Traps were a staple in Sword Art Online. While less common in the normal maps, it was almost guaranteed you would stumble upon some when exploring the labyrinth.
Still, the main focus of SAO was and had always been combat. So even when you triggered a trap, the majority of the time what it did was spawn more monsters, usually surrounding the unfortunate souls that tripped the trap.
That was still very dangerous. If you were already tired and spent from fighting, and suddenly had more enemies attacking you... More than one party had been exterminated by this kind of trap.
What were not common were, ironically, stereotypical traps such as pitfalls, rolling boulders, spears shooting from the ground, and, of course, crossbow bolts from the wall. That the first trap they came across was one of the latter was disturbing. It set an unnerving precedent.
A dangerous one.
"Let's keep going. I want everyone to keep their eyes peeled even more than before. Braves, Fuurin, how many of you have Searching above 500?"
In normal circumstances, that was an incredibly rude question to ask. One of the worst cases of invasion of privacy that there was in SAO, second only to talking about the outside world. You didn't ask someone about their real lives, and you didn't ask them about their stats. Those were the two most important unspoken rules of SAO.
But it was Drifter who was asking. So Issin, Chuchulainn, and Enkidu didn't hesitate to raise their hands. And the spearmaster already knew that of the Reavers present, Ran, Silica, and himself fit the bill. He was their vice guild leader after all.
"You are shuffling to the front. We will rotate. Myself, Ran, Silica, Enkidu, Chuchulainn, Issin, and then start again. Use Searching for 30 seconds and then let it cooldown. I recommend you do the same when we split."
"Which should be any moment now. I see torches in two directions."
They all groaned. While another fork was expected - it was a maze after all - they had all been low-key hoping it wouldn't come so soon.
"I guess this is where we part ways."
"Yeah. We will take the left. Orlando, Klein, until we have a better measure of this floor, I wouldn't recommend splitting up."
"Trust me, we weren't planning on doing that. That trap scared the ever-loving crap outta me."
Drifter chuckled, and fist-bumped Orlando and Klein. The two guilds disappeared down the right corridor, and he turned to the people who were left, only his guildmates now.
Nautilus, Vallerk, Silica, Ran, Wolv, and Kizmel looked at him eagerly. The party configuration was slightly skewed towards very close combat - with only Drifter himself having a weapon longer than a meter and a half - but it worked.
They put it to good use soon, for the next obstacle in their path was another trap - but of the good old kind.
Even Drifter had failed to spot that one. And as the characteristic sound of mobs spawning echoed behind him, the spearmaster's body spun and his trident lashed out before his mind even caught up to what was happening.
His slash had been aimed at about chest-height - his chest, that is. Always a good height for blind attacks, almost guaranteed to hit something.
Two red-skinned dwarf-like mobs cried out in pain when he sliced a gash across their faces. One of the snake-women tried to lunge at him, and Drifter stabbed her through the throat.
Around the Reavers, a dozen mobs, between the yōkai and the new dwarves, had appeared. Too many to be a normal spawn, and in a perfect formation to encircle the players, which was how Drifter knew they had tripped a trap.
That was okay. This was much more familiar to the frontliners. Kizmel blocked a hammer from one of the dwarves with her shield, and retaliated with a slash from her curved blade. Feredir dug his teeth on the mob's calf and pulled, making it lose balance and creating the perfect opportunity for Drifter to end its life.
A quick exchange of glances and a silent conversation later, Kizmel nodded to Drifter, and the spearmaster turned away, leaving the remaining two mobs in the backside to Kizmel while he went to reinforce Silica, who was struggling against a dwarf and one of the snake-women, having been separated from her usual partner Vallerk.
Kizmel bashed another mob with her shield, this time one of the snake-women. Her curved sword left silver blurs in the air as she swung it, leaving cut after cut on the mob.
The dark elf had been fighting her whole life - which turned out to not be that long since she discovered she was a character in a game (and hadn't that been a fun conversation). Nevertheless, going against two enemies at once was nothing new to her.
Sidestepping a claw strike, Kizmel smacked the second mob with the flat of her blade, stunning it for a crucial half a second. It was enough for her to turn around and use a Serration Wave to nearly decapitate the first snake-woman. With that, her part was as good as done.
