Chapter 18

Waking up, I heard somebody knocking on my door, then someone’s voice.

“Hey Nyx, are you okay?”

Recognizing the voice to be Rain’s voice asking me if I was okay, I groan getting up. Everything hurts from pushing my body to its limits yesterday. I really didn’t want to get out of bed but with much effort I got up.

I’m starting to regret my decision to fight the direwolf if it would be this hard to get up from my cozy bed.

Yawning then rubbing my eyes, I wonder why she is here, knocking the door and what not.

“Ya ya, I’m coming”

Standing up, my body felt lethargic and sore all over. My left arm, compared to yesterday, was healing way faster than I expected but still in a condition where I couldn’t use it.

I sluggishly make my way to the door and open it.

“Hi there Rain, what brings you here”

I saw Rain had a relieved expression seeing me.

“You didn’t come to our meeting spot. I waited for a while but you didn’t show up, I was worry something happen to you so I came to your room”

I look back out at the window in my room to see the sun was high up in the sky, realizing that I slept in and it was noon already.

“Oh, sorry. I guess I slept in, sorry for making you worry”

“Thank goodness, and how are your injuries?"

“Fine I guess. Just give me a minute to me to get ready”

I closed the door and took a while to change into new clothes, struggling since my left arm was still broken. When I was done, I felt like I had forgotten something.

Oh right, I looked around my room to find where I left the 2 vials of potions Maria gave me. She told me to drink them once a day, in which my left arm and other injuries should be healed.

I found them on a tiny table next to my bed, I uncorked one of them and drank it.

After drinking the potion, I bought Rain and myself a sandwich for lunch since it was the afternoon and I was hungry. Then we went to the guild, eating our sandwiches on the way.

I noticed that the air of the town was different. It wasn’t as bustling as usual, there was this sense of unease and impatience in the air.

When we entered the guild building, I saw that it was way more crowded than usual. A lot of adventurers were inside, they were either chatting, eating, or looking at the request board.

I’d ask the closest adventurer on what was going on.

“You haven’t heard? A direwolf attacked a party yesterday, so the guild put out a temporary travel ban, in and out of town”

I see, no wonder the town feels a bit different today.

“Is there anything else?”

“Well…”

The guy rubbed his chin and said.

“I heard rumors that a newbie managed to take it down. If it’s true, then I wonder who they are?”

“Who they are"

“Ya, it's a shame that the guild is hiding their identity, I really wanted to invite them into my party"

So then, I guess I owe Emma for that.

I thanked the guy and waited in line for Emma’s booth with Rain.

“People are talking about you”

Rain whispers into my ear and I whisper back.

“Thankfully the guild didn’t announce who killed the dire wolf”

“You really don’t want people to know?”

“Yes, got my reasons”

“Oh, right”

After 10 minutes of waiting in line, it was our turn but Emma wasn’t in her booth today.

I saw a dark brown-haired woman with glasses, who looked to be in her early 20s, in Emma’s booth.

“Hello, I’m Mai, how may I help you?”

“Hi, is Emma here today?”

“Yes but unfortunately she is unavailable right now. May I ask for your name, I could write a message for you to give to her”

“My name is Nyx”

After I gave her my name, she stared at us for a bit and spoke in realization.

“Oh, you must be Nyx, Emma asked me to send you to her if you come by today.”

Emma must have informed Mai about me for some reason.

“Okay, which room is it”

“The top floor, at the end of the hallway”

We follow her directions to where the guild master office should be.

When we entered the office, we saw Emma was laying her face flat on a giant desk that had large piles of documents stacked on it, while clutching a feather pen in her right hand.

Is she okay?

“Emma”

Rain ran toward Emma when she didn’t respond to Rain’s call. Checking if she was okay, Emma immediately woke up and looked at her surroundings.

“Oh, Rain, Nyx, it's you."

“Are you okay?"

“uggghhh… no, Nyx. There’s so much paperwork, I stayed up all night trying to complete it. Sorry Rain, I couldn’t come home yesterday”

She looks like a mess, I could see her hair is all disheveled and there’s heavy bags under her eyes.

