The group showed me to a travelling merchant where I could sell some stuff to earn money for the Inn fees. "Hey, how much would you buy some slime jelly for?" I asked the merchant, who promptly looked at me with a scrutinizing look and replied "5 copper per slime, 50 copper to 2 silver for any variant slimes or intact cores you might have". The currency in the game Liberty of Immortals was pretty simple. I mean it was supposed to be a game so complicated conversions would be boring and annoying to players. I tried recalling the conversions for all of the currency to see how much I was being ripped off.
100 Copper was equal to 1 Silver
100 Silver was equal to 1 Gold
100 Gold was equal to 1 White Gold
100 White Gold was equal to 1 Rose Gold
100 Rose Gold was equal to 1 Dragon Gold
Getting anything higher than White Gold was very rare since that was a hell of a lot of money. Even I only had 129 Dragon Gold when I was playing, before the reincarnation incident. I grumbled as I gave the man 3 slimes worth and took the 15 copper. "Man, that's such a ripoff and the fact that the rest of the slime was useless because of how I harvested it is total bull" I complained while heading back to the inn.
I paid the innkeeper the 10 copper for a nights stay, leaving me dirt poor. "I really need to go and sell stuff when I get to a big town or city" I complained to no one in particular, but to my surprise, I heard Ray speak up from behind me. "You're in luck then, because the 3 of us were heading to a city called Namph tomorrow. You want to join us on our way there?" I nodded "Yeah. Having company on my way to a city would be much better than walking alone, so thanks". He gave me a thumbs-up as he opened the door to his room, "No problem dude. We were just heading in the same direction so it's fine" He smiled and closed the door after saying goodnight. I walked into my room and went to sleep while mulling through my thoughts, trying to sort everything out as best as I could.
I woke up the next morning getting barely any sleep but feeling quite refreshed. I had finally sorted through my messy thoughts and finalized on one conclusion. I was free from those demons that called themselves my relatives. They treated me worse than a house pet that no one liked. They rarely fed me food, tried stealing what I earned from working and even blamed me for every little thing that went wrong while enjoying their lives. I would be lying if I said I wasn't slightly glad to be rid of them. I had decided that I would live my life here and enjoy it to it's fullest. I honestly have no reason to go back to earth, because life was miserable there. Sure there's fighting monsters and the threat of dying to whatever horrors lurked in this world, but it was much better than Earth, that's for sure. If people argued otherwise I would laugh in their faces and call them plain stupid. I walked downstairs while thinking such thoughts, and what I was going to do next when I reached the city of Namph.
"Zane I heard from Ray that you're looking to head to some town or city. Just like Ray said, you're free to join us while we travel there" said Ronia as she gobbled what looked like her 3rd plate of food. "Where does all that food you eat go? Seriously, it's like you have a bottomless pit instead of a stomach" said Herald while laughing until he got an angry kick to the shin by Ronia, who didn't stop shovelling food in the entire time, causing Herald to only laugh harder as she glared at him. I sat and started pulling some bread and jerky out for breakfast along with my endless water bottle.
"So, what's in Namph anyways? Y'know besides the regular stuff like inn's Adventurer's Guild and such? Anything special?" I ate some more food after saying that and looked at the others. I tried recalling Namph City, but couldn't recall much other than the fact it was a safe zone, with decent trade from merchants and 3 dungeons nearby, making it a hub for adventurers aka players. "Well, there are 3 dungeons nearby, and as a result of all the monster parts circulating, the city has become a hub of trade. Not to mention that there are several blacksmiths that make armour and weapons of varying degrees. Umm, other than that there's nothing special about it." Ronia said as she paused eating to drink some water and reply. "Alright then, so it's a pretty good place to go to, for various reasons. Especially in my case." I looked down at my ragged leather armour that was riddled with holes and cut open in various places. "I could really use an upgrade if I'm being honest." That earned me a couple of chuckles from everyone, followed by Ronia choking on her food from laughing with her mouth full.
~~~
After finishing breakfast we got our stuff gathered and head for the gate that leads towards the city of Namph. I saw that most of the damage had been fixed up to a reasonable degree. At least there were no more holes in walls or charred lumps of wood remains left scattered around. We said our goodbye's to the guards at the gate and head out.
The first 2 days of the journey were very uneventful, with nothing going on, other than a few stray goblins wandering into our group, promptly finding themselves dead. On the third day of travel however, we heard some fighting ahead of us, with a few screams echoing through the forest. "Let's head over and see what's going on" said Herald as he drew his sword. I nodded and pulled out my sword, followed by Ronia and Ray. With us prepared we sped up our pace and pushed forward to see what was going on.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
What greeted us was the sight of over 20 goblins assaulting a merchant. There were over a dozen dead goblins strewn around, as well as an ogre of all things. "RAAAGH" Herald screamed and used his taunting skill to get the attention of the goblins, who started rushing him instantly. This also drew the attention of the 2 adventurers that were guarding the merchant's carriage, but they looked relieved when they saw that it was a human that screamed and not some monster.
