Our Swords clashed as the timer began counting down from 3 minutes. We both jumped back as I rushed in to swing at him, Raven kept dodging my attacks as he swung at me. I barely dodged the swing with it cutting some of my hair, I activated the skill Horizontal Square swinging four times trying to land the hit. Raven jumped back and put his guard up as I was a bit exhausted.
Raven flipped his grip as he ran towards me, throwing his sword as I ducked under it. Raven then activated a martial arts skill running towards me as I turned my attention back to him, he threw a punch that I quickly reacted to barely able to block the hit just in time. “That was too close!” I thought to myself, swinging my sword as he moved back once again. It was two minutes now as we circled around for Raven to pick up his Katana.
“You’re pretty good on your reaction times Kirin”
Raven complimented as I replied “You’re not that bad yourself” as the timer reached 2 minutes and 30 seconds. We rushed in this time with sword skills, I jumped and swung down on Raven's katana as he blocked it and pushed it to the side. He then sheathed his katana as his avatar began to vibrate really fast, suddenly after images vibrating at the same speed showed up beside him.
His sword skill that he was using was called Afterimage Strike as he swung his sword diagonally, I blocked the hit as my sword was then chipped from it. “Now! Of all places?!!” I thought to myself as I kept blocking hit after hit, slowly breaking my sword down. Raven’s afterimages then went away as he started rapidly swinging with powerful strikes.
My sword then shattered in my hands as I was now defenseless without a sword, Raven Smirked saying “I win!” as he slashed diagonally and got the first hit on me. The duel was over as my back hit the floor. Raven sheathed his katana as he looked over and put a hand out to me, “That was a good duel, it was a close one.” he said to me. Toru walked over as I grabbed his hand and pulled myself up saying “You were really good too” as we shook hands and then walked off on our ways.
“So.. what are you going to do now that your sword is gone?”
Toru asked me as I took some thought into it, I then replied to her “I think I’ll have lisbeth forge me a weapon again, she’s consistent now that she has a goal to work towards”. Toru gave me the “Really? Again?” face as I explained to her why Lisbeth’s smithing became consistent.
“Look, Lisbeth’s forging wasn’t that good in the beginning as she didn’t really know how to smith and forge. But now, she can forge really good swords Toru. She told me she has a goal with her forging and Smithing skills.”
We kept walking down a pathway with Toru asking me “What kind of goal” as Toru seemed a bit protective over something. “I don’t know really, she just said that she has a goal to work towards and that was it.” as Toru sighed a bit. “Let’s just get you a new sword” Toru said, shrugging a bit before we turned around and headed off towards the safezone again.
We got to the safezone and looked around for Lisbeth’s shop. We wandered around the small town looking for her shop before eventually giving up to find the shop by foot. “I’ll just message her” Toru said as she opened up her menu, I nodded saying “alright, while we’re here, we might as well pick up some ingredients”. Toru looked at me as she looked back down onto the message, slightly hesitant about the message.
Toru clicked discard and Discarded the message she was going to send to Lisbeth, Swiping up and closing the menu. “Did you send it to her?” I asked her as she nodded, saying “Yeah, I sent it” as we walked to the market. We walked to the market as Toru picked out the ingredients, I smiled looking at her pick out ingredients and being happy again. “Kirin?” A voice said as I turned around and saw it was Kirito and Asuna. “Kirito? Asuna?” I said as Toru turned and saw them as well, “Aussie!!” Toru said as Asuna replied happily “Hey there Toru” as Toru hugged Asuna.
“Do you wanna help me pick out ingredients? I got some but I need some more to make a dish”
Toru asked politely to Asuna as Asuna replied “Sure, and I also came by to pick up some ingredients too.”, Both of them walked down into the market as Kirito and I followed them. “So how are you doing Kirin?” Kirito asked, I looked at him and said to him “I’m doing pretty well, what about you?”. “I’m doing fine, I’m just…losing my touch on being a solo player” Kirito said with a serious tone, I then asked him “Why’s that?”.
He took a deep breath in and a sigh, He then said “Well..It’s Asuna, I…can’t do things on my own without her now..”. We kept walking as I said to him “I’m going to be honest, I think you and Asuna fit well..” as he turned his attention to me, I then explained to him “Asuna seems to have a soft spot for you, and that says a lot considering that she is the Yellow Flash now.”.
Kirito looked down for a while, thinking a bit as he said “Yeah, maybe so” trying to accept that He needs Asuna now. “Speaking of Asuna, how’s Toru?” Kirito said as I replied “She’s doing fine, I recently found out she loves cooking” as Kirito chuckled a bit. “What, tell me man” I said as Kirito smiled saying “Well, it’s funny to hear the fearsome Reaper having a soft side” as I smirked a bit. I began to chuckle as Kirito looked at me confused, I then said “Well it’s funny to see that the Almighty Cold-Faced Black Swordsmen has a humorous side” as we both began to chuckle.
