A journey to another world starting from a sword

“Hmm…” Argo hesitated for a few seconds, which was unusual for him. “It’s a little difficult to demonstrate here.”

"In two minutes, Asuna's ownership will be lost," Dante warned.

Argo chuckled mischievously upon hearing this, putting his hands behind his head. "That's terrible! Ah! There's a deserted alley over there, why don't we go there for the demonstration?"

“Okay.” Asuna agreed without question.

Mitt, who was following behind, narrowed his eyes and thought to himself, speechless, "What are these two doing?"

It wouldn't matter if they demonstrated it at the hotel later, but she vaguely remembered the method Argo had described...

Once inside the narrow alley, Argo stood in front of Asuna. "Asuna, call out the window first, then switch to visual mode!"

Asuna's slender fingers pressed the buttons continuously as Argo instructed, and after three or four windows were stacked, the target button finally appeared.

“And then there’s this button that makes all the items physical.” Argo pointed to it.

Guided by Argo, Asuna tentatively pressed the small button with her finger.

When the YES/NO dialog box appeared before him, Argo raised his right hand and said, "As long as you press this button, Dante's rapier will appear right at your feet."

Paji.

As Asuna pressed the button, something suddenly occurred to her.

"Hmm? All... props, you mean materializing all props? To what extent?"

Upon hearing the question, Argo exclaimed "Ah la la!" and answered with his hands on his hips and head held high.

"Everything, that is, completely! Everything in the inventory!"

The next instant, all the text representing the names of the items that were lined up in Asuna's inventory disappeared.

Then, accompanied by various crackling and clattering sounds, the objects fell from the air in order from hard and heavy to light and soft.

At this moment, all the items in Asuna's inventory materialized on the ground of this quiet alley, piling up into a spectacular little mountain.

"Wh...wh, wh, wh...!" He was so frightened that he leaned back and exclaimed in surprise, unable to utter a complete word.

The capacity of the inventory depends on the player's Strength (STR), proficiency in the capacity expansion skill, and the bonuses from various magical items.

But there were far too many materialized props in front of him. Mitt glanced at them and realized that there were probably two to three times as many as he had.

Because capacity is calculated by weight, not by units or volume.

Metal armor and heavy weapons, or potion bottles filled with liquid and metal currency like Cor, will take up a considerable amount of space in your inventory.

With the same weight, more leather and cloth armor, food, and miscellaneous items such as scrolls can be stored.

Since Asuna's level is still quite low, her attributes are mainly focused on increasing agility, and she doesn't have any extra skill slots to learn expansion skills.

So that's why she has so many props...

The crowd stared at the mountain of props that was about one and a half meters high. Metal equipment was at the bottom, followed by leather, then clothing of various colors, and the thickest layer on top was made of white and pink underwear.

Mito covered his face and shook his head helplessly. He had told Asuna before not to buy things that were unrelated to the strategy, but now their top priority was to survive.

The rapier in his hand vanished in the blink of an eye. Dante looked at his empty palm and thought, "It really is gone."

“Of course.” Argo, the culprit, chuckled.

However, she had no idea what awaited her...

"I...I'm telling you! Miss Argo?! Do you...want to die? Or do you want to be killed...?"

A trembling voice suddenly came from behind him, and the gloomy tone made Argo's body shiver involuntarily.

Oh dear, this joke has gone too far.

“How could that be!” she argued.

Seeing Asuna's eyes, which seemed to be contemplating how to kill him, Argo immediately cast a pleading look at Dante.

Well, isn't this just reaping what you sow?

Dante rolled his eyes slightly, but decided it was best to help her anyway, in order to get something in return.

With his sharp eyes, he spotted the hilt of a rapier hidden at the bottom of the prop mountain. He then crouched down, grabbed its green scabbard with both hands, and dragged it out from the bottom of the mountain.

However, it seems he used too much force, causing the hill to collapse.

Cloth items of varying sizes floated down, some landing directly on his boots.

