'The launch may have been the the start of Sword Art Online, but this is where it truly begins; where my castle in the sky is given true meaning… a possible hero for the game.'

A man is dressed in a white lab coat with a white button-up shirt along with black slacks with a belt, black shoes, and a black tie. His hair is dark and slightly greying, cut short enough to where it stays out of his eyes, but full enough to cover his scalp completely. His eyes are dark as he stares at the scene before him trying to capture every detail as time appeared frozen around him.

It consisted of a man dressed in red and black with eyes of differing color, both sharpened in focus as he rushed forward at the massive rust red form of the first of the Floor Bosses. His clothing and weaponry may not have been so outlandish in this setting… had the man in the lab coat remembered programing either into the game.

"Forward the scene at five percent speed," he spoke. The scene then started playing out before him both fighters charging towards the other with weapons held ready. Despite the demand for a slower speed, both fighter and monster didn't appear to be moving that much slower than if they'd been at human speeds. Keeping a careful eye before him, the observer watched until he got to the point he wanted to see. "Hold here."

As the scene paused, he walked around to get a better view of the man in red's weapon. At this part it was showing some signs of changing form, like how its handle was slightly extended already. The blade looked slightly curved at the effect as well, but it was hard to tell as blade and red flames were expelling from his arm and weapon.

"Remove the designated black fire effects and begin the scene from the previous pause point. This time set the replay at two percent speed," he ordered. Nothing seemed to happen. "...Report."

"Analyzing… Analyzing… Analyzation complete. Conclusion: Black Fire effect is unable to be found in database therefore system is unable to interfere with the effect's code. Replay from previous save as requested?"

"Not just yet," the man told the mechanical voice as his eyes slowly narrowed. "The black fire effect from Ilfang's earlier breath attack… are the two one in the same?"

"Analyzing… Hypothesis: There is a possibility, due to system's inability to access either effect codes; any accessible data responds only to basic game mechanics; damage, hit box, status affects, critical-"

"Understood, understood, send me the data if you must…" the man said before placing his face into his palm and giving off a tired groan. "And the player himself? What do we know from his data?

"Searching… Player data is not found."

"But… that should be impossible… unless he somehow has his data at a Core level of clearance, but that itself can't be the case," the man thought to himself. Core level data was the code for Sword Art Online that couldn't be accessed, even he couldn't view it due to the risk it presented. If even a few bytes of that particular data was tampered with, it could easily spend the end for his entire project. "This man's becoming more of a headache the more I see of him…" Unexpectedly, he then smiled. "But then… I did want things to be interesting."

He then scratched his chin, trying to decide his next move going forward. While this floor had created quite the spectacle to kick off the games and add plenty of tension amongst the players, he was worried that this was too much too fast. If any other areas of the game showed similar interference, the game might have too high of a difficulty for the players to actually survive. There would be plenty of casualties down the line and they'd already lost a huge amount of their force on just the first level… he could adapt what he could of his game so that they'd at least reach the climax.

"Tap into all available data for Floor Two. I want any information pertaining to changes towards that Floor, mainly towards its main boss and any changes or interference that might have been presented by this subject."

"Searching… Result: Information regarding changes to the floor boss is currently inaccessible."

"...Excuse me?"

THE SKYWARD OFFENSIVE

Sword VII: Champion

"Out of all the things this damn game could simulate, why did rain have to be one of them?" Ragna grumbled to himself as he walked through the intense downpour on the second floor of SAO. Every step forward the Reaper took sent another splash of water up his pant legs and proceed to soak him further. Even his gravity defying hair had been dampened to the point where it was falling all over in one of his only two hair styles. "Honestly…"

His stomach then gave a small growl and he submitted that he needed to eat soon; he'd gotten up early in the hopes of finding the boss dungeon and moving onto the next floor before any players did something stupid, but the dungeon he'd managed to clear wasn't the one he'd been looking for. He'd call it a waste of time, but monsters meant experience, experience meant levels, and the levels meant that he could acquire his old abilities and get stronger with his stats. Ilfang had only been the first of the floor bosses and Ragna felt like he needed to be at the top of his game if they were going to get through the Floor boss battles without incident.

