A journey to another world starting from a sword

Although it is called "Dragon", the monster that actually enters the cage through the passage is a sub-dragon, which is completely unrelated to the giant dragon. It is unknown whether the ancestor of the earth dragon was a real giant dragon many generations ago.

Because Western dragons are sometimes derogatoryly called "big lizards," the dinosaurs are actually quite similar in lineage to earth dragons.

The cage was barely big enough to contain the two enormous monsters, so before the countdown even began, the two monsters broke through the central fence and started fighting head-on.

This ignited the audience, who erupted in excited roars.

Since the match barely complied with the arena's own rules—that the monsters were to fight within the arena's cages—the competition continued.

The two large monsters charged straight ahead in the same line, their heads colliding violently.

Despite the absence of any special attack, merely a simple collision, a fiery red special effect light erupted, followed by a powerful shockwave that even caused the marble floor to tremble violently.

It's so scary.

Sitting on the platform watching, Dante felt that if he were faced with such a charge, he wouldn't even think of blocking it head-on.

As the battle progressed, it became clear that the dire lizard was at a disadvantage because it did not have horns as hard as its opponent's. It then tried to use its unique strength—serrated teeth—to tear at the earth dragon's throat.

As a result, they were all pushed back by the opponent's huge horns. In such a small space, the dire lizard's advantage was not obvious, much like a duel between a short sword and a long spear.

Ultimately, the earth dragon's savage charge tore a huge wound in the lizard's abdomen, and after a series of injuries, this devastating blow was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

The lizard turned and fled, and the casino's animal trainer immediately directed his staff to stop the competition from proceeding further; the outcome was already decided.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa!!!" A deafening cheer erupted in the arena. Even those who had lost money probably stood up and applauded this powerful and violent match.

Back in the recreation room on the first floor, Asuna and Mito stood on either side of Dante with serious expressions.

"Don't worry, even if they find out, at least with so many customers around, they won't deny it," Asuna reassured her. "Casinos also have to keep their word."

"Ah, Asuna truly lives up to her reputation as the daughter of a merchant," Mito teased slightly.

"Hmph, the shrine maiden really doesn't even know this," Asuna retorted in a small way.

"Alright, merchant girl and shrine maiden, let's talk later." After receiving news that Argo had left the Grand Casino, Dante said to the two of them, "Let's take the chips and go exchange them first."

"Hurry up." Asuna urged, suddenly realizing what was happening, and nudged Dante's lower back with her soft left hand.

He took a bunch of glittering VC chips worth 10,000 each from his inventory and placed them on the counter with a "bang!"

The voices of the NPC guests who were gambling in the entertainment room gradually quieted down, followed by a low murmur.

Even the older woman behind the counter froze for a moment, but quickly resumed her glamorous, business-like smile.

"Would you like to redeem a prize? Which item would you like to exchange for?"

Meanwhile, several casino NPC waiters scattered in the corners quickly ran outside. Dante and his companions couldn't stop them, but who knew what these people were going to do?

"First, bring me that 'Sword of Worubda'," Dante said, pointing to the top of the display case.

"Ahem..." Asuna cleared her throat, unfolded the prize booklet next to the chips, and used her slender finger to point from the left to the right, reading out the names of each item.

Last night, they had specifically calculated that their current resources were enough to clear out all the unique items in the display case. In addition to some rare items such as the rarely used Grade A wood, she listed the materials such as cloth, leather, and metal.

She recited it for three minutes straight, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, the NPC older sister stood there smiling as she listened to Asuna's words, though her smile was extremely blank, probably because the other party didn't have any bad intentions.

Only after Asuna finished speaking did the NPC lady bow deeply, revealing a rather impressive cleavage, and say, "Please wait a moment."

It's unclear what hidden button was pressed, but the huge display case made a heavy sound and began to descend, only stopping five seconds later when its bottom touched the floor.

The legendary artifact, "Wolbuda's Sword," was taken down by the NPC lady. She then sheathed the gold, silver, and jewel-decorated sword into the scabbard held by her colleague, before raising the entire sword and turning back to walk towards Dante and his companions.

"This is......"

Asuna's murmurs reached Dante's ears, and upon seeing the entire sword, he was indeed taken aback by its magnificence.

As if responding to Asuna's exclamation, the NPC older sister bowed respectfully and lowered her head.

"This is the Sword of Worubda, please accept it."

Chapter 149: Golden Eyes

The moment Dante took over, applause erupted around him, no less than that from the underground arena earlier. Before he knew it, gamblers had surrounded the exchange counter in layers.

However, none of the three had any intention of smugly waving around. There was really no need to worry about any security issues now, as the casino owner would not do anything to damage the casino's reputation in front of so many guests.

