From behind the reception counter of the Shibuya Guild headquarters, Sasaki Misaki watched the world pass by. Each day she saw the same parade of eager faces—fresh registrants brimming with ambition and fragile hope. To her, they all looked the same: delicate, dazzling things. Like glass swords.
They came chasing dreams of fortune, or testing their strength against the unknown. Yet most of them were shattered before long—broken by the cruel reality of the dungeons, never to return. Misaki's job was simple: to hand each of those glass swords their first sheath—the explorer's card—and then watch, expression calm and professional, as they splintered into silence.
So when that man appeared before her counter for the first time, her impression was no different.
Tajima Yuuto. Twenty-five. His eyes held the dull weariness of someone already tired of the world.
The appraisal finished quickly, and the result flashed onto Misaki's terminal.
'Skill: [Sort][Keep][Break]'
'Aptitude Rank: E'
A quiet sigh brushed the edge of her mind.
(Another sword destined to snap...)
A useless skillset—support-type, offering no help in combat. His stats sat at the lowest threshold. Survival chances in a dungeon: near zero. Misaki offered her standard business smile as she handed him the E-rank card, and promptly forgot his face. By tomorrow, he would be gone.
* * *
The first sign that something was different came a few days later. The exchange counter was in uproar.
When Misaki peeked over, she saw veteran appraiser Matsuda frozen in disbelief, staring at a small blue sphere in his palm. Beside him stood that same man—the one who was supposed to have broken already.
'No scratches... not a single one?'
'This slime core is perfect! I've never seen one this pure!'
The appraisers' shocked voices carried across the room. Misaki quietly checked the transaction log on her device.
Slime cores: thirteen. Total value: 195,000 yen.
No E-rank rookie should have been able to earn that much in a single run.
(What on earth...?)
She frowned, baffled.
(Extraordinary dexterity? Or perhaps some rare artifact that extracts the core intact...?)
The idea of his supposed 'junk' skills never crossed her mind. She had dismissed them entirely.
From that day on, in her eyes, Tajima Yuuto shifted—from a fragile glass sword to a slightly peculiar newcomer.
* * *
As days passed, that faint oddity grew into mystery.
Yuuto appeared at the guild almost daily. Every batch of materials he brought stunned the appraisers with its impossible quality.
The fangs of a Poison Wolf, their venom sacs still fresh. The Lamia's magic-eye gemstone, crystal-clear, its arcane energy perfectly sealed.
'How in the world does he harvest these?' Matsuda groaned, clutching his head. Misaki had heard that line countless times.
Then came the reports that shook the guild.
He had cleared the beginner dungeon 'Goblin Cave' solo. Soon after, the mid-tier dungeon 'Astoria's Lost Forest,' defeating its mid-boss alone.
Misaki was the first to receive the written report. She compared it again and again to his card, the word 'RANK: E' glaring up at her.
(This isn't just technique... there's something else. A unique process, something only he can do.)
Her gaze lingered on his registration data—'Former Occupation: System Engineer.'
(Could he be analyzing dungeon logic the way an engineer hunts for bugs? No, that's absurd...)
Her thoughts brushed the edge of truth but recoiled against the wall of reason. Tajima Yuuto became, day by day, a growing enigma in her mind.
* * *
The decisive moment came when he was summoned before the guild's disciplinary committee. Rumors had been swirling within the upper ranks. Misaki feared for him. Exceptional ability often draws suspicion—it is labeled anomaly, then erased.
Would that man be shattered here, not by failure but by his own brilliance?
Yet the outcome was nothing she expected.
Word of his trial dungeon spread through the halls, wrapped in awe.
'He solved the entire mechanism with logic alone.'
'He destroyed an A-rank AI swordsman—without fighting it.'
It wasn't exploration anymore; it was hacking—dialogue between player and designer.
When Yuuto emerged from the hearing, he walked silently across the lobby. His rank remained E, but no one dared mock him now. All eyes followed him—half reverence, half fear.
Watching from behind the counter, Misaki knew then: she had been wrong.
She had thought him a fragile glass sword. But he was something else entirely.
He was an uncut gem, untouched by any hammer of common sense—shining under his own laws of nature.
And she could no longer look away from that light.
Misaki watched until his back disappeared from sight, wondering what impossible result he would bring tomorrow.
Her once-colorless days had begun to shimmer, all because of one irregular man.
Notes:
• Misaki - A receptionist at the Shibuya Guild who is responsible for handing out adventurer cards. She initially dismissed Yuuto as a "glass sword" destined to break, but his impossible achievements made her obsessed with him, turning her once-colorless days "shimmering."