“Oh, so that’s how it works.”
If I click here, it displays my unique skills, I guess.
“Let me see…”
Unique Skill: Apply Status Effect / Available for use
Huh. Kirihara gets “Dragonic Buster,” and I get “Apply Status Effect.” Mine sounds pretty dull in comparison.
“Hmm? Is my skill tree…backwards?”
I tried flicking up.
“Hey, it’s growing in the other direction.”
Everyone else’s trees were growing upwards, but mine was made up of a few faint lines wilting below the root—so faint I hadn’t noticed them at first. But even though the lines were faint, the information about the skills themselves was clear.
Paralyze: Level 1
Sleep: Level 1
Poison: Level 1
So I’ve got three of these “Apply Status Effect” skills…?
I used to play social network games and RPGs sometimes, so the skill names at least seemed familiar.
The question is whether they’re any good or not. I’m E-Class, so they probably suck, right? But didn’t one of those hooded guys say that being able to use your skills at level 1 was amazing? All right…you can do this…time to ask the Goddess what’s up. Where is she?
She was talking to somebody—not one of those hooded people, though. I reflexively ducked behind a pillar.
Ugh, why am I hiding like this? Getting ignored twice really did a number on me, I guess. Gotta be brave here…deep breath.
Okay, I’m ready.
I gathered all my courage and resolve to come out from behind the pillar, and…couldn’t even take a step in her direction.
“I heard there’s an E-Class mixed in there.”
They’re talking about me?
“What should we do, Vicius?”
He’s using a Goddess’s first name…? Who is that?
“Don’t worry. Even the E-Class heroes have a part to play,” she replied.
Ten minutes later, I couldn’t help but notice that there were way more guards hanging around. There were at least thirty more than when I last checked…and the new ones looked even tougher than the originals.
Their numbers, and the expressions on the new guards faces, spoke volumes—they definitely weren’t going to let us escape.
Or maybe…they aren’t going to let me, specifically, escape?
Guards were clearly watching me—they were making their way toward me from the left and right.
“Be warned—none of you try anything,” a guard to my right began, gripping the hilt of his sword. “You may be heroes from another world, but freshly summoned like this, you’re no match for us.”
So they’ll cut us down if we step out of line…
“Heroes~! Please move into the next room!” the Goddess ordered. The class filed in behind her as she turned to lead us away.
“E-everyone…listen to what the Goddess says, okay…?”
Zakurogi was still half-heartedly trying to lead the class, but most of them were blatantly ignoring him. His crystal measurement test had classified him as D-Class—the Goddess had explained that adults over 25 were more likely to slip into the lower ranks, which was why they usually targeted younger people for summoning.
The low ranking had caused a change in Zakurogi—his self-assured leadership from earlier was totally gone, and the students had almost entirely stopped looking to him for any kind of guidance. Why would they? He was lower on this new hierarchy than they were, and it’s not like he’d endeared himself to the class with his personality or teaching skills back on earth. The Goddess had easily stepped into the role of our homeroom teacher.
We were led into a room with what looked like a large magic circle pattern on the floor.
“Would the student whose name I call please step forward into the center of the circle?” the Goddess announced. “Oh, and after this final matter is taken care of, you’ll all have some time to relax!”
That last declaration was met with smiles and tangible relief—no doubt everyone’s heads had been spinning since we got here. Finally, they’d get a break from all this.
Oyamada raised his hand.
“What’s this room for, anyway?”
“The ceremony,” replied the Goddess.
“Ceremony? Are you going to summon someone else here, then?” Kirihara asked.
She lightly clapped her hands together and smiled.
“Too-ka Mimori-san,” she announced. “Please step into the center of the circle.”
“Huh…? Me?”
I remembered what the Goddess had said earlier…
“Don’t worry. Even the E-Class heroes have a part to play.”
I swallowed.
What does she want me to do…?
“Nnh!” I stood there frozen, terrified of taking that step.
“Go.” I felt a spearpoint press into my back from one of the guards. “You want to die?”
There’s nowhere to run…I have such a bad feeling about this, but I couldn’t fight back if I wanted to.
Escorted by guards, I made my way into the magic circle. I gathered my courage and spoke.
“Excuse me, Goddess?”
“Yes?” she replied.
At least she isn’t ignoring me this time. I guess it’s harder to get away with that when everyone’s focused on me.
“What is this? Why am I going first?”
“Too-ka Mimori, of all the heroes of class 2-C, you are the lowest ranked.”
Yeah, I know. I’m the only E-Class, right?
