A journey to another world starting from a sword

"It's because of the snow," Dante said, looking down at the two parallel footprints he had left in the snow after taking a step forward.

"I hope that's the case." Asuna looked somewhat worried.

"There's no need to worry. When spring comes, the cats and dogs in the town of Beginning will come out. Ah, maybe the rats will come out too."

"Don't joke like that!" Asuna glared at someone fiercely.

"Yes, yes." Dante smiled and brushed aside Asuna's death stare.

The two then moved toward the transfer gate plaza. The air in the starting town was still quite cold, but there were many pedestrians on the commercial street.

There were even stalls run by players. Dante saw a shop selling fried sausages, but the sausages were a strange blue color, which was incredible.

"Do you think it might be sausages made from wild boar meat?" Dante whispered to Asuna.

“Maybe that’s true.” Asuna, who was carefully observing and whispering in Dante’s ear, agreed with Dante’s opinion. To sell it as a commodity, there must be a continuous supply of raw materials.

"Would you like to try some?" Dante suggested.

"Well, if it's not good, please finish it all," Asuna joked.

It's a joke because if it really didn't taste good, players probably wouldn't have put it out to sell.

"You, you are Dante the Knight!" The sausage vendor suddenly looked up and exclaimed, causing the surrounding pedestrians to stop in their tracks.

"Who are you?" Dante was almost startled. He searched his memory and compared the other person's face, but it didn't seem to be someone he knew.

“I opened a hot dog stand at the festival in Robia yesterday,” the owner explained.

"I see." Hot dog, huh? He didn't seem to have eaten that. Or rather, there were many other foods they didn't get to eat at the time.

This person seemed to be a fan of his, and when he noticed that he and Asuna were planning to buy food from the store, he immediately gave each of them a box of sliced ​​fried sausages.

"How many Cors?"

Just as Dante was about to pay, the shopkeeper generously gave him a free meal, explaining that—

"The money for the 'vendor rug' and cooking utensils was earned yesterday, all thanks to you guys. Oh, and I forgot to mention, Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" Asuna replied with a smile.

The two then quickly left the scene because people started staring at them curiously, thanks to the shop owner's shout.

"Mr. Dante!" Sure enough, he was recognized on the way, but this time it was an acquaintance.

“Next time, please remove ‘Mr.’, Miss Jelisca,” Dante teased the newcomer. This silver-haired beauty had once patronized the blacksmith shop run by Liz and Lingyin, and he had even introduced them to the equipment sold there.

The woman was still wearing the same outfit he had bought back then, and seeing the hard breastplate on her chest being pushed up so forcefully, Dante couldn't help but sigh that she was truly a mature woman.

“Oh, you’re right.” Jeliska said slowly, while greeting Asuna on the other side in a friendly manner, “Hello, I don’t think I had a chance to introduce myself last time. My name is Jeliska.”

“I am Asuna.” Asuna smiled kindly as well. “I am truly delighted to see Miss Jeliska once again.”

“Me too,” Jeliska said with an elegant smile. Sometimes it is indeed something to celebrate that we are both alive and well.

Suddenly, Jeliska belatedly opened her eyes wide and said, "Oh, are you two on a date? Have I disturbed you?"

"No way!" Asuna blushed and firmly denied it.

"We have some business to attend to on the first floor..." Dante briefly explained their reason for coming to the first floor.

“These two are truly... such kind people.” After learning that they had donated 50,000 Cor to the church, Jeliska let out a small exclamation, then ladylike covered her wide-open mouth.

"This is nothing," Dante said, shaking his head.

"No! Nobody even remembered this 'little thing'."

Jelisca raised her index finger and refuted Dante's words with utmost seriousness.

Chapter 127: The Prelude to Bloodshed

“Indeed, let’s just accept the praise.” Asuna nodded in deep agreement.

"Which side are you on...?" Dante scoffed, glancing sideways.

However, he still looked directly at Jeliska, gracefully bowed with his right hand on his chest, and said sincerely, "Thank you, Jeliska. I am very happy to receive this unexpected recognition thanks to your words."

“You’re welcome.” A captivating smile curved her soft lips as Jeliska smiled gracefully. “Hehehe…then I won’t disturb you any longer. I’ll take my leave now.”

"Okay, goodbye." Asuna waved goodbye.

"See you next time," Dante replied with a nod.

