Chapter 74: But once you know the activation condition, no matter how many limits it has, Replication isn’t a dud skill. It’s an outrageous cheat-class skill

(...Huh?)

Checking the skill list, Kazui tilted his head in confusion.

(The skills didn’t increase.)

Seeing his expression, Lumia roughly guessed the situation.

"You couldn’t copy a skill?"

"Looks that way."

He roughly checked the other items besides the skill list as well.

(It feels like my experience went up a little, but...)

He had not accurately memorized the experience value from the previous status check, so he could not be sure.

Because of that, he did not mention the change in experience.

"If that’s the case, there might be a limit on how many times you can use it per day."

"I already used it once on Yuri today, and together with Lumia-san that’s twice, so maybe twice a day is the upper limit?"

"Come to think of it, you used it on Yuri-kun too."

After thinking, Lumia continued.

"There are also skills that can only be used once a day on the same person, so you might be able to use it if you change partners."

Kazui had copied one skill each from her and from Yuri.

Lumia considered the possibility that the limit was not twice a day, but once a day per partner.

When it came to skills, Lumia knew more than Kazui, and more than most adventurers.

That was why she could guess at the limits of skills better than he could.

"Well, if you keep using Replication, those kinds of limits will become clear." ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Kazui nodded at her words.

"But once you know the activation condition, no matter how many limits it has, Replication isn’t a dud skill. It’s an outrageous cheat-class skill."

In Japan, the word "cheat" had been used for dishonest acts that used illegal programs or tools in computer games.

The meaning had then widened so that even acts that were not dishonest, but abnormally favored the player, were called cheats.

Even in this world, which had no computer games, the word "cheat" was used with a meaning similar to Japan’s.

Originally it had been a word used in card games and board games for cheating, foul play, and fraudulent acts.

Adventurers who enjoyed those games had started calling a very small number of skills that were far too advantageous or convenient "cheats."

As a result, in this world’s adventurer industry, skills that were excessively advantageous or convenient came to be described as cheats.

Kazui did not know that full history, but he did know that "cheat" was used here with a meaning similar to Japan’s.

He had heard other adventurers describe extremely powerful skills as "cheats" or "cheat-class" many times.

"Is Replication convenient enough to be treated as a cheat?"

"For an ordinary adventurer, it takes a fair amount of training time to obtain a skill. You can copy and obtain it in a short time. That’s cheating to an absurd degree, isn’t it?"

"Now that you mention it, that’s true..."

Kazui himself had needed nearly three months of training each to obtain Aura Mail and Aura Shot.

Ordinarily both were skills that could be obtained in less than a month, but because of Replication’s drawback it had taken him longer.

"Obtaining a skill and being able to use it are different things, but just being able to obtain them in a short time already makes your Replication more than cheat-class enough."

"Once you know the activation condition, Replication is an insanely useful skill. I never noticed because until now I had only been suffering from its drawback."

Because he had kept suffering from Replication’s drawback, he had not realized that Replication with a known activation condition was a cheat-class skill.

The fact that Replication was treated as a dud skill also made it hard to notice that it was advantageous.

"Well... in my case, finding women who will let me copy their skills is too hard, so maybe I can’t call it that useful."

"I don’t think that’s true. You found one right away."

Even without saying it outright, Kazui understood that "one" was Lumia.

"In your case, Lumia-san, I was just far too lucky. It’s like a miracle! Miracles like that don’t keep happening!"

He said it in a strong tone.

"I think there are probably other women who already liked you the way I did, so I don’t think it’s quite a miracle..."

(I don’t think there are any other women like that.)

Hearing Lumia say she had liked him from the start made Kazui happy.

But he could not believe there were other women like her.

"Anyway, besides me, you do need to find other women who will let you copy skills. Especially... female martial artists."

She briefly explained the reason.

"I was a swordswoman, so I can let you copy skills that martial arts have in common, but when it comes to unarmed combat skills, that doesn’t work."

"That’s true..."

For Kazui, who was a martial artist, unarmed combat skills were essential if he wanted to raise his strength.

But Lumia, a swordswoman, hardly had any unarmed combat skills.

If Kazui wanted to increase his unarmed combat skills, he would have to find women besides Lumia who would let him copy skills.

Female martial artists who possessed many unarmed combat skills.