Chapter 2 OOG Vol. 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Transportation, and Then Adventurer

When I woke up, I was lying in the grass.

Before my eyes was a piercing blue sky, broken only by the sparse branches of a few trees.

“Ow… agh…!”

A sharp pain shot through my entire body as I pushed myself into a sitting position.

My last memory was of leaving the office, on my way home.

I’d been dragging my exhausted body down the stairs when… yes, that was it. A sudden, sharp pain lanced through my chest. I’d blacked out for a second and missed a step…

If that’s what happened, I should have woken up in a hospital bed. So why was I sleeping outside?

I was still in the clothes I’d worn home. Shirt, slacks, tie. Ah, but my shoulder bag was missing. My pockets were completely empty. No smartphone? That’s… not good, is it?

I pushed myself to my feet, mulling this over. Aside from that initial jolt of pain, my body moved just fine. Strangely, the chronic ache in my middle-aged shoulders was completely gone, but…

“Where the hell am I?”

I was standing in a field unlike any I’d ever seen. A plain of ankle-high grass stretched as far as the eye could see. A few trees dotted the landscape nearby, but in the distance, they thickened into a dense forest.

In the opposite direction of the forest, a simple dirt road cut through the grass. Following it with my eyes, I could make out what looked like a town, or maybe a village, in the distance. Even from this far away, I could tell the buildings were of a style I’d never seen in modern Japan.

“Doesn’t feel like a dream… Guess I’ll head over there and see.”

Standing here wouldn’t get me anywhere. I started walking toward the settlement.

I noticed something as I walked: my body felt incredibly good.

It had been a long time since my shoulders, knees, and back had all started giving out on me, but my steps on the dirt path felt surprisingly light.

Speaking of the road, I wasn’t the only one on it. There were other travelers. They clearly weren’t Japanese, but they didn’t look like people from any country I recognized, either. At a glance, they looked most like Westerners, but their features weren’t quite so pronounced. As a Japanese person, I found their faces rather familiar and easy to look at.

Their clothing, however, was harder to get used to. The outfits themselves looked like something from an older era. Even people who looked like regular townsfolk had daggers or other obvious weapons hanging from their waists.

A few of them stared openly at me. Then again, from their point of view, an unarmed man in strange, unfamiliar clothes probably looked even more out of place.

Seriously, where am I?

I tried to eavesdrop on a couple of men who looked like travelers. They were speaking a language I’d never heard before.

“…the knights in Mecarinan… heard they sealed off part of the dungeon…”

“For real? …Rumor is, adventurers in that dungeon… are targeting the neighboring country…”

But miraculously, I understood what they were saying. The meaning flowed into my head as if it were my native language, with no resistance at all.

“Knights”? “Dungeon”? “Adventurers”?

These words spilling from their mouths felt completely unreal. In fact, to be blunt, it all reminded me of the game world I used to escape into to forget the stresses of my life—my divorce, my job, my office relationships…

Could my exhausted brain be manufacturing this fantasy as a final escape from all that stress?

…No chance. As much as I’d like to believe that, everything—the scenery, the sound of the wind, the smell of the earth, the feeling of the ground beneath my feet—was all too real. The idea that I’d been transported to another world actually seemed more plausible.

Lost in thought, I finally reached the entrance to the settlement—though it was really just two wooden posts stuck in the ground.

It was more of a small town than a village. A single main street snaked its way back from the entrance, lined on both sides with two-story buildings.

There were other houses set back from the main street, too. I counted at least fifty buildings. In Japan, it might feel like a dense residential development.

But the aesthetic was clearly from another time. The street was paved with uneven cobblestones, and the houses were timber-framed with walls that looked like plaster. Honestly, it looked exactly like a rustic town from a fantasy game or movie.

The people walking the street or manning the roadside stalls looked just like the travelers I’d seen earlier. They wore simple, old-fashioned clothes, and with the drawstring pouches and daggers at their waists, they truly looked like residents of a fantasy world.

“What in the world…”

As I scanned the area, my eyes landed on a group of four people—men and women—in incredibly flashy gear.

Actually, ‘flashy’ wasn’t the right word. ‘Armed to the teeth’ was more like it. One man wore armor and carried a large polearm (a halberd, according to my game knowledge). Another had a shield strapped to his back that was nearly as tall as he was. There was a woman in a pointed, wide-brimmed hat, a cape, and carrying a staff, and another nimble-looking woman with a bow and arrows. They looked exactly like an adventurer’s party from a role-playing game.

But all their gear was well-worn, and they carried themselves with an air completely different from the other townsfolk. Even to my untrained eyes, it was obvious: these were fighters.

“…Did I really get transported to a fantasy world, just like in a game or a movie?”

I knew how absurd it sounded, but looking at the scene before me, I couldn’t come to any other conclusion.

I walked up and down the cobblestone street, observing my surroundings.

The street seemed to be a sort of shopping district. Tucked between the houses were shops selling food, clothing, and other daily necessities.

What really caught my eye, though, were the weapon and armor shops. Seeing rows of deadly-looking armaments—things you’d never see in modern Japan—forced me to accept, like it or not, just how bizarre my situation was.

On the other hand, the general vibe of the people on the street was fairly calm. It was only then that I finally noticed something else: a good number of them had horns or animal ears. They were clearly the non-human races you’d see in games, but seeing them in the flesh was still a shock.

I spotted a few other adventurer-types like that first party, too. Their gear varied, but they all shared that same unapproachable, hardened aura.

After walking the length of the street and back, I returned to the town gate.

“This… seems to be real.”

The words slipped out. After seeing all this, I had no choice but to shift my perspective.

It looked like I’d fallen down those stairs at the office… and ended up here. Given that sharp pain in my chest right before, it was possible I’d actually died back in my old world and been brought here.

“If that’s the case… what now? I guess I have to figure out a way to survive here…”

Even if I accepted that I had to live in this world, that was the immediate problem. I was penniless. I didn’t just lack a place to sleep; I didn’t even have food.

I could try to find day labor to get by, but it was highly doubtful a small town like this would have any. And even if it did, would anyone hire me?

Getting thrown into a strange new world was one thing, but being checkmated on the very first move? Surely not…

“Pardon me, young man, but are you perhaps looking for the Adventurer’s Guild?”

Just as I was starting to despair, someone called out to me. He was an elderly man who looked like one of the locals.

“Huh? Oh, no… What… what is this ‘Adventurer’s Guild’?”

“Oh? My, my. Could it be you’ve only just ‘Awakened’?”

“‘Awakened’?”

Seeing my confusion at the unfamiliar term, the old man continued.

“Hm, so you don’t even know that. I’d wager you were kicked out of your village with no explanation, weren’t you?”

“Ah… yes, something like that.”

I honestly had no idea what he was talking about, but I wanted more information, so I just played along.

“Then that’s all the more reason you need to go to the Adventurer’s Guild. Come along now.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.”

I hesitated for a moment, but the old man seemed to know what he was talking about and I didn’t sense any ill will from him, so I decided to follow.

