Chapter 8. Good Food for Adventurers — Part One

Chapter 8. Good Food for Adventurers — Part One

[Quest No. 18 completed.
Gained +800,000 EXP.]

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[Quest No. 19 completed.
Gained +900,000 EXP.]

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[Quest No. 20 completed.
Gained +1,000,000 EXP.]

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[Quest No. 21 completed.
Gained +1,500,000 EXP.]

[Status]

[Name: Alisar
[Level: 35
EXP: 70,610/820,000
Rank: 2]

HP: 3,890 (+840)
MP: 5,100 (+2240)

Strength: 141 (+28)
Defense: 127 (+28)
Speed: 121 (+28)
Intelligence: 130 (+28)
Magic Power: 125 (+28)
Magic Defense: 255 (+28) (+140)

Free Attribute Points: 0 (+56) (-140)

Skills: —

Special Skills:
• Training Room (Rank 2)
• Alchemy (Rank 1)]

At last, I reached Level 35.

It feels better than ever. I’ve never felt this strong or this full of energy.

I dumped all my free attribute points into Magic Defense. Basically, my goal is to increase my mana pool, and I only had three stats to choose from: Intelligence, Magic Power, and Magic Defense.

Since I don’t have any offensive magic and can’t use spells at all, raising Magic Defense seems the most sensible right now. Double benefit: not only does my max MP go up, but my resistance to magic attacks rises too.

Completing these four quests took me four days.

Well—only by how it felt, as always. After each quest, I decided to rest a bit longer, and each time it ended with me falling asleep.

In total I dozed off four times—that’s how I got my “four days.”

Back on the first day I moved the bed from my room at the Adventurers’ Guild into the training room. The grass mattress I made in the ravine had long since dried out and turned stiff, irritating my skin whenever I lay on it.

So I just decided to move the bed temporarily—I’ve got every right to do that.

Right now I took a break and decided to get some air—step out into the guild’s inner yard.

The fact I wanted to get some air in the guild yard has nothing to do with fatigue. These days, I have no problems with fatigue—it’s solved easily with a health potion. One swig and the tiredness vanishes like it was never there.

And at the moment I don’t have much trouble with potions. When my mana fully recovers, I can craft five health potions. Of course I don’t chug them mindlessly; I use them only when I feel heavy fatigue. I just create a potion and drink it—poof, the fatigue is gone.

Considering my mana refills by about a thousand points every three hours, I can essentially afford one health potion every three hours. Thanks to that, heavy fatigue barely ever builds up.

Of course, that only applies to physical tiredness. Even if I feel great, I still get sleepy after a potion. And honestly, even if a potion did let me go without sleep, that would be a nightmare. Thankfully, it doesn’t interfere with sleep, and I can rest normally. It’d be awful if I couldn’t fall asleep after drinking one. Working physically for 10–15 hours straight is one thing; doing the same thing nonstop for 100–150 hours is another. Anyone would go nuts. Sleep is a crucial part of the human body… or rather, the brain. You can’t replace it—with potions or with magic. I’m sure of it. Well, at least I think so. Maybe some people disagree.

The main reason I stopped is that the food I bought at the general store is almost gone. And I can’t buy more right now—I’ve only got 74 copper coins left. Not much you can do with that.

On top of that, here’s the main drawback of my skill—the training room—again. Though it felt like about four days to me, outside only around three hours passed. Yeah, it’s been roughly three hours since I sold the old man at the guild those health potions and magic stones, then stocked up at the general store. If I show up to sell more potions and stones this soon, it’ll look odd.

Worse, the old man might just get mad, thinking I’m wasting his time—didn’t sell everything at once, then pop back three hours later with another batch.

So I decided to wait at least until tomorrow evening. In that time I’ll make a few more potions—five or six, I think—and gather more magic stones, so I can cash out a decent sum at once and buy food properly. And I’ll pay for my room a week in advance while I’m at it. Yeah, that’s my plan: stay here at least a week and sell a few potions each day.

