Sword Art Online Progressive 4

9
IN A FOREST CLEARING A SHORT DISTANCE FROM Mananarena, the other members had already congregated ahead of us.

Thanks to Asuna's formidable Persuasion skill, I saw Agil's Bro Squad, Shivata, Liten, and one other player from each guild, wearing their respective colors. I'd asked the two of them to recruit members if possible, expecting it to be futile, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Nezha went off to pay his respects to Asuna and the others, so I approached Shivata's group.

“Sorry for being so..."

"Late," I was going to say, but the large DKB member with Shivata spun around ferociously and grabbed me by the collar.

"Hey there, Blackie," said Hafner, a greatsword user and subleader of the DKB, calling me by a nickname that referred to my outfit. He leaned in with a menacing face that made me think of a soccer team member and growled, "I'm going to clobber you if it turns out that you've told a single lie about any of this."

Setting aside the fact that the Anti-Criminal Code in town and the threat of going orange out of town prevented him from actually clobbering me at all, I nodded obediently. Shivata grabbed Hafner's shoulder with an awkward smile and pulled him back.

“Haf, this idea came more from our side. All Kirito offered was the info about the guild flag, and I don’t think he’s lying. Why would he? There’s nothing for him to gain by it.”

“…Well， you might have a point there. But why would he put together such a dangerous plan? Does he have a good reason to keep the ALS from getting that flag thing?”

“Hang on,” I interrupted, waving my right hand to cut off the DKB officers. “First of all, the point of this operation isn't just to keep the ALS from getting the guild flag. When the flag drops, we can't give it to the DKB, either. If either guild gets the flag, it might spell the collapse of the other."

It seemed that Shivata had explained this premise to Hafner already. The soccer player scowled but fell silent, so I took the opportunity to ask, "What about you, Hafner? Are you sure you should be taking part? We're extremely grateful for your help, but as a subleader of the DKB，you’ll be betraying your own guild."

Hafner ruffled his long blond hair, which was held back at the hairline by a string, and grumbled, “Yeah, I’m not thrilled about it, but beating the game comes first... and we need both the DKB and ALS to get out of this shitty MMO. I can't betray the thousands below who are waiting for freedom, even if it means betraying Lind and my guild. That’s why you’re here, too, right?” That last question was directed toward Liten and the other ALS member, who were standing a short distance away.

The midsized, mid-build older man—he looked to be in his thirties—carrying a halberd on his back drew his faintly whiskered lips together and nodded.

“That’s right. Our plan to charge ahead is the reckless result of a few hard-liners playing on the fears of the officers. Kibaou knows that, but he was forced to approve the plan to keep the guild from fracturing. But if getting that flag means destroying the already-unstable relationship with the DKB ，then it means nothing,"

the halberdier said calmly. He walked over to me and stuck out his hand. “We’ve met a few times in boss battles. I'm Okotan, the leader of the ALS's recruiting team. Good to work with you, Kirito."

“Uh... th-thanks for being here...”

I was momentarily surprised by the name, which was rather cute for a scruffy-faced dandy like him, but I recovered in a timely enough fashion to shake his hand.

However, a thought occurred to me.

“So if you’re the head recruiter, does that mean you were the one who scouted Liten for the guild...?"

“Yes, that was me.”

The look on his face as he turned back to appraise the plate-armored macer was fatherly. It made me wonder if he realized Liten and Shivata were a couple, but that wasn't for me to bring up.

With our greetings out of the way, Hafner slapped me heartily on the back.

“Well, Blackie, me and Oko have explained our motives to the group. Before we get this shindig on the road, why don’t you tell the group why you’re leading the charge?”

“Wh-what?”

I tore my eyes away from the soccer player and saw that Asuna, Argo, Nezha, Agil, and the Bros were all gathered around, waiting to hear my answer. There was no escape. I cleared my throat.

"Well, it's the same as Hafner and Okotan... and probably everyone else here. The ALS and DKB are the two wheels that run our progress forward through the game. If they aren't attached by a center axle, or we lose one of the two, the whole cart grinds to a halt. I figure the only way to prevent that situation is to beat the boss before the ALS does... And that’s why I gathered you all here.”

Of course, that was barely half of my true motivation.

Okotan described the ALS's plan as the rampage of a hard-line minority in the guild, but there was a darker side to the story he didn't know about.

