A/N: Hello everyone! Yes, I'm still alive! It's certainly been a while, but I did mention in the last chapter that I was going to take some time off to reread and review all the chapters I've written so far so that I could have a better idea on how I should steer this story towards the ending I have in mind. To an extent, I did get a better grasp on things, but I'm still not 100% confident that I can finish writing this story all the way to the end. Aside from that, I've been really busy with school the last few months, hence I haven't had the time to even think about updating this story, but rest assured, I am still planning on actually finishing this whole sort of project of mine. An important aspect of the story that I wasn't able to explain in the previous chapter is the existence of the KOTB guild (which, as you've read, is the guild which Alice and Eugeo decided to join). I forgot to point out that in the anime and light novels, the Knights of the Blood Oath guild did not exist until after the boss raid on the 25th Floor. I sincerely apologize for the oversight; I honestly thought that the guild was created some time after the 1st Floor boss raid. I watched the anime and was only able to read the Alicization arc light novels, so I'm not exactly the most knowledgeable SAO fan out there. Again, I apologize. But as you may have noticed, I did not edit the previous chapter. The reason behind this is because I want Heathcliff's act of recruiting seven members at the beginning of the game as the basis that he will use to determine who the sub-leaders of the KOTB guild will be once it starts recruiting more members. From this point on until after the 25th Floor boss raid, KOTB will not be recruiting any more members. I will explain this further in the next chapter. Also, I know I promised that Kirito will be making an appearance this chapter. He will, but just at the end. I decided to split this chapter into two parts, since I didn't want to start writing an 8.5-9k word chapter after not writing for so long. I am really rusty, so I'm sorry if I have grammatical errors. If you guys have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. Also, reviews are encouraged and are highly appreciated. Now, on to review responses!

Review Responses:

DaManWOFear: Thank you for reviewing! Original Alice Schuberg for the win! I really liked her character and was very disappointed that we didn't get to see more of her since the author focused more on Alice Synthesis Thirty. That's actually one of my inspirations for writing this story; I wanted to see what I could do with the original Alice's personality. I agree about the Integrity Knights; they remind me of the Knights of the Round in the anime Code Geass where save for Suzaku and his unit, none of the others received that much screen time. I plan to include Bercouili in this story though, so if you like his character, please stay tuned! I'm glad that you see things like that! It's been quite the challenge to get Eugeo and Alice to become their canon selves given the setting of the story. As for Asuna, I'm still thinking about how Alice and Eugeo (especially Eugeo) will grow closer to her. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy reading this next chapter!

NET: Thank you for reviewing! Yes, I will do my best to include as many characters from as many different arcs as I can! You'll have to wait for some Eugeo and Kirito time, since I'm focusing a little more on Alice and Kirito for now. Oh Eugeo will be better for sure! Alice is guiding him after all…hehe. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Daemon of Wrath: Thank you for reviewing! Aw, thank you for the kind words! I am excited for the anime adaptation as well! For some reason, the Alicization arc has always been my favorite out of all the SAO arcs. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

