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***
Kirito was shaking nervously in his gear as he sat in front of Sora with an expression filled with fear.
Bam!
"Ah!"
Jumping in fright, Kirito's face went pale as he scooted back from Sora. His eyes followed Sora's hands and saw that Sora had stabbed into the ground not far from him. With round eyes, Kirito knew that he had to be careful, the man before him is so strong that can't imagine.
"Sorry, there was a fly there," said Sora with a light wave of his hand.
'There's no flies in SAO...' grumbled Kirito in fear.
"Your expression tells me you don't believe," hummed Sora with smiling eyes.
"I-I believe you!" spat out Kirito a bit nervously.
Hmhm…
Humming, Sora looked at Kirito with a light smile before saying, "Look right in front of you, there's a fly flying there right now."
Kirito didn't know whether to believe Sora or not, but it was all he could do right now. So focusing on where Sora pointed at, Kirito looked hard for a couple of seconds before finally seeing a fly right in front of his face.
!!!
'There's flies in this game?!'
Sora smiled lightly and moved his arm with a stick in hand.
From the corner of his eye, Kirito caught Sora making a movement with the stick in his hand. Fearing the worst, Kirito tried raising his arms to try and block the move, but it was all for naught.
His body moved at an extremely slow pace as he watched the stick in Sora's hand come closer and closer until…
Splat!
The fly blew into tiny miniature bits of blood from making contact with Sora's stick, splashing the tiny drop of blood on Kirito's cheek.
"... ah..."
Kirito was at a loss for words, how was he supposed to react to that powerful and simple move…
"Explain to me why you were following my disciple," said Sora, cutting straight to the point.
"I… was curious..." mumbled Kirito.
While Kirito was out grinding his levels and skills, he caught sight of a hooded individual, Asuna, running around killing every monster she saw. At first, Kirito had ignored it and thought of it as another player like him, desperate to survive and exit the game.
However, the next day when Kirito returned to the hunting forest, the hooded individual was still there since the day prior.
How did Kirito know?
He found traces of a campfire and what remained of a rope on a branch high above on a tree, presumably for sleeping on it and preventing falling.
With curiosity blooming within his mind, Kirito began to silently follow Asuna. He wondered whether he can find a way to level up faster whilst following this hooded individual. Kirito carefully took notes on everything that the hooded individual did, sleeping, hunting, eating…
Kirito noticed the rookie mistakes of the hooded individual when doing certain stuff, but just shook it off as if it was an accident.
Then, one day, the hooded individual just stopped.
Asuna had finally leveled up to level 14.
She had made her way back to Sora's dojo and finally completed her quest.
"You can leave now," abruptly said Sora once Kirito finished telling his story.
"Can I join the dojo!" asked Kirito. 'This man… he must be one of those hidden masters! How could he not kill that fly in such an amazing and swift way otherwise? Or that hooded person, who's such an amazing hunter!'
"..." Sora turned quiet after hearing Kirito wishing to be his disciple.
The day when this kid had run out with his balls of steel into the hunting plain were still rather vivid in Sora's mind. Such a person is very rare in the current era where everyone is protected by laws, police, and society.
Sora glanced at the sword behind Kirito's back and narrowed his eyes.
"I'll accept you as a disciple if you can see my stick in under two minutes," said Sora as the stick in his hand disappeared.
PA!
"Ah!" Kirito yelled in surprise at having been hit at his waist. Just as he was about to complain, Kirito received another hit on the knee, then another in the stomach, arm… hand…
"Focus."
Sora continued attacking Kirito with the speed of a level 15 player with the Nimble Hands Skill. Kirito was already a level 16 player, so his eyes should have been able to see Sora's attacks.
Too bad that even when Sora used the speed of a level 15 player with a skill that speeds up the hands and arms movements, even his simple attacks are very skillful.
"Gah!"
Sora smiled as he kept striking Kirito after noticing the burning light within Kirito's eyes.
'That's one strong will,' chuckled Sora.
Ten hits later, Sora noticed that Kirito could finally see the stick. With only 10 seconds left before the two minutes were up, Kirito had finally passed the mini-quest he had given Kirito.
"Good, you can start training tomorrow. You can no longer level up, you need to focus on improving your skills and honing them."
Sora returned the stick in his hand to his inventory before heading to train his disciples and the newbie, Asuna.
'What a weird hidden master,' thought Kirito before heading out to eat some good food with the money he had saved up.
…
"Continue swinging those swords! Don't forget to stab and pierce," Sora glanced at all his sword trainees swinging their swords and attacking those dummies.
He glanced to the side and watched Asuna and Silica training in their own weapons and Princess training in the Ki circulation technique he had taught her.
A week has passed with Kirito and Asuna joining them. Sora had successfully taught them a breathing technique and introduced them to everyone in the dojo.
A meeting has been called by a group of players, calling for all the high level players around Aincrad. Since the game had been influenced by the 50 million players, the number of boss monsters increased from one to depending on the number of players entering the boss room.
