A journey to another world starting from a sword

"Hmm." Mitt lowered his outstretched hand, realizing he had stopped him too late. Normally, the real situation shouldn't be exposed in the game.

Asuna, you idiot!

"That's amazing!" Silica exclaimed.

What struck her most was that she was studying in the Minato Ward; she had never heard of Eternal Girls' Academy.

As one of the three central wards of Tokyo, Minato Ward has always been the wealthiest area in Japan, with the largest number of rich people, without exception. The prestige of studying here is self-evident.

"How did you come up with that idea?" Mito asked Asuna, somewhat puzzled, because neither the situation nor anything else had anything in common with real Queensland.

“Because you see,” she said, pointing to the forty-odd people walking through the passageway under the trees, “everyone is talking nonstop.”

If you listen carefully, you can also hear bursts of laughter coming from ahead.

“It’s like a hike.” That’s what Asuna was referring to.

“It does feel a bit like a hike,” Dante agreed from ahead.

"Right?" Asuna said this and then laughed.

The only difference is that monsters occasionally rush out from the left and right forests, but they are instantly defeated by the team that likes to show off their abilities.

“No, we’re going to defeat the Boss, not just go on a hike.” Mito sighed, disagreeing with Asuna. “Completely different, completely—different!”

"Then tell me, if there really were such a fantasy world... and a group of people like swordsmen and mages were adventuring in it, and they were on their way to defeat a monster leader. What would they say on the way... or would they just walk in silence?" Asuna was using a very childlike analogy to demonstrate that what they were doing was similar to a hiking trip.

Although she immediately realized how naive the question was and prepared to end the conversation.

"We'll discuss what to eat tonight," Dante said abruptly.

"Huh? What?" Asuna asked after a few seconds of surprise.

“I think one day we’ll become like that when we get used to challenging bosses. If life in Aincrad becomes part of our daily routine, we’ll be like adventurers in a fantasy world. At that time, we’ll probably talk about things like ‘Where are we having dinner later?’ and ‘What are we eating?’”

There was a strange pause among them, then Mitt spoke first, whispering, "Will that day really come?"

No, it will happen, she answered her question in her mind the next second.

Everyone should have the answer to this question in their hearts.

Even if we manage to defeat the first floor's boss today, there are still ninety-nine floors above.

Players must be prepared to spend two or three years to master this game.

If this continues for so long, one day, even life in the game will become part of daily life.

If it were the old Asuna, such words would have been a huge blow to her, but she is no longer the same as before. Now she only felt a dry wind blowing through her heart, and she smiled with relief.

Although she couldn't imagine things that far in the future, but...

"As expected of Dante."

Her tone was one of genuine praise.

Gazing at Asuna's pure yet fleeting smile, Dante remembered something else.

"The information I got from Argona is that an NPC shop in the main district of the second level, 'Urubas,' sells a cream strawberry cake made with a large amount of milk from a giant cow, a specialty of the second level. The cake is said to be delicious. Let's go eat it together after we defeat the first level boss."

In the second-tier initial guide provided by Argo, for some reason, he specifically wrote about this dessert shop, which doesn't really help improve combat power, among a series of useful shops.

But now Dante is beginning to understand her "good intentions".

"I remember that cake was pretty expensive," Mito clicked his tongue, saying something Kirito behind him was also thinking about.

"Heh, then the person who received the LA reward today will treat us." Glancing back, the knight's smiling profile was like the first rays of dawn.

Chapter 51: Is it really as the intelligence suggests?

We arrived at the maze area at 11:00 AM.

The group reached the top of the stairs around 1 p.m.

The fact that no one was injured or killed along the way is not something to be thankful for, but rather something that should have been done.

Inspired by Diabel, the players maintained high morale throughout their journey.

In addition, Diabel was in charge, as he had already established his own squad in the starting town and was very familiar with the abilities of ordinary players.

In the encounter in the maze area, as the commander, he deployed the player squads in a timely and reasonable manner. Even when the support squad with long weapons was ambushed by the kobolds in the ruins and forced into close combat, which they were not good at, they were only narrowly escaped with no serious consequences.

