Chapter 12: The Full Scope of Status, Third-Stage Tree Unlocked!
I handed over the <Karakuri Carriage Recipe> and all the necessary materials to Gant-senpai, along with an advance payment of about 5 million miru from the guild budget.
Sure, I’d taken the liberty of requesting it on my own, but once I explained, the guild member would probably approve the funds. Worst case, I’d pay out of my own pocket. That’s how important this thing was.
After receiving everything, Gant-senpai returned to his usual blank expression and left me with only one line: Come back in five days. I guess that meant I should visit the same shop where I’d bought the <True Soul Necklace> before.
After that, I asked Marie-senpai to apply a <Design Paint Change> to the <Knuckle Guard> I’d pulled from a <Silver Chest>. She promised to coordinate it perfectly to match my <Sky Series> gear. With this, my stack of free coupons was down to six.
Most of the leftover materials I hadn’t given to Gant-senpai were sold off to the <Wappen Sticker Guild>, and I also picked up the appraisal sheet for yesterday’s <Isolated Island Flower Garden Dungeon>.
Since we’d only taken down the <Sabottender> four times, the reward wasn’t that high.
Most of the harvested materials also ended up going to Hanna.
So this time’s reward was 5.05 million miru. That’s about what you’d expect without multiple runs.
The boss’s <Sabottender> materials alone, including treasure chest loot, came to 2.4 million mirus in total—about 600,000 mirus per fight. That lined up with my own sense of things. For the record, I didn’t sell off the <Silver Chest> drops.
To summarize: in Beginner-Level dungeons, boss materials typically sell for around 100,000 mirus per fight in lower-tier dungeons, 300,000 in mid-tier, and 700,000 in upper-tier.
It’s handy to keep that in mind when planning farming runs.
—Anyway, back to the story.
The next day, Wednesday.
I was at the guild room bright and early.
"Morning, Kalua, Rika. Feels like it’s been a while. How’ve things been on your end? Keeping well?"
When I entered, I found Kalua and Rika there together—a rare sight. I decided to check in.
"Mhm. Thanks to everything Zephyrus has done. And for the gear too—thank you."
"Don’t mention it. You paid Lana and the others for the materials, and it was you who bought the equipment from Marie-senpai. You don’t need to feel indebted."
"Still… you’ve helped us in so many ways. Thank you."
Kalua bowed her head politely.
Haha. Being thanked like that makes me feel a little embarrassed.
"Let me express my gratitude as well. The 【Princess Samurai】 is incredibly powerful. Honestly, even monsters from Beginner Mid-tier dungeons can’t keep up with me now."
Rika clenched a fist and expressed her gratitude.
Though honestly, her wrecking of Beginner Mid-tier dungeons was thanks to that <Princess Job> gear she had on. Just like Lana’s group, with proper mid-tier equipment, monsters in those dungeons don’t stand a chance.
Still, she’d figure that out eventually. For now, I’d just accept the thanks.
"That’s good to hear. I heard from Celestan—you two defeated a <Knight Goblin>, didn’t you?"
To be honest, my party had been on such a roll lately that we’d kept pushing ahead, leaving the new members Kalua and Rika behind. I’d been feeling guilty about that.
I’d given them as much support as I could, but we hadn’t even formed a party together once. Despite being guildmates, chances to talk like this were rare. I wanted to deepen our connection more.
Through Celestan, I’d been keeping tabs on their progress.
Yesterday, the two of them had taken on a <Knight Goblin> together—and won.
When I first heard that, I nearly fell out of my chair.
From Beginner Mid-tier dungeons onward, bosses become seriously tough. They start coming with minions, after all.
Soloing them is basically impossible. You need a full party to stand a chance.
And yet they’d beaten one with just the two of them. That’s nuts. Normally you’d need a full team.
This meant they’d officially cleared a Beginner Mid-tier dungeon, which would earn them recognition.
Especially since first-years who had already cleared Beginner Mid-tier dungeons were rare. The bosses there are genuinely tough.
From what I’d heard, it usually takes first-years two to three months to get that far.
"But… the next one will be difficult."
