ch61-ch80 · 076-ch76
Chapter 76: What the New Job Is
Name: Kasugano Haruki
Job: 【Charge Shielder】new【Charge Spearman】【Scout】
Lv: 30
HP: 648/900→2250
MP: 0/450→600
Strength: 75→120
Endurance: 75→150
Agility: 60→105
Magic: 45→60
Skill: 【Gate】【Charge・Spear】【Charge・Spear・Weapon Enhancement・Spear】【Charge・Spear・Strength Up】【Charge・Spear・Endurance Up】【Charge・Spear・Agility Up】【Charge・Spear・Aiming】【Presence Concealment】【Scouting】【Night Vision】
Skill Points: 11
(My MP is at zero!)
I've really gone and done it this time.
That's a bigger problem than any first impressions of my new job.
But it looks like I can pull through this.
And there's none of the job-change backlash I was afraid of.
Let's go.
"So the true nature of the 【Charge Shielder】? Aha—there it is: running away!"
Time to skedaddle.
My Agility has gone way up.
Even at half strength, I should be able to shake off the Forest Ogres.
"Hah, hah, hah."
I charge at the 'Gate to Floor 31.'
And tumble right through it.
"Ugh... I almost died back there, huh?"
...Let's calm down.
Time to sort out my thoughts while I rest.
First things first, what's what?
My surroundings?
(【Presence Concealment】.)
As far as I can see, there's nothing here.
The monsters from Floor 31 onward are Golems.
There's a chance 【Presence Concealment】 might not even work on them.
Golems apparently target magic-user jobs first.
If they're reacting to magic power, the counter-skill would be 【Magic Concealment】, but I can't learn that as a 【Scout】.
In any case, if anything happens, I'll dive straight into the 'Gate to Floor 29.'
(Next, check my current state? Let's look over 【Charge Shielder】.)
I've become a 【Charge Shielder】, a high-rank job.
It's my main job, so it shows up at the very top of the job column.
【Charge Spearman】 remains as my sub.
So is 【Charge Shielder】 a shield job?
The stats lean toward Endurance, but the balance is quite good.
Let's go through them.
Level is still 30.
HP: 648/900→2250
The HP is very high.
The base value is 75.
It goes up by 75 with every level.
As for my current HP—I was at about 70 percent before the job change, so if I rest, it should recover to around that level even inside the dungeon.
By my math, that means recovering to about 1500.
Though if the blood loss keeps up, it could keep dropping instead.
The wound on my back worries me.
MP: 0/450→600
This is bad.
Zero.
【Gate】 won't work.
And MP doesn't recover inside the dungeon.
There's apparently a special skill called 【MP Transfer】, but that's irrelevant right now.
Which means I have no choice but to walk home.
Max MP seems to correspond to the Magic stat.
Magic 60, max MP 600.
More is welcome.
Inside the dungeon, MP is your lifeline.
...Even though mine is zero at the moment.
As for skills that raise max MP, mage-type jobs can apparently learn things like 【Max MP Up】 and 【Max MP Up・High】.
No idea how much they raise it, though.
Strength: 75→120
Strength has shot up too, but compared to close-combat jobs, it's a touch more modest?
The base value is 4, but 【Sword Master】—the baseline for close-combat jobs—was 4.5, if I remember right.
So 【Charge Shielder】 really is a shield job.
Endurance: 75→150
Doubled.
A base value of 5! The same number as the 【Ninja】's Agility.
With Endurance like this, maybe the cause of my condition will clear up too?
【Charge・Spear】 was the cause, and if this solves that problem, then 【Charge Shielder】 can rightly be called its proper evolution.
And with HP this high, maybe I won't die anymore?
Agility: 60→105
Base value is 3.5.
I'd say that's quite high.
Other shield jobs and heavy-armor types should fall below 3.
3.5 is higher than the close-combat jobs.
Well balanced—or should I say, it's the same pattern as 【Charge Spearman】: the skills are lacking, so the stats are high to make up for it?
But high Agility is a lifesaver.
My fighting style involves a lot of running.
