Breathing Techniques in SAO

Because he had teamed up with Asuna, Tomioka Akimi gave up on traveling through the night and instead chose to rest well at an inn.

Early the next morning, Akimi and Asuna left the Town of Beginnings and headed north to the next town—Horuka Village—a place that was more accurately described as a village than a town.

Their plan was to go straight to Tolbana, the closest settlement to the labyrinth area, and level up along the way.

Between the Town of Beginnings and Horuka Village lay a vast plain, where typically low-level beast-type monsters like Frenzied Boars and Wild Wolves, as well as insect-type monsters like Beetles and Wasps, would spawn.

Due to the large number of players, the monster spawn rate on the plains near the Town of Beginnings had already slowed down.

For efficient leveling, players now had to head to the forests northwest of the town, the swamps to the northeast, or directly into the labyrinth area.

"By the way, Asuna, you've been to the areas up ahead before, haven't you?"

Akimi tilted his head toward her and asked, "So why did you come back to the Town of Beginnings?"

"Hmm, how should I put it? I guess… it's because I got abandoned by a party member who wanted to save their items, and I almost died. That fear just stuck with me," Asuna replied gently.

"What the heck? Someone who abandons a teammate for the sake of items—can you even call them a comrade?" Akimi said indignantly on her behalf, though he didn't speak in absolute terms.

Asuna stopped walking and asked, "So, Akimi, are you saying… maybe she didn't do it on purpose?"

"Exactly. Isn't it normal for people to act irrationally when facing danger?" Akimi said with a shrug.

"After all, expecting humans to always stay rational is kind of a luxury."

"Whoa, even the chuunibyou Akimi-kun can say something that deep?" Asuna said with a teasing smile.

Akimi's face turned red. "Ha… haha, of course I can."

He quickly turned his head away, stealing a glance at Asuna from the corner of his eye.

The girl's expression—half-smiling, half-amused—made his face flush even redder.

In the end, Akimi couldn't withstand Asuna's gaze and said awkwardly, "Alright, alright, stop looking at me like that. That line wasn't mine—it was something a science fiction writer once said."

Only then did Asuna let him off the hook.

She quickened her pace, overtook Akimi, and began walking with a light, cheerful step, humming an unfamiliar tune, her face beaming with joy.

Akimi chuckled as well and caught up to her.

"Oh, right—Asuna, are you planning to upgrade your gear? The weapon shop in Horuka Village sells bronze weapons that are a bit better than the starter gear," Akimi suddenly asked.

"Yeah, I am," Asuna replied.

"I sold my better weapons when I went back to the Town of Beginnings. I had originally planned to stay there for a few more days."

"Ha... haha…" The culprit who had dragged Asuna out of the Town of Beginnings let out an awkward laugh.

"Ah, well… then let's stop by Horuka Village to get ourselves ready. I need to upgrade my weapon there anyway," Akimi said calmly, deliberately avoiding Asuna's gaze.

"Mm, sounds good."

About an hour and a half later, Akimi and Asuna arrived at Horuka Village, a small settlement nestled within a forest.

After spending some time at the weapon shop to buy and upgrade their gear, they left the village and continued on their way to Tolbana.

"Actually, there's a quest in Horuka Village," Akimi said to Asuna on the way to Tolbana.

"If you complete it, you get a pretty decent one-handed sword called the Tempered Blade. But since you use a rapier, I didn't bother picking it up. The quest's kind of a hassle anyway."

"Eh? But Akimi, you use a one-handed sword too, don't you? Don't you need that weapon?"

"Yeah. But I have something better."

Then, like a child showing off a new toy, he took out his Nichirin Blade and handed it to Asuna.

Asuna took the blade and checked its stats—she was instantly shocked.

"Whoa! Why are the stats on this weapon so high?"

Akimi took the sword back and slowly drew the blade from its sheath, revealing a shimmering, water-blue blade.

