Chapter 1
Medieval fantasy.
A world filled with stereotypical characters such as a dwarf wielding a hammer, an elf with a bow, and a barbarian who fights shirtless.
I love these kinds of games that are brimming with such prejudice.
Because only in games saturated with these clichés does my hipster instinct truly shine.
A wanderer orc mage, a bard-turned heavy-armor-smearing tank archer, a non-violent vegan barbarian…!
Just the sight of builds like these is enough to prompt the question, “Why are you even using such a weird build?” Yet, I enjoy the game by fine-tuning these builds and watching as they exploit unique strengths.
The thrill of a strength mage swinging a long staff to brutally smash castle walls, the adrenaline rush as an archer withstands the direct impact of a barbarian’s axe and pulls back their bowstring, or the emotional moment when the non-violent vegan barbarian halts a war with nothing but a grand speech…!
I don’t know how I, a human, ended up this way, but when I play games, I can’t immerse myself unless they’re accompanied by absurd concepts and nonsensical antics that verge on madness.
It’s probably because, in real life, I also fit the mold of someone who’d drop out of high school to pursue music—a prime example of a “mad build.”
…Let’s not go there. It’ll only spoil the mood.
Click.
[Main Eater]
Orc / Mage
Level 99
[Some Pee]
Dwarf / Archer
Level 99
[Great Commander]
Dwarf / Barbarian
Level 99
These are my beloved creations, refined through my love, dedication, and relentless research—characters I’d cherish even if they were my own flesh and blood—and they greet me on the character selection screen.
‘Main Eater’ holds the ultimate mage item of this game, which triples the power of any spells used. However, that character has never cast a single spell.
This is because I put all the stat points into strength, leaving the magic stat insufficient to learn any spells.
Sure, not being able to cast spells might seem like a disadvantage for ‘Main Eater,’ a mage who can’t use magic, but this perceived weakness is overshadowed by an incredible advantage:
They are almost impossible to kill.
Skills such as [Arcane Shield], which enhance a mage’s survivability, don’t require a high magic stat to acquire.
Moreover, the passive skill [Blessing of the Spirits], which offers formidable defensive capabilities, is accessible through a special in-game event and doesn’t require any magic points, making it incredibly potent.
Given this, the disadvantage of having low magic due to an absence of stat investment in it turns into an opportunity: all leftover skill points gained from leveling up can be dedicated to passive survivability skills!
Wouldn’t you agree that sometimes disadvantages can double as advantages?
After all, the charm of a bad guy is that being a bad guy is both his flaw and his strong point.
At any rate, I focus on creating characters with as much originality as possible and extracting the maximum efficiency from their unique features.
And if you want to maintain the delicate balance between being “strangely useful” yet “just a bit underwhelming,” it requires meticulous research.
Hasn’t someone said it before? The sweeter the fruit, the more bitter the struggle to achieve it.
The joy of seeing my unique creations excel in a world filled with prejudice has become the greatest pleasure in my life today.
It’s a joy that those who blindly follow pre-made “efficient” builds for human mages, orc barbarians, and the like will never know.
“Alright… let’s go.”
Today, I plan to recreate the excitement that ‘Main Eater,’ ‘Some Pee,’ and ‘Great Commander’ once gave me.
Because my proudest fourth creation has finally been completed.
His name: ‘One-Shot Mage.’
This was the result of countless tests over the past four months, where dozens, even hundreds, of characters were created and deleted. Among all those builds, only one stood out as perfect.
[Please allocate your character’s stats]
Without hesitation, I swiftly allocated the stats with no trace of doubt in my movements.
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Health: 1
Magic: 20
Luck: 1
Looking at this stat distribution, most gamers would have something to say.
“Dude, will your character even survive?”
At the very least, some health points are necessary for survival, and a bit of luck is required to avoid penalties in various in-game choices and conversations.
Typically, the standard build for a mage involves lowering the magic stat by seven points and distributing the remaining points between luck and health according to personal preference.
But for my ‘One-Shot Mage,’ none of that was needed.
What health and luck, you ask? Where’s the romance in that?
I tested hundreds of times, and even without those adjustments, it worked just fine.
[Choose Character Class]
Without hesitation, I selected the Mage class after allocating the stats.
Choosing Barbarian with 20 magic points isn’t for entertainment but pure trolling.
That’s the kind of shallow, silly move that 4000 hours of gameplay immersion wouldn’t allow.
[You have selected Mage. Please choose the type of magic you wish to use]
The Mage in this game can restrict the kind of magic they can learn during character creation.
The five types of magic—fire, wind, water, rock, and lightning—can all be learned, making it easier to handle various situations. However, the individual magic’s power weakens in return.
Conversely, choosing to specialize in only one type of magic, such as fire or wind, could yield incredibly powerful fire pillars or devastating storms that far surpass those of a generalist mage who learns all five.
Striking the right balance between versatility and power is part of the charm of creating a Mage character.
But after extensive research, there was nothing new for me in this screen anymore.
I quickly set it so that the character could only use lightning magic and disabled all others.
Reiterating, the concept of this character is ‘One-Shot Mage.’
