kscans

Chapter 74 - Skill Explanations

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◇Status◇
Name: Haru
Lv: 100(150)
STR (Strength): 140
AGI (Agility): 500 (+10)
DEX (Dexterity): 200 (+10)
VIT (Vitality): 5
MID (Mind): 5
LUC (Luck): 50

◇Skills◇
・All-Weapon Aptitude
《Blink Switch》
《Piercing Dart》

・《Quit Counter》
・《Floating Leaf》

・Embodied Protection
・Heavy Attack Manipulator
・Combo Accelerate
・Idaten
・Flying Swallow Dash
・Fateless Jumper
・Rhino's Heart
・Guardian's Cradle

・Telepathy
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・《Blink Switch》— Can be activated by vividly imagining the detailed appearance and information of an equippable item. Enables instantaneous equipment switching without needing to operate the status screen.
Evolved from its predecessor, 《Quick Change》, it has gained the effect of reducing its cooldown time when activated consecutively without other skills in between.

No player has ever been able to properly use 《Quick Change》. Which means, no one has ever used it enough for it to evolve... Naturally, it's a unique skill. Congratulations.

・《Piercing Dart》— Can be activated when throwing a weapon with a 'tip'. Grants a damage bonus, an aim assist bonus, and a weak piercing effect.

All active-trigger attack skills have a post-skill animation lock. The protagonist, who frequently throws weapons, never shows any sign of using this skill, which should tell you everything. He operates under the assumption that getting hit even once after being locked in an animation means death.

・《Quit Counter》— Upon activation, grants a high-magnification parry success bonus to the equipped weapon for an extremely short duration. Upon a successful parry, the damage of the next single attack is increased.

Q. There don't seem to be any downsides, so why have you never used it?
A. Because his STR was so pitifully low that even with a high-magnification bonus, parrying was impossible.

With his current stats, it's now somewhat stable, depending on the opponent. By the way, what he was doing against the decaying statues in the [Buried Labyrinth of Forgetfulness] was blocking, not parrying.

・《Floating Leaf》— Upon activation, allows the user to select and prioritize one direction of kinetic energy acting on their body. Furthermore, it reduces the gravity acting on the avatar and nullifies air resistance. Additionally, while the effect is active, it minimizes the load from body weight during physical movement, but the actual numerical weight does not change.

Don't get it? I see, I don't get it either.

To put it simply... sprinting forward = prioritizing forward kinetic energy. But that's not the only kinetic energy being generated; there are arrows pointing in various directions, like from swinging your arms or the upward recoil from kicking off the ground.

This skill lets you pick an arrow from any desired direction and forcibly prioritize it. That's the first half.

As for the even more confusing second half, it allows you to move with about 1/10th the physical load while your actual weight remains unchanged. It only reduces the burden on physical movement; it doesn't decrease the weight or power of your attacks, for example.

It was designed as a broken skill with no downsides whatsoever. Who was it that gave this bombshell to the protagonist before he even graduated from the beginner areas...?

By the way, it's unique. He hasn't checked since he looked it up a while ago, so he has no idea.

・《Embodied Protection》— Applies a bonus to events that are difficult to achieve.

To put it bluntly, it's a skill that grants 'Protagonist Correction'. It's not quite a systemic cheat or favoritism, but it may or may not provide minor advantages in various situations.

By the way, he is the protagonist from the get-go, even without any Protagonist Correction from the system. Protagonist Correction is already built-in, and this status effect does not stack. In other words, it's meaningless. Poor guy.

・《Heavy Attack Manipulator》— When using a weapon that doesn't meet the STR requirement, it grants an upward damage bonus. When using a weapon that does meet the STR requirement and is above a certain weight, it grants a bonus to operational accuracy.

This is a simple and useful skill favored by warrior-type players who use heavy weapons. They primarily utilize the latter effect, and only a very small number of perverts would look at the former effect and proclaim it a “god-tier skill.”

・《Combo Accelerate》— Retains the same kind of recast time reduction effect for 《Blink Switch》 that its predecessor, 《Accel Tempo》, had, while also gaining the effect of reducing the recast times of all skills when different skills are activated consecutively.
The combo is only applied when “all skills are different.” Example ↓
〇 《Blink Switch》⇒《Piercing Dart》⇒《Floating Leaf》
× 《Blink Switch》⇒《Piercing Dart》⇒《Blink Switch》
The longer the combo, the greater the final recast time reduction.