As Asuna saw the door to the Boss's room again, her heart began to race. Unable to express the worries that were rising in her heart, she looked once more at that resolute figure.

"Listen to me, Asuna and I will be in one group, Mito and Kirito will be in another, and Silica, you will be in charge of monitoring the movements of the Boss and Diabel."

Dante gave instructions on the battlefield arrangements. Mito and Kirito, both closed beta testers, would not be in danger no matter what happened. He and Asuna were actually newcomers to the game, but because they had fought together before, they had some fighting chemistry.

Even now, Dante cannot determine whether the rift between Asuna and Mito has been healed. He does not believe in the beautiful story of a broken mirror being mended and can only leave everything to time.

The task he assigned to Silica was much simpler, because during the battle, he might not have time to pay attention to the situation on the battlefield. The Boss's kobold guards were demi-humans, and dealing with them was much more troublesome than dealing with animal or plant-type monsters.

"When the Boss enters the final stage, Kirito, you and Silica will be in charge of dealing with the kobolds."

In response, Dante gave Silica an extra instruction: simply attack Kirito from behind when he has drawn the monster's attention.

Kirito's one-handed sword is far more suitable for parrying than Silica's short sword, and both of their weapons are rare equipment enhanced to the first level limit, enough to break through the defenses of the kobold guards' armor.

"Asuna and Mito, follow me and proceed according to plan. If necessary, Mito, you can take over command. Can you do that?"

Just in case, Dante asked one more question.

“…I might not have done that well.” Mito’s tone was slightly unconfident. She was a rather withdrawn person, and her communication skills with others were not as good as Asuna’s.

In class, Asuna was always surrounded by a group of people, while she was always alone.

During the closed beta, she only followed orders in boss battles, and... most of the time she didn't.

If Asuna weren't around, she would probably become a selfish, lone-wolf player too.

Unfortunately, Asuna is not familiar with SAO. Although Mito firmly believes that as long as Asuna survives today's battle, she will become a swordswoman who is faster and more beautiful than anyone else, and her fame will spread throughout Aincrad.

Dante is in the same boat, except he has only been in the game for less than a month and has never seen a large army command before. No, he is about to see it for the first time, but he doesn't know if he can get the hang of it right away.

Therefore, at this stage, only Mit, who has experienced several boss battles during the closed beta, is more capable of handling this task.

"Okay, I'll give the initial instructions, and I'll leave the rest of the command to you."

Considering that Mitt was indeed not convincing, Dante adjusted his plan.

In short, the goal is to prevent other squads from competing with them for LA, and especially to prevent Diabel from taking over command again. He and Asuna will also tear the Boss's body apart as quickly as possible.

After making the arrangements, the group waited for the other player teams to prepare their equipment. Some of the lighter-armored players even put on thicker armor to match the team's mission.

To avoid attracting monsters from the maze area, Diabel did not give his usual speech or final morale-boosting speech.

He simply raised his silver longsword high and nodded forcefully, while the other forty-five members of the joint force also drew their weapons.

Then he turned around and placed his left hand in the center of the door.

"Time to go!"

After saying this briefly, he pushed the door open forcefully.

"Wow, it's so big!" Mito exclaimed as he stepped into the room, his memory already hazy.

This is a rectangular space that extends deep into the interior, about twenty meters wide on the left and right, and about one hundred meters long from the entrance to the glazed tile wall at the back.

Although the actual size of the room can be estimated from the blank areas on the map, once you actually walk in, you feel that the area of ​​the entire space is far larger than the calculated number.

In reality, such long and narrow rooms are not suitable for retreat. Once you reach the depths and want to retreat, you must consider in advance how to deal with the Boss's long-range assault skills, which are generally difficult to withstand.

Only a fool would expose their back to the boss completely; of course, a demoralized team might also do such a foolish thing.

The room lights were already on, and all the players saw the extremely imposing figure of the kobold lord Ilfangu, and they all swallowed hard.

"The battle begins!"

"Ah!!!" The crowd roared throughout the room, as if to encourage each other.

Almost at that moment, the kobold lord let out a ferocious roar from its gaping, wolf-like mouth.

"Gurgle gurgle ahhhhh!"

A monster and a human force are about to collide in the center of the room.

