A journey to another world starting from a sword

Mitt glanced silently at Dante and decided to tell him about it later.

This boy named Kirito was probably one of the active players on the front lines during the closed beta, often taking the initiative to steal LA, which is the final blow to the Boss, in order to obtain the Boss's LA reward.

While it may not be considered particularly despicable, the fact that the other person could do such a thing shows that they have a deep understanding of the essence of MMO games. Such a person can only be considered barely qualified as a companion.

Also, when this person finally reached the Boss's room at the deepest part of the Tenth Thousand Serpent City, Mitt remembered that figure very clearly.

Well, it's just a temporary team anyway, she thought to herself, glancing at a kind-hearted guy and letting out a deep sigh.

"Please guide me, let's work together to defeat the Boss." Dante said a few polite words, which was his usual basic courtesy, although he hadn't been so friendly to Ya Wang just now.

"Yes, nice to meet you." Kirito nodded, and then... sat down in a spot not too close to the four of them.

It was obvious that they were part of the same team, and the captain was that "Knight," so he felt a little embarrassed to pretend to blend in.

"Ha, don't sit so far away. We're not on the same team now, are we?" Dante smiled, pointed to the step in front of him, and sat down first, then patted the seat next to him.

He harbored no hostility towards Kirito; on the contrary, if they had met at the beginning, he would definitely have invited Kirito to travel together.

Unfortunately, he missed out; Dante met Silica first.

However, he wouldn't give up on the first level of LA, and he also had something he wanted to verify—whether the boss he killed could be used to extract mana from Cardinal.

He has only gained a little bit from the altered events so far, and as the only unique floor bosses, there are only ninety-nine of them in this world. Without defeating them, the timeline cannot advance.

This uniqueness and irreproducibility make it a key node connecting the world's space and time. What would happen if you personally took it off and put it in your pocket?

"..." Kirito was slightly taken aback, feeling something touch the softest corner of his heart. This was the first time he had felt the warmth between people since he parted ways with Klein.

"Then, I'll gladly accept your offer." The black-haired boy smiled shyly, then walked over and sat down next to the white knight.

Diabel, watching from below the stage, did nothing but clap his hands.

"Alright, let's officially begin the meeting."

Chapter 47: A Plain and Open Conspiracy

First, the general tasks were assigned. Diabel called the captains of each squad to the front for a brief self-introduction.

Then, the eight groups of six people were immediately inspected, and after making the simplest changes, eight units with different tasks were formed.

Two heavily armored tank squads, three highly mobile and heavily armed attack squads, one guerrilla squad, and finally two support squads equipped with long weapons.

The heavy armor squad will stand directly in front of the Boss Kobold Lord, becoming its target and taking the main damage. One member will fight in front, while the other will serve as a reserve to replace the front team when their health is low.

Team A's captain is the Warhammer user who holds up a tower shield that looks like an iron plate, while Team B is led by the giant Agil, who wields a giant axe. Judging from his appearance, this player named Agil has a big bald head and chocolate skin, making him a veritable muscle giant.

According to Diabel's plan, two of the attack squads were specifically tasked with attacking the Demon King, while the other squad was to prioritize eliminating the minions.

Diabel and his five companions formed Team C, Team D was led by the tall, two-handed swordsman, and Dante was the captain of Team E.

As for which squad would be responsible for the latter task, Dante shrugged and agreed under Diabel's expectant gaze.

He received admiring glances from several squad leaders around him, among whom the giant Agil showed off a row of white teeth.

Dante, however, didn't really feel any difference. He was basically conserving his energy later on, and he already considered the boss's LA to be his for the taking. Killing the 12 minions and getting their dropped items, Kor, and experience points was just a side thing.

Following them were three squads: the F squad led by Ya Wang, and the G and H squads equipped with polearms.

The guerrilla squad's mission is to assist Dante's E team in eliminating the boss's minions, while the support squad uses the action delay skill of polearms to hinder the boss and minions' attacks as much as possible.

The allocation was simple, yet there were no major flaws, and everyone thought it was a good battle plan.

Although Asuna showed resentment when she learned of the mission they were assigned, saying, "We couldn't even attack the Boss once!"

If you just stay in the back and watch the battle end, you can't even touch the boss once, so you feel completely uninvolved.

"I'd like to take on all 12 followers. Two people are enough to handle one. To be honest, three squads are a bit too extravagant," Dante said, spreading his hands.

