Chapter 3: Destiny and Encounter
§§{Character}
Na: Daisu
Overall Level: 1
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Class: Player Lv.1 [0]
Experience: 0 / 100
HP: --
AP: --
MP: 73 / 73
Attack Power: --
Willpower: 16 ( 0)
Defense: --
…
Range 2: --
Height: 175.5cm
Weight: 64.0kg
Status: --
Eye Color: Jet-black
Hair Color: Jet-black
Body Type: Skinny Fat
Alignnt: Chaotic Neutral
…§§
In the AaA series, there were also campaigns where one could operate multiple characters and their corresponding character sheets at the sa ti.
But never before had there been a case where a single character used multiple character sheets like now.
‘What’s with this “Player” class? And why are the status resources and status stats like this…?’
Status resources referred to HP, AP, and MP, while status stats referred to the elents listed below them.
Even if these entries were reduced to zero, it didn’t an they would be left blank like they were now.
Only MP and Willpower were being displayed properly.
I wondered if it ant the mind was separated from the body, but then again, the idea that Daisu and Dicendel’s minds were distinct also felt strange.
To figure that out, I needed to check the abilities.
The character sheet in front of wasn’t arranged with turning pages but rather with scrolling and tabs.
The mont I thought about opening the Abilities tab, the stats appeared first, along with three sub-tabs.
§§{Abilities}
Strength: 7
Perception: 6
Intelligence: 27
Constitution: 6
Magic Power: 4
Dexterity: 7
Charisma: 13
Imrsion: 5.0%
Bonus Points: 0 §§
Considering that, during character creation, the base abilities for a level 1 human were all set at 10 points, these numbers were a pitiful reflection of my current physical condition.
‘No HP or AP, yet all the ability scores are here? Why do I even have Magic Power? Did it just set so arbitrary minimum? And judging from the fact Dicendel’s remaining bonus points don’t apply, does this an Dicendel and Daisu level up separately?’
Right above the bonus points, however, sothing strange caught my eye.
That “5%” Imrsion score.
Imrsion was a score the Ga Master gave to evaluate the player. It wasn’t sothing normally displayed in the abilities, and even less so as a percentage like this.
‘Honestly, in my current state, even 0% feels high. How am I supposed to imrse myself in a situation like this? And besides, without any dice to roll, what does imrsion even matter? No, if they bothered to display it, there must be so reward tied to it.’
§§…
Imrsion: 5.0% → 4.9%
…§§
In the original gas, Imrsion was rely a chanism to give extra modifiers to dice rolls when used.
Therefore, having low imrsion at the mont wasn’t particularly bad, so I decided to ignore the fact it was dropping in real ti.
Next, I moved on to the Traits tab.
§§{Traits}
Human Adaptability Lv.1
Oratory Lv.4
Trauma Manifestation Lv.2
Paranoia Lv.1
Nightmare Resistance Lv.9
Bonus Points: 0 §§
‘This is truly awful.’
One notable point was that and overlapped with Dicendel’s traits.
I wondered how exactly these would take effect in this kind of situation.
Next, I decided to check the Skills tab.
§§{Skills}
Acting Lv.3
└ Observation
└ Falsehood
└ Imitation
Contemplation Lv.1
Prospect Lv.1
Projection Lv.1
└ Thought Transmission
Languages
└ Korean
└ Spanish
└ English
└ (Acquirable)
Bonus Points: 0
Acquirable Skills §§
Among the displayed skills, both and , much like the “Player” class, were ones I had never seen in the rulebook.
They were indeed things I was actually good at, but I didn’t expect even sothing like these to be listed as skills.
‘Let’s start with… …?’
To understand its detailed function, I repeated the skill’s na in my head.
Then, the trembling that still lingered in my body vanished instantly.
At the sa ti, my mind felt as if it had been honed sharp like a blade.
‘And now, .’
I felt as though my mind was floating, and my vision changed.
It was as if I were stuck to the ceiling, looking down at the room—when in fact, I could clearly see the top of my character Dicendel.
I tried to shift my view by moving my mind as I would my body, but I couldn’t move forward, backward, or sideways; I could only spin in place.
I could move my mind vertically, but if I hit the ceiling or floor, it felt blocked and I could go no further.
Instead, when I tried to move my actual body, my body moved accordingly.
It was like controlling a ga character from a bird’s-eye view.
‘Well, I suppose that’s exactly what it is.’
Lastly, was also a skill I had never seen before, and unlike the previous two, it didn’t seem to have much to do with my past experiences.
