Baldur

I've mostly stayed away from the LN so far so that I could enjoy it at my own pace whenever it came to anime or manga, though I know most of the beats so far.

But you gotta admit Alicization Arc beats previous arcs in SAO as Reki's writing style has improved significantly since the initial Aincrad Arc and I like the chemistry interactions between Kirito and Asuna in the Progressive series... so far (I'm at the middle of vol. 3)

I'm in the middle of volume 2 I think? Shortly after killing the spider queen and visiting the village again.

To me, however, it's been less about the quality of the characters or the storytelling and more about the setting.