CHAPTER 4: THE LIFE OF ADVENT-CHUR

Part 1-

A few days after I had been kicked out of the Slave House, I found a job as a scullion at a restaurant.

I had been working at The Vintage Diner for a few months now and had finally learned the language.

With a few expert flips of my knife, I completely skinned a potato. Most of the time, my job is to clean the kitchen or dishes.

Today however, one of the two chefs was sick so I picked up the slack by preparing the side dishes.

I had seen him do it so much that I would have had to be completely retarded to not have memorized it by now.

Actually, I had already memorized how each dish was made, so technically, I was qualified to make anything a customer could order.

Quickly, I diced all the potatoes and put them in a boiling pot.

Aipers brought up a table listing how much of each ingredient I needed.

After I put in all the necessary ingredients, I sampled it and made various adjustments to the taste with the various spices available.

I filled a bowl with the soup and put it on a tray.

Next, I made some eggs and pulled a small loaf of bread out of the oven.

I put both of them on the tray just as Greg (the primary cook) finished the fish fillets.

“Woah, that was fast! It looks the right color, so I guess… well done!”

Excellent evaluation method!

With the large dish meal complete, a waiter came and took it away.

Greg was a good cook. He was unambitious though, no passion to adventure or any ‘ridiculous stuff like that,’ as he liked to put it.

Well, no risk, no reward.

The best way to make money in this world seemed to be by selling monster cores.

Just two goblin cores were worth the same amount as a full day’s work.

I probably wouldn’t make it big, not at my current body’s age. But it would definitely be easier than scrubbing floors all day.

After I got my pay for the day, I quit and bought a rapier from a blacksmith using my savings that I gathered.

I had considered a spear, but I figured that anyone stronger than me just had to grab my spear before I was completely screwed.

The rapier blade was an inch wide and almost as long as I was tall and came with a cup hilt and handguard.

Since the blade was so wide compared to a more ‘modern’ smallsword, it had the ability to perform good slashing attacks as well as serving as a thrusting weapon.

I chose the rapier because of its long reach and light weight. I had a meter of reach for only around two pounds of blade.

The blacksmith tried to refuse selling to me, but I was willing to pay up to a quarter higher than his regular price.

Seeing how determined I was, he just sold it to me at normal price, saying how he couldn’t ‘rob a kid.’

Part 2 -

The next day, I woke up early so that I could make it to Mana Plains early.

I had overheard a few adventurers that had been talking about it a few weeks ago.

Within minutes, I had made it to the city wall.

“Hello mister,” I said to the guard, “Do you know where the Mana Plains are?”

He stared at me in shock and asked, “Where are your parents? Won’t they be worried?”

“I don’t have parents, mister,” I replied.

The guard’s face darkened.

“I’m sorry for my inconsiderate words. Just follow to the path and you’ll make it in about ten minutes of walking,” he said.

“Thanks!” I said before running off.

I guess the concept of child soldiers is appalling in almost every world. Or is it just the concept of an orphan?

But I’m not really an orphan. My parents didn’t die… I just never had any. For this world anyways.

Because of the Demon King’s attacks every decade, the human world is left in a state of almost constant chaos.

Every ten years, a general of the Demon Army leads a crusade through human territory, killing off at least ten to fifteen percent of the total population.

Many children are orphaned and lots of human military forces are annihilated. I guess that’s what he thought happened to me.

Monster cores are important resources for magical research, which is why there is a demand for them.

Monster cores form wherever mana concentrations reach a critical level. There seem to be high concentrations of mana around some of the ancient ruins and naturally forming dungeons. Unfortunately, that’s all I knew on the subject.

My job as a scullion lasted all day, so I didn’t have another opportunity to go to the library.

Not that I could read or anything.

I mentally added ‘reading’ to my list of things to learn.

Minutes later, I arrived at the Mana Plains.

I quickly spotted out a goblin near a patch of tall grass.

Quietly, I snuck up on it and stabbed it where its heart should have been.

Immediately, it jumped up and shrieked in a piercing cry.

Blood flowed uncontrollably from its open wound.

Each time the goblin’s heart beat, some blood would shoot out and spray out of the wound.

Quickly growing desperate, the goblin tried to approach me, but I quickly discouraged it with another stab which severed the blood vessels on the left side of its neck.

Blood quickly soaked through its left side.

Its heart beat again, spraying me with a few drops of blood.

Left with no choice, it tried to run, but it was quickly weakening.

Before it could, I stabbed it through the other side of its neck.

Not even ten seconds after the battle began, the goblin - blood and all, turned to light and scattered.

The only evidence that there was ever a struggle was the trampled grass and a tiny bloodred crystal.

I picked up the tiny crystal and put it in my satchel.

That’s half a day of work right there.

