Entering Downtown
The Tabletop Room. The Game Master spoke.
You have reached Level 3. The following bonuses are granted.
───
· 2 free Attribute Points.
· A new 2nd-level spell.
· 1st-level spell slots increased from 3 to 4 (⚀⚀⚀⚀). One 2nd-level spell slot secured (⚁).
· Unique Bloodline Trait Shadow Vein — Enhanced Effect now available.
───
“Oh, and your Life Points have increased as well.”
“My Life Points?”
Affirmative.
The robed man standing before him answered. Solomon stared down at the character sheet on the table.
But where the Life Points—HP—should have been listed, there was no number. Instead, it was covered in chaotic, scribbled handwriting that looked more like graffiti. It didn’t resemble any numeral. It was like some indecipherable alien script.
“Does that also stop me from dying with an arrow through the head?”
That would depend on the ‘total’ of your Life Points.
“······.”
He swallowed his reply and silently looked around. It was a small room. A single table sat in the center, and every wall was covered in blackout curtains. There were no windows or doors.
“······Where the hell am I?”
I already told you. This is the Tabletop Room.
“What even is this world?”
It is the world of Dark Camelot — Guild City.
The robed man answered.
Furthermore, any further questions that interfere with enjoyable gameplay are prohibited. Did I not explain this at the beginning?
Beneath the hood, where a human face should have been, only a dark, wavering shadow stirred.
“I want to read the rulebook again.”
After a long silence, Solomon said.
That is currently impossible.
“Then can I at least review the dice rolls and results so far?”
That is also impossible.
The voice answered. Solomon cursed inwardly.
“Show me the list of available 2nd-level spells, then.”
Here it is. Please examine it at your leisure.
At the same time, a sheet of paper appeared out of nowhere and landed in front of him.
A new 2nd-level spell. And an expanded spell slot.
With this, he could now use four 1st-level spell slots and one 2nd-level spell slot per day.
───
Flame Blade
Paralyzing Strike
Toxic Cloud
Leap
Silence
Petrifying Gaze
Dark Veil
······.
───
Out of the long list, Solomon didn’t hesitate for even a second.
“I’ll learn the 2nd-level sustained spell.”
Dark Veil
Tag — 2nd-level spell, Shadow attribute
: Unfurls a veil of darkness that treats all attacks made by allies and enemies within the area as ambushes.
: Within the veil, both allies and enemies suffer reduced accuracy while gaining increased defense and evasion.
“And I’ll use the bonus effect from the Unique Bloodline Trait I just obtained… Shadow Vein.”
There was no reason to hesitate.
The only thing he had to do was march toward the build that existed inside his head.
The Unique Bloodline Trait. Proof granted only to those of the Veil family, one of the Five Great Families.
More than that, it was the very identity that defined those Five Great Families as the Five Great Families.
Understood. One final confirmation. Will you activate the bonus effect of Shadow Vein?
“Yes.”
The moment he spoke, ink danced across the character sheet, drawing something new.
The core of Level 3. One of the abilities that formed the very axis of this build.
Unique Bloodline Trait — Shadow Vein
Upon reaching a level that is a multiple of 3, the bearer of this trait may…
Enhanced Tuning: Arbitrarily enhance and tune one Shadow spell.
: (Revealed at Level 6)
: (Revealed at Level 9)
: (Revealed at Level 12)
A trait only usable by blood relatives of the Veil family among the Five Great Families.
The result of using that power was as follows.
The newly reborn 2nd-level spell, Dark Veil, after Enhanced Tuning.
Dark Veil
Tag — 2nd-level spell, Shadow attribute, Enhanced Tuning
: Unfurls a veil of darkness that treats all attacks made by allies and enemies within the area as ambushes.
: Within the veil, both allies and enemies suffer reduced accuracy while gaining increased defense and evasion.
…….
Enhanced Tuning — Veil Sovereign
: The caster does not suffer the disadvantageous penalty (reduced accuracy) inside the veil.
