Strolling down the forest was slightly intimidating. Despite being only on floor one, this part is full of low-level monster spawns that could easily overwhelm rookie players if they're not careful, but Akio knows these parts like a book.

*SLASH!*

Akio had taken down yet another monster and shattered into crystal dust as a powerful slash was made with Akio's blade. His EXP bar was then increased to its maximum as Akio levels increased to Lvl 7.

But Akio didn't have time to celebrate as more monsters started to spawn all around him. "For god sake." Akio cursed. But the thought of gaining more levels had plagued his mind, for Akio this was perfect for him, why did he think of dying? This is his game.

The more monsters, the more EXP he will gain.

He swiftly activated his sword skill with his recently bought sword after finishing multiple quests from a small town called Tolbana. In the beta, he and Skoll always came to the town in search of easy money and exp from the quest as many of its daily quests are meant to help the player to level up. Akio knows about this because he's the one who suggested it to the developing team.

Akio swiftly dashes around the vine-like monster and hastily flanks its blind spot before slicing the monster with his blade which erases most of its HP, (Health Points), in one go. Akio then gave it another conservative strike which finished it off. Akio was quick to repeat the process to the other monsters as he took advantage of his superior speed and strength stats. Akio felt restless as the monsters dispersed into blue fragments, in fact, it was impossible to feel tired.

This is a virtual world after all.

Ever since the beginning of this supposed death game started, Akio had always hoped this was just a nightmare. He couldn't get himself to believe what Kayaba had done. Two hundred lives are gone within the beginning of the game and now fifty other poor souls had joined them.

Akio damned himself, he damned Kayaba, and most of all this game. Sword Art Online is the first of its kind built on a revolutionary gaming platform that helped to build. The worst thing is, there were no signs of stopping until every single person has been killed. When the first wave of deaths happened where everyone died instantly without any warning; the others hid away. And even worse than that was how quickly those people turned into particles of light before disappearing completely—they weren't even allowed to say goodbye to anyone. No matter how hard Akio tried to deny reality, the truth was too painful for him to bear alone.

"I'm sorry... " Akio whispered softly, wiping away a tear from his cheek. "Please forgive me," he added quietly as he dashed toward the next group of enemies.

Akio's goal was simple: survive. That's all he wanted out of life anymore. If he can live through this whole ordeal, maybe things would go back to normal again someday. Maybe he'll be able to see Skoll and the others once more. Or perhaps meet someone else new along the way. Whatever happens, he doesn't care anymore. Just surviving is enough.

If I make it past this point alive, everything will change. For better or worse...?

A short while later, Akio finally defeated all of the mobs before reaching the end of the tunnel and slowly making his way out of this dark forest of hell.

As expected, there were still more monsters spawning nearby. Akio had already lost count of how much EXP he'd gained so far today thanks to the constant stream of respawning enemies. A few more minutes passed as Akio continued slaughtering the mobsters surrounding him. As usual, they turned into blue crystals upon death and disappeared into oblivion.

After killing several dozen more monsters, Akio noticed something strange happening among the crowd of monsters. They seemed to be gathering together instead of scattering apart.

What is going on here? Akio wondered. Something seems different about these creatures.

Just then, a loud screech echoed throughout the area. At the same moment, a giant red bird appeared overhead and began swooping downward.

"An Area boss?!" Akio exclaimed, stunned by the sudden appearance of a level 15 monster. He knew very well that the presence of an enemy this big signalled the arrival of the final wave. But this is bad not only he's fighting this beast but also Level 6-7 minions which surround the boss.

"It looks like my luck isn't good at all."

Akio immediately put on his best face forward and rushed toward the incoming danger. He had learned long ago that the fastest way to defeat a higher-levelled foe is to run circles around the boss whiles taking out the Minions rather than directly engaging with it. Akio used his sword skill and dodged left, right, up, down, and behind itself as fast as possible whiles instantaneously engaging the minions with a quick and decisive slash which slowly drained their HPs. Each time Akio successfully avoided the boss's attack or killed the minions, his sword skills' EXP bar was automatically filled with gold coins. After evading the claws of the massive bird and eliminating the minions with ease, Akio managed to reach the edge of the treeline and dodge the last hit by using his momentum to run up the tree and jump over the bird as its sharp claws sliced a chuck of wood of the tree.

