“Thomas.” William shed the fake cheer from his expression and raised a finger. “No smoking in my house.”
“Your grandpa’s.” Thomas pulled in another quick inhale. “Seriously dude, what’s the problem? You’re not a cop.” He looked around the table for support, chuckling nervously. “It’s gonna be legal soon anyway, right?”
“Not the issue. You can put it out or get out. My house, my rules.” William’s jaw tensed. Thomas’ insults stung.
“I’m right though.” Thomas’ laughter grew increasingly uncomfortable under William’s glare. Huffing out his last puff, he extinguished the smoke on an empty can and wrapped it into a small bag. “Well, fuck you man. I thought it was supposed to be a party. Don’t say I didn’t offer nothing later.”
“Now Thomas, don’t be an ass or I’ll nerf your character’s wisdom,” Mitchelle said, raising her voice.
“A devastating punishment,” William observed.
Abraham’s lips moved. “Heh.”
“Yea whatever…” Thomas shook his head, continuing to drink.
“Right, let’s try to enjoy tonight,” William said.
Instead of an apologetic nod he received Thomas’ all too familiar petulant muttering. There wasn’t even an attempt at respect in his behaviour, though that should’ve been obvious. Can’t expect a loser with no respect for himself to even begin to respect others.
“Well then.” Daniel clapped his hands together, raising his brows with a diplomatic smile. “We can catch up during the game. What kind of campaign do you have planned for us Mini?” He pulled out a leather binder, opening it to reveal a neatly printed character sheet and a tablet for browsing rulebooks.
“You’ve prepared!” Mitchelle stifled a squee of joy.
William blinked in surprise. For a moment there he had assumed Daniel was here to lure Abraham into some kind of business venture, but no. He actually came to game? Maybe I had misjudged the guy, William thought, or more likely projected my own shitty mood on them. God, I need this break. He popped open a bottle and drank of the refreshing golden lager to begin fixing the mood issue.
“Sort of prepared.” Daniel tilted his head from side to side coyly. “I may have been waiting for an opportunity to play again for a while. Unfortunately, there’s only so many days in a single lifetime. You just can’t do everything.”
“Word.” Abraham shuffled his margherita and ciders to make room for his electronics. “I haven’t found time to actually play the game either, but here I am with eighty-something optimized character builds. Heh. Funny how that happens.”
“Sweet.” Thomas pulled out a crumpled paper and old sticky dice. “Hey, wanna give me one? Can’t remember the rules too well, and kinda donated my books to this guy.”
“Sure. What do you want to play?” Abraham asked, moving over to show his screen to Thomas.
“Kill, loot, and do cool shit. Duh?”
“I have a rather straightforward warrior build that might work.”
Mitchelle coughed. “For your reference, we start at level one with the bonus trait available. Plus, you get an NPC that’s played by me who is level five and a little stronger to help you get through the start…”
William’s groan was shared by Daniel. Why, oh why the fuck does she have to push in her own character when she was already the game master?
Mitchelle never stopped talking, “…I have a little bit of backstory prepared if you want me to read it so you guys get an idea of who my character is and how you might relate to her.”
She pulled from her faded red backpack four copies of three hundred page manuscripts and handed them out.
A glance at the title ‘Shadow Queen’s Saga’ confirmed William’s worst fears. Every page he flipped through only deepened it. This was the same highschooler’s fan-fic level writing of the same self insert character she had injected into every single story throughout their school days. Given the pagecount she had clearly been looking forward to this way too much. William cringed at the thought of stomping on that excited beaming face she was making.
“Thanks, I’ll give it a read later and let you know what I think,” he said.
Her grin widened. “Please do. I’ve been coining the idea of tossing it to a publisher one day. I’d appreciate honest feedback.”
Okay, walked into that mine all on your own champ.
“My condolences,” Daniel whispered to William, while covering his mouth with a whiskey glass.
“Your build has some inconsistencies that don’t abide by the rules.” Abraham inspected Mitchelle’s character sheet at the back of the manuscript, while letting Thomas use his tablet. “These race combinations are illegal. Also, I think the game would be a better experience if you level her down, or us to five. Otherwise we’ll have to pick builds that abuse the game mechanics to even keep up with you in combat.”
“What? But the plot needs her.” Mitchelle shrank behind her notes.
“Mm-hm, the bonus trait wouldn’t feel like a proper power-up if there’s an overpowered NPC with us,” Daniel said in a conciliatory tone. “We’d need to be able to keep up with her.”
“Okay. Okay! Everyone is level five. But, I have to keep the Soul Eater trait and the sub-races on her. Maybe you’ll discover why if we get far enough in the plot,” she said.
“Fine by me. Can we ignore racial requirements for traits too then?” Abraham asked.
She shrugged. “Eh, why not?”
A dangerous smirk squinted the corner of Abraham’s dark pale gray eyes as he leaned over to Thomas and pointed at the screen, murmuring some technical advice to the smaller man.
William pulled his phone out, closed the chapter of Isekai Gamer three he was reading, and quickly scrolled over online forums for
