A journey to another world starting from a sword

"Around what time did you come out?"

"Probably about five minutes," Dante shrugged. "At least Asuna is already preparing breakfast."

"So, do we still want to have a competition?" Leafa wasn't sure if the Night People really couldn't stand any sunlight, so she asked cautiously.

"Let's finish this quickly then." Dante decided to grant Leafa's request, took a wooden sword from his inventory, and issued a duel challenge.

Because of the difference in their levels, any sharp sword could instantly kill this fragile elven girl.

Leafa frowned when she saw Dante casually holding his sword with one hand, which was not a traditional swordsmanship stance.

"Th-what kind of move is that?" Faced with this unconventional situation, Leafa became serious and then pressed Yes before getting into position.

"We can attack anytime," Dante chuckled.

"Wow... you really have plenty of time!" Leafa exclaimed as she charged forward.

"Hand!" Leafa shouted instinctively, because in the competition, not shouting out meant you wouldn't get any points; it was practically muscle memory in her throat.

But... Dante seemed to have seen through her attack, and he moved his feet slightly, raising his wooden sword from below.

Although the speed wasn't very fast, it unexpectedly broke through her first attack.

This made Leafa reflexively move again; she stepped out with her right foot and shouted.

"noodle!"

It's too easy, even if the other party doesn't shout out their intention to attack.

"It's not a good habit to attack in a rigid, methodical way in SAO." After dodging the attacks with small movements, Dante casually swung his hand, interrupting Leafa's attack rhythm, and then used a horizontal slash to force her back.

"is it?"

The two switched positions, but remained in the same initial stance, facing each other.

Leafa felt her blood boil, experiencing a comfortable tension.

Kendo matches are often decided in just a few seconds, which Leafa finds incredibly boring at this moment.

She then unleashed a fierce attack with all her might, swinging her sword at a breathtaking speed.

Dante dodged all her attacks, thinking to himself: Excellent basic skills. Once she levels up, Leafa's strength may be second only to Asuna and Mito.

"Heh." He didn't intend to throw too many moves at her, and instead used the wooden sword he held in his right hand to fly towards Leafa's face.

Leafa twisted her neck and barely dodged the attack, but the offensive instantly reversed. The opponent kept swinging his sword, forcing Leafa to defend and even retreat.

"Boom."

"Huh?" Just as she was wondering, her back suddenly bumped into something—the wall!

"Bang." The sound of the wooden sword hitting the head and the onomatopoeic word were almost simultaneous.

The sudden impact startled Leafa, and she watched as the sword twirled in her opponent's hand before finally resting against her neck.

"...I lost." Leafa said, pursing her lips in resentment.

"I won," Dante said with a gracious smile, then turned and walked into the house. "Would you like to come in and wait for dinner?"

"..." Leafa put the knife on the ground, thought for a moment, and then shook her head, saying, "I'm still on my way to practice."

"I'll call you later." Dante stopped, turned around, and said to Leafa, tossing her what he was holding. "Here you go."

"What?" Leafa took it and saw that it was a bandage.

"Please wrap your chest up when you practice. Don't you feel anything when you exercise?" Dante's gaze shifted down to the girl's unrestrained feminine features.

“…Are you an idiot?!” Leafa couldn’t help but yell, instantly feeling her face burning.

Chapter 185: The Liberation of Desire

“The Knights of the Blood Oath have already explored the eleventh level of the labyrinth.” Argo tapped his plate with his fork at the table. “And this is only yesterday’s information; they didn’t sell me the map.”

“We’ve only reached the eighth floor so far.” Mitt rested his chin on the back of his hand. “In terms of progress, we’re half a day behind schedule.”

“No, it’s the tenth floor,” Dante corrected, referring to the floor he had reached the previous night.

“Hmm.” Argo nodded heavily. “In comparison, the Dragon Journey and the Sky Legion are progressing slower than us. I sold our map data to them yesterday.”

Judging from Argo's confident smile, he must have made a lot of money. This money will not go into the guild treasury, but will be used as Argo's funds to issue new strategy guides or newspapers, and to help lower-level players.

As for the progress of other player groups, it can only be said that most of them are exploring or fighting monsters at levels four or five, so they can't affect the overall progress of the strategy.

