“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” Tomoya yelled at the top of his lungs. His face looked just like that famous painting The Scream. “Wait, hold on, doesn’t that mean if you made bad choices with your skills, you’d pretty much be screwed for life?!”
“Yes, anyone who chose Plunder as one of their skills is probably dead by now,” said Haruka.
“Yeah, that’s the only one with a good chance to kill its user right away,” I said. “I don’t know what the typical skills and levels are for an average person in this world, but anyone who uses Plunder against me is definitely dead instantly.”
I would get my stolen skills back too, so I’d basically be getting extra life span for free. I sense a bit of malice behind Plunder’s skill description, though, considering that on the surface it says it’ll steal all of a target’s skills. Sure, it’s the user’s fault if they get punished for stealing someone else’s hard-earned skills, but the skill description is still bait...
“Yikes! Super yikes! Now that’s more like what you’d expect from an evil god!” Tomoya continued to yell. All the while, his face still looked like The Scream.
Yeah, I feel you, Tomoya. I screamed those exact same words internally when I obtained the Help Guide and saw the hidden text.
“Actually, I think that evil god was quite kind and helpful, since the advice in the Help Guide is specific and useful, and he also emphasized that there were no cheat skills before we got to start choosing our skills,” said Haruka. “If you still chose something that seemed like a cheat skill, then I guess you’ll get what you deserve.”
“Well, yeah, but aren’t the EXP skills just outright torture?” Tomoya replied. “There’s no real benefit to any of them.”
Oh yeah, that’s true. The other skills at least had some kind of benefit. The EXP skills were the only ones where the drawbacks rendered them completely useless. Maybe they needed to be combined with other skills in order to be useful. I remember playing a few games like that, where there were skills that were pretty much useless on their own, but extremely useful when combined with another specific skill for synergy.
“Hmm, I’m not too sure about that, but he did also say ‘Effort will never betray you,’ so maybe he doesn’t like people who want an easy way out?” said Haruka. “Besides, if you really wanted to make use of the EXP skills, then you’d just have to work harder than normal to compensate for the drawbacks, so it’s not like some of the other ones that you can’t do anything about.”
Oh yeah, that was kind of weird for an evil god to say. I guess he has a harsh side, since he’s forcing people who search for an easy way out to work much harder than they’d have to otherwise. You also wouldn’t be able to get that many skills if you only chose from the additional skills.
“On the other hand, the skills that were available from the beginning are quite fair,” I said. “Or rather, they’re all very useful, though Robust seemed like an essential skill.”
“Mm, resistance to diseases is quite important,” Haruka agreed. “A disease that people don’t have resistance to tends to be a common device to explain near extinction in science fiction.”
“Huh? Wait, is Robust that important of a skill?”
Oh yeah, Tomoya doesn’t have the Help Guide, so he doesn’t know. He was lucky that he had picked a good skill like Robust. Or rather, it must have required insane luck to completely dodge the gimmicky additional skills without any extra knowledge.
“The extra description for Robust mentioned that there might be some unfamiliar diseases in this world,” I said. “I decided to get it after I saw that text.”
“It’s possible that we might naturally develop resistance to those diseases over time, but it’s better to be safe than sorry,” said Haruka. “Things like unemployment insurance probably don’t exist in this world.”
Yep, and there’s probably nothing like national health insurance or life insurance either. We might end up dead if we find ourselves in a situation where we can’t work for a while. There are no adults for us to rely on in this world, so we have to look out for each other.
“Oh, that makes sense! I’m glad I decided to get the Robust skill, then!” Tomoya sighed in relief. He probably hadn’t been thinking about diseases when he picked Robust, but Level 4 would most likely be more than enough for most diseases.
“All right, next up are my skills,” said Haruka. “These are the ones I decided to get.”
Help Guide, Weapon Proficiency: Bows, Craft Aptitude: Alchemy
Magic Aptitude: Light, Magic Aptitude: Wind, Magic Aptitude: Water
Enhanced Mana Capacity, General Knowledge, Level 2 Archery
Level 2 Robust, Level 1 Throw, Level 2 Third Eye
Level 1 Disassemble, Level 3 Light Magic, Level 1 Wind Magic
Level 1 Water Magic, Level 1 Swiftcast, Level 1 Alchemy
Level 1 Sewing, Level 1 Cooking
“Huh? Wait, why do you have way more skills than I do?” asked Tomoya.
“Yeah, you have way more than me as well, Haruka,” I said. “How many Points did you start with?”
Tomoya and I were both confused by the number of skills Haruka had. She had way more skills than either of us. I don’t exactly remember how many Points each skill cost, but I’m pretty sure 150 Points wouldn’t be enough for all this.
“I had 200 Points. What about it?” Haruka answered nonchalantly.
What? She had 200 Points?