by Yuu Tanaka
It’s the best name ever, isn’t it?! Fran thought it up herself! Very fitting. You think so too, right, Garrus?
Work with me, old man!
“Y-yeah… I-It’s a fine name! It really is…something else…”
I know! It’s the best!
“A mighty name for a mighty sword! Yes indeed!”
Phew. That was close. Garrus got the point after my metaphorical wink and was now singing praises of my name, awkward as it was.
“A-anyway. You wanted your armor fixed?”
Yeah! Can you do it? We need it by the day after tomorrow for the goblin raid.
“No problem. Repairs take no time at all.”
“How much?”
Fran hadn’t noticed the slight to her naming sensibilities. Good.
“Let’s see… 10,000G.”
That’s pretty cheap.
“It’s the cost of a mana sphere.”
Mana sphere?
“Unlike crystals, mana spheres are a type of ore you can mine from the earth. They can store magical energy and are used as catalysts in rituals and the like.”
Never heard of ’em.
“To fix your armor, I’ll need a mana sphere as a catalyst for my Repair skill.”
So, you’re fixing it with magic?
“Yep. You wanna watch?”
If you’ll have us, sure.
We went with Garrus to see him work his reparation magic.
He placed the damaged armor on his workbench, which had a magic circle drawn on it. Then he took a yellow mana sphere from one of his stands. The rest of the procedure was no different from a spell with a long incantation.
“Repair!”
The magic circle glowed as if responding to Garrus’s booming voice. The light enveloped Fran’s armor, taking away the nicks and grime that had accrued from today’s battle. When the light settled, it was as good as new.
“Wow.”
Wow indeed. It looks just as good as the day we got it.
“I’ll stop you there and remind you that the spell’s not perfect. The more often you fix a piece of equipment, the more difficult it gets to restore it to its original splendor. A small mana sphere was enough to do the job today, but you’ll need a bigger one if it gets beat up again. It’s gonna cost you about 30,000G too.”
It might be cheaper if we got a new set of armor at that point. We would have to consult him when the time came.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. Can’t have you go up against hobgoblins in broken armor!”
“Leave them to me.”
We’ll kill the King and Queen while we’re at it!
“Yeah. They’re ours.”
“Hahaha. Knock ’em dead!”
Night had fallen on the day we fought the goblin horde.
I was at the inn.
The moons are so pretty here…
The night sky was graced by a great silver half-moon. Two smaller moons appeared to be following alongside it. There were six smaller moons orbiting the great lunar orb, and while they didn’t appear to have moon phases, their number would change according to the day. Tomorrow night there would be three little moons surrounding the great one, then four, then five, then six. After that it would go back to zero. This was how you accounted for an entire week in this world. It was such a fantastical sight that I never got tired of it.
I could spend the entire night just looking at them. I should stop and look at the new skills we just got.
Fran was in the bath. Seeing that I was bored out of my blade, I could think of no better use of my time than examining my newly-acquired skills.
Speaking of baths, I’d been quite surprised to hear that Fran liked them. I mean, she was supposed to be a cat. I couldn’t help blurting out, “But you’re a cat,” when she told me, but it seemed not liking baths was a quality unique to cats of my Earth.
Fran had never even seen a “cat” despite being a black cat herself. She told me only nobles owned such strange creatures. Those cats may be living better lives than the people of the Black Cat tribe who were sold into slavery.
We moved out of the inn we’d stayed in yesterday and were now staying at a slightly better one at the Guild’s recommendation. It was more expensive at 600G a night, but it came with a great bathhouse and copious portions of food.
I began examining the skills I got from the goblin fight: Speedcasting; Acrobatics; Kick Arts; Kick Mastery; Necromancy; Absorb Poison; Poison Magic; Axe Mastery; and Indomitable.
I was unable to use Kick Arts, Kick Mastery, and Axe Mastery, so they would have to wait until Fran came back. Indomitable seemed to give you a cool mind during battle, so I couldn’t test it here either.
