Death March — Fixed

“Hello, Alex here. Because I usually only hung out with people who I had played online games with, I’ve been called Tek since my days at school.”

 

I seem to have been unconscious for two hours since the severe pain, after the Meteor Shower ended--the time is displayed in the corner of my vision, just under the radar, convenient.

 

It seems that my body is half buried in the ground.

 

Hmm?

 

I can’t seem to muster the energy to get up, the feeling is similar to the time between waking up and having the first coffee of the day--my body is heavy.

 

With a thought, I bring up the Log.

 

A message reading: “You have leveled up!”, followed by the famous ‘ding’ sound effect, which began to ring out insistently--causing my ears to echo the sound and begin to ring unendingly. Forcing myself to ignore it, I begin to scroll through the Log.

 

Continuing for a while through the Leveling Up alerts, I finally found a message which was different.

 

> Skill - Summoning Magic: Foreign World Acquired.

>> Summoning Magic: Meteor Shower Acquired.

>Skill - Nature Magic: Foreign World Acquired.

>> Nature Magic: All Map Exploration Acquired.

 

Meteor shower is the cheat Skill from WW, so why is it now listed as a Summoning Magic?

 

While Summoning Magic exists in FFW, it only summons spirits or golems--the Skill above it also bothers me, because there is no Foreign World in either FFW or WW. But the Celestial and Fallen Worlds exist in FFW.

 

After that quick reprieve, the Level Up messages continue on.

 

Since there is a time stamp, the order of messages aren’t incorrect--in order, it was ‘Skill Acquired’/Magic that belongs to the Skill is Acquired/more Level Ups; in other words, my dream world is one that you automatically learn Skills and Magic as your Level rises.

 

“No, no, why am I trying to analyze the workings of my dream world?”

 

Well, it seems that my habit of inspecting my surroundings and analyzing them remains from my days as a gamer--well, falling back into this habit in a dream causes a feeling of embarrassment to rise.

 

I am about to close the Log and check out my new Magic and Skills, but before that, I change the settings--and make so that the Log automatically opens whenever there is a change.

 

My currently available Magics are Meteor Shower and All Map Exploration; and Skills are Summoning Magic: Foreign World, and Nature Magic: Foreign World.

 

It seems that All Map Exploration belongs to the category of Nature Magic.

 

I thought that it was a once off skill, but it seems that somehow I learned Magic that replicates the effect. the thought is slightly scary to consider--and doesn’t make sense from the point of view as a programmer.

 

My Status has changed considerably…my level has risen from 1 all the way to 310; the limit in FFW was 60, and WW was slightly higher at 100; neither of them were anywhere near this high--though back when we ran stress tests, the limit was raised all the way to 999, so the memory from that time seems to be affecting this dream.

 

My Experience Points required to Level Up again is an astronomical 9 digit number, which is difficult for me to even read--mainly because there is no comma separation between every three digits.

 

Strength (STR) and Intelligence (INT) attribute values are at 100--during the stress testing of FFW, the numbers were limited to 100, but that was just what was visible from the Status screen, the actual value actually had no upper limit. In other words, is it possible that the value might actually be higher here as well?

 

Endurance (HP), Magic Power (MP), and Stamina (SP) have become 3,100--they had been set to rise by a fixed amount of 10 per level.

 

In addition, my available skill points are also 3,100.

 

When I look again at the Skill column, both skills are now visible and white, but they have the number 0 next to them.

 

But when I focus on Lv.0, a message appears: “Please Allocate Skill Points (1-10)”.

 

So, I thought about inputting 10.

 

The text suddenly changed to green and changes to Nature Magic: Foreign World Lv.10--my available Skill Points decrease to 3,090, it seems that 1 level = 1 Skill Point.

 

When I concentrate on the Skill again, trying to see if I could increase it more, another message shows up: “Skill At Maximum Level”.

 

On the Magic column, All Map Exploration is green, while Meteor Shower is grey. It seems that you can’t use a new Magic or Skill until you give it at least one skill level--so I also put 10 points into Summoning Magic: Foreign World.

 

With that done, I check the Log again and notice that I have gotten some Titles.

 

Excitedly opening the Title window, I see that many things have been added: First is Monster Slayer, then Lizardman Slayer, Lizardman Calamity, Lizardman Natural Enemy--I’m not sure if the Lizardmen here are the same as the ones in games on Earth.

