Akimi was feeling a bit frustrated.
Since Asuna had woken up, she had been wearing a serious expression.
When he went over to ask what was wrong, she didn’t answer, just glared at him with a look that clearly warned, “Ask again and you’ll regret it.”
From what had happened earlier, Akimi guessed that Asuna must have had an uncomfortable dream—and that he was probably partly to blame for it.
At this, Akimi wanted to protest: he was innocent!
“Akimi-kun, you’re so annoying… what’s with suddenly pulling me into a hug… and Mom even saw it,” Asuna muttered softly to herself, lowering her head as she walked forward.
“And why did I even have a dream like that… really…”
It seemed Asuna held quite a grudge against the version of Akimi from her dream—though it wasn’t just resentment; there was also a feeling she couldn’t quite put into words.
Of course, no matter what, Akimi now had to bear the blame for something that wasn’t entirely his fault.
If he knew the full situation, he might even have exclaimed, “Wow, lucky me”—after all, his girlfriend had been stolen by the version of himself in her dream.
Couldn’t that also count as a kind of NTR? (lol)
After wandering around aimlessly with Asuna for a while, Akimi glanced at the time and scratched his head.
It was already five in the afternoon.
Subtracting the time they had spent strolling, they had probably slept for over four hours back at Cross Hill.
This gave Akimi the strange feeling that a whole day had passed even though they hadn’t really done anything… which, in fact, was true.
Besides sleeping, they had only stayed briefly—and even then, they had habitually gone to the item shop.
“After all that, it’s just daydreaming… totally different from the original plan,” Akimi said helplessly.
Hearing this, Asuna suddenly stopped in her tracks, turned to him, and let out a small hum.
“Of course it’s different from the plan. Isn’t it because the Young master just closed his eyes and didn’t care about anything?”
“Well, that’s not entirely my fault,” Akimi quickly protested, shaking his head.
“I definitely didn’t plan to fall asleep like that—it just happened as soon as I closed my eyes. Clearly, that wasn’t my fault.”
Pausing for a moment, he then took out the bottle of “Dreamseed” and continued: “I think this must be the effect of that Somnium Labyrinth—temporarily giving us the ability to dream again, while letting us enter the dream world.”
The “Dreamseed” had floated out of the gravestone again when Asuna woke up.
Akimi hadn’t thought much at the time and had simply put it back in the bottle.
Asuna agreed with Akimi’s guess, since her situation had been the same—she had entered the dream the moment she closed her eyes.
Originally, Asuna had intended to let the matter slide, since neither the Somnium Labyrinth nor the dream itself could really be blamed on Akimi.
Unfortunately, Akimi, lacking any sense of tact, added: “Besides, didn’t you also fall asleep yourself, Asuna?”
As for the consequences… well, they were entirely predictable.
——————
On August 21st, Akimi and Asuna arrived at the second stop of their plan: the Dwarf capital on the 33rd floor, Aulnida.
Undoubtedly, the city was filled with a large number of classic dwarf NPCs—the kind you’d see in Western fantasy stories: short and stocky, skilled in blacksmithing, and fond of drinking.
Unfortunately, although the SAO dwarves retained their “skilled in blacksmithing” trait, as NPCs they weren’t any stronger than other blacksmith NPCs.
So, to complete high-level weapon enhancements, players still had to rely on those with high blacksmithing proficiency.
Similar to Lombard on the 27th floor, Aulnida had abundant and cheap ore.
However, the largest mines were occupied by the dwarves.
Players wishing to enter had to pay a hefty fee in Cols for a two-month permit, after which they had to pay again for renewal.
The real headache was that some rare ores needed for enhancement only appeared in these mines, forcing many players to come here specifically to mine or hire others to do it—since buying directly from NPCs was even more expensive.
Fortunately, neither Akimi nor Asuna needed this, because the materials for enhancing the Nichirin blade were different from normal weapons.
Most came from monster drops, and the only ore required was the Special Ore.
It’s worth mentioning that Lizbeth had a small smithy here, though she seemed dissatisfied with the location, often saying, “I’ll sell this place eventually and get a better one.”
Asuna and Lizbeth got along very well and often chatted.
While the weapon side was handled by Haganezuka, whenever Asuna’s armor needed enhancement, she would go to Lizbeth—not just out of friendship, but also because Lizbeth was one of the strongest blacksmithing players.
Her blacksmithing proficiency had reached 500, which improved the success rate for both forging weapons and enhancing equipment.
However, this trip to the 33rd floor had nothing to do with Lizbeth.
It was prompted by the sudden opening of the Dwarf King’s palace, which had previously been closed.
But entry wasn’t exactly “open”—players had to pass a challenge set by the dwarves to get in.
Interestingly, no player had yet managed to pass the challenge and enter the palace—including Argo.
Since there was no information on the palace’s actual benefits, most players lost interest. After all, no one wanted to expend effort and gain nothing in return.
When Argo learned that Akemi and Asuna were free recently, she immediately shared the news with them, even including some details about the challenges she had encountered—because the challenges players faced weren’t exactly the same.
At the time, Argo said: “Asu-chan, Aki-bou, once you complete the challenge, make sure to tell me what’s inside. I’ll give you three… no, five pieces of free information.”
When Akimi asked, a little puzzled, why she was so certain they could succeed, Argo just smiled silently.
— The end of the Chapter–
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