Ero-Game: Power and Sword

I kept the status window open all the way to the adventurer’s guild.
I was in dress pants and a striped long-sleeve button-down shirt.
I never knew Garth had such gear, but he wore chain mail and had a sword by his waist.
“Did my mother get you the chain mail too?” I asked.
“Yeah, did she tell you?”
“No, it’s my first time seeing it.”
“Nice, isn’t it?”
“Sure.”

I  stopped talking to him because I had decisions to make. If the specialty  wasn’t bad enough, I have to choose what job we’ll be doing as well. I  could go for the best paid, but money wasn’t an issue for me right now.
The adventurer’s guild was quite big. It was 3 stories tall. On the 1st  floor, there was the reception desk and office, a bar, and a few shops.  If I’m remembering correctly, the second floor was for VIPs, and the 3rd  houses the guild master’s office.
We walked straight to the reception desk, where a young man with the name tag: Malachi; looked up at us from his swivel chair.
“How can I help you?” He asked cheerfully.
I decided what job to choose right then and there. “We’re F-ranks, and  we’ve decided to go to a dungeon.” Many dungeons were guarded by knights  and couldn’t be freely entered. You needed a permit.
“Okay, let me see your card. Will the man be coming with you as well?” He asked, looking over at Garth.
“Yes, he’s my butler.”
“Oh, are you a noble? Or perhaps a merchant family?”
“A noble, but the 3rd daughter. So think nothing of it.”
“Oh, I see. Okay. The 4th daughter of the house of Appleby came yesterday, do you know her?”
“No.” I had no idea who he was talking about.
“She tried to hit on me,” he said as he took out some papers, “but she  wouldn’t listen to anything I said. Wouldn’t even do me one measly  favor, can you believe it?”
“Yeah, sounds like a terrible person,” I said in a monotonic voice. At  least he was working and creating our permit as he talked.
“Right?” He shook his head. “It’s unfortunate, really.” The unspoken  context that both of us understood, but didn’t need to say aloud, was  that this Appleby must be desperate and unable to do favors. She must be  having such a terrible time that she’s been reduced to clowning around  in hopes of a pity fuck. While I was thinking of the hidden meanings  behind his words, he finished creating our permit. “This should get you  into any of the dungeons in the capital. Remember, since you’re F-ranks,  don’t go below the 3rd floor. If you’re caught up in something below  the 3rd floor, the guild won’t take any responsibilities nor help out in  any way. I want to make that very clear. We have had idiots who thought  the 3rd floor was easy and-”
“I understand.” I took the permit from his hand. “Thanks.” I understood  all this very well and had no desire to listen to him anymore.
“Okay.” He said.
When I turned around and left, leaving Garth behind. Garth quickly thanked the receptionist, “Yes, thank you.” And caught up with me.

“So we’re going to a dungeon? I guess that’s good.” Garth said.
From the way I studied the jobs on the bulletin board, he must’ve  expected something different. Dungeon exploring was a job given out by  the guild and was always available. Getting monster cores, mana crystals, and the occasional dungeon treasure was always in demand.  There were monster-hunting requests, expedition assistant jobs, carriage guard, etc. Available on the bulletin board. The expedition assistance quest intrigued me, but it was a job that’d take weeks, maybe months.  And I had too many things I needed to do in the capital to go on an expedition to the Leylor mountains.
The dungeons were also a good way to meet new people. A lot of newbies  will be there, especially on the first floor. Some might already have  parties, but a lot of them won’t. Up to the 3rd floor, a single person  could explore it. You could solo the entire dungeon if this was still a  game, but the methods I used in the game wouldn’t be recommendable in  real life.
“We’ll go up to the 3rd floor since both of us are over level 10. And  since that might take us a few days… here, take this.” I handed Garth a  money pouch. “There’s 20 silver and 1 gold in there. I don’t think  you’ll need that much, but… anyway… Ah, go buy enough food for 5 days  and put it in here.” I handed him the space expansion bag. “And give a  few silvers to the innkeeper too, so that they won’t toss our stuff out  if we’re a little late.”
“Ah…” He looked at the money and the space expansion bag.
“I’ll wait over there.” I pointed at the cafe across the street.
“Oh, okay.” He looked at the money again, “So, I have to go back to the inn.”
“Yes, is there a problem?”
“No. I’ll go.” And he sulked off.

