A journey to another world starting from a sword

"...?" Dante glanced at the slightly flustered girl, reached out and placed his hand on her head, ruffling it. "Let's go back."

"it is good!"

Back at the hotel, after saying goodnight to Silica, Dante went into his room alone.

Instead of immediately disarming himself, he drew the sword from his back; the weight of the sword always made him feel at ease.

He then began practicing the swordsmanship he had learned the day before.

The sword glided slowly like liquid as the wrist and arm twisted, the whole movement was very smooth and graceful.

Its characteristic is rotation, rotation, yielding to and utilizing the inertia of the body and the sword.

This is a swordsmanship that relies on the inertia of rotation to enhance the slashing motion of the sword. It combines elegance, speed, and practicality. When truly wielded, it is as graceful as a dancer's, with each strike being deadly and swift.

"Pirouette swordsmanship," Cardinal named it.

The name itself suggests that this is a highly skillful sword technique, and in this game world where strength and agility are parameterized, it is precisely this kind of skill that he lacks.

Visually, it's somewhat similar to Geralt's swordsmanship in The Witcher, but it's definitely more than just what's shown in the games and TV series; the style is indeed the same.

Based on this, it has now become a real swordsmanship.

This sword technique is just right for beginners; it doesn't require any aerial or hovering movements, making it a true ground-based sword technique.

Yesterday, when he chose to learn this swordsmanship, some new "knowledge" suddenly flashed into his mind.

At that time, Dante was able to recognize that this was a complete sword technique, and as he recalled it, it kept replaying in his mind.

But no, it's just a memory, it's a very strange feeling.

To learn something, one usually needs to go through three steps: memorization, understanding, and application.

Memory and understanding usually happen together. While memorizing, people have already understood part of it through contemplation, while the other part requires continuous thinking.

However, he only memorized the sword technique. To truly master it, he would need to constantly "recall" and practice it.

As the fluid swordsmanship swung towards a certain point, Dante frowned.

"wrong."

Despite slowing down, the muscles in my wrists and arms were clearly not used to certain angles of movement, and I made several incorrect sword swings.

This is because the muscles and nerves involved in this part have not been trained in this area.

Even in the game world, his real body is still influenced by the habits he has in his memories.

Although my body has been strengthened, which should have reduced the impact considerably, I still felt a bit awkward when wielding the sword.

Of course, strictly speaking, this sword technique is wrong from the very beginning, starting with slowing down.

Each strike needs to be accelerated and swung down with more force, rather than distributing the speed evenly. Fluid movements are good, but there should be fast and even faster movements. This sword dance cannot only be beautiful, but also deadly.

Dante stopped his sword and glanced in the direction of Silica's room next door, thinking that she must have fallen asleep due to exhaustion from the day.

On the way back from dinner, he could see the fatigue on his face.

Although he had considered having Silica practice swordsmanship with him at night, he was ultimately not that kind of devil.

Driven by her own ambition, and with her strengthened body able to withstand such intense combat and training, Silica was pushing herself too hard.

Let's wait until we get to the higher floors and the pace slows down before considering it further.

In fact, even with Silica's talent, it would have been difficult for her to become a top-level player, even if he had taught her from the beginning.

Pity.

Chapter 14: This won't do.

"It's a bit cold."

On a cool morning, Silica breathed on her palms to warm them, and followed Dante step by step toward the West Gate.

"After all, it's November, and the weather in the game changes according to the month."

Dante walked down the street, looking left and right. They were walking on the main road of the "Town of the Beginning".

Even though it was only a little past seven o'clock, there were already quite a few players on the street.

From the moment they started, Dante and Silica's attention was inevitably drawn to the players in front of them.

The two tall, thin men on the left are... somewhat like the minor villain "Kladier," they look like shabby people who are obviously not good people, and they exude an aura that keeps strangers away.

But more importantly, there was a fat player on the right. His presence made it impossible for any player on the street to look directly at him, yet they still wanted to take another look, simply because...

He... he's wearing pink, girly women's clothing, isn't he?!

“…” Silica quietly tugged at Dante’s sleeve, bringing the two a little closer.

