With this in mind, Sharia slapped himself in the face with both his palms. It was no brainer that there is no safer place than the Town of Beginnings.
If he could find a quiet place, he could also continue practicing.
Putting his one-handed sword back into the sheath, he slowly walked towards the Town of Beginning.
Although the town was not as crowded as when Kayaba Akihiko had forcefully recalled everyone, many people were still staying there.
After all, not everyone had the courage to face the threat of death if their HP depleted to zero.
After all, not everyone has the courage to know they can die if their HP depletes to zero.
Under this threat of death, more people stand behind, indifferently watching others fight on the front lines, feeling sorry for themselves.
Entering back inside the Town of Beginnings, he quietly scurried around the town, locating a quiet place by an alley.
After settling there, he removed his one-handed sword from its sheath as he continued swinging obsessively.
He continued this for a while, as he huffed with each swing.
However, the more he swings the sword, the more he can feel himself getting proficient with the sword.
It was starting to slowly become muscle memory for him, as every swing was getting registered faster than before, when he needed three to four swings to get registered by the system.
His mind was now focused on swinging, losing himself without even noticing the sun had already gone down.
It wasn't until the menu popped up, blocking his view, that he finally stopped. Holding a one-handed sword in the air, as he was about to bring the sword down, he saw the menu.
"Haah. Haah."
He huffed. Now that he had regained himself, he collapsed onto the floor as he raised his head to look at the menu.
"Hahaha. I actually did it. Hahaha." He laughed with a solemn face as he now looked at the menu.
[Sword Mastery: Level 4]
[Required Proficiency for the next level (LV 5): 2/100,000]
He was happy and, at the same time, in great shock.
As expected, the damn proficiency doubles by ten with every upgrade. Ten times the previous.
Then naturally, level six would require a million proficiency points, and level seven would require ten million. And the trend would continue like that.
All of a sudden, he had a bad premonition in his mind.
Groggily standing up, he hastily made a vertical slash. True to his bad premonition.
[Sword Mastery Proficiency (Lv 4): +1]
[Vertical Slash Proficiency (Lv 3): +1]
Ha!?
His eyebrows twitched as he nervously gripped his sword.
Exactly what he thought. Because his proficiency is now higher, these basic skills cannot provide a higher level of proficiency for him.
Though I was surprised, it was actually reasonable. If he could continue to get higher proficiency points at higher levels, it wouldn't make sense.
But what about sword skill?
Sharia thought as he got into a basic stance, his left arm forward with his right arm to the back, levelling the sword up to his neck side.
The system recognised this as an activation of a sword skill; hence, his sword glowed creamy white with a scheen.
[Direct Thrust.]
In a linear motion, Sharia thrust the sword forward as he felt a gush of wind around him with the successful activation.
Sharia, for the first time activating a sword technique, inwardly cheered, as it looked every bit as cool as he had seen it in the anime.
However. The system didn't register it. The menu didn't pop up.
"So, it's not that easy, huh?"
Sharia dropped his sword as he held his forehead in thought. But after thinking deeply, he found out what he missed.
While he certainly was successful in activating the sword skill, the reason his proficiency didn't rise was because there was no target.
"That seems to be the only possible reason."
Heck, he would have wanted to storm out and test his theory; however, it was now night, and his body wasn't exactly in a good state.
If he had a recovery crystal on him, he would have weighed his options, but not having it made him not consider going out of town. It would be extremely irrational, after all.
Besides that, his mental state needed a rest.
With the gesture of swiping down to summon the SAO's menu, he looked directly at the currency given by default to every SAO player.
[1,230 cols]
It was around 1000 or so, but his defeating that Frenzied Boar in the afternoon gave him an extra 230 cols.
This should be enough.
Going out of the alley, he was suddenly assailed by a bright light.
Ugh.
Sharia quickly shielded his eyes from the light; the alley was dark after all, with little lighting there.
Going down the streets of Aincrad, Sharia hastily located a cheap inn. After all, inns have a recovery effect and are safer than sleeping on the streets.
Now that his sword's mastery proficiency level has risen to four, hunting monsters would be a little easier for him.
All that is left is to kill monsters and level up.
He had a feeling that if he did so, his proficiency would also rise.
.....
Next Day.
Shariac got up early, hastening toward the hunting grounds through the still slightly deserted streets of the Town of Beginning.
While some players placed their hopes in other players to get them out of the game, many were preparing to venture outside the city to level up and grow stronger.
Shariac noticed something odd.
Most players nodded in passing. Though he didn't fully understand, he reciprocated the gesture when greeted in that manner.
Hurrying past the gates of the Town of Beginning, Shariac thought he was early, only to be surprised by players already deeply engaged in grinding.
It seemed that even faced with the specter of death, some continued to bravely press forward.
While he admired their determination, Shariac remained focused on his own path.
He slipped past the bustling hunting area toward the plains beyond.
