CH 177

Author: The explanation of the comments was easy to digest, so I took those and included them in the main story. 

——–

I was thinking of using Incarnation of Fury as a trump card to defeat the Demon Lord. 

Incarnation of Fury is a status change skill that only the player can obtain once they do the proposal event before clearing the game and have activated the Demon Lord’s Blessing. 

If you only look at the plus effects of it, you could say its effects are quite splendid. 

Even if the effect is fixed to 30 seconds, all stats including the agility and stamina that normally doesn’t increase will have their numbers triple.

Just that alone will not make it ‘on a whole other level’, and for Nekomimi Neko that has a really messy balance, it wouldn’t be called a ‘balance breaker’.

Also, you can only use it once a day, moreover, it is a trump card that can only be used for 30 seconds which is too risky. 

My real aim, the true reason for the Incarnation of Fury being called a Balance Breaker, is when the penalty time comes after the tripled stats:  ‘at the moment when your stats are all dropped to 1/100th’. 

There are people who would think ‘if you increase your parameters while the effects of a skill or spell that change your stats is in effect, wouldn’t the amount you receive be different too?’, but there’s normally no such thing happening in Nekomimi Neko. 

It would be a pain to explain seriously the stuff regarding this, but for example, at the time when your stats are tripled in the Incarnation of Fury, if you eat a seed (the item that increases your stat to +1) you will have your stat increase by 3 times more than normal. 

You would think eating a seed at this time would be great since it increases your stats by 3 instead, but the reality is that your stats will return to 1/3rd of what it was including the increase once the buff is over, so in the end, you would only increase it by 1 point just like normal.

This is the reason why people say that skills and spells like Incarnation of Fury and Power Up that increase your stats temporarily are not tinkering directly with the stats of the character. 

The stat change of Incarnation of Fury and Power Up is ‘increase  specific stats by X times’. Basically, you are setting a temporary status ailment on yourself.

Even if it looks like you increased your stat by 3 by eating a seed while you are in the Incarnation of Fury state, it simply looks like that because of the tripled stats. 

‘So even Nekomimi Neko is proper in those areas’ -is what I thought and felt impressed about it, but there was one exception.

In the first place, there’s one clear restriction in skills and spells that change your stats in Nekomimi Neko; also known as the Stat Change State.

If you think back on how much my strength increases with the customized Power Up, you should be able to tell, but the limit for the Stat Change State is between 9.9 times to 0.1 times in system terms.

In other words, even at the highest, it is until 10 times; the lowest is 1/10th. 

Meaning that the penalty of the Incarnation of Fury that lowers your stats to 1/100th is completely outside the rules. 

But the developers must have wanted to make the penalty big no matter what. In order to solve that inconsistency, they took the most careless and forbidden method.

Basically, in the time when you are at the penalty of the Incarnation of Fury, they didn’t go for the ‘a modifier on the stats of the character is set’ but they instead went for the brute forcing method of ‘directly tinkering with the stats of the character to lower it to 1/100th’.

There’s a lot I want to say regarding that, like: ‘try to deal with it somehow through programming’ or ‘did you really want to make it 1/100th that much?’.

But this resulted in the creation of an unbelievable exploit.

If a player with 500 in Strength used Incarnation of Fury, it will end up like this. 

500 (normal state) → 500 x 3 (Incarnation of Fury’s effect) → 5 (Penalty) → 500 (End of Penalty).

Now then, this is how it would look like when you use a Power Seed that increases 1 Strength in the middle of the Incarnation of Fury’s effect. 

500 (normal state) → 500 x 3 (Incarnation of Fury’s effect) → 501 x 3 (used Seed) → 5.01 (Penalty) → 501 (End of Penalty).

You end up with 501 at the end, and the increase won’t change from when you are not using Incarnation of Fury. 

Then, what happens if you use a Power Seed in the middle of the penalty? 

500 (normal state) → 500 x 3 (Incarnation of Fury’s effect) → 5 (Penalty) → 6 (used Seed) → 600 (End of Penalty).

The final increase in stats is 600.

A single Power Seed increased your stats by 100.

Basically, this is what it means…

-If you use the seed while in the penalty time of Incarnation of Fury, the effect is multiplied by a 100.