It may sound like it only has upsides, but in reality, the amount of recast time reduction isn't that dramatic, so it's just a good skill. For now.

・《Idaten》— Automatically activates during high-speed movement when physical motion speed exceeds a certain value. Doubles the effect of DEX that assists AGI. The effect continues to decrease as long as the speed required for activation is maintained.

It's no exaggeration to say that without this skill, the protagonist would have been a smear on the ground countless times. It's his well-known cornerstone.

In addition to its exceptional effect, it has no recast time since it's a passive skill. It seems like a must-have for light warriors, but the acquisition condition—gaining extensive high-speed combat experience with an “AGI > DEX” stat distribution—is basically picking a fight with Arcadia's game mechanics, so the ownership rate is surprisingly low. Its predecessor skill is already an excellent one, providing DEX+100 at the light-footed stage, so many light warriors are content with that.

By the way, the protagonist is about to do something stupid soon, which will trigger Idaten's wrath. I hereby declare that this is not because the author accidentally messed up the settings. Please believe me.

・《Flying Swallow Dash》— Provides stability and accuracy support for physical movements during consecutive jumps. Additionally, it prevents loss of jumping power even when leaping from unstable footing or stances.

Its predecessor's effect, “provides assistance when running on difficult terrain like sand,” was never used even once. Instead, thanks to the insane amount of experience it gained during the [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King] fight, it suddenly mutated into a completely different skill.

In terms of versatility and synergy with the protagonist's build, it's a definite plus, so in the grand scheme of things, it was undoubtedly a fortunate outcome.

・《Fateless Jumper》— Improves the stability and acceleration of jumping actions. Additionally, it adds a critical judgment to all jumping actions. Upon a successful judgment, it applies a high-magnification bonus to jump power and jump speed.

I know you're probably thinking, “What are you even talking about?” but both the protagonist and the author are thinking the exact same thing: “What am I even talking about?”

To break it down, a jump that is considered “ideal” in all aspects—stance, timing of the push-off, amount of force, etc.—becomes a critical jump. What the hell is a critical jump???

The effect ranges from about a 1.2 to 1.3 times multiplier depending on the success of the judgment. It's a great skill, but there's a risk of being thrown off by unexpected success or failure judgments. Hey, he's the protagonist, shouldn't the success rate be 100%?

・《Rhino's Heart》— Automatically activates upon reaching the limit of high-speed movement. Further accelerates the top speed in a straight line and adds a high-magnification damage bonus and a massive impact effect to the next attack.

The evolved form of Boar's Heart. The explicit need for a running start has been removed from the activation conditions, making it slightly easier to use. However, the weakness of not being able to activate it instantly remains, as reaching the max speed corresponding to one's AGI stat still requires a decent run-up... but the synergy with a skill he's scheduled to acquire soon is...

・《Guardian's Cradle》— When carrying heavy objects, it reduces the load on the avatar up to a certain weight. Additionally, if the carried object is a person, such as a player or NPC, it reduces the load on the target during movement. Furthermore, if the target takes damage from any source, the skill holder takes half of that damage upon themselves.

This transport skill evolved after he stubbornly continued to treat the heroine like a princess. The weight reduction effect is about 100kg, so he can now princess-carry Sora with zero load. You might think 100kg is a huge effect, but since the strength of an avatar with stats invested in STR is already monstrous, this is a relatively modest effect in comparison.

It's strictly a “blessing that activates when carrying something,” so it doesn't apply to equipped weapons or armor. By the way, even with his current stats and this skill activated, he still can't properly swing [Prologue: Wedge Fragment Singing of Eternity (An=Re Galta)]. That thing weighs over 300kg...

・《Telepathy》— Enables a certain degree of non-verbal communication with a specific player.

To the person who just thought, “What is this nonsense...?” please understand that I feel the same way.

To put it bluntly and vaguely, it allows you to vaguely sense the intentions of one specific player you're linked with when you're trying to communicate with each other.

In other words, it's a simplified, systemic version of the unison phenomenon the two of them pulled off during the [Angalta, God-Wedge Sword-King] fight. It may or may not be useful, but those two already communicate so well without it...

It's a non-unique skill that has been observed since the early days of the game, mostly between pairs who are “in love” or have a similar relationship. What are you two? Are you dating?

By the way, the moment the system judges that “Ah, these two have had a falling out,” the skill vanishes from your skill list. Merciless.