Demon Swordsman: Remastered (Sword Art Online X Male Reader)

Chapter 9 - Vukkok

Within the parameters of Sword Art Online, a player can accept several types of Quests: Collection, Elimination, Escort and Errand Quests. Each quest class can have sub-classes associated with said category, such as Search Quests, which can be classified as Errand Quests. With more Quests available with each floor unlocked by defeating the previous/top floor boss, the level cap of each Quest also rises. Also, with the difficulty of each Quest, either more or fewer players are required, dependent on the details of the Quest. Some Quests can be done alone, and others cannot, a system limit, but certain Quests do not enforce this limitation.

U/n was tackling an Elimination Quest with unique conditions: He needed to kill five bosses.

The Quest was recommended to do with a party. Only U/n didn't meet this recommendation and ignored it entirely by doing the Quest solo. However, killing a boss solo was thought impossible, even considering U/n's partial remembrance of the twenty-fifth massacre; U/n knew this was pushing it. He had the Mark of Darkness and far better control over the Unique Skill as time passed, but that control was far from perfect. He continued to find new things about the Skill he previously did not know about.

The difficulty of the Quest was one of the higher ones, especially since the Quest came straight from the current Frontlines of Aincrad and the Clearers, the fifty-second floor. He received the odd looks when he went up, but they mostly kept to themselves, which did not end with running into Asuna—something U/n was thankful for. She had recently gotten pushy about getting the truth of the words he nearly said during the end of the First Floor Boss Fight. He wanted to avoid that topic as long as possible.

So, with that in mind, U/n left the main town and travelled toward one of the more secluded areas of the floor to avoid any interactions with people. The floor was mountainous, so exploring was hard enough and doing it alone was practically a death sentence, which U/n and a certain other swordsman ignored. The villages across the floor were scarce, with the villages not as typical as others have been since the villages were mining towns half dug into a cave system underground offering an array of Quests. The underground systems were far enough away from the Labyrinth on the previous floor that they wouldn't suddenly lead back into it.

Members of the Clearers were exploring other parts of the floor, which saved U/n from the usual looks from the others, saying, "Look at that Beater," or "a power-crazed fool." Usually, these players weren't present on the twenty-fifth floor because those players cast U/n an occasional glance before returning to whatever they were doing.

U/n didn't care for the attention though.

On his journey through the dirt paths around the floor, U/n looked down at his map floating in front of him while running a constant scan with his Search Skill to alert him of anything nearby. His range limit had grown with the proficiency of the Search Skill so that he could uncover high levels of the Hiding Skill of any player or hidden monsters. Like he suspected, though, he did not run into any players on this path. It had remained free of any players the entire time.

The Elimination Quest required him to kill Bosses or Mid-Bosse, as he called the either way, as Bosses were divided into multiple categories. The first and most important were Floor Bosses, nigh invincible Bosses that cannot be conquered alone—U/n grimaced at that—and had to be done with a raid party. The next was Mid-Bosses, a line between Floor Bosses and the last one, but strong enough, they earned their titles. Next was Field Bosses, which were placed mostly on routes to Labyrinths to prevent access, while others were placed elsewhere to protect something or prevent access to other locations or items. Next was Flag Mobs like Nicholas the Renegade, but they only spawned once a year or didn't at all—lastly, Dungeon Bosses, which were self explanatory.