Volume 1 - CH 2

Chapter 2 – I Made An Acquaintance With A Wealthy Merchant

I used to admire firefighters.

More specifically, they looked like heroes when I saw firefighters rescuing people from buildings that were on fire, and I wanted to be one.

Although I have given up on that dream, I want to be the kind of person who can reach out to someone in need, and if there is someone I can help, I want to help them.

The Armored Bear roared loudly and was about to jump at the merchant.

Watch out!

I immediately ran out and activated my [Dexterity] skill.

At that moment, I was transformed into a skilled axe user. As I ran, I swung the hikino wooden axe and threw it sideways!

The wooden axe flew like a boomerang, spinning at high speed, and chopped off the head of the Armored Bear that was baring its fangs at the merchant from the side.

The Armored Bear’s head falls to the ground.

Its body stood there, spurting blood like a fountain from the cut surface, and then it collapsed with a thud.

Immediately after, I hear a voice in my head.

By acquiring this experience, you are now level 8. Your HP and MP have been increased, and your physical abilities have improved.

I was originally level 1, but this was a sudden increase.

Could it be that the Armored Bear was actually a boss-class monster in the RPG sense?

My HP had risen from 50 to 120, and my MP from 1000 to 1700.

The amount of increase in MP is outrageous, so I’d like to learn some magic at some point.

Now, the Armored Bear was completely dead, its neck and body were cleanly separated.

The merchant was puzzled by the sudden turn of events, but when he eventually noticed my presence, he bowed his head and sat down, slumped over. He must have lost his nerve after being freed from his fear.

I rushed over to the merchant and extended my hand to him.

“Are you okay?”

“Y-yes… Thank you for saving me from that dangerous situation. You saved my life.”

The merchant staggered to his feet and thanked me.

I’m embarrassed to be called a lifesaver, but it’s not bad to be thanked.

* * *

After a few words of gratitude, the merchant introduced himself.

“I would like to thank you for your help. My name is Chrome, and as you can see, I am a merchant.”

“My name is Kou. Um…”

U-um, how should I introduce myself?

Would it be okay if I honestly said that I came from another world? If possible, I would like him to lead me to a human village, so I don’t want to be misunderstood as a crazy person.

When I turned my gaze away in trouble, I saw a wooden axe lying on the ground. The blade was wet with blood from chopping off the head of the Armored Bear.

I picked up the bloodstained wooden axe, held up Armored Bear’s head, and introduced myself as follows.

“As you can see, I’m a woodworker.”

“No… Good grief, you don’t look like a craftsman at all…”

Unfortunately, this was a natural reaction.

I want to ask myself, “What kind of freaky murderer would use a bloodstained wooden axe?”

“Well, does that mean that the wooden axe was made by Kou-sama himself?”

“Oh, yes. That’s right. That is exactly right.”

I nodded hurriedly and went along with Chrome’s words as best I could. If he thinks I’m suspicious, I’m screwed.

“It’s made of wood, but it’s incredibly powerful, isn’t it? I didn’t think it was possible to defeat an Armored Bear with a single blow…”

“Is an Armored Bear a powerful monster?”

“Oh my! Don’t you know that, Kou-sama?”

That being said, I’m new to this world. I lack all kinds of common sense.

“The Armored Bear is an A-ranked monster. Once it starts rampaging, it can destroy a small village in just a matter of a night. Even if you try to kill it, its body is as hard as armor and cannot be damaged by ordinary attacks.”

However, I managed to decapitate the Armored Bear with ease.

The reason why I was able to do this was probably because of the《Throwing Critical A+》that was granted to the hikino wooden axe. It’s truly a one-hit kill, a critical hit.

“It seems like I’ve accomplished something pretty amazing…?”

“Yes. I think you could say that… Anyway, the sun is going to set if we keep talking here. I have a mansion in the city of Aunen just up the road, and I’d like to invite you there now if you’d like. I owe you a debt of gratitude for saving my life.”

So I was taken to the city by Chrome-san.

The best way to get around the city is to use… wagons, but it seems that when the Armored Bear attacked, not only the guards but also the coachman and horses escaped.

“It can’t be helped in this situation. Let’s walk.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to bring the wagon?”

“Leaving the goods behind is regrettable, but there is no way to carry them. Let’s just say it’s a good thing I survived the Armored Bear attack.”