Dante understood the message in Silica's eyes and nodded solemnly.

"Ok!"

It's obvious that this is a player who wanted to create a female character in the game, but Kayaba Akihiko saw through their intentions.

In SAO, skirts are skirts and pants are pants. Even male players can wear skirts without any problem!

However, if there are no special fetishes... the person in front of you is probably a player who doesn't have enough money to change their equipment and can only voluntarily wear women's clothing.

Hopefully... his name isn't so awkward.

Dante could only silently bless him in his heart, saying, "Amen."

The shout of "Amen" made the chubby player in the pink-clad girly outfit pause briefly, gazing heavily at the sky before taking another step.

When Dante and Silica returned to their original training area, they could see quite a few players on the grassland, a stark contrast to the scattered figures they had seen in the distance before.

More and more players began to try hunting outside the "Starting Town".

Left with no other option, they began to walk further away to avoid being disturbed.

By noon on the second day, Silica had finally reached level two, while Dante's level remained at almost level three.

Following Dante's advice, Silica then allocated all her attribute points to Agility, which would allow her to run faster in dangerous situations. Moreover, short swordsmen are unlikely to engage in direct combat, and their attacks are primarily focused on dealing critical damage. Therefore, she should also choose more options related to critical hit rate in the subsequent sword skill proficiency branches.

Just to be on the safe side, Dante decided to go to Horuka Village the next day, so that Silica would have another afternoon to hone her combat skills.

Even so, Silica still only dared to attack the monster from the side, using her short sword to stab its side and belly, and seemed to lack courage in frontal combat.

He could tell that Silica was very nervous in the face of the "hungry wolf" charging towards her; the "hungry wolf" was another kind of monster that lived on the grassland.

The dropped "hungry wolf skin" could probably be made into leather equipment, but unfortunately they don't have the time or resources to learn life skills right now, so they can only sell it.

However, judging from the drop rate, the purchase price in the future should not be very high.

Upgrading and using the more Cor obtained from killing stronger monsters to buy these material items would be a more efficient approach for them.

-----------------

With a roar, the sword, glowing with blue light, sliced ​​through the air, leaving a red gash that ran the length of the wolf in front of it.

Then the HP bar above "Hungry Wolf's" head rapidly decreased, turning from yellow to red, and finally disappeared completely, then turned into fragments and dissipated in the air.

It was the morning of the third day, and Dante and Silica were traveling together on the grasslands northwest of the "Town of Beginnings".

"This one's taken care of too." A girl's voice came from not far away. Silica had single-handedly dealt with the lone hungry wolf next to her.

"Hmm," Dante replied, and after confirming that there were no monsters around, he sheathed his sword on his back.

In the distance of the grassland, a thick green line can be faintly seen, which must be the forest.

Having confirmed their next destination, Dante smiled easily at Silica, who had walked up to him, and said, "We can see the forest now, let's go."

Then again, there's nobody here, he thought to himself.

We've been walking for about two hours. At first, there were more players near the "Starting Town" than yesterday, but now we can't see anyone at all.

However, it is understandable that ordinary players or closed beta testers with specific goals will stay near the "Starting Town," while closed beta testers who want to monopolize resources will move directly to the next stronghold for the sake of efficiency.

On this vast grassland, if you run at full speed for 10 minutes, you'll disappear from sight completely.

Dante and Silica continued running along the road toward the forest ahead, and luckily, no more monsters blocked their way.

Upon reaching the edge of the forest, the two paused for a moment.

"Is that village in this forest?" Silica murmured uncertainly.

“Well, it’s not usually that easy for players to find it.” With that, Dante opened the map. The explored map splits into two roads, one to the northeast and one to the northwest, starting from the “Starting Town”, but the roads end on the way to “Horuka Village”.

The point of interruption is also where they are now; the rest of the area is for them to explore.

If Mitt hadn't given him the general route, they would have spent another day or two in this labyrinthine forest before reaching their destination.

As dusk approached, the setting sun cast a blood-red glow across the sky, its afterglow illuminating every inch of the forest and gilding the verdant canopies with a golden edge.

The gaps between the leaves cast dappled light and shadow, as if time had stood still here, quiet and solemn.

