High School GxG: Gamer Edition
So here it is - a rewritten High School DxD Gamer Fic, this one substantially different to my previous one. Please read and review.
Note1: Any seeming OC's in this story are in fact characters from Suterareta Yuusha no Eiyuutan, a fantasy light novel I am a fan of. Despite this there will be no crossover in any other manner. I simply am terrible at creating original characters and so borrowed existing ones from elsewhere.
Note2: This was written a while ago... due to some pretty vital exams I have not had the chance to do much writing at all recently - so sorry but updates on this and my other stories are going to be somewhat infrequent.
Hyodou Issei was feeling somewhat depressed. Having managed to enter Kuoh Academy, where girls outnumbered boys at a ratio of 3:1, he had been expecting… Well he wasn't quite sure what exactly he was expecting, but it was definitely a harem scenario style school life. Instead he found himself at the very bottom of the social ladder, alongside Matsuda and Motohama. Labelled as the perverted trio, even a glance at a girl was seen as filthy. Which was true in most cases, but even so, the automatic disgust hurt!
Still, despite his particularly low spirits, there was nothing special about the day in the slightest. Just Issei only half paying attention to the teachers droning on, the scratching of his classmates pens on paper… and the screen floating in front of him. Wait? What!
At first he thought it was a dream, or some sort of hallucination. But pinches did nothing to wake him up, and he was not seeing anything else out of the ordinary. Nor, apparently was anyone else – Issei realised that he was the only one who could see it.
Name: Hyodou Issei
Title: None
Level 1: Experience: 1.43%
HP: 100/100
MP: 80/80
Strength: 5
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 6
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 4
Wisdom: 4
Magic: LOCKED
Points: 0
That was it. No explanation on why his life suddenly seemed to have taken on the properties of an RPG! Also, was it him, or were his stats ridiculously low? With that in mind Issei began to stare at the back of the girl I front of him, earning him some disgusted looks from the others in his class. His primary purpose was to see how strong she was. After all the box above her head showed that she was Level 3, which was one of the lower levels in the class. The average for a student was 5, but no matter, if he could see levels then surely he could see their stats as well!
New Skill Created!
[Observe] (Active) LVL 1: 1.34%: Cost: 5 MP
Allows The Gamer to gather information on a target. Increased information at higher levels.
Issei would have jumped for joy, had he not been in class. But their teacher was incredibly strict and he really didn't want detention. Not when there was an awesome new change to explore in his life. Looking at the girl in front of him once more he thought [Observe] with all his might.
Name: Hamakaze Juri
A petite school girl at Kuoh Academy with slightly below average grades, and who is a new member of the Archery Club.
Other than that there was nothing, evidently he would have to level up [Observe] some more first. So after spending the next few minutes observing everyone around him Issei… ran out of MP. On the positive side the skill was over 75% of the way to the next level now, on the negative side he now had nothing to do. So for the first time in the few weeks since Hyodou Issei had become a High School student, he listened properly to the teacher. And was promptly rewarded with a new skill.
New Skill Created!
New Subskill Created!
New Subskill Created!
[Maths] (Passive) LVL 1: 6.10%
The Gamers Skill with mathematics
Passively Increases Intelligence by 1%
*[Mental Arithmetic] (Passive) LVL 1: 7.03%
The Gamers Skill with mental calculations
Passively Increases speed of mental calculations by 5%
Passively Increases Maths Skill and Subskill Experience gain by 5%
*[Algebra] (Passive) LVL 1: 5.99%
The Gamers Skill with algebra
Passively increases trajectory prediction accuracy by 2.5%
Or rather, a new skill and two of its subskills. And in that single moment more progress was made in Issei's mind than any teacher of his had ever accomplished. He actually wanted to learn more about this, and as the newly discovered knowledge entered his head, felt a desire to pay attention in class. There was something that was so much more appealing about seeing the increase in your knowledge on screen instead of having to do endless tests. That and it was just easier.
So Issei focussed during class for once. And this feat was repeated in the next one. And in the one after that! His knowledge was still definitely sub-par, and he was still one of the worst in the class. But improvement had been made. And he could tell, which in itself was enough to inspire additional effort. That, alongside his new list of skills and subskills.
