Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter4 (section)

===Part 7===

Brave Liar’s weapon was a giant hammer, but it was only meant for an initial, surprise attack. He must have decided it wouldn’t be much use when they were facing each other like this. He drew the thin sword from the long handle and threw away the hammer.

Gilbezos had already drawn his sword.

The goddess by Gilbezos’s side and the jelly girl with Brave Liar both slowly moved away from them. No words were exchanged, so it almost seemed planned.

With the goddess and the jelly girl gone, only the humans who traveled with a nonhuman and had reached this point by trampling on the world’s rules in order to protect the lives of others.

So were they birds of a feather?

…''No. Don’t make me laugh.

There was no signal. The Hero voiced his incantation first.

'''“Gi Bu Ri Yu (Fly away) – Mingla.”

The center of the short boy’s chest sparkled. Like a light being shined on specks of gold dust.

“!!”

Just as he jumped back, the light exploded.

Nothing had flown in there. Was it an attack that directly attacked a chosen coordinate!?

…It had been fast even for that.

Brave Liar had abbreviated the incantation so far, yet it still conveyed its meaning. He really did have more than just brute force!

“You’re still alive after the first attack? Well, so damn what!?”

Blinding light split the space. One white explosion erupted after another and Gilbezos was forced to repeatedly side step out of the way. At this point, the attacks had become a belt of light. If he stopped, he was dead, but if he kept this up, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

Something raced by, skimming just off the floor.

The Hero’s sword sprang up vertically in order to slice deep into Gilbezos’s jaw.

The skyward slash was like a pillar of light.

'''“Sai Nu Ru (Slice through) – Molgzed!!”

Gilbezos somehow managed to step back at the last second.

But that extra space allowed Brave Liar to adjust his grip on his sword and twirl around on the spot.

'''“He To Sai (Spin and slash) – Mayunzlas!!!”

A circle of light around the Hero expanded to slice through everything around him at hip height. That was the most annoying height for evasion and defense!! Gilbezos scrambled down onto the ground. Was the goddess alright?

“You saw that coming!? Hah! I was sure you’d just stand there while it sliced you apart!”

“He’s not just a single overpowered attack. Basic specs really are important. He’s built those up like crazy.”

…Had Gilbezos grown enough to talk while this went on?

He was sure he would have died several times by now if he was still the way he had been back at he king’s castle.

After all, all of Brave Liar’s attacks carried the overpowered Certain Death skill. So no matter how much HP Gilbezos had left, he would die instantly if Brave Liar ''just so happened'' to get a critical hit. His marathon of effort up to that point would crumble in an instant. So he didn’t want to take even a scratch from a minor attack or warning shot.

Gilbezos used the Trap Detection skill often used by thieves to boost his danger sense and prepare for surprise attacks while he cautiously readied his sword and recalculated the distance between them.

“What’s your name?”

“Gilbezos Overridge.”

He named himself.

He had reached the point that he could name himself and face this legend as an equal.

“Do you think you have nothing to fear as long as I don’t hit you? It’ll be fun to see how far your AGI can take you.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

Also, each of Brave Liar’s attacks would probably do tens of thousands of damage. He could probably fight that SS-rank mommy dragon and win without even relying on Certain Death.

And Gilbezos realized something while he repeatedly evaded the pursuing explosions of light.

…''Doesn’t look like that Hero magic is just powerful.

There was a focus on appearances in its shaping. It was designed to strongly encourage all who saw it. Was this what the goddess had meant when she mentioned symbolism? Brave Liar’s fighting style had to be designed to be most powerful when he was leading the charge against an enemy army.

Even in this, he was the Hero.

He wasn’t just frightening.

To be blunt, Gilbezos thought his swords and sorcery skills were cool and knew these were the attacks of the most formidable enemy imaginable.

Not even the king had managed to defeat Brave Liar. Gilbezos didn’t see any way he could be a better person than the king in several areas, so there was no way he could fight on even footing with Brave Liar who had defeated the king.

Yes, that was right.

''Ordinarily, anyway.



'''Fire Type Magic – Ultimate

:'''Repeat Command

:::'''MP Drain

:::'''Power Boost for Amount of MP Consumed (Rank 9)



'''“U Ya Dei So Na Ki Ta To Te Ki Bi Ma Vu Vai Za Bu (May my crimson army march eternally) – Cilyacrega!!”

…To be clear, overpowered skills were meant to be used to defeat opponents like this who you couldn’t beat in a fair fight, right?

Brave Liar gasped. He had to be smart if hearing the magic language was enough to know what was happening.