With great relief, Akio saw that his health gauge hadn't dropped below 90 per cent despite the fierce battle.

─ Health Gauge: 128/130

The bird squawked loudly as Akio landed safely near the base of the tree.

"This is the end!" Akio shouted. "No need to worry about the rest of the minions anymore."

Akio rushed towards the bird as quickly as possible and hastily activated his sword skills and begin to slice through the flesh of the boss, creating fragments of crystals from every slash.

Soon the boss's first-stage HP was down to zero per cent. Akio paused for a second and scanned his surroundings for any signs of surprise that the next stage of this boss could throw at him. There were none.

"...Now..."

There was a brief silence before Akio charged toward the bird headfirst and slashed repeatedly against its body with all of his might. Akio's sword skill was enhanced to the max and he was rewarded with a total of four pieces of experience points. but something was off, why is it not attacking back? Akio lunged back away from the Boss trying to inspect for any threat that this new stage might have.

At that moment Akio felt relieved before a bright blue flame ignited which covered the bird. Its feathers change from red to blue before giving a loud cry and flying off into the air. As the bluebird reached its altitude it dove down towards Akio with a warlike fury. The boss is faster than in the previous stage, Akio just barely made it dodging that attack from its razor-sharp claws. It circled above Akio and opened its mouth wide as a ball of flames flew straight towards him.

"Gah!!!" Akio yelled, narrowly avoiding the fireballs that came raining down on him. With each successful dodge, Akio grew increasingly anxious and afraid as he realised this creature wasn't going to stop coming until either it was dead or Akio was.

While dodging the attacks, Akio glanced back at his HP gauge.

"Oh shit!!"

In less than ten seconds the boss had almost completely destroyed Akio's HP gauge. Akio ran desperately toward the nearest tree hoping to find some cover.

"Why won't you die?!" Akio screamed. "How do I kill a damn boss by myself?"

His frustration was mounting rapidly and his mind was clouded by rage. In fact, Akio was ready to give up when suddenly his vision became blurry as if his eyes were watering badly.

Then a familiar voice spoke up "You don't want to hurt yourself, Nomad."

The words sent a shiver up his spine. He recognised the voice. Was it real or imagined? Did he hear him speak to him again after two weeks?

"Skoll?" Akio muttered.

Suddenly, the boss was then attacked by two players who jumped out of the trees and sliced it with their blades in mid-air. It was Yui and Jin they were now on the same level as each other and they looked to be as confident as ever. The two hacked and slashed the beast using their sword skills trying to keep the boss on the ground as much as possible.

"Skoll?! Why are you here!? Where did you come from!?" Akio asked excitedly.

He was surprised to see that Skoll looked exactly how he remembered him; tall, muscular, with black hair, green eyes, and dressed in leather armour similar to his own. Akio was happy beyond measure to see him again. However, he soon realised that his friend's smile didn't seem genuine at all. Instead, there was a hint of sadness in his expression.

"It's good to see you too, Nomad," Skoll said confidently and suddenly an HP potion appeared in Akio's inventory. Then, his tone changed abruptly. "But we've got bigger problems than seeing each other again, buddy."

"I know. I didn't know there was an area boss here. It must be the last-minute change into the game."

Akio recalled the changes in the game system during the beta testing phase.

"Yeah, it's the latest update from the launch," Skoll said.

"That means there's probably gonna be a lot of other surprises waiting for us ahead, huh?" Akio sighed.

"We should hurry up and finish this fight first."

Akio nodded solemnly and took the HP potion. "Let's try our hardest," he replied raising his left hand for a fist bump which Skoll accepts.

"Let's do this."

They both dashed toward the boss. Akio activated his sword skills and prepared to engage with the boss. His heart beat wildly as he waited for the first move from the bird and as expected it readied its flames to be fired from its mouth. But before it can be fired, Yui stabs the boss in its left wing causing the boss to divert its aim towards the female player.

She was able to avoid the attack by dashing backwards. Meanwhile, Skoll swung his blade and cut open one of the wings of the boss, sending the bird crashing to the ground.

Once the bird was lying flat on its stomach, Jin attempted to stab the boss in its neck with his Katana but was repulsed by the beast's stubbornness and he was sent flying into a tree by a powerful kick.

"Yui, Jin!" Akio shouted worriedly. "Are you okay!?"

