Surviving as a Trash Bard in a Game

It was a dark night. I had climbed the mountain behind my neighborhood, and it had gotten dark.

If you hear it like this, you might think it’s no big deal, but the problem was that I wasn’t in a modern city, but had climbed the mountain behind a quiet medieval village.

Yes. There was no ‘light’ anywhere.

No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find a single small clue to find my direction.

Eventually, I had to make a choice.

‘Spending the night in the mountains as it is… and finding my way until just before death with the little stamina I have left.’

Spending a night in this forest where bears, wild beasts, or, if I’m unlucky, monsters might appear? It was like suicide.

Even if I spend the night safely, the next morning, my status window ‘penalty’ will be reset.

In other words, I would get narcolepsy or clumsiness again.

What if I get narcolepsy while going down the mountain, or get scratched or seriously injured due to clumsiness? It’s a death event right away.

‘Calm down.’

I don’t want to become an idiot again.

It was an idiotic act to collect herbs for a long time without knowing that the sun was setting, but lamenting wouldn’t make it go away.

The best I could do was to use my head as much as possible to get out of this situation.

I looked around.

Even if I had gone far from the road to collect herbs, there must be a road nearby.

It was obvious, but the radius I could move with my stamina was very narrow. Even if I moved around busily all day, I would probably collapse from exhaustion before moving even 1km.

I didn’t keep moving, but moved while taking breaks in between.

My stamina is very poor.

Although a long time has passed, I’m not that far from the road.

Considering various variables, if I could find familiar landmarks based on my location, I could safely return to the guild.

‘…Even in the worst case, wouldn’t there be an emergency request to find an adventurer who has been missing for a few days?’

At least there is a safety net.

If an adventurer belonging to the guild goes missing after receiving a request, an adventurer with a higher rank than the request can report the missing person, accept the request, and start searching.

It wouldn’t take long to search the entire mountain, so I would be found after 72 hours.

…Or, I could die of starvation without even drinking water.

This was also based on the previous work. At this point, there was no way to know what policy the Adventurer’s Guild had, so it was just an assumption.

Perhaps, in the worst case, they might just leave me alone.

I looked at the sky.

I heard that you can tell directions by looking at the stars and the moon in the countryside where the air is clean. I heard that the mountain is located in the south of the village, so if I could know where the north is… I could go back.

Let’s find the moon and stars.

‘…Wait a minute.’

I found something strange. There were many strange things, but first, the important thing was.

I couldn’t find the North Star. I couldn’t see the Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper that I had seen in books.

Well, it’s natural. The constellations of this world and the real world cannot be exactly the same. But, I still have a way. Let’s not lose hope.

There is also a moon in this world. The moon starts in the east and sets in the west.

Since I looked at the sky right after it got dark, it’s about 6 or 7 o’clock in terms of time. It’s a bit early to call it night, but I couldn’t see the sun.

‘No, I don’t even know if this is the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere.’

The assumption that the shape of the moon would appear the same as in reality, the guess that the game developer would have implemented the graphics in such detail. I can’t be sure of any of these.

If I misjudge the direction, I might really die.

My major is not astronomy. I can’t tell the direction just by looking at the moon.I can’t even tell which way is up or down.

Normal people can’t usually tell directions by looking at stars or the moon!

Argh! Status window! Help me! Show me some options!

…Nothing happened.

***

Fortunately, I had food and water in my bag.

Unfortunately, I still couldn’t find the way.

It goes without saying, but the basic equipment for adventurers includes a cube of emergency rations that tastes terrible and a bottle of clean water.

The reason I forgot this fact is… maybe because my intelligence is low?

Anyway, the immediate problem is solved.

Ignoring the fact that I was stupider than I thought, it was time to move to solve the fundamental problem.

I artificially create a landmark that can be recognized even from a distance. I roughly gather branches scattered around and loosely tie them with grass like a string.

A fairly plausible mark is completed.

Although I called it a mark, it was just long branches stuck firmly in the soil. If a slightly strong wind blows, it might fall over.

‘I can’t make it any better than this.’

