There was nothing particularly unusual about morning in Tolbana.
It was simply one of the two times each day when sunlight could be seen inside Aincrad.
Golden rays slanted through the gap between floors and streamed into the widening valley, giving the landscape the warm colors of an autumn harvest.
The grasslands had turned gold beneath the morning light, rippling in the breeze like a sunlit sea.
A bell tower somewhere on the mountainside sent a distant chime across the valley, prompting grazing calves to lift their heads.
Water murmured steadily from the fountain in the plaza, while the morning market along the shopping street below the rented houses was already crowded with people coming and going.
Shindo, however, was sleeping far more soundly than usual.
His alarm had been ringing for quite some time, yet the figure buried beneath the blankets showed absolutely no sign of waking.
Creeak…
The bedroom door slowly opened.
Yuuki peered through the gap, her large dark eyes scanning Shindo’s room.
The blanket on the bed had been pulled up into the unmistakable outline of a person lying flat beneath it, making him look rather like a wrapped mummy.
“Big Sis, Shindo-kun didn’t lock his door.” Aiko’s head soon appeared beside Yuuki’s.
The person whose room they had just entered remained completely oblivious, still sleeping as though nothing in the world could disturb him.
“He probably pushed himself too hard leveling,” Aiko said quietly.
“In a death game like this, once you finally relax, I imagine all the exhaustion catches up with you at once.
After all, Shindo-kun isn’t like us…” “Then what about our leveling goal for today?” Yuuki clearly had no intention of wasting an entire day.
“Should we go ahead without him?
If Shindo-kun slacks off today, we might be able to catch up to his level before tonight.” The Konno sisters were in the middle of conspiring to overthrow Shindo’s level advantage when their target happened to wake up.
“Hey, hey…
I heard that.” Shindo stared blankly at the ceiling, his eyes still unfocused.
His mental state looked almost exactly as dazed as it had before he went to sleep the previous night.
The voices of Aiko and Yuuki talking in his doorway drifted across the modest room, forcing Shindo to abandon the faint hope that he might wake up and discover the previous day’s events had all been a dream.
Aiko and Yuuki really had appeared ahead of schedule because of the unpredictable changes caused by his presence.
And they were here inside Sword Art Online, after it had already become a death game.
‘So this is the reality of this game world.’ With no way to argue against the divergence of the timeline, Shindo could only accept the change, however inconvenient it might be for him.
“Since you’re awake, Shindo-kun, hurry up and get ready,” Aiko said.
“We’re leaving for the leveling area soon.” Then she pointed toward his door.
“And another thing.
You were sleeping in here without locking the door.
Aren’t you worried someone with bad intentions might come in?” “Sorry, but while I’m not particularly familiar with Tolbana’s crime rate, the NPCs around here seem pretty decent.” Shindo rolled onto his side and propped his head up with one hand.
“As for these people with ‘bad intentions’…
are you talking about yourselves?” His eyes moved pointedly between the two sisters.
“And just so we’re clear, Tolbana may not have NPC guards or anything like that, but sneaking into a boy’s room while he’s asleep still seems pretty questionable.” Aiko’s face suddenly flushed.
Whatever image had entered her mind, it clearly embarrassed her enough that she immediately folded her arms and glared at him.
“That’s not what happened!
You hadn’t woken up for so long that Yuuki and I were worried you might not wake up at all, so we came in to check on you.” Seeing both girls looking slightly red-faced now, Shindo decided not to tease them any further.
He pushed himself upright.
“Yeah, yeah.” Then he waved toward the door.
“Close it on your way out.
I’ll be there soon.” Aiko and Yuuki gave him matching annoyed looks, but obediently shut the door behind them.
They even locked it from the inside for him.
Five minutes later, Shindo emerged from his room and joined them downstairs.
After a simple breakfast, the three set out together.
Before leaving town, Shindo suggested making a stop at the weapon shop.
All three had their equipment enhanced, while Shindo focused specifically on his Anneal Blade.
He improved its Sharpness twice and its Durability twice, bringing it to Anneal Blade +4.
With their preparations complete, the party headed toward the leveling grounds east of Tolbana.
Before entering the hunting area, Shindo formally sent Aiko and Yuuki party invitations.
Once they had agreed on how EXP and dropped items would be divided, the three began what would become a long session of grinding.
The monsters around Tolbana were already similar to those found near the First Floor Labyrinth, including Kobolds and Kobold Riders.
Compared with the enemies they had fought farther south, the kobold forces were noticeably tougher.
High-damage Sword Skills were needed to inflict serious wounds, and simply killing them in a single strike was becoming increasingly difficult.