gemmysaur: Thank you for reviewing, my faithful reader! Glad to see that you're still with me, HAHAHA. But seriously, thank you so much for reading and providing me with feedback after every chapter so far! Hmm, that's actually a great point, but to be honest, I'm not too familiar with the canon personalities of those characters (like Uolo and Kibaou). Unlike with Raios and Humbert, since I was able to read the LNs, I'm more comfortable writing the two. Also because it's clear that Raios and Humbert are perverts and they hate Kirito and Eugeo in the light novels, which is something I will fully exploit as I move further into this story. Lastly, putting Raios and Humbert in KOB just made sense for me given that…well, there are certain players in KOB that wanted players dead *wink. Ronye and Tieze will come along shortly, maybe in two or three chapters (or at least that's my plan at the moment)! Oh, and sorry if I'm going to disappoint you but Kirito won't be in this chapter for that much; I PROMSE that he'll be in the next one (part 2 of this chapter). Hmm, I thought about merging the entirety of the Alicization arc with Aincrad, but that would require me to write in a much more technical manner. Following the theory that you just brilliantly crafted, that might have to force me to write a lot of wordy chapters just explaining what certain terms and phrases mean to the casual reader (since I don't think EVERY SAO fanfic reader has read all the light novels). I might have to think about that still. Oops, I didn't know that HAHA. I'm not exactly that familiar with how LAN service goes in Japan, but judging from how word seemed to travel fast around the SAO community as seen in the anime, I thought that there were some types of game forums where players can discuss whatever they want or something like that. Which part are you talking about when you mentioned how you couldn't picture where Alice and Eugeo were when Alice was wondering if they were already friends? (Because that kinda happened a few times in the last chapter HAHA) Regarding how Alice doesn't seem to notice that Raios is flirting with her…well, forgive me for saying this (especially if you are a girl), but most girls who are the same age as Alice as really quite dense when it comes to these sorts of things. It's sort of a stereotype (?) I guess, but even in real life, girls a lot of times think that guys are just "being nice" to them but are actually flirting lol. And an explanation as to why she doesn't notice Raios' flirting but overthinks things is because the things she overthinks about are more important (I mean, Eugeo did save her, so I think it would only be logical that she treats him seriously). As for Eugeo's eyes, I forgot where but I remember reading something about Reki Kawahara's (SAO author) statement on Eugeo's eye color. Iirc, Kawahara said that Eugeo's eyes were closer to green than blue and his eye color being totally blue is just a result of light reflecting off his irises. I could be wrong though, but I based my writing on that. And yep, that's why I just went with blue-green (plus if that's a really rare eye color, then that only adds to how special Eugeo's character is HAHA). Aww, thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate feedbacks, especially from consistent readers like you! I'm actually pretty excited for season 3! But at the same time, I'm probably going to hate it later on because Alice Synthesis Thirty gets paired with Kirito when she clearly is supposed to be with our favorite blond hero in SAO. Thank you for the heads up! I have the same take as you regarding Alice and Eugeo's voice actors. It would be a little weird to hear Kayano Ai as Alice though, since I always associate her voice with Mashiro's from Sakurasou. Thank you again and I hope you enjoy this next one!

Takagi Akito: Thank you for reviewing! I'm not too familiar with SAO MD myself, but from what you said, there are similarities between Alice in SAO MD and Alice in the light novels. For one, she really IS a very strict character, even in the light novels. However, she is friendly (as far as I know) to strangers, since she's one of the nicest and most talented young women in their village in the light novels. I mean, she is friends with Kirito (a badass rule-breaker) and Eugeo (a timid and obedient dude) after all. Thank you for the kind words! Yep, the romance always goes to Kirito (lol), and the same happened with Alice later on in the light novels. Thank you and I hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Well, on to the story then!

"HYA!" a feminine, yet goose bump-inducing battle cry echoed across the Dagon Forest. The loud exclamation was almost immediately followed by a high-pitched whimper from what sounded like a wolf. As the unfortunate wolf announced the end of its existence to the world, its body, having been drained of all its life force, flopped down to the ground with a loud thud. Upon detecting that a game object had expired, SAO's maintenance systems went right to work. The fallen monster's lifeless body was instantly enveloped by a white light that sought to cleanse the forest terrain of its presence. A few seconds later, the bright light faded, effectively deleting the dead creature's corpse from the world of Aincrad.

Alice stood at ease, abandoning her fighting stance to adopt the more graceful and 'ladylike' one that all those years of etiquette school forcefully hardwired into her very soul. Her grip on the hilt of her sword loosened, her breathing evened out, and her back straightened up. She gestured with her hand to access her current inventory. As soon as the familiar digital window popped up in front of her, she began scrolling down to the bottommost section of her collection of items. Soon enough, her gaze landed on the particular type of item she was looking for.

'Wolf Pelt x 91'

She couldn't help but grin. Waking up early today was totally worth it.

The blonde shifted her sights upwards; judging by the yellowish-orange color that was beginning to spread across the skies, the sun was about to rise very soon. This meant that it won't be long before other players, specifically clearers, show up in groups/parties of at least four and start hogging all the col and EXP they can get their limbs on. When that happens, it will only take about two hours at most before the fiend-infested forest turns into a barren woodland where no one would have the chance to get even a single point of EXP under his/her belt. As a result, everyone else who's looking to 'fatten up' will have to wait for a few hours for the monsters to respawn before they can do as much as think about accomplishing anything significant.