That dead expression looked very familiar. It was one that my commander always made in my past life. Whenever he had stacks of paperwork and reports to do, he always made that expression. He looked especially dead whenever we came back after completing a mission.

Anyways, why is Emma in the guild masters office?

“Isn’t Cade supposed to be here?”

“Yes, usually Cade does most of the paper work, in addition to mine since I usually dump most of it onto him”

“What?”

She dumps most of her paperwork onto him? I ask her to clarify.

“I just really hate paperwork so I dump it onto him”

I kinda felt bad for Cade, that was a surprise but no wonder he says he was always cooped up in his office.

Also, isn’t Cade supposed to be her boss? That is really scary when you think about it, I wouldn’t have even thought of doing that with my commander.

“Right now he is looking for the direwolf pack. He has already found tracks, so it won’t take too long for him to deal with them”

I wonder if I could join in the fight but I doubt my arm will heal by the time. That’s a real shame, if it weren't for my left arm being injured, I would have loved to join in the action.

One direwolf was already fun enough but I wonder if a whole pack would be even more fun.

For some reason I noticed that Rain was shuddering for some reason.

Unbeknownst to me, Rain was having goosebumps, sensing that the edges of my lip was about to curl into a grin from thinking about fighting a pack of direwolves, but was stopped when Emma asked me a question.

“So what brings you up here?”

“I don’t know, but the receptionist downstairs told us to come to you”

“Oh right, I'd forgotten about that."

Emma pulled out two small pouches out of a drawer on her right and gave them to us.

“This is the reward money for yesterday”

“Reward money? But I wasn’t part of the quest”

“You’ve saved the lives of those adventurers and prevented the situation from getting worse, anyone who helps gets the reward money”

Receiving the pouch, I opened it and counted 15 large bronze coins inside.

“Huh, that is a lot”

“Well ya, it was an emergency quest. And by the way, could you give me your Adventurer card for a second”

I gave her my adventurer card, and Emma pulled something out from another drawer on the left side of the desk.

I recognize that it was the same device when Emma rank up my Adventurer’s rank to a E rank

“Since you killed the direwolf on your own, you can rank up to D rank”

When she said I could skip a rank, I was really surprised by what she said. Normally the only way you could skip a rank is if you have the recommendations of multiple high level adventurers, then go through an examination test. It was only used for convenience for people who have the skills to be at that rank so they don’t have to grind their way up.

“You can skip a rank since you already prove that you have the skills and ability to do so. Please don’t mention this to other people, you can guess why we don’t”

I see why, there are always going to be people who are going to overestimate their ability and they end up getting themselves killed.

Emma put my card on the device like last time, for it to turn into an iron color. Then she handed it back to me.

I look at my card to see it glowed and show that I’m now a D rank now.

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

“Ya”

The reason I came to the adventurers guild today was because Cade told me he would help transport the direwolf I'd killed, so I wanted to ask Emma for further information.

“I was wondering if where the direwolf I’d kill was, Cade told me he would help move it”

“Oh that, it's in the storage room in the basement. What do you want to do with it”

“Can I see it? I haven’t figured out what I am going to do with it yet”

“That's fine by me. Any excuse to not do anymore paperwork”

Emma took some time to straighten out her hair and lead us downstairs to the basement, where we encountered Mable carrying some books back to the library.

“Hello Emma, Nyx, and you are?”

“Oh hi, I’m Rain”

“Hello Rain, I’m Mable, the librarian”

Mable then turned and faced me.

“Is he one of your party members?”

“Ya”

“And what happened to your arm?”

“Injured in a fight but you don’t have to worry about it”

We chatted for a bit on what I was doing the last few days.

“I see, I hope you recover fast. Also, are you going to come visit the library today?”

“Probably tomorrow, sorry but I’m a bit busy today”

I’m planning to go to Kinwall’s shop today because my fight with the direwolf left my sword in a bad shape and I used up all my throwing knives and spikes.

“Okay then, see you tomorrow”

I said goodbye and Mable continued walking to the library, carrying her books in her arms.

We continue walking, eventually reaching the storage room. Emma took out a key and opened the door.

When she opened the door, I felt a breeze of cold air coming out of the room.

“The direwolf should be over here”

Rain commented how it’s really cold in the storage room.

