Starting from scratch! But without a mentor...

By the dim campfire that night, the fighting continued.

After more than a dozen bouts, Shino had made the most obvious progress. Wang Shui's feints no longer frightened her, and she could now make simple judgments about which attacks she could block and which she needed to dodge.

Wang Shui had also gotten used to the feel of a short sword-a dagger.

"Right. With a straight-line attack, aim behind where you expect to hit, because stepping back is the most common way an enemy dodges."

As Wang Shui leaned back to dodge, Shino's short sword chased the space between his eyebrows, forcing him to bend backward at the waist before twisting his body to the right.

At that moment, Shino flicked her fingers, rotating her short sword a hundred and eighty degrees from a reverse grip to a forward grip. She pressed forward, activating Sword Skills, and sent an [Armor Pierce] at Wang Shui, whose turn had left his back facing her.

A damage number burst out. The kidney strike from behind landed perfectly. Naturally, Shino was delighted at dealing damage to Wang Shui for the first time, but she did not stop attacking.

Shino raised her short sword and immediately activated Sword Skills, preparing to follow up with more damage from behind.

Keeping low, Wang Shui twisted his body and swung his legs around, landing a short whipping kick on Shino's right arm. It not only knocked her off balance but also interrupted her Sword Skills.

"To think someone with my skills could last this long without getting hurt. I really am amazing."

Once he had steadied himself, Wang Shui immediately praised himself, inwardly thankful that this was only a game. Otherwise, that kidney strike alone would have left him without the strength to twist around and kick back.

Shino said nothing. Holding the short sword in her right hand, she let both arms hang naturally, keeping her body straight as she swayed slightly back and forth. Her arms swung naturally like willow branches, making her movements difficult to read.

Now she had the air of a composed assassin.

Naturally, Wang Shui had taught her this stance, which he had seen in some reference material. However, that material was not a professional dagger combat tutorial. It taught ordinary people who exercised with daggers how to look cooler.

But Wang Shui felt that these stylish poses were quite practical in the game. The game did not particularly emphasize the posture used to generate force. As long as Sword Skills activated, the attack would have considerable power. Thus, techniques that looked good but lacked practicality could instead conceal the intent of an attack in the game.

And Shino, with her ice-blue short hair and eyes, looked even cooler in that stance.

Amid her swaying, Shino leaned forward and stepped out. Her short sword still hung low, yet somehow made his heart tighten.

Facing Shino's charge without Sword Skills, Wang Shui also stepped forward with his dagger in a forward grip. The instant they met, Shino suddenly activated Sword Skills and turned her wrist, striking downward.

In theory, Sword Skills greatly increased the force of an attack, and charging thrust skills could even carry someone flying forward. Yet Wang Shui still blocked the wrist of Shino's attacking hand with his own wrists, raising both hands to brace against it. He stepped into a horse stance, rooting himself to the ground.

Tremendous force traveled down his arms. Wang Shui held his stance firm and resisted with all his strength. His muscles ached with fatigue, and his bones felt as though they might break.

But he held!

The Sword Skills' glow slowly faded. As Shino looked on in surprise, her arm ran out of momentum. Wang Shui seized the opportunity to wrap his left hand around her right arm and lock her attacking hand, while bringing his short sword up to her collarbone with his right.

The blade stopped. Once released, Shino quietly said, "Again," then turned to put some distance between them.

At that moment, Wang Shui spoke:

"That's enough for tonight. Fighting requires thought, not just muscle memory."

With that, Wang Shui returned to the firepit and laid more meat on the stone slab that had been heating all this time. As he grilled, he took out a pile of loose manuscript pages and read them by the firelight.

"What's this?" Shino walked over and stopped behind Wang Shui. Seeing that he did not seem inclined to stop her, she looked over his shoulder at the pages.

"Some boxing manuals and outlines of boxing methods. I suddenly had an idea just now. I keep feeling that all combat techniques,

"seem a lot like boxing. Especially with a short sword-the closer the attack range, the more the logic resembles boxing." Shino neither understood what he said nor what she read, because the pages in Wang Shui's hands were entirely in Chinese characters. She recognized quite a few individual characters, but when they were strung together without anything else, their meaning differed greatly from what she expected.

"Sa... Mr. Heavenly Book, is this kanji?"

"No, these are Chinese characters in Chinese."

