Hana 12: I Found a Person!

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)	Strength:                    1/1(10)
Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)	Intelligence:                1/1(10)
Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)	Agility:                        1/1(10)
Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)	Resistance:                10%(100%)
Skill Points: 1
Skills: Mana Capacitator; Arachnophobia Lv. MAX; Vulka Lv.1; Intuition Lv. 1; Strong Will Lv. 1; Cornered Animal Lv. 1; Analysis Lv. 3
Statuses: Divine Retribution

 

Where am I even trying to go? I had made various turns, chosen between multiple paths, but there wasn’t any sign of something… something more. You can’t be serious. Is the den of the Newbie-Killer spider the only way up? It was definitely a long drop down that tunnel, but there’s more serious problems than just trying to climb up that. It’s an undisputable no for going that way. I couldn’t find my way back if I wanted to.

It’s not like I could have left bread crumbs behind to mark my path. It would have been put to better use in my stomach than uselessly lining the ground. Not that it would be that much more useful, my stomach had already ceased growling. Hours ago? Days? That much time hasn’t passed yet… probably.

Did you know? When you start to ignore your stomach, it will begin to make noises to notify you that it’s hungry. Honestly, you’re supposed to eat way before you hear your stomach make sounds. But let’s say you continue to ignore your stomach. Soon you will have the distinct feeling of your stomach cramping up, which is followed up by excruciating pain. This can last up to a few hours, but once you pass this phase, your stomach will shrink in size and cause you less pain even though there’s no food.

That’s because the gastric acids have started to eat away at the stomach lining. Surprisingly, it takes quite a while for medical symptoms to develop from this. The stomach lining is naturally resistant to acid after all. But when you don’t eat food, the acid begins to corrode the protective mucus membrane, before eventually burning into the walls themselves.

Well before your stomach develops holes though, the body will suffer from a deficiency of nutrients and energy. Usually this results in the burning of sugars and fats, but given enough time, it will be forced to break down the bonds in muscles for energy, causing rapid tissue atrophy. Some time after, the person will die from organ failure if not treated.

In short, I couldn’t bear to stay hungry for much longer. How long has it been since I ate food? I don’t know! The entire process of death by starvation is relatively long, taking up to 40-50 days assuming you have a source of water. Without water, your life expectation is cut down. A lot. You can expect 3-4 days before you die from lack of hydration.

I’m begrudgingly thankful for the sewer water. A source of clean water right next to me. It’s kind of amazing. I tried dipping the slime I’d been holding onto in a section of visible water to see what would happen. It sucked up the water, then it spewed out the contaminants out one spout hole, and water out the outer. Slightly slime flavored clean water.

In hindsight, I realized how careless it was to do that to the slime without knowing what would happen. I’m not even sure how it feels about the whole situation to begin with, since I still can’t communicate with them. <<Analyze>> can’t read anything off them either because they have a higher level. But’s its so exciting to me. How does the slime naturally purify water? Is its inner membrane able to be that selective and separate out minute particles from water?

.

.

It wasn’t until a flickering light in the distance appeared that I woke up from my ponderings. Wow, that is really bright, I feel slightly blinded by that. <<Vulca>> felt more like a low powered night light compared to this thing.

I had no way of knowing that I had been followed on my wayward walk this entire time until I was tackled backwards right into a slimy cushion behind me. The loud roar of crashing water echoed throughout the tunnel as a giant crocodile’s maw snapped shut on where I had been A slimy, slitted eye glared at me as it slowly drew away, the snout of the monster pulling away from the smashed wall it had plowed into. It sunk back into the cloudy water, using its short finned front legs to push itself off the ledge. Within seconds, the ripples on the water disappeared and the only thing I could hear was the beat of my heart racing.

Oh. And the redhead girl who was on top of me breathing heavily.

.

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Ya nai. It’s not like that you guys! Even if she’s got a pretty face with chiseled features and has me pinned down, it’s not like that! Both my hands were held down to the ground above my head. There’s an uncomfortable pain in my left hand which I realized is the pole of her metal spear pressing into it.

It finally registers that she’s been yelling something at me. Ahh, she’s cute even if she’s angry. … Noooooo, it’s not like that! Nothing that she says is anything I can understand though. Dammit, that Focker is so useless. I don’t even have a translation skill as a natural ability, but it would be something I have to learn. I’m not willing to spend my last skill point on that though.

I try to eloquently introduce myself given the circumstances.

“Hi.”

The beautiful girl is perplexed.

Hana 11: Go Fish

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)	Strength:                    1/1(10)
Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)	Intelligence:                1/1(10)
Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)	Agility:                        1/1(10)
Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)	Resistance:                10%(100%)
Skill Points: 1
Skills: Mana Capacitator; Arachnophobia Lv. MAX; Vulka Lv.1; Intuition Lv. 1; Strong Will Lv. 1; Cornered Animal Lv. 1; Analysis Lv. 3
Statuses: Divine Retribution

 

Aaaagh. I couldn’t do it. Does that make me a coward? They saved me, but now I’m planning to use them as training fodder. I was going to kill them so that I could level up.

Isn’t that kind of messed up?

I put the slime back down as I began to slowly feel sick. Sick of myself, and sick of everything. It was like the world was working to dredge up the worst parts out of me, twist and knot it up, then cram it back in. What even was the point, I began to wonder? If I conquered the world, I would be reunited with my mother. But if I didn’t, then my mother would die again. Does that really matter though? Focker said it himself, didn’t he?

“Dying a second time can’t be that painful right?”

Is this living hell worth it? My body hurts, my mind bends, and my soul aches. Nothing in this place is hospitable. Is my mother even wor-

Stop. STOP. How could I think that? I’m… just a terrible person. I realized early on this was no fairy tale. Everything has been setbacks after setbacks. Time and again, I’d been holding out for a miracle. A silver knight, a legendary sword, blessings of a god, or even cheat-like abilities. Yet, none of these happened. I can’t stop reminding myself, this isn’t a fantasy-like novel where the protagonist’s underdog strength lets them save the day. It’s taken a toll on me, I realized. Subconsciously waiting for some abnormal power to be granted to me.

While there are god-like beings such as Focker, I can’t expect anything from them. I’ll stop waiting for a miracle. I don’t believe in them.

.

.

Haaaaaaah. I’m such an emotional train wreck. I let loose too much there. Focus up, me! There’s work to be done!

