A journey to another world starting from a sword

The guide pointed to an abandoned hut in the northern part of the city, which was about fifty meters away from the outer mountain peak.

But the courtyard behind it holds a hidden secret: in the right corner, there is a stone that is slightly darker than the other bricks.

It's the switch. When you press it, a creaking sound comes out, and an opening appears in the middle of the stone wall. If you stick your head in, there's a staircase leading down.

"Who on earth could discover this kind of mechanism?" Mitt muttered after observing for a moment.

She opened her inventory and materialized the scythe. Although the cramped environment made it inconvenient to wield the scythe, it was a piece of cake to use it to defend against attacks or for other purposes.

"Boring enough people?" Dante, holding a lantern, bent down and went inside first, followed by Mitt who looked back and followed.

“If this road leads to the outer peak, then it means we have to walk another fifty meters or so,” Dante remarked.

Mit opened his inventory and materialized a scythe. Although the narrow tunnel made it inconvenient to swing the scythe, it was still perfectly capable of being used as a metal bar to defend against attacks.

The end was in sight, but it wasn't quite what I had imagined; it was a vertical wall ladder leading to the opening above.

"Wow, a ladder..." Mitt looked up, then stepped onto a step.

Dante followed closely behind Mito. If it were Asuna wearing a short skirt, he might have hesitated a bit, but with Mito, all he could see when he looked up was her buttocks in shorts, which weren't particularly fleshy and showed the immaturity of a young girl.

When they climbed to about fifty meters, a gentle breeze brushed against Mitt's cheeks, accompanied by a sound.

We've arrived.

Mitt felt a little unsatisfied, as if the adventure was over before it even began.

From the rocky outcrop, you can overlook the entire city of Urubas. It must be even more beautiful when it's lit up at night.

Dante and Mitt both thought that it was a very good choice for Yuna to practice singing here.

"We couldn't find anyone." When Dante met up with Asuna and Silica in the evening, he received the expected answer from them.

“That’s normal.” He wasn’t being critical at all, but rather comforting, “Go again when you have time.”

Recruiting blacksmith players isn't an easy task either.

After dinner, they planned to head to Taran to prepare for tomorrow's Boss raid.

The last sliver of light cast a deep purple hue over the boundless sky.

Just then, a mysterious and beautiful song suddenly drifted through the city of Urbas.

"Ah, it's Miss Yuna's song!" Silica exclaimed with delight.

“Yes.” Dante glanced at Urubas one last time, then continued step by step toward the final stop on the second level of Aincrad.

Chapter 73: The King of N·T·R

Five days after defeating the first floor's demon king, which is also the thirty-third day since the start of this death game.

December 9th, Wednesday, afternoon.

On this day, the players from the strategy group once again stood in front of the Boss room.

However, it's not the first floor's boss room anymore, but the second floor.

The morning before that, they held a strategy meeting in Taran early in the morning. Diabel did this in order to absorb fresh blood after the legendary hero team was banished to the starting town to start over because of their evil deeds.

Diabel wasn't sure if he could assemble a full-strength joint force, which was the system's maximum of forty-eight men.

Of course, it turned out that he didn't need to worry about anything. At this moment, eight six-person teams of players had formed in the lobby in front of the Boss room on the second floor and were quietly waiting to carry out the final equipment checks and potion distribution.

The raiding force was not entirely composed of the original members from the first floor. Two of them, perhaps feeling inadequate in their strength or suffering psychological trauma from being stunned and nearly dying when facing the kobold lord, were absent from the second floor's boss raid.

However, some players who came up from behind immediately filled their gaps. These people may have lacked strength or equipment, but they were undoubtedly brave.

Now is not the time to adhere to the principle of "better to have none than to have bad ones," so Diabel accepted them without hesitation, bringing the total to 48 people.

Although you can still participate in the battle if you are not included in the joint force during the boss battle, the problem is that you cannot see the HP bars of the non-joint members, and those people cannot check the HP of the main force. This will cause command problems, so it is a good result if the number of people happens to reach the maximum.

As for whether these newcomers will continue to follow or fall behind, no one can predict.

"Speaking of which, would you like to join my guild, Dante?" Diabel, standing in the corner with Dante, looked around at the large group filling the square, a satisfied smile on his lips.

"No, by the way, is it alright if you don't stand with your people?" Dante teased casually, wiping the Bear Slayer sword with a chamois cloth until it gleamed.

"Hmm?" Diabel tilted his head slightly, then shook his head and said, "I don't think there's anything wrong with being with you."

Diabel said that because he temporarily joined Dante's party!

Having learned from his previous experience, Diabel knew that as a commander, he shouldn't rush to the front lines when the situation was unclear. However, keeping the squad members who had been with him for so long by his side would be a waste, so he decided to join a squad that wasn't fully staffed.

