Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Digimon Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor Moon Online: Gaiden ❯ Progressive and Digital Knights 5: Shadows in the Catacombs ( Chapter 34 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

With this latest story, we are returning back to the ‘early days’ of Aincrad and that’s all I can say without giving any spoilers, so, you can probably realize what’s up next. So, I believe that nothing more is needed to be said, folks! Now, before I start, I must give thanks and credit to Belletiger and Kanius as well as Kanius’ YuYuGiDigiMoon fanfiction series, especially his The Invasion of the Rajita story, for giving me permission to use the idea of Valkyrie Sailor Soldiers and everything that’s a part of them in my fanfiction. I would like to give thanks and credit to Kanius and his YuYuGiDigiMoon series, including this author’s Dawn of Chaos story, and LazerWulf for giving me permission to use the idea for their version of Sailor Charon, namely the fact that she is Sailor Pluto’s sister among other things. I would also like to give thanks and credit to Matty G91 and this author’s story of Kamen Rider Lunar for giving me permission to use Kamen Rider Lunar, his looks, and everything about him as well as the UNI-SHOCKER organization as well as the idea of Darth Revan Sammy Tsukino and the other alternate versions of said character.

Now, with that out of the way, as they say on SAO: Link Start!

I DO NOT OWN Sailor Moon, Sword Art Online, Naruto, Accel World, Digimon series, Yu-Gi-Oh R/GX/5Ds/Zexal/Arc-V, Kingdom Hearts, Hyperdimensional Neptunia series, Gundam series, especially Gundam Build Fighters, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden, Mortal Kombat, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, Maken-Ki, Tenchi Muyo series, Ronin Warriors, Pretty Cure, Queen’s Blade/Gate, Dragonball Z/GT, Star Trek series, Star Wars, Log Horizon, Sonic the Hedgehog, DC universe, Marvel universe, Assassin’s Creed, Senran Kagura, Sekirei, Monster Musume, Karin/Chibi Vampire, 12 Beast, Stargate series, One Piece, Final Fantasy, Rave Master, Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra, Code Lyoko, Transformers, and anything/anyone that comes from these and other stories that end up in this fanfiction! Sailor Moon is owned/licensed by Naoko Takeuchi and its various studios and publishers, Sword Art Online is owned/licensed by ASCII Media Works, A-1 Pictures Inc., and its various directors/publishers including Reki Kawahara and Tomohiko Itô, Naruto is owned/licensed by Masashi Kishimoto, Yuuto Date, Jump Comics, and Studio Pierrot, Digimon is owned/licensed by Toei Animation and its various directors, including Hiroyuki Kakudo, Yu-Gi-Oh is owned/licensed by Kazuki Takahashi, Toei Animation, and Studio Gallop, Yu-Gi-Oh GX is owned/licensed by Naoyuki Kageyama, Studio Gallop and its various directors, Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds is owned/licensed by Katsumi Ono and Studio Gallop, and Sword Art Online is owned/licensed by ASCII Media Works, A-1 Pictures Inc., and its various directors/publishers including Reki Kawahara and Tomohiko Itô!

Warning: These stories may and will contain mature level intense violence, blood, gore, death, mild to explicit suggestive themes, including mind-control and brainwashing, mild to explicit bad language, and mature adult themes/situations!

Second Warning: Some to a lot of OOC (Out of Character) actions and mannerisms in these series of stories!

Prelude: A castle of stone and metal floating in the sky that consist of one hundred floors. Within this massive structure, there are countless cities, villages, towns, forests, plains, lakes, and whatever you can imagine. There is only one staircase that connects one floor with another, and these staircases are located within dangerous mazes filled with monsters. The players with navigate through these floors to the top with nothing than the weapons in their hands. And yes, I said players.

This is the world of Aincrad, a floating castle in a virtual sky, and yes, I said VIRTUAL sky. This world and this floating castle world are in a realm made of digital information…the world of Sword Art Online. A world that was supposed to be game, but because a nightmare prison when its creator, Akihiko Kayaba, trapped the ten thousand players within this virtual world and if they die here, they will die in real life. The ten thousand players struggle in this ‘game death’ to reach the top of the floating castle where the final boss and the key to their freedom waits.

You may know this story and the stories that come after it, but do you know all the stories? All the tales that happened within the floating castle? What about the tales that happened after the floating castle was conquered? There are stories connected to the ‘tale’ of this floating castle, its ‘history’, and its ‘aftermath’, but they weren’t told…until now. These are those stories…

Sailor Moon Online: Gaiden

Story 34: Progressive and Digital Knights 5: Shadows in the Catacombs

December 28, 2022, SAO/Aincrad, Floor 5, Karluin

Within the main town of the fifth floor of Aincrad, known as Karluin, which looks to be a formerly abandoned city that’s being revived, Usagi is standing alone and looking around as she is in deep thought.

Usagi thinks in her mind, “We’ve finally made it to the next floor. Five floors down…and NINETY-FIVE more to go. We’ve managed to get through several floors without any casualties, but those boss fights were still close. And now, we’re here on the fifth floor. Based on what Kirito knows, the floor bosses on floors that are intervals of five are going to be tougher than your typical boss. With this floor boss, Kirito says that we would be actually fighting the boss of the sixth floor in terms of toughness. That’s just great. And it means that floor bosses of floor ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty, sixty-five, seventy, seventy-five, eighty, eighty-five, ninety, and ninety-five are going to be tougher than floor bosses on even and odd number floors. Plus, based on what Kirito knows and I heard from Sammy and the developers back at Argus, floor bosses on floors that intervals of ten are going to be MUCH tougher with those bosses at the ‘quarter marks’ of this castle, floor twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five, are just going to be plain nightmarish from what Kirito and I heard.” Usagi looks at the darkened ‘sky’, which is the roof of the floor, causing her to think, “The new year is within three days. I never thought that I would be so far from home during the holidays. I wonder: What are they doing all now? How are all of you celebrating the holidays? Are you doing the same thing while I was there? Or are you waiting for my return? How long? How many more holidays will I remain trapped here? How many holidays do we have to spend apart?” Usagi gives a silent sigh as she thinks about her friends, family, and beloved causing her to shake her head, knowing that she has to remain focused for what lies ahead of her as well as everyone else trapped in this virtual ‘death game’ and are struggling to get out.

Just then familiar female voice shouts out, “Hey, girl! What are you doing out here by yourself?” Usagi turns to the source of the voice to find the Digital Knights, the third official guild of Aincrad, walking over to her.

Usagi says, “Oh, hey.”

Juniper says, with a smile, “This is shock. You, by yourself.”

Usagi says, “Technically, I’m a solo player just like Kirito. I’m just working with Kirito and Asuna for the time being.”

Miyako says, with a smile, “Whatever you say girl.”

Takeru asks, curiously, “Speaking of whom, where are Kirito and Asuna?”

Usagi says, “The two of them are practicing outside of town.”

Yamato asks, curiously, “Practicing? Practicing what?”

Usagi gets a bit nervous and after several second, she responds, nervously, “Well…PvP combat.”

There are looks of surprise causing Sam to ask, in surprise, “Wait! What?”

Usagi says, nervously, “Kirito told me that back during the beta that a lot of PK happened on this floor.”

Miyako says, a bit nervously, “Come on! With things the way that they are, no one would think about engaging in such things since dying in here is dying for real!”

Taichi says, with a plain tone, “I wouldn’t even think that Miyako.” Everyone looks at Taichi causing him to say, “Back IRL, it is against the law to kill anyone unless it is for self-defense and yet, we hear about a TON of murders all the time. They may not start right now, because we’ve only managed to make up to the fifth floor at this point, but…”

Juniper says, stunned, “You can’t be serious!”

Taichi says, with a very serious tone, “I am serious. Plus, there is a fact that you should know. We don’t know how much that the people outside of SAO know on what’s going on here.” There are looks of surprise from the rest of the Digital Knights causing Taichi to say, with his very serious tone, “That’s right. We don’t know how much the people back IRL know on what’s going on here. They can get data from the servers, but since the servers are far from their control, if they had control, then they would be able to get us out of here, we don’t know how much information on what’s happening here is getting out.”

Sam says, with a nod, “I hate to admit it, but Taichi is right. We can’t be sure how much information is getting out IRL. Which means…”

Yamato says, gaining a serious expression himself, “…that anyone could commit murder and not get tried for it if they survived when we get out of this place.”

There are gasps of shock causing Usagi to say, stunned, “No way!”

