Chapter 14: The Walk to Town
Through the improvement in Appraisal, there were some changes in the Status display. The first change was the mysterious “Magical Power Conductivity”. Fran didn’t seem to know what it was either. Is it the efficiency in conducting Magic? Really, I have no clue.
The next changes related to the display format of Skills. Different types of Skills became sorted, so it’s become somewhat easier to look at.
Oh, I also came to understand Self-Modification, which I didn’t understand thus far. Apparently, thanks to it new effects are gained once I reach a counter stop. [1]
✧It can grant Superior Skills, which are simply be better versions of the Skill they’re derived from. To Skills that have reached LvMax, modifying it into a Superior Skill is a great bonus. However, these Skills are excluded from the Set Skills that I can share with Fran, and are usable only to me. This is, of course, because my own Skills cannot become Set Skills. Putting it into two categories for Skill Sharing seems to be impossible.
However, because it uses up 10 Self-Evolution Points, I’ll need to give serious thought to the Skills I want to modify. Why it uses Self-Evolution Points is quite mysterious, but because they’re primarily based in Self-Evolution itself, Self-Modification could be something akin to a support of Self-Evolution.
Along the way to the Town I teach Fran about myself, too. There’s nothing to hide, after all. We also need to know the proper truth beforehand in order to arrange an alibi of some sort for one another; that way we won’t be found out by others.
I taught her about my ability to absorb Magic Stones, Skill Sharing, my ability to increase the Stats of my wielder, etc.
「Magic Stones……」
『Mhm. However, I just leveled up recently, so there’s a long way to go.』
「Un.」
『Ah, hey. What are you doing?』
「Un.」
*Gangan*
My blade was pressed down into the middle of a Fang Rat, piercing the Magic Stone along the way. Usually, I would try to absorb it but she was a little unreasonable.
『Wait, wait! It’s no good if it’s just cut! It has to remain in contact with my blade!』
「Like this?」
『Yeah, like that.』
「Really absorbed…」
『I can become stronger through doing this. We can also sell any materials we gain, so we should hunt Demonic Beasts proactively.』
「Un. Roger.」
The journey up until this point has gone on without any problems. It seems that the Plains were quite special after all, as the Demonic Beasts which appeared outside of the forest weren’t very strong either. At best, they’d be equivalent to ones found in Area 2.
In regards to meals, it’s left to me.
When my sanity had been depleted, Cooking was one of the Skills that was elevated, after all. The ingredients are the Demonic Beasts stored within Dimensional Storage. Thanks to Cooking, I found out whether Demonic Beasts were edible or not.
Because Fran has the same Cooking Skill as me, she should be able to cook, but I’ll be taking charge in this area. This is the duty of a guardian, after all.
Furthermore, I also made absolutely sure that my Resistance Skills were set, alongside Absorption Enhancement, Digestion Enhancement, Predation, and other such Skills while meals took place.
Predation allows the user to absorb the power of what the user eats. I don’t know how much of a difference it’ll make, but there’s no problem with setting it anyways.
At present, Fran’s status looks like this:
Name ：Fran Age ：12
Race ：Black Cat Tribe
Job ：None
State ：Contracted
Status:
Level ：5
HP ：73 MP ：65 STR ：41 END ：32 AGI ：43 INT ：28 MGC ：32 DEX ：45
Skills:
Night Eyes [2], Skinning Expert, Directional Sense
Set Skills:
Sword Arts ：Lv7, Pugilist Arts ：Lv3
Sword Techniques ：Lv7, Pugilist Techniques ：Lv1
HP Recovery Rate ↑ ：Lv1, Evasion ：Lv2, Evasion ↑ ：Lv1, Leg Strength ↑ ：Lv2, Instant Recovery ：Lv1
Recovery Magic ：Lv1, Flame Magic ：Lv1, Purification Magic ：Lv3, Ground Magic ：Lv4, Fire Magic ：LvMax, Support Magic ：Lv3
Danger Perception ：Lv1, Vigilance ：Lv4, Presence Perception ：Lv2, Harvesting ：Lv2, Echolocation ：Lv1, Magic Perception ：Lv3
Stealth ：Lv3, Conceal Presence ：Lv3, Escape ：Lv1
Intimidation ：Lv2, Ambition ：Lv1
Fire Resistance ：Lv1, Fear Resistance ：Lv1, Impact Resistance ：Lv1, Abnormal Status Resistance ：Lv1, Mental Resistance ：Lv1, Poison Resistance：Lv3, Drowsiness Resistance ：Lv1, Disease Resistance ：Lv3, Physical Attack Resistance：Lv1, Paralysis Resistance ：Lv2
Dismantling ：LvMax, Throwing ：LV3, Cooking ：LvMax
Aerial Jump ：Lv2
Mineralogy ：Lv1, Medicine Manufacturing ：Lv1, Herbalism：Lv3
Poison Breath ：Lv1, Fission Creation ：Lv1
Vigor Manipulation, Dimensional Storage, Vibration Fang, Floating, Parallel Thought, Magic Manipulation
Night Vision, Absorption Enhancement, Sight Enhancement, Digestion Enhancement, Bird's Eye View, Hearing Enhancement, Vitals Enhancement, AGI ↑ Low, MGC ↑ Low, Taste Enhancement, STR ↑ Low
Titles:
King of Dismantling, Skill Collector, Master of Fire, King of Cooking
Equipment:
Regular Clothing, Bracelet of Strength +1
For her Status, she’s overwhelmingly stronger than Goblins. In fact, she’s stronger than a Goblin King. She would be about equal to the Demonic Beasts and the top of the Orc Race in Area 3. She’s also changed from her previously shabby clothing into ones from the horse-drawn carriage.
