Chapter 5

"So, Yuuki, Jun and Tecchi are the close-ranged, Taruken and Nora

are mid-ranged and Shiune is support."

Asuna rested her chin on her hand, and looked around at the

geared Sleeping Knights. They wore light, ordinary clothes when they

introduced themselves yesterday, but now they've all changed into

Ancient-level equipment.

Like yesterday, «Absolute Sword» Yuuki had a black half-armor

and a narrow longsword equipped. The Salamander Jun was outfitted

with a copper-red full plate that did not match his short stature, and a

great sword almost as tall as him hung on his back.

The large Gnome Tecchi was similarly equipped with thick plate

armor and carried a large, door-like shield. His weapon was a heavylooking hammer with protrusions all around.

Taruken, the Leprechaun with glasses, wore a copper-yellow light

armor on his rickety body, his weapon was a terrifyingly long lance. To

his side stood the sister-like Spriggan Nora, equipped with comfortable,

nonmetallic armor and a long iron rod that almost touched the ceiling.

The only one who looked like a caster, the Undine Shiune wore a

cleric-styled, white and navy-blue robe, a hat which puffed out like a

cake, and carried a thin silver staff in her right hand. Overall, it was a

well-balanced party, but if something had to be said, it was slightly

weaker in the support department.

"As such, it'll probably be better if I join the back row."

Asuna decided to change her weapon to a short staff which

boosted magic. As she spoke, she took off her rapier along with the

sword belt on her waist, while Yuuki shrunk back apologetically.

"Sorry, Asuna. You have to linger in the back even though you're

such a good rapier user."

"No, I can't tank anyways. Comparatively, Jun and Tecchi will

need to get knocked around, so the two of you better be prepared."

She smiled mischievously, and looked towards the heavily

armored two. The largely physically different Salamander and Gnome

glanced at each other, and pounded their chests at the same time.

"Ye-yeah, leave it to us!"

Hearing Jun's high-spirited yet stammered words, all of them

laughed out cheerfully.

January 8th, 2026. Wednesday.

It was the last day of Winter vacation. Asuna had agreed to go to

the inn at the 27th floor's main block «Ronbaru» at 1 pm and meet the

Sleeping Knights once again. Naturally, their goal was to challenge the

boss in the deepest part of the dungeon together.

Asuna understood that they had greater expectations for her to

provide a strategy which made good use of everyone's talents instead

of just statistical fighting ability. Yuuki and the others were all

probably equal or better than Asuna in pure strength. However, Asuna

had knowledge and experience which they lacked.

Right now, she first had to confirm the details on everyone's

builds and equipment, and decide on a basic formation.

Deciding to join the back row, Asuna opened her item window,

unequipped her rapier, placed it inside and exchanged it with a staff. It

had the appearance of a branch, and there were even leaves at the tip.

Although it looks rather shabby from just a glance, in truth, it was a

branch taken from the very top of the World Tree. In order to obtain it,

one must escape the ferocious attacks of a giant guardian dragon.

"Then,"

Asuna says as she taps the floor with her wand.

"Let's go take a look at the Boss room!"

They exited Ronbaru's inn together and took off into the

perpetual night.

As expected of the Sleeping Knights, all of them were capable of

voluntary flight, and Asuna once again admired the smoothness of

their actions. They didn't seem like people who've just transferred over

to ALO at all. Rather than simply being accustomed to VRMMOs, she

had to say that they were highly adept at its root, the Full Dive

technology. It's true that there'd be a very small number of players

who were like that, but despite her vast gaming experience, she only

knew very few personally.

What kind of events caused the formation of the guild, to bring

together 6 people like this. Thinking about it, today was January 8th,

and people start going to school or work in general. Asuna's school had

relaxed lesson plans so the third semester didn't start until tomorrow,

but normally, it should be rather difficult to get all 6 members of the

guild to meet up on a day like this.

Putting their outstanding strength into consideration, it'd be

reasonable to come to the conclusion that they're an extremely

obsessed group which spent everything they had on the game.