Sam says, with a sigh, “I hate to say it, but it is possible since we don’t know how much information of what’s happening here it getting back to everyone else IRL. Plus, while it is good to hope for everyone’s morals, it seems like that they can change when they get ‘into character’ when they start playing MMORPG games. There are plenty of people that wear a ‘mask’ to conform with society, but they ‘unmask’ themselves when playing MMORPG games.”
Taichi says, with a nod and a sigh, “While I hope that it isn’t the case, Kirito training Asuna in a bit of PvP shows that he is being cautious and rightfully so.”

Usagi thinks about something where she says, in her thoughts, “Should I tell them? Kirito, Asuna, and I are keeping this information from even Argo to make sure that she doesn’t get put into danger.” Usagi can’t help to feel thankful that her special hooded cloak keeps her face hidden even from players at ‘point blank range’ look straight at her face that’s hiding the fact that she looks to be deep in thought and concern from the Digital Knights. Usagi takes a deep breath causing her to say, “Everyone…” When the Digital Knights looks at Usagi, she asks, “Do you remember what happened at the third floor with the Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights?”

Miyako says, irritated, “Don’t we ever.”

Sam says, with a nod, “Oh, yeah. Him.”

Takeru says, with a serious tone, “Morte.”

Juniper says, with a nod and sigh, “Right. You told us about him after the third floor boss.”

Taichi says, with a nod, “He’s dangerous. He attempted to kill Kirito without becoming an orange player by using the duel system. Despite it being on ‘half-finish’, he exploited a loophole that could still kill Kirito if Morte managed to one-shot him.”

Miyako asks, annoyed, “What is wrong with that guy?”

Juniper retorts, plainly, “Sounds pretty much nuts to me.”

Yamato says, with a plain tone, “Maybe. But he also proven very clever since he organized that ‘incident’ to cause the Liberation Squad and Dragon Knights to go into ‘conflict’ which was BARELY avoided.”

Usagi says, “Thanks to your help.”

Takeru says, with a smile, “It’s no problem.”

Taichi says, “We really don’t like those guys, but despite their problems, they are the main ‘force’ that driving us forward and as much as I hate to admit, they had a point about driving forward. We need to keep going forward to get out of here. We can’t stay here forever. Our bodies will only last so long assisted by the hospitals. Also, if we ‘stagnate’ again, we could be seeing what happened during the first month of this ‘death game’ start again and we can’t have that.” Usagi and the rest of the Digital Knights nod their heads in agreement with Taichi.

Usagi thinks at this moment, solemnly, “I’m not sure that my heart can take it.”

Taichi asks Usagi, “On that note, is there anything else that you need to tell us?”

Usagi gives a mental sigh causing her to think, “All right, here goes.” Usagi tells Taichi in reply, “It isn’t a fact. It is just a theory, but…I think that you remember that ‘upgrade scam’, right?”

Miyako responds, “Who can forget that?”

Usagi says, a bit nervously, “Well, the Legend Braves didn’t come up with the idea themselves.” The Digital Knights are surprised by this statement and then Usagi tells them about what she, Kirito, and Asuna learned including the fact that someone, a player, in a dark poncho was the one that explained to them the method of the upgrade scam as well as what Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi believed his reasoning behind him telling the Legend Braves on how to perform the scam in the first place.

When Usagi is done, Sam says, plainly, “That’s no coincidence.”

Takeru says, with a nod, “I agree. Plus, the aim of the plots is exactly the same: To turn players against each other.”

Miyako asks, curiously, “Do you think that was Morte too?”

Usagi says, “We don’t know. The player that they mentioned had similarities to Morte.”

Sam says, “I can’t be sure about that.”

Everyone else looks at Sam causing Takeru to ask, “What makes you say that?”

Sam responds, “Based on what was said, Morte had a hood with chain mail on his head while this guy sounds like he has a regular cloth hood, ‘virtual cloth hood’ anyway, over his head. Plus, based on how you were told by Nezha described him to you, he sounds like a ‘smooth talker’…someone that you can seemly automatically trust even just meeting this person. Morte, from what Kirito told us about him, doesn’t seem to have that personality. Both of them might be similar, but the way that Morte and the person that gave Legend Braves the ‘upgrade scam’, I feel that there are differences that make them two different people.”

Usagi says, solemnly, “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

Miyako asks Usagi, “What do you mean?”

Taichi says, “It means that since Morte and the ‘other guy’ are two different people, but they had plans with the exact same objective: Players turning against each other with FATAL consequences. We can’t call that a coincidence, Miyako.”

Sam says, plainly, “It means that Morte and the ‘black poncho wearer’ is working together.”

There are gasps of shock from the rest of the Digital Knights causing Takeru to ask, concerned, “Do you think that we may already have ‘criminal gang’ in Aincrad?”

Taichi says, solemnly, “I don’t want to think so, but…it might be worse than that. Based on their actions, they may be more of a ‘PK gang’ than anything if we are talking two people here. Two people performing plans with the same objective can’t be a coincidence. They have to be working together.”

Juniper asks, concerned, “What can we do?”

Yamato responds, “What can we do? Nothing much. All we have is speculation and if rumors start getting out that a PK gang is out, it could cause all sorts of panic and ‘problems’ that we can’t deal with at the moment.”
Usagi says, “Plus, there is the fact that a ‘certain someone’ might try to find information on them and I don’t want her getting in danger.”

Takeru says, with a nod, “Good point. Argo is very vital to our survival. There are a lot of ‘points’ against her due to her personality and all, but her information is the best and it has REALLY helped.”

Taichi says, nodding his head, “Agreed. If we lost Argo…I would rather not think about it.”

Yamato says, “That means that it is agreed that we keep our big mouths shut about this until we get more detailed information.”

Usagi says, with a kind tone, “Thank you.”

Juniper says, with a smirk, “No big.”

Just then a familiar male voice calls out, “Oh, it’s you! What’s up?” Everyone looks to see Kirito and Asuna walking up towards them.

Miyako tells Asuna, with a kind smile, “Hey, girl!”

Asuna tells Miyako, “Nice to see you again, Miyako.”

Miyako says, with a grin, “Same here.”

Kirito asks, with a kind smile, “Guess that means that your ‘dressing down’ of the DBK and ALS is down?”

Yamato says, with a slight nervous smile, “Well, that would be more of Miyako’s and Juniper’s ‘department’ and yeah, they’re done.”

Asuna asks, curiously with a smile, “Think they learned their lesson?”

Juniper says, with a sigh, “With their thick skulls? Can’t be so sure about that.”

Kirito says, a bit nervously, “Hopefully, they can adapt and become smarter.”

Usagi says, with a nod of her head, “We can only hope, Kirito.”

Taichi asks Kirito and Asuna, “Anyway, Usagi said that the two of you were training, right?”

Kirito and Asuna get a bit nervous causing Juniper says, with a smile, “We already know about Morte, remember? Usagi also already mentioned that you told her that this place was infamous for PK groups back in the beta.”

Kirito says, with a nod and a slight nervous expression, “Oh, yeah.”

Asuna says, with a sigh, “We hope that it won’t be the case.”

Taichi says, with a nod, “Same here, but there is a saying: ‘Hope for the best, however, be prepared for the worst’.”

Kirito says, “Wise words.”

Usagi thinks in her mind, curiously, “I’ll say. It sounds like they have experience in this kind of thing before.”

Kirito then asks the Digital Knights, curiously, “By the way, have you’ve seen the ALS or DKB around?”

Miyako asks, curiously, “Why do you want to see them?”

Sam asks Kirito, “Morte, right?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yeah. I hoped to find one of the more reasonable members and ask about Morte. He wasn’t part of the third or the last floor boss fight, so, I was hoping to see if he was still part of either guild as well as what they know about his history.”

Miyako says, nodding her head, “That sounds like a reasonable idea, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up.”

Taichi says, with a nod, “A sleaze like that knows how to ‘cover his bases’.”

Kirito asks, curiously, “Personal experience?”

Sam says, “Long story.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “I understand.”

Taichi says, “Anyway, we’re going to start exploring the ruins.”

Kirito tells Taichi, “Be careful.”

Taichi says, with a grin, “No big!”

The Digital Knights start to take off and when they are gone, Asuna asks, curiously, “Shouldn’t we have told the full story of what happened with the Legend Braves?”

Usagi gains a slight nervous look where Kirito says, shaking his head, “There is no need. They already realize that there could be PK gang forming in this Aincrad.”

Asuna asks, surprised, “Really?”

Kirito says, “Believe it or not, I believe that they have been through something like this before. And I don’t mean being stuck in a ‘virtual death game’. What I mean is that they had experience facing life or death situations.”

Asuna asks, curiously, “What makes you say that?”

