Kirito originally only came to the eleventh floor in April to replenish a few bottles of medicine.
The battle on the 25th floor had only been over a week ago, and people on the front lines were still tallying up the losses. He didn't want to hear people discussing the next boss, nor did he want to go back into the crowd to explain why he and Asuna were no longer traveling together. So he chose a shortcut on a lower floor and prepared to return before dark.
Cries for help came from the other side of the forest path.
Five players were being forced towards a steep slope by a pack of wolf-like monsters. The shield bearer at the front had already blocked several attacks, and the girl behind him with a gun wanted to help, but she was afraid of stabbing too deeply and not having time to stop. The young man leading the pack shouted for everyone to retreat, his voice strained, but he still didn't abandon anyone.
Kirito charged into the horde of monsters from the side. His first sword deflected the wolf that was biting the shield bearer, and as his second sword fell, two more hadn't even had time to turn around. The remaining monsters quickly scattered into fragments of light.
"Is anyone else injured?" he asked.
The young man in the lead looked at his companions one by one before extending his hand to him. "Everyone's alright. My name is Keita. We're the Moonlit Black Cats."
Kirito squeezed the hand. The young man's grip wasn't strong, but he didn't truly relax until his companion put away his weapon.
"Did you come alone?" the shieldbearer asked.
"Hmm. Just passing by."
"You just happened to be passing by and wiped out a whole bunch of monsters?" someone laughed, nudging the shieldbearer. "You can stop bragging about how many you blocked this time."
"The two I blocked were always the real ones!"
The group exchanged a few words, and the girl with the gun joined in the laughter. Her hand, which had been trembling slightly as she gripped the gun, slowly loosened its grip after hearing their banter.
Keita didn't immediately invite Kirito to come along. Instead, he led the group away from the monster-killing area. Once they were in a safe place, he asked, "We're planning to go back to town for lunch. Do you want to come along? A person who saved your life deserves a hot meal."
Kirito initially wanted to refuse. He always kept combat and favors separate, helping out and leaving as quickly as possible—the easiest way. But Keita's companions were already arguing about who would pay and who had lost their lunch earlier. Listening to them, he followed them anyway.
The Black Cats are indeed friends in real life. They talked about old classes and unfinished assignments, jumping from topic to topic without needing to stop for the newcomers to understand. Kirito sat at the table, initially only occasionally answering, but later even managing to chime in with a couple of jokes.
"Do you often play alone?" Keita asked.
Most of the time.
"Would you like to join our guild?"
Kirito looked up.
Keita smiled and said, "I didn't mean for you to take care of us all the time. If it weren't for you today, we might not have made it back. But that's not what I wanted to ask. Before you went into battle, you checked everyone's position, and you seemed quite comfortable fighting alongside others."
Kirito recalled the shield array in the third-floor boss room, and also the path he had walked side by side with Asuna. It wasn't that he didn't know how to walk with others, but rather that he didn't know how to say goodbye the next time they parted ways.
"I'm of a higher rank than you," he said.
"I can tell," Keita said. "How tall?"
Kirito looked at the faces around the table, waiting for his answer. If the matter of the front lines and the Beater were brought up, this meal might turn into a completely different conversation.
"Enough to block a few for you," he finally said.
Keita didn't ask any further questions and opened the guild invitation window. Kirito stared at the option hanging in front of him for a moment, then reached out and pressed confirm.
His name appeared at the end of the guild roster, right next to Sachi's. Keita was still saying that they needed to make room for the new member tonight, while the others were already arguing about whose belongings were taking up the room. Kirito responded, but he knew in his heart that his answer hadn't been complete. He was worried that once they knew his true level, they would think of him as a frontline Beater, and he was also worried that this natural liveliness would end here.
But concealing the truth won't make the gap disappear. Looking at Keita's still smiling face, he decided that at least before the next outing, he should find out which areas the Black Cats usually goes into.
After the meal, Sachi took her gun and accompanied everyone for a short practice run. Kirito deliberately slowed down his sword strikes, letting the shield bearer catch the monster first, and then reminded her to strike during a safe gap. She landed a hit, but immediately retreated behind her companions as she sheathed her gun.
"That works too," Kirito said. "Let's survive first, then practice the next move."
Xing nodded, as if she had carefully memorized those words.
That same night, Lin Yuan was on a higher floor dissecting the footwork of a double-edged monster. The monster would turn its left hand and then slash in from the blind side with its right; he tried three times before finding a turning angle that he could follow without the system's assistance. After it shattered, he wiped his sword clean and found a corner where he could avoid the wind to sit down.