Chapter 7: Alone AgainDay 4

  Pleasantly refreshed, I woke to find Tuuli gently urging me to get the hell out. But, instead of showing me to the door, she pointed to the wall. Getting the hint, I gave her a quick hug and opened a portal near to the inn. I entered and went directly to breakfast. Too zy to switch to a single room, I went upstairs to get ready for some alone time in the byrinth.

  Somehow, I felt safer alone. I hacked away till I eventually found the boss room, or rather the waiting room for it. According to literature, boss rooms enforce a one-party-at-a-time policy. Don’t know why or how but, you know, magic. Anyway, no one else was here so I got let in without waiting.

  Now, it may seem a bit reckless to fight the floor boss alone but I was, um, foolish. Fortunately, it worked out just fine. I used the Hero’s skill to momentarily accelerate myself faster than the boss could react and managed to take it down rather quickly. It dropped a leaf rather than a twig. I sort of remembered something being special about this. Meh, it’ll come to me ter. Exiting through the other side, I was now on the second floor. That’s enough for now so I left for lunch.

  Munching on a meat-skewer, I decided to check my status. OK, I started with Vilger and Hero, got two bonus points and added Explorer as my third job. Now, I have two more bonus points from reaching Vilger:5 and have unlocked new jobs: Warrior, like Tuuli, but also Swordsman, Herbalist and Merchant. The first was probably from the floor boss’ leaf. Now I can make d… I mean, medicines. I’ll ignore Merchant for now and get rid of Vilger. Wait, how do I do that? Right, I need to use a point for Job Setting and I’ll lose another since Explorer is a level lower than Vilger.

  This would be a lot easier on a spreadsheet. Actually, I really should write all this down. I could probably allocate my bonus skills a bit better too. Since I can immediately see how many points I have left, it shouldn’t be hard to figure out the cost of each. And this ring I got on the first day, is it actually useful? It’s just level two so probably not. I should see what else I could get after reaching higher levels.

  Anyway, where was I? Right, now my set-up is Explorer:4, Hero:2 and Warrior:1. Swordsman might be more powerful but I think Warrior should unlock other stuff ter. Can’t really check but it shouldn’t really matter even if I’m getting this mixed up with a different manga. No need to micro-manage this but shouldn’t just ignore it either.

  What other jobs can I unlock next? Well, I know how to become a Thief but maybe something more useful. Um, there’s Monk (which seems to be more Shaolin than cloister), but the true gem is Mage. I clearly remember the trick to unlock that job and it wasn’t pleasant. More importantly, it’s too dangerous to be performed without someone I can trust to back me up. If I pass out doing it, I might die and find myself in some pirate-based isekai or, more likely, be dead-dead. And since I don’t currently have anyone I can trust with my life, I’d have to…

  Crap, already rationalized my way back to svery and this time, it’s simply to satisfy my chibuu…, um, chubby-nya… ah, who cares, I really, really want to shoot off a fireball. I miss my games and I’d much rather be a wizard or an archer than a front-line grunt (no offense). Hmm, haven’t seen any bows here but they’d be useless in the byrinths anyway. Even if they have bows, there’s no way in hell I’d go out into the very-real-looking, monster-infested forests alone before I reach very high levels.

  Just realized that I’ve been talking to myself like a crazed hermit ever since I came to this world. Safety aside, not sure how long I’ll st on my own before I grow my hair out and squat in some cave (or whatever real ones do). Well, time to get back to reality by fighting CG monsters in the full-immersion video game, aka, the byrinth.

  ────────────────────────

  With nothing special to do afterwards, I went out for a walk around town but stayed away from the slums. No need to use myself as bandit-bait tonight. Perhaps negating that flicker of restraint, I soon found myself entering a small tavern. It sounded like everyone was speaking Valic, or something else, so it shouldn’t be too fancy for me. Anyway, this world doesn’t strike me as especially restrictive and I already reached drinking age st year in the old world so having a beer or two couldn’t hurt.

  Ugh, but it did hurt. Not too strong — just bad. It was ft, warm and had an odd smell. Maybe ale means something different here but the bartender’s smirk suggested that outsiders weren’t welcome. Well, it worked. I don’t drink hard liquor so there was nothing left in here but noise. The weak ger that comes with dinner at the inn is good enough. I might try another pce sometime, but it doesn’t really matter. Regardless, there’s no way I’d risk getting drunk at a bar in a different world.

  Well, that sure sucked. I’ll just get back to the inn and… seriously? Now I’m being followed, probably from the bar. Do I really look like someone easy to mug? Let’s see, well-dressed, alone, didn’t speak the local nguage… yep, I’d mug me.

  Even after promising myself not to act like bait, I seem to have hooked a couple of hungry fish. Around another corner and now there’s just one but he’s definitely following me. Is the other guy uninvolved, trying to circle around or maybe gathering reinforcements? Nah, I don’t look that tasty… unless I was recognized from one of my other encounters.

  Not patient enough to wait to find out, I turn back towards the guy behind me and yell, “Hey buddy, I’m lost. Can I get some directions?”

  A bit surprised but trying to act casual, he said something I couldn’t understand, probably because he couldn’t understand me. I sort of shrugged, pointed randomly and tried to pantomime lost. He seemed to get it and waved me over in a friendly manner. The HUD clearly identified him as a low-level Bandit, but maybe, just maybe he was the friendly type of cut-throat.

  As I approached, I noticed him gncing at my waist, hopefully checking for a sword. The helpful Bandit tried to communicate in an animated manner but I could hear someone closing in on me quickly from behind — not so stealthy but I guess my little stunt messed up their timing.

