E-Rank

The day after he figured out how the Storage Skill worked.

In the afternoons, it was time to play knights. When he got home, he had to put Mash and Myura to bed before dinner. Before he knew it, it was dark. He’d decided to test his Skills while doing the laundry.

(All right, my Magic is full. Next, I’ll try out the E-rank Summons.)

As he stomped the laundry in a large tub, he checked the grimoire and began testing the E-rank Summons.

(First, I should be able to make Insect and Beast with the Creation Skill. I’ll start with Insect E.

Create Insect E!)

As before, he focused on creating Insect E.

But nothing appeared. Normally, a card appeared before his eyes in a flash of light.

(Huh? Why? Did I not have enough Magic? I have 233 Magic, though!)

He remembered the time, years ago, when he’d been five Magic short of what he needed for Creation Level 2. But now he had 233 Magic. There was no way he was short, so he looked at the cover of the grimoire.

A log appeared on it in silver letters.

'You do not have the E-rank Magic Stone required to create Insect E.'

“Pfft!”

He couldn’t help spitting out in surprise. He nearly toppled out of the tub.

(M-Magic Stones?! Do I need Magic Stones starting at E-rank?)

Just as the log on the grimoire’s cover said, he apparently needed an E-rank Magic Stone to create an E-rank card.

He remembered there were E-rank Magic Stones in the children’s room. He lifted the floorboards in the room where Myura was sleeping and picked up six horned-rabbit Magic Stones lying beside a bag full of silver coins. They were tiny, about the size of his pinky fingernail. Their purple color made them easy to distinguish from ordinary stones.

The Magic Stones from the Alba Herons and Great Boars he’d turned in as taxes were purple, too. They were almost spherical. The Alba Heron stones were about the size of the first joint of his thumb, while the Great Boar stones were about as big as ping-pong balls.

The rest of the silver coins had come from selling Alba Heron meat. He had about 342 of them.

He returned to the tub and continued washing. Holding a Magic Stone, he focused on activating the Creation Skill just as he had before.

(All right, this time for sure. Create Insect E!)

But nothing happened. No card appeared. Thinking it had happened again, he checked the grimoire’s log. The exact same message was there: he was short an E-rank Magic Stone.

(Huh? I have a Magic Stone, though. Do I have to put it in? I see!!)

Something seemed to click. He opened the Storage page of the grimoire.

(Could it mean I have to put it in here?)

For now, he put all the Magic Stones inside.

(All set. Now, let’s try creating an E-rank card again!)

Then a card appeared before his eyes, labeled Insect E in the upper-right corner.

(Oh!! It worked. So that’s how the Storage Skill works. Hmm, E-rank is a butterfly. Maybe I’ll try summoning one.)

Since he didn’t know how big it would be, he turned the card into a Summon.

The card glowed, and an Insect E Summon appeared.

“Pfft?! It’s huge! Return!”

A giant butterfly over a meter in size appeared, so he hurriedly turned it back into a card. A greatly enlarged swallowtail butterfly had been floating in the air. He hadn’t had time to get a good look at it.

(This is bad. E-rank Summons might be over a meter long.)

He figured he couldn’t summon them casually in the yard anymore. His family was in the house, too. Ever since they were about the size of grasshoppers, his Summons had grown larger with each increase in rank.

(All right, then let’s try making Beast E, too. Oh! It’s a saber-toothed tiger!! It went from a dog to a saber-toothed tiger. It got stronger all at once!! That’s Insect and Beast done. Next is synthesis. I’ll try that, too.)

He opened the Synthesis page of the grimoire. It had changed, too.

Until then, the left side of the open grimoire had two hollows where he could place the cards to be synthesized. On the right was one hollow where the finished card appeared.

But while the hollow on the right was unchanged, there were now three on the left.

The left side had two hollows at the top, large enough for cards to fit snugly inside. Beneath them was another hollow, apparently meant for something else. It wasn’t the size of a card.

(Wait, does synthesis need a Magic Stone, too? I used them for Insect and Beast.)

He had a bad feeling about this. For now, he placed Insect E and Beast E on the left, planning to synthesize Bird E. The synthesis patterns were the same even at a different rank.

He tried saying “Synthesis” in his mind, but nothing happened. It seemed he really did need a Magic Stone.

He placed a Magic Stone in the hollow beneath the Insect E and Beast E cards.

(Synthesis!)

With the Magic Stone added to the synthesis materials, he said “Synthesis” in his mind, and a card appeared.

(So it takes one Magic Stone. Seriously? It looks like I’m going to need a lot of these.)

Creating a card required one Magic Stone, and synthesis required one, too. It only took one synthesis to make a Bird, but a Plant required two.

“Allen, lunch is almost ready!”

“Coming, Mom!”

He must have been so absorbed in his tests that a lot of time had passed.

When he stepped into the dirt-floored entryway, Telesia was there. Mash and Myura were in the living room. Myura was looking at Allen and squealing happily. She had brown hair and green eyes, too. At one year and three months old, she was a lively little girl who could crawl around the house.

When Allen had been around the same age, Telesia had done fieldwork while he slept. After Myura turned one, Telesia tried to get back to working in the fields. Allen had told her he would do it and that she shouldn’t overexert herself.

Allen helped Telesia prepare lunch. It was a light meal, but feeding a family of five still took a fair amount of food.

“I’m home.”

Rodan came back, too. Allen had worked in the fields with him from morning until nearly ten, but had returned home early to take care of the laundry.

It was their usual family meal. Rodan muttered as he bit into a potato.

“Now that our family’s grown, maybe it’s time to make the rooms bigger. You’d like your own room, wouldn’t you, Allen?”

Apparently, he thought their current children’s room was too small.

“Huh? No, I’m fine with things as they are. We don’t have the money.”

“We do, don’t we? You earned it for us.”

Rodan said that now they could buy the lumber they needed to build a room.

(Come on, I’ve been earning money so we can become commoners. Don’t spend it on something like that.)

He’d sold all the Alba Heron meat, earning 342 silver coins. Of course, the money belonged to Rodan, the head of the household. Allen had handed it all over.

But they needed 5,000 silver coins to make the whole family commoners. They were still far from having enough. They couldn’t afford to live extravagantly.

He hadn’t told Rodan or Telesia that he was saving up to make them commoners.

“No, well, let’s save it in case someone gets seriously hurt again, or Myura gets sick.”

He said he didn’t need his own room just yet.

“I-Is that so?”

Rodan figured Allen might change his mind once he was a little older, so he didn’t push to enlarge the house.

“By the way, Dad. Is the village moat finished?”

“The moat? Oh, it’s finished. You helped work on it, too.”

(Just as I thought. This is bad.)

The village had a wooden palisade. But there were gaps in it, so low-ranking magical beasts like horned rabbits had gotten inside. The children born during the village’s baby boom were growing up, and their range of activity was expanding. Magical beasts provided delicious meat, but the children were a worry.

For years, the villagers had been digging up the ground around the palisade to make a moat. It was meant to keep magical beasts out.

Serfs with no farmwork took part mainly between January and March, when there was no work in the fields. Allen had joined in this year along with Rodan.

Now that the moat was finished, horned rabbits—the source of E-rank Magic Stones for the village—could no longer get in.

(This is bad. I wonder if Krena’s family has been collecting Magic Stones.)

Allen realized he needed to find Magic Stones quickly.