A journey to another world starting from a sword

When their eyes met, Dante understood the meaning reflected in Asuna's amber eyes.

So he said silently, "You're welcome."

Dante, who had left the scene, sent Asuna a message: "Silica should be asleep by now. You and Mito can sleep in my room."

He was somewhat surprised to receive a reply immediately.

The reply was a question to him.

"how about you?"

"I......"

-----------------

Asuna, who woke up earlier than Met, opened her eyes and got up quietly.

Last night we talked a lot, mostly about what happened after Mitt and Dante met. They encountered players named Yuna and Ashura in a village called Raizer, fought alongside them, and then went to the labyrinth area to find themselves.

In other words, Dante's encounter with her in the labyrinth area was not accidental...

Asuna opened the door, stepped out into the living room, and saw no one.

"..."

That's strange, Dante said he would sleep on the sofa for one night.

However, this was only a temporary measure, mainly because they couldn't bear to disturb Silica's sleep.

After that, let her sleep in the same room with Mitt and Silica, or let Mitt go back to her rented room at the hotel to sleep at night.

She was quite satisfied with the bathroom; after all, Asuna had no intention of moving out.

She glanced at the time and it was only six in the morning, but she was no longer sleepy. She picked up the empty kettle and prepared to go downstairs to get another kettle of hot milk.

But as she walked down the stairs, she saw the person she had just been talking about sitting upright on the floor in front of the fireplace.

"...?"

This again?

This time, Asuna didn't choose to go forward to observe, but instead sat on the stairs. In fact, she felt quite bored.

Because she just sat there... for half an hour!!!

At the same time, Asuna was surprised by her own inexplicable obsession, and what surprised her even more was that Dante had not made a move during this time.

If we sit any longer, Mito and Silica will wake up.

So she could only stand up, walk down the stairs, and head towards the person in front of the fireplace.

Their footsteps were light and silent, as nimble as a cat's.

But just as Asuna stepped within a meter of her opponent...

"You're awake?" Dante suddenly turned to look at her.

“…Hmm.” Not knowing how to answer, Asuna nodded, then stared at his face with a puzzled look. “You’re up early too.”

"Hmm, what time is it now?" Dante asked.

Is this a way of changing the subject?

"It's almost seven o'clock," Asuna muttered to herself, but replied without changing her expression.

"Then let's not wake them up." Dante stood up, supporting himself on his knees, glanced at the extinguished fireplace, and rubbed his slightly cold arms.

"You didn't sleep all night, did you?" Asuna asked suspiciously.

“I’ve had a good rest,” Dante said, looking directly into Asuna’s amber eyes.

"rest......"

Suddenly, Dante put his finger to his lips. "Shh!"

Asuna immediately quieted down, and then heard a commotion nearby. She saw that it was the NPC mistress who had come out.

"Is there anything I need?" the NPC asked.

“No need,” Asuna replied decisively, completely ignoring the idea of ​​hot milk.

"If you're still a little sleepy, you can go back and take a nap. We can leave at nine o'clock without any problem," Dante said.

If he goes from level nine to level ten, he will reach the upper limit of the first level, and there will not be much left for him to do.

Gather materials to upgrade your equipment, hone your swordsmanship, and then simply wait for the Boss strategy meeting to begin.

“No.” Asuna shook her head and said, “I’m not that sleepy. I don’t go to bed late anyway.”

Although I only slept for seven hours, it can't be said that I slept little.

"Um, thank you," she said softly.

"I've already thanked you..."

“I didn’t say it out loud,” Asuna emphasized, indicating that it wasn’t a formal thank you, then lowered her head. “This is my gratitude. I should thank you for all sorts of things.”

"Hmm...you're welcome?" Dante said tentatively.

"Pfft." Dante's answer was so cautious it was almost cute, making Asuna chuckle softly.

Then, as if nothing had happened, she asked, "What are we going to do today?"

Chapter 42: The Handsome Knight

The time for the Boss strategy meeting wasn't set for as early as Dante had imagined, or rather, Diabel was taking much longer than Dante had anticipated.

It wasn't until Asuna and Mito had both reached level 10, and Silica had reached level 8, that they saw the announcement on the Torbana bulletin board.

A player is planning to hold a Boss strategy meeting and hopes that everyone on the front lines will attend.

The meeting was scheduled for 4 p.m.

On a sunny afternoon, the clock inside a huge windmill tower standing in the middle of the street, powered by the wind, suddenly emitted a sharp chime.

The players who planned to attend were aware that the meeting was about to begin.

Before the meeting even started, many players had already gathered in the fountain plaza a short distance away.

These were all the people fighting on the front lines in Torbana, and Dante judged that there were almost none missing.

Forty-six people.

Not much, but enough.

In SAO, a squad can hold a maximum of six people, and eight squads can be combined to form a joint force of forty-eight people.

Forty-six is ​​only two people away from the upper limit of forty-eight.

Although Dante also knew that it was best to prepare a reserve force for any battle, based on Mitt's experience during the closed beta, the goal was to defeat the floor boss without any casualties.

Ideally, two joint forces would be able to launch alternating attacks, but Dante had no such ambition.

In any case, the first floor boss battle in the original work was very easy, reducing the boss's four HP bars to the last one. Apart from someone dying because of overconfidence, there were no other casualties.