I wonder how fitting that is for a shield job, but the name IS Charge Shielder.
Agility affects not just how fast you run, but how fast you swing a sword or spear, too.
Agility is the most important stat of all.
The ninja said so too.
Thanks to it, I got out of the boss floor easily just now.
Magic: 45→60
Base value is 2.
High-rank combat jobs are mostly 2, I'd guess.
Magic also relates to magic defense.
That's what they said on the forums.
The jobs with this stat high would be 【Magic Swordsman】 and 【Holy Knight】, maybe?
And of course, the magic jobs.
【Sage】 probably has a base value of at least 5.
I haven't learned it, but there IS a 【Charge・Spear・Magic Up】.
Is that a skill for raising magic defense?
Skill Points: 11
Time for the fun part.
"【Skill Points】, 【Charge Shielder】—and, click."
'Available Skills'
【Charge・Shield・High】 5
【Charge・Shield・Armor Enhancement・Shield・High】 1
【Charge・Shield・Strength Up・High】 1
【Charge・Shield・Endurance Up・High】 1
【Charge・Shield・Agility Up・High】 1
【Charge・Shield・Magic Up・High】 1
【Charge・Shield・Shield Parry】 1
【Charge・Shield・Shield Counter】 1
︙
【Charge・Shield・Shield Bash】 1
【Charge・Shield・Shield Spike】 1
【Charge・Shield・Shield Shock】 1
︙
【Charge・Shield・Magic Shield】 1
【Charge・Shield・Wide Shield】 1
【Charge・Shield・Sphere Shield】 1
︙
【Charge・Shield・One with the Shield】 50
【Charge・Shield・Dimension Wall】 50
【Charge・Shield・Mirror Shield】 50
【Charge・Shield・...etc.
There it is.
Super mode.
And it's the 'High' version, no less.
A hyper mode combining spear and shield... I'm not going to die, am I?
Better not combine them for a while and just see how things go...
As before, it looks like the other skills can't activate unless 【Charge・Shield・High】 is in use.
But wait—isn't this showing ALL the shield skills?
Aren't the 50-point ones supposed to be one per job?
【Charge・Shield・One with the Shield】 must be like 【Sword Master】's 【One with the Sword】.
Nobody's ever learned it, so who knows what it's like.
【Dimension Wall】 should be learnable by 【Wide-Area Shielder】.
【Charge・Shield・Mirror Shield】 sounds like complete reflection in skill form.
Which job does that one belong to, I wonder?
Well, they all cost 50, so learning them is out of the question.
50 skill points is 50 levels' worth, you know?
Those are for after I make it to Floor 40 and can become a 【Charge Shielder】 all over again.
In Japan, the only person who's learned a 50-point skill is Sword Saint-chan.
Overseas, apparently there are quite a few of them...
The Self-Defense Forces? That's classified information.
Whenever the topic of the SDF—especially their high-rank jobs and skills—comes up on the forums, the whole board vanishes.
(With no MP right now, taking 【Charge Shielder】 skills would be pointless. More importantly...)
No MP is a problem.
I can't use 【Scouting】.
Floor 29 Forest Ogres would still hurt me—Endurance 150 or not, I'd come away wounded.
And on Floor 29, you get surrounded in no time.
I want to avoid fighting.
Even if I run, fleeing toward enemies defeats the whole purpose.
Which means...
(【Presence Detection】. No MP cost.)
Tap.
I spend 2 skill points and learn 【Presence Detection】.
(Now then, what do I do from here...)
I'm walking home either way—but would it be better to wait until it gets a bit darker?
It's 6 PM right now.
I have 【Night Vision】, so darker is fine by me.
As long as nothing spots me visually, 【Presence Concealment】 keeps working.
The night should be my ally...
"Ah..."
The ground is wet.
...That's my blood.
From my back?
The bleeding hasn't stopped.
And I lost quite a lot from the nosebleed too...
HP: 648→701
My HP is recovering.
But how far will it recover?
For all I know, it might start dropping again partway through.
The night may be my ally, but time, it seems, is not...