Although the advanced vocabulary "borrowed" into Japanese from Chinese was also called kanji, its pronunciation and meaning had changed to varying degrees, and its grammar was completely different. Someone who had not specifically studied it could not guess the meaning just from recognizing the characters.

Seeing that Wang Shui had little desire to explain further, Shino merely found it a little strange before sitting beside the firepit to rest her mind. The dozen or so fights had taken quite a mental toll on her.

"First train punches and kicks, then grappling; weapons and internal arts, five united as one. So that's it!"

With that exclamation, Wang Shui finally found the sense of familiarity behind his flash of inspiration. He had kept feeling that he had encountered this way of thinking somewhere before.

He had indeed memorized all the text, but that did not mean he thoroughly understood its contents. He could only reproduce it from memory, without understanding its meaning or connections, and he was nowhere near integrating it all.

It was like memorizing hundreds or thousands of ancient poems. Faced with similar scenery, one could only vaguely sense the poetry in it, or at most recall the original lines. Even composing a clumsy imitation oneself would be immensely difficult.

Looks like I really have to learn from scratch...

But Wang Shui's interest had been sparked. He hurriedly reorganized all the material he had on armed and unarmed combat, then separated out the basics of punches and kicks to read through. Of course, none of this interfered with his grilling.

After more than an hour, during which the two silently finished another two rounds of food, Wang Shui finally put away the pages, having read through the text and illustrations several times.

Then, under Shino's puzzled gaze, Wang Shui walked to the clearing in front of their camp and earnestly began kicking his legs and stretching his hips.

[Martial arts fundamentals: stretching tendons and bones]

It was easier than he had imagined. Wang Shui performed a full split with ease, and pressing down over his legs did not take much effort either. There was merely resistance and an odd sensation at the limits of his range. Wang Shui felt that SAO's system had reduced the pain from such large movements.

Wang Shui did not know whether this was a good thing, but he could feel that as he kept stretching and twisting, the odd sensation gradually faded. After standing still for a while, however, it returned when he stretched again.

It seemed to require time to condition his body. Still, in terms of strength and agility alone, Wang Shui's current stats put his physical capabilities far above those of martial arts masters in the ordinary world, even without training.

With his absurd core strength supporting him, neither static nor moving stance training presented much difficulty, so neither brought any special experience. Just as Wang Shui was feeling rather lost, a peculiar warmth arose in his muscles.

Oh! That's it!

Muscles don't hurt, but they do tire. Pushing that state to the limit also makes the sensations very clear and lets the body form memories!

A faint ache spread through him. Wang Shui maintained a static stance for a while, but the effect was not obvious. Even changing into his heaviest equipment did little.

Left with no other option, he found a large rock over a meter tall, laboriously hugged it to his chest, and settled into a square horse stance. Sure enough, the aching warmth soon appeared, growing increasingly distinct.

Without a word, Wang Shui calmed his mind and carefully felt every bit of strength his body consumed and every change in the aching of each part of his body. He controlled his increasingly rapid breathing while suppressing the constant urge to give up arising in his mind.

He wanted to know this body's limits.

Several hours passed. Beside the firepit, Shino picked up the wooden cup on the stone slab and quietly sipped warm water, watching Wang Shui train without saying a word.

Every so often, Wang Shui stopped to rest before resuming his stance training. At first, he lasted only a few minutes, but with repeated attempts, he gradually held out longer.

Shino did not know what Wang Shui had discovered, but she understood that he was searching for a way to grow stronger. If Wang Shui wanted to tell her, he would naturally launch into a lengthy speech showing off his abilities. If he did not, she would not bother asking.

As the night deepened, Wang Shui put down the rock and shakily returned to the firepit. In nearly a month of playing SAO, this was the first time he had been this weak, in both body and mind.

Unlike the debuff from [Body Part Destruction], Wang Shui's status bar was completely clean, without a single negative effect. Yet he barely had the strength to lift his arms, and his whole body felt sore, weak, and swollen.

Seeing Shino's gaze, which seemed to ask, "Are you all right?" Wang Shui laboriously picked up his cup and drank some hot water before speaking:

"I'm almost certain this is the right direction. Even if it isn't, it won't do me any harm. I'm learning basic boxing, the fundamentals of Chinese martial arts. Systematic combat techniques help a great deal with fighting in the game. If you want to learn, I can teach you too, but you need to be prepared for hardship."

