Vol 1 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Volume 1 Chapter 3 Part 1

He walked for 25 minutes after leaving the guild. Before s.h.i.+ns eyes was a signboard with a bears paw drawn on it. It matched Selicas description perfectly, so this was most likely The Badgers Pavilion.

This must be the place.

Just in case, he double checked one more time before reaching for the handle. As he slowly opened the door, the sound of laughter spilled out. Inside The Badgers Pavilion was a large counter in the middle and seven large tables that filled out the rest of the room. At every single table were people who looked like adventurers holding a tankard in a hand and making merry. Five of those tables were already full.

As s.h.i.+n gazed at this scene, a shadow fell over him. Something was blocking the light. Feeling someones presence behind him, he turned around.

Nn?

What came into view was an ap.r.o.n embroidered with flowers and an arm three times as thick as s.h.i.+ns own.

Welcome! Are you alone?

The voice came from above his head, so he looked up. He found himself staring into the eyes of a man very much like a rock with an indisputably evil grin on a grim face.

Huge ......

Instead of an answer, what came out of s.h.i.+ns mouth was just that word. At 180 cemels, s.h.i.+n was taller than the average person. However, the person currently in front of him probably topped 230 cemels. Pretty much a giant.

Whats the matter, sonny. Youre lacking spirit! Yes, sir! No wait, Im sorry, who are you?

s.h.i.+n came back to his senses at the mans words. His answer was still a bit disoriented, though.

Me? Im the owner of The Badgers Pavilion, and also its poster old guy! Im Douma Bear! ...... old guy ...... ?

s.h.i.+n cant be faulted for thinking, Isnt it normally postergirl?

(T/N: There is this j.a.panese traditional/strategy of having a pretty girl stay outside your store and attract customers inside. Over time, she would get well-known as the face of the store in the eyes of the customers. Well, a lot of the store owners just had their own daughters do it, though. This job is called being thekanban musume, which I translate as poster girl. The joke here is that the role that Douma is claiming is at complete odds with his looks.)

Indeed! Im the popular old guy who is attracting customers to the store! Thats what it means to be a poster old Thats supposed to be a poster GIRLs job! guy.

s.h.i.+n couldnt help blurting out a retort.

Umu. Nice retort!

For some reason, the self-called poster old guy gave s.h.i.+n a thumbs up.

Did I go into the wrong place ...... Dont be embarra.s.sed about it, young man! Im not embarra.s.sed! What part of me is embarra.s.sed, huh?!

Before they knew it, they had started amanzaiskit.

(T/N:Manzaiis a specific genre of comedy that involves someone saying stupid/silly things (called theboke) and someone retorting in response (both the retort and the role are calledtsukkomi). For example, Douma said that hes a poster old man, and s.h.i.+n points out that its supposed to be a poster girl, or Douma telling s.h.i.+n to not be embarra.s.sed, but s.h.i.+n says that hes not even embarra.s.sed in the first place.)

Good going, kiddo!! Show us more!!

s.h.i.+n sighed at the yells from the group of drunkards. They looked completely wasted.

Haa, guess I should look for a different What are you guys doing!!! inn?

s.h.i.+n was sincerely considering finding another inn when a womans voice sliced through the din like it was banis.h.i.+ng what s.h.i.+n was thinking. s.h.i.+n thought the voice had come from behind Douma. Due to Doumas large bulk, though, s.h.i.+n couldnt see the owner of the voice at all.

Dad? Im always telling you to stop saying weird things, right? What are you going to do if people start spreading strange rumors about us?

It was a quiet, gentle voice, but at the moment it was clearly overflowing with suppressed anger.

No, you see, this was, I was just playing a little pra Shut up. ...... Yes, maam.

A curt dismissal of even his attempt at an excuse. Judging from the words just now, the owner of the voice was Doumas daughter, but apparently the roles of the one doing the scolding and the one being scolded had been reversed.

Ill take care of the hall, so Dad, you go to the kitchen and help Mom! O-okay.

Douma headed towards the kitchen with shoulders lowered. s.h.i.+n felt that it wasnt just his imagination that Doumas figure had shrunk by a size.

