After Mikoto left, The first thing I did was remove the contents of my wallet and shove them into the Inventory. No need to risk being pick pocketed.
After that was done, I started going through my minimap options in more detail. Zooming out, I could see several green dots with green circles around them.
"I wonder what those are", I thought as I walked towards the one closest to me.
A couple of minutes later, I was looking at a cylinder on wheels
Service Bot
Lv 10
"Observe" I whispered
Service Bot
LV 10
[HP: 1200/1200]
[MP: 0/0]
[STR: 40]
[DEX: 18]
[VIT: 25]
[INT: 20]
[WIS: 5]
[CHA: 5]
[LUK: 5]
[A city service bot responsible for surveillance and maintenance of city order and cleanliness. It supplements the Anti-Skill and Judgment forces, and are programmed to respond to orders from Anti-Skill officers of appropriate rank]
[Status: Scanning for disturbances]
"Huh. That is quite a lot of detail for a level 1 ability. I wonder what will happen if I level it up...Maybe more detail? or will I be able to see the details of higher level characters?" I thought as I idly read through the information provided.
I continued strolling through the city, intent on finding a spot where I could experiment a bit with my new abilities, and spamming observe on everything I could see. I also experimented on how much volume was required for me to activate a command. Sub-vocalizing it worked, but thinking a command didn't. By the time I reached a park an hour later, Observe had reached level 5.
As I neared a bench to sit down and start going through my minimap to find if there was any interesting place to visit, I got another Skill alert.
[Through a special action, a new skill Perception has been created]
[Perception (Lv 1)(Passive): A skill to increase attention to detail , adjust to changes in environment, increase your overall attention to your surroundings, and detect hidden items, places, people or enemies was created while trying to navigate. Effect: Increases stealth detection by 100%, Increases hidden object detection by 100%, increases combat awareness by 100%, increases terrain navigation by 100%, adds new points of interest to minimap. Range:100m]
"Huh. That is a useful skill. Probably works in conjunction with Observe and the minimap", I thought.
Dismissing the notification, I zoomed out of the map, looking for the closest library I could find. I needed to find out more about the city and it's circumstances, as vague memories of a serialized anime series wasn't enough for such things.
According to the map, the closest library to me was the District 7 Central library. Convenient.
"I need a way to bring up my STR, VIT and DEX scores. Hmmmm...The standard way to do that would be exercise..." I thought, looking up the distance on the map between the library and my current location. It showed up as five kilometers.
I debated using the bus for a second, then decided to walk to the place instead. I could level up both Perception and Observe that way.
[WIS has gone up by 1!]
I rolled my eyes at the notification, and started my walk to the library.
Another hour later found me at the entrance of the Central Library for the District. I continued to spam Observe on everything and anything, driving home just how weak I was compared to everyone around me; The lowest level I saw was 5, and it was that of a five year old kid.
"Though judging by the rate of growth of the current active and passive skills, that sense of weakness won't last long" I thought as I walked into the library. During my walk here, Observe's level had gone up once more, and Perception by four levels.
The mimimap updated to display the Library's interior- a multi-story affair with a computer lab, records room, and more. Looking up, I spotted a few cameras and my maps helpfully updated to mark their positions and fields of view. In addition, there was a security guard standing by the door, along with two librarians patrolling the floor ostensibly to help patrons. Already, I could see where the holes were in their security. Smiling at a girl working at the counter, eliciting a blush, I walked into the stacks, where my map updated once more, helpfully showing which section was which. They were divided from left to right were fiction, which was divided between age groups, non-fiction, general, reference, religion and a section devoted purely to Esper Powers, further subdivided by subject.
Walking into the section, I again started spamming Observe on the books to see what their contents could be, and to level up Observe of course.
Among all the books I found one about the building of a personal reality, and how it was the core of an esper's power. Shrugging, I picked it up
[You have obtained the Skill book: Personal Realities and their Creation- A guide to the Budding Esper. Would you like to learn this ability?]
{Yes/No}
I stared at that notification.
"There are SKILL BOOKS?!" I thought incredulously.
This bore investigation.
Walking around the stacks with the book in hand, I found a table which was out of site of the cameras and near the back, away from the librarians and the guards. Looking around to make sure nobody was around to notice if anything happened, I tapped yes.
