Reorganizing a second force would take who knows how long— or, a second challenge against the boss may never even happen.
Even if we tried increasing our level in order to fight the boss again, we had already reached the de-facto limit of efficiency to gain experience from the monsters on the first floor.
Everything depended on whether the Boss Monster «Illfang the Kobold Lord»'s strength had changed from the time of the beta test. If it was the Kobold King I remembered, it shouldn’t be impossible to keep it down to zero deaths with our current level and equipment even if we were only one raid party. With that, if everyone could calmly keep cooperating until the end in this battle where we risk our actual lives…
While I was thinking over these overheating thoughts in my mind, I suddenly glanced at the player standing next to me, and after taking a short breath, I gave a bitter smile as I breathed out.
The profile of the rapier user «Asuna», half hidden by her hood, looked exactly like the first time I saw her in the labyrinth area the morning of the day before yesterday. Her appearance combined the fragility of a shooting star with the sharpness of live steel.
Compared to her, I looked extremely agitated and restless.
As I continued to look at her, Asuna suddenly turned and glared at me.
"……What are you looking at?"
This faint, but forceful whisper caused me to shake my head. The reason for her bad mood since early this morning was, according to her, due to drinking from a pail of spoiled milk which I had offered to her, but I couldn't recall this myself.
"I-It’s nothing."
When I said those un-ingenious words, Asuna once again gave me a look as sharp as the tip of her rapier, before turning her back to me. Will today’s strategy meeting turn out okay like this? Well, she and I are just an extra party because the numbering didn’t work out. While I was thinking on such things— "Hey."
Hearing a voice that could hardly be called friendly from behind, I turned around.
Standing there was a male player with pointy brown styled hair.
My body reflexively flinched back. Because today, even if other people spoke out to me, his was the one face I had least expected to see. Just this man—Kibaou.
Glaring with extremely dangerous eyes from a slightly low position at me as I stood there stunned, Kibaou said in an even lower voice,
"Listen here, today you should stay in the back. You guys are only here as support for my party."
"………"
I’ve never been a smooth-speaking person, but I had no response to this. Because, yesterday, I had directly rejected his large offer of forty thousand col offer, and in addition, I had learned his name that he had specifically hidden through the representative he sent, so this situation was quite awkward to anyone with common sense. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn't want to approach him at all within a twenty meter radius.
Yet, Kibaou's attitude was so unpleasant that it withered my intention to say "Of course". His hatefully distorted face protruded forward even more, and he spat out, "Listen up, you guys should only take on the small fry Kobolds that slip past my party."
Spitting some virtual spit onto the ground for emphasis, Kibaou then finally turned aside and left. I watched his back as he returned to the other members of the Group E party. Still stunned, I continued watching his back as he lumbered back over to his E-party members, but I came back to my senses when I heard a voice beside me.
"…What was that?"
Of course, the «you guys» mentioned also included Asuna-san. Her gaze was about 30% more terrifying than the leer she gave me just now.
"W-Who knows…Maybe he doesn't want solo players to get cocky…"
I spoke without thinking too deeply, but suddenly a thought came, and added inside my mind.
—Or, maybe, he doesn’t want original beta testers to get carried away.
If that was true, then based on his attitude, there was no doubt that Kibaou had already determined that I was a beta tester. But— what was his basis for believing that? Even Argo the Rat would never sell any information on whether another player was an original tester. And up until now, I had never ever mentioned the word beta to anyone.
While once again feeling tormented by an unpleasant feeling like yesterday, I kept my eyes on Kibaou's back as he walked away.
"……Eh…?"
Then, I suddenly realized something, and let out a sound.
Yesterday, that man offered me the large sum of forty thousand col to buy my Anneal Blade +6. This is the only certain fact. And his purpose in doing that was, of course, to use it in the boss battle today. Regardless of the matter of how he would suddenly be able to wave around such a heavy sword due to having been enhanced by three extra points in Durability, I could understand his motive to get a powerful weapon and play an active role on the battlefield in order to improve his influence and leadership abilities.
However, if that was the case, then by now, he should have upgraded his other equipment with his forty thousand col.
Yet, the scale mail Kibaou was wearing now and the one-handed sword on his back were the same ones that he had equipped at yesterday’s meeting. They weren’t poor quality equipment, but with forty thousand col, it should have been possible to upgrade to much stronger equipment, since there was enough time. In fact, the thin sword hanging from the waist of Asuna beside me had been upgraded from her store-bought «Iron rapier» to a «Wind Fleuret +4» which had been obtained as a drop last night after following my advice. After all, depending on the flow of today’s battle, we could die, so what's the point of keeping forty thousand col in storage…
—However, at this point, my train of thoughts was brought to a halt.
