I watched Roland's eyes widening as he realized the sword had left my hand to slash at his head.
Now, you might be wondering how that happened.
Occam's razor applied here: I threw it.
Let's take a few steps back.
While I had been wracking my mind on how to save Eve, I was carefully rereading my Status Screen. And as I did, I noticed something critical.
Rob wasn't stupid. Since he brought me into this world due to dissatisfaction with how 3D-ED unfolded, he clearly was very particular about his wordings. While he might not be a great author in terms of plot developments, he was clearly VERY experienced in system design.
Unfortunately... or perhaps intentionally, there were gaps.
The average user might not see it. But as a very particular author and wordsmith, I did.
And what I noticed were the Traits that I possessed.
---
Stellar Mana Physique - All stats are increased by one rank. Physical attacks may be imbued with magic. Stamina and mana pool are combined. You have no cap on the total mana pool and stamina.
Jack-of-all-trades - In all skills, you have average expertise. Be it weapons or otherwise.
Playwright - You have an instinct for dramatic flare! You can decide a 'character' and a 'play' at any time. Actions taken in accordance to the character and play will be magnified in effect. Your lies become indistinguishable from the truth and your actions are seen in the best light.
---
After careful rereading, I noticed that the sentences for each trait served two purposes: defining and modifying.
A sentence in the trait did one of those two things and ONLY one of those two things. Either the sentence modified what was defined before it, or it set out a new definition that applied on the Trait.
In
This wasn't true in
But
On a casual read, it appeared to be all modifying the initial sentence that defined a character and play. But if you looked closely, the last sentence was actually an auxiliary effect, not a modification.
The line saying "Your lies become indistinguishable from the truth and your actions are seen in the best light" were actually a brand new effect. Separate from the character and play modifications.
It appeared to just apply to social conversations. But my intuition told me it didn't.
Rob was a fan of mine. I knew this to be completely true.
And I was a writer who played with ambiguity hidden in seemingly concrete definitions.
The devil was in the details... that was something I toyed with a lot as an author.
All of that to say...
===
'That is not swordsmanship!'
Roland quickly shifted his sword into a defensive stance the moment he realized that Alex had thrown his sword away as a projectile weapon. Taking a step back, he pointed his sword forward to threaten Alex and reduce the attack vectors.
'Since he is unarmed now, all he can do is press the offense, so-'
Roland's thoughts suddenly stopped when he saw Alex retreat instead.
Despite being unarmed.
Despite having the advantage.
Despite having no path to victory except to go on the offense since Roland had greater range...
'...He gave up the distance?'
===
> An unexpected synergy! [Playwright] and [Jack-of-all-trades] overlap with your personal combat knowledge, creating the Talent [Combat Dictation].
[Combat Dictation]
Lies that become the truth, the truth that becomes a lie. Your expertise in combat philosophy and general versatility in combat has been elevated to an inconceivable level.
There is the saying that a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none. People often forget that a jack-of-all-trades is often better than a master-of-one.
Every stance you take will flow into your next strike. Every feint you make will flow into a true attack the moment the opponent reacts. Every opening you reveal is simply a means to puppet your opponent along a path where defeat is certain.
If 'intention' exists within your opponent, victory will be yours in every instance.
This Talent is similar to [Eye of the Mind (True) - EX] in that it grasps victory from seemingly infinitismal odds. However, it is fundamentally different as it not a prediction but a prescription.
---
'Ah. It worked.'
I glanced at the floating window in front of me before shifting my gaze back to Roland.
He was completely confused, but he was also completely on his guard.
Considering how it had gone deadly silent, I guess my classmates had become confused too. But they were also waiting with bated breath to see what I did next.
I didn't think too much of that though. Instead, I recalled that casual 'note' the system had pointed out when I was trying to bruteforce
---
> NOTE: User is notified that Traits are distinct from Talents in that they are external power and authority written upon the User's record of existence. Talents, however, are an emanation born of the entire record of one's existence.
---
Right.
Traits were something that Rob cobbled up to give me an advantage. From the description, it was probably a fragment of his divine power painted over my soul/record of existence in order for me to use. But since it was a foreign power, using too much of it was dangerous unless I embedded it in another power.
On the other hand, Talents were intrinsic to 3D-ED's setting.
And the system had the right of it. I had always designed Talents to be manifestations of the soul. Or as the system liked to put it, the record of one's existence.
That had me thinking a bit.
I still remembered the initial Talent I had in this world: [Average].
It reflected Alex's record of existence as someone who didn't have genius level talent or ability. Just... average.
Then I remembered how it had awakened to [At the cost of my life] after I used the Talent Awakening ticket. The synergy of both his past history and my current actions at the time had resulted in it changing.
And it was definitely a 'change' and not an 'addition' since I had never seen [Average] on my Status Screen, only my student ID.
It was different from [Aquaburn] which had showed up after equipping my Aquaburn Orichalcum Ring, which was intrinsically linked to my being due to how my blood was used in forging it.
That Talent was tied to my equipment, which was shown when it evolved to [Seablaze] after my ring was strengthened.
...All of that to say, Talents could be awakened independently as well.
Like the message had said, and like how I designed, Talents were emanations of the soul. If you had a strong enough experience or were shaped a particular way through your life, you awakened to your Talent. There were rare cases where the nature of the soul birthed a unique Talent, like Roland's [Durandal] later. And there were cases where the body itself created a talent, like [Mana Body] from Eve. Mostly though, Talents were based on your life.
It was also why emotionally charged events or life-threatening situations could birth new Talents in an person.
That was how I played off getting [At the cost of my life] the first time, after all.
But I was getting sidetracked.
The point was, Talents reflected the experience you had accumulated in your lifetime, your soul, and your body.
I currently had two. But neither were really 'me.' Instead, they were reflections of the body I was inhabiting: an evolution of Alex's natural Talent of [Average] as well as a reflection of my ridiculous Aquaburn Orichalcum Ring.
Now though...
I idly waved my hand, dismissing the description of [Combat Dictation]. After that, I smiled and calmly walked towards Roland. "Shall we continue, Rolo?"