《Gamemaster》 Chapter 1: Fantasy Starter Pack Chapter 1: Fantasy Starter Pack It was my job to conduct the adventures and I enjoyed it very much. In fact, expressing myself through solid mechanics and photorealistic scenes was one of life''s few joys. I created unique dungeons, weapons, abilities and environments and then threw the players in it to mix it all up. Everything was perfect in my mind''s eye. ideas floating around in my head. In fact, my adventures were so good that our table was well-known throughout the school. Not everyone would play--nor had the chance to, mind you--but a lot of students would come and watch. If you think that my level of passion on the subject was extremely uncool, then you would absolutely be right. But if you''d laughed at me at the time, I couldn''t have cared less. I couldn''t help but be drawn to look behind me when I saw the shocked faces of the people around me. This woman is a goddess? hot and also a goddess. Representing a group in unknown circumstances to a woman like that took a lot of leadership. And guts. Cade''s Status Level 1 Human Male EXP: 0 / 5 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 0 Stat Points: 0 HP: 50/50 MP: 50/50 Strength: 5 Intelligence: 5 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.1 When I concentrated on some words, other windows were brought up. Chosen of Lorea All experience gain is doubled. Gamemaster The Gamemaster is able to manipulate the very nature of the world through his mind''s eye. Greater permissions are available to the powerful Gamemaster. Simulate Lv.1 Develop a mental visualization of a target, allowing you to alter them freely for yourself and see their properties. Limited range of 10 meters/ability level. Number of parallel instances equal to the ability level. It seemed very intuitive, but maybe that was just me. I couldn''t actually see everyone else''s screens. I looked back at mine and moved my head around a bit. It was anchored to my vision, but I could see underneath it when I wanted to. Something like selective seeing? Interesting, I thought. What''s up with that Gamemaster description?! "Develop a mental visualization of the target", huh... Simulate has grown to Lv.2! Oh... wow. weird part was that when I opened my eyes, I could still somehow ¡°see¡± Lenea in the simulation. Like I was looking at two different things at once, unlike the status window. Simulate has grown to Lv.3! Wow... okay¡­ that was... really weird. "Other services"... Feya Wulfric Level 46 Human Female Class: Paladin Age: 18 Complexion: Fair Height: 5¡¯7 Body: Toned, slim Chest: Average Rear: Average Hair: Light brown Eyes: Green Traits: Proud, kind, honest, wise, hard-working Likes: Honesty, hard work, mana treats Dislikes: Scum, ginger This paper¡¯s information stood out to me. If Paladins were both tanks and healers at the same time, wouldn¡¯t she be able to keep me safe? Apparently, level 46 at such a young age was very good, so she must have trained all her life. I wondered if she had done so all for the sake of one day serving a Hero. It was pretty depressing how they put so much emphasis on physical description. Shouldn''t servants be called party members, partners, or even mentors? Did they really expect us to choose based on sex preference? not calling me that." new Heroes of old and hope for a second miracle. I am afraid much rests on your shoulders now, Cade. I truly am sorry." I see. Her agility must be monstrous... But wait... Our room?¡± from sight. adds ten mana, or MP, and increases the power of abilities. You will also find yourself learning quicker and remembering memories more accurately. ou could inquire about mine without a problem, but, for example, the King no doubt avoided asking you your class on your first day here for fear of overly rushing you.¡± Healing Sprite Lv.6 Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.Summon a healing light to aid you and your party. Heals 10 HP/ability level every second to everyone under the light. Costs 6 MP/ability level every second. not expected to learn how to fight in a single day. This expedition is solely aimed at exposing you to death, so learn to handle your emotions.¡± was a professional¡­ idiot swinging a sword without proper foot technique. Watch carefully¡­¡± I will be impressed even if you do not manage to kill a goblin today. It takes more than swords to become strong. Killing something, even a monster, takes a great deal of willpower. They say that only a third of the original Heroes were able to kill on their first day, and of those, half of them had a psychological breakdown afterwards.