Somehow, Ezra managed to make it back to the castle in one piece. He was ushered to a room that had been set up for him yesterday. As soon as he’d gotten in bed, he’d fallen asleep.
Then he woke up, bleary-eyed, and pushed himself up to a sitting position. He blinked slowly and picked at the sand in his eyes.
Then the memories of yesterday came rushing back to him.
Ezra screamed into his pillow.
What the hell was he thinking?! He’d acted like a psychopath, blasting apart that animal in the most brutal method imaginable. Not only that, but Ezra had completely ignored his allies and recklessly dumped his points all over the place. What was he thinking, just gambling with his stats like that? If things were even slightly different, he probably would’ve died. Plan? Ha. He had no plan, he was winging it the whole time.
It seemed like he was getting reckless. [Calm] was very powerful, but it may’ve been making him overconfident.
He needed to take things slower. Carefully consider his options, not just blow his points on whatever whim appeared most preferable.
He popped open his System menu.
Name: Ezra Hawthorne
Age: 16
Race: Human
C̴l̷a̸s̵s̵: S̸t̵u̸d̵e̸n̵t̸
Sub-class: N/A
Bonded Spirit: Filamenta, Spirit of Binding
Health Points: 80/80
Mana Points: 210/210
Stamina: 120/120
Level: 13
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 2
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 3
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 12
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 4
[Web Trap] - Lv. 1
[Entangle] - Lv. 5
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
Skill points: 12
Stat points: 24
Ability points: 18
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
Oh, that was tasty. All those points. What should he put them into?
Needle Mastery and Polymorphism turned out to be unexpectedly powerful. It seemed that the needle had potential as a melee weapon, as surprising as that was. What about as a ranged weapon?
The mental image of throwing his needles into pressure points appeared in his mind. That seemed really cool and he very much wanted to do that.
The only problem with that dream was the fact that it would probably be very difficult to obtain that kind of accuracy. That was something for late-game Ezra. Besides, melee combat was more practical. He should just continue to invest in his current skillset.
The sudden image of him telekinetically controlling hundreds of needles entered his mind.
Unlimited Needle Works holy crap—
Ezra shook his head, throwing the thought out the window. He’d need to somehow get telekinesis along with the ability to split up his needles. That was a long-term goal right there.
He needed to level up his abilities. He could just keep Polymorphism running in the background to level it up. There was no need to put his ability points into it if he could avoid it.
Speaking of ability points, it was only now that he realized that the number of points he obtained per level had increased. Before, it was two. Now, it was three. It looked like the System scaled its rewards with each level. Curious. Once again, the lazy game dev in charge of this wasn’t thinking things through. The disparity between upper-leveled fighters and lower-leveled fighters was going to be even worse than he thought.
He looked around the room and it seemed that everyone else was still asleep. He could continue to think things through in private.
Ezra decided that keeping his points in store seemed like a good thing. He’d been able to adapt to the current situation thanks to keeping things in reserve. He would use some of his points, but not all of them.
Ezra glanced over his stats.
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 3
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 10
He was leaning toward a high Dexterity and high Wisdom/Intelligence build. There wasn’t a great deal of logic behind the decision—but it had worked last night when the chips were down.
Of course, his other stats couldn’t be neglected either. He’d drip feed points into Constitution to ensure that he didn’t end up getting his ass killed in a single blow, for instance.
He distributed 12 points.
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 22
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 15
He snorted. His strength was pathetic. But then, it didn’t need to be strong. The needle wasn’t a high-strength weapon.
Ezra grabbed his needle and pricked his finger. It went through, but there was resistance from his skin that didn’t exist earlier. He took a look at his HP.
Health Points: 149/150
Ah, his HP was destined to be low no matter what, eh? Was that a property of his weapon, or of him?
He double-checked his mana regen rate.
[Regen Rate: 30/s]
Perfect. Exactly what he was looking for. He gained back his MP at a ridiculous rate. At least, right now. He was sure that he’d eventually find spells and such that utterly dwarfed his entire mana pool.
But for now, that would do the trick.
He looked over his personal skills.
