SIAW Vol. 1 Chapter 8 (PROLOGUE)
Chapter 8 – Training : Year 10-13
My training period reached the 10th year.
In the last few years, my goal was to complete 10 years of training, somehow or other.
I never thought that being unable to speak with other people would be this painful…
If the Mental Fortitude skill didn’t level up, or I didn’t try new things and find new challenges, I probably couldn’t have made it safely to this day.
From today, the plan was to focus on raising my species level to 10.
The training period was finally going to end!
I didn’t really care much about my stats anymore, to be honest, but before going to the dungeon, I checked them just in case.
Name: Tenma
Species: Human
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Age: 14
HP : 8,167/8,167 (UP!!)
MP : 1,288,569/1,288,569 (UP!!)
STA: 9,713/9,713 (UP!!)
INT: 14,857 (UP!!)
STR: 13,290 (UP!!)
SPD: 9,987 (UP!!)
SKL: 22,108 (UP!!)
LCK: 50
Title(s):
Skill(s):
|
Language comprehension – LV 2 |
Lifestyle Magic – LV MAX (2 UP!!) |
Appraisal LV 7 (3 UP!!) |
|
Item Box LV 7 (4 UP!!) |
Magic Recovery LV MAX (UP!!) |
Magic Detection LV MAX (2 UP!!) |
|
Sword Arts LV 5 (UP!!) |
Concentration LV MAX (2 UP!!) |
Memory LV MAX (2 UP!!) |
|
Magic Power Manipulation LV MAX (UP!!) |
Hi-Speed Cognition LV MAX (UP!!) |
Presence Detection LV MAX (3 UP!!) |
|
Mental Fortitude LV 7 (4 UP!!) |
Alchemy LV 8 ( 4 UP!!) |
Physical Boost LV MAX (3 UP!!) |
|
Forging LV 5 (3 UP!!) |
Magic Power Absorption LV 3 (NEW!!) |
Magic Power Efficiency LV 3 (NEW!!) |
|
Simultaneous Cognition LV 2 (NEW!!) |
Perfect Memory LV 2 (NEW!!) |
etc… |
Well…I was honestly overwhelmed. It looked like the skills were listed in different order too…well, not that it mattered much.
Even if I knew there wasn’t much of a point in caring about the stats anymore, my gamer instincts said otherwise.
Concerning my training past the third year, especially noteworthy was the fact that Lifestyle Magic passed level 4, which was supposed to be the max level attainable during training, and was maxed out.
When I leveled up other Lifestyle magic spells to 5, Lifestyle Magic reached level 5 too, and I learned “Room”. Casting this spell materialized a door, which led to a room about 15 square meters in size.
Ah…the Appraisal skill was maxed out too.
When I leveled Room up to 3, I learned the Space Magic skill.
I hoped it would let me learn some kind of teleportation skill, but I couldn’t use it yet.
After leveling up, “Room” created a wider space, consisting of four rooms. When I maxed out the skill, the rooms became 10 in total.
All elemental skills leveled up to 5: I could use more high grade spells now. Excited, I went overboard with them and blew up half of the training island a few times.
I thought that after level 5 the elemental magic skills too would reach level MAX, but — after taking more time than expected — they became level 6 instead, and I could use all spells in the category with zero casting time.
Furthermore, it even became possible to create new basic grade spells.
Recalling the game I played in my past life, I crafted a bunch of spells.
～
I could now access every area of the library, so I learned the magic skills I read about there.
I acquired all the skills I was interested in and were available to me, but there were plenty that I just couldn’t learn.
The Hi-Speed Cognition skill maxed out, and I learned “Simultaneous Cognition”.
Thanks to it, my training became more efficient.
Whenever I did something, I always had Simultaneous Cognition active, and used Appraisal or Item Box all the time. Thanks to it, these two skills finally leveled up, too.
This worked with other skills, too: I could use the skills I wanted to level up simultaneously, so the level-up pace improved greatly.
Soon enough, Simultaneous Cognition reached level 2, and I became able to use 4 skills at the same time.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Now, I plan to enter the dungeon and raise my species level to 10. Just in case, I put many things inside the “Room”.
Actually, it was my first time inside the dungeon.
I was sure that if I stepped inside, I wouldn’t be able to resist before I explored it all, which might have caused my species level to increase.
“Alright! I’m going to get to level 10 quickly and finally get out of this place!! To a new life!!”
Brimming with motivation, I headed towards the dungeon.
～
I could advance easily through the first floors.
In most classical fashion, there was a boss on every 10 floors, complete with a teleportation magic circle.
In about three hours, I reached floor 20, but I had reached level 10 by the 16th. My level wouldn’t increase anymore after that.
When I reached level 10, my stats were almost double what they were when I first entered the dungeon.
Increasing the species level really increased one’s stats by a percentage, after all. Seeing my assumption from 10 years ago become a reality, I breathed a sigh of relief
Having my stats only double after 10 level-ups seemed a bit small at first, but I soon realized that wasn’t exactly the case.