Im terribly sorry about showing you something so weird out of the blue. Are you here for a meal? Or do you wish to book a room?

Doumas existence had been reduced to simply something weird. With Douma off to the kitchen, s.h.i.+n finally saw the daughter that had been scolding Douma. She had short brown hair. The smile on her face was probably her business smile, but it was already plenty attractive. Rather than beautiful, the word cute probably suited her better.

Ah, a room please. Is what happened just now a frequent occurrence here? To be honest, Id rather you forget it all, but yes, every now and then. Adventurers are generally quite happy to go along with it, so its fine, but its pretty hard dealing with the aftermath when he does it to merchants. So, its 2 J silver coins for a night, with dinner and breakfast included. Whenever you want a bath, just tell us, the fee is 4 J bronze coins each time. We can serve you breakfast anytime before the 9th bell. If all this is fine with you, the please sign here in the register. Alright.

s.h.i.+n didnt know if 2 J silver coins was expensive or cheap, but he could easily pay it, considering how much he had on hand, so he agreed. (T/N: If you forgot, he got 26 J gold coins and 27 silver coins from Tiera. 1 gold = 100 silver)

I dont actually know when Im staying until, how will that work out? In that case, you can either pay day by day, or you can pay for a certain number of days in advance and then extend it as needed. For confirmations sake, youre an adventurer, right? Yes, I just registered today. It was Selica-san who referred this place to me. A referral from Selica-san?! You should have said that in advance! In that case, its 1 J silver and 90 J bronze per day. I normally recommend adventurers to pay for a few days in advance. It often happens that they cant come back to the inn for a few days when theyre off on a request. If youre not staying in the room and you havent paid for it in advance, then we will deal with the stuff inside any way we see fit and rent the room out to someone else, so please be careful.

For adventurers, requests that take up several days are not unusual, which would leave their room unoccupied for a while. If they cant come back every day, then they cant pay day by day.

Ill pay in advance, then. For now, this much.

So saying, s.h.i.+n took out a single J gold coin from his chest pocket (or so he pretended to, while actually taking it out from his inventory) and handed it over.

50 days it is. What do you want to do about the change? I do plan on using the bath, so please put all the change towards that. Understood. When it runs out, well tell you. Now that its all settled, please write your name here on the register. If you need a scribe to write it for you, that will be 2 J silver coins. No need, Im good. ...... Is this fine? ...... Yes, thats fine. s.h.i.+n-san it is. Here you go, your room is 201 on the second floor. Do you know about us having safes for you to put your valuables in? Safes? No I dont, this is my first time hearing about it.

After signing the inn register, s.h.i.+n was handed the key to his room. However, he had never heard of inns in the game having safes, so he tilted his head quizzically.

No matter, it wont hurt to know about them. Having safes is proof of being an inn with a certain amount of prestige and quality. A safe is, in short, a vault that you can safely leave your valuables in. It can only be opened by the person who put the things inside and the manager. It is utterly impervious to all attacks, be they physical, magical, or skill. Well, the safe is a magical item itself, but basically, even if the entire inn was leveled, the contents of the safe would still be completely fine. What do you think? Its pretty awesome, aint it? There arent that many inns around here who have them.

While listening to the explanation with the self-promotion subtly slipped in, s.h.i.+n acknowledged that it sounded very st.u.r.dy. At the very least, he understood that having it made this inn a lot better than its neighbors. If it wasnt for the poster old guy, then this inn would have been perfect, thought s.h.i.+n while barely holding back a wry smile.

After receiving the key, s.h.i.+n immediately went up to the second floor. He didnt do it because he had luggage to put down, as he didnt really have much in the way of luggage, but rather to just check out the room.

Room 201 was the first one from the end of the hallway on the second floor. Inside the 10 tatami size room were a table, a chair, a bed, and a closet. Considering that it was a room for a single person, the size was more than sufficient. Deeper inside the room was the aforementioned safe, where he could supposedly store his valuables. s.h.i.+n was pretty sure that that was the safe, since there wasnt anything else in the room that looked like one.

