Relax, just letting off a little desire~

As the little Nepenthes bro in the pit dissolved into motes of light, it was already almost too dark to see.

Had anyone ever experienced the darkness of a rural night many years ago? That darkness, almost devoid of artificial light, was deeply unsettling, though the stars back then had been especially beautiful.

Now Wang Shui was deep in the forest, with the enormous backside of Aincrad's second floor overhead and pitch-black trees all around him, taking him straight back to childhood.

He only had a small hurricane lantern in his inventory-something he had picked up that afternoon when he returned to the village to buy gathering tools after grinding all day.

But in a truly dark forest at night, no amount of light from something in your hand would bring a sense of security.

Wang Shui hurried to gather the Nepenthes Honey and prepared to leave before it went completely dark, while also checking whether the trap he had dug would reset tomorrow.

Yes, he had dug a trap.

Near the center of the combat clearing he had created, he had dug a large pit two meters across and over a meter deep, wearing out the iron shovel he had gotten from the village in the process.

Then he had laid some vines over it, without doing much else to conceal it.

The idea of digging a trap had come to Wang Shui while he was repeatedly pulling mobs. He had noticed that Nepenthes had eyes, but they did not seem to work very well.

Yes, plants with eyes, and their two eyeballs kept looking in different directions, giving them a distinctly intelligent appearance.

When moving, they did turn their eye-bearing side forward, but instead of turning in a small space like animals with feet, they planted a vine in the ground as a pivot, then used their many rootlike vines to push themselves around in a circle.

They were not particularly slow, but to a human, that turning motion was like a large truck making a U-turn. Wang Shui even had to give them room when they turned toward him.

Of course, a turning Nepenthes did not simply stand there and take a beating. When Wang Shui approached to attack during its turn, it would still lock onto him with its "spitting" and vine attacks. Clearly, these monsters did not rely solely on those intelligent eyes to find enemies.

They were sensitive to enemies, but far less attentive to what lay beneath them. Whenever there were rocks or roots on the ground, the Nepenthes simply thrust out their big pitchers and rolled straight over them like roly-poly toys.

That was why Wang Shui had thought of traps: he wanted to restrict their movements and make them easier to kill.

Quick to put ideas into action, Wang Shui soon tested pits of different depths. He eventually discovered that around a meter and a half was the threshold for changing a Nepenthes's pathfinding logic, while anything deeper than a meter was already very difficult for it to climb out of.

Wang Shui widened the pit, found some thick vines to cover it haphazardly, and successfully trapped the next unlucky victim.

People who had never played around with traps might not realize that traps rarely collapsed only after the prey was fully on top of them, as they did in cartoons. That sort of trap required a very precisely designed trigger.

When a Nepenthes fell into Wang Shui's lazy man's pit, half its body slid and tipped downward, leaving it wedged diagonally across the opening.

Wang Shui then had to run behind it and kick its big backside hard until it fell all the way in. Its tentacle-like vines flailed inside the cramped space, leaving it no choice but to watch him prune its branches and leaves one sword stroke at a time.

The great philanthropist Wang Shui used this pit to help more than a dozen poorly growing Nepenthes, until he exhausted himself and finally found his charitable spirit again (came to his senses). He went off to chop some long, arm-thick sticks, sharpened one end of each, and roasted them over a fire. The resulting carbonized wooden spikes were hard and resistant to corrosion.

First, he planted a ring of upright spikes around the pit walls to reinforce the trap and prevent the soil from collapsing. Then he scattered a few spikes across the bottom. There could not be too many down there; otherwise, the pressure distributed to each spike would decrease, and they might fail to pierce the Nepenthes's skin.

After Wang Shui's adjustments, five wooden spikes remained at the bottom.

With the addition of the spikes, while Wang Shui pruned the little bros in the pit, more than five extra damage numbers in the teens would pop above their heads every two or three seconds-if they caught on the spikes along the trap walls,

the number of damage ticks would increase too. This made things much more efficient. In less than two hours that afternoon, more Nepenthes fell to Wang Shui's underhanded trap than during the morning and noon combined (around forty, judging by the honey drops).

