From Villainess to Healer: Volume 1 (eBook)

Punichan (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-6974-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Charlotte Cocoriara: duke's daughter, fiancée to a prince, villainess, and...NPC? Framed as the villainess in a spin-off of an MMO dating sim, Charlotte suddenly regains memories of her past life as a player of the same MMO. Armed with her new understanding of the world, she happily accepts the end of her betrothal and her accompanying exile. Who needs a cheating prince fiancé when there's a whole fantasy world to explore?
Using knowledge from her gameplay, Charlotte strikes out on her own. Her first task is to switch jobs, something apparently no one else in this world knows how to do. With her new role secured, she'll make friends, join parties, challenge dungeons, and...! Follow Charlotte as she sets off on a grand adventure, free for the first time in her life!

---

Charlotte Cocoriara: duke's daughter, fiancee to a prince, villainess, and...NPC? Framed as the villainess in a spin-off of an MMO dating sim, Charlotte suddenly regains memories of her past life as a player of the same MMO. Armed with her new understanding of the world, she happily accepts the end of her betrothal and her accompanying exile. Who needs a cheating prince fiance when there's a whole fantasy world to explore?Using knowledge from her gameplay, Charlotte strikes out on her own. Her first task is to switch jobs, something apparently no one else in this world knows how to do. With her new role secured, she'll make friends, join parties, challenge dungeons, and...! Follow Charlotte as she sets off on a grand adventure, free for the first time in her life!

Textauszug

Prologue

I’d used my PTO to take today off. Even though I’d gone to bed three hours earlier than usual last night, I slept in. Then, I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of toast—from an expensive loaf I’d been looking forward to trying—and three scrambled eggs, accompanied by a cup of tea with plenty of sugar.

How sophisticated of me!

After savoring my breakfast, I got my cleaning and laundry out of the way so I’d have a clear schedule for the rest of the day.

“Turn off the company phone, and I’m all set!” I declared.

I was loafing around in bed when the time came at last—the scheduled end time of the most recent update. A new patch was being installed, introducing “Eden, the Furthest Village” to the game. Every update so far had been touted as the most challenging yet, but it never took more than a few months for the players to catalog the new items, enemies, and dungeons in the online encyclopedia. As a pretty well-known OG player—not to toot my own horn—I’d contributed my fair share to this endeavor.

“But rumor has it, this update is going to be a cut above the rest.”

“Eden, the Furthest Village” was rumored to come with more lore on the goddess Flaudia, who was not some run-of-the-mill NPC but the most powerful Holy character in the entire game.

This game that was fully consuming my thoughts today was the MMO phenomenon Reas Life Online, or just Reas for short. Reas was the first ever open-world VR MMO, developed by the American and Japanese tag team of Zerorium Inc. and ONIGIRI Corporation. According to their PR, the game was created to “draw players out of everyday life and into a fantasy world they can enjoy to the fullest.” Reas was now a smash hit all over the country.

Using the Reas Link—a set that came with a VR headset and gloves—the player could wander the vast open world of Reas and do, well, anything they wanted. Some relaxed and enjoyed a simple lifestyle, while others fought monsters with swords and magic. There were many ways to play.

Everyone began their journey in Reas as a novice and had the option of switching to one of the basic jobs: Swordsman, Explorer, Hunter, Sorcerer, or Healer. By meeting certain requirements, players could also qualify for more specific jobs. There were combat jobs like Dark Mage, Warlock, or Ninja; industrial jobs like Chef, Craftsman, or Blacksmith; and support jobs like Helper or Bard. There were even unique jobs in the game that only one lucky player could claim.

What was more, there were so many things that remained undiscovered in Reas that new tips and tricks popped up on social media every day.

“How I’ve waited to see that beautiful log-in...screen...” Upon booting up Reas, I had the wind knocked out of my sails by the text “This update is taking longer than expected.” My spirits weren’t crushed, though. I’d guessed that this was going to happen yet again. And, yet again, there was no estimated time posted for when the update would end. This usually meant that I would be starved of Reas for another twelve hours or so.

“You thought I wasn’t prepared for this?! I took tomorrow off too for this very reason!” I crowed in triumph, still wearing my Reas Link headset.

And yet, I got my hopes up... Can’t a girl dream?

Begrudgingly, I decided to at least rewatch the trailers in preparation. The Reas Link also let me browse the internet to access fandom sites and chat rooms, even when I wasn’t logged into the game.

“Oh? There’s a new video? I gotta watch it!” The newly published promotional video showed characters in combat within one of the new dungeons.

“Now, this is going to be really helpful.”

My job in Reas was Archbishop—an advanced healer—so I’d need to have a good grasp on how to deal with these new threats. If I got caught unprepared, the whole party could go down.

