Chapter 2

 

 

Surging forward while crossing my arms in front of my face I sat up screaming. “STUPID DAMN SYSTEM DROPPING ME FOR HOURS IN THE DARK AND THEN THROWING UP RED FLAGS LEFT AND RIGHT AS IF ITS NOTHING AT ALL” I slammed my fist on the bed while taking notice of the fact that I had been returned to my bedroom. “So much for Reincarnated in another world” Walking over to the dresser stationed in the corner of my room I flipped on the light and stared at myself in the mirror.

Looking around I began to realize I was home and found it left as if I had never left, my eyes moved around the room falling on each bit of furniture in the small bedroom. Two end tables flanked my bed on either side and at the foot approximately 4 feet away sat my two oak dressers.  

"Requiem System…the world’s best weight loss tool”

I said while lifting my shirt noticing that the fat from around my stomach had been trimmed away to reveal slightly defined abs.

“Hell, I shoulda died a long time ago if it meant getting abs for the first time in my life” I chuckled lightly while dropping my shirt and walking towards my kitchen. 

Aside from the noticeable changes in my physiology my vision now held my Status bars in the top left of my vision and a small circular game style map in the top right. A grey dot was moving away from the center of the map. 

“I guess Grey is nonhostile, looks like Scan is working properly. Kinda sucks that its range at the moment is only 100 feet. That’s worse than my router.”

Looking out the window I noticed a raccoon walking away from my apartment.

 “So that must have been the grey dot.” 

 Shrugging I walked to the fridge and grabbed a soda. 

“Alright let’s test out some of these new skills that stupid system gave me.” I tapped on the Can of soda while activating Inspect. A small window popped up showing the cost of the single soft drink. 

“So, Inspect is showing the can as only being worth 25 cents. How about...”

I began to look around my room and came upon my refrigerator

I used Inspect on the refrigerator; soon enough a window screen pops up with its stats.

FridgeyRefrigerator:

Status: Working Properly

Cost: 800.00

Suggested Retail: 1100.00

This time the status window was different. 

“OK so if it’s worth more than an unspecified amount it’ll give me a suggested retail as well as a Status. Good to know”. 

I went around my apartment casually testing Inspect on random items to get a feel for it. By the end of the 5th item, I didn’t need to activate it anymore the skill would passively activate if I looked at an item a certain way. 

Skill Level UP

Inspect F ->D

F- Inspect items to see their value

E- See an items Status and retail value

D- Detailed Description available for an item 

“Well that’s unexpected looks like I jumped E and went straight to D, that was rather easy to level up.” 

After testing several more items Inspect didn’t level up anymore. Giving Up I sat down at my computer and began testing out OverClock, MultiTask and Memorize. 

 “Alright, my efficiency has risen by leaps and bounds.” 

I was expertly navigating several websites at once using all 4 of my monitors. It felt like I was absorbing information at lightning speeds. I was scrolling through different knowledge-based websites in rapid succession. By doing so all three Ranked up to D within about 30 minutes. So, I had moved on to Language Knowledge and was watching videos in different languages. Not long after, it too had Risen to D rank. 

“Alright now, all that leaves are Scan, Stat Sight, and InvisaHand. It’s not likely that I’ll be able to raise Scan and Stat Sight anytime soon but IH” 

 I activated InvisaHand an extended it to grab the can of soda I had placed on my desk. The longer I used the Skill the more I noticed my MP bar drop. 

The Drain seemed to be a little too high to be worth it. Maybe this skill was a waste. I thought to myself not entirely convinced

“Looks like it uses about 10 MP per second at the moment.” 

 Pulling up my Status Window I watched the numbers degrade. As I Had had predicted, while IH was activated it was pulling exactly 10 MP per second.

“I’ve only got 500 MP as it stands so that means I can only keep IH active for 50 seconds.” I stopped for a second in awe and the utter excitement screams out.

“OI I MATHED … I CAN MATH NOW HELL YEAH.” 

*Ayke used to be absolute trash when it came to math*

I continued to use InvisaHand for several hours off and on until finally, it Ranked up to D rank. Which reduced the MP cost down to five, however, when the skill had reached E rank and a Second arm was added and thus the strain was double. Meaning that it was now 5 MP per arm which is the equivalent of the 10 MP before ranking the skill up. Needless to say, if I wanted to reduce the strain the skill had on me, I’d have to level up and get more mana. 

DING DING

While I was mulling over what to do about my level a system message came into view.

