Dream Life Volume 1 Chapter 1 Part1

I thought absentmindedly about why I was Akira's room. Akira was a friend of mine when I was in middle school.

Where am I? . . . ah, this room feels quite nostalgic. Isn't this . . . Akira's room? Why am I here?

There wasn't anyone else in the room besides me.

The manual for a TRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) and a pair of ten-sided dice lay upon the kotatsu in the room.

Ten-sided dice huh. How nostalgic . . . wait a second, "Tunnels & Dragons"? "T&D"? Isn’t this outright plagiarism?

I couldn't help but smile at the t.i.tle that combined two famous TRPGs (TL: Tunnels & Trolls is combined with Dungeons & Dragons).

Suddenly, I heard Akira's voice.

"Hey, Yatarou. Hurry up and make your character. You're the only one left."

I looked around but still couldn't see anyone. Without particularly minding it, I reply.

"Sorry. I still haven't read the game manual yet, give me some more time."

"I guess it can't be helped then. Make it quick."

I opened T&D's manual and glanced through it. As I read it, I realized that T&D wasn’t very different from the TRPGs I'm familiar with. I quickly skipped over the trivial parts and focused my attention on the important information.

Hmm. First, my race needs to be chosen. After that, I have to configure my status by allocating Character Points (CPs). CPs are used to acquire skills and strengthen the status. I’ll also be configuring my initial starting environment. This is where my social cla.s.s is going to be decided. There’s quite a variety of outcomes. The possibilities range from being part of the royal family to being a slave. In addition to my social cla.s.s, the prosperity of my family is also going to be determined. Finally, I can also configure the location of my birthplace. It’s possible for me to be born in places like the city or the countryside . . . Wow. It's unexpectedly detailed. Ultimately, all of this is going to be decided by the ten-sided dice huh?

It seemed like the next section was going to explain how the status works.

My ten statuses would be a.s.signed a number ranging from 1 to 100. The numbers were determined by my rolls with the two ten-sided dice. The statuses were: physical strength, reflexes, body manipulation, stamina, magical power, emotional strength, intelligence, dexterity, appearance and charm.

I know what it means by physical strength and reflexes but what the heck is body manipulation? Saying "this status affects the accuracy and success rate of physical movements" isn't really an explanation.

It's also written in the manual that the statuses of NPCs (non-player characters) generally have an average value of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.

Based on the three-sigma rule, having a standard deviation sigma of ten means that there is a 99.7% chance that an NPC’s status value lies in between 20 and 30. Which is basically basically 100% if we use the five-sigma rule. Since everything is randomly decided, it might be possible for me to make an unbalanced character? I could the protagonist of an RPG or something . . .

I suddenly discovered an interesting rule.

It's possible to re-roll the dice when creating my character. However, I can only re-roll once. CPs can be used in combination with the re-rolls. For example, if I roll a number that’s less than the number of CPs of I've used, that number is also re-rolled. The point is that I can eliminate unfavorable options by spending CPs. If I spend 30 CPs and end up rolling a number less than 30, then that number is invalidated and I can roll again. I see.

Having understood the rule, I pick up the ten-sided dice. It’s been a long time since I’ve even touched a die. The cold plastic surface causes me to remember the past.

How nostalgic. Ten-sided dice usually roll pretty well, if I remember correctly. Let’s turn the side with the zero up like usual . . .

Holding the dice with the zero facing up was a peculiar habit of mine.

I felt a bit amused by the fact that I still haven't forgotten that habit. It was time for my race to be chosen.

The six races consisted of the draconians, demons, elves, dwarves, beastmen and humans. I could choose from any of those six by allocating CPs into one of them. However, I chose not to allocate any. Therefore, this was going to be a completely random selection.

Other than the human race, I was fine with all of them. There was some anxiety since this was my first toss.

I stiffly toss the dice and watched as they fell onto the tabletop of the kotatsu.

They lightly roll around for a while on the tabletop and finally come to a stop. Based on the number combination in the manual, the human race has been chosen.

I'll be setting my status next. However, since I didn’t care about my race, I didn’t roll for my CPs yet. Now’s a good time for to roll for it. The value is calculated by rolling one ten-sided die three times and then multiplying the three numbers of each roll. That basically means that the resulting value can range from 1 all the way to 1000.

Three typical tosses would probably give a value between 100 and 200. For this, it would be better for me to re-roll if I get a low number. Having a lot of CPs allows me to have more options when improving my status and choosing skills. I could also spend the points on configuring my starting environment.

I rolled the single ten-sided die.

The result of the first toss is a "9". I clench my fist in a guts pose and a.s.sumed that this was a good sign.

The result of the second toss is a "10". With this, I'm guaranteed at least 90 CPs. It's finally time for the decisive third toss. I softly shouted, "Go!" and rolled the die.

The number shown by the ten-sided die was a "2".

