A hero who wants to help others wants to live a normal life - Chapter 6

Chapter 6   Skill Acquisition

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To help us get used to the school, only regular classes were held for the past week.

“—Now, before we actually have you acquire a skill, we’ll begin with an explanation of what skills are, so please listen carefully.”

After a week had passed, including the weekend break, today we were finally going to have a class on “Blessings” and “Skills.”

“A ‘Skill’ is, simply put, a degraded copy of a ‘Blessing.’ Unlike a ‘Blessing,’ which manifests from a wish so strong that it reaches the gods, a ‘Skill’ is derived by extracting a fragment of power from someone who has obtained a blessing and making it usable by others.”

On the platform at the front of the classroom stood a female teacher, Momochi, who had a very serious demeanor and perfect posture. However, despite her attitude, she was oddly dressed in a tracksuit, which didn’t quite match her serious atmosphere. Her appearance might have been mismatched, but what she was saying was quite valid.

“For example, a wish of ‘I don’t want to be hurt’ might give rise to a ‘Blessing’ that grants an ‘unbreakable body.’ The corresponding skill might allow a person to have a ‘stronger body.’ Similarly, a wish like ‘I want to defeat someone’ could result in blessings like ‘manipulating fire’ or ‘enhanced physical abilities.’ The skills derived from these blessings might involve creating small fires instead of a blaze or having tenfold strength instead of a hundredfold.”

Blessings are said to be granted by the gods, but very few people actually receive them. Such “extreme wishes” are not easily attained.

Still, humans are not so simple as to just accept that. Humans are greedy creatures who want what others have, craving more.

And that desire gave birth to “Skills.” Through researching blessings, scientists managed to seal fragments of those abilities into tools, creating “mass-produced blessings.”

Though these skills are less powerful than blessings, they allow people to gain supernatural abilities without needing to make an extreme wish.

“You might be wondering,” Momochi continued, “if multiple ‘Skills’ could be obtained, wouldn’t that make a person more capable than someone with a ‘Blessing,’ even if the skills are less powerful?”

It’s a thought that anyone would have. Even if obtaining multiple life-changing wishes would be impossible, why not try using a degraded version that’s already available?

But reality isn’t so simple.

“Unfortunately, that’s not possible. A ‘Blessing’ is a power granted at the end of an intense wish strong enough to reach the gods, but in return, the person who gains it is bound to that wish for life. If someone wished to ‘help others,’ they would constantly feel compelled to assist those in need. If they wished to ‘settle a grudge,’ they would struggle to control their emotions whenever they felt slighted.”

This is the price of acquiring a supernatural power like a “Blessing.” A “Blessed One” remains bound to the wish that granted their ability for the rest of their life.

The same is true for “Skills.”

“And because ‘Skills’ are derived from ‘Blessings,’ unless you have a similar intention or desire as the original wish, you can’t acquire them. Moreover, once you acquire a ‘Skill,’ your own nature will gravitate towards it, albeit to a lesser extent than with a ‘Blessing.’ For this reason, it is impossible to obtain more than one power, whether it’s a ‘Blessing’ or a ‘Skill.'”

The only exception might be if the skills are based on the same wish. For instance, if someone wished to “kill someone” with various methods in mind, they might gain skills related to those various methods.

Alternatively, if, when making the “extreme wish,” two different desires were held with equal strength, it might be possible to acquire two distinct types of abilities.

However, such cases are quite rare. Even among the few “Blessed Ones,” fewer than one percent have managed such feats. In fact, you could probably count them on one hand. Since it’s such a rare case, it’s generally not something to worry about.

“Later today, each of you will have the opportunity to interact with the tools containing sealed skills, and you’ll be selecting a skill that suits you best. However, please be very careful when using these abilities. Using them outside of the classroom or in unauthorized areas is a violation of the rules and will result in punishment. This applies to everyone, regardless of status or position, so keep that in mind.”

After Professor Momochi finished speaking, we were instructed to stand up, leave the classroom, and head to the storage room where the tools containing the sealed skills were kept.

The storage room was heavily guarded, with both mechanical and human security. But that was to be expected. No one knew exactly how many items were stored there, but even if just one of these tools was stolen, it would cause a huge problem.

Since the government controls these skills, there hasn’t been a major issue so far, but if they were to reach the open market, it would cause an incredible uproar. Malicious individuals might use these skills to cause some kind of harm. In such a scenario, we wouldn’t just be fighting monsters; we’d be dealing with human-on-human conflicts. Human conflicts have always existed, but this would make them far more intense.

Considering all that, the security around the skills had to be extremely tight. In fact, this might even be the most securely guarded place in the entire country.

We entered the room under this heavy security.

Even though we are given special treatment by the government, none of us had ever been inside this room before. With a bit of curiosity about what the room would look like, we stepped inside, and the sight that greeted us made our eyes widen in shock.

But such a reaction was understandable. Inside the room were dozens of armed soldiers standing by, gripping guns in their hands.

I wasn’t the only one taken aback by this sight; my classmates were too. Everyone was surprised to see soldiers surrounding us, and some even let out gasps, looking around the room cautiously.

Among us, only Inori moved swiftly in front of me, lowering her stance slightly to be ready to act at any moment, fully focused.

“Please, everyone, remain calm. They are here only to guard the tools that contain the sealed skills—commonly referred to as ‘Jewels.’ As long as you don’t attempt to steal or damage them, they will not cause you any harm,” said Professor Momochi.

Hearing her words, everyone let out a sigh of relief, and Inori too relaxed her guard, exhaling as if nothing had happened.

Looking around the room again, I noticed around thirty crystal-like spheres placed on pedestals at the center.

Each of these crystal spheres emitted a different color, and their light had an energy that felt different from that of electricity—an unmistakable sense of “power.”

At the same time, the light from those crystal spheres seemed to stir something deep within my chest.

“Now, please go ahead and touch the orbs in this room. If you find yourself reacting to multiple orbs, you’ll have to choose just one, but remember what I mentioned earlier: once you learn a skill, your future path will be determined by it, so choose carefully. After you have acquired a skill, make sure to report it to us.”

With their thoughts now on the skills they were about to obtain and the tension from earlier having eased, my classmates burst into smiles.

“However, I must warn you: each of these orbs containing skills is extremely valuable, so be careful not to break any of them by mistake. Additionally, if anyone tries to steal one, they will be dealt with not just by expulsion, but as a criminal offense. So make sure such a thing doesn’t happen.”

It was easy to understand that this “dealt with” didn’t simply mean being caught, considering the soldiers surrounding us in the room.

Of course, I had no intention of stealing anything, so this wasn’t something I needed to worry about.

But there was another issue I had to consider as I prepared to acquire a skill.

“What are we going to do?”

“What do you mean? We just go and touch them. Even if there’s no reaction, we can just report something randomly and hope for the best. There should be a skill for me, I guess.”

“Also, do the teachers even know?”

“No, only the upper echelons of the government and the academy know. The regular teachers aren’t aware.”

I had already received a ‘Blessing,’ but I hadn’t informed the school about it. If I’m unable to acquire a skill, they will naturally wonder, “Why?” And if that happens, it could expose the fact that I’m a ‘Blessed One.’ I have to avoid that at all costs.

“Now, each of you, go ahead and acquire your skills.”

With Professor Momochi’s signal, my classmates started to move, one by one, under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, heading toward the available ‘Jewels.’