LONG TIME NO SEE. WHERE ARE YOU NOW? I wrote simply.
Just fifteen seconds later, he replied.
IT’S A PLEASURE TO HEAR FROM YOU. I’M COLLECTING RELICS IN THE DUNGEON BENEATH THE CITY.
I pumped my fist and thanked my lucky stars that the relic-hunting festival was still ongoing in Karluin.
“I’m going back to the main city to meet Nezha. Asuna, can you get in touch with Agil, Shivata, and Liten?”
“M-me?”
“Your Persuasion skill is a lot higher than mine.”
“Uh, it is…? Hey, there’s no such skill in the game!” she pouted, even as she brought up her holo-keyboard. Meanwhile, Argo smirked.
“And what should I be doin’, Kii-boy?”
“I want you to stock up on consumables for us. Budgeting isn’t a variable here, so just get as many of the good potions as you can.”
I brought up a trade window and sent Argo more than enough money for the trip, then left the café.
The underground tunnel that connected Mananarena with the main town of Karluin had a fair amount of monsters and treasure, so the trip might take an hour or two for a party battling its way through, but that time could be compressed significantly by a single player racing through it.
It took me just over twenty minutes to finish the three-mile route, evading groups of monsters and dispatching singles with a good thrusting sword skill. I emerged into the large waiting room on the first basement level of the dungeon and searched for Nezha.
Before I could spot him, I heard someone call “Kirito!” from behind me. No sooner had I turned around than my hand was being clasped warmly.
“It’s been so long. I’m happy to see you again!” said the very same blacksmith—well, former blacksmith—I’d met on the second floor. But unlike before, there was no shadow of timid fright in his smile.
I couldn’t help but grin and squeeze back. “It’s good to see you, too, Nezha…or should I call you Nataku?”
The other man’s smile dimpled shyly as he said, “No, just Nezha is fine. My companions still call me Nezuo, anyway.”
“Oh…they do?”
I glanced around the chamber, but caught no sight of the other Legend Braves. Nezha let go and looked up.
“I was doing the whole relic hunt thing with the guild, but they went back up into town first.”
“Ahh…”
That was a relief; I felt bad about it, but I was planning to ask him to do that anyway. We wanted as many people as possible, but given that we forced them to give up their powerful gear to make amends, it wouldn’t be fair to make them fight a deadly boss now.
“…Anyway, sorry about the sudden message.”
“No, not at all. What did you want to discuss?” Nezha asked curiously. I tugged his arm to move him to a corner of the room. The base camp for relic hunting wasn’t as packed as when the town first opened, but there were still a good dozen players hanging around.
Once we were a safe distance away, I kept my voice low and got right to the point.
“Nezha…I hate to be so abrupt about this, but I need to ask you a favor.”
“Anything, as long as it’s something I can do.”
“Okay, I’ll just say it…I want you to come help me beat the fifth-floor boss right now.”
Beneath his evenly parted bangs, his eyes grew as wide and round as thousand-col gold coins, and he sucked in a sharp breath. I clamped a hand over his mouth before he could shriek in shock.
“Mrrrgh?!”
Once the muffled yelp was over, I let go. The former blacksmith heaved a few deep breaths before turning on me with as quiet a bellow as he could manage.
“Wh-what are you talking about?! The two big guilds are the ones who manage the floor boss battles. Are you doing this with their knowledge?!”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Not at…”
I grabbed the speechless blacksmith’s shoulder and pulled him closer so I could explain.
“For reasons I won’t get into here, we need to beat that boss before the DKB and ALS. I’m not going to put you in direct danger. You just need to hang out in the back and hit the boss’s weak point at the right time…Please. Will you help us?”
“…”
He took a deep breath again, let it out slowly, then glanced down at his waist. On it hung a thin metal circle about eight inches across. It was a rare chakram that belonged to the Throwing Weapons category.
Fingers that had once gripped a hammer traced the side of the chakram instead. He clenched his fist and raised it to chest level.
