A journey to another world starting from a sword

Then, with her left hand, she slowly and gently stroked his hair as if to soothe him.

They kept repeating the same action over and over again.

The softness of that hand, the warmth felt when our bodies touched, reminded me of the scent of sunshine...

"So good, so good."

The motherly voice made Dante's cheeks tingle.

"I..." He was about to say that he wasn't that fragile when his head was forcefully pressed down, leaving him unable to utter a single word.

As Asuna's delicate collarbone emitted a helpless breath, Dante felt his soft spot gradually being exposed, and a feeling called dependence was rapidly taking root and sprouting.

He chose to accept it, letting Asuna comfort him as he silently wrapped his arms around her back. When his hands touched hers, Dante felt Asuna's body tremble slightly.

Suddenly he seemed to have discovered something...

Asuna, are you scared too?

"......Um."

With so many players dying today, Asuna wasn't unmoved; on the contrary, she was actually quite afraid of death.

But she forced herself to cheer up and comforted Dante, whom she thought must be feeling even worse.

So it's not one-sided, but rather a mutual dependence.

Finally, the two leaned against the headboard together. Asuna, hugging her knees, leaned to the left and rested her small head on Dante's right shoulder.

"Stay here and don't move until I fall asleep."

"Don't worry," Dante said with a light laugh.

After receiving the answer, Asuna closed her eyes with a faint smile.

In less than a minute, Dante heard a very faint breath.

Although the requirement is "before falling asleep," leaning against the headboard like this is not a good resting posture.

So Dante relaxed his shoulders and adjusted the pillow to make Asuna's sleep more comfortably.

Suddenly, Asuna, who was leaning against him, trembled slightly, but did not open her eyes.

After pulling the blanket up to cover their exposed shoulders, the chill that had been permeating the room seemed to quickly recede.

Just then, a comfortable drowsiness crept into his mind. Dante glanced at the time, then gave up setting the alarm and slowly closed his eyes, surrendering his consciousness to the descending sleepiness.

Chapter 131: Next Time Forever

I woke up because of smells, temperatures, and breaths that didn't belong to me.

I slightly opened my eyes and found that the room was still completely dark.

My mind went blank as I wondered if she had gotten used to sleeping in the virtual world, since she would often wake up in fear when she was on the first level.

Focusing my attention on my ears, I unexpectedly heard the peaceful breathing of the person next to me.

"..." Asuna thought that the reason she was able to fall asleep so easily might be because she had obtained something that could offset her worries.

only......

After blinking several times, the blurry vision gradually cleared, and the eyes, which had already adapted to the darkness, were able to observe their surroundings.

The soft pillow occupies the left side of my field of vision, and thanks to it, I'm still feeling sleepy.

But the focus is on the white object on the right side... she is currently gripping it tightly with her right hand, which is folded in front of her chest.

The moment one becomes aware of the current situation, consciousness leaps from a state of drowsy confusion to its usual state and then plummets into a state of stagnation.

While my body was stiff and my mind was still trying to think, I realized that it was probably the collar of someone's shirt.

The head seemed to be resting on something warm, and the feet seemed to be clamping onto some unknown object.

Why did it turn out like this?!

Slightly tilt your head back and look up at the headboard to determine your current position on the right side of the bed.

Moreover, the other person's sleeping posture was very neat, lying on their back, except that their outstretched arm was firmly supported by their head.

So Asuna was certain once again... In other words, the one who was moving around was probably herself.

Even though I was just leaning on your shoulder while I was asleep, it seemed like I had made a big shift from left to right during my sleep.

His body began to wriggle, trying to loosen his grip on her collar while pulling his tangled feet away.

"Hmm?" A faint, questioning voice sounded from above, causing her to immediately stop what she was doing.

Ruined.

Asuna made this judgment, she unconsciously relaxed the tension in her whole body and quickly closed her eyes.

