Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.

Geezer Weasalopes

Concerning the effect of LUC on Real World Events:

Kei adjusts his stats to 100, discovers some dangers in this, and adjusts them all down to 30 except LUC, keeping that at 100.
While pondering whether to leave LUC at 100, Mitsurugi calls.
Having kissed him on the cheek in a drunken haze she's been embarrassed to contact him but for some reason she doesn't understand she felt an irresistible urge to contact him just then.

Keigo is honest enough to wonder if this has something to do with his LUC currently being 100.
...that he considers this a lucky thing may force a reconsideration concerning just how averse he is to relationships.

Hop forward several volumes and we'll come across a certain gemologist with an unadjusted LUC of 41.
Forty-one.
Natural, unmodified, nothing to do with Dungeons.
Now consider how things keep falling Komugi's way, including Kei being even more accommodating than usual.

@Isshou said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

@Geezer-Weasalopes Actually that is one of the things bothers me too. He's stated he has no family except distant relative that he's never been close with. I just can't believe that he doesn't have some sort of group of friends already that don't only just include Miyoshi. Miyoshi's also a relatively recent graduate and addition to the company. So, what has Keigo been doing for the past years of his life outside work?

But it's been months in the story and there just hasn't been anyone, not even a name dropped. This could be a bit of criticization on the nature of the overworked Japanese businessman. He's never had much time for friends outside of work and didn't carry any forward from school.

He might have had a few in the old company but aside from bringing Miyoshi along, he's basically dropped everything about his old life in that company. Enoki and the other manager must have really driven a wedge between him and that stage of his life.

I would love to see an old friend come back up in his life now, especially that he's basically sets his own schedule and can catch up with some of his old friends. Though after the recent outside D-Power PoV chapters it would be quite suspicious.

I have at different times in my life lost all contact with anyone I'd previously known...but that's not uncommon when moving halfway across the US pre-Internet.
Once I'd settled in I always stumbled into a similar bunch of people, but that at least partially has to do with being involved with the SCA and SF Fandom and more recently the LN/manga/anime scene, which can be considered an aspect of SF Fandom.
...I haven't had long term contact with anyone outside of work except within those sub-cultures since graduating from college in 1988. And contacts that were purely work, no matter how much I enjoyed them... I'm not good at maintaining contact if I don't see folks due to a shared activity, including family.

Keigo seems a personable enough chap that his not seeming to have contact with anyone outside of work would seem to speak toward the negative aspects of sections of Japanese corporate culture, as you speculate above, even given his esoteric interests as reflected by his obscure references, references that Miyoshi gets and plays along with so not that unique in the end.

Or that he's just bad at keeping in touch with folks, and Miyoshi is counterbalancing that.

Those he's currently in contact with are all as a result of D-Powers related activities, at least initially, and also tend to involve the other folks making an effort to stay connected with him.
When he's the one making the effort...there seems to be concern on his part for how their interactions with D-Powers could negatively impact them down the line and ensuring they're aware they've got a place to run if things get hairy.
This last does speak well for him as a person, but it's sad that it looks like he looses touch if there isn't an overriding reason to stay in touch.
Unless, of course, it was a combination of his job and having moved away from wherever he went to school.

Crey

@Isshou When Keigo first shows his D-Card to Miyoshi, she does mention that his job is like exploitative black hole, where did he find the time to go diving?
And further along when Naruse is translating basically nonstop, Miyoshi says that she resembles Kei - practically living in the office getting caught up in work.

sorvani

@Crey said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

@Isshou When Keigo first shows his D-Card to Miyoshi, she does mention that his job is like exploitative black hole, where did he find the time to go diving?
And further along when Naruse is translating basically nonstop, Miyoshi says that she resembles Kei - practically living in the office getting caught up in work.

And Kei said the same about Miyoshi when she was staying up all night calculating his scan readings.

Geezer Weasalopes

Now back into Volume 2, and this thought of wisdom from Kei:

If the right partner and opportunity arises, I refuse to be friend zoned!

