Disclaimer: I own nothing but my ideas. This applies to the whole fic.

A/N: Current end-of-chapter content and formatting may be inconsistent. This will be fixed within the next few days.

Prologue – At Journey's End

Floor 10

After four long years in development, the new VRMMO Sword Art Online, abbreviated as S.A.O., officially started its closed beta testing phase on May 1, 2026. One thousand people - a mix of veteran gamers and uninitiated newbies - were invited to aid its lone developer Kayaba Akihiko in testing and improving the game he poured the last four years of his life into. It would be the first time anyone other than he would be able to experience the world he had built. One month later, it was time for the closed beta to end. At midnight, all player progress would be reset in preparation for the next step before the game's full release.

But, seventeen-year-old Kirigaya Kazuto, online alias Kirito, didn't care. Though it was disappointing, he wasn't that torn about the loss of progress. This was because in the one month he'd been given, he had accomplished what he set out to do. Currently, he was staring in satisfaction at the proof of his achievement on his Status screen. On the small holographic display in front of the dark-haired teen were six Skill slots, filled with two Weapon Skills, three Combat Skills, and one Auxiliary Skill.

Sword Art Online's gameplay emphasized freedom and individuality. To that end, there were no predefined character classes. Instead, players could mix-and-match Skills with varying effects to support their preferred playstyle. The Skills themselves came in three flavors: Weapon Skills, Combat Skills, and Auxiliary Skills. Weapon Skills allowed one to equip weapons of the corresponding type and unlocked the game's titular Sword Arts for that weapon type as they were leveled up. Combat Skills offered a variety of passive bonuses to players in battle. Auxiliary Skills encompassed all other Skills related to in-game actions.

Customizing and optimizing one's Skill set was a large part of the game. Removing a Skill immediately reduced its level by half or more, sometimes all the way to zero, so players also had to be extra mindful of their choices. This encouraged experimentation in the early stages and specialization as players naturally gained experience with different Skills. In addition, players often picked Skills whose effects complemented each other and ended up discovering new interactions between Skills or secret, more advanced Skills that only became available if a certain combination of other Skills were chosen and leveled up. Eventually, information brokers who kept careful records of these hidden Skills and other useful things became especially prominent in the game's economy as the company who produced it ruthlessly suppressed any information about the game that was posted on online forums.

Of course, with the game in its beta-testing phase, any concerns about Skill choice had been far from Kirito's mind when he first started. He had always been a sort of free spirit, so he had simply gone with his gut for every Skill thus far. The results were unexpected, but far from unwelcome. Though his other Skills were nowhere near the maximum level of one hundred, both of Kirito's Weapon Skills had small stars in place of their levels, signifying that he had completed the process of leveling them. This was noteworthy enough by itself, since the vast majority of the other players had not bothered to max out any Skills at all, opting instead to try out as many of the hundreds of Skills as possible, but what made it really stand out was that the two Weapon Skills were identical, something that could only be achieved via the game's Prestige System.

Normally, a player could only equip one copy of any given Skill. Only by using the Prestige option, available once a Skill was completely maxed out, could a player could equip a copy of that Skill to another open slot, resetting both Skills to level one in the process. Kirito was the only player who had achieved Prestige in the beta and was in fact the person who discovered the system existed since it wasn't mentioned anywhere in the game's sparse tutorials.

At first glance, the usefulness of the Prestige System was questionable. Equipping duplicates of a Skill conferred the same bonuses as if only one of the Skill were equipped, at least for Weapon Skills. This made taking advantage of it dubious with the limited amount of skill slots available to players. However, with two copies of a Weapon Skill came the ability to equip two weapons of the same type. For Kirito, someone who used to practice two-sword style kendo in real life, being able to properly wield two swords again was a personal goal that he had sacrificed more than two-thirds of his waking hours over the past month to attain.