Let’s see… I guess I could start with Acrobatics. It said it added bonuses to my balance and jumping ability. I flew about the room to experiment but found no substantial difference. Unfortunate. Still, I was sure Fran would be able to put it to good use.
Next came Poison Magic. Poison Arrow and Create Poison were its Level 1 spells. The poison effects were still quite weak, and a strong enemy would be able to brush it off. Casting it on a civilian would probably give them little more than a stomachache.
I absorbed the toxins I had created with Create Poison using Absorb Poison but didn’t feel anything. It was supposed to restore its user’s Health and was of no use to me, seeing as I had nothing resembling Health. I conjectured that we’d really be able to use Absorb Poison to traverse areas with toxic gas.
Speedcasting was next. The one-second reduction in casting time didn’t seem substantial, but a second could mean the difference between life and death in a battle. A few extra levels and it might prove useful.
And so we came to the last skill: Necromancy.
Let’s see what we can do with this.
It had two spells at Level 1: Raise Zombie and Search Undead. I pulled a goblin corpse out of the Pocket Dimension to experiment, making sure to cast a barrier of cleansing magic around it so as not to dirty the floor. I didn’t want to trouble the inn staff with cleaning up after a goblin corpse.
Raise Zombie!
The goblin corpse groaned to life.
Whoa…
The affront to God looked disgusting. It somehow looked more grotesque than when it was just an ordinary corpse. Good thing I didn’t have a nose, or I’d be throwing up by now.
Stay.
“Wurgghh.”
Looks like it can take orders.
The zombie stood and swayed in place.
I used Search Undead next. It was similar to all the other Sense skills and registered the zombie that was in front of me.
Now that I’d used both skills…
What was I going to do with this guy? Oh God, I had Goblin Zombie in my list of minions now. Couldn’t I unsummon him somehow?
I’m so sorry.
“Hurgh?”
I uttered an apology before cutting the zombie down. It didn’t produce a crystal, though I didn’t know if dungeon zombies shared this trait. I got rid of the zombie’s remains with the Cleansing Magic spell called Undead Return. Appropriately, the zombie was also removed from my minion list.
Rest in peace, buddy.
Practice responsible necromancy. Cease the desecration of goblin corpses! Not that I thought they’d mind, since they were already dead.
Moving on…
I looked at the enchanted items we had retrieved from the horde.
There’s seven of them. I wonder what they do.
Two weapons: a steel knife and steel hammer. They both came equipped with Knife Mastery and Hammer Mastery skill increases. The knife would come in handy for carving, but I left the hammer in the Pocket Dimension since I didn’t know what to do with it.
Next, we had an accessory. It increased your Strength at the cost of reducing your Magic.
Strength +5 and Magic -8… It must be for the more tank-like Classes.
Fran wouldn’t have any use for it, since she needed Magic. It cou
ld have been viable if the stat balance were even.
I then came to the three pieces of armor: Iron Armor of Rust Prevention; Leather Armor of Size Adjustment; and Enchanted Helm of Physical Resistance. All of them had low Defense values so they didn’t seem useful. Even Garrus’s armor far outclassed them.
Finally, I came to the Item Bag. However, only the registered user had access to it.
I guess it’s one of those things you have to register for.
Kinda like how Fran had equipped me. The bag still functioned as a normal bag to everyone else. Inside were sticks and stones ideal for throwing at targets. The goblins were also using it to store miscellaneous items.
Overwrite previous user…? Do I have to use a Contract spell?
Let’s give it a shot.
Contract!
Well, that didn’t work. The spell only strengthened whatever contract was already in place. Rewriting a contract was possible, but only at Level 7 and above.
Man, so I have to level up my skills to open this mysterious item bag?
Disappointed, I stowed the item bag for later.
How much money do we have?