[Science] (Passive) LVL 1: 3.72%
The Gamers scientific knowledge and skill
Passively increases experiment success chance by 5%
Passively increases Intelligence by 1%
*[Biology] (Passive) LVL 1: 6.22%
The Gamers expertise in Biology
Passively Increases chance of successful animal identification by 3%
Passively Increases chance of successful plant identification by 3%
*[Anatomy] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.75%
The Gamers knowledge of Anatomy
Passively Increases critical hit chance by 4%
Passively increases critical hit damage by 4%
These had been gained when he had been in Science. Issei had actually managed to get a simple question right! The teacher was not that surprised, after all he had only taught the boy for a few weeks. Said boy however was amazed that he knew an answer. Then he had been in Japanese.
[Japanese Language] (Passive) LVL 10: 4.58%
The Gamers mastery of the Japanese language
Passively increases Charisma by 6%
Passively increases Intelligence by 3%
Apparently he had a higher level since he could already speak Japanese. Not that Issei was complaining, but for a language he considered himself fluent in his level was somewhat low? Maybe it was to do with grammar and vocabulary – or something like that.
[Literature] (Passive) LVL 1:
The Gamers ability to use words to convey meaning, and understand it
Passively increases Wisdom by 1%
Passively increases Charisma by 0.5%
And now it was time for the students to either return home, or to attend after school clubs. As Issei walked home he got to thinking about his skills and stats, or rather his lack of them. Observe had finally levelled up and he was so far below the average it was… impossible to even describe them as below average. If this was an RPG then his character sucked.
Once he had reached his home and greeted his parents, he headed upstairs to his bedroom. Only this time his goal was not to watch films of a perverted nature, but to figure out what was going on with his life. First on his mental list of things to do was investigate the stat screen once more, and scrounge as much information as possible from it. A mental 'stat screen' later and he was facing it.
Name: Hyodou Issei
Title: None
Level 1: Experience: 13.41%
HP: 100/100
MP: 80/80
Strength: 5
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 6
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 4
Wisdom: 4
Magic: LOCKED
Points: 0
…Exactly the same as last time, but now he had the leisure time to investigate thoroughly. Tapping on a specific stat, he received the desired response. A description of said stat.
Strength: How much physical power you can use
Vitality: How healthy your body is & how much stamina it has
Dexterity: How much speed, agility & fine motor control you have
Charisma: How charming you are & how attractive
Intelligence: How clever & creative you are, as well as your mana control
Wisdom: How perceptive, rational & sensitive to mana types you are
Magic: How much mana you have & can use at a time without penalty
The magic stat's description was expected, but it was odd to think that his intelligence and wisdom were important to mana as well... The other surprise was that he had gained Experience over the course of the day, probably because of all the studying. Issei thought for a moment before deciding to test this theory, and promptly grabbed a handful of old textbooks that were scattered on the floor. Flicking through the rather battered texts he could nonetheless see a slight glow. Then his eyes widened… They were skill books?!
His first instinct was to learn them all, immediately, but when the screen appeared telling him that it would destroy the book, he paused. Turning up to school without any books would not only be stupid, it would be expensive – he would have to pay for new ones, with money that he didn't have. That reminded him… Could there be…?
"Inventory!"
A screen filled with empty item slots shimmered into being. Though currently empty, he was able to place various objects inside, which then could be removed once again from the slot in which they had appeared. Issei realised that he now had what effectively was his very own pocket dimension. Testing the limits of this for a while, he could see that anything he could lift could go into a slot, with the exception of money. The yen he placed inside showed up as a number at the bottom of the screen.
Logical thought processes cause Wisdom to rise by 1!
That was how he raised stats - by doing stuff related to them? So if he studied tons and tons he would get really clever and be able to get full marks? That was awesome! Though Issei paused for a moment then. In order to train his Strength, Vitality and Dexterity he should do sports. Unfortunately after a peeking incident which had cemented his reputation as one of the 'perverted trio', lets just say that no sports club would ever accept him as a member. Not a single one.
So with the most obvious route of improvement closed, and no viable option making itself known, Issei filed that plan away for the time being and went on a hunt for his middle school books. They should also allow him to learn the skills, while being inessential for school.
