Sword Art Kitsune

ch. 2 Grinding like a boss

Sword art Kitsune Ch. 2: Grinding like a boss.

Naruto walked the roads of the town closest to the tower in the middle of the first floor after a successful day. He helped Klein and his friend level up in a dungeon after Klein found out about his luck stats increasing for people he was in a party with. He was sure Klein would be heading a guild soon enough when the feature was unlocked. He heard from Azuna this morning and was glad she was doing well. She told him she’d gotten her cooking skill close enough to make ramen, which made his mouth water. Naruto had decided to start wearing the rare gear he’d gotten and was wearing the Mercenary’s duster and had Rebellion strapped to his back. He'd gotten a notice a week before for another piece of Dante’s gear, Dante’s half amulet. It's half of the perfect amulet, and Naruto only needs to get Virgil’s half to get the bonus stats from the perfect amulet. Naruto then thought of which craft he’d take up to help with his levels. ‘Maybe I should take up metallurgy or goldsmithing? I mean, any time I go into caves, I find rare ores, metals, and gems. Plus, those rock golems drop enough materials to make stuff. I’ll need to get it up anyway once I find Virgil’s half of the amulet.’ It had been almost a month since he was trapped in this game, and 2,000 people had died so far. A few were beta testers he knew.  Naruto would make sure to donate money and ask their families if there was anything he could do. Lots had committed suicide just to leave the nightmare that was Aincrad. “Okay just need to get something to eat, then I'll go looking for the bosses’ lair. Maybe I should message Kirito for help? It wasn’t in the place from the beta or the alpha. Damn it, uncle. Of course he’d change the location to keep the beta testers on their toes.” Just then, Naruto heard a chime. It was from Kirito.
-hey Naruto, There’s a meeting today to discuss finding and defeating the floor one boss Ilfang the Kobold Lord. - Kirito.-

