IWRIT-02

 

Chapter 2 – She Became the Lord (1)

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Why did it have to be Dark Tower of all games…?

She felt far worse than simply dizzy. Her stomach churned.

You’ve got to be kidding me. I have to go through everything the protagonist suffers? Every single ridiculous hardship?

The protagonist of Dark Tower—the Lord—was no ordinary character.

To maintain the seal on the Tower, the Lord had prolonged their life for over a thousand years by transferring their soul and memories into new homunculus bodies.

Which begged the question—

If the protagonist was such an overpowered being, why did they start at Level 1?

Because everything goes wrong right before the game begins.

During the reincarnation ritual, the true mastermind murdered the previous Lord.

The only fortunate part was that the ritual wasn’t a complete failure.

The reincarnation still succeeded.

Unfortunately…

The newly awakened Lord had lost most of their memories and abilities.

And even worse…

The Tower’s thousand-year-old seal had finally broken.

The main story of Dark Tower revolved around cleaning up that disaster and somehow restoring both the city and the Tower.

And now… I’m that new Lord…

That alone was enough to make her lose her mind.

To make matters worse, Dark Tower had a strict time limit.

Story-wise, players were given ten years.

At first glance, that sounded generous.

But unless someone was deliberately collecting bad endings—as befitted a dark fantasy—they needed to conquer the Tower within five years just to reach the normal ending.

Wouldn’t that be easy for someone with thirty thousand hours of experience?

Normally, yes.

Except Dark Tower’s balance was infamously absurd.

Some classes could breeze through the game.

Others made players cry tears of blood.

The Mind Sorcerer belonged firmly in the latter category.

How am I supposed to beat the game with this useless class that’s only good at seducing people?!

She wanted to pull her hair out in frustration.

Instead, she couldn’t even lift her arms.

She was freezing.

Weak.

It almost felt like the Vitality stat she’d ruthlessly sacrificed was whispering…

“You never appreciated me…”

She didn’t even have time to despair.

“Who are you?”

Standing below the altar, Rohengrin looked up at her uneasily.

One hand rested on the hilt of his sword as his gaze shifted between the corpse of the previous Lord pinned to the monument…

…and the woman sitting inside the homunculus chamber.

He couldn’t determine whether she truly was the new Lord—

Or merely the murderer pretending to be one.

Seriously… the difficulty starts this high?

Couldn’t this just be one of those dialogue choices where the game figures everything out for me?

She decided to answer as naturally as possible.

“Who am I? Have you forgotten this one’s name already? I am Camellia.”

…Huh?

Why did I say it like that?

I was just trying to say my name was Camellia. Where did “this one” come from?

Judging by his expression, Rohengrin was just as surprised.

“My Lord…? But that body… it’s so…”

His eyes lingered on her face.

My face?

What about it?

Look, I understand you’re confused, but so am I!

“How insolent. To gaze upon this one in such a manner.”

Again.

Those weren’t the words she’d intended to say.

Why do I sound like this?!

While she stood there blinking in disbelief…

Pop.

A familiar sound rang out.

A translucent holographic window appeared before her.

Her status screen.

By sheer coincidence, the first thing displayed was the Trait menu she’d been editing before starting the game.

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[Immortal Charm]

Passive

Your Charisma can never be reduced under any circumstances.

※ All actions are affected by Immortal Charm.

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Wait… wasn’t this just the trait that prevented Charisma debuffs?

Well…

It did have a few extra bonuses.

The most notable one was unlocking additional dialogue options.

For example…

1. I didn’t do it!
2. [Sorcerer] I swear upon my bloodline—I am not the culprit.
3. [Immortal Charm] Have you forgotten this one’s name already?

…

Dialogue options?

Wait…

That’s exactly how I’ve been talking.

Her eyes widened.

“All actions are affected by Immortal Charm.”

Did that include her way of speaking?!

Ridiculous as it sounded…

Rohengrin actually seemed reassured by her arrogant demeanor.

“…Then you truly are my Lord?”

His voice became noticeably gentler.

As befitted a knight, Rohengrin admired Lords who radiated confidence and authority.

In the game, every time the protagonist acted domineering toward him, his affection level shot upward.

That was why players jokingly nicknamed him…

No.

Now wasn’t the time for that.

Dragging her wandering thoughts back to reality, she answered.

