His hand touched the bottom of the leather bag. Cold and thin—Kaito Ru knew that sensation well. A coin clinked in his pocket. Three copper pieces. That was Kaito Ru's entire fortune. The storage room was dim. The window was small, and sunlight only filtered in for brief moments. It felt oddly similar to the length of time Kaito had spent here. A corner. Dark. A place no one visited. There wasn't much to pack into the leather bag. Two changes of clothes, a worn-out knife, and a small temple charm. When he picked up the charm, his fingers hesitated slightly. Where had he bought this again? He couldn't even remember anymore. But he couldn't bring himself to throw it away, so he shoved it to the very back of the bag. There was a single slip of paper on the table. "Scarlet Fang member Kaito Ru is hereby removed from active roster as of today." That was all. Guild Master Makina Reisu's name was nowhere to be found. Only the administrative clerk's stamp sat in the bottom right corner—written like a disposal slip for consumables. Kaito looked at the paper one more time, then crumpled it. He tossed it at the trash bin, but it missed and fell to the floor. He didn't pick it up. 【Scarlet Fang——Fortina Federation-certified Rank C adventurer guild. Twenty-five members.】 Kaito had been here for two years. Nothing but chores. Hauling cargo, cleaning, assisting at the reception desk. Combat training lasted only the first month, and after that it was always this. Everyone knew the reason, and Kaito understood it himself. A defective skill holder wasn't needed. Kaito slung the bag over his shoulder and stepped into the hallway. It should have been morning, so someone should have been around. But he heard no footsteps. Not a single person came to see him off on his last day. It was exactly as expected, but somehow the silence felt too heavy. As he walked the hallway, memories from two years ago surfaced. ——The rules of the Regnova Continent were simple. At fifteen years old, you underwent the "Coming of Age Ceremony" at your town's temple. A priest would read the flow of Mana—the magical power drifting through the air—and declare your skill. That became a mark that would never change in your lifetime. When Kaito entered the temple, his hands were cold from nervousness. The child ahead of him in line received the skill "Fireball Generation" and cheers erupted. The one before that got "Sword Aura," and the priest nodded with a smile. Then it was Kaito's turn. The priest's eyes narrowed. There was a long silence. "——Summoning. Unlimited Cost." The temple fell completely silent. The next moment, snickering spread through the crowd. An unlimited-cost summoning skill. It sounded impressive at first. But the reality was different. 【Normal Summoning Skill: Has a cap on magical consumption. The amount of mana you can use at once is fixed, so the spirit's strength has a natural limit.】 【Kaito's Skill: Unlimited Cost. No cap exists. In theory, the spirit grows stronger in proportion to the mana poured into it.】 The problem was that a normal human only had about one hundred to three hundred mana. If you used all of it in a single summoning, your mana would be depleted and you'd die. That's why unlimited-cost skills were famous as "skills that kill you if you have them"—not just defective, but actively lethal. Unusable. Worthless. Defective. Kaito had been called that ever since. When he turned the corner of the hallway, he thought he saw someone's back. But the next moment, they were gone. It might have been Souta. It might have been someone else. Souta Valen, the guild's ace, deliberately bumped shoulders with him every time they passed in the hallway. "Get out of the way, defective," he'd say. Kaito never said anything back. For two years, he'd never said anything back. He pushed the back door quietly. It creaked softly. When he stepped outside, the morning air touched his skin. Early autumn—a little cold. Kaito didn't look back. He wanted to look back, but he couldn't. He didn't even know which was the real reason anymore. ◇ The road had fewer travelers than he'd expected. If he was heading to Galmunest, he should take the southern route. With that vague thought, Kaito trudged along. Two hundred eighty kilometers south from the capital Cardion. How many days would it take on foot? He barely had enough money for a carriage ride. Well, he'd figure it out somehow. Even if he couldn't, there was nowhere to go back to anyway. Large trees lined the roadside. Their leaves were beginning to turn yellow. With each gust of wind, they fell in fluttering spirals. Kaito followed one with his eyes. It spun as it fell, landing on the stone pavement. Its shape crumbled the moment it was stepped on. Somehow, it didn't feel like someone else's problem. Kaito walked for a while, then suddenly stopped. There was no particular reason. His feet just stopped. He thought about what was inside his body. More precisely, about "that" inside his body. Since childhood, Kaito had always had a strange habit. Whenever his mana threatened to overflow, he'd unconsciously suppress it. He didn't even know why he did it. It just felt scary when it overflowed, so he'd squeeze it down tight. It was the same after his skill manifested. Summoning consumed mana. Using it might kill him. So he'd sealed it away even more. Always. Constantly. Now there was no guild. No one to get angry at him. ……Maybe I'll loosen it just a little. Kaito closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and moved that lid—just barely. ——Thump thump thump thump. He heard a sound. Not literally heard it, but felt it inside his body. A sensation of heat rushing from his feet to the top of his head. Like opening a water gate slightly and realizing the water pressure was stronger than expected. Kaito froze. This is... a lot. 