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Chapter 13 – Appraisal ceremony ②
Kurena had the talent of a Sword Saint. Both Gerda and Rodan were frozen with a look of disbelief. Allen calmy recorded Kurena’s stats in the grimoire’s notes.
(I expected as much. Honestly, she was way too strong for a normal swordsman.)
It had been 2 and half years since he started playing knights with Kurena. It was only an hour a day, but thanks to that, Allen’s Swordsmanship was already level 2. The wooden swords were broken and had to be remade more than 10 times. Recently, he had started making his own.
Tallying up the 31 children who had gone, these were the results of today.
・Sword Saint - 1 (Kurena)
・Axeman - 1 (a commoner)
・Priest - 1 (a serf)
・Merchant - 1 (son of the mayor)
・No Talent - 27
(They’re almost entirely untalented. Looks like the odds are 1 out of every 10.)
“Last but not least, Allen, son of Rodan. Please place your hand over the crystal.”
He was the last one left. Rodan accompanied him to the crystal, and Allen did as the priest instructed him.
(So, this will tell my parents I’m a Summoner, huh? Or at least, that’s what God said. Or rather, that’s what the message from the God of Creation said.)
In the last five and half years, Theresia had turned many grasshoppers into light. Even so, Allen had never told his parents that he was a summoner. It was partly because he didn’t want to explain how he knew. And there wasn’t any pressing reason to tell them.
While Allen was lost in his thoughts, the crystal gave off a light like never before.
” ” ” ” “Wha!?” ” ” ” ”
The priests and Rodan were astonished. It was a light brighter than what happened with Kurena. Everyone covered their eyes like they were looking directly at the sun.
The light settled, and letters shone in silver on the black metal plate.
“T-this is… no way.”
The priest was shocked. He didn’t believe what he saw and rubbed his eyes, taking a second look.
“Uh, Mr. Priest, what’s the appraisal?”
Rodan, who couldn’t read, asked the priest to confirm the results.
“Uh, um, err, no, well, he doesn’t have a talent.”
“That so.”
Rodan had often seen Allen playing knights with Kurena, and, by the way Allen handled his sword, Rodan thought that he was no ordinary child. He had hoped that Allen would have the talent of a Swordsman.
(Mm. Dad looks pretty sad. Well, it’s fine if I don’t have talent, but what’s with this? You skipping out on your job, God of Creation?)
Allen looked at the black plate in disbelief.
【 NAM 】 Allen
【 H P 】 E
【 M P 】 E
【 ATK 】 E
【 DEF 】 E
【 AGL 】 E
【 INT 】 E
【 LCK 】 E
【TALNT】 ÁϗѼャǥǾʢ}ォ
(My talent is corrupted!)
On the black metal plate, a column of E-rank stats and a garbled talent were showing in a silver font. The priest couldn’t read the garbled text either, so he judged it as no talent.
It seemed that some commoners could read. Allen could hear them whispering that, even though he was talentless, his stats were still very low. It was loud enough that Rodan could hear what they were saying. Rodan looked at Allen like the results were bad.
“Oh, Rodan. Allen is your son. You must raise him well.”
The priest had finished taking notes, and the letters on the metal plate disappeared. Apparently, all the children’s talents were recorded, including Allen’s.
Rodan left the church with slumped shoulders, and Allen followed.
(Kurena is a Sword Saint. Are they just going to let her go home? Or will they talk to them later?)
Gerda and Kurena left the church after Rodan, but it seemed like the church didn’t do anything in particular; they were leaving just like anybody else.
Along the way home, Gerda tried to cheer Rodan up. However, Rodan didn’t react at all.
The appraisal ceremony started at 9 am. Even after the initial explanation and 32 appraisals, it was still before noon. On the way home, they parted ways with Gerda and Kurena.
“You are my child. I will raise you well. But your mother will be worried, so let’s only tell her that you don’t have a talent.”
When they were alone, Rodan spoke to Allen, thinking that Allen would be down. He said that Theresia would worry if she found out about Allen’s extraordinarily low stats. Allen, however, was busy analyzing the appraisal results.
“Eh? Okay, papa.”
When Allen replied with a smile, Rodan patted him on the head.
When they got home, they told Theresia the results of the appraisal. She nodded gently and said that Allen was their child no matter what.
Allen went to the kids’ room for a nap. Allen slept next to his two-year-old brother Mash, who was sleeping peacefully. His wooden bed had been changed into a futon. The warmth of his parents’ love filled his heart.
(This must have been a mistake by God, or the staff. The garbled text on the metal plate didn’t properly show that I’m a Summoner.)
He planned to summarize the results of the appraisal ceremony before going to bed, so he that could record it in the grimoire.
(Well, I’m sorry that my parents are worried, but for now, I guess I’ll just keep my mouth shut about being a Summoner.)
Since nothing came of the appraisal ceremony, he would continue investigating his summoning, while hiding it from his family. When he finished writing his notes, he went to a page he wrote in the past.
(So, all of my stats were rank E, huh? That confirms one of my theories.)
Allen had a theory that had been unanswered for the past 5 years. The appraisal ceremony had given him an answer.
It was true that his appraisal results were a disappointment for his parents, but having only E ranked stats wasn’t a bad thing to Allen.
(Now I know that I’m the only one in Hell Mode.)
He looked at the hypotheses section of his notes, and recorded his confirmed theory.
Allen's Hypotheses
Hypothesis 1 - Everyone in this world is in Hell Mode.
Hypothesis 2 - Only Allen is in Hell Mode, everyone else is in Normal Mode.
He erased the first hypothesis from the grimoire.
(Now I know that I’m the only one in Hell Mode. Otherwise, it’d be too much of a coincidence to have only E ranked stats.)
Allen had almost finished compiling the results of his investigation on the appraisal ceremony. First, the stats were ranked relative to the average. So he was compared against 5 year olds. There probably wasn’t too big a difference in status from person to person; they were probably level 1 like Allen. He decided that the rank of each stat was based on it’s cap and growth rate.
So then why were all of Allen’s stats ranked E? He guessed it was because he was in Hell Mode. It wasn’t just about growth cap and per-level growth rate, but it probably also factored in leveling speed. And that would mean that Allen’s results would have been 1/100th of the actual value.
In Hell Mode, it took 100 times longer to level than Normal Mode.
While lamenting the trend towards casual gaming, he was reincarnated. This was a world where he was the only one playing on Hell Mode. This truly was hell. However, something welled up inside him. He could feel his motivation rising.
“So, this is the battle against casual games. I’m supposed to spend my life fighting the spirit of casual games by showing the depth of my dedication?”
When he noticed that he accidentally spoke out loud, he instantly regretted it, and took his nap.
In the end, at 3pm that day, he played with Kurena like usual. But his day didn’t end there. In the evening, his parents said they had something to do and went somewhere. Theresia came back first, and Rodan returned an hour later.
“Eh? W-what happened, Rodan!!!”
Theresia couldn’t help but shout at Rodan. His face and body were covered in bruises. It looked like someone had beaten him up.
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