“It’s thanks to the magical device over there that makes giant amount of ice”

Emma pointed to a raised platform that was a square shape box thing with magical circles carved on it.

I look at the magical device, it looks very similar to the one my family uses to refrigerate things in my family's mansion.

“The direwolf should be in these boxes”

Emma began opening some of the boxes to show me.

“We already process it for you, don't worry about the fees, Cade said to wave them off as thanks”

“I see”

Looking into the wooden boxes, I saw that they separated all the parts of the direwolf into different boxes.

“How much will I get for selling it all?”

Emma thought for a moment and said about 8 silver coins.

“And what can they be used for?"

“The fur is relatively intact, so it can be made into clothing, the fangs can be made into weapons, the bones are sold off to the alchemists, and the meat will be sold off to be eaten”

I didn't think the fur would be this intact from all the cuts I’d made, but it looks like it's in decent shape.

“Could you have the worker cut a third of the fur for me, I’m planning to have someone make a cloak out of it”

I need a new cloak since my old one was gone due to fighting the direwolf. Plus from first hand experience, the fur is really tough.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, we’ll have the people in the dismantling room cut it for you. However it will drop the price to 6 silver”

“That should be fine”

“Okay then, and just wondering, where are you going to have your cloak made?"

“Hutch’s Clothing store”

Emma sleepy eyes, shot right open when I mentioned Hutch’s store

“How do you know that store”

Wait, how does she also know about that store? Is she like another crossdresser? That can’t be right, can it or maybe?

I better feign ignorance so I don’t seem too suspicious.

“Somebody recommended that place to me. Is there anything wrong with that store?”

“No, umm… forget what I said”

Emma dropped the subject fast and proceeded to carry the wooden box, that had the direwolf fur in it for me since I couldn’t, to the dismantling room.

She asked the workers who didn’t look too busy to cut the direwolf fur, they said yes and immediately started cutting up the direwolf fur Emma handled.

We waited around 30 minutes for them to quickly cut the fur. I was surprised at how easily they manage to cut through the fur, since I could barely pierce through that thing. They packaged the part of the fur in some paper packaging and handed it over to me.

“Oh ya, Emma, I was wondering when the travel ban is going to be lifted?”

I remember the adventurer that I asked early said that there was a travel ban right now. I wonder how long, since I just got up to D rank, I can now enter into an escort quest to Acton.

Emma responded in a very dead tone and expression, like me asking her how long it was, reminded her of something.

She took a deep sigh and said.

“About 3 days”

“Alright, I’ll be off then”

We left the adventurers guild, after Emma gave me money from selling the rest of the direwolf material, to go directly to Hutch’s Clothing store.

Entering his store, Hutch greeted us with the same enthusiasm like the previous times I went here.

“Oh my, why isn't it Rain and Nyx. I’d didn’t think you two know each other”

“Hi Hutch”

Rain greeted Hutch with a sense of familiarity.

“Hello as well”

“And what do you have there?”

Hutch was looking curiously at the direwolf fur I was holding with my right arm that was wrapped in packaging paper.

“It's direwolf fur”

“Ah, so you're the adventurer that killed the direwolf from the rumors”

So Hutch even knows the rumors spreading around, he is still as sharp as ever.

“What do you want me to make out of it?”

Sensing his eagerness to hear what I was going to ask him to make, I told him what I wanted him to make.

“Can you make me a cloak out of the direwolf fur”

“Shouldn’t be much of a problem”

“And how much?”

“2 bronze but I’ll knock it down to 1 if you let me have the leftover material”

“That should be fine”

I handed over the direwolf fur and paid 1 bronze coin, with Hutch having a big bright smile.

“Your cloak should be ready for pick up in 2 days. Is there anything else you want and you two Rain?”

“No, not right now. I just need a new cloak”

“I don’t think I need anything either”

We exited from Hutch’s shop, next I led the way to Kinwall's shop, which was in the back alley.

“Umm… Nyx, where are we going?”

Rain looked a bit unease when I suddenly made a right turn into a sketchy looking back alley.

“To Kinwall’s shop over there, he is where I go to buy my weapons”

I pointed to a rundown looking shop that has a wooden sign with 2 hammers on it.

