For the first few minutes I was left alone, I examined Danielle’s room. The room was large with two attached rooms. It was clearly designed to someone else’s tastes, with lots of pink roses in all the decoration. There were multiple shelves with books and tiny statuettes of flowers and cute creatures I didn’t recognize. A large closet through one door filled with a lot of dresses that I wouldn’t be touching. The other was a simple bathroom, with a toilet, shower, and sink with a small mirror.
It made sense the one in the bathroom was small, because apparently, Danielle had mirrors everywhere. Several attached to different walls, a large standing mirror in the closet that folded out so there were three different angles. There was even one on her desk next to where the books I’d been told to go through were.
As I sat down at the desk, I examined my face in the mirror again. Despite the shape of my face being what I’d call ‘cute’, it didn’t ease up the severe look in my eyes, and the perpetually neutral expression. I tried to smile to ease some of it, but it looked fake and didn’t reach my eyes. I hope I haven’t been looking like this all day.
I turned the mirror so I wouldn’t get distracted and started going through the small stack of books. The first, on top of everything, was just numbers with brief explanations of how adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing worked. It was followed by a series of problems to solve. I took the pen and went through the book. The answers came to me quickly, and I solved most of the book before something stumped me. What are SIN, COS, and TAN supposed to stand for? The letters were fine… but this is… I set it aside, leaned back in my chair. “I got most of the book done, so we’ll see if that’s fine.”
I had been going at it for a while, so I looked around for something to distract myself. Leaning back in my chair, the front legs leaving the ground as I balanced against the desk with my legs, I decided to check my notifications.
Just the thought caused a flood to fill my screen, and I went backwards in the chair as I tried to organize it as it went. Despite the hit to my head from my landing, I did figure out, with a bit of prodding, how to pull up a summary.
Summary of On Hold Notifications and Changes
New Skill Acquired: Mathematics
Mathematics: Tier 0, Rank 1 to Tier 2, Rank 13
Unarmed Combat: Tier 0, Rank 4 to Tier 1, Rank 3
Assessment: Tier 1, Rank 1 to Tier 1, Rank 3
Healing: Tier 0, Rank 1 to Tier 0, Rank 3
Attributes Increased:
+1 to Agility
+4 to Intelligence
+1 to Insight
You have gained enough experience to level up.
Suddenly, I felt a strange tingling throughout my body, with it being the worst in my head. After only a few seconds, the feeling disappeared, and I maneuvered myself and the chair back up to the desk. I started to try and rub at my head to get the memory of the tingles in my head to fade. “Oh, that was deeply unpleasant.” I complained out loud.
I brought my status up again, and checked my experience.
Class EXP: 920/400
It was the lesson with Grimoire, wasn’t it? And the math? I wanted to complain that it didn’t make sense, but oddly it did. I was learning noble things, after all. Current politics was an easy connection, and mathematics were probably needed in managing estates… whatever those were.
There’s a maximum amount I can store, right? Should be 1200 at this level. Considering how fast I was gaining experience, I decided gaining a level would be fine. That tingling feeling went through me again and I stopped myself from saying anything outloud. It didn’t hurt, but I could feel something changing.
When it was done, I looked at the 3 free stats points and threw them into the magic stats. One went to each, and I felt something shift inside, but couldn’t tell what or where in me this happened.
I waited for a few minutes for something else to happen. When I didn’t sense or feel anything, I shrugged and stretched before getting back to the books. Looking through the titles, they read: Treatise on the Development of the Textile Industry, History of Greathall, Treatise on Monster Economy, Ethics of Commerce, and A Study on Cotton Rock.
Some of them sounded interesting. Looking at them, the two Treatise were both much older books, and well worn. I set them off to the side, and just a side glance showed a number of folded page corners. Instead, I decided to start with History of Greathall, since it seemed the most generic of the books.
I don’t know how long I read for, but it was well after it was dark outside. I hadn’t even noticed the lights in my room coming on, or the bowl of soup that was left on a small folding table by the door. It had green and orange vegetables in it with a little bit of meat and tasted faintly bitter. It was okay, but not very filling.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
I used one of dozens of bookmarks I found on the bookshelf next to dozens of other books with strange titles. Touch of the Reptilian Lord. To Shield a Maiden. Dark and Bound. I decided not to look into them at the moment, instead leaving the room to go try and find something else to eat.