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 2
He pounded the plus symbol as hard as he could.
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 14
He could’ve taken the long route and leveled it up properly. He should’ve, frankly. But Ezra relied too much on the skill for it to be out of commission as often as it was. No, he wanted a nice, big safety net.
[Calm] - Lv. 14
Stores emotions for later. After a timer expires, user receives all the stored emotions, experiencing them all at once and with their intensity amplified. The amplification can be decreased as the skill is leveled up.
Amplification: 5.5x
Timer: 1h
Mana Consumption: 8 mp/s
Cooldown: 3.5h
Okay, that was what he was looking for. Perfect. An entire hour was a lot. At least, it was a hell of a lot more than that measly five or ten minutes it was earlier.
He also made a mental note to let the timer run out at night. He needed to be asleep when dealing with the emotions. It made it much, much easier.
The room was warming, it was almost morning. He needed to get done ASAP.
He looked over his abilities list.
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 4
[Web Trap] - Lv. 1
[Entangle] - Lv. 5
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
There wasn’t much he was interested in here. He wanted to pump up [Polymorphism] manually, by practicing the skill, but that would come later.
He moved down to titles. Finally, he’d find out what was up with this.
Titles:
[Otherworlder] - Special
[Perfect Resonance]
[Monster Slayer I]
[Spirit Weapon Wielder]
He clicked on [Otherworlder] - Special.
A blue box popped up.
[Otherworlder] - Special
Special Title: Always Equipped
[You are an Otherworlder. A person who’s come from another world entirely. To ease your burdens, this world has granted you several bonuses.]
[25% Bonus EXP]
[1 Emergency Fullheal Potion]
He blinked. Wait, where was this Emergency Fullheal Potion? He clicked on the text. Nothing happened.
That was something to figure out later. It would be very useful if he could get access to it.
But it was the 25% Bonus EXP that interested him. That probably explained Synica’s comment about Otherworlders growing faster than people from this world.
He went down to the next one on the list.
[Perfect Resonance]
You are a flawless #$@%@Q$ for #QR^#Q*R^#@#. Your unique resonance with these @#$@#$@##$@#&#$@#$@#$@#.
Well.
That’s useless.
[Monster Slayer I]
[You have slayed a monster! Good job, now don’t let up. Cleanse the world of these things!]
[+2% Bonus EXP when killing monsters (if equipped)]
Uh, somewhat concerning statement there. Cleanse the world? Yikes. Another example of the game dev being stupid.
Okay then. How did he equip it? 2% was a small number in the short run, but in the long run, it would build up. He clicked around the box, searching for some kind of switch. Eventually, he found a check mark. He clicked it and it turned from a grey color into a dark blue color.
The title changed.
[Monster Slayer I] - Equipped
Perfect.
He moved his finger down to the the final one on his list. Spirit Weapon Wielder. What the heck did that thing do?
A student in another bed yawned and Ezra turned off his menu. There would be time to take a look at it later. He had to check one more thing before everyone woke up.
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 12
[Covers the physical melee aspect of using your needle as a weapon. The higher the level, the more damage you can do and the more easily you can wield your needle as a weapon.]
[+5%Damage when using a needle or needle-like weapon.]
Okay, that was about what he’d expected. Really, what was he thinking earlier, dicking around and gambling his stats like that? Idiot. He was lucky that things had worked out.
Now, time to see if his little theory worked.
He started twirling his needle in his hand. Come on, come on…
For a few minutes, nothing happened. Then there was a blue pop-up.
[Needle Mastery] leveled up!
Ezra cackled aloud. His ascendency had begun!
Now then, it was time to destroy more mobs in the forest. Gain more levels. Power, power, power!
----------------------------------------
Or not. Idia had waltzed in with some excuse about Synica taking care of things and for us to take some time to relax.
The students had taken that at face value and started chatting. Talking.
Idiots. He rotated his needle in his hand, twirling it as if he were merely playing with it.
[Needle Mastery] leveled up!
More than one person would glance at him, a curious look on his face. Then he would simply look at them in return and they ducked away.
