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Waifu Catalog Nightmare Mode by BatRou-Dawg

Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural, Words: 294k+, Favs: 159, Follows: 172, Published: Jun 27, 2023 Updated: Jun 29, 2023

16Chapter 6

Stephen Baratheon POV

"…and then, the prince and princess lived happily ever after." He finished the story and then noted with silent exasperation that Shireen had already fallen asleep.

'Oh well, nothing for it.' He thought as he kissed her forehead and then covered her with the blanket before he quietly tiptoed out of the room.

"Sam, Lena. How are you two doing this fine evening." He asked to the guard and maid gossiping outside the door. Probably planning their 'secret' night tryst or something. As if something like that ever remains a secret from others. Especially in a dreary castle where people have nothing better to do but gossip.

"Evening my lord. We're doing fine my lord" The guard replied, straightening up while the maid courtesies with a quiet "Milord".

"How's your father doing Sam?" He asked softly and the guard shook his head.

"His health continues to fail in his old age. The good maester said that there's nothing we can do aside from making sure that his last days are peaceful."

"You have my condolence Sam." He said before turning to Lena. "And how was sister's marriage Lena. Did everything go well. Is her husband treating her well."

"Y… yes milord. Thanks for asking." Lena replied in a squeaky voice. She was one of the new maids in the castle that came to replace the ones that he had removed (for being spies). And she was still a bit shy when talking to nobility.

Admittedly, it was his mother who did the removing part, and Melisandre who informed her about those maids being spies. He had Melisandre do it on his behalf since having him tell his mother about the various spies in the castle would look suspicious and out of place.

As for how he knew about who was a spy and who wasn't? Let's just say that Observe is a very valuable skill for him.

"Good. Have a good night you two." He said and the two bowed their heads as he walked down the corridor to his own room, greeting any other guard or maid he met on the way.

Ever since he was born in this world, he'd tried his best to remember the names of all the servants, guards, or knights in his (or his father's) service.

He would like to believe that he did a pretty good job of it. But it wasn't until he gained Gamer System that his name remembering abilities truly went through the roof.

A good part of it could be attributed to his increased Intelligence stat. He'd levelled up twice during the last few weeks since gaining Gamer System by doing miscellaneous quests. And had gained 5 free stats each time he levelled up, which he promptly dumped in the Intelligence stat (Mostly to make himself more intelligent, but also to increase his total Mana Points).

But some of it could be attributed to the new skill he gained called Memorization.

Memorization Lvl 37- Allows the Gamer to remember things 10% easier and for a 10% longer period of time per level.

The skill also came in hand when he is studying in the castle library.

This skill, along with the Speed Reading skill Lvl 23 (gives 10% faster and focused reading every level) allowed him to go through the books in the library at a terrifying pace.

At this point, he feared that if he continued reading books at this rate, then in a year or two, there will be nothing left for him to read in the castle library and he'll have to import books from other places to read, which would be rather expensive.

He greeted another guard before finally entering his own room. It was a rather large room, well lit by the various candles illuminating it.

He's told his mother time and time again to not waste so much money on buying these candles since he saw them as a waste of money, but she never listened.

He loved his mother Selyse, truly. Even if she was not his first mother. But she had no head for coin. And used up every last bit that Stannis sent them.

A few minutes waiting in his room and he heard a knock on the door. He opened it and found the stableboy huffing with exhaustion near the door and getting a disapproving look from the guard.

"Here it is milord" The boy said amidst gasping breath as gestured toward a sack filled with round and smooth stones that he gathered from the beach.

He checked their quality for a moment before he nodded. "Thank you Jenkar. Here's your reward." He said, throwing a copper star the boy's way.

"It's me honour milord." The boy said with two quick bows before he scuttling out of the corridor.

Once the boy was out of his view, the guard spoke. "You shouldn't keep giving coin to the servants my lord. It's their duty to serve you at your back and call."

"Perhaps Maekar. But being generous has never hurt anyone." He said before adding a teasing tone to his voice. "Plus, you take my coin easily enough. Are you not supposed to serve me as well?"

The guard's cheek went a bit rosy at his hypocrisy being pointed out to him but he didn't wait around to argue with the man. "Good night Maeker." He said and took the sack before closing the door behind him.

Once inside his room, he took out the stones and put them all in his Inventory.

His guard and the stableboy were no doubt curious about what he did with these stones each night, but they were disciplined enough to keep their questions to themselves.

He waited another moment to make sure that no one else was going to disturb him. No one ever did, but going to the ID always left him hesitant.

What if someone came to his room while he was gone. What if his mom needed him for something and barged into his room, only to find it empty.

It would be rather embarrassing if he returned from his ID and found the entire castle searching for their 'missing lord'. And it would be downright dangerous, if they saw him coming out of the ID themselves.

He'd invested a lot of time and money to make sure that the staff and guards in the castle were loyal. But their loyalty has never been put to the test. So he wasn't sure as to how trustworthy they actually were.

Regardless, he needed to do this. So after some last minute hesitation, he gathered his courage and spoke. "Create ID." While channeling his magic outward.

