It was the third day of my game life.
It was a refreshing morning. I remembered doing quite a bit of heavy labor yesterday, but whether it was a specification of the game world or not, I felt no fatigue at all.
In a cheerful mood, I opened my room door and was immediately greeted by,
“Good morning, Soma! Um, I thought about it all last night, and to get to know you better, I’m going to stick close to you starting today—Huh?!”
I immediately turned on my heel, opened the window, and leaped outside. As soon as I landed, I used Tenha to get onto the roof of a nearby building, then used Step to cross the rooftops. I was so impressed with my own evasion that I could have admired it. In just a few seconds, I had completely escaped from that Train-chan.
“Ah, shoot…!”
After gaining some distance and landing on the ground, I realized something. I had reflexively run away, but thinking about it, I had planned to go shopping at various stores today, so it wouldn’t have been a problem to have Train-chan accompany me. In fact, by running away once, it would be harder to face her, and I would even find it difficult to go to the main streets where the shops are lined up. It was a complete miscalculation.
However, wouldn’t anyone who is truly a loner instinctively run away if they were suddenly spoken to upon opening their room door?
“In other words, this is the curse of loneliness, the chronic illness I must carry for the rest of my life!”
I summarized it in a way that sounded a bit chuunibyou, but it wasn’t something to boast about. Besides, my loneliness is a recent development, resulting from prioritizing games over social interaction after entering university. I have no intention of carrying it for the rest of my life.
Moreover, I hadn’t told her my wake-up time, so Tren-chan was probably waiting by the door the entire time, which is actually quite terrifying. I’m starting to feel like running away was the right decision. After all, I feel like she’s been getting close to me since we met, but I have no intention of making any new friends right now. For now, I want to maintain as much distance from others as possible and focus on self-improvement. If this means creating distance from Train-chan, then it’s a dream come true.
With that, I shifted my mindset and began to consider my future plans. I have many things to do, but no matter what, I intend to avoid Train-chan. Wary of being questioned again like before, I removed my conspicuous Mithril equipment and put on my beginner’s gear. This should significantly reduce the elements that could identify me.
However, I already know that if I stay in the Field for a certain amount of time, Train-chan will inevitably be summoned. She’s a difficult person to shake off, but this time, that’s not a problem at all. That’s because I have no intention of leaving this town for a while.
—It’s an absolute hikikomori declaration.
Although I say that in such an exaggerated way, the truth is, I don’t want to raise my character’s level too much until my weapon proficiency increases. The reason I can efficiently increase my weapon proficiency using a torch is because my level is low. Since there’s no way to lower my level at the moment, it would be a waste to lose this advantage by fighting outside. Well, changing the level difference from 240 to 200 might not make that big of a difference, but if there are things I can do in town, there’s no particular need to go out.
“…Things I can do in town, huh.”
I repeated the words that casually came to mind. The phrase “things I can do in town” brought a vivid image to my mind.
In “Nekoneko,” the character growth elements can be broadly divided into three categories: character level, weapon proficiency, and skill proficiency. As expected in an RPG, character levels increase by defeating monsters and earning experience points. The experience points a monster has are calculated by multiplying the monster’s level by its experience point multiplier, which is determined for each monster type. Generally, tougher enemies like bosses and rare monsters are set with higher multipliers, while weaker monsters have lower ones. However, this is “Nekoneko” quality. The settings in this regard are rather haphazard, leading to some monsters that are clearly lucrative and others that are obviously fruitless. Also, items with HP have an experience point multiplier of 0, so unfortunately, you cannot level up by breaking them, no matter how much you destroy them. Since experience points are awarded entirely to the player who lands the finishing blow, attackers have a decisive advantage in leveling up. Conversely, healers are the worst disadvantaged class, receiving no experience points no matter how diligently they heal their companions. If “Nekoneko” were an MMO, the tragedy of everyone forming parties as attackers would surely occur everywhere. It’s moments like these that make me truly glad “Nekoneko” isn’t an MMO.
My thoughts have wandered a bit, but for now, I have no intention of raising my character level, and since I can increase my weapon proficiency anytime with a torch, there’s no need to go out of town to do it. That leaves only the last one: skill proficiency.
What is skill proficiency? It’s a proficiency level set individually for skills like Step. The stamina gauge consumed when using a skill does not increase even if your level goes up. So, does this mean the number of times you can use a skill consecutively remains the same no matter how much you train? No, that’s not the case. This is where skill proficiency comes into play. As you continue to use the same skill, its proficiency increases, and with increased proficiency, the skill’s performance improves, and the amount of stamina consumed decreases. Even though the maximum stamina remains the same, the amount of stamina consumed by the skill changes, allowing veteran players to activate skills more times consecutively than beginner players.
As for how skill proficiency increases, it’s the simplest method: the number of times you use that skill directly becomes your proficiency. It has nothing to do with whether the attack hits, whether damage is dealt, or whether the opponent’s level is high or low. Whether you hit a boss, cancel it, or miss, it simply increases by 1 each time you use it. It’s a perfectly straightforward system.
However, because of that, it’s also the area with the fewest loopholes. You can’t use tricks like defeating high-level monsters for rapid level-ups or hitting high-level items for fast character progression. Even so, if you want to do it efficiently…
“It looks like I have no choice but to go to the Marimite Dojo.”
I voiced the conclusion I had already reached and let out a heavy sigh. To be honest, I’m not very fond of the Marimite Dojo. For someone like me, who lacks social skills and, furthermore, has no peculiar tastes, it presents a rather high hurdle. Thinking about doing it in real life makes my stomach churn.
“But still, I guess I’ll just go and see.”
With that, I set my course towards the outskirts of town. There are no shops there, but there was an old, large church, the only one in this town.
