Rumors about «That Metal» began to circulate amongst the
blacksmiths about ten days ago. Of course, the ultimate goal of SAO
was to reach the top floor and beat the game. But other than that, there
was also a variety of other missions: quests from NPCs, guard
missions, treasure hunting, and more. But because the reward usually
included desirable equipment, most quests had a cooldown time after
they were completed before they would become available again.
There were even quests that could only be finished once, which really
drew attention from the players.
One of these missions was found in a hamlet in the corner of the 55th
floor. A certain white-bearded village leader NPC would say--- There
was a white dragon that lived in the mountains to the west, which ate
crystals each day as its food and stocked large quantities of it to create
an extremely valuable and rare metal within its stomach. This was
obviously a mission that awarded amazing materials, so a large
number of people immediately formed an assault party that would be
able to easily defeat the dragon. ---But they didn't get anything. The
dragon dropped only a small quantity of Coll and some poor quality
equipment, which didn't even reimburse the cost of the healing
potions and crystals used.
After that, everyone guessed that the metal had only a chance of
dropping, therefore many parties spoke to the elder and then defeated
the dragon, but still no one found the metal. Within one week,
countless white dragons had been killed, but not a single party
managed to find the metal. Someone finally suggested that there must
be special conditions which must be met, so now everyone was trying
hard to find out what those were.
After listening to my explanation, the man named Kirito, who sipped
on the tea which I didn't want to make, who sat on my workshop chair
with his casually crossed legs, replied 'ah...' and nodded lightly.
"I've heard about this too. There does seem to be a chance to get rare
ingredients. But so far no one has gotten anything right? Would we
really get anything if we go now?"
"Amongst all the circulating theories, one of them claims that 'the
party must include a blacksmith', because there aren't many
blacksmiths who properly trained their combat skills."
"So that's why; actually that does sound kind of right--- if that's the
case, then we should get going soon."
"......"
I stared angrily at Kirito's face.