However, Asuna felt that this wasn't the case. On the Sleeping Knights'

faces, she didn't see the intense self-depreciation which those guilds

couldn't erase. All of them enjoyed the game extremely naturally.

Asuna thought about the kind of people they were in real life

which was something which she never cared about in the past. Yuuki,

who was flying in front, cried out in her usual, spirited voice while

Asuna was thinking.

"I can see it, the dungeon!"

Looking intently, opposite the unbroken rows of mountains, a

large tower can be seen. The cylindrical tower extends upwards

towards the bottom of the next floor. Many crystal hexagonal prisms

about the size of small houses stretched out from the base of the tower,

hazily illuminating the tower with a blue phosphorescence. At the

bottom of the tower, the entrance to the dungeon opened suddenly,

leading into the darkness.

They stopped and hovered for a moment, checking for the

silhouettes of monsters or other parties around the entrance.

Of course, she has already informed Lisbeth and the others about

today's «Sudden Boss Raid». They were all shocked when they heard

about «Absolute Sword»'s unexpected request, but they also

volunteered to help immediately. Asuna was very glad, but their

ultimate goal was to create a final memory together. Since that was the

case, it was better not to stir things up too much. Her friends

immediately understood her considerations and filled her inventory to

the limit with potions they owned before watching her leave.

Kirito, wearing a profound expression since the beginning of the

incident, seemed to be deep in thought for an instant, but still

encouraged her with a smile and helped persuade Yui not to follow her.

In a certain sense, Asuna aiding another guild could be considered an

act of betrayal, but her friends still cheered her on. In her heart, Asuna

once again thanked those friends of hers, and slowly descended

towards the dungeon.

The six of them landed on the slate-gray ground, and looked up at

the giant tower. It was completely different from when they were

overlooking it from above; it was almost as though they were going to

be overwhelmed.

"... Then, like we've discussed, let's try our best to avoid fights

with normal mobs and advance."

As Asuna spoke, the faces of Yuuki and the others tensed as they

nodded silently. They stretched their hands towards their waist or

behind their back, and unsheathed their weapons with a clink.

The Undine Shiune, who was skilled in magic, lifted her silver

staff and cast several buffs successively. The bodies of the seven of

them were enveloped in light, and several status icons lit up to the

right below their HP bars. After that, the Spriggan Nora cast a spell,

providing all of them with night vision. Asuna had also learned a

couple of buffs, but Shiune's skill level was higher, so she left it to her.

After their preparations were completed, they once again glanced

at each other and nodded. They entered the dungeon, starting with

Yuuki in the van.

Shortly after going through the entrance, the natural cave gave

way to a slate tiled, man-made tunnel. The surrounding temperature

also dropped noticeably, the cold, humid air brushing against Asuna's

skin. They'd toiled over this back in SAO as well, but the interiors of the

dungeons were unreasonably large and the monsters' levels can't be

compared to those in the fields. In addition, like the dungeons on the

surface of Alfheim, you can't fly inside. Even though they've already

bought the map data from an information center, it'd still take them at

least three hours until they reach the boss room.

— This was what she expected, however.

When in just a little over an hour, the giant door appeared before

her eyes at the end of a corridor, Asuna was once again left speechless

at their strength. Each of them had a good level of combat ability, but

what was even more remarkable was their cooperation. Without even

a single word, with just a single raised hand or a single movement from

Yuuki's small body, they'd stop when they should stop, and charge

when they should charge. Basically, Asuna only had to follow along at

the back of the party. They only had three encounters with mobs, and

under Asuna's direction, they easily lost them by killing the leader in

an instant and throwing the rest of the mob into confusion.

Dumbstruck, Asuna whispered to Shiune as they headed through

the corridor towards the Boss room.

"Am I... really necessary? It feels like there's almost nothing left

for me to help you with."

Shiune widened her eyes and shook her head hard.