The month-long duration of the beta made achieving the maximum level for most Skills impossible, since almost all of them had some sort of time restraint on their leveling process, but that was not the case for Weapon Skills. All one had to do to level up them was to fight with their corresponding weapons, and fight Kirito did. He spent hours upon hours grinding up and down all ten floors of the floating castle of Aincrad available in the beta, slaying his way across each floor as it was unlocked and earning himself the rather embarrassing title of "Eternal Monster Hunter" for his antics. In the process, he unwittingly pioneered the unlocking of the other nine floors by pushing the combat engine to its limits and motivating the players who watched him to fight as well, if for no other reason than to imitate the sheer "cool" factor of effortlessly slashing through packs of wolves, lizardmen, and all manner of other types of monsters in mere minutes. The end result: he was now the proud owner of the only duplicate Weapon Skills in the game that he knew of. The two swords strapped to his back were a constant reminder of this fact to both himself and anyone who saw him.

The Skill system for S.A.O. was simultaneously simple and complex. Skills were divided into three categories: Weapon Skills, Combat Skills, and Auxiliary Skills, and players started with one of each type of Skill slot at level one. These initial Skill slots were exclusive in that players could only equip the matching type of Skill to them. Players then gained an additional Skill slot every ten character levels and another every tenth floor boss that could be used for any of the three types of Skills, maxing out at ten Skill slots total no matter how that total was reached.

Weapon Skills were the most important and least plentiful Skills in the game. Every equipped Weapon Skill allowed a player to equip one weapon of that type, though something like a set of throwing picks or a bag of darts could also count as a single "weapon" for a Skill like «Throwing Weapons». Players were outright unable to equip weapons they did not have the corresponding Skill for unless they had the Auxiliary Skill «Arms Master», which came with its own restrictions. However, the real importance of Weapon Skills was that they granted players access to the true bread-and-butter of the combat system, the game's titular Sword Arts.

A player's Weapon Skill level contributed to their overall damage with weapons of that type, but the bulk of a player's damage relied on Sword Arts, special attacks that could be executed by assuming one of several context-sensitive stances and allowing the game's physics engine to assist with the rest of the motion. As a side note, despite their name, "Sword" Arts were not restricted to swords or even sword-like weapons, being applicable to axes, staves, and even plain fisticuffs. Sword Arts dealt bonus damage and typically moved a player's body faster than the player themselves could, meaning PvE combat (or Player vs. Environment, meaning monsters) was less dependent on actual skill with a weapon, while PvP (Player vs. Player) combat was the opposite since the rigid motions of Sword Arts were disadvantageous to use against someone experienced with how they worked.

Kirito had practical swordsmanship experience on top of his almost instinctive grasp of various game mechanics. He had briefly considered making a name for himself in the arena of the starting town, but decided against it in the end since it would have revealed his player name when a match began, something that he had taken great care to hide for personal reasons. Before the iconic dual swords crossed behind his back became the a constant on his in-game avatar, Kirito used to keep the rest of his features hidden beneath a hooded cloak that he also used to change the color and pattern of almost every day. Back then, nobody would have been able to identify him since many players copied his looks and a few even impersonated him in an attempt to steal his title. He secretly wished them luck, but each and every single one failed to live up to expectations when asked to clear a lap around the tenth floor as proof, a feat he was well-known for doing on a regular basis back when he was training his «One-Handed Sword» Skill.

In contrast to Weapon Skills, Combat Skills were passive abilities like automatic healing or a reduction in the duration of the vulnerability state players were left in after executing a Sword Art. They acted as support for a player's chosen style of combat, whether they preferred to launch an all-out offensive or favored more defensive or opportunistic styles. Sword Art Online had no magic system, so healing could only be done via the limited supply of potions players could carry with them, or via Combat Skills like «Vitality» or «First Aid». Thus, players had to choose their Combat Skills wisely, balancing the ability to keep themselves healthy with the added utility offered by other Skills.

…Unless of course you were Kirito and you didn't care about dying. His three Combat Skills were «Parry», «Detect», and «Critical Hit». For healing, he relied on potions. This had caused him to die many times over the course of his grinding, but the speed at which he was able to dispatch enemies was worth the trade-off in his opinion.

