Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 2 - Chapter 9

9 
HAVING ANNOUNCED THAT WE WOULD HAVE THE TEN QUESTS of the campaign available on this floor completed by five o’clock on December twentieth—just forty hours from then—we returned to the dark elf base, delivered the item to the commander to finish the “Infiltration” quest, and immediately left for our next mission. 
The seventh chapter, “Butterfly Collection,” was a brief breather of a quest that simply involved finding and defeating a giant butterfly released by the forest elves for reconnaissance. It would have been even easier with a decent Throwing Knives skill, but I didn’t have the open slot at this point, so we had to go racing after the butterfly in the night forest, picking up stones to throw at it. 
In the eighth chapter, “The Western Spirit Tree,” the dark elf commander had read and digested the top-secret forest elf orders we brought back and was prepared to lead an attack on the forest elf base. He wanted to have the Jade Key secretly transported to their outpost on the fourth floor. Asuna, Kizmel, and I, accompanied by three dark elf soldiers, headed for the spirit tree the elves used to travel between floors. 
Of course, these transport missions never ended uneventfully, and as we made our way toward the tree at the western edge of the forest, a mysterious band dressed in black ambushed us. Out of the four masked attackers—labeled UNKNOWN MARAUDERS in the game—we handily dispatched three. Both Asuna and I were well over the expected level at this point, and we had the services of the elite knight Kizmel. But the fourth marauder threw a smoke bomb and stole the key from the confused elven soldiers. 
Naturally, I knew this ambush was coming, and I was ready to attempt defeating all four of them, but it was indeed an unwinnable fight. The other three bodies immediately blackened and melted away, so there was no way to tell who they were. 
In the ninth quest, “Pursuit,” we had to chase the thief through the forest. In the beta, I remembered this single quest lasting nearly from morning until night. It took that long because finding the “Shining Signal”—a small bottle of glowing liquid one of the elf soldiers hit the thief with—was incredibly hard in the midst of the deep forest. 
We started the ninth chapter after noon on the nineteenth, and I was prepared for it to last well into the night. To my surprise—though at this point, I should have expected it—Kizmel’s help proved invaluable. She stood at the lead and immediately pointed out the direction of the glowing light at every turn, so we discovered the thief’s hideout cave by two o’clock. 
The next step was to report to the commander, so we went back to base for food and rest, and by the evening, we were ready for the tenth and final quest of the campaign on the third floor, “Retrieving the Key.” It was a difficult task that involved exploring a large dungeon, though not as large as the labyrinth. This was too much to complete before the end of the day, especially since our day had begun well before dawn, so we had to turn back after defeating the enormous whip spider boss of the dungeon’s first level. 
At eleven o’clock that night, we returned to the base and took turns bathing. This time, Kizmel decided to barge in during Asuna’s turn, and sadly, there was no way to tell exactly what was happening beyond the tent flap based on the brief shrieks, splashes, and occasional laughing. After a late dinner, we went to bed and woke up in the early morning of December twentieth. After a quick tune-up with the blacksmith and some supply refills at the item shop, we briskly headed to conquer the second floor of the large underground dungeon. 
Since we had returned to camp, the extra soldiers no longer accompanied us, but it was actually easier to coordinate high-level combat maneuvers with just the three of us. We powered our way through the insect and animal monsters, and finally came across the masked thief’s hideout at the bottom of the dungeon. 
We snuck up and peered through the window of their dining-room-like space, spotting five more thieves without masks on. They weren’t forest elves, and certainly not dark elves. They were an entirely different race with skin dark purple, as though rotting away, and somehow demonic features. 
The information on their cursors identified them as Fallen Elf Warriors. Kizmel looked nervous, but there wasn’t time to stop and ask her about it. We proceeded onward and won several inescapable battles, finally arriving at the final boss of the dungeon and quest, the Fallen Elf Commander. 
He was a difficult foe with a number of minions, but with our levels at the realistic limit for this floor, he posed no true threat to us. When Asuna’s Chivalric Rapier delivered the killing blow, the commander hurled a final curse at us and melted away. 
At the back of the room was a mountain of treasure, along with the Jade Key. This time, we managed to transport the key all the way to the spirit tree, signaling the end (at least on the third floor) of the long, long campaign. 
