1-2. Written as Dream of Man, Read as Fleeting

 

Hello there, it's Suzuki here.
Just a low profile man who, for some reason, was often called Satou in his school days.

It's said that you cannot feel pain in your dreams, but there are dreams where you can feel the sign of [Pain], like in a dream about tooth cavity, aren't there.

Not at all?

Well, it doesn't really matter either way.



◇



Apparently two hours have passed since the intense pain assaulted me right after I got swept in a dust of cloud from the Meteor Shower's impact.
Time is displayed permanently on the Menu. Quite convenient.

I attempt to raise my body that has been buried in soil.

Huh? I can't get up...

It's like when you can't get up from bed in the morning in winter.
I can move my hands, but it's so heavy even operating Menu feels tiresome.

If only I had ESP, I could operate the Menu and check the Log with it.

Having nothing to lose, I tried to imagine fiddling the Menu with my finger, it worked. As expected of a dream. It's so loose at the weirdest part.

Looking at the Log using it, it's filled to the brim with [Satou has leveled up] messages like some kind of prank. I scroll back the Log while playing the famous level up sound in my head, [Charararacchara~].

After a while, I finally found different messages on the Log.

＞Skill 『Summonning Magic: Otherworld』 Acquired
>Summoning Magic 『Meteor Shower』 Acquired

So, I guess 『Meteor Shower』 is a magic to summon meteors huh.
This magic doesn't exist in FFW tho'. Only spirits and golems are available for summoning there. The chuuni-sounding words behind it is curious. [Otherworld] doesn't exist in either FFW nor WW. No point in thinking too hard about a dream, I'll just ignore it.

The [has leveled up] messages continued after these messages.
There's no mistake about the ordering since these messages have time stamps on them. The order is, [Skill Acquired], [Magic that belongs to the Skill Acquired], and [Level Ups].

Which means, this is a type of RPG that doesn't give you skills or magic on level ups!

"No no, what am I even doing analyzing a dream..."
Looks like the habit from my gamer days had resurfaced.

But there's no point in getting embarrassed inside a dream either, so I continue the analysis.
After all, my real body should be getting its well deserved rest even while I'm doing this!

I decided to exit the Log and checked on Magic and Skill tabs.

"But before that."

I open [Setting], and make the Log to be always displayed.
Switching to it all the time would get old fast.

There's two magic on the tab, [Meteor Shower] and [Explore Entire Map].
As for skills, it's [Summoning Magic: Otherworld] and [Force Magic: Otherworld].

Looks like [Explore Entire Map] is in Force Magic category.

So, magic and skills that you have used get registered here.
But I can't use one if I don't learn one, using the summoning bonus like in this particular case is irregular. I would have refused this specification on the spot if I were the programmer in charge.

My Status has changed considerably. I mean, my level went from 1 straight to 310. I'm sure we've put the level limit on server side to 50 on FFW. The test server used for development has no level limit though, perhaps that affects my memories.

I'm not going to count how many 9 are there on the exp value, the numbers are just astronomical. Wish they'd put comma on every three digits. I should propose the idea on the next update.

Attributes like Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT) and stuff are maxed out at 99. In FFW, our client instructed us to limit the displayed numbers of these attributes to 99 at most, but in actuality these numbers have no upper limit. I hear that they plan to gradually revise the displayed numbers as the level limit gets released... Which means these values are even higher in reality?

Health (HP), MP (magic point), and stamina (SP) are all 3100 each. These values increase by 10 on every level up, it seems. Variations come from many kinds of skills that reduce consumption and such.
According to the planner, it's cause balancing them would be annoying were the growth rates not constant.

And my skill points are now 3100.
Guess I can allot the points now since I've learned some new skills?

Looking at the Skill column, the two skills earlier are grayed out. I try tapping on the [Force Magic: Otherworld Lv0]. Tapping on the Lv gave me, [Please Allot Skill Points 1-10], so I tried to put 10 just because.
The text changed to white, [Force Magic: Otherworld Lv10], with no particular sound effect. Skill points: 3090 remaining. Skills consumes 1 point for every level huh. Easy to understand. Tapping the skill again only showed, [Max Level].

Looking at the Magic column, [Explore Entire Map] text has turned white, while [Meteor Shower] is still grayed out.
Apparently, you need to allot skill points to raise a particular skill level before you can use the magic associated to it. I allotted 10 points to [Summoning Magic: Otherworld Lv0] as well.