After saying goodbye to acquaintances, Dante led Asuna as they continued walking along the shopping street.

"Asuna, let's invite Jeliska to join the guild later. We still don't have enough members in the guild."

Asuna looked slightly surprised for a moment, but quickly regained her calm expression.

“That makes sense. It seems that Miss Jeliska is not averse to fighting.”

"Furthermore, we need some sword techniques with the spear that can create obstruction, and the 'armor penetration' of the short sword is very useful."

How can a short weapon like a dagger compete with the slashing power of a two-handed sword and the precise thrusting of a rapier? The answer is frequent attacks, critical hits, and sword skills that can apply various debuffs to monsters more often than other weapons. Even beginners like to use daggers because they are easy to hold and operate.

"Hmm, it seems like Miss Jeliska gets along well with everyone." Asuna also had a very good impression of this beautiful female player.

"Yes, that kind of aura is a lot like Asuna's," Dante said casually.

"Where?" Asuna tilted her head and looked at him with a strange gaze.

"She seems very well-mannered, like a Yamato Nadeshiko (ideal Japanese woman)," Dante explained to Asuna.

"Really?" Asuna frowned suspiciously. "Miss Jeliska seems more charming than me."

"Haha, the charm of a mature woman, huh?" Dante laughed because of Asuna's words. "Indeed, that magnanimity and ease are irresistible."

The "can't stand it" he said had a different meaning.

Just as Asuna's expression began to darken as if a storm was about to break out, Dante changed the subject, "But that's because of the age difference. In a few years, as you gain more experience in all aspects, Asuna, no, everyone will mature."

“In a few years…” Asuna muttered, her expression softening.

Will they still be alive in a few years? Or will they have finished SAO and returned to reality?

If we clear SAO, will we still be able to meet again in real life and become friends?

These complex thoughts filled Asuna's mind in an instant, and lingered for a long time.

Dante stopped in front of an NPC vendor, examining the earrings displayed there. They looked quite nice, but when he checked their stats, he found they were nowhere near as good as the ones Mitt had made. It was truly disappointing.

"That's so pretty!" As he was commenting on the items sold in the store, Asuna's delighted voice came from behind him.

She seemed to have her eye on a dress in the shop window—a glamorous black gown that was quite revealing—but she didn't seem interested in buying it; perhaps she just didn't like wearing black.

Strolling slowly through the commercial street, fully immersing themselves in the festive atmosphere of the starting town during Christmas, they returned to the Transfer Gate Square.

A dry north wind swept across the space, which was fifty meters long and fifty meters wide. If Asuna had been wearing a miniskirt and white stockings before, she would probably have felt a bit cold, but now the white cloak she was wearing seemed to be enough to keep out the cold.

"It's as warm as a quilt," Asuna said involuntarily, even though her cheeks felt a little cool.

"Let's go back first," Dante shouted from in front of the transfer monument. "Transfer! Karuruin!"

Instantly, a blue special effect light enveloped him, and the next second he appeared on the fifth floor of the main street, with Asuna following closely behind.

"What are we going to do this afternoon?" Asuna asked with a bright smile.

Then she turned around, walked forward, and after taking two or three steps, she turned back and beckoned to him with her finger as if she were coming over.

"I don't know, I'll think about it slowly." Dante lightly lifted his foot and followed.

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

“Mr. Diabel.” Lind led Hafner, who had thick eyebrows, into Diabel’s room.

"What's wrong, Lind? Finally awake?" Diabel looked up at the newcomer and joked.

Even though the festival was over yesterday, some guild members who were too excited to sleep organized a Christmas party in private. After having a blast, they fell asleep in the hotel in Robia, the venue of the festival.

Diabel knew about this. He had originally planned to lead his team to continue exploring the fifth floor, but it turned out that he couldn't go.

"No, where is Ya Wang now?" Lin De asked, his expression betraying his lack of a smile.

"Fang Wang? This morning, he said he would lead the main force to Manana Rena Village first." Diabel thought Linde was worried about the competition between him and Fang Wang, since Fang Wang took most of the guild members who were close to him, and none of Linde's closest guild members went.

To everyone's surprise, Lind carefully considered his words with a solemn expression, "Mr. Diabel, I heard from the guild members that the Fang King seems to have led them to the labyrinth area."

“That’s a good thing,” Diabel said, spreading his hands. “The ruins surrounding the labyrinth tower are quite large.”

