《Green can be such an ugly color》


 Survival 101

    I woke up in the woods this morning, at first I though I was just dreaming but I tried a trick I use for lucid dreaming and couldn''t fly, so then I began to observe myself and my surroundings.


    I am in my underware, in the middle of a forest, and there don''t appear to be any people nearby. Well that wasn''t helpful.


    I don''t have any enemies, and if I did I don''t think they would have a reason to be this roundabout in their revenge on me. I also don''t have any friends who would go this far for a prank considering I was in a locked building before.


    With this many unkowns just staying in the same spot for whoever sent me here sounds like a bad plan, so I begin to move around and look for a stick to use as an emergency weapon.


    About an hour or so later there is no sign of civilization, I found a decent sized stick to be used like a pole, but it is uneven and cumbersome compared to a proper staff, but useable all things considered.


    The lack of any trails or a road are a bad sign, and I need to find water if I will be stuck here for a long time, I have also started to get a bit hungry so securing food is a close second.


    The trees all seem climable, a tree bed is far from ideal as I could get bit by bugs, but it is a quick shelter that will keep most predatorsfrom eating me in my sleep.


    And then I spot a goblin. Well that changes everything, assuming this isn''t a robot then I may be in an isekai! This is either amazing or terrible depending on the type of world, but as I spotted the goblin it too spotted me so further thinking should be delayed.


    "Hi I''m Xiquey, I don''t suppose you understand what I am saying?" (Xiquey)


    Instead of responding with words, the goblin charges at me and opens its mouth presumably to bite at me.


    So I smack a green runt with my stick and slam it into the ground.


    I try to press down on it to assert dominance, if I can properly gesture then maybe it can help me find resources like berries or water, but the goblin is resisting nonstop and doesnt seem to understand the concept of surrender.


    The goblin is beggining to get loose from the pin, so I grab the little bugger and drop kick it to quiet in down a bit. Unfortunately that drop kick was enough to kill it, I didn''t think I hit it in any vitals, nor should a single dropkick be able to kill a creature 1/3 of my height that easily. If non-lethal injuries are fatal as long as you run out of HP, then I need to be careful.


    Speaking of HP, open menu, status check, class change, backslash open menu, run menu.exe, start tutorial, status page, status update, none of this is workin, fuck the developer and call the GM I would like to file a complaint. I begin to examine the goblin corpse while I continue trying different ways to access a menu of some kind to check my stats.


    The goblin had nothing on it but a dirty rag, this one turned out to be female but the rag smells bad enough that I''d be better off using the rag as string to tie leaves together than as is, it is too small for me to wear anyways. I also begin to carry the corpse with me as cooked goblin is better than nothing as a food source. Hopefully that isn''t considered demi-human cannibalism by the locals or anything.


    I am already starting to get tired after another hour, I really didn''t get out much and superhuman endurance is definately not one of my abilities. I try punching a tree, and superhuman strength is out too, but now I have a hurt hand so at least I have something. I gather dome wood and use shavings as tinder to start a fire, I also shave my sick into a spear while watching the fire grow.


    Now I don''t have a convienient rock or setup to hold the goblin over the flame, so I just hold it upside down over the fire until it seems cooked enough, I have no butchery experience so I am probably doing this wrong somehow.


    It tastes absolutely terrible, but at the same time I have had worse like whenfood has expired and you don''t notice until you taste it. It also doesn''t taste as bad as a lot of things that smell bad do, so hopefully it is fine.


    I force myself to eat an arm through so that I have some food in my stomach, but I feel quite quesy now.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    I was going to dissect the goblin corse next, but now I don''t think I can stomach that until my stomach settles down some first, so I rest a bit more before exploring again.


    The fire doesn''t seem to have attracted any attention, human or monster, I was somewhat worried about being discovered by an angry goblin camp with one of their dead, but that didn''t happen.


    I spot a few creatures like a horned rabbit, chipmunks with fangs, and birds that look like they have metal beaks, but none of them seem to want to fight me as I pass through and they are too quick to catch with luggage.


    I am concerned that I haven''t found any berries, cooked goblin blood that isn''t fresh is a bad water source to rely on.


    I get real tired after another few hours, so I climb a tree and start to file down an arm bone from the goblin.


