Character sheet for Can Even a Mob Highschooler Like Me Be a Normie if I Become an Adventurer?. Spoilers may be unmarked.
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Protagonist
Kitagawa "Maro" Utamaro
Alright. Time to go to the adventurer association and become an adventurer!
Tired of finding himself on the bottom rung of his school's caste society, he takes up multiple part-time jobs to gather together the money he needs to pay the sign up fee and buy for himself a "starter pack" of monster cards that, hopefully, have at least one D-rank monster so he can meet the minimum requirements. The association broker repeatedly warns him that it's safer to go with a known quantity and buy one of the advertised cards because the "starter pack" are problematic cards the association is just looking to get rid of. Maro emphasizes that he's well aware of the risks and insists on the "starter pack" strategy, despite knowing that each and every card in a pack has a 70% chance of being E-rank or below, 30% chance of being D-rank or above. He is elated to get 2 D-rank, a ghoul and a Cu Sith, and a C-rank Zashiki-Warashi. All of them turn out to be rather problematic.- Accidental Discovery: In the final round of a tournament, he uses an extremely rare and valuable potion to try and keep his monster girls from dying. Due to an unusual and extremely unlikely string of coincidences, he takes the Adventurer's association by storm because he discovered a way to evolve cards that doesn't involve sacrificing higher tier cards, even if the effect is temporary.
- Classical Antihero: He is a sweetheart who wins over his mon by acts of kindness, but due to being looked down on, he has terrible self-confidence issues.
- Crazy-Prepared: While in the F-ranked labyrinth close to home, among his equipment is a mask that has goggles to protect from visual attacks, a gas-mask to protect from airborne poisons and threats, and ear plugs to protect from auditory threats. The last proves instrumental when he's up against an ambush from "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" who uses Brown Note attacks, in addition to being a Reality Warper.
- Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Fusing with Renka is not something he can or should do frequently, as it puts tremendous strain on his body and soul, as well as screwing with the laws of causality, which can result in being put through a [trial] if it's abused.
- Dark Horse Victory: He repeatedly wins fights he shouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell of winning.
- The Pied Piper monster had him dead to rights but Yuuki unlocks his [Little Hero] ability due to Heroic Resolve and turns the tables.
- During a monster card tournament, his first few bouts are clearly in his favor, yes, but the semi-finals and the final bout had him against adventurers with far more experience, far stronger cards, parties with far better internal synergy, and the final fight had his opponent wielding abilities he personally didn't understand, but he pulls a surprise upset both times, and the result is epic on both sides of the fourth wall.
- Harem Seeker: Sure, getting the cards later known as Yuuki, Eliza, and Renka, who are all female, was due to chance, but when he wants to add members to his party, he will inevitably choose a humanoid female whenever possible. Case in point, when he's in the rank-up labyrinth test, he and his party, off-screen, collect several male imp cards and he just puts them away among his belongings, to sell them later, but the instant he sees a female imp, he gets very excited, has the party prioritize bringing her down, and summons the female imp from its card right away.
- Ignored Expert: Because he's a talented adventurer who has suffered a major setback in a labyrinth, his warnings of a criminal group actively targeting rookies is ignored. A Jerk Jock who mocked his loss winds up dead to the same criminal group Maro barely escaped from, and which Maro warned him of. The School Idol Maro's got a crush on managed to get a distress signal off, allowing her to be rescued.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Downplayed. He saved up his money doing several part-time jobs to become an adventurer just to stop being a "mob" background character and earn a little respect from his classmates. When one of his three friends winds up becoming one ahead of him and starts going Small Name, Big Ego, he keeps becoming an adventurer secret until he's firmly established.
- In-Series Nickname: He's known by "Maro" for short.
- Like Father, Like Son: As the story progresses, it becomes glaringly obvious that he takes after his father. Other characters, especially his mother, comment on it. It's even spelled out that his father was also a card-wielder, bound to a zashiki-warashi by pure luck, using his card to protect the woman to whom he would be married during the first Angolmois, but sadly nobody knew about the naming system, so that particular card was lost forever in the scuffle.
- The Power of Friendship: Because he treats his Mon like people as opposed to disposable tools, as is the norm, and clearly treasures them, they develop at record-breaking speed. Case in point, his ghoul, later named Eliza, started developing new skills in less than a week. His zashiki-warashi, later named Renka, freaks out and proclaims that it normally takes months just to add one new skill or remove a bad one.
