Breathing Techniques in SAO

"Hey, Asuna, I'm counting on you to wait in the inn for a bit. Kirito and I have higher proficiency in the tracking and stealth skills, so we'll go check if he's really planning to do something."

As Akimi and Kirito were about to leave, Asuna stopped him and asked,

"Wait, first tell me why the sword suddenly came back to you?"

Actually, Kirito also wanted to ask this earlier, but after some thought, he roughly understood what was going on.

"Hmm, rather than explaining it with words, I'll just demonstrate it for you. Kirito, please play the role of Nezha."

After saying that, Akimi pulled up his character panel and changed the setting to make it visible to the team.

He pointed at the right hand of the character model on the panel and said, "Look, my right hand is currently equipped with the Nichirin Blade, right?"

Then he took out the Nichirin Blade and placed it on the ground, saying, "Right now, I'm in a 'weapon dropped' state, but the panel still shows that I have the Nichirin Blade equipped."

"In this dropped state, the weapon's durability will gradually decrease."

After he said that, Kirito instinctively picked up the Nichirin Blade from the ground.

"Now, I'm in a 'weapon stolen' state, and the panel no longer shows that I have the Nichirin Blade equipped."

Akimi said as he took the Nichirin Blade from Kirito's hand, "Okay, now Kirito is playing Nezha."

After that, he handed the Nichirin Blade back to Kirito and said, "Although the panel no longer shows the Nichirin Blade as equipped, this is not a 'weapon stolen' state, but a 'weapon handed over' state."

"At first glance, it seems the weapon has been unequipped, but the actual wielder hasn't changed — it's still me."

"The equipped weapon is protected—if a weapon is unequipped and held by someone else for more than 300 seconds, it becomes their property."

"But if the weapon is equipped, this time extends to 3,600 seconds. However, if I'm in a 'weapon handed over' or 'weapon stolen' state and equip another weapon in my right hand, after 300 seconds the Nichirin Blade will no longer belong to me, because the equipped state is occupied by the other weapon."

"Within these 3,600 seconds, the weapon owner can still take action to recover it—by using 'all items materialize,' which materializes all their items around them. This naturally includes equipped weapons."

"And Nezha's method probably uses some special means to swap the weapon."

After saying this, Akimi patted Asuna's head and asked, "So, got it?"

Annoyed, Asuna shrugged off his hand and rolled her eyes, saying, "Yeah, yeah, Tomioka Akimi, you're so clever."

"All right, Kirito, let's go."

When the two of them reached the square near Nezha's stall again, Nezha was packing up.

He turned off the portable furnace's fire, put various materials back into his bag, placed the hammer and other tools into a dedicated box, and laid the signboard, weapons, and tables and chairs on the carpet.

Finally, he opened the carpet's menu and selected the storage option.

The carpet swallowed all the miscellaneous items within seconds and then rolled itself up into a cylinder.

The short blacksmith slung the rolled carpet over his shoulder — no matter how many items were stored inside, the carpet's weight never changed.

Although it sounded like a powerful backpack, it actually wasn't, because the carpet's storage function only worked within towns, and it couldn't be put into the item inventory.

Players had to carry this one-meter-long, ten-centimeter-radius carpet manually.

After Akimi and Kirito used their stealth skills, they quietly followed behind Nezha.

After circling the town, Nezha entered a tavern called "BAR" located in the southeast district of Urbas.

Inside the tavern, Nezha approached a table where five people were already seated.

He seemed to say something, and then cheers and applause broke out.

"Nezai, good work." This was a male voice.

Akimi and Kirito exchanged a glance — they had found an accomplice.

But shortly after Nezha entered, the tavern door automatically closed.

The two of them sneakily crept up to the tavern door, hoping to overhear what they were saying inside.

Unfortunately, by design, the closed door prevented any sound from escaping unless you had the "eavesdropping" skill.

Obviously, these two frontline fighters hadn't practiced the eavesdropping skill, so they had no choice but to quietly pry the door open just a crack.

Then, one of them stuck his head in from above, the other from below, and they began listening in on Nezha's group's conversation.

"Nezai, it's okay to take big gulps! No matter how much you drink here, you won't get drunk!"

Although the owner of the voice said he wouldn't get drunk, his face looked clearly intoxicated — even though there was no drunkenness setting in SAO, the lively atmosphere was intoxicating.

"Mm… mm," Nezha's weak voice came.

Then the noise inside the tavern stopped for a moment, followed by cheers and applause of "Oh~~!"

Akimi silently took note of Nezha's accomplices' appearances.

"How's business today, Nezai?"

"Ah… business… hmm… sold twelve weapons, plus quite a few repair and enhancement commissions."

"Oh~! That's a new record!"

"Looks like we'll have to go collect materials again tomorrow!"

After the two men's loud voices, applause broke out again inside the tavern.

So far, the atmosphere of this group had been like "friends comforting each other after a hard day," which seemed pretty normal and even made the two suspicious that maybe they had wrongly accused them.

But what they said next made the two of them go fully on alert.

"But… but we can't really continue anymore, right…"

Nezha said softly.

His companions' voices also grew quieter, and then fell silent.

The first person who had spoken earlier said something, but it was too quiet for the two to hear clearly.

"It's okay, we definitely can still continue."

"Exactly, Nezai, the situation isn't that tight yet, don't be so nervous."

The two eavesdroppers felt the climax was about to come and became even more focused.

After encouragement from his companions, Nezha said in his weak voice:

"But… but if we keep going… it's really… really dangerous, and… haven't we already broken even…?"

"What are you talking about! The real profit is just starting! We need to make a big fortune fast and catch up with those guys ahead on the second floor!"

Break even? Make a big fortune?

Akimi was a bit puzzled because judging by Nezha's business, it didn't seem likely to make a big profit — buying Ryu's Anneal Blade for 8,000 Cor and refunding Akimo's handling fees had already cost him a lot of money.

Just as the two were confused, the one who talked about making money suddenly said:

"Hey, why is the door open?"

The two eavesdroppers were startled.

Akimi whispered:

"Bad! Let's get out of here, quick."

Then the two of them used their stealth skills again, hiding in the trees near the tavern.

The tavern door opened, and out came a slightly chubby man wearing thief armor, with a pointed light steel helmet on his head and sharp eyes—he was the leader-like figure in Nezha's group.

He kept scanning the surroundings.

The system's stealth indicator fluctuated, making the hearts of the two hiding in the trees beat accordingly.

After a while, seeing nothing unusual, the man went back into the tavern.

Hearing the tavern door close, Akimi sighed, "For eavesdropping, stealth, and spying, it really is best to leave it to Argo."

Kirito nodded in agreement.

"Kirito, how do you think they're making such huge profits from failed enhancements, even boldly spending 8,000 Col to buy a defective Anneal Blade?"

Kirito was also pondering the question.

"Hmm… we were watching Nezha closely while he was enhancing, so he didn't have a chance to steal any materials. And just from materials alone, the profit can't be that big, unless…"

"Unless their real target isn't the materials at all."

Both of them understood what that huge profit really meant.

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