Let’s review it, shall we? Fifty-seven gold pieces . That’s what I got after selling the wyvern materials . Three golds and sixty silvers . That’s what we got for the orc materials . Add all of this up and I have sixty golds and sixty silvers . That’s what I had in all .

Now, as for this ice dragon armor that was scheduled to become my new equipment . Breastplate, gauntlets, boots and leggings, all of this was forty golds . Then there were the wind dragon clothes . Inners, trousers, and poncho with a hood . All of these had enchantments cast on them . They cost sixty gold pieces in all . And all of this would have cost me a hundred pieces of gold, had I not been able to negotiate and bring it down to sixty-five .

In other words, I required four golds and forty silvers . It was an amount I could get if I just went out and exterminated all of the gra.s.s wolves . Of course, that would only result in a storm of abuse my way by others whose profession relied on them . My safest bet was to patiently work through different quests . Plus, Daniela said that she would help me, so the work wouldn’t be too bad . Though, I wasn’t going to let her carry me through this either . I would do my best .

So that sums it up . I was now in front of the quest board . It was aboard with a variety of quests nailed to it . I went through them, examining the contents .

“Hmm… Seems the hunting quests pay the most . ”

Gra.s.s wolves, goblins, even kobolds, which I had yet to actually see . I think they were those monsters with dog heads .

“Oh? What is this?”

A certain quest catches my eye . It read ‘Wyvern Hunt Request . ’ Wasn’t the last one just killed? I think as I continued to read .

“Let’s see… ‘the mate of the wyvern that was slain this afternoon has been sighted . We request that it be hunted . ’ …Hmm, a couple, eh?”

Apparently, they had scouted the surrounding area after the fight and discovered a nest . Just like the orcs, these wyverns must have wandered in from a different area . Well, this was a little too much for me . I would leave it to stronger adventurers .

Ultimately, this meant that the only thing left for me to do was to go wipe out some mob creatures . I could camp out a little and kill some gra.s.s wolves and goblins .

I tore off the requests for goblin and gra.s.s wolf hunting from the board, and took them to the Quest counter to have them issued .

“By the way, you have now reached level 36 . You can now be promoted to Rank D, also called ‘Olivine . ’”

“Olivine, huh?”

Commonly known as peridots . I guess I was now a gemstone at last .

“Can you do it now?”

“Yes, of course . Please wait a moment . ”

I had to wait on the chair once again . I stared into s.p.a.ce for several minutes until Daniela returned after having disappeared .

“Where were you?”

“A street stall . ”

But we just ate…

“Oh, right . I gained a new rank . It’s D . Apparently I’m an Olivine now . ”

“Already at D . You grow so quickly . ”

“You think so?”

“Aye . By the way, Olivine covers levels 36 to 50 . 51 to 70 are garnets . Which is what I am currently . Though, my rank is likely to rise soon . ”

Garnets . Well, that was still quite a ways off for me . Raising one’s rank and level was good and all, but you needed to master the basics first . It’s the steady effort you put into the small things that pay off .

Still, Daniela was making a lot of progress as well . Part of me really wanted to catch up to her, but the other part didn’t . It was quite a dilemma .

Nothing in particular happened after that, and I was able to finish ranking up . Daniela wanted to return to the inn .

“I intend to camp out to earn some money, so we’ll probably act separately for a while . ”

“Hehe . We have such a nice inn with beds to stay at, but I suppose it was not enough to separate Asagi from his trees . ”

“I don’t sleep in them for fun!”

Jokes aside, we prayed for each others’ safety and promised to meet again at the inn in exactly five days . I was going to go straight into my hunting trip after that, but needed to buy a few supplies first . The smell from the street vendors was very inviting as I stocked up on some food and sold the goblin weapons I had collected, at a smithy . At least it paid for everything I needed . It seemed that there was a bigger demand for metal here than in Fhiraldo, which meant great prices . It was too bad that I had to use it all for buying supplies .

Now that I was finished with preparations, I left the city through the western gate . The gatekeeper looked at me suspiciously, probably due to it being a strange time to be heading out, but his partner told him to let me through . ‘Are you the one who arrived during the day?’ ‘Probably,’ I answered . He must have been in the group of soldiers . He let me through after that .

The setting sun looked beautiful as I made my way through the plains and towards the forest . I had used ‘Legs of the Forest Wolf’ when coming here, but it was a long and peaceful walk without it . Perhaps all the gra.s.s wolves had fled when the wyvern attacked, because I could not detect their presence anywhere nearby . It was so quiet . The sounds of insects were music to my ears .

