‘Well, now that she no longer has questions? I think? I mean, I took a quick glance at her, and she did not seem to be fidgeting or anything like that anymore’ I thought. She was still looking at Aizen, but Aizen did not say anything. After a few more seconds of her thinking, Aizen scratched her cheek.
“Sorry, but I don’t think I can teach you magic.”
“B-But, what about your mana control?”
Aizen just gave her a wry smile.
“That is impossible.” She tried to sound gentle, but I saw the child’s hopes and dreams shatter, as her face turned grim and lifeless. ‘Ah well, I don’t know what Aizen was expecting. Although...-’ I looked at her and she quickly noticed my gaze. I spoke in a condescending tone.
“Wouldn’t it be fun?”
“Shut up.”
She ended up pouting. However, that did not last long. I noticed her face lit up, and then she looked at the other door with sparkling eyes as if remembering something.
“I am going to take a bath.” she suddenly informed me.
Right… I also want a bath. But, there is something. That bothers me, should I or should I not let this girl know I am a beastkin? I wonder, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, but her dad is a noble or something right? Wouldn’t that be, troublesome? Hm… I need help with this one.
I noticed Aizen went towards the bath, Ari also followed, however. I still needed her help.
“Ari,” I called out for her assistance. She looked at me and tilted her head. I just decided to quietly point at the ring in my hand with my free hand. She instantly shook her head. I figured... I looked at Aizen and she shrugged. ‘I guess there is no other choice.’ I dejectedly muttered as they were entering the bath.
I want to take a bath, but this is rather complicated… I guess using the ring inside the bath doesn’t matter, does it? Without the ring it's more comfortable, but considering I don’t quite know this girl... I mean looking at her she seems pretty innocent but, she is the daughter of a noble right? Aren’t rich people bad? I guess I will wear my ring for now.
“Umm…” Cecil called out to me.
“Yes?”
“Can I take a bath as well?”
She said while fidgeting with her hair and slightly twitching while looking down. I looked at her and remembered she was still dirty. I kind of just had forgotten about it.
“Ah, yes. We should take a bath.” I casually said and went towards the bathroom. She quietly followed.
I opened the door, and the bath was… Weird… The layout was the same as the previous one, but. Everything was wood, the only things that weren’t made out of wood were some baskets for clothes and the bathtub itself with a section of the floor next to it. The bathtub itself was even bigger than the last one; being made out of some white-dotted gray rock. I think it was granite.
I noticed Aizen was washing Ari’s hair for some reason. The granite floor did not look slippery or wet for that matter. I took off my clothes and put them on a basket. Cecil also took off her ‘clothes’ and looked somewhat hesitant to put them in the basket she was holding, after a few seconds of looking at it fixedly, she finally decided to put them inside the basket while sighing.
‘Well, I can see why she would be like that. I wouldn’t be exactly pleased with dressing in rags either.’ With those thoughts, I dragged her towards the bathtub to wash her on the section of the floor next to the bathtub. I didn’t quite understand how the wood didn’t get ruined from the constant humidity that would normally be in a bath. But it wasn’t something I particularly understood.
I sat her down on the floor and started washing her hair with water. There was no soap on this bath either.
“Um… Yami, I can wash myself,” she said while looking at me.
“It’s fine.” I just gave her a normal smile and continued scrubbing her hair. It took quite a few minutes but her mistreated hair looked golden just like Ari’s I moved onto her arms and neck, after that. I paused. ‘Wait… What am I doing? I-I shouldn’t be doing this.’
“Yami?”
“You said you could wash yourself right?”
She slowly nodded from my weird question. Seeing her affirmation I just moved aside and started scrubbing myself. ‘While I might look like a girl now, I still don't think doing that was right...’ With those thoughts in mind, I left Cecil wash herself with a slightly twisted mouth. I could visibly see her confusion but it was better than nothing.
“K-Yami. How long are you going to keep doing that? Just come in.”
