“Ignore Tomoya’s delusional dreams. There are more important things to discuss,” said Haruka. “Right now, let’s decide on a course of action. We all need to agree before we can do anything together.”
“Y-Yeah, that’s true,” said Tomoya.
I had already been thinking we should do things together as a group of childhood friends, but Haruka was being more serious and pragmatic about it. She’s got a good point, though, since our lives are actually on the line in this world.
“Let’s start. Prioritize self-care!” Haruka declared. “Okay, repeat after me now!” Haruka pointed at Tomoya and me. She seemed determined to make both of us follow along.
“What?” we exclaimed. Weren’t we going to discuss our course of action together?
Haruka ignored our confusion and repeated the same statement again.
“Prioritize self-care!” said Haruka.
“P-Prioritize self-care?” we repeated.
“Don’t aim to become a hero!”
“Don’t aim to become a hero!”
“Slow and steady wins the race!”
“Slow and steady wins the race!”
“Obey all of Haruka-sama’s orders!”
“Obey all of—wait a minute!” I stopped myself before I could finish those words.
“Tsk!”
I had almost blurted out some dangerous words without careful thought. Did you just click your tongue at me, Haruka?
Tomoya, on the other hand, had eluded danger by shutting his mouth at the last moment. He ditched me!
“So yeah, those will be our main rules. Agreed?”
It seemed like I wasn’t allowed to complain. Well, it’s always been like this. I guess this is just what my everyday life was and still is.
“Sure, I don’t mind. Anything works for me as long as I can eventually settle down and enjoy a peaceful life with a wife who has animal ears!”
“Yeah, I’m fine with those rules too. Or rather, the idea of going off by myself never even crossed my mind.” It’d be too lonely to explore this world alone, given that I know nothing about it.
Haruka nodded in response to our answers, as if satisfied, and then crossed her arms confidently. “I see! That’s good! All right, next up is to check out what skills we have. We’ll have to work together to ensure our safety in this new world.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Uh, let’s see if saying ‘Status’ out loud works.”
Oh, it worked! A display screen appeared. It looked like that was a common trope for these kinds of worlds.
Name: Naofumi
Race: Elf (Age: 17)
Condition: Healthy
Skills: Help Guide, Weapon Proficiency: Spears, Magic Aptitude: Time
Level 2 Spearmanship, Level 1 Evasion, Level 2 Robust
Level 1 Hawk’s Eye, Level 1 Stealth, Level 1 Scout
Level 2 Third Eye, Level 1 Traps and Snares 101
Level 2 Time Magic, Level 1 Fire Magic
Oh, it only shows my first name. It seemed like there was no way to change the display screen. I looked around for a page that would show my stats, but there didn’t seem to be one.
“Looks like there’s no HP or MP bar in here, or stats like Strength or Dexterity,” said Tomoya. “There’s also nothing to indicate our own level or anything like that either.”
“Yes, so it appears,” said Haruka. “At least we can check our current condition and our skills, though.”
Tomoya and Haruka nodded together while we all looked at our own display screens floating in the air in front of us. So, my current condition is Healthy? If this display actually shows status effects like Poisoned or Cursed, it might be quite useful. I’ll be able to figure out what status effect I need to cure right away. As a side note, Haruka never really played video games that often, but she did sometimes play with Tomoya and me, so she does have some knowledge of common game tropes and systems. This kind of display screen is probably familiar to her as well.
“The most important thing here is the list of skills,” said Haruka. “Especially this one, the Help Guide skill. You have this, right?”
“Of course,” I replied. I’d known that Haruka would get this skill too. If the Help Guide had only cost, like, 5 Points, then maybe not, but the fact that it cost 20 Points was a clear sign that it was important. It took me a while to decide because of the cost, though.
“What? You two got that skill? Why? It wasn’t necessary at all for the character creation process.”
What?
“Did you not get it?!” we exclaimed.
Haruka and I both got up in Tomoya’s face, but he clearly had no idea about what he had done wrong. Oh no, this is bad! I hope he didn’t make some really risky choices!
“Tomoya! Tell us all of your skills, now!” yelled Haruka.
“U-Um, okay...” Overwhelmed by Haruka’s threatening tone, Tomoya hastily listed his skills.
Weapon Proficiency: Swords, Level 3 Swordsmanship, Level 1 Charge
Level 1 Roar, Level 2 Evasion, Level 4 Robust
Level 2 Fleetness, Level 2 Appraisal, Level 1 Blacksmithing
Whew, none of them were gimmicky skills! Haruka and I looked at each other. We both let out a sigh of relief.
“Man, I really wanted to get the EXP skills, but I ran out of points while picking skills that I absolutely needed for my badass beastman character. I had no choice but to give up on the EXP skills and prioritize my initial build concept.”
“Believe us, you made the right choice!” I said.
“Yeah!” said Haruka. “Your weird obsession with animal ears was actually useful for once!”
That was a close call! The EXP skills aren’t life-threatening, but they would’ve definitely made your life hell, Tomoya!
“Huh, really? Aren’t skills like that the kind that make a huge difference later on? It’s not like it’s a competition or anything, but still.”
“No, those skills are traps!” I said. “In fact, they would’ve ruined your life!”
Haruka and I took turns explaining how bad and gimmicky the additional skills were, and Tomoya’s face gradually turned pale as he learned more.
✦ ✦ ✦