The last type of Skill, Auxiliary Skills, encompassed everything else a player could do unrelated to combat. Unlike with Weapon Skills that restricted a player's equippable items and available Sword Arts, Auxiliary Skills did not stop a player from engaging in a particular activity. Without a skill like the aforementioned «Singing», players could still sing. However, with the skill, the system gave additional positive effects to both listeners and the singer depending on how good the performance was. Kirito's «Fishing» skill, despite only being at level 4, still gave his line bonus durability and slightly increased the value of any fish he caught if sold to an NPC vendor. There was no particular reason why he had chosen «Fishing» of all things; it was just what he happened to have equipped currently after swapping different Skills in and out of his exclusive Auxiliary Skill slot over the course of the closed beta.

At the moment, he was making use of said Skill, sitting on the edge of a lake on the tenth floor with a fishing rod in hand instead of his swords. He was taking a break from his usual activities of touring the different landscapes of Aincrad, reminiscing over the past month in the final hours of the beta. A gentle breeze ruffled his short black hair as he idly recast the line. His swords and cloak were nowhere to be seen, hidden inside his in-game inventory so that he would not be recognized by the other players who were roaming the floor. The lake was located right outside the town for the floor, which meant the density of monsters nearby was very low. Even if it weren't, Kirito was making use of his «Prestige Lv.1» Extra Skill to keep them away.

Extra Skills were a fourth, hidden category of Skills unlike the basic three that were awarded to players by the Cardinal System for accomplishing certain tasks. They did not take up a Skill slot in order to be active and could be freely switched on and off without any consequences. Kirito heard from a certain information broker that his «Prestige» Skill was one of three such Skills to be revealed so far. All the Extra Skill did was naturally repel monsters that were much lower level than him, but he had his suspicions about what might happen if he achieved Prestige with more Skills.

The second Extra Skill was «Martial Arts», first discovered and demonstrated in action by a male player named Ken. «Martial Arts» allowed the use of unique Sword Arts with one's bare fists. It was available from the start of the game and could be obtained by simply defeating any monster without using any items, including weapons. Most unarmed Sword Arts were pretty underwhelming, but they were notable in that almost all of them inflicted Stun, a temporary status condition that interrupted enemy actions.

In addition to the basic starting Skills of «Forging», «Alchemy», and other crafting professions present in most MMOs, more Skills were automatically generated by the Cardinal System governing the game's processes once any player showed interest and talent in an action not already categorized by a Skill in the system. Players could even petition for the creation of new Auxiliary Skills if they demonstrated enough talent in the action they wanted a Skill for. If their request was granted, they were given the third Extra Skill: «Creator». As of now, «Creator» was nothing more than a cosmetic Skill that functioned like a badge of honor. The more important aspect of Skill Creation was that players would be allowed to equip Skills they created as Extra Skills. Players who created multiple Skills would only have their first Skill given to them as an Extra Skill to prevent abuse of the Skill Creation System.

The fishing rod twitched as something tugged on the line. Kirito yanked on it with all of his character's strength, uncaring if the line broke or not, and was rewarded with a small carp flopping out of the water and into his waiting hands. Having never fished before in his life, this was the boy's only method of actually succeeding in his task.

"Oooh, nice form there, Ki-bou~"

He jumped and dropped the carp on the ground, where it began bouncing towards the shoreline. His mystery observer giggled at the way he frantically turned his head around, searching for where she was hidden. A moment later, he felt part of his body stop responding to his commands, a small yellow lightning-bolt symbol popping up under his health bar in the top-right corner of his field of view. He toppled over, unable to keep his balance.

"I thought ya might've gotten rid of «Detect» now that ya don't go nuts across the floors anymore, but aren't ya even a little worried ya might be PK'ed? This is the tenth floor, ya know."

"A-Argo…!" he ground out as he struggled to prop himself up without the right side of his body. He eventually made it to a sitting position, leaning slightly left to keep from falling.

"Hehehe, catch me if ya can, Ki-bou!"

Kirito's let himself drop to the ground to avoid another dart headed for his left shoulder. While on his back, his left hand manipulated his open Status screen with a speed that spoke of much practice, two swords appearing at his waist instead of on his back where they usually did. He wasted no time in drawing one, rolling over to dodge another dart headed for his working leg. Then, in an act that a real life swordsman would probably never attempt even in desperation, he tossed his sword with unerring accuracy, a blue streak of light following in its wake as he activated the Sword Art «Blade Toss».

