Chapter 57: Where's the Boss?

"Are they-"

As soon as Asuna opened the door to the boss room, she and the rest are greeted by a huge "Congratulations!" prompt as they saw the brightly lit boss room.

On the side, Kirito wearily scanned the room

They could only be dumbfounded when they saw that the boss that they're about to clear was killed. Their eyes shifted to the two conspicuous players inside the room, the one with "fluffy" orange hair and a woman that has a length-waist purple hair.

"Ah..?"

Roman could only make a troubled face once he saw them. To be honest, these parties should've come here tomorrow morning. That's the main reason why they chose to clear this floor boss ahead of time.

In the end, the the trio's confusion were compressed into a single sentence, in which Asuna worded out for everyone else here.

"Who are you?"

*****

A few hours ago...

"Yo, Kii-boy! You wouldn't expect what I managed to find out jus' now!"

"Hey, Argo. What did you find that got you so excited?"

A hooded girl patted Kirito's shoulder as he sat down in contemplation. Under the street lights, the girl's facial features were revealed. She has brown eyes and curly blonde hair, but what made her looks stand out is her red whisker-like paint.

Three of such whiskers are painted in both sides of her cheeks. These are the punishment mark during the <<Martial Arts>> acquisition quests, but she chose to retain them as a makeup of sorts instead.

"Truth is, I went out for a stroll in the labyrinth layers. Guess what did I find?"

"What is it?"

"There's no monsters."

Her reply managed to halt Kirito's thought processes for a second.

"You mean... Someone is trying to clear the labyrinth right now?!"

Kirito exclaimed in surprise since this is no different than committing suicide. The matter on the 25th Floor is already widespread, yet some still attempted to presumably clear the labyrinth with numbers!

"Did they choose this time since the planned date is tomorrow morning?"

"Maybe? Anyways, what would you do?"

Kirito went silent for a while as he thought of the possible ways of dealing with this.

"...If it's not too late, I can try stopping them."

"Yer heroic spirit, as always."

He only chose to not comment in that statement.

In actuality, he doesn't treat himself as such. He's not a hero of justice that would worry for the greater good, but he could help someone in need if he sees them. Though, he chooses to cover this up with "I'll feel uncomfortable if I let someone die in front of me."

"I need to message some people first. Thanks for the info, Argo."

"T'is not a big deal. Also, you think that I wouldn't come?"

"You're coming..?"

"Of course! I'm quite interested in their stupidity after all!"

Argo came up with a weird reply, but Kirito knew that she would've tried helping them. After all, she's the one who distributed the guidebook in the lower floors for free! Moreover, the income that she earns while doing brokerage work goes to this.

It's not an understatement that she's the walking charity herself. Even though she's the usual businesswoman that squeezed out the Cor out of the clearers' in-game wallets, this act of hers helped Sword Art Online to have lesser casualties.

"Alright."

After an hour and a half, Kirito and his group arrived in front of the boss room. Since this matter is urgent, he could only message a couple of people that are awake right now. He managed to contact Asuna, Klein, and Agil in the end.

"Man... We couldn't catch up."

"It's already been hours, you can't blame yourself."

Klein only sighed dejectedly while Agil comforted him.

The moment that they traversed the labyrinth, it is just as what Argo had said - there's no monsters up until to the boss room. However, the strength of these clearers could be seen here.

Since they can avoid the traps present in this labyrinth and fight against the monsters at the same time, they should possess enough strength to challenge the boss.

"Hey, Kirito-kun." Asuna called out to him, seemingly confused with something.

"Yes?"

"Which guild do you think it is?"

"I... don't know."

When the guilds in the front lines were formed, Kirito knew about their notable players. Still, he couldn't guess who's behind this attack since the other guilds fall under the number one guild, the Knights of the Blood. Their guild master, Heathcliff, is the current highest levelled player at level 49.

Their level average is also the highest out of all guilds, too.

"Don't think too much. We'll know the answer once the door is opened."

"Argo's right. I'll open it now."

Asuna decided to open the door once and for all. Just like any other labyrinths, they were easily opened after pushing it with a considerable amount of force.

This time, bright lights greeted them, as opposed to the supposed dim and dark boss room when no players are present. This made the group slightly relieved since this is a sign that the players inside are still fighting against the boss.

However, what greeted them is not the boss' attack nor the shouts of the players, but silence. In the middle of the boss room are two players who stood still, seemingly checking out the fight log.

Both of them wore light armor that has a noticeably high quality. When one looked closely, they shone in rainbow light.

The woman has a two-handed spear behind her back while the man wielded a one-handed sword in his waist.

"Ah..?"

It didn't take long before the man, Roman, finally noticed their presence. At that moment, he knew that things would be slightly troublesome - well, maybe more troublesome.

"Who are you?"

Asuna could only voice out her doubts by asking this question. Not only her, but the rest of them are filled with doubts.

"Did your party members... die?" Kirito asked. If his thoughts are right, they would've sustained heavy casualties during the boss battle. After all, it is not uncommon to happen in the early days.

Fortunately, his conjectures were outright denied the next moment.

"Die? No, you're mistaken." Roman faced them completely as he saw Kouzuki's message in the chat group. "We're the only ones here."

"Excuse me?"

When they heard his response, they could only be shocked. Meanwhile, Argo laughed out loud as she loudly said, "Good joke! This is the first time that I heard this!"

Of course, that is mixed with sarcasm. The next moment, her expression turned serious.

"How many people did die due to that foolishness?"

"Sigh..." Romani could only sigh dejectedly since he long knew that they wouldn't believe his words.

Suddenly, he took out a blue crystal from the guild's storage and held it in his hand.

"This is not the time to meet yet." He said as he muttered the command to use the teleport crystal. Soon after, they flashed with white light before disappearing in this room.

"...And there they go." Argo muttered, obvious dissatisfaction present in her face.

"They aren't from any known guilds."

"That's what I was about to say."

She affirmed Kirito's guess as the two players from earlier wasn't in any information that she knew. This could only mean one thing - they levelled up discreetly until they reached their current levels.

Which is of course, impossible to do. In fact, any player wouldn't be able to avoid meeting other players when playing this game.

"I was thinking about this just now, but... is there any possibility that what he said is true?" Asuna spoke out her thoughts. She saw the face of that man earlier, and it doesn't look like he's lying.

"No way! There's no way that could be true!" Klein is the first one to reject that.

"That is impossible, Asuna." Agil replied since he knew that it is outright impossible to challenge the boss with two players alone. This isn't something like the 1st floor boss, but the 26th floor one!

Their damage, lethality, and attack patterns are much complicated that before.

"Alright."

She knew that it is impossible, too. But... she felt that the man from before is being genuine. He's not similar to the other liars that she encountered before due to her father's high standing.

In the end, she could only have some guesses on what actually happened inside this room.

*****

A/N: Some correction on the fact 2 days ago. Actually, Patriot only withstood Oripathy for around 10 years tops. Still, that's without any inhibitors so he's still crazy strong...

Fact #17: Under the sea, there exists a country called Aegir (basically Atlantis). They are facing off some cthulhu-like monsters called "Seaborns". You can imagine them having black tentacles all over the place, which is strangely very outer god-like... Anyways, the main reason why these Aegir people, a race that has a strength similar to a strong human, fight this race is due to their supersoldier program. They implant the Seaborn's body (DNA and the likes) to an Aegir before they enlist them to fight. (MANTIS/Flamechasers, anyone?)