    Once it is reasonably sharp, I cut open the goblin in a pretty nasty process, but nothing but blood, guts, and bone are found inside, no monster cores here. Thigh bones are usually the biggest and strongest ones so I begin to make a dagger out of one of them as the arm bone is too flimsy to be used in combat.


    I also try to meditate or sense magic somehow, but none of my efforts bear any fruit. I set the goblin hide out to tan, and then I rest in the tree until nightfall and then sleep because my muscles are sore since I don''t usually use them this much,


    I wake up the next day, and I am still in a tree. I am not disappointed, a world with monsters has great ptential, but I know it will be a pain to get to that point as I still desperately need fresh water. I encounter a group of 3 goblins this time, I also didn''t find them first as the literal ankle biters latched on to me can attest.


    Itreally fucking hurts, and I stomp one of their skulls, drop the hide and spear I was carrying and slash another with my thigh knife through its neck.


    As for the third one, I stab the knife into its eye. Suprisingly the one I stomped on is still alive, I try to intimidate it and gesture for it to sit, but it jumos at me again so I finish it off.


    Seems like the goblins don''t negotiate, and even injured all the other nearby creatures seem to keep their distance while the goblins are outright hostile.


    I rip the hide that I don''t think finished tanning and use the pieces to cover my bleeding wounds. Even a minor injury is very bad for a survival situation, and bleeding legs makes finding a river a much more difficult task.


    Ignoring the pain I stash my corpses up a tree that I will be resting in and only coming down to cook and eat/drink goblin until I recover, this is a terrible plan and yet somehow still my best option. I keep myself occupied and preoductive by trying magic sensing, chants, trying to open a menu, and evensolving math problems in my head in case it provides a skill orstat boost.


    I was prepared for the worst, but was plesantly suprised. My wounds healed, in less than an hour to boot. in fact it only took like 10 minutes until the bleeding stopped, and fully healed shortly after without even scarring. Clearly I heal much faster in this world, the only question is if my healing rate is abnormal or not.


    I carry 3 hides, the wood spear, a thigh bone knife, and a goblin corpse as I continue to travel, and I eventually come across a stream. I carefully look at the surrounding area before approaching the stream, and I observe the stream carefully and even throw the goblin corse on its edge before approaching in case a predator is waiting their.


    My paranoia proves to be unfounded, and I manage to get a clean drink of fresh water, it is so refreshing to have something even as simple as freshwater after living off goblin blood even if it was only for a day or two, the fact I haven''t gotten sick yet is enough for me to think this world might not even have disease. Even better I manage to find fish in the water, they are rather small but infinately better then goblin flesh so I try to spear a few.


    I fail miserably even knowing that water refracts light and taking it into consideration I am just too poor a spearmen to catch a fish. I thus gather some firewood and begin making rope to make a net and string some leather for basic clothing and catching fish.


    I manage to catch some fish with my completed net and have the most satisfying meal since coming here, I set up the goblin skins to tan and rest up in a tree.


    I wake up to a arrow in my chest, it seems to have been blocked by my ribcage but it still hurts enough for me to scream bloody murder. Luckily the 7 goblins around my tree didn''t coordinate the attack so most are still climbing while 2 archers shoot very inaccurately at me, at the end of this incidant the numbers of arrows on the ground indicate that they shot at me for a while before one finally hit me and woke me up.


    I pull out the arrow which I normally wouldn''t do because I jump down the tree quickly and jostling an arrow within me is a bad plan, I rush the archers and stab they''re next while they flail about instead of continuing to shoot at me. The other goblins scrambled off the tree to chase me, but their allies are dead before they arrive, and I glare at them as they approach.


    For the first time since being attacked by goblins, they are actually smart enough to run this time, I can''t chase them all but I do manage to outrun and kill 2 of them before the other 3 are out of sight.


    I patch up my wound a bit with a scrap of hide and a lot of rope, and check out my campsite. The goblins didn''t steal anything, my goblin hides seem usable by now so I star to make a basic shirt and pants out of many shabby rope connected parts, my clothes are a mess but I am no longer practically naked.


    The goblins are smart enough to make bows and organize, but they are bad at coordination and gauging whether they can win a fight or not. I am distracted by my inner thoughts when I see something float down the river. It is clearly trash, rotten fruit and apple cores and the like, but this significance is clear to me.


