Talentless

"What is it?! Father, what does it say?!" Gerda asked pressingly.

Like most serfs, he did not know how to read or write aside from the names of his family members. Everything on the metallic panel was gibberish to him aside from "Krena."

"S-Sword Lord! Your daughter's Talent is Sword Lord!"

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Name: Krena

HP: S

MP: C

Attack: S

Endurance: A

Agility: A

Intelligence: C

Luck: B

Talent: Sword Lord

___

"Did he just say 'Sword Lord'?!"

"A Sword Lord has been born!"

The inside of the church immediately fell into an uproar. Everyone kept exchanging looks between Krena and her appraisal results.

The girl herself, however, looked both disappointed and confused.

"I'm not a Swordswoman?" she asked, her head tilted.

The pitch-black surface now displayed the words "Sword Lord" and stats that were head and shoulders beyond that of any other child so far, all in brilliant silver letters.

Both Gerda and Rodin were entirely petrified, seemingly having trouble processing the revelation. Allen was the only person still calm, occupied with recording his childhood friend's Status into his grimoire.

'I had a hunch this was how it'd end up. Honestly, there was no way she was just a Swordswoman—not with her laughably overwhelming strength.'

It had been two and a half years since Krena and Allen started playing knight together. Although they did so for only an hour each day, it had still been enough to raise Allen's Sword Mastery to Lvl. 3. The number of wooden swords that had been snapped now numbered more than ten. As such, he had taken to making his own wooden swords as of late.

After the appraisal was done for all thirty-one children, the final tally was as follows:

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1 x Sword Lord (Krena)

1 x Ax User (commoner)

1 x Cleric (serf)

1 x Merchant (village chief's son)

27 x Talentless

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'If I'm to make an educated guess from this sample, it means the large majority of people in this world are Talentless. Only roughly one out of every ten actually possesses a Talent.'

"Lastly, Allen, son of Rodin. Step forward and place your hands on the crystal."

Finally, it was Allen's turn to be appraised.

Rodin brought him before the crystal.

'My parents will learn about me being a Summoner after this. Before, there was no way for me to explain to them even if I wanted to, so this makes for a perfect opportunity.'

During the past five and a half years, even after Theresia had reduced countless Denkas into bubbles of lights, Allen had not told his parents that he was a Summoner. One reason was because he had no answer if his parents asked how he knew of his own class. Moreover, he had no need to run the risk of explaining himself.

When Allen's hands got close to the crystal, it practically exploded in light.

"WHAT?!"

Once again, everyone reacted with complete surprise. The light was even greater than during Krena's turn. It shone like a small sun, prompting several to throw up a hand over their eyes.

When the light faded, silver letters appeared on the black metallic panel.

"Th-This is...but..." The senior clergyman rubbed his eyes as if doubting what he was seeing.

Rodin, who could not read, asked apprehensively, "Um, Father, what is the result?"

"Huh? Oh, um... I'm sorry, your son is Talentless."

"I...see..."

Rodin had watched Allen and Krena play knight many times before. The way his son handled his wooden sword was completely different from what other children the same age could do. This had given Rodin the expectation that Allen was a Swordsman.

'Looks like my father's disappointed about the result. I don't really mind being "Talentless" all that much, but what I wanna know is what the heck is actually going on with my reading?! Was the God of Creation slacking off?!'

Allen stared at the metallic panel, somewhat incredulous.

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Name: Allen

HP: E

MP: E

Attack: E

Endurance: E

Agility: E

Intelligence: E

Luck: E

Talent: å☐¬å—šå£«

___

'Why is the text in my Talent field all garbled?!'

The silver text on the jet-black panel showed all of Allen's stats as "E" and his Talent as unintelligible gibberish. The senior clergyman had likely declared him Talentless because the text did not mean anything.

There were a few commoners present who could read. Allen's stats, when considered together with his lack of Talent, set off a wave of murmurs discussing how "pitiful" his Status was. Rodin, who seemed to have heard all those whispers, looked at his son with a face filled with shock.

"Ahem. Rodin, do not forget that Allen is still your precious child. Raise him well."

