Everything seems dark.
Is it the void?
Or heaven...?
...
I don't really know.
After a while, somehow I felt a small light shining toward my body.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a lot of small clouds passing by a beautiful orange sky.
I was in that nameless forest in the morning.
My body was unmovable. I could not even lift a single finger.
"Damn, what happened?"
"Am I still alive or something?"
I looked at my stomach, but it had nothing but my skin.
"Where are my wounds?"
"I thought I had become a honeycomb or something for real bro."
Normally, I would be very anxious about this situation.
However, I'm still alive.
That's all I have asked for.
And a miracle happened.
Huff.
"Beggars cannot be choosers. Huh?"
"Yep. I'm delighted even for myself."
'Hmm. What should I do now?'
'How about checking my stats?'
"Status Bar."
[Amemura Ryoshu] (Human)
[Esther's Friendship: -15.]
[CP: 0.]
"Wait..."
"What?!?!"
"Where are my precious hard-earned CPs!?"
"FUCCCC-"
"Damn, is that a cost or something?"
"Yeah, it must be..."
"Okay, on second thought... It's pretty fair and square for myself."
Sigh.
"Next."
* Status Bar *
[Mana: 41.6 (C-) → 44.6 (C)] (70 + 19.2) (!)
-Main Stats (!)
[Strength: 9 → 9.35 (Unranked) (!)
Endurance: 9.46 → 10 (Unranked) (!)
Agility: 8.28 → 9.03 (Unranked) (!)
Perception: 10.53 → 11.3 (F-)] (!)
-Secondary Stats (!)
[Charisma 2.25 → 2.3 (Unranked) (!)
Regeneration 41 (C-) → 51 (B-) (!)
Intelligence 2.69 → 5 (Unranked)] (!)
-Extra Stats
[Alteration: 90 (SS+) → 91 (SSS-)] (!)
"Damn"
"What happened to my stats?"
"Why is it so high compared to yesterday?"
"And... did my [Alteration] stat increase for real?"
"Holy cow!"
"How about my [Trait]?"
* Trait *
[Basic Mana Core] (F+ → E) (!)
[High-Temperature Resistance] (Low)
[Fear Resistance] (Low) (New!)
[Low-Temperature Resistance] (Intermediate) (New!)
[Ice Resistance] (Low) (New!)
[Pain Resistance] (Low) (New!)
[Hardened Body] (Low) (New!)
"OH MY FREAKING GOD!!"
"Honestly, what happened to me?!"
"It feels like having a cheat code..."
"For god's sake..."
"What's next?"
* Technique *
[Cooking] (Apprentice)
→ [Foraging] (Apprentice)
* Potential *
[Swordsmanship] (F-) → [Eintausend Style] (0.3%)
-Drei Stab (Lv.1)
-Drei Slash (Lv.1)
[Mana] (F+ → E)
-Mana Concentrating (Lv.3)
Efficiency +10%
-Mana Transforming (Lv.2)
Efficiency +4
-Mana Infusing (Lv.3)
Efficiency +4
-Mana Maintaining (Lv.2)
Efficiency +7%
-Mana Amplifying (Lv.1)
[Magic] (F)
-Fire Magic (Apprentice) (+5% DMG)
[Archery] (E-) (!)
-Charged Attack (Lv.3)
-Aim Assisting (Lv.2)
-Bullet Time (Lv.1)
[The Art of Dart Rope] (F)
-Return (Lv.2)
[Spatial Awareness] (E+)
[Kinesthetic Awareness] (F-)
* Talent *
[Super Memory] (B-)
-Nearly Cannot Forget
[Lightning Reflexes] (C → C+)
-Sense Enhancement → Super Sense
-Death Sense
[Weakness Detection] (A-)
-1,2,3,4. All Set!
-Headshot
-Watch out!]
"Noice, my talent [Lightning Reflexes] has ranked up!"
"It's even better now!"
* Authority *
[System]
"Huh?"
"I think my authority is laggy or something-..."
===[Your Authority "System" needs synchronizing immediately!!!]===
[0%...20%...]
"Why does it need to be synchronized though?!"
'I feel not so good about this thing...'
[98%...99%...]
The closer it was, the more loudly my heart was beating.
[100%]
[Your "System" has been upgraded greatly!]
[System → System V.2 (Lv.1)
-Appraisal
-Status Bar
-Quest
-Inventory
-Level]
[Your Level has been implemented!]
[Currently, your Level will be set to 0!]
"What the hell?"
"So... I'm able to level up now?"
"That's... just so great that I don't even know how to react."
[Amemura Ryoshu] (Human)
In the game, Players can level up indeed. But I'm not a Player... I'm just an extra NPC.
My mind was thinking actively, but I still had no idea.
"And an [Inventory] too?"
"Seriously... What has happened to me while I'm being unconscious?"
"Inventory" - I tried opening my [Inventory].
A ring-shaped white hole appeared in front of me.
'I could even see the content inside it.'
'Hmm?'
"a B-rank and an A-rank [Charisma Potion]???"