The book dissolved into motes of light, and I immediately got a deluge of notifications
[You have learnt the skill Personal Reality]
[Personal Reality (Lv 1)(Active): One of the most basic aspects of mana manipulation, which allows your belief to override the natural order. This skill allows you to build mana manipulation techniques of one elemental affinity. Once the affinity is chosen, it cannot be changed. Leveling up the skill allows you to open more skill trees, and choose multiple affinities]
[The entry AIM has been added to the Journal]
[A quest has been created!]
[Path of the Rogue (Part I)]
[ By engaging in an act of petty larceny, you have taken your first step onto the path of becoming a rogue and a thief! Prove you have got what it takes by stealing five or more books without being caught!]
[Rewards: 2000 EXP +250EXP per book over minimum, skill books, Quest Continuation. Failure: Loss of skill books, Possible jail time]
[Observe's level has increased by 1! Skill Books now register on Observe!]
Looking through the pop-ups, I felt a wide grin stretching across my face. Getting up, I walked into a random section and started spamming Observe on the shelves. I came across the next skill book in the reference section, a book about mixed martial arts. Glancing at the minimap, I timed the cameras, and when there were no eyes on me, I quickly shoved the book into the Inventory
[Through a special action, a skill Sleight of Hand has been created]
[Sleight of Hand (Lv 1)(Active): A skill which allows you to swipe objects without people noticing it happening. Effect: Decreases chances of detection when stealing an object by (DEX+CHA)%]
[Through a special action, a skill Skill Creation has been created]
[Skill Creation(Lv MAX)(Passive): A skill that allows you to create skills based on your base INT score. The higher the INT, the more powerful the ability generated.]
Ok, this power was completely broken. Well, not completely, because I still had to grind up my stat points (Of which I had gained a grand total of 1 point of WIS up to now), but it had a lot of potential.
Browsing through the sections of the library, I came across another ten or so skill books, along with a few History books that looked like they could fill me up on the history gap between my last memory and the current time.
"Speaking of which, what was the date?" I thought, and moved over to the periodicals section to snag a newspaper. Glancing at the date, I decided that the tech I had seen up to now was unimpressive given the amount of time that had supposedly passed by.
"June 18th huh" I thought, trying to estimate how much time I had before things truly started heating up. I never paid attention to dates and times on the show, and was now regretting that habit.
"Eh, Let's take things as they come" I thought, giving a mental shrug, and went back to the stacks. Snagging a couple of books from the fiction section that looked interesting, I decided that I had had enough petty larceny for the day.
Picking up another interesting book from the fiction (Damn was the language proficiency helpful!), I moved to the checkout section, I smiled upon sighting the same girl I'd seen coming in. Her blush returned and I pretended I didn't notice as she cleared her throat and looked away, while I put my selection on the counter.
"Card?" She asked.
I hummed in thought, trying to think of an excuse not to show my card, which was currently in my Inventory.
"No...Can you look up my account by name?" I asked
"Sure, what... um what's your name?"
"Kamijou Touma" I said, remembering at the last moment to invert the first and last names. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why the Gamer insisted on giving everyone's first name first.
As she tapped away at the terminal, I thought occurred. So far, the only way I had found to grind my Charisma score was to interact with people. And of all interactions, Flirting seemed to have better results than everything else, however, so.. "What's your name?"
"Sakura" the brunette in question murmured, doing her best to look like she was checking out books while I caught her stealing glances out of the corner of her eye.
"Any suggestions on good reading material?" I asked, figuring if she worked here, she probably had an interest in books.
The girl's demeanor changed, relaxing into something more confident as she began talking about a familiar, and it seemed much enjoyed, topic. "Well, the last decent book I read was one of the 'Ninjas of Love' series… oh! I see you already have one."
"Well, I tend to prefer…" I trailed off. I had read the description and the book sounded like a lengthy series of lemons stitched together by an overarching plot, at least according to Observe.
"Plot with your porn?" she finished, then suddenly seemed to realize what she'd said as her eyes went wide and her blush returned at a higher luminescence.
Laughing quietly, I looked around before leaning forward on the counter. "Just maybe. So… you enjoyed it, huh?"
