The main street on the forty-eighth floor Lindarth's, is divided by countless waterways.
When Lin Yuan and Kirito arrived, the drainage wheel was slowly turning in the afternoon sun. The two started from the eleventh floor and went up along the open floor road. For Kirito, this long journey did not yield any experience gains, but it took several days longer than standing in the teleportation door and saying a place name.
He didn't complain; he simply chose suitable areas to level up along the way and collected all the experience points from the monsters he encountered.
"This is it." Kirito stopped in front of a shop with an anvil sign.
The storefront wasn't large, but the weapons displayed in the window were far more exquisite than those in the shops along the way. Lin Yuan couldn't see the equipment stats, but he could judge them by the blade lines, center of gravity, and thickness in various parts. At least in terms of appearance and structure, the shop owner wasn't just a blacksmith who only knew how to stack reinforcement levels.
When I pushed open the door, a girl with short pink hair was standing behind the counter organizing tools.
Welcome!
She saw the black sword behind Kirito, paused slightly at the end of her sentence, and then shifted her gaze to the curved sword at Lin Yuan's waist that could not be fully sheathed.
"You're here to sell scrap metal?"
" Asuna recommended us to come," Kirito said.
Upon hearing Asuna's name, the girl's expression softened somewhat. "I'm Lisbeth. She only said there was a guest with very troublesome requests, but she didn't say there would be two at once."
"The main purpose is to forge weapons." Kirito took down " The Elucidator " and placed it on the counter. "I want a sword with comparable performance to it."
Lisbeth brought up the appraisal window. After seeing the data on the black sword, her initially casual expression gradually became serious, but she did not admit that she couldn't do it.
"Wait."
She took a sword from deep within the shop. The silvery-white blade reflected the shimmering water outside the window, and the hilt still gleamed with the luster of a recently completed piece.
"This is the best one-handed sword in the shop right now." Lisbeth handed it to Kirito. "The materials, forging, and reinforcement are all top-notch. Even if it's not as good as your black sword, it won't be much worse."
Kirito took the silver sword and walked to the testing area outside the store.
Lin Yuan followed him out. He had already guessed how Kirito wanted to compare the two swords, but he didn't stop him.
Kirito held the " Elucidator " in his right hand and the silver sword in his left, letting the two blades collide head-on.
A crisp snapping sound echoed throughout the waterway.
The silver sword broke in half, the broken blade spinning as it landed on the stone slab. The Elucidator, however, was left only with the white specks of light from the impact.
Lisbeth froze for a moment, then rushed out from behind the counter.
"What are you doing!"
"Test the hardness." Kirito looked at the broken sword in his hand. "Looks like it won't work."
"That's the best sword in my shop!" Lisbeth snatched the hilt back. "Who tests a weapon's performance by slashing it against another? You'll have to pay for it!"
Kirito was clearly unprepared for this problem and could only look to Lin Yuan.
"You cut it," Lin Yuan said.
Didn't we come together?
"So I see it very clearly."
Lisbeth suppressed a laugh, glared at Kirito, and then turned her attention to another request.
Lin Yuan drew his longsword and placed it flat on the workbench.
Lisbeth was initially still angry, but calmed down after examining the sword for a while. The sword's durability was not close to zero, and there was no failure in the enhancement record, but the entire blade was slowly bending beyond the system's repair range.
"How did this happen?"
"Used normally."
"Using a dragon like a stake to chop it down isn't normal use." Lisbeth tried to bring up the user's information, but the window was blank. "What about the user's stats?"
"No."
"Strength attribute?"
"No."
"Equipment slots?"
"No."
Lisbeth looked up at Lin Yuan's head and realized that there was no name or HP displayed there. The rumors about the " Nameless Swordsman " had obviously spread to the forty-eighth floor as well, and she immediately became more cautious in her grip on her sword.
"So it was you."
"Can it be rebuilt?"
"Using the same material will only bend it once more." Lisbeth examined the blade with a ruler. "Besides, I don't know your strength limit, so I can't calculate the thickness and weight based on the properties."
Kirito asked, "Are there any materials more durable than the ones in the store?"
Lisbeth paused for a moment, then took a high-level material catalog from the shelf and turned to the page marked with the fifty-fifth layer, the Western Mountains.
"There lives a white dragon there. It guards a crystal-grade metal, rumored to be able to forge the most powerful weapons currently available. However, no one has confirmed the exact method of obtaining the material."
"Then let's go find them," Lin Yuan said.
Lisbeth looked at the broken sword on the workbench, then at the bent longsword, clearly still unable to swallow her anger.
Do you know what the footage looks like?
They both shook their heads.
"Do you know the White Dragon's activity patterns?"
Still no one answered.
Lisbeth grabbed the forging hammer and then took her own nail-headed hammer from the wall.
"I'm going too." She glared at Kirito. "I want to find the materials myself and forge a sword that you absolutely can't break."