The menu had responded to my muttered musings. Compared to the English-language display, the strings of Japanese characters looked awkward, but it was more important that I understood what was written at a glance.
As I read through my stats, what jumped out at me most was my empty item inventory. Taken at face value, that meant I was considered to be bereft of all things.
“Hmm...but I mean, I’ve got jerky and water...”
And yet:
【ITEMS】
Empty
I checked and rechecked, but based on the text, I had nothing at all on me.
“Still, I do have a rough idea of what to do now. I’m a gamer, after all...”
I figured it hinged on whether I met certain criteria. There was some rigid, childish, video gamey condition that I wasn’t fulfilling.
“‘Equipment’ must be stuff that directly impacts combat and affects stats...”
Which meant everything else was stuff that was meant to be equipped. Stuff I shouldn’t put on my body or hold in my hand.
“Maybe I’ve got some kind of infinite-space bag or something?”
I checked everything on my person once more. Video games often had something that fit that bill. I turned my bag and pockets inside out and right side in multiple times, but nothing happened.
“All right, then...” C’mon, enter... Enter into my inventory.
Half-jokingly, I tried profering my jerky to the air—and was rewarded for it.
The air warped and distorted, swallowing the jerky whole.
“Yikes!”
My arm snapped back. The scene would spark fear in anybody.
“Okay, now show me my items.”
【ITEMS】
Jerky
“Ha ha. Yep, I’m super definitely in a video game.”
I was equal parts pleased and terrified, but in any case, I now understood one of the rules of how items worked. By willing it, and by offering the item to empty space, I could store something who-knew-where.
“Now that’s a huge relief...”
I started scavenging valuables from the corpses again, as there was a ton of stuff I hadn’t been able to take with me before. One after the other, I tossed them into my inventory, all the while learning more of the rules that governed items here. Incidentally, the adventurers’ bodies and the small bugs on them failed to enter. I didn’t know why, but they must have violated some condition because the air rebuffed them.
【ITEMS】
Jerky, Water Pack, Styptic, Oil, Stun Needle, Antidote, Rasp, Blade of Oria, Leather Bag, Leather Gloves, Leather Shoes, Cloth Garb, Wooden Bow, Steel Knife, Unbranded Arrow, Lighter, Smartphone, Pebble, 10th-Grade Magic Gem, 9th-Grade Magic Gem
The lighter and smartphone were in the jeans I’d had on. I tried connecting to data the moment I spotted my phone, but of course, no dice. Moreover, chances were good it was broken anyway. Maybe it had taken a hit. That its flashlight and clock functionalities were still working was a silver lining.
“All sorts of stuff can go in...” I mused. “Most helpful of all, it names the stuff I can’t identify. But that lowers the whole game’s difficulty level. Not that I’m complaining...”
I smiled when I saw the word “antidote” for a substance I would’ve otherwise regarded as “just some powder.”
“All right. Let’s run some more experime—”
“GRRAAAHWR!!!”
Just as I was about to set about experimenting in earnest, a beastly howl reverberated through the corridor.
“I...I’ll save the experiments for later...”
Thanks to the string of convenient windfalls, I’d straight up forgotten I was still in the jaws of danger. I didn’t know how to use the styptic salve, so I smeared it on my wound after washing the gash with water. Then I started trudging away from the howling, using my sword as a cane.
So as not to overtax my body, I proceeded down the hall while watchfully observing my surroundings. I checked my stats and found that my blood loss had eased and my HP had recovered a little.
Sensing that I’d put a safe distance between me and the threat to my life, I’d earned myself a small spot of calm, which I used to conduct various experiments. I couldn’t remove objects from or put them into my inventory unless I was still, but there was something I could test out while walking: I muttered all the terms that came to mind, rattling off anything I could think of that had to do with video games in case any new text displays popped up. “Stats... help... map... save... logs... chat... log out... log in... skills...”
There’d been no response to the word I had most wanted to trigger something: “Help.” Nor was there any response from words related to online games, such as “logs” or “chat.” The word “skills,” however...
【SKILLS】
Innate Skills: Swordplay 1.01, Ice Magic 2.00
Acquired Skills: Dimensional Magic 5.00
???:???
???:???
A pair of powers concealed by strings of question marks. This system seemed unwilling to give the goods when it came to those two bits of info. And those two instances of “magic” took me aback as well. I’d blinked, and before I knew it, I’d become a mage. Something to be happy about! It occurred to me to make the menu display the details of my magic.
【MAGIC】
Ice Magic: Freeze 1.00 Ice 1.00
Dimensional Magic: Dimension 1.00
I’d braced myself for nothing to appear only to be pleasantly surprised by not one but three spells up my sleeve. At the revelation that I could cast spells, I damn near jumped for joy. I had no idea why I could now use magic, but I figured I might as well use whatever was in my arsenal. Going by video game logic, it made sense to have a handful of starter skills.
Well, that’s if you’re going by video game logic...
I shook my head to stop that train of thought. If my mind stuck to that morass, I’d go nuts, so I started testing my spells instead. I couldn’t do much better at that moment.
“Err, come forth! Icespell: Ice!” I shouted, holding out my hands. My mental picture involved chunks of ice flying from my hands.
Upon casting the spell, I was assailed by the sensation of something inside me depleting. My palms turned cold, and I could feel something (what, I didn’t know) gathering. Yes, it was gathering, coalescing, but it was awfully slow. I suspected the moisture in the air was coming together and losing its heat by suppressing its molecular motion, thereby gradually creating ice. However, the ice that took around ten seconds to form was the size of my palm. Needless to say, it was not shooting off. It didn’t look as though it could ever be a means of attack.
“Wait, that’s what this is?”
My disappointment was immeasurable. My day...