The Earnest, Down-to-Earth Father and His Idiot Son, Whose Cheats Had Arrived Too

Meeting Wang Shui outside the village, Kirito looked rather strangely at him as he yawned nonstop.

"Did you really fight them all night?"

"Mmm... ugh..."

Wang Shui slowly stretched before answering.

"Huh? No, I left before eleven. The newcomers were the ones playing after that. I'm just sleepy because I stayed up too late reading information last night and got up too early today. I'll wake up along the way. Come on, let's go."

It was only around six, and the sky was still dark. None of the players went out leveling at this hour, either.

"All right, then. It's a long way from here to [Tolbana], but fortunately, we don't need to take a detour to reach yesterday's ruins."

Without much more talk, the two, who had agreed yesterday to clear out the small ruins together, briefly checked their supplies and left the village.

Wang Shui occasionally started conversations along the way, but mostly concentrated on making progress. The paths through the dense forest were hardly easy to navigate.

Soon, they reached a clearing thick with grass and dotted with boulders. In its center stood a barely recognizable building constructed from massive stones, its gray-white blocks badly damaged.

"This is the place? Yesterday's giant-axe kobolds have respawned. Looks like this isn't special terrain with a one-time reward. What's inside that temple-like building?"

Wang Shui asked while counting the monsters outside.

"There isn't much room inside. There's something like a treasure chest right in the middle, similar to the ones in the labyrinth area. An elite monster seems to be guarding it, but yesterday, before I could get close, I chain-aggroed other monsters while dealing with the ones outside."

"Linked aggro by default? Or does it have some condition?" Wang Shui suddenly interrupted.

"No. During the SAO beta, none of the monster groups had linked aggro. Yesterday, I accidentally moved too close to other monsters, so they targeted me too." Kirito explained seriously, pointing toward a giant-axe kobold.

"A few meters behind that giant-axe monster, you'll trigger aggro from at least three other monsters."

"Good. See that clearing on the right? We'll pull them there. There are nine monsters outside in total. We'll clear them all before going in."

Clearing the ordinary Ruin Kobolds was quick and safe. Fighting as a pair was more than twice as efficient as fighting alone.

A player party could have up to six members. Large groups called [Boss Raid Teams], or more commonly [Raid Groups] and [Expedition Teams] by players, could contain up to eight full parties, or forty-eight people.

The more people there were, the lower the returns-not efficiency-but safety would improve considerably.

Furthermore, forming a party provided no extra drops. Experience and money were split equally, while materials could be set to leader distribution, random distribution, or equal distribution. Materials that could not be divided equally went up for auction.

Wang Shui and Kirito had chosen equal distribution. By the time Wang Shui had bought up the small quantity of materials, their clearing of the area had reached its final stage.

The ruins looked dilapidated outside, but the interior was surprisingly intact, without many places for light to enter.

Inside the not particularly spacious building, a dark-red mound rose and fell with its breathing. It was an enormous monster, though in a place like this, it probably wasn't a boss.

"I'll try drawing it outside to fight. If we can't handle it, I'll run first, then you find a chance to use [Hide]."

Wang Shui quickly outlined the plan. Kirito nodded solemnly, and they approached the entrance.

The red Sword Skill light of [Single Shot] flew into the ruins. Before long, an enraged roar sounded inside, and a gale burst through the stone doorway. The wind and almost tangible pressure ruffled the hair of the death-courting duo.

Kirito remained calm because he had fought bosses with far more terrifying presences during the beta.

Wang Shui remained calm too, because he could run first.

The scarlet elite monster, over three meters tall, barely squeezed through the stone doorway. Unlike ordinary kobolds, it not only exceeded three meters in height, but also had brighter, glossier fur than ordinary kobolds did. Even dark red could be vivid.

Most importantly, its overhead indicator displayed two HP bars. Beneath them was a unique name, something only elite monsters and above deserved: [Man-Eating Dog Ken].

Its weapon was a long katana that dragged along the ground.

"I'll test its moves first. Be ready to Switch."