"No, that isn't the case. Due to Asuna-san's directions, we didn't

step into a trap even once and had fairly few battles. We fought the

enemies we've encountered directly the previous two times, and we

ended up expending quite a lot by the time we got to the Boss room."

"... That's great... —Hey, Yuuki, stop."

Hearing Asuna's slightly raised voice, the three vanguards

stopped walking immediately.

They were over halfway across the corridor leading to the Boss

room, and the details of the terrifying decorations on the stone door

can already be seen. On the two sides of the corridor stood pillars at

regular intervals, but no monsters could be seen in their shadows.

Facing Yuuki and Jun who turned around in surprise, Asuna

brought her index finger to her lips as she stared at the space opposite

to the final pillar to the left.

The only source of illumination in the corridor came from the

blue flames in the braziers at the top of the pillars. Even with Nora's

night vision magic, it was still difficult to notice slight movements in

the wavering shadows on the stone walls. However, intuitively, Asuna

felt that something in her range of sight was wrong.

Asuna signalled them to move back and raised the staff in her

right hand. She quickly formed a rather long spell, her left hand held up

to chest-level with her palm faced upwards.

As Asuna finished chanting, five transparent-blue fish with winglike fins appeared in the palm of her hand. She raised them to her face,

and gently blew them in her target direction.

Immediately, the fish sprung forth one by one, swimming through

the air in a straight line. This was a summon used against concealment

spells,『Searcher』. The five fish fanned out radially, and among them,

two entered the flickering air Asuna was locked on to.

Blue lights scattered with a pop. The searchers perished, and

inside the flickering air appeared a green membrane which swiftly

melted and disappeared.

"Ah!"

Yuuki cried out in shock. Three players suddenly appeared

opposite of the pillar, where there was nothing just a while ago.

Asuna quickly took another look. Two Imps, one Sylph, all of them

lightly armed and equipped with daggers. Despite that, the grade of

their weapons were rather high. She wasn't familiar with them, but she

recognized the guild emblem displayed beside the pointer. A horse

next to a shield. This was the emblem of the large, well-known guild

that continuously cleared the dungeons past the 23rd floor.

In dungeons, it's inappropriate to hide when there were

obviously no monsters around. Common sense dictates that this was

meant for PKing. Asuna raised her staff once again in order to guard

against ranged attacks, and to her side, Yuuki and the party members

also readied their weapons.

However, contrary to their expectations, one of the three

hurriedly raised a hand and yelled out.

"Stop, stop! We don't want to fight!"

Asuna feeling that his anxiety wasn't an act, lowered her guard

and shouted back.

"Then, please sheath your sword!"

The three glanced at each other, and immediately returned their

various daggers back to their sheaths. Asuna turned slightly towards

Shiune and whispered.

"If they intend to pull out their weapons again, immediately cast

«Aqua Bind»."

"I understand. Uwa, this is my first time PVPing in ALO. I'm really

nervous."

Rather than nervous, Shiune and the others' eyes shined with

excitement. With a faint, bittersweet smile, Asuna turned towards the

trio, slowly walked a few steps closer and said.

"If you're not PKing.... For what purpose did you hide?"

After glancing at each other once again, the Imp which appeared

to be the leader replied.

"We're waiting to meet up. It'd be troublesome if we got attacked

by mobs before our companions arrives, so we hid."

"..."

Although it sounded reasonable, she couldn't shake off the feeling

that something was odd. Concealment spells consumed mana at a

significant rate while in use, so expensive potions must be used every

few seconds. Moreover, if they managed to get to the deepest part of

the dungeon, they shouldn't have any need to avoid battles with

monsters.

However, she couldn't find a larger flaw in their words. Even

though they could kill them and remove any potential problems,

getting into a dispute with a large guild would lead to various

problems in the future.

Asuna swallowed her doubt, and nodded slightly.

"Understood. — We're here to challenge the Boss. If your side

isn't ready yet, can we go and challenge it first?"

"Ah, of course."