[English Language] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers mastery of the English language
Passively increases Charisma by 1%
Passively increases Intelligence by 0.5%
[History] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers knowledge of the past, and what they have learnt from it
Passively increases Wisdom by 1%
Passively increases Intelligence by 1%
[Memorisation] (Passive/Active) LVL 1: 0.00%: Cost: 5MP for 5 Minutes
The Gamers ability to remember what they learn
Passively increases Skill Experience Gain by 1%
Actively increases Skill Experience Gain by 3%
[Geography] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers knowledge of natural phenomena
Passively increases Wisdom by 1%
Passively increases Intelligence by 1%
[Sociology] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers analysis of human behaviour
Passively increases effectiveness of Observe on humans by 5%
[Politics] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers ability to use Rhetoric
Passively increases Charisma by 1%
[Economics] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers ability to manage money
Passively increases chance of better drops by 1%
That was a lot of skills, and they were all at level 1. Issei sighed, he had known that they would be low, after all he was not exactly studious, but for all school subjects to be like this was a figurative kick in a really painful place. Some of the bonuses were confusing though, like the one for economics. Drops only occurred when fighting monsters right? So did this mean he would have to fight? Maybe he should learn some fighting skills then. Making a mental note to look into dojo's at the weekend, Issei activated Memorisation before starting to study.
It was harder than expected. And boring as well. The only thing that kept his eyes on the pages in front of him was the slow increase of his experience in the skills being studied. It was one thing to study in class, when there was no other choice, and another to study in your free time. As Issei finished a section of one textbook, finally his maths skill had levelled up! Better yet was the other notification…
Diligent studying causes Intelligence to rise by 1
Now that was good news! So far he had raised his wisdom as well, though not charisma or any of the physical stats. Issei once again resolved to find a dojo, though that did bring up the question of how he would pay for it. His allowance would only stretch so far. Maybe he should get a job? The problem with that idea was that it seemed like a lot of work, taking up time that he could be training skills.
But by now night had fallen, studying had exhausted his brain and he was tired. Falling asleep as soon as he closed his eyes, the last thing he thought was amazement at how this day had changed everything so much.
The following morning consisted of a rather sudden awakening. Issei had blearily opened his eyes only to be faced with yet another screen.
Sleep has caused HP and MP to be completely refilled
Though not exactly a bad thing, its presence had still been a rather nasty surprise. A now wide awake Issei got ready, and went downstairs for breakfast. His parents jaws dropped, normally their son was the type to sleep in until the last minute... and yet here he was ready for school - making breakfast?!
[Cooking] (Passive) LVL 1: 1.90%
The Gamers ability to prepare food
Passively increases restorative effects of food cooked by 1%
It was a disaster, Issei mused to himself as he walked to school. A complete disaster. And not one that he would be able to rectify easily since his mother had banned him from the kitchen indefinitely after the toaster had exploded. Apparently , yes, he was that bad at cooking. His HP had also taken a hit as the eggs on toast he had made were not restorative, but harmful. He had placed some in his inventory and they had been stored under the tab titled poisons!
Meeting up with Matsuda and Motohama , Issei took the opportunity to ask them if they knew about any affordable dojo's. Motohama didn't have anything to contribute except his viewpoint that if Issei really wanted to peep he could do so without actually joining. Matsuda was considerably more helpful and mentioned 3 separate ones, which were carefully noted. Though he as a former athlete himself did not see any benefits in joining. Well, Issei thought somewhat smugly, they didn't have a super cool gamer ability! The only way it could be more awesome was if it had a hentai section... pity about that...
School, once they had arrived, progressed as normal, though this time Issei had Memorisation activated. Observe was also being used on his classmates, and had levelled up. For the lower level students, he could now see their stats, which was extremely depressing. He had known that his stats were not good, but that they were this rubbish! Even with his recent gains from studying they were so far below average that he could not help but think that his position as bottom of the class was deserved! Bringing up several screens for comparison purposes only emphasized this.
Name: Hamakaze Juri Level 3
A petite school girl at Kuoh Academy with slightly below average grades, and who is a new member of the Archery Club.