Finally, the forest came into view . The sun was long gone by now . I looked back and could see that the city was brightly lit within the night’s darkness . I guess Spiris was a city that did not sleep .

I, on the other hand, was looking for a place where I could sleep . Yes, a tree . And I could see them now . There would be plenty of vines in the forest as well . But I was a civilized man now . I bought something called a rope . There was even a discounted claw-like thing being sold at the smithy, which I bought . Actually, this was probably some kind of weapon you attached to your hand to fight with, but it would still serve to tie me to a tree, right? Though, maybe I could use ‘Jack of all Trades, Master of None’ to learn how to fight with it . I’ll get to that eventually, I think .

Now, I was in the forest . The first thing that I needed to do was eat . I briskly proceed to make preparations . This was clearly a sign of how accustomed to being on the road I had become . First, it’s the bonfire . You can’t do anything until that’s done . It’s warmth and it’s light . I avoid things that might burn, like gra.s.s and leaves and create a spot for the fire . Dried gra.s.s and twigs are used as kindling, which then starts to burn the thicker branches . And with that, I was done . My surroundings are suddenly nice and bright . Now I would go and scout the area . I needed to make sure there was nothing dangerous nearby, or possibly find something I can use . Hmm, there was nothing in particular that would obstruct my vision from the camp . There was also nothing useful to me . Boring .

I went back to my camp and sat down by the fire . Ahh, it was warm… I take out some food I had bought at a random street stall and begin to eat as I make careful plans for the next day . Annihilate, exterminate, slaughter . Okay . That’s done .

Ahh, I was full now . Might as well go to sleep . Ideally, there would be a bath after this, but such luxuries didn’t exist in the forest . So I had to shut up and sleep in my tree . I climb to the top . The views were always so great from here . The sky seems so much closer and the stars more dazzling . It was a clear, cloudless night .

I wonder what Daniela was doing now?

I would take four golds and forty silvers from the money we made and we would split the rest . I hoped we could celebrate . I started to get drowsy as I thought of these things, so I checked that the rope was secure and then pulled a blanket out of the hollow bag to cover myself with . I would start hunting tomorrow morning! And with that, I surrendered my consciousness . I had very high hopes for the next day .

Let’s review it, shall we? Fifty-seven gold pieces . That’s what I got after selling the wyvern materials . Three golds and sixty silvers . That’s what we got for the orc materials . Add all of this up and I have sixty golds and sixty silvers . That’s what I had in all . .

Now, as for this ice dragon armor that was scheduled to become my new equipment . Breastplate, gauntlets, boots and leggings, all of this was forty golds . Then there were the wind dragon clothes . Inners, trousers, and poncho with a hood . All of these had enchantments cast on them . They cost sixty gold pieces in all . And all of this would have cost me a hundred pieces of gold, had I not been able to negotiate and bring it down to sixty-five

In other words, I required four golds and forty silvers . It was an amount I could get if I just went out and exterminated all of the gra.s.s wolves . Of course, that would only result in a storm of abuse my way by others whose profession relied on them . My safest bet was to patiently work through different quests . Plus, Daniela said that she would help me, so the work wouldn’t be too bad . Though, I wasn’t going to let her carry me through this either . I would do my best

 .

So that sums it up . I was now in front of the quest board . It was aboard with a variety of quests nailed to it . I went through them, examining the contents

 .

“Hmm… Seems the hunting quests pay the most . ”.

 .

Gra.s.s wolves, goblins, even kobolds, which I had yet to actually see . I think they were those monsters with dog heads

 .

“Oh? What is this?”.

 .

A certain quest catches my eye . It read ‘Wyvern Hunt Request . ’ Wasn’t the last one just killed? I think as I continued to read . .

 .

“Let’s see… ‘the mate of the wyvern that was slain this afternoon has been sighted . We request that it be hunted . ’ …Hmm, a couple, eh?”.

 .

Apparently, they had scouted the surrounding area after the fight and discovered a nest . Just like the orcs, these wyverns must have wandered in from a different area . Well, this was a little too much for me . I would leave it to stronger adventurers

 .

Ultimately, this meant that the only thing left for me to do was to go wipe out some mob creatures . I could camp out a little and kill some gra.s.s wolves and goblins

I tore off the requests for goblin and gra.s.s wolf hunting from the board, and took them to the Quest counter to have them issued

 .

“By the way, you have now reached level 36 . You can now be promoted to Rank D, also called ‘Olivine . ’”.

“Olivine, huh?”.

 .

Commonly known as peridots . I guess I was now a gemstone at last

 . . .