The number of reinforcement for the boss monsters also changes according to the number of players.
"Kirito, Asuna, Princess, and Silica. You four will be going to the upcoming boss raid.
Asuna, you will be the leader. Your job is to make sure you and the other three return alive. Your group's job is to provide support and level up.
Since I had Princess and Silica level up their skills these four weeks, they need some combat experience and levels. Their skill levels may be high, but they need to increase their battle experience," said Sora before taking out four weapons.
One heavy one-handed long sword, a light one-handed short sword, a lightweight rapier, and a sharp dagger. They would all be going to Kirito, Princess, Asuna, and Silica, respectively.
He walked over to the side and revealed four leather armors with some parts having some light metal plates covering the chest, forearm, and boots.
"These are your new weapons and armor. They will protect you and increase your attack power by quite a bit, so take care of them," said Sora before handing over the items to the group of four.
"Yay! A new dagger!"
"Wow, this Rapier has a high attack power!"
"This sword has a nice heavy weight to it..."
"So sharp..."
Everyone received their new weapons with a smile on their face. They went over to the armor and the same thing happened again as they equipped it. Sora handed them some healing crystals and teleport crystals just in case before sending them off to have them enter the boss raid.
Sora stayed behind and trained the young kids even more in the basic sword technique whilst the other four were gone.
…
"What team do we join?" asked Kirito as he looked at the thousands of people outside the boss room.
Out of the many labyrinth towers in the first floor, Asuna and the rest had all gone to the nearest labyrinth tower nearest to Dragon City.
To deal with the 50 million players and the limited space and difficulty of floor bosses, the system had deemed it necessary to spread some labyrinth towers that are optional for people to enter and help clear the current floor to open the next floor.
Out of the 10,000 labyrinth towers spread all over the Aincrad Floor, only 10 needed to be cleared to open the next floor. This was a way to reduce the deaths of players and also increase their morality by having them be relieved at not needing all 10,000 labyrinth towers to be cleared.
Of course, to also make them eager to enter the floor boss rooms and participate in boss raids, clearing a labyrinth tower gives out a large amount of EXP, Cor, and equipment and weapons. If you get the last hit on the boss of a labyrinth tower, you receive a bonus.
The bonus includes a strong weapon, armor, items, rare and strong materials, or even more EXP.
"We have to look around and search well," said Asuna, still wearing her cloak to hide her face.
"Why do we need to do that?" asked Silica as she looked around with sparkling eyes.
This was the first time she had ever seen so many armed individuals together and in groups. They all wore many different types of get ups. Some were similar whilst others were completely different.
Some wore monk-like clothing, some resembled knights, others had Gis of various colors with a logo of their martial arts or group on them. There were even others that resembled various warriors of the past and soldiers from worlds that revolved around martial arts.
Like robes, tang suits, martial clothing, or even just loose or fit clothing designed for martial arts. Even the weapons of each group fit closely to their clothing.
"Because each group here might end up becoming a guild in the future and we can't be scouted by them or catch their attention," mentioned Asuna quietly.
"Ah..."
Princess, Silica, and Kirito all nodded in understanding as they followed closely behind Asuna. Kirito had travelled around a lot as a solo player, so he was rather ignorant of some information that was related to large groups of people.
His information broker, Argo, doesn't give him some information unless he asks for it or it's a necessary information he should know about.
Princess and Silica had been with Sora for four weeks, so it would be obvious that they wouldn't know much about the outside world.
"Be careful with who you talk with here or anger," said Asuna as she pulled Silica and Princess closer to herself.
The group of four walked for quite a while before finally finding a group that wasn't affiliated with anything or were planning to become a group.
"We would like to join your group," said Asuna as she looked at the massive and bulky man right before her eyes. The man had brown skin, two earrings on his left ear, and a nice bald head. Despite his large size, the man had a kind look within his eyes.
"Hm?" The man turned to look at Asuna and was surprised at the two young girls with Asuna. "You can't bring kids here, they're not cut out for this."
"I can handle myself," said Silica with confidence as she slapped the metal plate chest armor with a large smile. 'Master said I am a genius! He's a powerful and amazing man, so I don't doubt his words!
Not to mention he's really handsome...'
Seeing the little girl blushing, the large man sweatdropped a little before turning back to the large group of people behind him.
"Diavel!" yelled the large man, calling out the leader of the group. The large man turned to the group of four and gave a kind smile, "My name's Agil. Call me if you have any problems. Diavel is the leader of this group, he will come over here and decide whether to let you join the group or not."
Whilst Agil was talking, a man with bronze armor set on his chest, shoulders, arms, and shins, with a large longsword on his left waist, and a kite shield on his back. He had blue hair with long bangs and blue eyes. His clothes under the armor were also blue.
However, unlike what his kind appearance looked like, Diavel is a very ambitious and greedy character. He would always try to make use of the situation that favors him the best. True to his name, Diavel is a devil.