A journey to another world starting from a sword

"Ha, then I'll let you hear about my troubles next time," Kirito sighed.

"You're welcome anytime." Dante had pretty much guessed what was going on.

What's bothering you?

"It's nothing." "It's nothing."

-----------------

The twenty-fifth floor is a bustling metropolis that has not been developed for long, and it is even larger than the "Starting Town" that serves as the newbie village. It would be even more surprising during the day, enough to remind people of the lively scene when the server first opened.

Leafa, her face full of curiosity, followed Dante to the guild headquarters of "Eternal Garden," an exquisite three-story villa. While not large compared to the other houses in the area, it shone like the most dazzling jewel in an expensive piece of jewelry, yet without appearing out of place.

"Welcome, Leafa." Knowing beforehand that a newcomer was coming, Asuna waited quietly in the living room.

Ah, what a beautiful person.

Leafa knew that normal SAO players used their real-life appearances, but the one in front of her had a beauty that made people forget to breathe for a moment.

Her glossy dark chestnut hair cascaded over her shoulders, her fair skin had a translucent quality, and a touch of blush on her cheeks added to her sweetness.

"Hello, Vice President." Leafa quickly bowed and said. Because she had joined the guild, she could clearly see the name of the female player in front of her—Asuna. This must be the guild's vice president.

"Yes, just call her Asuna." Asuna smiled gently. "Because it's too late, I didn't wake everyone up. Let's have a formal welcome party tomorrow so we can properly introduce Leafa to everyone."

If it were only nine o'clock, it wouldn't be a problem to call everyone out of their rooms. But it's already eleven o'clock, and most people are probably already asleep.

Seeing Leafa's bewildered expression, Asuna took Leafa's hand and walked towards the stairs. "Let me show you to a room."

Everyone who lives here has their own nameplate on it, and most people live on the second floor.

"Hey, I don't see Dante's nameplate." Leafa looked around before realizing that there was no one's room there.

"I'm on the third floor, because there are exactly eight rooms on the second floor, and they often run around in their pajamas at night," Dante said, pointing to the floor above. As he said this, Asuna gave him a sharp look.

"By the way, the bathroom is on the first floor, with 24-hour hot water. If Leafa wants to take a bath, I'll take you there now, and we can bathe together, how about it?" Asuna chuckled.

Dante glanced sideways at Asuna, his eyes filled with helplessness.

"No need, it's too late today." Leafa thought for half a second, then shook her head and declined the tempting invitation.

"Then let's do it tomorrow." Asuna nodded, then pulled Leafa towards the third floor. "Yuki, who just joined today, is also on the third floor. Leafa and she will definitely become good friends."

Although she didn't know why Asuna was so sure, Leafa nodded slightly with some relief, because she wasn't the only newcomer.

Sure enough, the room closest to the stairs had a purple wooden plaque with red trim, while Dante's room was right in the middle.

Leafa wanted to boldly choose the room next to the middle one, but in the end she chose the one right next to the newlyweds.

Watching Asuna enthusiastically show Leafa around the room, Dante didn't participate much and returned to his own room.

While I was meditating in bed, there was an unexpected knock on the door.

"The door isn't locked." This is a common practice, but the unfamiliar knocking probably prevented Dante from immediately inviting Dante in.

The door opened, and standing in the doorway was Leafa, who was hugging a pillow. She looked uneasy and a little embarrassed as she spoke.

"Um, I'm having a little trouble sleeping."

She stood quietly at the doorway, unaware that a figure disappeared down the stairs at the end of the dark corridor a few seconds later.

Chapter 178: I'm Leafa, nice to meet you.

"You... never mind, come in." Seeing Leafa standing timidly at the door, Dante couldn't bring himself to complain.

He had originally planned to meditate for a while before going out to fight monsters, but it seems he'll have to postpone it for a bit.

"Hmm." Seeing the helpless yet doting expression on the other person's face, Leafa felt much more at ease and then walked in, clutching her pillow.

"Hey, what were you doing just now?" Leafa asked as she placed the pillows side by side next to another pillow.

"Meditation." Noticing the confused look on Leafa's face, Dante explained further, "This skill can be learned in the lower levels. I'll take you there to learn it later. The learning process is quite special."