Besides, I had a pretty good idea of what an ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ was. It was unlikely he was leading me somewhere strange.

“Still, I’ve never heard of someone ‘Awakening’ at your age. Things might be difficult for you, but you must do your best.”

“Ah… thank you.”

I walked down the street, accepting the old man’s words of encouragement. He led me to a three-story building I’d walked right past earlier.

“This here is the town’s Adventurer’s Guild. Just speak to one of the young ladies at the counter, and she’ll tell you what you need to do. Well then, try not to push yourself too hard.”

As I thanked him, the old man walked away, muttering, “Seems like a decent fellow… what a tough spot to be in…”

I still didn’t really understand what was going on, but it seemed like this Adventurer’s Guild was the place to get hints on how to survive in this world.

I passed through the large, open doorway and stepped into the Adventurer’s Guild.

The first floor of the Guild was a spacious lobby. To the left, a bulletin board with two parties of adventurers gathered in front of it. To the right, a long counter with several staff members behind it. It looked exactly like the guild hall from that game I used to play.

I walked across the wooden plank floor toward the counter. As I got closer, one of the staff—a young woman who looked to be in her late teens—greeted me.

“Welcome. How may I help you today?”

“Hello. My name is Soshi Okuno. Um, one of the townsfolk told me I should come here…”

“Ah, are you by chance newly ‘Awakened’?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what that means.”

“Understood. In that case, I will explain the adventurer system from the beginning. Please, come this way.”

She smoothly guided me to a seat at the counter further inside.

“Let’s see, Soshi Okuno, correct? Is Soshi your family name?”

“Ah, no, Okuno is my family name.”

So in this world—or this country, at least—the family name comes second.

“Very well, Okuno-san. Please grip this metal plate.”

I did as she said, gripping the thin, metallic plate the receptionist handed me.

A moment later, a section of the plate began to glow faintly red.

“Yes, that’s confirmed. You are indeed an ‘Awakener,’ Okuno-san. As a rule, all Awakeners on this continent are obligated to register and work as ‘Adventurers’ in every nation.”

“Oh…”

“Ah, my apologies. You aren’t familiar with ‘Awakening’ either, are you? In that case, let me start from the very beginning.”

And so, she began her explanation.

Here’s the summary of what she told me:

• ‘Awakening’ is the event where an ordinary person becomes able to use powerful abilities called ‘Skills.’
• The trigger for Awakening is completely unknown. It occurs randomly in both men and women, though most Awakenings happen between the ages of 15 and 25.
• Anyone who Awakens is obligated to register as an ‘Adventurer’ at least once.
• An ‘Adventurer’ is a professional monster-fighter, and most of them operate inside ‘Dungeons.’

That was the gist of it.

To put it bluntly, it seemed I had been thrown into this world as a player character in an RPG.

I did my best to accept this new reality and asked the receptionist a question.

“I was… well, I arrived here with nothing but the clothes on my back. What am I supposed to do?”

“Yes, that’s not uncommon. The Guild offers a start-up loan for new adventurers. Repayment is handled by deducting a fixed percentage from your future rewards. Would you like to apply?”

“Yes, please. That’s a huge help.”

It seemed I was getting a better start than the hero’s descendant from that old RPG, at least.

I asked the receptionist a few more questions, received something called an ‘Adventurer Card,’ and left the Guild with my loan.

I spent the rest of the day following the Guild’s beginner guide, buying a set of basic equipment. I then checked into the cheaper of the two inns in this town (which I learned was named Tolson). If I hadn’t gotten that loan, I’d have been sleeping in a stable at best, so I was incredibly grateful.

The room was simple, containing only a single bed, but it was infinitely better than sleeping outdoors. Apparently, wild animals and even bandits roamed the lands outside the town walls.

I sat on the hard bed and took stock of the gear I’d bought.

A backpack, a shortsword, a waterskin, some rations, a cloth to use as a towel… and then a one-handed mace, a small one-handed shield, and a cap that was sort of like a half-helmet.

To me, everything looked so archaic it could have been an antique, but I supposed this was all standard for this world.

“Weapons, huh…”

Needless to say, as a modern Japanese man, I’d never held a real weapon in my life.

Take this metal mace, for instance. The old man at the weapon shop recommended it as the best choice for a beginner. You can certainly tell that getting hit with this thing would not end well.

Conversely, that meant I was now expected to use this thing to beat monsters to death. Thinking about it calmly, I was struck by a wave of overwhelming anxiety.

Then again, the whole ‘being transported to another world’ thing was the root cause of all my anxiety anyway.

“Right. For today, I’ll just eat and sleep.”

I packed my gear into the backpack and headed down to the inn’s first-floor tavern.

The dining hall was about sixty percent full. I’d heard the inns in this town mostly catered to traveling merchants and adventurers, and it looked like a fifty-fifty split. I noticed a lot of the adventurers looked green—newbies, just like me. The only difference was that they were all in parties.

I found an empty table, gave my order to the innkeeper, and waited for my meal.

“Hey, old man, you an adventurer?”

The one who called out to me, as I sat there idly, was a young man around twenty. His flushed cheeks told me he’d been drinking.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Hah, pretty rare to see an adventurer your age. Right, guys?”

His companions at the table—all young men and women around his age—gave half-hearted, uninterested nods.

From their reactions, I guessed this guy was the type who gets belligerent when he’s drunk.

“So, old man, you strong? …Nah, probably not. If you were strong, you wouldn’t be staying in a dump like this.”

“Is that right?”

“Course it is. You get strong, you earn more. You earn more, you stay at a better inn. Simple.”

“I see. What about you, then? You look pretty strong to me.”

Flattery is usually the best way to handle a drunk… but it was also true that he did look stronger than me.

We were about the same height, but his arms were easily twice as thick as mine. His gear also looked like it had seen its fair share of use.

“Huh? Nah, I’m still small fry. Just an E-Ranker. Only means I’m not a total newbie.”

“If you’re only E-Rank, then adventurer ranks must be harder to climb than I thought.”

He seemed to understand the indirect compliment, and his expression brightened.

“Haha! Well, yeah, I guess so. Took me two months just to hit E, and they say that’s pretty fast. You work hard, too, old man.”

Satisfied, he swaggered back to his table in a good mood. One of his companions, a young woman, gave me a small, apologetic bow. Maybe they weren’t such a bad group after all.

Adventurer ranks… According to the receptionist, they range from F to A, and you rank up based on your achievements. I was a beginner F-Rank. She’d said that if I worked hard, I might make E-Rank in three months. If that guy did it in two, he really was talented.

“Here you go.”

Just then, the innkeeper brought over my food.

It looked like some kind of meat and vegetable stew. When I took a bite, it had a flavor that was somehow both familiar and completely new.

It was simply seasoned, but not bad at all. As a Japanese person, good food is directly linked to motivation. I was grateful that, at least where food was concerned, I could probably manage in this world.

Sleep when the sun sets, wake when it rises.

