[Buckeye]

It took a month, but the first floor is finally cleared. Too bad Diabel ended up dying due to intel that was different from the beta version. And then Asuna appears as a hooded player and apparently there is something about her being able to attack at that speed. Kirito knows about attack patterns and uses that knowledge to help the group of players move on to the next floor. It turns out that not all beaters are created equal as Kirito performed the best out of the beta testers while most of them were pretty inept according to Kirito. Now, Kirito has his black swordsman outfit and is ready to finally move on.

This episode was great to see how the players are finally figuring things out after a month. And then there is that first encounter between Kirito and Asuna. It will be interesting to see how fast the story progresses and what challenges lie ahead as now, they are on floor 2 after beating a tough boss. And of course, not many players bothered to read the guidebook. That must really say something.