A journey to another world starting from a sword

"More importantly, Dante's guild is independently conquering the bosses on floors 33, 35, and 37, right?" Heathcliff said, placing his fingers on the table and closing his eyes.

"What should we do next, Captain?" Seguluo asked somewhat anxiously.

In just six months, the "Knights of the Blood Oath" guild, which had a short history, was brought into the core of the strategy group. As a result, the members of the "Knights of the Blood Oath" changed the common title of "guild leader" to the exclusive title of "commander".

This is praise and affirmation. From now on, there will only be one person in Aincrad who can be called "Commander," and that is Heathcliff.

"Let's use the resources from the 39th floor to improve the guild's strength first. All the officers should pay attention to recruiting promising newcomers. Also, we should actively participate in the 40th floor raid." Heathcliff smiled faintly. "By the way, hasn't a guild called 'Moonlit Black Cat Gang' recently joined the raid team?"

"It seems there is such a thing. What's wrong, Chairman?" Frost asked.

“No, it’s nothing,” Heathcliff shook his head.

After leaving his meeting room, Noziras did not follow the crowd back to his room in the guild. Instead, he walked out of the headquarters and shielded his eyes from the virtual sunlight above his head, though it was perhaps just his imagination.

As autumn arrives, the virtual dome on the thirty-ninth floor of Aincrad is rendered with a unique spatial depth by the system.

When sunlight penetrates the thin, almost transparent clouds, it refracts into an amber halo in the data stream, like diluted honey flowing on a sapphire background composed of pixels.

He shook his head, banishing his meaningless thoughts, and headed towards the hotel where Yuna was.

"Are you going out?" He didn't expect to see Yuna coming out of the hotel as soon as he got downstairs.

"Yes, Arno came to see me. Let's go together then," Yuna said with a sweet smile.

Along the way, Yuna strolled leisurely with her hands behind her back, saying, "I heard that the strategy team is about to break through to the 40th floor."

“Yes, the strategy meeting should be held this afternoon,” Nochiras said.

"If this continues... sooner or later..." Yuna whispered, her voice carried away by the wind.

"We'll definitely beat this game," Nochiras assured him, clenching his fist as always.

"It's okay if you don't work so hard," Yuna waved her hand, seemingly a little worried.

"So, what are we going to do here?" Nochiras asked immediately, seeing that they were heading out of the city.

"Oh, didn't I say that?" Yuna stuck out her tongue. "It's horseback riding. I invited Leafa and Xiaochun. It's rare to have such a big grassland outside."

"Outside the circle!" Nochiras immediately became alert.

“That’s right, but it’s just outside town.” Yuna said it was alright.

“It’s not entirely safe in the neighborhood either; the ‘Smiling Coffin’ has been quite rampant lately,” Nochiras said seriously.

Starting a few months ago, PK incidents have been increasing, and the methods used are quite different. I've even heard of people being killed within the community.

"I know, that's why I lock the door every night before I go to sleep," Yuna pouted. She hadn't originally gotten into this habit.

"Please don't go outside the circle on your own. If you really have to go, be sure to call me," Nochiras said.

“But Arno must be very busy. Isn’t KoB the kind of guild that has strict requirements for its members?” Yuna asked, turning her head.

"That's right." Only Nochiras knew how much effort he had put in to join the Knights of the Blood Oath.

"I actually want to join the strategy team too." Yuna suddenly said something surprising that left Nochiras speechless.

"No! Yuna, you don't understand how much pressure there is at the front." Nochiras's face was tense, and his anxiety and worry were clearly visible.

Yuna's expression darkened for a moment, but she immediately smiled and said, "Perhaps that's true."

When they reached the "Melani Meadow" outside the circle, Leafa and Haru were already there.

"How beautiful!" Yuna ran to a white horse first, and the white horse obediently let her stroke it as much as she wanted. Its white mane was as soft as snow in winter.

"This is Asuna's horse, its name is Cream. Once Yuna has learned how to ride it, we'll give you one." Leafa swayed on the horse's back, her strong legs moving with the hooves, riding a brown horse slowly towards us, dressed in hunting attire like a dashing elven female knight.

“Okay,” Yuna replied happily.

"Ah...ah...ah...stop!" In the distance, the horse under Xiaochun seemed to be having trouble understanding the commands and started to wobble around.

"Koharu?!"

Horse riding is generally closely related to skill level. With high skill proficiency, the horse's AI can easily understand instructions, but whether the rider will fall off depends on the player's balance.

Yuna learned quickly, thanks to Cream's gentle nature. Once she got the hang of it, she, Leafa, and Haru rode horses back and forth on the grass.

The girl's cheerful laughter made Nochiras, who was sitting in the shade of a tree, feel a little dazed. It seemed like he hadn't heard Yuna laugh so heartily in a long time.

