"You know, I'm starting to question if this thing even exists," Leonn said, visibly exasperated.
"It has to. How else are we ever going to beat this game?" Kirito mumbled, deep in thought.
"Is there a trick to it? We've been at this for days." Sinon grumbled.
It had been one month since the start of SAO, and the collective searching of about 8,000 individuals had yet to reveal the location of the boss room. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. The vast majority of those 8,000 players were too afraid or simply refused to play according to Kayaba's rules, and thus decided to stay and live within the safe zone of The Town of Beginnings, not willing to risk their lives. In any case, finding the boss room was a crucial step towards beating the game, as defeating the boss of a floor unlocked the next floor of the floating castle called Aincrad. One step closer to the end. Yet, for all their struggles, no progress had been made. Day after day, party after party had delved into the 1st floor dungeon in order to locate the elusive boss room.
Kirito's group was one such party.
"I don't think so. It'd be hard to conceal a boss room like that." Kirito countered before sheathing his ((Anneal Blade + 6)).
"Well, one good thing's come of this endless search, at least. We're now overleveled for this floor." Leonn said with a mixture of amusement and pride in his voice.
"We shouldn't get complacent, though. Getting overconfident can get you killed." Kirito cautioned as he remembered Coper's confidence in his ((Hiding)) skill.
Kirito and Leonn continued their conversation for the next few minutes, Sinon jumping in every now and then to contribute. As they rounded a corner, they spotted a single player squaring off with a ((Ruin Kobold Trooper)), but something seemed off about the fight. It wasn't that the player was fighting solo. Nor was it even that they were wielding a rapier as their weapon of choice. It was something that only a trained eye could spot. They were only using sword skills.
The trio stopped in their tracks, carefully watching the fight in front unfolding before them. It was bad etiquette to interrupt another player during a fight. The only time when intervening was acceptable was if the two parties mutually agreed to help one another beforehand, or if the first party was in danger of death. Kill-stealing was still very much a common occurrence, and a hot point of contention among the players fighting to escape the death game.
In any case, the player just ahead of them was repeatedly using the same skill again and again to kill the Kobolds, ((Linear)). ((Linear)) was a fairly strong skill used by rapier users, and one that both Kirito and Leonn judged was being unnecessarily repeated to the point of overkill. That said, this mysterious player was striking with such speed that the game was having difficulty rendering their movements. It was truly a sight to behold, even if it was also confusing at the same time. As the cloaked player finished off the last Kobold with yet another ((Linear)), they leaned against a nearby wall and sank to the floor, clearly drained from the ordeal. That was concerning in and of itself, but what was far more concerning were the Kobolds that rounded the corner on the far side of the hallway, walking towards the exhausted fencer.
"I'm going to see if they're alright. Can you two take care of the patrol?" Kirito asked.
His party members simply nodded and rushed to meet the patrolling monsters. Kirito had a remarkably relaxed look about him; he knew his party could handle the Kobolds with ease. He walked over to the slouched figure against the wall before crouching down.
"Hey, are you ok?" Kirito carefully asked. The last thing he wanted to do was startle the player or accidentally come off as hostile.
"... Yes, thank you," replied the hooded player in a hushed, almost shy, but clearly feminine tone.
Never would have guessed she was a girl.
"Noticed that you kept using ((Linear)) on those Kobolds, even the ones that were close to dying. You should try finishing them off with a regular, non-Sword Skill attack instead," Kirito suggested.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I don't mean to assume, but is this your first time playing an MMO?" Kirito asked. Repeated use of the same skill over and over again, sometimes referred to as spamming, was a bit of a rookie move. In the short term, it was a decent strategy at dispatching enemies, but in the long term spamming can lead to the inability to adapt to a situation.
"I'm just saying, repeating one skill like that over and over again, you use up too much time and energy. Something like that can mean the difference between life and death in here," Kirito explained.
There was a noticeable pause. Kirito almost repeated himself in case she didn't hear him the first time.
"... Does it matter? Death in here is inevitable either way," she muttered under her breath.
Yikes.
Before Kirito could properly form a response to the abrupt, depressing statement, the girl stood up and began to walk over to where Leonn and Sinon were fighting. Kirito stammered, still trying to find some way to reply when suddenly she collapsed with an undignified *thud*. Kirito rushed over and picked her up as carefully as he could.