However, the NPC staff took out the prizes at a leisurely pace, which made Dante, Asuna, and Mito fall silent for a moment.

The fact that Dante held the "Sword of Vorbuda" in his hand, a one-handed sword, was even lighter than the two-handed sword forged from durable metal on his back, was undoubtedly a bad thing.

Normally, the more powerful the weapon, the heavier it will be, and the greater the strength required from the player.

The sword in my hand doesn't feel like a divine weapon at all. So... it really requires the bloodline of the "Lord of the Night" to use properly?

Silently, she put the sword into her inventory. Asuna then acquired the second-ranked villa deed. Although Dante had told Asuna that they might not live in the house, a bright smile still graced her face.

Dante couldn't help but laugh too. Oh well... let her have some fun.

Over the next twenty minutes, the prizes were retrieved one after another from the display case or what they called the warehouse, and then handed over to Dante and his companions.

In order to take everything, they made sure to empty their inventory in the morning, and didn't take any extra items.

Even so, the weight of the backpack is gradually increasing, approaching the current maximum weight limit.

“My backpack is full,” Mitt said to Dante and Asuna after putting away the two-handed broadsword “War Sword” worth eight hundred chips.

"Mine is almost done too," Asuna said after glancing at the numbers below her inventory.

"Leave a little space, lest you accidentally exceed the limit and get the overweight debuff," Dante advised.

Hearing Dante's words, Mitt nodded with experience and said, "Indeed, if you stuff your backpack full, and a heavy item happens to drop when you defeat a monster, you'll be overweight immediately."

"I know," Asuna awkwardly indicated that she didn't need to be reminded; she still remembered this common-sense knowledge.

“Yes, yes,” Mitt chuckled.

"Next time, let's learn the 'weight limit expansion' skill too," Mitt sighed.

The maximum weight capacity is mainly affected by the Strength attribute. The only way to significantly increase this capacity is by learning a skill called "Weight Cap Expansion."

Because it's very practical, allowing you to carry more consumables like healing potions during battle, it's a skill that almost every combat-oriented player would consider learning.

"Hmm." After accepting the last item handed to him by the NPC, Dante put the remaining chips back into his inventory, closed the game window, and casually said, "Thank you."

After all, the other person's workload in a year might not be as much as it is today. No, to be honest, it wouldn't be wrong to say it's a lifetime's worth of work.

So the beautiful NPC ladies bowed again and then spoke in unison.

"We sincerely look forward to your next visit to the Worubda Casino."

No, I won't gamble here again next time. It's a pity I didn't get to experience the upstairs restaurant; that's something Dante is a little disappointed about.

"Let's hurry up and go," Mite said to the two people on his right, his tone somewhat urgent.

“That’s true.” Asuna, who also looked worried, nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's leave the casino first." After turning around, Dante reached out and pushed through the crowd of NPCs so that Asuna and Mito could catch up.

No matter what, this is their base of operations. Leaving as soon as possible is the right thing to do. The other side is probably already aware that they played a trick on them. Anyone who tries to be clever and considers themselves smart will be furious.

As the sweltering air rushed towards them and the coolness behind them gradually faded away, Dante, Asuna, and Mito breathed in the warm oxygen, as the casino atmosphere had indeed made it difficult to feel warm.

Just as they were about to cross the plaza in front of the casino, a loud "bang" suddenly came from behind them. When they turned around, they saw that the casino gate, which had been open since they entered Worubda, had been closed.

"What?" Asuna exclaimed in astonishment.

“Something’s not quite right,” Mitt said at the same time.

Dante and Asuna looked in the direction she was pointing at the streets of Worbda, only to find them completely deserted, as if the area had been cleared out, with not a single resident NPC in sight.

"What's going on?" Asuna nervously placed her hand on the hilt of the rapier.

"I don't know, I don't know if we can still leave the town." Mitt gripped the scythe in his hand and looked around.

"It should be a temporary lockdown. The streets can be cleared simply by notifying the city's residents to stay home." However, Dante had some doubts about leaving the town.

Because they did not break any laws, and in principle, players in the towns within the circle would not be harmed. Even if they sexually harassed NPCs, they would only be transferred to the prison in the Black Iron Palace.

However, there is one exception: triggering a quest storyline that leads to a malicious attack by an NPC.

"What should we do?" Mitt asked.

"Let's stick to the original plan." Dante shook his head. No matter what, the main street was the perfect option. They could reach floors that the NPCs couldn't access through the transfer doors, which was the safest way.

They then left the town without any hindrance, leaving Dante somewhat puzzled as to what the other party was up to.

