Subaru POV:
The first day in this new world had been rather successful. I made some new friends, got a registered class, and found a place to sleep, but the stables were not very comfortable. Surprisingly Puck woke up first then proceeded to get Emilia and me up shortly after.
"Puck, what's the rush to get up?" I rubbed my eyes and yawned
"We should get an early start! I bet the quests are already getting taken."
"Man… I guess you're right."
We got ready and started walking to the guild. The sun was still rising, Puck really did get us up early.
I went up to the quest board. The only one that looked even possible for low levels with no gear like us was a delivery mission. It paid three thousand Eris and sounded relatively easy.
"How does this one look? We should be able to do it and buy basic gear with its payment."
"Looks good." Emilia said.
We walked over to the building the quest was labeled for. It was a post office.
"Are you two here for the quest?" A young man greeted us by the door holding a box.
"Yup! So what do we gotta do?"
"Just take this box and deliver it to the old farmer outside of town."
"That's it? Why don't one of your delivery guys do the job?"
"That's what we need you for, that guy isn't too fond of people on his property. We thought adventures would have a better shot at getting to him than us postmen." He scratched his head giving a light chuckle.
"Don't worry! I'll take care of this in no time!" I gave him a thumbs up and a big smile.
"Thank you sir! Here's a map to his home. Good journeys."
I took the box and walked out the door. This quest should only take about an hour. We had about 20 minutes of walking to get there.
"So Emilia-san, we've been here for about a day now. What do you think of this place?"
"Well. It seems nice enough."
"Nice enough? This world is basically all I've dreamt of."
"Good for you then!"
She smiled at me and we continued to walk. I sighed and we approached the yard of this house.
It was a relatively big piece of land with wheat fields covering it all.
"I'll drop this at the door. You two stay here and wait."
I opened the gate and peered inside. It seemed calm but the postmaster did warn us about this guy.
I went up to the front door. Something definitely seemed off. I set the package down on the porch and turned around. I heard the door creek.
"Kid, the hell are you doing!?"
"Just dropping that box off sir!"
"I've said a thousand times. I DON'T WANT IT!" He raised a club and looked as if he would swing it down on me.
"I'm sorry! I just needed to do this for a quest! I'm broke and need the money."
"Then take some other quest and dont bother this old guy! I just want to sit, smoke, and strangle little idiots like you who think it's perfectly acceptable to trespass!"
"I won't do it again, just please accept that box!"
Ignoring my request, he took the club and smashed it down on my skull.
"Oww. That was unnecessary."
"I warned you, didn't I?"
"Sure."
I got up and booked it for the gate. "Bye! Please leave me alone now!"
"Get back here you brat!" He threw the club hitting me in the back of the leg. I stumbled over and he grabbed my foot. Shoving the box into my chest "Take this back to where it came from. Please."
"No thanks!"
"Why you!"
I kicked his wrist with my other foot, he threw the box at me and I threw it over him and onto his porch once again.
I dashed to the gate and hopped the fence just in time. He was back and held the box in his hands, but didn't cross the gate.
The quest paper marked itself as complete. "Yes! The old man stood behind his gate with a defeated look.
"You win."
"What?"
"They've been trying to deliver that box to me for the past five years. You did it. You win."
"I don't know if I'd call getting clobbered and hit winning but I guess so."
"I told you not to give this to me. To take it back. I don't want this."
"Well my job here is done. I don't care what happens to that box now."
"You lot best get away from my house. I'll give you ten seconds."
"Will do!"
We quickly left from his path and went to turn our quest in. With three thousand Eris to our name we were able to get some starter gear.
I noticed a shop that looked pretty good. There was a rating out front labeling it five star. The gear displayed outfront looked strong and shiny, the sword looked mighty and sharp.
"This place looks great. I bet we can get some top quality gear!"
"I don't need anything from a blacksmith but there's a shop down the street that has stuff I might need." Emilia pointed to a place down the street that looked pretty nice.
"Here take half and get whatever you need."
"Thanks!"
We went our separate ways and I entered the blacksmiths. A shining sword that claimed to be able to slay a dragon caught my eye.
