Sword Art Online: Enhanced - Chapter 5.1 (Patreon)

"To survive," you answered simply, "Did it hurt? Oh god it did, yes. It was a struggle not to whimper like a little girl through it. But I told you earlier didn't I? This is my life, and I'm going to live it to the fullest. So I sucked it up and went for the quick way to get one of the most useful skills in the game."

Cu whimpered and brushed up against your side, nudging you with his furry head and a smile came across your face. As he levelled up, so too did his AI parameters. Cu acted more and more life-like with each level up.

"..Caelan.." Asuna trailed off, and her hand twitched up, as if reaching towards you. And the room fell silent as she tilted her head up to meet your head through her hood.

"Ugh gag me will ya?" Argo huffed, falling onto her bed, "Can you two stop making me feel like a third wheel in my own place."

Asuna yelped and ducked back, pulling her hood down to cover her face. "..I just met him, we're not like that!" she hurriedly refuted.

You rolled your eyes as the drama was dispelled. Thank fuck for that, you weren't good at sappy shit.

Cu looked up at Asuna, and you could practically feel his confusion at her actions. "You and me both mate." you whispered to him. Japanese girls were so fucking weird man.

You shook your head and turned to Argo, "Alright ratty, enough of the jokes for now," you said, "Let's get down to business, what do you need my help with?"

A second later, a book was tossed through the air at your face. You caught it easily and raised an eyebrow at it. It was a stylish red leather cover, with the title 'Beta-Tester's Sword Art Online Strategy Guide'.

Opening it up, you flipped through the pages and glossed over it quickly, taking in the basics. It described how to use the sword skills, how to level the skills up, generally when players unlocked new techniques or perks from skills. It even went on to explain some basics of the first floor, like where many NPC's that gave initial tutorial quests for non combat skills were. The only monster described in it though, was the Wild Boar, and some animals that were known to roam the forests.

Shit, there was even a disclaimer in the front that a lot of information from the beta was liable to change. "Right, a see wit yae need." you nodded. She needed information on the fighting patterns and levels of the other monsters on the floor. Considering how much had been put into this little book guide project already in just a single night, no way Argo would have had time to check out anything monster wise beyond the boars after Kayaba dopped the bomb on everyone.

You found your arm involuntarily reaching up and patting Argo on the head as she sat on her bed beside you waiting for your thoughts. "Good work, yer a real gem." you praised her.

"Hehe!" Argo thumbed her nose with a grin, before blinking and scowling at you and batting your arm away, "Hey, none of that now! I'm older than you, if anyone's doing the head rubbing here, it's Argo-oneechan here!"

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"Sorry that took so long." You apologized to Asuna an hour later as you left the western gates of the Town of Beginnings. As you both stepped out, you could see the vast beautiful plains of the first floor, utterly filled with people. Twenty or more people around one Wild Boar spawn, doing all they were worth to just get one attack in before the others.

And it was repeated in more than a dozen spot across the plains. There were absolute hundreds of people competing for the boars. Eesh.

As you walked along the path, with Asuna on one side and Cu on the other, you drew plenty of stare, you really did stand out.

"Hm?" Asuna looked up, pulling her nose from the red book she had in her hands, a copy of the strategy guide written by Argo and updated with the stuff you'd found out in the past day of playing, "Oh, it's fine, I learned a lot just listening to you guys and the instructions in here are really well done. Really straight forward too." she replied, and you saw her free hand brush against the handle of her iron rapier.

You smirked, "We'll, you'll have a good chance to test it the instructions out in a little bit, the western forest has a ton of decently high level monsters." and by that, you meant Scavenger Toads. They were the only monster in the forest, besides animals and the dungeon hidden there.

Argo wanted you to check that place out to see if anything had changed there. Kobolds were the strongest monsters on the floor besides the field boss, if they were buffed, people needed to know. Thankfully, it killed three birds with one stone. A favor for Argo, helping out Asuna and it even got you further ahead as well. You'd sent a message to Agil when Argo asked you to check it out, and he was quick to find the mayor npc of Tolbana City and confirm the quest was still in the game for you.

So while in the western forest, you could check out the small dungeon mine there and grab the ten kobold heads you needed for the quest.

"Eh, I think I'll try it out now actually," Asuna shrugged, and then with her free hand drew her rapier. "Let's see, like this right?" she settled her feet into a loose stance, rapier faced forward and consulted the book in her other hand.

"It might take yae a little bit to-" you began, only to blink as you caught a flash of blue light glinting off of her iron rapier, and then in a flash of speed you could barely see, Asuna executed a picture perfect Linear, better than any you'd seen in the beta test at all, and way better than any you'd tried out with it when you gave the rapier a shot.

"Huh, well that was easy." Asuna turned towards you and you could see the big proud smile on her lips, not covered by her red hood at all.

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Along the way to the forest, Asuna came out of her shell a bit more. And she was having fun spamming her skills. She kept spamming her Linear, then when it ran out, Sprint and Acrobatics until it recovered. And then repeating.