: Hostiles do not receive the advantageous bonus (increased defense and evasion) inside the veil.
: Hostile attacks inside the veil are not treated as ambushes.
A total rewrite that erased all fairness between user and enemy, turning the spell into a one-sided modification.
“I’ll hold onto the Attribute Points (AP) for now and save them.”
After one final check of the information on his character sheet, Solomon spoke to the Game Master before him.
The next trait he needed to learn was already decided.
I’ll save these two points and pick it up next time.
A character build was never something that could be completed overnight. It was a painstaking process of gathering every last bead and stringing them together like a necklace. If gathering wasn’t enough, you had to create them yourself.
Even so, Solomon’s character was steadily advancing toward the ideal he desired.
The only remaining hurdle is getting past Level 4 without any issues and reaching Level 5.
In theory, the ultimate ambush build that could one-shot even the strongest creature in this world—an Elder Dragon.
Finally, he checked the additional dice that would form the foundation.
Available: 1
Dice had meaning. And for that reason, this particular die was especially precious to Solomon.
“That concludes all character adjustments.”
Then, have a pleasant night.
The darkness beneath the hood flickered like a candle flame.
It was the eerie, grotesque imitation of human emotion by a monster that could not understand people.
* * *
His eyes opened.
The first morning after reaching Level 3. The sunlight filtering through the window was something that barely deserved to be called sunlight, yet even that was blinding to Solomon.
The room even came with a private shower, bathtub, and toilet he could use freely. It was such an extravagant luxury that it almost brought tears to his eyes. And the water was steaming hot!
“Breakfast is ready, Sir Solomon.”
After soaking in the sentiment and leaving the hotel, a full breakfast was waiting for him.
The restaurant interior had velvet curtains drawn to keep the lighting pleasantly dim. On every table covered with pure white linen were neatly arranged silver porcelain, forks, and knives.
“The standard menu consists of smoked herring, omelette, toast and sausage, and finally grilled mushrooms and tomatoes. Croissants, salad, and fruit are also available. Please order anything additional you desire. The jam and butter are over there—help yourself.”
A skeletal waiter who had approached at some point spoke. Solomon gave a slight nod.
Thankfully, since the waiter was nothing but bones, he didn’t have to smell rotting corpses.
Quite a few other guests were already dining in the same manner throughout the restaurant.
Every one of them wore expressions dried of emotion. They hid blades and various mechanical armaments beneath their coats—clearly fellow professionals working in the same underworld industry.
And just like the floors and rooms, their status was strictly divided by numbers.
That was why Solomon didn’t bother making eye contact and simply focused on his meal. There was no reason to. Soon the food arrived. Despite the grandiose description, it was just a plain English breakfast.
Yet that ordinary, unremarkable English breakfast felt like an incomparable luxury to Solomon.
* * *
After finishing his meal, he gathered his clothes and equipment and left Hotel Snark.
Following the hotel’s rules, he headed to the first floor called the “Room of Doors.” The place was packed with countless doors, reminiscent of a René Magritte painting.
Beyond each door stretched every kind of scenery leading to every corner of Guild City.
The one he needed was the door connected to the 6th District, where his target Gilbert Graham and the Biotech Guild had their base.
Solomon found the corresponding door and opened it. Beyond it lay, quite literally, the outside.
A portal?
Moreover, some kind of magic must have been cast on it—none of the people coming and going even noticed Solomon stepping through the door.
So this is the heart of Guild City… Downtown…
He had no intention of carrying out the request today.
Before executing the mission, he needed to thoroughly scout the new stage that was the Downtown area.
The 20th District of Downtown—Guild City’s symbolic central business district.
Structures rising high with exposed metal pipes and gears, neat and stylish houses—things that were almost impossible to imagine in the Lower District slums.
Even the clock tower, standing tall in the distance and serving as the symbol of Downtown and the Guild bourgeoisie, was visible from here.
