Chapter-04 · EP-068
Episode 68: Verifying the True Ability of My Skill
Sunday afternoon, I came to the academy dungeon. Even though exploration of the second floor was prohibited, slimes on the first floor sometimes dropped potions, I could verify skills, and somehow I still enjoyed exploring the first floor.
Now, I moved to a spot where there seemed to be no one else. Here, I wouldn't run into anyone.
No matter where I went on the first floor of the Shinjuku Dungeon, there were people, leaving no room for sneaky skill verification. In contrast, the academy's tutorial dungeon had almost no students who would bother exploring on a holiday, making it perfect for secret activities.
I brought up my status screen and checked.
Shirou Ichinose: LV4 ▶
Skill: Skill Camouflage (Hide) ▶
Healing Magic LV1 (Active, Hide) ▶
Water Magic LV1 (Active, Hide) ▶
Party: None
Even though the party was disbanded, Yuno's Healing Magic and Maika's Water Magic remained. That meant once copied, you could use them freely even after disbanding the party.
Thinking back, during my first exploration, I had partied with Murasakimura and Sendo, but their skills weren't there. Also, when I first partied with Yuno and the others, these displays weren't there either.
These displays appeared after I looked at their status screens.
Probably, if I manipulated the skills of Murasakimura and the others the next time I partied with them, they would appear in my status as well. …Not that I thought I'd be partying with them again anytime soon.
I roughly understood the conditions for copying skills. It was probably correct.
More than anything, the biggest issue was whether I could actually use these skills.
So, verification 1: confirming whether I could actually use the skills!
Confirming the skill usage was set to Active, I first tried using Maika's Water Magic.
I turned my palm upward and imagined water floating.
I felt some invisible force flowing from within my body towards my palm. Could this be magical power?
I concentrated further. Suddenly, a water sphere about the size of a baseball appeared above my palm.
"It worked?!"
So I could indeed use copied skills!
Next was to launch this water sphere.
I raised my right hand high and imagined, Water sphere, fly!
The next moment, the water sphere flew forward in an arc.
It landed on the ground with a splash.
…Somehow, it wasn't what I imagined.
Maika's shots flew much straighter. I didn't feel like my water ball could damage a monster.
"Let me try again."
I generated a water sphere as before and launched it, this time imagining it flying faster.
But the water sphere flew with the same slow, wobbly motion and landed on the ground.
The speed was slow, and the range wasn't that great either. About five meters? I felt I could jump farther in the long jump, so wouldn't a flying kick be more effective for me?
What if I threw it with a throwing motion? I felt that might give it decent speed, so I decided to try.
I floated the water sphere and gently held it as if holding a baseball.
I took a big windup, stepped forward, and threw it overhand.
The water sphere flew with the speed and range of a baseball pitch and hit the wall.
Just as I'd imagined. Perhaps I found it easier to visualize movements using my body, like sports, rather than a mage's image of using magic. But this way, I couldn't fire rapidly like Maika. Well, it depended on how you used the magic.
I tried to create a fourth water sphere to practice a bit more, but I no longer felt the energy from within my body, and the water sphere didn't appear above my palm.
"Huh?"
Could this be… what they called running out of MP?
Wait a minute. Maika had been able to use magic almost indefinitely even at level 1. Yet, even at level 4, I could only use it three times?
I had an idea. According to my theory, intelligence determined how well you could control magic. Honestly, my academic ability at this academy was barely passing. In other words, my intelligence was likely lacking. Also, my fighting style: I was definitely physical. A warrior type. Maika was a mage type. Yuno, being a healer, should be the same. So as a warrior type, unlike the two of them, I had almost no talent for magic. It couldn't be helped.
If I ran out of MP, would I also be unable to use healing magic?
I tried.
Verification 2: When MP runs out, do other magics become unusable too?
I wasn't injured, but I assumed a posture of healing my left arm with my right hand and imagined healing magic.
Then, sparkling light showered down on my left arm.
I didn't know how much injury it could heal, but it seemed I could use healing magic too.
If so, did offensive and healing magic consume different amounts of MP? Or did each skill have its own usage limit? I wouldn't know without testing it several more times.
Next,
Verification 3: Confirming whether setting skills to Inactive makes them unusable.
Shirou Ichinose: LV4 ▶
Skill: Skill Camouflage (Hide) ▶
Healing Magic LV1 (Inactive, Hide) ▶
Water Magic LV1 (Inactive, Hide) ▶
Party: None
I set Healing Magic and Water Magic to Inactive.
Come to think of it, Water Magic was already unusable, so it didn't matter either way. Well, fine.
When I tried to imagine casting magic with them Inactive, indeed, I couldn't use either Healing Magic or Water Magic at all.
Now, I tried reverting the two skills back to Active.
When I tried using Healing Magic, the same sparkling effect appeared as before.
Wondering how many times I could use Healing Magic, I repeated it. As a result, the sparkles appeared twice more, then the feeling of magical power disappeared. Including the first use, that made a total of four times. Four times a day? Or would it recover over time and become usable again?
If it recovered over time, maybe Water Magic would also become usable again? I thought, and tried using Water Magic once more.
"It appeared!"
A water sphere formed, even though I'd thought I'd reached the limit.
To check how many times, I launched the water sphere. This time again, it stopped working after three tries.
"It recovers fully in just a few minutes? If so, that's super convenient."
I thought, but even after waiting about ten minutes, neither Healing Magic nor Water Magic became usable again.
Why?
I thought about it.
I considered why Water Magic had become usable again earlier.
Come to think of it, I had once set Water Magic to Inactive and then back to Active. Could that be it?
For verification, I set Water Magic and Healing Magic to Inactive again, then back to Active.
The result:
"It appeared!"
Both Water Magic and Healing Magic became usable again.
This was a huge discovery!
In short, using my skill's ability, I could use magical skills, which I was bad at, almost infinitely!
At the same time, my theory that people had MP and magic became unusable when it ran out might have been wrong. Well, that didn't matter. If I could use skills infinitely even when MP ran out, I might be able to raise my skill levels easily as well.
Now, next was to verify whether I could raise skill levels by using magic repeatedly!
"Hehehe…"
I was having so much fun, I couldn't stop grinning.