CH 2

Episode 2 – Options Left In Order to Live

There I was, sitting on a bench in Grezesta’s city square in a daze, with only a small sack of my own belongings on my shoulders.

Immediately after getting kicked out from the Healer’s Guild, I tried to look for a new job by randomly going around from shop to shop and negotiating with them to see if they would hire me, but the result was a straight list of defeats across the board. No matter where I went, I heard the same things, got the same treatment, and was turned away at the door.

Earlier, I had experienced for myself firsthand the harsh reality of the words that Brandon said, “with the lowest rank job performance ratings, you won’t be able to get hired anywhere”.

I didn’t know what to do anymore.

Brandon told me to go back to my hometown, but since my parents had already passed away, I wouldn’t have a job even if I returned to my hometown. And since Brandon mocked peasants so vehemently, I didn’t think I had the heart to work as a farmer either.

Feeling the pain from biting my lips nonstop, the anger I felt towards Brandon faded a bit as I realized just how desperate my situation was. From sitting here lost in my deep thoughts, in response to this desperate situation, I came up with three options so far.

The first option was to become an adventurer, and through my own skills, hunt monsters and earn a living. There was no one aside from adventurers who would accept just about anyone who is capable of doing the job they need. But until I was 10 years old, I spent each day cultivating soil and harvesting vegetables in the fields, and from age 10 to age 15, I was pretty much only appraising herbs and doing chores. You could say working the fields was hard physical labor, but in the time since I came to Grezesta, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that I was pretty much only appraising medicinal herbs for those five years of my life. Obviously, I had never fought a monster before, and much less than that, I haven’t so much as hit a person even once since I was born. Even if I were to become an adventurer, I wouldn’t be able to do much, and I could even see myself dying before being able to complete one of the easiest lowest-rank quests.

That brings us to the second option, but… this one could hardly be considered realistic either.

And that second option was to synthesize my own medicinal herbs and sell them to make a living. To be more precise, about three years ago I discovered that by using my skill [Plant Master], it was possible to synthesize a plant that I had appraised in the past out of my own magical power. At this point, I was starting to think that my [Plant Master] wasn’t even Rare Skill, but let’s just leave it at that. (TL: since Rare Skills normally don’t consume magic power)

In other words, I could synthesize a plant from my own magic power if I’ve appraised it before. When I discovered that I had this ability, I was pretty stoked and thought that my standing would immediately improve. But… unfortunately, it was soon discovered that my total mana capacity was extremely low, so Brandon ended up labeling it as a “totally garbage ability”.

In reality, with the amount of total magic power that I have, in a single day I could make about three low quality Medical Herbs a day before bottoming out, and if I reached empty, I wouldn’t even be able to move for several hours. I still remember vividly to this day, thinking I was done for after I triumphantly called Brandon over to show him this skill, only to summon a measly three Medical Herbs before falling over and collapsing. By the way, to put just how useless this skill was in perspective, even the lowest rank, a F-Rank Adventurer, could gather around 12-15 herbs in a single day. Even if I synthesize three Medical Herbs a day, I would only be able to earn a single copper coin per day. It’d be a life of living off of hard, stale bread, though I could probably manage to survive… but that would be far too difficult after all.

After rummaging in my bag for a bit, I pulled out my coin pouch.

……..This was all the money I managed to earn by working in the Healer’s Guild. Even though I was trampled on and oppressed the whole time I worked there, I was still properly paid my salary, which I had saved up over the years. Well, even if I said that they were properly paying me, the salary was so low that it was pretty much illegal, and since I had to work all day and all night, I never had time to spend the money on leisure or anything, so I just ended up saving it all.

And that brought us to the third option, which I thought was probably the most compelling option for me. That was, to spend all of the money I had saved up to hire an adventurer party to go into the mountains with me to collect as many Magical Grass as possible. Magical Grass was a potion ingredient that restored magic power, and was a convenient plant that was widely used in the Healer’s Guild. And, the most important property of the Magical Grass: it not only restored magic power, it could also permanently increase the total magic power one had if used when magic power was already full. This property was not known to the general public, as Magical Grass was extremely bitter when eaten raw and only raised total magic power by a small amount. I only discovered this property by appraising Magical Grass with [Plant Master], and I kept this knowledge to myself. If I could use Magical Grass to increase my total magic power, not only would I be able to generate medicinal herbs that would allow me to earn a little more financial leeway, but I would also be able to create Magical Grass which I can use to further raise my own total magic power. Just by increasing my total magic power, [Plant Master] would eventually be open to unlimited possibilities.

I’ve heard rumors that somewhere in this world, there were plants that can instantly grow your muscles, and plants that have various resistances. Even though it was a legendary fairytale of sorts, I even heard of a plant that has the ability to resurrect the dead.

Setting aside that last part as a story for the distant future, for now, it was absolutely necessary for me to get my hands on Magical Grass.

I thought about buying it with all of the money I had without collecting any of it myself, but the price and usefulness of Magical Grass were both high, and while three low quality Medical Herbs went for one copper coin, one Magical Grass alone was worth two copper coins. In other words, a single Magical Grass costs six times more than a single low quality Medical Herb. With the amount of money I had now, I could buy about 350 Magical Grasses. It seemed like plenty, but if I didn’t have enough, my life would be over, so I didn’t want to take that gamble. With that idea, if I could hire an adventurer to help escort me while I collect Magical Grass, I think I would be able to turn my life around. I think this was the most convincing option.

I mean, I thought up three options, but only one was realistic… so I didn’t have the time to be sitting around. Money was limited. Take your time, and the sun will go down before you know it.

With each day wasted, no matter how much I saved on food and inn fees, I would lose four copper coins. For me, who currently had no way to make money, every minute and every second was on the line here. After being treated terribly for five years, I had to carry myself with absolute confidence in being able to turn things around. Pushing aside any thoughts of the rejections I had faced, I immediately went to the Adventurer’s Guild to put in a request for an escort commission.