Her grin turned upside down into a frown at the mere thought of players trying to 'farm' on this current floor.

Players have become increasingly greedy with regards to col and EXP over the last few weeks. It was apparent that the more floors they cleared, the more people left the Town of Beginnings in the 1st Floor to advance to the succeeding settlements and/or floors. But the influx of players in the following floors proved to be somewhat akin to a proverbial double-edged blade. On the one hand, having more players advance to the upper floors equated to greater manpower on the frontlines—with more bodies to help, defeating monsters and clearing floors have no doubt become easier. This was proven a few days ago during the previous floor boss battle—there were exactly 187 players that participated in the battle against Wythege the Hippocampus (4th Floor boss). It took everyone involved a little over an hour and a half to defeat the boss. In comparison, only around 80 players participated in the struggle against the 3rd Floor boss, and the fight lasted for more than two hours. But on the other hand, the presence of more players also meant that conflict was more likely to arise among them. Disagreements among human beings were natural, but the way they were being handled and settled here in Aincrad…wasn't exactly...well…'normal'.

The increase in number of those who advanced to the recently-cleared floors made it clear that there were at least two different types of players in Aincrad—the 'clearers', those who do not hesitate to dive head-first into combat and destroy anything that stands between them and freedom by any means necessary, and the 'survivalists', those who prioritize staying alive for as long as possible above all else. Due to the difference in objectives of the two groups, it was not surprising that the word 'misunderstanding' was written all over the situation. Members of one group failed to identify with members of the other, and tension was rising fast.

There was an on-going argument over which side should have 'greater rights' over anything and everything that contributes to avatar development (i.e. special/powerful items, side quest completions, greater priority over farming). While it would seem logical that the clearers should have more of a privilege to acquire and utilize game features that will help them become more combat effective (since they were pretty much always on the frontlines), the survivalists argued that they should have the same kind of 'entitlement' so that some of them can eventually become clearers themselves moving forward, thus bolstering their forces. Things were a mess right now. Since the vast majority of SAO players identified more with the survivalists, the clearers had no choice but to resort to their own methods—the clearers began monopolizing all the EXP and col available in basically every accessible terrain in Aincrad so far. And given that most clearers were either hardcore gamers or experienced MMORPG players, the survivalists didn't stand a chance—the latter group had no choice but to settle for the clearers' 'leftovers'. Essentially, instead of everyone working together, people were slowly becoming more and more selfish by the day.

As if making it all the way to the 100th Floor wasn't difficult enough.

She breathed out a sad sigh; she could only imagine how frustrating this game must be for the less experienced players, especially the beginners. Without any guidance from more experienced players, they have almost no chance of making it out of SAO alive.

Her fist clenched in frustration. None of the 10,000 individuals that were imprisoned within Aincrad deserved this kind of life. None of the 10,000 people who only wished to enjoy a virtual reality MMORPG gaming experience deserved to have their freedom taken away from them. But because of the admins, because of Kayaba Akihiko, so many lives have taken a turn for the absolute worst. They were all living in a nightmare…one that could potentially never end…for all of them.

She felt her sudden anger and frustration begin to consume her. Upon realizing so, she shook her head, in an almost livid manner, to recompose herself. She released another sigh. It's been almost two months since the SAO Official Server Service went online, and about six and a half weeks since they cleared the 1st Floor. She was still struggling to come to terms with the fact that it will be a long, long time before she'll be able to see her family again, but at least she was doing everything she could to be prepared for whatever the game would throw at her.

Ultimately, she decided that further indulging in her thoughts won't get her anywhere. She was in the middle of a damn forest for crying out loud; she can let her worries and emotions suffocate her later when she's somewhere safe.

Back to her regularly scheduled programming—she opened her mini-map and viewed her current location. As she expected, she was on the western part of the Dagon Forest where the monsters were usually too strong for the average player. Given the existing differences between the clearers and the survivalists, coupled with the fact that she herself was a clearer, she had been very careful with regards to her farming habits. She left the monsters that most players would usually go for untouched and instead focused on those that only high-level players would even think about challenging. In all honesty, she did feel somewhat guilty for being a clearer, but she knew what she needed to do. She can fight, she can contribute to the clearing force—and so she will do so.