The shadows of the trees sway gently, and the wind blows softly, bringing rustling leaves like a natural lullaby.

As darkness fell and the light in the forest shifted, Dante and Silica finally arrived at Horuka Village.

They stood at the entrance of this small village, which consisted of only a dozen or so houses and shops, and quickly looked around.

The colorful cursors that appeared in the field of vision all had the NPC tag, but... that doesn't mean they were the first players to arrive here. There must have been other players who arrived here long ago.

Most of the players who got here first are probably closed beta testers, and they're probably busy fighting monsters in the training area.

There must be a hardcore gamer like Kirito among them. It would be best to meet him now, as he currently knows almost nothing about Horuka Village.

Although I asked Mitt, he didn't know much either. It's probably because he didn't use this place as a base for long-term activities during the closed beta.

The two strolled around the village of Horuka, which was surrounded by dense forests. To the east were pastures, to the south were fields, and to the north were orchards. Only to the west was there nothing.

Meanwhile, small man-eating monsters that inhabit the forests to the west seem to occasionally roam near the village, attacking villagers and livestock.

Does it really happen?

At least that's how it's set up in the background, and it seems that there are occasional instances in the game where monsters enter the town and are dealt with by the guards.

Then they confirmed once again that they were the only two people left in the entire village of Horuka.

They found a weapon shop in the small square and bought a set of starting equipment that was beyond the beginner's level.

Dante bought a lightweight leather armor and a brown leather half-body coat. Since the durability of his two-handed sword had dropped by more than half, he took the opportunity to exchange it for a "steel greatsword" sold at the weapon shop here. Just in case, he even spent more than three thousand Cor to buy two of them.

Silica's short sword didn't need replacing, so the village blacksmith polished it to restore its durability.

SAO weapons can be upgraded, and the upgrade parameters are divided into five categories: Sharpness, Quickness, Accuracy, Heaviness, and Durability.

Weapon performance enhancements can be performed at will by commissioning NPCs or by players with blacksmithing skills. However, different special enhancement materials need to be submitted according to the parameters that need to be improved, and like other games, there is a certain failure rate.

Whenever a successful enhancement is achieved, a number such as +1 or +2 will appear after the item name in the equipment slot.

More detailed information will only be available after clicking on the equipment to view the details, which parameters have been specifically enhanced.

After asking the village blacksmith, it turned out that the material Silica needed to enhance the sharpness of her short sword was "wolf fangs," and she had already obtained enough of this material by killing wolves on the grassland.

With a success rate of 90%, Silica didn't hesitate and proceeded with the enhancement, and unsurprisingly, it succeeded.

Judging from this, collecting the materials later will take a lot of effort. Currently, there are no player-run shops, and NPC shops most likely won't sell these materials.

Once you level up, you upgrade your equipment; once you have better equipment, you level up again. That's the essence of RPG games.

"Let's take on all the tasks in the village first," Dante said to Silica, who already knew what to do.

"it is good."

SAO missions are broadly categorized into raiding, errand running (collection), escort, and puzzle-solving.

In places like Horuka Village, most of the quests are of the type that require you to "defeat a certain number of monsters" or "collect a certain number of materials".

Of course, there are also very rare quests, one of which is "The Secret Medicine of the Forest".

The event can be triggered by talking to an NPC who looks like a "village auntie" stirring a pot in the kitchen, inside a house deep in the village.

The content is that her daughter is seriously ill, and even cooking commercially available herbs for her is ineffective; that's what she's cooking right now.

The medicine for treating the disease can only be obtained from the ovules of a predatory plant that inhabits the western forests, but that plant is quite dangerous and flowering individuals are even rarer.

If the player helps her retrieve the medicine, she will give the player a longsword passed down from her ancestors, as well as a generous amount of experience points, a fixed value that ignores the experience gain multiplier.

For other players using one-handed swords, the most important thing would probably be the sword that is said to be an heirloom, but Dante values ​​experience points more.

Anyway, they'll be hunting monsters around Horuka for the next few days, and killing hundreds a day will likely be the norm. They might even get some rare quest items along the way.

So Dante led Silica toward the deepest part of the village.