“Wha-?”

“Don’t try to defend. That’ll only mean a slower death,” said Gilbezos with a smile.



''Blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam blam!!!



At 6000 blasts a minute, he aimed the point of his sword and a band of small fireballs raced out toward Brave Liar. He didn’t worry about the MP cost. Because every attack that hit would drain MP from the enemy.

Thus, the magic would continue endlessly until the enemy’s MP ran out.

Gilbezos’s skills were entirely focused on practicality. He had no interest in focusing on unnecessary decoration!!

“That looks painful, Brave Liar. Is it that bad to have your MP drained away!?”

“!!”

Relying on his AGI to evade wasn’t the only option.

He could also survive by providing a reason why Brave Liar couldn’t attack.

Adding in a way of wearing down Brave Liar’s HP would be two birds with one stone – in other words, perfection!

Recall everything you’ve built up to this point.

On that night when the king was so mercilessly killed, what had Brave Liar said as he subjected his jelly girl partner to violence?



''“My blood is pumping more than ever and you want me to leave? Go to hell. I’m in the middle of a killing. I told you to keep your mouth shut except when it’s MP draining time. You’re just getting in my way, you filthy slave.”



In other words…

“Your weakness is massive MP usage! Of course it is. You use a ton of ridiculous over-the-top Hero magic, which is going to eat up a ton of MP. That’s why you keep that jelly girl with you as a special-order MP tank!”

“Damn…you!!”

“Fire, water, wind, earth, other, light, and shadow. The light type’s weakness is other, but that’s a little too obvious. I figured you would have that covered. But not even you can fully negate every type!!”

However, the goddess hadn’t seen the convenient MP Drain skill in Brave Liar. That meant it had to be one of the equipped item skills that filled the two blank entries.

…It was similar to the HP Absorber and Enemy Turn Steal found in the ordinary shadow type tree. But those skills that stole various energies from others were likely hard to obtain in the pure and righteous light type part of the Skill Tree the Hero had developed.

MP Drain might seem more complicated and inefficient than a recovery item, but that wasn’t necessarily true if the jelly girl’s max MP was absurdly high.

“I thought you were a cruel and spoiled bastard at first, but it turns out you’re a stoic hero. But in that case, why the jelly girl? If you dislike waste, then you have to have a strategic reason to keep her around.”

You could only carry so many consumable items around. Items that healed a set amount, like 500 MP, could not fully restore you. Then there were items that recovered a percentage, like the Saint’s Jewel that restored 50% of your max HP and max MP. When you had 1000 MP versus 10000 MP, it was obvious which item would restore more. So leaving his items with the jelly girl and draining MP from his ally allowed Brave Liar to fight longer.

Also, Brave Liar had chosen her in particular to accompany him at all times. She might look frail, but there was no way she was an ordinary person.

“But that means you’ll be powerless if I steal away more MP than your partner can share! This simple brute force method is enough to reduce you to a normal person!!”

“Don’t…mess with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Light exploded.

Gilbezos staggered backwards. His attempt to fight it caused his body to freeze up. When the Hero attacked, the short boy took a step back to keep his distance. At the last second.

Because he stopped fighting, Gilbezos’s flame magic chain reaction vanished. The jelly girl could now share her MP to restore all the magic he had taken.

But.

As he fell back and escaped, the boy slowly spread his clenched left hand.

He held a small earring there.

It was not a piece of Gilbezos’s own equipment. That one decoration had bothered him because its purpose was unclear.

“How did you get that!?”

“Steal. It’s a real convenient skill for how far down on the Skill Tree it is!”

Recall everything you’ve built up to this point.

Before battling Balsta, a baggy-sleeved girl had mentioned something during her introduction.



''“U-um, my job is thief. You know, the kind that learns Steal and Unlock.”



That meant there was a skill used to steal items from an enemy. That could be learned through the Skill Tree.

And.

If Brave Liar’s unique skills were learned through equipped items rather than the Skill Tree, ''his skill combo would cease to function if that item were stolen from him!!

“That trash skill and some human trickery were enough to bring down my ultimate strength?”

“This isn’t about humans versus monsters. If I see a good person suffering for no good reason, I’ll lend them a hand and protect them. That’s all there is to it!!”

“And how do you define a ‘good person’!? Is someone evil if they strike back at a human after being driven to the brink of a cliff!?”

Gilbezos’s words alone weren’t enough to fully overturn Brave Liar’s claim.

Which meant Brave Liar’s logic and objective at least weren’t wrong.

