Lamijion, Adventurer's Guild.
At this quiet time of night, one of the rooms at the top of the adventurer's guild still remained lit.
Inside the room, a young girl dressed like a military advisor sat diligently working at a desk.
The girl was exquisitely beautiful, and although she wore glasses, they did not conceal her outstanding features. On the contrary, they added an intellectual and literary quality to her, making her the kind of person who would surely become an internet sensation as the most beautiful professor if on Earth.
At the very least, her poised demeanor gave the impression that one would hesitate to defy her and might even seek her advice.
That is, until the sound of knocking interrupted the atmosphere.
Without lifting her head, the girl continued her work while speaking.
Instantly, the door opened, and someone slowly walked in.
"You're still working, Riley."
The one who spoke in such a gentle tone was another young girl of the same age.
The girl walked in slowly from outside, her face exposed to the light matching her gentle and understanding voice, looking like a kind-hearted lady, captivating in her demeanor.
However, such a gentle and kind-hearted beautiful girl was clad in an incredibly heavy suit of heavy armor, enveloping her entire graceful figure.
In this situation, the girl carried a giant tower shield on her back, with a slender knight sword at her waist, looking very much like a female general ready to lead troops, a stark contrast to her gentle and kind exterior.
As a result of this, her footsteps carried a metallic sound, allowing one to imagine the weight of all that equipment.
The young girl addressed as Riley lifted her head to look at the other, a touch of helplessness appearing on her intellectual and composed face.
"I say, Vivian, haven't you given up on that suit of armor yet?"
The tone of helplessness indicated that Riley must have mentioned this to her many times before.
The girl—Vivian's expression remained gentle and kind.
"I won't give it up," Vivian responded warmly, as if tirelessly, "I've said it many times, I hope to become a knight who shelters and protects my companions from all malice and harm, so I don't want to give up this armor and shield no matter what."
Vivian's tone was very obedient, but the content had nothing to do with obedience.
And as a longtime friend of Vivian, Riley naturally knew she could only complain a couple of times; persuading her was impossible.
"This really doesn't suit you at all."
Riley sighed helplessly.
Vivian replied with a cheerful smile.
The two seemed to have a very good relationship, chatting for a long time before finally getting to the main topic.
"Sorry, Vivian, I need your help with something."
Riley handed Vivian a piece of parchment.
Vivian took it with some curiosity.
"This is a report submitted by a staff member at the guild today." Riley tapped the surface of her desk, saying, "Apparently, a peculiar newcomer arrived today, and the staff didn't know how to arrange him, so they passed it directly to me."
"A newcomer?" Vivian showed some interest. After roughly skimming the report, she was taken aback and said, "A twenty-year-old at Level 10 with not a single skill?"
"What do you think?" Riley asked meaningfully, "Quite a few adventurers witnessed the newcomer's displayed status on the Magic Tester. The story seems to have spread, and even the Magic Tester used at the time was checked and confirmed to be malfunction-free, so it should be true."
"Really?" Vivian said sincerely, "That is indeed peculiar."
"You think so too, right?" Riley picked up a quill, pointing to the parchment recording the newcomer's adventurer information, "If he had no talent or ability, that'd be one thing. But being able to reach Level 10 indicates there's some combat potential. It's strange that he can't learn a single skill. What do you think it could be?"
Upon hearing this, Vivian pondered seriously for a moment before raising three fingers.
"Three possibilities come to mind first."
"Firstly, the newcomer went down the wrong path; he's got leveling potential but hasn't learned the skills he's good at, continuously striving in the wrong direction. For example, he might have the talent of a mage but practiced swordsmanship he's not suited for, causing his level to grow while not mastering any skills."
"Secondly, the newcomer might have experienced something in the past, like a severe illness or other events that hindered growth and training. It's only recently that he began to grow, naturally reaching Level 10 as his talents emerged, but not in time to learn skills."
Here, Vivian spoke thoughtfully.
"Perhaps this newcomer possesses a unique or special skill, leading to this situation."
The three possibilities Vivian mentioned aligned perfectly with the assumptions in Riley's mind.
Yet neither of them considered the possibility that the newcomer was not skillless, but the Magic Tester failed to detect those skills.
That's because no one would believe a twenty-year-old newcomer adventurer could have a skill above Level 7.
Usually, skills at that level are unlikely to be attained before Level 70, unless someone refrains from learning other skills and pours all skill points into one skill. Then it's possible to push that skill to Level 7 by Level 30, but typically, it's almost impossible to reach Level 30 by training only one skill for solo combat.
In this world, except for special cases, people usually learn several skills at once, forming mature combat abilities that participate in battles and boost their level faster.
In other words, generally, people train several skills simultaneously, such that by reaching Level 7 in one skill, their level would naturally already be quite high.
For this newcomer at Level 10, it's impossible to have a skill above Level 7, and historically, there has not been a case of someone at Level 10 with a Level 7 skill, not even among the Divine Race or Demon Clan.
Thus, that possibility was naturally overlooked by Riley and Vivian.
Nevertheless, the newcomer's oddities were enough to pique others' interest.
"Regardless of the possibility, he deserves a good observation, right?"
Riley's statement finally made Vivian smile wryly.
Because Vivian had guessed why Riley had called her here.
"You're planning to shove the newcomer into my adventurer team again, aren't you?"
Vivian called out Riley's intentions directly.
"As expected of Vivian, you guessed right away."
Riley chuckled lightly.