Someone had apparently predicted this, and I found myself with a sandwich with two slices of bread, cold cut meat, cheese, and a few vegetables on top. There was some kind of sauce too that was a bit tangy for me, but was otherwise tasty. The maid, was less amused when I took the sandwich and plate, and headed outside.
It was dark out, with the only light coming from the street lamps. I looked up to the sky, and sure enough, there was only an empty space above. If I stared too hard, it felt like I’d fall in. It didn’t stop me from looking, however.
I wonder who I really am. Was my only thought staring into the darkness above, absentmindedly eating the sandwich. Alexei Drowlek is what the system had said. But who was that? It felt like the kind of question that’d make it hard to sleep.
Name: Danielle Rosecrest
Age: 17
Race: Human
Class: Noble 4
Class EXP: 542/800
Experience Bank: 0/1000
Unspent Attribute Points: 0
Statistics
Physical
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 12
Agility: 13
Endurance: 10
Constitution: 10
Mental
Intelligence: 19
Insight: 12
Charisma: 13
Perception: 11
Magic
Mana: 4
Mana Control: 2
Mana Power: 2
Skills
Assessment: Tier 1, Rank 3
Unarmed Combat Tier 1, Rank 3
Cheap Shot Tier 0, Rank 2
Mana Sense: Tier 0, Rank 1
Speed Reading: Tier 0, Rank 2
Deception: Tier 0, Rank 1
Mathematics: Tier 2, Rank 13
Traits
Noble Birth
Experience Conversion
Experience Absorption
Moderator’s Veil
Second Chance
Spells
Healing: Tier 0 Rank 3
Scan: Tier 0 Rank 1
There was a faint hiss and a cloud of smoke filled the air. A screen floated in the air, displaying a girl staring into the dark. Other screens were appearing near the first.
A boy with an empty bottle in one hand, passed out on his bed.
An elderly priest, sitting at his desk in silent contemplation.
More people began to appear on screens, until the light from dozens outlined the figure of a man sitting in a simple office chair. He wasn’t particularly interesting looking, wearing a pair of slacks and a close fitting shirt that seemed to shimmer slightly as he adjusted position. He flicked ash to the side and it pixelated and disappeared before getting halfway to the floor.
“A surprise, but not an unpleasant one.” The man said in a voice like a well traveled gravel road. “I wonder who is responsible. Not that it matters.”
Another long drag as he watched the girl go back inside. The screen flicked off before she started changing. He wasn’t a creep, after all. And it was a violation of the terms of service.
Instead, he turned to look at what levers he could pull now that a piece was finally on the table. Circumstances would need to be analyzed. Quests created, or modified. Rewards adjusted.
A cloud of smoke covered the remaining screens as new one surfaced.
It displayed a man, falling from a spawning tube onto a floor in a cave. Half the time, the fall killed him and started the respawning process all over again.
The other times were… less pleasant.
The man winced as he summoned a diagnostics report. Despite the damage, the tube was working correctly, the security in the area had just been disabled or destroyed. The only reason he’d even found the man is because he’d read Alexei’s messages.
“I could fix this.” He tapped a few buttons on a floating keyboard. It wasn’t necessary, but the tactile sensations were all that kept him grounded and connected at times. He typed in a command and held his finger over the button to process it. “Send him to a different respawn. Or even just stop him from respawning until the creatures there died.”
Even as he thought outloud, a large, blackened claw reached out from the dark and dragged the fallen man off into the dark, the screen not following the screaming man whose nails tried to dig into unyielding stone and escape. There was a sharp, cracking sound and his screams stopped and the tube powered up again.
“I’ll turn off the update and let it keep running. Maybe he’ll get lucky.” A grim smile around a cigarette. “I’m sure you’d agree it’s nicer than he deserves, wouldn’t you Alexei?”
The screens changed, and more bloomed into existence as the man began to stretch his figurative muscles. Things were changing for the first time in a long time, and he had a lot of work to do. Reports needed to be read, and assets checked on.
Across the world, people began to get notifications.