    Civilization is upstream.

 CH 2: From survivor to hobbo, a small improvement

    Meeting up with civilization is a priority, but a man in goblin rags will bring suspicion at best and if I can''t communicate with the locals then that will be a problem.


    That being said, there isn''t much I can do to prepare, I fish in excess and make a pouch out of some leather to hopefully earn a bare minimum of money to trade, but I can''t really improve my clothing unless I hunt some of the animals that run away from me, and setting up a trap for them would take quite some time.


    I follow the river upstream, and I can already walk longer without tiring, it is a matter of a few minutes difference but it is noticable as I have been paying attention in case something like this will happen. It takes 3 hours for me to spot a village, there are no walls or guards, so hopefully my story won''t get investigated deeply.


    The village has primarily wood buildings, but there appears to be a stone building as well so the people aren''t tribal at least.


    I approach one of the locals and start up a conversation.


    "Hi, my name is Xiquey and I would like to ask some questions if you have the time" (Xiquey)


    "Rather strange clothes you have there, I assume you are a traveller or an adventurer of some sort" (Random civillian)


    *internally feeling like a mountain on my shoulders is removed because we speak the same language* I am inwardly snickering about how "being a traveller" applies to me in a completely different way than he is thinking.


    He also looked rather disgusted seeing my clothes, goblin skin is less than aesthetically pleasing but it may have also been because I look like a begger in my current state.


    "I happen to be a traveller, unfortunately my bag was lost while fighting monsters and my clothes were torn beyond repair, so I had to improvise with my current rather shameful display" (Xiquey)


    "I am a bit busy at the moment, but if you help me out for a bit then I wouldn''t mind answering some questions, the name is Jerin by the way" (Jerin)


    So I follow Jerin to his hous and help him with some farm work, I am suprised that they appear not to use manuer or fertilizer of any kind, but refrain from commenting on it.


    After we have worked the fields for a few hours, we head back to his house.


    "I''ll throw in a free meal and a change of clothes as you took the work seriously, thanks for the help" (Jerin)


    "No problem, now then has there been any big news lately? I lived in a rather secluded village and am travelling to learn more about the world" (Xiquey)


    "Well the war with those green freaks has only gotten worse, the increase in goblins nearby probably tipped you off to that though. The ceremony to call heroes from another world should finish up soon so you should keep your eyes peeled for anyone who looks suspicious so that the king can quickly gather them to fight the troll king" (Jerin)


    Okay so there is a war with a troll who rules over goblins and is of similar strength to the human nations, I also may have some superpower considering I am probably one of said summoned heroes.


    "Yeah I spotted quite a few of those green buggers on the way here, as for the heroes I am skeptical that a bunch of strangers will be able to do better than our soldiers who fight for their families and homes" (Xiquey)


    "Because our soldiers don''t grow stronger at 3 times the rate of normal people, I take it that you had friends or family join the army?" (Jerin)


    A good friend yes, he..... died in battle" (Xiquey)


    "Thats a damn shame, not uncommon though, many people have lost people these days" (Jerin)


    "On a less depressing note, does this villiage buy anything from hunters or adventurers? I have some fish to trade if nothing else" (Xiquey)


    "We buy berries, fish, meat, and leather if it is a good enough quality, but stuff like the goblin leather you wore is certainly not high enough quality and no one wants to wear such an ugly green anyway. Our village isn''t large enough for an adventurer guild that would pay for goblin subjugation, but if you head on the north-east road then you will reach one that will " (Jerin)


    "Don''t remind me how terrible I look, if my clothes weren''t torn to shreds I''d never resort to... well... this, are there any particularly dangerous monsters to look out for nearby?" (Xiquey)


    "There is a Goatagon that lives around these parts, but it isn''t carnivorous and won''t cause any problems as long as you don''t go out of your way to get involved with it, you already know about the goblins so you should be as prepared as you can be for the wilds" (Jerin)


    "Alright,also do you need to pay a special tax or entrance fee to enter town?" (Xiquey)


    "Maybe for a big city, but for town you should be able to come and go freely" (Jerin)


    "Thanks for all the information, it has been a great help" (Xiquey)


    "Don''t mention it, and good luck out there, travellers definately need it" (Jerin)


    "That we most certainly do, good luck to you to for your harvest" (Xiquey)


    I change into the clothes Jerin offered meand as comfortable as my old underwear was by comparison I plan to bury it in the forest later to avoid suspicion.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Whos going to notice me having strange underwear? A guy can dream.


