Money Can Buy Everything

045 It's Time to Cheat (Part 2)

Regarding leveling up, Momo also tried it once, and indeed, he can trade levels with Asuna.

However, the unfortunate part is that even with level trading, it's just a numerical change in levels. It won't make any real difference in strength.

Furthermore, Momo can purchase experience point upgrades, which can provide attribute boosts. However, compared to simultaneously improving both of their skill training, the slight attribute increase from leveling up can almost be ignored.

Perhaps in the future, Momo can acquire attribute points from non-combatant or secondary players to enhance himself. As for leveling up, it seems Momo will have to rely on hard monster hunting.

After all, Momo's equipment, skills, and attributes are destined to surpass ordinary players. To reach higher levels, he needs a massive amount of experience points. Buying experience points from lower-level players would be like a drop in the bucket.

The second way to increase strength is through sword skills.

Improving sword skills is divided into two parts. One part is the visible improvement, which includes attributes, equipment, and proficiency that enhance damage. The other part is the invisible improvement, which involves personal application and combat awareness in using sword skills.

Regarding the former, Momo currently has no effective method for leveling up, as attribute point improvement is postponed until later, and his equipment is already at the limit for the first floor. His sword skill proficiency is already maxed out.

As for the latter, the invisible improvement, Momo uses Kirito's combat awareness. While it may not be top-tier, it's already first-rate. Apart from imparting combat awareness to Asuna, Momo can also exchange ideas with other top players in the future, so this aspect isn't a problem.

In essence, when it comes to sword skills, Momo can strive to reach the limits in the future. The only challenge is personal unique skills and so-called "Incarnation" skills.

The origin of personal unique skills is unknown. Momo suspects that the "Dual Blades" skill might even have been created for Kirito specifically by Kayaba Akihiko. It was tailored for Kirito to become a formidable opponent.

What truly surprised Kayaba Akihiko was likely the Incarnation skill. After all, Incarnation is described as something that "transcends human cognition limits." In other words, it's something that even Kayaba Akihiko couldn't fully understand.

Kayaba Akihiko may have some understanding of Incarnation, or he might truly know nothing about it. However, when he saw Kirito use Incarnation to break the system's limits and free himself, Kayaba Akihiko knew that Kirito had the ability to surpass the limits he had set. That's when he handed over THE SEED to Kirito, setting him free.

Incidentally, this act also saved Asuna and released all the players.

Perhaps the final battle on the 75th floor, even if Kayaba Akihiko pushes Kirito, could be seen as a farce to groom a successor.

In any case, Momo isn't too concerned about what Kayaba Akihiko plans to do. As for Incarnation skills, Momo can't obtain them for now. Perhaps in the future, he can make a fair trade with Kirito to learn something like the Dual Blades skill.

As for Incarnation, in Momo's view, it should be a manifestation of human consciousness that can accept and influence digital signals. Two years of deep diving have brought about changes in the brains of Kirito and other players, perhaps even an evolution, enabling them to receive and release certain digital signals with their willpower.

This might also be one of Kayaba Akihiko's objectives.

As for what Kayaba Akihiko truly intends to do, Momo isn't too concerned. Incarnation skills aren't something Momo can obtain at the moment. Perhaps he'll rely on the kind Kirito in the future.

The third means of increasing strength is through weapon equipment.

Momo can't influence the drop of weapon equipment, and even though he might encounter hidden missions in the future, he'll focus on crafting for now.

Fortunately, in SAO, weapon crafting is the most important way for ordinary players to acquire equipment. High-level players can craft their own weapons using advanced materials without relying on recipes, which gives them a chance to create high-level weapons.

In the original work, Kirito's sword, "Elucidator," was obtained through crafting, and it accompanied him until the end. The main materials for the Elucidator were obtained in the 55th-floor ice dragon's lair. This shows the importance of the blacksmith profession in SAO.

However, this also highlights another point: compared to slight data improvements on weapons, having a good weapon combined with strong enhancements is crucial.

In SAO, weapons can be enhanced from LV1 all the way to LV20, but this privilege is reserved for high-level weapons. Low-level weapons have a limit on enhancements. Generally, nobody enhances low-level weapons to high levels because it requires a lot of materials, and gathering those materials is a gradual process.

It's not an easy journey.

The strength of enhancement lies in the fact that it not only proportionally increases base attributes but also allows the addition of special attributes such as attack speed, movement speed, skill cooldown reduction, precision attack, sharpness, resilience, and more with each level of enhancement.

When Asuna enhances her weapons, she often prioritizes precision attack. Precision attack is essential because when she strikes a monster's weak points, it can result in significantly higher critical damage. Next comes attack speed.