However, that did not mean that she was going to act like most clearers. In the eyes of others, the clearers were nothing but a bunch of self-centered elitists who were always looking out only for themselves—other players believed that the clearers were only using their goal of finishing the game in the earliest possible time as an excuse to bully people. She intended to change that. She didn't want to make anyone else's life tougher than it already is. No, she wasn't going to be selfish.

She continued scanning her mini-map. Moments later, her sea-blue irises came across her next destination—the Karluin Settlement. The digital display indicated that it will take her approximately an hour or so for her to reach the settlement on foot. The blonde stole another glance at the skies above her. An hour should be more than enough for her to reach her destination before the EXP and col hoarders arrive in the vicinity. For a brief moment, she considered using a teleport crystal to save herself some trouble, but decided not to since she wasn't really in the middle of an emergency (and teleport crystals weren't exactly cheap, even if she did have enough col to buy a few). With a nod to herself, she turned her body towards the direction of the forest exit and headed out.

The walk back to Karluin was a rather uneventful one. She encountered a couple of monsters, but instead of unsheathing her sword and cleaning house, she simply ignored them and kept walking—she was well aware that other players needed the EXP, col, and loot way more than she did. Plus, letting the monsters be not only required no amount of effort whatsoever, but she also found it slightly amusing to see groups and groups of various fiends gang up on her only to give up a few seconds later when she wandered off too far from the vicinity of their spawn point.

Along the way, she ran into about five different parties of, judging from the way they conducted themselves, clearers. Every player she passed casted her a look of either confusion or suspicion. They were probably wondering what a lone player like herself was doing outside the settlement this early in the morning. Seeing no reason to interact with any of them, she just went on with her business.

She eventually reached the outer gates of the Karluin Settlement. As she stepped within the bounds of the settlement's Safe Zone marker, she briefly surveyed her surroundings and saw that there were more players (around thirty) preparing to head out to the forest to do some 'daily grinding'. Some were huddled around in a circle, presumably discussing their plans and strategies for the day; some were purchasing items from nearby shops, and others were beginning to head outside the settlement borders. There was so much activity around here…so much that she hoped nothing bad would result from it.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a nearby item stand on her right. She fully turned her gaze towards the said stand and smiled. Yes, this would do. She walked towards the stand until the window with the option to 'shop' popped up in front of her.

'Welcome!'

'Buy/Sell/Cancel'

She tapped on the "sell" option to display two other digital windows—her current inventory on the left, and the list of items she wanted to sell on the right. Bringing her right index finger up to the display, she began dragging and dropping the loot items she obtained from her farming session earlier from her inventory to the shop's list. Nothing could stop her smile from widening as she watched the "Total Col Value" of her items increase exponentially. After making sure she had transferred all the items she wanted to get rid of, she tapped the "Confirm" option and finished the transaction.

The digital shopping interface closed upon the completion of the exchange. Alice didn't even bring her raised hand down; she made another gesture, this time to access her inventory. Upon opening her inventory, her eyes immediately tracked the amount of col she had in her possession. Her smile widened even further. At this rate, her face would be split into two before the end of the day.

At this point in time, Alice had exactly 357, 412 col in her pockets. Considering that she was only in the 5th Floor of Aincrad, she was on pace to accumulate over a million col before reaching the 15th Floor. She didn't think she would even get close to getting this much col this early on in the game, especially since she finished the beta version of the game with just around 180, 000 col. Maybe it's because she had been grinding like a maniac since she learned about her imprisonment within this twisted reality. Also, it wasn't like she did everything by herself…

Speaking of not doing everything by herself, her thoughts suddenly drifted to a certain blond boy. Since the day they joined their guild, she and Eugeo have been…doing a lot of things…together. Whether it was eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner (or even all three sometimes), farming for EXP and col, hunting for special items, or preparing for boss raids, they were always either doing it together or were within the each other's proximity while doing it.

