The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Chapter 7 - Minotaur Assault

7 December 2022, 2.05pm

Marome, 2nd Floor

I'd admitted that I never noticed Argo's voice tone until halfway through the journey to the village of Marome.

Whether it was the voice translation program working its magic again or not, I knew that the program preserves the tone of each player's voice from real life in SAO, while translating the language said by a player to another listening player.

Argo herself had an accent which sounded like a cowgirl with a high pitched voice, and also sounded funny at times. I guess that's what she really must sound like in real life.

The village of Marome, as I had expected when I reached it a second time, was obviously smaller in area than Urbus. The buildings there were much lower than those in Urbus too. And unlike Urbus, Marome didn't have a town square, which was usually home to the teleport gate of each floor of Aincrad.

Argo and I first visited the NPC blacksmith in Marome. "We seriously need to prepare for that boss, and my dagger doesn't enhance itself, y'know." Argo half-whispered.

"Um, same here." I agreed, thinking about my Sharp Javelin+1 that hadn't been enhanced for 3 days straight.

After achieving 2 successful enhances on my spear, one for Sharpness and one for Quickness, I put my Sharp Javelin+3 (1S2Q) strapped behind my back with satisfaction.

It seemed like Argo's happy with whatever successful enhances that worked on her dagger too.

"Just asking, but how strong's your dagger now?" I asked Argo.

"Hmm... I'd got it enhanced a total of 4 times now." Argo took her dagger from its small scabbard, and held it in front of me. " Try giving it a touch."

I slowing placed my finger on the dagger's blade, and a window popped out. The first words displayed on the window were a bunch of question marks, followed by '+4 ( Quickness+4 )' . Underneath them was a starting phrase written, 'Description : ' , followed by a bigger bunch of question marks.

"Huh? How come like that one?" I muttered out my Singlish slang while showing my confusion as I touched the window a few more times.

"Ye can't see anything except how many times it was enhanced, yeah?" Argo said. " No one can read a weapon's name and description except those who have the Appraisal skill or the owner themselves."

"Oh..." I stopped tapping on the window, and it disappeared a second later. Another second later I asked, "What's the Appraisal skill, exactly?"

"It lets you read a weapon's name and description regardless of its ownership. The stronger the weapon that's bein' appraised, the higher the level of the Appraisal skill required." Argo explained.

"By the way, how many times your spear's been enhanced, Z?"

"Why'd you call me like that?" I said, " Anyway, I enhanced my spear thrice already."

"I love givin' players nicknames." Argo replied." I think your spear only can be enhanced 3 more times though. Weapons found in the first few floors often have an enhancement limit of 6 times."

"Oh really? I didn't know that." I replied back. Looks like I'd better learn as much gaming knowledge as I can from this beta tester.

Argo sheathed her dagger back. "So, you ready, Z? The labyrinth's not that far."

"Eh? Labyrinth? The ones that lead to the floor boss rooms?"

"No, not those Labyrinths. Those kinds look like dungeons with many walls and rooms. That's why they were called Labyrinths, and are found in the giant vertical pillars that connected each floor to the one right above it." Argo explained.