Toru and Asuna looked at us confused at why we’re laughing, “Are you two alright? You two don’t have the forced laugh effect on” Asuna questioned us as I replied “No, It’s just between us. Right Kirito?” as he nodded. Toru walked up to me and got up close to my face saying “No secrets between us! Remember!!” as she pouted furiously, “alright alright, but it wasn’t you who was asking Toru” I said to her.
Toru then pulled me by the ear as I was in both emotional and physical pain “OW OW OW!! TORU OW!!” I shouted out in pain as Toru said “Remember who’s in charge of this relationship!!”. Kirito chuckled a bit as Asuna gave him a serious look. He looked at Asuna a bit worried saying “Y-You’re not gonna do that to me… Right?” as Asuna gave a sinister smirk to him, eventually dragging him along by dragging him by his feet. Asuna caught up to Toru as I looked at Kirito and Kirito looked at me, both in pain.
By the end of the day we were at a restaurant, sitting at a table that we all were at. Kirito and Asuna were on one side while Toru and I were on the other. Asuna and Toru were talking about their day as Kirito and I were eating the Chef’s choice platter THEY ordered. Kirito looked around quickly as I looked at him confused, he then opened up his menu and handed me a map. I looked at the map as he whispered to me “Don’t let Toru know, this is between us alright?” as I nodded, putting the map in my inventory.
We quickly went back to “acting normal” by eating and drinking, Toru and Asuna eventually got their food as they ate and we sat there waiting for them to finish. While we waited, Kirito and I were trying to flick field goals with a small napkin, but every time we flicked it, it would shoot off at a rocket’s speed.
“Maybe we should try something heavier..” I told Kirito as he had an idea and pulled out a small metal ball. Kirito aimed it and flicked it, the ball had enough weight to fall as it flew into my (hand) field goal. “That works” I told him as he made his and I tried flicking it. We played for a while before the girls finished eating their food and paying for the food. When we walked out of the restaurant, Asuna spotted a person walking as she shouted “Mito!”.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
I turned my head to where she was shouting as the person had stopped to look over, we all looked and we saw it was Mito. Asuna waved as Mito walked over to us, Kirito and I were surprised to see Mito as Toru walked over to her. Mito looked over to Toru, asking Asuna “Who’s this?” as Asuna replied “Oh her! This is Toru, my friend”. Toru waved smiling as Mito spoke to Asuna in Japanese “Oh, Then what about mr.Showoff over there?” as Kirito replied “I’m not a showoff!!” almost immediately.
Asuna replied “He’s okay, he’s not giving me trouble” chuckling a bit. “Then what about you Toru? How is your man doing?” Mito said with a straight face as Toru replied, stuttering in Japanese “H-h-he’s fine!” bowing quickly.
Mito waved her hand saying “No need to bow, we’re not being formal here” as they all chuckled to keep the positive vibe up. Meanwhile, Kirito and I were a little annoyed eavesdropping on their conversation. We both sighed briefly and heard footsteps behind us, we turned around to see Klein and a couple of his friends from his guild, Fuurinkazan. “Is that Klein?” I said as Klein and his friends were a bit farther out, Kirito took a good look and nodded saying “Yeah, it’s him alright”. we saw that Klein seemed to be a bit downed at something.
“Did something happen to him?”
I thought to myself as I asked Kirito “Should we go and ask him?” as Kirito replied “No, I don’t think he’s in the mood to be having questions”. “I see, Alright then” I replied as we turned around to see Mito, Asuna and Toru gone. “Annnnd they’re gone” Kirito said like it’s happened before, I looked at him confused and said “What has Asuna been putting you through?” as he sighed.
“C’mon, let’s go get Sato”
Kirito said as I replied “Oh, sure” I was a bit confused as I messaged Sato, “Hey Sato, you got a minute?” waiting for a response. “Yeah, Neo’s out with the girls today” he replied with a response message as I was a bit dumbfounded at the answer, I then messaged him “Alright, meet us at this dungeon” as I sent him the message and the coordinates to the dungeon.
“Alright, See you in like 5 to 10 minutes”
Sato replied back as I nodded at Kirito, we then headed out of the town and walked towards the dungeon that looked similar to the labyrinth. When we got there, we met up with Sat and made a party for all three of us. Our levels were all almost on par with each other as Sato was Level 84, I was level 85, and Kirito was level 86.
“Alright, let’s do this”
I told them as we opened the doors to the dungeon floor. I walked in as I held the most health out of the group, seeing a bunch of dungeon monsters in the way. We all unsheathed our swords, running in.
Sato spun around and swung his sword straight up, breaking a guard block from a lizardman. Kirito rushed in and slashed the lizardman with a three hit combo.
I ran past them to rush underneath an empowered demonic servant and slash its back crystal, breaking it’s barrier. “Switch in!” I shouted as Sato rushed over and jumped, slashing the head off as it shattered.