Just then, someone's team happened to be short one person.

"I'll be directing from behind all by myself, it won't bother you at all," Diabel joked. "By the way, are you really not considering joining my guild?"

He said this because five teams were already planning to join his guild, including players gathered by the Fang King.

Ya Wang's anti-closed beta player ideology surprisingly found some market. Of course, more importantly, he also advocated for the equal distribution of resources to all players willing to contribute on the front lines. However, this conflicted with the elitist views of the Diabel squad members.

Even before the guild was established, factions had already formed. It was thanks to Diabel's uprightness that everyone was able to temporarily put aside their conflicts.

"No." Dante refused again clearly. "If I stay in the same place as the King of Fangs, there will definitely be friction, and I don't have the luxury of taking care of ordinary players."

Furthermore, a percentage of the money earned by guild members is automatically collected, which is the guild leader's prerogative. He needs Ke'er to improve her strength for the foreseeable future.

If it were a small guild mainly composed of partners, it would be fine, as everyone could discuss things together. But Diabel clearly disregarded factions and embraced all players who were willing to stand on the front lines and fight side by side with great inclusiveness.

In order to manage this effectively, it is necessary to adopt a series of systems for standardization.

That being said, Diabel's behavior can be considered a form of diversity in a certain sense.

Compared to the elite-centric approach, closed beta testing exclusion, and peer guilds, although this does have certain hidden dangers.

When Dante mentioned taking care of ordinary players who didn't have time, a new player wearing heavy armor next to him suddenly stiffened.

"It's alright, he wasn't talking about you, Miss Ritsuka." Asuna, standing next to him, glanced at him with amusement before gently comforting him.

Noticing Asuna's accusing gaze, Dante, understanding the implication, turned back and nodded to Ritsuka, saying, "Asuna is right."

Liting was a newcomer who approached Dante and his team at the strategy meeting, hoping to temporarily join the party. She was a young female player with a girl-next-door vibe, but she wasn't as pretty as Asuna or Mito, nor as cute as Silica.

Because he wasn't a player on the front lines, this newcomer in the relatively isolated Aincrad didn't know who Dante and his group were. He simply chose this small team, which was clearly not full, after being warmly welcomed by Diabel.

After the opponent removed the helmet that could obscure sound, both Dante and Asuna seriously suspected that the reason he chose their team was simply because there were more female players in his team!

Just as Dante was thinking about calling Kirito to reorganize the team's composition, Diabel also decided to join his side on the spot.

After receiving a shake of the head from Liting indicating that she didn't mind, Asuna asked Diabel with some curiosity, "By the way, Mr. Diabel, what's the name of the guild you're planning to establish?"

"The Aincrad Alliance." Diabel tapped his breastplate with his fist and grinned broadly.

"I see." Asuna nodded knowingly, her tone somewhat flat.

Because she also disliked large guilds, she didn't particularly like guilds with hierarchical structures, and she felt a disgusting sense of authoritarian coercion from the guild leader's ability to arbitrarily collect funds.

The captains of the other two teams were also uninterested in Diabel's invitation, one of whom was the tall axe-wielding Agil.

He plans to form a small guild with three other muscular boyfriends who, like Agil, have chosen to allocate all their stat points to strength. As for the name, they haven't decided yet.

Beneath his shiny bald head, his usually serious face was now breaking into a smile as he teased the other "short" player standing in front of him.

To be honest, Kirito and Agil, who were wearing "belts" that revealed their slender bodies, didn't look very good together. However, Agil's perfect Japanese gave off a charm that blended exoticism with friendliness, making Kirito fit into the team very well.

If Dante didn't know that Agil had a wife who deeply loved him in reality and was trying her best to keep their coffee shop open while waiting for his return, he would have found the scene of Agil patting Kirito's thin shoulder a bit cringe-worthy.

Friendships between men are so strange.

"Are Mr. Diabel and Mr. Dante on good terms?" Liting asked Asuna in a low voice. She was a little confused when the captain accepted the commander's application to join her squad with a look of disdain, and the conversation between the two just now made it clear.

"Yeah, I guess we click somewhere," Asuna answered Ritsubin's question, covering her mouth.

"..." Having satisfied her curiosity, Li Ting nodded cautiously.

"Alright—everyone look here," Diabel shouted.

He remained standing in the same spot, drawing everyone's attention to Dante and himself.

"Thanks to everyone's efforts, we were able to arrive at the Boss's room just five days after the second floor opened!" He said, extending his fist toward Dante. Under everyone's watchful eyes, Dante lowered his sword and casually exchanged fists with him.

Diabel's gesture as the future guild leader made the other newcomers, who didn't plan to join the guild or were just arriving, smile easily.

"Please lend me your strength, everyone! Let's defeat the Boss together today and advance to the third floor!"