There was an external evil that had infiltrated the guild and was fanning the flames of conflict with the DKB—the mysterious poncho man and his provocation-PK gang. Stopping them was my true motive.

But I couldn't reveal that yet. Until I at least knew the names of the other members aside from Morte, bringing the subject up would only lead to distrust and paranoia within the guilds.

Fortunately, everyone aside from Asuna, who already knew the truth, seemed to be satisfied by the speech. Even Hafner, though disgruntled, nodded in agreement.

At that point, Liten raised her right hand with a clank, her features hidden once again by the metal visor. She spoke in that androgynous metallic echo.

“Um, Kirito, I've been meaning to ask you… if you’re so concerned about the state of the group, why don’t you join a guild? I'm certain that given your skill, you'd be placed as a party leader in either guild immediately..."

A murmur ran through the group. It was an honest question from someone new to the scene, but given that she probably didn't even know the word beater, it would be very difficult to give a detailed explanation of the touchy situation between me, Kibaou, and Lind.

After about a second and a half of frantic thinking, I decided to lay the blame for that question at the feet of the two guild masters.

"Well, you see, Lind and Kibaou said that if me and Asuna were going to join guilds, we'd have to join them separately."

Another murmur ran through the group, which gave me a brief moment of panic that I'd said something stupid. Red-faced, Asuna wailed, “Wh-why would you say that?!” and Liten followed with, "Ah yes, I understand... That's beautiful!" Meanwhile, Agil bellowed with laughter and Argo cackled.

In the end, I wasn't given the opportunity to plead my case against her misinterpretation.

By the time Argo had divvied up all the potions, and everyone had lent and borrowed gear until each slot had the highest stats possible, it was just getting to be three o'clock in the afternoon.

According to Okotan, the ALS would leave Mananarena for the tower—pretending to be leaving for the party in Karluin—at around six o'clock, which gave us a three-hour advantage. Even with a scouting run, it wouldn't likely take three hours to fight the boss, so we had plenty of time. Still, it didn't hurt to ration it carefully.

So I left Argo to be our guide and ran along at the back of the group with Asuna, jotting down a loose, estimated breakdown of the group according to level.

1. Kirito, level 18, one-handed sword, leather armor

2. Asuna, level 17, rapier, light metal armor

3. Agii〇 level 16, two-handed ax, light metal armor

4. Hafner, level 16, two-handed sword, heavy metal armor

5. Shivata, level 15, one-handed sword, heavy metal armor, shield

6. Okotan, level 15, two-handed halberd, light metal armor

7. Wolfgang (Agil's squad), level 15, two-handed sword, leather armor

8. Lowbacca (Agil's squad), level 15, two-handed ax, light metal armor

9. Naijan (Agil's squad), level 14, two-handed hammer, heavy metal armor

10. Liten, level 13, long mace, heavy metal armor, shield

11. Nezha, level 12, chakram, light metal armor

12. Argo, level unknown, daws, leather armor

“Hmmmm...”

It was a very short list for a floor boss raid party.

The path through the woods was lined with the bluish rock that made our groups footsteps ring loudly, but Asuna still heard me mutter and looked over for clarification.

“What’s the ‘hmmm’ about?”

“Well...” I made the memo visible and showed it to her. “We need to figure out a formation before we get to the labyrinth tower, and I'm noticing that we have an awful lot of DPSs…”

“What’s a DPS?”

"It means damage dealer, an attacker. Out of the twelve on this list, me, you, Agil, Hafner, Wolfgang, Lowbacca, and Naijan are attackers—that's more than half. Shivata and Liten are our only true tanks, and Okotan，Nezha， and Argo are CCs...”

“CC?”

"Crowd control, responsible for controlling the enemy mobs. These are mages in most other games, but since there's no magic in SAO, it mostly comes down to using debuffing sword skills that freeze or weaken monsters.”

"Ah, right. Most of the longer-reaching weapons have debuffing skills," noted Asuna, who deftly crossed her arms to think, even as she ran, the momentum pulling her body forward. She murmured to herself the same way I had earlier.

"...It's just two parties, so we can ask Shivata and Liten to be a tank in each, then split the DPS and CC between the two, right?”

“That would be the orthodox method. The thing is ，the golem only has direct attacks with its hands and feet, but they're all extremely powerful... The normal attacks are one thing, but even a shield isn’t going to stop the skill attacks. So we have to avoid them no matter what. Shivata's experienced, but..."

