Authors Note
Tried to use some literary techniques I don’t have much experience with. I think it turned out well, also nicely introduces the next party member and explains more about the world. All in all happy with how it turned out but it has one major problem… It doesn’t fit with the pacing or tone of the main story. Instead of deleting 3 weeks’ worth of work I’m changing it into a side story.
Second there is tragic moment eluded to in the end. I've decided to return this series to a pure comedy and this side story will have mostly no bearing on the main story. Her uncle is still scum and Yoshiko is still in the main story but I'll replace the tragic background with something more amusing like vomit.
To Japanese native speakers or those fluent in the language and culture. Sorry if I have incorrectly used some loan words I will gladly correct them if you tell me their proper usage.
Trying to figure out how to write third person, gender specific, age specific, from a foreign language with changing in and out group has completely mystified me.
Japanese words basic meaning: (seriously there are a ton of nuances…)
Otosama - Father
Kaasan – Mother
Ojisan – Uncle
Sensei - Teacher
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Chapter 4.1 – A Young Maiden’s First Crush (Side Story)
Oriana and its new full dive VR technology has been in development for over a decade. Few know just how much longer. One such person is Yoshiko Kurosaki. She’s not sure the exact years but knows there have been at least five stages. Each stage has lasted around a decade in length. Otosama was hired twelve years ago to bring the final stage of the product to market. When Otosama moved to the US Kaasan and her moved as well since they knew it would be a lengthy job and wanted to stay together.
Before being hired by NERV Otosama was a well-respected neurosurgeon and cyberneticist working in a prestigious hospital in Tokyo. Otosama was hired to manage the team developing the brain-VR hardware interface. Other VR systems exist but none anywhere as advanced.
A year ago Otosama announced that they would get a RoyalSphere full dive VR to try out. Although as part of the develop team they could’ve gotten one much earlier Otosama was concerned about its safety. Even now Otosama is hesitant about it but apparently as part of PR campaign all managers and their families are required to use it to prove there are no safety problems.
Still Yoshiko can only use it four hours a day at most and had to maintain a 4.0 GPA at her private woman’s high school to use it. She had to read all the warning manuals and even took a safety test on the equipment’s usage. Also until the beta started she wasn’t allow to use it. Finally she was absolutely forbidden from using a Nervgear. She has no idea where she would get one, or why she would use one when she has access to a RoyalSphere, but Otosama was very clear she was never to use one.
Even with all the warnings Yoshiko is excited about it. She’ll be able to experience an entirely different world than this one. A world without buotoko and his horrid smell. A new world where she can be someone different and maybe just maybe finally make some friends.
The day had finally come. The start of Oriana beta and Yoshiko opens up the RoyalSphere and lays down inside with plenty of room as it’s designed to accommodate bigger people than her 5’2” size. The RoyalSphere looks deceptively simple. A white capsule with a padded bed inside and a power plug and internet connection cable on the outside. She is sure it’s much more complex than that as there would be no reason for the company to hire Otosama and his genius expertise otherwise.
From reading the safety guide she knows the RoyalSphere has all kinds of monitors. It monitors the occupant’s life signs and will call emergency services and wake up the occupant if there are any problems detected. It even monitors outside the capsule in case of fire, earthquakes or other natural disasters.
All the complicated brain reading and image inducing gear is hidden away with a start button and capsule door open handle being the only two controls visible inside. She pushes the start button and closes her eyes. The capsule has a very quiet hum as it starts up and after 15 seconds she sees four red dots of light. They dance around a bit but are quickly replaced by words.
[Thank you for your purchase of NERV’s RoyalSphere entertainment system.] Yep she spent 0 dollars and will pay nothing a month. Nothing like free for being a great purchase price.
Heedless of her inner snark the system continues. [Now calibrating system. Please do not be alarmed you should see several test patterns and hear some music as the system configures itself to your brain patterns]
“It’s reading my mind! Stay out of my mind!” She giggles. She doubts anything she can do can stop it! Besides the manual said to stay as relaxed as possible to avoid any problems using the system.
A few colored shapes appear and move about. Then a bit of classical music softly plays and seems to move from left to right.
[Now calibrating secondary output. You’ll feel a slight touch on your hands, followed by hot, cold, and a pin prick. Finally a short full body tingling] Yey, she gets to experience menopause and she’s not even 18 yet. She’s sure glad she spent all those non-existent thousands of dollars for this experience.