After leading the elite some distance away, Kirito gave that brief instruction and prepared a sonic dribble-no, [Sonic Leap].

His small figure shot into the air, heading straight for the monster's face!

The elite swung its katana with great speed as well. Red Sword Skill light flared as it slashed diagonally upward. Wang Shui thought this ought to be called [Rising Slash].

Based on the strategy website's information and Wang Shui's personal experience, Sword Skills did not have particularly fixed colors. Only their brightness and purity changed slightly depending on execution.

Kirito seemed not to see the enormous blade swinging toward him. Or rather, suspended in midair, he had few ways to respond beyond canceling out the monster's Sword Skill.

Normally, this would have been extremely dangerous, but today was different. Today, Kirito had a teammate!

Another red beam skimmed past Kirito's body. He could even see the rectangular iron block wrapped in red light charging alongside him.

Clang-

Amid the long, piercing clash of metal, the elite kobold's Sword Skill light shattered. The iron block that struck the tip of its long katana was sliced apart as well, while Kirito had already stepped onto its shoulder and brought his sword down!

[-221!]

As expected of Lord Kirito's damage. It was that high even against an elite.

Whoosh-

"-82"

Another streak of red flashed past, producing another respectable damage number, though the damage was merely a bonus.

The single-hit Sword Skill [Full-Power Throw] from [Flying Sword], combined with the rectangular iron blocks Wang Shui had specially commissioned from a blacksmith NPC-with beveled edges-delivered a highly effective blow! What had been a slight stagger became a loss of balance.

Taking advantage of its unsteadiness, Kirito kicked off the elite's shoulder and hopped back slightly. A [Vertical] swept downward, his own weight combined with the Sword Skill's bonus carving an enormous wound into the elite!

[-485!]

Wait, you've got cheats too? That wound's big, but it's neither a vital spot nor a weak point. Why's your critical hit rate so high?!

After landing, Kirito showed no awareness of how extraordinary his damage was. He simply launched into the classic strategy for fighting large enemies: trimming their toenails and shaving their legs.

There was no helping it. That was all he could reach. Although Sword Skills could carry players into the air, aerial combat left far too many openings.

Players currently knew few Sword Skills and had poor stats. Jumping too high really did make it easy for large monsters to swat them like tennis balls.

Meanwhile, Wang Shui stood a short distance away, throwing iron ammunition with his left hand to add some damage while holding his sword in his right, ready to Switch in and support Kirito at any moment.

His left hand dealt slightly less damage because its force and form were imperfect, but he had plenty of ammunition now. Being ready to Switch at any moment mattered most.

While Kirito was enthusiastically working on its pedicure, the elite finally regained its footing after twisting around. It drew its katana horizontally, bringing a blood-red glow sweeping toward him.

[Ukifune]? [Tsujikaze]? [Hiougi]?

Wang Shui hurriedly hurled an iron projectile from a distance, then moved forward, ready to dash in and Switch at any moment.

While he was still trying to match the elite's movements to the Sword Skill descriptions in the guide, Kirito had already swiftly unleashed [Vertical].

This Sword Skill was the standard answer. [Vertical] both avoided the angle of the elite's slash and made it easy to exert force, while also having a high strength rating in Sword Skill clashes.

Wang Shui's hurried [Single Shot] and Kirito's [Vertical] swiftly blocked the elite's horizontal slash, but the elite kobold recovered at an utterly unscientific speed. It whipped its blade back from the right side of its body, immediately following with a rising Sword Skill slash.

No! This was a single, two-hit Sword Skill!

The blade caught Kirito across the chest and sent him flying backward, instantly taking forty percent of his HP. Just as the elite prepared to pursue, Wang Shui's [Rage Spike] met it head-on. Even if its aggro had not fully shifted to him yet, the monster would still tend to deal with the target before it. That was the benefit of having a teammate.

"Its Sword Skill proficiency is high! That's the advanced Sword Skill [Gengetsu]! Don't tank it!"

