Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Scroll of Records
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Pavarintos was a game that followed entirely different rules from your standard RPG.
Where a typical RPG let you grow stronger through endless battles with monsters, Pavarintos turned your character into a crippled wreck through those same repetitive fights.
If you dove in thinking you'd just mindlessly hunt monsters, rack up experience, and level up—the classic RPG formula—you were doomed to die. No question.
The damage calculations and health system were broken down to the tiniest details, down to individual fingers. And once a body part triggered a "loss" status or got scarred, recovering it without special means was next to impossible.
Wounds and diseases piled up from constant skirmishes, and the stat penalties from unhealing scars and lost limbs slowly ate away at your character.
Charging into trash mobs early on, losing a few fingers in a reckless brawl, and then deleting your ruined character afterward? Every Pavarintos player had been through that at least once.
That's why veterans, once they got the hang of the game, avoided combat as much as possible until they'd farmed enough gear.
You only fought after securing proper defenses and recovery options.
Farming worked the same way.
Avoid direct confrontations with monsters at all costs. Sneak into empty chest rooms and loot skills and resources on the sly.
Once you'd gathered enough resources for your first return to the Labyrinth City, collected the skills and gear you needed—that was when you could safely tangle with monsters.
...But.
Even if you shied away from combat as much as possible, Pavarintos was no walk in the park.
"..."
Following the habits ingrained from the game, I strained to listen for sounds beyond the door.
'...Nothing.'
No noise from inside.
It was locked, so that made sense, but checking twice never hurt. Pavarintos was the kind of game where the "obvious" could go wrong in a heartbeat.
[Mana Arrow]
[Crack]
I cast Mana Arrow from the staff to shatter the lock, then extended my arm along the wall to cautiously nudge the door open.
[Creak...]
Not barging in outright—I slipped my body aside and just cracked the door.
[Click.]
[Scree-!]
As expected.
The moment I eased the door open, something snapped, and a sharp whoosh pierced the air by my ear.
A small bolt shot through the gap, carried on that gust. Peeking inside confirmed it: the familiar bolt trap I'd expected.
'...Yeah.'
Somehow, I knew it.
Traps and booby traps of every variety were Pavarintos's signature—and a brutal player filter. Get careless for a second, step on one, catch an infection debuff from the wound, and boom: death ending. I'd been there more times than I could count.
Back then, I wondered what the devs were thinking, stuffing the place with these nasty traps. But facing them in reality? It hit different.
What I'd dismissed as the devs' stubborn bullshit turned out to be a desperate commitment to realism.
Every season, they'd take endless flak but still roll out fresh, devious traps. Guess there was a reason for it.
'No other dangers...'
I scanned meticulously for more traps, then stepped inside.
'...Food storage?'
The first things I saw were over a dozen bulging sacks and wooden barrels.
Inside: crops like potatoes, assorted vegetables, piles of dried meat. Plus water jugs in the corner and a few carry packs.
Even pots and bowls for cooking.
Looked like a goblin subtribe's food stash.
'...Bad news for me.'
Food was precious, of course.
Unlike other RPGs where you could skip meals forever, Pavarintos characters devoured food like it was going out of style—you'd beg them to stop.
Miss a few meals, and you wouldn't drop dead right away, but your stats would tank, which got annoying fast.
Compared to other games' "food" that was just buff fodder, Pavarintos treats were survival essentials, just like in real life.
...Except for certain races. Their dietary needs were... different.
Vampires were a prime example.
They couldn't digest anything but blood, supplementing energy via mana metabolism. Liquids like booze or potions were fine, but solid food? Eating it triggered debuffs.
'...Just a taste?'
But was that really true?
Curiosity piqued. I pulled a potato from a sack. The game's mechanics said no, but maybe reality was different.
I took a cautious bite—
"...Hm."
How to describe it?
No flavor at all.
Just the sensation of chewing a tasteless lump.
I could force it down, but recalling the game? Better not.
"Ptoo."
If it was just a food store, nothing more to do here.
I spat out the potato bits rolling in my mouth and turned to leave.
'Ah.'
Something familiar caught my eye.
A chest in the corner of the food store.
Made of wood with strange grain, it matched what I'd seen countless times in Pavarintos.
'...Item Chest?'
