Nobuhiro Oosawa

In the city of Orario, beneath an impossibly tall tower, lies the dungeon. Only adventurers who form partnerships with the gods themselves have any hope of defeating the monsters that lie within. But the dungeon is not the only place where monsters exist. Far from Orario, in the ruins of an ancient city, a new threat arises. To counter this threat, the goddess Artemis has come to Orario in search of a champion—but it’s not Ais Wallenstein (the legendary Sword Princess) nor Ottar (the strongest warrior to ever enter the dungeon) that she chooses. Rather it is Bell Cranel, a newbie adventurer partnered with a low-tier goddess.

One month after Kayaba Akihiko's game of death began, the death toll continues to rise, two thousand players having already lost their lives to the ultra-difficult VRMMO world of Sword Art Online. On the day of the strategy meeting to plan out the first-floor boss battle, Kirito, a solo player who vows to fight alone to get stronger, runs into a rare, high-level female player. She gracefully dispatches powerful monsters with a single rapier that flashes like a shooting star in the night...