After reporting the completion of the quest, I once more leveled up. Now I was level 14 with 13% experience left until the next level. I also received a skill Book [Cooking]. Mrs. Pearl grumbled about how she couldn’t believe how many people just ran out into the wilds without even a basic sense of how to cook meals.

Unfortunately, now that I’ve completed the quest, it seems that I’ll have to return the sword. I reluctantly held the sword out to Mrs. Pearl. But then something weird happened.

“What are you doing?” Mrs. Pearl asked.

“I’m returning your sword to you?” I said, blinking in confusion.

“Heh? Sword? What sword? I don’t own any sword. Are you sure you’re not trying to just butter me up?” Mrs. Pearl asked, denying it.

“But-“

“I’m just a simple farmer woman! What would I need with a sword? Just go, and take that darned thing with you! It’s probably riddled with diseases from all the rats you killed.” Mrs. Pearl waved her arms in a shooing motion.

I was about to insist when a blue box popped up:

Due to her forgetful nature, Mrs. Pearl has forgotten ever owning a weapon. Ownership rights have now been transferred to you. Viewing of sword stats is now available.

After tapping on the part in italics, another blue box popped up:

Just take it, already, before she impales you with it.

Okay, this is becoming a bit creepy, but I guess this is probably the free beginner’s sword that gets handed out at the start? If that’s the case, then I needn’t hold out to the point of being killed…I kept the sword.

…You mean I now have a weapon!? What’s the matter, system? You couldn’t give me another quest to help her recover her memory?

Despite mentally taunting the system, I was pleased to finally have a main weapon of her own. Remembering what happened earlier, I used Appraisal to see the sword’s stats.

Weapon: Mercenary Blade Type: Iron Sword Attack: 6-12 Durability: 109/150 ??? Special Effect: None

That’s it? I thought to myself. I mean, okay, yeah- I wasn’t expecting the best, but for it to be so…normal, it was kind of disappointing. I guess my hidden weapon, Azure Mist, was much more unique than I’d realized. Ah, but there was still a teensy bit of hope with that hidden ??? in the bottom left corner. Perhaps it could turn out to be some sort of hidden stat?

That being the case, I still equipped the sword immediately. Having an average main weapon is better by far than having no weapon.

Mrs. Pearl frowned. “There was something else….ah, that was it!” She smacked her fist into her hand as she remembered something.

“Little Kuma came by while you were gone with a letter from the mail, addressed to Ryuu. Who knows what he wrote, but I’m guessing it’s going to be something for you, little hero-in-training.”

She handed over the letter to Ryuu, who slipped it up his sleeve.

“Now that that’s don-a-ACHOO! Get out of here with that disease-ridden thing! I’ve probably already caught a cold, and I don’t need to be speaking with you until I catch Pneumonia either! Moreover I still have wet laundry to deal with!” Mrs. Pearl grumbled and shooed them out of the house.

Outside the house, the sun shone as if there never had been a torrential downpour. The puddles on the ground spoke a different story, though.

“I guess it’s true that the harder it falls, the faster it goes.” I said, staring up at the blue sky almost emptied of puffy white clouds.

“Mmmn.” Ryuu replied noncommittally as he opened and read the letter that he had placed up his sleeve earlier.

After a brief glance at him out of the corner of my eye, I confirmed. Yeah, he looks way better when he’s not saying anything. But, I wouldn’t be fooled by his better-than-average appearance anymore! Underneath, he’s still the demon king. I looked away and began watching with interest as little dandelions began popping up here and there, and unfolded their bright yellow flowers.

“Heh, that Big Kuma is such a busybody~.” I turned back to see that Ryuu was grinned crookedly as he slipped the letter back into his sleeve. “He says that, whenever we finish up with Mrs. Pearl, Old Blacksmith Tang and Kenneth the Hunter are both in need of some assistance. I’ll add them to the map.”

As he waved his hand, a ting sounded and two golden arrows pointed in two different directions.

My eyebrow twitched as I realized that these two are on opposite sides of town! This game sure loves making you run a lot! It’s a good thing there isn’t something like a stamina gauge in this game, or I’d have probably burst a blood vessel or something.