- Seven Heavenly Virtues:
- Chastity: He has several very attractive Mon who serve him, especially the Ghoul who has skills in sexual techniques and is unable to disobey orders, but he keeps it in his pants because he wants his Mon to respect him.
- Diligence: Unlike many adventurers who go running to their parents to beg for the start-up funds required to become an adventurer, he earned them through hard work at several part-time jobs.
- Humility: He never lets his successes go to his head (Renka won't let him either), and when asked gives his Mon the credit whenever possible.
- Kindness: He wins over and unlocks the full potential of his Mon by acts of genuine kindness.
- Patience: Most adventurers go for the quick buck, Zashiki even taunts him on it. He spends a week in the weakest labyrinth he can find so he gets to know his Mon, works with them through their traumas, accentuates their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses. This serves him very, very well when he finds himself face to face with "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" fighting for his life.
- Temperance: Sure, his adventurer career is prosperous, but he rarely keeps any of the wealth for himself. He gifts potions that double as beauty products to his mother and sister, buys cards that boost his own monsters, and helps other adventurers to succeed whenever he can, putting aside stuff for himself is the exception that defines the rule.
Allied Monster Cards
As a whole
- Cursed with Awesome: They are not easy cards to work with, and all come with serious personality issues, demerit skills, or both. It is precisely because they're so problematic that Maro is able to mold them into such an effective team of fighters, each a powerhouse in her own right.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Having been in dangerous fights over and over again, supporting each other, they're inseparable.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: The vast majority of them are serious outliers, bearing a personality almost 180 degrees out of the norm.
- Zashiki-Warashi are normally very friendly and easy to approach. Renka is a Card-Carrying Jerkass.
- Ghouls are supposed to be literally mindless and difficult to train. Eliza being capable of independent thought frequently makes waves and she's heralded as a "genius" because she picks up beneficial skills at unprecedented rates, and actively likes to do so.
- Yuuki starting out as a coward already makes her an outlier, but then when she's evolved to a werewolf, she picks up a skill normally associated with male alphas.
- Onis are supposed to be very mature and selfless, but the oni card soon named Suzuka which Maro wins in a tournament turns out to be very immature and Driven by Envy, but that's what he winds up loving about her.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Because they have problematic personalities and skills, and they're pretty much collected at random, they shouldn't work together, at all, but as much as Renka loves to start arguments with the rest, the instant battle starts, they are a seamless and well-oiled machine, enhancing each others' strengths and covering for each others' weaknesses.
- True Companions: They ask to be named by Maro, meaning their bound to him until he dies, and will never betray him.
- Undying Loyalty: Maro was unaware of it when he named them, but monster cards can refuse to be named. The fact that they accept his names with pride means they are so loyal, they are willing to die for him repeatedly.
Renka
How unlucky for you! I'm a defective monster! Bleh!
The strongest of Maro's summons, and the most rebellious. She pointedly hates humans and calls herself "defective." One of her passive skills even states she hates the fact that she exists.- Species: Zashiki-Warashi
- Adaptational Sympathy: Since most of Renka's most dangerous and unsympathetic "pranks" and jerkass behavior aren't on-screen anyway, the manga chooses not to cover them. This makes her more likeable as a fringe benefit.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the manga, she's shown reading a manga while the party is exploring the first labyrinth, and comments on it, without any explanation on how she got it. In the original source, Maro's internal monologue explains, in detail, that he learned she's dangerous when she's bored, and her [Rope of Misfortune] skill would trigger, altering causality to "prank" him, so he provides her with entertainment when he's not dungeon diving, and sometimes when he is, so she doesn't get "mischievous."
- Anger Born of Worry: When she sees Maro put himself in harms' way to rescue his ghoul summon, she tears into him, reminding him that it's the monster cards' job to put themselves in harms' way for him, not the other way around, though she makes a point of saying that it's not because she's worried about him, per se.
- Card-Carrying Jerkass: She happily boasts of how caustic she is and mocks Maro on a frequent basis for getting "a defective monster" like her.
- The Chooser of the One: According to the original source, finding herself in the "starter pack" Maro chose was no accident. Her [Rope of Misfortune] skill plays havoc with the laws of causality, forcing her to appear in the random deck Maro chose, as the skill somehow knew he'd be the most compatible master for her.
