Chapter 31: Re:Monster (Rough Draft)
For the record, this ROUGH DRAFT of a first chapter has an almost obscene amount of, probably unnecessary, statistics. And the rough draft may in fact have no correlation whatsoever to the finished draft of the first chapter.
I. Am. A NEET.
I am also a game designer, but since I'm not actually working on a project or employed, the first fact still stands..
But you're probably asking why this is important.
Well, that would be because these two facts determined everything about my new life.
So, just casually browsing the web, looking for a half-decent game to play, I hear 'Is life meaningless to you?' as part of an advert. Naturally after reading many, many stories about games that take you to another world, my lips curl up in amusement and I look up the link. What greets me next is as follows:
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[Select a race:]
[Imp]
[Fairy]
[Goblin]
[Nymph]
[Gnome]
[Slime]
[Human]
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Now. Looking at this from a logical perspective, I broke it down to the most basic level.
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[Dark Magic]
[Holy Magic]
[Strength]
[Elemental Magic]
[Mechanics]
[Endurance]
[All-rounder]
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Human most likely has a number of drawbacks considering the overall advantage they would have over the other races by being much larger. Also, considering Goblin is there, it's likely an evolution mechanic is involved… Ah! Not enough information!
I choose Nymph. According to mythology they are pretty much exclusively female, but here's hoping.
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[Select a gender:]
[Female]
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Oi oi. For half a second there I thought I might actually have a choice. Ah well. I guess I'll just choose it for now. Also, I just noticed there's no back button… But can't I just refresh the page if I really need to?
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[Modify Status:]
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[STR: 4 {+} {-}]
[END: 6 {+} {-}]
[WIS: 16 {+} {-}]
[INT: 16 {+} {-}]
[SPD: 8 {+} {-}]
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[Points remaining: 20]
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Now comes the difficult part. Assuming I am in fact an elemental caster, my focus should be that of a control mage. Meaning a massive mana pool should be the main focus, with endurance as secondary, and striking power and speed as the tertiary.
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[STR: 4]
[END: 12 {-}]
[WIS: 25 {-}]
[INT: 19 {-}]
[SPD: 10 {-}]
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[Points remaining: 0 - {Continue}]
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[Select a racial trait:]
[Nature's bounty: Foraging success +50%]
[Heritage: Current bonus - Regeneration Speed +20%]
[Nature's call: Speak all languages]
[All return to the cycle: Extract unique abilities/traits from each being defeated, upon death, lose 50%]
[Whispers of the forest: While within a given radius of large plant life, create a mental map of everything within their sight]
[Life's many truths: Gain the ability to detect falsehoods]
[Lifebound: Born alongside nature, if your soul tree is destroyed, so are you, but you are otherwise unkillable]
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The heck is that last BS?! That's OP!.. Actually, thinking about it they say 'destroyed' not 'killed'. So it's probably character deletion. Yeh, let's avoid that and go for [All return to the cycle]. And 'being' huh? That's an odd way to put it... Probably means there's a faction system. Now I'm really wondering how all of these different mechanics are going to be implemented, and how I've never heard of such a complex game before. Back on topic, [Heritage] also seems really powerful, but if all traits are like these, I'll definitely regret not choosing the ability to get more.
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[Select a balancer:]
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[Vegetative: Require longer rest periods]
[Frail: Reduce STR and END growth]
[Dense: Reduce WIS growth]
[Slut: Reduce INT growth, increased libido]
[Fat: Reduce SPD growth, increase END growth minutely]
[Slacker: Reduce all growth slightly]
[Gullible: Extortion chance +80%]
[Kind: Influence with nobles -20, influence with commons +10]
[Ruthless: Influence with commons -20, influence with nobles +10]
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Some of these are just plain insulting. But I think I'm going for [Kind]. I'd rather have a few organized groups after me than every citizen in a location, plus, the drawback seems minor in comparison to things like [Frail] or especially [Dense], and I have a feeling that if rest periods are required in the first place, timing is going to be a big thing.
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[Select a focus:]
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[Learning: INT/WIS stat growth +50%]
[Training: STR/END/SPD stat growth +33%]
[Sleeping: Require shorter rest periods]
[Conservationism: Related skills level up at triple speed]
[Engineering: Related skills level up at triple speed]
[Ruler: Related skills level up at triple speed]
[Alchemy: Related skills level up at triple speed]
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I'm getting sick of this now. Obviously I'm going for Learning. Ignore everything else, I will be the greatest control mage.
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[GOODBYE]
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Eh? Why is it? AND NOW EVERYTHING'S GONE DARK!
…
…
…
Actually this might not be too bad. This world is indeed rather restricting… But I wonder if anyone else has had this experience.
----- Anyone Else -----
It's dark.
The darkness envelopes all, preventing me from seeing any shape or figure.
Where am I? Besides, what had happened?
Wasn't there someone making fun of me, calling me a… sage?… no, a great sage.
----- Second Anyone -----
How?
What's going on?
Why is there an ugly green skinned man staring at me?
