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  We reached the hefty-looking metal door at the top of the staircase. We never found any keys while exploring the dungeon, so if this was locked, we were out of options. I grabbed the rusty red handle and pulled gingerly.

  Fortunately, I didn’t get that special feedback that always came from those system-locked doors, as if they were glued in place. But once they were an inch or two open, there was a stubborn resistance–probably the kind of trap that would creak loudly and alert the foes inside if I pulled too hard. If I just had some lubricating spray, I could put that on the hinges, but such an item didn’t exist here. I just had to be very slow.

  Once the door was open four inches, I was able to peer inside.

  A dim, gloomy hallway stretched ahead for a good sixty feet before stopping and branching left and right. Halfway down the hall was a slender silhouette walking away with its back to us. I didn’t need to see the scimitar at its side to know it was a Fallen Elf guard. Sure enough, the name on the pale red cursor read Fallen Elven Guard.

  Our expedition into the Fallen Elf hideout on the third floor was also a stealth mission, but we had Kizmel with us, so I wasn’t particularly worried about being spotted. But the elite knight was not here to help us now. Asuna and I had a healthy safety margin, and he didn’t seem to be that tough based on the color of the cursor, but I wanted to avoid all the battle I could.

  Don’t turn back, don’t turn back, I prayed as I watched him go. Thankfully, the wish worked, and the guard turned right at the end of the hall, walking out of sight.

  But if he was walking a set route, he would be back. There was no time to wait around. I pulled open the door a little bit farther so that we could slip inside. Once the door was shut behind us, we raced down to the intersection as silently as we could.

  I peered around the right corner and spotted the guard’s back as he walked down the hall, his boots clacking. It looked like a dead end ahead of him, so he would certainly be coming back soon.

  The hallway to the left turned to the right after a short distance. There was no telling what was around that corner, but it was our only choice. I gestured to Asuna and ran left.

  We turned that blind corner at the exact moment that the retreating guard’s footsteps paused. Within a few seconds, the footsteps resumed, approaching this time, but at the same pace. We had made it past the first checkpoint.

  There were no guards in the hallway we’d just entered, at least for now. It proceeded forward as far as the eye could see, with a number of wooden doors to the left and right along its length. We’d have to try all of the doors, since there was no way to know where the wooden boxes had been stored.

  “This’ll be a long job, but we’ll just have to take it slow and careful,” I whispered.

  My partner nodded back.

  Ultimately, all of the doors were busts.

  There were a number of chests, and we had a nice rest in a small break room, but it did little to ease my heavy fatigue. I was a completionist when it came to mapping, but even I had my limits.

  By the time we finished searching the over three-hundred-foot-long hallway, it was nearly two in the morning. At this rate, we wouldn’t be getting back to town until sunrise at the earliest, just like yesterday morning.

  “Hmm...There’s still a long way to go, I think,” I muttered, peering down the stairs we found at the end of the hallway. Asuna fixed me with a look.

  “Are you tired?”

  “N-no...I’m fine...What about you?”

  “I’m perfectly all right. I got better sleep than usual yesterday.”

  I wondered about that. She did get two or three hours in Romolo’s rocking chair, but it was hard to recover from fatigue on bits of sleep like that. If that was better than usual, how did she usually sleep?

  She seemed to sense what I was thinking. “I usually don’t sleep all that much anyway.”

  “...I see.”

  I wasn’t sure whether she was referring to her sleeping habits in real life or just since we’d been trapped in this game of death, but Asuna didn’t elaborate.

  “Come on, let’s go. My instinct is telling me that those wooden boxes we want are down there,” she said, patting me on the shoulder. I hurried after her.

  At the bottom of the long staircase was a wide-open warehouse completely unlike the tight corridors above. The back wall featured a large double door guarded on either side by heavily armored Fallen Elf guards, by their standards. On the side walls were careless stacks of wooden boxes.

  “Ooh, there they are,” I whispered from the wall of the staircase. Asuna looked smug for a moment but wiped the grin off momentarily.

  “We’ll probably draw the attention of the guards if we just walk in there...If we can just sneak behind the boxes to the left or right somehow.”

  “I feel like we could beat them in a fight, but whatever’s behind those huge doors worries me...I think I hear something weird from behind them.”

  We both stopped to concentrate. There were faint but clearly audible sounds of occasional banging or scraping.

  “I wonder if we can distract those guards somehow.”

  “...Might as well give it a shot,” I muttered, and picked up a stone from the ground. If I had the Distraction mod for the Throwing Knives skill that would up my chances, but there was no use complaining about what I didn’t have. I aimed for one of the wooden boxes on the right and tossed the pebble.

  It just barely clanked against the corner of a box, but it was enough to draw the notice of the guards’ imposing masks. At that exact moment, I pushed Asuna forward into the warehouse and rushed behind her. We hunched over and made our way to the shadows behind the boxes on the left as quickly as we possibly could.

  Fortunately, we were both in light leather and cloth armor, so our little stunt worked out. I let out a sigh of relief once my back was pressed against the box.

