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After some further investigation, I was able to come up with a plausible theory for why Rose’s growth rates had suddenly jumped so high. Since she’d hit level 6, she was able to change into a few different classes, and I’d had her change into all of them and then go into a Spirit Duel ring to calculate her true growth rates. What I learned was that the total number of stat points that Rose gained per level was 14, which was five points higher than the number of stat points I gained.
Her stat points added up to 14 even when she scaled down to level 1 and class changed back to Novice, so there was no doubting it. Which meant the question was: “If Rose’s innate growth rates resulted in her gaining 14 points every level up, why had she only gone up by 8 stat points each level in the beginning?”
The most likely explanation was that Rose hadn’t been assigned the Novice class at the start like I’d assumed, and she’d had a growth rate penalty since she’d had no class. In order to test that theory, I’d forcibly dragged the Guild receptionist, Erina, out of Freelea and had her level up and change classes as well. She’d been reluctant at first, but when I’d told her this would be important to adventurers everywhere, she’d agreed.
In the end, her situation had turned out the exact same as Rose’s. With no class, Erina’s innate growth rates were quite low, but as soon as she class changed to Novice, each of her growth rates went up by one. This proved that civilians weren’t given the Novice class by default, which I’d initially believed. If we assumed they were classless by default, that meant having no class at all gave a -1 debuff to the growth rate of every stat. In other words, the main reason civilians were so much weaker than adventurers was because they weren’t given a starting class.
Actually, wait—maybe I’m thinking about this backwards. Instead of getting a penalty for having no class, maybe what actually happens is that every class gives an additional point of bonus growth than we assumed. Either that, or normal people have their growth rates boosted by 1 in each stat as soon as they obtain a class for the first time.
There was no way to confirm which hypothesis was true, though ultimately it didn’t matter since regardless of which it was the end result was the same. The important thing to know was that civilians got a huge boost to their growth rates the moment they class changed into literally anything.
This is...an even bigger discovery than I thought.
In the world of BB, people were grouped up into two categories: adventurers, who had starting classes, and civilians, who didn’t. An adventurer’s total stat increase per level typically averaged around +18, and if you added in the bonus growths from their starting class, that’d mostly put them at +24. On the other hand, a civilian’s total stat increase per level was typically +6, and since they had no starting class, they didn’t get any bonuses. Basically, that meant there was a 4 times difference in Strength between adventurers and civilians.
Or at least there had been, until I’d learned what I had. Now, we knew that if you gave a civilian a starting class, the total of their innate growth rates would increase to a whopping +18. That meant even among regular civilians, there were those who could become adventurers if they wanted to.
The really sad thing though...was that Rex’s growths were even lower than most civilians.
You see, if we took into account what I’d learned, a civilian’s average total stat increase per level was +12. Not quite as high as the average adventurer’s +18, but still a good deal higher than Rex’s piddling +9.
Did the devs have some grudge against Rex or something? I wondered.
Every time I thought I’d gotten over how shitty Rex’s build was, I was reminded in some new form just how bad his raw numbers were.
I wasn’t sure if it had been out of consideration for me or what, but after I’d proved my theory, Rose hadn’t asked to keep leveling and we’d stopped for the day. Granted the sun was starting to set, so we didn’t have much time left to grind anyway.
“Rex, thank you so much for today,” Rose said, bowing to me again.
“No problem. You sure you don’t want me to walk you back home?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine. Besides, I have the equipment you gave me to protect me.”
Rose hefted the Fire Rod I’d given her with a smile. She’d been reluctant to take the equipment I’d given her at first, but I’d prepared all of it expressly for the sole purpose of power leveling her, so there was no point in me hanging on to it. Honestly, I’d been willing to let her keep the equipment forever, but Rose had insisted that she would only hang on to the items I’d given her until our little adventuring journey was over.
“B-By the way, Rex...”
As we were about to part ways, Rose gave me a hesitant look, her Fire Rod clutched tightly against her chest.
“I really had a lot of fun today! So umm...if you’re free, do you think we could...”
I smiled gently at her. “Of course. See you tomorrow.”
“O-Oh, yes! See you tomorrow!”
Beaming, Rose started walking back home. She turned back half a dozen times to wave to me before finally turning a street corner.
Once Rose was out of sight, Erina and I started walking back toward the Guild.
“Sorry for pulling you away from work all of a sudden,” I told her.
“You really need to stop treating me like your personal assistant, Rex,” Erina replied, pouting.
“Like I said, I’m sorry. But this is what you get for making that advertisement poster about me.”
“Urk... F-Fine, let’s just say we’re even now then,” Erina said, folding surprisingly easily.
“Also don’t tell anyone except Veteram about what we learned here today,” I said.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. Haaah... I can’t believe you keep making these earth-shattering discoveries one after another, Rex. Think about how much more work you’re making for me,” Erina said. “But well, I guess something good came out of it. That girl looked so happy.”
I looked down at Erina in surprise. I hadn’t expected her to care about Rose.
Erina gave me a frown and said, “Just so you know, I do care about things other than my job. Sure, all the things you do cause more trouble for me since I have to handle most of the Guild’s administrative duties, but I know you’re trying to do a good thing here.” Looking over at the street Rose had walked down, she continued, “Her name’s Rose, right? I’ve seen her before a few times, but she always looked so sad. So I’m glad you were able to lift her spirits.”
Erina looked away bashfully as she said that, and I felt a little more reassured that I was doing the right thing.
If the future progressed the same way it did in the game, then Rose would suffer tremendously in the months to come. The same uncle who raised her would reveal himself to be a Vampire Lord and brand her with the Mark of the Curse. That same night, she would transform into a vampire and attack the player. She would return to her senses quickly enough, but her future would remain bleak.