Nope I don’t got this.
The sun was setting and Aaron had only killed eight more slimes, which took his number of monsters killed up to ten, and harvested about 120 flowers.
With his limited pack capacity he couldn’t carry any more.
GROWL
His stomach made itself known.
Aaron’s mouth started to water just at the thought of the amazing tasting ale at the tavern.
Condition Modifiers:
Stage IV Lung cancer (severe)
Malnourished body (moderate)
Destroyed Body (Drugs)
Eye defect (short-sighted) (lower)
Nicotine addiction (severe)
Alcohol addiction (moderate)
Shit, the cancer’s still there.
After uselessly harrowing away at the not so great health situation his body is in Aaron started to make his way back towards the village.
Just as he was about to leave the plains he noticed a single slime blocking his straight path back towards the human settlement.
He glanced down at his HP.
-HP: 59/70-
After dunking down a potion the fight was much easier this time even though he was tired.
PING
-Killed : Blue slime - Lvl 1 Contribution 99.7%-
PING
-Level Up-
-Advanced to Lvl 3-
Nice.
He walked back to the village.
--
The day was complete and it was starting to get dark.
Aaron had used up all but three potions but he had gained a total of ten cil from the slaughter of slimes.
Quite a good haul for day 2 - two lvls and ten cil.
He opened his small crude money pouch and after moving the cil to the side he noticed that his personal funds were running low.
How will I even have enough money to sleep tonight.
His eyes drifted towards the guild’s notice board as he walked closer.
Score.
Turns out there was a slime killing quest.
How convenient.
Aaron glanced up towards the ceiling, trying to get his gaze to pierce through the folds of reality.
Huh, too convenient.
He ripped the piece of paper that had a drawing of a slime on it.
-Kill 5 slimes-
-Reward: 5 bits-
And brought it to a counter with a clerk.
“The cil.” The clerk asked him curtly holding out his hand.
Aaron had an incredulous looks on his face.
The clerk grimaced, lifting his glasses and massaging the bridge of his nose he asked Aaron. “Are you slow?”
“Oh… Oh! The cil, of course… here, you ,go.” He placed five of the small crystals that he had gained from today's hunt into the clerk’s palm.
The clerk then proceeded to take out a small monocle and after placing it over his right eye started to examine the cil one by one.
“What is that?”
The clerk looked up from one of the crystals he was checking out.
“Huh? This? This is an inspection tool, think of it as a better version of inspect, one that can be used to specify the origin of a material and the time of it’s harvest.”
He passed Aaron back a pouch that contained both his five cil and the reward of five bits.
Stonks, free pouch, I get like 200 more of these I can sew myself a shirt.
Aaron walked into the tavern and sat down, today’s ale was accompanied with a serving of greens and red mystery meat.
After eating his fill walked outside for a smoke.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
He shivered, tonight’s air wasn’t warm.
I really need to buy myself a shirt.
Aaron made his way over to his sleeping area, he dunked down a potion before going to bed. He wasn’t a fan of dying in his sleep, plus the higher his HP was before he went to sleep the better he would sleep and the better his muscles would fix themselves.
His fatigue from today’s outing gifted him a dreamless sleep.
--
It had been a while since Aaron felt so good after sleep. Usually his slumber was filled with nightmares, making him wake up countless times during the night in cold sweat.
Smoke rings dissipated as Aaron took another drag of his cigarette.
Today I start training.
Aaron jogged out of the village, he would train just out of view, he still didn’t know if something like this would look stupid in the eyes of this world’s residents, and due to this fact he didn’t want to risk being ostracised.
He did two sets of ten sit ups, ten push ups, and ten squats.
The last reps were like a chorus of agony for his muscles, due to the pain and his HP gradually reducing he dunked down a potion.
This had an immediate effect, he felt revitalised.
It was as though his muscles had already been through the usually long and painful reconstruction process, greedily gobbling up nutrients to replenish themselves and grow stronger.
Ok so potions can be used to speed up my recovery, if I spend most of my money on potions and train that means I’ll be able to lose my reliability on them much quicker while enhancing my combat ability to hunt and kill stronger monsters to level up and reduce my chances of dying in this new life.
His stomach rumbled.
Well the use of potions doesn’t reduce the need for nutrients to naturally build muscle, maybe one day I’ll be able to enhance my muscles without the need for training, like a buff.
Those were thoughts for the future, as he jogged back towards the Guild hall the biggest thing on his mind was trying to figure out what godly smell was filling the air form the tavern’s kitchen.
--
Having absolutely destroyed his breakfast consisting of a meat filled porridge and more ale, Aaron made his way over to Art’s herbatorium.
“Yo, Art gimme potions.”
“So you don’t want to get to learn how to make them yourself?”
“No, no it’s just I need a constant supply of them now, and I can’t get you all of the Bloomflowers in one go yet.” Aaron explained.
“That’s fine with me, me offer isn’t about to expire, not many people want to become herbalists, nor do they have the ability for it.”
“Here ten potions and ten copper” Art passed Aaron two pouches.