"Waaah!"

A rather unfeminine yelp of surprise echoed from the space he'd thrown the sword at as the air distorted to reveal a girl with short, brown hair dressed in a yellow cloak with three whisker marks on her cheeks. The dart she'd readied was dropped when she dove out of the way of the sword flying at her.

"Who the heck throws a sword?! You don't throw swords!" she protested.

"If you can throw stuff at me, I can throw stuff at you!" Kirito responded, drawing his other one.

"Wait, Ki-bou! We can talk this over! Don't- Wah!"

Once again, the petite girl dove to the side as another sword sailed through the spot she'd previously occupied. She stared at the two swords embedded in the soil behind her and laughed triumphantly.

"Hah! What now! You don't have any more swords!"

Her celebration was cut short as she felt a tiny prick on her thigh.

"Eh?"

She looked down and saw one of her own darts sticking out of her left leg. She traced the flight path back to Kirito's outstretched hand before the familiar Paralysis icon popped up under her health bar and she too fell to the ground.

"…Well played, Ki-bou," she muttered reluctantly. Her downcast expression soon morphed into her usual mischievous grin. "So now that we're both not going anywhere, what's up?"

"Do you not know how to greet people properly?"

"Proper greetings are for people who pay me. Since I actually pay you for information, I get to mess with ya however I want!"

Kirito sighed.

The immobilized girl lying spread-eagle on the ground a few meters away was Argo the Rat, one of, if not the most prominent information broker in SAO. She made a name for herself very early on by being the first to offer information on hidden and advanced Skills, possibly being the first self-proclaimed info broker in the game. Kirito's initial encounter with her was after he cleared a randomly-generated dungeon on the fifth floor. She had been waiting outside for him, and offered to sell him information on how to upgrade his favored weapon, the Anneal Blade, past its current cap of +5 if he gave her everything he knew about the dungeon he'd just soloed.

From there, they met regularly, usually outside one dungeon or another as Kirito led the charge as the Eternal Monster Hunter through the next five floors. Each time, she would trade him information about some unexplored dungeon, obscure quest, or ideal grinding spot in return for information on his most recent exploits. No Cor was exchanged between them. Somewhere around the tenth such occurrence, he invited her to hang out with him casually. She had blinked and laughed at him before asking if he did what he did to pick up girls, making the teenage boy blush. She did agree to go grab a bite to eat with him though.

Food in-game was of course not a replacement for food in the real world, but the beauty of SAO was that its engine faithfully reproduced the taste and texture of the dishes the NPC and player chefs created. The minority of female beta testers were ecstatic when they discovered that they could eat as much as they wanted without any negative consequences, and many an aspiring chef working in NPC-owned restaurants happily satisfied their customers' appetites while also taking the opportunity to experiment with several different combinations of the infinitely-respawning ingredients in storage.

Kirito and Argo's outing garnered much attention since both were instantly recognizable. Kirito had achieved Prestige by now and had not bothered to unequip his two swords, and Argo's whiskers and cloak were her signature features that she always displayed in order for people seeking her services to be able to find her. That they were sitting together at a table sparked many rumors among the beta testers that they were collaborating, which made sense since one was the most prominent clearer, a term used to refer to the most aggressive frontline players who took on the floor bosses, and the other was the most prominent information broker. It naturally followed that much of the information sold by the Rat was probably taken straight from the horse's mouth, that horse being Kirito. Neither bothered to dispel the rumors since one of them didn't know how and the other was happy to have her legitimacy further reinforced.

About a week ago, their relationship transitioned from simple acquaintances bordering on friends to business partners who were also most definitely friends. Probably.