Heading into a small town, he was surprised to see that it was mostly deserted. This was only the second floor, so he'd figured that most of the player base would have migrated up here since he'd cleared the first one. Sure this was a small town on one of the corners of the map, but even in this weather there should have been at least a few players around. Walking around for a moment in search of place to eat at, he instead found a familiar hooded figure.

"Good ta see ya again Raggy," Argo the Rat said as she approached her guild leader with a smirk. Ragna managed to ignore her calling him 'Raggy' due to being more jealous of her hood at the moment. "F'rgot yer umbrella?"

"You know the game doesn't give us umbrellas," he reminded her with a sigh.

"I know, I know, jes teasin' ya," Argo said before turning down the street. "Know a good place ta eat if you're hoping ta get outta the rain."

"That's the best idea I've heard all damn day," Ragna admitted as his Info broker led him to the place. "So… got any fresh info for me?"

"Plenty, and it's a bit of an odd set," she said as the two headed into the foundation. "Table fer two."

"I'm guessing that means I'm paying," he noted with a groan as he shook his head, sending rainwater flying everywhere. Argo flinched as some of the rainwater hit her, unable to not compare Ragna to a dog that had just gotten out of the rain.

"It's the cost of the info; still givin' ya a discount," Argo told him with a sigh.

"Speaking of which, you're part of my guild now how does info bargaining work?" he asked.

"Meh, I'm not exactly gonna be charging you a fortune, but if you want me ta look into something hard to find and specific, then I'm gonna need some col fer funding," Argo explained with a shrug. "Aside from that though, jes keep feedin' me and we'll be fair."

"...All right then, what have you got for me today?" Ragna said as he figured this was more or less what the two had already been doing.

"It's weird, but… they already found the floor boss's chamber," Argo told him leaving Ragna to cross his arms.

"That so? Even though we've only been here for a few days?" he asked, partially impressed but more concerned than anything.

"Even though," Argo told him. "It's even more surprisin' since this level wasn't part a the beta game."

"Meaning the rest of the game's probably different as well," Ragna summarized, not that it would have mattered much to him since he wasn't a part of SAO's beta run. "So… they saw what it was and ran I'm hoping?"

"...That's the thing though, they actually managed to beat the darn thing when they found it," Argo told him. Ragna raised an eyebrow.

"So… we spend a month on floor one… and you're telling me we've clear Floor Two in less than a quarter of the time… even though there's not a beta guide out there that could help us here?" Ragna demanded. "How the hell...?"

"Might've been just the fact that everyone was still pretty fresh to the game and now we have some idea of what to look for on this floor… still surprisin' though," she admitted. "Got tha raid details too."

"Let's hear them then," Ragna told her as one of the serving girls came by. "Tea for me, and a breakfast plate of hashbrowns and ham."

"Nothing fer me just yet thanks," Argo told the serving girl, who only nodded before leaving. "Didn't even have breakfast before ya headed into tha fields? Yer crazy…" she muttered. "Not as crazy as the folks that beat the boss though. There were ten of 'em, and that's not a whole lot for a raid party… 'specially on a floor boss."

"And out of the ten… how many of them made it out alive?" the Reaper had to ask.

"No casualties," Argo told him. "They had to use some higher grade healing items to stay alive and there were a couple a' close calls, but a basic boss strategy was all they needed ta bring th' boss down."

"And… there was nothing like what happened with Ilfang" Ragna had to ask. He already had his answer though; if anything like that had happened there wouldn't have been any survivors.

"You kiddin' me? They came back didn't they?" Argo asked. "But yeah, the info I dug up said nothing about fully healing, new abilities… hell, tha boss didn't even get an overpower breath attack… Guess Ilfang was a floor boss exception, not a standard.