"How much is this?"
"That sword there will be five hundred thousand Eris."
"Hundred thousand…"
I guess I wont be getting this anytime soon. Quite the shame indeed, it was a beauty. A long double edged blade with a golden hilt and wool wrap. "One day you'll be mine." I went over to a bin of swords that looked relatively cheap. I didn't have too much to work with.
I picked one up, the bin said one thousand per sword. It seemed stable enough and by inspection had a decent blade. Double edged too. Wasn't as big as the other but it would have to do.
Next I decided to try and find armor. The cheapest thing I could find was a leather pad costing seven hundred Eris. I couldn't afford it. Reluctantly I went to the man and handed him my money. He gave me a holster to go with it, free of charge.
"Please shop here again at Sakuta's!"
"I most definitely will!"
The sunrise has ended but from its position noon hadn't even hit yet. The clocktower said 10:35. I felt my stomach turn and make sounds.
I went down the street to where Emilia went. Inside was filled with many fragile looking items. She turned around with a bag, inside was a ton of little glass bottles.
"Since I don't know any healing spells yet I thought it would be a good idea to buy some potions."
She showed me the bag with a dozen little potions.
"That's smart, I just got this sword."
We left the store and mutually agreed to eat somewhere. The guild had relatively cheap meals so we went there. I didn't think about it before but we haven't eaten yet in the time we've been here.
I ordered a sandwich that we had to split 3 ways. It drained the rest of our money.
"How about taking another quest? Being poor like this sucks."
"Let's do it!" Puck ran to the board and looked through the papers.
"How about this one? Slay goblins trying to sneak into town."
"Looks good. Pays well too, five thousand Eris per goblin."
We registered ourselves to the quest and started our journey to the gate. We would need to go around the back of the city and kill them as they snuck into the town.
"How many are gonna be trying to get in at a time? If we get swarmed it may be an issue."
"The paper doesn't say! I would assume only two or three. If it's more than that I bet that sword would break in half!"
"Not funny. It was the best I could get with the money I had."
"I'm sure you'll get better soon."
I patted his head "You're right!"
We made it to the spot Goblins are meant to be. It was in a forested area with the river nearby. I immediately spotted some movement in the trees.
"Watch out, I see something."
I drew my sword and prepared for it. The little monster jumped onto the wall and slid down. It held an axe and turned to attack me.
"Say goodbye Goblin!"
I swung down on it and missed, it spun around behind me and went for a swing at my ankle.
I gave him a nice kick in the face and it fell to the ground. "Emilia, help me pin him!"
"Got it!"
She grabbed its arm and twisted it around. I stabbed my sword into its chest. "Weaklings! Like this hurts me!"
It flung its head back and hit Emilia, then turned its attention to me where the back of its axe hit my forehead. I fell backwards onto my ass and it jumped on top lining up its blade to my skull.
Emilia grabbed its arm and twisted it making it hit itself. I got up and sliced his arm off disarming him and then with one final move I decapitated it.
"Nice work!" Puck marked one kill down on our paper.
"Hey goblins! Who wants to get more of this!"
"I'm not sure if you should tempt them. We don't know how many are out here." Emilia said.
"I'm sure it'll be fine."
"Try me human!"
Another goblin jumped down duel wielding a sword and shield. It landed on my shoulders making me stumble back. I got a good slice in and kicked it down.
"Just cause you've got a shield that doesn't mean you're stronger."
I gave it a kick in the stomach and went to swing down on its head, the shield blocked my attack and it sliced down onto my shoulder.
"It takes skill to use one of these! Swinging a sword around blindly won't do you any good!"
It gave me an uppercut with the shield and I fell onto my back. Instead of hopping on my chest it ran around to the back of me and twisted me sideways.
Emilia grabbed it from behind and picked it up into the air. "Subaru stab him!"
Taking the opportunity I dug my blade into its stomach and pulled it back out. She dropped the goblin on its face and dug her heel into its neck.
"Puck mark it down!"
Before we could recoup ourselves two more goblins jumped us. Both held swords and shields. I blocked one with my shield but the other one knocked Emilia over. I jumped on its shield to break it. Then I turned my attention to Emilia.