In a small ampitheater in town, Naruto sat on the bottom row above a doorway as a player dressed in heavy Knight’s gear began to speak. Naruto was wearing a dark cloak over his clothes as he wanted to surprise someone he saw show up. He chuckled to himself as the guy spoke. “Now that everyone’s here, let’s get this meeting started!” Naruto saw a familiar face sit down before turning to the man speaking. “So, anyway, I want to thank everyone for coming. Good to see you. My name is Diabel, and in this game, the job I rolled is knight!” he said the last part with a smile as everybody laughed at him. “dude, there’s no job system in this game.” Someone shouted. Naruto rolled his eyes as he thought to himself. ‘Even if there isn’t, we should have people with specific jobs like Police and even mercenaries. The number of red players has increased from the first week we’ve been here. Maybe I could talk to this guy about it after the battle.’ Naruto then turned his attention back to Diabel. “You guys wanna hear this or not?” he waited, and everyone calmed down. “Right. Anyway, here’s the deal. Our party found the boss room today. First, we need to defeat the boss and move on to floor 2. the next step is we have to tell everyone waiting in the town of beginnings that it is possible to beat this game! Fact is, it’s our duty as the most capable players here. Do you agree or not?” The crowd murmured a bit before everybody clapped. Diabel smiled and said. “Okay. Glad to hear you’re all with me on this. Now let’s figure out how we’re gonna beat the boss. First off, we’ll team up into parties of six. A typical party doesn’t stand a chance against a floor boss. We need a raid group made up of multiple parties.” Naruto then stood and sat beside the only other person wearing a cloak. He hit a button and a chime was heard as the person beside him let out a girly gasp before turning to him and bopping him on the head. “Don’t try to scare me like that Naruto-kun.” Asuna said as she accepted his party request. Naruto noticed Kirito was whipping his head back and forth trying to find a party to join. Naruto tapped a button on his screen and sent one to Kirito. Kirito heard his chime and turned to the two cloaked figures and said as he sat beside Asuna. “So you did come huh Kitsune? I’m glad I didn’t bet on you not showing up.” Naruto grinned at him and nodded. “Yup, oh this is my best friend Asuna, Asuna this is Kirito an old pal of mine.” Asuna blushed at the mention of being his best friend, though she wished he wasn’t so Oblivious. They were interrupted by Diabel who once again began to speak. “All right! Looks like everybody’s teamed up. Now then-” “Hold up a sec!” A voice shouted as an orange cactus haired guy started hopping down the rows before jumping next to Diabel. The way the guy spoke reminded Naruto of a Kansai dialect which pissed him off. His Cousin Yahiko was killed in a gang war in Kansai, the guy who killed him spoke just like that. “My name’s Kibao, got that?! Before we take on the boss. Want to get something off my chest. We all know about the 2,000 people who’ve died so far, yeah? Well some of you need to apologize to ‘em right now!” Naruto glared at the goateed man standing by Diabel. Diabel turned and said. “Kibao, I think I know who you're referring to. You mean the ones who are ex-beta testers right?” Kibao’s posture became aggressive as he said. “ ‘Course I mean them! The day this stupid-ass game started, the beta guys just up and vanished right?! They ditched all us beginners! They snagged all the good hunting spots, and they grabbed all the easy quests too. They were the only ones getting stronger in here. This whole time they’ve ignored us like we’re nothing. Hell, I bet there’s some of them here! Come on out, beta testers! We should make them apologize to us, and we should make them all give up their money and the items they got! They can’t expect the party to trust them when they don’t trust us. Why should we?” Naruto saw Kirito look down and shake a bit. Naruto leaned over and patted his knee before he stood up. At the same time a large bald man with an axe on his back stood too. “Can I say something?” the large man said. “Hey, my name’s Agil. Kibao right? I wanna make sure I’m on the same page.  you say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookie’s deaths because they didn’t help them and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?” Agil said and Naruto smirked, the big guy winning his respect for making Kibao look like he wanted to piss himself. “No. You didn’t.” Kibao said gruffly like a child having a tantrum. Agil reached into his pocket and took out a booklet. “The item store hands these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one didn’t you?” Kibao nodded and said. “sure, I got one. So what about it?” Naruto jumped down beside Agil and said. “Because that book was made by the ex-beta testers cactus head. Oh and just so you know, among those 2,00 player deaths. A lot of them were bet testers, risking their lives to free us from this game, making sure information they’d gotten from the beta was still valid or just like many other couldn’t handle being trapped in here and jumped off of the edge of Aincrad.” Agil nodded his head as he said. “Like flame head here just said the ex beta testers were handing these out. Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now, I didn’t come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here cause I want to learn from those player’s deaths. I'm here because I want to find out how we’re gonna beat the boss.” He then turned to Naruto and said. “Anything you wanted to say?” Naruto shook his head and held his hand out. “Nah, you made my point for me. I'm Kitsune.” Agil’s eyebrow raised as everyone in the ampitheatre gasped. “The crimson hunter kitsune!?” someone said as Naruto smiled and Agil gave a smirk and shook Naruto’s hand. “Good to finally put a face to the legend. I heard you helped out a group of players from sudden death, partied up with them and when the area mobs and boss were defeated you gave them all the Col and a rare drop.” Naruto just smiled and said. “I want to help as many people as I can. Death lurks around every corner in this game, I want to alleviate some of the tension on others.” Agil smiled and Diabel looked at the cloaked redhead before smiling. Kibao went and sat down as Agil did too. Naruto went back to his spot as Diabel began to speak again. “Okay. Can we get back to the meeting now?  For info on the boss, it’s all in the latest issue of the guidebook you just heard about. According to the book the boss is Illfang the Kobold Lord. Also, he’ll be surrounded by his minions. The Ruin Kobold Sentinels. Illfang carries an axe and a buckler. He has four health bars, and when the last one turns red, he switches to a curved sword-type weapon called a Tulwar. He can change his patterns attack, too.” The crowd began murmurring as Diabel shut his guidebook. “That’s it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be divided equally among everyone. The party that defeats the boss gets the XP, and whoever gets an item gets to keep it. Any objections?” Everyone murmured until Diabel said. “Good! We leave tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning. Meeting adjourned people!” Naruto patted Asuna on the shoulder and said. “I’ll meet you at the Inn. I wanna talk to Diabel for a second.” Asuna smiled and nodded before she headed off and Kirito said. “Is this about the red player uprisings?” Naruto nodded his head and said. “Not that a solo player like you would be interested in joining my little endeavor.” Kirito fumed and pouted as he walked off mumbling about jerky redheads. Naruto slipped through the crowd and tapped Diabel’s shoulder. “Mind if I talk to you in private?” he asked to which the blue haired knight nodded. “I’ll see you guys later.” Diabel said to his group agil and Kibao. They ended up going inside the ampitheater and found a table to sit at. “What’s on your mind Kitsune?” Diabel asked as Naruto un-equipped his cloak. “I had a thought about jobs when you said you chose to be a knight. We need some players to step up and organize a small guild when it becomes available to keep the peace and take out red players. Knights/sheriffs or police to keep the peace among players on each floor and Mercenaries to help with the red player problems. I know you know about Laughing Coffin.” At this Diabel grit his teeth and said. “Yeah, I do. One of my friends from Beta was killed by a group from LC. She found a rare quest and got the item drop from it. They grabbed her made her trade all her items and COL then they... before they killed her.” Naruto patted his shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay. I think with your skills we could put together a police force to combat the red players. I am gonna solo until we hit double digit floors so I can become a mercenary when needed.” Diabel nodded and said. “I mean you did find the Dante item line quest, so it does fit. But you’re right. After the boss battle we can see if anybody in the raiding party would be iterested in making a police force. You were a beta tester too weren’t you?” Naruto nodded his head and said. “Yeah I was. I figured you for one, I recognized you after a minute. You're one of Argo’s contacts.” the two then stood and shook hands before Naruto went to meet up with Asuna. He found her sitting on a small wall with Kirito. She was eating a bun she made from scratch as Kirito pulled out one he bought and a jar of cream. “Here try some of this.” Asuna looked at it and said. “Naruto already showed me the quest. It's cream right? I make mine with cream inside it.” Kirito stared wide eyed and said. “Wait you can make rolls better than these?” Naruto chuckled and said. “Yeah her cooking stats are higher than mine. She's close to maxing them out. Oh I did make you guys something.” Naruto pulled out two wrapped bundles of meat on rolls. It's Bison I got the other day when I did a quest in the Idle pastures. I used salt I got off some rock golems today when I was helping Klein.” Asuna grabbed his wrist and said. “You have salt?” Naruto opened a trade menu and sent a bunch of bags of salt to his chestnut haired friend who then took his offering of food and nibbled it before devouring ti like it was her last meal. Kirito took a bite before doing the same thing. “It tastes just like a hamburger!” Kirito exclaimed to which Naruto grinned.