In a world with such poor nighttime lighting, that lifestyle was apparently the norm. I’d done a bit of camping in my previous life (?), so it wasn’t a problem for me.

I ate first thing in the morning, then headed out to find the ‘Dungeon’ I’d heard about yesterday. There were three dungeons near Tolson: two F-Class, and one D-Class.

The dungeon class corresponds to the adventurer rank, so F-Rank adventurers are advised to enter F-Class dungeons. The catch, I’d been warned, was that “Recommended for F-Rank Adventurers” actually meant “Recommended for a party of F-Rank Adventurers.” Since a party was assumed to be three to five people, the real meaning was, “Don’t go in here unless you have at least three F-Rankers.”

So, for today, I was only going to take a look. I had no intention of going inside. I didn’t just lack monster-fighting skills; I couldn’t even swing my mace properly yet.

I left town and followed the signs for about an hour. Eventually, a giant boulder came into view in the middle of the plain. A gaping hole was torn in its side. That, apparently, was the dungeon entrance.

Several adventurer parties were already gathered around the entrance, checking their gear. I recognized the young man from the inn last night and his party. They were E-Rank, weren’t they? I wondered why they were bothering with an F-Class dungeon.

I thought about asking him, but they were about to head into battle. They might be on edge, so I decided to leave them alone.

While I watched from a distance, all the parties finished their preparations and entered the dungeon one by one.

“I’ll just take a quick peek.”

I was planning to go practice swinging my mace, but my training would probably be more effective if I saw what I was training for.

I approached the massive rock and peered into the three-meter-square hole. It looked like a natural cave, sloping gently down into the earth. Strangely, a faint light seemed to emanate from deep within—one of the ‘mysteries of the dungeon,’ apparently. It meant you didn’t need a torch, which was a big help for adventurers.

“Hey, if you’re not going in, get out of the way.”

Oops. A new party had arrived. I apologized to the well-built man who’d shouted at me and quickly moved aside.

Alright, recon’s over. Time to find a secluded spot and get to training.

I started walking back toward town, but veered off the road into a small grove of trees. It was time, of course, to practice swinging my mace.

I’d learned back when I was roped into a company baseball tournament that beginners can’t even swing a bat properly. It makes sense—even pro players practice their swings—but as someone who’d never seriously exercised, it had been a surprising revelation. There was no way I could jump straight into a real fight. I had to at least practice the basics.

I dropped my pack and took the mace in hand. It was a metal rod with several angular flanges welded to the business end.

I tried a few practice swings. Strangely, it didn’t feel all that heavy. My body moved far more smoothly than I remembered. The mace cut through the air with a whoosh, and I could tell it would have some serious destructive power.

I lost myself in the rhythm, swinging the mace over and over. My body, which should have been breaking down, felt unusually good. Maybe this, too, was an effect of that ‘Awakening’ thing.

I must have swung it hundreds of times when, suddenly, a strange sensation washed over me. The mace, which I’d been swinging with brute force, suddenly felt… natural in my grip. It wasn’t a gradual improvement. It felt exactly like a video game—like I’d suddenly leveled up and my stats had changed.

“I see. So this is what it means to learn a ‘Skill’.”

This phenomenon, it turned out, was well-documented. It was right there in the Guild’s beginner guide.

“An Awakened person, by gaining experience, can acquire special abilities known as ‘Skills.’ This is fundamentally different from a normal person improving through practice. It is, in a manner of speaking, ‘a power granted by God.'”

In game terms, I’d just acquired the [Mace Lv. 1] skill.

“This is… incredible.”

I kept swinging. I pictured an opponent in my mind, striking at different parts of its body from various angles. My body moved with a natural grace, performing maneuvers I’d never once practiced, as if I’d been training for years.

What was even more shocking was my stamina. I had swung that heavy mace hundreds of times, yet I wasn’t exhausted. My strength and cardio had never been this high in my entire life. It was actually fun, and before I knew it, I’d spent another hour just on practice swings.

Just as I was thinking about calling it a day, that feeling washed over me again. A second level-up.

I’ll call it [Mace Lv. 2]. Apparently, there was a way to formally check your skills, but the Guild in Tolson didn’t have the means.

“Alright, let’s see what else I can learn.”

After confirming that my swings felt even sharper and more precise, I moved on to my next training exercise.

I spent the rest of the day training, trying out various things until the sun went down.

Back at the inn, I finished my meal and collapsed onto the bed. As expected, I was exhausted. And in exchange for that exhaustion, I had apparently acquired the following skills.

Name: Soshi Okuno                 Rank: F

Weapon Skills

• Mace Lv. 2
• Dagger Lv. 1

Armor Skills

• Buckler Lv. 1

Physical Abilities

• Stamina Lv. 2
• Strength Lv. 2
• Running Lv. 2
• Agility Lv. 2
• Reflexes Lv. 2

Sensory Skills

• Vision Lv. 1
• Hearing Lv. 1
• Smell Lv. 1
• Touch Lv. 1
• Kinetic Vision Lv. 1
• Presence Sense Lv. 2

Most of them were self-explanatory, but ‘Buckler’ referred to the small shield. I’d managed to learn it by bracing the shield and focusing on the image of taking an enemy’s attack.

‘Presence Sense’ was a skill that let me feel the presence of animals and the like. I’d gotten it by wandering deep into the woods and trying to find animals and insects, until I could just feel where they were. According to the guide, it was an essential skill for avoiding monster ambushes, so I’d been determined to get it.

In any case, it had taken the entire day, but I felt I’d made significant progress. The skills themselves were a big gain, but so was figuring out the trick to learning them: “Training with the specific intent to learn a skill is more efficient.” This might seem obvious to anyone with a modern Japanese education, but it wasn’t written in the adventurer’s guide. Maybe it was common knowledge, or maybe it was a ‘Columbus’s egg’ sort of discovery.

Well, no use overthinking it now. I was still just a rookie on my second day in another world. For now, I’d plan on one more day of training, and then try the dungeon the day after tomorrow.

I knew it would be better to form a party, but I was hesitant to get involved with people from a world with a completely different culture and customs. After living a decent amount of time in society, I was all too aware that interpersonal relationships carry the highest risk.

I’d actually asked that young man about it at dinner. He said the upper levels of that dungeon weren’t too dangerous, even if you were alone. When I mentioned my skills, he told me that as long as I had a weapon skill at Level 1, I’d be fine. Another day of skill grinding should be enough.

He did, however, insist, “Make sure you bring potions.” I’d make a point to buy some. It seemed that kid was a pretty decent guy after all.

As I was thinking all this, my consciousness began to fade.

It was the morning of my third day in another world.

I ate breakfast first thing and headed back to my (provisional) training ground from yesterday.

Just to test my progress, I took a swing with my mace at a fairly thick tree. The trunk caved in, nearly halfway through. There was no way a normal human could output that kind of power. This was the strength of an ‘Awakened’ adventurer. It made sense that we’d be the ones tasked with fighting monsters… though I still had no idea just how strong monsters were.

