This is the end of chapter 2. The manga is out to chapter 9 (in Korean, at least) and I have to say, this series is awesome! Chapter 3 coming soon.We lazed around the inn for a while before I realized that we’d forgotten to pack all our things.
『Hey, let’s go buy stuff before the sun sets.』
“Buy what?”
『Seasonings and cooking utensils. You want to eat good food even when we’re out camping, right?』
“Un.”
『That’s why we need seasoning.』
“That’s important. Our highest priority.”
『Then let’s go to the general store. If we ask an employee at the inn, she should tell us where we should go.』
“Okay.”
『We’re not leaving anything here, but lock the door for now.』
“Un.”
We asked the lady at the inn for a recommendation on which shop to go to.
She said we’d find it right away when we left.
『Looks like it’s here.』
It said on the sign, ‘Saber Toothed Tiger General Store.’
“Saber Toothed Tiger?”
『That doesn’t fit a general store at all.』
“But this is the only one.”
As Fran said, this was the only general store in the area.
There was no helping it. We should ready ourselves and walk in.
Ring ring.
“Welcome.”
The inside looked like a perfectly normal general store. As long as you exclude the muscly owner.
Though in letters, it was a simple ‘welcome,’ but out loud, his voice was extremely deep. It was as if his manliness wouldn’t allow him to speak in any way except strongly.
“Is this a general store?”
“That’s right. People often mistake this place for somewhere else, but this is, without a doubt, a general store.”
No surprise here. Because his name’s Saber Toothed Tiger. Not to mention the shop owner was so muscular that he seemed to belong more in a dungeon than a place like this.
And I could tell from his movements.
Name: Rufus Age: 41 Years Old
Race: Human
Job: Merchant
Lv: 30
HP: 188 MP: 73 Strength: 150 Agility: 77
Skills: Transport 3, Dismantle 4, Harvest 2, Arithmetic 1, Business 2, War Hammer Techniques 4, War Hammer Wielding 6, Pursue 2, Cold Resistance 2, Cooking 1, Energy Manipulation, Giant Killer
t.i.tle: Giant Slayer
Equipment: Merchant’s Frock, Earring of Arithmetic
His status was clearly not that of a merchant. A medium rank adventurer. Those were combat skills.
He didn’t seem at all the type to be helping people shop or doing math.
“Are you an adventurer?”
“I used to be. My dream since ages ago was to open my own shop. It’s been just about three years since I retired from being an adventurer and opened this shop.”
“What’s with the name? It’s not cute at all.”
Miss Fran, speak a bit more tactfully!
“Hahaha, people ask that all the time. Truth is, I thought it was a good idea to have a special trait, so I decided to put up a decoration.”
The storeowner pointed at the stuffed saber toothed tiger head hanging on the wall. It had an animated expression, as if it was about to roar.
“Cool.”
“Right? But it’s not too popular with women. Even though it’s so cool.”
Is it really okay to be in this shop? If the women at the inn hadn’t told us about this place, I would’ve run out of here immediately.
I looked around the shop while Fran and the owner were talking, and though I first thought the shelves were only filled with spices, there was also a healthy amount of daily necessities.
“Shoot, I’ve been keeping you from shopping. Please take your time and look around.”
『I’ll tell you what to get.』
“Un.”
I wanted salt and expensive flavorings like sugar and spices. We should also buy plates and spoons and silverware like that.
That aside, wasn’t this place way to carefree? Unlike j.a.pan, this world’s security was way too lax. There were probably burglaries here.
No, that wasn’t right. The ex-adventurer shop owner wouldn’t miss a petty, everyday thief. He likely kept all his wares on display because he was confident in his ability to catch a would-be thief.
The last things we bought totaled at 3,000 gil and we left the shop.
Maybe he thought we were important customers, because he gave us an enthusiastic, “Please come again.”
『Now we have 40,000 gil left.』
“What do we buy next?”
『I want to buy potions, but&h.e.l.lip;』
We couldn’t even afford the most expensive potions.
“We have recovery magic.”
『But isn’t the level low? Only enough for a temporary fix.』
“What if we level it up?”
『I thought about that, too.』
I had 27 Self-Evolution points left. I needed 2 to level up the skill, so I could max the level of even a level 1 skill. I didn’t mind increasing the skill level, but I didn’t want to spend all the points.
『There’re a few skills I want to level up.』
“What are they?”
An example would be Sword Techniques.
After the test at the Adventurer’s Guild, the Guild Master said that Dragon Fang was a mid rank Sword Technique. Level 7 is mid-rank. Then did that mean, if I leveled it up to 10, it would end up becoming a high rank skill?
That was what I expected.
“Un. I think so too.”
『Right?』
Because the max level of Sword Techniques depended on the level of Sword Wielding, I needed to max out Sword Wielding so that I could max Sword Techniques. That’s why I was having so much difficulty spending the points.
The next candidate is Clone Creation. It was currently an absolutely useless skill, but what if I leveled it up? Would I be able to use it in combat like the Dopplesnake? And when we’re filling out forms or going shopping, I could use my clone to act as Fran’s guardian, thus reducing any potentially annoying roadblocks.
Then we could’ve avoided the difficulty of getting a room at the inn.
“That sounds good.”
『Right?』
Next were Instantaneous Regeneration, negative status resistance skills, Physical Attack Resistance, and other skills like that that would keep Fran from dying. They were pretty simple, but they might keep Fran from dying if she’s ever backed in a corner. In addition, I heard that skills like those were high rank skills that were especially difficult to obtain.
A single direct attack from a middle rank or higher demonic beast would knock out Fran since she was still low-leveled, so I thought it was best to be extremely cautious.
“I didn’t notice that.”
『It wouldn’t hurt us to level up a skill like Instant Regeneration.』
Adding healing magic onto that would likely add an enhanced effect.
Thinking like that, I felt that Instant Regeneration would be a good choice, but it was important that healing magic could be used on other people.
Rather than raising the level of a few skills to some degree, I’d rather increase one skill to the max.
『Well, they’re all good skills, regardless.』
And after we repeated this debate back at the inn, we decided to level up recovery magic. Because I felt it was convenient to be able to heal oneself to beyond one’s original stats. And because even if Fran was injured, I could always heal her.
And as an added result, we got Healing Magic 1.
It was the advanced form of restoration magic, just like how fire magic turned into flame magic.
The spells we got from Healing Magic 1 were Regen Heal and Greater Heal. Regen Heal was a normal healing spell that closed wounds. Greater Heal was a stronger healing spell that could even reattach nearly cut-off limbs. They were both useful spells.
We also got the t.i.tle, Healing Arts User. It was probably the same as Flame Arts User.
『This means we also got all the healing magics.』
“Un.”
『What do you want to do tomorrow? Want to go look for a request at the Adventurer’s Guild? We can have some fun for a few days, though, since we still have money.』
“I want to look for a request.”
『Is one that takes us out of the city okay?』
“It’s okay.”
『Then let’s go to the guild tomorrow.』
“Un. Working as an adventurer sounds fun.”
『Yeah. We need to spend some time increasing your level.』
“And after that?”
『What do you want to do? You can do anything you want.』
“Anything I want&h.e.l.lip;”
『Is there something you want to do?』
“Un&h.e.l.lip;?”
『Hahahaha. Take your time and think about it. Since we have lots of time.』
“Un. I will.”