I am Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes.

At that moment, Jill noticed a new message in her inbox.

“...Ugh, really…” There aren’t many people who can text Gil; there are probably only a dozen or so in the entire Aincrad.

"I'll be back soon, don't worry about me, thank you."

With a casual flick of her finger, Jill typed in frequently used words and moved on to the next destination.

Let's try to find the BOSS's room before dark.

That way I can at least get some more rest at night.

"Ah, so why are these bosses' rooms hidden so deep inside!"

It is now 2024. A year and a half has passed since the second floor boss was defeated after SAO was launched.

A year and a half is neither a long nor a short time.

Sometimes, when you've experienced a lot and look back, you'll find that even ten years seems like just a blink of an eye.

That being said, for the players living in SAO, this year and a half felt longer than any of the previous years, and seemed infinitely long...

If we were to say what has been most likely to attract people's attention in the past year and a half, it would undoubtedly be the progress of SAO's strategy.

After clearing the first and second floors, the progress in SAO completely reversed, and the situation of being stuck on the first floor for a whole month, like before, never happened again.

The completion of the first and second floors made the players living in 'SAO' realize that this game can be conquered and is not an unsolvable game.

Furthermore, the fact that players completed the first level in just ten days and the second level in two days after completing the first level greatly boosted their confidence.

Now, those individuals or guilds at the forefront of the activities, standing at the pinnacle of player power, have formed strategy teams, aiming for the top of Aincrad, and continuing their struggle to conquer the highest level.

Although the strategy team only comprises a few hundred players out of thousands in SAO, their levels and equipment are unmatched by ordinary players.

Moreover, by this time, the SAO walkthrough was already nearly three-quarters complete. The players in the walkthrough team deserve a large part of the credit for achieving this level of completion in just one and a half years.

The strategy team players are currently divided into three major guilds and solo players.

The first faction is the 'Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain' guild, whose leader is Klein, an acquaintance of Gil's. It's a fairly average guild, without any outstanding features, nor as unscrupulous as some guilds, but it's a highly regarded guild. Even with its average performance, its guild strength ranks among the top in SAO.

The second faction is the Dragon Knights, led by Diabel. With such an upright leader, the Dragon Knights are quite disciplined, and their development is similar to that of the Wind, Forest, Fire, and Mountain factions.

The third faction is the Knights of the Blood Oath guild, led by Heathcliff. They are widely recognized as the strongest guild in the entire raiding party, and indeed, in Aincrad. While their membership isn't large, almost all members are elites, with Asuna serving as vice-president. Heathcliff is even considered by Gilgamesh to be "an impenetrable shield in this game that I cannot break without using my trump cards," which speaks volumes about the Knights of the Blood Oath's strength.

Originally, there was another guild faction in the strategy group, the Aincrad Liberation Army. Because of their uniform grass-green uniforms and behavior, they were also called "the army" by the players. They were the largest guild with the most members, and their strength was no less than any other guild in the strategy group.

However, due to the unexpectedly strong boss when conquering the 25th floor, the "army" suffered heavy casualties. As a result, the "army" has withdrawn from the conquest group and is no longer as active in the conquest. Although they are still active on the front line, they are not very active anymore.

Of the seventy-four bosses, Jill successfully soloed thirty; the remaining forty-odd were defeated by players from the strategy group.

Jill's legendary solo boss battles have made her one of the most renowned lone players.

If you were to ask a hundred people who are the most famous solo players in SAO, they would all name that one person.

"Sword Dancer".

Jill's solo challenge against 30 bosses made her a legendary figure among solo players.

Gil's swordsmanship is both visually stunning and terrifyingly lethal. Amidst the captivating sword dance, the BOSS's health bar drops rapidly, which is one of the legends of the sword dancer.

However, it seems that the "Sword Dancer" himself doesn't particularly like this title.

“A year and a half…” Jill glanced at the other system floating to her right.

World Temp is restarting at 78%.

"Is the reboot almost complete...? We'll ask about the specifics then," Jill said.

Chapter Twenty-Two Template Return still has 20% charge!

After finishing the initial exploration, as is customary, Jill should return to her expensively built residence, eat, sleep, and continue the exploration the next day.

Many people only know that there is a super player in Aincrad with the title of "Sword Dancer", but many have never witnessed the power of this powerful player.

It's probably because Jill's routine is too irregular: doing quests, grinding monsters in the maze area, fighting bosses, resting... and so on, in an endless cycle.

However, few eyewitness accounts are the impression most people have of Jill.

After all, it's not easy to find reckless players charging around in the maze area.

Of course, players in the strategy group can still see Jill every now and then.

After all, he participates in almost every boss battle.

