It was nearly midnight already, and only Drifter and Kirito were still in the inn's lobby, talking. The spearman had an apologetic expression as he scratched his cheek.

"Sorry I made the call without consulting you and the others, Kirito."

"No, no, don't be. We trust you."

Hearing the last three words, Drifter smiled fondly. He knew Kirito meant it, and it was an honor. He wouldn't let him, nor Yuna, Asuna, Nautilus, or Sinon down.

"You think they have potential, then?"

"I think they are strong. When we were fighting the << Magnatherium >> earlier, they were watching and even chatting. They didn't show fear, even though there are only three of them."

"That's not necessarily a good thing."

Drifter snorted in amusement, but regretted it immediately after when he saw Kirito's downcast expression. He knew it wasn't his fault. The swordsman was simply thinking about the past. Just like Drifter, Yuna, and Nautilus didn't share everything they went through in SAO with the others, neither did Kirito, or Asuna and Sinon, for that matter. No one liked to look back at painful memories.

Seeing Drifter's face change, Kirito quickly shook his head to clear his thoughts. This was a part of him he disliked a lot, but knew it was unfortunately necessary. He wasn't responsible just for himself, but for his friends too.

"I'm not sure I'm fit for teaching other players... But I'm not against it. We have to see how they fare tomorrow. Their equipment is good, and so is their mentality, so I'm hopeful."

"It would be great if they are as good as I think they are. You know just how desperately we need more people on the frontlines."

Kirito nodded thoughtfully.

"Yeah. We can probably make do with just fifty-something for this floor, but... We are starting to get overwhelmed. Ideally, we can recruit twenty or thirty more people for the 5th floor and above."

"I would feel better if we had triple the amount of people we have now, but it is what it is."

"Haaa... We can't force people. But Argo told me there are quite a few good parties amongst the clearers, they just started later than us. They should be catching up soon."

Watching their last floor boss raid, you might not think this, but the frontliners were terribly short-handed. However, even if that was the case, they couldn't simply allow anyone to join them. If people died because they recruited them just to make up numbers, their deaths would be in their conscience. And there was the more practical concern of trust. The moment you stepped into a boss room, your life didn't belong just to you anymore. Everyone had a role in a boss raid, and if someone screwed up, people died.

"Something else, Drifter. Ran's trio can tag along tomorrow, of course, but then we'll be nine players in the group."

"Ten, probably. Asuna messaged Liz about Yuuki wanting to upgrade her gear, she'll probably join us."

"Right, ten. That's... A lot of people."

Kirito was beating around the bush, but Drifter knew where he wanted to arrive. They had discussed this issue before, and archived it due to the swordsman's resolute negative. But since Kirito was the one bringing it up now...

"Yup, a lot of people. Enough to form a guild, actually."

"Yeah... About that. Are you sure?"

He was. Drifter only saw benefits in creating a guild. But then again, he wasn't the one who was going to lead it. That role would fall on the dark-haired boy in front of him, and Kirito knew it. That was why he looked so unsure.

"Kirito, I'm not saying we have to make a huge guild to compete against the ALS and DKB. Quite the opposite, I'm content to let the two fools duke it out while we stay back. And I know you aren't stoked about the idea. But we'll have to join a guild at some moment, there's no way around it. And I would prefer if it was our guild instead of someone else's."

There were many advantages to joining a guild, and the beta-tester knew it better than anyone. Not to mention the bonus experience and cor, once the guild was at level 5, they could choose different kinds of boons, such as extra damage, defense, HP, and so on. And they were based on percentages, so while they might not make a huge difference at the start, in the later stages of SAO, each extra percent could amount to hundreds of bonus stats.

Apart from that, another benefit of being in a guild was being able to know where your guildmates were at any moment, even if it was across floors, and being able to see the health and status of everyone in the guild, not just your party members. That could be a literal life-saver if unexpected situations arose.

Now, Drifter wasn't sure why Kirito was so against creating a guild, other than his usual anti-social tendencies. But now that he saw the swordsman open up to the idea, he was going to try his best to convince him.

"Think about it, Kirito. It won't be much different from what it is now. I know that Liz will want to throw her lot in, but apart from her and us six, there won't be many more people. Maybe Agil and his bunch, but I doubt they will join right at the start. As for Yuuki, Ran, and Merida, we can invite them later on if we think it's a good idea. So it will be just us and Liz to start with. We are almost always together anyway."

"This... I'll think about it. But I won't be guild leader. You or Asuna are much better..."

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"Nope. You don't get a say in this."

Before Kirito could finish, Drifter cut him off. He knew that compared to convincing the swordsman to set up a guild, this was the major obstacle. Unfortunately for Kirito, he refused to budge on this topic, and so did the others. They would only accept the black-haired boy as their leader.

"Drifter..."

"Don't. I'll be straightforward here, Kirito. You have an inferiority complex. No matter how hard we try to knock some sense in you, you refuse to accept that we want you to be our leader because we trust you. I trust you. Asuna trusts you. So do Sinon, Nautilus, and Yuna. We aren't pulling your leg or making a prank, Kirito. We chose you as our leader because we firmly believe you are the best option."

Drifter grabbed Kirito's shoulders with both hands, and stared right into the boy's eyes, trying to convey his seriousness.

