Since the bet had already been made, Akimi and the others naturally had to give it their all.
Although Akimi spoke lightly about it, what if they ran into some special circumstances?
To ensure that nothing went wrong, they made preparations from every possible angle—for example, asking Klein and Agil to lend a hand when the time came, and raising the enhancement levels of their equipment to the maximum value...
It had to be said, Kirito's luck was downright outrageous.
His current weapon's enhancement limit was 32 times, and he had already enhanced it 23 times before.
Yet this time, during the strengthening process, he somehow succeeded nine times in a row without a single failure, ending up with a flawless +32 weapon.
Mm, if you calculate the odds, it was about the same as someone in a gacha game pulling ten rolls with four 5-stars in one go without any guarantee failing.
This made Akimi curse on the spot: "What the hell?! Kirito, are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Asuna, however, gave Kirito a strange look, then snapped at Akimi, "You've already enhanced your weapon to +41, and you really have the nerve to say that about him?"
Facing Asuna's reproach, Akimi's expression immediately fell—easy for you to say when it's not your back that's breaking...
Only heaven knew how many materials he had burned through to push his Nichirin Blade from +40 to +41.
And as it happened, it was almost the same number of materials Kirito had just used up.
If the Nichirin Blade had an enhancement cap, then right now it probably—no, definitely—would have been stuck at a rather middling level.
As for Asuna, well, her Radiant Silver had already reached +40, but up to this point, she hadn't failed a single attempt, and the total number of materials she'd spent was only about half of Akimi's—an even scarier level of luck than Kirito's, comparable to a perfect ten-pull with ten 5-stars.
(Which goes to show just how terrifying Kirito's +50 Elucidator was—and scarier still, his Dark Repulser was also +50.)
But of course, the massive material costs combined with the infuriatingly low success rates naturally brought massive returns.
At this point, if they faced a Floor 15 Boss, they could probably take it down with just five or six sword skills.
Without a doubt, the single highest attack power in all of Aincrad right now belonged to Akimi—who had truly achieved the legendary "one slash, 999 damage."
But this also indirectly highlighted another problem—the absurd stat inflation within Aincrad.
Just looking at the HP cap, the base value at level 62 was more than one-third higher than that of level 61.
Adding the bonus from Strength made it even more outrageous—and the attack power was even scarier, nearly doubling outright.
What's more, the higher the level, the more ridiculous the stat inflation became.
The "Matthew Effect" was being displayed in Aincrad in full force.
Just as Tomioka Akimi and the others were actively preparing for the boss raid, another troublesome matter came knocking—
"You three must be the 'Black Swordsman' Kirito, the 'Azure Blade' Tomioka Akimi, and the 'Flash' Asuna, right? Our guild leader has business with you. Come with me."
A man blocked their path—he wore pitch-black armor, a dark-green cloak, and a piece of red cloth fastened to his right shoulder with a blue button.
His helmet had a strange design, as if an extra steel plate had been bolted onto the top of a NerveGear.
His eyes were hidden completely by a visor that left only five small holes, making it impossible to read his expression.
His tone carried obvious arrogance, as though he was merely delivering a notification to Akimi's group.
And the moment he finished speaking, he immediately turned around and started walking off, showing no respect toward them whatsoever.
This attitude made Akimi raise an eyebrow.
He wasn't about to humor some clown who popped out of nowhere.
With a slightly exasperated look, he muttered, "Which zoo messed up this time? Letting a monkey that doesn't even know basic respect run loose?"
His voice wasn't low at all—loud enough for the man to hear clearly.
The moment those words reached his ears, the guy exploded, clenching his fists and storming back in front of Akimi, gritting his teeth as he snarled, "What did you just say?!"
He had expected Akimi to back down a little.
But instead, Akimi repeated his words with a blank expression—and even added, "Didn't expect this monkey to be hard of hearing too—how pitiful. What, you got FNC or something? Did some scientist send a monkey with FNC into SAO as part of an experiment?"
That really set the monkey—no, the player—off.
He was so furious that his words came out broken and stumbling: "Y-you… Do you even know who I am?!"
"Oh? You are…"
Just as he was waiting for Akimi to say his name in shock, Akimi flatly replied, "Who are you again?" nearly making the guy choke on his own breath.
"You… I'm an officer of the Army! The guild officer most trusted by Commander Thinker—Skarey!"
"Oh. Never heard of you."
"Pffft—"
Akimi remained expressionless, Asuna quietly covered her mouth and turned away, Kirito glanced around while suppressing a twitch at the corner of his lips, and Skarey just stood there, completely stunned.
"You… you… you… I challenge you to a duel!"
As Skarey spoke, he pulled up the system menu, opened the duel tab, and furiously sent Akimi a duel request with the "Half-Loss Victory" setting.
So-called "Half-Loss Victory" meant that the duel would end as soon as one participant's HP dropped to half.
It was one of the most commonly used duel modes among players.
Akimi gave him a strange look, then tapped the accept button.
After the three-second countdown ended and the system's high-pitched chime rang out, the duel officially began.
Akimi activated Water Breathing and charged forward at a speed completely beyond normal human reaction.
"Water Breathing, First Form: Water Surface Slash!"
At that moment, Skarey seemed to realize something.
The fury on his face twisted into terror, and he hastily raised his weapon to block the Nichirin Blade.
Crack!
With a sharp, clear snap, Skarey's greatsword broke cleanly in two.
A long gash appeared across his chest, and in the blink of an eye, his HP dropped from full to half—if not for the system's safeguard, he might have gone straight into the red.
After landing the strike, Akimi sheathed his blade in one smooth motion and turned away, walking back to Asuna's side without sparing Skarey another glance.
Come on—Skarey was barely level 30-something, wielding a weapon that wasn't anything special.
If Akimi couldn't end that fight in a single slash, he might as well kill himself.
The system chime rang out again—"Winner: Tomioka Akimi!"
Akimi turned his head slightly, gave Skarey a helpless shrug, then left directly with Kirito and Asuna.
Skarey stood there dumbfounded for a long moment before stumbling after them in a daze.
---------------
Exclusive access : Complete novel on paetron
Join now : patreon*com/DeCakraWnloverz