chapter4 · 061-ep61

Chapter Four: The Observers Set in Motion Arc

Episode 61: A Day Worth Celebrating

"Hm-hmm-hm-hmmmm."

Several days after the Gate Administrator boy's broadcast, I—Himuro Ren—was stretching both arms over my bed, humming a tune I didn't even know the name of.

First I stuck a balloon shaped like a 6 to the wall. Then I lined up one, two, three equally inflated zero balloons beside it.

The last zero hung a little low, so I reapplied the tape to get it level.

I climbed off the bed and checked the wall from a little farther away.

"Yeah. Looks good."

If I said so myself, I'd gotten them lined up pretty neatly.

I draped some silver tinsel over the edge of my desk and stuck the leftover star decorations on empty parts of the wall.

I'd planned to stop at the number balloons, but then I found a "party decoration set" at the store. The room had ended up a whole lot livelier than planned.

I considered getting a party popper too, but pictured myself setting it off alone and then picking up the scraps of paper alone, and put it back on the shelf.

I was excited, sure, but not so excited I'd forget about the cleanup.

On the desk sat a small whole cake, two bags of potato chips, and a fizzy drink.

The spot normally piled with textbooks and notebooks was a full-on party venue today.

I'd written "6000" on the chocolate plaque atop the cake myself with a chocolate pen from the supermarket.

The numbers slanted upward a little to the right, but let's call that a handmade touch.

Well, I was the only guest.

Since the boy talked about Achievements and World-First Rewards, videos testing how to find Achievements and reports of people unlocking them had exploded online.

On the other hand, apparently there were also more Awakeners entering Gates beyond the country's effective control without permission for the sake of Achievements, and more using their powers for crime.

The news covered incidents practically every day, while the government struggled to strengthen Gate security and crack down on Awakeners.

With the existence of Achievements made public, things around Awakeners had gotten a lot more dangerous than before.

I wasn't exactly one to talk, but charging into a place where you didn't know what would happen, just for an Achievement, was honestly scary.

And the boy who said he'd be coming to meet us in turn still hadn't come to me, at least.

If he came to my room today, it'd look like I'd thrown him a welcome party. I'd rather he waited until tomorrow or later.

As I thought that and lined the cake up directly beneath the 6000 on the wall,

"Aniki, what're you doing?"

Rin poked her head through the door I'd left open.

"Can't you tell? Decorating."

"I can see that. Why?"

"Because today's the day."

"Someone coming over?"

"No."

"You're alone?"

"Alone."

Rin looked from the 6000 on the wall to the cake on my desk.

"What's the 6000 for?"

"It's a number worth commemorating."

"Your score in a game?"

"I wouldn't buy a cake for that."

"Then how many steps you took today?"

"Who celebrates walking six thousand steps in a day this hard?"

"Wouldn't put it past you, Aniki."

"What do you take me for?"

Rin looked up at the wall as if thinking of an answer, but apparently stopped caring almost immediately.

"Ugh... You're seriously gross."

"Oh, shut up. It's an anniversary!"

"That's why I'm asking what it's the anniversary of."

"The day my hard work paid off."

"Could your answer be any vaguer?"

Rin surveyed the room once more and reached for the potato chips on my desk.

"Whatever. I'm taking these."

"You've got some nerve taking the guest of honor's food right after calling him gross."

"You might be gross, Aniki, but the chips didn't do anything wrong."

What awful logic.

"Only one bag, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Congrats."

"You don't even know what for."

"I know you're getting all excited by yourself."

She wasn't wrong about that part.

Rin tucked the bag under her arm and left the room.

Right before stepping into the hall, she looked at the 6000 one more time, but still didn't ask what it meant.

Well, yeah. It wouldn't mean anything to her.

Not many people go through life attaching special meaning to the number 6000.

Of course, it didn't stand for my birthday or my dear little sister Rin's birthday.

Much less an anniversary with a girlfriend.

I've been single my entire life, so I couldn't celebrate that even if I wanted to.

Six thousand times.

That's right. It was a count.

The 6000 on the wall was how many times I'd used Ability Grant.

It was one of the Job-Exclusive Achievements, and a condition required to evolve into a Unique Job.

【B: Perform Ability Grants a cumulative total of 6000 times】

That one.

Man, getting to six thousand took forever.

Day after day, enchant, enchant, enchant, enchant.

What I'd used during training and combat wasn't nearly enough.

At home, every time my MP recovered, I'd cycle through Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Magic; when it ran out, I'd rest, then start again once it recovered.

At first, I figured that if I used Ability Grant in the Program and in dungeons, I'd eventually hit the target on my own. Of course, that was nowhere near enough.

Once before brushing my teeth, once after breakfast.

When I got home from school, once before even changing out of my uniform.

If a little MP recovered right before bed, I'd use it once more before getting under the covers.

Just one use, but every use counted.

By the time I started paying that much attention, I think I was pretty obsessed with six thousand.

Lately, I'd even made a routine of using up my MP first and doing my homework while waiting for it to recover.

It was like I studied in between enchantments. Somewhere along the way, my priorities as a high schooler had gotten reversed.

And when I added up every use through today, I'd finally reached six thousand.

I'd kept using enchants without missing a day, even when I couldn't be bothered and even when I was so tired I just wanted to sleep.

Surely no one would hold it against me for celebrating that kind of persistence this extravagantly.

【Achievement Reward】

【Exclusive Passive Skill: Enchant Proficiency】

【Slightly reduces the MP consumed when activating Ability Grant】

I reread the reward description once more.

Enchant Stabilization cuts the MP cost while maintaining an enchant on myself. This new Enchant Proficiency apparently reduced the cost at the instant I used Ability Grant.

I tried a Strength enchant on myself.

Power flowed through the depths of my body, and my MP gauge dropped a tiny bit less than usual.

This should help not only with applying enchants to myself over and over, but when switching enchants on my allies in combat too.

"...Shouldn't you have given me these in the opposite order?"

Well, I was glad to get it at all.

The evolution conditions display I'd checked over and over had changed too.

【Unique Job Evolution Condition Progress】

【Conditions met: 3/3】

The conditions were defeating a monster in one hit while under a self-applied Strength enchant, maintaining an Ability Grant on myself for three or more minutes, and using Ability Grant a cumulative six thousand times.

If those three conditions were related to what I'd evolve into, chances were high it'd develop in a direction where I fought using enchants on myself.

All I had to do was select 【Execute】 to evolve into a Unique Job, but after waiting this long, evolving on the spur of the moment seemed like a waste.

So why not make a big celebration of it? All by myself.

And that's how I ended up visiting a hundred-yen shop and a supermarket to put this room together.

Looking at it again, I might've gone a bit overboard. But today was for celebrating, so who cared.

I poured some fizzy drink into a paper cup and raised it lightly toward the 6000 on the wall.

"Congratulations on six thousand, me."

Before reaching for the cake, I opened the display I'd put on hold again.

【Evolution into a Unique Job is now available】

【Execute evolution?】

【Execute】

【Put on hold】

As if I'd put it on hold now. I selected 【Execute】 without hesitation.

The display before me vanished for a moment, then new text appeared.

【Your Job has evolved from Enchanter into a Unique Job】

【Unique Job: Battle-Armored Enchanter】

Battle-Armored Enchanter, huh...

Sounds like it'll have abilities pretty much exactly like the name suggests.

With that thought, I began reading its description.

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