The party of five sat in meditative postures following Cipher’s instruction.
It wasn’t for any sort of practice, but mostly so he could check out his Cheat Shop as well as find out a way to solve the problem with Maya and Dante. He looked at his status screen. Even after deciding to min-max, he had endured quite the loss after deciding to take out the nine B-ranks in succession.
Well, it couldn’t be helped, he thought.
[Name: Cipher]
[Level: 207 (200,000/207,000)]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Cheater]
[Health: 10,000/10,000]
[Mana: 1200/1200]
[Strength: 100]
[Stamina: 100]
[Agility: 100]
[Intelligence: 120]
[Stat Points: 25]
[Cheat Points: 7380]
[Skills (14/24): Resurrection (SSS), Pain Tolerance (S), Mana Manipulation (A), Mana Disruption (A), Battle Instinct (A), Aura (B), Unwavering Will (B), Regeneration (C), Battery (C), Phantom Step (C), Dagger Throw (D), Mana Recovery (D), Voice Transmission (D), Assassinate (E)]
[Unique Skill/s (1/2): Heavenly Demonic Sword Art (Unique)]
[Cheats: Cheat Shop (Max Level), Absolute Appraisal (Max Level), Aimbot (Max Level), Fly Mode (Max Level), True Sight (Max Level), No Cooldown (Max Level), Auto Loot (Max Level), Map Editor (Max Level), Overkill (Max Level), Infinite Stamina (Max Level), ESP (Level 5), Infinite Inventory (Level 2), Fast Travel (Level 1), XP Multiplier (Level 1), Item Duplication (Level 1)]
[Owned Cards: Fork (2), Class, Patch (2), Optimize (2), Mirror (2), Rework (2), Seed (2), Blank (3), Import (2) & Export (3)]
He decided to begin with point distribution, putting twenty points into Agility.
As for the remaining five points, he decided to hold on to them.
He then moved on to the Cheat Shop. The cards this time were Class, Merge, and Exploit . He bought the Class and Merge. As for the packs, there was a Mega Mod Pack and a Mega Code Pack .
And he’d almost missed it, but there was now a new voucher in the shop. The name of the voucher was Coupon, which reduced the price of the next voucher by 200 points.
"What a rip-off," Cipher thought.
Every voucher was worth 1000 points. Buying a 1000-point voucher so he could buy the next voucher for 800 points was just straight-up stupid. Unless it reduced the price of every subsequent voucher - which he didn’t think it did based on the description - then he wouldn’t be getting this card.
Maybe it had some synergy with other vouchers he was unaware of, but for now, he wouldn’t be getting this one.
He opened the Mega Code Pack. The cards were Patch, Merge, Commit, Debug, and Delete .
Merge was an obvious pick. If he took it, he’d have two Merges and two Forks, meaning he could upgrade a skill of his choosing. But he was torn between Patch and Delete. After some deliberation, he decided to go with Patch.
Now it was time for the rerolls. The first reroll gave Seed, Export, and Refactor . He took the Seed and Export and rerolled a second time. This time the cards were Blank, Optimize, and Delete . He took all three and rerolled for the final time.
The cards this time were Rework, Fork, and Malware . He took Rework and Fork.
He then looked at his current cards:
[Owned Cards: Delete, Merge (2), Fork (3), Class (2), Patch (3), Optimize (3), Mirror (2), Rework (3), Seed (3), Blank (4), Import (2) & Export (4)]
His collection had grown quite a bit, though he was still lacking in the department he needed most - that being Optimize, Fork, and Merge. Still, the Reworks and Patches could be useful.
He then finally closed his Cheat Shop and turned to look at Maya, observing her stats through Appraisal.
...
[Name: Maya]
[Level: 80]
[Rank: B]
[Species: Human]
[Class: Archmage]
[Health: 3,800/3,800]
[Mana: 1,400/1,400]
[Strength: 25]
[Stamina: 38]
[Agility: 35]
[Intelligence: 140]
[Skills (7/13): Mana Recovery (C), Penetration (C), Over Heal (D), Blessing (D), Sword Mastery (D), Water Shield (E), Heal (E)]
[Unique Skill: Timeless]
It’s not as bad as I thought, Cipher thought.
But looking at it again, it was actually indeed as bad as he’d thought, maybe even worse.
Although it seemed as though nothing major had happened as she had just gained two attacking-related skills, you also had to account for her rank. Now she had progressed straight to B-rank but had made no progress whatsoever in her skillset.
If she was advancing usually, her support-related skills would have advanced with her and she might have even developed new ones. Although she could still do this now, it was generally much easier when you were weaker. Besides, what if there were some special skills with special conditions that were now going to be skipped?
He looked directly at her. "Although your level and stats have advanced, it seems I’ve miscalculated some things and you ended up developing in the wrong way," he explained. "No need to worry though as I have a fix for that," Cipher said.
He then extended his hand and held hers. "I’m going to put my mana into you and destroy the unrelated skills so they don’t mess with your build," he said. "When you feel a force reaching for your skills, don’t reject it and let it in," he added.
She nodded and closed her eyes, focusing on herself.
The others had shocked expressions, wondering if this was even possible. Could someone really just destroy people’s skills? This was the description Cipher was using to hide his use of the Import card. He activated the two Import cards and after Maya consented, the Sword Mastery and Penetration skills were instantly removed from her skillset.
She opened her eyes. "It really disappeared," she said in amazement. "As expected of Brother Cipher. How did you do that?" she asked with glowing eyes.
Cipher just smiled. "It’s a unique skill of sorts," he said. "Anyway, since your progression was halted when you progressed the offence route, I’m going to teach you a new skill that will help you make up for the difference," Cipher said.
"Really? A new skill?"
Cipher smiled. She looked just like Iris with how enthusiastic she was. He wouldn’t be surprised if she began jumping up and down.
"Alright, calm down. Focus on my hand," he said. "I’ll move my mana through you. I want you to read the rhythm of how the mana is moving and try to recreate the same thing with your own mana," he said.
She listened and closed her eyes, focusing on him.
Cipher wondered if it would work. Since she was an Archmage, he felt that she should be able to grasp mana circulation even faster than he had back then. If she grasped Mana Manipulation, she could try recreating her support skills through it, forcing them to advance. If she couldn’t... he’d have no choice but to spend a Fork and Export card to give her a copy of his own Mana Manipulation.