However, despite having spent so much time with him, she couldn't really say that she knew him. After being around the blond boy literally every day for the past two months, it wasn't difficult to see that he was a fully-fledged, hardcore introvert. Given the circumstances, it was not uncommon for players to NOT talk about their personal lives in the real world. Not only was bringing up anything related to the real world painful (because everyone knew that the probability of dying in this game was very high), but opening up to strangers/mere acquaintances was just downright stupid. Still, Eugeo was a different kind of introvert. At least other people, like her fellow guild members for example, were open to small talk. But with Eugeo, she'd be lucky to hold a thirty minute straight conversation with him. In all honesty, she could say that she knew people like Raios and Humbert a little better than she knew Eugeo.

Before she could get carried away by her thoughts (yet again), she remembered what she really came back here for. She turned her gaze to her left and saw a pathway that led to the central plaza area of the settlement. With a determined look on her face, she began walking towards her next objective for the day.

A few minutes later, she arrived in the middle of the Karluin Settlement Plaza. Her eyes locked in on a particular establishment just north of her position.

There stood the only weapon shop in the settlement.

According to an earlier announcement from the game administrators, one of the features brought about by last week's patch was the in-game addition of an extra skill called 'Mug'. 'Mug' was described as a sword skill that infuses its user's attack with the effects of the 'Steal' ability for one hit. It is basically a better and much 'safer' variant of the 'Steal' skill—a skill that allows its user to acquire items from a target monster without dealing damage. Using 'Steal' on an enemy monster would leave the user vulnerable since not only does the usage of the skill take up one full turn, but it also requires the user to perform the skill with his/her empty hand (the hand that he/she does not use to wield his/her weapon). The 'Mug' skill offers a solution to these potentially problematic features, for it provides players the ability to deal damage (in other words, defend themselves by using their weapons) and steal items from an enemy target at the same time, thus shortening the time frame in which players are open to enemy attacks.

The 'Mug' extra skill could be acquired via completing a side quest. In order to begin the said side quest, players must speak to an NPC located in an "alleyway near the 5th Floor weapon shop". Considering that Karluin was the only settlement/town in the current floor that had a weapon shop, the medium-sized, brown colored establishment on her twelve must definitely be the place.

Alice approached the weapon shop and began scanning the area for a path that could possibly lead to an alleyway or a secluded area that would fit the description of the place that the game administrators specified in their announcement. She walked at a slow pace to give herself time to look around. The blonde looked and looked, but all she saw were brown walls. As she continued her search, she began to doubt if such a path even existed.

A few seconds later, the teen came to a halt just outside the shop. Needless to say, she was unsuccessful in efforts. Her brows furrowed. She gave the shop and its adjacent buildings another look over. There had to be an alleyway around here, or at least a pathway that led to one. There was absolutely no reason for the game administrators to mention an area that didn't even exist in the game (even if they were a bunch of sadistic a-holes).

Just then, Alice noticed something. She stared at the tavern-looking building to the left of the weapon shop. Five seconds passed. Then she shifted her gaze to the opposite direction until her gaze landed on the other building adjacent to the weapon shop. Another five seconds passed. Her mind processed all the details she was able to gather. The brown colored establishment of a weapon shop was erected between two other similarly colored structures. There had to be some sort of reason for that, right? Surely, the uniformity in color of the three establishments wasn't coincidental. It was either the game developers got really lazy (since the buildings had the same exact shade of colors), or…

Alice took another long, hard look at the three buildings. This time around, her eyes were able to catch something. On a spot to the right of the weapon shop's entrance, near the edge of the adjacent building, was a crack of some sorts. The blonde approached the gap along the wall, wondering why it was even there in the first place. When the tip of her nose was mere inches away from the wall, she noticed that the crack extended further along surface to the right. With narrowed eyes, she followed the gap along the wall, curious to see where it would end. When she reached the end of the crack, she kept sliding her gaze to the right. She let out a gasp.

There it was.

It was almost impossible to see, but there was a pathway that was disguised as part of the buildings beside it. She lifted a hand and extended it in an attempt to verify that she wasn't just seeing things.

She smiled.

Her hand did not make contact with anything but thin air. That more or less confirmed that the space in front of her was unoccupied…at least not by some sort of wall. She took a step towards the supposed pathway she found. Her smile widened when the underside of her boot landed on the stony surface of the concealed pathway for the first time. She was starting to think that today was just one of those days.