"That's not what I meant!" Asuna said angrily to Dante, her face showing frustration. "We prepared so carefully..."

By purchasing materials, even the "Wild Silver Wolf" armor crafted by Miss Ashura was upgraded to "+4", which is the maximum upgrade level that can be achieved in the first tier.

Not to mention their other protective gear and weapons, all of which were reinforced as much as possible.

All these efforts were meant to make defeating the boss easier, but now it all seems to have been in vain.

Listening to Asuna's complaints, Dante suddenly laughed and said, "Then let's go rob LA."

After a slight pause, Mitt craned his neck and asked, "Is there any way?"

"What is LA?" Asuna murmured in confusion, momentarily taken aback by the abbreviation.

Are these people serious? Kirito stared in disbelief as they discussed their rather disjointed plan.

Although he was slightly touched that he didn't avoid her, it wasn't this kind of touching!

"Actually, from what I've observed, the boss doesn't use a curved sword in the second phase." Dante pointed to the simplified diagram of the boss that Argo had drawn in the strategy guide.

“What’s that?” Mitt asked, looking up from the compass he had been staring at.

“Based on Argo’s deduction, it should be a katana,” Dante said in a low voice.

“Tachi…” Mito pondered, his fingers resting on his chin, while glancing at the expressionless Kirito.

The katana is currently only found in the Thousand Serpent City on the tenth floor, in the hands of the most powerful monsters players encountered during the closed beta, who are clad in red armor.

It is also a weapon that players cannot use; it is a weapon exclusively for monsters.

“Diabelle knew about it too,” Dante added, “but he didn’t say anything, or he couldn’t say anything.”

What... what's going on... Kirito exclaimed inwardly.

Could it be?

If I'm not mistaken, based on the knight's cryptic remarks, Diabel should also be a closed beta player.

"I see." Mite nodded, as if he had guessed something.

"What does this have to do with us taking LA?" Asuna asked the two who seemed to understand a little.

"In other words, there might be an unexpected turn of events at the end of this campaign. Let's deal with the minions early and then observe the situation." Dante grinned. "Since Diabel is so confident that he can handle it, let him try first. If he can't, don't blame us for turning the tide."

"But is Diabel really going to make a mistake?" Mite asked the most crucial question. If everything went smoothly, then the plan to seize LA would be out of the question.

"Yes, it will." Dante nodded solemnly.

Mitt and Diabel entered the Thousand Serpent City together during the closed beta test, only to stop in front of the tenth floor boss's room.

Logically, Diabel should have known all the sword techniques that the first boss's katana would use, so why did he still die in the end?

why?

Because he made the mistake that Asuna had mentioned before, a mistake that all veteran gamers might make: carelessness stemming from arrogance.

Diabel believes he is qualified to receive the LA reward. Compared to other players, he is genuinely thinking about all players in Aincrad and hopes to become a leader at the forefront.

So in the end, he stood directly in front of the Boss. Rather than letting other selfish players who were detached from the group get the Boss's loot, he decided to get it himself, thus helping him to advance his next strategy.

But Diabel, you were too eager for quick success, and this arrogance ultimately harmed you.

Dante and the others were only taking a few steps ahead; other players would soon catch up behind them.

All it takes is a trigger, a suitable training area, and high-attack, low-defense monsters that can provide a lot of experience points, to allow a conscious second-tier player to quickly catch up with the first-tier players and join the ranks of the front-line players.

Guilds like the Blood Oath Knights, the Sky Dome Legion, and the Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain are all rising stars.

If they can successfully complete the first-floor boss battle, and their team hasn't disbanded yet, and they all reach the third floor together, then they can consider forming a guild.

No. Dante shook his head. That was still a long way off; it was too early to think about it now.

Chapter 48: This money is too easy to make

Dante, Mito, Asuna, and Silica briefly outlined a plan, which was unanimously approved by everyone.

After the discussion, the small group suddenly fell silent. Then, all four of them looked at the only person in the group who had listened from beginning to end without saying a word.

"Uh... I understand." Kirito raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "I will absolutely not tell anyone."

"Hmm." Dante nodded in satisfaction. "After the meeting, let's discuss in detail how to deal with the followers and do some practice beforehand."

“…Okay.” Although he didn’t know what practice was, Kirito could only say helplessly.

After hearing the team members promise not to leak the secret, Asuna and Mito sat up straight again and looked at the audience.

The squad leaders conveyed their respective tasks, and there were no objections.

