After school, Kuroha Akira headed to the Literature Club as usual.
Today's main mission: observe Aizono Moe's coloring ability for the illustrations.
The character designs and illustration storyboards were already finalized. The line art was complete—even the subsequent black-and-white illustrations were finished. Aizono Moe's production speed was honestly way too fast.
Considering her talent and proficiency, this result wasn't exactly surprising. But Kuroha Akira still wanted to analyze the why behind it. He needed to understand where Aizono Moe's strengths lay compared to other artists.
And this would also help him further understand the cheat system he possessed.
Because there were dozens of drawing types alone. Aizono Moe couldn't possibly be proficient in all of them. In fact, the current Aizono Moe was definitely "biased" in her drawing. If you asked her to paint ink wash paintings, oil paintings, or murals—she couldn't do any of it.
Sure, Aizono Moe's comprehension was very good, but that was mostly because she was incredibly obedient. She wanted to draw better, so she actively made adjustments. That personality factor couldn't really be considered an influence of talent.
So here was the real question: if she started practicing unfamiliar drawing types now, could she achieve rapid mastery?
And in the drawing types she already excelled at, could she reach the industry's top level? For example, if she drew manga, could she become the number one manga artist in Japan—or even the world's number one?
Because it was "only" a B-rank talent, would she never be able to reach the top?
Kuroha Akira also wanted to know what the English letter after the talent—the "rarity level"—ultimately affected. Drawing talent was relatively common. Besides Aizono Moe, Kuroha Akira had seen two other students at school with this talent, but theirs were only E-rank.
So this was a perfect opportunity to understand the differences between rarity levels. Did talent rarity limit breadth, or height, or both…?
This time, Kuroha Akira wanted to test it through Aizono Moe.
So, to state the test conclusion directly: talent rarity level, based on current observations, affected both "progression speed" and "versatility."
This was also Kuroha Akira's feeling after copying talents of the same type but different rarity levels and experiencing them firsthand.
The gap between different rarity levels was huge.
With E-rank drawing talent, it only made Kuroha Akira's hand more obedient—allowing him to draw circles freehand on a blackboard like a math teacher. But with B-rank drawing talent? It greatly enhanced Kuroha Akira's imagination.
Here's the thing—humans can't actually imagine things they've never seen. And even for things they have seen, it's difficult to form a concrete image in their minds.
If you don't believe it, try closing your eyes and imagining your parents' or friends' faces. Most people can't recall complete facial details—only a vague, blurry impression. Because for humans, mental images are only "clearly visible" when they're dreaming. Any other time, imagined images are as blurry as if they'd been pixelated.
The prerequisite for drawing art is "clear imagination." That can only be achieved through extensive observation to form detailed mental images. That's why many famous artists gather tons of reference materials before painting a work.
No wonder they say the brain is the world's most advanced image rendering engine. And the end of lewdness is pixels—because although humans can't "imagine out of thin air," they can "associate and combine." Those individual pixels constantly linger on the blurred boundary, sparking endless reverie. White radishes, peaches, anything round—when experienced veterans see these things, their brains are already rapidly rendering images.
And after copying the talent Drawing B, Kuroha Akira could imagine all the beautiful parts of a beautiful girl without relying on association!
However, even so, this talent didn't allow Kuroha Akira to quickly get his left hand up to speed in terms of proficiency. At most, he went from only being able to draw the same stick figure to being able to draw the specific stick figure he wanted. Thanks to this, Kuroha Akira could now draw rough schematic diagram of storyboards to help Aizono Moe grasp the images in his imagination.
Still, Kuroha Akira had already fully understood Aizono Moe's strength—what set her apart from other artists. Her imagination was already beyond ordinary people!
Looking at it this way, B-rank talent had actually reached its peak in terms of "specialization," but its scope of application wasn't that broad. As for A-rank, it probably expanded versatility—anything even slightly related to the talent got covered by the buff.
That's why the Class Rep's talent had such wide coverage. Simply because her talent was a noble A, not a B. If it were B–E rank academic ability, it would probably only work for "cram school education" and wouldn't be so imbalanced.
Take Shirai Shiori's Memory B as an example. She could now memorize an article after reading it twice. But ask her to remember other things? She wouldn't be great at it because she hadn't specifically trained for them. If it were A-rank memory, she could probably remember anything.
Then what about S-rank?
Would it become "can't forget even if you want to"? At that point, the talent would already be considered a curse, wouldn't it?
After clearly understanding the differences between talent levels, Kuroha Akira discovered another problem.
Looking at Shinomiya—she had three S-rank talents. But from her current performance, they actually seemed like things B-rank and A-rank talents could already achieve. For example, her newly acquired proficiencies were all effects from the versatility expansion of A-rank. And her proficiency growth rate wasn't much different from B-rank.
But S-rank talent should be more than that.
So, in fact, up until now, Shinomiya hadn't truly unleashed the true value of her S-rank talents?
Where was S-rank stronger compared to A-rank?
Seems like I'll have to find a way to keep 'developing' Shinomiya after I get home.
Those were three S-rank talents.
Kuroha Akira felt that if he could unlock the true potential of those S-rank talents, Shinomiya's career might reach heights surpassing everyone who came before her…
"Um… Kuroha-kun… My coloring… it's not very good, is it…?"
"Ah…"
Aizono Moe's soft voice snapped Kuroha Akira back to reality.
He'd been staring at Aizono Moe's test colored illustration, and without realizing it, his thoughts had wandered far away.
To be honest, after trying to have her color the character design, Kuroha Akira found that her coloring ability was indeed a bit underwhelming. It was acceptable—decent, even—but still not quite where he'd hoped it would be.
Most importantly, after understanding the differences in talent levels, Kuroha Akira was a bit confused.
Aizono Moe's coloring was clearly not as good as her other stages. But given her personality, it was impossible for her to have slacked off on practicing coloring. Her rich imagination had already helped her complete the composition in her mind. So why was there still a disconnect in the coloring?
Could it be… not a talent issue?
But rather… something wrong with her eyes?