abcnovels
Chapter 74
Chapter 74
Chapter 74
“Finally found one.”
I had stumbled upon a goblin eating a 10 meter long horned rabbit, deep in the very same forest I had visited just the other day.
“Am I able to solo it?”
I grasped my dagger and stealthily approached it from behind as it gorged on its meal without abandon.
“Enjoy your last meal! Yiyap!”
Pueek
Kiiekk
[+11 experience points]
[Acquired knowledge of Goblins]
It squealed like a pig in its very last moments of life.
“Hm I don’t seem to receive any bonus skills when killing new monsters.”
It appeared to be yet another weakness of being human.
“Guess I can only learn skills the hard way.”
“Left side, 30 meters out, two enemies inbound.”
As I was standing over the dead goblins body I once again heard a voice originating from behind my neck.
“What? This voice…”
I recognized the voice, it was Lena’s.
“Lena?”
There was no answer, so I hid my myself from the two approaching Goblins.
Kiiki?
Keei
They were from the same tribe as the dead goblin, but they completely disregarded his corpse and began gorging on the horned rabbit.
Let’s take a look at how strong these guys are.
I silently opened up their Status page with a flick of my finger.
?
Status: Normal
Type: Goblin
Rank: H-
Level: 2/10
HP: 10/10
MP: 1/1
Attack: 2 (+2)
Defense: 1
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 1
? Unique Skills
[Explosion]
?
‘Hmm… I can definitely handle one with my dagger, but two? Maybe not, if I’m going to take this risk I need to be sure to get the bonus experience from a double kill.’
I grasped my dagger and waited for an opportunity. The goblin’s feast had degenerated into a brawl as they fought over who would eat the bigger piece.
‘Now!’
Just as they were entangled and trying to bite each other, I lept forth.
Yiyap!!
Puusi
Keeeek, Kiek
[+11 experience points]
[+22 experience points]
[Level 6 ? 7]
I had timed it to pierce both their necks with a single strike.
“A success, experience is now streaming in Kuku~”
I wiped the blood off my dagger using the Goblin corpse.
‘What about that voice earlier, it was definitely Lena right?’
I touched the back of my neck but didn’t feel anything different.
‘If I didn’t hear wrong then has Lena followed me over to this world?’
“Lena?”
I called out to her but there was no answer.
‘Was it just an illusion or do I have certain conditions I need to satisfy first?”
I tried out several things but nothing seemed to activate her.
‘Well there’s nothing more I can do at the moment. It would be great though it she were here, she’d be a powerful ally.’
In a fantasy world such as this one having an A.I. would be a huge advantage, perhaps even more so than having magic. I therefore made it a goal of mine to learn what conditions were necessary to activate and communicate with Lena.
I then returned to the Adventurer’s guild to hand in my quest.
“You have successfully completed your quest! Here are the three silvers reward. The items you brought this time are worthless junk, usually we wouldn’t buy them, but I’ll give you one extra silver as service just this once.”
“Oh thanks a lot Chou.”
“New quests have appeared, so please check out the board to see if any interest you.”
I stood before the board with my 4 silvers in hand.
“I guess I’ll stick with the same one. Since it’s repeatable, I could make a decent sum if I focus on only goblins.”
Counting the coins in my hand before putting them away, I walk up to Chou and accept the quest.
“Well…a meal consisting of bread and milk costs 13 copper coins, even if I buy food for tomorrow I’d still have 3 silver coins! ”
I crouched in the middle of dark a alley and counted my coins. I felt so proud that I could buy my own food and no longer be a beggar.
“Hey you! Where did you steal that form?”
Some ruffians came up to me after seeing me count all those coins. I had seen them in the area a few times before.
‘I was careless this time.’
I looked behind me but realized I was in a dead end, with no way to run away from the three beggars.
‘Guess I’ll have to fight.’
“I’ve been looking at you for a couple days now, you stole copper from somewhere and then sold it to become an adventurer.”
“Yea, I also saw that, you must be a suspicious character.”
“It isn’t a sin to steal stolen money, so hand it over!”
He extended out his hand, expecting me to simply hand him over my silvers due to that twisted logic of his.
‘I can’t kill them right?’
I held my dagger behind my back, waiting.
