Strengthening

Roughly two months after the knightly order's visit, Theresia became pregnant once again.

According to the village midwife, the birth would take place next year. Because of this, Rodin was back to working the fields by himself.

Theresia insisted on naming this third child, as Allen and Mash had both been named by Rodin. However, because she and Rodin had agreed that he would get to name all the boys and she would get to name all the girls, Rodin simply replied, "Sure, if it's a girl." Apparently, he had every intention of naming the child after another monster if it turned out to be a boy.

Today, Allen was sitting in the garden, his back leaned against the tree with a circle of peeled bark on its trunk. His grimoire was floating before him, golden text gracing its front cover.

<The Skill XP of Synthesis has reached 10,000/10,000.

Synthesis has reached Lvl. 3.

Summoning has reached Lvl. 3.

Expansion has reached Lvl. 2.

You have obtained Strengthening. You have 1 new message.>

"I've done it... I'VE DONE IT! Summoning finally leveled up again! That took absolute ages! And...whoa, this is a lot of information. What should I start with?"

The moment Synthesis reached Lvl. 3, a whole bunch of lines had flowed by in the log.

'It sure took a while. How long has it been since I started leveling Synthesis up? Hmm...damn, a year and eleven months.'

Every single day, Allen had poured all his MP into using the Creation and Synthesis skills.

Because it took six hours for his MP to recover, he did three sets every day—four on the rare occasions when time allowed. Finally, all that effort had paid off.

There was plenty that piqued Allen's interest in the lines of text, but of course, it only made sense to first check his Status. He opened up his grimoire to the first two pages.

___

Name: Allen

Age: 5

Class: Summoner

Level: 1

HP: 20 (40) + 26

MP: 0 (20)

Attack: 5 (10) + 26

Endurance: 5 (10) + 6

Agility: 12 (25) + 10

Intelligence: 15 (30) + 4

Luck: 12 (25)

Skills: Summoning {3}, Creation {3}, Synthesis {3}, Strengthening {1}, Expansion {2}, Deletion, Sword Mastery {3}, Throwing {3}

XP: 0/1,000

Skill Levels

Summoning: 3

Creation: 3

Synthesis: 3

Strengthening: 1

Skill Experience

Creation: 8,786/100,000

Synthesis: 0/100,000

Strengthening: 0/1,000

Creatable Summons

Insect: F, G, H

Beast: F, G, H

Bird: F, G

???: F

Holder

Insect: G x 2, H x 2

Beast: G x 13

Bird: G x 2

???:

___

'Nice, I got a new skill! And just as I thought, I now have access to Summons that're Rank F. And just like with Bird G, this "???" is probably gonna stay hidden until I figure out what to put together to Synthesize it, right? I wonder what it is! Dragons would be good. Come on, I want dragons! Summon: Divine Dragon!'

Allen had gotten a bit overexcited from the level up. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and turned his attention toward the next bit to confirm.

'I just used up all my MP, so I'll have to check out the Rank F Summons later. Seeing the time now... it'll be after dinner, then. Okay, next thing.'

The pages turned rapidly according to Allen's will.

'Heck yeah, more slots to store cards in!'

Each level of Expansion gave Allen ten more card holders in the grimoire.

Now that it was Lvl. 2, he could store a total of thirty cards. Thanks to this, the number of buffs he could receive from the cards had just gone up significantly.

'Hmm, looks like that's all I can check out at the moment. Last is this message from the gods. It's been a while since the last one.'

There was a single glowing page at the back of the grimoire. Apparently, the complaints Allen had continuously lodged through prayer every day had paid off.

'Are they finally apologizing? Let's take a look.'

___

Dear Mr. Allen, Thank you very much for your continued usage of our services.

Please allow us to first offer our sincerest apologies for the incident where the Appraisal system failed to display your class properly. Additionally, we also apologize for the delay in this reply.

We have taken measures to remedy the issue. Going forward, "Summoner" will be correctly displayed in the Talent field whenever you are Appraised. We have also informed the Pope of the addition of this new class through a prophecy. No further details about your class were revealed in conformity with our general policy of not disclosing details about any class.

Next, please allow us to respond to the matter of all of your stats being appraised as "E."

As you surely already know, this reading is indeed derived from assessing both a stat's potential ceiling and expected rate of growth. Residents of this world are not informed when they level up—a phenomenon they colloquially refer to as "overcoming a Trial of the Gods." As such, modes (i.e., the concept of varying degrees of difficulty in leveling up) are also not common knowledge.

Due to there being no change in the assessment criteria behind the rankings assigned to each stat, your readings will remain as "E" going forward. We ask for your kind understanding.

