After 2 years of being in Aincrad and this different world, does Ulrich even desire to return to his own world or try to find a way to live in this new world?
Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the words that I write and the characters that I create. Thanks go to the original creator of the SAO universe; credits also to the creators and contributors to the Code Lyoko series and related works.
A/N:
I'll be using a common time system of [9:30], [14:00] etc. [9:30] is 9:30 in the morning, [14:00] is 2:00 in the afternoon, so on and so forth.
The reason why I'm shifting from real names to game names half way through is because of the fact Karen, Katsuo, Kana, Sylvia (tiny exception between Katsuo, Kana, & Keiko, and Haruka & Mamoru since they know each other in real life) didn't know their true identities back then.
I need to thank Evangelina Amaryllis for beta reading this chapter.
Aincrad Standard Time: [18:30] May 20th 2024
Location: [Floor 61 – Salemburg]
Ulrich is currently relaxing by himself in a house he bought in the city. He'd managed to get it for a price of around 10 million col. He's not truly at peace; he's thinking about his companions in his true world, and all of the people that have been lost since he arrived in this world.
Although the Senryaku unit owns property on floor 36, Karen had decided to begin spreading out roots for the group, and encouraged the members to purchase housing on various floors as a way to enhance the group's adaptability. Amaterasu owns the guild house on floor 36, Katsuo owns a rather big house in Algade on floor 50, Sylvia owns a house in Danac on floor 59, and Karen and Ulrich own houses in Salemburg. Keiko bought property in Floria on floor 47, Rika owns property in Lindas on floor 48, and Kazuto, Mamoru, and Haruka co-own a house in Myugen on floor 49. These houses were purchased as extra places for the Senryaku unit to recuperate, the members often coming and going from the various properties they all collectively own.
Even though he's been here over a year and befriended many of the clearers, he still feels like an outcast and keeps to himself, declining multiple guild invitations in order to fight as a solo player, even though he works with Karen and her team.
"I've been here for so long, my friends must be worried sick by now, but… What were their names? I haven't been able to contact them at all since I arrived in this world of Aincrad." Ulrich says with a heaved sigh.
There's a knock on the door not long after he speaks.
"Who is it?" Ulrich asks in a calm tone.
"It's me, Kazuto. Can I come in?" Kazuto calls.
"Uh, give me a minute. I'm still wearing my combat gear." Ulrich says mildly, not having expected Kazuto to stop by so suddenly.
He begins unequipping his current combat armor, which had made him look like a modern samurai and changed into his casual gear, which he changed at floor 40; a long sleeved shirt with light black and silver colors. After Ulrich changes his clothes, he opens the door to let Kazuto in.
"Is there a reason why you're here? I'd imagine you'd want to spend all your time with your girlfriends: Asuna, Rika, Keiko, and Sachi." Ulrich says with a laugh.
"Hikaru, I don't think of them that way and you know it! You know, I should call you out on Kana, Sylvia, and Karen! After all, all three of them live here with you and Katsuo!" Kazuto says, blushing furiously at the comment.
"You know Kana's only into Katsuo, and Sylvia and Karen don't think of me that way. I gotta say, it's hardly convincing when you're blushing like a little school girl, Kazuto!" Ulrich says, roaring with laughter.
"Knock it off! This isn't funny..." Kazuto says in anger. "Wow...and people call ME dense?! This guy has no idea does he? Though he is right about Kana and Sylvia not having much interest in him, Karen...I'm not certain." Kazuto thinks to himself, laughing inaudibly.
"I suppose so. Sorry about that; I needed a bit of a laugh" Ulrich says apologetically.
"Actually, now that I think about it...we became friends on the 40th floor, and became close friends about a month ago, but you still haven't talked about your friends or your home, especially since we're on a first name basis." Kazuto says, calming down slightly, but is still mildly flushed because of what just happened.
"Because I've been trying to focus on trying to clear this game and return to my world." He explained. "But I suppose I ought to mention it - not that I can remember much, to be honest." Ulrich says calmly, but seems a little down trying to recall the past.