But just as Asuna and I were about to high-five each other on a job well done, Kizmel interrupted with a surprising statement. 
“Asuna…and Kirito,” she said slowly and carefully, the light playing over her beautiful purple hair. “Now that it is clear the Fallen are in league with the forest elves, we must deliver this key to the fortress on the next floor above with haste. I believe that this task will fall upon me to complete…” 
“Huh?” 
Asuna’s eyes went wide, and she took a step forward. Her face had the nervous smile of one who suspected what was coming. “Th-then we’ll go with you. Just in case there’s another ambush.” 
“Thank you, Asuna. Your offer is very kind.” 
Kizmel stopped there. She moved over to Asuna’s side and looked upward. 
We were close to the outer perimeter of Aincrad, and the pure blue expanse stretched out before us. The knotted trunk of the spirit tree stood in stark contrast to the cobalt sky behind it. 
Near the roots of the fifteen-foot-wide tree was a large, gaping knot that led to a hollowed interior, but unlike the trees of Zumfut, this was not carved out by human hands. In the darkness within the hole, a blue light pulsed. Around the tree, mossy rocks formed a solid wall, and the only gate that accessed the tree was guarded by a quartet of dark elf sentries. 
This tree was a teleporter for elves, and the forest elves had their own on the other side of the floor. As you might expect, there was much debate during the beta regarding whether or not these trees could be used to bypass the labyrinth. One guild even pulled together a thirty-man raid party to assault the tree, but the four guards easily quashed the attempt. My guess was that even if they’d succeeded, nothing would happen inside the tree. 
As she stared up at the tree, Kizmel’s next statement confirmed that months-old expectation. 
“…Sadly, only the people of Lyusula are permitted to pass through the spirit tree’s gate…” 
Asuna was expecting this. After several long moments of silence, she nodded. “I see…” 
“Yes,” Kizmel returned solemnly. The elf shut her lips tight for a while, then turned and circled her arms around Asuna’s back. The fencer’s eyes widened briefly in surprise, but she returned the knight’s embrace just as quickly. 
With her mouth right at Asuna’s ear, Kizmel whispered just loud enough for me to hear, “After I lost my sister a month ago, I was waiting to find my place to die. When I crossed blades with the white knight of Kales’Oh, I thought I was going to see my sister again. But…you and Kirito appeared and saved me. She must have guided you to my side…” 
I didn’t know Tilnel the herbalist had ever really existed in Aincrad. There was no way to know if the dark elves and forest elves had really carried out a major battle if there were no players around to see it. Those memories, including Tilnel, might have simply been implanted into Kizmel’s programming as a story background, a backbone to her character. 
But I could have sworn I saw a pale shimmer in the air beside Kizmel and Asuna. Perhaps it was just the light engine shining through the branches of the spirit tree. Or perhaps… 
“…We’ll see you again, won’t we?” Asuna murmured into Kizmel’s hair. The elf nodded vigorously. 
“Absolutely. The Holy Tree will guide us together.” 
She squeezed harder, then released her hold. Kizmel shared one last smile with Asuna before looking at me. 
I was expecting a handshake, perhaps a high five…but Kizmel strode forward with no hesitation and enveloped me in her arms as well. The cool, smooth metal of her armor and fresh piney scent made me feel like I was deep in a forest. 
“The next time we meet, Kirito, I will tell you more of my dreams,” she whispered. I put my hands on her back. 
“Yeah, sounds good.” 
“It is a promise, then.” 
And with a last squeeze of her arms, Kizmel let go. She took a step back, then another, and raised her right fist to her left breast in salute. Asuna and I automatically returned it. 
“And now…this is farewell. I am sorry not to accompany you to the Pillar of the Heavens, but I believe that you have the skill to dispatch its guardians. Be done with them and ascend. I will be waiting for you on the fourth floor.” 
“Take care, Kizmel,” Asuna said. The knight smiled, then spun on her heel. Long cloak flapping, she strode off for the gate. The guards stepped aside, she passed through, and they closed behind her. 
Kizmel stepped through the knothole of the spirit tree without a backward glance and disappeared into its darkness. A few seconds later, the faint blue light flashed much brighter. 
