Chapter 59: Dedicated to a Moment, Part 7

Apparently, the hole had curved diagonally like a slide partway through. Before I knew it, the freefall had turned into a controlled slide, and finally, we glided out of the hole's exit into the hidden area at a not-so-fast speed. But more importantly:

"Dieeeee!"

"Ah, dammit! Right, the rabbit's hearing picked it up!"

Naturally, I didn't want to stain my player name red over something so stupid, so I attacked bare-handed. But a pro gamer is still a pro gamer; he dodged it with ease.

"Good grief... If this weren't ShanFro, you'd have been beaten to a pulp."

"If this weren't ShanFro, I would have kicked you down the hole while you were hesitating."

"You two, get along! Get along, desu wa!"

Hahaha, what are you saying, Emul? This is the peaceful version. If we were seriously hostile in a game, we'd have both died five times already.

"So this is the hidden area Pencilgon talked about... 'The Underground TearlightLake' (Ruikou no Chiteiko)."

Ahead of my gaze, light like snow rose from the deep blue lake situated underground. While it lacked fantasy-style absurdity, it was an extremely fantastic sight. This place was the so-called "Bonus Area" designated by Pencilgon for power-leveling: the hidden area within the Iron Ruins of the Age of Gods, "The Underground Tearlight Lake."

"Apparently, fishing here counts as power-leveling... but honestly, I'm half-skeptical."

"Well, we'll know if we try. They say you'll understand once you fish."

Personally, I'm bad at fishing games... No, the reason is that the fishing games (trash games) I've played so far pursued realism too much and ended up being shitty RNG games where a fish only bites once every thirty minutes. By the way, I caught every species and even caught the hidden boss, the Blue Whale, to get the platinum trophy. Don't ask how you can catch the world's largest mammal with a fishing rod in a game pursuing realism. The "reality" of a trash game is discarded more easily than a verbal promise.

"Oh, got one, got one."

"The luck disparity is too big!"

"Fish are biting like crazy, desu wa!"

Fuhaha, Luck is seriously a god stat. With a smug face aimed at OiKatzo, who still had zero catches (a "Bouzu"), I reeled in my sixth fish... fish?

Lifestide Salmon A salmon that lives in the tide of life. Its flesh restores the stamina (HP) of those who eat it, and its roe serves as an excellent magic catalyst. Even the great earth has life, and blood and life circulate.

Despite looking like a faintly glowing silver salmon, the description is unnecessarily grand. If it's salmon, I like Hizunamasu (salmon head cartilage salad). At home, my dad goes fishing for salmon every year and brings them back, so salmon appears on our dinner table fairly often.

"Even with the luck correction, aren't you catching too many...?"

"Fortunately, I had a great master for the knack of fishing."

A great master (my father) who fishes for everything from smelt to marlin. Before I made gaming my serious hobby, my dad used to take me fishing often. Thinking back, that was definitely a "Hikaru Genji Plan"-style conspiracy to drag me into the world of fishing.

"Well, we're catching them for now, but..."

"Sunraku, isn't that it?"

"S-Something is surfacing, desu wa!"

Here it comes. OiKatzo and I stowed our fishing rods in our inventories and entered combat stance. The lake began to bubble gobo-gobo, and with a pillar of water, it appeared.

"I-It's a huge snake, desu wa!?"

"There it is, Lifestide Lake Serpent!"

According to Pencilgon's instructions, this guy is the "so-called Experience Tank"... in this case, "tank" doesn't mean a defensive role, but a storage tank. It's the name of the monster we're going to keep defeating from now on.

"Too long! Think of an abbreviation!"

"Then, Eel."

"No poetry in that at all!"

It has horns, fangs, and is covered in scales. Based on elements alone, it's definitely a Sea Serpent... or rather, a lake version of the sea snake monster often categorized as a dragon. But my impression is that its form is entirely more streamlined and smooth like an eel with horns to look dragon-ish, rather than sharp and angular.

The opening move is a charge including a bite, huh? OiKatzo and I evaded it with simple movements and began our attacks.

"Testing the waters. Let's go with max firepower... 'Black'!"

