Chapter - 022 Campaign Quest

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The raid was completed without a hitch, and at Lind's suggestion, the group decided to head to the third floor together.

Perhaps he wanted to emphasize their sense of camaraderie.

Nezha seems to be holding hands with her friends and talking about something.

"Looks like the Legend of the Braves will continue."

"It seems so. Yeah, good for you."

"Well, not bad."

The three of them headed towards the stairs leading to the third floor, but...

Kibaou, who had been quiet for a while, approached. Kibaou told Hachiman and Asuna,

"Thank you."

" he said briefly. It seemed like he had a hard time talking to Kirito, but in the end,

"I'll make you work me hard again next time."

With that said, he went up the stairs with his companions.

"Please come again next time."

"It seems so."

"Then I'll have to try harder next time."

Then, Nezha came running.

Nezha first bowed his head, then smiled and said, "Now it's my turn to support my comrades."

The three cheered and Nezha returned to her friends.

As he began to climb the long staircase to the third floor, Argo was suddenly standing behind him.

"Haru-bo, you wrapped it up nicely in the end."

"I just did what I could do efficiently."

"I think this would have been pretty bad if Hachiman hadn't been there."

"Well, that's typical of you, Hachiman."

"My self-esteem is still as low as ever..."

"You idiots, you guys have way too high an opinion of me."

When the group finally reached the third layer, what they saw was a forest stretching out as far as the eye could see.

"The whole area is just forest..."

"And what you can see over there is the main block of the third floor, Zumft."

"For now, I want to rest... I'm really tired..."

"Maybe because I felt relieved, I felt really tired..."

"Because of me, the two of you have been running almost without a break for almost two days."

Hachiman and Asuna collapsed, and Nezha also sat down as if she had lost all sense of purpose.

Nezha was the most exhausted, so Kirito lent her his shoulder.

I took Nezha to where the Braves members were gathered.

"Well then, we'll make one last push."

After having Lindo and Kibaou activate the teleportation gate, the group headed home.

Kirito heads to the inn on the second floor.

Hachiman and Asuna headed to the first floor, to the inn they usually used.

Argo handed them the guidebook to the third floor, saying it was part of their reward.

He disappeared to nowhere.

"Asuna, don't fall asleep in the bath."

"Yeah... I'm not that confident."

"Please be really careful."

After Hachiman escorted Asuna to her lodgings,

The moment I arrived at my accommodation I collapsed into bed and fell asleep.

Hachiman was unable to get up until late afternoon the next day.

It seemed he had a very strong reluctance to get up.

It's true that Hachiman may have been working too hard since being imprisoned in SAO.

"I might use up all my motivation to work here..."

Hachiman was about to go back to sleep when he noticed a message from Asuna.

The message said, "Even if you take today off,

The message suggested that we talk for a bit while looking at the guidebook.

Well, it's close by so I thought it would be fine, so Hachiman sent a message to say he accepted,

After checking the reply, I got up and started getting ready.

When Hachiman arrived at Asuna's lodgings, Asuna took out her guidebook and began to talk.

"I just went to Zumft with Liz and had a quick look around."

"You look fine..."

"I met Kirito and Nezha on the way and we had a little chat."

"Nezuha must have been more tired than me, but you seem to be in good spirits..."

"Then, I found this in the guidebook:

Apparently the two of them are going to do this campaign quest together."

"This one... the reward seems good, and although it seems difficult, I think it's worth a try."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing. Why don't we go and see it tomorrow?"

"That's right... before that, I'd like to try some more combat in the forest first.

Tomorrow I'll take Lisbeth and level up to get used to the enemies and terrain on this floor.

How about starting the campaign the day after tomorrow?"

"It's true that we were just running around at the end of the previous layer.

Well then, let's do that! I'll ask Liz myself."

"Yes, please. I'm going to sleep a bit more then."

"Yeah! I'll contact you later then."

"Yes, I'm counting on you."

The next day, the three of them went on a mobile hunt and discussed things to be careful of in the forest.

"Because our visibility is reduced, we have to be extra careful to avoid being surprised."

"The hammer is a little hard to swing."

"It might be tough for me to turn around suddenly too."

"Looks like we'll have to make a place like the main plaza our base."

The three of them continued hunting while moving around, and since they were somewhat satisfied with the results,

The fighting for that day was over.

