Chapter 4

Time moved quickly as it was already June of that year. I slowly leveled up but I ran into a new problem. The sword I was using wasn't power full enough. I went to a lot of stores with the hope to find one I liked but I couldn't find one. Then I learned that I could let one made if I had the right metal for it and decided to look for those.

It wasn't easy to find good metals for the sword I liked so after I heard that on floor 55 a dragon lived that had diamonds that would be crafted into swords I decided to take a look.

It was already the 25th of June when I tried to find those at the Western Mountain. It didn't take me long to get to the top and to find the dragon.

After he spotted me, he attacked right away with his breath attack. With my speed it wasn't hard to dodge it but I was a bit nervous. What were it other attacks and why does he only have one arm?

I attacked him with a charge skill and hit him in his stomach. The moment he attacked with his claws I switched to an uppercut skill and hit him on his jaw. This went on for some time. When he attacked I would dodge it and would go in straight to attack him. For someone my level, it would have been an easy victory but because I didn't have a sword power full enough for my level it took my around 20 minutes to get his HP down to the red zone.

The dragon had read my attacks and because of that was trying to trick me. When I went in, he would pretend to strike with his claws, if I would jump upwards, he would attack with his breath attack, leaving me nowhere to dodge. The first time it happened it almost got me. Thanks to my high reaction speed I could counter it with a sword skill and left his breath attack nothing but air.

I didn't had a choice then but it came with a price. My sword had a crack in it and my guess would be I only had one hit with it before it would break so I had one chance to finish it.

I moved in with an amazing speed and dodge to the right when the claw came, nearly avoiding his teeth when it tried to bite me. After I was behind him, I jumped up and used the highest one hit sword skill I could use hit this sword and attacked the back of the head.

The moment my sword skill was complete, the sword broke. But it wasn't the only thing that broke that moment. Thanks to my last hit, the dragon was defeated and was destroyed into an infinity amount of polygons and disappeared completely. Instead the window popped up saying how much XP I had won, together with any items. It also said how many % of the total damage I made to the monster. I was surprised it only said 89%. I was the only one battling it so it should be 100% right?

I won enough XP to level up and the moment it did, I received a message. I ignored it to look at the items and wanted to get a teleport crystal ready. Because I didn't had a sword now, I wouldn't be able to defend myself if any monsters attacked so I had to get myself to safety.

The moment I looked on the list, I was shocked for a moment. The information about this dragon said clearly you would won a material for a sword and not a completed sword. When I looked closer I saw all the materials so why was that sword there?

I took my crystal and teleported myself back to the city and walked right to the inn there. After I rented a room there I went to it and locked the door. I had learned that if it comes to rare items you can't be too careful because there are a lot of players who would be jealous and would try to steal it from you.

I looked again at the items I had just got. The items I got where: 8 dragon ingots, 4 crystallite ingots, 1 S-Class sword material Dragon Soul, 2 S-Class ingredients for food and the sword Exidator.

I left the food for now and looked at the description for the Dragon Soul and read: Combined with 2 crystallite ingots and 4 dragon ingots it would create a rare sword. High level blacksmith required.

So for that I need to find a blacksmith with high skills. I looked at the other 2 and found out that also 1 crystallite ingot could be made into a sword and 1 dragon ingot could be used to upgrade a sword made from crystallite ingots. I hoped the blacksmith could tell me more about that but that have to wait until then.

Then I took the sword out and was surprised by it. It was a heavy one-handed sword made from black obsidian, one of the hardest metals that existed in this world. The handle was a perfect fit for my hand and the weight was just perfect for me.

If you didn't look at the stats, it looked kind of a simple weapon. From the handle, it had 2 spikes at each side of the blade. The blade itself was very wide except from the handle to the punt the spikes were connected to the blade. Below that point, the blade down, it became smaller until it was just a bit wider than the handle.

I looked at the information from the sword, trying to understand why I got it. It said: this unique sword is rewarded to the player who have made 85 to 91% of the total damage on a boss monster from floor 52 or up.

Then I remembered. The dragon already did miss one arm. So there had been someone before me who had battled it. Was he defeated? Boss monsters needed 2 days to fully recover the 4th HP bar. But still, even if that happened, the % of damage the player had done to get it that low, would have been calculated. So in this case, that player would have done a little damage to the dragon before getting away or in the worst case, had died. Leaving me to deal the rest of damage and got hold of this rare sword.

As I put the sword on my back, I realized I had an unread messages, the one I got on the moment I leveled up. I opened the inbox and noticed it was from Argus and got scared. Argus were the ones that made this game! Why would I have a messages from them? With a shaking hand I pressed it and a sound appeared.

"Congratulation. You have unlocked the gift from Argus, which is stored inside this Nerve Gear. This moment you are strong enough for the unique extra skill Sword Birth. Use it wisely."

For a moment I couldn't understand what it meant. A gift? The unique skill Sword Birth? I opened my skill list and found it there. I equipped it and opened the information.