"You can't remember your world? I can relate, I myself can hardly remember the outside world; very few people I know of do." Kazuto says with a small nod in agreement.
"After spending around three years here, I wouldn't be surprised that the memory of your real world is vague." Ulrich says, coming to a logical conclusion.
"You're lucky though, Hikaru. We're all trapped with a time limit before our bodies inevitably give in." Kazuto says with mild jealousy, since Ulrich can keep fighting since his body is actually in Aincrad, unlike everyone else.
"I wouldn't call it lucky. At least you live in the world outside of Aincrad; I'm a mere intruder. I don't belong here, and don't forget about that annoying problem I have..." Ulrich says, getting slightly annoyed at how the others were jealous of what he didn't even seem to have.
"That kind of talk is making me mad Hikaru; granted you did not enter Sword Art Online of your own free will, but you do belong with us no matter what, and…" He paused before speaking again. "It must be terrifying for you when it happens. I can't imagine the pain of it." Kazuto was serious, and seemed a little freaked out at the end.
"It is terrifying, and… Thank you, Kazuto" Ulrich says with mixed emotions, confirming Kazuto's thoughts before expressing his gratitude.
"Don't mention it. Anyway, how are Katsuo, Karen, Kana, and Sylvia treating you? Are they here?" Kazuto asks with a few laughs.
"Sylvia's currently out shopping; she left about ten minutes ago, but she said she'll be back in about a half hour. Karen's with Keita, Kana, Nanak, and Thinker at a meeting, and Katsuo… I have no damn idea. Lately, he's been more mysterious than you." Ulrich states calmly, listing everyone's location as if reading it aloud.
"I see. That's good to hear, I guess." Kazuto says chuckling.
The door opens at this point and Sylvia walks in, wearing a new outfit she bought on the frontlines, which is a gold colored casual one-piece dress.
"I'm back; it was easier to get the food ingredients than I thought. Oh, Kazuto, what are you doing here?" Sylvia asks.
"I came to talk with Hikaru a little bit, but I should get going" Kazuto says while beginning to depart.
"You don't need to leave, Hikaru and I were just about to eat, I guess Karen, Kana, and Katsuo are going to be missing out on this with the clearing meeting and whatever Katsuo's doing, anyway, feel free to join in." Sylvia says, optimistically.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'll need to decline" Kazuto says, persistent on leaving.
"Come on, I insist" Sylvia says, pushing the subject further.
"Just give up Kazuto, you know she's not going to give in until you do." Ulrich says laughing a little at the little argument. Kazuto exchanges a glance with Sylvia and Ulrich and sighs in defeat.
"Very well, I'll stay and eat with you all" Kazuto says in defeat.
"Excellent, now, I'd better start. Hikaru, can you handle the silverware? I'll do the cooking, I don't want a repeat of last time." Sylvia says and shivers at the memory of the previous incident.
The last time Ulrich cooked about three months, he somehow managed to pull off six simultaneous explosions and made him lose an eighth of his max HP - something not even possible in this world.
"Alright, alright; Kazuto, feel free to stay in the den until dinner's ready. I need to do my part here." Ulrich says as he leaves to the dining room.
Kazuto takes this time to head to the den to relax by the fire, this being the first time he's relaxed in about a month, and is quickly enjoying every possible minute of it before it's over.
"How do you like the den Kazuto?" Ulrich asks, as he enters the room, having finished his part of the dinner preparation. It didn't take a lot of effort from him.
"It's excellent, considering how obsessed you are with combat. I wouldn't expect you to have such an excellent house." Kazuto says with a slightly bemused tone.
"You can thank the girls for that. Originally, I only had a simple kitchen, a couple of bedrooms, and a dining room in this place, but they suggested adding extensions and upgrades to the furniture to make this more appropriate when you share a house with roommates." Ulrich says, admitting the help he'd gotten.
"I really should thank them then." Kazuto says with a few laughs.
"Dinner's ready!" Sylvia shouts from the kitchen, interrupting their conversation.