It got to the point that along the way to the forest, she did it so much, her sprint hit level two, and both her rapier skill and acrobatics hit level three. You'd give her one thing beyond her amazing talent with the rapier, she was an incredibly focused girl, and really, really fast on the uptake.

It took a while, but with Cu's Howl skill, you managed to lure in a pair of level two dire wolves. And you were incredibly impressed. You took yours out in one hit. And while Asuna lacked the ability to do much damage to her own when you let her test out her new skills on it, she practically danced around it before attacking in flashes of speed the wolf had no chance to react to at all.

It took a bit for the damage to pile up, but within thirty seconds, she took it down easily. And you really were very impressed, Asuna had the makings of a top contender with her raw skills.

After that, you got into the forest, and along the way, you came across a bunch of Scavenger Toads. Nine in total. Unlike in the beta, they weren't level three either, but level six, double the old level from the beta.

So you had Asuna sit back and watch you, get a feel for fighting multiple monsters at once as you and Cu tore through them, making sure to dodge their tongue whenever possible since Scavenger Toad's had the ability to spit poisonous or paralytic oil, and their tongues were constantly coated in it.

Thankfully, the essence of the level six dire wolf from the previous night meant your speed was well enough to avoid the rapid lashing tongues that made the tentacle whip arms of the Little Nepents look slow.

Thankfully, wit all your upgrades skills and levels, you made quick work of them, especially with Cu backing you up. His raw stats with half of your own added on were insane! In the process of killing the toads, you hit level seven, as did Cu, while Asuna jumped from level one, to level four.

Most of the drops were just the toad meat. Pretty useless beyond cooking. You supposed whoever tried cooking them could unlock the cooking skill. You got some Toad Skin and Toad Toxin as well. The Toxin might be a good upgrade for your blade. And surprise, surprise, you also got some essence of scavenger toad meat.

Asuna got all flustered when you offered her your 'meat'. You got a good laugh out of it, and she got to jump massively in her vitality stat, so both of you won. She grumbled a bit after it, not happy about having to eat the weird looking toad meat. But, you bet she'd be much more grateful when she understood the significance of it later.

And from there, it wasn't long before you reached your destination. A mountain on the other side of the forest. With a mining cave tunnelled into it. The home of the Kobold Ruin Troopers.

"Is that it?" Asuna asked curiously, looking up from paging through the guide book she was going through for the third time since you left the Town of Beginnings behind and pointed at the opening of a mine shaft in the side of the mountain we just found after passing through the forest.

"Yeah, that's the one." you nodded.

Asuna grinned lightly and stashed her book back in her inventory before unsheathing her iron rapier. "Let's go then! I've been practicing and reading up on how to do all this since we left that town, I want to test them out on real monsters now and not hide behind you." the hooded girl said and made to step forward towards the mine.

Before she could step passed you, you held your arm out and blocked her, "Wait." you said.

She did so and cocked her head at you, "What? Got another pervy pick up line meat boy?" Asuna asked sarcastically.

You snorted before shaking your head, "No," you said simply and held up a finger. Just in time for something massive sounding hitting the ground and echoing out of the mine shaft, "There it is." you added, lowering your finger as the sound repeated, once, twice, three times, four times and then a massive shadow lumbered out of cave.

"Eehh!" Asuna made a shocked sound as the massive creature squeezed out of the cave opening and rose up to its full height. Towering nearly ten feet in the air and jam packed with rippling red muscle. For all that Kobolds were canine creatures, they sure looked very reptilian.

Its glowing eyes locked onto you both a moment later and it rose its arm up into the air, hefting a massive club nearly as big as you were tall and releasing a massive roar.

You used appraisal on it while it was trying to intimidate you both.

[Ruin Kobold Sentinel - Level 6]

Another change from the Beta, though not quite a massive one. They were level five back in the beta. You frowned, 'That's weird man, why is the strongest mob creature only the same level as the toads?'

You shook your head, putting it out of mind for the moment before turning to Asuna with a grin, "Well there you go hot stuff, have at it," you said.

Asuna audibly gulped as its roar stopped and its eyes locked back on you both, a savage snarl leaving its mouth, "..It's kinda big isn't it?"

Your grin widened? "chickening out?" you teased.

At your light jeer, she lost her nervous look and scowled at you, "As if!" she huffed and stepped forward just as the Ruin Kobold Sentinel did the same and bounded into a run towards you both, only ten feet separating you apart. "Linear!" Asuna shouted, and shot forward in a blur of speed, rapier glowing.

The Ruin Kobold Trooper roared, swinging its massive club down and your eyes widened as said club began glowing. 'It's goat fuckin' weapon skills to!?' you thought in shock. They didn't have that in the beta!

Thankfully, Asuna was just quick enough to slip under the massive and stab her glowing rapier into its belly. The giant canine beast bellowed in pain and staggered back and Asuna used that time to jump back a bit and grin impishly at you, "See, told you I could do it." she sing-songed back teasingly, lifting her hand and proudly showing off two fingers shaped in a 'V'.