Reaching my room, I entered and locked the door behind me.

Just what is my luck like to run into them again? It’s not that I hate them, but I’m worried that something is trying to guide me somewhere I would rather avoid.

Sighing, I sat down on the bed. I needed to relax, and reading wasn’t going to cut it right now. I pulled a guitar out of my storage and began to play. The only reason I was as good with this thing as I was was because of my blessings. I leveled up skills really easily, even ones I had low affinity with.

With my performance skill was only a five, I could perform as well as a veteran bard. I also had an enormous number of songs I could attempt to play.

Yep, attempt.

While I had a decent skill level, I still had to figure out how to play them. While some were easy, most weren’t, so it was a good way to distract myself from my worries.

I figured out how to play two songs decently before I relaxed enough to fall asleep.

The next morning, I had to prepare myself before I stepped foot out of the room. Mentally as well as doing so physically.

Today I wore a set of leather armor, black in color. My hair was pulled back and braided to make it easier to manage. I was armed with not only a rapier, but a brace of throwing knives and a dagger at my back. Today I’d step foot in the local Adventurer’s Guild, and I wanted to look the part.

Leaving my room, I headed to the restaurant area, it was time for breakfast… and possibly to add a bunch of breakfast plates to my pantry. I had dishes that were different that those Isabella and the guards had seen, but they weren’t as nice, so I usually saved them to serve people I didn’t like. They were made of heavy stone, and thus weighed more than normal dishes, making using them a pain.

No, I couldn’t use those. It’d be annoying to the everyone involved, and make the place less willing to provide takeaway, and I couldn’t have that. I’d just have to skip adding any more to the pantry this morning.

Hmm, well I guess it’s not that much of a loss. Sure the food is good, but not in the same way dinner was. Eggs, bacon, sausage, porridge, nothing special.

I’d come down shortly after first bell, wanting to get an early start to my day. I’d figured the girls would come down around now as well, but they hadn’t appeared by the time I’d finished my breakfast.

I headed out the door and towards the guild hall. I’d asked its location yesterday, and it was in the city center again. Guilds being in the center certainly does make them easier to locate, so I hope the trend continued.

It wasn’t too far of a walk to the guild, since I’d gotten a good portion of the way there before finding that inn. Walking in, I took a look around and found that the place was set up similarly to the other one. Consistency makes managing things easier.

I decided that I wanted to try for quests that’d help me raise my ranks, which meant I had to go for rank two quests. There were plenty of them available, since the requests included the low ranking hunting quests. Goblin, kobold, and wolves were among the available targets. These were continuous quests, ones where you had to retrieve a trophy, usually an ear, from the slain monster to prove the kill, no need to register it.

After taking note of the proof required for the various monsters, I looked at the other boards. Slimes and horn rabbits were on the first rank board, along with a few other things. I didn’t bother looking at the rank zero board. I’d only looked at the rank one since I needed to know what was around and what to present for the reward.

I went to the library. It was time to study, and so I did until the desire for lunch became too strong for me to resist.

In my research, I’d gotten the gist of what monsters were likely to show up where, though nothing was certain, as this wasn’t a game where they’d have followed predetermined paths, or stay in certain areas. I’d studied not just the area immediately surrounding the city, but the regions around it as well.

After grabbing some food from the stalls in the square, I headed towards the eastern gate as I ate. The forest I intended to head towards was to the southeast. It was normally inhabited by goblins and orcs. Both species were fast breeding pests, especially when they got their hands on the females of other species. They did have their own women, but when they had other species as seedbeds their birth rate increased for some unknown reason.

Goblins were nothing both disgusting things to be destroyed, having absolutely no benefit whatsoever, but orcs, they were useful. They were a humanoid pig monster, so their flesh tasted like pork, but something to do with their nature made their berries useful, if prepared properly, in making fertility potions. The higher rank the orc was, the tastier they were and more effective the potions made from them.

However, the more high ranking members of either species gathered together, the more dangerous they were. Not just for gathering together, but because they were intelligent, allowing them to teach each other. It also led to them breeding with each other, increasing the number of high rank ones, as well as the possibility leaders being born, kings and emperors.

So they were something to be slaughtered on sight if possible.

I headed towards their forest as soon as I was out the gate. First at a slight run, then as I was out of sight, I took off running. Flying would have been faster, but running felt better. It allowed me to exercise my body, not just my mind as I was wont to do.