¡± with fabricated memories from dungeons. They follow their monstrous instincts, such as to ''kill'' and ''devour''. They truly are deserving of death. I should warn you about human monsters as well. Never show mercy to dungeon-born humans, especially bandits. They will cut out your throat in the blink of an eye.¡± actually at that party, or enjoying the Mexican beach with a pina colada in your hand. Copy or something? Healing Sprite Lv.6 and I instantly felt better. Assuming the movements from Otheus and grabbing my sword from Feya¡¯s hip, I eagerly dashed forward in a swirl and beheaded the first goblin. Simulation Lv.3 took over my body like I was breathing. I felt Otheus¡¯ every move and my mind expanded to fit all the motor information that was being processed. Status. Cade''s Status Level 2 Human Male EXP: 15 / 20 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 0 Stat Points: 2 HP: 50/50 MP: 50/50 Strength: 5 Intelligence: 5 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.3 ¡°Well done,¡± said Feya as she deactivated her ability. ¡°I will show you how the looting system works.¡± video games." Storage that allows you to store items in a virtual space. Everyone receives it at level 5.¡± Yusil¡¯s Blade Damage: 13 Requirements: 7 strength Status. Cade''s Status Level 5 Human Male EXP: 35 / 125 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 211 Stat Points: 0 HP: 80/80 MP: 100/100 Strength: 8 Intelligence: 10 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.3 Storage Lv.1 Storage Lv.1 Call upon a virtual space to store items. Items are limited to objects gained from monsters and abilities. Storage space of 1 meter/ability level. tailors could do the same for clothes and boots. I¡¯d need to visit the castle smithy when we got back. didn''t feel. Maybe because of the series of events that happened, or maybe because she was interesting or pretty, I wanted her by my side all the time. And by that I meant the real her, not the simulated one. Was I just desperate to get a girl? ¡®Handle myself¡¯... Chapter 2: Day Two Chapter 2: Day Two ¡°That was refreshing.¡± are amazing...¡± she said. am amazing, after all...¡± someone, I figured I''d push forward with all I had with no time to waste. Become a game concept artist that no one knows about? Meh. Become a hero that protected millions of lives? Go right ahead and shave me bald! You shouldn¡¯t be that direct, Alex. The ¡®feeling¡¯ I got came from comparing this game-world with my experience in reading online novels and playing RPGs, not from something concrete such as evidence. But so what if I said a bunch of flowery nonsense to lighten his load? Please don¡¯t build such long and horrible sentences. Status. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.Cade''s Status Level 6 Human Male EXP: 45 / 180 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 211 Stat Points: 2 HP: 80/80 MP: 110/110 Strength: 8 Intelligence: 10 + 1 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.3 Storage Lv.1 Incredibly, I had already leveled up. Considering my earlier experience was at 35 out of 125, that meant that one High Goblin was worth 45 experience. Wait, no. One was worth 22.5 experience, since I had double experience. Gruek¡¯s Loincloth Found in the darkest parts of goblin society, this loincloth has served many dirty purposes. No sane person would willingly wear this article. Effects: -1 Intelligence Even the system disapproved of it being an item. Status. You are now level 10! You have learned the ability Ability! Cade''s Status Level 10 Human Male EXP: 40 / 500 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 739 Stat Points: 2 HP: 117/120 MP: 150/150 Strength: 12 Intelligence: 14 + 1 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.4 Storage Lv.1 Ability Lv.1 Why is it such a vague ability name? Ability Lv.1 This ability allows the Gamemaster to manipulate abilities. Cannot manipulate Gamemaster class abilities. Ability level will affect options. Extends the Simulate ability. No way¡­ Storage. Storage Lv.1 Mana Cost: 1 I had apparently given the ability a mana cost. I had never had the chance to use mana--and by extension, magic--before now, so this was quite a thrilling moment for me. Beyond that, the description definitely fit with the simulation. Without anything to lose, I tried to pull out my sword from Storage. What?¡± you gained what!?