“You are so weak! How pathetic! You needed to stay awake! You might be dead? You chose to save that insignificant life instead of taking what you wanted. You chose the weak way and it might cost you your life!”

“Mmmm, what happened? Who was just talking now?”

I woke up, my head still fuzzy, I felt like pure shit, like I had been drunk for days, my head was thumping, I felt ready to vomit any second and my body felt so heavy.

“Wait! I need to get out of here!”

Damn it! I remember now, I made that medicine and blacked out, those beastman are probably going to eat me, I need to leave, but where am I? I looked around the small open space, I was lying on the floor, on top of some animal furs, the room was quite bare, it had a desk and a chair on one side and that was it, the windows were covered by black animal fur, and the ground was just planks of dark oak wood, the ceiling was more wood planks, but this one was brighter, maybe birch wood planks?

“Master Udon!”

A high pitched, sweet, familiar voice caught my attention. Miko stood at the entrance to the room, it looked like she had been crying, her eyes were red and puffy. Miko ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck.

“What are you doing!? Get off of me!”

I tried to claw Miko off me but her grip was too tight.

“I thought I had lost you, I’m so happy”

Miko sobbed into my chest, what was she on about? Did she save me from the beastman? Does that mean we aren’t in their house anymore? Where are we then?

“Miko, we need to get out of here, the beastman will want to kill us, I couldn’t save their daughter and they saw my gem, we need to leave.”

I just went through worse case scenario and was ready to scatter.

“What are you talking about Master Udon?”

Miko pulled herself off of me, finally, and gave me another confused expression.

“Ah, bud you’re up”

That husky voice again, damn it, so we were still in their house, this could turn bad.

“Miko get behind me”

I pushed Miko behind me with all the strength I had left. Wait? Why did I do that? I should use her as a shield.

“Bud, settle down, I’m not going to harm you”

Lack walked into the room and had some cups that smelt like tea was in them.

“I don’t trust you, I didn’t save your daughter and now you want revenge”

“Master Udon, please settle down.”

Miko grabbed my shoulder lightly with one hand and tried to calm me down, but I wasn’t going to fall for it, she was probably working with them.

“I told you I couldn’t save her but you wouldn’t listen, I’m not to blame, I’ll fight to kill…”

I tried to threaten him but I ended coughing up blood before I could even finish.

*cough cough

“Master Udon! Please settle down, you don’t understand, Betty is safe”

Huh? What did Miko just say?

“You partner is right bud, you ended up saving my daughters life, she has completely healed, in fact she’s stronger than ever. I’ll show you, Betty!”

Lack called out to Betty, but I wasn’t buying it, even if she was safe, they’d try and use me to create that medicine again.

“Coming Papa”

A little soft voice rang through the hallway, a small girl appeared next to Lack, she was only as tall as his knee, she was white with a handful of black dots around her body, her nose was a baby pink, and her black floppy ears were a fraction of her mother’s size, she had a small tail that waved side to side like a happy puppy and wore a small pink dress

“Betty, this is Udon, his the one that saved your life, introduce yourself.”

Lack gave a soft shove to his daughters back and she moved towards me. It was definitely the same sick girl, but she looks so much different, no, stronger is the word, this could still be a trap, I didn’t let my guard down.

“Master Udon, please, she’s just a little girl”

Miko whispered into my ear with a sigh.

“T-tank you for s-saving m-me!”

The little cow girl bowed her head to me, you could tell she was scared or embarrassed but her gratitude seemed honest.

“I really can’t thank you enough bud, you saved my sweet daughter who was on the verge of death, and not only that, she has come back stronger, I really don’t know how you did it.”

Lack stepped forward and picked his daughter up and put her on his shoulders, Betty smiled and wrapped her arms and body around the top of his head.

“How did you do that, Master Udon?”

Miko asked, curious at the spell I used I’m assuming.

“I learnt a spell that was it, Lack can we have the stuff you promised, I would like to leave now”

I wasn’t going to stay here any longer, I still didn’t completely accept this situation I was in.