“In a place like that?!”

“It’s fine, you got nothing to worry about”

I opened the door, for her to reluctantly come in with me

“Oh, we have a new face. Nyx, you know him?”

I should have expected it but Rain jumped in surprise and hid behind me from Kinwall's loud voice.

“Ya, he’s a friend and we’re party members”

“He is a shy one isn’t he”

“You could say that”

“Hi there, I’m Kinwall”

“H-hello, I’m Rain…”

When Rain pokes out her head from my back to introduce herself, she stares in shock like she is seeing a mythical creature.

“You're surprised Kinwall is a dwarf?”

Rain nodded yes

Kinwall huffs and says Rain was a strange fellow, then asks what I needed.

I went to the counter and took out my beat up sword to show to him.

“Sorry but it was really damage from a fight yesterday with a really strong monster”

“Oh I see”

“Are you not going to say anything”

I kinda expected Kinwall, who is a dwarf, to get angry after seeing their weapons in a condition like this.

Kinwall shrugged his shoulders and said

“You see… how do I put this, most of my clients has a screw-”

“Tch. Hey don’t you…”

I don’t know what came over me but I instinctively shouted back, interrupting what Kinwall was going to say but I stopped myself. For some reason those words made me think that he really was going to compare me to those weirdos in my past life who have some sort of screw loose.

“Sorry, it’s a force of habit”

“Umm… okay then”

Kinwall proceeded to tell us about his other clients.

“You actually brought back the weapon compared to most of my other clients”

Wait, does that mean his other clients like that blonde guy I saw the other day have one or two screws loose like other named pilots in my past life? I think I should get away as fast as possible if I see him.

“But looking at it, it seems that it is too damaged to be fix”

Well that's a shame, looks like I’m going to have to get a new sword then. I can splurge on a new sword right now with the money I got from selling the direwolf material and the reward money from the emergency quest.

“Okay then, I’ll just buy another sword”

“Ya, go look at anything you like. Also if you want, I could remake it into a short sword for you since not all of it is unfixable”

Thinking about it, having a backup weapon seems like a good idea.

“I would like that”

“Alright then”

“Come on Rain, let's look around the shop”

We looked around the shop to see which sword I liked, with Rain helping since I couldn’t use my left arm.

As I was comparing one sword at a time to see which I like the best, Rain spoke up.

“Umm… Nyx, isn’t this place a bit expensive?”

“Expensive? Aren’t swords normally expensive”

“No, a sword shouldn’t cost this much, normally it large bronze at most”

Well that is strange, before I thought I got scammed, Kinwalled spoke up as he was behind the counter in response.

“Because I added mithril in them”

“Mythril!?”

Rain shouted out in surprise. I too was surprised when he said he put mithril in them, but didn’t really show it on my face.

“Yep, I just threw in any leftover mythril from my other projects”

From my game knowledge isn't mithril extremely expensive? To throw it into them would seem to be a waste.

“They were just laying there, so why not. Anyway you see anything you like”

“Ya”

I found a sword I like, it was a relatively plain looking sword that was a bit big for me to use but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

“This one”

I went to the counter and showed the sword I wanted to buy.

“Just wondering but how much mithril did you put in this sword”

“If I remember correctly, about a 1/16 of it is made with Mythril”

“And how much did you put in the sword I use previously”

“Not much, about a third or quarter the amount in that sword”

So then, this sword should be way more durable and sharper than the one I had previously.

“Is there anything else you want?"

“I want to buy new set of throwing spikes and knives, I used them up in a fight and I need more”

“That shouldn’t be a problem, how many do you want?”

“Same as last time”

“If that is all, then it will be 4 silver and 2 large bronze, it all will be ready in 2 days"

I paid for everything and left Kinwall's shop, holding my new sword like I had gotten a new toy, eager to try it out.

“Hey Rain, do you want to go to the training area? I really want to try out my new sword”

Rain took several steps back away from me with that same look like whenever I ask Alex to spar with me, with her eyes almost about to cry like she was about to experience another traumatizing event in her life.

“Gulp. No-no thanks, I’m good”

“That's a shame then”

We instead went back to my inn, I bought us both dinner and said goodbye to Rain after we were done eating.