Am I the only one streaming Sword Art Online on the entire internet?

Half a month has passed since Kirito and Sorin arrived in this town. In the past two days, more and more players have crossed the plains full of ghosts and monsters and arrived in the town. Of course, thanks to Sorin's deliberate arrangement, no one has realized that Sorin and Kirito are the first pioneers to arrive in this town.

In the past two weeks, Sorin's level has risen to level seven, and the mysterious [Weapon Master] skill has also been upgraded to Lv.2. In addition to giving Sorin another weapon mastery slot, it has also added an extra effect.

[Weapon Master lv.2 (486/1000)]

【Effect: 1. You can have different weapon mastery skills, the maximum number of which depends on the current skill level (current maximum number of weapon mastery skills: 3)】

2. As long as you still have an available weapon mastery slot, you can automatically gain the weapon mastery skill equivalent to the weapon mastery skill level when you equip a certain weapon.

3. You can switch weapons in a very short time during combat, and gain a 50% damage increase for 3 seconds after each weapon switch.

"One Law Understands All Laws – Dark Elf Sword Dancer Kissmael"

The previous [Weapon Master] skill only gave Sorin more options, but he could still only use one weapon for damage output during combat. However, after leveling up this skill, he can finally switch between different weapons in battle, while also gaining a very powerful buff.

However, Thorin had already anticipated that this skill, which was likely derived from the Weapon Master class in some D&D games, would have the function of switching weapons in combat. He just didn't expect that this was a built-in buff that was almost a permanent 50% DPS increase, which made him question the origin of this skill once again.

(Class D damage increase: also known as independent damage increase, calculated separately from other damage increase buffs. In addition, Class A is individual skill damage increase, Class B is a series of skill damage increase, and Class C is discriminatory damage increase, which only applies to a specific type of monster.)

"Putting everything else aside, the 50% D-type damage per second is just too strong. It's half the damage of the Traveler's Set." Sorin once complained about this in a commentary. He didn't know if the game's stats were inherently explosive (like Diablo III), but after getting this extra effect buff, he was able to clear monsters much faster than Kirito.

However, this skill also requires him to have a good plan for his weapon types, rather than just equipping any good weapon he sees to take up space.

"First of all, this skill only applies to weapons, and I can't change my armor during combat. This requires all the weapons I equip to be at least of the same category. For example, I'm currently equipped with leather armor and a katana and a rapier, which are both lightweight, agile combat configurations. At least from my current situation, I can't use a heavy weapon like a sledgehammer for the third weapon slot, nor can I wear heavy armor and tank while wielding a greatsword and a large shield."

Sorin continued explaining as he fought the goblins. He and Kirito had advanced to the last monster area before the dungeon area—the Forest Monster Area. The monsters spawning in this area had changed to level 7 Goblin Guard Sentinels and Goblin Guard Warriors. The former were fragile ranged units armed with blowguns, and being hit by one had a chance to paralyze the enemy for three seconds. The latter were armored melee units with relatively simple attack patterns, perhaps to accommodate beginners.

"Currently, the weapons I'm considering are one-handed swords, dual-wielded long daggers, and broadswords. All three will definitely be added to my skill bar in the future. However, considering the need for some defensive capabilities, I've decided to add a one-handed sword to this slot."

This one-handed sword is the kind of short sword + small shield setup found in the Monster Hunter series. While the small, round shield can't block too much damage, it's still very useful for parrying in crucial moments. Moreover, this simple-looking yet highly agile weapon perfectly suits Sorin's fighting style.

As he explained, he took two steps back, then lunged forward again, unleashing a basic katana technique called "Kesa Slash," followed by a backhand "Spirit Blade Great Whirlwind" that struck the three goblin guards surrounding him.

After completing this smooth combo, he sheathed his sword and drew his rapier from his waist with his right hand. He then landed another [Thrust] on the goblin warrior with the lowest health, followed by two normal attacks to cancel the thrust's recovery and finish off the unfortunate goblin. He then sheathed his rapier, drew his katana, and used [Kesa Slash] to graz the other two goblin warriors. The katana, gleaming with light, was raised high and then fell with incredible speed, taking the ugly head of the other goblin.

"Splitting Mount Hua with a mighty blow! I'm going to eat people!" Sorin shouted, sheathing his sword and pointing the tip at the last goblin. "Rua!"

The katana thrust straight at the last goblin, piercing its face and creating a large red hexagonal pattern before the goblin collapsed to the ground.

"Your damage... it's like you're cheating." Kirito, who was walking over from the other side, couldn't help but marvel as he watched Sorin effortlessly take down the three goblins.