This, while having lunch with Saito and Mitsurugi, and having schedule dinner with them and Miyoshi.
Two questions spring to mind:

Define "right partner."
Define "opportunity."

Yo, Kei, sad to break it to you but I think Mitsurugi did think of those trips together to the dungeon as d-d-dates!
Saito isn't entirely vamping you either.
...and I still have my suspicions concerning Miyoshi.

strangeattractor

@Geezer-Weasalopes

Yes, I think leaving his Luck stat at 100 is probably having all sorts of effects.

Isshou

@strangeattractor Another fun one to think of: Kei's initial stats for luck was below average being a 9. So, he would have been slightly unlucky. Likely even leading to the work situation, being sent as the representative, swerving into the goblin, and leaning against the truck and accidentally sending the rebar down into the forming dungeon.

He's gone from a slight unlucky guy to being the luckiest man in the ~~galaxy~~ world. And the ~~world~~ Japan might end up saved because of it. After all he's somehow ending up in the right place at the right time and with the right luck to pull things off.

sorvani

@Isshou said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

So, he would have been slightly unlucky. Likely even leading to the work situation, being sent as the representative, swerving into the goblin, and leaning against the truck and accidentally sending the rebar down into the forming dungeon.

Even with below average luck, sometimes you still roll the good old double aught on the dice. Which obviously happened for one of the events in your list there.

sorvani

@Geezer-Weasalopes just going to glomp this onto your topic as I think it fits and I don't want to make a new topic.

I've seen comments across the web about how Keigo and Miyoshi are not acting smart, when they are supposed to actually be smart.

They are both above average smart, this is born out by both of their initial INT scores of 18 for Keigo and 17 (book 2) for Miyoshi. Miyoshi's could have been a point lower since she had naturally assigned 2 points by the time of the first check with Making in book 3 when it was 18.
They are normal company employees that are employed as researchers in a dungeon adjacent company.
They have similar, but not identical, geek/random/esoteric knowledge of things outside of work.

Then you have to think about the timeline, it has only been 113 days. That is less than 4 months and it is less than 3 months since the first auction.

See Timeline of D-Genesis - you will be spoiled

Looking at that time line, Keigo and Miyoshi have had zero time to truly acclimate as rich or explorers or important people or anything else other than a no longer normally employed Japanese Salaryman and Office Lady.

Sure they blow money on food, but most of their big spending is party/company spending on things. The house, SMD, Dolly, etc. They've only been "rich" since November 5th and it is currently January 17th, that is only 2 months and 12 days. Personalities do not change at a core level that fast. So I like the way they have been written for the most part.

The same comes to their attitude towards various lettered agencies from across the world. They were born and raised in Japan. They are not going to suddenly go against their natural tendencies. Even when dealing with the Russian hit squad on the way to the OLC trade, they just did some lame detective moves until they were cornered. Then Keigo just did a minor parkour move to flee and when it was all said and done in the lobby, Miyoshi and Keigo were both spooked. Miyoshi more than Keigo, but still both.

When things are forcibly brought to their attention in a civil manner, they think and adapt appropriately (storage orb auction pulled) and when pissed off, they respond heatedly (OLC auction).

Edit: Converted timeline bullet list to Markdown Table
Edit 2: Moved table to timeline post

Geezer Weasalopes

@sorvani
Check with @Isshou, to me this looks like something that'd be nice to have included in D-Gen Stats and Research; it might take some tweaking of the other tables, but a sense of what happens when would be really nice to have as part of that topic.

This isn't a table I want to have vanish in the night because no one remembers it was here, it's too useful for me to be happy if it suffered such a fate.

Isshou

@Geezer-Weasalopes Could also benefit from a new topic for outlining history and major events (d-powers and not)

Since you could also track the initial formation and some other details with Iori, Team Simor, and the like.

sorvani

@Isshou said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

@Geezer-Weasalopes Could also benefit from a new topic for outlining history and major events (d-powers and not)

Since you could also track the initial formation and some other details with Iori, Team Simor, and the like.

