Vol. 1 - Ch. 1 - Going Underground

I landed in the basement after floating in the darkness for a while.

 When I woke up, I found myself standing in a dimly lit passage.

"Ohhh.....It stinks." I couldn't help but yell as soon as the stench assaulted my nostrils and my loud screams echoed through the walls of the reasonably narrow passage.

'Anyway, where am I? Is this the sewer?'

I checked the map and found out that I was in the city of Firth.

 I wondered if I had been rude for ending up in a place like this. I had no choice but to accept it.

 In a virtual reality (VR) game with a simulated alien world, it's normal that you get into surprisingly unreasonable situations, and you just have to make the best out of it.

'... there's no point in whining about it here. Let's move on and explore...'

 ' Wait! Yifa-sama said something to me when we parted? Was it some spell or password? I should try it.'

"Uh, ouch!!!!"

 Whoa! Something just hit me on the back!

 I turned back, and behind me, there was a mouse.

Yes, a mouse that stood on two legs. But it wasn't deformed like those adorable rats in the dreamland. It had a hideous appearance with a small, skinny human head on the body of a giant rat. On its head, there was a black icon representing the demon, a strength bar, and some information written on it. I guess it is because of my skill that I can see it.

Race: Lesser Rat Man Lv5

Occupation: None

Skills: [???]

      [????]

 'Oh, so it is the Lesser Rat Man? And what does [??? ]mean?

I see. You're lacking the level of [Appraisal] too.'

 I see you are very low according to your race's standards, but you also lack the number of ability skills, and you don't even have a job.

 I guess we are equal in overall strength.

"Joooooo!"

 Apparently, the opponent didn't give me enough time to compare our strength.

 The Lesser Rat Man jumped at me like a hungry beast and bit me with his sharp front teeth. It was quicker than I thought it'd be.

"Whoa!"

"Jew"

 I forgot the idea of dodging, and in a desperate attempt, I waved my wand, my initial equipment, to block the attack. The Lesser Rat Man was probably not expecting a counterattack and took a heavy blow to the face like a swing of a baseball bat.

 At that moment, I saw two small stars spinning in a circle above the black icon. I wondered what was going on and checked the effect [Appraisal],

 "Abnormal Condition: Faint (8)."

'Hmm? Is this number decreasing? So is this the remaining time for fainting? Oh then, Let's make him unconscious.'

"Mmm! Yes! Take this, you ugly beast."

"Zzz, zzz, zzz..."

After another blow from my wand, he fell unconscious and couldn't wake up anymore.

You have won a battle.

[Race] level increased. 1SP gained.

[Occupation] level increased. 1SP gained.

[Wand] level increased.

[Appraisal] level increased.

"I won, but..."

 As I listened to the battle log playing, I felt myself drooling. I'm not sure why I'm not happy that I defeated an equally strong opponent, raised my level, and got the SP to get a new ability skill.

  Magic! That's right. I didn't use it! I defeated the Lesser Rat Man by hitting its head with my surprisingly big wand. Luckily, it kept him unconscious.

 Ugh, a sorcerer who can't use magic is like miso soup without miso.

(Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup)

"I can't complain about that, can I? Alright, let's go ahead and explore."

 I shoved one of my initial equipment, a stripping knife, into the corpse of the Lesser Rat Man.

Just as the corpse turned into white particles, two items were added to my storage.

Ratskin Quality: Inferior

Rarity: C

Rat's front teeth Quality: Poor

Rarity: C

  It's hard to understand how much value this item holds. Let's take a look at the official information.

According to the official information, there are six levels of quality: Divine, Superior, Good, Acceptable, Inferior, and Trash. And six levels of rareness: G Divine Class, L Legendary Class, T Treasure Class, S Special Class, R Rare Class, and C Normal Class.

 The items I got are worthless! It's just a bunch of garbage that got no use. It was not worth the trouble.

 'Wait a minute. The first thing I need now is to test Lady Yifa's prophecy. If there's something useful here, it's a sign that she likes me, and if there's something awful, I should think she doesn't like me.

"Watch your step!"

 I chanted the keywords that the goddess had entrusted to me as if I were praying to a god.

Now let's see if the demon comes out or the snake comes out!

It is amazing! Just as I thought, I heard the sound of stones rubbing against each other and the sewer wall moved to reveal a hidden door.

It was like a secret base, and I couldn't contain my excitement even though I knew something magical could happen in this game.

 I have no idea what's on the other side of the door. If I had seen such a suspicious door in real life, I would have pretended that I had never seen it and run away the other way around. But this is a game world, and surprises could be waiting for me. It would be a loss if I didn't go on an adventure.

'Let's go inside! If you don't go into the tiger's den, you won't get the tiger!' I recalled an old saying in my world.

Feeling motivated, I gripped the knob of the door and all of a sudden, I heard a popping sound in my head.

