Chapter 27: Chapter 26
Chapter 26: Strategy Meeting
-Third Floor-
The third floor's main settlement was named Zumfut.
The town itself was not made of ordinary buildings but rather three gigantic trees that stood together like monstrous baobabs.
Their trunks were a hundred feet wide and well over two hundred feet tall.
The insides of the trunks were hollowed out into many-floored structures, so the higher you went, the better the view and the more distant the noise of the surface.
It had been a day since all that had transpired.
Suddenly, Sharia received a message from Diabel telling him to attend a meeting being held in Zumfut, the main city of the third floor.
Since Sharia was bored, he decided to attend.
Upon arriving at Zumfut, he walked to the northern end of the plaza, where a semicircular meeting area—similar to the one in Tolbana on the first floor—stood.
Most likely, this was where the strategy meeting Diabel had mentioned would take place.
He approached the southeast baobab, with the square to his left.
A wide staircase led up to meet the elevated entrance of the tree. Next to it was a classic bulletin board with parchment pinned to a flat wooden surface.
Right in the center was a large announcement:
"The strategy meeting starts at five o'clock."
"Not a bad time, actually," Sharia thought to himself.
Since mornings were when players were most active grinding, evenings were the perfect time for a meeting.
At the top of the stairs, through a natural knothole in the trunk, the great hall of the third floor came into view.
Players and NPCs chatted happily as they strode across the wooden floor, polished so well that the tree's age rings shone brightly.
The outer walls of the hall were lined with shops selling food, and in the center was a large, spiraling staircase that led up to the ceiling.
"Hey, over there, that stall looks good."
"What about the champagne quest? Any luck with it?"
"Hell no. I almost died! I ran away before anything else could happen."
"Shopkeeper, how much does this cost?"
Sharia looked around, oddly admiring the lively atmosphere of the place.
However, now wasn't the time to lose himself in it.
Sharia headed toward the meeting place, the semicircular structure similar to that of the first floor.
It felt more like a gathering of all the players rather than just a strategy meeting, though most attendees were part of Sharia's and Diabel's factions.
As Sharia stood at the far end, he recognized some familiar faces.
"There's Blackie and Sauna over there."
Sharia muttered with a smile, spotting Kirito and Asuna.
Then he looked around further.
"Ah, Bald Eagle is over there too. And spiky head…"
Naturally, these nicknames referred to Agil and Kibaou.
Sharia quickly counted everyone present and came up with a total of forty-two players.
Since forty-eight players had participated in yesterday's raid, this meant only six were missing—the Legend Braves.
He remembered giving orders to do whatever they wanted with the Legend Braves' equipment.
Kibaou was the first to jump on it, auctioning their gear away with a big grin.
'Maybe I should suggest Diabel start holding monthly auctions when we reach higher floors,' Sharia thought.
Naturally, most auctioned weapons, equipment, and materials would come from his, and some stuffs others have no need for.
But that wasn't all—hidden quests that couldn't be cleared solo, rare collectibles, information, and more could be auctioned.
Anything that didn't go against SAO's or his own regulations would be fair game.
In turn, this would undoubtedly make his guild wealthier.
But that wasn't the main reason he entertained the idea.
"Ahh, just thinking about what sort of mess I'll make in the future brings me so much joy," Sharia mused.
In SAO's system, whenever a player experienced extreme emotions—joy, anger, or hatred—it manifested as a blush spreading across their face.
—Yes, it was canon in the LN.
At that moment, Sharia's hand rested on his cheek as his face blushed and a cocky grin spread across his lips.
He looked both amused and slightly dangerous.
"I'll show you capitalism, Kayaba-san~"
Meanwhile, someone else attended the meeting that Sharia hadn't accounted for.
Their ID: Heathcliff.
The player in question suddenly shivered as though a cold chill ran down their spine.
"Hm? Strange…"
Heathcliff muttered, before refocusing on the meeting.
Diabel and Kibaou had finished their introductions and moved to the first order of business.
The first announcement declared that the Blue and Green teams, the largest factions in the raid, were now official guilds.
This wasn't news to Sharia, as he had contributed to this development.
Next, it seemed like they had begun the necessary quest for the formation of a guild.
"I would like the doors to my guild to be as wide open as they can be. Our only requirement at this time is that the player be at least level ten—no! Level nine for us!"
Kibaou had said that, to which Diabel let him. This was necessary to keep both guilds balanced.
But since Diabel's guild had Sharia, the Aincrad Liberation Squad would need someone close to Sharia in strength and ability on their guild.
Hence—
"Everyone participating in this meeting who hasn't joined either guild should meet the requirements. So, if you simply raise a hand, you will be gladly welcomed."
Diabel had said that, when all of a sudden, Kibaou interrupted.
"However," Kibaou said, pointing at Diabel, who raised an eyebrow.
"Since your guild already has your little monster—"
He then turned towards the crowd, pointing at Kirito and Asuna.
