“Maybe | should start by introducing myself. I’m Chris. I’m a Thief, as you can see. And this boor here is Darkness. | think you’ve already met. She’s a Crusader, so | don’t know if she'll have that many skills you’d want to learn.”

“Great! My name’s Kazuma. Nice to meet you, Chris!” The three of us were all but alone in the square behind the Adventurers Guild. I’d left the other two to mope back at our table.

“All right, maybe we should start with Sense Foe and Ambush. We'll have to take a rain check on Disarm Trap, since there aren’t many traps around town. Let’s see... Darkness, turn around for a second, would you?”

“Huh? All right...”

She turned her back as she’d been told.

Chris hopped into a barrel a short distance away so that only her upper body was visible. Then she pitched a stone at Darkness’s head and ducked down into the barrel.

...Was that supposed to be the ambush? Without a word, Darkness strode toward the only barrel in sight.

“Sense Foe... Sense Foe... | can sense Darkness’s rage approaching! Hey, Darkness? You know I’m only doing this to teach the guy some skills, right? Right?! Be gentl—aahhhh, stoppitttt!” Chris shouted as Darkness turned the barrel on its side and sent it rolling away.

Can | really learn anything this way... ?

“O-okay, then. How about you try my number one recommendation, Steal? It Snags a single item from the target. Doesn’t matter if it’s a sword they’re clutching or a purse buried deep in their pack. One random item. The success rate depends on your Luck stat. It can do some pretty great stuff. Maybe you’re facing down a fearsome enemy, and you grab his weapon or you nab some hidden treasure he’s got and then make a break for it.”

Chris had collected her wits after her ride in the barrel, and she was filling me in on the finer points of the Steal skill. It certainly did sound useful. And if it was really based on your Luck, | finally had a chance to make use of my one good Stat.

“I’m gonna use it on you now, okay?” Chris said. “Ready?” She held out her hand, shouted “Steal!” and suddenly, she was holding a small object.

It was...

“My wallet! Hey Not that there was much in it.

“Ooh, score! That’s how you use Steal. Here’s your wal—” Chris stopped as she was about to hand the wallet back to me, and a smile crept over her face. “Hey,” she said, “how about a little contest? Learn Steal right now. Then, steal any one item from me. My purse, my weapon—it’s all fair game. Whatever you get, it’s got to be worth more than this ratty thing.” She gave my wallet a shake. “So I’ll keep this wallet, and whatever you get from me, you keep it in exchange. What do you think? Wanna give it a try?”

She sure came up with some strange ideas.

But | stopped and thought about it. | had high Luck. And | could steal any one thing from her...

In other words, even if the skill failed, | probably wouldn’t walk away emptyhanded.

Why not give it a try? A bet like this seemed like the sort of thing only a couple of crazy adventurers could get up to, anyway—|I loved it!

For the first time since | got to this world, I’d found something that made me feel like a real adventurer!

When | checked my Adventurer’s Card, | found a new field, Avaiasie SkiLts. When | touched it with my finger, four skills appeared:

SENSE FOE...1 POINT

AMBUSH...1 POINT

STEAL...1 POINT

THE Wonpers of Nature...5 POINTS

The Wonders of Nature? Was that the seed-in-a-glass party trick Aqua had shown me? That was some name for a parlor trick! ...Huh? /t took more skill points than everything else combined!

| admit | was intrigued by the party trick, but | took in the other skills on my card—Sense Foe, Ambush, and Steal. That used up my three skill points, so the Avaitaste Points field now showed zero.

So this was how you learned skills around here.

“All right, I’ve learned it. And you’re on! No matter what | steal—no complaining, right?” | stuck out my right hand. Strangely, Chris was smiling.

“Good! | like a man who doesn’t back down from a challenge! | wonder what you'll get? You might just recover your wallet. First prize is this enchanted dagger—it won't sell for less than 400,000 eris. And | even have a consolation prize—these rocks | picked up earlier to throw at Darkness!”

“Hey! That’s a dirty trick!” | said, looking at the collection of pebbles in Chris’s hand.

| wondered why she seemed so confident! | guess carrying around a bunch of junk items was one way to thwart Steal.

“Call it your tuition fee. No skill is all-powerful. With a little imagination, you can come up with a counter to anything. Lesson learned? Now, go for it!”

Dammit. Lesson learned, all right. Seeing Chris grin at me, | even felt like a bit of an idiot for letting her game me like that.

This wasn’t Japan. This was a world of survival of the fittest. It was my own fault for being gullible.

Anyway, my odds might have been lower, but the contest wasn’t over yet.

“All right, here | come! Luck’s always been the only thing I’ve ever had on my side... Steal!”

As | shouted, | found myself grasping something tightly in my outstretched right hand.

First try! Good luck really was my one gift.

| opened my hand and took a close look at what I’d snatched... “.. The heck is this?”

It was a single piece of white cloth. | held it up to the light... “Yahoooo! This is even better than first prize!”

“Awww, nooo! Gimme back my pantiiiieeeees!” Chris shouted tearfully, holding down her skirt.