Skill Verification

[Pitfall]. [Stone Pile] as well. Those were the new spells I learned.

What's that? Where did [Stone Pile] come from? I mean you know how it is. I got it from a [Stone Pile Scroll] from the DP catalog for 2000 DP for the synergy it offered.

Now I can make the holes all spiky and shit.

As an aside, I have no clue how much [Pitfall] would have cost since it wasn't in the catalog.

"Now you can do your best today, Kehma! Go get em!"

"Pass, I wanna practice my skills today. Aidi, know anywhere I won't be seen I could use?"

"Hoh. Secret training? I don't hate that sort of thing at all."

Thanks to all that, I came to a rocky area outside town.

It was a less popular spot with few strong monsters, so it was something of a hidden gem.

"What are you going to do, Kehma?"

"… Why'd you even come along, Rokuko? I was planning on practicing solo."

"Why? So something dangerous doesn't happen while you're alone of course."

… Well, it's true that it's not like there won't be any monsters. Guess I'll be able to focus on training with someone keeping an eye out.

"Alright, hurry up and use the [Pitfall] I got you!"

"Yeah yeah, let's start with the incantation… Earth, form a hole—[Pitfall]!"

Placing my hand on the ground, I activated the skill… Immediately afterward, a hole about 1 meter deep appeared in front of me.

"Heeeh, the way the hole popped up was pretty sudden."

"Yeah, it feels like it's opening up like an aperture rather than digging down from above."

The skill's flow seemed to be creating an ultra-thin stake with magic power before forming a cylindrical space around it… It felt more like it was the space-time attribute rather than the earth attribute.

"So think you could modify this one like [Create Golem]? Since you wanted to practice in a place where no one can see, that's what you're thinking, right?"

"More or less. Maybe something like this? Rock, make a hole—[Pitfall]"

I targeted a random rock and activated [Pitfall] sideways. A hole appeared.

By the way, the hole pierced all the way through.

"Heeh, you could use that to make a tunnel in no time!"

"Wouldn't work. It'd just go back to normal the second it was deactivated."

When I deactivated the magic, the hole closed up and returned to normal.

… It felt kinda like the space was warping? What would happen if something was inside the hole when it was deactivated?

With that thought, I decided to try it out. I threw a rock into a hole I made with [Pitfall] and deactivated it… And the rock was spit out.

"… Maybe you could use it to shoot out rocks or as a trap."

"Maybe. It's too soon to tell."

I activated [Pitfall] and then activated [Pitfall] again at the bottom of the hole.

This created a twice as deep hole.

I threw a stone into the hole and deactivated the top part of the hole. The stone was completely sealed in the bototm half of the hole.

"So if I just cover the top, I can seal something off off."

"… Hohoh. That could definitely be used to trap something inside."

"Right?"

"So, what happens to the stone if you deactivate the bottom hole?"

… I gave it a go. However, I couldn't tell what happened since it was trapped in the ground. At the very least, the stone didn't pop out of the ground.

"Did it get buried maybe…?"

"Maybe try using a golem?"

"Sure, why not."

This time, I made a clay golem instead of the stone to use.

The result—yeah, it was completely buried in the ground. The ground around it was slightly raised. I'm not sure if that was because the hole was too deep.

I next tried making the top part of the hole thing so as to serve as a cover for a pitfall.

When I did that, the golem pushed the cover part aside and rose out of the ground.

"Ah, I see. It seems like you could bury something alive."

… I wonder if you could use this to destroy something from the inside?

"You know, when the top part is closed, it's completely indistinguishable from the ground."

"We could use it as a regular pitfall trap. I wonder if it could be activated to be like that from the start?"

I drove the stake that creates the hole into the ground so that it was completely buried. Then I activated it… The feeling of activation was there, but the surface didn't change at all.

When I had the golem walk over it, the cover broke and the golem fell into the hole.

"Ooh! Success!"

"Ooh! I can make as many pitfalls as I want!"

"The only downside is that the pitfalls disappear when I deactivate the magic. Since I have a lot of magic power though, I can use it without worrying about the cost."

The feeling of driving in the stake was similar to directing magic power into the [Create Golem] spell.

Next, I tried to see if I could make holes in things other than dirt and rocks.

"Kehma, I thought this might happen so brought some armor just in case!"

"Oh, good job, Rokuko. I brought some too though."

With that, Rokuko took out metal armor and I took out leather armor from [Storage].

"Of course you would think about creating holes in armor, wouldn't you? Fufufu."

"Indeed."

Rokuko smiled, happy that we were thinking along the same train of thought.

As a result of our experimentation, we were able to make holes in both metal and leather armor… This might be pretty dangerous, huh?

"Alright, next is living things!"

With that, Rokuko took a goblin out of [Storage]… I didn't think of that. I mean, not that she wouldn't put a living thing into her [Storage], but a goblin at that.

"What do you have a goblin in your [Storage] for?"

"Huh, was it a bad idea to bring it? I thought it'd be of use."

"Noo… well, it's fine. I mean, it's not like it's a bad idea. I just didn't know you could put living things in [Storage]."

The goblin was alive and kicking.

I idly wondered what it felt like to be inside. Since time was stopped inside [Storage], I imagined it would feel like you were instantly transported out as you were put inside.

At any rate, I'll try [Pitfall] on the goblin.

—The magic stake was rejected with a metallic clang. It was really hard to pierce. But it wasn't like it didn't pierce at all.

Forcibly pushing it in, I let the stake pierce into the goblin's stomach. There was no pain, and the goblin just stood there blankly… It was no good, not at all. No way I could make use of this in battle.

Then, just as I activated it, a large hole opened up in the goblin's stomach.

"… Oooh."

"Woooow, what happened? What's going on?"

Despite having a hole in its stomach, the goblin's expression remained unchanged… There were no organs spilling out from the cross-section. It's like there was a magical barrier or something. Most likely, space itself was being distorted.

"Heeey, Kehma. What would happen if you deactivated it after putting a stick through the hole?"

"What's with you and terrifying ideas, girl."

Conducting that experiment on an innocent goblin would be too horrifying.

Instead, I once again made a tunnel through a rock and inserted a stone rod I made via [Create Golem]. I then deactivated it.

… It was shoved out with a pretty incredible level of force, but the momentum disappeared as soon as the rod was pushed out.

"So it was just pushed out like normal?"

"It looked like it was pushed out in the direction it was leaning. What would happen if you connected the ends first?"

"…"

Following Rokuko's suggestion, I created a tunnel in the rock, inserted the stone rod, then bent it into a ring via [Create Golem]. It looked like a giant ring piercing.

Then I deactivated it.

Snap crackle pop!

The stone ring was ripped into pieces… I wonder if this could be used for something. Hmm…?

"Would orichalcum break like that?"

"Rokuko, aren't you getting too excited here?"

I was already starting to feel tired even though I still had to try out [Stone Pile].

"Kehma, maybe you could chance the incantation for [Stone Pile] to be [Orichalcum Pile]?"

"… The original chant is [Stone Stake, be born]. Let's see… How about [Orichalcum Grain, be born]… [Stone Pile]."

The next thing I knew, I fainted. I might have died if I'd called for a full stake.

… By the way, it turns out that I really did create a tiny bit of orichalcum. It was so small that they never would have found it if they hadn't checked their map function, though.