To fully realize the concept of reducing everything to ashes in one explosive move, it was necessary to maximize the power of a single type of magic.
There was no hesitation in choosing the race either.
[Please choose your race]
• Human
Humans struggle to survive the early game compared to other races, but their late-game potential is superior.
I experimented with choosing Orc to complement the character’s low health, but the late-game progression with Orc was somewhat constrained compared to Humans.
If anyone asks for advice or wishes to emulate this build:
Sure, Orcs with their higher health and strength stats can be a good choice if you want to make the early game easier. But for this build, I’ll stick with Human.
[Please choose your birth background]
[Nobility]
[Aristocracy]
[Commoner]
[Peasant]
[Vagrant]
No hesitation here. My mouse instantly selected Vagrant with no second thoughts.
Highborn Humans can start with decent equipment but lack the innate critical hit chance needed for optimal gameplay.
At just a 1% critical hit rate based on the 1 luck point I put in, this was a considerable drawback when combat was the main focus.
But lower-born Humans, despite starting with poorer equipment and conditions, gain a higher critical hit chance—20% at just 1 luck.
Moreover, starting as a Vagrant gives you the [Calmness] trait, which ensures you never lose your cool in any situation. This is essential for frail mages susceptible to various status ailments.
It’s not a coincidence that the optimal starting background for thief-type classes is [Vagrant]. Their primary damage relies on critical hits, and [Calmness] prevents their stealth mechanic from being disrupted by area-of-effect fear effects from monsters.
[Select your spells]
“…Lock Bolt spell, lock Thunder spell, lock Charge Light spell… lock Arcane Shield too…”
My mouse sped through disabling various lightning-based spells across the electric magic tree.
Disabling spells works the same way as restricting the number of usable spells.
When you limit the number of thunder magic spells available, the power of the remaining spells increases.
And so, I locked every single spell within the lightning magic tree except for one.
[Ascension]
[Exhaust all the mana stored in your body to elevate your character into a transcendent state for five minutes. Immediately after using this skill, the character will suffer a status ailment and be immobilized for a set period. This skill can only be used once a day.]
The crowning glory of a lightning mage: Ascension!
This spell compresses the mana a mage has stored in their body and releases it all within five minutes.
With its tremendous potential, this spell can even annihilate the final boss of the game with a single flick of a finger, depending on the character’s stored mana.
Of course, this skill comes with its downsides.
Since using this skill renders the character immobilized after exhausting all their mana, timing the use is crucial.
If misused, it could leave the character incapacitated in the middle of a battlefield, sound asleep.
Restricted to once a day, it’s impractical to use on low-level monsters.
…Well, honestly, it’s better to just consider it unusable on regular mobs.
Thus, most standard mages either skip this skill entirely or invest minimally at level 1 for emergency situations.
Standard mages, after all.
[Ascension Level 40]
I restricted every type of magic except for lightning, then further disabled all spells within the lightning tree except for one: Ascension.
This gave me an impressive 120 skill points in the skill window.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I dumped them all into Ascension. At Level 1, the character’s magic is already at Level 40—definitely not the typical kind of build.
“…Perfect!”
My ‘One-Shot Mage’ suffers from a key disadvantage as he can only use one spell, but in return, that one spell is incredibly devastating.
Most mages pick and choose different spells to handle mobs, but my ‘One-Shot Mage’ lacks such versatility! All other spells have been completely locked out.
By limiting his usable spells to just [Ascension], any mana the character has from not fighting lesser enemies accumulates.
Thus, the stored mana will allow the character to unleash an Ascension spell far more powerful than any other mage could.
The strength of [Ascension] is proportional to the amount of mana stored in the mage’s body.
Compared to mages who waste their mana on trivial things, the power of Ascension is a matter of comparison.
Another example where a disadvantage doubles as an advantage.
Here, someone might ask: “How do you handle minions that attack your character? You can’t use normal magic.”
Indeed, minions are a challenge for the One-Shot Mage.
Since both health and strength stats are abysmal, the method of using staves or staffs to annihilate foes like ‘Main Eater’ isn’t an option. Additionally, since the character is of lowly Vagrant origin, he lacks the elite bodyguards of noble-born characters.
…Well, I plan to reveal solutions to such challenges through gameplay. Simply watch as I compensate for all these flaws and craft a great grandmage!
[Please set your character’s name]
[One-Shot]
The name is “One-Shot,” first name Han.
A straightforward, elegant name reflecting the strong resolve to obliterate any obstacle in sight with one attack!
Though it might be considered anachronistically Eastern and out of place in a medieval fantasy setting, I paid it no mind.
After all, a character nickname isn’t really that important. The names “Main Eater,” “Some Pee,” and “Great Commander” are proof of that.
I pressed the start button with delight as I admired the proud face of my fourth creation.
[Welcome, One-Shot.]
[This world suffers under demons that crawl from hell, marauders born from them, and the monsters they create.]
[Your mission is to save those suffering…]
The moment I pressed the start button, the generic, predictable fantasy game storyline began.
[Dwarves, humans, orcs, and elves have paused their disputes temporarily to form a united front against the demons…]
The plot was so cliched it was almost admirable.
[Your help is needed.]
…
And then, my consciousness faded.