Kirito tells Asuna, “I’m not an expert on this, believe me, but they seem to be really capable people in handling this whole ‘death game’ situation. They are masterfully getting through this without missing a beat. It is like…most of them seem to be ‘in their element’ in this life and death situation.”

Asuna asks, curiously, “In their element?”

Usagi asks Kirito, curiously, “Like they are well-knowledgeable about this type of situation?”
Kirito says, with a shrug, “Yeah, it seems so. I know that it doesn’t make sense…”

Asuna then says, interrupting, “Actually, you do have a point.”

Kirito asks Asuna, curiously, “Really?”

Asuna says, shaking her head, “Let’s forget about that!” Asuna tells Usagi, with a smile, “Usagi, you must be starving! Let’s get something to eat.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Okay.”
Asuna tells Kirito, with a smile, “Okay, Kirito, since this floor seems to be similar to what you experienced in the beta, find us a restaurant that’s good, not crowded, and clean!”

Kirito says, with a sigh, “That’s a tall order.” Kirito then goes into deep thought and after several second, he says, with a grin, “All right, I think that I know just the place.”

(A brief time afterwards; Elsewhere)

Now, we find Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi looking at a door set into the stone wall at the end of a narrow alley in which the door has lanterns set of either side of the door with a small sign planted in front. Usagi can see that the sign says: ‘Tavern Inn Blink and Brink’.

Asuna says, curiously, “Blink and Brink? Let’s see, I know the word ‘blink’ in English, but I’m not sure about the other one…”

Usagi tells Asuna, “I know what it means, Asuna. That makes feel that this would make a good place to be in as long as we are careful.”

Asuna asks Usagi, curiously, “What do you mean by that Usagi?”

Kirito says, with a smile, “You’ll see inside” As they prepare to enter the door, Asuna notices a small warning in Japanese that says: ‘Warning! Don’t race into the building.’

When Usagi notices that Asuna sees the warning, Usagi tells Asuna, “Something tells me that it is a good reason for that.” When Kirito opens the door, a gust of wind emerged from inside causing Asuna to turn away. After entering into the building, the three of them find a square terrace with wooden repairs placing stone ruins, a large countryside window, and a railing ahead and to the right of the terrace, but what Asuna is amazed at is what is beyond the railing where she sees the night’s sky with endless sea of clouds below the railing.

Asuna asks, stunned and confused, “What is this?”

Kirito says, with a sly smile, “That would be the sky.” Asuna goes over to the stomach high railing and looks at the sight before her.

After a while, Asuna regains her senses causing her to say, “Of course. ‘Brink’ as in the ‘brink of a cliff’.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Bingo.”

Asuna says, a bit nervously, “I’ve never been this close to the edge.”

Kirito says, “And not since the beta for me. There’s a jutting observation deck down in the Town of Beginnings on the first floor, but I’ve hardly been back there.”

Usagi says, “Probably for good reason.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yep.”

Asuna asks, nervously, “Just to confirm: What happens if you jump over this railing?” Kirito prepares to go over to the railing, but Usagi grabs him by his collar to hold him back.

Usagi tells Kirito, a bit annoyed, “Don’t even try it, mister.”
Kirito asks Usagi, curiously, “What?”

Usagi tells Kirito, sternly, “Don’t ‘what’ me, Kirito? You were going to look down the edge while making sure that you stay safe, but enough to freak Asuna out!” Asuna gives Kirito an annoyed look at Usagi’s comment where Usagi tells Asuna, “It is basically simple: You leap off the edge, it is an automatic ‘game over’. Normally, you would just ‘revive’ back at Blackiron Palace…if this was a normal MMORPG.”

Asuna says, “But this isn’t a normal MMORPG game.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Right, Asuna. That means that you go over this…you are dead meat, literally.” Usagi asks, with a solemn tone, “You did hear about what happened to the first person to officially die here, right?”

Asuna nods her head, solemnly, causing her to say, “Right.”

Kirito says, “Anyway, you don’t have to worry. These railings and terrace are indestructible objects so they’re much safer than they would be in the real world.”

Usagi says, “That may be, but doesn’t mean that you are ABSOUTELY safe. The reason that sign is at the door means that if you race inside, you may not be able to stop in time and this might cause you to flip over itself.”

Asuna says, nodding her head, “Then it is a good idea to follow the sign.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Big time.”

Asuna says, “Come on, let’s eat. Since we’re here, we might as well eat on the terrace.”

Usagi says, with a smile, “Sounds great.”

Kirito says, “Of course. The outside tables were a huge hit during the beta, mostly for dates. You have no idea how lonely it was to wolf down food for the buff effect surrounded by those types.”

Usagi asks Kirito, teasingly, “Personal experience, Kirito?”

Kirito gains a major flush on his cheeks causing him to say, nervously, “N-No!” Asuna and Usagi giggles at Kirito’s embarrassment as the three of them sit down at a table to prepare to eat while Usagi looks out towards the sky.

Usagi thinks in her mind, with a solemn smile, “This is so beautiful. It makes it seem that this isn’t a lethal ‘death trap’ that was set up by someone that I trusted so much…” Usagi then mentally slaps herself to make sure that doesn’t go into a ‘dark place’ an NPC waitress comes over to take the order of the three of them.

After they are done and the waitress leaves to get their orders, Asuna says, “When you come up to a new floor, you don’t know what all the foods are like, so, it feels like you are gambling when you order.”

Kirito tells Asuna, “You sound pretty decisive to me.”

Asuna responds, “I did my best to avoid the new sounding names.”

Usagi says, “Well, I think that it is a good experience to try new things at least once. If you don’t like it, you don’t get it again.”

Asuna tells Usagi, “I’m not as adventurous as you, Usagi.”

Usagi asks Kirito, “By the way, did you order the limited-supply buff item?”

Kirito replies, with a nod, “Yep.”

Asuna asks Kirito, curiously, “What effect does it have?”

Kirito responds, with a grin, “I’ll leave it to you, two, to figure it out.” Asuna glares at Kirito and a short time afterwards, the food arrives causing Usagi to lick her lips. On the meanwhile, Kirito pulls the cork out of the wine bottle where he pours a golden liquid into Asuna’s glass, but when he does it for Usagi, the wine ‘turns’ into a pink and bubbling liquid.

Asuna asks, with shock as she saw that, “What kind of trick is that?”

Kirito replies, as he pours a rose colored liquid into his glass, “It isn’t a trick or sleight of hand at all.”

Usagi says, realizing something, “Oh, I get it. That’s why it’s called ‘ficklewine’.”

Kirito says, with a smile, “Exactly, Usagi. The wine changes at random with every pour of the glass.”

Asuna says, “By the looks of it, Usagi got sparkling rose, you got a sweet rose. And I have…” When Asuna takes a taste of the liquid in her glass causing her to say, “A dry white wine. That’s good.”

Usagi asks Asuna, curiously, “Do you have experience with wine?”

Asuna says, a bit nervously, “Just a bit…for the taste…”

Kirito asks Usagi, “What about you?”

Usagi tells Kirito, shaking her head, “No way. Until I’m legal drinking age, there is no alcohol going down my lips.”

Asuna says, with a nod, “That’s understandable.” Asuna says, “Anyway, let’s eat.” Usagi and Kirito nod their heads in agreement and all three of them eat the meals given to them. When they are done, the waitress brings out the desert which looks like to regular blueberry tarts.

Usagi asks Kirito, “Is this the limited buff dish?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yep.”

Asuna comments, with a plain tone, “It looks like a normal blueberry tart.”

Usagi tells Asuna, “Looks can deceiving, Asuna.”

Asuna says, with a nod of her head, “You have a point, Usagi.” Soon enough, the three of them start to eat the seemly regular blueberry tart causing Asuna to say, “Mmm, it is good.”

Usagi nods her head causing her to say, “Yes, it is.” After the three of them finish the tart and drank some coffee to wash down the tart, Usagi notices an unfamiliar icon on the upper left corner of her view: A square icon with the image of an open eye. Usagi says, “Well, I’ve got the buff.”

Asuna says, with a nod, “Same here. But I don’t get what it is.”

Kirito tells Asuna and Usagi, “Take a look at the terrace floor.” When Asuna and Usagi look down at the floor near the table, they notice something shining dully at the edge of the terrace. When Asuna and Usagi look at each other, they nod their heads in unison to confirm what they are seeing where Asuna stand ups and goes over to the glowing object where she picks up the glowing object.

Usagi asks Asuna, “What is it?”

Asuna tells Usagi, “Take a look, Usagi.” Asuna comes back over and shows Usagi a silver coin where it has the symbol of two trees standing next to each other showing that it wasn’t the typical coin used on Aincrad.

