Silica’s hometown was Friben Village, which was situated on the eighth floor; but since she hadn’t bought a house, staying at any inn in any village wasn’t really all that different. The most important thing was how the food served there tasted. Silica liked the cheesecake that the NPC cook here made, so she had been staying here since two weeks ago when she began adventuring in the Forest of Wandering. As she lead Kirito, who was looking around as if everything fascinated him, a couple of players whose faces she knew began to strike up a conversation with her. They were trying to get Silica to join their party after hearing the rumor that she had left her old one. “Erm, well… thank you for the offer, but…” She bowed as she refused the offers in order to not make them feel bad. She then glanced at Kirito, who was standing beside her, and continued: “…I’m going to party with this person for a while…” What!? Really!? The people who surrounded Silica said sullenly and stared at Kirito suspiciously. Silica had seen a bit of Kirito’s skill; but when you looked at the black swordsman just standing there, he didn’t seem all that strong. He didn’t have any expensive equipment on—he didn’t wear any armor and only had an old and worn-looking long coat on top of his shirt—all he had was a single simple one-handed sword; he didn’t even have a shield. “Hey, you—”