Nostalgia World Online 1-2 part 1

 

Chapter 1-2 : Skill Selection Ⅰ (part 1)

 

After the live stream ended, I put my phone in my pocket and exhaled.

「Hahh…」(Arisa)

「I never thought he would choose your question.」(Shougo)

「Arisa, you really do surprising things sometimes…」(Suzu)

「Haha… That kinda made me nervous, to be honest. Suzu, I need your chest to calm me down~」(Arisa)

Saying that, I hugged Suzu who was sitting next to me and buried my face in her chest.

She then hugged my head and stroked my hair.

「Ahh~ Suzu, you smell good as always.」(Arisa)

「Fufu. Arisa, you look like a cute little baby.」(Suzu)

Saying that, Suzu rubbed her chin against my head.

「Ahem! …Umm, guys. I know you two have a strong ‘womance’ relationship, but… Everyone is watching.」(Shougo)

「Hm?」(Arisa)

「Aa…」(Suzu)

While I was wondering if we were doing something weird, I could hear voices from the people around us.

「Look at them. They’re so cute~」
「Why does the view of girls hugging each other always look heart-warming?」
「They remind me of a scene from a yuri manga.」(other college students)

I didn’t really get what they said, but Suzu’s face suddenly turned bright red for some reason.

「Suzu, you okay?」(Arisa)

「W-What do you mean? Of course, I’m okay. A, Anyway, I think we should return to class now. Lunchtime is almost over. Let’s go!」(Suzu)

「Un…」(Arisa)

Suzu let go of me and hurriedly headed to the main building.

Shougo and I shrugged our shoulders and followed her.

 

ーーーーー

 

After today’s lectures were all over, we were finally on our way home.

We still have a few days until NWO is released, but the information about the skills available in the game has already been revealed in the official page, so we can plan which skills we should take when the game is released.

「By the way, you two have a plan today? The list of skills has been made public today. If you don’t have anything to do, wanna come to my room and talk about it?」(Shougo)

「Ara~ You’re so bold to invite two young ladies to your room. What are you planning to do to us~?」(Suzu)

「Kya~ Shougo-kun, you’re so bold~」(Arisa)

「Yeah, yeah. Enough with that. I told you we’re going to talk about the skills in the game. So? You’re coming or not?」(Shougo)

「Well, I don’t have anything particular to do, so I don’t mind. Arisa, how about you?」(Suzu)

「If you come, I’ll come too.」(Arisa)

「It’s decided then.」(Shougo)

Come to think of it, it’s been a while since the last time the three of us played in Shougo’s room.

We played a lot there when we were still in elementary school.

「Shougo, since you invited us, of course, you have prepared snacks for us, right?」(Arisa)

「Aa… I forgot I had to prepare some ‘offerings’ if I wanted to invite you home…」(Shougo)

「Eeeehhh… So you don’t have snacks?」(Arisa)

「It’s alright, Arisa. I’ll buy you something on the way.」(Suzu)

「Yaay~ SuzuSuzu, I love you!」(Arisa)

「Hehe~」(Suzu)

I jumped out of joy and hugged Suzu’s arm.

「Oi, Suzu, I think you’re pampering her too much.」(Shougo)

「She’s too cute, so I can’t help it!」(Suzu)

「I see…」(Shougo)

Before we went to Shougo’s house, we decided to stop by the shopping district and buy a few boxes of dango.

As soon as we got to Shougo’s room, Suzu opened one of the boxes and started feeding me.

「Arisa, say aa~」(Suzu)

「Aa~ Mmm~!」(Arisa)

I’ve bought dango from that stall a few times, and I think this is the best dango in this district. Talking about dango, there’s nothing better than red bean paste dango in my opinion!

There are a variety of dango, like mitarashi dango and tricolor dango. They are delicious, but my favorite is still the red bean paste dango.

*/TL : Mitarashi dango is dango covered with a sweet soy sauce glaze, and tricolor dango is sweet dango with three colors (pink, white, and green) in every skewer, and is normally eaten during hanami (cherry blossom viewing).

