Reversal

Reversal is the skill Alan received at the Awakening ceremony. The temple clergy could not read it and recorded it as useless: on the tablet it showed up as the unreadable '□□□.' The reason is simple — the skill's description was in Japanese, the hero's past-life language, so only the awakened reincarnator could understand it.

The skill's essence is to invert an object's property into its opposite. Its genius is revealed in combination with another of Alan's traits: his aptitude for almost every skill is negative. Apply Reversal to such a negative aptitude and it flips into the top-tier version of that skill. Thus from an unreadable eye comes the Divine Eye, from zero swordsmanship the Sword God, from an inability to scout the highest scouting skill, and so on.

Reversal also works directly: it bounces received damage back at an enemy, restores broken junk to mint condition, debases the value of coins, and temporarily changes the user's sex. It is thanks to this skill that the 'useless' outcast becomes nearly the strongest person in the kingdom — and it is this skill that ties into one theme the fates of Alan and the other reincarnators, whose 'dud' Awakenings likewise turn into great power.

By inverting negative aptitudes, Reversal spawns a whole cascade of skills: the Divine Eye, the Sword God, dark, stone-iron, holy, and space-time magic, a top scouting skill, and much more. Beyond that it is used to reflect damage, repair items, debase money, and change sex — the last of which Alan uses as a disguise as the woman 'Alice' and as the key that restores reincarnators' memories.