Judging from the fact it had sub-skills, it was probably an exclusive basic skill I gained when I acquired the Player class.
‘.’
I tried using the skill, but nothing happened.
In such cases, it was highly likely there simply wasn’t a target.
If so, I’d leave for later and focus on practicing the other abilities first.
[Notice. The Player’s imrsion has dropped to 0%, and great misfortune is now in effect.]
The mont I heard the notice, I hurriedly repeated the words “Contemplation” and “Prospect” in my head to cancel the skills.
“There’s no such thing in the real ga! If you’re going to add sothing new, at least give a warning first, you bastard…!”
In the original ga, low imrsion never applied any penalties.
But “misfortune”?
And not just any misfortune—“great” misfortune.
I imdiately grabbed the staff leaning against the window and the shield on the desk.
Then, I raised my alertness to the maximum.
‘I don’t sense anything yet.’
But I couldn’t relax.
To resolve the current situation, I had to raise my imrsion again.
The simplest thod was to role-play the character perfectly, just like in the original ga.
‘Let’s see…’
“I am Dicendel Rio!”
§§…
Imrsion: 0.0%
…§§
Even with self-suggestion, the imrsion didn’t budge.
‘Tch—so it’s no good after all.’
If that was the case, the next option was to act like Dicendel.
In the current situation, the easiest thing to do was probably to use a skill.
‘For example, ’s .’
was the most basic servant of the World Tree, summonable from at level 1.
Its speed was slow, but it was extrely useful for a wide range of strategic purposes—attack, defense, and restraint—allowing for optimal responses against any opponent.
‘No… better to hold back for now.’
The phrase “great misfortune” bothered .
Judging from what happened when I used and , there was no actual “dice roll” anyway.
But since this person applied penalties for low imrsion, I had no idea what else they might pull.
And then—
[Player’s Dice: 00, 0]
I had just made the mistake of repeating a skill na in my head.
‘Huh? There was a dice roll—?’
[Notice. Dice roll result: 0, critical failure.]
[Notice. You have completely failed to use the skill. As a result, a harmful causality occurs.]
[Player’s Dice: 00, 0]
[Notice. Type of critical failure: Catastrophe.]
[Player’s Dice: 10, 3]
[Notice. Type of catastrophe: Mana Rampage.]
[Notice. Mana Rampage occurs. An additional catastrophe will also arrive.]
Rumble-rumble—KWAANG!
In a split second, right after I saw the illusion of two 10-sided dice rolling three tis in succession along with the notice—
A massive vine shot up from beneath my feet like the head of a viper, accompanied by a violent tremor.
Whoosh—CRASH! CRACK! BOOM!
It then swung sideways, smashing all the furniture and walls in the room before rushing straight toward .
Swoooosh—!
[Target’s Dice: 40, 2]
[Notice. The target difficulty is 42.]
[Player’s Dice: 50, 9]
[Notice. Adding modifier equal to the difference in Perception score between the player and target: -14]
[Notice. Adding modifier from : -10]
[Notice. Dice roll result: -7, failure.]
[Notice. You failed to react.]
Because of my low Perception score and the trait, my reaction was delayed.
[Player’s Dice: 40, 6]
[Notice. Adding modifier equal to the difference in Perception score between the player and target: -14]
[Notice. Adding modifier equal to target’s Dexterity score: -18]
[Notice. Adding modifier from : -10]
[Notice. Dice roll result: -38, failure.]
[Notice. You failed to defend.]
I clumsily lifted the shield in my left hand.
Because of that, the struck squarely in the chest, wide open and unguarded.
[Notice. The attack deals 280 damage.]
[Notice. Applying modifier from previous dice roll result: ×0.9]
[Notice. Applying modifier equal to player’s Defense: -25]
[Notice. Player takes 227 damage. Additional effect: Bleeding.]
THUD! —BOOM!
“Graaagh!”
Crack.
My body was flung back violently, smashing through the door I hit—
and colliding with soone who had been standing in the hallway beyond.
[Notice. Impact damage is…]
[…Player takes 13 total damage.]
[Target’s Dice…]
[…Target takes 87 total damage.]
“…Kghhh!”
“Kyaaah!”
We rolled across the hallway several tis in a tangled heap before finally coming to a stop after slamming into the opposite room’s door.
When I strained to look down, I saw the leather armor was badly torn, blood seeping from my chest,
and the shield had completely broken from so bad collision.
“Ugh… you… what the hell was that…!”
The person who had rolled with quickly stood up and drew a whip from their belt.