"We should go eat, before Sylvia tries kicking our asses..." Ulrich whispers, with a laugh masking nervous emotions.
"She's that scary?" Kazuto asks at a similar volume.
"Mhm… She's friendly most of the time, but if you get on her bad side, she'll go all out..." Ulrich replies nervously.
"Just like Asuna..." Kazuto mutters fearfully.
The pair go to the dining room, when the three of them hear more people walk in.
"We're back Hikaru, Sylvia. Geez, did that meeting take a while" Karen says with a sigh.
"Tell me about it… Katsuo, you are such a lucky bastard; you don't need to attend meetings like this. unlike us..." Kana says with a heavy sigh, not really knowing, or even caring, if Katsuo is there or not.
"You forgot someone Karen, Kana" Kazuto says with a very mild pout.
"Eh? Oh, sorry Kazuto; didn't notice you there." Karen says semi-apologetically.
"Sorry about not noticing you Kazuto, but we're not in top form, we've been through a lot today. After we eat, we plan on going to sleep..." Kana says with a small yawn as evidence for her claim.
Ulrich, Karen, Kana, and Kazuto go to eat the meal Sylvia prepared for the group. After they finished eating their meal, Kazuto began to depart, with Kana immediately going to her room for the night so she can sleep. Karen, on the other hand, feels that she needs to be a good host, so she decides to hold off on sleeping until Kazuto's gone.
"I appreciate that you went to such lengths for me, but I really must get going, I'll see you all later." Kazuto says with a grateful bow. He leaves Ulrich's house rather happily, laughing a little at the sheer aftermath of having a meal with some friends.
"Having Kazuto here makes me remember my first month here a little bit..." Ulrich mutters under his breath, unaware that he'd said it out loud.
"Is something wrong Hikaru? You seem a little uneasy." Karen asks in concern.
"Hm? Oh, I'm remembering how I acted the first month I came here… I hate how stubborn I was back then; I was so mean to you, Kazuto and the others." Ulrich says sadly. "Though, what you guys did to me then was outright cruel" Ulrich says with a hint of anger.
"Oh come on! I said I was sorry for that at least ten times! How was I supposed to know?!" Karen retorts in both mild anger and shock.
Aincrad Standard Time [10:00] February 1st, 2023
Location: [Floor 25 Hidden Dungeon]
Ulrich is with a group of six clearers in the 25th floor dungeon's scouting team: Solaris, Masaru, Elena, Haruka, Pulse, and himself. Elena, Haruka, and Pulse did try convincing Solaris and Masaru to return to town but were overruled because of how vital they've become to scouting with Solaris' Sleuth and Masaru's own strength so they are tagging along like always.
Solaris is the best strategist the front-liners possess, primarily because of her unique skill of Sleuth. She is continuously thinking of strategies to maximize combat strength for the front-liners; her speciality is developing tactics for the others. Masaru is one of the strongest members in the front-liners and is the field leader in charge of leading the fighters in battle alongside Kirito. Kibaou is the field leader involving himself with information gathering which is among the most important job of all, but Kibaou is the most hated field leader because of his general personality.
"Alright, let's get going with the investigation, the others are depending on us" Solaris says with pride.
Masaru, Elena, Solaris, Haruka, Pulse, and Ulrich enter the dungeon and begin mapping the dungeon and find the boss chamber as quickly as they can, as was their goal.
"Solaris, I have to ask, why did you decide to come with us? You're not much of a fighter." Elena asks out of curiosity, trying to keep cover somehow.
"Mmm… No real reason, I just wanted to see how well Ulrich does in battle. I'm putting a lot of trust into faith, and I don't like that. Particularly with how no one noticed him before, not even I have seen him before we explored the Forest of Doubt." Solaris says, acting like she has no reason to be there, even though she intentionally gave her reason. She wanted to seem like she didn't want to be there.
"I will not disappoint your expectations; I am your lance, give me a target and I will slay it, no matter what." Ulrich says coldly, having gotten fed up with all of the hostile interactions between him, Solaris, and Masaru.
