(244) Mysterious skill invoked once again
Translator: Tseirp
The voyage was going exceedingly well. We did not encounter any storms nor were there any large infestation of mice.
And my fishing was going well too.
The next day.
All right, it"s here!
I fished up a large prawn. It was about the size of a whale even though it was a prawn.
I ate the one I caught yesterday for dinner and it was quite delicious.
Although the experience points weren"t that much to boast about.
【Ichinojo leveled up】
Nevertheless, thanks to my 400 times growth speed, my level still went up.
【Copycat skill: 「Self Copy」acquired】
Hn, what a strange skill.
Let"s try investigating the effects.
Self Copy: Magic skill 【Copycat Lv20】
By saying 【Copy Slot】 and the slot number, the user is able to record their current status values only.
By saying 【Paste Slot】 and the slot number, the user is able to temporarily copy their saved status values.
By saying 【Reset】, the user is able to return to their original status values without waiting for the temporary period to elapse.
However, job, current HP and current MP will not change.
If the user"s current HP and MP are higher than their saved maximum HP and MP, the current HP and MP will become the same value as the saved maximum HP and MP.
There are five slots and the effect duration varies with magic proficiency.
After the user returns to their original status, they may not use 【Paste Slot】 for five minutes.
I could think of a few points.
First, what was so fun about copying my status? You might find it stupid but it was quite an amazing skill.
For example, when a person reaches the peak of Apprentice Swordsman and changes job to Swordsman, their status would be lower than when they were an Apprentice Swordsman until the Swordsman job reaches a certain level. However, by copying and pasting the status when they were at their greatest values during Apprentice Swordsman, it will be possible to regain the strength they boast during their heyday.
Not only that, when people who are done training as Swordsman become a Magician, they will be able to fight the status of a Swordsman when they encounter close quarter fights with the enemy. After all, other people do not have a skill to freely change jobs such as mine.
Personally, it would be useful for me to copy the status of my strongest jobs when I wish to train my other lower level jobs.
I will have to verify the exact duration of the skill but I did acquire a good skill.
【More than 24 hours have pa.s.sed since using Job Seeking.】
【The first job has been switched back to Jobless.】
Oops, it seemed that 24 hours had pa.s.sed. The timing was just right.
For the time being, I set my second to the fifth job as Fire Magician, Water Magician, Wind Magician, and Earth Magician to copy a set of magic specialized status.
After that, I aimed for the South Continent while mixing breaks in between.
The voyage continued on.
The journey was going smoothly.
I wasn"t able to sense much fish presence so boredom was my greatest enemy but I was saved by the large number of comics kept inside the item box that Miri left behind.
When the winds were calm and the ship came to a standstill, I took it easy by elegantly sipping tea while playing music from the music player. However, I was startled when the 320th hymn played and stopped the player. That was the song that was playing when the t.i.tanic sank after all.
After that small episode, we finally saw the South Continent the next day and we sailed along the coast.
We were looking for a coast where it would be easy to catch small crabs, shrimp, and seaweed.
At that time.
"Master, there is a fishing boat ahead at one o"clock direction raising a distress flag desu."
Sheena No.3 said to me.
When I looked in the direction mentioned, I saw a boat far smaller than the one I was on drifting in the sea. The sail was damaged so it would probably not sail well even if the wind blew behind it.
"A single child is riding on the boat ― ―"
A fair boy wearing a hat was waving his hand.
The child seemed to still have stamina as he was waving a yellow flag to seek help.
"Master, this is a coral reef area desu ― ― it is dangerous to approach with a sailboat desu."
That was true, the water was quite shallow and it would probably damage the bottom of the ship if we approached using the ship we were on.
Since there was no other choice, I stopped the ship for now and sailed a smaller boat toward the boat the child was on.
"Wait for me, I"m coming over now!"
To be safe, I asked Sheena No.3 who was on the sailboat to hide in My World.
Then, I called out to the child and rowed the small boat.
Almost there ― ― then I noticed it.
My Presence Detection skill was reacting.
There were presences in the shadow of the rocks ― ― four of them.
Who else could they be?
Something like rugged men who stop their car when a cute girl asks to hitchhike?
Or ― ―
"Hey, are you alone, boy!?"
"That"s right, help me!"
The child shouted back.
Strange. There were definitely presences in the shadow of the rocks. Were they monsters?
The child seemed quite anxious but I activated Thought Trace.
I was able to read the child"s emotions when I did that.
There were some slight anxiety and uneasiness as well as expectations but most of his feelings were feelings of scorn toward me.
Ah ― ― as expected it was that. It was the right choice to get Sheena No.3 to hide in My World.
I secretly activated Hawk Eye.
Looking down from above ― ― as I had expected.
In the shadow of the rocks were four adult men with their weapons ready.
I could not use Job Appraisal from the shifted line of sight from Hawk Eye but they did not look like fishermen. They were probably pirates.
Moreover, they were definitely not military pirates like Nelson but outlaw pirates.
I retracted my line of sight.
"Hn ― that rock is a nuisance. I"ll destroy it with magic so wait for a while."
I lied and chanted.
"Paste Slot."
With that, my status was now the magic specialized state.
Then,
"Fire!"
I cast my spell.
It was just an intermediate spell but it boasts quite some firepower due to my magical attack.
The spell pa.s.sed over the rock I pointed at and destroyed a rock where there wasn"t anybody behind it.
"Oops, my hand slipped. Wait a while, I"ll destroy that rock this time."
