Capítulo 281: -277- [ Wind Fleuret ]
On the other side.
As the players gathered in a high-end restaurant, indulging in a feast, one player stayed away from the crowd. Listening to the continuous laughter emanating from the restaurant, Asuna sat on a bench outside, holding a black bread that could be purchased by anyone for just 1 Col. She quietly ate while lost in thought.
No, Asuna's thoughts were quite simple.
"I never expected to see players laughing so genuinely in this game. You're probably thinking something like that, aren't you?"
A voice voiced Asuna's thoughts, freezing her mid-bite of the black bread. She looked up and directed her gaze towards the source of the voice.
She saw a young boy standing at the entrance of the restaurant, somehow having appeared without her noticing.
And as he walked, he tossed something in Asuna's direction.
Seeing the dark object flying towards her face, Asuna instinctively reached out and caught it.
"So hot...!"
In the next moment, the high temperature emanating from her hand made Asuna cry out in surprise.
Upon closer inspection, what had been thrown to Asuna and now rested in her hand was a white bread emitting both aroma and heat.
"At least you should eat this, right?"
Rozen smirked mischievously, showing no awareness of his impulsive action, which only served to irritate Asuna further.
For some reason, Rozen seemed to have a natural talent for getting under Asuna's skin, always managing to affect her emotions.
Originally, Asuna wasn't someone who was easily angered; in fact, she could be described as quite composed and rational. Thanks to her parents' guidance, she strictly adhered to their wishes both at school and at home. Her personality was cool and level-headed, with none of the rebellious tendencies typical of other kids.
However, precisely due to this, Asuna had a rather significant flaw.
Her sense of pride was quite strong.
In school, she refused to let her grades be surpassed by others.
At home, she refused to let her manners be surpassed by others.
Outside, she refused to let her reputation be surpassed by others.
In every aspect of her life, Asuna didn't want to lose to anyone. Otherwise, failure would render her useless, a principle instilled in her by her parents.
But when faced with Rozen, Asuna felt like she was losing on all fronts. And for some reason, he seemed to be able to read Asuna's thoughts, which only made her more annoyed.
Given this situation, all Rozen needed to do was provoke Asuna a little, and she would become irritated. Unfortunately, provoking was what Rozen was best at.
"Let me guess why you're not going in." Rozen said deliberately, "It's probably not because you're a girl and the place is filled with mostly obnoxious guys. It's more likely because you're here to 'beat the floor boss' rather than socialize, right?"
A direct hit.
This finally rendered Asuna unable to maintain her silence.
"Don't act like you understand me." Asuna lowered her voice, her tone icy, "What are you doing here again? You're probably not here to care about your teammate, right?"
Surprisingly, Rozen nodded in agreement with Asuna's assertion.
"I indeed didn't come to care about a teammate I barely know. I'm just here to fulfill a promise with someone else."
Rozen shrugged, looking at Asuna.
Or more accurately, he was looking at the weapon at Asuna's waist.
"Is that the 'Iron Rapier'?" Rozen immediately recognized it, saying, "Among the off-the-shelf weapons available in the shops on this floor, this is probably the highest-tier one in the rapier category. But ultimately, it's still a run-of-the-mill item available in stores, and its performance isn't that high either."
Hearing this, Asuna almost instinctively responded.
"So what?" Asuna spoke in a hushed tone, "Weapons and such are just items. Especially in this world, they're all composed of data and files, completely unreliable. So as long as they're functional, it's enough, right?"
For Asuna, who didn't want to lose to this world, this mindset indeed suited her.
Unfortunately...
"Items can also be good or bad. Besides, even if they're items, as long as you take good care of them, they can develop a bond too. Who cares what they're made of?" Rozen shrugged, saying, "Moreover, you should make use of everything you can to keep living. You should understand that much, right?"
Asuna was momentarily speechless.
Seeing Asuna like this, Rozen chuckled and then opened the main menu. He found the item inventory, scrolled through the displayed list, and selected a certain item, materializing it.