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

"Today's meeting will be chaired by Asuna from 'Eternal Garden'." Asuna stood quite dashingly in front of the table, looking around at the representatives of the various strategy groups, with the Knights of the Blood Oath and the Holy Dragon Alliance standing clearly on either side.

Mito and Jeliska accompanied Asuna, one being the guild's third strongest fighter and the other a remarkable older sister and flag bearer, their aura no less imposing than the heavily armored players on either side.

"Oh, it's Asuna again hosting the event," a disheveled samurai with a headscarf said with a laugh.

“Mr. Klein, please be serious.” Asuna cast a sharp gaze toward the wind, forest, fire, and mountain range as if she were looking at a troublesome child in a classroom.

"Yes, I'm sorry." Klein apologized very readily and honestly, which drew laughter from everyone.

The discussion then turned to "Warden Braken," a humanoid creature with heavy weapons, chains, and a massive yet agile physique...

During the discussion, Asuna was still thinking about why Dante had said in the guild that he wouldn't be participating in this raid. Everyone in the guild thought that they could take down this boss by themselves, since it wasn't a particularly troublesome boss that required a numerical advantage.

"Now, I'll announce the group assignments for this campaign," Asuna said in a deep voice.

Of the eight teams, five are comprised of "Eternal Garden," "Blood Oath Knights," and "Holy Dragon Alliance." Elite guilds like "Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain" also count as one team. The rest are combinations of various groups or smaller guilds. The "Moonlit Black Cat Team," which just appeared at the forefront, only had three members allowed to participate.

The black-clad swordsman looked incredibly familiar; many people didn't realize it until they saw that he had joined a guild.

Kirito, a representative of outstanding solo players, joined a guild, leaving no slots for solo players to participate in guild battles.

“Wait! Our ‘Holy Dragon Alliance’ has the most people, so why can we only send two teams like the ‘Knights of the Blood Oath’?” At this moment, a different voice came from the left. It was Lind, who still had blue hair, who spoke up. The cadres behind him nodded in agreement.

This statement made the members of the small guild nervous. If the "Holy Dragon Alliance" succeeded, they might be the ones to be replaced.

"Should we decide by vote, Mr. Lind?" Asuna replied bluntly.

"Why don't we call everyone in the strategy team together to vote?" Lin De said, arms crossed. If he couldn't achieve his ambitions, then what was the point of merging the guild and the "Sky Legion" in the first place?

"The 'Holy Dragon Union' isn't much stronger than us, and even 'Eternal Garden' only has one team. What qualifications do you have to field three teams?" Godfrey said, standing opposite Lind.

“Heh, our ‘Holy Dragon Alliance’ is the largest guild in the strategy group. We have the strength.” Lin De slammed his fist on the table.

"Enough!" Asuna snapped, drawing everyone's attention to the furious beauty.

"This is the decision of Asuna, the vice president of my 'Eternal Garden' and temporarily the commander of the Allied Forces." Asuna frowned. "If there are any objections, then let's settle this with a duel."

"She's a real lioness," Keita whispered in Kirito's ear, the most fitting description he could think of.

Kirito silently hid behind Keita to avoid being caught in his battle-ready gaze.

"That's right."

Chapter 197: The Disturbance Outside the Venue

"They were actually defeated by a woman. Are the 'Knights of the Blood Oath' and the 'Holy Dragon Alliance' really alright?" Keita and Kirito left the venue.

"Asuna's strength is among the top in the raiding group." Kirito shook his head. He didn't expect that Linde was quite smart and didn't go into battle himself.

The reason is that as the guild leader, only fellow guild leaders are qualified to duel him.

Therefore, the former president of the "Sky Dome Division" and the current vice president of the "Holy Dragon Alliance" who was sent there was beaten quite badly, and it is estimated that several newspapers will report on this incident.

This damages the prestige of the "Holy Dragon Alliance," but Kirito feels that Linde's purpose is not so simple. Could it be that he did this on purpose?

"As expected of Miss Asuna." Tetsuo is a fan of "Asuna", or rather, there are few people in the guild who are not fans of "Asuna", although they can't compare to those fanatics who cut out photos from newspapers to collect.

After all, I've always longed to join the strategy guide group. The "Moonlit Black Cat Group" has been following the strategy guide group's news for a long time, and now my wish has finally come true.

"So the strategy team argues like this all the time," Keita remarked.

"But the atmosphere isn't bad, is it?" Tetsuo laughed, his eyes practically disappearing when he smiled. "Right, Kirito?"

"Ah..." Kirito responded. He felt that the current atmosphere of the strategy team was obviously largely due to the efforts of certain individuals.

"How did the meeting go?" As soon as he came out, Sachi and his companions immediately surrounded him, especially Sachi, who ran to Kirito with a worried look on her face.

