#013
“That may be true, but… I have circumstances. There’s something I need to get from Wanderer’s Plains within three days.”
“I see… Then there’s no choice.”
I thought he might ask what those circumstances were (and originally it would have been natural for his character to ask), but Elmer kept his mouth shut. Is this also an effect of the changed world? That people don’t pry into others’ business anymore?
“Don’t worry too much, ahjussi. I’m not completely without something to rely on.”
“…Really?”
It wasn’t a very convinced reaction. His expression suggested he thought I was just saying that to reassure him since it was an unavoidable situation. He’d probably experienced quite a few situations like this. He was just a powerless regular employee of the guild, so while he might feel concerned, he’d be in the same position of having no real solutions.
But my words about having something to rely on weren’t complete bluff. If you asked whether it 100% guaranteed my safety, that was absolutely not the case though.
“I’ll be going.”
Since I hadn’t unpacked anything, there wasn’t really anything to gather. I could just turn around and leave. As I was about to say goodbye and go, Elmer suddenly got up from the counter and stopped me.
“Wait a moment.”
He disappeared behind the counter and returned shortly after with a vest covered in pockets, old work gloves, and a small stone in his hands.
“If I had spare weapons I’d lend them to you, but I sold them all off to make ends meet, so there’s nothing left. Use this instead.”
Looking at the stone Elmer handed me, my eyes lit up.
‘It’s an enhancement stone!’
Enhancement stones were items used to strengthen tools. Of course, since it was something an NPC gave me early on, it probably wouldn’t have amazing performance, but it would at least upgrade my rusty hoe to be considerably sharper and sturdier by one level.
“I’m not giving it for free – you’ll have to pay me back by gathering lots of expensive stuff.”
“Of course. Thank you, Elmer ahjussi.”
My voice got louder without me realizing it from joy. Perhaps my reaction was more enthusiastic than expected, because Elmer blinked in surprise for a moment, then cleared his throat with a “hmm hmm.”
“Anyway, why would a decent guy like that…”
I could guess what the hidden meaning was in his muttering, tongue-clicking words that trailed off. When I smiled awkwardly, Elmer cleared his throat and waved his hand dismissively.
“Just go before it gets any later. If you dawdle around, you’ll miss the ride.”
He was right. Time was tight. I said goodbye and hurriedly left the hunter building.
***
At the bus stop in front of the guild, there was a mini shuttle bus going to Wanderer’s Plains.
[To Wanderer’s Plains (Safe Operation Guaranteed): One-way 5,000 rual]
“……”
So it’s 10,000 rual round trip in the end. The money that would drop as quest reward was exactly 10,000 rual. One way or another, was this the picture the system wanted? Either go into debt or become a beggar.
The shuttle bus was full of people heading to the plains as soon as the sun rose, besides myself. In the past, there were fewer people and it seemed like a lighter atmosphere, almost like going on a picnic, but now everyone looked tired and shabby.
Actually, if you had enough resources to hire proper hunters, you wouldn’t need to take this bus. You’d either have your own personal transportation or ride with the hunter you employed. This shuttle provided by the guild was transportation used by those with no other options – poor people like me. (Even so, since Wanderer’s Plains was D-rank and had many users, they provided a shuttle, but for C-rank and above there were no shuttles so you had to arrange your own transportation.)
But most of them at least had better equipment than me. Since they had to protect their own lives, they invested as much as possible in armor and weapons. Even though “as much as possible” had low limits so it was still cheap stuff, at least everyone was carrying things that fell into the ‘weapon’ category. In other words, there was no one else like me carrying something like a ‘hoe’ that was hard to consider a weapon.
“Is that by any chance a special weapon shaped like a hoe?”
As I sat down and was diligently sharpening my rusty hoe with the enhancement stone Elmer gave me, someone asked in a suspicious tone. If they really thought that, they wouldn’t have asked. They probably asked because no matter how you looked at it, it seemed more like a farming tool than a weapon.
At his question, the gazes of people who had already been stealing glances at me openly focused on me. I found their attention somewhat, no, quite burdensome, but I couldn’t just stop enhancing the hoe and put it away, so I just smiled and shook my head.