"Going all out from the start, aren't you, OiKatzo... Then I'll unveil my new weapon too!"

The Vorpal Choppers, renamed to Togetsu [Waxing] and [Waning], became unusable due to level issues. This left me with the problem of having only the Swamp Daggers, which I hadn't properly upgraded since making them in Secondil. The one who solved this problem was Bilac, with her grateful words: "If you have trouble with weapons, rely on me." Having successfully unlocked the weapon shop in Rabituza, I crafted new weapons from the materials of the poor Empire Bee that met a tragic end by getting caught in the crossfire, and also upgraded the Swamp Daggers.

"Its name is 'Empire Bee-Twin'!"

"Hyoo! It's cool, desu wa!"

Overall, the blades are slender... The right sword, which looks like it might snap if swung poorly, is an Estoc-type sword made from the Bee Queen's materials. The contrast between the gold and black design using the Queen's shell and the silver blade processed from the stinger demonstrates excellence in visuals as well. In contrast, the left sword is a shorter dagger acting as a Main-Gauche (parrying dagger). Made from the materials of the Queen's subordinate bees, it gives a somewhat plain impression compared to the right rapier, but it shows a steadfastness in highlighting the right sword's attacks and protecting the user. Personally, I love dual blades with different shapes for right and left, though they are subtly difficult to handle in Full Dive.

"Stop posing and contribute to the battle!"

Although he attacked enthusiastically, the level difference seemed to resonate unexpectedly. Hearing the shout of OiKatzo, who had gathered unnecessary aggro and was running away from the Eel's attacks, I readied the Empire Bee-Twins again and closed in on the Eel. The Eel's attention is on OiKatzo; it's a chance to attack.

"Now, let me show you the firepower with corrections included!"

The thrust of the right sword, clad in the effect of Spiral Edge, pierced the Eel's flank... that is the flank, right? Anyway, it pierced, scattering polygons in a spiral. But that's not all. The Empire Bee-Twins are dual swords with different effects for left and right. The right blade has a damage correction for thrusting attacks and thrusting skills, plus one more effect.

"Giaaaaa!?"

"I see, Lycaon... you had such a convenient effect by default?"

The Eel's flank, struck by the right sword possessing the same attribute as the Bee Queen's stinger, was damaged differently from normal attacks; the flesh was gouged out, leaving the damage remaining. The fact that blood and gore are hidden by polygons is charming. This is due to the "Destruction Poison" (Kaidoku) possessed by the Empire Bee-Twin's right sword.

In this game, some weapons, skills, magic... and in some cases, monster attacks, are imbued with the "Destruction Attribute." For example, if you take a sword attack to the arm, unless it has the Destruction Attribute, your arm generally won't fly off even if slashed with full force; you'll just take massive damage. However, attacks like Lycaon's bite, and some others, exist that unconditionally completely destroy the body of a player or Mob. Basically, even if you keep attacking one spot with a normal weapon until HP runs out, the arm won't come off, but a weapon with the Destruction Attribute makes it possible.

............It's an element I can only imagine being abused by Player Killers. Presumably, countermeasures like heavier penalties—Karma Points, was it?—are imposed on such players.

Let's return to the topic. Regarding that Destruction Attribute, this right sword's "Destruction Poison" is a bit more unique. It contaminates the attacked area and gradually applies the Destruction Attribute like slip damage (DoT). Furthermore, the more consecutive hits you land, the more the Destruction Poison encroaches, and the slip damage amount increases. Should I call it a delayed-type Destruction Attribute? And since the skill "Spiral Edge" is a multi-hit attack, if all hits land, including criticals...

"It means I can create a weak point where I attacked!"

Well, not everything goes so smoothly. To apply the Destruction Attribute, you have to deal a decent amount of damage, and rather than going out of your way to cut off a monster's limbs, it's faster to just keep hitting the head to defeat it. Actually, whether it's Destruction Attribute or Destruction Poison, it doesn't work unconditionally on all enemy Mobs or players. At best, it's convenient for bosses where part destruction is a premise... that's about the level of the item.

