arc1 · 016-ch16

Episode 16: Unique Skill

"Oh! Level went up!! Now I'm level 9!"

Yasu reports happily after absorbing the smoke from a Underling Fox. With this, tomorrow they can challenge the Boss Fox fully prepared.

"Ohh, congratulations. How about the drop item? Did 'Underling's Essential' drop?"

They'd been fighting Underling Foxes not just for leveling up, but also to obtain 'Underling's Essential' to become Suzuka's new weapon. The drop rate is stingy at 1%, and even after defeating over 50 of them, it still hasn't dropped.

"Ah-haihai. Storage, storage... Nope, not happening. Didn't even drop aburaage this time."

There are three types of Underling Fox drop items. 'Fox-marked Fried Tofu,' 'Underling Fox Fur,' and 'Underling's Essential.' 'Fox-marked Fried Tofu' is aburaage soaked in a sweet-salty sauce, and it's exquisite. However, since it's aburaage after all, the selling price is cheap at 500 yen. If it drops, it becomes a souvenir to take to each other's homes.

"Dammit! I didn't get any drop either either. Ugh—! Do I really have to end up buying one after all!"

Suzuka also checked his Storage, but couldn't find what he was looking for.

"Hm? Wait a sec, Suzuka. Why hasn't that thing you're holding disappeared?"

"Huh?"

Looking where Yasu pointed, in his hand was the weapon he'd snatched from the Underling Fox earlier, 'Underling's Essential.' There was so little sense of incongruity that he'd thought he was holding his metal bat as usual, but the metal bat had snapped in half and was rolling on the ground.

"Whoa! It's true! What is this?"

He let go of it without thinking, but even after leaving his hand, the magic iron pipe didn't turn to smoke, and instead dropped with a plop into the grass.

"Eh? So this means it dropped? Something I can keep?"

"I guess that's... how it works? If it's 'Underling's Essential,' we should be able to see the details, so let's check it out."

Just like monsters, dungeon-produced items have names and details visible when you focus on them. While you can't see them when equipped, there's no problem with the fallen magic iron pipe.

As expected of Yasu. He's sharp. Suzuka followed Yasu's example and looked at the fallen magic iron pipe.

Name: Underling Fox's Pride

Grade: Rare

Details: A weapon embodying the pride of a Underling Fox. Rich in magic iron use. When equipped with this weapon, Underling Foxes will regard you with respect.

"'Underling Fox's Pride'? It's not 'Underling's Essential'?"

"This is Rare Grade! It's a different item from 'Underling's Essential'!"

Yasu said that as if excited.

Looking closely at the fallen magic iron pipe, the length was about the same as the metal bat, so the size was common, but the color was slightly different from the magic iron pipes Underling Foxes were holding. 'Underling's Essential' is a weapon consisting of a mouse-gray iron pipe with the grip wrapped in white bandages. On the other hand, 'Underling Fox's Pride' has a more turbid dull lead-like color, and the bandages are a deep crimson color as if soaked in blood.

"Rare in Floor 1, District 1?! That's uncharted territory, isn't it!?"

"Rare was supposed to be a grade that doesn't drop unless it's an area boss or District 4 or above in Floor 1. Super low probability drop item, maybe?"

Underling Fox drop items are said to be three types. But in reality, there were actually four types, just with extremely low probability?

"Is that even possible? These are Floor 1, District 1 Underling Foxes, you know? Monsters even training facility trainees defeat. They're being killed by tens of thousands per year, yet not a single drop of this has happened?"

Suzuka was also convinced by Yasu's question. Suzuka himself thinks he has good luck, but he doesn't think he has luck good enough to draw an item with such probability. Even 'Underling's Essential' with its 1% drop rate hasn't dropped after defeating 50. He can't imagine an item with even lower probability than that appearing. Even if he were lucky, he wouldn't want to use lottery-winning luck in a place like this.

"Did you really pull a low probability? If so, that's seriously amazing, you know"

Yasu said that, but is that really the case? Even to investigate this item, he'd have to leave the dungeon. The only thing he can do right now is probably check his status.