Curiously, the slime I put down hadn’t gone back to join the pile, but remained where I left it. If the slimes had no way of leveling up, then wouldn’t they still be level 1? That can’t be the case though. If it was, <<Analyze>> should have worked to scan them. Where then, did the slimes get their exp from?

Although it somewhat disgusts me to think on this again, but it shouldn’t be possible for the slimes to cannibalize each other for exp, like how I’d been planning to use them to level up. If they were to do that, there wouldn’t be such a large pile of slimes before me now.

This leads me to the conclusion that, the slimes must therefore work as a pack to dominate other-wise stronger creatures. The reason they didn’t fight the rat-man earlier was not because they weren’t capable, but because it would put me in danger. This makes some sense, since I don’t think the rat-man’s dagger would hurt a slime very much. They probably could have swallowed it up and suffocated the rat-man if I wasn’t already being carried inside them.

The furry crocodile had probably been tracking the rat-man, and seized the moment of weakness when it attacked us to snap its jaws shut on it. I suppose a meal of meat is much more appetizing than a pile of goop. I can only assume the crocodile didn’t see me as meat, but as goop when I was inside the slimes.

In the end however, this doesn’t actually help me that much. For all the time that I’ve been wandering in this tunnel, there hasn’t been signs of anything. Not that I know how much time has passed. It’s not like I could just ask the slimes what time it is, or even more conveniently, what level they are.

I picked up the solitary slime from the ground again and stared at it. No response.

It’s just a slime.

There’s more than likely an actual communication skill that I can learn that will let me understand what they’re thinking. Some options would be <<Sharp Mind>>, which in AUO was just a skill to let you identify what skills your teammates were using, or <<Monster Language>>, which was just a success booster towards the <<Taming>> skill. I’m assuming their actual usage differs from AUO like how <<Perception>> was morphed into <<Analyze>>.

Although it might seem important to get one of these skills, I only have 1 skill point right now, and no idea when I’ll get the next. It’s downright reckless for me to spend that point right now.

I stretched the slime apart until it was a drooping band hanging between my arms. Still no apparent reaction from it, so I let it return to its normal blob-like form. Talking with the slimes will have to wait for some time I suppose. I decided to hold on to the slime I picked up though.

Maybe it’ll figure out some way to speak by hanging around. And so, I resumed walking down this endless waterway where there’s nothing that can be killed for exp.

.

Hey, wait a second, when were there fish in the sewer water? At some point, the murky water had started to gradually get cleaner and less filled with debris. Is that why the fish are here, because it’s cleaner? It was different than the clumps of dirty algae that crowded the sides of fish tanks, I guess. Even fish desire a minimum amount of cleanliness when choosing where to live. But they didn’t look much different from garbage with their mud-like skin and large black eyes.

The water is still rather filthy and smells horrendous though. But that didn’t deter my stomach from causing me pain with hunger pangs, as if yelling at me like a child, “I want fish!” I wasn’t born as some super athletic caveman hunter! I can’t catch fish with my bare hands!

I don’t even know if its safe to try and catch the fish. There might be something lurking beneath the surface like the furry crocodile. Or maybe even the fish are stronger than me? I wouldn’t even be surprised.

My stomach continued to cramp up and grow smaller and smaller as I ignored the fish and continued walking on. Better a death by slow starvation than being beaten down by fish.

Hana 10: Where’s my Trash Mobs?

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)	Strength:                    1/1(10)
Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)	Intelligence:                1/1(10)
Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)	Agility:                        1/1(10)
Resistance:                10%(100%)	Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)
Skill Points: 1
Skills: Mana Capacitator; Arachnophobia Lv. MAX; Vulka Lv.1; Intuition Lv. 1; Strong Will Lv. 1; Cornered Animal Lv. 1; Analysis Lv. 3
Statuses: Divine Retribution

 

Looking at my character screen makes me depressed. They say that there’s seven stages of grief, but it’s like I skipped all the steps and went straight to the final phase, acceptance. This is me. This is what I am. That’s okay.

What’s not okay is how I’m going to be totally crushed by anything that even sniffles in my direction. Ya nai. Whether by good or bad fortune, the waterway path I had chosen to go down had absolutely nothing in it. It was a remarkably uneventful trip with the lazy, wispy light of Vulca lighting my way while the slimes followed close behind me.

Given so much free time, my thoughts began to hopelessly drift apart. However, if it had to do with my mother or Focker, I immediately cut off the recollection. That situation was… something I can’t handle right now. As a result, I ended up mostly thinking about how exactly levelling up works.

The miraculous system that can make you stronger, smarter, and faster by accumulating experience points. Or to put it more bluntly, you gained power by killing things. Well, that isn’t always the case though. In AUO, experience could be earned from a variety of activities, mostly in the area of arts and crafts. But the amount earned from that is minuscule at best. It would take 10 or so hours of crafting to level up as opposed to 1 or 2 hours adventuring. Crafting professions were still rather important for making customized gear and it’s not like everyone is a battle nerd. Even if the introduction to the game is steep, the population is still mostly laidback.

If you really wanted to level up, you would join a party that would be running quests or a dungeon at your level range, so you could rack up monster kills, exp, and loot. The only exception would be if you’re a new player, as you were largely on your own up until you reached the Newbie-killer spider. It was impossible to explore new regions until you defeat that boss.

.

.

Was that giant spider from back then the Newbie-killer? I stopped in my tracks. You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no way in hell I’m even going near that thing again. But assuming I did need to, there would be low-level mobs for me to farm around here. Not monstrous things like the furry crocodile, or equipped beasts like the rat-man. Therefore, I can conclude that since there are no trash mobs, there is no need to kill the Newbie-killer.

I turned around to find my new faithful pack of slimes still following me. No trash mobs, right?

.

.

The <<Perception>> skill allows you to see the stats of an enemy, such as health points, strength, or even its skills. At least that’s how the skill worked in AUO. It was a staple in all builds and it was recommended that at least half the players in a party have it. Information was the key to winning at anything.

But Focker took that skill away from me and replaced it with <<Analyze>>. Something about it being deprecated? If I had to guess, the skill must have changed in this new world. The <<Perception>> skill will increase the sensitivity of the 5 senses, allowing you to detect things better, whereas the newly developed skill <<Analyze>> does what the old <<Perception>> skill did, and retrieves data on a target. That’s probably why I developed <<Arachnophobia>>, since my existing fear of spiders was transformed into a traumatic experience. Sensory overload you might say. It somewhat puzzles me as to why two wholly different effects would be tied together as an old, deprecated skill and a newer one though.