    I want to watch some people trade first to get an idea of the market price of goods, but this villiage isn''t large enough for a commercial district so I settle for bartering some fish for a spare change of used clothes and a waterproof pouch to store water in.


    The stone building was a smithy, but anything metal is beyond my current buying capacity.


    I really wanted to ask about magic, how to measure someones rate of growth, and what they name of the kingdom I am in is, but those are super suspicious questions and I think I only barely passed the stranger isn''t a hero test, if I passed it at all.


    I could just reveal my identity and go straight to the king, but I am hesitant to trust and work alongside someone who kidnaps other people to solve their problems. I will probably still intervene in the troll war, but I will do it my way.


    All my clothes smell, but so do I, I bathed in the river but there is no soap and the locals are all clearly putting hygene as low priority.


    There isn''t much to do in the village, but I do want to resupply on fish so that I won''t have to feed on goblin again on my way to town, I also make some more rope and ask some locals how to set up a basic snare before heading off on the road to the town.


    The next time some goblins attack me, I keep one alive and break its limbs to prevent it from resisting and hopefully allow me to attempt communication again, but after breaking both its legs it dies once again showing that ordinarily nonlethal injuries still can kill you here, and I suspect this means injuries that would normally kill you might not depending on the difference in strength between you and your opponent.


    On the second dat of travelling to town, after killing a goblin I feel like my body is lighter and moving about is easier, seems like in addition to passively training your strength you can level up in this world.


    It takes 3 days to reach the town, I kill some more goblins on the way but refrain from skinning them as the villagers viewed wearing goblin leather as a disgusting thing done only when you are desperate.


    I also noticed that my fish didn''t seem to spoil even though I expected them to be rotting by now, it seems food preserves longer here even without salt.


    I have managed to create the tiniest of flames while practicing magic, the flame is smaller than a pebble but it is a start.


    I basically just focused completely on making a fire without considering the more complex details and it finally worked. It is more about the feeling a fire emotionally evokes than an understanding of its composition and properties.


    It has little more use than a fire starter at the moment, but that alone is quite useful and the potential for growth is exhilerating.


    I can walk much farther before getting tired since levelling up, and even noticed I have an easier time noticing when other creatures are around then I used to.


    I enter the gates without anyone even questioning it, and the first thing I notice is how much cleaner people look here than they did in the village, and I am shocked when I look at my hands and see the dirt begin to fade away until it disappears completely.


    Someone went to the trouble of designing a magic system to clean everyone in town, they are a genius even if they don''t recognze how they revolutionized the sanitation of a low technology society.


    I can read the signs of stores without any problems, and from them I learn that this is the Mnairian kingdom when they boast at being the best in that kingdom.


    The market confirms my suspicions about food preservation as none of the stalls have any rotten food on display, and all the fruit is sold at the lowest copper incriments.


    Meat is more expensive as expected considering even without spoilage raising animals is slower than plants, and fish is only barely worth more than fruit.


    I get a few dirty looks for wandering about the marketplace in rags, but I seem to blend in well enough among the other poor folk.


    And then I see the slave district, 90% of the slaves appear to be part animal people, I will call them beastmen until I hear the proper name for them, and I now have a new goal besides stopping the troll king.


    I either need to make this nation abolish slavery via revolution, or establish my own kingdom where slavery is banned and politically pressure the others into adopting the same policy.


    It is depressing that there is nothing I can do to help them at the moment, but I promise myself to do something once I am powerful/influential enough to. For now however, I make my way to the adventurers guild.


    The village isn''t too large and I can read so it only takes me a half hour to find the adventurers guild, it appears to be a large and pure stone building that looks higher quality than the surroundings.


    A couple of advennturers to the side of the building seem to be having a contest to see who can jump the highest as they are all jumping way higher than the room of the building.


    So immature and childish, it looks like fun.


