Breathing Techniques in SAO

"Tch, that sword looks just like Kirito's — both are 'Anneal Blade,'" Akimi sighed.

He felt something was off about this situation, but couldn't quite put his finger on what.

Asuna asked, "Hmm, when he asked the blacksmith to enhance it, he must have known there was a chance of failure, right?"

"Yeah, and the blacksmith even posted the failure rates on the bulletin board. If the enhancement fails, you only pay for the materials — no extra fees," Kirito answered.

Akimi said, "That's pretty decent of him."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "It's probably classic gambler's mentality. Once the enhancement fails, he desperately tries to recover it, recklessly going all in — like a gambler chasing losses."

"Indeed…"

"That +4 Anneal Blade must have taken a lot of effort to get. He probably thought the success rate would drop a lot if he tried to enhance it beyond +4, so he went to a blacksmith player with a higher success rate. But he didn't expect to fail on the very first try."

"After the first failure, the weapon dropped to +3, so he got anxious and wanted to enhance it back up. But the second attempt failed again, and then he repeated this process two more times, which caused the weapon to drop all the way down to +0," Akimi explained his guess.

In fact, this process basically revealed the truth behind the incident.

"So he just needs to try enhancing it to +5 again…" Asuna started to say, but then she realized something halfway through.

"Ah, right, there's also the 'number of enhancement attempts' setting. What's the limit for the Anneal Blade again?"

"Eight attempts," Akimi answered immediately.

"In other words…"

"In other words, that Anneal Blade's enhancement is permanently stuck at +0 — four successes, four failures, and all the allowed enhancement attempts have been used up."

"Really unlucky," Asuna concluded.

Kirito and Akimi both nodded in agreement.

The shouting from the triangular-helmeted man stopped because his two companions were trying their best to comfort him.

"Ah... it's alright, Ryu, we'll help you complete the Anneal Blade quest again."

"Yeah, just one more week of effort, and this time we'll definitely reach +8!"

With his companions' reassurance, Ryu finally calmed down.

He hung his head low and prepared to leave the square.

The blacksmith player, who had been keeping his head down, suddenly spoke up: "Um... I'm really sorry..."

His face full of apology, he continued, "Next time... next time I'll definitely, definitely work harder!"

"Hmm... although you probably won't want to entrust me again." His expression grew even more gloomy.

"Something's wrong, really wrong," Akimi said.

"I'll try enhancing it and see if I can find the problem."

"Eh?"

Asuna and Kirito both let out confused murmurs.

"Don't worry, after all, the number of enhancement attempts for the Nichirin Blade is infinite," Akimi explained.

Then he gently squeezed Asuna's hand and said, "Hmm, the lucky buff from the trembling cream strawberry cake we just ate hasn't worn off yet, so I'll borrow some of your luck buff, Asuna."

After saying that, Akimi walked over to the blacksmith.

He sneaked a glance at Asuna, whose face was flushed but who didn't make a move, and wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from his brow.

Once he got closer, Akimi clearly saw the words on the blacksmith's signboard — at the top it read "NeZha's Smith Shop," and below were the price list and success rate tips.

"NeZha?"

"Yes, that's my name," the blacksmith replied.

"Are you here to shop or for maintenance?"

Akimi looked at him intently and said, "I want to enhance."

The boy named NeZha, who was quite short and had hair that looked a bit like a toilet lid, stiffened, lowered his head slightly, and whispered, "Okay, will you be bringing your own materials or purchasing them here?"

"Bringing my own."

After saying that, Akimi took out the basic materials — steel ingots — and the additional material — red-spotted beetle shells — from his storage.

"Enhance it to +6, with attribute S," Akimi said calmly.

In SAO, when enhancing weapons, besides the fixed "basic materials," you also need "additional materials."

Different additional materials determine the type of bonus the weapon gets after enhancement, and the more additional materials used, the higher the success rate.

