Money Can Buy Everything

Chapter 044: It's Time to Cheat (Part 1)

A week passed.

During this time, Asuna and Momo's lives settled into a routine. Momo handed over his two tasks to Lisbeth and Silica, allowing him to fully devote himself to leveling up.

Originally, Momo had planned to teach cooking to Silica and have Asuna learn a crafting skill. This way, each person would have a secondary profession, maximizing mutual support.

However, Momo had underestimated Asuna's determination when it came to cooking. Especially after realizing everyone was eating black bread, she recognized the importance of culinary skills.

Momo had often mentioned that Sword Art Online lacked something that could uplift the spirits of all players. It was likely that only after breaking through the first floor and giving players hope for advancement would most players be motivated to act.

Additionally, for all players at present, relieving stress was crucial. Thousands of players endured the elements on the streets of the Starting City, eating a black bread and dried fruit each day, believing it was the best way to survive. Yet, this approach completely overlooked the issue of mental stress.

Mental stress was intangible and immeasurable but definitely existed. When players' mental stress reached its limit and col was depleted, reality forced them to venture into the wild for hunting. However, their unstable mental states might cause emotional breakdowns when faced with danger.

This was Momo's speculation, but he felt his deduction was reasonable. In the original story, about a month after SAO launched, there was a peak in player deaths, likely due to this collective outbreak of mental stress.

However, there was no need to worry about that now. With Momo's deal with Kayaba Akihiko, players who would otherwise have died from logging out could now survive in the game.

But Momo was contemplating another issue: Should he minimize the number of players leaving the game during this time in order to clear the game sooner?

In the end, Momo chose to let it be. On one hand, he had no effective solution. Even using his trade abilities daily wouldn't save the two thousand players who were bound to leave during this time. On the other hand, players who survived this period and emerged victorious would become strong warriors in the future.

Well, it was for their own good that they exited the game sooner. It was a pity Momo couldn't reveal the truth.

During this week, the primary focus for both of them was leveling up. Equipment upgrades were minimal. Momo simply switched to the most suitable gear as he leveled up. As for Asuna, she had a weapon far surpassing what any current player had. After a few more enhancements, that sword could handle enemies up to the third floor and beyond without a problem.

Two weeks later.

More and more players began to try leaving the Starting City. After all, not every player could endure eating black bread every day. How could they handle the taste of black bread after tasting other food?

They were now facing an economic crisis—virtual yet realistic hunger pangs. Their spirits were frustrated and weakened, compelling them to leave the Starting City and begin their initial battles.

However, during this time, Momo had already led Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica out of the Starting City. Encouraged by Asuna, the other two girls also overcame their fear and began to fight.

After all, after following Momo, while he bore the burden of their basic needs, they refused to become mere burdens. After learning sword skills and the art of monster slaying, their courage was gradually honed.

Of course, Momo didn't expect the two to become top-tier warriors. After all, their talents and personalities were there for all to see—one had a penchant for secondary professions, while the other was too young to bear the pressure of combat. Momo only required that they be able to hunt monsters lower in level than themselves, complete normal tasks, and gather materials.

As for the two quests in the Starting Street, Momo's blacksmith skill has already upgraded to LV2. LV2 is enough to forge weapons up to LV10, including the high-quality Dark Elf weapons. However, the materials required are staggering, and Momo is far from collecting them all.

After reaching LV2, Momo didn't choose to upgrade the skill further because the conditions were already sufficient.

Next, Momo did the following:

First, he imparted LV2 blacksmith skills to Lisbeth, making Lisbeth LV2. Then he purchased Lisbeth's blacksmith level 1, making Momo's blacksmith level LV3. Finally, Momo passed on LV3 blacksmith skills to Lisbeth.

In this way, in just one day, they completed a cycle, and two LV3 blacksmiths were born through hard work!

As for other players, it seems there are two very lucky players who learned the most basic blacksmith skills from an NPC in a remote valley. The cost has already bankrupted them.

