Finally, an episode with action! Not only that, this episode finally gets the story moving.

The episode begins with Kirito fighting with the goblins, specifically with their leader. Kirito also convinces a frightened Eugeo to help him out. As it looks like Kirito may be having trouble with the goblin leader, Eugeo remembers freezing up when Alice was taken, and this helps him find the adrenaline he needs to help out. Of course, Eugeo doesn’t have the ability to fight the goblin leader, so the leader gets a good hit on him. As he lays on the ground, mortally wounded, Eugeo seems to remember that Kirito was with him and Alice when they were younger. When he says something, Kirito seems to have some very brief recollections. But seeing Eugeo on death’s door gives Kirito the strength and determination he needs to beat the goblin leader.

Kirito rescues Selka, and we see that she knows of a higher healing art that could help Eugeo. Unfortunately, she needs Kirito’s help to make it work, and there’s still risk involved. But while the process is underway, he hears a female voice tell him that she will be waiting for both him and Eugeo at the Central Tower. The audience can figure out that this is Alice, but Kirito doesn’t realize it.

Not only is the fight with the goblins important because of rescuing Selka, but the fight with the goblin leader has raised Kirito’s stats enough so he can now wield the sword that Eugeo shared with him in the previous episode without any real issue. Eugeo begs Kirito to train him as a swordsman, because he’s been feeling guilty over the past six years because he didn’t act when Alice was taken away. Kirito agrees, and there’s a montage sequence of Eugeo learning how to use a sword. And after all of this training, Eugeo is finally able to fell the demon tree.

The villagers celebrate the fall of the tree, and Eugeo is allowed to choose his new Calling. He decides he wants to be a swordsman. With this declaration made, we see Kirito and Eugeo heading out of the village right at the end of the episode.

So these first four episodes are basically setting the stage for Kirito and Eugeo to undertake their journey to the central city, in the hopes that they will be able to rescue Alice. It was a little bit of a slow start, but at least we finally seem to be heading into the main storyline for the series. In this case, this will mean seeing a literal “hero’s journey.” I don’t know what Kirito and Eugeo will encounter along their way, but I expect a lot of the series will be focused on the journey to the central city. I don’t think they’ll be reaching their destination anytime in the immediate future, since this series is supposed to last for an entire year. But hopefully now that our protagonists are on their journey, the series will be more interesting to watch, and that the story will progress at a logical pace.

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