A journey to another world starting from a sword

Most of the extra attribute points were added to strength, so his strength value should now be twice that of level five.

"Gurgle..."

The kobold lord's panting revealed its anger, but also a hint of panic.

Dante held his sword low, aimed at his abdomen.

The blade struck the target squarely, and he heard another suppressed cry of pain.

"I'm here." Mitt's voice came from afar, and the first thing to arrive was a purple light.

The scythe slashed across the kobold lord's side, a double strike that instantly left two wounds, one above and one below.

Bpss's HP bar visibly dropped a little more.

"Good!" Dante exclaimed.

But out of the corner of his eye, he caught the kobold lord crouching slightly, and then it jumped up without warning, ready to attack.

"Asuna!" Upon seeing this, Dante immediately dropped his sword, squatted down, and put his hands together.

"Understood!" Immediately understanding his intention, Asuna, who was running, held the Wind Flower Sword in front of her chest, assumed the standard starting stance for a "linear attack," and then stepped on Dante's palm.

"Hmph—" Dante grunted and forcefully tossed Asuna into the air.

There are no sword techniques in SAO that allow you to dash upwards to enemies more than ten meters above the ground! Especially not at an almost 90-degree vertical angle!

However, once the sword technique is activated, it cannot be stopped, and the system will assist in selecting the target in front of it to attack, something Asuna knows all too well.

How could I forget something that happened not long ago?

At this moment, Asuna tilted her body in the air, pointing the tip of her sword directly at the Boss in front of her, and then stretched out her arm and thrust it out forcefully.

Guided by the rapier in her hand, she charged towards the Boss, stabbing it in the chest before the falling Ilfangu could unleash its "Whirlwind."

The next instant, the kobold lord's massive body, struck by the impact, stopped falling, even briefly suspended in mid-air, before crashing to the ground in a state of slump due to the interruption of his sword technique.

With a loud bang, a large cloud of dust was thrown up.

"Attack!" Without even needing Dante's reminder, Mitt unleashed his most powerful sword technique, launching a fierce attack on the Boss.

Asuna landed face up, Dante caught her with a sliding step, bracing her back and buttocks with his right and left arms, and then pushed her away.

Asuna, having regained her footing with the force of the impact, immediately pointed her rapier at Illvangu and launched an attack together with Dante, who was pushing off the ground and charging forward.

"Ugh..." Faced with the attack of three different colored light effects, Ilvangu let out a wail, and his HP dropped very smoothly and quickly to the bottom.

"Stop surrounding the boss, and there shouldn't be any more area-of-effect attacks!"

From afar behind Dante came Diabel's reminder and his voice resuming command.

The other side did not sabotage them by ordering other teams to take their place or having them withdraw; instead, they almost tacitly agreed that they would take the Boss's LA.

The fighting was still raging around them, but Kirito and Silica, who had already finished their own battle, stood still, watching this final moment unfold.

Dante, having unleashed his sword technique, did not begin preparing for the next one. Instead, he chose to follow the sword in his hand, turning around on his toes and continuing to wield it.

Like a ballet dancer, the blade continued to twist and writhe the Boss's side waist, creating a radial wound on his waist.

Midway through his swing, when the sword was vertical in the air, Dante paused very briefly, and a red light enveloped the blade before it fell straight down.

A single vertical sword technique called "Explosion".

Saving himself the trouble of raising both swords, he immediately followed with a reverse spin, using the momentum to swing the sword around from behind and strike the Boss again, then twisted around and delivered another horizontal slash.

Sword skills connect with sword techniques, and then sword techniques connect with sword skills, completely eliminating the attack intervals that exist for ordinary players who rely on sword skills.

"Just a little bit left!" Diabel's excited voice rang out from behind, accompanied by the players' exclamations of "Oh!"

Kobold Lord Ilfangu had already stood up, raised his katana once more, and a flash of red light appeared.

