After flinging away yet another little crab, Akimi's mood visibly worsened.
Feeling a bit irritable, he kicked at the river water, then took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before drawing his Nichirin Blade.
Of course, he wasn't planning to chop crabs with it—it was because he suddenly remembered the blade's special enhancement ability: Water Flow Control.
There weren't many changes on the surface of the blade after it was enhanced with the Water Stone, aside from the color of the blade looking purer.
Akimi drew the Nichirin Blade, inserted it into the river, gripped the hilt tightly, then slowly closed his eyes.
As he activated the Water Flow Control skill, he carefully focused on sensing the flow of the river.
Since the sixth floor didn't have environments with abundant water sources, he had never used the Water Stone-granted skill before.
But based on how it felt now, this skill seemed kind of underwhelming.
First, the activation time was too long—over ten seconds passed after triggering the skill before he could barely control the water flow.
Second, the range... seemed to be only about one meter around him.
Akimi frowned, dissatisfied with the results.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to try using the second active skill from Water Breathing—Focused Breathing.
The proficiency gain for Water Breathing was ridiculously slow.
As a passive skill that was always active, his proficiency had only just reached 100 points.
Meanwhile, his one-handed sword proficiency was already over 200—it wouldn't take long to fully master it (which required 1000 proficiency points).
Back on the second floor, his Water Breathing proficiency had already hit 50, but now on the seventh floor, it had just reached 100.
The slow growth was honestly kind of painful.
Focused Breathing was different from the self-strengthening Enhanced Breathing.
Focused Breathing increased the power of Water Breathing sword forms and slightly enhanced other basic skills.
It also boosted one's ability to sense nearby water flow, lasting up to 30 minutes.
After activating Focused Breathing, Akimi could clearly feel that the Water Flow Control skill was indeed strengthened.
The range expanded to about three meters around him, and the control speed and effect improved as well.
"Good... that'll do."
Akimi smirked slightly and whispered to himself.
His consciousness seemed to gradually sink into the water along with the Nichirin Blade.
The currents at the riverbed, the silt, the pebbles, and even the river crabs all began to appear in his mind, bit by bit.
After the boost from Focused Breathing, his control over the water wasn't exactly seamless, but it was smooth and effortless enough.
Before long, Akimi discovered a Uruz Stone, and then used the current to lift it out of the water and into his hand.
Using this method, it didn't take long before he gathered the remaining pieces of Uruz Stone.
With the task completed, Akimi and the others began a picnic by the river.
As expected, the food was prepared by Asuna—her cooking skill proficiency had already surpassed 260.
No one knew how she trained it so quickly.
Midway through the picnic, Kirito and the others returned—wait, the others? Three of them?
Besides Kirito and Yu Wenjun, there was also a delicately beautiful woman—she had shoulder-length black hair, wore dark elf-style armor, with pointed ears and dusky-colored skin—clearly, a Dark Elf.
However, Akimi and the others actually recognized her.
Her name was Kizmel, and she had played a crucial role in the fourth-floor boss battle.
"Kirito, what's going on here?" Akimi hooked an arm around Kirito's neck and whispered, "Don't tell me you've fallen for her? That thirsty? Don't mess around, she's just an NPC."
Kirito elbowed him in the ribs and replied, "What nonsense are you spouting? It's for a quest..."
Then Kirito briefly explained the situation.
Back on the sixth floor, PoH had joined forces with the Fallen Elves to kidnap a few players he knew.
While rescuing them, Kirito's important quest item for the Elf War storyline was stolen.
This caused his quest guide—Dark Elf Knight Kizmel—to be declared a traitor by the Dark Elf priests and imprisoned.
Kirito hadn't known that Kizmel had been captured.
When he showed the Lyusula Insignia at the Dark Elf camp in the Quaking Rock Forest—the Harlin Tree Palace—he was immediately surrounded and accused of being a collaborator of the traitor Kizmel, and thrown into prison.
After enduring all kinds of hardship, Kirito and Yu Wenjun finally managed to escape the Harlin Tree Palace with Kizmel, and on the way back, they also collected the Narsos Tree's Fruit.
"So you're saying... you're now a fugitive of the Dark Elves?" Akimi gave Kirito a strange grin and teased, "Prison break and aiding an escaped convict—looks like the Dark Elves won't let you off easy now."
Kirito couldn't help but grimace at that, though he tried to remain composed as he replied, "It's fine. Once I get the item back and clear Kizmel's name, there won't be any problems."
Akimi held back a laugh and patted Kirito on the shoulder in a show of sympathy.
After a short rest, the group prepared to return to Volupta to hand in their quest.
As they entered the city, Kizmel pulled her large hooded cloak tightly around herself, completely covering her face and armor—there was no choice, really.
Human NPCs seemed to harbor a strong dislike toward elves.
Fortunately, the gate guards didn't notice anything suspicious.
Standing at the top of the rising street, looking out over the beach and lake to the south of Volupta's grand casino, Kizmel marveled, "What a beautiful town... it makes me want to stay here a little longer. Is that the sea to the south?"
"In Aincrad? I wouldn't really call it a sea... though it is saltwater," Kirito said with a shrug.
Akimi chuckled, "Maybe when the world was split apart, a chunk of ocean just happened to get sliced off too?"
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