This is what I understood after digesting Bilac's explanation—based on her faux-Hiroshima dialect and the game's lore—from a player's perspective. I understand rephrasing "Mob's Resistance" to "Monster's Physical Toughness" for world-building, but it's a hassle... Remembering the tediousness of translating Bilac's words, I felt a bitter taste spreading in my mouth.

"Sunraku-san! Sunraku-san! Come back from the world of thought, desu wa!"

"Hm? Ah, right, combat—Whoa, dangerous!"

If I hadn't jumped sideways instantly, I would have died. Thinking isn't something to do during combat! Yep!

"Sorry, lost focus a bit."

"If you die, the battle line collapses, so give me a break... There!"

"Roger... Hup!"

Our simultaneous Repel Counters knocked the Eel's jaw upward, triggering a knockback.

"Now, let's see how much XP you drop... Time to fillet the Eel."

"I'm striking type, so it'll be Tataki (seared/chopped) Eel."

"If it's Tataki, ginger goes well with it."

"Stop with the sudden food porn!"

Well, we pulled it off coolly, but defeating the Eel—Lifestide Lake Serpent—which had a considerably high level befitting a hidden area, with just two scrubs averaging less than level 30, was quite a struggle. We finally managed to defeat it with Emul's help. Mentally exhausted, we slumped onto the ground, watching the Eel explode into polygons.

"Toughness... It really was toughness..."

"Clearly... not an opponent for two scrubs to defeat..."

"Honestly, even when it took my magic, it was still lively, so my heart almost broke, desu wa..."

However, the return was equally large. I grinned looking at the 10 newly acquired status points. Apparently, OiKatzo also gained a considerable amount of status points from leveling up.

"I see, indeed, this is delicious."

"I went up 4 levels... Even considering my low level, it seems to give a considerable amount of experience."

But with this, the slight suspicion remaining in my heart cleared. Indeed, if we continue fighting here for two weeks... raising our levels to 50, the cap designated by Tombguard Wethermon, should be easy.

"Oh, I learned a new skill."

"Ooh."

"After leveling is done, I have to check if I can Connect it at the Skill Gardener."

"Oi, oi, are you suddenly talking about a different game?"

"Eh."

"Eh."

Eh? A strange silence fell between me and OiKatzo.

"No, no, in ShanFro, combining naturally learned skills to create Combined Arts (Gattai Tokugi) is basic, right? It's a skill-based game, after all."

"Combined Arts."

"Eh."

"Eh."

Eh...? From the strange silence, our expressions shifted to different emotions. OiKatzo's was a mix of shock and doubt saying "Is this guy serious?", while mine was a dry smile and shock from the realization of a fatal blunder saying "Seriously?"

"...In Firstia, there was a tutorial, right?"

"...Me, Firstia, No Stop."

"Ehh..."

Could it be... Did I fatally skip an incredibly important element?

"Ah... asking bluntly, how important is that Skill Gardener element?"

"Not mandatory... I guess. Since naturally learned skills are generally good quality, they alone are enough to fight. In fact, there seem to be players doing a 'No Skill Gardener' challenge run... but it increases the breadth of your options by about double, feel-wise."

"Double..."

Ah, no good. I'm getting dizzy.

Having a massive oversight revealed at this point, feeling like my heart might break in various ways, I looked up. Right now, I resent this cave where I can't see the sky or the sun.

Author's Notes:

Q. Specifically, what happens if you keep PKing with Destruction Attribute weapons?

A. Bounty Hunters will attack you with a probability even outside of towns, and if you do terrible PKs, multiple Bounty Hunters will come to kill you. Furthermore, the penalties are heavy; it's practically more efficient to create a new account and start over from scratch.

I might rewrite it later, but for now, regarding the Destruction Attribute, it would help if you think of it as "Partbreaker" (positive correction to part break accumulation) from a certain hunting game.

And finally, the protagonist's major blunder is revealed. I can finally answer the question once thrown at me: "Why are skill elements so thin even though it's a Skill-based MMO novel?" The correct answer is: "Because the protagonist skipped the tutorial and only visited the minimum necessary facilities." It's the phenomenon colloquially known as "Because I wanted to play multiplayer quickly, I didn't do story mode, so I was playing without basic items."