Usagi says, “That isn’t your typical col coin.”

Asuna responds, with a nod, “Yeah, but why was it shining?”

Kirito replies, “These ruins are made up of remains…”

Usagi asks, curiously while interrupting, “You mean the buildings and roads that make up this city?”

Kirito retorts, with a nod, “That’s right, Usagi, but there is also something else. Do either of you can get what this is?”

Asuna replies, curiously, “Artifacts?”

Kirito replies, “Close, Asuna! Actually, you are right, but the term, at least here on Aincrad anyway, is relics. Remains and relics make up these ruins and they are littered all over this place. It isn’t well-known right now, but within a day or two, there will be hundreds of players from below coming up here to scrabble for relics all over the city.”

Usagi says, with a plain tone, “Because of Argo.”

Kirito says in reply, with a nod of his head, “Or by word of mouth from information from Argo or other players that heard about it from other players.”

Asuna looks down at the floor, again, causing her to say, “Ooh, there is something else.” When Usagi looks at where Asuna is looking at, she sees a fresh glow where Asuna picks up a copper coin with the same symbol as the silver coin.

Usagi asks, amazed, “Wow, so there are these all around here?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yep, but just don’t get hooked on relic hunting. In other games, you would have a little mini-map or something with the items locations listed along with them glowing on screen, but in SAO, they are just going to be lying on the ground.”

Usagi says, realizing something, “Oh, that’s why for the buff item.”

Kirito says, with a grin, “Correct, Usagi. It gives a bonus to relic finding, but as you may realize, it only works inside and below Karluin.”

Usagi says, nodding her head, “Yeah, since this place is most likely where you would find those ‘items’ in the first place.”

Kirito says, nodding his head, “Right, Usagi. However, even with the buff, it is going to be tough to find all of the coins and jewels…”

Asuna then asks, gaining a ‘glint’ in her eyes, “Jewels?”

Kirito says, nervously, “Y-Yeah. The gold coins and jewels are super rare, so with the buff, as I already said, it is pretty difficult to find them. Even rarer are the magic rings and necklaces…”

Just then Asuna asks, excitedly, “Rings? Necklaces?!”

Kirito takes a step back from Asuna, who has ‘stars’ in her eyes, causing Usagi to think, slyly, “This is your fault, Kirito. You just said the magic words for us, girls.”

Asuna then says, with a ‘gleam’ in her eyes, “I want to hunt for relics, too.” Kirito gives a nervous look causing Asuna to ask, a bit curious and a bit annoyed look, “Is there a problem?”

Kirito says, nervously, “N-No, it’s nothing…”

Asuna tells Kirito, suspicious tone in her voice, “Then why do you look so unmotivated to do this? Knowing you, I would have thought you would recommend snatching them all up before the town got crowded.”

Usagi thinks in her mind, nervously, “Ouch! Harsh, Asuna!” Usagi says, looking at Asuna and Kirito, “Something tells me that it has to do with the beta and some ‘bad memories’.”

Kirito says, nervously, “That’s one way of putting it.”

Usagi says, “And knowing you, it has to do with the area below outside of the ‘safe zone’ in town where it is now very dangerous for us.”

Kirito says, with a winch, “Blunt and to the point.”

Usagi thinks in her mind, nervously, “Yipe! I think that I’m start to act the more serious members of the Scouts…maybe even like Luna…that’s a scary thought.”

Asuna asks, “Well, we’ll be okay if we stick to town, right?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yeah, that’s okay.”

Usagi asks Kirito, looking at the ‘relics’ in Asuna’s hands, “By the way, how do we cash in these coins?”

Kirito says, “There is an NPC exchange merchant in town.”

Usagi says, “Okay. Then let’s go around town and search for relics using this helpful buff.”
Asuna says, with a nod, “Okay.” Asuna asks Kirito, “By the way, how long does this buff last?”

Kirito says, with a smile, “There’s no need to panic. We have an entire hour.”

Asuna asks, annoyed, “You mean only an hour?!” Asuna then asks, curiously, “Oh, right! One more thing, can you order those tarts for takeout?”

Kirito replies, “Unfortunately, the buff only works if you eat it in the restaurant. Just one per customer, thirty made a day.”

Usagi says, with a nod of her head in understanding, “Figure that much. That would have made plenty of ‘holes’ for players to exploit. It is never that easy.”

Kirito tells Usagi, nodding his head in agreement, “You got that right, Usagi.”

Usagi says, “Anyway, we should take this time to use this buff while we can.”

Asuna says, with a nod, “You’re right, Usagi.” Asuna says, looking around, “But I’m not seeing anymore…”

Usagi tells Asuna, with a kind tone, “They wouldn’t put too many of those in easy and safe places like here, Asuna.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Right. And there aren’t too many relics on the pathways. The best places to go, around here, are the open plazas, temples, and really ruined spots that residences don’t use.”

Asuna asks, curiously, “And when you pick up a relic, that’s it?”

Kirito replies, plainly, “Back in the beta, whenever they had taken down the server down for maintenance and ‘restart’ afterwards, they would always come back, but since SAO started for real, there’s never been any kind of service period when they stop the sever…”

Asuna asks, curiously, “What do they do when they do that?”

Kirito replies, “They check the software and hardware for damage, fix or replace it if they find something, update the program with bug fixes, and then restart the server…Well, that’s what I think.”

Asuna responds, curiously, “So there’s lots of stuff that they do. And that’s necessary, right? How is this place fine running for two months without maintenance?”

Kirito says, with a shrug, “Sadly, I don’t know.”

Usagi says, solemnly, “I might have an idea.” When Kirito and Asuna look at Usagi, she tells them, “Remember I have been at Argus plenty of times myself and I’ve heard things. The SAO servers are quite advanced and I’ve heard things…rumors anyway that my u-Kayaba designed an advanced ‘check-up’ program that could keep an eye on the game, check for ‘bugs’, ‘virus’, and the like, repair ‘damage’, and update the software all on its own.”

Kirito and Asuna gasp in shock causing Kirito to ask, amazed, “Really?”

Usagi says, with a nod, “That’s right. From what I know, SAO was designed to have very little human ‘interference’ in maintaining itself. He also designed very advanced firewalls and other ‘defenses’ to prevent hacking. Trust me, I’ve heard plenty from the people at Argus that he had professional hackers attempt to break through that they couldn’t get past the first wall of ‘defenses’.”
Kirito says, with a sigh, “Geez! Which means that the government is going to be hard-pressed to get any information if they are getting it at all. Most likely, Kayaba is only allowing them information that he is allowing them to get off the servers.”

Asuna asks Usagi, “So, based on what you know, Kayaba designed this place to be ‘self-sufficient’?”

Usagi replies, with a sigh, “I can’t be completely sure, but from what I heard, much of the maintenance of SAO, software wise anyway, can be handled by the program designed to maintain this place.”

Kirito says, plainly, “I really don’t have a clue on how a program could even work, but with someone like Kayaba, I can see him designed an advanced program to handle software maintenance in SAO, but I’m not sure how hardware maintenance can be helped…”

Usagi says, with a solemn tone, “Kayaba had created the servers himself and he made sure that they were custom-made with the best of the best materials you can get. He made them to last.”

Kirito says, with a sigh, “Of course…”

Asuna says, “Anyway, let’s just say that any relic that gets picked up will never reappear on the ground.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Potentially.”

Asuna says, “In that case, it’s even more important that we don’t waste our time!” Asuna tells Usagi, “We’ll split up. Usagi, you take half of the city. I’ll go with Kirito to take the rest.”

Usagi says, with a nod and a bit of nervous tone, “Right.”
Asuna tells Kirito, “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” Soon after, Asuna takes off with Usagi and Kirito following close behind her.

(Sometime afterwards; Elsewhere)

Underneath the town, we find the Digital Knights assembled outside of what seems like a little chapel with a long line of benches and next to a wall in back that there is an eerie-looking crumbling statues with plenty of candles all over the area to provide some light. Miyako and Juniper are breathing heavily with Miyako shaking quite a bit.

Miyako says, nervously, “I am so glad that’s over!”

Juniper says, with a nervous nod and tone, “No kidding, girlfriend!”

Taichi says, with a kind smile, “Come on! It wasn’t that bad!”

Miyako and Juniper glare at Taichi causing Miyako to say, annoyed, “Maybe for you!”

Taichi flinches from the two female members glares causing Yamato to say, “You should know better, Taichi. You know how girls are with ghosts.”