It all started when Argo paid Kirito a surprise visit one day while he was experimenting with the «Meditation» Skill. While he was in the middle of practicing with it, he noticed that a new presence registered with his «Detect» Skill, which had only recently reached level 50, revealing the existence of two advanced Skills linked to it. Advanced Skills always showed up in a player's list of available Skills as «?» until the player received information about the Skill somehow, usually through an NPC. When Kirito opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the presence he had sensed, he didn't see anything except a vague outline of a person. When Argo then leapt at him in one of her classic tackle hugs, he had sidestepped her smoothly, causing her to crash into the ground. His accidental, but successful detection of her while she was using the Skill revealed its name to him. This was how he found out she possessed «Stealth».

Argo tried to pass it off as a figment of his imagination at first, but she gave up once Kirito told her that he knew the Skill's name and that it was in his list of Skills as well. She quickly became distressed once she realized that if he knew she had «Stealth» then he must also have known about the other advanced Skill «Analyze», a slip-up that haunted her to this day. Upon being informed of the Skill, its information had populated his list instantly.

«Analyze» was a terrifying Combat Skill in a game where information was so closely guarded. Requiring levels in both «Detect» and «Appraisal», the Skill allowed its user to view any other player's avatar information, including name, equipment, and most importantly, Skills. In combination with «Stealth», which required levels in «Hiding» and «Detect», it was the perfect scouting tool and the secret to Argo's success. Nobody except Kirito knew that she was probably the only player who had somehow gotten the «Hiding», «Detect», and «Appraisal» Skills to over level 50 within a month, but his discovery was enough to unnerve the broker and cause her to propose a deal.

In return for keeping her secret, Argo agreed to keep all of his secrets as well, unless he let her sell the information, at which point she would pay him a portion of anything she made off of it. Kirito had countered with his own business proposal. In addition to keeping each other's secrets, he would provide her, and only her, with all the information he had in return for free access to her own information network. Part of the deal was that it would carry over to the actual game once it was released. She had thought it over carefully before finally agreeing only as long as he remained a prominent frontline clearer. Rather than shake on the deal, Argo had sealed it with a quick kiss on the cheek, shocking him into silence and making her giggle anew.

She was now a constant in his gaming life, having visited him at random intervals on a daily basis.

"In case you couldn't tell. I was fishing," Kirito said as he waited for the Paralysis to wear off.

"Mm. Boring. Ya sound like an old man, Ki-bou. Ya know what you need?"

"What?" he asked to humor her. He already knew what she was going to say.

"A girlfriend!" she proclaimed.

It was her most recent outlandish suggestion on a running list of things he should do, only half of which he had actually done. It had started off with fairly innocent things like going to a particular spot on this floor or more thoroughly exploring that dungeon and gradually transitioned into things like endorsing his own fan club or doing a low level dungeon run without any body gear equipped.

"Are you volunteering?" he teased back.

"Are you asking?" she sing-songed.

Kirito scoffed.

"I'm hurt, Ki-bou!" Argo replied theatrically. "How could you play with an innocent maiden's heart like that?"

"Tell me when you see the innocent maiden and I'll go apologize to her on your behalf."

"Geez. You'll never get a girl if ya act like that y'know?"

The status icon blinked and disappeared after a couple more seconds. Kirito hopped to his feet, only to be tackled back to the ground by his conversation partner. He was grateful that the sand of the lake wasn't actual sand, or else it would have gotten everywhere.

"How did you recover faster than me?" he asked the girl grinning at him.

"If anybody else asked, I'd charge them, but since it's you, I'll just give ya a hint. «Throwing Weapons»~"

That's not a hint so much as it is the answer…

The Weapon Skill must confer some sort of bonus to the duration of status effects inflicted by the weapon type. Good to know in case he ever ran into someone else who used them. He tried to remember if any of the groups who tried to PK him ever used darts, but came up blank.

"Ki-bou."

"What?"

"Ya have a pretty girl on top of you. What are ya spacing out for?"

Kirito deadpanned at her and pried her arms off of him with his superior strength, before getting to his feet. Stats in SAO came in two flavors. There was STR, short for Strength, which determined raw power, and AGI, short for Agility, which determined speed. When a player leveled up, they received three points to allocate between these two stats. Kirito opted for a 2:1 STR to AGI ratio in the beta, but was strongly considering reversing the ratio for the actual game, while Argo went for an extreme 1:8 ratio since weapons like darts took little to no STR to actually wield, and the majority of their damage was dealt through the Poison status effect.

