After saying goodbye to Jeziel we left the guild. Why? Because we don’t have the money to register ourselves as an adventurer. Jeziel told us that she can lend us 5 silver coins each but I rejected it. No matter what happens, I won’t borrow money to someone I don’t know. By the way, the plan for Gino was postponed until we become an adventurer. But to think that even in this world I will be facing financial problems. Thankfully, Kaezar haven’t ask for lodging fee right now if she did, then I will be sleeping outside.

After walking for a while, we found ourselves in the middle of the village. There’s the enormous tree I saw back then and there are too many stalls surrounding it though I call it stall, it’s a piece of cloth spread out in the ground with goods atop of it. There’s also some who modified their cart so that they can display the items they want to sell. The sell monster parts, leather, herbs, food stuffs and other item deemed to be useful for daily lives and adventuring. Strangely, there’s no one here selling medicine. It seems that Kaezar’s family has the monopoly of medicine in this area but thinking about it, as a merchant, you’ll sell profitable items and I doubt that Kaezar’s family can take care all of it. How come they didn’t even think about selling medicine here? Weird.

“Hey Gino”

I call out to my friend who’s desire for going back to the guild is obvious.

“Hm?”

“How come the merchant doesn’t sell medicine here?”

“That’s because of the storage life of the medicines. It can only last for a day so they can’t buy it on other town and resale it here since the closest town is a day far from here even if you’re using a carriage.”

So it’s storage life huh… I wonder if they don’t know any method of preserving it. Well, considering the current situation they don’t.

“Haaa… How can we earn 5 silver coins?”

Without it, we won’t become an adventurer. It’s not that I want to be one in the first place but as a man and also a gamer, being thrown in this kind of world where status and skills exist gives me a feeling of wanting to improves my stats.

“We have weapons right? We can just hunt some monsters here and there or gather herbs and sell it to Fernando to earn money.”

“So you say but isn’t it difficult to fight?”

Call me coward I don’t care but fighting monsters means risking your life. Well, if it’s just a fist fight with human then I am confident that I can fight but if it’s against monsters, even if I have weapons in my hand I’m not confident that I will win and losing will mean that I will die. If only the god here gave me some cheat like abilities…

“It’s easy as long as it’s the shallow part of the forest. You can just move like a game character you know?”

“Game character huh… True that we played too many games back on Earth but do you realize that most of the moves there are exaggerated”

“Yeah they’re exaggerated but there are things that we learn about them right? Like how to know the weakness of the enemy, how to deal with unexpected situations and other things. To tell you the truth, I sometimes gather herbs and sell them to Fernando so that I have some pocket money and I fought many monsters and those things that I learned at playing games worked too well here.”

“Okay…”

“What’s with that spiritless reply? Come on, I know that you can do it since you’re the one who’s better at this kind of games than me.”

“But this isn’t a game...”

“What I mean is, you’re better than me in maneuvering. Promise, once you fought you’ll realize that you can move better here than Earth.”

“Well, I already fought and certainly I move better her but the problem is one of those fights almost take my life.”

“I heard about it but considering that you’re facing four bandits at once, you’re pretty damn good. Most of the people here can’t do that you know and considering your level you’re the only one who can do that. Normally, bandit subjugation task are assigned at B-rank adventurers… Wait… They hunt the whole group so that’s not counted… Hmm… Ah I know, escort task were given at C-rank adventurers and they also fought some bandits and if I were to estimate their level they would be level +/- 20 and also there will be on a party. You’re the only one who faced 4 bandits at level 2 and survived. Not only that, you killed one of them.”

Realizing the fact that I already killed someone in this world, my conscience kicked in and I feel guilty. Just the other day I am in a world where killing other people will put you to jail though it will be different if you did it on self-defense but still the act of killing itself is wrong. They’re also living in this world and I don’t have the right to kill them. I know I’m being a hypocrite here but the guilt I feel on killing a bandit is heavy.

“Ah! Let’s just ready our gear and head out!”

Gino pulled my hands while I am being eaten by my guilt.

When we got back Kaezar was manning the store. We just greeted her and went to take our gear. Strangely enough, even though it’s my first time wearing armor, I managed to equip it without a problem as if I did this many times in the past. Then I proceeded to hang the sword on my waist and walked out. What greeted me was Gino wearing the same leather armor as me but on his back a shield could be seen and a short sword was also hanging on his waist. We went out and before we could get out of the door, Kaezar told Gino to bring back herbs since their supply was already low.