Anyhow, the important thing is to <<Analyze>> the slimes and see if they’re trash mobs. I fully expect that to be the case. They’re slimes after all.

???: ??? Lv. ???

Stats: ???

Status: ???

.

.

I covered my face with the palm of my hand. Am I an idiot? I’m an idiot. I’m weaker than even a slime right now. The conditions to use <<Analyze>> are that you must be equal to or higher level than them, but I’m level 1 so it obviously wont work no matter what I use the skill on.

In order to determine what level they are, I’d have to be higher level than them to begin with. But that means having to beat down monsters to get exp, of which there are none. It’s a rather contradictory situation. Unless..

.

.

I crouched down to pick up one of the slimes while holding the rusty dagger in my other hand. Thankfully, it seemed to realize that I wanted to pick it up, so my hand didn’t phase through it. Either that or it’s afraid of me touching its core. A terrifying experience for both of us. It really is just a blob of basically gel-like liquid. There’s no eyes or mouth, and you can only barely see the transparent core hidden in its bodies. No doubt if I had a marker, I would draw a face on. Not that slimes have faces. There had to be some secret to this creature in how it was able to survive and level up.

The question is, how? There’s nothing that can obviously be hunted by slimes down here. The only things I had seen were spiders, a rat-man, and a furry crocodile, which were all way out of a slime’s league.

If there’s nothing to kill for exp, then you can’t level up. And if you can’t level up, then there is a major issue. There’s no doubt that this world is centered around the concept of “levels”. Levels dictate your health, strength, and most importantly, skill points. If you don’t have a sufficient level or good skills, you’d simply be killed off by monsters or other people. Without power, you cannot attain your goals.

There’s already a source of exp within reach right now. The slime continued to wiggle around on my hand, seemingly oblivious to the situation.

Hana 9: Heart of a Monster

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)	Strength:                    1/1(10)
Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)	Intelligence:                1/1(10)
Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)	Agility:                        1/1(10)
Resistance:                10%(100%)	Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)

Skill Points: 1

Skills: Mana Capacitator; Arachnophobia Lv. 10; Vulka Lv.1; Intuition Lv. 1

Statuses: Divine Retribution

Strong Will Lv. 1: A hardy constitution helps deters thoughts of giving up. Willpower decreases are reduced by 50%.

Cornered Animal Lv. 1: Being forced into a situation with no escape will cause the brain to flood the body with adrenaline. All stats are temporarily increased by 15-50% depending on urgency.

Analysis Lv. 3: Various information can be gleaned by observing a subject. Allows the deduction of stats, skills, and miscellaneous information on targets weaker than you.

My mom? I..

No way.

You can’t do that.

“How right you are. I lied. Your mother isn’t quite back to life yet.”

Yet he says. Frankly I hadn’t even thought about the validity of what he was saying. Just the thought of mom made me..

“There’s quite a few hassles that have to dealt with, paperwork to be filed, and your world’s gods to be negotiated with. Honestly, dealing with people who have just died is so much easier.”

I struggled to my feet painfully while clutching at the heartrending ache in my chest. My breath came out in short, ragged bursts, and the metallic taste of iron was all I could taste. The slimes gathered onto my feet, whether to support me or stop me, I don’t know, but I shook them off.

“I would have absolutely loved to have her with me right now to motivate you to conquer the world, but I didn’t expect that you would be found and brought here so soon. I’m sure that next time you’ll be able to greet her~”

What happens if I don’t conquer the world? The way he had stated his demands made no sense. Grant the reward before the deed was done? There’s no way anyone would do that. It was like putting the cart before the horse. Unless..

“Of course if you refuse my generous offer, I’m afraid I have no choice but to end your mother’s life.”

FOCKER.

          “That’s simply just how it is, just good business.”

I WILL.

          “If you don’t fulfill the end of your deal, I won’t be able to fulfill mine.”

          KILL.

          “Dying a second time can’t be that painful right?”

          YOU.

“You are most welcome to try my 7^th. I’ll be waiting.”

I lashed out to hit him, but he had already made well his escape, splitting apart into dark tendrils as he gracefully bowed away with a devilish smile. Bastard, bastard, bastard, bastard.

I can’t take it anymore. What am I supposed to do. What can I do?! There’s no answer, no solution, no ..

<<Cornered Animal Lv. 1 has activated. Stats increased by 50%.>>

Absolutely useless.

How naïve could I possibly be? Dreams of the ideal class or fantasies of living in another world. It was all garbage. The life of my mom is weighing down on me. This isn’t a game.

This is just a nightmare.

.

.

Then it’s simple isn’t it. Conquer the world? The great dominators of past centuries couldn’t do it. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar or even the dreaded Hitler. They had not the strength.

I’ll just become even more of a monster myself, a being that even the gods will not dare touch. No matter the cost, there is nothing that cannot be given up for my pursuit of power.

.

.

No, that’s not right. What am I thinking? What is wrong with me?! My mind feels like splitting, tearing, and there’s nothing I can do. The power to surpass the gods or my mother, which do I pick?

.

.

I’m not that far gone yet. I can feel my heartbeat start to fall ever so slowly as I start to contain my rage. I wrap and wrap and bind and bind it tighter and tighter, but even then I do not feel safe. I lock it up and throw away the key, but it’s a key that will always returns to your hand. But for now… My mother comes first.

And to do that, I need to conquer the world. What is the first step towards world domination for a weak girl surrounded by slimes deep in the darkness of a sewer?

It’s to level up. I pick up the twisted dagger and tattered cloak off the ground that had been dropped by the rat-man and carried by the slimes. Did they pick these up for me? If they did, I suppose they’re being awfully considerate. Or perhaps it’s natural towards the being that is their Demon Lord?

I try to not think about it too deeply as I don the cloak. There’s three pathways out of this cavern that I can pick, which are a large and wide waterway, a smaller waterway, or what looks like an extremely narrow tunnel. The slimes brought me through the large waterway, so that path isn’t an option. It’s impossible for me as a bipedal creature to fight that furry crocodile right now. There was simply too vast of a physical and territorial advantage to even attempt to try.

Which leaves me two options, the narrow passage or the small waterway. Neither is very appealing so it’s a matter of which I dislike less at this point. On one hand, it might be possible for smaller furry crocodiles to be in the waterway, so I already know the obvious dangers to that path.