There was something about Kirito that was just... Different. The first time he laid his eyes on him, Drifter knew that. Deep down, in a place unknown even to him, Drifter believed the swordsman would be the one to bring them out of SAO. It was like... He, Yuna, Nautilus, Asuna, Sinon, Argo, Agil, Liz, and everyone else, they were all trapped in SAO. They all saw themselves as prisoners, outsiders. But Kirito... Kirito lived. To him, SAO was more than just a sadistic game, more than just a prison. It was a world, as real as the one they came from.

"I and Asuna will be your vice guild leaders, Kirito. We've discussed that before. If we think you are being dumb or making something stupid, you can trust we'll tell you that to your face. You just need to know, you will never be alone. It's too late to get rid of us."

The swordsman chuckled weakly at the joke. He said nothing for the next few minutes, his gaze lost in the distance. Then, having made up his mind, he heaved a deep sigh.

"Only if everybody else agrees."

Drifter grinned.

"You got it, boss."

"Ugh..."

-----------------------------

The next morning dawned on a deeply regretful Kirito. Looking at the five raised hands and joyful - teasing - smiles, he sighed for the nth time.

"All in favor say 'aye'. Aye."

"Aye!"

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye!"

Yuuki, Ran, and Merida were watching the peculiar scene from nearby. From their perspective, Drifter had dragged a very downbeat Kirito, and casually asked everyone to vote for him to be their guild leader - implying they were going to create a guild.

"You guys are really... Hah! I'll try my best."

"We will be in your care, guild leader!"

"Ugh! Please don't call me that, it gives me goosebumps. Just continue calling me Kirito."

Kirito shuddered, and his party laughed. After a few minutes of joking around and teasing their new guild leader, they finally got down to business.

"All right, we can complete the guild establishment quest later. Meanwhile, brainstorm names, people."

"Roger that."

"Plans for the day are these, then: complete the shipwright's questline, get our boat, and cross the lake to meet up with Kizmel and continue the << Elf War >> campaign. That okay with everyone? Ran?"

First getting nods of affirmation from his party, Kirito then looked at Ran, the older twin, and leader of the trio.

"We'll follow you wherever you go, if that's okay."

"No problem. Well then, let's go! Clearers are already starting to map out the floor - where they can reach, anyway. We can't be too far behind."

One little-known fact about Kirito was that he didn't overthink things. He didn't want to be guild leader, and he still thought he wasn't the best one for the job, but since his party had chosen him, so be it.

The following objectives from the shipwright chain quest involved getting wood, a special kind of silk for the sails, and a whole lot of other things - of course, Asuna and Yuna insisted on always getting the rare items, which meant fighting plenty of elite mobs. At least they got many chances to watch their new friends and possible recruits battle.

They were good. Drifter already expected that, but he was still surprised. Ran, Merida, and Yuuki were totally at the level of frontliners. In fact, he was confused as to why they didn't join them earlier. But there could be a plethora of reasons for that, and he wasn't about to ask them. Everyone had their secrets.

The purple-haired sisters both used long one-handed swords, as he had already noticed yesterday. While their reaction speed wasn't quite as fast as Kirito's, it was still enough to put many frontliners to shame. But what really set them apart was their synchrony. Whether it was because they were twins or because they had fought alongside for a long time, Drifter didn't know. But watching as they made identical cuts on the stalk of a << Gaudy Nepenthes >>, almost snapping it in half, he gave them a mental thumbs-up. They might be a little slower than Kirito, but their teamwork more than made up for it.

And then there was Merida. There were a few players who used greatswords amongst the frontliners, but Drifter never interacted with them, so this was his first time seeing someone fight with it from up close. What he thought would be a cumbersome weapon turned into a whirlwind of death in the blue-haired player's hands.

With one glance, Drifter could see Merida had invested pretty much all of her attribute points in strength, and was relying on her equipment to compensate for her lack of agility and vitality. It was a bit of a glass cannon build, but enemies had to hit her first, and it was hard to do that when she cleaved everything that came close to her in half.

By the time they finished gathering all the materials and returned to Rovia, it had all but been confirmed that the trio would join them on the frontlines. Liz was also getting along swimmingly with them, so poor Agil was probably about to lose his temporary party member.

The group split up once they reached the city, Yuuki and Ran going to the inn, Liz and Merida going to the plaza to sell their wares, and the original party searching for the shipwright Romolo to get their boat.

Thankfully, this was a game. After handing in the materials, they just had to wait half an hour to get a small sailboat, enough for ten people to comfortably navigate in. It was quite tiny compared to the ALS and DKB ships, which could sit thirty players each, but for the party it was already more than enough.

Just as they were thanking the shipwright and preparing to turn in for the night, Romolo gestured for them to wait, and follow him. The party did so, albeit confused. This was a standard start for a quest, but according to what they knew, Romolo's questline had ended already.

No matter what they asked, the NPC only told them to stop talking and quietly follow him. His routine was rigid, and he only repeated the same lines over and over again, so the party had no option but to go after him. Sometime later, they reached the pier, where they saw a bunch of sailors sneakily loading crates onto a ship.

"I knew those bastards were up to somethin', sneaking 'bout at night! My ol' bones are too weak to sail like I did back in my days, so I need ya to follow them and discover what they are schemin' for me, adventurers."

[ Received quest: Follow the Clandestine Sailors. Accept? ]

Without thinking too much, they clicked yes. All the signs pointed to this being a hidden quest they somehow stumbled upon.

This was how, while most players were heading to the safe zones to sleep, Drifter and his party ended up sailing their newly built boat into the night, after a bunch of criminal NPCs.