~~

“I gotta say, that was a really close call,” I said before sighing and flopping back on my bed, finished looking over my status once more.

I was in my room Omar gave each of us for our ‘stay’—i.e. kidnapping—exhausted from the mental gymnastics I pulled off today. It was terrifying, seeing how dastardly conniving the king and his own children were. Getting out of this trap will be a loooot more difficult than I thought, I sighed mentally.

To rewind a little, Ms. Heatherway and my classmates were flustered at Omar’s ‘request’ to help save his kingdom by defeating the Demon King and winning the war. I was honestly hopeful at first seeing everyone getting a little riled up over this. Anyone would get upset if they were asked to do something so crazy all of a sudden, but then something even crazier happened.

All it took were two pairs of puppy dog eyes pooling with crocodile tears from the beautiful prince and princess, Marcus and Rosalina. Both of them played the guilty, helpless victims with shallow phrases like, “We know what we did was wrong, but we didn’t know what else to do!” and “We were getting desperate, heroes from other worlds have always come in the past to save us with their great powers! Please, you must help us!”

My last remaining shreds of hope were shattered when everyone ate it up and folded like wet blankets, but what was really strange was how uniformly and completely they all did so. It was as if everyone suddenly became the prince and princess’s puppets. As it turned out, magic was involved. Thankfully, I had my own overpowered quirks due to being a ‘hero’ from another world to thank for not falling victim to the conniving royal’s scheme. But we’ll get to the specifics of all that in a bit.

After everyone agreed to help out, we were instructed in how to open our statuses to see the stats, skills, and spells that we each possessed and we received a crash course in how each of them presented. When that was done, to see what we had and figure out how to train us for the war, we all had to reveal our statuses to everyone in the banquet hall using a crystal ball enchanted with the [Appraisal] skill that they brought in.

I panicked when I heard that bit of news, considering that I also had [Appraisal]. Earlier, when I looked at some of my other classmates with that skill, I knew that I may be far more valuable of an asset to Omar than I was comfortable with, due to how my stats and skills differed from the rest. If I couldn’t refuse or otherwise avoid having my status exposed, then I needed to find a way to fool the crystal ball, and thus everyone else, into thinking that I’m really not all that great.

That was when I found the [Counterfeit] skill as I quickly scrolled down the learnable skills list, looking for the best way to get out of this. It allowed me to fool anyone and anything using [Appraisal] by changing how my status is viewed by the skill. There were a lot more Skill Points (SP) in my status before, but I had to put almost all of it into learning [Counterfeit] and raise it up to a high enough level. That was apparently enough, though, as I was able to hide my more valuable skills and spells, and even changed my stats to make me look weaker than I really was. Right now, everyone only knows of my job-related skills, [Companion Training] and [Companion Bond], and my job-related [Tame] spell, all at LV 1, and all my stats are around five to twenty. My current Charm stat, name, age, and job as a Monster Tamer—or Tamer for short—were the only things from my original status that I left alone.

My only mistake was leaving my job and related skills and spells alone. But that was because I didn’t know how the Job system in this world worked. Jobs are divided into two types, combatant, and non-combatant. Non-combatant types are Jobs like Blacksmith, Cook, Merchant, Farmer, etc. As its name implies, these jobs don’t involve fighting or combat, but other non-martially specialized fields. Combatant types do involve fighting, and there are seven common ones that the majority in this world that have combatant type Jobs start from: Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Ranger, Monk, Cleric, Wizard, and Sorcerer. This world has dubbed these as the ‘Starters’ of the combatant type Job trees. From those Starter Jobs are Promoted Jobs one can gain by fulfilling certain conditions and getting ‘Promoted.’

Then there are other special Jobs that have their own rules on how they are acquired that are outside the norm from the Starter and Promoted Combatant type jobs. These Jobs are known as ‘Unique’ Jobs. Unfortunately for me, the Tamer Job that I have is apparently one of those Unique Jobs.

From what the king explained, the innate skills, stats, and Jobs we currently had were the sum of our life experiences from our own world.  Earth has been the birthplace of many heroes more talented and powerful than the native residents of Lanka, the world where we’re currently on. These heroes were so great, in fact, that even though they came here at level 1, their stats and skills were at values that some of Lanka’s residents could only dream of achieving after years of training. Some of these heroes even arrived with Promoted Jobs, as well as unique ones. I was one of those latter cases, as the Tamer Job can only be acquired by cooperating with a monster and earning one of the Tamer’s Job-related skills in the process. Cooperating with a monster on Lanka is almost impossible to do without an experienced Tamer at your side. Worse, the [Tame] spell takes years of experience as a Tamer as well as earning enough SP to be able to learn it.