    The interior of the guild was far simpler than I imagined, there are some receptionists and a board with jobs posted, but there is no bar or tables full of boistorous adventurers, nor are there food stands or training centers.


    It is a bit dull if I''m being honest, and I am more that a little dissapointed. There are stairs to higher floors but there seems to be guards posted to prevent entry.


    I walk up to a receptionist to ask how the guild works, one of them is quite pretty but I ask a more plain looking one as the pretty one has a long line of adventurers harrassing, I mean going to her.


    "Hi, my name is Xiquey and I am new around town, my old village wasn''t large enough for a guild so would you mind telling me how it works?" (Xiquey)


    "I wouldn''t mind at all, it is part of my job after all. The guild accepts requests when merchants need an item, or a town needs dangerous monsters dealt with, or other such tasks that require someone who has honed their strength. The guild then gives the jobs to the adventurers at a slightly lowered reward so that the guild can finance itself. Stronger adventurers usually get requested directly but weaker adventurers require the guild for stable work. Anyone can take a job and claim a reward from the guild, but guild membership will allow you to have your strength verified and to reserve a job to complete. If a non member starts a job and a guild member reserves said job then the non member cannot claim their reward. Some jobs like escorts require a verified guild member as well since they require someone to have a certain level of strength. Guild members are also allowed to use the library and training centers on the higher floors, and are also allowed to sleep within the guild where we can guarentee the safety of your items better than low class inns. Membership is 1 silver per month and new members are provided with a basic dagger and armor" (Receptionist)


    "I don''t have the funds to join at the moment, but I do believe I will take a look at some of the job postings, thank you for your time" (Xiquey)


    "Not a problem, it is nice to see someone with manners around here even if they aren''t that..... well off" (Rude receptionist)


    There are a few herb gathering jobs and hobgoblin subjugation jobs, apparently normal goblins are weak enough that it isn''t worth paying people to hunt them, but hobgoblins are desscribed as being a E rank monster. I have no idea what the level of my own strength is as I am not verified and don''t see anyone listing a goblins strength grade. There are some herb picking jobs, but they don''t give a picture of the plant nor decribe how it looks, I try asking these questions to the receptionist but she says that I will need to become a member to find that information in their library.


    The jobs I can take are ones asking for rabbit horns and pest control, I''ve seen the horned rabbits before and they are F+ rank, the pest control job is aking to kill rats in the city and you get a copper for every rat tail you collect. The reward for rabbit horns are 10 copper each. A silver is a hundred copper by the way, so membership isquite a ways away.

 CH3: The hunt

    I am about to head off to hunt rats, when a group of adventurers call me over. They look like teenagers and have 2 males and 2 females in their group, and all of them have badges marked rank F+.


    "Hey new guy, we were about to hunt some hobgoblins, if you come with us then we will let you get 12 copper for every kill." (Adventurer)


    Hobgoblins are worth 1 silver for each nose you bring as proof of killing one, I am clearly getting paid less than even but the deal seems fair enough.


    "Count me in, when and where should we meet to head out" (Xique)


    "We were planning to head out now if that works for you, the name is Delder by the way" (Delder)


    "I am Xiquey, are there any formations or tips I should know?" (Xiquey)


    "Nah, with 5 of us we should be able to gang up on it pretty easily, just make a circle around it and stab from all sides without getting too close. Your spear looks like a piece of crap though, did you just pick it up from the woods?" (Delder)


    "Yeah I whittled it myself, it is enough for killing basic goblins and keeping enemies at a distance" (Xiquey)


    "That won''t be enough for a hobgoblin though, hey Farene mind if newbie borrows your spare spear for the mission?" (Delder)


    "Go ahead, but if he breaks it then he has too pay me back out of his share" (Farene)


    If the spear was too high quality then I''d suspect a setup, but it was just a wood spear with a metal tip, much better than my stick but nothing too fancy.


    We head out of town from a different way then I came in, I take note of the path so I know where to go hunting for hobgoblins if I want to try on my own later.


    There are a couple of fortifications in this direction, and more guards than were on the walls before, this is probably the direction where the war is in,but it is probablyjust a small outcropping in minor contension since I don''t see any massive supply routes or an armies worth of soldiers.


    The names of the group members are the leader Delder, Farene, Delfar, and Mary.


