With a light backward flip through the air, Lillian struck downward. Pale yellow light gathered at the tip of his foot and tapped against the head of a wild bull monster. Its HP instantly dropped to zero, and it let out a long "Moo!" before collapsing.
This was another branch technique of martial arts: Crescent Moon.
At present, Lillian had mastered three martial techniques:
Flash Strike — the fastest straight punch
Water Moon — a single horizontal kick
Crescent Moon — a backflip heel strike
Though few in number, these skills nearly doubled his combat strength. Previously, attacking with raw physical force dealt no damage at all. But with martial arts, as long as he executed the skill's movement, the damage was on par with sword skills.
More importantly, martial arts required almost no charge time and had virtually no post-action delay. They were absurdly powerful.
Lillian thought to himself that he'd really struck gold this time. When fighting bosses, if swordplay couldn't give him the upper hand, he could completely restrain them with brute force—just like he had against the Kobold Lord—and then deal damage purely through martial arts.
After several days of nonstop practice, he had more or less fully mastered these techniques.
Which meant—
It was time to challenge this floor's boss.
Checking his inventory, he confirmed that all required materials were gathered. He returned to town, went to his usual stall location, and pulled out his forging tools to enhance his weapon.
His refined steel greatsword was currently only +2, which was undeniably low. It wouldn't be very efficient against a boss. Especially since even Asuna had already pushed her weapon to +5—as a blacksmith, carrying only a +2 weapon felt awkward.
He adjusted the furnace to enhancement mode, placed in the sword and materials, and—without incident—successfully enhanced it twice, reaching +4.
He continued to focus entirely on sharpness.
After completion, the stats jumped from 50 (+17) to 50 (+45).
Nearly one hundred attack power—top-tier at this stage of the game.
That was the result of fully committing to pure damage, ignoring speed, crit rate, and other secondary stats.
As for pushing it to +5, Lillian felt it wasn't worth the trouble. It would require a massive time investment to gather materials. He had no intention of wasting time the way Asuna did.
His philosophy was simple: push the labyrinth, reach higher floors. By then, even NPC shop weapons might outperform heavily enhanced low-level gear. Transitional equipment didn't need to be perfect.
That said, in SAO, old weapons could be used as bases to forge new ones—though such cases were rare. Unless you were especially attached to a weapon with poor stats but beautiful aesthetics. It was similar to weapon transmog systems in other games—except this game didn't officially have one.
"Hey, he's the one…"
"Shh! Don't let him hear!"
"It's fine, this is a safe zone…"
"I heard over a dozen people died!"
As Lillian walked by, he could hear players whispering and pointing at him. After the earlier incident, his notoriety had spread far and wide. Almost everyone knew he had killed multiple players alone.
Ironically, this only fueled the most radical among the public-test players, who began shouting about banding together to oppose beta testers.
Some beta testers, meanwhile, anonymously distanced themselves, claiming Lillian's actions were his alone and had nothing to do with the beta group as a whole—that they did not support him.
As a result, Lillian found himself attacked from one side and met with cold indifference from the other.
His response?
No response at all.
He farmed monsters when it was time to farm. If someone came looking for trouble, he handled it accordingly.
As for rumors like "Lillian said all public-test players deserve to die," or "You're all trash!" or "Beta testers should monopolize all resources"—he didn't bother refuting them.
There was no point.
To borrow a line from a certain overbearing king: "I, Lillian, live my life as I see fit—why should I explain myself to anyone?"
Of course, there were consequences.
His only two friends were affected. Terusuke had stopped contacting him; with such a clash in values, it was hard to keep working together. The talk of formally joining the guild had ended as mere talk.
As for Argo—Lillian knew she had been there and had seen him kill players using martial arts. She was probably uncomfortable. After all, she had provided the information that allowed him to learn martial arts, and she had created and freely distributed the Strategy Guide precisely to reduce player deaths.
Those two facts conflicted sharply, making their relationship delicate and awkward.
But perhaps this, too, was for the best.
Lillian had long seen himself as a passerby. And if one was only passing through, why invest unnecessary emotional attachment?
Other than making separation more painful, what benefit did it ever bring?
"Um… e–excuse me…"
A player cautiously approached, looking rather intimidated as he faced Lillian.
"I'd like to… enhance my weapon…"
"Alright. Hand it over," Lillian replied calmly. "Did you bring your own materials, or are you buying them from me?"