On the left side of my vision, the third HP bar that had been displayed for the last week vanished with a breezy jingle. 
In the end, the reward for completing the third-floor portion of the Elf War campaign did not contain anything useful for defeating the boss. 
When the commander back at the base thanked us for our service, the list of items we were able to choose from included half a dozen pieces of gear. But no matter how many times I pored over their specs, effects, and flavor text, there wasn’t a single word that suggested any particular connection to the floor boss. 

I ended up choosing a pair of leather boots with extra resistance to Tumbling and some extra jumping power (after having slipped during my duel with Morte), and Asuna picked out a new hooded cape made of the same material as Kizmel’s favorite cloak. The faintly glowing pale purple cape gave a solid bonus to hiding and increased agility, though not to the extent of the original. 
Until this point, our interactions with the dark elf commander had been very perfunctory—absolutely NPC-like. When we had chosen our rewards, he rose from his chair, and with concern on his face, said, “We elves are long-lived, but we can be hurt with blades as much as anyone else, and a deep-enough wound will kill. We are not gifted with the hardiness of the dwarves and humans. The Fallen Elves you fought in the underground maze are the descendants of those who sought to use the Holy Tree’s magic to forge themselves bodies impervious to blades. This happened before the Great Separation, and they were banished for it. They are numerous throughout this castle, and their cooperation with the forest elves in search of the keys is troubling in the extreme. As the advance troop, we will remain here for now, surveying for traces of the Fallen before returning to our fortress on the fourth floor. Your continued assistance will be greatly appreciated.” 
Asuna and I shared a brief look and nodded together. 
“W-we’d be happy to.” 
“Anything we can do.” 
“Good. Your help is a boon…I suspect the general at the fortress will treat you magnanimously. Take this commendation with you.” 
The commander picked a tightly rolled piece of parchment off his desk and offered it to me. We thanked him for this extra reward and were preparing to leave when the commander spoke again. 
“You are going to climb the Pillar of the Heavens to the fourth floor?” 
“Y…yes, that’s the plan.” 
“In that case, be wary of the guardian beast’s poisonous attack. You ought to prepare yourselves with plenty of poison-counteracting potions while you are in camp.” 
“Th-thank you very much for the advice,” I said, bowing and leaving the tent. 
As soon as I ventured outside, a horn sounded, signaling the passage of noon. I took a dozen steps toward the inviting scent of the dining tent before looking over to Asuna. 
“…I’m not going to say I wasn’t grateful for the advice, but…” 
“Now it’s harder to say that the quest rewards helping with the boss wasn’t true…” 
Over the past day, I’d explained to Asuna about my riverside duel with the swordsman/axman Morte and his suspicious activities. 
Morte had joined the Dragon Knights Brigade and was helping them with the campaign—that much had been confirmed by Argo. And it was also certainly true that he was moonlighting with the Aincrad Liberation Squad, using a different class of weapon. 
However, I suspected that Kibaou’s sudden interest in the campaign, and his firm belief that the rewards were crucial to defeating the boss, were based on info Morte fed to him. If that source was a total lie, I was hoping to use that fact to get Kibaou to fess up about where he’d learned it. And yet… 
“None of the items we could earn for finishing the quest had any special effect against the floor boss. Since Kibaou said the items you earned from the elf quest were necessary to avoid big trouble against the boss…then you could say that his information was a lie…” 
“Right…But if someone claimed that the hint about poison antidotes was that reward, it’s a lot harder to write it off entirely,” Asuna responded almost immediately, her quick wit in keeping with her agility-first build. “All you can do now is just explain the truth exactly as it happened at the meeting tonight. If we watch Morte’s reaction closely, maybe he’ll give something away. At any rate, let’s eat and take a break before we go. I hope they let us use Kizmel’s tent.” 
“…G-good point.” 
Even if it was available to use, now that the owner was away on the fourth floor, it would just be the two of us sleeping under the same canopy. I chose not to bring that up and trotted after Asuna to the dining tent. 
Thankfully, when Asuna did notice that the two of us would be sharing a tent alone, there was no fruit for her to throw, so I got a faceful of soft cushion instead. 
Five in the evening. 
The second strategy meeting was about to begin in the meeting grounds of Zumfut. 