Although he wasn't a beater who had foreknowledge of the game, Shariac was sure he would manage somehow, with his skills.
Just like that.
Sharia had walked up to the plain, where there were only a few that had made this place their hunting spot.
The enemies here were around [Lv 5] and above, while most were still around [Lv 4], so it was fairly natural. Sharia glanced left.
Some metres away from his position, there was a person wearing a cloak, keenly using the dagger in their hand to fend off a large praying mantis in front of them.
[Killer Mantis]
[Lv 5]
Aiya....
Sharia thought as he observed the person. They were nimble enough to deflect most of the killer mantis's attacks and evade its range, though they seemed somewhat uneasy.
Sharia concluded they could manage without his assistance, so he refrained from intervening.
"Ack!"
Just as Sharia was about to look away, he noticed the killer mantis switch its overhead attack to a lateral strike.
"Hey! Watch out!"
Sharia called out to the person, drawing his one-handed sword from its sheath and charging towards the killer mantis, activating [Sword Skill: Direct Thrust].
Shriek!
His sword glowed a creamy white as Sharia dashed towards the killer mantis, piercing the monster in its abdomen.
[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust Proficiency +50]
[Sword Mastery Proficiency +50]
The monster released a shriek as it retaliated against Sharia, who calmly evaded the attack.
He jumped backward and then lunged at the mantis again with another [Direct Thrust], aimed straight at its head.
[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust Proficiency +50]
[Sword Mastery Proficiency +50]
As Sharia did this, the mantis shrieked even louder as its hp was already below 25%.
"Almost there."
For the third time, Sharia withdrew his blade from the mantis's head, activating his sword skill once more. He leaped upwards and pierced down from above with his sword skill.
[Sword Skill: Direct Thrust Proficiency +50]
[Sword Mastery Proficiency +50]
[Direct Thrust Proficiency (Lv 2): 150/1000]
[Sword Mastery Proficiency (Lv 4): 152/100,000]
As he landed the last it, Sharia jumped away as he watched the killer mantis freeze for a moment before swelling, eventually bursting into pieces of fragments.
[Monster Slain.]
Seeing the several menus that appeared beside him made Sharia cheer inwardly, ignoring the person he had just helped.
'Sure enough, killing monsters is more efficient than just practicing.'
He held his excitement in as he looked around him, locating the nearest killer mantis with stars in his eyes.
Every killer mantis in that area shuddered in unison as they felt they were in great danger at that moment.
"Killer mantis! Wait for me!"
"I'm coming! Hahahaha!"
"You will all become my proficiency point!" Sharia, with ecstasy in his heart, hugging his one-handed sword in reverie and rubbing its flat side against his cheek.
"Kiiek!?"
The killer mantises that saw Sharia at that point were confused. Why was the player in front of them acting strange.
But before the poor monsters could realize, the strange human had already lunged at them with a crazed smile on his face?
[Direct Thrust]!
[Direct Thrust]!
[Direct Thrust]!
The originally deserted plain area suddenly became lively because of Sharia's scream.
The cloaked man who was left in that area was stunned, speechless, seeing Sharia chasing the killer mantis in the ground that normal beginner-level players would want to avoid.
Soon.
The morning passed.
[Direct Thrust Proficiency (Lv 3): 10/10,000]
[Sword Mastery Proficiency (Lv 4): 1,012/100,000]
Thanks to the killer mantis, Sharia was able to get both his sword mastery and direct thrust proficiency that high.
Throughout the entire morning, someone has been strangely watching Sharia chase a group of mantises from left to right. The person had even sat down on a stone not far away, watching him closely.
Him aside.
When Sharia opened his main menu, His level had already risen to six.
[Sharia]
[Level 2—Level 5]
Not only this, his proficiency had also risen. As expected, this is the way. Sharia, not able to hide his good mood, smiled happily.
The results were better than he expected.
But as expected, with him gaining more levels, the proficiency he would gain from the monster would decrease in sharp contrast.
If he were to chase a frenzied boar with his current stats, he wouldn't even get a lick of proficiency points, and his exp would only rise by 1.
"As expected, huh?"
"But that means I can hunt higher-level monsters and gain more proficiency points."
Sharia smiled happily, like a child who had just gotten their favourite toy as a birthday present.
Although his level was barely okay, with his skills, he was sure to easily fight enemies as long as there were more than five levels above him.
Of course, after hours of chasing killer mantises all morning, he was starting to get tired.
His hunger level and physical state at this time were very low. So, he hurriedly opened the main menu.
From the inventory landed another hard bread that was questionable whether it was suitable for eating.
"Ugh!"
With extreme disgust, Sharia munched on it.
The cols of yesterday were used to lodge in an inn, so there was no chance he would have bought something good before coming here.
But hold up! There was hope; with the killings of killer mantis, he had gained a sufficient number of cols for the day.
[Cols: 4280].
With this, once he gets back to town, he will order something delicious to fill his stomach with.