Especially in the boss battles on the 25th and 50th floors, if Jill hadn't repeatedly observed the changes in the boss's attack patterns and promptly issued instructions to everyone, the players in the strategy team would probably have suffered many more casualties on the 25th and 50th floors.

Incidentally, the "army" suffered huge losses precisely because many of its members disregarded Jill's orders.

Jill was helpless about this.

Although some players in the military later criticized Jill for "not helping those who died."

But Jill just sneered and replied, "It's clearly because you refused to follow my orders that this loss occurred."

That time, many players chose to stand with Jill.

Without Jill's command, they really might have died...

The boss room on the 25th floor was still a crystal-ineffective zone; if it weren't for Jill's command, the casualties would have been even more severe.

The "army" also developed a grudge against Jill, and subsequently made things difficult for her. Especially during an event six months ago, the army members made things difficult for her in every way, but Jill still managed to take the BOSS's LA.

From then on, Jill's relationship with the army became even more irreconcilable.

But that was all just idle talk; Jill didn't take those small fry seriously.

If you're so capable, go and take on the boss guarding the gate one-on-one!

Jill has that same mindset.

"What should we eat today?" Jill pondered this question.

He had completely forgotten what he had said before: "Even if my best friend pins me to the wall with a Noble Phantasm, or I'm bound and thrown around on the ground by the Enkidu, or I die from overwork and have to come back from the underworld to work overtime, I will never personally learn to cook!"

Yes, his chef proficiency skill is maxed out, and his status is "fully learned".

In SAO, proficiency only increases slowly at a rate that is almost imperceptible each time a skill is used, and it is only when the proficiency reaches 1,000 that it is fully learned.

Incidentally, the level and proficiency gained through experience points are different. Leveling up only increases HP, strength, agility, and the number of "skill slots" that can be learned.

Currently, Jill has only fully mastered the skills of "cooking" and "katana".

(Gil: My food is delicious! (??????)??)

Next is the simple process of preparing the ingredients. In fact, the cooking process in SAO is much simpler, and the food is more Western-style, which suits Jill's taste better.

In addition, Jill has almost always been a "lone wolf," so the idea that no matter what the dish is, it can only be the best one is ingrained in Jill's mind.

After dinner, just as Jill was about to rest, a guest arrived...

There was a knock on the door, and Jill stood up and opened it.

Jill chose to live in the forest in the southwest region of the twenty-second floor.

That's right, this is the place that every time traveler who comes here wants to live.

Jill came here mainly to avoid the noise. Although he didn't dislike the players' boisterousness, he preferred quiet to noise.

Perhaps because she subconsciously feels that a quiet environment makes people feel comfortable, Jill has been living here for almost a year.

At this point, the only guests Jill could think of were a few people.

Jill stepped forward and opened the door.

Standing outside the door was a swordsman dressed in black.

Good evening, Jill.

Kirito waved and greeted him.

"Ah, good evening, please come in and talk," Jill said as she walked inside. "Is it some mission this time that requires my help?"

Gil looks like a pro carrying a noob through a dungeon, but in reality, neither Gil nor Kirito are simple characters.

"No, there's just one problem."

Kirito was silent for a moment before speaking, "Do you know about unique skills?"

"Oh?" Jill raised an eyebrow.

In SAO, there is indeed such a special skill, a special skill that is known to have been mastered by only one player.

“I know, and I have one too.” Jill opened the skill tree and showed it to Jill.

This behavior can be seen as Gil's way of showing respect to someone he trusts. However, neither Kirito nor Gil are the type to easily reveal other people's secrets, so the two get along quite well.

"Sword-drawing technique...!?" Kirito was a little surprised.

“Your dual-wielding is quite surprising.” Gil raised an eyebrow at the conspicuous symbol on Kirito’s skill tree.

The unique skills were actually specially designed by Kayaba Akihiko, and players can only obtain them if they meet specific conditions.

Jill deduced that she must have met two conditions to learn the sword-drawing technique: being a "katana user" and having the "fastest movement speed".

As for Kirito... I wonder what's going on with his dual-wielding style.

“And then what? What are you going to do?” Jill asked.

"I need a sword similar to this one." Kirito touched the hilt on his back. "So, I'd like to ask if you have any weapons with similar weight and attributes to this one, so I can buy them from you."

Jill gave him a knowing look.

After all, even when using dual swords, people would choose to use a pair of weapons in order to maintain balance when using weapons with both hands.

Otherwise, swinging weapons of different weights might cause the sword to become unbalanced...

“It seems that finding a weapon that matches your sword won’t be easy,” Jill said, checking her backpack. “If I find one, I’ll let you know.”

……

World temp·late,is restarting80%.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Jill's Advice

Jill opened her backpack panel and began rummaging through the backpack in front of her, searching for what she wanted.