First Outer World Story Series: The Black Mist that Devours - Chapter 84

Translator: MadHatter Editor: MadHatter

In this chapter, there will be some clarification about the skills.

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(Kurokiri POV)

Two years before the present, “White Mist and Black Swamp Forest,” fourth level.

“Hmm. Looks like the data has been pretty much amassed.”

It was a rare occurrence that I was not in my own room, but rather in the laboratory I created on the fourth level.

“It has taken me more than five years since the research started. This much is to be expected.”

Tori came up to me with the next batch of data.

Now, the subject of this laboratory’s research, well, it was a simple one. The theme of this laboratory was about skills.

“Well, that’s right. And is this the data that summarizes the results of all the research that has been conducted so far?”

“Yes, exactly.”

After receiving the data from Tori, I proceeded to browse through it.

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Now, rather than reading in a meandering style, let me elucidate about skills from what I can grasp.

To begin with, the common consensus was that skills originated on the day the dungeon was released, but the reason why humans were able to utilize skills remained a mystery. (Personally, I know it was due to something the God of Calamity did a year before that, but I dare not say a word.)

The initial age of onset of skills was 10-12 years old. However, if a person’s life was in jeopardy, like Izumi’s, they may manifest earlier.

The selection criteria for initial skills were thought to be based on heredity from parents, one’s own nature, and the ambient environment, but there existed some degree of randomness as well. Incidentally, this was assumed to be the same case for the Demon King.

What appeared as skills that can be acquired through level up may involve the individual’s thoughts, fighting style, race, and occupation. Therefore, skills that can be attained by a Kirijin tend to encompass those related to mist.

Skill acquired after turning into a kin was also regarded as a “unique skill” and was specific to each race, so it was impossible to attain the same skill with the same name by leveling up. (Though it is possible for the skills to have the same effect.)

Skills were broadly classified into two basic types: active skills, such as ?Firebolt?, which were activated voluntarily, and passive skills, such as ??? Proficiency?, which were constantly activated. However, among them, there were skills that were invariably activated, but the strength of the effect can be adjusted, such as ?Mist Cloak? and there were also skills that were automatically activated when certain conditions were met.

Furthermore, there were also skills that can be categorized into offensive and auxiliary skills, or by the status that affected their effects. (In this case, strength, dexterity, and agility effects are commonly referred to as physical skills, while intellect, perception, and spirit effects are commonly referred to as magical skills.)

However, the classification of skills into offensive and auxiliary was not easy, since a skill can be considered both offensive and auxiliary depending on how it would be employed, and some skills would affect multiple statuses to the same degree in the case of status classification.

Nonetheless, there was an extent of categorization or hierarchy depending on the name of the skill for what was often referred to as magic skills.

For instance, ?Firebolt? was a skill to release arrows comprised of fire, and ?Aquabolt? was a skill to release arrows composed of water. In this scenario, both skills did the same aspect of delivering an arrow constituted of an element, but only the characteristic of the element, the so-called “attribute,” differed.

Then, how many types of attributes exist? The answer was unknown.

The basic types were light, darkness, fire, wind, water, and earth, which were the so-called “bipolar[i]” and “the four elements” respectively. The problem was that many well-known and confirmed skills were derived from them: lightning and ice. There were also attributes called “gold” and “wood,” which were a little off the standard, and “mist,” which was a favorable attribute for Kirijin, was also regarded as one of the derivatives.

Moreover, it was claimed that by merging the four elements and the bipolar attributes in a specific ratio, the mist attribute and other derived attributes may be developed. Despite this, research in this area remained a minor subject of study due to its wide application.

Now, let’s carry on with the division of lineages within the same attribute.

In terms of the fire attribute, ?Firebolt?, ?Flame Javelin?, ?Fireball?, ?Fire Swirl?, ?Flame Plosion?, ?Flame Pillar?, and so on were listed. These were, of course, only a small part of the fire attribute.

Arrow (bolt) magic was recognized as the most basic of the basics, simply because it used the attributes of the magic to release arrows.

In contrast, spear (javelin) magic had a shorter range than arrow magic, but its attack power and penetrating power were said to be higher.

In addition, sphere (ball) type magic would explode after being unleashed and engulf everything around it, while vortex (swirl) type magic, explosion type magic, and pillar type magic were skills with a designated point of origin that were triggered from a predetermined location, and were categorized according to their potency and range.

However, what should not be misunderstood here was that it was not necessarily the case that the sphere type magic was less superior than vortex, explosion, or pillar type magic, and that each of these types of skills was suited to different situations.

Next was the classification of skills within the same lineage of the same attribute, and an example of this was the relationship between ?Firebolt? and ?Fiery Firebolt?.

Although both of these skills simply dispatch arrows of the fire attribute, the force of ?Fiery Firebolt? was much more advanced than that of the ?Firebolt?, and the increase in consumption was minimal relative to the rise in power, so the former was deemed to be a higher-level skill than the latter.

Additionally, while ?Flame Plosion? was sometimes acquired even by those who had no command of ?Firebolt?, in the case of ?Firebolt?, as far as we had investigated, all possessors of ?Firebolt? and ?Fire Magic Proficiency ?? had acquired ?Fiery Firebolt?, suggesting that the acquisition of a higher skill may require a lower skill +? as a prerequisite for its acquisition.

(But I possess neither ?Aqua Pillar? nor ?Aqua Magic Proficiency ?? yet I own ?Sharp Aqua Pillar?, so the assumption of possessing this lower skill seems to be irrelevant to the Demon King.)

What’s more, this classification was still under investigation, as there was too little data on it.

By the way, ?Simple ?? Generation? and ??? Generation? were confirmed as generation-related skills, but these skills were not in a hierarchical relationship, but rather a lateral one. In other words, they were distinct skills.

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“I’m amazed that this much research has been conducted.”

I involuntarily muttered to myself. The time was already dusk, and Tori had already gone away.

“But well, there’s still no description of Outer Skill. Well, I suppose it’s only natural since Outer Skills are literally an external technique of a different dimension.”

Outer Skill. This was not a skill bestowed to humans by the God of Calamity, but a skill that humans originally possessed, yet had been elevated to the point where it can be labeled as a skill.

So, in my case, I created new skills by disassembling and reconstructing the skills I owned, and currently, I owned two kinds of skills: Kurokirinoko and Kurokiribaku. But since these skills were originally given to me by the God of Calamity, I felt that my skills were still at the entry point of what Outer Skills should be.

Even though I was contemplating a new outer skill, I didn’t have an opportunity to bring it into use since using it against others would only result in overkill…

Buuuuuuuuuuuu!

And, apparently, there were finally intruders into my dungeon for the first time in a long time.

Hmm. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve been in a fight. I have to engage in battle every now and then, or my intuition would get dull.

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T/N:

[i] The bipolar here is referring to “contrast”, the light and darkness attributes