It was almost dark by the time I returned to the inn.
Belle was alone in the room waiting for me. Always seeming so sad when I left and so happy to see me back, I smiled to myself somewhat while deciding in what ways I could make it up to her tonight.
Looking into the mirror I smiled even wider while expectations grew for what power would soon be mine.
Keaton Pel | |
STR | 5 |
DEX | 7 |
CON | 5 |
INT | 10 |
WIS | 9 |
CHA | 13 |
Status Points: | 20 |
Class: | None (available) | None (available) |
Skills: | None |
It looked like the status points were able to be distributed into the attributes of my choosing. I fumbled around in the mirror, waving my hand around like an idiot due to the reversed image. Belle looked on passively, but she was already used to my habits around mirrors, even though she didn't understand the reasoning behind it. To others this must look really strange.
Whenever I hovered over an individual stat I received a prompt asking me whether I wanted to invest in it, which I held off for now while further exploring the changes. I had twenty points to spend, which seemed astronomically high if I correctly understood what each point represented. From what I could tell my status' attributes represented my overall current capabilities, physical and otherwise. From my intuition and the partial familiarity originating from my other's memory I seemed to be able to deduce vaguely what each attribute represented.
The other things that caught my eye were class, and skills. The skills section didn't respond no matter how I tried to interact with it, but class part seemed to have something there to it. Steadying my fingers over to the class, each empty section popped up with a new display that seemed to require my input.
Available Classes | Equipped Classes |
Adventurer, Fighter, Spearman, Commoner |
None | None |
I had four options to choose from, strangely enough I was given the option of spearman despite only having borrowed the weapon today and being trained almost exclusively with swords. It seems that the effects of what I did in combat were a great influence. Perhaps the manner in which I killed monsters was what determined my class... but then the last two confused me a great deal. It seemed like social status and my actual occupation had some effect on things, seeing as how I had a commoner and adventurer option. It made me wonder, if I killed monsters while being a noble would I get a noble class?
It looked like I had the ability to choose two classes which seemed odd enough, and the prompt to confirm a class for each slot made it seem like the classes could be changed at any time. To be on the safe side I wanted to confirm my theory with the safest choice, and one that I would regret the least, adventurer.
Once I confirmed my class, a skill appeared in my status for the first time.
Status Points: | 20 |
Class: | Adventurer lvl 1 | None (available) |
Skills: | Physical Boost lvl 1 (passive) |
Physical boost. There was no description but I could tell roughly what it did. I tested removing my class and adding it back before moving on to the next classes. Fighter gave the skill fighting sense, spearman granted spear mastery, and commoner gave me the lesser stamina skill. All passive skills. Fighter and spearman had passive skills specialized towards fighting so I couldn't immediately test their effects, I played around with the settings before settling on adventurer and Commoner. With these set, my attention turned back to the status points and attributes.
After battling the slimes I could roughly grasp where I most needed to approve. I had struggled with killing what were largely considered the weakest of monster types, even though I did about as well as the others. Intellect, charm, wisdom, these were attractive options but to me they were luxuries. From now on I would be going outside the wall regularly to hunt monsters, the key to my survival would be maximizing my physical attributes for now and synergizing with my classes for maximum effect.
First, I shored up the most glaring weaknesses by investing five points into strength and constitution each. Pressing down on the illusory confirmation window, instantly I felt my body flow with the power of life. It felt as if the air itself had lightened, my spine filled with strength while I watched my posture improving visibly. I now stood tall with ease, my body light and the dull aches and soreness from today's hardships now gone and replaced with newfound vitality. Experimenting a little with the passive skills, I switched over to fighter/spearman and back again so that I could test the effects. It was only the slightest change, but I could still notice the smallest fluctuation of energy leaving and returning in that moment. My feelings now solidified that I had made the right choice, as I poured the remaining ten points evenly into dexterity and constitution both. Lighter and quicker, I stretched out to confirm my increased nimbleness and agility. Constitution was perhaps the most pleasurable, and addicting of the attributes tested so far, it felt as if I grew younger and more alive with each point invested. Almost as if the very power of life itself was being added to myself. A dull euphoric feeling, originating in my chest and spreading out as rich life-ladden blood pumped through my veins, circulating and spreading thinner each time as the effects were absorbed into flesh.
Keaton Pel | |
STR | 10 |
DEX | 12 |
CON | 15 |
INT | 10 |
WIS | 9 |
CHA | 13 |
Status Points: | 0 |
Class: | Adventurer lvl 1 | Commoner lvl 1 |
Skills: | Physical boost lvl 1, Lesser Stamina lvl 1 |
Looking into the mirror I saw that I was much like before, still somewhat skinny, but looking closer I could see there was definition added where previously there was none. The soft lines of muscle sculpted in idyllic fashion added substance to my form. I was really no bigger than before, but I did somehow seem healthier. My skin looked smooth with the previous blemishes and marks common for young men of my age having been healed entirely.
Belle who had been watching from the side quietly had a somewhat frightened expression as the effects of my transformation became apparent. Her tail no straight and no longer swishing relaxedly. I turned to her, whispering.