"Wwait, Onii-chan! That small boat can reach here without doing any of that!"
"That"s true. Well, I"ll destroy the rock now."
"Uwaa, this guy is serious! No, father!"
"Tch!"
The sound of him clicking his tongue was so loud that it reached me.
Four men riding a small boat appeared from the shadows of the rock.
I looked at the four men"s jobs. Three were bandits and only one was a pirate.
Incidentally, the child was only a 【Commoner Lv2】. It seemed that his hands have not been sullied with criminal acts.
Well then, regular battles would be troublesome so ― ―
"Pet.i.te Thunder"
I released Thunder Magic directly in the center of the sea surface where the enemies were at. The lightning spread across the surface of the sea and all the pirates riding on the small boat got electric shocks.
Judging by the lack of level ups, they were apparently only incapacitated and were still alive.
The boy who sought my help was uninjured but he fell to his rear in fear and had pa.s.sed out in shock.
Well, that was the end.
I collected all the members and bound them with rope.
I"ll hand them over to the officials in the town of Genova.
"Now then, I might as well catch some crabs and shrimps around this area."
I retrieved a bucket from my item bag. Water acc.u.mulated in the recesses of the coral reef and I saw numerous crabs the size of the j.a.panese freshwater crabs in the water.
Those would probably be perfect as feed for the turtles.
I picked them up one by one in order to prevent my finger from getting pinched.
In addition, I wanted to harvest some seaweed but as expected, it was impossible to get them without diving in.
The waves were gentle but I would have to take off my clothes to dive in.
All right, I"ll leave harvesting the seaweed to Sheena No.3.
Picking seaweed should be easy for Sheena No.3 since salvaging was her forte.
I rowed the small boat and returned to my sailboat.
Hopefully, Sheena No.3 would finish her work before the pirates wake up ― ― just as I had that thought.
"Hn …"
The pirate boy woke up.
Well, the child was not electrocuted so it wasn"t surprising that he woke up.
"This place is ― ―"
"Hey."
"U-uwaaaaa!?"
"Don"t be that afraid. I"m not going to eat you."
Being feared by a child didn"t feel that great. Well, given how much I threatened him earlier, it was natural that he would be afraid.
"Look around you. Your companions are just unconscious. I didn"t kill them."
"Eh? Ah … Father … Erm, Onii-chan, what will happen to us?"
"It"s a given, you guys are pirates. I will hand you over to the officials at the harbor town of Genova. The officials will decide what will happen to you guys.”
“No way. If you do that, father and the others will become slaves!”
Even if you put it that way, your side was the one that attacked me.
If I released them there, there was the danger of them attacking somebody else.
“Please wait. We were not doing anything bad.”
“Your jobs won"t be pirates if you didn"t do anything bad.”
“No, we are not pirates but fishermen from this area. We thought that a bad pirate appeared and I acted as a decoy for us to defeat the pirate. We didn"t expect Onii-chan to not be a bad person.”
He was still a kid since that was such a blatant lie.
Naturally, I used Thought Trace and determined that it was a lie.
I confirmed that the members other than the child all had criminal jobs. They might have been former fishermen but I can"t turn a blind eye as long as they have committed crimes.
“Sorry but I don"t believe you. The sword your father carries is a sword meant to kill people. Fishermen do not carry such weapons.”
“That … is borrowed! From a traveling swordsman.”
“If that is true, then there won"t be any issue with handing you guys to the officials. Give it up. Sorry, but I will be handing you guys in. I"ll at least ask the official to lower your sentences depending on your circ.u.mstances.”
After I said that, the young boy nodded and then sighed.
“All right, I"ll give up.”
“I see, that"s good.”
“The one in this country. Home Return.”
Wait, that magic ―
“Angela.”
You"re kidding me. Would a child have the magic that is said to be extremely rare ― or so I thought but it was not a bluff.
It wasn"t just the boy. Even the unconscious pirates disappeared as well.
It seemed that Angela was a female pirate that the boy was close to.
They had fled to their hideout.
I let them get away. Well, it doesn"t really matter.
Just as I was putting the matter behind me.
【The effect of skill x.x.xX has been activated. The effect of skill Fake Magic has been activated.】
【The effect of skill x.x.xX has been activated. The effect of skill Fake Magic 《Home Return: Angela》 has been activated.】
Geh, again!?
Now the skill that abducted me to the uninhabited island was using my skill on its own accord ― just what the h.e.l.l was happening?
The instant after I had that thought, I found myself inside an unfamiliar cave along with the tied up pirates and surrounded by a dozen pirates. In front of me was the young boy and a girl of similar age ― that was most probably Angela.
I didn"t know Fake Magic had a trick to it which allows it to use other people"s Home Return. But I recall that Fake Magic should only activate half of the original"s spell effects?
Well, I"ll leave thinking about that until later.
After all, now was not the time to think about it.
I was in an unfamiliar cave surrounded by a dozen men.
“Let me guess, you guys are all friends?”
The young boy pirate nodded wordlessly to my question.
Oi oi oi oi, what is with this situation!?
Shouldn"t the 【x.x.xX】 skill work for my sake? Why can"t we see eye to eye?
The young boy seemed to have explained matters during the short pause before I transferred over and the pirates probably understood that person was me.
They slowly crept closer and surrounded me.
Haa, there was no way they would let me go at this stage.
It was troublesome but there was no other way.
I took out the Rod of Asclepius.
Sigh, if I knew this was going to happen, I should have left that place and not involve myself with the pirates.