Despite my low stats and lack of skills—both of which were only true thanks to [Counterfeit]’s guise—making me otherwise unimpressive, Omar still felt that I had great potential to turn the tides of war in his kingdom’s favor. He said he would make arrangements to assign an experienced Tamer as my tutor to begin my training tomorrow. Afterwards, I found I could use [Counterfeit] to change even what Job my status displays, too. If I had known this, as well as how great being a Tamer was beforehand, I could have changed my Job as something else. In the end, I guess it was good that I’d get an experienced Tamer to help me better understand my Job, but I’d have to be careful how much of my true potential that I reveal.

Now, let’s talk skills. Like Jobs, there are different types of skills that can be broken down to physical, mental, Job-related, and more. Summoned heroes, like their stats and Jobs, have skills that start at proficiency levels that Lanka’s residents take years to reach. These levels range from one, the starting level, all the way to five as the maximum—read as MAX—level. Some of these skills don’t have proficiency levels and are marked with ‘*’. These include boost skills that range from ‘low,’ to ‘medium,’ and to ‘high,’ or just none of the above.

There are some skills that can only be earned and used if you have the right Job. Then there are some that are so rare that they’re impossible to acquire unless you were born with it or received it by chance. Heroes are blessed to receive anywhere from a few to several of these skills at proficiency levels that reflect their life experiences on Earth. They also have the potential to spend SP to learn new skills that are based on their choices and actions as heroes.

I was smart to hide the majority of my skills, but I had to change my [World Language Comprehension] skill to [Penlish Language Comprehension] with [Counterfeit], because almost all my classmates had the latter of these two language comprehension skills. A country specific  language skill was apparently the more commonly expected result, given to the hero the moment they were summoned. It allowed them to read, write, and understand the main language of the country that summoned them. The [World Language Comprehension] skill, on the other hand, does the same thing for all the languages used anywhere in the world of Lanka. Aside from myself, only one other person has this skill, who I’ll bring up later, but I don’t know why either of us possessed it in the first place, yet. I had some idea of why I had my other skills, however.

Back home, as a skeptic, I made a point to notice and question a lot of things that other people miss, or just overlook and accept. That may explain my skills of [Skeptic], [Perception], and maybe even [Appraisal], too, which are highly valued around these parts. I didn’t think I was so efficient as a skeptic to have a skill named after it at max level, though. The same went for my [Perception] be near max and my [Appraisal] at the same proficiency as the enchanted crystal ball. The maxed-out [Charm Resistance], I guess it was because of my embarrassing moment with a certain someone that led me vowing myself to not let my feelings be swayed by another pretty face. I didn’t see the details for any of these skills yet, but I had a feeling that they were the reason why I hadn’t been magically swayed into fighting in this country’s war like everyone else was. It seemed my ‘hero’ benefits really saved my bacon this time, and it was definitely a smart move to hide these particular skills for reasons I’ll explain later.

[Learning Boost] was related to how quickly I pick up new skills and improve on them, which was apparently a valuable skill to have in Lanka, even if the boost was rated as ‘low.’ Not to brag, but I was going to graduate as our class’ valedictorian, so it’s not too much of a stretch to see how I was able to get this skill at its highest caliber. A few other smarties in my class had this skill in lower ranges, too.

As for [Experience Multiplier Boost], [Skill Point Acquisition Boost], and [Skill Point Conversion], apparently those are all acquired by luck, being very rare and valuable skills. A couple of my classmates had one of these, a few had two, and only two of us had all three—myself included. I could practically see the evil gleam in the royals’ eyes when they saw those skills on our statuses. It’s because of [Skill Point Conversion] that I was able to spend extra SP beyond the skill’s purchase cost to upgrade my [Counterfeit] skill to its current level. Thank you, [Skill Point Conversion], you’re the MVP of this disaster and likely many more to come. I’m sorry to say that you’ll have to stay forever hidden with your buddies [Skill Point Acquisition Boost] and [Experience Multiplier Boost] under [Counterfeit]’s guise, though.

