“This… the content of the skill description window is far too different from what I see for Yor.”
“What does it say in the skill window you see?”
As I murmured with a look of displeasure, Reysir Daudabina barely stopped his laughter and showed interest.
For the sake of the baby dragon’s honor, I couldn’t let his skill description be remembered as ‘meow-awoo.’
I pulled up Yor’s [Dragon Fear] skill window and read the contents aloud.
Of course, I omitted the word ‘dragon.’
“‘Reveals its great… presence to overwhelm the opponent’s mind with dignity,’ it says.”
“Pffft…!”
For some reason, the protagonist of another novel reacted no differently than when he had seen ‘meow-awoo.’
Once again, his shoulders shook as he stifled his laughter.
I had no idea which part of the skill description I just read had triggered his sense of humor.
So, I frowned and demanded an explanation.
“Why are you laughing?”
“The part you just glossed over—the original text had ‘cat’ written there, didn’t it?”
That was the answer he gave.
Since Reysir didn’t know Yor was a dragon, he seemed to have mistakenly thought the original text was ‘Reveals the presence of a great cat to (omitted) with dignity.’
If that were the reason for his laughter, I could understand it, but…
“Are you even embarrassed to say the word ‘cat’ now?”
The guy across from me didn’t just spout such nonsense with a smiling face.
He transferred the dry-erase marker from his right hand to his left hand, which was holding the whiteboard, and used his free right index finger to poke my cheek repeatedly.
Perhaps because of the bright red warning window blocking his vision, he even kept his right eye tightly shut, looking as if he were winking.
Out of all the versions of Reysir I had seen so far, this was the most annoying.
‘I’m really tempted to bite his finger like a real cat so he’ll wake up and stop with this cat nonsense.’
The impulse struck me for a moment.
However, to maintain my human dignity, I batted away the finger poking my cheek instead of biting it.
“Stop the nonsense and finish what you were doing.”
“I don’t think it was nonsense, but fine, I get it.”
The original protagonist looked disappointed, as if he wanted to tease me more, but he finally looked away.
He must have realized that if he didn’t stop now, I might actually get angry.
Reysir turned his head, looked at Yor right in front of him, and reopened his right eye.
Then, he wrote the following content.
[Mental Interference Immunity] — (A) : Immunity to mental interference.
==========
The skill description was just as half-hearted as [Gigantification].
Furthermore, Yor’s [Mental Interference Immunity] was definitely SS-grade, yet in Reysir’s eyes, it appeared as A-grade.
I wondered if the skill could really be called 【Truth-Reading Eye】 when it couldn’t even see the truth properly.
‘If I were to guess the reason for this… although the original protagonist’s 【Truth-Reading Eye】 is an EX-grade skill, excluding that, S-grade is the highest.
Having an SS-grade skill on Yor, who is just a supporting character’s familiar, might break the balance of the novel’s world, so maybe it’s displayed as A-grade.’
Alternatively, it could be that the original author had pre-set how Yor’s and my status windows and skill descriptions would appear to the 【Truth-Reading Eye】.
If those settings were being reflected, then that’s what Reysir would see.
‘If it’s the latter, what happens to the [Encourage] skill?’
As for Yor’s 【Dragon Fear】 skill, he had used it several times, and I had mentioned my [Character Analysis] skill to the original protagonist in chapter 232.
But I had never mentioned the [Encourage] skill to anyone.
It was a secret known only to Yor and me.
‘In that case, could I possibly get away without Reysir finding out about [Encourage]?’
Just as I was harboring that hope…
“Karbaldr, what are you thinking about?”
I received that question.
Since it wasn’t a situation where the [Character Analysis] skill would trigger, I had completely revealed my state of being deep in thought.
“Are you nervous? Since we’ve checked Yor’s last skill, it’s your turn for your status window and skill window to be shown to me.”
I wasn’t particularly nervous.
Seeing that Yor’s skill names and grades weren’t appearing correctly, it was almost certain that I wouldn’t be caught as someone who wasn’t the real Karbaldr.
However, that didn’t mean I could say what was really on my mind.
‘I can’t exactly tell him that I was hoping to hide the [Encourage] skill because he’d obviously tease me if he found out.’
No other excuse came to mind.
As he stared at me with one eye closed, Reysir’s facial muscles looked quite relaxed.
I found myself thinking about how well he maintained that expression, or how I should have winked with such a natural face, and other useless thoughts that refused to leave my head.
“…I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular.”
“If you say so.”
Despite his words, his expression said he didn’t believe me for a second.
Even so, the reason Reysir didn’t press the issue and let it go was likely…
“Then, can I look now?”
—Because his desire to quickly read my status window and information window took priority.
As proof, Reysir hadn’t just turned his head toward me; he had turned his entire body to face me directly.
At this rate, the content Reysir wrote on the whiteboard would appear upside down to me.
It didn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to read it, but it was inconvenient.
I moved to Reysir’s right side and gave my permission.
“You can look now.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, Reysir opened his right eye again.
Only then did I properly face his silver eye.
I wasn’t looking at him from directly in front, but since we were quite close, there was no problem observing it.
Just like the gold eye on the left, it had a delicate, subtle luster, as if pearl powder had been sprinkled over it.