The moment he saw it, the term Belle Époque unconsciously came to mind.
A beautiful era.
It wasn’t simply the difference between coming from a rural backwater to the city. The world itself was different.
What surprised and shocked him most was the fact that committing a crime could actually lead to being arrested.
The idea that criminals could be punished by the law was a cultural diversity that people from the Lower District found difficult to accept.
In addition to the Sword Watch, the city guard that maintained order in Guild City, it seemed that in certain key districts the kingdom’s regular military organization—the Royal Army known as the Red Coats—were also stationed.
That was why, for the rest of the day, Solomon simply wandered the city.
On the main streets he saw Sword Watch patrolling every corner, and occasionally witnessed criminal acts occurring in shady back alleys, evading their eyes.
He even rode the city’s famous subway.
The Biotech Guild, to which his target belonged, was one of the rising influential new guilds in the 6th District.
Indeed, the Biotech Guild’s crest was engraved all over the 6th District, and as if to flaunt their technology, the streets were overflowing with people who had undergone modification procedures.
The other nineteen districts were no different.
Thanks to the guilds representing each of the twenty districts and the influence they wielded, the streets felt like they carried the culture and history of foreign lands across borders.
The Faceless One had said that across all of Downtown’s twenty districts, there were hundreds of large and small guilds.
Giant interlocking gears turning throughout the city, a spring mechanism whose structure was impossible to grasp, mechanical devices endlessly spewing steam… Countless workshops lined the streets. Each one bore the crest of its guild, imbued with the guild’s name and technology.
This was the City of Guilds.
What Solomon had seen in the Lower District until now had been nothing more than the bottom of a well.
A city of endless ascent and runaway frenzy.
The 6th District of Downtown, the base of the Biotech Guild, was located there as well.
What was mainly called a “Guild Hall” in this world was a fortress towering within the city.
It wasn’t a metaphor—it was literally a fortress. The very kind built in the Middle Ages to repel foreign invaders.
The only difference was that instead of simple stone walls, it was built from endlessly interlocking gears, machinery, steam pipes, and metal.
They want me to break into that?
The moment he saw it, even Solomon felt dizzy.
The man he had to kill—Gilbert Graham—was somewhere beyond that fortress.
The Faceless One had been right.
There weren’t many skilled contractors capable of taking on a request against a guild. And those who were capable would naturally be treated and respected accordingly.
Of course.
Carrying out a request against a guild meant breaking through that fortress, eliminating the target beyond it, or retrieving whatever was required.
It was on a completely different level from roughing up a few people in a slum tavern. With half-baked skills, even attempting it was impossible. You’d definitely die.
In other words, the moment you proved you could do it, many things would change. Probably more things than one could even imagine.
The fourteen floors of Hotel Snark and the forty-four rooms on each floor would prove that fact.
Can I really pull it off?
While pondering, Solomon examined the Biotech Guild’s fortress.
Where to enter, where to exit, which passages to use… Moving without memorizing the interior layout would be suicidal.
That was why he felt the value of Hotel Snark even more keenly.
Among the documents provided as room service were the complete internal structure of the Biotech Guild fortress along with all its secrets laid bare. He would return and memorize them thoroughly first.
Infiltrate cleanly, kill cleanly, and escape cleanly.
If even one thing went wrong in the process, it would all be over. From the moment of entry to the moment of exit, not a single mistake could be tolerated in infiltration, execution, or escape routes.
Only now did Solomon truly realize just how absurd a task he had taken on. And his opponent wasn’t some mediocre guild either. It was one of the most influential guilds in the 6th District. The fortress before his eyes was proof of that.
Even so—for some strange reason, he didn’t feel like it was impossible.
The number of the room he was currently staying in—Room 104 on the first floor of Hotel Snark—made him wonder just how much higher he could climb.
Rather, the possibility of proving the skills of the contractor named Solomon to the people of Guild City lit a spark in his heart.
Because this was exactly the kind of epic of strength he had always longed for.