Even after breaking through the first floor, players conquered the subsequent floors in a short period of time, which was the result of the hard work and accumulation of front-line players in the first month.

As I said before, everyone is being too cautious.

"There are so many people." The chestnut-haired girl in a hooded cloak sitting next to Dante murmured her thoughts.

“Yes,” Dante nodded.

"Is this a lot of people?" Mito thought to himself, sitting next to Asuna, resting his chin on his hand and getting a little bored while waiting.

She didn't know that Asuna was marveling at the fact that so many players were still there at this meeting held to conquer the first floor boss, even knowing there was a possibility of total annihilation.

Sitting at the very back of the arena, aside from a black-haired boy sitting almost side by side on the other side, Dante once again checked the faces of the players scattered around the plaza.

Many of them are acquaintances, including Diabel whom I've met before, as well as other players who have significant roles in the original game.

In addition, there are about a dozen familiar players in Horuka village, as well as Torbana and those I encountered in the maze.

The remaining twenty people were all ordinary-looking and unremarkable.

But it's definitely not because he's face-blind and can't remember people. After all, he can basically remember people after just one glance, or at least have some impression of them.

These people must have never appeared before him before; perhaps they just arrived from the starting town.

Another noteworthy point is that the proportion of male players present far exceeded that of female players.

What's even more noteworthy is that the few female players here were all sitting next to him.

Although Silica and Mito both followed Asuna's example, wearing hoods that covered their faces and made their genders indistinguishable.

However, upon closer inspection, one can still discern some details that suggest femininity on them. For instance, Asuna's beautiful calves clad in black stockings are visible beneath the hem of her cloak, and Mito's stylish knee-high boots are not items that men would wear.

Even Silica, because of her petite size, would not be mistaken for a man; at most, she would be suspected of being a young boy.

On the high wall on the other side of the square, Dante saw "Argo" sitting there. She probably wouldn't be participating in the boss battle, but rather witnessing this significant meeting as an intelligence provider.

All the players present were her potential customers, many of whom were high-quality customers.

"Is everyone prepared? Wow, that's impressive." Silica, sitting on the other side of Dante, thought to herself that she would never have dared to attend this meeting alone, unless Dante, Asuna, and she were with her.

"Well, but that's not always the case," Dante said casually, as if making small talk.

"What do you mean?" Asuna asked, puzzled.

"Hmm..." Dante rested his finger on his chin, pondering how to answer Asuna's question, and said carefully, "Not all of these people here have the spirit of self-sacrifice. In fact, many of them are afraid of falling behind."

"Backward? What does that mean?" Asuna didn't understand.

"Ah—" Mite suddenly realized.

"I just don't want to fall behind on the front lines. Although I'm afraid of death, I'm also afraid that the Boss will be defeated without my knowledge," Dante explained briefly.

Mitt understands this all too well; strictly speaking, she also belongs to this type of player.

"Falling behind... Ah! Is it the same mentality as not wanting to fall out of the top ten in the whole school, or wanting to keep the deviation score above seventy?"

"..." Faced with such a realistic metaphor, Dante was momentarily speechless.

Yes, Asuna is also a super academic achiever.

His deviation value has consistently remained above 70, with the most recent value being 71.6. He is also the second-ranked student in the entire grade, while the first-ranked student is Mitto on the far right.

There are many wonderful things in the world. For example, a girl who loves playing video games can get better grades than a strict young lady from a wealthy family.

However, this doesn't mean Asuna isn't amazing. What does a deviation score of 70 or above mean? Simply put, if she maintains that score until high school, it's enough to get into the University of Tokyo.

"Pfft..." Mito shrugged, letting out a soft laugh from under his hood. "That's Asuna's style."

"What?" Asuna puffed out her cheeks in dissatisfaction at her companion's teasing.

The next second, a clear voice, accompanied by the sound of clapping, interrupted their chatter and drew the attention of all the players in the square.

"Attention! Although we're five minutes late, we're almost ready to begin!" The one who spoke in such a generous manner was Diabel, whom Dante had met before.

Diabel's equipment was slightly different from when he first saw him. In the days since returning from the labyrinth, he had been actively preparing for the Boss battle.

"Please move forward a little... Those of you in the back, could you please sit a little further forward?"

He was referring to Dante and his group, after all, sitting at the highest point looking down on the other players was just too... arrogant.

If you were at school, sitting in the king's seat would be considered leisurely, but here and now it's quite different.

"Let's move forward a little," Dante suggested, noticing that many players were watching them. It seemed inappropriate not to give face to the host, Diabel.

“Okay,” Asuna agreed.

Mitt shrugged, indicating that he didn't care.

Silica was even less likely to object.

Then they moved from the last row to... the third-to-last row.

Although they are still at the very back of all the players.

A black-haired boy also silently moved forward a few rows, but still kept his distance from the crowd. This made Diabel, who was scanning the venue, frown slightly, but he quickly looked back.

"Thank you all for responding to my call and coming here! Although some of you may already know me, let me introduce myself first!"

Standing at the very front of the hall, Diabel continued speaking, his hearty smile complementing his tall stature, the various gleaming metal armor he wore, and his striking long blue hair.

Even Dante had to admit that the other person was indeed a handsome man.