[Name] Allen/Shirou
[Age] 5
[Occupation] Summoner
[Level] 9
[Lifeforce] 120 (240)
[Magical power] 170 (340) +370 (blessings) +(2*)500 (rings)
[Strength] 66 (132)
[Durability] 66 (132) +6 (blessings)
[Agility] 132 (263) +6 (blessings)
[Intelligence] 175 (350)
[Luck] 7 (13) +370 (blessings)
[Skill] Summon 4, Create 4, Synthesis 4, Enhance 4, Expansion 3, Delete, Storage, Swordsmanship 2, Archery 1, Carpentry 2, Blacksmithing 3, Magic Item Crafting 1
[EXP] 2522/10000
- Skill EXP
[Create] 413,412/1,000,000
[Synthesis] 371,520/1,000,000
[Enhance] 601,050/1,000,000
- Create-able beasts
[Insect] EFGH
[Beast] EFGH
[Bird] EFG
[Grass] EF
[Rock] E
- Holder
[Insect] H 0, G 3, F 0, E 0
[Beast] H 0, G 0, F 0, E 0
[Bird] G 0, F 0, E 0
[Grass] F 0, E 37
[Rock] E 0
[Name] Krena
[Age] 5
[Occupation] Sword Saint
[Level] 24
[Lifeforce] 500 (1000)
[Magical power] 189 (378)
[Strength] 500 (1000)
[Durability] 352 (704) +250 (custom enchanted leather armor)
[Agility] 338 (676) +25 (custom enchanted leather armor)
[Intelligence] 199 (398)
[Luck] 238 (475)
[Skill] Holy Sword 1, Slash 1, Swordsmanship 4
[Extra Skill] LIMIT BREAK
[Resistances] Basic Magic Resistance (custom enchanted leather armor)
[EXP] 420/6000
Another hunting season had come and gone, and one more successful than prior years.
Working together, Shirou and Krena hunted down over 200 albaherons, letting Shirou grow from level 6 to level 9, while Krena grew from level 11 to level 24.
Even at the tender age of 5½, Krena was undeniably the strongest in the village when it came to just pure stats. The sight of the tiny pink haired girl effortlessly carrying around 200 pounds of monster birds over her shoulder never failed to draw dumb stares from their neighbors, even if Shirou knew she could easily handle 5 times that amount.
But as their hunting season came to an end, the time that Shirou had long been dreading quickly approached.
"Can't we just pretend we forgot about it?" Shirou asked as Theresia patted dust off of his best, non-bloodstained clothes.
"For the last time, no. The law says that everyone, whether they are royal or serf, has to participate in the annual appraisal ceremony when they are 5." Theresia said sharply. "Now make sure you don't do anything to insult the priest."
Shirou inwardly groaned, but nodded.
The appraisal ceremony was a test that would show the individual's parameters for growth as they leveled up, and any sort of 'talent' that they might have.
In this world, 'talents', like Shirou's Summoner talent or Krena's Sword Saint talent, were rare. Only one in every hundred people would have a talent, and that talent only had about a 20% chance of being combat related.
These talents allowed the individual access to special skills through their magic energy, which, once trained, would cause them to be undeniably stronger than anyone without a talent would be.
According to the Academy Textbook that Shirou got for Krena, someone with a '1 star' talent who had mastered their skills, would receive +600 in 2 stats, which would be equal to level 60 for someone with a D-rank parameter, like Krena's father had in his strength parameters. Someone with a '2 star' talent would get +1200 in 3 stats at max skill level (comparable to a level 60 B-rank parameter), and a '3 star' talent would grant +1800 in 4 stats (comparable to a level 60 A-rank parameter). All that on top of the power that they could bring to bear with their 'Skills' and the fact that people with talents usually have higher parameters to begin with.
Given that, it was only natural that the Kingdom keeps its eyes peeled for anyone with any 'talent', willing to go out of its way to try to offer a job to even a serf with just a single star talent. However, their behavior around a 2 star talent becomes less offering and more forced.
Krena's Sword Saint was a 3 star talent, and, if Shirou's spellbook was to be believed, Summoner was an absurd 8 star talent.
Granted, those stars seemed to be absolutely meaningless, as the Summoner talent didn't receive the large stat bonuses at skill levels 3 and 6, like normal talents did. Instead, it got 'blessings' from the summoning cards, which didn't add up to the same absurd numbers that one would expect from 8 stars. If its current pattern continued, at skill level 6, which should be the max, according to the textbook, it would be more like 2½ stars. Though considering he only received the power up so long as he didn't actually summon the summons, keeping them in card form, he had to choose between having his cake and eating it.
