I, Dion, am currently at the Heavenly Court. With cuffed limbs and clothed in rags, I stand on a semi-circular podium, surrounded by some weirdly shining humanoid creatures.
How did I come to be here, you ask? Well, don’t ask me.
I was waking up like usual this morning, only to find that I wasn’t in my usual room. Scratch that, I even woke up butt naked. Since I’m not a nudist, that fact didn’t exhilarate me at all.
Soon enough, someone came in and picked me up. Put clothes on me. Affixed cuffs. And then, when I came of it, I was already here.
If they didn’t tell me this was that Heavenly Court beforehand, I definitely would have thought I was abducted by aliens.
…Nah, maybe that’s more reasonable.
“Dion Aditya. You are suspected for killing dozens of innocent children in Detroit, America. In that spite— “
“The fuck!?”
I’m utterly shocked.
Like hell that could happen? Let alone killing people, not even once I have ever gone to America!
“Supreme Court Judge! I obje—hmmpf!!”
All of a sudden, my mouth is shut without my consent. I’m confused, panic. I frantically try to open my mouth, but it’s all for naught.
“There shall be no lie told in this court. If the mouth went shut, the hands shall speak. If the hands went shut, the feet shall speak.”
Lie my ass!
“What we take into consideration was not limited to what the suspects have done, but also what they would do in the future, and what might be done due to their deeds. Dion Aditya, noble son of Adam. You may not have committed any deadly sin, but what you would do, will bring a great catastrophe to this world in near future. Therefore, we have reluctantly decided to impose penalties upon you”
That’s a fucking vigilante, your almighty-shithead! Where're my human rights!?
“However, one that hasn’t tasted death can’t taste hell. For we cannot put retribution on a sin that hadn’t been committed. Thus, we made a verdict.”
The hammer knocks three times.
“Dion Aditya. You shall serve your time in an abandoned world. Forsaken by the God’s mercy.”
----------------------------------------
Two weeks since.
As they promised, I’m here in an entirely different world. The civilization level of this world is still at medieval. There are kingdoms, nobles, feudalism, yadda yadda.
If you’re wondering what makes it so different from my original world, well, I’ll lay three points on that.
1. This world is bustling with ruthless monsters.
2. The publicly known Magic’s existence.
3. Character Stats.
Yeah, that’s goddamn right. I’m transported into another world, baby, like those protagonists from novels and manga.
What differs me to them though, is the fact that I ain’t got no cheat blessed on me. Not even a damn-ass tinge.
I was left with mere clothes to cover my butt and some cash to survive the night. If I wasn’t mugged in the middle of the road, though, maybe I can at least do something to survive today.
In addition, the foods here don’t click with my Asian tongue. Their staple food isn’t the sweet and soft steaming hot white rice, but an accursed black bread that you need to soften it with water to even chew. For me who born and grew in the modern days, my jaw isn’t that tough to bite into it. My HP goes down every time I try to gnaw it. What the fuck.
And today, yet again, I break myself a leg to bring that darned bread into my mouth.
By the way, here’s my stats.
> 【Dion Aditya】
>
> Race: Human
>
> Age: 27
>
> Level: 10
>
> Constitution: Exhausted, Bleeding (minor)
>
> Job: Adventurer
>
> Gold : 3
>
> 【VALUE】
>
> EXP: 980/1050
>
> HP: 12/45
>
> MP: 2/30
>
> SP: 23/65+6
>
> STR: 65
>
> DEX: 80
>
> VIT: 71
>
> INT: 60
>
> AGI: 85
>
> MND: 160
>
> LUK: 35
>
> 【MAGIC】
>
> Fire Magic – Small
>
> Water Magic – Small
>
> Life Magic
>
> 【SKILL】
>
> Etiquette – Intermediate
>
> Handwriting – Advanced
>
> Thread Manipulating - Novice
>
> Trap Crafting – Intermediate
>
> 【EQUIPMENTS】
>
> Headgear: Bandage
>
> Arms
>
> - Right
>
> o Short sword
>
> o Gloves
>
> - Left
>
> o Small Shield
>
> o Gloves
>
> Body
>
> - Leather Armor
>
> - Breastplate
>
> - Hide Pants
>
> - Bandage
>
> - Kneepad
>
> - Loincloth
>
> Footwear
>
> - Leather boots
>
> - Socks
>
> Miscellaneous
>
> - Earring of Stamina+4
>
> - Ring of Stamina+2
>
> - Leather Belt
>
> - Leather Pouch
I’m ashamed, but, yea, I’m not on my peak today. My head got a clean hit and I sacrificed my shoulders to leave my life intact.
