The road home felt strangely quiet after the chaos of the ambush. By the time we reached the town gates, the matter of the robbers had already been settled with the practical cruelty of this world. Those who survived were branded as crime slaves and sold, their lives converted into coin. The money was divided among the passengers and the adventurers who had fought. I received a share as well, though my own contribution remained a secret known only to me.
I still had no answer to the question that pressed against my thoughts like a blade at my back: should I tell anyone about Cut & Paste?
I chose silence.
"Welcome back, Myne. So? Did you receive your Skills without any trouble?"
The familiar voice belonged to Edgar Munsell, one of the gatekeepers. He leaned on his spear with the relaxed confidence of someone who had spent years watching people come and go.
"Yes. Somehow, I managed."
"That's good to hear."
He gave me a friendly smile and returned to his post. Out of habit more than intent, I appraised him.
Name: Edgar Munsell
Race: Hume
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Occupation: Guardian
Skills:
Twin Blades – Holy
Etiquette
Iron Wall
I almost whistled.
So he had a holy variant of Twin Blades. And Iron Wall… that sounded formidable. I focused on it.
Iron Wall: An optional activation skill. When invoked, the user's defensive power triples. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
Three times his defense. Edgar wasn't just strong, he was balanced. Offense and defense in perfect measure.
A ridiculous thought crossed my mind, and I immediately rejected it. There was no way I would ever cut Edgar's skills. I had already decided: I would only use my ability against enemies. If I began stealing from ordinary people, I would be no better than the robbers we had just handed over.
With that line drawn, I entered the town.
I kept Appraisal active as I walked, watching the stream of people and the hidden talents they carried. It was like discovering a second world layered over the first. Skills I had never imagined revealed themselves in passing glances.
By the time I reached my house at the edge of town, my head was buzzing.
It had once been home to three people. Now it was only me.
"I'm back," I said aloud.
No answer came. The words still slipped out every time.
The moment I stepped inside, exhaustion dropped over me like a cloak. I sat down on the floor and let out a long breath.
What a day.
After a while, a thought surfaced.
I should appraise myself.
Name: Myne
Race: Hume
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Occupation: Apprentice Hunter
Skills:
Appraisal – Complete
Cut & Paste
Dagger – Extreme
Swift Feet (Small)
Needlework
Magic – Wind
Twin Blades
Sight Enhancement – Moderate
Etiquette
Leg Strength Enhancement (Small)
Cooking
Art of Negotiation
Alchemy
During the battle I had taken several additional skills from robbers who weren't part of the main group. I had chosen ones that seemed useful rather than purely combat-oriented. Cooking. Negotiation. Alchemy. Skills for a future that wasn't just about survival.
Still, the list had become absurdly long in a single day. At this rate, even reading the results of Appraisal would become difficult.
Which led to another experiment.
If Cut & Paste could move skills between people, could it rearrange them within me?
It could.
I reordered the list so that the most important abilities came first, grouping combat skills together and pushing the others down. It was a small change, but it made the whole thing easier to grasp at a glance. I would have to maintain it regularly.
Then I lay back and stared at the ceiling.
The reality remained unchanged: I could steal skills and make them my own.
Should I tell anyone?
No matter how I turned the question over, the answer circled back to the same point. Even if I promised myself I would only use it on enemies, could I trust that promise forever? Power had a way of eroding the boundaries people set for themselves.
And if others learned about it?
The mere thought of someone taking my skills without my knowledge sent a chill through me. I would never live peacefully again. I would never be able to trust anyone.
It was impossible to live without human connections.
Which meant this ability had to remain a secret.
That decision made, my thoughts shifted to the future.
Until now I had survived by relying on the traps and hunting tools my father left behind. But with these skills, I could aim higher. I just needed to decide how.
A job that made use of Cut…
The safest option would be dismantling monsters for adventurers at a dismantling shop. It would let me use the precision of the ability without exposing its true nature.
But adventurers were unpredictable. Some might refuse to pay. If I tied myself to the wrong group even once, I could end up bound to them for life.
Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe not.
I set that problem aside for later.
Then there was Paste.
That one was harder. Without using Cut openly, it didn't offer an obvious path to independence. It pushed me toward ordinary labor, slow and steady.
I rolled onto my side and buried my face in my arm.
Living while hiding powers that weren't granted by God was far more difficult than I had imagined.