Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.06

6 
THERE WAS NO DISCUSSION OF ANY STRATEGIC MERIT at the meeting, but it had apparently served the valuable purpose of bolstering morale, as the twentieth level of the labyrinth was mapped with unprecedented speed. On Saturday, December 30, the day after the meeting, the first party (again, Diavel’s band of six) discovered the double doors of the boss chamber. I knew when it happened because I was solo adventuring nearby and heard the cheers. 
Boldly enough, they opened the door to catch a glimpse of the resident within. At the fountain-side meeting in Tolbana that evening, the blue-haired knight proudly announced his findings. 
The boss was an enormous kobold that towered over six feet tall. His name was Illfang the Kobold Lord, and his weapon fell into the Curved Blade category. He was attended by three Ruin Kobold Sentinels with metal armor and halberds. 
This much was the same as the beta. From what I recalled, the sentinels respawned with each of the four stages of the boss’s HP bar, making a total of twelve over the course of the battle, but as usual, I didn’t have the guts to say this out loud. It would become clear as they tried a few test skirmishes, I told myself. As it turned out, I needn’t have worried, because something cleared it all up in the midst of the meeting. 
Coincidentally, the NPC shop stall in the corner of the fountain square began selling a very familiar item. Three sheets of parchment bound together, more of a pamphlet than a book. It was Argo’s First-Floor Boss Guidebook. Price: zero col. 
The meeting was temporarily adjourned so that everyone could “purchase” a copy from the NPC and pore over the contents. 
As usual, the amount of information was impressive. The first three pages were stuffed with all manner of details: the just-revealed boss’s name, estimated HP, the reach and speed of its talwar, damage, even sword skills. The fourth page covered the accompanying Kobold Sentinels, including a note that they spawned four times, making a total of twelve. 
On the rear cover of the book was a message in a red font that had not been present on any of Argo’s other guides. It read: This information is from the SAO beta test. Details may not match the current version of the game. 
When I saw this, I looked up, searching for Argo around the square. But I saw no sign of the Rat or her plain leather armor today. I looked back down and murmured, “She’s really going out on a limb …” 
This red warning was going to topple Argo’s usual stance of “this is just information I bought from some former beta tester, identity unknown.” Anyone who read this warning would suspect that the Rat herself was a former tester. There was no proof, of course, but with the widening gap in sentiment between the new players and beta testers, she was clearly putting herself at risk of being the first hunted down. 
On the other hand, it was clear that this guidebook would remove the need for tiresome and dangerous scouting missions. Once all forty-plus players had finished reading, they looked once again to the blue-haired knight standing on the lip of the fountain, as though putting their decision in the hands of a leader. 
Diavel’s head stayed down for many long seconds, deep in thought, before he finally straightened up to address the crowd. 
“Let us be grateful for this information, my friends!” 
The crowd murmured. This was clearly a call for peace with the beta testers rather than antagonism. I thought Kibaou might leap up to protest, but the brown cactus hair near the front the gathering stayed firmly in place. 
“Regardless of its source, this guide is going to save us two or three days of scouting out the boss. I’m actually quite grateful for this. It’s the reconnaissance missions that carry the greatest risk of fatalities, after all.” 
Heads of various colors nodded throughout the square. 
“If these figures are correct, the boss’s numerical stats aren’t too dangerous. If SAO was a normal MMO, we could probably take it out with an average level three—no, five levels below the enemy’s. So if we work on our tactics and come equipped with plenty of pots for healing, it should be possible to win without any deaths. No, let me rephrase that: We’re not going to have any deaths, period. On my pride as a knight, I swear this to you!” 
Someone in the crowd raised a cheer, and a round of applause followed. Even as a twisted solo, I had to admit that Diavel had a gift for leadership. The guild function didn’t unlock until the third floor, but he would certainly have his own on the day we reached that far. 
But my breath caught in my throat at his next words. 
“All right, now I think it’s time to actually start planning out the battle! After all, we can’t start taking roles until we’ve formed a proper raid party. First off, form into parties with your friends and others around you!” 
……… What? 
He sounded like a PE teacher at an elementary school. I did some quick calculations. A full party in SAO was six members, and there were forty-four present, so … that made seven parties with two left over. Should we shoot for average, and have four parties of six and four parties of five? But that was unlikely to happen on its own if our leader didn’t make the order … 
All of my high-speed thinking went to waste. In less than a minute from Diavel’s suggestion, there were seven full parties of six members each. Obviously he already had his own party of six, but I didn’t expect lone wolves like Kibaou and Agil to find their own groupings so fast. I began to wonder if I was seriously the only person who didn’t receive some kind of invitation. 
But I wasn’t. 
After a quick scan of the crowd, I spotted a familiar hooded cape standing slightly apart from the rest, and slipped over to her side. 
“So you got left out too, eh?” I asked, only to be greeted with a stare like molten steel. She muttered an angry response. 
“… I’m not a castoff. I just didn’t want to butt in, because it seemed like everyone else already had their own friends.” 
I wisely decided not to point out that she had perfectly defined a castoff, and put on a serious face instead. “Why don’t you team up with me, then? A raid goes up to eight parties, so it’s the only way we can participate.” 
Basing my suggestion on the properties of the game system was a success, as she looked briefly hesitant, then snorted and said, “I might consider it, if you send me the invite.” 
Since retorting “It was my idea first, so you should send the invite” was the kind of childishness that I’d grown out of since being trapped in here last month, I nodded obediently and tapped the fencer’s cursor, sending a party invite. She accepted flippantly, and a second, smaller HP gauge appeared on the left side of my field of vision. 
I stared at the list of letters below the bar. 
Asuna. That was the name of the strange fencer with the preternaturally swift Linear. 

