After Akimi and Asuna leisurely chatted for a while, the time had already ticked past one in the afternoon, leaving less than twenty minutes before the raid time agreed upon in the raid meeting.
Since all their preparations were complete, Akimi and Asuna headed straight to the gates of Jeireum ahead of time.
By then, the Knights of the Blood Oath had already assembled and were checking their equipment on the side.
As their leader, Heathcliff, spotted Akimi and Asuna, he put on his customary polite smile.
“Good day, Mr. Akimi, and Miss Asuna.”
It had to be said, in terms of appearance alone, Heathcliff carried an aura of great charm and approachability.
If Akimi hadn’t known his true identity, he would probably have found him likable too.
With overwhelming individual strength, refined and elegant demeanor, and convincing leadership, these qualities were what allowed Heathcliff to form and lead such a powerful guild as the Knights of the Blood Oath.
…
In response to Heathcliff’s greeting, Akimi merely nodded calmly, while Asuna gave a polite reply: “Good day, Mr. Heathcliff.”
It wasn’t only the Knights of the Blood Oath—most of the Divine Dragon Alliance members had also arrived.
The reason it was “most” was because two members of their F-Team had gone missing.
Their team leader had spent the entire morning searching for them.
As time went on, Kirito, Fuurinkazan, Agil, and the G and H teams led by Akimi and Asuna all gathered in full.
Seeing that the appointed time was drawing near and the two missing members were still nowhere to be found, Xilocart’s once composed expression darkened with impatience.
Yet with so many eyes on him, he couldn’t afford to lose his temper in public.
Left with no choice, he selected two substitutes from the guild to fill the empty spots.
Unsurprisingly, by the time the raid group set out for the labyrinth, those missing Divine Dragon Alliance members had still not been found.
…
On the way to the labyrinth, they had to pass through a rare patch of forest on the 40th floor.
The trees there were unusual—each trunk and bark was pitch black, while the leaves carried a stifling, pale gray hue.
If it had just been a matter of strange colors, it would have been fine, but inside this forest the lighting dimmed unnaturally, leaving the place gloomy and sparse.
This made visibility extremely poor and created ample opportunity for fast-moving monsters to ambush them.
What’s worse, with such a large group, the chance of triggering traps skyrocketed.
Every few minutes, without fail, someone would set one off, the intervals rarely exceeding five minutes.
The forest’s oppressive atmosphere gradually tightened everyone’s nerves; the slightest rustle of grass or brush put the entire party on edge.
Fortunately, the forest wasn’t very large.
Roughly forty minutes later, the group finally reached its edge.
Seeing the boundary line where darkness gave way to light, they all breathed a silent sigh of relief and quickened their pace toward it.
“Whew—what a slog. Once this raid is over, I’m never setting foot on the 40th floor again.”
“Right? Whether it’s the food, the drinks, or just the whole environment—it’s unbearable.”
“I still prefer the environment on the 35th floor.”
“Hah? No way. The 35th floor doesn’t even have a single decent tavern, and you like that? What awful taste.”
Now that the pressure was easing, the players began chatting quietly among themselves to shake off the tension.
Most of their talk revolved around complaining about the terrible design of the 40th floor.
One could only say: it was a blessing that Kayaba Akihiko hadn’t put any sewer-themed areas into SAO.
Otherwise, more than a few players would probably have had a mental breakdown.
————-
As they were about to walk out of the forest, the originally linear formation of the party gradually closed up again—for the sake of avoiding too many people being caught in a trap at once, they had been moving forward in two separate lines inside the forest.
Whenever the player at the very front triggered a trap, they would retreat to the back of the line to wait until they recovered—in short, they were basically using human bodies to sweep for mines.
It was indeed stupid, but there was no better option unless someone’s scouting skill proficiency was high enough to detect every single trap.
“Ahaha, I’ve been waiting for you…”
Just as the formation gathered together, a frivolous voice came from the front flank.
A man in black slowly stepped out of the shadows of the trees—it was none other than Johnny Black, who always stuck by PoH’s side.
“Members of the raiding group.”
Seeing him, Akimi, who was near the front of the party, immediately felt a headache coming on and let out a silent sigh.
From the looks of this guy, even with your ass you could tell he was one of PoH’s lackeys.
They were just like mosquitoes on a summer night—when you went looking for them, you could never find them, but the moment you relaxed, they would buzz around your ears nonstop, occasionally biting you as well.
Akimi couldn’t even be bothered to waste words.
He simply drew his Nichirin Blade, ready to strike.
But Johnny Black, facing the raiding group members who were glaring at him murderously, only raised his hands helplessly, gave a mocking French salute, and said lazily:
“Sorry, I’ve got no plans to fight you guys today… besides, I’m not dumb enough to take on forty-eight of you at once, right?”
As he spoke, he pulled out a massive blue crystal.
Seeing the crystal, which was about twenty centimeters tall and ten wide, Akimi frowned.
He knew things were about to get troublesome—that was a Corridor Crystal, an extremely expensive item that could teleport a large number of players to a designated location.
As an upgraded version of the Teleport Crystal, the Corridor Crystal had always been priced above 100,000 Col, and even then was rarely available for purchase.
In all this time, Akimi had never once gotten his hands on one—not even Argo or Agil could usually find such a thing.
“Well now, I’m sure you all know what this little item is—after all, the raiding group is made up of the elite among players.” Johnny Black shook the crystal in his hand and said slowly, “For this performance, the boss and I won’t be personally participating. You all go ahead and enjoy yourselves.”
As he spoke, he raised the Corridor Crystal high and shouted:
“Corridor Crystal—Transfer!”
The moment his words fell, the crystal radiated a dazzling light that enveloped every member of the raiding group.
Just as the transfer was about to complete, Johnny Black added:
“I hope you enjoy the little gift my boss and I carefully prepared for you. Oh, and dear Guild leader Xilocart, rest assured—your two subordinates are in no danger, at least for now. We just borrowed a little bit of Col from them, after all, these Corridor Crystals aren’t cheap. That’s all from me—farewell, everyone.”
When the crystal’s light finally faded and the teleportation completed, only Johnny Black remained in the forest.
He looked down at the shattered fragments of the Corridor Crystal in his hand, chuckled lightly, and muttered:
“Whatever, it’s not like I was going to need it later anyway.”
— The end of the Chapter–
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