Sunday, November 6, 2022.

Wishing you the best in your new life ahead.

These were the first words he heard as he opened his eyes. Surveying his surroundings, the boy muttered under his breath.

'F*ck!'

Of all places. It was THE death game.

Even after the blood-red robe vanished over the Town of Beginnings, the boy closed his eyes, hoping he was still hallucinating.

Maybe, just maybe, it was all a bad dream. Perhaps if he opened his eyes again, he'd see the familiar ceiling and warm quilt of his room.

But no, upon reopening his eyes, he was still in the unchanging scenery of the starting town, surrounded by players who were equally in disbelief.

"Have I really come to this world?" he wondered, biting his lip.

In the corner of his vision, he noticed a button. Taking a deep breath, if he recalled correctly: "a downward swipe gesture."

He muttered as he performed the gesture, opening the [Main Menu] accessible to all players.

Seeing the familiar [Main Menu] he'd always seen through his screen of his phone made him shudder a little.

[Sharia]

[Level 1]

Ignoring the other details, he went straight to the inventory, where the standard novice one-handed sword laid.

With the same mood as earlier, he clicked on the initial weapon placed in the inventory slot.

[Weapon: One-handed Sword]

[Equip?]

[Yes] [No].

Tapping on the yes button, he felt the heavy texture of the sheath of the one-handed sword in his hand.

The young boy, or rather Sharia now, no longer thought he was dreaming or hallucinating.

Just when he tried slowly removing the one-handed sword from its sheath, a panel, different but similar to the [Main Menu] of SAO, came into view.

[Weapon: One-handed Sword has been equipped.]

[One-handed Sword Mastery]

[Sword Mastery Proficiency: 0/100 (LV 1)]

Seeing this somewhat similar but different panel shook the boy again in surprise. Trying to think about what was going on hurt his head so much.

In the end, he just gave up. He didn't have the luxury to dwell on it much.

He had a few guesses in mind, but he couldn't do anything as he was currently inside town.

The hunting grounds outside the Town of Beginning was a good spot.

Besides, there were large numbers of test—ahem, wild monsters like the Frenzied boars for players to familiarize themselves with before proceeding deeper into other parts of the first floor.

With that in mind, he went out of the Town of Beginning with a mix of excitement and anxiety.

Hunting Grounds – Outside the Town of Beginnings.

Although the news about Kayaba Akihiko was shocking, there were still many players who cheered up somewhat.

After all, they had mustered up the courage to come to the hunting grounds to level up.

It was just like Kayaba Akihiko had said: their only way to survive is to beat the game, that way, they can return to the real world.

As Sharia arrived at the hunting grounds, he observed many players struggling to defeat these novice-class monsters.

Skirting past them, he ventured deeper into the hunting grounds, nearing the edge of the first floor—an isolated and quiet place he found convenient enough to settle at.

Glancing to his left, he spotted a novice monster, the Frenzied Boar, wandering nearby.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he slowly drew his one-handed sword from the sheath at his waist.

[Weapon: One-handed sword has been drawn.]

[Sword Mastery Proficiency: +50.]

[Congratulations. [Sword Skill: Direct Stance] has been acquired.]

As he was drawing the sword, the same menu from earlier appeared before him once more, freezing him in surprise as he took in what was displayed on the menu.

Then, subconsciously, he opened the SAO's [Main menu], and surprisingly, [Sword Skill: Basic Stance] had been added in his skill tree.

[Basic Stance: A basic straightforward and assertive posture. Focuses on maintaining a stable and balanced stance.]

[Basic Stance Proficiency Level 1: 0/100]

Now that he thinks about it, there wasn't anything like this in the original, right? Or was his memory playing tricks on him?

Just as he was in his thoughts, he suddenly felt a sharp numbness spread across his body. "Ack!"

It turned out that at some point, the Frenzied Boar had charged at him, ramming into him and sending him flying backwards.

[Frenzied Boar]

[Level 2]

A novice monster it may be, currently, it had enough power to kill any novice player under the level of 5 in about two to three hits.

[HP: 65%]

Glancing at his health points in the corner of his eyes. Now, with widened eyes, he saw his health bar sharply drop below 70%.

And this was caused by one attack from the frenzied boar. If he were to be attacked again for the second time, he would really be in trouble.

"Tsk. Damn boar."

"I let my guard down."

Taking a deep breath again to ease his nerves, he quickly got into a stance as he felt [Sword Skill: Basics Stance] activating.

Clenching the one-handed sword in his hand. He stared at the frenzied boar that was kicking its hooves uneasily, as if noticing the animosity in Sharia's eyes.

"Ha!"

In a sharp motion, Sharia lunged at the Frenzied Boar, which lunged back in kind.

In the end, an animal was just an animal.

The boar blindly charged straight at him, prompting Sharia to thrust his sword forward, piercing it through the head in one fell swoop.

[Monster Slain.]

As he did so, he observed the boar shudder on his sword, its health bar rapidly depleting until it reached zero

Just as he has seen a lot of times in the anime, the body of the boar gradually became blurry before bursting into scattered pieces.

"I... I did it...." His voice trailed off in surprise, as he was now greeted by the other menu.

[Basic sword technique thrust has been used.]

[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust has been acquired.]

[Direct Thrust Proficiency: +100.]

[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust has risen to the next level.]

[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust] – [Level 2: 0/1000]

Ignoring the prompt from the other menu, his encounter with the Frenzied Boar truly brought home the reality of his situation.

His excitement was mixed with anxiety, yet, strangely, at the same time, he couldn't deny that he was... Looking forward to his new life in Aincrad.

That aside.

Not only did his proficiency rise, but his level also increased with the Frenzied Boar he had slain.

