Sword Art Online Progressive 4

Since when did this sword belong to you?! You called it "Cilvaric"!! she thought furiously, all hesitation gone.

Perhaps screaming the way she did wasn't exactly the politest of tactics, but it certainly wasn't a stroke of luck. Asuna aimed for that very moment based on a specific, precise logic.

She was certain that the piece of parchment that guided her to this point was written and discarded by the first player. Messing up on the simple act of writing a number was, if not the act of someone with an FNC (full-dive noncomformity) disability, at least the sign of trouble with fine finger movements in a full dive—in short, proof of clumsiness. If she startled him at the very moment he moved the weapon from one hand to the other, he would surely drop it. That was her reasoning for shouting like that.

And she made it so the looting shrew would pick up the rapier so that she could kill it, thus ensuring the sword was officially hack in her possession. She would never let it go again and could light another player to protect her precious weapon.

Asuna pointed the tip of her Chivalric Rapier forward in a display of that will.

The first cloaked player clicked his tongue and squeezed the handle of the dagger.

But at that point, the situation took an unexpected turn.

In the back, Kirito turned and raced past Morte's left side, straight for Asuna.

"...?!"

As Asuna leaned back in surprise, he grabbed her around the breastplate and leaped into the hollow where she'd been hiding. He pressed her flat against the wall, covering her with his coat—and activating the Hiding skill.

Obviously, this was not going to actually hide them.

But the next moment, Asuna heard the reason why Kirito had done it. From the north hallway came a great many sounds of clanking metal, the sign of a group of monsters. But why so suddenly...?

And then it hit her.

Of course. It would be strange for such a thing not to happen in a dungeon after the way she’d shouted.

She couldn't see the cloaked men anymore, but she heard the first one hiss, "Shit, they brought a buncha mobs down to MPK us! The dirty bastards!”

“Ah-ha-ha-ha, coming from you?” Morte laughed, but it was not as confident and cocky as before. She heard them drawing their weapons, but as the monsters approached, his order to his comrade was tense and worried. “Never mind，it’ll suck fighting this many of them. We oughta pull back.”

“Tsk，fine.”

“Whoops，that’s a dead end down there. We gotta sprint to the staircase, so do your best to keep up, bud.”

“H-hey，wait!”

Two sets of footsteps raced away, eventually eclipsed by the raucous pursuit of the monsters. The sounds gradually, gradually died away, and disappeared at last.

Silence.

No, not quite. There was one sound left, tirelessly throbbing in her ears in a bass register... the sound of her heart. The sound of blood rushing from her virtual heart. Or perhaps it was her real heart, beating so loudly that it got through to her ears. As she listened, the pulse slowly, slowly calmed, gradually pulling her away from the absolute state of tension.

For just a moment, she felt her wits grow distant, and she nearly dropped her rapier. But she would never let that happen again. She willed strength into her fingers and returned the sword to its sheath from her spot beneath the coat that covered her body.

In response to that action, Kirito let out a long breath and prepared to stand up from his crouch over Asuna. But she unconsciously lifted her right hand, pulling on his left as he rose.

There, right within reach of her arms, was the reassuring presence of her partner.

Yes... it was all right now. There was nothing to fear.

Asuna trembled powerfully, overcome by the sudden upsurge of all the emotions that had been pressed and compacted inside of her from the moment she fell through the trapdoor. Heat gathered in her eyes, and something roiled up into her throat. The strength went out of her knees, and she nearly slumped down to the floor.

But Kirito’s hand propped up her back. His voice said in her ear, "...You did well. I’m glad... you’re all right..."

Those words permeated her mind instantly, removing all self-control.

The demand that she had to be stronger.

The admonition that she was always getting help.

And the fear that if she showed any weakness, she would be left behind.

All these emotions were temporarily set loose, and she pressed her head against Kirito's chest. Through trembling lips, she blubbered like a young child:

“…I was scared... I was so scared...”

She squeezed her eyes shut, letting her emotions do the speaking.

“There was a ghost， and I fell into a pit… then I got lost, and dropped my rapier, and I thought I was done for... I thought I was going to meet my end in this horrible dark cave... I was so, so scared, ，so scared... I really mean it...”

Her whole body trembled intermittently. She clutched at Kirito's shirt, craving direct, if virtual, contact.

Suddenly, a pleasing, gentle sensation enveloped her.

Kirito was rubbing the top of Asuna's head. He repeated the awkward but heartfelt motion over and over.

“It's all right... You’re all right, he whispered," barely audible, but the steadfast will contained in those words was more trustworthy than anything else in this world.

"If we ever get split up again, I'll find you and come help. You're... my partner, Asuna."

“.........Yeah.”

