Umf. Let’s forget about skill points for now, since there’s really no point in me worrying if I can get more of them.
[Acid Resistance], huh. I got that through an entirely different method than when I picked up [Appraisal]. [Acid Resistance] does what it says: it makes me more resilient to acid. I got it when that annoying frog shot his acid spit all over me.
That saliva attack was probably both acid-type and poison-type. When I got hit by it, I took acid damage, which led to automatically acquiring the [Acid Resistance] skill. Was it because I took damage in general, or was it because it had an “acid” attribute? I also can’t tell if it’s because I took a certain amount of damage, or because I kept taking acid damage, or even if it was just a certain amount of time after I took the first attack.
Well, what’s important here is that once I take damage of a particular type, I start to gain resistance to it. It might sting for a bit, but if I can endure it, I’ll get a new skill out of it. If I took a fire attack, I’d get [fire resistance], right? When I’m thinking about my defense strategies, I should make sure I think about acquiring new resistances. If I see a new attack that doesn’t look like it will straight-up kill me, should I let myself get hit by it? Hmm, no, getting hurt sucks, and there’s no guarantee I’ll gain a new resistance after just one attack. Ah, it’s not just because I don’t like pain: it’s always better not to take any unnecessary risks.
I got [Acid Resistance] when I got hit by that frog’s attack, but my [Poison Resistance] leveled up as well. If what the, uh, “Voice of Heaven” said was true, then I had [Poison Resistance] from the start. Well, that makes sense: I’m a spider, and I use poison, so of course I should have resistance. Do I have any other natural skills like that? I don’t think I have any way to check! If the “Voice of Heaven” hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t even know that I have [Poison Resistance] to begin with! There’s probably loads of other spider skills that I don’t know that I have.
Ahh, this is a mystery… what else could I have? I might have some sort of “Poison Strike” skill. It would be great if I could know for sure, but, y’know, I have no way to check.
Just to test, I whisper “Character Statistics” to myself, but there’s no response. Maybe if [Appraisal]’s level were higher, I could check. …Wait. [Appraisal]’s level… level as in… proficiency, maybe? Ah, is this a way for me to level [Appraisal] up?
Proficiency means the degree to which someone has mastered a skill, right? If [Appraisal] uses the same system as my resistance skills, then becoming more proficient at it will cause it to level up. Thus, if I use it a bunch, I should get better at it, and it will level up, right? Haha! I thought that since I bought it with skill points I’d have to spend more skill points to level it up, but I might have jumped to conclusions!
I immediately start spamming [Appraisal] on everything I can see. Tons of useless information like “wall” and “floor” starts pouring into my brain. Ah, this is a pretty terrible feeling, like I’m getting drunk on this deluge of information.
<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Appraisal – LV 1] has become [Appraisal – LV 2]>
WORTH IT! Woohoo! It’s just one level, but it worked! This is a huge step forward. Trembling a little bit, I Appraise myself.
{Small Lesser Taratect – no name}
Ohhh! Now it’s even displaying my species! As before there’s not very much information at all, but it’s way better than the generic “spider” label I got out of it before.
But, hm. I’m not just “small”, but also “lesser”, huh… it’s like I’m inferior, or something. What a downer! I was so happy after I got [Appraisal] to finally level up, but, seriously, “lesser”? I didn’t have any high hopes or anything, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to be lesser! Ugh, well, since I was such a loser in my previous life, I guess it’s only natural that this would carry forward.
…Well then, time to Appraise everything else and get its level up even higher!
It’s not leveling up. I’ve used it on every single wall and crag and rock I can see, and its level hasn’t even gone up once. On top of that, where [Appraisal] had said “wall” before, now it says “labyrinth wall”, which is… not particularly helpful. That’s not the important part though: why isn’t this leveling up at all?!
Hmmmm. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that maybe Appraising something multiple times doesn’t cause me to gain any proficiency. That’s probably the case, otherwise it would be way too easy for me to grind it out in the safety of my home. Just to be sure, I Appraise everything around me again, but, sure enough, the level doesn’t go up, almost like I’m not actually getting more proficient.
If that’s true, then in order to level [Appraisal], I’m going to need to Appraise things that are outside my home, huh… Didn’t I Appraise a bunch of monsters back when it was still level one? I must have gotten a bunch of proficiency back then.
Going outside, though… what a pain. I have such a nice home here, why should I force myself to go out? It’s way better to just stay here, living safely in my little web, although I guess I’m not going to get any skill ranks like this. I guess there’s pros and cons, but all of the danger that I might face outside is a pretty serious con.
Yeah. I’ve decided. Let’s stay here for a little bit longer and enjoy this lazy lifestyle until I’m sick of it. It’s not like the hand of God will come down upon me if I slack off a little, right?
APM - Translation 