This is the Balance Breaker of Nekomimi Neko: The Fury of the Seed Death Bug. 

Even if the stats of the player are high at the end, you would go over 1,000 at most.

But if you use this exploit, you can increase your stats by 100 for every Seed. You now understand why this is called a Balance Breaker, right? 

Moreover, this exploit shows the highest effect in Agility and Stamina. 

There’s of course big effects on stats like Strength, but Agility and Stamina don’t increase even when you level up, and it is fixed to 100.

Meaning that, when it comes to Agility and Stamina, eating one Seed would be two times the normal, 2 would be 3 times the increase. 

The Seed items that I got from the treasury room of the castle had one Seed of all types. 

Also, when we were buying out the Item Shop, I got one Speed Seed from the pick-up items. 

I got a Magic Seed from defeating the elemental boss at the Stream Cave. 

Moreover, because of the excessive grinding of King Butchers in preparation for the Demon Lord battle, I got a massive amount of Power Seeds. 

The result is that I got 3 times more Agility than normal, 2 times the Stamina, stats from the level ups, and an overwhelming attack power. 

“Could it be that yer a transcendental being just like Mitsuki Hisame? To think ye were a being that overcomes the wall of levels…” (Iaski)

I snap back to reality at the words muttered by Iaski. 

His temporary panic was gone now, and he was now directing eyes of envy and admiration at me, but I shook my head.

“It is not such a good thing.” (Souma)

My power simply came from an exploit. 

There were times when I would destroy things accidentally because I wasn’t used to the sudden increase in power, and I couldn’t keep up with the 3 times increase in speed. There were a lot of hardships. 

There are still times when I can’t use the combos that I could do in my game days, and when I use Incarnation of Fury, I can’t even move properly in a state where my speed is 9 times the normal.

I should win against Mitsuki when it comes to my Agility number, but I can’t match Mitsuki at all when we actually do move our bodies, and aside from attack and movement, my defense and magic power are just a bit on the high side compared to normal. 

The reality is that, if I had been hit once by the Sorcery Golem in that battle, there was even the fear that I would die instantly. 

I can’t really say this is power that has good balance.

“Also, this is a strength that is limited to when I am barehanded…” (Souma)

Meaning that at the time when I attack in a barehanded state, the Strength of the character themself will be counted as the attack power of the weapon.

There’s some complicated math to this, so it is not really simple, but to put it in an easier to understand way, it normally goes: Weapon Attack Power + Strength = Attack Power; but when barehanded, it is: Strength + Strength = Attack Power. 

It is far more reliant on the stat of the character themself than a normal weapon. 

Because of how it works, the weapon’s attack power wouldn’t be counted in the effect of the Power Up and Incarnation of Fury, but this obviously is fitting for me now that I have increased my Strength with the exploit. 

My attack power in my barehanded state most likely easily surpasses that of when I have Shiranui equipped. 

There’s also the fact that there’s no fear of decreasing the durability of the weapon. 

There’s times when the durability of a weapon goes down in one go because the attack power of the weapon is too low compared to the defense of the enemy. 

The reason why my staff broke in the fight just now was because of this. 

It managed to dent the Golem, so the attack power as a whole should have been enough. 

And yet, the staff still broke because the attack power of the weapon itself wasn’t enough. 

On the other hand, your fists won’t break no matter how strong the enemy is, so you could say barehanded is outstanding in that area.

However, the unfortunate part of going barehanded is that the growth of it is low to the point that it makes you want to scream.

The weapon category modifier is obviously the lowest, its proficiency, skill modifier, and its skill proficiency modifier is low, too. Even if you increase the barehanded proficiency, you won’t get that strong, and even if you increase its skill proficiency, it isn’t that much different from your normal attacks. 

As someone who can easily increase my proficiency with Master Torch, and can spam skills on top of that, this is terrible compatibility with me on that front. 

(On the other hand, it also means that it would be my strongest form in a state where my skills are sealed.) (Souma)

I don’t know if me not having weapons to use here was good or bad. 

I was thinking such a pointless thing and shook my head. 

It is not like everything has been solved.

I got a grip of myself and looked at the fallen Iaski. 