Their attacks were more varied as well.
Ordinary Kobolds possessed Heavy Blow and Sweep, both of which could inflict control effects, while Kobold Riders also had a powerful Charge attack.
Because the official release might have changed enemy behavior from the beta—and because Aiko and Yuuki lacked detailed experience with these monsters—Shindo decided to take the first engagement himself and probe their abilities before exposing the others to unnecessary risk.
Temporarily filling the role of the party’s front-line tank, Shindo raised his sword and blocked a Kobold’s Heavy Blow.
Even though the main strike was stopped, the Skill’s impact still produced enough splash damage to shave a small amount from his HP.
The Kobold entered a brief post-Skill delay.
Yuuki immediately moved.
“Switch!” Shindo retreated quickly, surrendering the front position to her while beginning the activation motion for his next Sword Skill.
Aiko matched Yuuki’s timing almost perfectly.
The instant Yuuki’s attack landed, Aiko followed with another strike, keeping the Kobold trapped in continuous hit-stun.
Then Shindo called out again.
“Switch!” Both sisters disengaged immediately.
The path ahead of him opened.
Shindo stepped through and brought «Slant» down hard across the Kobold’s body.
Red particles scattered from the gash like fragments of a wound before the monster broke apart completely.
“Kobold Rider, left!” Shindo’s eyes caught the mounted enemy approaching at high speed.
He immediately activated «Linear» and charged to meet it, knocking aside the Kobold Rider’s long blade as his own sword swept across the weak point at the back of its neck.
The monster’s HP bar visibly plunged toward the left.
The attack was not enough to kill it.
Still carrying the momentum of its Charge, the Kobold Rider hurtled toward Yuuki.
She raised her sword.
Purple light gathered around the blade.
Despite her delicate appearance, Yuuki showed no intention of retreating from the mounted enemy bearing down on her.
Instead, she entered the activation stance for «Horizontal».
Just before the collision, she planted one foot and sprang upward.
The violet-glowing blade rotated through her hands in a sweeping arc before cutting cleanly across the Kobold Rider’s neck.
Its body separated into two pieces from the impact.
Only after both halves struck the ground did they shatter into pale-blue crystalline fragments.
Their greatest limitation was EP.
Recovery could not keep pace with the cost of repeatedly activating Sword Skills, so the three relied mainly on rotating positions and chaining their attacks together rather than overwhelming enemies with continuous Skill use.
Perhaps because all three specialized in swords, their teamwork became remarkably natural.
A single movement or shift in position was often enough for the others to understand what was intended.
Shindo unexpectedly found himself enjoying the rhythm of it.
Fighting alongside Aiko and Yuuki felt almost like performing in an ensemble, each of them contributing a different part to the same piece of music.
Eventually, only one upper-tier elite remained.
A Swamp Kobold Trapper.
Its weapon was a hooked claw attached to a chain, which it could use to snatch weapons out of an opponent’s hands.
It was also considerably faster than an ordinary Kobold, falling only slightly behind a Kobold Rider in movement speed.
Aiko cut in from the side and quickly circled behind it.
As usual, Shindo moved into the front position and deliberately stepped within range of the Trapper’s hooked claw.
If it launched the weapon, Aiko and Yuuki could immediately close the distance with Sword Skills.
Once its defense opened during the attack, the sisters could lock it down with consecutive strikes before it had a chance to recover.
The monster did not cooperate.
Instead of attacking, the Swamp Kobold Trapper used its superior movement speed to retreat, deliberately drawing all three players in the same direction.
Four figures raced across the endless grasslands, carving a winding trail through the swaying green as torn leaves scattered behind them.
The Trapper remained in the lead, gradually pulling the party toward the marshland where it had the environmental advantage.
All three realized what it was doing at roughly the same time.
Shindo, Aiko, and Yuuki simultaneously began activating «Linear».
Before the monster could reach the swamp, three Sword Skill-assisted charges converged on its path and cut off its retreat.
With nowhere left to run, the Swamp Kobold Trapper attacked the first player to close in.
Shindo.
It spun the hooked claw in a circle, winding momentum through the chain, then hurled it forward.
Shindo raised his Anneal Blade horizontally.
Metal collided with metal.
Sparks burst from the impact.
As the force behind the claw faded and it began to drop, Shindo thrust his sword forward between the stretched lengths of chain, twisted his wrist, and wound the chain around the blade one loop at a time.
The Kobold Trapper tried to pull its weapon back.
It could not.
Its guard was completely open.
Aiko and Yuuki struck immediately.
Both drove straight in with crisp, efficient sword attacks, carving repeatedly across the elite monster’s body before it could recover.
