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.

Scherzo of an Abyssal Dusk
Kirito and Asuna pondered about various recent events, including Morte's attempt at killing Kirito via a Duel on the 3rd Floor. They considered the possibility that Morte might have been the man in the black poncho, who incited the weapon upgrading scam on the 2nd Floor.

After their conversation, both returned to the main city to the restaurant «Blink and Brink» and ate a buff item, allowing them to find relics and random bits of treasures more easily. Kirito stated that there had been a fair number of relic hunters during the beta period, and thus assumed that the two main guilds were most likely doing the same at the moment to bolster their war chests. With the support of the buff, they earned some cor and returned to the 4th Floor to receive their reward for their help in defending Yofel Castle.

Kirito decided to choose a new sword to replace his current one. His previous sword was damaged beyond repair, and the current sword, which he had snatched from a Forest Elf, was only able to receive one more upgrade and thus couldn't become strong enough anymore.

They met Agil, who explained that he was working as a merchant, and lent his boat to them, as their own gondola was moored at Yofel Castle at that time.

Kirito and Asuna finished the quest, went back to the restaurant and started to wonder why the buff wasn't sold out, and why Argo's guide hadn't shown up yet. After they went to their rooms, Asuna spotted Kirito leaving, tailed him and tried to catch up when he entered the dungeon. She silently followed him down to the 2nd level, but fell down a trap door after she was being confronted by a ghost and dropped her rapier. This rapier was grabbed by a shrewman, thus Asuna hunted it to get it back. While Asuna was killing monsters in her way she found a handwritten note with coordinates to a meeting place on the floor she currently was on. Asuna discovered the meeting place where she spotted Morte and a collaborator, who discussed how to get both main guilds to fight each other, indicating one of them planned to sweep through the dungeon during the new years day party. Asuna threw a paper she found earlier, causing a noise in order to attract another monster. The plan backfired, as it was the monster with her rapier and was killed by the collaborator who properly looted the rapier. Having heard some parts of the conversation, Kirito appeared and realized that the collaborator had Asuna's sword. As Morte and his partner prepared to fight him, Asuna yelled loudly and startled Morte's partner. Asuna had noticed he had a slight hand-eye-coordination issue, and due to her yell he dropped the rapier. Another monster grabbed it, but Asuna quickly killed it and regained her rapier. Morte and his partner considered how to deal with Asuna and Kirito, but Kirito grabbed Asuna and used Hiding to avoid the monsters Asuna's yell had gathered, thus the two villains ran away as they would be outmobbed otherwise. Kirito and Asuna took a break and she explained to him what happened, to which he told her she had done well.

Argo and Asuna, after the events in the catacombs, relaxed in a bath in an instance village, where Asuna commented that the Dark Elves loved their baths and Argo told that the forest elves brought out tons of food for their quest line. Asuna wondered about the reason they found Argo an hour after the events with Morte and his partner, to which Argo replied that she had been waiting to scout the sub boss at the bottom of the catacombs. She found out that different to the beta period, the sub boss was a giant zombie. Argo had spent the time to figure out a solution to the lever puzzle system in the boss room, which would open the ceiling and weaken the sub boss. Weakened, the sub boss was easily killed.

Afterwards Asuna worried about Argo's safety, but Argo showed off in an informal duel that she really was fast and revealed her limited ability to walk on water. Argo explained to Asuna that she was a beta tester, thus it was her duty to support the players, though it might be safer if she joined the clearers or even if she stayed in towns, but the things she did were too important to help clearing the game. Argo also told that the only reason Kirito wasn't soloing and doing similarly risky things was because of Asuna.

Adaption Notes

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