We kept running ahead, shattering monsters left and right while maintaining a sustainable health pool. More empowered demonic servants and Lizardman kept getting in our way as we rushed over to what seems like a safespot of the dungeon. We reached the safe spot as we all took a breather. “Is everyone okay?” I asked, breathing heavily as they nodded. Sato said “This dungeon seems a little too easy…” as Kirito added on “Yeah…Thank god I asked Argo for the map layout.”.
We all laughed a bit as we then saw a large door off in the distance, I walked over towards it as Sato and Kirito followed behind. “This must be the dungeon boss then..” I muttered underneath my breath, as we touched the doors. “Wait” Sato said as we looked at him confused, “let’s get our teleportation crystals out just in case” he said as we looked between each other. “That is our safest option.” I said as we all took out a teleportation crystal.
We opened the giant doors as we looked within the bossroom. It was almost pitch black as the door was the only source of light going into it. We waited to see if there was a response to the door being opened as we stayed silent. Suddenly, we heard a low growl coming from the darkness as two bright red eyes flashed at us. We all jumped a bit as we quickly activated our crystals.
The crystals teleported us to another safezone of the dungeon as we plopped onto the ground. We began to calm down as we sat up and heard footsteps coming our way. We looked over and saw that it was the girls, Toru was the obvious one that seemed overall angry as her eye twitched slightly.
“I can explain-”
I said as I felt my jacket being pulled with a sudden grab, Toru then shouted “WHAT HAPPENED TO WORKING AS A TEAM!!” as I braced for impact. Toru then sighed as she looked at Sato and Kirito, saying “What did you two see in there” as Sato immediately said “We saw Red Eyes”. The girls seemed confused and a bit conflicted at this as Toru let go of my jacket.
The guys stood up as I tried straightening my jacket a bit, getting the wrinkles out of it. Asuna put her hand on her head as she shook her head, Asuna then said “Kirito, why did you think it was a good idea to go out with these two alone?”.
Kirito replied “We’re gathering scouting information for all of us here, can’t you tell?” Asuna immediately replied “That is the single most dumbest idea I’ve seen you do besides taking shrooms on floor 53…” as Kirito rubbed his head a bit. Asuna sighed once again as she said “Well now we know that the boss has red eyes, so I guess it’s a little useful..”.
We all then heard more footsteps, heavy footsteps. We all turned our attention towards where it was coming from as we all got ourselves ready and armed. To our surprise, it wasn’t a bunch of mobs, rather it was a guild walking through. The first guild walking was Fuurinkazan, they all looked exhausted from walking up here as the second, more heavier group was the Aincrad Liberation Force.
“What is the Aincrad Liberation Force doing here?”
Sato said with a little confusion as their leader, Kobatz, looked at our group and the Fuurinkazan. “Alright! Let’s rest here!!” he shouted as the relief of the group behind him was let out through a heavy sigh.
I walked over to Kobatz saying to him “What is the Aincrad Liberation Force doing here?” He looked over and replied “We’re under the orders of our guild leader, Thinker, to clear this dungeon and claim the Gleam Horn.”. “Gleam Horn?” I was confused as Kobatz then said “ sorry for forgetting to introduce myself, my name is Kobatz, Lieutenant of the Aincrad Liberation Force” as he let out a hand.
“...My name is Kirin, or the Grim reaper…”
I said, a little concerned as Some of the members in his crew pointed out “Wait, like THE Reaper! Holy shit! I’m like a big fan of yours!!”
This member of the group got up and quickly ran over as he looked over at my group behind me. “Then those must be..! It’s the Frontliners!!” The guy pointed out with excitement as the others began talking between each other.
“Oh.. uhm, sorry what’s your name..?”
I asked the guy as I shook Kobatz’s hand, he quickly replied saying “My name is Heinz! You and the Frontliners are my biggest Inspirations!!” He said fanboying, I smiled a bit worried as I said “Oh…is that so?”.
He nodded as he swiped and took out a sword from his inventory saying “Can you please sign my sword! Please!!” he said pleading as I was nervous as this was a first for me. “uhm..Sure” I said nervously as I tapped the sword and saw it was the same sword I had equipped.
I clicked an option on the sword that said “Etch” as I clicked that, another textbox then opened up for me to type. I typed in my Initials “TR”, clicking the blue button as the sword pixelated in and out with the etching “TR” on the guard of the sword.
Heinz bowed respectfully saying “THANK YOU!!” as he quickly left back to the other members of Kobatz’s crew. I waved goodbye confused and worried as Kobatz then asked me “do you know where the boss is?”.
I nodded and pointed saying “It’s just up there, the doors opened as we peeked inside”, Kobatz nodded saying “Thank you reaper, may your work help us prevail”. He then shouted “TEAM!! STAND READY!!” as the group stood up shouting “READY TO GO!!”. Kobatz and his team then marched towards the boss room as Heinz waved goodbye as he was at the back, I waved goodbye back as I felt a bad feeling about this, seeing them march on.
Sato then patted my back saying “is everything alright superstar?” joking about it as I nodded saying “Yeah, I just…have this horrible feeling about this…” looking up at the dungeon boss room.