Chapter 793: Strengthening Period
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 793: Strengthening Period
Huh? Wha?!
The scene was very different from what I’d imagined, and I was a bit flustered. In that moment of hesitation, I felt an impact behind me, as if something had crashed into me.
“………!”
I hurriedly turned around to see Silvia blocking a shark’s attack with her shield.
I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but she was probably asking if I was okay.
A-ahem. Dammit. I tried to look cool while taking it down, and look what happened.
No. It wasn’t just about looking cool; I was also trying to test out the various skills I’d learned while leveling up my Moon Shadow Warrior job over the past few days.
Whatever the reason, it was true that I’d put myself in unnecessary danger.
Feeling embarrassed, I focused killing intent into my fist and threw a powerful punch at the gills of the great white shark, which was stuck, unable to advance past Silvia’s shield.
BOOM!
And in that moment, with an explosion loud enough to be heard even underwater, the great white shark’s gills burst, spewing blood.
The passives that increased critical hit chance and critical damage from striking weak points, the increased damage on vital spots from Merciless, the increased damage from Brand, and finally, the damage from Finishing Blow, which had a long recovery time.
Honestly, I was a little worried because the levels of my skills, aside from Merciless, were too low, but my ridiculously high stats backed them up, leading to this result.
A true one-hit kill.
Kuh. Yeah. This is the thrill of being an assassin. Shouldn’t a marked enemy be finished in a single blow?
Though, since it took so much damage that it just exploded with a pop, it wasn’t very assassin-like.
But well, that couldn’t be helped. The Moon Shadow Warrior isn’t just an advanced assassin class; it’s a hybrid advanced class combined with Martial Artist.
If I had to classify it, it’s closer to a martial artist who uses a fighting style that’s only called assassination in name, rather than an assassin who quietly dispatches their targets.
Since it’s come to this, should I just go ahead and carve seven scars on my chest? In the shape of a constellation.
I was feeling pretty pleased with the results I’d produced, but the battle wasn’t over yet.
While I was momentarily stuck in the recovery animation after using Finishing Blow, the remaining great white shark attacked me again.
But once again, the attack was inevitably blocked by Silvia’s shield, and I decided to safely finish off the remaining shark from behind her.
Thanks to the bleed I’d applied earlier, the remaining shark’s health was already quite low, and since I didn’t try to show off and just used normal attack skills, it didn’t take long to finish it off.
“…Silvia. Let’s go down to the floor for a moment.”
At this rate, I should be fine fighting while leveling up my skills from now on.
Even as I thought that, I took Silvia down to the seafloor as soon as the battle ended.
Thanks to Silvia’s help, it ended without any issues, but I still needed to figure out what exactly happened earlier, right?
Well, it’s not that I didn’t have a guess, but I still needed to verify it.
“Stand here for a moment.”
Having descended to the floor, I had a bewildered Silvia, who had no idea what was going on, stand still, and drew a long line on the ground in front of her.
After writing numbers at regular intervals next to the line, I approached Silvia again.
“Alright. Silvia, when I get over there and give the signal, run along the line at full speed.”
“At full speed…? But if I do that…”
“It’s fine. We won’t collide. I’ll probably disappear, so stop as soon as you can’t see me anymore.”
I moved a short distance away, directly in front of Silvia, then raised and lowered my hand to give her the signal.
Even though she was kicking off the ground to run underwater, her stats backed her up, so her speed was considerable.
The moment Silvia, who was closing the distance in an instant, reached the number 10 marked on the floor, I used Shadow Movement on her shadow.
And just as I expected, in the next moment, Silvia vanished from my sight.
I looked down at the floor; I was standing exactly where the number 10 was written.
I turned to look at Silvia and saw her stopped at the number 13, looking around to find me after I’d suddenly disappeared.
Dammit. Just as I thought.
After that, I ran a few more experiments.
Things like standing diagonally from Silvia and using Shadow Movement the moment she passed by, or trying to use Shadow Movement on a shadow cast on a wall instead of the floor.
And the conclusion I reached was that this skill, Shadow Movement, was quite difficult to use effectively.
No. It’s not that it’s unusable, but it’s a little different from what I had in mind.
Dammit. This was actually the skill I was most excited about.
And for good reason. It’s cool, right? Moving between shadows to take down enemies.
It also fits the name ‘Moon Shadow Warrior’ perfectly.
But this Shadow Movement had two fatal flaws.
First, my body’s orientation remains the same when I use the skill.
In other words, if I use the skill on a shadow stretching out behind an enemy, I’ll end up standing back-to-back with them.
Of course, since I’m the one who moved first, I have a high chance of seizing the initiative, but it doesn’t change the fact that my back is also exposed to danger for a moment.
It means that against an enemy with faster reaction speed than me, the skill could actually put me in danger.
Should I just spin my body before using the skill?
It might be possible, but since I can only use the skill on a shadow I’m looking at, my head has to be facing that way anyway.
Besides, that wasn’t the only flaw.
The skill was also not very useful against fast-moving enemies.
Because by the time I use the skill and move, the enemy’s position has already changed.
In the end, it means the kind of combat I was hoping for—appearing unpredictably behind the enemy to assassinate them—is impossible.
Well, I suppose I could still use the terrain for some tricky combat… Sigh.
Anyway, sighing my head off here wasn’t going to change the skill’s mechanics.
I steeled myself and decided to continue hunting.
And so, for the rest of the day, I focused solely on using combat skills in battle.