"Talk is cheap Ulrich, prove yourself through your actions." Masaru orders.
"Gladly, I will do whatever's needed to perform my mission." Ulrich says harshly.
The scouting party sets out to explore as much of the dungeon as possible. The team of six, which includes the fighters: Ulrich, Masaru, and Elena fighting on the front, Pulse providing cover with his bow and arrow, Haruka keeping him covered in case any monsters try attacking him, and Solaris providing intelligence & strategy.
"Ulrich, your skill with the katana is amazing, did you have training in real life or something?" Elena says rather happily, amazed at Ulrich's strong skills with Katana.
"Well… I suppose so..." Ulrich says quietly.
"Elena, why are you letting yourself be so easily impressed by this novice?" Masaru says, not out of jealousy precisely, but out of contempt that she respects a person that he considers to be an absolute rookie.
"I'm impressed because his skill is remarkable, Klein's considered the best Katana user so far in Sword Art Online, but Ulrich's skill with a katana is on a different level entirely." Elena says rather proudly.
Masaru sighs, knowing he won't be able to win the argument against Elena "Very well, I'll admit his talents are… Unusual at best, but he is skilled."
During the exploration of the dungeon, they encounter a rather infamous character dressed in black, who has made a name for himself as Aincrad's very first beater and is one of the field leaders in Aincrad.
"Kirito, what are you doing here on your own?" Masaru asks in shock; all reports said that only this group would be here until noon.
"Huh? Masaru, you've come in a team, I presume you're doing reconnaissance?" Kirito asks in equal shock.
"Yeah, we're trying to map this dungeon for the upcoming boss fight." Masaru says.
"Well, since you came all this way, I'll accompany you all, at least for a little while" Kirito says quietly.
"Let's get going then" Masaru says.
The team of six recruit Kirito into their ranks for the time being to continue investigation of the dungeon, with Kirito's skills increasing the power of the group. The seven find a safe room and take a short break to recover their strength. Kirito, Masaru, Pulse, and Solaris form a small circle in the center of the room, with Ulrich on his own in the southwest corner and Elena and Haruka in the southeast corner, taking a short rest.
"Masaru, have you been able to get any information about that guy?" Kirito asks in a conversational tone in reference to the young man in the southwest corner.
"Sadly no; no one has been able to get any information about him, not even Solaris." Masaru says in a slightly annoyed tone, as he doesn't appear to like Ulrich much, and obviously doesn't appreciate his presence.
"Yeah… He's definitely no beta tester, I would've recognized him if he was, and I was able to compile a list of the 10000 players in this game, and his name was not on the list before we met him in the Forest of Doubt. Is it possible that Kayaba released more copies of SAO?" Solaris says with mixed emotion.
"It's unlikely, for two reasons: Argus wouldn't dare make more copies with the bad reputation this game now has, and even if the reputation was repaired, the fact is that we're trapped here; would anyone want to be here?" Masaru says, seeming angrier.
"Masaru makes a point there, Argus wouldn't be able to get away with imprisoning more people." Solaris says quietly.
"Good point but that brings up a topic of discussion. How did this guy get here...? And how did he end up in a place we had never even explored before that point?" Pulse says quietly, trying to figure out this complex puzzle of Ulrich's arrival.
While Kirito, Masaru, Pulse, and Solaris are talking about Ulrich's mysterious entrance, Elena and Haruka are in the corner talking about various things
"Hmm… I don't want to disobey Sol and Masaru, but this is starting to push the line. I know this is needed… But I don't want to do this anymore...damn it all...I don't want to go through with this anymore." Elena thinks to herself in mixed tones. "Sometimes I REALLY hate following orders, particularly when it's an order like this"
"Elena, you doing okay? You seem...uneasy." Haruka asks in concern, knowing how dangerous the initial mapping is. They have no idea what to expect in the dungeon.
"I'm… I'm okay. It's just...can you keep a secret Mikuya?" Elena mutters quietly, seeming hesitant to speak.