In Pavarintos, character growth happened in a unique way.
You didn't level by killing monsters. You trained your mana.
Meditation, breathing exercises, prayer—whatever.
Find wells or shrines in the dungeon, train your mana there. Max mana would rise, and once it hit the threshold, you'd level up.
Loop the dungeon repeatedly: train mana, farm resources and skills, hop portals to and from Labyrinth City.
That was Pavarintos's core loop.
It had its own fun.
The thrill of solid hits, the tension, the rush of landing your dream build—no game matched it.
The problem? One slip, your character got crippled or killed, and it was delete-and-restart city.
...Looking back, even that was the creators' philosophy.
Death ends everything.
This wasn't a game anymore.
It was reality.
And to survive here...
I needed power.
"..."
I approached the closed Item Chest slowly.
No reaching out casually.
No traps on real Item Chests, but fakes mimicked them perfectly. Better safe—I hung back and cast Telekinesis to open it.
[Clunk]
I extended my hand toward the chest and recited the memorized incantation in my mind. Mana linked to my will took tangible form and flowed out.
Less "move with thoughts alone," more manipulating an invisible mass of physical force.
[Clunk.]
The memorized Telekinesis incantation popped the chest open, revealing several items inside.
'Jackpot, at least.'
Not a fake.
Though the gap between game and reality felt stark here.
No UI popping up with an inventory grid. Just physical items stacked inside.
'...Not thrilled.'
The contents weren't impressive.
Steel shield, arming sword, short dagger, axe, a few arrows. That was it.
And... a parchment sheet with a faint golden sheen.
'This...?'
Scratch that.
This made it worth it.
The dagger worked as an off-hand, and this parchment...
The item called Scroll of Records.
Unlike paper scrolls, it was inscribed on leather-like parchment. Not actual sheepskin, probably, but whatever.
Use it to acquire the engraved skill.
One catch: You could only learn it if your build matched. Decode it right, or the skill bounces off and vanishes.
Decoding wasn't hard.
Head to the Labyrinth City library via portal, reference materials, interpret the skill and text.
'Elemental formula. Magic skill, then.'
'Three A1s. A17, A23, five A4s...'
'This combo means...'
Of course.
Veterans didn't need the library.
Reading a Scroll of Records was straightforward.
Acupoint diagrams? Warrior skill. Elemental combos? Magic. Tree with a fruit? Cleric divine art.
Most players memorized common ones.
Pavarintos inherited roguelike spirit but kept incantation combos and element symbols consistent—no random bullshit.
A quick glance told you the skill.
Plus, the internet had guides. No library run needed.
'1st-circle standard incantation, [Lightning Strike].'
'...Of all things.'
The engraving: [Lightning Strike].
The spell jokingly called Chidori.
Solid performance.
Low raw damage, but near-unavoidable, and it stunned on hit. Great merits.
...Except the filthy short range.
In-game effect: 2-3 meters.
Exaggerating a bit, just a hair beyond a warrior's sword swing. Past that, power dropped off; over 5m, the spell fizzled entirely.
Fun for hair's-breadth preemptive strikes in-game. Reality? No.
Unless you're some masochistic close-range mage.
For safe play, high-risk [Lightning Strike] got sidelined...
'...Better than nothing.'
[Sizzle—]
Mana reacted, and faint misty light rose from the Scroll of Records, igniting into flame shapes before resolving into status messages.
After absorbing the scroll's incantation, I grabbed what I needed.
[Shing—]
"..."
Taking just the dagger.
Left the rest.
'All dead weight anyway.'
No inventory in Pavarintos.
Sacrifice combat power for a backpack, or cherry-pick valuables like gems or mana stones and ditch everything else.
Junk was just baggage.
The game's realism obsession meant hauling crap drained stamina hard.
A weakened vampire's strength couldn't handle it—stats would tank before breaking even.
'One skill's not bad...'
With that, farming done, I headed out—
[Thud, thud—]
"..."
A familiar sound echoed in my ears.
Light footsteps hitting the ground. Two sets of footfalls resonating in tandem.
Distracted by the chest, I'd missed it.
Those faint echoes had rounded the passage corner, heading straight for the food store.
'Damn...'
The enemies: goblins.
Two of them.