Aizen called out for me with a slight stutter. I looked at Cecil and now she looked completely clean, and while her hair was extremely uneven she no longer looked like a slave, so that was good. ‘I guess I can go into the bath now?’ With those thoughts, I grabbed Cecil and pulled her towards the bathtub.
Once we were inside the bathtub I let her do whatever she wanted. I chose to just sit down and relax myself while soaking in the warm water. A few minutes passed, everyone was now relaxing on the tub. But, I had remembered something.
“Cecil, what kind of place is the capital?” She paused for a second. And then looked at me.
“It’s boring.” She nonchalantly informed me, although it wasn’t what I was looking for.
Hmm, I wonder. How do kids work? Wait… If I ask her why it’s boring wouldn’t she explain everything that she finds boring? I am so smart.
“Why is that?” I curiously asked.
“Well… Everything is the same.”
This is… No good at all, Ari wasn’t like this at all… I guess I will just have to do a very specific question to which she should probably answer with what I am looking for.
“Why do you find it so boring and why does everything feel the same?” I did it.
“Well, because my life was always the same. Academy, behave well, sleep.”
She dejectedly said. It was something insightful... On her family that is. I wonder, what I could actually ask her. Hmm… That’s it, I know now.
“Cecil.” Before I could ask her, Aizen called out for her.
“Yes?” She replied while tilting her head from being suddenly mentioned.
“Tell me things I should know about the capital.” Aizen casually commanded her.
I noticed Cecil went into deep thoughts while placing her hand on her chin. ‘Silly dragon, there is no way it would work.’ I joyously muttered. However, I noticed Cecil stopped thinking and looked at Aizen once again.
“Well, There are two academies, which are magic and combat. Well, I don't think I need to explain each of them.” She omitted the details with a wry smile and continued speaking. “The most important guild branches on this continent are in the capital. And… Well, the capital is a boring place with lots of people, a noble district and a royal family with an amazingly big castle. Also, the slums are scary,” she shuddered as she finished her talking.
‘Was it really that simple?!’ I grabbed my head in frustration, the only person that looked at me worriedly was Cecil. However, she did not say anything. Instead, she looked for help towards Ari and Aizen, both of them shrugged.
“Hmm…” Aizen was audibly thinking about something, it made me look at her and relax a little bit. I think I was overthinking it anyways.
“Cecil, you said you were going to the magic academy, right?”
“Well, yeah.”
“What did you learn there?” Aizen was onto something.
“Well, for the most part, it was mana perception and manipulation until we got a class, so…” She had a flushed face for saying that. But continued talking to Aizen.
“I remember getting an actual basic class with an elf, he had a short temper and seemed arrogant.”
“Ho-oh, how amusing. I would like to see that.”
Ignoring Aizen’s amusement, there was something that bothered me. Elves seem to be fine, dwarves are fine, beastkin aren’t? I have to ask.
“Cecil, are there beastkins in the capital?” She froze and started muttering.
“Well… My father said I wouldn’t want to know where they end up.” She innocently said while fidgeting, I guess I don’t want to know where they end up either… I also noticed Ari seemed stiff. Now that I think about it, she was stiff that time with the inn-lady too.
“Ari, are you fine?” I was worried.
“Ah… Sorry, I was just hoping the beastkins were fine. I-I really hope so…” Her face became grim towards the end, making me think about what could make her think like that. ‘Is it because of the inn lady? I wonder…’ As I was thinking, I noticed Ari’s eyes lit up.
“Um, sorry about that.” She quickly apologized realizing her weird behaviour. I noticed Aizen had been thinking the entire time.
“Cecil, did the elf say something interesting?”
“Interesting?” She tilted her head while looking at Aizen.
“Yeah, interesting.” She affirmed with a faint smile.
“Well… I don’t know if this is interesting. But the elf spoke seriously when mentioning the [Neutral] attribute, calling it the ‘death’ attribute or something." She awkwardly said. I noticed Aizen nodded as if it didn’t matter. Ari, on the other hand, paused again. However, after a few seconds, she just pretended like nothing happened. Weird.
