The Villainess and I, her Zombie

"She ran off somewhere before she was able to..."

Mika shrugged and lowered her head apologetically.

"...geez..."

Bruiser 97-F put his hand to his chin and breathed out, trying to find the right words.

"It will be explained to you in more detail during the training, but the gist of it is that the jobs that the system gives, aren't always fully aligned with the soldier's predisposition."

He traced circles in the air with his right hand while doing his best to explain.

"You see... someone might become a thief or a rogue because of their way of life, but it doesn't change the fact that the skill that this particular person can raise to the highest level is a taunt, right?"

"R-right..."

"Right! That's why the 'recruit' didn't become your main class nor a subclass but instead replaced your race!"

"It did?!"

Mika's eyes widened at the revelation - she of course hasn't become a recruit but knowing that this was something that happened to other people was enough to make her feel anxious.

"Exactly! When that happened, you were granted the shared Acedia skill from the avatar of Sloth..."

"...!"

The offhand mention threw by bruiser 97-F made Mika's heart skip a beat.

The Acedia skill was shared by the avatar of sin with normal people?! And not just one but many?!

Then the timed one she received was the same?!

"Acedia is the only passive skill amongst the sin exclusive skills. It grants the amazing benefit of passive EXP gain so you will continue to level up without having to risk your life before your stats will be useful in actual combat experience. It also unlocks your level cap."

Bruiser 97-F smiled warmly and continued.

"It's awesome! But it does come with a disadvantage."

He added, making it sound as an unimportant afterthought.

"It stunts the growth speed of any skill you already possess or rather it makes most of them regress, it makes it basically impossible to gain new skills too... but it's not worth getting worked out for! That's when the specialization comes in handy!"

The boy quickly added seeing the worried expression on Mika's face.

"You know that every player character has different predispositions and level caps for different skills? The medical staff is responsible for checking what is the recruit's predisposition - what is their level cap for a particular skill useful skill that they would be focusing on from then on. When everything is checked, a recruit like you is bestowed the appropriate skill by the avatar's proxy and admitted to a proper training course. It's all done so that the recruits won't waste their time and effort trying to keep up some garbage skills and instead concentrate on raising only the single useful one. Whew..."

After saying all that is, bruiser 97-F had to catch a breath.

"This skim was put into motion by the first avatar of Sloth hundreds of years ago and continues to be the most efficient one. With the combination of Acedia, a specialized training, and the weapons manufactured by the engineering division, we - the Sloth soldiers - continue to keep the titan-class monsters at bay."

He finished talking, pridefully puffed out his chest, and nodded with satisfaction.

"That's insane..."

Mika gasped.

"Right?!"

Bruiser 97-F completely misunderstood what the ashen-haired girl meant, and grinned.

The training program of the Sloth family soldiers seemed to be exactly opposite to how the people of the southern territories have lived and trained for ages.

Mika couldn't understand how bruiser 97-F could be so calm about basically admitting that he only knows a single skill and nothing else!

Single skill!

What about the complementary skills?!

"What about the complementary skills?!"

This was such an unbelievable thing that Mika straight up asked about it out loud.

"Huh?"

Bruiser 97-F tilted his head in confusion.

"What about the complementary skills?!"

Mika repeated, but seeing the complete cluelessness in the boy's eyes, she clenched her fists and started explaining.

"The complementary skills! One person can only use three skills of the same type at the same time, that's the limitation of the system which protects us from the too many stat modifiers imposed by the skill usage ripping our bodies apart! You are not supposed to main only one skill! That will eventually lead you to kill yourself while trying to use it!"

Mika approached the bruiser 97-F and got up in his face.

"It was proven in the past that even the most harmless passive skill can have fatal consequences on the user's body if it's trained recklessly! What are you all thinking?!"

"I-it can...?"

Bruiser 97-F blushed and tried to back off but Mika followed him until the boy's back hit the wall and he couldn't back up anymore.

"How are you guys making up for the difference in the status points?! Huh?! Or are you trying to say that the so-called specialists are focusing on general power-up skills?! Because that's not specializing and it's still harmful to the user's body to experience too many stat multipliers working at the same time!"

The ashen-haired girl got incredibly animated over the matter.

It wasn't just some random outburst of righteousness or anything.

All the questions that she asked were the same questions that she herself, and her family - as well as the rest of the southern territories of the Fruit Salad kingdom - had to ask themselves time and time again.

"C-calm down, okay...? Please."

Bruiser 97-F, now red as a tomato, put his hands on Mika's shoulders and gently pushed her away.

"I don't know what you're talking about...! I've never experienced any backlash from my skill - and I have been in combat already!"

He tried to defend himself and not look at the disheveled clothes of the ashen-haired girl.

"Which do you use?!"

Mika scoffed at the boy while being pushed away inch by inch despite her best effort.

"Iron fist..."

Bruiser 97-F answered in a worried voice as if worried that the skill won't be to the girls liking.

"Every skill that's using your body as a medium requires to have strong physical defense on top of the physical strength! Particularly punching and kicking skills require the user to have the DEF be at least one-fourth of the STR. What are your base stats?"