This extra skill is unique to 1 player in the whole game. It allows the player to switch swords and skills by only thinking about it and give him the option too also use it as a way to use other unique Skills like Dual Blade and Holy sword. Be prepared, using one of those 2 skills isn't without exception. You can use both skills freely as you see fit but aren't able to use all sword skills that come with it. For example, if you use Dual Blade, you aren't able to use any higher level sword skill then the skill Starburst Stream.

I had to read it more than 5 times too understand it. I looked at the skill list again and was thinking to switch my skill tracking with the skill Stealth I was trying to master. The moment I switched them in my mind, the list changed before my eyes without me touching them.

After doing it a few more times, I closed the window and did the same thing again and I learned that I don't need to have the menu open for it. So even in mid battle I could change skills if I need to. That really unique and can come in handy from time to time.

The information said I also was able to do this with swords and looked in my inventory if I had any spare swords left. After I found some I closed the menu again and tried switching swords. After a few tries I had the hang of it and tried to have 2 swords equipped at the same time. On my first try, one of the spare swords appeared on my left shoulder and the skill Dual Blade popped up in my skill list.

The moment I let the second sword disappear, the skill disappeared as well. I tried switching to a 2-handed sword and the moment it appeared, the one-handed sword skill changed to the 2-handed sword skill required to use 2 handed swords. The moment I got the 2 handed sword, it didn't change so this must also be a bonus I got from this extra skill. It was even mastered to the point I had the one-handed sword skill mastered.

With some training, this skill can make me into one of the strongest players on the front lines. I couldn't help myself to think that. But until that moment, I should keep this to myself. And only use it when no one is close to me. That way no one will find out.

It was the 12 of August when I nearly mastered the skill. It was late at night and I was training in a lower dungeon so the changes of running into someone where pretty small. Not only did I mastered Sword Birth but also Dual Blade. The combo with Sword Birth was really useful because between fights I could easily hide the second sword with only thinking about it. That way if I run into someone, they wouldn't notice it. And if a monster span in front of me, I could pull it out again to help me defeat it.

I walked around a corner and saw a player in front of me to my surprise. It appeared to be Kirito and he was fighting a monster. I took a moment to watch and at that time he used a sword skill to end the battle. The moment I saw the skill the hair on my neck went straight up. He used the skill I just learned, Starburst Stream. It was a sword skill that could only be used with Dual Blade!

Because I was standing behind him, I didn't noticed the sword in his left hand until he activated that sword skill. He defeated the monster with a strong 16-hit combo sword skill and the moment it disappeared he turned around. His face became red and wanted to walk away quickly.

"You… You have Dual Blade?" I asked still in shock.

His face turned to me with an impression he was in shock just like me.

"You know about that skill?"

It took some time before we calmed down and we used that time to walk to a save zone. That way it was save to talk and we didn't had to worry about monsters spanning.

"How do you know about Dual Blade?" was the first thing he asked.

"Well, I don't know how to say this, but simply put, I can use that skill to. But for how long are you able to use it?"

"A couple of months ago it appeared in my skill list. I let this sword made and since then I have been training it late at nights so no one would see it. But is it possible that you can use the same unique extra skill as me?"

"It's not the same. I have the extra skill Sword Birth. It let me switch skills and sword by just thinking about it. And it also let me use the extra skills Dual Blade and Holy Sword. I can't fully use those extra skills. Like with Dual Blade, the highest sword skill I can use is the Starburst Stream you just used."

"There is still something I don't really understand. You said that you can use Dual Blade and are here to train it, how come I only see 1 sword on your back?"

"Like I said, I can switch swords by just thinking about it. That way out side of battle, I can walk around with only one equipped and the moment I enter battle, equip it so I can use it."

He still looked like he didn't understand so I turned my back a little and equipped the second sword. And after that, let it disappear again.

"I see, so that's how it is. But I have still one question. Your primary sword looks incredibly strong, how come you're secondary is a much weaker sword? Why don't you try it like I do with these strong swords?" after he asked it, he removed the 2 swords on his back and put them between us."

"The only strong sword I have is the primary I'm using. I'm looking for a good blacksmith to let materials I have turn into a sword." I understand why he did it, so I also removed my sword and put it next to his.

After we both looked at each other swords, we founded out that our primary were nearly the same. His secondary was player made and he advised me to go to a blacksmith called Lizbeth's smith shop on the 48th floor. And I decided to go there.

After we talked a little more about Dual Blade and both learned new things about it, it was already early in the morning. I learned from him things that requires 2 strong swords and he from me what you can do if you have only 1 strong sword and how to coop with that.

We walked together back to the city, still talking about swords and sword skills. We ran into some monsters in our path but together we easily defeated them. We also used each other swords to see if they were really evenly matched and they were. His Elucidator felt and handled the same as my Exidator and it almost felt like the same sword. His Dark Repulsor felt even better because it felt like you were holding a soul instead of a sword.

When we arrived at the teleport gate we both went our separate way again. I decided to take it easy this day and instead of going into the dungeon again, I went to the 48th floor to the blacksmith Kirito had recommended. After some searching I found the store and it was already open.