The day I turned 16 ended up being a few days later than I'd expected. My fathers love and concern has once more shown through, having actually told me the wrong date for my birthday. Father of the year, right?

Like magic, I see the notifications I was waiting for.

Congratulations, Soul Scroll is available!

Congratulations, Identify is available!

Congratulations, Righteous Rage is available!

Congratulations, Heroic Spirit is available!

I don't give Righteous Rage or Heroic Spirit a glance. They're abilities that I only need to mentally call on to activate, and they make for very "anime" moments, wherein you get particularly angry and willful and dig deep and BOOM for a little while you are super extra awesome!

Everyone gets them, and I hate the very thought of using them. In short, Righteous Rage is a 10% temporary bonus to a physical attribute, and Heroic Spirit is a 10% temporary bonus to a mental attribute. You can apply them to multiple attributes simultaneously, and you can even apply them multiple times to the same attribute if you are truly desperate.

The reason I hate those abilities is because after the ability ends, the attribute you boosted is permanently reduced by 5. Not 5%, just 5. And if you use it a second time on the same attribute while the first one is still running? Yes the attribute bonuses stack, and the duration even resets, but once it wears off it becomes a permanent -25. Do it a third time while the effect is ongoing, and it's -125, and so on.

There is no doubt in my mind that once you start calling on those abilities, you'll have to continue using them in the future to be able to continue competing with those around you. It's an enormous trap, suitable for a final glorious showdown at the end of an epic story, but little else… I don't intent to commit suicide via Shonen protagonist envy.

The notifications received are all completely normal, but I still spend a few moments buzzing with excitement. I've tried to avoid leveling up older skills, minimized even the amount I've stolen or conned from people even when they deserved it, and though it has taken immense willpower, I've even limited my magic use outside of Aether manipulation techniques, which is a way to directly increase attributes via training rather than indirectly via skills, and is no more a distinct skill than calisthenics without Aether has manifested as a skill. Or at least, I don't think I have accidentally been increasing my skill levels that way. But now, now I can know, and that makes all the difference.

"Status" I think to myself, and for the first time a translucent scroll appears in my vision before unrolling. Overall, my attributes and skills are absolutely excellent, or at least I think they are, but my level is sub par. I would assume this was a direct result of me actively avoiding leveling up skills I'd already learned. If nothing else, it can at least be inferred that higher skill levels almost certainly collate to higher experience towards personal levels. With skills doing so little to increase level, it's not a commonly touched subject beyond acknowledging that they will do a little to increase level.

Looking at my level, I release a dramatic sigh. I'd thought it likely, but now I do indeed know. I'm not going to be able to remain in the city. I'd been planning on leaving soon after unlocking my soul scroll anyhow, but it does sting a little to realize that I won't have a choice in the matter.

Leaving the attributes I'd earned from leveling up in their unassigned state, I head to the Adventurers Guild and post my final training request. It's less money than I'm normally able to offer so there's a real chance the request will need to be withdrawn prior to my departure, but there are some remaining skills that I know I still want and which I might potentially learn here, so I decided to give it a try regardless of whether or not there would end up being any takers. No harm if no one fulfills the request, something new to practice if they do.

After that I head back to my room and begin to pack. One of my room mates, Mike, is present. He nods at me, and I nod back. We've known each other long enough that he has figured out I have no interest in being an actual friend of his. I pull my weight and occasionally pass along some knowledge, and that's enough for an assigned room mate. I'd decided to take the day off, but I barely even know how to do nothing for an entire day.

"President?" I ask.

He looks back over his shoulders as though expecting there to be someone else in the room that I had been talking to, before replying "Sure, when Tom gets back."

I stop packing long enough to pull out my deck of playing cards. Bridge, Twenty-Two, Hearts, Spades, President, Canasta, Solitaire, even Poker and Go Fish are all games I've taught to my room mates over the years. Of those, the most popular in our room were Twenty-Two and President, with Twenty-Two being the most popular of my games in the building.