This list if not super complete as I did not include the date of things that happened such as the dungeon dates with members of team Slime and Asha's trip to BL central.

But it is not hard to add to a markdown table over time. I love that J-Novel uses NodeBB. I've been using it since 2014 for my D&D campaign.

Anyway, so new thread title Timeline of D-Genesis you will be spoiled work?

Edit: Table moved to Timeline of D-Genesis - you will be spoiled

Geezer Weasalopes

Volume 2 now.
Mizuho, #1 Lousy Administrator, having egged D-Powers into placing Otherworldly Language Comprehension up for auction, Keigo rushes to assure Naruse that if she decided to leave the JDA in the aftermath there'd be a place for her...

“Naruse,” I said. “If you want to quit the JDA after this, feel free to join me.”
“Huh? Are you p-p-proposing to me?!”
“...No, I’m not.”
Miyoshi snorted. “You might as well kiss her, Kei.”

In reality his thinking was that once they got the company up and running they were going to need competent staff they could trust, and Naruse qualified.
He's right in this, but still...

Everyone, in chorus!
Kei, this is why you don't have a girlfriend!

They're smarting up a bit; they realize that once the auction for Otherworldly Language Comprehension is announced they'll have targets painted upon their backs.
Time to go camping on the tenth floor! In their spanking new Armored RV!
..and warn Agent Tanaka of their intended movements and how that might impact Public Safety.

Continuing...

The Arthurs are a hoot.
I'd love it if eventually they get a skill that allows them to determine their stats.
Maybe have them placed in that medical examination thingy, the one the medical Naruse designed?
...finding out if that can tell anything wouldn't be a bad idea.

Continuing again.
Of course no one will realize I'm adding on, but if I do another post with nothing in between I'm making work for a mod who'll merge them together.

The ability to form parties has just been discovered by our intrepid trio.
Afeared that Naruse will see his stats, Kei jolts away with a yelp.
...seeking an innocuous explanation for doing so...
Um, well, it's that Naruse had approached too closely to his face and he didn't know how to handle such proximity...
Miyoshi grabs the chance to do a "Gosh, Kei, you're such a kid!" jab.
Naruses's face turns a little red at this.
Given how calm and levelheaded Naruse has shown herself...Kei might have a chance?!

Isshou

I can't help but wonder if Naruse has her own suspicions about the duo, particularly Yoshimura. After all they already turned the world upside down with their orb auctions. Gave her an orb tentatively worth hundreds of billions of yen. Provided proof of the wandering mansion. Since Miyoshi doesn't regularly dive, he's got to be the one pulling in the orbs. Even if it is still suspected that he's getting them from a network of other divers.

Trying to peek at his card to confirm it.

Now his stats are another matter that by the time they might be visible to others he's got quite a handle on hiding them.

So, why do we think that Naruse willingly used the otherworldly language orb, the ~~third~~ second one ever. Sure, she's their dedicated contact and they are the reason she got such a promotion. With how much she threw herself into translation I wonder if she's actually a research bug like her sister, Midori. This only makes her an even better fit for their company if she ever had to leave the JDA. Though I suspect it would take deliberate foul play in removing her from her role being the JDA/D-Power intermediary and from JDA in general.

Geezer Weasalopes

@Isshou said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

Though I suspect it would take deliberate foul play in removing her from her role being the JDA/D-Power intermediary and from JDA in general.

That's been my concern within the greater storyline for a number of people; that as a result of their interactions with D-Powers 'outside forces' will target them such that they have no safe option other than coming inside D-Powers' protective envelope, that they can't continue on as things had been before.

I worry about her sister's operation that way, and Aisha (sp?)(the lady with the Super Recovery Skill).
The model and actress as well, given how they're starting to stand out as a result of following Kei's Slime Regimen.
...right, this is a spoilerific discussion topic, I don't need to obfuscate, do I?