【Estimated Mana: 100,000+——approximately 1,000 times that of a normal human】 "……Huh?" The words escaped him. Alone on an empty road, completely talking to himself. But that wasn't the issue right now. This mana amount—what was this? He'd been conserving it all this time, so he hadn't noticed, but when he opened the lid, there was no bottom in sight. Too deep. Well, but since I'm here anyway. Kaito extended his hand forward. Call something small. Really small. Just a little. Just to test it out. "《Summoning》——" Mana stirred. It flowed smoothly, as if finding an outlet. Kaito poured in just a little. Just a tiny bit. A low rumble shook the ground. The next instant. ——BOOM!! "[scared]Wait—hold on hold on hold on!!" Something appeared before Kaito. "Something" was the only way to describe it. It was too massive to fit in his field of vision. Flame-colored scales. Wings wreathed in storms. Eyes of blackened gold gazed down at him with a leisurely expression. The creature spread its wings just once. Just that. Three trees on the roadside were blown away, roots and all. Three craters opened in the stone pavement. Half the road literally vanished. 【Dragon-type Spirit: Urga. Total length approximately thirty meters. Wingspan fifty meters. Commands flame and storm. Summoning Cost: approximately 5,000 mana】 Kaito immediately cancelled the summoning with all his might. The spirit faded. The massive body dispersed like mist. The last thing he saw was those golden eyes, and they almost looked like they were saying "Already?" The eyes seemed gentle. The problem was the size. Silence returned. Kaito stood in the middle of the half-destroyed road. Stone fragments scattered everywhere. Fallen trees blocked the path. Three craters gaped open. A horse neighed in the distance. "[whispers]……Sorry." He apologized to no one. Kaito held his head. Words wouldn't come. This wasn't supposed to happen. He'd only meant to test it a little. He'd thought "I'll call something small." So why did a thirty-meter creature show up? He stood there in a daze for a while. Then, gradually, something else began to sink in. ——Wait. Kaito slowly looked at his hands. Unlimited-cost summoning skill. Mana he could use without limit. That's why a normal human using it would die. That was the reason it was called "defective." But. What if you had ten thousand mana? "……Ah." It took three seconds to realize. Where was the defect in a defective skill? In the fact that a normal human would die using it, right? But my mana is a thousand times normal. Even if one summoning uses five thousand, I still have ninety-five thousand left. ——Unlimited cost only shows its true value when you have the mana to back it up. ——The power that's been laughed at as defective all this time is actually... "[surprised]……This is bad." The words slipped out. His face broke into a slight smile. Standing before the half-destroyed road, his expression was indescribable. Joy and anxiety, split exactly fifty-fifty. "Well, no one was riding on it anyway..." He started to say that, then immediately corrected himself. "[serious]That's not okay!! You can't just destroy the road!!" No one was there. Only his own voice echoed. Kaito put a hand to his forehead and sighed. He needed to learn control. He absolutely needed to learn it. Otherwise he'd keep doing this everywhere he went. But. But somehow. There was a part of him that was excited. ◇ By the time the sunset painted the road crimson, Kaito was still walking. His destination was Galmunest. A frontier relay town in the southern part of the Fortina Federation, about two hundred eighty kilometers south of the capital Cardion. Population approximately three thousand two hundred. Located at a crossroads on the main road, it was a place where merchants frequently stopped—or so he'd heard. The Fortina Federation——a trading nation in the southeastern part of the continent. It employed a council system where merchants and guild representatives participated in politics. It was the nation where the guild system was most developed, established following the "Grand Catastrophe" one hundred twenty years ago—a large-scale magical beast disaster that swept across the entire continent. Over four hundred thousand people died in that disaster. Since then, guilds throughout the land had taken on the role of subjugating monsters and maintaining order. Guild ranks ranged from S-class to F-class. Scarlet Fang was C-class. The work that awaited him in this frontier would be at most E-class requests. ……That was fine, he thought. What he needed now was to master control of that power. He didn't need a flashy place. Somewhere quiet with few people. Somewhere where destroying half a road wouldn't result in people yelling at him. Galmunest bordered the Haze Wasteland and had plenty of monster-related work. It would be good for testing himself. Kaito stopped once on the road and looked back the way he'd come. The Scarlet Fang building was no longer visible. But something pricked at his chest. The feeling of wanting their acknowledgment still lingered somewhere. He thought it was stupid. But it wouldn't disappear. For two years, he'd done every chore perfectly, wanting to be recognized, wanting to be useful. All of that ended with a single slip of paper. Well, but. If they saw what happened on that road today, what kind of face would they make? Kaito thought that and found himself smiling. He didn't want to smile, but he did. He turned forward and started walking again. His footsteps fell on the stone pavement, echoed, and faded. The power that had been laughed at as defective wasn't defective after all. That alone was enough for today.