Parrying an attack, the dark elf saw Drifter and Silica working together to kill one of the dwarves. Good. They were nearly done too.
"Argh!"
That was when she heard a cry of pain from someone behind her. Whirling around in a panic to see who it was, Kizmel almost lost her head.
"Ugh!"
It was only her fast reactions that allowed her to deflect the last snake-woman's claws - although not perfectly, and her depleted health was a stark reminder to pay attention to herself before others. You couldn't help anyone if you died because you got distracted.
Ignoring the wound, she ran through the mob, not even waiting for it to shatter to turn around fully. Her eyes immediately found the source of the scream.
Wolv was quite literally pinned to the wall of the corridor by a giant wood stake. They had been moving around a lot as they battled, and the merchant must have triggered another trap.
A wooden stake with the circumference of a closed fist had gone through the player's midsection. Wolv's HP was under 50%, Kizmel didn't know if it was all because of the trap, or if he had been hurt beforehand.
What she knew was that the Reaver couldn't move, and a mob was slithering its way to him, claws ready to tear him to shreds.
Kizmel started running towards Wolv, but it was a chaotic melee. She only made it a few steps before her path was blocked. She planted her blade on the mob's back without reservations, not even sparing a glance to Ran, who was fighting it.
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She was going to be too late. Wolv clumsily blocked the first attack, but his awkward position didn't give him much room to maneuver.
"Kizmel, get down!"
Drifter's roar shook the dark elf to the core, and she dropped without even thinking. The silver glow of Serpentcoil Impale passed through her hair, narrowly missing her head, and hit the mob with such strength that it carried it a good 5 meters before it exploded in shards. The trident trembled where it struck the wall, and stayed there.
Wide-eyed, the dark elf, still on the ground, raised her head. She wanted to scream at Drifter for his recklessness, but also knew that, had he hesitated, Wolv would be dead.
She didn't yell at him in the end. Mostly because the spearmaster had abandoned his own fight to rescue Wolv, and turned his back on the mobs he and Silica were battling.
Silica was on the back of a dwarf, stabbing it again and again with all her skills while Pina clawed at its face. Unfortunately, that left a second mob free to do as it wished.
"Uff!"
A hammer struck his waist, and Drifter went down. The mob grunted and raised the heavy weapon for a crushing - and potentially fatal - blow.
Drifter kicked its legs from under it, and rolled to the side. The hammer still hit his shoulder, but the blow mostly glanced off his armor.
Scrambling to get up, the spearmaster used a Martial Arts skill to deliver a mighty uppercut to the dwarf. It didn't kill it, but it did give Drifter an opening to put some distance between them.
"Switch!"
This time, Kizmel was close enough to make a difference. She rushed past Drifter, and the spearmaster relaxed.
Trusting the dark elf to finish the enemy, he forsake the usual health potion in favor of a Healing Crystal. He was still shivering. For a moment there, the situation had gotten truly dire.
Not that it was over yet. But after seeing that both Wolv and Drifter were safe, the Reavers redoubled their efforts to absolutely murder the remaining mobs.
They did such a good job that Drifter didn't even bother immediately recovering his trident. Instead, he went over to Wolv - who had by now freed himself from the trap - and broke another Healing Crystal on his chest.
"That was almost horrible, hum?"
The older player snorted, then let out a full-bellied laughter. His eyes still held some fear from the close scare with death, but he mirrored Drifter's shit-eating grin.
"Understatement of the fuckin' year, Drifter. I owe you one."
"Pff- By now you already owe me like, twenty."
"Hahahaha! Just put it on the tab then."
"Will do, Wolv. Will do."
As the other Reavers approached the duo, worry still clear in their eyes, Drifter clapped Wolv on the shoulder one last time.
"Good to still have you with us, man."
Wolv laughed loudly, much to the disconcert of the others, who hadn't heard what Drifter said. They quickly mobbed the duo.
"Wolv, Drifter, are you alright?!"
The spearmaster chuckled. Logically, everyone knew they were okay. This was SAO, not the outside world. Simply drinking a potion or using a crystal was enough to make it so as if nothing ever happened.
