Chapter 94

Today, Chapter 2

"It's raining, huh~"

"It's raining, isn't it~"

Today, I was thinking about going to greet the church or something.

Or maybe I should stop by Mei's house to check if I can replenish the pills and confirm the hunting schedule with Jink and the others.

I was thinking about such things, but unfortunately, it's raining today.

Moreover, it's a pretty heavy downpour.

"What are you going to do today, Loki?"

Ferlin, who had been in my room since morning, asked me this.

Since I'm in town and not busy with hunting, I don't really mind.

"Hmm, if it were hunting, I wouldn't mind moving around. But if it's not, I don't want to get wet... and I don't have an umbrella."

As I said this, I suddenly realized something.

I should tell Yagof about the existence of umbrellas, so I quietly wrote it down in my notebook.

The more this world's civilization develops, the easier it will be for me to live.

If I were to get involved in development, I would rather hunt, but I would be happy to provide ideas.

If things go well, I might even get some incentives.

"Okay, then no food walking today."

"I was thinking about organizing things anyway, so I'll just relax in the room today. I plan to eat at the inn, but do you want to eat on the first floor here? If you say it's lunch, I think they'll prepare a meal for you."

"Sure, I'll do that!"

"Alright, I'll tell the innkeeper to prepare two portions. What are you going to do today, Ferlin?"

"I'm going to go into Palmera! The place where Loki flew in is about 6 or 7 days deep from here, right?"

"It's not a straight line, but probably about 4 days if it were. Really, just probably."

"Then I'll drop a [Phantom] at the place I went to yesterday and try to go deeper today! Since I'm fast, I think I can reach that far by the end of the day!"

"Okay. But if you go from there, you won't have shoes..."

That's quite pitiful.

Walking in the forest barefoot, especially in the rain, will definitely make you muddy.

"That can't be helped! I was already planning to go barefoot since I couldn't wear shoes back yesterday, and besides, the [Phantom] will be clean once I retract it, so I won't worry about it!"

"Haha, it's really a convenient skill. But be careful, okay? You can come back to this room directly without using [Oracle] today."

"Got it! I'll be back later!"

With that, Ferlin changed into mist and disappeared. After making sure she was gone, I went downstairs to take care of some business and opened the status screen with a ballpoint pen in hand.

Name: Loki (Miyako Yuto) <Salesman>

Level: 17 Skill Points Remaining: 128

Magic Power: 140/140 (+28) +50 from sword magic

Strength: 68 (+55)

Intelligence: 64 (+11)

Defense: 62 (+115)

Magic Defense: 62 (+18)

Agility: 67 (+66)

Technical: 61 (+16)

Luck: 67 (+20)

Blessings: None

Titles: None

Acquired Skills

◆Combat and Tactics Skills

[Swordsmanship] Lv3 [Staffsmanship] Lv5 [Dagger Mastery] Lv2 [Provocation] Lv2 [Rage] Lv2

◆Magic Skills

[Fire Magic] Lv2 [Earth Magic] Lv3 [Wind Magic] Lv4 [Magic Manipulation] Lv1

◆Job Skills

[Gathering] Lv1 [Disassembly] Lv2 [Hunting] Lv3 [Cooking] Lv1 [Persuasion] Lv1

◆Life Skills

[Foreign Language Understanding] Lv3 [Perception] Lv3 [Exploration] Lv1 [Arithmetic] Lv1 [Memory] Lv1

[Field of Vision Expansion] Lv2 [Far Sight] Lv2 [Swift Foot] Lv2 [Night Vision] Lv4

◆Pure Passive Skills

[Poison Resistance] Lv7 [Automatic Magic Recovery Increase] Lv2 [Maximum Magic Increase] Lv2 [Strength] Lv1

[Swift Wind] Lv1 [Steel Heart] Lv1 [Physical Attack Resistance] Lv1

◆Other/Special

[Oracle] Lv1 [Divine Power] Lv2

◆Other/Monster

[Charge] Lv6 [Adhesive Silk] Lv4 [Bite] Lv5

(Whoa, the bonus stats and everything are so confusing...)

Clearly, this is a failure.

At the very least, I should have brought my notebook and ballpoint pen into the Lulub Forest.

Thanks to being holed up for nearly half a month, I've gained various new skills and my stats have improved, which is good...

But I'm starting to lose track of what bonuses correspond to which skills.

Flipping through my notebook, the last recorded stats are from before I went into the Lulub Forest, when I was at level 11.