"Yeah, it’s ghosts, after all. 【Star Cat】 doesn’t have elemental attacks, so that’ll be rough."
One of the beginner dungeon walls is the <Ghost Trait>.
The upcoming <Ghost Cave Dungeon> is filled with ghost-type monsters, which makes it bad news for jobs that rely purely on physical attacks—like 【Muscle Warriors】.
Though of course, if you’ve got elemental gear, it’s not much of an issue.
The problem was, Kalua didn’t have an elemental Dagger.
Same with Rika—elemental Katana were even harder to come by.
So I asked what kind of strategy they were planning.
"For Kalua’s sake, we’ll be farming the <Wild Grass Plains Dungeon> to get an elemental dagger. Ideally, we’ll grab one as a boss drop. If not, we’ll sell materials and buy one."
Rika laid out their plans smoothly. Looks like they’d been thinking ahead.
Still, if that’s their aim, it’d be way more efficient if one of us tagged along and helped them clear.
Besides, once we clear our next Beginner Upper-tier dungeon, we’ll qualify for the E-Rank exam. Passing that would make <Eden> an official E-Rank guild, with a bigger member cap and new recruits.
If we reached E-Rank, our own dungeon progress would settle down for a bit, which meant we’d finally be able to help out Rika and Kalua.
An E-Rank guild could challenge Intermediate-Level Dungeons too—but in truth, that’s where we’d hit our first real wall.
The Intermediate-Level Dungeons were a different beast altogether, and with our current lineup, the chances of stumbling were high.
For a number of reasons, it would be more efficient to raise our juniors before heading into Intermediate-Level Dungeons. Especially a scout. And wouldn’t you know it—there’s one sitting right in front of me.
So, the conclusion was this: if an elemental dagger didn’t drop before we cleared the E-Rank exam, then one of our members would step in and support Kalua and Rika in conquering the <Ghost Cave Dungeon>.
Helping the juniors was the duty of the seniors. Without that, whether in dungeon raids or guild battles, a few strong individuals pulling ahead wouldn’t carry us any further.
That’s how I explained it to Kalua and Rika.
"Mhm. Got it."
"Understood. If you’re willing to lend us your aid, that’s reassuring."
Neither of them seemed opposed.
That reminded me—how high had their Job Levels gotten?
As for me, just yesterday I’d finally hit Job Lv40, unlocking the third-stage tree.
Today, I’d planned to spend the morning here distributing my stat points. Might as well take this chance to check on theirs, too.
"Kalua, Rika—mind writing down your current status for me?"
I handed them the form. This paper was designed for recording status info to circulate around. Without a <Crystal Dragon Statue>, you couldn’t check other people’s stats directly, so this kind of thing came in handy.
"Mhm, sure."
"I don’t mind either."
With their consent, they filled out the form and handed it back.
Both Kalua and Rika were Job Lv18. Just shy of unlocking their second-stage tree.
And they’d managed to beat a <Knight Goblin> at that level? Seriously impressive.
I wanted to get their levels up faster, but without boss farming, it was rough.
Neither of them had the kind of powerful skills you needed to make boss runs efficient yet. Nothing to be done.
If they could run bosses, their leveling would skyrocket—but heavy-hitting attack skills only really came with the third-stage tree or Unique skills, and those weren’t easy to come by.
That’s why I hadn’t even told them about boss farming yet. I wanted to badly.
For now, they’d just have to keep hitting the <Wild Grass Plains Dungeon>.
By the time <Eden> reached E-Rank, the two of them should hit Job Lv20, and then things would speed up.
So this time, I only taught them how to allocate SUP, and for SP, I told them to keep saving it until they unlocked the second-stage tree.
"Thanks, Zephyrus. See you."
"Much obliged. I’ll be praying for your success in conquering your final Beginner Upper-tier dungeon and passing the E-Rank exam."
With bright smiles, Kalua and Rika headed off toward the <Wild Grass Plains Dungeon>.
Left alone in the guild room, I noticed someone had left an offering of meat for <Lucky Cat-sama>. Probably Kalua and Rika.
Mm. A good sign. Surely they’d get some good drops.