She originally thought that they'd try to dissuade them from

challenging the Boss, but unexpectedly, the thin Imp answered

immediately. He waved towards his two companions and the three of

them retreated back beside the door.

"We'll wait here for our companions. Well, good luck, and

farewell."

The Imp smiled and signaled towards his Sylph companion. The

Sylph nodded once, raised his hands and began to cast a spell in a

practiced manner.

Immediately, a green vortex whirled up at the caster's feet,

enveloping the three of them. When the green swirl faded out and

swayingly vanished soon afterwards, nobody could be seen there

anymore.

"..."

Asuna looked once again in the direction of the hidden players,

but promptly shrugged and turned around to face Yuuki. Despite the

tense conversation just now, the girl with the alias Absolute Sword did

not look at all afraid, her large, purple eyes sparkling as she looked

towards Asuna with her head tilted.

"... Anyways, as planned, let's go and take a look inside.."

With that said, Yuuki smiled happily and nodded.

"Yes, we're finally going! Let's do our best, Asuna!"

"Don't say things like 'taking a look inside', let's charge in and

blast him away."

In reply to what Jun said somewhat imposingly, Asuna can only

smile and say.

"Yes, of course that's the ideal result, but you don't need to use

expensive items to recover. It's fine as long as you try your best within

my and Shiune's healing range, understand?"

"Yes, teacher!"

Asuna jabbed Jun's forehead as he jokingly replied, and turned

around to look at the other five people in turn as she continued to

speak.

"Even if you die, don't immediately respawn in town. Stay and

take a good look at the Boss' attack patterns. If we get wiped, we'll

return to Ronbaru's save point together. — And our formation: Jun and

Tecchi will focus on tanking in the very front, occasionally using

provoke to generate hate. Taruken and Nori will attack from the two

sides. Yuuki will attack freely and flank the Boss if possible. Finally,

Shiune and I will provide support from the back."

"Understood."

As their representative, Tecchi responded with a deep voice.

After Shiune swiftly renewed all their buffs, the two vanguards

moved forward. Tecchi raised the tower shield in his left hand,

shouldered the hammer in his right, stood side by side with Jun in front

of the giant door and turned around and glanced at Asuna.

Asuna nodded in reply, and Jun who was similarly shouldering his

greatsword held his empty left hand against the door, hunched his

shoulder and pushed.

The two black, polished stone doors creaked in resistance for an

instant, and a thundering rumble rang through the entire corridor as it

slowly opened up towards the two sides. Inside was a complete

darkness—

Just when she thought that, right next to the door, two braziers

kindled with pale white flames followed soon after by two more to the

left and right. With a slight delay, innumerable flames lit up tracing a

circle. This light show is universal to all floors, starting from when the

first brazier is lit and going until the Boss appears can be considered

preparation time for the raiders.

The Boss room was completely circular. Its floor was paved with

polished black stones and it was fairly open. On the innermost wall was

the door which concealed the stairs that lead to the next floor.

"— Let's go!"

The instant Asuna shouted, Jun and Tecchi charged into the room.

The remaining five also followed and took action immediately.

Right when everyone arrived at their designated positions and

readied their weapons — large, coarse polygons surged out from the

center of the room. The black cube-like polygons clashed and

combined to form a giant humanoid silhouette, uneven shapes formed

at the edges as the amount of information increased continuously.

Finally, innumerable fragments scattered in the air and the Boss

materialized.

A black giant over four meters in height. On its muscle-filled body

grew two heads and four arms, and in each of its hands was a savagelooking blunt weapon.

The giant stepped forward, and the room immediately shook as

though there was an earthquake. Compared to its lower body, its upper

body was irregularly large; yet even though its entire body was

inclined forward, its head was still considerably far above Asuna and

the others.

It looked at the intruders disdainfully out of the corners of its four

glowing-red eyes and let out a brutal roar. The upper arms held two

battering ram like hammers high, and the two lower arms swung a

thick chain strong enough to anchor a cruiser at the floor—