In the darkness, she felt her blanket being pulled up, covering her slightly chilly shoulders.

Hmm...

She dared not move, not even a little bit, in case she was discovered to be awake... The thought of that possibility made her feel so ashamed that she almost exploded.

So Asuna made a decision... to let go of the other person's hand and place it on their chest to adjust to a more comfortable sleeping position.

Please! I thought it was just the body moving unconsciously while asleep.

After praying, she once again surrendered the weight of her head to the soft pillow.

That's right, she has decided to leave this situation to herself when she wakes up again in a few hours.

I'm leaving it to you, my future self.

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

Three hours later.

Pretending to be nonchalant, Asuna, sitting on the sofa, picked up the teapot and poured herself a cup of tea, trying to use the teacup to cover her repeatedly burning face.

If she were alone, she would probably just cover her face with both hands.

"Argo said the players on the lower levels haven't received news of their failed boss challenge yet." In contrast, Dante, completely expressionless, leaned back in his single armchair and addressed the guild girls sitting around a round table in the room.

“After all, this was Ya Wang’s unauthorized action.” Mitt, as calm as ever, expressed his understanding. “It would be great if we could keep it a secret forever.”

Blinking at Mitt, Dante said calmly, "If we do nothing, we'll eventually be unable to keep it a secret."

"So how is the Aincrad Alliance doing?" Lisbeth couldn't help but ask curiously, after all, it was the largest guild on the front lines.

Yesterday, Asuna only briefly told Silica, Lisbeth, and Lingyin about Diabel's sacrifice, without mentioning the fact that the raiding group had suffered heavy losses. Lisbeth had only just learned about this.

"Lind and Fang seem to be vying for the position of guild master," Dante said, citing information he had gathered from Argona.

"Huh? That old man is actually qualified to be the president?" Silica exclaimed in surprise.

“Well, after all, they are both vice presidents and have the authority to manage the guild.” Dante shrugged. “But most likely they are after the guild’s public treasury. If the president dies unexpectedly, that portion of Cor will be inherited by the next president.”

As for how to become the guild leader, it seems that it is ultimately decided by a vote of the guild members.

"After what happened, does Ya Wang still have any fans?" Mitt's eyes widened slightly, finding it very unbelievable.

"No, Ya Wang and the others have actually been training lower-level players, upgrading the equipment of players who want to catch up with Ke'er, so that they can earn experience points in a safer environment and increase their speed in catching up with the front line."

The idea advocated by the Ya Wang faction—that resources such as money, tools, and intelligence should be distributed as widely as possible—is not just empty talk; they put it into practice.

"While we still have guild privileges, we can recruit all these lower-level players into the guild and gain a large number of supporters in no time."

This is Argo's speculation, although it's highly likely that's exactly what they did.

"That guy actually did something like that!" Lisbeth's exclamation silenced everyone. She quickly waved her hand, "I'm not saying he wasn't wicked."

"Asuna?" Mito noticed that Asuna hadn't spoken since earlier and seemed to be struggling with something, so she asked.

"Ah, um..." Asuna stared intently at Mito's face, trying hard not to look away. "Does Ya-Oh still think he's doing the right thing?"

"Who knows? But that guy is no longer relevant to us." Dante crossed his legs and shifted his weight backward. "As expected, we can't leave the SAO conquest to some insects; we have to rely on ourselves."

He gently raised his head, his face cold and resolute. "We'll break through to the fifth floor this afternoon."

"Huh?" The girls were stunned.

Can they defeat the boss with just a few people?

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

Dante and Asuna head to the shop recommended by Argo to purchase a large quantity of potions; the trip involves only Dante and Asuna.

Mitt and Liz were reinforcing everyone's metal armor as much as possible, while Silica and Lingyin were handing over their cloth armor to Ashura for reinforcement.

"Everyone seems to be having a good time." Asuna observed the expressions of the players on the street, who were chatting and laughing as they prepared to go about their business.

