Tolbana was the second-largest settlement on Floor 1 of Aincrad with a size of 200 meters from edge to edge. The city is surrounded by large castle walls that defended it from the [Kobolds] that resided in the mountain valleys surrounding the area. Within the city, there were a few sightseeing places players could visit such as the windmill towers, the fountain area, and the amphitheater. It wasn't as impressive as the Town of Beginnings but then again, there were few settlements I could think of in the entire game that could match its grandeur.

I looked around and noticed that there were already quite a few players walking around in the streets. One small group walked by and chuckled under their breath after looking at us. "What was that about?" I asked Asuna.

"We look like homeless people, that's what that was about," said Asuna as she gestured at our tattered armor. The leather armor was dirty and falling apart but that was a testament to its use. "Also, I'm going to need a new rapier again."

"Already?" After her iron one broke, we had to go back to the Town of Beginnings to buy a new one. Back then, the black iron weapons, made out of the metal of the destroyed Black Iron Palace, were the best that was available from the blacksmith players. It was a slight improvement to the iron weapons but the durability was lacking. I checked my inventory and sighed at our meager account balance. Since we prioritized grinding for levels, we've neglected our income and now we were left with only 50 Cor between the two of us. "Maybe we can sell off some of the monster material we have on hand for some money."

"Give me the stuff you have in your inventory. I'll handle our equipment while you go to your meeting." I happily obliged and began throwing all the material I had in my inventory into a trade request. "Makes me wish there was some kind of shared inventory system."

"There is."

"What, then how come we haven't been using it? That way we don't have to keep sending each other trade requests whenever we need something from the other person."

"It requires the two players to be married," I finished.

"Oh…" There was a hint of red that now colored her cheeks and the way she fidgeted with her hair was pretty cute.

"My goodness Asuna, we're in public! I know I'm irresistible but you can't just propose to me like that," I said with fake drama in my voice and a grin on my face.

"Why do I stay with you?" she asked as she shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"It's 2022, Asuna. Being a tsundere isn't as attractive as it used to be."

"Call me tsundere one more time and I'll kick your ass."

"That sounds like something a tsundere would say, don't you think?"

Before Asuna could make good on her promise, someone approached us, "Charming as always, Kiri-bou." There was only one person in the entire world that called me by such a ridiculous nickname and my suspicions were confirmed when I turned to the voice.

"Good to see you too, Argo." She looked the same as I remembered her from the beta. Nimble-build with brown eyes and curly golden-brown hair. Oh, and of course, her character-defining feature, the drawn-on whiskers on her face.

"Kiri-bou?" whispered Asuna as she looked to me for an explanation.

"Don't ask me. She just started calling me that after I told her my name. It was either that or Kii-bou," I whispered back.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friend here or are you two just going to keep whispering into each other's ears?"

I felt the tips of my ears heat up a bit before faking a cough and turning back to Argo. "Sorry, this is Asuna. We met on the first day and have stuck together since." When I was about to introduce the other party, I noticed that Argo was no longer paying attention but was, instead, writing something in a notebook. "What are you doing?"

"Just noting down some information," she said without looking up. "Kirito and Asuna...inseparable from the day they met…"

"Please don't go around spreading false rumors."

"It's 2022, Kirito. Being a tsundere isn't as attractive as it used to be."

"You little rat…"

Asuna giggled beside me and Argo looked pleased with herself. "See, she gets it." She then extended out her hand and introduced herself. "Name's Argo. Writer and researcher for MMO Today. Former beta tester and information broker."

"Information broker?" asked Asuna as she shook her hand.

"Borderline extortion," I commented.

"A girl's gotta pay her bills somehow. Not everyone is as strong and gallant as you are, Black Swordsman." The two girls exchanged another laugh and I was beginning to see the start of a disturbing trend.

"Why the whiskers?" asked Asuna as the two of them walked forward.

"There's a quest on Floor 2 that lets you unlock martial art skills. If you accept the quest, the NPC there paints whiskers on you that cannot be removed until the quest is completed. Back in the beta, I was never able to complete the quest and the look kinda grew on me. I think it looks pretty cute, wouldn't you agree, Kir-bou?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Kirito...confirmed furry…" she jotted down.

There was no winning so I chose to ignore that and asked, "We just recently got here and were wondering where we could find a good blacksmith that could fix up our gear and maybe have something better than the black iron series for sale."

"Do you have Cor?"

"Are we really doing this?"

"I take favors too."

I sighed. "Fine, we owe you one."

"You owe me one. I don't charge friends and Aa-chan here is a friend, ain't that right?"

"Of course!"

"I owe you one then."

"Look for Lizbeth on the north side of town that heads into the valleys," she said, pleased with herself. "She's the highest level blacksmith that crafts with monster materials instead of ingots so you may have more luck with her if you are short on Cor but have high-quality drops." When we got to a block away from The Tiny Albatross Inn, Argo bowed out. "This is where I'll bid you two adieu. Enjoy your little get together with the rest of the Clearers, Kiri-bou, and good luck with Lizbeth, Aa-chan."