[Configuring smell and taste.] What no warning of what she might experience? She demands a refund! She smells cherry blossoms and tastes a slightly sweet taste.
[Configuring input. With moving your hand only. Please pick up the ball and put it in the square box.] Billions of dollars and decades of development have come down to this. A machine commanding humans to do it’s bidding. “Well I, for one, worship my new robotic overlords” she thinks, as she moves the ball into the box.
[Thank you. The system is now finalizing setup and will teleport you to the logon room.] Teleport? It’s not like she’s really going anywhere. Couldn’t they have come up with a better word choice she complains.
She feels herself gently moving downward as lights move around her. Then finds herself standing in the middle of a slightly blue room. She’s bare foot and can feel the carpet under her toes. There is a door on one wall clearly marked exit and a window on the other letting in sunlight. Looking outside is a small grass lawn surrounded by green hedges. On the other two walls are NERV’s logo with a touch screen kiosk in front of her.
Oh wow. That’s kind of cool. Even without any technological know-how one can easily exit or bring up the system controls.
“This can’t be happening. It’s not possible, it must be a dream!” she declares. Shaking slightly in amusement. She pinches herself “Ouch” Looking down she’s wearing a nondescript blue jumpsuit. She tries to move the fabric but it acts more like it’s a part of her than a separate piece of clothing. “I really am in the VR world.”
She walks over to the kiosk. Only one option is presented. There should always be two options, there is always two options. Of course since NERV has only one game the only option is Oriana. She presses the screen.
Now the screen has the correct amount of options. ‘NPC guide’ or ‘Text descriptions.’ She chooses ‘Text’ A long text appears explaining about the world and how great it is, how glorious… She presses the skip button. Dire warnings… Skip button again. EULA agreem… Skip. Extra buy op… Skip. Invite fri… Skip skip skip. Link ac… Skip.
Finally the character creation screen. It displays her current unflattering body on the screen. The VR pod must have scanners. Perverted pod eek! The first two settings are clothing, underwear, naked and show/hide mirror. Show mirror and underwear.
A mirror appears and her jumpsuit fades away to just a bra and panties. She looks at her too short 5’2” frame and too fat body. With an at best plain face and just below chin length straight black hair she is ugly she thinks. Her skin is too dark, her butt too small, her boobs are too big and lopsided. Her face is droopy. Gah!
She quickly chooses elf, 6’1” height, 110lbs, pale skin, and long blond hair. Hits the test button. She feels her own body morph to match the image on the screen. Now she gazes upon her new Victoria Secrets model body. Much better she thinks. She does a few sexy poses in front of the mirror.
This is so much nicer looking then my old body. She imagines herself in skimpy green elf armor walking around a city and men looking at her. Then she blushes. Seeing her face redden in the mirror causes her to blush even more. Maybe this is too much she thinks.
She hits the revert button and feels her body morph back to her real shape. In reality most would consider Yoshiko cute. With a nice dress and makeup even pretty. But she only sees her own flaws, imagined more than not. Flaws she is going to correct.
She clicks the symmetrical button. Most people are slightly different on each side this averages the two and makes them perfectly symmetrical. Then adds two inches in height making her 5’4”. Moves the attractiveness slider to 150%. Finally reducing her weight to 110lbs.
Still not right she thinks. She looks too skinny and fake. Adjusting the sliders she settles on 120% attractiveness and 135lbs. She doesn’t feel those numbers are right but she likes how she looks at those levels.
A few more minor tweaks, then smaller boobs, then larger, then smaller, then larger. Okay just a bit smaller at D-cup. And a few hours later she is almost done. She lengthens her hair until it reaches her butt and finally adding back her glasses.
She doesn’t feel right without them. In VR everyone has perfect vision so they are only for looks but she just doesn’t look right otherwise. There she gazes at herself again with a smile. This will be me she thinks.
Although her time spent on her own character body seems excessive it is important in Oriana. As a player doesn’t just see them on a screen but will be living in them. To change your character or body costs thousands of dollars even for the beta testers. There are of course ways to change your body in game but they are far more difficult and slow process so it’s best to set it up right at the beginning.
“Now what race and class should I pick?”
Elf – Too sexy she can’t stop blushing.
Dwarf – Ugg no too short.
Halfling – Same.
