Disclaimer: Usually, I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but once again I find myself not really interested in doing so for this story as it's very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I'm making no money whatsoever from the writing of this FanFiction.
Warnings: Mild to moderate violence, character death, foul language, alternate universe (i.e. kiss HP canon goodbye), angst, drama, starts pre-Hogwarts Era, original Quests, some minor religious themes, child neglect, references to large scale ostracization/shunning of a minor, and who knows what else.
AN1: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.
Chapter Nine: Riddle's Diary
Day Unknown, Date Unknown, Time Unknown
Level One, Destiny's Dungeon, Floor Unknown
Harry didn't know what he had expected to find when he walked into the Chamber of Secrets but it certainly wasn't a large, dank stone chamber filled with giant statues of open-mouthed snakes, moss covered floors, walls riddled with wide tunnels, an over-filled stagnant pool of water, and the humongous head of a monkey-like face with flowing hair that disappeared into the green-tinted pond of scummy water at its base. He'd barely taken two steps into the room before the door behind him snapped shut with a loud clang that echoed through the room.
A heartbeat later, he heard the whoosh and crackle of fires roaring to life all around him as the open mouths of the snake statues were suddenly filled with creepy green flame. The new light only made the whole chamber look even creepier and Harry felt more than a little tense and nervous as he brought his Bow up to nock an Arrow before he cast his gaze about the room for some sign of the Boss. He half expected the Monster-Man from the movie clip that had played when he'd first accepted the Quest to leap out at him from the deeper shadows that sat behind the snake statue-torches but he was immensely glad when it didn't.
Aside from the statues and the water, the room was also strangely empty except for a thin object sitting on the ground beside the pool that sat beneath the monkey-man's moss covered head. It was even empty of Minions (those weaker Monsters that usually fought alongside of a Boss).
Curious as to what the thing sitting on the floor in front of the giant head could be, Harry crept closer to it using Sneak. He was roughly four yards away from it when he recognized it as a book. Harry frowned as he also recognized it as the same book that had in the movie clip with the Monster-Man. That realization put the nine year old on guard because he hadn't forgotten the way the Monster-Man in the movie clip had cut himself into pieces and shoved those pieces into the Items that had been hidden different Dungeons that had been far too dark for him to identify.
Scanning the chamber a second time still didn't give him an idea of where the Boss was hiding or why it hadn't made an appearance yet and Harry caught his bottom lip between his teeth as he tried to figure out what to do next. Fear gripped his heart just two seconds later when it occurred to him that the Boss might have escaped the Dungeon to start destroying Aincrad as the Fates claimed he would do if Harry didn't complete their stupid Quest. He had hidden in the Safe Room for what must have been weeks! Not to mention how long it had taken him to reach the Boss Chamber.
For several minutes, Harry stood frozen in place; the nine year old torn between sticking around in case the Boss was still in the room and heading back up to the surface to see if the Boss was up there. It was the fear that his home was being destroyed that saw him take two steps back towards the exit before he froze again and tossed a glance over his shoulder at the book lying unprotected on the floor in front of the statue. Would it be okay to just leave that thing lying around when he knew what was inside of it?
Should he take it with him? Should he hide it somewhere in the chamber? Or should he destroy it?
Uncertain of what to do, Harry glanced between the book and the door several times before he warily crept closer to the book to get a better look at it just to make certain it was the same one from the movie clip. The moment he got within ten feet of the seemingly innocent book, the top cover opened as if lifted by an invisible hand and Harry snapped his Bow back up as his heart began beating so hard he thought it might burst out of his chest. When nothing else happened, Harry took another step closer to the book only to freeze again when the pages began turning rapidly.
Scanning the shadows around him, Harry tried to figure out who or what was moving the book before he carefully moved just one step closer to see what happened next. As if his next step was some sort of signal, the pages stopped moving and a beam of light shot up into the air above the book. The light soon unfolded into yet another Window and as Harry watched, the Window began playing another movie clip.
This time, it played out a series of attacks from a giant snake-like Monster that turned several children to stone on the orders of the teenaged version of the Monster-Man from the first movie clip. After each child was attacked, the movie would play out a scene of a bunch of frightened children before it cut to an image of the teen wearing a satisfied smirk that said he was pleased with the harm and fear the Monster-Snake was causing on his orders. The last victim of the attacks would be a girl with glasses but instead of her being turned to stone, the girl died.