Shirou was pretty sure that the 8 stars thing was just a cosmic joke on the part of the Goddess that gave the book to him. Either that, or there was something he was missing.
Even so, Shirou suspected that the kingdom would go rabid over Krena's Sword Saint talent, and was even more worried by how they would react to his own talent. How would people view someone who could summon monsters? Would they see him as some kind of monster himself?
It would be annoying to let that secret get out. So far, he had managed to keep everyone, save for Krena, out of the loop. The pink haired girl started to be able to see his spellbook after the first time they hunted together, when her stats became visible to Shirou as part of some kind of comrade system.
He figured he would have to reveal everything eventually, but he would have preferred it be on his own terms, rather than being forced to reveal it.
Shirou stopped his brooding as he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder and looked up into the smiling face of Rodan staring down at him. "Don't worry son. I'm sure you will have a talent. And even if you don't, it doesn't matter. Your mother and I will never love you less."
"...That isn't what I am worried about."
Rodan walked into town with his son, nervous about the upcoming ceremony.
As much as he told Allen that the results of the appraisal didn't matter, being shown to have a talent would greatly improve the boy's chances for a bright future, where his son could become a knight somewhere.
Rodan had always believed that Allen had talent. How could he not? The question was what that talent would be. The boy did everything from sword fighting and archery to crafting and blacksmithing. He was a jack of all trades and had self-taught himself absolutely every practical skill imaginable.
Rodan tried to assure himself that he had nothing to worry about, but it wasn't easy.
"Captain! Uncle Rodan! Over here!" Krena shouted out, waving her arms in the air to get their attention as they approached the church at the center of the village, with a few minutes to spare. The people who were milling about, the other children Allen and Krena's age and their parents, stared at Krena and Shirou as they got together.
Rodan tried to tell himself that they were staring at the energetic girl, who decided to come to the appraisal ceremony dressed in the leather armor that Allen had made for the girl for her birthday. After all, the Horned Rabbit leathers had been stained a light creamy color and was expertly stitched together to make a set of armor that looked fit for an elvish warrior princess, with intricate rune designs that dotted its surface and came together to make different sword and animal shapes, as well as heart shaped D-rank magic stones, that shined in the rising sun, which were used as buttons.
When Allen had presented the clothes to Krena, along with an equally artistically made blunt sword, Gerda had cried, knowing nothing he could get his daughter would ever compare. After all, Serfs like them usually couldn't even afford to celebrate birthdays… even if they were now legally Commoners. Usually, only one's coming of age would be celebrated, and even then, not with expensive presents.
Wearing such fancy armor and with her usual twin pigtails replaced by a single braid, Krena certainly was attention grabbing. If she was a grown woman, it would have looked elegant. As a small child, it looked like a strange costume.
But as attention grabbing as the clothes were, Rodan knew that the one people stared at was his Allen, and not in a good way.
While the boy was his son, and Rodan would love him unconditionally, he could understand why Allen's appearance would draw such stares.
Much of the boy's body was covered in dark skin that contrasted with his lighter skin in a very unsettling way. His blood red hair was an uncommon color and the way some of his bangs turned white drew attention to his cold yellow eyes, giving him a striking appearance. This wasn't helped by how often he skipped out on sleeping or had night terrors, causing him to have dark circles and tired lines around his eyes, even though he was so young.
And finally, Allen's expression was always hard, appearing to be completely unfeeling, save for when he was playing with the Krena and their younger siblings, when it softened from as hard as steel to being like a piece of hard leather; somewhat malleable, but awkwardly so.
While the Serfs at the edge of the village and the village's mayor, who knew the boy, all understood that he was a good and gentle sort, the Commoners, who only saw him from afar, thought he was frightening or even possessed. His body count among monsters didn't help put their minds at ease. He had already killed more monsters than most adult hunters in their village.
"Krena seems to be excited." Rodan said to Gerda as he attempted to distract himself from the whispers of the other villagers.
"Yes. A little too much so." Gerda said with his exhaustion plain on his face. "She wouldn't stop going on last night about how she was going to finally show that she was a real 'Swordsman' and stopping her from bringing her sword with her was a battle in itself. She doesn't really understand what a church is or why she shouldn't have a sword during the ceremony." Rodan's old friend looked truly werry as he sighed. "She's only 5, but she's as strong and ferocious as her mother."
