Chapter 4:
Halloween—Day 4
GOOD MORNING, familiar ceiling. Today’s the final day of the event.
I’ll do my stretches and head out into the chapel.
“Morning, Princess!” the twins greet me.
“Good morning. Were you able to get some sleep?”
“Yeah, lots!”
After going to bed so early, the twins must have woken up early too.
“Are you looking over your new skills?” I ask.
“Yeah, they’re really good!”
I’ve just noticed the two of them increased by two levels.
I leveled up once to reach level 48, but I’m just below level 49 now. Mr. Skelly and Mr. Alf are at level 49 too, so we’ll all have to evolve at a later time.
I say my morning prayer, then it’s time to pull up yesterday’s log and give it a thorough look.
Quick Cast from Book was upgraded. That’s a passive skill, so I don’t need to test it.
Snake Sword
No Restrictions: You can now carry out complex movements.
Ultra Magic Assist
Scouting Spell: A spell that searches for nearby enemies.
Aurora Magic
Serace Flak: This attack spell blasts light in all directions from wherever you choose to position it.
Holy Magic
Party Heal: Heals all party members within the same area, including the caster.
Chaos Magic
Haus Flak: This attack spell blasts darkness in all directions from wherever you choose to position it.
Space-time Magic
Slow: Slows a target’s speed, putting them in a state of slow motion.
That’s about everything.
I remember other players using Party Heal during the fight with the Dark Young. I was late to take Holy Magic, and in my party, I’m the only player it will work on. I’ll have to shelve Party Heal in a party of undead. I might accidentally kill one of the others.
I won’t understand the rest until I actually try them. The adventurers’ union has wooden dummies, don’t they? I think that’s where I’ll head next.
I’m eager to use Snake Sword and the flak arts.
“I’m heading to the union to beat up some training dummies. Would you care to join me?”
“Yeah!”
I’ll take the twins to the union with me. I’m sure all the other players will have the same idea, so it might be crowded, but it’s still early enough in the day that there ought to be some room.
Adventurers’ unions have training areas for newbies. It depends on the region the union is in, but these areas are typically located in the garden or the basement. This town’s union training area appears to be in the garden, so that will be our destination.
There are definitely more players than usual at the union, but there are still dummies available for us to work with.
While the twins hit their dummies with spells and scythe attacks, I’ll start with Snake Sword.
No Restrictions is a passive art, but let’s see it. Wow, this is pretty impressive!
“You use Snake Sword, right, Princess? I didn’t know those swords could move around so much.”
“I learned the passive art No Restrictions after yesterday’s fight, so I’m able to manipulate it manually now. Ah! Ouch!”
“Looks like it’s hard to control, huh?”
“Theoretically, once I get used to it, this could solve the problem of not having enough arms and weapons. However, it seems I can’t intentionally reflect attacks with it.”
“If Snake Sword has that art, then Whip probably has the same one.”
“I suppose that may be true.”
I chat with the random player who happens to be next to me as I sum up the information I’ve gathered.
I’m now able to hit things other than what I specifically target. It’s sort of like a fighting style you see in anime. I can fly in the air and strike my sword out right in front of me, or I can even make it wrap around things in my surroundings.
The twins have finished up now. They must have gotten a feel for their spells, then quickly read up on everything else they needed to know from the BBS.
“While I have you, could I ask for your help in testing out my new interference spell?” I ask the player.
“Oh yeah? Bring it on!”
The player agrees to enter duel mode with me. I’ll lower the damage modifiers so that I don’t kill him right away.
“Slow,” I cast.
“Whoa! It lasts six whole seconds?”
The chant time is quick, but it uses a lot of MP. Judging by its duration, I suspect this art is meant to be used on fellow players.
“Ah, it stopped. I see. This art’s really strong,” the player says.
“Slow,” I cast again.
“Four seconds, huh? Looks like targets gain resistance after getting hit with it four times,” he speculates.
“Do you know any of the flak spells?” I ask.
“I just read some posts about them on the BBS, but I haven’t seen ’em myself. Bring it on!”
These are the ones I’m most curious about.
“Haus Flak,” I cast.
“Oof!”
“Whoa, that was cool!” the twins chime in.
“I’ll try dodging it next time,” the player declares.