  “Whew...Now let’s see what’s in this thing,” I mumbled, turning around to check it out. From what I could tell, none of the boxes were nailed shut. I set my sights on a box without anything stacked on top and very, very carefully lifted the heavy lid to prevent any noises.

  The instant we saw what was inside, Asuna and I shared a glance before looking back again, followed by another shared glance.

  “...What does this mean?”

  “...No idea...”

  There was no other possible reaction. The wooden box was completely empty.

  “Maybe they already hauled out the contents of the box,” I wondered, and started opening the one next to it. But the result was the same. The next one and the next after that all contained nothing but air.

  “Why...? They were treating them so carefully...”

  “And paid all of that money...”

  No sooner had we expressed our doubt and disappointment than we heard the sound of the giant doors opening beyond the mountain of boxes.

  The excitement over my chance to check out what was in the next room soon evaporated into chills. The sound of seven or eight heavy pairs of boots flooded into the warehouse.

  For half a second, I considered just hiding in the shadows, but that option was out the window. My in-game event senses were telling me that this scene demanded action. Thankfully, the loud marching and talking gave us a bit of cover when it came to sound.

  There was no time to hesitate. I pried open the lid of the nearest box with one hand and pushed Asuna’s back with the other.

  “Inside!” I rasped, and my fear convinced her to do so. Once she had stepped over the side of the crate, I leaped in after her.

  “Hey–”

  I felt something soft pressed against the right side of my avatar. It was much smaller than I expected inside, but I couldn’t move to the next box now. I pressed as much of my body into empty space as I could and slid the lid into place, leaving just a crack for air.

  Before I even had time to breathe in relief, a very confused and upset whisper sounded in my ear.

  “Why is this...so
tight...?”

  “G-good question. It looks a lot bigger from the outside...Maybe the walls of the box are really thick...”

  “If they’re making such thick boxes and not putting anything inside, maybe the boxes themselves are–”

  “Shh!” I cut her off. Through the open slit, I saw a number of figures enter the frame from the left.

  Standing at the lead was a large man who was quite burly for a Fallen Elf–more craftsman than soldier, if I had to guess. His plain mask only covered the lower half of his face, and his thick arms were covered with long leather gloves. He carried a very large hammer.

  At first, I couldn’t tell if it was meant to be a weapon or a tool. His color cursor identified him as Eddhu: Fallen Elven Foreman, and I hadn’t learned the meaning of the English term foreman in school.

  The man named Eddhu stopped just five yards away from our box before turning back to his group of about ten followers.

  “Thanks to today’s shipment, we’ve now got the total we need.”

  Total of what? They're empty! I wanted to yell. But Asuna, who was pressed against me in an uncomfortable position, simply shook her head as if to say, “Hold it in.”

  I nodded and focused on listening.

  “Good. Well done,” came a voice as beautiful and cold as ice from a tall and slender man who fit every expectation of an elf. His armor was a melding of leather and metal, a rarity for a Fallen, and a crimson cape flowed from his shoulders. His black mask had two horns growing from the forehead, but the eyes beneath them seemed to glow and flicker with red light.

  “But the assembly is taking longer than expected,” the caped man continued.

  Eddhu bowed deeply. “I am very sorry, Your Excellency. We should be caught up within three days.”

  “Good. Then I may assume that it will be finished entirely in five days, as the plan stated?”

  You can’t say what will be finished?! I screamed silently again, focusing my gaze on the caped man to bring up his cursor. As soon as I did I flinched, shaking my own body and Asuna’s as well.

  The color was so dark, it was nearly black. Monster cursors shifted in shade from light to dark to distinguish the difference in level from the viewer, but I had never seen a color cursor as dark as the one belonging to “His Excellency.” The Fallen Elven Commander from the third floor was nothing compared to him.

  The problem was that my level was currently 16, well above the expected difficulty for the fourth floor. How much higher above could the caped man be if it was that black?

  I glanced at the name at the bottom of the cursor, barely aware that Asuna was squeezing my right shoulder.

  N’ltzahh: Fallen Elven General.

  General!

  Wait, how the hell do you say that name?!

  Fortunately, Eddhu was there to solve at least half of my mix of fear and confusion.

  “I will pledge my life to making it happen, General N’ltzahh.”

  “Very good. Get to work, Eddhu.”

  The general–whose name the foreman had pronounced like “Noltza”–patted Eddhu on one of his burly arms and began walking, his cape flowing behind him. Right toward the box in which we were currently hiding.

  A chill ran up my spine, and I let the lid down to close properly. N'ltzahh himself would be more than a handful, but if we had to deal with another eight warriors and the undoubtedly strong Eddhu, too, our chances of winning were next to nothing. If they found us inside the box, our only chance of survival would be to leap out of the box and race for the stairs to the right, all the way out of their hideout.

  The slow, teasing pace of his boots stopped approximately ten feet away. N’ltzahh’s chilly voice cut right through the thick wooden lid of the box.

  “...It truly is a farce, isn’t it? Eons since we were removed from the blessing of the Holy Tree, yet we are still bound by the taboos of the elven race,” he mocked. The first response came not from Eddhu’s gruff voice, but a feminine mix of sweet and sharp.

  “Yes...If not for that nonsensical taboo, we would not need to strike this deal with the filthy humans in order to gain these materials.”

