MANA CAPACITY AT MAXIMUM. RESTORING CONSCIOUSNESS.

  The sound of some nobleman droning on to the king and queen was the first thing I heard as I felt myself ‘wake up’. I had the object equivalent of a headache, but after examining my body, I realized that I was fine. My legs were gone, my lid was propped against the wall, and I could see and hear again. I had survived my first outing!

  Back in my usual position, the king and queen were currently being bored to tears by a short merchant noble giving reports on minor region accounting. Prince Edvald was literally falling asleep from his place behind his father, and Boshe was actually slumped in his chair, reading a book. The merchant had the tenacity of a bulldog, though, and he never let up, going over fractions of percentages that no one but him cared about. There were two more faces sitting in smaller chairs along the wall—Athella and Princess Evelinda. That was a particularly strange sight, since Vivi never came to these sorts of meetings if she could help it.

  Vivi’s face shocked something in me, and I remembered my previous adventure in full detail. I had been caught! We had communicated, sort of! But instead of being in a royal alchemist lab being dissected or at the bottom of the ocean, I was here in the throne room, in my normal post, as if nothing had happened. Which meant she and Athella had not only moved me back, they hadn’t told anyone. My cover wasn’t completely blown!

  As I celebrated being unharmed and inconspicuous once again, I noticed that Vivi was giving me subtle looks when she thought no one would notice. With a charisma stat of ‘5’, that could only mean one thing—she had questions and I had answers, and she needed everyone out to start. Well, now that I had a way to speak to her, I was more than happy to help. Only… I had told her that I was here to save her kingdom. Oops.

  While the merchant continued his relentless presentation, I had a moment to really think to myself. What was I here to do? Well, the Mother from the place after death had insisted I could prove myself. The Father was sure I couldn’t. So, what did I want? Was it to save the royal family and the people of the Nation of Aeternia from Duke Berith and his demonic horde?

  Not really. Not that I had anything against these people, but I already knew how this story went. Berith was coming in about five years, if everything went according to canon. Me being here might screw that up, but still. Duke Berith was appealing with an army of the worst sons of Hell he could summon, and then he was going to raze this kingdom to the ground. It would take Tomoe to stop him—and only then ten years after the kingdom was destroyed. Plus, in Crown/Final Decree, Tomoe was like King Arthur, Hercules, and Athena rolled into one. Daughter of an angel and a prince of hell, wielder of a sacred blade, host to an eternal spirit, inheritor of ancient magic—you know, the full chosen one works.

  I was a trashcan.

  Sure, now I was a slightly more mobile trashcan, and yeah, I had a few tricks up my metaphorical sleeve, but still. I ate trash and sat in one place. I would probably struggle with an army of particularly large rodents, and an army of demons? Forget it.

  But… I had told her that it was my purpose. That meant that right now, the play was to get her to believe me while I cultivated enough stats and abilities to run from Aeternia and never look back. Not very chivalrous, I admit, but a good plan for survival. I could work on proving myself once I didn’t have the barrel of a demonic gun staring me down.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  ‘Hey Void, how long have I been asleep?’ I figured I would be here a while and wanted to take the time to really talk to Void. It was occurring to me that I wasn’t going to suddenly become the overpowered hero like the light novel protagonists. I was going to need every advantage I could, and that started with talking to the voice in my head.

  APPROXIMATELY 36 HOURS, 21 MINUTES, 3 SECONDS.

  Okay, so it took me a day and a half to get back to full mana and reboot from empty passively; good to know.

  ‘I know I can use my Mana Eater to recharge mana, and I guess I passively regen some as well, but are there any other ways to gain mana? Total mana capacity too—I know I gain some on level, but are there other ways to gain max mana?’ Mana was obviously going to be my most important stat. From movement to problem-solving, everything I was going to need was wrapped in mana management.

  MAGIC ITEMS STORED IN YOUR STORAGE AND DRAINED WITH MANA EATER WILL BE THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY OF MANA GAIN. OTHER WAYS INCLUDE MAGICAL ITEMS, ADDITIONAL ABILITIES, AND INCREASING MAGICAL OFFENSE, WHICH AFFECTS MANA GAIN.

  So, until I either got more levels or access to more items, I was gated. Annoying, but workable.

  ‘So, I know I have stats, and I assume other people have stats as well, but can they see them? Like, is this a video game world where everyone has an assigned class and level?’

  YES AND NO. EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING DOES HAVE STATS; HOWEVER, ONLY SAGES, GREAT MAGES, MASTER MONKS, ETC., CAN SEE AND INTERACT DIRECTLY WITH THE STAT SYSTEMS. FOR EVERYONE ELSE, IT IS INTUITIVE; SOMEONE WITH STRENGTH 20 MIGHT NOT KNOW THE EXACT NUMBER, BUT THEY DO KNOW THEY CAN CARRY A LARGE LOG.

  Even more useful information! Where was this when I spent a year at level 1?

  ‘Okay, is this an afterlife? Are there other reincarnated people from my world here? And why this world? Why not something else? And what exactly are you? Why are you here?’ The little merchant was getting excited now, his words losing the slightest hint of their monotone drone as he discussed five-year interest projections on meat pie sales. I figured I still had more time before I had to talk with Vivi.

  I CANNOT ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. I AM HERE TO ACT AS VIRTUAL OVERSIGHT AND AN INTEGRATED DATABASE.

  Fair enough, Void. I guess the meaning of life was a pretty tough question to throw at a disembodied computer voice in my head.

  ‘Last question for now, Void: is there some kind of Menu I can access? To see my eaten items and mana costs and stuff like that? I need to know this stuff so I can avoid what happened 36 hours ago.’ This world was playing by game rules, so that meant I needed to actually know the rules to have a chance. I needed to know the mechanics so that I could properly abuse them. So far, everything was either luck or clumsy experimentation. I needed to turn that into intentional, deliberate cheese.

  OF COURSE. ACTIVATING MENU NOW. YOU MAY ASK ME FOR THE MENU AT ANY TIME. NAVIGATE WITH YOUR THOUGHTS. IT IS ALL VERY INTUITIVE.

  Void sure did love to tell me how easy all this was, huh? As the merchant continued his spreadsheet rampage, I looked over the grey block of text that had popped up in my head. I couldn’t see much, only my digested items and my abilities. They had no mana costs listed next to them, so I guess I would have to wait until I got Appraisal 3. Well, that was fine for now.

  I looked over my list of items and thought of how best to use them as the merchant talked and talked. In all likelihood, I had a meeting with Vivi later on, and I wanted to know more about myself going into it. A little introspection here could go a long way later.