Aincrad was in high spirits after the successful raid of the 40th floor boss. To most players, the deaths of Feredir and Ambros' guildmate were inconsequential.
Nobody could blame them, not really. They saw Feredir as just a pet, a bundle of data. Much better the wolf than a real person. And they weren't entirely wrong, even if Drifter would beat whoever said that to his face within an inch of their lives.
As for the deceased player... Nobody forced them to sign up. You couldn't force someone to become a frontliner. It had to be - had been - their choice.
It was the same reason why, despite raving and raging about and over their loss, Ambros and his guild never thought to step back. They had made their decision to live and die as frontliners, and they would stand by it.
In many ways, frontliners weren't too different from soldiers. Less organized, yes, and fighting for distinct reasons, but with very similar wills. They each had their pride, which was sometimes fatal, but often became the determination to pull through in desperate situations.
That's not to say they didn't waver sometimes. The frontliners definitely did, once. But not anymore. Even the youngest of their number, the KoB, had already clawed and killed and climbed their way through over a dozen floors. Most had over twice as much under their belts.
Whatever doubts they once had, the frontliners had cast them aside long ago. If anything, their casualties on the 40th floor raid were fuel to motivate them even more.
That, in combination with the level after a round floor usually being remarkably easier, meant they tore through the 41st floor in just under 2 weeks, and led the Assault Team to be climbing the stairs to the 42nd floor on the very day that marked the 2nd year of their imprisonment in Sword Art Online.
And wasn't that a milestone. 2 years. 2 entire damn years.
Drifter was feeling... conflicted. On the one hand, he wanted to scream because after two years, they were still trapped inside a death game, and not even halfway to freedom.
On the other... After two years they were still trapped inside a death game - and were still alive and climbing.
Something to mourn and celebrate at the same time. And Aincrad seemed to agree with them, because the sight that greeted the Assault Team once they emerged in the 42nd floor matched their bittersweet feelings.
The entire floor was one big grassland. At first, under the afternoon sun, it almost looked like the grass was dying, but a closer inspection revealed the golden color was real.
Large trees dotted the floor, with leaves the size of a person's head, brown and falling. The entire floor seemed to be locked in Fall, actually.
It was beautiful, but also sad. Maybe it was the weight of 2 years catching up all at once, but the Assault Team sagged as they took in the floor. Shoulders hunched, spines bent.
Drifter could have said something. So could have Kirito, Asuna, Lind, Shivata, Heathcliff, Klein, Orlando, Ambros, and any of the other heads of the Assault Team.
They didn't. Despite the melancholic atmosphere that befell the frontliners, they kept quiet. The only sounds were the tinkling of rustling armor and the creaking of grass crunching beneath their feet.
They said nothing... Because they didn't need to. There was a heaviness hanging over the frontliners, yes. But it wasn't a bad one. Nor was it good.
"Priii!"
Silica blinked as Pina cried out and took flight. Her eyes followed her faithful companion.
Unconsciously, her back straightened. Behind her, Wolv's broad shoulders temsed, then relaxed. Agil cracked his neck.
One by one, the frontliners looked up, at Pina, and then ahead. The next step they took covered more ground, their strides longer. Surer.
And that, as they say, was that.
...
This floor was fairly average in Drifter's opinion. Challenging, but not too much. Just on the margin of deadly. You could tip to either side of that line. One fell much farther, but that was just life.
Life in SAO, at least. And honestly, if you still hadn't adapted by now? You deserved what you got.
Okay, maybe not death. Other than a select few (cough Laughing Coffin cough), nobody in Aincrad deserved to die. The frontliners were working very hard to prevent just that, and they would be pissed if someone threw all their hard work away.
The spearmaster's thoughts were everywhere, seeing as he had nothing to occupy his mind at the moment.
In a small park somewhere in the safe zone of the 42nd floor, Drifter was sitting on a bench, watching Liz work on his weapons with a whetstone.
Volcano Forge gave the blacksmith plenty of benefits the higher her proficiency in the skill got. The latest was that, when sharpening weapons, on top of the usual temporary attack buff, she now was also able to grant a one-time sure-crit bonus, meaning that the first attack would be a 100% critical hit.
The only caveat was that she had to do the sharpening properly, and couldn't just skip several steps by leaning on the system.
Each weapon took anywhere from 10 to 20 mimites to sharpen. Still not as long as it would take in reality, but a considerable amount of time nonetheless when you took into account how many Reavers there were.
In fact, several of the guild members forsook the extra bonus. To many, like Asuna, Silica, Yuuki, Ran, and more, who relied on quantity more than quality when it came to attacking, it was just not worth wasting Liz's time for one critical hit.
Drifter almost landed in that category, but one crucial factor had Liz insisting she sharpened his weapons. Even if it was the same thing that was currently the bane of her existence.
