-300- An unbalanced group of 5

Appearing beside Kirito was a team of players.

A team that seemed quite unbalanced.

The team consisted of five players.

Among these five players, there was a vanguard who used a war hammer and shield, a thief wielding a short sword, a staff user with a double-handed staff, and two spear users.

In other words, this team had one tank responsible for drawing aggro, an output-lacking thief, and three long weapon users.

This was undoubtedly a very unbalanced setup.

Generally, a balanced player team should have two vanguards, two output dealers, and two rear guards. In Sword Art Online (SAO), which emphasized physicality and realism, when players formed teams, they needed to consider that their sword skills and attacks wouldn't interfere with each other, meaning they had to consider switching.

In such a scenario, having two tanks would allow them to switch and draw aggro from each other, preventing their HP from dropping dangerously low. Similarly, having two output dealers would allow them to alternate sword skills to attack enemies, preventing them from becoming vulnerable due to being immobilized after using a skill. Even the two rear guards who used long weapons to interfere with enemies needed to be two to alternate during cooldowns.

But the team in front of him had only one vanguard and three long weapon users, plus a thief in a delicate role. If this wasn't an unbalanced setup, then what was?

Furthermore, judging from their equipment, these players' levels were probably not very high. Having a level of 20 was considered good enough. The fact that Kirito was associating with this group of mid-tier players left Rozen feeling perplexed.

However, Rozen didn't think too much about it. He directly approached and stood in front of the group.

"You finally made it."

Kirito let out a sigh of relief as he spoke.

"If you didn't arrive in time, other players might have discovered the secret here. At that point, it wouldn't end well for me."

There was a monster of the same type as Rozen's Familiar here.

If news like this got out, it would surely cause a huge commotion. After all, Rainbow Butterfly's reputation was quite widespread.

Almost all players knew that in addition to Magus's astonishing command abilities at the frontlines, he also had a familiar capable of using various negative status skills against floor bosses. While its direct combat ability wasn't high, its support capabilities were incredibly strong.

In view of this, if this news were to leak out, not just regular players, even those big guilds from the clearing group might swoop in and surround this forest.

If they could obtain a familiar similar to Magus's, even if they didn't become the best, they could make a fortune by selling it.

Because of this, Kirito was so anxious, fearing that other players might also discover this place.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Rozen shrugged and then looked at the several players, asking, "And who might these be?"

Before Kirito could reply, the other players had already spoken up.

"Hello! I'm Ducker! I'm a thief! I use short swords! Please take care of me!"

The self-proclaimed thief, Dakar, stood at attention and loudly introduced himself.

"I... I'm Tetsuo! I'm a war hammer user! Please take care of me!"

The vanguard war hammer user, Tetsuo, also seemed a bit too enthusiastic in his self-introduction.

"I'm Sasamaru, I use spears."

One of the spear users spoke up with a nervous tone.

The other spear user, however, was not male but a girl with shoulder-length hair, looking rather cute.

"I... my name is Sachi..."

The girl introduced herself with such a nervous tone that not only was her voice shaky, even her expression tightened. She fidgeted with the spear in her hands anxiously, giving off an air of vulnerability.

Facing this situation, the remaining staff user smiled wryly before stepping forward.

"I'm sorry, my companions are just too nervous because they're seeing members of the clearing group, which they never get to see usually."

The staff user, who held a double-handed staff, maintained a relatively calm demeanor and bowed to Rozen.

"I'm Keita. As you can see, I'm a staff user. Please take care of me."

The man named Keita then offered a rather reserved bow to Rozen.

Finally, Kirito spoke up.

"They discovered the same type of monster as Rainbow Butterfly here."

Kirito explained why these five were here with this sentence.

According to Kirito, he encountered this team of players while collecting weapon materials. Seeing them in danger, he had intervened to help a little and had then been recognized.

Saying he was recognized was, in fact, saying they found out which guild he belonged to.

Without forming a party, players could only see each other's marker color, HP status, and guild emblem. Apart from that, they couldn't even see each other's levels or names. The players in this team had recognized Kirito's guild affiliation by noticing the "Crimson Wing" emblem on his HP bar's top left corner.

If it was just that, the two sides would have met by chance and should have gone their separate ways next. However, as Kirito was about to leave, Ducker, who seemed talkative, revealed a piece of information.

"You're a member of 'Crimson Wing,' right? Then you must know 'Magus' pretty well, huh? I heard that the leader of 'Crimson Wing' has a beautiful rainbow butterfly as a familiar, right? We just saw that kind of monster here!"

Because of Dakar's words, Kirito learned about the presence of a second Rainbow Butterfly and quickly informed Rozen.

It was then that Rozen found out how things had unfolded.

"Thank you for providing such crucial information," Rozen thanked the group and said, "If it's confirmed that there really is something like that, I will pay you a satisfactory fee for the information."

"No... no need!" Keita hurriedly waved his hands and shook his head, saying, "We didn't originally plan to sell this as information, and we also didn't realize that the butterfly we found is the same type as the familiar of 'Crimson Wing's' guild leader."

"That Guild leader?" Rozen raised an eyebrow, then asked with some curiosity, "Uh... do you guys know who I am?"

"Yes, Kirito already told us," Keita said, "He mentioned that although he's a player of 'Crimson Wing,' not everyone in 'Crimson Wing' is a high-level beta tester. There are also some players responsible for various tasks, trading, and crafting. He's one of them. He came here to collect weapon materials. And you are a legitimate member of the clearing group, sent by your guild leader to confirm the monster we found."

Hearing this, Rozen looked at Kirito in disbelief.

"Ahaha..."

Kirito chuckled awkwardly and turned his head away.

Rozen could only inwardly disdain this guy who was pretending to be ignorant but he didn't expose him.

"Well, in that case, things are simple."

Rozen spoke up to Keita and his group.

"Are you really willing to just give me the information like this?"

Rozen asked this question.