(T/N: In j.a.pan, the size of a room, and that of a house is typically measured by the number of tatami mats orjou. The dimensions of a mat is usually around 90 cm by 180 cm by 5 cm.)

Aside from the furnis.h.i.+ngs, the room also had a person toilet. It was even a flush toilet. s.h.i.+n was very surprised, to put it mildly.

Of course, a room at an inn having a toilet isnt really anything particularly surprising. However, s.h.i.+ns situation was slightly special.

In the first place, the very concept of a toilet did not exist in THE NEW GATE.

No matter how much the game aimed to mimic reality, most likely the idea of including the bodily function of excretion did not even cross the developers minds. What a downer it would be if nature suddenly called when the player was just enjoying traveling through the world or was in the middle of a monster attack!

It was no different in the death game. Therefore, it had been more than a year since s.h.i.+n had last seen a toilet. And it wasnt just any toilet, it was a flush toilet. It could be said that an inn with the quality of The Badgers Pavilion having a personal toilet in each room was a given, but as s.h.i.+n had been living without toilets, the sight invoked a weird feeling of surprise mixed with nostalgia.

To think that I would feel nostalgia from seeing a toilet ......

It was altogether a very strange mood that s.h.i.+n found himself in.

After checking everything in his room, s.h.i.+n made sure to lock his door and then went downstairs. His current goals were to procure both food and gather information. Well, the first one was kind of optional, as he had just eaten at the guild. However, the rent on his room included the meal, so s.h.i.+n was actually planning on ordering as much as he could. It was a truly lower middle cla.s.s way of thinking.

The first floor was the same as before, filled with groups of adventurers making merry.a.n.a.lyze Xtold s.h.i.+n that their average level was around 120. s.h.i.+n remembered the knights that he had seen in Tsuki no Hokora. He hadnt looked too closely, but their levels were in the 100 to 110 range, with the three who left last above that. He started musing about the power relations.h.i.+p between the knights of the country and the adventurers.

s.h.i.+n grabbed an empty seat, ordered his food, then listened around himself while waiting for the food to come. He activatedListen, which allowed him to clearly hear all sounds within a set radius, andNoise Cancel, which allowed him to selectively dismiss specific sounds and voices. Thanks to those two skills, s.h.i.+n was able to listen to any specific person or conversation he wanted with enough clarity to hear even whispers.

The second skill originally came with a list of the sounds that could be canceled, and it was impossible to cancel sounds not on the list. However, in this world, s.h.i.+n found that he could cancel whatever sound he wanted just by thinking about it.

Most of what he heard were normal conversations without much worth to him. However, he knew better than to easily dismiss information heard from places like this. Back in the game, he often heard unexpected information in places like this. He wasnt sure if the same thing would work in this parallel world, but because he was also lacking a lot of basic knowledge about this world, he would still learn a lot by listening around.

Have you heard? Apparently Wilhelm was at it again with a group of monsters. Im absolutely starving~. I need food, I tell you. Food! Theres a rumor that a Skull Face was seen in the North Forest. Lately, there is a lot of Hilk gra.s.s around. This beer is de~licious! May I order now~? Poster old guy ...... huh? Tsugumi-chan, come refill my tankard~, wait, Douma, that was a joahhhhh

s.h.i.+n mentally sorted through the information that hed heard while waiting for his food. For some reason, a guy was flying in the air, but no one paid it any mind. Judging by the lack of a reaction, s.h.i.+n guessed that it was probably a common occurrence and just looked on.

Some of the things that he heard piqued his interest, so he filed them away somewhere in a corner of his memory. The one that he found most worthy of mention was the Skull Face. Skull Faces were undead monsters with a grading system of p.a.w.n, Jack, Queen, and so on. The grade depends on the level, so failure to confirm the Skull Faces grade could easily lead to the experience of a crus.h.i.+ng defeat.

Thank you for the wait, here is your order.

s.h.i.+n returned to himself at the voice. As he was more used to using combat related skills, using other ones required more concentration for s.h.i.+n. When he turned towards where the voice came from, he saw Doumas daughter placing down food onto his table.

