Chapter 15
“...What is this?”
I asked Godfree quietly.
“Hmm, I already know what happened between you two. But since you're comrades within the same guild from now on, I thought this would be a good opportunity to work out the bad blood between you two.”
As I watched Godfree laugh with his head up in the air, Kuradeel slowly walked towards me.
“...”
I tensed and prepared to react to any situation. Even though we were in a safe area, there was no telling what he might do.
But against all my expectations, Kuradeel suddenly bowed. He then muttered in a barely-audible voice under his long hair.
“I'm... sorry for causing you trouble last time...”
This time I was genuinely shocked. My jaw dropped in amazement and I was left wordless.
“I won't act so rudely again... I hope you will forgive me...”
I couldn't see his expression under his long, greasy hair.
“Ah... yeah...”
As I forced myself to nod, I wondered what in the world had happened. Did he get a personality altering surgery or something?
“Yes, yes. Well, that's all taken care of now!!”
Godfree gave another hearty laugh. I felt really suspicious; Kuradeel must be up to something, but I couldn't guess from looking at his lowered head. In contrast to its overstated emotions, SAO had a hard time portraying subtle expressions. I could only accept his apology for now, but I reminded myself not to let my guard down.
The last member arrived after a while, and then we set off for the labyrinth. Just as I began to step into my pace, Godfree stopped me with a gruff voice:
“Wait... Today's training will be done under the most realistic circumstances. I want to see how well you deal with dangerous situations, so I will be taking all of your crystals.”
“...Even our teleport crystals?”
Godfree only nodded in response. I hesitated. Crystals, especially teleport crystals, were the last safety net in this death game. I had never been without them. I was about to refuse, but a problem here might put Asuna in a problematic situation, so I decided to hold back my words.
Seeing as Kuradeel and the other member handed over their crystals obediently, I had no choice but to follow. Godfree even carefully checked my inventory afterwards.
“Hmm, good. Then let's go!”
At Godfree's order, we walked out of Grandum and journeyed towards the Labyrinth Area that we could see to the far west.
The 55th floor training area was a desolate wasteland almost devoid of vegetation. I wanted to finish the training quickly, so I suggested running all the way to the labyrinth, but it was rejected by a single wave of Godfree's hand. It was most probably because he had focused on raising his strength stats and disregarded his dexterity. I could only give up and continue to tread through the endless wilderness.
We ran into monsters a couple of times. But when it came to this, I had no time to wait patiently for Godfree's orders, so I simply cut them down right away.
Eventually, after making it past a number of tall, rocky mountains, the gray limestone of the labyrinth finally came into view...
“Okay, we're taking a break here!”
