The Morning
Isdell Delheid
Age: 18
Level: 3 0 / 500
Strength: 0.1
Stamina: 0.5
Vitality: 2.3
Sight: 2
Mana: 5 / 5
Skills: [ Magic D ]
[ Ailment Immunity F ]
Curses:
[ Weak body ( permanent ) ]
Isdell looked at her player screen. It was pathetic compared to the professional players. Ever since the self-proclaimed, God of Chaos and Games, Baldrehare showed up and pronounced this world a game, many things had apparently changed. That was according to her history classes at least.
Isdell looked from her status to the clock on the wall. 9:15. 'I should probably do something today.' Is what she thought every morning, however her weak body she had been born with prevented her from doing most of the things she wanted.
When she was a kid she had been getting sick so constantly that her grandfather, who she sometimes felt was in love more with her name than herself, had tried a new treatment of raising her level while she was incredibly sick. This involved making her kill some 30 slime monsters which would be a piece of cake for any normal healthy adult. However, at the time Isdell was barely 3 and was practically in critical condition.
The treatment had succeeded though by having her level up a few times while she was incredibly sick she had gained the Ailment immunity skill, which made her immune to a majority of normal illnesses. It was by no means easy and painless though, being a critically sick 3-year-old without any strength. Even when she was using a high-powered dart gun, being supported by several people, and had the slime being held still half a meter in front of her, she had almost died just from that, her body was so weak at the time.
On the other hand, her second Uncle, Aiden, who had turned 34, found hunting monsters enjoyable even if somewhat dangerous. He often went out with powerful players he had hired to enjoy monster hunting and was at level 12. He had once brought a low-caliber gun and made his assistant shoot him in front of the whole family once he had reached level 11 and had his stats high enough to make him impervious to low-caliber weapons. He was seriously proud of that, he'd pretty much gone around and shown everyone he knew.
"Haizzzz. I'm bored" Isdell sighed. She had been awake for a while but still didn't have the strength to get out of bed, so she had just been lying awake looking over her status, out the window, and pondering aimless thoughts.
She eventually had the strength to reach out and grab her phone from the table.
'New super player breaks through level 25 in Russia!'
'B rank sealed realm finally cleared by Canadian team!'
'Discovered legendary level 60 Lion Turtle at bottom of the Pacific.'
'Delheid Industries introduces new method of potion synthesis cutting costs by 12%!'
Were the day's breaking headlines? Isdell looked at the last article since it was related to her family.
Isdell remembered her Uncle told her about the new method a few days ago. He had explained to her that the current method, which was to produce high-grade potions and dilute them into lower-grade potions, was the wrong line of thinking. Instead, he had said they should work on directly producing the lower-grade potions and thus removing the need for several difficult-to-supply ingredients. She guessed her uncle was successful, which was the outcome she had expected from him. He may not have been great at business but he was just as smart as Aiden.
"Miss Isdell. Are you awake?" Someone asked knocking on the door. "Yes. I'm awake." Isdell responded. She wasn't responding to anyone from her family though, this was just one of the many people her family employed, he was the butler of the family and he would check on her every morning in case she needed help getting out of bed. She was sad to admit it but she would sometimes need their help just getting out of bed. She cursed the system which was responsible for her near non-existent.
At the very least she could walk around by herself without a wheelchair or the like though she usually had the assistance of a cane to lean on. She didn't truly need the cane, but with how weak she was she found it much preferable to have it on her then immediately collapsing if one of her legs lost strength for just a moment.
After grappling with the bedsheet covers to get out of bed, Isdell got herself ready for the day. It was an annoying part of the day for her since what took normal people 2 minutes to get dressed took her 20. She ended up wearing a nice plain, formal white shirt with a black skirt and cap. After that, she could finally start her day.
She opened the door and adjusted her cap before leaving. Outside the door were two security guards on either side of the hall. That was because these rooms were the ones her family would stay in when they were here. However, most of the rooms were empty besides her own and her grandfather had his own room next to his office near the top floor.
After leaving the hall Isdell entered another hall. This one was perpendicular to the one with her family's rooms and had elevators on either side. This hallway was for other important guest rooms. She believed only two were occupied right now but doubted they spent much time in them. Still, there were security guards at either end of this hall as well.
The security guards were all level 8. So they wouldn't lose to any ordinary person. Most players were around level 4 or 5. Most of the world's population was still at level one or two. After all, unlike what many of the delusional fools who had rushed in thinking they could become strong like the characters from stories did. Fighting monsters was dangerous. Unless you were several levels above it even fighting the lowliest monster such as a slime recommended at least two people armed with either spears or a gun and dagger for if they ran out of ammo.
Recalling her history classes, Isdell remembered that the initial death toll from the deluded fools had been in the millions. Even now many of these fools would try to enter the sealed worlds to become all-powerful but only a handful of them would actually return alive, fewer still would return having gained anything from it and even fewer still would willingly enter a sealed world again.
