Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Enjoy~

TL: ALT

Chapter 39 – Think of Countermeasures

Escape to the front.

‘You have successfully escaped.’

‘No experience gained.’

‘Gained 372 SP.’

‘Earned 49510 yen.’

‘You have obtained the gold nugget!’

‘Lost 40845 yen!’

“Just as I thought, it’s much more efficient with Treasure Hobbit.”

Of the five body formations of Swordsman, Shielder, Archer, Mage, and Treasure Hobbit, this result was achieved after defeating all but Shielder.

The SP gained was 372, with a total of 62 for the four bodies plus six times the level correction.

This means that three skills with an acquisition SP of 100 can be acquired in a single battle.

Even a skill with 400 or 800 SP is within reach in two or three battles.

After repeatedly earning a level different from the past, I finally began to feel calm.

And as I calmed down and thought about it, a certain question came to my mind.

To put it in one word…

Is Junko Tozaki really strong?

She’s…

Let’s look at the status again (the result of the Appraisal is copied in my notebook).

Status──────────────────

Junko Tozaki

Secretary to the Chairman of Rakan Holdings, Guild Master of the Explorer Guild Rakan

Official Level Ranking (Japan) 24th

Level 2874

HP 27015/27015

MP 25828/25828

Attack Power 29852

Defense 27363

Magic Power 24391

Mental Power 24004

Agility 22816

Luck 20692

・Unique Skill

Level Drain S.Lv3

・Acquired Skills

Lightning Magic 2, Simple Appraisal

・Equipment

Scorpion Tail (Whip. Attack +1400, inflicts Poison and Paralysis on rare occasions)

Vampire Queen’s Dress (Defense +1210, Mental Strength +1300, nullifies Instant Death. Absorbs 10% of the HP of the damage dealt when attacking)

Queen’s Earrings (Resistant to Poison, Paralysis, Petrification, Sleep, Confusion and Silence. Agility -750)

SP 74

────────────────────

Her level is indeed amazing.

2874.

Ranking 24th in the national level ranking is no joke.

However, for her level, she has only acquired two skills, Lightning Magic 2 and Simple Appraisal.

The significance of this discrepancy is obvious.

Most of her level must have been gained by absorbing other people’s level using Level Drain.

In other words, she doesn’t have much actual combat experience.

I noticed something else.

“Her skill stats are low compared to her level.”

Consider an explorer with a total of 10 skill points at level 1.

This is the familiar average.

To be precise, the average of each skill is about 9.2, but 10 is easier to calculate.

It would be more accurate to say that you are an honor student since you have better overall skills than the average explorer.

This is confusing, so let’s call him an “All-10-kun” student.

Let us assume that this All-10-kun reaches the level of 2874 after a lot of hard work.

Congratulations! All-10-kun!

You made it! All-10-kun!

You’re on the level ranking list, too!

Now, let’s take a look at the status of All-10-kun, the clear ranker.

The increase in skill value when you level up is the same as the skill value at level 1.

Therefore, if there were no bonuses from skills, the ability values of “All-10-kun Lv. 2847” would all be 28740.

So, the All-10-kun has changed class to the All-28740-kun.

It’s hard to say, I know, so I’d like to see you increase your level all the way to the end of the line.

Don’t worry! You can do it, All-28740-kun!

Compared to our All-28740-kun, Junko’s abilities are lower across the board.

Only her attack power is 29852, but that is corrected for the Scorpion Tail she is equipped with.

If she were not equipped, her attack power would be 28452, which is less than 28740.

This means that Junko’s base ability values (level 1 ability values) are all less than 10.

“Let’s do some calculations.”

Since Junko Tozaki has few acquired skills, it is easy to calculate the bonuses from her skills backward.

The bonuses from the skills and the increase in equipment are subtracted from the value of the status.

By dividing the resulting value by 2874, we can calculate Junko Tozaki’s level 1 skill value backward.

“Huh?”

When I did the calculation, the result was strange.