Gnome – Why would anyone want a nose that big?
Cat-girl – She does a maid with cat paws pose, again blushing nyah
She goes vanilla human. There are many more races in Oriana but most can’t be chosen at the start. There are ways to unlock them or change into them in the game but the details on how are a well-kept secret.
For class she has a hard time deciding. She finally chooses student. Student is a weak class but has one major advantage over the other classes. It has the highest skill gains, moderate growth in every area and almost no class equipment restrictions. This allows new players to tryout many things. Finally it’s an easy class to change out of into other classes once a player knows what she wants to do.
She clicks on the random name generator until it gives her a decent name. Mireri. That sounds cute let’s go with that she thinks.
Last step is to spend her 30 bonus start points. All attributes start at 10 and can be reduced or increased for one point. Certain traits can also be bought but cost 5 to 20 bonus points. Most put all their points into attributes since the start attributes are called your base attributes and never change. As one levels up they get modified attributes based on their base. So a base of 10 str will get 1 str per level while someone with a base of 20 would get 2.
Str 5, Grace 15, Endurance 15, Leadership 1, Appearance 12, Charisma 12, Intelligence 20, Perception 15, Will 10. 10 - Quick Learner - double skill gain and +20% exp, 5 - Serendipitous +10 Luck and sometimes very unlikely things will happen to you.
Accept.
The room around her fades and again she has the teleportation feeling of slowly moving down and lights move up around her. Just then she realizes she made a game character just like herself a student and a kind of plain average that no one looks at.
[Tempt Fate?] Yes/No
Did she miss reading something? This question just appears with no other explanation. She chooses no. However the screen just reappears. She chooses no again. Again the screen reappears. This game was supposed to be an open game where one could do anything. A question that only accepts one answer and doesn’t tell her what will happen is just lame.
She finally chooses yes. The flowing lights pause a second then jerk a couple times then flicker a bit. Odd must be some kind of game glitch. Maybe it has to do with how immersive the game will feel she thinks.
The lights resume their flow but get brighter and brighter. They become blindingly bright and she closes her eyes. Just before she closes them she sees a system message. [Only those that risk all can change their fate.] At least she thinks that’s what it said.
It’s dark. She hears a quiet hum. Laying on something padded, she wonder when the game will continue. She hears a light thump on glass and heavy mouth breathing. She opens her eye and sees an ugly pig like orc fogging up the capsules window while staring at her.
“Eeeek.” She lets out a muffled cry as she quickly puts her hands over her mouth. She comes to her senses are realizes she’s back in the real world and the man staring at her is buotoko. Of course buotoko is not his real name. It means ugly man in Japanese. She opens up the capsule and steps out.
“What would you like Ojisan?”
“Cook me some dinner.”
“Hai, Ojisan” she does a slight bow.
She goes to the kitchen to start preparing dinner. If buotoko is here then that means Otosama is working overtime again. Otosama always sends her uncle over when he can’t make it home. The complete opposite of Otosama, buotoko is a disgusting person almost lacking in human qualities.
Instead of cool handsomeness there is only a distorted face with a creepy smile. Instead of intelligence shiny from the eyes only a swine like lust. Instead of hard work shaping a solid dependable body only grease stains and flaccid muscles though laziness.
She wishes Kaasan was still around then Otosama wouldn’t have to worry about her being alone. Sadly Kaasan was involved in a traffic accident a couple years after they moved to the US. Supposedly a hit and run accident. Last year by chance she found out that the truck that hit Kaasan has been involved in many hit and runs and never seems to have an owner.
A silly internet site claiming that there is a serial killer truck out there was one of the urban legends going around school. Curious she went to the site and saw one of the accidents listed was about her Kaasan. After a bit of research she found the same truck was used in each of the hit and runs. Police always claimed it was an accident and dropped the investigation. It’s an obvious cover-up but why and why would they target her Kaasan?
Once she went to college she would have more freedom to investigate. Until then she would just have to survive one last year here. She imagines herself as the lonely princess guarded by an ugly monster waiting for her prince to come rescue her.
She finishes preparing buotoko’s dinner. As she’s bringing it to him she stumbles a bit spilling a bit of the beer on the tray.
“Can’t you do anything right! How hard is it to just walk? Maybe you should just lay on your back like a good girl? Then you wouldn’t need to walk.” He grins at her. “You first” she thinks. She had mixed in a few extras to buotoko dinner.
