Breathing Techniques in SAO

After leaving the restaurant, the two of them found a remote ruin with few people around and began searching for treasure.

By the time the effects of the Blueberry Tarts wore off, they had found a total of three or four gold coins, more than a dozen silver coins, five or six gemstones of various colors, and two rings inlaid with small gems.

After appraisal, the coins and gemstones were worth over 8,000 Col.

As for the two rings, they were kept due to their special effects.

Asuna chose the Stun Ring inlaid with a green gemstone.

It could stun any target within two meters for two seconds, with a cooldown of five minutes.

Akimi picked the Terrain Ring embedded with a black gemstone, which could alter the terrain within a five-meter radius to a certain extent.

Its cooldown was ten minutes.

"Hey, Asuna." Akimi handed her the pouch of Col given to him by the NPC.

Asuna took the pouch and asked in confusion, "Eh? You don't want it?"

"Think of it as a treat for the dessert," Akimi shrugged.

"And as for the rest, I'll leave it in your care."

"Mm… Eh—eh?!" Asuna froze for a second, seemingly realizing something.

A faint blush appeared on her face. "I—I… I'll hold onto it for you?"

"Yep, exactly. I'm counting on you." Akimi waved his hand.

He looked at Asuna and noticed the awkward look on her face, then asked curiously, "Hmm? Is that a problem?"

Asuna stiffly shook her head and said:

"It's… it's not that it's a problem… It's just… a bit… well, alright, no problem."

"Alright then, thanks."

It was almost nine o'clock.

The sky had turned ink black, and warm yellow light glowed from within the houses and tents throughout Karluin, the city of ruins.

Akimi and Asuna returned to the inn to rest and prepare for the official start of the dungeon challenge the next day.

In addition to the ruins on the surface, Karluin also had a vast underground catacomb.

This underground catacomb had a total of three levels, with a field boss located in the deepest area.

The first basement level was inside the safe zone, while the second and third levels were outside of it.

Behind the field boss's room, there was a tunnel leading to the next town.

When Akimi mentioned that the monsters in the catacombs were mostly ghost-type, Asuna's body instinctively trembled.

"Uuuh… ghost-type monsters…" Asuna said with a quivering voice.

She suddenly had the strong urge not to go down there.

Akimi didn't immediately notice Asuna's reaction and continued, "Yeah, that's right. Most of them are those kinds of incorporeal ghost-types. Besides ghosts, there are also demi-humans like ratmen. But don't worry, those monst—"

"Eek—!"

Akimi was interrupted by Asuna's sudden scream.

He looked completely baffled and asked, "Wh-what's wrong? Asuna, is there a problem?"

"Y-you said… g-gh-ghosts?"

"Y-yeah…"

With a pale face, Asuna said, "Can I not go?"

In the end, Asuna still forced herself to suppress her fear and entered the underground catacomb.

As soon as they descended the staircase and entered the first level of the underground catacomb, Asuna secretly let out a sigh of relief — the catacomb wasn't one of those places that felt creepy and terrifying the moment you stepped in.

In fact, in the hall beyond the stairs, there were dozens of players.

They had set up tents, lit campfires, some were holding meetings, others were eating, and a few had even crawled into sleeping bags to rest.

The sight before her helped Asuna relax a little more.

She scanned the surroundings and noticed that these players weren't part of the main raiding party.

Judging by their gear, they were roughly at the level suited for the second or third floor.

"Looks like they're here treasure hunting," Asuna whispered.

Akimi nodded and said, "Well, this is a quick way to make money, and it's relatively safe too."

"Mhm. Then let's go — we still have a few quests we picked up back in town."

Looking at the few passages ahead, Asuna glanced at Akimi for help.

But he just shrugged and said casually:

"Any direction works. We've got quests for all of them. Just pick one at random."

Asuna puffed up her cheeks and shot him a glare, then began the children's game of eeny-meeny-miny-moe in her head.

All the while, she kept hoping she wouldn't end up picking something like Confession at Midnight — just the name alone sounded terrifying.

In the end, she landed on a passage leading east.

Staring at the pitch-black corridor, Asuna felt a little anxious inside.

While the hall was still fairly bright thanks to the many torches, the tunnel itself was much darker and gloomier.

"Q-quick… l-light a torch or something…" Asuna said with a tremble in her voice.

The darkness around her made her feel extremely unsafe.

Akimi pulled a few fossil tree branches from his inventory, tied them together with strips of cloth, and lit them up.

But the moment the torch was lit, Asuna's expression worsened — because the flames from the burning fossil wood were an eerie green.

The eerie green torch burned quietly in the dark corridor, making the surroundings feel especially frightening.

As Akimi held the torch and walked forward, he suddenly felt a tug on the hem of his clothes.

Turning around, he saw—

It was Asuna.

The girl looked as if she were about to cry, silently clutching the hem of Akimi's shirt tightly with her pale little hand.

Finding it a bit amusing, Akimi looked at her with interest and teased, "Miss Asuna, who's usually so brave—why do you look like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand now?"

Asuna gritted her teeth and shot him a fierce glare, stomping hard on his foot — but the attempt was blocked by the zone's anti-crime system, which generated a purple barrier.

Throughout the entire exchange, she never let go of his shirt hem, which made the smile on Akimi's face grow even wider.

The damp underground passage echoed occasionally with the sound of dripping water.

Whether it was rain or something else, drops would occasionally fall onto their heads or shoulders.

Each time Asuna was hit by a drop, her body would involuntarily flinch.

After passing through the main corridor and crossing a narrow path only forty centimeters wide, they finally reached their first quest location.

There were several stone benches here, along with a few cracked stone statues scattered around.

At the very front stood a podium.

In each of the four corners was a brazier, but the fires inside them had long gone out — now they were black and looked like they were filled with charcoal.

The current atmosphere gave Asuna a bad feeling.

She tensed up and asked Akimi, "What kind of quest is this?"

"Hm? Let me check…" Akimi glanced at his quest log.

"It's a quest called 'Shackfen's Relic.'"

The quest background was simple: Shackfen was a devout believer in the gods. Every week, he would come to this underground theology lecture to listen to a priest's sermon. Before he died, he told his son, Little Shackfen, about this place and said he had left something very important here. He asked his son to make sure to find it. Little Shackfen searched for a long time but found nothing, so he commissioned others to help with the search.

"What exactly are we supposed to find?" Asuna asked in confusion.

"Isn't there a clue on the quest?"

Akimi checked carefully again and replied helplessly, "Nope. It just says to find something."

As the two of them were puzzling over it, a small side door next to them suddenly creaked open with a "squeak," and a small figure emerged from within.

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