However, since the other path is not a waterway, but happens to be cold and damp, the likelihood of spiders is extremely high. Since it’s also very narrow, my chances of escape are tiny. If it’s an expected fantasy size spider, such as anything bigger than my head, it’ll be inevitable that I’ll be caught. Also, I don’t like spiders. So, the small waterway path it is.

I begin to trudge my way out of the cavern down the waterway, looking for something to increase my levels as my small retinue of slimes follow me.

Hana 8: Focker- Face to.. Mouth

          AHH.

AHHHH.

                                      AHHHHHHHHHHHH.

          This thing looking down at me is creepy. From the neck down, it looks like a reverend of a church, wearing a long black coat with a black long-sleeve shirt that has that peculiar collar buckle-style. But above that, the neck only extends up to the region right below the nose. That’s to say, the only part of his head is his mouth. Everything above the mouth just starts to turn into wisp and fade away.

          “Don’t you think that its impolite to stare so intently at someone’s face?”

          What face?! You don’t have one! The thing frowns at me, obviously not too excited by my reaction.

          “You’d think that seeing as how I am your benefactor, I would be more deserving of respect.” The light of my Vulca wisp had long gone out, but I could see clearly this man clearly as ghostly light streamed in through windows in the ceiling.

.

.

          Benefactor. Is that what it is? Focker?!

          “Ah, please, don’t call me by that pseudoname that you invented.” He states as he wanders around the circular platform where multiple sewer channels meet up, flowing around the small island.

          “I much prefer God of the Dark Depth’s Beasts: Lucius Vi Ounelum. Or your great majesty Ounelum.”

          Focker.

          “Hmph. And here I thought I would give you a blessing to better achieve your goals. What with your new lease on life and all.”

          Hmph yourself. I don’t want any kind of gift with strings attached from you.

          “I am absolutely shocked that you think I would attach strings to it. It was a genuine and honest offer.” He says as he dramatically acts out being greatly pained by such a notion.

          I rolled my eyes with an equal amount of disdain and as much pride as I could muster while stuck in a glob of slimes on the floor.

          “Yes, yes, I can quite see that you’re quite the stubborn one. While I would love to continue to chit-chat with one of my children, I’ve places to be, worships to answer, and a system to administer.”

          System to administer?

          “Be quiet. I shall speak, and you shall listen.”

          I haven’t even said a word yet. Focker rolled up his right sleeve to show a grotesquely disfigured thin arm that had a range of traces and tatoos inscribed into the skin. Reaching his arm out, he made an upward motion, to which I slowly rose into the air, and floated. Then he plunged his arm downward into my chest.

.

.

          Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)

Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)

Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)

Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)

Strength:                    1/1(10)

Intelligence:                1/1(10)

Agility:                        1/1(10)

Resistance:                  10%(100%)

Skill Points: 1

Mana Capacitator: An unnatural affinity with mana has been established. Mana channels within the body have been expanded. Natural MP regeneration is increased by 500%.

Divine Retribution: Punishment inflicted by a god. All statuses are reduced by 90%.

Mental Fortitude: Mental strength that has been obtained from arduous trials and is not easily corroded. WP decreases are negated.

Procrastination: Allows the execution of actions at 500% of the original speed, but consumes 1000% of needed resources with a 50% success rate. Consumes n% WP at a constant rate.

Perception Lv. 3: The ability to become aware of your surroundings through the five senses. A mental impression and judgement of the things around you.

Arachnophobia Lv. 10: An unnatural dislike for creatures of the arachnid family causes <<Panic>> when nearby. Th extreme aversion will begin to erode the mind and inflict <<Insanity>> if contact is maintained for too long.

Vulka Lv.1: A fire-type magic that deals low fixed damage for a low mana cost. Summons a small will-o-wisp like flame that follows the caster. Unaffected by the INT stat.

Intuition Lv. 1: The empircal ability to deduct information from observations has been improved.

            A status screen and a variety of diagnostic windows soon appeared in Focker’s view, displaying the measly skillset that had been forced on me. The marks on his arm glowed a faint green as pinpricks of light rushed up it from a cavity of darkness that had split my chest open. How he read anything without eyes, I don’t know.

          “Not dead yet now, are we? Kukuku. I suppose it doesn’t matter since you’ve died once before. That’s what made you eligible to be reborn in this world after all. It’s simply to your great fortune that I chose you to be my next child and new demon lord.” The God of the Dark Depths frowned as he examined the results of his search though.

          “Sheesh. The goddess of Rebirth and that interfering foreign goddess simply just don’t know when to quit. What in the world have they done to you? This is such a pain to fix.”

          Huh? Focker didn’t do it? He can fix it?

          “I am an Administrator, it is my duty to fix errors in the System.”

          Wow. What cliché terms. Whatever, just fix my stats already. Focker frowned at my silent demand.

          “Divine Retribution is not something I can interfere with. The foreign goddess is not of our system, nor does she need to follow our rules.” Focker’s frown turned into a sneer after he began talking of this goddess. “While usually she would be easy to clean up, even if she is of a different system, she is an Authority-level figure. I cannot change her decisions.”

          Time to add someone new to the hitlist.

          “We can fix the skills given to you by the goddess of Rebirth however.”

          Oh good, yes, give me something usable. Suddenly, Focker plunged his hand deeper into the darkness that had opened on my chest, and twisted his arm. Pain that could not even be described with words ran through my body, robbing me of all thoughts save suffering.

          “System: Downgrade the skill <<Mental Fortitude>> to its lower level equivalent. Delete the data value <<Procrastination>> and replace it with the skill <<Cornered Animal>>. Change out the deprecated version of <<Perception>> for <<Analysis>>.”

          It wasn’t until the pain subsided that I noticed something distinctly odd. These don’t sound like fixes at all. What the hell are you doing. Hey!

          “As I said, I am an Administrator of the System. Although I am the one who chose you as my child, my duty is to still to fix mistakes. The goddess of Rebirth gave you skills that were too fitting of your previous life and poorly thought out. I have simply remedied that.”

          Why you..

          “I’ll be getting to the point then. You are the 7^th Demon Lord to be born, and you shall be the last. The 1^st through 6^th Demon Lords are still alive, and have been reincarnated into their monster clans. For you however, you have been reborn in your own body. The first monsters to find you and lead you to me will then be led by the 7^th.”

          First monster to find and lead me? You mean capture me? The slimes?

