Chapter 16: This Hero Becomes An Adventurer!

Once I left home, I passed the bathhouse that I frequented and went to the bank to withdraw 1600 juns as preparation for my expenses for the day. With my last payment of 400 juns from the shop I now have exactly 2000 juns on my person.

After I withdrew my funds, I went towards the tall building I saw several months ago that I believe is the adventurers guild. It's still very early in the morning so there are next to no people on the streets. The sun has only just started rising and the chill of a late spring morning still resides on the streets.

"Hmm… This should be the place." I muttered as I looked at the four story tall building.

I slowly approached the tall building and saw a peculiar sight next to the door. There is a sign with words on the side that reads out "Adventurers guild." If the sign has words on it, then that means that the people using this place can most likely read. Does that mean that adventurers are expected to read, or that people that are expected to read, such as government officials, need to find this building often?

I took a deep breath and entered the guild. I am prepared to meet the burly individuals that are waiting inside. Perhaps I will be hazed by the other adventurers? Whatever will happen, I am ready.

The wooden door flung open as I stepped onto the cobblestone flooring. Inside, there is a stone room that resembles a tavern. There are multiple wooden tables and chairs inside and there is what appears to be a notice board sitting on one of the walls. There is a set of wooden stairs that leads up to the second floor and under the stairs there are booths where people most likely stand throughout the day. It seems like this first floor is used as a tavern during the day, except for one thing...

"...Is anyone here?" My voice echoed slightly in the large stone room. "Hello...?"

I don't see anyone. This building is silent except for the sound of my footsteps. Oh no, did the job of adventurer stop existing while I was preparing? What if adventuring as a job was made illegal and as a result this building was abolished? Oh no oh no oh-

A window under the stairs flew open. "Ahh..." The voice yawned. "You're early. What, are you here to turn in a quest or something? I don't think the gate is open just yet though…"

Someone is talking, thank goodness. It appears that the person that is talking is inside of one of the booths so I walked towards it and saw a woman standing inside.

This woman looks like she's twenty or nineteen. Her hair is a light peach color and she is very skinny. She is wearing what appears to be a uniform that has a name tag on. The name tag says "Yimmie." The most visually distinct aspect of this woman, however, is that she has white feathery wings on her back. This woman appears to be of some type of bird person race, like a harpy. She looks tired, but she is also very pretty.

After gathering myself for a moment, I began to speak to this bird woman.

"Hi, I would like to-"

"I have a boyfriend."

I paused, trying to think of how to respond. "O-oh that's cool, I just want to-"

"He's really cool. I like him a lot." She looked at her fingernails as she interrupted me once more.

"A-alright. I don't really care about that I just-"

"He's also really muscular and he's taller than you, so don't even try." The woman stole glances towards me between nail inspections.

"That's… Good for you." I nodded enthusiastically. "Listen, I just wanted to-"

"And I know what you're thinking too. You're thinking 'how do I make this beautiful girl mine?'" She twisted her hair a bit around her finger as she closed her eyes and looked away. "Well... I'll tell you! You're out of luck!"

"I… um…"

"I can't blame you though, I'm just that great, all the boys want me but the only one that gets me is my boyfriend."

"Listen, that's nice and all, but I just want to-"

"Good job for trying though, I-"

"LADY!"

My shout reverberated throughout the room. This woman blushed and retreated behind the screen. It seems that I finally got to her.

"Listen God damn it! I just want to become an adventurer!" I placed my hands upon the counter and leaned in. "What do I have to do?"

"Oh… you wanted to do that?" She relaxed and leaned forward again towards me. "Well, okay. I'm Yimmie by the way. I also don't actually have a boyfriend. That was a lie so-"

"I DON'T CARE!" I slammed my hands on the counter.

I didn't expect to get this mad but this is ridiculous. Sure, this girl is cute and all but I really don't care about her relationship status this much. I just want to become an adventurer!

She crouched down and covered her head. "A-alright! You have to pay the fee and I will cast the realization spell on you! Please don't hurt me!"

Finally some progress!

"Haah... Alright. How much is the fee?"