As soon as Diabel raised his right fist, everyone immediately shouted "Oh!"

At this moment, Lind, the adjutant who was temporarily in charge of Diabel's squad, looked at Mitt, who was standing behind Dante on the outer edge.

He felt his eyes were about to meet, but the other person's fleeting gaze made his cheerful smile freeze for a moment, though he quickly looked away.

"Alright, let's form a unit!" Diabel officially walked to the center of the square and made battle arrangements.

Dante and his team remain in Team E, responsible for dealing with the Boss's guards alone, while Colonel Natto the Bull and Agil are in Team G.

Diabel also told Dante that if reinforcements were needed, he would send a support squad; and if they could quickly defeat this mini-boss, they could join him as a reserve force to participate in the remaining battle against the boss.

This is because the boss's enhanced paralysis attack is very troublesome for players to deal with, and it's easy to accidentally get hit by it, so a sufficient number of squads are needed for rotation.

“Although I already emphasized this in the strategy meeting, I want to say it again just in case,” Diabel stressed, just in case.

"The boss and the minotaur minions swarming out of the dungeon have the same attack pattern; they'll use similar but more powerful sword techniques to attack us. According to the second-floor strategy guide issued by Argo, you must dodge whenever you see their movements. More importantly, you must react to the first hit; absolutely avoid being hit by two paralysis attacks at the same time, understand?"

Of course, he knew that no matter how much he emphasized it, there would still be people who made mistakes.

"I believe those of you who participated in the reconnaissance mission have already experienced this firsthand. Remember to relay this to your teammates: as long as you stay calm and observe the warhammer, you can definitely avoid the second hit. If you keep this in mind, the current lineup can definitely defeat the boss without any casualties."

After saying that, he turned around, walked to the huge double doors, and with a "clang!" drew his single-handed straight sword from its sheath and raised it high.

"set off!"

Ooh!

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

When Colonel Nato of the Bulls missed again with his Minotaur-exclusive sword technique "Paralyzing Impact," which had a destructive effect.

"Attack together!" Dante commanded.

The five people who surrounded the blue minotaur in a semi-circle each unleashed their most powerful sword skills, bombarding the monster with special effects beams of various colors.

This left the last of the three HP bars of the Boss Guardian with very little HP remaining.

At the same time, Diabel's calm and resonant voice came from the other end of the room, "They're coming! Team C, take cover!"

Dante had no time to pay attention to Diabel's situation; he cautiously observed the movements of Colonel Bull's weapons.

"Switch." He replaced Li Ting, the tank that was taking the damage head-on, and stood in front.

Seizing an opportunity, he used his sword skills to deflect the minotaur's warhammer, while simultaneously using the momentum to turn to the right.

"Kill it." As he spoke, Dante followed up with a two-hit combo of "Tornado."

The moment she finished speaking, Asuna's "linear attack" arrived, using the shortest movement to unleash the fastest sword technique. Her goal, of course, was to compete with Dante for Colonel Bull's LA reward.

The previous boss, Bull, was a little slow in attacking, but this time she was already preparing to unleash her sword technique just as Dante launched Natto into the air.

There's an opportunity!

Under the onslaught of the two who preemptively attacked and the others who followed, Colonel Nato's body suddenly stiffened at a certain moment and then exploded into countless fragments that disappeared into the air.

"Who got it this time?" Asuna asked impatiently, while clenching her left fist and swinging it defiantly.

"We'll talk about it later." Dante, who had been watching Cardinal receive Mana's hint, quietly looked away and changed the subject.

"Team F, prepare to retreat! Team G, prepare to advance! Switch sides after the next Boss attack!"

On Diabel's side, everyone has already figured out the range and timing of the Boss's "Paralysis Blast".

They are now highly focused and in high spirits. Although a few people are receiving paralysis treatment in the rear, the overall battle situation is still under control.

"Great, it seems this time is no different from the closed beta." Mitt stood next to Dante, relieved, and tugged at his collar.

With muscles all over his body and his upper body completely naked in the usual minotaur style, except for a luxurious gold cloth wrapped around his waist, this boss, General Balan, whose HP was only one bar left, was so bad that Asuna could hardly look at him.

Under Diabel's careful command, everyone waited for a long time without any unexpected events, and the Boss's life was about to enter its final countdown.

"Let's go to Diabel first." Dante shrugged, twirling his sword with both hands, but instead of retracting them, he let them hang down to the ground.

Only upon closer inspection can one feel the oppressive presence emanating from the Boss's massive size; its astonishingly enormous form evokes an instinctive sense of fear.

Apart from being dark red in color and having golden weapons, it looks just like Colonel Nato, but there is still a significant difference: Balan is twice the height of Nato!

The most direct comparison is with the first-level boss, the kobold lord, who is even shorter than Nato!