Anime Crossover: Master is Not Here Today

Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled and said:

"What do you mean by desperately trying to catch up? You've clearly been busy with guild matters lately, haven't you?"

After confirming that she would not be forming a guild for the time being, she messaged Diabel to let him know, and immediately received his invitation to join.

Although she politely declined, the other party still enthusiastically established a guild called the "Holy Knights Order".

Many of the players present have now become members of the Paladin guild. Their most distinctive feature is the uniform blue shirts they wear under their equipment, which are the same color as Diabel's hair. There are about twenty of them, and they are probably the strongest guild in SAO right now.

However, besides Diabel's blue army, there is another opposing group of players, dressed in green shirts. Although they are fewer in number, only twelve or thirteen, they are currently the second largest force in the square.

That's the guild founded by the King of Fang, called the Aincrad Liberation Force. Because its full name is too long, it's commonly known as ALF.

Since Diabel didn't sacrifice himself during the first level of the strategy, and Kirito, despite revealing his identity as a closed beta player, also helped with the strategy and ultimately didn't self-destruct and be accused of being a "cheater," the gap between regular players and closed beta players wasn't that deep, and could even be said to have eased somewhat.

Therefore, after that, Diabel invited Fang Wang to join his guild, but it seems that they couldn't reach an agreement due to differences in their philosophies. Then Fang Wang established his own guild and publicized many seemingly grand plans.

For example, they might set up their guild headquarters on the first floor, recruit ordinary players to join the guild, provide them with weapons and equipment, and conduct group combat training to cultivate them into a force capable of participating in BOSS raids, and so on.

The reason she knew so much was because they, as the commander and captain of the first level of the strategy, had added each other as friends. Then, a while ago, the other party suddenly sent her a long message, which was basically his vision for the guild, including the content she had mentioned.

Strangely, although it recorded a lot of his ideas about the guild, it didn't mention anything about inviting her to join his guild.

Therefore, she didn't understand what the other party was trying to say, and could only reply with a formal "Looks good, keep it up!" before receiving a "I will try my best!" as the end of the conversation.

In short, it's a bit disjointed and incomplete.

Back to the topic.

"After all, although formal guild missions only appear on the third level, it would be too rushed to start forming a guild and recruiting members at that time. It's better to decide in advance."

Diabel laughed heartily, and then said:

"But speaking of which, you guys are something else. You managed to crack a fraud case while making progress so quickly."

"Eh?"

The two girls were quite surprised to hear this and quickly asked:

"How did you know?"

They didn't publicize the fraudulent deeds of the "Legendary Hero," so logically not many people should know about it. How come even Diabel, who was an unrelated party, knew about it?

Seeing this, Diabel smiled and explained:

"Because some of the people who were defrauded were members of my guild, I learned a little about what had happened when the other party came to apologize."

After hearing Diabel's explanation, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asuna suddenly understood, feeling that it was both unexpected and reasonable.

Nezha targets rare weapons with high enhancement levels for his fraud schemes, and those who possess these weapons are often frontline players, so this situation is not surprising.

"So, you really aren't going to consider my guild?"

After chatting for a while, Diabel prepared to leave, but before leaving, he once again invited Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asuna to join the guild.

"Sorry, we don't have that plan at the moment."

"Alright, but the Holy Knights will always welcome you both to join us."

Diabel wasn't annoyed. He simply smiled and said those words before turning back to his companions. At that moment, his companions started making a commotion for some reason, and Diabel laughed along with them.

Regardless, Diabel does seem to be a pretty good guild leader.

Just then, as if seizing this opportunity, after Diabel left, Ya-o followed closely behind and greeted Fujimaru Ritsuka in a serious manner:

"Miss Ritsuka, please take care of me this time as well."

"Mr. Ya Wang, please give me your guidance."

The two sides didn't have much interaction or common topics. After exchanging a brief greeting, the other party turned around and returned to their seat.

Diabel and Fang Wang came up one after another to greet them, as if giving the others some kind of information. Then, the captains of the first level's raiding teams came up one after another to greet them, but most of them, like Fang Wang, just exchanged simple pleasantries.

Only Agil stepped forward, exchanged a smile with them, and then gave them a thumbs-up, saying:

"As expected of the strongest sisters in SAO, they understood the situation on the second day after I told them about it on the first day."

"You guys aren't detectives in the real world, are you?"

Agil and his burly teammates have also received invitations from both of the two major guilds, but like them, they are still considering it and have not yet joined either side.

"How could that be? It's all thanks to everyone's help that we were able to resolve the issue so quickly."

Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled.

As the first player to discover the anomaly of the [Legendary Heroes] and inform them of their problems, Agil naturally had the right to know the full details of the [Legendary Heroes] group. The day after the incident, they sent the specific cause and effect to the other party.

After a short period of time, the agreed meeting time arrived, and the meeting to discuss the strategy for defeating the BOSS on the second floor officially began.

Sorry I'm late!

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 185. Cleared the second level, but something seems off.

185.

2023-12-20

According to information from the closed beta, the second floor boss is named [General Bull Balan], and his follower is [Colonel Bull Nato]. There is only one follower in total, and both monsters use warhammers as weapons.