Ezra supposed that most people would’ve felt hurt, or injured by the new distance from his classmates.
Personally, Ezra was on top of the world! This was awesome! Damn, so that was why powerful people loved flexing on the less powerful.
Of course, he didn’t have time to just bully his classmates. He had leveling to do.
Unnoticed by anyone, threads and web were being summoned at a constant rate inside a drawer.
[Restrain] leveled up!
Ezra was a genius. He was the most brilliant piece of garbage the world had ever seen. He was—
“Can you please get that disgusting look off your face?” someone said. “You’re disturbing everyone.”
Ezra was broken from his concentration by the sound of a familiar voice. It was the sound of arrogance, of someone peering down past their nose.
He looked up.
“Charles,” he said. “What a surprise to see you.”
Charles flipped his straight razor open, then shut it.
“Monster slayer I?” Charles said. “How did you get that?”
Ezra filed that piece of information away. Changing his title affected what other people could see about him, which is good to know.
“Quit whatever you’re doing,” Charles said. “The other students have been talking and you’re in the running.”
“Sorry, running for what?”
Charles slammed his straight razor shut with more force than usual, creating a loud snap noise. “You weren’t listening at all, were you?”
“Listening to what?”
Charles brushed down his hair and Yuki seemed to appear from nowhere.
“Ezra, the others have been very concerned about us as a group, we don’t like the way we’re being trained and how hands-off Synica is, so we decided that we need a leader.”
“Sure. I guess that makes sense.”
Yuki paused before stating the next thing.
“Ezra, multiple people have requested that you be a candidate.”
Ezra snorted. “Oh, this is a joke.”
Yuki bit her bottom lip.
“No, Ezra, this is serious. They want you to speak and give your case.”
Ezra’s laugh died down when he saw that no one was cracking a smirk or laughing with him.
“Wait, you’re serious,” he said.
Yuki nodded. “Deadly serious.”
Ezra fell over onto his bed. “I would’ve thought that everyone would’ve been terrified after what had happened.”
“Oh, um, you mean that whole… thing?” Yuki said.
“I mean that time that I drove a tree through the spine of a wolf, yeah.”
Yuki curled inward.
“Did you have to remind me of that?” she said.
“It was just a little blood.”
Charles looked at me. “You were covered from head to toe. Yuki invested in a cleaning spell just because she was so revolted.”
Ezra looked out of the corner of his eye at a loose strand of hair and pulled it out.
“Oh, so that’s how I got clean. I was wondering if I’d been stripped down or something.”
“Ezra!” Yuki squeaked.
Ezra reached back and scratched the back of his neck. “What? I mean, what was I supposed to think?”
Yuki turned red and shook her head. She reached up and covered her face with her palms.
“Okay, okay. Look, do you want to be the leader or not?” she said.
Ezra looked up at the ceiling. There was no denying that being a leader had certain benefits. The opportunity to build a little group of cannon fodder to help carry him to the top would be good. On top of that, the chance to flex more power would be satisfying, he’d be able to hog loot and no one could argue…
But on the other hand, dealing with other people seemed like a serious responsibility and he’d probably end up being their representative when speaking to the kingdom. And any time he spent working on the group was time spent not working on his own abilities.
[Needle Mastery] leveled up!
[Restrain] leveled up!
Oh, hey, look at that.
Ezra was about to open his mouth and say no. Then he paused.
Charles was looking at him intently.
Oh. Charles was invested.
Charles wanted to be the leader of these idiots.
Screw. That.
Ezra turned toward Yuki and shot her a cheery smile.
“You know what? That seems like a great idea. I’d like to try my hand at leadership.”
On the outside, Charles seemed fine. There was nothing obvious. But his eyes. Oh, his eyes were filled with a mixture of horror and bewilderment. It was as if he was screaming into the void inside his mind.
The joy that Ezra felt upon seeing that look was hard to quantify. It felt heavenly. Visceral, even. For a moment, Ezra felt truly content.
Yuki blinked. “Wait, really? Um, okay, if you want to.”
Ezra stood up.
“Lead the way.”