All other stats were hidden and presumably raised automatically as players leveled up. The only reason players knew they existed at all was due to the initial tutorial message all players received upon reaching level two. There was a rumor floating around that the Skills a player had equipped when they leveled up influenced how their hidden stats grew, but as there was no way to tell if this was actually the case with everyone at such low levels, it was nothing more than a rumor. Worth taking note of was that a player's HP, or Hit Points, representing their overall health, rose as they leveled up, but damage reduction was completely dependent on gear. Defensive gear offered resistances to certain damage types, but no player could truly become invincible.

Kirito was considered by the beta tester community as a whole as the most powerful solo player in the game, but others who played in small groups could and did PK, or Player Kill, him. The fact that he was able to rarely reverse-PK them back was a testament to his skill, but most of the time, if he was outnumbered, he was dead. As a level twenty player, it took lower level players much longer to kill him than it did for him to kill them, but he was still vulnerable due to two important facts.

First, all forms of healing in the game were stopped if one took damage, including potions, which regenerated health, and the automatic healing from Skills. Second, all entities taking a certain percentage of their max HP in damage or taking damage in their designated weak spots had their Sword Arts interrupted unless they had a Combat Skill that prevented it or were using an Art that could not be stopped. Player characters didn't have access to either option in the beta, and their entire bodies counted as weak spots, meaning anything more than a superficial cut cost Kirito the cooldown on his chosen Art. Being unable to reliably heal himself or execute Sword Arts, his prowess could only carry him so far.

"Ki-bou. Ya keep spacing out again. Do I have to throw something at ya to get yer attention?"

Kirito blinked and looked over to see Argo pouting at him.

"Sorry, Argo. What were you saying?"

"I asked ya if you were excited for the launch of the open beta."

The open beta. Unlike the closed beta, in which only a thousand people were allowed to participate, the open beta would be conducted over a similar one-month period and would be open to anyone who owned a NerveGear. This meant that as many as two hundred thousand people might log on to the game and try out its features. Kayaba Akihiko had already announced that of the ten thousand copies of SAO that would be sold upon release, a thousand were reserved for the closed beta, and a maximum of one thousand more to be given to any players of the open beta who "achieved noteworthy feats", not specifying exactly what these feats were. Also unlike the closed beta, the player level cap would be raised to one hundred and the experience curve would be rebalanced so that players would be expected to gain approximately ten levels per floor rather than one.

Everything else about the game would be kept the same, but information would continue to be suppressed. With as many as two hundred times the number of players, Kirito was a little skeptical about the company's chance of success, but at the same time, he supposed it was a clever marketing ploy to allow certain bits of information to escape in preparation for future pre-orders that would become available after the initial launch date.

"I would be more excited if we were allowed to participate."

"Meh, me too, but hey! We get our own server to mess around on in the meantime!"

"If only we didn't have to reset our characters. I get that with all the data they got from us, they have a lot of changes they plan on making to the game mechanics, but I'm not looking forward to grinding out my «One-Handed Sword» Skill again…"

"Just go beat on the bosses by yourself like ya did this time around. Ya might even solo one of the first ones!"

"Hah. Yeah, that'll happen."

"Ya never know, Ki-bou. If anyone could do it, it'd probably be you," Argo remarked wryly. "I mean, who was it that almost soloed a quarter of the tenth floor boss? The first floor boss isn't anywhere near as hard, right?"

Kirito frowned at the memory. In one of his many grinding sessions when he was busy trying to level his newly-acquired «One-Handed Sword» Skills, he had indeed almost managed to knock off one of the boss' four HP bars before he had been abruptly killed by its retaliatory Sword Art. His tendency to solo bosses stemmed from the fact that Weapon Skills gained experience purely based on the amount of damage one dealt with their respective weapon types, and the floor bosses had the highest HP totals of any monster by far. To date, he'd never gotten close to completely killing a boss on his own.

"I suppose, if I got there early enough…"

"See? Now who's thinkin' about it?"

"I'll give it a shot, at least."

