Ascension Through Skills
chapter-43

The judgment didn’t apply to his health but to his shield.

As time passed, not only could he get attack nullification for the third attack but also the fourth and the fifth.

Not to mention, he could acquire other skills. There were quite a few skills that were dependent on health depletion.

“It’s becoming interesting.”

New possibilities always excited him.

Taesan made his move.

“Kerak!”

The Lizardman swung his spear. It was quick, but Taesan casually blocked it and pierced the creature’s chest. His sword went through its heart.

“Kaah……”

[You have defeated the spear-wielding Lizardman.] [You accurately attacked the opponent's vital point. You have acquired the constant activation skill "Vital Point Attack".]

“Finally got it.”

It took more time than expected.

He had to grind because it was a skill acquired through repetition, but he didn’t have much leeway until now due to the divine trials and hidden bosses.

[Constant Activation Skill: Vital Point Attack] [Proficiency: 1%] [When attacking an opponent's vital point, you deal greater damage. Currently, it seems like you can only do half as much.]

It inflicted greater damage when hitting the heart, neck, or other critical points. As proficiency increased, up to triple the damage could be added.

It was a basic skill that was obtained after continuous combat and a skill that one must acquire. Finally, he was able to obtain it.

He had now finished the 6th floor. Unlike before, there was nothing much left here, so only the boss room was left.

“It should be about time.”

There were no monsters to disturb him. The respawn time was quite long, so he could comfortably experiment.

He spread out his hand.

[You have activated Fireball.]

Fwoosh.

The fire blazed in thin air. He stared intently at the flames flickering above his hand.

[What are you doing?]

“Testing.”

Taesan had been experimenting with his skills. He had checked all sorts of situations and conditions.

Now it was time for magic.

[You're testing all sorts of things, huh?]

“The differences can be quite significant.”

If Taesan hadn’t known the activation conditions for Evasion, he would have had a hard time against two named Goblins. He would have been flustered not knowing about the arrow attack and would have only won by a hair’s breadth.

But Taesan won easily. He had learned all the drawbacks of Evasion through his experiments.

The same went for magic.

With the staff, he could only use fixed magic. But now that he could learn and use magic, different results could occur depending on the conditions, just like with his skills.

“Can I adjust it?”

He had been trying to sharpen the flame into the shape of an arrow, but it hadn’t worked. It was as if it was forcibly trying to maintain its current state.

[Flame Arrow. It's a higher-level magic with increased penetration. If you could adjust magic like that, what would be the point of having different stages of magic?]

“So, I can’t adjust it like this.”

[Aren't you going to ask me?]

“Only when I get stuck.”

He tried things out himself and only looked for answers when he hit a wall. It had been Taesan’s preferred method since his days on Earth.

This time, he tried using Fireball consecutively.

[You have activated Fireball.] [You have activated Fireball.] [You have activated Fireball.]

Several flames appeared in the thin air. They were spaced at a certain distance, not overlapping each other.

Unlike the staff, he could use multiple spells at once, but it didn’t seem like the spells could merge with each other.

Taesan launched all of the conjured fireballs at once.

Pffft!

The previously stagnant swamp oxidized instantly. The launched fireball was shaped like a hollow circle.

“So, it doesn’t work like this.”

Fire Wall, a magic also known as the Wall of Fire.

He tried creating something similar using Fireball, but no window appeared.

Unlike skills, even if you created a similar effect with lower-level magic, it didn’t seem like you could learn that higher-level magic.

‘Or there might be other restrictions.’

For now, that was it for Fireball. He started to check his other magics.

Food Production.

[Basic Magic: Food Production] [Mana Consumption: 5] [Summons a small amount of consumable liquid and edible solid.]

Taesan spread out his hand.

[You have activated Food Production.]

Thud.

A wooden bowl and a wooden cup appeared out of thin air. Inside were a transparent liquid and a thick porridge.

Taesan picked up the cup and took a little sip.

“It tastes like water.”

It tasted just like plain water, nothing more, nothing less. This time, he scooped up a little porridge and tried it.

“……It tastes like porridge.”

It felt like eating something thick with no discernible flavor. Taesan put down the bowl somewhat uncomfortably.