After adding us to her friend's list, Argo slipped into an alley and went out of sight. "Do you trust her?" asked Asuna. "When she was writing in her notebook, I managed to sneak a peek. She wasn't writing any of the stuff she was saying."

"What was it?"

"She recorded the equipment we had, an estimate of our Level, the direction we came from, and a few other things I couldn't see. Your [Anneal Blade] was underlined and bolded."

"Very sneaky of you."

"I'm being serious right now."

"You're not wrong. The rumor of a unique weapon could attract the wrong kind of attention but if we're going to be participating in the floor boss fight then the news would spread anyway," I explained. "Hmm, as to whether or not I trust her...I would say so, yeah. She has her hustle but she's still a good person. She's doing what she has to do to survive but she does a lot of things she doesn't have to do too."

"What do you mean?"

I pulled up my menu and navigated to the Auction menu. "Look at this." The most purchased item was a guide called, 'Argo's Guide to Floor 1,' and it was being sold for 0 Cor.

"Wow, over seven thousand copies sold?! She would have been rich if she charged even 1 Cor for it."

"Yeah, not only that, this thing is really detailed and has been updated a few times now," I said while flipping through it. Detailed maps combined with stat tables of the monsters you can encounter in the area. Potential drops along with estimated percentages. An explanation of key game mechanics. This guide really had it all. 'Give it up for the gaming journalist to come up with the idea of writing guides and mass distributing it through the in-game auction system.'

"Is this why she charges for information?"

"I think so. Working on this doesn't leave much time for grinding levels," I said as I closed the book. "If nothing else, we should give her the benefit of the doubt, don't you think?"

Asuna thought about it for a minute before nodding her head. "Yeah, I agree."

The two of us went our separate ways as I headed into The Tiny Albatross Inn. Room 201...Room 203...Room 204. A short man yet solidly built man with spiky sienna hair stood at the door. "Invite out," he said when we made eye contact. He wasn't one of the Clearers. 'Is he one of Diavel's men?' I decided there was no point overthinking it and pulled up the private message Diavel sent me. "Alright, head on in," said the nameless bouncer as he stepped aside.

"Heyo, look who's here!" The first one out of his seat was a young man around my age with red eyes and long purplish-black hair in a ponytail. His shoulders were broad and well-muscled but his overall build was toned and agile. His face had a fair and pale complexion, and he had a slender jawline that probably made him popular with girls.

"I would say it's good to see you, Zekken, but that doesn't seem quite right under these circumstances," I said with a smile on my face. At least there was one person here that I liked.

"Will you get pissed if I said I'm glad to see you in these circumstances?" I raised my eyebrows as I looked at him and we both shared a laugh and shook hands.

"I'm glad you could make it, Kirito," said the person in the back of the room. The man had blue hair with long bangs and blue eyes. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties; old enough to command respect with the players but young enough to not seem out-of-touch.

"Can't turn down an invitation from our fearless leader," I responded. I then looked around the room and nodded to the last two members. "Schmitt. Lind." The two nodded back and apart from the brown hair and grey eyes the two brothers shared, they could not have looked any more different. Schmitt was built like a linebacker that belonged on an NFL team and that made Lind's skinny frame look like a stick that could break if the wind blew too hard.

"Now that everyone is here, can we get started?" asked Schmitt.

"Not everyone is here. Not yet," responded Diavel.

The room fell silent and I had a feeling we all knew who Diavel was waiting for. Schmitt was the first one to break that silence. "You're not talking about Morte, are you? The guy's a psychopath! Did you forget what he did to Ar-"

"Listen," said Diavel as he cut him off, "it was in poor taste but the past is in the past. What we need right now are people who are going to help us clear the game and Morte was one of the best at what he did."

The two of them kept on arguing but I didn't bother listening any further. Instead, I turned to Zekken, "What do you think?"

"I think Diavel is right. We need all the help we can get," he said as he looked at me. "But Morte? I hate Morte."

Suddenly, the door creaked open and a bone-chilling voice rang out from behind us. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear." Diavel and Schmitt stopped arguing and everyone's attention was drawn to the person that walked in. The links of his chainmail coif jingled loudly with each step he took and the dark gray scale mail he wore seemed to suck the light out of the room. Morte was a thin man but he had an intimidating presence that demanded respect. "I've missed you all terribly."

None of us shared in that pleasantry except for Diavel. "It's good to see you too, Morte. Have a seat and let us get started." As Morte walked past us, I noticed a hole right below the armpit on the side of his armor. It fit the size of a dagger and on the inside, I saw specks of dark red. My eyes widened as I realized where he got the armor from and at that moment, our eyes met. His face split into a grin and he moved his arm to cover the hole.

"Where's Chrysheight? I don't see him here," asked Morte.

"Chrysheight never logged on," Diavel answered.

"How do you know?"

"His name isn't on the Monument of Life."

"What's that?" I asked.

