Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Enjoy~

TL: ALT

Chapter 7 – ‘Escape’ Verification

The next morning.

I woke up early, as I did yesterday, and my mother served me breakfast without a word.

Our family breakfast traditionally consists of toast, fried eggs, and salad, but this morning it was steak.

I guess she wants her son to be strong enough to do the 3K work of dungeon exploration.

[T/n: 3K is a Japanese slang that is taken from Kitsui (きつい difficult, hard), kaerenai (negative potential of 帰る (“come home”)), kyuryō ga yasui (給料 (“salary”) が (“is”) 安い (“low”)). So that means a job that is hard, has long hours, and doesn’t pay well. (Please correct me if I’m wrong)]

“Serika-chan gave me this for you.”

My mother presented me with a pale pink envelope.

When I opened it, I found a piece of letterhead and a pair of earrings.

“To Yuto.

This is for you.

I’m sorry for yesterday.

Serika

p.s. It’s the one I don’t use anymore, so don’t be hesitant, okay?”

“You mean this?”

It’s an earring with a purple crystal-like charm.

I activate the camera on my Dungeons Go Pro and hold it up to the earring.

Item──────────────────

Anti-Poison Earrings

Prevents the condition abnormality’ poison.’

────────────────────

“… Isn’t it a pretty expensive one?”

I believe the condition abnormality-resistant accessory was traded for a pretty good price.

…No, that’s why she says, ‘Don’t be hesitant.’

The fact that she’s not using it right now means that Serika must have an accessory that’s a higher level than this.

The reason she didn’t give it to me in person is because it was difficult for her to face me yesterday.

…Despite that, she seems pretty sure I’m going to get back on my feet and continue exploring.

It was supposed to be a big decision, but it seems Serika saw right through it completely.

“I’m the one who should be saying sorry.”

I felt both grateful and ashamed.

She has always been like this.

She may have become a great explorer, but that part of her doesn’t seem to have changed.

“I hope I can catch up with her… someday.”

To that end, let’s start with what I can do.

Before going to the dungeon, I decided to stop by a shopping mall on my bicycle.

The mall had an Explorer store before I knew it.

There I find a piece of armor that I can equip myself with now.

Item──────────────────

Traveler’s Cloak

Defense +10, Agility +15

Equip Requirements: Agility 12 or higher

────────────────────

This is equipment for beginners, but there is a big difference between having it and not having it.

My Defense is only 3, but with this, it becomes 13.

There was also equipment with higher Defense sold, but the condition for equipping it was “the sum of Attack Power and Defense must be XXX or higher,” and I could not meet the condition.

Even this Traveler’s Cloak was quite expensive, and I finally managed to buy it with my limited savings.

I can’t afford to buy a weapon, but since my Attack Power is garbage anyway, I’ll just have to settle with magic.

So, I quickly dived into the thicket dungeon (there is another official name for it, but it’s a pain in the ass, so I’ll leave it at that).

Just like yesterday, two Slimes appeared from the end of a dimly lit passage.

“If only one of them would come out.”

With my current MP, I can barely defeat one of them.

MP recovers naturally, but the recovery rate slows down during the battle.

If I waited for them to recover, I would be killed first.

“I had no choice but to kill one of them and escape. That’s all I can do.”

The objective is to verify ‘Escape.’

Maybe it’s more convenient for me.

Slimes are slow, so it’s hard for them to catch up with me while I’m ‘escaping.’

Moreover, Slimes do not seem to be very intelligent, so they sometimes do nothing but watch you during the battle.

I fired a barrage of fire arrows at the leading Slime.

Even though I fired in rapid succession, the interval between shots was only a few seconds.

It takes more than ten seconds to kill a Slime with five shots.

The remaining Slime is close enough to reach me with a few bounces.

“Now, let’s do it!”

I fired up, but all I could do was, of course, escape.

With my back to the weakest monster, I escape in desperation.

With 20 seconds left, I made a lucky evasion.

After 15 seconds left, I get hit by a body blow.

10 seconds, lucky evasion of dissolving liquid.

5 seconds, direct hit by a body blow.

0――’Escape’ succeeded.

‘Escape succeeded.

‘No experience gained.’

‘3 SP gained.’

‘Earned 420 yen.’

‘You have obtained “Potion Gummy”!’

‘Lost 256 yen!’

“I lost it! …It ain’t that, damn it!”

Even though I was already short of money!

…But I knew that.

Looking at my status, my HP was 5/9.

I was hit by a grazed body blow and a direct body blow, which cost me 4 HP.

Thanks to my armor, my damage was less.

“I guess I get the drop items.”

I picked up a light blue gummy that had somehow appeared in my palm with my finger.

The Potion Gummy is the lowest-level recovery item.

The amount of recovery is small, but it is enough for me right now.

I throw the gummy into my mouth.

Contrary to my expectations, the gummy was not chewy, and it melted away in an instant.

The taste is quite medicine-like.

I guess there are different tastes, but I like it.