It was ironic that the people who dreamed of having the system the most were the ones who died to it the quickest, driven by their own desire. On the other hand, the people who didn't wish for such a system were the ones who became powerful. Whether it was power leveling or having access to military equipment, the people who didn't like the system or abused it, benefited from it the most.
Going down the elevator was always a bit nauseating for Isdell, especially going up or when it stopped while going down since that little extra force needed to stay standing was enough to make her collapse. Fortunately, she had grown used to bracing herself and keeping both hands on her cane to help support herself, so she didn't need to be constantly followed around by someone, at least not on her family's property.
Isdell arrived on the 7th floor soon enough, where there was a luxurious cafe filled mostly with well-off or other distinguished people. There were also some employees who had sucked it up and opened their wallets for the overpriced food and tea. Isdell came here for breakfast every morning unless she was staying somewhere else, which wasn't very often unlike the rest of her family who were always running around with a jam-packed schedule, every minute was filled with one thing or another.
The moment the waiters saw Isdell they didn't even bother waiting for her to reach the counter. By the time she did, they had already put her order through and just gave her a thumbs up to say her breakfast was coming. She didn't even have to pay anything for the luxurious breakfast, such was the benefit of having a grandfather who owned literally everything in this building, from the restaurant brands to the weapons used by the security firm and even the mines that sourced the materials the building had been made out of.
Isdell sat at her usual table in the corner against the window. The table even had a permanent 'reserved' sign, so it was always free for her. Sitting down, Isdell wondered what she would do in the future. Her second elder brother who was set to inherit the whole company treated her the same as her grandfather did so it wasn't like she had to worry about being on the streets or anything so serious.
Rather, Isdell was wondering what she could accomplish in life. She wasn't particularly smart no matter how hard she tried and there was nothing even related to physical strength she could do. Her only distinguishing trait was her persistence born of her free time giving her nothing better to do than continue at whatever task she had in front of her.
A few minutes after sitting down and scrolling her phone, a familiar voice called to Isdell. "Good morning Isdell. It feels like I haven't seen you in months." The man called wearily before he took a seat opposite Isdell. This was her grandfather, Heindel Dellheid. He occasionally sat with her for breakfast but rarely stayed long since he was so busy just like the rest of Isdell's family.
The food being prepared must have bumped up in priority when the cafe staff noticed Isdell's grandfather since the food arrived almost as soon as he had sat down.
"Good morning. I thought you would be meeting that guy whos staying in the VIP guest room." Isdell greeted, putting her phone down and digging into the food. "Well. I noticed he was stingy yesterday and when he refused to compromise this morning I decided there was no reason to keep talking with him." her grandfather responded, focusing on his coffee.
"What are you planning on doing today?" Isdell's grandfather asked after a while of the two eating. "There's plenty I would do if I could, but the day's current schedule is nothing, nothing and more nothing," Isdell answered.
"In that case why don't you see if there's anything interesting at an auction being held today?"
"What kind of auctions would be held on a Tuesday?" Isdell asked curiously, somewhat disbelieving.
"It's an auction for artifacts, they even have a few skill books." Her grandfather answered.
"Is there anything specific you're expecting to get from there?"
"Hmm… No. Not particularly, but if you see one of the things I'm looking for by chance then make sure to bid." He assured her and Isdell ran through the list of things he was always looking for to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything.
"I see. Sure, I'll go." Isdell obliged. They made a little more small talk before her grandfather finished and had to quickly leave for something or other. 'Wonder if they really will have something interesting.' She thought. After finishing her breakfast Isdell went back to the elevator and went down to the ground floor.
Once she exited into the lobby Isdell was once again amazed at the crowd. Considering how large the lower floors of the building were she was always quite impressed that it managed to always be so busy. Isdell found a seat to sit down on before doing anything and pulled out her phone to call the chief of personnel management.
"I'm going to an auction. Can I have a few people?" Isdell asked over the phone.
"Understood. Are you on the first floor? I'll send some down now." The voice on the other side of the phone responded. "Thanks," Isdell said before hanging up. A few minutes later a group of men in suits and shades came out of one of the elevators and looked around before seeing Isdell and walking over to her. "Always a pleasure Isdell. We'll be your bodyguards for today." The one in the lead greeted, The gold trimming on his blue tie distinguished him as the captain compared to the other bodyguard's undecorated blue ties.
With her escort in tow, Isdell left the building where among the many people moving around there was a line of fancy black business cars on the driveway in front of the entrance which lead onto the road. Isdell walked up to a random one of the identical black cars and got in the back seat. "Shellborn's auction house," Isdell ordered the chauffeur already waiting in the driver's seat.
A moment later once Isdell's escorts had all gotten into cars they set off down the driveway before turning to join the city traffic. One of her escorts was in the seat next to her and another was in the front passenger seat. The other three were in another car that had begun following behind.
Isdell leaned against the window, wondering what she should do as the car made its way through the city roads. She did love having an opportunity to take one of these cars somewhere, she found it funny how she could just get into any one of them, speak her destination and she would just be taken there without question. 'It's nice being born to a rich family' she idly thought.