UFF: Chapter 1 (Patreon)

Chapter 1

Laura awoke, clutching her face as she was still panting violently clutching at her eyes that had just had shards of broken microwave door slammed into her eyes. This was of course after apparently having been so distracted by reading the latest chapter of her favorite web novel that she inadvertently left her keys and an aluminum wrapped leftover sandwich in the microwave for almost two minutes.

Idly she had set the timer and walked away, which ironically would have saved her life, though her home was a different story entirely. As Laura was fairly certain that there was a devastating fireball that quickly erupted from the explosion that also caused further damage to Laura’s burning eye sockets.

“AHH!” Laura screamed as her eyes were still going through the pain. Though now it seemed that the pain her eyes were going through was altered slightly, it was more subtle.

For a moment Laura could even swear she smelled the smell of copper and sulfur.

Then blessedly the pain was gone.

“Karen are you awake?” A strange, yet oddly familiar voice called out to Laura. Then large hands reached down and grabbed to comfort Laura. “Did it work? Did you awaken?”

“Huh, what?” Laura asked, clearly realizing that these people were talking about her, but not quite understanding why they would talk to her.

“Karen, this is very important, say ‘status screen display.’” The oddly comforting voice said.

Then before Laura had a chance to understand just how odd the entire string of events that she was sharing was, she said the phrase, even though she was clearly not a Karen.

“Status Screen display.”

Then like that a giant blue screen appeared showing information that looked oddly familiar, and yet completely off putting having it grow and appear directly in front of her, in this odd way.

Worse, if she moved her head even slightly, the display would move with her eyes, constantly keeping at an optimal distance.

“Don’t move dear. It might seem disorienting at first, but you should be very proud of yourself. Oh, and you are capable of high magic, that is fantastic.”

Name: Karen <No Known Surname>

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Magical Affinities:                   Current Rating  /  Maximum Rating

Primary: Combat Support             F                                              S

Secondary: Spatial                           F                                              S

Tertiary: <Unknown>                     F                                              SSS

Attributes:                   Current Rating  /  Maximum Rating

Strength:                             F                              B

Dexterity:                            C                             B

Stamina:                              D                             B

Perception:                        D                             A

Intelligence:                      B                             S

Magic:                                  C                             S

Abilities:

Death Sight – Can see and talk to spirits (might cause minor problems when interacting with people).

Bloodline: Yes, awakened

Survivor’s Bloodline: Your body is exceptionally good at taking every ounce of resource from food converting it to fat, that can later be turned into extra mana. Every percentage of bodyfat increases your overall mana pool by an equivalent percentage.

Pausing to take it all in, Laura realized a few things at this exact moment. One, for whatever reason she was now dreaming, or had died from the inadvertent microwave explosion. Second, she might have, and this is a big might as tests would be needed to confirm, but she might have been transposed into the very world she had been reading about at the time of her death. A game so popular and expansive that it had started off as a web novel that got made into a television series, and later turned into an open world video game that could be explored and conquered.

Then pausing for a second, she realized the third and likely saddest part of this whole mess. Namely the fact that this world that was so immersive was also what some uncultured people would consider an Otome game, that is a game that is targeted towards women. Which Laura being a female felt a strong desire to partake in the world, for in addition to going around as Claudia the princess of Rosanthimum, you could do almost anything in this world, from learn magic. To fight with magic. To use magic to impress multiple different love interests and future kings of the empires, at the Magical Academy. An academy that Laura was all but destined to be able to go to, due to having not just one, but all three magical affinities chosen.

Better still, by all accounts, Karen of the Ancients, as she would later be called, was arguably the most powerful of all the attendants at school. Even going so far as to find out that she was in fact the long-lost descendant of the Ancients, those people who first discovered magic and began taming the world, leaving behind ancient tombs and catacombs of knowledge to be discovered. Unfortunately, these ancient tombs could only be awakened by someone possessing the ancient’s bloodline, which none of the main characters had, in fact at first everyone assumed it was Princess Claudia who had the connection to the ancients. It was only once you went on solo missions with the different members that you found that Claudia could never enter the tombs of the ancients unless she had Karen with her. Karen of course could go on her own, which was how she earned the nickname of the Ancients, from fans.

