As soon as the talk wrapped up, Takamiya moved first.
“I am going first. — ‘Flame Emperor’. The most expensive one. I am putting all of my points into this.”
When Takamiya reached his hand out into the air and grabbed that card, the card turned into light and was sucked into his window. Right away, his stats shot up sharply. Strength, speed, magic power — the numbers that should have all been tied evenly at ‘1’ until just a moment ago jumped up as they changed into double and triple digits before his eyes.
Takamiya made a small flame dance in the palm of his hand and cheered excitedly, “Whoa, amazing… Does this really work?”
“Hmm. A good choice.”
The king nodded with satisfaction. The coldness that had been sizing everyone up until just a moment ago vanished as if it were a lie. From there, things moved fast.
“Then I am putting everything into ‘Sword Saint’!”
“I will take ‘Holy Healing’.”
“Is ‘Vajra’ still left?”
One by one, the expensive cards vanished from the air. The ones that looked strong vanished in no time at all. Each time that happened, their respective stats jumped up. Everyone poured their remaining points in without hesitation, proudly taking on the faces of heroes.
— Good things were disappearing from the air one after another. And finally, it was my turn.
“– The only one left is you right there, alone.”
The king looked over at me, looking annoyed. I stepped forward and looked around the air, which had become empty.
… There were no notable cards left. The strong, expensive ones had been completely wiped away from the air. Oh well, it is fine. I have no intention of fighting anyway.
If I got some flashy power, I would just be thrown onto the front lines and used up. Being thrown out and sneaking around running away still suits my personality better. In that case, leftover ones are plenty.
I looked down at the remaining cards from the top. ‘Hear distant sounds well.’ ‘Make water you touch taste sweet.’ — All of them are plain, half-baked ones whose uses I do not even know. My eyes accidentally stopped on one of them.
— ‘Daily Reward’. Eighty points.
The card says this:
‘This body will not grow stronger, no matter if you fight or train. It holds no power to boost stats, and the only thing that brings growth is a single gift delivered every day. What gets delivered depends on the day.’
… It does not get stronger even if you fight or train. In other words, no matter how many monsters I defeat or how much I swing a sword from now on, not even a single bit of experience points will enter. On top of that, there are no boosts from skills like everyone else just did either. Of course, no one chooses this. In a place like this, where you are banished if you cannot fight right now.
But instead of that, they say a single gift is delivered every day. Reading the detailed explanation, most days seem to be just a tiny amount of experience points, and that is it. It seems there is a rare hit occasionally, but — it did not say anywhere what that actually is.
… You get it every day. Huh. Even if I do not work or even if I sleep, something gets delivered automatically every day — that sound was, how should I put it, super easy. … Yeah, it is easy, so is this fine?
I did not think deeply about it. I touched that card. With a pop, eighty points vanished, and the card also vanished into thin air. Only twenty points remained in my hand.
I looked at the air once more. A half-baked card that can be bought with twenty. Among them, it was there.
— ‘Ageless’. Twenty points.
Ageless. Does that mean eternal youth and immortality? … No, wait. Isn’t that insanely strong, my heart fluttered for just a second. But it deflated immediately after reading the explanation.
‘You do not age. However, you can still get hurt and be killed. There are also no bonuses to stats.’
… What is this. It does not mean you do not die. You just do not age. Disappointing, or rather a letdown. Just not aging does not mean you can suddenly fight right now. In a place like this where you get kicked out if you are not useful as military strength, this is of no help at all.
Having decided that, I tried to look away. The reason I could not look away was because of the price.
Twenty. You do not age, you know. In the world I came from, no matter how much money you piled up, you could not buy something like this. Aging alone was something no one could stop.
And yet, here it is twenty. I understand the logic that it has no value because you cannot fight. Even though I understand, it felt too cheap.
Besides, I suddenly thought. It feels like it matches somewhat with the card I took earlier.
Well, I have twenty points left over anyway.
“– Oh well, whatever. I will put it in.”
With a light feeling, I touched that card as well. The stats rewrote themselves. — No, almost nothing changed at all.
Yuu Shirase Lv. 1
Stamina 1, Strength 1, Speed 1, Magic Power 1
Skills: Daily Reward / Ageless
While everyone around me grew their numbers by double and triple digits across the board, only my status screen has a brand-new ‘1’ lined up neatly. It is weakness to a degree that is impressive. A voice burst out laughing from beside me.
“Look at that, his stats. They are still the initial values, all 1s.”
“Zero intention to fight, huh.”
One of them peered into my status screen and stared closely even at the detailed explanation carved beneath the skill names. Then, he scoffed.
“Hey, look at this. His card… it says that no matter how many monsters he defeats, not even a single experience point enters. The only thing that grows is the tiny bit delivered every day. If he does something like that, won’t he stay the weakest for his whole life?”
The man still pressed his face close to my status screen and poked the name of the other card with his finger.
“Besides, the other one is ‘Ageless’? … Ha. It is not even like he is immortal. He just does not age. What kind of use is something like that in front of the Demon King? Even though he will die if he gets slashed, he cannot even fight. Then that is the same as not being here at all, right?”
A wave of mocking laughter spread.
Up on the throne, the king glanced at my status screen once. Without even paying attention to the unfamiliar names lined up in the skill column, he roughly checked only the numbers and counted me as a ‘1’. I knew that he had dropped me from the head count.
“– All initial values, huh.”
The king spat out wearily.
“I have no use for those who cannot fight. Get out. Do as you like outside the castle.”
— Ah, as expected, it turns out like this.
Every single day, just a tiny bit. If I keep receiving that endlessly, just what in the world is going to happen?