"Tomorrow we will

I'm thinking of trying out the campaign quests listed in the guidebook,

What about Liz? Would you like to join us?"

"Well, it's not at the level I need at all, so I think I'll pass."

"I see, I get it."

"Be careful, you two."

"Yeah. See you two."

On the day the campaign scenario was to begin, the two of them headed to the planned starting location.

"The starting point of the quest seems to be a place called Lost Mist Forest."

"The fog is making us lose our sense of direction. We need to be careful."

"According to Kirito, at first the Forest Elves and the Dark Elves were fighting.

So we had to intervene, but they were both really strong.

"We're no match for them."

"Hey Asuna, does that mean there's a chance that I'll lose all my HP?"

"I was also curious and asked, but the moment one of our HP gauges hit half,

The person on your side will defeat the enemy with a miraculous power, and then you will die as well."

"I see. In the end, they both die..."

"Yeah. So you're stuck in the scenario of taking your side,

Apparently the dropped items will be delivered to the base of the elven tribe that sided with them."

"I wonder what difference it makes which side you choose to side with."

"I wonder what will happen."

In the end, we'll have to decide which side to take when we get there.

Asuna agreed that this would be fine.

The two get lost, confused by the power of the foggy forest, and get lost many times, but finally find a place that seems like their destination.

"Hachiman-kun, isn't that it?"

"Seems so. Let's go."

Just as I had heard, when we arrived at our destination,

Two NPCs with the quest start symbol 【! 】 displayed above their heads were fighting.

The Forest Elf was male, and the Dark Elf was... female.

"Hachiman-kun"

"You want to side with the Dark Elves, right? I don't really want to side with the man in this situation either."

"thank you"

When the two of them jumped out, the mark above the NPC's head changed to a 【?】 indicating that they were in the process of moving forward.

"I can't believe there are humans in a forest like this!"

"Who are you guys?"

The two of them remained silent, turning their backs to the Dark Elf and aiming their weapons at the Forest Elf.

The Forest Elf's cursor was a terrifyingly black red.

The weaker an enemy is in your opinion, the brighter the enemy's cursor will be.

Normally, there is no way to defeat an enemy cursor that looks this black.

"You bastards, will you side with the Dark Elves? You will turn into rust on my sword!"

"You're the one who's going to become rust, you abusive bastard!"

(Oh, Asuna seems to be getting extremely heated...)

"O-oi, Asuna. Defensive, defensive."

"I know, Hachiman. I'll definitely defeat you by focusing on defense."

(Seriously? I have to do this seriously... If I slack off, I'll definitely get in trouble later...

Well, from what I've heard, I think we'll get taken out pretty quickly.)

And about ten minutes later... the Forest Elf turned into light and disappeared before their eyes.

"Seriously... I kind of defeated it..."

"As expected from Hachiman, who specializes in fighting humanoid monsters."

"Well, I was really desperate..."

"Thank you both for your cooperation."

The two of them suddenly turned around to see who was calling them.

The mark above his head remains as [?, and it seems the quest is progressing normally.

The color of the cursor had changed to yellow, which indicates a friendly NPC.

"My name is Kizmel. Thanks to you, I was able to protect the secret key."

The owner of the voice introduced himself as Kizmel.

Kizmel carefully picked up the cloth bag that had fallen where the Forest Elf had fallen,

He held it close to his chest and murmured softly.

"With this, the cathedral has been protected for the time being."

His eyes seemed to hide a variety of emotions.

"Thank you once again. You will receive a reward from our commander. Please accompany us to our camp."

"Then I'll take you up on that."

"Uh, Asuna, you have to clearly tell the NPC whether it's YES or NO..."

"Okay. Then I'll show you around. Follow me."

Hearing Asuna's answer, Hachiman tried to correct himself, but...

To his surprise, Kizmel seemed to understand Asuna exactly what she was saying.

The two were guided by Kizmel to the Dark Elf camp.

At the same time, a message will appear informing you that a new party member has joined.

Kizmel has become a party member.

The two were amazed at how Kizmel was completely indistinguishable from the player.

"Hachiman, I don't know much about this, but does this work through a program?"

"I'm surprised too... it's like a high-performance AI. Or rather, that's the only thing I can think of."

"That's amazing... he's like a normal person."

Apparently, dark elves can walk through the Lost Mist Forest normally.

Kizmel cuts down every enemy that appears,

The three of them quickly arrived at the Dark Elf camp.