When I entered the room at the manager’s call, a musty smell stabbed my nose.
The inside of the room had the form of a storage room.
Bookshelves lined with old documents stood along the walls, and wooden boxes packed carelessly with odds and ends were piled up everywhere, their lids unable to close and left slightly ajar.
The dust piled on every piece of furniture spoke to how often this room was used.
The manager scratched the back of his head and looked embarrassed.
“Oh dear, how shameful. There has been no reason to perform aptitude evaluations lately, so it has simply turned into a storage room. It is messy, but there will be no problem performing the evaluation, so I ask for your understanding.”
“It’s fine. Before talking about understanding, I don’t even know what an aptitude evaluation is.”
“Oh my, I should have explained aptitude first, but this wretched head of mine. A Skill Aptitude Evaluation means exactly what it sounds like. It evaluates a person’s aptitudes. Do you know how to check your own level?”
“That much I know. If I remember correctly, I picture an image in my head and.......”
“Yes, that is exactly it. In this world, when you take actions that suit your aptitude, you acquire experience points, and your level rises accordingly.”
The manager gave me a brief explanation, mixing in appropriate comparisons for my sake.
He said that people suited to farming gained experience points whenever they did farmwork, and people suited to cooking gained experience points whenever they cooked.
Each time their level rose, they obtained skill points.
By using skill points, they could learn new skills or strengthen skills they already possessed.
The manager sat in a chair placed on the inner side of the table and gestured for me to take the chair opposite him.
“Please sit. We will begin the aptitude evaluation now.”
I sat across from the manager and asked.
“You said just now that experience points rise through things like farming or cooking. Then does that mean everyone who lives here is raising their level through ordinary daily life?”
“Haha, of course. Even Mr. Mirhi, who brought you here, reached level 40 through ranch work.”
“According to what you said, that means he is a ranch owner and can use skills.”
“Ah~, please do not misunderstand. Ordinarily, people can only learn skills that match their own aptitudes. Let us see. If I remember correctly, Mr. Mirhi invested points into Animal Health Checkup and Dairy Product Processing.”
“This is only hypothetical, but if an aptitude for farming or livestock work is found in me, what should I do then?”
The manager took out a stack of what looked to be about a hundred cards from the cupboard, divided them in half, and shuffled each stack of fifty separately.
Shuffle! Shuffle! Shuffle!
The manager smiled as he mixed the cards with flavorful hand movements.
“Aptitude is ultimately something to use as reference. It does not mean you must live according to it.”
“It just means life becomes a little easier if I live in a way that suits my aptitude?”
“Of course. You can reach your destination perfectly well by walking on two legs, but if you have a vehicle, you can arrive more comfortably and more quickly, can you not? The difference is roughly like that.”
In other words, if there was an aptitude that suited me and I obtained a skill that corresponded to that aptitude, it would certainly help me whether I traveled or did something else.
The manager shuffled the two stacks of fifty separately, then combined them into one pile.
Then he began muttering something, and blue light flowed out from his palms.
The blue light flowing from the manager’s hands gradually grew in force and soon surrounded the stack of cards.
“Skills are basically activated by using the user’s stamina as fuel. If you overuse them excessively, you will fall into a near-death state from exhaustion, so please use them while taking in enough food and rest.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
The manager placed the glowing stack of cards in the middle of the table.
“We will now check your aptitudes. Please flip over the card on top.”
I placed my hand on the stack of cards, flipped over the card on the very top, and placed it beside the stack.
The card I flipped over had a picture on its face of a person standing before a tree while holding an axe.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like a certain occupation specialized in acquiring firewood.
“Excuse me, is this perhaps the occupation I’m thinking of?”
Perhaps the manager was more than a little flustered as well, because he fidgeted, unable to find anywhere to put his gaze.
“Er... you have talent as a woodcutter. But it is not over yet. The stack of cards is still glowing, so you still have more chances.”
“Aha. So aptitude isn’t necessarily limited to one thing.”