The standard extra salt, grease and sugar on the hopes he dies all the sooner from a poor diet. Also a couple of Benadryl to make sure he falls asleep quickly. If boutoko stays up late drinking then things she doesn’t care to remember sometimes happen.
She says nothing as she places the food try in front of him. Before backing up and going upstairs to her room.
As she leaves “We should have more family time together, you can sit right next to me while I eat and watch TV.”
“Sorry Ojisan, I still have to study. You know how Otosama is about school.”
She retreats to her room locking her door before going to sleep.
Next day is the last day of school for the week and rather dull like most days. Most of the time she keeps thinking about what will happen next in Oriana. She had just got to the good part before buotoko interrupted her.
Rushing home after school she enters the RoyalSphere and logons on to Oriana. The logon is much quicker this time. This time she find herself in a tunnel of darkness as she moves toward a light. When she reaches the light it almost blinds her before she finds herself kneeling in a seiza.
She never likes sitting in the proper Japanese sitting pose. She only has to do it a few times a year. Of course she knows how to do one properly but still tries to avoid them when she can. Also why is she so cold?
Opening her eyes she sees three people in robes kneeling in front of her. As she looks down she sees what looks to be an inlaid magic circle of some sort. Lastly she finds out why she is so cold. She is currently naked except for her glasses. She quickly tries to cover herself and starts warming up from a full body blush.
The old women motions one of the younger women to her side. The younger women quickly brings over a robe for her to cover up with.
“Sorry about that, the summoning spell occasionally doesn’t bring your clothing with you. My name is Xantha. I’m the grand magister of the magic school in this city and the most experienced hero summoner. What’s your name?”
“I... umm… that… Yoshiko… no here, I guess, it’s Mireri.”
“A true pleasure to meet you Mireri. Your probably wondering where you are? You are in the capital city Nysa of the Kingdom of Saguenay. Oh in the world of Oriana, I always forget that part. Now let’s get you in some proper clothes so I can show you around.”
The kindly woman leads Mireri into another room. As she walks in she notices a wizened old man in very well used but still immaculately up kept clothing sitting in a chair.
“Master tailor Paulin would you be so kind to outfit Mireri here.” As she leads Mireri to stand on a pedestal.
“Of course Grand Magister.” He replies as he stands up and take a worn tape measure from around his shoulders.
He comes up to Mireri and frowns. Does he see something wrong with her? Well he’ll totally respect her when she’s a famous princess.
*Poke* “Kyaa!”
“You’re too stiff girl. Relax a little I won’t bite. At best all I can do is gum ya a bit.”
“I think that might be what she is afraid of.”
He chuckles. “I’ve raised 3 generation of girls from toddlers to old women. She’s just a toddler to me until she has grey haired and wrinkles. Even then she’ll just be a snot nosed brat.” He says as he looks at the Grand Magister.
The kindly old women sticks her tongue out at him.
“See snot nosed brat with no manners. Now relax so I can fit the clothes to ya properly. Now what’s yer class so I can get ya the right clothing?”
“..S..student.”
“Figures with this one summoning you.”
“Umm… what?”
“What he means is who a summoner summons is usually like them. The greater the affinity between the two the better and more powerful the summons is. It’s why I probably look like someone from your country. Also makes it easier to talk. Hard to be at ease with someone you find scary right? Worse you have to fear from me is a few hugs since you’re so cute.”
Mireri blushes at the compliment. The old woman does look like a kindly miko from Japan wearing western wizard robes.
“I’m done with the measurements. Now off with ya to play young-ins and let me work in peace.” He grins shooing them away.
The not-miko-wizard leads Mireri to a nice sitting room with a table and two female attendants. She asks one of the attendants in there to bring tea.
“Welcome again to this world Mireri. I’m sure you have a ton of questions. You don’t seem to be the talkative one, so I’ll explain the basics and you can ask questions at any time alright?”
Mireri nods. She may be quiet now but one day she’ll be talkative. Oh yes they will hear her shout out. They will rue the day hue hue hue.
“As student you’ll be taking classes at the school I run. Classes normally last a total of 40 hours each to train someone in a skill. Or 200 hours to train someone in a specialized ability. An example would be magic skill and a single magic school of specialization like fire. You’ll need to learn both to cast fire magic. Of course exceptional students can learn at a faster pace.”