Apparently, the real reason they’d been here this morning was Rika’s daily ritual. She said she needed to touch the <Mochikko> plushie every morning.
I gave it a squeeze too. Huh. It was… really mochi-like.
"Ah, morning, Zephyrus-kun!"
"Yo, morning Hanna."
Hanna walked in. We’d arranged to meet here.
"Since we’ve both passed Job Lv40, let’s dive right into allocating our third-stage tree."
"Yeah. Please do."
And that was the reason we were here.
First up—Hanna.
Name: Hanna
Category (Race): Villager / Female
Job: Alchemist
Level: 41
HP: 90/30 (+60)
MP: 380/380
Acquired SUP: Total 14P Restriction: DEX+5
STR (Attack): 10
VIT (Defense): 10
INT (Magic Power): 10
RES (Resistance): 155 → 209
AGI (Agility): 10
DEX (Dexterity): 235 → 265
SUP (Status Points): 0P → 84P → 0P
SP (Skill Points): 10P → 16P → 0P
Skills:
-
Alchemy Lv10
-
Mixing Lv10
-
Material Return Lv10
-
Quick Alchemy Lv1 new
-
Quick Mixing Lv1 new
-
Simplified Production Lv1 new
-
Mass Production Lv1 new
-
Potion Quality Boost Lv1 new
-
Potion Healing Boost Lv1 new
-
Guild: Luck
Equipment: Blunt Resistance Lv2
-
Equipment: MP Cost Reduction Lv3
-
Equipment: Slash Resistance Lv3
-
Equipment: Movement Speed Up Lv3
-
Equipment: Fire Damage Up Lv2
Magic:
-
Equipment: Fireball Lv5
-
Equipment: Flare Lance Lv3
-
Equipment: Ice Lance Lv1
Unique Skill:
-
All Alchemy Depends on Offerings LV10 (NEW)
Equipment:
-
Both Hands: Manalite Staff - Empty Slot: Flame Rod Magic Orb
-
Body 1: Early Queen Black
-
Body 2: Rare Little Wolf Cape
Head: Battle Little Wolf’s Witch Hat
Arms: Battlefu Gloves
Legs: Battlefu Shoes
-
Accessory 1: Ring of Frugality
-
Accessory 2: Charm of Fire
Finally—Job level 40 and beyond! We did it, Hanna!
First things first, dump everything into RES. With <Maholitan R>, that’ll turn straight into firepower.
No way we’re skipping it. Aside from the points that get auto-assigned due to <Restrictions>, every last one goes into RES.
And at last, her Unique Skill has unlocked: 『All Alchemy Depends on Offerings』, or more commonly called 『Offering Alchemy』.
The 【Alchemist】 job is just a standard profession—solidly mid-rank among the Basic Jobs. But ever since the game days, I have always made sure at least one guild member held this job.
Why? Because of this very Unique Skill.
Effect: <The items created through Alchemy will change depending on what you offer>.
In short, you sacrifice items to power up your alchemy.
For example, say you’re making an ordinary <Potion> and activate this skill. If you toss in an item from an Intermediate-Level Dungeon’s <Silver Chest>—basically, a rare-grade item above the potion’s level…
The result? You suddenly get 20 <High Potions> instead.
Crazy, right? I nearly fell off my chair the first time I tried it.
It works like this: sacrifice higher-grade chest drops, and the quantity or rank of the product skyrockets.
-
Offer a Silver Chest item → instead of 1 potion, you get 20.
-
Offer a Gold Chest item → instead of 1 potion, you get 100.
-
Try making a basic <Potion> but sacrifice an Intermediate-Level item → you get a <High Potion> instead.
That’s the gist. It guzzles MP, but the effect is phenomenal.
Of course, you’ve gotta be careful. If you’re aiming for <High Potions> but toss in a low-tier sacrifice, you’ll just end up with plain old <Potions> instead. Everything depends on the value of the item you offer.
I used this skill all the time for mass production. After all, a single set of materials could yield up to 100 items. Totally busted.