I also plan to buy a proper water container. This little canteen is driving me crazy—the water runs out too fast and I have to keep leaving the training room to refill it at the well in the yard. Good thing almost no one’s ever there, because from the outside it would look weird: to other people it’d seem like I’m hauling water to my room every couple of minutes.

I stepped into the inner yard and headed for the wooden practice swords. There were a few dozen of them, neatly racked. I grabbed one at random… What? Why is it so light? Like it’s made of foam. I thought it was wood.

I swung it a couple times, then harder. Strangely, with a strong swing there was a sharp whistle—the blade cut the air so hard the sound was loud and crisp. I even worried it might snap.

Not long ago, in Quest Twenty-One, a new training type appeared—“sword swing.” When I started that quest, the system handed me a sword that felt like metal, only with a blunt edge. It was heavy, and a hundred swings with it were real work. Compared to that, this wooden sword feels like a toy. Or… did I really get that much stronger?

Logically, of course, a wooden sword is lighter than a metal one, but still—this is too light.

I tried a straight-up jump… and froze. “Damn, I can jump that high?!” I pushed off harder and soared like no basketball player ever could.

Yeah, it’s weird. But it makes sense. I am Level 35 now.

I just hadn’t noticed before—during quests the gravity ramps up and I feel like an ordinary guy again. Now, without that artificial weight, I can finally feel the real difference. My strength, speed, and agility really are on another level.

I mean, I’d noticed it before too—gravity intensifies during quests. And when a quest ends, I feel stronger. But I’d never tried using that strength outside the training room.

All right, one more time. I started working the blade through different motions. A leaping strike… Man, this is fun! I tried to imitate moves from when I “played heroes” as a kid, but now everything came out an order of magnitude better.

Looks like I got a little carried away. Without the increased gravity, I can move faster and barely get tired. Way easier than during quests.

While I was practicing various cuts and tricks, I suddenly heard voices—someone entered the corridor. I stopped at once. The inner yard is in full view from the corridor, and I didn’t want anyone to catch me playing around like a kid with a sword. Hopefully they didn’t notice.

Welp… I’ll just drill normal sword strikes. No “circus.”

I guess I really did get absorbed in it: I didn’t notice how a few hours slipped by. The sun was already dipping, painting the yard in warm gold.

I was hoping those people would simply head to their rooms. Just pass by and go—but… that didn’t happen.

The door to the inner yard opened, and three boys came out one after another. They were clearly younger than me—sixteen, seventeen at most.

“Oh, someone new!” the first one said when he spotted me.

“You new here?” he asked, stepping a little closer.

“Yeah, I registered just today,” I said.

“Oh, cool! If you need anything, I can teach you a bit, if you’re into the sword,” he said, nodding at the wooden blade in my hand.

“Well, that wouldn’t hurt,” I replied with a small smile.

“Hey, don’t bother him while he’s training,” the second boy cut in.

“I’m not bothering him! I’m just offering help,” the first protested.

“Help? What, you? You barely know how to use a sword yourself,” the second said with a smirk.

“Hey, don’t sell me short! Maybe I’m not that good now, but one day I’ll be the greatest swordsman in human history! My name will live in legend!” the first boy declared proudly, puffing out his chest.

“Don’t mind him,” the second said. “We won’t get in your way. We’re going to practice too.”

“By the way, I’m Tom,” he introduced himself. “And this proud rooster is Sam.”

“Hey!” Sam protested.

“And the quiet one is Ben,” Tom finished, ignoring his friend.

“Alisar,” I introduced myself.

“Nice to meet you, Alisar. If you don’t mind, you can join us. We’re exactly one person short. When two spar, the third just sits around waiting his turn. This way it’ll be a lot more useful for you than waving a sword alone,” Tom said.

He had a point. What I’d been doing—swinging at imaginary enemies—probably wasn’t all that useful.

Yeah, I should agree.

“Sure, I’d be glad to,” I said.

