Sword Art Online Gameverse x Reader

Chapter 20: Catching Up [skippable]

<Author's Note: (TL;DR at the bottom)
Y/N has been on a bunch of adventures with their new friends, they've certainly been busy!
But they haven't gotten as much EXP as they'd have liked to, this chapter is returning to their levelling quota and as such they will be solo and there will be no dialogue between characters in this chapter, this will help to propel the story further at a faster pace and allow for more interesting events between Y/N and the SAO cast to arrive sooner.
If you're not too interested in these more story-driving types of chapters then I won't be hurt if you skip this chapter entirely. But we've been on the Second Floor way longer than we were the First Floor (chapter-wise) and I want to push forwards a little bit more, there a lot of floors that are actually skipped in the source material so I have some creative freedom there and I may end up skipping some floors but I do plan to have the interactions between Y/N and the SAO cast take precedence to clearing the game.
Also I'd like to remind ya'll that Floor 75 isn't the end of SAO in this story, it's taking the premise of the game Hollow Fragment and will introduce Sinon and Leafa to the story at Floor 76 as well as further develop Philia. Of course I need to get there first- hence the reason chapter's like this one will exist. I've also been having a bit of writer's block for the next interaction, whether it be an established friend or introducing one of the few left to include and this chapter gives me some breathing room to think on it without going too long between updates. 
(TL;DR: No dialogue, exp grinding. Feel free to skip this chapter)
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Well, now the sun is in the sky and the moon is gone. I accompanied Lisbeth to the NPC she was after and left her with her party of friends who would help her finish the quest and then she could start on her new smithing profession. I told her that if she ever needed help with anything she could send me a message and then I made my way back to the Second Floor, alone again.

- - -

I had a quick chat with Argo afterwards, a little bit of chastising because of what I had written in the message earlier in the morning about still considering soloing the Floor Boss. I told her I didn't plan to do it anytime soon, these past few days had really done a hit to my levelling quota of which I needed to catch up on. I suppose as she knew she still had at least a couple days to deter me she decided to relinquish three pieces of interesting information:

Firstly, that the Mid-Floor Boss I beat a couple days ago didn't exist in the beta, but instead there was a large Taurus enemy, and it had an attack that could paralyse attackers if they were in it's attack range. She thinks it could have been relocated rather than just replaced with the basic bull I fought and it could end up appearing on another floor and to be wary of it.

Secondly, that the Floor Boss for the Second Floor in the closed beta was 'Baran the General Taurus' and he had five HP bars, he was also assisted by a secondary boss 'Nato the Colonel Taurus' with three HP bars. So instead of having to deal with smaller minions and a boss it was instead two bosses but one was considerably weaker than the main one. This was good news for me, as there would be less enemies to keep track of and the two of them could be kited and whittled down similarly to how I dealt with the Mid-Floor Boss.

Thirdly, that even though I cleared the way by defeating the Mid-Floor Boss, nobody has gone past its spawn point yet, towards the Labyrinth. Having not dealt with the Mid-Floor Boss themselves, the two major guilds were both hesitant to explore further until their levels were higher up- these guilds were the Dragon Knights Brigade and the Aincrad Liberation Squad and were splinters of the original raid group of the First Floor Boss.

- - -

Because of this information, I knew I would face no competition grinding mobs in the newly opened area of the Second Floor and as such I immediately made my way there, scouted out a good group of mobs and begun grinding.

I had been here for a couple hours already, non-stop against this same group of mobs... they respawn quick enough that there is no downtime but it is still rather dull- but it's certainly worth it, I've already levelled up twice. I was already making decent progress on catching up to my lost time; these mobs must be rather high-level to be giving this much exp at this point. I can see why the other players were hesitant to explore this area now...

Thinking of which, I've been mapping as I go and taking note of mob spawns and other info that the other players should find helpful, but I'd like to stay for as long as I can to really catch up on lost time, probably a couple days worth. I also want to be away from these mobs when the masses have the confidence to come in and grind them so I don't have to deal with competition.

- - -

It had been a couple of days since I'd started grinding in this new area, I wasn't quite at my limit yet but I definitely need to think about heading back soon to give Argo this data and get a night's rest. Argo had been keeping in touch with me, seems I was still the only person out here still but the two guilds she mentioned before were getting antsy and would most likely be making their way into the fresh hunting grounds soon with or without the info she told them she would have soon. As a group they shouldn't have too much trouble, of course it's kinda inefficient as a group but safety in numbers is worth the slower exp gain... the problem is the lower level players that may try to copy these guilds and end up overwhelmed and in trouble.

I have explored all of the available area on this floor at this point, other than the Labyrinth's interior and was now back on track with my levelling quota.. it had been a while since I'd spent so long grinding in the field without break but it was certainly worth it. Give it a day or two more of grinding, maybe a check-up on my equipment and I'll definitely be ready to start considering dealing with the Boss Room.

- - -

But for now, I think it's high-time that I make my way back and relinquish what intel I've amassed so far to Argo and to get a night's rest... well, the main town is in that direction.

<873 words>