Diavel the knight’s leadership was not limited to his speechmaking. He examined each of the seven full parties that had been formed, and with a minimum of switching members, had tweaked them into distinct groups with their own purpose in the battle. There were two heavily armored tank squads, three groups of attackers with high offensive power, and two support teams armed with longer-range weapons. 
The two tank squads would switch off pulling aggro from the Kobold Lord—absorbing his attacks and attention. Two of the attack teams would focus on the boss, while the third was in charge of holding off his followers. The support teams, equipped with long, shafted weapons, would employ delaying and interrupting skills as much as possible to prevent the enemies from attacking. 
I thought it was a good arrangement—simple and less likely to fall apart. The knight returned my esteem by examining the leftover party (the fencer and I, of course) for a few long moments before offering some pleasant advice. 
“Can you folks back up team E to make sure none of the roaming kobolds gets through?” 
Translated, it felt like he was asking if we could hang out near the back and not get in anyone’s way. I could sense the fencer named Asuna preparing to make a very unfriendly gesture, so I held a hand in front of her and smiled. 
“Got it. That’s an important role. You can count on us.” 
“Thanks a lot.” The knight flashed his pearly whites and returned to the fountain. 
An angry voice hissed in my ear. “How is that important? We’re not going to get a single hit on the boss before it dies.” 
“W-well, what else can we do? There’s only two of us. We can’t even switch in and last long enough for pot rotation.” 
“Switch …? Pot …?” 
At her mistrustful murmuring, I stopped to consider. She had left the Town of Beginnings as an absolute newbie with no prior experience, and made it this far on her own, using nothing more than a bundle of five baseline rapiers bought from an NPC and the sword skill Linear. 
“I’ll explain everything later. It’ll take too long to go over right here.” I figured there was a more than likely chance she’d shoot back that she didn’t need to know anyway, but to my surprise, she was silent for several moments before nodding meekly. 
The second meeting of the boss strategy committee ended with quick greetings from the leaders of teams A through G and an official distribution plan for the cash and items the boss would drop. The large axe warrior Agil was the leader of tank team B, while the antagonistic Kibaou led attack team E. The E-team was the group assigned to stop the roving kobolds, so as the leftovers, it was our job to assist Kibaou. I didn’t really want anything to do with him, but he didn’t actually know that I was a former tester—for now. In the end, Argo the Rat never showed up to the meeting. I wasn’t going to blame her, of course. Her guidebook was more than enough help. 
The col dropped by the boss would be automatically split evenly between all forty-four members of the raid, and the items were on a simple finders-keepers basis. Contemporary MMOs had transitioned to a system in which players could elect to claim an item and roll dice to see who would win it, but SAO chose the more primitive method. The items would automatically drop into a player’s storage, and no one would be any the wiser. In other words, if the group decided that all items from the boss should be distributed by dice rolls, all players would have to voluntarily give up those items to the lottery first. As I knew from personal experience in the beta, this was a sore test of one’s willpower. Several times, I’d experienced the nasty breakup of a party when no one stepped forward with loot after a big fight, meaning that someone must be lying about their gains. 
It was likely Diavel’s intention to prevent this unsavory outcome by enacting the finders-keepers rule. Our considerate knight in shining armor. 
At five thirty, like the day before, we closed with a cheer and the gathering broke apart into small groups to find pubs and restaurants to visit. I rolled my shoulders, which seemed unnaturally stiff, wondering if it was just an illusion or some kind of actual physical tension that was bleeding through to this virtual world. 
“So… where will you be giving me this explanation?” 
I wondered what she was talking about for a moment, then spun around in nervous surprise. “Oh… I-I can talk anywhere you like. How about a pub around here?” 
“… No. I don’t want anyone seeing.” 
I was briefly stung by her implication but recovered my pride by choosing to interpret her meaning as “seen with a man” rather than just “seen with me.” 
“Okay, how about an NPC’s house? But still, someone could wander in… We could get a room at an inn so we could lock the door, but that’s obviously out.” 
“Of course it is.” 
This time, I suffered piercing damage from that retort, which was as sharp as the end of her rapier. I could manage a conversation with a female player because this was a virtual world, but just a month before, I had been a terribly awkward and antisocial middle-schooler who could barely talk to his own sister. Wasn’t I supposed to be sticking to my guns as a solo player? Why was I in this situation in the first place? Obviously I wouldn’t be any use in a boss battle without joining a group, but the other seven groups were all men, so I’d have felt much less awkward if I’d just worked my way in with them instead… 
As my mind ran in ever more self-pitying circles, the fencer sighed and continued, “Besides, the inn rooms in this place barely live up to the name. They’re like tiny boxes with a bed and table, and they expect you to pay fifty col a night? I don’t care about food, but the sleep you need is real, so they could at least give us better accommodations.” 
“H… huh? You think so?” I asked, surprised. “You know there are better places available if you search them out, right? They just cost a little more.” 
“How hard do you have to search? There are only three inns in town, and they’re all the same.” 
I finally understood. “Oh… I see. You only checked the places with the big INN signs, right?” 
“Well … isn’t that self-explanatory? An inn’s an inn.” 
“Yeah, but that only refers to the cheapest possible places to spend the night here on the ground floor. The inns aren’t the only place to pay col for a room.” 
Her lips suddenly pursed. 
“W-well … why didn’t you say that earlier?” she shot back. I knew I had the upper hand now, so I proudly described my favorite spot in town. 
“I stay on the second floor of a farm in town for eighty a night, but it comes with all the milk you want, has a comfy, spacious bed and a nice view, not to mention the bath…” 
At that last phrase, she struck. With the speed of the Linear I’d seen deep in the dungeon, her hand leapt out and grabbed the collar of my gray coat, almost hard enough to set off the game’s anti-crime code. Her voice was steely and menacing. 
“…What did you just say?”