The very end of the clip would then show the teen ripping an image of himself away before he shoved it into the book that was currently sitting on the floor. Movie over, the Window shattered to pieces and the piece of the teen that had been placed inside of the book rose up out of the object. Harry scrambled backwards in fear as the face of the teenaged man directed a cruel smirk at him the moment he stepped out of the book. Without waiting for the Monster-Teen to speak or make the first move, Harry fired two consecutive Arrows at the Boss's head.
To his shock (and horror) both of the Arrows soared through the Boss as if passing through an illusion.
The Monster-Teen laughed soft and low before he drawled, "You can't hurt me; I'm nothing but a memory so long as I am imprisoned within the Chamber of Secrets. I can hurt you though and I will use you to break the chains that hold me here so that I can rise greater than ever before. You should feel honored by my willingness to use you; there are few people in this world that are worthy enough of being my new host."
The world around Harry froze at that exact moment as a new Notification Window popped up in front of him with the following message:
While exploring the Dungeons beneath Hogwarts Castle, you stumbled across Salazar
Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets. Eager to claim the treasures rumored to be
hidden inside, you rush in and find yourself caught in a trap left behind by Slytherin's
Heir. Your only hope of escape is to defeat the first Soul Shade of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Fail and the Soul Shade will consume your life force to gain the power necessary to
conquer your world.
Quest Title: Riddle's Diary
Goal: Defeat Riddle's 1st Soul Shade (Level 15) and Diary Horcrux
Reward: Gains the Dusky Boots, 1 Full Level plus 5 Stat Points, the Player's Journal,
and 1 Snake Key
Failure Penalty: Loss of ½ of your current Party, ½ of the Items on hand, ½ of your
total Skill Points, and 1 Full Level
Start Quest?
Yes: [O] No: [X]
Harry scrunched his nose up in confusion once he'd finished reading through the notification; how could he lose half of his Party if he wasn't in a Party? He then scowled when he noticed the option to back out of the Quest had been disabled; meaning that he had no choice but to complete the Quest. Of course, he'd already known that he didn't have a choice (the old hags had told him so before they had vanished) but he thought he might have been given a chance to back out of the Boss Fight in order to level up a couple of times.
"How am I supposed to kill a ghost, anyway?" Harry demanded out loud as he pulled his eyes away from the open Quest Window to glare at the frozen Soul Shade that hovered a mere three yards away from him.
There was no answer to his question. Not that he'd actually expected to get one. But he had really, really wanted one.
Letting out a quiet huff, Harry returned his gaze to the open Window as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to defeat a Boss Monster he couldn't hit with his Arrows. He also had no idea what a Diary Horcrux was or how he was supposed to destroy it. His eyes drifted away from the Window of their own accord as Harry tried to think of what he was going to do now. His gaze soon got caught on the green fire burning inside of the mouths of the snake statues and he absently wondered if the Diary thing could be burned, if he could find it.
Harry furrowed his brow a split second before he snapped his head back to where the shade of Tom Riddle stood and looked beyond the ghost-like Boss to focus on the book that the shade had risen from. Could that be the Diary that he was supposed to destroy? It was the book from the movie clips. But did that make it the Horcrux thingy that he was meant to destroy? And if it was, did he have to destroy it first in order to beat the ghost or did he have to find a way to beat the ghost first before he could destroy the Diary?
He then returned his gaze to the green fire in the nearest statue as he thought about the best way to get the book to the fire… or the fire to the book to see if he could destroy it that way. He then glanced down at the Bow and Arrow in his hands as he considered how best to use them if he couldn't fight Riddle's Shade directly. A split second later, he wished he still had his Bamboo Fishing Rod because he could have used it to snatch the book off the floor. Harry blinked in response to that thought before he lifted the Arrow in his hand up so he could see it better.
