arc01 · 023-ep23
Episode 23: Nin-Nin
2 a.m. I got home, took care of my bath, and decided to go straight to bed.
The skill could wait until tomorrow. I'd think it over during class.
Checking my phone before bed: a message from Aizawa on the chat app, sent around the time the date flipped.
Let's see… 『The items you requested are finished, so I'll bring them tomorrow during lunch break』, it says.
Huh, that was fast? And if she messaged around 12, does that mean Aizawa was grinding away until about then too? She's got real grit.
『Roger that. Good night』, I send back.
◇
During class, I gaze at my status screen and think over which new skill to learn.
From the outside, I probably look like a model student agonizing over what's on the blackboard.
Here's what came up when I touched the SP field.
SP: 25
――Learnable Skills List――
【Strike (Minor)】 Required SP: 3
【Strike (Major)】 Required SP: 5
【Preservation (Minor)】 Required SP: 3
【Night Vision】 Required SP: 3
【Sprint】 Required SP: 5
【Leap】 Required SP: 5
【Evasion】 Required SP: 5
【Shukuchi】 Required SP: 5
【Mana Strike】 Required SP: 5
【Focus】 Required SP: 5
【Weight Reduction】 Required SP: 5
【Burn Resistance】 Required SP: 5
【Frostbite Resistance】 Required SP: 5
【Fatigue Resistance】 Required SP: 5
【Gathering Know-How】 Required SP: 5
【Map】 Required SP: 10
【Staff Arts】 Required SP: 10
【Fighting Arts】 Required SP: 10
【Movement Arts】 Required SP: 20
――――――――――――――
Compared to back at level 10, the list has absolutely exploded. Not that it matters much—no matter how many candidates pile up, I can only learn one… Still, there's a skill in here I've never seen before. Not once.
【Movement Arts】
The steep SP cost alone marks it as a rare skill beyond doubt, but even I—someone who keeps decent tabs on skill-related info—have never seen it or heard of it.
Honestly, if I'm picking the safe route, 【Fighting Arts】 or 【Map】 look best, but with a doubled cost of 20 SP, I can't help but expect big things from its effect.
I run a search on my phone—no hits.
…An unconfirmed skill, huh?
That makes it quite the gamble. Once you take a skill, there's no going "actually, never mind, I'll pick a different one." Pretty rough deal. Then again, something tells me skills that can erase skills might be out there—【Plunder】 exists, after all.
【Fighting Arts】 would definitely make me stronger, but my current 【Martial Arts】 feels like it's keeping up fine, so skipping it is no problem. 【Map】, being the map skill, looks insanely necessary on C-rank-and-deeper floors… but there's also a chance 【Movement Arts】 comes with a skill-within-a-skill of that type.
Grraaagh, this thing never fails to make me sweat the choice…!
No—but I get the feeling this is where I take the gamble. There's no way something with a cost that steep could be trash-tier. XX-Arts-type skills get stronger with every skill level, after all.
All right—I'm going with 【Movement Arts】. Aaand, tap.
『Consumed 20 SP and learned the skill 【Movement Arts: Lv. 1】』
Learned it, for sure—and the contents of 【Movement Arts】 slid right into my head.
Apparently, at level 1 it applies a hefty correction to movement-related actions, and it can display a simple map of the dungeon. Not as convenient as 【Map】, but it's bound to come in handy on C-rank floors and beyond. Yep—this was the right pick, no doubt about it.
◇
Lunch break. As always, I grab my stuff and head for the club room to eat.
I met up with Aizawa on the way, so we headed over together.
"'Yo. Sounds like you've been working hard at that Alchemy."
"Ah, Takeru-kun. S-sorry for messaging you so late. I was making all sorts of things, and once they all turned out properly I thought I had to let you know right away."
"It's fine—I was in the dungeon at that hour too."
"Th-that's a whole other problem, if you ask me…"
"I'm fine, I'm fine—hitting my absolute stride right now."
"You're solo, so please be careful."
"Will do."
I unlock the club room and take our usual seats. We've got proper spots now, too.
Half the room is still as bare and dreary as ever, but hardly anyone comes after school and we don't bring in much of anything, so I've decided not to care.
"So—can I get a look at what you made yesterday?"
"Ah, yes. Right away."
Out of Aizawa's bag come an adorable lunch box and a whole array of foreboding-looking items, side by side.
"Ooh, quite the spread."
"Yes—the talismans you requested, of course, plus items made from the materials you gave me earlier. Please, have your pick."
"These are separate from what you're handing over to the guild, right?"
"Yes, I've delivered properly to the production guild and gotten paid, so don't worry."
"And on top of that, this much? You really are putting in the work…"
"Thanks to that, 【Alchemy】 has reached level 3 as well."
"Ohh! Nice going! My Martial Arts is level 3 too, so we're still neck and neck."
"Hehe, like I keep saying, we're not competing."
You can really see Aizawa's effort here. I can't judge item quality all that well, but on looks alone I'd say they match what the shops sell. And getting accepted for guild delivery at all means they're guaranteed to be above a certain standard.
"Mind walking me through each item?"
"Yes. The perception-interference talisman and the presence-concealment talisman work the same way. Soak a single drop of the user's blood into the magic circle drawn on them, in advance. You activate them by tearing the talisman, and the effect lasts about half a day. They're not as potent as skills, but if you use both, you'll be harder for monsters and people alike to notice. For the barrier type, soak your blood in beforehand as well. That one takes damage in your place just by being carried, so there's nothing special you need to do to use it."
"Half a day is impressive. How much can the barrier take?"
"It isn't very sturdy—call it ten horned rabbit charges' worth?"
"Huhh… isn't that basically a must-have for beginners?"
"Anyone with money to spare is sure to buy one. For students, the price is hard to reach."
"Huh. Figures."
"The dungeon really does overwhelmingly favor the rich while you're a beginner, doesn't it…"
"Well, every industry has some of that."
"I've heard that from D-rank on, money can solve more and more—what's it actually like?"
"Hmm… eh, maybe it can't. The dungeon is just so blasted vast. Combat is one thing, but moving around and everything else eats up time. Money-fueled power-leveling probably tops out around level 10, I'd guess."
Come to think of it, you hardly ever hear of someone who started rich and made it big in dungeons. The one pattern is maybe: famous adventurer parents with money? In those cases, the kids do tend to end up strong. They'd have the know-how, and above all, being able to dive the dungeon together is huge. Must be nice.
"Next up: the smoke bomb and the sound-dampening coating agent. Hit the smoke bomb with a strong impact and it instantly puts out a huge cloud of smoke. A handy item for blinding enemies or covering your escape. As for the sound-dampening coating agent—coat your shoes with it to hush your footsteps, or your weapon to mute the sounds of combat. It might be just the thing for ambushes."
Impressive. Because I ordered the perception-interference and presence-concealment talismans, she's guessed what kind of tools I'm after?
"This is insanely good! Kinda makes me feel like an assassin in the making."
"If anything, it might be more ninja-like."
"Fair."
"I don't know any recipes for scroll-style items yet, so I'll look into those next time."
"That's— I'm not trying to be a ninja."
"Aww, come onnn…"
"Nin-nin."
Ninja's not a bad deal, but I'm a martial artist who fights with his fists. Give me a black belt and a headband instead.