“…They’re very important reasons, I assume?” he whispered. I nodded.
“That’s right. Important enough to determine the future of the frontline group…of SAO as a whole.”
“All right, then,” Nezha said, clapping me on the shoulder. “Since you seem to be in a hurry, I’ll let you explain as we go. Just lead the way.”
“…Thanks,” I said, and turned toward the stairs I’d just taken to get here.
It wasn’t as if I had no misgivings about this. Based on his gear, I estimated Nezha’s level at around 12 or 13. It wasn’t completely beyond the safety margin for fighting the fifth-floor boss, but it definitely wasn’t well above it, either.
I wasn’t planning to have Nezha front and center, of course. I wanted him to provide long-range attacks from the rear. The golem boss used physical attacks only with its limbs, so with enough distance, there was no worry about losing HP…
But the previous four bosses had taught me that in their battles, there were no absolute guarantees.
Illfang the Kobold Lord, boss of the first floor, used Katana skills that weren’t there in the beta to end the life of Diavel the knight.
Asterios the Taurus King, boss of the second floor, nearly wiped out the entire party with a lightning breath attack that had never been seen in the beta.
Nerius the Evil Treant, boss of the third floor, made use of a new wide-ranging poison attack that would have destroyed the raid if we hadn’t stocked up on tons of antidotes.
And Wythege the Hippocampus, boss of the fourth floor, flooded the boss chamber with water, which nearly drowned the entire raid.
It was clear that the golem boss of the fifth floor would also be different from the beta in some way. We needed to observe these details carefully ahead of time to eliminate all unexpected dangers. Now that we were bringing Nezha into this, “we didn’t notice” wasn’t going to cut it anymore.
“I’ve contacted my team. I should be fine for the rest of the day,” Nezha said after a long stretch of keyboard tapping. I looked at him closely—he really did look different than he had before.
“All right. Let’s go.”
9
IN A FOREST CLEARING A SHORT DISTANCE from Mananarena, the other members had already congregated ahead of us.
Thanks to Asuna’s formidable Persuasion skill, I saw Agil’s Bro Squad, Shivata, Liten, and one other player from each guild, wearing their respective colors. I’d asked the two of them to recruit members if possible, expecting it to be futile, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Nezha went off to pay his respects to Asuna and the others, so I approached Shivata’s group.
“Sorry for being so…”
“Late,” I was going to say, but the large DKB member with Shivata spun around ferociously and grabbed me by the collar.
“Hey there, Blackie,” said Hafner, a greatsword user and subleader of the DKB, calling me by a nickname that referred to my outfit. He leaned in with a menacing face that made me think of a soccer team member and growled, “I’m going to clobber you if it turns out that you’ve told a single lie about any of this.”
Setting aside the fact that the Anti-Criminal Code in town and the threat of going orange out of town prevented him from actually clobbering me at all, I nodded obediently. Shivata grabbed Hafner’s shoulder with an awkward smile and pulled him back.
“Haf, this idea came more from ou
r side. All Kirito offered was the info about the guild flag, and I don’t think he’s lying. Why would he? There’s nothing for him to gain by it.”
“…Well, you might have a point there. But why would he put together such a dangerous plan? Does he have a good reason to keep the ALS from getting that flag thing?”
“Hang on,” I interrupted, waving my right hand to cut off the DKB officers. “First of all, the point of this operation isn’t just to keep the ALS from getting the guild flag. When the flag drops, we can’t give it to the DKB, either. If either guild gets the flag, it might spell the collapse of the other.”
It seemed that Shivata had explained this premise to Hafner already. The soccer player scowled but fell silent, so I took the opportunity to ask, “What about you, Hafner? Are you sure you should be taking part? We’re extremely grateful for your help, but as a subleader of the DKB, you’ll be betraying your own guild.”
Hafner ruffled his long blond hair, which was held back at the hairline by a string, and grumbled, “Yeah, I’m not thrilled about it, but beating the game comes first…and we need both the DKB and ALS to get out of this shitty MMO. I can’t betray the thousands below who are waiting for freedom, even if it means betraying Lind and my guild. That’s why you’re here, too, right?”
