While I can predict what the outcome of my actions will be, I would rather spend time sorting through my thoughts.
Now that I finally have a quiet place where I'm not being spied on, I decide on spending the time to properly go over my theories and Skills.
I get up from the extremely uncomfortable bed and open my status internally.
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Name: Shin Okamoto
Race: Human
Level: 1
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Titles:
First Title: Paranoid
Skills:
-> Delusion Lv.2
----<> Betrayer
-> Reflex Lv.1
-> Outsider Lv.2
----<> Transgress 0/1
-> Guarded Lv.1
-> Permit Lv. 1
----<> Entitle
Second Title: Maverick
Skills:
-> Misanthrope Lv.1
-> Subjugate Lv.1
-> Lone Wolf Lv.1
-> Domain Lv.1
Third Title: Survivalist
Skills:
-> Unmarred Lv.1
-> Liberated Lv.1
-> Stalk Lv.1
-> CQB Lv.1
-> *Locked*
Divine Protection: N/A
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{Okay. Let's try to go through what I know to confirm some things while I'm stuck here.}
First: Level
- I'm level 1. I'm not sure what that means but the Goddess mentioned that the level will rise after killing monsters and it will strengthen us somehow. I guess I won't be able to see it's effects until I do kill a monster. Speaking of monsters, the only monsters we have seen so far are the two that I saw outside of the gate. Those two that I saw had some variation of intelligence so it's safe to assume that monsters will be intelligent and difficult to kill.
Second: Hidden Titles
- For some reason, I have some hidden Titles that even Emmaline didn't see. While I can now pick in between showing my first Soul Plate and my second Soul Plate, I'm not sure why I have two. The one thing that I am sure of is that the first Soul Plate is a decoy because can't seem to use any of the Skills. In the fight with Vilmos, I tried to activate a couple of those Skills, but they didn't activate so I'm now quite sure that my real Titles are the ones that were hidden.
Third: Titles
- Titles are unlocked through accessing our Soul Plate. The Grand Goddess said the average human has 2-5 Titles which tells me two important things. The first being that humans are not the only beings with Titles so I'm assuming that every living creature has them. The second being that the average number of Skills means that there are outliers to the average. There could be people who have more than 5 or less than two.
- An additional issue is, while I've had the chance to use Skills from my first and third Titles, I've yet to use those of my second one. While I can somewhat guess what they do from their names, I can't confirm them with my Delusion Skill which only seems to work on Skills in the Paranoid Title. So, for right now I only have two helpful Titles to count on.
- Titles also have levels as the Grand Goddess mentioned that there were 14 Top Level Titles among our class. This means that there are lower-level Titles as well. Assuming that the higher the ranking the higher the power, I don't know where my Titles lie on the power scale, so I need to be vigilant.
Fourth: Skills
- Each Title enables its owners access to skills. The skills that given are passively activated but can also be mentally activated. This is one of the confusing parts for me. These Skills are passive in the fact that they are automatically activated when unlocked. When I was testing my Skills in my soul, I found out that I can turn those on or off when desired. While they can be turned off, I'm not sure why a normal person would need to do such a thing because having all of my skills active did not bother me or tire me out, either mentally or physically.
- Another thing about the Skills are that they are not all unlocked when you open your Soul Plate. When I first opened it, I had two Skills which were "blocked" and inaccessible. However, when I touched Laura's daggers, my Permit Skill unlocked itself meaning that there are specific requirements to access the hidden Skills.
- When the original Skills increase in level, it unlocks an active skill. Whether the increase in level and unlocking of Actives1 are 1:1, I'm not certain at this moment. I'm also not too sure yet about how powerful or useful they are, but my Transgress Active has some crazy power to it, so I think its safe to say that they definitely increase the power of the user at the very least.
Fifth: Goddess' Plan
- What I'm confused about is why the Grand Goddess brought our entire school into this world for. Of course, disregarding the reasoning she gave, I try to think of why we specifically were brought here.
- She summoned a bunch of high school students rather than adults or children. The only reason I could think of for this is maybe due to the fact that we have the least amount of attachment to our own world? I mean at our age, we normally have our parents that we care about, but we often strive for independence, and we are not entirely reliant on them like children. Adults either have families of their own, other responsibilities and are usually set in their ways so they wouldn't be able to cope with the change as easily as a teenage mind. Children on the other hand are much more versatile and corruptible, but they are too weak and are reliant on others. So maybe, a somewhat influenceable group of people is what she was after?
- Although she was hurriedly explaining things because she was "busy", she skipped over a lot of vital details and disappeared quickly. What I don't understand is why she couldn't let one of her subordinates stay and explain and answer questions that some people might have. As long as that shouting giant didn't stay behind, I would have appreciated a little help with things. There has to be a reason why she didn't inform us of everything. Like maybe she wants to keep something secret? But what? Damn, I hate not knowing.
- Supposedly, the Evil God is "placing this entire planet into ruin" but what exactly does this mean and what does ruin mean to her. Naturally, I first thought that he was going to destroy the planet when she said that, but she used the word "ruin" which is not necessarily related to destruction. IN fact, he could just be doing something that she deems ruinous to her but in actuality, it might not be ruinous to us. But then again, if it were dangerous for her, I doubt that she would summon a group of unpredictable variables for something as important as her safety. There must be a reason for all of this, but I'm not seeing it. I'll need more pieces if I want to solve this puzzle.
All of these thoughts bounce around in my head as I pace the small jail cell. With so many variables and questions, there's no hope for me to come up with a solution at the moment.