--
“From this day onwards you will be viewed as a full fledged member of the Adventurers Guild, due to you having little to no combat ability you have been given the rank of on bronze star.”
A clerk passed Aaron a small bronze plate on a leather string.
“I still don’t know why your quest was accepted as completed yesterday, but no need to worry your ledger is now filled with your one completed quest, please work hard to increase your reliability rating.”
“You have also chosen to not pay for your membership upfront, a cut shall be taken from any of your future quest rewards until then price of the membership is paid in full, this shall not limit any of your activities nor the amount of bonuses you get from being a member.”
“I hope this is all clear to you and I hope to work with you again in the future, NEXT!”
Aaron shuffled away while smiling sheepishly. He had forgotten to sign up the day before as he should have, plus only on the third day of his new life he already owed someone money. His parents would be proud.
Well I’m quite lucky I got that bored clerk yesterday, his attitude doesn’t look so bad now that I think about it. If not for him I would have been sleeping outside.
--
“Our adventurer shop doesn’t really have anything in your budget young man but seeing that you are a member of the Guild that vouches for you. Lindie go take this guy to the back and show him all of our used goods. Remember to give him a nice fat discount, we don’t know if he’ll become a great adventurer in the future!” Although the village only had one Adventurers shop Aaron was told by the shop keeper that these kinds of establishments were extremely common in bigger cities.
They were the equivalent to gun shops in America. As everyone either owned a sword or a bow, if not both.
Lindie the apprentice showed him to the back of the store.
“So you can pick five of these items, with your budget of 10 bits this is the best I can do.”
She stepped back into the main part of the store giving him full view of his options.
He picked up a coarse shirt and put it on, it was slightly too big for his scrawny frame.
I’ll grow into it.
His next choice was a pair of dirty and well-worn boots, people didn’t wear socks in this world so boots were made to cushion a foot as socks would.
Next he chose a green cloak.
I think I can make use of all of the pouches people keep giving me, I’ll sew them into this cloak.
The last item that he picked was a staff, it was less a staff and more just a straight stick with club like end. It was extremely sturdy and seemed to call out to Aaron.
The call wasn’t like the loud screaming of your mum to come downstairs for dinner, but much more subtle, like the feeling of a change in the tides while your swimming at the beach.
So now you must be asking, Aaron you got the pick of five different items why is it that you only chose four, well the short answer to that is that he ask for a needle and thread in exchange.
--
The sun beat down on the plains.
Aaron collected a cil from the ground, this was the last of the three that had been lying at his feet.
His combat capability had increased by leaps and bounds, he now didn’t nearly get killed by a single slime but could keep his own against up to three. Yes up to three, he had tried with for and got completely swamped by their attacks.
His harvesting speed had also heightened, due to him expanding his inventory while making it much easier for him to move.
His cloak was less cloak and more weirdly shaped backpack, he had separate pouches for his meagre savings, needle and thread, potions and harvested Bloomflowers.
-Skill advancement-
-Strike I (common)->Strike II (common)-
It’s going to take such a long time to level up now fuuuuuuuck…
But it’s ok this is just like grinding away with the bonus of the strength being mine, welp just a lot more painful and physically demanding.
--
Four days had passed.
Every day had looked almost exactly the same up to this point.
Aaron would get up.
Smoke.
Work out.
Dunk down a potion.
Eat.
Go clean his clothes and himself at a nearby stream.
Buy more potions from Art.
And go to grind away at killing slimes and collecting Bloomflowers.
Then repeat the next day.
Due to his great diet, high intake of potions and rigorous physical training in the form of exercising, fighting and yard work he had made some improvements.
-Aaron Ziel-
-Lvl 3-
-Class: None-
-HP: 63/70-
-Mana: 170/170-
-Strenght: 0.4 (1.0)-
-Endurance: 0.4 (1.0)-
-Dexterity: 0.4 (1.0)-
-Intelligence: 1.8 (2.0)-
-Wisdom: 1.0 (1.5)-
Passives :
Medical education (unique)
Condition Modifiers:
Stage IV Lung cancer (severe)
Malnourished body (lower)
Destroyed Body (Drugs)
Nicotine addiction (severe)
Alcohol addiction (moderate)
Skills :
Strike II (common),Unarmed Strike I (uncommon), Block II (common), Meditate II (common)
Malnourished body (lower)
The body lacks some nourishment.
-0.1 Strength -0.1 Endurance -0.1 Dexterity
Aaron had started to use his skills more often, though their use would pain him at first their usefulness proved more than worth the injury. I didn’t make sense not to train this way, potions could make all of this better anyway.
He also felt that he had no trouble seeing things at a distance any more, this should have been caused by the removal of the short sighted passive.
He had also started to use meditation every time he got very tired on his outings, these session were very therapeutic for him, clearing his mind and loosening his muscles for more torture.
He felt like a completely different man, new strength coursed through his slightly larger muscles.
But everything can’t be all sunshine and rainbows, the day had finally caught up to him.
He was out of cigarettes.
--