    The rest of the four largely talk among themselves, occasionally asking me questions about my village boy persona while I occasionally ask about their adventuring experiences and whether any of them aspire to be a mage.


    "I want to be an earth mage, they get paid well for construction work that barely requires them to work at all, all I can move for now are pebbles though so don''t expect magic support against the hobgoblin" (Delfar)


    "If your magic was combat ready you''d at least be an E+ rank, no ones gonna mistake you for a combat mage at F+ rank. (Mary)


    Delder seems to be able to track the goblins pretty well from smell and footprints, hobgoblins are apparently easier to track than regular ones because they are bigger and smellier.


    We come across a hobgoblin after a mere 15 minutes in the forest, this one is about 2/3 my height and from a glance it is clearly more muscular than your normal goblin.


    It also has a proper fighting posture and tries to keep moving to avoid being surrounded, the other 4 are much faster than it though so they can easily block its would be esape routes.


    It seems to have noticed I was slower than the others while pursuing, and lunges toward my direction, I position my spear toward its throat but it manages to push off the ground with its feet to back off, I refrain from pursuing and opt to maintain my stance while the others close in around it.


    Once one of the others takes a shot at it and it turns away from me, then I prepare to take a stab at it. The hobgoblin however managed to grab Delfar''s spear and jumps at his throat, I try to stab my spear between the two and hit its stomach while Mary manages to hit the neck I was aiming to intercept. The goblin continues to thrash about despite being stabbed twice, and its claws manage to slash Delfar''s neck before he figures out to drop his spear and retreat, after which the rest of the party stabs the hobgoblin and alternate stabbing it while the others hold it down.


    Delfar is bleeding pretty badly, and he is wrapping himself up while we kill of the hobgoblin. It is pretty clear that had I overcommited on my first attack, that I would be the distraction while the rest hit the hobgoblin, simple stratagy indeed. Although I do question why they would make the rookie mistake that they invite weak meatshields to fill, there are probably tons of gaps in my fighting stance but even I know basic things like not to overcommit when attacking and leaving yourself vulnerable to counters.


    Not to mention how he dlayed abandoning his weapon, that may be important in 1v1 combat, but in a group like ours you can abandon your weapon if you are in a tough spot as long as your foe isn''t in a position they can use it in.


    Delfar turns a bit pale, but he recovers before dying. Rather than scolding his mistake, Delder actually compliments him on his bravery for supporting me before the others, I now have an idea on how this party is set up and as much as I want to call the leader out on it, I would look ungrateful to the others by doing so and would likely lose any claim to the rewards. I thank Delfar and play along but internally I am berating how the party is behaving. I will remember to ask the receptionist if there is a way to report this type of behavior.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I also felt lighter again after the hobgoblin died, I am suprised it was enough to level up again so soon considering it was split 5 ways, but I suppose it was far stronger than I am. We hunt another 4 hobgoblins with more close calls then I feel comfortable with, and I feel like I levelled up at least 2 more times. We head back to the guild and I get paid my share of 60 coppers, I also return Farene''s spear without difficulty. I am asked if I also want to join them tomarrow, but decline saying I have previous plans as I want to quickly distance myself from Delder even if the other party members seem like nice people.


    I can hear some snickering about a newbie begger having other plans, but choose to ignore the redicule.


    I ask the receptionist if the guild has a system to punish people giving bad advise to other adventurers to benefit themselves.


    "Officially the guild''s policy is that it is the fools fault for being fooled, but if you give a more detailed account about the situation then I will see what I can do about advising the party members who are being mislead" (Receptionist)


    I explain the situation with Delder and give the names of the other party members for her to advize, hopefully she can convince them to be more careful in the future.


    I head back to the forest where we hunted and take a hobgoblin thigh bone to craft a new dagger from, and the process is much easier than the first bone dagger I made as it feels like the bone whittles down easier than before, despite clearly still being a sturdier material when I test it on some trees.I place my new dagger in my pouch to hide it from people who might be suspicious of someone with a bone dagger, and move to a different section of forest on the opposite side of the hobgoblin area to sleep for the night as I don''t want to pay for an inn, none of the ones in my price range have a proper bed anyway.