I gave it a shoulder and threw it off her, but it smacked its shield into my jaw.
"You damn goblin!" I tried to cut it in the face but it got me. Then I saw an arrow fly by mear inches from my face.
"There's an archer too!"
We had gotten surrounded by the three goblins. Two more on the side began to get into the town. Theth shieldless one charged me, I gave it an elbow to the skull and swung at the other. The archer fired another shot barely missing.
"Subaru cover me!" Emilia grabbed a stone and threw it at the archer. It hit its head. The shieldless one began to run at her. I grabbed its legs and threw myself to the ground to tackle it.
She threw another rock with perfect velocity and knocked it out. She turned over and grabbed the sword of the one I held down.
I got up and narrowly dodged a stab. One good kick to the face knocked that goblin out. I killed off the two unconscious ones and Emilia killed the other.
"Boy, I think I'm ready to call it quits. Mind giving me a potion?"
"Sure no problem."
She handed me the potion and I drank it. Most of my major injuries healed leaving only a few small scratches. The goblins that entered town got killed by some gate guards.
"Hey I leveled up twice from all that!" I had gotten quite a few experience points and decided to put some towards defense, and the rest to offense. I had five skill points, but that wasn't enough to do anything useful so I held off on using those.
Emilia had gotten to level two. "I think I'll get an ice shard and wind burst. It's cheap enough but could be a good attack."
"Sounds like a good plan. It'd be nice to have a little magic to use in fights."
"Alright I'll do that!" We returned to the guild and Puck turned in the quest, he returned with a nice sack of cash. Twenty-five thousand Eris to our name. Today was going great, we got good starter gear and now we aren't dirt poor.
It was around 2:50, we had spent quite a while hunting goblins and walking around town.
"Wanna order something to eat again? That piece of sandwich wasn't enough."
"Sure, I would mind getting something else."
We ordered some food again, and drinks to go along with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and Puck liked his milk quite a lot.
"So what should we do with the rest of the day? We've got at least four hours of daylight left."
"I'd prefer not to go on another kill quest today. I think those goblins were enough for today."
"Alright. Puck, go have a look!"
"Gotta!"
He ran over to the quest board again today and began to look through them.
"How does this sound! Harvest apples from the orchard outside of town!"
"Sounds easy enough. How much does it pay?"
"One thousand per apple!"
"I'm sure we can get a butload of those things. Let's take it!"
Before we went to the orchard we decided to buy a couple cheap baskets. A worthwhile investment in my eyes, we could hold onto more apples at a time.
We arrived at the orchard. Big red apples filled the trees. I reached up to pick one. It popped off the tree nicely and fell into my basket.
"What the heck!"
An apple flew out of Emilia's backet and hit her jaw. The apple in my basket also flew out. It gave me a nice headbut and hit another apple off the tree.
"These apples are alive!"
Dozens fell from the tree and flew everywhere hitting us and swirled around. I drew my sword and slashed out into the air. A few fell cleanly cut in half, the rest proceeded to knock us all over.
Once they calmed down and rested back in their trees I picked up the few that I managed to kill.
Combined Emilia and I got seven. Puck was even able to kill one for himself!
We returned to town and turned in the apples receiving eight thousand Eris.
"We're never collecting fruits again…"
Kazuma POV:
"Oi Aqua wake up."
I shook her shoulder.
"I said wake up."
I shook her again, more aggressively.
"I'm just going to leave you here."
I stood up and opened the door to our stable. I took a step outside and stretched. I went out to the place we hung our clothes. I took my tracksuit and changed into it.
Much better than that scratchy shirt they give out. I went to the window to see if Aqua was still asleep. Surprisingly she had woken up.
"What time is it?" She was rubbing her eyes and scratching her hair.
"How am I meant to know? My phone hasn't worked since we arrived. I'll probably throw that thing out."
Reluctantly she got up and also got ready to go for the day. We left the stables and went over to the guild. I looked up at the clock tower. 3:00 pm…
"We were asleep all day. I bet all the good quests are taken…"
We got to the guild and went inside. Subaru and Emilia were also there. I sat across the table from them and Aqua sat down next to me.