However, we understand that it would be unfair for you to be the only person unaware of the growth potential of your own stats. As such, we are including below what your readings would be if rate of growth is not considered. Additionally, we have added this information to a Memo page so that you can refer to it even after this message disappears. Kindly note that these values are independent of the buffs you receive from your Summons.

_

Name: Allen

HP: A

MP: S

Attack: C

Endurance: C

Agility: A

Intelligence: S

Luck: A

Talent: Summoner

_

All of our staff here will continue to apply ourselves to the improvement of our service. We kindly ask for your continued patronage.

Lastly, we believe this to be sufficient by way of an apology and expression of sincerity. Please refrain from sending us further claims of a similar nature.

Sincerely yours, Elmea, God of Creation.

___

When Allen finished reading to the very end, the words on the page faded away. As promised, the growth potential of his stats had indeed been added to a page in the Memo section.

'Hmm, looks like the five months of persistent praying for improvement haven't been for nothing. So, all my stats are still going to be "E" when I get Appraised again. What is this mention about a prophecy? It's my first time hearing mention of anything of the sort.'

When Allen in his previous life had lost his equipment in a game, the management staff had also sent him a similarly polite and long-winded message.

However, despite the courteous response that he received this time, he knew better than to abuse the same tactic. After all, he was now dealing with gods, not just a game service provider. For all he knew, they might just erase his existence if he pushed too far.

'Looks like my stats are basically Krena's re-shuffled for a support build. The number of S, A, B, and C rankings is the same as her Sword Lord class.'

Allen compared the page showing his own Status with the page where he had recorded Krena's during the Appraisal Ceremony. He had confirmed before coming to this world that the Sword Lord class had three stars.

From this, he drew the conclusion that his own class could perform at least as well as a three-star class even without all the buffs from the cards.

'And leveling up is described as "overcoming a Trial of the Gods," hmm.'

Just once before, Allen had asked Rodin about the experience of leveling up, assuming that he must have leveled up before from all the great boar hunts he had been a part of.

The answer that Rodin gave was something along the lines of, "Yep, I got stronger when I overcame a Trial of the Gods."

With this, Allen's analysis of his Status was largely over.

The next thing was to test out Strengthening and check out the new Summons, but it would have to wait until after dinner, when his MP would be back to full.

***

After dinner, Allen cleared away the table and washed up so that his pregnant mother could rest. Then Mash approached him, asking, "A'en, play w' me?" so he played with him for about thirty minutes until Mash tired out and fell asleep. Only after Allen tucked him into bed did he finally have time to himself.

To start, he planned on testing Strengthening out before it got completely dark.

As soon as Allen chanted, "Strengthen!" inside his mind, a line of silver text appeared on the cover of his grimoire.

<Which card do you wish to Strengthen?>

'Oh? It didn't say, "You do not have enough MP." I had half-expected it to tell me I couldn't use the skill yet, just like last time.'

Allen recalled the time when he first obtained Synthesis and had to wait until he turned three years old in order to have enough MP to actually use the skill.

'Well, here goes. Insect H: Strengthen!'

One Insect H card floated out of its slot. It stopped before Allen's eyes, then started shining with a golden light.

'Woowwww!' Allen almost exclaimed out loud from excitement, but he managed to clap his hands over his mouth in the nick of time.

When the light subsided, the card was now a different color.

'Let's see. Whoa! The blank parts in the illustration on the card are all shiny now!'

The negative space around the depiction of Denka that used to be plain white was now a dazzling gold. Right below, a new line of text had been added.

<Endurance + 10, Agility + 10>

'I see, so this skill makes the Summons themselves more powerful. My class isn't just about using the higher-ranked Summons, then.'

Appearance-wise, however, nothing seemed different about the grasshopper in the illustration.

'Wait, would this affect Denka's size? Hmm, let's try Summoning it.

'Summon: Denka!'

The Strengthened Insect H appeared in a faint burst of light.

"Ahh, so the size doesn't change, but it does glow to indicate that it's been Strengthened!"

"Gosh, Allen, Mash, go to sle— Hm?

"Urk!"

Apparently, Theresia had heard Allen's voice and decided to come into the room to tell her children to go to sleep. As soon as she stepped in, however, her eyes met with Denka's.

"NOOOOO!!!! A BUUUUGGGGG!!!! Why do bugs keep coming into the nursery?!"

Despite having been Strengthened, a single stomp was still all it took to reduce the grasshopper into ephemeral bubbles of light.

"Uh, good night..." Allen mumbled, promptly throwing his blanket his head and doing his best to pretend like nothing had happened.