Volume 1 - CH 4.09

By doing another Character Reset I got rid of Durandal. Then I opened the Item Box and took the Scimitar out of it.

Hmm? What’s this?

When I took the Scimitar out of the Item Box, I noticed that it freed some space right next to it. I think it means that I can place some additional items there. Kinda tricky and unintuitive, but I can work with that.

I got some of the dropped branches from the backpack and tried putting them into the newly-freed space of the Item Box. Looks like one space slot can be taken by two branches simultaneously. It was exactly the same for the slot right next to it: exactly two branches could be placed there. So I guess that means that a single space slot in the Item Box can be occupied by varying quantities of items, depending on their size, and quite possibly weight?

I tried to do another thing next. I tried to place some branches into the space that was already occupied by one Scimitar, but I couldn’t do it, but two branches could still fit into the space right next to it. I’m pretty sure that this space was not there before. But now that I think about it, it might also be related to the level of my Explorer Job. Maybe when its level will go up, then the number of spaces in my Item Box will increase accordingly?

When I just got this Job, meaning it was at its base, level, Level 1, I only had one space in the Item Box that could only hold one item in it, but now that the Explorer Job gained a level, I have obtained an additional item slot and could not hold up to two pieces of the same item in one slot. That’s why I should now be able to hold both of my Scimitars in a single item slot. I guess I could test that further when I will elevate Explorer’s Job level to Lv3. If my assumption is correct, then I should get a third item slot and be able to hold up to three items of the same kind in one slot.

But for the time being, I placed the Scimitar back onto my waist and made my way back to the Labyrinth’s entrance and passed through the black wall-doorway back to the outside world, and then headed back to the town of Veil.

When I got out of the forest, I noticed that the sun’s position had changed drastically. I thought I was in there for only about an hour or so, but it looks like much more time have passed. It was probably due to my cautious approach since it was my first time in a place like this and I thought that it would be best not to go in too deep. But if I am to make all the money I’ll need to buy Roxanne, then I’ll have to cast that overly cautious attitude aside in favor of a more aggressive, gain-oriented approach. I only have so many days left until the deadline, so I need to pick up my pace from tomorrow onward.

Even though the day was slowly moving towards the night hours, the city was still booming with activity. As I was making my way towards the town’s center, I took my time to browse through various shops and stalls (and ogled the nice looking shopkeeper ladies while I was at it).

Before returning to the inn and calling it a day I decided to pay a quick visit to the Adventurer’s Guild, the other place that Alan the Slave Merchant has told me about.

The building itself was one story larger than the one belonging to the Explorer’s Guild. At first glance, it looked like a really big post office, the kind that you’d see in larger cities. There were about five or six people inside, not including the receptionist-looking staff members behind the counters by the walls. Huh, when I look at it like that, I realized that this place has much in common with the Explorer’s Guild, even though the two were not exactly on good terms. Was it a conscious choice, or perhaps all of the public service buildings were build like that?

「Uhm, excuse me? I would like to sell some items from the Labyrinth, if it’s not a problem of course.」

I reset my character to get the 30 % better selling price and then I stood in front of one of the counters. Since this is my first time selling anything to the Adventurer’s Guild, I guess the actual amount of money I’m going to get is not all that important, but it’s always better to get more money rather than less and then regret it. That and I’ll get to see for myself whether or not they are going to try and swindle me out (which was rather improbable, but I’ll have to be ready for everything).

I was expecting an older dude to be behind the counter, just like it was with Picker-san back at the village, but instead the one who was going to handle my inquiry was a nice-looking onee-san with an above average face. She looked much better than most of the village women but was still inferior to Roxanne in my opinion.

「By all means. Please place your items here on the counter.」

She gestured me with her hand and a big friendly smile on her face.

「Here you go.」

I placed my backpack on the ground beside my legs, took all the items that dropped from the monsters I have slain today and placed them on the counter. The spoils from my first-ever excursion to the Labyrinth were 21 Needlewood Branches. Even though I killed more enemies than that, only twenty-one of them actually left something behind them when they died. I guess this must be another game-like aspect of this world: a chance of obtaining a Drop Item from a monster when it is slain. On a side note, I wonder if the items here have varying degrees of rarity just like in all the RPG games that I’ve played. If so, then the degrees would probably be Common, Uncommon, Rare and Very Rare, and the ones belonging to a Very Rare category would sell for much more than those from the Common one. Hehe, it would be nice if those branches were actually worth a ton; that would make achieving my current objective so much easier. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see what this nice onee-san has to say about it.

「Understood. Please wait here for a bit while I will go and check the exact price for your items.」

She placed all the branches in a small trey and then withdrawn to a room in the back of the building. She’s probably going to examine all the branches to confirm how much they are worth.

Since I had no choice but to wait, I decided to take a look around the guild building. As I was taxing everything with my eyes, I saw that one section of the wall to my left suddenly went all black, and that people emerged out of that newly-formed dark space.

Wait a minute… that looks like a wall-entrance to the Labyrinth! Then… is that Dungeon Walker?! But I thought that it can only be used inside of a dungeon! The ones who emerged from it were two Adventurer-looking dudes. There were no Explorers with them.

「Attention please! Anyone here interested in a one-way trip to Tahera?」

The first Adventurer who emerged out of the wall asked that question in a loud, lively voice. When he saw that apparently no one was interested in his offer he chanted something in a quiet voice, created another black gateway on the wall and disappeared inside it.

Well, that sure was random as hell.

Putting that aside, if that Skill wasn’t Dungeon Walker, then it must have been Field Walker, a Skill that works similar to Dungeon Walker, but outside of Labyrinths and Dungeons. Or at least that was my assumption. I mean, it would be very logical, right? If Dungeon walker can be used to create passages and shortcuts in and out of the Labyrinth just like that Party did before me, then Field Walker must be used like a method of fast travel between various towns and cities. In that case, those two must have been heading to another city called Tahera. But if that was their goal, then why did they stop here? Did they just drop in to say hi? Also, I wonder if that skill is Job restricted. Would I need to become an Adventurer first in order to use it?

As I was contemplating that, another portal has appeared in the exact same spot as before, and a group of Adventurers came out of it. Without talking to or greeting anyone, they left the guild as soon as they appeared.

Yup… that was definitely a series of events that happened.

…. Jesus Christ, how much longer will I have to wait?!

「Thank you for your patience. Here is your money.」

Onee-san who took my items finally came back to the counter, so I turned my head back towards her. Now let’s see, how much money did those branches get… me?

Huh?

On a small plate before me, there were two silver coins and a lot of copper ones. When I counted it, their exact number was 73.

73 coins. That is how much my hard work was worth.

Is that a fucking joke?