Sword Art Online - Volume 23 - Chapter 6.1

6

“…I’m just not good at this sort of thing,” I murmured, staring at the ability screen.

Lisbeth finished drinking some water and groaned, “Just go by feeling. Leafa and I did ours really quick.”

“That’s the problem. I’m not good at going by feeling,” I mumbled, focusing on the options.

In the center of the screen were four icons in a cross pattern. Clockwise from the top, they were BRAWN, TOUGHNESS, SAGACITY, and SWIFTNESS. Each of those icons had two lines extending farther in that direction toward more icons. Past BRAWN, there was BONEBREAKER and STOUT. Past TOUGHNESS, there was PERSEVERANCE and ANTIVENOM. Past SAGACITY, there was CONCENTRATION and LEARNED. Past SWIFTNESS, there was GALLOP and DEXTEROUS.

Tapping an icon brought up a description of the ability. According to this, Brawn gave a bonus to medium- and large-melee-weapon damage, equip weight, and carry weight. Toughness gave a bonus to HP, TP, SP, and status-ailment resistance. Sagacity gave a bonus to MP value and magic power. Swiftness gave a bonus to ranged-weapon damage, small-melee-weapon damage, and jumping distance.

In other words, the suggestion was that damage dealers should take the Brawn ability tree; tanks should go for the Toughness tree; mages, the Sagacity tree; and scouts, the Swiftness tree. As a user of a longsword, a midsize melee weapon, that meant I should take Brawn without overthinking it—but it wasn’t going to be that simple. In a survival RPG, maximum HP, SP, and TP values were crucial. I could envision myself nearly dying of hunger or thirst in the future and wishing, If only I’d maxed out Toughness back then, at least once or twice, if not a full ten times.

I sighed and asked my friends, “Anyway…what did following your feelings lead you to pick?”

Lisbeth said, “I did Toughness,” while Leafa added “Brawn for me,” and Yui chimed in with “I picked Sagacity!”

That one took me by surprise. “Sagacity…? Are you going to be a magic user, Yui?” I asked.

“That’s right! I want to be a battle mage just like Mama!”

“Uh…okay. That sounds reassuring.”

Of course, the reason Asuna was feared far and wide as the Berserk Healer of ALO was because of her incredible defense and evasion techniques, but I didn’t want to ruin any child’s dreams, so I patted Yui’s head instead. After all, there was no way to rule out the possibility, and it was my duty to protect her, regardless of what build she went with.

In that sense, perhaps a tank would be best, I thought, losing myself in choice once again. When we’d left the cabin, there’d still been some sunset light in the western part of the sky, but that was long gone now, replaced by dark clouds that flowed in front of the faded stars.

“Hmm, if only I knew the effects of the second row of abilities…”

I could only read the descriptions of the currently selectable abilities, so I’d have to actually make a choice to find out more.

Leafa was munching on some nuts across the way, and she asked archly, “Have you considered asking us what they are…?”

“Huh…? Oh, d-duh…”

They had already picked their first ability, so they would be able to read the description of the next options. I cleared my throat, feeling awkward, and turned to the other three.

“If you don’t mind the trouble, would you please tell me what comes next?”

“If you insist,” Liz said with a sigh, opening her ring menu. “Let’s see. The abilities past Toughness are Perseverance, which gives a bonus to damage-reduction when guarding, and Antivenom, which gives a bonus to damage-reduction against poison, as you’d guess.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Next, Leafa checked her window. “The abilities after Brawn are Bonebreaker, which provides a bonus to damage that ignores enemy guarding, and Stout, which gives you decreased knockback when guarding.”

“Hmm…?”

Yui didn’t need to check her window first. “The abilities stemming from Sagacity are Concentration, which gives a bonus to MP recovery rate, and Learned, which increases proficiency gain of all language skills.”

“Hmmmm.”

Language skills probably referred to the skills that let you speak with NPCs, but I wouldn’t need that if Yui was around. I didn’t intend to be a mage, so I removed the Sagacity tree from my set of options. But even knowing what came after Brawn and Toughness, it was hard to pick between them.

“Hmm. It sounds like Stout and Perseverance are fairly similar. Why are the abilities for knockback-reduction and damage-reduction in different trees…?”

“Probably because Stout is intended to work for weapon guarding rather than with shields?” Leafa suggested. “If you can block an attack without losing your stance, you can counterattack that much faster.”

I nodded. “So the Brawn tree isn’t just pure offense, either…Maybe I should take that one, too, then…”

“Can’t you just take two of them?” Lisbeth asked.

“Mmm, I could,” I admitted, “but it’s always the case that if you master a single tree rather than spreading the points around, you end up tougher in the end.”