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Since Roxanne is able to dodge pretty much anything that comes her way I guess I do not have to worry about her getting hurt seriously enough, meaning that I can check how a different setting of Jobs would work.  With that in mind, the Jobs I have chosen were Explorer, Hero, Mage, Monk and Warrior
After checking this particular setting and confirming that it works quite nicely for the purposes of recovering MP, I removed the Warrior and set Alchemist as my Fifth Job. Okay, time to see what this Job’s Skill can do.
(Plating!)
When I chanted the name of the Skill in my head, a target indicator appeared before my eyes, just like with the Warrior’s Skills. Basically, it’s telling me that I can choose what to cast Plating on, huh? In that case, let’s choose Durandal as the designated target… or not. On second thought, let’s not do that.
Durandal is an important weapon for me. It is the first Bonus weapon that I obtained in this world, and the one that has saved my ass from many dicey situations. It is simply too good for me to be risking using a Skill whose effects I still don’t know on it. For all I know, it might make it stronger, but it might as well cause the blade of Durandal to become brittle and prone to being damaged when the plating itself will be removed. So I order to avoid that, I have to check how it works on something else instead. And since we are in the Labyrinth, I know just what we should do.
「Roxanne, I want to perform an experiment, so guide me to an enemy that is by itself, preferably not am Escape Goat.」
「Understood. Should I look for one right now?」
「Please do.」
At first, I should try this Skill against a monster and see what it will do to it. Escape Goats are a no-go for that purpose, because the probability of them running away before I could conduct the experiment properly is just too great. I need literally anything other than them.
「Oh, master? If you don’t mind me asking, could you tell me what kind of experiment are we going to be doing this time?」
Roxanne asked me while we were already on the way to the location of a single monster she managed to track down. Ever since she became my slave, we have performed quite a number of experiments together: the ones whenever I happened to obtain a new Job and wanted to test its Skills, the one where I wanted to test how weapons other than Durandal are going to fare in combat against the monsters, the ones where I tested all the different kinds of magic that became available to me when I got my hands on the Mage Job, and now the soap-making experiment and the one we are about to do right now. Maybe she already got used to me being an experiment-loving master, and that’s why she asked about the current experiment’s purpose beforehand?
「Do you know what alchemy is?」
「Alchemy? You mean the art used by the greedy people to turn metals such as iron and lead into gold in order to make money?」
So alchemists do exist in this world, huh? But it looks like they are not too popular, which is really no surprise. If they really can turn ordinary metals into gold, then that must mean they have a crapton of money. Will I be able to do that as well as long as I level that Job high enough?
「I-Is that how alchemists are viewed in these parts of the world? Well, in that case I regret to inform you that the experiment that I wanted to do involves alchemy.」
「Huh?! You can make money, master?!」
Roxanne shouts with her eyes widely opened.
「Unfortunately. I only obtained the Job of an Alchemist after I made that soap, so for the time being the only Skill I can use is Plating, and that is what I want to test.」
Even if this world is a magical one, the economy would go down to shit in no time flat if every alchemist could turn metals to gold just like that, so it’s probably a good thing that they cannot do that so casually, or at least I hope so. Perhaps they can do that, but keep it a secret, just like I do with my abilities? And if they could, then how would it be done? Can Plating be used for it, in a sense that they could cover normal metals with a thin layer of gold and sell it as the legitimate article?
Whatever the case, all I want to do now is to check how Plating works.
「I see. I’m sorry forgetting overexcited like that.」
「Don’t worry about it.」
The monster that Roxanne guided me to was a single Cheap Sheep. This should be enough for a test subject. Standing before the monster, I activated Plating and selected the Cheap Sheep as its target. Now I hope that the Skill will take effect and won’t fail miserably, but I won’t know if its going to be a success or not until I actually attack the damn thing, so let’s get to it!
Readying my sword, I ran towards the Cheap Sheep in the same moment as it began to run towards me as well, most likely after using Rush. Using Rush as well, I instantly closed the distance between us and swung Durandal down, but one blow was not enough, so I had to follow it up with another one. Only then the Cheap Sheep has fallen.
「Hmm?」
「???」
At first glance it looks like nothing has changed, so even if Plating was successfully applied to that Cheap Sheep, I have no way of confirming exactly what kind of effect it had on it. At the very least, I gained confirmation that it is not an offensive Skill, because it didn’t shoot or generated anything in the area. Either that, or the Cheap Sheep had resistance towards it, much like Needlewoods have their resistance to Water Magic.
「The result of this experiment was inconclusive, so how about we switch locations? Let us go to the second floor now.」
We moved to the second level of the Veil Labyrinth, where I switched to my magic build to conduct the next experiment using magic. Then we found a lone Needlewood, a perfect test subject. With my current build I should be able to one-shot it with my magic, so let us apply Plating to it and see what happens when I attack it.
It survived! The Needlewood survived my attack, so I needed one more shot of Fireball to finish it off.
「What happened just now, master? It looked like something was limiting the power of your spell.」
「A limit, huh? Yeah, that about sums it up perfectly.」
From Roxanne’s point of view, it certainly could look as if my magic got weakened, but what happened was actually the exact opposite. It’s not that I got weaker, but the Needlewood got tougher thanks to Plating. By the looks of it, it must be a Skill that erects a kind of protective membrane around the target. That is why that Cheap Sheep needed two strikes instead of one to be killed, even though I was using Rush. The actual percentage of damage reduction must not be all that great, bur right now my bigger concern is that I don’t know how long this Skill lasts. As long as I don’t know that, I cannot use it as my insurance in battles.
But verifying that should be relatively easy.
「Roxanne, let’s find one more lone monster, but this time, I want you to strike it first before me.」
「Okay!」
When we happened upon a Green Caterpillar, I attached plating onto it and then had Roxanne attack it once before firing magic at it. It died in one shot.
It’s not that the addition of that Scimitar attack was enough to defeat it, but rather that Roxanne’s attack used up the stack of plating placed on the Green Caterpillar, allowing my magic to work as it was originally intended. This gives me certainty that plating is a defensive Skill that can negate one attack, regardless of it being magical or physical.
Before aquiring Plating, the only means of defense I had were the Wall type spells, but now my defensive arsenal has expanded, even if only by a little bit. The exact amount of damage reduced might be level dependent and get stronger on higher levels of Alchemist’s Job, but it can still be immensely useful to me if applied in the right moments during battles, so you can be sure that I will be using it for all its worth.