While I had achieved the Sword Saint title, I usually preferred to use magic.

The forest was roughly an hour outside of the city, but that was at a normal walking pace. With my speed, I made it in a few minutes.

I’d have arrived a bit faster, but I had to detour when people came into view. I didn’t want to show off, yet, if at all, but it was still faster this way than keeping to normal people speeds. Yes, I’m aware I’m quite abnormal, though I plan on doing my best to fake normality. Until I can’t.

The forest was pretty normal, plenty of trees, bushes, and grass, a few monsters here and there to fertilize the soil with their blood. Ya’know, the usual.

The place was pretty nice, nothing like the manicured forests back on Earth. Humans had messed with them so much, it was almost impossible to find a place in it’s natural state. Even forest fires had a purpose in the scheme of things, but stopping those until they became disaster level had messed with nature.

This is hard to say, but as I wandered through the trees, I felt for just a fleeting moment, that suddenly I was free, free of being lonely. Then I closed my eyes, and saw the very reason why. I saw a gob with his head ducked low, his grin gave me chills, ya’know. I looked and I thought to myself with a sigh… here to slaughter you am I.

I ‘d been putting most of my effort into appraising various things, figuring out if any of the plants were of any use, since I hadn’t gotten around to reading any books on the local vegetation, and some goblins had tried surrounding me. They were my actual target.

While I could have done something to track them down easily, I had plenty of time, so I’d ignored them. But now that they were ready to attack, directing their lust my way, it was time to stop ignoring them.

I let them make the first move, springing from the bushes or from where they’d ‘hidden’ behind trees, before killing them with a thought. One spell was all I used. Air bullet. Each attacker took one shot right between the eyes, and I let the bodies hit the floor.

Now comes the annoying part.

It was simple to kill things, but I had to bring back their right ears as proof of killing them. It was a pain to collect them, but I gathered them together and did so before turning the bodies to ash and moved on.

Again and again I was attacked as I continued hiking, playing bait for the beasts, and seeing things no one wants to as I slaughtered them. Loincloths aren’t very useful when the one wearing them get excited.

Around sixth bell, four PM, I wrapped up my outing and started heading back. I returned to the edge of the woods faster than I’d meandered, before taking off now that the pesky obstacles were gone. Trees are really annoying to plow through. The sap gets everywhere!

I hadn’t really gone all out, or very deep, so my haul was only a few dozen goblin ears, 53 to be precise. Since the permanent request called for five at a time, I’d get ten completions added to my record. I’d save the three to add to another day’s outing.

But that’s not all! I got a good number of herbs, medicinal as well as for seasoning, some fruit that looked like an apple but tasted like a banana, and a bunch of random pieces of armor and weapons. Not all adventurers were able to handle monsters, so they got killed and their stuff ended up in the hands of the humanoids, like goblins.

Most of the stuff was rusty as heck and poorly maintained, but it was still metal and could be reused. Plus it was better to bring it back than to let some other monster find it and possibly use it to kill another newb.

Among the loot was even a mithril dagger. Not sure why an idiot that could afford such a thing would have fallen to goblins, but at least they should be avenged now. Sad thing was, it had a family crest on it, so I couldn’t use the thing. I’d have to see what to do with it at the guild.

But that was for tomorrow. I didn’t feel like braving the crowds at the guild today, so I’d study up at the library tomorrow, and see about turning stuff in when I emerge for lunch.

I got back to the city a bit too early for dinner, even with having to wait a while to get checked and through the gate, so I wandered. I’d like to say it was to fill in my minimap, but I didn’t have one of those. I did remember where I went so getting lost was almost impossible, but it wasn’t as convenient as I’d like.

During my walk, I found a few interesting things to look at, and some tasty stall food, but because it was later in the day, it looked like the majority of vendors were either already packed up, or were doing so, hence if I really wanted to look around, I’d have to do it another day.

Asking around, I pointed to a good diner on a side street and had something to eat. It was a little early, but meh. Sure the dinner at my current inn was great, but variety is the spice of life… and I could have a late second dinner if the aroma of the cuisine was too tempting. I had enough spare dishes to takeaway any leftovers. And could make more if I ever ran out.