Simply put, it's about enduring the delicious meat patties made by the Dark Elf Sage; failure occurs whenever your thoughts start to become chaotic.

"That sounds interesting." Leafa found it a bit unbelievable to be sleeping in the same bed with a man she had only known for less than a day. "Isn't your spot a little too small? You could move over a bit more."

"Hmm, then I'll move a little closer." Dante thought so too, so he moved a little closer to her.

“Wow…” Leafa suddenly exclaimed.

"What's wrong?" Dante turned his head from the pillow and looked over.

"Hmm, uh..." Leafa stared at the other's eyes in the darkness, and the next second, as her cheeks gradually warmed up, she looked away.

"You were the one who said we could come closer, right?"

Feeling the other person's breath faintly, Leafa suppressed her shyness and said, "I was scared because their faces were so close. I still sleep in the same bed with men other than my brother."

"I told you I'm a few years older than you, so I'm your older brother too," Dante said with a smile, patting her head.

“That’s true.” Leafa chuckled.

After a few seconds of silence between them, Leafa spoke up: "My room is the same as yours."

Moreover, the beds are very large, twice the size of one's own bed in real life. Of course, even if two people are lying on the bed and the bed is spread out in a "big" shape, it still won't be big enough.

“Because it was purchased in bulk.” As he spoke, Dante noticed that Leafa’s clothes seemed to be just the leather part of her original clothes. “Let Asuna go with you to buy a nightgown tomorrow.”

“Okay.” Leafa slowly closed her eyes. “As soon as I lay down, my mind started wandering.”

"Yes, it's alright. Just sleep peacefully here with me," Dante thought to himself. "I'll leave after you fall asleep."

"Hmm!" Leafa quieted down, but unexpectedly, although she stopped thinking nonsense, she was still extremely concerned about the people around her, and even her body started to feel hot.

Twenty minutes later, Leafa found herself completely unable to fall asleep!

"..." Even without closing his eyes, Dante could sense that the other person was not relaxed at all, and his body was even tense.

"Ah." Leafa realized that her left hand was being held and then pulled back lightly between the two of them, as if to say, "Go to sleep now!"

Well, this time she actually started to feel sleepy.

As Leafa's breathing gradually slowed, Dante, certain she was asleep, gently got up and released the hand he was holding under the covers.

The hunt in the night is about to begin.

-----------------

"rise......"

"Um... hm?"

Leafa felt like someone was calling her, and it was a little noisy.

"Get up quickly."

"!" Leafa opened her eyes abruptly and found herself lying on her side, which was outside the designated area. However, there was no one on the other side, because he was calling her to wake up.

"Is it already morning?" Leafa asked instinctively, then looked out the window and saw that it was just getting light.

"Asuna said breakfast is ready and asked me to call you down." Scratching his head, Dante received a message from Asuna a dozen minutes ago after killing a monster. It meant that breakfast was ready and he should come back quickly, although it was actually more like "dinner" to him.

"Okay." Leafa instantly snapped out of her daze, afraid of being discovered, and quickly got out of bed. Then, led by Dante, she went down the stairs.

To my surprise, when I arrived at the restaurant, I found many lovely girls standing there.

"Welcome! Leafa, join the guild!" They were on high alert, and immediately cheered enthusiastically upon seeing her.

“Gahh ...

"Wow, what is this?" Leafa was immediately attracted by the cute creature.

“This is Pina.” Silica smiled and introduced her familiar to her.

"Beast Tamer" is a rare term in SAO, and it originated from Silica.

When Silica arrived at the main street of the eighth floor, "Filipan," she never expected to have such a wonderful partner.

That day, in the forest where the "Pterosaur" was active, Dante suddenly stuffed a bag of nuts into my hand.

Then they encountered a monster that didn't attack them. Encouraged by Dante, Silica fed it.

Unexpectedly, she acquired a small flying dragon covered in light, soft, light blue fur, with two large tail feathers instead of a tail. She named it "Bina," which was the name of her cat in real life.

It was already a rare and special monster, and Silica was the first player to successfully tame it, which immediately caused a sensation in Aincrad, even making it into the Argo newspapers, and she was immediately given the title of "Dragon Tamer".