¡± Gamemaster The Gamemaster is able to change even the very nature of the world through his mind''s eye. Greater permissions are available to the powerful Gamemaster. Chapter 3: The First Quest Chapter 3: The First Quest expensive. Inspect. Tome of Ice Shard Launch a projectile of ice to pierce your enemies. Deals 9 plus 4 damage/ability level. Mana Cost: 26 I opened the book and discovered it only had one page containing a small paragraph. After reading the few words and learning Ice Shard Lv.1, the book disappeared from my grip. I instinctively knew how to use it, in a motor-memory kind of way. Ability seemed to automatically evaluate the damage of the ability, but I could also manually tweak it, at the price of a much larger mana cost to cast it. I held back on the damage because I didn¡¯t have the mana capacity required. In the end, it looked like this: Tracking Ice Shard Lv.1 Remotely launch a projectile of ice that will follow a target. Deals 12 plus 7 damage/ability level. Cast range of 1 meter plus 0.2 meters/ability level. Mana Cost: 63 Created shards would stay suspended in the air around me. They had to stay within the cast range of me unless they were shot. Even if I could only cast my new ability twice before running out of mana, I was more than happy with my latest achievements. Ice Shard has grown to Lv.2! ¡°... but he doesn''t,¡± I finished, feeling much lamer than I thought I would feel. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.Minor Ring of Greed The bearer of this item is immediately granted two coins for every monster they kill. I wonder how I feel about touching whatever that ugly goblin dropped. Then again, I had earned it from the lootbox so I put it on. Cade''s Status Level 13 Human Male EXP: 150 / 845 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 1087 Stat Points: 8 HP: 120/120 MP: 150/150 Strength: 12 Intelligence: 14 + 1 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.4 Storage Lv.1 Ability Lv.1 Noting my 8 unallocated stat points, I put half of them in strength to increase my health so I wouldn¡¯t die, and the other half in intelligence to increase my mana capacity so I¡¯d be able to cast more magic. Regardless of how cool casting ice shards was, my life was my top priority. I won''t say that one out loud. I¡¯m hungry. Everyone in the throne room was tense. Fidgety nobles sat on fancy chairs around us. A total of twenty Heroes and their servants were summoned by the King for this unexpected mission, so it couldn¡¯t be taken lightly. Chapter 4: Finding That Middle Ground Chapter 4: Finding That Middle Ground Apparently, the teleportation room wasn¡¯t meant for teleporting anymore. It was circular and the ceiling was higher than normal, even for this royal palace. In the center of the room was a pedestal with a square imprint at the top, like an important book had gone missing. ¡°This place once stored the most valuable object in the entire Kingdom: the teleportation tablet," explained Reinfeld as he walked towards a table. "It was stolen last winter by an enemy spy, but we will be retrieving it soon. For now, I must give you what we came here for.¡± He shuffled through some papers before finding a seemingly important stack of them. ¡°Here we are,¡± he said. ¡°You will each receive one of these papers. They will teleport you back to this room when you rip them in half. Do be careful. Accidents happen.¡± He handed one to each of us.
The horse ride to the northern forest was uneventful and plainly boring, but I had the idea to make myself a riding animation so I wouldn¡¯t fall off without having Feya there to hold on to. I asked her a bunch of quick questions on how to ride, and observed her technique and the other servants¡¯. I hadn¡¯t tested out the new animation since it wasn¡¯t meant to work when riding behind someone, but ideally, my body would stay balanced using my hips, and I would put all of my bodyweight into my heels so my centre of gravity would stay low. If it ever came to galloping, my body would stay bent forward at a 45 degree angle. Not all Heroes had come. More than half had stayed behind because they either felt too weak for the upcoming mission, or were still too scared to fight. I wasn¡¯t going to judge them. It was of our own free will to come or not, so no one was to blame. We arrived at a treeline of dense foliage and dark brown bark. The rangers leading our group pulled their swords out and began bushwhacking new paths towards the bandit camp. The rest of us also got off our horses and quietly followed them with our weapons drawn. It felt just like when I entered one of my imagined dungeons, but darker. The thick leafy branches overhead were blocking every inch of sunlight and the humid ground beneath our feet kept us from sitting down to take a break. The forest smelled like nature and rot. Two hours and a few light scratches later, we all grouped up for the mission. ¡°The camp is up ahead,¡± said Arthur. ¡°Everyone sticks together, no one dies. Understand? Good... Let¡¯s put an end to these heathens! ON ME!