The three moved swiftly along the beautifully paved road, but this was, after all, the main road outside the circle, and monsters would spawn from time to time on both sides of the road. One type of beetle-like monster with huge horns was particularly fast, forcing them to stop and deal with the monsters charging at them.

"If we keep dodging like this, it'll never end." Asuna couldn't bear it any longer and waited until the gun beetle got tired from its back-and-forth charges and slowed down before attacking.

So when the gun beetle charged again, exposing its abdomen, one of its vital points, Asuna seized the opportunity and, with a shout of "Hah!", stabbed its side with her rapier, finally interrupting the monster's repeated charging attacks.

"Aaaaaah—" Taking advantage of the opportunity, Mitt swung his large scythe and used a beautiful double-strike sword technique to cut a cross-shaped wound on the beetle's body.

Dante stood guard to the side, the flower-covered grassland offering a wide view, and he was sure he could spot anyone approaching immediately.

Unless... the other party is teleporting, but it is well known that Aincrad has no magic.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened: the grass on the ground to their left suddenly sprang up with a "snap".

"......!" Dante reflexively took two steps back, drew his sword, and watched as a spiraling vortex formed on the grass, like a small tornado.

This is absolutely not a phenomenon that should appear on a peaceful grassland.

"A new enemy has arrived!"

Upon hearing this, Asuna and Mito stopped executing the beetle, which was down to its last drop of health, and looked warily at the strange phenomenon on the grass.

The moment I saw a flash of dark light from within the vortex that had risen to about two meters, it was too late to make a sound.

The next moment, the tornado was silently split into two halves, and a deep red light attacked from within.

It was a sword technique, yet it was very familiar to the three of them. Dante immediately retrieved the relevant memories from his mind. It was the "Whirlwind" attack, a heavy-range attack from the katana family!

When the kobold lord used it, it crippled two squads with a single blow!

The unprecedented shock shattered my ultra-fast, fragmented thoughts into pieces.

Even with both swords in hand, Dante couldn't withstand the impact of the attack. Sparks flew before his eyes, and his body was involuntarily blasted away. In mid-air, Dante completed a recovery maneuver and landed in a defensive posture.

Despite having blocked the attack, Asuna and Mito still suffered considerable damage. They lost nearly 10% of their HP and were blasted five meters away.

"It's truly astonishing; I never expected anyone to be able to completely block that attack." The voice emanating from the thin lips was sharp yet sweet.

The tornado has disappeared, and the attackers have been identified.

Her extremely slender body was encased in a tight-fitting, dark gray leather armor studded with rivets. Although her shoulders and head were hidden under a hood of the same color, her figure clearly indicated that she was female.

The weapon that was swung behind me during the attack was a katana, which is usually only available on the tenth floor. This was the second time I had seen this rare weapon.

As a superior weapon to the scimitar, its power should not be underestimated.

Even though his eyebrows didn't twitch beneath the hood, he could feel the icy eyes staring intently at him. The attacker then spoke cruel words in a rather monotone tone.

"What beautiful eyes... I want to destroy them completely."

Before the attacker, Dante's originally black eyes had turned into a dazzling gold, like the sun.

"Then why don't you give it a try?"

Chapter 150: Kaisara of Stripping Away

"By concentrating your mind to the limit, you can unleash hidden abilities."

This is the text description of "Awakening," the reward skill after reaching a proficiency level of 500 in "Meditation," although strictly speaking, it cannot be considered a skill.

When the "Target Acquisition" skill reaches a certain proficiency level, you can also gain "Tracking". Before that, when you reach 50 proficiency, you can choose between enhancements such as increasing the number of targets you can acquire or increasing the target acquisition distance. This remains the case when you reach 100 proficiency.

The same applies to swordsmanship; as your proficiency reaches a certain level, you will learn new skills.

The concept of "awakening" lacks a precise description, making it difficult to grasp its true effects solely through text.

But in reality, it is a prerequisite for learning all unique skills, a bug-level skill that only ten people in the entire game can obtain.

Furthermore, it seems to be able to draw out a very special ability in this world—"willpower," which is so powerful that it can even break the limitations of the game system.

Unfortunately, mental concentration is a piece of cake for Dante, who uses "meditation" instead of sleep. He easily used this power when he was fighting the sixth floor boss, and the color of his eyes changed accordingly, becoming the shimmering golden color he has now.

“A black cursor.” Mitt stood up with difficulty. “Dante, Asuna, this enemy is a little troublesome.”

Their levels far exceeded the security level for conquering the floors, not to mention they were among the top players. Even so, the cursor above their heads was still as black as dried blood.

"Hmm, it should be about the level of a mini-boss on the ninth floor."