Atelier Tanaka

Book 1: Chapter 3: Adventurer's Guild pt.2

I followed the stream, and it really did lead back to the town. I'd managed to safely return to civiliation.

(I should bring that goblin some pastries as thanks sometime.)

So, I headed to the Adventurer's Guild to report that I'd completed the herb-gathering quest.

"Ho, isn't that Makon grass?"

"What's that?"

I was talking to the macho bald guy at the counter.

"It's a more valuable herb than the 'Aruna' grass in the request. It rarely grows in this area."

"Eh, really? Then, did I fail at the quest?"

"That would usually be the case, but, well, I'll make an exception here and change it for you. We get Aruna grass coming in year-round, and there's no time limit for collecting it anyway."

(I see, it's that kind of a quest. It sounds like it's something similar to homeless people collecting cans. An appropriate-seeming job for someone like me.)

"Thank you very much."

(This guy looks scary, but maybe he's actually surprisingly nice. Or maybe the only thing that matters is results.)

"Here's your payment."

"Ah, thanks."

He took some coins from below the counter.

"For that amount of Makon 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 "cha-rin" sound as I put them in my pockets.

"And with that, your request is done."

I'd hardly said anything other than "thank you" there. I couldn't help being bad at conversation with someone scary-looking. The atmosphere there also made me uncomfortable. It felt like I imagined it would be like to go downtown in a Western city.

I hadn't seen people of different races here, so with me being a short Japanese guy it was inevitable that I'd be stared at.

I left in a little bit of 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 Japanese girl in high school, they'd probably want 3000 yen. (~$25) 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.

I entered a random shop along the street and asked about their prices.

Secondhand clothes were a lot cheaper, and I managed to buy a complete set 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 stores, and bought a bag made of the same leather, which was more of a sack with a drawstring than a proper handbag.

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.

(What should I do with the remaining money? Oh, it's obvious. This is a fantasy world, so I need a sword.)

I'd dreamed of being a swordsman when I was 14, and now the opportunity was right in front of me. It was going to get dark soon, so I walked quickly along the street, looking for a weapon store.

"Welcome."

I found a weapon store. They had swords, axes, spears, and some other things I didn't even recognize. It reminded me of a theme park, somehow.

(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 car.)

"Hello...?"

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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 happen twice in a row.)

(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 think about using my recovery magic and it worked.)

I mumbled to myself as I walked: "I want to shoot fireballs. Shoot fireballs. Fireballs. Fireball, fireball, 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 with shit on my hand, I was worried about what would happen to me, but now I can sort of see what to do.)

(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 an ugly 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 like a baseball player sliding to home base, and ordered an unfamiliar meat dish. As I stuffed my face 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 German 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 incredible noise before."

The waitress was concerned about the back of my head.

(What a good person!)

She looked about 15 years old, and was quite pretty, with light 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 with a "tonk" noise. 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 is some tavern."

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 pretty loud, 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 agony 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 fell to 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. I was happy that she was worried about someone like me. 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: Otto Mcfare

gender: male

race: human

level: 23

job: swordsman

/

/

(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.)

"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.)

(Or rather, why is this guy picking a fight with me too?)

"...sorry."

(For now, I'll just apologize and hope he leaves me alone.)

"Hah, this little runt 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 body on the floor near my feet. Behind me, that guy was starting a fight with another man.

I was worried about the mental strain on the waitress.

(That's about enough drinks for today.)

"Excuse me, I'd like to get the bill."

"Ah, yes..."

I paid 10 copper coins and left the tavern.