Both Yui and Jin had suffered serious damage but managed to get up on their feet. Their HP gauges were hovering around 60 per cent but they were able to continue fighting. They were determined to take this thing down no matter what.

"We're good!" Jin shouted attempting to rush back into the fight, but Skoll protested.

"You two! don't! You're HP are too low!"

Skoll rushed forward and slashed the boss's chest, causing a large chunk of blue crystal to explode away from its torso which created another set of crystals to appear around the bird and scattered all over the field.

"Stay out of the fight! Me and Nomad got this!"

The two nodded in agreement with Skoll and together they backed off to a safe distance to watch the ongoing battle.

"Damn it!" Akio screamed furiously and immediately charged towards the Boss. He immediately activated his sword skill and started cutting away the crystal chunks from the boss's which is starting to litter the area around of him. As he slashed the chunks away, his sword skill was continuously gaining more experience points. He also received four small pieces of experience points each time he completed a successful slash against the boss. Soon, Akio had gained a total of six pieces of EXP! This is a huge help because Akio needs it desperately right now!

However, Akio couldn't keep his focus on cutting down the bird because every few seconds the Boss would attack him with its flaming breath, making him constantly evade back and forth without being able to fully focus his attention on the task at hand. It was almost impossible to dodge all the attacks from behind unless Akio had a God-like Dexterity stat. The worst part is, Akio couldn't tell how many HP was left on this Boss. One wrong swing could easily result in losing half his health gauge.

"Shit...! What am I supposed to do against this monster!?"

Akio was getting fed up with himself; he was wasting too much time dodging the enemy's attacks while not making any progress in defeating it. He needed a break so he decided to quickly check his status screen once again, which only confirmed his fears that he couldn't beat this boss alone. Not only that, but he also noticed that his Agility is decreasing significantly. He couldn't understand why—was he just unlucky?

Akio was starting to lose hope until finally, Skoll managed to get himself into striking range and landed several hits against the Boss's head. The boss has knocked away from Skoll's sword and crashed into the tree where Yui and Jin were watching.

"Hey, guys watch it!" Yui called out in concern upon witnessing the Boss hit the tree hard enough to make it wobble violently.

Skoll immediately turned back toward Akio and waved their arms frantically at him while shouting,

"Nomad! Now!"

Akio wasted no time and rushed towards the bluebird, activating his sword skill at the same time. The bird's eyes were now filled with fear as it flapped its wings wildly trying to escape from Akio's reach but he closed in quickly and slashed repeatedly at its face with all his might. A few more swings later and Akio had destroyed another chunk of blue crystals. At that very moment, he finally got a clear view of the boss's health bar. It was almost completely depleted!

The bird suddenly stopped in its tracks as though it was listening intently to Akio's thoughts. The rage in his eyes was enough to tell what he was thinking and finally, he lunges his sword into its skull which finally put the healthcare to zero.

"Yes!!!!"

Akio felt like he was floating on air for a moment before he realized that there was a new message pop up on his Status Screen.

─ EXP earned: 1,600 points

Akio looked up at the sky and gave a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you, God!" he exclaimed in disbelief before looking down at his HP gauge again.

"Whoa!"

His health gauge increased dramatically from the boss fight with a total of 240 points!

-10 Lvl reached! You gain +110 HP! Your health gauge has doubled!

A notification window popped up next to Akio's name informing him that he had achieved 10LVL which meant he gained 50 health points! With his current stats, he is now able to equip all the equipment items in his wardrobe! All these achievements added up to Akio's excitement. However, he still wasn't ready to give up. There are plenty of challenges yet to face in this game and even more difficult ones.

"Well done, Nomad! That was a great job killing the boss."

Skoll smiled proudly at Akio with pride shining through his dark green eyes.

"Thanks, man! I was lucky to have you lots!" Akio said happily, it was all teamwork which won the day. He thought to himself, this was because he and the rest of his friends were able to defeat something much stronger than them and is still in one piece.

Yui and Jin then caught up with the two and congratulated them for their victory before giving their share of praise as well as their own thanks and gratitude for their teammate's efforts in helping them take down the boss. Skoll agreed and said in return that his friends were just as valuable as he is in taking down the boss. Then a group hug occurred as everyone was celebrating their success.

"Now then, let's go see what else is waiting for us ahead," Skoll suggested.

"Sounds good!" Akio said enthusiastically and the team made their way back to town while discussing what they should do next...