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

163. Core Diviner Jinjitaxia

This is where the advantages of teamwork come into play. While Solin, lacking enemy detection skills, was indeed directionally challenged in the maze, fortunately, many members of the group possessed such abilities. After some searching, they concluded for Solin that the core area of ​​the Jinjita Tower was still quite a distance away.

"So that means every time we fight monsters, it's a bunch of Inspectors leading two or three Bonders and a whole bunch of Infiltrators," Solin suddenly said thoughtfully. "Looking at it this way, the blue zone, although it's simple, is really disgusting."

“Blue represents friendship, I thought you were used to it. And you should be glad they don’t have a double-body weapon.” Yura shrugged, looking indifferent. “Be content, now most people don’t have more than ten layers of infection on them, a little antidote will take them down.”

"The Twin Body technique has been banned, okay? Besides, this place is all solid colors, where would a Twin Body technique come from?"

"The spy was even taken into the dark room. Did you see it just now?"

“…Alright.” Sorin stopped dwelling on the issue and focused on finding a way. The only real threat these monsters that appeared was their teleportation ability itself; their combat capabilities weren't strong, at least not in a way that the current members of the Boros Order could easily handle.

During the subsequent advance, there were several more such surprise attacks. Although these attacks were easily dealt with, most members and all tank players had fifty or sixty layers of infection on them and definitely needed a break.

"We don't know the combat pattern of Jinjitaxia, so we can only figure it out slowly. Everyone, rest where you are and clear your infection debuffs."

Yura stood in front of the spire of the King's Tower, checked the infection levels of the team members, and then gave the order for the entire team to rest. Kirito unsheathed both of his swords and applied a special sword oil to them, while Sorin stood beside him, scribbling in his notebook.

"I still don't understand. I think this sword would be more useful if you used it." Kirito held up the Explainer sword, which he had just oiled, and turned to ask, "Is it because this sword has set bonuses?"

"Onyxia dropped two one-handed swords back then, and the other one holds more memories for me, plus the stats are pretty similar," Thorin replied without looking up, continuing to doodle in his notebook. "Besides, to be honest, my main weapon is still a katana, why would I need a one-handed sword? Speaking of which, have you found the other one yet?"

“Here it is. I found a player blacksmith and forged it using metal I got from the Steel Dragon’s Nest.” Kirito pointed to another white sword on his lap and continued to apply the sword oil from the bottle to it. “Actually, now that I think about it, all those fancy set bonuses are useless. Cooldown Reduction (CDR) and attack speed are still better.”

"Don't even think about it. There's no point in stacking CDR and attack speed. You already have too much CDR on your gear, and adding attack speed won't necessarily improve your stats." Solin advised earnestly. "Now that I think about it, your dual-wielding build is still better. Everyone sees my high DPS, but they don't think about how much effort I put into using my skills and how many swords I use. They only see the thief eating meat but don't see the thief getting hit."

This casual conversation continued for a while. Actually, Sorin had been wondering about one thing: where were Aizipetiari and Vanser, who had promised to help with the strategy? After resting for ten minutes, everyone's Infestation debuff had been reduced to single digits, so Yura stood up, walked to the front of the Jinjita Tower, and opened the door.

Solin looked into the hall and saw nothing but the scattered remains of fully evolved machines and some withered human corpses. The area boss, Jinjita, who should have been waiting in the center, was nowhere to be seen.

"Solin, where's the boss?" Yuna asked nervously, looking at the eerie and intimidating surroundings. Her voice trembled as she asked.

"Don't be afraid, this boss isn't strong. At least I think it's one of the two weakest of the five Demon Judges," Sorin gently comforted Yuna, while simultaneously drawing his Quel'Serrar and becoming wary of their surroundings. "Be careful, everyone! Jinjita Xia could appear anywhere at any time!"

No sooner had she finished speaking than a strange creature suddenly appeared in front of Asuna, its body curled up like a shrimp and covered in molten oil. It had a sharp head and long, thin, metallic hands that stretched out in front of it, which startled Asuna so much that she screamed and slashed at it with her sword.

“This is not the goal, but the process—the means to create the perfect Phrexia,” he hissed. “Looks like you haven’t given up yet, people of Mirodi. Who gave you permission to intrude into my tower?”

"Just because you've been tainted with a bit of Phrexia's aura and smoldering oil, you dare to claim you've inherited that magnificent floating city?"

A deep, disdainful baritone voice rang out from the back of the Boss's room. Thorin looked back curiously and saw a man in mage armor, his body radiating blue energy. Beside him stood a female warrior, also in armor, wielding a one-handed sword as ornate as Thorin's Quel'Serrar. These were Vanser and Azpetiri, who had been promised to assist the Boros Order in this campaign.

