After going through several bushes that I hope aren’t poisonous, right outside the forest I already see the town. This will make things easier for me.

Even though close, it’s still quite a walk away. I remember that I leveled up so for now I’ll check my status to see if there’s something new.

I whispered in a voice only I could hear.

“…Status.”

Then, just as expected, my status popped up.

[Status Window]

[Name: Christopher Sterling]

[Characteristic: Good Boy]

[Level: 2]

[EXP: 0/60]

[Passive Skill/s]

[Ad-Lib]

[Distort Spell]

[Incomprehensible Mind]

[Spells Comprehension]

[Active Skill/s]

[First-aid]

[Encourage]

[STR: 6] [INT: 9] [AGI: 7] [FAI: 11] [END: 5]

[Distributable Points: 2]

Nothing seems to have changed except for a 1 increase in my stats and 2 distributable points. Come to think of it, how do I even gain new skills? If it follows the logic I know of, then int should be intelligence and should be able to increase the power of my spells. STR is obviously strength and it’s also obvious what it does.

It seems nice to distribute it in strength or agility because I don’t have any offensive magic to benefit from having high intelligence but I put it aside for now. Even if I distribute it now, there won’t be any major effect. Besides, I gain 1 in all stats each time I level up so it should be fine for now.

Finally, I arrived in front of the gate to the town. The gate is made out of stone. If I remember correctly, the town is named Stein town.

There is only one guard that is stationed at the gate. He has a beard and wears a light armor you should expect on a guard from a small town. He looks at me curiously before adjusting his posture and greeting me.

“Welcome to Stein town. I’m the guard stationed at the gate that we call the Stein gate. Can I ask who you are and your purpose here?”

For some reason, he’s speaking politely. I thought he would have some thick accent. He’s pretty awkward too, his way of speaking feels unnatural.

Then I realized the outfit I’m wearing. Of course, you will be polite to someone that looks like a noble if you want your head to stay where it is. I then acted like one or else I would’ve been suspicious. How does a noble talk again? I don’t remember. I’ll just pretend I’m a humble noble who wishes to interact with commoners.

My lips moved on their own.

「Ad-lib is in effect」

“I am Favus von Arknaim. I travel to see the world and I am stopping here for the time being.”

He nods his head.

“You can come in.”

The security is so lax. He didn’t even confirm my identity or something. I’m not complaining, it makes things easier for me.

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I approach the gate and push it but it doesn’t budge. Is it because of my low strength? I pushed some more and the guard coughed.

“It’s a sliding door.”

I realized my mistake. I did a rookie mistake. I tried sliding it and it opened easily.

I went inside as the guard closed the gate for me. First thing I see when I went inside is a map of the town beside the gate. There are multiple copies so I took one. I’ll just put it back later.

I look at the map and searched for the “Adventurers Guild” so I can earn some money. Alas, there isn’t one. I don’t know if the town is just small or it doesn’t exist here. Either way I will have a hard time earning money. I don’t have a single penny to my name.

I will starve at this rate.

I don’t want to be sent back to the underworld just when I arrived at the first town. Then I thought some more while still searching the map.

What’s the closest to an adventurers guild in stories where I can make some money by taking requests?

My eyes stopped on the word “Tavern”. If I recall correctly, this is the closest place adventurers or mercenaries stop by to do requests for money in the stories I know of.

I put the town’s map beside my other map of the world or continent I am in. It really doesn’t have a name so I’m not sure.

I look around the town while walking towards the tavern. It should be at the middle of the town so I can look around a little bit on the way.

I see only humans walking around the town. I am a bit disappointed that I can't find any fantasy races. I just hope that the reason for me not seeing them is because this is only a small town and not that they are enslaved and sold in black markets.

I passed by the market and it’s so noisy because of merchants trying to haggle their price. I saw a satchel I can put my things inside but I don’t have any money.

I hurriedly get out of there before I make eye contact and they drag me to buy stuff I don’t need.

The town looks like a normal medieval town and the buildings are mostly made out of stone. Maybe that’s why it’s called Stein town. I arrive at the tavern and I head inside without hesitation. It’s rowdy inside befitting of a tavern. There are people singing and some dancing. Thankfully, nobody is fighting when I entered.

I search around the tavern for a bulletin board. I see it in a corner full of pinned paper. The pins are all made out of metal. It seems plastic doesn’t exist here.

