“Let me test something with Sword Knowledge before we distribute the skills. Aki.”
“Yes yes, I get it. So I should use one Sword Knowledge Lv1 at a time, right?”
“Yes. Seventeen, please.”
Before, Aki got Sword Knowledge Lv1, then Swordsmanship Lv1, then Sword Knowledge Lv1, and then Sword Knowledge Lv2, but her skill list only shows Swordsmanship Lv1. I’m thinking that much like skills without levels, there’s information that can only be seen with a high enough level of True Appraisal.
What will happen if she keeps using those skill orbs until the limit?
“…Ahh. This really hits me in the spirit. I feel like my money sense is gonna get twisted.”
Mumbles Aki, sounding really gloomy, after ten Sword Knowledge Lv1 disappear into her hand.
“By the way, how much is a Sword Knowledge worth?”
“About a hundred thousand.”
“So not very expensive but not cheap either.”
“Basic sword techniques won’t make a big difference for adventurers that have made it to this floor, but they’re good for beginners. And even if it doesn’t reach Swordsmanship, it has its own value if you stack it.”
“And that skill is meaninglessly disappearing into my hand… I’m gonna be sick.”
It feels like Aki’s eyes die a little bit more every time a skill orb is used.
“Sorry Aki. Just a little more.”
“Ahh… Hold me tightly after this.”
“Okay.”
“Muphun. I’ll keep going then.”
Her sulkiness and motivation rise as she finishes using the seventeen skill orbs, but nothing changes.
But there is a change after one more.
“…Ah, no way. It’s Swordsmanship Lv2 now!”
“Eh, really!?”
“It really changed…!”
“Darling’s very perceptive!”
“How do you like that… This should cause a stir in the market.”
The maximum level of Sword Knowledge is twenty. And in Aki’s case, she had a Sword Knowledge before learning Swordsmanship, and leveling up to twenty didn’t change it. Only when she reached twenty-one.
So basically, getting the higher rank version of a skill overwrites the lower rank, and by getting the lower rank at a rate of max+1 after that, it’s possible to level up the higher rank version.
Next we should try…
“Now that we know it actually does something, Aki, take twenty-one more.”
“Eh? Isn’t it enough already?”
Aki is very surprised.
Hahaha, we’re just getting started.
“We need to test if it levels up by one every time.”
“I-I guess…”
“Please get started then.”
I give Aki twenty-one Sword Knowledge, but she stops me with her hand.
“T-then try them on yourself. I don’t have to…”
“In my case, I might level up to Sword Master Lv2 if I take eleven Swordsmanship, right? But to test that, we need to waste a Swordsmanship Lv1. We’re just testing if we can compress skills like this even with the Compression skill, so if we’re going to waste one, it’s clear that it should be Sword Knowledge.”
“Uu…!”
“Come on Aki, we know there will be a change, so we know it won’t be for nothing.”
“Do your best, Aki!”
Say Maki and Ayane, and after taking a lot of Sword Knowledge, her skill goes up to Lv6.
She’s gone through a hundred and two Sword Knowledge. She looks depressed after spending so many, but we still have a hundred sixty more.
“…I feel like I’ve taken enough skill orbs for a lifetime.”
With her spirit drained, she dives onto the simple futon. I should thank her later, because it was a success. I’ve proven that my theory was correct.
After learning a higher rank version of a skill, you can level it up by taking the lower rank’s max level plus one.
But now that the higher rank skill leveled up, there’s one more thing to test.
Will the lower rank skill evolve if you take it beyond max level before you learn the higher rank version?
“Can you do it, Maki?”
“If you say so, Shouta. Is what I would say, but you want to test if it will level up without using a Swordsmanship skill orb, right? I’m sorry, but that has already been tested.”
“Ah, really?”
“Yes. It was with another skill, but apparently there was no evolution even after pouring two times the max level.”
Ah, so it’s been done before. And the experiment we just did was probably never done because people assumed the lower rank version of a skill never affected a higher rank version.
“In order to make a skill grow, you have to have the higher rank version already.”
“In that sense, your Compression is a broken skill. It can take a shortcut to skill progression.”
“…Yes.”
Conversely, when I used the Sword Master skill orb, if I had raised the level of Sword Knowledge or Swordsmanship a bit, it would’ve overwritten them and turned them into nothing.
That’s sad.
“Let’s wrap up the rest then.”
I compress Sword Knowledge into eight Swordsmanship Lv1, and start distributing the skills.
I take one Great Strength IV, turning it into Great Strength V. One Iron Wall IV, turning it into Iron Wall V. Three Swordsmanship Lv3 and one Swordsmanship Lv1. Then a Swordsmanship Lv5 and five Swordsmanship Lv1 to level up to Sword Master Lv3. Three Pursuer IV to turn it into Pursuer V, and one Regal Pressure III to turn it into Regal Pressure IV.
Ayane takes three Great Strength III, turning it into Great Strength IV. Two Healing Magic Lv1, turning it into Healing Magic Lv8. One Destructive Wisdom II. Two Aurora Magic Lv1 turning it into Aurora Magic Lv6. Two Dusk Magic Lv1, turning it into Dusk Magic Lv4.
Aira takes three Great Strength III, turning it into Great Strength IV. One Magic Energy Recovery. Three Destructive Wisdom, turning it into Destructive Wisdom II.
Aki takes three Great Strength III turning it into Great Strength IV. One Super Strength III. Three Iron Wall III, turning it into Iron Wall IV. Two Rampart II, turning it into Rampart II (2/3). One Swift III. One Destructive Wisdom.
Maki takes one Great Strength III. One Super Strength III. One Rampart III. Four Healing Magic Lv1 and two Healing Magic Lv2, turning it into Healing Magic Lv8. One Magic Energy Recovery. One Destructive Wisdom.
That leaves us with…
Great Strength II: 3
Great Strength III: 1
Super Strength: 1
Super Strength II: 2
Fast Run: 2
Fast Run III: 1
Swift: 2
Iron Wall III: 2
Iron Wall IV: 3
Command: 5
Command III: 4
Sword Knowledge Lv5: 3
Swordsmanship Lv1: 3
Pursuer II: 1
Pursuer III: 3
Pursuer IV: 1
And treasure chests.
Yes, that’s a big load off my mind.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
Thanks for the treat.
“Oaky.”
Okay*