"This will be our little secret."
Bending down to take her off guard I swept her off her feet and into my arms, she tumbled into my grasp with a squeak.
"Master, Belle loves master. Belle won't betray, won't tell anyone." She promises, somewhat desperate while thinking I had doubts of her loyalty. Having grown up with her and knowing her character well, I of course had none.
"Mmm. I don't believe you." I teased, while holding her in a carry position. My arms supporting her legs and back.
Almost at tears, she started in a panic. "I swear master, please don't abandon Belle. Belle only has master. "
I grinned at how fun she was tease.
"There are ways to test your loyalty." I said while glancing towards the bed. "Let's have you prove that you're mine."
I said while carrying her to the bed, preparing for the fun ahead of me.
I grinned at how fun she was tease.
-- I grinned at how fun she was to tease. --
Question about the Rape/Abusive Characters/and Sexual Abuse tags: Are these things performed by the MC or someone else?
The main character, primarily. NTR, or the main female cast being raped by others is not going to be a thing.
The main character is not exactly evil, but he's not a good person by modern standards. Rather than an Isekai setting where the MC brings new ideas and morality from Earth, he's instead a resident of this fantasy world who's body wasn't taken over.
@Kaguro so the guy who was supposed to take the body didn't survive the trip. RIP Japanese boi.
@Jjwizzle566 That's the idea
I mean so far all the s*x we've seen has been rape.
@Kaguro He still ended up getting some influence from the modern guy right? Judging by how he treats Belle.
@Beastation The modern guy is nicer than he is, and is mainly the reason why he doesn't treat her the same as others in this society would. Perhaps there will be other effects later down the line
@Kaguro Nice! Thank you for clarifying
@Beastation Not really? Belle never seemed to dislike have sex, probably a case of Stockholm Syndrome, but there’s no doubt she’s in love with the MC
@Hantaros I'm confused, what are you saying?
@Beastation Your previous comment said all the s*x scenes until this point were rape, but I disagreed because Belle gave consent
@Beastation no it hasn't..she is a slave and therefore she is always willing (story world wise). This means that she will never say no to her "loving" master. Now if she was a newly made slave that would be different as she wouldn't think of s*x with her master as being a normal part of life. Remember it has been established that she always asks to be knocked up.
@Hantaros no Stockholm as she grew up this way and knows no other, where if she knew another way of life and then converted to this as the norm then it would be
@Kaguro which you pointed out early on.
@Hantaros Okay, so does she really have choose in their power dynamic? Sure, she 'technically' has the ability to refuse, but defacto risks dying or being abused. Let's say she actually grew to like the little shit; he can do whatever he wants but she can't break it off or change the relationship unless he allows it. He is not merciful for warning her before going to public, he is still a d*ck who enslaved a child, emotionally manipulating her and isolating from the outside world. The relationship is clearly unhealthy.
@NickTehKnight I never said the relationship was healthy, just that it wasn’t rape:
1) She’s willing
2) She has full comprehension of the situation
I’ll admit though that the fact she was raised as a slave could also be taken in account(don’t know if “rape” would be the exact term, but raising people such that they’re fine with being a s*x slave is definitely a type of sexual violation). Still, as twisted as the situation is I wouldn’t call it rape, because it dismisses her own feelings and decisions, it’s an unequal relationship but neither side is particularly unhappy about it(social norms are difficult to judge sometimes: they were both raised to see their relationship as something normal, maybe even a privilege to the slave, which is f*cked up, but the point is that in the confines of their reality I wouldn’t classify it as rape, wrong? Probably, but not Rape)
@Hantaros I'd beg to defer, in court cases where you aren't explicitly forced to have sex, you can be charge the abuser for rape. She is essentially being threatened with bodily harm if she doesn't fulfill the guy's desire. In cases of grooming, mental impairment has been sited as a reasoning for the charge. This is also used in cases where say the husband beats the sh*t out of his wife for not putting out, if there is a clear pattern of abuse and/or present danger it falls under that ground. If we are talking their society? Probably not, based on context clues, it was seen as the duty of the maid, wife, and peasants to 'serve' nobles. Rape was only used in cases of the MEN being of equal standing, it is a honor thing, where they thought you touched their property; in their eyes. It was very rare for a woman alone could seek justice, in most cases their husbands/fathers had to have been from a more significant standing. (As always there is exceptions to everything)
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/updated-definition-rape (hopes this helps a bit)
Feel like I am writing for my history course again
@NickTehKnight Interesting arguments(like, really, you did the research and I respect that), I'll refute the thing about bodily harm though, in no moment she was shown to be afraid of physical aggression and the mc has a clean record, most of all the insinuation that she was being coerced simply because he could have coerced her bothers me(I get it's a problem with the power dynamics, but it seems pretty clear that she took the actions she thought correct in her situation, even if she was worried about his treatment of her I don't think it's correct to consider it intimidation if he never made a threat), totally agree on the grooming thing though, the problem is more about their culture than individual decisions