When I rechecked my status, I found that my HP was fully recovered.

Although it was only 4 HP recovery.

“I’m grateful that I can get the gummy.”

Otherwise, I would have had to think about getting recovery magic.

It hurts a lot to have SP taken up for recovery in a situation where there are other skills I want.

“I’m using MP for attacks too…”

MP recovers naturally, but if I rely on magic to recover HP, I have to wait longer for MP to recover.

Naturally, there is no guarantee that a monster will not appear during that time.

“Last time, I didn’t get a drop, so I’m guessing it’s not a guaranteed drop.”

I also bought some gummies at the Explorer’s store.

The lowest-level Potion Gummy seems to be a common item and is not as expensive as weapons and armor.

“Well, let’s give it a few tries.”

After finishing my recovery, I turned my attention to the far end of the passageway.

I tried ten times.

I defeated one of the two Slimes with magic and ‘escaped’ as fast as I could.

After recovering my MP and HP, I repeated the same process.

“I’m getting the hang of it.”

I left the dungeon and went back to the thicket, and while quenching my thirst with a plastic tea bottle, I thought about it.

I opened my notebook and wrote down what I had found out.

────────────────────

What I have learned about my unique skill ‘Escape’:

(1) Damage sustained while ‘escaping’ has no effect on the escape timer.

(2) You do not gain experience from monsters you killed before escaping.

(3) Even if you ‘escape,’ you can still get SP, money, and drop items.

(4) After successfully ‘escaping,’ I warp to a little distance away, and the enemy is returned to the position before the battle starts. At this time, monsters that should have been defeated in the battle are also ‘resurrected.’

────────────────────

“…This is about it.”

Let’s review them one by one.

First, let’s look at (1).

“If you take damage while ‘escaping,’ it will not affect your escape timer.”

This is simply a nice feature.

It seems that ‘Escape’ does not have the ‘escape timer returns if you take damage in the middle of the game’ system that is often found in games.

Currently, it takes 25 seconds to escape.

If there is a reset for escaping, I can only hope that all enemy attacks will trigger the lucky evasion.

“I mean, if the system had been designed with resets, I would have died yesterday…”

I’m still shaking now that I realize how reckless I was doing.

Next, (2).

“You don’t gain experience from monsters you killed before you ‘escaped.'”

“This is something I already knew.”

Because the “Voice of Heaven” clearly says, “You didn’t gain experience.”

If even one monster is left when the ‘escape’ is successful, it probably means that the experience gained from defeating the monster will also be nullified.

If I think of it like a game, does it mean that the experience gained is processed when all the monsters are killed?

This specification bothers me.

“If I could gain experience, I could level up by killing only one monster and then ‘escaping’…”

However, such a method is too inefficient compared to normal explorers.

Now, let’s look at (3).

Even if you ‘escape,’ you still get SP, money, and drop items.”

“I don’t get experience, but I do get SP. What does that mean?”

If I think of this in terms of a game again, does this mean that experience value and SP, money, and drop items are handled differently?

The experience value is determined when a monster is killed completely, but SP, money, and items are determined for each one of them or something?

Why is experience value handled separately?

After thinking for a while, I realized.

…Oh, I see. The experience value is divided by the headcount. If the number of survivors at the end of the battle isn’t determined, the distribution process can’t be done!”

Experience is divided by the number of people in the party.

For example, if a party of five gained 1000 experiences, the experience gained per person would be 200.

But what if one member dies in that battle?

The 1000 experiences would be divided among the four members, and the experience per person would be 250.

So until the battle is over, the experience value per person is not determined.

On the other hand, the same value of SP is given to all members.

If a battle reduces the number of members, the survivors don’t get that much more.

“Then what about money? It’s a head split, right? No… I see.”

Money has a direction for each monster defeated.

The mana coins left behind after the monster disappears become light and are sucked into the phone.

Since there is an actual mana coin, it is supposed to be collected and distributed each time a monster is defeated.

“The drop items are… well, I get the idea.”

The type and number of drop items are not dependent on the number of people in the party.

What you get depends on the monsters you defeat.

It is intuitive that the drop items are determined at the time the monster is defeated.

“Only experience is processed after ‘seeing’ how many people are in the party at the end of the battle. But everything else is processed each time a single monster is destroyed…”

I don’t know what it actually is, but as far as I can come up with it, there doesn’t seem to be a more plausible explanation.

“…So, if I repeat the previous method, I can earn 2 SPs for defeating the Slime, right?”

No experience is gained.

Money can be gained, but each time you ‘escape,’ you lose around 50% of your money.

Still, it means that only SP can be obtained without fail.

Other than SP, the only thing left is dropped items.

Incidentally, 8 Potion Gummies fell in 10 attempts.

The wiki didn’t say that they drop that much, so perhaps high Luck has something to do with it.

Could I make up for the money lost by selling the dropped items?