"Leonn! Sinon! She collapsed! We should get her out of here and somewhere safe!" Kirito shouted down the hall to his teammates, who were finishing up the Kobolds. Both immediately jogged to catch up with their party leader, who was now carrying an unconscious stranger in his arms. Just then, a message notification popped up on Kirito's HUD. With some difficulty, given the unconscious girl in his arms, he slowly raised his hand and tapped the message to open it.
"Hmm. It's Argo. She says someone's found the boss room entrance. There's going to be a meeting later at Tolbana to discuss strategy." Kirito said.
"We're going, right?" Sinon pointedly asked.
"I think we should," Leonn answered. A confused look then took hold of his features. "Wait, since when are you in contact with Argo? I thought the friends list was wiped clean when SAO officially launched."
"I ran into her the other day in Tolbana while I was getting us food. She didn't stay long, but she friended me anyway." Kirito explained. "She's been reestablishing her main contacts since she's decided to become an info broker again."
"I'm not surprised," Leonn remarked before turning to Sinon. "Argo 'the Rat' was the best information broker during the beta. It's honestly scary how well connected and informed that girl was, and likely is now."
Kirito and Leonn couldn't help but shudder at the thought as the party moved to the exit.
Kirito heard a groan and the sound of shuffling behind him.
"Where… where am I?" The girl looked around, clearly confused by the change in scenery. No longer was she surrounded by the dark, dank halls of the 1st floor dungeon. She was now sitting against a tree outside the town of Tolbana, the afternoon sun peeking through the canopy above her. Startled by the sudden influx of natural light, she raised a hand to shield her eyes before looking around to get her bearings. The first thing she saw was the black-haired boy from earlier.
"That was unnecessary." She started, hesitating for a moment before continuing. "... but thank you anyway."
"No problem. You were out for a while, so I figured I'd stay nearby until you woke up." Kirito grinned. "The rest of my party went into town to relax a little before the big meeting later."
"A… meeting?" The girl asked, not quite sure what the boy was talking about.
"Right, you were asleep. There's a big meeting in a couple of hours at the amphitheatre in town. Someone found the boss room." Kirito informed her.
The girl looked pensive, clearly deep in thought and too busy processing this information to give Kirito a proper reply.
"You should come to the meeting. I saw your skill with that rapier back there. You're quick. You might make mistakes with how you use your swords skills, but I think you'd be a big help." Kirito continued, hoping for some semblance of a response.
"... Sure." was the only reply Kirito got, and he didn't feel like pressuring her any further.
As Kirito stood up and started walking toward the front gate, he soon found the girl walking alongside him. The silence was uncomfortable. To call the situation awkward would be an understatement.
"I've got some things I need to take care of before the meeting. I guess I'll see you at 2:00?" Kirito awkwardly asked while slowly breaking away from the silent fencer.
"Sure. See you then."
They weren't kidding. She's an eccentric one, alright.
Sinon and Kirito had met up in town to resupply on potions when the two of them had run into a hooded blonde girl with brown whiskers painted on her cheeks. She was shorter than Sinon, who was already the shortest in her party of three, so that was saying something. Her clothing reminded Sinon of something you'd see thieves or rogues wearing in other fantasy games; it was clear that Argo the Rat favored ease of movement over practical protection, which made sense given her occupation as an information broker. It wasn't Argo's place to fight monsters; her role was to gather information about the monsters so that others could fight them for her. Sinon couldn't help but stare.
"Kii-bou, are ya gonna introduce me to your friend here?" the Rat gestured towards Sinon.
"Oh right, this is Sinon. She's in my party." Kirito said, only to turn and see Argo's face twisted into one of sheer surprise.
"Kii-bou? In a party?" Argo looked genuinely confused before her expression turned into a grin. "Charming the ladies already, are we?"
Kirito's face flushed for a moment as he tried to stammer out a retort, which only served to deepen the Rat's grin.
"Oh relax, Kii-bou! Anyway, I've got news for you. That buyer we talked about the other day? He's upped his offer. 29,800 Cor."
Kirito's face took on its natural color before he shook his head. "No thanks. Still not for sale. Why's this guy so persistent?"
Argo shrugged. "Wish I knew. He was remarkably tight-lipped about it, which isn't like him at all." She pouted a little, which showed just how much she hated not knowing. Her expression changed quickly back to normal as she turned to face Sinon. "So Sin-chan, how'd you end up partied with this one? He's always been a bit of a loner. Got any dirt on him?"