You might ask, ‘What kind of mark can you make with just branches?’ But the area around where herbs grow is usually an open space. They don’t grow in areas where trees block the light.

In short, it’s more noticeable than you think. Once you get close, you can recognize it as ‘my starting point.’

Okay. Now it’s time to go into the forest and find the way.

How much time passed like that?

I finally managed to find a path with traces of people.

Fortunately, I didn’t get any scratches on my body, didn’t encounter any monsters along the way, and didn’t collapse due to lack of stamina.

Having successfully overcome the world’s obstacles, I started to follow the footprints backward, shedding tears of joy.

When my stamina was about to run out, I could see the lights of the village.

I’m back.

‘…A crisis on the first quest for a bronze-tag adventurer, even a beginner. This is ridiculous.’

Not to mention my goal of returning to reality, it’s uncertain whether I can remove the stamina and health debuffs. If I go around looking for items with this body, I’ll die right away.

Barely moving my tired body, I take one step at a time steadily forward.

And so… I opened the door of the Adventurer’s Guild.

“…Oh.”

“You look terrible.”

“Isn’t that the same woman from this morning?”

It was night.

The perfect time to drink to recover from a tired body and mind.

Since the first floor of the Adventurer’s Guild also served as a restaurant, they ate and drank, and started to talk freely, using me as a spectacle or a snack.

My ears, already exhausted, couldn’t even hear their stories properly, and I was just filled with the thought of submitting the herbs quickly and going to my room to lie down.

It was good to receive the attention of others.

But not now.

The employee and receptionist looked at me in surprise, then quickly started serving me with a smile.

I submitted 15 herbs, excluding the ones for healing potions and the ones to be sold separately to the alchemist.

“C-confirmed.”

“…Yes.”

“Here is your reward. I have added it to your experience.”

The receptionist, who stuttered for a moment, quickly regained her composure and finished the reception perfectly.

The adventurers who were talking about me until just a moment ago suddenly became quiet. They didn’t say anything and just looked at me.

I put the copper coin in my hand into my pocket and looked at them.

This time, I didn’t avoid their eyes.

They slightly turned their heads. After confirming that their gaze was gone, I headed to the second floor.

I couldn’t understand what kind of courage or pride surged up to make me do that. I just didn’t like it.

Others talking about me as they please. That one thing I didn’t like so much… yes. That’s all.

If they were going to talk about me, I’d rather hear praise than hear that I came back in a mess from a simple quest. Yes. I… want to be praised.

It was just a simple desire for recognition.

I don’t know why, but I felt like I wanted to receive the attention of others.

Whether it was the personality of the character I created influencing me, or whether the suppressed desires of living as a quiet, ordinary person were now released.

I couldn’t understand.

Right now, I just… wanted to rest.

Before another tomorrow comes, I will just rest sufficiently.

***

Even after the black-haired bard went up to the second floor, the heat on the first floor did not easily subside.

It was partly because alcohol goes down better at night, and partly because adventurers have a much higher alcohol tolerance than ordinary people, but the biggest factor was simple.

“…What happened?”

“I don’t know. But, to have been rolling around in the forest until this hour, there’s only one explanation.”

“No one is stupid enough to get lost on that level of a hill.”

A pretty fellow adventurer, or the guild receptionist, is always good gossip.

Especially if it’s a new adventurer who showed their face for the first time today.

Late at night, unless you’re a complete idiot, you can return from an herb-gathering quest within an hour. To have done it until this hour? It’s nonsense.

“Did she meet a bandit…?”

“No, maybe a goblin.”

“She was unlucky. She looked about the same age as my daughter.”

Perhaps because of the nature of the adventurer profession, where people easily disappear and die, rumors spread quite quickly on the guild floor.

At the same time, there’s also quite a bit of camaraderie.

If an adventurer dies, their colleagues often take their equipment and belongings, and sometimes even hold a funeral on behalf of the family.

Yes. They are now worried about the new adventurer, the bard girl, who is asleep on the second floor, unaware of anything.

What on earth happened to her in the forest to make her come back in such a state?

Everyone raised their beers in a somber mood.

The atmosphere, which had been noisy until just a moment ago, had subsided considerably.