「Arisa, you like it?」(Suzu)

「Of course! It’s so good~!」(Arisa)

「Fufu. Here comes another one. Say aa~」(Suzu)

「Aa~ …*munch munch* Hmm~!」(Arisa)

「Aah~ Arisa is so cute~! Another one incoming~!」(Suzu)

「Aaa~~」(Arisa)

「Umm… Guys, can you… stop eating for a minute?」(Shougo)

「What? You want me to feed you too?」(Suzu)

「Like hell I do! The only person who can feed me is ‘her’!」(Shougo)

「Her? Ah, you mean your ex-girlfriend from the art division who ditched you a week ago?」(Suzu)

「Ughh…! Don’t you have some mercy? Anyway, I want you to look at this.」(Shougo)

Shougo put his ten-inch tablet on the table so that we could see it.

On the screen, I could see the official home page of NWO and the list of ‘Acquirable Basic Skills’.

The list was divided into four categories: Weapon Mastery Skills, Magic Skills, Production Skills, and Supplementary Skills.

「Since weapon is probably the element that affects the gameplay the most, I think we should check the Weapon Mastery Skills first.」(Shougo)

After Suzu and I replied to Shougo with a nod, he tapped the ‘Weapon Mastery Skills’ category and expanded it.

There were several basic skills available in this category such as 【Sword Mastery】, 【Spear Mastery】, 【Axe Mastery】, 【Blunt Weapon Mastery】, 【Meele Combat Mastery】, 【Mid-Ranged Weapon Mastery】, 【Bow Mastery】, 【Sickle Mastery】, 【Throwing Weapon Mastery】, and【Musical Instrument Mastery】.

Each skill allowed you to use specific weapons. For example, if you chose 【Sword Mastery】, you would be able to use a steel sword, long sword, katana, claymore, dagger, etc.

【Spear Mastery】allows you to use a spear, lance, pike, polearm, naginata, trident, glaive, etc.

【Axe Mastery】allows you to use a handaxe, great axe, tomahawk, halberd, hatchet, etc.

【Blunt Weapon Mastery】allows you to use a hammer, sledgehammer, steel club, staff, etc. including magic staff if you want to be a magician.

【Meele Combat Mastery】allows you to use fist weapons such as gloves, steel bracers, claws, katar, etc.

【Mid-Ranged Weapon Mastery】allows you to use a whip, chains, morning star, string, etc.

【Bow Mastery】allows you to use all types of bows like a longbow, compound bow, hunting bow, recurve, crossbow, etc.

【Sickle Mastery】allows you to use a sickle, chained sickles, war sickle, scythe, etc.

【Throwing Weapon Mastery】allows you to use throwing knives, throwing axes, kunais, shurikens, chakrams, etc.

Lastly,【Musical Instrument Mastery】allows you to use a harp, a flute, and other musical instruments that are normally used to activate support skills.

「Let’s see what is written here… “As you raise your skill level, the weapon mastery skill you chose will be divided into more detailed categories. Furthermore, the more you spend your skill points on a specific skill, the more value you will get, on the contrary, you will get less value if you spend your skill points on multiple weapon mastery skills.” I see… That kinda sucks.」(Shougo)

「Why?」(Suzu)

「For example, let’s say you want to use a sword, so you learn【Sword Mastery】at the beginning, but after playing for a while, you want to try another weapon like a spear. In that case, you have to raise【Spear Mastery】from level 1.」(Shougo)

「Then you just have to do it. Raise it from level 1.」(Suzu)

「Yeah, but the problem is that it says, “You will get less value if you spend your skill points on multiple weapon mastery skills”, that means it will take a longer time for you to raise your【Spear Mastery】than when you raise your【Sword Mastery】.」(Shougo)

「I see. In other words, you will have a bit of a disadvantage if you don’t focus on raising only one category of weapon mastery skill.」(Suzu)

「Correct. However, either you choose to focus on one skill or you want to learn multiple skills, those two choices have their own advantages and disadvantages. You may be able to get stronger quickly if you focus on one, but you can’t use other weapons. However, if you raise other skills, you will get versatility and will be able to use various weapons, but it will cost you time.」(Shougo)

「I see. You’re more experienced than us in terms of games. What do you think?」(Suzu)

「Honestly, I want to try various weapons in this game. It would be so much fun and less boring. However, I think we still have to carefully choose what kind of weapon we want at first so we won’t regret it later.」(Shougo)

The weapon I want to use, huh…?

Hmm… To cook delicious food, I will need a knife, so I think I will learn【Sword Mastery】… maybe?

I will also need some tools for cooking, so I think I’m gonna raise some of blacksmithing skills as well.

This is a bit confusing…

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