Momo's unique way of leveling up naturally won't be shared with others, and Lisbeth keeps it a closely guarded secret. Outsiders can't see their levels; only the two of them know their true skill levels.

Next, if Momo wishes, he can use three trades to make both of them LV5 blacksmiths. However, it's not necessary as they don't currently need it. The weapons they forge also have level restrictions.

However, these levels are entirely suitable for all the players' needs at the moment. Repairing and forging, LV1 to LV4 weapon enhancements, with LV3 blacksmith skills, have a 100% success rate.

So...

The miraculous blacksmith Lisbeth's shop opened in all of Aincrad!

Although for now, Lisbeth is just setting up shop in the streets with a hammer and an anvil, there's always a long line in front of her booth, making Lisbeth's hands numb from forging weapons.

Following Momo, Lisbeth became another major source of income for the team, even surpassing Momo's daily income from selling pork.

Momo's way of leveling up skills like this can be applied to other abilities. However, other skills involve sword skill proficiency, and the initial sword skill proficiency is too low, starting from 1 point. Even if it doubles every day, there won't be much growth.

Over the past ten days, Momo and Asuna have been working on leveling up their sword skill proficiencies through this interactive method. Unfortunately, the efficiency hasn't been high.

Both of them have only maxed out proficiency in single-handed sword skills, and Western sword skills have reached 81. They haven't even maxed out two skills yet.

But wanting to max out all skills is not an easy task. Even if both of them only focus on training one type of weapon, there are still various skill levels to improve, such as detection, stealth, and more.

It's a long process; it takes six to seven days for both of them to max out one skill at the same time. The speed isn't particularly fast.

Now, Kirito's proficiency in single-handed sword has reached 20%, allowing him to enhance his sword skills for the first time.

Finally, in the Starting Street, Momo's pork business involved him binding a random player through a trade agreement to handle everything. He also made a trade agreement with the butcher to become the exclusive supplier, at the cost of reducing wild boar meat to 23 col.

After deducting the 11 col purchase cost and paying 2 col as a reward to the random player for each piece of wild boar meat, Momo makes 500 col a day.

However, for Momo at this point, 500 col is already small change. The LV10 giant bees he hunts now drop more than ten col each.

If there's something different in Sword Art Online now compared to the original work, there are two points.

One is the legendary blacksmith Lisbeth, who single-handedly raised the equipment level of all frontline players by one tier. With upgraded equipment, efficiency increases, and death rates decrease.

The other legend is a couple of expert players. Few people see them often because they are always ahead of everyone else. The female member specializes in Western sword skills, while the male member frequently changes weapons for unknown reasons and shouts the slogan "Dominate all professions."

If it weren't for the male member seeming a bit off, almost everyone would think that this couple of swordsmen were like cheats.

Twenty-four days have passed, and Momo and Asuna have received a message: Kirito has found the location of the first-floor boss. Although Kirito's strength is currently not as high as Momo and Asuna's, with the high-quality Dark Elf weapon crafted by Lisbeth and Kirito's experience, he can still hold his own on the first floor.

The strategy to defeat the first-floor boss will remain the same, with Tiberio as the mastermind. Tiberio's reputation has also improved a lot compared to the original, as he stole Momo's limelight at the beginning of the game.

For this, Momo and Asuna naturally have no reason to refuse.

After these nine days of arduous leveling, Momo and Asuna finally completed the task of maxing out proficiency in Western sword skills and started the difficult task of leveling up their sword skill proficiency.

In Sword Art Online, there are several ways to increase your strength.

First, leveling up increases base stats like HP, HP recovery, stagger resistance, and provides attribute points for strength, constitution, agility, and dexterity. Strength and agility determine the damage of heavy and light weapons, respectively. Strength boosts heavy weapon sword skill damage, while agility boosts light weapon damage.

For example, Kirito primarily focuses on strength, so he uses a heavy sword. Asuna has an advantage in agility and uses Western swords.

As for Momo, who claims to dominate all professions, he can only talk about it for now. Attribute points aren't something he can obtain through experience or teaching, so he can only buy and sell them, which isn't feasible with his current trade limits.