LIMITED-TIME SALE

Oh, what’s this. The notification was jingling in my Eye-site with bright orange text. Don’t tell me this thing got a store too like some kind of gachapon game.

For a limited Time Purchase any 2 exp items and get a free roll on the prize wheel.

Is this thing eavesdropping on my thoughts? Seriously just when I’m wondering how I’m going to level up a mysterious event starts. There’s no way this is a coincidence. 

 Clicking on the notification a new window opened up showing several items in a pseudo online store. Skill scrolls, experience potions, healing potions, weapons, equipment, accessories. 

Good lord this is just like a normal game. Just what kind of currency do I need though? 

I navigated through the options until I got to a currency screen. 

Trade-in real-world items for In House Currency. 

A small how-to icon was in the top right so I clicked it and a guide popped up. Detailed instructions on how to add items to your inventory and sell them to the system scrolled across the window. 

So basically, pick up random crap sell it for currency and then buy items, seems simple enough. Time for Inspect-Kun to get some overtime. The real question is what do I have that I can sell to the store. Aside from my electronics, I doubt anything I have will fetch a decent amount of coins.

I began Walking around my apartment with Inspect active I noticed something, most of my furniture could net me some decent coin. 

Worst case scenario I can always just get more, the store seems to have some cheap furniture that I can pick up. 

After some internal arguments, I had decided to get rid of my couches, dressers, and my bedroom set which included 2 end tables. Which brought my total net profit of 5000 coins. 

Goodbye, my beautiful bed, we have spent many hours together but today was my last sleep. 

I almost shed a single tear in honor of the first bed I bought on my own. But that sadness disappeared before long as my good old mobile game addiction kicked in. The Experience potions ranged from 100-2000 coins each depending on the amount of experience one could gain with them; they each had a limiter on them though. The 100-coin exp potions could only be used while under level 10, the 250-coin capped out at level 15, the 500-coin ones capped out at level 25, the 1250-coin potions level limit was 40 and lastly, the 2000-coin potions couldn’t be used after level 75. 

The real question is how much experience is needed per level. That will decide what exactly I buy.

I checked my status window and noticed there wasn’t a bar dictating how many experience-points I had so I check around the rest of my heads-up display only to come up short.

Speaking a loud my anger “What kind of game doesn’t tell you how close you are to leveling” 

Raising my fist in the air "How am I supposed to make an accurate assessment if I can’t determine just how much experience I need to get to the next damn level."

Ignoring my discontent with the System I decided on starting with ten 100-coin potions, which would give me 5 rolls on the wheel. Once purchased the potions were moved to my inventory and were easily accessible. 

I’m assuming this inventory system uses some kind of spatial magic. I thought while investigating my inventory. 

It worked kind of like a skill. Once activated I'd make a motion as if I was pulling something out of a bag and the item would appear in my hand. The reverse was also true. If I motioned with an Item while thinking about the inventory bag, the item would vanish and appear inside it. It left me curious to know just how much space was available in the Inventory bag. Upon further inspection, there was no mention of how much could be contained in it so I gave up trying to figure it out. 

“Alright let’s see what I can win from this prize wheel.” 

After I was done checking out my inventory, I opened up the gacha style wheel game and clicked on the button indicating what was contained in the event. Similar to how summons work on mobile games there was a ranking system with the following order, Common, Rare, Super Rare, Epic Rare and Legendary each type had their logo and representing color, Common was Grey, Rare was bronze, Super Rare was Silver, Epic Rare was Gold, and Legendary was Red. 

Based on my previous experience there is going to be some kind of special animation when I do the capsule summon Indicating what rarity the item will be. So, the quicker I can figure out the difference in each one the quicker I can spam through these summonses. I have 5 rolls there are 80 different items on the list and the pull ratio on Legendaries is only .001 percent that’s worse than even a bad gacha game. The ratios seem off but there’s not much I can do about that. 

I motioned my hand as if putting a coin into a slot machine-style Gacha wheel, and pressed the roll button. A small animation played around the gacha wheel, Little blue sparks, followed by blue leaves falling, and lastly, a small firework shot up and formed into a small bronze capsule. 

Alright so how much of that animation was guaranteed Rare. 

After rolling 2 more times I got the same animation as well as 2 more bronze capsules. 

3 down, 2 to go, let's open these real quick and see what I got. 

I took the capsules out of my inventory and cracked them open. A little fanfare magic happened and the first capsule turned into a small green dagger.

“Afffftterrr you Inspect-Kun” I cheerfully said while bowing dramatically and then activating Inspect. 