"That's… good to hear," Ragna decided honestly. 'Besides, if the news on how easy the second boss was circles around enough, then people won't believe any of those larger than life stories of me soloing Ilfang; it's a win-win.' "So… floor three is open then?"

"It is, but some players don't know about it yet or are gonna to keep exploring since there's a lot left of this floor that hasn't been touched yet," the Info Broker told him before opening her menu and sending some data his way. "There's some basic info fer a few of the more hidden dungeons on this floor if yer interested."

"That depends, how much is it going to cost me?"

"How about one of 'em coffee cakes?" Argo asked, looking through the breakfast options.

"Like hell; I'm drawing the line at one slice," Ragna denied.

"Yeah, yeah, boss," Argo said with a snarky chuckle. "Think I'll take it ta go though; Floor Three's a-waiting fer me and someone's gotta get in those cracks fer yer info."

"Be careful," Ragna said with a low voice, almost making it more of an order than a reminder.

"I'm always careful," Argo told her guild leader with a roll of her eyes. "Yer the reckless one that I worry about."

"...At least you care," the Reaper decided to snarkily add with a smirk as Argo scowled at her guild leader. Soon Argo had left, giving Ragna time to stretch in his seat and give a yawn as he waited for his meal to arrive. Getting a crick out of his neck, he slowly allowed his body to relax.

"Hey, got a minute?" he heard a somewhat gruff voice ask. Opening one of his eyes, he saw that he'd been approached by a player that had been sitting in a table off in the corner going through his menu when the Reaper had arrived. This player had a tall and intimidating form and carried a long scimitar held at his right hip in a dark grey scabbard. His light armor was a strange mix of mostly white, but with some black highlights in the shoulder pads and some of the straps. He had skin that was a few shades darker than Agil's and frizzy black hair.

"Plenty of seats available," Ragna said as he glanced around to the mostly empty restaurant before staring directly back at the guy. It took a few moments, but when Ragna saw that he didn't shy away or avert his serious gave. Giving a nonchalant nod, the person took a seat across from him. "You're not expecting me to pay are you?"

"No, just overheard you talking to that info broker," the man said seriously. "She said she had information on a few of the dungeons so I wanted to see if we could strike a deal."

"And why not deal with my Info Broker directly? She probably has info on some of the secrets of the dungeons that I wouldn't have," Ragna tried to reason and correct the man.

"Because then I'd have to go and form a team to raid it; if I talk to you I'll have both the info and a potential partner for the dungeon," the guy said, a small smile forming. "Ah, but I guess I better introduce myself. Call me Vance; I'm one of the rare few gamers here from the Americas that can luckily speak Japanese."

"...Ragna," the Reaper responded in kind. America… he might have remembered hearing about the country from Jubei, some sort of democracy that could he been formed long before the dark war, but he also might've been trying to connect dots that weren't there.

"Cool tag name, that your usual one or is this the first game that you've used it?" Vance asked, only leaving Ragna confused at the question. "Eh, that's neither here nor there. What matters is that you have the info I want… so how about it? We'll take on a dungeon and split whatever we find fifty-fifty. That way I might find a grinding spot and maybe a few materials to upgrade my gear and you'll get some make more headway with someone else in your team; my skills won't disappoint you."

"...Guess I got no real reason to turn you down," Ragna muttered to himself. "Alright, long as you pull your weight and don't screw around you can stick with me."

"Awesome, now you just gotta form a team and it's official," Vance told Ragna right before the serving girl came back to the table bring Ragna's breakfast plate. "Mind grabbing me a big cinnamon roll and a mug of hot chocolate to wash it down?" The serving girl nodded and bowed before heading off to grab the order.

"...That's… a lot of sugar…" Ragna decided to point out, not standing on ceremony as he began digging into his own meal.

"The death game's already a big enough hell without the few sweets I can get," Vance told Ragna with a shrug and he leaned back on the chair so that only its back legs were touching the ground. "Besides, it's not like we're going to get fat eating only desert; that's the one thing I don't have to worry about in here."