At the doors to the boss room everyone was gathered around as Diabel stood in front of the doors and began to speak. Naruto, Asuna, and Kirito stood in the back wit Klein and his buddies. Naruto had messaged the pinkette about the raid battle and Klein told him they’d be there. “Listen everyone, I have one thing to say to you--- LET’S WIN! Come on!” Everybody got ready and Naruto said to Kirito and Asuna. “Remember. We're clearing the left flank of the mobs before we attack the boss. When you need to jump back to heal switch out. Klein and company will back us up right Klein?” Klein nodded his head and slapped Naruto on the back. “Of course I'll help out my two buddies. Let's do this.” They entered the boss room and it was just like Naruto and Kirito remembered it. Weapons were drawn as they all headed inside and Illfang was sitting on his throne, buckler one his left arm as his axe leaned against the throne. It looked as if he was asleep, until Diabel crossed a line in the hall and the room lit up. And the giant Kobold flew into the air and slammed to the ground. Armored sentinels appeared in droves in front of their master as the raid party began the battle. “Commence attack!!!” Diabel shouted as they rushed forward in their groups sword skills lighting up. Diabel commanded them from the middle. “Squads A and C switch up. Here it come Squad B block!” As Illfang activated a sword skill. Naruto did what he did best and decimated the sentinels that were around him and his party. Diabel didn’t have to order his group to do anything. “Klein let’s switch out now!” Naruto said as his and Asuna’s health were yellow and Kirito’s was red. “Faster must go faster.” Kirito muttered before jumping back to heal. Naruto noticed the last bar of health turn red as he killed the last Sentinel. “Here we go. The Talwar.” Naruto said as Illfang threw his axe and buckler and drew his weapon. Diabel began to run forward before Illfang drew his weapon. “Stand back! I've got it!” he said charging his sword skill wanting the last hit bonus. Naruto’s eyes bulged as he saw the weapon Illfang drew wasn’t a Talwar. “That’s a Nodachi!” Naruto and Kirito shouted before Naruto bolted off towards Diabel. Kirito shouted. “It’s no good get out of there!” Naruto shouted. “Diabel! It's not a Talwar! Everybody get back now!” Illfang swung the blade just before Naruto reached Diabel and knocked the knight to the side. He grabbed a potion and put it to his lips as Diabel’s health lowered. “No, I won’t let you go out like this.” Naruto said as Diabel winced and said. “I’m sorry, I should’ve realized that Kayaba switched things up. I'm such a fool.” Naruto noticed the potion wasn’t having an effect on Diabel’s health which was still lowering. “You have to lead them Naruto. I believe in you....” Diabel said before he died. Naruto stood tears streaming down his face as he took his cloak off and charged Illfang. “Groups A, B, C and D  charge the left flank. Everyone else charge the right. Kirito, Asuna you’re with me!” Naruto then charged forward and activated his special sword skill with Rebellion. “Demonic rise!” he shouted as blood red light surrounded his blade as he jumped up onto the boss and slammed his blade into Illfang’s gut. He saw Illfang about to charge an attack and shouted. “Scatter! He's charging an attack. Nodachi’s have and AOE damage type.” everyone did as Naruto said and Illfang let out an attack that didn’t hit anybody. “Kirito go now!” Naruto ordered as Kirito charged the beast with Asuna behind him. They switched back and forth as Naruto shouted out commands and attacked with them. Just as Naruto attacked the monster’s health dropped low. Kirito shouted. “Naruto switch with me!” Illfang charged an attack just as Kirito and Asuna charged him.0 Illfang attacked Asuna but only ripped her cloak and Naruto was dazed at the beauty of his best friend for a second before getting back into the fight. Kirito took a hit for Asuna and their health dropped. Naruto and Agil stepped forward. “Heal up while we cover you.” Agil said. The redhead nodded as the two charged together. “Demonic rise!” “Dwarven slice!” were the shouts of the two charging their special weapon skills. Then Illfang jumoed and unleashed an AOE attack again causing the players helping the duo to fly back and Naruto and Agil to gain injured status. The two took potions before Illfang slammed down on them. “YOURE GOING DOWN!” Kirito shouted out as he activated his sword skill and attacked Illfang getting his health low. “Come on Naruto, Asuna, help me beat this sucker! One last attack!” Asuna nodded. “Right! Naruto come on!” Naruto stood and charged forward with his friends as they attacked Illfang as one switching out when needed as Kirito got the last attack bonus as he ripped Illfang killing the boss and beating the first floor.