And right now, here I am in the middle of the forest guarding Gino while he picks up some herbs. Luckily we haven’t encountered a single monster yet. I tried to help Gino but he said that there’s no need for that instead I should just watch the surrounding since it’s dangerous. Haa… I let out a sigh as I look around feeling bored. I wonder how the other adventurer procured their registration fee. Did they work and saved their earning until they got 5 silvers? Or did they do the same thing as we are currently doing right now. Or maybe their parents supported them. If I were to guess, then most likely it’s the first one. They worked until they got 5 silver coins. Since the second option is dangerous without a weapon… no even if you have a weapon it’s still dangerous… so it’s a no go. The third one, well, some may fall in this category but I can’t imagine a parent who’s willing to allow their child to lead a dangerous live. Since most the people here are farmers, wouldn’t they let their children work at the farm rather which is far safer than being an adventurer. Wait… it’s strange to find an adventurer’s guild in this kind of place. Normally, the adventurer’s guild must be somewhere inside the town since it’s much safer there than here and also, inside the town there’s much more people who will join the guild than in this kind of village. If this were a novel or game, there will be something special in this village. It might be near to a dungeon or there’s something that they need to watch out for. Well, I hope it’s the former.

While thinking about those things, I heard a rustling sound coming from my back so I hold the handle of my sword preparing to draw it in case that it’s a monster and face at it. The rustling sound becomes clearer and clearer then suddenly a shadow jumps out of a bush. It’s the boxer rabbit I met before. I quickly draws my sword since it will be bad if it suddenly charge at me.

Gino hurriedly pack the herbs he gathered on his bag and readied for battle.

“Lucky, a [Boxer Rabbit] appears. It’s quite rare for it to appear here and I heard that they’re hard to deal with due to their speed.”

“Really? They’re hard to deal with? Sure they are fast but they practically run straight towards you and you can easily dodge it.”

“Dodge you say… How can you dodge it when you can’t see it?”

“But they’re slow”

“Slow huh… Honestly, I can’t comment on that since I never encounter it before but Jaspe… I mean, Tala-Jasper told me that they can close a 5 meters gap in a blink of an eye.”

The boxer rabbit targeted me and lowers itself just like before and kicked the ground gaining speed using the momentum. Certainly, with this kind of move they can close a 5 meters gap but it’s useless when you know that they will charge at you without thinking of defense but that is something that makes it easy to deal with. I stepped to my left dodging the charge while slicing its body diagonally. Fresh blood covered my sword and the rabbit fell down while rolling around. I know that my attack isn’t enough to kill it since it takes me a few blows before killing it so I quickly turn around and saw the rabbit lying on the ground. I waited for it to get up but the rabbit didn’t move.

“…”

5 seconds has passed the rabbit remains motionless.

“Is it dead?”

I asked Gino but he didn’t answer so I looked towards him and see his mouth and eyes wide open looking at me.

“What?”

“Jasper, what did you do?”

“I slashed at while dodging it?”

“No… How did you dodge it?”

“By moving one step on my left?”

“What?! How can you see that kind of speed?!”

Why are you shouting? I’m just nearby so why do you have to shout?

“I can see it normally though…”

“What kind of dynamic vision do you have?!”

“I don’t know… It’s just that after coming in this world my sight got better…”

Not only my sight also my whole body got better.

“…”

Gino seems to be speechless but didn’t he say it before that upon coming in this world, his body moves better than before. Anyways the rabbit didn’t move even now so I approached it without letting my guard down. Who knows, it might faking it’s death to caught us off guard.

When the rabbit comes to my range, I poked it with my sword but no matter how many times I poke it, it didn’t respond.

“There’s no response… It’s just a corpse.”

I muttered some lines from the last game I played. Well, it’s just to lighten up my mood but it seems to give a different feeling. Instead of lighting up my mood, I feel sad after saying those words. AAAAAHHH!!! I HAVEN’T FINISHED IT YET AND NOW I’M IN ANOTHER WORLD!!!! I wish I have my DS right now…

“Haaa….”

Suddenly I heard a tired sigh on my back. It came from Gino and he’s scratching his head really hard that you’ll worry that his hair will fall out.