"You must have left the Town of Beginnings pretty early then. It's this giant cube that lays where the Altar of Resurrection used to be. It has the name of all living players engraved on it."

"You counted all nine thousand something of them?" asked Morte.

"Someone did." Argo. That must be how she found out about this meeting.

"That's unfortunate. If you are planning to reform the Clearers then missing our tank is going to be hard."

"I'm a tank too, Morte," said Schmitt.

"Yes but you're not a very good one. If Chrysheight didn't have to cover for all of your mistakes then maybe we would have made it further than Floor 10."

"Shut up, Morte. It was you and your 'antics' that stopped us from going further. How many lives could we have saved if we had information on just one or two more floors?"

"Ah yes, and how many lives could we have saved if we had put a knife into Kayaba Akihiko's heart when we were testing his game for him? Hindsight is a tricky thing, isn't it?"

"Nobody could have expected Kayaba to do what he did, but you PKing people was completely unnecessary and detrimental to our efforts," said Lind, jumping to his brother's defense.

"Who are you? Were we allowed to bring a plus-one? I thought this was Clearers only."

"I am a Clearer, I replaced you after you were kicked."

"Whoa there, big shot, sorry for not recognizing you! How many floors were you guys able to clear again?" Morte waited for a response but Lind didn't have one. "Oh, what's that? None? Well, that's strange, how can someone be a Clearer if they have not cleared a single floor?"

"Enough!" said Diavel as he put an end to the argument. "I didn't invite you all here to fight and argue. We're here today to discuss the Floor 1 boss battle and the possibility of reforming the Clearers."

"You've already scheduled a meeting regarding the floor boss, why do we need to talk about it now?" asked Zekken.

With all Diavel has done to set this up, there's only one possible reason for this. "You are gunning for the Last Attack," I stated.

"Isn't that a given? Everyone aims for the Last Attack whenever there's a boss fight," said Lind.

"Does he have to spell it out for you?" said Morte. "He wants to manipulate it so that one of us gets it for sure."

"That's ridiculous, Diavel isn't a scum like you, he would never do that!"

Morte then looked to the man in question. "Go on then, make a liar out of me."

Diavel sighed. "We need those items to clear the game, Lind. The players need hope right now and if the Clearers are going to give that to them then we'll need resources."

"You can't mean it," said Lind with a shocked look on his face. "We're already ahead of the curve with our prior knowledge from the beta and now you want to deprive other players of the chance at getting loot that might help them survive?"

"Who's to say the person that gets the drop would even put it to good use? If we have it in our hands, we can at least ensure that we can get the most result out of it. All of us here know how difficult it'll be to clear this game. We only managed to clear ten floors during the beta and that was with EXP boosts, extra Cor, and unlimited tries. We have one try this time. You can scream that it's unfair all you want but that's our reality right now. So we can either take charge of our fate and maximize the chance of escaping, or we can leave it up to chance."

"I'm not leaving anything to chance," said Schmitt. "During the beta, I was the only one out of all of us here that never died once and that's a feat I plan to repeat." Morte burst out in laughter when he said that and Schmitt turned to him with a scowl on his face. "Something funny?"

"Ahaha, a tank being the last surviving member of his party. Is there a bigger shame in the world than this?"

"Alright, that's it!" In the blink of an eye, Schmitt had his warhammer raised high in the air and was ready to bring it down on Morte. What he didn't see was the dagger Morte was brandishing under his sleeve. But from where I was sitting, I did. Just as Morte was about to stick the blade between the gaps of Schmitt's heavy armor, I jumped in front of him and got a hold of his wrist with my hand. However, the smile on his face told me that wasn't the end of it. With a flick of his wrist, another dagger appeared in his other hand and he spun the knife into a reverse grip, ready to stab it straight into Schmitt's eye. The [Black Iron Dagger] flashed by me and for a split second, I saw the blade distorting into a white mist. A few specks of blood hit the floor but neither weapon reached its target.

BAM! BONK!

Zekken swiftly parried both of the attacks with the two ends of his quarterstaff and slammed it on the ground. "Are we fighting now?"

"Am I going to be blamed for self-defense?" asked Morte. As he shook his hand free from my grip, the sleeve of his shirt rolled up a bit to show the tattoo of a black coffin with a laughing face on it.

Schmitt angrily wiped the blood from his cheek. "Whatever happens, my brother and I aren't joining anything that he's involved in!"

"No worries, there are only two players here that I would consider partying up with anyway," said Morte as he got up. "Anyhow, it looks like I've overstayed my welcome so I'll bid you all adieu."

"You are being arrogant right now. Over two thousand players have died so far and beta testers have the highest death rate. The game is not a carbon copy of the one we played in the beta. If you tackle it alone, you will fail," said Diavel as Morte was walking out the door.

"Who said I'm alone?" With that said, the man flashed one last grin before disappearing down the hallway.

Behind the Page:

1. Zekken is a gender-bent version of Konno Yuuki from the Mother's Rosario arc.