Honestly Karen was possibly the worst option. She was cute enough to look at, but her beauty was only made so that Princess Claudia’s elegance and grace could stand on full display. First Karen had eyes that glowed a sickly yellow, this was a sign that her ancient bloodline had awakened. Where if she went to more Ancient Labyrinths the color of her eyes would gradually darken, thereby improving her status amongst the ancient tombs and allowing her to go deeper. For reasons to keep everyone from being able to enter the easiest and most lucrative of ancient tombs right at the start, this wasn’t the worst of reasons. Though it was slightly annoying trying to find all the pre-requisite tombs to gain further access.

Then there was the problem with her bloodline. Honestly the idea of being able to survive off of very little food and water was amazing, as it meant that Karen herself would eat very little of the party’s rations, making her even more crucial for staying in the main party. Added to that was the fact that all her magic was highly needed at the end game levels as Combat Support allowed you to heal and buff at the same time, while only using one magical slot. Then when she got powerful enough, she could help fast travel with her Spatial magic to anywhere she had been a god send when trying to find that one item needed to cause a breakthrough, before teleporting to the middle of enemy lines.

That and the third hidden class of magic is the Arcane branch of magic, the most powerful brand of magic that had been lost to time, as it was a brand of magic that only the Ancients could wield. All of this showed that Karen was by far and away the perfect team member. For just at the moment when she started feeling more and more useless, particularly when more damage dealers were able to join the party, and you were stuck between choosing quality face time with four love interests, going for the harem achievement, or just three love interests and Karen, that is when Karen would always become even more invaluable to the party, all but ruining the harem ending for most users.

All of these memories and more about the game, the books, and the world came flooding into Laura’s mind as she realized she had been given her ultimate wish. That of being reborn as anyone into this thrilling world.

Yes, she was a commoner. Yes, she was the Ugly Fat Friend that made the protagonist look even more amazing. But this time, Laura knew one thing above all else.

She knew that Princess Claudia Von’Roseblade would need her a lot more than she needed the princess. Actually, thinking about it, with her knowledge of the world and understanding of Karen’s true value to a team and to the world as a whole, Laura was certain she didn’t need anyone.

“This is great, I will send word to the King tonight about your breakthrough and capacities as a wizard. It is clear that you will be awarded a special scholarship to attend the Magical University.” The Priest spoke, hearing his voice, Laura felt slightly uneasy.

“Oh, this is perfect. My girl will become a noble.” The man, clearly Laura’s father exclaimed excitedly.

And like that, Laura got her first true quest in the new magical world of wonder she found herself in.

New Quest: Choosing Your Fate: You are at a crossroads for the future, you must choose how your future unfolds.

Option 1: Go home, get a good nights rest, and be selected into the Von’Roseblade. Rewards: Being selected as a personal retainer for Princess Claudia Von’Roseblade, Magical University Admittance guaranteed.

Option 2: Forge your own story path in this world by sneaking out after midnight, but before the King’s guards can find you. Conditional: don’t get caught. Rewards: Variable, based on success rate.

Time Remaining to start: 05 Hours 33 Minutes 22 Seconds.

Time Remaining until Option 1 is the only choice: 09 Hours 33 minutes 22 Seconds.

Seeing the two options before her, Laura, or rather Karen still had forced time to think about her decision. On the one hand, she would be pulled into the Von’Roseblade estate and given the title of a minor Baron once all this was said and done. Then depending on how the world conquest part of the game went after the Academy setting, her rank could increase to that of a Viscount. For those that went the harem route, where Karen was excluded from party functions, Baron was the highest ranking Karen could unlock.