Kirito shouted the information quickly and concisely, then took out a healing potion to restore his HP. Meanwhile, although Wang Shui could not unleash Sword Skills as smoothly and swiftly as Kirito, his swordsmanship was more flexible. He liked exposing his position to bait monsters into using normal attacks, then pulling away to lure them into moving. Once the distance grew, he charged back with a rushing Sword Skill.

Even with his left hand occasionally throwing iron projectiles for extra damage, Wang Shui's damage output remained very low. But for now, he only wanted to kite the monster safely. Once Kirito attacked, everything would improve.

"Hold your ground for five seconds without moving, then stand still and burst it down!"

Wang Shui gave the quick instruction, sidestepped, then turned and retreated, completing a Switch with the approaching Kirito. At the same time, he passed his sword to his left hand and drew an iron projectile from his leather pouch with his right.

He twisted his body, mustered his full strength, and focused his mind to lock onto the target.

After nearly five seconds of preparation, Wang Shui whipped his right arm forward, his fingers making a sharp snap in the air!

A thick, deep-red line shot straight between the elite's brows. The iron projectile struck with a heavy thud! A cluster of information immediately appeared above the elite's head:

[-214!], [Stunned], [Off balance]

Kirito seized the chance to leap, activating [Sonic Leap] vertically upward from the ground, his blade heading straight for the monster's head.

After putting his full effort into [Full-Power Throw], Wang Shui's arm went numb. Fortunately, he only lost a little HP, without suffering the negative status [Body Part Destruction] as he had when saving Kirito earlier.

With the monster stunned, Wang Shui no longer stayed back to prepare for a Switch. He ran over to join the pedicure work and improve their damage output.

Kirito descended from the air wreathed in Sword Skill light once more, leaving another deep wound on the elite. Once the two technicians joined up, they planted their feet and spammed Sword Skills.

Unfortunately, the elite had high resistance to status effects. Wang Shui's strike controlled it for less than five seconds.

Some might compare that status duration with other tabletop adventure RPGs, but SAO truly was different. Its crowd-control effects were all extremely realistic. Being stunned meant genuine dizziness that gradually subsided, and falling down meant actually having to get back up.

Thus, if a player suffered such a long crowd-control effect without teammates to help, it was practically a death sentence.

Seemingly dissatisfied with the two technicians' service, the recovered elite abruptly hopped a short step backward and drew its blade horizontally for a Sword Skill.

"It's [Ukifune]! I've got it!"

As he spoke, Kirito readied [Vertical] and rushed forward. Wang Shui quickly planted his feet, drew an iron projectile, and began charging up with his newly recovered right hand.

Clang-

A heavy clash of blades rang out. Wang Shui did not see how Kirito canceled the Sword Skill. He was not even looking at Kirito, keeping his gaze fixed on the point he intended to strike.

Whoosh- Red light flashed, and a high damage number appeared alongside a fresh stun icon. Kirito had already begun his close-range pedicure, and Wang Shui hurriedly switched his sword to his other hand and charged.

Their attack rhythm was established. A mere elite had no strange abilities such as berserk mode, a burning cosmos, the zone, SEED, Super Saiyan, Hollowfication, Sage Mode, hidden reserve energy, or anything of the sort. In the end, it lasted less than ten minutes before falling.

Kirito sheathed his sword and leaned against a boulder the elite had smashed, resting while checking the drops. Wang Shui simply lay down on the ground.

It sounded simple in the telling, and neither had ever fallen below half HP, but fighting at this intensity was mentally exhausting.

Sword Skills required concentration, observation required concentration, and responding required concentration.

This was also Wang Shui's first victory over an elite monster, so he had been somewhat nervous. Now that tension had turned into exhaustion, but he soon sprang straight up from the ground. The corpse-that enormous, mountain-like corpse-had not disappeared!

Elites could be harvested!

With an excited expression, Wang Shui ran over, sword in hand. Under Kirito's gradually horrified gaze, he began expertly dismembering the elite kobold's enormous body.

Perhaps because the [Gathering] skill was being evaluated, Wang Shui felt the [Anneal Blade] in his hand become exceptionally sharp. He merely guided its edge along the muscles and between the tissues, and the once incredibly tough flesh became as soft as cake beneath his blade.