Once again, it's not simply recreation for me. Back when I was on Earth I'd occasionally search out random pieces of information, and one of those searches related to ways to increase your own intelligence. You can increase neurogenesis many ways such as such as exercising, or eating fish, broccoli, nuts and blueberries, and so on. You can also increase neuroplasticity by doing new things, or by performing old things in different ways.

What is one of the best low cost high efficiency methods of doing old things in new ways? According to some studies that I read, taking 52 cards and sorting and rearranging them in millions of possible combinations while attempting to accomplish dozens of objectives fits the bill very well. So I made my own deck of cards and taught my room mates some of the common Earth games, though naturally I pretended I'd made them up or learned them back in my home village and thought they might be fun.

There are cards in this world too, and local games, though with different card counts, suits, face cards, and associated games. I play them too. Why wouldn't I? Attribute gains from training aren't easy to acquire, but I've confirmed that card games are one of the viable methods of improving Intelligence here, and it's one of the downtime methods I use to passively train while also having a bit of fun.

"How long until he gets back?"

"He just went to the market to get some bread, he should be back any time now."

"Cool."

"Is it that bad?"

"Level 30."

"As much as you work I'd expected you to be close to 100 by now. That's actually kind of scary. I hope I'm… Sorry, I shouldn't be talking about me right now, I've still got a couple weeks. What are you gonna do?"

"No it's fine, I've told you before that I was planning to leave regardless, and honestly I think you're going to be a fair amount higher level than I am. I don't know exactly what level you'll be, but definitely higher than I am."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you've been more focused. I might have more skills, but your skills are going to be at a higher level than mine, which means more experience."

"Can you see what level I am?"

"You know identify doesn't really give you anything if you're within a hundred levels of each other" I say, even as I focus on him and try to activate the identify ability. It takes a little bit since it's my first time, and he begins to look uncomfortable under my gaze, but eventually I'm able to will a small window into existence above his head.

Michael Miller - ?

"Confirmed, you're a single question mark for me. The only thing I can be sure of is that you're not above level 130, and you're not below level negative 70."

"Smash a mans dreams, why don't ya?"

"Oh? I didn't realize your aspirations included being the first person with a negative level?"

At this point Seth opened the door and let himself in.

"Canasta," I say grabbing my deck and beginning to open it. "Want me to deal you in?"

"Hell no. How's about Three Houses?"

Seth Despises Canasta, though he likes card games in general.

"Nope, he promised President!" Mike interjects.

Within a few minutes Tom returned, and we settled in for hours of card games. Aside from asking about my level and what I was going to do after I was officially kicked out, the conversation stayed light. No one wants to dwell heavily on bad news, and the guys in this world are similar to 1940 Americans. They don't talk about their feelings, or comfort each other via platitudes.

They acknowledge that something is wrong, and then the support they provide is to keep you company and keep your mind off of the problem. I remember how much the culture changed over the years, until the refrain became how men not talking about their feelings was a terrible thing, but honestly… I think this is a perfectly healthy way to deal with bad news and problems. The problem still exists, but it's not like there's anything to be done about it. Maybe that's why I always got along so well with older generations even in my old world?

Two days later I got a bite on a trainer who was willing to give me two hours of his time for the money I was offering. In my opinion, that should be enough. He showed me how to draw a conjuration circle, and then he went step by step through a lesser elemental summoning so that I could watch and ask questions. Two hours meant the drawing class was very rushed, and the step by step walkthrough didn't really leave extra time for questions, but I copied the circle into my notebook alongside the other circles I'd been able to find in various other books.

Seeing the slow motion summoning for a lesser wind elemental coupled with the commentary on what he was doing when and why was what I'd really needed, I felt like I had a good enough starting point after that. The summon was weaker than I'd been mentally expecting, and I had known not to expect much in the first place, but that's fine. Even if I don't use summons often, a new skill is a new skill, and I want as many of those as I can get.

Seeing no benefit in waiting until the next official reading, that night I joined my room mates for some drinks for what should be both the first and the last time, and I left well before the lights were turned on. There might be three portals per city, but for someone of my deficient level, I would only be allowed to go through one of them. I was heading to the ground, and it would be a one way trip.