Lind’s DKB and Kibaou’s ALS had finished mapping the labyrinth tower up to the boss chamber on the top floor. The DKB had just barely beaten them to the door, so for the second floor in a row, the MC of the strategy meeting and the leader of the raid would be Lind. 
What threw Asuna and me for a loop was Morte’s absence from the meeting grounds. Perhaps he had changed his entire gear setup—in the safety of town, he could feel free to put on weapons whose skills he didn’t have—taken off his coif, and slipped among the crowd in a form I didn’t recognize, but Asuna said that as far as she could tell, both guilds had the same lineup as the second-floor boss battle. 
The meeting began with the schedule of tomorrow morning’s battle, then moved into actual strategy. Argo had already released her strategy guide on the boss, and based upon that beta test information, we split up the parties into separate roles. 
Once the questions and answers were out of the way, Lind asked me to speak. Naturally, he wanted a report on the campaign quest rewards. I stood up and started off with a basic quest outline. When I reached the part about the Fallen Elves, the crowd started to stir. Some of them wanted more details about that, but I chose to keep it brief, knowing that Argo would soon be releasing the second volume of her Elf War guide. 
“First things first: Nothing in the items themselves had any unique relation to the floor boss. However, after we received our loot, the elf commander gave us one piece of advice about the boss.” 
The entire crowd was silent, not wanting to miss this information. 
“Umm…He said, bring plenty of antidote pots, because the boss uses poison attacks…That’s it.” 
Now the silence turned awkward. It was such an obvious, basic piece of advice—who wouldn’t bring a stock of antidotes to a major fight? I cleared my throat and added a piece of information for the sake of the commander’s honor. 
“Just so you know, the boss in the beta test didn’t have a crazy poison attack. Since that might be the thing that was altered in this fight, it’s probably a good idea to bring as many potions as you can. I’ll leave it up to Lind and Kibaou to decide if this info counts as a ‘quest reward crucial to defeating the boss’ or not.” 
I sat back down, and the meeting grounds erupted into chatter. Some thought it was a letdown that there were no secret weapons against the boss, while others claimed that this knowledge was far more useful than an item. Foremost among the latter opinion was Joe from the ALS, who screeched that if we all tried the campaign now, we might learn something even more important. 
Once again, Kibaou shut him up with a single command, and when the group had quieted down, Lind rounded up the discussion with his ever-solidifying leadership. 
“We will visit every item shop tonight, even on the lower floors, and procure more than enough potions for tomorrow. As planned, we will begin our operation at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. Meet at the north gate of Zumfut. We will then travel to Dessel, the closest town to the labyrinth. After a short break, we will enter the tower. If all goes according to plan, we will defeat the floor boss by two in the afternoon.” 
He paused and surveyed the forty-some members gathered from left to right, then raised a bracing call. “Tomorrow night, we will celebrate in the main town of the fourth floor! C’mon, everyone…Let’s win this fight!” 
During the last meeting, I’d watched Lind deliver a speech on stage and thought, You’ve got a long way to go to replace Diavel. 
But even if he did not become Diavel himself, Lind had a role to play that was his and his alone. Something much more crucial than mine, as I kept running from the truly important things. A role that someone had to take on, if we were actually going to reach that far-off hundredth floor. 
Meanwhile, some were trying to fulfill roles that no one ought to touch. Morte was attempting to get the DKB and ALS to clash. The man in the black poncho had lured the Legend Braves into swindling other players. Whatever their intentions were, they surely would not stop now. I had to continue playing my role so that I could deal with their future machinations. Even the outcast of the front-runners could help in his own way. 
I joined the others in raising my right hand toward the flat expanse of rock and steel a hundred yards above, and clutched my newfound determination deep within my chest. 
At 1:12 PM the next day—Wednesday, December 21, 2022—Nerius the Evil Treant, boss of the third floor of Aincrad, was defeated by a forty-two-man raid built from seven parties. 
The large tree monster liberally used a wide-area poison skill that hadn’t been there in the beta, but our stock of antidotes did not run dry. As I expected, Asuna’s Chivalric Rapier easily outclassed any other weapon present in damage, and the rest of the group was left in awe. 
The battle took fifty-three minutes. As on the second floor, there were no fatalities. 
Morte the ax warrior was not among the raid.