It’s almost two weeks since I registered as an adventurer.

I went on hunting quests almost every day and I earned quite a bit. Currently, I have saved almost 4 silver coins, without counting the reward from Count Gilicia.

“Welcome. Oh, it’s you Benji.” As soon as the grandma from the bookstore sees me, she greets me with a smile. I visited her store to buy another book. Ever since I ventured out to get the Crystal Flower, I thought it would be useful to learn more about medicinal herbs.

For that reason, I tried to search for medicinal herbs with my senses and my Analyze ability while I go hunting for monsters. But that didn’t go well, because I don’t know what to look for. I don’t know what types of medicinal plants exist and what they look like. And of course I can’t identify them by their smell, since I don’t know their smell either. So in the end, I want to buy a book about medicinal herbs.

“Hello, Vivian. Do you have a book about medicinal herbs? Similar to the one about monsters you sold me?”

“Yes, I have one here.”

We talk for a bit while she looks for the book and I tell her I finally registered as an adventurer. “Oh? In that case, could you maybe do me a favor? I could offer you a discount for the book, then.”

Discount? I would take that, depending on the favor. She explains she was about to submit a request for a delivery to a nearby city. Apparently, her brother is an alchemist, and he lives in a city called Torcia, which is located about three days east, and he asked for a book about alchemy that isn’t available there. And since she didn’t want to wait for the next merchant caravan heading that way, she wants to put up a request with the Adventurer Guild. By the way, request also includes to return with the payment for the book.

Usually, the reward for the request would be 2 Big Bronze Coins, but if I would take the request immediately, she would offer me 3 Big Bronze Coins as a discount for the book instead. I don’t see a reason to decline. I actually like the offer, so I accept.

We decide to meet up at the Guild in about an hour, after she closes her shop. So I eat my dinner in the meantime and then meet up with her. I also inform the receptionist at the inn about leaving tomorrow.

When I meet up with Vivian, we enter the Guild and head to a free counter. This time Aya is not there, so this is actually the first time I am with a different receptionist. They finish the formalities, and the request gets categorized as a G-Rank request. But since I can accept requests one rank above my current rank, there is no problem.

I accept the request and get the book I need to deliver, including a letter to the brother and two delivery notes. The first one has to be signed by Vivian’s brother when I deliver the book, and the other one has to be signed by Vivian when she receives the payment. I also ask the receptionist to tell Aya that I am out of the city during the request. I don’t want to leave the city again without telling her.

For the rest of the evening, I check my supplies to see if I need to restock something, but I am fine to leave first thing in the morning.

I leave the city through the north gate and after a while, the road splits and I turn east, heading to Torcia. The road led through wide plains and for the first two days, nothing noteworthy happened. I fought a few monsters. But it was just the usual, a few goblins and wolves.

I was just about to eat my breakfast on the third day when I picked up a new presence. This time I couldn’t tell what kind of monster it was. But I am sure the monster already noticed me, since it is definitely coming closer and it seemed to be quite fast. About a minute later, I face a level 21 Black Wolf. Its massive body is about double the size of a normal wolf.

I remember reading about it. Contrary to normal wolves, they don’t live in a pack, but Black Wolves are D-Rank monsters. That means it has the same rank as the Terror Bear I fought inside the Cursed Forest. But the fight against the Black Wolf should still be easier. Its defensive abilities are lower than the Terror Bears, so I should be able to hurt it with my sword. But in exchange, its strength and speed are higher.

I get ready and the Black Wolf immediately lunges at me, and I barely evade the Black Wolf’s attack. Because of the wolf’s speed, it is hard to counterattack, but I still manage to deal some damage to my opponent. It actually feels similar to my fight against the Wild Panther, but I got a bit stronger since then. That’s why I can evade attacks at this speed now. But I guess if the Black Wolf would land some hits on me, it would deal way more damage to me than the Wild Panther. Otherwise, the Guild wouldn’t rank it as D-Rank.

But the Black Wolf can also endure more damage. I already dealt a bit of damage to it, but it still doesn’t get weaker. And I can see in the wolf’s eyes that it is angry. But unfortunately, its anger doesn’t lead the Black wolf to get impatient and make a mistake.

The fight continues for another half an hour until it finally gets weaker and gets slow enough for me to land a clean hit and kill it. When it dies, I hear the familiar level up sound.

Before I do anything, I need to take a break. This was the longest fight I had since coming to this world. It was really hard to keep up my concentration for that long. Every mistake could have lost me the fight and get me killed. After just sitting there for a while to calm down, I dismantle the monster, which took me quite some time because of its size.

After finishing the dismantling, it is finally time to eat breakfast. But now that I think about it, I could also call it an early lunch. Normally I should arrive today at Torcia, but everything took me so long that I probably arrive tomorrow morning.

After eating breakfast, I remembered I forgot about the level up and checked my status. I just reached level 18. But I am surprised to see that I learned a new race ability. I didn’t learn anything new since I got the Blood Regeneration. So I already wondered if there are other skills.

I was happy to get another skill, but after reading the name of the ability and its description I have complicated feelings about it. There is no way I can go around using this skill. I actually feel like I should just forget about it and never use it.

But thinking about it, it would be stupid not using it. It’s the same with my Blood Needle. I don’t like using it, but it is better to use it than to die. So I guess I should set some rules for my new skill.

Charm (5 BP)

Allows the caster to manipulate the target’s actions. The effect gets stronger the lower the distance is between the caster and the target. It doesn’t work if the target has a higher level than the caster. Doesn’t work on monsters.

Charm is a dangerous ability. It even isn’t limited to the opposite gender. So for now, I will not use this ability unless it is an emergency. Because I know, if I use this ability for smaller stuff to get an advantage, the hesitation of using it will slowly disappear and it will tempt me to use it even more often.

After clearing everything up, I continue walking towards my destination and soon I pick up another presence again, but this time it isn’t a monster. It’s a person walking towards me, so I guess I don’t have to be bothered by it. But I don’t let my guard down.

When the person comes into view, I saw she is an Adventurer, too. She has two bushy tails and a pair of fox ears. Her copper-colored hair is tied up in a ponytail. Like me, she wears a light leather armor, but her weapon of choice is a pair of short swords. I analyze her and see that her abilities are stronger than mine. She is level 28 and her Swordsmanship-Skill is at D-Rank, including her Affinity for short swords and dual-wielding.

When I compare my status to hers, I realize how mismatched my Status is. But then again, I got my big level ups by defeating stronger opponents with my vampire abilities. I picked up my sword just about a month ago. So it’s natural that my skill is at a lower rank than someone who has possibly trained for years. Fortunately, I can compensate for that difference with my enhanced physical abilities.

While thinking about my situation, the female foxkin-adventurer comes close and greets me.

“Hey, you should be careful. There are reports of a Black Wolf around this area.”

“Thank you for the warning, even if it is a bit late.” I answer her while laughing.