The wounds aren’t that deep, but in a world where the word Sterile never even heard of, wounds in any degree are fatal enough.
To prevent making it worse, I wrap it with bandages soaked with alcohol. Although it was a cheap rum rather than an antiseptic alcohol. It’s still better than nothing.
From stats alone, you can guess my strength is just average. What’s the not-so-average though, is how I grew from level 1 to level 10 in two short weeks.
Of course, it’s not because I got the gift or whatnots. Nah. More because I chose to do myself a power grinding. I’ve been using traps and poisons to kill monsters that seem way stronger than me.
It’s not like walking in the park though, accidents are bound to happen. Just like today.
What differs monsters from animals is simple. If you kill it and it disappears, producing drop items in its place, then it’s a monster.
If this world is a game, it would be normal for a boar-y monster to drop items like swords or mantles and coins. However, this is the reality. And in this warped reality, it does happen.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
But how?
This world is still in its medieval. Science hasn’t developed far yet enough. The church bans any sign of blasphemy, which, of course, including unraveling the mysteries of the world. You won’t see researchers that often, as they go into their hiding.
Thus, what I can rely on is my own intuition only. And my intuition tells me that those stuffs are coming out from their box items
That’s right, gentlemen. It is normal for people to possess item boxes since they were born. As normal as they value their own life by their mere statuses.
As a matter-of-fact, I do own myself an item box. Here you go.
【ITEM BOX】
9/10 slots are used.
* Damaged Gold coin X 2
* Damaged Silver coin X 1
* Damaged Copper coin X 20
* Sturdy Thread X 34
* Short Sword X 1
* Bandage X 7
* Clean Water X 18
* Rye Bread X 6
* Scroll of Small Regeneration X 2
As they said, always bring your second weapon.
What? Why do I have so many damaged coins in my item box? My answer is simple. I spoil it myself.
You see my status panel got Gold: 3 on it? This «Gold» here, buddy, doesn’t mean I own 3 gold coins. It’s the total balance of 3 copper coins I got in my Status.
And, again, that’s right. You can save your cash in your own Status Panel, just like the sweet old RPG games.
It’s the safest vault you’ll ever see in the whole world. Unless your opponent got items specialized for stealing on their hand, that is.
This is a hard learned lesson, boys. There is always a way to counter everything.
Back to the topic. One gold coin equals to a hundred silver coins. And one silver coin equals to a hundred copper coins.
Then, do you think I really had lost my mind to spoil a gold coin, which worth a ten thousand copper coins? Well, maybe. I won’t deny it though.
I mean, just think about it. A piece of coin, which is a solid matter with real mass, could become a string, a single byte of data in the Status. Isn’t it weird?
Still not understand? You see, there’s absolutely no way for one thing to have a perfect duplicate of it. Everything is their own little snowflakes. They’re all different, deep down to their atomic structure.
However, in spite of that, only coins are different. You put a single silver coin yet you pull a hundred copper ones. You place a hundred silver coins yet produce a single flawless gold one.
How come? On what basis that puts them at an equal ground to one another? If they were damaged, would the «Status» still accept them? If so, to what extent? On what case? Scratches? Scribbles? Burnt? Molten?
My curiosity got the better of me.
And the result was quite satisfying. I sacrificed roughly twenty thousand golds, not for naught.
What ultimately decided it was… whether the insignia etched to the coins damaged or not. If that insignia got damaged even by a minuscule touch, it won’t go into the status. On the other hand, no matter how much you spoil the rest of the coin, as long as that insignia left untouched, it’s still valued like new.
And, the wondrous thing is, if you put that damaged coin into your status, it’ll come back flawless, born anew.
Here comes another question; Can I make those coins myself? Without much pondering, I’ve reached into conclusion; Not yet. I might be able to make it one day, but my hand isn’t dexterous enough to carve them so detailed.
After knowing that, there was this something that been bothering me ever since. Something like a fish’s bone that you need to gulp it harder to drive it out from your throat. However, I hush such thoughts for the time being and produce one Scroll of Small Regeneration. My life is not equal to idle thoughts.
As you can see, these scrolls are what you’d call Buff items. This one gives you faster regeneration rate, there are also ones that give you speed, or raise your attack, and the rarest ones might grant you pseudo-immortality and such.
Naturally, buff items aren’t limited to scrolls alone. Most commonly known ones are food items, there are drop items that endowed with buffs as well. However, these scrolls are the most popular. They don’t rot and their effects are not random. If you carelessly use unknown buff items, it might backlash and gave you debuff instead. With that point in mind, the simple and plain scrolls are the best you’d ever got.