It was a signal for leveling up.

Isam has discovered a hidden area, "The Lab of the Heretic Mage".

100 SP has been awarded as a discovery reward.

[Archeology] The level has been increased.

It looks like I have come to a hidden area, the Heretic Mage's Laboratory.

 And the level of [Archeology] has also increased along with 100 SP.

 But isn't it too easy? I'm a bit cynical to consider this as a real favor. However, this SP seems to have a meaning, and who knows if Yifasama had some plans for me in her AI mind.

 As I opened the door, I found myself in the laboratory of a mysterious sorcerer.

The bookshelves set up through the bare mud walls were packed with what looked like research reports, and in the corner of the room, there were cauldrons and flasks for alchemy and experiments, all lined up in an orderly fashion.

 From the dust piled up on the lab equipment and bookshelves, I guessed that it had been quite a while since anyone had been here. Though, I don't know the exact date at all. This laboratory surely looked like it was abandoned for years.

 The thing that surprised me the most was another connecting door to the sewer. I couldn't help but wonder what was behind it.

'I'll have to go there.'

"Knock, knock."

I knocked on the door, just to be sure.

I should've knocked on the laboratory too, but I had been careless earlier.

 A minute had passed since I knocked, but there was no response. The room seemed unoccupied, so I opened the door.

"Is this some kind of a.... a private room?"

It looked like the previous owner's private room. Judging from the amount of dust accumulated over it was evident that it was abandoned, just like the laboratory.

Wondering what kind of mage lived here, I touched the desk and chair in the private room, which seemed like his bedroom.

The room wasn't so bad, and I could use this place as a base if possible.

'The bed was hard, but it really didn't matter since my body only had bones.'

Do you want to set the hidden area "Heretic Mage's Lab" as a respawn point?

YES/NO

'I guess touching this bed was a criterion for registering it as a respawn point. I'll take that as a yes without hesitation.'

 Now that I have a base for operations, I have no choice but to absorb all of the previous owner's knowledge. I'm sure there will be some magic left behind for a beast like me, the dreaded skeletal sorcerer could use in future.

 'Like a brave hero in an old-school adventure RPG, I'm going to search everything in this place!'

The level of [Appraisal] has increased.

The level of [Linguistics] has increased.

The level of [Archeology] has increased.

I thought of reading some books, but I'm unable to gain wisdom on my own in my current state. It is not a big deal for me since my hobby is reading. It's rather interesting to go through the results of someone else's early experiments, which might be full of failures.

 However, I couldn't find any books on the basics. The books on the shelf are either dubious research reports or technical books, and at my current level, it would be impossible to start an experiment, let alone fail. The bookshelves had plenty of books than I had expected, and they were full of difficult archaic phrases that could skyrocket my levels of "linguistics" and "archeology"

 I moved from the laboratory to my room and laid down on my bed. As I reclined on the hard bed, I remembered that I hadn't checked the drawers of the private desk yet.

I quickly stood up and opened the drawer to find a drawer full of cash and a book. Since I don't need money at the moment, I left it alone.

The book in the drawer also looked very old. It looked more like a journal than a book.

"Is this a diary?"

Apparently, just like I had expected, this was the previous owner's diary.

'If it were me, I wouldn't want someone else to read my diary, but now there is no owner, I guess I can read it.'

"......? It is a..."

 The contents of the diary were all about research. There were no embarrassing poems or fantasies, just things like how well the experiment went that day, how he couldn't figure out something or why it failed, or what he would do tomorrow. Most of the things were just research.

But I found a part in the diary that caught my attention.

 Today, I went to the store to buy groceries for the first time in a while. On the way back, I took a detour and noticed something interesting. It seems that a stairway located two blocks south and three blocks west from my laboratory leads to the library. When I went there to check, I could easily get into the library due to the weak security, and obviously, it was midnight. Well, I don't think any books inside such a remote library would satisfy me.

From the author's point of view, it was a trivial piece of information. But for me, it is the best news of all. I have to break in and find books that might help me in the gameplay.

Well, it's six o'clock in the evening. So, if I log out now, it will be a perfect time to take a break.

In this game, time moved four times faster than in the real world. In other words, one hour, in reality, is equal to four hours in this game.

I'll take an hour and a half break to hydrate, use the restroom, and then come back.

What the heck? Tomorrow is my day off, so I will take my time and enjoy this game.

Name: Isam

Race: Moving Skeleton Lv1 up!

Occupation: Apprentice Magician Lv1 up!

Ability Skill: SP 102 remaining

   [Wand] Lv1 up!

   [Dark Magic] Lv0

   [Archeology] Lv5 up!

   [Linguistics] Lv3 up!

   [Alchemy] Lv0!

   [Appraisal] (Lv3 up!)

   [Night Vision] (Lv0)

   [Vulnerable to Blows] (Lv10)

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