- Circular Reasoning: Implied. In the original source, Maro speculates that the reason she's so abrasive is that she doesn't want to get attached only to be abandoned again, so she's preemptively hostile to her masters, to drive them away first. She responds to the fact that Maro dotes on her regardless as a challenge, until the party has to deal with The Pied Piper and she gets a name as a reward, meaning she's never going to face abandonment again, but as much as that tickles her pink, she still can't bring herself to admit it.
- Death Seeker: Implied. Although she will fight back, her card description states she has a deep desire to simply not exist.
- Good Is Not Nice: Yes, she's a card-carrying jerk, but she has a strong sense of justice. When reading the manga provided to her by Maro, she's enraged at a scene where the townsfolk are stoning the protagonist as he's fighting a horde of monsters and protecting their town. When Maro points out that the townsfolk have a change of heart and help him in the end, she proclaims that this makes her even angrier as people who go and abuse their fellow man and then act like they were friends all along is the type she hates the most.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: She calls herself "defective" constantly. Maro wonders just what the heck her previous owner(s) did to her to make her believe that.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She is extremely abrasive, but that's okay. Deep down, she truly cares for her fellow summons and even her master Maro, but don't tell him that.
- Karmic Jackpot: According to the original source, her passive [Rope of Misfortune] skill, over which she has no control, is her ability that's most dangerous to her owner. An owner who treats her kindly and makes her happy will have the best possible outcome from anything involving an element of chance. To an owner who treats her badly, she will be The Jinx, and this explains why she was in a "starter" pack to begin with.
- Luminescent Blush: When she learns the backstory of why Maro chose to name her Renka, her entire head turns as red as a tomato.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Whatever her unstated backstory is, she hates humans as a result of clear abuse.
- Positive Friend Influence: Maro takes her provocations and taunts as a challenge to become a better person, so he does. She, in turn, makes herself a better person to keep trying to one-up him. They both enjoy it.
- Rebellious Spirit: She absolutely will not stand for being bossed around; it's even in her card description text. Maro has taken to asking nicely and bribing her with sweets to get her to do what he wants. What really tickles her pink though is that he just lets her rampage however she wants whenever she wants and then gives her sweets, praise, and dotes on her when he likes what she's doing.
- Romantic Fusion: As a result of palling around with Maro for a long time and being doted on, she unlocks the ability to sync 100% with him, which is supposedly unprecedented. She and Maro become one being for brief moments, but the backlash is enormous.
- Ship Tease: She and Maro have such good chemistry that people often wonder if Maro has a girlfriend, even those who don't know about Maro's adventuring.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Although the specifics have yet to be revealed, she is clearly bitter and angry due to repeated abuse, even if she no longer remembers what it is.
- Sweet Tooth: She adores sweets and Maro is able to win her over by providing her sweets as rewards when he approves of her actions.
- Tsundere: Type A. Of the Dark and Troubled Past variety. She's extremely bitter, jaded, cynical, and caustic due a backstory of yet unstated abuse, but deep down, she wants to be treasured and actually likes Maro, even though she can't bring herself to admit it.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: She goes from taunts and provocations to genuine concern and back again in a matter of seconds, especially to Maro, but the entire party knows she genuinely cares for them and won't let them be harmed if she can help it.
- When She Smiles: She is absolutely adorable when she's happy, to the point Maro states she's his favorite the moment his two friends ask him which monster girl he likes.
Eliza
Understood.
The first of the humanoid monster girls Maro draws from his "starter pack" deck of cards he bought. She is introduced as unable to do anything at all unless she's under orders. Maro's biggest challenge with her is getting her to be able to at least defend herself without having to be ordered to do that.- Species: Ghoul -> Vampire
- Achilles' Heel: Being an undead, she's vulnerable to [Holy] type attacks and [Silver] weapons that either severely weaken or negate her healing factor and near immortality.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Maro considers her the most physically attractive of his monster girls thanks to her impressive chest.
- Emotionless Girl: At first, she's utterly incapable of feeling any emotion. Once she develops a nascent personality, her emotions are extremely subdued.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: She survives being sliced in half by "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" thanks to being healed by eating the corpses of rats the monster was using.