From there, with the addition of new skills and skill level increases, it's all a mess.

Moreover, something seems to be skewing the numbers, causing discrepancies even in the simple level-up values.

(Obviously, the various stats don't increase by 3 per level. I get that, but what's the cause?)

While thinking this, I started calculating with a calculator.

My hands naturally started moving on the desk, and I realized I was searching for a cigarette, thinking "Oh!" and pulling my hand back.

In such times, on Earth, I used to have the habit of smoking, but now the battery is dead and I can't smoke, and even if I could, it would taste terrible in this body.

Instead, I sipped on a strong fruit water to distract my mouth and started checking the details of the newly acquired skills.

[Persuasion] Lv1 - Slightly improves conversation ability. Always active. No magic consumption.

Hmm, this might be subtly helpful for a socially awkward person like me, but it's not essential.

Next.

[Cooking] Lv1 - Slightly improves cooking skills. Always active. No magic consumption.

This would be nice to have, but it's not a priority right now.

Next.

[Strength] Lv1 - Increases strength by 5. Always active. No magic consumption.

Is this the culprit?

This increase of 5 seems to be applied to the main stats rather than the bonus stats.

Still, it's a welcome skill.

Next.

[Physical Attack Resistance] Lv1 - Increases resistance to physical attacks. Always active. No magic consumption.

It's nice to have, but like [Poison Resistance], it doesn't specify the exact increase.

This might be a rule for resistance-type skills.

Next.

[Steel Heart] Lv1 - Slightly increases resistance to mental attacks, effective against intimidation. Always active. No magic consumption.

Hmm... an interesting skill.

This is the type of skill that's subtly helpful. Plus, it's always active and doesn't consume magic.

Next.

[Magic Manipulation] Lv1 - Improves magic manipulation and makes it easier to apply to spells. Reduces spell casting time by 5%. Always active. No magic consumption.

The description is abstract, but it seems like a skill that could provide subtle benefits.

The "spell casting time" part could refer to the delay before re-casting or the lag from casting to activation.

Either way, I don't think 5% will be noticeable, so I'll need to test it when the level is higher.

Next.

[Swift Wind] Lv1 - Increases agility by 5. Always active. No magic consumption.

This is similar to [Strength], but for agility.

Another welcome skill.

However, the increase is a bit subtle, so it might not be worth investing skill points into.

So...

I continued to calculate and write down numbers, comparing them.

(Hmm? If the increase in stats from level 11 onwards was 4, the numbers would match... and magic power seems to increase by 8.)

What I found was a change in the increase values.

From levels 1 to 10, each stat increased by 3 per level, and magic power increased by 6.

From levels 11 to 17, each stat increased by 4 per level, and magic power increased by 8.

This suggests that the increase might become even larger when reaching levels 20 and 30.

(Still, without knowing the specific stats of strong people, it's hard to say...)

Without knowing how my stats compare relatively, I can't determine if I'm strong or weak, or how much I need to improve to be considered strong.

But maybe I'll find out eventually.

For that, this kind of work is important.

...Though I shouldn't be saying this, considering how much I've been slacking off while hunting.

Anyway, these are the new skills I acquired in Lulub that I hadn't confirmed yet.

The other skills I acquired in Lulub from monsters have, as expected, increased significantly in level, and there are a few that have naturally increased.

As for the target bonuses, there's no way to check them now.

I'll have to wait until the next level-up to check.

While I'm at it, I might as well confirm the skills I acquired in the Locker Plains but haven't looked at in detail yet.

[Swordsmanship] Lv3 - While holding a sword-shaped weapon, attack and defense actions receive a positive bonus (no magic consumption). Can arbitrarily apply a 190% stat boost for 1 second to a specific action, consuming 9 magic points.

[Dagger Mastery] Lv2 - While holding a dagger-shaped weapon, attack and defense actions receive a positive bonus (no magic consumption). Can arbitrarily apply a 160% stat boost for 1 second to a specific action, consuming 7 magic points.

Hmm, hmm.

When [Staffsmanship] was at level 1, the stat boost for a specific action was 130%, and it consumed 5 magic points, so the content is the same regardless of weapon type.

The increase is 30% per level, and the magic consumption increases by 2.

However...

[Staffsmanship] Lv5 - While holding a staff-shaped weapon, attack and defense actions receive a positive bonus (no magic consumption). Can arbitrarily apply a 250% stat boost for 2 seconds to a specific action, consuming 13 magic points.