“To encourage new adventures and heroes to learn skills before heading to dangerous areas the city has put a 10 silver toll to go outside. You can still go outside without paying but the city confiscates all your items and only gives you a wood carving knife. This may seem cruel but it takes a lot of magical energy to summon or resurrect an adventure or hero so we don’t want young hotheads to die needlessly.”
“So by giving them a carving knife they can learn how to survive with nothing and might be trained that way and calm done.”
“Exactly!” The magister beams.
Might as well just call it Chuuibyo training. Get rid of all the 8th grade idiots who want power without working for it. Sure it’s a game but its realism is what sells it. She means if magic and such were real at least.
“You also make the distinction between hero and adventurer, why?
“Well we need those with power to help us but not every summon goes as well as yours.”
How is being summoned naked going well for anyone except for perverted old men perhaps? Mireri questions.
“Those summoned by inexperienced summoners are called adventures. Summons by greater summons are called heroes. It’s not to say adventures can’t be great heroes or heroes will always amount to more than an adventurer but heroes tend to do better. Heroes gain skills and powers faster and tend to be more effective in general.” So NervGear versus RoyalShpere I’ll bet. Money is the road to power everywhere, banzai capitalism.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
She also learns that due to influx of new heroes and adventures the schools classes are offered at all hours. Although specific classes may not be offered right then so she’ll need to plan for which classes she’ll attend. She’ll also learn from a teacher in person and not a holo magic crystal like adventures which improves skill gains.
They continue to talk about other things and drink tea until the tailor has her new clothes. She puts on the undergarments and then the dress in a changing room and looks herself over. It’s a simple common grey medieval dress that stops mid-calf on her. She also wears a sweater vest with a logo on it. Although a simple design it is expertly tailored so it’s very comfortable and easy to move in.
“Thank you very much” she does a deep bow to the tailor.
“Now none of that. Twas a simple thing.”
“Why don’t you go around town showing off your new dress and get familiar with the city. Here take some spending change with you.” The magister takes out a silver and hands it to Mireri.
“What about classes?”
“Your first day here and you already want to learn?” Grand Magister smiles. “We can start tomorrow, you should see the city first before you are cooped up in classes all day. Besides you should buy some basic skill kits first so you can put that learning to use right away.”
“Hai sensei” Mireri is lead to the exit of the magic school which opens directly on the main city plaza. She sees many people of all races moving through it. It’s so busy and so many colors. Not sure where to go she hesitantly steps outside.
The old teacher chuckles, “All heroes have a navigation spirit. Just say where you want to go and it’ll lead you there.”
“Please lead me to the crafts district.” A small glowing blue ball appears and says, “Hey, follow!”
Quickly grabbing it the magister smashes it on the wall. “Hey, Listen!” She smashes it a few more times against the wall. “There it is should be muted now. It’ll drive you insane if you listen to it for too long. Just smash it against something to mute it again if it tries to talk.”
“O-Oh okay” Not sure about this game joke she just accepts it and moves on.
Following the now wobbly blue ball to the crafts district she buys some basic tool kits. Basic magic wand, potion brewing stand, hammer, craving knife, cauldron and so on. Unlike most games there is no one kit but each tool can often be used for several skills. This allows a greater flexibility in how you craft. More can be crafted at once if one has multiple tools, or more crafting options by buying specialized tools or just higher quality tools to make higher quality items.
She also picks up tools for basic cooking and sewing. Not a very feminist thing to do but she would hate to have a simple tear in her new clothes or not be able to eat decent cooked meals. Screw conformist progressiveness if it stops her from eating delicious food and looking cute.
Besides here she can eat all the delicious food she wants. All of it 0 calories. She decides to do just that and orders her blue minion to lead her to delicious foods. Arriving at the main market street she strolls down it and taking in all the sights and smells. So much and it’s all so good she thinks. She losses track of time as she is sampling the many delicacies and window shopping the more expensive babbles.
*Beep beep beep* Aww her time is up and she has to log out.
Otosama is home tonight so she makes a quiet dinner for them before studying and going to bed. Next day she quickly does her morning routine before logging into the game again. Even though it’s morning in the real world, in Oriana it’s late afternoon. This is due to the slight time difference. Oriana has a 22 hour long day so it’s time to the real world changes daily. Intended to give all players a chance at time specific content. Otherwise the time passing is one to one no weird time dilation effects to deal with.
