I found quite a few monsters after that but each one was easy to slay. None of them even exceeded lvl 50, so it probably wouldn't be wrong to call them small fry. The max was a red bear at level 47 and even though I'm sure it was a boss of some sort, it died in one hit. I think this is also because of my every hit being a critical. I also gained alot of items due to my extremely high luck and I discovered that similar items could be stacked in the inventory. I already had 8 spoons. There was also change in my gear. I was now wearing full leather clothing I obtained from a single hobgoblin. It was actually my first kill of the day, so it dropped the best item it could: a full set of leather clothing, including leather pants, leather jacket, leather shoes and leather gloves. Though, I already had some leather gloves so I put the new ones in my inventory. Though everything was going smoothly, a problem soon arose. I was out of food. I had just finished eating my last loaf of bread. Even though I had obtained some meat from the monsters, I couldn't cook. So I finally set my destination back to my home(?) village.
(Though I really don't wanna go back, I don't have much of a choice, do I? Well, I could hopefully find someone to teach me the appraisal skill. Its annoying having so much stuff and not knowing a single thing about anything.)
Reluctantly, I made my way back to the village, thinking of all sorts of possible scenarios and outcomes.
Soon, I was at the village entrance.
"Oh! An adventurer. A rare sight in these parts. Welcome!" The guards greeted.
(Gotta admit. Did not see that one coming.)
"Um.. Yeah.. Thank you." I replied a bit awkward and entered. All that thinking and planning on the way seemed wasted.
(Do they not remember me?)
Or, maybe the guards were different! Yes, that's gotta be it! It must be different guards than the last time. Either way I thanked god it turned out so easy. Wait, since I'm in this world, should I thank Trichia? She did say she was something akin to a god in this world.
(Thank Trichia.)
I tried but felt awkward. Also, I felt as if I heard someone giggle but I disregarded it as just my imagination.
Soon, I met the first villager since entering. It was a woman sweeping the street. She gave me a look and continued with her work. I didn't know if I should say anything so I awkwardly went past her. Soon, I saw more people but no one said anything in particular. I asked a person who was just walking by if I could find something like a shop here to sell and purchase goods. He instructed me to take a left from the first intersection in the road and I'd see it. I did as he told and it was hard to miss. It was the first shop-like place I'd seen since entering. There were daily use commodities, weapons, armour, clothes books, practically everything, but nothing in a large variety. I went inside the shop and saw a young man putting down a book, probably one he was reading before I came in, and got up.
"Oh, an adventurers. Quites a rare sights in this place. What cans I do for ya?"
He looked like a friendly person at the first glance, though his way of speaking was a bit wierd.
"Do you buy.. Umm.. Stuff?" It was my first time doing this so I messed up a bit.
"What sort of stuff ares we talkings about?" The shopkeeper asked.
I took out the items from my inventory. There was quite a lot. Cutlery, weapons, materials for clothes, ores, meat etc. He was, to say the least, astonished.
"Umm.. Is everything alright?" I asked, hoping I hadn't done something stupid.
"I'd heards you adventurer folks could pull shit outta nowheres. Its my first times seeing it." He said but immediately got back to his business like attitude. As expected of a professional. He took a few items in his hands and looked at it.
"Can'ts do nothing for the meats, you can sell thats to the inn here. The rests of it, I can gives you 3000 urz for its." He said.
I didn't know the market price so I didn't know if he was trying to rip me off, though somehow I was pretty sure he was.
"How about a trade?" I decided to take a gamble.
The shopkeeper raised one of his eyebrows. I took that as a cue and continued.
"All this stuff, and in exchange you teach me the appraisal skill."
The shopkeeper laughed.
"What makes you thinks I got its?"
"A hunch." The way he was examining the items seemed off, was how I convinced myself..
He laughed again.
"Even if I gots it, yous thinks I give it to ya?"
"I was hoping you would."
The shopkeeper went quite for a moment and seemed to consider something.
