In front of me stands a village. From what I heard from the guys on the carriage, this village is called Diara Village. In terms of size, this village is pretty large, but not to the tune of being a town surrounded by a giant wall and guards. Actually, this village is mostly guarded by a fence even I can jump over if I put in enough effort. So it seems like its purpose is more to keep animals in and out rather than to protect against a large monster attack. I am also pretty glad this village is not a huge guarded town, nor a small village. Making this just perfect!

The problem with large towns that have guards and all is that I would never make it in. I know in most literature the crazy protagonist walks in, tells the guards he lost his ID or comes from some remote village that has no ID, in a week they would already get a key to the city from the mayor and rescue a princess or two.

That unfortunately is not going to work in reality. No country is going to allow random people who might be criminals or spies from another country to just walk in without an ID and assume a new identity. The guards are more likely to just say “too bad, go back and get an ID or get someone to confirm your identity”. It is not like they are under any obligations to help you out while risking their own necks.

The problem with a small village is everyone knows each other, so a foreigner coming it tends to get attention which I would rather not have. Since I know very little about this world, I’d rather not get any attention. I can already imagine how things can easily go wrong.

***** [Start Shiro’s Imagination] *****

[Villager A]: “Hey there, I don’t remember seeing you around these parts, are you new here?”

[Shiro]: “Yeah, I just came in today from far away”

[Villager A]: “Is that so… Which parts do you come from?”

[Shiro]: “Oh you know a remote Beaskin village on another continent far away which I am sure you never heard of...”

[Villager A]:”Is that so...You mean the Beastkin Country on [Watchamacallit Continent]?”

[Shiro]:”A-Ah...yeah thats the one!”

[Villager A]:”YOU DARE COME HERE AFTER BEING IN WAR WITH US FOR DECADES?!?! YOU KILLED MY SON! GUARDS! GUARDS! THERE IS A SPY IN THE VILLAGE!”

***** [End Shiro’s Imagination] *****

Well maybe I am exaggerating a little bit. But I can’t imagine me not knowing anything in this world is not bound to easily make people suspicious. You can’t just pretend you don’t know common sense and get away with it that easily. So it is important to minimize dialog and instead collect information indirectly.

That said, speaking of war. There is one last thing I need to check. I walk out onto the road and walk in the opposite direction of the town. I pass by another carriage while keeping an eye on the faces of those in the carriage. Once the carriage passes by, I go back into the forest and follow them back to town.

My goal here is to find out if Beastkin happen to be at war with humans or not. If they are, the people on the carriage would have started acting suspiciously. While I saw a few twitches when they saw me… it did not seem to the point of panic or anything of the like. So it is safe to say that this country is not in war with the Beastkin. That said, considering the faces, I have a feeling Beastkin may be discriminated around these parts. Which is not something I did not expect, but it may make my job hunting quite a bit harder. * sigh *… Either way I will proceed with the original plan cautiously.

The first thing before I make it into the village is hiding my [Ancient Mithril Dagger]. What I am looking for is a clearing in the forest away from the village. I know the most common way to hide a treasure is under a marked tree, and that is precisely what I am not going to do. Precisely because it is too common of a hiding spot, and who knows if some person coming to get herbs is going to accidentally dig it up. And let us not forget places near a tree tend to be difficult to dig due to the roots. A non-conspicuous clearing with nothing there is the best place to hide things, at the very least in the short term.

Once I locate such a clearing and memorized the location, I dig up a deep hole. It takes me about half an hour to dig up the hole because I want the blade at least a few inches deep. I then take 25 steps away and leave a few rocks embedded in the ground as a marker.

With that out of the way, I finally proceed towards the village.

Inside the village I peak my ears and try to pick up as much information as I can. I also use my [Smell Sense] to help navigate myself to the flea market in the village. There not only can I listen in on plenty of conversations, but I can also get a feel for the currency in this country. From what I see in the market, I see copper coins, iron coins and silver coins.

Paying close attention to what people are buying and how much change they are getting in return. I conclude the following:

1 Iron Coin = 100 Copper Coin

1 Silver Coin = 100 Iron Coins

Looking at the trend I would assume there is gold coins as well but so far I have not seen anyone trade those around these parts. So I have no clue where they fit in and I am not going to ask a vendor either. Again my goal is to be as least conspicuous as possible. And now you are expecting me to say how much these things converts into dollars right?...how about not!

Converting currency into a currency of another country let alone another world is an exercise in futility. Sure it works ok if you are comparing 1st world countries with similar economies. But when comparing completely different countries and economies, it doesn’t work that way. Even when comparing commodities, like food, costs between places with manual farming and farming assisted by machines makes a huge difference. These are all things I picked up while traveling with my parents around the world.

I also use this opportunity to use [Identify] on people. And here is what seems like a typical adult person looks like:

Bob Vallen

Gender

Male

Race

Human

Class

Level

Age

34 years

Status

?

