Ch 07: Grinding in earnest.

Noah felt refreshed when he woke up the next morning, and he started dressing. Items could be equipped or removed either manually, as someone would in real life, or by using the game interface. When he felt ready, he walked down the stairs to the inn’s main room. Two players and a few villagers were having breakfast.

The innkeeper came to him.

“Good morning, adventurer. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, Sir. Good morning.”

“I’ll bring you breakfast, it’s included in the cost of the room.”

Noah chose the same table he had used the day before, and quickly ate the few slices of buttered bread and the pot of milk he was given. Then he returned to see the innkeeper.

“Sir, would it be possible to use your kitchen for a few minutes? I’d like to learn Cooking.”

“I’ll allow it, but you will have to source the ingredients, and you will need to pay me 100 Cor for the seasoning you will use.”

Noah nodded, paid the innkeeper, and followed him in the kitchen. Noah was expecting to see his wife or someone else preparing ingredients for lunch or something, but this was Sword Art Online, where slicing vegetables in small cubes could be done by tapping them once with a knife. Something that would take hours and hours in the real world might be made in 30 seconds of preparation and maybe 10 minutes in an oven.

The innkeeper showed Noah were the seasonings were, gave him some space, and Noah took out the 63 pieces of boar meat and 13 chunks of wolf he had gained the day before. He started by grilling an unseasoned piece of wolf, and was immediately rewarded by a notification.

“You have learned Cooking.”

Next he tried various combinations of seasonings, and committed blasphemy by cooking the meat in boiling water. He found out that each “new” combination added 1 to his proficiency, but that the increase was capped at 5 per type of meat.

The chunks of cooked meat produced had the same name and description despite the different seasonings used, but their taste was different.

His proficiency in cooking was now at 11/1000, which wasn’t actually bad for 20 minutes of trial and error, and he gained two actual recipes when he reached 5 and 10, Seasoned Boar Skewers and Nepenthes Salad. But it looked like he’d need to find at least 200 different core ingredients and make many variants to master Cooking.

Noah thanked the innkeeper, telling him that he’d be back after sunset, and walked next to the small forge on the other side of the village. He bought a pickaxe, so that he might be able to extract ore if he found a vein. Next to the forge was a workshop, where Noah gave some money to the NPC and was allowed to borrow his tools. He had 126 Low Grade Leather strips and 9 Wolf Pelts, and intended to use them.

Twenty minutes later, Noah came out, with three new pieces of equipment.

“Crude Fur-lined leather boots. Defense: +4.”

“Crude leather pants. Defense: +3.”

“Crude Fur-lined Leather Jerkin. Defense +5.”

Each point of defense reduced by 1 the damage he would take. Heavy metal armor would be best in that regard, but carried some stiff penalties in moving speed and weight limit. He would need to increase his strength a lot to reduce or cancel those penalties.

All the NPCs were now available, and Noah talked to them to accept their quests. One that was about culling 100 Nepenthes, another collection quest, and finally the one that gave the sword as a reward for killing 50 Nepenthes and at least one with a flower on its head. Some of those quests’ objectives overlapped, and Noah estimated he might finish them all today, as long as he found the elusive flower Nepenthes.

In a good mood, he left the village and walked deeper in the forest. He didn’t have to worry about being lost, as his interface had a mini map. The unexplored land was hidden by a gray layer, but he would have no issue finding his way back.

There were several Nepenthes within his range. A few were solo, but most were in small groups of up to four monsters. He also met two other players on his way, but they simply stayed clear from each other.  Noah first chose a solo monster, as he wanted to learn its attack patterns.

As Noah crossed its aggro range, the Little Nepenthes slowly shambled toward him. The monster was really ugly. It had the body shape of a pitcher carnivorous plant, with a huge mouth full of square teeth on top of it. At the base of the pitcher were a half-dozen thick, meter long roots that the monster was using to move, and two thin, long vine-like appendages, each ending with a large triangular-shaped leaf.

When the monster got within two meters, it swung its right vine like a whip at an angle, coming at Noah from above his left shoulder. Noah barely managed to avoid by jumping back. The Nepenthes paused for a second, as if it couldn’t understand the lack of feedback from its vine, before shifting and trying again with its left vine. Again, Noah jumped back. He had now memorized the slight changes in posture the Nepenthes did before striking, and though he could anticipate its movements in time to avoid it.

The Nepenthes got closer and struck again, but this time, Noah evaded by jumping left and ducking under the blow, and jumped forward to slash at the monster.

-27.

“Groo!” The creature growled, as it suddenly leaned forward.

Thanks to the reading he had done before connecting to the game, Noah already suspected what was going to happen, and darted to the side, circling around the creature. He avoided just in time the stream of corrosive bile that the Nepenthes vomited, inflicting a damage over time at anything in a 30 degrees arc in front of him.

The Nepenthes took two seconds to execute that move, but in a fight, two seconds was a slot of time. Noah launched a Horizontal on the creature’s back.

-69.