But emotionally, such a close brush with death was impactful not only to the two players, but all their friends. Hell, even the people watching the Reavers' broadcasts were covered in cold sweat.
"We are good, don't worry. I would say we have to be more cautious from now onwards, but I don't think that's actually possible. Wolv only triggered the trap because he was otherwise occupied."
"Yeah, occupied trying not to get my face ripped off by one of the yōkai."
The merchant mumbled under his breath, still loud enough for the others to hear him and laugh.
"Let's just keep going. The quicker we find the safe zone, the quicker we can get away from this maze."
The somber mood settled in again, and everyone nodded. Drifter's last thought before they continued down the corridor and took a right on the next fork was depressing.
This floor is going to cost us.
------------------------
After 1 hour of the defeat of the 24th floor boss, the players in the Town of Beginnings started to grow restless. Usually, by now, the next floor would have already been opened.
After 2 hours, the restlessness turned to doubt. Maybe there was some sort of resource or limited quest on the 25th floor that the frontliners were trying to monopolize?
When 4 hours went past, not even the most distrustful player could still believe that. Sure, some frontliners could be greedy, but not to this extent, and not all of them.
After 6 hours, the SAO players were just about panicking. Many had even rushed to the Monument of Life to see if some sort of disaster had struck the Assault Team.
It was only a mass-message released by Argo the Rat that calmed down the players. According to the info-broker, the 25th floor was troublesome, and the Assault Team was still tirelessly working to reach the safe zone and open the floor.
Even with her reassurances, the extra hour that passed left them all unsettled. The shining light from the teleporter signaling another destination had been unlocked was followed by a collective sigh of relief from the gathered players. And then a mad dash to be the first to see what the floor that caused the frontliners so much trouble so early on in their exploration of it was like.
Argo was one of the first to burst out of the teleporter, and she almost tripped over Klein. The samurai had apparently been the one to unlock it, and just about passed out of exhaustion.
The info-broker's eyes darted around, taking in everything around her. They appeared to be in a giant cave. A type of glowing green moss covering most of the walls and ceiling seemed to be the only source of light.
The houses around her were little more than huts of packed black dirt, with more of the moss growing on them. The NPCs were humans, but with dark skin - not black, but grey.
Fuurinkazan and the Legend Braves were the only players from the Assault Team in sight. They all appeared worse for wear, sitting down with their backs to a wall or just collapsed haphazardly on the ground.
At least they were all there.
"What the hell happened, Orlan-nii? Where is the rest of the raid team?"
Argo knew that the floor was a maze, of course. She had been in contact with Drifter, Kirito, the Reavers, and several frontliner players this entire time. That was the only reason she hadn't panicked like the rest of the SAO victims.
But only so much could be relayed through rushed messages while staying in the lookout for ambushes and traps. She needed a first-hand account of the floor, and she needed it immediately.
"Hey, Rat."
Orlando raised his head and gave a weak chuckle. Then he noticed her impatience, and sat up straighter.
"The floor is a giant maze, trapped to hell and back. It took us this long just to find the safe zone because we kept getting lost and having to double back. The constant ambushes didn't help either. We already shared the map with the rest of the Assault Team, they should make it here soon-ish."
After saying that, Orlando lowered his head again. It took a moment for Argo to realize he had fallen asleep. She turned to Chuchulainn, who was sitting next to his guild leader.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Ha! Exhausting. More mentally than physically actually. We were already tired from the raid, but it was still okay at the start. The more we split up, though, the worse it got. We never knew where we were going, and we couldn't take a single step before making an entire sweep with Searching. I mean it. Dale went down to 10% on one of the nastier traps. We also heard some of the Reavers got pretty close too, although they pulled through. The ALS apparently had some close calls also, although they weren't keen to share through messages."
Argo's eyes widened. If that was just what Chuchulainn had heard, she couldn't even imagine how bad it truly was.
She almost asked if the Brave knew of any casualties, but he would have already told her if that were the case.
The thought didn't comfort her as much as she thought it would. It could be that he simply didn't know. Nobody who lost someone would be eager to share.
Instead of exploring the new town for quests and information, Argo turned her gaze to the only entrance to the safe zone. Now all she could do was worry and wait.