BXBX NOVEL Volume 1, 2: The Rock Spear and The Merchant
Volume 1, Chapter 2: The Rock Spear and The Merchant
I became closer to the source of the scream I heard earlier on.
After a short run, the dense forest gradually became like grassland plateau, and I saw a road about 5m away from the forest. There was a wagon parked about 15m away from where I was standing and there were several green dogs nearby. The scream came from this place.
The green dogs were attacking humans, hence the scream.
There were three people, but one seemed to be injured. A red-haired man held a big spear with his left arm. Was this man the one who screamed?
Another petite man with a sword (his hair color was green, I wondered if black and blonde hairs were not common in this world) was fighting a green dog. But, three green dogs remained alive and it seemed that the battle situation was not good.
As far as I could see from here, there were about four dead green dogs. However, there were just two people fighting against three green dogs. It looked difficult for them to deal with those creatures since they were outnumbered.
I noticed the presence of a chubby man who looked like a merchant. He held a sword, but he stood behind the petite man and hid behind the wagon. The horses seemed to be fine.
I wanted to help them, but the only attack magic I could use was that fireball. I could hurt them if I used it inaccurately.
Maybe I could use Ice Magic, who knows. I wouldn’t have to worry about the humans or the wagon if I created an ice spear. I tried to imagine something like an ice spear, but no ice was produced and no MP was consumed. What was wrong?
I couldn’t invoke ice, so I tried to imagine a rock spear. Then, a rock spear appeared, and I felt that it consumed my MP slightly. Although it was a spear, it actually looked like a distorted pencil with a length of 20 cm and a diameter of about 5 cm. I imagined it flying toward the green dog, and it flew toward the green dog that was about to attack the petite man. The rock spear hit the creature successfully. The speed seemed to be about the same as when I charged the fireball. The rock spear flew toward the dog in a straight line unaffected by gravity even though it was about 15 m away. However, the rock spear broke when it hit the green dog.
Although the rock spear broke, the damage did not seem to be small. Nevertheless, the green dog didn’t give up and looked at me with menacing eyes. On this precise moment, the petite man decapitated the green dog, killing it.
The two green dogs remained and the odds of survival changed. The other man with the spear also decapitated the remaining two dogs. Their torso and legs were cut off.
The man who defeated the last green dogs looked around and waved toward the petite man and me perhaps to confirm that there were no more enemies around. I didn’t know if waving was a friendly movement in a different world, but he looked friendly from his facial expression.
When I approached the wagon, the petite man spoke to me. The man who seemed to be a merchant also came out of the wagon. He took care of the injured man. There seemed to be no difference here when it came to life and survival.
「You saved us, thank you for your help. By the way, it seems that you came from the forest, but you don’t look like an adventurer since you’re not equipped. May I ask why came out of that place?」
「I suddenly found myself lost in the forest. I don’t remember much and I don’t know why I was in the forest.」
I decided to stick with memory loss for the time being. They wouldn’t believe me if I told them my story. So memory loss was the best scenario I could come up with.
「Did those monsters attack you too? It seems like your clothes are clean and you have no injury though…Well, anyway, you are our lifesaver. I would like to return the favor, so please wait a moment. Hey, Karak-san!」
The man who seemed to be a merchant was the one named Karak. This small and chubby man approached us and talked with me.
「I am grateful for your help. My name is Karak, and as you can see, I am a merchant. I heard you have memory loss, but I might be able to help you. Do you have any identification with you or perhaps money?」
My item box was empty (it only contained 3 items, including one with torn leaves and a charred green dog). I had no identification nor any money.
「No, I don’t seem to have any of those with me. I am Kaede by the way. 」
Karak-san didn’t seem to have a surname. Perhaps, only a special person had a surname. I didn’t want to get involved in troublesome things, so I just gave my given name.
「I see. Well, I don’t know what happened to you, but you can’t enter the town without money or any identification. But, I would like to express my thanks, so I’ll give you money for your accommodation fee. You can also use that money to pay the Guild registration fee. I can’t give you any more than that because my life depends on the work I do, but if there’s something you don’t understand, please feel free to ask.」
Karak-san gave me five silver coins while saying those words.
「Ah, excuse me. Are these…silver coins?」
「Hmm? It seems you forgot about our currency too. Yes, those are silver coins. If you don’t understand our currency, then I’ll gladly explain it to you. But I would like to explain it while we’re on the move.」
For the time being, I kept the silver coins in my pocket.