As I thought, the papers are either requests or bounties. Subjugation, apprehend criminal, and search requests. My eyes moved through the requests, searching for a doable one. Just then, I feel a hand on

my shoulder.

“You might burn the papers with your stare.”

I turn around and see a guy with piercings and really looks like a thug. Contrary to everything, he talks cheerfully not befitting his appearance.

“Searching for a request?”

I nod my head.

“I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you new?”

I nod again.

“You’re not very talkative, huh?”

He looks at the requests plastered all over the board and then points to one request.

“Oh, what about this one? It’s only searching for a chicken.”

I looked at where he is pointing at and it says, ‘Search for my lost chicken, Chuck. He went to the forest after he escaped and I’m very worried about him.’

I grimace. He then misunderstands and says, “Right, a highly noble like you can’t afford to search for a lost chicken.”

I immediately correct him. He won’t believe me if I just deny it so…

「Ad-lib is in effect」

“No, that’s not it. It’s just… I am very afraid of chickens since ‘that incident’.”

He then looks at me with pity and apologizes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” I feel bad for lying, but it couldn’t be helped.

He closes his eyes and rests his chin on his hand. After a while, he seems to have thought of something.

“What about this? I remembered we are going on a subjugation request a week from now and we can always use more people helping us. If you are willing to join, then…”

“What are you subjugating?”

“Goblins in a cave near this town. We are tasked to kill them before they cause trouble.”

“How much is the pay?”

“It pays a hundred silver and we already are a party of four, so if you join we will split it 20 silvers for each of us.”

I think for a while. This might be my only chance in leveling up because of my trash stats and skills but it might be dangerous. Not only that, this dude looks suspicious. Well, it should be fine. I will be stuck at level 2 at this rate if I don’t accept.

Besides, I only leveled up in pure luck.

“Okay, I will help you.”

“Sounds good. We can meet here a week later in front of the bulletin board.”

He then turns to leave but then looks back at me.

“Oh yeah, what’s your name? We still haven’t introduced ourselves to each other. By the way, my name is Burgler.”

“My name is Favus von Arknaim.”

“A surname… really a noble.”

He whispers something I can’t hear and then waves his hand to bid me farewell and leaves for real this time

Good thing I don’t have a house he can break inside. Unless he can travel dimensions.

Putting that aside, I still haven’t chosen a request to do. I pick a random one. It says that I need to pick herbs in the martial forest. With that, I leave the tavern.

I’m at the gate again. Outside the gate, the guard is still there.

“Oh, it’s you again. Where are you heading?”

“I’m fulfilling a request.”

“I see. Be careful out there.”

The guard waves at me as he watches me leave. Okay, my destination is the martial forest. It should be the one over there, the one where I just came out of.

Once I arrived at the forest, I rechecked the request and read it thoroughly. It says that for each herb I bring, I will be paid 3 copper coins. By my estimates, it isn’t much but should be decent enough.

It also has a simple sketch of the herb. It helps people who aren’t good at identifying herbs but still want to do the request. At the very bottom though, there is a fine print that says, “do not rip this off so others can see”. Well crap.

In my defense, it’s so small. Why did you even put it like this if you don’t want it to be ripped off? Not only that, it’s at the very bottom too. I’ll just have to apologize later.

Rustle Rustle

I’ve had it with the sounds since I came to this world. I’ll just ignore it.

I walked some more and nobody attacked me. The rustling sounds stopped too. I walked in somewhere after a while and it’s jackpot. I looked at the request again and sure enough, these are the herbs I’m searching for.

I picked them up and carried all I can carry with my two hands. My naginata is strapped on my back. There are a total of 20 herbs I can pick up without slowing my movement. These should be a total of 60 copper coins. I hope I can eat something with this or at least a place to stay.

I could’ve gotten more but I don’t have a bag to put them in. I stood up and prepared to leave.

…

How can I leave again? Looks like I went too deep. I only got out the last time because my position was marked but this time it isn’t.

I’ll try heading north or wherever I think north is.

I walked for a while and then my way was blocked. I’m really lost in the forest now. This cliff is too steep to climb. I tried heading left this time but after a while, I just see a dead end, blocked with rocks and the like.

I look up and it’s already almost night. It made me remember dinner and then my stomach rumbled. I’ve been walking for a while without eating anything since this morning and I just realized that I feel weak too.

My body felt sluggish suddenly and my vision is dimming.

Then, I fall down as I started to lose consciousness. But before that, somebody catches me.

It felt warm, and…

“Hmph.”

…I fainted.