"Wow… what a beautiful sword," Asuna whispered in admiration.

"Heh heh," the boy chuckled proudly and performed a stylish flourish in the air with the sword.

"This weapon is actually a quest item from a hidden quest, but I can use it freely."

"I see… but I bet this sword isn't just about the stats," Asuna nodded.

"Otherwise, just having a decently strong sword for the lower floors wouldn't make you this happy."

"That's right. Aside from having no limit on the number of 'attempted upgrades,' there's something even more amazing about this sword..." Akimi grinned even wider.

"And that is... that is—"

The girl gave him a light smack and said, "Stop teasing and just tell me already."

Akimi quickly said, "Ah—it's that for every 5 floors you clear, after completing that stage of the hidden quest, you get a special upgrade attempt. The success rate is 100% for those, and each time you do one, the sword gains a special attribute."

"T-That's just…" the girl murmured in disbelief.

"Totally broken, right?" Akimi said, finishing her thought.

"Even though the hidden quest only lasts until Floor 50, after gaining 10 special attributes, this sword will probably end up stronger than the weapons you get on much higher floors."

"Indeed," Asuna nodded in agreement.

After a moment, Akimi suddenly said:

"Hmm… There's actually a good quest between Horuka Village and Tolbana. It gives a lot of experience, isn't too hard, and it's on our way. Want to give it a try?"

"Sure! But wait, Akimi—didn't you say you hadn't left the Town of Beginnings before? How do you know so much?" Asuna agreed but then asked suspiciously.

Akimi rubbed his chin and said, "Well… I actually started preparing for this game a long time ago."

"Eh? Akimi, are you a beta tester too?"

"Mm… If I had to say, I guess you could kinda call me one. A beta tester who didn't get to actually join the beta."

"Wha… what does that even mean?" Asuna gave him a blank, dot-eyed look.

"I didn't participate in the beta test," Akimi replied.

"But I actually know more than most beta testers."

"Beta testers only learned things like monster locations, attack patterns, drops, and special mechanics—but I went beyond that."

"A month before the game officially launched, I spent around 20 days memorizing most monsters' HP, attack power, respawn times, and even the physical stats of over forty different floor bosses and field bosses."

"What about their attack patterns and such? Didn't you memorize those too?" Asuna asked curiously.

"If Aincrad had a magic system, I would've spent way more time memorizing attack patterns," Akimi said with a shrug.

"But unfortunately, it doesn't. Actually, monster attack patterns in Aincrad are pretty easy to remember—as long as you know the sword skills tied to different weapon types, that's most of it."

"You probably know that monsters, just like players, can use sword skills too, right?" he said to Asuna.

Asuna replied, "Yeah, this is completely different from the casual games I used to play."

"So you just have to treat monsters like a different kind of player," Akimi said.

"Whatever sword skills players can use, bosses can use too."

"Though when bosses use sword skills, the effects are a bit different—like having a wider range or dealing more damage."

"Eh? R-Really? Then… what about animals, insect-type monsters, or other special types that don't use weapons?" Asuna asked in shock.

The boy smiled slightly. "Monsters like animals and insects are actually even easier to deal with. During the early stages of SAO's development, the ARGUS staff who worked on Sword Art Online's design were all given a two-month vacation."

"W-What does that have to do with monsters?" Asuna asked, confused.

"Of course it does. Those designers didn't take that vacation for nothing—they spent it visiting the native habitats of various animals and insects to study them firsthand."

"You mean…"

"That's right. The animal- and insect-type monsters are basically modeled after their real-life counterparts. So really, the only ones you need to memorize are the plant-type monsters. But the plant monsters in Sword Art Online are similar to those in traditional MMORPGs."

"I see."

"Let's go. That quest is just up ahead."

About ten minutes later, the two arrived at a dilapidated camp.

The camp had only a few tents, each covered with one hole after another.

Through the holes, the tent's framework was visible, as well as webs spread throughout the interior.