- Incapable of Disobeying: She is utterly incapable of refusing orders. In exchange, she's utterly unable to do anything unless ordered otherwise, at least at first.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: The [Sexual Techniques] skill she comes with not only states she's skilled at sex acts, she gets a positive affinity correction from it. Maro is sorely tempted, but there are certain issues he needs to address before he's willing to go all the way with her.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: She's not human, but could pass for one from a distance. She's unable to do anything unless she's under orders. Her emotional state is extremely subdued, if not non-existent. Lastly, she warms up to the main character because he treats her kindly. Let's also not forget that she develops this cute little smirk to show when she's happy.
- Remove The Head Or Destroy The Brain: As long as her head is intact, she can survive and be healed back from any injury by eating monster corpses in labyrinths.
- Taking the Bullet: The first ever action she takes of her own volition is rescuing Renka by taking an attack from "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" instead. Everyone is impressed.
Yuuki
- Species: Cu Sith -> Werewolf
- Apologizes Alot: Thanks to her previous owner being a petty and abusive douche, she apologizes for everything. Fortunately, Maro treating her kindly and getting lots of head-pats from the rest of the party calms her down.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Thanks to being doted on by everyone in the party, even the resident jerk who would later be named Renka, she grows tired of being cowardly, and when The Pied Piper cut down Eliza, Yuuki had enough and decided her True Companions must be protected at all costs. Cue Obedience—> Loyalty. Cowardice —> Little Hero, and a primal instinct skill that had the abomination on the ropes until it decided to commit suicide to deny Maro the victory.
- Grew a Spine: Thanks to being doted on by Maro and the rest, especially Eliza, she loses her cowardice, having her [Cowardice] skill transcend into the [Little Hero] skill, which luckily was "The Pied Piper of Hamelin's" Kryptonite Factor, allowing the team to survive the fight.
- Lovable Coward: She not only states she's a coward on her card, she makes a point of advising Maro that she's be useless in a fight or dangerous situation. Maro bends over backwards to accommodate her until she feels comfortable being in the party.
- Meaningful Name: Invoked. Maro gives her the name Yuuki in Katakana so, depending on the context, describes one of her inherent noble attributes, loyalty, courage, etc. When it's explained to her, she blushes with joy and pride.
- Token Non-Human: Of all the monster girls Maro fields, she's the only one who doesn't have a humanoid form.
- Troubled Backstory Flashback: We learn why she's so cowardly is revealed in chapter 12 where we see what at least one of her previous owners was like. The clod gave her impossible demands like "don't get monster blood on me when you fight" and when she failed that, sent her to conquer a labyrinth alone, and when she failed that, just summarily abandoned her as useless.
Mare
Oh, 60.. maybe add a bit extra, 70 points!
The first monster girl Maro gained from monster hunting. She's deliberately cute like a stereotypical Idol or Magical Girl, but also very mischievous. She and Renka pointedly do not get along and take an immediate dislike to each other.- Species: Imp, female -> Empusa -> Succubus.
- Blithe Spirit: She has no overarching goal in life aside from just wanting to have fun, and while she acknowledges that authority exists, she has no interest in respecting it. This drives Renka nuts, as Reanka fully respects authority, even if she pointedly doesn't like it.
- Both Sides Have a Point: When she learns the rest of the party's summoned monsters are all named, she requests a name for herself so she's not the odd one out, and Maro admits that is a legit concern. Renka protests that Imp shouldn't be given a name so easily since being named was the rest of the party's hard earned reward for surviving an encounter with The Pied Piper, in addition to enduring being Maro's monster party for a week. Maro splits the middle and offers Imp a name after some time to get to know her better so the name fits. Imp is willing to acquiesce, Renka, not so much.
- The Gadfly: Being an imp, she's extremely mischievous and loves to rile people up for her own amusement.
- Innocently Insensitive: Since she has no previous abusive owner(s) and has no possible way to know just what Renka, Eliza, and Yuuki had to go through to earn their names, she lobbies to get a name herself right away, feeling left out as the only one without a name. Renka almost immediately tears into her for the affront.
- No Name Given: In the original source, Maro grants her the name Mare when she helps him clear the E-rank labyrinth that is the trial to get him from a one star adventurer to a two star. In the Manga she gets her name after she ranks up to Empusa.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: She and Renka do not get along, at all, and start bickering almost immediately when she joins the party.
