Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 101

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TL: ALT

Chapter 101 – All in a Single Blow

As calculated, Escape from Reality was triggered.

“Phew. It worked somehow.”

The first time I escaped Serika’s confession.

The second time, I escaped Kudave’s intimidation.

Kudave aside, I still feel bad about what I did to Serika.

But, well, Serika got drunk after that.

Let’s just call that a no-go.

Still, it’s because of Serika’s brave attempt to move forward with our relationship that I’m able to use Escape from Reality now.

I know how much I have to push myself and think, I want to Escape from Reality.

“Thank you, Serika.”

I want to hug her as hard as possible when I get home.

After that… well, I guess it’ll just happen as it happens.

Since this is about me and Serika, there is a possibility that things will get messy again.

I can be sure that Haitani-san will give me the cold shoulder.

I tried to break the death flag, but when I think about it calmly, I can’t help but feel that this is a new kind of death flag.

Well, in the end, it’s a matter of my determination.

If I die after trying to be so cool, it would be more embarrassing than just dying.

So, even if I make a mistake, I can’t die.

That’s the way it is.

I look down at the scene around the “hole” that has turned into a purple wire frame.

Up until a few minutes ago, my eyes would fly open whenever a void came into view, but in my current state, that is not the case.

But that doesn’t mean I can see anything substantial in the hole.

A bottomless chasm of emptiness.

There is something that can only be described as such.

Is it because time has stopped or because this is a subspace, or can I see a void denying human perception?

Crawling from the outer edge of the hole is the white “fiber” of Splefnir, the Boundary Dragon that is invading this world.

It looks more like a woolen scarf being knitted on a circular knitting machine than a dragon.

Or an oversized anemone.

Looking for something similar among the monsters, the closest I could find was the Roper that appeared on the road in the Okutama Lake Dungeon.

Is it a coincidence that a monster similar in shape to the Splefnir appears in the dungeon that Clovis chose as the setting for his ritual?

“So how do I defeat this thing?”

Kudave said.

There is a hole in the world.

Splefnir is trying to crawl through that hole.

It is neither magic nor physics that closes the hole.

It is a rule.

You must use all your skills in the「 」between two worlds.

In my case, I should strike the strongest attack by synergizing my skills to the limit.

In short, it is the same as what I always do.

“What a simple thing to do!”

The world is in danger―that impatience is there, of course.

Even though time has stopped here, the urgency to hurry burns in my chest.

In a desperate situation like this, a Shonen manga hero would evolve or awaken while fighting, right?

But an ordinary person like me does not have the talent to evolve comfortably in a limited time.

There is (probably) no hidden power that can be awakened and drawn out.

To begin with, under these crazy modern rules, there are only two ways to get stronger.

Either you raise your level or you acquire skills.

Of course, there are other factors, such as how you behave as an explorer, how you use skills, and how you work together as a party.

Haruka-san seems to value such things, and Honoka-chan also said that she awakened to her unique skills through training.

But according to the rules of this world, she would be an exception.

Haruka-san is an elf from another world, and Honoka-chan is her daughter.

Clovis’ knowledge of ritual magic would also be an exception to the rules of this world.

But where there is such a thing, there is nothing better than having a high level and strong skills.

In fact, Clovis loses to me.

I’m sorry to Kudave, but I don’t want to do a QTE where the world’s fate is at stake.

So I used the three seconds Kudave had earned and stopped time with Escape From Reality.

I didn’t have to grow up in the fight.

I can stop time, think carefully in this subspace, and, if necessary, acquire skills or increase my skill level.

Just as working in an overworked job does not necessarily make you skilled (in the general sense), the harder the fight, the stronger you will become.

There are cases where you can grow more if you have more time and space in your heart.

My thoughts have gone astray.

I am unsure what would be the most effective way to carve rules into the void.

Should I use as many skills as possible, use higher skill levels, or just maximize the final damage?

There is a possibility that this is not the same as defeating a monster.

“No, if that were the case, Kudave would have given the order.”

That cocky Bahamut is pretty smart with that thing.

From the fact that I said ‘three seconds,’ he must have known that I would use Escape from Reality.

And Kudave sees my status with Fathom when we first met.

Since Kudave didn’t order anything, he can honestly assume that I’m maximizing damage.

If I maximize damage, I will end up with more skills, and I will also end up axing skills at a higher level.

“I will either use skill combos or skill synergies to get as many skills on a single hit as possible. That should do the trick.”

Skill combos are for combining weapon skills, and skill synergies are for layering buff skills on top of magic.

Well, that’s what I call it.

Of course, there can be skill combos with buffs stacked on top of each other, and it is not impossible to create magic-to-magic combos with Double Chant and the like.

However, the final core strike must be either a weapon or a magic attack.

Since it is a one-shot game, trying both is impossible.

But I don’t have to worry about that.

I took the item out of my item slot.

“I need to use this thing.”

The divine weapon, the Kusanagi Sword.

Nothing but this, given to me by the god, is suitable as the core of my attack.

In addition to the skills that are the rule of the crazy modern age, the causality of this divine weapon, which is mentioned in the mythology of this country, will make penetration into the void even more certain.

The fact that God has taken the trouble to lend me this weapon means that there is a situation where I cannot break through without using it.

There should be no other time than now for such a phase.

Even I, who tend to let the most powerful recovery potions and strengthening items in the game go bad, have no choice but not to use it here.

“I strengthened my magic against Clovis.”

Before that, in the Kururi Castle Dungeon, I was working on acquiring and researching weapon skills.

I took the weapon skill, but against Clovis, I needed the magic skill, and now I need the weapon skill.

It’s not easy, is it?

First of all, I flushed out the skills that can be used.

It is easy to say Sword Technique or Swordsmanship because it is a sword.