 

Then came: Wyvern Slayer, Dragon(Lesser) Slayer, Dragon(Child) Slayer, Dragon(Adult) Slayer, Dragon(Ancient) Slayer, and other Dragon Slayer titles, with different things inside the brackets, seemed to continue endlessly.

 

Well, with this many Dragons, I can understand how I managed to level up three hundred plus times; the map, before the attack, had been dyed red.

 

Then, just like the one with the Lizardmen, Dragon Species Natural Enemy title popped up; followed by the final title…God Slayer.

 

I didn’t believe in Gods--But it said in my Log that I just killed one.

 

Focusing on the Log, I search for ‘God’.

 

>>Dragon God Akon Killed!

 

Ahh, well there is the cause for the God Slayer Title.

I see.

 

So the Meteor Shower also managed to kill the God of the enemies.

 

Well, the Log doesn’t show damage, so I have no idea how powerful it was; in FFW and WW, the damage should have been displayed, but. Uhh, I guess that there’s no point in questioning a dream.

 

Since I have spent almost half an hour reading messages and messing with my Menu, it seems that my body has recovered.

 

I slowly climb to my feet.

 

It’s been officially decided, Meteor Shower is too powerful, to dangerous, it has been moved from my hotkey bar and I have decided to only use it if it is a matter of life and death--no other choice.

 

I really don’t want to become the enemy of humanity by accidentally unleashing the spell in the middle of a crowded city.

 

So, I switched it out with All Map Exploration in the Hotkey bar.

 

There is no particular change when I cast it, but checking back on my Status screen, I see that my MP has decreased to 3,090 and the Log pops up saying that “Magic: All Map Exploration has been used.”--it seems to use 10 MP.

 

Since it is annoying to check every time, I assign HP, SP, and MP to my Heads-Up-Display, a small grouping of three bars appear in the center of my view. They are partially transparent--HP is green, MP is blue, SP is yellow.

 

With a quick glance to my upper-right, I see that there is nothing on the radar other than myself. It’s nice that there’s no enemy around, since it means I’m not in danger.

 

Well, if there will be no victims, I guess it’s okay.

 

I couldn’t stop myself and concentrated on the Meteor Shower spell, agreeing again to the warning that appeared in front of me.

 

There is a strange feeling like something is pulling out large amounts of my energy--my MP rapidly decreased, stopping only when 1,000 points had been consumed. This felt really strange, very different to when I first cast it; I guess that back then, I wasn’t using my own Magic Power.

 

I looked up into the sky.

 

There’s no meteors yet.

 

But, considering before, they should arrive soon.

 

Then, groups of large meteors tore the clouds apart.

 

Huge!

 

What the hell?!

 

They are maybe one hundred times bigger than the earlier meteors.

 

I began to run, instinctively, before even getting the chance to think about it--of course my direction was opposite the drop zone.

 

I am running as fast as I can, with the continuous howling of the atmosphere being torn apart, and the massive thunder of the meteor impacts sounding in the background.

 

Strangely, I feel as though I am running through water, the air resistance is much, much stronger than normal.

 

As the dust wave began to approach me, I dove over a small wall of rocks--well, I say small, but it is probably around a hundred meters in radius, and ten meters in height--strangely, I felt no pain when I impacted the ground.

 

A tsunami of dust and violent hot wind sweeps over me right after I hit the ground. People-sized rocks occasionally roll through the wind and launch into the air, bouncing with thunderous sounds.

 

I break out in a cold sweat, wondering how long this apocalyptic event will continue on for--and when the dust cloud finally settles, I climb up the rock wall to see the point of impact.

 

There are many outcroppings so I climb pretty easily, but I tried to jump, just to see how high I can get--to make the climbing easier.

 

I easily fly five meters straight up.

 

I quickly grab a crack in the rock with a slight panic, I don’t want to fall back down.

 

“Well, this rise in status is impressive…” My body trembles slightly as I speak to myself, try to escape reality, “The meteors were probably much larger because of the increase in INT too.”

 

I rapidly scale the wall by quickly bracing myself before jumping the last five meters of the wall.

 

How convenient.

 

Even in a dream I can adapt fairly quickly, if I may say so myself.

 

Peeking over the edge of the safe stone wall, I see a mushroom cloud in the distance, sediment that had been thrown up because of the fall--if this were the real world, and anywhere near a city, it would cause crop failures and health damage, because of the dust in the air and a reduction in sunlight.

 

“It’s a dream anyway, there’s no helping it--even if I think about it.” I speak quietly, awestruck by the incredible destruction in front of me.