Before I had realized it, the blue haired knight Diabel stood on the edge of the fountain and raising his familiar beautiful voice.
"Everyone, although it may be sudden—thank you! Just now, all forty-four party members have gathered here, without a single person missing!!"
After he said that, a loud cheer of ‘Uooh’ shook up the entire plaza.
It was followed by a cascade of applause. I ceased my conjecture reluctantly and also clapped my hands.
After looking at everyone with a smile, the knight pumped his right fist, and shouted out again.
"I’ll say this now, but I was actually thinking of aborting the mission today if even a single person didn't show up! But…that kind of worry is an insult to everyone! I'm very happy…that we weren’t able to make the best raid party like this…Well, though our numbers are slightly short!"
Some people laughed, some people whistled, and some people pumped their right hands mimicking him.
I didn't want to find fault with Diabel's leadership right now.
However, I couldn’t help but think inside that he was raising the excitement a little too much. Just as nervousness could become the poison known as fear if taken too far, too much excitement could also become negligence. During the beta testing period, being defeated for being over-enthusiastic was just a funny story, but right now we were in a single situation where failure could lead to the death of a player. Rather, it would probably be good if everyone were too tightened up and strained.
While I thought about these things, I looked at the other groups from behind, and I saw that Group B's leader Agil, the two-handed axe wielder, and several other people all had stern expressions with their arms folded in front of them. At critical moments, they would probably be reliable. Kibaou of group E had his back to me, so I couldn't see his expression.
As everyone shouted and yelled for a while, Diabel raised both hands to suppress the cheering.
"Everyone…I have only one thing left to say!"
His right hand moved to his left hip, and he drew his silvery long sword with a ringing peal— "……Let's win!!"
The huge war cries that rang out in response was, I thought, slightly similar to four weeks ago, in the packed central square of the Starting City, when
ten thousand players screamed.
10
The distance taken by the large group of people from the town of Tolbana to the dungeon tower prickled a part of Asuna's memories. After a few minutes of thinking, she finally recalled it.
It was the school trip that she had went on in January of this year.
The destination had been Queensland, Australia. Her classmates’
excitement from suddenly being in the Gold Coast in the middle of summer from midwinter Tokyo had been through the roof, and their revelry had continued wherever they went.
Even if the situation was entirely different—to that point, it was the only common feature, the atmosphere among the forty-odd people walking down the path beneath the trees bore a strong resemblance to that time with her classmates. The endless chatting, the frequent explosions of laughter; the only difference was that monsters would occasionally attack them from the forest on either side. However, all the monsters that came close were instantly slain by the skills that everyone was bragging about.
While walking at the rear of the group, Asuna spoke to the swordsman next to her, letting herself forget about the tragedy from last night for a moment.
"…Hey, you, before coming here, you also played other m…MMO
games? Is that how they’re called? Anyway, did you?"
"Emm…Yeah, pretty much."
Despite still giving off a withered feeling, his black hair swayed up and down as he nodded.
"In other games, is there also this kind of feeling when people move around together? How should I put it…like going on a field trip…"
"…Haha, a field trip would be nice"
After giving a short laugh, the swordsman then shrugged slightly.
"Unfortunately, the other games that I played had nothing like this. After all, those are games that don't use the FullDive technology, so even if you move around, you have to use the mouse and keyboard. Therefore, there's not much time to dedicate to speaking in the chat window."
"…Ah, I see…"
"Well, there are other games that include voice chat, but I haven't played those kinds before."
"Hmm."
After imagining for a little while the scene of a group of game characters continuing to dash silently inside a flat monitor screen, Asuna murmured once again.
"…I wonder what the real thing feels like"
"Eh? R-Real thing?"
The swordsman gave her a questioning look, so Asuna tried to describe the image that had appeared in her mind.
"What I mean is…in a real fantasy world like this…while a group of swordsmen or magicians venture forth to go beat a terrible boss monster. During the journey, what do they speak about? …Or would they walk along silently? That kind of subject."
"………"
The swordsman remained oddly silent, and when she glanced at his expression, Asuna finally became aware that she had asked a very childish question. She reflexively turned away, and just as she was about to say "I guess it doesn't matter", "Walking on the road leading either to death or glory, huh."
Those quiet words reached her right ear.
"For people that live doing that kind of thing normally and every day…I think it would probably be like going together to a restaurant for dinner. If you want to talk, you talk, and if not you stay silent. I think these boss battle raids will become like that eventually. If we challenge the floor bosses every day."
"…Fufu, fu."
Finding the swordsman’s straightforward words funny, Asuna gave off a small laugh. She explained immediately, half as an excuse.
"I'm sorry for laughing. But…this is really strange. This world is the ultimate form of unusualness and non-daily life, yet there are ordinary aspects in it."