For my qualifications to learn [Counterfeit] in the first place, well, I can tell you right now that I did not work in an illegal business of any sort back home. I have some idea of how learning it was possible, though, and I may need to speak to my voluptuous friend who sat next to me earlier about it later—I was too tired after the events of today to deal with anyone. 

As for all the Job-related skills and the [Tame] spell from my Tamer Job, they had to be from taking care of my two pets, Betsy the dog and Leslie the cat, back home. I took them out on walks every day before and after school and played with them when I didn’t have schoolwork. There was also my experience in volunteering at the local animal shelter and monster taming-related video games, but I felt raising my pets was a bigger influence to my current ‘job.’ My pets were especially helpful to me, not just during my previously mentioned girl-related problem, but when I didn’t have other friends to play with when I was young. Before my kidnapping today, I talked with them a lot. To the point where I could understand a little of their animal language—at least that was how I felt. Maybe that was part of how I got [World Language Comprehension]?

Then there were the times they got seriously injured or sick, those were scary and I couldn’t focus on anything else while I nursed them back to health. That is the only reason I can think of why I possess the [Heal] and [Restore] spells. I did care for them enough to become a faithful believer in the Ten Commandments of Pet Ownership—I always carry a printout of it that’s folded and tucked in my wallet—and Clerics in RPGs are usually associated with support, faith, and religion, so that could be a possible reason for me to learn those support type—or I guess in this world’s terms, ‘Grace’ type—spells, right? Of course, I also had a couple pictures of my pets in my smartphone, one of which served as my screensaver, but I’m getting off topic.

They had seemed to be slowing down lately, and have been experiencing some health problems, too, I thought as I momentarily swiped through the photos of my pets on my phone to relieve my nerves, Looks like I won’t be there for your final moments ... Betsy, Leslie, I’m sorry that we had to part ways like this. Know that wherever I may be, our memories together will always live on inside me. May we see each other again in the next life. I took a moment to sniffle and rub away the grit that suddenly got in my eyes.

Once I calmed down, I sat back up from my bed, fixing my glasses to gain a better view of my luxurious, temporary, room in the castle. Each of us had our own rooms for the course of our stay, which included a full-sized bed, a desk with an inkwell and writing quill on its counter, and a wardrobe where I currently had my backpack stowed away. We would be provided new changes of clothes and other necessities within the next couple days.

Immediately after I was appraised, I asked Omar if I could be shown someplace to rest as I was very tired. That was when he informed everyone about our rooms and had one of the maids escort me to mine while everyone else was getting appraised. I had been trying to come to grips with everything that happened the moment I threw myself on the bed.

“For now, I need to make a plan,” I said aloud to myself, “Even though I’m the only Tamer in our class, Omar is still going to get someone with the same Job to come and train me tomorrow. I may get a chance to tame my first monster, so I should think about what would be best for me with only a LV 1 [Tame] spell. Everyone will get suspicious if they see me come back with a monster greater than what my supposed level of skill could handle, so I’ll have to think carefully.

“That aside, though I spent a ton of SP for [Counterfeit], I should be able to earn some back in time, right? But let’s see what else I can learn to protect myself while I’m here,” I said before opening up my skills list and scrolling down to what I could learn for 300 SP. Since the untapped skills and spells we could learn would depend on our innate abilities as well as our jobs, not everyone is eligible to learn [Blaze], for example. 

“Oh, these will definitely be useful,” I said as I read the descriptions of the spells.

“They may be the only attack spells I can use right now, but these would definitely be useful,” I said while nodding to myself, “But still, for me to be qualified to learn [Taint], which is so potent that it can contaminate consumables, just what sorts of innate abilities and life experience did I have that counted towards this, or [Shock]? Moreover, if [Taint] can be used outside of battle, then the same could probably be said for other spells, as well. Does this mean … that someone could use a charm-like skill or spell in a similar way to *Charm* their target with consumable food?”

I recalled the glimpse of the manipulative royals’ statuses I saw with my own [Appraisal] as we all used the device earlier. They never volunteered to display their own statuses through the enchanted item, so that was all the more reason for me to look into it myself. All of their Charm stats were alarmingly high, and they all had skills at moderate to high proficiency levels that boost the effectiveness of that stat, too. What frightened me the most, however, were Princess Rosalina’s [Captivate] and [Temptation Pheromone] spells.