There are four types of weapon enhancement attributes:

Sharpness (S), Weight (W), Durability (D), and Precision (A).

Sharpness increases weapon attack power;

Weight and Durability are literal;

Precision boosts the weapon's critical hit rate.

The amount of additional material Akimi provided gave an 85% success rate for upgrading from +5 to +6.

NeZha took the materials and the Nichirin blade, then turned to the portable furnace behind the anvil, switching the manufacturing mode to enhancement mode and selecting the type of enhancement.

Once set, he put all the materials into the furnace.

The materials immediately turned red, like the steel ingots were being heated to a glowing red.

Then he drew the Nichirin blade from its sheath, and upon seeing the blue blade, couldn't help but admire it.

NeZha seemed to sigh, placed the Nichirin blade on the furnace, and the glowing effect produced from melting the materials attached itself to the blade.

Eventually, the entire blade was covered in this glowing effect.

He then placed the glowing Nichirin blade on the anvil, raised the forging hammer high, and struck the blade.

One strike, two strikes… nine strikes.

Quickly, the enhancement was almost complete.

Just one more strike — the tenth — and the weapon's enhancement would be finished.

Clang.

The last strike was delivered, but the enhancement neither succeeded nor failed.

Instead, the Nichirin blade shattered into several pieces.

As the four people stood frozen, the broken fragments of the Nichirin blade turned into shards of light, scattering and disappearing.

NeZha threw down his hammer, looking like he was seriously startled, and kept bowing repeatedly to Akimi while letting out sounds like he was suppressing pain:

"Sorry… sorry! I will refund the handling fee! Really… I'm very sorry!"

Kirito said somewhat unsettled, "W-wait, before you refund the fee, there's another question—In SAO, weapon enhancement failures don't cause 'weapon destruction,' right? That kind of penalty?"

NeZha stopped bowing, slightly lifted his head, revealing his young face.

His eyebrows nearly shot up, and the guilt on his face looked genuine, not fake.

After calming down a bit, Kirito said, "I'm a closed beta tester. During the beta, enhancement failures only had three penalties: 'material loss,' 'attribute change,' and 'attribute decrease.' I'm quite sure about that."

Hearing Kirito's words, NeZha's guilt deepened even more.

He stammered, "Well… maybe… maybe they added a fourth penalty after the official launch. I've encountered this situation before, although the probability is very low, but…"

Kirito fell silent because, after witnessing what just happened, he couldn't be sure whether the 'weapon destruction' penalty actually existed or not.

Watching NeZha still endlessly apologizing and insisting on compensation, Akimi said "Forget it," then pulled Kirito and Asuna away from there.

"That guy definitely has something wrong," Akimi said.

Kirito looked confused and asked, "W-what's wrong?"

Akimi glanced around and said, "Let's go to the inn first."

After entering the inn room, Akimi suddenly said to Asuna, "Asuna, you should still remember what I told you before about the Nichirin Blade's characteristics, right?"

"Yes, unlimited enhancement attempts, it can get damaged but won't disappear… right! Won't disappear!"

Kirito, overhearing their conversation, said, "Won't disappear? Then how is that possible?"

"Because the Nichirin Blade is a special item, not an ordinary weapon."

Akimi frowned, opened his inventory, and pressed the settings button, the search button, and the manual item bar button one after another.

Finally, a button labeled "Materialize All Items" appeared on the panel.

Calmly, Akimi pressed that button and selected "yes."

Instantly, the room in the inn was filled with the sound of things clattering as all the items in his inventory materialized and dropped onto the floor.

Most of them were various monster drops and different kinds of potions.

He rummaged through the pile and finally pulled out a weapon with a black sheath—it was the Nichirin Blade.

"Eh?!"

Kirito and Asuna stared at Akimi in shock.

Akimi smiled slightly without explaining and said to Kirito, "My problem is solved. Now it's time to find other people's problems."

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