Chapter 4: Skills and Magic
"Ah, is it really this casual?"
Hephaestus, as a faction that semi-monopolizes the equipment market of the labyrinth city, not only leads the city in wealth but also possesses formidable military power. Those who wish to join are as numerous as fish in a river, with over ninety percent being directly rejected.
Yet, Emiya, with just a letter of recommendation, not only met the chief deity directly but was also accepted on the spot.
"Of course, we must give face to Mama Mia, our children love her cooking the most.",Hephaestus shrugged.
A significant proportion of the blacksmiths within the Hephaestus Familia are dwarves, and the high-quality, abundant dishes from Mia's establishment, who is also a dwarf, are quite popular.
"Moreover, even without Mama Mia's recommendation, I would have taken you in.",Hephaestus squinted her left eye,"You have a good look in your eyes, I have a feeling, you will definitely become an excellent 'blacksmith'."
"Look in my eyes?"
"Firm and unwavering, such a look is most moving.",Hephaestus smiled and said,"And, there's another reason why I want to take you in."
She suddenly reached out and ruffled Emiya's hair.
"Our hair is both red, isn't that a sign of fate?"
Emiya, whose hair was being ruffled, looked at Hephaestus.
Although her divine power was sealed, just by looking, one could immediately sense the intense divinity hidden beneath her stunning beauty, this is the existence that transcends human life…
"Come, first take off your clothes."
"Yes,",Emiya took off his outer garment, revealing a youthful body, he knew that the God's Blessing was activated by the deity using divine blood on the back of the deity's familia.
"Hmm, not bad physique…",Hephaestus used a small knife she carried to cut her finger, and the divine blood was smeared on the boy's bare back.
With a cold touch, a fluorescent light lit up on the boy's back, revealing the pattern of a volcano and a forging hammer, then as the data composed of sacred letters floated, Emiya's status values appeared for the first time.
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[Emiya Shirou]
Lv.1
Strength: I0
Endurance: I0
Dexterity: I0
Agility: I0
Magic: I0
— Development Abilities —
Magic:
[Unlimited Blade Works[1]]
Skills:
[Oath under the Snow]
[??????（Roadless Valhalla)]
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"One magic, two skills?",Hephaestus said in a shocked tone,"And one of them is an unreadable skill?"
The "status" of an adventurer is a numerical value produced by systematically parameterizing the God's Blessing. It includes basic abilities, development abilities, magic, and skills, with the level indicating the overall strength.
The information related to status values is the result of long-term verification and analysis since the gods descended a thousand years ago, so there are still possibilities in adventurers that even gods cannot fathom.
The basic abilities are strength, endurance, dexterity, agility, and magic, with each dimension's value ranging from 0~999, represented by letters from I~S, a total of 10 levels (I: 0~99, …, A: 800~899, S: 900~999).
The experience gained from training or actual combat increases proficiency, and the more frequently an item is trained, the more prominent the proficiency and evaluation naturally become. Generally, the upper limit of basic abilities is 999, which is S.
Development abilities have a chance to be obtained upon leveling up, currently including hunter, blacksmith, poison resistance, magic, healing, mystery, etc. The skills that appear are related to the situations encountered before leveling up, such as encountering many poisonous plants or monsters that release toxic substances before leveling up, which may result in a poison resistance skill upon leveling up. The conditions for obtaining skills are not yet fully clear.
Anyone who has just received the God's Blessing has a fixed level, status values, and development abilities of Lv.1, all at 0, and empty. However, there are extremely rare individuals who start with magic and skills.
This is very uncommon, especially having multiple magics and skills right after receiving the God's Blessing.
More importantly, whether it's [Unlimited Blade Works] or [Oath under the Snow], both are rare skills that Hephaestus has never seen before, no, they should be unique skills.
"Is this the unknown of the lower world?",Even the gods couldn't help but get excited.
It is said that Finn Deimne, the leader of the Loki Familia, also had multiple magics or skills right after receiving the blessing, and this dwarf adventurer is now a famous Lv.6 adventurer in the labyrinth city, with the title [Brave].