Mireri logs on and starts heading back to the magic school to begin her classes. She notices a young girl looking lost in the middle of the paved avenue. She also sees a cart rapidly moving through the street. Oh no the cart is going to hit that girl she thinks.
She runs to save the girl but trips on one of the paving stones and falls in front of the oncoming cart. The cart driver starts shouting and drives his cart into a ditch. A sickening crunching and popping noise can be heard coming from the bottom of the wagon as something is crushed beneath it.
Standing up she moves over to the cart to make sure everyone is okay.
“What the heck‘re you doing? You could’ve been killed. You don’t even have the sense of a child.” The cart driver says pointing to the lost looking girl who moved out of the way of the cart without issue and is now standing on the side of the street.
“I’m sorry. I thought… well…”
The cart driver continues to berate her loudly. She shrinks down and moves back until she stumbles into the ditch.
Red Slime Death Crystal Claimed
+3 bite skill
+3 club skill
+5 command skill
+3 Grapple skill
+3 Martial arts skill
+3 Spear skill
+5 Tackle skill
+220 Trolling skill
+3 wood carving skill
+105 xp
Your quick learning ability and hero status has increase skill and exp received.
Level up!
Items looted: Red slime goo
Racial Affiliation Slime: +100 respect
New Racial Affiliation Level!
Respected Adventurer
You’ve achieved second level of racial respect (slimes). You’ve aided the slimes and they will now offer you quests.
Distracted by the window popup she is broken out of her guilt and stops listening to the cart driver. Oh no I killed someone. It’s all my fault I should apologize to them.
“I’m sorry, so sorry but I must go. Sorry again.” She says regaining her composer and running off.
“Lead me to the player named red slime”
The blue ball of light hesitates a few seconds then zooms ahead of Mireri and heads straight down the road. She follows it to the main gate out of the city. Does that mean red slime is outside of the city? But she can’t get out unless she pays 10 silver.
She quickly thinks, “Lead me to the auction house.” The blue light again zooms off. Once she reaches the auction house she puts up the red slime goo she received for 10 silver buyout. Maybe it’s a rare craft item from outside that people will pay for it she hopes.
Not having anything else she can do at the moment she decides to head back to the magic school. If nothing else she can gain crafting skills there and start making money to get out of the city.
Joining the magic class she spends an hour learning the basics of this world’s magic system. However even with her bonuses she only gains 3 magic skill. Too slow she thinks much too slow. Even though this is 3 times faster than normal player for learning a trained skill she thinks there must be an even faster way.
“Excuse me sensei, can I speak with the Grand Magister?”
“Hmm I don’t know but she probably in her magic study right now. Just follow your navigation spirit.”
“Thank you sensei.” She follows her blue GPS substitute towards the Grand Magister’s study. Arriving at the door she knocks.
The door opens, “Oh if it isn’t my newest student. Please come in. What brings you to my lair this evening?”
“Sensei is there a faster way to learn skills?”
“How many skills did you gain in class?”
“Three”
“And you still want to learn even more than that? I’m impressed. Well I suppose there is one way but few gain anything from it.”
“I’ll do it, I don’t care how dangerous it is!”
“Hold on there why would you think it dangerous? We are here to train new students not kill them off. It’s just self-study in the library and taking a test to make sure you learned the materials. Generally it’s for those with some experience already to challenge earlier classes so they can take more advanced classes.”
“Oh if it’s just that I can do that easily.”
“Well it’s up to you on how fast you learn the materials and you’ll need to be able to read Egatin. That’s the common written language around here. Since you’re so motivated I’ll teach you the basics of Egatin.”
“Thank you very much sensei!”
Two and half hours later she has 10 skill in literature and linguistics with a sub skill in Egatin.
“Well I’ll be… You might just have a chance at doing this.” The magister says impressed at Mireri’s progress.
It was easy Mireri thinks. It was just Latin with a couple extra rune looking symbols. She already knows Latin, Japanese, English, German, Standard Chinese, and some Korean. Although her Korean and Chinese are mostly from manhua and manhwa so they are probably a bit off from normal.
*Beep beep beep* Nooo my umbilical cord has been cut and I must return to base before I lose power.
“I must return to my world sensei. I so wanted to start reading those books too.”