***

I went into the cafe across the street, ordered a cup of coffee, and sat down beside the window.
I was staring at my status window again. “I’m not going to get off this  seat till I choose,” I told myself. I wanted to choose a specialty  before the dungeon. I looked over the options again. The problem was the  list was almost endless. I could keep scrolling for hours. It was  important I chose the right specialty; it’d determine what choices I’d  get later on. At level 50, I’d be able to specialize even further, and  then at level 100. I’m not sure what comes after level 102 since the  experience needed to level up after that was just so big I never crossed  that line.
I scrolled through the options again. [Elemental Magic, Space Magic,  Mechanical Magic, Alchemic Magic, Body Magic, Chaos Magic, Alien Magic,  Dark Arts, Divine Magic, Destruction Magic, Creation Magic, Illusionist,  Shamanism, Healing Magic, Anti-Magic Magic, Curse Magic, Dimension  Magic, Dragon Magic, Dream Magic, Energy Magic, Entropy Magic, Fairy  Magic, Mysto-Telekinesis, Faith Magic, Frequency Magic, Forge Magic,  Mirror Magic, Force Magic, Luck Magic, Lust Magic, Mind Magic, Defense  magic, Matter Magic, Law Magic, Mystic Arts, Blood Magic, Quantum Magic,  Nano Magic, Sin Magic, Summoner, Necromancy, Spirit Magic,…] Were just  some of the options in the long list.
It was hard to tell the difference between some of them in terms of  application. Space Magic and Dimension Magic were almost identical in  the beginning stages. They both offered pocket space, which was somewhat  tempting. But choosing it just for the pocket space didn’t sit well  with me. That isn’t to say they weren’t good magic routes to go down;  they were, but what I wanted was something more of a jack of all trades type of magic. As your level increases, that’s almost impossible, but I  wanted my skills to be as diverse as possible. “I want to be as rounded  as possible.” And, now that I have [envy], as long as I see someone  using [pocket space] or [pocket dimension], I’ll be able to learn it.
Elemental magic was pretty good in terms of roundedness, and it’s pretty popular too. Alchemic magic is also popular.
The problem with Alchemic Magic is that half its rewards were secret  knowledge, and I already have all that secret knowledge. I’d memorized  it a long time ago. Of course, the other half were spells that couldn’t  be gained without specialization. But specialization for 50% of the  rewards just wasn’t worth it. Though having the power to convert  everything around you into weapons and stuff was pretty cool.
It’ll have to be Elemental magic, Alchemic Magic, Alien Magic, Energy  Magic, Fairy Magic, or Matter Magic. They were the best options if I’m  looking for magic that’s well-rounded.
I’ve read about Alien magic, but I’ve never played it. Matter magic and  Energy magic were two sides of a coin. Both are very powerful in combat.
The thing is, a lot of the not-so-popular magics were really cool;  that’s why I couldn’t just pick willy-nilly. Sin magic, for example, was  incredibly tricky to deal with for a magician. It was like trying to  fight while drowning. At least that was the case for a magician vs.  magician fight. A martial would beat a Sin magician in a heartbeat. If a  Sin magician and a Knight with a similar level fought 100 times, the  Knight would win 99 out of 100.
So I can’t just pick something cool like in an RPG kind of way. I need  to pick something good in combat with magicians and martial artists.
Luck magic was powerful against both and also very cool. It had all  kinds of weird dice roll-type magic, but I wouldn’t bet my life on  rolling dice! When one bad dice roll means an early trip to the grave, I  say, ‘no, thank you.’
Anti-Magic magic was terrible against martial artists. I remember I had  to quit the game and restart it because of how much I hated playing as  an Anti-Magic magician.
Body magic was pretty cool. You could do all kinds of transformations and stuff.
Summoner was worth considering since I would need to go to war in 4  years. With it, in the later stages, you could raise an army of summons  to fight for you. But, the number of strong summons you could have even  at high levels was limited. It was certainly a good route, but it was no  substitute for a good team. Also, if the summoner dies, it didn’t  really matter how many summonses she could bring out. It’s a well-known  strategy to focus attack on the summoner when facing one.