"Maybe," she answered sheepishly, also looking around for listeners. Finding none, she finished scanning the last of my books into the Terminal before hesitating. After a moment of indecision, she reached for a stack of sticky notes on her desk and quickly scrawled out something I couldn't read from my angle. Opening the black cover to the book in question, she stuck the little yellow square to the inside and looked up to meet my brown eyes with her own honey brown and smiled. "You're all done here. I hope you enjoy it."
Collecting my books, I wished her a good day and made for the exit. As soon as I crossed the threshold, a veritable deluge of notifications popped up.
[Quest Path of the Rogue (part I) completed! 16 additional books collected!]
[You gain 6000 EXP]
[Your level has increased by 1! You now have 10 stat points]
[Your level has increased by 1! You now have 15 stat points]
[Sleight of Hand's level has increased by 1!]
[Sleight of Hand's level has increased by 1!]
[Sleight of Hand's level has increased by 1!]
[Alert: A skill has been created through a special action! Stealing valuable skill books has created the skill Steal]
[Steal (Lv 1 )( Active): A skill to Steal things that don't belong to you was created. Effect: takes an item that doesn't belong to you from someone else and adds it to your inventory. Combines with Sleight of Hand where applicable.]
[Steal's level has increased by 1!]
[Steal's level has increased by 1!]
[Steal's level has increased by 1!]
[Due to repeated use of skills requiring dexterity, your DEX has gone up by 1!]
[A quest has been created!]
[Path of the Rogue (Part II)]
[Now that you've proven your larceny skills, you should learn what to do with goods you're looking to sell. Make contact with the roguish community to advance the quest.]
[Rewards: 3000 EXP, contacts with the Underworld, unlocks Underworld trading, unlocks Underworld jobs.]
Moving to a nearby bench, I sat down and began reading and closing the multitude of messages. So, to tally all of that, I finished the quest, leveled up, gained Steal as a new skill, got three levels each in Steal and Sleight of Hand, gained a point of DEX for practicing those, unlocked a new quest, and potentially set myself up for some sort of villainous employment. Not bad for an afternoon's worth of work. However, my curiosity was eating away at me. Taking up 'Ninjas of Love' from its position sandwiched between two other books, I opened the front cover and read the sticky note.
Give me a call if you want to talk about the book… maybe over coffee?
—Sakura
Even as I smirked, I got a new deluge of notifications.
[CHA has increased by 1!]
[A quest has been created!]
[Kami the Harem God:The Art of Love and War]
[Scattered across the world are lots of lonely women in need of love. Do your part in satisfying these lonely women's desires by romancing six or more lovely ladies]
[Rewards: EXP ?, lifelong love and companionship, more kinky sex than you can shake a stick at. Failure: No EXP, no love, crushing loneliness, no kinky sex]
[A quest has been updated!]
[Kami the Harem God: The Sexy Librarian has been unlocked!]
[You've been propositioned by a sexy librarian to get together for a cup of coffee and a conversation about your shared interests—namely, erotic literature. Read 'Ninjas of Love: Volume I' and set up a date with Sakura]
[Rewards: 1000 EXP, skill(s), potential kinky sex, potential friend with benefits, unlocks special mode. Failure: no EXP, no skill(s), no kinky sex, no friend with benefits. Time limit: 3 days]
I could feel the Gamer's Mind fighting to maintain my calm state of mind as I frantically dismissed the notifications, and fought at the embarrassment the new set of quests generated. In the end, Gamer's Mind won over my sense of embarrassment in the end by a narrow margin, keeping my face mercifully clear of a blush.
"Ok, that happened" I thought, deciding then and there that the CHA score was too dangerous to level up.
Shaking my head at the Gamer's sense of humor, I started walking to the nearest bus stop to get to my dorm based on the address on my card, idly noting that the sun was on the horizon, just about to set.
Just as I set a waypoint on my map, I felt it happen. Nothing in my surroundings changed, but I could feel a tension in the air, almost like an electric charge- something that I had come to associate almost unconsciously with magic.
[The sun has set, and you have been drawn into an Illusion Barrier, a bubble caught between the waking and spirit worlds. Restless spirits created from the myriad of negative emotions are trying to manifest, and you will not be able to leave until the area has been cleansed]
Welp, I am on FIIIRRRREEE!
That should satisfy those wo are looking for the Kami-yan disease.
Pairings will be undecided. Besides, I like the harem route