Chapter 371

Itai no wa Iya nanode Bōgyo-Ryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu 371

Defense Specialization and the Second One

The boss turned into light and vanished, the water stream and the school of light fish disappeared, and the shooter no longer fired light bullets. Sally relaxed the tension from her shoulders, and when she returned to her normal state of focus, she finally felt relieved that the battle was over.

Sally still had some time left underwater, so after calming down, she looked around for a bit, and noticed that the monitor she had seen activating itself when she first entered the boss room had its screen lit once again.

She wondered if another monster would appear, but it seemed to be a needless worry, as the light from the monitor gathered and caused a treasure chest to appear.

“Oh, you can make all sorts of stuff appear, huh? How about a couple more of those chests…? No? Okay…”

Sally approached the monitor and tapped on it, but its screen was now completely dark and didn’t respond at all. Although there had been a boss in this room, one could think that this machine had been the one thing responsible for its appearance.

“Let’s see, then. Oh, there’s some good stuff in here!”

When Sally opened the treasure chest, she saw that it had what she was hoping for.

One single-edged dagger that was larger than the ones Sally was using, a hooded grey coat with several pockets and belts, a simple choker, and a pair of sturdy-looking shorts. The characteristic feature of this gear was that it was garnished with yellow polygons that emitted light. This seemed to be evidence that they were of the same origin as that boss.

“Well, what are they like?”

Filled with expectation, Sally quickly checked the gear’s abilities.

AGI +30, DEX +25

-Indestructible

[Camouflage]

You can change the name and appearance of skills, magic and equipment. However, this doesn’t change their actual effects and abilities.

STR +50, AGI +20

-Indestructible

[Protean]

You can change a weapon’s type. It will still be treated as a dagger for handling purposes, and will be compatible with dagger-type skills.

DEX +20, INT +30, MP +50

-Indestructible

[Hologram]

You can activate any skill or spell you see being used within a fixed amount of time as if they were your own. However, they will cause no effect other than their corresponding visual effects.

AGI +40, STR +30, DEX +20

-Indestructible

[Reversal of Lies]

Select one skill that cannot deal damage, such as [Hologram]. The selected skill will do damage, but in return, you won’t be able to deal damage with any other attack for the duration of this skill. Effective time: 15 seconds. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

“Oh, that’s a nice increase in stats. The skills are… interesting.”

Sally checked the skills once again. Though this gear has some stat increases similar to those of her unique set, and they all have skills, Sally wasn’t entirely sure that equipping most of them would be an immediate upgrade for her. That “Reversal of Lies” skill looked like something that could be used to deal some serious damage, but due to its huge cooldown, she wouldn’t be able to use it more than once per battle. Also, judging by the skill’s description, it looked that support skills that wouldn’t originally do any damage were out of its scope.

Still, there were some interesting uses that came to mind. Sally thought about what it would be to expand the range of skills she could use by simply looking at Kanade.

If used properly, it could turn the situation of a battle upside down.

“It depends on how you use it. I should give it a try.”

It was the kind of skill that required the user to be creative with it in order for it to be of any use. It was a little different from naturally strong skills like Maple’s, which only require her to activate them.

At any rate, Sally was eager to try her new gear and its skills.

“Okay, let’s try the weapon first.”

When Sally activated “Protean”, the dagger she was holding in her hand started to turn into light, and rematerialized after a brief moment. Now instead of a dagger, it looked like a spear as long as her height.

“I see… It might be useful to use other weapons for Mai and Yui.”

Sally changed the dagger into various weapons. Great sword, ax, bow, and shield, each weapon had a different reach and felt different on her hand. However, Sally kept on flipping through weapons with an intrigued look on her face. If this skill allowed her to change weapons during battle, and also allowed to use each weapon to its fullest, it could be a big threat.

That would mean that Sally would have even more things to train and perfect, which would make her very happy.

“I’ll try the rest once I’ve returned to the guild home. It’s important to see how these look to the others as well.”

After changing back to her original unique set, Sally left the dungeon and returned to the surface without taking a break.

When she returned to the guild home, Maple was there, handing over some parts to Iz.

“Ah, Sally! Welcome back. Were you able to explore the deeper parts? How was it?”

“Hehe, it was great. First, here are the parts.”

Sally then handed Iz the parts she had collected in the area that was one step deeper than the one the rest of the team had access to.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a nice addition to our progress. I have to work hard as well so we can get enough parts for everyone.”

It was a considerably large amount of parts, considering she had collected them all by herself, so it was clear that they all had to head for the deeper parts as soon as possible so they could collect more parts faster.

“There should be plenty more in that dungeon, so we would do well to go check it out later.”

“Got it. I’ll tell the others.”

“So you went into the dungeon? How was it?”

“Hehe, didn’t I say that already? It was great. Look…”

Sally quickly changed into her new gear and turned around on the spot, showing it to both of them.

“Oh! It feels completely different! It looks so cool!”

“Nice! Do they have any skills?”

“Yeah, they do. I came back because I wanted to try their skills. So I’m glad you’re here! Maple, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

Sally walked to the training center with Maple and Iz, telling them that she wanted to try her new skills and that there were important things she needed to explain to the others.

