09 - Skill Experiment

The next day, a beautiful sunny Sunday, a strong south wind was blowing from the morning.

In my original world, this kind of sunny and windy weather would trigger my hay fever, making my nose swell up and my mood plummet. But as Theodore Garcia, I feel perfectly fine.

Akari and the others seemed to have headed for the dungeon early this morning. In the game, you could freely organize your party with various students, so Renji wisely chose Akari, Sasaki, and Aoki to form a party. This group is highly efficient in advancing the main story, individual scenarios, and events.

Renji now has the Kazami event to deal with, and he must raise his level at all costs. Defeating Kazami in a month will be quite a challenge, but I hope he can do it. If he loses, the atmosphere in Class E will deteriorate further, although it won't significantly change my classmates' attitude towards me.

On the other hand, Theodore's sentimental mind whispers, "Why didn't you invite me?" I wonder if he's thinking that. But dwelling on such thoughts would affect my focus on today's task, so I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. Today, I'm going to conduct some experiments in the magical field.

I headed to the magical field area of the school, entering through the main gate guarded by a security guard. Even though it was Sunday, many students were on campus for club activities, so I looked for a quiet spot. I found a bench on the way to the second playground, which was within the Magical Field area, and decided to settle there.

Today, I was going to experiment with some skills.

I have two skills in my skill slot: |Jester| and |Fist Break|. However, in The Conquest, there are three skills that can be used even if they're not in your skill slot: |Small Recovery|, |Torch|, and |Aura|.

|Small Recovery| is a MND-dependent healing skill. It's not effective for serious wounds and has poor MP efficiency. If your MND is high enough to use this skill, it's much better to learn the higher-level |Recovery|. With my current MND, I'd have to use almost all of my MP just to heal minor scars. It might be useful for someone dealing with persistent minor injuries, though.

|Torch| creates a small ball of light that floats in your palm to illuminate your surroundings. However, it's considered a dead skill. It's more practical to carry a flashlight than to waste MP on this skill.

Lastly, there's |Aura|. In the Kazami event, mobs around you were intimidated by your presence, which is due to |Aura|. Originally, it was used to ward off small monsters of different levels, but when used on people or monsters of similar levels, it works as intimidation. It's often dubbed the "idiot detector skill" because many misuse it as an easy way to threaten others.

I planned to test these skills to understand their effects and limitations in this world.

Of the three skills, I chose to experiment with |Torch|. Using |Aura| might startle passersby, and Theodore's skill, |Fist Break|, required activation which I hadn't tried since I began hunting slimes.

But how exactly do I use it?

In the game, activating a registered skill was as simple as pressing a key or button. Here, in real life, there's no such convenience. Desperate, I resorted to mimicking the kam#h#meh# technique I had practiced in elementary school—though, of course, I couldn't shoot anything even then.

"Maybe it would work in this world," I thought optimistically. But, unsurprisingly, there was no response. I was at a loss for what to do next.

Unable to come up with a solution, I headed back to the library and found a book titled, "Skill Activation Introduction, Even a Monkey Can Understand!" Despite the provocative cover, it seemed easy to understand with its numerous illustrations, so I borrowed it.

According to the book, "Generally speaking, you start by sensing magic power. Magic power can be easily released from magical tools, and the best ones are those with minimal output." Following this advice, I went to the Adventurer's Guild store and found a magical tool that emitted light like a flashlight. I decided to buy it.

"I know it glows when I press this switch, but how does it produce magic power?" I wondered.

Curious about its inner workings, I disassembled the tool and found a small magic stone and a metal plate with a magic circle drawn on it. This circle seemed to convert magic power into light energy.

I intentionally disrupted part of the magic circle to make it fail. When I tried to activate it again, the magic power itself flowed out as I had expected.

"Magic power is colorless and transparent."

I couldn't see it, but when I touched it, I felt a tingling sensation.

"So, I need to replicate this feeling... uh... uhhhhhhh!"

It felt like practicing that popular blue beam move from that famous anime. A passing girl student saw me and laughed. That was embarrassing.

I picked up the book again and studied the diagram of the monkey gently releasing magic power from its body. It seemed impossible to illustrate, but I decided to try again. I reassembled the magic circuit of the tool and made it work.

"It lights up as normal..."

This confirmed that there is indeed magic power in this world. I just needed to figure out how to access it. 'Believe in yourself!' I told myself, trying to muster the confidence.

I focused on forcing the magic out of my body, holding my hand out and willing something to overflow from within me. After a while, I felt a sensation of something flooding into my palm, though it didn't tingle this time.