Of the creature’s base 120 HP, only 20 were left. Noah punched it. The crest might be a plant type, but it felt like leathery flesh.

-24.

A poke of his sword later, the creature disappeared.

“Result.

Exp: 35

Cor: 40

Items: 1”

Noah reflected on the fight, and got an idea. To test it, he walked toward the next lone Nepenthes. As the distance between the two closed to three meters, Noah suddenly sprinted to the side, keeping out of range of the Vines. The Nepenthes turned to face him, but that turning was rather slow, and Noah had no difficulty reaching the back of the creature. He kept a wary eye on the vines, as they had no articulation stopping them from lashing backward. But the Nepenthes didn’t, growling in frustration and vainly trying to turn as Noah killed it. The AI routine controlling that thing clearly wasn’t up to snuff.

Making sure there was no other monster or player around, Noah opened in interface and sent a message to Lisbeth.

“Good Morning, Lisbeth. Is now a good time to chat?”

Apparently, Lisbeth wasn’t too busy, as her answer didn’t take long.

“Morning, Noah. It’s fine, just killing wolves. How are things from your side?”

“Going well. I wanted to share with you a tip for easily killing the Little Nepenthes. They’re slow to move, and slower to turn. As long as you stay out of their attack range, you can easily get into their back, and once you do, it seems they can’t attack you. Just pay attention to the short roots they have for legs, as you don’t want to stumble on them.”

“Thanks, I’ll be sure to try that, when I get there eventually. Have you met other players? Are they hostile?”

“I’ve met over two dozen, as more came every hour, but none showed any hostility so far. Mostly beta testers, but new players like me should start showing up in larger numbers as well… How are things in the city?”

“Not going very well. A ton of people have spent the night in the streets, as they were afraid of going out to hunt monsters and gain the Cor needed to rent a room. They don’t have anything to eat, either. Aside from that, there’s a lot of recruiting underway, as people make teams to increase their odds of survival. I’m considering joining one.”

“I think that’s a good idea. You have far less chances to be targeted by hostile players if you’re not alone. It is also safer for hunting monsters. Just be careful on who you team up with. If you have a gut feeling that someone is suspicious, you should follow your instincts.”

“Yeah. I’m keeping my eyes open.”

“Just be aware that I’ll make my own guild at some point, and I’d like you to be part of it.”

“Oh… I’m interested. Have you met other people already?”

“Well, there’s Argo, a player specializing in information trading, but I don’t think she’d want to join. I’m keeping my eyes open for good people.”

“What will be the name of your guild?”

“That’s undecided yet. I’m open to suggestions… Anyway, I should return to grinding. We both need to become stronger.”

“Yes. I’ll wait to reach lv3 with the wolves, then I’ll return to the city to search for a group. See you later, Noah. Stay safe.”

“Don’t worry, I’m the cautious type. See you!”

Noah closed his interface and chose another single Nepenthes. He brought the monster to less than 20 HP, then gritted his teeth, and let himself be struck by one of the vines.

-26.

It stung quite a bit, but was still tolerable. A bright red line appeared on his body, from his shoulder to his sternum. Lines like this indicated sustained damage, and disappeared after twenty seconds.

Noah finished the mob, and used his Lesser Healing, and watched with satisfaction as his HP gradually recovered to full.

Then he repeated it with the next monster, letting himself be hit once, and waiting for his natural recovery to return his HP to their max value.

It wasn’t that he suddenly got some masochistic urges. Noah was doing this to get used to pain, and to unlock early the Battle Healing proficiency, that would passively speed up his natural recovery greatly. The unlocking conditions weren’t very clear, as Noah had found much information on it, just that one needed to get hit a lot.

And it would help with developing pain tolerance.

Noah returned to grinding. Occasionally, he found Wild Strawberries on the ground. He made sure to collect more than was needed for the quest, as he would use the rest for cooking.

It was only in the midafternoon, after he killed several hundred Nepenthes, that he found one with a flower over its head. It was part of a group of four. He was about to engage them, when another player got near. It was Kirito, the protagonist.

He stopped, hesitating, looking in turn at Noah and the flower Nepenthes.

Noah sighed lightly, and walked closer to him, lowering his sword.

“Hey. I’m Noah. You’re here for that monster, right?”

He hesitated for an instant before answering. “…Yes. I’m Kirito.”

“I suppose we could fight it out until one of us run, but I’m not much into that. How about a deal? I help you kill it, but in return, you help me search around for another.”

“I agree.”

“Good. Then let’s start. I’ll take the two on the left.”

Noah started circling the group of monsters while Kirito did the same in the opposite direction. As each monster had its own aggro range, he could attract two of them while not drawing the attention of the later two. He had used this tactic before to never fight more than two Nepenthes simultaneously.

It worked as usual. Noah killed his two mobs and turned to see if Kirito needed help, but he was already done.

“Thanks, Noah. Can I add you to my friend list? I’ll contact you when I see another of those mobs.”

“Yeah.” Noah accepted the invitation, and after they nodded to each other, Kirito went in one direction, and Noah chose another.

