chapter 21

Moment upon arriving at the town of beginning, Leonard was greeted by the sight of busy players going through their normal daily life, as there aren't that many words that could describe the situation now since the players were trapped inside this death game that is Sword Art Online- however after the news about the defeat of the first floor boss, it managed to give many people some hope for the future.

As Leonard strolled through the busy street, occasionally he heard the whisper of players discussing their fighting strategy and such, bargaining for dropped goods, and buying and selling pieces of information about quest and monster.

"...so much has changed within these ten days…" he couldn't help but muttered out those words.

Leonard took his time off strolling through the busy street alone after the boss fight, since the majority of the clearing team was now headed toward the third floor, there wasn't anything that he could do now, the reason why Leonard didn't follow those players upward because it is no longer necessary, he notice that everytime they going in a legion raid like that of the boss fight, there aren't that many experiences point to be gained at all, he might as well either going solo or just bring Kirito and Asuna with him instead.

"Leave the hard work to the grunts" is the only words he could describe the situation.

Along the way, he notice a party of players that look quite familiar.

"Hold on...could they be…" he then glanced at a small tag under their health bar.

It was a small picture of a black cat with a crescent moon.

"...so, they're just beginning to set off now…" looking at the small band of players he couldn't help but felt quite nostalgic, because that band of players was one of the reasons as to why Kirito personality turned so dark and withdrawn in the anime- no it's one person that caused it.

"Sachi…" he then focused his attention at the girl who was following the group from the back.

She had short well kept black hair, around yet cute face.

This girl death was the reason why the Kirito from the original series goes into quite a depression.

But now that Leonard has prevented Kirito from isolating himself from the rest of the players of Sword Art Online, he's no longer worried about Sachi death affecting Kirito anymore, since Sachi will likely no longer related herself to him in any way possible- there is only Asuna in Kirito life now, it is him that made it all possible for these events to play out as it is.

Leonard unintentionally showed a rare natural smile on his face, without the need of acting as he thought about all the madness within the timeline that he started.

"Keeping you busy with Asuna so you won't interfere with my plan of taking on all one hundred floor boss…" his smile then turned into that of a sadistic grin, Leonard then quickly headed off to another locations- staying off the sight of the group of players that he was watching just a moment ago of course.

*****

Today Sachi and her guildmates were once again ready to head off to another hunting outside of the safe zone, but before that, they had to stop by the market to buy some health potions and other emergency items that they might need.

But suddenly Sachi felt that someone was looking at her group or possibly at her of out of all people gathered in the market district.

"Huh?" she couldn't help but turned her head around to look for the person, however, she only saw a black shadow shifted through the busy street.

"What is it Sachi?" Keita noticed that Sachi was acting weird and so he asked her to see what's the problem is.

"No, it's nothing, I thought I felt someone was watching us," Sachi told Keita.

"Watching us?" Ducker began to freak out by Sachi answer.

"Probably just your imagination Sachi, I mean- who would want to stalk a bunch of noobs who are barely past level five," Tetsuo told her.

"...yeah you're right, like who would be that free? Even the players killer don't bother trying to kill us, we have nothing for them to take anyway." Sasamaru added in.

"...wait...do you really think that he's a players killer?" Sachi asked nervously.

"The chance isn't that high, actually it's really unlikely to happen- like Sasamaru said, we have nothing to be killed over and robbed," Keita reassure her.

"Alright, let just quickly grab what we need and headed off." he then suggested.

*****

On the third floor of Aincrad.

Within the lush forest of the floor, the group of players consisted of Diavel, Kirito and Asuna and many others who had helped clear the second floor.

Was fighting tooth and nails against a group of forest elves.

"Damn it! I know we should have tried keeping Leonard with us for a while longer! These guys are absolutely no joke at all!" Kibaou shouted out as he slashed an incoming arrow going for his one of his vital point.

"Yeah! Remind me next time to keep him around for a while longer!' Diavel added in as he agreed with Kibaou.

"Oh shut up! We all regret it! But what can we say! The man wanted to take a break! He did help take down two mini-bosses and help break down Asterius as a bonus!" Kirito shouted as he launched a metal dart toward the canopy of a tree from where an arrow was coming from.

"Who the hell are you human talking about?! We need to stop quarreling and get the hell out of here!" among the group of human players was a woman with dark skin and pointy ears, lilac hair with onyx-black eyes, she wore a dark cloak and under them was purple colored light armor.

"Shut up Kizmel! You were the one who brought this mess onto us in the first place!" Kibaou mouthed her off.

"I'm sorry alright!?! I didn't know that these guys were so persistent in their pursue!" she roared out angrily.

This dark elf was none other than Kizmel, a quest NPC generated by the Cardinal system.

"Archer! Did you find the enemy in hiding yet?!" Diavel asked the players on the backline.

"Yeah we found them!" the group of players who were holding longbow and crossbow answered him and immediately took aim.

"Fire! Kill them quickly!" Kibaou shouted- which was pointless as the archers were going to do it even without him reminding them.

*swoosh *swoosh *Puchi!

Arrows and bolts flew out from the range weapons and penetrated the hiding elves.

Which caused them to fell off the tree and exploded upon reaching the ground.

"...that was all of them?" Asuna then let out a sigh of relief as the interface no longer showed that they were in combat.

"Should be...the interface stop it combat role," Kirito added.

All the player too couldn't help but let out a sigh before fell down onto the ground.

"I think it's about time you tell us what the hell is going on." Diavel turned his attention to the dark elf NPC that caused them a mess that could result in their death.