----- Day 1 -----
Ah… What a pain in the ass. Well, at least I lay on soft grass instead of a hard stone floor or something…Once I'd opened my eyes, right in front of me was a beautiful young lady. Tall (though with my size, most things are) and lithe, she had pale green skin and silky green hair. Massive wings. Couldn't look at any more after that… Needed sleep.
----- Day 2 -----
By comparing the size of the surrounding plants and trees to myself, I've established that my caretaker is a whopping… 2 ½ feet tall. I also discovered that I can communicate with the others through thought, but only when they're close. No tests could be run, since I still couldn't move my infant body much. I can swing my arms and legs though, so it's getting there.
----- Day 3 -----
Trying hard to learn how to express myself, but it's difficult. There's no problem with the words themselves, since apparently we instinctively understand the meaning of any… Nymphish? Words we hear, but it's the sentence structure that I have trouble with. Thankfully, alongside the others, the caretaker is instructing us. I seem to be picking it up far quicker than the others, which means the learning focus must be doing it's job. I wonder why Nymphs grow up so fast. Maybe they have a lot of natural predators… I hope not though.
----- Day 4 -----
Already I can express myself to a certain extent, and I decide to try my luck at asking to go foraging. If other reincarnators arrived in this world at the same time or before me, I'll need to level up as quickly as possible. If that means taking small risks, so be it.
"I forage outside nursery?"
"Oh? Why do you want to do that?"
It's a bit risky, but I have to try.
"Meat."
"Ah…" She begins to mumble "Yes I was told there might be few like that, what was it…" Raising her 'voice' again, she continues "OK! You can go, but yo have to be back before dark, and don't wander too far."
She probably thinks I didn't catch the last part.
"He'll won't do it again after seeing it once."
Jokes on her, I've seen it happen plenty already. One of the first things that we were taught is that the 'village' is surrounded by an illusion enchantment that guides dangerous creatures away. So don't go through the shimmering dome. Wouldn't anyway, seems sketchy.
10 minutes of slowly flying, with a couple of rest stops, and I have a ?Rabbit? Just underneath me. So I jump on top of it and bash it's head in with a rock I found. The least I can do is give it a quick death.
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[Ablity gained: Lesser Leg Strength]
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[Level Up! 1 - 2!]
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[STR: 4 - 5!]
[END: 12 - 14!]
[WIS: 25]
[INT: 19]
[SPD: 10 - 12!]
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[Free stat points: 5]
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Eh? So my status isn't actually an unseeable thing huh… So how do I access it?
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[Name: Adrasteia]
[Species: Nymph]
[Focus: Learning]
[Titles: Reincarnator]
[Magic: Mana Pulse]
[Abilities: Lesser Leg Strength]
[Traits: Servant of the Cycle]
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[Stats]
[STR: 5 {+} {-}]
[END: 14 {+} {-}]
[WIS: 25 {+} {-}]
[INT: 19 {+} {-}]
[SPD: 12 {+} {-}]
[Free stat points: 5]
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Why do I have free stat points? And what's [Mana Pulse]?
[Reincarnator: +5 stat points per level-up]
[Mana Pulse: Expel a portion of your MP in order to overload the opponent's senses. (Warning: Area of Effect)]
''Then add all stat points to wisdom for now. I'll need it to hunt more.'
After this I thought up a number of tests to work out what determines my stats when I level up. To do this, I taught myself to roughly aim a mana pulse before flying after another rabbit- this one had a horn, just for the record- for quite a while and blasting it with a mana pulse at full strength, which to my surprise, killed it instantly... I guess it makes sense in a way for something with a smaller brain capacity to die so easily from something like that. Repeating it with 2 more rabbits, I leveled up yet again.
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[Level Up! 2 - 3!]
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[STR: 5]
[END: 14 - 16!]
[WIS: 30 - 32!]
[INT: 19 - 20!]
[SPD: 12]
----- Day 7 -----
I've now at level 6 all but confirmed my theories. You cannot gain more than 5 stat points per level-up, but you can alternatively gain or lose stat points by other means, I spent quite a bit of the week doing laps of the village and helping out, which increased my endurance, speed and strength. I also killed a snake, and one rabbit in particular was difficult to get. I now have the abilities [Swift Strike] and [Evasion]. Also fun to note, the other children and most of the adults get along fine with me, but the Elder… Doesn't. He can't kick me out because of the rest of them though. I guess [Kind] was the right choice after all. It's getting much harder to level up now though. I guess at some point I'll need to move beyond the illusion. And it'll give the Elder an excuse to get rid of me for a while.
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[Name: Adrasteia]
[Level: 6]
[Species: Nymph]
[Focus: Learning]
[Titles: Reincarnator]
[Magic: Mana Pulse]
[Abilities: Lesser Leg Strength]
[Skills: Swift Strike, Evasion]
[Traits: Servant of the Cycle]
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[Stats]
[STR: 7]
[END:25]
[WIS: 48]
[INT: 25]
[SPD: 17]
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[Free stat points: 0]
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone