Sword Art Online: My Story

The Moonlit Black Cats

(April 8th, 2023)

It has now been five whole months since Sword Art Online became known to all of its players and the whole outside world as a literal death game, and a whole four months since Kirito and Cloud cleared the first floor with Asuna's help by defeating the boss. Since then Kirito and Cloud have been continuing to go on quests and go out hunting for monsters in order to get new weapons and skills and get much stronger. They even went on a few quests with Asuna from time to time.

Kirito and Cloud have also encountered another beta tester by the name of Argo. Argo was a female player with short yet curly bright blonde hair and golden eyes with red whisker-like paint markings on her cheeks. Argo wore mostly light leather armour underneath a large bright brown cloak. Argo wasn't much of a fighter. Instead, she took on the role of an Information Broker. She runs her own newspaper called Weekly Argo to spread information across all of Aincrad about the latest events that happen throughout the game. She even charges some players for some real juicy information on special quests and rare items. She's pretty much become Kirito and Cloud's best source of any kind of needed information.

Ever since the Floor One boss room was found and cleared, it has now become a lot easier for players to go out and start looking for the boss rooms. Those who would volunteer and were strong enough to fight alongside some of the other most powerful players in the game to fight against the bosses and clear the floors were officially dubbed as the Assault Team. Kirito, Cloud, and Asuna were some of the most notable members of the Assault Team due to their participation and how much they all contributed to helping defeat the bosses and clear the floors.

The Assault Team have all now officially cleared twenty six out of the one hundred floors in Castle Aincrad. Just about everyone who was trapped in SAO, whether they were fighting on the front lines or taking shelter and safety in the inns on the lower floors, were all now starting to see a bright light ahead of them now that they were one fourth complete with the game. They were now starting to truly believe that clearing SAO truly is possible, just like Diavel said before the raid on the first floor boss, and with the rate they were going, the game would most likely be cleared in no time.

Speaking of Asuna, she officially decided to take Kirito's advice and join a guild. After the boss raid on Floor Twenty Six, Asuna was approached by a man by the name of Heathcliff, the commander of SAO's newest guild called the Knights of the Blood Oath. They had only just made their official debut at the boss raid, but Heathcliff and his followers have all demonstrated an outstanding showcase of great strength, intelligent battle strategy, and teamwork. It was also because of the help of the guild, that the entire raid was able to defeat the boss without any casualties. Asuna truly admired what the Knights of the Blood Oath had to offer and she just couldn't say no. After the boss raid, the news of the new guild spread like a wildfire. Many of the games players were starting to suggest that the Knights of the Blood Oath could eventually top the Holy Dragon Alliance, the guild that was currently listed as the number one guild in the game.

Kirito and Cloud have also gotten much stronger since after the Floor One boss fight. Kirito was now at Level Forty Five while Cloud was at Level Forty Six. Kirito has also noticed how much better Cloud has gotten at being able to fight off mobs by himself. He came to notice how much Cloud had grown from a total novice the first day they met to someone who could practically play like a pro. It eventually came to the point where Kirito had asked Cloud a question that Cloud never thought Kirito would ever ask. Kirito had asked if Cloud thought he was strong enough and smart enough to play the game on his own.

Cloud thought long and hard about Kirito's question. Surely, he was strong enough since he was Level Forty Six, but the reason why he got that strong and made it this far was because of Kirito's help. But he also thought about how much more often he was using the tactics and strategies that Kirito taught him while fighting off enemies, even being sure to use a teleport crystal whenever he needed to get himself out of danger that he couldn't handle alone. From everything that Cloud thought about, he said to Kirito that he believed he was able to fight by himself.