Sinon couldn't help but recoil at being called by such a peculiar nickname, but she recovered quickly enough. "Leonn and I met him while training outside the Town of Beginnings on the first day. After Kayaba's announcement, we all just decided to stick together."
Argo's ears almost seemed to perk up. "Wait, Leo-bou's here too? How have I not heard anything about him yet?" She then turned and jabbed Kirito with an accusing finger. "And why did you not tell me you were partied with him?"
Kirito flashed a mischievous grin of his own. "You should know better than anyone, Argo. Information isn't free."
Argo's expression changed to one of amusement at being given a taste of her own medicine. She was about to retort when she was interrupted by a young man walking up from behind Kirito.
"Hey, there you guys are! We're all set with the farmhouse. Got the entire place to oursel - " Leonn stopped as he saw Argo the Rat standing in front of Kirito, the former of the two looking absolutely dumbfounded, an expression few had ever seen from the infamous information broker.
"LEO-BOU?!"
"Heh, hey Argo." Leonn shifted uncomfortably. "How's it hangin'?"
"How's it hanging? My favorite hammer-head has been here in SAO this entire time, hasn't contacted me once, and the best you have is how's it hanging?!" Argo took her finger off of Kirito and pointed it at Leonn before continuing. "And on top of that, you look absolutely nothing like your avatar!"
"Got it on the first try!" Leonn awkwardly exclaimed, scratching the back of his neck.
"Gotta say though, I'm diggin' the beard. Looks good on ya, Leo-bou." Argo quipped with that signature grin of hers.
Leonn flushed at the unexpected compliment, which was exactly what the Rat had hoped for. She just loved to watch people squirm.
"Anyhoo, I've got a few things to take care of before the meeting. I assume I'll see the three of you there…?" Argo threw pointed looks at the trio, especially towards Kirito and Leonn. She sent friend requests to Sinon and Leonn while waiting patiently for an answer.
Kirito glanced over at this party, who were too preoccupied with accepting Argo's friend requests.
"Yeah, we'll be there."
"Do you mind if I sit here?"
She didn't answer. Assuming that she had no objections, Kirito sat down next to her and pulled out a piece of bread, not unlike the one she was currently clutching. He glanced up at his party, who were currently walking toward the amphitheatre. After explaining to his friends how shy the girl was, they told him that they would just meet him at the amphitheatre rather than accidentally crowd her.
"They're good, aren't they?" Kirito asked, gesturing towards the loaves in their hands and desperately looking to find something to talk about.
She turned to him. "You really think they taste good?"
Kirito gave a slight nod. "Uh-huh. I usually end up eating one a day. Although…" Kirito drew out the word as he fished out a small jar, placing it between himself and the girl from the dungeon. "... I have a trick to make it taste better."
That seemed to get her attention. She looked at the jar intently. He could not see her face, but the rest of her body language said confused.
"I got this from the ((The Heifer Strike Back)) quest in Medai village, the town before this one. Try putting that on your bread." He reached over and tapped the lid of the small jar, causing his finger to light up. He brought the finger over and ran it across the surface of the bread, producing and applying cream to the otherwise ordinary piece of food.
As he took a bite, the girl followed his lead before applying cream to her piece of bread as well. After she took her first bite, she stopped. Kirito looked over mid-chew and stopped, noticing his companion's frozen expression and hoping he hadn't done something wrong. The next thing he knew, she was scarfing down the bread as if it was about to disappear from her hands.
Quite the appetite. Kirito couldn't help but let a grin slip onto his face. "Wanna know how I did it?"
Much to his surprise, the girl shook her head.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm not here to eat good food." She explained.
He figured as much, but her answer still caught him off guard. "So then why are you here?" Kirito asked, wanting to dig a little further.
"So I don't lose sight of who I am. I don't want to lock myself in a room at the Town of Beginnings and slowly rot away. I'd rather stay the way I am until the last moment. Even if a monster beats me and I die, I won't lose." She went on, rather grimly. "To this game, or this world. No matter what."
Kirito tore off a piece of bread and tossed into his mouth. After taking a moment to think and chew - he wasn't so rude as to talk with his mouth open, after all - he gave the only reply he thought was appropriate.