Alright, so today’s plan would be to raise all of yesterday’s skills by one more level.

And so, I started my training regimen: running, dashing, jumping, and endless practice swings.

By a little past noon, I’d managed to raise every skill from yesterday by one level, with the exception of ‘Presence Sense.’ …But it felt a little too easy. The guide didn’t say anything about how fast skills were supposed to level up. Maybe I’d ask a senior adventurer about it later, though I had no idea if they’d be willing to answer.

Finally, I headed deeper into the woods to train ‘Presence Sense.’ This skill seemed to be an extension—or perhaps an integration—of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, and touch. It was likely an ability that let me vaguely sense the location of an animal by picking up on minute changes in the environment. It felt like an ambiguous awareness, a sense of something being a few meters ahead of me.

I walked through the woods, focusing my consciousness, trying to perceive small animals or large insects.

Hmm, there’s something on the ground about five meters ahead. It feels long and thin… probably a snake. And a small animal up in that tree… looks like that squirrel I saw yesterday. As I get closer, it leaps to another tree and escapes. Twenty meters ahead… something large… dog-sized… a boar? No, a wild dog?!

Before I could even register the danger, the creature let out a sharp GUOOOOH! and charged at me from between the trees. It looked like a dog, but the proportions of its body were subtly wrong. Its upper body was overdeveloped, and the fangs jutting from its mouth curved upward.

I’m sure I’d read about this in the guide… That’s a ‘Boarwolf,’ a monster.

Climb a tree… Damn it, my legs are frozen! I can’t move!

The Boarwolf was already right in front of me. No choice but to fight. I dropped into a stance and raised my buckler.

GAAAAH!

The instant it crashed into me, I thrust the buckler out with my left hand and simultaneously jabbed with the mace.

It had nothing to do with my training. In my panic, it was all I could do to try and shove the monster away.

A ferocious impact slammed into the left side of my body. My shove must have worked, because I’d avoided a direct hit from its charge, but I was still sent flying two meters back.

My vision swam, but I knew I couldn’t just lie here. I scrambled to my feet. The Boarwolf was right there, ready to pounce again.

On pure instinct, I swung the mace at the side of its head.

I felt a heavy, solid impact near the tip of the weapon, and at the same time, a pig-like BHEEEEE! squeal echoed through the woods. I looked and saw the area around the Boarwolf’s eye was caved in. A lucky punch.

The Boarwolf staggered, stumbling on the spot. It began to thrash around wildly, and I just kept swinging my mace at it.

It was hard to get a clean hit on a target moving so erratically. But with every swing, I could feel my mind, strangely, growing colder.

That’s right. Calm down. Stay calm. Watch its movements. Don’t go for a vital spot right away. Go for the legs first.

It was a bizarre sensation. How could I, a man who had never even struck another living creature, be this calm in such a situation?

I brought the mace down in a diagonal arc. A wet, meaty thud. Just as I’d aimed, the Boarwolf’s front leg shattered.

As it collapsed, I brought the mace down onto its head with all my strength. The monster’s head caved in, and its whole body gave one violent, spasming jolt… and then, as if its batteries had died, it stopped moving completely.

“Did I… do it?”

Relief and exhaustion hit me at once, and I dropped to one knee. I used the mace as a cane to prop myself up.

The Boarwolf didn’t twitch. I’d definitely… killed it.

“But… aren’t monsters supposed to stay in the dungeons?”

That’s what the guide said. Around here, monsters only appeared inside dungeons. That was the whole reason I was training out here.

“Ugh… ow… That’s not good.”

The outside of my left thigh was sliced open. Its tusk must have gotten me during the charge. I pulled the waterskin from my pack and washed the wound.

“Right… the potion.”

I remembered I’d bought two potions that morning, just as the young adventurer had advised. I pulled one out, uncorked it, and poured the contents onto the wound, just as the old man at the item shop had told me.

“Whoa, that stings…”

I wondered how well it would actually work. As I watched, the wound began to close up, like a video playing in reverse. It was like magic. In less than a minute, it was completely healed, leaving only the rip in my slacks.

“Haaaah… that was too close.”

I sat down hard on the ground.

Looking at it again, the Boarwolf was huge. Easily the size of a large dog. How had I managed to win a fight against something like this?

“Okay, so… if you kill a monster outside a dungeon, you’re supposed to bring the whole carcass back, right?”

I slowly tried to recall what I was supposed to do next.

When you kill a monster in a dungeon, it apparently dissolves, leaving only a few materials behind—absorbed by the dungeon, or so they said.

But if you kill one outside a dungeon—in the ‘field,’ in game terms—the body remains.

These carcasses supposedly had all sorts of uses, but it also meant you had to haul the whole thing back.

I rested for about five minutes, then stood up and tried to hoist the Boarwolf onto my shoulders.

It looked like it had to be close to a hundred kilograms, but it barely felt heavy at all. This had to be the result of my ‘Awakened’ body, enhanced by skills like ‘Strength.’

“I guess this counts as my first real job as an adventurer.”

I turned and started walking back toward the town of Tolson.

When I walked into the Adventurer’s Guild still carrying the Boarwolf, the receptionist’s eyes went wide. She immediately guided me to a ‘dismantling area’ behind the main building.

The townsfolk had also stared at me, so it really must be rare for a monster to appear in the field around here.

“Then why do you even have a dismantling area?” I asked the receptionist. “Well, it’s not that it never happens,” she replied. It seemed I’d just been unlucky.

“Um, Okuno-san, correct? Our staff will dismantle it now, so please wait a moment. This is your claim tag, so please don’t lose it.”

After I heaved the Boarwolf onto the butcher’s table, the receptionist handed me a wooden tag.

“Sorry, could you explain what happens with the monster now?”

“Oh, right! Our staff will dismantle the Boarwolf. Boarwolves have many useful parts, so we will appraise the condition of each material and then buy the total from you. We will also deduct a portion for your loan repayment.”

“I see. Can you give me a rough estimate of how much it’ll be?”

“Hmm, let’s see… A Boarwolf usually goes for about seven hundred thousand roms.”

“That’s… quite a lot.”

The loan I’d taken out was for three hundred thousand roms (roms being the currency of this country). The value seemed to be almost a direct 1:1 conversion with Japanese yen.

I had no idea how much a wild boar was worth back in Japan, but 700,000 felt like a very good price.

“It’s just that monsters found outside dungeons are extremely rare in this area. Field-hunted meat, in particular, is treated as a specialty item.”

“Oh? Does it taste different?”

“Apparently so. I’ve only ever had dungeon-spawned meat, so I wouldn’t know,” the receptionist said with a wry smile.

So, class divides exist in this world, too. That figured. This country did seem to be a monarchy with a clear class system.

“Still, Okuno-san, it’s only your third day as an adventurer, right? It’s amazing that you hunted a Boarwolf all by yourself. Were you a soldier or something before this?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I was just… well, a merchant, I guess. Nothing to do with fighting, I assure you.”