"Sure, what's bothering you? We can't afford anyone off their game here." Haruka says in a serene tone, wanting to help her fellow frontliner.
Elena pauses before letting herself speak."Mikuya, I'm actually following that plan formed by Solaris and… I don't like it one bit. I'm just fearful that he'll be pushed over the edge and want to kill us. I'm terrified of that." Elena says quietly, dreading the possible outcomes.
"Oh… I see… I'm just as terrified as you, but look; if you need my help, let me know." Haruka says, her tone nothing short of encouraging.
"Thanks Mikuya… I'm grateful." Elena responds with a sheepish smile.
Elena and Haruka continue their discussion for quite a while and ultimately decided to ignore it because she knows that something like this needs to be done ASAP, while the mysterious warrior: Ulrich, is merely sitting in his corner, waiting for the others to finish their recovery and conversations so they can leave. Elena and Solaris approach Ulrich, as they decided to try getting him to open up, even if just a tiny bit.
"Ulrich, is something wrong? You've been quiet all this time" Elena asks with concern.
"Don't worry about it, I'm just waiting for you all to finish, so we can get back to battling" Ulrich says quietly.
"Yeah… It doesn't work that way. If we're going to work together, we need to make sure everyone is able to get along, and you're not making the best example by how hesitant you seem to be." Solaris says stubbornly, disliking Ulrich's attitude.
"How is it my fault that you all won't trust me? I'm here only to fight." Ulrich says quietly, still apparently not willing to trust anyone in the vicinity.
"Ulrich, look, we're not trying to put blame on you, but Solaris has a point. Don't you know that if there's no unity between teammates, their strength will decline?" Elena points out, trying to appeal to Ulrich's personality.
"For that to occur, I would need to know them and trust them to have my back. I do not trust any of you to protect me, and therefore I will keep myself safe." Ulrich replies, hardening his head and sending a scowl in Solaris' direction.
"Mataku, Elena, you can deal with this guy if you wish. I'm going to coordinate some strategies with Masaru, Pulse, and Kirito. I'll tell you them later, and you can pass it to this guy..." Solaris says, returning the sour expression. "I can tell he's reaching the limits of what we're trying to do… This can either go exactly as we planned, or far worse. Even I know that this is one of the most risky plans that I've thought of, so it's a bit of a gamble. If things get out of line, we'll need to cut this loose end free… God knows I do not want to do that if we have other options." Her mind says in mild fear.
Solaris leaves the corner and returns to Masaru, Kirito, Pulse, and Haruka, who have gathered in the middle of the room.
"Ulrich, why are you being so cold to your allies? It helps no one in the long term." Elena asks a little worriedly.
"I was forced to enter this world against my will. I have no desire to get all buddy-buddy with the people here" Ulrich says, ice dripping from his words.
"Ulrich, wouldn't you find it helpful to have a trusted ally at your back? Trying to fight on your own will not help you in the future." Elena says, trying to encourage Ulrich to accept teammates.
"I only trust three people right now, and none of them are here, so get off my back..." Ulrich mutters, keeping his stance.
"Ulrich, listen, I want to help you; just give me a chance" Elena says in a relatively sad tone.
"Look, do you honestly expect me to trust people with my life from a single encounter?! I am not that trusting!" Ulrich says angrily, finally losing his calm composure. The girl's insistence was getting quite annoying to him.
Elena realizes that trying to talk to Ulrich now is becoming pointless and walks away to rejoin Solaris and the others. After ten minutes, Ulrich finally joins the group to discuss the strategy for the dungeon.
"Our plan is to form two groups and try to reach the boss chamber, we are to leave the dungeon at 17:00 and combine our map datas." Solaris announces.
"Solaris, how will our teams be divided? Males and females?" Masaru asks.
"No, Ulrich, Elena, and Pulse will be with me. Kirito, Masaru, and Mikuya, I want you three to work together on this one." Solaris replies calmly.
"Solaris, you want to trust a rookie to be in your personal guard?!" Masaru asks in shock.