"...But Liten just joined the guild, and it's a bit scary to push such a difficult role on her,” Asuna finished. We groaned together, my arms crossed, too. I glanced at the list again.

Even with a simpler lineup of twelve total, there was no single correct answer. If it was a full raid of forty-eight, the possibilities were limitless. And Lind and Kibaou were doing this process for every floor and field boss.

That realization brought a wave of newfound respect for the two, but the goal here was to beat them to the punch. As we grumbled over the quandary, the dead forest around us thinned out, revealing a long stone wall snaking ahead.

Its length and breadth was on a scale that reminded me of the Town of Beginnings, but it was not a city on the other side of this fortification.

Instead, it was the largest maze of the fifth floor, which had to be maneuvered before you could reach the labyrinth tower.

There were monsters, too, of course, so it would take more than a day or two to map it all out. However, as long as you solved a few environmental puzzles, you could take shortcuts on a virtual straight shot through the maze, and we had a helpful companion with us in that regard.

I unfolded my arms and sped up to catch Argo, who was at the head of the right column of the group.

“Um, Miss Argo, is there a map to…”

“The maze? You bet.”

I sighed in relief. The information broker glanced over at me and grinned. "And it's piping hot an' fresh, so it's worth five thousand col, I reckon."

"Wh-what?! You're gonna charge me?!"

“Argo the claw wielder’ll fight the boss with you for free, but Argo the information dealer needs to earn a living.”

“Hrrrgh...”

I gnashed my teeth, wishing that I had done more relic hunting back in Karluin.

"Nya-ha-ha-ha! No worries, I just thought I'd tease you a bit for that lovey-dovey stuff back there," Argo cackled, and winked at me. “Yes, I mapped the labyrinth, but you won’t need it.”

“Uh… what do you mean?"

“You’ll see when we get there,” she hinted, and turned us to the right.

The fifth-floor labyrinth was in the northeast corner of the floor, and the maze, which was a third of a mile in radius, surrounded it in a semicircle. That meant that at either end, the looming stone wall intersected with the outer aperture of the floor.

Argo was leading us toward the southeast end. It took us off the path, so we ran into a few mobs, but with twelve members, each battle would be over in an instant if we fought full strength. Instead, we used a bit of time to allow for a show of

our combination work, and it was about three forty-five when we reached our destination.

"Nice work, everyone. That ends the trekking across the wilderness, at least," Argo noted, and we gratefully came to a stop.

I stretched and glanced around us, taking in the rather desolate sight. To the north loomed the sixty-foot wall, and to the south and west were barren gray wastelands without a blade of grass on them. Beyond that was the dead forest we'd just traveled through, dyed in monochrome by the lengthening rays of the winter sun.

When my eyes rolled to the east, they beheld an expanse of endless sky through the nearby aperture, but the faded, grayish-blue color struck me as ominous, not the sweeping majesty of the starry sky that Asuna and I saw at Blink & Brink. I turned back to the dark stone wall and looked up.

According to the legend that Argo told the group on our trip, at the middle of the giant maze was the secret development center of the ancient kingdom, and the maze was built to deter outsiders from infiltrating it. That only made the massive wall even more foreboding, but to do anything, first we had to somehow get past it somehow.

“So... where do we go in?" I asked our guide as she chugged lime water, wiped her mouth, and grinned. Argo pulled something shining out of her cloak. It was a giant key about six inches long.

“Whoa... did you get that from the boss quests?”

“’Zactly.”

Argo strode over to the stone wall, spinning the key around her finger with the leather cord it hung on. She leaned close to the rough, weathered blocks, searching for something, then stuck the key into a particular gap and turned it with a click.

Everyone else murmured in admiration. No doubt a part of the wall would open as if by magic, revealing a hidden passage inside.

Instead, the stone wall rumbled, a few of the blocks sank into the wall by six inches or so—and that was it.

“Uh… Argo, where’s the hidden door?”

“There’s no hidden door."

She stuck the key back into her cloak, put a hand into one of the sunken gaps, then lifted herself, hup-hup-hup, ten feet up the wall. I looked up, stunned, to see that the pattern of sunken blocks continued straight up the wall to the top, like an unconventional ladder.

“W-wait, we have to climb over?” Agil noted in panic. Argo looked down, hanging on by one hand, and grinned cheekily.

“Uh-oh, does this mean the biggest tough guy in the front-runners is actually afraid of heights?”