Human

14

HP

???

MP

??

Merchant

5

Which confirms that even a regular person can wipe the floor with me 10X over and have room to spare.

By the way, this is what a typical combat class person around here looks like:

Andrew Bellard

Gender

Male

Race

Human

Class

Level

Age

48 years

Status

?

Human

20

HP

????

MP

??

Cook

7

Warrior

8

Though this makes me wonder an interesting point. Is the only way to level to fight things? I can’t imagine a Merchant or a Cooking going out in the field to level up by killing monsters...So I am definitely missing something… And I somehow doubt that people are just going to reveal these things in the middle of the street out of nowhere...this isn’t a game where everyone else is an NPC screaming random vital information around strangers.

My top priority is gathering information and finding a place to stay. If I can find a way to level up without hunting until Level 10, that would be ideal.

So now I will prepare to execute “Operation: Infiltrate the Inn”. Tada!

Everyone knows that the best place to get information is the Tavern Inn. When people are drunk, you can get them to spill almost anything without any suspicion at all. On top of that, it is a location that gets plenty of foot traffic and plenty of opportunities to ask random questions.

It probably won’t be easy, especially if the beastkin discrimination is very severe. That said my plan is to go to the cheapest looking inn and effectively offer my services for free. All I will ask in return is minimum amount of food and a place to sleep. That place doesn’t even have to be a room, a corner would be more than enough for me as long as it is a safe location. I am used to sleeping virtually anywhere while being on the move. I estimate that my chance of success is about 20% or so, but even then it is well worth it. If I get turned down, oh well, but it does not hurt to try right? What is the worst that can happen?

“…”

Somehow I feel like I triggered a flag...Don’t mind! Don’t mind! I just have to be prepared for the worst that is all there is to it!

I spend a few hours looking around the Inns that have taverns and go for the cheapest looking one. Luckily this isn’t a large town where the cheapest Inn would be in the middle of a slum. Because even if I could secure a job there, I wouldn’t feel safe sleeping there. This Inn is located in the poorer districts, but it is not to the point that screams “crime everywhere”.

I get near the Inn and begin investigating it in the least conspicuous way possible, I take note of the owners of the inn and the staff there. And from a distance try to judge their personalities. From the looks of things the middle-aged lady named “Anne Dalton” is probably the best person to approach as she seems to have the most authority in the inn. She also seems to have a decent reasonable personality as far as I can tell from a distance. It helps a lot that this inn is an open door one where you can peak inside, probably to draw in customers to the tavern.

Now then I wait until the tavern gets more and more filled up and the waiters can’t keep up with demand. And I choose this moment to strike! At this point I am less likely to get attention if I get turned down and my chances to get hired is increased due to immediate demand. “Principle of Supply and Demand”.

Time to start “Operation: Infiltrate the Inn”. The most important thing at this point is “Confidence”. If I stutter or act uncertain, they may think I am suspicious or something. The more confident I am in relaying my message, the less likely I will be suspected of anything.

I slowly walk into the tavern inn and head for the middle-aged lady. When I reach her I quickly recite my practiced lines.

[Shiro]:“Excuse me. My name is Shiro. I was wondering if you need some help. I just got into town for a day or two and was hoping I can get a part time job around here. I don’t need much, just some scraps of food and a place to...”

You have taken 206 damage. You have been stunned for 2 seconds.

[Shiro]:“..eh?”

eh? eh? EHHHHHH?!?!?

I am totally confused what in the world happened! But I feel a numbing pain from the top of my head as I feel blood begins to drip down…

I totally zone out and it takes me a few seconds to get myself together and I look down to notice there is a broken spilled mug on the floor covered in blood.

It take a look up and notice the entire tavern is staring at me with disgusted eyes... Like they are looking at mud...Then the voices begin to flood in as I slowly regain myself.

[Tavern Customer A]:”WHAT IS A STINKIN HAIRBALL DOING HERE?!?! ITS GOING TO GET FLEAS IN MY FOOD!”

[Waiter A]:”We sincerely apologize, we will get rid of it right away!”

The middle aged lady

[Anne Dalton]:”Shoo! Go away! We have no scraps for you!”. she then grabs a broom and starts shoving me out of the Inn. “Shoo!”

You have taken 3 damage.

You have taken 5 damage.

You have taken 4 damage.

You have taken 2 damage.

SERIOUSLY?!?!? I MEAN SERIOUSLY?!?!?

This is beyond discrimination… they are literally trying to kill me! Its like they found an icky cockroach on the floor and trying to squash it!

I mean I expected to be discriminated and poor treatment and all but this is ridiculous! I mean who just takes a filled mug and throws it at you the first thing they see you!?!?

While I would like to give them my two-cents on how completely unreasonable they are being, I get my act together and run! Because at this rate, they will actually kill me! I even activated [Charge] to get some distance as fast as possible!