Because of that, the leveling speed for Moon Shadow Warrior definitely dropped compared to yesterday, but in terms of pure combat power, I felt a huge improvement, like I’d gotten the strongest today.
To the point where I could actively use Shadow Movement whenever I had the chance to raise its skill level without it hindering the battle at all.
…I know what you’re probably thinking.
But you know, I think ‘coolness’ is an indispensable element in battle.
Especially in a world with a game-like system like this.
A big reason I can grind this hard is that I’m enjoying it as if I’m playing a game, so it’s good for motivation.
Besides, it’s the Moon Shadow Warrior. Moon Shadow Warrior. Wouldn’t it be weird for a class with such a grand name not to use Shadow Movement?
And who knows how Shadow Movement might change once I level it up a lot?
No. Even if it doesn’t change, now that I’m a little more used to it, I’ve found I can use it, albeit clumsily, to turn a battle in my favor.
…Well, there was that one incident where I used it too much, lost aggro, and the monster went after Silvia.
It’s a good thing Silvia was with me today.
Yeah. I should restrain myself a little from now on.
“Hyaht?! Auuugh…”
Even as I reflected on the day’s events, I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face.
In fact, putting everything else aside, this alone made it worthwhile to have used Shadow Movement so actively.
Silvia, who was already walking beside me trembling, couldn’t even meet my eyes and didn’t know what to do when I placed a hand on her head.
It seems I wasn’t the only one who thought that weaving through enemy shadows and spectacularly finishing off monsters looked cool.
I’d used a ton of mana every time to defeat enemies with unnecessary flair, finishing with a cool turn and a smile, and it seems that before we even got back to town, our dear Silvia’s concentration had finally broken.
To think I could even break Silvia’s concentration… just how cool am I?
“Ugh… A-all my training up until now…”
Well, it seemed Silvia was quite shocked that her concentration as a knight, which she had honed her entire life, had been broken.
Normally, I should have been the one to comfort her, but she looked so cute even in her shocked state that I couldn’t help but keep teasing her.
“Was I that cool?”
“…Y-yes…”
And even while dejected, our Silvia was the type to answer such things honestly.
Anyway, she’s just so cute it kills me.
“Really? Should I try it in front of the others next time?”
“…I-I think… you’ll probably get scolded…”
…Hey. You’re going to be honest about that, too?
Well, I guess I think so too.
Even if they thought it was cool on the inside, they’d probably nag me not to show off unnecessarily during battle for safety’s sake.
“What?! Then what do I have to do to look cool without getting scolded…?! Alright! Silvia! Special training!”
But even as I thought that, I deliberately put on a shocked expression and shouted.
“Hyeh?! W-what…?”
“What do you mean, what? Special training to look even cooler, of course!”
Since we had just arrived in front of our inn room door, I went inside, immediately sat Silvia down on the bed, and brought my face right up to hers.
“Hyat?!”
“First, we have to perfect the facial expression, right? Silvia. I’m going to make various faces now, so tell me which one is cooler.”
“I-I can’t!”
Silvia cried out with a tearful face at my words and leaned her upper body back slightly, as if trying to put some distance between our faces.
But I wasn’t about to allow that, so I moved my face closer again, and Silvia, startled, leaned back a little further.
But there was a limit to that, and after repeating this a few times, Silvia ended up lying on the bed with me hovering over her.
“There’s no such thing as ‘can’t’ in this world! If you do it, it’ll work! Didn’t you learn that during your knight training?!”
As I said that, I began to remove Silvia’s armor, piece by piece.
No. It’s not for any particular reason. If we both lie on the bed in heavy armor, the springs will give out, won’t they?
Though I suppose since this is a town on the 4th Floor, the inn beds are probably made of pretty sturdy materials.
“Th-that’s so stu… so reck… Augh… W-why the armor…?!”
Hey. You were about to say stupid and reckless, weren’t you?
It seems you were trying hard to choose your words but couldn’t find the right ones in the end.
“Why? Silvia, are you serious? Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
When I deliberately used a sweet voice and put on a slightly sad expression, Silvia’s face turned bright red, and she didn’t know what to do.
“Ah, augh… I-I mean… Uuu… I-I know…”
What do you know? It’s obvious you’re completely misunderstanding.
I’m not undressing you to have sex yet. Well, it’s only ‘yet’, though.
“Uut… Ugh.”
After I took off all her armor and stored it in my inventory, Silvia, left in just the underclothes she wore beneath it, needlessly clutched the hem of her clothes and squirmed.
Since it’s clothing that has to prioritize durability, it’s quite plain for a woman to wear.
It seemed that even our Silvia, who never used to care about her appearance, had started to become a little conscious of such things after living with the other girls.
I’m the same way, wearing plain clothes under my armor. No, actually, I usually just wear plain cloth clothes anyway, so there’s no need to be that embarrassed.
…Maybe I’m the one who should dress up more often? Heh.
“Aren’t you going to take off my armor?”
“Heh?! Aght! M-me… do it?!”
Silvia. If you bit your tongue and it hurts, you don’t have to force yourself to answer so quickly.
“Well, I undressed you like this, so aren’t you going to undress me? Should I just take my clothes off all by my lonely self?”
“N-no, that’s not it! B-but… Uuuu…”
I myself wondered what was so lonely about taking one’s clothes off alone, but it seemed my words had worked on Silvia again.
Silvia brought her hands up to her chest and fidgeted with her fingers, then, with tears welling up in her eyes, she finally extended her hands slowly toward me.