[Check out the humanoid, self-propelled cheat code, Grandpa Sorin!]

Honestly, I feel a little sorry for the goblins.

[This state clearly indicates that Lin Shen has killed off Old Man Suolin and returned to his original position.]

"If I really had a cheat code, I'd fly to the Crimson Jade Palace right now and kill the boss. Why would I need to be stuck here messing around with these damn monsters?" Sorin chuckled self-deprecatingly, then traded the 50 Cole he'd just gotten to Kirito. "I still need 450 from you. I need to save some money to find a reliable one-handed sword before tackling the final boss of this floor."

"You don't really need to be in such a hurry to pay me back, Sorin... What's that?" Kirito answered subconsciously, and then suddenly heard a similar sound of a sword tip striking armor coming from the forest nearby. "Is someone grinding monsters nearby?"

“Let’s go take a look. Anyone who can survive in a level 7 monster zone at this time of day is obviously not an ordinary person. I’ll see if I can recruit them into our team.” Solin said this, stealthily making his way towards the location of the battle.

To Sorin's surprise, the mysterious group that was fighting monsters nearby was actually just one person, a rapier wielder completely wrapped in a cloak. His battles looked extremely dangerous; he dodged the monsters' fatal attacks at the last second, and each time he killed a monster, he would use a [Thrust] skill to finish it off.

"That must be exhausting, and isn't this just overdoing it?" Kirito muttered to himself, somewhat puzzled. "It's not like we can't win, so why are we pushing ourselves so hard?"

“I’m not entirely sure about that, but I do know that guy seems to be in trouble.”

Sorin shrugged, then pointed to a small group of goblins that had spawned near the mysterious figure, and added a sentence.

"Besides, I saw it more clearly from my side. That guy's hand holding the sword was trembling. In that state, trying to solo four level seven ghost minions is hopeless except for dying. Let's try to save him if we can. You rush out from the other side to pull two of them for me, I'll kill one and then go back to help you."

10. Asuna, the Rapier Wielder

This time, the goblin minions that suddenly appeared on his face weren't like a special boss like Squirrel. Sorin seized the opportunity and rushed forward, starting with a thrust that hit one of the minions in the face. Then, he slashed his rapier to the lower right corner and smoothly sheathed it before drawing his katana. He used the same combo of a sword slash and a spirit blade spin, taking down the first goblin in just two seconds.

"Kirito! Switch!" Sorin shouted, running towards Kirito, his katana now replaced by a rapier. With all his skills on cooldown, he chose to fight the two goblin minions, maneuvering to shift their formation. Taking advantage of one goblin raising its sword, he moved to the side of its line of sight and launched a fierce attack on the other goblin.

"You are a fxcking animal!" Kirito exclaimed involuntarily, staring dumbfounded as Sorin swiftly defeated a goblin. Having spent so much time with Sorin, he had picked up some strange lines and was starting to embarrass himself, almost like a gluttonous idiot.

Meanwhile, on Sorin's side, the goblin that had been raising its sword earlier had finished casting its basic attack animation. However, due to Sorin's sudden change in position, its not-so-bright AI also caused it to turn towards Sorin's location and then slash at the goblin that Sorin was attacking.

[The streamer seems to really like this playstyle lately.]

[Goblin: Damn it! Cease fire! We're attacking friendly forces!]

Of course, Sorin didn't care whether the unlucky guy in front of him had been hit by friendly fire. He glanced at the buff bar in the lower right corner, which was almost halfway rotated, and after two normal attacks, he switched to the katana again. After making the starting motion of the Kesa Slash, he quickly spun his whole body and managed to make the single-target attack skill Kesa Slash have the effect of a cleave.

"If it were keyboard and mouse, this would basically require turning the mouse a full circle," Sorin casually explained how he managed to make a single-target skill have an AOE effect, then easily finished off the two goblins with two more attacks. Only after he completed this series of actions did Kirito on the other side finish off the remaining one Sorin had taken down, then turned his curious gaze to the mysterious rapier wielder.

"……have a finger in the pie."

The rapier wielder staggered up to Sorin, his tone somewhat displeased. However, to Sorin and Kirito's surprise, this mysterious rapier wielder, completely shrouded in a cloak, was actually a girl.

"Now is not the time to be reckless, little girl," Solin frowned and advised. "If you push yourself too hard, you might die at the hands of some monster."

He still habitually used a lecturing tone, because you could tell from his voice that this guy, who was wrapped in a cloak, was at most a middle school student.