Hephaestus read the details of the boy's magic and skills with great interest.
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[Unlimited Blade Works]
(Summoning Magic)
— Materializes the mirror image or imitation of items that exist in reality using magic power
— Increases the magic effect based on the understanding of the projected item
— The magic power consumption required for projecting sword-type items is greatly reduced, can be cast without chanting
—: First level chant :—
[Trace on]
—: Second level chant :—
[Identify the concept of creation
Assume the basic skeleton
Duplicate the composition material
Imitate the production technique
Sympathize with the experience of growth
Reproduce the accumulated years
Surpass, complete many processes───
At this moment, complete the sword that gathers illusions────]
—: Third level chant :—
[??????]
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"A summoning magic that projects items, and it has three levels of chants, the third level is not yet unlocked…",Hephaestus marveled,"Shirou, I have to say, my familia is indeed the most suitable for you."
To better utilize the power of [Unlimited Blade Works], one must increase the understanding of the projected objects, and the best way to understand weapons and equipment is undoubtedly to forge them oneself.
Moreover, besides forging, referencing the works of other craftsmen, or being taught by high-level craftsmen or even this god of forging, are also ways to rapidly grow this [Unlimited Blade Works].
"Even I am starting to feel the urge to forge a 'Sword of the Gods' myself, to see if this magic can replicate it.",Hephaestus exclaimed.
Her gaze turned to the skills, one of which was the unreadable [??????], this situation is not the first time it has appeared, possibly meaning that this skill has not yet fully awakened, and may change to an unlocked state with adventure or leveling up.
Of course, it could also be that the skill itself has a self-restraint feature, such as the skill itself having the effect of [Skill cannot be read], but this possibility is too low.
Hephaestus looked at the other skill [Oath under the Snow].
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[Oath under the Snow]
— Immune to charm, when acting to protect others, attack power and endurance increase, magic and skill effects increase
— When having a bond with the protected, attack power, endurance, and agility are greatly increased, magic and skill effects are greatly increased
— When having an intimate bond with the protected, all abilities are superbly increased, status value growth accelerates, status value upper limit breaks, magic and skill effects are superbly increased
— Skill effect increases based on the number and strength of bonds
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Hephaestus was momentarily speechless.
This skill, how to put it, undoubtedly, is a super powerful skill, but, there seems to be a subtle aura coming from it?
"…Shirou."
"What is it, Goddess-sama."
"You have the potential to become a harem king."
"Huh?"
"No, you should strive to become a harem king."
"Huh?"
Hephaestus teased, her slightly narrowed eyes seemed to have an immeasurable divine power flowing within.
"[Oath under the Snow]… it's like a 'hero', what kind of person does this child want to protect?"
Emiya Shirou watched as Hephaestus-sama threw the paper with his status values into the furnace fire and burned it, his feelings were very complicated.
To be honest, he had some anticipation that he might possess [Projection] related magic or skills, after all, this was a move he continuously used in the final battle of his previous life, the action of projection could be said to be engraved in his bones.
[TL/N: I am already getting goosebumps remembering the lines]
And the skill [Oath under the Snow], probably because he gave up [Ally of Justice], and chose [Sister], this matter itself and the subsequent actions' "sublimation".
For the sake of a girl, defeating six heroic spirits overnight, and then continuing to fight until burning himself out, now thinking about it, it was indeed quite reckless.
However, "intimate bond", what exactly counts as an intimate bond, "sister" definitely counts, besides that…
Goddess Hephaestus teased Shirou with the special skill [Oath under the Snow], then her tone changed.
"Shirou, I have locked and hidden your status values, but there are methods in the world to forcibly unlock them, be careful to protect your back, and do not reveal or expose the skill [Oath under the Snow]."
"The magic [Unlimited Blade Works] cannot be hidden once used, but as for skills, it's best not to expose them.",Hephaestus said, but then her tone changed again, she smiled.