Classmates
Nishida Yoichi and Higashino Shota
Maro? Why is Shinomiya so friendly with you? Explain yourself!
Maro's two closest friends in school.- The Dividual: They always show up together.
- Green-Eyed Monster: When Shinomiya just shows up in their class without warning and has a brief but friendly conversation with Maro, the two of them get a scary battle aura and demand he spill why she's on friendly terms with him, out of jealousy.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: Whenever they show up on the scene, they spend the time before the start of class just rambling off about random topics, especially regarding their constant debate over which is sexier, the "ara-ara big sister" type of girl, or the flat-chested "lolita" type. Hagashino favors the former while Nishida favors the later.
- Toxic Friend Influence: Because they're Maro's friends, he tends to be drawn into doing stupid things with them.
Minamiyama
(With red, bloodshot eyes) You're just a mob character! I'm better than you!
Formerly one of Maro's three friends. After becoming an adventurer, through his parents' money, he started seeing himself as one of the "cool kids" and abandoned Maro, Nishida, and Higashino, spending his time reveling in looking down on them. When he learns Maro has not only also become an adventurer, but outshines him, he develops an intense hatred for his former friend.- Foil: He is pretty much Maro's polar opposite in every way.
- Where the former is humble, the latter has an overblown sense of pride and arrogance.
- Where the former is diligent, became an adventurer through hard work and savings, not to mention built up his monster cards through comradery, kindness, and getting to know them, and to top it off went dungeon diving on the daily, the latter went to his parents to give him the money to become an adventurer, got easy to use cards, and then rarely went dungeon diving, preferring to just hang out with his new buddies, reveling in thinking he's the top dog of the school.
- Where the former is pretty chill and is willing to roll with the punches, the latter files into a rage the instant he suffers a setback and goes totally postal.
- Psychological Projection: Implied. Maro deduces that since Minamiyama would have no issue sabotaging and trampling down a former friend who abandoned him to soothe his bruised ego, then he presumes that Maro became an adventurer purely for the sake of knocking him off his perch as the school's top dog, so Maro has to be stopped. Maro did indeed resent seeing this guy abandon his friends for fame and bragging rights, but Maro became and adventurer for other reasons.
- Seven Deadly Sins:
- Pride: He loves to stare down at his former friends, seeing himself superior to them because he moved up the school caste by becoming an adventurer, and never shuts up about it.
- Sloth: He never earned the money he needs to register nor purchase his monster card deck. His parents did all that for him. He further just waves his adventurer card around for bragging rights, never taking it seriously, rarely dungeon dives, and doing precious little to learn how to best utilize his monster cards.
- Wrath: The instant he faces a setback, he goes into a bloodshot-eyes, murderous rage.
- Sore Loser: To the extreme. He goes into a monster-card tournament against Maro, expecting an easy victory with his Flunky Boss card setup. Maro stomps him by locking down his cards with status ailments, disqualifies him with a direct attack, so he can still continue being an adventurer, and turns to leave the arena after the victory was officially announced. Minamiya goes into blood-shot eyes rage and orders his remaining monster to attack Maro on the way off the stage. He gets to see his last monster Eaten Alive and he is personally dragged away. In the end, he's shipped off to another school and his adventurer career is over, forever.
- Technician Versus Performer: Player with and lampshaded. When he and Maro are facing each other in the tournament, Shigeno points out their very different styles to adventuring. Minamiyama goes for the sure thing, going with a deck with a winnable strategy from the start that's easy to use right away and then only tangles with labyrinths as a hobby in his spare time. Maro, on the other hand, is a bit of a gambler, choosing his first deck by the luck of the draw, buying a "starter pack" of 10 randomized cards, known to have problematic personalities and skills, but adventuring is his passion and he dives into labyrinths almost daily, building up his cards until they're a winning team. In the end, Maro's superior experience carries him through.
- We Used to Be Friends: He used to be friends with Maro, Nishida, and Higashino until he became an adventurer and decided to let the fame and bragging rights of being the school's first adventurer go to his head. After that, he became completely insufferable.
- Zerg Rush: He fields monsters that summon subordinates and when they're all on the field sends them all to attack at once. He utterly fails to notice the drawbacks to this approach.
Shinomiya
Oh, you getting close to that goal you mentioned?