“What? Really? Well, in that case, you might just have a real talent for this. Please keep up the good work!”

“Thank you. In that case, I’ll just wait in the archives and reread the adventurer’s guide until you’re finished.”

I thanked the receptionist and headed for the small archive room, which, she’d mentioned, adventurers rarely used.

In the end, I walked back to the inn with 450,000 roms in my pocket. The total was lower because I’d paid back my entire loan at once.

On the way, I restocked my potions and bought a new pair of trousers to replace my ruined slacks. The clothing merchant actually bought the slacks from me for a decent price, saying the fabric was rare. It made sense; compared to the cloth in this world, modern Japanese textiles would seem like a luxury.

I also decided to order some proper armor for my dungeon dive tomorrow. I stopped by the armory and ordered a chest plate, gauntlets, and greaves. They only needed to adjust the fittings, so they’d be ready by morning.

Back in my room, I stretched out on the bed. Something was nagging at me.

My physical abilities felt a full step higher than they had this morning.

I’d felt it when I was carrying the Boarwolf, but it seemed like I’d changed, physically, during or after that fight.

“Is this… like leveling up?”

The guide had definitely said, “Adventurers grow stronger through combat,” but I’d assumed that just meant gaining skills. It seemed my body could be enhanced in other ways, too.

This ‘Awakening’ really did grant all kinds of benefits. If I kept getting stronger through skills and this, I might just become a superhuman. Even as an F-Rank, I’d been able to defeat that monster one-on-one. At this rate, the D-Rank adventurers in this town might already be beyond human.

Come to think of it, the guide said that if an adventurer used their power to harm people without just cause, the punishment was extremely severe. That made perfect sense. If someone with this power turned to crime, it would be a disaster. But, thinking about it the other way, there must be people who try to misuse it. I’d have to be careful.

In any case, as a result of today’s training and my first real battle, I estimated my skills were now as follows:

Name: Soshi Okuno                 Rank: F              Adventurer Level 2

Weapon Skills

• Mace Lv. 3
• Dagger Lv. 2

Armor Skills

• Buckler Lv. 2

Physical Abilities

• Stamina Lv. 3
• Strength Lv. 3
• Running Lv. 3
• Agility Lv. 3
• Reflexes Lv. 3

Sensory Skills

• Vision Lv. 2
• Hearing Lv. 2
• Smell Lv. 2
• Touch Lv. 2
• Kinetic Vision Lv. 2
• Presence Sense Lv. 3

Mental Skills

• Calm Lv. 1

I was guessing I’d ‘leveled up’ from the Boarwolf fight. My other skills should have each increased by one from training. That sudden coldness I’d felt during the battle… that was probably a skill, too. I’d tentatively call it ‘Calm.’

But as I lay here thinking about it, I still felt like I was in some kind of bad dream. And yet, the pain I’d felt from the Boarwolf’s tusk, and the sensation of my mace crushing its skull, both insisted this was anything but a dream.

You always hear that you never know what life will throw at you, but I’d be willing to bet not many people have had it throw something this inexplicable.

The next morning, I picked up my new armor, put it on, and headed to the ‘Boulder Dungeon’ a little later than usual.

There was no one at the entrance; the other parties must have all gone in. From what I’d observed, there seemed to be four parties regularly diving this dungeon. I couldn’t tell if that was a lot or a little, but to avoid trouble, it was probably best to stay out of their way.

I took a deep breath at the entrance and stepped inside the rock.

The dungeon was faintly, almost magically, bright. Thanks to my ‘Vision’ skill, I had no trouble seeing.

The passage was about five meters wide and three high. The walls were jagged rock, like a cave, but the floor was flat and much easier to walk on than a natural cavern. It felt like a man-made attraction, which I guess was just another one of the dungeon’s mysteries.

I followed the gentle downward slope until I reached a fork in the path. This was where the dungeon truly began.

I pulled out the map I’d gotten from the Guild. The right path was the main route to the second floor. The left path led to a dead end. I went left without hesitation. My goal right now wasn’t to delve deeper; it was to fight monsters in a secluded spot, alone.

I moved slowly, ‘Presence Sense’ on high alert. Thanks to my ‘Calm’ skill, my mind was perfectly steady. Mace in my right hand, buckler in my left. I really was just like a video game character.

Suddenly, ‘Presence Sense’ picked something up. Ahead, from around a corner. Something was coming. It was about the size of a child, a bipedal monster.

“Gya?”

It rounded the corner, saw me, and froze for just a second, as if in confusion.

“GYA! GYA!”

The next instant, it raised a wooden club and charged at me.

Green skin, a hideous face, crooked yellow teeth. This was, according to the guide, a ‘Goblin,’ one of the weakest F-Rank monsters.

The Goblin swung its club. Before it could build up any momentum, I batted the attack aside with my buckler.

Its torso was wide open. I slammed my mace into its side with a horizontal swing. The Goblin let out a “Gwek!”, doubled over, and went flying.

I moved in for a finishing blow… but it was already dead.

Before my eyes, its body melted and was absorbed into the dungeon floor. All that remained was the wooden club and a shiny, marble-sized stone.

“Phew… That was surprisingly weak. I guess this is what the lowest-level monsters are like.”

The Boarwolf I fought yesterday was apparently a high-tier F-Rank, so there was a huge difference even within the same rank. Of course, the fact that I’d leveled up probably helped, too.

I picked up the club and the stone and put them in my pack. The club was probably only good for firewood, but the stone was a ‘Magic Stone,’ and this was what sold for money. In fact, an adventurer’s main source of income was collecting and selling these magic stones.

I checked my gear and started walking again, heading for the dead end.

I ran into three more goblins on the way to the dead end.

Thanks to my ‘Awakening,’ I was adapting to combat quickly. By the last one, I was able to take it down before it even finished swinging its weapon.

After that, I walked back to the first fork and headed down the dead-end path a second time.

Maybe the encounter rate drops after you’ve already cleared a path? I only ran into a single goblin on the way. Unlike a game, it seemed like grinding for levels in the same spot was going to be difficult.

As I thought this, I was struck by how numb I was becoming. What I was doing was, by all rights, a life-or-death struggle, but I no longer felt anything, not even when I was crushing a goblin’s skull.

Was this the ‘Calm’ skill at work? If so, this adventurer job was a dangerous one. If I wasn’t careful, I could end up losing my humanity. I had to keep that in mind.

I carved that thought into my heart as I walked back to the fork. On the way, ‘Presence Sense’ pinged again. Goblins… but this time, there were three of them.

“GIEEEH!”

The three goblins charged at me in a line, filling the width of the passage. There was no room to escape. The only way was forward.

I ran at them. Right before we met, I pushed off the ground and jumped. I sailed over the middle goblin, kicking it in the back as I passed. I landed and immediately spun, bringing my mace down on the one I’d just knocked over.

The other two goblins stumbled to a halt and turned. I was already dashing at them. I smashed the mace into the side of one’s head, taking it out. That was two.