No, that’s tough with Potion Gummy…

After all, the only thing I get for ‘escaping’ is 2 SPs for defeating…

…Hmm? Wait a minute. Wasn’t the SP I was getting just now ‘3’?”

I checked the log of “Voice of Heaven” in DGP.

As I thought, the log showed “3 SPs acquired.” I guess the wiki made a mistake?

Was it a typo in the wiki?

If there were a mistake in the SP of such a monster that everyone defeats, it would have been corrected a long time ago.

“Oh, I see. The SP gained is corrected by the difference in level between the monster and the explorer, right?”

If the monster’s level is higher than the explorer’s level, SP increases, and if the monster’s level is lower, SP decreases.

Specifically, if the monster’s level is 1 to 9 higher than yours, the SP gained is 1.5 times higher, and if the monster’s level is 10 or higher, the SP gained is doubled.

Conversely, if the monster’s level is 1 to 9 lower than yours, the SP you gain is halved, and if the monster’s level is 10 or lower than yours, the SP you gain is reduced to zero.

“The Slime that just came in was 1 to 9 levels higher than me, right?”

So my level is lower than the Slime…

I’m not sure why I’m so depressed about it.

I’m just starting out, so it can’t be helped.

Anyway.

The reason the SP gain was 3 earlier was because the 2 SP gained from defeating the Slime was 1.5 times higher.

“So there’s an advantage to being low level.”

Well, if I keep defeating monsters, my level will go up, and the level difference compensation will soon be gone…

“…W-what?”

If I ‘escape’ with the monsters left behind, I will not get any experience.

Naturally, my level won’t increase either.

However, in today’s world, raising one’s level is not the only way to become stronger.

Sometimes it is more important to acquire skills.

For example, no matter how much one’s ability level increases, one cannot use magic without skills.

Furthermore, acquiring a skill gives you a bonus to your ability value.

The first ‘Fire Magic’ that I learned gave me a bonus of +50 each to MP and Magic Power, for a total bonus of 100 points.

The SP required to acquire ‘Fire Magic’ is 100.

It seems that the bonus is the same as the SP required to acquire the skill.

A bonus of 100 seems big, but that’s because my level is low.

As I mentioned before, the growth range when leveling up is equal to the ability value at level 1.

If there is an explorer whose ability values at level 1 are all 10, he will increase all ability values by 10 for each level up, and the total ability value increase for one level up will be 80, or 10 points in each of the eight categories.

Considering this, 100 is probably not that high.

Considering the difficulty of earning SP, it would be more reliable to raise your level.

However, as my basic ability values are quite low, my status will be unbalanced if I just raise my level normally.

Especially low HP and Defense are fatal――literally, life-threatening problems.

Let’s compare me, at level 1 with 7 HP, with the all-10 that I just mentioned.

If both of us were to reach level 30, my HP would be 210, and he would be 300.

The difference of 3 is 90.

HP is an especially important ability value, and I heard that there are many explorers who have more than 11 HP.

As one’s level goes up, the upward compensation for SP is eliminated, but the gap in ability value widens.

This means that you are forced to fight high-level monsters with a lower ability value compared to other explorers.

If you don’t fight enemies that are appropriate for your level, you won’t be able to earn SP.

But what if there is a way to get SP without raising your level――?

“No, not ‘if.’ There is a way.”

In my hands, of all people.

“This is… I think I’m the only one who’s aware of it.”

In this crazy day and age, explorer level is not just a status in the game.

It is also a social status.

There is no point in keeping it low.

“In the first place, it’s risky to take on monsters of a higher rank, isn’t it?”

Even if the SP gained by keeping the level low increases, it is not worth the risk by a factor of 1.5.

It would be faster and more stable to hunt two monsters of the same rank in the time it takes to kill one of the higher-ranked monsters.

“…No, there is more to it than that.”

Experience is not compensated for by level differences.

Of course, the higher-level monster will give you more experience, but if you value safety, you will fight the lower-level monster even at the cost of SP gain.

This is not a game but a reality.

Besides,

“Serika said. It is difficult to escape in a small dungeon, so it is safer to fight.”

If the assumption is that you can’t escape, you will try to be higher level than the monsters.

The level of monsters in a dungeon can be easily found by looking at a wiki.

A decent explorer would not try to enter a dungeon with higher-level monsters, right?

“Given that, it seems to me that there would be no demand for any escape-type skills other than ‘escape,’ right?”

Even if there were no such mischievous disadvantages as ‘Escape,’ there are seldom situations in which one needs to flee from monsters while exploring in the first place.

If you are faced with such a situation often, you will lose your life during the exploration in the near future.

The owner of an escape skill other than ‘Escape’ may only think of it as a precautionary measure in case of emergency.

If it’s a unique skill, it’s also possible that they think they’ve got “a failure skill,” just like I did just before.

I did a lot of research on the Internet last night and couldn’t find a single story about the effective use of escape skills.

“Am I the only one in the world… who can make this kind of earning?”

The moment I said the words, I felt a shiver in my core.