Miyako and Juniper glare at Yamato, now, causing Juniper to retort, annoyed, “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Yamato yelps at the two female players’ glares causing Takeru to ask Miyako, “Was it really that bad?”

Sam tells Miyako, “You have faced Bakemon before.”

Miyako tells Sam, seriously while still looking a little pale, “Yeah, but those are Digimon! DIGIMON! They can be hurt and deleted, but true ghosts can’t!”

Takeru tells Miyako, “Technically, they are called ‘astral monsters’.”

Juniper shouts out, interrupting Takeru with an annoyed and nervous tone, “That wasn’t an astral monster! Astral monsters can be fought, hit with attacks, hurt, and defeated! Whatever that was, it can’t!”

Sam says, with a nervous tone in his voice, “Well, you do have a point…”

Miyako says, exasperated, “No more of these quests for a while! I’m already exhausted!”

Juniper says, with a nod, “I’m with you, girlfriend! I’m going to the inn!” Miyako nods her head in which the two female players take off in which the rest of the Digital Knights follow the two of them nervously.

Takeru asks Taichi and Yamato, with a whisper, “You think that Kirito will have an easier time with this quest?”

Yamato whispers to Takeru, with a slight nervous tone, “Let’s not jinx him, okay?” Takeru nods his head in agreement in which they continue off, not noticing that some distance away, human shaped figures were watching them.

(On the meanwhile; Back with Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi)

Returning to Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi, the three of them have gotten back together after the buff ran out causing their ‘treasure hunting’ to be done in which Kirito just sneezes.

Usagi says, “Bless you, Kirito.”

Kirito says, “Thank you, Usagi. That was weird. You shouldn’t get colds in VR.”

Asuna tells Kirito, “Maybe someone was talking about you.”

Kirito says, with a sigh, “Probably.”

Usagi asks, “Anyway, what did we get?”

Kirito says, “Well, basically, we have thirty-one copper coins that worth ten col each. Twelve silver coins that are worth a hundred col each. Three small gold coins that are worth five hundred col each. Two large gold coins that are worth one thousand col each. Four gems of fairly good quality. Two necklaces with magical effects, two bracelets of a similar nature, and four rings that are like the necklaces and rings. We’re going to need to get the gems, necklaces, bracelets, and rings appraised, but the total amount of the coins is a little over five thousand col. That’s good for an hour’s work.”

Asuna says, with a smile, “Cool.” Asuna then says, with a sigh, “I can see the dangers of getting addicted with this.”

Kirito responds, with a nod, “Right? In the beta, there were people who gave up on leveling altogether and just turned into expert relic collectors. We called them ‘hoarders’ out of respect.”

Usagi says, nervously, “Kirito, it doesn’t seem like a respective term to me…”

Asuna says, with a nervous tone and nod of her head, “I agree, Usagi.”

Usagi tells Asuna, “If you are feeling guilty about clearing out the town, you don’t need to be. Usually, in games like these, this is just the ‘small stuff’.”

Asuna asks, surprised, “Seriously?!”

Usagi says, with a nod, “That’s right. As an expert MMO gamer myself, I know, for a fact, developers wouldn’t put the best stuff in the ‘easy areas’ for players to get to.”

Kirito says, nodding his head in agreement, “Below us, there are enormous catacombs…basically, it is a dungeon. And that’s where the best stuff is!”

Asuna asks, surprised and shocked, “Huh?!”

Usagi tells Asuna, with a nod, “It is where developers put the best stuff in games like this one. In fact, it is a staple of all RPG games. The best items found are usually found in ‘hard to reach places’ like in dungeons.”

Kirito says, “Which is where most likely the DKB and ALS are. They must be there hunting for treasures to fill their war chests. That’s why we don’t see them around here.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Probably.” With these statements, Asuna wanted to ‘attack’ Kirito and Usagi out of annoyance, but then she calmed down trying to rid her of her guilt.

Asuna says, “I see. Well, it makes me feel a bit better. However, I still a bit guilty. That means that the only way to get any ‘good treasure’ is to go out of the safe zone since people like us have picked the ‘safe zones’ clean.”

Kirito tells Asuna, with a smile, “I doubt it, Asuna. There are temples and areas all over town and like you implied, we couldn’t get everything in an hour, so, there should be plenty of stuff left around here for other players.”

Usagi says, with a sigh, “However, I doubt that there will be anything like what happened in the beta. To get stay at least in a modicum of comfort while we are stuck here, like those still in the Town of Beginnings, you are going to need to earn some money and as we have been talking about, we don’t know if the relics around here are gone permanently after we pick them up.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yeah, Usagi. They are going to need to find more reliable sources of income.”

Asuna says, with a nod and solemn tone, “You, two, have a point…” Asuna shakes her head causing her to say, “Anyway, let’s get these appraised!”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Okay.” The three of them head off to find an NPC merchant to use their Appraisal skill to identity the currently unidentified relics that they have in their possession. That wasn’t too hard in which they found the jewels are C-level stones that are worth around 750 col each, one of the necklaces had a +3 to the Recitation skill, which is useless to them, another necklace with +2 Crafting skill, which is no use to them, one bracelet had +4 to the Mixing Skill, and one of the two rings had 1 percent boost to stun skill, but the other bracelet and last ring were different. One bracelet granted the user the ability of ‘Night Vision’, which is obvious, and the ring had an unfamiliar effect called Candlepower. Usagi says, looking at the bracelet, “Night Vision? In place like this, this will come in handy.”

Asuna says, with a nod, “I’ll bet.”

Kirito says, “That along with the Candlepower ring.”

Usagi and Asuna look at Kirito causing Usagi to ask, “How so?”

Kirito says, with a sly smile, “You are going to need to equip it to find out.”

Asuna asks, a bit suspiciously, “Why don’t you equip it?”

Kirito says, displaying a ring around the ring finger of each hand, “I already have two rings on my hands.”

Usagi says, with a sly tone, “And unless he finds another one with benefits that he wants, he won’t be replacing those anytime soon.”

Kirito gives a nervous smile causing Asuna to say, “Okay, I will.” Asuna then puts the ring onto her right hand while Usagi equips the bracelet in which they sell off for 9,369 col which they divide between the three of them.

Asuna then asks, curiously, “By the way, you said that there is no magic in Aincrad, right?”

Usagi says, with a nod, “That’s right, Asuna. Based on what Kizmel said, which is part of the backstory of this place, practically all magic was lost during the Great Separation with the elves only having the charms with our menus being classified as the only ‘charm’ that we have.”

Asuna says, with a nod, “Right. But what about the tart? It is basically a magical effect, right?”

Usagi responds, with a plain tone, “Well, aren’t blueberries supposed to be good for your eyes, right?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yes, they are. With two blues in the name, it must be that it is doubly good for your eyes, so, it isn’t exactly a magic effect per say…”

Asuna nods her head where she then asks, changing the subject, “So, do you think that we might see Kizmel on this floor?”

Kirito looks up and after a minute, he replies, “The flow of the campaign quest has gone way away from how it went in the beta on the fourth floor.”

Usagi says, with a plain tone, “That’s not surprising since the floor was radically different than what it was in the beta.”

Kirito says, nodding his head in agreement, “That’s right. Also, General N’ltzahh and Viscount Yofilis didn’t exist either.”

Usagi asks, curiously, “So, it means that while this floor isn’t too much different from the beta, it doesn’t mean the campaign quest isn’t radically different from what it was in the beta on this floor?”

Kirito responds, nodding his head, “Bingo, Usagi. So, it means that I can’t be sure of anything anymore, but I’m truly hoping that we do meet Kizmel soon.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “So do I.”

Asuna says, nodding her head in agreement with Usagi, “Same here.”

Kirito says, “Though we might meet her sooner than we think. Remember, we have to get our rewards from the viscount before we go through this floor in earnest.”

Asuna says, with a nod of recognition, “Oh, yeah. I remember.”

Usagi asks Kirito, “But Kirito, isn’t our boat back at the viscount’s residence? How are we going to get there?”

Kirito says, with a shrug, “I guess that we need to make another boat.”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Yeah, I guess so.” Usagi tells Asuna, “However, let’s make a regular boat this time. I would rather not take on that bear that’s SO NOT a bear, again.”

Asuna says, a bit annoyed, “Okay.”

Kirito says, with a smile, “Okay, let’s go.” Soon enough, Usagi, Asuna, and Kirito head off to return to the fourth floor to return to Yofel Castle to get their rewards for completing the previous stage of the Elf War campaign quest.

December 29, 2022, SAO/Aincrad, Floor 5, Karluin

The following day, we find the Digital Knights assembled outside of an inn within Karluin with Miyako and Juniper giving a great yawn.