"Well, at least someone is excited." Rodan said with a smile and a sideways glance at his son. "Allen's been grumpy about coming here all morning."
"Well… can't say I blame him." Gerda whispered as Allen was dragged off by Krena, towards where the rest of the children were gathered. The son of the village's mayor and the son of the village blacksmith either greeted or huffed at the two as they arrived, while the rest of the children shrank away from the pair. "I hope the Priests will at least exercise a little tact today."
Gerda knew as well as Rodan did about all of the rumors brought about by Allen's unusual appearance. The fact that few believed that either Rodan or Theresia were the boy's real parents. Some stupid people even accused Theresia of sleeping around with dark elves, even though that was impossible, as much because of the lack of elves in the territory as the fact that his wife was loyal. No one in the village had ever even seen a real elf, let alone the more reclusive dark elves.
Allen had never appeared to care, just as he never appeared to care about a good many things, but it had eaten away at Rodan. The man had gotten into more than a few fist fights over it. Only his status as a local hero stopped him from being punished for them.
But the way he had been treated had never bothered Allen before. He would walk straight through the market without any appearance of shame. So why did he hate having to go to the appraisal ceremony?
While Rodan was pondering this question, the bell of the church began to ring, signaling that the ceremony was about to begin.
"The Creator Elina gives everyone an equal opportunity! You may have been born as a serf, but the hero of our kingdom was also born from among the serfs!" The priest said, giving what had to be a prepared speech to the children.
Shirou thought he might break out into uncharacteristic laughter at the priest's words.
Magi didn't believe that all men were created equal to begin with, but in a world where God arbitrarily picked 1 out of every 100 people to be 'talented', the claim that God created everyone equally became even more laughable.
Ignoring the priest, Shirou glanced around at the surrounding kids.
There were 31 children in total, all of them the same age. In fact, most of them were born within three weeks of each other. This was surprising until you found out that they were all born 9 months after a particularly successful boar hunt, following a bountiful harvest, when it became clear that the newly formed village was actually going to survive.
Shirou didn't know many of the kids. Not by name, at least. While some were willing enough to be around him to sell him E-rank magic stones, most avoided him. A mixture of his physical appearance and how he could be regularly seen dragging around dead bodies with Krena.
The only ones who were comfortable around him, besides Krena, were the mayor's son, Peroms, who saw Shirou often enough when he used to go to pay his taxes, and Dogora, the blacksmith's son.
Peroms wasn't a fearful child, or maybe he was just more ambitious than he was afraid. Even at such a young age, he took advantage of the other children's fears of Shirou to gather magic stones from them, which he then sold to Shirou, for an inflated price.
Which Shirou was both impressed with, and grateful for. As money meant less to him than materials.
Dogora wasn't afraid of Shirou either, but that didn't mean he was happy with Shirou.
His father had at first helped Shirou with getting the tools he needed to operate his own forge, out of respect for Rodan. He even offered to show Shirou the ropes around his own forge, so that he could make sure that Shirou didn't hurt himself, believing that it was the passing fancy of a child and that after he failed, Shirou would just give up.
The man hadn't expected to have legitimate competition coming from a three year old. He hadn't even expected the boy to actually forge anything for at least another 5 or 6 years, at the earliest, if he didn't just quit.
When Shirou started to create high quality swords and spears to equip the hunters with and then began to sell his creations, the man had pulled Shirou to the side to try to work things out so that they wouldn't have to compete. Not wanting to cause trouble for the kind man was the reason Shirou agreed to sell his swords outside of town and not take commission for household goods from those who could pay for them.
The two had been very polite and understanding about everything, but Dogora had been jealous of the recognition that Shirou got from his father. He especially didn't like how his father had asked for smithing advice from Shirou.
Dogora was a prideful child, a little too prideful. If Shirou was an ordinary kid, Dogora might have even been a bully. He certainly threw his weight around when dealing with some of the older children around the village and wasn't above picking fights with Shirou. He even picked fights with Krena, in the beginning, before that proved to be a beyond horrible idea.
Shirou didn't mind. He figured that the boy's stubbornness and admiration for his own father were his best qualities.
Peroms and Dogora. Two above average children, with Peroms being more intelligent than average and Dogora being stronger than average among the children. So long as you don't count Krena and Shirou.
As the appraisal ceremony started, Shirou's suspicions about the two were confirmed.