We continued talking about less serious topics for a few more minutes until we dejectedly left the tub and dried with some random cloth that Aizen found. It kind of looked like a cotton towel so I guess it was fine. As we were getting dressed I noticed Cecil was dejectedly looking at her basket. ‘Ah, right. She needs new clothes’ With those thoughts in mind, I quickly got dressed up and started looking through my inventory.
‘This should do.’ I muttered as I noticed something rather peculiar. Looks like I had missed it last time. It looked like some type of sailor outfit, thinking back. I do remember having the male version, so that must’ve been it. I handed it to her, seeing it. Her eyes were wide-open.
“I-I didn’t know you had a magic academy uniform,” she shockingly said. But there was something wrong, I don’t remember having a uniform for the magic academy. I don’t even know what it looks like.
“That’s not a uniform.” I decided to inform Cecil who was now putting it on.
“Really? It looks like one.” She said while tilting her head.
Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if it looks like their uniform or not. It’s not like it bothers me if I lose the item or not; it was just an [Uncommon] tier one anyways. She looked happier about having proper clothes. So I figured she could have it as a gift.
“If it looks like your uniform then I guess you can keep it.”
“Nn!”
She excitedly nodded now fully dressed. We left the bath without saying much after. I noticed Fenri was now sleeping in the living room next to one of the beds. I looked at the beds to see how we would arrange to sleep.
“I take Ari and you take Cecil.” Aizen nonchalantly informed me.
“...Nn.” I slowly nodded from the sudden declaration. Ari looked somewhat sad about it but did not say anything. I guess Aizen just liked Ari over Cecil or something. Which I completely understood. Not like Cecil was a bad girl, but we had just been with Ari longer.
I ended up sleeping with Cecil, she didn’t seem that willing at first, but she ended up complying after she was getting dizzy.
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Yes. Votes: 30 6.5%
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No, but I personally enjoy them. Votes: 144 31.2%
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No. Votes: 55 11.9%
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Why are you even asking this? Votes: 46 10.0%
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Potato. Votes: 187 40.5%
LitRPG is an interesting genre IMO. If done well, the numbers that get spammed are interesting to read, give you concrete ideas about the character's progression, get you excited for the possibilities, and allow for interesting new combinations of powers. It's plays to the min-maxer who likes to think about combinations and synergies and gets really involved with their characters. It can also be an interesting vehicle for foreshadowing. And that's all before you get into the good old nostalgia aspect of playing to what the readers know and understand.
On the flip side, if done poorly, the numbers are meaningless, random, or even obnoxious. They tell you nothing about the characters they represent, don't meaningfully progress from one to the next, offer no chances to theorize about how they could affect the plot, or are simply used as a vehicle for the plot to go off on tangents. In the best worst-cases, they're simply clutter on the page. In the worst worst-cases, they make the story itself incoherent.
Reading the chapter comments for "Metaworld Chronicles" is always interesting for me because the commentors will get really excited about possible skill combinations and whether the characters are able to learn those skills. Reading "The Wandering Inn" is also interesting because even though the Skills are randomly assigned, the author uses that as a plot device and goes into depth exploring how that affects the world. Reading "Siphon", the occasional stat sheets every ten chapters or so are boring, but do give you some sense for how the character is progressing and in what directions. Reading "The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound", I've taken to entirely skipping chapters that include mention of the main character's stat sheet because it is so stupidly over large, but when that story does present descriptions for particular new skills or items it can be quite fun to think about them and how they will affect the character.
Or other novels that just keep giving the MC so many skills, that it's literally pages of random names, that never get used. Re:goblin I think thats its name, was the worst I've seen.