“So what… Everyone will die eventually, it’s just a matter of sooner or later…” The rapier’s voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, but Solin could still hear the despair and resentment in it. “More than a thousand people have died in just half a month. If this continues, everyone will die here. Reaching the top of the Floating City through the 100th floor… is impossible.”

"Ha, how do you know it's impossible?" Solin was amused by the girl's ridiculous argument. "Saying it's impossible without even trying is something only a coward would do."

However, the girl did not reply to him. After swaying a couple more times, she suddenly collapsed onto Kirito, who was watching the scene unfold, and then remained motionless.

"What's going on?" Kirito was completely dumbfounded. He had never imagined that an AR game could have such a ridiculous thing as dying from consecutive all-night gaming sessions. However, the guy in his arms hadn't turned into light and disappeared yet, so he probably hadn't died in reality, just fallen into a coma... maybe?

"Let's take her back to the village first, Sorin," Kirito suggested, gently placing the girl on the ground. "We can't just leave her here unattended."

"That makes sense, but I always feel like this kid is... kind of mysterious, not ordinary, has a story." Solin casually remarked, "Use a sleeping bag to exploit a weight-bearing bug, you lead the way, I'll clear the path, OK?"

"Um... I have three teleportation crystals here, how about we..."

"Try not to use TP if you can walk. TP is very useful in critical moments." Sorin shook his head and rejected Kirito's suggestion.

What is TP?

"Town Portal Scroll is an abbreviation for TP. This TP doesn't require a loading bar, which is much better than the one in DOTA2."

------

Tolbana Town is the closest town to the dungeon area where the boss is located. Two days ago, Sorin and Kirito arrived in Tolbana Town and found a place there that could be considered their temporary lodging.

In the town of Torbana, there are some NPC residences where players can stay, provided they pay a fee. This fee is relatively cheap compared to places like taverns, and often includes a certain amount of food. Kirito and Sorin are currently sharing a place that could be considered a guesthouse near the fountain square in the center of town. The mysterious rapier-wielding girl they rescued from the forest a few days ago is also temporarily staying there, but hasn't joined their party yet.

This story begins with their encounter in the forest. In fact, Sorin didn't take the girl back to the previous town; instead, he led Kirito straight to Torbana. Along the way, Sorin even faced a horde of several level 10 kobold sentinels and kobold geomancers, but the two still managed to fight their way out.

"Speaking of which, that time was really close. Several times you were down to single digits of health and you had to rely on healing potions to pull yourself back up." Kirito still looked shaken when he mentioned that breakout battle. "I was scared for you back then. Weren't you scared yourself?"

"Just kidding. When I was playing Diablo III in Expert Mode as a support Barbarian, there were far more dangerous situations than this, and I never even made it to the Temple." Sorin seemed completely unconcerned. "In fact, if you ignore the essence of this game and just treat it as an Expert Mode, it's not that scary. What seemed like a high-stakes game to you was actually all under my control."

"Okay, okay, you're better now..." Kirito muttered, then suddenly opened the window in front of him, seemingly chatting with someone. "By the way, have you received any strange private messages, like from someone..."

“Yes, that information broker named Argo said someone wanted to pay 30,000 for my 4S4Q (meaning sharpness and speed are each enhanced four times) katana, but I didn’t agree at the time.” Sorin nodded, then turned his gaze to the girl beside him who was still wearing a black cloak, “Asuna, are you still not planning to join my team?”

"..." Asuna shook her head in silence.

"By the way, Solin, I heard there's a meeting at 4 PM this afternoon to prepare for the first floor dungeon boss." After fiddling with the window in front of him for a while, Kirito casually closed it, turned to Solin and asked, "Want to go check it out?"

“Go ahead, why not?” Sorin retorted. “And Asuna, if you really intend to break free from the shackles called ‘self,’ then come and see for yourself.”

"If the first floor is conquered, your thoughts will probably change."

XI. The Stubborn Dreamer & War Conference

By this time, there were already quite a few people in the fountain square. Most of them were in small groups, sitting in a circle around the central fountain on the stone steps, while Solin and his two companions sat in a place far away from everyone else.

"Speaking of which, Sorin, how much do you know about Kayaba?" Kirito suddenly asked while waiting for the meeting to start.

"Why do you ask that? Do you really think I, a Chinese person, would know him?" Solin asked, somewhat puzzled.