Looking at [Staffsmanship] at level 5, which I don't plan to use, the increase in values and magic consumption remains consistent, but the duration of the arbitrary boost has changed to 2 seconds.

This means the duration increases at level 4 or 5.

Even with [Swordsmanship], I never used the arbitrary skill attack...

When you can use magic, you tend to use it instead of the skill, so I don't plan to use it against swarming enemies.

It might only be useful in a one-on-one battle with a strong monster.

As for the magic-related skills...

[Magic Automatic Recovery Increase] Lv2 - Increases automatic magic recovery by 10%. Always active. No magic consumption.

[Magic Maximum Increase] Lv2 - Increases maximum magic by 20. Always active. No magic consumption.

Ugh, I really slacked off!

The consequences of not checking the details in the Locker Plains are all coming back to me now.

[Magic Automatic Recovery Increase] is 10% at level 2.

So, what was it at level 1?

...Well, it doesn't matter.

Once it reaches level 3, the increase will be clear, so the important thing is the percentage, not the absolute value.

The stronger you get, the more the absolute value becomes a trivial skill, but the percentage, whether it's 20% or 30%, will provide significant benefits.

Plus, it can be stacked with [Bestow].

On the other hand, [Magic Maximum Increase] is an absolute value, so it's likely to become a dead skill in the later stages.

This means that if I want to [Bestow] on the new weapon I'm having made, it would be better to choose [Magic Automatic Recovery Increase] for long-term use.

As a surprising discovery, based on these values, I can estimate that Paiser's [Magic Maximum Increase] is at level 5.

Even though he's retired, he was once a C-rank hunter.

Impressive.

The rest are skills with strong bonus elements.

[Swift Foot] Lv2 - Provides a bonus to running, slightly increasing movement speed. Always active. No magic consumption.

It's better to have it than not.

[Field of Vision Expansion] Lv2 - Slightly widens the field of vision in all directions. Always active. No magic consumption.

It feels a bit insect-like. I thought it might be a perverted skill, but even at level 2, the difference isn't noticeable, and I doubt it will ever allow you to see directly behind you.

Actually, if it were always active, it would probably drive you crazy.

[Far Sight] Lv2 - Slightly improves the ability to see far distances. Always active. No magic consumption.

Considering it as a vision improvement skill, it might be quite helpful. No need for glasses?

[Provocation] Lv2 - Makes it easier to draw attention to yourself. Activation range: 20 meters. Affects creatures within a 2-meter radius of the target, consuming 7 magic points.

When I used it in Lulub, the monsters suddenly came at me, which was surprising, but the details make sense for a range skill.

Using it in a higher-level hunting ground would be a death flag.

On the other hand, in a lower-level hunting ground, it might be useful for rescuing someone.

The fact that it affects living beings is also interesting.

It means it can affect humans... though I don't want to use it for that.

Phew...

I've roughly grasped the skills I currently have.

For the parts I don't understand, I'll gather information and compare and verify them as I go along.

This also means I understand the [New] tag.

The [New] tag will remain until I confirm the skill acquisition or level-up in the status screen.

It seems there's no time limit, and the [New] tag won't disappear just by opening the status screen.

The last time I checked the skill screen was probably during the bath event in Lulub.

Since then, I've hunted for about a week and have been back in town for a few days.

Despite this, the skills I could acquire in Lulub still had the [New] tag until just now.

During this time, I opened the status screen multiple times to check how much more I needed to level up, but I didn't check the skill screen.

So, the [New] tag's behavior is probably confirmed.

At the end of each day's hunting, I can look forward to checking if there are any [New] skills.

I should be grateful to the acorn for this.

(Thanks for being subtly convenient. It would be nice if you could show the amount of money I have and categorize the skills into 'Active', 'Semi-Active', and 'Passive'. It would be great if you could categorize the acquired skills into 'Combat', 'Magic', and 'Job' for easier viewing. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.)

As I bowed towards the gloomy rain clouds, I felt a strong magical presence, indicating that Ferlin had returned.

It's a bit early, but after lunch, I can indulge in the fantasy of how to allocate the 128 skill points I've accumulated.

I have time today.

I'll take my time, looking at the skill screen while thinking about it.

My face naturally broke into a smile.

This is when it's fun.

With that thought, I greeted the returning Ferlin.

"Welcome back! Are you hungry already?"

The request to categorize the skills into 'Combat', 'Magic', and 'Job' for easier viewing has been specially implemented for everyone, not as it appears in the protagonist's view.