They stepped into the largest tent, where there was a table with a dagger stuck into it.

Next to the table lay a skeleton.

As they entered, they also noticed a map on the table.

Akimi ignored the map and walked straight to the skeleton, tossing a Koru onto it.

As the Koru landed on the skeleton, smoke billowed from its mouth, forming a humanoid shape in front of Akimi.

The figure gradually solidified into a middle-aged man with tired eyes, an unkempt beard, and a scar across his face.

But calling him human wasn't quite accurate, since his lower half was completely ethereal.

"Gh…gho…ghost?! Ahhh!" Asuna screamed, then quickly darted behind Akimi.

"Quick… hurry and defeat it, Akimi!"

Akimi slightly turned around, gently touched her head, and said warmly, "Alright, don't be afraid. It's just a quest NPC."

"Ugh, I don't care. Just don't let me see him!" Asuna buried her face in her hands and said in a muffled voice.

Seeing Asuna so scared she wanted to hide, Akimi chuckled quietly and sneakily used the system's screenshot function to capture her expression.

Then he comforted her, "Then just turn your back to him. I'll take the quest."

Asuna obediently turned her head away.

Seeing Asuna turn, Akimi smiled quietly again and then began to interact with the NPC.

The NPC, looking like a worn-out middle-aged man, spoke hoarsely, barely audible: "Y-You… you're one of those traitors?"

"No, I'm not the traitor you're talking about," Akimi replied.

"Then you're, like me, a speculator searching for the treasure left behind by the Nine United Kingdoms before the Great Sundering," the NPC said.

"Just like me, and those traitors, that's our goal, haha."

After laughing twice, his voice grew hoarser and quieter, making one wonder if he was about to vanish.

"You could put it that way."

The NPC showed a humanlike mocking expression and said, "Give up! Even if you find the treasure, you won't be able to open it."

"Why?"

"Because, just like the traitors, you don't have the key! Haha." The NPC spoke maniacally.

Akimi frowned at the NPC, who seemed mentally unstable, and asked, "Then where is the key?"

"The key… of course, the key is with me! Those traitors wanted to keep the treasure all to themselves, but they didn't know you need the key to open it! And… once you enter the treasure site, without the key, don't even think about coming out!" The NPC laughed wildly.

"Haha, not only can no one leave, even their souls must remain there! They can only wait in loneliness until the treasure site opens again!"

"But that's not enough! The traitors must die! I don't want them to live a fate worse than death—I want them to go with me!"

"You, I'll give you the key. Go kill them, and the treasure will be yours! You get to enjoy it alone! So, how about it? Do you agree?" the NPC said at last.

Akimi accepted the quest, and then the NPC took out a key covered in verdigris and handed it to him.

After giving the key, the crazed look on the NPC's face finally faded, replaced by a sense of relief.

He said, "I'm counting on you."

Then he slowly dissipated.

Putting away the key, Akimi turned toward Asuna, who had her back to him.

When he got close, he lowered his voice and made a strange sound:

"Aaahhh~ I died so miserably~"

Asuna, who had been daydreaming, suddenly felt a chill rush to her head when she heard the sound.

She screamed and, with her eyes shut, swung a punch backward.

"Ah—ah! Don't come near me!"

Unprepared, Akimi was hit squarely in the face by her punch and flew backward.

After a while, on the way to the quest location, Akimi kept rubbing his face.

Although there was no pain setting in SAO, he still had the basic sensation.

He timidly looked at the girl walking ahead, his face full of grievance.

Seeming to notice his gaze, the girl slightly turned her head toward him, a chilling dark smile appearing on her face.

She said word by word:

"Tomioka Akimi, if you dare scare me again, you're dead! Got it?"

Akimi nodded frantically.

Seeing her expression soften a bit, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

One hour later, the two arrived at a forest about a kilometer away from Torbana and found the quest destination—a cave heavily concealed by dense bushes.

