Jack Of All Trades: Chapter 3 – Jack Of All Trades

　The inside of the labyrinth is like a maze of man-made stone passageways and halls.

　Ores that emit light are fixed into the wall at regular intervals, so it is bright enough to look around several metres with any problems. 

　I walk with caution for a while, but it does not seem like there are any kinds of traps.

　Entering a place that looks like a room, in front of me I see a shadow move. 

　Upon careful observation, the true identity of the shadow is a Horned Rabbit.

　Horned Rabbits are rabbit-type magic beasts that have horns growing. They move quickly, but their endurance is low, so even a new explorer can defeat them. 

　I activate the bracelet-shaped magic tool I wear on my left wrist which has storage magic sealed into it. 

　From my storage, a sword appears near my right hand, and I grab it. 

(It’s been a while since I’ve wielded a sword)

　Since a Horned Rabbit is the opponent, in order to not lose sight of it, I decide to forego casting support magic and fight it without buffs. 

　As I gradually approach, it seems to notice my presence and tries to come at me with a headbutt.

“Slow.”

　This rabbit was too slow for me, who up until yesterday had been fighting against the magic beasts in both the lower layers and deep layers of the Great Labyrinth. 

　Hold on until the last moment, take a half step and evade the attack. 

　My sword slashes at the Horned Rabbit passing right by me.

　The blade draws the trajectory I imagine and intersects the abdomen of the Horned Rabbit, slicing through it without any resistance. 

　The Horned Rabbit’s body disappears in a cloud of black mist, leaving only small magic stones in its place. 

“… It’s been a long time since I’ve swung my sword, but my muscle memory is still there. I might’ve played it a little bit too safe. Let’s quickly descend into the labyrinth.”

　It was a dull battle, but just being able to swing my sword was enough to satisfy me.

　After that, I encountered magic beasts like goblins and slimes, but since they were only individuals, I was able to defeat them without much effort.

　While defeating the demon beasts, I make it to the third floor without taking any mistaken paths. 

　Even though I said it has a maze-like structure, compared to the lower and deep layers of the Great Labyrinth, it’s like child’s play. 

　The airflow and all sorts of other hints are way too numerous.

　After entering the third level, the enemies start to come in multiples. 

　I say ‘multiple’, but they’re just multiple enemies of the same type, and the magic beasts that appear in this labyrinth have low intelligence. Although they can be easily defeated without buffs, I want to get used to the feeling of fighting with buffs, so I activate support magic on myself. 

　Support magic is literally magic that supports any target through raising their abilities, such as increasing the physical abilities of allies, or improving the performance of equipment. 

　Well, on the other hand, magic that lowers the abilities of targets is also included as part of support magic. With that said, since it isn’t particularly effective on powerful magic beasts, there isn’t much chance to use it. 

　A person who mainly uses support magic is called an Enchanter.

　The job of Enchanter is an unfortunate one. As a person who has been an Enchanter for many years saying that, I don’t think that’s a wrong way to think about it. 

　Enchanters are always being chased by time. 

　For example, even activating the basic support magic “Strength Up”.

　Since the effect of the buff is not permanent, it obviously eventually wears off, but the time taken for the effect to expire varies from person to person. 

　This is because depending on individuals’ magic resistance, the effective buff period ends up changing. 

　In other words, the Enchanter needs to grasp the different buff periods of their fellow companions, and they must reapply the buff before it expires. 

　What’s more, the people in other jobs seem to usually hold the impression of Enchanters as people that only cast support magic while leaving the battle to their allies. 

　Therefore, it became common for most parties to leave the task of taking command to the Enchanter, because they look like they’re just watching over the battle and not doing any fighting. 

　The Hero Party was one of them. 

　Well, this way of thinking is probably largely influenced by the appearance of the Genius Enchanter. 

　Count the remaining time of the buffs of each individual ally, reapply the buff before it expires. 

　Furthermore, while activating different kinds of support magic in response to changing situations, to also have to simultaneously give instructions. 

　And finally, because their role is very inconspicuous, they aren’t evaluated very positively. This is the current state of Enchanters. 

　With all this, you probably wouldn’t stop me from saying that Enchanters are unfortunate. 

　The actual effort they put in is not matched by how they are evaluated by their surroundings. 

　Support magic improves my physical abilities, allowing me to defeat multiple enemies in an instant without any danger. 　

　After defeating them, I stand by there in alert while waiting for my support magic to expire. 

“It’s just about 180 seconds, good that it’s easy to count.”

　The duration of my self-cast support magic is perfect for three minutes.

　I’ve used support magic on myself before.

　However, until now, I had prioritised the count of other party members, so I didn’t know my own buff period.

　After grasping my buff period, I tried fighting in various patterns. 

　First, I started the battle just before buff period ended, and tried to re-cast the support magic in the middle of battle.

　In addition, I tried various things such as using attack magic simultaneously along with close-combat fighting, and testing the ease of using my original magic. 

　One of my original magics has the effect of granting a large buff in exchange for lasting only an extremely short duration. 

　Until now, it had been difficult to match my activation timing with my party members’ movements. 

　However, if I use it on myself, I can calculate all of my own timings, so it’s a huge result that I can easily utilize this magic. 

　Closing into nearly 20 battles, I am quickly approaching the establishment of a new style that combined my past efforts as a Swordsmen with my recent efforts as an Enchanter. 

“Jack of all trades, hah…”

　My physical strength is average compared to other explorers.

　It can’t reach the level of advanced A rank explorers. 

　As for magic, for some reason… I can’t activate magic that is advanced level or above. 

　I’m an average person.

　But even the average me has a redeeming feature. 

　That is, the ability to quickly acquire skills that ordinary people can only obtain through great effort. 

　Although I say I can acquire skills, they only come at the bare minimum level, and I still need to use considerable effort and time to improve the skill from there. 

　After all, just a jack of all trades…

　Still, I had vowed to get stronger and became an explorer.

　That’s why shortly after becoming an explorer and feeling the limits of my own abilities, I didn’t just give up. 

　The only thing I could do was to greedily acquire more knowledge and skills. 

　To go to the limits of what can be done as an average person. 

　As a result, the speed at which I activate magic is definitely much faster than advanced explorers, and with a deep understanding of magic, I have sucess in developing my own original magic. 

　As for physical ability, I have managed to barely keep up with advanced explorers by maximizing my command of my body and learning various martial arts. 

　The term “jack of all trades” used by the current Magician of the Hero party, Aneri, might be correct. 

　”Jack of all trades” is certainly something that doesn’t always have a positive meaning. 

　However, if such a person were to improve all their trades to the extremes, couldn’t they be said to be “omnipotent”? 

　To no longer be mocked as a “jack of all trades”, someday I’ll become known as an explorer with the mastery over anything and everything – “omnipotent”!