Chapter 35: Rumors of our Hero
"Hm?"
We were about an hour from our next destination and I was inside the carriage working when I noticed there was an odd noise.
It sounded like there was heavy breathing coming from beside the carriage. I poked my head out and saw a man with a frantic expression running with a carrier bag in one hand.
"What's the hurry?"
Satisfying your curiosity at a time like this is a secret to getting into some profitable negotiations.
"Hey, you, what's wrong?"
"I need to hurry back, to the Mountain Side Village...."
"You need to get to Mountain Side Village in a hurry?"
It seems that his mother had collapsed due to a disease and the man had gone to get medicine. He was now hurrying back and had caught up to Firo.
"Yes. Every second counts."
I heard the situation of the man who was sprinting at full strength next to the carriage the was thumping along.
Hmm...in terms of distance, it would usually cost about 50 copper coins for transport...
"Firo, if you ran at full speed could you get there fast?"
"Ummmm. If I could run without pulling the carriage I could get there even faster."
"Got it."
I met Raphtalia's eyes and, she might have read what I was thinking, she nodded.
"For 1 silver coin I'll carry you there."
"Eh!?"
The man's expression changed to surprise.
"But just buying the medicine cost all of my money..."
"I don't mind if it's something that is worth 1 silver coin. Medicine or even having you pay afterward is fine. Though if you don't pay I won't forgive you."
"I-In that case..."
"Alright, we have a deal. Firo!"
"Okaaay!"
Firo quickly put on the brakes and stopped the carriage on the roadside and looked back at me.
I then road on Firo's back and caught up to the man and picked him up.
"Uwaa!"
The man was surprised and grabbed onto Firo with both hands as she set out at full speed.
Raphtalia waved her hand at us from the carriage.
"Let's go!"
"Yeah!!"
Thudthudthud!
Firo's full speed, even without changing to her weird owl form, was pretty fast.
She could go twice as fast as the average filolial.
"Th-this is so fast..."
"It's more important to get your mother to drink that medicine right. Don't drop it."
"Ye-yes!"
The man went into his house. I followed after him inside. I still hadn't gotten my payment after all.
Coming up to it, it was a regular rural commoner house.
As I entered inside I heard someone coughing.
"Mother, I have the medicine. Please drink it slowly."
I walked toward the voice and saw the man trying to get an old woman who had a pale face and looked like was could die at any time drink the medicine.
What kind of medicine is that? It seemed that it was more effective than any medicine that I knew.
Hmm...
"Hey. I'll get her to drink it, so why don't you go boil some water and make something that will give her energy."
"Is that okay?"
"No problem, I'll think of it as part of getting you here."
I took the medicine from the man, held the old woman up, supporting her back, and had her drink it.
...hopefully the effective medicine skill I unlocked before will activate.
"Cough...cough..."
The old woman managed to keep the medicine in her mouth and swallow it down.
A soft light rose from her then faded away.
It seemed like it was effective.
Looking at her, I felt like the old woman's condition was getting better. Her pale face started regaining color, and the amount of coughing went down a little.
"Just rest for now, your son will bring you something to eat soon."
The old woman shakily looked up at me and then lied down.
"Right then."
I left the room with the old woman behind and went up to the man.
"Ah, did she drink it?"
"Yeah, it seems like her condition has settled down too."
At my reply the man looked relieved and the tension left his shoulders.
"I'll be back later so make sure to pay me."
"Yes."
I left the man's house, climbed onto the waiting Firo and returned to where we left the carriage.
After we got back to the village, the man came out to meet us with a somewhat tense expression.
"Umm..."
"What is it?"
I answered the man while gathering up the goods we would peddle and unloading the items we were carrying for people.
"My mother's condition is remarkably improving, um, exactly who are you?"
"If you don't already know me then you don't need to."
If he did know then he would probably just think of my bad reputation, and I'm sure he would look at me with distrust.
"If I could at least get your name."
"I have no reason to give it to you. The medicine worked fine right? More importantly go get me 1 silver coin or something worth that much."
"Y-yes!"
The man bought some things from inside his house, food.
"Well, this seems to be enough. Alright then, if we meet again I'll look forward to your patronage."
"Yes! Really, thank you very much!"
The man's face was kind of beaming.
By the way, the next time we visited this village. The man's mother had become a healthy...I guess it's going too far to say she had become a too healthy old woman.
And so I continued hiding in the carriage, preparing medicine and advancing my way through the intermediate recipe book.
The intermediate recipe book was easier to decipher than the magic book so I didn't have wrestle with it as much.
When I finally managed to decipher the remedy recipe I felt pretty tired.
Thinking about, up until now I haven't really tried to study.
A lot happened this month so I forgot about him, but if I manage to survive and meet my brother it might be good to say something to him.
