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“Chapter 250: Degradation”
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(Roar’s POV)
“You’re quick to learn, huh?”
Everyone says the same thing when they praise me. My parents, my friends, my bosses.
I would stand by the guy who did the job and learn from it.
But it was simply an imitation. Nothing close to the original.
I still tried.
No matter how hard I trained, at some point the skills I learned would stop improving.
They would always become a degraded version of the original.
I asked around. Everyone told me to add my own specialty to it. Make it my own original thing.
But the more I followed their instructions, the further away I strayed from my ideal picture of the skill.
I can do anything, but there’s always someone better.
I’ve never had an important role. I’m only a replacement.
My skills were valuable at first, but the original could easily surpass the copy in due time.
That’s what my tree paper showed. Not good enough, but just barely.
“Anyone could replace you”
Everywhere I went, that phrase would make its way back to my ears. And eventually, I ended up in Searat.
The good thing about Searat was that Rudra and Feria had no money to hire decent adventurers.
This allowed me to keep my imaginary status for a while.
Later came Meirir and Dyke. They had interesting skills, but otherwise, they were below average. I became their leader.
They were some cocky country kids, but they always relied on me when needed.
Our work consisted of mostly doing chores for the city. The pay was… awful. But it was enough to get by, I guess.
I wasn’t living the best life. I was merely satisfied.
That was until a certain guy came in.
He became the center of attention in Searat.
At first, I thought he would be just another weakling. He had no fighting qualities whatsoever.
But then we saw his tree paper.
To have a creator capable of reaching Level IX show up in our guild of all things.
More and more talented individuals started orbiting around Takaya. A divine wolf, a sage, one of the guardians of the demon world…
I used to be at the center, and now I was part of Takaya’s orbit.
He was the savior of Searat. The company became more and more prosperous.
I was reaping the benefits too. No longer did I have to worry about money.
My life improved.
We were all grateful for Takaya.
But what happened to my self-esteem?
“Why did it have to be you?”
“I’ve trained hard too. Why you?”
I reached out my hand.
I wanted to be like him. I wanted to do my part in that orbit.
It doesn’t matter how small. I wanted to do something for him.
Something unique that no one else could do.
But I knew it was pointless.
You can’t suddenly grow skills in this world from sheer will.
My life would be spent as a replacement.
Still. I wanted to be recognized.
I wanted him to say “Thank you for saving me, Roar. I’m glad you’re in my life”.
So what could I do?
I thought about it for a long time.
The answer was closer than I thought.
It doesn’t matter if I can’t be the best.
I will be a degraded Meirir. I will be a degraded Dyke. I will be a degraded Mumuruu. I will be a degraded Feria. I will be a degraded Akane.
I will be a degraded Takaya.
The moment I understood my weakness is the moment I realized how strong I can be.
If the four of us work together, we can save the idiot that keeps trying to sacrifice himself.