Of course, there are also the marvelous potions and elixirs which completely restores HP in one go. But their prices are exorbitant by nature.
The way to use these scrolls is not by reading it. I mean, for real, who could even read these illegible weird-ass symbols written within? Their way of use is quite simple, you only need to put them into your status panel, just like how you store your coin.
And so, I put that scroll into my status panel. Soon after, a notification appears before my eyes.
Small regeneration has been granted to you
My constitution stats changed to Exhausted, Bleeding (minor), Small Regeneration.
It’s a usual phenomenon for me, yet a crazy idea just went through my skull right at that moment. Plus, if that proves true, it will be something so groundbreaking.
I can’t restraint my own smile.
I pulled my last scroll at my disposal and spread it out. What comes into my view is a cluster of symbols and characters I’ve never seen forming some circular crests overlapping one to another.
Sure enough, these symbols aren’t purposeless. What I have to do is to reveal the way they work.
You can say this scroll is my lifeline to escape this hellhole. However, that crazy thought just gets the better of me, I can’t help it.
I steeled myself.
I licked my thumb and smear it to those symbols, arbitrarily smudge them, then I roll it up again. I don’t know if this will even work. I maybe just wasted my last survival guarantee. But, hell. I’m curious as fuck.
I placed that tinkered scrolls into my status panel then gulped.
S█all Reg•ner?tion has been blessed to you
HELL YEAH!!
I checked my stats. Then, it happened.
Constitution: Exhausted, Bleeding (minor), Small Regeneration, S█all Reg•ner?tion
It doesn’t last long and soon reverted back to how it was. One Small Regeneration scroll usually lasts for 30 minutes and restores 120 HP all in all. Yet, the one I’ve fiddled with couldn’t hold for even one minute.
I stopped my train of thoughts and devised a plan.
Get out from this dungeon. Go to the town. Look for the Scroll Artisan.
----------------------------------------
The very same day I got out from that hellhole, I hastily moved towards the guild without letting myself rest even for a moment.
There are two main reasons why I stride straight into the guild.
1. Claim the subjugation rewards that I sowed from that dungeon.
2. Obtain information about the Scroll Artisans.
If there’s something free in this world, that would be air only. Even securing information spent me six pretty silvers, which roughly equals to a month’s worth of daily necessities. And that wasn’t even the best I could get!
All I could gather from that was the fact that the Royal Academy is the one that distributes those scrolls. Nothing more than that.
Which then led me to this Underground Guild today, paying off 70 silver coins for a better deal.
Just as Pythagoras said. If there be light, then there is darkness. You can guess from the name, the underground guild is a place for freelancers seeking jobs with high risk and high return. No need to ask, it’s full of illegal and immoral line of works. From espionage to assassination, you can even trade some countries’ vital scoop for a fair amount of gold coins.
Hm? How do I end up in a place like this, you ask? It’s simple. If you managed to solo kill the dungeon master twice in the first week you’re admitted as an adventurer, even more when you’re just a low leveled small fry, those sort of shady jobs will instead swarm at you like fishes to their feed.
I’m not that strong if you judge me from my stats alone. But as a man who born and raised in the modern society, my life isn’t valued by measly ones and zeroes. I’m here to prove that.
… Was what I thought until some days ago, but now I’ll take use of that «Status» everyone reveres for my own advantages.
Done with my business, I hastily take my feet away from this place before my wallet squeezed dry.
According to the information I got, not all the scrolls produced by the Academy. There are some scroll artisans that not related to the Academy at all. However, their ability is dubious, since most of them are dropouts after all. They sell them dirt cheap. There are of course some that got good arms on them, but either it’s too hard to mark their position or they’re hard to please self-conceited bastards.
That’s not all there is on it. I also got the name of professors and researchers who conduct research on buffing scrolls and their facilities in the Academy. It was quite a big catch.
That’s why my next action is to obtain the Royal Academy’s uniform and sneak in!
What? Properly admitting as a student you said? Hah! I ain’t got no time for that. Sorry, but there won’t be any School Arc for you.
Long story short, I finally found the scroll artisan I’ve been frantically looking for. Without much words, I asked him to teach me how to craft a scroll. He refused me at first, but he couldn’t refuse the dangling gold coins I’ve prepared.
I invest so much in this little crazy idea of mine. I worked my ass off only to see the money I’ve collected so hard vanished in a single moment. I even thought it was all meaningless, more so now that I’ve reached here.
I mean, I can’t stop my stomach pain from all the laughing, this whole crap was just about a simple PHP syntax I had mastered in middle school!
The thing you’d call a Buff Scroll is just the requesting end. Those shithead artisans. They wrote the whole code from to