The girl Maro's got his eyes on, and who just happens to be one of the top beauties of the school. He meets her for the first time when he's in the school infirmary due to exhaustion.- Attempted Rape: The reason she was able to send off a distress call is that the underlying who was casing her decided to try and rape her instead of going with the criminal group's tried and true strategy of luring her into a gremlin ambush and then forcing her into a Morton's Fork, surrendering all her monster cards and magic tools and then trying to escape a monster-filled labyrinth on her own strength, a certain death sentence, or just being summarily killed by the group's vastly overpowering monster army. The attempt is thwarted by Maro and three of his strongest allies coming to her rescue and pulling off a Big Damn Heroes.
- Berserk Button: She gets enraged when she sees an arrogant and envious brute bemeaning and trying to sabotage others who work hard for their perks.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Maro's got good reason to have a crush on her as she's golden haired blonde and a sweet girl who treats others nicely, especially if they're in the service industry.
- Indifferent Beauty: She knows she's a school idol but never lets it go to her head.
- Nice Girl: When Maro had to use the bed in the infirmary, she was there for unstated reasons, and when she realized he was uncomfortable, put him at ease by letting him know that despite their different caste strata, she still sees him as an equal and is interested in him because she recognized him from his jobs, then left him to rest when she saw he was no longer nervous.
- Nice to the Waiter: The reason Maro wound up on her radar is that she recognized him from one of the jobs he worked, and she treats people in the service industry, especially customer service, with respect.
- School Idol: She's one of the most physically attractive girls in Maro's class and is very popular as a result.
Ono
The second classmate to on-screen become an adventurer in Maro's school. By sheer chance, he and Maro bump into each other in the association and he lets the cat out of the bag.
- Enlightened Self-Interest: He is trustworthy to Maro only as far as being a good merchant is concerned and helps Maro do acts of righteousness because it personally benefits him.
- Hazy-Feel Turn: He goes from being a malicious jerk to being one of Maro's allies, but his trustworthiness is doubtful.
- Information Broker: Not only is he a good merchant, but he's got connections that allow him to drag up the information Maro needs to acquire, for a price.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His scheme to out Maro and lure him into a card battle tournament brings Maro the fame and glory he dreamed of, and then some.
Shishido
The leader of the baseball club. He grows resentful of Maro's popularity as an adventurer and repeatedly tries to sabotage Maro's press and reputation. He eventually comes up with the "brilliant" idea to try and show up Maro by becoming an adventurer himself. Unfortunately for him, his timing was exceptionally poor, as he decided to start adventuring when a criminal group began targeting rookies in their area. When he's warned by Maro, he mocks, taunts, and ignores the warning.
- Jerk Jock: He prides himself on being the leader of the baseball club, and he's an envious, arrogant, foul-mouthed jerk who just can't stomach the thought that a classmate could possibly be more popular than himself.
- Killed Offscreen: He goes missing in a labyrinth, and Maro's group, tasked by the association with searching for him and other missing persons, finds his badly mangled corpse.
- Malicious Slander: Maro doesn't learn of it until later, but this clown repeatedly led smear campaigns against him on SNS, bulleting boards, forums, etc. as a result of being butt-hurt that Maro's popularity is growing against his own.
- Unknown Rival: Maro was just busy trying to live his life as a student and adventurer, but this guy felt his position as a ikemen threatened by Maro's popularity and repeatedly tried to sabotage it. When he rightly guesses that Maro's most popular, powerful, and valuable monster girls were lost in a labyrinth incident, he openly gloats at Maro's loss in front of the entire class, and arrogantly boasts that he'd make a better adventurer, never making such a foolish blunder, ignoring Maro's warning that a criminal group targeting adventurers for robbery and murder is active in the area.
Relatives
Mai
Onii-chan! I want to go into labyrinths too!
Maro's younger sister and one of the few people who know he's an adventurer. She wants to emulate him and become an adventurer too, getting pouty because Maro won't take her into labyrinths with him. She first appears in chapter 8, providing him a lucky charm.- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Maro ruffles her hair before heading off to the labyrinth, intending to fight the boss and clear a labyrinth for the first time.
- Big Brother Worship: She idolizes Maro and wants to emulate him.
- Cheerful Child: She's a very happy and well adjusted girl.
