New Game?! (pt 2)

[Your ward is waiting to be summoned? Summon ward?]

"Hmmm...not yet. I don't know the lvl of these creatures and I can't have my only line of defense dying on me. Hmm. Is there a way to view lvls?"

As soon as he asked lvls appeared. The nipple-less tarantula woman ranged from LVL 5-15.

"You're kidding me!" Hotaka paled. It's like he had been thrown into intermediate mode difficulty. Wasn't it normal for everyone around to be the same level when starting a game? Is it because he entered late?

"Is there a way for me to earn experience by fighting? They said I can learn magic right?"

On his tablet, a screen with his profile popped up.

[Hotaka Subaru Hopson

Age: 17

Race: human

Class: Host

Lvl 1

Mp:37

Hp: 36

Dex: 10

Int: 70

Spd: 7

[Traits:]

"What's this?" Hotaka didn't expect him to have skills already in game

[Pianist - max

Horror gamer-max

Media Influencer-50

Nerd-max

Chef-40

Tidy-max]

Hotaka blinked. What the heck? Aren't these his real life traits, is this what the game meant when it said he had been given accommodations to help him survive? Hmmm. Looks like the traits had descriptions.

[Pianist- with max lvl acquired the subclass of Bard has been unlocked. A musician is a maestro of the soul. Buff abilities of your allies, debuff enemies and purify your surroundings of negative energies and impurities

[note: as soul magic is a variant type of light/dark magic, the undead, evil spirits and daemon are extremely weak to light magic but for dark the opposite.]

[Horror gamer- Exposing oneself to many horrors has desensitized you over time. When facing the undead, the player will not be paralyzed by fear. The Damage the player receives from denizens of hellville due to shock is reduced. The player can calmly assess the situation even while panicking.]

[Media Influencer- This person has nearly mastered the art of entertainment. The denizens of Haven will find the player Charismatic and Entertaining, is more obliged to be persuaded, and listen to favors.]

[Nerd- This player becomes fixated on things that catch their interest, their love of learning makes them pick up skills quickly and when enchanting items or deciphering texts has a higher success rate of total comprehension.]

[Chef- the player can recognize and analyze edible items and use them to create food. Can heal and buff abilities of allies with food. ]

[Tidy- cleaning is this player's hobby. It takes the player less time to clean.

(note: untidy places are more likely to attract denizens of Helleville )

(due to careful observation appraisal skill is unlocked.)

(due to maxed skill level of tidy. Barriers are created preventing weak denizens from entering places that have been cleaned by this player.)

(Daemons are weakened when on this space but able to move. ) ]

Hotaka widened his eyes in awe. Who knew his traits would be somewhat useful in a survival rpg? He understood his role was something like a supporting character, the only ability he could use to fight the uninvited guests would be by playing an instrument and the only way he could deter uninvited guests was by cleaning. The thing was. . . the only instrument in the house was in the ballroom, the heart of Subaru Estate but as for the cleaning closets… Hotaka could recall at least four closets in the main house stocked with cleaning tools and supplies. And if he's correct…

Hotaka pulled up the layout of the area surrounding him on his tablet. One of the closets down the hall around the corner seemed to be glowing. What luck! He quickly ran there and opened the closet door an unnatural grin stretching across his face.

"Hall A cleared!"

The heads of the nipple-less tarantula women all turned at the sound of someone's voice. The boy had returned only this time he came clad in rubber gloves, a spray bottle tied to his belt and a cleaning rag. He dipped the rag into the bucket, positioned himself with his butt cocked up in the air and began to push off the ground with his feet. He slid into the room in a straight line.

The nipple-less tarantula women twitched, in a split second they lunged.

BAM!

Hotaka nervously looked up. The spider legs kept hitting an invisible wall surrounding him.

"!"

Needless to say even though he was protected it freaked him out when he got scratched upon slightly moving out of his original position. The scratch began to swell, and with it came a strong throb that halted his work.

[You've been pricked by the hair of a spider ghoul! Quickly remove! Paralysis kicks in, in 10 seconds!]

He pulled out the needle like hair only to regret it as it hurt more. Blood flowed out his arm like a straw out of a juice box. 

Hotaka left the rag, squeezed his arm and retreated back down the straight path, back to the door where he retrieved a mop and bucket filled with soapy water. He wrapped his arm with a paper towel, pressing down on it. His jaw clenched from the pain, and he couldn't help recalling the worlds. Life Reality Multi-Mass Online Role Playing Game. 