As new technologies and knowledge proliferate, all traceable back to Kei and Miyoshi, those closest to them will be placed in higher and higher levels of personal danger due to being potential handles upon them as well as their own abilities becoming desired.
Kei and Miyoshi do care about these people; once involved, they aren't the kind to abandon them.
Further on in the story the Arthurs start serving as security escorts, but that in itself is part of being brought inside the umbrella of D-Powers.

I really should keep in mind that while it may be played something like a joke, they're all aware that part of Naruse's duties are to learn as much as she can about Kei and Miyoshi; she's their liaison, yes, but she's also a JDA assigned Intelligence Operative...who's already doing some censoring of what information she relays to the JDA from what she's learned.
She and her direct supervisor are a good fit that way; they exercise judgement, aren't blindly obedient.
Anyway, that's to say that @Isshou has a very good point.

Isshou

@Geezer-Weasalopes To some extent the most vulnerable of their immediate contacts ends up being Midori and Nakajima. They've actively worked with developing products with D-Powers but haven't been any focus for dungeon boot camp or requirements for dealings with JDA.

Naruse is going to be protected by D-Powers and JDA since both sides want to keep her in the position of liaison. Though her immediate supervisor before the promtion was Enoki levels of horrible.

Saito and Mitsurugi end up being buffed by the slime training regimen and the Keigo's 'Christmas gift'. Given where they end up, though we only really get to see Saito utilizing her increased stats. They seem to be relatively safe.

Those are of the people we know well in the story. The only other group of people who may end up in danger is Miyoshi's family. After all what good villain wouldn't take the opportunity to capture the protagonist's family to use against them?

Maybe Keigo needs to spend quite some time on the 10th floor collecting Darkness Magic VI orbs... give everyone they need to protect a hellhound of their own.

sorvani

@Isshou said in Thoughts upon rereading D-Genesis - there will be spoilers, of course.:

Maybe Keigo needs to spend quite some time on the 10th floor collecting Darkness Magic VI orbs... give everyone they need to protect a hellhound of their own.

muashahahahah!

As the flavor text said
You shall open the doors of Hell, calling forth your servants. In the end, you shan’t be able to return them, and thus, the surface shall become a paradise of darkness.

Geezer Weasalopes

Volume 3 next.
In retrospect, ttl's cover art is intriguingly spoilerific in a manner such that there's no freaking way you'd be able to figure out in advance.

Geezer Weasalopes

I've commented concerning Naruse being a sharp cookie?
She just sprang the "Notice which must be posted at the leased property" bit, and got such a ho hum reaction that she gleefully taunted them concerning their having a solution to the Difficulty of Slimes.
All they could do was sit there and take it.

Parties, stats, and Making.
Kei does something nice for Saito and Ryoko...and Miyoshi castigates him for pushing them beyond single-digit explorers in their abilities.
The only one with higher states is...Kei.
Uh whoops!

I suspect Naruse is starting to think all you need do is hint at a Skill Orb and wait a couple of days and D-Powers will deliver.

Naruse has now learned of Naruse's involvement with D-Powers; on the other hand, Naruse was aware of her sister's association with them considerably earlier.

Geezer Weasalopes

"Testing, testing, do you read?"
D-Cards, parties, telepathy, and admissions placement testing.
Oh...joy.

Saiga remembered the "flaw" Naruse reported concerning the stats measurement device D-Powers was funding the development of.
Inability to detect stats is de facto proof of not having obtained a D-Card.
D-Powers can provide the device needed.

However, even if this did work out, D-Powers would firmly oppose being called saviors. When Saiga imagined their displeased expressions, he broke out into a delighted smile.

Let's just say that D-Powers is a never ending headache for Saiga.
He's ecstatic at the opportunity to return the favor.

Geezer Weasalopes

Comic Market...with the Smiths.

So, if they all had D-Cards and formed an extended party, would they be PSmIth?
apologies to Phil Foglio