They were no longer in combat, so the cuts Wang Shui made were not perfunctory red bands of light, but genuine flesh and blood.

Wang Shui carefully avoided the blood vessels, separating muscle from bone and partially peeling away the hide. That way, the [Gathering] skill would probably help strip it off during its evaluation. Yes, that was experience talking.

Amid the steaming mountain of still-twitching muscle, Wang Shui looked around, then turned his gaze toward the still-quivering heart.

"Hey, Kirito, have you ever seen a material called kobold blood?"

"Huh? What?"

Seeing Kirito's stunned, dumbfounded expression, Wang Shui figured he did not know. But something did not necessarily fail to exist just because no one had seen or heard of it.

"Bold hypotheses, careful verification" was a way of thinking Wang Shui endorsed, but he made a small personal adjustment when putting it into practice.

Bold hypotheses, bold verification!

With one swing, the kobold's massive heart fell free. Bright-red blood spurted from the wound like a high-pressure pump, catching Wang Shui below completely off guard and drenching him in dog blood, literally.

Watching Wang Shui expertly materialize a clean towel from his inventory and slowly wipe the thick blood from his face, Kirito suddenly felt a chill crawl from his tailbone up his spine to the back of his head.

"Oh, don't be scared. I'm actually a butcher in real life. I specialize in slaughtering cattle. Look how professionally I opened up the hide when skinning it. You don't do it that way with humans... hey, hey, why are your legs shaking? I'm kidding."

As he spoke, Wang Shui confirmed that he had finished gathering from the scattered meat and intact skeleton. A long list of gains scrolled across his battle log.

[Gathering complete! Obtaining materials...]

["Man-Eating Dog Ken" Bone-Shattering Blade Fragment: 1]

["Man-Eating Dog Ken" Meat: 30 (1 kg/portion)]

[Pure White Bones: 7]

["Man-Eating Dog Ken" Heart: 1]

[Essence Blood: 42 (500 ml/bottle)]

[Tough Beast Tendons: 3]

["Man-Eating Dog Ken" Hide: 1]

Wow~

So many special items bearing a name. Even the basic materials looked high-grade. For some reason, however, the meat obtained this time did not have the [Cooking Ingredient] tag, only material and consumable tags.

The missing label did not mean it was inedible. It simply meant the [Cooking] skill provided by SAO had no recipes that directly consumed this material, so players could not automatically craft it into food.

Wang Shui had also forced his way through roasting the wolf meat himself before.

Looking at Kirito, who was breaking out in cold sweat, Wang Shui sent the coward his battle log to prove that he really had been gathering.

But only after Wang Shui wiped the blood off himself and discarded the towel did Kirito dare come closer.

"You swung pretty hard when you were hacking at it too. Those wounds probably reached its organs."

"It isn't this realistic during combat!"

"Ah, this is what they mean by 'a gentleman stays away from the kitchen.' Look at you, happily eating meat but unable to watch the killing. Relax. Selfless people like me shoulder these burdens for you. All you need to do is pay for the finished product."

Wang Shui patted Kirito on the shoulder, signaling for him to enter the ruins together.

Kirito had learned [Searching]. Its skill tree included abilities such as [Trap Detection], [Area Search], and [Special Item Detection], but his proficiency was too low. He only knew the lowest-level [Enemy Search], which expanded the range in which he could sense living creatures.

Fortunately, the first floor had no utterly deranged traps. This treasure chest's only safeguard was the giant kobold that had just been dismantled.

Feeling somewhat guilty about his recent cheating, Wang Shui let Kirito open the chest. Beneath a gentle golden glow appeared a silver ring set with a gemstone that might have been clear quartz or a diamond.

[Special Equipment: Violent Execution]

[Equipment Type: Ring]

[Level Requirement: 10]

[Strength: +15]

[Constitution: +20]

[Special Effect: Increases damage by 10% against enemies below 10% HP]

[Description: "In the name of the kingdom's executioner, enact pure violence!"]

Holy shit! Those stats are ridiculous!