“I was thinking that your skills are rather straightforward, right, Maple?”

“…?”

“Oh, I’m intrigued.”

Then, as they arrived at the training center, Sally quickly talked to Maple about her request.

“Okay, let me stay a little father… Maple, could you use your ‘Hydra’?”

“S-Sure! Umm… ‘Hydra’!”

As Maple released her skills towards the wall, the usual torrent of poison transformed the area into a poison swamp.

“Is this okay?”

“Yeah, now just hold out your shield and face this way.”

“…? Okay, sure.”

Iz stood there watching, wondering what would happen. Maple did as Sally said, and held up her shield.

“Here I come. ‘Hydra’!”

A large purple magic circle was formed matching the words that no one would have expected Sally to say.

To Maple and Iz’s surprise, a torrent of poison that was exactly the same as the one before rushed toward Maple. It headed for Maple’s shield, and it would have normally been sucked into “Devour” but it simply phased through the shield.

“Whoa!? …Huh?”

Maple was surprised, but the lump of poison phased through her body as well and splashed onto the ground.

Baffled, she tilted her head and looked at Sally, completely unsure of what was going on, and Sally herself was impressed to see how it actually turned out.

“It’s a skill that imitates the looks of any other skill, as long as I see it being used within a certain time frame. It’s completely fake, so it won’t do any damage.”

This didn’t mean that it could only look like it’s hitting the target while doing no damage at all, since just like those fish in the dungeon, the “Hologram” skill could produce something that could deal damage while being effectively impossible to touch. Iz also tried touching the poison swamp produced by Sally’s skill, but her fingers merely touched the ground. However, just by looking at it, there was no way to tell it was any different from the poison swamp that Maple could create.

“Ehh~ It really looks just like the ones I make!”

“Looks like I can confuse my opponents with this. Looks like this set is meant to be used in PvP, huh? I don’t think it would be as effective on monsters.”

“Yeah, I don’t think monsters could get confused or scared with these tricks. But still… It seems difficult to use. Though I’m sure you can use it well, Sally.”

“I can also use this set to materialize the skills I copy, so that they do damage as well. But it has a very high cooldown, so I won’t be able to use it more than once per battle at most.”

“So it’s basically like copying the entire skill, huh?”

“That’s incredible! So you’ll be able to use my ‘Hydra’ for real as well?”

“Right, should we give it a try some other time?”

“Yeah, yeah! What else? What else?”

After their first experiment, Maple approached Sally with eyes full of enthusiasm, eager to know what other surprises Sally’s new set had.

“This weapon is also very interesting. Take a look.”

Sally’s weapon turned into light and then transformed into a completely different weapon.

“Oh, this one isn’t an illusion!”

“It seems to be able to transform into any other kind of weapon. I gave it a try on the way back, and it seems you can do it in battle, too.”

“You can keep changing it until you find the right weapon for any given battle. Ah… I’d love to be able to make a weapon like that…”

It was a characteristic trait of this unique weapon, so if even Iz wasn’t able to make a weapon like it, it would be then safe to assume it cannot be crafted with the current level of smithing present in the game.

This also meant that this weapon opened the possibility for a battle style that no other player could imitate or even expect to see others use.

“I’m planning to not use this unless everyone from the guild is present. The less people that know about it, the better chance I’ll have at catching someone by surprise with it.”

If, during a battle, the dagger she had in her hand suddenly turns into a great sword, it would be very difficult for her opponent to avoid it. It’s hard to react to something so unexpected.

“And there’s one more thing.”

“There’s more!? Whoa! What is it?”

“Here goes… ‘Camouflage’.”

Sally’s clothes were wrapped up in light, then changed to her usual blue coat and muffler.

“So it’s like ‘Quick Change’?”

“No, the only thing that changed is my clothes’ appearance. See?”

She then used “Protean” to transform her dagger. By doing so, it ended the effects of “Camouflage” on it, revealing a grey long sword.

“Oh, my, to think there’s gear that can do that! I want to make something like that myself… I wonder if I’ll ever be able to.”

“And since I can change the appearance of skills and spells, I can do this… ‘Fire Ball’!”

A green magic circle appeared in Sally’s hand, and the next moment, a blade of wind flew towards one of the training center’s training dummies. However, rather than tearing through the dummy, the moment the blade touched it, it burst into a splash of water.

“???”

Sally then went on to explain what happened, seeing that Maple couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

“What I did just now was change the name of my ‘Water Ball’ to ‘Fire Ball” and made it look like a “Wind Cutter.”

Although it was a bit confusing at first, it had always been a “Water Ball”, so it was understandable that water had splashed upon impact with the dummy.

“R-Right…”

“I think this can be very advantageous depending on how you use it, but I have to get used to it a little more. I have a few ideas of ​​how to use it, but I have to use my head differently than before.”

“Ahaha… I don’t think I could master it myself, but I’m sure you can do it, Sally!”

“Leave it to me. For now, I’ll just focus on trying several things out with it so I can be ready to use it on my next PvP.”

“That sounds like a plan. If there’s anything you need, let me know and I’ll get it ready for you. Keep up the good work with your exploration and battles!”

“Yeah!”

Thus Sally set out to train while using her new abilities while making sure to keep them hidden from other players.