"Naofumi-sama, we've finished our sales here."
We arrived at this village a little after noon, and it was now evening.
"What about luggage and letters to carry to the next village?"
"I've gathered them."
I got down from the carriage and loaded the luggage onto it.
Luggage that one can entrust to an unknown peddler can't amount to much.
It's mostly cheap stuff that they wouldn't miss if it was stolen.
Even then we're earning money so it doesn't really matter.
Like this, we went from village to village, city to city, peddling.
For people who wanted remedies, we had them drink it right away and show the better than usual effectiveness.
After about two weeks, we started becoming well known in the area as a jack of all trades shop with an odd monster.
Becoming famous means that we gained trust, and the number people who would get a ride on the cart increased.
As a result our profits started trending upwards.
There were several advantages to traveling and peddling like this.
First, we can sell the medicine I make while we're on the move.
Next, we can defeat the monsters that appear while we're travelling and I can increase the types of shields I can use. Well, they're mostly just status up shields though.
I knew this before we started, but the type of monster you encounter really depends on what region you're in.
Even if they're weak monsters, if I absorb them into my shield I become stronger, so, for me, it should be fine to think of this peddling journey as a success.
Also, we can get a lot of different information.
I became able to guess the bases and activities of the other heroes: Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki, who I didn't really know about before now.
Motoyasu seemed to be focusing on traveling around in the region southwest of the castle town. Listening to the stories, it sounded like he had saved a village suffering from famine by releasing the seal on a legendary type of crop. For the most part, he was probably relying on the knowledge he had from that game he played.
Ren was based in the area to the southeast of the castle, but it seemed like he tended to go wherever there were ferocious monsters. There were some rumors about him, like how he had subdued a ferocious dragon in the east region.
As for Itsuki...I wasn't sure what his aim was but the rumor was that he had joined up with adventurers visiting from Melromarc in a small country to the north. There he joined with the resistance and defeated the terrifying ruler who was abusing his authority.
It's just, I didn't really get why Itsuki was missing some crucial materials. (!) All I could get was vague talk about how the adventures with bows were the strongest, or that they reminded Itsuki of something.
I guess I can look at it as things happening similarly to the four heroes book I read before coming to this world but...
Well, like that we continued our journey on the carriage.
The result was that after 2 weeks our levels had grown to:
Me Lv34
Raphtalia Lv37
Firo Lv32
...It might have been because she was a monster but Firo's rise in levels was abnormal.
At this point her physical ability was remarkable. She had been pulling the cart with both hands (wings?), but now she could pull it with one hand while yawning.
Of course I warned her about it, but she said
"The carriage is so light that I'm losing motivation.."
Well, whatever.
The shields I unlocked were mainly, as expected, status up types or resistance types.
The more notable ones were"
Pickaxe Shield
Ability unlocked...equipment bonus, mining skill 1
Crystal Ore Shield
Ability unlocked...equipment bonus, crafting skill 1
I happened to find, as we were arriving at a mining town, a broken pickaxe left by the roadside and a low-quality crystal ore that had been thrown away, and unlocked these shields by absorbing them into my shield.
These two skills should be good for making money, but for now I don't have enough information to try using them.
When I tried polishing some of the crystal ore, it turned into a split in half trash rock, so it's likely that I need some kind of recipe or something.
If the first place, I still had to read the intermediate recipe book I got from the medicine shop.
As expected after two weeks I had finished deciphering it. I had been staring at it for almost 3 weeks so the was no way I couldn't read it at this point.
Antidote
Herbicide
Heal ointment
Remedy (Already made)
Nutrient (Already made)
Gunpowder
Strong acid
Magic water
Spirit healing medicine
Insecticide
After deciphering this much I had finished the book. These were the basics of the intermediate level. It seemed that the effectiveness of the medicine would change based on what else you mixed into it.
It seemed kind of vague, but I understand because they're average recipes the medicine shop gave it to me for free.
After getting that far, I went ahead and let my shield absorb the intermediate medicine recipe book.
The shield that came out was this.
Book Shield
Ability unlocked...equipment bonus, magic up (small)
Yeah. It would've been bad to carelessly let it be sucked in thinking the intermediate recipes would come out naturally. I would've been wasting someone's good will.
On top of that, the defensive power was incredibly low.
And so, this happened on the day after I had finished deciphering the intermediate recipes.
A monster called a Trent showed up, and we went ahead and defeated it and had the shield absorb it.
Trent Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, plant appraisal 2
Blue Trent Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, intermediate mixing recipe 1
Black Trent Shield
True power sealed...equipment bonus, amateur mixing
Am I being bullied?
Isn't it horrible that these came out after I finished deciphering!?
