The formal meeting commenced the moment the final remnants of noise in the tavern were smothered by a weighted silence.
There were no superfluous greetings, no hollow social pleasantries. Everything followed a steel script prepared with meticulous care; every position, every role, and every risk variable had been weighed on the scales.
Despite the pressure-thick air, the majority of players showed near-absolute consensus. Here, no one was foolish enough to turn this place into an arena for power struggles.
Everyone understood a harsh truth: the Floor 5 Boss conquest was no place to test one's luck, and certainly not a place for those wishing to parade their individual egos.
Shivata and Liten spoke in turn. Their voices carried the iron discipline of the two largest guilds, emotionless, unadorned, consisting only of duty and dry tactical structures. Immediately following, the Black Swordsman Kirito and the Flash Asuna took over the rhythm of coordination.
Their directives were neat, cold, and terrifyingly precise. They focused entirely on formation density, attack tempo, and retreat protocols in the event of casualties. Even the most rebellious solo players held their breath and listened. The room gradually sank into the suffocating depths of numbers, diagrams, and technical jargon.
Until Argo stepped forward.
No stat boards appeared. No familiar blue system windows. Only the flickering candlelight reflected off her mysterious hood and a vague, suggestive smile on the Information Broker's face.
"If you want to understand what we are about to face," Argo began, her voice dropping a register, slow yet piercing, "don't just look at its HP bar."
The room seemed to fall into a new, deeper layer of silence.
"Listen to the tale of the giant forgotten by time."
Every eye was drawn to her. Rin watched that small silhouette intently, her heart quickening like an excited beat. Suddenly, her eyes shifted unnaturally in one direction; Rin didn't recall having a habit of looking elsewhere while someone was speaking, but she followed her body's lead. Her gaze flickered briefly across one person.
Rin observed stealthily; even the player in the mysterious Onyx armor slightly tilted their head, their concentration radiating from a posture as motionless as a block of black stone.
"Fuscus the Vacant Colossus-The Hollow Giant," Argo emphasized each word, letting the name drop into the space like a thousand-pound boulder. "He was once the proudest creature of the ancient rocky mountains, forged from ancient stones carved with legends… but his soul was entirely empty."
Argo's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange pressure that made the listeners' chests tighten.
"His arrogance was so great he dared to despise even the gods. And when he faced The God of Ultra Violence, the outcome was decided before the battle even began."
Argo raised her hand, her five fingers splayed slightly before the tavern's lamplight.
"That god bored five holes straight through his body. Fuscus's proud stone skin could not heal; his blood froze into gemstones exposed to the outside."
A heavy, silent gap enveloped them.
"The punishment for Fuscus," Argo continued, "was to be eternally imprisoned in a boulder-like form. Guarding a gate… that even he does not know where it leads."
She swept a sharp gaze across the room, pausing briefly at Rin's group before glancing over Kirito's.
"Fuscus does not fight with skill. No combos. No trickery."
"He fights with the cold persistence of stone… and the simmering rage of one who has lost everything. He has no heart for you to pierce. No obvious weaknesses to exploit from the start."
Argo's voice dropped another notch, sounding like wind whistling through rock crevices.
"This is not a speed hunt. It is a war of attrition. A tug-of-war with death… where whoever tires first will remain behind forever."
Whispers spread like a small ripple, then were quickly strangled by the heavy atmosphere Argo left behind. Without anyone needing to speak, everyone fell into a self-imposed silence.
"A war of attrition."
To the Front Line players, that phrase was no different from a death sentence hanging over their patience. Not because it was alien, but because it was too familiar. So familiar that merely hearing it made their wrists ache with memory.
In truth, none of them had failed to anticipate this. From Argo's description, Fuscus the Vacant Colossus almost certainly belonged to the Golem class, a type of monster that caused players to shake their heads and stay away at the mere mention of its name.
The people present here had all trudged through countless brutal battles, facing every monstrosity Aincrad threw at them. In the world of Sword Art Online, Golems were always the hardest puzzle for any party to solve.
They possessed defensive layers thick as cliff faces and HP pools so high they blurred the sense of progress. They didn't bleed. They weren't poisoned. They didn't weaken or feel fatigue in any familiar way. Each strike felt like a hammer hitting a boulder, there was a resonance, but rarely an immediate result.
Thus, many players chose to bypass Golems. Not because they lacked value; on the contrary, the materials harvested from their bodies, ore, crystals, raw gems, always fetched high prices on the market.
But the cost of hunting them was higher. Time stretched on infinitely. Equipment wore down faster than normal. And most importantly, the fighter's spirit was ground down bit by bit until they were no longer sure if they were moving forward… or just trying not to collapse first.
And now, they faced a Golem that was not only strong but carried a story of punishment and inexhaustible wrath.
Rin felt her palms grow damp. She gripped the hilt of Ashen Edge tightly, the rough leather and cold steel pressing into her palm like a fragile anchor amidst a storm of emotions. Her mind was a strange void or perhaps, too many overlapping fragments of memory to be named.
Her silver-ash eyes shifted, seeking a dark corner to hide from the surrounding curious gazes. She had been used to being watched for a long time, from her childhood, long before destiny forced her into this silver armor. But familiarity did not equate to comfort. Every gaze still felt like invisible pressure, enough to make her chest tighten in a stifled breath.
'An enemy with no heart. No weakness. Carrying eternal emptiness…'
The thought flickered through Rin's mind, icy and hollow like the name Argo had just uttered. She saw herself in it.
'No.'
'You are no longer the child of the past.' Her breathing began to slow, becoming more rhythmic. 'You must live. Must move forward. You must atone for the sins you committed against...'
Her internal monologue was abruptly cut off by a real-world sound. Amidst the thick silence, a low and calm voice rose from the leaders' table.
"Those five holes that solidified into gemstones."
Every eye in the tavern immediately fixed on Shivata. He had his arms crossed, his eyes narrowed with doubt, as if trying to pierce through the fog of rumors.
"They aren't just for decoration, are they, Argo?"
Argo looked at him for a moment. Under her hood, she offered a smile. But this time, it wasn't the mischievous grin of an information broker who only cared for money. It was more serious, carrying the weight of a truth that could dictate survival.
"Indeed," Argo replied, her voice ringing clearly. "The five holes through Fuscus's body… are its vital points."
Argo didn't let the silence linger. She snapped her fingers, and this time, a hazy interface window appeared, displaying a crude sketch of a giant stone mass with five brilliant glowing points distributed along the chest and limbs.
"They are not weaknesses in the way everyone thinks," Argo explained, her eyes narrowing under her hood. "Each of those holes contains an Ancient Quartz Crystal. That is where Fuscus stores his rage. If you hit those spots, damage will be multiplied. But…"
She paused, her smile replaced by grave seriousness.
"To reach them, a player must drive their weapon through a layer of stone armor nearly half a meter thick. And the moment the blade touches the crystal, Fuscus triggers a counter-shock mechanism. If you don't have enough power to shatter the gem in a single strike, the attacker will be trapped there."
Audible gasps echoed through the room. A true gamble. Either destroy its "heart" or be stuck to the boss, only to be crushed immediately after.
Some began to think of plans for the tankers to handle this, but no one wanted to be stuck to the boss and pulverized.
"So, we need another team, outside of the Tankers and the Damage Dealers?"
At that exact moment, Ren in his Onyx armor stood up.