"I-l'm not saying that... but you can't laugh off a fall from that height," Agil retorted, and he had a good point. There were many sources of damage in SAO, and the one that everyone agreed was the scariest was fall damage. Next to me, Asuna trembled, no doubt thinking about her fall through the trapdoor in the catacombs.

The stone wall was over sixty feet tall, and the ground was dirt mixed with gravel. Anyone who fell from the top and had lower amounts of HP was in danger of instant death, I decided, and was about to ask Argo to wait so we could set up a lifeline, but she spoke up first.

"Oh, well, here's a special little gift, just for you," Argo said, one eye closed, and she started generating several large items from her inventory. They fell and bounced softly on the ground: large cushions for player homes, which hardly any player was yet rich enough to start bothering with. They were quite light for their size, so she must have packed her inventory with the things.

We stacked the cushions high next to the handhold ladder, and Argo fell backward onto them. She landed with a hearty bafoom, but hadn't suffered any damage. With the demonstration concluded, she popped up and glanced at me sidelong.

“I’ll go last so I can pick up the cushions before I go. You’re up first, Kii-boy.”

“Uh... m-me? Well, okay...”

I looked over at Asuna, who made a silent You first gesture.

The only skirt wearer present certainly was not eager to climb up with all the gentlemen below. I nodded, stepped onto the pile of cushions, and grabbed onto the wall.

Once I got climbing, I noticed the alternately spaced handholds were quite deep and easy to grip, which made the physical process fairly simple. The real problem was the mental pressure that arose once you were halfway up. I knew that with the cushions stacked below, there was no way I'd die if I fell, but that didn't prevent the cold sweat from forming on my limbs.

I scaled the last of the wall, wondering if that sweat was just a virtual sensation from the NerveGear or if my real body was seeping liquid from my pores, too. On the other side of the wall was a narrow walkway set a bit lower. I hopped over, heaved a sigh of relief, and called down to the group below.

“It’s not that hard, just stay calm and you’ll be fine!”

“A-all right, I’ll go next!” called out Hafner, beginning a ten-minute process that ended with Asuna and Argo. No one ended up falling, but that was probably thanks to the mental reassurance offered by Argo’s cushions—it occurred to me that it was a good idea to keep two or three of those things in my inventory, just in case. I grabbed Argo's hand as she finally made her way to the top and pulled her over.

With the wall-climbing phase concluded, we traded high fives and turned our gazes north.

“...You weren’t kidding when you said this labyrinth would be a big deal to tackle," muttered Wolfgang from the Bro Squad. He used the same greatsword category that the DKB's subleader did, but while Hafner looked like a heavy knight in his metal armor, Wolfgang's skintight leather gear gave him the air of a veteran mercenary.

As he said, it was hard to imagine an easy route through the massive maze stretching out before us, even with a map. The layout seemed different from the beta, so I couldn't even use my old memory as a guide.

“And the ALS were going to charge through this place at night, without scouting it first?" Shivata asked Okotan skeptically. The halberdier, who appeared to be the oldest of the group, nodded awkwardly, his whiskered mouth twisted into an abashed smile.

"It's rather embarrassing to admit, but that is their plan... From what I understand, we have information on the puzzles and traps from a beta tester. The schedule called for the entire process to take an hour.”
Asuna and I shared a look.
It had to be the same beta tester that told them about the guild flag. From the way Okotan spoke, it sounded like this wasn't a fellow guild member, so it was likely to be one of the cloaked men we ran across in the catacombs: Morte. Which would mean the other man was undercover in the ALS.
Given the circumstances, I really wanted to tell Shivata, Hafner, and Okotan about this plot, to help identify the spy, but that was difficult to do with Argo and Agil's team present. Not only that, but we had an urgent quest on our plates.
If the boss battle went well, I'd suggest a celebration and find the time to bring it up, I told myself. My eyes swung right, to the massive tower looming over the labyrinths center.

They were always categorized as “labyrinth towers,” but each floor's tower had a different scale and design. The only unifying feature was the three-hundred-foot height, so while some were fat and squat with uniform width, others were narrow and willowy. The fifth floors tower was an orthodox cylinder, about a third as wide as it was tall，, which put it on the small side. There was a grand entrance door at the base, but the wall we were standing atop stretched from the very edge of the floating castle all the way to the tower itself, ending in a small door. In other words, we were getting a shortcut that put us 20 percent through the tower just as we entered. Thanks to Argo's tedious work completing the boss quests, we were going to shave a good two hours off our time.

