And after walking along the stream, I finally came back to the town. And I managed to return safely.
(I should bring that goblin something good to thank him sometime later.)
So, I walked straight to the Adventurer's Guild to report that I'd completed the herb-gathering quest.
"Ho, isn't that okan grass?"
"What's that?"
I was talking to the macho guy at the counter.
"It's a more valuable herb than the 'Ayuna' grass in the request. It's rare in this area."
"Eh, really? Then, do I have to complete the quest?"
"That would be the case normally, but, since the Ayuna grass is available every day, and there's no time limit for collecting it anyway.I'll make an exception here and change it for you.."
(I see, it's that kind of a quest. A quest with almost no danger.An appropriate-seeming job for someone like me.)
"Thank you very much."
(This guy is surprisingly nice. despite his scary looks. Or maybe the only thing that matters is results.)
"Here's your payment."
"Ah, thanks."
He handed me some coins from below the counter.
"For that amount of okan grass, the payment is 3 silver and 10 copper."
"I see. Thank you."
(I have no idea how much a silver coin is worth, but I should just take them.)
The coins made a sound as I put them in my pockets.
"And with that, your request is done."
Although the atmosphere make me uncomfortable, with so many scary guys. And I am not sociable man. I guess I will get used to this life someday. Oh well this is really nerve racking.
Being a guy with black hair and ayes , in the middle of a western like natives with different hair colours. I sort of became the centre of attention being stared at a lot.
So I walked faster in a hurry.
°°°
Not knowing how much money was worth was a big problem. I needed to fix that.
So, I asked a little girl I met on the road to tell me about the local prices in exchange for a tip.
One silver coin was worth 100 copper. One meal was 5 to 10 copper. A night at an inn was at least 13 copper.
I gave the girl 3 copper, and she left happily.
(If I'd tried that With a girl in middle school, I'd get arrested. And with a girl in elementary school, a buzzer would go off before I even talked to them.)
(For now, I need to buy a bag and some clothes. Is there anything else I need...?)
My clothes had mostly dried, thanks to the weather, but they were badly torn, and I wasn't sure if they'd last another day. So a change of clothes was needed.
I entered a random shop along the street and asked about their prices.
I managed to buy a complete set of Secondhand clothes without spending too much money. The pants and jacket I got were made of some thick leather, and the underwear was made of something like cotton.
I searched several other stores, and bought a bag made of the same leather, which was a sack with a drawstring.
In total, I'd spent one silver. To me, that felt expensive compared to the cost of food and lodging.
I had 2 silver left.
( I need a sword , so I can at least look like an adventurer.)
I'd dreamed of being a swordsman when I was younge, and now the opportunity was right in front of me. I walked along the street, looking for a weapon store.
°°°
"Welcome."
The weapon store I found, had swords, axes, spears, and some other things I didn't even recognize. It reminded me of anime and manga.
(Ah, I could look at these all day.)
(But wait, these are all really expensive.)
Looking at the price tags, most of the weapons were around 30 to 50 silver. The most expensive one I saw was 300 silver.
(Hey, hey, that should be enough to buy a lot of things.)
"Hello...?"
If I could get a sword for one silver, that would be fine, but these were too expensive.
"What?"
"Is there anything I can get for one silver?"
"One silver? No."
(How blunt. What a rude shopkeeper!)
As I looked at the shopkeeper, I realized that he looked a lot like a dwarf. In fact, he was a dwarf.
(A real dwarf! Amazing.)
"Nothing, huh?"
"To come into my store expecting to get something for one silver, you must be out of your mind. You won't find a decent weapon anywhere for one silver."
"Ah, I see. Sorry for bothering you, then."
"If you're not buying anything, then get out of here."
"Ehh?"
I gave up on that store and left. As I walked along the street, I thought about what to do next.
(I could gather some more of those medicinal herbs, but I only managed to get them because I happened to meet a friendly goblin. There's no way that's going to be safe because it was very deep in the forest.)
(Weapons are expensive, I'd at least like some kind of basic weapon for self-defense.)
(Ah, what about magic?! Maybe I could manage to launch a fireball or something.)
I had gotten recovery magic, but not attack magic. Still, I had a lot of MP.
passive:
magic recovery: Lv.Max
magic efficiency: Lv.Max
active:
recovery magic: Lv.Max
remaining skill points: 2
(Recovery magic is still my only active skill, but I gained some skill points. Nice!)
(I'll have to use those for something. But how do I use them? I can see this window, but there's not anything like a cursor.)
(No, wait. I just had to imagine about using my recovery magic and it worked.)
And so I imagined myself shooting a Fireball. Fire Wall would also be fine. Fire Arrow is good too. Fire Lance would be cool."
I felt like everone nearby was staring at me like I was a madman, but I tried to ignore that.
After a little while, something happened. I felt like I'd gotten an electric shock from inside my body.
(Did it work?!)
I checked my skills again.
passive:
magic recovery: Lv.Max
magic efficiency: Lv.Max
active:
recovery magic: Lv.Max
fire magic: Lv.1
remaining skill points: 1
"Hah! There it is!"
I didn't know the specifics of what I'd gotten, but I hoped it was something I could use to burn enemies. If I could do that, then I'd be fine without a sword.
(Now then, time to find an inn for the night.)
(When I was lost in the forest I was worried about what would happen to me, but now I at least can protect myself probably?.)
(Hmm, I wonder what the max level for skills is.)
(And how do other people raise skills? Do they see windows for them too, and allocate skill points by mumbling to themself? I wish I could look this stuff up online.)
(Maybe I'll find another random little girl on the street to ask sometime.)