Of course, not every monster can become a familiar; it seems that only a small number of small animal-type monsters can be tamed, and players who can tame them are even luckier.

After Silica subdued Pina, the girls in the guild tried the same method countless times, but all of them failed. In the end, Dante stopped this time-wasting behavior in time. Not everyone has Silica's luck.

Because of their small size, the direct combat power of the familiar monsters is not very high. That makes sense, because if they were too strong, most players would probably want to become "beast tamers," which would not fit Kayaba Akihiko's desire for players to fight with swords.

However, this doesn't mean that Pina is useless. On the contrary, familiars possess several special abilities, such as the "targeting" ability to detect approaching monsters and the healing ability to restore a small amount of health to their master. Each of these abilities is valuable, which makes it less important to learn certain skills.

In order to learn "familiar" skills, Silica has forgotten all exploration skills such as "lock picking" and "trap detection" to free up enough skill slots, and Koharu fills in the gaps.

"So cute," even Leafa couldn't help but exclaim.

At that moment, Dante received a subtle glare from Asuna, but he touched his neck and pretended not to see it.

"Ah, I almost forgot." Leafa quickly bowed and said, "I am Leafa, nice to meet you."

Chapter 179: Leafa Wants to Be a Katana Swordsman

Then Asuna began to introduce the guild members to Leafa one by one, starting with the guild leader.

"Our guild master, Dante, doesn't need to be introduced to Leafa, right?"

"..." Dante felt that Asuna's words had a hidden meaning. Thanks to her strict family education, Asuna was a breakfast person, so after making breakfast, she would knock on each door to call people. She probably discovered that Leafa's room was empty at this time.

However, this did not affect Asuna's friendly attitude towards Leafa, after all, she has a warm and kind personality, and has even become friends with every girl in the guild.

"This is Mitt, a former closed beta tester. There aren't many players in the guild stronger than Mitt."

Asuna pointed to another purple-haired girl with a similar hairstyle to hers. The girl's usually cold and pretty face showed a rare smile when she was facing Leafa.

"That's Argo over there, also a closed beta player. Argo is SAO's top intelligence provider."

Although it was somewhat rude, Leafa hadn't expected the player named Argo to be a petite girl. At that moment, Leafa also noticed the beard on the other person's face.

"That rat...?"

"I didn't expect even players who just entered SAO to know my name. As an information broker, this is quite a success." Argo was so smug that he almost put his feet up on the table, but he would be lectured by Xiaoya if he did that, so he decided to let it go.

"You can ask me anything you want to know," she winked at Leafa. "Oh, including our president's photo album."

"Huh, so there are such things?" Leafa exclaimed in surprise.

"There's actually such a thing?" Silica exclaimed in surprise.

"Argo!"

Faced with Asuna's glare, Argo immediately put his hands together and said, "Sorry, I got too carried away."

However, Leafa sensed that Leafa smiled slightly at her, as if she had noticed something.

"And then there's Silica."

"This is Pina." When introducing herself, Silica didn't forget to stroke the dragon tattoo on her shoulder.

"As for Haru, Leafa already knows her, right?" Asuna said with a smile.

"Mm." Leafa saw Koharu wave at her, so she raised her hand and waved back to the first girl she met in the game.

“Miss Jeliska, she is our guild’s standard-bearer.”

"Hi~" came the gentle greeting, and the tall, busty female player waved her hand.

What a beautiful and elegant mature woman! Leafa greeted her in a daze.

"The two sitting over here are Lingyin and Liz."

"I'm Lisbeth, just call me Lisbeth. By the way, I'm the guild's blacksmith, so feel free to let me know if you need any equipment." Lisbeth patted her arm, making a very boyish gesture.

"Priviette~" Lingyin waved with a smile.

“Ah, hair…” Leafa looked at the two of them in surprise, because their hair was a bright color that was hard to see in reality.

“This is because you used hair dye.” Lingyin pinched the ends of her red hair.

"Is it inappropriate?" Lisbeth asked casually.

"No, that's not true. They're very cute, I was immediately drawn to them." Leafa quickly waved her hand. It was the truth; the rare colors in real life did make the two already adorable girls even more eye-catching.