Sword Art Online - Progressive Volume 02 (manga)


 * This article is about the manga adaptation of the original Progressive series. You may be looking for the original light novel.

Sword Art Online - Progressive (ソードアート・オンライン プログレッシブ) is a manga adaptation of the Sword Art Online Progressive light novel series, a reboot of the original light novel series by Kawahara Reki. This ongoing manga is illustrated by Kiseki Himura, published as part of the monthly Dengeki G's Magazine, and will cover part of Progressive Volume 1.

Note that some/all of the following chapters might actually be published in volume 1 instead of volume 2 due to ambiguity of information currently known about the volume 1.

Summary
Nearly one month after the beginning of the death game, Sword Art Online, the clearers have finally discovered the 1st Floor's boss room. As Argo published all information about the first Floor Boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, the clearers set out to the boss room, intending to defeat the boss without any scouting raids. However, the clearers soon find out that the Illfang in the death game is not exactly the same as it was in the beta...

Talwar
The chapter began at the door to the 1st Floor's boss room. Before marching into the room, Diavel inquired whether anyone had any questions. Kirito raised his hand to ask only one question: if a situation different from what was written in the guidebook occurred, whether he would give them the order to retreat. After Diavel reassured everyone that he would not let anyone die, Kibaou remarked that as Kirito was too busy flirting to participate in practise, he had no right to question Diavel's leadership. After encouraging everyone, Diavel opened the doors to the boss room and the battle began.

While Diavel was commanding the raid parties, Kirito and Asuna helped Kibaou's party handle the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. During the battle, Kibaou warned Kirito not to get carried away, having heard rumours about a certain beta player who had been hoarding the Last Attacks on bosses. However, Kirito just ignored Kibaou's comments and warned Asuna that the level of the next Sentinel wave would be high.

As the battle progressed, Illfang's HP had finally dropped to the last bar, triggering him to change his weapon and attack patterns. However, what the boss drew was not a Talwar as it was in the beta, but a nōdachi. Noticing this, Kirito immediately shouted for everyone to stay back from the boss, making Kibaou think that Kirito was aiming for the Last Attack. Kirito then stated that Illfang's weapon was different from the beta and shouted to Diavel to run. As members of party C were stunned, Diavel defended the player against Illfang's attack, while Kirito asked the tank to defend the stunned players. Although Agil was about to comment about their lightweight armour, Kirito and Asuna charged through the Sentinels and attempted to reach Diavel. However, Diavel continued with his attack on the boss and activated a Sword Skill but was hit and killed by the boss, while Kirito pushed Asuna to the ground to avoid the boss's attack. The two then hear Diavel's last words to finish the battle, as Diavel shatters to polygons.

Chapter 5

 * The trip from Tolbana to the boss room, including Kirito's conversation with Asuna during the trip and several encounters with Kobolds along the way to the boss room were omitted in the manga.
 * The conversation at the boss room door was not present in the light novel.
 * In the light novel, Kirito responded to Kibaou's claims by asking him where had he heard it from and Kibaou responded by saying that it was Argo, though Kirito dismissed this as a lie. In the manga, Kirito just ignored Kibaou.
 * In the novel, Kirito did not ask Asuna about what a talwar looked like.
 * The manga does not show Diavel aiming for the Last Attack on Illfang.
 * In the novel, Diavel was among those stunned by the boss during its first attack with the nōdachi and the boss then immediately singled out Diavel and killed him. In the manga, Diavel was not stunned, but died while attempting to finish off the boss.
 * In the novel, Diavel was thrown out of the front lines after Illfang's powerful attacks and managed to have a word with Kirito in private before he died.
 * In the manga, Kirito did not suspect that Diavel was a beta player too.

Chapter 6.5

 * The entire chapter was not part of the original story.