First Excursion Day at Vinfitt
Hello, good morning.
The first morning in a new city, Vinfitt, I was a bit bewildered when I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling. Almost blurted that famous line out loud.
I went to the kitchen and noticed other guests having their meals there. Sure is lively when so many people are around.
I felt the glances again when I was eating the breakfast I cooked myself. What? Whatchu want? Are you that bothered about this old man having a meal together with a young girl... Wonder how does other people see me as. Someone suspicious or a leech maybe... Neither is good.
After a short aftermeal break, we went out to have a stroll around the street.
There's people all over, it's already bustling this early in the morning. As expected of a city the size of the capital.
Daijel isn't at all small yet it just can't compare to this city. Though the lack of hustle bustle there is nice too.
As befitting of a commercial city, the arrays of products being sold in the stores here are extremely varied.
I even found curry powder in a spice store. Maybe one of the past heroes concocted the recipe.
I was gonna buy it but it cost 10000 en per 200 gram... It's way out my budget currently. I'm gonna buy it once I can afford to. Definitely, someday.
Instead, I bought coffee beans and cacao beans... Costing about 10% of curry's price. Feel like my sense of money is getting paralyzed.
Can't believe I'd be able to make chocolate and coffee. Wonder if Alma would like it.
At the marketplace, I saw people selling fresh fish, a rare commodity in Daijel.
Apparently there's a port town nearby so the market here can source relatively fresh fish easily. Ooh, there's even a fish tank.
I could only find dried or cooked ones in Daijel, it's nice to have a larger repertoire. I'm going with fish dish tonight after quite a while.
The stalls over there are selling poultry-like skewer, snacks and fruits I've never seen before.
I resisted the temptation to have a try since I just had a breakfast.
...Feels like I've been focusing on nothing but food. Guess my core is that of a glutton.
Well, Alma seems to be the type that prefer dumplings over flowers herself, she's gone on a record saying she prefers food over accessories.
Is that really okay for a girl your age. I'm not one to talk though.
We're saving equipment and mat stores for later.
We just got Jet Boar-based equipment after all, it should do fine for a little while.
Lastly, we arrived at the adventurer guild. The building is twice as big as Daijel's. Guess the more adventurers there are the bigger it gets.
The entrance is the same as Daijel's, a western door. Is there a rule for that or something.
The inside has the exact same layout as Daijel's guild too, just expanded. Well, guess it's to be expected being the same type of guild and all.
After looking around for a bit, we went to one of the receptionists to ask for a commission.
Apparently there's a magic beast territory in a cave nearby, so we're planning to level up there in place of dungeons.
Unlike with dungeons, you get rewarded for culling magic beasts there, so we should earn enough for the inn at least.
The receptionist is a long red haired woman in her 20s with slightly stern-looking eyes. Her atmosphere is quite unlike that of Neia-san's.
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"Excuse me, we'd like to take on the commission to cull magic beasts in the cave near this city."
"Welcome. Might I inquire your adventurer ranks?"
"Yes, we're both Rank E. Here's our guild cards."
"...These are quite strong magic beasts in your Kill Log for Rank E. I believe you should be fine but please do be careful. Here's your commission card."
"Thank you. Oh yeah, what's the level range of magic beasts in that cave?"
"They're mostly level 10 and higher, but there have been sightings of over level 20 beasts every once in a while. Do take note about the poor visibility inside."
"Got it, thank you very much."
She looks like a stern beauty at a glance, yet she's actually quite a gentle soul when you talk to her.
We're gonna be in her care for a while, gotta act politely around her.
So we left the guild and arrived in front of the cave in question.
『Danger zone ahead - Magic Beast Cave Lucanania. Entry prohibited without permission.』
There's a signboard written with that. This is the place no doubt about it.
'Why the rush into a magic beast territory in the very first day?', that thought did cross my mind but the demon king and his underlings won't care when to attack so we'd best get ahead in leveling.
Also, the inn costs 4000 en a day for both us, that's 120,000 en a month.
Our fund's gonna quickly dry up if we take it easy, we gotta get into this magic beast culling business for real.
"Man, it's dark in here. Not quite pitch black thanks to all the light ores poking here and there, but it's nowhere near as bright as a dungeon, let's tread carefully."
"Un. Also, unlike the outdoors, there's lot of tight spaces. We have to take care not to swing our weapons against the ceiling and wall here."
"For sure... Guess the magic beasts are still deeper inside."
I can sense surrounding mana if I focus my mana in my head.
I tried using this mana search but all the mana contained within the ores here fuzzed out the magic beasts' reactions.
Thus instead I tried to focus on the life force enveloping my body instead of using mana and managed to sense the surrounding life forces... This technique sure is highly adaptable.
I sensed all kinds of magic beasts with this search method.
Are the beasts flying and hanging around in the ceiling, bat type beasts? Wonder if they suck blood and transmit diseases. Yikes, hope not.
The things crawling on the ground are... Wait, are they slugs? Ewww... gross.
There's multiple strong responses as well. Seem to be quadrupled beasts, but inside a cave, that would mean bears, or big bad wolves? Scary~.
And then, in what appears to be the very deepest part of this cave, I sense something with extreme amounts of life force and mana. There's absolutely no way we could have won against this thing. What's it even, a dragon?
What's the deal with this cave. This would have been the last place I wanna set foot in if not for the culling job.
"...Let's do a trial run today and go back early after hunting a few magic beasts. This cave is seriously bad news."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's way more dangerous than Guruoz in so many ways. I sensed reactions from things like bats and slugs for instance."
"...That's, dangerous indeed."
Alma raised her wariness as her face twitched a bit. I know, it's gross huh.
I saw mana-infused ores peeking on random spots as we made our way inside the cave.
They're emitting a slightly dim yellow color, are these magic ore?
<<Earth magic ore. These are rank C ore, commonly installed in low grade magic tools.>>
Rank C? Magic ores have ranks too? How much does this one fetch?
<<A fist sized rank C earth magic ore is valued at around 500 en.>>
Fumu, not bad, but it's gonna be bulky. Well, not a problem with Item Screen though.
No harm taking some back.
<<For your information, the value rises exponentially with each rank. A marble-sized rank S magic ore is worth 10 million en.>>
The gap is way too big, I can't wrap my head around it.
Looks like digging out these magic ore gonna make for a nice side gig aside from magic beast culling. Time to get digging.