Of course, any dissenting opinions were suppressed by the captain, and the unity of the joint forces was not affected.

Diabel then went on to explain that the distribution of the loot was based on a simple rule: the loot would be automatically divided equally among the forty-six people who made up the joint force, and the items would belong to the person who picked them up.

Mitt understood Diabel's approach and thought it was a good way to handle the situation. Of course, if the person who ultimately obtained the Boss's LA was someone from Diabel's team, or even Diabel himself, as she had predicted, that would be a different story.

In SAO, rare items obtained from killing monsters will suddenly appear in one person's inventory, and no one else will know about it.

While it's possible to set a rule where ownership of the item is determined by rolling dice, in reality, the person who gets the item must voluntarily hand it over first.

Mitt experienced this several times during the closed beta. On many occasions, after a boss battle, because no one took the initiative to admit the treasure they had obtained, they chose to keep it for themselves. In the end, the boss battle could only be disbanded in a very tense atmosphere.

Afterwards, she mentioned these things to Dante and Asuna. Asuna was amazed, while Dante lightly mocked the humanity of the player group. In the end, Diabel's approach was the most appropriate.

If you can snag one, you're really skilled.

If Boss considers LA a source of pride, then the person who wins the crown needs to have a respectable record to avoid controversy.

In other words, if they want to win LA again in the future, they will probably have to turn the tide every time, or they will have to compete with each other for luck in a joint attack.

As the venue was bathed in the glow of the setting sun, it was already 5:30 p.m.

The meeting ended amidst cheers of "Go for it!" and "Whoa!" The group of strategists then went into nearby pubs or restaurants in twos and threes.

As for Dante and his companions, they found a restaurant a little further away, ate a simple meal, and then returned to their lodgings together.

Oh—so they're the ones who rented this place.

Kirito sighed as he arrived at the farmhouse courtyard.

Upon arriving in Torbana, he immediately wanted to rent a room, but the NPC indicated that the place was already full, which surprised him slightly, even though the place he was staying was already quite nice.

Regarding the discussion on how to deal with followers, Dante chose to practice through actual combat, and for this purpose he specially bought a long weapon that looked similar to an axe-spear.

"Which of you two knows more about the movements of your attendants?" Dante asked Mito and Kirito in the courtyard, leaning on his axe-spear.

"Um, what do you mean?" Kirito broke out in a cold sweat and panicked for a moment.

"Huh? Aren't you a closed beta player too?" Dante asked casually, but his tone was more of a statement than a question.

"Ah—" Kirito was speechless, then glanced at Mito, the only one present who had no expression.

Because she is the only one who is actually a closed beta tester and could possibly know him.

Mito met Kirito's gaze without flinching. "So what?" she asked.

Well.

Seeing this, Kirito could only say, "I should know a little, although my imitation might not be very accurate."

He guessed Dante's idea: to have himself practice wielding an axe and spear, imitating the monster's movements.

Because the "Ruins Kobold Guardians" they'll be fighting tomorrow are, to put it bluntly, just grunts around the Boss.

However, they are not easy to deal with, because their heads and most of their bodies are covered under hard metal armor, making it impossible to hit the effective parts. Even using sword skills, it is difficult to cause them great damage.

Diabel chose to leave three squads behind to deal with the Boss minions precisely because of this.

However, there is a trick to dealing with them: first use your sword skills to deflect their axes and spears, and then immediately switch to another player to attack their weak points when they are off balance, aiming for their exposed throats.

During practice, Mito and Kirito acted as each other's practice partners. Asuna's rapier was particularly accurate when attacking the throat, a weak point. Although it was blocked by the purple floating frame within the circle that prevented them from harming each other, the impact still made the two targets touch their throats in fear.

We practiced until around nine o'clock when Argo suddenly came over, mainly about two things.

She walked up to Dante first, stood on tiptoe, and patted him on the shoulder. "So many people have been asking about you. Wow, you've really become famous. Can I tell them?"

The tone conveyed a sense of pride, as he had witnessed Dante's rise to power and played a significant role in it.

Of course, Argo's question here meant whether it needed to be kept secret. Generally speaking, if it was kept secret, she would need to be paid hush money, but Argo did not make any response at this moment.

However, for Dante...

"I don't have anything I can't say, do I? By the way, I made you a fortune, shouldn't you give me a commission?"

It's foolish and pointless to try and outbid other players just to hide what you've already revealed; it only reduces your money.

No amount of money can withstand such waste.