“Really bud? You seem pretty worn out? You’ve been asleep for three days, you sure you don’t want to rest a little longer?”

Did Lack just say three days! I had been unconscious for three days! What the hell happened!

“Lack, do you mind if Master Udon and I have a minute to chat?”

Miko moved to my side and smiled at Lack.

“Sure, I’ll set the tea down here, it’ll help with that headache you have bud.”

How did he know I had a headache? I was squinting my eyes tightly and grimacing at the pain when someone spoke, wouldn’t take a genius to figure out I had a bad headache then.

“Master Udon, what you did was amazing, I’ve never heard of someone being able to use an Atone level spell at level 2 and you didn’t even research it.”

Miko stood up and grabbed the two cups of tea from the desk and handed me one.

“Why did I black out?”

I was still unsure of what had happened.

“There is a couple of questions I have if you don’t mind, but you blacked out because you ran out of mana, your current mana is -50/33, it was -75/50 yesterday, but I’ve never heard of a player to go beyond their mana capacity so I’m unsure how you did it.”

More questions, damn it! I used more mana than I had, does that mean my health turned into mana? If I had hit points, it would be like sacrificing them to use as mana, that would explain why I felt so bad.

“How did you create such a medicine Master Udon? I’ve never heard of a medicine that expels low poison and helps infected bites, it also helped with Betty’s muscle spasms and it cured her high fever instantly.”

Miko did have a point, I remember that new skill, ‘Pharmacist’ was it called? It made sense, if I made a new medicine then the name suits it, but it said new skill created.

“Miko, I’m assuming you’ve looked at my stats, thats how you found my MP issue? You’ve seen my new skill.”

If Miko had looked at my MP she would have seen that new skill.

“Yes, I’ve never heard of that skill before, and its an Ultimate skill.”

“When I made that medicine, it said, ‘new skill created’ and showed me the pharmacist skill”

I had to see if Miko knew anything.

“Hmmm, interesting, an ancient legend tells that the summoned could create knew skills, but I always thought it was a myth.”

So skills might have been originally created by the summoned.

“You need to drink Master Udon, or it’ll take you longer to heal.”

Miko drank her tea and gestured for me to do the same, Miko’s might not have been poisoned but I still didn’t trust mine, if my medicine really made that little cow girl stronger then why wouldn’t those beastman try and make some money off of me.

“Master Udon, you are very stubborn, here”

Miko grabbed the tea from my hands and drank a mouthful herself, she swallowed the tea and opened her mouth.

“Arrrr, see, nothing wrong with it, now drink, please”

Miko showed me the inside of her mouth, an out of ordinary move from her, I guess it wasn’t poisoned then. I drank the tea and lied back down and fell asleep.

I woke back up to the smell of seasoned chicken.

“Mmmm, that smells good, huh!?”

It took a while for my eyes to regain focus but when they did I saw Lack, Betty and Miko sitting down around a table, Lack was working on what looked to be a short bronze sword, while Miko was playing with Betty, they had wooden figures that look like bears.

“Oh, you’re awake sweetie,”

Huh? I turned around to see Lack’s wife standing there with a plate of what looks to be Yakitori.

“Master Udon, how are you feeling?”

Miko seeing I had woken up moved over next to me and put the back of her hand on my forehead, was she checking my temperature or something?

“I’m fine, I don’t need to you do that stuff, I can look after myself”

I pushed Miko’s hand away from my head, she seemed to get a little upset but I didn’t care, I still didn’t trust that bee.

“If you want to wed that wonderful young lady bud, I would treat her a little nicer.”

Lack opened his big mouth and spurted out nonsense.

“W-wed! Master Udon and I!? No, it’s uhh not like t-that, I mean if h-he were to a-ask, no, I s-still have to get to know Master Udon b-but arrrr!”

Miko went beet red again, what was she on about now? I swear she mumbled the strangest things.

“Honey, don’t tease the young ones, they’ll sort it out, I’m sure of it.”

Now Lack’s wife was spurting out nonsense, she even winked at Miko as she placed the plate of Yakitori on the table.