"Warriors of Mirodi! Be careful! Jinjitasha will seal your skills; this is his unique ability as a core diviner!" Vanser shouted a warning, then stood aside with Ai Zipei, not even bothering to move.

"This is called coordinated combat? Either of these two could at least have a Songwei ability!" Solin couldn't help but complain. After Vanser's reminder, a system notification flashed before his eyes:

During the raid on Jinjitaxia, all sword skills have a 10-second global cooldown (affected by CDR).

“I have foreseen your fate… though it is obvious.” Jinjitaxia seemed not to see Ai Zipei and Fanse, and continued to hiss at the players, “Accept the baptism of the molten oil, join Phryxia, or what awaits you… is like this pile of wreckage.”

The players present seemed to be frightened by the scene, which was filled with an even more decaying and deathly atmosphere than the previous corridor, and the shape of the King Tower. At this moment, only four people rushed up immediately—Sorin, Yura, Kirito, and Ivyxin.

164. The Chief of the Spire

When Solin first started speculating about Jinjitaxia's skills, he thought it would either be an aura version of Faceless Void's second skill from Dota 2, or it would be a skill with a global cooldown. Now it seems he was right. However, what Solin is currently facing is an even more troublesome problem.

That is, the weapon quick switching that comes with the [Weapon Master] skill is essentially a skill, and since it is a skill, it still has a 10-second global cooldown. In other words, if Sorin wants to switch weapons, he has to wait a little while and can't use skills in between, which significantly reduces his damage output.

"I feel like flipping the table right now, facing this pure blue, rotten Kang set." Solin said angrily. After the four of them rushed up, the other members of the strategy team followed suit and took their positions around Jinjitaxia, waiting for the tanks to draw aggro.

However, it's now very difficult for tanks to hold aggro. They either can't follow up with Shield Slam after taunting, or they use Charge first and then can't hold aggro. Only Yura's performance was relatively stable. He ran up, and the first skill he used was Shield Slam, followed by two thrusts with his rapier, which put him at the top of the aggro list.

“Stubborn ants…” Jinjitasha slapped Yura’s shield, leaving a striking black mark on it, accompanied by his whisper, “Perfection is the only path to excellence and perfection. You cannot understand this… trash! Truly trash!”

"Look how gratefully the world accepts our blessings!"

After Jinjitaxia finished speaking, six vibrating-wing aircraft suddenly flew out from the top of the spire, their buzzing sound almost piercing everyone's eardrums. These vibrating-wing aircraft also had the metallic sheen unique to molten oil, their bodies covered in thorns, and their skin was blue. After circling for a while, they rushed straight towards the people standing a little behind them, their movements so fast that no one could react in time.

"Ivy! Shoot them down!" Solin immediately ordered, "Be careful not to get hit by them!"

"Hmm." Ivy nodded, her wings instantly unfurling as she soared into the sky, engaging in a fierce aerial battle with the flapping-wing machines. Theoretically speaking, two of these fully evolved machines, technically known as [Spiky Winged Machines], could take down a little angel. However, this wasn't a game of chance but a real battle. With Ivy's almost bug-like combat prowess, taking on twenty, let alone two, wouldn't be a problem.

The entire team initially approached the battle with the expectation that they might die at any moment. However, after the fight had been going on for a while, they realized something was amiss. The boss was far too weak.

This is not an illusion; Jinjitaxia's attack capabilities should be rated as very weak. Although it has a particularly terrifying appearance, the sharpest part of its body is actually its cone-shaped head, and although its thin hands look scary, no one would think that those hands could possibly break through the players' armor.

Ten minutes into the battle, aside from summoning the Vibrating Wing twice, Jinjita Xia hadn't used any other skills—except for his constant chatter and verbal attacks. His health quickly dropped to the 70% mark, and based on past experience with bosses, he should be about to unleash a powerful attack.

"I despise Flinkai and his rambling talk about 'evolution.' Only I know the real process." Jinjitaxia flashed back to the center of the arena, raising his slender hands high and roaring, "For example, what you are about to see is one of my perfect creations—the Spire Overlord!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Thorin immediately looked up at the sky above the spire. Suddenly, one of the cage-like structures in the sky opened, and out emerged a sphinx-like monster with the body of a lion and the head of a human, and wings. He recognized this race—Sphinxes, or sphinxes for short—but they certainly didn't look like this:

The Sphinx, corroded by the scorching oil, had a metallic sheen and its shape resembled the sharp, thorny style characteristic of King Gitasha's creations, making it more like a bionic machine than a living being. However, Sorin knew that this was King Gitasha's specialty: to completely corrode living beings with the scorching oil, giving them the characteristics of mechanical beings, but still allowing them to retain a remnant of life.