Chrome-san left the wagon taking only the minimum amount of luggage. However, he seems to be reluctant to leave the goods behind, and his expression is somehow gloomy.

I’d love to help him, but… Ah, yes!

“Chrome-san, if you want, I could carry them in my [Item Box]?”

“Oh, Kou-sama, you have a very useful skill, don’t you? …But isn’t that too much luggage, and won’t it be caught by the capacity limit?”

“No problem. I have unlimited capacity.”

I touched my hand to the luggage and chanted the word “Storage” in my mind.

A magic circle appears on the ground, and the wagon is sucked into it.

When I opened the list of the [Item Box] in my mind, I found that “Chrome-san’s Wagon x 1” had been added.

“It seems to have been stored safely.”

“Oh…”

He seemed too surprised to speak and repeatedly blinked for a while.

“Speaking of [Item Box], I heard that the limit capacity is to carry only one table, no matter how high the rank. Who exactly is Kou-sama…?”

“Well… I’m just an ordinary woodworker. Maybe.”

“If defeating an Armored Bear with a single blow or having an unlimited capacity [Item Box] is normal, then the world must be ruled by woodworkers.”

I see. It seems that my abilities are quite out of the ordinary.

…I’d like to understand a little more about the common sense of this world.

After collecting the corpse of the Armored Bear and the hikino wooden axe in the [Item Box], I spoke to Chrome-san again.

“I’ve been training in the mountains for a long time. That’s why I don’t know anything about the common sense of the world…”

“Oh, I see…”

Chrome-san nodded as if he was convinced.

Apparently, he believed me.

Okay. For the time being, I’m going to try to gather information under the guise that I had been living in the mountains and lacked common sense.

I walked down the road with Chrome-san, asking him questions about the world. It was a very meaningful time. Every time I get one piece of information, [Full Assist] is automatically activated, and it supplements every detail.

For example, when it comes to skills, there are two main types.

One is the “Talent Type” – it greatly increases your aptitude in a specific field. For example, a person who possesses [Swordsmanship] is skilled in sword fighting, while a person who possesses [Persuasion] is skilled in negotiation.

The other is the “Different Ability Type” – this is a kind of special ability. The best example of this is the [Item Box], which can store items in subspace.

These skills are inborn and cannot be acquired. As for the number of skills, the upper limit seems to be one or two per person, or at most three.

…In my case, I have eight skills, which is far beyond the upper limit for most people. You can say that it is truly out of the norm.

It’s not just my skills that are out of the ordinary.

When I checked Chrome-san’s status with [Appraisal], I found that there was no section for level in his status.

I asked him why, but he just replied, “What do you mean by level?” When I was wondering what the heck was going on… [Full Assist] explained in detail.

In this world, the only one that has a level is Kou Kousaka. Every time you defeat a monster, you gain experience, and when that amount reaches a certain value, a phenomenon called leveling up occurs. As a result, you will gain benefits such as increased HP and MP and improved physical abilities.

For other humans, levels do not exist, and no matter how many monsters they defeat, they cannot expect this sudden growth.

So leveling up is a privilege only for me. I might as well aim to become the strongest in the world.

Eventually, I could see a city surrounded by walls beyond the road.

It was the city of Aunen that Chrome-san had told me about.

I wondered if there were elves and beastman in this fantasy-like world.

I’m starting to get a little excited.

* * *

Just before entering the city of Aunen, I was told by Chrome-san about the escorts he had originally hired.

“I usually send requests to the Adventurer’s Guild and hire high-ranked adventurers. They say it’s safer along the roads, but you never know what might happen.”

Apparently, there are adventurer guilds in this world, just like in video games.

Their job is to mediate quests such as escorting and collecting. If you complete a quest, you are paid a reward.

“I was wondering what to do. But this time, there happened to be no high-ranking adventurers available, and the Mercenary Guild approached me.”

The Mercenary Guild is also an organization that mediates quests.

Originally, it was a single organization called the Adventurer’s Guild, but apparently, it was split into the Adventurer’s Guild and the Mercenary’s Guild due to infighting in the higher-ups.

The two guilds have been battling for market share for years because they both do the same kind of work.