Without paying attention to the Boss's HP bar, Dante's sword also emitted a green light. He knew very well that as long as his attack could hit the kobold lord before he could hit him, he could deal the full two hits of damage.

Then the Kobold Lords will undoubtedly face their end.

Mito and Asuna on either side of her body almost simultaneously chose to unleash their fastest sword techniques, and purple and pink light effects condensed in the air.

"Oh...oh oh oh oh oh oh!"

Four beams of light struck the kobold lord's massive body.

The next second, as if time had stood still, the katana in its hand suddenly stopped directly above its head.

His body seemed to lose all strength, and then he collapsed backward with a thud.

The roar that had been building up in his throat was faint yet sharp, and almost simultaneously, a cracking sound began to appear in his ears.

The sound of the released katana hitting the floor was a signal: the body of the first-floor boss of Aincrad, "Kobold Lord Illvangu," had turned into countless shards of glass, exploding in all directions.

Meanwhile, the remaining kobold guards, whose lord had died, were also annihilated.

Congratulations!

Huge white text appeared above the players' heads.

The bright light disappeared with the Boss's death.

In the now dimly lit room, the purple system message was silently flashing in Dante's vision.

You've got the last attack!

Chapter 54: First, find a room with a bathroom.

Laughter filled the air above the room.

Among them were people raising their hands in cheers, hugging each other, and even performing bizarre dances.

Breathing heavily, Asuna looked around before focusing on the system message that appeared in her field of vision. It showed the experience points gained in this battle and the amount of Cor allocated to her, totaling nearly four thousand Cor!

This is the kind of money that you need to fight in the training area or maze area for two or even three days to earn.

For some of the players present, this money instantly increased their total assets by a quarter or a fifth.

"We did it."

Hearing Mito's whisper, Asuna nodded and sheathed her rapier. Only then did she notice that most of the players were looking in her direction.

She assumed they were reading Dante, so she turned around, but... where were they?

He looked left and right, but still couldn't find anyone; only Mitt was beside him.

So what exactly are these players watching?

Perhaps only the person in question was unaware that the face revealed after she took off her hooded cloak was so beautiful that it made people wonder: Is this really the appearance of a player?

Although those who pay close attention might notice that some of the players in Dante's party are female, they were all wearing hoods before this.

"Where's Dante?" Asuna asked Mito, realizing something was wrong.

“That guy just now…” Mitt turned his head in one direction, “Huh, where did he go?”

I just saw people walking that way, and now the white cloak on the ground has been picked up, as has Asuna's.

"What a beautiful battle."

Breaking the increasingly bizarre scene was Diabel, who stepped out from the crowd, followed by a tall, burly giant.

"Congratulations!" The giant pronounced the English word above his head with perfect pronunciation, then closed his mouth and revealed a rugged smile.

Then he suddenly frowned, his thick eyebrows furrowing, and after scanning his surroundings, he noticed...

"Strange, where is that knight?"

"Knight...so that's what you call him now." Asuna covered her mouth with the back of her hand and couldn't help but laugh as she retorted.

Agil, arms crossed, shrugged. The nickname was indeed circulating among the frontline players.

After all, the first impression was too deep, and to be honest, Diabel himself was the first to call out that nickname.

If it weren't for his statement, "Psychologically, I consider myself a knight!", others probably wouldn't have made that connection.

Just then, Asuna saw a small figure walking towards her.

"Miss Asuna, this is your cloak." Silica held the crimson cloak that Asuna had dropped during the battle and handed it to her.

"Thank you, Silica-chan." Asuna took it and draped it over herself. Only after pulling up the hood did she feel that everything around her seemed to have quieted down.

"N-nothing, Dante asked me to give it to you." Silica didn't take credit for Asuna's thanks and revealed who was behind it.

"Speaking of which, where is he?" Asuna was slightly annoyed that he had left her here and quietly walked away.

“Dante is standing behind us.” Silica scratched her cheek under her hood and chuckled wryly.

"I'm going to find him!" Asuna strode towards the outer perimeter of the player forces, which was towards the gate.