'Wonder if I'd gain weight if I ate like that though, or if I'd even lose weight if I stopped eating altogether,' Ragna thought to himself before throwing the thought away as he continued his meal as normal. 'Nah… not like I'd want to risk my figure after all the hell I went through to build this muscle, even if I'm curious.'

Later -Dungeon Entrance-

Like most of the dungeons on second floor of Sword Art Online, this one was a cave formed into the side of one of the larger mountains. Had Ragna not had his enhanced sense or Argo's information, he figured that this place would have been easy to miss due to the mix of a naturally forming rock formation and thick foliage covering it. Even though the cave appeared to be dark from the outside, like most of the dungeons there would be enough light around the dungeon to tell the most basic details out, even if it didn't have an obvious source.

"So... now that we made it here, how do you want to do this?" Vance asked Ragna with as he looked at the entrance. "You or me; who's taking the point here?"

"You are; you said that you'd pull your weight so here's your chance," the Reaper told him bluntly.

"...That or you're afraid I'm going to stab you in the back and run off with your coat," the scimitar user said before giving a humorous chuckle. "Alright, my lead it is. Just don't leave me out to dry in there."

Rolling his eyes, Ragna headed in after his current teammate and entered the dungeon. The place was a labyrinth of jagged rocky turns that split of at multiple points. When Ragna and Vance hit the end of one of them, they got their first sense of the monsters of this dungeon.

"Snakes… heh, what else would it be?" Vance said he brought his sword out. One of the venomous creatures tried to lunge at him, but his dodge was well timed and he managed to strike the monster with his blade and sent it flying back. Another of the three tried a simple lunge, but Vance managed to bring his sword around and cut this one again before following up with a sword skill that caused his scimitar to glow pale white and cut it down for good. The final one was still recovering from the first attack when Vance stabbed his blade downward and killed the monster where it slithered. "That's my two, how's about you take the last-?"

CRASH!

Vance's words died in his mouth as Ragna's blood-red Blast skill smashed into the creature and destroyed it with one attack. The force of that single attack was so great that Vance swore he felt a strong tremor from it, something that the game should have prevented from generating. Taking his sword back and putting it on his belt Ragna went into his results screen.

"...Showoff," Vance muttered, now giving Ragna his turn to shoot a smirk back at him, though his was byfar more snarky. "I guess I should just be glad that they didn't bite us; poison takes a toll on your health points and it takes time for it to wear off… We should be careful here, yeah?"

"If it saves me a pain in my ass I'll cut 'em all down in one go," Ragna told Vance with certainly before turning around. "This ain't the path, so it looks like we've gotta backtrack… Starting to wish I gotten the map data for place too."

"Same, but I guess we'll have to settle for treasure hunting instead of hitting the boss first thing," Vance decided as the two start walking through the caverns. "I mean the main reason I wanted to go to this place was to get decent drops and maybe find a chest or two if we were lucky enough. I'm not complaining just yet."

"Maybe… I just don't have a lot of time to kill here," Ragna muttered. Vance gave him something of an odd look before sticking back and smirking.

"If you want to be so serious about this then go ahead and start taking point yourself," he told the Reaper, who only rolled his eyes as the two progressed ever onwards.

Their time spent in the cave lead to more than a few encounters, each of them dealt with similar ease and expertise as the first one. For his vague and hard to understand attitude, Vance didn't appear to be slacking at all and appeared to take a style similar to Ragna's; a risky one. He'd often place himself in the heat of battle, even if it meant that he was being flanked by the opposition. It should have been a risky move, and though he often came close Ragna noticed that he never actually took a hit… Making him all the more of an oddball.

"Hey looks like we've finally managed to find ourselves a chest," Vance said as the two came to yet another dead end, but this one offering the two of them a better prize in return. He was about to open it, but instead to a good step back. "Do me a favor will you, and watch my back? Sometimes these chests are just traps that summon a ton of monsters for you to fight. If you're not at a decent level in the dungeon, they can wipe you out in an instant."

