ch21-ch40 · 024-ch24
Chapter 24: The Romantic Job
I'll go with [Charge Spearman].
As I advance deeper, past the 10-floor tier and into the 20-floor tier, the monsters keep getting stronger and stronger.
Therefore, to progress through the 20-floor tier, the current mainstream strategy is to take a job with high base stats on floor 10, then take a sub-job with powerful weapon skills on floor 20.
The jobs with high base stats are [Knight] and [Monk].
[Charge Spearman] is inferior to those two but still has pretty high stats.
Moreover, it has the overwhelmingly powerful [Charge・Spear] skill.
With [Charge Spearman], I should have no problem choosing a [Scout] type sub-job on floor 20.
Shield jobs become essential only from floor 30 onward.
By then, Soushi will probably have become an adventurer, and I'll have other companions too.
If we still don't have a shield job in our party by that time, I'll choose a shield job for my advanced job.
Among the advanced jobs for [Charge Spearman], there's also a rather specialized shield job called [Charge Shieldman].
Of course, it's not impossible that other excellent [Shield Bearer] type advanced jobs might appear.
"Click."
I select [Charge Spearman] in my mind and press the switch.
"[Status]."
Name: Kasugano Haruki
Job: None → [Charge Spearman]
Lv: 10
HP: 100/100 → 100/300
MP: 99/100 → 99/150
Strength: 10 → 25
Endurance: 10 → 25
Agility: 10 → 20
Magic: 10 → 15
Skill: [Gate]
Skill Points: 0 → 10
"I suddenly got a lot stronger."
These might be the minimum stats required from here on out.
I need to stay focused.
"Before I get to the fun part of distributing my skill points, maybe I should head back to floor 9."
I'm not sure if it's to prevent people from lingering too long after defeating the boss, but the boss respawns.
Since its spawn position is random, it could be dangerous while I'm focused on my status screen in my mind.
I'll proceed to floor 11 once, then go back two floors.
"Yikes."
That's the party of the person who just went in earlier.
The woman who reacted first notices me, and everyone turns to face me. ...They're holding weapons.
"...I'm sorry?"
I'm still holding my spear in my right hand, but I raise both hands in a surrender pose.
"Whoa, you scared me. It's a person."
"I should be the one apologizing. Sorry. Hey, lower your weapons."
"Right."
At their leader's words, everyone lowers their weapons. I lower my hands too.
"You can't stay in front of the Gate forever. Let's reflect on what happened while we walk. Let's go."
"Sorry about that."
The five-person party walks away. They all looked young, but both of the women had full makeup on. They're probably not high school students. College students, maybe?
I can still hear their voices from behind as they walk away.
"Jeez, we're the ones who got scared. You're a [Scout], but you can't even tell the difference between a monster's presence and a person's?"
"Well, you'd be surprised too if someone suddenly appeared behind you. Besides, I checked around when we entered the boss floor, and there was nobody there, right?"
"Then he must have been in there before us. If not behind, then ahead. He was by himself, too. Must have taken him a while."
"Still though. I can't believe there's actually someone who would take on a Minotaur solo. Do you think he was filming it or something?"
"I doubt it. Maybe he just doesn't have any friends."
"Oh."
The girl who isn't the [Scout] turns around.
Am I wrong?
After being hurt by their baseless slander, I somehow made it back from floor 11 to floor 2. Behind the usual tree cover after passing through the 'Left Gate'.
"[Status]. Time to tap those skill points."
I tap the skill points section of the status screen that appears in my mind.
Skill Points: 10
'Available Skills'
[Charge・Spear] 5
[Charge・Spear・Strength Up] 1
[Charge・Spear・Endurance Up] 1
[Charge・Spear・Agility Up] 1
[Charge・Spear・Magic Up] 1
[Charge・Spear・Aiming] 1
[Charge・Spear・Burst] 1
[Charge・Spear・...etc.
A whole line-up of [Charge・Spear] skills.
[Charge・Spear・Strength Up] is probably a skill that increases the Strength stat value when using [Charge・Spear]. It's probably the same for Endurance, Agility, and Magic.
The numbers to the right of the [ ] brackets seem to be the skill point cost. I currently have 10 skill points. It seems I get 1 point per level.
In other words, I can learn [Charge・Spear] plus five other skills that enhance [Charge・Spear].
[Charge・Spear・Aiming] is a skill that grants the [Aiming] spear attack skill. [Aiming] is a skill that makes the spear tip aim at a targeted location, and it's said to be the representative skill of [Spearman] type jobs, with some saying it's all you need. However, skills that grant spear attack skills, like [Aiming] in this case, consume as much MP as using [Aiming] itself. Since [Charge・Spear] is a skill that increases attack power based on the MP poured into it, this creates a dilemma where accuracy improves but maximum power decreases.
Opinions are divided on whether maximum power is the romantic option or if critical hits are for maximum damage.
It's something to agonize over, but the sure choices are probably [Charge・Spear] and [Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear].
There's no regular [Weapon Enhancement・Spear]. You can only enhance your weapon while using [Charge・Spear]. That's what [Charge Spearman] is all about.
[Weapon Enhancement・Spear] is probably what Watanabe-san was using. It's a skill that strengthens the entire spear, making it unbreakable, not just increasing attack power. The feedback felt odd when she blocked my sweeping attack with a mop.
...Wait, is a mop a spear?
Is it possible that Watanabe-san's job is actually [Maid] with something like [Cleaning Tool Enhancement・Mop]?
If there's a job like [Maid], would the acquisition condition be something like cleaning from floor 1 to floor 10? The shop staff on floor 1 clean every day, so maybe they could become one?
[Maid] is the true romantic job.
My thoughts drift into a sea of imagination...