In the back alleys of Urbus in the early morning, the chill of last night still lingered in the air.
In that dilapidated temporary blacksmith shop, however, the hearth fire was burning brightly.
"It's done!"
A delicate shout that couldn't hide its excitement rang out.
Lisbeth had a mess of messy pink hair, her face streaked black and white with coal dust. She held a longsword in her hand that emitted a faint, eerie blue light.
"Here! Take it!"
The girl slammed the sword onto the counter, "If you dare say it's no good, I'll twist your head off and kick it like a ball!"
Ye You reached out and gripped the hilt.
It felt slightly heavy in his hand, the balance was perfect.
That original, slightly rough Steel Longsword looks completely different now. The blade was recast, and after being infused with Mithril Ore, it took on a cold silver-blue color, with a faint cold glint shimmering along the edge.
[Mithril Alloy Sword +6]
[Quality: Rare （Rare）]
[Attack Power: 185-210]
[Attributes: Agility +8, Strength +5]
[Durability: 150/150]
[Special Effect: Armor Piercing （10% chance to ignore 20% of the target's defense when attacking）.]
At this stage where most players are still pecking at each other with basic weapons that don't even have 100 attack power, this sword's stats are straight-up cheat-tier.
"+6, and it even comes with an armor-piercing stat."
Ye You flicked the blade with his finger, letting out a clear, ringing dragon's cry. "The craftsmanship is indeed great; that ore of mine wasn't wasted."
"You bet!"
Lisbeth raised her chin proudly, showing off her two little snaggleteeth. "Look who forged it! I'm the girl who's going to become Aincrad's number one blacksmith!"
Though she was acting all tsundere, she was actually panicking like hell inside.
During the final quenching just now, the success rate was only 30%. If it weren't for her insane luck, this sword would've turned into a pile of scrap metal long ago.
"Alright, stop bragging. If you keep blowing hot air, the furnace is gonna explode."
Ye You casually twirled his sword and sheathed it, "Consider this a favor I owe you. If I get good materials in the future, I'll prioritize giving them to you for practice."
"You said it!"
Lisbeth's eyes lit up, and she quickly pressed her advantage, "No backing out! Also, remember to bring some food next time, this lady's starving to death!"
Ye You waved his hand and turned to walk out of the alley.
Favors and debts, sometimes they are the best kind of bond.
...
Leaving the Main Town, Ye You followed the prior agreement and arrived at the Wind-eroded Rock Pillars on the outskirts of Urbus.
This was the edge of Floor 2, with few mobs and difficult paths; usually, you wouldn't even see a ghost around here.
But at this moment, a black figure was crouching atop a rock pillar, holding a yellowed parchment map with a furrowed brow.
"What, is our Black Swordsman planning to change careers and become a grave robber?"
Ye You's voice suddenly rang out from below.
Kirito was startled, his foot slipped, and he almost tumbled off the rock pillar. He scrambled to steady himself, and seeing it was Ye You, he breathed a sigh of relief and jumped down.
"Don't you make any sound when you walk?" Kirito complained.
"That's just your alertness being too low."
Ye You glanced at the map in his hand, "Is this the 'good thing' you were talking about?"
"Yeah."
Kirito spread the map out and pointed to a location marked with a red circle, "This is a hidden map that dropped while I was grinding mobs yesterday. The location is deep within these Wind-eroded Rock Pillars, looks like an undiscovered secret dungeon."
At this point, Kirito's expression turned serious, "The system prompt suggests a two-person party, danger level: unknown. I'm not confident on my own, and Asuna went to level up, so..."
"So you came to me to be your free muscle?"
Ye You said with a half-smile.
"Loot split fifty-fifty!" Kirito quickly added.
"Deal."
Ye You agreed straightforwardly.
A hidden dungeon means first-clear rewards and rare drops. Only an idiot would pass up such a good deal.
The two of them hit it off immediately and headed for the coordinates marked on the map right away.
Passing through a maze-like forest of wind-eroded rocks, the light grew dimmer and dimmer. Occasionally, strange roars could be heard from the distance.
"It's just up ahead."