“Seriously… There’s nothing I can do by thinking on how the hell did you do it I’ll just accept the fact the you defeated it… More over in one hit.”

Gino walk towards me or rather the corpse and he retrieves something from his bag. What he takes out is a rope. He binds the two feet of the rabbit and hangs it upside down draining the blood from it.

“What are you doing?”

“I’ll prepare to dismantle it. Rabbit fur fetches a high price at the market and we can eat the meat. Also you can make an accessory using its foot. If I remember correctly, it raises the user’s luck by one. Though, creating it will be somewhat difficult but it will surely help us if I made it right”

I know that Gino knows some miscellaneous knowledge but I never expected him to know how to create an accessory. And also, I am regretting the fact that I left the corpses of boxer rabbits before.

“What’s with that look? Did you forget what I like to do when we’re playing RPGs?”

Yeah, this guy loves to craft items at RPGs. To the point that the story line didn’t matter to him, he plays for the sake of crafting different items.

“Now, pay more attention to the surrounding. There might be some monster attracted to the blood so stay on guard. I’ll continue to pick herbs now.”

Gino crouched down to his spot before and started to pick to herbs again.

Maybe 5 silver isn’t that expensive after all?

After a while the blood continues to drip and Gino continue to harvest. I’m getting bored once again to the point where I wanted some monster to be attracted to the blood.

“Oh right Gino.”

“Hmm?”

“Do pigman appears nearby?”

“They don’t”

“Then did you dive deeper in the forest?”

“No?”

“Then how come you save Jeziel’s party from the pigman?”

“Ahh… that huh… It’s just a coincidence though. Well, I’m gathering herbs in the different spot when they passed through me. After a while, I heard a scream and due to my curiosity, I followed the scream. What I saw was Jeziel’s party fighting a pigman which supposed to appear deeper in the forest though on very rare occasion, a lone pigman wonder in the shallow part of the forest. I guess they’re just unlucky to encounter it. The pigman uses a club and swings it against them and one of their teammates suffers a direct hit to that and lay unconscious. At first I was going to ignore them since I thought that they can handle them but then, I saw her. She looks exactly the same as her so without me noticing I ran towards their party and blocked the attack of the pigman. Then I commanded them and we won.”

Wow… I don’t know how to react to this… Should I praise my friend for being heroic or be angry at him for thinking about abandoning someone? Though if I’m on that situation, I won’t fight but I won’t abandon them either. I’ll just take the attention of the pigman and ran away. But seriously, Jeziel’s party has a bad luck…

…

Don’t tell me…

“Hey… Are you going to make that accessory right?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Are you pehaps… thinking of gifting it to Jeziel?”

Gino’s face become red ‘till his ears and faced me.

“W-w-w-what the hell are you talking about?! T-that’s not the reason why I’m going to craft a luck raising accessory you know?! I just want to raise my luck that’s all!”

Wow… I didn’t see him this flustered before. I just hit the bulls eye but let’s pretend that I didn’t notice it since it would be fun to see him handing the accessory to Jeziel.

“Okay… Relax. I’m just asking there’s no other meaning to it.”

Thinking about how he would give it to Jeziel, with his awkwardness, this will be fun. Hehe. I noticed that Gino’s gaze didn’t move away from me and behind those gaze says ‘What are you planning?’

“What? I’m not planning anything. I’m just bored since I don’t have anything to do.”

Hearing what I said, Gino clicked her tongue and continued to pick herbs. I think he already picked several of them but I can’t see a sign of him stopping. I wonder how many herbs did he need? And also, aren’t this part of the forest kind of weird? I mean in this one spot, there are too many herbs to be gathered.

*rustle rustle*

Once again I heard the rustling sound. This time, it comes from my left and also the rustling sound seems to be longer than before. It’s either the monster that will appear is big or it’s in a group.

“Hey Gino, something is coming!”

Gino stand up and draw his sword while he fastens the shield on his left hand. I also draw my sword and waited for the monster to appear. If only we don’t need money then I would like to leave this rabbit here.

What came out was a two child-like humanoid being. They have pointed ears, green skin, and a wears a ragged clothes to hide their nether regions. They also carry wooden clubs. With yellow eyes, they look at us and suddenly, burst out in a mocking laugh. All their teeth were pointy and colored yellow due to plaque.

