Comprehensive Manga: The Master is not here today

Chapter 143 Shock and Intelligence, Added Skills

He originally thought that with SAO now becoming a death game, only closed beta players who had mastered some information in advance would be able to take such strong action.

Even if you are not a closed beta player, you are at least an experienced player with rich experience in other MMO games.

However, a new player who has never been exposed to MMO games, and a super new player who has never been exposed to games at all?

Such an incredible combination indeed far exceeded his expectations, and even made him a little stunned.

Because in the battle just now, the two people's cooperation could be said to be perfect, which made him take it for granted that they were beta testers.

Now it seems that if they are really not lying, it can only prove that both of them have extremely high gaming talents.

Of course, that was based on the situation just now.

In the final analysis, the Piranha were just a group of monsters, and there were not many details shown in the battle just now. He could not fully judge the true strength of the two of them.

But is this really okay if this continues?
You know, SAO now is by no means just a game.

And as far as he is concerned, he has experienced profound changes.

The most obvious one is what the guy who calls himself Illegal AI·BB said about the improvement in monster AI performance.

During the two-month closed beta period, he reached the eighth floor.

With the information recorded in his mind, he was originally confident that he would reach the same position in just one month after the public beta.

For example, in the current area, it stands to reason that he could complete all the tasks last night, raise his level to the limit, and then continue to the next area.

But the fact is that it was not until the next morning after the server was launched, that is, now, that he completed the planned goal.

What caused such changes was the improvement in monster AI performance.

Different from the trigger-type yellow-named monsters in the initial area, in the second and subsequent areas, the monsters have become triggering mechanisms within a certain range.

Although the current attack methods of non-humanoid monsters are relatively simple, they are relatively simple to deal with.

But if you accidentally attract more than two enemies, the other party will consciously start to cooperate, which becomes very troublesome.

Back to the point.

It was precisely because of these problems that he expressed concern about their situation.

But he soon thought of a way to get the best of both worlds, which could not only improve the other party's survival rate, but also allow him to repay the two of them for their life-saving grace.

"Since you two are new players, what you lack most right now should be information, right?"

He smiled at the two people in front of him:
"As you can see, I am a closed beta player and I know the information about the first level fairly well. If you don't mind, I can share some information about the first level in return."

"Is it really okay? That's great!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asuna's eyes immediately brightened. The information in the SAO game was indeed what they needed most at the moment.

"of course."

"Let me share my map data with you first. It contains the location of the safe zone [Holenka Village] in this area."

While Kirito was opening the system menu and operating, he continued to remind the two of them:
"However, the situation during the closed beta period will definitely be more or less different from the open beta period."

"And no one knows how many changes Kayaba Akihiko and the guy who calls himself BB have made to the game, so please refer to them with suspicion and never take them as truth."

"Well, we'll be careful."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, taking his warning to heart.

At the same time, Kirito stopped moving his hands, looked at the two of them, and said with some hesitation: "Well, sharing map data requires both parties to be friends, so..."

"Then add a friend."

Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded readily, and Asuna beside him didn't show any strange expression, which made him quietly sigh in relief.

Although Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asuna are indeed very cute, he doesn't want to be thought of as the kind of guy who takes the opportunity to strike up a conversation, especially when the other person is his savior.

After adding friends and transferring map data, Kirito led them towards [Holenka Village].

He and Asuna need to turn in missions and put on brand new equipment. At the same time, Fujimaru Ritsuka and Asuna also need to change the novice armors in the initial area.

On the way, he began to tell the two people the first level of relevant information.

"Let's talk about the information about this area first."

"We have already seen the monster [Pan-Eating Plant] that belongs to this area. It has two attack methods, namely the whips on its arms and the corrosive liquid it spits out from the big mouth on its head."

"In addition to the most common man-eating grass, there are also two special species derived from it. Among them, the most important to be careful about is the man-eating grass with [fruit] on its head."

"If you crush the fruit on its head, the smell of the exploding fruit will attract all the nearby man-eating grasses, so please be careful."

"In addition, since plant monsters have no eyes, the [Concealment] skill has very limited effect on them."

Having said this, he suddenly remembered a question and asked the two of them:
"Speaking of which, may I take the liberty to ask, what did you choose for your second skill level?"

In SAO, the initial character will have two skill slots, and one slot will be added every ten levels thereafter.

The first one of each person will be occupied by the weapon he holds. For example, his first skill is [One-Handed Straight Sword].

However, all the [Sword Skills] of the weapon itself are derived skills and will not occupy the skill grid.

As for the second and other skill levels, there are combat and life skills such as enemy detection, concealment, emergency recovery, light shield equipment, light metal equipment, forging, smelting, etc.
Players need to make choices based on their own situation and build their own style.

By the way, the skill he chose is to search for enemies, which not only improves the player's ability to search for monsters, but also has the additional function of slightly improving hunting efficiency. It is one of the must-select skills for solo players.

Hearing his question, Fujimaru Ritsuka smiled and replied:
"We haven't made a selection yet."

Since the monsters in the initial area were only for new players to practice and nothing could be seen, they decided to make a decision based on the specific situation after coming to the second area.

"So, Kirito-kun, do you have any suggestions?"

"In this case."

After hearing this, Kirito pondered for a while and recommended some more practical combat skills for them, such as weapon defense, light/heavy metal equipment, emergency recovery, etc.

Then he added:
"However, [Emergency Recovery], although very practical, is not recommended to be chosen now."

[Emergency Recovery] allows the player's health bar in battle to recover immediately after it drops to the red zone, which is a very useful life-saving skill.

And after improving your proficiency and unlocking the derivative skill [Recovery during combat], you can slowly recover your blood volume during combat, which greatly improves the fault tolerance rate in combat.

But in SAO, if you want to improve the proficiency of a skill, you can only use it repeatedly.

In other words, if you want to gain proficiency in [Emergency Recovery], you must repeatedly lower your health bar to the red zone during battle.

This move is very dangerous for SAO, which has now transformed into a death game.

So under Kirito's suggestion, Asuna finally chose the [Light Metal Equipment] skill. Its defensive performance was higher than cloth armor and leather armor, but it did not slow down her speed too much.

At the same time, Fujimaru Ritsuka carefully checked the skills and asked Kirito:
"Kirito-kun, what do you think of [See Through]?"

(End of this chapter)