"Fine, I'll keep my eyes open," Ragna told him, finding it slightly odd that Vance was trusting him to watch his back when he'd made it clear earlier that he wouldn't have given him the same trust. Vance then opened the chest revealing…

"A shield…" Vance said before sighing. "It's useless to us, but maybe one of us can make some Col selling this thing… oh well, better than an ambush I guess."

"You're not taking it for yourself?" Ragna questioned as the two continued their trek through the dungeon. "But if you're use a weapon in one hand then your other one should be for using a shield, right?"

"Normally yeah, but while having shield can improve your defense and your blocking capabilities it also limits your movement speed and can sometimes get in the way of your offense if you're using a faster weapon like a rapier… And considering how hard some of the enemies like to hit, blocking attacks can sometimes be just as difficult as dodging if you're wearing lighter armor." Vance then gave a cocky smile as he sent the shield to his storage. "Besides, fighting without a shield just looks cooler."

"...Whatever," Ragna muttered disdainfully at his teammates carefree nature before glancing up ahead and noticing the that the hallway led to a rather open chamber. "Looks like we've got the boss chamber up ahead…" he noted as he stopped walking forward.

"What? You think we should turn back and avoid it?" Vance asked him.

'It's not the worst idea honestly…' Ragna thought to himself. 'This guy might be good, but I have a feeling that he's way too cocky for his own good. If he goes in there and I let my guard down he could get killed… And I'm not sure how I feel about what I can really do.'

"We should-" Ragna was about to tell him as he exited his internal monologue, only to see that Vance was already inside the chamber and looking around. Gritting his teeth, the Reaper headed in after his idiot of a partner. Vance already had his weapon drawn, but he seemed more confused than concern as he looked around the empty chamber.

"...Either we've got a boss that's especially good at hiding itself or there's nothing here," the scimitar user said with a sigh as Ragna only crossed his arms.

"Lucky for you it's the latter one," Ragna told him with a harshness to his tone while Vance opened up his menu. "Must mean someone already came in and beat the thing before we did… meaning it'll take some time to respawn and we're both still alive."

"Yeah, I guess a boss might've been a bit much for the just two of us…" Vance admitted with a well meaning smile, right as a screen appeared in front of Ragna. "If we were just your run of the mill players."

Vance is challenging you to a Duel

"Sorry for deceiving you, but I needed a way to get you alone. I might not have gotten a boss prize, but a shot at you is what I've really wanted... Grim Reaper."

"...Don't read too much into that name," Ragna told him with a scowl before looking at the screen in front of him. "So another duel…"

"Good that you've been in one before; it saves me the trouble of explaining it to you," Vance told him as he rested his saber's blunt side on his shoulder and waited for Ragna to accept the challenge, which the Reaper was showing no interest of doing… yet he didn't decline immediately either. "...Ever hear of something called the Dive Fighter Championship?"

"Afraid I haven't, what's that got to do with this?" Ragna demanded as he scowled and kept his distance.

"Give me a second and I'll explain," Vance said with a sigh before smirking at the Reaper. "The rumors about you weren't lying; you're as blunt a man as one can get." Seeing that his opponent wasn't amused, Vance continued. "When the Nerve Gear first launched there was a lot of reserve for the kind of technology it was putting on the common market. Sword Art Online is a ground-breaking idea on several levels don't get me wrong, but it's not the first thing that was ever made with this technology… that's where a little game called Dream Brawl took off."

"...Sounds like it's close to your heart," Ragna said, as he crossed his arms, managing to follow the story thusfar.

"For me the 'Dream' part of the title especially stuck," Vance told him. "I'm not exactly a short guy and I don't appear weak at least… but I got a muscle disease that makes fatigued before I even start to hit the reps... Growing up I always wanted to be in the fighting ring, no matter how impossible it sounded for me… that game was a dream come true. It started buggy as hell at first, most of the time you couldn't last 10 minutes without experiencing lag… but then they patched it, they improved it, they perfected it… then they expanded. Not long later I was playing a version of the game where you could do one-on-one fights with weapons. A couple of the skills from that game actually made their way here."