Whether it was the special effect or the terrifying bonus to basic stats, a single glance was enough to convey its power.

Twenty constitution! That was 2,000 HP!

Wang Shui currently had twelve constitution and only 1,550 HP. As for strength, his current strength was only sixteen!

"This... you wouldn't find anything this powerful even on the ninth floor!"

Kirito's voice trembled slightly. He honestly offered the opinion of a veteran beta tester, then quickly freed himself from the equipment's temptation and looked at Wang Shui.

His eyes held unconcealable worry, and his body trembled slightly with tension. He prayed, praying he would not see that sort of look again.

Unfortunately, Wang Shui neither noticed Kirito's concern nor displayed the greed Kirito feared. His expression was somewhat... pained.

Come to think of it... Kirito often snatched the last hit on bosses in the original story. Could this thing be why? The author never mentioned it!

It would be a lie to say he was not tempted. If the person beside him had not been Kirito, Wang Shui probably would already have been on his way to clear his red name. As for Kirito's worry that Wang Shui would reveal an ugly, greedy face, that was truly overthinking things. Wang Shui never put on an ugly face when doing dirty deeds.

When Wang Shui noticed Kirito relax in relief, only to show a complicated, conflicted expression afterward, he was speechless too.

What the fuck are you being shy and conflicted about? Your cheats have arrived too-part of them, anyway!

"It's yours. I won't charge you a cent," Wang Shui suddenly declared with solemn righteousness in a stern announcer's voice.

"Huh?! Heav..."

Unaware of just how spectacular his expression was, Kirito nearly dropped his jaw, but Wang Shui waved his stammering words to a halt.

"You know that's impossible too, so what are you waiting for? Hurry up and strip-no, I mean, hurry up and hand over all your money and materials!"

Wang Shui's bandit act brought a relieved smile to Kirito's face.

He understood what this new player he had only recently met, whose skills were average but who was improving quickly, meant. That guy with such exceptional social skills must have noticed his longing.

He's a very kind guy who likes to goof around!

Immersed in the double joy of making a kind friend and obtaining a rare, powerful piece of equipment, Kirito dazedly let Wang Shui clean him out.

"You've got quite a lot of materials, and you've killed all kinds of monsters. You've even saved up fifteen thousand Cor! I'm taking the enhancement materials too. You can farm more yourself later."

This is the capital a beta-test veteran built up over the first week, after all. Kirito was amused, but what he said was:

"Actually, all this stuff isn't worth even half as much as this ring, Mr. Heavenly Book..."

"All right, all right, it's just game equipment. Don't underestimate my noble soul." As Wang Shui sorted through the things on the ground and stuffed them into his bag, he even took the trouble to comfort Kirito.

"If you feel guilty, then stay alive and clear this shitty game for me. As for me, I'll take it easy and slack off in the rear, waiting to enjoy the fruits of victory. Hey, hey, hey, don't give me that determined look! Let me repeat what I said last night: once we reach [Tolbana], the town before the labyrinth area, we go our separate ways. I don't want to party up with someone whose skills are all geared toward being a lone wolf, and I definitely don't want to operate on the front lines!"

Amid Wang Shui's nonsense and excuses, Kirito finally nodded at him with tears in his eyes and a smile, like a daughter about to get married nodding to her old father.

The old father, whose bag was nearly over its weight limit, gave Kirito a pained look and a shove, and only then did the atmosphere gradually return to normal.

Wang Shui had given up on the equipment. He wanted to keep Kirito as close to the original plot as possible and avoid influencing his decisions as much as he could, so he would not party up with Kirito either.

Besides, there was no great hurry to get rare, powerful equipment. This was only the first floor.

There had been some truth mixed into his nonsense just now. Wang Shui genuinely did not want to squeeze his way into the clearing group. He wanted to improve from a relatively safe position, keeping his strength in the top tier and remaining ready to [Switch] with the people ahead at any moment, in case the plot went out of control.

And so, Wang Shui, full of calculations and loaded to his weight limit, and Kirito, whose heart had been healed and whose bag was completely empty, soon set off north.