"The Knights of the Blood Oath are really going for it," Dante remarked. A normal strategy wouldn't be this fast; it must have involved working from dawn till dusk. The fact that they could endure such a high-intensity strategy suggests they have some kind of passion, such as the vision of becoming the number one guild in SAO.

"What should we do? Should we do something?" Asuna asked seriously.

Dante knew what Asuna meant and whether or not to compete with the Knights of the Blood Oath. If so, all members of the guild would need to move into the safe zone of the dungeon.

The current maze is quite different from the first ten floors. Starting from the tenth floor, not only is the AI ​​logic of the monsters more advanced, but the advantage of level is no longer obvious. This is because, with the experience gain rate decreasing, players can no longer maintain a level more than three times the recommended level for each floor.

This means that any major mistake could result in a total wipeout, so players must be extremely careful and proceed with caution.

It's common to spend four or five days navigating a maze-like floor; more is normal, and less is a pleasant surprise, indicating that the floor is quite easy.

At this point, the importance of equipment becomes fully apparent. For example, a powerful sword can be used by a player for more than twenty levels without any problem, and having a set of rare equipment that has been enhanced to the limit can allow the holder to maintain an advantage over other players for a long time.

After thinking for a while, Dante shook his head and said, "No, let's go at the normal pace. Let's give the Boss command this time. The priority now is to raise Leafa and Yuki's levels first."

As he spoke, he looked at Leafa with expectant eyes, "I just tested Leafa's strength. She has studied swordsmanship in real life. As long as she can raise her level, our guild will have another top-notch offensive fighter."

"Kendo, huh? I see." Everyone except Asuna knew, and Asuna had noticed it yesterday and asked Leafa about it.

"Huh?" Leafa was a little slow to react, as if she was still engrossed in what had happened that morning.

Rolling his eyes and ignoring her, Dante looked at Yuki and said, "I'm not quite sure about Yuki's strength yet, but there's no doubt that using a medical-grade Medicuboid for stealth, Yuki's level of stealth is higher than most of us. That's innate talent."

"I will try my best!" Yuki smiled brightly and clenched her fist to assure him.

"I'm looking forward to it." "Don't put too much pressure on yourself."

Dante and Asuna gave completely opposite answers at almost the same time, which left them looking at each other in bewilderment.

Dante clearly knew that Yuuki would become a master swordsman known as "Absolute Sword," so he believed Yuuki was capable of achieving it, while Asuna hoped that she would...

“That’s so nice, I’m so envious,” Lisbeth said nonchalantly.

“That’s nothing to envy,” Dante said, turning his head to the side.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry." Lisbeth clasped her hands together and apologized sincerely.

"It's alright." Yuki patted her chest, her angelic appearance bringing smiles to everyone's faces.

"By the way, speaking of stealth, should we use that?" Asuna suddenly remembered something and asked Dante vaguely.

"You mean..."

“Yes, that’s the one.” Asuna then looked at Mito. “I hope it’s okay to say it out loud.”

"Ah, um." Mito turned to look at Dante, and Asuna followed suit, as if to suggest that everyone should give it a try.

"You...you guys have been keeping it on the whole time?" Dante asked speechlessly. That "performance" mode would definitely increase the computational load of "NERvGear," and in reality, "NERvGear" might even get hot due to excessive computation.

If the two have been keeping it running since then, perhaps they have taken some kind of heat dissipation measures in reality, otherwise it is inevitable that some problems will occur.

"What kind of riddles are you two talking about?" Argo asked impatiently.

"That's it."

"Well, there is a method that can theoretically improve a player's strength, but how much it can improve depends on the player themselves," Dante explained.

"There's another way?" Lingyin asked in surprise.

“Yes, but this isn’t a conventional method.” Dante gestured to Asuna with his eyes.

"Well, actually there's a button called 'Remove Litigation Restrictions' in a corner of the game menu," Asuna said, blushing slightly.

Then she briefly explained the truth behind the low desire of SAO players (all male players had erectile dysfunction). The former game novice was now quite proficient in explaining the mechanism of "NERvGear" and the additional perception enhancement effect of this button in addition to its original function.

But it was clear that the people present were focusing on slightly different things. The first to ask was the astute Argo, "So, around when did Xiaoya turn on that LoveLove button?"

“…Ah, could it be…” Silica carefully scanned Dante, Asuna, and Mito.

