by Yuu Tanaka
But where could I cook so much food? Fran would get bored if all she had was whole roast and stews. I wanted to expand my menu, but I was going to need a kitchen to do so.
We climbed up the stairs and headed to the room on the second floor. The number on our key was 204, a corner room.
“Here?”
Hey, it’s not half bad.
The fresh and clean room had a bed and a desk along with a small drawer. It also came installed with a wardrobe and some weapon mounts on the walls. It looked like the very picture of comfort. This inn was something else.
“Teacher, are you sure we’re in the right room?”
We are. Why do you ask?
“It’s such a nice room.”
Then I understood.
To Fran who had spent four years being a slave, this ordinary room was luxurious. Oh, you poor girl! I’ll definitely make you happy! But first, I needed to reassure her.
Not really. This is a standard room.
“Seriously?”
Yep. We’ll be able to stay at rooms like this from now on.
“Whoaaa!” Fran exclaimed, pumping her fists in the air. “I’m so glad I came with you, Teacher.”
Yeah?
“I feel like a winner already.”
That’s a little much.
“My time is now.”
Fran was so happy that she brimmed with excitement, not that I could tell from her usual expression. Still, I was glad she was enjoying herself.
We wanted to chill at the inn the rest of the day, but I remembered that we still had a little bit of shopping to do.
Hey, you wanna do some shopping while there’s still light out?
“What are we buying?”
Seasoning and cooking utensils. Remember how good the food was when we were out camping?
“Yeah.”
Well, with some seasonings, you could have even tastier food.
“We need to buy these seasonings now.”
We’ll need to go to the general store. I’m sure the receptionist will tell us where it is.
“Okay.”
We’re not leaving any belongings in the room, but let’s lock the door anyway.
“Sure.”
We asked the receptionist if she had any general store recommendations. There was one right along the main road next to the inn.
And we’re here.
The sign read “Saber-Tooth General Store.”
“Saber-Tooth?”
That doesn’t have a very “General Store” feel to it.
“But this is the only store here.”
Fran was right—there were no other general stores in the vicinity. I sighed, braced myself, and we went in.
The welcoming bell rang.
“Hey there!”
The inside of the shop was otherwise normal if not for the immensely buff shopkeeper. His greeting had such a manly inflection, it almost had a musk to go with it.
“General store?”
“That’s right. We’re very much a general store despite what the signboard says.”
I could imagine. Saber-Tooth wasn’t a name you’d give to a general store. Not to mention the shopkeeper looked like he was more at home in a dungeon than behind a counter. I could tell from his moves that he didn’t graduate from merchant school. I should Identify him to be sure.
Name: Rufus
Age: 41
Race: Human
Class: Merchant
LV: 30
HP: 188; Magic: 73; Strength: 150; Agility: 77
Skills: Transport 3; Disassemble 4; Harvesting 2; Arithmetic 1; Trading 2; Warhammer Arts 4; Warhammer Mastery 6; Tracking 2; Frost Resistance 2; Cooking 1; Spirit Manipulation; Giant Killer
Title: Giant Slayer
Equipment: Merchant Apron; Arithmetic Earrings
He didn’t have the stats of an ordinary merchant. He was a mid-rank adventurer with an avant-garde skill spread to boot. The fact that his Trading and Arithmetic skills were so low for a merchant felt incredibly out of place.
“Adventurer?”
“Used to be. I always had dreams of opening my own shop. I retired from adventuring three years ago and now, here I am.”
“Why the name? It’s not cute.”
Fran! Be polite.
“Hahaha! Yeah, I get that a lot. When I first opened up shop, I thought I’d need something to liven the place up. So, I decided to put that baby up over there.”
The shopkeeper pointed to the back of the store at the stuffed Saber-Tooth head. Its expression was frozen in a constant, intimidating roar.
“Cool.”
“I know, right? Most of the ladies who come through don’t think so, though. What a shame.”
Was this store safe? I probably would’ve left by now if the receptionist at the inn hadn’t recommended it.
I scanned the store as Fran carried on their conversation. The place did have a fine selection of goods, with everything from seasoning to basic necessities laid out in neat displays.
“Anyway, don’t let me stop you from looking around. Take your time.”
Let’s get our stuff.
“’Kay.”
It went without saying that we needed salt and pepper, but we picked up some sugar and spices while we were at it. We’d need some eating utensils like spoons and plates too.
Still, I couldn’t help but worry about the store’s lack of security. The merchandise was displayed all over the store like back in Japan. Considering the number of thieves this world had, you’d think the shopkeeper would’ve had a shoplifting problem…
Then again, the shopkeeper would’ve been able to handle minor thieves. The open display was probably his way of saying he was confident in his anti-theft measures.
In the end, we spent about 3,000G by the time we left the store. The shopkeeper liked us so much that he shouted, “Take care and come again” as we went out the door.
We have about 40,000G left.
“What should we get next?”
Some potions would be nice, but…
It was hard to justify their price.