If my stats continued to double every 10 levels, by level 50 they would be multiplied by 32. I wasn’t sure if that was what would actually happen, but it wasn’t a bad prospect at all.
When I returned to the facility, I didn’t drink any alcohol, but had a small feast all night with food and sweets from my old world.
～
…two days passed after that, with no sign of being reborn.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
For the 10 following days, I desperately tried to think of why I wasn’t sent to my new life yet.
I tried to recall as many details as possible about what happened before I was sent to the facility. I was sure I had heard “three months” and “level 10”. And I would be sent to my new life if I reached either — not both.
Why wasn’t I reborn yet, then?
Was it because I said bad things about the god? Or could it be that the whole training facility story was all just a lie, and this was hell for people who died while gaming?
I considered these and other theories, but the final conclusion was, “I have no clue”!
Thinking that I might be alone forever, I felt terribly anxious. If I didn’t have the Mental Fortitude skill, I might have gone insane at this point.
“Since I don’t have a clue, I might as well stop worrying! It does nothing but harm!”
After that, I decided to spend time exploring the dungeon, just like I was playing a game.
It was much healthier for my mind than worrying about this and that, after all.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
In order to have an easier time exploring the dungeon, I improved my “Room” too.
I made a bedroom so I could sleep at any time while exploring. I also added an alchemy lab, a smithy, a crafting room, etc.
I made a kitchen, using my magic tools to put in the necessary furniture and appliances.
I also added a bunch of storerooms, putting the magic bags I made with alchemy on the shelves.
The magic bags were enchanted with “Preservation”, so I could bring all sorts of meals, beef bowls, hamburgers, ice cream, etc., with me in the dungeon.
Well, my Item Box now also had time slowdown and time acceleration functions, though.
Since I had plenty of space available, I also put forging and alchemy materials, potions and other items, food ingredients, and more in the storerooms.
～
My preparations were complete, so I entered the dungeon.
It was pretty easy until the 40th floor, so I could return daily to the base facility.
On the floors up to the present point, there were monsters with skills that caused disease, so I got hit on purpose while I explored; I thus could acquire the Disease Resistance skill and level it up.
Until the 50th floor, I could clear all the floors for just two days. Beyond that, however, the floors became incredibly vast.
It took more time to explore them, but defeating the monsters I encountered was still no trouble.
The floors spawning undead monsters increased: being hit by their curse attacks let me acquire the Curse Resistance skill. There were also powerful poison and paralyzing poison attack skills, so I could level up those, too, at a nice pace.
～
On the 60th floor, I encountered a Fire Dragon, so I panicked momentarily. Fighting with enough caution, however, let me win without being hurt.
Beyond the 60th floor, the large size was always a problem, but there were many more dangerous monsters, too; I was hurt many times. I could level up Physical Resistance and Magic Resistance this way, though.
I also learned many other Resistance-type skills and leveled up skills that I thought necessary.
◇ ◇ ◇ ◇
Three years after I started exploring the dungeon, I finally arrived at the 80th floor.
The boss of this floor was an Ancient Dragon.
I fought with as much caution as possible, but it was a deadly battle all the same.
I used nothing but high-grade magic spells and defense and attempted physical attacks, too, but because of its scales, I barely caused any damage to the monster.
I lowered my guard for an instant, and the dragon’s breath destroyed my defense and barrier magic spells. I could not dodge in time, so my left arm and leg were blown off.
The Ancient Dragon got closer to me, apparently proud of its imminent victory.
Thanks to my Resistance skills, I could still move my right arm. I took an Elixir from the Item Box, opened the lid, and downed the contents in one gulp.
Seeing my wounds healed instantly, the dragon hurriedly opened its mouth to attack.
Before it could, I used Simultaneous Cognition to cast multiple high-grade spells simultaneously: the dragon’s head was blown off this time, securing my victory.
I managed to defeat the Ancient Dragon by using multiple spells at very close range, but the shockwaves left me severely wounded, too.
The Elixir I just drank also restored my MP, so I managed to use healing magic and become able to move again. I drank another Elixir and recovered completely.
～
I returned to the base facility and reflected on what I did wrong.
If I died, I would lose half of my experience points, which wasn’t a problem. It also would take away half of the skill proficiency I accumulated: in other words, half of the efforts I spent over the last 10+ years.
“There’s no way I can ever allow that!!”
Putting the Ancient Dragon aside, elemental dragons are the strongest monsters of the world I’m going to reborn in, right?
“I don’t need to become strong enough to defeat one on my own, anyway!”
That thing blasted off my arm and leg in one shot! Totally ridiculous!
I seriously doubted Ancient Dragons would casually stroll about in the world I was going to be in; if they were common encounters, it wouldn’t be possible to lead a normal life.
I didn’t need any more training, nor did I want to continue doing it!
From that day onwards, I stopped checking my status.