He then recalled the extra Fishing Lines he still had in his Inventory and he wondered if he could tie one of them to his Arrow so that he could fetch the Arrow back once he shot the book with them. There was only one way to find out and Harry quickly opened up his Menu to access his Inventory so that he could take out a spare Fishing Line. He quickly tied one end of the clear, white Line to the shaft of the Arrow just in front of the fletching while the other end was tied to his belt so that he wouldn't lose it after he fired the Arrow.
Harry knocked the Arrow once he'd finished knotting both ends of the Line and lined up his shot before he let go with one hand so he could close out the Quest Notification. He'd barely pressed the yes button to accept the Quest when the world around him unfroze at the same time as he replaced his hand on the Bow. Harry then double checked his aim before he loosed the Arrow and Line and he watched the Line light up with blue light as the attack registered and sent the Arrow straight for the book; his ingenuity would unlock another Archery based Skill called Line Shot.
"Foolish boy! I told you that you can't hurt me with your pathetic toys!" Riddle's shade sneered as the Arrow and string both passed harmlessly through the left leg of the shade before the Arrow buried itself in the Diary behind him.
"Shows what you know, dummy! I wasn't aiming for you!" Harry snapped back as he slung his Bow over his back and grabbed hold of the combined Bowstrings with both hands before he gave it a hard yank backwards; causing the Arrow and the book to both fly towards him.
"What…?" Riddle countered with a frown before he noticed the book being pulled through him and he yelled, "No!"
Harry ignored the Shade and grabbed up the slack in the Fishing Line before he yanked on it a second time to bring the book close enough for him to grab. As it landed at his feet, he grabbed hold of the Arrow stuck through the cover and used it to lift the Diary off of the floor as he ran over to the closest snake statue and used the Arrow to thrust the book into the green flames so he didn't burn his hands. At the front of the chamber, Riddle became solid as he screamed a second time when the book, Arrow, and Fishing Line immediately caught fire before both Arrow and Line shattered.
Harry grinned over successfully destroying the book and hoped that meant he could now destroy the ghost. He was just turning back to face the shade when he felt something slam into him and knock him to the floor; the unexpected blow knocking his Bow from his back. When he looked up, Harry caught sight of a large snake looming over him while the now solid looking ghost fumed from behind the snake. Snagging his Bow off of the floor from behind him, Harry fumbled for an Arrow that he used to kill the snake.
As soon as the snake shattered, he fired another Arrow at Riddle to see if he could hurt the shade now that the Monster-Teen was no longer see-through. The Arrow struck true and Riddle screamed again in response to being injured before he summoned several more snakes like the one Harry had just killed and sent them to attack Harry. Harry shifted up onto his knees and scuttled backwards even as he fired another Arrow at the closest snake before firing another one at Riddle only for another snake to sacrifice itself on the Arrow in order to protect its 'master'.
Biting his lip, Harry fired another three shots one right after the other at the teen in the hopes that at least one of them would hit the Boss before he was forced to deal with the snakes that were practically on top of him.
Riddle's response was to summon even more snakes that he sent at Harry.
On and on the battle dragged as Harry shattered snakes, took pot shots at Riddle, and scampered back and forth across the chamber in order to avoid the tails and teeth of the snakes. It was an exhausting fight and it seemed like every time he managed to hit Riddle, the stupid Monster-Teen would double the number of snakes that he conjured up the next time he summoned more Minions. Harry would have quickly gotten discouraged if not for the fact that he could see Riddle's HP visibly drop with each successful hit.
He would have been far happier if there were far fewer snakes involved though.
Twice, Harry had to scramble to replace the Arrows in his Quiver after he'd emptied the Quiver through the course of the battle. Most of the Arrows had been used to destroy the veritable flood of snakes that filled the chamber while the rest of them either struck Riddle or exploded into shards after they struck stone when he missed his targets. He'd also had to heal himself several times due to the number of snakes that slipped through his guard to sink their fangs in his flesh or slam their tails into him in order to knock him over in an attempt to put him in a position where the rest could mob him.
Eventually, Harry managed to drop Riddle's HP down to nothing and it was with great satisfaction that he watched the Shade shatter into a million crystal shards. His battle didn't end there though as the snakes that Riddle had called forth continued to attack him. The longer he continued to fight the snakes, the more worried that Harry grew since the Quest should have ended when he'd defeated Riddle. It wasn't until he saw a small, pale white snake dragging a blackened book across the floor that he remembered the Diary that he'd set on fire at the start of the battle.