Now that Iaski has lost his Golem, he shouldn’t have any moves he can play since he is a mage, but I also have no means to incapacitate him other than killing him.

I thought about it a bit and placed the scraps of the Golem and the Full Build Bob statue that’s on the magic circle on top of Iaski to seal his movements. 

…The brawny statue being on top of Iaski was a weird sight that might make Baccarat happy if he were to see this, but Iaski shouldn’t be able to move with this. 

“Now then…” (Souma)

I look around the room again. 

The first thing that came to my eyes was the broken body of the Sorcery Golem that I used to restrain Iaski, too.

It might be remaining here because it is treated as an event object rather than a monster. 

On the other hand, the broken staff is nowhere to be seen at some point in time. 

Broken weapons that have gone way past their durability -in other words, their HP- will disappear just like monsters, so it must have done exactly that.

I confirmed the entrance after that, but I really can’t open it from here. 

Basically, my bad premonition hit the mark. 

It probably means that the event is still underway. 

Thinking about the setting here, Iaski might be trapped here too. 

I wavered a bit here, thinking for a second that I might as well finish the ritual even if just for show, but I erased that thought. 

I can’t put the city in danger for something like that.

It would be better to render the ritual useless just in case.

“…This is…” (Souma)

It was hidden because of the giant body of the Golem, so I couldn’t see it, but there’s a lump of something at the corner of the room, and it was covered with cloth of the same color as the wall.

I get close and tear off the cloth.

What was below was a mountain of weapons and armor. 

I picked up one of them.

“A mithril weapon. Figures.” (Souma)

Most likely mithril gear surpassing the thousands.

Now that I think about it, he had to bring the mithril to this room if he planned on doing the ritual.

So he was hiding them like this so I wouldn’t be given a weapon, huh.

“Sorry, but I will be gearing up here.” (Souma)

“…Do as ye please.” (Iaski)

Iaski must have given up after I found that, he nodded as if sulky. 

I can’t really say mithril equipment is strong at this junction, but it is better than nothing. 

I chose a mithril sword and armor from the mountain. 

It does kind of feel like stealing, but I have gotten permission from the person himself, so it should be safe. 

“The problem is what to do with the rest…” (Souma)

This is obvious, but even if I get my own gear here, it doesn’t decrease the mountain of mithril. 

We could retrieve them later, but it would be problematic if we were to get caught up in something related to the ritual again later.

I don’t have my bags, so I decide to just break them all.

“Tei!” (Souma)

I tried punching the mithril dagger in my hand and it easily broke to an amusing extent.

“Ye bastard! Stop it! That’s my…!” (Iaski)

Gathering the mithril equipment must have been hard. Iaski began causing a ruckus, but I continued destroying them no-questions-asked.

Even when my fist hit the edge of the blades, my fist was winning easily. I am a bit scared of my own hand.

The sensation of breaking a fragile thing when I destroy the weapons, the light effect when they disappear; how to put it…there’s fun in it, like breaking stuff to relax.

I forgot my objective at some point in time and immersed myself in destroying the mithril equipment.

Mitsuki and the others came to save me right when I had pretty much finished destroying the mithril equipment and was about to unconsciously destroy even the last mithril weapon I had secured for myself.

“Are you okay?!” (Mitsuki)

The first one to jump into the room was Mitsuki, and after she observed the situation around the room…

“…Looks like there wasn’t even the need to worry.” (Mitsuki)

And returned to normal in an instant.

I feel kind of sad about that, but the fact that she arrived here faster than Ringo must mean that she ran here seriously worried about me.

By having Ringo leave the door open once she came, the worry of not being able to escape was solved.

According to what they said, Mitsuki judged that I was teleported to the Sorcery Tower when the Explorer Ring didn’t show me or Iaski.

She wrapped up the two executives that remained there and had them spill out the way to enter the Sorcery Tower.

“…Hn. I remembered it properly.” (Ringo)

Ringo puffed her chest out.

It was a pretty complex puzzle, but it seems Ringo has a surprisingly good memory. 

“It seems like you also had a massive win over here as always.” (Mitsuki)

Mitsuki directed a bit of sarcasm over here and I remembered something. 

I puff out my chest in a way that doesn’t fall off from Ringo just now.

