-418- Significantly harder clearing

Floor 47, Floria.

When Rozen arrived at the Crimson Wing's guild base, a grand mansion adorned with gardens, almost all the guild members had gathered in the hall. They sat around circular tables in the hall, chatting and making noise as if at a party.

However, their expressions were serious and solemn, and the content of their conversations carried a sense of tragedy. It felt less like a party and more like a memorial service.

Rozen's arrival drew the attention of everyone in the room almost instantly. They all stood up.

"Guild Leader!"

"Guild Leader!"

"Guild Leader!"

Their reaction was akin to seeing their core figure.

Seeing this, Rozen couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, everyone. It's been a while."

His tone was as casual and lazy as ever, dispelling some of the tense atmosphere. The guild members showed expressions of helplessness as if saying,

"The Guild Leader is the same as always."

"Guild Leader, you haven't changed a bit."

"I can't decide if I should be angry or jealous."

"Really..."

The guild members complained one after another.

Rozen, however, ignored their comments and walked directly to a person sitting in a corner. This person silently watched Rozen approaching and showed a bitter smile.

"Long time no see."

The black-clothed dual-wielding swordsman greeted with a weary tone.

Seeing Kirito like this, Rozen couldn't resist teasing.

"It's been a while, and you look even more tired than me. Did something happen? Did Sachi and Lis met each other and you got caught?"

Upon hearing this, Kirito's expression, initially devoid of energy, stiffened slightly, and then he appeared uneasy.

This actually surprised Rozen.

"No way!" Rozen exclaimed. "Did something really happened?"

His tone, although seemingly concerned, carried an obvious curiosity and an interest in the gossip.

Kirito quickly clarified, "N-no, it's not like that! While we did meet, Sachi and Lis are getting along well.... I think."

As he spoke, Kirito's tone became less confident, and when he realized how he sounded, he hesitated.

Afterward, Kirito mustered some composure and said, "What do you mean by getting caught? I'm not like that! My relationship with Sachi and Lis is very..."

But Rozen impatiently interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, you have a very pure and friendly relationship, right?"

Rozen dismissed Kirito's protest with an unconvinced expression.

"You rascal," Kirito sighed in exasperation.

However, the weariness and bitterness on Kirito's face had disappeared. Rozen had achieved his goal, and he smiled.

"That's more like it. A mere Kirito should be in a position to be played with. It's too early for you to worry about things you shouldn't be responsible for."

Rozen said this with a smirk.

Kirito finally understood why Rozen had teased him right from the start. It was all to comfort him, wasn't it?

This thought was confirmed in the next moment.

"It looks like there's a casualty," Rozen said, looking at Kirito. "But that's not your responsibility. It's something the leader of this clearing group, me, should worry about. Now, report the situation to me."

Rozen's tone had shifted to that of the guild leader and the leader of the clearing group.

Taking a deep breath, Kirito regained his composure and began his report, "This happened yesterday."

Specifically, the situation was related to Rozen's absence from the clearing team's activities.

As expected, the 75th floor proved to be significantly more challenging than the 74th floor, requiring a considerable amount of time to collect map data from the labyrinth area.

Nonetheless, they managed to complete it without any casualties.

Considering the current size of the clearing team, even without Rozen leading them, dealing with training areas and labyrinth zones wouldn't pose too much of a challenge. The only obstacle was the mini boss of the training area. Thanks to Kirito's unique skills, they successfully cleared it and entered the labyrinth tower.

After two weeks of progress, they finally reached the boss room on the 75th floor. As is customary, they needed to send out a reconnaissance team to gather information about the boss.

Due to the expected difficulty of this floor, they formed a massive reconnaissance team consisting of members from five large guilds, totaling twenty-four members in a joint operation.

For reconnaissance alone, this scale was unprecedented. In the past, reconnaissance teams typically consisted of a small squad of six members at most, given that their task was merely to gather information and not to engage in combat. However, due to the 75th floor's high difficulty, such a large reconnaissance team was justified.

Kirito continued to explain the situation. "The reconnaissance was conducted with extreme caution. Two squads, twelve members in total, acted as a rear guard, stationed at the entrance to the room, while the other two squads, also totaling twelve members, entered the room first."

Kirito's tone grew somber as he continued, "However, at that very moment, the entrance door suddenly closed, and neither lock picking skill nor brute force could open it."

Hearing this, Rozen raised an eyebrow, suspecting a situation similar to what happened with Asuna and Kuradeel.

However, it seemed different this time. If it was a trap, the room's occupants wouldn't be able to open the door, but there was no reason for those outside to be locked out either.

Kirito agreed with Rozen's assessment.

"It's a trap,"He confirmed.

"Once players enter, it seals the room. The door remained closed for only a few minutes before reopening."

Kirito explained further, "But when it reopened, there was nothing inside the room anymore, neither the players from the two squads nor any sign of the floor boss."

The implication was clear, and Kirito didn't need to spell it out. "To confirm this, we sent someone to check the Monument of Life in the Black Iron Palace, and it confirmed that all twelve members from the squad had their names crossed out."

Kirito's expression once again became weary. It was an unavoidable situation. Since there were casualties, it confirmed that...

"They didn't use teleportation crystals," Kirito raised his gaze and looked at Rozen. He continued, "As you mentioned earlier, the boss room on the 74th floor was a crystal-ineffective zone, right?"

Clearly, this situation on the 75th floor was the same. It was not a coincidence. It was likely that all boss rooms on higher floors would become crystal-ineffective zones.

In addition to this, there were traps designed to cut off escape routes.

Coupled with the formidable strength of the 75th-floor boss, it was indeed a grim situation.

Rozen accepted the report calmly, then turned to face everyone.

"Now, gather the members of the clearing team," he ordered.

"I'll convene a meeting to strategize for taking on the 75th-floor boss."