"A new DLC is coming out already?"
Misha leaned forward, eyes glued to the monitor.
It was the first DLC that Chaldea/Academy, the ARPG adaptation of the Fate franchise, had released in the five years since launch.
The concept alone—a modern world where mages, students, and Heroic Spirits coexisted—had been enough to blow up the playerbase.
It helped that it was loosely inspired by the TRPG Fate/Grand Order. Servants in a contemporary setting were always a guaranteed hit.
But with a new DLC meaning a big update of playable characters in a modern hunteresque society, even Misha, who could be considered a person who played games to a casual extent, was pretty excited.
He wasn't exactly hardcore, but calling him not a fan of the Fate series would be a lie. The Saber figure quietly watching from the shelf behind him testified otherwise.
FGO itself, though… he'd bounced off its gameplay. So when Chaldea/Academy released with real-time combat and character growth, he'd jumped right in.
"The Lostbelts, huh…"
Just the title already hinted at which characters might show up.
Then again, with Type-Moon, titles didn't guarantee anything. Expecting it to follow the original storyline one-to-one was the first mistake new players made.
For example, the first Nine Chapters of Episode One.
Human Order Correction Ritual.
While the first players had assumed it would be similar to how Fate/Grand Order played out, it ended up being completely different.
Misha, who never played Grand Order, wasn't affected like the hardcore fans, because there was no reason to be confused if you were seeing everything for the first time.
Well… maybe Chapter: Babylonia was a bit confusing, but that was only because he had seen the anime first.
There was still some time before the Lostbelt DLC dropped.
Booting up the game for the first time in a while, Misha headed straight to character creation.
As the menu loaded, a sudden notification popped up.
[Welcome, lancerdied.
With the upcoming DLC Lostbelts & Clock Towers, selected players have been granted early access to the new systems:
Original Skill Creation and Original Noble Phantasm Creation.
These features will fully be released with the DLC.]
Oho?
Now this was interesting.
He closed the notification and went to character creation, immediately skipping over the appearance options. Male, confirm, done.
He'd min-maxed too many files to care about cosmetics and how the character looked.
Besides, choosing male made one of the early mini-bosses skip its ultimate, making it way easier to beat. He trusted that the game's auto character creation system wouldn't give him an ugly character.
He might have picked female for character creation for the achievements back when he first started, but this was a casual run just to test out the new Original Skill Creation feature.
Unlike how Servants in Type-Moon had fixed stats with some exceptions, in Chaldea/Academy, growth was one of the biggest aspects of the game.
You could ruin yourself late-game if you built wrong early because of powercreep. So Misha dumped almost everything except Luck, which he cranked up to A+, then invested hard into the hidden modifier—Talent.
'Better to struggle early game then fall late game, you know what I mean?'
Using the remaining stat points for Parameters to raise his Mana to C Rank, Misha switched over to Class Selection.
Class was basically a damage modifier in the game depending on the enemy, and some Classes came with benefits but with specific conditions.
For example, while the Ruler Class had an advantage against a lot of other classes, it also meant that your reputation had to be high, or else there would be greater penalties like DMG Reduction against enemies.
He selected Caster without hesitation.
With the concept that he was going for, the NP and Mana DMG Multiplier that the Caster Class had as a passive skill was ideal.
While his physical abilities might lag a bit behind, with his Talent modifier high, it was only a matter of time before it was satisfactory.
Clicking the Class Skill and keeping Territory Creation at E- and putting Item Construction at a solid D+, Misha nodded. That left 20 Skill Stat Points.
Deciding to go back to it if he had leftover Stat Points, Misha moved on.
Finally arriving at the Original Skill Creation section and given the opportunity to put in a prompt, Misha immediately put in the concept that he had in mind.
[Akashic Records]
Another name for the Root. The goal of almost all Magus in the Clock Tower and the source of all phenomena in the Nasuverse.
Didn't having a skill like that sound sick as fuck?
[Requires 20 Skill Stat Points]
…That was all of it, but for the concept, it didn't matter!
Misha resolutely held down the Add Skill Stat Points button.
After putting the same for Noble Phantasm Creation, with Akashic Records being both the Personal Skill and Noble Phantasm, Misha nodded in satisfaction.
'Perfect.'
He moved onto the Species, which was also another DMG Multiplier section.
Putting down Human, and Servant, quickly moved on.
Misha nodded in satisfaction at the character he created.
While what the character actually looked like on screen currently was the classic male silhouette with a question mark for random, the stats were satisfying enough.
--<>--
Name: [Random]
Master: [Undecided]
--<>--
Strength: E
Endurance: E
Agility: E
Mana: C
Luck: A+
--<>--
Item Construction: C
Territory Creation: E
--<>--
Akashic Records — Personal Skill : EX
--<>--
Akashic Records — Noble Phantasm: EX
--<>--
…It might look a little bare bones, but it looked fine enough for Misha.
This was just a trial to test out the Original Creation features. If it didn't work out, might as well just change the prompt next time.
Clicking on finalization, everything went black.
--<>--
…Well, it should have been just a simple playthrough using a new concept…
But looking up at the incredibly big building right in front of him, Misha couldn't help but inwardly complain.
This… just ain't it.
--<>--
A/N: I wanted to write a Nasuverse fanfic, but I don't know what I was thinking, but I was like: "i can't be bothered to research fgo for an fgo fanfic", just decided to make everything new myself.
Also, just cause i'm writing this, doesn't mean I'm abandoning my other fic. This is more or less a hobby, but I'll prolly update at least once or twice a week. Maybe if this fic gets popular enough ill do more with it.
Misha isn't the name in the game, its just a random name for the prologue, btw. Also, this isn't a translation, just making sure.