A journey to another world starting from a sword

“The face has disappeared!” Mitt exclaimed in horror as he looked up at the ceiling.

"Don't go near the stairwell, or you'll trigger the Boss's bite trap," Dante commanded, brandishing his sword. "The emblem above the Boss's head will move on its hands and feet. Once you trigger it, shout if you find it. If it's too difficult to attack, then Mitt will be the main attacker after you lure it out."

"Understood," came the replies from all around the room.

The lines move at a slower speed, and you can see them for a fleeting moment each time they pass under your feet.

This time there's no need to dodge the lines, but it's easier to avoid them if the target is positioned in front of the body.

So Dante, Mito, and Asuna stepped forward with their left feet, and the blue lines that had gathered together drew concentric circles under their boots.

With a "whoosh," it jumped backward with all its might.

What appears before Dante is the colossus's right arm, what appears before Asuna is the Boss's face, what appears before Mito is the left arm, and then Argo pulls out the right foot.

"On my side!" Argo shouted, watching the emblem that appeared on his calf and moved swiftly.

The foot is immediately lifted into the air after being stomped down, making it difficult to attack the weak point.

"Leave it to me!" Mitt swung the kusarigama, the blade in kusarigama mode emitting a purple effect light, and then swung it out violently.

As if it had eyes, the enhanced precision of the kusarigama followed the trajectory of the crest's movement, a noble tracking attack.

With two "snap" sounds, the emblem that had been moved to the fibula of the lower leg was hit twice in a row by the double attack of the kusarigama, and the Boss's fourth HP bar dropped by one-fifth as smoothly as before.

Perhaps if everyone focused their attacks once or twice, they could still inflict the same damage on the Boss, but there's no need to take that risk. Mit's attacks greatly reduce the danger and make it very easy; all you need to do is step on the lines and dodge.

The location where it appeared later was too tricky, and it was difficult for ordinary players to attack it, so Dante handed it all over to Mito.

"Okay! Everyone, follow my signal to step on the line. I'll smash it when the emblem appears."

"Okay!" "Leave it to me." "Do it this way!"

After spending nearly ten minutes eliminating the Boss's fourth and fifth HP bars, the battle lasted for almost half an hour before finally reaching the final sixth HP bar.

"We're almost out of the center of the room, don't let your guard down!" Dante warned. "Hurry up and restore your HP."

He didn't lose much blood at all, but he still took out a bottle of potion from his pouch and drank it. Then an icon for continuous recovery appeared next to his HP bar, indicating that the potion was working.

"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!"

The face on the ceiling roared its loudest roar yet, its ring-shaped eyes turning a striking crimson.

The Boss’s face, fingers, and toes emerged from the black smoke rising from the ceiling, followed by his elbows and knees, then his shoulders and waist, and finally his massive torso.

With a violent crash, the Void Golem Fuscus stood firmly on the ground, displaying its entire magnificent body.

This is the Boss's final form.

It was at this time that the Aincrad coalition forces completely collapsed, falling utterly before their Pyrrhic victory.

Looking at the red emblem that had returned to the Boss's head, Dante said without turning his head, "This time, only attack emblems can deal effective damage. Liz and I will be responsible for using our shields to block the Boss's attacks. Silica and Lingyin can just dodge. You guys are responsible for attracting the Boss's attacks."

Replace the two-handed sword "Blacksteel Greatblade" with the one-handed sword "Elven Thick Sword" used by the elven paladin who died in the third floor, and the rare shield obtained from the treasure chest in the fourth floor labyrinth.

After doing all this, he looked at Asuna and Mito, "Asuna, Mito, you and Argo should look for an opportunity to attack the emblem."

"Only one HP left. Today—we, 'Eternal Garden,' will accomplish the feat of soloing the Boss!"

Dante swung his sword down forcefully, and his encouraging voice sent a shiver through everyone, dispelling the fear that filled the air.

"Finally, it feels like a boss battle!" Asuna gripped her beloved sword and exclaimed happily.

"Yes," Mito replied, a smile playing on her lips. She was a far cry from Asuna's novice self on the first floor.

As predicted, Fosgus's attacks consisted of simple hammer blows with its fists and continuous stomping of its feet, along with a slightly troublesome debuff roar and a somewhat unexpected red ray emitted from its eyes. In the final stage, it even entered a berserk mode.

Fortunately, in every dangerous situation, Mito skillfully swung his kusarigama to interrupt the Boss's crucial moves.

Meanwhile, relying on their high agility, Asuna and Argo made full use of their boosted speed, sprinting along the outer perimeter to the curved wall and continuing to run until they could climb no further before leaping with all their might to unleash a thrust attack that pierced the emblem on the boss's head.

"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!" The dazzling attack, as brilliant as a shooting star, burst forth with stunning light upon impact, and Asuna's figure at that moment resembled that of Valkyrie from mythology.

