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.

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...

Partner
After Diavel's demise, Asuna contemplated on how his death was similar in appearance to the death of infinitely respawning monsters and was not the way a human dies. Meanwhile the rest of the players were panicking due to Diavel's death and the Ruin Kobold Sentinel spawn rate having increased from the time of the beta. Even though Kirito was trying to get the raid party organised again, things were looking grim, thus Kirito asked Asuna to retreat, while trying to block Illfang's attacks. However, Asuna refused to retreat, saying that she and Kirito were partners.

After telling party B to take party C to the safe zone, Kirito and Asuna began taking on the boss together, with Kirito blocking the boss's attacks and Asuna striking it with her «Linear». However, after numerous successive attacks, Kirito incorrectly guessed the boss's next attack and was struck down. As the boss was then about to hit Asuna, Agil stepped in and blocked Illfang's attack. He then told Asuna to help Kirito, while calling party B members with green HP to come help him tank the boss.

After Asuna reached Kirito, who was trying to get back on his feet, Asuna quickly forced a potion down his mouth. After drinking a few sips, he pushed away the potion to tell Agil and his party how to handle the boss. Meanwhile, some of the other players in the raid were questioning whether they should retreat, while others pointed out that the players on the front line were still fighting. However, Kibaou then interrupted, claiming that Kirito only wanted the Last Attack bonus and that they should retreat. As distrust began spreading among the raid members, Asuna took off her cape and called for everyone's attention. She then told everyone that Diavel's last orders were to "defeat the boss" and that Kirito would be filling in as the new raid leader. Soon afterwards, Agil shouted that he had heard the same thing and stated that Kirito had knowledge of the boss's skills, thus everyone who believed in Diavel should follow Kirito's orders. While all players began organising themselves, Asuna asked Kirito to give his orders.

Scapegoat
While the battle with Illfang continued, at the Monument of Life in the Starting City, Argo recalled the events of the night before the boss battle. That night, she had went to a church where she had planned to meet with her client. Argo reported to her client that roughly 300 beta testers had died since the beginning of the death game a month ago, while estimating that around 700-800 closed beta testers joined the official launch of Sword Art Online. Thus, the death rate of the beta testers was around 40%, the ratio being about double the death rate of the beginners. Argo revealed that the cause for this was associated with the many slight changes in the game during the official launch of the game, and thus, the knowledge and experience that beta testers had from the beta test became their downfall.

The mysterious client then claimed that there was no way that beginners would be able to know such things and that if the information about the boss and his minions turned out to be inaccurate, and if at least one person died because of this, the distrust towards beta testers would go out of control. Argo then stated that in such a case, she would take the blame, but the client stated that he could not risk causing her trouble, as she was the one who could openly connect the bridge between the beginners and beta testers.

Argo then asked for her payment and, after doing so, asked whether anyone else had asked the same thing as him. Argo replied that just one other person did. The client, revealed to be Diavel, then stated that in case of an emergency, there was someone who could stand in his place. Argo commented that the person was not the kind of person to volunteer himself to be a leader, however, Diavel stated that he was not thinking of the role of a leader, but the role of a scapegoat. Back in the present, Diavel's name on the Monument of Life is crossed out, marking his death during the boss battle.

Chapter 6

 * In the novel, Asuna declared that she would help Kirito with the boss before he even had the chance to tell her to withdraw.
 * In the novel, Asuna took off her cape before she and Kirito began assaulting the boss, while in the manga, she does this after Kirito gets hit by the boss and the raid members contemplate retreating.
 * In the novel, Agil did not tell Asuna to help Kirito, as Kirito was already looking for a potion in his pockets and was close enough to Agil for Agil to say something to him.
 * In the novel, Kirito got his potion on his own, while in the manga, Asuna forced a potion into his mouth.
 * The scene where Asuna claimed that Diavel put Kirito in charge of the raid after his death was not part of the novel.

Chapter 6.5

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

Error

 * Diavel's name was incorrectly written as "Diabel" on the manga's Monument of Life, even though Reki has confirmed on his twitter that the intended spelling is "Diavel".