A team of five players, carrying weapons, seemed to be heading out of the safe zone for a hunt; each of them was full of energy.

"So we need to quickly take down the boss on the fifth floor, so that even if everyone hears about the heavy losses suffered by the Aincrad Alliance, they will only think it was a minor setback."

"Can we really succeed on our own?" Asuna asked, taking small steps close to Dante.

“The earlier phases of the boss have special mechanics to deal with. But in the final phase, its weakness is the crest on its head, which can only be easily attacked by players with high agility…” He pointed to Asuna, “and those with ranged weapons, such as the kusarigama used by Mito.”

"Otherwise, relying solely on foot-striking attacks would hardly reduce the Boss's remaining HP." This is also why the Aincrad Alliance fled, because they truly had no other options.

"The Boss's HP must have dropped by half yesterday," Asuna thought, recalling the Boss's HP when it was standing still.

"Yes."

Then Asuna suddenly remembered that they and Lind's people could have taken advantage of the situation to attack the Boss, as they had enough numbers. She voiced this idea.

"No, if we really did it, I think some people would hold a grudge, thinking that the fruits of their huge sacrifices were easily stolen by some people."

Dante had no doubt about the diversity of players; there would always be players like that.

"So we'll prove our strength with indisputable facts." Clenching his fist, Dante turned to Asuna and smiled. "Don't worry, we can win with our strength. And thanks to you, I feel like I'm in top form today."

"..." Asuna's cheeks suddenly became burning hot, even though she knew the other person was probably referring to getting some rest or getting a good rest.

However, she couldn't help but think about other aspects.

"Ahem—" she coughed lightly twice and said casually, "Me too, with you by my side, I feel like I can fall asleep right away."

"Then come find me next time you can't sleep," Dante said in a gentle voice, giving Asuna a tender smile.

"..." That smile was so captivating that Asuna couldn't respond with a simple joke.

She turned her head slightly over her shoulder, a smile playing on her lips, concealing her true thoughts as she gently averted her gaze.

"Next...next time?"

Chapter 132: The Meaning of the Flag

"..." Considering that Asuna probably doesn't go online often in real life, Dante figured that's roughly what she meant.

"Could it be that shop?" Asuna raised her finger and pointed to the shop with a wooden sign on the door that had a potion pattern on it.

“This is the right shop.” Dante walked over and pushed open the door, and the bell on the inside jingled.

The NPC shop assistant standing at the counter would greet you with the usual "Welcome, swordsman."

However, this shop does not have such a setting. According to Argo, the owner of this shop, located on the fifth floor, "Karuruin," is actually a master potion maker. The master has a slightly eccentric personality and, coupled with sufficient capital, is like the taciturn blacksmith in the dark elf camp on the third floor who only "hums" and believes that there is no need to improve the service.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

Currently, this is the only place where you can buy level 2 potions in small quantities, because probably no player has learned the "Blend" skill and raised its proficiency to 100 yet.

This shop is not just for buying potions; players who have learned the "Blending" skill can also receive special quests related to that skill from here.

When Dante and Asuna entered the store, there were four figures with their backs to them standing behind the counter, discussing something.

The colored markers above the four figures are green, just like them, indicating they are players. Above the markers are HP bars and their guild crests.

The emblem is a black background with a gold letter Q, resembling an English letter. In fact, the other side can also see the beautiful violet emblem from their side.

Player names are generally not displayed, so the simplest way to find out someone's name is to introduce themselves.

Neither Dante nor Asuna made any attempt to suppress their footsteps, but the four people with their backs to them didn't react or turn around to see who had entered the store.

Of course, the main reason is probably because these people are having a lively conversation.

"We should buy less, Cor is running low," suggested the reliable-looking female scimitar.

“No, we’ll be eating and sleeping in the castle anyway, so we don’t need to spend any money,” the two-handed swordsman said, sounding a bit frivolous.