I shot several fireballs and scorched some goblins but didn't manage to kill them outright. "Man, my skills are still so damn weak. I can't even kill a goblin outright." I started stabbing at some goblin nearby and lopped its arm off which earned me a loud KIII right in my damn ear. Annoyed I continued to fight the goblins.
After we mopped up the goblins, with the help of the 2 other adventurers, we introduced ourselves and found out that this was indeed the carriage of a merchant they were guarding. We saw the merchant pop his head out of the carriage holding a shield and dagger, with an iron helmet on. "A-are they gone? Is it safe to come out?" The whole scene looked comical with how funny the merchant looked with his goofy equipment and frightened look. "We cleaned up the goblin's so it's safe to come out now." After sighing a sigh of relief he put his equipment away into the back of the carriage and introduced himself.
"I am Dokam, a merchant and I thank you for helping me out there. Who would have guessed that an ogre would come out of nowhere, especially in these parts. This area is relatively safe with only weaker monsters appearing. I'm really glad I shelled the extra silver for good guards. It really saved my bacon." He laughed while settling down and shaking our hands. "You look like you're on your way to Namph, would you like to hitch a ride with us? It's the least I can do for you when you helped us out." He laughed in his same booming laugh as he motioned for us to get on the carriage.
I got a good look at Dokam as we travelled, chatting about trivial things to pass the time. He was a portly man with a chubby belly, with a decently long beard that would make any dwarf proud. He looked like he was the type of guy who constantly laughed and tried to look on the bright side of everything. He was basically a very happy and chubby merchant with a cool beard with a loud voice. Seriously, his voice is so loud and deep.
We got to know Dokam more as we travelled along for 3 more days, encountering another band of 15 goblins that were dispatched swiftly by us 5 adventurers. "Now that I thought about it, Dokam managed to get 3 free guards to guard him the rest of the way to Namph by giving us a ride." At Ray's observation, I heard the man out front laugh and say "It's just business my friend. I give you a ride, you guard me, rather fair trade ain't it?" He smiled with a twinkle in his eyes. I wanted to ask for payment but now I felt like it would seem rude to ask for it, considering he just called us being given a ride a payment of sorts. The man seemed jolly and happy go lucky, but he was a merchant after all. He got more guards without even having to pay us, even if it was coincidental that he met us, he took full advantage of the opportunity like any good merchant would. I didn't complain about not being paid, but simply enjoyed the fact I didn't have to walk anymore. My feet were killing me.
~~~
"And that's how I managed to avoid being eaten by a Greater sandworm while delivering supplies to a city while crossing the Habena Desert! It was so damn scary when the thing kept chasing us for miles on end. I'm so glad I had that random trinket in my cart, or I would have been worm food!" Dokam's loud voice was filled with merriment as he finished telling the story. It was one hell of a story, especially the ambush by a horde of Demon Cactus. I chuckled as I recalled that particular portion of the story.
"Oh theres the city of Namph! Finally! Man it's been one hell of a journey. What the hell is up with all the goblins and ogres? There shouldn't be that many in the area. Ogre's are so rare in the wilds around here and yet we met 12 travelling here." Ray huffed a breath out as he finished the maintenance on his spear. The others agreed with what he said. They would probably report this to the adventurer's guild to be on the safe side, and have them check the area out for some variant monster or other reason that could lead to this large amount of goblins and ogres.
It was as we approached the city gates that I felt that it. The feeling I was all too familiar with. The aura of the strong. There was someone obscenely strong in this city and they were advertising it to everyone. I wanted to use my Aura Detection skill but I lost it along with all my others. The others nearby didn't notice the feeling and kept chatting like nothing was wrong.
I then realized that 'this isn't a game anymore. If I don't have the skill, I can just learn it'. I could use skills that aren't on my skill list by copying how to do them from the game. The game was rather realistic with everything they did. They even made using skills have distinct feelings. I quickly focused my mana to my surroundings, in a similar fashion to a radar, hoping to find any signs. I felt a ping and noticed it was in the city centre and tried getting a better read, my mana rushing like tendrils searching for their prey, unseen by people as they moved. As I was getting closer the person's aura disappeared, and pain shot into my body. I groaned as I called myself a moron. Of course they would have an aura blocking skill, and some way to counter my aura detection, I chided myself.
"You ok Zane? You just groaned and you look like your head's hurting pretty bad. I can cast some healing on you if need be" Ronia called out to me with concern. I waved at her saying "Naw I'm good, just had a sudden headache, it's all good." I smiled and acted like nothing was wrong, trying to shake off that nasty headache from the rebound I got by having my skill countered. Whoever that person was in the city, they were very powerful, and I had a sneaking suspicion that they were related to all the ogre's and goblins roaming around in large groups. I looked at the city we were fast approaching and muttered under my breath "I just hope they don't cause me any problems. I just want to live my life without problems, is that so much to ask for?"