Chapter 37: Meeting and the Boss Raid.

A month passed by and 2000 players had already lost their lives. Frost and Dragon knew that finding a dungeon would be troublesome, so they spent the time grinding their skills and levels. Both of them had decided to choose the dark warrior look, where Dragon went with the assassin vibe and Frost decided on the samurai vibe.

Dragon had chosen to use swords and daggers, he specialized in the hunting sub profession, with sneaking, tracking, infiltration, and assassination build. He, a veteran assassin back in his world felt like a fish in water with this build. [pic here.]

While Frost went with the samurai vibe, he chose blacksmithing as his sub-profession and used a Polearm with Kusarigama. Being taught by Madoka herself, he could proudly say that he was a warrior who was worth his salt. They would bring the dungeons and Frost would practice with the materials.

Both of them were on the top five of the leaderboards and selling the practice products gave them a pretty loud name in the game, but no one knew how either of them looked, because of their covered faces nor did they have any conversation with them other than strict business.

Everyone knew that those two were a duo, for they would always be found together and the weapons and gear they sell have the Frost Dragon mark on them.

But the ones who had seen them in battle feared them more than the monsters, Frost was a suicidal battle maniac, he would fight like a mad man, but no one could ever doubt his strength or skill in his craft. While Dragon on the other hand was a sneaky fellow, he was in charge of watching Frost's back and assisting him with the kills.

One charged and the other supported, and the duo became infamous. Why 'infamous'?

That was because they never gave a shit to anyone no matter who they were, Frost was like his name, cold and uncaring, while Dragon was a bit more outspoken, mostly sarcastic, but he did the speaking part for the two.

Other than that, they would never be found, simply owing to their masked and cloaked appearances that hide their face and forms. The first public gathering they attended was the meeting held by a few players led by Diabel, who found the boss room on the First Floor.

The blue-haired man started off with a joke and quickly returned back to the point. As he was done speaking an orange head disrupted him and started horsing about beta testers and how they should apologize and reimburse the players because of the deaths caused by their supposed negligence.

Most of them looked at the two cloaked figures and whispered with gazes filled with angst. Dragon just stood up and spoke in his modified heavy voice, "you pathetic bunch expect handouts from others when you should earn them yourself, and let me tell you something, 1000 selected for the beta test were noobs who did not even know how to level up. So, stop pointing fingers and start grinding."

"Easy for you to say, you know all the good spots and quests to level yourselves up easily," he complained indignantly.

"We were not in the beta test, he makes things because he can make things IRL and as for the information we have, that's all from this booklet. Did you not get it, it was a free item right?" Dragon answered calmly.

"So, we are just like you bunch. We are strong because we are doing all that we can to get back home. Either help with that or just shove your hands up your ass and wait for us to clear the game. Just to motivate you chums a bit, you see Frost here, he was a chef who just got out of the culinary equivalent of High School, and I on the other hand was a lazy guy he dragged into a bartending till I started liking it to do it by myself."

"See, we are not that different from you guys at all, that orange dimwit just wants to rally you noobs to get the good stuff he never worked for, while causing a rift between the high rankers and you guys. Just lock him up if he tries this again, for he won't be merciful again." Dragon said while pointing at Frost.

A simple mind game to get them to relax, revealing information that was of little to no value to get their trust and attention followed by a little blame game to seal the deal with a good cop-bad cop routine. One had to say, Dragon was good in his craft.

"I won't be seeing things at half prices to you anymore and if I hear about this guy using something that I made, I will quadruple the prices for you all," Frost said in the same cold voice, just to make sure that the others would treat him like a plague, making him no longer capable of pulling stunts anymore.

"See, that's why I say don't mess with good people and if someone knows the members of Laughing Coffin, tell those guys we will not sell them a needle unless they trade us the paralyzing poison formula. See you guys at the Boss Raid." Dragon finished speaking and the two left the gathering, no one dared to talk back nor stop them.

The players settled down after the debacle and started making parties among themselves and the night was spent chatting and preparing for the Raid.

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In front of the Boss Room:

Diabel raised the morale of the Players and they all entered the Boss Room. Dragon and Frost took a wait and watch approach to this and just stood back as Illfang The Kobold Lord spawned with his Sentinels.

The players took on the Sentinels in duos and three squads dealt with the Boss Monster. The tank squad bolstered their defenses and tackled the attack and the attack squad switched in to deal damage. Rotating this method would surely be able to deal with the boss but it would follow the plot where Diabel would die and Kirito would go off alone naming himself a 'beater'.

Dragon and Frost had already dealt a blow to the troublemaker orange-head Kibou, so they just stood there watching what would happen now, if they let the things roll by themselves.

The boss changed the weapon on his last health bar and Diabel who was going in for the last hit was shot back like a broken doll after he was slashed by the monster.

Seeing this, Kirito and Asuna played their roles and finished the monster and the people started cheering as they received their rewards from the raid. Kibou being the attention whore he was, could not help himself to use the situation to regain his position by using Diabel's death as a sympathy factor.

He started blaming Kirito and the latter started behaving like an edge lord who claimed to be the best like he really was. Yes, he was the best one among the beta testers and the plot followed itself. So, despite minor interferences, the plot will follow itself unless something major happens.

Kirito disbanded the party with Asuna and left the room and the others were still going through an emotional turmoil. A clapping noise caught their attention, they looked back to see the hooded figures of Dragon and Frost.

"You sure you or someone close to you is not in politics?" came the sarcastic voice of Dragon.

"I seriously don't want to have anything to do with you idiots. We will no longer sell anything to you anymore. All business we do from now on will be with the Clearing Teams and Guilds, oh and solo and duos will also be entertained. Adios, you idiots, hope we never meet again." Dragon spoke and they left the room to go to the second floor.