Strength: 10
Vitality: 9
Dexterity: 18
Charisma: 23
Intelligence: 16
Wisdom: 14
Name: Tamaki Yui Level 5
A serene school girl at Kuoh Academy with average grades, and who is a member of the Swimming Club.
Strength: 14
Vitality: 22
Dexterity: 19
Charisma: 24
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 21
Name: Hayase Fuuko Level 6
A quiet school girl at Kuoh Academy with above average grades, and who plays the cello.
Strength: 8
Vitality: 13
Dexterity: 30
Charisma: 9
Intelligence: 24
Wisdom: 41
He took another glance at his stats…
Name: Hyodou Issei
Title: None
Level 1: Experience: 31.99%
HP: 100/100
MP: 100/100
Strength: 5
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 6
Charisma: 3
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 5
Magic: LOCKED
Points: 0
Even his highest stat, Vitality was beaten by all three of the others. And it was embarrassing in the extreme to see that every girl in the class had a higher strength than him. It wasn't fair! So once again Issei surprised the other students by actually paying attention in class, listening to the teacher and carefully taking notes. It was only the fact that he still knew absolutely nothing, added to his extreme look of frustration with actually doing the work that convinced them of his identity.
Unfortunately the same could not be said for Matsuda and Motohama, who spent the entirety of morning break spreading absurd rumours about his personality change. Thankfully their charisma levels were roughly the same as Issei's so no-one took them too seriously. Also there was the minor truth that it would be hard to damage his reputation any more than it actually was, something that made Issei groan and bury his head in his hands. If it wasn't for the sake of the subskills...
*[Poetry] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers ability to form poetic phrases
Passively increases Charisma by 0.5%
*[Classical Works] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers knowledge of notable historical writings
Passively increases Intelligence by 0.5%
*[Modern Works] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers knowledge of notable modern writings
Passively increases Intelligence by 0.5%
And that was from all of one class on language and literature! And more was to come, as when homework was set, a new subskill was added to his rapidly growing repertoire. What had been seen as a great thing was now becoming something of a burden. He could spend an hour just trying to decide what to do - what to train...
*[Essay Writing] (Passive) LVL 1: 0.00%
The Gamers knowledge of notable modern writings
Passively increases Essay Quality by 1%
Still, he would be levelling that particular subskill up pretty quickly regardless as this was school, and essays, like it or not, were standard as a form of assessment. After his literature lesson, it was lunch time. Rather than join in the rush to buy food he went down to the one place which had great potential for the game, as well as being somewhere that the other members of the perverted trio would never think to look for him. The library awaited.
Walking through the entrance to said library, heads turned. Apparently the rumours Matsuda and Motohama had spread were disregarded completely, for every occupant who recognised him started in surprise and/or revulsion. Most of them matched the face to the third member of the perverted trio too, his reputation preceded him. Ignoring the mutters Issei stalked over to the fiction section and began browsing the books - with his Observe of course!
[The Tale of Genji] (Book)
Reading this book grants 10-100XP for Literature: Classical Works per hour studied
XP Gained varies upon depth of understanding and base stats
Since Issei did not know how much that was he examined several other texts, with similar results. Some gave more, some gave less XP, but the thicker, more advanced works inevitably gave more. It was a pity though - he actually had to study the book to advance. He couldn't just learn the stuff by absorbing the volumes like how skill books worked in games. He then moved away from the fiction, and onto the non-fiction. He still held on to the Tale of Genji though, it seemed like one of the better historical novels to study. After all the main character had how many romances? A ridiculous amount apparently.
Moving onto the Science Section revealed that his observe was not infallible. It couldn't, for instance, tell him that a book would give him a skill that he didn't know existed. Hence the appearance of screens like this.
[Fission Vs Fusion: Explained] (Book)
Reading this book grants 20-250XP for [?] per hour studied
XP Gained varies upon depth of understanding and base stats
Given the category it was in Issei was fairly certain that the skill in question was Physics. Still he couldn't be sure until he had learnt it, so the book was added to a growing pile on the nearest table, which was conveniently empty as no-one wanted to be near the 'Pervert' when he was doing goodness knows what behind the bookshelves. If they knew that he was actually getting books to study from they would have fallen off their seats. But since no-one wanted to check on him this latest shock rumour was killed before it had started.