"And if ya win, I'm expecting you to spill the beans about there being a solo clear bonus!"

"I highly doubt one exists. At most, the Cardinal System might award me an Extra Skill or something."

"That's still something!"

He smiled at her enthusiasm.

"You know, if you're so eager, why don't you come with me? We can challenge the boss together."

"You need to work on your pick up lines, Ki-bou."

"I'm being serious, Argo. Why don't you ever fight bosses?"

"Well… I'm too delicate, ya know?"

"Too delicate to fight a boss, but not too delicate to ambush the strongest player in the game?"

"Wow, full o' yourself, ain'tcha?"

Argo tried to pull his head down low enough for her to wrap her arm around it, but with his STR, that wasn't happening. She just ended up awkwardly hanging off of him by one arm. Huffing irritably, she settled for jumping on his back. Kirito nearly stepped on his fishing rod as he took a couple of steadying steps forward.

"You're the one who keeps calling me that."

"When I say it, it's a fact. When you say it, it's bragging."

"Oh, is that how it is? I never knew."

"Yep."

They stared each other in the eye for a few seconds before they broke down in chuckles.

"In all seriousness, I expect ya to uphold yer reputation on the new server," Argo said, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"I'll do my best," Kirito replied.

"Good! Now, forward!" she commanded.

"Where to? And can I pick up my fishing rod? And my swords?"

"Town! And ya shouldn't have thrown them at me! Giddy up!"

He rolled his eyes at her and figured since the server would be shut down in a couple of hours anyway, he didn't really care if he left some of his items behind. He'd be starting anew soon enough. With that thought in mind, he obediently carried the girl on his back towards the nearby town. Halfway there, she crawled up his back and perched herself on his shoulders, something that was only made possible by her AGI and the fact that her avatar was so much smaller than his.

Kirito took it in stride, trying not to think about the two soft thighs now positioned on either side of his head. Why did the programmers feel the need to include the feeling of a girl's thighs, anyway? Thankfully, she took his mind off of her distracting body parts by chattering away at him about some random topic at a pace he couldn't hope to keep up with.

To be honest, Argo kind of reminded him of his sister, who was actually his cousin. Suguha used to do the same things to him as the brown-haired girl on his shoulders did. Kirito wondered what she was up to now that Kendo season was winding down. He felt a phantom pain in his left shoulder, but it quickly passed and was forgotten. He remembered seeing his cousin the other day hiding a bulky package behind her back, but when he asked her what it was, she completely avoided the question and ran away to her room. His mom had no idea what it was either, but did comment on how she seemed interested in what he had spent so much of the past month obsessed over.

"Ki-bou, you totally aren't listening to me, are ya?"

"Huh? Sorry, Argo. I spaced out."

"Why am I not surprised. Anyway, I was saying you should go ahead and Prestige yer Skills and see what happens. They're about to be reset anyway."

"I guess you're right."

He idly raised one hand and made a downward swiping motion, opening his Status screen which had closed itself automatically a few minutes earlier. He sifted through the pages until he reached his equipped Skills and tapped the Prestige option for both of his «One-Handed Sword» Skills. He confirmed his choice and waited along with Argo, who was staring down at the screen from her vantage point above. To their disappointment, all seemed to do was level his «Prestige Lv.1» Skill up to «Prestige Lv.3». It didn't even get any additional effects.

"Did it do anythin' else?"

"I've got four copies of «One-Handed Sword»."

"Boring."

"Maybe I need to reach a higher Prestige level for something to happen."

"Boooring."

"It's also possible using Prestige on the same Skill doesn't do anything after the first time."

"Ki-bou, yer doin' it again."

"Doing what?"

"Being the boring you. Go back to being the fun Ki-bou."

"…I don't know what to say to that."

"Ya don't have to say anything. Just do. Here, I'll help."

She squeezed her thighs around his head. He blushed immediately and began spluttering.

"Argo!"

"See? Now yer being funny again!"