“Eat up everyone, there’s plenty to go around”

Lack’s wife crouched on her knees at the table and gestured for everyone to dig in, the others smiled and thanked the cow lady and dug in.

“Udon, was it? Let me introduce myself, my name is Emma Odenne, I am Lack’s lovely wife and the mother of the sweet little girl you saved.”

Wow, quite a high praising introduction… bullshit, she was up to something.

“Master Udon, has some trust issues, Emma, please don’t be offended by him.”

Miko looked at me and smiled like she knew who I was, what the hell! She doesn’t even know why I have these trust issues!

“In that case, I’ll need to do this”

Emma took the chicken off the skewers and made her way to me, no! Stay away!

“There we go”

“What the…”

The cow lady shoved the chicken in my mouth, I was to weak to fight back and her grip was insanely tight.

“Master Udon!?”

Miko was shocked at what the cow lady…Emma had just done, she brought over a cup of water and made me drink it.

“Miko, a stubborn one like this, you need to make the moves, he’ll only look after you if you show him you’ll look after him”

Emma got back up and moved over to the table with a satisfied smile on her face. Bitch! Trying to choke me to death.

“Yes, m’am”

Miko looked at Emma and nodded her head very solider like, the hell was that about?

“As insightful as always honey”

Lack now stepped into the conversation, he had his mouth stuffed with plenty of Yakitori, don’t talk with your mouthful of chicken!

“Now lets finish eating, Udon, how has your MP come along?”

Emma acting like she didn’t just shove a handful of chicken in my mouth.

“It’s coming along fine, why do you care? I’ll be out of here the moment I can walk, don’t worry”

I wiped the loose bits of chicken from my mouth and stared the cow lady down until…

“Ow!”

Miko whacked the back off my head with her palm.

“Thats the way”

Emma smiled at Miko who smiled back, the hell is this! Are they just toying with me.

“Master Udon’s MP is almost back to 0, I think it’ll be 0 tomorrow, so, we’ll be leaving tomorrow then”

Finally Miko said something that made sense, I should have enough strength to leave tomorrow.

“Are you sure thats wise? You can stay longer if you wish.”

Lack swallowed his food and looked at Miko, ignore me!? I’m the one that will be leaving, Miko can stay all I care…no, she can’t, I need her to move up the floors.

“It’ll be fine, Master Udon is quite strong and capable, we’ll be fine.”

Miko smiled at the old Bull beastman, finally she understood how much I wanted to get out of here.

“Well, then make sure you eat your fill tonight, you to Udon darling, and then get to bed and rest up, Betty you go wash up and get ready for bed.”

Emma put down another plate of Yakitori, when did she get that?

“Do you know why Udon doesn’t trust anyone Miko”

Emma sat down and grab another skewer

“No I don’t, his been like this since I met him”

Miko replied, you’ve known me for a couple of days, don’t act like we’re friends!

“Miko, can you sleep in my bed tonight!?”

Betty jumped up and waved her arms up in the air excited breaking the awkward quiet in the room. Wait? I only see one blanket here, where has Miko been sleeping!?

“Miko”

I said in a deep voice

“Uhh y-yes Master Udon?”

Miko replied a little fearfully,

“Where have you been sleeping!?”

“Oh, look at that, I better help Betty get ready for bed, come on Betty lets go”

“Yay!”

Miko got up quite quick and quickly exited the room pushing Betty along. Damn it Miko!

“Oh young love”

“Its quite a lovely site, isn’t it Lacky”

Young love!? Lovely sight!? If the gender roles were reversed you’d be saying I’m a pervert, and it wasn’t love! She was planning something!

I finished some of the Yakitori and lied back down, Emma cleaned up the table and went to check on Miko and Betty, Lack stayed and worked on the short bronze sword.

“I am really grateful bud, you saved my daughter, I didn’t think I’d ever get a night like this again when I saw the state she was in, not many people survive an undead rat bite.”

Lack still working on the short bronze sword thanked me once again, but this one felt, different, like he was completely grateful for what I had done.