“We have healing magic.”
Which is still at a low level. The most you can get out of that is a slight soothing sensation.
“We could level it up.”
I’ve been thinking about that.
We had 27 EP left. It took 2 EP to level up a skill, so we could max out a Level 1 skill if we wanted to. However, spending all our remaining EP made me feel uneasy.
We have other skills we could level up.
“Like what?”
Sword Arts, for example.
The Guildmaster had told us after our entrance exam that Dragon Fang was an intermediate-level Sword Art. Our Sword Art was already at Level 7, so shouldn’t bumping it to Level 10 take priority?
“Yeah, I think so too.”
Right?
But the Sword Art’s level could only go as high as our current level of Sword Mastery. If we wanted to max out Sword Art, we were going to need to max out Sword Mastery too. Spending our EP this way seemed like a bottleneck.
Our next candidate was Doppelganger. It was virtually useless in its current state, but what if we leveled it up? It might end up strong enough to fight like the Doppel Snake’s version. It could also run errands and would come in handy to act as Fran’s guardian for paperwork’s sake. It’d make it easier to get a room at any inn too.
“That sounds good.”
Right?
And there were the defensive skills: Instant Regen, Abnormal Status Resistance, and Physical Attack Resistance. They weren’t anything fancy, but they’d definitely come in handy in a fight. These three were also high-rank skills which were difficult to get.
Fran’s level was still low, so she wouldn’t be able to survive a hit from any mid-rank monster. We should play it safe until she gained a few more levels.
“I never thought of that.”
I don’t think it’d hurt to put a few levels into Instant R
egen.
It’d synergize well with Healing Magic. Of course, we’d be giving up the ability to cast healing spells on other people.
I thought it’d be best if we focused on leveling up one skill to the max instead of splitting our EP.
They’re all good skills, to be honest.
We finally decided to level up Healing Magic after our discussion at the inn. It was quite useful as it also unlocked Remedy for all our status effect needs. I’d also be able to heal Fran myself if she got into trouble.
We also unlocked Recover Magic as a result. It seemed to be the advanced form of Healing Magic, like Flame Magic was to Fire Magic. It came with Regenerate and Greater Heal, both at Level 1. Regenerate added a constant healing effect to a regular Heal, while Greater Heal was a much more powerful Heal that could restore broken body parts. Both were extremely useful.
Finally, we unlocked the Healing Mage title, which was probably the healing equivalent of our Fire Mage title.
Now we can heal ourselves out of any situation.
“Yeah.”
So, what do you wanna do tomorrow? Should we go to the guild and take on some quests? We still have money left over, so we could just kick back if you want.
“I wanna go questing.”
You sure? We’ll have to leave town if we do.
“I’m sure.”
Then we’re going to the guild tomorrow.
“Yeah. Can’t wait.”
Yep. We’ll have to level you up.
“Then what?”
What do you want to do, Fran? We can do anything you want.
“Anything…”
Anything come to mind?
“Hmm…?”
Hahaha. Well, think about it. Take your time.
“Yeah. I will.”
Chapter 3:
A Deal with the Guild
It was the first morning of our stay at the inn. I woke up staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Not that I could wake up, because I didn’t actually need sleep.
I woke Fran up and helped her change since she was always groggy in the morning. I cleaned her body with Cleansing Magic and washed her face with some conjured water. Fran’s hair was cut short with the sides slightly long, and her cowlicks stuck out in all directions this morning, so I made sure to straighten her hair out with some water.
“Good morning.”
Did you get a good night’s sleep?
“Perfect.”
We went to the cafeteria for breakfast.
“Here’s your breakfast platter!”
Breakfast was served on a wooden plate. It had tough rye bread and fried eggs, two links of sausage, and some boiled carrots. It came with clam chowder on the side.
How is it?
“Good.”
Fran, the former slave, was happily munching away at her large meal. Eat up so you can grow big and strong, Fran.
“Your cooking’s still better, though.”
Haha. Thanks for the compliment.
“It’s true. I wanna eat your cooking again.”
It was all thanks to maxing out my Cooking skill. Ironically enough, the greatest chef in the city of Alessa was a talking sword; I even had the title of Master Chef to prove it. But even without my Cooking skill, I’d still be better than Fran at cooking since I had retained memories of my past life. In any case, no matter how high my Cooking level was, I couldn’t cook anything that didn’t exist in this world. I was going to need to do large amounts of meal preparation and storage since Fran liked my food so much.
I’ll make you lunch since we’re going out today.
“Can’t wait. Let’s go.”
Let’s go take on some quests then.
“Sure.”
And so, we went to the Adventurer’s Guild.
“Hi.”
“Hello, looking to take on some quests?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ll find the quest board over there. G-Rank adventurers can only take on F- and G-Rank quests. They’re the leftmost part of the board.”
We began by browsing through the G-Rank quests.
No one was standing in front of the G-Rank quest board. Maybe we were too early, or maybe it was because there weren’t enough G-Rank adventurers to begin with.
