Chapter 28: Isekai Life & Level Up

Corgiel, that puppy-eared angel, floated down into my viewpoint. My gut went cold.

“Did I ... did I die?”

“No, silly! You levelled up! Congratulations!”

Sparkly confetti rained down from above, and Corgiel did a cute little dance.

“Okay ... so why am I here?”

“Oh, you’d prefer a seamless experience? I thought you might prefer to roll for your HP gain! Although, maybe I should have waiting for when you go to sleep rather than just the end of the encounter...”

I looked down at the small, three-sided pyramidal die on the tabletop, floating in the void. It gleamed.

My old nemesis.

I held up a hand. “Uh, while I’m here, can I ask some questions? There are things about this experience that have been bothering me.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Okay. Where’s my greatsword?”

That had been bothering me for quite awhile.

“Oh, so that wasn’t just a means of testing my limits at character generation, hmm?”

Well, about that...

“Don’t worry! I’m just kidding. The sword exists, and someday you’ll find it, but that day isn’t now.”

“Hmm ... okay ... can I still makes requests of you for the game world?”

“I suppose~ but I might not listen! The time for that to be guaranteed has past.”

“Are there any house rules in effect?”

“Well, the rules for conception and such aren’t exactly in the base game, although maybe I ought to adjust them a little. You’ve been knocking up every girl first try so far!”

I’ve been what? Whoa, okay ... that’s ... interesting.

“Uh, so ... are me and Dog still cool after I burned all those spiders?”

“Spiders? Oh, of course, silly! That wasn’t really real, you goof!”

“Really? Uh ... okay ... then, exactly how real is this, then?”

“I wouldn’t recommend dwelling on the metaphysics of this~ For Katriana, Ashryn, and your friends, it’s a very real experience, even if they’re predisposed to like, respect, and love you. It’s a universe centred on you, and it exists to give you happiness, fulfilment and pleasure ... but I think you’ll enjoy it more if you play along and consider people’s feelings~”

“So ... Katriana was always going to fall in love with me, before I requested it?”

“Nope! Well, she didn’t exist until she told you to wake up ... and then, once that happened, she always existed. This is your Heaven, right?”

“I think I get it. Well ... what happens if I die?”

“Well~ if you friends like you enough, you’ll probably get revived! But still, be careful, you don’t want to have the world leave you behind like that~”

“But what if I fail my resurrection chance roll?”

“Hmm, I wonder~”

Or, at least you don’t want to say.

“Speaking of survival, do you want to roll your hit die please?”

“Not yet, I have a few more questions.”

“Hmm~ Okay~”

“Was the line about me being an ‘ethereal prince’ a cheap shot at my having only one HP?”

“Well, if you roll the die you’ll have at least one more, right?”

“You know what I mean...”

“It was a reference to you have magical powers, if you must know~”

“Could you tell me a little bit more about the setting?”

“There’s not much to say~ If you want to know more about it, explore more of it~”

“Why is the water safe to drink, and all that? There seems to be certain ... conveniences and plays to my personal tastes and such.”