In response, the Boss stomped forward with his left foot while simultaneously swinging his right arm to attack Lisbeth on the ground.

Lisbeth raised her rare shield, the "Neptune Round Shield," high in her left hand, then swung her right hand upwards, making a full-force gesture to extend her left hand before activating the shield's defensive skill.

Dante also ran to Liz's side and used his shield to defend as well. Even if he couldn't activate the shield defense skill, the shield's defensive power and area were still higher than that of a weapon, which was why he temporarily switched to a one-handed sword and shield.

The round shield and the rock-like fist collided violently, scattering a large amount of light and impact sound. After being pushed back nearly two meters, Lisbeth blocked the attack with almost no loss of HP.

"Let's take it down in style!" Argo shouted to the others, looking up at the Boss's dwindling HP.

"Oh!!!"

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Dante jumped onto the Boss's outstretched arm, started running along the forearm, casually dropped his sword and shield, and used a quick-switch sub-skill to put his two-handed sword back on his back.

Just as he was about to collide with the Boss's upper arm, he suddenly ducked down and jumped up with a sound like an explosion. He easily flipped over the almost vertical upper arm, his body moving smoothly between the giant's arms and shoulders.

"No way—" Lisbeth stared in disbelief at Dante, who was running higher and higher, marveling at how her president was becoming more and more outrageous.

"It won't fall, will it?" she thought, and stood there stunned, holding the healing potion in her hand.

Dante's cloak swayed with the wind as he moved in front of the colossus and kicked it hard. His body floated in the air, and the sword he drew and held in his hand emitted an orange light like a ball of fire.

The Boss noticed the player's movements and tilted its head back as if to cooperate, but its eyes were flashing red.

There's absolutely no need to worry. The next second, Mitt's kusarigama arrived as expected, interrupting the Boss's beam with a "bang."

The sudden sword technique "Avalanche" propelled Dante's body across the last bit of space, and with immense strength, he plunged his sword into the emblem of the colossus, like a sharp blade piercing flesh.

And his tilted head formed a platform that he could step on. After standing up, Dante immediately assumed a sword-fighting stance and unleashed his strongest five-hit sword technique, "Battleblade."

The longsword spun rapidly like a storm, carving one, two, three, four lines onto the red emblem on the forehead of the Void Golem Fuscus, and finally a fifth green line.

Finally, the emblem peeled off the forehead, turned into particles of light, and disappeared without a trace. Then, several flame-like flashes emerged from all the lines.

The fifth floor boss, the Void Golem Fuscus, exploded into countless blue crystals.

After spinning in the air and adjusting his posture to land smoothly on the floor, Dante immediately knelt on one knee to calm his chaotic breathing.

Even after the more spectacular elimination effects than any previous boss faded and disappeared, no one uttered a single word for quite some time.

“…We won…” Lisbeth murmured in a dry and hoarse voice.

As if influenced by those words, everyone burst into cheers.

As Dante stood up, Asuna rushed over and hugged him tightly, her slender arms wrapping around his back. The sturdy breastplate bumped against his chest, causing a slight pain. After staggering back half a step, Silica also hugged him excitedly.

With his arms outstretched like a clothes hanger, Dante saw Mitte walk over and extend her snow-white hand in front of him.

"You've worked hard, Dante."

Carrying two burdens, and with their companions who had already put away their scythes, they smiled and lightly bumped fists to celebrate their victory.

"Hahahaha... I can't believe it actually worked!" Argo stood with his hands on his hips, laughing gleefully. "Tomorrow. No! Tonight I'll release the first edition of the newspaper and let everyone know about it."

Incidentally, she named the newspaper "Argo Weekly" so that it would be immediately recognizable as a newspaper published by the famous intelligence broker Argo.

"Really. If that's the case, the legend of the Seven Heroes will be known throughout Aincrad by tomorrow." Dante said helplessly as he unloaded the heavy load from his body.

"Hmph~" Argo snorted smugly, "After all, this is a major event in Aincrad. I will never forget being able to participate in it personally."

That look on her face seemed to say, "I'm going to let everyone know," and Dante couldn't help but laugh at her smug expression.

"Argo!"

"what?"

"Join our guild," Dante formally invited.

"You you you..." Argo stammered, unable to speak, as if his tongue was tied in knots. "You're so cunning."

"What?" Dante playfully repeated Argo's words.

"Hey, how am I supposed to refuse in this situation?!" Argo complained, arms crossed in frustration.

“With Argo here, I feel much more at ease,” Asuna said with a grin, standing next to Dante.

“Even Xiaoya said so.” Argo’s tone softened.

"I think so too." "Yeah, yeah."

But to Argo's surprise, everyone laughed and agreed.

So Dante took the opportunity to extend a guild invitation to her, then winked and said, "Nice to meet you?"

“…” After looking at the invitation pop-up for two seconds, Argo sighed, “I really can’t do anything with you guys. Let me make it clear that my main job is still an information broker.”