"Say what, if yous can defeats the red bear livings in the woods, I'll give it to ya."
Quest: Defeat the strongest monster living in the forest near Kinshin village: Red Bear.
Award: The appraise skill.
Accept? Yes/No
A quest was generated. I accepted it.
Though I was pretty happy about him accepting to give me the skill but...
"I already defeated it." I told him.
"What!?" He looked at me surprised.
(Was it that big of a deal?)
The shopkeeper's calm and composure was gone and he was looking at me with incredulous eyes once again.
"Do you haves any proof!?" He asked, not willing to believe my words.
"What sort of proof?" When I asked him that, he calmed down a bit and seemed to consider.
It was hard to prove you killed a monster since its body disappears.
"Did it drop anythings?" This time he looked at me with serious eyes. Extremely serious eyes.
"Um. Let me try to remember."
(Did that fatty drop anything?)
I checked my inventory to try and find something.
(Ohh! This is it!)
I found a fang which I'm pretty sure was what the bear dropped. I didn't think it would be useful for anything. I took it out and handed it to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper took it and examined it, probably appraised it. For a moment, his hands trembled and then looked at me with disbelief.
"You really dids it." He said slowly.
Quest completed.
Reward: Appraise skill.
(Hell yeah!)
I finally obtained the skill. After that I did some small talk with shopkeeper who was now acting a lot more respectfully towards me. I asked him the directed to an inn I could find. He gladly told me that the village had a single inn and gave me directions towards it. I bid him farewell and headed in the direction he guided me to. I soon reached the place he had mentioned.
It was a 3 story building, a bit wide, probably enough for 6 rooms on a floor. Outside and above the entrance, hung a wooden leaf inscribed with a cross made with a fork and a spoon. It looked a bit run down, as if needed repair in some places, but that was just outside opinion. When I went in, I saw that it was very clean and wholeheartedly maintained. I stood near what seemed like the reception but there was no one around, not a single soul. Feeling awkward standing there like that, I called out.
"Helloooooo.... Is anybody here?" I said moving in all directions with both my hands around my mouth to amplify my voice.
Suddenly, I heard some sounds in the room behind the reception. Soon, a woman came out and greeted me.
"Welcome Adventurer! I am Shirley. Do you wish to stay in this fine inn of mine?" She added a little advertisement.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Rota. And, I'm sorry to disturb you. Were you sleeping?"
"Oh not at all, please don't worry about it." She said with a smile.
(Liar liar, ass on fire. You got drool at the side of your mouth Missy.)
The drool thing, I didn't point it out. Felt weird. On a ditzy character, it may look cute but here it just felt wrong. She was thin, VERY thin. Though she was wearing newish clothes, probably to appease her customer, one could tell, and not just from her face. It made me feel bad for the thing I was about to say next.
"I won't be staying the night, I just want a good meal." She looked a bit disappointed. But I wasn't finished and here comes the worst part. "Umm.. Also I don't have any money, so.."
"Get out."
She said that without letting me finish. She had angry(more like, pissed off) eyes and was pointing to the exit.
"Wait! A trade! I got some fine meat to trade!" I said in a fluster.
She put down her arm pointing to the exit and said "Show me.", without changing her expression.
I took out all the meat I had got from hunting and placed it on the counter. There was a single boar meat, 3 rabbit meat and a large bear meat(not from the red bear).
As I looked back at her after taking out the meat, I noticed the change. She was looking, no, staring at the meat and her breathing was ragged. She looked like she had been hungry for ages. She probably didn't even realise that I pulled it out of nowhere. I took that as a positive sign and said.
"So we have a deal?"
She looked up to me with a "huh?", then probably realised what I was talking about and what she was doing. She hurriedly wiped off her new drool(thankfully) and shouted "Deal!", and quickly grabbed the meat as if worried I would change my mind.
"Please take a seat in the dining area. Its right behind you. I will bring your supper right away. Do you have any preference?"
"Na. I'll leave it to you."
"Surely." She replied and bowed and went inside.
