Weakest Occupation “Blacksmith” Become The Strongest – Chapter 55

New chapter today.
Enjoy~

TL: NyX
ED: Onihikage

 

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Chapter 55 – Skill Effect

 

Recently, I’ve come to comprehend more about good and bad skills, probably because of my level increase. Blue skills are good, red skills are bad. I’ll tell you in a moment about the skills I got from this batch of equipment.

The first thing to note is that the skills were added intentionally thanks to that granny’s talent. It’s good to know that this isn’t completely random, but something that can be controlled.

However, I also couldn’t talk to the old lady about all the skills I’ve seen, so I’ll have to test their actual performance myself. Nevertheless, craftsmen seem to be able to understand what they’re doing, to some extent.

First, I separated the good and bad skills.

Damage Reduction and Agility Enhancement seem to be the good skills I got from this purchase, and the bad ones were Increased Damage Received, Heal Attack, and Expanded Potion Range.

Since my level has reached 20, I can now see the skill’s effect. However, it’s not the best explanation. To be clear, the explanation given can only be called stupid.

Damage Reduction: Reduce the burden of attacks.

…Err, well, I guess that’s true, but that’s it?

Agility Enhancement: Increased agility.

…Maybe I’ll be able to move more quickly? Put bluntly, I can’t expect too much from the explanations. I’ll just test these two for now.

I put Damage Reduction and Agility Enhancement in my clothes. What is this Damage Reduction effect?

“Val, can you charge at me?”

“Vaal!”

Val opened his eyes with joy and threw himself toward me at high speed. That should be like a playful blow. I took his headbutt directly in the chest and fell on my futon. It was hard to breathe for a moment when I took the hit, but by the time I hit the futon, it didn’t hurt anymore.

…Is this the effect of Damage Reduction? The description was a little vague, but it’s actually pretty good. Let’s try it again without the damage reduction.

Val was still lying on the bed and rubbing his cheek against my chest. I picked him up and stroked his head.

“Val, will you do it again with the same power?”

“Val!”

I got up from the bed and stood a fair distance away. I touched my hand once to my clothes to erase the skill, then took Val’s charge attack again. This time, it knocked the wind out of me; the strength behind the blow made it feel like I was being choked.

“Val!?”

I coughed many times in unbearable pain. I could hardly breathe and staggered in place.

It-It’s completely different from before. This is a body blow from a dragon…! Even though he’s small, Val’s serious charge attack is no joke.

“Vaaal…”

He tilted his head anxiously.

“Oh, it’s okay! I’m the one who asked you to do it after all! Don’t look so sad!”

I laughed as loudly as I could and gave him a hug. After drinking about two potions, I gave Damage Reduction to my clothes again.

Can this effect stack?

For the moment, I tried to stack three Damage Reduction effects. I put it on clothes and rings. Then I asked Val to attack me again, but… I felt like the effect was the same as when there was only one.

Am I doing something wrong? Or is it that only one effect can activate?

I played with Val for a while, trying things to investigate Damage Reduction. Eventually, I found one possibility. It was possible that Damage Reduction only activated on the object affected by the skill.

It’s not a skill that’s always active, but it’s the kind of skill that activates automatically when you get attacked. It’s like Automatic Return. In other words, it makes more sense if you call it Automatic Damage Reduction.

After I layered together leather armor with my clothes, I was able to notice the effect improved. In other words, if you wear a thick outfit with many layers, you won’t be damaged at all. To test it out, I put on extra underclothes in my room, for a total of ten layers. I felt bulkier, and a little stifled.

In this state, I took another charge from Val straight to the chest. Although he charged me with all his might, it didn’t hurt at all. As you’d expect, going that far would hinder my movements, so I’d only put on enough that it wouldn’t get in my way very much.

I guess it turns out that Damage Reduction only triggers on the clothing it’s affected by. So the best way to use it is to wear layers like before, huh? That’s it for Damage Reduction, now for Agility Enhancement.

I tried wearing a necklace with Agility Enhancement. I could understand this one the moment I put it on. I felt like my body had become lighter.

It’s different from the speed increase from Body Strengthening. I could really just move faster, it wasn’t that my leg strength had increased. Of course, since I could move faster, the power behind my impacts might increase with my speed, but there was no indication that my physical strength had changed.

This makes for another equipment effect with no downsides, even if I put it on extra pieces of equipment or use up more points for it.

So, that’s all for the skills with positive effects.

The problem is with the next skills on the list ― the ones with negative effects. First of all… Increase Damage Received, huh? I examined the skill’s effect first.

Increases Damage Received. It’s just… it really is just a garbage skill.

It can be thought of as the exact opposite of the Damage Reduction skill I was just testing before. If I put that on armor, it would be a total failure, worse than not wearing armor in the first place.

“Val?”

“No, I’m not going to test this one on myself.”

If I try to test Increase Damage Received on my own armor, taking a blow from Val like before would break my bones; in the worst case, I could be in danger of dying, so I’ll never try it.

“Val…”

Geez Val, I don’t want you to be so sad… Let’s try another skill to cheer you up.

Well then, next: Heal Attack. First, I checked the effect.

Heal the affected part. This would also be a big mistake to use on my weapon…

but, on the other hand, I could make a recovery sword with it, couldn’t I?

What does the effect actually look like? I’d like to try it. I made one knife with no skills on it, and I cut my fingertip. It bled normally.

Then I made another knife and gave it Heal Attack [S-rank], and tried to cut the wounded part with it. I also checked whether it was necessary to shout the skill name… but it wasn’t.

My finger was wrapped in some kind of gentle energy, and a short time later, the wound on my finger was closed.

“In its own way, it’s a kind of recovery power.”

“Val.”

“If I used it on my weapon to attack an enemy, it would be a total failure, but…”

That’s where I remembered something. If I could use it without activating it, it might be compatible with handguns. I wanted to try it right away, but I worried about what would happen if it didn’t work like I expected, so it’s better to try it with a real monster.

The last skill was Expanded Potion Range. The effect of the skill was that the recovery range of the potion would increase, at least according to the explanation.

What’s that supposed to mean? Potions can also be used to close wounds by pouring them directly on the wound. Does it mean that range will expand? But that doesn’t explain why it’s supposed to be a bad skill. I’m not sure what to think.

“Val, let’s go hunt some monsters for now.”

“Val.”

There’s still time until night. Let’s go hunting a little.

 

 

 

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