“You’d best back off, I’m a warrior.”
“Pfff so what? You’re all alone and there are three of us!”
“Ha! 3 versus 1, you think you can win this fight greenhorn?”
Their laughs were disgusting to watch as they were missing several teeth.
Puk, Uuuak! Pubuk! ahh
I knocked two of then down to the floor and grabbed the last one by the neck. His haughty look had by now been replaced by one of fear.
Usually a level 7 warrior was had about 3 times the strength of a regular civilian. Normal people would never willingly fight one, it was only possible because we were in Gartmar, a place where most people still weren’t very familiar with adventurers.
“If I see you again I won’t be so lenient next time.”
Puuuk
I socked the beggar one last time before making my way out of the alley.
“I’m pretty cool right? But I exercised too much and now I’m hungry.”
I entered the store named ‘Darryl’s bakery’, where I used to eat leftover bread as a beggar.
“Hey how are you doing? You are starting to look like a proper adventurer!”
I have been a regular customer and this bakery because I’ve been exclusively eating bread these last few days, so the owner was friendly.
“Darryl after eating the same bread for a long time it gets quite bland. Why don’t you try mixing things up or developing new tastes?”
“Hey are you complaining about my bread? If it wasn’t for me , you would have starved a long time ago.”
“Yes, I agree, but it seems like you don’t have the confidence to make new kinds of bread. Is that why you are dodging my question? Here are 20 coppers, that is the cost for 3 breads right?”
“Come by tomorrow Johra, you’ve lit a fire under me to be more creative!”
He hopped his way to the back of the store.
“Well at least I can look forward to tomorrow right?”
I was sick and tired of always eating the same bread, so I irritated him on purpose.
‘There are many other bakery but I’d like to support Darryl’
I mumbled to myself as I took my bread and headed off to the market.
“Is that you Johra?”
“Big brother beggar!”
It was Anne, the milk vendor with a little girl hiding behind her skirt named Lina. Anne had one cow which she took care of. Ever since she had lost her husband, selling the cow’s milk was her only way to make money, but she had still given me some free milk back when I was begging, so now I would exclusively buy form her.
“Here are seven coppers, is it okay to return the empty bottle later?”
“Thank you Johra.”
However the little Lina didn’t have such a good impression of me due to my beggar-like appearance.
“Where did you get that money? Did you steal it?”
“No, I’m an adventurer”
In Gartmar it was quite rare to be an adventurer by profession. Most people were either miner or farmers , so when I mentioned I was one, they all stopped to look at see as if I were a boogeyman.
“Liar, you received some free milk from mom not long ago?!”
“No it’s true. Here take a look at this.”
I pulled out my guild token as proof.
“Whoa, is that real?”
She bit down on the token to check its authenticity.
“Hey don’t ruin that!”
“Lina stop that! I’m so sorry Johra, I spoil her too much.”
Anne gave be back the token apologetically.
“Ah it’s ok, it probably didn’t get damaged.”
I turned the token over to make sure there weren’t any dents.
“Such a naughty girl”
“Ahh!!”
Lina exaggerated of the pain of Anne’s flick to the forehead.
“Lena you shouldn’t call him brother beggar okay?”
“No! He’s my big brother beggar!”
She had a mischievous laugh, there was no way to beat a child’s logic.
“How can a beggar pay for food?”
“Hmm… then a beggar adventurer.”
“Omit the word Beggar!”
“Hihi No! Mehh~”
Lina shouts out before hiding once again behind Anne.
“Kids…!”
I returned to the area I had been staying in lately.
Pukk Pukk
The narrow alley I stayed in was very dark and deep, that’s why no one would usually pass by. But there were two strangers hitting a poor homeless kid.
“Hey, stop that! It’s my sleeping time
I had confidence in my power and I wanted to kick them out from my sleeping spot. It wasn’t at all any heroism on my part.
“This doesn’t concern you, mind your own business.”
One of the strangers gave me a quick look before disregarding me completely. But I ignored their warning and just watched them with my arms crossed.
They never expected me to be an adventurer as I was the only one in the city.
“Hey you! How dare you try to run away, do you have any idea how much money your father owes us? Just be a good kid and allows yourself to be sold as a slave to pay off the debt.