You looked a bit out of it. Is something the matter? Aah, I was just thinking about something. Umm ...... Ah, I havent introduced myself yet. Im Tsugumi Bear. My dad and the rest are currently busy in the kitchen, so if you need anything please call out to me. Alright, thanks. I think you already know by now, but Im s.h.i.+n. Im sort of an adventurer. So youre not really one? I havent actually received my guild card yet. I see. By the way, what were you thinking about just now? Was it something like how to quickly rise in rank?

After bringing the food, s.h.i.+n expected her to go back to her work. However, Tsugumi instead pulled out a chair at his table and started asked him a question, visibly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with curiosity. s.h.i.+n guessed that it must have been because beginner adventurers were rare.

Nah, I plan on taking my time raising my rank. I came from somewhere extremely far away from civilization, so Im still quite lacking in general common knowledge. Im trying to learn as much as I can from my surroundings. So thats how it is. I myself only know this place, but Ive heard that people from other countries arent really that different from us. Is that so? Well, as they say, it wouldnt hurt to be prepared. Fuun~, youre a weird one. Most new adventurers only think about how to level up the quickest or how to raise their rank the quickest. Low ranked adventurers are apparently made fun of quite often. Im not surprised. I dont really deny being weird. Well, if I ever get made fun of, Ill take care of it in a suitable manner.

s.h.i.+n showed a broad grin full of confidence. He didnt know much about the image that people have of adventurers, but he had plenty of confidence in his own strength. It was a very adventurer way of thinking.

Heh~, you have confidence in your own strength? Quite. But when things get really bad, Ill run away. I dont want to die, after all.

s.h.i.+n had no intention of starting anything, but he began to suspect that something was going on.

More like, why are you casually sitting down? Dont you have to serve the other customers too, miss waitress? Theyll call me if they need anything. See, my moms come out too.

Following Tsugumis line of sight revealed a woman with similar brown hair tied up in a ponytail behind her head taking orders at another table. There were so many similarities between Tsugumi and the woman that s.h.i.+n was convinced that she was indeed Tsugumis mother. s.h.i.+n wondered if Tsugumi would be as pretty as her mother when she grows up.

So youre slacking off ...... Im not slacking off! Call it information gathering, you hear? Information gathering. From a newbie adventurer? You might be someone with a really bright future. I mean, Ive seen a lot of adventurers, so I think I have a bit of an eye for people.

Tsugumi placed her hand on her heart while looking full of confidence.

Hehh, so, what score do I get? Hmm ...... you are somewhere around 85. ...... is that a score that I should be happy about?

As numbers went, it was sort of a high number, but the grading criteria here was not clear.

It means I can expect a little bit from you. Thats pretty strict. What brought my score down? Firstly, you lack ambition. Although it doesnt seem like youre overestimating your own strength, people who lack the ambition to get stronger rarely end up accomplis.h.i.+ng great things. But thats just from what Ive seen, of course.

Ambition, you say. Well, maybe itll come to me gradually.

In the first place, s.h.i.+n didnt register with the guild to gain fame as an adventurer, and planned to merely put in a mediocre amount of effort. It seems like Tsugumi had caught onto that.

You really do plan on taking your time, huh. Well, that might be just who you are. I think its about time I get back to work, I might get scolded if I stay any longer. Work moderately hard at your adventuring~!

She left with a wink and resumed taking orders at other tables. There were more customers than before, and now every one of the tables were filled with people. He felt bad about taking up an entire table by himself, so he planned to eat quickly and then retreat back to his room. The more people there were, the higher the chance of trouble. He also recalled Tsugumis advice about newbie adventurers being looked down upon.

Then again, that wasnt the main reason why he wanted to get back to his room. If he really had to say, it was more because he wanted to put his stuff in order. After arriving in this world, most of his time had been spent on learning and confirming, so he wanted to take some time to perform a thorough inventory of everything he had.

