G Rank

Three years had passed since Kenichi Yamada was reincarnated in another world as Allen. Allen had turned three.

Now that Allen was three, Telesia had given him permission to go outside as long as he stayed near the house. According to this world's calendar, his birthday seemed to be October 1. That day was also the Pioneer Village's Harvest Festival. It made sense that this year's meal had been so lavish—he'd only just learned, at the age of three, that it had doubled as a harvest celebration. It felt like having Christmas and his birthday on the same day.

The Harvest Festival wasn't anything like a bon dance in the middle of the village. There was a religious facility called a church in the Pioneer Village, and apparently the village chief held a ceremony there, offering the harvested crops to the god of harvest.

Serfs didn't take part in ceremonies like that. Come to think of it, Rodan had gone hunting on Allen's first birthday.

Over the past three years, Allen had learned quite a bit about serfs. Sixty percent of the harvested crops went to the village chief, the lord's representative, as taxes. The tax relief granted when the village was first established had already ended, and now they were taking a hefty share. Since the tax was sixty percent of the harvest, the more crops they produced, the more they had left for themselves.

Telesia had told him that if their harvest was too small or they tried to cheat on their taxes, they could be reduced from serfs to slaves, who were treated even worse.

The remaining forty percent of their crops and all the meat from hunting didn't simply become food, either. They had to trade some of it for salt, which was essential for survival, or for things like Allen's diapers, made from rags.

This other world had four seasons, too. It didn't seem to be a particularly snowy region, but winter still brought a fair amount of snow. They needed firewood to protect themselves from the cold.

Half the meat they received as a hunting reward—nearly ten kilograms at a time—went toward the cost of firewood.

Life in the Pioneer Village was based mostly on bartering, since they were serfs. Still, even serfs had a little money. Allen remembered that around February this year, he'd come down with a high fever. Rodan had pried up the floorboards in the children's room, gathered some coins, and gone out. When he returned, he gave Allen some medicine—probably a fever reducer—and told him to drink it.

Rodan must have spent nearly all of it, because now there were only a few copper and iron coins under the floorboards. There were also about five things that looked like pebbles. They were magic stones from horned rabbits. It was Allen's first time seeing money from this world, as well as a magic stone.

Then, one day, after some time had passed since he turned three...

Allen was leaning against a tree in the yard. It wasn't huge, but it was a decent-sized tree. There was a fence around the yard, but it was easy for people to look over, so he used the tree as a screen while testing his summoning.

(At last! I have a pretty good idea how Synthesis Level 2 and Create Level 2 work.)

Allen had learned Synthesis Level 1 and Create Level 2 when he was one year and ten months old.

The reason he'd only finished testing them now was that he hadn't had enough Magic. Apparently, Allen's stats increased by ten percent each time his birthday came around on October 1. The restrictions on his stats due to his age were lifted by ten percent at a time. Now that he'd turned three, his maximum Magic had reached six, and he could finally test them.

By raising Synthesis to Level 2, he had successfully finished analyzing the G-rank summons.

First, the results of each test.

Create Level 2

・Magic cost: 5

Synthesis Level 2

・Magic cost: 5

・Synthesizing Insect G and Beast G produces Bird G.

He recorded the results of his tests using the memo function in the Grimoire and now had a general understanding of how it worked.

With the Bird G summon perched on his shoulder, he checked his status.

【Name】 Allen

【Age】 3

【Job】 Summoner

【Level】 1

【Stamina】 12 (40) +26

【Magic】 1 (20)

【Attack】 3 (10) +26

【Durability】 3 (10) +6

【Agility】 7 (25) +10

【Intelligence】 9 (30) +4

【Luck】 7 (25)

【Skills】 Summon〈2〉, Create〈2〉, Synthesis〈2〉, Expansion〈1〉, Delete

【Experience】 0/1,000

・Skill Level

【Summon】 2

【Create】 2

【Synthesis】 1

・Skill Experience

【Create】 4,701/10,000

【Synthesis】 20/1,000

・Summons Available to Create

【Insect】 G, H

【Beast】 G, H

【Bird】 G

・Holder

【Insect】 G 2 cards, H 2 cards

【Beast】 G 12 cards, H 2 cards

【Bird】 G 2 cards

(All right, what should I do now? I've confirmed that Skill Experience is the same as the Magic consumed.)

He checked his remaining Magic.

(If Skill Experience equals the Magic consumed, then it's more efficient to use Create Level 1 to raise Create to Level 3 than to use Create Level 2 or Synthesis Level 1, which leave Magic unused. It'd be a waste to leave any Magic unused.)

Allen's maximum Magic was six. Create Level 1 cost two Magic, while Create Level 2 and Synthesis Level 1 cost five. If he wanted to convert his Magic into Skill Experience efficiently, Create Level 1 was the only choice.

(That's enough skill leveling for now. Well, then...)

“Hey, Allen.”

Allen spoke to the Bird G perched on his shoulder. He thought the words Special Skill.

“Yeah, I'm Allen.”

The Bird G answered in Allen's voice.

(I see. G-rank summons have become a lot more useful.)

Here are the statuses of the three newly available summons.

・Stats for Insect G, shaped like a frog

【Type】 Insect

【Rank】 G

【Name】 Pyonta

【Stamina】 7

【Magic】 0

【Attack】 6

【Durability】 10

【Agility】 10

【Intelligence】 7

【Luck】 8

【Blessing】 Durability 2, Agility 2

【Special Skill】 Taunt

・Stats for Beast G, shaped like a mole

【Type】 Beast

【Rank】 G

【Name】 Mogusuke

【Stamina】 10

【Magic】 0

【Attack】 10

【Durability】 6

【Agility】 5

【Intelligence】 7

【Luck】 6

【Blessing】 Stamina 2, Attack 2

【Special Skill】 Digging

・Stats for Bird G, shaped like a parakeet

【Type】 Bird

【Rank】 G

【Name】 Chappie

【Stamina】 7

【Magic】 0

【Attack】 5

【Durability】 6

【Agility】 10

【Intelligence】 10

【Luck】 8

【Blessing】 Agility 2, Intelligence 2

【Special Skill】 Mimicry

As before, their stats were quite low, and they hardly obeyed him, just like H-rank summons. But what caught Allen's attention was their Special Skills.

The Bird G summon could reproduce Allen's voice. Parakeets and other birds could learn to imitate human speech, but this was on another level. It was exactly his own voice. However, he couldn't teach it very long phrases or multiple voices.

Next was the Beast G summon, poking its head out of a hole in front of him. The mole was about the size of a small dog, and it could easily dig a hole thirty centimeters wide and about a meter deep.

(Couldn't I make a pitfall trap with this?)

Summoned creatures could be told to use their Special Skills endlessly without consuming Magic. He couldn't make them obey him otherwise, but once he activated the skill, the mole would dig a hole wherever he wanted.

Finally, the Insect G summon was beside Allen. It was quite large, about the size of a bullfrog.

(Taunt.)

“Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit.”

At his command, the frog changed its body from green to red and yellow, then began croaking as it jumped around erratically.

As he watched the G-rank summons, Allen thought about it. Apparently, a Summoner's only goal wasn't to summon stronger creatures.

For example, the Insect G frog might be able to draw a magical beast's attention away from Allen with its Taunt. The Beast G mole might be able to dig a huge hole and make a trap if it worked hard enough. He realized that it was important to understand the summons' traits thoroughly.

Dong.

Dong.

Dong.

(Hm? It's about time, isn't it?)

A bell rang in the distance. It was the bell that announced three o'clock in the Pioneer Village.

Allen gripped the wooden sword lying on the ground.