----Items---
* [Charisma Potion] (B)
Description: A super fine potion for the ugly.
-Beautify
Upon consuming, immediately increase [Charisma] permanently by 1.5 stat points.
And after that, every day [Charisma] stat will be increased by 0.1 stat points until it reaches 30.
* [Charisma Potion] (C)
Description: A high-quality potion to increase [Charisma].
-Beautify
Upon consuming, immediately increase [Charisma] permanently by 2 stat points.
And after that, every day [Charisma] stat will be increased by 0.2 stat points until it reaches 40.
--------
"And most importantly... my second ring???"
----Equipments----
[Angel's Ring] (?)
Sealed.
----------
"How?? I mean... WHEN?"
"This cannot be real, right?"
"Am I dreaming?"
I tried to convince myself that this is not real. But I failed anyway.
'I can move my body now, but my movement is kinda stiff and every time I move, I feel hurt as hell.'
I took my precious potions out of my newly added feature.
Glug glug.
I drank both potions in one go and began returning to the dorm.
I caught the last bus of the day to the Spiral Academy.
The bus was really quiet too.
To kill my time, I checked other things.
[Charisma: 5.7 (Unranked)
When I added up all three potions that I had consumed, I now had the following:
1 (initial) + (1+1.5+2) (immediate effect) + 0.05x 4 (4 days after drinking the C-rank potion) = 5.7 points.
Tomorrow it will surge by a whopping 0.35 points.
When it reaches 20, it will only rise by 0.3 points.
And by the time it becomes 30, it will only be increased by 0.2 points.
It will definitely take a while for me to be considered handsome...
But at least in that way, I'll be less likely to be discriminated against by my appearance.
And who knows, maybe I'll find another S-rank [Charisma Potion] in the process...
Sigh.
That aside, I now have both the rings that will play a pivotal role in the beginning of the game.
One ring that continuously drains my health, and the other one that continuously heals me. Both rings can also level up if they absorb or heal a certain amount of health.
Now I just need to wear both rings at the same time and I will both lose health and heal at the same time.
'Doing this 24 on 7 will unlock new passive skills such as "Pain Resistance", which I already have, and "Self-recovery". Moreover, my [Endurance] will increase rapidly.'
As soon as I put the second ring on my index finger, I looked at it carefully and complimented it on its beauty.
'While his ring has a nice design with a warm color like white and yellow, the other one is covered in a pitch dark tone with some red outline.'
Both of them made each other more beautiful because of their contrast.
I felt a warming fragrance around my body.
Afterward, I put the remaining ring on my middle finger because it looked badass.
A heavy fragrance suddenly pressed my shoulder down a bit.
Wearing it is quite overwhelming for my mental fortitude, but in return, my [Endurance] stat will be increased by 0.1 points.
'But it's just the first day so I should start by only wearing it while I'm still awake, otherwise, I won't be able to sleep if I wear it while I'm sleeping.'
Before going to bed, I went to the cafeteria to eat a bit more food.
'After a close death, everyone will feel hungry as hell.'
'Or maybe it's just me. Haha.'
And suddenly I found Katia sleeping on the table.
Who would have expected to see Katia sleeping in a weird place like this?
I sat in front of her and contemplated her.
A simp like me will definitely have to do this kind of cringy action.
'But hey, I'm not hurting her or-'
Erm, maybe I should not make excuses.
Yeah, I like her.
I admired her personality, power, story, and... yeah... undeniably, her beauty.
Now I remember that in the game she also has a habit of sleeping a lot so sometimes she looks quite drowsy.
But that's what makes her adorable at the same time.
'I wanna pat her head so badly.'
'I wanna pinch those white and gorgeous cheeks.'
I've wanted to meet her for a long time, but that was purely a dream in my previous life.
But who would have thought that now I would meet...
'Even though the situation was really awkward, it still counts.'
I looked at her for another ten minutes but didn't dare to say anything because I was afraid that I would interrupt her sleep.
I couldn't help but say,
"Why are you so cute?"
I was a bit embarrassed that I accidentally said it, but since she was sleeping so deeply, she probably wouldn't have heard anything.
'That girl will definitely tease me for being so shy at my age.'
'On second thought, I don't feel hungry anymore.'
I stood up and went back to my room without eating anything.
'It was pretty late already...'
I was intent on practicing a little more. However, I was too exhausted, so I just meditated a little and worked a little more on my lightning magic.
But after 4 days of trying to get the hang of it, I knew barely how to transform my pure mana into lightning mana.
I could only make my mana heat up and some sparks flew out, but it wasn't that obvious.
Sigh.
"I will call it a day."
It was quite frustrating but I couldn't do it so I immediately went to take a shower.
While showering, I often have the habit of singing while bathing.
'Perhaps many people have the same habit as me.'
Even though I was not a terrible singer, luckily every room had soundproofing, so I was not afraid of disturbing the people next to my room.
'I don't know how they would react if they could listen to my voice, huh?'
'Maybe they will think that they have a bad neighbor. Haha.'
That night was the first night that I actually had a pleasant sleep.