Its HP plummeted.
The Kobold Trapper’s face twisted into an almost human expression of unwilling frustration before its body finally shattered, becoming another contribution to all three EXP bars.
Shindo looked at his now-full experience bar and smiled.
The EXP required to level up in SAO rose at an almost exponential rate.
Higher-level elite monsters rewarded more experience, but even that increase struggled to keep pace with the rapidly growing requirements.
Shindo had been stuck at Level 8 for several days.
Aside from the time spent traveling from Horunka to Tolbana, nearly every waking hour had gone into either resting or grinding, and only today had he finally managed to level up again.
The gap between the three of them was not particularly large, and their party settings divided EXP evenly.
So when Shindo reached Level 9, Aiko and Yuuki soon reached Level 8 as well.
They had completely cleared the surrounding area of monsters, and there was still some time before the next respawn cycle.
Looking around and finding nothing moving nearby, the three decided not to continue running around the map.
Instead, they found a quiet place nearby and settled down to recover.
“By the way, when I first ran into you two, had you just come from Medai Village?” During their break, Shindo sat on a fallen tree trunk and drank a low-level red healing potion.
It tasted like bitter green tea mixed with lemon juice.
Not particularly pleasant, but at least mildly refreshing.
Aiko and Yuuki sat beside him, using itemized cloths to wipe away the dust that had accumulated on their clothes during hours of fighting.
“Mm.” “Yeah,” Aiko added.
“There are a lot of high-level monsters around Medai, so it’s great for leveling.
But the village itself is really small, and there aren’t many residents.” She tilted her head slightly.
“We barely found any worthwhile quests there.” “You were beta testers and didn’t know what Medai was like?” Shindo found that strange enough to ask directly.
“Well, we were beta testers,” Aiko admitted, “but we barely interacted with any other players.
In a lot of ways, we weren’t much different from beginners.” “But neither of you fights anything like a beginner.” Shindo stopped drinking.
“Your combat technique, your Skill transitions, your timing—none of that looks inexperienced.” Compared with finishing the potion, he was suddenly much more interested in hearing what the sisters had actually been doing since the death game began.
“Ever since that enormous cloaked figure appeared in the sky and finished speaking, Yuuki and I have basically done nothing but fight.” Aiko’s expression became more thoughtful.
“At first, combat felt different from before.
Once the game stopped being only a game, it took us…
maybe several dozen hours before we really adjusted to it.” She looked out over the grasslands.
“Between leaving the Town of Beginnings and reaching Medai Village, we barely encountered any other players.
There was a lot of specific information we simply had no way of learning.” “No wonder you looked completely unfamiliar with Tolbana.” Shindo finally understood.
“But still, reaching this level with nothing except constant fighting is seriously impressive.” He raised the potion and finished the remaining liquid in one swallow.
“If I hadn’t taken part in the beta, you two probably would’ve left me in the dust.” His HP returned to full while his EP continued recovering gradually.
Yuuki looked at him.
“You don’t really seem like someone who’d be scared of that, Shindo-kun.” A competitive spark entered her eyes.
“If we get the chance, I’d really like to have a proper Duel with you.” She was clearly still dissatisfied with how their match the previous day had ended.
Shindo’s loss had been so anticlimactic that Yuuki apparently refused to count it as a real victory.
“Sure.
We’ll get another chance eventually, Yuuki-chan.” Shindo gave her an apologetic smile.
At the time, discovering that Yuuki Konno was standing in front of him had dealt such a severe blow to his mental state that he had almost forgotten he was still in the middle of a Duel.
Aiko’s attention shifted toward his equipment.
“Your gear all looks really high quality, Shindo-kun.
You must’ve been one of the stronger beta testers who knew the First Floor villages really well, right?” Her gaze settled on Hunter’s Glory at his chest.
The metal possessed a clean, polished sheen that made its quality obvious even at a glance.
The Anneal Blade, obtainable only through a hidden quest, was similarly valuable.
“More or less,” Shindo said.
“During the beta, I was one of the players pushing the front line.” Aiko clasped her hands lightly in front of her chest, almost like someone preparing to pray, and smiled with a warmth that seemed to come naturally to her.
Compared with Yuuki, the older twin was somewhat more openly expressive.
Her neat twin tails gave her an energetic, youthful appearance that contrasted pleasantly with her gentler demeanor.
“Then we’ll be relying on you for a while, Shindo-kun.” She paused, reconsidered her wording, and smiled.
“No, that’s not quite right.
I suppose I should say we’ll be learning from you.” “Same here.” Shindo answered with a mild smile.