[Congratulations.]

[Your level has risen.]

[Level 1— Level 2.]

It took Sharia a few minutes to come back from his reverie.

But as soon as he did. He quickly opened his main menu, and sure enough, the sword skills he had just obtained were there.

This likely meant there was a slight bug in Akihiko's system, though he didn't give much thought to it.

However, if this was the case, wouldn't the GM, Kayaba Akihiko, discover he was a bug in the system?

Even though Kayaba himself was in the game, he still had means of maintaining the system even though he's in the game himself—No.

"If I recall correctly, he left everything to the AIs, didn't he? Yui herself being one of the Ais that manages the player's state of well being..."

He pondered this for a moment but then gave up again. With so few answers, there was no need to trouble himself over it now.

Looking up at the sky, he noticed it was still afternoon, which meant, "I still have time to grind."

Sharia clenched his fist with a playful yet determined gaze. Gripping the one-handed sword tightly, he swung it in a horizontal motion.

[Basic sword skill: Horizontal Slash has been successfully acquired.]

[Horizontal Slash Proficiency: +50]

Then, he turned his body and swung it vertically.

[Basic sword skill: Vertical Slash has been successfully acquired.]

[Vertical Slash Proficiency: +50]

Ignoring the menus popping up beside him, he continued his grind.

Although he had never used swords before, he did have his fair share of childhood influences—from animes to movies, to TV dramas.

Using those as source material, he tried different styles of swinging his sword.

Eventually, he gave up, once he realized he had simply made a fool of himself.

Other than the basic ways of swinging a sword, the rest of his attempts were not registered by the system.

Seeing that wouldn't work, he focused on grinding the proficiency of the sword skills he had already acquired.

It didn't take long...

[Sword Mastery: Level 3]

[Required Proficiency for the next level (LV 4): 0/10,000]

[One-handed Sword Skill: Cross Arc has been acquired.]

Sharia took a long pause, staring at the menu with squinted eyes. He thought for a moment before swinging his sword in a downward motion. However—

[Sword Mastery Proficiency: +10]

[Required Proficiency for the next level (LV 4): 10/10,000]

Sharia took another long, stupefied pause.

As expected, it wouldn't be that easy.

Previously, the proficiency points he got after swinging his one-handed sword was about a hundred. And the requirements to reach this level three he just got too was about a thousand.

Now, it had multiplied by ten.

At the same time, with the upgrade, doing low level basic swings didn't give him more proficiency as before.

Taking a break, he inserted the sword deep into the ground of the hunting field and sat down with crossed legs.

"I guess those animes where a character has to do a thousand swings aren't just for show."

After calculating the amount needed for his Sword Mastery to enter the fourth level.

It was around a thousand swing.

"It's just a thousand swings. I can do it."

Sharia clenched his fist, stood up again, removed his sword from the ground, and assumed a basic stance like before.

For today alone, he wanted to quickly raise the proficiency level of his sword skill. However...

One hour later.

Sharia collapsed on the ground, sweating buckets and panting tiredly.

Unlike he had thought, even though it was just a mere thousand swings, if they were not up to standard, the swings wouldn't be recognized by the system, making it harder for him.

Not only that, but his hunger meter was basically zero at this point. He couldn't even hold his sword and swing it properly anymore.

With a tired sigh, he opened the two different menus to check his proficiency level.

[Required Proficiency for the next level (LV 4): 3540/10,000]

"Hahaha."

With a tired laugh, he simply looked at the sky. In the span of an hour, he was only able to successfully perform about 354 swings.

The rest of his attempts were wasted energy on swings the system didn't register, making him realize how strict the system was.

'What a demon!' he cursed in his head.

Just thinking he still had about 646 more swings to go sent chills down his spine. Even though he was in a virtual world, his hands and mind were sore.

Opening the inventory again, he took out a piece of bread.

The rough texture of the bread landed in his hand. If he remembered correctly, this bread was notorious.

Normally, bread is supposed to be soft to chew on. However, this one was like biting into a piece of hard jerky.

He had to bite deep into it before he could stuff a piece into his mouth.

"Ugh..."

As expected, free stuff indeed did not taste good.

Resisting the rancid taste, Sharia reluctantly swallowed the bread.

At this moment, he looked up into the sky of the first floor of Aincrad and swore in his mind.

Kayaba Akihiko, just don't let me catch you! First thing I'll do if I see you is attack you! I will beat you up regardless of whether I win or lose!

As he cursed in his mind, he munched on the hard bread distributed by capitalism. Sharia, the successor of communism, expressed strong malice towards the capitalist Kayaba Akihiko.

Fortunately, the bread had a good effect on satisfying hunger. Seeing his hunger level gradually recover, Sharia breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not want to be the first person in SAO to starve to death.

After his hunger level, which was closely related to his physical well-being, go back up, Sharia felt much better.

At least he was able to stand up, pick up the sword, and swing it again, albeit with some difficulty.

However, to be on the safe side, Sharia decided not to continue training in the open hunting ground.

After all, not only were there Frenzied Boars running around, but the notorious players of the future might attack him in his moment of weakness.

This he did not want.

______

End of Chapter.

Author's note:

In case you think the proficiency stuff is the mc's cheat....

This is a yes and no. You see.... The proficiency system is a basic system of SAO itself.

As Asuna herself mentioned, she maxed out her cooking skills in the game. That's why she's able to create the delicious food Kirito enjoys.

So, yeah, it's not like that is MC's system or anything.

You can think of the MC's other system as a bug in Kayaba's system—one that allows him to gain more skills a tad bit faster as he becomes more proficient.

Of course, it won't be easy, but with time?

Yeah, he'd become quite powerful.