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather you not die. So maybe try your best not to die?" Kirito gave an awkward smile.
There was a pause, something Kirito had come to expect from this enigma of a girl, before she answered. "The meeting's going to start soon."
"Yeah. Let's get going."
"About time." Sinon remarked as she looked past Leonn.
Leonn stopped and looked over to his right to see Kirito and his female friend walk into the stone amphitheatre. Kirito stopped in place, scanning the semicircular meeting place. The stonework looked ancient, with bits and pieces here and there eroded or worn over time. In reality, this amphitheatre had only existed for a month, but Kayaba and the rest of the SAO development team had done a fantastic job of making their vistas as immersive as possible for their players. The aged and worn stonework even had bits of vegetation growing in the cracks, which was honestly pretty impressive. The amphitheatre itself wasn't particularly glamorous, but the attention to detail gave the town of Tolbana some semblance of history. Kirito finally spotted Leonn and Sinon and with a light wave began making his way over to join them. The girl he entered with slowly followed, taking a seat next to him, yet still far enough away so as not to suggest familiarity.
Leonn looked past Kirito at the girl before turning back to Kirito. "So… you gonna introduce us, or…?"
Before Kirito could answer, the doors to the amphitheatre swung open with a bit too much flourish and out stepped a blue-haired man, who walked towards the stage of the amphitheatre with confidence. The adventurers in attendance, of which Kirito counted at least 30 after a cursory glance, all grew steadily silent before the man stopped in the center. He turned around and with a loud *clap*, demanded the attention of all assembled.
"Ok everyone! Looks like everyone's here, so let's get started!"
The man below on the stage oozed charisma, that was for sure. A natural leader, and it showed.
"I want to thank everyone for coming today. My name is Diavel and in this game, the job I rolled is 'Knight'!"
A smile crossed Kirito's face, meanwhile off to his left Leonn was stifling a laugh. Just past him, Sinon looked visibly confused, whereas the girl to Kirito's right was silent and stoic as ever. Many members of the audience were either laughing or shouting out in response to the blue-haired man's assertion.
"Good one!"
"Dude, there's no job system in this game!"
"Get real!"
A mischievous smile crossed the man's face, clearly pleased that his joke landed and dispersed any tension that might have been in the air. After a moment, Diavel's face took on a more serious expression as he continued.
"Here's the deal. Our party found the boss room at the top floor of the dungeon today."
The atmosphere of the amphitheatre suddenly and drastically changed from jovial and lighthearted to incredulous and unbelieving. A hushed murmur washed over the crowd as they began to talk amongst themselves, trying to validate amongst each other if such a feat was even possible.
"Now that we've found the boss, we need to defeat it and continue on to Floor 2!" Diavel looked over the crowd carefully. "This is our chance to show everyone in the Town of Beginnings that it IS possible to beat this game! It's our duty as the most capable players, don't you agree?"
The amphitheatre fell into a murmur again as everyone in attendance looked to each other, uncertain of how their colleagues felt about this bold claim. Just as the murmur died down, one player in the audience began to slowly clap. After a moment, another joined in, then another. Soon the majority of those assembled clapped in solidarity with Diavel. Kirito, who had been sitting quietly during this entire exchange, smiled at the thought of so many people rising up together. If he'd learned anything in the month he'd spent with Leonn and Sinon, it was that in unity, there was strength.
"Glad we're on the same page! Now, we're going to need to figure out how we're going to beat the boss. First, we need to team off into parties of six." Once again, the players present began to talk amongst themselves as they sorted themselves into parties, largely ignoring Diavel as he continued. "A normal party doesn't stand a chance against a floor boss, so we need to form a raid group made up of multiple parties."
Kirito felt Leonn give him an elbow nudge. Kirito looked over to his friend and gave him a grin. I've already got mine. Glad I met these two early on, or I would have been panicking right now. Leonn gave him another nudge. Sinon poked her head out from behind Leonn and gave Kirito a nodding gesture. Not one of approval or affirmation, but one that silently told Kirito to look behind. It took Kirito a little longer than he'd care to admit to realize what Sinon was hinting at.
Right! He looked behind him at the girl he'd met earlier that day. He scooted a little closer to her.
"Did you want to join us? It looks like the other parties are filling up." Kirito sheepishly asked. "You heard what he said. It'll be too difficult to defeat on our own. It'll only be this once. Afterwards, you can leave if you want."