It seemed that I received first aid successfully. The wagon began to move with the petite man as a coachman after collecting the corpses of the green dogs. I sat on the luggage box, but the vibrations were so violent that my hips hurt.
「Okay, I will explain it now. First, our currency. The silver coins… 」
Karak-san explained to me the value of money in this world. Summing up. 1000 iron coins = 100 bronze coins = 1 silver coin. 100 silver coins = 10 gold coins = 1 large gold coin.
One iron coin cost one Tael, and one Tael = about 10 yen. The maximum amount of coins was around 1 million yen, which was amazing, but to use such a large amount, countless of coins would be needed for it. I found out later there was something called Platinum Coin worth 100 pieces of large gold coins. However, this special coin was something that Karak-san didn’t have. It seemed to be used mainly in large transactions between merchants and nations.
Well, it was a story that had nothing to do with me.
However, this wagon loaded a large amount of luggage. If the use of item boxes were widespread, then it wouldn’t be necessary to carry them in a wagon.
I appraised Karak-san.
—
Name: Karak
Age / Race / Gender: 35 / Human / Male
Level: 7
HP: 32/32
MP: 11/11
STR: 9
INT: 11
AGI: 10
DEX: 8
Skills: Life Magic
—
Low. Or was I the one with high stats? His only skill was Life Magic. I didn’t know what Life Magic was, but given the name, was it a useful magic for everyday life? When I asked about Life Magic, it seemed to be a magic power that emitted energy like fire and water that could be used to flush the toilet instead of a washlet. It seemed that MP consumption was roughly 1 per 0.1.
The average status of adult men seemed to be around 10. That would make me skilled somehow. However, I couldn’t find any reason why the item box could not be used. I wondered how skilled the adventurers of this world were. So, I appraised the small adventurer that stood beside us.
—
Name: Mors
Age / Race / Gender: 22 / Human / Male
Level: 14
HP: 114/114
MP: 21/21
STR: 22
INT: 18
AGI: 33
DEX: 19
Skills: Life Magic, Swordsmanship 1
—
STR was not that different from mine, and AGI was higher than mine was. Others stats were also higher than Karak-san. If power and quickness were proportional to the status, then Mors-san had a power difference that doubled Karak-san’s status. Was this the difference in level?
Considering the previous level up, by the time I reached Level 14, I would have a much higher status than this adventurer at Level 14. I wondered why my status was higher than normal at Level 2.
It was better for me to ignore my abnormal status and level for the time being. On the other hand, I wondered if I could be an adventurer as well. It would be nice to have a ridiculously high status to be able to engage in quests easily, but that would make me stand out too much. Perhaps, I should take things slowly, instead of rushing things that could put me in trouble.
Changing topics, I still didn’t know why Karak-san didn’t use an item box to carry these luggage boxes. So I decided to ask him.
「Why don’t you use an item box to carry your goods? 」
「You can’t use that skill unless you have Magic Qualities. People with Magic Qualities become high-ranked adventurers and military personnel, so it’s expensive to hire them. Well, the amount of things I have is not that large, so it doesn’t pose a problem for me. But, I do agree that using the item box is time efficient, but only aristocrats and wealthy merchants use the item boxes to transport luxury goods and ingredients. That’s the reality. Item boxes are not something that ordinary merchants can use.」
Apparently, the item box was something that could not be used without Magic Qualities. In other words, the Magic Qualities skill was probably a competent but uncommon skill. Probably not the only peculiar I had in the status. The Material Arts Qualities was probably proficient and uncommon as well. If this was the case, then there was no need to hide it since these skills were known. Therefore, I removed the concealment of both the Magic Qualities and the Material Arts Qualities.
After that, I asked Karak-san about this world. Not long after that, we arrived at the town. The town had a wall about 2m high, and had a gate in front of the road where guards were sitting beside it. They didn’t seem to be very diligent.
「Show me your identification. 」
When I stood in front of the gate, one of those guards called me out. I told him that I didn’t have an ID card, so the guard asked me to pay a silver coin as a deposit and touch the white wall next to him.
Part of my status appeared when I touched the white wall.
—
Name: Suzumiya Kaede
Age / Race / Gender: 20 / Human / Male
Level: 2
Awards and Penalties: None
Skills: Magic Qualities, Material Arts Qualities, Fire Magic, Earth Magic, Water Magic.