A Diary that he had to destroy as part of the Quest. And a Diary that he'd thought he'd already dealt with when he'd watched it catch fire.
Nocking yet another Arrow, Harry darted forward and jumped over a pair of snakes that had lunged at him in order to get himself closer to the snake that was trying to carry off the book that he needed to destroy. As soon as his feet touched down again, Harry took aim at the snake dragging the book, drew back the Arrow, and let it fly. Two more Arrows would follow before Harry dashed several feet to the left in order to fire at a different angle; this time aiming for the book as his first three Arrows were intercepted by larger snakes looking to protect the book and the white snake.
It would take another ten Arrows and some fancy footwork before Harry got close enough to hit the small snake without the bigger snakes getting in the way of his Arrow. It took exactly seven Arrows to kill the white snake and a further fifteen to destroy the book. That wasn't even counting all the ones that had hit the other snakes or missed their targets. Once both had shattered, the rest of the snakes in the chamber exploded in a cloud of green shards that reformed into a green hexagon with the word Congratulations written on it in silver a split second before the door he'd entered through opened with a loud clang and a faint squeal.
At the same time as the Diary exploded into shards inside of the faux Chamber of Secrets beneath the Monument of Life within Aincrad, a black diary belonging to one T. M. Riddle hidden within a secret store room beneath the drawing room of Malfoy Manor in the real world burst into blood red flames as a cloud of black smoke rose out of the pages. The smoke coalesced into a face a heartbeat later and let out a shrill scream before it exploded into black and gray shards that faded into nothingness while ink and blood seeped out of the burning book.
The flames would soon spread out to engulf any number of dark artifacts that had been stored inside of the hidden room alongside the diary and by the time the owner of the mansion discovered the blaze, it would be far too late to salvage any of the items he'd once stored there in the room. Lucius Malfoy would be greatly annoyed over the loss of countless expensive and irreplaceable dark artifacts that his family had spent a lifetime collecting. But he would be utterly terrified over the destruction of the prized possession that his master had given him for safekeeping.
Lord Voldemort was not the forgiving sort and he did not tolerate failure. In fact, failures tended to upset the Dark Lord greatly and the one who so failed him was far more likely to end up dead than to be given a second chance to fail. And Lucius had failed to adequately protect the book with which he'd been entrusted by his master. So, one could say that the fear Lucius felt upon learning of the diary's fate was more than justified. One might even go so far as to claim that the Malfoy Patriarch was, for once, truly grateful that his master had been defeated by the vaunted Boy-Who-Lived.
Back inside of the underground Dungeon, a Notification Window opened up in front of Harry a full five seconds after his battle had finally ended.
Congratulations! You've successfully completed the Riddle's Diary Quest!
Rewards Earned: Dusky Boots, 1 Full Level, 5 additional Stat Points, Player's Journal,
and 1 Snake Key
Claim Rewards?
Yes: [O] No: [X]
Harry automatically selected the 'yes' button and watched as a pair of dark gray boots streaked with thin lines of black, silver, and several shades of gray and a black and green Snake Key similar to the one that he'd used earlier to unlock the hidden trapdoor behind the Monument of Life materialized in front of him. Another three Notification Windows would pop up a split second later; one informing him that he'd reached level twenty-one, one stating that he had gained five Stat Points, and the other one announcing that he'd unlocked a new Sub-Menu.
Harry put the new boots (he'd check them out later) and the new Snake Key in his Inventory before he closed out the trio of Notification Windows. He then turned his back on the Monkey-Man Statue and left the Chamber of Secrets so he could make his way out of the now eerily silent and empty Dungeon; he had no interest in exploring the Boss's Chamber further. He'd spent entirely far too much time inside of both the stupid Dungeon and the stupid Chamber of Secrets with its ugly statues as far as he was concerned.
The nine year old was more than a little surprised that he didn't encounter a single snake on the way out when he must have encountered what felt like millions of them on his way in.
Not that Harry was complaining; he hadn't exactly liked fighting all of those snakes!
He was, on the other hand, relieved that no new stone walls had dropped down out of the ceiling to block his way as he wearily retraced his path through the spiraling corridor and up the staircase towards the exit.
