"Phew—ha."
Argo downed a glass of beer in one go, wiped the corner of her mouth, and said with a hint of irritation,
"I knew you guys were in on it together… Spill it—where did Kiri-bou run off to? What exactly are you trying to pull?"
As she tapped on the counter to call the waiter for a refill, she shot a scrutinizing glance at Akimi and Asuna beside her.
Akimi swirled the straw in his drink twice, shrugged, and said,
"He went to the frontlines to level up. Probably won't be back for a few days… As for why, Kirito said he wanted the Black Cats to remember this feeling—so they don't let their guard down."
"Hmph—" Argo snorted coldly, gritting her teeth.
"Making me worry for so long… Kiri-bou's gonna pay for this! And you two as well!"
While speaking, she darted over to Asuna, reaching out to pinch her cheeks.
But Asuna just shot her a glance and stepped back to avoid her.
It had to be said—Argo had reacted far faster than the Black Cats.
Right after Akimi and Asuna left, she went straight to the Black Iron Palace to check the list of the deceased.
Sure enough, Kirito's name wasn't there—which meant he wasn't dead.
Of course, that much was obvious.
With Akimi's and Asuna's skill level, entering a trap room wouldn't even drop their HP into the red, let alone kill them—their ragged appearance earlier was just them taking a couple of intentional hits from monsters.
And as for why Kirito vanished—that was thanks to a boss drop Akimi had gotten on the 30th floor.
It was a special piece of gear called the Cloak of Concealment.
It could greatly increase the wearer's Hide skill proficiency—by an amount equal to the wearer's level × 1, even without upgrades.
It also had an active skill that could make the wearer invisible for 30 seconds.
Unless an opponent's Search skill proficiency was over 400, they couldn't detect the wearer.
Unfortunately, it conflicted with the armor slot—meaning that if you wanted to wear the cloak, you couldn't equip armor.
So Kirito had simply used it to sneak away.
Of course, part of the reason he could fool Argo and the others so easily was luck—if they had opened their friend menu and used the tracking function, they could have easily seen his movements.
Too bad they'd been so shaken by Kirito's "death" that none of them remembered friend tracking existed.
Once Argo learned the full story, her eyes darted around twice before a wicked smile crept onto her face.
Seeing that look, Akimi immediately grew wary—this was the same expression she always wore whenever she was about to scam him or rope him into something.
"Ahem, Aki-bou~"
Argo rubbed her hands together like a fly and chuckled,
"You and Asu-chan don't need this piece of gear, right—?"
Akimi nodded without expression.
It was true—he and Asuna were both one-handed sword users without shields, so they still needed armor to boost their defense.
Which meant that most of the time, the Cloak of Concealment wasn't of much use to them.
Argo had already said this much, so Akimi naturally understood what she meant — she wanted this piece of equipment.
Well, it made sense.
Up until now, Argo had been putting all her points into Agility, so whether she had armor or not made little difference.
Compared to armor, the Concealment Cloak would be far more useful for her.
In fact, Akimi and the others had intended to give this equipment to Argo from the start, but with so many things happening, they had simply forgotten.
Akimi pulled up his inventory, slid his finger twice across the interface, brought out the Concealment Cloak, and handed it to Argo.
"Eh?! You're just giving it to me?"
Seeing Akimi's action, Argo pointed at herself uncertainly.
Akimi said nothing; he simply placed the cloak in front of her and took a light sip of his drink.
Noticing Argo's lingering hesitation, Asuna leaned back slightly so her gaze could pass over Akimi, and said to Argō:
"Don't worry, Kirito actually used some materials to trade with Akimi for it. He said this piece of equipment should be useful for you… Though honestly, we were planning to give it to you anyway."
Argō froze for a moment, then mumbled, "I… I see— seriously, that Kiri-bou…"
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In a tavern at Taft, the main town on the 11th floor, Sachi sat blankly on the bed, staring at the shared inventory she had with Kirito.
Even though it was already dusk and the room had grown very dim, the light wasn't turned on; only the glow from the streetlamps outside streamed in through the window.
Keita stood worriedly at the doorway to Sachi's room, raising his hand as if to knock, but after hesitating for a while, he slowly lowered it again.
Looking at the guild emblem above his own HP bar, Keita sighed.
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