Chapter 54: Strea

Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew out as Shinji blocked the incoming blades at him. As he blocked, he performed a counterattack by stabbing his spear nimbly on the skeletons' forehead. It didn't take long before he pierced through each skull, earning him a kill every few seconds.

He didn't mind the incoming arrows as he used his aura to fully enhance his legs, allowing him to dodge the most of them with ease. Still, some of the arrows cut through his armor due to his inexperience in crowd control.

Clang!

Just as he used his spear to block one of the unavoidable arrows, a small skeleton wielding a pair of daggers rushed at him. Thankfully, his instincts reacted in time and struck it with the edge of the spear's shaft.

Bam!

With a quick thrust, he promptly depleted its HP points to 0.

[Private] Shiro: "Control, Shinji-kun. Check and prioritize who you'll deal with first."

After seeing this message, he realized something and decided to change his fighting style. Even when three skeletons are around his reach, he didn't stab them first and sensed his enemies first. Once he saw that there's no skeletons that could quickly bypass his strike zone easily, he began doing what he did before.

Psssh!

He dodged the longsword that came at him and countered with his own attack, ending its life in one blow. Then, he suddenly swung it to the right.

With the momentum that he gathered and the aura enhancement that he placed, Shinji managed to shatter its skull.

'It's a little bit overwhelming already.'

Shinji thought as he slowly led the aggro'ed monsters away from others. As he did so, he attracted more skeletons, but he finally managed to lure them away to the point that no more new monsters were added to the fray.

"Thirty enemies... I can do this..!"

******

Shiro looked at the panting Shinji as he walked back to the starting point. Since it served as safe area of sorts, they used it as a resting area.

"You alright?"

"Yes, I'm good."

Shinji sat down in the floor as he tried to catch some breath.

"How's fighting against many enemies?"

"It's... hard. Sometimes, their attacks pass through my defense. There's also some unexpected moments like a small skeleton almost stabbing daggers in my chest..."

"In the end, it should be your lack of experience. Without a superior reaction time, you can only try to make less mistakes."

With a superior reaction time, their room for errors is much higher due to them being able to react quickly and fix that mistake. Meanwhile, those without it can only try their best to make less mistakes since their room for errors is lower.

Sometimes in the battlefield, the latter's single mistake could result to their death while the former would be able to avoid such deaths thanks to their fast reaction speed.

Shiro began pointing out his mistakes one by one as he'd seen him fight through the video call. Since this dungeon is far too big, he's more than a hundred meters away from the starting point when he fought.

"Shiro."

"What's the matter?"

"They've exhausted their power of darkness."

Shiro stared blankly at the direction that she pointed, only to see the huge hallway void with monsters that are supposed to have spawned by now.

"Seriously... It turned into a normal dungeon..?"

In the dungeons that he cleared before, the monsters would only respawn after he cleared it once. That's the reason why he rejoiced upon the fact that this dungeon isn't normal.

"Looks like it's telling us to clear it like a normal dungeon. Doctor Kal'tsit."

"Mn..?"

"Can Monst3r act as a tanker?"

"It's alright."

"Then... Kuroneko would defend the flank together with Shinji. Lastly, Shino would be in the middle, serving as the long-ranged dealer. Is that alright?"

"I have no complaints."

"Fine by me."

Kuroneko and Shino agreed to this arrangement. After forming a 5-man party, they started pushing through the dungeon. It wasn't particularly challenging now that five of them are here.

It's more or less a massacre instead...

Shiro spearheaded the front using the <<Skill Connect>> a <<Outside Skill>> where a player takes advantage of the post-motion delay to cast another sword skill, allowing them to use these skills continuously. Kal'tsit is right beside him, using her light rapier to kill three or more skeletons at once with a calculated strike.

Meanwhile, Shinji and Kuroneko took care of the mobs that could pass through them. Sometimes, they helped at the front using a dagger throw or an aura blade.

Lastly, Shino stretched her bow to the fullest to deal the greatest damage to them. With the other four guarding her, she could do this easily, thus turning her into a well-protected missile launcher. Unfortunately, there wasn't any <<Two-Handed Bow>> skill in Aincrad which prevented her from empowering her attacks.

Though, she took the skill <<Blade Throwing>> as her main to complement this disadvantage of hers.

The group took some time before they saw a plaza-like area. In the corners of it are four torches that bore some kind of red markings in their body.

"A safe area..."

"This should be in the depths of a labyrinth." Kuroneko commented.

In Sword Art Online, there are two types of dungeons, namely the Labyrinth and the sub-dungeons (which is often called as 'dungeons'). The former is a tower-like place that connects each floors on their ends. When the players reach the top of it, they have to defeat a floor boss before going to the next floor.

On the other hand, sub-dungeons are like the normal dungeons in a RPG that disappears after being cleared once. There are also sub-dungeons that doesn't disappear no matter how many times you clear them.

"Shiro."

"What's..."

Just as Kal'tsit called out to him silently, he felt a gaze behind his back. Presumably, she must've felt this. He made an eye contact with Kuroneko and she nodded, too.

"Shinji, can you do it?"

"Yes." Shinji nodded as he also felt the stare not far behind them. When he sneakily took a peek, he saw no one, but he trusted his instincts more after his training.

He briefly disappeared on spot, causing confusion to Shino who didn't feel it.

The "person" watching them from the back was puzzled when one of them disappeared in front of her own eyes, but she only felt the cold blade being pointed at the back of her neck.

"Don't move."

"Ehe... You got me."

As the girl cancelled her optical camouflage, her appearance was soon revealed to them. Their 'stalker' has lavender hair that goes down to her neck, with two long strands on both sides of her head.

Her eyes has a similar crimson color when Kuroneko has her contacts on, but with an addition of purple in it. She wore a strapless lilac dress coupled with an intricate coat on top of it.

Overall, you wouldn't associate her with any other players due to her outfit.

They soon approached her before Shiro began asking questions.

"Who are you?"

"Me? You can call me... Strea."

'Strea?' He tried recalling this name, but to no avail. He didn't remember reading about her in the light novel canon.

"Shiro, she doesn't have a color cursor."

"Then... she's not a player."

The moment Shiro spoke out his speculation, shock was visible in Strea's face.

"You are very sharp!" She said with a cheerful tone. It's as if she didn't mind the spear being pointed behind his back.

Clearing her throat, she began talking about her identity.

"Good day, players. I am Strea-MHCP002, the second mental health counseling program created to monitor the players' wellbeing. You can call me Strea!"

*****

Fact #14: Infected (Patients of oripathy) has varying mind-related problems. It ranges from the severe headaches to DID (Basically a split personality). As for the reason why they have such problems? It's not explained in the canon, but you know a thing or two about the HP Lovecraftian Outer Gods, right? Mental pollution is what they specialize the most...