SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 6 (PROLOGUE)
Chapter 6 – Training : Day 91
I was sitting in front of the monitor, as always, waiting for the fateful moment I would be transported to my new life.
The display read “2 months (89 days) 23:50” . The three-month training period was nearing its conclusion.
Thinking that I was going to be reborn very soon made me feel pretty nervous.
Name: Tenma
Species: Human
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Age: 14
HP : 85/85 (UP!!)
MP : 7350/7350 (UP!!)
STA: 75/75 (UP!!)
INT: 139 (UP!!)
STR: 247 (UP!!)
SPD: 123 (UP!!)
SKL: 78 (UP!!)
LCK: 50
Title(s):
Skill(s): Language comprehension – LV 2, Lifestyle Magic – LV 4 (UP!!), Appraisal LV 2 (UP!!), Item Box LV 2 (UP!!), Throwing LV 2, Magic Depletion Resistance LV 3 (UP!!), Magic Recovery LV 2 (UP!!), Sleep Resistance LV 2, Quickread LV 2, Magic Detection LV 2 (UP!!), Sword Arts LV 1 (UP!!), Concentration LV 2 (UP!!), Targeting LV 2 (UP!!), Memory LV 1 (UP!!), Magic Power Manipulation LV 1 (UP!!), Hi-Speed Cognition, Sneaking, Presence Detection, Dismantling, Mental Fortitude LV 1 (UP!!), Poison Resistance LV 2 (UP!!), Paralysis Resistance LV 2 (UP!!), Night Vision LV 1 (UP!!), Alchemy (NEW!!)
Thanks to the recovery potions doping, my max MP grew at an amazing rate.
Thanks to the increase in MP, I could level up Appraisal too. Lifestyle Magic was still at level 4, but I raised all the spells in the category to level 2.
Item Box finally reached level 2 too, and the other skills leveled up at a nice pace as well.
I acquired the Alchemy skill, so I became able to craft recovery potions. I could also craft low-grade potions of other types, though the quality was still poor.
Recovery potions would always be useful, and might also be sold for money if needed.
At any rate, I was able to raise the skills affected by the training bonuses to level 2, so I could say that I had done a good job.
I thought back to all the things that happened in this period. Not everything went perfectly, but I did not experience any terrible failures, at least. I wondered if there was someone else that managed to gain more than I did from this training system.
There might have been more productive methods, but with all the effort I poured in it, I wasn’t going to die as soon as I reincarnated…or so I hoped.
I did not pick any talents at the beginning, so — in game terms — I opted for a balanced build. I didn’t know what kind of world awaited me, so having balanced stats was the best choice…or so I hoped.
If I chose to specialize in physical or magic skills instead, it would be fatal when my attacks missed, so that was no good…or so I hoped.
While I was delving into such thoughts, the three month period was seconds away from ending.
Right before the date changed, I felt so nervous and anxious that I closed my eyes.
I could not feel anything different, however.
I felt the chair under my butt, just as before.
I slowly opened my eyes, and found the monitor before me — just as before.
“Wait, what? I’m not reborn!?”
Despite the confusion, I tried to make sense of the situation.
If I remembered correctly, when I arrived at the training facility it was 9 in the morning.
“Maybe I’ll be transferred next morning at 9, then?”
That was the only plausible reason I could come up with.
As the nervousness subsided, I realized that I was more tired than I thought.
When was the last time I slept properly?
I wondered if being sleep deprived would put me in danger after I received my new life. I did not know if I could have access to a safe place to sleep right away, after all.
If I was going to be reborn at 9 AM, I still had some time left.
I thus decided to go to sleep, planning to wake up at 7 AM, just in case.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
After I woke up, I had breakfast and waited for the time I would be reborn. 9 AM passed, however, and I was not transported anywhere.
Having slept well for the first time in a long while, I was in very good condition, my senses sharper than ever. So I noticed it pretty quickly.
『Two months (90th day) 09:12』
Two months? How?
I looked at the monitor display, puzzled. 90 days had passed already, so it should have read 『Three months (90th day) 09:12』.
That was how the display worked throughout the first and second month, after all.
“Could it be that the third month had 31 days?”
In the end, I reached this conclusion.
～
And thus I was there relaxing, with potato chips and coke in hand.
The night before I was rather nervous, but it started to feel like a pain to be in that state; I couldn’t carry the contents of the “Meals” and “Resources” menu to my next life anyway, so I thought that I could fill my stomach with my favorite stuff, at least the last night I was here.
In the end, it was a lucky occurrence that the last month had 31 days.
One more day of training wouldn’t change much, so I enjoyed eating the remaining food.
When it became evening, I took out the alcohol too.
First, I drank a can of beer almost in one gulp, followed by fizzy drinks and cocktails.
If I was already reborn, I would have surely regretted this later.
I kept drinking without saying a word for a while: as the alcohol started circulating inside me, I found myself complaining out loud.
“Why the hell was my past life so full of bullshit, anyway!? Was I cursed or something!? I bet it was some god’s fault! And now they’re letting me be reborn to compensate! And that guide woman was a piece of work too! She was pretty, sure. Nice curves, cute face…but the way she talked to me! Not professional at all! She handled all the important things of my new life in a way that…that…dammit all…! Was she supposed to be a goddess? An angel? Screw that! Is my new life going to be full of bullshit too!? I’m not going to lose this time, no thank you!!”
After I shouted my heart out, I suddenly felt sleep take over my body.
Just like that, I passed out on the living room’s sofa.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
When I woke up, it was still dark.
Half asleep, I checked the monitor’s time display.
『Three months (91st day) 02:08』
The third month really was a 31 days one, after all.
I was still here in the facility, though.
I imagined the resurrection would happen at 9 AM, then.
I remembered that there were still some snacks and drinks left.
Thinking that I might as well finish them all, I started drinking again. When the alcohol ran out, I fell asleep on the sofa again.
～
When I woke up, it was past noon.
Strangely enough, I wasn’t reborn yet.
I woke up on the facility’s living room sofa, exactly where I had fallen asleep. The table was littered with empty cans and half eaten chips. Exactly as I had left it when I fell asleep.
Maybe I couldn’t be transported while asleep?
Or was it because I was drunk?
Or because I complained about god?
A series of bad feelings passed through my head, but I ultimately thought that maybe I had been told I would be reborn not when “Three months passed or I reached level 10”, but “Three months passed and I reached level 10”,
I could thus train until I reached level 10: I decided to believe in this very convenient (for me) condition.
I wanted to level up the Alchemy skill more and learn all sorts of magic skills too, so the situation was more than welcome. I thus continued my training.
～
Switching to a new training mindset, the first thing I tried was to try a method I read in a book to learn fire magic.
Naturally, it wasn’t an easy process at all, though.
I used plenty of Lifestyle magic, in order to use up magic power. After Time reached level 2, I continued to use it often to check the time, and since the higher level made it consume less magic power, I had to cast it even more frequently in order to use up more magic power: soon enough, Time became level 3.
When it happened, I acquired the Time Magic skill, which was probably its element.
As it turned out, leveling Lifestyle magic spells up to 3 would let me acquire the elemental magic skill corresponding to their element.
I thus decided to prioritize leveling all Lifestyle magic spells up to 3.
I was going to continue training as before, but would not use the potion “doping” for a while.
If I really could train until I was level 10, there was no reason to hurry anymore. I should be able to take my time, raise my stats and learn new skills.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
At this point in time, Tenma did not have the faintest idea that his guide had input the wrong settings when starting his training.
Who would have ever foreseen that he would train for 15 whole years…?