The sentiment that it was truly wondrous and mysterious crossed my mind.
Even though I was openly observing his eye and he was looking toward me, our gazes did not meet.
This was because Reysir wasn’t looking at my face; he was reading the text written on the translucent window floating in front of it.
Reysir’s gaze moved as if scanning the air, and his hand wrote the following.
==========
[Name] Karvald Austri
[Strength] 44
[Stamina] 53
[Agility] 61
[Spirit] 64
[Aether 1] 94
[Aether 2] 50
[Defense] 31
[Attribute Resistance] 36
==========
Despite training hard during the vacation, almost nothing had changed from what was recorded in chapter 142.
Aside from the slight embarrassment that caused, there was something else to note.
‘In the status window I see, the sky-blue Aether is on top…!’
Because Reysir’s 【Truth-Reading Eye】 couldn’t read the names of the Aether attributes, they were labeled as ‘1’ and ‘2,’ but judging by the values written next to them, the one at the top of the window Reysir saw was definitely the purple Aether.
‘Is it because what Reysir is currently seeing is the status window of and not ?’
While I was focused on the Aether values and forming these thoughts, the interest of the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 holder was further down.
“Isn’t your defense too low…? Even Helly surpassed 35, yet yours is only 31…”
“My status being what it is, I have no reason to go around getting hit.”
“Helly didn’t go around getting hit either, you know? No, how can your strength and stamina be decent while only your defense is that low?”
“……”
The low defense of this body was surely because the original author had set it that way.
However, I couldn’t exactly say that.
I had no choice but to stay silent.
With his silver eye hidden behind his eyelid, Reysir stared at me with a gaze full of worry before suddenly letting out a deep sigh and wiping the whiteboard clean.
He seemed to have somehow accepted that the low defense of this body was something beyond my control.
“Setting that aside, you said there were more skills you hadn’t mentioned…”
The moment his silver eye revealed itself again and looked at me, it sparkled.
Thanks to the comment Reysir had just let slip, it wasn’t hard to realize that he had seen my skill list.
[Elation] — (S) : A stat-enhancing buff. It has no relation to cats.
==========
“Reysir, stop joking around.”
” I’m not joking. It was really written like this.”
“Stop lying.”
“It’s not a lie either.”
With his right eye closed again, Reysir looked straight at me with his left eye, wearing an expression of extreme injustice.
“If I were joking, would I have written that it has no relation? I would have written that it has a lot. Or I would have added the syllable ‘cat’ to the end of the skill name [Elation].”
Since what he said made sense, I retracted the look of disbelief I was giving him.
However, the feeling of suspicion hadn’t completely vanished.
In the original work I read before transmigrating here, the description of 【Elation】 displayed by the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 wasn’t like that.
Back then, the original protagonist had worked hard to raise the proficiency of the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 and succeeded in unlocking the level three option.
The description had been detailed, and he could even read the attributes, but…
‘Regardless of the level, I’ve never seen such a playful skill description in the original work!’
Considering this, the description of Yor’s [Dragon Fear] was also beyond unusual.
I didn’t know the reason for this situation, but if I were to guess the cause, two possibilities immediately came to mind.
‘Either Author Senna is pushing Karbaldr as a comic relief character, or the 【Truth-Reading Eye】 is being influenced by the consciousness of its owner, Reysir…’
Neither was certain.
There was a chance that both were wrong, and there was no guarantee that Reysir wasn’t simply playing a prank.
“…I’ll let it slide for now.”
“Okay.”
[Encourage] (B) : A buff skill derived from {Attribute}. Can only be used on targets that meet certain conditions.
The content Reysir wrote on the whiteboard this time was very normal.
But instead of being relieved, I had to be nervous.
Because—
“What is the certain condition? It’s written in the skill window you see, isn’t it?”
I knew such a question was bound to come.
“It’s just, well… there is such a thing. It’s none of your business.”
“Why isn’t it? If I want to receive this buff, I have to satisfy that condition, don’t I? If everyone in the Special Class can satisfy it, the survival rate when we enter the Demonic Realm will increase.”
“The stats that can be raised with this buff skill are only 3.”
“If every stat except for Aether increases by 3, isn’t that quite a lot? Besides, your [Elation] skill reflects stats increased by other skills and boosts them by a certain ratio.”
“That is true, but…”
I had expected this protagonist of another novel to be persistent with his questions, but experiencing it firsthand, it wasn’t just burdensome; I felt a strange sense of pressure.
Perhaps because I was feeling psychologically intimidated, I felt like his face was getting closer and closer, so I pushed that face away with my palm.
“It’s rude to pry too deeply into someone else’s skills.”
“I know that much.”
“Then why…”
“You were the one who said you’d show me your skill window first. In that case, you must have guessed I’d ask this and prepared to answer, but you’re being shy and staying quiet. I thought you were waiting for an opportunity to tell me as if you were doing it reluctantly if I kept prying.”
Never had I heard such a sophistry.
I was left speechless, my mouth hanging open…
“If it were an ordinary condition, there would be no reason not to say it. Seeing as you can’t say it readily and have hidden the existence of the skill until now… this skill can only be used on people you’re close to at a certain level, right?”
As if he had been waiting for this moment, the guy suddenly struck a nerve with his sharp words.
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