Chapter 3: Moving On
The trial comes to an end, with a loss for the hero. Naofumi was thrown out by the crown and was left to fend for himself.
Storming down the streets of the castle town in a rage, he passed by the same citizens still giving him looks of disgust and fear. He could also hear their various comments, making him angrier and angrier.
"Looks like the demon showed his true colors today."
"It was bound to happen. Like his predecessors."
"I won't even be surprised if he stole that egg from someone else."
Naofumi would hear all of these insults and continue to walk past, gaining more hate for the people of Melromarc, soon starting to question if he should even fight the waves. They supposedly didn't need a shield, so why risk his life?
He continued to go on a rant about how stupid the people of this world were until he bumped into something. Being knocked off balance, he ends up dropping the egg out of its incubator. He went to catch it, but it was caught by someone else. Naofumi went on guard, ready to fight that person's egg, only to feel relieved when a familiar face invited him inside.
/~/
"So I guess you don't fall for the royals bullshit?" Naofumi asked, still annoyed and angry.
"I may have known you for about a day, but you don't look like a criminal kid. You are also very protective, so yeah, I had a hard time seeing that you'd even try to do something like that."
"Well, thank you for believing in me and all, but I'm going to go now." Naofumi got out of his chair and headed to the door.
"Where to exactly?"
"Who knows? The faster I get more coins, the faster I can ditch this town."
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
"I don't know. I'll figure it out along the way."
"And what about your unhatched pet?"
"I SAID I'd FIGURE IT OUT!" Naofumi shouted.
He stared at Elhart for a while before calming down.
"If you're going to go out, at least let me hold onto this for you." Elhart sighed.
"That depends; are you planning on hard-boiling it for lunch?"
"No. It'll just be safer with me, as opposed to being carried around with you trying to fight monsters all day."
"You... you have a point, but this egg is the only thing I have left and truly my only chance at survival once it hatches. I can't just give it to a random, weak shop clerk." Naofumi insulted.
Elhart swiftly pulled out his hammer and swung it at a nearby mannequin, severing its head instantly.
"Kid, I'm over level 40 and classed up a long time ago. "Weak" isn't an adjective used to describe me."
Naofumi was speechless. He was both astonished and scared of the blacksmith's strength.
"Look, kid, it's just a suggestion. But at least take these so you aren't running around in night clothes." Elhart tosses a pair of shorts and a cloak at Naofumi.
"But."
"I found it in the clearance bin, so it should only cost about 5 copper. You can pay me back later if you want; I never really care for that set."
"Umm, thanks," Naofumi replied. He placed his egg on the counter and quickly changed into his new clothes.
"Hey, kid!" Elhart called before he opened the door, prompting Naofumi to turn around.
"Be safe out there."
Naofumi nods his head before leaving the store.
"Wait." Naofumi came back inside, but Elhart immediately dismissed him.
"No, I'm not joining you."
"Alright, fine." Naofumi leaves the shop once more after entering a second time.
/~/
Out in the field, Naofumi fought for hours on end, taking his anger out on the balloons there.
He would catch the balloons out of the air and pin them to the ground with his foot. From there, he pummeled it with his fist, slowly chipping away at its health before it finally popped. It didn't matter how much power he put into his punch or how good the form was. Every attack ended up dealing the same amount of damage as the last.
During the process, several other balloons would attach themselves to him and bite down. But his high defense stat prevented any damage. This led to a cycle of Naofumi ripping a balloon off his torso to kill before grabbing the next one. A slow cycle for sure. But it was the only cycle he could do.
Level Up: You have reached level 2.
"15 minutes for a single level. By the time the waves hit, I'll be too under-leveled to even do anything. Hell, I'll be lucky if I don't die before I even get to the wave." Naofumi sighed as he absorbed the rubber of the balloons he just killed, unlocking the orange shield and yellow shield.
"I still have no idea how it works, though. Damn, I was so caught up in the hype yesterday, I just realized they didn't tell me jack shit!" Naofumi groaned. With his anger unquenched, Naofumi just called it quits for today. Gathering all the materials from his kills, Naofumi went back to town. Entering through the gate, where two guards give him a dirty look as he passes by. Several others did the same, but Naofumi couldn't care less.
With little money at his disposal and nowhere to call home. Naofumi swallowed his pride and climbed over a wall leading into the city stables, falling asleep for the night.
/~/
This was Naofumi's routine for the next few days. Wake up, grind till the evening, and sleep. He didn't have a plan, nor did he have an idea of what would come of this hard labor. He just needed an outlet to vent his ever-growing anger.
Today was no different. Naofumi woke up from his stable and went to grind once again. This session was cut short, however, as Naofumi was unable to ignore his hunger. He had a way to get water from the stream located in the safer area of the forest, but getting food was the main issue. Since he couldn't kill any monsters that had meat, he had to rely on non-poisonous mushrooms and other edibles he could find in the wild. But as time went on, that resource slowly started to dwindle.
"I swear I need better levels so I can kill this rabbit thing. Maybe then I finally get a proper meal." Naofumi grumbled as he checked his status.
He was able to get to level 3 by killing the balloons for a few days, but the exp from the balloons was too low to be a reliable leveling source. Even worse, much like the games he played before. It took much more experience for him to level up, making the balloons even more irrelevant as time went on.
Realizing this. Naofumi figured his time for venting was over and that an actual plan was needed in order to move forward.