But in that opening, the third one swung its club. I managed to block it with my buckler, but the blow still glanced off and hit my shoulder.

I paid it back by burying my mace in its skull. And that was three.

“Hoo… Managed, somehow.”

I’d considered the possibility of facing multiple enemies, but actually doing it was another story. I felt I’d moved well, all things considered… but then again, my opponents were the weakest of the weak.

I gathered the clubs and magic stones and headed back to the fork.

I spent the rest of the morning wandering the first floor of the Boulder Dungeon, but the only thing that appeared was goblins. There was nothing else to see. While the real combat experience was valuable, maybe because the opponent was so weak, I didn’t feel like my skills or my level were rising at all.

So, that afternoon, I returned to my provisional training ground and worked on leveling up my skills. I’d also left the dungeon early to avoid running into any of the other parties.

As long as I was weak, I wanted to avoid all contact with other adventurers inside the dungeon. It was a cynical way to think, but… they were all far stronger than any goblin.

“The goblin magic stones are eight hundred roms each. You have twenty-six, so… um…”

“Twenty thousand, eight hundred roms,” I said.

“Huh? Oh… that’s right. You’re very fast at math, Okuno-san.”

“Well, I was a merchant, after all.”

I glanced around the Guild lobby as the surprised receptionist counted my money. It was still too early for the sun to set, so only one other party had returned. It looked like they’d come back because one of their members was badly injured. A young man, covered in blood, was being carried into the Guild’s infirmary. I wondered if he’d be okay.

“Is that guy going to be alright?”

“Hm? Oh, an injury like that can probably be fixed with a Grade 2 Potion. It’ll cost him four hundred fifty thousand roms, though. You were a merchant, Okuno-san, so I’m sure you know this, but you should always save your money.”

The receptionist said it so casually. This kind of thing must be a daily occurrence for them.

“Right. I’ll do that. By the way, what do people usually do with these goblin clubs?”

“If you give them to the innkeeper, they’ll use them as firewood. They’re supposed to burn longer than normal wood. You might get a free meal out of it.”

“Got it. Thanks, as always.”

“Not at all. Happy to help.”

I didn’t know what the standard of education was in this world, but this receptionist seemed to have a good head on her shoulders. Most of the other shopkeepers I’d met were gruff and curt, which made her stand out even more. I took my money, left the Guild, and headed for the inn.

By the way, all currency in this world is in coins. But it’s not a simple ‘gold, silver, copper’ system. This country’s monetary system seemed to be more advanced than the medieval fantasy world I’d been imagining.

Before I got back to the inn, I stopped at a street stall and bought something that looked like a meat skewer. The food at the inn was decent, but I felt like I wasn’t getting enough protein. Animal protein is essential for building muscle… or at least, I think it is. Given how much I’d been exercising these past few days, I figured I should eat whatever I could.

I paid 1,500 roms for two skewers and bit into one right there. The seasoning was just salt and some kind of peppery spice. The meat was gamier than the pork I was used to in Japan, but it wasn’t bad. My jaw, teeth, and even my stomach were all much stronger than before, so I had no problem with the tough meat. Right. From now on, I’d make a point to eat more protein.

My knowledge from modern Japan might actually give me a slight advantage in this world. Holding on to that optimistic thought, I started walking back to the inn.

The next day, I headed for the Boulder Dungeon first thing in the morning.

I waited a little while after the other parties had gone in before entering myself. I went to the first fork and took the left-hand, dead-end route. The goblin spawn rate was back to what it had been on my first trip yesterday. It seemed the spawns reset after a certain amount of time.

I defeated six goblins, returned to the fork, and this time, took the main route to the right.

I’d expected the spawn rate to be lower since another party had already passed through, but by the time I reached the slope leading to the second floor, I’d encountered about twenty goblins. Of course, the path itself was more than twice as long as the dead-end route.

But honestly, at this point, goblins were no match for me at all. Even when three appeared at once, I could overwhelm them with pure force and win without a scratch. I was at the point where I could probably take out all three with a single swing.

Including yesterday’s kills, I’d now defeated over fifty goblins, and I’d finally hit Adventurer Level 3. As a result, fighting goblins was starting to feel completely unsatisfying.

…Wait, have I always been this aggressive?

In any case, my curiosity was piqued, so I decided to head down to the second floor. When I’d spoken to that young adventurer in the tavern, he’d mentioned that his party mostly fought on the lowest level, the fifth floor. He said the other parties were also earning their keep on the fourth and fifth floors.

The second floor had the same atmosphere as the first. I checked my map to get my bearings and pushed deeper into the dungeon. After running into a few more goblins, I finally encountered a monster I hadn’t seen before.

It was a ‘Rock Lizard,’ a reptile about the size of a small alligator, with a hide that looked like stone. Its attacks were bites and tail swipes.

The Rock Lizard skittered toward me and opened its massive jaws, lunging in for a bite—

Splat!

I countered its lunge by slamming my mace straight into the side of its head. My ‘Reflexes’ and ‘Kinetic Vision’ skills were what made that kind of advanced move possible.

The Rock Lizard went flying, landing on its back and flailing. The fact that it survived that first hit meant its defense was much higher than a goblin’s. I walked over and brought my mace down hard on its soft, white underbelly. It let out a final, gurgling cry and died.

It left behind a magic stone and its hide. The stone was no problem, but the hide looked bulky. Oh well, I’d take it for now.

I seemed to be handling myself just fine, so I pressed on. Sometimes two Rock Lizards would appear at once, but their movements were sluggish, so I had no trouble taking them down.

After killing about twenty goblins and twenty Rock Lizards, I arrived at the slope leading down to the third floor. That was enough for one day. I shouldn’t push my luck.

Just as I was about to turn back, I sensed people approaching from the slope below.

“Hey, it’s the old man. Don’t go down to the third floor. You can’t handle it alone.”

It was that young adventurer and his party, heading up.

“Oh, don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on it. Just getting this far was pushing it for me.”

“Good. But still, coming this far by yourself is pretty reckless, you know.”

“You’re probably right. Did you guys go all the way to the fifth floor today?”

At that, the young man shook his head.

“Nah, we ran into a ton of Boarwolves, so we’re calling it a day. Without someone who has an ‘Item Box,’ we can’t carry all the materials back. We still made about three days’ pay, though, so it’s all good.”

“I see… Speaking of which, is that ‘Item Box’ a skill?”

“You don’t know? It’s a skill that lets you carry tons of stuff. It’s basically magic. I hear every party C-Rank or higher has at least one person with it. You pretty much need it when you start getting gigantic monster parts at that level.”

“Wow… That feels like a long way off for me.”

“It is. Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with just making a decent daily wage in the lower-rank dungeons. They say you never have enough lives for the high-rank ones. ‘Course, even this place will send you to the afterlife if you’re not careful. Watch your back.”

“Thanks, I will.”

“Yep. See ya.”