On my way back to my inn, I passed a minstrel performing, so stopped to enjoy the music. He was good, though the music style was somewhat different than either Earth or Valla, it was enjoyable. I ended up pulling out a chair to relax in while I drank in the music and the ale I pulled from storage.

Sadly, I must have missed most of his performance, since after six songs he packed up to go. Still it was enjoyable, so I passed him some coin. On Valla I’d played minstrel while moving through some lands that had fallen under corrupted rulers. Depending on the area they could live a pretty good life, or one where they teetered on the edge of the abyss, barely staying afloat off the funds they were able to raise displaying their talent.

I might have a good number of songs in my repertoire, but I’d hated the attention. I preferred to stand out as little as possible, which was difficult for me. I always had a hard time holding back. Between being discrete or efficient, I almost always ended up going for efficient.

Back at the inn, I found the place packed, not a single seat available, so I was going to head up to my room, but I got stopped. The innkeeper’s son, who worked as a waiter along with their daughter, gave me an apology and asked for my patience. My rent included meals after all.

I wasn’t really worried, but it was also an opportunity. After finding out the menu for the evening, orc steak, mashed and seasoned tubers, and steamed vegetables, I passed him some dishes and asked if the meal could be delivered to my room.

He agreed and I went upstairs. I left the door open so I didn’t have to get up when the food arrived, I’d been warned it would take a while due to the crowd, and pulled out something to do. Some fabric, thread, and wool was placed on the table with my tools, and I off to was making another plushie. I really wanted my mew.

Getting dinner took longer than anticipated, not that it mattered since I’d already ate, but it did mean I got spotted by people passing by my room.

Yes, those people.

“Hello! Oh! You’re making another one! Thank you again for this one, she’s really nice!”

Isabella greeted me from the doorway. It looked like they’d been headed downstairs, not that they’d likely have much success if seats for dinner were what they wanted. She was clutching the plushie like a lifeline. Well, she’d been on the run with pretty much nothing, so it may well be being used like that.

I’d confirmed that they’d had nothing but the clothes on their backs when they’d had to run. Fortunately they had a good amount of money since they’d been headed shopping, and had been given more when one of them had separated to inform her family of the problem.

“Hey! Yeah, I got some time, so I started working on it. You heading to dinner?” At her nod I gave her a warning. “It’s really busy down there. Worse than last night. My dinner is going to be brought up, which is why I had the door open, though it’s taking a while due to the crowd. You might want to ask if they can do the same for your group.”

Jane nodded, said she’d take care of it and headed downstairs, leaving the rest behind.

“Umm, can I help you while we wait? As thanks for the one you gave me? I’m really good at needlework!”

“If you’d like. You others can come in as well, but there’s only the bed besides the two chairs here at the table.”

They came in, though a pair sat on the floor next to the door, protection for their charge. The other stayed nearby, likely in case I tried something. I’d been a little worried that they weren’t taking their responsibilities as guards seriously, but I guess that wasn’t the case.

Isabella sat at the table next to me and I started showing her what I was doing, what went where, and we got to work.

Jane came back shortly, looking into my room when she noticed the others were no longer in the hallway, and joined us.

“They said it’d take a while, it’s really packed down there, the food they’re serving today is really popular. I asked about it and it seems the innkeeper is a mostly retired adventurer, he occasionally hunts the meat they use here, and today’s orc meat came from higher ranking variants.”

“Oh, wow. Now I’m really looking forward to dinner.”

Rachel had to wipe her mouth as she’d started drooling.

We talked as we waited for the food. Mine came first, but I stored it for the time being, not wanting to be rude and eat in front of them. And because I was getting close to being done with my new mew plushie.

I was just putting the finishing touches on it when their food came. We’d moved to their room, one made to sleep eight people, when my food had come, since Jane hadn’t figured on them visiting with me, so she’d asked the servers to bring it to their room.

Since it was designed for more people, the room was larger, housing four bunk beds as well as a table and enough chairs to seat four. Since there were six of us, they insisted I eat with them, I brought the table and chairs from my room, just barely being able to squeeze them in.

As soon as we tasted the food, the meat in particular, we went silent. It was delicious, seeming to melt in my mouth, and send my body into ecstasy. Yes, it was foodgasm inducing.

I’d planned to spend the next day in the library, well screw that.

Tomorrow I was going orc hunting!