Dagger of Nieth:

STR- +14

AGI- +10

Dex- Requirement: 35

Cost- 200 coin

Description- Made of Adamantine, this dagger was used in the battle of Neith within the Sarzon Labyrinth. Its owner was said to have been slain by a pack of Walder Wolves. 

“OK, too many unanswered questions with that one. Walder Wolves, Sarzon Labyrinth. There’s just too much I don’t know about whatever the hell I’m involved with now, at least Inspect-Kun could give me the stat boosts on this thing.”

I shoved the dagger back into the inventory and began opening the next two capsules. One held a book titled, Dungeon Exploration Western Hemisphere. It appeared to be a standard guide book detailing the location of several known dungeons. Not only that but it also listed what types of creatures lived in the aforementioned dungeons and their average levels. 

“Well, at least this one not a total loss like that dagger,” 

Placing it down next to me I cracked open the last capsule. Two wrist gauntlets appeared in my hands. Before I gave way to Inspect-Kun I decided to examine them. Each gauntlet was big enough to cover from the second joint on my fingers up to my elbow. 5 sets of smaller reddish-brown, leather-covered the area where my fingers and hands would be when worn. These 5 pieces were riveted onto the main body of the brownish leather. To secure them onto my arm were 3 darker leather straps that had small brass buckles on one end. On the underside of the Reddish Brown gauntlets were little straps my fingers could be secured into allowing my hand to have flexibility. After my examination, I did what anyone would do I tried them on, and after a little fight with the straps, they were in place. I moved my hands around to be sure they were secure before using Inspect. 

Bardon Leather Gauntlets

VIT- +10

MRes- +5

HP- +200

Description: Dwarven made Gloves using Mountain Steel and Bardon Skin, The leather is soaked for several hours in Dwarven oil to soften the Leather giving it flexibility while still allowing for sufficient hardness for protection.

Cost: 500 Coins

“Now that’s a decent pull, While the book gives good info the dagger was trash. If I sell it back to the shop ill have made an extra 100 coins.” 

I muttered while looking at myself in the mirror while wearing the gauntlets. When I was content with them I sent them back to my inventory and did my last two pulls on the Gacha machine, which proceeded to spit out two common items which I, in turn, sold back to the store for a total of 100 coins, I started with 5000 and after buying the potions and selling back the 3 items I was at 4300 coins. My inner gambler started to rear his ugly head and before I knew it, I had spent the rest of my coins on the 250-coin potions. In my inventory sat 16 potions and 300 leftover coins. 

My chest tightened with instant buyer’s remorse. Inspect taught me that each potion’s experience amount was equal to that of its coin cost so if I went over the level cap the potions would be useless especially since the by back price for each potion was only 10 coins. If I didn’t get anything worthwhile from these next 8 summons, I would have wasted my bed and furniture for nothing. I looked up at the ceiling as if looking for some god’s divine intervention. This was my problem when it came to mobile games and now it looks like it's translated to the Requiem Store system. Letting out a sigh I began pressing the Capsule summon button. 3 commons in a row rang out like an ill omen before some kind of natural disaster. 

The next 3 summons were all Rare’s. The only item of note was a Skill scroll containing the Smithing skill. I dropped my head defeated once again by the system and pressed the summon button but this time a bell chimed, forcing my head up. I watched as a new animation played out before my eyes. Golden Sparks, Red and Blue Fireworks, Purple leaves, The Machine exploded as a Golden Capsule appeared in front of me.

“EPIC RARE” I jumped up grabbing the capsule in my hands and hugging it tightly to my chest. 

“Hehehe I’m almost afraid to open it,” I said nervously.

“RNG GODS LEND ME YOUR STRENGTH. BESTOW UPON THIS HUMBLE NORMIE AN ITEM TO FURTHER MY QUEST INTO THE CHAOTIC UNKNOWN.”

I cracked open the capsule causing golden light to explode forth from my hands. When the light faded a Golden Key was nestled neatly in my palms.

Faruthen Labyrinth Teleportation Key

Use: 1 time

Item Description:  Using this key will teleport its User to the Faruthen Labyrinth no matter their location in the world.

Cost: 25,000 Coins

Sitting down on the floor I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking. 

“This key can take me to a real Labyrinth. Where I can fight monsters, earn loot and level up.”

Both fear and excitement rose from within me. This was my first real clue in those system installations that happened when I was dead. The thought did cross my mind to just sell it back to the store to get more summons since its cost was 5 times what all my furniture cost, but I quickly metaphorically kicked Gambler Ayke in his stomach for even suggesting it. This key was borderline priceless to me now. 

