A sleepy Kotaro went to school right after waking up, and somehow managed to get through the lessons that threatened to lull him to sleep. He had seaweed mixed rice and miso-marinated fish to fill his empty stomach during lunchtime.

"I'm starting to agree with Kotaro... it just feels like every single day in school is so boring."

Takuya, who sat in the seat behind Kotaro, grumbled.

Takuya had tank skin and always wore a hat, but if he didn't, he had spiky black hair.

"I thought a school would be a place where we could play all day long, or that bizarrely powerful students would be controlling the school, or that there would be an army of students who secretly fought against monsters on the school grounds late at night, you know?"

Kotaro ignored him and eating his lunch like it was a five-star food.

"You’ve been reading too many manga and light novels." Said Miwa with a wry smile.

Miwa was a seemingly sweet girl with black eyes covered by glasses with oval frames and blackish-brown hair tied in thin pigtails.

Another student looked in Kotaro's direction from the seat next to him.

Her name was Yui Tainaka, and she always glancing at Kotaro every now and then since the very first day they'd met. She also had been one of Kotaro’s friends from around the same time as Takuya.

Yui had long jet black hair that fell at around her waist, which she modelled in two styles, either it was untied or side tail. As for today, she let it untied. She also had bangs that sweep past her eyes, which sometimes made Kotaro wondered how she could see with that long bang.

"Hm, hm... Yui knows what you mean. Like, imagine if Yui actually turned out to be a princess from some country, and a boy, secretly a prince/ my fiancee is in our school to keep me safe." Yui said while glanced at Kotaro, whose one hundred percent ignored their conversation as he drank his milk.

"You seriously daydream about stuff like that?!" Said Miwa.

"Or maybe five extremely popular boys would fight fiercely with each other for Yui's attention. As a girl, of course Yui wants to hope for things like that, Miwa also does that, right?!"

Yui said that with a straight face. Kotaro actually didn't understand much about the content of their conversation, though he knew one or two things about that because that was what the kids in his school talking about.

"There’s just no excitement at all." Takuya lamented while looking at Kotaro.

While Kotaro was enjoying his dessert, an apple.

"How about spending your time studying? I mean, that’s not particularly bad, right?" Said Miwa.

"Meh... I’d rather play video games rather than do that." Takuya let out a deep sigh. "Sure, they’re fun, but after some time it got bored, you know."

"Then why don’t we just playing on the outside?" Said Kotaro.

"I wish... but if my clothes gets dirty mother will be angry, like super angry." Said Takuya. "You sure have it easy right, Kotaro? For not having any parent to scold you with something like-"

Before Takuya completed his words, Yui already flicked her finger, hard enough to push Takuya's head to the back.

"Hahahaha. There’s no way that will happen. After all, Grandpa and Kana-nee always run their mouths whenever I dirtied my clothes."

Kotaro was laughing and shaking his head by what Takuya said.

Despite living such an uncomfortable life without any parent, where he never had more than one or two toys or watching cartoon, or reading comic books, or anything the modern kids usually did, Kotaro had never once thought his life was unfortunate; instead, he spent his days playing with his siblings plus Grandpa, and doing secret training that no one could imagine.

Meanwhile, in Gina's class.

Her classroom was a cacophony of loud chatter, each table a cosseted huddle of kids raising their voices to be heard. The food was secondary compared to the conversation that was exchanged there.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

But Gina silently enjoying her food without making any conversation. It was because she had a plan, a very secretive and high-risk plan.

From under her desk, she sneaked out a Tupperware container and silently scooping her portion of foods into the plastic container.

 But...

"SENSEI!! GINA IS THROWING HER FOOD!!" Shouted the girl with a side bang.

"Huh?" Gina muttered with puzzled expression.

"Wow! She's right!" Shouted the kid sitting next to her.

"That's bad, right sensei?!" Shouted another kid.

"Huh? Huh? I'm not throwing the food!! I want to keep it for my dinner!" Shouted Gina.

The way she said it made everyone thought that they had to do about ten things at one time. Everyone was looking at each other with big question marks flying above their heads.

