-351- A realistic problem

After the disbandment of the PK guild "Laughing Coffin," Sword Art Online (SAO) once again entered a peaceful phase. Rozen returned to the clearing group and dedicated himself to leadership and command, investing his full effort into the clearing of floors.

As Rozen had originally anticipated, even after the forced disbandment of the "Divine Dragon's Alliance," which led to a significant reduction in the clearing group's strength, it hadn't reached the point where they needed to bolster their forces to clear floors.

With the current strength of the clearing group, Rozen managed to successfully clear the 55th floor a few days later. In the subsequent short month, they consecutively conquered the 56th, 57th, 58th, and 59th floors. This smooth progress at the frontline continued until the 60th floor, where they once again delayed their clearing progress.

However, this was an unavoidable situation.

In the floating city known as Aincrad, each increase of one floor resulted in a slight increase in difficulty, every ten floors led to a moderate difficulty increase, and every 25 floors brought about a major difficulty spike.

Given this, upon reaching the 60th floor, the clearing group naturally encountered a rise in the difficulty of clearing. As a result, their clearing progress naturally slowed down.

While that was the case, compared to the significant difficulty spike every 25 floors, the current situation was still relatively optimistic. At least during the 25th and 50th floors, even when venturing into the wilderness of the Labyrinth areas outside of towns, Rozen needed to personally lead the group to prevent unnecessary casualties. Now, despite the increased difficulty, the combined power of the clearing group's major guilds and players should still be able to overcome challenges smoothly.

As such, Rozen only attended the clearing strategy meetings for the boss of the training area and offered a few instructions. The rest of the clearing strategies were left to the various major guilds and individual players to handle.

As for Rozen himself...

"What should I do?"

In a village on the 60th floor's frontline, Rozen sat on a massive rock in a grassy area outside the village, deep in thought.

"Gu!"

"Gu!"

Saichou and Hanachou played in the grassy field ahead, sometimes chasing each other, other times soaring through the air, thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Usually, Rozen would have already immersed himself in the most efficient training area at this time, relentlessly gathering experience points.

Moreover, Rozen's level had already reached 87, on the brink of level 88. He was just a hair's breadth away from leveling up. The levels of Saichou and Hanachou were also about to increase. While the clearing group was planning to tackle the boss in the training area, Rozen knew that seizing this opportunity to level up was of the utmost importance.

However, today Rozen had no choice but to stop. The reason was simple.

Upon closer inspection, Rozen was tightly gripping a sword and examining it.

That was Rozen's current main weapon.

Yet...

"The enhancement is already at its limit, but its performance is starting to fall behind."

Rozen was vexed by this situation.

Nowadays, players have gradually left the towns and begun adventuring in this world. This has led to an increase in players who specialize in crafting skills, apart from those who focus on combat.

By now, numerous master-level players have emerged in various professions, causing the equipment and items produced by player craftsmen to possess performance and effects that rival those sold by NPCs. Even the drops from frontline areas have gradually fallen behind the quality of items crafted by players, turning this world into the players' main stage.

Of course, occasionally, some boss-level monsters still drop items that have even better performance than those created by the highest-level production skill players. For example, Kirito's use of the "Elucidator" is one such case, hailed as a drop of legendary sword-level quality.

Unfortunately, individuals with such luck are few and far between.

To illustrate this point, let's take Kirito as an example. His "Elucidator" is a Maken(Demonic Sword) dropped from a boss on the 50th floor, which only appears once and won't reappear once defeated. This is true even for training area bosses; only a very small number of regional mini-bosses randomly appear. How can anyone be lucky enough to obtain such a drop?

At least, Rozen doesn't possess this kind of luck.

As a result, with the continuous progression of floors and the increasing strength of monsters, Rozen's primary weapon is falling short of the requirements.

This is a situation that had never arisen in the past.

Thanks to Rozen's sharp "Mind's Eye" ability and the strength of his familiars, he constantly delved into various monster groups, often snatching first-tier rewards from boss-level monsters, and even uncovering hidden quests. Throughout, Rozen acquired various powerful weapons, enabling him to reach his current level without encountering a situation where his weapons couldn't match his abilities.

However, things are different now.

The proficiency of players specializing in production skills has risen significantly. Many of them have fully mastered their skills, causing the equipment worn by the top players in the clearing group to be renewed, gradually transforming into crafted items that surpass drops and quest rewards. In contrast, due to the drops and quest items' declining quality, Rozen, who previously excelled in equipment quality, is now lagging behind other players.

While he hasn't reached the point of being the weakest, if things continue in this direction, Rozen will inevitably be caught up by others sooner or later.

Given this situation, Rozen is currently faced with a choice.

He must do what other players do: entrust reliable production skill players to craft equipment for him. Naturally, this also implies that Rozen will need to invest time in this process and can no longer simply dive into the training area as he used to.

"What a hassle..."

Rozen sighed in exasperation at the thought of this.

And this isn't just because of the weapon issue.

"Now that my weapon can't keep up, will my familiars be next?"

Rozen gazed at Saichou and Hanachou playing on the grassy field.

Initially, Heathcliff had mentioned that familiars had their limits, and Rozen had simply unlocked their potential ahead of time, enabling them to be effective against boss-level monsters on lower floors.

However, with the gradual increase in floor levels and the growing strength of Saichou and Hanachou, eventually, they would reach the preset limits. Their skills wouldn't be effective against boss-level monsters anymore.

How long would it be until that day arrived?

Rozen didn't know.

What he did know was that he needed to be proactive and come up with a solution before it was too late.

"Ah, forget it. I don't want to think about it anymore."

Feeling somewhat fatigued, Rozen lay down, gazing up at the sky in a sprawling posture.

At that moment...

"I can't believe you're hiding out in a place like this to slack off."

With the approach of a rather cold voice, Rozen's eyelids lifted slightly.

However, Rozen didn't turn to look at the person.

Even without looking, he knew who it was.

Only one person would speak to him in that tone.

"What? Is our 'Flash' Asuna-sama here to scold me again?"

Rozen retorted impatiently with those words.

The person who had arrived was Asuna.