Even though Rozen did say that it was not impossible for Kirito to learn the Eye of the Mind, but to be honest, the chance was low.
“Although there are normal people who can master this technique, they’re all extraordinary human. Can Kirito do it?”
Although Kirito had a knack in games, and his love for games was second to none.
But..
“Just how Kirito plan to reach to this height?”
Rozen then taught the basics to learn the Eye of the Mind to Kirito, and looked forward to Kirito’s progress.
Ten minutes later, Kirito finally leveled up as well after killing the 14th Little Nepenthes.
However, unlike Rozen, Kirito allocated 1 point to STR and 2 points to AGI to his stat points. It seemed like he planned to do the same as the closed beta, he won’t use the shield and focused on the speed with One-Handed Sword.
Even though both Rozen and Kirito used One-Handed Sword, they had their own ideas, which was different from most Players.
The normal One-Handed Sword user mostly used a shield, later on, to act as a frontliner.
Meanwhile, Kirito went for the unorthodox speed build, relying on swiftness and reaction time to defeat the enemy.
Rozen used the same build as most One-Handed Sword users. However, what made him different was his fighting style, he used the combination of tamed beast’s skill to afflict Status Effect to enemy, projectiles, and Sword Skill to finally deal the finishing blow.
These two finally reached level 3 after a gruesome battle with their own fighting style.
And after an hour, Rozen finally got the quest item Little Nepenthes’ Ovule, but he still continued to kill the monster around him to gain more exp.
And a few moments later, Kirito also found the Little Nepenthes with flower on its head and successfully killed it, giving him the Little Nepenthes’ Ovule as well.
But then, suddenly…
“Guru…?”
The Rainbow Butterfly tilted his head slightly and let out a different cry than usual.
That was not the usual cry that signaled a monster was approaching, so Rozen and Kirito stopped their hands for a while to confirm the situation.
“What happened?” Kirito quickly asked.
Rozen, who has already experienced this during the closed beta replied.
“This is also a type of warning, but this one is signaling a player, not monster.”
“That means another player is approaching?”
Kirito was stunned.
Rozen shrugged his shoulder.
“Convenient, isn’t it?”
Rozen said like a smile.
“There should be another player around here, to be precise.”
Kirito who was surprised quickly checked his surrounding using Searching skill to help discover if there really was a player around them.
“…there is another player lurking nearby.”
Kirito said after checking the surrounding.
“Is that guy using Hiding?”
Just as the name suggested, Hiding was a skill that allowed the user to conceal themselves from Players and Monsters.
Of course, the effect of the skill depended on the level of the skill, plus the level of detection skill. For example, if Kirito’s Searching skill level was higher than that player’s Hiding skill level, Kirito will be able to see them, but if that player’s Hiding skill level was higher than Kirito’s Searching skill level, Kirito wouldn’t be able to see that player.
“That sounds like a piece of bad news, normally people wouldn’t come here using hidden skill.” Rozen said: “It seems that this guy is a beta tester too.”
It has only been a few hours since SAO officially became a death game. If a player came to that area, it only meant one thing. That player was a beta tester too, and he knew there was a quest with a good reward there plus hunting the monsters gave a good amount of exp.
Kirito whispered.
“We got our quest item already anyway, plus we’re at the same level as these Little Nepentheses now. We won’t get as much exp, let’s just get out of here and finish this quest.”
Rozen had no objection and left that place with Kirito.
Both of them knew that player wouldn’t change his mind about hunting the monsters there anyway.
If that player knew Rozen and Kirito got the quest item in their storage, it was not impossible if they would PK Rozen or Kirito to obtain that item.
But…
“Now that SAO has become a death game, is there anyone who is stupid enough to PK another player?”
Kirito said this.
However, he kind of realized that was nothing but self-comforting.
But he couldn’t help but think about the worst case scenario.
Fortunately, after they walked away for a while, the Rainbow Butterfly no longer let out a unique cry like earlier, and Kirito didn’t find anyone either.
Kirito was relieved.
On the contrary, Rozen was still upset.
“It’s just because there are two people here, and they are the same players who are the same as the other party. Isn’t the other party afraid to sneak up on it?”
Of course, there was a possibility that the player earlier was just afraid to be PK’ed.
But it was just like Kirito said, since SAO has become a death game, would a player PK other players for some trivial reason?
When they returned to Horunka, some beta-testers who also used One-Handed Sword was already there, welcoming Rozen and Kirito with vigilant eyes.
However, when they saw the Rainbow Butterfly perched on Rozen’s shoulder, the vigilance turned into surprise.
“Don’t tell me…”
“Is that the one…?”
“The only one who got tamed beast during the beta test…”
“Doing the same thing as the beta test to get tamed beast again, tsk…”
Those players murmured and then left.
Kirito was worried.
“Rozen, are you…”
Before Kirito could finish his sentence, Rozen quickly said.
“I know what you want to say.” Rozen said faintly, “However, that was inevitable. It can’t be helped if I’m that famous.”
With that said, Rozen then headed to the NPC’s house.
“…”
Kirito was speechless and then followed Rozen.