After serving his last customer, there were hardly any Nepenthes nearby. Wang Shui checked his status and was just about to leave when a fresh Nepenthes happened to spawn beside the combat clearing-with a flower on its head.

WTF! Has my luck finally turned?! Is this compensation for the system screwing with me?!

For an instant, Wang Shui felt the bliss of soaking in a hot spring. Without thinking, he picked up a rock and threw it. Pulling mobs with stones had already become instinctive, and he planned to get a leather pouch back in the village to hold river pebbles.

Though it was steadily growing darker, the kill went smoothly. Flowered specimens were merely rare spawns; their actual stats were about the same as ordinary Nepenthes, and they were a little smaller.

With help from his "gardening pit," Wang Shui dealt with the little sister sporting a flower in just over a minute, most of which was spent waiting for her to turn and fall into the trap.

Fortunately, Kayaba pulled no more tricks this time. A [Little Nepenthes Ovule] appeared normally among the drops, though there was only one.

But Wang Shui cared more about what came next than the ovule. He intended to use the most thorough version of [Gathering] on this flowered specimen.

After buying various gathering tools that afternoon, Wang Shui had discovered that using tools and gathering by hand yielded roughly three times more than gathering bare-handed. If the little Nepenthes bros really had not produced nothing but syrup and vines, he would have chopped every last one apart.

Previously, he had been reluctant to spend his sword's durability, but this was a rare specimen. His veteran gamer's instincts told him it definitely had special drops.

Wang Shui first confirmed that [Gathering] was active, selected manual gathering, and brought his sword down on the Nepenthes's pitcher rim. The [Bronze Sword] in his hand became a machete, flying up and down as he quickly split open the leathery, tough pitcher.

A large puddle of yellow-green slime lay at the bottom, with the tips of wooden spikes faintly visible beneath it. Wang Shui had also chopped off the flower on top. The dismemberment scene was so gruesome it might frighten the other Nepenthes.

After separating as many parts as he could, Wang Shui clicked the floating [Gathering] confirmation window. This was a pattern he had worked out while gathering herbs with his little shovel that afternoon-the more thoroughly he divided the gathering target, the more items it yielded.

[Gathering complete!]

["Nepenthes Honey": 500 ml × 12]

["Vine": 5]

["Nepenthes Flower": 1]

["Little Nepenthes Ovule": 1]

Huh???

What happened? Little sister, how did you produce two ovules from one flower?!

The sudden rush of happiness left Wang Shui breathless. "Has my luck really turned?!" filled his head.

Fortunately, the darkness around him quickly cooled his brain.

Wang Shui quickly carried over the remaining sticks and made a rough barrier around the trap. He also threw a few sticks inside to cover the spikes, lest some reckless traveler fall in during the night and turn him into a red-name back in town.

Once he had tidied up, Wang Shui grabbed his lantern, hurried back to the village along the river, and headed straight for the mercenary auntie's house. Under her I knew I was right about you gaze, he received the [Anneal Blade].

The new weapon's weight stat was 30, twice that of the Bronze Sword's 15. Its heavy, substantial feel was difficult for Wang Shui to adjust to at first.

That number definitely did not mean kilograms, but Wang Shui did not think it could mean pounds either. It certainly felt heavier than a kilogram, though not by much. The new sword's "+7" Strength bonus allowed him to swing it, but being able to swing a weapon was not enough to use it in combat.

With the sword secured, Wang Shui still had plenty of materials to deal with. He sold his herbs at the apothecary and recorded their prices, then went to the general store and sold his pile of vines as a bundle for 20 Cor.

Notably, the "Nepenthes Flower" counted as an herb, and Wang Shui sold it to the apothecary for 1,210 Cor. That single flower accounted for nearly a third of his income for the entire day.

So this [Gathering] skill seemed unexpectedly profitable.