After inventorying his things, he took a bath, then got into something easier to sleep in. Ever since the game, it was his habit to set up a barrier around his room before going to bed. He had detection type skills, so it was unlikely that he would get attacked in his sleep, but it never hurt to be careful. The bed was fluffy and cozy. While thanking Selica in his mind, drowsiness overtook him.

In the midst of slumber, he dimly remembered something that had slipped his mind.

I forgot to ...... leave a ...... message ............

After all the commotion from the curse, he had totally forgotten to leave a message for Schnee.

When he woke up, the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling. He was about to ask aloud where he was, but then he remembered everything that had happened yesterday.

Ending the final battle, being sent to a parallel world, dispelling Tieras curse, and everything that happened at the guild.

It wasnt that he wished it was all a dream, but there was indeed a part of him that had hoped that he would find himself in a bed in a hospital after having successfully logged out.

Theres no way things would be so convenient, I suppose.

So muttering, he surveyed his surroundings. The room was still dim, with the sunrise apparently still a while ahead. He felt the presence of people moving around on the first floor. It seems that people in this world get up quite early.

No irregularities from both the barrier and the detection skills. The me from before wouldnt have even imagined being on guard and checking my surroundings right after waking up.

s.h.i.+n got out of bed while smiling wryly at the thought of how long it had been since he had last been able to let his guard down while sleeping. When he opened the window, the outside air rushed in. Feeling the slight chill, he looked downwards and saw people coming and going. The crowd was still spa.r.s.e, but he could feel the city gradually coming to life.

The rooms of The Badgers Pavilion were a bit higher than the nearby buildings, so he had a good view of the townscape of the western district. For a while, he remained captivated at the sight of a city that was moving not according to a computer program.

Perhaps due to sleeping early, there was no trace of sleepiness in him, and his head felt very clear. He felt no need to go back to sleep, so instead he just gazed at the sun coming up over the walls surrounding the town.

The dim streets slowly became doused in the warm sunlight.

After a while, everything had become light, and the number of people going to and fro had increased considerably.

s.h.i.+n took out a jacket and pair of pants from his inventory, changed into them, then went downstairs after locking his door.

On the first floor, he found people coming down for food just like himself, people who were still eating, and people who were already leaving the inn. Most of the people that he saw were adventurers. Apparently, it wasnt unusual at all to be starting the day by sunrise.

Good morning. Did you sleep well last night?

The person who had greeted him was Tsugumi. She appeared with food on a tray with impeccable timing.

Good morning. Thanks to you, Im now wide awake. Glad to hear it. You want breakfast, right? Ill bring it over right now, please take a seat first. Aah, please and thank you.

Last night, he had chosen a seat where he could see all of the other tables, but he didnt feel as gung-ho about gathering information this morning, so he grabbed a seat at the counter.

The breakfast that came out was made up of black bread and stew. The black bread wasnt completely hard, but was more like a baguette in firmness. The colorful stew was filled with vegetables and meat and had a lot more volume than it looked. Looking around, s.h.i.+n saw that everyone was dipping the black bread into the stew. Apparently no one really ate the black bread by itself.

This is amazing stuff.

It was very likely thoroughly boiled. Each and every ingredients was thoroughly soaked into the stew and was soft enough to automatically melt inside the mouth. It was another kind of deliciousness to eat it together with the bread. It was so much more delicious than his expectations that he ordered two more helpings before finally leaning back with a satisfied sigh. He slightly regretted eating so much.

What a great appet.i.te first thing in the morning! I thought so too yesterday, but this places cooking is just way too delicious. You sure know what to say. Ill give you a little extra service, then. If youre going to the guild to get your guild card, then you should probably wait a while more before going. Is something going on at this time? Its especially crowded early in the morning. There would be low rankers cutting in front of you or forcing you to join their party, so you should be careful. That sounds quite dangerous indeed. Dont the staff at the guild stop them? They do stop anything too overt, but these guys are good at doing it in covert ways. I see, so theyre all used to it.

While thinking that the ones who were doing these things could only be small fries, s.h.i.+n conceded s.h.i.+fting his schedule back a bit. He would be able to easily handle it if they messed with him, but he didnt want to be involved in any trouble.

