A journey to another world starting from a sword

The lyrics seemed to be describing themselves, and every player present felt the same way, especially when Dante pointed at them.

One of them excitedly drew his weapon, and the people around him followed suit.

"Oh dear, what are those players who didn't participate in the celebration supposed to do?" Argo sighed as he sat on the wooden roof of a shop in the distance. The reason he was able to sit there was because the players below had already run to the front.

She felt that all the players who participated in the festival would consider it the happiest and most memorable day since entering SAO.

Well, this is certainly a major event worthy of being recorded.

Seeing the players waving their weapons around like cheering sticks, that's exactly what she was thinking.

Fireworks rose again, this time to inform the players that the festival was over. If they still wanted to eat and drink, they could check if any player chefs' shops were still open.

Diabel bought the last two servings of crab shell pastries from the shop owner who was planning to run away. He then placed the pastries in front of a wooden chair, preparing to have a brief celebration with Dante.

Linde and several other players stood aside without disturbing them, while Asuna and the others stood on the other side, chatting and waiting.

"How about we do it for the New Year too?" Diabel chuckled.

"Hey, the interval is way too short," Dante complained, then clinked glasses with Diabel.

"Haha, sorry, sorry, it's just so much better than I imagined, no, it's unexpectedly good!" Diabel praised generously, then downed the wheat drink in one gulp.

"I know what you're trying to say, but please let me have a good rest in the New Year," Dante said, crossing his legs and looking at the girls beside him.

“That’s true.” Diabel breathed a sigh of relief. “I just delegated the festival to my subordinates.”

"Liting and the others did a great job." Especially the fireworks. Maybe the fireworks festival can be recreated in SAO in the future. Even Dante himself is starting to look forward to it.

"Haha, I'll give them a good compliment later," Diabel laughed heartily. "By the way, what are you planning to do tomorrow?"

"Hmm?" Dante raised an eyebrow and replied casually, "Let's take a day off. It's Christmas, and everyone's tired."

"That's great," Diabel said with a hint of envy.

"Since you're so envious, why don't you take a vacation too?" Dante rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively.

“I’d like to too, but thanks to you, everyone in the guild seems eager to clear the fifth floor tomorrow,” Diabel said, raising his glass.

"Don't blame everything on me, it's clearly their own problem." Dante muttered under his breath, then suddenly remembered something, "Speaking of which, where's the Tooth King? I don't think I saw him today."

Unlike Lind, who was standing nearby, Dante never saw the King of Teeth.

“King Fang.” Diabel’s expression suddenly turned from sunny to gloomy. He said with a wry smile, “King Fang said he didn’t have time to attend any festivals. He should be leading his team on the way to the labyrinth area right now.”

"That guy is surprisingly persistent in some inexplicable way," Dante sighed deeply, adding that calling him a stubborn mule would be an understatement.

“I’ll try to persuade him again later,” Diabel said.

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

"Joe! I didn't expect you to dare show your face in front of me!" Under the towering stone wall, Ya Wang looked at the visitor who emerged from the shadows of the withered forest and said warily.

"Ah, I didn't do anything to offend you, Mr. Ya Wang." The man in black, whom Ya Wang called "Joe," stood fearlessly in front of the eleven players from the frontline conquest group who had drawn their weapons.

"You really dare to say that! Diabel has already told me everything you've done!" King Fang spat and crossed his arms.

"what? What?"

"Stop pretending, your accomplices attacked that knight, didn't they?" Fang Wang glared at him and said.

“Hey, hey, that’s not true at all. Where’s the evidence? Isn’t the claim of an attack just their word?” Johnny said, spreading his hands.

"Hmph!" Fang Wang's face was full of distrust. "For the sake of our past camaraderie in a team, leave now! Otherwise, I'll take you to Guild Master Diabel for a proper check."

"Ah, thank you so much. I didn't expect Mr. Tooth King to value our friendship so much." Johnny seemed so moved he was about to cry. He wiped his eyes, and then a slight smile appeared on his face beneath his hood.

"As a former comrade-in-arms... I'll tell you a special piece of information."

Chapter 124: A White Christmas

"Do you think I'd still believe what you say, Joe?" Ya Wang scoffed.

“Listen to this for a bit, it’s free.” Johnny took a few steps forward and raised his hands to indicate that he was unarmed.

Even if there were such an opportunity, the other side wouldn't make the first move, which is why he acted so recklessly.

"You don't need to buy it from the rats... Ah, they might not tell you even if they knew, right?"

This statement probably had an effect, because the King of Teeth did not instruct his companions to stop Johnny from getting close. After learning that the Rat and his rival had a close relationship, he did not intend to contact the Rat again unless absolutely necessary.

