Chapter 63.1

63 Part 1

Let’s be an Adventurer! ~Defeating Dungeons with a Skill Board~ 63

Let’s Use An Item To Defeat This Floor!

Haruki geared up after an over pampered Rhea hurriedly escaped from the room.

There’s only so much practice he could get to do at home.

If he kept on practicing by watching videos, he could make a mess of his own room.

It would be better to just go to the dungeon and put what he’s seen into practice.

With his armor on, Haruki stepped into the first floor of the dungeon.

When you throw away your previous movements in favor of newly trained ones, your performance is expected to decline a bit.

This was also true for the exercises Haruki had been doing.

At first, new computers and software don’t feel as user friendly as old versions. In fact, at the time they are introduced, their efficiency seems to be even lower, and give the impression of not being as good as the old ones.

But as soon as one gets used to the new ones, their quality and performance suddenly rises.

In other words, no matter how better the software or technology you switch to, you will noticeably do worse with it until you get used to it.

This applies to any work or activity in any area as well.

That’s why Haruki decided to start over from scratch and check his newly learned moves in the first floor of the dungeon.

It had been quite some time since he had come across a Centipede.

“… Hehe.”

Haruki trembled with anticipation while looking for Centipedes.

— Come out, come out, wherever you are…

Deep into the path, he caught a glimpse of a Centipede’s shiny carapace.

“Wooooh!”

Letting out a battle cry, Haruki ran towards his target at full speed.

Then he stopped in front of the Centipede.

He positioned himself trying to replicate the same posture he had seen on the videos.

“… What’s wrong?”

While avoiding the Centipede’s curious feelers, Haruki compared his movements with those he had seen on the videos.

“Like this… No, like this?”

— Focus on your feet, arms and torso.

— Hold your short sword lightly with your hand and let it flow as you move it.

He raised it, then he brought it down.

Slash!

The Centipede’s two feelers danced in the air.

“It’s still not perfect!”

The flow was interrupted mid-way.

Bring the image back to his brain, remember the moves, follow them, and make the cut.

The short sword cut through the Centipede’s gooey carapace.

“Ah, that feels nice.”

He felt almost no resistance at all as he cut.

It was an attack that had used the full strength of his short sword.

“But it’s still not perfect. This won’t do at all.”

It took him thirty seconds to defeat the Centipede.

Normally, this would have taken him only one second.

As expected, changing the way he attacked had a serious impact.

It was going to take him a lot longer to defeat monsters like this.

“I already know the theory. Now I need to practice until it feels natural.”

Haruki went back to searching for enemies to defeat.

He attacked Centipede after Centipede.

He attacked imitating the moves he had seen in the videos.

He had to imitate them in order to make them his own.

As his practice went on, he grew tired and full of discomfort, which interrupted his ability to focus.

His body felt heavy and his breath felt hot.

His T-shirt and underwear felt sweaty.

His throat felt sore with thirst.

So far, Haruki had gone on imitating the moves he had seen in those videos.

Imitating and absorbing them.

Since those videos mostly used wooden swords and katanas in their demonstrations, he had to adapt the moves he had seen in order to use them with his short sword.

And practicing those moves also took him longer than expected.

Just a little longer.

He had reached a point where he could be sure.

His movements had become much better than before.

Haruki sat down on the road and took out his Board.

Karaboshi Haruki (27)　Gender: Male

Skill Points: 6 → 7

Class: Hidden Sword Master → Hidden Sword King

Divine Protection: Overthrow God <Medjed>

－Vitality

Stamina 3

Natural Recovery 2

－Strength

Strength 4

－Agility

Quickness 4

Dexterity 4

－Technology

Equipment Mastery

One-handed Swords 3 → 4

Throwing 2

Light Armor 1

Kicking 1

Covert 3

Imitation 2 → 3

－Intuition

Detection 2

Weakness Exploit 1

－Special

Growth Acceleration　MAX

Time 1

Divine Protection　MAX

“Ooh…!”

The results of his training were clearly shown in his skills.

“I see…”

Haruki could vaguely see the rule behind his natural increase in his skills.

There seemed to be two conditions that needed to be fulfilled for a skill to increase:

1: One needed to get experience points.

2: One must use the skills one wants to increase.

The required amount of 1 and 2 may vary depending on the skill one wants to increase.

Still, based on his experience with improving skills, Haruki could guess that those two were the conditions involved.

He had found a way to naturally increase his own skills.

And paradoxically, he had also found a way to prevent other skills from improving…

“So it seems I should better not use my Covert skill…”

Haruki was determined in keeping his Covert skill score as it was.

By the time he had left the dungeon, the sky had turned bright.

“…”

— That’s weird.

— I thought I had entered the dungeon at night…

According to his watch, it was 4 AM.

Hokkaido is located at a northern latitude, so during summer, sunrise comes quite early.

Normally this is 30 minutes earlier than in Tokyo.

There’s a 2-hour difference with Ishigaki Island.

For that reason, pulling off an all-nighter gets harder during summertime.

There had been many times in the past where Haruki would feel burned out as he looked at the sky getting clearer during work.

(I’m not done with today’s work and it’s morning already…?)

Anyway, it was morning.