It is the largest ruin on the fifth floor and also a super-huge maze. You must pass through it to reach the maze tower and then the boss's room.

Of course, there is a secret passage known only to some closed beta testers, which leads directly through the ruins to the maze tower in a straight line.

He didn't tell the guild members about this, since he couldn't explain the source of the information and couldn't reveal that he was a closed beta player.

“But it seems that Fang Wang is planning to take down the Boss as well!” Lind clenched his fist and explained.

"Hmm?" Diabel's smile vanished. "Linde, where did you hear about this?"

"Some guild members found out from the hardliners in those guilds." There are no official terms like "Linde faction" or "Ya Wang faction" in the guilds, but the hardliners Linde mentioned are actually Ya Wang's people.

Diabel abruptly stood up from his seat and paced back and forth. "No, even the King of Fang wouldn't act without reason."

“I don’t know the specific reasons either, but it seems to be a decision made by the hardliners.” Lind said, referring to the information he had obtained.

Knowing that Linde wouldn't make things up out of thin air, Diabel immediately swiped out the game window, opened the friends list, and sent a message to Fang Wang, but it couldn't be sent because the other party was in the maze area.

Almost instantly, Diabel made a decision: "Let's go, let's head to Mananarena village first."

At the same time, he sent a guild message to all guild members, telling those still in the main district to gather at Karuruin and those already in Mananarena Village to immediately send him a message to report.

"Linde, go and gather everyone."

"Yes!"

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

When they arrived at Mananarena Village at 3 p.m., the two guild members who had stayed in Mananarena Village immediately joined up with Diabel's troops.

Having already gathered a general understanding of the situation from the information, Diabel asked again, "The Fang King entered the maze area around noon, right?"

Although they had to take a detour around Mananarena Village by land because there was no shortcut, which took them almost two hours, the same thing happened to Ya Wang, so there was only a little over three hours between him and Ya Wang in the morning.

“Yes,” one of the guild members said. “Before entering the maze, Mr. Fang said he wanted to reach the Boss room today, but I didn’t follow because I’ve been upgrading my equipment and haven’t had time to enhance it yet.”

"..." Diabel fell silent, deep in thought.

Even now, he still couldn't be sure if Ya Wang really wanted to take down the Boss, but it would be plausible if Ya Wang used the guise of a reconnaissance battle to lure most of the unsuspecting guild members into the battle, and then turned the reconnaissance battle into a formal attack battle.

Even if you fail to complete the mission, you should still be able to leave the Boss room.

Unless... a situation like the fourth floor, where the room is completely flooded and can only be opened from the outside.

On the fourth floor, he discovered that much of the information from the closed beta was no longer useful, especially the information about the Boss, which required extreme caution.

For some reason, a vague unease settled in his heart. Diabel looked up at Lind and the other members standing beside him and said, "Let's go to the maze area and find the Tooth King first."

The fifth floor maze stands in the northeast corner of the floor, surrounded by another huge maze with a radius of 500 meters in a semi-circle.

Because they took a shortcut, they encountered monsters that attacked them several times, but since the team had more than 30 people, they could defeat the monsters instantly without having to fight with all their might.

Finally, at 3:45 p.m., they reached their initial destination, which was the outer edge of the maze.

Seeing that they still couldn't make contact with the main force of the Fang King, Diabel led everyone to the secret door. However, there was only a keyhole on the door, and it seemed that a certain task had to be completed to get the key.

"Mr. Diabel, what is this?" Lind looked at the door with a puzzled expression.

"This is a shortcut through the ruins." But even Diabel doesn't have the key right now. Maybe Argo the rat has the key, but it's too late to wait for Miss Information Broker to come.

As time went on, Diabel's unease grew stronger.

"Let's go in now." So he planned to lead the guild straight in. Before going in, he sent a message to Dante, who was arguably his best friend in SAO.

Then he stepped into the endless darkness.

Chapter 128: Backlash

"Huh?" The sudden news made Dante stop in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Asuna, who was walking at the front with great enthusiasm, immediately noticed that someone had fallen behind the group and asked.

Her movement caused Mitt, Silica, Liz, and Lingyin to all turn their heads to look at the back.

"Diabelle seems to have something on her mind..." Dante gave an awkward smile, stood still, asked the others to wait for him, and then opened his email.