There's so many new things on the Title column.
First of all, [Monster Slayer]. Yep, I get this one. Then there's [Scalekin Slayer], [Scalekin's Calamity], [Scalekin's Natural Enemy], dunno what these scalekin are, maybe lizard-like demi-humans or monsters. Next there's [Wyvern Slayer], [Dragon Slayer [Lesser]], [Dragon Slayer [Infant Dragon]], [Dragon Slayer [Adult Dragon]], [Dragon Slayer [Ancient Dragon]], and other [Dragon Slayers] with other specific types inside the [].

Welp, no wonder my level went up to 300s, with so many dragons slain like this. I mean the Map was filled to to the brim with their markers before the Meteor Shower.
And the last set of titles are just like with the scalekin, ending with [Dragonkind's Natural Enemy] and lastly, [God Slayer].

Doyoubelieveingod?

"Hold on, when did I kill that?"
I tap on the search bar of the Log at the tip, and search for [God].

>Defeated Dragon God Akon-Kagura!

There it is, the cause of God Slayer. I see, Meteor Shower could slay even gods huh.
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka .com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>
I see, I killed one huh...

Two remaining, this god-slaying attack!!

No no wait, why would I do that.
But since the Log does not show damage numbers, I have no clue just how strong it is. In both FFW and WW, damage numbers should always be shown even if it's an instant kill hit... Guess no point in asking for authenticity in dreams huh.

I stand up as I'm feeling a bit better now.

I don't want to click on it by mistake and become an enemy of mankind, thus I turn OFF the [Meteor Shower] icon on the Basic Display on [Setting].

Oh right, there's new things on Magic column.
Switching to Magic tab, I see [Meteor Shower] and [Explore Entire Map] displayed. Well now, how do I use these. Is just tapping them suffice?

I tried tapping lightly on [Explore Entire Map] but I don't see anything different.

Checking on Log, I see [Performed Magic: Explore Entire Map] displayed. Looking at Status, my MP has decreased to 3090. Looks like the spell consumed 10 MP. It's annoying to switch tabs all the time, so I also add HP/MP bars on the basic display.

Nothing else but me displayed on the Radar.
It's cool that this means no enemy, but when I think that this is an aftermath of a massacre, I can't really laugh even in a dream. No wait, this is normal in games huh.

It should be OK since there's no potential victim anyway, right? I slowly tap on [Meteor Shower]. It feels like blood is getting rapidly sucked out of my body. The MP bar in the edge of my vision is decreasing fast. It stopped right when it had decreased by 1000 points.
I didn't get this sensation when I used it the first time earlier, that one probably didn't consume my MP.

I look up into the sky. No falling meteorites in view yet. Considering the time lag earlier, it should be about time now.
And then clouds are torn apart as a group of meteorites fall down.

Huge. What the heck are those things.

The falling Meteor Shower are almost 100 times bigger than the ones earlier.

I instinctively ran out before my brain could process it.
Of course, to the opposite side of the impact point!

While consecutive sounds of explosion from the meteorites or rather ludicrously gigantic masses hitting the earth are resounding behind me, I earnestly moved my legs.

The air resistance is strong, like I'm running in water. Usually my body would feel heavy running in dreams, or is it just me?

Eventually I turn around at a cliff that looks like a smallish table-like ground like I'm rolling. By smallish I mean a cliff with around 100 meter in radius, should be enough as a cover.
Right as I found myself a shelter, a tsunami-like cloud of dust swept over. I feel chills down my spine when I see rocks the size of a person roll inside the dust cloud at times.

Wonder how long has passed. Once the dust cloud has stopped to a degree, I decide to climb to the top of the cliff and look at the impact point.
The slope is quite steep, but it has a lot of footholds, I should reach this 50cm difference in levels with a light jump.

Poon. While feeling like I could almost hear such sound effect, I leaped about 5 meter above the ground.
And landed on a rocky protrusion while almost going into a panic.

"These status boosts are bonkers~"

Feeling relieved, I talked to myself to deceive my trembling body.

"Wonder if those huge meteorites earlier are thanks to the boost from INT and level~"

I got to the top of the cliff by bouncing on rocky protrusions like a ninja in games and manga. So handy. Even if this is a dream, I sure got quite a high adaptability.

I could see a crumbling mushroom cloud in the distance. That's probably the earth and sand that were sent up high by the meteorites. If this were a real life, it would create health problems from the dust accumulation and crops problem from the decreased sunlight.

"I mean it's a dream and all anyway, no point in mulling over it, I guess."

I think it's bad how this all feels too real.








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