[Captivate] was what this world called a Hex type spell that only targets one enemy of any kind at a time, human, demon, monster, or otherwise, and afflicts them with the *Charm* ailment. [Temptation Pheromone], however, was a spell that could inflict a number of people of the same race—in her case, human—in an area around her with the *Charm* ailment all at once. I have yet to see how a charmed enemy behaves in battle, but if this ailment is just as annoying as hell as it is in RPGs, then all my classmates and teacher are likely a lost cause. What’s more, [Temptation Pheromone] wasn’t a Hex type spell, but a Job type one like my [Tame], which really begged the question for what Job the princess had.

Of course, Rosalina couldn’t publicly display her status for us, or anyone in this kingdom. If just one person even heard of her Seductive Princess Job, then they’d immediately question all their choices and every time they’d ever agreed with her, regardless of whether they had a [Charm Resistance] skill. Seductive Princess, by the way, was apparently a Job that integrates the skills and effects of the Temptress and Princess Jobs. The latter Job seems pretty straight-forward, but it’s the former one that should be raising all kinds of red flags.

Unlike people, you can’t ‘charm’ raw facts into doing your bidding no matter how powerful your magic might be. When that information spreads, the royals would be in deep trouble with their populace. In the end, no matter how attractive Rosalina was, with a Job that included ‘Seductive’ and ‘Temptress’ in her description, she wasn’t just a manipulative slut, she was the queen of all THOTS. With me, having both the [Skeptic] and [Charm Resistance] skills at max levels, I was basically the biggest threat to her existence, as well as Omar and Marcus if they’re taking advantage of her powers, too. This was why hiding them and my other skills with [Counterfeit] was so significant.

“But, wait, there were other people in my class that had [Appraisal], too,” I pointed out in a mutter as I paced around the room, “Surely, they couldn’t risk introducing her to use without planning around that much first, right? It would be one thing if the hero’s [Appraisal] skill started off at LV 1 and they couldn’t see much, probably just their target’s name. But Max’s [Appraisal] was surprisingly at LV 2, just a step below mine. They couldn’t have forgotten to take that into account. I didn’t see a [Counterfeit] skill on Rosalina, either, and unless there’s something that prevents you from changing your own Job, there’s no way she wouldn’t attempt to hide it if she had the means.

“The Royal family should have tested us all first, they were able to see all our statuses with the—that’s it! The crystal ball! It was enchanted with the [Appraisal] skill! Maybe they all have similar items enchanted with [Counterfeit] to hide their jobs, skills, maybe even their entire status! Now that I think about it, they all had some gaudy jewelry on, at least some of those had to be enchanted, with one used to hide their statuses!”

I pumped my fist in the air from reaching the peak of victory with this deduction, just like Rocky Balboa.

“... Hold on, I was still able to see their statuses,” I muttered aloud, “Even if my theory was possible … how did I bypass it to see their true natures? The [Counterfeit] skill’s description didn’t mention any conditions under which someone could see through it, so that’s of no help. Ugh, let’s not worry about that for now. I have [Charm Resistance] at LV MAX, while my own Charm is less than average—I wonder if that helps or hurts me in resisting *Charm* from others? Regardless, if I’m able to see through their bullshit now, then there should be no doubt I won’t be affected by charm-related skills and spells, right? Well, even so, I should still take some measures to ensure I stay healthy and unaffected by whatever this world could taint me with … what did that [Restore] spell do again?”

I then pulled up my status and read said spell’s description.

“If I increase the proficiency level of this, could I cure myself of anything?” I asked in a hushed tone, “And with the [Taint] and [Shock] spells … yes, yes! Okay, I think I have a strategy now!”

With that, I spent my remaining 300 SP to learn [Shock] and [Taint] for protection. I then began a little test.

“Okay, let’s give this a shot … [Restore],” I said while focusing on myself as the target. I felt a strange, but comforting lightness enveloping my body, like a huge weight I didn’t realize was there had been lifted, “Wow, I feel great! Just like that prince’s [Blaze] spell, I just need to say the name while focusing on my target and the magic will do the rest. That’s simple enough. I did see [Silent Casting] in the list of skills, but it costs so much SP and I had to use most of what I had to learn [Counterfeit]. Guess that will have to wait until I wrack up more SP. Now, could I use it on something else?”

There was a water pitcher and a glass in my room, so I did a bit of an experiment. The first glass of water was my control without anything done to it—I checked with [Appraisal] to make sure, which I’d have to make a habit of doing with all my surroundings from now on. When I cast [Restore] on the second glass of water, there was a definite change in its appearance. The glass looked clearer than before, [Appraisal] analyzed it as purified, and it tasted much better. 