In her mind she went through the details of the game world. Getting into the Magical Academy wasn’t easy, in fact being as it was the only source that could hand out soul bound certificates, it was seen as the only true authority for identifying the qualifications of a magic user. Meaning anyone caught without an Academy provided seal of approval was automatically considered a heretic. Where they were either cut down if they were too old, or if they were found while they were still young enough, they were allowed to enter the Magical University, so long as they paid their way.

Yes, Laura herself was now aware that she was using Magical Academy and Magical University interchangeably, the reason for that was simple. Magical Academy is what everyone who played the game and spoke about the chapters called the magical institution, while the official in game title was the Magical University.

With that one fact in mind, Laura decided to squirrel that nugget away as a way to try to identify future regressors like her who were also transported into the role of different characters.

Were all the leads chosen already, leaving behind the OP side chick that often gets discarded, despite how much value she adds to understanding the ancient wonders of the world?

With those thoughts and more, Laura, now Karen, found herself following her ‘father’ to their place of rest.

“Why don’t you go to sleep pumpkin.” The father said, kissing Karen on the head.

Karen could only nod, as she made her way into her cramped room with only one window.

Seeing the window, Karen realized how she would make her escape, if she actually chose that route. Then staring blankly for a minute, she realized that unless she could cast magic, there was no purpose for her to go out on her own, as her only means of survival would be if she could use her Combat Support magic to boost her physical traits, while also allowing her the ability to heal any damage that came. There were other functions that could also be covered by the school, but first baby steps.

Focusing her mind, Karen, yes if Laura was going to do this, she needed to go all in, so she now actively thought of herself as Karen. Pausing for a moment, Karen as upright on her floor, then breathing in, she felt inwardly for the heat, the tiny ball of mana.

Having done this hundreds of times the process seemed both simple and foreign. As soon as the VR version of the game came out, Laura of course got the set and went through the magical processes. She loved magic, and everything dealing with the magical system of this world. At one point she even got her AI mod to join her to help her break down the characters used in each spell. To her shock the characters used were a cross between old Aramaic and Greek letters that were used interchangeably to create different words. It was also later shown that by changing out different variables, like the Greek for Aramaic equivalent letter was how a spell was upgraded.

Knowing this, and the final structures, Laura breathed in, then breathed out as Karen, and as she did, a faint surge of energy was felt pulsing down her outstretched arm, showing a swirling ring of mana energy to her eyes.

Then pausing for a moment Karen held the spell, as a smile formed on her lips. She was happy just being able to see the light, to feel the now familiar thrum and heat of her spell flowing through her body. It was oddly different to feel the glow and heat coming from within, rather than from the externals of her calibrated body suit she wore, but the effect was the same. The world let her know that she had cast a spell.

Better still, she had cast the ultimate iteration of the basic enhancement spell.

New Spell Cast: Beginner’s Strength (Perfected Form): You have cast the perfected form of the Beginner’s ranked Strength spell. Strength automatically increased by one and a half ranks. Current Rating E+.

Then with that casting came a notification that Karen didn’t even know existed.

Perfect Combat Support Caster: You managed to cast a perfect form of a Combat Support spell. All Combat Support related spells are cast as if one Rank Higher. Current Rank: F. Effective Rank: E. Note: this can cause your spells to be cast at a proficiency rating above your Maximum Rating.

This wasn’t much, but it showed that there were still a few crossovers from the real world to the game world. This was a major accomplishment that required the user to actually study the manuals in the school, and either let the character’s reading each page out loud translate, or for the user to actually internalize the text. Being as magic was the greatest part of this new world, Karen of course immersed herself fully into the world of magic, that this became an easy accomplishment to get right from the start that made power leveling that much easier. Especially as she was now the equivalent of an E ranked caster.

Smiling brightly to herself, Karen breathed in a sigh of relief as she then went onto the next one. “One down two more to go.”

Then like that, she decided that for the next few hours that she had to wait, she would spend on doing the same for both Spatial and Arcane. Though Arcane wasn’t the real word for it, and until she went to the ancient temples and saw the name of the magic, it wouldn’t unlock. Well the magical school was already unlocked, but the name would not change from <Unknown> to whatever it was, until she saw the odd wording that would somehow auto translate in her mind.

