“Blessing of the Jealous God….?”
It was a skill name I’ve never heard of.
It was probably as rare of a skill as Kokoru’s.
Melina then talks in a tired voice–
“Just because I have this skill, I can’t form a party with anyone. A solo mage, what a joke. My other seven skills supplement the mage class so I chose it, but now I’m just thinking if I should have let my skills rot and chosen a solo friendly job.”
“Uhmm…. What kind of minus skill do you have?”
Kokoru, who was listening quietly the whole time, asked as she leaned forward a bit.
Melina turns to the priestess who was about the same age as her, and begins to explain albeit a bit distracted.
“First off, it’s a 10% all-parameter increase for yourself and allies in the same party.”
“That’s too good to be true…. Plus, it affects every stat.”
While skills that increase the stats of other members of the party do exist, they are few and far between.
Although, a 10 percent increase to all stats is a skill I’ve never heard of.
For comparison, a 5% increase in strength alone is plentiful enough.
“Of course, that’s not the only effect. If a party member, including myself, kills a monster, every parameter they have would be reduced by 3%. By the way, it’s treated as a debuff and stacks for every kill. “
I made a befuddled voice this time.
As a debuff, it has a lesser effect than
“Yeah, By the time you kill three, the positives you get have almost disappeared. It’s a minus from the 4th onwards.”
On average, the number of monsters you kill on one adventure is a dozen or more.
Depending on the dungeon or party objective, it’s not uncommon to reach upwards of a hundred.
If that’s so, the benefit of the skill quickly disappears and, in no time at all, your status would be less than the original number.
“Impossible, then that means if a person defeats around 40 of them then their stats would be reduced to zero right!? What can you do if it reaches that point!?”
“…No, it doesn’t end up to zero to begin with. The 3% affects the current value so technically, the lower the parameter, the lower the decrease. So even if you kill 40 of them, it would be more or less at 70% less of the original value.”
“It’s a debuff too, so it would wear off over time, ya?”
So it might not be that terrible of a skill. Melina nods affirmatively.
“The parameter reduction itself isn’t so much of a problem actually. That’s why it’s rare for your status to drop low enough to interfere with combat.”
“At the end of the day though, the skill is a bane to any party.”
Melina continues to us who kept silent.
“The skill has a 3rd effect. The kill bonus is forfeit for the one who kills it.”
“F-forfeit? So the experience just vanishes?”
“Not exactly. The forfeited amount is split evenly to the other party members. In a way, it’s way worse than having to forfeit it.”
“Can you take a guess on what happens when combined with the 2nd effect? No party with me in it would actively kill the monsters. To be expected I guess, between the kill bonus and stat decrease, why would they?”
“That’s a very dangerous thing. The others not dealing the final blow ending up on repeat, that’s a one way ticket to an accident. I’m just the rear guard, it doesn’t matter if I’m prepared to have reduced stats no matter the number of kills. I can’t assist the vanguard with that. I’ve experienced the collapse of parties many times over. There were times it reached a point where I’m kicked out, others where I left on my own due to the bad atmosphere of the members… That’s the kind of skill it is.”
Listening to her story, I felt something stick in the back of my mind.
Kill bonus distributed to the other party members?
“You get what I’m saying here? I’m not the type of person who should form parties. Both me and my party members would suffer through danger. It’s a skill that doesn’t activate unless you have a party so until I defeat the boss, I’m going to continue on solo…”
Kokoru suddenly greatly leans towards Melina.
To the mage girl who had darted eyes, the priestess completely ignores the flow of the conversation and tells her–
“Won’t you party with us!?”