After  all that deliberation, I decided to choose Energy Magic. It’s powerful  and well-balanced when fighting both archetypes. Of course, there were  problems with it, but there were problems with all of them. From what I  know from the game, there wasn’t any great secret class that was  superior to everything else by all standards. That didn’t exist. They  all had their strengths. Even an Illusionist became very powerful later  on, able to make their illusions real and so forth.
As soon as I chose Energy magic, I felt energy flow into me. In a matter  of seconds, I felt that my entire body had changed. I felt different:  stronger. This feeling wasn’t something I’d ever felt while playing the  game. It probably wasn’t possible to feel this way in the game. It was  another reminder that this was reality.
Spells of the Energy magic class were automatically added to my status  window. The three spells: [energy manipulation, energy perception,  energy understanding] were now part of me.
Energy manipulation, as you’d expect, allowed me to manipulate energy.  Perception allowed me to sense living creatures and the energy around  me. At its highest levels, I’d be able to perceive the energy of  everything around me for 100s of kilometers. Energy understanding was  something I’d never seen before, so I tried it out. Everything around me  suddenly became strange…
It was indescribable. I could see the energies around me. The energies  holding the table together; that made the people walk; that made coffee  stay in the cup; that made the rising vapor; that made the sunlight  bounce… how everything was…
“Aaa!” My eyes hurt and I suddenly felt drained. I looked at my mana pool and realized I was almost empty. “Wasn’t it full?” Just using it  for a few seconds had taken a huge toll on my mana. But I got something  of a sense of the real world. I’d learned so much and so little  in a matter of seconds. With that, I knew so much more about my powers  and how to use energy manipulation much more effectively.
This was never available in the game, and I could understand why just by  using it once. The only thing comparable was a spell from the alchemy  branch allowing you to learn secret knowledge, but this was different. I  realized I’d have to slowly use it to get a better understanding. “Did  others in this world get this spell easily as well?” Then I hadn’t  really gained any advantage. “Maybe, I should get some books about  energy magic from the library.” The free spells were always  foundational, so it wouldn’t be that rare. “Aw, it doesn’t matter. Let’s  worry about this later.” I took a sip of the coffee.

There was still the 4th spell to pick. The options that came up were: [give, imprisonment, boost, fireball].
“I’m still getting fireball, though it’s the Energy version.” The  fireball would probably be blue, but it didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to  choose it.
Imprisonment, as the name suggests, imprisoned the opponent with energy.
Boost was something worth considering though it was shit in the game. It  shouldn’t even be called [boost]; it should be called mind-boost or  something… It was like pausing the game. Everything slowed down when you  activated [boost]; at least that’s how it’d appear to the caster. In  reality, it allowed you to think faster, but that didn’t mean your body  was fast. No, it only made your mind fast. It could be useful in real  life for an indecisively slow thinker like myself. But [give] seemed  like the best option.
Give was a kind of healing magic. It allowed you to [give]  energy/mana/health. It’ll be useful in a group. I want a healer in my  group, but very few specialize in healing magic. It simply wasn’t that  popular. And even if they chose to become a healer, they certainly  wouldn’t choose to become an adventurer. Even in the game, it was  difficult to find healers. The alchemist usually took care of that part  of the job.
So, with that in mind, I chose [give].

Then  seeing Garth hasn’t returned, I went to the counter, paid for my coffee,  and said to the waiter, “If a young man comes around looking for  Sherrie, can you tell him to wait here? He’s the same age as me.”
The waiter behind the counter said, “Oh, let me write that down.” He took out a pen and pad and asked me to spell my name.
“S. H. E. R. R. I. E.” I spelled out for him. “He’s the same height as  me and has brown hair. Just let him know to wait here. I’ll be right  back. I might even come back before him, but you know, just in case.”
“Sure. I’ll let him know. If anyone asks for Sherrie, I’ll be sure to tell them.” The waiter said.
“Alright, thanks,” I said and walked out of the cafe.
The library wasn’t far away, and I wanted to borrow a book. Also, I needed to hire and schedule things out with a rickshaw.