The lack of a name of course didn’t mean Karen couldn’t cast the spells associated with her Arcane class, they would just be known as those odd things that Karen can do.

Smiling brightly, Karen went about making it so she would be a be a virtual powerhouse for each of her magical classes.

The spells came to her, as she had plenty of time to learn the basic spells for each of all the character’s classes.

The first and easiest spell for a Spatial mage to learn was Far Viewing: Where she would effectively send her sight or any of her five senses away from her body. The easiest was sending her sight, but over time the need to overhear distant conversations was also important. Fortunately, the thieve route was a questline that fully interested her, so she masted all the basic spells for Far Viewing, including their perfected, or ultimate forms of each spell. Again, something that she might be able to use to distinguish between people like her who might try to disrupt the normal storyline, and those who are actually native to this world.

Once again, being a beginner spell and one that was important as it would always allow a user to cheat mercilessly, especially once they unlocked later content. See, the one thing about most spells is that in order to cast a spell properly, one needs to see where they are casting the spell. With Far Viewing, players learned early on that a way to quickly power level was to have Karen cast Far Viewing on say a boss monster, and then chain cast damage spells that would be untraceable and burn down an enemy before they even had a chance to react.

In the much later stages Karen could do all this on her own, though she would need to unlock the spell dual casting, and her Arcane power set in order to be able to accomplish on her own, what it would normally take a fully dedicated harem group to accomplish.

Of course, one thing that was also found by the true devotees of the game was that by casting a perfect version of Far Viewing, you could cheat early and often.

New Spell Cast: Beginner’s Far Viewing (Perfected Form): You have cast the perfected form of the Beginner’s ranked Far Viewing spell. Your eyesight will be forever locked into one fixed position, until you purposefully break your hold over the spell or your concentration is interrupted. Current Rating E+.

Then just like last time, Karen felt the burning sensation going from her core to her eyes, and then felt her eyesight move beyond the confines of the small room and fix on different parts of the world around her.

At the same time as the spell took hold and forcefully held her vision in one place, she received yet another message.

Perfect Spatial Caster: You managed to cast a perfect form of a Spatial spell. All Spatial related spells are cast as if one Rank Higher. Current Rank: F. Effective Rank: E. Note: this can cause your spells to be cast at a proficiency rating above your Maximum Rating.

At this moment her vision was formed outside her window, straight down to where she would land if she so chose to jump out her window to make her escape.

To Karen’s surprise, dense brambles filled the street, making it so that by falling down between her house and the neighboring house would cause her to fall and cut herself.

Seeing this, Karen decided that now would be the perfect time to try out her Arcane Blast spell, or at least that was the name she called the mystical spell. Again, it had that odd name that meant nothing to her, other than being a wildly powerful spell to memorize, for even at the early levels the attack power of the Arcane spells far exceeded the typical capabilities afforded to even the Fire or Void wielding casters of the world.

Logically, Karen knew that she should rest before casting this last spell. Though she did plan on taking a nap before actually leaving for the night. But this one attack would get her the third achievement, along with the special hidden achievements if she pulled it off perfectly.

Tingling with nervous anticipation she breathed in and out, focusing her mind as she attempted to form the hardest spell matrixes in the entire game. These had layer four concepts as a base, along with the highly customizable activation word, then to add even more complexity to the spell diagram, the targeting circle would increase and slowly decrease with time and breathing.

Holding her breath when the targeting circle lined up with exactly where she wanted to aim, she released the stream of energy from the circulating tier four disk through the two targeting crystals, out to the exact spot she was aiming for, a small white diamond that appeared to be part of a rock or something.