“Does anything change with the Food Production spell?”

[Among the spells I know, Food Production is the most uninspiring.]

A listless reply came back. It meant that there was nothing special about it. Taesan quietly cleared away the porridge.

In that case, there was only one spell left.

[Basic Magic: Random Mental Attack] [Mana Consumption: 5] [Uses non-beneficial mental magic on the target at random. Attempts to afflict the target with a status condition.]

“I wonder if anything will change.”

The Random Mental Attack as a staff was simple. It attempted a judgment on the opponent. Until the judgment succeeded or failed, no new judgment could be made.

It could only be used once per turn. That was the staff’s restriction.

But looking at the Fireball, it seemed that such restrictions did not apply when he himself used magic.

“Can mental judgments be overlapped?”

[They can be overlapped. But it's not the kind of overlap you're probably thinking of. It's an overlap where, once the initial judgment is resolved, an attempt is immediately made on the next judgment.]

“So, it’s sequential.”

Still, that wasn’t bad. It meant he could cause continuous confusion in the opponent’s mind.

Unlike the staff, he could attack while launching a mental attack. If that was the case, he might be able to gain something.

Taesan extrapolated various possibilities.

The ghost, who had been watching, asked as if tired.

[Aren't you tired of this?]

“It’s fun, though?”

Creating something by combining, pursuing new possibilities, and actually achieving results. There was no reason to feel bothered.

The general summary of magic was finished.

Magic could be used simultaneously with a slight delay. And unlike skills, you couldn’t learn new magic by emulating its effects.

However, something felt missing.

“So, are you saying that one cannot learn magic on their own?”

[Hmm...... that's a bit ambiguous.]

The ghost spoke in an ambiguous tone.

[Magic is something that a talented individual can discover themselves or receive from someone else. It's one or the other. As you've just experimented with Fireball, you cannot learn higher magic no matter what you do. But... occasionally, there are exceptions.]

“Occasionally, there are exceptions?”

[Those without talent gain higher magic by the concept of skill. I've occasionally heard about them... but I don't know how they acquired it. They themselves didn't know because they obtained it by chance, and they did not intend to tell.]

The information would be easy to obtain if there was a concept of a community for discussions, but there was no such information market here. Information about skills or magic was quite precious, and it seemed that the ghost also didn’t know the answer.

It was not that it was impossible, but that it was unknown.

This meant there was another direction Taesan could try.

[You have activated Fireball.]

Whoosh.

Fire appeared in the air. He activated Fireball again. Two fires appeared in the air.

The Fireballs do not combine. Taesan looked at the Fireball suspended in the air.

‘It’s different.’

The Fireball used with the staff flew straight away.

However, the Fireball used by magic remained next to Taesan until he issued a command.

In other words, there were two states.

A stationary fixed state and a flying trajectory state.

Also, Fireball had a subtle delay. In terms of time, it was a very subtle delay of about 0.2 seconds.

Its speed was such that Taesan could catch up with it by running.

“I wonder if it’ll work.”

[What will?]

Instead of answering, Taesan drank a mana potion. His empty mana bar filled halfway.

With a breath, Taesan stomped his foot.

[You have activated Fireball.]

A Fireball formed next to Taesan as he began running from the end of the room. Matching the speed of the flying Fireball, Taesan implemented another Fireball as he ran.

[You have activated Fireball.]

A Fireball formed right in front of the flying Fireball.

The two Fireballs overlapped, becoming a single Fireball.

[Huh?]

It was a Fireball that was about twice as big as the previous one.

Taesan glanced to confirm and once again ran, activating a Fireball.

This time too, the Fireballs combined when they overlapped.

He repeated this until the end of the room. A total of five Fireballs had merged.

At the end of it, a sphere noticeably larger than before collided with the wall.

Boom!

The room shook with a massive vibration. It was a force that was far beyond a Fireball.

[You have learned [Blazing Sphere].] [...Was this the way?]

Unlike when acquiring a skill, the explanation was extremely simple.

But it was the same as having learned a new skill.

[Beginner Magic: Blazing Sphere] [Mana Cost: 6] [Proficiency: 1%] [Fires a moderately sized fireball. It does greater damage to enemies without immunity. It still does reasonable damage to enemies with immunity. It attempts to inflict the abnormal status [Burn] on the target. It has a small physical force.]