The moment he stepped off of the last stair, the open trapdoor in the ground that had led to the Chamber of Secrets snapped shut before it disappeared and the only evidence that it had ever existed was the faint image of a rearing snake with what looked like a key in its mouth that had been etched into the floor. Harry stared down at the carving for a long minute before he turned away and walked around to the front of the Seimei no Ishibumi. He would stumble to a stop when he caught sight of the three Fates waiting for him once more the second he rounded the edge of the Monument.
"Congratulations, child; you are now one step closer to fulfilling your Destiny," the woman standing closest to Harry stated as all three women turned in his direction.
"I don't like you; you're mean," Harry childishly declared as he scowled at the three women that he firmly believed were dead set on making his life miserable.
"You are hardly the first mortal to view us as such," the woman standing closest to the Monument of Life pointed out with obvious amusement. "And you are far from the last who will view us as such through the centuries to come."
Harry rolled his eyes and let out a huff in response to the subtle teasing tone the woman had taken when speaking to him before he turned his back on the old hags and began walking towards the exit as he announced, "I'm going now."
"Such impatience," the third woman chided as she appeared beside Harry in the blink of an eye and halted his forward movement by placing her hand on his shoulder. "We are not yet finished with you, child."
"Bugger," Harry complained as he tried to shrug free of the woman's grip. "I don't wanna do another bloody Quest right now! I just barely finished the last one you made me take!"
"Fear not, child; we will allow you two months in which to rest and grow stronger before you are required to return to this place in order to face the next Quest in your assigned Destiny."
Harry scowled in response to the implication that the old hags would come back to force him into the next Quest if he didn't start it before the two months were up. Just the thought that the three sisters would continue to tell him what to do was enough to make Harry want to kick them in the ankle and the only reason he didn't was because the Fates scared him. He didn't like the way they could lock him up with invisible walls just like Kayaba had that first day. And there was a small part of him that feared the Fates were actually Kayaba and that the man would throw him out of Aincrad.
"Come, child; there is something you must see," the woman holding him instructed as she turned him back towards the Seimei no Ishibumi and gave him a gentle nudge to get him walking; the sound of her voice distracting Harry from both his growing desire for violence against the crones and his fears. Once they were standing in front of the towering stone monument, the woman gestured at the wall of names with her free hand as she ordered, "Look closely, child."
Harry wrinkled his nose in irritation in response to the order before he did as he'd been told and stared at the wall. A frown pulled the corners of his mouth down two seconds later when he noticed that two of the names on the wall were glowing gold. He gasped in shock when he realized that both names were his names after reading them. Only, one of them was his real name and the other one was his penname. He then grew frightened over the fact that his real name was up on the wall because he'd never once used his middle or last name in the game; not even when he hadn't known any Japanese.
A closer look revealed that his penname, Joe Bloggs, was no longer crossed out and the date, time, and cause of death that had been written beside his name had disappeared. Another glance at his real name showed that it had been crossed out instead and that the date, time, and cause of death that used to be etched into the stone beside his penname were now etched into the stone next to 'Harry James Potter'.
Harry didn't know whether to cry over the reminder that he was dead or if he should feel relieved that it was his 'real' self that was dead and not the 'him' that was standing there in front of the Seimei no Ishibumi.
"By refusing to choose between Life and Death, you have condemned yourself to a half-life in this Otherworld," the woman standing to his left declared as she reached out to brush her finger across his penname and made the gold letters flare brightly before they faded back to the same black as the other Players' names on the wall. "Your reckless decision to flee into this pale mortal-made copy of the Overworld ultimately means that you will never return to the Overworld and that you will never set foot in the Underworld."
She then turned back to Harry and ominously added, "Your entire existence is now forever tied to this Otherworld through Hecate's Blessing and when this Otherworld falls, as all false worlds fall; so too shall you fall."
"I don't care. I never wanted to leave my home anyway."
"Foolish child, this half-life you have chosen is not a reward; it is a curse," the woman furthest from him chided with a trace of irritation and Harry scowled at her; he couldn't see how staying in the only place he'd ever felt at home could be a curse when compared to the curse that had been living with the Dursleys had been for him.
