Sword Art Online Progressive Volume 04


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

Sword Art Online Progressive Volume 4 (ソードアート・オンライン プログレッシブ 004, Sōdo Āto Onrain Puroguresshibu 004) is the fourth installment in the "Progressive" series, a reboot of the original Sword Art Online light novel series written by Kawahara Reki. This volume covers the events that took place while clearing the 5th Floor of Aincrad. It was released on December 10, 2015.

Part 1
Outside of the main town of the 5th Floor of Aincrad on December 28, the day after the defeat of the 4th Floor boss, Asuna requested a lesson on Player versus Player (PvP) combat from Kirito. However, due to her hesitation to fight during the Duel, Asuna declared that she did not want to proceed.

Five minutes later, Kirito started a campfire and the two began a conversation, during which they discussed various recent events, including Morte's attempt at killing Kirito via a Duel on the 3rd Floor. They also pondered whether Morte was the man in the black poncho who incited the weapon upgrading scam on the 2nd Floor, or the two men were separate people, meaning that there could have been a group of people interested in player killing.

Part 2
After 19:00 that evening, the two returned to Karluin, the main town of the 5th Floor, where they visited a restaurant named «Blink and Brink». In adition to their meal, they ordered two servings of Blue-Blueberry Tarts, which gave a bonus that highlighted relics scattered around town for a limited time, making it easier to hunt for relics. Hearing that relics included various pieces of jewelry, Asuna became interested in hunting for them, thus the two spent the next hour exploring the ruins in town.

Part 3
After an hour of relic hunting, Asuna and Kirito's haul included several coins, gems, and accessories. One of the rings they found had a Candlelight effect, thus Kirito urged Asuna to equip it, while the rest of their haul was not impressive, thus they sold it for cor. The two soon began discussing about Kizmel and the campaign quests, prompting Kirito to remind Asuna that they had yet to receive the reward for defending Yofel Castle.

At the Teleport Gate plaza in Rovia, the two swordsmen met Agil, who had been making use of the Vendor's Carpet he received from Kirito to sell the excess items his group had accumulated during batles. Hearing that Agil had been selling gondola materials, Asuna inquired if he had any left, as their own gondola was moored at Yofel Castle at that time. Agil revealed that he had already exhausted his supply of gondola materials, but he offered to lend them the gondola that belonged to his group.

At the castle, Asuna and Kirito claimed their rewards from Leyshren Zed Yofilis and spent the night there. After breakfast te next morning, the two returned the gondola to Rovia and then returned to Karluin. As it was raining in Karluin, they decided to descend to the catacombs beneath the town to complete some quests.

Part 4
After completing three quests in the catacombs and several more in-town, the duo visited the restaurant again, where they were surprised that the tarts were still available. Kirito wondered whether Argo had not included information about the relic hunting bonus in her guide but then recalled that he had yet to see the guide being available at a store at all. Concerned, Kirito attempted to send a friend message to Argo, but the message could not be sent, indicating that Argo was in a dungeon.

Assuming that Argo was busy gathering information on the boss at the bottom of the catacombs, the two ordered some Blue-Blueberry Tarts and decided to rent rooms at the inn on the second floor of the resturant. After the two retired to their roms for the night, Asuna decided to use the bath outside her room. However, before reaching the bath, Asuna spotted Kirito leaving the inn. Realising that Kirito was planning to search for Argo, she follwed him out of the inn.

Part 5
Asuna pursued Kirito to the catacombs, but he had already entered the dungeon on the second level before she could send him a message. Following him to the second level, Asuna encountered a Mournful Wraith while searching one of the rooms there. Spooked by the astral monster, Asuna retreated to a corner of the room, triggering a trapdoor. While falling, Asuna released her rapier to brace for impact, managing to suffer less than ten percent damage due to the fall. However, before she could retrieve her rapier, a Sly Shrewman entered the room, snatched her rapier, and fleed.

Asuna had nearly caught the thief, when she suddenly stepped into a puddle and lost her balance. Having lost sight of the monster, Asuna decided to use an item as bait to lure the Sly Shrewman which stole her weapon and kill it with her spare Iron Rapier to retrieve her lost weapon. During the next fifteen minutes, Asuna had killed four Sly Shrewmen but could not find the one with her rapier. Instead, the last of the monsters she killed dropped a wad of paper. Enraged, Asuna was about to throw the paper like a baseball, when she noticed that something was written on it.

Using the light of her candlepower ring, Asuna discovered that the note consisted of a date and coordinates to a meeting place on the floor she was currently on. Curious why anyone would take the unnecessary effort of composing a handwritten note instead of using an Instant Message, and noticing that the meeting would be taking place fifteen minutes later, Asuna travelled to the meeting place where she hid in a hollow to wait for the meeting.

A minute later, two cloaked men arrived at the meeting place. One of them informed the other about successfully manipulating his guild to raid the Labyrinth during the New Years Eve party. Realising that the two players were Player Killers and they were attempting to sow discord among the two main clearing guilds, Asuna unconsciously shifted her balance, accidentally kicking a pebble. As the noise alerted the two players, Asuna pondered on a way to avoid being discovered. In a few moments, she decided to drop the paper she had acquired earlier to attract another shrewman.

Although the arrival of the monster successfully misled the two players, to Asuna's dismay, the monster she lured was the one with her rapier, thus the ownership of her weapon was transferred to the cloaked player who killed the monster. While the two Player Killers were inspecting the rapier, Kirito overheard their conversation and entered the room. Identifying the player who acquired the Chivalric Rapier as Morte, Kirito accused him of having killed his partner.