    I wake up to being attacked again as a large beetle the size of my arm has bit my leg. I lift my leg up to stab it underneath the shell and kill it rather quickly. I practice my fire magic by burning the corpse to sooth my anger caused by the massive pain.


    My leg heals quickly like usual, and I head back toward town. I notice a bear along the way and make a large detour to avoid fighting it. I practice my fire magic while in the woods but avoid using it when I am in or near town as I don''t want people to catch on to my rate of progression and discover I am a hero. I am also still trying to figure out how to use other magic than just fire, but have had no luck so far.


    When I reach town I ask around about rat problems, and am told to just look in alleyways to try my luck as most people won''t trust you enough to invite you into their house or store to hunt rats, which is probably why this city has a rat problem in the first place.


    It also doesn''t help that when I do go hunting in the alleyways, the rats often climb into holes in the nearby buildings where I cannot chase them to. I only have success when I set up some snares with rope and place some chopped up fish as bait.


    I set up these snares in only 2 alleyways that I can watch at the same time as the rats can chew through the rope if I don''t kill them quickly after being trapped.


    I am able to kill 10 rats this way after changing locations 4 times, but this is clearly a terrible way to make money as it would barely be enough money to rent a poor roomfor the day even without meals.


    I sleep in the woods again without a suprise wake up this time, and head to a nearby river I heard about to fish as it is a better way to make money than rat hunting. It is also easier to practice magic while fishing as I don''t need to be too concerned with people watching me.


    I can now make a fire about the size of a candle flame for a minute before it fades away, still only usable as a fire starter but it is much better than the spark I started with. I also can also barely make a ripple in the river water now with the most basic water magic.


    I am able to catch 40 fish by the end of the day, each one is worth about 2 coppers so I sell 30 of them and keep the rest for food, I also buy some fruit and bread to expand my diet from just fish.


    I head over to the adventurer guild to apply for membership, the prettier receptionist has the longer line like usual, and I head over to the same receptionist I have been using so far.


    "I''d like to apply for membership please" (Xiquey)


    "Do you have a silver to pay for the memnership fee?" (Receptionist)


    "No, but I do have 100 coppers if you dont mind counting" (Xiquey)


    She makes a disgruntled face that doesn''t approve of my sarcasm when it is increasing her work load, but she counts up the coppers and pulls out a sheet of paper.


    "This is the contract for your guild membership, just read it through and sign your name at the bottom. I already told you most of what the contract says before, but be advised that guild members are obligated to mobilize in the case of a nearby monster invasion" (Receptionist)


    That''s an important tidbit she left out when explaining the benefits before, then again detriments are usually left out of sales pitches. I read it through and there don''t seem to be any legal traps or loopholes, and the terms are acceptible enough so I sign on. It is mentioned that if I continue wearing my badge without paying to renew my membership after the term is over, that I can be arrested for fraud.


    I am handed a wooden tablet and told to head up the stairs to have my strength evaluated before giving me a badge.


    The guard at the stairs gives me a nod when I show the wooden tablet, and he gives me directions to the training sector where I will be tested. The second floor is much nicer than the first one, and this one has the tables full of adventurers with food and drink and the lively atmosphere I was looking forward to. I also notice that the request board up here has a lot more higher level missions that weren''t on the first floor.


    The training center has several sectioned off corridors, and is made of a different material than the rest of the building although I can''t recognize what it is. I walk up to a table with a sign saying evaluations over it and show my wooden tablet.


    "Do you have any magic or special abilities you wish to test?" (Desk worker)


    "No" (Xiquey)


    "What is the strongest monster you have fought?" (Desk worker)


    "A hobgoblin, but I was in a team of 5 adventurers and didn''t face it alone" (Xiquey)


    "What is your preferred weapon?" (Desk worker)


    "Dagger" (Xiquey)


    An examiner walks out and asks me to follow her into one of the corridors.


    I am handed a wooden dagger and asked to spar with her, I lose completely but she mostly just dodged my attacks to analyze my speed and technique, it was clear that she was far stronger from the beggining and I was only hit a few times to see how long it took me to recover.


    I am handed a badge that labels me as F rank, and when I ask how strong goblins are as a base line I am told that they are G- rank and one of the weakest creatures that are classified as a monster.


    Its about time I hit the library for a day or 3 to learn some of this worlds common sense.