A journey to another world starting from a sword

Mite silently raised his glass and drank the contents in one gulp.

“Your childhood sweetheart must value you a lot. It would be better to go back to the hotel before he really worries about you,” she earnestly advised.

When Yuna asked him about his future plans, Mitsu only said, "I will head north."

Then she looked at Dante and said, "You don't need to follow me anymore. You should go back now. I'll be waiting for you at the front line."

Rather than finding peace, it was more like choosing to fight to the death on the front lines as atonement, Dante sighed inwardly and nodded.

"it is good."

But just after Mitt said goodbye to Yuna and Ashura and walked a short distance out of the village, she turned around speechlessly and looked behind her.

Why did you follow me?!

“We’re going the same way,” Dante said with a shrug.

"..." Well, it is indeed on the way. In order to reach the northernmost point, Mit will inevitably have to pass through Horuka Village, and the other side is probably using Horuka Village as their base.

Speaking of which...

"I heard... I heard you defeated the boss in the cave labyrinth?" Mitt continued walking forward, but he didn't remain silent as before.

"Well, that one actually has a weakness. As long as you get the bear-killing agent made by the village elders, you can kill it very easily," Dante said casually, as if it were nothing to mention.

This wild boss only has one health bar. Call Argo to help out. Even Dante and Silica together can handle it, but of course, he is the main force.

“Intelligence…” Mitt muttered, having gained some insight.

During the closed beta, players were practically risking their lives to defeat the bosses. There might be some NPC quests that revealed the bosses' weaknesses, but no one had the patience to do them. After all, if the boss got killed while you were doing those tedious quests, it would be a huge loss.

Given the current situation, everyone should be paying more attention to intelligence gathering.

As the two walked into the wilderness, Mitt suddenly heard the man beside him say, "Don't you think it's very quiet around here?"

"Where?" Mitt asked without turning his head. No... it was indeed very quiet.

Noticing the anomaly, she slowly stopped. SAO was realistic enough; in theory, there should be howls of wolf-like monsters in the wilderness.

But at this moment, nothing could be heard, as if there were no monsters around at all.

"Go back first."

Dante's words made Mitt frown, but her hardcore gamer instincts kicked in and she immediately realized, "MPK?"

There are only two reasons why this area could be completely devoured by monsters: either a large group of people wiped out all the monsters, or someone lured all the monsters away, intentionally creating a "Monster PK".

At this stage, no one would choose to do large-scale monster farming here, because it's too remote and it's impossible to really clear it out.

That leaves only the second guess: someone wants to use monsters to kill players.

“!” Mitt stopped and turned to look at Dante. “Could it be Yuna and the others?”

"Just in case, let's go back first." Dante nodded solemnly. In fact, he knew about this matter and even knew who the mastermind was.

The two quickly retraced their steps, using the maximum speed allowed by their agility stats.

Razel Village is an outer village, so it has few guards, only two. If a single monster accidentally wanders into the village, it can be dealt with, but if it is a large group of monsters, it will be a disaster.

Perhaps non-humanoid monsters cannot open the tavern door, but Mito is worried that a demi-humanoid monster might infiltrate inside, which would put Yuna and Miss Ashura in danger.

After passing through dense bushes, they came to a slope. Standing on the slope, the two could clearly see the village ahead.

"Ah..." Mitt gasped in a hoarse voice.

fire.

The entire village was engulfed in flames and chaos.

Chapter 25: The Boss Who Came In

A large horde of monsters swarmed into the village through the gates, and the village's firelight was likely caused by them knocking over the campfire.

Before Mitt could make a move, the man standing next to her had already rushed out first.

"Really." Muttering to himself, Mitt hurriedly followed after them.

Upon entering the village and passing through the crossroads, we saw one of the NPC guards who had been at the village entrance protecting the girl and the old woman behind him as they fought against two "hungry wolves."

"us......"

Before Mitt could finish speaking, Dante had already rushed forward and unleashed the "Whirlwind" sword technique. The sword light instantly enveloped the two monsters, killing them easily.

Is there anywhere we can take refuge?

After Mit caught up, he heard the man talking to an NPC guard.

“There’s a church to the south of the village…” the guard stammered.

"Then, go tell the other villagers that everyone should flee there!"

According to Mitt's previous thinking, even if these NPCs died, the entire village could be reset the next day, so ignoring them and passing through was a reasonable decision.

But at this point, Mitt couldn't bring himself to abandon them, and besides, the man had already finished speaking.

"There are two older sisters fighting over there in the square," the NPC girl said, pointing towards the square.

"Huh?" Mitt knew that it must be Yuna and Miss Ashura, so he looked at Dante.

Dante nodded to her, then, like a righteous knight, assured the little girl, "Leave it to us."

"Seriously! What's with showing off to an NPC?" Mitt thought to himself.

By the time the two rushed to the square, the situation was already extremely critical.

In front of the ancient stone statue standing in the center of the square, more than ten villagers huddled together.

They were surrounded by a massive horde of monsters.

Most of them were wolves and lizards, but there were also scorpions and snakes, as well as many monsters that shouldn't be near the village.

Meanwhile, Yuna, Ashurai, and the tavern owner were standing at the forefront of the villagers, weapons in hand.

Even Dante admired Yuna, because she had probably never experienced any real battles before, having only escaped from the town of beginnings yesterday.

She was able to pick up a sword even in this situation; she is truly a very strong girl.

"I'll attack from behind, you go and join them," he commanded Mitt.

"Okay, I understand." It wasn't that she had to listen to him, but the situation was urgent, and Mitt didn't have time to hesitate. She also wanted to save Yuna and Ashura.

