1 I Bestow Thee!

People are bestowed with talent at birth. You cannot change it for destiny has already decided what you can or will be, it was already decided before you can even accept it.

There are those whose talents are close to the skills of the heavens but there are also people like Lucy McDwayne for God knows the reason, talentless.

The bell rang signifying the end of the school. Lucy humps his head on his table as his classmates leave the room one by one.

"Make sure to answer your assignments." The teacher said as the students just left, with Lucy all alone, watching the baseball club practicing for their big game next month, in the field.

He stares blankly at the baseball players and thought...

Lucky them. It must be really great to even be good at something. People that already have a path paved for them. People that are already chosen to succeed with the one thing they know what to do.

And here I am...

He switched his sight to his open palm as it formed into a fist. He stood up and sighed, brushing off his dramatic thoughts and walked out of the classroom.

In the hallway, he walks by a couple of clubs. Science Club, Research Club, Computer Club — You name it.

Yet Lucy just walks by all of them — why?

Simple really... he has no talent whatsoever. He never belongs to this kind of club even if he wants to. The once active and cheerful Lucy has now just turned into the opposite of his past self.

He just looks at the people passing by him, looking at them with their empty eyes and mumbled once again, "I just wish I have talent... Desperate as I am, I hope I could just steal them or something."

[Permission Granted]

"What!?" Lucy stumbles down into the ground as a blue-transparent screen appears in front of him. He got surprised on the screen that suddenly appeared that the students that passed him looked at him to see him on the ground.

[You have been blessed with the skill to steal talents — "Talent Stealer"]

"Seriously?" His eyebrows slanted as the confusion dwelt in his mind. He was so surprised that his emotions can't seem to figure out what he's trying to feel.

He was in disbelief and he swayed his hands over the screen like there was a fly in front of him but his hands just pass through the screen like it was some sort of hologram.

He stood up, thinking maybe this is just a hallucination. Scratching his eyes didn't work, so he went to the restroom to splash his face with a bit of water. He looked at the mirror to see the screen disappeared.

"How silly, I knew it was a hallucina—what's that?" A screen appeared on the mirror with his name on it.

———————

Lucy McWayne — No available talents.

———————

Lucy suddenly disappeared from the mirror for us to see him crouching on the corner. He was so depressed upon seeing the screen that you can actually see the manifestation of depression hovering above him.

"You don't have to remind me that." Lucy muttered repeatedly. (He is weak at being reminded how talentless he is.)

[Tutorial: Steal one talent of any kind: 0/1]

"Huh?" He turned his head sideways to see another screen appear.

After grueling minutes of staying depressed, he finally got tired of it and went out of the restroom. He decided to take the "Tutorial" a go since he has nothing to do but accept the new and maybe blessing reality that he has.

He just stood there as he slowly tilted his head, "How do I steal a talent, again?" He muttered as another screen appeared.

[Stare at the people you want to steal from.]

He hit his hands, "Oh..."

He left school as he decided to take a walk towards home. Looking at people as screens of their names and talents was displayed below their respective names. "After a long time of looking at it, I just had to accept that this is real at this point." he muttered.

"Now I don't want any physical talent, for now, considering how feeble my body is... so maybe something about brains?" He walked around to see a girl in glasses.

———————

Jessie Ticiel — [Reading (F) Lv. 6], [Stealing (F) Lv.1], [Leader (F) Lv.5], [Mathematics (E) Lv. 2]

———————

"The heck, how is stealing a talent?" Lucy was disgustingly surprised but thinking about politics, it actually makes sense and calmed down right away.

"Can't I steal them all?" He asked silently and decided to choose one for now.

"How about let's pick a simple talent that I actually don't have, [Reading]." He said as the word [Reading] on Jessie's screen glowed and disappeared.

[You have successfully stolen a talent!]

Lucy's screen appeared to see that the reading skill was added to his own.

———————

Lucy McWayne — [Reading (F) Lv. 1]

———————

[Reading - Gives you a 10% effectivity in understanding texts from books or the media.]

Lucy discovered that the level that he has stolen goes back to Lv. 1. Maybe because of the principle that every talent needs to be refined on your own. He should also know that by [Reading], he meant the talent to read without getting bored or uninterested. So Jessie's ability to read has not disappeared but she won't be able to read like the same anymore.

So he tried reading by taking out his science book and that's when it hit differently than it should be. His interest in reading was nothing like before.

Before, if he was asked to read, he'd rather not but now... he can actually understand the book better and before he knew it, he was in chapter two of the book and he arrived home.

"You gotta be kidding me." He muttered in excitement, yet he was hiding it. He was clearly making a real smile as he went inside his home while continuing to read the science book.

"Mom, brother is reading. He's acting weird!" A small girl's shout was heard at the dining room while Lucy just ignored it.

The Kitchen went on a ruckus as something was running towards the stairs that Lucy was walking in, "WHAT!" His mother observed him from below to see his little sister look at Lucy too.