Not that I’d ever waste a <Gold Chest> item just to mass-produce regular Potions—but for MP Potions? Worth it. The material savings alone were huge, and it shaved a ton of time off grinding.
Because less material gathering = less time wasted. Take something like <Iron Door Keys>—if we had duplicates, straight into the offering pile they went.
I’m pretty sure the devs designed this Unique with that in mind.
<DanKatsu> was a game overflowing with loot and materials of every kind imaginable. The sheer variety was ridiculous—but necessary, since there were so many jobs, each needing its own resources. And with the entire world economy running on dungeon resources, it made sense.
But because of that, farming a specific material took forever. I once spent an entire day in the <Wild Grass Plains Dungeon> collecting <Mana Grass>, only for it all to vanish after a few boss runs.
There was no way to fully enjoy the game before graduation (time’s up) unless you found a faster, more efficient way to mass-produce MP Potions.
That’s why I think the devs snuck this job in as a hidden ace—while everyone’s eyes were glued to high-rank jobs and exotic races, they slipped a powerhouse skill into a "normal" job. Classic move. Stylish, even.
Now, we can burn through MP Potions like water without worrying.
Sure, offering <Silver Chest> items can run you into the red if you’re not careful. But I know the balance well—I’ve used this skill for ages.
For example, say you offer a <Silver Chest> item to make 20 MP Potions. Each restores 400–600 MP. If you don’t manage to farm another <Silver Chest> drop before using all that MP in a boss fight, you’re technically at a loss. (Though it’s not that simple in practice.)
Well, with <Lucky Cat-sama> on our side, we’ll be fine.
Things are about to get real fun. Fuhaha!
…Anyway, enough gushing about the Unique Skill. Let’s talk about the regular skills Hanna just unlocked in the third-tier tree.
She picked up six in total:
-
Quick Alchemy
-
Quick Mixing
-
Simplified Production → all boost crafting speed.
-
Mass Production → self-explanatory.
-
Potion Quality Boost → improves the grade of potions and poisons. At High-Grade, effects are boosted by 50%.
-
Potion Healing Boost → potion-exclusive, but extremely powerful. Stacks with Potion Quality Up for even bigger healing.
These two especially will save tons of materials, so they’re a priority for leveling.
That’s about it for now.
On top of that, she’s got five equipment-based skills and three spells. Hanna’s skill set is really filling out—hard to believe she used to be the one with the least.
Alright then. My turn next.
I just hit Hero Lv40, so my third-tier tree has unlocked too. Let’s take a look at my skill list.
──────────
〈Skills〉
-
『Body Strengthening Lv10』 — Passive. Increases all stats except HP and MP by a percentage.
-
『Power Boost』 — Active. Temporarily increases attack power. Self-buff.
-
『Speed Boost』 — Active. Temporarily increases agility. Self-buff.
-
『Danger Sense』 — Passive. Alerts you when danger is near. (In the game, it used to flash sound and color warnings.)
-
『Intuition Lv5』 — Passive. Reacts when something dangerous is around… and sometimes beyond that.
-
『Premonition』 — Passive. Detects nearby treasure chests and monsters.
-
『Hyper Reflex』 — Passive. When Intuition triggers, your body may automatically take the best possible action.
-
『Slash』 — Active. A single strike with a sword.
-
『Sonic Sword Lv5』 — Active. A quick sword slash attack.
-
『Falcon Strike』 — Active. A super-fast double slash.
-
『Lightning Slash』 — Active. A single sword strike imbued with lightning.
-
『Rush』 — Active. Triple consecutive weapon strikes.
-
『Elemental Sword』 — Active. Imbues your sword with a chosen element.
-
『Defense Lv5』 — Active. Shield skill. Guards for a few seconds, reducing damage.
-
『Guard Rush』 — Active. With sword and shield equipped, attack three times while defending.
-
『Appeal Lv5』 — Active. Taunt. Draws some aggro in a wide area.
-
『Hate Slash Lv1』 — Active. With a sword equipped, a strike that draws aggro.
-
『Charisma』 — Active. Taunt that also buffs allies’ attack power. Strength varies by level.
〈Magic〉
-
『Clean』 — Active. Removes dirt, binds, and similar effects. Single target.
