*This is an info dump chapter*
[Your sponsor is pleased.]
‘This is… a lot’ Verity thought, looking at the class window.
The imp was not back yet, and with his new class, there were many things that he needed to investigate before it returned. Once he had received the Fool class, similarly to a level up, Verity felt different. He was not sure if he felt stronger, or faster necessarily, but he definitely felt different, and he had to find out why.
In any case, even if the imp had been back, Verity doubted he would be able to control his curiosity. Even if he understood that this was reality, and that the people around him could die at any moment, his excitement had not completely faded. This was still what he had dreamed of for many nights, after all. To enter the world of a story, or in his case, for the story to come to his world.
‘Should I start from the beginning?’
Verity thought of his status window and it opened before him.
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Status Window
Name: Verity
Age: 22
Level: 6
Inventory : [Mystery Box x2]
Alias: N/A
Class: [Fool Lv. 1]
Traits : Shut-in, Unemployed, Favored, Goblin Slayer
Skills: [Lesson Learned Lv.3], [Why Me!? Lv. 2], [Accumulate Lv.1], [Never Again Lv.1]
Sponsor: [-Error-]
Stats
Unallocated stats points : 14
Strength : 7 (+1) (+2)
Stamina : 8 ( +1) (+8)
Speed : 7 (+2)
Intelligence : 13 (+3)
Dexterity : 4 (+1)
Arcane : 2 (+1)
Agility : 5 (+1) (+2)
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Verity took notice of his stats which had not been there before.
‘I remember the system telling me about that… and the inventory too now that I think about it.’
His attention was then drawn to the additional stat points in parentheses. Others would have been confused, but from his experience with games and webtoons, Verity could guess where they came from. He supposed that one came from his class, while the other surely came from one of his skills. As for which one, he would find out soon enough.
There wasn’t much else to see here. Even if Verity focused on a specific stat, no additional window opened. He would have liked to know precisely what each one affected, but it seemed the system was going to let him figure that out on his own.
‘Oh well.’
Before moving on, Verity thought about allocating his stat points, but he ultimately decided against it.
‘I’m still not sure what exactly I need, so I won’t use them right now…’ He thought.
His next endeavor was to investigate his new skills, starting with [Accumulate].
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Skill : [Accumulate]
Rank : A
Level : 1
Rarity : Unique
Type : Passive
Description : All is erased, but the reality lingers, echoing through the present. Forgotten struggles are woven into you, shaping your being anew and gracing you with might.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Effect: You receive a fraction of the stat points from [-Error-].
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‘Huh huh…’
Another cryptic description which made absolutely no sense to Verity. The only normal skill he’d gotten so far was [Why Me!?] and even its name was strange. Verity understood that the skill gave him a stat bonus, but as he was unable to draw any other conclusion on the conditions for that stat bonus, he sighed and moved on. Lingering wouldn't help, and he was just happy that it did something.
He thought of his next skill, [Never Again.]
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Skill : [Never Again]
Rank : A
Level : 1
Rarity : Unique
Type : Passive
Description : Fool me once? Jokes on me. Fool me twice? That won’t happen.
Effect: Gain resistances or immunities once a challenge has been surmounted. Immunities are absolute, but the potency of the resistance is dependent on yourx and the skill’s level.
Current Effects
[Indomitable will] - Grants resistance to all fear and intimidation-based skills.
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‘That’s much better!’
Verity’s eyes widened and he clenched his fist in joy. He had finally received something that he could call useful. There were conditions and caveats to the skill, but still, with time, it would only make him stronger and stronger. If he wanted, he could even engineer resistances himself by creating dangerous situations, such as eating poisonous plants to gain poison resistance, or putting his hand through fire to gain fire resistance!
Yeah… if he wanted. He’ll decide whether that’s necessary or not later on.
With his spirits uplifted, Verity closed the skill window and was now ready to continue. It was still disappointing that he did not have an active skill or something that he could show off, but what could he do? He could only hope that what he would see next could fulfill his desires.
Truth be told, he was itching to open the mystery boxes, but he wanted to go through everything else first before doing so. Hence, he decided to finally investigate his traits.
They were less exciting than the skills and stats were, and definitely less exciting than the mystery boxes, but Verity was still curious. He focused on the first of his traits ‘Shut-in’ and waited for the window to open.
He waited.
‘Weird…’
He tried to focus harder, perhaps the system was not registering his thoughts this time? But when it still wasn’t working, he tried to put his fingers on his temples like he had seen in movies. He hoped this would increase his brain power.
He waited some more and still nothing.
Verity frowned, he had not expected this. He tried the same with his other traits, but it all led to similar results. All but Goblin Slayer, which startled Verity when it opened as soon as he thought of it.
