Storage

About five months had passed, and it was June. As spring gave way to summer, Allen was perched atop a large barrel, with his family's laundry below him.

(All right! My Summon Skill finally leveled up!)

Allen spent his mornings doing fieldwork and laundry. As he washed the clothes, he savored his joy. It had taken him over a year to raise his Summon Skill to Level 4.

Yellow text—the most welcome sight—appeared on the cover of his grimoire.

'Your Enhancement Skill Experience has reached 100,000/100,000. Your Enhancement Skill Level has increased to 4. Your Summon Skill Level has increased to 4. Your grimoire's Expansion function has reached Level 3. You have acquired the Storage Skill.'

(There’s a lot of information again now that I’ve leveled up. First, let’s check my status.)

First, he checked his status to see what had changed.

【Name】 Allen

【Age】 7

【Job】 Summoner

【Level】 6

【Health】 115 (165) +50

【Magic】 154 (220) +100

【Attack】 56 (80) +50

【Endurance】 56 (80)

【Agility】 108 (155)

【Intelligence】 161 (230)

【Luck】 108 (155) +100

【Skills】 Summon <4>, Creation <4>, Synthesis <4>, Enhancement <4>, Expansion <3>, Storage, Delete, Swordsmanship <3>, Throwing <3>

【Experience】 0 / 6,000

・Skill Levels

【Summon】 4

【Creation】 4

【Synthesis】 4

【Enhancement】 4

・Skill Experience

【Creation】 256 / 1,000,000

【Synthesis】 120 / 1,000,000

【Enhancement】 0 / 1,000,000

・Available Summons

【Insect】 EFGH

【Beast】 EFGH

【Bird】 EFG

【Plant】 EF

【―】 E

・Holder

【Insect】

【Beast】 10 F cards

【Bird】

【Plant】 20 F cards

【―】

(The Storage Skill has been added. Hmm? What’s this? The Storage Skill doesn’t have a number. Does that mean its capabilities are fixed? It’s not listed under Skill Experience, either.)

The first thing to catch his eye was the new Storage Skill. Apparently, it was a skill without a level.

As he hung the laundry in the yard, he continued his analysis.

(I’ll test the Storage Skill later. And—oh! Just as I thought, my Summon Skill leveled up and unlocked E-rank Summons. The category is labeled 【—】 again. I won’t know what that means until I summon one.)

He expected the process of finding Summons through Synthesis to begin all over again. This time, he had considerably more Magic than he’d had when he was looking for F-rank Summons, so he thought he’d find them quickly.

(Still, that’s Hell Mode for you. When was my last level-up?)

He checked when he’d reached Summon Level 3. Apparently, it had taken one year and ten months. Each time he advanced to a new rank, raising his Summon Level became harder and harder. That was Hell Mode for you.

・Age 1 year, 0 months: Obtained grimoire; Summon Level 1; H-rank Summon

・Age 1 year, 10 months: Summon Level 2; acquired Synthesis Skill

・Age 3 years, 0 months: G-rank Summon

・Age 5 years, 11 months: Summon Level 3; acquired Enhancement Skill; F-rank Summon

・Age 7 years, 9 months: Summon Level 4; acquired Storage Skill; E-rank Summon

He added a note to the grimoire's records that he'd reached Summon Level 4.

(And the Expansion Level has reached 3, too.)

He checked the holder for the Summon cards in his grimoire.

(Whoa! It can store forty cards now!)

The bonuses from his Summons were added up based on the number of cards. He could now hold forty instead of thirty, giving him the bonuses from ten additional cards.

The bonuses kept growing: +1, +2, +5, and so on. E-rank Summons should provide even greater bonuses. Turning forty E-rank Summons into cards should give him a significant stat boost.

(Heh heh! Can I beat Dad at arm wrestling now? I made it just in time for the boar hunt. When should I challenge him? Maybe I’ll shock him the day before the hunt.)

Allen was planning to challenge Rodan to a rematch in October.

(All right, now to test Storage and the E-rank Summons. Which should I test first? I’ll start with the new Storage Skill.)

Once he’d finished hanging all the laundry, he began testing the Storage Skill.

(Storage!)

He didn’t know how to use it, so he tried willing it to activate. The grimoire was closely linked to his thoughts and usually responded when he focused on a skill’s name.

The grimoire opened to a page it never opened before.

(Hmm? There’s a hollow in it. What’s this?)

In the center of the open grimoire was a hollow, thirty centimeters wide and tall. What struck Allen as strange was its depth. It clearly extended farther than the grimoire was thick, yet he couldn’t see through to the other side.

(I see. Am I supposed to put something in here?)

He wondered what to try. For now, he picked up a branch from the ground and cautiously put it in. For all he knew, it might be some kind of void that swallowed everything.

The branch slid in without any resistance.

(Oh-ho.)

He pulled it out again. The part he’d put in came back out normally.

Next, he tried putting in a stone about the size of a baseball, the kind he used for throwing. It went in without a problem, disappearing completely into the storage space.

(This is a little scary, but should I put my hand in?)

He put his hand inside and tried to grab the stone.

(Whoa! I can picture it! I can sense what’s inside!)

When he stuck his hand in, images came to him, both visually and as a list.

List-like image

・One stone

Then he tried various things to see how much it could hold and whether there was a limit to the length of items.

・Ten stones

・A piece of wood over one meter long (Aroma, Plant F)

・Twenty days’ worth of firewood (300 kilograms)

・Water

(What is this? Isn’t it supposed to hold an infinite amount?)

The results of his tests were incredible. It seemed that anything could be stored, so long as it could fit through the thirty-centimeter-square opening. So far, adding too much hadn’t made it stop accepting items, nor had anything inside disappeared.

He put the excess firewood back as he stared in amazement.

"Alleeeen! Lunch is ready!"

It seemed he’d gotten too caught up in his tests. It was already noon. Telesia called out to him from the dirt-floored entryway.

"Coming, Mom!"

(Something’s wrong. Or rather, this is unnatural—unfathomable. Why now?)

The results of his tests left him with an uncomfortable feeling. He couldn’t quite accept it.

Back when he’d been Kenichi, Allen had played countless games. For over twenty years, in fact. How many items a player could carry was one of the most important things to consider when playing a game.

For example, some games set a fixed limit of ten or twenty of each item. If you exceeded it, you had to take the extras to storage.

In some games, every item had a weight, and you could carry only up to a certain total. The weight limit could even change depending on your Job or level.

In some games, you received a huge bag that could hold an unlimited number of items right at the beginning.

Allen's question was why he'd obtained such an absurdly powerful skill at this awkward point in time. If he'd gotten it when he received the grimoire at age one, it would have made sense. He could even have understood if he hadn't gotten it at all.

Instead, after working his way through H, G, and F, he’d reached E—the fourth rank—and obtained a skill that could store an infinite number of items. It had come at such an odd time.

He must have been engrossed in his tests, because Telesia called him again. He hurried back to the dirt-floored entryway to help make lunch. As he helped prepare the meal, his thoughts raced.

In games, important items always came when they were needed. Keys, flying carpets, ships—without them, you couldn’t clear the game. You got what you needed when you needed it because the creators guided you that way.

(There has to be a reason for this. It had to be now.)

Allen was certain of it. After all, the one who had set up this skill was the Creator God of this other world.