"You would have better luck talking a rock into changing its colors, sister; the child is too young and far too stubborn to listen to your wisdom," the woman still holding Harry's shoulder dryly pointed out and Harry's scowl turned to a pout over being called stubborn.
Before the woman furthest from him could comment, the one that had been standing closest to the Monument when Harry had first stepped around the corner of the stone wall commandingly interjected, "Cease your idle bickering, my sisters, and let us finalize our current business with the misguided child and be on our way; we have already tarried here far too long and even we can not hold back the Sands of Time for much longer without drawing our brother's ire for intruding upon his domain beyond necessity without his permission."
The woman holding onto Harry hummed in agreement before she finally removed her hand from his person and moved so that she was once again standing between her sisters as all three gathered just a short distance away from him. The three women then linked their hands together to form a small circle as they chanted in the same unfamiliar language that Harry had heard them using when they'd been messing with the green thread that they'd tied around his wrist. After a full five minutes, the women fell silent and dropped their hands before they turned to face Harry once more.
All three women then addressed Harry one last time in unison as they intoned, "Two months you shall have to prepare yourself for the next Quest; a full sixty days and not one second more. Do not be late for we will not be pleased if you should attempt to escape your Destiny a second time, Child of Prophecy."
The three Fates disappeared in a flash of white light immediately after they'd finished speaking and Harry was left alone in front of the Monument of Life at last. Feeling completely and utterly drained, the nine year old crumpled to the floor and pressed his hands to his face as he tried not to burst into tears after everything that had happened to him. Once he'd regained control of himself, he glanced up at his HP Bar and noticed that the golden bar was still sitting well below the quarter mark since he'd not bothered to heal himself after the Boss Fight in the Chamber of Secrets.
Letting out a soft sigh, Harry opened up his Menu in order to grab a Healing Potion out of his Inventory only to freeze in confusion when his eyes fell on the time and date stamp at the top of the default page. He had to read it several times before he could comprehend what he was seeing and even then what he saw didn't make any sense to him. He knew he'd been trapped down in the underground Dungeon for weeks (possibly months!). And yet… according to the time and date sitting at the top of his Menu, he'd actually only been down there for a whopping seven minutes.
Harry rubbed his eyes in an attempt to clear them since he was obviously seeing things but when he opened his eyes to check the time again, it still read: Saturday, December 21, 2019 8:16 PM
"That's not possible…" Harry murmured as he furrowed his brow and stared at the date and time for another several minutes. "It's probably just another stupid glitch."
The idea that he might lose track of passing time bothered Harry because it meant that he'd have a far harder time tracking how much time he had left before he was forced to face his next Quest. He did not want to the Fates to come back and push him around again because he ran out of time without knowing it; he didn't think the old hags were the kind to listen to excuses (much like the Dursleys) and he didn't want them to punish him more than they already had. It was that fear that prompted Harry to open the Settings Menu so that he could link to the internet through the Upload function in order to check the time online.
Expecting it to be well into January by now, Harry was more than a little surprised when the website he'd opened up to check the current date and time in Tokyo (because that was what time the game ran on) and saw that the date and time on his Menu had actually been correct. He really had only spent a total of seven minutes completing the Quest he'd been forced to take. It still felt like he had been in that Dungeon for weeks or maybe even months. He knew the Boss Fight alone had to have taken hours at the least; what with all the ruddy snakes the stupid Monster-Teen had conjured up.
Another frown creased Harry's brow as he suddenly recalled what the one old hag had said about holding back time. Did that mean that the Fates had done something to stop time while he'd been throwing his tantrums and fighting for his life? Why would they do that? Would they do that every time he was on one of their stupid Quests? Or did they only do it this time because it was his first Quest and they wanted to see how long it would take him?
After a few minutes, Harry gave up trying to figure out why the Fates did what they did due to the headache he'd given himself from the sheer number of unanswered questions that were rattling around in his head. He then turned his attention to healing himself and checking his supplies. While in his Inventory, Harry also took the time to check out the Dusky Boots he'd earned as a reward and discovered that they would boost his Hiding Skill and his Defense and Agility Attributes.