“Of course not. Even ordinary people like us often have two or three. Some people with truly many have as many as five.”
“Would it be possible to know how many aptitudes the dimension travelers who crossed over in the past had?”
“As far as what has been passed down goes, they generally had around ten to twenty.”
Other dimension travelers had ten to twenty.
They had been summoned to save another world, so it would not be strange for them to have been given various perks that helped them possess many aptitudes or gain strength.
I, on the other hand, was in a different situation.
Since no special mission had been assigned to me, I was in no position where I needed to volunteer for fights and conflicts.
The fact that I earned money just by traveling was already practically a perk.
Perhaps, in my case, there might not be any perk related to aptitude.
I should not cling to it too much and should take the evaluation with an easy mind.
I flipped over the next card.
The face of the card that came out showed a picture of a person aiming a bow.
“This card must signify aptitude as an archer.”
“Oh, that is not a bad aptitude. If you happen to be interested in shooting a bow, I will put in a word with Nadan in the lobby. He may not look reliable on the outside, but among the archers of the Alhen Region, there is no one skilled enough to match him.”
“Mm, I’ll think it over slowly after checking what the other aptitudes are.”
The stack of cards was still glowing.
It meant there were still more aptitudes suited to me.
My movements as I flipped over the card at the top of the stack gradually grew faster.
I flipped a card, placed it on the table to check the aptitude, flipped another card, placed it on the table again to check the aptitude.......
The third card, the fourth card, the fifth card... the eighteenth card, the nineteenth card, the twentieth card.
I had long since surpassed the average number of aptitudes among the people of this other world, and before I knew it, I had reached the twentieth card, tying the maximum number of aptitudes held by the dimension travelers of the past.
The aptitudes that had appeared so far included cooking, fishing, cleaning, sewing, horsemanship, swordsmanship, spearmanship, martial arts, and so on... a variety ranging from aptitudes based in daily life to aptitudes necessary for combat.
Even though I had flipped the twentieth card, the stack of cards was still glowing.
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the still-glowing stack of cards.
“You definitely said the highest record was twenty, right?”
By this point, the manager seemed to sense that something unusual was going on, and his face had stiffened.
“F-For now, please keep flipping them until the light disappears. At this point, I am curious as well.”
“Let’s do that.”
If I listened to an explanation of each card every time I flipped one, it would take too long.
So we agreed to keep flipping until the light disappeared first, then organize my aptitudes all at once afterward.
Most of all, our point of interest had long since shifted from the aptitudes written on the cards I flipped to the total number of aptitudes permitted to me.
I kept flipping cards until the light disappeared.
The thirtieth card, the fortieth card, the fiftieth card.......
In the silence, only the sound of cards being flipped rustled at regular intervals.
At last came the ninety-ninth card, and then only one final card remained.
The manager’s gaze and mine fixed on the middle of the table.
The one card left with its back facing up.
Even that one card was emitting blue light.
I flipped over the final card, and the moment every card revealed its face, I released the breath I had been holding all at once and spoke.
“I... had aptitude in every field. Is that good?”
As if his own child had been judged gifted, the manager grew incredibly excited all by himself and heaped praise on my talent in this other world.
“It is more than good! You gain experience points no matter what you do! You may do whatever you want to your heart’s content! Anything at all!”
Level up even if I cooked in order to eat.
Level up even while moving to a distant place.
Level up even if I read a book to pass the time.
Needless to say, I could also gain experience points through training alone, hunting, or combat.
Perhaps because his excitement had been too excessive, the manager exhausted himself and the muscles of his face went slack.
Then, even while muttering to himself, he continued admiring it without pause.
“Ha... haha, hahaha. Goodness gracious. This is the first case of someone possessing all aptitudes. If this fact becomes known, the kingdom will be turned upside down, you know?”
As for me, I still could not feel in my skin how incredible it was to be suited to all aptitudes.
How would I know when I had never leveled up or used a skill even once?
Perhaps I would gradually come to feel it while traveling.
More than that, I wondered whether becoming the center of a commotion right away was truly a good thing.
