“A-Are you hurt? No injuries? You look pale…” The girl rummaged through all parts of me before settling in. “Please don’t tell the city guard about this incident! Pleaseee!” She begged like there was no tomorrow.

“…Okay, but you have to compensate me,” I huffed. I was almost killed silly by crashing into an aircraft… and I meant that literally. So she couldn’t get off easy, plus it’d be good to have a guide as well.

“What do you want? Money? Invention? Or is it perhaps… me? No, no, I am off limit!” She vehemently waved her hands in a fluster.

“Who wants you, stupid!” She overreacted over the littlest thing and seemed to be an outgoing girl at first sight.

“Hehe. It’s just a joke. I am Cornelia, a mechanic.” She took off her goggles, had her other hand on her hip, and smiled widely with a toothy grin.

When I took a closer look at her now, she was a girl about my age, maybe a bit younger, with long, dark brown hair that cascaded down her back, brown quartz eyes, and fair skin. She wore a jumper-like outfit composed of dark brown leather shorts, a reddish-brown suit with a long sleeve that doubled as a mantle, white stockings, and white thigh-high boots embellished with gold linings.

I could understand why she called herself a “mechanic,” judging by her accessories which included a leather belt with two small bags, gloves, and that gold-framed goggles. Although, no helmet was seen so far to cover her long hair. She wasn’t as perfect and flawless as Lorelei, but still quite pretty, nonetheless.

“What’s wrong, cat got your tongue? Want me to bring you to the clerics or priests?”

“N-No. Ahem. Mine’s Vincent An— Just Vincent.” I used [Developer Interface] on her out of curiosity, as rude as it might be.

Name: Cornelia

Species: Human

Sex: Female

Age: 18 years old

Height: 167 cm

Occupation: Mechanic, inventor, adventurer

Vocation: [Mechanical Genius]

Stats:

STR: D (47) AGI: D (53) VIT: E+ (39) MAG: E (31) SPR: D (54)

Accumulation Points: 46 [D-]

Darn it! She’s way stronger than me… Despite having strength much higher than me after that whole training routine, she didn’t look macho or have much muscle, but she did look fit like someone who did exercises daily. Moreover, what’s this Vocation all about?

[Mechanical Genius]

An ability to make the user a genius in all kinds of mechanical constructs. Also, it gives the user a great discerning and perception ability to analyze the basic structure of things.

“Vin… cent? Doesn’t sound like a local name to me. And that attire coupled with rare black hair… Oh! You must be a traveler, right!”

“Pretty much so…” Hrm? Why is my name unfamiliar? “Anyway, what’s with that thing over there?”

“That’s my— Oh no! My steam kite!” She darted toward the wreckage of what remained of her aircraft and caressed the main body that now had lost most of its wings. “Aw, some small mishap is bound to happen sooner or later. Oh, well…”

Small? Someone almost getting killed was a small mishap? Shit! I almost cursed out loud but managed to keep it within my throat. What a unique person she was.

Hiding the annoyed face behind a façade, I commented, “So, Miss Corne…”

“Call me Cornie. Just Cor-nie. Remember. That’s how my friends call me.”

“Okay, Cornie. So, you come from the city over there?” I pointed to the walls in the distance.

“Yep! Hmm, hmm? Is this your first time visiting?”

“Uh-huh, and I’m not familiar with this place. Mind being a guide for me? No, you should be since—”

“Okie-dokie! However,” she glanced at the wreckage and continued, “could you lend me a hand by helping me carry this thing into the city. Of course, I’ll compensate you.”

Rather than answering, I walked to the wreckage. This so-called “steam kite” of hers already had some rudimentary resemblance to a plane. It had a form of a powered glider with a propeller at the back powered by a steam machine which I couldn’t make the heads and tails. What a fascinating aircraft.

When were planes first invented in my world? I might be able to measure the level of civilization If I found out more… But that wasn’t the point here. Looking at her made me remember the genius painter and engineer in the Renaissance — the one that painted the “Mona Lisa.” Yeah, this airplane was sort of similar but more advanced.

“What’s this? Interested in my invention? Mm?” she inquired with a knowing grin. “This is the only one in the entire kingdom, my sole creation!”

I nodded to her question. “Very well. But you have to do me a favor later on.” For one thing, establishing a good impression on a native would have its own benefit. Alternatively, a favor would be best since her ability was of use to me, and it wasn’t like I could just irresponsibly leave her alone.

“Sure.” She then repositioned the keeled aircraft almost like nothing. As expected of someone with a D STR.

“Now shake a leg!” She forced me to push the steam kite with her, luckily, the wheels under were still functioning.

We pushed the aircraft for some time, and before long, we reached the outskirts of the forest, amidst our idle chatter. The walls that were only a dot from afar now looked bigger and encompassing, like a tall cliff facing the endless sea that was the forest.

“Phew… Still how much longer?” With the boost given by the set, I exhibited greater strength than usual, but I was already exhausted at this point.

“You’re fairly weak, ain’t you? Hahaha!” She hit me on the back a few times.

Ow! That hurts. If it wasn’t for the set hardening when her hand slapped my back, I would have ended up with a fractured bone or two.

“Hey, stop that! Or I will leave you behind.” Having almost four times my STR didn’t mean that she was four times stronger than me, but more like five times because of how the stats worked — a 5 percent increment of the previous total. With the boost from the set, I could exhibit twice my normal, but that was still a far cry from her.

“Y’know, I bet your strength would be enough to barely put you in Iron rank. So what rank are you?” she swiftly remarked.

“What do you mean?”

“Your Adventurer’s Guild’s rank. What else? It’s common sense for all travelers to be an adventurer.”

“Oh, I’ve yet to register myself in any guild and am thinking of doing that inside.”