“…Never mind, never mind.” Kirito sighed, then continued, “He used to be my idol. I once thought that Kayaba Akihiko, who created such a grand world, was the greatest person in the world, but now…”

“I think if he were truly great, he wouldn’t have chosen such an extreme way to prove his world,” Solin said, as if recalling something. “Based on my limited impression of him, he was probably a very stubborn dreamer.”

"You've seen him before?" Kirito asked, somewhat surprised.

"It was just a brief encounter. It was at the Kyoto GP in 2016, and he was my third-round opponent. I defeated him in both rounds with a single steelworker in four rounds. After the two rounds, there were still more than twenty minutes left, so I chatted with him for a while." After thinking for a while, Sorin found the only information he had about Kayaba Akihiko in his memory box.

—————May 2016, Kyoto——————

"So, when it comes to countering the Ironworks combo, Heavy Silence is a more scientific approach. However, you probably can't use a Shadow deck, Kayaba-san." Mo Yulan (Solin's original name) took her sideboard from the thick deck and spoke to the man in the white coat in front of her in broken Japanese mixed with English, "Speaking of which, when did you start playing Magic: The Gathering?"

"Back in 2005, during the Ravnica era. And Mo-kun, you should just speak in English, your Japanese is really..." Kayaba Akihiko adjusted his glasses and continued, "When I was very young, I imagined a huge city floating in the air, a city with many layers, each a different space. Later, I saw the design concept of Ravnica and felt that Ravnica Guild City was very close to my vision, so I looked into it more closely, and ended up falling into the trap without even realizing it."

"I see. That's quite a coincidence." Mo Yulan nodded, then turned her curious gaze to Kayaba Akihiko's white coat. "You always wear a white coat when you come to play cards. Are you a chemist or a doctor?"

"No, that's not it. I'm just a game designer. Dressing like this... it's more of a hobby than a hobby." Kayaba shook his head with a smile, denying Mo Yulan's guess. "I want to design a world even more magnificent than Ravnica and make it appear directly in people's eyes, even if it's in a game, even if it's virtual. This is... my dream, and it has always been this."

"What a magnificent dream indeed. Then I wish you success in creating such a magnificent world soon, and I will definitely be the first to experience it." Mo Yulan smiled, then solemnly extended her right hand and grasped the hand of the man in front of her. "By the way, Kayaba-kun."

Thank you.

------

"Later, Kayaba's record on the first day was 5-4, and he left the arena early. I still needed to continue the second day's matches, and I lost to Watanabe Yuya in the semifinals, finishing fourth. After that, I stayed in Japan for two days, but I never saw him again."

At the scene, the squad leader's heavy silence seemed to stick to his skin.

[On-site +1]

"A stubborn dreamer...?" Kirito muttered to himself thoughtfully, then began to check the number of players gathered there.

“I just checked, and there are forty-five of us in total, including the three of us. It seems that I overestimated their courage when I said there were two hundred,” Sorin joked. “Even Sparta had three hundred warriors, and we have quite a few. But it should be enough.”

"Enough?" Asuna asked in surprise. "This game is designed for ten thousand players. Are fewer than fifty people really enough?"

"Let me explain it to you like this, Asuna." Sorin covered his forehead helplessly, and then tried to explain the basics of raiding to this newbie. "Generally, a raid team can only have this many people at most. Any more than that would lead to problems such as poor command, poor coordination, and everyone fighting their own battles, which would be detrimental to the strategy. So this number is just right."

"Alright! Although we're five minutes late, it's about time to start!"

A shout suddenly rang out from the center of the square. Sorin looked closely and saw that the man standing in the center of the square was holding a kite-shaped shield, carrying a longsword on his back, and had a head of flamboyant curly hair dyed blue. He looked like a guy who was quite eager to attract attention.

"First of all, thank you all for responding to my call! Although some of you may have heard of me, let me introduce myself here. I am Diabel, and my profession is knight!"

"Why doesn't he just say he's Carmen coming to fight..." Sorin muttered to himself, but he didn't say anything and just sat there quietly watching Diabel show off.

"I don't need to explain why I've gathered you elites who are fighting on the front lines here!" Diabel ignored the murmurs from the onlookers below, which sounded like, "You really mean you're the hero, right?!" He suddenly stretched out his right hand, pointing straight towards the first level of the maze, and continued his imposing speech, "Today, our team found the staircase to the top floor in that tower, which means that tomorrow, or at the latest the day after, we will reach there—the first level's boss room!"

The players below immediately began to murmur amongst themselves, but this discussion didn't last long before it was interrupted by Diabel, who desperately needed such high morale. He raised his hands high, like Martin Luther King Jr. standing before the Lincoln Memorial.