As the clock was about to strike midnight, Akimi and the others finally deciphered the information on the compass—
It wasn't complicated.
The overall meaning was that the boss of the 39th floor really was a Western dragon, and a classic one at that.
Apart from its stats, its abilities in all aspects were actually weaker than Aguilera, whom they had encountered back on the 7th floor.
However, this time's boss, the Fire Dragon Cescale, apparently had an extremely massive body.
The 50-meter-wide labyrinth tower wasn't enough for it to spread its wings fully, which explained why the boss room wasn't located inside the labyrinth tower.
"Let me see, the exact coordinates are…"
Argo muttered while pointing at the characters on the compass.
"At (0,0), right at the center of the floor." Akimi pulled up the map of the 39th floor and pointed at the middle as he spoke.
"But… judging from that quest we did before, shouldn't there still be a ruin room in the center of the 39th floor? Why would the boss room be there?"
At this, Argo froze for a moment before asking: "What quest? How come I don't know about it?"
That was when Akimi realized he hadn't told Argo about Thinker's cooperation proposal yet—originally, he thought that quest was unrelated to the boss and planned to talk it over with Thinker after the boss raid was finished before deciding.
But looking at things now… that quest didn't seem so simple after all.
After Asuna gave a detailed explanation of what had happened, Argo furrowed her brows too.
Propping her right elbow on the table, she rubbed the whisker-like marks on her cheeks as she silently thought.
In the end, after half a breath of thought with no conclusion, Argo suddenly raised both hands high, then slapped them down on the table with a loud smack!—startling Akimi and the others who had also been deep in thought.
Akimi shot her an annoyed glance and said: "What now?"
Argo pouted and replied: "Forget it, I don't feel like thinking anymore. Big sis is tired, I need rest! We'll just find out tomorrow when we check the center of the floor. Right now we don't know anything—what's the point of empty talk?"
Then she suddenly grew playful again, grinning mischievously as she tugged on Asuna and teased shamelessly: "Heh, Asu-chan, come with me into the room. Tonight, you're mine!"
The completely unprepared Asuna was dragged down the stairs into her own room just like that—and after entering, Argo didn't even shut the door, only left it ajar.
From the upstairs living room, you could faintly hear things like "Asu-chan, are you going for a bath? Then let's go together," which made Akimi's lips twitch a few times.
"Sigh…"
In the end, Akimi let out a helpless sigh—this sudden, baseless feeling of being NTR'ed was simply awful—and the worst kind too, the "in-front-of-husband ultimate bull-cuck chieftain" type.
When Akimi turned his head toward Kirito, he found Kirito was also giving him an inexplicable look, which made him shiver and snap irritably: "You've got three choices right now. One, sleep in my room and I'll take the little bed in the study; two, we switch, you take the study; three, you go outside and find an inn."
Although Kirito didn't quite understand the sudden disdain from Akimi, he felt that going out to find an inn at this hour would be weird.
So he decisively chose to rest in the study.
The next day at noon, after taking a detour to avoid DDA's surveillance, Akimi and the others arrived at the center of the 39th floor.
During this time, Kirito had also sent a message to the Moonlit Black Cats, telling them to stay in town for now and avoid going out as much as possible.
When they reached their destination, the sight before them left them a little stunned—a massive, exquisite ruin, spotless and pristine, stood there silently.
The entire ruin was built from dark-red stone blocks, resembling jade, with dragon-shaped reliefs carved into each block.
The structure looked almost excessively luxurious, completely unlike the four other ruins Akimi's group had previously visited.
But the familiar keyhole on the great door confirmed for them that it was indeed part of the same series.
Staring at this ruin that surpassed anything she had ever seen before, Argo said in a daze: "This… this doesn't make sense. I searched around here before, but I've never seen this ruin."
What's more, this place was the main road from the town to the labyrinth area—Akimi and the others had all passed through here before.
If the ruin had existed previously, there was no way they wouldn't remember it.
"So that means… this ruin only appears under specific conditions or at certain times—"
When Kirito voiced his theory, Akimi shook his head and said: "There's another possibility—the timing of the ruin's appearance wasn't pre-set, but instead manipulated by someone."
"Eh? That doesn't sound very likely, Aki-bou."
"Argo, don't forget—Kayaba Akihiko once said he created this world of SAO for the sake of watching… perhaps he's been observing the players all along."
After saying this, Akimi glanced casually in the direction of the Knights of the Blood Oath's base.
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