"...What about this Dive Fighter Championship that you've been talking about?" Ragna asked.

"Oh, did I grab your attention after all?"

"...Maybe a bit." He wasn't giving any real ground to his opponent this as the challenge sign still stood before him.

"Got a real cold heart, eh? ...At least on the surface," Vance said to him. "The Dive Fighter Championship was the first tournament to ever bring the tech to the running grounds… and you're looking Dream Brawl's reigning champ; master of fisticuffs, weapons, and even guns," Vance said as he pointed to himself proudly before scratching the bridge of his nose. "Then again… being the champ is what got SAO's developer to give me my beta copy of this game as part of my prize and landed me in this mess."

"Tragic," the red-coat told him without pity.

"No kidding. But now that brings us to you Grim Reaper… I've heard rumors about your fight with Ilfang back on floor one, but I gotta see what you can do for myself."

"Why? So you can see if you're still the best? That's all this is about?" Ragna asked, starting to grow disappointed with Vance.

"Hardly, I want to fight you so I can keep myself alive," Vance told him with more ferocity this time. "If all I'm fighting here is stupid AI then I'll get complacent. If I get complacent here I'm dead…" Vance stared Ragna down with harsh eyes. "I thought that I'd gotten lucky finding the second floor boss, but even when I pulled a risky raid on it right then and there I didn't find any of the intensity of a one-on-one brawl with an actual person as my opponent… That's why I came to you."

(Cue Metal Gear RISING The Only Thing I Know For Real EXTENDED)

"And you couldn't just ask me back in town?" Ragna asked before smirking and finally pressing the Accept button on the screen. He decided he'd just roll with it, nothing was on the line for him here anyways. Walking around his opponent as the timer counted down, he unhooked his blade from his belt. "Fine then, something tells me this fight is only for the two of us to know about."

"Right! That way nothing's held back! We'll both take this fight to our graves!" Vance said as he readied his scimitar, Ragna could easily feel the overpowering excitement burning off of his opponent.

"...Sounds like a Reaper's Promise," were the finally words said as the countdown finally ended and the two surged forward.

Their first contact was simple stick of blades against each other more of a chance to test the other's strength. Unsurprisingly Ragna seemed to win the clash and managed to shake Vance's footing, but the scimitar user managed to roll out of the way at the last instant and dodge the Reaper's follow up strike before leaping upward into the air to dodge the third slash.

Using as a sword skill to boost his attack power, Vance slashed was once more at the Reaper only for the blades to clash against each other. Using as much speed as he could, Vance pulled his blade back right before lunging into a stab. Ragna brought his blade around and forced the scimitar to scrape off his sword's edge, right before putting his foot out to trip Vance as he passed him by. Vance responded by still sending his scimitar into the air with a high sweeping motion that Ragna was forced to lean back to avoid. The Reaper then tried to catch his opponent with another sword swing, but instead Vance managed to spin into a sword skill at the last second, result in another clash.

Almost as it both fighters were in sync with the other's fighting, both activated a lunging skill which resulted in a powerful weapon clash as they passed by one another before quickly turning and slamming their blade's into the other's yet again. Vance tried to go for a third attack, but Ragna beat him with a faster punch to the face using his free hand. Vance stumbled back for all of an instant before shifting to a skill empowered haymaker which Ragna guarded against, surprising the Reaper as it actually force him to skid back a few feet.

"You've got me against the wall…" Vance admitted with he charged forward with another lunging sword skill, this time leave Ragna to leap out the way. "Just the way I wanted it!" Ragna went for yet another punch to the face, but this time Vance we've around Ragna's side to get behind him. Ragna responded with a haymaker kick as he turned his body and left his opponent to leap out of the way. "But come on! Where's that special skill that the first raiders keep going on about!? Aren't I worth at least one of those!?"