The pain felt so real, that it scared him. 

The nipple-less tarantula women were helpless against him as he mopped the floor with one arm. Once he mopped around them, the spider ghouls could no longer retreat, they remained stuck in place like a bug mounted in a glass frame. Satisfied, Hotaka wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Not so scary anymore now are yah? Hehe…" Hotaka giggled to himself as he inspected the ghouls. He clapped his hands together.

"Ah this would be a good chance to summon my ward now huh?" As he pulled out his tablets the spider ghouls let out a scream so loud it shattered all the glass windows in the room and left his head ringing, ribs and bones reverberating. He could hear strange sounds coming from outside. Heavy but skittering steps. Hotaka quickly headed back towards the door, grabbed a broom and swept away the glass from the window into a dust pin. As he stooped down to collect it he could feel a new gaze on him. He looked up to see the body of a very tall man. So tall, their face couldn't be seen through the window.

Hotaka gulped. He should be fine with the barrier in place right? He threw the glass shards out the window at the thing.

Very quickly the body bent sideways, it's neck was next to its waist. It's big bug-sized eyes were an abnormal black, and as it stared at Hotaka fixated, its lips puckered. A bit of drool staining its lips.

Hotaka blinked.

"Are you supposed to be scary?"

The tall thing didn't blink.

Hotaka laughed. "What the heck, you're like that old yokai out of the video games I used to play with Grand Kat. What was your name. . .uh, it was Takai-san right?"

The tall thing didn't blink but it brought it's face closer to the window.

"I'm really surprised. To think there'd be such a cute-looking Takai-san here. Really, how nostalgic...ehh? Then does that mean other monsters in that game, are in this one too? Do the same rules also apply?"

The tall naked man suddenly pressed his face against the glassless window but it was unable to enter. Hotaka, marveled at this. "Cleanliness is Godliness, isn't it? Looks like you can't enter." Hotaka went back to gather his cleaning supplies, smirking. 

"If you could make a character class for a video game what would it be? And what would they do?" Grand Kat suddenly asked them the question in the middle of a race.

"Huh?" The question got his hopes up, he veered off-road and crashed. "Wait, you're asking me?! Really?!"

"What would it be?" 

"Ah! Oooh! Janitorial staff!" 

Karachi blinked. "Janitors? Hmm. That's not exactly what I'm going for."

"It's just an umbrella term. It would be interesting if the maids, butlers, and groundskeepers were like a cleric class. They can restore sanity by serving meals, purifying unholy spaces by cleaning and up keeping the place. Or, I know! Like those mages who make barriers, they can make barriers! Holy- no! PURE spaces!" 

"Ho." Grand Kat listened on with folded arms on the sofa of the game room.

"But you can't make it to easy for them, they gotta max out their level, until then they can only purify spaces to a certain percentage. Like their barriers have health bars, and their dishes reduce insanity by a certain amount. Ahhh, but even more effective if the staff are christian!"

"Hmm. There's an idea."

"You don't like it?"

"It's... refreshing. I've definitely never heard of it before."

A heavy silence lingered in the air as Grand Kat stared. Hotaka suddenly felt embarrassed. "It's whatever, I'm not really serious about it. You asked so suddenly so I couldn't really think! A ninja cat maybe?" 

"Ninja cats have been done before."

"Forget I said anything then! Sheesh, you're so picky, just pick something and make it cool. Give it new abilities that have never been done before."

The conversation haunted him back then, but Grand Kat actually executed the idea by adding abilities to traits. He was curious about the class trees in the game, but he needed to focus on the tasks at hand first.

"Ah, man this is really inconvenient. Hmm, I think there was a cart in the laundry room. That's… in the basement. . ." Hotaka contemplated the thought. Did he really want to go to the basement? Even in real life, he had rarely visited that area. "Haha... let's just summon my ward first. I'd like to summon my ward now!" Hotaka yelled. His tablet reappeared in his hand and the words "Summoning Ward" with a loading screen appeared.

"Urrrrrrrr….." The sound came from the window. Takai-san was making a fuss. To think the spiders ghouls had been so noisy only summoning one of him. It was sorta funny.

Hotaka grabbed the mop, bucket, broom, and rag and proceeded his way to the next area, that was the left wing, where his room was located.