“Of course, Liz’s profession is also blacksmithing.” Dante nodded matter-of-factly.

"Huh? So I'm a blacksmith." Lisbeth pointed to herself, surprised.

Liz's joke made everyone laugh, and Asuna playfully punched her arm.

"We'll buy a two-story house as the guild's headquarters, and you can use the first floor to run your shop." Dante, seeing Liz's stunned face, joked, "What's wrong? Don't you need it?"

"No! Wait!" Lisbeth immediately shook her head, rushed over, grabbed his hand, and shook it up and down. "It's a promise! It's a deal."

Having your own store—just thinking about that future feels... amazing.

Chapter 134: Flag of Martial Arts

Then came another matter.

Dante manipulates the game window that appears with the ringing of the bell, materializing the item he just obtained from his inventory.

Upon seeing the three-meter-long silver flagpole materialized under the light particles, the girls were greatly agitated.

The fact that it drops from the Boss alone makes its value unquestionable. The official name of the banner is "Flag of Valor," which means "Banner of Valor."

In addition to the LA rewards, the Boss will also drop some other items. Normally, players cannot count the exact number, but this time is different. Everyone took out the new items that appeared in their inventory and put them on the ground. There were a total of nine items.

In addition to the money they earned, which was distributed equally, each person received a total of 21,000 Cor. Following the huge sum of one million Cor, everyone made a small amount of money.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere to spend the money, along with the money in their backpacks, since their equipment had already been upgraded to the maximum level and they wouldn't be replacing their equipment on a large scale anytime soon. The guild headquarters needed to be located on a better floor, as the recent floors were not suitable.

"Let me see it." Asuna reached out to Dante, asking for the flag.

Dante presented the beautiful flagpole with both hands, and Asuna firmly grasped the center of the flagpole with her right hand, loudly proclaiming "The Banner of Valor" and erecting it on the floor of the Boss's room.

"How beautiful." Lingyin looked up at the mirrored silver flagpole standing on the ground with its right hand and murmured to herself.

“Yes.” Asuna agreed. She looked up and touched the side of the heavy flagpole with her left finger, bringing up its properties window and then making it visible.

Then a group of people surrounded it. The "Banner of Martial Valor" was classified as a long spear, specifically a pair of pistols.

There are currently four skills that allow the use of gun-type weapons: one-handed gun use, two-handed gun use, one-handed assault rifle use, and two-handed assault rifle use.

The first two are, as their names suggest, ordinary spears. The most common of these is probably the dual pistols, because their sword skills can apply various debuffs, and experienced player teams will equip themselves with spears.

The use of a single-handed pistol is even rarer, similar to the single-handed spear used by the heavy infantry of ancient Greece. In fact, because it is not as easy to wield as a sword and shield or a knife and shield, very few people use it.

Even so, the rarity of learning the single-handed pistol skill is still far less than that of the assault rifle skill.

The sub-branches of assault rifles are only the knight's lance and the armored lance with a large grip. Both of these can only be used for simple thrusting attacks. You could say you could use them to smash, but they have little power and can only be used as a simple tactical action, similar to a shield bash.

Players generally perceive this weapon as rare and difficult to control, making it hard to coordinate in squad or team battles. The only occasion where an assault rifle is needed is when dealing with large monsters.

Fortunately, the "Banner of Valor" is the most versatile pair of pistols, but it's still not very effective for actual combat.

"As expected, there's been no change since the closed beta; the attack power is still at the lowest level." Argo crawled up to Asuna's chest, looked at the flag's attributes, and commented.

"Well, but... it's nothing compared to its effects." After her serious expression, she smiled.

The following buff effects, which can be described as magical, are also amazing. While it is erected on the ground during battle, guild members within a 15-meter radius will be granted various support effects.

Increased attack power, increased defense power, reduced sword skill cooldown time, and increased resistance to all abnormal statuses are all very useful effects.

Of course, each increase is only a tiny bit, almost as subtle as a ring with "+1% Stun Resistance" obtained from an underground tomb.

However, these are all superficial. Not to mention that there are no restrictions on the number of people or the time, the most terrifying thing is that the "Banner of Martial Valor" is a long weapon, so it also has a limit on the number of times it can be strengthened.

“There’s a total of ten upgrades. If we upgrade it, it shouldn’t just improve the weapon’s performance.” Argo twitched his beard, showing off his almost-truthful speculation.

"The percentage of the buff effect will also increase then. If we can successfully enhance it to +10, just imagining that situation..."

Upon hearing this, everyone showed expressions of surprise and delight.

At the same time, Asuna noticed the authentication button located below the attribute bar. "Should we register this flag with our guild's name?"

“Of course,” Dante nodded. “Try pressing it.”

"I pressed it." Asuna glanced up at him, then lowered her head and pressed the button under everyone's gaze.

In the end... nothing happened.