“I thought this was a good opportunity to ask the mercenary guild for an escort, but I didn’t expect them to run away in the middle of the mission.”

Tohoho, Chrome-san smiled as if troubled.

Hmm. That’s a terrible story.

I wonder what the mercenaries were thinking. If they are going to leave their client unattended and run away, they should not have taken the quest in the first place.

I’m also a little distrustful of the mercenary guild that would give the job to such irresponsible people.

Eventually, we arrived at the city gates.

There seemed to be some kind of trouble going on, and there was a small crowd of people.

I looked over and saw three young men talking rapidly to the guards.

“A-A-Armored Bear! There’s an Armored Bear!”

“We fought desperately! But our client, Chrome-san, got confused and ran into the Armored Bear!”

“In the end, Chrome-san was killed by the Armored Bear. …Damn it! Damn it! If only we were good enough, we could have protected Chrome-san!”

The three young men seemed to be the mercenaries that Chrome-san had originally hired.

In order to cover up the abandonment of the quest, they are probably making a false report.

But did they just pretend that Chrome-san is dead?

If it’s Chrome-san, he’s here now.

“Oh, Chrome-san?”

The guard who had been listening to the three of them said,

“What do you mean, Chrome-san was supposed to be killed by the Armored Bear…”

“No, no, I’m alive.”

His tone was calm, but his eyes were not smiling at all.

“Thanks to Kou-sama here who saved me, I survived.”

Eh, are you going to turn the conversation to me here?

Not only the guards but also the onlookers looked at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

“H-hi, I’m Kou. I’m a woodworker. I killed the Armored Bear.”

I took out the Armored Bear’s lifeless head from my [Item Box]. They might not believe me if I just say it, so it’s better to actually show them the proof.

“I-it looks like you’re not lying…”

The guard’s voice was a little trembling.

That’s probably right.

Anyone would be surprised if they were suddenly shown the head of the bear. I may have gone a little overboard.

“But you say you are a woodworker…?”

Oh, so that’s where they got confused.

The onlookers in the surroundings were also wondering, “How can a mere woodworker defeat an Armored Bear? Who is that guy? Isn’t he a skilled adventurer or mercenary?” they whispered to each other.

“…Well, it’s a big world, you know. There may be such woodworkers in the world.”

The guard cleared his throat. He then turned to the three young men and said,

“By the way, according to you, Chrome-san is dead; what does that mean?”

“T-that’s…”

“U-um…”

“Ugh…”

The three of them stammered, unable to find an excuse.

There was an awkward silence, and then Chrome-san spoke up.

“They did not fight the Armored Bear. They abandoned me and ran away.”

“I see. So they were lying to hide their abandonment of the quest…”

The guard glared at the three young men with a grim expression.

“Abandoning a life-threatening quest without consent is a very serious crime in this country. …I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to detain you.”

The guards called out to his other colleagues and were about to rope the three young men in.

But then…

“Whoaaaaaaaaa!”

The most muscular young man of the three suddenly started to act up. He pushed the guard away and pulled out his sword, and slashed at Chrome-san.

“Damn it! It’s because I took the job from you! Die and pay for it!”

Wouldn’t that be too selfish?

He not only abandoned the request but also lined up a lie to protect himself, and when it was discovered, he resorted to violence.

There was no room for sympathy…

I took out the “Hikino’s Chair” from my [Item Box].

While activating the [Dexterity] skill, I lifted the chair to flip it over and caught the young man’s slash with the back of it.

“Wha…!? Don’t get in my way! Let me kill that Chrome!”

No, I refuse.

I flicked his sword away with a twisting motion and struck him on the head with the leg of the chair.

“Ugh…!”

With just that, the young man fainted and fell to the ground powerlessly.

Phew. The chair has《Strengthening A+》and 《Stun Enhancement S》, but I didn’t expect them to be useful here.

Hmm…?

I looked around calmly and saw that everyone was staring at me.

What the hell was going on?

Then someone shouted out loud.

“Not bad, bro! That guy is the B-rank mercenary Dox, right?”

“That Dox alright. Just because he has the [Swordsmanship] skill, he’s always bragging about it. It’s nice to see him like that now!”

“That scum Dox, it serves him right!”

From that point on, all hell broke loose. It seemed that the people of this world were very friendly, and they even started to hoist me up in the air.