"Thanks, Argo,” I said softly. Her curly haired head swung toward me, blinking in surprise. But it was quickly replaced by her usual sardonic grin.

“Don’t be silly, we’re only getting started.”

“Good point...”

I took a deep breath, preparing to move the group forward once more.

We traveled in a line down the walkway atop the stone wall and took a short break at a small observation deck where the wall connected with the exterior of the tower. The toughest dungeon on the fifth floor was on the other side of the door, so we needed to prepare ourselves.

“Here you go, everyone."

Asuna was pulling one of those massive cakes out of her inventory. It was the only famous local confection of Mananarena, but given that you had to know about the secret café, it was new to most of the group. Hafner and the Bro Squad stuffed handfuls of it into their mouths, grunting about how "damn good" it was, while Liten and Shivata got cozy with some forks against the wall. I looked around in alarm for Okotan, but he was already chatting mirthfully with Nezha—which caused a different kind of alarm to fill me, when I imagined the former blacksmith being recruited into the ALS.

With the cake all distributed, Asuna brought me my piece and glanced up at the tower looming overhead as she ate.

“...So it’s time...”

“Yeah...”

I picked up the cake with my fingers and took a bite. The banana flavor, which had been so thick when I ate the same item hours earlier in the café, hardly seemed to register on my tongue this time. That made me realize just how nervous I was.

This was supposed to be our only option to defeat this game of death and escape the electronic prison that bound us. Whether the ALS's plan to race ahead was successful or not, it would cause

a major rift in the group of advanced players and disperse the collection of energy that had been driving our pace and speeding us along. We would slow down, and players like Liten who were doing their best to catch up to us from below would lose hope. Despair would settle upon all of Aincrad. It would be like an eternal night, without glittering stars or the rising morning sun...

I put the half-eaten cake back onto the plate, surrounded by a sudden waft of music. I knew it was an illusion, but I shut my eyes to hear it nonetheless.

An eerie sight appeared on my closed eyelids.

Three dancing silhouettes lurching against a bloodred sunset to a mad, racing, mocking melody. The hems of pitch-black cloaks and ponchos flapped like bat wings. The mouth of the figure on the right turned visible, displaying a familiar, twisted leer.

What if even my own actions here are an intended result of their provocation...?

The sudden thought caused my limbs to freeze to ice.

Here on the milestone fifth floor, we would fight a floor boss that was far harder than any previous. I'd warned Asuna about this again and again, and I believed I was preparing myself accordingly. And no matter how I rationalized my current actions based on what was happening in the game. I was leading a tiny group of twelve against that boss.

There was a way to win. We were going to scout it out vigorously.

If there was a problem here, it was that my choice and actions were not based on absolute, rock-solid belief.
When I left the Town of Beginnings, I prioritized my own survival above all else. Asuna and Argo were with me now, but I hadn’t developed a new, grand ideal like protecting all the captive players of SAO or beating the game with my own two hands.
Meanwhile, the other players here were participating in this impromptu strategy out of their own strongly held beliefs, with full knowledge of the risk.
Hafner, for example, was a man who was moved by the priority of beating the game above all else.

He pushed his way brusquely to the front of the line waiting for the gondola ride in Rovia on the fourth floor, but that was surely because he'd been irritated at the tourists. He was the kind of man who would chastise them for having the energy to go enjoy themselves, rather than helping attack the game. I understood that feeling, and his current actions spoke to the strength of his beliefs, given that he was prioritizing this over his guild's profit.

Then there was Shivata, whom I could only speculate about, but seemed to be here for Liten's sake. I didn't know how it was that they had come together, but they had drawn their swords to ensure their guilds did not come to blows. That was an admirable motive itself.

Agil's group, Argo, and Nezha all had searched their own feelings for their own answers as well. So why was I—the guy who spurned the guilds and prioritized his own personal gain—going against my own beliefs not only by participating in this group, but also by leading it?

The answer to that had to be my antagonism toward Morte and his provocateurs.

They had attempted to duel PK me and put Asuna through a terrible fright, and now I was moved by a furious determination to keep them from continuing their ways.

In that case, I had to admit that it was they who had stoked the fire within me. Was I losing my cool? Was I letting my antagonism and hatred guide me into a reckless strategy that would end up sending me and the people I cared about into certain death...?