She then looked at Dante, who had already charged forward, brandishing his greatsword from behind the monster.

In an instant, all that could be seen was the swirling light of the sword. This was not the light of swordsmanship, but the light of flames refracted by the sword itself.

The magnificent spins, like a fierce storm, each one a fatal blow, causing the wolves to fall to the ground, their blood flowing freely.

Unbelievable...

With a slight blink, Mitt was surprised that someone could achieve this level of skill without using sword techniques, especially since the other party was not even a beta tester.

Shaking her head, she banished her thoughts and began to sprint at full speed. Then, she kicked hard to the ground and leaped up. The moment she landed in the wolf pack, she used her scythe as a pole and jumped again, managing to pass directly through the circle formed by thirty or forty monsters.

"Thank you, I'm saved!" Ashurai breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw that the person who came was Mit.

"It's too early to thank me now. You two should use the potions to recover first." Mitt took the place of the two at the front to deal with the horde of monsters.

The potion provides continuous healing, but if you don't have a chance to drink it, your HP will only keep decreasing.

The scythe, emitting a purplish-red light, swept across the front paws of the wolves in the front row, inflicting a debuff that rendered them unable to move.

They collapsed as a result, and these lying-down wolves disturbed their companions behind them, preventing the wolves in the back from advancing.

During a lull in the battle, Mit glanced at his boss, who was fighting alongside him. Although he wasn't unscathed, his HP bar still had nearly 90% remaining.

He held what appeared to be a rapier-like weapon in his right hand. It was unclear what kind of character he was designed to be—a retired sword master who ran a tavern in a remote village.

But now there's no chance to think about it. Maybe next time I order a drink, I can hear the owner's story.

Several minutes later, the remaining enemies had been reduced to a visible dozen or so.

If this continues, we can wipe out all the monsters in just a few minutes.

Afterwards, while eliminating the remaining monsters in the village, you can send the villagers to the church in the south to minimize NPC casualties.

But then a figure appeared in the distance of the square. Mitt's gaze passed over the wolf pack, and he stared intently at the huge shadow.

"Could it be?!" A suspicion began to form in her mind.

"That's right!" Ashura exclaimed in surprise. Mitt had already guessed that the other party was a closed beta player, and she seemed to have sensed something as well.

"Wolf Boss!" Mitt shouted out their shared guess, then she urgently called out to the man who was still behind the monster horde and closest to the Boss. This was the first time she had called him by name in person. "Dante! We can't let that Boss speak!"

Unfortunately, it was too late. Even though Dante quickly retreated, turned around, and rushed towards the Boss, the leader of the hungry wolves had already raised his neck.

"Awooo—! Awooo!"

The howl was interrupted midway, and Dante plunged his greatsword into its mouth from bottom to top, stopping it from making any more noise.

But the next second, wolf howls echoed throughout the passageways of the plaza in response to the Boss's roar.

The sounds converged like waves surging into the small square of Raiser village, making one want to cover their ears.

Immediately afterwards, from the north, south, and east, swarms of gray creatures surged into the square like a raging torrent, far exceeding the previous number, well over fifty.

Mitt's heart sank to the bottom.

If it's just monsters, we can barely handle it, but if we add a boss and get surrounded, we'll be wiped out in less than five minutes.

After a moment's thought, Mitt made a decision.

"Yuna, Miss Ashley, I'm leaving the rest to you!" With that, she kicked away the two hungry wolves in front of her and ran towards the entrance of the square.

He kept swinging his scythe, drawing the hatred of the wolves that had just entered the fray and had not yet locked onto their targets onto himself.

As for the Boss, the man has lured him to the edge of the plaza, and given his strength, there's no need to worry about him for now.

And so, as Mitt turned around and charged westward, a pack of more than fifty wolves had already gathered behind him.

That's right! That's it!

Next, just lead the wolf pack away, as long as they get away from Yuna and the others.

She ran straight down the road that led west from the square.

The wolf pack behind them kept chasing relentlessly. These wild beasts have a very simple logic; otherwise, they wouldn't have been attracted here in the first place.

Tear apart the target in front of you.

This simple way of thinking made the strategy that Mitter came up with feasible.

Soon, the square where Yuna had sung not long ago was almost within reach, with the outskirts of Aincrad just ahead.

Feeling no fear, Mitt ran as fast as he could for the remaining distance, using the wooden bench as a springboard to leap up.

A feeling of weightlessness, which I hadn't experienced in a long time, washed over me; there was no ground beneath my body.

All that could be seen before me was an endless, pure black void.

Chapter 26: Moving Forward Again

After much effort, Dante killed the boss and lowered the "Bear Slayer" sword in his hand.

The hungry wolves were originally monsters that roamed outside the starting town. Their leader was only equivalent to the boss in the beginner village. The only troublesome thing was that it attracted the howling of its own kind.

Once most of the wolves have been lured away by Mitt, the boss alone poses a very low threat.

The window displays the obtained material item "Giant Leader Wolf Hide", along with several thousand Cor and experience points.

Because there was no team involved and no one else to share the profits, he pocketed all the earnings.

Upon reaching the center of the plaza, there were no more monsters present.

Most of them were lured away, and the rest were killed. As for Yuna and Ashura, they had already chased after Mito.

Now, Dante raised his sword and pointed it into the dark forest outside the village.

By the light of the village fire, the other party should be able to see him.

Sure enough, a beam of light refracted through the jungle, as if in a provocation.

Confident criminals often return to their crime scenes to admire their accomplishments.

The other person is that kind of person too.