Chapter 53.1

Heading towards the Monster Parade in Chikaho!

The next day, Haruki went to the 10th floor to hunt Beroberos under Kagemitsu and the others’ watch.

Though it was just a matter of tuning himself.

Would he forget about the way of fighting he had displayed yesterday?

Would that light appear again?

After confirming that, Haruki quickly withdrew.

The first Monster Parade would be carried out on the following day.

After splitting up with the members of Aerial, Haruki went back to the dungeon.

He returned to the 10th floor and secretly activated the skill ‘Nimble’.

He looked around and when he had made sure that there were no other adventurers around, he took out his skill board.

“I’d like to have some kind of insurance just in case, though I think I may be found out as my basic skills continue to improve…”

In order to fight in the Monster Parade, Haruki wanted to increase his basic skills more than anything.

However, his fighting style had already been observed by members of Aerial.

If he continued to increase his physical skills, Kagemitsu would surely notice.

Saying some poor excuse like “I just wasn’t being serious yesterday” was not going to cut it for this kind of improvement in skill.

The eyes of Aerial, who are at the foremost line in Chikaho, could not be so easily deceived.

In order to prevent them finding out about the skill board, all he needed to do was merely to allocate basic skills when in front of Aerial.

But he needed to know the monsters’ details for that. He couldn’t just use his skills randomly.

Like raising the agility of an opponent with strong physical defense.

Or raising the attack of a physically frail opponent.

If he didn’t know their opponents, he could end up raising using his skills inefficiently.

His points are limited.

He couldn’t afford to waste a single point due to a lack of judgment.

Haruki opened up Rhea’s tree.

Rhea hadn’t attacked a single monster with all her strength so far.

The most she had done was repelling a dangerous attack close to Haruki.

So even if he seemed to have drastically powered up all of a sudden, he could say “Ah, today Rhea seems to be taking things seriously!”.

In order for that excuse to be valid in the future, Haruki did not let Rhea participate in his attacks.

Rhea (1)　Gender: Female

Skill Points:４→２

Class: Dual Wielding Leaf Demon

Divine Protection: Earth One <???>

－Vitality

Stamina １

Natural Recovery 0

－Strength

Strength ２→３

－Agility

Instantaneous Power １

Dexterity ２

－Technology

Armor Mastery

Throw ３

Double Throw ０→１

－Intuition

Detection １

－Special

Treasure Chest ２

Divine Protection １

Beroberos are somewhat strong, so he’d increase Strength by 1.

Then he put another point into a derived skill, in order to increase the number of available moves.

Next…

“What about Divine Protection…?”

Haruki realized just how helpful Divine Protection had been during the battle the day before yesterday.

It exceeded the limits. Or rather, raised the overall level of her basic abilities.

It might be a little different than that, actually.

But judging how it felt for him, that would be a perfect way to describe it.

In that case, he had to allocate points there. He just had to.

“Rhea, can I spend these last two points on Divine Protection?”

Haruki asked Rhea, just in case.

He didn’t completely understand the effects of Divine Protection.

Haruki’s expectation was simple: If you increase your Divine Protection, it will increase your overall physical abilities.

Perhaps even a completely different ability might be uncovered by doing that.

That’s why he asked.

He wasn’t sure about spending points on something he didn’t fully understand instead of just raising a basic ability, like Vitality or Agility.

Rhea started swinging her leaves, and after some consideration, shook them up and down as if nodding.

“Thanks. Well then, here’s the first point…”

Skill Points: ２→１

Divine Protection: Earth One <???> → Earth Treasured One <???>

Divine Protection １→２

“Ooh?”

The name had changed.

All right.

With this, he could finally say goodbye to “Cloth”– Ah, wait, could “Cloth” be used for the next letter?

After a moment of excitement, Haruki’s heart plunges to the ground once again.

Still feeling a bit down, Haruki spends the last point.

Skill Points: １→０

Divine Protection: Earth Treasured One <???> → Guardian Deity of Underground Treasures <Ptah>

Divine Protection ２→ MAX

“I see.”

He really hadn’t understood the greatness of Divine Protection because it seemed too unimportant at first.

Ptah is an Egyptian God of Creation, a craftsman God who was worshipped in the ancient city of Memphis.

He was also revered as a deity that protected underground resources.

Since he was always painted green in his depictions, he was believed to be a plant god.

Then after time went by, Ptah combined himself with the Underworld God Osiris.

(Which is why Osiris is also green.)

A treasure trove is “underground resources”.