"Here you go."
Rozen presented the materialized item to Asuna in the same casual manner he had thrown the bread.
"This is..."
This time, Asuna was stunned.
What lay in her hand was a rapier stored in a sheathe.
Rozen continued, "This is one of the rare drops you can get on the 1st floor."
In Sword Art Online, the methods of acquiring weapons and armor could be broadly divided into three categories.
1. Drops from monsters or chests.
2. Rewards from completing quests.
3. Crafted items made by players or NPC blacksmiths, leatherworkers, and other production jobs using material items.
Performance-wise, there wasn't a significant difference among these three types of equipment.
At least, not as of now.
As more floors of Aincrad were conquered and players in production jobs began to develop their skills, blacksmiths and craftsmen would become more proficient. Skilled individuals might eventually be able to craft items surpassing the current floor's standards.
However, currently, there weren't any particularly skilled players in production jobs, so on the same floor, the difference between dropped items, quest rewards, and crafted items by NPC blacksmiths or craftsmen wasn't too substantial.
Of course, this referred to equipment of the same level.
Regarding performance, even on the 1st floor of Aincrad, there were still some high-performance weapons and armor available.
Rozen's "Thousand-layer Robe," for instance, was a drop from a mini-boss, of such quality that it could be considered among the top-tier armors available. This allowed a simple cloth garment to rival the defenses of heavy plate armor. Rozen's "Anneal Blade" was also one of the few high-performance weapons on the 1st floor, though it was a quest reward.
And in the context of the 1st floor, if one were to mention a rapier-type weapon, undoubtedly, this rapier's performance stood at the top.
"It's called the 'Wind Fleuret,'" Rozen mentioned the name of the weapon.
Capítulo 282: -278- You'll understand
-------'Wind Fleuret.'"
This was a rapier that had an extremely low drop rate and could only be obtained by defeating high-level monsters in the labyrinth area. It was a high-performance weapon second only to the "Anneal Blade."
It's important to note that rapiers were known for their attack speed rather than high damage. However, the performance of the "Wind Fleuret" was just slightly below that of the "Anneal Blade," a one-handed sword. This demonstrated how powerful this weapon truly was.
Additionally, since it was a drop from monster kills, it was rarer than quest rewards that players could obtain for sure. Thus, even Rozen possessed only one of these.
"I was originally planning to sell it, but now I'm giving it to you."
Rozen said this to Asuna, who was still standing there. Asuna lowered her head and looked at the rapier in her hand.
It had to be said that this was indeed a very nice sword. Not just in terms of appearance, but performance-wise.
Asuna just lightly touched the blade and immediately instinctively understood that this weapon would greatly aid her.
However...
"...Why?"
Asuna looked at Rozen with a puzzled expression.
Her question was straightforward.
"Why would you do this?"
It was a reasonable doubt, wasn't it?
Rozen and Asuna weren't familiar at all, and they hadn't even met before. It was by chance that they crossed paths. Why would Rozen gift her with such a valuable weapon?
True, this was just a valuable weapon on the 1st floor. By the time the 2nd floor was reached, it might not be considered precious anymore. But at least for now, it was quite valuable. Even selling it at a low price could fetch around 10,000 Col, right?
Even if Rozen was wealthy, if he wanted to give something, he would do so to acquaintances, not to a player whose appearance he didn't even know.
Could it be that Rozen was simply being generous because Asuna was a female player?
Of course not.
"Didn't I already tell you?" Rozen said nonchalantly. "This is to fulfill a promise with someone."
This "someone naturally referred to Argo.
"Go and help Little Asuna, ZenZen."
That's what Argo had told Rozen just a while ago.
And her reason for doing so was quite simple.
"I'm a bit worried about that girl."
That was Argo's reason.
From Argo, Rozen had also received a lot of information about Asuna.
It was said that this girl had only stepped out of the starting town two weeks after the game began. Until then, Asuna had been holed up in an inn in the starting town.