[Name] Peroms
[Lifeforce] C
[Magic power] D
[Strength] D
[Durability] C
[Agility] D
[Intelligence] B
[Luck] B
[Talent] Merchant
[Name] Dogora
[Lifeforce] B
[Magic power] D
[Strength] A
[Durability] B
[Agility] C
[Intelligence] D
[Luck] C
[Talent] Ax user
So, 4 people out of 31 had talents. No, 5 out of 31. Someone there had a 'monk' talent. Around 17% instead of 1%.
That was some pretty high variance. Coincidence or design? Shirou couldn't say for sure. After all, what were the odds that his next door neighbor would be someone like Krena?
Not that either Dogora or Peroms could compete with that girl.
Shirou read over their ability scores, which weren't bad. None of the other children had anything but Ds and Cs in all of their scores, these two having a few Bs and As meant they were a cut above the rest. But they simply couldn't compare to Krena.
From what Shirou understood from the Academy textbook, ability scores were related to how much one's stats grew with each level. The growth was always the same fixed number with each level and went something like this…
[E] ~ 1-5
[D] ~ 6-10
[C] ~ 11-15
[B] ~ 16-20
[A] ~ 21-30
[S] ~ 31-40
Based on these numbers, and what Shirou had seen from Krena as she leveled up, what happened next didn't surprise him at all.
"Next is Krena, daughter of Gerda. Please come forward and place your hand on the crystal orb." The priest instructed.
"'kay!" Krena's excited voice filled the room as she moved forward.
The moment her hand touched the orb, light started to pour out from the crystal, shining bright enough to blind those who were still in the room. Silvery script appeared on the black board which was used to display the results of the appraisal as the light died down.
"What does it say?" All of the illiterate Commoners and Serfs asked as they stared at the board, excited by the display of light.
"I… I don't believe it." The Priest said in disbelief. "The Sword Saint. The Sword Saint was born to this village!"
[Name] Krena
[Lifeforce] S
[Magic power] C
[Strength] S
[Durability] A
[Agility] A
[Intelligence] C
[Luck] B
[Talent] Sword Saint
Gasps sounded all around, for the Sword Saint was an extremely rare talent, with only one born within their kingdom every ten years, if the priest was to be believed. The current hero of their nation was one such person, a Sword Saint born to a Serf family, just like Krena.
"Ah… I wanted to be a Swordsman." Krena pouted, not understanding what the talent meant and not even noticing the reactions of the people around her.
Her innocence was almost enough to bring a smile to Shirou's face, if it weren't for the dread of it all.
'Everyone knows now.'
The priests would report everything back to the kingdom, and the royal family would… what? Shirou wasn't even entirely sure as to what would happen from this point on. There was only one thing he did know, the only thing that mattered.
'I will protect her.'
Krena was his family, and he would be damned if anyone treated her as a tool.
"Last is Allen, son of Rodan." The Priest said, after wiping sweat from his brow.
Shirou walked forward as the crowd of people quieted to an almost supernatural level, waiting to see what kind of results would come from the child that didn't act like a child.
Shirou wondered if he should use his magecraft to simply break the orb, but that would only delay the inevitable. The only thing he could do was face the music, and so he placed his hand on top of the orb.
The light inside of the orb glowed bright. Brighter than ever before, until it blinded the onlookers. But when the light finally faded, they were all in for a shock.
[Name] Allen-Shirou
[Lifeforce] E
[Magic power] E
[Strength] E
[Durability] E
[Agility] E
[Intelligence] E
[Luck] E
[Talent] Undefined
Shirou was as surprised as the rest of them, first that his talent wasn't displayed properly, and second that his perimeters were lower than they should have been.
…Until he thought about it. Summoner wasn't a normal talent, so the system might not be able to recognize it, and his growth was 100th the normal rate. Even an S rank's growth of 40 when divided by a 100 is less than 1. His situation was so outlandish that it couldn't be measured properly.
"Oh dear…" The priest said, giving Shirou a sad look after reading the results.
"So, what does it say? What is my son's talent?" Rodan asked the priest, as he couldn't read what was on the display any better than the rest of the villagers.
"I'm sorry, it says that he has no talent." The priest asked as he quickly made to hide the tablet from everyone's eyes. Before looking more seriously at Rodan. "You are the boy's father?"
"Yes, that's right." Rodan replied, slightly stunned at being told that his son had no talent.
"I'd like to talk to you… in private."
