Breathing Techniques in SAO

"By the way, do I really need to dress like this?"

"Come on, having a full set of iron armor is seriously cool, you know?"

The first sentence came from a figure wrapped head to toe in iron armor, wearing a Crusader helmet.

The second came from an unknown troublemaker named Tomioka Akimi.

Akimi tapped the iron armor a few times with the hilt of his Nichirin blade, producing a "clang clang" sound.

In a strange tone, he said, "If I had this armor and this Anneal blade when I was a kid, forget about a hundred meters around me — even a thousand meters of rapeseed flowers wouldn't be left standing intact."

The person under the armor seemed silenced by him, and after a long pause said, "Hmm… I suggest you go see a psychiatrist. Or maybe you want to go yourself?"

"Haish—this armor is extremely precious. How could a mere level 13 like me possibly wear it?"

Kirito, wearing rough armor, had a mouthful of old complaints ready to burst out, but before he could, Akimi nudged him and said:

"This is a rare chance to show off—no, to manifest your presence publicly. Feel what it's like to be in the spotlight. Look at that guy over there; how many times has he manifested publicly and still can't get enough? What does that prove? It proves showing off feels great!"

"Ahem… alright, you've been powered up. Go on! Think of it as for everyone's sake and bring him to justice!"

Hearing Akimi's over-the-top words, Kirito swallowed the complaint stuck in his throat, wanting to say just one thing to him: "Just shut up!"

This was the day after they witnessed Shivata being scammed.

Last night, Akimi had figured out Nezha's trick and told Kirito and Asuna about it.

So tonight, they planned to quietly expose Nezha's scam.

But they certainly couldn't just show up in front of Nezha and say, "Hey, let's count your crimes."

Because Nezha definitely already knew that Akimi and the others had seen through his scam.

So the three decided to pick a representative, change into disguises, and confront Nezha.

When deciding who it would be, Asuna casually took herself out of the running, and the remaining two guys almost fought it out—yeah, rock-paper-scissors can get intense too.

In the end, Akimi narrowly won 2 to 1 over Kirito.

"Please perform the enhancement,"

Kirito said as he stepped in front of Nezha, trying to change his voice to sound cold and distant.

His helmet, which only showed his eyes, prevented Nezha from recognizing him.

"Plan is working," the three thought.

"Please allow me to check your stats."

Nezha took the Anneal Blade from Kirito's hand.

When he saw the attribute panel on the sword, his previously drooping eyebrows lifted slightly.

"Anneal Blade +6, with two attempts left to enhance. Hmm… currently it has +3 Sharpness and +3 Durability? Quite a good sword."

Nezha smiled, showing no sign of a villain, but the next moment his smile stiffened and turned into a somewhat reluctant, frustrated expression.

He lowered his head and said in a dull voice, "May I ask, what type of enhancement will it be?"

"Durability. The materials are bought from you, and for the quantity, let's set the success rate to ninety percent."

Nezha maintained that expression and said, "Alright. The material fee and handling charge, hmm… total is 2,700 Col."

His voice was very tense.

"Okay."

Kirito continued speaking in a flat tone.

Then he moved his hand to the menu and paid the Col in the trading interface.

Finally, Kirito deliberately did not close the menu, just returned it to the homepage.

After confirming the amount, Nezha silently began the enhancement, following the same steps and posture as before.

This time, Kirito didn't focus on the furnace but instead fixed his gaze tightly on Nezha's left hand.

The helmet shielded Kirito's eyes and also blocked the glow from the furnace.

Suddenly, Nezha quickly straightened his left index finger and tapped between the gap of the swords on the carpet.

Although it was only for a moment, the Anneal Blade in his left hand did flash briefly.

Fast, precise, and covert—Kirito silently sighed in his heart.

With Nezha's technique, even in broad daylight with more people watching, it would be almost impossible to expose him.

Now, the Anneal Blade in Nezha's hand looked somewhat dull.

It was clearly no longer Kirito's +6 Anneal Blade but the +0 discarded Anneal Blade he had bought a few days ago.

Nezha brought the sword to the edge of the furnace, absorbed the enhancement light from the furnace, and with skilled movements placed it on the anvil, effortlessly starting the enhancement.

Weapons that have exhausted all enhancement attempts will definitely be destroyed if enhanced again.

This was information Kirito had gotten from Argo.

Clearly, Kirito and the hidden Akimi and Asuna around them were about to witness this scene again.

As the hammer struck the sword for the tenth time, the sword shattered into countless shards of light as they expected, and the sword sheath in Nezha's left hand shattered simultaneously.

Nezha trembled slightly, lowered his head, turned to Kirito with a twisted expression on his face, and said, "I'm really sorry!"

Kirito sighed softly and said, "You don't need to apologize."

Then, to the bewilderment of the blacksmith, Kirito operated the menu panel to take off his full armor and put on a midnight coat.

Before Nezha could react, Kirito tapped the panel a few more times, and his +6 Anneal Blade returned to his hand.

Seeing this, Nezha's face turned pale.

Akimi and Asuna, who had been hiding nearby, walked over together.

Akimi glanced at Nezha and said softly, "It's probably hard for anyone to imagine that a blacksmith would prioritize learning the 'Quick Switch' skill MOD... and putting the menu between the carpet and the merchandise is quite a creative idea…"

The skill MOD is short for "Modify."

Once the proficiency of various skills reaches a certain level, there's a chance to obtain it, known as a "skill enhancement choice."

For example, after reaching a proficiency of 50 in the skill "Enemy Detection," you can choose one MOD from options like "Increase simultaneous detection count," "Increase detection range," or "Application: Tracking."

The "Quick Switch" MOD is one that almost all one-handed weapons can learn, but very few people choose it early on because its boost to combat power isn't significant at the start.

Normally, to switch weapons, you have to open the menu panel, click on the left (or right) hand equipment slot, choose to change equipment, select the weapon you want to switch to from the item list, and then confirm the weapon.

This five-step process wastes a lot of time.

But if you have the "Quick Switch" MOD, you only need to open the menu panel and press a shortcut key — if you're skilled, half a second is enough.

Moreover, "Quick Switch" lets you set which hand to switch to, which weapon to switch to — and you can even choose to switch to the same weapon as the previous one.

This is the secret behind Nezha's ability to quickly swap weapons.

To expose him, Kirito—having lost the rock-paper-scissors game—spent nearly a whole day in the labyrinth training his one-handed sword proficiency, raising it from around sixty or seventy up to one hundred points, then learned "Quick Switch" to verify Akimi's theory.

Afterwards, feeling utterly drained, Kirito rushed over to confront Nezha again—truly a tough ordeal.

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