READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: I Was a Fool
Chapter 5: I Was a Fool
I was a fool.
On Sunday, I visited the Adventurer’s Guild. When I tried to inquire about adventurer stats, they asked for adventurer registration and handed me documents. Apparently, if I had some form of identification, I could have been registered as an E-rank adventurer from the beginning. I rushed home and ended up bringing my student ID.
A two-hour round trip on foot. Finally, I filled out the documents, received a brief explanation, and was given an adventurer card and a booklet.
“Most of the information is in this booklet, so please read it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Next, please.”
Almost pushed out smoothly, I hastily interjected, “Um, about the fanfare in my head…”
The receptionist gave me a puzzled look, and so did the adventurer behind me. This could be bad. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked. “No, it’s nothing,” I said, withdrawing from the counter and retreating to the waiting area.
Reading the booklet and surveying the small facility, I understood. I was a fool. Why didn’t I come here first yesterday?
First, the unpopular dungeon I visited yesterday. It was already thoroughly explored, and maps were being sold for a mere 1,000 gold. Information about the monsters in the dungeon could be found in the reference room.
The rats I struggled with yesterday were unpopular monsters that everyone avoided. Rats have a weakness to fire, so if you use fire magic for light instead of the life magic of light, you won’t encounter them. In that cave, the standard strategy is to hunt slimes, but surprisingly, the slimes were teeming in the puddles at my feet. They were like slimes in the making, or you could call them sub-slimes. If you carefully looked at the puddles, there were small stone-like cores, and by crushing them with a mace, you could defeat them. If you scooped them up by hand, you could sell them as scrap magic stones.
Regarding the defeat locations, while the selling price was only a few dozen gold, they were recorded on the adventurer card as a defeat achievement and affected the rank evaluation. The rat’s tail I discarded yesterday, being a difficult-to-defeat monster in terms of income, might have earned me a considerable bonus if I had brought it back. I regretted not stopping by here yesterday.
In any case, since my boots were now riddled with holes, I decided to take a break from dungeon attacks today. When I visited the armor shop to buy new boots, I was scolded by the shopkeeper for not informing him beforehand. For rat extermination, metal shin guards were essential. Fortunately, he agreed to repair the boots by patching them with leather. It would cost 10,000 gold, but it was cheaper than buying new ones.
My father advised me to go to the popular beginner’s dungeon. There, mainly insect-type monsters appeared, but the monsters in the shallow layers were slow-moving and easy to defeat, and the drop items were remarkably good. Truly, even the slightest advice from experienced individuals is valuable.
However, when I subtly jabbed about the fanfare in my head, I received the same confused expression. I was suspected of mishearing, and they seemed concerned, but I brushed it off with a “It’s nothing.” Also, when I tried putting my hand on the crystal ball at the guild and said things like “Status” and “Open,” there was nothing. When I asked how they measured an adventurer’s strength, they said, “If you ask, we can do a mock battle.” I vaguely remembered reading about such things in the booklet they gave me. No one seemed to know about stats or the screen.
In that sense, it was a good thing I went to an empty dungeon yesterday. Excited alone with the fanfare only I could hear in my head, muttering things like “Status” and “Open” while making gestures, I wasn’t a suspicious person. Yeah, that was good. I left my boots at the armor shop and returned to the school dormitory.