In other words, Asuna had only started leveling up two weeks ago, and not only was she a beginner, but she was also a complete newcomer to gaming. As a player, she was at the lowest level of the lowest level.
When Rozen learned of this, he was genuinely surprised.
"A complete newcomer to gaming managed to display such a level of swordsmanship?"
If Rozen hadn't personally witnessed how perfect Asuna's "Linear" was and hadn't received confirmation of Argo's information-gathering skills, he would have a hard time believing such a thing.
"This is what they call natural talent, huh?"
Rozen could only sigh in admiration.
However, because of this, Asuna was unaware of many things in the game and didn't bring her real-world concepts into her player identity. This led to various problems.
For example, the incident where she became an Orange Player was one such example.
If Asuna had properly understood what it meant to become an Orange Player, then facing a player who had committed a Crime wouldn't have made her unable to lift her weapon, even subconsciously. After all, she shouldn't have launched an attack on a player who had inadvertently seen her appearance, right?
Furthermore, Asuna didn't value game equipment much.
In her eyes, equipment was merely a means to enhance one's numerical strength. True strength, in her view, lay in one's personal skill and abilities.
As a result, after leaving the starting town, Asuna had only used weapons purchased from NPC shops, and all her armor was store-bought as well. To her, they were just tools, not an extension of her strength. Even if she could use them, her emphasis on them wasn't as high as that of other players.
Perhaps this was the reason why Asuna's sword skills were so impressive?
Talent was just one factor; more importantly, Asuna focused more on her personal improvement than on the game's systems and equipment. This led her to fully utilize her single rapier skill, to master system-external techniques rarely known even to top-tier players, and to enhance her swordsmanship through physical prowess and technique.
This wasn't necessarily a wrong approach. Player skills were undoubtedly vital, a key factor in determining whether a player could stand out.
However, just as Rozen had said, one should make the best use of what's available. While personal skill was crucial, the importance of other factors should not be ignored.
Asuna, who failed to understand this, was said to have not completed a single system quest to this day. For the past two weeks, she had been leveling up and earning money by killing monsters, often diving into the labyrinth area for several consecutive days and resting only in safe zones to recover a bit of stamina before plunging back into combat. In just two weeks, she had managed to reach Level 10.
Most other players, even someone like Rozen, wouldn't be able to accomplish such a feat.
"After all, ignoring armor for now, if a player isn't hit by monsters, durability won't decrease, aside from perhaps footwear suffering wear and tear due to long journeys. But weapon durability is inevitably consumed as long as combat is involved."
Because of this, even Rozen, once his weapon's durability dropped to a certain level, would have to return to town for repairs.
But not Asuna.
"She bought five 'Iron Rapiers' in town as spares. She uses each one until it's almost broken. When her current weapon's durability is depleted, she takes out the next one from her inventory and continues fighting."
That's what Argo said.
Because of this, Asuna managed to level up to 10 in just two weeks.
It was only after this that Rozen realized.
"No wonder when I first saw her, this girl's outfit was all tattered."
That must have been because she had spent several days consecutively in the labyrinth area and hadn't returned to town to repair her equipment.
Argo was extremely worried about Asuna.
"This girl is simply too reckless. If left alone, there's a high chance she'll die in the labyrinth area. ZenZen, please lend her a hand."
That's what Argo asked Rozen to do.
Rozen giving Asuna the weapon was part of this plan.
In other words, Rozen wanted to tell Asuna:
"This game isn't so simple that you can get by just using off-the-shelf equipment from the shop."
Rozen looked directly at Asuna and continued.
"If you really don't want to lose to this game, if you don't want to be defeated by this world, then you should face it, value it, rather than reject it."
Rozen pointed towards the weapon in Asuna's hand.
"Try fighting with it."
"At that time, you'll understand."
Leaving behind these words, Rozen turned and walked back into the restaurant.
Asuna tightly gripped the rapier in her hand and fell into contemplation.
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