After considering for a moment, I decided to go to the Blacksmith’s first. Since I now have a sword, it’s best to learn how to take care of it first before going out of town and slaying monsters. Moreover, I was pretty certain that the reward for finishing the Blacksmith’s quest was some sort of repair skill or weapon creation skill.

“Let’s go to Blacksmith Tang, first.” I told Ryuu.

“Why did you choose him?” Ryuu asked with a face devoid of his usual crooked smirk.

“Since I now have a weapon, I need to know how to take care of it and make some basic repairs. Some may be okay with dying, since to them it’s just a game, but I was always taught that one’s weapon is one’s life.”

While it sounded kind of cool the way I said it, it was actually something my dad kept telling me. As a guidance councelor, he was a huge advocate of taking one’s talent seriously.

The actual words were really this: “If one’s talent is one’s weapon, then if one does not hone it, with what shall you fight? In the competitive world of today, one’s weapon is equivalent to one’s life.”

While I tended to ignore some of his more in-depth and complicated explanations, this one had struck a chord with me. As a gamer, I was somewhat of a perfectionist. If I could get through a game with the least amount of deaths out of anyone, then wouldn’t that point to me being highly skilled in gaming? Perhaps this would be my first step towards going pro!

That’s why, to accomplish my goal, I had to learn how to hone my weapon well. Aside from that first kill with the cabbage cart, I will never die again, so I resolved.

What I did not realize was how sinister Ryuu’s brain functions were. I should have known that I had inevitably set myself up for another round of suffering, due to my words.

After making my way through the town dotted with yellow and white dandelions, and grassy hills, I had almost reached my goal when I saw something somewhat interesting. A player flew out of one of the shops, landing in the street, losing about half of his HP by the looks of it.

From the doorway, an old man with a bald head and a white beard yelled out. “Don’t bother coming back in here again! You’re banned! Do you hear me? Banned!”

“Shut up old man! It’s not like your crummy wares are so good you can’t give me a discount!” The player shouted back, his face swelling up like a pig’s face. Admirably, the game’s graphics are simply too realistic! I ended up watching with interest.

“Ho? You still running your mouth? Me not killing you immediately was my being nice.” The old man said, taking out a large, double-edged battle ax, about almost as big as he was. Although he was grinning, his smile ran cold.

That smile, although different from Ryuu’s smile, was still rather familiar. I felt that I had found yet another demon king among the game’s AIs. Not to mention that ax…was rather magnificent-looking, actually.

It wasn’t a solid blade of steel. The inner structure, surrounding the wooden shaft was riddled with orderly rows of triangular holes-creating a metal lattice-work impression. The only solid part was the ax edges themselves. But, even though there were holes in the ax, I had a feeling that the cutting capability was much stronger than a usual ax.

In fact, aside from the Azure Mist hidden blade, this was my first time seeing a non-standard weapon-not to mention one of such size. The old man tapped the flat of the blade against his shoulder.

“I know that you’re an immortal, and killing you today will not rid us of you tomorrow. But what I can promise is this: if you don’t scram now, then every time I see you in the future, I will kill you.” The old man said, his eyes shone sharp, a terrible killing intent could be tangibly felt emanating from him.

The pig face’s quickly bruising face seemed to lose a bit of color. “Y-you wouldn’t dare!”

“Who know’s what I would and would not dare!” The killing intent became more solid. “If you’re not out of my sight in ten seconds, I won’t need to be polite anymore! So get running! One…Two…Three…” Each time he counted, he took a step closer to the rude player, whose pig-like face turned pale as he scrambled out of sight before the old man could even count to seven.

“Durned jackal!” He spat before turning around and walking back into his shop, slamming the door behind him. The surrounding bystanders came to the same conclusion from this scene: if you wish to obtain benefits, don’t anger the locals.

I made a mental note to avoid him as much as possible to lessen the chances of getting on his bad side.

Getting back to finding Blacksmith Tang, I looked over at the mini map, and felt a shudder wash over me. It couldn’t be! I rubbed my eyes, double checked, and even triple checked the location, but it was no use. The arrow pointed straight towards a certain door…

…The door the old man had slammed behind him. I felt a bit faint as I realized that the old man could very well be the same Blacksmith Tang that I was looking for.