The difficulty of the second level lies in the fact that both the BOSS and its followers can unleash a special area-of-effect sword skill that will cause a brief paralysis effect that slows down the movement of players who are hit.

The BOSS will also use this skill repeatedly. If you are hit again while under the paralysis effect, it will turn into a stun effect that lasts longer, which is quite dangerous.

After arriving at the BOSS room, Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others opened the door and took a quick look inside. At least the appearance of the BOSS and his followers was not much different from that during the closed beta. Of course, they also had to take into account the possibility that other changes had been made after the open beta.

After confirming the information about the BOSS and its followers, including the attack methods and sword skills recorded during the closed beta, the next step was to assign personnel.

Since the number of participants in the strategy meeting has reached nearly seventy, it is necessary to select the best players from among the participants, taking into account the team composition.

However, after selecting a group of players, Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly realized that the vast majority of those participating in the strategy were still the same people from the first-level strategy team. This was probably a case of being ahead of the game from the start.

Since the number of players participating in the strategy didn't change much, only minor adjustments were made in the end. The overall team composition was almost the same as in the first floor, and Kirito also returned to the team.

Next, it was time to finalize some details for the battle. But just then, Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly heard a system notification; someone had sent her a message.

It's Argo.

"Wait a moment."

After reading Argo's message, Fujimaru Ritsuka immediately stopped the strategy meeting and said to everyone:

"It's [Argo the Rat], she says she has the latest information about the second-floor boss."

Upon hearing the words "Argo" and "latest intelligence," the group, who had been somewhat puzzled, immediately fell silent.

In terms of intelligence, Argo is currently the only and most powerful intelligence broker in SAO, and the information she provides is definitely worth taking seriously by everyone.

After waiting for a while, a long text message was sent over. Fujimaru Ritsuka quickly glanced through it and immediately forwarded it to the captains, who then forwarded it to their respective team members.

The moment everyone saw the intelligence report, their expressions changed. After carefully reading the report, they couldn't help but show expressions of relief and lingering fear.

Argo's urgent intelligence revealed the hidden boss of the second floor, which did not exist during the closed beta, or rather, the true floor boss added after the open beta: King Asterius the Bull.

After experiencing the name fraud of the "Legendary Hero," Fujimaru Ritsuka did not immediately believe that he was Asterius of Chaldea, which was indeed the case.

Although it is the true boss of the second floor, it only appears when [Bull General Balan] has only one bar of health left, and it has a special skill [Lightning Breath]. As the name suggests, this is a ranged attack that will instantly stun players who are hit by it.

At the same time, Argo also provided a strategy guide in the intelligence he gave.

Before unleashing the skill [Lightning Breath], the BOSS's eyes will flash with light. If you hit the crown on its forehead at this time, it will deflect the attack upwards and cause a delay in its movement.

To prove the authenticity of this intelligence, Argo also included the source of the intelligence at the end.

This quest is automatically triggered after she enters the dense forest near the second level of the maze area. After completing a series of errands, she will be able to obtain information about the real BOSS, [King Asterius the Bull].

Since the information is provided as a mission reward, it should be accurate.

Without a doubt, if they hadn't received Argo's intelligence, the consequences of facing the sudden appearance of the real floor boss would have been unimaginable.

"This is undoubtedly crucial intelligence, and we must thank them."

Fujimaru Ritsuka's statement was unanimously agreed upon, and Asuna echoed it:

"Furthermore, since there will be missions to provide information about the BOSS, we shouldn't just keep pushing forward; we should also actively explore the surrounding areas."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, but that's a matter for later. Now that they had obtained accurate information, the next step was—

"Let's prepare the strategy."

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh—!" ×n

"Win!"

"Long live!"

"Next is the third floor!"

"I almost didn't dodge that attack just now, it was terrifying!"

Despite some minor mishaps during the second-floor boss fight, the overall process went surprisingly smoothly, as the monster's attack patterns and skills matched the information they already knew perfectly.

One of the difficulties in the original strategy was to hit the crown on the BOSS's forehead before it unleashed its [Lightning Breath] attack, but due to its towering size of over six meters, it was difficult to achieve this with ordinary attacks.

Fortunately, not only Fujimaru Ritsuka, but also many other support team players chose the [Flying Sword] skill, which allows for ranged attacks. As a result, the BOSS did not unleash a single effective breath attack throughout the entire battle, which was quite frustrating.

"but."

Among the cheering and celebrating players, Fujimaru Ritsuka breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time felt something was off.

Because this time the BOSS battle went so smoothly.

It's not that things going smoothly is bad, but based on her understanding of BB, unexpected events like those in the first level are common during battles, and it's not unreasonable for a crisis that could lead to the entire party to suddenly appear.

A situation where everything aligns with intelligence is actually somewhat abnormal.

Moreover, Yui had previously told her that BB seemed very busy lately, and she originally thought that he was busy designing more difficult levels to torture her. But now it seems that's not the case.

So, what exactly is BB busy with?

"Ritsuka, what's wrong?"

Noticing that Fujimaru Ritsuka's expression wasn't very happy, Asuna came over and asked her with concern.

She shook her head and smiled: