“YOU’RE ONLY LEVEL 25?!?!” the axe wielding red head cried out half in shock and half in fury. A few passing players looked our way, but no one dared remain long enough to risk getting pulled into our heated argument.

It was first thing in the morning at the Teleport Plaza and I had just accepted a party invite from my new partner Kara. As her health bar and name had appeared under mine, I looked back towards her. I watched as Kara’s eyes wandered up to my player name. Then I watched as her pleasant smile broke. The shouting came soon after.

“WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU FIGHTING THAT BOSS MONSTER FOR!?” She continued to scream. “DON’T YOU REALIZE IT WAS ALMOST TWICE YOUR LEVEL!?!?!”

“Umm… actually…” I flinched, instantly regretting opening my mouth.

A glare that could melt the sturdiest metal ingot shot towards me seeming to trigger an invisible stun effect. I debated for a moment which would be more deadly, to tell the truth, or to pretend I hadn’t said anything, but a raised eyebrow alerted me that it was far too late to run.

“I actually gained about three levels from fighting that boss monster. I was only level 22 when I arrived.” The words spat out of my mouth as quickly as I could enunciate them.

A fire burned in Kara’s eyes as if she were about to finish the work the boss had failed to see through, but it only lasted a moment before her self restraint took over.

“You know what? No. I should have seen this coming.” Kara conceded rubbing her temples in exasperation. “If anything, I should be impressed that you managed to get that high from leveling only on the first floor. You know the clearers were only around level 12 when they beat the Kobold Lord right?”

I paused for a moment looking Kara over. I knew this question was likely to get me into even deeper trouble, but I had been curious for a while now.

“You know a lot about the clearers don’t you.” I asked as nonchalantly as I could manage. “And I think that Army guy mentioned something about you and clearers as well. Were you ever on the front lines?”

Kara jumped as if she I had just caught her deepest shame. Her eyes darted around for a few seconds before she let out a sigh of defeat.

“Ya, I used to be one of them.” She replied. “That shaggy samurai recognized me as well, though I was surprised given how long it had been. Curse of having looks that stand out I guess. I was a clearer, but I’ve been on the first floor for more than half a year now.”

“Ah. I guess that explains a lot of things then.” I mused to myself. Kara flinched at my words before giving a pained smile.

“Ya.” She replied. “Why they call me the ‘First Floor Titaness’, Why I get such flak from the Army members, why—”

“AH! NO NO!” I cut her off, embarrassed by my unintentional insult. “I was just thinking it made sense why you felt so dependable in battle. Like you really knew what you were doing and I could trust you.”

Kara looked up at me with an odd expression I couldn’t read. After a few seconds she cleared her throat.

“Anyways. Onto the important matters.” She replied. “Quite frankly, your level is lower than I expected. I was hoping to go straight to the fourth floor, but I think we should double check your skills first. You’re still a far cry from the front line, but with my help we should at least be able to get to the 25th floor!”

I swallowed to hold back a lump that had formed in my throat. I hadn’t exactly been taking the easy road to level up as far as I already had, but something about Kara’s explanation made me feel like the worst was yet to come.

“So first off, we should address the biggest issue.” Kara continued. “Where did you learn that ridiculous fight style?”

“Ah, that…” I coughed. “In all honesty I still don’t know myself. My body was just kind of moving on its own.”

“It was stupid and suicidal!” Kara scolded. “But I am curious, how were you flying?”

“I wasn’t flying!” I retorted confused. “I was just jumping around trying to get critical hits on the boss without getting hit myself!”

“I saw you!” Kara retorted. “You were changing direction and speed in midair! I’ve never seen anyone do anything like that in game!”

“Ah! That!” I exclaimed clapping my hands together. “That wasn’t really flying, I was just chaining sword skills together to control my momentum.”

Kara looked at me as if I had just exclaimed I used magic.

“Chaining sword skills?” she asked apprehensively. I nodded vigorously in reply.

“You know how some sword skills move your body automatically?” I explained. Kara gave a slight nod, but it was clear she still wasn’t tracking with where this was heading. With a sigh I continued. “Dagger skills have a very fast cool down, and because my armor is so light they really add a lot of momentum to my body. So whenever I wanted to change directions or speeds I just activated a new dagger skill in the direction I wanted to head and let the force carry me along.”

Kara’s blank stare continued as my explanation attempted to set in. “Tha-that’s impossible!” she finally stammered wide eyed. “Even if you could time that properly, how on earth could you coordinate which way you needed to go in mid air? The human brain can’t calculate 3D movement like that!”

“Oh! That was easy because…” I stopped myself short. I had almost admitted to having played another VRMMORPG before logging into Sword Art Online. A fact that would have immediately given me away for having joined the game a year late.

When I really thought about it, it made sense that Kara would be so confused by my declaration. Players in Sword Art Online treated combat much like any other MMO. They would target the enemy, surround it, and then stand still slashing it with sword skills until it died. Occasionally they switched out with a partner to confuse the AI, and they might quickly side step an approaching attack, or attempt to deflect it, but they did all of this while remaining firmly planted on the ground.

I on the other hand, had spent several months prior to Sword Art Online playing a VRMMORPG called ALfheim Online. Released to lower the bad press surrounding Full Dive technology, ALfheim Online was almost a complete copy of Sword Art Online in many respects, save for a few significant changes that had been made. One of the most prominent changes was the addition of the ability for players to fly while in game. While the game did provide a special device to let players fly with a controller, all top tier players took the time to learn how to maneuver and fight in midair without it. I of course had taken the time to learn the skill as well.

This gave me a unique perspective to VRMMORPG’s as my first experience had been with thinking how to maneuver in a 3D space.

“Because of what?” Kara asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Ah!” I recovered. “Because I’ve always had really good peripheral vision.”

I attempted to fake a natural smile as Kara processed my hasty excuse. Thankfully she already seemed so overwhelmed by my play style that she bought my explanation fairly easily.

“So essentially you found a way to use your character’s skills to break the game.” She asked.

“Well I don’t know if ‘break’ is the right word for it.” I defended. “I’m not glitching the game or anything. I just thought of a way to make the most of the dagger’s critical damage bonus by using my dagger skills and acrobatic skills. Having a high agility and dexterity rating probably helps as well.”

“Alright fine…” Kara groaned deciding it wasn’t worth wracking her brains for any longer. “But even accepting that your ludicrous strategy works, it clearly needs a bit more refinement.”

“It was literally my first time trying it!” I was wanting to shout out, but I thought better of it. “Do you have any suggestions?” I asked attempting to bottle my frustrations.

Kara thought for a moment before shaking her head. “We’re talking about creating a whole new combat style from scratch.” She replied. “This goes beyond any qualifications I might have. I think we need outside help.”

“You don’t mean…” I began to sweat.