"..." He pretended to be a gentleman and then picked up the light pink triangular piece of fabric covering his shoes and put it back on the collapsed hill.

"I...I'll talk...?"

Seeing Asuna's face flushed with anger, Dante calmly raised his Wind Flower Sword and said, "It has indeed been retrieved."

"Whoosh~" Argo whistled lightly, praising Dante's seemingly daring behavior, "As expected of you, Dante."

"You, you two...you two need to reflect on your actions!!!"

The two were severely reprimanded afterward.

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

"Ugh, Yaya's so scary," Argo and Dante muttered quietly as they walked at the back of the group.

"Isn't that because you made her angry?" Dante said with amusement.

“But Dante, you didn’t lose out either, did you?” Argo pouted and glanced at him sideways.

“I…” Dante tried to retort.

"Hmm?" Asuna, who was walking at the front, suddenly turned around, and the two of them abruptly shut their mouths.

When they arrived at the square, Nezha's stall was still there, perfectly intact.

Because it appeared to be unmanned, passing players ignored it and didn't pay much attention.

"What should we do with all this stuff?" Asuna knew that Nezuha had given all of these things to Dante, including a portable furnace, a leather bag containing casting blocks, a smelting hammer, and other blacksmithing tools... but no one of them knew how to use them.

"Hmm... anyway, let's put them away for now." After confirming that no one was around, Dante turned off the fire in the fireplace, carefully arranged the items on the carpet, stacking them up in two layers, and then pressed a button in the corner to bring up the menu.

There is an option called "Storage" at the top. After pressing it, the blanket rolls up while swallowing the items piled on it, and becomes a tube in less than a few seconds.

The "vendor's carpet," a magical artifact, retains its weight regardless of how many items it contains.

"Are you going to sell them?" Argo asked casually from the side. "I can find buyers, but since these things can be bought on the market, they won't be more expensive than the market price. You should be prepared to lose some money."

"Oh, that's such a waste," Silica muttered, unable to bear seeing the losses.

"Well—" Argo shrugged, that's just how it is, "You can keep it for yourselves if you want. But you don't plan to be merchants or artisans, do you?"

Indeed, their limited skill slots were already filled with various skills, making it difficult to leave any room to learn trading or metallurgy-related skills.

“However…” Mitt said at this point, “as you go further up, the gap between NPC blacksmiths and player blacksmiths will become increasingly larger. In order to ensure the success rate of weapon upgrades and enhancements, we do need a trustworthy blacksmith.”

"What does Mite mean?" Asuna asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"Yes, in MMORPGs, there are many guilds that are composed of warriors and craftsmen. If there is a blacksmith or merchant among your companions, you can easily maintain your equipment or sell dropped items... In short, there are all sorts of advantages."

"A guild?" Asuna keenly caught a key word.

“Yes,” Mitt nodded vigorously. “After completing a certain quest on the third floor of SAO, you can form a guild. It seems Diabel is also planning to form a guild. We probably won’t join, right?”

As she spoke, she shifted her gaze to someone standing in front of her, her ruby-like eyes blinking slightly.

Noticing that everyone's eyes were on him, Dante looked around and then smiled slightly. "Hmm. If we are to establish our own guild, we should indeed train one, no, two blacksmiths from scratch."

"The guild..." Silica's eyes were already shining with anticipation.

"Why does your tone sound so uncertain?!" Asuna muttered in a low voice.

"Ah, sorry." Dante's smile faded, and he looked seriously at each member of his squad.

"Let's establish it, a guild of our own."

Chapter 72: Farewell Song

"What should we do about the blacksmith's matter?" After finishing lunch, while strolling along the ancient streets of Urbas, Mitt walked to Dante's left and asked with a serious expression.

Sunlight falls on the bustling street corner, creating a tranquil scene.

Argo had other things to do and parted ways with them after lunch.

The carpet in Nezha had already been stuffed into a cabinet in the temporary hotel by Dante before the meal.

“Let’s go to the ‘Town of Beginnings’ to recruit.” Dante pondered for a moment as he strolled leisurely, then turned and replied.