Seeing the player avert his eyes, Lillian sighed. "You don't need to be afraid. Even if I really were some bloodthirsty demon who kills without blinking, I still can't kill anyone in a safe zone."
The player froze for a moment, then suddenly realized it.
"R–right… that's true."
Then, as if he suddenly became aware of something else, his face flushed red. "I–I wasn't afraid of you! I was just—"
"That's enough. Did you bring the materials yourself?"
Lillian thought to himself that the earlier incident had indeed hurt his business somewhat—but not drastically. Most players had taken the time to understand the PK rules. They knew that in towns and other safe zones, player killing was impossible unless both sides explicitly agreed to a duel.
So they could still come to Lillian for repairs and enhancements without worrying about their safety.
"I brought them! I brought them!"
The player quickly handed over the materials.
When their eyes met, Lillian noticed something odd—there was no fear in the player's gaze. Instead, there was a strange kind of excitement.
Not afraid of me?
As Lillian pondered this, the sixteen- or seventeen-year-old boy glanced around to make sure no one else was nearby. Then he leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice.
"I… I just want to say—you did great!"
…Huh?
Lillian was taken aback. At last, he understood the look in the boy's eyes.
It wasn't fear.
It was admiration. Longing.
"Those stupid public-test idiots… they deserved to be killed!"
A vicious gleam flashed in the boy's eyes—far too intense for his age. He clenched his hands together excitedly.
"If I were as strong as you, I would've done it ages ago! You're amazing!"
"…"
Lillian worked in silence, focusing on the enhancement. Taking that as approval, the boy grew even more animated.
"RPGs are all about survival of the fittest! They're weak—so what right do they have to complain about us? Hey, why don't you start a guild? Only beta testers! I'd definitely join! Then we can wipe out all those noisy idiots who keep causing trouble for us!"
"The enhancement is done."
Lillian returned the weapon, his expression cold and flat. "You can leave now."
"Huh? But what I just said—"
"I'll pretend I didn't hear any of that," Lillian said evenly.
"I won't form a guild. And you'd better give up that way of thinking too. It's dangerous."
The boy's face immediately fell, disappointment mixed with irritation. But after glancing at Lillian, he swallowed his anger and turned away, leaving in frustration.
"…That's exactly the kind of kid who ends up joining something like Laughing Coffin."
Lillian sighed.
This kind of antagonistic mindset would never disappear. When public-test players used numbers and public opinion as weapons against beta testers, beta testers would inevitably hide their identities—and some would grow resentful, even eager to retaliate.
This boy was just one example.
Who knew how many beta testers harbored the same thoughts?
A lone wolf could bury its cruelty deep within. But once wolves gathered into a pack and unleashed that savagery…
That would be a true disaster.
"Kids like these really don't get enough homework," Lillian muttered.
There was no good way to deal with this, nor did he want to involve himself. Wherever there were people, there would be conflict—there was no avoiding that.
Soon, familiar customers came by one after another to repair their gear. Their greetings were visibly awkward. Pretending that nothing had happened was impossible.
In truth, if they had another option, they probably wouldn't have come to Lillian at all.
After half an hour, Lillian packed up his stall. He went to the potion shop to stock up, then headed straight for the labyrinth.
It had been nearly twenty days since the game officially launched, yet only the first floor's boss had been cleared. Lillian was dissatisfied with the pace.
After thinking it over, he realized that most of the wasted time had been spent interacting with other players.
If he wanted to accelerate progress, he needed to minimize unnecessary interactions.
"I'm here to clear the game," he muttered. "Not to make friends."
With that thought, Lillian arrived at the labyrinth entrance.
Compared to the first floor, the second floor's labyrinth was much easier to locate—mainly because the overall area was significantly smaller. As floors increased, the terrain would only grow tighter and more compressed. By the time they reached the 100th floor—the Ruby Palace—there likely wouldn't even be a town left. Just a massive palace arena meant solely for a final duel.
Just as Lillian was about to enter, a group of around thirty or forty players exited the labyrinth.
They were visibly startled when they saw him.
Someone recognized Lillian and whispered to their companions. Instantly, the entire group tightened their grip on their weapons, as if facing a deadly threat.
Lillian couldn't be bothered to care.
As long as he was green-named, he doubted they'd dare make a move. And if they did, he wouldn't mind helping the labyrinth monsters deal with these intruders who barged in, caused trouble, and then ran away.
Just as he stepped forward, someone at the back of the group spoke up.
"Hello. I'm Diavel. Could we talk for a moment?"