However, the one he hated the most, to the point of rage, was himself. The reality was that his body was too powerless. If he had been stronger, his father wouldn’t have died and he wouldn’t have fled by himself, failing his clumsy father.
“Stronger. I want to get stronger…!”
This was his hope, but it had been crushed by possessing the Role of Villager.
The one that killed his father was a Level 34 Monster called a Devil Liger. It had purple, devil-like skin and was a formidable enemy. Its hindlegs acted like a spring, enabling it to pounce with overwhelming speed and strike at its enemies with its sharp fangs. It was something he couldn’t compete with even if he struggled against it.
Even though it was necessary to become stronger to defeat this Monster, it was impossible for Villagers who could not become stronger than the wall that was known as Goblins.
He didn’t know what to do with the anger rising up inside of him. Why was he born as a Villager? Why IS it a Villager? He had no way to relieve his anger, so Kagami devoted himself to hitting Moss Goblins. At the same time, he became miserable.
Despite how there were Monsters that needed to be defeated, he could not defeat them. In his misery, he continued defeating weaker Monsters, from the safest of places and by the safest of methods.
He couldn’t help feeling frustrated. That’s why Kagami challenged Moss Goblins in close combat, with the resolve to die.
Due to his deep hatred against monsters, he refused to give up just because he was an inferior existence.
If he wasn’t strong enough to win, he would rather be reborn with a different Role, is what Kagami thought.
The equipment he had bought to defeat Monsters, from the money he had earned until now, was: the Leather armor wrapped around his body, a Buckler held in his left hand, and a sword on his torso that he had never used before. He faced the Moss Goblins with his buckler firmly planted on the ground.
Immediately after, the Buckler was knocked out of his hands. The force of the charge that could not be fully nullified hit Kagami’s entire body. He vomited blood and felt massive pain, as if his internal organs had been crushed.
Kagami understood the overwhelming weakness of Villagers once again.
Even though he was at the same Level 4, there was a complete difference in real strength between Moss Goblins and himself.
“…You’re fucking kidding me.”
Even so, Kagami didn’t want to admit it. He didn’t want to give up. He was attacked by Moss Goblins again and again as his small body was torn to shreds.
In the end, he exhausted his recovery items and was left semi-conscious, with 10 HP remaining. However, even though one attack was enough to defeat him, Kagami did not give up and defeated the Moss Goblins, turning them into gold.
At this moment, Kagami was wrapped with unspeakable discomfort, causing him to panic. When he opened his Status Window, he shed a single tear.
Even if he defeated Level 4 Moss Goblins, he wouldn’t obtain exp, but Kagami’s Level had still risen to Level 5. That was when he realized something about this world’s system.
【Even if you continue to slay weak enemies, your level won’t rise】
【As the name implies, exp is only a numerical value that indicates your combat experience】
【Even if you defeat enemies equal to yourself with the help of a strong person, exp won’t be obtained】
【Exp is only given when an enemy is defeated by one who deserves obtainable exp】
There was a loophole in these four rules. No, should it be said that the Roles were created in order to fill this hole?
Exp would not be obtained even if you continued to defeat those of the same Level. This was this world’s system, and it was well known. However, there was another way to obtain exp.
One of the exp’s system existed within a separate vector, based on the definition of Levels. This was to participate in a higher level battle. However, rather than it being against a higher Level, it referred to the difficulty of combat.
To give a simple example, long range attacks were overwhelmingly strong against Moss Goblins, since they couldn’t attack with long range. If one continued to attack them at long range, they wouldn’t become a higher level.
When one faced an opponent that was superior in close combat and challenged them at close range, it would be established as a more difficult battle.
Would any Role besides the Villager fight a battle against Monsters of the same Level while limited to a 【Role】’s weakness? The answer would probably be no. That was why no one had learned of this system until now.
No one else would fight such an unfavorable battle.
If they fought an unfavorable battle, it would only be against Monsters of a higher level. Forming a party to fight together would compensate for that disadvantage. They would become stronger by getting exp from the Level gap.
For magicians, if they challenged Monsters of the same level with their fists, perhaps they could earn this exp. However, would such a person challenge that kind of disadvantageous battle? Was it worth risking their lives, despite their higher chance of victory when utilizing magic?
It wasn’t much of a level up if one became ragged in the first place.
This ragged Role was the overwhelmingly disadvantageous Villager; the Role that was most easily able to gain this exp and also had the highest risk of death.
Although it was expected that the Villager would grow faster than any other Role, it was still a Role that had a high risk of death associated with that growth.
That was the Villager.
“Haha……hahahahahahaha! Ahahahaha!”
When he noticed this, Kagami laughed gloriously and smiled mischievously.
It had been prepared. The fate of the Villager was set to a path of bloodshed.
It was a new field that had opened up to him because he was a Villager, and it was a great benefit that he could obtain because he was a Villager. Kagami continued to laugh as though he was a broken doll.
“I’ll do it…I’ll kill them. Monsters, Demons too…I’ll kill them all!”
From then on, Kagami continued to fight, risking death every day, to the extent that it could be said that he had lived an implacable life.
He continued to do this every day, as if he was completely obsessed and couldn’t do anything else. He would fight until his HP dropped to 10, fleeing when he was at death’s door, and steadily earned exp.
It was simple. He fought with his life on the line, not caring if he was defeated or not.
He played with opponents who were capable of freezing people by exploiting their fear, even to the extent of losing their life. There wasn’t a single day where Kagami was not near death.
“I did it…finally, I finally did it!”
The day Kagami turned nine, he successfully killed the Monster, Devil Liger, that had killed his father.
Kagami, who was Level 53, made full use of his equipped Dagger and took down the three Devil Ligers surrounding him without dying.
Kagami’s hands trembled and he was joyous enough to cry out. At the same time, he cherished the feeling of hope. If he continued like this, it would not just be Devil Ligers. Surely, even the Demon King would be defeated by him, instead of the Hero. This was what he had begun to think.
That’s right, in the beginning, it was nothing more than revenge for his father. Back then, it was the prologue to the eradication of Demons and Monsters. No longer did Kagami fear death. He would go as far as he could go, and he didn’t care what would become of him later. Yes, these were his thoughts.
However, before he finally took his revenge, he decided to report to his mother, who had always supported him in his reckless endeavors. Kagami hurried back to the village after defeating the Devil Liger…but he did not arrive at his house. His house was not there.
The village had been reduced to rubble by a bandit attack.
Originally, it was a village in a remote region, far away from the Imperial City. Therefore, there had been no attacks by bandits in the past. Additionally, since the village wasn’t wealthy, perhaps they wouldn’t have been attacked…and only a select few people could be hired as escorts.
The result was that his mother was killed by humans.
Kagami, who had arrived at the village, sat down on the spot, lacking the energy to do anything. He had focused too much on his training and hadn’t thought about the possibility of a situation like this happening. If he was to pass by as a guard, with no equipment or earned money…regrettably, at this late hour, he could only gaze at his mother’s corpse, stunned.
The father he respected was killed by Monsters.
The mother he revered was killed by humans.
Staring at his mother’s corpse, many thoughts began to swirl around in his head. Why had it become like this? Was it fine for him to be depressed at this? Were there no other methods to avoid this?
Then Kagami remembered the first time he had defeated a Green Slime. It was then that he remembered that he could do something about this. In fact, that was the answer to everything that had happened here.
“I’m…such an idiot.”
These were the last words Kagami muttered in that village.