Chapter 350
After the Red Guild, Laughing Coffin was neutralized, Aincrad once again welcomed peaceful times.
Rozen once again could devote himself to clearing the game, and as he expected, even though the Clearers’ overall combat power was reduced after Divine Dragon Alliance was disbanded, it was not yet at the point where the situation was concerning.
Even with the Clearers’ current strength, Rozen still managed to clear the 55th Floor a few days after.
With that momentum, he even cleared the 59th Floor within a few months. However, the progress was halted once they hit the 60th Floor due to the medium difficulty increment that occurred every 10 Floors.
The situation was not that bad compared to the massive difficulty increment that occurred every 25 Floors.
He simply had to attend the Field Boss Strategy Meeting, gave the Clearers a few pointers regarding the Field Boss, and let them defeat the Boss on their own.
Meanwhile, for the Floor with massive difficulty increment, he had to come with the rest of the Clearers to the Labyrinth to prevent any casualty.
"Now, what should I do about this?"
Rozen was sitting on a grassland outside a village on the 60th Floor, seemingly lost in thought.
"Goo!"
"Woo!"
Saichou and Hanachou seemed to have fun flying around in the grassland.
Usually, Rozen would be hunting at the most efficient hunting ground to rack up as much exp as he could get around this time, especially since he almost reached level 88, and this was the perfect time for that since the Clearers were busy dealing with the Field Boss by now. However, that didn’t seem to be the case.
The reason was simple.
Rozen was staring at the sword in his hand, his main weapon.
"I’ve enhanced this weapon to the limit, but it seems to be no longer effective for this Floor."
That was what occupied Rozen’s mind.
Nowadays,
As a result, in addition to Players that polished Combat Skills, Players that polished Support Skills began to increase.
As time passed, more and more Players focused on raising their Support Skills and made a living as Blacksmith in Aincrad.
Their crafted equipment gradually became better and better than the equipment purchased from the NPC and the drop item from high-level monsters.
Of course, Players could still get better equipment from boss-level monsters, but the probability of those monsters dropping such items was quite low, for example, Kirito’s Elucidator.
Kirito got that sword from the 50th Floor Boss, a one of a kind monster that would never respawn after it was defeated.
Even getting a decent drop item from a Field Boss was hard enough since their respawn time was quite long and random.
Rozen was not as lucky as Kirito. Therefore, the monsters would be stronger as he made his way to higher Floors, and his weapon became less and less effective to deal with those monsters, which never happened before.
Thanks to his Eye of the Mind and Tamed Monsters, he managed to get a fair share of Floor Boss’ LA bonus.
He was also lucky enough to stumble upon some hidden quests too, and sometimes got a pretty good weapon as rewards, so up until now, Rozen has never had a problem with weapons.
But that was no longer the case.
The level of Players’ Support Skill constantly rose. Some Players even had their Support Skill maxed out already.
As a result, the Clearers’ equipment now has leaned toward Player-crafted equipment rather than monster-drop equipment or quest-reward equipment, which was much better.
Meanwhile, Rozen, who used monster-drop and quest-reward equipment, fell behind equipment-wise this time even though he used to be head and shoulders above other Players.
Although he didn’t fall behind that far, at this rate, it won’t be long before the Clearers left him in the dust.
Rozen was in a dilemma.
He wanted to switch to Player-crafted equipment just like the others. However, he had to spare some time for this, meaning his time to level up will be cut considerably.
"How troublesome…"
Rozen sighed because it was not just about weapons.
"It’s my weapon that’s no longer effective now. What’s next? My Tamed Monsters?"
Rozen said while gazing at Saichou and Hanachou that were playing with each other on the grassland.
Heathcliff did mention that SAO developers designed the Tamed Monster with limitations. Rozen simply tapped into their potential, faster than normal, so their Skills could affect even Floor Bosses.
As Rozen cleared higher Floor, Saichou and Hanachou’s growth would eventually stop due to the limit that the game developers have set beforehand.
Rozen did not know how long he had before that happened.
Rozen only knew that it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Forget it. It’s too much of a hassle."
Rozen lay down while gazing at the sky.
At this time…
"So, this is where you slack off."
Rozen knew whose voice was that even without looking because there was only one person who would speak to him with that kind of tone.
"What? Did The Flash, Asuna-sama come all the way here to lecture me again?"
Rozen said irritatedly.
Yes, it was Asuna.