"Ha ha…I guess that's true."
After laughing in the same way, the swordsman spoke quietly.
"However, it took four weeks to reach this point today. Even if we beat the boss today, we still have another ninety-nine floors to go.
I'm. . . prepared to go for two, no, three years like this. If it goes on like this, even the unusual will become ordinary and everyday."
Those words would have caused great shock and despair to the old Asuna. But now, acceptance and understanding simply blew through her chest like a dry wind.
"……How strong. If it were me, I couldn't think like that at all. Since the thought of living in this world for years…seems much more terrifying than dying in today's battle to me."
The swordsman glanced at her for a moment, and then thrusted his hands into his grey jacket pocket, and said in a subdued voice, "If we can reach the higher floors, maybe there is an even better bath there."
"……R-Really?"
She involuntarily responded, before realizing what she had just said. Forcing down her returning shame, she lowered her voice and said,
"…You better remember that. Or I’ll make you really drink a barrel of spoiled milk."
"Then, the least we can do is to come back alive today."
After making that remark, the swordsman grinned and laughed.
11
11 AM, we reached the dungeon.
12:30 PM, we finished travelling by foot to the top floor.
For now, I secretly felt relieved that there had been no deaths reported so far. After all, the majority of our near full 48-member raid party marching through here must be coming to this place for the first time. In this world, any action that was done for the «first time» held the danger of mishaps, without exception.
In fact, there was also a situation that was three times as frightening. That is, if Group F and G, which consisted of only people wielding long weapons such as «Spears» and «Halberds», were ambushed by the melee-type Kobolds along the road. In SAO, melee weapons wouldn’t cause damage to other players even if they accidentally hit each other in a confused battle (this didn’t equal them becoming a criminal player either), but normal attacks and sword skills would be halted when this happened due to contact with an obstacle. Since ranged weapons were already at high risk from this, an ambush by melee monsters made the situation even worse.
In that kind of small pinch, however, the knight Diabel showed his ability to command precisely. He boldly made all the surrounding party members fall back save for the individual leaders of each group, made them use heavier sword skills to knock back monsters, and then switched over to melee weapon-equipped members without delay. These decisions would not have been possible at all if he hadn’t been familiar with being a leader in everyday life.
In light of this, it could be said that for a solo player like me to have feared something like "Everyone’s getting too excited" before we departed was very presumptuous of me. Diabel had his own philosophy about leadership, and trusting in him fully now that we had already come this far was the duty of every raid member.
—As I recognized these things, two huge doors finally appeared in front of us, and I stood on my tiptoes at the back of the group in order to look up at them.
On the surface of the grey stone was a relief of a terrifying monster with a beast head and human body. Speaking of Kobolds, in other MMO games these monsters were the weakest of the weak, but in SAO alone these «Demi-Human»-class monsters were formidable foes that couldn’t be made light of. This was because they had the ability to wield weapons such as swords and axes, and therefore could even use sword skills. Possessing speed, power and hit correction abilities that exceeded those of normal attacks, these «sword skills» could critically hit an enemy in a defenseless position and reduce their HP gauge drastically even with just an elementary skill. The fact that the rapier user Asuna beside me had reached the deepest part of the dungeon using only «Linear» proved the strength and terror of sword skills…
"…Can you listen for a while?"
I leaned in close to Asuna, and whispered in a lowered voice.
"Today, our opponents are the «Ruin Kobold Sentinels», and even though they’re small-fry that act as the boss’ fo
llowers, they're still strong enemies. Like they roughly explained yesterday, a large portion of their head and body is tightly covered and protected by metal armor, so your «Linear» won't be enough to attack them with."
After listening, the fencer gave me a sharp look from under her hood and nodded.
"I understand. The only point that can be pierced is the throat, right?"
"Exactly. After I throw up their poleaxes with a sword skill, please switch with me and jump in at once."
After Asuna nodded in reply and then turned around to face the huge door, I continued to gaze at her for a few more seconds.
Where and how you die, and whether it's sooner or later, is the only difference.
When we first met, she had told me that. I couldn't let those words be proven true. Asuna's «Linear» clearly demonstrated a natural talent that she herself was probably unaware of. All shooting stars did not necessarily burn up and disappear in the atmosphere.
There were stars that withstood the flames that burned them and managed to reach the ground.
If she could survive today's battle, Asuna’s name would surely one day resound throughout Aincrad as a swordswoman that was faster and more beautiful than anyone else. The many players gripped by fear and despair would surely be illuminated and guided by the brightness of that shooting star. I firmly believed that. And this responsibility was a role that someone marked by the stigma of being an original beta tester like myself could never take on.
Sword Art Online Progressive - Volume 01 Page 8