"You two look tired." Subaru said to us
"We only got up twenty minutes ago."
"Twenty minutes! We've been doing quests since sunrise!"
"I would've liked to be up earlier. It didn't happen."
"Want me to get you up in the morning? You'll never get anything done sleeping like that."
Aqua shook her head.
"Sure do that!" I said
"Alright I will."
With that settled I went over to the quest board. I figured whatever paid highest would be best. I decided to go with the frogs again, they were simple enough to kill and paid well.
"Oi Aqua! Let's go kill some frogs again!"
"Frogs? Again? Those things are terrible!"
"It's the best we've got."
We went to the fields with the frogs. Quite a few were out today.
"I better not get swallowed by one again."
"I'll try not to let that happen."
We returned to the guild after frog hunting with Aqua covered in slime, and a complete quest worth thirty thousand Eris. She got most of the frog saliva off in the bath the guild had.
"I'm gonna need a new set of clothes. These getting constantly covered in frog saliva is the worst."
"Sure but if we plan to get a room at the inn we need to conserve our money."
"Purchases with a purpose are different. Clothes are a necessity."
"If you say so, half the money is yours to spend however."
"Thanks! I'll keep at least some left over for the inn. Anyways i'm hungry let's get something to eat."
I ordered a rice bowl, still trying to conserve.
"Excuse me! Can I get the lamb steak and a glass of your highest quality beer!"
"You're gonna waste the money."
"It'll be fine. Don't worry about me!"
She raised her glass into the air and toasted with the other adventures.
A couple hours passed. I had a few drinks, nothing too heavy. I wanted to save money but ended up spending around half of what I had. Aqua continued to drink.
"You're gonna get sick, you should stop with the drinks." "I'll be fine! You should at least try and have fun!"
"I'm just trying to be at least a bit responsible."
"It's our first night with money! We should celebrate."
And so she did, another hour later I decided it was time to leave. The sky was dark again, I couldn't see the clock tower but I would assume it was past midnight.
"Aqua come on! I wanna get back to the stables."
"Just a minute. Let me finish this drink!"
She downed the rest of her glass like taking a massive shot. Then walked over back to her bar and paid off her tab after ordering one more shot.
"Hurry up!"
Having enough of her drinking I grabbed her arm and pulled her out. We finally got out of the guild.
"I should've left you behind."
"That would be rude."
"As a firm believer in gender equality youI say should solve your own problems. I'm not dragging you out if this happens again."
"It won't. Probably."
We began walking back to the stables. I felt a bit sick, I definitely shouldn't have gotten alcohol. It was my first time having any, I regret it.
"Give me… A second." Aqua ran to the nearest alleyway, it was so dark I couldn't see how far she went.
"You back here" I walked further into the alley.
"I feel sick…"
"You drank like it was your last day alive of course you do."
She snickered at me. Then went pale, bent over and threw onto the floor. I went over and stood by her.
"You alright?"
She sat down and looked up at me with small tears in her eyes. "I'm fine." I sat down by her.
"I told you this would happen. I'm not letting you drink like this again."
"I can do what I want. I just over did it a bit."
I put my hand on her shoulder and patted it "Besides you'll waste all the money. How much did you even spend today?"
"I think my tab was around twenty thousand."
"Twenty! That's more than you even had!"
"It's only a little extra, I can just pay it back tomorrow."
"Youre useless aren't you…"
"I'm not useless! We wouldn't have anything if I didn't kill those frogs."
"That's just because I can't do anything yet. I'll get myself a sword tomorrow."
"I'd like to see you try to slay a frog. Those things are mean and nasty."
"Anyway, let's get out of this alley. I say we get back to the stables as soon as possible." "Sure."
I helped her up, she was still quite shaky.
"You better not vomit again."
"No promises."
We started walking back to the stables. The city was illuminated by lanterns lining the streets. This place really is something isn't it. Aqua lingered a little bit behind me.
We made it back and immediately laid down. Not even bothering to wash off, it was too dark for that. The last thing I remembered before falling asleep, was of course. Aqua throwing up more outside the window.