What Value Does Something Like That Have?

When Kagami was two years old, he defeated a Green Slime and found himself wondering about something.

'Why do these things have money?'

That question vanished from two-year-old Kagami's mind in an instant. It was common sense in this world—a perfectly natural phenomenon.

No, perhaps it was precisely because he was only two that he was able to think of it.

The magical words 'It's only natural' had eventually erased the question Kagami had once asked himself.

After that, Kagami kept killing Green Slimes day after day. To avoid getting hit by the poison they occasionally spat at him, he always fought them one-on-one. He steadily gained Experience Points by throwing stones at them and, at times, digging pit traps and pelting them with stones from within.

But there were only so many Green Slimes. Kagami kept killing them day after day, and it was a month before his Level finally reached 3.

His next target was the second most common monster near the village after Green Slimes: the Moss Goblin.

It was a vicious monster with the appearance of a boar and green skin all over. It charged at its target, then tried to bite down with its huge mouth. It was even uglier than the Green Slimes, and Kagami had hesitated to take it on. But after reaching Level 3, he could tell his body felt noticeably lighter and he was stronger than before, so he decided to give it a try.

To get straight to the point, defeating them was easy. Kagami managed to kill Moss Goblins in almost the same way he had killed Green Slimes. One hit would have killed him; if he'd been fighting in a group, their charges could have sent everyone scattering, and someone might have been killed.

But Kagami was fighting alone, so there was no such danger. When one charged, he dodged, then punched and kicked it from behind and threw stones at it. That was all it took to kill one.

By the time Kagami had been hunting Moss Goblins for about a year, his Level had reached 4. Or, to put it another way, it had only reached 4. The reason was simple: Moss Goblins were Level 4, so no matter how many he killed, his Level could only rise to 4.

To take the next step, Kagami would have to defeat a monster at an even higher Level. The next weakest monster around the village was the Level 7 Goblin—and nothing else.

The adults had warned him, and Kagami had long thought that jumping straight to a Level 7 Goblin would be too dangerous. But to escape the situation where his Level never went up, he resolved to fight one.

He'd spent a year killing Moss Goblins without a scratch, so surely he could manage a Goblin too. Naively assuming as much, Kagami fought one—and understood why the adults in the village never tried to fight monsters.

The answer was remarkably simple: the risk of death was too high.

The Goblin was a green, human-shaped monster. It always wore battered armor, and if you got close, it would bite you with its huge mouth, just like a Moss Goblin. Kagami's usual tactics didn't work, and he nearly died.

He kept his distance and tried to attack from afar, but the Goblin's armor blocked his attacks, and they did no damage at all. And yet the Goblin also copied his long-range attack: throwing stones.

The stone the Goblin hurled vanished from sight the instant it left its hand, grazing and tearing away a bit of flesh from Kagami's right shoulder.

If it had been even slightly off target and struck his head, Kagami would have died instantly.

Only then did he understand that the Green Slimes and Moss Goblins had never hit him simply because he'd been lucky. If even one of their attacks had landed, he would have died instantly.

Then, as he ran straight back to the village and saw a Level 10 Warrior staying there kill the Goblin that had chased him with a single blow, Kagami finally understood just how unfortunate a Role like Villager was.

Faced with that overwhelming difference in stats, Kagami remembered a feeling he'd long since forgotten.

'What... is a Role?'

He began to question the things this world considered natural—the things everyone took for granted.

An indescribable, inexplicable feeling swept over Kagami. But he couldn't find an answer. Everyone was born with a Role, and no one could offer him any answer beyond that. There was no answer to be found.

That question, too, was eventually replaced by the notion that it was just another wall in front of him, and forgotten.

But Kagami didn't give up. If a Level 10 Warrior could defeat a Goblin, then surely a Villager could kill one by attacking with the power of a Level 10 Warrior.

Kagami refused to give up, even though this was the sort of thing that should have broken his spirit and made him surrender. He refused to accept the reality that being born a Villager meant he had no choice but to live as one.

But the risk of death was extraordinarily high. And Kagami had no intention of taking that risk. That left only one simple option: get stronger than he was now, then try again.

But even if he wanted to get stronger, all he could hope for was a tiny increase in his stats from growing up and doing strength training like push-ups. The only way to truly get stronger was to raise his Level.

And the only way to raise his Level was to defeat a Goblin.

He was at a dead end. No matter what he tried, he couldn't defeat a Goblin on his own.

Even if he asked the other villagers for help, none of them would agree, of course; no one wanted to die. Besides, there was no way they could send a child like Kagami off to hunt monsters. He couldn't hire a Warrior to help him level up because he was a child—and because he had no money. Those were the only answers he ever got.

And so, unable to escape that hopeless reality, Kagami turned seven.

Just after turning seven, Kagami was still Level 4. His stats had risen slightly as he grew, but there had been no major change.

It happened while he was heading to the royal capital in a horse-drawn wagon, accompanied by a Warrior staying in the village whom he'd hired, to deliver clothes his parents had made as part of their work.

Monsters attacked. His father was killed right before his eyes, covered in blood.

And from that day on, the story of Kagami Koji began.