Wow, the life of an adventurer really is easy. I’m gunna be ‘rolling in the dough’ at this rate.

Within five minutes, I had found another goblin and slaughtered it.

That was easy. I just earned a day’s pay at the restaurant.

With barely bridled glee, I ran out through the fields looking for more easy money.

Unfortunately, around my twentieth or so goblin, a large number of people started pouring in. It was as if every fool with a sword and their mother showed up.

Not wanting to share my potential spoils, I foraged deeper into the plains.

Eventually, I went far enough that the amount of people thinned out.

Then, I stumbled upon a weird new creature that looked like a large yellow lizard.

It was maybe… three feet long?

Since I’m equally discriminatory against all monsters, I decided to kill it.

There needs to be equality in xenophobia.

As I approached it, the lizard eyed me warily and bared its tiny fangs at me.

When I got within five feet, it started hissing.

Its scales didn’t look too terribly hard. I mean, there’s not much that can stop metal from cutting a hole in you.

What’s the worst that could happen?

In a sudden twitch, I had closed the gap and stuck my blade into the lizard’s eye.

The lizard jumped back like a giant had kicked it, pulling itself off my rapier.

Immediately, I backed off warily. Its tail isn’t a spiky whip, is it?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

It turned and looked at me angrily with its other eye.

Slowly, I approached it again.

I suddenly jolted forwards again and stabbed it in its other eye. Similarly, it jumped backwards again.

There’s a reason you don’t turn the other cheek when someone slaps you.

With the monster now completely blind, I quietly walked in circles around it.

Deciding that it wasn’t just going to wait for its death, it tried to flee.

The lizard was a rather slow creature, so I could keep up with it by walking. It moves slowly, but lunges sometimes?

Randomly, I’d stab at it, but stabbing seemed to do almost negligible damage to it.

Maybe when I get stronger, I’ll want a decapitation weapon.

Poking things scurrying along the ground is kind of difficult.

Aipers, show me the anatomy of a lizard.

I studied the memory for a second.

Hmm, so the heart of the lizard appears to be located on the base of the neck, near the bottom.

I stabbed downwards into it at around where the heart should have been, piercing through the scales like paper.

Cutting its head off would have probably been easier. An axe, katana or maybe even a steel saw would probably work well enough.

Bones can chip the blade on extremely sharp weapons like mine.

As I was lost in thought, the lizard kept scurrying forward. Strangely, it bled less and less.

Eventually, although the wounds on its eyes didn’t heal, the gap in its scales sealed itself and the bleeding stopped.

Woah, that’s some cancer level healing. I bet you can’t recover lost blood though.

With a few more attacks, I reopened the lizard’s heart wound.

Gradually, the lizard began to weaken.

Advance, attack, retreat.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed my rapier started to smoke a bit.

I carefully examined the smoking portion and found that the blood was corroding the metal.

The fuck?! Acid blood and stupid amounts of regeneration?! This lizard is a walking tumor, I swear.

Let’s end this quickly.

I lunged and stabbed the tip of the blade into the base of the lizard’s skull.

A slight pop was evident as I severed the brainstem. The lizard’s body stopped moving.

I dealt the finishing blow to its brain through its eye socket.

As soon as I killed it, it started bloating like a balloon animal.

「Immediate advisory to retreat.」

Not knowing what else the walking tumor had in its repertoire, I backed off immediately.

Seconds later, the marshmallowed lizard exploded, sending bone fragments and acid blood everywhere.

Grass turned yellow and shriveled up on contact with the blood.

Only ten seconds after it had exploded did it finally turn to light and vanish.

By then, all the grass in a five foot radius had withered and died.

Several other patches where a chunk of lizard flesh had been blasted were also covered with a patch of black grass.

Scary. Good thing I fell back.

I never want to fight another one of those things again.

Although I had felt a bit hungry earlier, I’ve completely lost my appetite now.

I walked up to the circle of dead grass. In the center, lay an amber colored gem.

When I went to pick it up, all the dead grass that I touched instantly crumbled and turned to dust.

After blowing the dust off the gem, I put it in my satchel and headed back for the city.

When I was passing through the gates, the guard greeted me.

“How were the Mana Plains?” he asked.

“Pretty good. Saw a few goblins and lizards.”

I showed him a red crystal. “Do you know what the current market price is on these?”

“You should only be able to get at least two coppers for that,” he said.

Exactly as I suspected. Half my daily wage as a scullion.

“Thanks, mister!” I said as I left for the market district.

At the market, I sold the goblin cores for two coppers and the lizard core for three.

After getting a quick lunch, I went shopping.

A store caught my eye as I passed entered the high end section.

‘Weapon Enhancements’

I walked in the store.

An old man was sitting behind the counter.

“How can I help you?”

“Do you have anything to prevent corrosion?” I asked, showing him the tip of my rapier.