          “You are the 7^th, Demon Lord of slimes.”

          How can this situation even remotely possibly get worse.

          “Take over the world. Dominate it. Destroy humanity. And then I will grant you one wish.”

.

.

          “Of course, you are skeptical. The others desire immortality, unending youth, and knowledge forbidden to the living. But you, I have chosen your reward and made it reality already. You are special my 7^th. You do not even know what you want, so you must be enlightened and forced to pursue your goal.”

.

.

          The only thing I want is for you to die. My life, and the freedom to choose what happens to it. That is mine. I won’t let you take that from me. No one likes having their choices revoked, downtrodden to being just a pawn. Focker chuckled.

          “Ah, you must be jesting. Human jokes truly are in a class of their own.”

          “After all, I have brought your mother back to life. What loving child could possibly go against that?”

Hana 7: Slime-ology

Hey! Have you ever wondered how a slime works? I do. I’m not sure if anyone else does though.. For the most part, a slime is exactly what you imagine it to be. Essentially, it’s just a giant moving blob of “slime”. If you know what a jellyfish looks like, it’s sort of like that minus the tentacles.

Oh. But I completely forgot. I’m still alive! As it turns out, slimes in fact, do not dissolve their prey. Or maybe they do. Just as I thought they were going to suffocate me, the enormous mass of grouped up slimes started moving. So, they’re probably taking me somewhere.

To be honest I’ve kind of stopped worrying about what’s going to happen to me. I can’t say I like this sticky feeling covering my entire body though.

A-aahn~

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.

You heard nothing.

Anyhow, back to talking about slimes. The outside layer of a slime is actually a semi-permeable liquid bilayer. Sound familiar? It might if you’ve taken a biology class. It’s the exact same thing that human cells use to protect their interiors. It’s a selective protective measure to take in things you need and deflect things you don’t. For example, as these slimes carry me through the sewer pathways, the trash and rubble they pass over isn’t absorbed into them, but is simply passed over. On the other hand, I’m quite stuck inside of all these slimes. Which is an important point, as the bilayer also prevents things already inside it from leaving.

Of course, the entirety of the slime isn’t made up of this membrane though. Although the outside is tough enough to retain a shape, the inside is all liquid. If I were to theorize on the same line of reasoning as an animal cell, the inner contents of a slime are a nutrient rich water-based fluid that supplies everything that is needed for it to survive.

There’s just one thing I couldn’t figure out. Although it has a bilayer to control resource acquirement and fluid storage (and possibly material digestion?), just where does its survival instincts come from? Even the smallest living organisms have a nerve bundle that handles its movements and gives out instructions.

<<Ping*>>

Huh? What was that? Ehhh? Oh. I got too engrossed with thinking about how a slime works, that I regained 1 stamina point. I hadn’t even realized since I forgot about it. It’s probably a part of the slime’s evolutionary adaptations, but the inner fluids probably excrete a numbing agent or anesthetic to calm down their prey and reduce the amount of struggling.

They might also inject some kind of hallucinogenic to placate the target.

<<The skill “Intuition Lv. 1” has been acquired.>>

.

.

… Sorry. I lost myself for a second there. It felt like there should be something I should be worried about, but I can’t remember. More importantly! I have stamina again! However, the slimes are a little too strong to break free from. The most I can do is move my limbs around slowly inside my liquid prison. I’m certain that my hand brushed against something though, so I’ll try and grab it.

“@#$%!”

Whoops. A short and terse scream is echoed through my arm and into my head causing me to quickly release my grip on the hard object. The pace of the entire group starts to quicken, and we start to noticeably move faster. I didn’t cause that did I?

What was in my hand… it was probably a core. In other words, the slime’s brain or consciousness. I’m sure anything would be freaked out if you grabbed that. This fills the missing hole in my explanation for a slime as an organism. Not that I know anything with a rock-like brain, but I suppose I just have to give up on that point and accept it as part of the fantasy world.

Suddenly, the group of slimes grind to a halt.

“KiKiKiKiKi!”

That’s not a spider is it?! Oh wait, I don’t think spiders can even verbalize. I tilt my head back to try and see, but all I find is a squat rat-man wearing a torn, dirty cape holding a rusty dagger. It has red beady eyes, a thin fur covering, and a sectioned tail that dragged on the grimy floor.

“Kiiiiiiiii!” it screeches as it starts to make wild motions with its arms.

The cohesive slime group starts to sway back and forth, causing the rat-man to become more and more agitated. What does this thing want? Are the slimes actually communicating with it? What would a rat-man want from a group of slimes?

.

.

Oh. Duh. It probably wants me. It took me a while to realize I’m not just a bystander in this exchange. In a matter of seconds, the atmosphere of the exchange changes, with the rat-man adopting a stance to leap towards us. The slimes move toward the water’s edge slowly, but then the rat jumps upward, intending to stab down at me.

What happened next was terrifying. The slime mass tensed itself up, then smashed itself away from the water and into the walls of the sewer. I almost thought the wall would collapse, but it stayed together. The rat’s dagger clanged onto hard stone, but it turned it’s head towards us, clearly confident that since the slime was against a wall, there was no escape for it. The toothy grin it wore was an odd mockery of what a human smile would have looked like.

The only way to describe the situation was…

.

.

Baited.

A massive maw erupted out of the murkiness of the water’s edge and snapped shut onto the rat’s body. Flying out of the shallow depths, it landed on the ledge, its jaws closed shut on its prey. The rat was still struggling until when, with just a flick, it snapped the rat-man’s neck. The rusty dagger clattered to the grimy floor soon followed by an even more tattered cloak. The limbs of the prey fell lifelessly to its side while inside the mouth of its predator. It looks like a crocodile but… is that fur it has? It also has a much shorter snout and wider mouth then I would expect of a crocodile. After flinging the dead corpse of the rat-man a few times to get a better grip, one of its small eyes centers on us, but for whatever reason, it just takes its prey and slips back into the water, the ripples as it enters disappearing in just a few seconds.

Did it just ignore us? I suppose slimes just aren’t on its menu of things to eat. Even if my face was sticking out of the group. The slimes quickly return to their task of transporting me to someplace, although they do absorb the dagger and torn up cloak as they pass over it, the only things that prove a rat-men used to be here. The surprising thing here is, were slimes the type of monster that were intelligent enough to use that kind of feint-like strategy on an enemy?

.

.