"I don't really know who to trust here which sucks. Although staying in here with nothing else to do but think kind of sucks. I wish I had someone else to talk to at least…" [Shin]
However, the only company he is keeping is his bag, his cot, and the small hole in the corner of the room.
"Lady Róża did say that there were 3 others who were put here. It has to be Laura, Kati and Bode. If I could just get out of here and get to them, I could at least help them because they must be stressed from all of this treatment. This would also alleviate my boredom, and I could go over my new plan for the trial, killing three birds with one stone." [Shin]
{Hm? Wait a minute… Now that I think of it, I don't remember hearing a latching sound on the door? Don't tell me that idiot forgot to lock up a prisoner. There's no way, right…?}
Now that these thoughts pass through my mind, I find it difficult to even think about anything else. I subconsciously seem to want to find out as I find my body moving towards the door on its own.
The thick metal door looks like one you find on a submarine and it with my Delusion Skill active, I can see a faint greenish hue infused in the door.
{Oh, this must be magic or something right?}
Although I have seen magic being used before, like when we were being spied on in the guard house, I have never seen an object infused with it. I bet that the door is further reinforced, making the use of force to open the door difficult.
"Well, what's the worse that could happen?" [Shin]
Even though there's no door handle on the inside, I still reach out and gently push the door. With the sound of the hinges creaking under the doors weight, the thick, sturdy magically enhanced door which is meant to keep prisoners and dangerous people inside, swings open.
{Y-You're kidding right? Persistence, determination, and endurance my ass! Brock, you useless ape! You are a complete let down to your namesake. How could he possibly forget to lock the door?}
At this point, my disappointment in Brock has gotten to the point that I almost go directly to him to slug him for his lack of caution.
{sigh… Well, I might as well use this opportunity to take a look around.}
Before I take a step outside of the cell, I perform a quick sweep of the hallway and listen intently to see if Brock or Roxanne heard the door creak open. On my left is the hallway where I came from with the big steel door closed at the end.
{So, they are keeping watch outside of the dungeon? I guess its safe to say that's the only exit then.}
Turning my head right, I see multiple doors similar to mine dotting the hallway.
{I guess they're over there then.}
I step into the hallway and quietly make my way further down the hall. The doors being a solid slab of metal with no windows make it impossible to see who's in which room, so I use Delusion to see through the door. When I was in the armory and inside the guardhouse, obstructions didn't seem to bother the Skill's use in the face that I could still see people's information through stone and metal.
{Then why can't I see anybody's information through the doors?}
I look at every door and the usual window that pops up in my vision doesn't show up.
{Huh? I never had problems before. Is it the metal?}
I spend the next couple minutes pondering over why my Skill won't work until l come up with a decent idea.
{Is it magic on the door? Maybe there's also another feature than reinforcement or maybe there's too much interference from the magic? If that's true…then what do I do?"
Simply opening each door seems like a terrible idea because I'm sure that there are other people locked up here. Knocking and asking? Yeah, I don't want to attract too much attention. Only when it seems like I'm out of options does an option come to mind.
{Oh yeah, that's true! I got an additional skill with my Delusion skill that I haven't tried yet. Perfect timing!}
I stop in front of a random door and turn to face it. Not knowing how to work this new skill makes me a little anxious of its effects.
{How does this work? Do I just think about it? Do I speak it out loud?}
Focusing inside my body, I close my eyes and I try to picture the skill and turning it on. Strange enough, a small amount of fatigue spreads through my body like fuel being burned for a fire.
I open my eyes and I immediately shut my eyes.
What I saw was Bode, squatting overtop of the corner hole, doing his business. With my Delusion Skill and Active both working at the same time, I witnessed many things that I never wanted to witness. A sense of guilt, disgust, shock, and inferiority flashes through my mind.
{Its okay, no one will find out. This never happened.}
While I give Bode enough time to finish his business, I attempt various methods to erase memories, from self-hypnosis to self-inflicted head injuries. Unfortunately for my sanity, nothing seems to work as the image seems to be burned into my mind.
Shaking my head in one final attempt, I push open the jail door and call out,
"Hey, Bode, are you alright." [Shin]
"Ahhh! Shin? What the hell are you doing here?!" [Bode]
Standing in the corner with his hands seemingly holding up his pants, Bode
{I guess I didn't give him enough time.}
"Pull up your pants and get out here. I'm getting everyone together to go over a new plan for the trial, come over to my cell." [Shin]
Without waiting for his answer, I turn back into the hallway and turn on my Active, looking for the others.
…
It took 10 minutes to gather everyone into my jail cell. Well, it took 30 seconds for everyone except Bode who hadn't finished so I spent the remaining time making sure that they were alright.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, I'll go over our new game plan for the trial. Any questions before I begin?" [Shin]
"Yeah, I got one. Why do we need a new plan? Can't we just stick to the old one where we blame the other people and tell people about their weird behaviour." [Kati]
"No. I heard from the prison guards that there's an Emergency committee and knowing the Prince and Daichi, they are definitely a part of it. They'll do anything to get to me." [Shin]
"Um, Shin. Why will they do that? The prince looked like he was a nice person and you two talked like you were close. Would he really do that?" [Laura]
"Oh yeah. He might not advocate for my/our deaths, but he'll definitely want to get back at me. As for Daichi, he wants me dead."
"Hey, why do you think that they'll go that far?" [Kati]
"Well, you see, I kind of stole both of their fiancés…[Shin]
"Huh?" [Bode]
"What?" [Kati]
"HUUUUUUUH?" [Laura]
1 (W.N. I was about to put Active Skill but that would make it obnoxiously repetitive so from now on, Actives are the name of Active Skills.)