"Don't question me Masaru, you'll never win." Solaris says with a small laugh.
"Very well, but Elena, Pulse, make sure you two take precautions to keep Solaris alive, if we lose her, we'll lose a great deal of strength." Masaru says, glaring at the other two as if it would intensify his orders.
"Understood, but I hardly think that will be necessary with three fighters near her." Elena says in a serious tone.
"Be careful anyway; I don't trust this guy one bit..." Masaru says with mild anger in his voice.
"Understood" Elena says quietly, not wanting to add to Masaru's obvious temper.
"Alright, we have our assignments, let's get going." Solaris says.
The group of seven leave the safe room and split ways to thoroughly explore the dungeon and then bring the map data back to Floor 25's meeting ground for the clearers: Iruma, with Kirito, Masaru, and Haruka going left, and Solaris, Ulrich, Elena, and Pulse going right.
Solaris is leading the team with Ulrich, Elena, and Pulse fighting the monsters on her behalf, gathering intelligence on the strengths and weaknesses of the monsters herself for future reference, silently hoping that Kirito is taking the time to analyze information as well.
"Solaris, why would you want me to go with you? Surely Masaru would've been a better choice." Ulrich asks quietly.
"Consider this a test, Ulrich, I want to know if you belong with the front-liners; we need the best of the best here. You have the skills, certainly, but your personality is making us doubt you. If you'd be willing to cooperate, we'd gladly accept you in our ranks." Solaris replies.
"Yeah, that's what I've been trying to tell you, Ulrich" Elena says cheerfully.
"I see... Solaris; Look out!" Ulrich yells, noticing a monster charging toward Solaris.
Ulrich instinctively uses one of his unique skills: Super-Sprint to push Solaris out of the way of the charging monster, which succeeds but the monster's sword's slash targets Ulrich's left arm and dismembers it, which quickly disintegrates into millions of little pixels. The group stare in horror at the fact his arm is outright gone, with mild pixelated blood appearing after his arm was slashed off, which vanishes nearly instantaneously.
"Ugh… I will not… Let that slide! You're done for!" Ulrich growls in pain, panting softly as he draws his katana with his right arm and then uses his fast speed to cut the monster in half, which nearly instantly destroys it.
With the monster slain, Ulrich's adrenaline dissipates and he collapses from shock and pain, with him panting more heavily. After he collapses, Pulse takes up his bow and divides his attention between the two ways monsters could charge at them from, to prevent this from happening again.
"Ulrich! Are you okay?!" Elena cries out in shock, running towards him with Solaris at her side.
"I'm…fine…agh..." Ulrich mutters, trying to hide his pain; as the pain absorber that exists with the NerveGear is non-existent for him since his mind and body both exist in Aincrad unlike the others who only exist here in their minds, but his attempt to hide his pain is failing badly since Solaris and Elena are too perceptive for him to hide it.
"Ulrich… Why did you do that?" Solaris asks sadly, trying to find out why he would do this, with the test she devised temporarily leaving her mind.
"I am your lance and shield, I am also following Masaru's request; you must live if we are to advance… I am but a single fighter, fighters are seldom missed, but strategists are valuable and must be protected, no matter what" Ulrich says quietly and nonchalantly, grunting from the pain. He never did predict that injuries like this would affect him this badly.
"Ulrich… You idiot." Solaris whispers, looking like she's about to start crying.
"Solaris..." Ulrich says quietly.
"You won't be much help in combat in this state, looks like Pulse and I will have to fight on our own." Elena says dejectedly.
"I'm sorry Elena, my decision to do this is forcing you to fight alone." Ulrich says quietly.
"You did it to protect me, the clearer's best strategist - you don't need to feel bad about it." Solaris says with a few sobs of what could very well be mistaken for guilt. She felt bad for doubting Ulrich at first.
"Sol, should we continue advancing or should we try regrouping with Kirito and Masaru and leave?" Elena asks. Solaris takes a minute to examine the surroundings and the energy of her teammates.