…

Kirigaya Kazuto, online alias Kirito, stared at his Status screen in confusion. The open beta for the new VRMMO Sword Art Online, abbreviated as SAO, had just started at midnight yesterday, resetting all players' progress, or so it seemed. On the small holographic display in front of him were his three initial Skill slots, all empty. His inventory was also empty. His friends list, empty. His gear was all of the typical beginner stuff. His two visible stats were at the baseline total of one measly point each. He was level one, just like every other player logging in and appearing in the central plaza of the Town of Beginnings. But, as his fingers navigated through the familiar holographic display to his list of available Skills, he saw something that shouldn't have been there.

At the very top of the list, in bold, was the Extra Skill «Prestige Lv.3».

New Skills:

*Skill information listed in this section can be treated as omake content. Any important Skills will have their effects reiterated in the story proper.

**All Weapon Skill descriptions are the same, except for «Throwing Weapons». The basic description will be listed just once for «One-Handed Sword» and omitted for any future Skills besides «Throwing Weapons».

Weapon Skills

«One-Handed Sword»: Allows the user to equip one weapon of the corresponding type and enables related Sword Arts. Level up to increase damage dealt and unlock new Sword Arts.

«Throwing Weapons»: Allows the user to equip one weapon of the corresponding type. Level up to increase resistance to and recovery rate of status ailments.

Combat Skills

«Analyze»: Derivative of «Appraisal» and «Detect». Reveals various information about targeted entities. Level up to increase detail.

«Critical Hit»: Enables additional damage bonus when attacking weak spots. Level up to increase damage dealt to weak spots.

«Detect»: Reveals hidden entities and information about targets such as weak spots. Level up to increase detection rate and effective radius.

«First Aid»: Slowly restores a portion of HP from the most recent instance of damage as long as no damage is being taken. Level up to increase recovery amount and healing speed.

«Parry»: Allows the user to deflect blows from entities with greater strength or weight of arms. Level up to increase strength and weight bonus when parrying.

«Stealth»: Derivative of «Detect» and «Hiding». Visually conceals the user from other players and monsters after a period of immobility. Level up to reduce time lag before concealment and dampen all generated sound.

«Vitality»: Slowly restores HP after no damage has been taken for a certain period of time. Level up to increase recovery rate and reduce time lag before recovery begins.

Auxiliary Skills

«Alchemy»: Enables the automated creation of potions and other consumables using a flask and various reagents. Level up to increase potency of created items and unlock new recipes.

«Appraisal»: Allows the user to identify unknown items. Level up to increase the variety of items that can be identified.

«Forging»: Enables the automated creation and enhancement of weapons and armor using a forge and various materials. Level up to increase potency of created items, boost success rate when enhancing, and unlock new recipes.

«Hiding»: Reduces likelihood of detection by monsters. Level up to decrease sound generated by movement.

«Singing»: Allows the user to confer positive effects (buffs) to allies and negative effects (debuffs) to enemies using the power of song. Level up to increase effective radius, boost potency and duration of buffs and debuffs, and unlock new effects.

Extra Skills

«Creator»: Thank you for contributing to Sword Art Online! (Cannot be leveled up.)

«Prestige (Kirito)»: Your reputation precedes you. Repels lower level monsters, but attracts higher level monsters.

«Martial Arts»: Enables unarmed Sword Arts. Level up to increase damage dealt while unarmed and unlock new Sword Arts.

A/N: Check my profile for regular status updates. Rated M for adult themes, including but not limited to language, nudity, and implied sexual activity.

As far as the timeline is concerned, everything takes place four years later than in canon. The closed beta ends on May 31 instead of August 31. The full launch of the game takes place on August 6 instead of November 6. Dates are only important for specific holidays and birthdays, so you won't be seeing timestamps. Complete AU from the very beginning, though I'll be borrowing aspects of canon events for convenience to introduce characters.

Extra Skills and Outside System Skills in canon have been reclassified. The term "Outside System Skill" is never used. Truly "Unique" Skills do not exist, though some Skills are limited to a certain number of individuals. Knowledge of the changing mechanics of the game itself are a large part of the story, but anything important is reiterated often enough you will never be lost.

Next chapter: «A New Beginning»! The stakes are set, new friendships are made, and Beaters are condemned… or are they?