Diabel would occasionally buy the latest intelligence from the rats and share it with them, and that was enough.

But after Johnny said that this was information that even rats wouldn't sell, the King of Teeth fell into deep thought.

Johnny finally stopped a few meters in front of where the King of Fangs was resting and sat down. Ignoring the King of Fangs' response, he began to speak to himself, "The boss on the fifth floor drops extremely important rare items that can affect the balance of the game and are coveted by all guilds."

"What is that?" Ya Wang didn't speak, but one of his companions couldn't help but ask.

Seeing that someone had spoken to him, Johnny's mouth curled up again, "Yeah, yeah, you're very interested, aren't you?"

"Joe!" Ya Wang shouted sternly.

Johnny spread his hands to indicate that he hadn't done anything unnecessary, and then revealed the item's information: "What dropped was a guild flag. If you set it up, all guild members within an area roughly half the size of the boss room will receive a buff that increases all their abilities..."

"W-What?!" "There's such a thing?!"

Ya Wang rested his arms on his knees, bent over with a gloomy face, and looked at Johnny while scolding, "Quiet down, what kind of behavior is this in front of outsiders?"

After the others gradually quieted down, he stared straight ahead and asked, "Joe, tell me what exactly you're trying to do with this?"

"Hmm? Of course it's because we're partners. Well, you probably won't believe me if I say that," Johnny said in a sharp and resentful tone. "It's purely because I don't want the flag to fall into the hands of a knight. If I didn't say it, the probability would be 10 out of 10."

Johnny shrugged indifferently at the angry glares from the players present. "It's because Guild Master Diabel is too kind that this is happening. If he had recruited all the players on the front lines, the Aincrad Alliance would have been the strongest guild in the world."

"We are now! The Aincrad Alliance is the strongest guild on the front lines." Fang Wang waved his hand and said.

“Of course.” Johnny clapped his hands, agreeing wholeheartedly.

Seeing that the other party immediately fell into the next rhetoric trap following his guidance, he suppressed his joy and continued speaking.

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

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew by, and the firelight on the wall flickered violently. The moonlight cast the shadows of the two people onto the wall in front of them.

“Boss, Little Tooth King has been tricked.” Johnny, who had just been talking to Tooth King, appeared in the abandoned church and said to another person.

"Hmph?" PoH snorted contentedly, while toying with the short knife in his hand.

“Hey boss, why are we beating around the bush like this?” Johnny was a little confused. “If we want to get revenge on that Knight, why don’t we just kill him or one of his women when they’re alone? The fifth floor would be convenient for that.”

“Revenge?” PoH shook his head and patiently lectured in his hoarse voice, “You mean observing the other person’s movements every day, planning traps and ambush locations, and then killing them in a fight? You won’t find happiness in killing with that kind of mentality.”

Killing for revenge only leads to emptiness, which is why he finds killing in SAO very interesting.

“We want to have fun in this game where we can kill freely.” He spread his arms, the huge shadow blocking the firelight.

"So let's take our time playing around, and it would be even better if we could achieve our goal along the way. After all, we can motivate the other party to act simply with words, and we haven't actually paid anything, have we?"

Johnny nodded knowingly and then asked another question, "Boss, is our goal this time just to get Little Tooth King to lead the team to take down the Boss ahead of time?"

“When someone is about to fall into an abyss, whether by choice or by force, they will grab onto their companion’s hand tightly. Isn’t it interesting to watch them struggle desperately?” PoH grinned mischievously.

“Hahahaha...that’s true.” After understanding PoH’s thoughts, Johnny let out a piercing laugh. “It would be even better if we could grab a few and fall down together.”

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

"5012 silver coins were exchanged for a total of 500,000 Cor." Asuna lifted a large leather bag with a little effort from the appraiser's table. The NPC had struggled to lift it onto the table earlier, which showed how heavy it was.

She tapped the bag, brought up the window, selected it, and put it into her inventory. This way, she could collect a large sum of money without wasting any effort.

“Eh—” Lisbeth placed her hand on the table with some disappointment, “It’s actually less than 600,000 Cor.”

"It's still a little short," Silica said, revealing a hint of regret.

"No, actually 500,000 Cor is already a lot." Lingyin expressed her satisfaction, but then asked anxiously, "Um... is it really okay to split such a large sum of money equally?"

"It's alright." Dante noticed Lingyin's doubts and comforted her, "Anyway, most of the people will spend this money on equipment."

In SAO, most players spend the majority of their money on upgrading and enhancing their equipment, while the combined expenses on food, clothing, and shelter don't even amount to this.