And with that, he and his party left. After talking with him a few times, I was starting to realize he was a talkative, slightly meddlesome guy.

An ‘Item Box,’ huh. So it’s just like in a game, a skill that lets you carry an impossible amount of items. As for how you get a skill like that… I already knew the answer. You have to defeat a dungeon boss. Apparently, when you beat a boss, you learn one random, special skill. So it all comes down to luck…

Anyway, that conversation shed some light on why his party was still in this low-rank dungeon. “Making a decent daily wage.” So, that kind of laid-back lifestyle was also an option for an adventurer.

If that was the case, what would I do? It looked like I’d be mulling over that question for a while as I continued my dives.

“What? Okuno-san, you’re already clearing the second floor? And you brought back this many Rock Lizard hides?”

The usual receptionist’s eyes went wide when I lined up the materials on the Guild counter. I’d learned her name was Kisara. She was a cute girl with pink hair tied in pigtails.

“Is it really that surprising?”

“Well, for an E-Ranker, maybe not, but for someone who’s only been an adventurer for five days? This is extremely rare. Are you sure you’re not overdoing it?”

“Hmm, I don’t think I’m pushing myself that hard.”

“I knew it! You’re clearly used to fighting, aren’t you, Okuno-san? You might become a really strong adventurer, you know!”

“Haha, that’d be nice, but I’ve still got a long way to go.”

“That’s true. I hear it’s a real struggle just to reach D-Rank. In your case, Okuno-san, the first step is probably finding a party.”

“I’ll probably have to get quite a bit stronger first. ‘Awakening’ at my age is apparently a rarity, so I doubt many people would be lining up to party with me.”

“That is the strange part, isn’t it? My father was so relieved when he passed the age where he could ‘Awaken.'”

“Believe me, I was just as surprised as anyone.”

Being compared to Kisara-san’s father really drove home how much of an anomaly I was. It was a bit of a shock.

Yeah, finding a party was going to be tough. Young people normally team up with other young people. It was the same back at the office; rookies didn’t exactly go out of their way to ask the old-timers out to lunch.

Besides, it’s less complicated to be alone, I thought, reflecting on my previous life as I accepted the payment of nearly 50,000 roms and left the Guild.

I bought three meat skewers from a stall and ate them as I walked, lost in thought.

Fifty thousand roms a day for clearing the second floor of an F-Class dungeon. That’s like making 50,000 yen a day back in Japan. By any normal standard, that wasn’t just not bad—it was an incredible wage.

Then again, the cost of food in this world felt two or three times higher than in Japan, so I didn’t have as much disposable income as it seemed. And the inn cost was a constant drain. My current room was 6,000 roms a night, and frankly, I’d rather not stay there forever. The other inn in town (the one for D-Rank adventurers) was apparently 20,000 roms a night.

The bigger problem was that adventurer gear and tools were incredibly expensive. If you use weapons and armor hard, they’re going to break. They’d need regular maintenance, too. Even my clothes would be worn to rags in no time.

Even the lowest-grade potion cost 15,000 roms. And like Kisara said, a serious injury would set me back 450,000 roms. Then again, compared to medicine from my old world, these things were miraculous. When you considered their performance, maybe they were actually cheap…

In any case, when I factored all that in, 50,000 roms a day was a pretty tight margin, especially considering I was risking my life for it.

According to Kisara, the buyout price for magic stones jumps dramatically as the monster’s rank increases. In other words, if I wanted to live comfortably as an adventurer, I’d have to aim for a higher rank and fight stronger monsters. It all came down to finding the right balance between risk and reward. In that, it was no different from my previous world.

I finished all three skewers by the time I got back to the inn. I’d noticed it yesterday, too, but I had this strange sensation, as if the nutrients from the meat were spreading through my body almost instantly. Maybe this was another effect of my ‘Awakening’? I wondered if working out right after this would be more effective. I’d have to test that theory.

That night, I tried doing some bodyweight exercises in my room, but it quickly became clear that with my current strength, they weren’t having much of an effect. I’d have to ask the blacksmith to make me some dumbbells later.

The next morning, I headed for the Boulder Dungeon as if it were just my daily commute. I reached the entrance to the third floor without any issues.

By the time I got there, I’d apparently leveled up again, hitting Adventurer Level 4. I could now take out Rock Lizards in a single hit, and even when two appeared at once, the fight was over in an instant.

“Maybe I’ll just go down a little way…”

I’d bought that young adventurer a drink last night and gotten some information. He said the third floor was mostly just more goblins and Rock Lizards, but in groups of four or five. Other than that, it wasn’t much different. Of course, for a solo adventurer, facing a group of any kind drastically increases the danger. But honestly, I was confident I could handle up to five at once.

I felt this way because earlier today, while I was fighting groups and focusing on my positioning, my mind had suddenly felt incredibly clear. I was sure I’d learned some kind of new skill… something I’d call ‘Thought Acceleration.’

I checked my gear and headed down to the third floor.

The passages on the third floor were nearly twice as wide. I followed the route on my map, and my ‘Presence Sense’ immediately pinged. Goblins. Five of them.

The goblins fanned out, trying to surround me. If I just stood there, I’d be beaten to a pulp.

I raised my buckler and charged straight forward. Without slowing down, I slammed my entire body, buckler-first, into the center goblin, sending it flying. I used the momentum to charge straight through their formation and get behind them.

The one I’d hit was already dead. A full-body tackle, given the difference in our weight, was a fatal blow. I spun around and laid into the others as they scrambled to turn and face me.

A single swing of my mace now had enough power to completely crush a goblin’s head. It turned into a bit of a messy brawl, and I took two or three hits from their clubs, but I’d managed to wipe them all out in about thirty seconds.

“Ow… That’s definitely going to bruise.”

I rolled up my sleeve and saw the spots where I’d been hit were already turning blue. They were throbbing with pain, so I reluctantly used a potion. It felt like a waste, but apparently, potions start to degrade once they’re unsealed, so you’re supposed to use the whole bottle at once.

Fighting a group was harder than I’d expected. Or, to be more accurate, this just wasn’t a situation you were supposed to handle solo.

I’d thought I could manage it with smart positioning, but the monsters just charged straight in, turning it into a brawl immediately. If these had been Rock Lizards, one of them would have definitely gotten a bite in.

“Yeah, I need a better strategy for this.”

So, I turned around and left the dungeon. Since it was still early, I naturally headed to my provisional training ground for an intense workout.

On the way back, I mulled over how to deal with group fights.

Realistically, I only had two options: “Get stronger, get better gear, and brute-force it,” or “Change my weapon and change my tactics.” Of course, the real answer was “form a party,” but I was setting that option aside for now.

‘Getting stronger’ just meant continuing what I was already doing: drills to improve my physical skills and technique, combined with real combat experience. It was the same training methodology I’d learned from P.E. and sports clubs back in school.

So, that left ‘changing my weapon.’ My mace was easy to use and devastating up close, but its reach was pitiful. A polearm, while a bit restrictive in narrow passages, would be a viable option. In fact, the old man at the weapon shop had originally recommended a spear, but I hadn’t been able to afford it at the time.

