Translator: Kell | Editor: Ryunakama
I Increased my Skill’s Level
「A guard request, then?」
「Yes. I’ll offer a daily reward, of course, so rest assured. You don’t have to deal with monsters that the other ordinary adventurers can kill.」
A very easy job. I’ll basically just be sitting around, doing nothing. After all, a Boss monster almost never appears. Still…
「I can’t really be on the lookout all the time, though.」
I’d be fine if all I had to do was kill strong monsters that show up. But keeping watch the whole time is a drag.
「I’ll hire adventurers to keep watch. I’ll inform you if a dangerous monsters appears, and then you’ll kill them. I have a way to let you know if you just stay around town.」
Hmm. I have no reason to refuse. I can’t go far, but I wasn’t really planning to in the first place.
「All right. I’ll take the job.」
And so Count Meigis will work on his belladonna plantation, while I get a cushy job… a job where I had to do nothing. But since I took the request, I’ll have to do a few things in the off-chance that a Boss monster does show up. It might be a ridiculous waste of my time, but I was going to do it at some point later anyway.
◇
The next morning.
I went into a forest situated in the outskirts of town to enhance my spells. And for that I have to drink a concoction called a Wisdom Medicine. One of its ingredients is the Wisdom Stone that I obtained the other day. By grinding the stone to fine bits and mixing it with a pulverized medicinal plant, I can enhance my spells.
「…This should do, I think.」
I mixed the grinded stone and belladonna – a leftover from when I did my experiment – to make a paste. Any medicinal plant will do, but back in BBO, I always used belladonnas so I decided to use it this time as well.
Anyway…
「So I have to gulp this down…」I muttered to myself as I regarded the Wisdom Medicine that I just finished making.
A paste of concentrated belladonna juice and muddy red Wisdom Stone. By mixing these two, you get a Wisdom Medicine, which by the way, didn’t look like anything someone would take.
I just know it tastes horrible.
「But I have to take it.」
I had two Wisdom Stones, and I used one of them just now. I’m keeping the other one for now as certain circumstances might require me to enhance other spells. I already made up my mind which Skill to enhance: Steam Explosion – a high-level Sage Skill. It can only be learned at higher levels so I couldn’t use it until recently.
The reason I’m using one of my only two Wisdom Stones to enhance it is simply because it’s an overwhelmingly powerful Skill. It’s potent even when used normally, and it’s handy in the event of an emergency.
I should try using it once before enhancing it.
「Steam Explosion.」
As soon as I chanted the spell, a high-pitched boom rang out and nearby trees got blown away. The trees near the explosion area were smashed, their branches reduced to pieces.
「Quite incredible even though it’s only level 1.」
Why was this Skill so powerful? It’s because the spell possesses the high mana efficiency of a water-type offensive spell and ease-of-use of an explosion spell.
The mana cost of Steam Explosion is by no means low. A highly mighty spell, it was just as efficient as Flame Circle. But it takes time before Flame Circle activates and to really exhibit the power of the spell, the target has to be restrained first. There was also the risk of fire spreading which makes Flame Circle fit for use only by advanced practitioners.
Mana-efficient spells usually has drawbacks. It could be that they have a small AoE, it’s difficult to really bring out the full power of the spell, or perhaps it takes time to activate.
But Steam Explosion has no such downside. It has a wide AoE, activates in an instant, and simply chanting the spell will cause an explosion before the target. It’s a completely broken spell.
Unfortunately, it was still inferior to the Steam Explosion I used in BBO because of its low level. BBO was a game where a difference in the level of a Skill was extremely crucial. One level difference and the Skill’s utility changes like it was a completely different kind of spell. To balance things out, rare items were required to enhance the Skills.
As soon as I witnessed the power of the spell I used, I knew that I needed Steam Explosion.
「Here goes nothing.」
I steeled myself and gulped down the Wisdom Medicine.