That day Marry didn't stay with Jin for the night. It wasn't as she didn't want to, Jin was in no mood. He thought that he totally doesn't deserve her attention. Not knowing that even being his mistress would be an elevation of her status as a servant. The King was just. After the war, everyone in the initial party would lid a life of luxury. Jin? Maybe he will not get that many privileges, but even so – he would get everything that a commoner couldn't even dream of.
Looking at his reflection Jin clenched his fists harder. His nail dug into the flesh painfully, startling him awake. Something was different at the back of his mind. He opened status and laughed darkly:
[New skill learned: Self-harm level 0, Requirements not met, the skill cannot be activated]
He looked at his status bar again
[Name: Jin Kurogane
Race: Dark Human/D
Class: Black Swordfiend (Locked)/ Footman
Title: the dark gods' joke. The exile. The stubborn. The oddball. The maniac.
Level: 0
Str: 5
Con: 5
Agi: 5
Int: 5
Wis: 5
Skills:
Self-harm lvl 0]
"God, could humans even have such low stats? Am I a dog or something? Just scratching my hand made me bleed. What kind of isekai is that?" Jin was feeling depressed after having his spirits set so high. He always dreamed of the day he could leave his advanced world for the world where power is strength, where he could level up just like in games.
Jin Kurogane, his family name was famous, there was a legend that they were of Kurogane, the Black swordfiend decent. Everyone in the family did martial arts and focused on sword arts, they believed the blood of swordfiend could be awakened in them.
As years passed the legend was left as a legend, no one was interested in becoming supreme war god anymore. The smarts were a new form of power. If you were really smart you could get more money and more money would let you get ways to get more smart and rich.
Jin was the disgrace of his family, being below the average level in everything he did, they exiled him to another city just so he wouldn't tarnish the Kurogane reputation. It was a coincidence that Shana's family moved to the city he lived in. That was providence, or so he thought.
For five years straight he tried to curt her to no avail. At first, she just rejected him, but later she saw him as a stubborn odd friend, who could get too obsessed and didn't know when to stop. She knew him since childhood and now when they were 16 already, he didn't make her that uncomfortable, so when she got two new friends she instructed them to not hurt the poor boy. If Andrew could make a cruel joke on Jin, Asuka respected his maniacal determination.
"I sure have excuses now, but are they not lame?" Jin lampooned.
"Just look at my class, even so, it's locked, my family legends ought to be true!"
"Master Kurogane!" He was greeted just as he left the room.
"Ah, yes?"
"Master do you need something, I was instructed to help you to the best of my ability" Marry was obviously hinting at him.
"No... In fact yes, Marry, I do" at first he was startled but he regained his composure right away.
"Yes, master?" Marry blushed.
"Can you lid me to the training grounds?" Jin was more and more enthusiastic.
"S-sure, master."
"Do you have lessons on common sense here?" He finally understood that he knew nothing about this new world.
"I don't understand, what do you mean, master." Marry uttered distressed.
"I want to know about this world's culture, do and don'ts', everything that would help me understand and blend with this world."
"There's hardly something that fits exactly, but I think our Arch librarian can answer most of your questions, master" She was a bit confused but still gave him a suggestion.
"Let's go then!"
Coincidently, when they arrived the heroic trio was already there.
"I knew you would come here on your own, Jin!" Asuka was happy to see him again.
"Why are you here?" Jin asked puzzled.
"We know nothing of this world and decided that should be changed" Shana replied.
"Same here"
"Let's go then!" Shana was greedy to learn something new.
In the room, the Arch librarian was awaiting them.
"Do you have 'Arch' for every occupation?" Jin lampooned.
"Yes, that is the highest normal rank" the Arch librarian answered with a smile.
"Normal rank?"
"Sit down first, there's no truth in legs" Librarian laughed as though someone was leafing through pages of a big book.
"My name is Cornelius Slit, royal Arch librarian" He introduced himself.
"You can call me Cornelius, heroes shall not stand useless ceremonies"
"My name is Shana, this is Asuka, Andrew, and Jin, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Cornelius!"
"Answering young Jin's question. Normal ranks are the ranks normal humans or beings can achieve, usually, those are from rank zero to rank five, some occupations have more ranks and are divided differently, but those are rare and you will hardly make contact with them." Cornelius started his lecture.
"Some occupations can be transformed into a higher class when you achieve a maximum level, and they don't have high requirements. For example, footmen rank up every 20 levels, after they reach rank 5 they can choose a new occupation."
"How do we level up?" Shana was naturally interested.
"There are several ways to level up- either you practice your skills, read books and explore your occupation, or you can kill monsters and get the High Gods blessing, also known as Experience."
Trio involuntary looked at Jin.
"At least you are good at grinding games."
"So basically you can learn your occupation, you can hunt monsters or get experience books?" Jin asked.
"Ah yes, not just books but any object can be blessed with experience. But how did you know?" Cornelius was puzzled by everyone's reaction and now he even knew something he couldn't.
"If Gods leave their blessing in monsters, they surely leave some prizes in other forms, the book sounded most logical, but whatever" Jin grinned
"You have got the right answer from the wrong reasoning" Cornelius smiled.
"Gods bless everyone so that they can get experience from enemies, not just from killing monsters. Monsters can get the experience we gather, and can level up. I think you should understand, what I mean?" He continued.
"You mean that every living creature in this world is a vessel for experience and can be broken and eaten?" Jin looked surprised.
"Yes, I couldn't say better"
"Next let's talk about currency systems. Basically, there are copper coins, silver, gold, and diamond coins. 100 is needed for ranking up copper to silver and silver to gold, then 100 000 gold coins for one diamond coin. You will also be given a magical credit card, you can deposit money in any magic guild office and spend them in upper-class stores. I need to remind you, small shops do not have credit receivers so you can't buy anything with credit cards there. Our kingdom has a stock exchange market!" Cornelius was very proud of the last sentence.
"Oh, what kind of stocks are there? Companies, resources, governmental debts?" Jin was overenthusiastic again. To live a good life, he used all the money his family gave him on trading stocks. It was a little bit illegal to trade as 16 y.o., but Shana's father thought, Jin was mature enough. Jin got so much – he could live relaxingly, he loved AMD and Tesla companies for being hot and S&P500 for being easy to predict.
"And here I thought I will surprise you!" Cornelius exclaimed.
"Basically yes, you named them all"
"Hm, how do you check for investors' identities?" Jin continued.
"Oh, you even got that point. We check the traders' background, trace the money he's trying to invest, the process is complicated, but we do not make slips" Cornelius was proud again.
"Why is there a need for such a process?" Andrew was confused.
"Well, basically, if another country has enough funds they can hire someone from this country and buy big companies" Jin explained.
"You can even do that? I thought to get the enemy's company you have to conquer it" Andrew joked.
"Well that's too much of a hustle, and not every country is our enemy, they just want to take part in the pie we serve," Cornelius said.
"Do you have any other questions?" Cornelius looked at Jin.
"I need to start swordsman training and I want to read about my occupation, where can I do it?"
"As you are not going to an academy, we will assign you some coaches and for the next week you can use the library here."
"Many thanks! Can I watch the troops' training?"
"Sure, just ask any servant and they will bring you there"
Jin got up and bid everyone farewell, rushing to the closest servant.
"Now is he not an oddball?" Cornelius laughed.
"Want to continue, or do you want to have a look around the castle?"
"My head hurts already, let's go for a walk!" Andrew was the first to get up.