Eh? Two? . . . well, whatever. Let's roll again. There's a 10% chance the next number will be lower than two and an 80% chance it will be greater than two. The reward definitely exceeds the risk here . . .

I rejected the number from the third toss and decided to roll again. Once again, I carefully tossed the die.

The ten-sided die rolled while softly clicking and clacking and then stopped after a few seconds.

The number that appeared was a "9", causing me to once again display a guts pose no one could see.

Let's go! Multiplying 9, 10, and 9 gives me 810 points. Even if my status turns out to be too low I would still be able to recover. Sorry everyone, let me have this cheat character. Fufufu . . .

I gaze at my number while snickering.

Akira suddenly urges me, "Hurry up. You're so slow."

"Oops, sorry for getting carried away."

Feeling slightly fl.u.s.tered, I return back to configuring my status.

I decided to set my statuses in the order displayed on the manual, starting with physical strength.

The dice were tossed with my usual fighting spirit and the results were: Physical Strength: 35, Reflexes: 82, Body Manipulation: 83, Stamina: 20, Magical Power: 96, Emotional Strength: 41, Intelligence: 99, Dexterity: 45, Appearance: 87 and Charm: 81.

Those values are good enough. Based on these values, my character is definitely a mage. I do get the feeling that I will need to leave the physical labor to other people though.

Feeling satisfied with my status, I shift my attention to the manual's section on the acquisition of skills.

According to its explanation, skills can be granted to my character by spending my CPs on "abilities" or "special abilities".

These abilities can be related to things like martial arts, magic, or craftsmanship and are ingrained in you the moment you're born. Well, while it's true that these abilities are pre-acquired, it's not like you can use them immediately. Diligent studying, practicing, and training are required before you can reach the point of being able to use your abilities.

As for the other one, the special abilities, they comprise of things like st.u.r.diness, illness resistance, and poison resistance. In addition to these basic special abilities, there were the harder to understand ones like "Memories from a Previous Life" and "Reference", which seems similar to a help function – they were certainly worthy of being called "special abilities".

For the martial arts abilities alone, there are already more than ten. As for the magic abilities, there seems to be eight attributes. Huh, it's cheaper if I acquire all eight attributes at once instead of acquiring them individually. With eight-hundred and ten CPs, I should be able to acquire as many as I want . . . right? Oh, and what's this? Abilities have levels? In regards to the levels of abilities, I would be the best in a village at level 1, the best in a town at level 2, a master at level 3, a prodigy at level 4, and a prodigy that appears once every one hundred years at level 5. How hard to understand. Oh, there's another a.n.a.logy written here. Using baseball as an example, at level 1, I would be a star among casual baseball players, at level 2, I would be qualified to compete at Koshien stadium, at level 3, I would be cla.s.sified as a second-string pro, at level 4, I would be a first-cla.s.s professional athlete, and at level 5, I could play in a MLB stadium . . . maybe I could speed up the leveling up of my skills by raising the levels of my abilities . . . if I wanted to become an expert at a skill then aiming for level 3 or higher would be fine. For normal use however, level 1 should be more than good enough.

In order to fully make use of the way my status values had been distributed, I decided to allocate a large portion of my points towards magic-related abilities.

I also acquired as many body-strengthening abilities as possible and then selected several martial arts skills to make sure I would be able to defend myself.

Here are the abilities I've acquired so far,

Martial Arts Abilities: Swordsmanship 3, Hand-to-Hand Combat 1, Evasion 5

Magic Abilities: All Magic Ability Attributes Acquired, Improvement of Magic Efficiency, Magic Defense

Craftsmanship Abilities: None

Other Abilities: Taijutsu 3, Horse-riding 1, Taming 1, Negotiation 1, Awareness 3, Stealth 3, Traps 2

Special Abilities: St.u.r.diness, Illness Resistance, Poison Resistance, Mental Fortification, Sight Enhancement, Berzerker, Memories from a Previous Life, Reference

Even after acquiring all those skills I still had 570 CPs left.

I had decided upon an Evasion level of 5 because I wanted to have the experience of splendidly launching magic while evading. Like the type of character that says, "It doesn't really matter as long as I don't get hit" . . . well, now that I've finished selecting the necessary skills, it's time to configure my starting environment. Looks like the first thing I need to decide is my social status.

The social status ranges from the royal family to slavery – in order of priority, rolling more than 70 means that I will be part of the ruling cla.s.s, with knights being the lowest ruling cla.s.s, rolling more than 40 means that I will be part of the merchant cla.s.s, rolling more than 15 means that I'll become a farmer and join the working cla.s.s, and finally, rolling less than 5 will turn me into a slave.