After Wang Shui finished his matter-of-fact explanation, Shino merely remained seated with her chin propped on one hand and nodded seemingly casually.

She was a quiet, composed girl to begin with.

The thought surfaced in Wang Shui's mind, and he nodded too.

"You take the first watch tonight. Actually, nobody comes here, especially at night, so you can just rest too."

Wang Shui stood up, quickly stretched, and crawled into his sleeping bag, finally adding with a smile, "But if you want to sleep, you'll have to sleep on the ground."

Yes, the two of them had only one sleeping bag, which Wang Shui had bought while mining. Ordinary players did not camp in the wilderness, so they generally did not carry camping supplies.

Shino answered Wang Shui with a silent smile. It seemed she was no longer in the mood to talk.

Wang Shui soon fell asleep, whether because he was too exhausted or because SAO had assisted his sleep.

Without the light pollution of a modern city, the night was exceptionally quiet. Shino leaned back against a large rock, gazing at the unchanging darkness overhead.

The breeze was cool, and real warmth came from the firepit. More than twenty days after entering this game, Shino had completely quieted her mind for the first time. It was even quieter than being alone in reality.

Perhaps because she had experienced the deaths of teammates and enemies, Shino felt as though she had grown in certain ways-she had always considered herself mature, but now she seemed unfamiliar even to herself, just like...

Just like the fellow beside her. Shino looked at Wang Shui, whose face alone peeked out of the sleeping bag.

Sometimes this fellow seemed exceptionally mature, his thinking so cold it was frightening. At other times, he displayed the simple childishness of a middle schooler, acting rashly and immediately putting any thought into action.

Shino did not think she had that rash side, but she seemed to have begun mastering that sense of coldness long ago.

The security he brought was so insubstantial that Shino would not be surprised even if he vanished from her sight tomorrow.

But I don't crave your protection. You only need to help me grow stronger.

Shino said this to Wang Shui in her heart, and to herself as well.

In the dim light of the following morning, the two did not set out early to grind monsters.

"Keep your thighs level with the ground and your back straight. Feel your hips sinking down. Imagine there's a fairly low chair beneath you, and you're going to sit on it, but use your legs, waist, and abdomen to keep yourself from sitting down. Lower your shoulders, relax your arms, and feel your muscles tremble."

Wang Shui kept explaining the simple essentials of the square horse stance while correcting Shino's posture with a short wooden stick.

Shino's stats were not low either. With the game's bonuses, the muscles in her hips, legs, and arms were powerful, and her core was very strong too, so the horse stance was not difficult for her.

Wang Shui taught quickly. First, he took Shino through hip stretches, leg stretches, and stretching her tendons and bones, then began teaching static and moving stances, along with basic foot positions and footwork. Boxing postures and rhythm were more complicated, so he left those for a careful explanation that evening with the reference materials in hand. After all, Wang Shui himself had only a partial understanding.

Wang Shui trained beside her too, still holding a large rock. He had removed all his equipment, retaining only the special jewel, [Supernatural Instinct].

The description of the jewel's second effect, [Doubles self-training effects], was extremely vague, but Wang Shui guessed that it boosted stat training, and perhaps skill proficiency at most.

Wang Shui was currently under a heavy load, and equipping the gem could improve the effects of stat training.

The two hours of morning practice soon ended. Only after a short rest did the two lure monsters over to grind. The training had yet to produce any obvious results, but last night's PvP battles had made Shino's attacks a little more flexible.

With composed advances and retreats and efficient strikes, Shino began gaining confidence in her skills, only to receive another scolding from Wang Shui for getting greedy with her attacks.

On the whole, both were especially quiet that day. All kinds of martial arts knowledge churned through Wang Shui's mind, while Shino was simply behaving normally. Whether in reality or previously grouped with her five teammates, she had always been this quiet.

As they steadily grew more familiar with it all, another three days passed. After their intensive monster grinding, the cursors over their heads had returned to green.

The evidence of killing three people had been wiped completely clean, just like that. Life was frighteningly cheap.

Shino wanted to keep enjoying this undisturbed leveling ground, but Wang Shui felt that the time for challenging the labyrinth boss was approaching. Even if he did not intend to take part himself, he needed to keep an eye on things from the sidelines.