After all, everything serves the purpose of combat; that's the theme of Aincrad. It's not that other things aren't important.

When the game was released, it was said that players were free to do whatever they wanted in it, such as farming, fishing, and adventuring. However, it is ultimately a tower climbing game, so the other aspects seem less important in comparison.

Just then, Asuna had exchanged more than 700 small gold coins and more than 200 large gold coins for Cor, totaling 700,000.

This time, Asuna didn't put the bag away immediately, but instead picked it up and placed it in the middle of everyone.

The overflowing leather bag made a heavy, dull thud when it was put down, as if it were about to hit the floor.

Under the illumination of the overhead chandelier, each Corel coin glittered, making a rustling metallic sound in the open pocket, like a flowing waterfall of wealth.

"Wow, so many!" "Wow————" "Ah, my eyes are going to be blinded by the light."

They probably had never seen so much Cor before, and everyone looked like they'd never seen anything like it before. After all, apart from 'Eternal Garden', all the players on the front lines probably only had a few hundred thousand Cor combined.

Although the money buried underground was originally supposed to be divided equally among the combat players who participated in scavenging, Dante has now found it all with his abilities outside the system. Unless there are some hidden treasure chests, even if you go back to the catacombs to scavenge, you can only get silver and gold coins worth tens of thousands of Cors at most.

“Let’s put these into the guild’s treasury,” Dante said to Asuna with a smile. “It’ll be more reassuring to have the vice guild master keep them.”

"Don't worry, leave it to me," Asuna said, patting her shoulder.

"Asuna, you're really reliable," Mito chuckled.

When they stepped out of the warm indoors, they were surprised to see tiny white dots falling silently from the gloomy clouds.

"Huh, no way..." Asuna covered her chestnut hair, which was swaying in the cold wind, and reached out her left hand, which was wearing a leather glove, to catch the thing that was riding the wind around.

After the tiny white particles transferred a bit of coldness to her palm, they softly melted and disappeared.

Then I saw another white dot, then another, and finally it turned into a sky full of snowflakes falling from the sky.

Is it snow?

"It's snow."

Lingyin's blank question was answered by Lisbeth's murmur.

"It's snowing!" Silica exclaimed excitedly, jogging a few steps across the wet pavement.

The NPC children, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, ran across the road beside them, cheering.

This snowfall must be a Christmas-only event, after all...

"This is what a white Christmas should be like!" Dante exclaimed with delight.

Silently watching the snowflakes fall with a beautiful grace, Asuna snapped out of her reverie after hearing Dante's words, blinked a few times, and then smiled knowingly.

"Christmas is definitely more romantic with snow. Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" everyone wished each other well.

"Wow, it's so cold, let's go back quickly." After standing in the snow for a while, Lisbeth, who was bare-legged, finally couldn't help but stomp her feet and say.

"Alright, we also need to count the collected gems." Dante touched Asuna's hand and found that it was already a little cold.

This action caused Asuna to pout slightly, as if she were blushing. "What's wrong?"

"It's really cold, let's hurry up and go." Dante smiled back and then gestured for her to go first.

Asuna grabbed the clothes on his arm and pulled him forward, saying, "Then what are we waiting for?"

Surrounded by their other companions, who were also caught up in a strange excitement, the two returned to the warm hotel.

In Asuna's room, they placed the collected gems on the table for Liz to appraise.

As expected, the vast majority of the gems were D-grade, about 500 in total, with the remainder being C-grade and B-grade.

The gems in Dante's hands, which shone with an extraordinary brilliance as if they were finished products, were only of Grade A, with a few others being Grade B.

An S-grade gem would be worth hundreds of thousands of Cors, but an A-grade gem would be worth much less.

However, it was so beautiful that it was a rare item that couldn't be bought even in NPC shops. Dante picked up a purple gem from the table and placed it in Mitt's palm.

"Leave these to Mitt. Use them to make equipment when your skill proficiency reaches 1,000."

"Huh?" Mitt looked flustered, and after three seconds, he said in a somewhat dazed voice, "Wait... these, I didn't... you're going to give them all to me?"

Gems are as rare and expensive as gold coins, and the higher the grade of the gem, the more difficult it is to find. Dante is basically credited for finding them, so everyone thinks it is reasonable for Dante to collect those few A-grade gems.

But he handed them all over to Mito without hesitation, a trust that was similar to, yet different from, entrusting the guild's treasury to Asuna.

"Yes," Dante said with a smile, enunciating each word clearly.

"By the way, you can use all those D-grade gems for practice if you want." He suddenly remembered, "Ah, after you polish these D-grade gems, give some to Ashura. Maybe they can be used as decorations on clothes to improve their attributes."