"Ah!" "Could it really be?" "No way~"

"Don't make wild guesses!" Asuna's face flushed red as she stood up and slammed her hand on the table. "There's nothing there!"

"Um... so can we have sex in the game?" Yuki asked innocently, silencing everyone at the table.

"That is indeed its original function, but it's a pleasant surprise that its additional function can enhance combat power," Dante said, picking up where Asuna left off.

Even though Dante explained it in such a calm tone, the girls in the guild, unsurprisingly, all started to have all sorts of wild thoughts.

So where exactly is that button located?

This statement prompted everyone present to decide to give it a try, since there was no harm in it, right?

Aside from potentially causing some uncontrollable desires, it's hard to say that's a bad thing, especially since it seems to have little impact on girls.

On the contrary...

Argo joked with Dante, "Haha, the girls in the guild dress very lightly in the summer, be careful not to let your blood flow to strange places."

Chapter 186: Super Intuition

Ultimately, the command of the 29th floor boss raid was indeed snatched away by the Knights of the Blood Oath. In the past, any guild that had commanded the raid would have kept as many of the LA rewards as possible for themselves.

However, after a complete overhaul of the strategy team, the current rule is that the player who wins LA must compensate all the players present. If the winner gives up, the cost will be decided by dice, and the players who participated in the dice roll will bear the cost on their behalf.

This rule may be changed later, but for now, everyone feels that it is quite fair, at least on the surface, and everyone is quite satisfied.

The Knights of the Blood Oath were the ones who secured the Los Angeles reward this time. When Heathcliff led his squad to take the Boss's Los Angeles, he gave Dante a provocative smile, which Dante interpreted as meaning exactly that.

...He's really getting into it, isn't he, Kayaba Akihiko?

Just a few days after breaking through to the twenty-ninth floor, Dante led Leafa into the labyrinthine area known as "The City of a Thousand Serpents".

This is a castle that clearly incorporates Japanese elements, including the elite monsters inside.

"From here on, sword skills were no longer exclusive to players or NPCs. Those demi-humanoid monsters who could use sword skills and wield weapons no longer only accompanied the boss, but appeared in the dungeon, which slowed down the progress of the strategy at that time."

Behind him was Leafa, level 16. Dante strode onto the wooden floor and easily dispatched a monster with a casual wave of his hand.

They were currently in the depths of the maze, in the area where the samurai-type monster "Royal Guardian Serpent" spawned.

Hearing this, Leafa began to tense up, as if she were about to take an exam, especially as the cold wind in the space blew against her navel and slid down her exposed skin to the edge of her chest.

Woohoo!

"Wrap yourself up in your cloak, you idiot," Dante said without turning his head. "It's still quite cold inside the labyrinth."

"Okay." Leafa immediately did as she was told; the elven-style dress was far too revealing.

She originally intended to lead the way, but Dante told her not to waste her energy.

Until she reached a vast space, she saw a group of large, upright snakes dressed in samurai armor lurking among the stone pillars in front of her.

"So this time the main focus is on practicing techniques to deal with sword skills?" Leafa took a step closer to Dante, and then her trembling body gradually calmed down.

"Hmm, monsters don't behave like skilled PvP players; they have a set of behavioral logic. And I need to practice too..."

Dante gestured for Leafa to stay put while he walked forward.

Upon reaching the monster's detection range, Dante stepped in without hesitation and began to run at full speed.

When the first snake warrior hissed, he didn't slow down but charged straight after it, until he alerted all the monsters in the area.

Even Leafa was on tenterhooks while being chased by a group of monsters. It wasn't that she was worried about Dante's life; given the monsters' level, they couldn't do much damage.

Rather, the scene of being chased by a group of four-meter-tall monsters was simply too terrifying, much like being chased by ghosts in some horror movies.

"Watch out!" she shouted, putting her hands to her mouth.

"Do not worry."

After Dante responded briefly, he led the snake warriors to the center of the space, whereupon the monster's AI automatically detected and surrounded them.

Strictly speaking, the Snake Warrior is an elite monster, so there are only five of them in the entire space.

"Pay close attention to the monster's attack patterns," Dante instructed Leafa.

To Leafa's surprise, she didn't see Dante draw his sword; instead, he calmly faced the monster.