Takeru asks, curiously, “Feeling better?”

Miyako says, plainly, “Peachy.”

Taichi asks, “Ready for another day in the catacombs?”

Juniper says, annoyed, “As long as we don’t do any ‘ghost quests’, it is fine by me.”

Yamato says, “Well, there is going to be more than ghosts here. There might be skeletons, zombies, and…”

Miyako says, with a stern glare, “We can handle those! They don’t give us a problem in the least! Okay, they are creepy and scary, but you can do something about them! You can use blast them with guns…you can blow them up with bombs…you can slice and dice them with swords, axes, knives, and any other bladed weapon! They can be destroyed!”

Juniper says, with a nod, “Yeah! Ghosts can’t be destroyed! They are immaterial! You can’t destroy them with any physical weapons at all!”

Sam says, “They do have a points. Ghosts are like energy and science says that energy can’t be destroyed or created just changed.”

Miyako says, with a nod, “Exactly! Any other ‘undead’, you can do something about them! With ghosts, you can’t! Unless you are the Ghostbusters or something like that!”

Takeru says, with a smile, “Yeah, I don’t think that they have ‘proton packs’ in this world.”

As the sounds of thunder are being heard in the sky AKA the ceiling of this floor, Miyako and Juniper glare at Takeru causing Taichi to think in his mind, with a solemn sigh, “Who are you going to call?”

(Sometime afterwards)

Sometime later on, we find ourselves at the central ‘plaza’ of Karluin, the area around the teleport gate, in the middle of a rainstorm with Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi in the middle of it.

Asuna asks, curiously, “Rain?”

Usagi says, with a nod, “Yep.”

Kirito tells Usagi, “How is your cloak doing?”

Usagi tells Kirito, “Fine, Kirito. Remember, I took it with me into raging river.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Oh, yeah. Good point.”

Asuna says, annoyed, “Well, some of us don’t have a waterproof cloak like you!”

Usagi says, with a nervous tone, “It is more like ‘water resistant’ and it doesn’t completely cover me…!!”

Asuna says, sternly, “Shelter! Now!”

Kirito says, “Asuna has a good point! If we get too wet, we’ll get hit with a movement restriction penalty and while we’re in the safe zone, it will be a pain in the butt, it will also take time for our clothing to dry!”

Usagi asks Kirito, “Any ideas?!”

Kirito says, “Follow me!” Immediately, Kirito races off with Asuna and Usagi behind where they enter a large ruin within a large plaza in which, when they enter, they descend a dark, dank catacomb with a large staircase.

Asuna asks, curiously, “What is this place?”

Usagi thinks in her mind, “I have a feeling…”

Kirito tells Asuna in reply, “The entrance to the underground catacombs I mentioned. There are other entrances, I guess, but this is the main one.”

Asuna asks, “And there are quests that we can complete here?”

Kirito says, with a nod, “A whole lot.” Kirito then brings out his player window, sets it in visible mode to allow Asuna and Usagi to see, and this causes him to say, “There is the ‘Little Lost Jenny’ where you search for a girl’s lost puppy, kitty, or whatever…”

Usagi asks Kirito, “Not a ‘pet person’, Kirito.”

Kirito says, with a mild blush, “No…it is just I think that I’m not the right kind of person to take care of a pet.”

Asuna says, with a grin, “That’s for sure.”

Kirito gives a mild annoyed look at Asuna, but he then says, with a sigh, “You have a point.” Going back to his list of quests, Kirito tells Asuna and Usagi, “This next one, ‘The Tasteless Collector’ involves finding a certain type of relic…”

Usagi then comments, interrupting Kirito, “Tasteless Collector, huh? It doesn’t sound really encouraging to me.”

Asuna says, nodding her head in agreement, “I agree, Usagi. Something tells me that it is going to be a pain.”

Kirito thinks in his mind, with a sigh, “You have no idea…” Kirito then says, “And then there is the ‘Thirty-Year Lament’ is where you have to find some kind of evil spirit…!!!”

Asuna and Usagi gain really nervous looks on their faces, though Usagi’s face, thanks to her special hood can’t be seen by Kirito and Asuna, causing Asuna to yell out, nervously, “Nyet!”

After several moments, Kirito asks, nervously, “What was that ‘Nyet’ sound?”

Asuna responds, “It means ‘no’ in Russian.”

Kirito asks, nervously, “Why did you say no?”

Asuna was about to speak, but Usagi tells Kirito, nervously, “That would be because she is worried about me, Kirito.”

Kirito and Asuna look at Usagi causing Kirito to ask, “You? Why?”

Usagi tells Kirito, nervously, “Astral type monsters and me…don’t mix.”

Kirito’s and Asuna’s eyes grow wide causing Kirito say, with a slight nod, “I-I see.”

Asuna then says, in a hasty manner, “Hey, I know what you are thinking, Kirito! I’ll have you know that it is common thing for girls to be afraid of ghosts or ‘astral things’, you know? I mean: Is it show shocking to be freaked out by something like? I…I know plenty of girls that are afraid of ghosts!”

Kirito says, nervously, “R-Right…”

Usagi says, plainly, “Plus, with other ‘undead’ creatures, you can do something about them. You can destroy them, but you can’t destroy a ghost.”

Asuna says, in a hasty tone, “That’s right, Usagi! That’s right! You normally can’t destroy ghosts with swords or any type of blades as well as any type of ‘physical attack’! It is no wonder why girls like us freak out!”

Usagi thinks in her mind, nervously, “Just like YOU and me, Asuna.”

Asuna says, “A-Anyway, let’s get going!”

Kirito says, a bit nervously, “Y-Yes, ma’am.” Asuna leads the way into the catacombs while Kirito and Usagi follow her down into the catacombs with Asuna, in her mind, planning to thank Usagi for obvious reasons.

(A good time afterwards; Elsewhere)

Elsewhere within the catacombs, we find the Digital Knights in front of a female ‘monster’ that looks like a ghostly woman with long, stringy hair and a scrawny form in which she wails as she shatters into hundreds of data pixels.

Miyako and Juniper give a sigh of relief causing Miyako to say, “Glad that’s over.”

Takeru says, “You handle yourselves quite well.”

Juniper says, annoyed, “Well, it was a monster and not a ghost! Ghosts don’t have red cursors and HP bars on them!”

Miyako says, with a nod, “That’s right. That’s why these are more…tolerable.”

Taichi says, with a nod and a slight nervous look, “Got you.” Miyako and Juniper give Taichi a glare in which the males of the Digital Knights look at each other and prepare to move on, but Miyako and Juniper suddenly stop in their tracks.

Sam asks Miyako, concerned, “What is it?”

Miyako replies, “This is going to sound strange, but for some reason, I’m feeling really sympathetic to Asuna and Usagi right now.”

Juniper tells Miyako, surprised and curious tone in her voice, “You too? I’m getting the same feeling. I’m starting to feel really sorry for the two of them.”

Takeru says, “Why would you start to feel sorry for them? Sorry to sound ‘harsh’, I’m just saying: What could cause them ‘distress’? They are among the top players and they have Kirito with them.”

Miyako says, with a nod, “Yeah, you have a point.” Just then Miyako and Juniper glance in a certain direction and yelp as they see a ‘shadow’ that vanishes into the distance.

Juniper asks, confused, “What the?!”

Yamato asks, curiously and surprised, “What’s wrong?”

Miyako says, pointing in the direction where they saw the ‘shadow’, “There! It was over there!”

When the male members of the Digital Knights look in the same direction, Sam says, “I don’t see anything.”

Takeru says, with a plain tone, “Me neither.”

Miyako says, “We were sure that there was something there!”

Yamato asks Miyako and Juniper, “Are you sure that you are okay?”

Juniper asks Yamato, annoyed, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Yamato gives a flinch causing Sam to say, “He didn’t mean anything by that. However, while you are handling the astral monsters well-enough, you might be a bit ‘unnerved’ and this atmosphere doesn’t help at all.”

Miyako says, with a nod, “You said it. This place just gives me the creeps.”

Taichi says, “Maybe we should move on before another monster spawns.”
Takeru says, pointing ahead, “Too late.” Everyone looks in the direction that Takeru is pointing and they find a duplicate of the same astral monster that they just defeated which is called Mournful Wraith in which they draw their weapons as well as get into defensive positions with Miyako and Juniper taking REALLY DEEP breathes to calm themselves as they prepare to fight.

(Sometime afterwards; Back in the main town)

Returning to Karluin proper, we find ourselves on the second floor of the Blink and Brink restaurant and inn, where the second floor acts as the inn portion, where we find Kirito exiting out an inn room causing him to think about what he is planning to do.