DING, DING, DING, attention only 1-minute left in the Summon Event.

A system notification window popped up bringing me back to reality and reminding me that I still had 1 summon left. It no longer mattered what I got. I could sell back everything to the store except the key and use the coins to get some cheap equipment to go explore Faruthen. While thinking about the adventure before me I absent mindlessly pressed the summon button with only 20 seconds left on the timer. 

WARNING WARNING WARNING 

A danger notification blared in my ears making me jump back away from the virtual gacha machine. Black flames surrounded by Red Sparks exploded from the machine. 

“Wha...” 

The world around me began to distort making my voice trail off into strange sounds. The space around the Gacha machine moved out of the virtual realm and into reality as it began emitting a strange screeching sound. The Leaves that fell during normal summons were now engulfed in black and Red Flames. Red mist swirled around the space that was containing the Summon Machine. 

“That’s”

before I could finish my statement, a Deep Crimson Capsule floated into sight as the machine itself exploded into deep red sparks.

A sinister grin spread across my face. This is what us gatcha players live for. The Hype and awe of the highest rarity pull. A million thoughts swarmed through my mind even with OverClock active I couldn’t keep up with all the insane possibilities that were being formulated. As I was standing there grinning fiendishly the capsule shot towards me as if attacking but my body moved on instinct and I caught it with my left hand. 

“Got a Lil spice to you don’cha”. 

I crushed the capsule and two items appeared in a burst of Red and Black sparkling light. Slowly the two lights Faded and formed into two medium length swords. Reaching out instinctively I grabbed the two weapons. The Sword in my left hand was curved like a Katana while the one in my right resembled more of a medieval-style long-sword. Both of them seemed to be made of some kind of fusion between a deep crimson ore and an onyx ore. Giving them an Intimating look. The Katana’s guard was intricately designed with an emblem of a crimson dragon eating its tail. 

“Ouroboros” I stated while examining it.

The Long Swords pommel was adorned with a similar Ouroboros, but its dragon was Black instead of crimson. Inspect Automatically triggered.

Crim Reaper & Syn Reaper

Rarity: Legendary

Type: Mid-sized Combination Swords

STR: Multiplier ¼ Strength Stat

DEX: Multiplier ¼ Dexterity Stat

VIT: Multiplier ¼ Vitality Stat

AGI: Multiplier ¼ Agility Stat

MRes: Multiplier ¼ Magic Resistance Stat

Rank: F-SSS

Description: These two blades were forged with Zenite Ore that was bathed in the blood of each Fantasy Race. The blades have No Dexterity requirement however they will not be able to be fully mastered until certain requirements have been met. Raising these two swords rank will, in turn, Unlock special attributes and skills. 

To Be Continued ...

 

 

Status Window

Name: Ayke Jetlensr 

Age: 26 

Level: 1

Race: Human

Job: Entertainer 

Gender: Male 

Health Points: 1500

Mana Points: 500

Stamina: 100  

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points 4

Strength 10, Dexterity 7, Agility 7, Intelligence 20, Magic Resistance 7, Vitality 15

SKILLS: Inspect-D, Stat Sight-F, Scan-F, Language Knowledge-D, Memorize-D,  Multitask-D, InvisaHand-E, OverClock-D. 

Titles: Thinking On The Fly, Starter, Revived, User

 

Skills 

Inspect D

F: Inspect items to see their value

E: See an items Status and retail value

D: Detailed Description available for item 

Stat Sight F

F: see the stats and level of someone who is within 15 levels of user

E: Locked

D: Locked

Scan F

F: Enemies within 100 Feet Appear as Red Dots on Map

E: Locked

D: Locked

Language knowledge D

F: Translate Languages at a fundamental level 

E: Understand and speak any language at a child’s level

D: Understand and speak any language at the level of a teenager

Memorize D

F: Scaled to users Intelligence Level, allows user to memorize documents quickly 

E: Memorization speed increased X1.5

D: Memorization speed increased x3.0

Multi Task D

F: Split Users consciousness into another consciousness allowing for simultaneous use

E: 1 added Consciousness

D: 1 Added Consciousness

InvisaHand D

F: Creates 1 Invisible controllable Hand/Arm that can extend 10 feet

E: Creates 2 Invisible controllable Hands/Arms that can extent 20 Feet

D: Range and Strength of Invisible Hands/Arms increased X2 

OverClock D

F: Accelerate Though Speed X1.5

E: Thought speed increased x3.0

D: Thought Speed increased X4.5