Hot tears welled up from the depths of my eyes.
Even someone as dense as me could understand now.
My level 0 is not a foreshadowing of a turnaround.
I'm useless. Far below the level of mediocrity, I am a talentless failure.
I cannot be the protagonist of this story.
"...I can't afford to give up. If I give up, I'll have nothing left..."
In the early morning, I pulled out my familiar gym clothes.
I stopped halfway through putting them on.
The truth is, I don't want to go to the pseudo-dungeon or the training room anymore.
The more I go, the more my lack of talent is exposed in broad daylight.
But, I have no choice but to go. I have no choice.
There are more important things than protecting my petty pride. I told myself that, suppressing my gloomy feelings, and put on the jersey.
I arrived at the training room in the training building.
I scanned my student ID and changed my shoes.
Since it was a weekend morning, there were few students.
The number of weight training machines is limited, so it's nice to have fewer people using them.
"Good morning, Akaya."
"You're early today, too."
A beautiful girl with silver hair tied up in a ponytail.
My neighbor in class, the Swiss exchange student, Isaiah Wirth.
Her ample chest, pressed against her sportswear, and her hot pants were too much stimulation for Japanese youths.
"You have such a gloomy face again today."
"Yeah, I guess so."
We exchanged a conversation that wasn't really a conversation, and I headed to the running machine.
First, I did a 30-minute run. After warming up, I would do weight training.
Wirth came to the running machine next to me.
She started running with wireless earphones on.
Her speed kept increasing.
When I checked the settings on her running machine, it was at 60 km/h.
She was running with a calm face.
This person is in a different realm from me as an explorer.
I thought everyone started at the same point when they entered the school.
That was a huge mistake.
Geniuses exist. It's frustrating, but true.
When the blessed awaken their status and skills, their potential is largely determined at that very first stage.
Geniuses are strong from the start.
They level up quickly, and their stats grow extraordinarily.
This foreigner, Isaiah Wirth, is not just different from me in appearance but also in her inherent potential, born under stars in a completely different dimension.
"How long do you plan to keep this up?"
"Huh?"
Wirth suddenly muttered.
Did she notice me glancing at her? She looked over at me.
"Every morning, every evening, coming to the training building even on weekends, you're really putting in the effort. It's impressive. Not many students can work so hard. But you must know, Akaya, you're weak. Really weak. Level 0 with no skills. Practically a normal person."
"...You should learn about modesty and restraint while you're in Japan."
"Modesty. I'll remember that."
She flashed a dazzling smile and then focused on her running. The machine's speed increased further, reaching 70 km/h. A monster.
I spent about two hours training.
Next, I headed to the pseudo-dungeon.
Before leaving the training room, I turned back to Wirth.
She seemed to be continuing her regimen. Even geniuses train...
Suddenly, she turned towards me.
"People have their strengths and weaknesses. It's important to consider what you want to do with your precious high school life."
"Are you giving me advice?"
"Yeah. Think of it as valuable words from a super genius to a piece of dust on the roadside."
Who are you calling dust?
"I don't want your hard work to be in vain, Akaya. It's sad when efforts go to waste."
"Thanks, I'll seriously think about my future."
"Yeah, do your best. I'm rooting for you, Akaya."
I left the training room, got beaten up by a Pomeranian in the pseudo-dungeon, got rescued by a nearby student, and returned to the dorm in the early afternoon, covered in wounds.
"I really should give up; it's impossible. In the end, I'm just a loser."
I threw myself onto the bed.
The dream I had envisioned seemed far away.
Becoming an explorer and making a fortune was just a fantasy.
"Maybe I should go back home, bow my head to my old man and ask for help... huh?"
I noticed a strange mark on my wrist.
A burning red crack ran along it.
"Whoa!"
Startled, I jumped up from the bed.
As I focused on it, the red crack immediately turned into pain that linked to my consciousness.
"Hot! What is this? Is it bleeding? No, it's not... but!"
The pain accelerated, and I felt a terrifying sensation as if something was erupting from under my skin. I instinctively held my arm, but it was something I couldn't contain, and it burst through as a laceration.
This time, it really was bleeding.
It was a spurt of blood.
The pain was unbearable, and I lost consciousness there.
━━ After a while
When I woke up, I was lying on the floor of my room.
I gently lifted my right arm.
Red wounds ran like tree roots. There was no pain.
A pool of blood on the floor confirmed that what happened wasn't a dream.
"What was that... huh?"
In front of me, my status was displayed.
It was as weak as ever. An extremely pathetic status window.
I didn't want to look at it anymore... but I couldn't overlook the added display.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Status**
Makoto Akaya
Level: 0
Health: 1/10
Mana: 10/10
Defense: 0
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 0
Intelligence: 0
Resistance: 0
Agility: 0
Mystery: 0
Spirit: 0
**Equipment**
"Skill Tree"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Equipment**... Something was listed there.
"Skill Tree"? What is that?
It means I have it equipped, but I don't have anything special equipped.
"No way."
A strange whisper echoed in my mind.
Instinct, intuition. An irrational judgment of that sort.
I raised my right arm. The red, radiating wound.
When I focused my energy into my right arm, I felt something surge up from beneath my skin.
Breaking through my right arm, a red, faintly glowing tree emerged.
Simultaneously, my status was displayed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Status**
Makoto Akaya
Level: 0
Health: 1/10
Mana: 10/10
Defense: 0
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 0
Intelligence: 0
Resistance: 0
Agility: 0
Mystery: 0
Spirit: 0
**Equipment**
"Skill Tree"
━━━━━━━"Skill Tree"━━━━━━━
**Skill Tree**
Tree Level: 0
Skill Points: 1
Point Mission: "Perimeter"
**Skill Menu**
"Basic Stamina"
Acquirable Times: 5
"Basic Mana"
Acquirable Times: 5
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A skill tree... window?