There's no way I'm going to be born a slave. Since I want to allocate my CPs into my status, I'm fine with any of the cla.s.ses as long as it's not the slave cla.s.s. After this, I have to balance between my family lineage and my living environment. Even if I become a farmer, growing up won't be a problem as long as my living environment is configured properly beforehand. The only thing I need to worry about is avoiding the slave cla.s.s. Nevertheless, the probability of getting less than five is 1/20. Spending CPs here feels sort of wasteful. Well, the insurance doesn't cost much.

Spending a mere five CPs would guarantee that the all results below five would be invalidated.

I roll the two dice and get a "0" and "3". If I hadn't spent those five CPs then I would have been a slave now.

I roll the dice again with a bit more resolve and get "71", becoming part of the knights who are at the bottom of the ruling cla.s.s.

"Whoo, this is great! I'm going to be born in a knight family. Wouldn't it be difficult for me to be a mage in a family of knights though? Maybe I should look over those martial arts abilities again later.

Next, I'll be deciding my family's circ.u.mstances.

It's possible for the family to be either prospering or declining. In order to avoid being born into a household that has completely fallen, I used up 30 of my CPs to make sure the result would be above the minimum 30. However, the resulting outcome somehow turned out to be "38", in other words, there will be "signs of decline".

I used up 30 CPs and yet the result is only 38? What a loss. Maybe I should view the decline of my knight family as being part of the character's backstory? For the sake of rebuilding my declining household , I become an adventurer – a backstory like that seems possible.

I was thinking such things in a relaxed manner.

Choosing my birthplace was a similar process – the options ranged from capital cities to unexplored wilderness. I didn't use any of my CPs for this. The result was the "frontier".

A gradually declining knight family located on the frontier. A protagonist who goes on a journey in search of fame and wealth . . . it's a perfect backstory isn't it?

Having determined my birthplace, there were 205 CPs remaining.

Should I divide these points into my status? Maybe I should get some more abilities . . . hm, isn't this a good time for me look over those martial arts abilities again?

I raised Swordsmanship to level 3 and acquired both Throwing and Shield Defense at level 1. In addition to those, I added a special ability named Combat Magic, allowing me to fight with magic.

Now there's 140 points left. Should I use it to raise my status . . .

I read through the manual one more time.

According to the manual's explanation on abilities and the acquisition of skills, to acquire skills I have to train my abilities until I reach a mature age (in this case, 15 years old).

In addition, I should have a good home environment (a wealthy family would be able to afford a tutor) and also evaluate the effectiveness of my training when attempting to acquire a skill.

My childhood training is successful as long as my Emotional Strength status value is not exceeded. The number of times I carry out training in a year is limited to my Stamina status value.

. . . . In other words, the speed at which I acquire my skills depends on my will and endurance during childhood training? . . . The guy with a strong body and a strong will usually follows through with his training. It strangely reeks of reality . . . both of my Stamina and Emotional Strength statuses are so low. I will have to raise it . . .

First, I raised my Stamina from 20 to 80, and then also increased Emotional Strength from 41 to 80.

For the rest of them, I improved my weak points and evened out my strong points. Since I have a lot of abilities, my remaining CPs were quickly exhausted to raise my status even further.

Physical Strength changed from 35 to 50, Reflexes changed from 82 to 90, Body Manipulation changed from 83 to 90, Magical Power changed from 96 to 100, Intelligence changed from 99 to 100, Dexterity changed from 45 to 50, and Charm changed from 81 to 82.

In other words, my final status became: Physical Strength: 50, Reflexes: 90, Body Manipulation: 90, Stamina: 80, Magical Power: 100, Emotional Strength: 80, Intelligence: 100, Dexterity: 50, Appearance: 87, and Charm: 82.

Here are the abilities I've acquired so far,

Martial Arts Abilities: Swordsmanship 3, Hand-to-Hand Combat 1, Throwing 1, Shield Defense 1, Evasion 5

Magic Abilities: All Magic Ability Attributes Acquired, Improvement of Magic Efficiency, Magic Defense

Craftsmanship Abilities: None

Other Abilities: Taijutsu 3, Horse-riding 1, Taming 1, Negotiation 1, Awareness 3, Stealth 3, Traps 2

Special Abilities: St.u.r.diness, Illness Resistance, Poison Resistance, Mental Fortification, Sight Enhancement, Berzerker, Memories from a Previous Life, Reference, Combat Magic

Having exhausted all of my CPs, I confirm my status one more time.

Fufufu . . . the average value of my status is 80. Based on the five-sigma sule, for two standard deviations or 95% of the time, only one out of ten thousand people would have this status. Similarly, for six standard deviations or 99.7% of the time, only one out of a thousand people would have this status. It doesn't have any statuses below the average value of 50. Kukuku, this is definitely a cheat. Since it has so many abilities, this is a character that's definitely worth playing.

Right when I try to tell Akira I'm finished, I suddenly collapse face down onto the tabletop of the kotatsu. My consciousness becomes muddled once again.