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“Solomon, please leave our party.”
At the GM’s words, the older-looking Warlock flustered and shot back.
“Hm. I’d like to know the reason.”
“Um, we’re good on the RP (roleplay) now. Honestly, I don’t think it fits the kind of play our party is aiming for.”
“In what way?”
“Look. You started as a Warlock, and the moment you hit level 6, you multiclassed into Paladin.”
He dropped the Warlock act and glanced down at his character sheet.
It was the page where he tracked the character stats that changed moment by moment while playing the TRPG “Dragon Soup.”
Level 5 Warlock, level 1 Paladin. A level 6 multiclass.
“What about it?”
“I mean… why does a Warlock who’s so crazy for power he’d sell his soul to a demon suddenly become a Paladin who protects the faith?”
“Hm, that’s because after selling his soul to a demon, he got scared and sought out religion as part of his backstory…”
“You’re just trying to stitch together a Dark Paladin build.”
“Yes.”
To be honest, that was true.
“Every fight, you wipe everything by yourself with some broken build, and if I tune the monsters to match you, the other party members can’t keep up.”
“……”
“And you skip the code-breaking, deduction, and puzzle parts, saying they’re boring.”
“Those don’t have great rewards anyway…”
“Hah…”
From beyond the headset came the sound of someone swallowing down boiling anger.
Even TRPGs weren’t something people gathered around one table for anymore.
Getting a group together was harder than you’d think, and after that whole period1, playing in front of a monitor with microphones became the norm.
“I just couldn’t stand watching everyone struggle in every fight, and I wanted to show how good and fun a broken build can be.”
“I know you’re good, Solomon, but this is tabletop roleplaying. It’s not an MMORPG where you compete by grinding stats.”
“Still, I know the game better and I’m more skilled. Isn’t it right that you should follow what I say?”
The GM answered, voice flat in his ear.
“This room is for people who want to play for fun, even if they don’t know the game that well.”
“Hm, but newbies can’t properly enjoy the game without knowledge. All the more reason I should guide them toward efficient and fun builds and play…”
“Ah, fuck, seriously.”
“Why are you swearing? I’m just trying to resolve this through a nice conversation…”
“?”
At the forced removal message, he blinked. Had he disconnected by accident?
“……”
No. It was deliberate.
“What the hell. I was offering to teach nicely, with good intentions.”
Instead of gratitude, they kick me out like this? This is why newbies these days…
It was then—
Ding!
Before he could even finish processing it, a new one-on-one chat popped up from the TRPG cafe2 he belonged to.
A sudden offer. Had the party contacted this person beforehand?
Maybe they felt guilty about kicking him without warning, so they at least told someone.
Before he could reply, the compressed file finished downloading.
“Huh?”
There wasn’t even any talk about scheduling. That was it.
When he unzipped it, the folder held a PDF that looked like a rulebook and a character creation sheet.
「Dark Camelot — Guild City」
「Starter Rulebook, Advanced Expansion Rulebook, Character Sheet」
It was a title he’d never heard before.
There was no creator listed and no copyright notice, so it was obviously homemade. A custom ruleset.
───
This RPG:
“Dark Camelot — Guild City” is set in a Gothic industrial city where magic and technology collide.
While the five great noble houses that rule the city protect their magical traditions, the guild bourgeoisie rising as a new power threaten the houses’ status with magitech that breaks down the boundary between life and machines.
Nor can you leave out the slum criminal organizations that control the black market.
In this city of chaos and opportunity, will you be able to obtain what you desire?
───
The moment he started reading, something grabbed him by the collar and wouldn’t let go.
More than anything, one thing stood out.
The power balance was obviously broken at a glance.
Come to think of it, amateurs and official releases were all the same, honestly.
The only difference was how broken they were.
Before he knew it, he was tearing through the rulebook, already sketching out a build that could squeeze 200% brokenness out of the rules. And the one that jumped out at him most was, of course—
‘Wait. Critical hit damage stacks multiplicatively on Sneak Attack? Is this for real?’
A Sneak Attack build that, if you landed a proper stab from behind, could send even a dragon flying in a single blow—
The textbook backstab assassin, the kind that erased people with a one-shot burst from behind.
‘And I should pick up a few spells for utility… so for starting origin and background…’
Concept locked in, he opened the character creation guide in earnest.
The very first decisions were his origin and upbringing background.
Street urchin, Lowlands criminal, Blackwater sailor, guild bourgeois, great-house noble, and so on.
Without hesitation, he picked the background he’d already settled on.
One of the five great houses that had protected ancient magical traditions and ruled both kingdom and city. House Bale’s bloodline specialized in intelligence, stealth, and covert maneuvering.
‘Whatever else, you start life with a silver spoon.’
As “unique background” implied, it devoured all 10 Aptitude Points he could freely distribute, in exchange for absurd benefits.
Which was exactly why—
By stacking a top-tier great-house background with a few negative ones to offset it, he brought the total cost down to only 4 Aptitude Points (AP).
‘Good. Background’s basically set.’
Next came class. Job. Archetype.
No hesitation there, either.
Those earlier background picks had been groundwork for this from the start.
Background, then archetype.
Four points here, five points there. Nine Aptitude Points spent, one left.
‘Where do I put the last point?’
By the rules, he had to spend every last Aptitude Point during character creation.
‘In that case…’
So Solomon picked something that looked decent without overthinking it.
‘Let’s take what fits this character.’
Maybe, somewhere in the back of his mind, he was still hearing what the previous party told him before kicking him.
With all his Aptitude Points spent—
— Distribute your attributes.
And with that, he dove straight into min-maxing, squeezing out every drop of efficiency.
Some might say this character had no “story.”
They’d ask what the point was if you were going to ignore roleplay and setting in a TRPG, betting everything on efficiency just to build something overpowered.
Fair enough. Story and all that crap didn’t matter to him. He liked watching his character climb into the absurd, with no ceiling in sight.
Then why play a TRPG instead of an MMORPG?
What was the point of getting strong in an MMORPG? It was just a contest to see who could print bigger numbers on a “receipt.”3
TRPGs were different.
In Dragon Soup, once a character passed level 25, they were reborn as an “epic-tier powerhouse,” their name spreading across the continent. They became the hero, the centerpiece of a legend sung everywhere.
And beyond that? There was literally nothing you couldn’t do. Anything you could imagine became possible.
A mere mortal could ascend to godhood. Or kill a god with their own hands.
He loved that childish, bottomless imagination.
The story of power itself.
In that sense, the reckless brokenness Dark Camelot — Guild City embraced fit him perfectly.
‘Yeah. This is the dream.’
He’d finished the build and was about to close the window when the prompt appeared.
Without thinking much of it, he entered the name Solomon and hit “Save.”
—That was the last scene of this world the man remembered.
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