They also looked rather cool when he put them on because they made his feet hard to see when he was standing in the shadows. Once he was done admiring his new boots, Harry cautiously headed towards the exit with one hand stretched out in front of his face. When he was able to leave the former Sosei-sha no Ma, Harry breathed out a sigh of relief and had to blink the tears from his eyes; he'd been half afraid that he wouldn't be able to leave the cathedral of Koku Tetsu Kyuu despite completing the first Quest due to the way the one old hag had told him that he wouldn't be able to leave until he'd completed the rest of their stupid Quests.
Thankfully, the invisible wall that had trapped him in the room had vanished with the Fates.
Harry had only one thing to say about that; good riddance!
Translations: Japanese to English
Hajimari no Machi – Starting City or Town of Beginnings
Koku Tetsu Kyuu – Black Iron Palace
Seimei no Ishibumi – Monument of Life
Sosei-sha no Ma – Room of Resurrection
Game Terminology:
Agility – a Character Attribute that is used to calculate how fast a player can move during a fight and how quickly they can attack in rapid succession; the more Stat Points assigned to this Attribute, the faster the play can move and attack
Attributes – are the 'inherited' or 'natural' characteristics that all Players, NPCs, & Monsters are given in an RPG game (examples include Strength, Defense, Agility, etc.)
Avatar – the term for a playable character that a player uses during game play
Defense Stat – a Character Attribute that is used to calculate the amount of damage a Player receives when hit with an attack; the more Stat Points assigned to this Attribute, the lower the amount of damage
Dungeon – an area within the game where players can attack or be attacked by Monsters (or other players)
Guild – group of players that work together for a common goal
HP – Hit Points: the number of Life Force/Life Points/Health Points a person has
Party – a group of two or more individuals that work together for a period of time or a set task
Ranged Fighter – a warrior class character that fights from a distance
SAO – Sword Art Online
Skills – set abilities that can be performed by characters/players in a game
Skill Points – Experience points that are applied towards mastery of an in game skill
Stat Points – Experience points that are applied towards a character's attributes
Harry's Game Data/Stats (After Riddle's Diary):
Category: Data Corrupted
Caste: Warrior
Class: Ranged Fighter
Type: Bowman
Level: 21
HP: ****** System Error: HP Incalculable
Cor: 29,341
Attributes: DEF [21], ATK [23], STR [05], AGI [15], STM [**], & LCK [**]
Unspent Stat Points: [105] (20 extra points carried over from Beta Test)
Main Equipment:
Oak Longbow – Reliable Bow accurate up to 200 yards +10 ATK
Steel Arrows – Med. quality Arrows; oak shafts fletched w/ duck feathers & tipped w/ steel Arrowheads +3 ATK
Dusky Boots – Comfortable Boots that help a player blend in w/ the shadows +10 DEF, +5 AGI
Leather Gloves – Sturdy gloves that protect a player's hands: +1 DEF
Leather Clothes – Sturdy clothes that protect a player's body: +5 DEF
Leather Pack – Sturdy backpack that allows a player to carry extra Items even when their Inventory is full
Equipped Skills: ** System Error: No Limit Applied
(Basic 1-250 pts, Advanced 251-500 pts, Proficient 501-750 pts, Expert 751-999 pts, & Master 1000 pts)
Animal Call – 0052
Archery – 0725
Climbing – 0063
Cooking – 0435
Dead Shot – 0493
Detection – 0498
Fishing – 0399
Hiding – 0454
Howl – 0032
Humming – 0086
Hunting – 0539
Line Shot – 0025
Listening – 0256
Longbow – 0724
Night Vision – 0305
Roar – 0028
Searching – 0646
Short Bow – 0362
Singing – 0029
Sneak – 0681
Sprint – 0198
Tracking – 0592
War Cry – 0043
Whistling – 0048
Unarmed Skills: ** System Error: No Limit Applied
Camping – 0485
Escape – 0289
Navigation – 0591
Research – 0084
Scouting – 0473
Stargazing – 0621
AN: Running a little bit behind here as I'd been busy running around snapping photos instead of editing like I should have been and by the time I realized I hadn't prepped this chapter it was only a few minutes before midnight. Whoops. On the plus side, I've already edited the next chapter so it should be up on time. ~ Jenn =)