Also not as common among lower elo players and since the innverse is basically in the Bronze Age of chess, it wouldn’t be so common yet.

That would be cute! Altho I would be hesitant of trauma bonding after their experience in the ruins

I guess the only reason why this makes sense to me is if he thinks, okay she has a good valid reason for not wanting to level, I’m not going to pry. If she’s thinking of sacrificing something really important to her because she thinks that it will instantly make her way faster, then she might be disappointed at the results and therefore she’s better off not making the sacrifice for such minimal gains.

Yes this!

Omg this is exactly how I felt too! (Altho I still need to look up what a Mary sue is.) At first I was like yay Ryoka is finally starting to question her own stubborn ideals and consider the possibility that she might not know everything and then this…
The logic that she can use magic instead doesn’t make sense, like oh it would take too long to level now, so don’t bother at all? Unless there is some unknown benefit to not leveling she’s just depriving herself of an opportunity to get faster. She could use magic AND start to level now, even if leveling won’t make her instantly fast enough to be a courier, it would still help. And better to start late than never!
I really hope there is a satisfying explanation to all this! Up until now I thought the story was just setting Ryoka up for some really slow burn long term character growth, by having her take so long to come to accept skills and leveling and now it feels like maybe that day will never come…

WOOHOOO LETS GO IM TAKING THIS WIN

I was going to argue that he mentioned it as a kind of replacement, but both can be true at the same time.

Speaking your Skill aloud is equivalent to Spell casting anyway, everything adds up and makes sense.

Sorry… just reread that… Wow! Level 63 strategist. Crap!

Pretty sure that was a possible age reference, not a level. He was talking about the general’s probable age in years given his attitude and apparent maturity.

Val’s advice is actually practical. Much of leveling is based on adversity. If Ryoka can already do things like her High Pass run without any class or levels, most runs won’t challenge her at all, thus she’d earn relatively low experience. If she gets even a couple skills to help out, that challenge decreases even further, meaning even slower leveling.

[spoiler title=”Of course, he doesn’t know about her being from Earth”] So he wouldn’t know about the bonuses she’d get from that. [/spoiler]

Also, he’s likely considering her age. If she’s gotten along just fine up till when she’s around 20 years old, starting now would still normally mean many years for any tangible gain. Remember that Garia was only level 14 by the time she was 18 years old, despite working on a farm for most of those years.

He’s also met other levelless people, and while he may not know the exact reason, it wouldn’t be hard to assume that there is a valid reason for doing so.