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“So, I’ll adjust it and fight again…”

“No, Mister Kyuji. We’ve bothered you enough already. We won’t ask for your help anymore.”

“Uh, but we’ve only just started…”

“Thank you so much! See you later!”

They cast some kind of recovery magic on me before leaving.

And while my neck no longer hurt, my pride still did.

So I was useless even in this world…

No, it was just the first battle.

Occasional failure was unavoidable.

I would lower the pain setting and become numb.

Sometimes it was better to go through life being numb and oblivious.

Then I could return to the town and try joining a party.

　◆　◆　◆

What I found waiting for me upon my return, was hell.

As I was wondering if maybe being in the advance guard was too difficult, I decided to switch over to ‘Sorcerer.’ And immediately, I was invited into a new party.

Sorcerers were able to learn healing magic quite early after leveling up, and so they were an important part of newcomer parties.

It felt good to be needed.

But that didn’t last long…

“Um… If you start chanting from that position, you’ll just get attacked and… Do you not understand?”

“You’re so slow. Please heal us more quickly.”

“Do you even remember what I told you…?”

The leader, who looked like a little boy, was quite ruthless in his lecturing of me.

It felt like I was being rebuked by a younger superior.

And while it was my lack of ability that was to blame, it was quite humiliating nonetheless…

And so I left the party on my own.

Yes, being in the advance guard was how you could become the star of the game. And so once again, I returned to ‘Warrior.’

Perhaps the appearance of my character helped me again, because it did not take long to be invited into a different party.

However…

“Why are you so slow!? Are you like some kind of old man in real life!?”

“You keep missing!! Where are you looking!?”

“I think you’d be better off in the back! Why don’t you quit?”

The moment a battle began, I was assaulted by insults from players that suddenly talked like delinquents.

Not only that, even the system was against me.

In this game, you could acquire skills through not only leveling up and killing monsters, but through your playstyle.

And so while I was fighting with the delinquents, I learned a skill called ‘Empty Wave Slash.’

It was a decent enough skill that created a wind blade when you swing your sword, but the reason for acquiring it made even me laugh.

◆ Acquisition Reason

‘Desperate Swinging’

You kept doing practice swings even when in combat.

So the game hadn’t recognised my very serious attacks as attacks.

After they held their stomachs and burst into laughter, one of them said,

“Well, I probably wouldn’t have acquired that skill even if I played for the rest of my life. Not bad, old man.”

I wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a compliment…

But he was probably mocking me.

And so when we returned to town, I left that party as well.

Online games…were scary…

“Hey, old man!”

“Ye-yes?”

“While I did tell you to quit the advance guard, I wouldn’t be a Sorcerer either! That’s no fun at all. People treat healers like slaves.”

“Huh…”

“You should be an Archer! It’s not very popular, but there’s a lot of potential in it. Of course, I’m not making any promises! Later then! Don’t give up on the game! But don’t come back to my party either!”

He said what he had to and left.

I supposed he wasn’t a terrible person, he just didn’t always pick the right words.

Well, perhaps that kind of honesty was better with an online game.

Still, an Archer…

He said they weren’t popular, but it would be a waste to not try it out at least.

Maybe he was right, and it would be perfect for me. Perhaps I could be one of the few who could really do something with it.

The idea of accomplishing great things with an unpopular job was quite appealing to me.

Now, the first thing to do was to check the status for Archers.

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