Chapter 4
I rushed out of our base and checked into a cheap inn.
I took a room by myself and sprawled across the bed.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
I healed the injuries Guy had inflicted with a potion, but the dull ache would likely take a little longer to fade.
The filthy ceiling of a cheap inn.
The humiliating declaration of my expulsion.
Anger.
Resentment.
And――anxiety about what lay ahead.
Overwhelmed by helplessness, I grabbed my Adventurer Tag.
I channeled a little mana into it, and my status appeared in midair, visible only to me.
I stared at it.
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Name: Rent
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Gift: Magic Repository (S)
MP: 471 / 1,210
Magic Repository: 0 / 1,210
Adventurer Rank: D
Party: ――
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The party display was blank.
The party name, 'Sky-Cleaving Sword,' which had been there just a moment ago, was gone.
If a majority of a party's members agree, they can expel a member.
Looks like those bastards erased me from the party in no time.
The difference between them and me was plain to see in our Adventurer Ranks.
An Adventurer Rank represents an adventurer's overall strength.
No one knows the exact principle behind it, but as you develop your Gift, defeat monsters, or clear dungeons, your rank automatically rises according to your accomplishments.
When you turn fifteen, undergo the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, and become an adventurer, you start at the lowest rank: F.
From there, you rise through E, D, C, B, and A.
Above that are S and SS, ranks held by out-of-reach figures who leave their mark on history.
For ordinary adventurers, A-rank is the highest.
Guy and the other two were B-rank, just shy of A.
They were on track to break the record for youngest adventurer to reach A-rank, and people around them expected even more from them.
In contrast, my Adventurer Rank was D.
It was the rank at which you were finally recognized as a full-fledged adventurer, and quite respectable for someone my age.
But compared with the three of them, the gap felt insurmountable.
And then there was my Gift, my last hope: Magic Repository.
Its Gift Rank, which reflects the Gift's capabilities, was S—an undeniably high rank, but...
It only benefited other people. It had no advantages for me at all.
The strength of Magic Repository lay in the sheer amount of mana it could hold.
Since all I could do was lend mana to other people, my mana pool directly translated into combat power.
My mana pool was overwhelmingly larger than that of other adventurers in my rank range.
Thanks to that, I was a huge asset to the party at first.
There was no doubt that my Magic Repository was what had allowed the 'Sky-Cleaving Sword' to grow so quickly.
But my own growth was slow, and little by little, they pulled farther ahead of me.
My current maximum MP was 1,210, comparable to that of an A-rank adventurer.
Considering the average D-rank adventurer had 50 MP, that was an absurdly high amount.
But those three, who were close to A-rank, had about the same.
Even if I gave them all my mana, it would only be enough for them to use their strongest Skills a few times.
As things stood, I ran out of mana in no time.
So I couldn't blame them for kicking me out.
But――I could never forgive the way they'd treated me.
If they'd said even one word of appreciation, like "Thanks for everything," I would've left the party on good terms.
But they hadn't said a word like that. They'd done the exact opposite.
They'd treated me like garbage they were throwing away.
I couldn't forgive them.
I couldn't forgive them.
I couldn't forgive them.
They were where they were now because I'd kept lending them my mana, weren't they?!
They took everything they could get, then tossed me aside!
――How could I forgive that?!
With unprecedented fury, I gripped the Adventurer Tag tightly.
"Give me back my mana!"
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice rang out in my head――.
〈Gift evolution conditions met!〉
〈Your Magic Repository has evolved into Infinite Magic Repository!〉