I realized I was gritting my teeth and staring down at the half-eaten cake. But suddenly, my cold, numb hand was enveloped in a pleasing warmth.

I looked down to see that in a spot hidden from the rest of the group behind my black leather coat and a silk cape, a small, pale hand was gripping my own. I looked up to catch the side profile of the fencer's face.

Her expression was the usual aloof, vaguely hostile one, but

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the undeniable warmth that covered my hand was like touching the spring sunlight. I stood there dumbly until her pursed lips finally opened.

[insert illustration]

“...That’s for giving me that buff at the camp on the third floor.”

"Uh oh, right, I forgot about that..."

I recalled the moment when she'd melted down her Wind Fleuret to create her Chivalric Rapier and squeezed her hand back.

Why had Asuna agreed to this plan, anyway? The story about the guild flag and the competition of the two guilds couldn't have meant this much to her. If she was here out of her own unyielding personal belief, what could that possibly be...?

I wanted to know, but it didn't seem like the right moment to ask.

If we defeated the boss and made it back to town alive, then I'd bring it up. I would make that my biggest motivation to fight and win.

With that determination in mind, the foreboding music that had been ringing away in the back of my head finally faded, along with the eerie dancing silhouettes.

Without letting go of Asuna’s hand, I lifted the paper plate up to my face and flipped it over to dump the rest of the cake into my mouth. I chewed and looked up at the tower again.

It was a darker shade of the stone that made up all the ruins here, the left side lit by the midwinter sun, gleaming coldly. It was as if the countless monsters inside and the menace of the floor boss was being exuded like frost.

But the heat of Asuna's hand flowed through all my veins, keeping the chill at bay. I squeezed it one last time, then let go and lowered my face to its normal level.

Immediately, I met the smirking gaze of Argo and had to cough awkwardly and clear my throat before I could step forward to address the group.

",..Well, everyone, I think it's time to announce my idea about our group formation.

Once the party had finished eating its cake and gathered around, I explained, “A-Team will be Hafner, Shivata, Okotan, Lowbacca, Naijan, and Liten. B-Team will be me, Asuna, Agil, Wolfgang, Nezha, and Argo. What do you think about that split?"

This apparently ran counter to their expected groups, and a murmur ran through the gathering before Shivata cut through to ask, “So... A-Team is the tanks, and B-Team is the attackers?”

“That’s right.”

"That goes against common theory. Why didn't you split us up evenly?”

"We didn't quite have enough tanks to pull that off. Shivata and Liten are the only ones with shields, so if we put them in separate parties, they might not hold out long enough for potion rotation. In that case, we should have one party with high defense maintain boss aggro, which should make it easier to manage HP. Of course, that will create a heavier load for our tanks..."

Shivata shook his head at that last statement and said, “Don’t worry about that,” before continuing with his rebuttal. “But if we have all the tanks together, we won’t be able to handle wide-ranging simultaneous attacks. Won’t that be a problem?”

"Well, just going off of the beta, the golem boss of this floor doesn’t have any area attacks like Breath. It mostly punches and stomps, with different timings for either side. So as long as we manage its hate levels, a single party should be able to continually defend for us.”

“Ahh, ，I see,” Shivata murmured.

I looked around at the other members of the group and added, "Of course, I'm going to scout out the boss first to make sure there aren’t any unexpected attack types. Once we start for real, we'll make sure there's a clear escape route for when the boss's HP gauge changes color, so we can dart out in case of any unknown patterns. Yes, we're fighting with only two parties, but we've absolutely got a chance, and I don't intend for us to lose a single member.

So... to ensure that Shivata and Liten's countdown party is a success and to ensure that 2023 is a year of hope for all of us… let’s pool our strength together and win this battle!”

For some reason, it turned into a bit of a pep talk at the end, and I was momentarily afraid that I'd overstepped my bounds.

"Hell yeah! Let’s do this!!" Agil roared, pumping a fist, followed by a chorus of approval from the group.

I silently thanked the man and raised my fist in solidarity.

4:15 pm, December 31，2022.

The hastily assembled floor boss raid opened the steel doors and set foot inside the labyrinth tower.


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That's chapter 9.
Tune in tomorrow for 45 pages of struggle.

Thanks anon.

Thank you. How much is left?

>>153260137
There's 12 chapters, last 2 are 12 pages each so about 69 pages total, might do chapter 11 and 12 together since they are on the shorter side.

Thanks.