Let's check whatever he can, so he tried displaying his status. The window appears without sound. However, the answer was there.

Name: Suzuka Jozenji

Level: 9

Vitality: 77

Magic: 78

Attack: 83

Defense: 76

Agility: 84

Dexterity: 82

Intelligence: 78

Storage: 33

Ability: Swordsmanship (1), Body Control (1), Snatch

"Snatch? What is this?"

There was a skill he didn't know listed there. Body Control was a new skill he learned when he reached level 8, but he didn't remember learning a skill like this when he became level 9.

"What? Did you learn a new skill?"

"Yeah, seems that way. It's a skill called Snatch, do you know it?"

"Snatch? What's that? Never heard of it."

Yasu thinks deeply as if searching his memory. If even Yasu doesn't know this skill, the only option is to research it after returning. Just as he's thinking that, Yasu seems to have hit on something.

"...Hey, Suzuka. That skill. It doesn't have a number written on it, does it?"

"Number?"

"Yeah. Like with Swordsmanship, there's a 1 or something written after it, right?"

Now that he mentions it, that's true. Swordsmanship and Body Control have (1) written, but Snatch doesn't.

"It's true. There's no number written on Snatch."

"Whoa, seriously? That's probably a Unique Skill, isn't it!?"

Yasu taught him excitedly.

There are two types of skills: Growth Skills and Fixed Skills. Growth Skills, like Swordsmanship, have parentheses after them, and the number increases and grows according to proficiency. On the other hand, Fixed Skills, like the representative Map, are skills whose effect is determined from the start and don't grow.

And there are three grades of skills. Those are Common, Rare, and Unique. This grade isn't a grade given by dungeons like dungeon-produced items have, but a grade classification humans arbitrarily assigned. Therefore, not all skills strictly have grades assigned to them, but to some extent you can understand a skill's grade by looking at the database.

Skills like Swordsmanship and Body Control are widely known and manifested by many explorers, so they're Common Skills. Magic skills and skills manifested by only a small number are Rare Skills. And then there are Unique Skills that aren't registered in the database, or have been manifested by only one or two people.

All skills are useful, and the more you have, the wider the range of fighting styles and the stronger you can become. Even so, generally the rarer the skill, the more powerful the skill is.

The number of skills is extremely large and diverse. However, most explorers don't obtain special skills and only manifest Common Skills. Even so, by raising proficiency, it's possible to become stronger than poor Rare Skills, and they can shoulder the middle rank as explorers.

But if they can manifest Rare Skills, they can aim for the upper rank of explorers. The difference in skills is that large, and an explorer's status is determined by how many useful skills they have.

And many explorers active on the front lines hold Unique Skills, and it's even said that whether or not Unique Skills manifest is the dividing line for whether you can become a top explorer.

"That's amazing, Suzuka!! What kind of effect is it?! Tell me!"

"Whoa, seriously?! Is this that amazing a skill?! Wait a sec. The skill details are..."

Name: Snatch

Details: Items directly seized from monsters do not disappear even when the monster vanishes, and continue to remain in the Snatcher's hand. Items obtained through this skill become enhanced items different from normal items.

"So basically, 'Underling Fox's Pride' is a weapon where 'Underling's Essential' got enhanced?"

"Isn't this skill crazy dangerous?! 'Underling's Essential' itself contains magic iron so the buyback price is 10,000 yen! And that got enhanced, and for Underling Fox-level opponents, you can seize as many as you want, so you can earn as much as you want, can't you?"

This skill requires seizing from the opponent, so it's difficult to obtain items from monsters like Drunken Sheep. However, if the opponent is someone like Underling Fox from whom you can seize a weapon, then you can seize freely. An item with a 1% drop rate becomes 100%. Today alone they fought 20 Underling Foxes, so if he could seize from all of them, that's over 200,000 yen in earnings.

This is with Floor 1, District 1 monsters. If he advances further inside, just how much can he earn?

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa! What are we gonna do, Yasu! Should we go eat yakiniku today!?"

He doesn't intend to just do money-making strategies, but thanks to this skill, he won't have to worry about money anymore. Explorers need money to equip themselves, so not worrying about money in the early stages is very significant.