“No. It’s just a real hoe.”
“Why on earth would you bring a hoe… Ah, no, never mind.”
He started to ask but then looked over my appearance, shook his head from side to side, and turned his gaze away. My appearance was truly pathetically shabby. I was wearing a rolled-up shirt with old overalls, and even those were all torn and ripped from going back and forth through the forest yesterday. Bandages and band-aids were wrapped here and there, with blood stains from wounds making it look even more dirty. Elmer’s vest worn over it was equally old, so it would have been all too obvious that I’d brought a rusty farming tool because I didn’t have money for weapons.
Some people giggled and sneered, some made expressions of disbelief, and others looked pitying. On top of that.
“Come to think of it, that guy is the famous…”
“Looking like that, he still managed to seduce…”
“Hard to believe…”
“Didn’t he spread it himself… no?”
Now the passengers were glancing at me while gossiping about that rumor (no, I should say it was fact, not rumor). My face was about to burn with embarrassment, but I steeled my mental state by telling myself it was just something in the game world anyway.
What did it matter how NPCs saw me? In the end, I would just leave this world or disappear through dissolution, and that dissolution wasn’t even far off. Wasn’t it something I might face in two days if things went wrong? No, I didn’t even know what might happen at my current destination. In such circumstances, what did it matter if they saw me this way or that way?
I was trying to ignore it all and achieve a mental victory like this when.
Ding.
Suddenly a status window popped up.
[Quest: Let’s Revive Your Lost Reputation!]
[The villagers’ reputation of you is very important. Especially, each main NPC’s favorability is directly connected to raising reputation, and certain points are accumulated each time reputation increases. Those points can be usefully applied in various ways for future survival and quest completion.]
[Current Reputation: -200]
“……”
So even in this state, I had to work on gaining favor? Now, when I’d established myself as a common enemy to most of the main female NPCs and their families and friends? If I showed my face to Rosie again, it wouldn’t end with just one slap this time. Among the NPCs I’d married, there were those with more outspoken personalities than Rosie, those with more extreme and violent male siblings than Kevin, and even… Carlisle Lightinger.
Recalling those cold eyes that were hard to find any trace of their former atmosphere made me shudder anew. If encountering him in the forest wasn’t a hallucination… did that bastard really abandon me to become monster food? When he already wanted to kill me anyway, did he think it was lucky that he could get rid of me without getting a drop of blood on his hands? If I went looking for him again with a grinning face trying to gain favor, wouldn’t he just try to bury me directly?
“Damn it…”
I buried my head in my arms. I even found myself wishing some accident would happen in Wanderer’s Plains so my brain would just stop. It had been in the game, but the tutorial didn’t tell me to do things like this – why on earth?
‘Show favorability.’
Sighing as I called up the status window, a new window appeared before my eyes. At the very top, the reputation index I’d just seen was blinking at -200, and below that showed the NPCs’ favorability ratings. Small photos of major NPCs were lined up on the left, with each one’s favorability shown next to them in bar and number format.
First was Eira. It seemed to appear in the order I met them. Her favorability rating toward me was… -120. This must be after it went up, right? The atmosphere when we parted didn’t seem too bad, so what was it originally?
Kevin was -200, Rosie was -80. This was also unexpected. From her reaction, wouldn’t Rosie be the worst? I would have believed it if it was -1000, going beyond the limit. It was actually Kevin who hit rock bottom. Indeed, when usually kind and quiet people get angry, they’re scarier. His favorability was lower than the actual victims who suffered damage from me.
‘Scary…’
I’ll have to be careful if I encounter him in the future.
Elmer was relatively high at 80. Though I suspected it was more pity than actual fondness. But his favorability wasn’t the only positive, nor the highest rating.
“What’s this? Why is it like this?”
The highest was an unexpected person.
“Muchi?”
Not only was someone who wasn’t originally even a main NPC on the list, but his favorability toward me was a whopping 120.
“Are you insane?”
I frowned. My trust in the status window crumbled and the tension completely drained away.
‘This is ridiculous. They want me to believe this?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