Blood was streaming from both nostrils, so I couldn’t be certain—
But the burning golden eyes, long straight hair, pretty face, and sharp yet shorter-than-elf ears…
‘Galanuel…?’
It was without a doubt the utterly broken character I had created—‘Galanuel Tudil.’
I was about to speak, but dizziness overtook , and I lost consciousness.
“Haa—ah!”
When I ca to, I imdiately scanned my surroundings in alert.
“Oh? You’re awake?”
A short distance away, a stunning elf woman approached , speaking.
Her long, silky black hair flowed like silk, and her large black pearl-like eyes seed to draw everything in like a black hole.
Her looks could rival Galanuel’s from earlier.
“How’s your body?”
Judging from the situation and surroundings, I must have been taken to a hospital right after fainting.
“Yes, it hurts a bit, but it’s bearable.”
What ca out of my mouth was a language I had never heard before.
Co to think of it, what she had said earlier was the sa.
Yet I understood the aning perfectly, and the words flowed out naturally from my mouth.
It must have been Elvish—or perhaps the Common tongue—manifested due to the ga becoming reality.
“Is that so? This is the school infirmary. By the way, I’m Instructor ‘Eleina Silond’ for the Healing Arts course. Do you know you were so badly injured and bleeding that you almost died? You’ve been asleep for a full day!”
‘Did she just say “almost died”?’
I quickly called up my character sheet.
§§…
HP: 193 / 260
AP: 46 / 46
MP: 0 / 184
…
Status: Mana Rampage
…§§
Among the three ways to recover HP in AaA—‘healing,’ ‘rest,’ and another— the fact my HP still wasn’t full even after applying healing and rest ant her words about almost dying were true.
On top of that, I had also been inflicted with the “Mana Rampage” status ailnt.
This status imposed a huge danger on the caster and their surroundings, and even afterward, it locked MP at 0, preventing recovery for a ti.
The reason I ended up like this was because my dice roll had been a critical failure.
In AaA, all dice rolls were standardized to “2d10,” determining the success and degree of actions with results from 00 to 99.
Here, “2d10” ant using two 10-sided dice.
For example, if the die for the tens place rolled 40 and the one for the ones place rolled 7,
the final result would be 47, aning the action succeeded clumsily.
But Mana Rampage occurred when you rolled “00” for a skill check, then rolled 00 again to trigger a catastrophe, and finally rolled 13 or lower to manifest it.
It was an absurdly low probability.
Fortunately, whether it was due to the incident or not, my imrsion had risen, aning I was safe for the ti being.
§§…
Imrsion: 32.5%
…§§
‘Still, I didn’t expect one of my other characters to appear here…’
—Notice. The campaign is divided into multiple chapters. Each chapter, except the first, takes place in a specific character’s background location, and you must recruit other characters as party mbers after discovering them. Remaining questions: 0 tis.
That was the answer I had received from the Ga Master right before creating the character Dicendel.
I had used that answer to deliberately steer this chapter’s setting, but a slight misunderstanding had occurred.
I had thought that “except the first” also applied to the latter part about “discovering and recruiting other characters.”
In other words, I assud that none of my other characters would appear in this chapter.
‘And it had to be Galanuel, of all people.’
Galanuel Tudil was a money-obsessed half-elf woman I created for a short-domain managent campaign I once ran.
For this character, I invested not only the default bonus points from creation but also extra bonus points gained from penalty traits, creating two custom traits: and .
At the ti, I used those traits and capital points to purchase a wide variety of creatures, operating them as a corporate-style dungeon to earn even more money.
Around mid-campaign, I even drove all the dungeons I owned into overdrive to crash the prices of mines, forestry sites, and roads within the campaign, buying them at dirt-cheap rates.
By the end of the campaign, I had taken control of all resources and distribution channels in the setting.
With that money, I hired dozens of knights and adventurers, defeating the final boss with ease.
Of course, that boss was no match for a long-campaign final boss, but considering Galanuel’s low level and the campaign’s progression at the ti, it was a remarkable feat.
Above all, I still rembered how the final battle was such a spectacle that even a single turn took more than ten minutes to play out.
And now, that sa character had appeared in a seminary completely unrelated to her original story.
This had to be the Ga Master’s sche.
“…And apparently, you attacked Galanuel first when she ca to invite you to join a club? Then she retaliated.”
Even as I considered the Ga Master’s intentions, Eleina continued speaking.
‘A club?’
Well, at least I had a rough grasp of the current situation.
At the ti, Galanuel had been passing through the freshman dormitory hallway to invite soone to join a club.
