"Where the hell have you been, Kirito!? You haven't reply any of my emails!"

Aw, great, not this guy again…

We met Klein at a café on floor 67, a Far East countryside-themed floor. Klein haven't change one bit after all this time, but I can see that he's definitely more experienced than he was when I last met him.

Even soon after learning about being trapped within the game, Klein wasted no time at all gathering his fellow friends before founding their own guild, the Fuurinkazan. Though few in numbers, they are proven to be very good team players that can outmaneuver much stronger forces with ease. The guy's a quick learner, if you ask me.

"So you're Kirito's friend, huh? Nice to meet you!" Keita greeted. "My name is Keita, and these are my guildmates."

"Happy to meet you, Keita! This is my guild." He pointed to the five people standing behind him.

And then we all introduced to each other.

"So, Agil said you needed a help finding a quest item, right?" Klein asked.

"You could say that." Izumi replied. "The item's name is 'Mark of Nihonto'. It is part of a long-running quest called 'The Marks of Swordsmen' and there seems to be a total of five of them. We have two such items in our possession right now."

"Hmm, The Marks of Swordsmen quest, huh?" Klein scratched his chin. "I believe we have that same quest in our quest log, too."

"Wow, you guys are also doing the same quest as us?" Sasamaru said.

"Yeah, we've been trying to get the bloody mark for almost a week now once we found out about its location. You know me, I'm an Eastern swords-fanatic, so I have to find out more about it! No such luck getting any closer to it, though."

This might complicate things.

"Wait, normally, if you do a quest that has quest items, each individual group gets their own set of quest items to find, right?" Sinon asked. "You can't share your quest items with another group who happens to be doing the same quest."

"Yeah, but the thing is, this quest is different." Lamia said. "The quest description says there's only five marks existed in Aincrad, and only the group who have all five of them gets to finish the quest. It's kind of like a competition between players to collect all the marks first, and the winner gets all the prizes."

"If that's the case, then the KBO and the HDA guilds must have also been doing this quest, too." I added. "Both guilds have a mark in their possession, and since Edgar said his guild took the mark from another player, then that means there's someone out there who's also been doing this quest as well."

"Whoever came up with this quest is a sadist. This is a guild war waiting to happen!" Asuna commented. "Just players versus players wasn't enough for you, huh, Kayaba?"

Wait a second.

"Hey, Keita, didn't Heathcliff told you that he would provide you with another mark in exchange for half of the prize you'd get when you finish the quest?" I asked.

"Uh, yeah? How'd you know that?"

"He told me before we left the KBO headquarter."

"I can confirm that." Asuna added. "That's why I was ordered to come with you guys. He wanted to make sure that you guys have a chance in discreetly getting the other marks while our guild's busy with the HDA."

I glanced at Asuna. Something's not right here.

Asuna seems a bit nervous when I mentioned Heathcliff, and shot me a look that kind of tells me 'You weren't supposed to know about that'.

And Heathcliff…he already had one of the marks, hadn't he? And his guild is more than a match for Keita's guild. Why didn't he just force the mark from us? And sending Asuna here on a mission, too. Her reasoning about the KBO being busy with the HDA seems a bit off for me.

And what's Sinon's role in all of this? She's unusually quiet throughout the conversation.

"At any rate," Klein spoke. "It seems this might not be as easily as we first thought. I can help you guys find the location of the mark, but that's about it."

He gestured to his guildmates behind him, who nodded in agreement. He then turned back to us and grinned.

"Once we get there, whoever gets to the mark first, wins it. Deal?"

Ah, Klein, how far you've go from the rookie I've met on the first floor…

I turned to Keita.

"So what do you wanna do about this?" I whispered. "At the very worst, you still get to keep the marks you already have, right?"

"We have no choice, either way." Keita replied. "We won't get anywhere close to the marks on our own. And this is the closest we've come to one of them right now."

He turned to the rest of the guild.

"Are you guys okay with this?"

"Of course, Keita-kun!" Sachi smiled. "I think it might make a good exercise for all of us, as well."

"Are you kidding!?" Asuna frowned. "I won't risk letting a mark slipping away from us when we have come this close to get it!"

"Didn't you listen to Keita-kun, Asuna?" Sinon finally spoke "We don't know the location of the mark, so obviously it'd take a very long time for us to even figure it out on our own. Besides, your guild, my guild and the BCFM all have the rest of the marks, so this might probably be your only chance to get your hands on the last mark before someone takes it away from you."

Asuna grunted unhappily, but at last she relented.

"Alright, let's do this." She said. "But if you let the mark fall into the other guild's hands, then I'll have no choice but to force you guys to get it back by any means necessary, got it?"

Well, things just get bloody serious here.

"Okay, that settles it, then." Keita nodded, then turned to Klein's group. "It's a deal."

Klein just grinned happily in response.

"There's one condition, though. Kirito, you stay out of this. We won't stand any chance otherwise, I'm not stupid!"

Oops.

"I look forward to our competition later, my new friends!" He cheered. "I'll show you the place tomorrow. Until then, let's spend the rest of the day resting. You'll need all the energy you can get going up against us! Come on, let's find something to eat in the town! I know some good ramen restaurant here."

Heh, Klein's still Klein, even if he practically challenges us to see who's better than whom.

We spent the rest of the evening having fun in the town. Both guilds seems to get along really well. Maybe the competition tomorrow won't turn out to be a total disaster after all.

"To be honest," Klein whispered to me. "Even without you, I think that two ladies over there are more than enough to take us on,"

He gestured to Asuna and Sinon.

"Don't worry. Keita already spoke with them. He told them that he wanted only members of his guild for the competition tomorrow. Technically, Asuna and Sinon still belonged to their own factions, and both Agil and I are outsiders."

"Whew! That Keita sure is a nice guy." Klein sighed. "Don't get me wrong. They're both very cute! But they kinda scare me…"

I look at the Black Cats and the Fuurinkazan guildmembers enjoying themselves ahead of me. The only ones who remained quiet are Sinon and Asuna, the latter also has a serious look on her face.

"You and me both, Klein. You and me both."

The HDA and the KBO have their eyes on the Marks of Swordsmen. Sinon and Asuna happened to join the Black Cats who also happened to already have two such marks? Seems more than a coincidence to me.

Looks like I'll have to keep my eyes on both of them from now on.

A/N: Well, been quite a while, right? I'm so lazy hahaha.

To tell the truth, the reason I got lazy with the updates is not because I ran out of ideas, but because I don't know how to put those ideas into writing without making it looked idiotic. Especially with grammar points and the like. I've gone back and read my old chapters and it's so full of errors it kinda discouraged me from continuing on.

Nevertheless, I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS STORY, no matter what. So stay tuned for future chapters! The main plot's about to get going from here on out.