I went to the dining area as she instructed and grabbed a random seat. It wasn't that big but not so small either. There were 5 round tables each with 4 chairs. There were more chairs in the corner should the need ever be but I doubted that the need would ever be.
Sitting there bored, I decided to take a look at my skills.
Insta-kill MP: 100
Instantly kill an enemy with current HP lower than 1% of your total HP.
Appraise MP:100
Find the details of an object.
I had two skills now with the addition of [Appraise]. Surprisingly, appraise also required MP and a fairly high amount at that. This meant that beginners wouldn't be able to use the skill a whole lot(not that they'd get it that easily in the first place.)
I was different though. I had too much MP and only one skill to use it on, not counting insta-kill obviously, since I rarely need to use it.
I finally decided to use my long awaited appraisal.
.
.
.
(Again. How the hell do I use this skill!?)
I remembered insta-kill working with just my saying it so I tried the same here.
"Appraise."
Old Wooden Table.
I had tried to appraise the table. I tried it on other things.
Old Wooden Chair.
Oil Lamp.
After doing it to the surroundings a bit, I brought my attention to the real stuff. Namely, the ring I was wearing that I had gotten from the dragon emperor.
"Appraise."
Ring of Immortality.
This ring was given by the God of the Underworld to its mighty servant for sending 10,000,000 souls to His realm.
Effects:
No penalties on the bearer on death.
Requirement:
Slayer of [Dragon Emperor: The Destroyer of Worlds]
"How about that? I didn't even know there was a penalty on death."
I wanted to laugh. It had to be an amazing item since it was obtained from the last boss of the game but I don't even know what it was good for.
"Umm.. Trichia? What is the penalty for death?"
Trichia appeared in my lap and leaned back on me.
"You lose 10% of your current level and equivalent stat points from your strongest stat."
*boom*
I felt like something exploded in my head.
(THIS. IS. CRAZY!)
10 percent, she said. 10 percent!! Though that didn't mean much on the lower levels, to a high level player, it meant everything!! The higher level you are, the harder it is to level up. If you die....*gulp*... all is lost. Oh, the RISK!! If you die at level 1000, you'll be brought straight back to 900! Those 100 levels that would have taken years to put up, crushed instantly! Even for me, I would lose 32 levels and 320 points in agility! Just thinking about it makes me want to hide somewhere.
This.
This..
THIS....!!
(This is an amazing item!!!!)
I looked at the ring in a daze. It had such a weird description but the effects were too good to be true.
(I'm never taking this thing off!)
While I was still admiring the ring on my finger, the innkeeper came in. I came back to my senses and realised Trichia had already disappeared.
The innkeeper (shit, I forgot her name), placed a bowl in front of me. It was soup with vegetables and meat in it.
"Please call me if you need anything." She said curtly with a bow.
"Wait." I said and she stopped as she was about to walk away
"Can you pack something up for me to eat? I'm hunting in these parts but it would be troubling to come back again and again, though I will be back tomorrow. As payment, I'll give you all the meat I collect." I suggested to her. Though from her earlier reaction, when I took out the meat from my inventory, I was pretty sure she would accept.
"Definitely. Please count on me." She said with a blooming smile and returned after another curt bow.
I watched her go away and then faced back to the bowl in from of me. As I took a bite, my mouth was filled with flavor.
"This is pretty good."
It was good. Leaps and bounds better than the bread atleast. Especially the meat was delicious. It had a very... interesting... texture. Nothing I had ever eaten in real life. It could've been due to being in a VR, but that didn't change the fact that it was delicious so I didn't dwell on it.
After enjoying the meal thoroughly, I got up and went to the forest. While leaving the inn, I had praised the innkeeper for her cooking.
Now that I was back here, I could start hunting again but it wouldn't be good to be here for too long. Real life was kinda really important, and I had to study too.
"Bye Trichia. I'll see you later."
"Bye Bye."
Trichia appeared and I patted her head before leaving.
"Logout."