The Survival Logs || Sword Art Online Fanfic

Elf War Arc: Chapter 11 - Venturing Fourth

21 December 2022, 4pm

Rovia, 4th Floor

As I stepped out of the teleport gate belonging to a new main town, a completely new atmosphere completely took me in. Players were already starting to bustle around in Rovia, the main safe zone of the 4th Floor.

I never thought the Assault Team would only take a day to take down Nerius the Evil Treant, after I gave information about the 3rd Floor boss to Argo. The increased rate in Floor clearing in the recent weeks may have proved to be good news for the player population. It might have given those still staying on the 1st Floor some hope in beating the death game.

But now in current time, I was getting ready to explore the 4th Floor.

The 4th Floor introduced the landscape of rivers, which were probably flowing throughout the Floor. Maybe I shouldn't have called them rivers, as they were impossible to cross, being too wide and deep. I thought of the probability of the status effect of drowning in SAO, but since SAO was a death game, I assumed the drowning status effect would exist. I mean, who would want to try swimming in those flowing rapids? Let's just call them giant waterways, because they were literally what I called them.

I also saw a forest similar to the forests on the 3rd Floor, but it was took a part of the area here on the 4th Floor. Other than that, that's all I could see from the outskirts of Rovia.

My map, provided by my menu, only revealed the locations of Rovia and the 'Bear Forest', as the map had titled it, as they were the only places I was near to on the 4th Floor. That was how the game map worked in SAO, not showing anything about a named location unless you went to explore there yourself. That was the main reason why I made it a must to explore a Floor as much as I could every time I reached a new one.

I was now concerned of the monsters that are dwelling on this Floor. If I was going to venture into unknown territory, not knowing anything about those monsters, or even what they looked like (I was guessing they might be creatures that lived in rivers, don't ask why), I would most likely run into serious trouble the second I tried to attack them.

I seriously can't risk solo hunting on the 4th Floor, which I had been doing on the first 3 Floors all this time.

I headed back deeper into the heart of Rovia. The town was very peaceful-looking, with some of the buildings housing craft shops for boats. Making a mental note to build a boat later, I strolled to the area of the town where the blacksmith shops were.

On the way there, I suddenly remembered of the clothes I was wearing (or equipping), which were still a brown long coat and a pair of black long pants that I was wearing since the 1st Floor. I knew that I needed better armor for the next few floors, but I just didn't put emphasis on defense for my avatar as much as attack power.

I decided to make a detour to an apparel shop to buy a new pair of long pants that offered more armor. Eventually I settled on a pair of dark blue (and seemingly light) long pants that not only boosts my defense stat, but also my agility stat a little. Realizing that I had still had a significant amount of col left due to the quest rewards I got from the Elf War quest on the 3rd Floor (I don't check my col savings often), I went to choose a light blue long coat that caught my eye earlier, as it offered quite a big boost in one's agility stat, but cost quite a hefty sum of col. It didn't matter though, I never spent my col on anything else anyway. Feeling extremely satisfied, I walked to the NPC shopkeeper to make my first product purchase since the official launch of SAO.

"Wah! Shiok!" was what I let out when I stepped outside the apparel shop. My new look felt great, though I wished that I wore those clothes in real life. I was still wearing the black tee I wore since the 1st Floor inside my new coat though.

With evening approaching in Aincrad, I decided to go to the blacksmith shops before staying the night at an inn.

Player blacksmiths have started to appear since the 2nd Floor, consisting of players who preferred not to be in the floor-clearing force, but still wanted to contribute to the player population by offering weapon enhancing and reforging services to other players. Apparently, player blacksmiths were said to be better than NPC blacksmiths, due to them being able to level up their smithing skill, thus offering better rates for successful higher level weapon enhances.

I walked up to a blacksmith booth owned by a female player, who was in the middle of forging a weapon. "Are you...Lisbeth? I heard that you just started shop here."

Lisbeth turned to look at me. "Yes, how can I help you?"

"I would like to enhance my spear." I brought out my Pagoda Spear+5. "I've got the materials."

"Sure!" Lisbeth happily received my spear and materials(via the game menu) to check its success enhance rate. "Hmm... not bad. Enough materials for success rate 88%. I'll start, if it's okay with you."

"Yup" I replied. "I'll provide more materials for a second enhance attempt. For now, just enhance it by Quickness, please." I then watch Lisbeth get to work on enhancing my spear, which was just an action of using a hammer to hit it, to be honest. It's just one of the ways SAO simplifies real-life processes.

"So..." I said, as the blacksmith was working. "You're currently the only player blacksmith in the 4th Floor, I assume?"

"It seems so." Lisbeth continued eyeing on my weapon, while repeatingly making metallic noises. "I just started leveling up my smithing skill for a while now, so you're one of my first customers."

"Well, I'm honored." I said. " But you've got the potential to become a great blacksmith, by the way. No other blacksmith can enhance a weapon with a high enhancement level at quite a high success rate using that much materials. I didn't think I gave you enough just now."

"Thanks, but that's just beginner's luck, I guess. Here's your....Pagoda Spear+6." She made her last hit on the enhancement on my spear as she spoke. " But you want to enhance your weapon once more, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I'm sending you the materials. Enhance it by Durability this time, please." I manipulated my game menu to send a bit more than the amount of materials I provided for my first enhance attempt.

"Success rate is 83% for this enhance attempt." Lisbeth declared. "Great! I'll just start working on it them, if you don't mind."

A few minutes later, I was holding my Pagoda Spear+7 (Sharpness+2, Quickness+3, Durability+2) with satisfaction. I put my spear behind my back and said, " Lisbeth, you're the best blacksmith I've met so far, but honestly speaking I've only done my weapon enhancing with NPC blacksmiths, so your're the first player blacksmith I've ever met as well."

Lisbeth replied, "I appreciate the compliment. We blacksmiths should do their best for the players trying to clear the floors."

"Would you mind if I added you in my friend list? I ain't got much players that're my friends." I asked, thinking about the only 2 players on my friend list, Agil and Argo.

"Sure, I don't mind." Lisbeth replied with a smile. "Just remember to visit my shop again!"

That night, my friends list just added a third player contact into its database. For a part-time solo player like me who never really fights along with other players except for NPC elves and game information dealers, it really counts as a great achievement for my social status.