you did." He said, opening his menu and scrolling through it. A menu screen had popped in front of Asuna and she realized that the man was trying to add her.

'Great...' She thought with a frown. If she declined his friend request now in front of all these people then it would make her look bad. Then again, joining a guild could be a good thing. It would be a lot safer than by herself. "I'll think about it." She replied, accepting his friend request. She would have to tell Kirito about this.

"Excellent!" He smiled as other players behind him cheered again. She hadn't noticed before, but now that she was looking at them all, they each shared the same icon above them.

His guild was rather large. There seemed to be about thirty or forty people in it. 'Yep, definitely need to tell Kirito about this.' She thought as said person had already walked onto the fifth floor. The black coated swordsman let out a huge sigh of relief.

There. He'd done his part and had helped them all get through the raid. Although he would have preferred to do the fight on his own, at least he could now say he had helped the people and had contributed. Now, he wouldn't have to get crushed to death by some stupid guilt gnawing at his conscious. He let a smile grace his face as he remembered how he left Asuna back there. The boy shrugged with his hands in his pockets. 'We'll just say that's payback for nearly giving my identity away twice now.' Sacrifices needed to be made. After all, he was the type of guy to get payback on someone.

That in mind, she did a lot better at leading the raid than he thought. She may have been following his orders, but her execution was flawless. She didn't stumble and her voice was loud and audible for everyone to hear; even over Wythege's obnoxious screeching. A natural born leader, for sure.

Kirito opened his menu and checked the rewards he got. Unfortunately, he didn't receive the last attack bonus. Even though he was positive he did the most damage, some noob had dealt the finishing blow and got it. An unfair game mechanic, but he'd get over it. The col he gained was quite unsubstantial compared to his first two boss raids. He couldn't hoard all the loot to himself this time and had to split it with everyone else. This applied to the xp as well. Since he was such a high level, he didn't even level up. Kirito sighed. At least the materials he got were nice.

He closed his menu and set his sights in front of him.

Time for floor five.

---

All the way down on floor one inside the «Town of Beginnings», stood a girl walking out of the dye shop. She seemed to walk with unnatural confidence as her face was molded into a glare that was ready for anything. "I'll never let something like that happen to me again." She told herself, reaching to grab one of her blue bangs that fell down next to her face. "Never again." She told herself.

The girl she was before was dead; at least in this world. Shino was a coward who would inevitably die in here. She would no longer be that weak person. She glanced at the building next to her, looking at her reflection. Her blue eyes looked nothing like they had before.

She grabbed the spear on her back. It was the weapon Kirito recommend her getting on floor four: the «Three-Pronged Spear». She had recently gotten it from a «Scuttle Crab» east of the «Bear Forest». Since floor four no longer had a rocky terrain, she had some trouble getting it, but with the help of Kirito's messages, she had finally managed to get it.

"Still..." It wasn't right. Wielding this spear just wasn't right. She chose a spear because she wanted to fight enemies from a distance. With it, she would never have to get too close to the action. Her grip tightened on her weapon. "I'm not a coward." She said to herself, a scowl appearing on her face.

Shino used a spear, not Sinon. So then, what weapon should she use?

The blue haired girl pondered over it for a moment before coming to a decision. She opened her menu and scrolled through her inventory to look at the certificate that would give her the «King's Knightsword».

"That's what I'll use." She said, a smile appearing on her face. A sword was an excellent choice. Not just providing damage, but also having good reach. Most importantly, the user HAD to get close to fight. "Perfect." That's exactly what she wanted. Get close and blow away any enemy that got near her.

"But I need to train the skill first." The «King's Knightsword» required a high «One-Handed Sword» skill to use. That was fine. They were still far from the ninth floor. She had plenty of time to train it.

Backing out of her inventory and into her skills, she pressed her open skill slot and added «One-Handed Sword» into her skills. Now she just needed a sword...

Attention. The fourth floor has now been cleared. The fifth floor has now been opened.

"That must be Kirito." Sinon said, another smile gracing her. She went into her friends list.

Message To:

Kirito

"Where can I find a decent sword?"