I can’t tell how much time has passed since the slimes captured me. It’s not like I’m some super meticulous genius that can continually count seconds and record all kinds of doubtless useful and precious information that would aid me in escaping. There were no further incidents like the rat-man, though I’m making an effort not to fall to the psychological effects of the slime fluids. It’s difficult to.. stay awake. And remember things.

Ahhh. Why was I trying to stay awake again? It so comf-

No! I can’t! This is dangerous!

But.. a little nap shouldn’t hurt right?

Maybe. Maybe just a little then.

.

.

“My, my. She fell asleep on the journey here, did she? Of course, I keep all my promises. I’ll simply wake her, then we can begin.”

Hana 6: Sewage > Spider

It’s amazing what a change in scenery can do for the state of mind. Ahhhhhh~

I feel so free! No spiders! This is great, it’s like I’m flying?!

Did you know? Spider webs are sticky because small globules of glue are left on strands to catch their prey. Normally, the webs aren’t actually sticky at all and they just act like an extremely high tensile strong material. They also aren’t very flammable due to the glue. If you try to light a newly made web, it’s more likely to wither in the flames rather than catch fire. The reason old webs catch fire is because the glue has dried out and dust has gathered on it, which is very flammable. You can actually burn down a barn if you leave the old webs unattended.

Now that my statuses have cleared, its much easier to think clearly. Anything is better than spiders. Even this downwards tunnel that I tumbled into which is encased in old webs.

Even as I continue to gain speed and old webs begin to wrap up my body as I hurtle further and further down this well.

Even as my small Vulca flame lights up the trailing dried out webs behind me as I begin to become a blazing comet.

Ahhhhhh~

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.

.

It wasn’t a mistake. Anything is better than spiders. I will not recant this point. Even if at the end of the shaft filled with webs is a canal with freezing cold and malodorous sewer water. Brrrrr. At least I didn’t drown or burn to death. The flames hadn’t gotten close enough to me before I smashed into the surface of the water. But I swallowed a mouthful of the filthy water as I escaped the bonds of the webs. I ended up coughing and hacking out everything that was in my stomach as I crawled onto a ledge. If there even was anything in my stomach. It was like if you had heated mud inside water, then fermented a rubber tire, then let it sit inside a freezer. Obviously Vulca had been put out by the water, so I mumbled a cast so that I could see. Also, so that I wouldn’t freeze. Did I mention it was cold? It’s cold. I can’t even stop my shivering, I can hear my teeth chattering. Maybe it’s because I can’t move at all with 0 stamina points.

I figured that my near death experience should have killed me when I hit the water. But lo and behold, my Health points are at an amazing 2/2(20)! I’m still at (debilitated) full hp.

Huh? Why? Well frankly, I don’t know. I’m not quite sure how HP is supposed to work, but I’m not willing to test it on myself. Ya nai.

With that out of the way, where am I now? I craned my neck to see up on the ceiling is the hole which I flew down from into the frigid water. There’s also a light coming from it, which is probably all the residual webs that weren’t dragged down with me falling while lit aflame. I won’t be able to go up there anytime soon.

Not that I wanted to go back into a den of spider monsters. This sewer made of cold stone and freezing waters with a smell like burnt refuse was much better. Well. Not significantly better mind you. Why is life so painful. Maybe I should have just ended up dying.

.

.

Not before I take revenge on whoever did this to me. Rebirthing someone into this kind of twisted hell should be a sin. I didn’t do anything wrong in my old life! It’s not my fault they. . .

Haaa. . . I feel so tired. Maybe that’s why I’m collapsed on the floor with 0 stamina points thinking weird things. The status screen shows the bar flickering between black and red, which is something that never happened in AUO. Is it because I went beyond the stamina that I had? Frankly, I would like to keep moving, but my body disagrees. It’s hard to breathe, let alone move. The Vulca wisp is still hovering around, lighting up my surroundings, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing. Will it attract predators to me? Or is it keeping them away? I can’t see through the murky water if anything is swimming in that sewage, nor am I able to see around the corners of the dead-end where the spider tunnel had dumped me.

I really hope that stamina regen is a thing like it was back in the game. If I have to eat food to regain stamina points, I might as well starve to death now. There’s so many things I need to do.

.

.

I can’t help but be amazed at myself. “So many things to do?” I’m trying too hard to stay alive, and it’s all just for some goal of why I’ve been reborn. It’s a pitiful revenge. But it’s the only thing I have right now. I would laugh at myself, but I think that’s more than my body can handle right now. The fact that I cast Vulca before entering this comatose-like state is practically a miracle because I can barely do anything besides breathe, let alone move my head anymore. My body is starting to cramp up, like my muscles are curling in on themselves trying to tear itself apart.

.

.

My vision is fading now, but… is that a group of slimes? They look like light-blue gelatinous blobs and don’t appear that dangerous, but I have no doubts that even a slime could defeat me now. The group has noticed me now, I’m sure. The flame above my head probably looks like a sign of, “defenseless, delicious target here”. The slimes are rolling over to me now.

Ahh. They’ve covered my entire body now. Are they going to eat me by dissolving me? Is that how it works? I suppose it’s better than dying to a spider’s venomous bite. My body doesn’t even hurt anymore, I can’t feel anything from the neck down since they haven’t swallowed my face yet.

Is that how a person reborn into the Demon Lord class should go? Eaten up by slimes in a sewer? I don’t care anymore. It doesn’t matter.

Just don’t let me be reborn again.

Hana 5 : Vulka

Did you know that human evolution would probably be delayed by hundreds of thousands of years if we hadn’t discovered fire when we did? Well, we might also have gone extinct without fire, but shhhh. With the ability to create fire, cave dwellers were able to provide warmth to survive cold winters, cook food, and increase their activity time into the night. With all that new-found time on their hands, they began to think, make tools, and develop culture. Eventually, when the dinosaurs were killed off, humanity was able to expand its activity regions rapidly and began to modernize over several centuries.

All because of fire. Which I didn’t have.

I was beginning to think that this trip outside of the character creation area was taking a while before I realized something. It’s dark, cold, and damp. I can’t see anything in front of me. And it hadn’t felt like we were moving for quite some time.

.

Scritch Scritch Scritch.

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.