  Just as the guy in front drew a long knife, I performed an unexpected head-butt directly into his face. Spinning around just in time to see the other guy lunging for me, it certainly looked like he had me until I re-equipped Durandal directly in front of his chest and just out of reach of his knife.

  Not properly waiting for his turn, the bloody-faced Bandit took a swing at me but he was probably still a bit disoriented so it was easy to dodge.

  Unfortunately for him, he was now right between me and a wall. Almost by reflex, I threw a full body-check. Well, that wasn’t quite regution. The fight’s over but the stone wall behind him did most of the work.

  Vowing never to return to that bar, I detached their left hands and opened a portal to the byrinth. May as well take these guys with me. I wonder if… yep, I got the Monk job from this little encounter. “Wow, thanks guys!” I’ll temporarily repce Warrior with Monk. OK, let’s see, healing is called Medical Treatment. “Ah, that’s better.” Guess I’d hit that wall pretty hard too.

  I did some casual hunting till the cards popped out and then walked back to the inn manually, um, by foot? Maybe I really am starting to lose it… though the mass-killings might be even better evidence of that. Would positive, social interaction help or should I just slink off to the wilderness after all? Nah, it’s not that bad, yet. Guess I’ve defended myself against at least 20 bad guys by now — probably more but lost count.

  ────────────────────────

  Day 5

  After breakfast, I sold yesterday’s twigs and the test set of cards — no bounties this time, damn small fries. I’ll spend the day in the byrinth to farm trees for EXP and get in some sword practice. These opponents wouldn’t help with finesse but a sword doesn’t swing like a stick — neither hockey nor crosse.

  I kept practicing till it was time to get my usual meat-skewer — really nice that there’s practically no lines for lunch. While munching, I realize that after just a few days, the first floor is really boring. It’d be different if I could mash a few keys and zone out but these damn twig-generators could nd a lucky shot and knock me out.

  My current level isn’t high enough to max out my EXP cheats, which would help me raise my level. Putting Durandal away would give me enough points to max one EXP cheat and add a step to the other one. Certainly can’t do that now and it’d take even longer before I could max out both EXP skills. Guess I just need to be patient.

  On the second floor in the afternoon, walrus-sized caterpilrs had teamed up with the trees. Fortunately, they too are slow and my sword is so OP that I can handle two at a time (in any combination) so it’s not much of a challenge. Still, this is much better than the first floor and I don’t need the possibility of insta-death for entertainment.

  Just as I was thinking about how reasonable I am, one of the giant caterpilrs spit sticky thread at me. Fortunately, it was far enough away that I could dodge. I think the manga said that the goo stays until the bug gets squashed. I could be wrong, but don’t want to test it. Even if wears off sooner, two slugs might be able to tag-team me to death. I consider myself pretty agile, but even if I could dodge 99% of the time, that’d likely leave me dead within a week, especially after this floor becomes too boring to stay alert. [1]

  Coincidentally, this felt like a good point to stop so I walked over to the weapon shop to get my new scabbard. Luckily, the same guy was there since I didn’t give my name or bother to check his.

  “I’m here for the custom scabbard I ordered the other day.”

  “Right. As you can see, it looks like any other piece of crap.”

  “Yep, completely unremarkable. It’s perfect, thanks.”

  “Ha ha, you really know how to hurt a craftsman. Well, at least there’s no chance I’d want to tell anyone and I’ll ask you to do the same. Still, this ugly thing is dependable and should have a fast draw. Take it out back and try it out so I can see if it’ll need any adjustments.”

  I tied it to my belt and moved the sword slowly like I was really checking, at least, I hope it looked like that. Seemed fine so I tried a couple of quick draws. Not ready to duel a samurai, but the wide top made it easy to draw even if I didn’t pull perfectly straight.

  “Great work. How much?”

  “Five silver.”

  “Fair price. I’ll try to make future requests a bit more normal… but no promises.”

  “Yep. Wouldn’t believe you if you denied it. But, it was a fun challenge anyway.”

  I made sure not to have any trade cheats active this time. No need to weasel down an honest craftsman, better to save that for sve traders.

  I sold my twigs and thread (from the worms) at the guild before going back to the byrinth’s first floor to waste time till dinner. Ate, rinsed off and started thinking about Tuuli. It’d be rude not to check in to see how she’s doing. Even better to warp directly to her hut to protect her privacy. Yep, warping right into her room is the polite thing to do.

  Poking my head through the open portal, I just saw a dark room. Good, just intruding, not interrupting.

  “Tuuli, mind if I come in?”

  “■■■ ■■■■?! Taavi?”

  “Yes, Tuuli, it’s me, David.”

  “Tavi!”

  As hoped, Tuuli was happy to see me so I stayed the night. Not really sure why I’m visiting her, besides the obvious. Well, I don’t really know anyone else (excluding An the Sver) and she’s honestly rather pleasant, not just for the obvious. Even if she were still my sve, I probably would’ve given in to her eventually. Still, this situation is much more patable. It seems that not ensved is my kink.

  Not quite ready to fall asleep, I initiated some one-sided pillow-talk. I told her all about my old home, family, pns and aspirations. It didn’t make me sad, but it felt good to let it out so I could comfortably shut the door on that old life. As far as I can tell, the real me is physically here with no obvious way to return. My (presumably) mysterious disappearance would be difficult for those I had held nearest and dearest but at least I wasn’t married and/or had any kids. Tuuli gently stroked my head till I fell asleep.

  ────────────────────────

  [1] Working 6 hours a day with 10 encounters per hour where about 1/6 of them have 2 caterpilrs (t/c/t-t/t-c/c-t/c-c) makes 70 dangerous encounters over 7 days. Assuming a 99% success rate, the chance of failure (death) can be estimated as 1 - 0.9970. So, he has an estimated 51% chance of death-by-caterpilr within a week.