Akimi tossed and turned on his bed for quite a while before coming to a conclusion—he must be suffering from insomnia.
Although waves of dizziness from deep within his head indicated that it was time to lie down and slip into a baby-like sleep, the excitement coursing through his body made it impossible to close his eyes.
Somewhat confused, Akimi rubbed his face, got out of bed, and switched on the small night lamp hanging beside it.
The orange-yellow light, reminiscent of an old incandescent bulb, filtered softly through the lampshade, bathing his body in a gentle glow.
A warm tone.
A color that gave a sense of safety.
Two lifetimes of being single since birth, adding up to more than forty years, over a decade as a master sorcerer—he had seen it all.
Thinking this, Akimi sat firmly on the bed.
But whether it was because the heavily ordered mattress had too much bounce or because his body momentarily slipped out of his brain’s control, he suddenly stood up again.
“Damn, I’ve really never seen a scene like this—”
Rubbing his cheeks again, Akimi realized that the thin sleepiness he had felt was completely gone.
After staring off for a while, he slowly sat back down on the bed, crossed his legs, and shifted to face another direction.
The room was embedded within Aincrad, the floating city, separated from the outside by a thin layer of glass—though “thin” is relative, as the system specified it was a solid fifteen centimeters thick.
Despite the impressive thickness, the glass was flawless and astonishingly transparent.
In the real world, even if it could be made, the cost alone would likely be in the millions of yen.
After spacing out for a bit more, bored, Akimi reached out with his right hand and opened the system panel.
Having completed the Forty Floors’ boss raid, he had reached level 63.
Although he hadn’t earned much experience in the past few days, he was probably the highest-level player in SAO.
His Strength and Agility stats were both 210 normally, rising to 240 when using Water Breathing.
He could be considered a heavily armored warrior-level tank with assassin-level offensive power.
As for skill proficiency, his Water Breathing mastery had recently surpassed 500, unlocking a new MOD: “Breathing Technique: Breakthrough,” which added +2 allocatable points per level.
In other words, Akimi now gained 8 points per level—nearly double that of other players.
Additionally, his one-handed sword proficiency had reached 700, just slightly below Kirito’s 750.
Regarding the Forty Floors’ demon-slaying mission, Akimi felt it was impossible to complete in the short term.
The task clearly stated the target: “Upper Rank Four.”
No other information was provided.
The previous Lower Rank Three had already pushed them to their limits despite extensive preparation.
Upper Rank—Akimi dared not imagine how strong it would be.
The sheer stats alone could probably crush them, so he decided to put it aside for now.
If he were to attempt it, he would wait until around level 70, or until his Water Breathing proficiency improved further.
————–
August 22nd.
Originally, they had planned to wait a few more days before returning to the Seventh Floor, but considering that by then they might have to start raiding the Forty-First Floor’s boss, Kirito requested to go earlier.
After a brief discussion, the request was approved unanimously.
Whether it was just his imagination or not, Akimi felt that the Seventh Floor now seemed even hotter than when they first visited.
If the previous heat had been a normal midsummer high temperature, the current temperature felt like being thrown into boiling water.
The sunlight on their skin caused a faint stinging sensation almost immediately.
It had clearly exceeded normal levels.
At the transfer gate in the center of Volupta, Akimi and the others exchanged glances, all noticing that something was different from usual.
After reaching out to test the sunlight once more, Akimi fell into thought.
“This… isn’t right. If I remember correctly, the only one who became a vampire back then was Kirito, right?”
“Vampire? No, I was the Lord of Night’s subordinate,” Kirito shot him an annoyed glare and replied seriously.
Akimi didn’t argue but instead nodded, trying to suppress a smile—Kirito had been far more ridiculous back then.
Because he couldn’t bear to give up the effect of the “Doleful Nocturne,” he had bitten the bullet and asked Nirrnir, the Lord of Night, to turn him into a subordinate, after which he adopted a nocturnal lifestyle.
It wasn’t until he obtained another decent weapon on the Eleventh Floor that he exerted great effort to restore himself to normal.
Although Kirito had gone to see Nirrnir behind their backs, his unusual schedule didn’t stay secret for long.
Thanks to Argo’s careful surveillance, this little secret of Kirito’s couldn’t be hidden.
When they went to confirm with Nirrnir, her expression was unforgettable—an almost incomprehensible look tinged with a hint of disdain on her delicate, pretty face.
Yet when they interrogated Kirito, he said nothing, refusing to reveal anything.
From then on, the group added a new nickname for him—“Vampire.”
It had to be said, though, that during the time he had the “Doleful Nocturne,” Kirito’s behavior was outrageously intense.
Coupled with spending entire days in the dungeon, his level had even surpassed Akimi’s at the time by one and a half levels.
……………….
Staring directly at the sun, which wasn’t particularly dazzling, Akimi ran his fingers through his hair and suddenly thought of something.
He began rummaging through his inventory.
After searching for a while, he finally pulled out a parasol from the miscellaneous items section.
—but it wasn’t one of those small, single-person parasols.
This was a large umbrella with a radius of over one and a half meters, designed to be staked into the ground.
Coincidentally, this oversized parasol had originally been custom-made by Akimi through Lisbeth just to tease Kirito… to be precise, Lisbeth had made the frame, and the fabric for the canopy was cheap material bought from Egil for a hundred Col.
Unsurprisingly, Kirito had declined it without any hesitation.
Somehow, Akimi had kept this big parasol at home all this time, and now, thinking of going to the beach, he had brought it along.
“Hehe, Mr. Vampire, our foresight really paid off, didn’t it?” Akimi said with a smile, opening the umbrella and slinging it over his shoulder.
“You didn’t appreciate my good intentions back then—really lack of vision.”
Seeing Akimi looking so smug, Kirito twitched the corners of his mouth a few times, then turned his head and started walking forward.
But after a few steps, he stopped, lowered his head, and walked back.
Akimi chuckled and remarked, “Pride will be the death of him.”
Then he turned to the others and said, “Come on, let’s go to the casino first and check with Nirrnir and the others to see what’s going on.”
— The end of the Chapter–
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