Nevertheless, Gilbezos had to settle this if the Hero’s form of justice had him take the lives of his defeated foes.

Recall everything you built up to this point.



''“Besides, hero exclusive skills are extremely powerful ones that can ''only'' be used to bring about world peace. If you try to use them to satisfy your own personal desires, you’ll get locked out, so they seem kind of pointless to me.”



After exceeding 6500 LAW, Gilbezos had tested out some of the overpowered Rank 9 skills, but he had been rejected when he attempted to learn the same skills as Brave Liar. That had been Goddess Seliphenia’s explanation.

If someone could unnaturally do something they shouldn’t be able to, they had to be overcoming that issue with their skills.

But the goddess’s search hadn’t shown any such skills in Brave Liar’s Skill Tree. That meant it had to come from his final equipped item skill that the goddess couldn’t see.

A conversion skill that allowed good magic to be used for evil.

…An item had been invented that allowed humans to use monster exclusive skills. This was the same idea. Basically, the equipped item fooled the skill usage condition.

So a question.

What happened to Hero Brave Liar now that he had lost the item allowing him to cheat so badly!?

“Gah, gbwah!!”

With a muddy noise, Brave Liar coughed up a glob of blood. His hero exclusive skill could only be used to bring about world peace. The conversion skill letting him use it for evil deeds had just been stolen along with the equipped item. So now he was hit by the ordinary penalty.

“Masterrr!!”

The jelly girl rushed over, but things were different this time.

His hero exclusive skill’s usage condition had been stolen.

Sharing her MP wouldn’t be enough to save him.

And that he was penalized was proof that he had been cheating the system.

…''I won’t let anyone say otherwise.

''That king worked so hard to help the people, so I won’t let anyone say that killing him was working towards world peace!!

“Ohhh!!”

Gilbezos adjusted his grip on his sword and charged forward. With all his might.

He shoved aside the jelly girl who looked worried about Brave Liar. So she wouldn’t be caught in the coming storm of blades and magic.

“I will protect them…”

That man did not give up his sword.

The blade shined with a pure white light as it produced a strange sizzling sound like humid air burning.

Did he consider his life secondary to the monsters he had chosen to save?

Here at least he was a terrifyingly perfect Hero.

But couldn’t he see them?

…Could he see the tears scattering from the shoved jelly girl!?

“I will protect those ordinary lives!! I am the Hero! I don’t need any other reason to choose to risk my life!!!”

The look in his eyes said he didn’t care if he was penalized. He would end this here even if it meant burning through both his MP and his HP.

Was he pushed on by the same resolve that had led him to become known as the Hero?

Meanwhile, Gilbezos was not a legendary hero. He wasn’t a half-god and he hadn’t been granted some special holy weapon. While he could obtain a variety of overpowered skills with some help from the goddess’s power, that would not eliminate his fundamental status as a normal human.

But.

Why should that mean he didn’t have the power to change the world?

Growth wasn’t just about LAW and the Skill Tree. Every one of his memories helped push the short boy onward. The people he had met, the things he had seen and heard, the items he had obtained, the incidents he had overcome – it had all helped Gilbezos Overridge grow and had transformed into a power great enough to fight against Brave Liar. And he wasn’t going to accept just being on equal footing.

Recall everything you built up to this point!!



''“If I do die, do not valorize my death. You must not create a world that accepts my fate and believes that death in the face of adversity is to be expected. …And if all of my efforts are in vain and I fail to stop him, I leave this task in your hands. I do not care how: find some way of stopping Brave Liar.”



…Yes, that’s right.

He was told to stop him. ''But he was never told to kill him or destroy him''! And the king had told him to ''not create a world that believes death in the face of adversity is to be accepted''!!

That king had cared so much for the kingdom and done everything he could, so there was no way he hadn’t noticed the problem of the Hero who could no longer fight monsters. Even on the verge of death, he had repeated the need to stop Brave Liar over worrying about his own life, so he must have been seriously worried. He must have wanted to stop, correct, and rescue the Hero who had grown weary and damaged while fighting for the kingdom!!

“Brave Liar…”

Gilbezos Overridge focused on his own sword.

He had made a promise.

So he couldn’t back out now.

“You really need to thank him. It’s that king’s kindhearted words that are going to save you!!!”



'''Status Effect Fury Magic

:'''Repeat Command

::'''Increased Odds for All Randomized Skills

:::'''Apply Magic Effect to Weapon



That combination created a 100% chance of the blood rushing to the head until the target fainted.

This one final attack would take ''only'' Brave Liar’s consciousness.