“Well, with your reputation, if Argo promotes you a little, there will definitely be a lot of people who want to join.” Mitt continued in a somewhat deep voice, lowering her head so that her face could not be seen.

If really needed, Dante could easily assemble a team the size of two player squads, but doing so would make their squads look a bit odd.

Mitt believed that they were originally meant to stick together for mutual support, but once more irrelevant people joined, the nature of the group would change, and it might become a player group driven by self-interest.

Knowing the other person's personality, Dante could guess what they were thinking, so he smiled and shook his head, saying, "It's not me who should go, it's you, or rather, let Silica go."

"Huh?" Silica pointed to herself in surprise, asking incredulously, "Me?"

“If Silica can accept the other party, then there shouldn’t be any problems.” Dante chuckled lightly in the sunlight. “You guys must hate having weirdos join in, right?”

"Of course!" Asuna said innocently, but frowned slightly. "Absolutely, absolutely no weird people can be allowed to join."

The hem of her cloak swayed gently with her light steps, like newly opened petals dancing in the wind.

“Ideally, someone of similar age,” Asuna added.

"Most of the players who can play SAO are young people, right?" Dante grumbled, not thinking that middle-aged and elderly people would have the time and energy to queue up and buy the game, which was sold out immediately despite only having 10,000 copies available.

“That’s true.” Asuna nodded knowingly.

“We still have some time this afternoon, let’s let Silica try it first,” Dante said to Silica, who was fidgeting.

"I'll do my best!" Silica said, mustering her courage.

"You don't need to push yourself so hard." Dante pressed down on her hands, telling her to relax and not put too much pressure on herself.

Recruiting a trustworthy blacksmith is a matter of chance. The main reason is that he doesn't want the newly acquired furnace and carpet to just sit empty in the cabinet, but in the early stages, hardly anyone is willing to learn smelting-related skills.

As for recruiting two, it's because "One-Handed Weapon Crafting" and "Two-Handed Weapon Crafting" each occupy a skill slot, which would make the already scarce slots even more limited in the early game.

However, he and Mito did use two-handed weapons, while Asuna and Silica used one-handed weapons.

These are two different smelting-related skills and should not be confused.

Why not just hire two blacksmith players, each responsible for a different area, which would create competition between them?

"Then I'll go with Silica to try it out first," Asuna said, still worried.

"Asuna is the best!" Silica cheered happily.

"Honestly, there's no reward for saying things like that," Asuna said with a smile, seemingly in a good mood.

"..." Dante smacked his lips, realizing that he wasn't the only one spoiling Silica now.

So in the afternoon they split into two groups. Asuna and Silica went through the transfer door to the starting town on the first floor, while Dante planned to take Mito to verify the method of climbing the Urubas Sky Rock. He had learned about it from Kirito, and Argo was not a reliable option.

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

The roadside trees rustled in the wind, and this original town remained bustling with activity.

It appears that there are still a considerable number of players remaining here, approximately several thousand, who have not yet taken a step forward, but they are not all hiding in the town.

Asuna saw the leader of the six-person team passing by, a red-haired scimitar wielder with a tacky patterned headscarf tied around his forehead, carefully explaining to his companions the mistakes they had made during the morning hunt and the precautions for what to do next.

“Miss Asuna,” Silica called softly.

"Yes?" Asuna turned her head to answer Silica.

"So what exactly do we need to do?" Silica asked shyly. "Should we hand out flyers on the street? Or shout out that we need a blacksmith and if anyone is interested?"

"Hmm..." Faced with Silica's whimsical idea, Asuna hesitated for a moment before carefully saying, "Let's buy a sign at the item shop and then wait on the main street, okay?"

This is the normal recruitment process.

The main street has a large flow of people, and players leaving the town and those heading to the commercial street will pass by it.

“Then let’s do it this way!” Silica clapped her hands and said.

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

"Please lead the way," Mitt said to Dante, bowing slightly.

"Why be so modest?" Dante muttered, then looked at the parchment Kirito had written on.