The only consolation is that the shield only has the recipes up to heal ointment. Mostly likely, since last time it was the Mush monster, plant-type monsters are materials for the shields that have recipes.
If recipe 2 and 3 come out next I'm going to cry.
For the antidote, herbicide, and heal ointment recipes they could be made out of herbs that I knew of, but for gunpowder and below I didn't know where the materials were.
For a medicine shop, the addition of gunpowder would be useful, so I tried testing out herbs that burned easily with sparks for making gunpowder.
It made a powder like substance...like burned up ashes. To test it out I filled a small bag to make a bomb.
After lighting it and trying to throw it like I was tossing it at an enemy,
a spark of pain flew through me and I dropped it at my feet and panicked. Well, it didn't really burn up enough to call it a bomb.
The fact that I couldn't even use items like bombs to attack made me go past frustration to just being impressed.
Strong acid was kept in a glass bin, it seemed like it was a water-like substance a little less acidic than sulfuric acid.
This wasn't actually medicine, it was made by combining ore unique to this world with water....apparently.
I hadn't made it yet so I can't say anything for sure, but there must be wrong with the people who would want this, so I'm considering making just to add it to my shield.
If you drink magic water it will quickly restore your magic. However. the materials for it are scarce so getting them would be difficult.
They also sell for a high price at medicine stores. Rather than making this it might be better just to sell them.
In the same way, spirit healing medicine has the effect of restoring your SP, and the materials are, as expected, also scarce. Getting them would be difficult.
Insecticide was simple. You just mix together insect repellent herbs and dissolve them in water.
The new items we could sell would probably be antidotes, heal ointments, and insecticide.
However, if we consider the fact that you can get a lot of herbicide out of a few ingredients then it might be worth selling.
I let my shield absorb a bit of the surplus.
The requirements for the Anti-poison Shield have been released.
The requirements for the Glyhosate[1] Shield have been released.
The requirements for the Medicine Shield have been released.
The requirements for the Plant Fire Shield have been released.
The requirements for the Killer Insect Shield α have been released.
Anti-poison Shield True power sealed....equipment bonus, defense power 5
Glyhosate Shield
True power sealed....equipment bonus, attacks from plant types 5% down
Medicine Shield
True power sealed....equipment bonus, medicine effect range up (small)
Plant Fire Shield
True power sealed....equipment bonus, fire resistance (small)
Killer Insect Shield α
True power sealed....equipment bonus, attacks from insect types 3% down
I think the Anti-poison Shield's skill would probably originally have been poison resistance (medium), but I already unlocked that from the Chimera Viper Shield, so it changed.
It looks like when there are overlapping skills the most effective one overwrites the old ones.
The Medicine Shield has something about a range expansion, but I'm not sure what range it's referring to.
It's either the range a single medicine can be used at or the range that a medicine effects.
I feel like the latter would be way too convenient.
It's unknown if the Plant Fire Shield has any meaning for me, since I take most magic attacks without any damage.
What the heck is Glyhosate? It does sound like something you would use on plants. Killer Insect Shield α probably means if I mix the right ingredients I'll get a β version.
The effects are that against certain types the attack power and damage will be lowered. I think it's a pretty useful skill.
The problem now is deciphering the magic book.
This is going to be pretty difficult.
It seems like Raphtalia has recently gotten the hang of it, she use similar magic even if she hasn't learned it yet.
A ball of light floated in front of Raphtalia for a few seconds.
Because of the hero's pride, I can't afford to lose.
So, after Raphtalia had gone to sleep, I tried asking Firo who could use transformation magic.
I don't know if you can actually call that magic, but I asked her while feeling like I was grasping at straws.
"Umm. Power rushes up from deep inside with a squeeze and I go Bam! and think 'Become what I want to be'."
Yeah. I don't get it.
I get get that she not really thinking while she's doing it.
It seems like like magic isn't something you can use just because you can read the words.
Since I'm from a world without magic, I kind of felt like saying I can't use it and running away.
Even then, I have to learn magic.
Not just to respect the old lady at the magic shop's good will, but in order to live.
It won't really be a problem if I don't prepare for fighting the wave. I don't know what will happen on the day of distortion, so protecting the villages and towns in the area is the perfect job for me. With that in mind the difference between being able to use magic or not will at some point matter.
I also have the option of buying crystal balls, but if I want to use it cheaply, then it's obvious learning from the book would be better.
That's why recently I've taken to muttering inside the carriage while holding the magic book in one hand.
According to Raphtalia, I have to use magic power to activate the words in the book and tune my soul to it. Just like Firo it was basically difficult to explain.
It seemed like it was easier to understand than Firo's explanation, but what the heck is magic power? Is it another sense?
Ah, there's no use in letting questions go in a loop in my head.
Well, this is what the outcome of those 2 weeks was like.
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