“What’s that?”

Though I have a feeling that I know these monsters name but let’s ask just to be sure.

“Goblins. The monster who was considered as a pest to human’s field.”

Goblins huh… I guess I was right but seeing it closer in real life, they really look like the kind of goblins in games. I don’t know if I should praise the humans at Earth for they exactly copied a real life goblin using only their imagination or should I complain about the maker of this world for copying the goblins of games.

“Well, they’re small fries to begin with”

Gino shrugged his shoulder while calmly walking towards them. I wanted to stop him at first but seeing his opponent, it feels like this will be a child play.

The two goblins runs towards Gino and one of them raises its club. As they got closer, the other one prepared to smash its club from the side while the earlier one brings down its club. Gino effortlessly raises his shield to block the first attack and pierce the other goblin’s head using his sword. Yup they’re weak. I think saying small fries is a little bit generous to them since even small fries are hard to fight when you’re still low level and yet, these goblins betrays that definition. Maybe we should just call them as trash?

The pierced goblin falls down without even getting a chance to attack while the other didn’t even noticed that its companion has fallen. After pulling out his sword, Gino beheaded the other goblin and swings around his sword to remove the bloods on its blade.

“Haaa… the only thing we can sell from goblins are their weapons and this time, it’s a wooden club. Nobodies gonna buy this trash…”

Yeah let’s proceed at calling them thrash.

“Oh right… Didn’t the monster have magic cores? Why don’t you harvest it too?”

“The magic cores of the goblins are too small so we need 5 of them before we can sell it for 1 copper coin and the boxer rabbit don’t have one in the first place since it’s not considered as a monster but an animal.”

Wow… I never expected that. I thought that the boxer rabbit is a monster as well.

“Well, it’s still money if we managed to gather 5 of them.”

Gino started to gather the magic core of the goblins and after that he continued to harvest herbs.

It’s already time for lunch when we got back to the village. Gino already dismantled the rabbit and I don’t want to recall that gory sight so I’ll leave it to your imagination.

Upon reaching the village, we first went to the market place to find a buyer for the rabbit skin. There is some blood on it but overall it’s on good condition. I got surprised when Gino skillfully skinned the rabbit. He said that thanks to [Dismantling Skill] he learns how to dismantle it properly. He said that at first, almost all of the monster’s corpse were wasted because he still doesn’t have it before but now the chances of wasting it seems to be lower. He only fails if the monster’s level is a lot higher than the level of his skill. Thanks to that we managed to get this good quality pelt and right now, I am holding it. He said that he’s leaving the selling of this to me since I’m better at it. Certainly, he’s right. I’m the type of buyer who’s going to try to lower the price of an item even though I can afford it by its original price and different from me, Gino buys it at displayed value of it. It’s not really my specialty but there’s no other person to leave this kind of task.

If only Marc is here then we can leave this to him. It’s his specialty after all.

Well, let’s just try it see how good I am at bargaining.

I approached a stall which looks decent enough and also, this store deals with monster’s materials so I feel that I can sell it to him.

“Excuse me! I would like to sell this.”

Saying so I show him the pelt, for me it’s in good quality and the only flaw would be the blood but it can be washed off in the nearby river so it’s not a problem.

“Hmm..”

The merchant raises the pelt while inspecting it from all angles.

“It’s in good quality but the slashed mark here brings down its value. I’ll buy it for 9 big copper coins.”

“Woah there, isn’t the quality good? I say that you should buy at as 2 silver coins.”

“2 silver coins? You’re kidding right? Normally its 1 silver coins but certainly it’s good but the wound is the problem. I’ll buy it 9 big copper and 5 copper coins.”

“Come on. It’s only one wound. You won’t see something like this in here. 1 silver coins and 8 big copper coins.”

“Isn’t it a bit expensive? I’ll buy it for 1 silver coin.”

“Isn’t that for normal quality? 1 silver coin and 6 big copper coins.”

“The price you’re asking is really expensive. 1 silver coin and 1 big copper coin.”

“Well, my price depends on the quality of the good I’m selling. 1 silver coin and 5 big copper coins.”

“Hmmp. Certainly its good but buying it at your price will not give me any profit. 1 silver coin and 2 big copper coins. Take it or leave it.”