I want to go home. Uwaaaaa. I got dumped somewhere underground and I can’t see anything! It’s seriously scary when you can’t even see your hand in front of your face! It’s just this pitch black darkness surrounding me on all sides. What’s even scarier is that I haven’t even bumped into a wall, I’m just aimlessly wandering around hoping to run into something. I can even hear all the small noises of things moving around me because of <<Perception>> which improved my hearing.

Terrifying. I’m certain that they’re somewhere close to me, but it’s impossible to tell where exactly. They’re moving out of my way, but that makes it even scarier to think whatever if making way for me is also following me. I’ve been trying to avoid the direction where I can hear them, but it’s like the skittering noises are everywhere I try to go. All I’m doing is listening for the noises and heading away from them.

<<Perception has advanced to Lv. 2.>>

Gee thanks. Just what I wanted. I don’t think anything even changed, because I certainly can’t tell. I’m scared!

<<Arachnophobia Lv. 1 has been acquired>>

Arachnophobia: Prolonged proximity/contact to creatures of the arachnid species will induce the status condition of Panic. Higher levels of this skill allow less time to be needed for Panic to be induced and may upgrade Panic to more debilitating statuses.

. . . Hey hey hey hey hey hey. What just happened. Arachnophobia? There’s no way those can be spiders. Seriously? Spiders stick to their webs, right? They don’t crawl all over the ground.

Suddenly, all the noises around me just stopped. You’d think I would be happy. Ya nai. This is like a bad horror flick.

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 2.>>

<<Perception has advanced to Lv. 3.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 3.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 4.>>

The worst part is not being able to see. Being left in the dark robbed me of vital information on how I should make plans for survival. Should I learn a skill for night vision? Or maybe sonar? Or was there something else that would help me more? I only have 2 skill points left though. What am I supposed to do about the spiders? Stare them to death with night vision? I bet these spiders are humongous and there must be tons of them. Would they leap at me as soon as I can see them? Would a single bite kill me? I barely have any resistance to poison if they’re toxic. I don’t want to die!

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 5.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 6>>

Can <<Arachnophobia>> stop levelling up?! Before I had even realized, the menu screen was already in front of me, glowing faintly in the dark. Not enough to see anything around me except my hand though.

<<Status: Panic has been applied.>>

Oh jeez. Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez. It was as if everything was waiting for me to make a mistake. Should I just learn a shield skill to protect myself? But I have no way to fight back, I’ll just be battered till I die! Why is it so hard to think of things? Is this the effect of panic? Are you telling me the <<Panic>> status makes me panic?

That skill? Yes, that skill! I’ll take it!

<<Vulka Lv. 1 has been acquired.>>

Vulka: A fire-type magic that deals low fixed damage for a low mana cost. Summons a small will-o-wisp like flame that follows the caster. Unaffected by the INT stat.

ATK: 2 MP: 1

“Vulka!”

Agh! My eyes! Why didn’t I think this through? It’s so bright my eyes are tearing up. I groaned as I held my hands to my face and bent over in pain. I’m not going to go blind from this am I? It’s not like looking at the sun is it? Luckily, the things around me were just as vulnerable to the sudden light as I was and ran off screeching. If they hadn’t, I would’ve been a nearly perfect target since I had basically blinded myself. As soon as I recovered though, there was a much larger issue on hand than nearly going blind.

“W-wha..”

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 7.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 8.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 9.>>

<<Arachnophobia has advanced to Lv. 10.>>

<<The Arachnophobia skill has been maxed.>>

<<Willpower decrease has been negated by Mental Fortitude.>>

<<Insanity has been negated by Mental Fortitude.>>

I couldn’t even make a move. I was too terrified to, because right in front of me was a gigantic white spider with shining red eyes. Although I wanted to stay still and not move an inch, not even to breathe, my legs gave out from underneath me. I could feel a warm feeling spreading in my lower body. Slowly backing away was no longer an option. My breathing rapidly quickened and my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest.

I ran. Left. Right. Left. Right. Even as I stumbled I kept on running. That’s the only thing that mattered right now. I should have been running so much sooner. Why didn’t I start running sooner?!

<<Procrastination has succeeded. Action speed increase by 500% with 1000% resource usage buff has been applied.>>

Anywhere but here was better.

Hana 4: Weaker than a NPC

Oh god. Oh no. Oh goooooood. Oh noooooooooooooo.

What the hell was wrong with this class card. There’s so many issues here that I can barely hold myself together right now as my hands run themselves frantically over my face and through my hair. The amount of problems with this wasn’t even on a barely usable level, it was downright nonfunctioning. First, why in the world is this class card called <<Demon Lord>>. The <<Demon Lord>> is supposed to be strong, right?!

Was the skill <<Divine Retribution>> supposed to be a joke? Is this you messing with me Focker? Even if the <<Mana Capacitator>> regenerates mana faster, it’s absolutely pointless if my mana pool isn’t even big enough to cast spells. The skill <<Procrastination>> is probably based off me, but why are its effects so excessive? 5x the action speed, but 10x the needed resources? That’s already a questionable thing to use, but then you add in a fixed failure rate of 50%? You don’t even have the resources to use this thing anyway because of <<Divine Retribution>>! It looks like <<Mental Fortitude>> was added to negate the Willpower points lost by <<Procrastination>>, which might have been a good combination if not for the other horrendous pick of skills. But did I mention <<Divine Retribution>>?!

There’s just a weird mismatch of synergy in this skillset and I have only a faint idea of what to do to remedy things. And it isn’t even going to fix the class, it’s just a band aid on top so I don’t get killed with my new grand total of 2 Health points. Can’t forget about <<Divine Retribution>>. I’ve been given 3 skill points like a normal Auo starting player, but in reality, it’s more like 1 to freely spend. The skill <<Perception>> is an absolute necessity inside of Auo, and I can only assume that the same must apply here, so 1 point is already decided upon. Another skill point must be kept in reserve in case there is ever a skill that I need to urgently pick up, and can mean the difference between life or death for me.

Well. I’m already teetering on the border of life and death, so normal precautions can be thrown to the wind if need be. Since 1 point is being used on <<Perception>> and the other as an emergency point, I have only 1 point to somehow cover up the glaring weaknesses of the <<Demon Lord>> class.

To be honest, I don’t know anything that fits the bill. The best option would be to just remove <<Divine Retribution>> and normalize my stats. It should be possible to learn a purification skill, but <<Divine Retribution>> itself is a skill, not a removable status. One of the few flaws in Auo was that there was no way to remove or reset skills. Not that there was usually a reason to, unless the skill was buggy. They never had a negative side effect unless in active use. Detrimental effect skills like this simply hadn’t existed when I played. Aside from removing it, there isn’t a skill that can completely negate it either. Well, if I had hundreds of points, I could have raised each individual stat booster.

