Hanging out lazily with Kathia.
Just a little while ago, the two of us had been moving around in the training grounds inside the castle, grinding our skill levels.
Now that was done, we were resting like this.
"Ugh, that was rough. My magic-related stats have gone up quite a bit, but my physical stats are still pretty low."
Since
When it was just the two of us, it had become normal to converse in Japanese.
"Yeah. Still, my reflexes are way better than in my last life, and the fact that training actually leads to real growth — that's what's great about this."
"Right, right, I totally get that. Back in school, I used to think marathons were pointless, but over here, the more you run, the more your Endurance goes up."
It wasn't just Skills — in this world, the harder you trained, the more your Stats grew.
Since we couldn't level up right now, the only way to increase our Stats was to train the hard way.
But if you trained the hard way, you were guaranteed to get stronger.
Training was tough, but once you thought of it all as fuel for growth, the motivation came naturally.
"So? What's it look like?"
"Burst, Endurance, Strength, Durability, Dash — each one is up to Level 8 now."
I checked my Status with the Appraisal Stone in my hand.
This Appraisal Stone was a Level 9 one held by Kathia's Duke's House.
In some countries it would be classified as a national treasure, but Kathia had casually brought it over from the Duke's House.
I couldn't help but wonder if the Duke's House was okay with that, but it was convenient, so I was grateful to be able to use it.
"You really do level up your Skills fast, huh. Is that the difference in talent?"
Kathia muttered with a frustrated look.
The truth was, even though we were doing the same things, the speed at which our Skills leveled up was different between me and Kathia.
In this world, anyone could get stronger through effort, but that speed varied.
That, they said, was the difference in talent.
"I mean, I'm supposed to be a once-in-a-generation genius since the founding of the Duke's House, you know? And you're pulling this far ahead of me — what's up with that? You absolute cheater."
I averted my gaze from Kathia's resentful stare.
Even if she said that to me, what was I supposed to do about it?
"Come to think of it, have you used your Skill Points?"
"No, I kind of forgot about them and they're still sitting there. Completely untouched."
Skill Points were points that, when consumed, let you acquire new Skills or boost your Proficiency.
Normally you weren't supposed to have them at birth, but Kathia and I had them from the moment we were born — probably a perk of our Reincarnation.
"That's 100,000 Points saved up. You rich cheater."
"That's worse than before?!"
Well, I really had just kept missing opportunities to use them.
At first, I'd considered acquiring a magic Skill, but Ana had told me not to use magic, so I'd given up on that.
Ana probably never imagined I had Skill Points either, but taking advantage of that and secretly acquiring a magic Skill felt like a betrayal somehow, so I couldn't bring myself to do it.
After that, I just kind of lost the impulse to use my Skill Points altogether.
"What about you? Did you use yours?"
"...Just 1,000 Points."
Kathia was supposed to have had 50,000 Points.
Since she'd brought it up, I'd assumed she'd spent a good chunk, but she'd barely used any.
"What did you get?"
"...I'm taking the fifth."
"Huh? Come on, just tell me."
"...You promise you won't laugh?"
"I won't laugh, so just tell me."
"...Appraisal."
I didn't laugh, but I'm pretty sure I made a thoroughly baffled face.
Appraisal was practically the poster child for useless Skills.
That made me curious — why had she gone and acquired that?
"Why did you get that one?"
"Well, Reincarnation and Appraisal go hand in hand in light novels, right? Y'know, gathering information in Another world is super hard, isn't it? So in novels, you start off with Appraisal and steamroll from there. And I thought I'd try to follow that same path..."
"Hold on — Appraisal is basically the number one bust Skill out there. How could you hear that and still think, 'Yeah, I'll take that'?"
"That's — exactly — why! I got Appraisal when I was still a baby who didn't know anything! I'd just Reincarnated and couldn't tell left from right! Of course I was desperate for information! And then, wouldn't you know it, I conveniently heard a divine voice mentioning Appraisal — so I grabbed it on impulse! Can you blame me?!"
Hearing that, I could sort of understand.
I did remember being terrified as a baby, having absolutely no idea what was going on.
The conversations happening around me were in words I couldn't understand, which only made the anxiety worse.
And then, if you heard a divine voice speaking to you in Japanese — yeah, I could see why she'd cling to it.
"So, was Appraisal actually a bust?"
"Yeah. Total bust. It's useless at low levels, it gives you a headache every time you use it, and on top of that, once you've appraised something, the Proficiency won't increase again unless you wait a while — so it's hard to level up too. I've been busting my ass farming Proficiency during my free time, and I'm still only at Level 4. It's soul-crushing."
Even just listening to that sounded exhausting.
Still holding the Appraisal Stone, I Appraised the Skill Points section again.
A list of acquirable Skills appeared, along with the required Points.
I searched for Appraisal in the list and there it was.
"Oh, I can get Appraisal for 100 Points."
"Wait, seriously?"
100 Points was the minimum required to acquire a Skill.
A Skill you could get for 100 Points was either one with very weak effects or one with exceptionally good compatibility.
From the fact that Kathia had spent 1,000 Points on it, it was clear that Appraisal was far from a low-impact Skill.
At low levels its effects were indeed weak, but once you reached a high level it became incredibly useful.
That meant my compatibility with Appraisal was extremely high.
After a good deal of deliberation, I acquired Appraisal.
My remaining Points dropped to 99,900.
"I got Appraisal."
"Wait, seriously?!"
Kathia said the exact same thing she'd said before.
"Don't come crying to me if you regret it."
"Well, if it comes to that, it comes to that. I still have plenty of Points left anyway."
For now, I'd save the rest of my Points for when I really needed them.