"Eh?" She looked up towards me. "Oh, right." She stood up and looked over a piece of paper on the wall of her stall. "The fee is a non-negotiable three hundred juns payment. The reason that this is non-negotiable is that the spell consumes the juns as a material component for casting."

Three hundred juns just to sign up to be an adventurer... That's almost a weeks wages by itself! ...Though, since this is something that will impact my life, I think three hundred juns is acceptable.

"What does this 'realization' spell do?"

"Uh..." She looked back over the paper. "It... enables you to manage the experience you gain through defeating monsters and other creatures. The spell also allows you to pull up your status menu." She read out.

"Wait... So, if I don't have this spell cast on me, I can't gain levels in classes by slaying monsters?"

"Well, you might be able to-" She shrugged. "-but you wouldn't be able to check your progress or distribute your levels."

"Oh I see…" I said as I cupped my chin.

Currently I don't know about how actually gaining levels works in this world. God said that people gain experience to gain levels, but none of the books I read in the seven months I've been here have said anything about the actual process of experience gaining despite the fact that I explicitly searched for those types of books.

As I thought to myself, I heard a voice calling out to me. "...Hello? Are you there?" She waved her hand in front of my face. "Tsundere-san…? I know I'm pretty but you don't need to stare at me like this. It's creeping me out."

"What? O-Oh, um, alright. Here you go." I handed Yimmie the three hundred juns. "Are there any side effects to this spell? How long does it take to cast?"

This is almost an entire week's worth of payment in a single purchase so actually handing over this much money is hard to do.

The bird girl began to step out of her booth. "There are no side effects and it takes a full minute to cast the spell. Some people say they feel different after it's cast but I think they're just lying."

"A-alright."

I hope that the world of adventurers isn't filled with people with chunibyo. Actually, now that I think of it, can you really have chunibyo if you actually have powers like magic?

Yimmie counted the coins in her hand. "The payment is confirmed. Stand still while the spell is cast please. You can stare at me while I'm casting it. I don't mind."

Despite what this bird woman was saying, she held her hands in front of her as green magic circles began to appear around her. I saw the three hundred juns float up and then burn away in green flames.

"Woah…" I couldn't stop myself from saying.

The girl named Yimmie began chanting words one after another as the spinning magic circles locked in place. As the spell continued, I saw a green light begin to envelop me. So this is magic... REAL magic.

The circles of magic gradually began to speed up as the spell went on. I now understand why she said it was alright to stare. This light show reminds me of the aurora borealis from my own world. Wind blew around the room as papers flew everywhere. Dust was displaced as she continued to chant.

Yimmie uttered a final word as the magic circles stopped spinning and slowly dissipated. Once the spell was completed, she sighed and wiped her brow.

"Phew. Alright... I'm gonna... I'm gonna go sit down now. I don't really have a lot of mana so doing that spell is draining." She slouched as she began to walk away.

"W-Wait!" I called out as I reached my hand towards her. "What happens now?"

"Oh..." She turned around. "I forgot."

"You forgot what the spell does?"

"No, I forgot to tell you what to do after I cast it. Unfocus your eyes and say the word 'status.'"

This damn birdbrain! ...Well fine. I have no reason to go against what she is telling me to do, so I unfocused my gaze and spoke.

"Status."

Suddenly, a green triangular prism that appeared like a hologram opened up in front of me. Inside of this prism there are many words and bars that depict different things. At the top I could see my name. "Kenji Fujima. Level 0."

"I'm... level zero?" I turned towards her, confusion plastered across my face.

"Yeah. That's a good thing though since it means you've never killed anyone. Good job at being a normal person." She gave me a sarcastic thumbs up.

I can't help but think this birdbrain is being sarcastic, but I shrugged it off. I thought everyone started at level one, but I guess I'm wrong.

"What else is here?" I began poking at my screen.

"You can see your current stats. Your stats are divided among six different attributes which define who you are."

Yimmie is right. I can see a few words that depict attributes on my screen as well. The properties are as follows:

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 18

Mana: 30

Magic Power: 1

Luck: 7

Experience: 0

"Wait, you said six attributes, but experience is listed here as well. Wouldn't that be an attribute?"

