May 12 — this day wasn't any kind of public holiday, but for the members of the Moonlit Black Cats, it was still a special occasion.
Today was the birthday of their guild leader, Keita.
After several days of preparation by Akimi, Asuna, Kirito, Sachi, Ducker, Tetsuo, and Sasamaru, the surprise for Keita's birthday was finally ready.
In Taft, the main town on the 11th floor — the very tavern where Kirito had first met the Moonlit Black Cats — Ducker mysteriously led Keita over to the bar counter.
"Ahem, Leader, I got some important information from an informant!"
Ducker said with a grave expression.
"This information concerns how fast our Moonlit Black Cats can grow stronger in the future."
Keita looked a little puzzled, scratching the back of his head.
"What kind of information is it? Why so secretive? And why drag me out here? Can't you tell everyone together?"
Ducker quickly shook his head.
"Nope, because this information is extremely, extremely, extremely special."
"So what is it exactly?"
"It's a special guild quest — only the guild leader can complete it. There's no danger, but it's really tedious… The quest takes place right here in Taft. Basically, it works like this:
There are six special locations in Taft. Each one has a special item. If you collect all six, you can get a divine weapon — a weapon that can gather the strength of all guild members and pass it on to the leader."
Hearing this, Keita's face clearly showed disbelief.
He gave Ducker a strange look and said, "If something like that really existed, the big guilds would've found it ages ago. No way it'd be left for us. You didn't get scammed, did you?"
Ducker quickly grabbed Keita's hand and said loudly, "Leader! You know me — I never lie! I got this info from the top informant Argo herself! And it was only because Argo's on good terms with Kirito that she sold it to me at a low price!"
Still, Keita's expression remained doubtful.
Seeing his reaction, Ducker pressed on.
"Even if you don't believe me, you've gotta believe Argo, right? Everyone knows Argo the Rat never sells fake information."
With that, the suspicion on Keita's face slowly faded.
Only then did Ducker let out a tiny sigh of relief.
He pulled a well-aged parchment map from his inventory, leaned in, and said, "Leader, this map shows the exact locations of all six spots. Just follow the map… We're counting on you, Leader!"
Keita took the map, examined it, and, seeing nothing wrong, scratched his head and left the tavern.
"Hmm… why do I feel like something's off here…"
Following the map for a couple of loops around town, Keita arrived at the first marked location — a narrow little alleyway.
Originally, there was nothing in this alley, but now a small wooden box had suddenly appeared.
On top of it, there was a sign with several black lines drawn across it, as if someone had written something and then crossed it out, leaving only one sentence: "Break the box to obtain the item."
Keita crouched down slowly beside the box and tapped it a few times with his hand… just a normal wooden crate.
Then he examined it carefully… no seams, couldn't see what was inside… and it wasn't even locked, almost as if it was deliberately tempting someone to open it.
After thinking for a moment, Keita stepped back a few paces and then smashed the box with his weapon — even though Ducker had said there was no danger, it never hurt to be cautious.
Crack!
As the wooden box shattered, a small stick fell onto the ground.
Keita leaned in to take a closer look and found that aside from the reddish-brown stick, there was nothing else inside.
He opened the system description for the stick, which contained only a single brief line: "Special item No. 1 — an item required to complete a certain quest."
After fiddling with the stick for a moment and finding nothing unusual about it, Keita stored it away and headed for the next marked location.
By the time he had searched all the other spots on the map, he had obtained five more special items: a small purple warhammer, a small green spear, a small yellow dagger, a small blue sword-and-shield, and a small black one-handed sword.
Looking at these tiny objects, Keita suddenly felt an odd sense of familiarity, though he couldn't quite remember why.
Holding the key and note he'd found together in the sixth box with the small one-handed sword, Keita walked toward the final destination written on the note — the inn.
"According to this note, the final clue is in Room 512 of the inn. This is the key to that room," Keita muttered to himself.
Running his fingers over the slightly rough, cross-shaped key in his hand, Keita became more and more convinced that this whole thing was far too deliberate — yet that only made him look forward to it more.
Ah, damn human curiosity.
Following the instructions, he arrived at Room 512 of the inn, slowly inserted the key into the lock, and gave it a twist.
With a soft click, the door swung open.
Keita didn't go in immediately.
Instead, he stood at the doorway, peering inside — the room's lights were off, and in the center of the room, on a table, stood a green, tower-shaped object.
At the top of this tower were over a dozen candles burning with green flames.
The sight made Keita shiver involuntarily… Was there something creepy in there?
Did that cabinet just move?
After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the room — but the instant he did, a round, black, unknown object smacked into his face with a loud thwack!
It happened so fast that Keita didn't even have time to react.
As Keita stood there stunned, a gentle female voice suddenly rang out:
"Hey! Tetsuo! You hit him way too hard!"
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