The first meal I had since coming to Dimension Wave was mackerel and herring.
Alto got in contact with the girl who is leveling up her cooking skill and I had her grill some fish for me.
It might seem like I’m bragging since I was the one who caught the fish, but they were big and delicious. I gave the girl 10 herrings as thanks.
Alto was quite happy for the three herrings I gave him for introducing me to the girl.
Perhaps herring is the key to friendship.
“You seem to be well-connected, Alto. Were you a beta tester?”
I recall that they were recruiting for the beta test.
“Nah, I haven’t played the beta at all. In fact, I think they intentionally accepting only a few people for it.”
According to Alto, it seems like they did indeed have a beta version of the game, but there were zero changes for the gold release.
Not only that, but the company didn’t want beta characters to be mixed in new players, so everyone was reset to level 1.
“I see.”
“I heard there was leaked content.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about that too, though I don’t know the details.”
They say a beta tester leaked details about the game on an anonymous textboard, including content protected by the non-disclosure agreement. That’s what I read about at least, though I wasn’t there to witness it in real time.
“What kind of information was leaked?”
“Pretty much everyone in the game knows about it, y’know? It’s basically about how Spirits are way underpowered. As far as I remember, though they can get unlimited skills, their stats are the lowest of all races.”
“… you don’t know?”
“Speaking of which, what race are you playing as? I haven’t seen any like your kind before.”
I take an awkward look at myself.
From time to time, I’m half transparent. That’s one of the traits of Spirits.
“The exact Spirit we’re talking about. They seem pretty unusual, but I just learned that they’re not really strong.”
“Oh, that’s it. So? What’s it like?”
“Ehh. I’ve only been fishing up ‘til now, so I haven’t run into any difficulties so far.”
Since my status and Energy are one and the same, any slight mistake might put my life into jeopardy. If you think about it that way, you could say it’s pretty weak.
It seems pretty well-suited for me if I’m just fishing or crafting in town, seeing how I don’t have to do anything to get more Energy or Mana.
Well, I guess Dimension Wave focuses more on the combat aspects though.
“I see. Let me know if Spirits are easy to use. I don’t think many people are playing as one because of the leaks.”
“Yeah, if I feel like it.”
“Alrighty then, I’m gonna head off. Contact me if you have anything you want to trade with me, okay?”
“Aye, aye.”
I respond to his wave with my own.
After taking a bow, Alto sets off to find his next customer.
“Whew…”
I heave a sigh before opening my inventory to look at the fishing rod that I had Alto’s acquaintance make for me.
Wooden Rod +2.
It’s made from a flexible stick, silk line, and a copper fishhook.
All of these things are from different places, so Alto must have run around quite a bit.
Though Alto says the +2 was merely incidental, I don’t think that’s the case.
It’s probably more to do with the crafter’s skill and the quality of materials.
When he showed me the stick, line, and hook, it already seemed like they were of nice quality, so I think I’m right.
It also costed me 700 serin, but it seems like it’d perform a lot better than the 600 serin Shoddy Rod.
And since it was specially made for me, I’ll be extra careful not to let it get stolen away this time.
Oh, isn’t it about time my Energy ticked up?
Name/ Kizuna†Exceed
Race/ Spirit
Energy/ 1,320
Mana/ 60
Serin/ 2,000
Skills/ Energy Production II, Mana Production II
Energy Production II → Energy Production III
Generates 200 Energy per hour → Generates 400 Energy per hour
Costs 50 Mana to upgrade
I’ve got enough Mana now, so I’ll upgrade my Energy Production to rank III.
Give it another two hours, and I’ll take Fishing Mastery too.
“I’ve got an upgraded skill and rod plus a full stomach. Time for round two, I think… oh!”
A light bulb came on above my head.
I know it’s an old cliché, but in any case, it’s a bright idea.
—The fish at night will probably be different than the ones at noon, right?
If I get pangs of hunger, then surely, I’ll get sleepy too.
I can’t risk falling asleep while fishing.
At the very least, I’ll take a cat nap at an inn.
After deciding on that, I decided to report to my sisters.
I select “Chat” from my menu.
Now that I think about it, I haven’t added them as friends yet.
I type in “Tsumugi†Exceed” and send them a chat.
The game plays a dial tone like a telephone would.
I have a feeling this is why Tsumugi mistook the chat to be a phone call before.
“Big Bro Kizuna? What’s up?”
“Oh, I was just about to hit the sack. Figured I’d give you a call first.”
“What, already? Isn’t it a little early?”
“Nah, I was hoping to see if there’s a different between the fish during day and at night.”
“Is that right? Okie dokie. I’ll let Big Sis know for you too then.”
“’preciate it. How are things over at your end?”
“ Mm, just fighting like normal.”
“Hey… you alright?”
“Ahaha. I’m being surrounded by five of them.”
“Concentrate!”
Jeez!
I figuratively slam the receiver down.
She’d do that too when we game together. We’d play an FPS together and she’d be chatting with Kanata.
I’m in the game too, you know? I kept it to myself, but it ticked me off.
What’s worse is that she’d top the scoreboard with the highest kill/death ratio.
Thinking about it again, it was Tsumugi who got our pa.s.ses for Dimension Wave. Being surrounded by five of anything would likely be nothing to her.
… I’m still not happy about it, but whatever. Time to look for an inn.
I open up the map from the menu.
There’s a few places marked with “ZZZ” here in town.
I take a look at which of the five seem good.
Well, this is a game after all, so there’s probably not a huge difference, but the prices differ.
In the end, I chose the one in the middle of the pack that’s neither cheap nor expensive.
“—That will be 150 serin for one night’s stay,” says the lady who is seemingly the innkeeper.
I feel like I’ve heard her voice actress before somewhere.
Handing over 150 serin rewarded me with a key. I head towards my room.
It seems like you get to use the room for a full 24 hours too. That means I can catch some sleep and go shopping afterwards. I feel like I’m here on vacation.
In any case, I look around the inn.
Looks like I’m the only one here. Well, today being the first day, it’d be rare for anyone to head to bed to early.
Out of the five, this one seemed the most average. The walls in the cheapest inn were chipped and cracked. Why would anyone choose that, I wonder.
“This is it.”
I arrive at room 101—the same number marked on the key—and unlock the door.
It’s a normal room.
It’s quite a bit smaller than hotels in real life.
I take a seat on the bed. It’s as soft as the bed in my room.
To put it mildly, it’s not nearly plush enough to be a hotel bed.
Well, it was only 150 serin to stay here.
“… let’s get some shut eye for now.”
I don’t feel right sleeping in my clothes and shoes.
I put my shoes aside and take my clothes off.
What was left was a little girl in her underwear.
—
———
—————
‘Well, nothing wrong with taking more off,’ the demon on my shoulder suggests.
Just to sate my curiosity, I tried to take my underwear off but to no avail. Well, the game’s not rated R after all, so there’s no way I can do anything lewd.
”Tsk.”
I half-jokingly click my tongue because it’s not like I actually wanted to do anything. It doesn’t really matter anyway and so I lie down as I had originally intended to. I pull up the blanket—again, just as warm as the one in my room—and closed my eyes.
I fall asleep right away as if I had taken sleeping pills.
Perhaps they designed the game so that it’d be easy to fall asleep.
I’d be quite happy if it were this easy in real life.
My thoughts start drifting, and before I realized, my consciousness had drifted away too.
: // // // // /ch004/ /next/