CH 8

Afterwards, we departed from the building holding baskets and sickles.

“Now then, this assignment is to gather medicinal herbs. You’ll be heading off to Sarason Meadow nearby to collect Aello and Leanne. They look like this.”1

…Correction, we’re pulling herbs.

We were shown diagrams, but even after cross-referencing the book I can’t remember what I’m supposed to be looking for.

To be honest, they’re indistinguishable to the kind of grass you’d find in any meadow.

“Oh, right, be on guard for any small fry monsters too. You’re gonna find Sleep Rabbits and Electro-Jellies out here.

There’ll be monsters too.

Are we expected to fight them off with sickles?

“Now then, everybody split up.”

The trainee’s eyes looked akin to dead fish.

The sprightlier looking trainees began moving.

“Buu.”

“Ahh, yeah. I’ve got no idea what we’re supposed to be looking for, any ideas?”

As I spoke to Brute, he walked on ahead as if to say ‘leave it to me’.

…Should I leave it to the pig to sniff out the truffles?

As rude thoughts bounced around inside of my head, we pressed forward, cutting down tall grass as we went.

However, Brute both found, and collected, the medicinal herbs along the way.

From the Aello we only need the leaves, and from the Leanne only the stem.

I’d memorized that part.

Then, every so often a Sleep Rabbit or Electro-Jelly would appear.

Seeing them for the first time was surprising, as the monsters had their names floating over their heads.

“Oink!”

With a roaring noising, Brute would attack the demons the moment he’d spot them.

Didn’t even need to use a weapon for it or anything.

Every so often a monster would come towards me too, so I’d beat them back with the sickle.

“…!?”

Ugh… what’s with this resistance?

I haven’t learned how to fight yet.

Ow! It bit me!

Damn, that hurts!

As I’m rolling around in pain, Brute grabs the Sleep Rabbit that I’d been fighting by the head, crushes its skull and throws the carcass away.

The rabbit’s slacked, death-ridden face was more than a little traumatic.

Then, Brute began kneading the Aello and Rianne together into a paste before rubbing it into my open wound.

A cooling sensation ran across the wound, and the pain vanished.

After that, Brute bound the wound with some long strands of grass and applied first aid.

Ohhh… I’m saved.

“Thank you for this.”

“Buu.”

Without skipping a beat after responding, Brute returned to picking herbs.

Ugh… I’m totally dragging him down here.

And so, once we’d gathered medicinal herbs, I was moved to a kitchen to begin peeling potato-esque food.

Brute had been given the role of retrieving water from a nearby well to fill the bathing facilities.

Work continued along this line of thought up until the sun began to set.

“Whew…..”

Using my free time, I sunk deeply into my bed.

I’m exhausted! Well, not exactly…

“Recruits! Bathing-hours! Double time!”

Each trainee began preparing to wash themselves, bringing along their toiletries as they left.

It’s very soldier-like to keep everything brief, apparently.

I considered getting up to leave, but Brute continued to do push-ups.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Buu?”

Upon asking Brute this, I physically felt the expressions of everybody around me drop.

“Woah, woah. Are you kidding? You’re expecting us to bathe with an Orc?”

“Yeah…?”

At first glance he’s definitely a pig, but… Since he’s here, doesn’t that mean he’s at least categorized as a person?

The Kobolds and Werewolves are bathing too, as if it were natural.

“Pff, don’t bother bringing him.”

The other recruits spat out their cruel words as they left to bathe.

What is this, some kind of species-related discrimination?

“Hmmm… Well, I’ll go get some hot water for us to share and take it over near the well.”

“Buu!”

I felt like Buu was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand what.

So, I’ll just assume he doesn’t mind and will tag along with me.

I may need to increase my language skill to understand more in the future.

Acquiring a bucket of warm water, I brought it over towards the well, grabbed a towel and dipped the cloth into it.

For the past three days I’ve been sweating tons, so merely wiping it off feels pretty refreshing.

Brute’s holding a… scrubbing brush? He’s washing himself all over with a strange, firm scrubbing tool.