That’s right.

I’m the Lord.

What came out of her mouth, however, was something else entirely.

“Who besides this one would dare claim dominion over these lands?”

She internally cringed.

Did I really have to say it like that?

Fortunately…

It worked.

Immediately dropping to one knee, Rohengrin lowered his head.

“Forgive this foolish knight for failing to recognize his master, my Lord.”

As he spoke, his eyes briefly shifted toward the previous Lord’s corpse nailed to the monument.

“If I may ask… did something go wrong during the ritual?”

“Indeed.”

Something had gone very wrong.

She let out a quiet sigh before continuing.

“It appears something has gone wrong outside as well.”

“Exactly as you say.”

Rohengrin nodded gravely.

“Monsters are pouring out from the Tower.”

He bowed his head even lower.

“I knew it was discourteous to interrupt the ritual, but I required your guidance. If punishment is warranted, I shall gladly accept it.”

Punishment?

Without you, I’m doomed.

Once Rohengrin officially joined the party…

The combat tutorial was supposed to begin.

Suppressing her nervousness, she answered calmly.

“Receiving our guests takes priority. Punishment can wait.”

Right on cue…

A low growl echoed from the darkness.

Instead of panicking, Rohengrin immediately rose to his feet.

Drawing sword and shield, he stood protectively before her.

One after another, beasts shrouded in smoke that smelled of sulfur emerged from the shadows.

Hellhounds.

Behind them stood towering demons bearing three pairs of horns.

Hell Sentinels.

Both monsters normally appeared around the 30th Floor of the Tower.

No wonder Rohengrin muttered in disbelief.

“What… How could creatures of evil appear inside the city?”

Right… something about the ritual opening a dimensional rift.

The explanation itself wasn’t important.

Despite wearing the “skins” of thirtieth-floor monsters, they had been scaled down into tutorial enemies weak enough for even a level-one character to defeat.

Perfect.

Time for a little experiment.

First…

She issued an order.

“Focus on protecting me.”

Rohengrin tightened his grip on his shield.

She was just as nervous.

Can I actually cast magic?

The Mind Sorcerer relied heavily on skills.

Without magic, reaching even the tenth floor would be impossible.

Forget conquering the Tower.

Her companions would probably decide she was an impostor who couldn’t use the Lord’s powers…

…and stab her in the back.

Please work…

It didn’t need to be perfect.

She only needed to use her abilities.

Silently praying…

She extended a hand toward the monsters.

“Halt.”

The instant she envisioned casting Domination…

Something invisible flowed out of her body.

A familiar holographic window appeared.

One she’d seen tens of thousands of times.

The dice roll interface.

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[Camellia Lord uses Domination on the Hellhound Pack and Hell Sentinels.]

Success Target: 20

[Judgment begins!]

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A twelve-sided die rolled across the holographic screen.

A target of 20.

A single d12.

Shouldn’t failure be guaranteed?

Normally, yes.

But that wasn’t why she’d spent countless hours perfecting this build.

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[Mind Sorcerer] grants one additional d12.

[Mind Sorcerer] ignores the target’s mental resistance.

Mind Sorcerer: +6

Nephilim: +2

Immortal Charm: +2

Clear Mind: …

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Bonus after bonus chimed cheerfully.

Everything she’d carefully optimized over thousands of hours came together in perfect harmony.

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Result: 22 / 20

[Critical Success!]

[Amazing Achievement!]

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She had exceeded even the maximum required score.

At that exact moment…

Every monster creeping toward them froze in place as though nailed to the ground.

It worked?

Simply imagining the spell had activated it exactly like the game.

It was even more intuitive than she’d expected.

Then… can I do combos too?

In Dark Tower, repeatedly using the same spell increased its power and effectiveness.

Players frequently chained skills together into devastating combos.

Sorcerers had relatively few spells.

But they could cast the same spell up to three consecutive times without consuming action points.

It made them one of the few classes capable of wiping out enemies in a single turn.

Their mental resistance should already be reduced after the first brainwashing spell…

If that was true…

Then she could perform that combo—

One only a Mind Sorcerer could unleash at the very beginning of the game.

No reason not to.

Without hesitation…

She cast Domination again.

“Die.”

Rumble…

The dice rolled once more.

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[Judgment begins!]

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A cheerful chime rang out.

[Critical Success!]