A new Unique skill. Ike bit his lip, his eyes sparkling. Infinite potential spread out before him, the incredible strength of a second Unique skill opening up routes he’d never considered possible for him.

And then he glanced at Mont and sighed. “Right. Because that guy over there is just going to let us take it.”

Wisp looked at Mont as well. After a moment, she shrugged to herself and said, loudly, “Hey, big guy. That mana vein of yours, is it about to erupt?”

“Hmm? Could be, could very well be,” he said evenly.

“If it erupts, and we helped you resolve your problem, can we keep the skills?” she asked.

Mont considered for a second, then shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’m quite happy with the skills I have.”

Wisp turned back to Ike. “There you have it.”

“Are you sure? What if it’s a Unique skill?” Ike asked warily.

Mont chuckled. “Unique skills, huh? I remember when I was young. I’m old, now. I have many skills, Unique and otherwise. If it is not a skill that I need, then I don’t feel the need to collect it for the sake of its Uniqueness. I have no problem offering it to a few helpful young ones.”

Ike gaped. Many skills, Unique and otherwise? How many Unique skills did Mont have, to be so blasé toward them? How powerful was he, actually? Quietly, he muttered to himself, “Rich people are weird.”

“Ike! We call them eccentric,” Wisp quickly corrected him.

Mont laughed, amused. He stood, wiping his mouth, and nodded to the nearest fox servant. “That was a delectable meal. Thank you. And you two, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, no?”

“Y-yes,” Ike said, still a little lost. It almost felt like a scam, but he’d seen Mont’s strength. Mont had absolutely no reason to bother with scamming him and Wisp. He could simply take anything he wanted from them right here, right now, and no one would be able to say any different. He’s really going to give us the Unique skill, if one spawns? He won’t even fight for it? Insane, that’s insane. I can’t imagine anyone in the slums saying that. Not even—no, especially not my uncle.

He ran a hand over his hair. He shouldn’t count on Mont giving them the orb. But even putting that aside, having an orb as a possibility, even a 1% possibility, was worth risking it. I’m not risking that much. I’m Rank 2, and Wisp is on my side. The foxes don’t know I’m human, either. Even if they did, they seem about par with the black-robed men in strength, since they’re struggling to beat them. I just defeated six of the black-robed men, with little trouble. If they’re the same strength as the black-robed men, and I defeated the black-robed men easily, I don’t have too much to worry about from the foxes.

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All told, I’m not actually in that much danger. And in return, getting even a 1% shot at a Unique skill… A Unique skill had changed his destiny. Another Unique skill could give him so much power. In the cutthroat world of mages, it would give him an undeniable upper hand for the rest of his life.

Running away from a shot at a Unique skill, because a few piddling foxes might find out about his being human? Ike chuckled under his breath. Now that he was thinking out it, it sounded absolutely insane. Hell, Wisp is begging me for an excuse to break out and eat the foxes. Why did I ever worry?

He nodded, looking at Wisp. “Alright. We’ll do it.”

“Nice. I was going to do it anyways, but it’s good to know you’ll be there,” Wisp said. She patted him on the shoulder.

“You’ve got my back, huh?” he snarked.

“What? Come on. I’m getting that Unique skill if you aren’t.”

Ike shook his head at her.

The foxes came back in, pushing rolling carts laden with food. Wisp perked up. Ike sat up, though with a bit of trepidation. I don’t really care about Wisp eating people—some people deserve to get eaten, after all—but I sure don’t want to eat people.

Noticing his worry, one of the fox servants came up beside him and bowed. “Please, do not worry. We’ve accommodated many herbivores before. We’ll be sure you don’t receive any meat.”

“Oh—thank you,” Ike said. He laughed awkwardly. It did make sense, though. Compared to humans, who might play with what they fed someone else, animals were very restricted in their diets. Carnivores could only tolerate tiny amounts of plant matter, and some herbivores could only eat specific types of plant, let alone being able to eat meat. When it came to accommodating food requests, if anything, he ought to be more able to rely on monsters, who were based on animals, than on humans.

The fox servant chuckled. “I remember the last time we accidentally fed an herbivore meat. The back yard stank for weeks.”

The back yard stank— Ike stiffened, then laughed awkwardly. “Er, but was it good manure?”

“Not even! Quite sad, honestly,” the fox said, shaking his head. “We’ll be avoiding that this time, of course.”

“Of course, of course,” Ike nodded.

Beside him, Wisp snorted. She nudged him “Don’t crap all over the rear gardens.”

Ike nudged her back. “Come on.”

The food came out. One dish at a time, courses were laid before Wisp and Ike. As promised, Ike’s food contained only vegetables, with no meat whatsoever. Wisp chomped down on her meat with relish, clearly enjoying the perfectly cooked meat. Ike ignored her. It’s human meat. No matter how delicious you make it look, I don’t want to eat it.

The sun set. As they ate, a small squad of foxes quickly fixed up the windows that the black-robed mages had crashed through. By the time they finished their meal, the windows showed no sign of being broken at all.

Ike reached out, snagging one of the retreating servants. “Is this common?”

The fox looked at him, then looked at the window. “Ah! You mean the human incursions.”

“Y-yes,” Ike said, nodding.

“Hmm… We’ve been at low-level war with the local clan for years. Lately, though, they’ve been sending more mages our way. It almost feels like someone kicked a nest of wasps,” the fox servant commented.

“Huh,” Ike murmured. I wonder if that’s got anything to do with the mana vein that’s been stolen or blocked or whatever.

“But don’t worry, sir. We’ll keep them under control. Ah—but we appreciate your stepping in just now. That was a great help.”

Ike nodded, laughing a little. It’s not a big deal, after all.

He stood. “Wisp, I’m headed to bed. I’ll see you in a bit?”

Wisp looked up. She gave him a thumbs-up and went back to her meal.