“Oof. These new monsters are brutal!”

I felt a sense of déjà vu, recalling how I’d reacted to the last promotional video featuring combat from the new update. This time, the video showed one of the two dungeons that would be accessible from Eden by boat.

A dark, ghostly figure in a dress smiled at the camera, twirling as it unleashed a wave of black fire that drained seventy percent of the HP of every player character in its path.

“Bru-tal...!”

It looked like most of the monsters in this dungeon would be Undead, many of which were completely immune to physical attacks and had decent magic resistance to boot. We weren’t going to beat these things without a powerful arsenal. Maybe the best move would be to limit the number of close-range combatants and bring more magic wielders... It would also be fine to tread carefully on the first crawl and bring a lot of tanks. We might even need another healer in the party.

Choices, choices...

My usual party would be there when I logged in, so we’d probably poke our heads into the dungeons just to get a feel for them.

“Come on! I wanna play,” I grumbled into my headset. I checked the chat rooms to find that practically none of my friends were logged in. Having read the writing on the wall that the update was still a long way off, they were probably enjoying their time doing whatever else they did for fun. But I knew that they would catch wind of it the second the update was over and log right in.

I took off the Reas Link and got out of bed. At this rate, I risked falling asleep and not waking up until nightfall. Of course, they’d probably be working on the update well into the evening hours, so I doubted that I’d miss the launch even if I slept the day away.

Unexpectedly, the copy of Reas Love on my shelf caught my eye. Reas Love was a dating sim spin-off born out of the immense popularity of Reas’s male NPCs. You didn’t see that happening with MMOs too often. Since it took place in the same universe as Reas, I’d given it a shot, but between the two, I still preferred the MMO, hands down.

Even more than the engaging combat and vast array of jobs to choose from, my favorite aspect of Reas was how gorgeous the fantastical landscapes were! They weren’t quite indistinguishable from reality, but this game had some of the best graphics I’d seen.

My obsession with Reas had begun when I’d suffered a foot injury back in my school days. Back then, I used to love running track. The injury didn’t impede my daily life now, but I could no longer run full speed like I used to. That was why I felt so drawn to the world of Reas.

“If only I could see those views in real life... Too bad it’s a video game, no matter how gorgeous it is.” There might be majestic views like that in the far reaches of Earth, but this gamer was not physically equipped for roughing it in the vast wilderness IRL.

“Time for some coffee and forums, I think.”

With the new video out, players would have more to talk about than just the delayed update. Although I expected no new information beyond what was shown in the video—Zerorium Inc. was particularly strict about preventing leaks—it would be fun just to discuss the new dungeon and enemies and explore different strategies we could take once the game was up and running.

Since I didn’t own a coffee machine, I whipped up an instant coffee, humming to myself as I worked. This would be perfect with a snack.

“I thought I had some senbei, though.” Some people might have been horrified by the suggestion, crying that coffee didn’t go with rice crackers. If you asked me, things that tasted good on their own still tasted good no matter what drink or food you paired them with.

“Right here on the shelf... Oh!” As I reached for the senbei, I knocked the Reas Love case from its perch. I picked it up, feeling the urge to organize my shelf after my coffee break. I tossed the case onto my bed, where it landed on my Reas Link. “No! I didn’t break it, did I...?” With a healthy sense of panic, I inspected my precious VR kit. “Thank goodness.”

I shuddered to imagine what would have happened if I’d broken this sensitive piece of equipment. I’d draw the ire of all my online friends if I told them I couldn’t log in for the new update because I’d broken my Reas Link. Worse yet, a Reas Link set cost a whopping eighty-nine thousand yen.

Relieved and enjoying my senbei, I turned on my phone to check the Reas forums and found many comments advocating the formation of magic-heavy parties to take on the new dungeon.

“They’re not wrong, but a magic-only crawl gets so monotonous.”

Some physical attackers countered that they could still contribute in the new dungeons with the use of elemental weapons. Physical fighters would have to choose their equipment carefully because elemental weapons had a lower stat line than normal weapons. On the other hand, enchanting normal weapons throughout the dungeon would require spending a lot of items. That would be the pay-to-win method.

“Maybe we could just try everything that comes to mind.”

I had to consider my own role in the dungeon too. Different dungeons required different skills and items, which meant that I’d want to prepare those resources as soon as I...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.12.2024
• Reihe/Serie: From Villainess to Healer
• Illustrationen: Punichan
• Übersetzer: Punichan
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Schlagworte: female protagonist • gamer protagonist • Isekai • Light Novel • Reincarnation • revenge • Video game
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-6974-3 / 1718369743
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-6974-0 / 9781718369740