Like the flipping of a switch, Asuna stopped trembling. But she didn't let go of him, and Kirito didn't stop rubbing her head. They kept a long, silent embrace in the little corner of the catacomb dungeon.

That's chapter 5.
Took quite a bit longer than expected, thread even ended up dying before I finished.
Next chapter will be shorter (and won't have much happen) but this volume is starting to pick up and chapter 7 is great.

>like 35 posts to proofread
Fug. Sorry, was on a 5-hour drive, so I'll get started now.

Any news on Volume 9 getting those color pages in the middle, or are they stuck as B&W in the Yen Press version?

>>153107129
It's fine! Thanks for your continued help.

>>153107305
I highly doubt it'll get a reprint, they probably did it for the cost and hoped no one would notice.

Thanks anon!

fuck sao

>>153101394
>spot-led
spotted

>>153101577
>Wait in the b1 room so i can join you.
While this is probably more similar to how someone would ACTUALLY type in a PM in a MMO, the volume actually has it in small caps.

>This person is either in an inaccessible location or is not loGGeD in.
Same for this. Small caps here.
>GG
lel

>towns
town's

>>153101668
>had to he down there
be

>Not safe haven below, be warned
Just a note that this is italicized in the volume to be distinct.

>potion's
potions

> outside field
Small caps again.

>>153101867
>coining
coming

>Il
It

>things
thing's

...Actually, now that I have access to my own volume, I notice that a lot of things (like onomatopoeia) are italicized and a lot of other things (like mob names) are in small caps. Not sure how you want to treat those. Seems like it'd be a pain in the ass to "fix" all of them. Such a minor thing, too. Tell me what you want to do with these instances, and I'll adjust my proofreading accordingly.

>>153101947
>wraiths
wraith's

>>153102384
>The monsters here would he
be

>>153102519
>materialize all items button
This is like a proper noun, so figure out what you want to do with this. It's in small caps in the book, of course. It occurs various times throughout the chapter, so I won't keep making note of it.

>>153102668
>Prancing Knots
Boots.

>>153103450
>...If a romantic-looking couple ends up coming along, this totally makes me a creepy voyeur,
Once again, this is a thought and is italicized. Not sure what you want to do with this.

>live
five

>hoots
boots

>>153104043
>[
I

>its just so twisted
it's

>>153104158
>shitted
Heh. Shifted.

>>153104309
>the sound o it scurrying around
of

>>153104593
>dearly
clearly

>its heavy
it's

>>153104711
>Beneath his long black bangs burned eyes darker than darkness. The sight was so vivid on her virtual retinas that she couldn't even blink.
Pffft. I'm sorry, I just have to laugh at these two sentences.

>partners
partner's

>>153109097
Since 4chan doesn't handle italics or small caps it's not showing here but I'm keeping them all as they are in the book, ABBYY picks that stuff pretty well. That "loGGeD" thing was me trying to fix stuff on ABBYY since it left that word without small caps and I was just copy-pasting from other sentences since it doesn't have full small caps support. I'll fix that later in Word.
Likewise, italic stuff I keep as is, I think there's some inconsistencies here and there with the names being small caps at times and not at others but I'm sticking to the book. Don't worry too much about those as I likely won't miss them.

By the way, I noticed a possible typo in the book, I'm not sure you did too.

>>153102902
>she saw the glowing white point of the rapier approach the back of the fleeing shrewman
That "back" used to be "black", I thought that over for a bit and ended up fixing it to "back" but think that's right? Since it could be referring to a black spot on the thing's back, still weird way to phrase it though.

>>153104919
>actual players life
player's

>>153105182
>monsters body
monster's

>>153105671
>hack
back

>light
fight

I'm gonna re-read chapter 1 real fast to see if I missed any mistakes because it seems weird that there would be none.

>>153109659
I think that is actually supposed to be "black". I think the text is emphasizing the contrast between the glowing white point of the rapier and the dark black shadow of the Shrewman in those dimly lit environs.

>>153109097
>Pffft. I'm sorry, I just have to laugh at these two sentences.
And this reminded me of something from chapter 1.
>His eyes, blacker than the darkness, were looking into the fire.

Kirito so kakkoii~

>>153109820
Yeah? I'll change it back to black then.
Thanks.

>>153109820
By the way, if it's easier for you, you don't need to quote the exact post with the typo, just some context is fine (most errors don't even really need that) and I can CTRL+F across multiple pages.

>>153105648
Thanks for finishing! I missed the previous thread.

>>153110096
I dunno, I think my inner autism requires that I quote the post. It's not a hassle at all.

>>152936480
>Urn
Um

Alright! Second read-through and I caught one typo! Go me.

>>153110538
I think since it's the beginning of the book the scans turned out better which helped, towards the end there shouldn't be as many errors I imagine.
Thanks again, signing off for the night.