Various information was added. Judging from the vibrations in the room just now, the power seemed to have significantly increased.

[You have activated Blazing Sphere.]

The flame intensified. It was incomparably larger than a fireball.

“So, this is how it is.”

[Were the stationary state and the flying state completely different judgments... I didn't know.]

The ghost muttered in a trembling voice.

“Is the method that difficult?”

All you had to do was run while activating a fireball. But the ghost spoke in a tone that told him not to talk nonsense.

[Fireball is basic magic, you know? And to follow the fireball, you need agility, which you can only achieve by delving pretty deep. By that point, you wouldn't be using basic magic. Few learn magic, and how would they know this?]

“Is that so?”

Thinking calmly, Taesan’s stats were currently too high. Being able to catch up with a fireball meant that he could dodge even with his eyes closed. By that point, the enemy would have similar stats, so it would be reasonable to discard it.

[And how many people do you think experiment deliberately and learn like you? Even if they do, they probably just got lucky. Most of them don't even know how they learned it.]

“That’s true.”

Even Lee Taeyeon didn’t know how she had acquired Addition. Only after Taesan told her did she realize how.

“I get it now.”

It was not that he could not learn new magic. Unlike skills, the various learning conditions were quite strict, making it appear as if he couldn’t learn it.

Taesan stood up and tried various methods.

He fired a fireball and an arrow to create a flaming arrow, activated the Blazing Sphere and fireball simultaneously to overlap them, and even tried to collide them.

[Uh, uh, uh. I'm bored to death.]

The ghost twisted its body. Instead of responding, Taesan continued his experiments.

He spent two hours like that. However, whether there was really nothing or the conditions were not met, he did not learn new magic.

“So, this is the limit.”

Roughly after twenty attempts, he had learned one Blazing Sphere.

It was a satisfactory result. At worst, his odds of learning anything had gone down to a decimal point, so a 5% chance was close to a jackpot.

Taesan drew his sword and entered the boss room. The ghost’s voice was tinged with irritation, probably because it was already quite bored.

[Yeah. Skills are good, but let's move on in the labyrinth. If we go down, we can get better things, right? They say they teach swordsmanship on the 7th floor, right?]

“Kraaah!”

A Lizardman appeared in the boss room.

[A Lizardman warrior has appeared.]

“Kraaah!”

The Lizardman rushed towards him. Taesan activated his magic.

[You have activated Blazing Sphere.]

Whoosh.

The fireball flew.

The warrior, with a shout, tried to split it.

At that moment, Taesan launched a mental attack.

[You have activated Confusion.]

“Ka, Kraaah?”

[You have activated Madness.]

The warrior’s pupils shook. He shook his head to try and shake off the confusion and vitality returned to his eyes.

However, the verdict of madness hit him immediately. Unable to ward off the fireball due to the screams penetrating his mind, the warrior became confused.

“Kraaah!”

[49 damage to the Lizardman Warrior.]

“49? Not bad.”

With this level of power, it could be used for damage, not just deterrence. Taesan cast his magic again towards the Lizardman, who had barely shaken off the madness.

[You have activated Blazing Sphere.] [You have activated Powerlessness.] [You have activated Confusion.]

“Ka……”

The warrior’s movement slowed down. He shook his body violently to shake off the powerlessness, but the judgment of confusion immediately hit.

[50 damage to the Lizardman Warrior.] [Judgment successful! The Lizardman Warrior is in a state of burn.]

Taesan repeated this as both fireball and mental magic were consecutively cast.

The Lizardman let out a powerless scream.

“Kieeeee!”

[Poor thing.]

The monster could not do anything.

If he could at least swing a weapon or something to attack, it would be one thing, but he couldn’t even do that due to the mental attack.

All the warrior could do was get beaten up.

“Not bad.”

Until now, magic was merely auxiliary. There were many restrictions due to using it with a wand.

But now it was different.

As much as the delay and restrictions had significantly disappeared, he could now defeat monsters using only magic. The dying Lizardman was the proof.

“Kieeeee……”

[You have won against the Lizardman Warrior.]