After Kirito, Usagi, and Asuna entered the catacombs, the first quest that they got into was, much to Asuna’s and Usagi’s fears, the ‘Thirty-Year Lament’ quest where Asuna showed her obvious fear of ghosts, by screaming when she saw the ‘ghost’. After completing that quest, the three of them completed two more, non-horror, quests where they went back to the Blink and Brink for food. While they ate, Kirito attempted to contact Argo through a friend message, but found that it wouldn’t send, which only happens if Argo was in a dungeon or…worse. They didn’t want to consider the second possibility, but the idea was in their mind since Kirito explained that Argo could be going to get information about the area boss, which will allow easy access from Karluin to the next town via an underground shortcut passage. While Kirito believes that Argo can take care of herself, there is still that ‘idea’ nagging on his mind in which he decides to make sure that she is okay though he feels that this selfish venture isn’t working risking Usagi’s and Asuna’s lives.

However, as Kirito prepares to leave, when he turns away from the door, he is shocked to find Usagi standing right in front of him causing Kirito to nearly yelp in surprise.

Usagi tells Kirito, “I thought that you were going to do this.”

Kirito says, nervously, “Um…”

Usagi sighs where she says to Kirito, “Just don’t. Let’s go find Argo together.”

Kirito asks, curiously, “Without telling Asuna?”

Usagi says, with a sigh, “We better go before I change my mind.”

Kirito says, nervously, “R-Right…” Kirito and Usagi then take off at high speed, not knowing that said third member had seen them and was going through her menu to put on her clothing and equipment to follow them. Later on, the two of them are together within the catacombs, the second level, where they are walking along until Kirito then notices that Asuna’s HP bar has dropped by ten percent of her total HP. Kirito then asks, surprised, “What the?!”

Usagi asks Kirito, curiously, “What’s wrong?”

Kirito tells Usagi, “Usagi, look at Asuna’s HP bar!” When Usagi does so, her eyes widen at what she sees.

Usagi says, worriedly, “Her HP bar has gone down!”

Kirito says, worriedly, “That means that I haven’t been seeing things. That’s not good.”
Usagi asks Kirito, worriedly, “How could this have happened?”

Kirito says, “Either she accepted a duel from someone in town or…have followed us into the catacombs.”

Usagi says, nervously and worriedly, “She must have seen us.”
Kirito says, with a nod, “Yep.”

Usagi says, worriedly, “We’ve got find her! She could be trouble!”

Kirito tells Usagi, “Hold on! Look at her HP bar. It hasn’t gone down from when I first saw her lose HP.” When Usagi looks at Asuna’s HP bar on the left side of her vision, she realizes that Kirito is right causing him to say, “Most likely, she fell down a trap door and she is at the next level down.”

Usagi says, “Then let’s go, Kirito! She may need help!”

Kirito thinks in his mind, with a nod, “Especially with astral type monsters, but unlike the ‘specter’ in the quest, the ones down here CAN hurt her!” Immediately, Kirito and Usagi race off to get down to the third floor of the catacombs, which is where Asuna is most likely is. They race on, cutting through monsters in their path, and Usagi following Kirito, who is using his beta knowledge to where the trap door led to down in this area of the catacombs based on his knowledge of the SAO beta. But then both Usagi and Kirito saw two unidentified green cursors, meaning that they were players, however, they knew that those players might not be ‘friendly’ to say the least. They slowed down and hid in an area nearby to listen in on them.

One of them says, “Hey, let me se that…Whoa, it’s heavy! Let’s look at the specs…Wow, you have got to be kidding me! Check out the attack value! It might as well be a double-handed weapon!”

Another one of them says, in a familiar voice, “Sounds cool.”

Kirito gasps in shock causing Usagi to ask, in a whisper, “What is it, Kirito?”

Kirito responds, in the same whisper level voice, “That’s Morte!”

Usagi asks Kirito, in a whisper and surprised, “Really?”

Kirito nods his head as the first ‘figure’ to talk says, “Seriously? That’s all you have to say? If you’re not interested, then give it to me!”

The second figure, now revealed to be Morte, the one that attempted to kill Kirito back on the third floor of Aincrad, tells the other figure, “Um, but you’re, like, a dagger user. Do you even have enough strength?”

The first figure responds, “If I had a weapon like this, I’d switch to being a fencer! It’s called…a Cilvaric Rapier. Damn, that’s cool!”

Kirito’s and Usagi’s eyes widen at that statement and Morte then says, “Look closer. It says ‘Chivalric.’”

The first figure says, “Who cares what the name is?! Whoa, and it’s already boosted to plus five!” With those words, Kirito prepares to confront the two of them, but Usagi holds him back.

Usagi whispers to Kirito, “Wait, Kirito! Asuna is still alive! Take a look at her HP bar.” When Kirito does so, Usagi tells Kirito, in a whisper, “Could it be possible that she dropped her rapier when she fell down and a monster took her rapier?”

Kirito thinks about it for a second, realizes something, and he says to Usagi, in a whisper, “Y-Yes, you’re right, Usagi. There is a mob down known as Sly Shrewman and they have the Robbing Skill too. That means that Asuna’s ownership has been overridden.”

Usagi says, in a whisper with a worried tone, “That’s not good.”

Kirito then realizes something else causing him to say, nervously and in a whisper level tone, “No, it isn’t. That means that she is down here without her weapon and I don’t know if she has a backup weapon like you do, Usagi. Damn! We need to get it back and fast!” Before Usagi could stop him, Kirito comes out of hiding to confront Morte and his ‘comrade’ in which Usagi follows him where Morte and the other one with him quickly notice the two of them. Usagi and Kirito notice that the one with Morte is covered head to toe in a long hooded cloak with no visible weapon in which Kirito and Usagi quickly figure that he is the dagger user which was obvious based on what Morte said talking to this player. Morte is also wearing a similar cloak over his attire as well, but the familiar one-handed sword is hanging on his waist.
Morte says, slyly, “Well…Well…Well…I always seem to run into you in the funniest places. And my, it looks like the famous ‘White Swordsman’, Kayaba’s princess, is here too.”

Usagi says, plainly, “I would appreciate if you don’t call me THAT, Morte-san.”
Morte retorts, slyly, “Ooh, she knows my name! I’m getting famous!” The dagger user tensed up, but Morte stepped in-between him and Usagi as well as Kirito causing Morte to ask ,”Mind if I as one question? How long have you been here?”

Kirito responds, plainly as day, “We just got here. Heard you, two, talking.”

Morte responds, slyly, “Well, wouldn’t you know it? I thought we were keeping it nice and quite from the main hallway, but I guess we got carried away once I acquired this nice rare loot.”

Morte gives his usual laugh where Kirito asks, “About that weapon…You said it was a Chivalric Rapier plus five, right? You’re sure about that?”

Usagi says, “A friend of ours uses that exact rapier.” The dagger user started to move, but Morte made a motion for him to stay still and silent.

Morte says, in a taunting and sly tone, “Is that so, White Swordswoman? Well, I just looted this off a looter mob. So, do I have this situation, right? You want me to return your friend’s weapon?”

Usagi thinks in her mind, “If this guy is telling the truth, it means that what I suggested did happen. And based on what Kirito mentioned about the robbing mobs of this floor, it means that Asuna’s ownership of her weapon has been transferred to him! How do we get back then?!”

Kirito says, “No, I’m not going to get on your case about that. It’s just…I have no way of judging if your words are truth or not. After all, you could have gotten the sword by duel PK-ing my partner? Right, Morte? You did try to do that with me once before.” Morte removed his hood to reveal his metal coif with its ragged hem that’s covering the top half of his face covered.

Morte says, “Oh, yes! I remember that! I wonder now that you have reinforcements over here that you plan to turn the tables, Kirito.” This results in a standoff in which Usagi knows that if anyone draw their blades, there would be a battle that would result in which if anyone strikes another player, with this being outside of a duel, it would result in them getting marked as a criminal player, also known as ‘orange player’, due to their cursor turning from green to orange, which results in them being unable to go to town and NPC getting hostile until their cursor returns to its original green color. But then, based on what Kirito told her, Usagi knew that Morte, who tried to murder Kirito sometime ago, this would be a battle to the death, and it would be a true battle to the death since death in SAO means TRUE death. As the standoff continued, Morte’s ‘partner’ seems about to make the first move as he moves his cloak to reveal his hidden dagger causing Kirito and Usagi to quickly tense up in which they see him attempting to move Asuna’s rapier, now technically belonging to Morte if he was the one to kill the robbing mob that stole it from her, into his left hand from his right. However, at that moment, the hallway was filled with the sounds of very loud feminine scream causing Morte, his partner, and Usagi to jump where Morte’s partner dropped the rapier to the ground. From there, a Sly Shrewman, a small blue rodent-like monster that’s not even two feet tall, zips out of the shadows and grabs the rapier, but before the monster could ger away, a familiar female leaps out, using Oblique, a fast yet powerful 1-strike Rapier Sword Skill, to kill the monster in one blow where the female figure leaps back with her current weapon in her hand changed into the Chivalric Rapier +5 in their hands. Soon after, Asuna, behind Morte and his partner, is on guard with her treasured rapier back in her hands.