Medicinal Herb Gathering; Boar Hunting; Mansion Lawn Mowing… Clean the Garbage Off the Streets?
“Lame.”
You’re right. And the pay’s cheap too.
What about the F-Rank quests?
They’re slightly better…
Kill five goblins; Fanged Rat Extermination; Mushroom Collecting in the Forest.
But they were all dull too. We couldn’t take on any other quests, so there was nothing we could do. Fran was still at a low level, so she would have to train with the weak monsters to level up.
“I’ll take this one.”
Medicinal Herb Gathering? Doesn’t sound too bad for your first job.
The herbs were used to make Tier 5 potions and other such products. They mostly grew in the forest.
“Here.”
“All right. Are you sure you want to accept this quest?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what a medicinal herb looks like? We have some samples if you want to take a look.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Affirmative. Once you clear five quests, you can take on a Rank Up Quest to promote you to F-Rank.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Nell the receptionist seemed to like us despite our making a huge scene the other day. This was good news.
All right, let’s go!
“Yeah.”
We showed our Guild Card at the gates and the gatekeeper let us pass through. He seemed to remember who Fran was though, and was thoroughly surprised when he saw she was an adventurer.
Where to?
“Hm… That way.”
Why?
“Just a feeling.”
Good answer. The quest didn’t have a due date, so we could take our time.
Let’s pick up the ones that aren’t healing herbs too. We’ll be able to turn those quests in as well once we get back.
“You’re so smart, Teacher.”
Hahaha, thanks. Keep going.
“You’re a genius.”
We strolled through the forest in a relaxed mood. We’d already gathered up the healing herbs we needed for the quest, and we had collected other herbs, mushrooms, and berries along the way too. We were able to tell which of the plants had any use thanks to the Harvesting, Herbology, and Cooking skills; even Danger Sense had an effect when we got close to poisonous plants. As a result, we knew how to use each plant even if it happened to be poisonous. The Pocket Dimension allowed us to bring whatever we wanted with us, so anything that caught our fancy went right in.
“Teacher.”
Yeah?
Suddenly, Fran stopped in her tracks. I wasn’t surprised, because I could feel what she was feeling.
Goblins? And there’re more than ten of them.
“Yeah.”
That’s a lot of goblins…
Fran had already gripped my handle and went into full alert. I didn’t stop her—going up against a pack of goblins would make for perfect EXP. Not that I could recommend it to a normal beginner.
Are they ganging up on adventurers?
“Over there.”
Three adventurers against…
“…thirteen goblins.”
Even high-rank goblins are mixed in there.
There was a goblin soldier, thief, and archer among the goblin pack.
On the flip side, the adventurers were just starting out. Anyone could tell going by their cheap armor and weaponry, even their pale faces, as the goblins closed in on them.
A fighter, an archer, and a mage. That’s good team composition, but it won’t do them much good with this many enemies surrounding them.
They’d all taken damage already too. The mage in particular was in
a critical state.
“I’m helping them.”
All right.
“We’ll break them up with magic and move in.”
We both began casting our spells. I cast Stone Bullet, which shot out little pebbles that didn’t usually do too much damage. But, if I charged it, each individual pebble could be made five times stronger. It didn’t take much for the damage to add up, and against a stationary target it was enough to punch holes through them. I could only do this because I had the Mage skill. It didn’t transfer over to Fran, so she had to make do with the normal version of the spell.
We could’ve razed all of them with a single fire spell, but I was worried about the possibility of a forest fire and decided against it.
“Stone Arrow.”
Stone Bullet!
We targeted the Goblin Thief together. Fran’s single projectile along with my five made for six consecutive shots into his body.
Fran is now Level 4.
That was enough to level her up. As weak as the goblin was, it was still a high-rank one.
Our ambush confused both parties and they all looked around to see what was going on. Fran used this opening to move in on the goblins.
Seven left.
“Huff.”
She cut two of them down as she passed by and slid through the adventurers and the goblin pack. I was on duty too. I had taken care of the ranged annoyance that was the Goblin Archer with a well-aimed Stone Arrow.
“What’s a little girl doing here?”
“She’s strong!”
The adventurers were astonished.
Some of the goblins had regained their footing and charged ahead, following the Goblin Soldier’s lead.
“Gya gyaooo!”
I see. They were smart enough to identify the most dangerous threat to them and decided to take her down first. Good thinking, for a bunch of goblins.
Too bad it’s not gonna work! Stone Bullet!
I was casting my spells throughout the battle. It was easy since I didn’t need to catch my breath for incantations. Stone Bullet shot out in a near instant with the two goblins on the right taking the hail head-on. They coughed up blood and soon died. Meanwhile, the two on the left were no match for Fran.
“Too slow.”
She used Double Slash to take down the last two in a flash. The adventurers just stood there, dumbstruck. The tide of battle had turned in their favor in under twenty seconds. I was sympathetic to their awe, but we might lose the injured mage if we didn’t do anything to help him.