“Need a hand? You helped me out a bunch today, after all.”

“Buu?”

Borrowing the brush from Brute, I began scrubbing his back.

For a while now I’ve been curious about this pig-mascot-ish existence.

It’s almost impressive how dirty his body is.

And so, I began scrubbing vigorously to see if I could clean all of that grime off.

“Oink!”

Brute raised his voice, filled with delight.

I’m glad that he’s enjoying it so much.

To finish it off, I’ll pour warm water all over his body!

Wiping off the water with the nearby towel, we made our way back to the barracks.

I then checked my status as the day came to an end.

Yukikazu Totsuka

Level: 3

Rate of Erosion: 0.98%

Skills:

Otherworld Language Comprehension (1), No: L-Charge, Stamina Recovery UP (4)

Skill Points: 11

…..?

The increase in level most likely came from the monsters that Brute defeated, but the number of skill points I’d gained had been more than I’d expected.

Shouldn’t it be 1 point per level?

Also, my status was slightly higher than before.

That should be something that has no relation to your level.

Maybe it’s a sign that my stamina has improved.

I mean, while it totally feels like a game with how easy it is to learn skills, I… Something feels off to me.

Hmm… Regardless, there’s no reason for me not to capitalize on it.

Let’s set aside a point for HP Recovery UP as well.

This is to gauge how many I’ll need to heal my injuries, so we’ll see how well rank 1 performs.

I should use the others for something relating to offensive capability.

While I will be provided with a weapon, I will have to inevitably return it.

It’d be irresponsible if I took the clichéd way out and only learned sword techniques.

I’d prefer something general-purpose that I could use right off the get-go.

Which means… I need something related to missiles.

Even a rock can become a weapon if you throw it. Many weapons reveal their true utility when thrown, so there’s no harm in learning it.

So, I allocated two points into my throwing technique.

If I want to go further than that, then… The prerequisites haven’t been met yet.

Oh? Skills are included when you level your technique?

The concept of a “Skill” is starting to become clearer to me.

Still, I’d need to allocate more points into it to actually be decent.

From the looks of it, the condition to increasing the skill any further is to train.

Viva la Otherworld.

Let’s try not to lag behind any further.

As for the rest of the points… If I’m remembering it right, we learned about a skill call “Cat’s Eye” in the Eagle Eye-related skill tree while we were being lectured, perhaps I’ll try that one.

Supposedly, the skill increases your sight and night-vision capability.

It’s not as good as Eagle Eye, which is supposed to help with vision in general, and your ability to hit a target, nor is it as good as “Owl Eye” which has better night vision, it’s more like a jack-of-all-trades skill that combines the utility of both.

Since I’ll inevitably acquire all three of the skills, it’s better to take Cat’s Eye now so that I can feel the effects of both skills straight away.

Next up… I could try taking something that wasn’t covered in the book I read or the classroom, but I don’t want to find out later that it was a waste like what happened with Stamina Recovery UP.

For now, I’ll hold off on that.

Based on what I’ve researched, the necessary level or training necessary for learning skills is unclear, with most accounts being anecdotal.

Yukikazu Totsuka

Level: 3

Rate of Erosion: 0.96%

Skills:

Otherworld Language Comprehension (1), No: L-Charge, HP Recovery UP (1), Stamina Recovery UP (4), Throwing Skill (2), Cat’s Eye (2), Gathering Assistance (1)

Skill Points: 6

Afterwards, I went to sleep, but woke up shortly afterwards.

Thanks to my skills, I’ve become a relative short sleeper.

For now, I’ll practice the effects and usage of Cat’s Eye so I can build up some experience with the skill.

Hmm…. The room is a little brighter than the dark room from yesterday, I think.

Still too dark to read in though.

I’d try it, but naturally that’d strain my eyes, so I’ll read in a better lit area instead.

Just like last time, I got up, ran around the yard a few times and then returned to the library to read.

Have I gotten a bit faster already? It’s only been two days.