I was really happy that in this area little girls were willing to even talk to creppy looking guy like me.
(Actually, considering how happy she was about getting that copper coin, I might be able to go to a brothel for a silver.)
(Should I give it a try?)
(...)
(For now, I should just get some food. The only thing I've had today was that water from the stream in the forest. I'm really hungry.)
°°°
As the sun set, some taverns were opening. There was a good smell coming from an entrance, so I went in.
About 90% of the seats were full. I grabbed one of the remaining counter seats ,and ordered an unfamiliar meat dish. As I stuffed my stomach with that, I also got my first experience with the alcohol of another world.
(Not bad.)
The meat was steak-like, and the drink was similar to beer. Both were the sort of thing I liked.
"Delicious."
I swiftly attacked the remaining food. I'd spent all day walking, so I was quite hungry. After I'd finished the food, I had the rest of my drink.
(Ah, sweet sweet alcohol. It's fortunate that alcoholic drinks exist here too.)
I'd finished two mugs.
"Paaahh." I looked up at the ceiling as I sighed.
(My alcohol tolerance isn't really that high, so I shouldn't drink too much.)
(...but one more is probably fine.)
I waved at a waitress to order one more mug. That's when something hard hit me in the back of the head.
"...ow..."
There was the sound of something hard breaking. Someone had thrown a plate.
(What kind of a place is this?!)
"Recovery, re-recovery...?"
While rubbing the back of my head, I used my recovery magic. The pain immediately stopped, and I turned around.
A brawl was getting started. Two of the scary-looking people I saw in the Adventurer's Guild building were facing each other. As I watched, they started going at each other like animals.
(What do I do here?)
(...)
I quietly turned back to the right and looked away. I didn't want to be involved.
"Um, excuse me, could I get another drink?"
I was a little quieter than usual as I addressed the waitress.
"...are you OK? That was an hard blow before."
The waitress was concerned about the back of my head.
(What a good person!)
She is about 16 years old, and quite pretty, with brown hair to her shoulders and lovely red-brown eyes. She'd been going around the tavern energetically, and the apron she was wearing suited her well.
"Yes, I'm fine. Can I get another drink? Same kind."
"You...you're a really calm person, aren't you..."
"Not really..."
(I'm just content if I have beer. The fight behind me is not my problem. Not my problem.)
She nodded to indicate that she'd understood my order, and went to get me another drink.
As I was thinking that my drink would be coming soon, something hit me in the back of my head again.
"Agh..."
It was even worse than the first time. I fell onto the counter in front of me, and something hit the floor . It was probably a wooden mug.
"Recov...recovery..."
I did recovery magic in my confusion, and the pain in my head went away again.
"...shit, this tavern is something."
I glanced behind me, and the same two guys were there.
"Are you, are you OK?"
The waitress had arrived with my drink as the same thing happened again. I was happy about her concern.
"...yeah, somehow."
"That was even harder than before, though..."
"Don't worry about it. Can I get my drink?"
"Ah, yes, here you are."
"Ahh, delicious."
"...you're pretty tough. At least, your head is."
"Not really."
(Recovery magic really is great. If I didn't have that, I'd probably be in pain for a few minutes after that.)
"Ahh..."
"Eh?"
Then, the waitress suddenly shrieked, and there was a thump below me. The stool was knocked out from under me, and I hit the floor.
"Ooooooooo!"
I unconsciously shouted out as I fell.
(What the hell?)
Even as I was still shouting, I was already using my recovery magic yet again.
Once the pain had gone away, I got up again. That's when I saw what had hit my stool: one of the brawling macho guys was lying on the floor nearby.
"Are, are you OK?"
"...all right, I'm all-ight."
The macho guy lying on the floor had hit his head hard and was unconscious. The remaining guy was looking at him smugly, and seemed satisfied.
"Um, sir...?"
The waitress was looking at me with concern. My magic had healed my body, but her gaze healed my soul.
"...what is it, asshole? You wanna go too?"
The remaining guy was glaring at me. His face was bright red and he was obviously drunk.
(He must be the kind of guy who drinks until he doesn't remember what happened the next day.)
(For now, I should check his status.)
name: Otah fotre
gender: male
race: human
level: 23
job: swordsman
ＨＰ:4 0 0/5 1 0
ＭＰ:０/０
ＳＴＲ:１７０
ＶＩＴ:２２０
ＤＥＸ:１２１
ＡＧＩ:８７
ＩＮＴ:２０
ＬＵＣ:２８
(There's no way I could win.)
(I have high INT but no armor or defense, so I'd be done for in one hit. I wouldn't even have a chance to use my recovery magic. Although I want to try my new magic but I afraid it would weak since it's just level 1.)
"No, not really..."
I put the stool back up and sat on it again.
"Hah! You scared? This virgin wimp is scared!"
(...well, excuse me for being a virgin.)
(What the hell with this guy picking a fight with me too?)
"...sorry."
(For now, I'll just apologize and hope he leaves me alone.)
"Hah, this little pus*y is apologizing!"
After that, his attention seemed to turn away from me.
(Whew. I'm saved.)
Not wanting to be any more involved than I already was, I turned away from him again. Miraculously, my drink on the counter was still safe. I took it and started drinking.
(Ahh, delicious beer. It's delicious, but somehow...)
I couldn't enjoy my drink quite as much with a guy on the floor near my feet. And that guy was starting a fight with another man Behind me.
(That's enough drinks for today.)
"Excuse me, can I get the bill."
"Ah, ok..."
I paid 10 copper coins and left .
I should head to a Inn to get some rest.