They can be. It depends on the writing and the definition of spam. I have read some that were very good and others that made me want to claw my eyeballs out
If there are more status numbers, skills, titles &c than actual "literature" than of course it is not a good read at all. Works that implement those RPG elements in a (prim&)proper "UI" tend to do far better because the information is organized and not just a huge wall of text.
I enjoy LitRPGs less when they are overdoing el RPG, they may still have a good story/characters but when I end up skipping 90% of the numbers than the disregard for the "literature has to be kept concise and fluff has to be cut" too far. I personally do not think that all fluff has to be cut even if meaningless since it has a purpose in itself: Fluff, which many like but like there can be too much of that still, there can be too many numbers.
Obviously it becomes worse yet if one actually intends to sell it which is one of the primary causes/reasons for this "standard". An experienced (quick) reader expects to read a common (light) novel to last about 4 to 6 hours, not 2 to 3.
I tend to ignore them if I can, i prefer when they only show the ones relevant to the part. Like kumo
It has the most important guild branches on this continent are in the capital. - remove either "it has" or "are in the capital"
Whew... Thanks for pointing that one out. I will fix it when I can. Looks like I missed it in the editing process.
Fixed. Thanks.
Nothing like a nice warm bath before sleeping.
Ok, got a paragraph here where the grammar was a little bit too much of a mess for me to ignore.
"Right… I also want a bath. But, there is something. That bothers me, should I or should I not let this girl know I am a beastkin? I wonder, she doesn’t seem like a bad person, but her dad is a noble or something right? Wouldn’t that be, troublesome? Hm… I need help with this one."
It's mostly one case where you, for some strange reason, put a period right in the middle of a sentence and a couple of commas where you should have ellipses.
In the case of commas, there are 3 places where you might use them. One is that you use a comma in a place where you could put a period, except that anything that comes after the comma cannot stand as a sentence on it's own. Second is when you are listing things, such as listing one way to use commas, a second way to use commas, and a third way to use commas. This, of course, is when you list them in a single sentence. (BTW, I just provided an example of the 3rd instance in which you use commas.) The 3rd way to use commas is anywhere you could have used parentheses instead. (except that parentheses signify that this part's not really here at all while commas say it's there still but follows similar rules.) Basically, the commas isolate out a part of the sentence that could be completely removed and the sentence would do fine.
There is also a 4th instance where commas are used. That is after a time statement. Now that I have said this, you know the rules for using commas. (Ok, that was pushing the concept of a time statement just a little, but it does kinda count.) Anyway, those 4 instances are more or less the only places where commas are supposed to be used. The one place where you do NOT use a comma is to represent a pause in speech. That's what an ellipse is for.
"Right… I also want a bath. But there is something that bothers me. Should I or should I not let this girl know I am a beastkin? I wonder... she doesn’t seem like a bad person, but her dad is a noble or something right? Wouldn’t that be... troublesome? Hm… I need help with this one."
Alright, just read more of the same thing. It's also unclear as to who it was who said they wanted to take a bath first. Between the paragraph I just quoted and the conversation before this point, I thought it was Cecil who said they wanted a bath first. It makes perfect sense, her being a noble and also being dirty that she would decide to go for a bath with sparkly eyes now that she has a chance. You never specify who the "she" is in this instance, so it is absolutely impossible to tell. All 4 of them are girls.
I thought this right up until I read this exchange.
---
“Umm…” Cecil called out to me.
“Yes?”
“Can I take a bath as well?”
---
That's quite a distance into them talking about the bath, so finding out this far in that it was, in fact, not Cecil who was going for the bath first causes the reader's mind to lurch violently as they reform their perception of the scenario and really breaks the immersion. You need to properly identify the "she" in the first part in order to break up this confusion.
Nothing wrong with a few numbers and stats. But when there are too many lines of just that I tend to prefer if it was just put in it's own separate chapter, or on it's own at the end so it doesn't break up the story.
I said no, but I do have to wonder why you asked...
Also, I personally liked the last chapter. Definitely not your worst one, though IDK which one is. None of them have been bad, IMO.