CH 39

“Well, Gildan-san. Do you know what this thing is capable of?”

I took out a knife and a leather shield from my backpack.

This is a portion of what I got from the street peddler a while ago. There were various things like this, and I didn’t need it at all, but I got them anyway.

It’s not that bulky, but I’m currently living a homeless life with only myself and a backpack. I won’t be able to leave my luggage at the inn, and I’ll still be carrying it around with me when I work. I don’t want to carry any extra baggage as much as possible.

Mel said that all the items that the street vendor was selling were junk, but since there was the matter of the purification spellbook, I would like to have a professional inspect it before disposing of anything.

Gildan-san said, “Hmm, let’s see.” He picked up the knife, pulled it out of its sheath, and looked at it carefully, shining the light on the blade. After a few seconds of checking it from different angles, he said the following.

“First of all, it’s made of iron, as usual. At first glance, the blade looks like it’s badly damaged, but it’s intentionally made to be jagged. The sharpness is reasonable. Also, it has a paralyzing effect. If you wound your opponent with magic power flowing through it, you should be able to make them paralyzed for a while.” (Gildan)

For a while, eh? Then I looked at it and looked at Mel.

Then Mel looked in a different direction and turned her gaze away.

No, then is this the real thing, not junk? Isn’t the paralyzing effect amazing?

“Well… then is this a great weapon? Is it an artifact?”

When I asked him that, Gildan-san put his hand on his chin as if he was thinking for a moment and grunted, “Hmmm ……” before answering.

“I don’t think it can be called an artifact. I don’t know what the definition of an artifact is, so I can’t say for sure. And as for whether it’s great or not, I’m not sure. The sharpness is only so-so, the special effects are weak, and above all, the size of the knife limits its use and users.” (Gildan)

I see. That may be true.

It looks like a slim knife with a 20cm blade. It is not reliable for normal combat use… I think it’s an item suitable for assassination or as a backup… If this is a sword, it might be more useful for adventurers.

Hmmm. When I was wondering whether I was happy or not, I heard a voice from behind saying, “Well, that’s okay! You got a good weapon at a bargain price! It’s cheap!”

Well, it looks like I’ve got something of value, and that’s a good thing.

Aside from the knowledge and bargaining power of the owner of the voice, I couldn’t trust her connoisseurship at all.

Thinking that way, I remembered the words of the peddler.

I believe he said that the adventurer brought the goods to him because he wanted to exchange them for cash immediately. In other words, the adventurer was in such a hurry that he didn’t check the items carefully and sold them at a low price to a street vendor who he thought would buy them right away. That’s probably what happened.

And the street vendor didn’t know what it was, so he just sold it. On the other hand, he might not have cared about the value of the knife because he was planning to rip me off from the beginning.

I thank him and took the knife.

At that time, Gildan-san said, “All I know is this knife. I don’t know about this leather shield. That’s not my specialty.”

When I hear that, I tilt my head in confusion.

Is that out of your specialty? I thought you could tell because there are weapons and armor in the store.

Thinking it over, I realized that Gildan-san could tell the performance of a knife just by looking at it and touching it. He can understand the material it’s made of, but isn’t it strange to be able to tell the special effects just from that?　

“Gildan-san. How do you do that… [Appraisal]? Is it possible to tell its performance or whether it can’t be appraised just by looking at it?”

When I was curious and asked, I got an interesting answer.

“Hmmm… How to appraise? I don’t know how to explain ……. Hmmm, a talented blacksmith can tell when he touches something. It just pops into your head. I’ve heard that a good blacksmith can tell more details. However, a blacksmith can only understand what the blacksmith makes. If you want to know about this kind of leather goods, you should ask a leather craftsman.” (Gildan)

With that said, Gildan-san points to the leather shield with his thumb.

When I heard this, I felt like I had my eyes opened.

It was because I could vaguely see the shape of so-called appraisal in this world.

Until recently, I thought that the ability of [Appraisal] did not exist in this world, or that it was quite valuable.

I asked Gildan-san to appraise the knife and leather shield simply because I thought that a good blacksmith in a store that sells armor could be a connoisseur from that experience. However, Gildan-san said that he grasped abilities that could not be understood just by looking or touching them, and that came to his mind. In other words, this means that Gildan-san has an [Appraisal]-like ability.

And Gildan-san said that the blacksmith only knows what the blacksmith makes.

At first, I thought that the so-called appraisal thing might not exist or be rare in this world. The reason is that the magic of [Holy Light] and [Purification] was not recognized by the general public. In other words, if there is an appraisal that can grasp the ability of the thing, it should be possible to appraise a grimoire such as [Holy Light] and know the existence of [Holy Light] magic from it, but that was not the case…

However, if I combine Gildan-san’s story and the phenomenon that came to my mind when I saw the [Holy Light] grimoire and the [Purification] grimoire, the words [Holy Light] grimoire and [Purification] grimoire, I can see something.

In other words, isn’t the ability of appraisal in this world applied only to the fields that you are familiar with? I had come to a conclusion.

And the phenomenon of words coming to my mind. That was probably the so-called [Appraisal] ability.

If that was the case, it would make sense in many ways.

However, if that’s the case, then why can I only appraise the [Holy Light] grimoire and the [Purification] grimoire? I’m not completely convinced on some points.

In any case, I was able to understand one more thing about this world.

I was so happy and excited about it that it naturally came out on my face.

After all, this world is interesting!