As the situation became tense, Asuna noticed that Morte's ally was reaching for his sword and heard another shrewman spawn nearby. Making use of these factors, Asuna dropped the paper again to lure the rodent, and unleashed a deafening scream just as the man was about to pass the rapier to his other hand. Startled, the man dropped the rapier, allowing it to be instantly snatched by the looter, which was subsequently dispatched by Asuna. Before a fight could ensue among the players, Kirito abruptly grabbed Asuna to conceal both of them with his Hiding skill just as monsters were attracted by the shriek. Concerened about being outnumbered, the two cloaked players fleed to the staircase.

Part 6
Less than an hour after the encounter with Morte, Asuna and Kirito found Argo camping in a safe room next to the chamber of the dungeon's boss. Argo had discovered that the boss was different from the beta and, deciding to investigate it, spent the entire day solving a lever puzzle that would open the ceiling, weakening the boss with sunlight. Using her intel, a group of chosen top players defeated the boss on December 30, 2022. The next day, on New Year's Eve, Argo and Asuna enjoyed a bath in an instanced Dark Elf village, where, due to Asuna's concern about Argo's safety, the latter proposed to have a mock swordfight with a banana and herbs, showing what she was capable of in combat.

Part 7
While the girls were having a duel in the bath, Kirito lay on the grass, lost in thought. During his search for Argo in the catacombs, he had noticed Asuna's Hit Points bar suddely dropping by about ten percent. Deducing that she must have triggered a trapdoor on the second level, he had rushed to the third level to find her. There, Kirito had overheard the conversation about Asuna's rapier, thus leading to his confrontation with Morte and his associate.

Argo left their party after the bath and Kirito and Asuna wondered how they could react to the plan of the ALS, and set up a meeting with Shivata, who led the New Year's event from the DKB's side to ask who was responsible for planning the party on the ALS side, as the party was initially planned to bring the two guilds together. Shivata was anxious at first how they had known about him and his partner in the ALS, but Kirito replied honestly he only knew of the joint event planning, though Asuna seemed to have realized something what Shivata was concerned about. Shivata messaged his partner, and a few minutes later a player outfitted with a full steel plate armor and a heavy armet helm joined their group. Though they still were in town, the helm's visor was closed, thus it was impossible to identify the face beneath.

When the player lifted the helmet off the head, Kirito was perplexed to see a girl. The girl called Liten was admiring Asuna, and told everything that happened since her recruitment to the ALS. Liten gained a full steel plate armor due to a glitch in the system which made it possible to mine ores for an unlimited amount, before the bug was fixed. Thanks to that armor, she was scouted by a member of the ALS. In a meeting about the boss strategy of the ALS, someone hinted that the boss of the fifth floor floor would drop something that would change the entire frontline situation. But no one knew what that was, until Kirito figured out that the fifth floor boss dropped a guild flag in the beta, giving the guild in question a buff to all their stats.

Part 8
Kirito and Asuna were eating Mananarena's specialty in a cafe when Asuna brought up the question whether Shivata and Liten were a couple, and what 'going out' entailed in SAO. Argo, who they had invited, appeared and together they discussed how to proceed with the ALS' plan to beat the boss on their own. Argo revealed she was neither an info broker nor a front-runner in the beta, thus she didn't know anything about that guild flag. They discussed whether they should reveal the plan to Lind, but ultimately Kirito suggested to beat the boss on their own. Argo revealed that the boss quests indicated that the golem from the beta was still the same, and they discussed who they could invite to join them on their attempt to beat the floor boss. Kirito left to invite Nezha, and Asuna to invite Agil and his Bro Squad as well as Shivata and Liten.

Part 9
After Kirito successfully recruited Nezha for the boss fight, everyone met in a forest near Mananarena and exchanged greetings. Asuna had brought Agil's Bro Squad, consisting of Agil, Wolfgang, Lowbacca and Naijan, with her, as well as Okotan from the ALS and Hafner from the DKB additionally to Shivata, Liten and Argo. When asked by Liten why Kirito wouldn't join a guild, Kirito replied that Lind and Kibaou set the condition that he and Asuna would need to join the guild's separately. The group discussed possible formations to beat the fifth boss, but even with a party of only 12 players it was not an easy process. Afterwards Argo revealed a key she received from one boss quest, leading to a shortcut by sunken blocks continuing in a pattern straight up the wall of the tower, similar to an unconventional ladder. Argo gave everyone cushions and demonstrated how to use if they fell, which without would lead to a large amount of damage, and possibly death, as the stone wall was 20 metres in height.

Due to this shortcut, the group skipped almost twenty percent of the Labyrinth as they began to tackle it. On a small observation deck, Asuna provided a cake for everyone, that she had purchased in the cafe in Mananarena, the location of which was not known to many people. Kirito thought about everyone's motive joining his boss attempt, and why he was leading them when he had publicly declared to be a beater, acting only for his own personal gain. Kirito came to the conclusion that his antagonism towards Morte and his provocateurs may be the reason. Sensing Kirito's internal struggle, Asuna gripped his hand and told him that it was the thanks for his buff on the third floor, when he had held her hand while she melted down her Wind Fleuret. Kirito made a note to himself to ask Asuna later why she agreed to join the boss fight.

Kirito announced the group formation, with two teams of six players each, one consisting of only tanks and the other only of damage dealers. Kirito went on and explained why this formation, usually considered sub-optimal, was his choice. The boss, according to his beta information, should not have any long range attacks, and they didn't have enough tanks to split evenly for potion rotation. After words of encouragement, the fifth floor boss battle started at 4:15 PM, on December 31, 2022.

Adaption Notes

 * The last section of the volume, starting from the New Year countdown, was not part of the web version.