"Can you do that?!" "Is that allowed?!" "Can I take mine, sensei?!" The sounds of children shouting were a little louder than usual in Gina's class today.

"Everyone, be quiet." Said the teacher. The teacher cleared her throat before she continued her words. "Your school lunch has been carefully decided to give you the right amount of nutrition to get through the afternoon. So Gina, let's eat our lunch at school, okay?"

The giggle rolled about the room like a spinning top. It moved around the children in its chaotic way. It came in fits and bursts - loud to soft to nothing at all and back to loud again.

"Yeah, I already know that, how about you?" Whispered one of the kids to his friend.

"Gina is so weird, isn't she?" Whispered the other kids.

Not only her cheeks, but her whole face turned red. Though the ears had been hidden among her brown hair, it was obvious that they were as red as rose.

"U-uhm... okay." Muttered Gina.

After school was over, at the mountain behind their school, deep and hidden inside of the forest.

It had become a habit for Kotaro, Gina, Kana, Shinichi and sometimes, Sen to come to this place and watched Kotaro's training, three times a week. Though, rather than training, it was more like watching a kid randomly throwing his toys in a tantrum.

Indeed it was dangerous, but the potential was limitless. As an example, with his water magic, they could completely save up the water cost. That meant saving around 2,000 yen per month.

After Kotaro's normal training was done, most of the time they were just lazying around, eating the prepared snack, waiting for the sunset while doing anything they want.

Sen usually would draw magic circles and ask Kotaro to activate it, though up until now, from 120 or more design of magic circles that he brought, only one that actually work.

Shinichi always recorded the activity, checking and comparing it with the last data.

Kana sometimes brought the snacks, if not, would collect nearby nuts or something like that for their foods.

Gina would cheer on Kotaro as if he was fighting in some kind of fighting tournament, but for today, she spent most of her time looking to the distant sky.

"...I want to make things go kaboom." That was the only words Gina said today.

As for Kotaro, with yo-yo in his hand, he placed his right hand at his right side with his right palm down. He swung back a little to wind up and swung the yo-yo forward. Just when it hit the end of the string, he pulled it back, twisted his hand, and caught it.

Just as he repeatedly did and perfectly mastered the forward pass technique in the last one month. 

Hey!! Listen! Hey! Hey! Listen! Hey! Look at your status!!! You get a new skill 'Flail Weapon Mastery Lvl 1!'

"Oh!!! Hey! I get a new one!" Said Kotaro. "Open Status!"

Life 20/20 Energy 10/27 Aether 0/21 Regen per 24 hour 2 Regen per minute 2.5 Regen per hour 2.5 Status Strength 7 Dexterity 10 Magic 8 Constitution 7 Agility 11 Spirit 6 Durability 6 Senses 5 Luck 9 Skill(s) Living Skill Battle Skill Magic Skill Production Skill Resistance Skill Unique Skill Arithmetic Lvl 1 Stealth Lvl 1 Earth Magic Lvl 1 Origami Lvl 1 Heat Resistance Lvl 2   Linguistic Lvl 1 Tracking Lvl 1 Water Magic Lvl 1 Gardening Lvl 1  Cold Resistance Lvl 1   Cleaning Lvl 1 Running Lvl 1   Farming Lvl 1      Intimidate Lvl 1 Jumping Lvl 1           Perception Lvl 1           Flail Mastery Lvl 1        

"What's this? Flail Mastery: You know how to use flail type weapon in combat, and can utilize any special tricks or techniques that weapon type might allow...?" Said Kotaro as he tilted his head in confusion.

***

Shinichi's Journal, Training 14.

His growth practically can come from anything, and it seems the system will automatically adjust the activity with the related skill. Besides Flail Mastery Lvl 1, there is no other significant skill or any new technique.

However, there's one thing that intrigues me.

Today, for the sake of testing the number on his status, I and he did a 100-meter dash. With 30 cm meter difference in height, he manages to outrun me with 0,5 seconds of time.

For the purpose of comparison, from today onward I will assume 10 is the status of an average untrained adult has.

But the real question is: is his growth limitless?