We got a total of 109 pairs of goblin horns from today’s battle. Twenty of them were high-rank, which fetched 100G per pair. We also got 100G for completing the Herb Collection quest.
I gave Fran 10,000G, so I was now left with 37,000G.
Should we get some mana potions for the raid? Would it be a waste of money? Would we even have enough? Which reminds me, we gathered a lot of herbs and plants today. I should sort them out.
There were ten poison herbs, ten glowing mushrooms, ten anti-paralysis herbs, ten toxic herbs, and ten healing herbs. There were gathering quests which required us to collect five of each, which meant we could turn in ten quests’ worth of rewards tomorrow. However, since we were already F-Rank, we wouldn’t be able to rank up by turning in G-Rank quests.
Toxic Herb Collection was listed on the F-Rank quests, so we had eighteen quests left to go. There were rank restrictions on exploring dungeons, and I wanted to get our adventurer rank up as soon as possible.
We also had around thirty unidentified hazardous materials. I knew their names and the fact they were dangerous from using Identify on them, but they weren’t listed in the Guild’s delivery quests. I didn’t know whether they were actually of any practical use.
I’ll have to ask Randell about them.
I needed some information on hobgoblins too. Tomorrow was looking to be a busy day.
Chapter 4:
Our First Dungeon
The day of the Hobgoblin Raid was upon us.
We were at Garrus’s smithy to pick up my scabbard.
“Took you long enough. Have a look at this.”
Oooh! So this is my scabbard?
The scabbard was made of darkened leather with elegant coloring. Some would say it was on the plain side, but I thought Garrus’s handiwork made the scabbard look tastefully understated.
“Teacher.”
Right. Easy now…
Fran stood the scabbard up in front of her and slowly slid me inside. I reached the tip of my blade with a satisfying pop.
Ooh…
It felt super comfy. Almost as comfortable as my old pedestal. The pedestal was a kind of stationary scabbard after all.
Aah…
I couldn’t help making sounds I reserved for when I entered a hot bath. The feeling was truly delightful. I never knew my blade longed to be encased within a scabbard. I really appreciated Garrus’s workmanship because the fit was accurate to the inch. It was like sleeping in a fluffy bed that molded itself to your body. I was content to stay in my comfy scabbard forever.
You’ve outdone yourself, Garrus. I think this is your masterwork.
“Hahaha, I’m glad you like it.”
“You look pleased, Teacher.”
Of course! This is a fine scabbard, this is.
“It ain’t no ordinary scabbard either.” Garrus smiled a cheeky grin and put his hand on the scabbard. “Didn’t feel right to give an enchanted sword a regular scabbard, so I fitted this one with a bit of machinery.”
Really? You’re the best, Andre!
“Andre? Who’s that?”
Sorry, I got a little excited.
Machinery in the scabbard? I couldn’t see it from where I was sitting.
“You see this metal latch?”
“Yeah.”
“If you pop it right here—”
The scabbard snapped.
“It split down the middle.”
“That’s right. It’s a simple mechanism that’ll allow you to unsheathe yourself without the little lady having to reach for you.”
I see. That’s really useful. Sheathing myself is just as easy too.
I manipulated the latch with Telekinesis and the scabbard was back to its original shape.
Convenient.
“Ain’t it? Trust me, getting the mechanism to work while maintaining the scabbard’s integrity was a pain in the ass!”
Even Garrus’s scabbards were top-notch. I expected nothing less from a blacksmith of his caliber.
Thanks for the gear, Garrus.
“Of course. Now go out there and kick some ass! Oh, and bring back some good materials, if you find any. Kinda doubt it since it’s a newly-minted dungeon and all, but you never know.”
“Newly-minted dungeon?”
“I assume it’s new anyway. You didn’t know about this?”
Fran shook her head. I had no idea how dungeons were formed either.
“Dungeons spring up all over the place as trials for mankind created by the Chaos God.”
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
“Chaos God? Not Dark God?”
