Sword Art Online Gameverse x Reader

Chapter 16: Mining for Lisbeth

Lisbeth: "But wouldn't that mean going through the boss room?!"

Y/N: "We already killed the boss, and the bosses don't respawn. It should be perfectly safe to pass through."

Lisbeth: "... ummm, if you're sure."

Y/N: "Lisbeth. I've said this to everyone I've had in my party at this point I'm pretty sure... but I don't plan to let anybody die in this world if I can help it. If, by the slightest chance the boss does respawn as we go through his room, I can promise you that you'll get out of it alive. Okay? . . . I'm gonna start mining this ore now, feel free to take a seat somewhere or something."

Lisbeth: ". . . okay, thanks."

*TIMESKIP*

Y/N: "Turns out the higher my smithing skill the more efficiently I can harvest this ore, I could probably sell that to Argo... well, I got a whole load of iron ore out of this. Let's start making our way back now shall we?"

Lisbeth: "Oh great! But why do you need so much? Is it that expensive on resources to smith?"

Y/N: "Well, not for iron equipment at least. But I'm going to use a little bit to show you how the smithing process works.. the rest is for you so you can power level your skill."

Lisbeth: "Wait. Really?! But why?"

Y/N: "Well, the beginning was a really slow start for me, this way you can skip the useless equipment and get to being able to do actually useful enhancements and forging quicker."

Lisbeth: "I told you I didn't have much Col right? I won't be able to pay you properly for all this!"

Y/N: "You said there were a lot of scummy smiths right? Scamming players out of their materials and equipment. Why don't you catch up and overtake them, become the smithy that people can trust, the smithy whose equipment saves lives?"

Lisbeth: "hmmm, I like that actually... but why don't you do it? You must be a really high level smith at this point."

Y/N: "I don't spend much time in town, if I were to take up smithing full-time it'd interfere with my mob grinding. Plus I've tailored my skills and equipment to benefit myself as a solo player with 100% efficiency... it would be costly for me to adjust to a more trader-orientated specialisation."

Lisbeth: "You really are a pro at this aren't you? I bet you'll be part of the team that clears the final floor for sure!"

Y/N: "That's kinda the plan"

Lisbeth: "Kinda?"

Y/N: "I mean, I might not wait for a team. I've been juggling the idea of starting to make a real effort to clear these floors solo"

Lisbeth: "Solo?! But that's so dangerous!"

Y/N: "I know. But I've got a safety margin I've respected since the first week, I know my limits and if your level is high enough then you can handle anything."

Lisbeth: "still..."

Y/N: "Well, this is the boss room for the First Floor, I don't suppose you've ever been here before?"

Lisbeth: "No, me and my friends haven't ever entered a Labyrinth before..."

Y/N: "Well, there's nothing to worry about, the boss is dead and I'm here even if it does. It looks kinda pretty in there too with the mosaic colour scheme. Let's just get these doors open and we can make our way through..."

. . .

A couple steps into the boss room, Lisbeth seems to be both really on edge and also in wonder of the complete change in appearance that the boss room has compared to the rest of the Labyrinth.

CREAAAAAAAK! SLAM!

Y/N: "I suppose the doors are set to close after a set time, I didn't notice that the last time I was here. I guess I was distracted by the boss spawning"

Lisbeth: "You were part of the raid team?"

Y/N: "Did I not mention that?"

Lisbeth: "Nope, not that I recall anywa-"

ROAR!

No! That's the boss, it respawned?!

<1307 words>