Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Shall I unravel a bit of an old story?
After learning about something called skill trees.
Back in the days when I set out for the Labyrinth to return to my original world.
I'd doze off outside sometimes.
Worked as an inn cleaner, waitress, cook, and so on.
Collected overdue debts, beat up thieves, taught others how to fight — all that stuff.
Back then, getting treatment was such a pain.
Whenever I went somewhere to get a cut or gash treated, there were plenty of bastards who tried to pull some weird shit first.
For example, smearing animal dung on it claiming it was disinfecting.
Or saying wounds should be washed with urine.
If I managed to dodge those lunatics and get to a clinic, they'd treat me properly but then gouge me for money like I owed them a day's wages.
I ended up sewing my own wounds shut plenty of times out of disgust.
Occasionally, if I ran into charitable priests or nuns, I could get free treatment — but then I'd have to sit through sermons by the hour.
Starting with 'Why were you sword fighting,' then if I did something to someone, 'Oh Lord is merciful~ Trust in Him and so on~ Violence is bad~ You're a pretty young thing, why would you do this or that~'
Later on, there was even a priest who'd start sermonizing automatically the moment he saw me. It'd begin with 'With such fine qualities, why on earth do you...' and go on for about 5700 characters — ah, just fucking hell.
That's when I picked up 「Self-Healing」.
I picked it with a grin, thinking, 'Self-healing means I can just heal myself mid-fight, right? Not taking this would make me a damn idiot.'
Turned out to be completely not the case after actually using it, and I was furious.
All the other skills were similar too.
「Horsemanship」, 「War Cry」, 「Navigation(Low)」, 「Lockpicking」, 「First Aid」, 「Trap Detection」, etc.
I picked 「Horsemanship」 back when I worked for a noble family and got dissed for not knowing how to ride a horse — pissed me off.
I picked 「Lockpicking」 because I figured I'd need to steal something from someone's house at some point. Thinking back, I could've just smashed the lock instead...
Everything was like that.
From the time I began my journey into the Labyrinth.
And the skills I picked early in my dungeon exploration.
Either they looked good, or I needed them.
For various reasons, anyway.
I stopped wasting points like that when I became somewhat well-known.
It was around the time I was going between floors 30 and 40, when suddenly my level just stopped rising when it should have gone up.
I thought a few more expeditions would do it, but it stubbornly refused to climb.
That's when I realized.
Ah, this isn't a system where you can fill out the whole skill tree.
Fuck, I'm fucked.
To put it in gaming terms:
This world gives you enough skill points for about 1.5 classes' worth at max level. Just enough to try a dual-class setup.
But I'd been living it up picking general skills instead of class skills from my low-level days.
Thinking, 'Leveling up will be easy, right?'
So what happens?
You get a gimped character.
I started managing my skill points late, but it was already too late.
In most games, if you build like this, you delete the character.
But in this world, deleting your character means diving headfirst into the ground, so I gave up on that.
That's also why I picked 「Touch of Punishment」 instead of other skills.
What's Touch of Punishment? It's that skill I'm always yelling 'VALTERN!!' when using.
Most paladins can't use it, because it's a combat skill that consumes divine power.
Most paladins use divine power for healing, you see.
They can't even conceive of fighting with divine power, so the skill tree never developed in that direction — hence they can't pick it.
So why did I pick it?
I was short on firepower and short on skill points.
So I picked this one to satisfy both.
Then it's all good, right? What's the problem?
Why don't other people use it?
The problem with this skill is its limited uses.
It's a skill that eats up one big divine power slot. One big slot equals two small slots.
One small slot can be used for a normal divine power skill.
Like a paladin's auxiliary healing skill.
For reference, I have five divine power slots, and people in this world don't really know about the slot system.
Only I can see it.
Anyway, because of this, I never bothered learning auxiliary healing skills. They would've been useful.
But this skill has saved my ass plenty of times...
Well. That's that.
Living like this meant I had to rely on technique more than ability, so my combat skills improved a lot.
But now, maybe it's time to say goodbye to the past.
I've already roughly thought out which skills to pick.
Two main skills plus 「Touch of Punishment」.
I'll have to think about how to build the lower skill trees, but the upper trees are already decided.
Not that I'll be able to fill them all out.
Anyway, since the lower skill trees are also important,
I was planning to see how things went before picking...
But what can I do?
This is how things turned out.
Letting out a deep sigh, I closed my left eye.