                   CONGRATULATIONS!!

Everyone began to cheer and celebrate as Naruto stood and looked at his menu screen. Congratulations. For help with the last attack bonus you’ve gained. - Axe of Illfang. Naruto groaned and stood up as Agil approached him. “Nice job taking over for Diabel. I know you tried to save him and that counts for something. Oh and Kirito nice swordsmanship congratulations. Today's victory is all thanks to you and Naruto.” Naruto stepped towards Agil and opened a trade with him. “Here, I got this item drop and I don’t use this weapon so you take it.” Naruto gave Agil the axe to with the tall black man blanched. “Seriously? You're giving this to me?” Naruto nodded his head as everybody cheered for Naruto and Kirito. Then there was a shout and the words were in a kansai dialect. “STOP CHEERING!”Kibao stepped forward toward the group and said. “Why’d you do it huh? Why'd you let Diabel die?!” Naruto glared and said. “I didn’t let him die! He wouldn’t let me heal him! When I tried the potions weren’t doing anything. That Nodachi had a draining effect when it was first drawn.” Kibao glared and said. “Not you. The black haired guy! You knew the technique the boss was gonna use. You could’ve told us! Then Diabel would’ve stood a chance. He wouldn’t have had to die!” one player then said. “I know how he knew! He used to be a beta tester! Think about it. He knew the boss's attack  patterns. He knew, but he kept it from us! And I bet he’s not the only beta tester!” Naruto growled and said. “SHUT UP! Seriously squabbling like children, you do know Diabel was a former beta tester too, right? He was going after the last attack bonus. I knew you were gonna start trouble if something bad happened cactus head.” Naruto was about to say more but Kirito stopped him as Naruto got a message. -Leave this to me, Kirito.- Naruto stepped back as Kirito said with a laugh. “So, you guys think I use to be a beta tester. Its not cool to put me in the same class with those noobs.” Kibao glared and shouted. “What’d you say?” Kirito said. “You heard me. Most of the 1,000 people who scored a slot in SAO’s beta were rookies. They were so green, they didn’t even know how to level up. Hell, even you guys are better than they were. But me I'm nothing like those guys, man. During the beta, I made it to floors that were higher than any of the other testers. That’s a fact. I knew about the boss cause I fought tons of monsters with way more sword skills on higher floors. I know a bunch of other things, too ---- more than you can imagine, more than any info broker.” Then everybody started yelling at Kirito and calling him a cheater and being worse than a beta tester, Kibao shouted. “You’re worse than a beta tester or a cheater, you’re a god damn beater!” Kirito smirked and said. “A beater. Yeah that’s good. I like it.” He then said as he opened his menu and inventory. Okay, you can call me a beater. Just make sure you don’t confuse me with those beta testers anymore.” he then equipped his coat of midnight the rare drop item he got from the last attack bonus. He then walked off to activate the teleportation crystal for the second floor. Naruto sighed and said. “As soon as you guys get to the first town activate the teleportation crystal there. I'll go let the info brokers know the first floor has been cleared.” Klein stepped to him and said. “You think Kirito will be okay?” Naruto nodded his head and said. “Like me Kirito is a solo player at heart. He'll be fine. I won’t let him fall into darkness though. Count on that Klein.” Klein smiled and said. “Yeah me too.” Naruto then hugged Asuna and said. “Message me if you need me. When they day come if someone you trusts asks you to join a guild. Do it. I can’t be there for you all the time. I realize that now. I care about you Asu-chan.” He Dissolved the party then ran off after Kirito to tell the people in the town of beginnings there was a way to beat this game. They would survive. They would excel, they would survive. Naruto knew what he had to do next. “It’s time to grind up levels and show uncle Aki that he won’t get away with what he’s done. I know you’re here in the game somewhere Uncle, you’d never just watch us play. That'd be boring. You're here somewhere. I'm gonna find you and beat you into the ground!”