The appearance of Rudion watching from the stands seemed truly calm, but in Seria’s eyes, the truth was clearly visible.
‘He seems to be wondering what to do.’
She had known for a while that the man’s abilities were strange, and that he was not as all-powerful as she had first thought… but she had been stubbornly denying it.
No, to be more precise, it would be more accurate to say that she simply hadn’t paid attention to it.
The mid-term practical exam. Even though she knew that he didn’t withdraw out of consideration for her, she had still felt the need to thank him, which only made things more burdensome.
Even that kind of behavior was fine, because it just felt good.
At this point, his weakness didn’t matter to her much anymore.
Who could say anything about believing in what was visible?
Maybe that’s why, after making eye contact with him, the words that appeared were enough to make her heart race.
[He read your expectations.]
[He gained passion from your affection.]
[The affection limit is now unlocked.]
The fact that Rudion had read her expectations, that he had gained passion from the affection she held for him, was truly a joyous thing.
Even though she still didn’t know what exactly he intended, and wasn’t sure if she was even helpful to him.
Just the thought that her emotions had reached him made her heart feel like it might burst.
‘How foolish.’
Why had she become someone so easily swayed?
She had learned that the first person to fall for someone loses, but she never imagined it would be such a miserable defeat.
Still, she was happy, and that was enough…
[The accumulated affection due to restrictions is applied.]
[Affection increases by 7.]
[Current affection: 66/100.]
[You have reached affection level 60!]
She immediately dismissed the words that appeared afterward.
Knowing that she could check the messages later, she had no lingering feelings.
The rewards given once a certain affection level is reached.
She could check those later.
Right now, she wanted to focus on observing Rudion, who seemed to be influenced by her.
But then… as soon as she did, new words began to appear again.
[You have obtained the maximum grade reward, and the affection system’s role is now complete.]
Just as she was about to dismiss this, thinking she’d read it later, she suddenly felt something odd and stopped.
The end of the words was broken and unreadable.
What could this mean?
When she tried to look closely, another set of words appeared.
This time, it was not just part, but the entire text was broken.
She was left dumbfounded, wondering why this was showing up…
The broken words slowly started to return one by one.
Then, after a moment, when all the text became readable, more messages appeared.
[They are starting to take an interest in you.]
[The affection system supports you.]
[Good luck.]
Interest? Support?
She realized something else.
The affection system seemed to be something close to a sentient being, and ‘they’ referred to some unidentified individuals.
But… she was certain that this interest was not a positive one. She had a strong gut feeling about that.
Suddenly, she saw Alkine, who was sitting next to her.
Would she ever see these messages too?
Thinking about this, she became irritated and blocked Alkine’s fixed gaze on Rudion with her hand.
“Ugh, Seria. What are you doing all of a sudden… Did I do something wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“That didn’t look like nothing.”
She didn’t dislike her. In fact, she was quite fond of her.
But she just didn’t like the fact that she had feelings for Rudion.
She was trying to balance these two emotions… accepting it by herself, enduring it by herself…
‘The more I think about it, the more I regret it.’
Once she had made a choice, the responsibility was hers as well.
It was too late to back out now, so all she could do was accept it. And…
‘I won’t fall behind.’
Even if it meant giving him some pressure, she had to have the courage to act first.
Though it felt strange to say this herself… honestly, Rudion was a man who was fortunate.
So, she just wished he would handle it.
“It’s really nothing. Let’s just finish watching what we were watching.”
“Uh… okay…”
She decided to ask Rudion about the affection system and their interest later.
Trying to figure it out alone would only increase her anxiety, and besides, Rudion probably already knew about it.
For now, she decided to focus on watching Rudion, who had finally started to move.
[The Irregular trait has been updated.]
[New! Irregular Patch Notes 1.1.2]
After reading each message one by one and analyzing them, she could make one very weak guess.
It seemed like the game developers were planning to use this trait to create another stage-like content.
Was Rudion not just a discarded extra dummy data after all?