"Is this my magic power? Then..."

Next, I focused on releasing my magic power while visualizing the Torch skill. Slowly but surely, a small ball of light appeared in my hand.

"That's it!"

Of course, my outburst drew blank stares from everyone around me. Still, being able to use magic finally made me feel like I was truly in a fantasy world. Simply beating slimes with a bat hadn't quite captured that feeling for me.

I've always wanted to enter the world of The Conquest, so please forgive my excitement.

Okay, next up: manual activation.

The method I just used is called auto activation. In the game, you could register an active skill you memorized to a shortcut key, allowing you to activate it by pressing that key.

This auto activation method has a big advantage: it ensures the skill will be activated whenever you want. The downside is that you can only set up to four shortcut keys, and the cooldown time for reuse and MP consumption can be significant.

Manual activation becomes more complicated at higher levels, requiring players to mix and match movements from all over the character's repertoire. This extended input time increases the likelihood of mistakes. However, when executed successfully, manual activation greatly reduces cooldown times and MP consumption, turning it into a powerful tool. The disadvantage is almost negligible if the skill involves a simple motion.

There are also advanced tactics like "skill chaining," which involves connecting skills through manual activation, and "fake skills," where the motion is correct, but the skill doesn't actually activate. These tactics are invaluable against strong opponents.

Manual activation offers significant freedom in skill execution and is a fundamental aspect of The Conquest.

However, this technique was never explained in the game, almost as if it were a secret. Most information about it came from online sources, but not all skill motions were publicly shared. Some were known only to a select few.

However, not all skill motions are available online, and some are known only to a select few. Both manual and automatic activations have their advantages and disadvantages, so the general approach is to use a mix of both.

Let's try manual activation right away. Since the Torch skill is treated as magic, its manual activation involves drawing a magic circle rather than a specific motion.

First, I start by tracing a board in front of me with my palm to draw a magic circle. After that, I draw an inverted triangle in the air, which is the magic circle for the Torch.

I tried several times, but it seemed I only succeeded when I traced the air, letting the magic power flow from my fingers instead of releasing it after finishing the drawing. The Torch effect popped out, just as it did with auto-activation. The amount of light might even be a bit brighter.

For the next experiment, I moved to the back of the first floor of the dungeon to ensure no one was around.

In the game, only the three initial skills or those in the skill slots could be activated, either automatically or manually. However, I'm going to try the motions for skills I haven't yet learned.

"For starters, let's try something like summoning magic."

I drew a complex geometric magic circle in one go. This is a skill I worked hard to learn but eventually deleted in the game due to insufficient skill slots.

"Summon! |Jormungandr|!"

The skill |Jormungandr| summons a giant snake with divine properties. It boasts high physical and magical resistance and has a powerful debuff skill that lowers the level of all nearby monsters. The monster level is 75, and if you can summon it, you could easily reach the middle levels with it.

...Nothing happened, as expected. There was no mistake in the magic circle, but I felt it would fail since no magic power flowed through it while I was drawing.

The failure wasn't due to insufficient levels or MP but simply because "Jormungandr" isn't in my current skill set to activate it.

But you never know until you try. It's free to experiment. Next, let's try the skill motion.

"I've been curious about Theo's skill. Let's use it now."

Without overthinking, I precisely traced the complex sword dance-like motion I'd performed many times in the game at the slime in front of me.

|Fist Break| is an anti-unit skill that multiplies damage output by relentlessly attacking the enemy once the initial hit lands.

"I'm going to do it now."

I hit the first giant slime spawn with my bat. Nothing happened. Then, I tried using my fist this time. The moment I landed my punch on the slime, it popped like a balloon.

"Holy shit! One hit!" Usually, it would take at least three to four hits with the aluminum bat, but Theo's skill allowed for a one-shot kill. "Now this is amazing!"

Filled with great curiosity and enthusiasm, I charged blindly toward the slime spawn and several other large slimes. Each hit, each movement, every kill streak filled me with euphoria. "Ah~ It feels so wonderful!"

Sadly, I forgot that using skills consumes MP. Theodore's |Fist Break| devoured my MP, and the consumption increased with each activation. Inevitably, I fainted on the spot.

—————————————

The next day, Monday.

After fainting in the dungeon and being rescued while entangled in slime, I became the talk of the school as: "The Weakest Man in the History of the Adventurer Academy."

'Ah hell, it seems like God has forsaken Theodore Garcia to the point he reached your deepest pit.'