“I guess you’re not clear on that distinction either. Let me explain.”
And so Garrus began his lecture on the world’s mythology.
“Put simply, our world was created by eighty-eight gods. The strongest among them are called The Ten.”
The Ten were the gods of the sun, the silver moon, the ocean, earth, fire, storms, the forest, and beasts. They created the world and the life which inhabited it.
The god of the dead created the Great Wheel of Reincarnation, and upon it the world was built.
The seventy-eight children of the gods begat many things in the world their parents had built, and so the world grew.
“Children of the gods?”
“That’s right. The most famous ones being the Smith God and the Sword God. There’s the God of Darkness—not to be confused with the Dark God—and the God of Cooking.”
Finally, there was the God of Chaos, who threw the world into, well, chaos. But Garrus maintained that it was a necessary evil to keep balance in the world. Without chaos, stagnation would soon follow. The world needed to be kept on its toes to grow.
We understood that fact firsthand. Trials were necessary to grow stronger, like Fran did the other day with the goblins. The God of Chaos was a good god, then, difficult as it was to imagine.
“What about the Dark God?”
“The Dark God used to be the God of War. He attempted to take over the world in a clear abuse of his power, so the other gods had to step in and stop him. It’s said his remains are so filled with hatred that his corpse cursed the creatures around it. That’s how we got Demonkind.”
“I see.”
“People say that the God of Chaos creates dungeons as a trial for the people. In them are servants of the Chaos God called Dungeon Masters. Their entire purpose in life is to spread chaos.”
Dungeon Masters, of course. I wondered if they had crystals in them. They would certainly have a ton of useful skills.
“There’s a hypothesis going on that a dungeon is created from a gem called the Core. A Core will latch on the first organism it sees and turn that creature into a Dungeon Master.”
“So there are weak ones and strong ones?”
“Yeah. The difficulty level of a dung
eon is determined by its Dungeon Master. The less intelligent a creature is, the easier the dungeon is to conquer.”
“Are there any weird Dungeon Masters?”
“Well, we’ve had dragons, orcs, wolves, and cockatrices. Anything could become a Dungeon Master as long as it was alive.”
“Even people?”
“’Course. We’ve had a few confirmed sightings of humanoid Dungeon Masters in the past.”
A manmade dungeon sounded dangerous.
“I’ll admit we all need trials to grow stronger, but at times I feel like they’re a bit much.”
People who lived near the dungeons died after all, and there probably weren’t enough adventurers willing to throw themselves into their depths.
“Anyway… Rare monsters roam the dungeons. They’d make a decent meal for any adventurer.”
The dungeons weren’t all bad of course. Some adventurers saw them as a legitimate get-rich-quick scheme. Not surprising, since they usually contained a treasure hoard.
“Not to mention the enchanted gear you can find in some of those treasure chests.”
I couldn’t imagine what sort of magic the stuff we’d find there would have. I couldn’t wait to head out!
“If they found weapons strong enough to wage war with in those dungeons, they’d put us blacksmiths out of business,” old Garrus complained. “It doesn’t look like I have to worry about that with this new dungeon though. The older a dungeon is, the stronger the stuff you find in them.”
“’Kay.”
We’d wasted enough time by now. We hurried to the guild to attend the raid briefing, after which we would head out to the dungeon en masse.
“Morning, Nell.”
“Oh, good morning, Fran!” Nell replied to Fran’s greeting with a chirpy voice. She was oddly friendly for some reason. Fran told me they had met in the bathhouse the other night and had gotten along. I could imagine Nell going on about her day at work and Fran silently nodding along to it. Still, I was happy to see Fran making friends when she was so reserved most of the time.
“Good luck out there, Frannie.”
“You got it.”
“I know Donadrond’s going with you but be careful out there. Our usual roster of high-rank adventurers aren’t here today. We had to send out our reserve squad.”
“High-rank adventurers?”