"I know I made most of them, but geez! Don't ya think you just might have too many weapons, Drif?"
The spearmaster tilted his head. Then he smirked, which Liz didn't see, and started counting on his fingers.
"I don't think so. Let's see: bident, trident, halberd, lance, pike, boar-spear, shortspear, pilium, all three types of polearm SAO has, qiang, that weirdly-shaped one the 39th floor field-boss dropped, I think it's called a-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it! Honestly, never thought that out of all of us, you would end up the one carrying around an entire armory. Thought that would be me, seeing as I'm, y'know, the forger."
"You did forge a lot of 'em. And I'm fairly certain it's your fault there're even that many varieties of spear-type weapons around in the first place."
That got Liz to look up and raise an eyebrow to him, although her hands never stopped moving. Drifter shrugged.
"Remember how the system staggered when you forged both the qiang and boar-spear? It took longer than normal to complete, didn't it?"
"Yeah? 20 seconds or so. Your point?"
"Eeh, just that might very well have been Cardinal searching up what types they were since they're particularly different than the other spear we had seen in the game before."
Now Liz's hands stopped, and a second eyebrow joined the first.
"You think I created not one, but two types of weapons SAO didn't have? And not just that, but also that the god-like AI who controls everything decided to, what, go with it and insert them into the game instead of just classifying them as something else?"
"...Yeah?"
"Cool."
Liz went back to grinding the whetstone against the edge of his glaive. A pile of already sharpened weapons sat to her side, and a just slightly smaller pile of still to-do weapons to the other. The spearmaster rolled his eyes.
"Don't need to be so cocky. You still fail a lot. Remember when you tried to craft that curved sword to Nautilus? What was it called.. A 'false'?"
"Falx. And I thought we agreed not to talk 'bout that."
"You tried to put a gag on it, we never agreed to anything. Seeing you try for 2 weeks straight just to always end up with a normal curved blade, and get more infuriated by the failure, was both pitiful and funny as heck."
The spearmaster teased. Liz's eye twitched as she steadfastly ignored him.
"Or that triple-bladed ax Agil convinced you to try to invent - the system just straight-up refused to accept that monstrosity."
Oh look! There was a vein throbbing on her temple now too!
"And the spiky shield you made for Vallerk that also never left the blueprints! That was real cute, by the way."
"I will stab you, Drifter. With the very sharp spears I just finished buffing for you. Don't think I won't."
Oh yeah, she was ticked off now. Just a little more...
"Finally, we can't forget your attempts at forging a batarang- Hey!"
The spearmaster threw himself back and rolled off the bench just in time to avoid getting a nose piercing the hard away. The fact that an [ Immortal Object ] message popped up from the tree behind him showed just how much force the Forge Master had put behind it.
"And that's my cue! I'll see you later to pick up my stuff, Liz! Love you byyyeeee!"
The spearmaster chuckled at the death glare he was receiving as he ran aw- walked away with composure.
Liz watched him go with exasperation. Really, she didn't know how Drifter, who was serious as death during raids, could just turn around and be this infantile sometimes.
"You know he only enjoys teasing you so because you react to it, right?"
The third person in the park with them, who had kept silent until now, spoke up. The blacksmith turned to the interloper and rolled her eyes in a gesture that was so similar to Drifter's, Shigio had to bite his tongue not to point it out.
"Careful, Shigio. What I threatened to do to him works for you too. I'm within easy reach of a lot of very sharp sticks. Damn, I should've said that to Drifter! He hates when people call his weapons sticks!"
The blacksmith smacked her palm and cursed. Shigio, meanwhile, barked out a laugh.
"Sure-fire way to get him to challenge you to a fight. That what you want? 'Cause you can always just ask."
"Nah, I'm good. I just enjoy ribbing him for all the teasing he puts me and Vallerk through. Turnabout's fair play and all that jazz."
Shigio snorted.
"And in turn he'll tease you more, because neither of you are willing to let the other have the last laugh. Talk 'bout a vicious cycle."
"So the world turns. Anyway, do you want me to rush your order? Or are you okay with waiting till I finish with Drif's stuff?"
"I'm in no hurry."
Saying so, Shigio walked over to the very bench Drifter had been sitting on and set himself down to watch Liz work.
-----------------------
Somewhere else.
"Shishishishishi... Kekekek! What do we have here?"
A hooded figure swept a finger through their menu, and laughed. A grin full of too many teeth split their face.
Red eyes flashed as they stared unblinking at a picture. A hand fingered the hilt of a rapier.
"Ooooohhhhh Reeeeavers! I know how to hurt ya! Kekekekeke! I know how, I know how! How to bring you down and make ya cry! Hahahahahaha!"
The laughter stopped and the grin suddenly vanished. A cruel glint shone in those red eyes.
"Broken Spear Drifter. I'll make you loathe that name. I'll break ya for real."