"Kirito or Asuna. Or rather, ya both should join my guild!"
Now, that was the interesting part.
Excluding Diabel and a few others who glared at Kibaou when he referred to Sharia as "little," the knight quickly composed himself.
"I can understand if it's just getting one of them into a guild, but why rope in the two, Kibaou?"
Diabel said that with a smile that didn't quite reach his face.
"The current state between both guilds is unbalanced, and the only people excludin' that monster are Kirito and Asuna."
"Yer all saw yesterday's battle, no? Naturally, I don't mean to criticize yer, but if they join him, it would cause an imbalance in power."
He does have a point.
While Kibaou may be a greedy person and not particularly smart, his attitude—or rather, his power-hungry nature—wouldn't allow such injustice to his guild pass.
This was all to keep the competitive spirit ongoing as Sharia had told him.
"Haah~ Talk about a tough spot for Blackie."
Of course, Sharia didn't believe Kibaou could force Kirito into joining any guild.
However, Asuna… He was more curious about her.
He was sure she wouldn't join ALS.
Hence, he wouldn't be happier should he spot his nemesis.
Yep. Sharia had gone and marked Heathcliff as his nemesis.
"Umm… I hate to say this after you said we were head and shoulders above the rest, but I have no plans for the future to join either guild. In fact, I figured that both of you would have expected this answer."
Kirito stood up, earning a click of Kibaou's tongue as the Guild Leader stated at him.
"So yer stating that yer have no intention of joinin' or leadin' a guild for the moment?"
To his words, Kirito nodded his head and added—
"Sure, you could put it that way. If I'm not going to be a guild member, I certainly don't want the responsibility of being a leader."
"Of course, I'll still participate in the boss raid, but—"
He left his statement uncompleted, but, Kirito had shot down two boss monsters with one sword with his statement.
Even if they knew or didn't know if Kirito was a beta tester, that didn't change the fact that he was strong.
If he did create a guild, Kibaou was sure Asuna would follow suit with him.
And while it'd balance things out with Sharia's guild, it'd leave their guild somewhat behind.
Thus was what Kibaou didn't like. Hence—
"Tsk."
Kibaou couldn't help but click his tongue in annoyance at Kirito.
Turning down Kibaou, Kirito proceeded to sit down.
As Kirito sat down, Diabel took that chance to immediately change the topic by continuing on with the second item on today's agenda was introduced.
"Listen up! We're looking to finish this floor in the span of a week! That means getting to the labyrinth in four days and beating the boss in another two!"
"Our best option to make that happen is numbers! We can't keep up this pace with only forty people every time!"
"We have to go out there and recruit players who got a bone to pick with this damn game!"
Yeah, yeah! Kayaba Akihiko is going down—
Was what Sharia would have loved to say, but this wasn't the time for that.
Basically, what Diabel and Kibaou did was set a challenge for every player present.
Since Sharia had given him authority over most of the decisions, Sharia didn't see anything wrong with the order.
They planned on riding this momentum until they reached the upper floor.
That would mean he might have to change plans and start sniping for the dungeon.
But that was after a few days' rest.
Up onstage, Kibaou theatrically gazed in a full circle around the meeting grounds and prepared to finish up.
"…And that's why, from now on, whichever guild spots the boss chamber first gets ta call the shots in the battle. If there ain't no further questions—which I assume there ain't—then that brings our first strategy meetin' of the third floor to a close. Let's finish it out with a cheer!"
Seeing that Kibaou had raised a defiant fist in the air, Diabel also got to his feet.
"…We're gonna crush this boss within a week!"
"Yeah!!" the crowd roared in response. Nearly every player got up as they roared.
"How nice~ It's nice to be so young~"
At that moment, Sharia said with a smile, as if he were an old man reminiscing about his youthful days.
At the corner of his eyes, Sharia saw Asuna rush away from the meeting with Kirito trailing behind her.
Both expressions were weird. Asuna looked a little angry… Nervous? He couldn't tell.
And Kirito's expression was that of helplessness as he chased after her.
Perhaps it was related to the guild stuff, and they had a small talk about that.
After all, they sat next to each other.
"Haah. Couples."
Who was he to speculate?
Neither was he a busybody who wanted to know it all.
Shrugging his shoulders with the shake of his head, Sharia stood up from the place he had sat, at the far end.
As he did, glancing around… He spotted him. That person.
There was no doubt about it.
The person in question had a smile on their face as they stood up from the chair they sat in.
Seeing their expression, Sharia clenched his fist, a maniacal grin spreading across his face.
His feet tensed up, and then, with a burst, Sharia dashed past the players, appearing behind Heathcliff before anyone could register.
Sharia swung his fist towards the player, but then, as he did, the player caught his fist in their palm without even looking back.
As the player seemingly subconsciously did that, Sharia crackled.
"Hah! I've finally found you! Heathcliff!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone