Volume 1 - Chapter 4 - The old man heads to the city of beginnings (1/2)

Yesterday, I traveled into a wild cave dungeon in search of a hidden room that was capable of resetting a person’s level. In that same room, there was a girl around the age of 13 encased in a giant crystal. After releasing her from the crystal, I brought her home where we discovered that she suffered from amnesia. Unable to recall her name, she requested for me to name her. Now, that girl is called Luna.

She was satisfied with her name, saying that it was a cute name. I should probably avoid letting her know that I got the name from a meat pie.

Fast forward to the next morning, I am sleeping soundly in my own bed. Originally, the plan was to have Luna sleep on the bed while I slept on the sofa. However, Luna was so adamant about sleeping together that she even crawled onto the sofa while I was sleeping. In the end, I carried her to the bed and got into the bed together with her. After I got into the bed, I turned my back towards her and fell asleep. This girl is either really shameless or just outright bold, wanting to sleep with a man that she had just met the very same day.

Could it be that all girls her age are this bold?

Well, regardless of her behavior, she wasn’t an ordinary girl. She was a girl whom I found encased in a crystal and suffered from amnesia. If anything, she was far from ordinary. Not to mention the crystal she was trapped in was located in a hidden room within a random wild dungeon. Even if coincidentally the entrance to the room was discovered by an adventurer, the person would have to satisfy the requirement to unlock the room. Any adventurer who was level 50, would not have discovered the room as the dungeon level was estimated to be around level 30. Thus, for someone to locate the hidden room, they would require information about the room beforehand. Anyone who had access to such information is definitely not normal. If the person who located the room wasn’t normal, there is no doubt that the person trapped inside is not normal too.

At this point, I am fairly certain that Luna was a special existence. The very fact that she was a Fox Beastman is proof enough. Foxes didn’t exist in this world, and that confused me when I first discovered her. However, once I remembered the memories of my past life, I could determine that her ears and tail resembled a fox. Well that is still a superficial reason though. Truth was I wanted to be in the same party as Luna. My instincts were telling me that this girl must not left alone. As a veteran adventurer, the more experience you have, the harder it is to ignore your intuition.

For breakfast, we ate some preserved food that was stored at home for emergencies. After breakfast, we waited outside the front door as I was expecting a carriage to arrive. After waiting for several minutes, a carriage could be seen turning the corner before arriving at my doorstep.

Initially, I planned to leave this village and return to the countryside. However, I only intended to bring the essentials as well as my valuable magic items such as my Magic bag (Capacity:Large) and my Magic Sword. It was a routine for adventurers who were changing their base of operations or retiring to sell off their furniture and other items to merchants in the area. In my case, it was the latter. This was a well-accepted practice as it allowed the adventurer to earn a large sum of money while the merchant obtained excellent second-hand goods that were more likely to be beneficial to the merchant either for resale purposes or for quality of life purposes as items that are picked up from dungeons are generally classified as Magic items.

When I was an adventurer, I had obtained many valuable items from venturing into the dungeons. Although there weren’t any intentions to use most of the items, it was the norm to hoard as much items as possible as there was a chance for the items to be useful in the future. This does not mean that I did not sell any Magic items as there were still items that were useless for adventurers. I sold many items on the marketplace in my time, however the stockpile that I possessed had never diminished as they were always replenished whenever I entered into a dungeon.

I kept valuable items such as my Magic Sword and Magic Bag as they were rare items that almost never appear on the marketplace. These types of items are worth a fortune, however they were not items that could easily be obtained by having money.

Normally, I would deliver the goods to the merchant using my Magic Bag as it was capable of storing up to 100 kilograms of items, however as I was also selling heavier items such as furniture, my Magic Bag wasn’t able to store all the items, thus I had to ask the merchant to collect the items personally using a carriage.

[Good morning, Yuuya-san. As we agreed, I am here to pick up the goods.] (Merchant)

[Oyassan, I leave the collection to you, the items are all in the living room.] (Yuuya)

The merchant proceeded to collect all the items that I had prepared in the living room and loaded them onto his carriage.

[Yosh, that’s the last of them. As far as I can tell, all the items that we agreed on are present. Here’s the payment.] (Merchant)

The merchant handed over a small pouch as well as the parchment detailing the transaction. As I was about to sign the parchment, I spotted an item in the corner of my eye.

[Oyassan, sorry but could I keep that dagger?] (Yuuya)

[Well it’s just one dagger. The goods that you sold me were mostly first-class items. That one dagger doesn’t matter that much. Go ahead. I’ll let it slide as a sign of our friendship.] (Merchant)

[Thank you.] (Yuuya)

The merchant returned the dagger that I asked for and I took the dagger graciously. After being an adventurer for decades, this was the second best dagger I have ever come across.

Its name was Bazerato.

It’s a lightweight dagger that was crafted from the Fang of a monster. It inherited its offensive properties and durability from the monster it belonged to, possessing offensive capabilities and a durability that was on par to a normal long sword despite being a dagger.

For your information, I kept the best dagger in a compartment on my breastplate for emergencies such as my Magic Sword breaking in the middle of combat. I kept it there instead of my Magic Bag as the few seconds required to find the dagger in my bag is a matter of life or death in the midst of combat. It wa also useful for other situations outside of combat.

[Here Luna, take this dagger.] (Yuuya)

I passed Bazerato to Luna.

[This dagger looks expensive.. Yuuya I can’t take this dagger, I don’t have any money on me.] (Luna)

Sigh this girl. She couldn’t just receive the dagger without any worries can she.

[The money doesn’t matter. If you want to be an adventurer, you will pay me with your body.] (Youya)

So long as you work hard as my party member, that much is fine.

[Huh? Okay.. If that is fine with you. I don’t remember anything so it’s my first time. I don’t have any experience so I’ll try my best!] (Luna)

Luna’s face started to turn red as she started fidgeting around. The tip of her tail was sweeping the ground as it moved back and forth.

[Eh? You? To such a small child?] (Merchant)

[Sigh. Please don’t cause any misunderstandings. And you of all people should know that I will never lay a hand on a child. Luna, I meant that you will be working as an adventurer to pay back the money.] (Yuuya)

[Phew. Then I will do my best! Together with Bazerato!] (Luna)

Luna seems to be excited about using Bazerato. It’s a good thing that she has taken a liking to it. Based on her body structure, it would had been difficult for her to handle a normal sword. So it was best for her to utilize a short dagger which is easier to use. Bazerato is a powerful dagger because it does not have any level requirement, meaning that even a level 1 adventurer could equip it. Although the dagger itself is powerful, I need to remember to teach her how to properly handle the dagger as well as sword techniques.

[Anyway, it appears that you have picked up another brat again. You never change even as time passes by huh.] (Merchant)

[Well that is how I am, I can’t help it.] (Yuuya)

My relationship with the merchant goes back to my adventuring days. Back in those days, I was a relatively well-known adventurer. Once, I had participated in a quest to rescue an Elven village from pillagers. We were both in the same group and in the end, the quest was successful with us managing to save a bunch of elven girls from being kidnapped. Among those elven girls, was Phil.

The clothes that Luna is wearing now were the exact same clothes I gave to Phil that day. Phil grew up as an adventurer, in the same party as me, alongside Leonard who is revered as hero in the current era. The same party that I had abandoned.

[Well then I wish you guys good luck in your future endeavors. Oh before I leave, remember to sign the parchment.] (Merchant)

After quickly revising the contents of the parchment and the pouch, I signed the parchment and returned the parchment to the merchant.

[Now then, I hope to see you again, Yuuya.] (Merchant)

[You too. Oyassan. I wish your business runs smoothly. Isn’t it time for you to leave the business to your son?] (Yuuya)

[Don’t be crazy. I am still up and active you know. Different from a certain someone.] (Merchant)

I smiled bitterly at the merchant’s retort. I forgot that I told him I was retiring today. However, my retirement plans ended yesterday. Now I will be restarting my adventures.

Part 2

Before heading over to Rumberg, Luna and I travelled on Raptor to a neighboring town where we paid for a caravan that was heading towards our destination. The distance to Rumberg was too far for us to rely on Raptor for any battles that might occur, so I decided to travel there with a caravan instead. For caravans, although we were required to pay a fee, we had escorts that served as our bodyguards during the trip. So our safety during the trip was guaranteed. However the downside was that the caravan travels at a slow pace. Most likely, it would take us two days to arrive at Rumberg.

As I looked back from the carriage, the village could no longer be seen in the distance. When I left the village, one of the people who came to see me off was Nikita. She cried as I was preparing to leave, telling me that she wanted to follow me. She was willing to leave behind her family and the bar to accompany me on my journey. However, I could not allow such a child to abandon her family and their business just to follow me. After trying to convince her for half an hour, she finally gave in and accepted my departure.

After arriving at the town, Luna and I joined the caravan where I was offered a high price for Raptor. Although the amount was tempting, the bond I had with Raptor was priceless and rejected the offer.

I feel that I am starting to become sentimental. Is this because of my age?

[Yuuyaaa. I’mm boreddddd.] (Luna)

While I was lost in thought, Luna was fed up with the journey.

[The trip will only last two days. It won’t be long.] (Yuuya)

[But the trip is boring!!!] (Luna)