Lunch was halfway over by the time Issei had gathered all the books he needed. His stomach grumbled in protest at the lack of nourishment, but he was resigned to a hungry afternoon. Since Issei always bought lunch at school rather than bring a bento, and since all the food would be sold out by that point there was nothing he could do. Still, it was worth it in order to get the books.
Making consistently beneficial long term choices causes Wisdom to rise by 1
And he had even gotten a stat boost out of it! It was then that Issei realised the flaw in his plan. He did not have a library card... which meant that he couldn't just check the books out. Groaning the boy made his way over to the desk where the library monitor stood, looking thoroughly disgruntled and glaring at everyone that passed by.
Name: Minamoto Kureha Level 8
A tomboy school girl at Kuoh Academy with bad grades, and who is not currently a member of any club. Due to losing a bet she is taking over her brothers job as library monitor for the week.
He couldn't see her stats, she was too high a level, but he could surmise from the description that she had high physical stats, and not so high mental ones. Glancing back over his shoulder at the pile of books he had left on the table, because they were simply too much to carry at once, he took a steadying breath and hoped desperately that his pitiful charisma would not muck things up too badly.
"Err... Hi, could I get a library card..."
*glare*
"I'd like to check out some books...?"
*narrowed eyes*
"…Please..."
Her fist slammed down on the wood, not hard enough to damage it, but enough for a solid bang to be heard. She looked absolutely livid.
"Show me the books now!" The stage whisper carried the sound of impending doom to Issei's ears and he hastened to obey, leading her over to the pile of 12 books. Kureha pointed at them before saying...
"So which ones have magazines of a perverted nature hidden inside? My moronic brother has a habit of doing just that for his friends to find... I didn't know he knew such an... obvious... culprit though." She sneered.
Issei looked up in shock! There were magazines like that in the library! How had he managed to miss out on that? Then his elation at this new discovery deflated. Minamoto Kureha was still glaring at him, assuming he was a co-conspirator in this plan... which was actually sort of awesome... but still! Quickly schooling his features into something resembling innocence, or so Issei hoped, he protested.
"They don't have anything in them! They're just books for studying! Look at them yourself, you won't find anything!"
She seemed hesitant to do so, pulling out a handkerchief to place over her hand before opening the first novel, and then the next, and then the one after that. As she progressed through them one after the other she became steadily more bewildered. Upon completing inspection of the last one she looked up, a slight blush staining her cheeks.
"I apologize... it seems I was mistaken... I'll get you the library card now. Sorry!"
And with that she turned and walked as quickly as possible without running back to the desk. As Issei checked out his selected reading he looked at the still flustered girl with awkwardness. What did you say in a situation like that?
"It's okay... I do kind of have a reputation, you know, you were just doing your job."
He was rewarded with a miracle. For the first time a girl in Kuoh Academy deliberately smiled at him. Sure, it was an incredibly faint one, and only graced her face for a second, but that was enough! He could actually get a positive reaction from girls by not being openly perverted! That itself was a new insight for Issei and he resolved to try and tone down how open he was about his desires. It did hurt to be so unpopular after all.
New insight combined with successful social interactions causes Charisma to rise by 1
Yep, this game thing was the key to a whole new world in Issei's mind.
If only he knew how true that would be...
Name: Hyodou Issei
Title: None
Level 1: Experience: 35.29%
HP: 100/100
MP: 110/110
Strength: 5
Vitality: 8
Dexterity: 6
Charisma: 4
Intelligence: 5
Wisdom: 6
Magic: LOCKED
Skills
Cooking: Level 1
Economics: Level 1
English Language: Level 1
Geography: Level 1
History: Level 1
Japanese Language: Level 10
Literature: Level 1
-Classical Works: Level 1
-Essay Writing: Level 1
-Modern Works: Level 1
-Poetry: Level 1
Maths: Level 1
-Mental Arithmetic: Level 1
-Algebra: Level 1
Memorization: Level 1
Observe: Level 2
Politics: Level 1
Science: Level 1
-Biology: Level 1
-Anatomy: Level 1
Sociology: Level 1