On the third glass of water, I tried casting [Taint] at its lowest toxicity level, producing a small, purplish orb of liquid. This briefly turned the water the same color before it became clear again over time. [Appraisal] analyzed the water as being contaminated with *Taint* and I subjected myself to the now noxious brew to test its smell and taste. Both of which were so rank that it had me hacking a lung in response after only taking a sip. Despite that, I was surprised to find that I didn’t get afflicted with the *Poison* ailment.

I tried casting [Taint] again on the same glass, but set at a higher toxicity level. The purple color took longer to clear up before the water looked normal this time. [Appraisal] stated the same description as before, but when I smelled and tasted it, it was far worse. This time, I ended up getting afflicted with *Poison* after taking only a single sip. 

Perhaps it was because I ingested it, but the burning, churning, twisting pain of my insides was unlike anything I had experienced before. Looking at myself in the wardrobe’s mirror, I was sweating buckets and had turned a ghastly white in complexion. In my peripheral, where I saw my LP and MP bars, the former of the two was steadily decreasing. Having seen enough, I cast [Restore] on myself once more and immediately felt much better than before. I was still feeling some soreness and pain in my insides after being subjected to the *Poison* ailment, however. Something interesting appeared to me after a moment, though.

Is learning new skills really this easy?! I retorted to the notice box in my mind, Or is it my [Learning Boost] skill that made the process this simple? I’ll have to look into that skill later…

To avoid raising any suspicion as well as perform another test, I cast [Heal] on myself to restore my LP back to full. I immediately felt a lot better, physically and mentally. Knowing how effective the [Heal] spell was was a relief to me. I could definitely see myself relying on this spell a lot.

“Still, this proves that [Taint] really can be used to poison food and drink, too,” I concluded, “I might be looked at suspiciously if I’m seen casting this on everything I see. Alright, then let’s make a habit of casting [Restore] at the end of every day to keep myself healthy. I’ll basically be torturing myself, but it may not be a bad idea to drink water spiked with [Taint] to improve [Poison Resistance], too. Add [Heal], if I want to, and I’ll be training four things at once to raise their proficiency. Actually, if I can learn new skills like [Poison Resistance] that quickly, I wonder ...”

Just for the heck of it, I cast [Restore] numerous times, both on myself and other objects to see if I could distinguish any other differences. It was also to check how much MP it cost to use the spell, which stayed at 15 MP every time. There was a cooldown, however, so I had to keep in mind not to rely on always being able to cast it whenever I needed to if I didn’t want to get into trouble. Just when I thought I had learned everything, another surprise happened.

“That was fast!” I exclaimed, “Sheesh, is this also because of the [Learning Boost] skill? Whatever, I’ll think about it later. Let’s just see what the next level of [Restore] can do.”

I opened up my skills list again and checked the description of my upgraded spell.

“So, there are more ailments I can remove from a target now, huh?” I asked myself.

For one more quick test, I cast the higher level of [Restore] on both myself and the poisoned water back to back. The MP cost was still the same, at 15 MP per use, and the cooldown time was unchanged. As for the new glass of water, it was crystal clear, clearer than before, and it tasted amazing, the best I ever had. 

“Are those all the known ailments in Lanka, then?” I asked, “If so, it definitely would be best to cast [Restore] on myself at the end of every day. I don’t know how lost LP and MP are recovered, so I’ll have to find that out during training tomorrow. Ideally, I should set aside 15 MP at the end of every day to use [Restore] on myself so I can stay healthy and clean up anything that could inflict even worse ailments on me in the long-term. Plus, if I’m training my [Taint] spell and [Poison Resistance], I’ll definitely need to use the former on myself more often. However, I don’t know what happens if my MP goes to 0, so I’ll leave it here for today. Lastly, just to be safe, I’ll use [Counterfeit] to hide [Shock], [Taint], and [Poison Resistance] along with my other spells and skills … Aaaand done.”

A few knocks on the door just then made me jump.

“Chris? Are you there?” a familiar female classmate asked.

What the, why is she here?

“I’m here, coming,” I answered before approaching the door and opening it.