Focusing my mind on the darkness visible through it, the darkness soon expanded and covered my vision.
I saw stars shining faintly in the distance.
The stars grew brighter and brighter, descending toward me.
Closer and closer, like comets, until they stopped at a certain point.
Then they began to move slowly right before me.
Left, right, up, down.
The stars rearranged themselves little by little, laying down luminous paths among themselves.
The shapes formed two enormous trees, which then began to shine brilliantly.
Most of the lines shone brightly, while some formed chaotic red lines.
The skill tree.
One side is class skills, the other is general skills.
Huh, does that mean I can get skill points for both sides??
The answer to that is: 'If this world were that generous, I'd have already escaped the Labyrinth by now.' Of course it doesn't work that way. Don't underestimate this world.
I glanced at a marker in one corner of the right side.
————
:: 🪙X 1 ::
————
Just as I took a deep breath and was about to use the coin,
I suddenly realized I hadn't considered something important.
Does this also reset perks?
Perks.
In this world's terms, 'blessings.'
For skills that borrow a god's power, it means offering tribute to the god to strengthen the skill.
In my case, that target is Touch of Punishment.
Originally, it's not that strong a single-target skill, but I threw a ton of money at Valtern and picked the perk.
If that gets reset too, the money I'll have to shell out will be hell...
Well, nothing I can do about it.
If it resets, I'll just have to grit my teeth and earn the money.
Calming my mind.
Taking a deep breath.
Finally, I 'used' the coin.
The galaxy before me began to tremble.
As if the world were flipping over.
As if something that shouldn't happen was occurring.
A sense of unease crept up on me.
This was a bit... no, shouldn't it be like this?
Was this something I shouldn't have used?
The trembling continued, expanding as if it would devour the world itself...
Then suddenly, it stopped completely.
The unease subsided instantly.
The red lights of the 'skill tree' faded away.
Soon, all that remained before my eyes was a black universe and white stars.
...Guess it was something dangerous after all.
Anyway.
Shall I try picking some skills?
First, I decided to pay no attention to the right-side general tree.
There were some decent skills, but I don't need them anymore.
Turning my eyes to the left,
I see the trunk of a massive tree glowing, but above it, nine core branches are visible.
Various branches extend from the core branches, merging and splitting at certain intervals as they go upward.
At the top of each core branch, there is only one skill — the core skill.
And above the core skills, there was a fork extending upward. A skill that can only be picked after completing all three trees I'm planning.
I couldn't see that skill clearly.
Though I felt like there was something even above that.
So that part is upper-tier skills, huh.
Enough about that.
I can see the three core skills I need to pick.
Shall I start climbing upward?
First, the trunk side.
「Shield Proficiency」, 「Longsword Proficiency」, 「Armor Mastery」.
These are passives I obviously need to pick.
As I picked the skills, the stars grew a bit brighter with a red glow.
「Deflect」... I picked this one before.
But it's not like I'm some parry junkie; it's only decent in humanoid combat, and it's better to dodge or handle things another way.
So you're out.
Next is the passive 「Throwing」...
This one's a bit tricky.
Actually, I've benefited a lot from throwing weapons.
I've used throwing weapons effectively before.
But if there are other skills, would I still need this...
Let's hold off for now.
Having consumed the required skill points on the trunk like that, I raised my gaze upward.
Now for the branches.
First, 「Armament Sanctification」...
This one's just not helpful.
What it does is consume divine power to add holy damage to the weapon you're holding.
In a game, you'd see a damage increase, but in reality, it eats up a small divine power slot and the damage increase isn't even noticeable.
I want to cut it, but I need to pick it to unlock the skill above.
I grit my teeth and pick it.
My skill points!
「Formation of Protection」 — cut that shit.
「Ring of Vows」 — not picking that either.
「Shield of Resolve」 — I tried this one, but it turned out to be a skill I couldn't make use of. It reduces damage taken by allies near me when I hold my ground, but there's no one around me to hold ground with.
「Divine Grace」... it provides a baseline level of defense. I guess I have to pick it.
It's probably why I haven't died from taking sword hits.
「Compressed Chant」 — same, I have to pick it.
As I kept turning stars red and connecting red lines like that, I finally reached the first skill I needed to pick.
「Touch of Punishment」.
I picked it without hesitation and checked if anything appeared beside it.
Nothing appeared. Where the hell did my blessing go?
Ha, do I have to offer that money again?