¡± Our whole party began to charge, our heavy armor making a low rumble on the field. The bandits had made camp in an open area, something very convenient for our charge. By the time we had reached the first tents, they had just finished organizing themselves for our attack. The camp contained about a hundred bandits, all with terrible equipment and even worse training. We mowed them down, completely slaughtering them. My blade tore at throats, sliced arteries and would sometimes even cut a bandit in half at the waist. I was merciless, mostly because I''d learned that these bandits were monsters in the literal sense as well as the societal one. This ''northern forest'' was a massive collection of dungeons. These bandits had generated memories and feelings, but as much as I sympathized with them, they regularly led raids on villages outside the forest. My kill count escalated quickly from these fodder monsters, but I was aching to get myself some more EXP. I kept tabs on the battle, intent on spotting some kind of leader or boss monster. I somehow finally noticed the huge towering man swinging his greataxe on the other side of the camp. He chopped wildly at two other Heroes as he voiced deep guttural noises. His skin was glowing red as if he was in a bloodrage and his long beard was matted with dirt and dried blood. The Heroes fighting him weren¡¯t able to scratch him. I got into position and shot two ice shards at his eyes. The man¡¯s instincts seemed to kick in. He blocked both shards with his greataxe, using it as a shield to protect his entire face all at once. ¡°Not half-bad¡­¡± the man said as he turned towards me. Maybe I should have put more thought into my strategy¡­ I created another ice shard using the rest of my mana, but I didn¡¯t send it right away. I ran towards the man, taunting him in the process. His anger rose even higher and he charged at me like a bull. As we neared striking distance, he lifted his axe to cut me in half and I brought my sword up to parry it. In one simple move, my blade was shattered and my health was dropped to half. However, the giant of a man was faring much worse. He dropped like a boulder, his right eye streaming blood. My shard had hit him right when he had hit me, but in a much deadlier location. Goblin skulls and human skulls must have a different structure, because despite this man¡¯s much higher strength than the goblin boss, he was dead in an instant. My sword broken and my mana depleted, I was defenseless. I bent over and picked up the monster¡¯s axe. Gras¡¯ Axe The bloodthirsty axe of Gras, a giant and cruel bandit leader. Bloodrage: Drains the wielder¡¯s health to increase their strength. Toggle: +20% strength, -5 HP/sec. Damage: 29 Requirements: 16 strength Gras¡¯ Axe had a toggleable ability, unlike the Ring of Greed that only had a description. I could exchange 5 HP per second to have a 20% bonus to my strength stat. Maybe that¡¯s why Gras went down with a single hit. His health was already at a critical level.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. A stray thought flashed through my mind. Could this mean I could edit the item¡¯s effect? Quickly stepping out of the fighting, I deleted Storage from my fourth simulation and created the axe instead. Simulate has grown to Lv.5! When I concentrated on the axe, a simulated me materialized to wield it. I tested the balance of the weapon before swinging it in a massive arc. Activating Bloodrage, the fake me turned a shade of scarlet. I began unleashing harder and faster blows under the effect that drove me. I could somehow tell that my HP was dropping rapidly. Before I noticed, I started tweaking things. The red hue from my skin was gone. It was useless and it looked weird in the first place. I also nerfed Bloodrage in an attempt to find an optimal middle ground. Bloodrage: Drains the wielder¡¯s health to increase their strength. Toggle: +0% strength, 0 HP/sec. Holy shit... I was able to nullify the effect entirely. Regardless of the obvious non-existent use of a +0% strength bonus, this test opened the door to ever-increasing opportunities. Empower: Increases the wielder¡¯s strength. Toggle: +20% strength, -5 MP/sec. Empower seemed a lot more useful to me than Bloodrage, and it was starting to demonstrate just how far Ability could take me. I briefly wondered how Ability would be like if it ever leveled up. Health Regeneration for Intelligence: Weakens the wielder¡¯s intelligence