She looked over towards Kirito and his party, clearly hesitating. After a few tense moments, she nodded.
Kirito sent over a party invite just as Leonn and Sinon were getting up to move closer. With some hesitance, she accepted and her name joined the roster of Kirito's party.
"Asuna, huh? Good to meet you." Leonn gave a friendly wave from behind Kirito to his newest teammate.
Asuna looked baffled. "How do you know my name?"
Kirito held a finger up towards Asuna. "Keep your head pointed at me, but look up towards my finger. You can see the names and health bars of your party members on your HUD." Kirito noticed her head tilt in further confusion, but before she could ask her next question, he continued. "HUD is short for Heads Up Display, which are the display windows you can see at the edges of your vision."
Sinon interrupted the impromptu tutorial. "Wait, you rescued this girl from the dungeon, watched over her until she woke up, had a private conversation before getting here, and in all of that time you never bothered to ask her name?"
"That ain't how you treat a lady, Kii-bou."
Kirito's face, well flushed at this point, quickly turned to see Argo the Rat sitting on a bench a few rows above them. She flashed her signature mischievous grin before diverting her attention to Asuna. Kirito stammered in embarrassment before looking over at Asuna, who despite the hood draped over her face, was also a little red in the cheeks. He wheeled back towards Argo.
"When did you get here?!"
"You willin' to pay for that info, Kii-bou?" Argo retorted, her grin deepening.
A very flustered Kirito took a moment to calm himself before turning back to Asuna.
"Sorry about that. I'm Kirito, the two behind me are Leonn and Sinon, and the weird one up there is Argo the Rat." Kirito said before feeling the need to clarify. "She's not in our party. She's an information broker and a friend of ours."
Argo gave Asuna a smile. "Come to me if you've got Cor and a need for some juicy information, Aa-chan."
Before Asuna could give any sort of response to all of the new people she was meeting, Diavel called for everyone's attention.
"Alright! Looks like everyone's teamed up. Now then - "
"Hold up a second!" A voice shouted out from the top of the stands. Everyone in the audience looked back, straining to see who had interrupted their meeting. The new contender jumped his way down to the stage, leaping from bench to bench until he found himself standing next to Diavel. The man sported orange hair that was shaped in a way that could only be best described as cactus-like, and his voice and mannerisms seemed to be just as prickly and unpleasant as his hair. "My name's Kibaou, got that?"
The amphitheatre was silent as all eyes focused on the spiky-haired man whose interruption demanded attention. There was a quiet scoff behind Kirito, so imperceptible that it seemed no one else heard it. He looked behind him, where he saw Argo subtly shaking her head.
"Before we take on the boss, I wanna get somethin' off my chest." Kibaou continued, thrusting his thumb towards his chest and scanning over the crowd.
"We all know about the 2,000 people who've died so far, right?"
It was true. Of the original 10,000 unwilling residents of Aincrad, only 8,000 were still alive. There had been a startling number of casualties within the first few days as many fell to despair at the prospect of dying in the cage of a madman. Unfortunately, some had taken the caged bird metaphor too far, opting to jump from Aincrad's railings to free themselves of Kayaba's torment rather than play his perverse game. Those who didn't immediately throw themselves off into the vast nothingness were unfortunate newbies who tried to survive the wilds of the first floor, but having been woefully underprepared had perished in the very fields meant to make them stronger. Morale among the 8,000 survivors was, needless to say, very, very low.
"Well, some of you need to apologize to them right now!" Kibaou thrust a finger towards the crowd.
Kirito felt a bead of sweat begin to drip off his forehead. Glancing over, Leonn wasn't faring much better, his gaze seemingly focused on nothing at all and his expression frozen into one of abject guilt. This was a first. Leonn was usually in good spirits about most things, but something in Kibaou's words had rung true to the man. Sinon looked on in concern at both her friends before diverting her attention back towards, in her modest opinion, the rudest man she'd ever had the displeasure of meeting.
"You mean the ex-beta testers, don't you?" Diavel interjected, hoping to bring down the temperature of the meeting while simultaneously informing those not 'in the know.'
"Of course I mean them! Right after Kayaba's announcement, those beta testers up and left the rest of us and fled to the fields! They snagged all of the good hunting spots, took all of the easy quests, and were the only ones getting stronger in here. They've practically ignored us!" Kibaou ranted before shifting his attention back to the crowd. "Hell, I bet there's some of them here with us! Come on out you cowards! They should apologize and give up all of the items they got! How can we trust them when they don't trust us?!"
