After a whole week, Mike was broke.
Completely, utterly broke.
He stared at the balance on his SNA account with dead fish eyes.
"…Ten thousand credits left. TEN… thousand…"
He clutched his face. "I spent everything on those damn training rooms…"
But the despair lasted only two seconds.
Because the moment he said,
"Status."
—his entire mood flipped.
[ Status ]
Name: Mike Vester
Race: Human
Class: Knight Apprentice
Potential: F
Level: 1
EXP: 0/100
Strength: 4.3 → 19.8
Agility: 2.4 → 15.7
Constitution: 3.2 → 18.1
Intelligence: 1.5 → 2.0
Attribute Points: 0
Talent: Infinite SSS Gacha
Weekly Talent:
Temporary: None (Gacha roll available)
Permanent Slot: Empty
Skills:
– Basic Swordsmanship (Mastery)
– Weapon Mastery (Adept)
– Valor Surge (Adept)
– Knight's Mount
[ Titles: Prodigy ]
[ Acquiring condition: Have any one main stat more than 10 points at level 1, without external aid. ]
[ Effect: All experience gained permanently increased by 10% ]
Mike's grin grew so wide it almost reached his ears.
"HAHAHA—WORTH IT! EVERY CREDIT WAS WORTH IT!"
He pumped a fist in the air, fully satisfied by the result of his hellish training.
In a week, his entire body had transformed.
"Now, let's see what my new talent will be for the week," Mike mumbled.
He didn't acquire the Absolute Body talent as a permanent one—the more he trained, the more time it would need to surpass and grow, and he wasn't a non-awakened who needed to take the hard way, so he forfeited it.
Pressing on the talent icon, the familiar wheel appeared and began spinning. After a few seconds, it stopped on another talent.
Reversal Engine
Rank: SSS
Reverses any effect ONCE per day.
Example: poison becomes healing, damage becomes buff, and a curse becomes a blessing.
Limit: Cannot reverse death or time.
Mike stared at the talent description again.
Once.
Twice.
"…HUH!?"
"Is this… good or bad?" He muttered, scratching his cheek in confusion.
"It sounds amazing but… also super weird?"
He frowned, leaning closer to the floating screen like it might explain itself.
"Hmmm… I have to test it. No way an SSS-rank talent is useless."
He began pacing back and forth.
"Reverses ANY effect once per day… But how do I even test something like that? Do I poison myself? Do I punch a wall? Do I throw a debuff at my own face?"
He stared at his hand dramatically.
"System, please don't make me eat something dangerous. I JUST started living a good life."
He pondered for a moment and then simply stood up."No point rushing it. I'll check it out later, but for now… time to enter the Origin World," he mumbled as he packed his bag and walked back home.
Arriving home, he didn't see his dad, as he was at work. His father was a doctor who specialized in healing magic. His goofy dad was actually a healer mage too, so he earned quite moderately—though if he were more than just Rank 1 in a bigger city, they would've been swimming in luxury, since healers were really rare.
And his mother, on the other hand, used to be a Knight. She was a Rank 2, but during a dungeon raid her Life Seed broke, so she became crippled and turned from knight to mortal. That was when she got hospitalized—where his dad worked, and that's how both met and fell in love with each other.
Mike paused at the doorway, one hand still on the knob.
A sudden thought struck him like lightning.
"…Wait."
His eyes widened.
Reversal Engine.
The talent that reverses any effect once per day.
He slowly turned his head toward the framed family photo on the wall—his mother smiling gently, sitting down with her hands resting on her lap.
An idea formed in his mind.
"Her Life Seed… it broke during that raid," he mumbled.
"If breaking is an effect… then reversing it should make it… unbroken, right?"
Thinking of this, he hurriedly went to the hall where his mother was on the couch eating snacks and watching TV. As she heard the footsteps, she turned back.
"Oh, you're back! How was your day at the arena?" she asked as she stood up. "Sit, and I will heat up the food for you," she said.
But Mike hurriedly said, "Wait, Mom," and he held her shoulders gently.
"Okay, Mom… I am going to use my talent on you. If I am right… well, let's just say something miraculous will happen," he said in a riddle-like tone, not trying to raise her hopes too high—after all, it wasn't 100% guaranteed.
Amelia tilted her head but nodded. She knew she didn't know what talent Mike was talking about. But she was already proud that her son awakened with the Knight class—her own path—which made her happy. When Misty showed talent in the mage path, her husband had bragged endlessly. But now, her son inherited her Knight talent and even awakened with it, making her happy and feeling like she finally had a chance to stand up and get back at her husband again.
Mike, however, not knowing what was going on in her mind, put his hand on her back as he sat down beside her. He closed his eyes and focused on her Life Seed.
He saw it in his mind: fractured, broken pieces, dried-up Life Seed.
He focused on it and softly muttered, "Reversal."
Suddenly huge mana gushed out of him, making him groggy as the mana was too much. But he had his hand on her back, and as the mana inside him was depleting crazily, he felt himself sinking down. Still, he didn't let go until finally all the necessary mana was collected and then the talent was used. After that, he fell unconscious due to overusing mana.
While Amelia, on the other hand, suddenly felt intense heat spreading in her veins. All the Knight arts went through her mind; her Silver Blossom Sword Art showed itself in her mind—the foundation of her Knight path—as her Life Seed was getting patched.