Each of her equipments’ Stats have also been improved by ~20 per piece; this is due to the effects of Skills like Owner ALL Stats ↑ and STR ↑ Low. They’re quite the cheats. Like this, there’ll be no problem in a fight against lower-leveled Demonic Beasts.
As for her Skills, these are the basic ones, but they’ll change often because I modify them depending on the situation.
The only problem at hand is money. The currency unit of this world seems to be “Gorudo” [3]. From the Slave Trader we received 2 Silver Coins, and 24 Copper Coins. That’s a total of 224 Gorudo. It seems that’s along the fine line of having lodging at a hotel for one night.
The reason why I said “it seems” is because Fran isn’t an expert on the market of the world. It’s just general knowledge.
And so, the first order of business is getting money. Preparing Armor and such will be essential, after all.
Just in case, I have a certain prospect that we can use. That is, the corpses of the Demonic Beasts which have been stowed away in Dimensional Storage. Because they seem to be the main source of income for Adventurers, selling them as materials would be worth a little at least.
So, before arrival, we’ll dismantle the material and sort out the ones that’ll most likely sell.
Because the materials gained from high-ranking Demonic Beasts might attract unnecessary attention to Fran, we’ll have to sell materials from lesser ranked Demonic Beasts for now.
Well, that’s an issue for when we arrive at town though.
『Alright, it’s done.』
We’re in the middle of camping at the moment. Fran is in the process of dismantling the materials. Apparently, so long as I’m registered as Equipment, even if she’s not holding me Skill Sharing will still be in effect. The Status raises will also remain. So Fran can use Dismantling even if she’s a little bit away.
In one hand Fran held a knife, dismantling the corpse of a Demonic Beast lying on the ground. Deodorization from Purification Magic is also being used in order to keep Demonic Beasts from approaching due to the smell of blood. Fran set that up all on her own.
Currently, I’m preparing a meal . It’s a stew using the meat of Demonic Beasts inside of a pot taken from the Slave Traders’ carriage. I’m also making use of medicinal herbs harvested using Herbalism, so the nutrition’ll be perfect.
As a sword, it’s easy for me to cut up ingredients, and mixing isn’t a problem using Telekinesis. The taste should be absolutely flawless ーー Cooking is LvMax, after all. It’s quite regrettable that I can’t taste it for myself.
This division of labor will be the default in the future. I’ll be in charge of Cooking and lookout, and Fran will be responsible for Dismantling. I’ll take the Magic Stones, and everything will be either sold or eaten.
『Fran, it’s finished.』
「Un.」
『Rinse your hands with water.』
「Aqua ・Create」
Fran washes her hands with a *pachapacha* sound using water I created via Water Magic, with me as the source of MP. There’re no problems in regards to consumption. Because Fran is the one using me, my Magic can be freely used, so we’ll be able to generate as much water as necessary.
『Is the Dismantling finished?』
「Almost. One is impossible.」
『Ahh, the Tortoise?』
For the Blast Tortoise, even at LvMax it seems impossible to dismantle with just a knife. Well, it can’t be helped. It’s a high-ranking Demonic Beast, after all.
The Tyrant Saber couldn’t be dismantled yesterday either. It’s an issue with the tools.
『Is it my turn today as well?』
「Please.」
『Mmh. Leave it to me. As for you, have a good meal.』
「Un. Thank you.」
Now, I should dismantle it quickly before Fran’s finished eating.
“Correction”
It’s a Skill that could be said to be one of a kind; an amazing Skill resultant from reaching a counter stop: a Superior Skill.
And it’s worthy of the title “Superior”. [4]
[1] Counter Stop is Japanese gaming lingo for “When something reaches max value”, in this case, it’s when a Skill become LvMax.
[2] Previously translated as “Night Vision” — which it technically is. It’s spelt like this “夜目” whereas the Night Vision Sword-shisho has is “暗視”. To be honest, I knew that it was a bit different, but the Skills were practically synonymous. Now that Fran has both Skills however, I need to change it. Originally I would have made it “Cat Eyes”, but there’s a possibility that other Races will have the same Skill, so “Night Eyes” is the middle ground I settled with. As always, if you have a better recommendation let me know
[3] It’s ゴルド. That could also be changed to plain old “Gold” — but in the end it would just be a guess based off of the onomatopoeia, so I kept it as Gorudo. Tell me what you guys think.
[4] The Author makes a “→” here, which is essentially them referring back to a previous part of the chapter. For which part they’re referring to, it’s the part related to Self-Modification’s ability to elevate LvMax Skills to “Superior Skills” — I’ve marked it with a “✧” for easy finding if anyone wants to read it again.