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Trait : Goblin Slayer
Rarity : Common
Type : Passive
Description : You’ve killed quite a few goblins. Great work!
Effect: +10% damage against all goblin related species.
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‘That’s the only one that’ll open?’
Verity could not wrap his mind around why. Something differentiated his other traits from this one, but Verity did not know what. Still, he was extremely curious, so he tried something. He asked the only person he thought might have an answer and who would not babble about his status window to others.
‘... Do you know why, Miss Sponsor? Oh and, what should I call you by the way…?’
[Your sponsor shrugs.]
‘...Are you answering the first, or the second question?’
[Your sponsor says you can call her ‘The prettiest flower in existence’.]
Verity sighed. ‘...I think I’ll stick to Miss Sponsor, but thanks anyways…’
[Your sponsor giggles and says ‘Just call me Vera’.]
‘That’s your name?’
Verity did not miss how similar it seemed to his. Was she just saying that, or was that actually her name?
[Your sponsor is feeling sleepy. She will return after a nap.]
‘Hey! You didn’t even answer my first question!!’
Silence.
‘Hey!!’
She was already gone, leaving Verity alone. Even after shouting in his head a few more times, she still refused to answer. Verity did not know that god-like beings needed naps, but now he knew. He had tried to talk to her to obtain answers, but now he had more questions than he began with.
He rubbed his hand across his face and sighed. If she wasn’t going to help him, he had no way of understanding why he could not study his other traits. He could ask the others, but feared his case was unique. If he knew one thing, it was that humans hated those who were different, and he did not want to be the target of such hatred.
Now, his only remaining option was to open his mystery boxes, and as he thought that, a smile creeped up his lips.
He tried to remain stoic on the outside, but he could not hide his anticipation. It was similar to what he would feel when playing gacha games. It was all luck based, but still, he couldn’t help but feel that all his hard work or hard earned money would surely be rewarded when the time came for a pull.
‘It’s got to be something cool right!?’ He thought, as he opened his inventory and mentally prepared to open the mystery box.
The term ‘mystery box’ sounded luck based, but the system did say that the rewards were performance dependent, and Verity believed he had performed rather well. So, if the system never lied, it would give him something good, or at least something decent.
He wasn’t sure how exactly to open the mystery box, but since everything was the system, appeared to rely on the thoughts of the user, he just thought that he wanted to open it.
‘Open mystery box!’
A flash of light blinded him, and when his vision returned, an item description stood before him.
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Item : Final Embers
Quality : Refined
Description : Forged with the dying breath of its creator, this spear carries his will. It is neither his best, nor most beautiful work, but it is his most meaningful. To wield it is to carry the flame of his legacy.
Effects
[Burning Resolve] - The spear shall not break so long as the wielder has the will to fight.
[Vow of Fire] - Once per day, summon the flames in which the spear was forged to incinerate your enemies.
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Verity covered his mouth, he was shaking. “Yes…!!!!” He mumbled, ensuring that no one around him could hear him.
This was unbelievable. He was not proficient with the spear, but it did not matter. Not only was its quality described as ‘Refined’ which had to be good, but it had no less than two effects! One made the spear virtually indestructible, while the other allowed him to manipulate fire. This was almost too good to be true.
He wanted to summon it right here and right now, but decided to wait when he really had the time to inspect it in detail. All he knew about its appearance for now was the image that appeared on the item window. It was a simple spear, but Verity found it quite nice to look at. It was long, meant to be held with two hands, with a crimson red shaft and an angular blade made of steel. At the base of the blade, there was a ribbon wrapped which floated in the wind, and unlike the rest of the spear it seemed old, and used.
After taking a good look at the image, Verity dismissed the spear, and took a deep breath. Perhaps his next gift, the one from his sponsor, would be even better.
‘Open mystery box!’
This time he closed his eyes, expecting to be blinded, and when he opened them, the item was there.
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Item : Vera’s Ring
Quality : Mythical
Description : A reward from its creator for following her will.
Effects:
[Vera’s Blessing] - Upon receiving a lethal injury, the ring will bring its wearer back from the brink of death once, after which, it will shatter.
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It was a ring of a silver hue with strange engravings and a single viridescent gem embedded in it. Words could not even describe how pretty it was. Verity wanted to summon it right away and put it on his finger, but that could also wait for later.
For now, he was simply ecstatic at the fact that both items he had received seemed tremendously useful, especially the ring. As long as its effect existed, Verity could not die. There was no better item than that. Paired up with his skill [Why Me!?], and [Never Again], while Verity was not necessarily strong, he was becoming harder to kill.
‘Looks like I’m off to a good start.’
These would surely be invaluable in the next trial, no matter what it was.