I look up and away from the skill list and exhale.
I’m starting to get hungry, so I eat something and then leave the building to take over from Argo and the others.
It’s a lot quieter than it was at first, but I can still hear metallic sounds if I listen closely.
“I guess the only option is to look for the enemy and take it down.”
It feels like a pain, but I can’t think of anything else.
If the monsters keep getting replicated no matter how many go down, this will never end.
“So you really can’t see the enemy’s skills with your Appraisal?”
“Nope.”
I say to Rurika.
Maybe I could if I maxed out Analysis, or got a superior version of that skill, but it just leveled up to nine.
I use it more than other skills, but I doubt I can get it to level ten even if I keep using it for the next two days without a break.
“You have a Strengthening skill, right? You use that on equipment, but can’t you use it to make a skill stronger?”
Asks Chris as I wonder what I can do.
I’ve told them what skills I have, so they have a pretty good grasp on that. After all, that helps a lot in figuring out how we fight.
Strengthening skills… Is that doable?
I try using it on Analysis.
【Analysis Lv9】 → 【Analysis LvMAX】
It leveled up.
I use it on Hikari… And I can see skills!
And once the effect of Strengthening wears off…
【Analysis LvMAX】 → 【Analysis Lv9】
It goes back to how it was, and I can’t see skills anymore.
I need to check if it works on monsters too, but there’s another issue. I have to keep the Strengthening skill active in order to maintain the level of Analysis.
I also can’t cast Analysis from far away.
A lot of monsters are unpredictable, and if they’re replicated ones, I have no idea what they’ll do.
“I can see others’ skills if I keep the Analysis skill strengthened.”
I tell everyone its issues too.
“Then focus on Analysis while we fight monsters.”
Says Rurika, and the others nod.
With that decided, we go looking for monsters, but I think Argo and the others dealt with most of them, because we can’t find any.
Now that we actually want to find them, they’re not here.
We decide to go back, and tell the others we’re heading a little further away to look for monsters.
“Okay. We’ll be on guard, so don’t do anything rash.”
Says Argo, and we nod.
First, Hikari and Sera take the lead as we head towards where we can hear fighting.
We follow the noise to a back alley, but after it gets louder and louder, it suddenly stops.
When we get there we see people, but not monsters. They say the monsters disappeared after they took them down.
This happens again, and again, and we find monsters on our fourth try.
But we can’t be happy. The monsters are fighting people wearing guard uniforms, who are outnumbered.
There are five monsters and ten guards, but only three are standing.
“Hikari, go. Sora, use Provoke to draw them in. Sera and Mia, stop them for a bit.”
Rurika and Hikari run out, and I use Provoke.
They’re not close, but I manage to attract one. This monster, a goblin, turns around and comes at me.
I cast Appraisal with Strengthening while Sera keeps it busy, and its skills are revealed. But after I look at more of them, I see they all have the same skills, but nothing related to Replication.
They’re probably all replicated. They even have the same level.
After the five goblins are down, we heal the injured guards and look for more monsters.
We find orcs, more goblins, wolves, and goblins again. I cast Analysis every time, but don’t find any special skills.
“Is there a point to this?”
“What do you mean?”
I say in response to Mia, after we take down a group of orcs.
“You checked all of their skills, but since we took them all down, that doesn’t really matter.”
She has a point. Well, I guess if we knew we took down the one behind this, that would bring some peace of mind.
“Also, we have been putting all of our attention on monsters, but we don’t actually know if a monster is behind this mess.”
She’s right, we don’t know that. We just assumed because the replicated enemies are monsters.
Also, there’s all sorts of them like goblins, orcs, and wolves.
“We should go back and talk to Argo, Herc, and the others, right?”
We can only nod in response to Mia’s proposal.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
Thanks for the treat.