The Ice Dragon Cloak only activates its [Dragon's Awe] attribute and reveals its true form during combat.
The blue dragon patterns, the complex and exquisite dragon scales, and the overall white appearance... only then does it become a true work of art.
"Yeah, how have you been? Found a party?" Yusei placed Shiro next to him, soothing her slightly discontented mood.
"No, I'm a solo player. I'm used to it." Kiriko shook her head with a wry smile.
Professional habit made her casually check her friend's level, and the expression of wry smile on her cute face instantly froze.
"How did you do that?!" Kiriko immediately swept away her previous gloom, her eyes fixed intently on Yusei.
"Just by grinding and leveling up..." Yusei felt a bit uneasy under her stare.
"Maybe it's because Shiro and I level up together, so the efficiency is higher than going solo?" Yusei ventured a guess.
Kiriko shook her head, denying Yusei's conjecture, "Impossible. Leveling with a partner might be faster, but the monster experience is shared..."
Kiriko glanced at Yusei with a hint of suspicion and let out a somewhat depressed sigh.
"I'm only level 15 now. And I managed that by finding prime leveling spots first... How did you, someone who isn't a Beta Tester, surpass me by more than double? Levels get harder later on."
When Kiriko suddenly brought up the level matter, Yusei remembered that his and Shiro's levels had indeed risen unusually fast.
He slid open his skill list, which contained all the techniques of the Hiten Mitsurugi-ryu, except for the ultimate secret technique, Amakakeru Ryu no Hirameki. At level thirty, he had recently unlocked Kuzuryusen...
At the very bottom of the skill list, Yusei looked in surprise at two skills.
[Yusei & Shiro: When Yusei and Shiro are in a party together, experience gained from killing monsters and drop item probability are doubled. Furthermore, experience and Col are independently obtained by each player in the party.]
[Bond: When partied with a Friend, experience gained from killing monsters and drop item probability are doubled. Furthermore, experience and Col are independently obtained by each player in the party.]
Yusei was stunned seeing these two skills, 'This... were these skills given to him by Kayaba Akihiko?'
"Shiro, do you have the [Yusei & Shiro] and [Bond] skills in your skill list?" Hearing Yusei's words, Shiro immediately opened her skill list to check, "Only the [Yusei & Shiro] skill."
Yusei nodded. He understood now why he and Shiro had leveled so quickly. He also realized why their leveling speed had slowed down recently.
'Before, when I, Shiro, and Kaguya partied together, we gained almost limitless experience? And it was eight times per person? Wait, no, experience needs to be split.'
'Later, after Kaguya left, our experience and Col gain became 2x2, directly quadrupled? That's why our leveling speed skyrocketed before.'
Now Yusei had found the reason, but he couldn't exactly tell Kiriko, could he? It was too shocking.
Kiriko, for her part, didn't dwell on it too much, just venting her own frustration with a couple of comments.
Players continued to arrive, among them two cloaked figures.
Kaguya and Asuna found an empty spot to sit. Asuna looked at the people present and couldn't help but murmur softly, "So many people... Kaguya, do you think we can clear the first-floor boss smoothly?"
The young girl asked her friend quietly, but received no reply. She looked at her friend and noticed that her friend was staring intently in one direction, her expression a mix of conflict and discontent.
It was the first time Asuna had seen her usually ice-cold friend show such an expression.
'When it came to outsiders, she always maintained one expression. Who is she looking at?' This question rose curiously in Asuna's mind.
She looked in the direction Kaguya was staring and found, that simple area had three people sitting.
The three people are all wearing cloaks, hiding their faces. In a way, their behavior was very similar to hers and Kaguya's.
Kaguya stared intently at Yusei. Under the friend display, she already knew the guy in the middle wearing the white cloak was Yusei. The shorter one next to him was Shiro. As for who was under the black cloak next to him, she couldn't check-
However, from the soft contours faintly visible under the cloak, she could tell it was a girl.
'Did he find a new teammate after abandoning me?'
'With his strength, he probably just picked whoever looked pretty to be his teammate, right? Just keeping a decorative vase.'
For some reason, Kaguya felt a bit irritated seeing that spot which originally belonged to her. It was the same irritation as having a favorite toy snatched away.
Meanwhile, in the center of the abandoned opera stage, a blue-haired young man stood on the stage, "Let the first-floor boss strategy meeting begin! I am Diabel. I discovered the Boss Room entrance in the labyrinth."
"Conquering the first floor will show the players in the Starting City that we have the ability to escape from this cage of SAO!"
"Before we begin the strategy meeting, please form parties first."
As Diabel's voice fell, the players who had come together began forming parties.
Yusei and Kiriko looked at each other, their intention clear without words. They would form a party.
A three-person party was immediately formed, and then Kiriko looked at Yusei, "Just the three of us?"
"No. Of course, there's also..." As he spoke, Yusei stood up and walked over towards Kaguya.
Kiriko and Shiro, seeing this, quickly followed.
Asuna, who had been watching Yusei's group, nudged Kaguya with her elbow, "They're coming over."
Kaguya had naturally noticed. But now she felt somewhat nervous and conflicted, unsure what to do.
'Is he coming over to ask me to join his party? Should I agree or refuse? If I refuse, I'll seem willful and unreasonable.'
'But if I agree, then the words I said that day about surviving on my own would become empty, wouldn't they?'
Thump.
Yusei unceremoniously sat down next to Kaguya and gently pressed a hand down on her small head.
"Kaguya-sama, party up?"
"Who asks to form a party by pressing on the other person's head?!" Kaguya complained, swatting Yusei's hand away.
"Isn't it because I can see you're still mad at me? A perpetually willful young lady isn't very likable, you know."