“Here it comes. Serace Flak.”
“Oop!”
“Ah, so it’s a multi-directional attack spell that you can place anywhere. I understand now.”
“I see,” the player remarks.
“It’s awesome!” the twins cheer.
“I unlocked it when I got my third-tier skill to level 5,” I inform them.
“Still a ways off for us!” the twins complain.
You set the coordinates of where to cast it just like explosion and mine spells. The description said it fired in all directions, but to be more accurate, it activates and forms the shape of a dome. You designate where the spell gets cast, at which point the dome made of small spheres the size of pachinko balls appears. A few seconds later, they converge on the designated location and deal damage to those hit.
Indeed, it’s a very cool visual effect, just as the twins said.
The two of us exit out of duel mode.
“Seems like Gravitas and Flak both take a little getting used to,” he remarks.
“They really do. They’re a bit difficult to operate.”
“They are?” the twins ask.
“Gravitas is pretty simple to use, but when you try it in the hunting grounds…” replies the player.
One would want to hit six targets at once with Gravitas spells, so considering the amount of MP used, it’s best kept for hunting.
Flak spells in comparison can be set anywhere at equal cost, however this is both a blessing and a curse.
“Coordinate-based spells don’t chase enemies like Magic Missile does. This one also had some timing to get the hang of, as the spheres don’t immediately converge after they appear,” I explain.
“So you have to consider that enemies have time to run if they see you set it up,” says the player.
“Interesting,” reply the twins.
You’d want to time it for just after an enemy attacks, while they’re not moving, or when they’re knocked down. I think placing them in advance would be a powerful strategy once I get the hang of it. However, I’ll have to predict the enemy’s movements while also calculating the time it takes from activation until it actually hits the enemy.
The art Explosion deals explosive damage that expands from the caster’s choice of location. Even if you’re not perfectly precise, it will still hit its targets. But flak condenses instead of expanding, making it much more difficult.
“Flak is extremely MP-efficient, isn’t it? Although pillar is still the most efficient at the moment.”
“Pillar deals the most DPMP, but Flak has better DPS, apparently,” the player explains to me.
“Ah, that’s true. It takes time before pillars start to deal their full amount of damage.”
“Flak only needs the time it takes to condense to deal all its damage, and it’s crazy powerful if you can get every pellet to hit.”
If you manage to hit your target with every sphere upon convergence, it must have the strongest raw firepower in the game. But if you miss, even slightly, it becomes weaker than mines. If your target breaks through a portion of the dome, the whole spell is weakened down to the level of an arrow or ball spell. I’m sure someone like Ms. Fairellen could simply fly around and dodge all the pellets.
“I’d also like to test what happens when flak is reflected, as well as how Raum Escudo and Raum Sphere work with it.”
“I can’t use those spells, but I’m sure someone around here can,” the player informs me.
“You rang?”
A wild Mr. Studylover appeared!
I want to know if, when a portion of flak is taken out, it fizzles the rest. I’m also curious if Raum Escudo and Raum Sphere from Space Magic work against it. Respectively, those arts block long-range attacks from the front and then long-range attacks from all directions. In other words, they’re invulnerability spells.
“It would be very bad if they broke from a single sphere hitting them,” I explain.
“I’ve been struggling to research Space Magic because so few have it, so honestly, this is a big help!”
“Do all the spheres disappear when blocked, or just the ones that hit?”
“I think it would be too complex if it weren’t the former,” I reply.
“Good point,” the twins say.
After all, this spell surrounds a designated location with countless little spheres. Does a single sphere hitting cause the other spheres in that cast of flak to be blocked, or does each individual sphere count as its own instance of damage? This will be important to verify. If it’s the latter, not only will we lose our invulnerability shields mid-fight, but we’ll then be pelted by the remaining spheres and take damage. That certainly won’t do.
“Okay, let’s actually give this a shot.”
“I’m ready when you are.”
After more testing, we find that flak pellets can be knocked away, but reflecting them accurately to hit a target seems impossible. The spheres appear in random locations, but they’ll always be within a certain distance of the cast position. That means I can knock them away, but they’ll despawn before traveling very far. Essentially, since flak won’t be used on me in very close-range fights, there’s functionally no special reason to reflect it.