Kirito, Usagi, Morte, and Morte’s partner are stunned, but Kirito and Usagi regain their wits causing Usagi to think, “She’s okay! But wait! Does that mean that she was here the whole time?”

Kirito just grins at Asuna while Morte’s partner asks, confused, “What the…? Where did…that come from…?” Morte extend his left hand to cover the mouth of his partner causing Kirito and Usagi to become very interested in this.

Usagi thinks in her mind, “He really wants to keep the identity of his partner a secret. Why is that?”

Morte then laughs causing him to say, “Scared by a little ‘boo’, huh? First Blackie with the ‘white girl of mystery’ here and now, you. You, all, like to jump out of nowhere. It makes me wonder how long you were here there.” Asuna was about to speak, but Kirito, knowing what Asuna is about to do, makes a motion not to say a thing. Morte then says, “What’s wrong there? Cat got your tongue? You sacred a good three seconds off my life with that stunt. I think you owe me one.”

Morte’s partner yanks Morte’s hand away from his mouth where he roars out, “Listen, I’m really pissed now. Is this really the time to stand around and chitchat? These three just popped out nowhere and that means that we’ve got to assume that they heard everything.”

Usagi thinks in her mind, concerned, “If Asuna was here the whole time, then it is most likely that she did hear everything.”

Morte retorts, “You know, impatience will get you nowhere, you know that? Besides, you saw that rapier’s stats, didn’t you? Plus, it is three-on-two, you know? Even if I could hold back Black and White over there, do you really think that you can handle that on your own?”

Usagi thinks in her mind, shocked, “Is he serious?!”

Morte’s partner retorts, with a sneer, “Don’t insult me. I can tackle a PvP amateur girl like her. Besides, I can’t go home after having badass rapier stolen on a lucky ruse.”

Asuna gains an enraged glare in her eyes, but then Usagi retorts, “News flash, genius! It isn’t yours anymore! System wise, the rapier belongs to her again! Those monsters have Robbing Skill which you and Morte lost ownership of the weapon the instant that little guy got it! And since she killed the little guy, technically, it is her rapier again! And plus, you were the jerk that let a girl screaming spook you in which you are the one that dropped her rapier! So, you were the one that let the little guy steal that rapier and she took the chance to get it back! You are just a sore loser that’s fuming at losing a cool piece of gear!”

Morte’s partner sneers at Usagi, but then Morte laughs causing him to shout out, slyly, “She’s got you there, bro! You’re the fumble fingers that got spook by a little girl’s screaming, so, it’s your fault!”

Morte’s partner asks, surprised and annoyed, “Who’s side are you on?!”

Morte responds, slyly, “Who’s to say, bro?!” The dagger user snarls as he turns his attention to Asuna and makes a motion to draw his dagger causing Usagi to get concerned by this for many different reasons, but then her Search Skill goes off causing her to get concerned for a different reason.

Usagi turns to Kirito causing her to say, “Kirito!”

Morte, Morte’s partner, and Asuna turn their attention to Kirito where he says, nodding his head, “Go now, Usagi!” Immediately, Usagi and Kirito run past Morte and his partner before they could react, Kirito grabs Asuna, and all three of them leap into the hollow where they have been hiding where Kirito covers Asuna with his coat while both Kirito and Usagi activate their Hiding skills. A second later, the great many sounds of clanking metal are heard: A sign of monsters on the way.

Morte’s partner screams out, “Shit! Those bastards! They brought down a group of mobs to MPK us!”

Morte tells his partner, slyly, but his tone not as confident as before, “Come from you?” Morte and his partner draw their weapons, but Morte then says, “Nope, forget it. It’ll suck fighting this many of them. We ought to pull back.”

Morte’s partner gives a snarl and puts his weapon away causing him to say, “Fine.”

Morte then says, slyly, “Oh, by the way, that’s a dead end down that way. We got to sprint to the staircase, so, do your best to keep up.”

Morte zips away causing Morte’s partner to shout out, “W-Wait up!” Morte and his partner race away to escape with sounds of monster racing after them. After a good time, the sounds of those footsteps grow distance and finally, died away at least. With that, Usagi gives a sigh of relief and slumps to the ground.

Usagi thinks in her mind, “Well, I’m glad that’s over!” Usagi then gives a mental sigh causing her to think, concerned, “But this isn’t good at all. It seems what Kirito and the Digital Knights are fearing is true. That other guy is in league with Morte and if that person that gave the Legend Braves the upgrade scam is separate from Morte…Heck, even if he isn’t, this whole thing confirms Kirito’s, the Digital Knights’, and even my worst fears! There is a PK gang in SAO. That other guy was willing to attack and kill Asuna as well as us! He wasn’t bluffing at all! I could tell!” Usagi thinks in her mind, solemnly, “But what I don’t get is why? Why? SAO isn’t a normal game anymore! Death, here, truly means that you die in real life! If you kill a person, here, you are truly murdering a person! I don’t understand what would drive a person to do such a thing!” Usagi gives a loud mental sigh while she looks over at Kirito and Asuna in which Kirito is holding Asuna up while she buried her head against his chest causing Usagi to smile where she thought, relief going through her, “At least Asuna is safe and sound and we got her rapier back.” After a good time, when Asuna has mentally recovered from the experience, we find Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi walking down the hallways of the catacomb in which Asuna finishes explaining what she heard from Morte and his partner.

Kirito and Usagi gains solemn looks from what Asuna told them causing Kirito to say, “I thought so. I hope that it wasn’t the case, but it looks like my fears were right.”

Usagi says, solemnly, “So we have a PK gang on the loose. The guy that influenced the Legend Braves with that upgrade scam could have been the boss that Morte and his partner have been talking about.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Maybe, Usagi.” Kirito says, concerned, “What worries me is that they have a spy in the ranks of ALS or DKB to help cause division between them and bring chaos between us, the front-line players here in Aincrad.”

Usagi asks Kirito, “So, what do we do?”

Kirito says, “Right now, we need to find out winch of the two guilds that spy belongs to Usagi. The best way is to find out which of them is going to ‘jump the gun’ on the boss and what kind of information or lies was told to use to do this. We need to figure out this plot and fast.”

Usagi asks Kirito, “But how, Kirito?”

Asuna tells Kirito, “Usagi is right, Kirito. The guild that’s going to do that isn’t going to straight up tell us that they plan to go after the boss alone.”

Kirito says, with a nod, “Yeah, I know.”

The three of them continue to walk until they hear a familiar male voice call out, “What’s up?” Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi look to see the Digital Knights coming up.

Yamato tells them, “You look like you’ve been through heck.”

Kirito says, with a weak smirk, “That’s one way of putting it.”

Miyako asks, seeing the haggard look on Asuna’s face, “What happened?”

Kirito looks unsure to tell them, but Usagi tells Kirito, “We know that we can trust them, Kirito.”

Kirito gives a brief glace at Usagi, which, despite not being able to see her face, knows what she is expressing causing him to say, “Yeah, you’re right.”

That statement causes a bit of worry in the Digital Knights causing Taichi to ask, seriously, “What happened?”

Kirito says, “It is a long story. Let’s get to a safe zone before we talk about it.”

Taichi says, with a nod, “Good idea.” Soon enough, Kirito, Asuna, and Usagi go along with the Digital Knights to find a ‘safe area’ to inform them of what happened in which Kirito believes that revelations from this encounter with Morte shows that he needs allies to stop Morte and his group before they can carry out their sinister plans…

To be continued…

And there we go! I know that we have probably gotten through only half of what happened on the fifth floor, but with what I have planned for this part of the ‘Progressive’ stories, it would take too long, so, I divided it up. Once again, I’m focusing on what happened from more of ‘Usagi’s/Serena’s and the Digital Knights’ POV’ than anything else. The reasons are quite obvious, but I hope that it makes an excellent story none the less. I’ll see you next and please read and review, but no flames! Later and best wishes, Crossover Fans!