You will have seven skills randomly disabled, which will last until the end of the battle.

The skills you randomly received are: Charge, One-Handed Sword Switch, Flail Switch, Insightful Slash, Demon Dance, Phantom Sword Dance, and Deceptive Charge.

"All tanks whose taunt skills aren't locked, put a mark above your head!" Sorin shouted hurriedly, seeing three or four marks appear instantly in his field of vision. He then marked Sphinx [Spire Overlord], who had descended from the sky and landed at the edge of the arena, with a red skull mark, and then shouted, "Kirito, bring a main tank and follow me to take down the Overlord first, don't let him stay on the field!"

However, it was too late, or rather, the effect of the Spire Commander's entrance was uncounterable. Sorin watched helplessly as twelve more Spire-winged aircraft swooped down from the sky. Even though Ivyhin managed to block some of them, three or four still scattered and flew into the center of the formation, instantly throwing the entire assault team into chaos.

"Yura, you don't need to move, just hold onto Jinjitasha! The rest of you, in squads, maintain a defensive posture and prioritize taking out the Vibrating Wingers! Then come and attack the Commander!" Sorin shouted again, "I'll say it again, clear out all the Vibrating Wingers, then Yura, hold onto Jinjitasha alone, and the rest of you attack the Commander! The Commander is stronger than Jinjitasha himself!"

He was right. This enormous sphinx, seemingly containing boundless power, was much more powerful than the tiny, shrimp-like Kingi-Tasha. Its huge wings flapped incessantly, and the powerful wind pressure made it difficult for Kirito and Sorin to open their eyes, and they even had the illusion that they were having difficulty breathing.

"Kirito, do you remember the first time we teamed up?" Sorin looked at the somewhat familiar scene and suddenly sighed, "It's been over a year..."

"Why are you suddenly bringing this up?" Kirito looked at Sorin with a puzzled expression, seemingly unable to understand why he would suddenly say such a thing.

"It's nothing, I just suddenly feel like time is passing very quickly."

166. Stop, Commander (Bonus Chapter 46/75)

As it turned out, the decision to take down the relatively weaker Demon Judge, Kingitasha, first was incredibly wise. On the second day, when they set off to take down another relatively weak Demon Judge—the Hidden One, Wabas—Sorin discovered that Wabas's area was virtually identical to Kingitasha's, except that the scenery had changed from a cold, mechanical laboratory to a furnace. Both the mobs and the boss mechanics were exactly the same.

"We can now make a bold guess: the monster lineup in each area consists of the Overseer of that area's color, a monster with the Infectious ability, the Fusionist of that color, and his golem. The Boss's mechanics are that it summons a group of mechanical creatures every 10% of its health, summons an Overseer every 30% of its health, and in the final wave, it blows up its own oil pipes and launches a map-wide attack. That's roughly it."

This is what Sorin said at the strategy meeting for Flinke in Hunger Voice. During the battle against Flinke in Hunger Voice, Sorin was again annoyed by Flinke's special effect: "In this battle, all your sword skills have infinite cooldowns." Even a player like him, who had ten times more sword skills than others thanks to his Weapon Master skill, found himself in the awkward situation of all his skills going on cooldown and being forced to use basic attacks towards the end, reminding him of the fear of being dominated by the Return to Simplicity.

A week had passed since they began their quest for the fiftieth floor of the labyrinth. Currently, the Boros Order faced two demonic judges—the Archmage Eleon and the Whisperer Sioure, one black and one white—as well as the final boss—the crazed Cain. Sorin had initially wanted the team to rest for a while, but under Yura's repeated urging, the Boros Order, having fought for a week, once again gathered in the Mirodi meeting hall for a strategic meeting to plan their attack on Archmage Eleon.

“I must remind you, Yura, you should let the brothers rest.” Sorin raised this issue again before the campaign. “Taking down three powerful demon judges in a week is already a quick result. What we need to do now is to proceed steadily and surely, rather than launching such a hasty campaign.”

“No, Sorin, we don’t have much time left.” Yura gave Sorin a meaningful look and then said, “Keep going. I believe everyone can persevere, just as we two are.”

“…If you insist on doing this, then continue.” Solin shook his head, sighed, and sat back down in his seat.

"It's okay, Sorin, I can still manage." Yuna held Sorin's hand and said softly, "And... don't worry, I believe they can do it."

“Okay.” Solin said these two words as if he had used up all his strength. He lay on the table, closed his eyes, and didn’t care at all about what Yura had said on stage.

Seeing Sorin like this, Yuna gently placed his head on her lap and then stroked Sorin's silver hair with her left hand.

"You've done enough, take a break."

That's what she said, but Suolin didn't respond. For a moment, all that could be heard on their side was Suolin's faint but steady breathing; she seemed to be asleep.

