Skill? Nee yo Sonnamon! ~ Fugusha tachi no Saino Kaika ~

Trial Run

“…Hikaru, how long are you planning to keep digging?”

“I'm sorry.
I got carried away.
Forgive me.”

Alma looked bored as she stared at me.
I couldn't bear her gaze and profusely apologized.
How'd it get to this.
No, I mean you know.
I got too much into this digging magic ore business despite the fact that I should be focusing on our task of magic beast culling.
Well, thanks to this venture, we now have ten fist-sized rank C magic ore and even three baseball-sized rank B ones at least.
The rank B ones apparently fetch for 8000 en each, so this result alone is enough to cover for a few inn days.
Yet I get that I was getting carried away.
By the way, I smoothly dug out these buried ore with a mana drill I made using mana control.
I wouldn't have gotten these rank B ore if not for this technique.
…I can see many usages of mana control outside of combat…

We went to where I detected life forms as we delved deeper inside the cave and came across magic beasts.
They're crawling on the ground, don't seem to be slugs.

Magic Beast: Pepur Slime

Lv14

State: Normal

[Attributes]

HP: 270/270
MP: 210/216
SP: 118/141

STR (Strength): 89
ATK (Attack): 89
DEF (Defense): 164
AGI (Agility): 97
INT (Intelligence): 181
DEX (Dexterity): 120
PER (Perception): 150
RES (Resistance): 137
LUK (Luck): 31

[Skills]

Magic Beast Lv2 – Offensive Magic Lv3 – Viscous Beast Lv3

This is my first slime sighting.
It's got a core the size of a human head and an amorphous body.
Look-wise, it's close the the classic slimes in RPG.
It's very different from the slimes in a certain national RPG though.
Those ones are deformed type after all.

Can't really tell what kind of slimes from the name alone, any idea?

<They are evolved slimes that mainly feed on bat magic beasts and such while absorbing earth elemental magic ore.
They are capable of spewing strong acid out of their body as well as casting earth elemental magic to a degree.
Their weak point is the core contained in their body.>>

Earth elemental slimes huh.
…The magic is gonna be a pain to deal with but I'm more scared of the acid.
I shudder at the image of my body getting dissolved.
Guess we should go with ranged attack just to be safe.
I can easily see our swords getting dissolved trying to cut these slimes and even if they don't, corrosion is no joke.
There's two of them, surprise attacks should work.

“Alma, those slimes can apparently attack with earth magic or spew out strong acid, we should go for the kill from afar.
The cores inside their bodies are their weak point.”

“Earth elemental, so Stone Bullet won't work?”

<>

“Yeah, it's pretty much ineffective, you'd better go with another element.”

“Got it.”

Alma readied her crystal staff and cast a spell at the slimes.

Crackle! Boom!

A light that's especially dazzling inside this cave shot out toward the slimes while producing that loud booming sound.
Apparently that's an elementary spell of lightning elemental magic, 'Spark Bullet'.
There's almost zero lag between activation and hitting the target, and while the accuracy leaves a lot to be desired unless the target is metal or pointy, it has a high power and inflicts 'Paralyze' status on the target.
It missed this time, but thanks to landing on the ground near the slimes, they still got damaged from the electric shock.
…The idea of an opponent using this attack gives me the chill.
Lightning elemental magic deals direct damage so it hurts me even though I don't actually get damaged so long as my HP remains.

“I missed…
Sorry.”

“No worries.
The splashing electric shock did damage them a bit and dulled their movement.
Let's deal the finishing blow now.”

“U-un.”

She put away her staff and readied her sword.
Is she gonna get in melee range? It's dangerous you know?

“Haa!”

Alma swung her sword, shooting out a beaming light slash at the paralyzed slime, cutting its core in half.
Eh, what was that? Is it some kinda vacuum blades like the ones in manga!? That's so cool!

<Unlike wind elemental magic, the slash is visible thus more avoidable, however it is compensated with higher offensive power.>>

Thought she was getting specialized too much into magic lately, turned out she's been honing her sword Skills too.
That's so nice, wish I could use something like that too.
But my mana will immediately disperse even if I try to reproduce that, it won't hit anything faraway.
It's probably gonna work just fine if I put loads of mana into the slash, but then it's gonna have a terrible cost-performance.

Now then, it's my turn now.
Guess throwing a stone is out of question for earth elemental beasts.
How about ice then? I've got some premade ice in Item Screen and all, let's give it a shoot.
I clad a baseball-sized ice with mana armor and accelerated it with mana control as I threw it!

BWOSH BOOM!

Tch, hit the body, missed the core.
The ice ball that flew through the slime body caved in the wall behind.
An ordinary ice ball would have shattered into pieces, but not when it's coated with mana armor like this.
Huh, wait what? The slime I hit has its Stats displayed in red, is it dead? I missed the core tho'?

<But the shock from having its body penetrated by the ice killed the slime.>>

Death from a shock, really.
These slimes are apparently quite a dainty little thing?
The viscous liquid wrapping the core is melting away while the core remains in place.
Is this thing usable as a mat?

<Undamaged cores have better performance and price, in some cases they can be used as materials for equipment that grants Skills.>>

Equipment that grants Skills?
…This slime had Offensive Magic Lv3 Skill, are you saying putting on equipment made with its core will let you use it too?

<>

U-uwoooo!? Is that for real!?
A-am I finally able to use Skills at last!? Even if it's through external means!

<In addition, unlike Livelihood Ring that has a magic formula engraved on the ring itself, such equipment temporarily grants the Skill to the wearer themselves, thus, as Kajikawa Hikaru is unable to obtain Skills, the effect may not apply to him in all likelihoods.>>

Ah, figured they won't let me use Skills to the very end hahaha.
Celebrated too soon! Dangitall!