Declared Dead, Exiled, and Betrayed— Now I Walk Away, but I'll Save One Who Cared - Chapter 60

“Lax, you’ve absorbed a tremendous amount of monster magic, which has strengthened you considerably… but you also have a massive surplus of skill points.”

“What the hell is that?”

Skill points?

Normally, you gain skills by practicing, refining your magic, and understanding their structure. Occasionally, they just click—like a divine revelation.

“You don’t know about skill points?”

“Nope.”

The dungeon administrator folded her arms, deep in thought.

To her, skill points were probably common knowledge. To me, though, she might as well have been speaking gibberish.

…Also, where is she even speaking from? She moves her mouth, but I don’t think her voice is coming from her throat.

“In short, when you slay monsters and absorb their power, you gain these points. They allow you to create or acquire skills. However… after surveying the humans in this region, it seems almost no one utilizes skill points. Why is that?”

“How should I know?”

“Oww… I went through the trouble of explaining, and this is how you treat me?”

Was I really in the wrong for instinctively cutting her off?

“That’s my job. Explain it to me first. Then, I’ll relay it to Lax while being mercilessly tormented by him.”

“That’s unfair!”

“That sounds like an unnecessary waste of time!”

Regardless, I let them bicker while I focused on the explanation.

Apparently, skills required magic power and a specific form to be used. By learning both, they could be activated.

That sounded a lot like how magic worked—or rather, magic circles were probably just a type of form.

The form itself could be acquired in two ways: by figuring it out on your own or by being taught by someone else.

Using skill points to acquire a form was similar to the latter. The administrator described it as “your inner self guiding you,” which sounded vaguely convincing—until I pressed her for details, at which point she blurted out, “All living beings carry remnants of divine will, and that is what leads them.”

The explanation only got more confusing, so I pretended to understand and left it at that.

Meanwhile, Claire got flung across the dungeon mid-argument.

Damn. It’s really different seeing it happen to someone else.

Maybe I should hold back when I kick her next time.

Anyway, let’s see what these skill points can do.

I checked my available points…

Wait.

“You said I have a lot of skill points—how many are we talking about? Also, how do I actually acquire a skill?”

“Ah, so you don’t even know how to use them? Start by saying, ‘Skill List Open.’ It will display your current skills, along with those you can potentially acquire.”

“Skill List Open.”

Oh… A ton of entries just popped up.

“For an average human, they’d have around 10 to 20 skill points… but for Lax-dono, I’d estimate at least 100 or more.”

Let’s see…

[Blade Techniques] >>> View Details
[Hand-to-Hand Combat] >>> View Details
[Spear Techniques] >>> View Details
[Archery] >>> View Details
[Axe Techniques] >>> View Details
[Staff Techniques] >>> View Details
[Magic] >>> View Details
[Support] >>> View Details
[Languages] >>> View Details
[Miscellaneous] >>> View Details
[Unknown] >>> View Details

…What the hell is this?

I don’t understand any of it.

“Alright… I see categories for blade techniques, hand-to-hand combat, spears, and so on. Then there’s magic, support skills…”

“I see. So your list is categorized that way?”

“?”

Is that unusual?

“For example, under ‘Blade Techniques,’ there should be simple moves like ‘Slash’ to start with. Can you check?”

“Alright…”

Guess I just press this—

I focused on the “View Details” prompt and selected it.

It didn’t seem like I needed to physically touch anything, which made sense.

To confirm that only I could see the list, I tried throwing it at Claire.

The results:

The list passed through her like nothing was there.
The administrator and Claire didn’t react at all.
The list then casually returned to my hand as if nothing happened.

“What are you doing?”

“Testing something.”

You’re the one who told me to check inside, so why are you acting surprised?

“Slash, Fire Slash, Ice Slash, Dragon Slash… Yep. It starts with basic moves and builds from there.”

“There are multiple variations of ‘Slash’?”

“Yeah. I count… over 100 of them.”

“…WHAT?!”

For some reason, she looked utterly shocked.

But didn’t she just say I had an absurd amount of points?

“Eternal Blade,” “Blade that Slices Through Darkness,” “Demon God Strike”… Some of these sound ridiculously ominous.”

“…Are those skills grayed out? Acquired skills are displayed in black, while those that you might be able to obtain in the future are in gray.”

I see. I never really thought about it before, but these names sound incredibly powerful.

Still, why does she seem so panicked?

“No, these are black. There are grayed-out ones, but they’re further down the list.”

“For example?”

“‘Divine Slash That Brings the End,’ ‘The End of the Abyss,’ ‘The Supreme One’s Strike,’ ‘World Cleave’… stuff like that.”

“I may have just learned something I was never meant to know…”

The dungeon administrator, who looked like a young girl, let out a tired sigh.

Hey, you told me to check the list.

What’s with that reaction?

“Do the other categories—like hand-to-hand combat or magic—also have an absurd number of skills?”

“Give me a second.”

I scrolled all the way down to the bottom and tapped the “Close” option. The list reverted to its main menu.

Next, I selected “Magic.”

“…Is there too much to fit on one page?”

“Oh, that makes sense. If you have only a few skills, they’d all fit on one screen. But mine just lists categories, each with a ‘View Details’ option.”

“This is beyond unexpected… This is absurd. You really are a monster.”

“That’s rude.”

“What else am I supposed to call you?”

“I don’t know… Maybe ‘you worked hard’?”

“……”

Don’t just go silent.

I survived by wandering the deep layers for months.

“Good job” should be at least one possible reaction, right?

Say something.