Chapter 69 - Skill Acquisition (4)

Chapter 69: Skill Acquisition (4)

Initially, After returning to the waiting room, I pondered about whether to return for a while.

In any case, I obviously had to keep them posted that I was alive, and I was curious if they recognized people like ‘Challengers from another world’ in the outside world.

‘But I don’t think I need to do that.’

However, when I saw the newly acquired skill, the desire to return completely disappeared.

It seemed like it could be decided after challenging the 11th floor without having to go back right away.

That thought became firm when I directly checked the ‘Counter Shield’ acquired through skill combination.

Pow. Pow.

“Its solidity isn’t so bad, and to be able to release the absorbed damage is pretty good.”

Of course, I had no intention of using this ability at this place, so I immediately deactivated Counter Shield.

It seemed that the abilities for protection were sufficient enough with this, so now it was time to combine all the skills I had collected.

Skills to be combined could be classified into two broad categories.

「 Skill – Silent Step (E-)  」

「 Proficiency – N/A 」

「 Effect – Able to move without making any noise. 」

The first was the ability to fundamentally silence the noise from footsteps.

Silent step(E-) was quite worth strengthening through skill combination.

Basically, it could be said that silencing the noise of footsteps is useful, but what’s more important is that this was a ‘footwork-type’ skill.

That was most important.

“They said that there are quite a lot of useful skills that fall under the footwork category.”

Silent step (E-) simply silenced the sound, but other footwork-type skills also had effects such as increasing the movement speed, among other things.

In other words, if you could combine well, it’d be a pretty good skill.

It was inevitable that I would be interested, as there could be quite useful ‘acceleration-type’ skills, such as Instant Acceleration.

「 Skill – Chaotic Onslaught (D) 」

「 Proficiency – N/A 」

「 Effect- Upon declaring the skill name, you can increase your attack speed by 2 times. However, if this effect is stacked with another attack speed buff, it is reduced to 1.35 times. 」

And this attack speed increasing skill called ‘Chaotic Onslaught’ was the second.

Fundamentally, there was nothing as important as attack speed since I was using swordsmanship skills.

The fact that I could wield my sword more times than in a fight where I should’ve exchanged a single blow originally had that much merit.

Moreover….

‘Discharging a Ki sword seems to have something to do with the attack speed, too…..’

Now that I could discharge the Ki sword into a slash with the Lightning Sword Ki, the attack speed had to become more important.

“Anyway, both of them are pretty good as a base for new skills to learn.”

Of course, I couldn’t raise the Proficiency of both of them, and their performance isn’t that good, but……

I knew the way to overcome all those shortcomings.

“Skill Combination.”

It was none other than a skill combination.

The power of pioneers to raise the skill rank to a higher level by combining low-rank skills existed to be used in this kind of situation.

「 Activating the innate power ‘Skill Combination.’ 」

「 Listing the available skills. 」

I immediately looked at the skill list and slowly started combining the skills I had learned.

「 The two skills aren’t identical in rank. 」

「 Skill ‘Silent step’ will become the core of the combination.」

First, I continued combining, starting with Silent Step, which was closely related to walking.

Basically, it was important to add a usable ability based on footwork that could silence the sound.

I had a skill in my mind in advance for what kind of skill I should be adding to it.

「 Skill – Escape (F-)」

「 Proficiency – N/A 」

「  Effect- Footsteps are accelerated by 1.5 times when HP goes below 50%.  」

It was a skill that was surely useless, as well as it being such a bad skill.

However, if these kinds of abilities were also considered a skill, I could use them effectively.

「 Skill combination will start with ‘Silent Step’ as the core. 」

「 Current probability for a high tier skill is 75% 」

‘Pretty decent.’

I immediately proceeded with skill combination at the skill combination probability that appeared.

「 Combination complete. 」

「 New skill generated. 」

And…

「 Skill – Hermit Step (E+) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Effect – The user’s presence disappears from the footsteps, and when moving in a dark place, the user becomes slightly faster.」

I smirked at the result of the skill combination.

As expected from a footwork-type skill, an additional ability saying ‘When moving in a dark place, the user becomes slightly faster’ was attached to it.

“I need to raise the rank a bit higher.”

With this, it couldn’t be used in actual fights, so I decided to raise the rank a little more.

There were quite a few skills that I had acquired from the public area on the 10th floor, and it wasn’t difficult to choose a useful skill among them.

To the point that I didn’t even have to do that much skill combination.

***

「 Combination complete. 」

「 New skill generated. 」

Once—

「 Combination complete. 」

「 New skill generated. 」

Twice—

「 Combination complete. 」

「 New skill generated. 」

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Three times—

“The footwork-type skill is now complete with this.”

The finished result after three skill combinations was quite pleasing.

「 Skill – Clandestine Shadow’s Step(C+) 」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Basic Effect – The user’s presence completely disappears from their footsteps, and the way the user walks is effectively restructured. 」

「 Additional Effect – Movement speed is increased by 30% when walking in dark places, and when stepping on the shadow of a creature, strength is amplified by 3. 」

First of all, I liked that it increases the movement speed by 30%, but what caught my attention was the fact that the strength stat was amplified when stepping on the shadow of a living creature.

