“Have you heard about the Absolute Sword, Asuna?”

Asuna stopped typing on the holo-keyboard and looked up at Lisbeth.

“Athletic Horde? Are they going to hold a race or something?”

“No, no, no.” Lisbeth laughed, shaking her head. She picked up the steaming mug on the table and took a sip. “Clean your ears out. I said Absolute Sword.”

“Absolute…Sword. Is it a new legendary item they added or something?”

“Non, non. It’s a person’s name. Or…nickname, I guess. A title. I don’t know the actual avatar name. Whoever it is, they’re so strong that someone started calling them the ‘Absolute Sword,’ and the name stuck. ‘The sword of absolute invincibility,’ ‘the sword of absolute power’…I think that’s what they mean by it.”

The moment she heard the word strong, Asuna sensed that her curiosity had been tickled.

She knew more than a bit about using a sword. In ALfheim Online, she played an undine, who typically stayed back to cast spells in battle, but every now and then she felt the itch to fight again and would pull out her rapier and charge into the enemy’s midst. Thanks to that, she was now the unhappy owner of the “Berserk Healer” nickname, a far cry from the elegance she normally tried to project.

She actively participated in the monthly dueling tournaments to help her master the three-dimensional combat of ALO, and she could go toe-to-toe with mighty warriors like the salamandic general Eugene and the sylphic lady Sakuya. News of a brand-new rival could not be overlooked.

Asuna saved her in-progress biology report and banished the holo-keyboard, picking up her own mug and refilling it with the click of a finger. She repositioned herself in her tree-branch seat, satisfied that she was in a comfortable pose for chatting.

“And…? What is this ‘Absolute Sword’ like?”

“Well…”