Maro's parents
- Anger Born of Worry: When Maro escapes a criminal organization that targeted him in a labyrinth by the skin of his teeth and winds up in a 2-day coma, they strongly consider yanking his license out of fear for his safety, but he avoids that fate with a Motivational Lie. When his group rescues Shinomiya from the same criminal group, his parents are outraged, so he pushes forward the narrative that it was an emergency situation and grounding or no, he had to answer the distress call. When his group, along with the police and JSDF defeat the group and his parents learn that he lied to them, they strongly consider confiscating and destroying his license until Renka manifests outside the labyrinth and gets them to cool it.
- Rescue Romance: Maro's mother married his father as a result of being rescued from Angolmois by the guy using a Zashiki-warashi card to save her life.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Downplayed. Maro's mother was a student of his father, but they didn't officially start dating until she graduated.
- Unnamed Parent: Neither of their names has been revealed either in the manga or the original source. They're only referred to as "Mom" or "Dad" by their children, Maro and Mai.
Association
Shigeno
Are you really sure you want to buy a randomized pack instead of an individual monster card?
The agent sent to guide Maro in being an adventurer. He repeatedly advises Mero, a newbie adventurer, to go with the individual card, being a known quantity, rather than going for a randomized "starter pack" full of problematic or underpowered monsters that the association just wants to get rid of. Maro insists on trying his luck anyway and winds up with most of the cards being rank E or below, but he does get the powerful yet problematic Cu Sith, Ghoul, and Zashiki-Warashi cards that would grow to be his iconic Mon Battle Harem.- Adaptation Deviation: In the original source, Maro decided on his own to turn the Pied Piper's flute into a card to keep it hidden from would be "collectors" who might decide he was unworthy of owning it and might try to take it by force. In the manga, Shigeno is the one who mentions the pitfalls of owning such an artifact and suggests turning it into a card.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: When Maro reports about subjugating the Pied Piper, he goes over the loot appraisal and points out that the Flute of Hamelin is a tool only Maro and his monsters can use, but there are collectors out there who would gladly try to take it from him, purely based on its sheer rarity. So the best bet for Maro is to make it impossible to steal by having the association convert it into a magic card bound to him, at the "reasonable" price of 1 million yen.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He wants adventurers to succeed so he does his best to support and guide them, Maro being no exception.
Star Mother Society
As a whole
- Cult: They shamelessly worship labyrinths and even have a history of engaging in Human Sacrifice.
- Framing the Guilty Party: If Maro's Prophetic Dream can be believed, they framed themselves by making all the circumstantial evidence paint them guilty as sin while destroying all the hard evidence and then using a brainwashed member of the Anti-labyrinth association to attack their intended targets in their name, to make themselves look like the innocent victims of a Frame-Up.
- Manchurian Agent: If Maro's dream can be believed, they have brainwashed people into being their members throughout society and even used a couple of brainwashed agents to place a [Cursed Card] with mind-control properties among the top brass of the JSDF.
- Morton's Fork: The criminal organization acting in their name would give their victims two choices, voluntarily surrender all monster cards and magical tools and then try to escape the labyrinth on their own strength "to atone for the arrogance of treating the monster cards as their own strength" or being killed by the criminals' monster cards and then having their monster cards and magic tools looted from their corpses. Either way, death is certain, Maro's the only on-screen victim that managed to escape with his life, but at horrific personal cost.
- Straw Hypocrite: The criminal organization acting in their name would condemn adventurers for using monster cards as their own strength while hiding behind monster cards and attacking anonymously.
- Villain Has a Point: The reason their message resonates with the press is that labyrinths have indeed brought many boons to society, monster stones that serve as a clean energy source, magical tools, monster cards, and have almost entirely brought an end to war as nations are far too busy trying to manage the labyrinths to fight each other over resources and territory. Unfortunately, labyrinths have also brought with them many dangers and countless victims.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Thanks to the captured agent of the criminal organization acting in their name being revealed as a high-ranking member of the anti-dungeon/anti-labyrinth society, the press sings their praises.
Enemy monsters
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Earplugs?! Is that how you listen to a show?!!
Based on the character from the literature of the same name, this irregular monster uses Brown Note attacks and minor reality warping to attack his prey. He is extremely cunning and dangerous. By Maro's own admission, it was a minor miracle that he and his party managed to get away alive, and even then, he let them win by blowing his own head off when Yuuki evolved a "Heroic" skill.- Berserk Button: When he noticed Maro had earplugs on to prevent from being affected by his Brown Note antics, he went postal, screaming about his "performance being ignored."