However, when compared to a typical Auo character, I would basically be on the level of useless NPCs(non-player character). But since I didn’t have those stat boosters, I was below even a NPC.

*sob*

It wasn’t something that was going to be solved without a great amount of deliberation anyway. Might as well be more productive. Sudden change of thought, right? It might seem odd of me, but I couldn’t help but wonder what was going to happen next. The big white space around me hadn’t shown any sign of changing and the bed which I woke up on was in the exact same place.

So. . . what now? It had been quite some time since the system voice had spoken, and nothing had happened besides me moping around. There were too many questions and no answers given. I was still assured that Focker was the mastermind behind my situation, but why hadn’t he done anything? Besides totally ruining my class of course.

Confirm name. Check.

Confirm appearance. Skipped.

Confirm class card. Got bamboozled.

Learn first skill. . . oh.

If this is just a copy of the character creation sequence, as soon as I pick my first skill to learn, I would be summoned into the world. Probably unceremoniously dumped in the forest or countryside if I had to guess. On one hand, if I don’t learn a skill, I believe that I’ll just stay in this place. But I’ll probably starve and die if I do that. So the obvious answer is: Learn a skill!

<<Intent to use system functions detected. Materializing System: Structure: Menu>>

A menu screen then popped up. Wow. How cliché. And it would get annoying if that message was said every time I needed to use the menu.

<<System messages have been disabled for System: Structure: Menu>>

Uh huh. Okay then. My mind barely registered surprise at the sudden phenomenon. Apparently my mind had long given up trying to apply logic. I quickly sifted through the lightly glowing and floating transparent screens to access the skills list. Looking for.. P.. here we go.

<<Perception>>: The ability to become aware of your surroundings through the five senses. A mental impression and judgement of the things around you.

It seems like a pretty dull skill right? But it’s definitely the foundation for any kind of battling in Auo! As some wise old man once said, information is half the battle. If you can’t tell how strong it is when you fight it, you’re doomed to die! Only pick battles with things that you can take down!

. . . I’m not sure if I can pick a battle with anything though.

<<Perception Lv. 1 has been learned. 1 skill point has been consumed.>>

<<Forced expulsion from System: Structure: ???>>

Hey, who turned off the lights?

Hana 3: I’m (Not) Okay

Ah… ah… ahh..

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

How cruel. How unbelievably cruel. How terrifyingly cruel. Thousands of possibilities gone in an instant. Millions of possible futures obliterated. Why did I believe that this would be a miraculous story of the adventurer with a cheat ability? That’s not how life works. What made me so blind to my situation? Was I reborn just to be played with? Was I just the passing fancy of some powerful god?

I barely had any control over my life, and now I must submit to the whims of something I don’t even know? It was incredibly foolish to think that reality could become so fantastical. Yes, that’s right. I’m a fool! I’m just a stupid fool! Just put me back where I should have gone!

I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it.

What right do you have to bring me back to life in another world?

“Unforgiveable,” whispered a voice to my left.

I won’t be just a simple pawn.

“Unforgiveable,” whispered a voice to my right.

I won’t act like you want me to.

“Unforgiveable.” I whispered to myself.

.

.

.

But it’s not like I have any real power here as the subtle realization dawned on me. I needed to calm down and understand fully what was going on. Clearly, this “being” wanted me to play a mockery of Auo. I still don’t know why I was picked, but I can’t imagine it was for a good reason. It wasn’t like I was an extraordinary player so it’s hard to believe I was selected unless it was as a joke. What a joke of a god. I have decided to call this being Focker. So I’ll play along for now. And when you grow lazy and complacent…

.

.

Ya nai. I’m not that violent! Believe me! I don’t know what I’ll do when I finally meet Focker, but it won’t come down to a life or death battle. Probably. To sum up what has happened so far, I was killed in a car accident, but was then resurrected by Focker in a world that appears to follow the rules of Auo. Then he burnt all the class cards.

Well, not all of them.

Looking around myself in the encirclement of what were previously hundreds of class cards were three cards that had survived. Apparently, the only ones that meet “specifications” and weren’t eliminated. I couldn’t even mask my disgust when I discovered the identity of the last class cards. Swordsman and Mage were decent enough, even if they were the basic starter cards. A strong foundation is important. Not that I had used either before. Is Archer not here just to spite me? Terrible.

However, the final card was the custom class card. How excited and happy I would have been to use this a few minutes ago. It was this very thing that made me regret dying.  Something that should have filled me with hope only caused me needless caution. Isn’t this just another trap by Focker? Won’t I be tricked into an absolutely trash class?

.

.

But Focker most likely would have realized that I would reach this selfsame conclusion. To further increase my despair, this class card was most likely the very embodiment of everything in a class that I wanted. Something that would put my dream of the Archer and Mana Creationalist combination to shame. By choosing one of the other cards and then showing me this one, I would become wracked with regret and behave nonsensically, which I can only imagine makes the sick god happy. And then the card would be snatched away.

The obvious conclusion to this should be to choose the Swordsman or Mage class card.

But I refuse.

I choose the custom class card!

<<The class card: “Demon Lord” has been selected.>>

<<The skills: “Mana Capacitator; Divine Retribution; Mental Fortitude; Procrastination;” have been learned.>>

<<Status values have been adjusted.>>

 

Demon Lord: Hana Lv. 1

Health Points(HP):       2/2(20)

Mana Points(MP):        2/2(20)

Stamina Points(SP):     2/2(20)

Willpower Points(WP): 2/2(20)

Strength:                    1/1(10)

Intelligence:                1/1(10)

Agility:                        1/1(10)

Resistance:                  10%(100%)

Skill Points: 3

Mana Capacitator: An unnatural affinity with mana has been established. Mana channels within the body have been expanded. Natural MP regeneration is increased by 500%.

Divine Retribution: Punishment inflicted by a god. All statuses are reduced by 90%.

Mental Fortitude: Mental strength that has been obtained from arduous trials and is not easily corroded. WP decreases are negated.

Procrastination: Allows the execution of actions at 500% of the original speed, but consumes 1000% of needed resources with a 50% success rate. Consumes n% WP at a constant rate.

.

.

I curled up into a fetal position on the floor.