The third level did not present Lin Yuan with a new stone city, but rather a boundless forest.
The tree canopy sliced the sunlight above into tiny dappled patterns, and damp earth covered the second layer of rock dust. Lin Yuan walked along the narrow path worn into the ground for a while, still able to hear the sounds of the raiding party coming up the stairs behind him. He didn't turn around. The boss of the second level had fallen; the next group would decide how to use that path.
Two passing players recognized him, but only dared to whisper among themselves from a distance. One said that he might soon clear the third floor, while the other worried that no one would get the Boss reward anymore. Lin Yuan heard them clearly but did not turn around to explain. He would neither promise them the next victory nor give up what he had never received.
The new sword hung at his left waist, while the old short sword was moved to his right. Lin Yuan touched his cheek; the wound had stopped bleeding, but the bandage still needed to be left on for another night.
He should have been happy to have reached another floor. But the higher he went, the clearer the question became: players can log out after completing the game, but what about him?
Kirito said their bodies remained in another reality, while their consciousness entered this place via a machine. Once the final level was cleared, the machine would let them go back. Lin Yuan didn't have that machine, nor did he have a body lying there waiting to wake up. Even if he stood at the highest point, where could the system send him?
Suddenly, the soft sound of weapons clashing came from ahead.
Lin Yuan stopped behind a large tree and saw two groups of elves, dressed in different armor, facing off in the forest through the branches and leaves. One group wore dark cloaks, while the other held slender spears. Both groups' movements carried a sense of waiting—as if they were waiting for a player passing by to make a choice.
He didn't go.
Those people's grudges belonged to this forest; at least for now, no one needed his help. He went around them from the side, memorized the two different sword-wielding postures, and continued climbing higher.
A monster lurking in the shadows of the trees pounced. Its body was like tightly wrapped vines, but its blades were so hard they made a metallic sound when they clashed. Lin Yuan raised his sword to block the first attack, only to find that it wasn't trying to break his sword, but rather using the force of the collision to circle around to his back from the other side.
"That's an interesting move."
He deliberately let the sword linger for a moment, waiting for the vine's shadow to bend to his shoulder before turning his wrist, sending its circling force back to its original position. The monster crashed into the tree trunk, and Lin Yuan stepped forward, the blade plunging into the crack in its chest.
The shattered light fell to the ground, leaving nothing behind.
Lin Yuan, however, repeated the wrist rotation he had just performed on the spot. If the enemy thought that blocking the sword would lock his hand, this rotation was enough to change the direction of the sword strike out of the opponent's line of sight. He didn't have a system to memorize the movements for him, so he could only practice repeatedly while his muscles still remembered them.
On the other side of the forest, Diabel was dividing the team members on the second level into several groups.
Looking at the newly drawn route map, Kibaou said, "He's ahead of us again. Let's have the scouts follow him until he finds the third-floor boss room—"
"No," Diabel interrupted him, " Lin Yuan doesn't belong in the raiding party. The second level has already proven that he can win alone, and it also proves that we can't put all our plans on whether he shows up or not."
"You want him to steal it again?"
"I want the others to be able to go in and come out alive next time without him." Diabel handed over the two scouting routes to the captain. "First, familiarize yourself with the forest and confirm the supply points, then we'll talk about the Boss."
Asuna stood beside him, adding the sighting locations of the two elven factions in the forest. Kirito wrote down the weapon changes that had occurred on the first and second floors on a separate page, reminding the scouts not to take the closed beta map as an answer that would not change.
As the sun began to set, Lin Yuan climbed a high cliff entwined with tree roots. The entire forest stretched out below, and in the distance, the arc of Aincrad's outer edge could be seen. There were no roads leading out to the sky; no matter how high he climbed, he was still within the city.
He tried to activate the magic within his body. The familiar power gathered in response, but it was still blocked inside his skin. That invisible barrier did not loosen in the slightest even after he killed two bosses.
Lin Yuan withdrew his hand. Going up the stairs was the visible path to the game for all players; however, the way back to Fairy Tail might not be in the same direction.
As the wind blew, he suddenly remembered the crack in the moving castle. It wasn't located at the highest point of the castle, but rather it had split open from the damaged core. If such a crack existed in this world, it wouldn't be found by simply staring at the end of the building.
He didn't know where to begin. At least from today onward, besides learning the sword techniques of each level, he also had to pay attention to those places that didn't fit into the world itself.
Lin Yuan descended the high cliff and chose a forest path far from the expedition team's camp. In the twilight, the shadows of the trees divided the path into many forks. He gripped his new sword tightly and did not slow his pace.