After his usual gathering of materials, Naofumi began walking back from the forest and over to the castle town. That was until he came across some leaves, which he ended up inspecting. He leaned over to see if they were edible, but his shield started to react when he brought it close to the gem so that it could be absorbed.
Leaf Shield Unlocked, Equipment Bonus: Harvest Skill 1.
"And what might we have here?" With his new shield, the herb Naofumi inspected the leaves once again, seeing that it was of a higher quality once he picked it up. He began to think of ways to exploit this new ability but put his question on hold when his stomach growled once more, forcing him to return to his original path.
/~/
For the first time ever, Naofumi went over to a stand he had been watching for a few days. He noticed other adventures going on there too. They would sell their kills to the owner and get a hefty sum out of it depending on what it was. Having accumulated over 4 days' worth of balloon skin himself, he decided now was the best time to sell his wares.
When he arrived, the booth owner was just finishing up a sale with another adventurer. He specifically decided to come in after him, due to them selling similar goods. Now with an understanding of the balloon's current selling rate, he dropped his stack on the table, a total of
28 balloon skins.
"Just all of these."
"Hmm, all of these together. I can offer you 3 coppers for the entire batch."
Naofumi groaned, expecting something like this to happen. "You offered the last person 1 copper for every 2 balloon skins. Prices don't change on the fly, so that's at least 14 copper coins, going by your logic." Naofumi argued.
"I don't recall doing that, but you must know I have a business to run, so I-. Agh!" The man yelled as Naofumi grabbed his collar.
"Fine then, how about I sell this second to you? These are still fresh, so maybe they'll go for more."
Naofumi says, opening his cloak to reveal several orange balloons biting down on him.
"Of course, I'm open to taking the offer for the first batch at the original cost. But if you don't want to, I have some live ones that'll be happy to change owners. Careful, their bite is pretty tough."
"AHHHH!"
/~/
After his little "bartering session" with the owner, Naofumi successfully sold his wares for fourteen copper pieces. He also "persuaded" the man to tell the other shopkeepers about the treatment they'll receive if they try to dupe him as well.
With some money in hand, Naofumi's first order of business was to eat. He remembered the path to the tavern and began moving towards it immediately. Along the way, however, he ended up passing by Elhart's shop and decided to peek inside.
Looking through the window, he saw that Elhart wasn't at the counter. Looking around even more, he was surprised to see that his egg was still on the counter, just where he left it.
With a smile on his face, the first smile he had in a while, Naofumi went inside. Dropping 5 copper on the counter as payment for the clothes. He then dropped some extra as thanks for egg sitting and left the store.
With one last stop, Naofumi passed by the apothecary and put another stop to his meal as he went inside. Originally, he was going to go here after his meal, but since he was already on the path, he thought it was better to save himself the trip later.
Making his way over to the counter, he dropped his bag of herbs in front of the owner. The shopkeeper looked inside, carefully inspecting several of the herbs Naofumi brought him and dropping 3 silver and 30 copper on the table.
"Is this truly all I can get from this batch?" Naofumi asked.
"It's a shame there's so little; these are some of the best herbs I've seen. These will be perfect for making medicine."
"How much would the medicine cost as opposed to just the herbs?"
"That would depend. With the quality of these herbs along with the current demand for medicine. I'll say about ten times the amount of these herbs here."
Naofumi was taken aback but kept his poker face up through his shock. "I didn't think they'd be so expensive."
"Supply and demand. Keep bringing me these, and you won't have to threaten so many people with your balloons for cash." The shopkeeper chuckled.
"I'll keep that in mind then."
/~/
For the first time in days, Naofumi finally had a decent enough meal. Sure, it tasted bland, but he was full after eating it. That only took about six of his copper, meaning he still had two silver coins to work with. Now that he wasn't obligated to sleep outside anymore, Naofumi found and paid for a room.
Of course this time, he took several precautions to thiefproof his room before he even sat on the bed. He would not make the same mistake as last time. Afterward, he finally settled down on the bed. He placed his egg on the nightstand next to him, then hid his coins inside his shield like before, when it wasn't stolen. With every defense, he could think actively. Naofumi finally fell asleep after being succumbed to the exhaustion of the past few days.
A few hours after falling asleep, Naofumi was awoken by the sound of a crack. As he looked around the room for the source of the noise, he found nothing wrong. The doors and windows didn't seem damaged at all, which was weird as he could have sworn he heard a crack. Questioning his sanity, he took a closer look at the window until he heard another crack.
Quickly looking towards the source, he saw the egg cracking constantly. Naofumi panicked for a moment, thinking he had damaged it somehow during his sleep, but all his fears were thrown away as a tiny bird with pink feathers and blue eyes broke out. Naofumi looked in awe as the bird jumped on his head, full of energy.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Naofumi picked up the bird perching on his head.
"So, this is what a baby filolial looks like. They look so adorable." Naofumi smiled. Looking at the bird once more, her feathers reminded him of a tree back from his world. After seeing that, he quickly decided on a name.
"Alright then, I'll call you Sakura."
"Pio Pio" Sakura chirped happily at its new name.
"I should probably absorb this egg first to see what I get."
Monster User Shield: Conditions met
Monster Egg Shield: Conditions met
"I'll read the stats later. As of now, it's time to rest for tomorrow."
/~/
Thanks for reading.
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