  “It is not worth complaining about, Kysala. Pay them as much gold as they want. Once we have all of the keys and open the door to the Sanctuary, even the greatest magic left to humankind will vanish without a trace...”

  “Of course, Excellency. The moment of our triumph grows ever closer.”

  “Indeed. But our initial mission is to recover the first key that the special forces commander let slip from our grasp. The plan begins in five days, once all of our preparations are complete. I have great expectations of all of you.”

  The soldiers shouted a salute in unison that rattled the lid of the box.

  Even after the myriad footsteps faded into the distance and the enormous metal door slammed shut, I couldn’t move.

  I tried to commit as much detail of that conversation to memory as I could–it had to be written down as soon as we escaped from this bind. That was how much crucial information the Fallen Elves had just revealed. Secret keys and the Sanctuary– both keywords from the campaign quest during the beta, but never revealed in such concrete terms. And I had never met the man named General N’ltzahh back then. Who was he...?

  “...Hey.”

  “Is he the true leader of the Fallen...?”

  “...Hey, Kirito.”

  She pushed my shoulder, knocking me out of my thoughts.

  “Huh? Wh-what?”

  “What do you mean, what? How long are you going to do this?”

  “Oh, crap, s-sorry,” I started, then glanced down at my right side. I belatedly realized that my arm was stuck in quite a situation.

  “Shry–!”

  I nearly screamed “sorry,” but clamped my mouth shut. My right arm was jammed right between Asuna’s brand-new breastplate and her tunic. I tried to yank it loose, but there was no place behind me for the arm to go. The only result was a continued squishy, soft pressure against my arm.

  “Hey, don’t just shove me around.”

  “B-but I’m trying to–this is weird.”

  “...Ah! Listen, if you’re doing this on purpose, I’m going to hurl you into the other room.”

  “Not at all, Your Excellency!” I wanted to yelp. Meanwhile, I folded up my arm in an acrobatic manner and just managed to pull it out of the side of the armor. Naturally, that wasn’t the very end of my peril; I lifted up the lid of the box as much to escape the brunt of the laser beam glare trained at my cheek as anything else.

  I couldn’t see any of the Fallen Elves. But those two guards had to still be at the sides of the massive doors on the other side of the pile of boxes. I stood up, the lid still clutched in my hand, and helped Asuna out of the box. Once I had straddled the side to exit the wooden prison, I carefully replaced the lid.

  Before I could even enjoy a brief moment of peace, Asuna got right in my face. I was expecting her to give me hell over my transgression, but her whisper was actually about a serious matter.

  “We need to figure out what the ‘materials’ they mentioned are before we leave this place. There must be a clue in one of the boxes we haven’t checked yet.”

  “Yeah, I agree...but...It’s possible that...” I mumbled, my brain working feverishly over the phrases we heard.

  The total needed. Completed as planned. Elven taboo. Deals with the humans. Keys. Recover. Plan begins in five days...

  My mind was trapped in that space where inspiration was tantalizingly close yet still out of reach. I put a question into words that had been bothering me.

  “Hey, Asuna. That Eddhu guy’s class was labeled ‘foreman.’ Do you know what that is?”

  She nodded at once–she’d probably learned the English term in school.

  “Yes. It’s the leader of a work crew for a factory, for example. Or a head craftsman.”

  “...Head craftsman...?”

  That would mean the hammer he carried was a tool, not a weapon. Whateve
r he worked on, it must be big...

  Suddenly all of the pieces snapped into place in my head with an audible ka-ching!

  “......!”

  I nearly shouted in surprise, but I held it in and glanced over at the stack of boxes.

  That’s right–I was about to say it to Asuna when we were hiding inside it. These sturdy boxes weren’t meant to transport something. They were something else disguised as boxes to hide the secret of the Fallen Elves’ dirty dealing.

  Everything we were looking at was ship materials.

  That had to be a huge workshop on the other side of the door, where they were dismantling the boxes to form pieces of lumber. The faint hammering sounds were evidence of that.

  So why did they need to strike a deal with Rovia’s Water Carriers Guild to build a ship? Probably something to do with the elven taboo that General N’ltzahh mentioned. The elves in this world were forbidden from cutting down live trees for lumber. They could only take trees that had fallen naturally. So they were making deals with humans for extra materials to speed up the process.

  “...Did you figure something out?” Asuna asked, jabbing my arm. My mind ground to a halt.

  “Uh, y-yeah. But it’ll be a long explanation, so let’s leave this spot first. You never know if they might come back.”

  “If that happens, we’re hiding in a bigger box,” she announced. I had no choice but to agree heartily.

  I used the pebble distraction trick to buy us an escape from the storeroom so we could retreat up the staircase to the first floor. Either through sheer carelessness or mental fatigue, we were spotted by the guard patrolling near the entrance to the hideout but were able to defeat him before he could call his fellows. At last, we were back at the dock in the watery dungeon.

  Because the infiltration took much longer than expected, the Argyro’s Sheet was at less than 10 percent durability when we removed it. I carefully folded up the sheet in thanks for its invaluable service, then placed it in storage and got the ship moving.