“Hmm well I don’t know if it’ll work but…” the Grand Magister mutters as she summons a red glowing spirit. “It’s a new spell of mine. I named it a Kindle spirit. I hate being away from the library and not being able to accurately remember a book reference. It should allow you to read any of this libraries books anywhere in this world. I’m not sure if it’ll work between worlds, but it might.” She hands the spirit over to Mireri
“Sensei are you sure, it seems valuable.”
“I need someone to test it out and besides I’m curious if it’ll work across dimensions. If it does I might give you another so I can read books from your world. ”
New Quest (c 1)
See if the fire spirit, Kindle, works across dimensions to read books.
Reward: Reputation with the Grand Magister increases.
“I accept. I’ll see if it works. Thank you.”
She logs out and wonders how to test the spirit. Well an AI gave me it and it sounds very similar to an app she has on her phone. She opens up the app and sees an Oriana category with a picture of the red spirit. Well that was easy. She spends the rest of the day reading Oriana books.
Next day she logs in again.
“How did the experiment go? Were you able to read books from the library?”
“Yes they were very interesting and I’m ready to take some tests.”
“Hooo more than one is it? Well it’ll be a good way to prove the Kindle works across dimensions and I’m curious to see how you do. Which tests would you like to take?”
“Novice alchemy, magic, sewing, cooking, astronomy, astrology, religion, science, mathematics, accounting, item identification, monster identification--”
“Are… are you joking? No I can see that you’re not let’s start with alchemy and go from there.” The magister interrupts her.
Three and half hours later…
New Quest (c 2)
You’ve proved that the Kindle can be used across dimensions. 2nd part of quest see if Grand Magister can read books from the real world.
Reward: Unique magic item from the magic school vault.
New Trait
Speed Reader
By reading and understanding a skill book with in a day and passing a test you gain this trait.
Effect: exp increased by 10% skill gains increased by 100% when reading books
New Trait
Genius
By completing two tests perfectly within an hour you gain this trait.
Effect: exp increased by 10% skill gains increased by 100%
+25 Fame
New Trait
Prodigy
By passing ten tests in a day you gain this trait.
Effect: exp increased by 15% skill gains increased by 150%
+100 Fame
Schools, Libraries and other institutions of learning welcome you to study with them.
“Enough! Ha ha ha you’ve completely exhausted me and I’m just watching you pass these tests. Go play outside give this poor old woman a break. I’m going to have to get some assistance for your crazy learning tomorrow.”
Mireri is a little proud of herself. Although many of the tests she already knew like math and science which gave her an advantage. She mostly took them to see if it would open up other skills to learn and indeed it did.
This game has an unbelievable amount of skills. She focused mostly on mental skills which are easy to learn via books. She assumes the craft, physical, social, weapons and magical skill branches all have a similar amount.
With all her bonuses now even other more physical skills will take much less time to learn. Also improving the skills she currently has will be much quicker and less costly. Otosama always stressed efficiency in her time management and she has done well she thinks.
“Lead me to the auction house.” She might as well check on her auction. She opens up the auction panel but doesn’t see her auction anymore. She thinks a bit. Oh. “Lead me to a mailbox.”
Opening up the mailbox she sees the auction sold minutes after she put it up to a player named Eris. Guess that was a valuable craft item. At least I have enough to pay the gatekeeper. She’d hate to lose her new clothes and crafting tools by just walking through the gate otherwise.
*Beep beep beep* Noooo she was so close. Soooo close. She’ll get them next time yes the beep shall not defeat her mission next time.
She logs out and spends the rest of the day cleaning the house and studying Oriana skills. She’s glad Otosama is home again today. Last couple months this has been a rare thing. With the upcoming release of the game Otosama must have more free time as the VR equipment has been completed.
She pulls out her smart phone and loads up the Kindle spirit app. It has a new option to install a book reading application. She doesn’t want it to drain her phone battery so she tries to install in on her home computer.
The install completes successfully. There it should have access to the digital books she’s bought and the internet. She wonders how this is programmed to make it work on different devices. Oh well it’s supposed to be magic so it kind of makes sense.
Next day she goes through school with her usually efficiency. However this time she isn’t bored she has a whole new world of books to learn. Until Oriana, Otosama was against wasted time on games and useless fiction books. Yoshiko tried her best to follow this advice but would often fail and feel guilty as she read comics, manga, manhua, and manhwa.