Shino was not someone without opinions of her own. She needed a reason to leave, so Wang Shui could only explain that they were already capable of fighting the monsters in the labyrinth, and their names had turned green again. There was no need to keep slogging away here; their growth was too slow this way.

The reason was accepted. The two headed straight into the valley and spent a long time returning to [Tolbana], the last supply stop before the labyrinth, and the largest town and supply stop on the first floor apart from the Town of Beginnings.

Back in the familiar yet unfamiliar town, both suddenly felt somewhat at a loss. Wang Shui had spent his earlier time mining, so the place he knew best was the blacksmith's. Oh, right, there was also a batch of metal ingots he had not collected.

Shino had only been here for two days before her party was wiped out, but she was clearly a little better off than Wang Shui.

"Our party before... When we first arrived, the inns were already full. Our leader found houses rented out by NPCs on the outskirts. They cost a little more, but there's plenty of room, and some even have an unlimited supply of milk."

There was a faint nostalgia in Shino's voice.

They were lucky and soon found a detached cottage. Although it stood on the most remote outskirts of town, almost outside the [safe zone], it was spacious, with a living room, three rooms, and a bathroom. Beyond that, however, there were no additional perks.

The rent of fifty Cor a day was five times the price of a cheap inn, but it was considerably cheaper for two or more people sharing.

Wang Shui paid ten days' rent, silently tidied up a little, then changed into casual clothes-a simple T-shirt and shorts-and began preparing food as though his mind were elsewhere.

Shino also changed into thin, comfortable clothes. Leaning against the comfortable sofa, she watched Wang Shui bustle about with some amusement.

To think this complicated, mischievous monster actually had a single-track mind. When something occupied his thoughts, he became so slow to respond to the outside world.

What an oddly endearing contrast.

Not disturbing him was the best choice under the circumstances. Shino went to the bathroom and took a very long bath. She had to admit that soaking in warm water really did relieve stress.

By the time she emerged, the small coffee table was covered with simple but plentiful food. Wang Shui seemed to have finished eating already. He stood to one side of the living room, legs apart and slightly bent, hands held before his lower abdomen. He looked as though he was training, but without his signature large rock.

After eating, Shino began her own stance and boxing posture practice. Unlike in the wilderness, she slowed her movements in the limited space, focusing more on finding the starting and ending points of exertion. Of course, Wang Shui had taught her this too.

There was now another single-track mind in the room. When Shino came back to herself, she happened to see Wang Shui emerging from the bathroom. His gaze was a little more focused this time.

"Get some rest. We won't level tomorrow. I just got information about the boss raid from an information broker. There's a strategy briefing at four tomorrow afternoon in the central fountain plaza. We'll go take a look too."

This time, Shino raised no objection. She simply waved goodbye to Wang Shui and entered her room.

It was a very basic room, built mainly of stone, with rough logs for furniture and decoration. The only things to be thankful for were that the rough wooden bed was sturdy enough and the bedding was very soft.

Much more comfortable than sleeping on rocks.

Shino recalled the past few days of taking turns keeping watch with Wang Shui, and taking turns using the same sleeping bag. Although the sleeping bag returned to a brand-new state each time it was used, retaining neither smell nor warmth, Shino still found it a little strange.

Looking at the simple lights outside her window, Shino suddenly recalled scenes from television dramas: characters in quiet surroundings would often silently tell their families or lovers how they felt at lonely moments like this, sending them their longing. But Shino felt lost.

After she had become trapped in this death game, her grandparents in the countryside must have been very sad, but her mother probably did not know what had happened. After all, her mental state had already regressed to that of an elementary school child-after experiencing her father's death in a car accident and then seeing Shino shoot someone dead, her mental health had remained poor.

Shino had adamantly left her hometown. Her former classmates all knew she had killed someone. Some kept a respectful distance, while others outright began calling her a murderer. Under the mounting pressure, her grandparents had chosen to let her go, and Shino had rejected their proposal to move away with her.

The last time she had felt homesick must have been a year ago. For a long time afterward, Shino's thinking gradually matured, and she even believed she had grown used to loneliness.

But now it seemed she had not. Her homesickness had gradually faded because she could easily return home time and again. Now, imprisoned in this fantastical cage, she might never see her only family again.

Loneliness and homesickness mingled and fermented, and little Shino drifted into a deep sleep amid the glimmering fragments of her tears.