Author: SS Samurai | Original Source: Syosetu |
Translator: rm31439 | English Source: Re:Library |
“Now, I think it’s time to do todays leveling.”
“Alright.”
The two kids were back at the dungeon.
“Although, I did make a proper time schedule for it. Unlike my big brother, I hate going through the same place again, and again, and again.”
“That’s for sure,” Sakura replied, recalling how Ayumu had once gone though the same dungeon 1000 times.
Said older brother had abnormal mental strength that allowed him to stay in that video game location, which was only intended to take around two hours, until he reached his goal.
“So, I was planning to keep at it until we can collect our weapons from that blacksmith… that is, until the day after tomorrow. My goal is to use Reincarnation between 10 to 15 times during that time span!”
“Even so, that means 120 rounds through the dungeon. Won’t you get tired?”
For Sakura, who never played video games unless it was together with Kanata and the others, that number seemed rather daunting already.
“I will get tired, but it’ll also be fun, so I should be fine. Besides, I should have the leeway for about 150 rounds plus some RNG manipulation1. Though more than that would push it.”
“I… I see, stay safe, then. Oh, here are your buffs.”
“Thank you. I’ll be off.”
Kanata disappeared into the dungeon. After Sakura had seen him off, she took out pen and paper and started to draw a picture while recalling what she’d seen with Clairvoyance yesterday.
It was merely to kill time.
With a grin on her face, she spent her free time drawing a picture. She then obtained a skill called “Artistry”.
Kanata, on the other hand, was clearing the dungeon as usual.
Finally, he defeated the myrmecoleon at the end and entered the challenge room. Usually, he’d teleport the object into the goal without giving it much thought, but this time he tried doing so while consciously using his speed.
This proved to be the right idea. The object was teleported much faster than ever before, and reached the goal in what seemed like less than 0.1 seconds2.
This message was the result. While Kanata was surprised by the words he was seeing for the first time, he had been hoping for something like that.
There was no key box inside the treasure chest, instead it directly contained five SS-Rank magic cores. Kanata grabbed them in delight and teleported back to Sakura.
“(Eh-heh-heh… Kanata looks so cool! It’s been a long time since I’ve drawn, but I guess I haven’t lost my touch? What if I draw him dripping with water, like I’ve seen him yesterday…? Heh-heh, no matter if it’s in two or three dimensions, Kanata always looks so cool…)”
“Oh, it’s been a while since you drew a picture.”
“Bwuh!?”
Sakura frantically tried to hide the picture from Kanata, who’d just returned. She absolutely didn’t want him to see the picture of him that she’d drawn.
“Huh? Well, whatever. More importantly, listen to this, Sakura!”
“W-What is it?”
“I managed to reach a level higher than legendary, called ultra-legendary, in that dungeon mission.”
“A-Alright. So?”
“Look, I got five SS-Rank magic cores.”
Kanata lined up the magic cores on the mat where Sakura was sitting.
“Wha-… That’s incredible. So, there’s something higher than legendary.”
“Right? That was surprising3. I’ll go back to working hard, then.”
“Stay safe… Oh, wait, Kanata. I learned a skill called ‘Artistry’, should I allocate points to it?”
“Sure thing. We still got tons of points, so I don’t see the harm,” Kanata told her and then left again.
Sakura was rather excited about the effects Artistry would have, so she quickly allocated points to it, evolved it, and then maxed out the resulting True Artistry skill4.
As an experiment, Sakura took another sheet of paper and tried to make a rough drawing of a goblin. However, the result turned out to be anything but rough.
The picture of the goblin Sakura had drawn looked as real as a high-definition photograph, definitely not like something a human would make. And due to a combination of her dexterity and quickness stats, she had drawn it at astounding speed.
“Just what is this…” Sakura muttered in shock.
On the next sheet of paper, she tried drawing a cartoonish5 version of the goblin in the anime/manga style she normally used. While it clearly reflected her own drawing style, it lacked the usual construction lines and qualities of a draft, and was instead an ideal drawing of what she had been aiming for.
Once more, Sakura felt afraid of her skills. Though while those worries were present, being able to skillfully draw felt way too good, so she even forgot to continue her monologuing, as she got absorbed in drawing pictures.
“Hey~, Sakura.”
Kanata, who’d just returned from the dungeon, tapped her gently on her shoulder. She didn’t react and continued to draw. When he tapped her shoulder another time, she finally looked at him.
“What is it… I’m at a crucial part right now… Oh! Welcome back, Kanata.”
“Amazing… Is that a myrmecoleon? How did you manage to draw it this realistically without a stable surface… and only a B pencil?”
“Well, yeah. The power of that skill is scary.”
“Ha-ha… that’s for sure,” Kanata agreed. “Well, you were pretty good at drawing from the beginning, weren’t you…? Could you use Reincarnation? Then I can go on to the next round.”
“Of course.”
Once he had made sure that Sakura used Reincarnation, Kanata, once more, disappeared into the dungeon.
TL notes:
These stories with skills that instantly make someone an expert at something always make me wonder how it would feel to experience this. I guess the impact would be lessened if it was something you never did before, since you simply couldn’t judge how much effort it’d normally require. But for things you have struggled with before, like Sakura with her drawings? Yeah, that’d feel scary.
Footnotes:
- This could also mean “If I use RNG manipulation, I should have the leeway for around 150 rounds”. No clue how he plans to use RNG manipulation with such a small sample size and no saving/reloading to verify results.
- The way the original words this, plus using 飛ぶ (“jump”, “fly”) to describe the teleportation, makes it sound like the skill isn’t completely instantaneous and affected by the user’s quickness. Though it’s also possible that Kanata simply managed to designate the object and target location for the teleportation in under 0.1 seconds this time.
- The original is 以外 (“excluding”, “other than”, “outside”). I assume this is an error and meant to be 意外 (“unexpected”, “surprising”). Though it’s possible that Kanata thinks there is something even higher than ultra-legendary.
- I guess this is another possible “True” skill Alim could’ve used for Item Master.
- The original is 擬人化 (“personification”, “anthropomorphization”). The issue is, goblins are already humanoid creatures, so this doesn’t make much sense. I used “cartoonish” instead.
[Mission cleared. A treasure chest of «achievement level – ultra-legendary» will appear.]