“Well that makes things a bit more difficult.” (old man)

The old man was scratching his voluminous beard.

The old man told me, it's necessary to pay the fee and also gave me to suggestions based on his impression of me.

Becoming a miner:

Basically I would have to help out digging stuff out of the caves of dungeons. Miners focus only to get the ores while getting protected by adventurers or knights of the country. 70% of the usual ores go to the [Miner Guild], the employee, because they provided the tools like the pickaxe and shovels. If I find a rare ore, I would get 50% of the pay. Also he thinks the job would help me to build up some muscles and get stronger in physical strength, it seems I really look scrawny here.

The other option would be, becoming a waiter:

I would have to work in a inn or in a guild entrance, basically the bar in the case of the [Adventure Guild]. It’s actually no difference from the work in my world. I would serve customers, help out in the kitchen and clean the local. It's a job everyone can learn fast and it’d help me to make contacts with some strong adventurers which maybe were willing to train me.

Honestly, both options sounded reasonable but the protagonists also didn’t do that, they had every time a fight first, even if it was mostly unwanted. In this world, that is the main difference.

It was like something, I had to do. A desire to see it for myself. To check if this was indeed a different world. I wanted to see “the danger”.

It seems the old man noticed that too, after he looked at my face for a while with a thoughtful

glance.

“Well, there is also a third options, I actually should have told it too, but I thought you might be to weak for it, because you aren’t from here. I see the determination in your eyes though, and it's my job to assist the future adventurers here.” (old man)

“I’m really grateful for that” (Anoki)

I bowed, again it looked really formal.

☆☆☆

I was walking in the direction of the forest. The one which was behind my “spawn point.” The place where I woke up in this morning.

The old man told me, there was quest which was mostly done by the children of the adventurers. The parents would pay the fee, but they use to make a test for their kids, to prove them they are worth to become an adventurer. That test was the {Goblin Extermination Quest}.

In this season particularly, the goblins were pairing and multiplying themselves. So it was common to do the tests in this season. It seemed though, do some circumstances, There weren’t many children in the city at the moment. So that left the quest just hanging on the bulletin board while nobody was picking it, because goblins are in general very weak monsters, in particular the ones which were from this quest.

The stronger goblins have names like “High Goblin” or “Goblin Knight”, which also appear in that forest, but more in the center of it, which takes a while to reach.

Basically the old man recommend me to that quest, he didn’t wanted to tell me first, because, even if it wasn’t the guilds fault if I die, then I wasn’t officially an adventurer, he still would feel guilty. But my “determination” made him gave in.

“I can’t just be a hindrance to someone with these eyes, I was the same after all. An orphan with nothing left, who chose to become an adventurer too.”

Honestly, it didn’t surprise me at all that the man was a former, high ranked adventurer, pretty common to in the novels. I mean why would an old guy want to work as a receptionist in the [Adventure Guild]. The beautiful females had it easier with their looks, they would attracts those rowdy adventurers and get a lot of tips. So it's easy to understand that he wanted to see people which want to become adventurers.

What surprised me more was, “these eyes”? Apparently I looked directly in his eyes while I was thinking that becoming a miner or waiter was a bad idea. Sure, the desire was there, but was it really that strong?

I mean I’m a shy guy, who doesn't really like to look in people eyes after all. I’m pretty sure I focused on his beard when I started talking with him.

Anyway, he was also so generous to provide me with some weapons. He even gave me the choice.

Usually the protagonists either use way too op magic or swords. I mean this is a world with swords and magic after all. But I chose a simple weapon, a dagger and asked him if he could give me some other helpful stuff with a bag to carry things. I’d have to cut the ears of the goblins to proof that I killed them and I had nothing more then my jeans pockets after all.

When I was ready to go out, he asked.

“Is this really everything you want?” (old man)

After thinking for a while, I pointed at the thing, which was still lying on his desk. The gauntlet.

Would be cool, if that one actually fitted but nope. It took us like an half of hour to find a the right size.

It was early afternoon, when I left the guild.

I passed my “spawn point” and was sneaking in the outskirts of the forest. The old man told me to be as careful as possible. He even showed me this and how to pierce with the dagger properly. He was only satisfied after I pierced the 44th time in the air.

“This should do it, even someone like you should be able to defeat the goblins now, you have an unexpected talent for this weapon and you seem to learn quickly, still don’t think to full of yourself and be careful. If you “pass this test” I may even consider to become your teacher.(old man)

I was wondering if that guy had a daughter or something, which he lost in his times, but I thought it was rude to ask. Would be a typical backstory too anyway. Still, it seemed strange to me that he treats a stranger as something like his sprouse.

I plan to not accept all of the reward money, even it would make the way to pay the fee longer, it would just leave a bad aftertaste. I was grateful but I wanted to cut ties with him as fast as possible.

I shouldn’t trust people in this pace. It's more a common thing in the “revenge isekai” novels but still. At the moment I can’t really say if this is the “carfree” or “revenge” route. Because the start of the “revenge” resembles the “carefree” a lot.

In the revenge novels, does the protagonist work hard to get strong and fights with all his power and soul. But he gets betrayed by the ones he trusted. With that hate he dies and gets reincarnated again, to start his journey of vengeance.

I started in this world, with nothing but my knowledge of this genre and my “knowledge” of my world. Well I don’t really consider my high school years a very useful though.

But it helped me with my choice of weapons.

As I said, heroes usually pick the sword or possess already very strong magical powers. I don’t think it's realistic to have swords skills from the start after picking it up the first time. In fact, I make a mistake it could be death. Also, if we remember the lecture of the old man, he wouldn’t have let me go out nor praised me when if I had picked the sword instead of the dagger. I’m pretty sure I would still stayed with him and swinging with that overused weapon in stories.

I chose the dagger, for a simple reason. In my world, if you talk about weapons to kill or fight, you talk about guns. The weapon, which isn’t a firearm and for close combat, would be the dagger then.

The gauntlet I chose, because the other thing, which humans use to fight, was their fist. Also, it's basically something, everyone knows. I’ve never had karate or kung-fu, but I punched once a bully in the stomach and well, it seemed, I hit a pretty good spot.

So my plan was, to use the gauntlet on my right arm, to strengthen my punch and knock down the goblin and the knife on my left, to kill it.