“We could crystallize the metal into adamantium. It’d quick and dirt cheap,” he replied.

“What does that do?”

“Makes it really hard to break.”

“How much would it cost?”

“Ha! It’s one silver piece at the very most. It used to be so expensive, but apparently someone found out how to do it cheaply. Good thing too, bout time the human army finally gets weapons on par with the demon’s.”

Reluctantly, I handed him half of my money.

He didn’t bother counting it.

He took my rapier and scraped strips of metal off with his bare finger.

A few strokes of his finger later, the edges of the blade had become almost impossibly sharp and thin.

Then he sheathed it and placed the entire thing on a platform.

He then proceeded to back up until he was about where I was standing and began chanting a strange verse of something.

I caught some bits about a dwarf’s pride and demon bones, but the rest was completely incoherent.

A white light covered the rapier before vanishing.

“That was kinda anticlimactic,” I said disappointedly.

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

When I unsheathed the rapier, the first thing I noticed was how it didn’t bend. At all.

It used to sway a bit if you were to shake it horizontally.

Now it was really stiff and unbelievably sharp.

Thin like the newest smartphone.

“Thanks, mister!” I said.

“Please, call me Yurip. Also, come back if it ever breaks or becomes dull. I have a lifetime warrantee policy on adamantine swords.”

“Is there something that can break adamantine?” I asked.

“Maybe. That’s why I have the warrantee- so I’ll be the first to know if it can be broken! Hahaha”

“That’s really smart, Yurip!”

“Now, now… run along and kill some demons, alright?”

“Yes, sir!” I said, throwing a mock salute before running off to the Mana Plains again.

Part 3 -

I was eager to test my upgraded weapon, so I ran to the Mana Fields again.

Surprisingly, the guard wasn’t at the gates anymore. He was probably on lunch break.

「If the blade is now as strong as the old man claims, you should be able to slash with the tip without it breaking.」

Slash with the rapier’s tip? That’s pretty terrifying actually.

I awkwardly unsheathed it and proceeded to advance into the Mana Plains.

Somewhat off in the distance, I spotted a goblin loitering.

「If you aim directly between spinal disks, you should be able to cleanly decapitate it.」

It might be easier if you overlaid estimated bone positions.

A second later, a human skeleton was distorted to fit inside the goblin.

「I based it off human anatomy, so some parts are probably off a bit. Whatever, it can be adjusted.」

Once I got within fifty feet of the goblin, it spotted me.

It bared its teeth and hissed at me.

Well, everyone’s entitled to their own type of attack.

With a single chop, I severed its arm at the shoulder.

Immediately, the goblin began screeching in pain. Without pause, it turned around and fled.

Without its arm, its neck became extremely vulnerable from the side.

From the back, I could see the bulges on the back of its neck.

With a single stroke, I took its head off its shoulders.

Not even a full second later, it turned to light and vanished.

I collected the gem and took a short break.

Taking breaks is an important aspect of fighting. Never fight the fair fight. Always ensure you have an edge over your opponent.

Kill them while they sleep and kick them when they’re down.

Once I had caught my breath, I continued my trek deep into the Mana Fields.

Five minutes later, I noticed a person watching me from the corner of my eye.

I carefully scanned the environment around me in as sleepy an expression as I could feign.

Five people are watching me.

Without hesitation, I continued my excursion into the Mana Fields. Maybe they’ll leave.

As soon as I passed a tuft of tall grass, I went behind it and checked behind me.

My heart sunk as I saw three of the people I saw before. Additionally, two different people were also trailing.

It wasn’t the number of people that bothered me.

It was the uniform they wore, or rather, that they wore a uniform at all.

Light leather armor, white shirt and light blue pants. All with a little green plant insignia.

Their weapons and armor were of absolute insignificance.

My rapier can pierce that armor like its paper. The reach of my rapier outranges any weapon they have.

Except for that archer. Arrows aren’t too bad though.

Since they are wearing identical uniforms, they likely have prior combat experience together.

The biggest danger is getting surrounded.

I carefully check the area behind me but see no one. That means it’ll likely just be those five.

If they initiate an attack, what are my chances of winning?

No way to tell as of right now.

They’re definitely stronger and faster than me. No chance at running. That’s a given.

Can I confirm that they’re after me?

“I know you’re behind that bush! Come out and surrender immediately!”

Shit.

Uhhh… I’ll take that as a yes.

If I can kill or incapacitate one of them in a surprise attack, my chances of killing them all goes up. Since they’re a part of an organization, letting them survive would be a massive mistake.

It’s best to just kill them all quietly if they engage.

I could probably play the innocent noncombatant if I wasn’t carrying this rapier.

Well, I’ll just have to pull it off with a rapier then.

Gripping the blade with one hand and the handle with my other, I stepped out with a scared expression.