Less than another hour later, As the sun would soon set, Noah heard a man’s screams. He ran in their direction, and saw a large group of Nepenthes starting to disperse. It didn’t take a genius to understand that at least one player had just been killed, his body shattering like those of the mobs.

One of the Nepenthes had a flower. He waited for them to disperse more, giving himself some room to act without attracting too much aggro, made sure no other player was near, and attacked.

That monster wasn’t any harder to beat than the normal variant, and he headed toward the village with a satisfied smile. He sent a message to Kirito, informing him that his participation wasn’t necessary anymore. He kept him in his friend list, just in case. There was no limitation on the number of contacts, and it might one day prove useful.

After nearly a full day of hunting, Noah’s level in the game had risen to 3, half-way to level 4, and he had spent his stats points in Agility. It made a barely noticeable difference, only making him a little faster when evading or running. But evading was kind of important in this game, and enough stacks of “barely noticeable” would end up making the difference between life and death.

He was also at 70% of the experience needed to reach level 2 in the Yin-Yang system, and he looked forward to it.

Noah had tried stabbing himself in the thigh, then using his Lesser Healing to recover. That didn’t grant him any Yin point. Healing injuries caused by monsters, however, did give him 1 point per Lesser Heal activation, and he now had 63 Yin points. There were quite a few utility or combat perks that Noah looked forward to in the Store. The most interesting ones also required Yang points, but… well, it was only the second day.

Killing a few more Nepenthes on the way, Noah returned to the village and validated his quests. Now a few thousand Cor richer, he examined his new sword. The Anneal Blade was slightly longer, heavier, and was double-edged, with a blade black at the center, and steel gray on the edges. It had an Attack value of 8, and more interestingly, an enhancement value of +8.

There was a way to upgrade weapons in SAO, by borrowing the help of a player with the corresponding weapon forging proficiency. In this case, Slash Weapon Forging. Five parameters could be improved, Sharpness, Quickness, Accuracy, Heaviness, Durability.

Sharpness was quite straightforward, and increased the weapon’s damage.

Accuracy was some kind of automated trajectory correction that helped players hit the monsters on their weak points, triggering critical hits that doubled the damage inflicted.

Heaviness increased the weapon’s ability to damage the opponent’s weapon or armor.

Quickness improved the speed of Sword Skills, but did nothing about normal attacks.

Durability improved the equipment’s… well, durability.

The enhancement value corresponded to the number of times one could attempt to increase one of those parameters. But those attempts weren’t always successful. And the odds of success went down after the item had half of its enhancement value used. Worse, a failure could downgrade the item and make it lose the previous enhancement. It was possible for an unlucky player to get consecutive failures and end up with losing all previous enhancements.

Noah reached the inn and paid for another night and meal. The inn was much more packed than before, and he thought that he would soon have to share a table with other players if he stayed there.

The meal was satisfying, a soup with bits of meats and vegetables inside, and a plate of grilled chicken skewers and fries. At least it tasted like chicken. Noah asked the innkeeper about it, and he told him that it was actually Nepenthes meat.

He determined to hunt more of them and acquire the recipe one day. Actually, maybe he could directly ask the innkeeper how it was done. He decided to try the next day.

Argo hadn’t shown up. He decided to contact her.

“Hey, Argo. Am I interrupting?”

“Ah, Noah. Good to hear from ya. I’m in the starting city right now. You?”

“Got the Anneal blade. I’m currently eating Nepenthes skewers in the village. This stuff is quite tasty for such an ugly monster.”

“Right? I was surprised, too, the first time I tried it. Make sure to learn the recipe, keep some meat in your storage, and treat me to it next time we meet in person.”

“Will do. Hey, it does sound a bit like you’re asking me to hang out with you. I’d gladly accept if you do.”

“Don’t try your charms on this big girl, Noah. Maybe if we ever meet in real life, and we’re both single, I’ll consider it. For now, I just want out of this whole mess, with my skin whole. Anyway, did you want to ask me something?”

“Yeah. As far as I can tell, all the Nepenthes are lv3, and the next monsters I know off are the lv6 Kobolds from the labyrinth. Is there anything in-between?”

“That information will cost you 200 Cor.”

Noah snorted in amusement, and obediently transferred the asked amount to her.

“Many thanks, oh dear client of mine. There are lv4 wolves to the north-east of the village you’re in. They have 75 HP, but they come by groups of three, and they share aggro, so you can’t separate them like the Nepenthes can be. Be careful with those. A group is highly advised. If you’re alone, I’d suggest sticking with the Nepenthes for now. You can also find ore deposits south-east of the forest to upgrade your weapon, by the way.”

“Hum, thanks. That was certainly well worth the cost. I think I’ll wait to upgrade my equipment before I try the wolves, and maybe find someone to team up with.”

“That would be wise. Just be careful.”

“Yeah. You too. Bye.”

Noah resumed his meal. But he was shocked when another invitation to a conversation appeared in front of him.

The sender was identified as Akihiko Kayaba.