With that said, you might not be able to rely on them when it really matters. Im of the same opinion. So yea, because of that, it would be better if you waited for a while more before heading over.

So saying, Tsugumi turned around to another table where customers were waiting to order. Thanking Tsugumi for her considerate advice, s.h.i.+n pa.s.sed the time sipping on fruit juice. As he had nothing else to do, he resumed information gathering while checking out the other adventurers equipment and weapons. It was only this morning that he realized how valuable the weapons that he had been using so casually were. Due to remembering that he had forgotten to leave a message before falling asleep, s.h.i.+n was reminded of the rows of weapons and tools all lined up back in Tsuki no Hokora.

All of the things on sale at Tsuki no Hokora were beginner items, with only a few that were of a slightly higher quality. It wasnt like there was nothing for the slightly more experienced, but their number was so low that a single hand was enough to count them on. s.h.i.+n had been quite sad at seeing the overall quality of the goods being sold.

With this reason, he turned to survey the nearby equipment. He had seen a bit last night, but due to the higher rate at which adventurers were coming and going this morning, he was getting a more reliable reference.

............

Tilting his gla.s.s of fruit juice, his line of sight swept across the other tables. From what he saw, a lot of the weapons were made of bronze or iron, with only very few people who held anything better. As for equipment, it was mostly made of fur or iron, and he didnt see anyone wearing enchanted armor.

s.h.i.+n surmised that most likely the quality of equipment had greatly fallen since the game. He grew restless thinking about the deplorable situation.

It was precisely with this fear in mind that s.h.i.+n had purposely chosen to wear low ranked equipment. He was currently wearingGround Lizards JacketandTrousers of Demon Spider Thread. Both of them were made of materials easily gathered by someone at level 70. With that said, though, he did strengthen them to the max, so their performance was more than four times better. It was the same for the katanaSuda [Several Strikes]that was hanging from his side.Sudawas the beginning weapon that he had received when he adopted the samurai cla.s.s. It could indeed be strengthened, but obviously there was a limit, so the majority of players eventually sold theirs or threw it into storage. The thing is, even such a weapon was still better than a lot of the weapons being carried by the adventurers that s.h.i.+n was seeing.

He gained a better understanding of how valuable Balkuss equips were.

After hanging out and gathering information for about 30 more minutes, s.h.i.+n left The Badgers Pavilion. Volume 1 Chapter 3 Part 2

s.h.i.+n continued observing the town while waiting towards the guild. When he had come through this route last night, there werent a lot of people due to the late hour. Now, though,the road from the western district to the southern district that also goes through the eastern district was the very ill.u.s.tration of the word variety.

All kinds of food stands were lined up at the side of the street, with people looking for breakfast or buying lunch bustling about. There were also stalls selling armor, magic items, other things needed by adventurers, and even tools that s.h.i.+n couldnt make heads nor tails of. It almost seemed a lie that daybreak had been only two hours ago.

Staying within the shadows of the stalls, s.h.i.+n continued making his way towards the guild. There were a lot of other adventurers wearing their weapons, so s.h.i.+n with his katana on his hip did not draw much attention. It was s.h.i.+ns habit to keepSearchactivated. There was also the matter of the letter of introduction, so s.h.i.+n decided to not deactivate it after all.

After walking about 40 minutes, the signboard of the Adventurers Guild finally came into view. Due to his efforts to avoid the crowds, the trip took him longer than it did yesterday. s.h.i.+n walked in as a group of adventurers came out. Even though he had waited a bit before coming, he felt like there were still quite a lot of people left.

The reception desk was currently being manned by Selica and a female elf. She had small, pointed ears like Tiera, so he was probably not wrong. Drawing closer to the desk, s.h.i.+n spoke to Selica first.

Good morning. I came to get my guild card. Good morning, s.h.i.+n-sama. We have that prepared, please wait a moment while we fetch it. By the way, this is Els, whom you were looking for. Els, this is s.h.i.+n-sama, who I was telling you about earlier.