“Sorry to say, but I haven’t used a single one of those tricks that you would dislike so much, Mitsuki. 

Not only that, I didn’t even use Skill Cancel, magic, and even items. I fought from the front, in a fair-and-square battle.” (Souma)

When I said this, Ringo opened her eyes wide and Mitsuki shook her cat ears as if saying ‘no way’ for some reason.

“It is not a lie… Ain’t that right, Iaski?” (Souma)

I directed the conversation to Iaski, who is restrained by Mitsuki, and he nodded as if bitter.

“…Nice, Souma!” (Ringo)

Ringo said this elated even when expressionless, and tip-toed to pat my head.

“Don’t, that’s embarrassing.” (Souma)

I say that on the surface, but it didn’t feel bad. 

Mitsuki was the only one who looked at the scraps of the Golem.

“No, no matter how you look at it, this is not the aftermath of a person that fought normally…” (Mitsuki)

She said this, still unconvinced, but there’s only one truth. 

She always says I don’t have common sense or that I am underhanded, and even that I am a weirdo at times, but I can fight normally if I wanted to.

Mitsuki tilted her head and cat ears, Ringo was repeating ‘nice job, nice job’, and we brought the tied up Iaski with us as we went down the Sorcery Tower while I was feeling refreshed for a change. 

Maybe because the plan they were so confident on was crushed, Iaski and the executives were more docile than expected.

We restrained everyone with items, and once we got outside the guild, we encountered the Knight Order that Maki most likely called for. 

We gave a simple explanation to them, and passed them to the knights.

With this, we have wrapped things up.

The moment we were relieved and relaxed, Iaski, who had been apprehended by the knights, roared.

“Transcendent Souma, I shall give ye a prediction!” (Iaski)

He shook off the knights that should have more strength than him in an instant, and shouted with full force.

“Ye will lose something irreplaceable in the near future! 

That’s fate! An unavoidable future! Ye bastard will pitifully—guh!” (Iaski)

The knights didn’t allow any further words.

They seized Iaski and quickly escorted him to the castle. 

I was dumbfounded by the sudden development and Mitsuki approached me.

“It must be the howling of a sore loser. There’s no need to worry about it.” (Mitsuki)

“…Right.” (Souma)

It is just as Mitsuki says.

I decided to not worry too much about it. 

I turn my back to Iaski who is being taken away, and we walk to our home, the Nekomimi Mansion.

“Lose something important, huh…” (Souma)

I have not heard of Iaski making a prediction before.

My logic is telling me that this is just BS that has no foundation at all, so it is not like I believe him.

However, I sped up my legs heading to the mansion just a tiny bit. 

There’s already no sign of the chaos in the city, and we managed to arrive at the mansion without anything happening. 

Not much time passed.

Even so, we have to properly explain to everyone since we have gone out without telling them beforehand.

Is what I was thinking, but…

“Aaaaaaaaaah!!” 

A shrill scream rang from the mansion.

A painful scream as if they lost their most beloved person…

“…Souma?!” (Ringo)

I moved before my brain. 

“Ye will lose something irreplaceable in the near future!”

Those words of Iaski rang in my head.

I Order the skill while being assailed by unease. 

I used the Step, High Step, and Ground Compression combo I can now use freely at 3 times speed.

I left behind Ringo and even Mitsuki, and I arrive at the door of the mansion faster than anyone.

I crash straight onto the door and cancel the Skill Stun with that, and then rush into the mansion as if rolling in.

What entered my eyes when I came in was Sazan on his butt and the flooded floor. 

And what was on the hands of the soaked Sazan was…

“I-It wasn’t on purpose, okay? I-I was simply trying to wash them a bit and used water magic—” (Sazan)

“Give that here!” (Souma)

I didn’t listen to his excuses and forcefully take away what Sazan tried to hide behind him.

But it was too late. 

Having reached the limit of its durability…that became particles of light in my hands and disappeared.

“D-Dark Schneideeeeeer!!” (Souma)

My wail resonated in the lobby of the mansion. 

On this day, I managed to stop the large-scale ritual that would swallow up the whole city, and saved many people. 

But the price for that was that I lost an irreplaceable important thing (Fingerless Gloves).