The kobold lord raised his right bone axe high and swung it around. Team A, who were responsible for attracting the boss's attention, could only barely defend themselves, because the weight of the attack was just too much for Irrfangu's massive size.

A lightly armed player was accidentally hit by it and lost half of his HP. It was terrifying.

Meanwhile, the three fully armed kobold lord's minions, the "Ruins Kobold Guards," had already engaged Dante and his companions.

The F team, led by Fang Wang, immediately rushed towards the other monster and engaged it in battle.

As for Team H, who was responsible for providing support...

"You stay here and go to the rescue if any danger arises."

When Dante faced the kobold guards in battle, he discovered that this monster was far more formidable than its counterparts outside the gates.

Like a slippery eel, the kobold guards constantly dodged and launched attacks again with their agile movements.

Dante then used a single horizontal sword technique called "Whirlwind." His eyes caught the perfect moment, and he spun the sword, using external techniques to change its trajectory, sending the hit kobold guard flying into the air.

Its HP was reduced by 60% in one go, proving that the attack was effective.

"Asuna!"

"learn!"

Accompanied by a purple-pink sword light, Asuna rushed in front of the kobold. The enemy, which looked like a baseball being hit, was still in a state of imbalance in the air and was easily pierced through the enemy's vulnerable throat by the "linear attack".

What a beautiful strike! This was partly due to the Windflower Sword in her hand, which had been enhanced with a +3 accuracy boost.

“That’s how it is,” Dante nodded.

"Hmm." Asuna smiled easily, but unfortunately, this rare and beautiful smile was hidden by her hood.

Meanwhile, Mito and Kirito's teamwork in the distance was a bit clumsy, like two pairs of gears lacking lubrication, but they still managed to take down the small monsters.

But... are they competing to see who can kill the monster first, or who can grab the items dropped by the monster first?

Even though the kobold guard is the boss's follower, defeating it still yields a large amount of experience points, money, and items.

Money is automatically distributed equally among all members of the allied forces, experience points are only added to the squad members who participated in the attack, and hitting the final blow has a higher chance of obtaining dropped items.

Haha... Anyway, everything went smoothly, let's ignore them for now.

The most troublesome are the King of Fang's squad. These people represent the combat power level of ordinary players, and the last kobold guard is jumping around alive under their encirclement.

It seems they rarely play rhythm games and have no grasp of the timing of their attacks, causing the monsters to always dodge or attack first.

Moreover, the temporary team members lacked coordination with each other; this was no physical education class where they sat in a circle and threw the ball to each other!

It can only be said that they did indeed complete the task assigned by Diabel: to keep the entourage away.

"The second wave is coming," Silica warned from behind.

At this point, the Boss's first HP bar was almost depleted. Diabel's C team finished faster than Dante had anticipated, and Diabel immediately ordered the D team to take over, preparing to reduce the Boss's second HP bar.

A new follower appeared, and Dante had already commanded Team H to move forward, "to hold off the one on the right."

"Yes!"

Mito and Kirito didn't need to be commanded to face one of them, while Dante and Asuna dealt with the other.

"Again!" In one strike, Dante sent the kobold guard flying into the air.

"Aaaaah!" Without Dante uttering a sound, Asuna charged toward the enemy with her beloved sword.

After Kirito and Mito dealt with the kobold guards in front of them, they stood there watching Dante and Asuna take over from Team H to fight the third minion in the second wave.

"Hmph!" The snort of the Tooth King could be heard not far away. They had finally taken care of the first one.

No, it may have been resolved long ago. However, since he lacked command authority, he did not take over the battle from Team H. Presumably, Ya Wang is currently feeling bitter.

Don't get carried away...

Ya-o's words were clearly directed at himself, as the two people in front of him, whose battle was about to end, couldn't hear him. However, Kirito didn't turn around; instead, he pretended not to hear.

Looking at the dropped items appearing in his inventory, he figured keeping quiet and making a fortune was the best thing for him to do now.

“The boss’s second HP bar has dropped by half,” Silica shouted to Dante.

After dealing with the kobold guard in front of him, Dante lowered his sword and immediately looked in the direction of the Boss.