Astral Online: Cursed by the Demon Lord to Become the Strongest Beautiful Girl, I Rapidly Grow and Dominate with Cheat Skills Despite Being the Weakest Profession - Chapter 147
Chapter 147: Profession Quest
The Profession Quest.
Sora became aware of this when she arrived at the ocean kingdom of ?Enoshigaios?. She and her partner Kuro had checked through the available quests together before logging out to take part in the “End of Summer Festival”.
Sora had accumulated 140 skill points for her profession and was considering switching to a new one rather than letting them go to waste.
However, if she applied her current skills to a different profession, the MP would increase by 1.5 times, making the skills much more expensive to use.
This would mean that the skills she had worked so hard to level up would become practically unusable.
She wanted to avoid that. While lying in bed, she mulled it over, fiddling with the game window in front of her.
Then, when her finger accidentally touched the “profession” section, a new window appeared, different from the one she had open.
Startled, Sora checked the message and saw: ?You can start a Profession Quest by consuming 100 MP?.
When she asked the support system ?Lucifel? what it was about, she explained that one of the requirements to unlock the profession advancement quest was arriving at the ocean kingdom ?Enoshigaios?, which is why the quest became available now.
Sora then asked why the support system hadn’t informed her when they first arrived at this kingdom.
?Lucifel?, with her usual mechanical, girlish voice, responded with an annoyingly cheeky, ?Oops, I forgot, hehe!?
Sora was truly fed up with her by this point…
A vein throbbed on her temple, but arguing with the support system was pointless.
Knowing she wouldn’t regret her actions no matter how much she complained, Sora quickly gave up on her irritation with ?Lucifel? and decided to share this information about ?Profession Advancement? with the other members.
Everyone seemed quite surprised, but unlike me whose skill points are quadrupled due to the curse’s side effects, regular players can’t max out their skill levels until they reach level 100.
At level 5, players can choose a profession. To start the quest for that profession, they need a profession skill level of 100. This means they need to raise their level to 105.
Kuro is the closest at level 60, but even then, she still needs 45 more levels. It might take regular players a lot of time to reach level 100.
For now, as the pioneer, it’s up to me to figure out what the Profession Quest is all about.
What happens to the profession after clearing it?
These are the two main points I need to summarize and share with the team.
“So, let’s start the Profession Quest!”
Without much thought, I casually touched “Yes” on the two-choice window, and instantly, 100 MPs were consumed.
At the same time, the scenery around me shifted, and I found myself standing alone in what looked like a wide, white, square-shaped training room.
To top it off, I was only equipped with the game’s basic starter gear, a simple shirt and pants, and a one-handed normal sword.
Another window appeared before me.
It listed the rules for the upcoming battle. I skimmed through them and saw the following:
?Profession Quest Rules?
– Use the skills attached to your fixed equipment to defeat the enemy.
– If you lose, you can retry in one week.
– Losing will not result in the consumption of your “Life Point”.
“So, my equipment is fixed, huh…”
I touched the empty space and opened the status screen.
I tried to change something, but an error message popped up: ?You cannot make changes while in this room?, and the attempt was canceled.
“Equipment changes aren’t allowed… I guess it’s to test the player’s pure skill, since we’re in the starter gear?”
I see, it’s a well-thought-out challenge.
The fact that losing doesn’t reduce your “Life Point” count, and that you can retry after a week, is a pretty forgiving system.
I opened the window to check the set skills.
All the skills I had acquired, including enchantment skills, one-handed sword attack skills, and even the ones I bought from the shop, were locked.
The only skills I could use were three newly added equipment enchantment skills: ?Strength Boost Enchantment?, ?Sharpness Boost Enchantment?, and ?Critical Rate Boost Enchantment?.
Unlike the basic enchantment skills I used before, these seem to activate permanently once applied, until they are either removed or overwritten.
The MP cost is fixed at 100 points, as the ?MP Reduction Skill? isn’t active right now.
Since my max MP is 650, I can afford up to two mistakes.
Next, I checked the window that opened automatically, which revealed that the number of enchantments you can apply to equipment varies depending on the equipment’s rank.
The lowest rank, F, allows for only one slot, and as the profession level goes up, the number increases by one for each rank, up to a maximum of 10 slots.
Since my current equipment only allows one slot, I’ll need to carefully observe the enemy’s movements and apply the right enchantment at the right time.
Just as I was thinking that, a humanoid soldier equipped with full armor appeared before me.
It’s not a monster? I thought as I readied my sword, and the soldier mirrored my stance with her own one-handed sword.
The lifeless gaze from behind the helmet’s slit was unsettling.
Then, before I could make a move, the knight opposite me took the first action.
The enemy lunged at me, raising her sword high, and sharply brought it down from above.
From what I could see, her movements were quite fast.
Sora calmly watched as the knight’s sword came straight down in a simple motion, then activated ?Strength Boost Enchantment? on her own sword.
At the perfect moment, she timed her draw and struck the knight’s side with a wide, sweeping slash as the enemy’s blow descended.
*Clang!*
Sparks flew, and the knight’s downward strike was effortlessly deflected, causing them to lose balance.
Not giving the enemy time to recover, Sora replaced ?Strength Boost Enchantment? with ?Sharpness Boost Enchantment?, readied her sword, and slashed from above, targeting the gap in the knight’s armor.
With a swift cut, the knight’s right arm, unarmored at the second joint, was severed and flew into the air.
Sora, showing no mercy, activated ?Critical Rate Boost Enchantment? for the final strike and copied the familiar ?Strike Sword? stance. Though it was merely a mimic of the form, as no skill effects could be triggered with only the new enchantment skills active, Sora’s experience with the move allowed her to replicate it almost perfectly.
“Ha!”
Sora stepped forward, driving her right foot firmly into the ground and twisting her upper body to transfer the full force into her strike.
Her right hand thrust the sword forward in a spiral motion, aiming for the knight’s exposed throat.
The knight tried to defend with their remaining left arm, but Sora forcefully knocked it aside and mercilessly drove the blade into the knight’s throat.
A critical hit landed. The knight’s HP rapidly plummeted and soon reached zero.
As Sora watched the knight disintegrate into particles of light, a window automatically popped up, notifying her of the quest completion.
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
?Profession Quest complete?
?Novice Enchanter? has ranked up to ?Intermediate Enchanter?.
The skill ?Equipment Enchantment Magic? has been unlocked.
—– —– —– —– —– —– —– —–
“?Equipment Enchantment Magic?, meaning I can now enchant my own equipment in the future.”
?Yes, Master. That is correct.?
“Oh, so that means I can further enhance not only my weapons but also the coat I got from the Leviathan …Doesn’t that make me way too strong?”
?Is there a problem with that??
“Not really. It’s just… I’m guessing people will start flooding me with requests to enchant their stuff.”
?That does sound troublesome.?
“Yeah… I’ll talk to my mentors, but I’ll have to ask them to keep this a secret. If word gets out, it’s going to be a real pain.”
Feeling a headache from yet another potential problem if this secret got out, Sora decided to log out after returning from the quest-exclusive room to the inn.