Inside his room, Tanaka was reading to take his mind off his weakness, when suddenly
| Reading F -> Reading E |
"Huh...?" he lets out, in doubt.
He then checks his skill.
| Skill-Reading Rank-E Effects- D-Reading becomes incredibly faster E-Reading becomes considerably faster F-Reading becomes slightly faster |
Seeing this, he begins reading at an even faster pace.
After about half an hour later.
| Reading E -> Reading D |
“It leveled up even further…all right, I’m gonna get a high level skill too!”
Tanaka sped up, finishing all of his books.
He then left the room, walked through the shiny marble hallways, and arrived at the daunting royal library.
With books along the edges of the wall, all the way up to the immense ceiling, he starts reading them all.
After an hour of reading.
| Reading D -> Reading C |
| Gained Concentration F |
| Endurance F -> Endurance E |
“I’m gonna get even stronger now, I’ll finally be able to stand as equals with them,”
After two more hours.
| Reading C-> Reading B |
| Endurance E -> Endurance D |
| Concentration F -> Concentration D |
| Gained High-Speed Thinking F |
“Yes, my skills are going up nicely. I wonder who will be my teacher when I’m done,”
After five more hours.
| Reading B -> Reading A |
| Endurance D -> Endurance C |
| Concentration D -> Concentration C |
| High-Speed Thinking F -> High-Speed Thinking E |
| Gained Night Vision F |
“I can’t stop now, I need to keep reading, so I can get even stronger,”
After 2 days, and after he read all the books.
| Reading A -> Reading SSS |
| Endurance D -> Endurance A |
| Concentration D -> Concentration S |
| High-Speed Thinking E -> High-Speed Thinking C |
| Night Vision F -> Night Vision D |
| Gained Survival F |
| Survival F -> Survival C |
| Skill-Reading Rank-SSS Effects- SSS-You can read anything SS-Reading becomes instantaneous S-You always remember what you read clearly A-You remember what you read considerably better B-You remember what you read slightly better C-Reading becomes impossibly faster D-Reading becomes incredibly faster E-Reading becomes considerably faster F-Reading becomes slightly faster |
‘I did it, I got a high level skill. This time, I’ll be the strong one.’
"Ah...so thirsty,"
Tanaka then left the library stumbling and went to the dining hall. After making it there, he got some water and gulped it down, ignoring the looks of his peers.
He then ordered some food and began eating, this time with a smile.
'I'm strong now too,'
*******
I look around the dark cave that I can see well in even with no light.
| Night Vision B |
Yep, after staying so long in the cave, I got that skill, and as I kept trying to find an exit, it and Lookout ranked up a bunch.
| Lookout A |
The ceiling was just above my head, and about three of me could fit in it sideways. There are also the dead remains of the goblins I killed.
I kick a limb of a goblin away, walking towards a treasure chest. The chest has a golden glow.
I place my hand on the lid and open it, seeing a glowing sword and a pair of pure black clothes.
"S-so cool!!! As expected of the protagonist buff hehe, well, I'll be taking these."
I then quickly change from my dirty school uniform into my new cool SSS-rank1not the official rank equipment.
After changing, I look at myself again. With the sword on my waist, a black cape down to my knees, and fingerless gloves.
Man, this really screams 'MC!' doesn't it.
I walk around looking for the exit when I catch sight of a big, gray humanoid monster.
I then check its status window.
| Name: N/A Race: Stone Orge Job: Gatekeeper(Expirence->Protect↑) Age: 2467 Level: 46 Skills: Protect S, Survival S, Concentration S, Patience S, Night Vision S, Endurance A, Strength A, Durability A, Agility E, Language F |
'...'
I then check mine.
| Name: Seta Kazuno Race: Draconic Human Job: Hero(300% Experience bonus) Age: 16 Level: 37 Skills: Language SSS, Endurance S, Stealth A, Lookout A, Agility B, Night Vision B, Survival B, Murder C, Assassination D, Luck D, Hunt D, Camp D, Cook D, Concentration D, Poison Resistance E, Hand-to-Hand Combat E, Durability F, Draconic F |
All right, well this should be easy enough. While he's a higher level, my race makes it so my levels are worth more.
'Stealth'
I sneak behind it and stab it in the neck with the sword.
| Assassination D -> Assassination C |
| Gained Swordsmanship F |
I check my level, and it went up, confirming that I killed it.
| Level: 39 |
Well, that was anticlimatic. I expected to have to fight against a monster that has over two thousand years of experience guarding.
Speaking of experience, I have a feeling that's the kind of experience their job was talking about, not the game kind. Well, that's not important right now.
I walk past its body and open the door behind it.
Sunlight pours in, hurting my eyes.
Eventually, my eyes get used to it, and I walk out into what looks to be a clearing in a forest.
"Well, time to find a town,"
So I once again begin searching.
... um are you actually keeping track of the 'real time' versus any 'imaginary time' these characters are living through? The last chapter's character for one seems to have spent tons of days just doing nothing but reading!
Time skips when not managed well are like taking a Tsar bomba to an archery contest. Sure, the wooden target is destroyed; but so is a lot of scenery.
Yes, he only reads in all two days. That’s because of the Concentration and Endurance skills, as well as his desire to grow stronger. I thought I conveyed that, but it seems I failed. If you have any advice on how to convey that, I would appreciate it.
@BigHoodieBoy granted I may have an outright bias against time skips in general ... take this with a generous grain of salt.
The repeated 'after an hour of reading' and 'after two more hours' and more but only raw blocks of improvement status messages in between, feels strange to read as it is. TBH I do not know how to give advice to fix it, I only know how it reads as jarring to the attention (at least to me).
It's the "after x time" which is too abbreviated in my imagination. It draws attention to something having improved and then moving on too fast ... so why bring my attention to this one point? Maybe I wish the text between those improvements are slightly more beefed up.
@Friend Got it, I’ll start working on that
@Friend Edited it