Standing in the hallway was another one of the few friends I made in school, Rachel Granger, one of the more popular girls in our class from school, and the reason for my maxed-out [Charm Resistance] skill. Blonde hair, blue eyes, good fashion sense, it was almost a given that I would have had a crush on her since elementary school. She just became more and more attractive with her newly bodacious body when we reached high school—compared to Tamy, Rachel’s tits were smaller in size, but still had an attractive shape that made them look big and perky.

It pains me to admit that I am a total pushover, a simp, for this girl, being good friends with her and doing favors here and there without expecting anything in return. All so I could up my chances of winning Rachel over. For a time, it had looked like my efforts were paying off from how much she smiled and laughed with me. At some point, I riled up enough courage to confess to her and asked if we could go out during our middle school years. Her words, “I’m sorry, but I actually have feelings for someone else … can we still be friends?” crushed all hope I had of being with her.

In the end, simp that I was, I still ended up being friends with Rachel and helping her whenever she asked. But after that rejection, I knew better than to think her gratitude or anything she gave me in exchange for my help meant anything.

And wouldn’t you know it, her crush, the student body president Maxwell “Max” Williams, was right there next to her. I mean, I couldn’t blame Rachel falling for him. He’s more proactive in sports and played in our school’s baseball and soccer teams on top of being student body president. Not to mention he’s better looking and friendlier than me, making him a hit with both the girls and guys. Hell, Max and Rachel together were our school’s unofficial power couple.

That’s what everyone else thinks, anyway. As for me, I just can’t see myself associating with a guy that sparkles so brightly. At least that’s how he’s always seemed to me since middle school. I've always wondered if it’s all just a front he puts on while in public. Even if he really is just that good of a person, doesn’t being friendly around so many people get tiring after a while?

Either way, I get exhausted just looking at him, and I get even more tired just thinking of trying to keep up with his pace. So, I try to distance myself and avoid getting involved in anything with him in it. And no, I’m not doing this because I’m grouchy Rachel chose him over me. I’m over that, as my maxed out Charm Resistance shows. I just think it's better for me to primarily look after myself and my own needs.

And yet, despite all my efforts to avoid him since middle school, Max and I somehow became friends. He was the last of those in my small circle before Tamy came along later in high school. To this day, I still had no idea how we even ended up like this.

Still, why would both of them be here to see me like this? I wondered before greeting them, “Hey … what’s going on?”

“It’s close to dinner time,” Rachel stated, “Everyone’s already heading to the banquet hall, but we didn’t see you with them, so we thought to come and let you know.”

“Oh, well … thanks. I was just thinking of how starved I was and that I should get some food, too,” I said, and my stomach growled in agreement.

Actually, my stomach sounded more aggressive than usual, probably still pissed at me for ingesting that poisoned water earlier, as if to say, ‘You better eat something after the shit you put me through!’ I didn’t blame it for feeling that way, either.

“No sweat!” Max exclaimed while giving me thumbs up and a big grin, “With how confusing all of this is, we gotta stick together and work through it to the very end! I just know His Highness will get us back home once this is all over! We just have to hold on until then!”

“Right … sure,”

Yeah, right, of course he will… I said in my head with sarcasm before stepping out of my room, closing the door, and letting the two of them lead the way to the banquet hall while I followed from behind.

“I gotta admit, Chris, you surprised me today,” Rachel started while looking back.

I blinked, “Huh? How so?”

“Normally, you'd jump at the chance to barrage anyone presenting something new with questions, right?” Max asked.

Rachel giggled, “Yeah! Like how flustered you made our history teacher in middle school when Egyptian gods were brought up.”

“I remember that!” Max exclaimed, “You kept going on and on, questioning why the people depicted their gods with animal heads and how the pharaohs used them to control slavery! Even after class, you had more questions for the teacher, he looked so exhausted when you finally finished!”

“I know, I was there! I can’t help but laugh thinking back on it now!” Rachel exclaimed before she and Max fell into a fit of laughter.

How was any of that funny? And, wait, Max was there watching me do that, too? Was that before or after we started hanging out? I thought.

Rachel finally calmed down before continuing, “I was kind of hoping you’d barge in and bring out the questions we all had. You were always kind of … brave, cool, even, for asking people bigger and stronger than you the questions that no one else had the courage to bring up. It made me feel relieved to have someone like you as a friend.”

I couldn’t help but raise a brow at that, thinking, Brave? Cool? Yeah, sure, as a sacrificial pawn, maybe. Why else would you be saying all that in front of your fucking crush? Either way, however you thought of me, I’m none of those.

