The next day, after going through my usual morning routine, I headed over to the Adventurer's Guild.
During my morning training, I had focused on strength conditioning, pushing my experience points past ninety.
"Just a little more and my Strength will go up by one."
Checking my screen in the empty training grounds, I muttered to myself.
Olivia-san hadn't arrived yet.
She had mentioned yesterday that she would bring reference materials on Appraisal, so that was probably why she was running late.
With that in mind, I decided to make good use of the time and continue my strength training until she got here.
◇
Trained Strength.
Gained 1 experience point.
100/100 until stat increase.
◇
◇
"Strength" has increased by 1.
0/100 until stat increase.
◇
While doing my exercises in the hope that it might go up while I waited, my Strength stat leveled up.
Seeing the prompt on the screen, I immediately pulled up my status.
✤
Name: Erik
Age: 10
Level: 4
Strength: 14
Mana: 13
Stamina: 13
Agility: 13
Dexterity: 13
Skills
[Swordsmanship: 2] [Physical Enhancement: 1] [Cleaning: 6]
[Earth Magic: 2] [Parallel Thinking: 2] [Mana Control: 1]
Special Skill
[Fixed EXP]
Divine Protection
——
✤
"I knew it since it showed up on the screen, but it really did go up by one."
Now my Strength stat alone was out of alignment with the rest.
While I felt a slight twinge of regret since the numbers had lined up so neatly until now, this unevenness was the direct result of my hard work.
A smile crept onto my face as I stood there gazing at my status for a while.
"Whoops, can't do that. I shouldn't waste time. Now that my Strength is up, maybe I'll train my [Swordsmanship]."
With that, I picked up a wooden sword and began practicing my sword forms.
Silently and single-mindedly, I swung the blade over and over, exactly as I had been taught.
About an hour after our usual start time, Olivia-san finally stepped into the training grounds.
Seeing her, I paused my swings and checked the screen.
◇
Trained [Swordsmanship].
Gained 1 experience point.
41/100 until next level.
◇
It wasn't just my magic—my [Swordsmanship] was making steady progress too.
After verifying the numbers, I ran over to greet Olivia-san as she walked in.
"Erik-kun, sorry I'm late today! There was a slight delay with the materials getting delivered."
"It's quite all right. I'm the one receiving instruction, after all. Just having you come here at all means a lot to me."
"Well, of course! I am your master, Erik-kun."
Normally, receiving personal instruction from a Platinum Rank adventurer would cost an absolute fortune.
Yet, I hadn't paid Olivia-san anything that could truly be considered proper compensation.
We had originally met through Ryan-san's introduction.
There, we happened to discover that we were both alumni of Fledgling Pavilion.
In the heat of the moment, she offered to take me on as an apprentice, but then it turned out I couldn't use magic.
She told me she would accept me as her student once I could cast, and after I successfully learned [Earth Magic], our master-disciple relationship was officially forged.
Because of how everything unfolded, the topic of payment had never once come up.
"Shouldn't I really be paying you something after all?"
"For teaching you, you mean? Don't worry about it. In the first place, I was the one looking for an apprentice."
"If that's the case, weren't there other candidates besides me?"
"There were kids who were close to what I was looking for, but I didn't take them on. I approached a few, but some of them turned down the idea of an apprenticeship altogether. That's why I asked the Adventurer's Guild to introduce me to a promising candidate if they found one, and they introduced you to me, Erik-kun."
Saying that, Olivia-san handed over the reference materials on [Appraisal].
"Besides, to be completely honest, I see far more potential in you than in the kind of student I was originally looking for, you know? You're hardworking, earnest, and cautious enough never to do anything reckless. Adventurers like that are few and far between. On top of that, you have such a fascinating skill like [Fixed EXP]—I'm genuinely thrilled to be your master, Erik-kun."
"Ah, um, I'm really glad to have you as my master too, Olivia-san!"
"Oh, well then, isn't that wonderful? Sure, some people only take on apprentices for the money, but I don't need anything like that. What I really want is to watch from right beside you and see how you grow, Erik-kun."
With a warm smile, Olivia-san placed both hands on my shoulders and leaned in close.
"So from now on, don't waste your energy worrying about payment, all right? If you have time to fret over that, put it toward your training and get stronger."
"Yes, ma'am! Understood. As your apprentice, Olivia-san, I'll work as hard as I can so you'll never feel embarrassed by me."
"Even now, you're an apprentice I can be more than proud of."
With that encouraging word, Olivia-san gestured to the materials she had brought.
Very little was concrete when it came to [Appraisal].
Those who possessed the skill could discern information about a target simply by activating it.
"Also, from what I gathered talking to an acquaintance of mine who has [Appraisal], they mentioned that whenever they activate it, they gather mana into their eyes—just like you've been doing in your training, Erik-kun."
"Does that mean my method wasn't wrong after all? I've been gaining experience points, too."
When I pointed that out, Olivia-san's expression grew serious.
"Well, this is also something I heard from that same person, but apparently plenty of people have wanted to learn [Appraisal] in the past, so they once gathered a group to conduct an experiment. They had them try to learn it the exact same way—by gathering mana into their eyes."
"...And what happened?"
"It seems it was a complete failure. Not a single person managed to acquire the skill, and the research concluded that the method was entirely pointless."
"Then... why am I gaining experience points from it?"
A pointless method.
And yet, experience was steadily accumulating.
"Since yours is a special skill, isn't it possible that you're gaining experience points simply because you're mimicking the physiological process of how [Appraisal] is naturally used?"
"...If that's the case, won't it be difficult to figure out a method for others to acquire [Appraisal]?"
"I think we'll still turn up valuable clues. If we test various training methods from here on out and find one that yields an exceptionally high rate of experience gain, that in itself will make it well worth having other people try, won't it?"
"That's a great point! If we discover an effective training regimen, it'll help my own growth going forward too!"
From there, Olivia-san and I set to work studying [Appraisal] together.