"Maybe you are, but I'm more than just a couple of fancy tricks!," Ragna muttered as he rushed, forward going much faster than he had just a few moments prior. Vance barely had any time to block as Ragna's skilless attack sent him sliding back. He didn't have any time to recover either as Ragna follow up with a second upwards strike that sent his blade up, unable to guard its owner. Ragna then sent an uppercut to Vance's head and knocked him into the air. He paused for all of a moment before roundhouse kicking Vance in the chest and sending him flying.

Vance barely managed a keep a solid hold on his weapon as his back slammed into the rough rocky wall. Just as he barely managed to avoid Ragna blade as it impaled the rock where his head had been just a split second before. He tried turning into a desperate haymaker to get some ground back, but all Ragna had to do was take a single step back as he roughly yanked his impaled blade from the wall.

Ragna then swung downwards and the two blades entered a struggle as each force pressed fiercely against the other. Both fighters glared harshly into the other's eyes… they were a still for a moment before giving ground and stepping back right before throwing their final attack. Vance's overhead strike radiated with energy from the sword skill… but was ultimately beaten as Ragna's upwards strike knocked him off of his feet once more, this time finally forcing the blade out of his hands. Vance then crashed to the ground, his saber spinning several times in the air before impaling itself in rocky floor mere inches from his face.

(End Theme)

"...I… I lost?" Vance asked as he laid on his back on the rocky dungeon floor, staring up at the dungeon ceiling.

"Don't try and play the victim; I gave you exactly what you wanted," Ragna reminded as he brought his own blade back and set it back on his belt. Vance didn't saw anything for a long moment, only continuing to lay on the ground and stare up at the ceiling like there was an answer up there he was looking for. "...Still, hell of a fight."

"Liar," Vance muttered, surprising the Reaper as he declined the credit he'd been rightfully given. "Even towards the end you were slowing your attacks slightly on most of your slashes. Even with as unorthodox a fighting style as you've got I could tell that was intentional… you were holding back on me the whole fight."

"And you could tell all of that through all of the hell I was putting you through?" Ragna asked with an eyebrow raised before he started chuckling. "You're even better than I gave you credit for."

"It doesn't mean that I don't still have a ways to go," the scimitar user muttered as he rose to his feet and yanked his blade out of the ground. "Gotta say… even after losing I'm still excited at the idea. You're something else buddy; just let me know whenever you're up for a rematch."

"...Yeah, I'll be sure to keep you in mind," Ragna decided, figuring he could continue open up a little. After the two had broken from their team and exchanged info, Vance used a teleport crystal and headed off to what Ragna assumed was a waypoint on Floor Three. The Reaper was about to follow in suit, but then put the crystal away and gave a smirk behind him. "Now you choose to show up."

Forming behind Ragna was a giant golden serpent with twin heads that closest resembled that of the King Cobra. The massive creature stood towering over the Reaper as it hissed with its forked tongues. Cracking his knuckles to ready himself for the fight, Ragna nonchalantly walked towards the massive boss as two sets of deathly venomous fangs lunged towards him.

...Their fight would not last long.

Author's Note: NOTES FOR THE FUTURE HERE.

Part Two! Coming at you hot!

So I got a ton of reviews on the last chapter which is always good because I was trying to make it one of those big 'payoff' chapters (basically a chapter which has been set up for using the other chapters). Anyways, I'd have to say it went well even with controversy of announcing Kazuto's death. I understand that a few people might be skeptical about this, but my main point was to add depth to Leafa's storyline and add another layer to her character, not that I totally despise Kirito like a few people thought I did.

Enough on him now, more to Ragna. Now the other big issue that I've been asked is will every floor take nearly as long as floor one. And to answer that, let's take a look at the floor timeline for the anime (which I'm basing this story loosely off of instead of the still in process PROGRESSIVE manga).