“I was more shocked by how much lower Chris’ stats are compared to mine,” Max commented while scratching his head, “You’re like one of the top students in our class, I think I heard you were going to be chosen as valedictorian when we graduate. That’s way smarter than me.”

Crap, he might have a point. Is it so strange for someone smarter than him to have a lower Intelligence stat? I panicked and dropped all of my stats to less than 20. What can I say to convince him? 

Rewinding back to what Omar explained about Lanka’s game-like world mechanics, having stats at around 15 across the board is the average for a normal human citizen. Only a handful of esteemed warriors have stats in the three digits. Omar’s strongest knight in his guard has a Strength stat of 380 at level 57. The ‘strongest’ in our class was Max, with all his stats across the board at 100. He’s also the only other person aside from me who had [Experience Multiplier Boost (High)], [Skill Point Acquisition Boost], and [Skill Point Conversion]. Not only that, he had the rarest and most valuable Unique Job as a Hero, and a ton of other skills, including [Appraisal] at LV 2. This basically made him the classic light novel OP protagonist. It was really difficult for me to not roll my eyes at the ridiculousness of it all.

Then again, it was more ridiculous for my own Intelligence stat to be three times higher than his, as it is the stat that determines one’s efficiency in learning new skills and mastering them. I mean, my GPA and student rank at school were higher than his, but he beats me at everything else like sports and popularity, so I guess it balances things out? It didn’t matter, he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and always lands on his feet. So long as he does what the Royals want, he should be fine, so he’s the best choice to be my sacrificial lamb. Let him enjoy being the ‘Hero’ however much he wants. I’m getting out of this messed up place as soon as I can, one way or another, I thought.

In my effort to make that goal possible by standing out less, I used my [Counterfeit] skill to make all my stats low enough to become the weakest hero of my group. Max served as the prime example of what Omar wanted to see in a potential war pawn, and so I tried to work out what the opposite would be based on what I had briefly seen from my other classmates. 

I might have overdone it a bit in the Intelligence department, though, considering our academic standings. I had to make up something quick on the spot to answer Max’s question.

“Well … in academics, maybe,” I started, “But that isn’t the only thing that marks one’s intelligence. There are people who are just as intelligent, if not more so, without even going to school. Like, emotional intelligence, for example. There’s also social intelligence, how to lead groups, and other intelligences that play roles in stuff like how to play sports well, too. Compared to you, I’m severely lacking in all those departments.”

“Oh!” Max exclaimed while pounding a fist in his hand, as if he had had an epiphany, “And my combined different intelligences determine my overall Intelligence stat! I think I get it now!”

“Riiight? It’s also why you got the unique Hero Job too!” I egged on, “Ms. Heatherway may be our teacher, but we need a leader to help us come together and work as a team! Hero, student body president, whatever, you have worked hard to get to where you are today, and your skills make you the most qualified one among us to lead our group. Everyone in class thinks so!”

“… R-Really? Even you?” Max asked with widened eyes.

“Of course! You think I didn’t notice how your attractive charm and good looks reel everyone in? Those are very important qualities for any leader to have! It makes me envious to not even have a fraction of your talent in my own love life!” I exclaimed with sadly only partially faux admiration.

Ugh, all this self-inflicted pain to my pride is making me nauseous, especially with Rachel right there after he swept her away from me, but I think that should cover it, I thought.

Max’s face turned red and averted his gaze. “U-Um, well, I’m happy to hear that from you, Chris, but I think you also—”

“Great!” I interrupted while giving Max a hearty slap on his back, moving past him and Rachel at the same time, “I’ll be counting on you, Max! Let’s work together and defeat the Demon King!”

With that, I ran ahead to the banquet hall, rushing out of sight and vocal range when they tried to call out to me.

I swear, I could feel an evil, conniving smile grow on my face as I ran, thinking, That’s right, Max, I’ll be counting on you to be my sacrificial lamb while I get out of this hellhole. That, and that you’ll take much better care of Rachel than I ever could. You’ve outdone me at everything else, after all. On that note, my smile turned more sour, I’ll keep out of your way while you make a move on Rachel, just promise me that you’ll take care of her while I continue my own efforts to move on.

Orange_Rain

A big thanks to my editor, Tnega Terces, for putting up with me to help edit and clean up this chapter. If you want support my work and see exclusive content, please check out my subscribestar by clicking on the button below.