“Hmm? That’s odd. Then, do you have a travel permit?"

“Nothing of the sort, either.” I waved my free hand in denial.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

We looked at each other silly.

“Wait, wait, wait! You don’t even have a travel permit? How have you been going from place to place all this time?” Cornelia sent me a skeptical look. “For a start, why are you in the Great Elion Forest, Vincent?”

“Ah, um… I’m from far beyond the forest… far to the northwest. And…” I lied as naturally as breathing; I had come up with a self-made story prior to this kind of situation. Since the deeper reaches of Great Elion Forest were pretty much uncharted, there was no way to deny my statement.

Those three brainwashed invaders didn’t tell me anything regarding travel permits, though they did say something about guild cards being important. Maybe there was another way to get in and out of the city.

“No worry. I can be a guarantor for your entrance to the city. That should help you until you’re registered in the Adventurer’s Guild regardless of your origin.” She thrust out her chest in pride, all smug, showing off her curvy figure.

Out of shame, I looked away. She’s pretty defenseless, huh… My first impression of her was a perky, straightforward girl that seemed to be happy-go-lucky at times. But now that I knew her better, she was quite dependable too.

“Welp, as long as you’re not a criminal that is,” she added, squinting her eyes at me.

“By the by, why are you in the forest this late at night? Wouldn’t the city gates be closed at this time? And isn’t it dangerous?” I was casually commenting even though I didn’t know the whole detail just to get out of the previous matter.

“Uh, well…” She had her free hand on her chin. “Test riding my prototype isn’t allowed inside, and… the guards don’t want me to scare off the adventurers and small animals lurking at the outskirts, so…”

All in all, I understood her passion. Even I myself knew what she was experiencing of not being able to freely test out her prototype, but rules were rules. Besides, she said that she was well adequate to protect herself — seen by a set of bow and arrows placed on the steam kite seat.

Before I knew it, we were standing before the city. Though there was a canal separating the land between us with a single stone bridge to cross; the canal itself wasn’t that long and likely used to deter beasts from approaching instead of humans.

As for the walls that glowed grayish-white, they seemed to be made out of limestone-like materials. And the design made it obvious that it was made to counter enemies from this side, with an elaborate defense system and all. Splendid. The one thing that I noticed the most, however, was the number of walls. You could even see three sides visible from where I was standing, so it was either a trapezoid city or a hexagonal one.

“Um, how many sides do the walls of this place have again?”

“Four. Why?”

“Nothing.” Oh, so it has a trapezoid shape, I see. It made sense to design a city like that when it was facing the danger that was the forest. Wha… There’re even vestiges of red on the wall.

Once we crossed the stone bridge while pushing the steam kite, I discovered several gatekeepers guarding the city gate. And—

“Guns?” I muttered, barely keeping the voice to myself. The long pipe weapons being carried by the two guards atop the walls were — without a doubt — guns, but they had a bulky part with a small pipe on the back that made them different from the familiar muskets that I knew of.

Even so, instead of bringing me a sense of awe of their technology, this brought me an impending feeling. I just hoped that they weren’t too high on the tech tree so that I could exploit my modern knowledge’s advantage and make it rich!

““Halt!””

The two gatekeepers standing guard outside stopped us. They had halberds in hand instead of guns and were dressed in light, simple armor.

Shortly, the middle-aged guard on the left said with an open smile, “If it isn’t Miss Cornelia. Are you done with the test ride thing? …Ah, I see… a failure, eh?”

“That’s sadly the case, Sir Jonas.” Cornelia seemed like she was well acquainted with the middle-aged guard.

“Hm? Who’s this? Is he an adventurer? He looks like high class.” The guard, Jonas, eyed me suspiciously and stated, “I’d never seen this lad ever coming out from this gate… Is he with you, missy?”

“Psst, don’t talk about my origin too much,” I whispered to Cornelia.

“Gotcha.” She gave a thumbs up and said to him, “Yes! He’s Vincent. A traveler from afar I met when I went out, and he’s helping me with my experiment, so I can vouch for him,”

“Is that so?” Jonas let his guard down and laughed, “Hahaha! Lad, I hope that she didn’t trouble you.”

Whew. So far so good. I heaved a sigh of relief inside and said half-jokingly, “I almost bit the dust when I first met her.”

“Heyyy! I said sorry, okay!” She was fuming, stomping the ground.

“Really? Then forgive her if she has caused you such inconvenience in my stead.” He made another hearty, middle-aged laugh as if he had anticipated that would happen. It appeared that this wasn’t the first time that Cornelia had caused some “incidents.”

“Geez. Stop this farce!”

“Ha-ha. So can I get inside, sir?”

“But do forgive me. Since you’re not from around here, you can’t enter without showing your travel permit or any guild cards.”

“About that…”

“He doesn’t have any. Can I be the guarantor for him?”

“C’mon, miss.” Jonas scratched his nape. “Don’t make this hard for m—”

“Pleaseee? Pretty please?” Cornelia pleaded with the guard the same way she did before to me.

He sighed. “Fine. Your Bronze rank card is enough to make you a guarantor. But he has to register in the Adventurer’s Guild or any other guilds as soon as possible or ask for a travel permit at the governmental office.”

“Thanks, Sir Jonas! You’re so dependable.”

“Hahaha! Naturally, Mr. Vincent, we have to do a background check on you with an identification slate — it’s mandatory cuz of the recent incident.”

“Incident?”

“That’s the case here. I can’t say much since it’s confidential, but the thing is, there has been a sighting of ferocious hybrids in the forest for the past week or so. No worries though, they have been culled down by powerful liberators and adventurers.”

Thought so… It seemed like the confidentiality was about the assassination, but I didn’t want to get myself involved. On that account, my lips were sealed with super glue pertaining to this matter.