“You’ve gotta be kidding me...”
It took me a while to realize those words had come out of my own mouth. That’s just how shocked I was.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t want to believe them. I wanted nothing more than to look away. But I couldn’t—reality was right there in front of me, staring me down. I could look away all I wanted, but it wouldn’t change the inevitable truth projected before me.
I had apparently fallen to my knees at some point. I had no idea how long I’d been sitting there on the cold, hard floor. A mere two or three steps away from me, my fate loomed over me in glowing letters:
Mapping
Rarity: SR (Super Rare)
Slot Cost: 3
Effect: The ability to automatically map approximately a one kilometer radius around a previously traversed point and store it as knowledge.
That was it. That was the skill I’d been granted. And Mapping was known far and wide in this world... as utter trash.
That was the reason I, Note Athlon, had fallen into the depths of despair.
You see, I was currently in the middle of my presentation ceremony—a ritual that can only be undertaken after your fifteenth birthday. By offering a prayer to a divine slate, it reveals the skillset bestowed upon you. These slates exist all over the world, but no one knows anything about how they came to be. Most of them are under the protection of the church, kept in special rooms just like this one.
Now, in this world, skills are everything. They determine our way of life. Those who obtain combat skills gain the power to fight the monsters that threaten mankind. Those who obtain farming skills are able to cultivate crops with ease. Those who obtain crafting skills are able to create things with speed and precision.
Of course, combat, farming, and crafting are all possible without the help of skills, but skills ensure a certain amount of success in these fields. People with skills improve faster than most, and they have the advantage of starting off with the inherent power granted to them by their skills. A good example of this is the Sword Mastery skill.
In a fight between two people who’d trained for the same amount of time—one with Sword Mastery and one without—the fighter with Sword Mastery would win nine times out of ten. Now, you might be inclined to say the person without Sword Mastery should just work twice as hard... But without skills, that effort would only be wasted. In the time it took a normal person to rival a Sword Master’s prowess with a blade, the Sword Master could hone their physical abilities even further. Or even learn simple magic to enhance their swordfighting. The lead their skillset gave them granted them every advantage—and that couldn’t be overcome just by trying harder.
That’s why skills are so important in this world. Virtually everyone goes through the presentation ceremony to get theirs, and the vast majority of people go on to find employment based on the skillset they receive.
As for me... What exactly makes Mapping a trash skill, you ask? Its description looks pretty useful at a glance. It’s pretty rare, too.
Nevertheless, Mapping is complete garbage. There are several reasons for this.
First, it requires three slots to use. Slot cost is, in simple terms, how much room a skill takes up. All humanoid races possess three slots, meaning they can obtain up to three skills with a slot cost of 1. It also means that anyone who gets a three-slot skill—like Mapping—isn’t getting anything else. Most obtainable skills, however, are single slot. Higher-powered, rarer, and unusual skills generally had a higher cost... as was the case with Mapping.
Nevertheless, the real reason Mapping was considered so terrible was the existence of two superior skills: World Map and Area Map. World Map was a complete upgrade that could map the entire world, including untraversed lands. Area Map, meanwhile, was a little different. It only revealed a map of the current area and couldn’t store it as knowledge like Mapping and World Map, but it had the advantage of only being a two-slot skill.
Now, you might think that the ability to instantly know your surroundings could be useful. But as a matter of course, extensive maps of the world were already in circulation thanks to people with the World Map skill. In other words, Mapping is a waste of a three-slot skill with the singular benefit of keeping its user from ever getting lost.
A voice suddenly called to me from the other side of the only door in the narrow room. It was a voice I knew well.
“How did it go, Note?”
I cracked open the door without responding. Blinding light streamed in, and I squinted to see the girl standing there.
Her shining blonde hair was braided behind her with stray, silky locks falling forward over her ears. Fine, delicate eyelashes decorated her deep emerald eyes. Her skin was so white that she looked like a porcelain doll, a look only further enhanced by her thin lips and refined nose.
This beautiful half-elf girl was Miya Line, my childhood friend. Illuminated by the light streaming in the door, she looked even more radiant than normal. Okay, I’ll admit it... I was in love with Miya.
“...Did you not get what you were hoping for?” Miya asked, peering into my eyes as she stepped closer.
To be honest, I had a hard time handling this little habit of hers. When she suddenly got close and looked into my soul with those deep emerald pools of hers... the more I stared, the more I felt myself being sucked in.
“N-No...”
I took a step back in a panic, averting my eyes.
Even though we’ve been friends since we were kids, she always caught me off guard whenever she got this close. It hadn’t gotten any less flustering over the years. If anything, it was the opposite. I was finding it harder and harder to deal with as I fell more and more in love with her.
“See for yourself.”
Still flustered, I hurriedly pointed behind me in an attempt to move the conversation away from myself. The details of the skill I’d just been granted were still displayed on the slate in the middle of the narrow room.
Miya took one look at the glowing text and came to the same conclusion I did—I’d just gotten a trash skill. After blinking her long lashes several times, she finally turned away as she tried to console me.
“D-Don’t let it get you down. Mapping is a useful skill in its own right! Think of it this way: you’ll never get lost again! Besides, it could come in handy while we’re adventuring together...” she mustered.