Of course, I’ve always thought that Rudion’s character was too well-developed for an extra… but now that I know he’s actually an important character, I feel rather strange.
Well… ultimately, he didn’t even appear in the original work, so in my heart, he still remains an extra, but respecting the original work is important, right?
Anyway, I only made a simple guess, and there wasn’t much information gained right away.
The most I could gather was that the “Irregular” trait was meant to be used for some content test, and that unlike the original game, which progresses through a story, this was designed in a stage format.
That was about it. Since it hadn’t been officially released, there wasn’t much to dig into.
Right now, though, rather than worrying about that, the priority was to try using the effects I had just gained.
[Delay Removed]
[Removes the pre- and post-move delay for smoother gameplay.]
“Pre- and post-move delay removed…”
The first thing that came to mind was the dash cancel I had been using.
It was an acceleration technique using evasion, but because of the pre- and post-move delay of the evasion, I had been calling it dash cancel.
But… what if the pre- and post-move delay for evasion was gone?
Curious, I tried using it three times in succession, moving away from the twins.
“Whoa, what the…?”
The pre- and post-move delay was definitely gone.
Just considering the speed of the evasion alone, there was no way I’d feel any lack in forward speed.
But… why was the evasion distance like this? The speed seemed even faster than before?
I still felt like I was running my normal distance, but now it felt like I had completely transcended that level.
It was like using some sort of teleportation technique.
Evasion and parrying had already been ignoring the laws of physics, so it felt weird, but compared to the sensation I just experienced, it felt pretty normal.
Anyway, thanks to the improved performance, I ended up distancing myself further than expected, awkwardly walking back to my original position.
I could hear some murmurs as if they were trying to guess what I had just done, but it was really nothing.
[Evasion (Additional Effect)]
[Added some special effects related to evasion as a default.]
It was just a little mishap because I hadn’t thought about the additional effect.
By the way, I was surprised to see that the additional effect was like this.
There was indeed a function to increase evasion distance and speed.
But usually, such effects are temporary, used only in certain content, not something that is added as a basic function.
Could this have been a test for this function? A content-based function test?
I’m not sure, but one thing was certain.
‘This is insane.’
The already overpowered skill had evolved into something even more broken.
It felt a bit hard to control right now, but once I got used to it, it would be far superior to how it was before.
But this wasn’t the end. The additional effects for parrying and the changes in attack effects were still to come.
As for parrying… it didn’t seem like the twins were planning to attack anytime soon, so I’d skip that and move on to the main dish: the attack.
[Attack (Effect Change)]
[Changed the calculation formula for attacks based on stage progression…]
I roughly understood what it meant, but I still didn’t know how it worked.
However, if my guess was correct, it wouldn’t seem like an overpowered attack at first glance.
‘At first glance, anyway.’
In games focused on combat, stage-based content often prioritizes control.
They usually design the stages so that you can’t just spam attacks, and you need to memorize and fully understand the patterns to clear them.
In terms of combat, it was something close to a Souls-like game.
Even with weak stats and poor equipment, you could still deal at least a little damage to the most fearsome monsters. That’s the kind of game where you could eventually defeat them.
If I had gained such abilities, then I wasn’t afraid anymore.
The concern I had about “lack of offensive options” was solved.
Of course, if my guess was correct, it might still result in situations where I’d be dealing weak damage, which could lead to a disaster where I’d spend the whole day just trying to take down one monster…
But still, at least I had a way to fight back now.
I could fill the gaps. Compared to when I had no options at all, this was a hundred times better.
‘Now I can relax a bit more.’
There would be many events to come.
Every time, I had secretly felt a bit of self-loathing about having to rely on Seria or Alkine’s strength. But now, I felt like I could reduce that worry.
Thanks to that, I had an idea of how to respond to the twins’ defensive stance.
Turning a disadvantage into an advantage like this…
It felt a bit cheap, but I felt like it was a justifiable form of self-defense.
I thought to myself while charging at the twins, who were still in a defensive posture.
Half of it was real combat, and half of it was an experiment.
The result was pretty much decided.