That last question was directed toward Liten and the other ALS member, who were standing a short distance away.
The midsized, mid-build older man—he looked to be in his thirties—carrying a halberd on his back drew his faintly whiskered lips together and nodded.
“That’s right. Our plan to charge ahead is the reckless result of a few hard-liners playing on the fears of the officers. Kibaou knows that, but he was forced to approve the plan to keep the guild from fracturing. But if getting that flag means destroying the already-unstable relationship with the DKB, then it means nothing,” the halberdier said calmly. He walked over to me and stuck out his hand. “We’ve met a few times in boss battles. I’m Okotan, the leader of the ALS’s recruiting team. Good to work with you, Kirito.”
“Uh…th-thanks for being here…”
I was momentarily surprised by the name, which was rather cute for a scruffy-faced dandy like him, but I recovered in a timely enough fashion to shake his hand.
However, a thought occurred to me.
“So if you’re the head recruiter, does that mean you were the one who scouted Liten for the guild…?”
“Yes, that was me.”
The look on his face as he turned back to appraise the plate-armored macer was fatherly. It made me wonder if he realized Liten and Shivata were a couple, but that wasn’t for me to bring up.
With our greetings out of the way, Hafner slapped me heartily on the back.
“Well, Blackie, me and Oko have explained our motives to the group. Before we get this shindig on the road, why don’t you tell the group why you’re leading the charge?”
“Wh-what?”
I tore my eyes away from the soccer player and saw that Asuna, Argo, Nezha, Agil, and the Bros were all gathered around, waiting to hear my answer. There was no escape. I cleared my throat.
“Well, it’s the same as Hafner and Okotan…and probably everyone else here. The ALS and DKB are the two wheels that run our progress forward through the game. If they aren’t attached by a center axle, or we lose one of the two, the whole cart grinds to a halt. I figure the only way to prevent that situation is to beat the boss before the ALS does…And that’s why I gathered you all here.”
Of course, that was barely half of my true motivation.
Okotan described the ALS’s plan as the rampage of a hard-line minority in the guild, but there was a darker side to the story he didn’t know about. There was an external evil that had infiltrated the guild and was fanning the flames of conflict with the DKB—the mysterious poncho man and his provocation-PK gang. Stopping them was my true motive.
But I couldn’t reveal that yet. Until I at least knew the names of the other members aside from Morte, bringing the subject up would only lead to distrust and paranoia within the guilds.
Fortunately, everyone aside from Asuna, who already knew the truth, seemed to be satisfied by the speech. Even Hafner, though disgruntled, nodded in agreement.
At that point, Liten raised her right hand with a clank, her features hidden once again by the metal visor. She spoke in that androgynous metallic echo.
“Um, Kirito, I’ve been meaning to ask you…if you’re so concerned about the state of the group, why don’t you join a guild? I’m certain that given your skill, you’d be placed as a party leader in either guild immediately…”
A murmur ran through the group. It was an honest question from someone new to the scene, but given that she probably didn’t even know the word beater, it would be very difficult to give a detailed explanation of the touchy situation between me, Kibaou, and Lind.
After about a second and a half of frantic thinking, I decided to lay the blame for that question at the feet of the two guild masters.
“Well, you see, Lind and Kibaou said that if me and Asuna were going to join guilds, we’d have to join them separately.”
Another murmur ran through the group, which gave me a brief moment of panic that I’d said something stupid. Red-faced, Asuna wailed, “Wh-why would you say that?!” and Liten followed with, “Ah yes, I understand…That’s beautiful!” Meanwhile, Agil bellowed with laughter and Argo cackled.
In the end, I wasn’t given the opportunity to plead my case against her misinterpretation.
By the time Argo had divvied up all the potions, and everyone had lent and borrowed gear until each slot had the highest stats possible, it was just getting to be three o’clock in the afternoon.