Three, fifteen meters and closing.

Leftmost entity (A) is armed with a bladed weapon, forty centimeters.

Middle (B) has a sheathed weapon, likely forty centimeters.

Rightmost © has a longsword with properties similar to the Spatha, approximately eighty centimeters long.

Entity C will arrive first, followed by A and then B with differences of about one second.

“Drop your weapon!” Entity C ordered again.

“W-What-ts g-ggoing o-on r-right n-n-now?” I asked, stammering in a weak, shaky voice.

I took small steps forward.

“You are under arrest for entering a restricted area. Your weapon will be confi-”

My blade flashed out and interrupted her mid-sentence.

The risks of going along with them are simply too high.

My weapon is the culmination of multiple months of struggle.

She gurgled as she suddenly found her throat cut. Sometimes, you gotta take risks.

A second slash to the wrist and a stab to her chest finished her off.

Entity A was shocked, so I rushed forward and attempted to deliver a fatal wound to the heart.

Unfortunately, he recovered just in time to parry it, along with my next attack to his neck.

As he moved in to execute his own offensive swing, I hit his hand at the knuckles and he dropped his sword.

My next attack slashed both his thighs open, dropping him to his knees.

I quickly shifted to Entity B, cutting open the side of Entity A’s neck as I passed him.

An arrow flew my way. I ducked down and it passed just overhead.

Entity B tried to draw his sword, but he dropped it in his haste.

He bent to pick it up. A fatal mistake.

I sent his head rolling with a single stroke. T’was the clean execution before Christmas, when all through the building...

I’m done.

Three down, two to go.

Entity D has a quarterstaff, E a bow.

An arrow flew at me, but I was ready for it and I easily sidestepped out of the trajectory as soon as it left the bow.

I raised my rapier and charged.

“Ahhhhhh!” I yelled in my prepubescent voice.

Haha, this reminds me of the bayonet charge in Battlefield 1.

That was an old classic.

The archer fired one last shot at me, her eyes determined.

I sidestepped it again right before she loosed it, causing her to miss at practically point blank. Her face distorted with self-ridicule.

With no time to draw a weapon, she had no choice but to accept her fate.

I cut her down where he stood and turned to face my last opponent.

That’s strange, why is the melee fighter standing behind the archer? Is he mentally challenged or something?

A bolt of red light flew into the air, saturating the entire plains with a bright, red light.

After glowing brightly for a few seconds, it wilted and died, restoring the plains to its old and comparatively dim afternoon ambience.

That’s probably not good.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, he fell to his knees and face-planted into the ground.

I ran up to him and stabbed him in the chest.

He’ll probably die from that.

With another chop, I severed his spinal cord at the neck.

Better safe than sorry.

I best get out of here.

I wiped the blood off on the last guy’s clothes.

Ignoring my instincts screaming at me to run, I briefly searched each of them.

I only found around twenty silver and some papers that I couldn’t read.

I’m going to need another set of clothes. It’s probably a good idea to leave the city as soon as possible.

That last guy was probably a magician. I should leave before reinforcements arrive.

I turned tail and sprinted towards the city.

I’ll probably want a horse too... my legs are tiny.

About twenty minutes later, I entered the city.

I made my way to the market district and bought a map from a caravan. The guy just used some sort of spell to copy an existing map.

He just picked up his map and a blank sheet of paper. After looking like an idiot for a few seconds, the words copied themselves and flew off one paper and attached themselves to the other.

I guess that’s how a tiny ass city of at most 10 000 people has a library.

These lucky bastards don’t need a printing press; they can just copy existing books.

I think the requirement is that they have to use special ink and sheets or it gets copied incorrectly or something.

I’ll have to look into this further.

For now, I need a horse. I’ll probably be able to get one from the stables.

When I turned around to leave, and I froze.

Both ends of the street were sealed off with heavily armed soldiers with the green plant insignia.

“How the hell did they get here so fast?” I muttered to myself.

“It’s because Eloi there placed a tracker on you right before you so rudely stabbed him.”

I slowly turned my head to face the voice.

It was a middle-aged, brown haired woman with a fearsome scar across her face. She wore a cap and light armor similar to the uniformed people on the field.

Her plant emblem had three bars beneath it as well.

“Now, now, don’t panic. You aren’t under arrest or anything like that. Just follow me. Also, as a word of advice, I wouldn’t try anything stupid. The 27th Ranged section can shoot a grape off the top of your head from a hundred yards in the middle of a hurricane.”

From the corner of my eye, I noticed archers positioning themselves on the rooftops.

I spotted twenty of them at the very least.

Well, doesn’t look like I have much of a choice.

“Hey, if you’re good, I’ll give you candy,” she threw in.

Without further ado, I followed the nice lady who offered me candy.