-240- Just the beginning

Before arriving in this world, Rozen had never received training or engaged in close combat battles.

It's not that he didn't want to, but his physical condition didn't allow it. Combined with the fact that Rozen believed he didn't have much time to spend on close combat training or physical exercise, he was incredibly lazy in this regard. Only after entering the virtual reality and obtaining a body that was no different from other players did Rozen finally get a chance to experience this kind of combat.

The Little Nepenthes raised its two tendrils high amidst a screech and charged towards Rozen's direction.

Rozen calmly gazed at it, recalling information about the Little Nepenthes in his mind.

The Carnivorous Plant had two attack patterns. One was using the front end of its tendrils, which transformed into short sword-like shapes, for slashing and thrusting attacks. The other was spitting out corrosive liquid from its mouth. Its abilities were heavily geared towards offense, but its defense was quite weak.

This type of monster could be quickly defeated as long as one wasn't hit. Thus, it was possible to earn a large amount of experience points in a short period of time.

Rozen's reasons for coming here were to compete for resources, complete the high-reward one-handed sword quest, and there was also a reason related to this matter.

Although Rozen couldn't use any magic in this world due to the lack of magical energy, he could only rely on the virtual body derived from the game character. However, his consciousness remained his own.

In other words,

"As long as you understand the attack patterns, in the end, you're just a mob in the game, not a real monster."

Leaving behind this provocation, Rozen moved.

The Carnivorous Plant raised its tendrils high, ready to attack, but Rozen didn't move his body; he moved his mouth.

"Go, Saihou!"

Rozen gave a command to his familiar.

"Gu!"

The Rainbow Flower Butterfly immediately flew out.

This Level 1 creature with pitifully low HP compared to Rozen dared to fly above the Little Nepenthes's head at this moment. This brave butterfly, which would be killed by a single hit from the Carnivorous Plant's tendrils, started fluttering around while emitting a melodious sound.

Specifically, it flew above the Little Nepenthes's head while sprinkling sparkling phosphorescent powder.

When the phosphorescent powder touched the Carnivorous Plant, a slight change occurred.

"!? "

Suddenly, the Carnivorous Plant stiffened all over, stopped in its tracks, and even fell over.

Upon closer inspection, a electric-like effect sign flickered around the HP bar of the Carnivorous Plant.

It was the infamous negative status effect in SAO: paralysis.

Rainbow Flower Butterfly, as Rozen's familiar, had relatively low direct combat abilities, but it could scatter phosphorescent powder with various effects. Some of these powders could inflict negative status effects on enemies, some could provide healing to himself.

However, during the closed beta period, players only managed to explore up to the 10th floor, and the highest-level players were around Level 20. This limited Rozen's ability to unlock more of Rainbow Flower Butterfly's capabilities.

The Level 1 Rainbow Flower Butterfly had access to only one special ability: Paralysis Powder. This ability could induce a paralysis status effect on the enemy for a certain duration based on the level comparison between Rozen and the enemy. In the case of a Level 3 Carnivorous Plant, the paralysis would last for only two seconds.

However, that was sufficient.

"Clang!"

As Rozen struck a designated stance, the effect of sword skills gleamed on the bronze sword he held. The dim effect light illuminated the darkness around him.

In that moment, Rozen's hypothetical body moved.

The unique system assistance of sword skills allowed players to completely hand over control of their bodies to the system after a successful execution of a sword skill, enabling them to perform preset moves that would result in a powerful hit more effective than a regular attack.

But Rozen didn't relinquish everything to the system after successfully initiating the sword skill. He focused on not resisting the system's assistance, adjusted the angle of his slash, pushed off the ground with his foot, and as his body burst forward, he synced his arm movement with the system-assisted motion. This synchronized action intensified both strength and speed.

These were techniques that an ordinary player wouldn't possess.

SAO's sword skill system could aid in executing sword skills, but it was ultimately only an aid. If a player could coordinate the motions during the sword skill activation, reduce their body's resistance to the system assistance, optimize their attack movements and angles, minimize unnecessary actions, and even enhance sprint speed with a leg kick or boost attack speed with arm swings, then the speed of the sword skill would increase, and the attack would become more powerful due to acceleration and the player's applied force.

In other words, successfully executing the sword skill was one thing, but reaching a state of perfection was another.

Despite Rozen's poor physical condition in the real world, his consciousness and reflexes were capable of keeping up with the servents in battle, making him a true gaming expert. Therefore, in this gaming world, without the physical limitations, Rozen could execute high-intensity technical combat.

This technique was discovered during the closed beta period and took Rozen a full fourteen days of practice to master. As a side note, Kirito also discovered this technique and took nearly ten days to master it. This illustrated that even though Rozen's consciousness and reactions were sharp, in terms of body control and combat, Kirito still held the advantage over him.

In this scenario, Rozen executed the initial single-strike basic sword skill.

"Swish!"

With a clear sound of air being split, the bronze one-handed sword cut through the air at astonishing speed, resembling a crescent moon, and landed heavily on the Little Nepenthes.

"Squish!"

Amidst a tearing sound, the blade slashed into the monster's body, leaving a gash-like crack effect. The representation of blood, the red radiance, splattered out.

"Hiss!"

The Carnivorous Plant immediately emitted a painful cry, and its HP bar sharply declined with a fierce momentum, dropping by over half in one go, entering the yellow zone and nearing the red zone.

"Hiss!"

The Carnivorous Plant instantly grew furious, struggling to counterattack.

Unfortunately,

"Paralysis still last for another second."

Under Rozen's leisurely tone, a moment later, the effect light of the one-handed sword skill glowed once again.

"Squish!"

Amidst the slash, the remaining HP of the Carnivorous Plant turned completely red and then dropped to zero.

The massive body of the Little Nepenthes was instantly frozen in blue.

"Boom!"

In the next second, the monster's body shattered into polygonal fragments and burst apart.

This was Rozen's combat style in this world.

Of course, this was just the beginning.