Junko Tozaki is at level 1,

Level 1

HP 9.4

MP 8.9

Attack Power 9.9

Defense 9.1

Magic Power 8.4

Mental Strength 7.9

Agility 8.2

Luck 7.2

(Omit the two decimal places.)

But ability values are always whole numbers.

“That doesn’t mean dropping the decimal point, does it?”

What is displayed in the status is an integer, and the internal value is set to the decimal point…?

No, that is unlikely.

Currently, there are more than seven million people with status in this country.

If there were such an irregularity, it would have been known a long time ago.

For example, if someone had 8 HP at level 1, but when he reached level 2, his HP became 17 instead of 16, such a person would surely be talked about.

Ability values are never decimals; they are always integers.

There is no way a dungeon researcher could have missed something as basic as this.

“I see. So it’s because of Level Drain.”

When leveling up with Level Drain, the increase in skill value would not depend on Junko Tozaki’s skill value but on the skill value of the person whose level was absorbed.

In other words, the skill value I just calculated backward is the average value of the explorers whose level was absorbed by Junko Tozaki.

To be precise, there would be some who had their levels absorbed by Junko Tozaki and some who did not, so there must be some weight to this average, but there is no way to calculate it exactly.

Overall, it would mean that many of them had good HP and Attack Power but low Luck and Mental Strength.

“I thought that the stats at the time of granting the status reflected the individual’s aptitude.”

So, there are certain personality traits in Junko Tozaki’s victims.

They have good physical strength but bad luck, weak will, and are easily at the mercy of others…

Of course, she probably chose those guys and brainwashed them into willingly letting their levels be drained.

Am I the only one who thinks that the evil brainwashing technique is much scarier than the Level Drain itself?

On the contrary,

“Junko Tozaki ironically inherited the general tendencies of her victims.”

Compared to other explorers of the same level, Junko Tozaki is definitely weaker.

Her ability stats are generally low, and she doesn’t have many skills.

Explorers who have risen to the same level will have a higher starting skill level and all the necessary skills.

If she were to fight such explorers, Junko Tozaki would not stand a chance.

But then again, she is that woman.

She would never think of a fair fight against an opponent of the same level.

――She would use the overwhelming level she had gained through exploitation to crush a lower-ranked opponent.

That would be Junko’s strategy.

“Looking at it that way, I can understand why she sees Serika as an enemy.”

Serika is higher in level than Junko Tozaki.

She has a lot of experience in actual combat and is said to be competent enough to compete with others in her level range.

Even if Junko were to catch up with Serika in terms of level, it would still not be enough to beat Serika.

Without reaching a level that is far superior to Serika’s, she would not be able to defeat Serika in a direct confrontation.

In fact, we are talking about Serika, who is even more overwhelming than Junko Tozaki’s status.

It may sound pathetic, but if I am in trouble, I can call Serika, and she will help me.

Fuhaha, my childhood friend is the best!

“…What is it? I don’t have to be afraid of her, right?”

If I improve my skills and increase my ability value―no, even as it is now, depending on how I fight, I might be able to win.

It is possible that the instantaneous firepower of Fire Magic 2, in which I, with my Magic Power of 9595, have multiplied the power many times over through skill synergy, is higher than that of Lightning Magic 2 used by Junko, who has a Magic Power of 24391.

“No, would I lose because of her high Agility and Luck?”

Agility and Luck are among the lowest of Junko’s ability values, but they are still over 20,000.

The difference is almost double that of me, so it is likely that Agility Evasion and Luck Evasion will occur there, and there should be a noticeable difference in the hit rate of the attack.

However, if the difference in Agility and Luck is only twice as large, it is not so large that I will not be able to hit at all.

If we fight head-on, I may be at a disadvantage, but I will not be crushed to death without being able to do anything.

As expected, I don’t think there will be a situation where we will kill each other directly.

But still.

There is a “just in case.”

No, the probability should be much higher than one in ten thousand.

The inter-college circle called Ultimate Freedom that tried to attack Honoka-chan.

