An Englishman in Castle Aincrad

Floor 27 - Chapter 1 - The White Chapel

Since the "Battle of Emstrey", almost a month had passed, and progress through the floating castle had been almost unbearably slow, having returned to the same pace and situation that the frontline had been on back on the First Floor.

In other words, it wasn't just slow; it was glacial.

The limited progress made sense – the numbers on the assault team had been decimated by the Dream Reaper, and those hadn't just been the ones who'd died, but that included those who had parted ways with them for reasons other than boss battles.

There were plans underway to recruit others to help, mainly mid-level players who'd wanted to help, but for one reason or another, had been kept in a kind of reserve unit. Much to her surprise, Jet had agreed to help train up the group of mid-level players, on the proviso that Heathcliff left them well alone.

Actually, it hadn't been quite so pleasant as that – there was a lot of swearing involved, most of it directed towards the now leader of the HOA, after Jet had discovered what the man had suggested about Seven.

Because of being split between training the younger players, and clearing, the progress had been slow, and in that month, the frontline had managed to progress only through the 26th Floor, and onto the 27th Floor, which it had turned out was once a large system of mining tunnels that had been repurposed into towns and settlements, though many of those tunnels still contained masses of useful materials for the crafting community that had developed throughout the past months.

Which was why Rain, Philia and Sanya had taken the job of escorting Lisbeth throughout her hunt for the crafting materials needed to complete the orders she'd taken on from the newer members of the Assault Team, whilst Jet, Asuna, Kizmel and herself would start to complete quests in the main towns of the floor...

"Thank you, adventurers! With those blasted moles gone, we can continue to mine for our crystals." The NPC thanked them.

"It's no problem, keep up the good work."

"So, that's almost everything in this town done, right?" Asuna asked, looking around the town.

"I think so, yeah." Jet answered. "And not a moment too soon, Rain's just messaged me. She says they've got everything Liz wanted, and to meet her at the Tavern."

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The Tavern in the town of Ham's Stead, named "The White Chapel" was what Jet might, perhaps, have charitably called "a dump". Far from being a religious building built with white stone, it was in fact, the very epitome of what Strea had once called "the working men's public house"; in that it was not particularly clean, the bartender owned the pub and knew everyone in the town, and that if you happened to be an outsider, you got funny looks from everyone until you became trusted amongst the locals...

Fortunately, they'd helped the barkeep by tracking down a local thief who'd been stealing their precious beer, and so, they were very much welcomed into the pub. If he was honest, that had been a master stroke of planning by him in capturing the crook...

The thief had clearly been sampling his merchandise during his little raids and so, they'd set a trap for him – Kizmel still keeping her Midnight Mantle, even after her realisation that she was... unique amongst the people of Aincrad, and so she would play the key role in springing the trap...

After all, seeing her appear from thin air behind him was almost certainly not something he'd been expecting. He'd spent the hour after they'd caught him and thrown him in the local gaol rambling about "invisible women", before the alcohol had taken its toll on him... and he passed out, much to the joy of everyone nearby.