“Oh, uhh, don’t mention it, and don’t go telling people I saved your daughter with some weird potion, it almost killed me as you can see, and I didn’t do it for a thank you, I still want those items you promised me”

“I know bud, you seem to have some real trust issues, I don’t know what has happened in your past or why your gem is crystal clear, but I won’t judge, you don’t seem like a bad person, just quite rude.”

Won’t judge me? Are you serious!? You were going to kill me the second you saw my gem.

“How long are you going to be? I need to get some rest.”

He was keeping me up with all that clacking of metals and the light.

“Don’t worry, done, here you go bud”

Lack got up and handed me the short bronze sword along with a floor map of the second and third floor, 10 small glass viles and 2 Silver Shark Coins.

“This is more than I asked for, I’m not some charity case you need to have pity on.”

I shoved the short bronze sword, the 10 small glass viles and extra silver Shark Coin away, I kept the extra map though.

“I know it is a little more than what we agreed on, but you don’t seem to understand how valuable that medicine was, it would be worth at least a Golden Tigre Coin, but we don’t have that type of money, so this is the best I can do.”

So he felt guilty, not pity, in that case.

“I’ll take these if you can answer a question of mine and not ask any in return.”

I grabbed the short bronze sword, the 10 small glass viles and the Silver Shark Coin.

*weapon acquired

Weapon Mastery ▼

Short Bronze Sword: 0/10 Mastery, Attack: +15, Special Effects: Enchantments: Blood Coating, Magic Attribute:

“A question? Ok, what is it you want to know bud?”

Lack sat back down with his legs crossed.

“Tell me the currency of this world.”

It was risky, but he seemed like he owed me and was a man of his word.

“This world? Thats a strange way to phrase a question, you have the lowest value coin, the Bronze Bear Coin, 10 of those will equal a single Silver Shark coin and 20 of those will get you a single Golden Tigre coin.” If I added it up correctly, then a single Bronze Bear Coin would be ¥500 and a single Silver Shark Coin is ¥5000 and that would mean a single Golden Tigre Coin is worth ¥50,000! That seems extreme, Lack said my medicine would be worth at least ¥50,000! And he gave me ¥10,000...not real fair if you look at it like that.

“Now bud, I would encourage you to level up on this level and try and acquire some animal and monster material and some more medicinal herbs and possibly some ores if you have unlocked the mining trade skill, you’ll level up and have enough materials to sell, that’ll keep yourself and that sweet young lady going for a while, if you’re looking for a cart that can travel up the floor stairs, we have a specialised shop in town that will allow you.”

Lack did have a point, but I really didn’t want to stay in his house any longer then I already had, I didn’t need a magical cart either, it was only Miko and I for the moment.

“Thanks, I’ll take it into consideration, now I’m going to sleep”

I rolled over and pulled the animal fur over my face.

“No worries bud, thank you for saving my family.”

Lack got up and pressed the magical symbol on the lamp that turned the light off and walked out the room.

“Save his family, how pathetic, I couldn’t even save my own, why should I have to save someone else’s.”

I drifted off to sleep.

“Thank you again Udon, if you ever need a place to stay on the second floor our doors are always open.”

Emma forcefully grabbed me and hugged me tightly into her chest, damn it! I can’t breath in these massive piles of jelly.

“Exactly what my wife said, you ever around these parts again, just stop on by.”

Lack pulling his wife off of me, showed his gratitude for what we had done.

“Uhh Onii-chan, thank you so much”

Betty stepped forward and bowed her head, wait? Did she just call me Onii-chan!?

“Miko lets go”

I turned around and started walking away, I didn’t need there gratitude and I certainly didn’t need someone else calling me big brother!

“Oh, uhh, thank you for having us and helping Master Udon get better”

Miko bowed her head to the Odenne Family.

“You’ll get him to see your womanly charm don’t worry,”

Emma grabbed Miko by the arm and whispered something into her ear, probably some plan to stab me in the back, Miko has enough of those already!

“Bye!”

Miko ran after me and waved goodbye to the Odenne Family.