“The entire kingdom paying attention... That would be troublesome. I came here to travel quietly, you see.”
“Oh dear, I did not mean to make things difficult for you.”
“They won’t try to drag me away by force, saying they’re going to raise me as talent for the kingdom or anything like that, right?”
“Hahahaha! And here I wondered what you were so worried about. There will be no such thing. Because of what the dimension travelers of the past built up, everyone would try to treat you well if anything. They would not have the slightest intention of making you uncomfortable.”
Even the manager and the villagers right now were restless because they could not treat me well enough.
He said this was not limited to the people who lived here in Cypher Village, but was also the general inclination of the Shining Kingdom as a whole.
Even so, I was not particularly pleased by the thought of becoming famous when I still had nothing to my name.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that fame and trouble came as a package.
When I showed signs of concern, the manager worried together with me as if it were his own business, then soon proposed a solution.
“If you are truly worried, let us do this. I will keep the matter of your aptitudes secret.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Hahaha, did I not tell you? We have owed dimension travelers nothing but debts since long ago. So I would like you to return from our world carrying only good memories.”
“Mm, would it be better for me to hide the fact that I’m a dimension traveler from now on?”
“If anything, I think it would be more beneficial to act honestly than to hide it. I will send an official notice to the guilds in each region. I will say that a new dimension traveler has crossed over, and that this dimension traveler bears the mission of traveling through our world. If I say that, everyone will tactfully provide convenience for you.”
Although possessing aptitude in every field might make me the target of attention, he said the fact that I was a dimension traveler itself would not become a cause of trouble.
At the same time, the manager added that, in truth, there would be more people who were not interested in dimension travelers.
The manager’s opinion was that news of a dimension traveler would interest only those who liked heroic tales, and that most people were too busy living their own daily lives, so even if they heard about a dimension traveler, they would let it go in one ear and out the other.
I felt deep consideration in the manager’s words that he would personally send out official notices.
“I feel as if I’ve caused you unnecessary trouble, so I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Trouble? Not at all. Now, the evaluation is over. Let us go outside.”
After the aptitude evaluation ended, the manager and I went out to the lobby.
The moment we left the room, the men waiting inside the guild rushed toward us in a crowd.
“Manager! How was it? What fields was he suited for?”
“He’s from Earth, so at least ten came out, right? Hurry up and tell us what he had.”
“You people! Strictly speaking, someone else’s aptitudes are personal information too! Do not ask carelessly!”
“You look like you want to know too! Just be honest and say you’re curious!”
The men bickered and tussled among themselves, and the quiet guild instantly turned into chaos.
Unable to keep watching, the manager stepped in to direct traffic.
“Ahem! Can none of you be quiet? It is rude when we have a guest in front of us! And the number of aptitudes is personal information! Do not try to pry it out by force!”
The men who had been noisily chattering like adolescent boys calmed down at once and cleared their throats to hide their embarrassment.
The manager waited until the lingering noise had completely vanished, then opened his mouth.
“Sir, have you secured a place to stay tonight?”
I shook my head, meaning I had not decided yet.
It was not as if I had no money, so if he introduced me to an inn, I was planning to stay there.
But the moment it became known that I had not chosen a lodging, signs of commotion began rising in the lobby once again.
The men glanced at one another, their gazes guarded.
They were all full of thoughts of having me stay at their own houses.
It was nothing more than inviting a guest, yet judging by the atmosphere alone, they seemed ready to start a free-for-all deathmatch.
Amid the taut tension, a man in a sleeveless shirt with burly arm muscles spoke bluntly.
“What are you doing, not coming? I told you to come get equipment from my shop.”
It was the blacksmith who had looked over my equipment before the evaluation and said he would change it out for better gear.
The blacksmith strode ahead by himself, opened the guild’s front door, and went outside.
Even though I had not answered that I would follow him.
Then, standing beyond the door he had left wide open, with both hands shoved into his pockets, he added one more thing.
Very bluntly.
“Since you’re coming, stay for dinner too.”