“Enough, if we scratch her then price of the merchandise will drop.”
“Shit! Look at my arm, she bit me and now I’m bleeding.”
From what they were saying I gathered that they had taken someone’s little girl as compensation, and were now going to sell her at the slaver’s market.
‘Hmm there is no reason for me to help her. I have my own business.’
Although I was considering helping out, I was worried that any actions might affect the flow of history, so I decided to continue my role as a simple observer.
‘Please leave quickly.’
They tied up the child’s hands and left my alley, as they were leaving I locked eyes with the kid.
‘Dammit, I see it in his eyes that he blames me, I didn’t even do anything!’
Her eyes had a sharp glint, it was a look of promised vengeance, the same one I gave to Michael and Metatron or Lorina.
‘Ugh… if she has such a deep grudge against me then I have already changed history.’
“Hey, wait up a sec.”
“What is it, just who do you think you are looking at?”
They appeared pretty intimidating and strong.
“Is that child a slave?”
“Not quite yet, not that it concerns you.”
“But isn’t it wrong to hit a regular citizen in this city?”
“Oh is that so, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
One of them came to me and grabbed my neck.
“Did you just grab me by the neck? Then this is self-defense!”
“Self-defense? What kind of nonsense are you talking about, I will whoop your ass!”
Puk, Kung!
Despite his bravado he was sent flying with a single fist.
“Shit! Son of bitch!”
Tuksuk
“How dare you attack our wolf family!”
Tuduk
The person carrying the kid put her down threw a punch my way
I ducked slighly to dodge his swing, then connected straight with hs chin.
“Hmmm.. Wolf Club? You are gang? I’ve heard you guys steal money from merchants in market. Even threatening store owners.”
“Haha. You knew us, and you still do this? Prepare for your funeral!”
“Hmm..yeah most people think like you… that is until they get a taste of my fist!”
Huuunh Puck!
I once again easily dodged his punch and hit him lightly on the jaw.
Pakak, dropped.
Having put just a bit of strength in my last blow, I still easily knocked him down onto his knees, and a few of his teeth had come loose.
“You!! Don’t go anywhere!”
One of the gangsters who had fallen down earlier escaped while I dealt with his friend.
“Ah….it became annoying….or is it a good thing in the end?”
Darryl and Anne had also complained about these local thugs because they would extort half their revenu as protection money. They were nothing more than a cancer on this town, one that required treatment.
“Hey are you okay?”
I untied her hands pulled out the gag from her mouth.
“Thank you”
She looked about 7 years old. It was still hard for me to tell other people’s age because I wasn’t a good reference. I was in the body of a 15 year old boy but had the mind of an adult which had lived several lives and been married.
“Well I saved you this once, will you be able to take care of yourself now?”
She shook her head.
“Fine, wait a moment.”
I used the rope to tie up one of the members of the wolf club.
I heard the girl’s stomach groaning.
“Are you hungry?”
She nodded in response and I gave here some of the bread and milk I had recently purchased. The second she laid her hands on it, the food disappeared as if it were a magic trick.
‘Soon the wolf club’s members will surely come for revenge. I can’t take care of this girl forever, I need to find a safe home for her.’
I considered giving her to Anne, but she had a hard enough life as it was trying to raise Lina by herself.
“I guess I have no choice.”
I decided to bring her over to Darryl’s bakery and hope they’d take her in. as we walked in town people would give us a strange look. After all I was dressed as a beggar accompanying a bruised and ragged young girl, so in all fairness we did look quite suspicious. However people were accustomed to strange things in such a small town, and after a fair bit off staring they went back to their own business.
“Darryl Darryl!”
“Who is it! I have dough to make. Oh Johra, didn’t you buy your bread earlier?”
Darryl appeared through the door with his hands full of flour. When he saw the poor condition of the little girl he seemed worried.
“What happened to her, who did it? Was it you Johra?”
He rushed up to her and held her tenderly, looking at me with an expression of disgust.
Author’s Note—-*
Ownership:
In certain areas where several creatures gain awareness, a title of ownership is formed from their influence. The title can be given or acquired by killing the previous owner, and gives you certain privileges within the area such as creating alliances.