Ignoring the gazes of other players, she walked from one end to the other and finally found someone. Then, with her hands on her hips, she angrily asked, "I want to ask you, what are you hiding here for?"

"I didn't dodge." Dante spread his hands, as if to prove something, and looked around, but his gaze didn't linger on the nearest gray-haired player on the left for very long.

Although Dante had smiled politely at the other person when he stood there, with his eyes narrowed.

"Hmph! This guy just showed up here out of nowhere, I was wondering what was going on." The seemingly random Tooth King rubbed his spiky hair and said, "By the way, you got Boss's LA, right?"

"Yes, I got it," Dante admitted with utmost honesty.

"Hmm..." Ya Wang looked at him so openly and honestly, and for a moment he didn't know what to say. He could only snort again in dissatisfaction.

Then Dante glanced around again, but his gaze didn't linger on the nearest gray-haired player on the left for very long.

“Now is the time to celebrate the victory. Let Diabel steal the spotlight. I’m a little tired,” Dante said, offering a plausible excuse.

"Really!" Asuna stared at him helplessly. The biggest contributor was right here!

Eight thousand players have been trapped in the first level for a month, and finally, this biggest obstacle has been broken by someone's own hands today.

She believes Dante should stand in the center of the crowd, receiving the players' respect and gratitude.

In her heart, even Diabel wasn't good enough.

Thinking this, she stepped forward and grabbed Dante's wrist, but he grabbed her wrist first, his palm burning hot, and then pulled her to stand to his right, saying, "You should stay here obediently too."

After saying that, Dante pulled Asuna's hood down a bit. Because the room had darkened again, not many people noticed them.

“I just messaged Diabel; he’s in charge of the celebratory speech.”

Just as he looked ahead again, a small, snow-white hand gently touched his right arm. Asuna's hooded face drew close to him, close enough to clearly smell her fragrance. "But everyone knows Mr. Diabel..."

Diabel made a serious mistake that nearly led to the annihilation of the allied forces, but it was Dante who stepped forward, maintained the morale of the troops, and led them to final victory.

In comparison, having Diabel give a speech is like having the runner-up in a competition give their acceptance speech—it's devoid of any sense of glory.

Understanding Asuna's meaning, Dante gently touched the back of her hand with the back of his own, shaking his head. He did this to prevent his glory from being tarnished.

Otherwise, why would he be standing here?!

If he hadn't been standing here, he might have heard things like, "Why did you just happen to rush in? Captain Diabel almost lost his life!"

Dante rushed there as quickly as possible, since his position was still quite a distance from the front lines of the battlefield.

This accusation is utterly baseless, yet utterly disgusting.

Then he smiled again and looked at the players who were nearby and had been drawn to Asuna's intimate gesture.

What are you looking at?! This kind of quiet, scrutinizing gaze is only slightly better than an unabashed stare.

He also glanced at a gray-haired player who hadn't looked at him at all since earlier.

Now keep a close eye on the male player on the left, who has a slender, thin body, a stubble beard, and loose gray hair.

"Clap, clap, clap!" Diabel clapped his hands forcefully, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"This is our victory." Diabel's simple words, raising his fist high, once again ignited the passion of all the players.

"Oh oh oh!!!" A cheer even louder than before instantly filled the entire room.

He then said a few more words and made arrangements for the next step, "I will activate the transfer door to the second floor, but it seems that we have to go through an area outside the circle to get from the upper exit to the main street area. Players with stamina can come with me."

In fact, encountering a monster with unclear information when you are exhausted can easily lead to disaster.

There's a specific term in the game to describe this: "first encounter kill".

Before the second level of Argonauts's strategy guide is released, everything about the second level is unknown, at least theoretically.

The beta testers in the military certainly wouldn't want to embarrass themselves by revealing their identities and then exposing the second layer of information.

The players then split into two groups: a small number of players, led by Diabel, went to the second-floor main street to open the transfer portal, while the majority of the remaining players returned the way they came.