If I just use a sword as a sword, the number of skills I can use simultaneously is limited.

As for the skills that have already been acquired, two or three of the following are limited: Sword Technique, Swordsmanship, Dagger Technique, Dagger Art, and One-Handed Swordsmanship.

Even with these skills, putting everything into a single strike is impossible.

If you put the first stage of the sub-skill Slash of Sword Technique on top of the first stage of the sub-skill Cross Slash of Swordsmanship, and then you put the sub-skill Tsubamegaeshi of Dagger Art on top of the second stage of Cross Slash of Swordsmanship… and so on. It is a skill combo.

These sub-skills do not have a high damage multiplier for each strike.

It’s something like 1.1x, 1.2x, or 1.5x the power of a normal attack, or two attacks at 0.7x.

The skill combo aims to increase damage by stacking attacks of average power while simultaneously shutting down the enemy with a set play from skill to skill.

It’s a method designed to fill a hole in melee combat.

It is not designed to bet everything on a single strike.

You can do great damage all the time, but the damage multiplier of each hit is only modest.

So what is a high damage multiplier skill?

10x all stat boost from Demon God Incarnation and 5x all stat boost from Demonization… whatever it is, I’d use it.

There is no way not to use them because they are too obvious.

These two skills have the downside of drastically reducing maximum HP, but if you are properly exposed to the fibers, you will die instantly.

Critical Moment was constantly sounding alarms during the fight just now.

If I were going to die from a single attack anyway, it would be the same if my maximum HP was reduced.

Besides, the damage multiplier is high,

Skill──────────────────

Skill Burst

Instead of losing the skill, the skill’s effect is multiplied by 100 once.

The lost skill can never be regained.

────────────────────

Skill──────────────────

Weapon Throw 5

Throw a weapon to inflict heavy damage. The damage is proportional to S.Lv times the weapon’s attack power.

Whether it hits or not, the thrown weapon shatters.

────────────────────

These are the two.

However, the drawbacks of these two skills are too painful.

If I burst my Weapon Throw skill, I will never be able to get another Weapon Throw.

Since the skills I want to use now are very powerful, it would be too hard to make them all unavailable again.

So would I burst a subtle skill that I don’t need to be able to learn again?

No, this time it’s a one-time thing.

If I don’t save the skill and don’t tick into the void, it’s the end of me and the world.

However, no doubt, saving the world but weakening myself will be a problem down the road.

Compared to Skill Burst, the disadvantages of Weapon Throw seem mild.

But I will be using one of the three divine weapons, the true regalia of this country.

“I was told to hold it with all my heart as if it were her alter ego…”

God owes me something.

I want to avoid, if possible, making God’s alter ego disposable.

And I don’t want to do the second Dan-no-Ura by myself.

“…The problem with the disadvantages is that I don’t even have hands…”

I took out what looked like a shattered crystal from my Item Box.

Item──────────────────

Philosopher’s Stone Fragment.

Removes one disadvantage of a skill already acquired by using it.

────────────────────

The idea of using this Philosopher’s Stone Fragment to remove a disadvantage from a skill is possible.

But I only have one at the moment.

It can’t be used for both Weapon Throw and Skill Burst.

However, the Philosopher’s Stone Fragment has limited opportunities to be obtained.

I have obtained it twice, but both times it was a reward with special conditions.

The conditions were among the hardest of all the special conditions: defeating a dungeon boss whose level is 1,000 or more higher than you, and completing an A-rank or higher dungeon at level 5 or lower (first time only).

One of the conditions would likely give it to the user if they could trudge through an S-rank dungeon for the first time at level 1, but it might be difficult to get after that.

It seems like a waste to use such a rare item for a skill with limited use, doesn’t it?

The negative compensation on Escape should be removed as a top priority, and there are many other skills whose performance could be destroyed by removing their disadvantages.

For example, removing the cooldown on Short Teleport, removing the inability to use Evac in combat, removing the mana coin cost of Dungeon Travel, removing the maximum HP reduction effect of Demonization and Demon God Incarnation… There’s no end to what I can think of.

It would also be strong to remove Escape from Reality, which I use now and which makes me not want to return to reality after continuous use.

Or the idea is not to use it on the skills at hand, but to save it for skills that will be available in the future.

In particular, it would be effective to save it so that when the skill level of Escape increases and a new ability is acquired, the disadvantage associated with that ability can be removed.

The new ability is bound to have a disadvantage as well, given the development of Escape so far.

However, in the current situation, if I do not spare a piece of it, I will be blinded by it.

“There’s one more thing that bothers me.”

I took out a rainbow glitter scroll from my Item Box.

Item──────────────────

Book of Essentials

When used, increases the maximum skill level of any skill other than the unique skill to 6.

────────────────────

To put it bluntly, it’s a scroll that pushes the limits.

It can’t be used for Skill Burst because there is no level requirement, but it can be used for Weapon Throw.

It only raises the upper limit of the skill level to 6, so I guess you have to spend SP to raise the skill level to 6 separately.

Why not just raise the current skill level along with the upper limit anyway?

The SP required to increase a skill level is quadrupled for every 1 skill level increase.

So the SP required to raise a skill level from 5 to 6 is a rather absurd amount.

Weapon Throw is a relatively inexpensive skill with an acquisition SP of 200, but to increase its skill level from 5 to 6 requires 204,800 SP.

If I am going to spend that much SP, I might as well keep the skill level of Weapon Throw at 5 and use the remaining SP to acquire some skills that synergize with it.

That way, I could also keep the Book of Essentials.

Of course, just like with the fragments, it would be bad if I lost the game by being stingy with the Book of Essentials.

“What should I do now?”

I began to simulate skills while drinking from a plastic bottle I had taken from my Item Box.