"As Solin mentioned earlier, the Grand Monk Eleonon can simultaneously amplify friendly forces and weaken enemies on the battlefield. Unlike the previous Demon Judges, she doesn't have all sorts of strange mechanics; she's just testing our raw strength. And we, at the top of all players, are not afraid of this kind of battle."

Having said that, Yura stood up, raised his shield, and shouted:

"Then let's all set off. When we finish conquering this floor and have a victory celebration, I don't want anyone to be absent, understand?"

"understand!"

The shouts continued, deafening, but apart from Yuna, no one else heard the faint voice coming from the back of the hall.

"Damn it, who did I offend to deserve this noise? I'm getting up..."

------

Sorin had a vague sense that something was wrong. When they arrived at the white area—the gate of the annex—they found that the originally pure white gate was now stained with some black. Not only that, inside the annex, he also saw monsters like the [Rutu Otaku] and the [Sioire Scythe Hand], which should have appeared in the black area—the Manfi Swamp.

The Scythe-wielding monsters are extremely troublesome. When attacked, they will inflict a contamination debuff on players by spraying molten oil from their bodies. Furthermore, as their name suggests, these monsters are direct subordinates of Theoretical, yet this is a detached mansion, the territory of the high priest Eleon.

“I don’t believe two demon judges who are obsessed with color could be so close that they allow each other’s troops to be stationed on their own territories. There’s definitely something wrong with that,” Sorin said to Yura after drinking another bottle of antidote and retreating to the rear.

“That’s right, but there’s another possibility. After all, the Demon Judge is just one of Kahn’s subordinates.” Yura pondered for a moment and replied in a deep voice, “So the worst-case scenario is that Kahn arranged for both Theore and Eleonon to be stationed in this area to block our advance.”

"Although it's incredible, this deduction seems quite plausible." Sorin thought carefully about what Yura said and then silently made a mental note of it.

The scythe-wielding monster, which could be described as a nuisance, successfully hindered the raiding team's progress. This time, it took them a full two hours to advance from the entrance of the villa to the gate of the inner courtyard, stopping three times in between. The team members all looked exhausted.

"Yura, find a safe zone for everyone to rest, or go back the way we came. We can't fight the boss in this state, especially with those two strongest judges possibly joining forces to block us."

Suolin stood in front of the gate to the inner courtyard, his tone quite serious, and with an air of authority that left no room for refusal.

“…You’re right, Sorin, let everyone rest for a bit.” Yura glanced back and saw that the team members’ mental state was indeed not good. The few who were in good condition seemed to be just putting on a brave face. So she had no choice but to agree to Sorin’s request. “The safe zone is right in front of the Boss area. Let’s rest here. We’ll start the raid on the Grand Monk Eleon in two hours.”

Suolin finally breathed a sigh of relief. He walked to a corner, let Aiweixin sit on his lap, and then quietly pulled up his live stream page and sent a private message.

[SorinMarkov: How much time do you have left? Didn't you say it would be soon?]

167. Three girls with the surname Ai appearing on the same screen.

"Please wait a moment. We have located Kayaba Akihiko's location, and the action team is on their way."

Two hours later, when Sorin finally received Grace's reply, Yura had already pushed open the gate leading to the inner courtyard of the annex. And just as the last person stepped into the Boss's room, the black and white door suddenly slammed shut with a loud bang that sent a chill down one's spine.

"The door... is locked?" Sorin looked back and tried to push the door twice. The heavy force coming from it told him that it was impossible for a player to open the door with their own strength.

He looked towards the center of the arena and received his second piece of bad news so far. A black, unidentified creature with scythe-like legs and a veiled face stood together with a woman whose head was also scythe-like and whose waist was covered by a red silk ribbon. They were both looking at the somewhat bewildered members of the Poros Order.

"This is the worst news we've come this far, warriors of Mirodi. Under Kahn's orders, Theori and Eleonon have temporarily set aside their differences as judges and joined forces to stop you. Don't worry, Vanser and I will assist you in this battle. Fight with all your might!"

After delivering his long speech, Ai Zipei, who was standing at the back of the group, raised his long sword and charged straight at Elena with swift and unstoppable steps, slashing at her with his sword.

"The people of Gittasha are spreading rumors about other worlds. If they do exist, we must show them the magnificence of Phryxia." Eleonon defended against Ezpe's attack while reciting her lines according to the system's settings. "It is said that you come from the lower realms, so you can be considered people from other worlds. It's just a pity that you shouldn't have intruded into the annex."

"No need to waste words with them, just kill them all!" Theore said impatiently, waving her scythe-like feet, before rushing towards the raiding party.

During the battle against Eleon, all your attributes decrease by 20%, while all monsters' attributes increase by 20%.