According to Okotan, the ALS would leave Mananarena for the tower—pretending to be leaving for the party in Karluin—at around six o’clock, which gave us a three-hour advantage. Even with a scouting run, it wouldn’t likely take three hours to fight the boss, so we had plenty of time. Still, it didn’t hurt to ration it carefully.
So I left Argo to be our guide and ran along at the back of the group with Asuna, jotting down a loose, estimated breakdown of the group according to level.
1. KIRITO, level 18, one-handed sword, leather armor
2. ASUNA, level 17, rapier, light metal armor
3. AGIL, level 16, two-handed ax, light metal armor
4. HAFNER, level 16, two-handed sword, heavy metal armor
5. SHIVATA, level 15, one-handed sword, heavy metal armor, shield
6. OKOTAN, level 15, two-handed halberd, light metal armor
7. WOLFGANG (Agil’s squad), level 15, two-handed sword, leather armor
8. LOWBACCA (Agil’s squad), level 15, two-handed ax, light metal armor
9. NAIJAN (Agil’s squad), level 14, two-handed hammer, heavy metal armor
10. LITEN, level 13, long mace, heavy metal armor, shield
11. NEZHA, level 12, chakram, light metal armor
12. ARGO, level unknown, claws, leather armor
“Hmmmm…”
It was a very short list for a floor boss raid party.
The path through the woods was lined with the bluish rock that made our group’s footsteps ring loudly, but Asuna still heard me mutter and looked over for clarification.
“What’s the ‘hmmm’ about?”
“Well…” I made the memo visible and showed it to her. “We need to figure out a formation before we get to the labyrinth tower, and I’m noticing that we have an awful lot of DPSs…”
“What’s a DPS?”
“It means damage dealer, an attacker. Out of the twelve on this list, me, you, Agil, Hafner, Wolfgang, Lowbacca, and Naijan are attackers—that’s more than half. Shivata and Liten are our only true tanks, and Okotan, Nezha, and Argo are CCs…”
“CC?”
“Crowd control, responsible for controlling the enemy mobs. These are mages in most other games, but since there’s no magic in SAO, it mostly comes down to using debuffing
sword skills that freeze or weaken monsters.”
“Ah, right. Most of the longer-reaching weapons have debuffing skills,” noted Asuna, who deftly crossed her arms to think, even as she ran, the momentum pulling her body forward. She murmured to herself the same way I had earlier.
“…It’s just two parties, so we can ask Shivata and Liten to be a tank in each, then split the DPS and CC between the two, right?”
“That would be the orthodox method. The thing is, the golem only has direct attacks with its hands and feet, but they’re all extremely powerful…The normal attacks are one thing, but even a shield isn’t going to stop the skill attacks. So we have to avoid them no matter what. Shivata’s experienced, but…”
“…But Liten just joined the guild, and it’s a bit scary to push such a difficult role on her,” Asuna finished. We groaned together, my arms crossed, too. I glanced at the list again.
Even with a simpler lineup of twelve total, there was no single correct answer. If it was a full raid of forty-eight, the possibilities were limitless. And Lind and Kibaou were doing this process for every floor and field boss.
That realization brought a wave of newfound respect for the two, but the goal here was to beat them to the punch. As we grumbled over the quandary, the dead forest around us thinned out, revealing a long stone wall snaking ahead.
Its length and breadth was on a scale that reminded me of the Town of Beginnings, but it was not a city on the other side of this fortification. Instead, it was the largest maze of the fifth floor, which had to be maneuvered before you could reach the labyrinth tower.
There were monsters, too, of course, so it would take more than a day or two to map it all out. However, as long as you solved a few environmental puzzles, you could take shortcuts on a virtual straight shot through the maze, and we had a helpful companion with us in that regard.
I unfolded my arms and sped up to catch Argo, who was at the head of the right column of the group.
“Um, Miss Argo, is there a map to…”
“The maze? You bet.”
I sighed in relief. The information broker glanced over at me and grinned. “And it’s piping hot an’ fresh, so it’s worth five thousand col, I reckon.”