Looking at his eyes, I think he’s serious. Should I sell it now? After all, Gino said that the price market for this pelt is 1 silver coins, earning additional 2 big copper coins seems not so bad and we take it down with a single hit after all.

“Oooh!! What a good quality pelt! I’ll buy it for 1 silver coins and 4 big copper coins!”

Suddenly, another merchant cuts in. I don’t know who you are but thank you.

“Tsk.. You’re here again huh… Fine I’ll buy it at your price, 1 silver coin and 5 big copper coins.”

Should I sell it now? We need 10 silver coins all and all and 1 silver coin and 5 big copper coins can help us.

I look at the new merchant and he nodded. I don’t really know who you are but thank you.

“Deal.”

After the transaction, the new merchant came with me. Apparently his name is Juan. He’s not really a merchant but a shoe maker. He also said that that kind of quality of pelt normally sells at that price. Thank to him I managed to sell it at the right price.

“Oh Jasper did you sell it…? Why are you here?”

Gino greeted me when he saw me but suddenly, his gaze became cold when he saw Juan.

“I just helped him at selling the pelt. Never did I think that he knew you.”

“Uhmm… You knew each other?”

I can confidently say that they knew each other but that’s not the thing I want to know. I want to know why they have this kind of relationship. It looks like they hate each other guts.

“Yeah unfortunately.”

Gino replied coldly but Juan just smiled. Really what happen?

“Let’s go.”

Gino said and pulled me away from the market place. I don’t know what happened to the two of them but I’m not interested enough to ask. Well, if he want to share it then he’ll share it.

“Oh. Welcome back.”

We are now inside the shop of Kaezar and currently, Gino’s mood lightens up. He’s not frowning like before and he seems to be happy.

Kaezar greeted us while looking at the bag behind Gino but her gaze slowly shifted to me then slowly lowers it until it stops in my hand.

‘I think there’s nothing interesting in my hands why did she look ther—‘

My thoughts suddenly stop. If I remember correctly, Gino pulled me by my hands and never did it occur to me that he never let it go.

“S-so you’re in that kind of relationship. Uh-hm.”

Kaezar nods while her face is so red. She looks cute but right now that is not the issue.

“Hey you… How long are you going to hold my hands?”

I said threateningly to Gino but he just smiles and says

“Forever~ I’ll hold it forever just like the love I feel for you~ D-A-R-L-I-N-G~”

Disgusting!! This is disgusting!! I pulled back my hand but this guy holds it tighter than before!

“Let me go! I’m a straight guy! Leave me alone!!”

“Eeh~? What’s the harm? Love, did you forget the promises we said to each other at the forest?”

“We never said anything! And also, don’t call me love! Kaezar! Help me!!!”

“Certainly there’s nothing wrong in loving someone from the same gender but… but the church forbids it! But they love each other so I can’t just tell them to separate because it’s wrong… But the teaching of the church…. Uuuuhh..”

Kaezar’s eyes are spinning while muttering some words about teaching of the church and love each other. Needless to say that her face is all red.

“Well, joking aside we’re back and I would like to sell the herbs”

Gino let go of my hand and go near the counter where Kaezar stands. She didn’t notice that Gino is already in front of her. She continues to mutter some incomprehensible words.

“Hello! Kaezar! Are you there?”

Gino waves his hand in front of Kaezar and as if it’s a trigger of something, Kaezar suddenly stops and look straight at Gino.

“Congratulations at your mirage.”

…

How did this girl’s imagination run to? How come Gino ended up getting married? What’s funny is that she said it while looking straight to Gino with her full serious face.

“Puhahahahaha! Hey! Are you okay?”

Gino burst into laughter and I keep myself from laughing out loud. Seriously, how far did this girl’s imagination run to?

“Ah…. Eeeh! Gino! Yes! I’ll buy your herbs!”

“Okay relax. It’s just a joke, Jasper and I aren’t in that kind of relationship.”

“Eh?”

“Of course we aren’t. As I told before, I’m a straight guy and I love girls.”

Well, maybe joking like that in front of Kaezar is dangerous. She might spread rumors about us being a gay couple or something.

In the end, Kaezar bought the herbs by 2 herbs = 1 copper coin and we have a total of 100 herbs so it was sold at 50 copper coins, and our total budget for registration is 2 silver coins. We still need 8 silver coins.