Chapter Ninety-Four: Night on the Snow Mountain

“The quest is — berserk form. Take the initiative, meet the challenges ahead, and afterward learn to control the berserk state.”

The quest description was terribly simple, but Lancer still felt immense pressure. Anything that looked this plain was bound to hide a trap; that was his first thought.

But the reward was just as tempting. Berserk form was unquestionably one of Lancer’s trump cards: it greatly boosted every physical attribute, and the Blood of the Demon God was a modified item he had gotten from Renka, so there were no side effects, no loss of sanity, nothing of the sort. Even so, while he would not strike at anyone he knew, his body was still basically governed by instinct. If he could control it, then this trump card would become far more solid.

“Okay, I accept,” Lancer thought to himself.

“Tch. As if you had the right to refuse.”

“...”

Lancer’s expression instantly turned awkward. He realized he could no longer keep up with this world.

“What’s wrong, Lancer?”

At that moment, Liz called out to him.

“Nothing. I’m coming.”

Thinking that even gods had their off days, Lancer decisively deceived himself. He did not want to think about anything even more terrifying...

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On the hundredth floor—

“Are you certain?”

Kayaba Akihiko quietly wiped a cold sweat from his brow. He still remembered that when they had first met, the other party had clearly said that Lancer was one of her subordinates. But now, seeing her gnashing her teeth in fury, he was genuinely curious: what exactly was their relationship?

No matter what, whether he could realize his dream still depended on the person before him. But to be certain, he could only grit his teeth and confirm once more.

“You really want to set the monster level to seventy? That fellow may be decent, but he only just reached level sixty, and dragons can fly, you know.”

“Hmph, of course. He was having such a wonderful time that he even forgot what he came here for.”

Renka had completely forgotten that when Lancer first arrived, she had tricked him by saying this was a vacation. But when girls got angry, they did not need proof; they only needed a reason they themselves found reasonable. Whether that reason actually held up was not their concern.

“Fine.”

Although Kayaba Akihiko never peeked at the players’ situations, he often heard about Lancer through the guild. He was quite curious about this odd fellow. Still, he supposed the other had his own reasons. Thinking it over, he guessed the man must have somehow offended her by accident. But for the sake of his dream, he decisively sold Lancer out and calmly brought up the data window to make the adjustment.

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“Is this the place?”

As an RPG enthusiast, Lancer often traveled all over this world. After all, there was no pressure from other people, no threat of life or death, so he had visited many places that interested him. But extreme locations like snowy mountains, he never went to.

“There are plenty of other places. There’s no need to torture myself, right?” That was a line he often had on his lips.

“Come to think of it, is it really there? It’s only a wild boss in the fifties. What kind of good materials could it have?”

Lancer could not understand it. Even higher-floor field bosses were no problem for him to take down, and with his absurdly bad drop rate there was bound to be some S-rank material. In his view, there was simply no need to run all the way to this miserable place.

Though this mountain did have humanoid monsters rarely seen elsewhere, there was still no reason to come, was there? But when he saw the girl climbing the slope with her face full of excitement, Lancer could only smile helplessly, tug his coat tighter around himself, and follow along.

Lancer kicked hard at a snow wolf that blocked his path, sending it flying. Then he followed up with a chain of blows, never even using a weapon, just pummeling it with his bare hands. At last, amid the creature’s whimpering, he put it out of its misery.

“Damn it, what a lousy map!”

After venting his frustration, Lancer wordlessly slammed the map to the ground. At first glance, it seemed perfectly fine, but on closer inspection he discovered it was nothing more than a flat map, with no information at all about elevation or terrain. It was only after climbing halfway up the mountain that he realized he had gotten lost, and then he finally started checking the map, only to discover that he had been duped.

When he went exploring in the past, the places he visited were all ordinary mountains with decent weather. Lancer was not afraid of death, and his vigilance was always good enough that he never cared much about time. At worst, he would simply stay on the mountain for the night. But he had never been to a snowy mountain before. Even though he knew it was a game, he still could not bring himself to feel any enthusiasm. This was his first time buying a map for mountain terrain, and he had never imagined he would end up with a counterfeit. Thinking of how Kirito had found that giant dragon in just one day, a sense of inferiority instantly welled up inside him.

“I’m an idiot. I’m an idiot. I’m an idiot...”

Reduced to a three-heads-tall chibi, Lancer crouched beneath an icicle and silently drew circles on the ground.

“Are you really the assault commander of the strategy group? Or are you actually that guy’s twin brother?”

Through her conversations with Asuna over the past few days, Liz had learned many things about Lancer. But after hearing all that, what she felt most was doubt. After all, it differed far too much from what she had seen these past few days. She glanced faintly at the now colorless figure drawing circles on the ground, yet every time suspicion arose, she would remember that night in the snow, that figure flying through the air to shield her from a thrown knife...

“Move it already, idiot!”

Without warning, Liz shouted at Lancer. Then she quickly turned away, cupping her burning face as she walked ahead.

Lancer still wanted to keep drawing circles and cursing the bastard who had sold him the fake map, but seeing Liz already moving on, he could only hurry to his feet and follow. He did not want to be “educated” in every conceivable way by Asuna just because Liz got hurt.

But then—

“Ah!”

Lancer’s pupils tightened in an instant. He snatched up the weapon at his side and rushed forward.

“Roar—!”

Following Liz’s scream came a deafening bellow. Lancer had hunted monsters with dragon blood more than once, and his grip on his weapon tightened of its own accord.

“Special quest — Rescue. Protect Liz from harm by the evil dragon. For all other objectives, follow the main quest.”

Seeing the quest description, Lancer could only twist his mouth in helpless annoyance. “What, is this some kind of hero-versus-dragon nonsense? I swear the first monster is supposed to be a slime. Why is the evil dragon making a direct entrance?” Even though he was already in battle, the safety of both his own life and Liz’s required absolute calm, and for the sake of the quest Lancer forced himself to settle down.

“Fine, then. I’ll treat you like a slime and cut you down.”

After making his declaration, he silently settled his weapon at his waist, rested one hand on the hilt, and stepped one leg slightly forward, ready to burst into motion at any moment.