‘It basically means my attacking ability becomes stronger when I catch them with their back turned.’

Of course, the situations in which it could be used were limited, but it was surprising that the strength could be amplified by 3.

Because an increase in strength meant that attack power would become stronger.

All that was left was the skill related to attack speed that could be activated based on ‘Chaotic Onslaught’.

I immediately activated the skill combination, and in addition to Chaotic Onslaught, I selected all the skills to be combined.

「 Skill –  Light-emitting Sword (E+) 」

「 Proficiency – N/A 」

「 Effect – Upon declaring the skill name, attack speed increases by 1.25x and the sword weapon shines. 」

It was a skill of a slightly higher rank to recklessly use for combining, but it didn’t feel like a waste.

Typically, I wouldn’t have used it for combining if this skill’s ‘sword weapon shines’ had any special effect…

It was only an ability to simply decorate the weapon, so I had no choice but to use it for skill combination in the end.

「 The two skills aren’t identical in rank. 」

「 Skill ‘Chaotic Onslaught’ will become the core of the combination.」

And—

「 Skill combination will start with ‘Chaotic Onslaught’ as the core. 」

「 Current probability for a high tier skill is 93% 」

“Oh, it looks like the compatibility of the skills is good.”

After seeing the messages that were displayed, I immediately proceeded with skill combination.

「 Combination complete. 」

「 New skill generated. 」

Seeing those messages, I immediately checked the skill I had acquired.

「 Skill –  Chaotic Sword-fighting Play (C+)」

「 Proficiency – 0% 」

「 Basic Effect –  When swinging a sword, the blade glows red and attack speed increases by 2%. This effect can be stacked up to 10 times in total.」

「 Additional Effect –  When the attack speed of the sword increases until the last stack, the attack speed is additionally increased by 5%. However, if the user doesn’t immediately link the attack, the gathered stacks are initialized.」

A type of skill that could stack like Wind’s Blessing(A-) had been generated.

As I looked at the description of the skill, I soon admitted it.

“Should I say, as expected from Skill Combination…?”

The skills I had just acquired were great enough that it wasn’t a waste to combine all the skills I got from the public area.

Even now, the ability to frantically increase attack speed by stacking like Chaotic Sword-fighting Play was inevitably useful in many ways.

‘The higher the skill proficiency, the better the ability will become.’

Moreover, this was true not only for this Chaotic Sword-fighting Play, but also for the Clandestine Shadow’s Step I had just generated.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that both of them had an overwhelming ability compared to their skill ranks.

Of course…

“Thanks to that, I almost lost all the skills I had won from the arena, though.”

It took quite a lot of skills to combine to attain such an excellent skill.

Excluding the Gust Blade skill that I got from Katheryn Benett, the skills I’d acquired in the public area had been synthesized into three.

Counter Shield.

Chaotic Sword-fighting Play.

Clandestine Shadow’s Step.

All of them were rare skills that exceeded C+ level, so it wasn’t a waste to consume quite a lot of skills.

So I had to make a decision soon.

“I guess I’ll have to delay going back to the real world.”

It was the same when I checked Counter Shield by myself, but after combining all the remaining skills, I think that I’ll definitely be able to clear the 11th floor.

It wasn’t a groundless idea.

I acquired a whopping two C+ rank skills, and even Counter Shield had a higher skill level than the Ashen Blood skill I’d previously acquired.

In other words, I didn’t think it’d be difficult to go to the 11th floor, as not only had my abilities increased that much, but all of them were also of a high level.

In the end, after giving it some time to think, I came to a conclusion.

“It’ll be fine if I get to the 11th floor as quickly as possible.”

I changed my mind. Instead of returning immediately, I decided to go up to the waiting room on the 11th floor and then return to the real world.

Having decided like that, there was nothing to think about and prepare for.

It was because I didn’t think I needed to buy more items at the moment, and even if I didn’t have such things, I figured that my skills were enough to cover them.

「 Do you accept the 10th floor trial? 」

Without thinking about that matter more, I immediately responded to the trial on the 10th floor and stepped into the portal that appeared in front of me without hesitation.

And—

「 Entering Tower of Trials 10th floor. 」

「 Difficulty – Hard 」

「 The objective of the following trial is ‘cooperation.’ 」

「 We wish the challenger a satisfactory ending to their choice. 」

‘Cooperation, huh…..’

Seeing the next message that appeared, I clenched the sword in my hand tightly.

「 The 10th floor trial is starting. 」

「 Remaining time – 3 hours 」

「 Trial success condition – Subdue the boss monster cooperatively within the remaining time. 」

「 Trial fail condition – Teammate’s death or end of remaining time. 」

「 Trial success reward – Skill Proficiency Potion (B+) 」

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「 Trial fail penalty – Death 」

After reading this far, I understood what the structure of the trial of the 10th floor was.

“It’s been so long since I did a combined trial.”

It was a combined trial with other challengers.