Chapter 236

As time went by, the sun eventually set, and the forest gradually darkened.

“Woo!”

The Rainbow Butterfly flew toward the forest with glittering light on its wings.

Of course, with Rozen walking in front of it.

Rozen and the Kirito were running across the grassland as fast as they could, heading for the forest.

“………”

Along the way, the indescribable silence enveloped these two.

They did not engage in even a single conversation. They just ran straight toward the destination.

They only had one thing in mind, that was to become stronger, to achieve that purpose Rozen and Kirito had to level up as soon as possible.

By leveling up, not only will players gain additional attribute points, but they’ll also unlock more skill slots and increase their max health points, and that was exactly what Rozen and Kirito were trying to do.

There were safer areas to hunt monsters, the level of monsters around that area was generally low, but of course, the exp they provided was not that much. In short, the risk players took were equal to the result they’ll get, the higher level monsters they defeated, the more exp and items they’ll get.

Once other players grasped the situation they were currently in, especially other beta testers, they’ll have the same idea as Rozen and Kirito and rushed straight to this place.

And in SAO monsters only respawned after a certain amount of time, meaning there will be a fixed amount of monsters in an area, and it’ll take some time before they will respawn.

Under such circumstances, players will fight over the small number of monsters around the Town of Beginnings, which was the nearest and safest place to hunt.

Then, the number of treasure chests in the wild was also fixed, and some rare missions also had the acceptance limit. Kirito knew players would compete over these limited resources.

That was why Kirito said.

“We must monopolize all the resources to become stronger.”

Of course, it will be a thorny path, and he was well aware of it.

Due to his beta test experience, Kirito knew that other beta tester would have the same idea in mind to pull ahead from other players.

Of course, this would raise dissatisfaction among the normal players because that sounded unfair. Just because they were slightly less fortunate compared to beta testers, they lost the opportunity to compete for resources.

That was why Kirito knew that was a thorny path.

Because…

“I don’t want to die…”

Rozen heard as Kirito murmured those words, but he didn’t say anything in response.

Although it was for a different reason than Kirito, Rozen himself had no intention to waste the knowledge he had from the closed beta.

Rozen was a realistic person. He was not a fan of the idea where he had to share the resources with other players and strived to become stronger together.

Rozen and Kirito headed to a small village called Horunka, located in the northwest of the Town of Beginnings.

Horunka was a village located in the northwest of the Town of Beginnings. It consisted of ten buildings, including an inn, weapon shop, and tool shop, so it could serve as a hunting base.

Of course, that is not the main reason Rozen and Kirito headed decided to head to that village.

The most important reason was that the monsters that spawned around that village were not that strong, but these monsters provided more experience.

Thus, hunting the monsters in these areas was much more efficient compared to the monsters around Town of Beginnings, and since other players haven’t caught up to this village, Rozen and Kirito could have all the experience, Cor and drop items around this area for themselves.

There were actually several villages of the same nature in the first floor of Aincrad.

Not to mention, there was a particular task that Rozen and Kirito could acquire from the NPC in Horunka.

The name of the quest was Secret Medicine of the Forest.

The task was to procure an ovule of a predatory plant monster in the forest for an NPC in Horunka to refine the medicine that could cure his daughter’s disease.

Completing this reward will grant good rewards.

Obtaining this reward will be a huge step for Kirito, and Rozen considered it an efficient way to strengthen his avatar in the early stage of the game.

Soon after, Rozen and Kirito arrived at Horunka village.

It was a small village with only around a dozen buildings. Two kid NPCs were playing as Rozen and Kirito stood at the entrance of the city.

“Ao… I mean, Rozen…”

Kirito said to Rozen.

However, Rozen already knew what Kirito was going to say.

Therefore, Rozen took the first step to answer.

“Let’s go to the weapons store first.” Rozen said straightforwardly, “I don’t have a weapon on me right now, and I’m out of projectiles, all I got this little guy here.”

Then Rozen headed straight to the weapons store.

“Wait… wait!”

Kirito quickly followed Rozen.

About ten minutes later, Rozen and Kirito finally came out of the weapon store. But this time, they got brand new equipment. Kirito purchased a brown leather armor to improve his defense, and Rozen bought one weapon and strapped it on his waist.

It was a one-handed sword made of bronze.

In addition, Rozen and Kirito purchased a lot of potions, and Rozen purchased additional projectiles.

Both of them have effectively spent their own Cor to reinforce their avatar in the most efficient way at the moment.