“Awesome! We can get a solid session in before dinner,” Sam said with obvious enthusiasm.

Five minutes later I was standing across from Sam. Tom and Ben took the other side of the yard.

“Ready? Don’t worry, I won’t hit you hard. In fact, I’ll show you how to fight with a sword properly,” Sam said.

“I hope so,” I replied.

Yeah, I really didn’t want to get beaten for real. Even a wooden sword can hurt plenty.

“Begin!” Sam shouted and dashed in. His swing looked confident—way better than my own motions. But dodging the strike wasn’t hard.

“Whoa! You dodged me? Not bad…” Sam said, eyes lighting up. “Now try this!”

He shifted stance sharply and attacked from the side. But I blocked him without much trouble.

Weird… the move looked fairly polished, but at the very start of his attack it seemed to slow a little.

“Well, you blocked that too…” Sam snorted. “You’re pretty good. All right, now you try attacking me. I’ll show you how to block properly. Use your best attack form. Don’t hold back,” he said with a grin.

Well… I don’t really have a special form. I’ll just attack like I’m used to.

I raised the sword. The most basic swing. The simplest strike, but I decided to put everything I had into it.

I lunged and brought the blade down at Sam. He smirked, clearly not expecting anything serious. But the instant our swords met—with a dull thump echoing through the yard—his smirk vanished.

Sam staggered back two steps, barely keeping his feet, and the sword still slipped from his hands, dropping to the ground with a thud. He stared at his palms in shock, opening and closing his fingers.

“Holy crap, man! How strong are your hits?!” he gasped. “You almost broke my hand!”

“Ah—sorry. I misjudged my strength,” I said.

“It’s fine. I did tell you to go all out,” Sam chuckled, rubbing his wrists. “I just didn’t expect you to be that strong.”

Tom and Ben, who’d been sparring nearby, stopped and came over. Tom looked at me, surprised.

“Impressive… You handled Sam that easily,” he said with a stunned smile. “I thought you were just a newbie.”

“Hey! I didn’t lose! That was just a warm-up!” Sam objected, picking his sword off the ground.

“No, you lost,” Tom replied calmly. “If this were a real fight, you’d already be dead.”

“Ha! If it were real, I wouldn’t lose!” Sam insisted stubbornly.

Tom just smirked and waved it off.

“All right, enough. Ben wants a go with you,” he said, glancing at the quiet one. “He wants to try sparring.”

“Hey, I’m not done yet!” Sam flared.

“No—you lost,” Tom repeated, in a tone that brooked no argument.

“…Fine,” Sam grumbled. “Next time. We’ll go again after this.”

Sparring with Ben turned out much tougher than with Sam. He moved fast and clean—no trash talk, no showboating. Several chained attacks came one after another, and I couldn’t dodge a single one. I felt like one more push and I wouldn’t be able to keep blocking his strikes.

After another flurry, Ben eased back a couple steps, giving me the chance to go on offense. He was clearly waiting for my attack.

I attacked Ben the same way I had Sam—with a simple strike, but with everything I had behind it. He took it on his wooden sword. He stepped back a pace, but didn’t drop his weapon like Sam. I hit him again, and again, and again. On the fifth clash there was a crack—at the point of impact with Ben’s blade, my sword snapped.

Yeah, wood isn’t the toughest stuff.

“I lost,” I said.

“No,” Ben said. It was the first time he’d spoken in my presence. He took his own blade, flexed it slightly—and it split in two with ease. Looked like after my last hit both swords were done for.

Ben tossed the pieces aside and started opening and closing his hands. Damn… blood had welled up on his palms.

“Sorry—I didn’t think and hit with full force,” I said honestly.

“It’s fine. That was an excellent match,” Ben answered evenly.

“If you want, I can give you a health potion,” I offered.

“Hey, don’t waste resources on something petty,” Tom cut in. “Save them for yourself. Little injuries like that are nothing. We get worse than that in training every day.”

“Got it,” I stepped back. Yeah, looks like it really wasn’t a problem for them.