CH 229

And after the sun had fully risen, I went out into town.

The stores in this world are easy to understand because they open as the sun rises and basically follow closely with the sun.

“Well, let’s start with…” (Rook)

I had been exploring this town little by little since I arrived here.

The general structure of the town is as follows: the wealthy are in the west, the poor are in the east, centered on churches and various institutions are in the north and the commercial district in the south. Of course, it is not clearly divided, so this is just a generalization.

At any rate, we headed to the commercial district in the south of the town and bought some groceries at the morning market.

From now on, I will be based in the Fifth Floor Village, so I will have less chance to come back here. Besides, it is rumored that supplies are scarce and prices are high in the Fifth Floor Village. I want to have as many supplies as possible.

“Dried Appol! One bowl is one silver coin!” (Stall Owner)

“Kyu!” (Shion)

“Hmm? You want this? Two for me, uncle.” (Rook)

“Okay!” (Stall Owner)

I thought that Shion wanted dried Apple, so I decided to buy it since he never usually got out of my hood.

Appol is a fruit that resembles an apple in shape and taste and seems to be a relatively popular fruit in neighboring countries. It’s a bit too astringent compared to Japanese apples, which are sweeter through selective breeding, but it’s a precious sweetness for ordinary people.

These dried Appols are sliced vertically and dried, but how do they taste?

But the fact that Shion wanted it might mean that it was a sure hit.

I took out a small bag from my backpack and filled it with dried Appols.

In this world, there are no such convenient things as plastic bags, so it is necessary to carry several containers for this kind of shopping.

While zipping through the bag, I find a broken piece, break it in half, give half to Shion, and pop the other half in my mouth.

“Yeah, it’s good enough.” (Rook)

Refreshing acidity and subtle sweetness spread.

I knew it would be sweeter when it was dried.

After gathering supplies, I check out the stalls and other stores, and from there head to the north side of town.

Here I found an alchemist’s store that the owner of the weapons shop had introduced to me.

According to the owner of the weapons shop, the store is “decent for an alchemist,” but is it really…?

“… uh, is this it?” (Rook)

It’s on the main street, a little further back than where the church is. It is a wooden store, but it does not look like a high-class store, and the site is small.

When I opened the door, I could smell the unique smell of herbs. It is a little bit like a church.

The shelves of the store were lined with various unidentifiable items, including some ceramic bottles.

“Excuse me, I’d like 30 bottles of magic potion, please.” (Rook)

When I approached a middle-aged man in black robes at the back of the store, he looked at me with an indescribable expression on his face.

“Customer, are you going to war?” (Alchemist)

“No, no, it’s just for normal dungeon use.” (Rook)

This is the reason why I came to the alchemist’s store this time. It is the magic potion.

The reason is [Turn Undead]. [Turn Undead] has a strong effect, but it consumes a lot of magic power. Therefore, it is difficult to use it as a main attack strategy because it is difficult to use it in succession. However, at this point, it is risky to face ghouls without relying on this. But I can do something about the magic consumption.

This is a common tactic for leveling up in MMORPGs. It is what is called a “potion guzzler”.

“Whatever it is, we don’t have it here. We only have two bottles left over. You know that magic potions have a seven-day expiration date. We can’t stock that many.” (Alchemist)

“Then, can you prepare 30 bottles by tomorrow morning?” (Rook)

“…Wait a minute, are you serious? I’ll do it if you pay in advance. One bottle of magic potion costs one gold coin and five silver coins. For 30 bottles, that’s 45 gold coins, you know?”

Huh? That’s a little more expensive than I expected. As I recall, it was one gold coin at Grandma Ulke’s store. …Was she giving me a little extra at that time?

Oh well. Still, there is no change in the plan.

“No problem. How much is the down payment?” (Rook)

“Ten gold coins are fine.” (Alchemist)

“Here you go.” (Rook)

I took out 10 gold coins from my wallet.

“Only the duke would order this many potions. Who the hell are you…?” (Alchemist)

“I’m just a traveling healer.” (Rook)

With these words, I left the alchemist’s store.

I stopped at a bookstore I found on the way home, ate lunch at a food stall, and walked around the back alleys, but I didn’t get much out of it.

After walking for a while, I came to the front of the church.

“Ah… Should we stop by?” (Rook)

I had always stayed away from churches unless I had something to do.

I don’t have a big reason to stay away from churches, but there might be things or people in churches that can detect who I am or what I am. That’s what I thought.

But now I have changed my mind. Because of [Turn Undead].

I found out that there is a success rate for [Turn Undead], and that success rate is becoming quite important now. So, I would like to increase the success rate of [Turn Undead], and I feel that the parameter that seems to have the greatest potential to increase it is PIE. PIE is mainly a value related to faith, and the action that seems to raise faith is prayer. And when I think of prayer, I think of church.

So, I thought, “If I go to church and pray, won’t that raise my PIE?” I’m thinking of praying regularly, based on that simple idea.

I enter the wide grounds of the church.

Perhaps because it is already late afternoon, there are not many adventurers on the grounds, and only a few people are crumpled to their knees, staring at their tattered and disappearing armaments.

This scene is probably a specialty of churches everywhere.

As I approached the building where I had bought holy water the other day, a holy knight in white armor was guarding the door.

“Excuse me. I want to offer my prayers to God…” (Rook)

“Then you can go over there.” (Holy Knight)

When I told him what I want to do, he showed me the way to another building, so I thanked the Holy Knight and headed there.

I don’t think a person who calls himself a Holy Knight would suddenly attack me, but there is always the possibility that I might act rudely without realizing it since I don’t fully grasp the manners, etiquette, and rules of this place.

Manners, courtesy, and rules are difficult to define, and they change from country to country, region to region, and era to era, so even if I have learned them somewhere else, I cannot be sure that they will be accepted even in the next region.

For example, in England and France, when drinking soup, the spoon is moved from the back to the front, or from the front to the back, but not the other way around. There are many other table manners that are reversed as if symbolizing the bad relationship between these two countries, and sometimes they are mixed up in Japan, and I remember that I was confused when I tried to remember the etiquette for a wedding

In modern Japan, if you don’t know French table manners, at worst you will just end up being laughed at, but in this world, rudeness is usually a possibility of being “cut down as an apology”. This was also the case in Japan until the Edo period.

With this in mind, I headed for another building.

I opened the massive wooden door and entered the building, which looked like a chapel.

In the back was a statue of the goddess. And two statues on either side of it. They are Tessretia, the supreme goddess, and the gods of the four attributes, as the church calls them. After all, there was no statue of the sixth god that we had seen in the Golden Dragon’s Nest.

I spoke to an elderly nun who was sweeping inside the chapel.

“Excuse me. I would like to offer a prayer, but is there any proper way?” (Rook)

“Well… that’s a wonderful thing. These days, after adventurers receive holy water, they don’t even look at this chapel—” (Nun)

After a long talk, which could be described as a sermon or a complaint, she taught me a few simple pointers.

“There are many details but the important thing is that you pray from the heart. Now bend your knees, put your hands together, interlock your fingers, and pray.” (Nun)

Following his words, I went in front of the statue of Tessretia, got down on one knee, and laced my fingers together. Then I closed my eyes and prayed.

But to whom am I supposed to pray here?　According to the doctrine of this place, it would be the five deities with Tessretia at the center. But is that right? In fact, shouldn’t the correct answer be six deities, including the God of darkness?

No, I have a strong aptitude for the light attribute, and if we are talking about attributes, then maybe just Tessretia-sama is enough.

Or that man I saw in the white place. I don’t even know his name. I don’t even know if he is a god. Should I pray to him?