-
『Recovery Lv1』 — Active. Heals abnormal status. Single target.
-
『Lightning』 — Active. Low-tier lightning spell. Straight-line attack.
-
『Shine Lightning Lv5』 — Active. Mid-tier lightning spell. Wide-area strike.
-
『Lightning Burst』 — Active. High-tier lightning spell. Line-area attack.
-
『Healing』 — Active. Low-tier healing magic. Restores HP. Single target.
-
『Aura Heal Lv1』 — Active. Mid-tier healing magic. Restores HP. Single target.
-
『Area Healing』 — Active. Mid-tier healing magic. Restores HP. Area effect.
〈Unique〉
-
『Brave Slash (Hero’s Sword) Lv1』 — Active. A tremendously powerful strike. Reduces defense.
-
『Brave Heart (Courage)』 — Active. Grants yourself a tremendously powerful buff.
That makes 26 total between <Skills> and <Magic>, plus 2 Uniques—the complete kit of a 【Hero】.
From here, I’ll need to prune out the useless ones and refine my build with only the essentials.
The tier of skills unlocked at Lv40 generally has terrible efficiency—it’s hard to spam them. They were designed with Lv60 play in mind, when you can unleash them nonstop.
That’s why carelessly leveling them up can backfire: the damage scales up, sure, but so does MP consumption, making them clunky. At lower job levels, it’s best to just unlock them for use without upgrading further.
And now, the true highlight of the 【Hero】 has arrived—unlocking the second Unique.
Out of all the jobs, some let you choose one Unique from a selection… but only the 【Hero】 gets a second Unique outright.
That’s the reason 【Hero】 held the #1 spot on the official Job Power Rankings.
Even 『Brave Slash』 alone is a monstrous Unique—but they go and tack on another one? As expected of the 【Hero】 job. Powering up the strongest even further—that’s gaming tradition.
Naturally, I grabbed it and started allocating SUP and SP in line with my own personal "strongest build" philosophy.
Name: Zephyrus
Category (Race): Protagonist / Male
Job: Hero
Level: 40
HP: 262/262 → 296/296
MP: 372/372 → 436/436
Acquired SUP: Total 22P Restriction: —
STR (Attack): 120 → 140 (x1.6)
VIT (Defense): 120 → 140 (x1.6)
INT (Magic Power): 120 → 140 (x1.6)
RES (Resistance): 120 → 140 (x1.6)
AGI (Agility): 120 → 140 (x1.6)
DEX (Dexterity): 28 → 30 (x1.6)
SUP (Status Points): 0P → 132P → 0P
SP (Skill Points): 4P → 10P → 0P
Skills:
Body Strengthening Lv10
Intuition Lv5
Hyper Reflex Lv1 (New)
Sonic Sword Lv5
Falcon Strike Lv1 (New)
Lightning Slash Lv1 (New)
Elemental Sword Lv1 (New)
Defense Lv5
Guard Rush Lv1 (New)
Appeal Lv5
Hate Slash Lv1
Charisma Lv1 (New)
Guild: Luck
Equipment: Status Ailment Resistance Lv3
Equipment: MP Auto Recovery Lv1
Magic:
Shine Lightning Lv1
Lightning Burst Lv1 (New)
Recovery Lv1
Aura Heal Lv1
Area Heal Lv1 (New)
Unique Skill:
Brave Slash Lv1
Brave Heart Lv2 (New)
Equipment:
Right Hand: Sky Sword
Left Hand: Sky Shield
Body 1: Sky Armor
Body 2: —
Head: —
Arms: —
Legs: —
Accessory 1: True Soul Necklace
Accessory 2: —
I spread my stats evenly across the board, then unlocked all nine of the new <Skills>, <Magic>, and <Uniques> from the third-tier tree, setting them to activate for now.
The third-tier tree is packed with powerful abilities, so simply unlocking them for later use is enough.
Most of the <Skills> and <Magic> unlocked here are upgraded versions of lower-tier ones.