Why Karen chose that exact spot to aim for will forever remain a mystery to her. Part of it could have been the fact that the white square seemed to reflect the most moonlight, making it easier to identify and target at night. Maybe it was her subconscious linking the white diamond to the targeting matrixes of the spell, knowing that once all three were aligned it would be a perfect shot. Or maybe it was the fact that her mind associated that exact spot with the tell-tale targeting assist feature for most monsters of the world.

Regardless of the true reason for her first finding that spot, her short hit perfectly. Having had so much practice in game at casting similar spells at higher levels that have more overlapping parts and are harder to properly align, by comparison this spell was easy.

THWOOM!

The spell crashed into the ground, causing a dust cloud to rise up, and the house that Karen was in to shake, thereby disturbing her concentration causing her previously cast and permanently fixed Beginner’s Far Viewing spell matrix to collapse.

Still, the act that she had been going for had been completed.

For immediately afterwards messages about her accomplishments came to life within her mind.

New Spell Cast: <UNKNOWN> Bolt (Perfected Form): You have cast the perfected form of the Beginner’s ranked <UNKNOWN> Bolt spell. Damage and Accuracy automatically increased by one and a half ranks. Current Rating E+.

Then as was expected she got her third and final magical spell upgrade notification.

Perfect <UNKNOWN> Caster: You managed to cast a perfect form of a <UNKNOWN> magic spell. All <UNKNOWN> magic type related spells are cast as if one Rank Higher. Current Rank: F. Effective Rank: E. Note: this can cause your spells to be cast at a proficiency rating above your Maximum Rating.

However the accolades were not complete at that point, for that is when the other bonuses came.

Precision Caster: You managed to cast one perfect spell in each of your magical affinities. All magic spells related to your affinities are reduced in terms of mana cost by one ranking. Note: Minimum mana required per spell one unit of mana per cast.

Seeing the last bonus, Karen let out a deep sigh of relief, as this effectively made her an unstoppable caster. All her F Ranked spells that she was now casting at E+ rank would only require one mote of mana. This cheat was meant to be unlocked at later stages, when a user would have to cast, and practice casting higher level spells hundreds of times to just get the mechanics and targeting systems correct. But now it meant that her lower-level spells would be practically free to cast, as even at her current rate, she could regenerate one mote of mana relatively quickly, even in combat.

Chime.

Before Karen could get too lost in her own thoughts, she received notice of yet another achievement.

Perfect Caster: You managed to cast your first spell in all affinities perfectly. Your Luck attribute (Hidden) has increased by one rank. Current Rank: <Hidden>.

That was good, as Luck was one of the hardest attributes to increase. While many actions you did could decrease this value, particularly if you communed with demons for quick power, there was little known about how to increase it. In all, this was only the tenth time that Karen had unlocked the achievement. Even being an expert at casting and the whole magic system as a whole, this was still a feat that was nearly impossible to achieve, especially without the ability to immediately re-roll the character.

With the fifth and seemingly final perk rewarded, Karen thought she was done with surprises and was about to take a quick nap before her quest window opened up. Only to find that things had changed.

Focusing on the next message caused Karen’s mind to spin wildly as she felt arcane energy flow through the thin walls of her house and fill her mind and body.

First Kill Bonus: You have managed to kill a hidden Coiling Viper King by critical <UNKNOWN> Bolt. Your power rating has increased. Rewards withheld.

Withheld? Karen had only seen a few times when such a message were provided.

Then before she had time to fully contemplate what had just happened, she got a notification that her quest had updated.

New Quest: Choosing Your Fate: You are at a crossroads for the future, you must choose how your future unfolds.

Option 1: Go to sleep now. Rewards: Being selected as a personal retainer for Princess Claudia Von’Roseblade, Magical University Admittance guaranteed.

Option 2: Leave immediately. Conditional: don’t get caught. Rewards: Variable, based on success rate. Rewards for killing monster guardian withheld until quest completion.

Time Remaining to start: 00 Hours 00 Minutes 00 Seconds.

Time Remaining until Option 1 is the only choice: 00 Hours 00 minutes 14 Seconds.

Seeing the message, Karen took a breath and then began to move.