"Suzuka. Stop. This isn't a situation to get carried away."

To Suzuka who was dancing in wild joy, however, Yasu noticed something and tightened his excited face, warning Suzuka.

"What is it, Yasu. You don't want to eat meat?"

"No, we'll eat meat. But there's something I need to say first. Listen seriously, Suzuka."

Yasu, who's usually joking around, is speaking seriously. What is it, Suzuka thought, but even so he turned to face Yasu and took a posture to listen.

"This Snatch skill you learned. Even I got excited when I heard it, but for the time being, don't tell anyone the skill's name or details to anyone."

"I wasn't planning to spread it around, but why?"

"It's said that Unique Skills won't manifest elsewhere unless the owner dies. Take it with a grain of salt, though. Besides, there's also an urban legend that if you kill a skill holder, the skill transfers. There are guys who seriously believe such ridiculous things. I think it was overseas news, but I've seen news about someone being killed because of that."

Actually it's not that there's only one of each skill, and there are cases where two or more people manifest the same skill. But the number of skills is enormous, and among them, because they're rare skills, they're less likely to overlap.

"I don't know if it's happening in Japan or not, but saying you can steal the skill by killing a Unique Skill holder is a pretty major urban legend. Since picking a fight with a Unique Skill holder is suicidal behavior, you don't hear about it much, but if you search, it comes up quite a bit."

Unique Skills are handled severely, and they're existences that could even cause wars with just one skill. In fact, there's an example where in the early days of Japanese dungeons, large eastern and western guilds were on the brink of conflict due to where a famous figure's Unique Skill who was active in the dungeon dawn manifested.

"Besides, we're strong for our same level bracket, but as explorers we're chicks of chicks. We probably couldn't even beat Explorer High School second and third years. Such a skill that lays golden eggs, if yakuza-like guys notice it, there's nothing we can do."

Status differences are absolute. However excellent your technique may be, status differences can forcibly bridge the technique gap. No matter how well you might parry an enemy's attack, you're powerless against attacks at speeds you can't perceive.

Japanese explorers have their public safety protected thanks to past greats, but it's not completely clean. Shitheads spawn everywhere.

"I hate that. Being forced to do yakuza underling-like work."

It's an unpleasant story, but there are also explorers involved with yakuza. To yakuza, Suzuka who can snatch up items with skills as much as he wants is a good source of funds. If he gets suppressed by explorers, Suzuka's only choices are to listen or die.

"Right? So don't say anything. It's not like 'Sword God' where you instantly increase combat capability, after all."

Sword God is the most famous Unique Skill in Japan. It's the skill of the famous figure active in the dungeon dawn mentioned earlier. This skill is said to grant the essence of the sword to whoever manifests it, and it's said to be the strongest class skill in human combat.

On the other hand, the skill Suzuka manifested is a skill that allows you to make items seized from opponents your own. It's useful but not a standout skill, and it doesn't raise combat power either. Compared to 'Sword God,' it's a skill that seems suitable for a small villain's pocket change earning.

"Even if you seize items with skills, if they're enhanced you can't sell them. If you sell them, it'll cause a fuss about what that item is after all."

"Seriously... so we just have to throw away this weapon then..."

"No, that much should be okay even if you use it. The appearance is 'Underling's Essential,' and the red grip is within the range of personal modification anyway. Besides, basically no one uses a weapon like 'Underling's Essential' anyway."

Like Yasu says, this 'Underling's Essential' with its low drop rate is a weapon where the magic iron that's the material is more sought after than as a weapon. The weapon is melted to extract magic iron, and it transforms into swords or spears. Those who use it as a magic iron pipe as-is are extremely rare.

"Haa... seriously. Even though it was a good skill for once."

"If you join an Explorer Guild, I think you'll be treated preferentially. But if you don't have that intention, I think you should keep quiet until level 100, which is called the wall of mid-tier explorers."

"I'll do that. You too, Yasu, keep your mouth shut about this to anyone else."

"Can't be helped."

The skill he'd好不容易 obtained was a sad skill that brought trouble.