- Brown Note: His music and story telling warps reality and creates heuristic illusions where Your Mind Makes It Real.
- Exotic Eye Designs: His eyes don't have a single pupil with an iris and sclera. His eyes have multiple pupils surrounded by irises so tightly packed that the sclera is not visible.
- Flunky Boss: Not only does he summon endless hordes of rats, the musical notes that come from his body are also "ghost type" monsters that can only be fought by magic.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: The most commonly known version of the story is the town of Hamelin being swarmed by rats, the piper is called in by the mayor to clean up the problem, and after the job is done, the mayor denies payment, so the piper goes after the local kids in revenge. In his version, the piper unleashed the rats in the first place, looking to invoke Engineered Heroics, and when the mayor found out, refused to reward the scheme. The townspeople went after their kidnapped children, only to be stopped by swarms of rats he controlled, and then he showed off the murdered children to the townsfolk, blaming the mayor for it. At that point, the townspeople rebelled, and the mayor's own children were horribly crippled.
- Humanoid Abomination: He looks human from a distance, but he can turn his head at least 90 degrees, has multiple irises in his eyes, shark-like teeth, gangly arms and legs, pointed ears, unnaturally long nose, can walk around just fine with a big bloody hole in his chest, and can launch musical notes from just about any orifice on his body, so tearing a hole in his chest just made him more dangerous.
- Monster Clown: He's dressed like a court jester and is a murderous abomination that is damn difficult to defend against.
- Public Domain Character: He's based on the Brothers Grimm character from the story of the same name, which was published in the 1800's.
- Puzzle Boss: This guy is in no way easy to fight. When he's holding a flute, his magic barrier stops all attacks, but he can Brown Note you to his heart's content. When he trades his flute for a scythe, he is surprisingly agile and nimble. Punching a hole in his chest doesn't kill him but only serves to make him more dangerous. And while he's telling a story, the story he narrates becomes real as he's telling it.
- Scary Teeth: His teeth are shark-like in being pointy and jagged.
- Spiteful Suicide: When Yuuki gains [Hero] skills and actually starts getting the upper hand, the piper blows his own head off, just to deny Maro the chance of obtaining a legit victory. Maro's response is "why did he do that?"
- We Will Meet Again: Just before he blows his head off, he warns Maro that the next time they meet, he will make certain to kill Maro, even if he has to chase the boy to the ends of the earth.
Adventurer Club
A group of fellow adventurers that join forces with Maro, some of them are even school-mates. Anna
A classmate that is one year Maro's junior. She joins his class after he defeats her in a tournament.
- The Bet: As a result of reaching the semi-finals, she and Maro choose from a set of four cards. Due to both of them reaching out to the same card, the oni who would later be known as Suzuka, they bet that the winner of their bout will get the oni card.
- Defeat Means Friendship: She joins Maro's group of friends after he defeats her in a tournament.
- Fiery Redhead: She sports red hair and is very passionate.
- Odd Friendship: With Orbie, who is her closest friend despite having completely polar opposite taste in monster cards and genre.
- Self-Made Woman: She earned her standing as an adventurer and monster duelist on her own merits, not being the daughter of Dungeon Mart's founder.
- Young and in Charge: She's at least one year younger than Maro, who is a teen himself, and leads the adventurer club.
Orbie
Anna's friend and the first legit member of the adventurer's club Anna was able to recruit, next to Maro. She's very fond of horror movies and stacks her monster deck with horrifying monster cards.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Her monster cards are horrifying, but she's a sweet and cheerful girl.
- Nightmare Fetishist: She adores horror movies and stacks her deck with cards that would give anyone the creeps, such as Jurai Gumo, Samantha from The Ring, and so on.
Kazuna Kunnachi
Formerly the top contender in the "Student's" division of the monster card tournament, until he lost to Maro. He is a legit four-star professional adventurer.
- Graceful Loser: He holds no ill will towards Maro for winning via surprise upset, and in fact admires the crazy way it happened.
- Last Chance to Quit: During the tournament, he's utterly stomping Maro and offers the guy a chance to surrender to spare his monster cards. Maro strongly considers surrendering until Renka talks him out of it. Cue a surprise upset.
