78 This Hero Teleports!

It's too hot in this room.

I woke up drenched in sweat as I thrust my covers off of me. I looked out the window to tell what time of day it was. As usual, it's only around 5 in the morning. I rubbed my temples to ease my mind to prepare for the day.

Despite the heat in this room and the fact that I was jerked awake once again, I'm not in a bad mood. This is thanks to a recent event that has improved my mood by at least a multiple of ten. That event was the pseudo date with Erana. Though it wasn't officially a date, I still got to spend some one on one time with a girl and I had ramen for the first time in almost a year. I can't complain at all.

I got out of bed and grabbed the set of clothing that I had laid out the night before. All of my other clothes were already either packed or sitting in storage so I don't have the liberty of choosing a different outfit.

It only took me 5 minutes to complete my morning ritual of stretches and getting dressed. After that, I walked out of my room to withdraw 1000 juns from the bank. I waved to Yimmie before I stepped outside. She seemed to be distracted by something so she didn't start a conversation like she usually would have.

As I walked the cobblestone streets of Ruks I could hear the sound of birds chirping. The slightly muggy weather made me uncomfortable, but since the sun had only just begun to rise the temperature was still a manageable level. I could feel sweat beading on my forehead as I continued to walk.

After a little bit of time I arrived at my bank. The metal doors that would normally be imposing were already open because someone else had opened them before me.

I stepped inside and stepped up to a counter. The interior was fairly bare. To my left there is a seating area with a few chairs and a table in the middle. In front of me there are several counters. Usually the counters would be manned, but thanks to the time of day it seems that there are only 2 people working right now.

The only people inside were myself, a priest looking man with chainmail armor and blonde hair, and the two bank tellers. This bank seems to exclusively employ lizard people. Both the lizard people were wearing suits and had green scales. Their beady eyes felt as if they were piercing through me.

"Welcome… Sss… How may I help you?"

"Yes I would like to extract 1000 juns from my account."

"Verification please… Sss…"

I held my hand forward. The lizard man stuck out his tongue and licked my palm lightly. Apparently, lizard people have an incredibly strong sense of taste, so this is the equivalent of an identification card. I won't deny that this is uncomfortable though.

After a thorough licking, the lizard man nodded his head slightly.

"Please take a seat. Due to the large amount of this withdrawal we will need a minute to gather this sum." He said as he motioned to a nearby chair.

Well this is awkward. Should I talk to him? Maybe I should do some small talk. Should I ask what he's doing here? No that would come off as imposing so-

"Excuse me, but what are you doing at this place today?" The man interrupted my thoughts.

"Huh? Oh I just needed to take out some money. I'm going somewhere today with my party so I wanted to make sure I have enough money for the trip."

"Oh really? Where are you going? My party is also going somewhere today so I'm doing the same thing!"

"The Frozen Mist Hills. I need to deliver a package to someone."

"Wow really? My party is doing the same thing, except for the package part. We're going there to fight the demon king's army. They're a pretty good way to gain some experience so we're going to spend a week power leveling there."

"Huh really? I just want to go to the hot springs."

"First time heading to the Frozen Mist Hills then?"

"Yeah! How could you tell?"

"Oh, well-"

"Pardon us gentlemen, but your funds are ready."

We both stood up and walked over to the counter. The lizard people handed each of us a small sack containing our money.

"This may sound rude to ask, but how much did you take out?"

"A week long trip should probably take 500, but knowing my party I'll have to cover for them so I'm taking out 1000."

"Exactly! I take it you're the party leader then?"

"Me? No no no! It's Jaq that's my party leader. He's really abrasive but he's got good intentions. What about yourself?"

"I'm my party's leader. I didn't get elected or anything, but it just kinda ended up that way. My name is Kenji by the way." I held out my hand and he reciprocated. We conducted a business handshake.

"Heh. My group was basically the same. I'm Ron. I hope we get to work together in the future Kenji-san."

"I'm heading to the guild hall from here, what about yourself?"

"Oh me? I'm going to my party's base. Do you live at the guild hall?"

"Yeah…?"

"Oof. You should invest in a party base like a house sooner rather than later. Living at the guild hall is a drain of your resources, not to mention the guild food is chock full of cholesterol."

"...Noted."

We parted ways from there. I went back towards the guild hall, my coin purse far heavier than it previously was.

"A party base, huh? Maybe we can make some money at the hills somehow. I dunno. We'll be there for a week so it's entirely possible we can take some odd jobs."

I continued back towards the guild hall as I thought to myself. It didn't take me long to arrive back at the familiar four story building. I stepped inside and took a seat at our usual table. The only people inside were Yimmie and myself.

"Hey Yimmie-san, should my party get a base? Something like a house."

"Huh? I dunno. Would you stop coming around here if you did that? If so then no. Otherwise do whatever you want."

That's not exactly very helpful, but I shouldn't have expected much from her.

I rested my head on the table for a moment before the guildhall door opened. Tael stepped inside. He had an expectant look on his face as he sat down in the seat to my right.

"You're up early. What's the deal?"

"I didn't sleep. I spent all night reading."

"W-What? What'd you read about?"

"Monster origins."

"Why the hell did you stay up all night reading about that?"

"Because I don't want the pipsqueak to beat me."

Tael grumbled to himself as he rest his head on the table beside me.

"Well… did you find anything interesting out?"

"Not a damn thing. Every book just says something about how monsters were created by primordial ooze and all that and the demon king's energy summons them."

"Okay. Is that not enough?"

"No!" Tael bolt his head upwards and stared straight at me with bloodshot eyes. "I need to know what that energy does! Where does it come from? Why does it do what it does?"

"Sounds like a point by point analysis."

"I tried that earlier and it didn't work."

"Point by point never fails unless you ask the wrong questions."

"Ugh, fine. Point one: Where do monsters come from?"

"We already know that. What you should ask instead is 'What did life come from?'"

"What? Why should I ask that?"

"Well it's because I highly doubt only monsters came from 'primordial energy' so it's entirely possible humans and stuff came from it too."

Tael slammed his head on the table.

"Ugh… Why are you better than me at this?" He muttered into the table. I reached out to pat him on the shoulder as I said "Lots of practice."

We waited for an hour at our table. Kany came and sat with us.

"You're up early too. Is everyone excited or something?"

"No. Erana just wanted me to help her pack. She's having trouble finding out where to put an 'extra item' though, so she's spending time sorting that out."

"What's the item?"

"I dunno. She wouldn't let me see it."

"5 juns says it's porn." Tael slightly raised his hand and declared.

We idly waited for another hour before I saw Ron enter with his group. He waved to me as he entered. I waved back.

Ron's group sat down at a table near ours. It seems the day has begun.

It took another hour before Erana finally came downstairs and sat with us. We ate breakfast quietly since Tael wasn't instigating any arguments.

Eventually, the time came for us to teleport. Yimmie gathered us all together and placed us inside of a room.

"Okay everyone! We're going to be teleporting groups of 8 at a time! The fee per group teleport is 10 juns! The first groups to teleport are the Party with Kenji, Erana, Tael, and Kany as well as the party with Jaq, Ron, Yuna, and Kilin. Are there any objections?"

The group gave a resounding no.

"Okay. I will take payment now."

I stepped forward. A very large man that I'm sure was made out of 99% muscle stepped forward as well. He held 5 juns in his hand and I held another 5. We both handed our money to Yimmie.

"The payment is confirmed. Please stand still!"

I stood with my party as the floor began to light up. The ground became blinding as we were swallowed up by the light.