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Hello everyone,

I'm new to Sword Art Online after watching ep 1 and 2 of the anime and I only read Aria in the Starless Night which helped me understand ep 2 alot better through I only read up to the first meeting between Asuna and Kirito and haven't finish the part when they fight the first floor boss.

I'm only interested in finishing off the Aincrad arc atm

I checked out the SAO Timeline that Baka-Tsuki has put up and wondering if I should read it according to the timeline or should I just read all of Vol.1 that ends the Aincrad arc and then fill in the gaps with Vol 2 Side stories.

So what I gathered so far from the timeline is that if I want to read it according to the time line would be:


So my question for the LN readers who are up to the latest volume should I go back and forth between the volume and read side stories or would that confuse the crap out of me and better off reading Vol 1 from start to end then Vol 2.

My goal is just to focus finishing the Aincrad arc first

If you do recommend reading according to the timeline can you help me fill in the gaps from start to end of the Aincrad arc.

Just read it per volume starting from volume 1 and don't think about the chronological order too much. That would just be confusing and you would jump between volumes. Read the side stories whenever since they're just side stories.

If you're really persistent in reading it in chronological order, then read it in this order

Italics weren't printed in Dengeki so it's okay to skip them.

Wow thanks Belatkuro :) I'll try read it on the chronological order first if I get to confused I guess I'll just read it regularly.

Where does chapter 1 happen?

74th floor

i would recommend reading it from vol1 to volume 2, in number order and then read the SAO ss stories later

because in "warmth of the heart" there are slight spoilers in it along with spoilers in the ending (spoilers for vol1)

but if if you want to read it in chronological order, its still fine

I tried reading it on chronological and indeed there was a slight spoiler so I quit reading it in order and read normally from vol 1 lol xD

About the stories in Material Edition

Does it matter when I read them?Or can I read the main volumes and start these side stories whenever I want?Do they have any info I will need later in the story(I am in chap.4 of Vol. 3 now)?

Those are just stories that didn't get printed by Dengeki and was compiled later on. It's fine to read them whenever you want, it won't matter in the main story. They're mostly side stories in SAO except for ME3 and ME5. ME3 happens after volume 4 and and ME5 happens before volume 3.
Actually, it's debatable whether those stories are canon or not since they create inconsistencies in the story. So yeah.

I see.Thanks a lot.

This post helped allot as I had just picked up reading the LNs. So thanks.

The chronological order does not matter much if you are just reading the SAO arc. However, unless you read volume 2, you will be confused if you try to read the ALO arc.