"No." She shook her head. "Experience is just your total experience points you have gained through slaying foes."

I thought about what I just heard for a moment before asking a question that had been bothering me.

"What about bugs? I've killed mosquitoes before but I don't have any experience from them. Do they just... not give experience?"

"Ah, my favorite fun fact!" Yimmie clapped her hands together and shuffled forwards. "Bugs, like mosquitoes, do give experience! The amount of experience they give, however, is so small that you would have to kill upwards of a million of them to get even just one experience point at level zero. You better get a big bug swatter if you want to level up that way!" She held her hands like she was swinging a baseball bat.

So grinding bugs on summer days isn't an option.

"What about my other attributes? Can you tell me about them?

"Let me see…" Yimmie muttered as she sidled very close to me. This is the first time a girl has gotten so close to me on their own. Wait, has she been flirting with me? I know I'm lean and muscular now but I didn't think I'd be so popular already. Wow, my life is becoming great!

"Sorry, I just need to be able to see your attributes so don't mind me." She waved her hand in front of her face.

Oh right, I forgot what was happening.

"Let's see…" She looked over my stats methodically. "Your strength stat is rather high for a level zero. Your other stats are all average except for your mana and your luck. Your luck stat is fairly low while you have a lot of mana for a level zero..." She looked over to me. "Were you using your mana every day or something?"

Now that I think about it, I have been using that mana stovetop at Ania's home. Maybe I really was gaining mana the more I used it.

I scratched at my chin. "I've been using a mana powered stove top. Would that do anything?"

Yimmie nodded enthusiastically. "That explains it. You actually have more mana than I do. Check my attributes out. Status."

Suddenly, another green triangular prism appeared in front of Yimmie as her attributes were put on display.

Yimmie. Level 0.

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 22

Constitution: 10

Mana: 13

Magic Power: 1

Luck: 14

Experience: 2

After looking at her attributes, I came across a surprising number.

"Wait…" I slowly shifted my eyes to her. "You have 2 experience points?"

She closed herself off as she squirmed around. "Don't even get me started! We had rats break into the guild hall one day and it was awful. I had to mop up all the blood for the rest of the day!"

"I-I see…"

Yimmie's status screen disappeared as she turned back towards me. "Anyways, you can close your screen by just turning it off mentally. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's like letting go of something you're holding, but inside of your head."

Though those instructions are vague, I followed them and found out that those truly are the most appropriate terms for turning this off. I felt some type of weight inside of my own mind and released it. Once I released this weight, the status screen disappeared. Magic truly is incredible.

"Alright. Now that that's done..." Yimmie began walking away. "I'm going to go sit down. Feel free to take a job on the bulletin board, but you might want to get geared up first. I doubt you'll be able to take on a monster with just a little dagger."

"When do people usually show up here?"

"Hm? People usually start funneling in a few hours from now. You're really early, you know that? You're lucky we work twenty four hours a day."

"Is there a place where I can put my stuff?"

"This guild also functions as a tavern, a meeting space, and an inn." Yimmie stepped back behind her counter and leaned on top of it. "Rooms are twenty juns a night. Food is not provided. Is that alright with you?"

"Alright." I said as I handed her an additional twenty juns. So far I have spent three hundred and twenty juns and I haven't even gone to a different room. Being an adventurer is expensive.

"Okay." Yimmie turned away, opened a small box that was on the floor behind her, and pulled out a key. "You'll be in room four on the third floor. Don't make too much noise since a lot of people are sleeping."

"Alright." I said as I took the small key that Yimmie was offering.

With that, I began heading up the stairs. Once I was a few steps up, I heard Yimmie call out to me one more time.

"Oh, and one more thing: Don't get killed!" Her voice sounded sarcastic, but I could tell that there was genuine affection in it.

I scoffed. "I'll try not to." I said as I rolled my eyes.

CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Person_man

Kenji is now technically an adventurer! It costs a lot of money in order to become an adventurer since it's a high risk/high reward job. It's pretty fortunate Kenji saved up before he went here, huh?

Catch you on the flip side!

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