Chapter 5

Even the Town is Technologically Underdeveloped

「So this is Elia…」

Unlike my village, Elia was fairly urban. It was lively, with busy streets and plenty of shops—quite different from my hometown where there wasn’t even one decent shop, just the occasional peddler dropping by. In that regard, you could tell that this town was indeed urban.

The townscape, however, was completely different from that of BBO. In the game, the town was lit up by magic lamps, and several airships soared through the skies. Numerous sections were neo-futuristic, but this town had a medieval feel to it.

It must be related to their underdeveloped magic craft. Apparently my village wasn’t the only place that was technologically behind.

The people of this world are unaware of common magic that even a Novice can use. The only thing similar between this world and BBO was the battle system and magic. I think it’s safe to assume that everything else is different.

As I was pondering that, standing still, someone called me from behind.

「You there. Are you lost?」

I turned around to see a guard who seemed to think I was lost since I was standing motionless. I actually didn’t know where to go from here so he was technically right.

「I want to go to the guild, but I do not know the way there.」

After regarding my bag and sword, he seemed to have grasped the situation.

「…I see. You’re a son of a noble who came here to become an adventurer.」

「…That is right, Sir.」

This was apparently a common occurrence. I was a bit taken aback by how he guessed perfectly.

「I must say, you’re barely equipped… Getting kicked out with only that much luggage is the same as telling you to die.」

「Well they did hate me.」

「I see… Sounds rough.」

I still didn’t really know why they hated me. If I had to guess, it was probably because of the poor harvest we had for three years after I was born. I was completely innocent, of course, but they treated me like some kind of a bringer of misfortune.

「Let me give you a piece of advice, then. You shouldn’t be too polite with your language. Adventurers don’t talk like that.」

「Is that so?」

「Yeah. If bandits eavesdropped on a conversation, they would know who the leader was right away by the way you addressed each other. Adventurers make it so outsiders won’t know the hierarchy in a group, therefore lessening the chances of being attacked. If an adventurer talked politely, they’d be made fun of for not even knowing such basic knowledge.」

…I see.

Since there are bandits and the like in this world, it’s necessary to pay attention to those kinds of things too.

「Gotcha. How’s this?」

「Perfect. The guild’s that way. Good luck!」 the guard said, then left.

I did get this impression that adventurers don’t talk politely. Now that he mentioned it, the adventurer back in our land didn’t even address my father, who was the lord of the domain, with reverence. My father didn’t seem to mind. Now I know why, I thought as I made my way to the guild.

◇

「So this is the guild.」

The adventurer’s guild office was a huge (for this world), two-storey building. Plastered on the front were the words 『Adventurer’s Guild – Elia Branch』.

I stepped inside and noticed a world map posted right by the entrance. It looked like the royal capital was in the neighboring continent right across the sea. Travelling to a different continent sounds like quite the pain, but luckily, it wasn’t too far. I can travel by sea, so for now, I guess my goal would be to ride the ship that gets me there.

For the time being, let’s check what kinda requests they got. By examining them, I should be able to know what type of monsters lurk in the area, which would in turn determine my next move, I thought as I studied the requests posted on the wall.

Then something struck me as odd. The request to take down a Wolf was ranked as C.

Based on what I’ve gathered so far, adventurers were ranked from A to F. So the Wolf request was a job ranked as third highest. There was no way a monster that could be killed in one attack by a Novice—granted it was a critical hit—was ranked that high. There must’ve been some kind of a mistake.

I checked the F-ranked requests to find out how they made such a slip-up. Normally, this would be how a Wolf was ranked. But I couldn’t find any name that could refer to the Wolf. What I found written, however, were monsters I’ve never seen in BBO—like 『Kick Rabbit』 and 『Uribou』.

There was nothing Wolf related among the E and D- rank requests either. The requests to kill wolf-type monsters started from C. Plus I’ve never seen the monster names from D below in BBO.

I wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. It was simply hard to believe that the Wolf was ranked third highest. And since I couldn’t find the names of monsters I know among the requests, I didn’t have any benchmark to gauge the strength of each rank either.

There was a bigger issue to begin with. On Earth, the proper name『Wolf』referred to an actual wolf, but was it the same case in this world? For all I know, they called a wolf here a 『Hamster』.

Fortunately, I had the fangs of the monster, which in BBO, was referred to as a『Wolf』. If I brought them to the counter, I would learn what the monster was actually called in this world.

With that thought in mind, I made my way to the purchasing counter.