Forming a New Party

――The next morning, I met up with Rinka in front of the Adventurers Guild, where we’d agreed to meet.

"Good morning!"

"Morning."

Rinka looked as though she’d put everything behind her, and wore a bright, refreshing smile.

Petite and a head shorter than me, she had sky-blue hair tied back in a ponytail.

The battered leather armor she’d been wearing had also been restored to pristine condition with the Repair Liquid I’d given her yesterday.

Repair Liquid is a magic item that restores damaged weapons and armor to their original, unblemished state when applied to them.

It can fix anything as long as it hasn’t been broken clean in half.

Unfortunately, that meant the Repair Liquid couldn’t fix Rinka’s broken sword.

It wasn’t especially expensive, but convincing Rinka to accept it had been quite a struggle.

"Well then, let’s get this over with."

"Yes!"

We’d come to the Adventurers Guild to register our new party.

When an existing party changes members, there’s no need to do this, but a party has to be registered at the Guild when it’s first formed.

I went to the counter and told the receptionist what we were there for.

"――Registration for the 'Twice Exceptional' party is complete. Its members are Rento-san and Rinka-san."

――'Twice Exceptional.'

That was the name of the party Rinka and I had formed.

I came up with it.

Rinka agreed with the name.

Rinka and I are exceptional in two ways.

First, we’re both bearers of Unique Gifts.

Unique Gifts are exceedingly rare.

They say only one person in a thousand—or perhaps one in ten thousand—has one.

And even among those who bear Unique Gifts, Rinka and I are exceptions.

Normally, a Unique Gift offers its bearer tremendous benefits.

In fact, many bearers of Unique Gifts have made a name for themselves as adventurers.

But our Gifts have shackled and tormented us.

We chose the name in the hope that people like us—twice exceptional—could still make their mark.

After registering, I got my adventurer tag back from the receptionist.

At that moment, a status announcement sounded in my mind――.

〈You have joined a second party!〉

〈You have met the conditions for Skill growth!〉

〈【Magic Lending】 has grown from Level 1 to Level 2!〉

"Oh!"

"What is it?"

"Looks like my Skill leveled up."

As I answered Rinka, I opened my status.

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Name: Rento

Age: 19

Gender: Male

Gift: Infinite Magic Vault (SSS)

MP: 1,000/4,712

【Magic Vault】: 96,599/∞

Adventurer Rank: D

Party: Twice Exceptional

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

I was properly registered in the party.

And Magic Lending had――.

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

【Magic Lending】

LV1: You can lend magic to party members.

LV2: Auto Charge. (NEW!)

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

'Congratulations on leveling up your Skill~'

MP, who’d been keeping quiet, spoke to me in my mind.

'What does it do?'

'When a debtor's MP drops below a set value, magic is automatically lent to them~'

'Which means...'

'That's right~ You won't have to keep checking your allies' MP during battle anymore~'

'Oh, that's convenient.'

Back when I was in the Sky-Cleaving Sword, I had to keep track of the MP costs of all three of their Skills and supply them with magic at the right moments. Doing that in the thick of battle was quite a challenge.

It was a huge relief to be free of all that hassle.

'As a secondary effect of Auto Charge, you can now monitor your debtors' MP in real time~'

'I see.'

I tried thinking, 'I want to know how much magic my debtors have,' and data appeared in my mind.

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

【Debtors' Current MP】

'Sky-Cleaving Sword'

・Guy: 0/1,171

・Misa: 0/1,189

・Elle: 0/1,185

□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□□

Wow, they were completely drained.

Whatever magic they recovered was immediately going toward repayment, but seeing the numbers made just how dire things were hit home.

Well, it was their own fault, so I didn’t feel the least bit sorry for them.

"How did it go?"

Rinka must have thought I was just standing there silently lost in thought.

Maybe she’d even noticed the grin on my face.

"Yeah, now I can fully support you, Rinka."

"That’s good to hear. I’ll be counting on your support."

Rinka bowed her head, and her sky-blue ponytail swayed lightly.