When the clergyman in charge of keeping records of all the Status readings finished writing down Allen's as well, the letters on the metallic panel disappeared.

Although the Appraisal Ceremony was already over, it was still before noon. Rodin left the church with Allen, his shoulders slumped as they started for home.

Gerda and Krena quickly followed after them, the church staff making no move to stop them. Just like everyone else, they were apparently free to go.

'They let Krena go just like that? After all the fuss they made about her being a Sword Lord? Ah, no, they'll probably come talk to her again another day, I imagine.'

Because Allen's head had been bowed the entire way, Rodin assumed he was depressed. When Gerda and Krena parted with them and he was finally alone with Allen, he turned to him and said, "Allen, you are my son. Don't worry—I will raise you with everything I've got. However, mama will worry, so let's still let her know what the father said, okay?"

"Wha—?" Allen looked up, then pulled a smile. "Oh, of course, papa."

Indeed he had been engrossed with his thoughts, but it was not from being depressed. He was simply preoccupied with analyzing all the new information that he had added to his grimoire this morning.

Rodin patted his head a few times before the pair continued home, walking in silence.

When they got home, they shared the news with Theresia, who gently stroked Allen's head and reassured him that he was still her child, just as Rodin had done.

Allen then headed into the nursery for his afternoon nap. He lay down next to his two-year-old brother, Mash, who was breathing peacefully in sleep.

Their bare-bones wooden cot had been replaced with a proper bed. His parents' warmth filled his heart.

Just before he allowed himself to fall asleep, however, Allen wanted to go over everything he learned from today's Appraisal Ceremony and properly write down all the conclusions he could deduce.

'I mean, this has got to be a mistake by some god or person in charge, right? The fact that my Talent was in garbled text must mean they either forgot or hadn't gotten around to making sure that my class shows up properly when appraised.

'I do feel bad seeing how worried my parents had been for me today, but since the Ceremony officially declared me "Talentless," I guess I should probably continue keeping the fact of me being a Summoner a secret. That means skilling up out of my parents' and Mash's sight, same as before.'

Once Allen finished deciding on the direction he would take his training going forward, he turned to another page in his grimoire that he had filled out a while ago.

'On a different note, the fact that all my stats came out as "E" confirms something that I've suspected all along.'

During the past five or so years, there was one burning question that Allen had desperately wanted to know. And today, he finally got his answer thanks to what he learned at the Appraisal Ceremony.

While all his stats being "E" may have disappointed his parents, it was not necessarily all that bad an outcome for him.

Allen looked at the corner on the page where he had written:

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Hell Mode and Normal Mode:

Hypothesis 1: Everyone in this world is in Hell Mode.

Hypothesis 2: I am the only one in Hell Mode, and everyone else in this world is in Normal Mode.

___

Allen erased his first hypothesis.

'I finally got the confirmation I'd been wanting so badly. That's the only way to explain why I got "E" for everything.'

Within the past few hours, Allen had largely finished analyzing the Appraisal Ceremony.

First, he concluded that the ranking displayed for each stat was more of an indication of potential. With everyone being five years old, there shouldn't have been that great a difference between the actual stat values between all the children.

Chances were that most of them were, just like Allen, still only Lvl. 1. As such, the rankings were likely either an indication of how much a stat would increase upon leveling up or of the maximum value a stat could cap out at.

In light of this, Allen's stats all being "E" was a strong indication that he was the only person in Hell Mode.

The reason they were ranked so low was likely because both the potential and rate of growth were being considered, and he, being in Hell Mode, would be improving at a rate a hundred times slower than everyone else in this world.

In his past life, he had lamented how modern games had shifted toward undemanding gameplay. After being reincarnated into this world as Allen, he was the only person in Hell Mode.

Some would consider this a hellish situation to be in, but the emotion that Allen felt welling up inside his heart was something else entirely. He felt as if he had discovered a goal to strive toward.

"I see, so this new life of mine is itself an act of defiance against hopelessly easy games. I'll live my life to prove the worth of games with actual challenge!"

Allen finally went to sleep, slightly embarrassed that he had gotten so excited he spoke his thoughts out loud.