Chapter 71: Chapter 60: Momentary Thoughts Part 8 Part 1

I was always wondering about that: the difference in skill growth, that is.

For example, one of my current skills, Repel Counter, used to be a Flash Counter before I amassed enough EXP points to level it up and change it.

However, some skills just improved their level without changing at all.

Until now I never really thought about it all that much, but like Katsu mentioned just now, the skills generally can be divided into two categories: leveling skills and evolving skills.

Now, the skills that won’t evolve but only increase in level possess a special quality to them: they could be combined in a special option called Skill Creator. It was an option that allowed to combine two or more skills in order to create but a single, far stronger one.

Katsu even gave me an example there: if you combine fighting skill “Power Straight” with assist skill “Critical Assist”, you could create a new skill called “Knock Outer”, which would then possess a chance of additional effect of stun depending on the critical hits you managed to score with that skill.

And that’s not all. There you could also see just how much more EXP you needed for another level up or how long it would take to evolve the skill, buy the secret books with recipes for skills instead of having to figure them out on your own, etc. etc. …… Long story short, my whole life up until now would have been that much easier if only I decided to go through a tutorial at the first town.

「Honestly speaking, right now I’m feeling as though I was trying to score a homerun this whole time, but instead of using a bat I was trying to hit the ball with my bare hands.」

「Your analogy is a little bit convoluted, but I kind of see what you’re getting at. It’s like playing a game but only using basic attacks without all the optional stuff that makes things a whole lot easier.」

Katsu tried to console me a little bit, but that’s not it at all. It just feels like I was trying to snipe people from afar this whole time but rather with a pistol and not the actual sniper rifle…… Ahaha…… Hahaha…… Hahahahahahahahahahahaha……

「AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!」

「S-Sanraku-san!? Are you okay!?」

「Maybe some fluff is going to help him?」

「He? Hyaaah!?」

Without much dillydallying, Katsu grabbed Emul and pressed him right next to my face. His fur was so fluffy and soft that it may have managed to hit some kind of a switch inside my mind. Gradually, my thoughts started to calm themselves down.

Taking a closer look, right now I have only two skills that can be combined. So even if I knew about the existence of some super powerful skills, I wouldn’t have been able to utilize the system properly.

It still didn’t change the fact that I skipped the tutorial, but it was slightly more comforting knowing that I didn’t lose all that much because of that.

「Fuhya, that, that tickles! It tickles me, Sanraku-san!」

Oh well, good thing this conversation happened right now, and not just before the fight with the Gravekeeper. That way I could prepare myself for the incoming battle knowing full well that I would be prepared for whatever was coming and I would have no regrets.

「M, my ears! No, seriously, this is bad! This is very bad! You’re going to tickle me to death!!」

What’s more, the option of combining skills was available in any major city, so even if I was to return to Rabbitz, I would be able to utilize that facility without any problems. That was at least some kind of consolation.

It’s a good thing that Rabbitz should have that facility, since for me, going to places with lots of players was still a huge no-go. Honestly, I was starting to feel tired of having to stay hidden like this.

However, it would be even more troubling if someone would start to ask about Emul or the curse marks that were still covering my body. At least in Rabbitz I was free of that.

「Umm, Sanraku-kun? I understand that Emul is really fluffy and soft, but if this thing goes on any further, it might turn into something else entirely.」

「Hm?」

Looking down all of a sudden, I could see steam coming out of Emul’s head like crazy…… He looked as though he was about ready to collapse from all of my caressing and rubbing his fur.

「Kyu……」

「I don’t know why, but he reminds me of a cat whose brain just overloaded just now.」

「I’m not a cat! I’m a proud Vorpal Bunny!」

Ohh, and now he’s back.

「By the way, what about side jobs and union guilds……」

「WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!」

「PYAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!?!?!?!?!?!?」

THERE’S JUST SO MANY THINGS THAT I MISSED IN THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!

Here’s a question: how do you maintain your sanity upon finding out that you managed to miss so many things that you’d want to suffer a mental breakdown because of it?

Personally, I think that the best way to do that would be to stop thinking about it and immerse yourself in lots of small tasks that would let you keep your mind off of things. Although that solution would get you nowhere when it comes to solving the problem, for me it is the best panacea right now.

So I did just that. I was fishing and fishing and fishing, then slew some monsters, went fishing again and slew even more monsters, over and over and over and over and over again. Just like that we managed to score ourselves some more levels and before we knew it, the night was already upon us.

「Hmm…… I thought it might take us more time, but we are already around level forty…… or maybe we are rushing things too fast?」

「Nah….. I think it’s just to…… help him escape reality……」

「In the first place, was escaping reality really necessary in this situation?」

「No, it’s just, umm…… Maybe we worked really hard out there?」

Together we managed to catch seventy four salmons and slew six more of the sea serpents…… Currently I was at level forty two while Katsu was level forty himself.

Those are the results that I managed to achieve while doing my best to escape the reality that was trying to overwhelm me.

「Although its movements are really simple, the Sea Serpent’s level should be around forty-five or something, but we still managed to beat it just fine.」

「Haa? And you’re saying that Emul is around level fifty six or so?」

「When push comes to shove, Emul can be really helpful in battle……」

We were doing fine on our own, but without Emul’s help we wouldn’t have been able to go at it for such a long time. We would have dropped dead before long.

「You two really are impossible…… In both the good and bad sense of the word. Oh, won’t you look at that, it’s a night of a full moon today. Maybe you guys will even manage to obtain that Unique Quest EX faster than I expected.」

「…… You want to log out for a moment?」

「Nah, thanks but I’ll pass. The field tents are expensive items and can hold up to only a certain amount of times. I’ll try to farm some EXP on my own some more.」