While grinding, Wang Shui had originally planned to spend the evening in the village tavern. Not because he loved drinking-he merely wanted to support the business of the gentle, lovely NPC older lady, while exploring this game character's physical limits.

He had already switched on "Ethics Code Off" while sorting his items on the road at some point.

But after obtaining the [Anneal Blade], he ultimately could not resist the urge to test it and went to rent a large target at the village militia's training grounds.

The weighty new sword was indeed difficult to control. With a general Sword Skill like [Linear], holding the blade level was manageable, but he also had to thrust quickly, focus his attention on the tip, and twist the tip at the same time.

Keeping the sword at chest height while concentrating and performing several sword-control movements one-handed made it very easy for his form to slip. Wang Shui only succeeded once in three attempts.

[Rage Spike], intended for [One-Handed Straight Sword] use (though not exclusive to it), went much better. This Sword Skill emphasized charging with the body. He only needed to keep his sword pointed at the target, then thrust hard when he closed in. Wang Shui almost never failed.

Meanwhile, arresting the momentum of [Slant] and [Horizontal] became more difficult. After the Sword Skill's motion ended, Wang Shui had to expend more strength adjusting his posture, indirectly making his movements stiff and extending his "attack recovery" time (not to be confused with "hit recovery"; in games like D2, "hit recovery" referred to recovering from stagger after being attacked, while "attack recovery" was similar to the attack backswing in MOBA terminology).

The power of his Sword Skills, and even his ordinary attacks, had increased significantly, but Wang Shui could not accept this recovery time. He had no teammates to alternate tanking mobs with and avoid the risks of that stiffness. A lone wolf had to stay agile and mobile at all times.

Just as his Sword Skills instructor Seventh Brother had said, the essence of swordsmanship was always leaving yourself plenty of room to escape!

The strategy forums offered two methods for shortening "attack recovery": first, increase Strength, which improved control over Sword Skills and attacks; second, improve Sword Skill proficiency-not just the proficiency represented by skill levels, but also the player's own proficiency in controlling those skills.

With good enough feel and execution, even heavy weapons could be wielded lightly.

Mastering the sword in his hand was the objective, but destroying the target before him was Wang Shui's personal desire. As he watched chips fly from the iron-clad wooden target under his blows, something pent up inside him was unraveling, releasing...

Stroke after stroke, faster and faster, the gouges grew deeper. Unlike the players in the original story who liked contemplating death and life here, Wang Shui was simply venting, relieving his stress, relieving... hatred?

His hatred-perhaps that feeling did not qualify as hatred. It was probably a stifling sense of frustration and resentment.

That feeling had been born when the system resurrected him, when he arrived in this new world full of extraordinary delights.

Did that sound ridiculous?

Resurrection, entering a supernatural infinite space, witnessing infinitely fascinating worlds-wow, it really sounded incredibly cool and wonderful!

But had Wang Shui chosen this? Had he been allowed to choose?

He was just a useless corporate slave who could not even truss a chicken! He was not a born warrior! Much less a lunatic!

His knowledge, his worldview, and his abilities had firmly established his foundations as an ordinary person.

For half a year, facing Awakened of all manner of strange shapes and races every day, Wang Shui had remained calm on the surface while constantly living in fear. He was afraid, utterly terrified. He truly feared that some customer would get annoyed and slap him to death...

But he still had to fleece people, still had to earn money, because he could not obtain skills. He was merely a crafting-class artisan. He wanted to live.

If the system had not resurrected him, he might have been able to accept death. But having regained life, he was filled with awe and dread toward that eternal, lonely death.

Wang Shui had bottled it up for so long. He had no choice but to keep being pushed forward. He was a weakling, a weakling with neither combat experience nor the heart of the strong. Even the ladies of Flower Street could get the better of him.

But at last, he had finally summoned the courage to enter an infinite world again, finally picked up a weapon for the first time, even if his innate ability screwed him over, even if Akihiko Kayaba discovered his means of survival, even if he might die!