Instantly, a few options appeared in front of him. Empty ID and the other options were ? in grey. He had a feeling that he won't unlock them until his ID skill levelled up. He clicked on the 'Empty ID' option and suddenly appeared back in his own room.

Except, all the background noises have vanished from the room and the world was so quiet that you can hear the sound of pin drop to the ground. That was how he always knew the he'd appeared in the Empty ID. Because that's exactly what it was. Empty. Of all life.

In short order, he went down to the large courtyard where the guards trained in the morning. This courtyard was larger than the one that was used for the training of the knights and their squares. (Because nobility can't be seen mingling with small folk and all that jazz.)

He was pretty sure this larger courtyard was once used to keep the Targaryen dragons. And had been put to other use when the dragons died out. And yes, he had searched this place throughly for any secret place where a dragon egg could be hidden as well. Alas, he never found one. He'll eventually have to go to Dragonmont to search for any petrified dragon eggs but that was for later.

What mattered to him right now, was that this courtyard was larger and gave him more room for his own training.

He swiftly picked up a heavy leather bag filled with large rocks, tied it to his back and started jogging around the courtyard.

The first night he'd done so, he'd gained 2 to Vit, Agi and Str stats. But those stats gains had tapered out pretty quickly afterward. Mostly because carrying a heavy bag did not really feel all that tiring anymore.

Nowadays, he has to work for 2-3 whole days before earning a single stat. And no doubt this time gap would increase further and further as his training went along. But he was patient and willing to work hard so that one day he could curb stomp the Night King's ass.

He idly wondered if there some truth to theories of the existence of the Night Queen. Or corpse Queen, as some called her.

Since she was not shown in the Waifu Catalog list, he decided that she probably didn't exist. Or used to exist but died a long time ago.

Not to mention that even if she did exist right now, he did not have the Stamp required to capture her. And good luck having the Corpse Queen fall in love with him.

After running around for a while, he did strength exercises. With rocks that were as heavy as three adult men.

Str stat was the one that showed the most improvement out of all his stats. Str now hovering around 48 while Agi and Vit remained at 23 and 31 respectively. (10 stat being the strength, speed and stamina of an average adult man.)

Even though it's only been a few weeks since he gained Gamer System, he now has to lower his physical stats below a certain level everything he entered the sparring yard. So as to not kill his sparring partner by mistake.

He didn't want the reputation of Maegor the Cruel, thank you very much.

After the physical training came the part that he liked the most.

Magical training.

Or what little magical spells he'd managed to create while practicing on his own.

Mana Arrow, Mana Bomb, Mana Shield, Mana Step, and Mana Rope.

Aside from these, there were a few other mana skills that he created by applying his mana into other things like his body or his weapons. Skills like Pitch, Enhance Body, and Enhance Weapon.

He practiced with all the mana skills he had but paid more attention to Pitch, Enhance Body and Enhance Weapon.

Mostly because he was able to use these skills without anyone else noticing any magic being used. But also because of how mana efficient these skills were. And of these three, Pitch was his favourite.

Enhance Body and Enhance Weapons were pretty self explanatory as skills. They enhanced his body and the damage that a particular weapon did. What Pitch did, was increase the accuracy and speed of any projectile he threw by 10% per level.

Hence the pebbles.

He took out one of those pebbles and poured a little bit of mana into it before throwing it at the straw dummy on the other side of the training yard.

-3 MP.

The pebble zipped past his hand and tore a hole in the centre of the straw dummy.

Now, Pitch skill was only at Lvl 13 and not yet capable of tearing throw straw dummies on its own. What gave his throws so much power was another skill that he had. Though this skill was a mundane instead of magical.

Throw.

A skill that allowed him to throw things faster and with more accuracy. 3% per level.

It did basically the same as his Pitch skill at a lower efficiency. But since this skill was at level 42, compared to his Pitch skill, this one was more useful.

The reason he'd not been able to increase his Pitch skill fast enough was because it required mana to use. And despite his Mana Points being in the 500s right now, he still ran out of mana quickly during practice, and it recharged at a slow pace. So he was only able to practice his magical skills for a limited amount of time in a day, slowing their progress.

After throwing away every single pebble he ran out of things to do and used Escape ID after coming back to his room.

A moment later, the background noise of the day to day life returned and he let out a sigh of relief. The oppressive silence of the Empty ID always filled him with slight discomfort. Though not enough for Gamer Mind to activate.

But just as soon as that happened, he got another notification from the Gamer System.

Ding!

You've Levelled Up your Create ID skill!

Create ID skill now Level 2!

You've unlocked a new Instant Dungeon!

Zombie ID!

Would you like to enter it?

Yes/No.

He stared at the notification for a few moments before he clicked No.

He could probably curbstomp the normal zombies easily with how strong he'd become. But he wasn't so confident against the Zombie Boss and there was no reason to rush into this. He would go there once he has a weapon, armour and more pebbles to throw around. And was better prepared for a long fight.

After all, the Gamer System wasn't going anywhere and he still had years before the canon timeline came. He could afford to wait and be patient.