Next.
Going down steadily.
「Stigma of the Sinner」 — this one's ambiguous.
「Piercing Prayer」 is a skill that, after a prayer chant, allows the next strike to tear through some armor or protective gear.
I've actually seen other paladins use this, and I was always envious.
Definitely picking it.
「Strike of Oath」 — this skill deals strong damage but rebounds damage to me if I miss. It was just garbage. Cut.
「Blade Sanctification」 — it applies a holy effect to the enemy after a prayer-based attack. Since I don't use prayer-type skills, I'm not sure.
But I'll pick it anyway.
It synergizes with other prayer skills, and I need to spend skill points down here anyway.
Picking skills here and there as I climbed, I finally reached my second destination.
Ha...
Every time I saw paladins using this skill, I was always envious.
And also a bit pissed off.
Because a lot of people kept looking at me with that 'why can't you use something like that?' gaze.
After I picked 「Touch of Punishment」, people mostly shut up.
Once I picked the 「Punishment Amplification」 perk that boosts Touch of Punishment's firepower, nobody ever brought that up again.
But still, lacking single-target firepower is a huge issue.
It's something I feel more acutely than anything else.
Alright, shall I pick it?
'Divine Smite.'
A broken skill that doesn't consume any divine power while dealing insane damage.
Taking a breath, I acquired Divine Smite.
A feeling of fullness welled up in my body.
Like I could do anything with my sword now.
After the exhilarating sensation that made my fists clench involuntarily, I let out a long breath.
I really want to test this skill out soon.
They told me not to let anyone know I'm back, but how the hell am I supposed to hold back? Seriously.
Do I care if the old man running the guild suffers?
I want to use this right now.
I invested the remaining skill points into the next core skill tree.
「Gaze Mark」, 「Guilt Detection」. Both are useful passives.
After picking a few more skills, I stood up.
The sun was already casting an evening glow.
I quickly got dressed, opened the door, and stepped out. Downstairs, Hera was drinking beer.
"Where are you going?"
"Just to the training grounds for a bit."
"At this hour?"
Even as she said that, Hera gathered herself and handed some coins to the waiter.
She seemed like she was planning to follow.
Not that I minded.
The training grounds weren't far.
Like the Armory, it was deserted except for flies.
Still, the saving grace was that there were a few newbie explorers and instructors from various guilds around.
Ignoring the stares of onlookers, I quickly ducked inside.
The receptionist, half-asleep, jerked her head up.
"Uh, yes?"
"I'd like to use the inner training grounds."
"Ah, yes. The fee is..."
I held out two silver coins before she could mention the fee.
The receptionist looked at them and pointed to the rate chart. It was two copper coins, but I pointed to the clause below.
「User liable for facility damage」
"Yes?"
Looking reluctant, the receptionist still accepted the two silver coins.
Hera glared at me with narrowed eyes, watching what I was doing.
"What are you planning?"
"Just watch."
Ignoring my own sword, I grabbed one of the training ground's swords and headed inside.
The inner training grounds, after opening the door, had all sorts of things.
Armor, rocks, and various other stuff.
A place to test various conditions.
In an empty area surrounded by wooden fencing, I raised the sword under Hera's gaze.
First, without any blessing, just a swing.
Clang—!
"What are you doing?"
"Just comparing."
I swung with considerable force, but all I got was a chipped blade and a numb hand. The rock was unscathed.
「Touch of Punishment」... I can't use it here right now, but it probably wouldn't have shattered the rock for sure.
It could tear apart those wooden barriers.
And kill groups of mid-sized monsters.
But it lacked the firepower to take down high-level trolls or ogres, or fully break solid rock.
"Here I go."
I exhaled once and held the sword before my eyes.
"Valtern isiyeo, imbue this blade with your power. Let your wrath dwell within this sword."
"Hey, you...!"
Ignoring Hera's words, I raised the sword.
Steadying my breath.
Stepping forward with my left foot, I put my weight into the blade and brought it down on the rock.
Divine Smite.
Boom—!
Thunder crashed down.
The rock vibrated, split in two, and fragments scattered everywhere.
The cheap sword shattered instantly, and the hilt shook so violently it nearly tore my grip apart.
As the sword rebounded and I corrected my unsteady stance, Hera's eyes went wider than I'd ever seen.
"You... that...! No way...!"
"Yeah, it's exactly what you think."
That's right.
This is what a paladin is.