Minazawa-san suspected that this club might be connected to Rakan.

They even have a group of criminals like that.

I don’t know what they would do if I met them in the dungeon.

If people find out that I am Yuto Kurashiki, there is no way to predict how they will react.

“Well, I have the option of escaping.”

But will I be able to escape Junko Tozaki’s attack while the 25-second escape timer is running out?

Even though her level is high due to Level Drain, her high Attack and Magic Power are enough to be a threat.

Even if I wanted to escape, I would have to be above a certain level.

“I wanted to raise the skill level of Escape… but I have no choice but to acquire the skill while I can.”

My SP is over 75,000, but I still haven’t found the option to increase the Escape skill level.

I’ve been putting it off… thinking that if I could save up a little more, I might be able to get it, but it’s not good for my mental health, and I’m going to give up on saving SP for the time being.

“Now, what to take…”

Junko Tozaki only has Lightning Magic as a skill that can be used in battle.

In terms of skill variety, I have the upper hand.

I mean, I doubt there are many high-level explorers who have more skills than me.

So, instead of adding more attack methods, I would just make up for the missing ability values.

I did the calculations in a spreadsheet on my phone,

“Skill acquisition: HP Enhancement up to level 5, Defense Enhancement up to level 5, Mental Strength Enhancement up to level 4!”

Since the operation is tedious, I command the “Voice of Heaven” to acquire them.

‘Consume 75600 SP to obtain HP Enhancement 3, HP Enhancement 4, HP Enhancement 5, Defense Enhancement 3, Defense Enhancement 4, Defense Enhancement 5, Mental Strength Enhancement 2, Mental Strength Enhancement 3, and Mental Strength Enhancement 4. Are you sure?’

“Yes!”

‘The skills HP Enhancement 3, HP Enhancement 4, HP Enhancement 5, Defense Enhancement 3, Defense Enhancement 4, Defense Enhancement 5, Mental Strength Enhancement 2, Mental Strength Enhancement 3, Mental Strength Enhancement 4 are acquired.’

‘Confirmation of the fulfillment of the special condition. You have acquired the Absolute Defense skill.

“Oh?”

This was unexpected.

I opened Dungeons Go Pro.

Congratulations !!!! ────────────

Special Condition Achieved: Increased both the HP Enhancement and Defense Enhancement skills to level 5.

Reward: Absolute Defense skill.

────────────────────

Skill──────────────────

Absolute Defense

Disables maximum HP percentage attacks, current HP percentage attacks, fixed damage attacks, defense ignoring attacks, and defense piercing attacks.

It also makes it difficult to be affected by maximum HP reduction effects and defense reduction effects and reduces their effects by half.

────────────────────

“Wow, can the special condition be met by increasing all the ability value enhancement skills?

Ability value enhancement skills are skills that require 100 SP to acquire.

The SP required to level up a skill in this series are 400, 1600, 6400, and 25600.

The HP Enhancement 5 and Defense Enhancement 5 skills that I just acquired required 25,600 SP, and those two skills alone required more than 50,000 SP.

However, the amount of SP required to acquire these skills is the same as the bonus given to the ability value.

In addition, this bonus is increased by 1.2 times for ability value-enhancing skills.

For example, HP Enhancement 5 gives a bonus of 30720 to HP.

Well, with the negative correction of Escape, it becomes 0.8 times…

I had planned to keep the higher level ability value enhancement skills unless I needed them, as they are not very effective for the high cost required.

However, if special conditions are set, I think I can try to complete the ability value enhancement skills.

The upper limit of the skill level is supposed to be 5.

If it were 6, the SP required for even a 100-SP series skill would be over 100,000.

I don’t know if anyone can get that kind of SP, even if they spend their whole life.

I, well, I am an exception…

“Hmm. I guess this at least gives me a chance to escape.”

I think I’ve eliminated a big hole, even in a fight.

“I’d like to have a little more room to maneuver. I’m going to improve my other skills as a whole.”

I looked at the status and searched for my next target with Enemy Search.