Verification: “Schrödinger’s Cat” Lv3

“Swordsmanship, huh.”

Misha murmured softly.

“Swordsmanship, huh…!”

Deep emotion was also packed into Misha’s voice. She probably knew too. The meaning that skill held.

“Nishishishi! Interesting!”

After saying that, Misha hugged Nyankoromochi tightly.

“…Ios, are you going to take Swordsmanship…?”

“Hmm…”

I did not answer immediately. After thinking for a little, I continued like this.

“No, first I want to know the properties of Schrödinger’s Cat Lv3. I want to consult the smart Misha.”

“Hehe, you’re making me blush! Leave it to Misha-san!”

After saying that, Misha stared at my face.

“…But, you know, don’t you think, ‘I absolutely want to take Swordsmanship!’?”

“Yeah…”

After organizing my thoughts, I answered.

“Even if I catch up to Grail—even if I beat him—I don’t think there’s any meaning in it.”

“Oh?”

“Because I won’t meet Grail anymore… I think making surpassing someone from the past my first goal would be wrong.”

“That’s true!”

“If I’m going to do it anyway, I want to use my skill efficiently. I might be happy if the result is Swordsmanship, but—if there’s another path that benefits me or Misha, then I don’t need Swordsmanship.”

“Nishishishi! Nice, nice!”

Misha nodded again and again.

“All right! Then, you know, let’s think together! About what would be best!”

Misha said sorry, then let go of Nyankoromochi and turned back to me.

“First, should we organize the basics of skill acquisition?”

“No, even I’m fine on that point.”

First, skills as a profession were acquired according to the following rules.

I briefly summarized those contents and told Misha.

“You do understand it! Well, it’d be seriously bad if an adventurer didn’t know that!”

It would indeed be bad. Choosing skills was the same as choosing one’s life. All adventurers racked their brains over skill acquisition.

1 and 2 probably needed no supplementary explanation.

As for 3, for example—if I wanted to learn “Heavy Blow Lv2” shown in the display, acquiring Lv1 was a prerequisite.

4 probably needed no supplementary explanation either, but the time limit displayed by Schrödinger’s Cat was likely this.

“First, there’s something I want you to tell me. Ios, have you taken any warrior skills?”

“I haven’t taken anything.”

I shook my head.

Yes, I still did not possess any skills.

I still held 220 skill points.

This was not such a rare type either. It was fairly standard development.

That was because the number of skills that could be acquired was enormous, and even if one reached level 99, it was absolutely impossible to acquire every skill.

Also, skills once learned could not be returned to points.

Inevitably, selection and rejection occurred.

Therefore, taking nothing until one’s “development policy” was decided was an ordinary choice.

For a warrior—

Would one take the attack-oriented “Swordsmanship” and become a swordsman, or take the defense-oriented “Shield Technique” and become a shielder? Even if one chose swordsman, would one stack attack skills heavily and specialize completely, or take defense skills and make it milder?

The options were endless.

There were no points one could waste.

“I see, I see. Then, you know—”

Misha stared straight into my eyes and continued.

“That effect really is broken after all.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t remember the warrior skill tree very well, but—”

Misha murmured while pressing a finger to her forehead.

“The ones Ios mentioned all had lower-level skills, didn’t they?”

“Ah…”

Misha was right.

There were many lower-level skills before reaching Swordsmanship. Unless one learned all of them, one could not acquire Swordsmanship. That was exactly why I could not catch up to Grail so easily.

As its name suggested, Heavy Blow Lv2 required Lv1.

War Cry—a skill that gave a buff to attack power and defense power along with the user’s roar. This also existed higher up in the tree.

Normally, the only skills lined up were those I, who had not learned any skills, absolutely could not choose.

It was abnormal.

No, to begin with, the selection screen itself was abnormal.

With skill selection, a screen like this never appeared.

After all, when acquiring a skill, one simply selected skills in the “skill tree for each profession inside one’s mind” for which “lower-level skills were satisfied” and for which one had enough “skill points.”

“…Which means, no way…”

I swallowed my breath.

“Does this mean I can ignore the skill tree and suddenly learn the presented skills…?”

“I think so.”

Misha nodded with a solemn expression.

…That was outrageous.

Let us use Swordsmanship as an example.

To reach Swordsmanship, one needed a total of 350 skill points. In other words, even if one followed the shortest route, it would not become acquirable until level 35.

From there, one paid the 30 points needed for Swordsmanship—in other words, it was a skill that could finally be learned at level 38.

And I could—

Learn it with only 30 points.

…Seriously?

This was not only a matter of Swordsmanship.

Every skill I acquired ignored the tree structure and—

I could choose freely, regardless of whether it was higher-level or lower-level.

“The fact that lower skills cost more points is also a tailwind, huh…”

Misha murmured softly.

“Guuuuuh! As someone burdened with the four great magics, I’m jealous!”

The four great magics—it referred to the four types of magic: earth, water, fire, and wind.

Normally, one mastered one system, or at most two, but for Misha, who had the rare skill “One Who Rules the Four Great Elements,” all of them were skills she had to master.

“How much did acquiring the four great magics cost again?”

“They go up to level 5, and it’s 50, 50, 40, 30, and 10, for 180 points per system. With four systems, that’s 720. I’ll be an old lady by the time I learn them all!”

Misha held her head.

“If I had Schrödinger’s Cat, would I only need 40 points total?”

“…That would be how it works.”

“Fraud! Fraud! Fraud! Uuuuuuh! I’m so jealous!”

“Hahaha…”

Certainly, 720 becoming 40 was like a bargain sale at 95% off.

Misha opened her mouth.

“Have you decided to take Swordsmanship?”

“Yeah…”

I brought the warrior skill tree to mind—

Thought carefully—

Are you really sure you won’t regret it?

After asking myself that, I made this decision.

“No, I won’t take Swordsmanship.”

“Huh, why!?”

To the surprised Misha, I answered with quiet determination.

“If I’m going to do it anyway, why don’t I aim for the higher form of ‘Swordsmanship’—Sword Saint?”