“Can you do it now?”.

“Yes, of course . Please wait a moment . ”.

 .

I had to wait on the chair once again . I stared into s.p.a.ce for several minutes until Daniela returned after having disappeared

 .

“Where were you?”.

“A street stall . ”.

 .

But we just ate….

 .

“Oh, right . I gained a new rank . It’s D . Apparently I’m an Olivine now . ”.

“Already at D . You grow so quickly . ”.

“You think so?”.

“Aye . By the way, Olivine covers levels 36 to 50 . 51 to 70 are garnets . Which is what I am currently . Though, my rank is likely to rise soon . ”.

 .

Garnets . Well, that was still quite a ways off for me . Raising one’s rank and level was good and all, but you needed to master the basics first . It’s the steady effort you put into the small things that pay off

Still, Daniela was making a lot of progress as well . Part of me really wanted to catch up to her, but the other part didn’t . It was quite a dilemma

 .

Nothing in particular happened after that, and I was able to finish ranking up . Daniela wanted to return to the inn

 .

“I intend to camp out to earn some money, so we’ll probably act separately for a while . ”.

“Hehe . We have such a nice inn with beds to stay at, but I suppose it was not enough to separate Asagi from his trees . ”.

“I don’t sleep in them for fun!”.

Jokes aside, we prayed for each others’ safety and promised to meet again at the inn in exactly five days . I was going to go straight into my hunting trip after that, but needed to buy a few supplies first . The smell from the street vendors was very inviting as I stocked up on some food and sold the goblin weapons I had collected, at a smithy . At least it paid for everything I needed . It seemed that there was a bigger demand for metal here than in Fhiraldo, which meant great prices . It was too bad that I had to use it all for buying supplies

 .

Now that I was finished with preparations, I left the city through the western gate . The gatekeeper looked at me suspiciously, probably due to it being a strange time to be heading out, but his partner told him to let me through . ‘Are you the one who arrived during the day?’ ‘Probably,’ I answered . He must have been in the group of soldiers . He let me through after that

 .

The setting sun looked beautiful as I made my way through the plains and towards the forest . I had used ‘Legs of the Forest Wolf’ when coming here, but it was a long and peaceful walk without it . Perhaps all the gra.s.s wolves had fled when the wyvern attacked, because I could not detect their presence anywhere nearby . It was so quiet . The sounds of insects were music to my ears

 .

Finally, the forest came into view . The sun was long gone by now . I looked back and could see that the city was brightly lit within the night’s darkness . I guess Spiris was a city that did not sleep

I, on the other hand, was looking for a place where I could sleep . Yes, a tree . And I could see them now . There would be plenty of vines in the forest as well . But I was a civilized man now . I bought something called a rope . There was even a discounted claw-like thing being sold at the smithy, which I bought . Actually, this was probably some kind of weapon you attached to your hand to fight with, but it would still serve to tie me to a tree, right? Though, maybe I could use ‘Jack of all Trades, Master of None’ to learn how to fight with it . I’ll get to that eventually, I think

 .

Now, I was in the forest . The first thing that I needed to do was eat . I briskly proceed to make preparations . This was clearly a sign of how accustomed to being on the road I had become . First, it’s the bonfire . You can’t do anything until that’s done . It’s warmth and it’s light . I avoid things that might burn, like gra.s.s and leaves and create a spot for the fire . Dried gra.s.s and twigs are used as kindling, which then starts to burn the thicker branches . And with that, I was done . My surroundings are suddenly nice and bright . Now I would go and scout the area . I needed to make sure there was nothing dangerous nearby, or possibly find something I can use . Hmm, there was nothing in particular that would obstruct my vision from the camp . There was also nothing useful to me . Boring

I went back to my camp and sat down by the fire . Ahh, it was warm… I take out some food I had bought at a random street stall and begin to eat as I make careful plans for the next day . Annihilate, exterminate, slaughter . Okay . That’s done

 .

Ahh, I was full now . Might as well go to sleep . Ideally, there would be a bath after this, but such luxuries didn’t exist in the forest . So I had to shut up and sleep in my tree . I climb to the top . The views were always so great from here . The sky seems so much closer and the stars more dazzling . It was a clear, cloudless night

I wonder what Daniela was doing now?.

I would take four golds and forty silvers from the money we made and we would split the rest . I hoped we could celebrate . I started to get drowsy as I thought of these things, so I checked that the rope was secure and then pulled a blanket out of the hollow bag to cover myself with . I would start hunting tomorrow morning! And with that, I surrendered my consciousness . I had very high hopes for the next day