For so reason, it was now being said that the reason she and I were both injured was because of a fight between us.
“…No, that was just an accident.”
“Is that so? Actually, a disciplinary eting about you and Galanuel is being held right now. Once you’re discharged, soone will co find you. Try to persuade them well. I’ll also put in a good word. My instincts tell you’re not a bad kid.”
When I returned to the dorm after being discharged, my original room and the surrounding area were completely destroyed, so I was assigned a new one.
Thankfully, it seed soone had moved all my belongings for .
Among them, I spotted my leather armor, now nothing more than a rag.
Knock knock.
That must be the “soone” Eleina had ntioned.
The person knocking was a middle-aged elf man with calm green hair and eyes that stood out.
“Student Dicendel Rio. I heard you were discharged.”
“And you are…?”
“Ah, I am ‘des Holimdrasir,’ head instructor for the Botany course. I also serve as the chairman of the disciplinary committee. I’m here to inform you of the eting’s proceedings and outco…”
To summarize what the man calling himself des said—
Both I, who had allegedly preemptively attacked Galanuel when she ca to invite to join a club,
and Galanuel, who overdefended and inflicted serious injury upon ,
should rightfully have been expelled. But for so reason, it had been decided to overlook the matter.
‘For so reason?’
“Well then, I’ll be on my way. I need to deliver the sa ssage to Student Galanuel Paladeltion.”
“Paladeltion, you say…?”
The surna I gave Galanuel wasn’t sothing like “Paladeltion” but “Tudil.”
des, about to leave, turned his head.
“You didn’t know? Three years ago, she entered this seminary to compete for succession within the great house of Paladeltion. At present, she’s the most likely candidate. In any case, I regret that sothing like this happened right after your enrollnt.”
It seed the story was heading in a direction that would undermine my reason for choosing an academy setting.
I still didn’t know what kind of family the Paladeltion house was, but if Galanuel succeeded in inheriting it, she would beco impossible to recruit into my party.
And that ant failure to clear the campaign—in other words, my death.
In that case, I needed to make a move now to change the situation.
Using the hint the elf in front of had subtly dropped, along with my knowledge of Galanuel—
“Instructor des! If you help , I’ll try to keep Galanuel in check.”
“…I’m not sure what you an. I have no reason to keep Student Galanuel in check. Besides, she is the most outstanding student in Alvheim Seminary’s history. How exactly would a freshman like you manage that?”
des spoke as if he had no interest, but there was a subtle glimr of anticipation in his eyes.
As I thought—he had taken the bait.
“The school—or at least the disciplinary committee—has already been bought off by Galanuel, and I also know you’re finding it hard to simply stand by and watch, Instructor.”
The very fact that things had turned out this way was proof enough that soone’s influence was at work.
It was also the kind of move I often made when playing Galanuel.
Most likely, they intended to use this incident to gain so sort of advantage.
And this des fellow’s attitude was not that of soone supporting Galanuel.
His expression, though composed, occasionally flickered with traces of disgust and sha.
“You misun—”
“You don’t have to worry about . If you’ve seen the wreck of my old room, you’d know I’m no pushover. More importantly, I have a secret plan to defeat Galanuel.”
“…Then why, Student Dicendel, are you…”
“She and I have been tangled in a bad relationship since long ago. That’s why we ended up fighting this ti as well. Please help , Instructor.”
“……”
[Target’s Dice: 30, 3]
[Notice. Target difficulty is 33.]
[Player’s Dice: 60, 1]
[Notice. Adding situational modifier: 10]
[Notice. Relationship with target is neutral: 0]
[Notice. Target is negative toward player’s opinion: -20]
[Notice. Adding modifier equal to the difference in Intelligence score between player and target: -51]
[Notice. Adding modifier equal to the difference in Charisma score between player and target: 3]
[Notice. Adding modifier from : 10]
[Notice. Adding modifier from : 20]
[Notice. Dice roll result: 0, success.]
[Notice. Successfully persuaded the target.]
Thanks to being possessed by both Dicendel and Daisu and triggering in overlap, the dice roll succeeded.
‘So traits can be applied simultaneously…! I can already think of a hundred fun ways to abuse this.’
“…Everything you said is correct. And honestly, after seeing the collapsed side of the dormitory, I felt a shaful sense of anticipation as an instructor. I wondered if a student had appeared who could restrain Galanuel. If things keep going as they are, this sacred school will end up as nothing more than a single student’s business operation. …What would you have do?”
“Well, I have a good idea. Could sothing like this be possible?”
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