to increase their health regeneration. Toggle: -100% intelligence, +25 HP/sec. I was reluctant about reducing my intelligence stat. Would it affect my actual thinking? If I activated the effect as it was, would I become a vegetable that couldn¡¯t turn it back off again? The same could also be asked about strength. My total health had always been ten times my strength. If I ended up with zero strength, would I die instantly? I¡¯d have to be careful in the future. I discovered a few more things: Health Regeneration for Mana: Weakens the wielder¡¯s mana to increase their health regeneration. Toggle: -100% MP, +10 HP/sec. Trading all of my mana was a lot weaker than all of my intelligence. Mana was only one of the many effects of intelligence and was thus worth a lot less, it seemed. This brought forth another question: could I increase a stat that was ¡°hidden¡±? Defense for Mana: Weakens the wielder¡¯s mana to increase their defense. Toggle: -100% MP, +10 defense. The label that showed the price in mana changed to red and indicated an infinity symbol. I also tried with the speed attribute since I remembered agility increased it as well, but it didn¡¯t work either. Hypothesis: it was either impossible to change these attributes, they didn¡¯t exist, or I wasn¡¯t powerful enough to do it yet. Meditation: Weakens the wielder¡¯s agility to increase their mana regeneration. Toggle: -100% agility, +25 MP/sec. I decided to stick with this last one. I could turn it on and off at will, and even during fights, Feya could keep me alive when I wouldn''t be moving. It would only take a dozen seconds to fully replenish my mana anyway. The battle against the bandits was over by the time I snapped back to reality. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Feya asked as she approached. ¡°You seemed out of it after your sword shattered...¡± ¡°I¡¯m okay. Look: I got this humungus axe to replace it.¡± Feya eyed my new weapon. "That is one big axe." ¡°Thanks.¡± I sent the axe to Storage. A healer dressed in a green robe went around and made sure everyone was healthy. We hadn¡¯t lost anyone due to the level difference between us and the bandits, who were at most level 4. Even our weakest hero was level 6. It also helped that we had a very powerful AOE healer in our midst (Feya). Thinking about levels, many dings had been heard over the course of the battle. Status. Cade''s Status Level 16 Human Male EXP: 335 / 1280 Titles: Chosen of Lorea Class: Gamemaster Coins: 1149 Stat Points: 6 HP: 160/160 MP: 190/190 Strength: 16 Intelligence: 18 + 1 Agility: 5 Abilities: Simulate Lv.5 Storage Lv.1 Ability Lv.1 Ice Shard Lv.4 Looking over my stats, I decided to finally put points into agility. I knew the techniques from my simulations made up for the lack of motor coordination in most cases, but I figured that if anything, defense would increase my effective health. At least, in theory. I didn¡¯t know if defense actually existed. Six stat points later, I felt much better... Like I could jump twice as high, run twice as fast and stand on one leg without wavering. Even my breathing was softer and more equalized. Agility was the stat that made itself noticeable when boosted. Then again, many of my discoveries so far had been because of my increased intelligence. I could connect invisible dots about stuff, and now I finally realized the potential of raising it. Maybe agility was a mistake... ¡°Good work, everyone,¡± said Arthur. ¡°Let¡¯s pick these uglies clean and rendezvous back in Ilonya.¡±
The next day, I was a lot more pleasant. ¡°Good mooorning, Feya!¡± I sang. Feya, who was dutifully carrying a pair of buckets across my room, jumped. ¡°Do not scare me like that! You were sleeping so soundly mere seconds ago!¡± I shrugged. ¡°Time waits for no one!¡± ¡°Tell that to the Hero waiting for you in the hall. He just got here, but hurry up and go talk to him.¡± Two minutes later... I paced back and forth in my master bedroom. ¡°I¡¯m in it waist-deep, man¡­¡± Alex said, trembling. ¡°I¡¯m a goner! What do I do?¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying you obtained the Assassin class?¡± I asked. He nodded. ¡°How in the world did that happen?¡± I was astounded. Who knew scaredy-cat Alex had enough life experience to get such an edgy class? ¡°Maybe ¡®cuz I used to do gymnastics?¡± he asked. ¡°Oh... now it makes sense,¡± I answered sarcastically, closing my eyes in resignation. ¡°But if I¡¯m getting this right: a group of highly dangerous assassins is after you?¡± He nodded again. ¡°That¡¯s great! Looks like you¡¯re on your own on this one, Alex.¡± Feya escorted him out the door.