In Episode 2 Beater (want to come up with a better term than that) we see that Floor One was cleared on December 3rd, 2022 (the anime gives us the meeting date of December 2nd, but the raid took place the following day). In Episode 3 Red Nosed Reindeer (put me down for an 'eh?' on that title) we see that five months later on May 9th, 2023 that SAO's 28th floor has just been cleared by a raid report. Doing the math, that's a little under six floors cleared per month; over one floor cleared every week (when the first floor took almost a MONTH to do?).

As such, that means that I can't have people spending weeks upon weeks on each floor (even though they should because Level and Monster Drop grinding is a big part of RPGs, especially MMOs). Even if I'm changing most of the floors that weren't directly seen in the anime, that still leaves me with a bit of a time crunch on floor progress if I want to stay close to it.

The big thing that the anime is oft to ignore (though is hilariously noted in Something Witty Entertainment's Abridged series) is the MMO function of SAO, meaning there are plenty of other capable players out clearing the game with their own stories to follow if we chose. This means that Ragna won't always won't be the one to clear a Floor, but I do hope to have him spend a little time on every floor. Meaning there could still be over a hundred chapters… As long as I don't do a Floor 75 cop out (...Honest question, who here thinks THAT'S the route I'm going?).

As a side note I can hypothesis that maybe a CERTAIN player could have known where all of the bosses were and spent time clearing the game, but if that was the case the players would have found him out much sooner

Anyways enough stalling, let's get your mountain of actual reviews addressed.

ZilverX The Writer Triplet: Thanks, just had to hammer out a few details for part 2.

Ragriz: Fitting is a good word for it, I like to try to involve some last minute character development.

Zaralann: Thank you!

Xcell: That's the main reason did it like this; to give Leafa more weight than just… brother complex (Queenpin of Steel)

Hellifrit: Indifferent eh? I can work with that.

Armedlord 2.0: It wasn't necessarily the same Nerve Gear, but it was the same game copy at the very least.

JOK3R Of Monday: Thanks, all of which I was trying to go for.

Wlyman2009: Here's the first chapter of part two for your viewing pleasure.

BlitzNuteral69: We'll get to all of that down the line when we get to it.

The Unplanner: Thanks for the lengthy review, always a pleasure to hear from you.

EpicLinkSam: Afraid that's a general consensus.

ARSLOTHES: Wait no longer, it's here.

VGBlackwing: An off screen and explainable death is the closest I'll likely get for writing the guy.

Infinite Omega: Once again, here we go.

Touhoufanatic: I'm just in sort of an experimental phase when it comes to this story. Part two will be MUCH longer than part one. Thanks for sticking with me thus far though.

PersonaQeminod1: More or less how I planned to write this chapter.

Lightkirinhuyuname: Jeeze, I hope this gets you your fix for a while.

Medblare: Ugh, rage quitters… I'm just happy I haven't met any in Cross Tag Battle.

The Emerald Mage: Another lengthy review, excellent!

Guest (1): A lot of people want me to add in the Black Cats a bit more, but I haven't come to any obvious conclusions there.

Travis Moon: I'm assuming you're talking about Leafa. She wasn't in this chapter, but I've got plans for her for down the road.

VirusChris: A THIRD long review? Jeeze, I must be doing something right then.

Zeferoz: Thanks, I try.

Guest (2): Again, I try.

Solrac XD: It seems I've got someone happy for the substitution.

Necrois: There's a lot of changes coming to Part Two of the reboot. Stay tuned.

LL: Even if Kayaba did the reveal, there's still plenty of gear that could change your outward appearance. Just take Liz and her clip for example.

MIDNIGHT The Fallen One: Another long review… I'm happy to have people like you who go so in depth into my stories.

Flo463: We've talked via PM and though you've made it very clear that you'd prefer if I had kept Kirito in this fic, I hope that you understand that this is not the path that I'm choosing to take and respond accordingly whether that be to decide to stop reading or continue to with the knowledge that Kirito isn't in this particular SAO story.

Fun Lover: Exactly what I was going for, thanks for understanding.

Kayen1024: Thanks for your input.

That… was a lot of reviews… Hope everyone enjoys this return to the story as we go to Part Two. Ciao!