Kirito stopped in his tracks and pointed ahead.
It was a split canyon gap that could only fit two people side-by-side. Deep in the gap, a faint green light was vaguely visible.
[System Notification: About to enter the hidden area "Twin Serpent Cave".]
"Serpent cave?"
Ye You's brow quirked slightly, "Seems like this dungeon isn't very friendly to people with trypophobia."
Before his voice even faded.
Hiss hiss hiss—
A scalp-tingling scraping sound came from deep within the canyon.
Right after, two green shadows darted out like lightning.
[Twin-Headed Viper（Twin-Headed Viper）]
[LV:14]
This monster has two heads, its body is as thick as a bucket, and its scales glint with a poisonous green light. The most disgusting thing is, if you don't cut off both heads at the same time, it'll regenerate in a short time.
"One head each?"
Kirito pulled out the black one-handed sword from his back, his gaze instantly turning sharp.
"Cut the crap, let's go."
Ye You's figure flickered, and his whole being had already turned into an afterimage as he charged out.
There were no fancy tactics.
In this narrow terrain, only speed is the truth.
The snake head on the left opened its bloody maw, spitting out a cloud of purple poisonous mist.
Ye You's toes tapped the ground, his body made a sharp turn in mid-air, [Flowing Light Movement] activated, barely evading the poison mist's range.
"Die!"
The Mithril Alloy Sword was unsheathed.
A silver-blue sword light burst into brilliance in the dim canyon.
Splurt!
The snake head on the left flew high into the air.
Almost at the same time.
On the right.
Kirito let out a low grunt, the black sword in his hand trailing a red skill light effect—[Horizontal].
"Hah!"
The blade swept across.
The snake head on the right was also severed upon impact.
The two snake heads hit the ground almost simultaneously; the massive snake body twitched a few times and turned into shards that filled the air.
"Nice coordination."
Ye You landed, not even glancing at the loot. "Seems you haven't been slacking off these past two days either."
"Of course."
Kirito flicked the data light effects off his sword. "I can't exactly keep being left in the dust by you."
The two of them continued deeper.
This kind of two-headed snake is a real pain, but with the two top swordsmen working in perfect sync, they're not a threat at all.
They kept pushing forward, tearing through everything in their path.
Ten minutes later.
They reached the deepest part of the canyon.
This was a massive circular cavern, with glowing moss embedded in the rock walls all around. And in the center of the cavern stood two tall stone statues.
No, those weren't statues.
They were alive.
The moment the two of them stepped into the cavern, the layer of rock on the surface of those two statues began to peel away, revealing the ink-black metallic bodies within.
[Gemini Guardian: Obsidian Golem （Gemini Guardian）]
[LV: 16 （Elite Boss）]
The two golems stood on the left and right, each holding a massive stone sword and stone shield. They had no facial features, only two points of red light peeking through the slits in their helmets.
Rumble!
Both golems took a step at the same time, making the whole cavern shake.
"This is trouble."
Kirito's expression changed, "These are linked monsters. Their HP bars are shared, and they must be killed at the same time, otherwise the other will go berserk and revive its companion."
"In other words, we have to face two high-defense, high-HP iron lumps at the same time?"
Ye You narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the two golems.
[Crisis Sense] didn't issue a deadly warning, which meant things were still within a controllable range.
"I'll take the one with the sword on the left, and you take the one with the shield on the right."
Ye You quickly assigned the tasks, "Don't fight them head-on, kite them. Once their HP drops below 10%, we'll use our ultimates together to burst them down."
"Got it!"
Kirito had no objections and rushed toward the Shield Golem on the right with his sword.
The battle broke out.
This fight was incredibly tough.
The Obsidian Golem's defense was ridiculously high; ordinary basic attacks only dealt single-digit damage and would even make their hands go numb from the shock.
And these two guys knew how to cooperate.
Whenever Ye You tried to circle around to attack the Sword Golem's weak spot, the Shield Golem would throw its massive shield over to provide cover.
"Clang!"
Ye You's sword slashed against the shield, sending sparks flying everywhere.
"Tsk, so tough."