CH 8

Translator: Haruchin

Alright, let’s try eating around before the shops closed for the night.

Several street stalls were open from morning till sunset on one of the streets leading to the plaza in front of the city gate. There’s a shop selling salami and cheese, another one is selling bells for some reason, there’s a second hand clothing shop, hardware shop, tinker shops that mend pots and pans, and other shops that sell cheap goods were all lined up.

Many food stalls offered sandwiches with sausages, onions and sauerkraut, and there were also some that served thinly sliced breads topped with cheese and ham on. They use the bread as plates. Sausages and cheese were top contenders in the menu among the stalls, with ham being the runner-up. Some stalls only had bread piled up, while others also offered nut tarts, dried apples and ink-black sausages made of blood. Alcohol made from wheat, with dregs of small grains in it was also available here. It wasn’t really a beer, though – maybe closer to sweet sake?

I did【 Appraisal 】on the sausages and found C. botulinum, but it’d be ‘fine as long as it’s grilled well’, apparently. I checked the fineprint, and E. coli’s also listed in the details ー seemed like this skill would promptly show me stuff that might make me sick. What a handy tool.

I chose one that was cleared during【 Appraisal 】 . It’s quite oily, I guess? I could keenly feel like they’re trying to drown us in calories with this.

There are assorted dried fruits, too, so I tried a piece — it’s a bit sour, so maybe it’s better-off as snacks simmered in sugar or stewed together with meat.

Black sugar was sold in smaller chunks. They smashed the huge, solidified lump inside the mould to divide it, similar to how they chipped the moisture-hardened parts when selling salt. They used steelyards and counterweights ー I’m really feeling those retro vibes, and it’s nice.

I was the only one who thought the setup was retro, though; people use those equipment everyday.

The children of a well-dressed family bought some black sugar.

A throng gathered, and when I drew closer, there was a shop that had a whole roast pig set on a table. They were slicing pieces from it and selling them sandwiched in bread. Lucky! Ah, but the bread’s deplorable, though.

Whole roast pork, huh~. It wasn’t in the choices, right. The meat in my storage room was already cut up and portioned just like how I requested it to be, but maybe it’s better to keep the entire half of the dressed pig as it is? Nope, it’s troublesome having to cut it everytime, so let’s just get a pig here ー the acorns in the forest were great feed, too, apparently.

I wanted to eat a lot more, but my stomach couldn’t handle it, so I decided to go home instead. Oh, there’s fewer people going through the entrance at this time, and there’s a huge bolt across the closed gate.

There’s nothing I can do about this, so I turned around and went back to the inn where I’m ‘staying overnight’, then I teleported home from there. It’ll be bothersome, but let’s just return to the town tomorrow and go through the exit procedures once more. Ah, but if I wanted to hunt monsters, then I still had to go back to the town again, huh.

So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?

Maybe I’ll go hunt other monsters aside from rabbits for the meantime, but I have to go deeper into the forest if I wanted to find anything other than a rabbit. I got the feeling that even without being proactive in searching, I’ll still find something if I went further in, though.

Wolf, bear, wild boar, fox, tanuki, monkeys and so on ー tanuki shouldn’t have existed in Europe long ago, so this really is a different world. Monkey monsters called imps were the most numerous. Their bodies were weak but they’re highly fertile, plus they could use tools and they swarm together, too. Unfortunately, they’re pretty worthless ー imp’s meat and hides won’t fetch money, but adventurers almost always receive requests to deal with them. They’d be paid if they brought horns back. Ah, but the imps are notorious for using the equipment of the people they attacked, and they had the habit of hoarding metal wares in their nests, so there’s still some merit, somehow, they didn’t have to return empty-handed all the time.

I can【 Teleport 】anytime, so I’ll just go as far as I can. With that out of the way, I then took a bath, then it’s time to sleep. Early to bed, early to rise, just as folks said. Let’s buy a book at the royal capital after my verification is done.

I stroked Riche’s head and dozed off.

***

Sleeping early woke me up early, too. It also made me feel like I’m in tiptop shape. I patted Riche’s head again, and at the same time casted some 【 Heal 】on him even though I knew it’s useless. 【 Heal 】 would gradually cure wounds and illnesses even if it’s left to work on its own, but active healing was also possible, it’ll just take a bit of willpower to do so.

But Riche wasn’t injured or sick ー he lost his power and his existence is fading, so they already told me from the get-go that 【 Heal 】won’t help. I already knew it, but still tried to cast it when Riche’s was asleep. I didn’t overdo it, mind you, just did what I felt was enough.

I drank some milk right after getting up, then prepared some miso soup and grilled salted mackerel for breakfast. I really should make some nukazuke. I changed Riche’s water, and my preps for going out were done.

I【Teleport】 to the edge of the forest, and activated 【Search】 as I entered the woods; there were some rabbits and Horned Rabbits near the entrance. Identifying them is a piece of cake if I saw them once, so there’s no need to get closer.

By the way, the Hornless Rabbit’s meat fetched the highest price among the rabbits, and even the hides of the horned ones did well, so people tend to leave the normal rabbits alone, waiting until they monsterfy. Well, they didn’t pose that much of a threat unlike the other monsters, so that’s also probably one of the reasons why.

Oh, there’re also dragons and unicorns in this world, and apparently, they monsterfy, too, considering that they’re already monsters as they were.

Hey, even the bears on the other side of the river were already hazards for the general public, right.

Oh, that’s the presence of a bear, alright. Should I track this strong presence? You know, apart from those rabbits, I haven’t met a single monster yet. And they’re calling this woods magical? I thought it’d be bustling over here, but that’s not the case, either.

I moved onward while clearing the undergrowth and twigs.『Zanzenken』 ‘s a life saver! What a drastic improvement from when I was back at the island! Walking’s super easy now. Also noticed this when I hiked earlier, but I didn’t get tired, probably because my body had been strengthened, too.

It’s summer, yet there are cream-colored mushrooms growing in a heap on a rotten log. Did 【Appraisal】and they turned out to be delicious mushrooms, so of course I gathered them. I also did 【Appraisal】 on the beautiful grass growing near it while at it ー it’s an ingredient for making potions ー gotcha.

Monsters were there, but the forest itself was bountiful; there’s stuff like red, black and yellow raspberries, sour gooseberries, and the slightly astringent silverberries.

I could stow away my baggage thanks to 【 Storage 】 , I could go home right away whenever I wanted to, and I could take plenty of rest. Since there’s nothing to worry about, this stroll through the woods became very enjoyable.