Recently she’s even been reading various light novels as well. She rationalizes this as there are a lot of new ideas that could be useful to her in other areas of learning. Although how Yaoi would help she’s not sure. It’s only a small part of her reading and she is sure more love in the world is a good thing.
But with Oriana she is allowed four hours of fun per day! She also feels less guilty about reading another few hours per day about it. Since being well read is always a good thing regardless of who gets shipped together.
Immediately on logging on she says, “Lead me to red slime.” She’ll apologize to him for getting him killed. She’ll have to ask him why he has such an odd name as well.
Quickly paying the guard at the gate and getting a gate pass she continues to follow the blue mime like guide toward a field. When she gets closes she sees a red slime mob tilling the field. She looks around for a player named red slime.
Looking around she sees only herself, her blue silent floating loofah, a line of blue slimes going somewhere and a red slime tilling a field there is no one else. She hides in the trees. Could red slime mean the red slime tilling the field? But why would a mob drop a player death crystal? She’ll hide and watch what is going on.
After a few minutes she’s bored out of her mind. Oh wait I can use the Kindle spirit here too. She starts reading.
*Beep beep beep* What already? The red slime continues his farming work hardly noticing anything else. What should she do? Well log out for now obviously but maybe I’ll just observe him an hour a day. At least she raised her hide skill to apprentice.
Next day she logs on to a new sight. The field has turned into art piece with blue pools of slime dotting it here and there. She continues to watch as blue slimes gather and bury themselves at the edge of the garden. The red slime comes over and kills them. Then tills their corpses into the soil making another blue pool.
Oh how cool. The blue slimes are sacrificing themselves to make the garden better. Just like Samurai giving up their lives to their Damiao. The red slime must be a great leader to command such respect and loyalty from his followers. Whoever wrote the description to the art piece must not understand this and misinterpreted this wonderful act of fealty she thinks.
Quickly she gets bored of watching the red slime farm and starts reading again. She hasn’t forgotten about the apology but she has no idea how to convey it. Looking through all the books she has access to she has found no reference to monster languages except that they must have them.
She has tried to watch them to learn the language. However between easily getting bored and the fact they just seem to repeat the same word over and over she has no idea what they are saying. Unless they really are saying something like yes repeatedly she has no idea how to interpret the words meaning. Also if all they said was yes there would be no point in learning slime language.
*Beep beep beep* Maybe if I travel to all the worlds libraries I’ll find something. There must be a way to communicate with monsters.
She logs out to the grinning horror of the Slender Man leering at her. Of course it just buotoko again. Otosama must be working late again.
“I’ll fix you dinner right away Ojisan.”
His grin just gets wider.
As she steps into the kitchen see sees many beer cans laying around empty. That can only mean buotoko was drinking while he waited for her to come out of the VR game. She decides to head to her room. It’ll mean Otosama will yell at her for being rude but that’s better than the alternative.
She turns around and runs into the grinning buotoko.
…
…
Several days later she comes out of her room. She’s been staying in there saying her weak constitution is acting up again. It’s not really a lie. However she will never tell anyone what really happened.
Otosama prohibits her from logging on to Oriana until she completes all her make up work from school. Since she goes to a private school this is more than just a few pages of reading and simple worksheets. None of it’s hard for her just time consuming to write it all down. For the next 2 days she goes to school mostly avoiding reading Oriana books. Finally her Otosama allows her to log back on to the game.
She logs back on. Only this time she doesn’t see the red slime farming in his garden. She wonders where he has gone. She decides to follow the trail of slimes to see where they are heading. At the end of the line she notices a sewer grate all the slimes are headed into. It’s far too small even for her slight frame to squeeze into.
“Slimes are weird, please guide me to the red slime.” The blue annoyance appears, “Hey, follow!” Apparently it’s unmuted itself she wonders if she should mute it again. Following she comes upon a horrific scene. The red slime is surrounded by many bald screaming women covered in blood. No wait red slime goo since it’s goopier than blood. They are currently playing some kind of game with the red slime as the ball.
Mireri hides and watches. They just keep tormenting the red slime. Killing she can understand as he is a mob and drops loot but why would they just be so cruel for no gain? She must do something to save this noble slime lord.
But what can she do? She doesn’t have much and isn’t very high level. After a few moments thought she comes up with an idea.
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