Kirito looked down at his feet despite his best efforts to hide his culpability. He's not wrong. We did abandon them. In our rush to get stronger and survive, we left them to fend for themselves. His fist clenched as the guilt began to well up inside like a dam ready to burst. It threatened to overtake him, and before he knew it, he could feel his body shift forward as if to stand up.
"Can I say something?" A newer, deeper, and much calmer voice asked. Kirito opened his eyes to see a rather large, tall man stand up. Bald, dark complexion, and with the kind of imposing build he's seen only once before when Leonn still looked like his beta avatar. The fact that this man, who was now striding up to meet Kibaou, was this large now meant that he was this large in real life. A real giant of a man, and clearly not one of Japanese descent. He looked American or African, to be honest.
Kibaou subconsciously stepped back as the goateed man came up to him. For all his bark and bluster, it was clear Kibaou hadn't expected someone like this to approach him.
"Hey, my name's Agil. Kibaou, right?" The large man asked, looking down on the cactus-haired belligerent. "I wanna make sure I'm on the same page here. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help them. Right?" Agil's gaze narrowed somewhat. The man certainly wasn't up on the stage to clarify Kibaou's claim. "And you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"
"No, you didn't." Kibaou almost stuttered, clearly intimidated by Agil's line of questioning, not to mention his presence.
Agil, after a moment of fishing in his side pack, pulled out a small, leather-bound booklet. "Ever seen one of these? They give 'em out for free at the item store. It's a guidebook. You got one, didn't you?"
"Sure I got one. What about it?" Kibaou answered, sweat forming on his brow.
Agil looked Kibaou dead-on, eye to eye. "Then you know who was handing these out. The ex-beta testers."
A murmur of surprise washed over the crowd. Meanwhile, Kirito and Leonn both shared a sigh of relief at this revelation. In their haste to level up and get as much of a head start as possible, they hadn't visited the item shop in the Town of Beginnings, so this was the first they'd heard of this book. Both shared a momentary look of confusion before they came to the same conclusion. With absolute synchronicity, they slowly looked behind them to where the Rat was sitting. Meeting their inquisitive gaze, Argo simply smiled. No, that wasn't right. She grinned.
Agil turned to face the crowd this time, shifting away from a defeated Kibaou and lightly tapping the cover of the guidebook in his other hand. "Guess what? This information was free and available to everybody. Even so, lots of players still died. I'm not here to point fingers at anyone. I came because I wanna learn from those deaths. I'm here because I want to figure out how to beat the boss." Agil turned to give Kibaou a straight-faced stare before returning to his seat.
Knowing he'd been beat, Kibaou huffed in defeat before following suit and finding a seat.
With that interruption out of the way, Diavel took control of the meeting once again. Pulling out his own copy of the guidebook, Diavel began to read off the known information for the first floor boss, a monster named ((Illfang the Kobold Lord)). As he began to list off information regarding the other monsters that would be present during the fight (commonly referred to as 'adds'), the boss's equipment and weapons, and the movesets used, a collective feeling of confidence came over the crowd at this new information. Some players even had their menus open and were actively taking notes. After reading the last of the information known about the boss, Diavel concluded the meeting. As everyone in the crowd got up from their seats, Diavel's gaze quickly, almost imperceptibly, shifted towards Argo before refocusing on the crowd before him.
What was that look? Did he recognize Argo? Kirito couldn't help but wonder as Diavel shifted his attention back to those descending the steps to mingle. Having gathered all the information they wanted and needed, Kirito's new party of four were the first to leave the amphitheatre. Argo, who had decided to stay behind to eavesdrop on the discussions of the remaining raid members, simply shot a smile towards the party, holding out a copy of the guidebook as they passed by. With a fair degree of reluctance, Kirito snatched the book from the Rat's hand.
As the quartet walked out of the amphitheatre and into the plaza, the sun began its slow descent towards evening, painting the skyline with hints of orange. They knew that tomorrow would be a game-changer, for the first-ever raiding group of SAO was going to make a bold declaration against the death game, against Akihiko Kayaba himself. They would rise against this captivity and challenge ((Illfang the Kobold Lord)).
For better or worse.