The blonde continued walking along the pathway. As she progressed, she gradually came to understand why this pathway had been so difficult to locate from the get-go. Everything around here was brown in color: the ground, the walls of the proximate buildings, and even the roof above her all had the similar shade of brown. The entire alleyway blended in so well with the walls of the nearby buildings that it seemed like it wasn't even there. She rolled her eyes; no doubt another stupid attempt by the game administrators to make life more difficult for the players.

Alice kept moving along the alleyway. The path eventually required her to make a right turn, and when she did, she spotted what appeared to be a middle-aged man dressed in a white outfit in the distance. What stood out from the man's appearance was the red exclamation point hovering right above his head.

Bingo.

The blonde was barely able to contain her excitement. She jogged to the lone figure's location until a digital window appeared near her face.

'Tap to interact with NPC'

Alice did as instructed; with a tap of her finger, she initiated a conversation with the weird-looking NPC. The blonde listened attentively as the NPC articulated its predicament. It took about a minute or so for the NPC to finish the first part of its script, then another window appeared with a message asking if she wanted to formally begin the side quest. She tapped on the 'Yes' option and took note of the rest of what the NPC had to say.

A few more minutes passed until the NPC ended the conversation with a "good luck and take care!" sort of blessing. The red exclamation point that was hovering above the computer-controlled character changed into a red question mark in Alice's perspective, indicating that she had successfully acquired and commenced the 'Mug' Side Quest.

She took a minute to go over everything the NPC had just told her regarding the side quest. The supposedly depressed game object wanted her to retrieve a key item (a pendant of some sort that, according to the programmed entity's backstory, possessed sentimental value) from a secret boss called 'Master Shrewman'. Her task was to slay this 'Master Shrewman' and return the key item to the NPC; only then will she receive the skill scroll that will allow her to learn the 'Mug' extra skill. The 'Master Shrewman' boss could be found in the depths of the Karluin Catacombs.

Her temples throbbed.

Well, so much for having a good day.

She absolutely despised the Karluin Catacombs. The place was CRAWLING with 'Sly Shrewmen'. Sly Shrewmen were basically a bunch of creepy-looking humanoid rodents that existed solely for the purpose of looting dropped items. Due to the layout of the catacombs, players were more prone than usual to drop their items by falling from great heights. The catacombs were full of booby-traps designed to make passage difficult; among those traps were the infamous 'cracked ledges' that break off when a player does as much as breathe on them. In the event that a player steps on a cracked ledge, he/she will fall to a deeper, darker, and tougher part of the catacombs. On top of that, the impact the player sustains after his/her fall will cause him/her to drop an item (usually his/her weapon since it is the most exposed item in his/her possession). And that's where the blasted rodents come in; a shrewman will magically appear in the vicinity and use its 'Robbing' skill to effectively transfer the ownership of the dropped item to itself before fleeing, leaving the player without his/her lost item until he/she slays the particular shrewman that ran away with it. It would've been so much easier if the shrewmen weren't the fast little movers that they were.

Needless to say, this side quest was going to be quite task for her.

Another important aspect to note regarding the side quest was party mechanics. According to the NPC she had just spoken to, players who will face the Master Shrewman as a party will have a slight twist to their side quest. In the case of a player party, the key item drop that must be returned to the NPC to complete the side quest will become a Last Attack Bonus Drop. As a result, the party member who finishes off the boss is the only player who will receive the key item drop and therefore is the only player who will be rewarded with the 'Mug' extra skill scroll. The party must do the side quest multiple times for every member to learn the extra skill. This only provided Alice with another good reason to NOT ask anyone else to tag along.

Alice again accessed her current inventory. She spent the next couple of minutes checking her on-hand items and equipment. The meticulous blonde made sure that she had everything she would/might need—potions, crystals, extra weapons, a spare set of armor and some snacks. Once she finished her inspection, she turned her heels and headed to the catacombs entrance.

Fifteen minutes later, she found herself just outside the cave that leads to the upper areas of the Karluin Catacombs. The very sight of the large opening made her blood run cold. Despite being a beta tester, she wasn't able to go too deep into the catacombs during the beta simply because she didn't have a good reason to have done so at the time. It wasn't like she was the only one either; most beta testers back then actually stayed away from the catacombs because of the various traps that could be found within the area. They were more concerned with trying to go as far as they could in the beta than figuring out how to navigate through a creepy underground tomb. But right now, she didn't have a choice. She needed that extra skill—badly. She heaved a deep sigh to steady herself before proceeding to the underground area.