I decided to stop by the weapon shop on my way to the Guild to check.

“Welcome! Oh, it’s you. What’s up? Don’t tell me you broke that mace already.”

The shop owner was a man about my age. He was also the blacksmith, so he had a powerful, sturdy build.

“Hey. The mace is holding up fine. I’m actually here to look at weapons for fighting multiple opponents.”

“Multiple? You mean you’re fighting groups all by yourself?”

“That’s the idea. With a mace, it just turns into a brawl. I was thinking a weapon with more reach would be better.”

“I think you’d be better off finding a party first… but I guess you’ve got your reasons. If you want to fight at a distance, your first thought should be a bow, but that’s not what you’re after, is it?”

“Right. I’m not really considering a bow right now.”

“Then a spear’s your best bet. Glaives and halberds are tricky to handle, and they’re not great in tight spaces.”

A glaive is like a naginata, and a halberd is that polearm with the axe-head and spear-tip.

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“The thing is, spears for adventurers have to be all-metal, so they’re pricey. The cheapest one I’ve got is 280,000 roms.”

He pointed to a gleaming, two-meter-long black spear leaning against the wall. The reason adventurer-grade weapons were all-metal was because a wooden haft couldn’t withstand the force an ‘Awakened’ person could generate.

“Yeah, I can’t afford that just yet. I’ll save up and come back.”

“Sounds good. But fighting groups… you on the second floor? No, wait, you can get groups on the first, too.”

“No, the third floor. Five at once is a bit much.”

“You went to the third floor alone? Damn. You’re really pushing it. Be careful. You’re the first guy I’ve ever seen become an adventurer at our age. Try to stay alive, will you?”

“Thanks. Oh, right, this is separate from weapons, but I’m looking for some equipment to train with.”

“Training equipment? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Um, well, it’s really just a weight. It’s shaped so it’s easy to hold, kind of like this…”

I described the shape of a dumbbell. The owner looked confused, but then said…

“So you just need a heavy metal bar, right? Hold on.”

He went into the back and returned with a metal bar about five centimeters in diameter and fifty centimeters long. When I say ‘returned,’ I mean he wheeled it out on a cart.

“How about this? Give it a lift. Be careful, it’s a lot heavier than it looks.”

I did as he said, and it was shockingly heavy. It had to be well over fifty kilograms, maybe closer to a hundred. There was no way this was just iron. I don’t think I’d ever even heard of a metal this dense.

“That’s Dark Metal. It’s an insanely heavy alloy. It’s got some weird properties, though—it’s brittle, doesn’t mix with other metals—so it’s pretty much useless for anything but weights. But it’s perfect for what you’re describing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, this will be perfect for training.”

“It’s a little on the rare side, though. Tell you what, I’ll just add a small markup to my cost… how about 80,000 roms?”

That wasn’t cheap. Not at all. But I had a feeling this would really advance my training. I still needed to save for that spear, but increasing my base stats and skills with strength training seemed like a more versatile investment…

“…I’ll take it.”

I left the shop, now the owner of a ridiculously heavy metal bar.

As I headed to the Adventurer’s Guild, I saw a carriage parked by the entrance.

Carriages themselves weren’t that rare, even in Tolson. The Guild used them to haul away materials, and they brought in supplies from other towns. That Dark Metal bar I just bought had to have been brought in from somewhere. Carriages were the logical choice for hauling cargo.

But the ones used for transport were cargo wagons. This, however, was an enclosed passenger coach. Its elegant design made me think it might belong to a noble, but none of the adventurers or townsfolk were paying it any mind, so that seemed unlikely.

I sensed someone inside. I knew it was rude, but my curiosity got the better of me, and I glanced inside as I passed.

A lone girl sat inside. She had golden hair and blue eyes, and her profile was so perfect she looked like a doll. She couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen—a picturesque beauty.

But what struck me wasn’t her frail beauty; it was her eyes, which were filled with sorrow and anxiety. What circumstances could lead a person to have a look like that? The fact that she was so beautiful only made my imagination run wild with dark possibilities.

I’d paused for a moment, and just then, a middle-aged man in a white robe emerged from the Guild. He approached the carriage, opened the door, and spoke to the girl.

“It seems there are no suitable adventurer parties at this guild. We will head to the next town. Please be patient for just a little longer.”

“…I understand. I’m sorry for all this trouble.”

“Not at all. This is the least I can do.”

“Still… thank you.”

“We should head to the next town before the sun sets.”

The man in the white robe climbed onto the driver’s box, snapped the reins, and the carriage set off.

Just as I thought, there was definitely a story there. I’d assumed they were looking for a party to hire for a quest, but their conversation didn’t quite sound like that. Besides, if you had a request, you’d go to a guild in a much larger town.

And that girl’s expression… it wasn’t the look of someone who just had a simple problem to solve.

“…Not that there’s anything I can do about it.”

In the end, I’d only been in this world for a week. I was just a bottom-rank adventurer. Even if I did run into a tragic beauty, there was nothing I could do for her.

I watched the carriage go, gave my head a shake, and went into the Guild.

By the time I was lying in my bed at the inn, the thought of the girl had already faded from my mind.

Instead, my thoughts drifted back to my old world. Maybe it was because my new life here was finally getting on track, giving me the mental space to reflect.

My parents were still alive and well, but with my younger brother and sister around, they’d be fine. I felt bad for my brother, who’d suddenly have to bear the full burden of caring for them, but if my heart gave out, there was nothing to be done.

My ex-wife… She already seemed to have a new partner, so I didn’t need to worry about her.

As for my job… I was the chief on that new project, but someone else would take over. At a company, everyone is replaceable.

Yeah, there was really nothing to worry about. My parents, my siblings, and my few friends would grieve, but that was about it. Of course, I felt a sense of loss, but at my age, you learn that emotions don’t last forever. All I could do was shift gears and live out the ‘rest of my life’—even if it was in a way I’d never imagined.

Come to think of it, Kisara had said something strange. She’d mentioned that ‘Awakened’ people age more slowly. But, she’d added, if you only fight weak monsters, you age normally. In other words, if you wanted a long life, you had no choice but to fight strong monsters. And, of course, fighting strong monsters meant there was no guarantee you’d survive at all. It was a viciously designed system.

Wait… if you think about it that way, since I started as a middle-aged man, does that mean if I don’t get stronger and fight higher-rank monsters, my ‘remaining life’ is going to be over pretty quick anyway?

What the hell? That’s a pretty crappy game mechanic. What a raw deal.

If that was the case, I couldn’t afford to be dragging my feet in an F-Class dungeon. I had to train more, earn more… So in the end, I’d be chasing quotas in this life, too. Good grief.

Name: Soshi Okuno                 Rank: F              Adventurer Level 4

<Newly Acquired Skills>

Mental Skills

• Calm Lv. 3
• Thought Acceleration Lv. 2