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TL: ALT
Chapter 6 – I’m Ready!
I take a shower, have dinner without saying a word, and retire to my room.
I lay down on the bed to sleep, but even though I was tired, I couldn’t sleep.
I can’t sleep. All I could see in my eyelids was Serika’s tearful face when she left me.
“I’m the worst.”
It’s like hitting out at me.
It wasn’t something I should have said to Serika, who had been worried about me.
“Oh, shit… I’m confused.”
I haven’t seen Serika in a long time, and she’s… how should I put it? She’s grown up.
As an explorer, I guess she has a lot of skills.
When we were little, she was a crybaby and used to hide behind my back.
“I wonder if she’s got a guy she likes.”
…I felt sick saying it to myself.
I had no right to be possessive, but it was selfish of me.
“There’s definitely a meaning for me to acquire this skill, huh?”
Looking back, most of what Serika said was correct.
Serika had been so definite about it.
Serika’s view on the unique skills may not be just her personal feelings.
She should have started with her own will, but when she thinks it is impossible, she runs away from it.
I am supposed to believe that it is right, but I cannot follow through with my intention.
How many times have I wished I could change myself?
“No matter how I think about it, this is my last chance, right?”
A dungeon appears out of nowhere and becomes a normal part of life.
I don’t think I’ll ever have another “crazy” opportunity like this.
I reach out of bed and pick up my phone.
I launch “Dungeons Go Pro” and once again open the ‘escape’ details.
Skill──────────────────
Escape
S.Lv1 Allows the user to flee from combat.
Conditions for use:
Running away toward the outside of the combat area for (30-5 x S.Lv) seconds.
The combat area is a space with a radius of (10 x S.Lv) meters from the center of the enemy’s initial position.
Special Notes:
When the player succeeds in escaping, they drop their money.
The amount of money dropped is randomly determined within the range of ({50-10×S.Lv}±20) % of the amount of money. The amount of money dropped is never negative.
Ability Value Correction:
The owner of ‘Escape’ will always receive the following corrections to each ability value.
HP -20%.
Attack Power -50%.
Defense -60%.
Mental Strength +20%.
Agility +200%.
Luck +400%.
────────────────────
I read each entry one by one.
I was annoyed by the severe disadvantages, but I put those feelings aside for the moment.
After reading it over several times, I noticed one thing.
“…Why is there a line break here?”
What bothered me was, right at the beginning, too, the skill name and its skill level.
────────────────────
Escape
S.Lv1 Allows the user to flee from combat.
────────────────────
On the status page, it says ‘Escape S.Lv1’, and there is no line break between ‘Escape’ and the skill level.
It could be that the formatting is different between the status and detail screens, but it could also be something else.
“Under ‘S.Lv1,’ it could be followed by ‘S.Lv2,’ ‘S.Lv3,’ …And so on.”
The effect of ‘Escape’ is that the status quo is not in its final form; it still has potential.”
“The disadvantages would be reduced if the skill level were increased.”
The range of the combat area gets wider with each skill level, and the time required to ‘escape’ gets shorter.
If the skill level of ‘Escape’ reaches 5, the time needed to ‘Escape’ is reduced to 5 seconds.
According to the wiki, the maximum skill level is 5, so it is unlikely that the time required to escape will ever be zero.
“To begin with, is there such a thing as a skill that has only disadvantages?”
Skills cannot be forgotten, so if you learn such a skill, you are stuck with it in the worst case.
If there is such a landmine skill, it would be strange if it wasn’t being talked about on wikis and bulletin boards.
I jump up and start up my computer.
I check the wiki, message boards, and SNS again, but there is no mention of “this skill is a landmine, so don’t learn it” anywhere.
There are some skills, such as ‘going berserk,’ which triples the attack power and keeps charging at the enemy until the end of the battle, but I can’t find any skills that have only disadvantages.
Most skills have no disadvantages at all but rather only strengthen the explorer unilaterally.
The skills that do have disadvantages are sharp in their merits.
That part is the same as in a game.
There is often the topic, “Wouldn’t this skill be better than this skill?” But in most cases, the conclusion is that it depends on the direction the person wants to go.
In short, the game is balanced.
“If this were a game, the optimal skill set would be worked out to some extent…”
In this ‘reality,’ apparently, it is not so.
One reason is that the skills are so varied that no one knows them all.
Another is that even though there are so many, every skill has its own merits, and there are no simple ‘dead skills.’
Is this what Serika was talking about?
…Let’s try it just one more time.
If you want me to ‘escape,’ I’ll ‘escape.’
But I won’t escape from this ‘Escape.’
One more time.
Just one more time, face this garbage skill…
If that doesn’t work…
“…No, I’m not going to ‘escape’ anymore. I’m stuck in this life anyway. I’m going to do it, even if it’s a shitty life!”
I can’t say that I’m very positive, but I’m ready to go for it anyway.