"However, even if exposed, there's no need to worry too much, the familia will protect you."
This is the benefit of a top-tier familia, although the Hephaestus Familia is not the strongest in terms of combat power, the advantages in production and commerce make even the top three familias dare not easily offend the Hephaestus Familia, the city's strongest and largest arms dealer.
How much money do you have, to dare to oppose my Hephaestus Familia. Adventurer, you wouldn't want to fight monsters with inferior weapons, would you?
"By the way, let me first introduce you to our familia's captain—"
BOOM!
A violent explosion interrupted the chief deity's words, Emiya felt the ground shake a few times, and a cloud of dust fell on Hephaestus-sama's head.
"—Tsubaki," the chief deity took a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
"Sorry, sorry, this time I wasn't experimenting with weapons within the familia, I just accidentally blew up the furnace while making a magic sword."
Tsubaki Collebrande, with a face as beautiful as the Eastern people, is a [Half-Dwarf] born between a Far Eastern human and a mainland dwarf. Perhaps inheriting a strong human bloodline, she has long limbs and a height of 170cm. Dwarves are generally short and stubby, so she often attracts jealousy from some dwarves.
The work clothes she wears are also of Far Eastern style, from her mother's Far Eastern hometown, the lower body is bright red hakama[2], and the upper body is only wrapped in white cloth around the chest. Her neat appearance is black hair and red eyes. Most notably, she wears a black eyepatch similar to the chief deity Hephaestus. Compared to Hephaestus covering her right eye, she covers her left eye.
This brave and beautiful woman is the Lv.5 adventurer with the nickname [Cyclops], the captain of the Hephaestus Familia. She reigns at the top of the Hephaestus Familia, a large forging faction with many high-level blacksmiths, and is truly the highest level blacksmith in Orario.
She seems to have a dark history of experimenting with new weapons within the familia and blowing up the familia's building, for which she was severely criticized by the chief deity.
"Magic sword…",Hephaestus sighed helplessly,"No one was hurt, right."
"Don't worry, only half of the workshop was destroyed.",Tsubaki said nonchalantly.
A magic sword, as the name suggests, is a sword with magical abilities, it can use the magic attached to the sword without chanting, but the number of uses is limited, usually only a few times.
The woman took a direct hit from a magic sword's furnace explosion, yet didn't suffer a single injury, the endurance of Lv.5 is terrifying.
Speaking of which, the first two dwarves Emiya came into contact with in this world, whether it's Mama Mia or the half-dwarf Tsubaki, have nothing to do with being short, if he hadn't seen normal dwarves on the street, Emiya might have formed a wrong impression of the dwarf race.
"Is this the familia's new member, a handsome boy~"
"He's our familia's future star with unlimited potential.",Hephaestus-sama introduced Emiya's magic [Unlimited Blade Works] to Tsubaki.
Projection magic is hard to hide once used, and since the other party is the trustworthy familia captain, there's no need to hide it.
"What an amazing magic.",Tsubaki exclaimed,"Wait a minute, this magic, can it project magic swords?"
"I haven't tried, but, it should be possible.",Emiya thought for a moment and replied.
"That means unlimited use of magic swords, isn't that completely invincible?"
"No, not to mention the projected magic swords' power might be reduced, magic power is also an issue.",Emiya analyzed,"For example, to project a magic sword that can release fire magic, at least the magic power equivalent to directly releasing that magic would be consumed."
[[1]TL/N: The Unlimited Blade Works(UBW) used here works more like Projection Magecraft(PM) than UBW. Maybe author will assimilate PM into UBW, combining both their skills on a single subsection. Just clarifying cause later don't say I made a mistake. It is what it is in the raw]
[[2] Hakama: Hakama are a type of traditional Japanese clothing. Originally stemming from Ku pinyin: Kù, the trousers worn by members of the Chinese imperial court in the Sui and Tang dynasties, this style was adopted by the Japanese in the form of hakama in the 6th century.]
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