For example, 『Hyper Reflex』 is the upper-tier version of 『Intuition』—a passive that lets you automatically dodge ambush attacks right after 『Intuition』 whispers its warning. Of course, if 『Intuition』 doesn’t trigger, nothing happens. Which means if you don’t raise 『Intuition’s』 level, 『Hyper Reflex』 is basically useless. That’s the one thing to keep in mind.
If you don’t level up 『Intuition』 before reaching this point, it becomes a pain to grind here, since leveling slows down dramatically from now on. That’s why I pushed 『Intuition』 to Lv5 back in those Beginner Low-tier dungeons.
Next, the melee attack skills.
『Falcon Strike』—that classic two-hit combo you’d recognize from other games. A fast slashing move, and its charm is in how quickly the action ends. It’s especially handy when you’re trying to cram as many skills as possible into an enemy’s downed window.
『Lightning Slash』 is a thunder-element strike, one of the most powerful skills damage-wise. Especially effective against ghost-type enemies.
『Elemental Sword』 is an active that lets you imbue your weapon with an element—Fire, Ice, Lightning, or Light. The higher the level, the stronger the elemental damage.
『Guard Rush』 lets you defend with your shield while striking three times with your sword.
It works as both offense and defense: while attacking, incoming damage is greatly reduced, and you can’t be knocked back or knocked down. Very user-friendly.
Then there’s 『Charisma』, a skill that buffs party attack power and draws massive aggro at the same time.
When activated, it slightly boosts your allies’ attack power while pulling in enemy hate.
It’s powerful, but unlike 『Appeal』, it eats up a lot of MP, so in practice it’s not very efficient. If you just want to hold aggro, 『Appeal』 does the job. And as for the attack buff, letting Lana handle it is way more cost-efficient.
So why take 『Charisma』? Simple—it’s an ace in the hole. Something you don’t use often, but absolutely want in your pocket.
Now for the <Magic>.
『Lightning Burst』 is the upper-tier version of 『Shine Lightning』, a powerful straight-line area attack.
Where 『Shine Lightning』 spreads out in a wide fan, 『Lightning Burst』 is a narrow beam—smaller range, but devastating power.
The downside: it costs 32 MP. Way too expensive for trash mobs. That’s why I said the second-tier spells were much more cost-efficient.
『Area Heal』 is an AoE regeneration spell. Like Lana’s 『Pillar of Light』, it sets up a healing zone on the ground. Anyone standing in it will gradually recover HP. Unlike Lana’s Continuous Heal, this one is area-based, meaning they can actually stack together for absurd levels of recovery.
That said, it costs a whopping 48 MP. Another trump card spell, not something to spam.
Clearly, I’ll need to keep pumping my stats into MP from now on.
Finally, the Unique skill 『Brave Heart』.
The second Unique, 『Brave Heart』, is a simple but terrifying self-buff. It boosts every stat except HP and MP by up to 280%, lasting a full three minutes. You can only use it once per battle, but aside from that, there are basically no drawbacks. Straightforward, overwhelming, and—above all—the reason 【Hero】 ranked at the very top of the strongest job list.
And honestly? It just looks damn cool.
My top priority will be raising 『Brave Heart』 to Lv5. At that point, it’ll boost stats by 220%. That’s insane.
Landing 『Brave Slash』 under that buff… just imagining the damage makes my mouth water.
Ahh, I can’t wait to try it.
Just as I was thinking that, the guild room door swung open.
"Morning, Zephyrus! Hanna! Today’s the day I hit Lv40! Let’s get to the dungeon already!"
"Morning. Let’s have another good one today."
"Good morning. Please allow me to learn from you again today."
Marching in, high-spirited as ever, was Lana at the front, followed by the two <Princess Job> girls.
Makes sense. Thanks to yesterday’s run, Lana and the other princess jobs had pushed their job levels all the way to 39—just one step from the milestone. They might even reach Lv40 before the dungeon boss.
No wonder Lana was more fired up than usual.
Alright, everyone’s motivated. Time to hit that last Beginner Upper-tier Dungeon!
…But first, let’s make an offering to <Lucky Cat-sama>.
Previous Chapter - TOC - Next Chapter
Comments
Post a Comment