The main town of the third floor was buzzing with rumours and speculation about how the dungeon was conquered so quickly, and that no raid party had been formed to take it on. They also spoke of one group of orange marker players being sent to prison.

It didn't take long for all of the rumours to spread, and for people to gather. Anyone with an interest for fighting their own way out of the game were checking out the third floor for new equipment, and how much they would have to work grinding against basic monsters to earn it.

Those in the craft of leather and metal armours, of wooden and metal weapons, and of alchemy all journeyed up to the third floor and set up their stalls. Like Kirito's group had agreed, they started checking out the player vendors who seemed to be quite popular...but were they good?

One particular street near the teleport gate was filled with those of the smithing trade. Those who sharpened and reinforced weapons and armour, those who crafted gear from scratch, and those who would go with adventuring groups to gather the more rare materials which required the hand of the crafter to gather.

One particular smith had a few customers lined up, waiting for the result of apparently a sword she was going to create. Apparently their hopes were too high while everyone was still in the lower floors, because when the item formed, the sword was just a little lacking in extra parameters. Kirito felt sorry for her and walked over after the customers trudged off to another smith.

"Sorry...maybe I should just close up for today and go gather some more materials...levels really do make the difference in craft quality..."

Kirito noticed that she seemed very nervous for being someone who would deal directly with their customers. A girl around his height with slightly messy dark brown hair reaching just past her shoulders and freckles adorning her face. She was still wearing beginner level gear which definitely didn't suit her. Apparently him and Asuna had the same idea.

After a few seconds, the smith was shocked to have two trade screens pop up in front of her.

"We have a lot of materials, so we'd like to help you out with your gear level and your crafting level. Why not work together for today?"

Kirito offered her armour pieces he had collected as dungeon gear drops which had crafting bonus effects, while Asuna gave her clothing gear which offered dexterity and strength bonuses so that she could craft higher level items without as much effort and relying on luck with the rng.

"You-no way! Why are you offering such valuable stuff to me?!"

Kirito repeated himself.

"We have a lot of materials, and we would like you to help us upgrade our gear. We'll help you out, so you help us. You will need at least this much to work on our gear to start. Maybe you can make us something better after we get you up a few levels?"

She immediately teared up when she realized he meant it. They would work together.

"Th-thank...thank you so much...! Everyone has been nervous about approaching you because dungeon drop gear is so good, I'm honoured the lead group is relying on me for their gear. Let me introduce myself, I'm Lisbeth. I know all of your names because of how well known you all are..."

She leaned in close toward Kirito and whispered.

"I won't tell anyone about how you defeated the second floor boss alone."

He sighed. If she knew, who knew how many others did. He only told Sinon Leafa and Asuna about it. Maybe people were hearing the truth from the killer group he put in jail. It was strange anyone would believe them, but maybe the word got around that much.

"Alright then..."

Lisbeth changed her gear and in a short few moments, she was just about to check with a random material from her inventory when Kirito stopped her.

"Sorry, I should have shown this to you before this..."

He opened another trade screen with a stronger crafting hammer for her to equip. It was the last attack bonus item he received from the golem floor boss. If he wasn't going to craft his gear, then at least she should get the spoils he would otherwise hold onto or sell later when his inventory would fill too much. He then readied the armour pieces he wore and put them on the crafting table.

"Let me know what I need for upgrading these please."

If he had invested much time at all into the smithing skill, he would have been able to tell that much on his own, but it was also giving her confidence that she could handle what he was tasking her with. When he saw the kind confidence in her eyes, he smiled.

"I have everything for the upgrades except...this one, the kobold steel material."

Kirito pulled all of the kobold iron and steel from his inventory, all of the kobold metal and traded those over to her.

"A full-how did you get this much?!"

"You do know we were in the dungeon for 14 hours the other day, right? I'm sure the others also have pretty full inventory."

After shaking her head in surprise, she started working. Success after success until she reached the chest armour piece which required the kobold steel the little bit of material she used disappeared and the armour thankfully was okay.

"That's alright. Everything else was able to upgrade a couple of times so it's excellent. Now for upgrading that we'll just have to get your level up and find you some even better gear when we take you into the new floor's dungeon. Before we go though, please work on everyone else' gear."

Lisbeth had a disappointed expression before he reassured her it was only because she needed to level up a bit. The chest armour was nearly as powerful as the cloak he used as his cloth gear underneath the metal armour.

Her crafting level went up quite a lot while working on everyone else' gear. Before they were ready to go to the dungeon, it seemed quite a crowd had gathered because of Kirito's party giving her so much attention. She continued to work on sharpening and enhancing gear until materials ran out, she made a lot of progress on her crafting level through all of the business. Apparently none of the other smiths were nearly as successful after all. Especially after she had such a large upgrade to her gear and crafting level.

After about two hours of enhancing and sharpening gear and other business she had, they headed out. To get her more material stock back and to also increase her base level. That was slightly more impacting on success rate apparently than crafting level until further crafting skills would be unlocked.

Lisbeth was added to the active party they had going and they left to explore the floor a bit. The dungeon was rather close to the town this time so it didn't take long to start exploring it and working on her level progress. In a short amount of time, she went from level fourteen to level twenty two. The monsters were very good for levelling up lower level players. It was incredible how fast they were still gaining levels, and Kirito was already to level thirty five by the time the group took a break. They found a safe area in the dungeon and took a look through their inventories.

"And Leafa has this much...wow. Amazing...we gathered so many materials and I must be the highest level smith right now. I could practically join the raid party as far as level. I also noticed while checking my stats before Kirito...this hammer is a last hit bonus item from a floor boss...it can sell for so much but you just gave it to me. Is that okay?"

Kirito's attention was pulled from analyzing the new ingredient type items and he gave her a confused expression.

"You're still asking that kind of question? We're relying on your abilities as a smith, the gear we give you helps you enhance what the rest of us use to fight the enemies which would kill us if our gear wasn't strong enough. I'm very good at avoiding getting hit and taking damage, but soon there will be enemies I don't know attack patterns for and I will take damage. At that time, I'll be relying on the gear Lisbeth makes and strengthens for me. We're trusting Lisbeth with our lives, so we should offer you the best gear we have that will help. That's why I gave Lisbeth the hammer. Because it is the strongest item in your current gear set now for crafting and enhancing. Soon, that won't be as powerful and valuable and I'll see if I can provide you a better hammer then. No more second guessing us providing you gear and materials okay? You help us more than any basic dungeon gear. You make it better."

Lisbeth was flushed completely red before he finished talking.

"Kirito is such a sweet talker...if you were a boy I might be in love..."

It seemed that didn't matter at the moment, and Leafa and Sinon were in no mood to reveal it. It were as if Lisbeth would be okay with Kirito even if he was a girl. Asuna was also checking through ingredient type items after realizing how useful they could be after Kirito's discovery of pepper. She wasn't really paying attention to the conversion.

"Anyway, we can save checking more items for when we get back to town. Want to check the boss room if we can before heading back? See if it'll be too much for us?"

Hearing Kirito say that, the rest of the group just gave him a stare as if he was mocking them. They knew that until the difficulty jump on floor ten like previously mentioned, they would likely be fine if Kirito took the lead. Especially after he defeated the second floor boss alone.

"Kirito just wants to see what the new last hit bonus item will be and see who will need it most though."

Sinon finished saying those words, staring at him as if ready for him to agree and lead them to the boss room. When he nodded his head and turned around, everyone else in the group sighed. It would be a long day, and Kirito was such a typical gamer.