I Apparently Didn’t Have to Wait that Long

「Mylia, have you learned a Skill before?」

「I have. Once you’ve gained enough combat experience, you just realize you’re able to use them. That’s how Skills work, right? Anyway, you can go to the guild if you want to check the list of Skills you can learn. I have a list of a Hero’s Skillset if you want to see them.」

List of Skills? My hunch says this is not good.

「Can I see it?」

「Sure.」

She showed me the list.
…And my hunch was right.

「Wh-What the heck is this?」

The list was awful. First of all, advanced Skills were not on the list. Worse, not all basic Skill were listed either; only about eighty percent. Combo Attack was not included.

「Can you swing your spear around while saying “Combo Attack”?」

「Why?」

「I want to test something.」

She looked perplexed, but she readied her spear and then…

「Combo Attack.」

She brandished her spear while saying the words and the tip of her weapon gleamed faintly. A sign that the Skill is active.

「What the… Whaaaaaat?! I’m using a Skill! A Skill I don’t know about!」

She looked at me in disbelief.

「Who are you?」

「Just your average F-rank adventurer who happens to know a few things.」

「We’ve already established the fact that you’re an F-rank but I’m not buying the “average” part.」

While we were talking, the Raging Ape started to get agitated.

「Gwoooaaahh!」

I used Sticky Bomb and Shadow Fog to rob it of its mobility and vision, respectively, but it’s not completely restrained. It can still lash out randomly.

It’s a bit dangerous to talk while the monster’s still there. It might randomly throw a stone and hit me.

「Let’s talk after we kill this thing. It won’t take more than twenty minutes with your Combo Attack.」 I said, pointing at the Raging Ape.

「Kill it in twenty minutes?」

「Yeah. You should try it and see for yourself. I’ll take its attacks while you use Combo Attack continuously from behind.」

Then I cast a taunting spell on the Raging Ape before releasing it from my other spells.

「Gwwwwoooooaaaaahhhhh!」

With all the rage it mustered from being restrained, it started going on a rampage and charged straight at me. Facing the monster, I cast a spell.

「Magic Guard.」

I blocked the Raging Ape’s attack with my staff. Magic Guard is basically the spellcaster version of Over Guard. It’s not as good, but it can still block attacks pretty decently. Because of this skill, there was a period of time where Sages had the tank role in parties. It’s one of the reasons why they called the Sage an all-powerful class. So anyway…

「Hey, start attacking already.」

I called out to Mylia who just stood there dumbfounded. In BBO, Sages with tank roles would block attacks with their staff while also firing spells. It’s one of the class’s unique characteristics. But I can’t defeat the Raging Ape with the mana pool I have right now.

「O-Okay! …Combo Attack! Combo Attack!」

Still perplexed, Mylia started using Combo Attack in rapid succession. As the name suggests, the Skill allows one to use combos, and the more attacks you land, the greater the power of the combo.

I had the Raging Ape’s attention on me so Mylia was able to attack freely. Thanks to that, the Combo Attack’s power gradually increased.