Year -4 of the New Calendar.
[Mid-Wind Month], May 30th.
Moving with the crowd, Aaron walked along the main street. Parts of the stone-paved road had sunk slightly from the sheer number of feet that had passed over them.
Even so, the ground remained quite clean. Only in the cracks along the edges of the street could faint traces of moss be seen.
The surrounding houses were arranged in an orderly fashion, mostly in light tones, with darker roofs done in a European style.
As Aaron walked, he observed the area while heading toward the Adventurer Guild of E-Rantel.
First, he needed a place to properly rest.
He had left the royal capital on May 17, and it was now thirteen days later.
It was time to move leveling up to the top of the agenda.
Near E-Rantel, the Great Forest of Tob and the Katze Plains were, in his view, key leveling grounds.
Aaron planned to go to the Great Forest of Tob first.
Not only because the forest was full of beasts and monsters, but also because, with his current means, he had no effective way to damage the undead that infested the Katze Plains.
So—
he needed to prepare some supplies. For that, he had to thank the Rock party for the wilderness survival tricks they had taught him.
Instead of going straight to the Adventurer Guild, he headed for an inn near it. Supposedly, these inns had sprung up as an offshoot of the guild.
Some high-ranking adventurer parties could even stay at those inns for free.
After walking for more than ten days in a row,
Aaron felt that back in his previous life his legs would have been ruined by now.
But now,
after this entire journey, he felt nothing more than a bit of fatigue. There was no real discomfort, not even a single blister on his feet.
That alone made him suspect that leveling up did more than boost raw strength—his physical constitution itself was clearly improving.
He unhooked the waterskin from his waist and took a swig. After walking through several blocks, he found a small inn one street over from the Adventurer Guild.
This type of inn had two kinds of rooms.
One was a shared room, sleeping 4–6 people, at 1 copper per person per day.
The other was a two-person room, at 5 copper per person per day.
These inns clearly catered to adventurer parties, which made sense. Aside from adventurers and passing merchant caravans, local commoners would never stay in inns.
Aaron naturally was not going to stay in a shared room. He simply booked a two-person room for himself. Estimating how long he needed to prepare his supplies, he paid for two days in total, which cost him 20 copper.
About 1 silver and 7 copper.
Click.
He pushed open the brown wooden door, whose worn hinges squealed sharply.
Aaron stepped in, shut the door behind him, and looked around the room.
It was not large—only about eleven or twelve square meters. Two wooden beds stood in the middle, with a simple nightstand between them.
There was no other furniture, giving the place a very bare look. The only thing that comforted Aaron was that the room had its own toilet.
This other world, taken as a whole, was roughly at a medieval level. But because of magic, it could not be treated as purely medieval.
For example,
whether in the royal capital or in central E-Rantel, there were streetlight-like fixtures on the main roads.
They were not actual streetlights, of course, but magic lamps containing a spell called "Continual Light."
The journey had been tiring, but bearable. The only thing that had really gotten to Aaron was the issue of going to the bathroom.
This world did have "paper."
However, papermaking was extremely primitive. Production was low, and no one was inclined to spend time improving it.
Because this world had something that did not exist in YGGDRASIL at all: zero-tier magic.
This type of magic was also called life magic.
It cost only a small amount of mana and could easily produce large quantities of paper. With that available, no one felt any need to refine papermaking techniques.
Thankfully,
the Rock party were high earners. Once people had money, their living standards tended to rise.
Otherwise—
Ahem.
Aaron coughed lightly, cutting off that train of thought.
He had first heard about zero-tier magic from the Rock party. According to Dosari,
these purely convenience-focused spells were not something most magic casters bothered to learn. Unless they had a personal need, they preferred to just buy scrolls with the spells on them.
That bit of intel
had given Aaron an idea. His method of acquiring skills was to watch others use them and then spend skill points to learn them.
So if someone used a scroll to cast a spell, could he still learn it by spending skill points?
And then there was the matter of money.
Whether he liked it or not, supplies cost coin.
For the Great Forest of Tob, at the very least,
he needed to buy armor, and especially weapons. His short sword would probably have its edge ruined after a few beasts.
He could not afford magic weapons, but he at least needed a few decent regular blades.
The basic cost of living in this world was not high, but the moment magic got involved, prices became absurd.
A cup with nothing but a cooling enchantment cost around 150 gold.
Any weapon with magical properties, regardless of power, was worth over 1,000 gold.
That was something ordinary people could never touch in their entire lives.
With what he had right now, he could barely afford a few decent mundane weapons.
On the road to E-Rantel, he had already been thinking about how to make money. Asking Nfirea for advice on crafting recovery potions had been part of that plan.
However,
once he understood the process, he knew he could not afford to spend that much time gathering herbs and studying herbal lore.
So,
he had turned his attention to zero-tier magic—life magic.
"At least the money Captain Dosari gave me solved the immediate problem."
Aaron took out the coin pouch.
He had checked it earlier: there were 20 gold coins inside. Combined with what he already had, he now possessed 22 gold, 4 silver, and 4 copper.
He stowed the pouch in his Item Box and rubbed his temples. There were many things to think through, but for now…
Thump.
Aaron walked over to one of the beds and flopped down on his back.
He had been sleeping outdoors the whole time, with his nerves wound tight.
Now, he could finally lie down on a real bed.
More than anything, he needed to rest and recover.
Turning his head, he glanced out the window. The sun was still high; it was just past noon by his reckoning.
The inn was close to the Adventurer Guild, and it was broad daylight outside. He could get some decent rest.
With that thought,
Aaron closed his eyes.
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