Chapter 18 Status

I made it to number one on the weekly rankings! Thanks to all of you reading—seriously, thank you so much!

"Game stats?"

What’s he talking about? I’ve barely touched a video game since I was a kid. I’m completely lost.

When I made a confused face, Sakuragi...

"Out of nowhere, I started seeing them! I don’t even know how it works… but it’s real!"

"Exactly how do they appear?"

"When I look at myself, I see my name, occupation, status, and skills in that order."

She said that, then scribbled the info on paper and showed it to me.

Sakuragi Kaede

Explorer Lv3

HP 38/38

MP 40/40

Strength 9

Defense 8

Magic Defense 14

Agility 10

Dexterity 16

Intelligence 20

Luck 16

[Skills]

Scouting (I)

"So it’s this 'Scouting' skill that lets me see people’s stats?"

"When I look at myself, I see 'status' and 'skills'—but when I look at others, I only see their name, occupation, and level. I guess it’s because my Scouting (I) level is too low..."

I paused, thinking. I’d heard about studies in Europe and America claiming magic essence affects the human body. Some stories from foreign militaries even said strength had skyrocketed beyond normal limits—hard to believe, really...

"Kodomoto, what do you think?"

"Huh! I couldn’t believe it at first either..."

He glanced at the line of soldiers standing in formation.

From the back, a tall man with glasses stepped forward.

"Private Mountain! Mountain, explain yourself!"

“Yes, Private Sakuragi, 1st Class, said I could see ‘magician’ as your profession, so I figured, what the hell, maybe I can do something… I didn’t really believe it, but I just… imagined it… like, weirdly…”

Saying that, Yamakawa brought his hands together in front of his chest, then slowly pulled them apart, creating a space between them.

In the next instant—

flickering sparks burst to life in his palms, vanishing in just a few seconds…

“…This is…”

“Right now, that’s all I can do… but if my level goes up more… maybe I’ll be able to do more things.”

It was the moment the Self-Defense Force confirmed magic’s potential—right alongside “Mystic Iron”—as a weapon against the monsters!