—
Apparently, the white wall was a degraded version of the appraisal skill. I noticed that my last name appeared and I hurriedly hid it. Successful.
「Eh…Okay, I don’t see any irregularity. Welcome to Ain. 」
The guard looked at my profile, and gave me a thin metal ID card with my name and the town’s name. I passed the gate with a forceful smile. This town seemed to be Ain. And it was a success that nobody saw my last name.
Karak-san and his companions showed the guards their identification and went inside. The person who was injured seemed to be okay. His injury was gone. I wondered if they used a potion to heal his wounds.
「Then, I shall say goodbye now. If anything happens, please come to the Karak Store. If you go straight from here, you will find the Adventurer’s Guild. If you show you ID card and pay with the silver coins I gave you, you will be able to register as an adventurer. They will give you a Guild card.」
After saying those words, Karak-san went away.
「We are going to the Adventurer’s Guild. Would you like to come with us?」
Mors-san invited me. I felt grateful because I didn’t know anything about this town.
「Yes. If you don’t mind. 」
I followed him to the Guild. It was getting dark.
The scenery of this town was like Europe, but there were no electric lamps, and if I looked closely at the cityscape, it felt like medieval Europe. This town wasn’t bustling with people, but it was not a desert town either. I could see some people walking by.
Some people had animal ears and tails. I often found these beast people in the MMO game I played. Well, this was a fantasy world after all, so having these type of people living here wasn’t that weird. Most of the people’s clothes were like those seen in the RPGs. However, they didn’t wear poor clothes. Some people seemed to be adventurers. Some wore armors and held their swords on their waists.
Although it felt like a medieval European town, there was no dung dripped down the road. I felt quite relieved.
There were many private shops, but most were closed because it was late. Only a few shops prepared their opening. These shops were probably taverns. I wondered if the Adventurer’s Guild would be open too.
There’s no way that Mors-san, an adventurer, would forget about the Adventurer’s Guild opening and closing hours. Then, Mors-san spoke to me as if he remembered something.
「Are you a Wielder of Magic? I can see that you don’t have a wand.」
「Do I need a wand to invoke magic? I think I have Magic Qualities.」
I activated magic without a wand. Was it because of my nature?
「There is a high probability that you won’t be able to activate your magic without a wand. But if you can activate your magic regardless, you won’t be able to do it fast when you cast your magic against an enemy. Having no wand is not very practical. The Magic Qualities is a great skill, but it won’t have much effect if you don’t use a wand. You have to try it with a wand. I’m sure you’ll be surprised to see how faster you’ll become.」
To summarize.
The power of magic depended on the level of INT, MP consumption and magical capability. However, the reason for using a wand was even if I did cast magic without a wand, the power would come out but it would lack speed. Having slow magic was not efficient.
There seemed to be individual differences in magic speed with or without a wand. I didn’t know much about it, but it seemed that few people could invoke practical magic without a wand. But, these were specific people depending on their usage of magic. Wielders who mainly used Healing Magic did not need wands, but Wielders who fought had to use wands.
The longer the range, the faster it would be. But, the maneuverability could get unbalanced. It seemed that the right length differed depending on the person.
The mainstream was about 60 cm to 1 m 20 cm, but some special purposes required 3 m or more. Also, it seemed that speed and power were not related to the magic of flying rocks like I invoked before. It was made of fantasy. Maybe that was why the rock spear broke when I hit the green dog.
While thinking about it, I finally arrived at the Guild.
Overall, it was a simple and robust building. The Guild was probably a two-story square building made of bricks with a triangular roof made of red tiles. On the top of the stone steps was a double-door made of wood with a sturdy, undecorated metal handle.
There where big words written on the door, it said “Adventurer’s Guild”. On the left and right corners of those characters stood an emblem with a sword crossing on a round shield. “Adventurer’s Guild” was written in characters I had never seen before, but for some reason, I understood their meaning… Most probably because of the Complete Mastery of Different World Languages skill.
Actually, I have been talking naturally and I thought I was talking in Japanese, but maybe, I was unknowingly speaking in a different language.
「Well then, we’re going to the inn ahead, so see you. 」
After saying that, Mors-san and his companions went to an inn. It seemed that he wasn’t going to accompany me inside the Guild.
Now, should I join the Guild?