Asuna, known as "The Flash," isn't just fast because of her high attack speed. Her high damage output is a result of her controlling her sword skills to consistently land critical hits on the monster's weak points.

So, "The Flash" Asuna is a title that truly represents her strength, with no falsehoods.

As a result, weapon enhancement is another significant factor affecting strength, alongside sword skills. Having a solid foundation with a good weapon, combined with high-level enhancements, can create a formidable player.

Momo and Lisbeth's blacksmith level ensures that they can always use high-level elite weapons that match their levels, and the success rate of enhancements is high. However, collecting enhancement materials will ultimately be up to them, and high-level enhancements, even with an LV10 blacksmith level, still have a significantly reduced success rate.

Enhancing a LV19 weapon with an LV10 blacksmith might only have a success rate of 5%.

These are all the ways within SAO to increase one's strength. (Since SAO is ultimately a novel, some aspects are based on the settings of the two games, while others are my own additions. The specifics may vary, so please take it as is.)

Momo already understands all of this and has tried to master every method available to increase his strength.

Sword skill proficiency, weapon level, and character level are not issues. Character level will be practiced gradually, weapon enhancement can't be rushed, and filling in the gaps in character attributes is something reserved for later.

However, even with just LV4 enhancements on their weapons, maxed-out

If the two of them wanted, they could directly go and sweep the first-floor Boss, taking away the Pitch-Black Midnight Coat, and enjoy the style of the Black Swordsman.

However, Momo naturally didn't plan to do that. Firstly, the Pitch-Black Coat didn't hold much significance for Momo. Compared to the importance of weapons, armor was relatively less important. Its primary role wasn't to provide defense but to enhance attributes.

After all, SAO is a game of swordsmanship and sword skills. Defense only adds a finishing touch. Deciding victory or defeat in an instant with a single move is the goal of this game.

This is one of the reasons, and the most important reason, why Momo and Asuna didn't intend to reveal their full strength yet.

This isn't about hiding their strength and pretending to be weak. Currently, their strength is sufficient to conquer everything, but the strategy can't rely on just the two of them.

In the later stages, it would undoubtedly require a team effort. If the other players' levels and weapon enhancements didn't catch up, Momo and Asuna would have to wait for the rest of the players.

Especially considering what Momo is doing now, it's merely reducing the time spent on the boring process of leveling up by hunting monsters. It's not actually modifying the data. In the future, all players' data will be raised, and everyone will approach the limit.

In the original story, the 75th floor was such a threshold. Kirito and others had levels exceeding 90, not far from the maximum level of 100. Although there was still room for improvement in weapon skills and other aspects, the 75th-floor Boss almost wiped out everyone, which indicated the difficulty of the Boss fights beyond the 75th floor.

This was intentionally set by Kayaba Akihiko. This suggests that Kayaba Akihiko may not have intended for players to clear the game, even if a group of 100-level players with maximum attributes couldn't necessarily break through the highest floor's Boss.

This is why Momo decided not to overly reveal their strength, so that everyone could rely on them. Momo didn't want everyone to become overly dependent on them, and then, in the end, everyone would retreat when facing Bosses above the 75th floor.

Well, retreating is also a way to end the game.

Having received an invitation to the first-floor strategy meeting, Momo and Asuna returned to Tolbana once again.

Compared to half a month ago, there were now fewer than 4,000 players left in Tolbana. These 4,000 players were truly terrified. On one hand, it was a death game, with the names of players continuously engraved on the Black Iron Monument. On the other hand, they had very few Col, and they were facing despair.

Some players even began begging other players for Col, but few chose to pay them any attention.

After all, most people had been forced out of Tolbana, and the Col they had came from battling monsters. Using it to buy their own food, stay in inns, and enhance equipment was already insufficient. Why would they share it with other players?

After all, this was still a game, and while hunger was hard to endure, it couldn't actually kill a person.

"Hey, hey... these two..."

"It's them, it's really them!"

"Look at their weapons, they're all glowing, and the glow is different. They must have high-level weapons! Enhanced to LV10, right?"

"Don't talk nonsense. The blacksmith lady clearly said that on the first floor, you can only enhance weapons up to LV4. She wrote everything about the materials required for enhancements, the monsters you face, and their characteristics in the strategy guide. Didn't you read it carefully?"

"Ah, is that true? I just left the town not long ago, and I'm still practicing my sword skills!"

"Cut it out. What's there to admire? They must be closed beta testers, snatching all the resources that belong to us. Do you really admire them?"

"Well, you can't say it like that. They didn't steal or rob anyone; they left the starting city early!"