"No, we're going to regroup; Ulrich's badly injured and I can tell you're getting tired, Elena. I say this is enough. Elena, I know what I said, but right now, I need both you and Pulse to pick up the slack in battle. Hopefully Masaru, Kirito, and Mikuya found the boss chamber." Solaris says, regaining her composure.
"Understood Sol, do you need someone for Ulrich to lean on?" Elena asks in concern.
"I'll be alright." Ulrich says, obviously lying. He just didn't want to look weak in front of them, relying on the support of another.
"Ulrich, you are lying right now. I know you're faking this. Sol, could I ask you to handle this job? Pulse and I need to keep ourselves free in case we get attacked." Elena says confidently.
"Ulrich, what's really going on here? I don't understand how you can be in this much pain, doesn't the NerveGear prevent that from happening?" Solaris asks confused, while lightly hanging on to Ulrich, since he's still reeling in pain.
"I…can't really explain how, since I don't know myself, but I didn't enter Aincrad using this…NerveGear, both my body and mind exist in this world." Ulrich says, not sure if he believes this himself.
"Wait...you didn't enter this game via the NerveGear? I thought all the players needed to register them with the Japanese server." Elena asks in mild shock.
"Wait…You all are from Japan?! How is it that I'm able to understand you? I lived in France all my life, and I never once studied the japanese language." Ulrich says in utter shock.
"Hm… You make a fair point. I've met very few people who know more than one language, maybe this game has a built-in universal translator." Pulse states calmly, keeping his senses to the environment in case monsters try attacking again.
"This is a discussion that should be continued later on. Let's go" Elena says in a serious tone.
Solaris nods and the group begins back-tracking to the area of the safe room where they find Masaru outside it, apparently waiting for Solaris' group to return.
"Solaris, you made it back, Kirito and Mikuya are waiting outside the dungeon, we've found the boss chamber." Masaru says.
"Good timing actually, we're actually relatively weak in strength, Ulrich's been badly wounded, Elena's getting tired, and Pulse isn't good with melee combat. I hope you're still in top shape." Solaris says with mixed feelings.
"I'm still in good condition, I have sympathy for you, Elena, I know your constitution is not the highest among us, and why am I not surprised that Ulrich is the one in worst shape?" Masaru says with mixed feelings, he does feel bad for Elena, but he scoffs when he mentions Ulrich.
"Masaru, Ulrich got into this condition protecting me. If it wasn't for him, I'd be dead" Solaris says with mild anger, sending a mild wink to Masaru to tell him of the plan.
"Really; you certainly exceeded my very low expectations I have for you, Ulrich." Masaru says, noticing the wink from Solaris.
"Whatever, I'm not here to satisfy your expectations, I'm here to fight for my own goals, but I will protect those in my charge." Ulrich says harshly, not exactly appreciating Masaru's underestimation of him.
"Hmm… You passed my test Ulrich" Masaru says rather optimistically, experiencing an immediate change in tone.
"Say what?" Ulrich asks rapidly, feeling very confused all of a sudden.
"My test was to see how much it took for you to want to work with teams. It might've been excessive, but Solaris, Elena, and I all had a test in store for you in this dungeon." Masaru explains.
"The tests Elena and I had were sort of similar so we bunched them together; we figured you were protective of your colleagues, but we had to know how far that went before we did anything challenging like bosses. We were all acting mean intentionally to try provoking your response, I'm sorry about that" Solaris says with mixed emotion.
"And I suppose you couldn't tell me about it for secrecy's sake?" Ulrich asks in a slightly annoyed tone, since he lost a limb for this 'test', possibly for good.
"Yep, you passed, but I have to say… You sacrificing your arm was…not how I imagined you passing..." Solaris says sadly.
"Yeah, that one caught me off-guard." Elena says with the same level of misery.
"We should get going; Kirito and Mikuya are waiting on us." Masaru says.
Ulrich, Solaris, Pulse, and Elena nod in approval then depart the dungeon to return to the others, who are waiting outside.