Carefully entering the cave, they saw a massive stone door at its deepest part.

Pushing open the stone door, they entered a spacious hall where about a dozen skeletons lay scattered in disorder.

At the center of the skeletons stood a stone tablet.

As they stepped into the hall, the hollow eyes of the skeletons suddenly glowed red, and their heads twisted unnaturally toward them.

The two drew their weapons and watched the skeletons warily.

The skeletons armed themselves and surrounded them.

Above the skeletons' heads, the names all read TheCursedBetrayer.

Akimi stared at the red names and whispered, "The Cursed Betrayers?"

He said to Asuna, "Let's go, take them down."

"Mm."

The two engaged in battle with the skeletons.

The skeletons' stats weren't high, and their combat AI was mediocre.

Working together, the pair easily defeated them.

"Phew, is it over?" Asuna asked Akimi, catching her breath.

He frowned, gripping his weapon tightly.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. After we defeated those skeletons, they didn't trigger any death effect—they just turned into scattered bones…"

Before Akimi could finish, the bones scattered on the ground suddenly flew up, swirling in the air, eventually forming a towering skeleton over three meters tall.

It wielded a gigantic sword adorned with menacing bone spikes, and three HP bars appeared beside it.

Its name changed to TheLastGrievanceOfTheBetrayer—the Betrayer's Final Resentment.

Feeling the oppressive weight from the giant sword taller than a person, Akimi cursed silently in his mind: Back during the closed beta, you only had to defeat the skeletons.

Even if there were changes, it shouldn't be this drastic.

"Phew." He took a deep breath and said to Asuna, "Be careful. This doesn't match the intel I had."

The Betrayer slammed the tip of his massive sword into the ground, then charged at them while dragging the blade, leaving deep gouges along the floor.

As he closed in on Akimi, the Betrayer raised the sword with one hand and swung it diagonally upward.

Akimi quickly dashed to the side to evade, raising his Nichirin Blade.

"Water Breathing - First Form : Water Surface Slash!"

The water-coated blade slashed fiercely into the Betrayer's leg bone.

Then Akimi spun around, stepped onto the Betrayer, and leapt high into the air, striking a stance mid-flight.

"Water Breathing - Eighth Form : Waterfall Basin!"

The blade came crashing down from above onto the Betrayer's neck, landing a critical hit and carving a huge chunk off his HP.

As Akimi landed, the Betrayer was already swinging his massive sword, now glowing with sword skill energy, straight at him.

His pupils shrank—he hurriedly raised his blade in defense.

"Water Breathing - Fourth Form : Striking Tide!"

Just as the Betrayer's HP was down to its last sliver, it suddenly let out a furious roar.

The shockwave rippled through the air, instantly paralyzing both Akimi and Asuna.

A dangerous red glow flickered across the Betrayer's greatsword.

Then, the massive blade was raised high and swung down violently toward Asuna.

Her face turned deathly pale, and Akimi's eyes widened in horror.

"No! Don't!" he shouted in despair.

"Move, move, damn it!"

The greatsword drew closer and closer to Asuna.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she said something to Akimi, but to him, it felt like he heard nothing.

His breathing grew ragged, his eyes bloodshot and glowing red.

In that moment of chaos, time seemed to slow down.

His senses sharpened, and he could hear the thudding of his heart with eerie clarity.

Though he was inside a game, Akimi could feel the pulse of his blood—vivid and real.

"Water Breathing - Eleventh Form : Suikuryuzan!"

In an instant, his figure vanished and reappeared in front of Asuna, intercepting the greatsword meant for her.

His blade, shimmering with a deep blue flow of water, met the descending strike head-on, then carried through with unrelenting force, slashing into the Betrayer's massive skeleton.

By the time Asuna came to her senses, the only thing left before her were fragments of light where the Betrayer once stood—and the boy frozen mid-swing, his blade still wreathed in flowing water.

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