"It went very smoothly." Qi Tai raised his hand, indicating that everyone should not worry.

"I really want to go in and take a look too."

"Maybe next time," Qi Tai comforted him. "The meeting room is quite serious; meetings aren't exactly a good thing."

Because he was too nervous, he didn't participate in the discussion at all during the meeting. He only said things like "okay," "I understand," and "leave it to us" when he was given instructions.

"Wait, wait, I still need to ask Miss Jeliska for her contact information." Before Kirito and Keita started to leave, a voice that sounded very familiar to Kirito came from the side.

"What are you thinking, President?" "Give up, President." "Please don't dream during the day, President." "Don't embarrass us, President."

Kirito turned his head and saw that it was indeed an acquaintance. A down-on-his-luck samurai was being held up and dragged away by his guild members.

"That seems to be Klein from 'Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain'." Qi Tai had some understanding of the internal situation of the strategy group, and "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" was also a guild with a relatively unique personality.

The entire guild was dressed in red Japanese-style armor, essentially samurai attire. Their crest was the famous Takeda Hiki, not to mention the guild's name—taken from Sun Tzu's Art of War, but a famous quote used as a military banner by the renowned Sengoku warlord Takeda Shingen: "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain."

Just like their side, they also seemed to have guild members waiting outside. The atmosphere in the guild was very good, and they had slightly more members than the "Moonlit Black Cat Gang".

"Yeah." Kirito didn't want to see that idiot; he's as energetic as ever.

"Oh, oh! Isn't that Kirito?" Klein spotted the black-clad swordsman standing to the side, and his longing expression instantly shifted to the other person.

"...Oh." Seeing this, Kirito could only raise his hand and give a small greeting.

"Ah, I was wondering why I hadn't seen you on the front lines for so long. So you've joined a guild." Klein forcefully broke free from his companion's restraints, twisting his shoulders and muttering under his breath, "Honestly, they're holding me so tight."

"Ah, um." Kirito didn't know what to say.

However, Klein did not embarrass Kirito, and greeted Keita very warmly, "Hello, I am Klein of 'Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain'."

Taking Klein's outstretched hand, Keita said respectfully, "Hello, I am Keita, the president of the 'Moonlit Black Cat Gang'! Nice to meet you, Mr. Klein."

This is a veteran who has been active on the front lines since the twenties.

"Oh, just call me Klein." Klein touched his prickly hair. "Kirito and I were the closest friends who left the 'Town of Beginnings' together in the very beginning."

As he spoke, he revealed his white teeth and gave a thumbs-up.

"Then I will be rude." Qi Tai readily agreed.

"You were really noisy just now, Klein." Kirito said meaningfully, glancing slightly to the side.

"What did you say?!" Klein exclaimed, clenching his fist. "It wouldn't hurt to get to know a beauty as beautiful as Miss Jeliska, would it?"

"You're still as shameless as ever." Suddenly, another person joined the conversation; it was a huge man with brown skin.

“What? I thought you knew.” Klein waved his hand at Agil. “Don’t you understand Miss Jeliska’s mature feminine charm?”

“Nobody wants to hear you talk about this,” Agil sighed. He really had no interest in this kind of topic, after all, he was already married in real life.

"So, President, you should just give up. How many times have you failed?" one of Klein's companions sighed.

Yes! Every time Klein encounters a beautiful female player, he tries to strike up a conversation, but unfortunately, the success rate of his attempts is already very low, and coupled with his unkempt appearance... it's no wonder he fails.

"Stop rambling, it's that tolerance and ease that's so irresistible." Klein hugged his body and twisted around in a very cringeworthy way.

"Hehehe, thank you for the compliment~" Suddenly, Jeliska's light voice came from behind.

"Oh my, what a coincidence." Klein was startled and immediately turned around to greet him, making no mention of what had just happened.

Ah, as expected, this person has the desire but not the courage, Kirito thought to himself.

However, Jeliska was just passing by, greeted the others, and then left behind Asuna who was hurrying by.

This strong sense of boundaries truly reflects the elegance and poise of a woman.

Kirito was beginning to understand what Klein was saying.

Before leaving, Asuna gave the Tsukiyo Black Cats a special encouragement, a stark contrast to her demonic demeanor at the event; she was incredibly gentle.

They said some words of welcome to the strategy team, which made the Moonlit Black Cats very excited on their way back.

"You've finally achieved your dream, Kirito," Keita said to Kirito with a smile.

"Yes, that's right." Kirito turned his head and smiled. "Let's keep up the good work."

Chapter 198: An Unexpected Incident

"The Boss raid is scheduled for October 18th, are you really not going?" Asuna asked early in the morning.

Looking up from the book in his hands, Dante shook his head. "Let it go this time. With Heathcliff around, things won't get any worse."

Asuna wondered why he always trusted Heathcliff.