“Since the beginning of time, the lowest ranked heroes have never been of any use whatsoever. Instead, they tend to cling to their higher-ranked peers and pull them down through their incompetence. So, eventually, I decided that all heroes who fall into E-Class…are to be eliminated.”
“Wh-what…?”
Eliminated…?
“Unfortunately, doing that here and now would give the other summoned heroes an unpleasant shock—some of them might have an inconvenient attachment to you, after all. In the past, I tried transporting the E-Class heroes to a jail cell here in the palace to kill them in secret, but even then, the news got out and caused trouble among the heavy hitters. So that’s why I settled upon…” the Goddess opened her arms magnanimously, “giving the lowest ranked heroes a chance to redeem themselves.”
“A chance to redeem myself…? Wh-what does that mean?”
“This magic circle of teleportation will send you into the ruins,” she declared.
“Ruins…?”
“If you manage to find your way through the ruins to the surface, I promise not to interfere with you any further. Alion will grant you your life.”
“A-are these ruins…dangerous?”
“Who knows? Well, most of Alion’s dangerous criminals are sent there to serve their sentences, but—I don’t need to answer such questions from you~.”
Is she…actually serious…?
Even if the Goddess was trying to be vague, the answer was pretty clear—nobody would return from the ruins alive. It was a landfill—a convenient way to kill off prisoners without having to pull the trigger yourself. The ruins would do the job for you.
Or maybe more monsters like that three-eyed wolf thing.
“Perhaps you don’t fully understand your situation. I’m sure the name of the ruins will help,” the Goddess said slowly and deliberately. “They are called…the Ruins of Disposal.”
I hung my head and clenched my fists.
Disposal…why is this happening…?
“Oh!”
There’s still something—a last ray of hope! This might save me!
“Goddess!”
“Yes?”
“I have something to tell you! M-my skill! I can already use my unique skill!”
The Goddess put a hand to her cheek.
“And…?”
Huh? Why isn’t she reacting…
“I-I checked the stat panel, and it says ‘available for use’! That’s good, isn’t it?!”
“If it were an A-Class skill, perhaps…”
“My skill is called ‘Apply Status Effect’! I think it lets me, like, paralyze or poison things—”
The Goddess just sighed.
“Listen here…in this world, status effect spells are almost completely worthless.”
Time froze.
“Huh…?”
Worthless?
“They hardly ever work. They rarely succeed when used on the lowest-level monsters, let alone anything mid-level or higher. And even if you miraculously get one to stick, the effects are minor and the duration extremely short. They have worked like that every single time.”
“Th-that can’t be—”
“In other words, you drew a losing hand, as befitting an E-Class hero.” She idly played with her hair as she continued. “And I have to say, your stat modifiers are absolutely abysmal. There’s no hope that they’ll improve much even with leveling—it wouldn’t surprise me if you improve even slower than a completely average human.”
Then…why did you call me a hero? You bring me here, you call me a hero…then you throw me away, just like that?!
“B-but wait! Isn’t disposal a little too—”
“Ugh.”
I was interrupted by a sound of disgust.
“This is pathetic.”
It was Kirihara.
“You’re wasting my time. I could be doing anything else right now, but I have to listen to you? We left you alone when you were skulking around in the background, and this is how you repay us?” He let out an irritated sigh. “Just get this over with already. Everybody’s waiting on you. The girls are tired, see? I feel sorry for them—
don’t you?”
The girls looked positively enthralled by his words.
“K-Kirihara-kun!”
“He’s so kind!”
“It’s like he knows exactly what we want before we even have to say it! So considerate!”
“Who does that Mimori-kun think he is, anyway?! He needs to read the atmosphere in here!”
“Ha, he can’t read the atmosphere—he’s practically made of air himself!”
“Pfft! You’re right—that’s hilarious!”
“Quit whining!”
“Just get it over with!”
“We’re tired, so stop wasting our time!”
“Don’t you know when to give up?!”
The boys had joined in at some point. Oyamada was grinning. Then someone stepped out of the crowd and started coming toward me.
It was Yasu Tomohiro…with compassion in his eyes.
“You okay, Mimori?” he said, placing both hands on my shoulders.
“Y-Yasu…”
His eyes narrowed.
“Hold on a second there, Mimori. Listen to what you’re saying.”
“Uh, Wh-what…?” I stuttered.
“It’s Yasu-san. You’re an E-Class, bottom of the heap. I’m an A-Class. Show some respect.” The compassion had drained from Yasu’s eyes, and a new expression was rising—he looked at me like I was scum on the bottom of his shoe, like he knew with total certainty how superior he was.