At last, for the first time, he tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.

It was this sword, whose stats offered security, this heavy sword, that gave him a powerful sense of safety and confidence he had never possessed before.

Countless times, the [Anneal Blade] filled with blue light. Countless times, it savagely tore into the target from every angle. For the first time, Wang Shui felt his own force of presence, something he had never seen in himself and had never understood!

For the first time, the blade he swung carried not a trace of fear or hesitation.

Sheathing his sword, Wang Shui stood before the completely shattered target and slowly steadied his breathing, feeling the weakness in his body as the adrenaline faded, along with the mental exhaustion from using Sword Skills so frequently.

He simply stood there. He gained no enlightenment, nor did he suddenly acquire the mindset of the strong. He merely regained his calm after venting.

The night ended in a quiet bed at the inn, in Wang Shui's first dreamless sleep in half a year.

Venting his urge to destroy left him feeling strangely refreshed, and his body felt light and powerful, giving Wang Shui more confidence to face this world.

With his current stats, nearly at level four and equipped with the [Anneal Blade], Wang Shui had more than enough to head straight into the labyrinth area.

But this was only the fourth day since the game began. According to the plot, the first-floor boss raid would take place around the twentieth to thirtieth.

On the one hand, the first- and second-tier players desperately pushed forward toward the labyrinth for fear of falling behind in combat power. On the other, they greatly valued their lives. They probably would not risk challenging the labyrinth boss until they had exhausted the first floor's means of strengthening themselves.

According to the setting, the first-floor boss was designed for levels three to five, yet every member of the original story's forty-four-person raid group had been above level ten.

So Wang Shui was in no hurry either. Previously, he had rushed for fear of falling too far behind Kirito and the others in levels and failing to keep up with the main group. Now he needed to slow down instead and strengthen his character in the details. After all, he did not want to die a pathetic death in the game.

He had to keep up his stat training, raise his skill levels, max out his armor, save money, and keep his weapon enhancement level up too. It had that unmistakable MMORPG flavor.

But players who loved these games enjoyed precisely that feeling of working a little at a time and growing stronger bit by bit.

Wang Shui's next task was very clear: train his skills with a focus on farming enhancement materials, while saving money and leveling up on the side (he lacked everything).

The materials for the [Anneal Blade]'s first four enhancement levels could all be found on the first floor: [Wolf Fang], [Red-Spotted Beetle Shell], [Refined Steel Ingot], and [Kobold Longsword Fragment].

Wolf fangs dropped from the wolves on the plains outside the Town of Beginnings. Unfortunately, Wang Shui had sold all of his long ago.

But there was no rush. Over the next couple of days, new players should summon the courage to leave town and grind mobs. He could ask Argo then, or have a player merchant keep an eye out. This material would see heavy consumption later on. Failing everything else, he could buy it from NPCs; it probably would not be very expensive.

For the shells, he needed to head deep into the forest and farm red-spotted beetles. These monsters were the same level as Nepenthes, with low aggression and relatively high defense, and were not difficult to farm.

For refined steel ingots, he would need to pass through the dense forest, mine iron ore himself in the mountain caves near the labyrinth, and bring it back to town for refining. Without the [Mining] skill, efficiency would be very low.

Steel ingots were sold both in the Town of Beginnings and in the village for 3,000 Cor each. A single enhancement attempt required at least two.

Kobold longsword fragments dropped from kobolds in the first-floor labyrinth and its outskirts, but only from kobold vanguards wielding one-handed straight swords (longswords to kobolds). Other kobolds dropped enhancement fragments for other weapons. With a group farming together, exchanging materials would not be too difficult.

Now that's the stuff! This is R! P! G! This is what makes a grinding game fun! Good job, Kayaba!

Before setting off on his enhancement expedition, Wang Shui planned to stay here for another two days, farm his good friends the little Nepenthes, earn some money, and reach level five to unlock his next skill slot.

This time, he had to consider his skill choice carefully. He absolutely had to equip a skill that helped in combat!