As she expected, the area wasn't well lit at all. Save for the torches on the side of the walls, there was very little to no source of light, making it difficult for her to see where or what she was even walking on. She took slow, careful, and delicate steps as she advanced deeper into the catacombs. Her senses were also on high alert—her right hand gripped the hilt of her sword, her eyes were on the lookout for anything suspicious, and her ears tracked every bit of sound that it could.

Unfortunately, this still wasn't enough to save her from what was about to happen.

When her toes made contact with the ground, the surface she had been stepping on suddenly collapsed. Alice's heart rate accelerated as she let out a gasp. The realization that she had just stepped on a cracked ledge and was seconds away from a hard fall instantly sent her into a state of panic.

It took her a couple of seconds before she was able to snap out of it. In the blink of an eye, her right hand unsheathed her sword and pointed it downwards to the ground (or whatever she was about to fall on). Her eyes narrowed as she focused; she was going to have to time this perfectly.

As soon as her eyes caught a glimpse of the surface beneath her, she sprang into action. She thrusted her sword to the ground; when she heard the tip bury itself to the rocky surface she maneuvered her body upwards so that all the force she summoned was concentrated on her back. In the middle of her body movement, her somehow ears picked up what sounded like a squeak from just ahead of her. She heaved her back forward, her hand still gripping the hilt of her sword, and when she reached the midpoint of her move, she used her legs to drag her body downwards to complete a perfect forward cartwheel. Just before her feet landed on the ground, she pulled her sword out of the ground, brought it up and performed a downward slash all in one swift, graceful motion. Her sword made contact with the being in front of her the exact second her feet landed.

A squeak of pain rang through the air shortly after, indicating that the creature in front of her had met its end. She rose to her feet and sure enough, there was a digital window in front of her indicating the amount of EXP and col she had just earned.

She breathed out a sigh of relief. It appeared that she had to be even more careful moving forward. This place had definitely changed since the beta.

Before she could do anything else, she heard another sound go off not too far ahead of her. The blonde got into a fighting stance and tightened her grip on her sword. She slowly moved forward, wanting nothing more than to deal with whatever it is that lies ahead.

Seconds later, she heard…footsteps? It didn't seem like it came from an animal or a monster; in fact, it seemed like the sound was produced by…a human? Or maybe a humanoid?

The sound became louder and more frequent. She raised her sword a little so that it would be easier for her to execute a sword skill just in case.

"Calm down, I'm not a monster. I'm just another player" a familiar voice stated. There was no doubt that the voice came from a few meters just ahead of her.

Alice didn't trust the source of the mysterious voice though. For all she knew, it could be a trap. The game admins were very creative when it came to getting players killed after all. She narrowed her eyes and prepared to charge forward.

Just before she could go on the offensive, the source of the oddly-familiar voice stepped forth to reveal an individual whom she recognized almost immediately. There stood a young man just about her age, pale complexion, all black attire, gray sword, and shimmering black eyes. The young man's hands were raised as if trying to show her that he intended to do her no harm. He also wore a timid expression in an attempt to be as harmless as he could possibly look.

Her breath caught in her throat. It's been quite a while…

"K-Kirito?"

A/N: There you have it folks! I'm sorry if this chapter sucks; I'm really rusty. I haven't written anything since I last updated this story lol. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed. The next chapter will be a continuation of this one and will focus on how Alice and Kirito will take down the Master Shrewman to earn the Mug extra skill. I have to admit, it was really difficult to write this chapter given the fact that I know very little about how the Karluin Settlement and the 5th Floor look like. I just tried making things up; I based the appearance of the 5th Floor on the previous floors (specifically the 4th Floor). So, yeah, like I said, more Alice and Kirito time next chapter. I decided to end the chapter here since I wanted to fill you guys in on what's happened since the last chapter when the characters were on the 2nd Floor. I tried to use this chapter as an explanatory chapter to help you guys understand how things are looking like for our characters, especially Alice. Well, that's all for now. Please leave feedback by reviewing or sending me a PM. I really appreciate your comments and they are what motivate me. Thank you and have a nice day!