Death March — Fixed

I have finally arrived at Seryuu city.

Let’s strip it bare with All Map Exploration!

Oh, the population is around 120,000--it is based in a rather remote region in the Shiga Kingdom, which is ruled by an Earl. 95% of the population seem to be Human, and the other 5% are Beastkin tribes, Lizardmen, and Fairy tribes. The average level is between 5 and 10 for adults, the highest level is an old man who is level 48. The knights range from 20 to 30, with most being 20; normal soldiers are around 15.

There seem to be a lot of bows among the weapons, probably as a countermeasure to Dragons.

Oh?

The male to female ratio is 5:6, with females being the dominant gender--this could be because of fantasy effects on births among Humans, or because males tend to have a higher mortality rate.

Unexpectedly, the townspeople only have a few skills, the majority have somewhere between 1-3 Skills, some even have none. Well, it seems that having 20 or so Skills are the exception, which is what I expected.

Only a few people with Magic-based Skills, only around 2000 people do, out of a population of almost 10x that. 90% of those only seem to have simple Magic, the remaining 10% seem to belong to the country’s army.

Whelp, as expected…level 310 is beyond extraordinary--in addition, I got carried away and learned a lot of skills, which may be useless, and will make me seem rather conspicuous.

The map even showed street names, and what seemed to be shops and merchant’s houses, to some degree. Even though it didn’t list the items that they sold, or what their reputation may be--but it is incredibly useful for a first look around time.

Seen from the top-down view of the map, the town is shaped like a 6km diameter oval, along with two strangely ‘<O’ areas on either side.

Zooming the Map in, I look at each area.

In the oval shaped section of the map--first, and the closest to the gate, there seems to be a general residential area. Beside the gate are stables and inns, joining them, the local lord’s castle is located at the center of the neighbourhood--on what looks like a hill.

Something that seems to be a temple stands directly at the center of the city, almost on the other side of the oval from the lord’s mansion. A cafeteria that looks too small for the city to use is between the gate and the lord’s mansion.

When I tried to search for people with ‘Adventurer’ as a job, I got nothing. There didn’t seem to be any Librarians either, which dashed my hopes of seeing what fantasy books my mind may conjure to fill a library. I still tried to believed that I was dreaming, the other options scared me too much to admit.

I needed time to adjust.

However, there were some slaves.

Gathering my courage, and checking as much as I could--I began walking and soon arrived at the front gate.

Showing up together with the rising sun, perfect timing!

Thought the gate is closed this early.

I thought that there may be some other people waiting for the gate to open, but there was no one there. It would be nice if there are some villagers who were lining up to sell their vegetables in the morning.

Is it only in my dream that shops don’t seem to open before eight in the morning?!

Wearing a tee-shirt and jeans will probably stand out a little too much, so I searched my storage and found several robes; I took out the only non worn-out one, which happened to be dark green.

The other robes were either Magic tools, or were too worn-out, so I can’t bring myself to wear them. Even this robe smells a little bit like mold.

My body looks like when I was 16, back when I was rather small--causing the robe to be a little long and drag on the floor; but I did check, when getting changed, but luckily, at least one part hasn’t decreased in size to back when I was 16.

Ahem, the overly long robe luckily hid my sneakers.

Like normal, I didn’t have much in the name of facial hair.

While thinking about these things, I continue to wait for the gate to open.

***

“**! ***** ******!!”

When I got to the gate, a soldier came out, while saying some words which I couldn’t recognize.

>>Skill: Shiga Language Acquired.

Damn, I love Easy Mode!

I quickly operated the menu and allocated skill points to the Shiga Language skill, an overenthusiastically, I allocated the full 10 points to it.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, kid?” The bearded soldier asks me, a worried look in his eyes.

“Good morning. No, I’m fine.” I replied politely, smiling in greeting.

As we spoke, the heavy gate opened behind the soldier.

“Good to hear. Alright Kid, show me your identification, as per the rules--if you don’t have one, then you need to pay five copper coins.” The guard seemed to guess that I wasn’t from around here, his question also included an explanation in it.

But, what the hell…I need to have ID in a dream?!

My first thought was to show the Driver’s License which had been in the wallet, in storage, but I realized that it would cause more trouble than it was worth, so I stopped.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have ID on me.” I decided to be honest, because if I snuck in and people found me, I would have to run.

“Did you lose it? Well, you have to pay five copper for entrance, and you can stay in the town for the day. Otherwise we could issue you a new, permanent, ID for 1 silver coin. Are you okay with that?”

There are some Shiga silver coins in my storage, if I’m not mistaken.

“Please make me a new one? My horse, surprised by the loud roars and earth shaking eight days ago, ran away while carrying my luggage. If I hadn’t kept beef jerky in my pocked, and didn’t find some spring water on the way, I would have been dead!” I’m a smooth talker, if I do say so myself--though I’m not sure why I decided to come up with a complex backstory, since this was a, dream.

>>Skill: Excuse Acquired.

>>Skill: Deception Acquired.

>>Skill: Negotiation Acquired.

Well, two of them had horrible names, but these skills look incredibly useful.

“Well, follow me, Kid!” The guard spoke happily and beckoned me towards the guard station, which was located just beside the gate.

Pssh, even though I made up a story which should cause the listener to feel pity, he just ignored it. Oh well.

“I am asking just in case, not accusing you of anything, but you aren’t on some wanted list are you?” I could hear a slight laughter in the man’s tone.

“Nope, I am clean.”

However, if anyone knew that I was the criminal who unleashed the Meteor Show spell…twice. I would probably be on many different wanted lists.

“Alright, then place your hands on this Yamato Stone and speak your name.” The guard spoke in a surprisingly bored tone, he had probably done this so many times he was reciting it by rote, as he guided me to what looked like a 20inch wide LCD display which was sitting on a table in the guard station.

For my name?

I should use the one that I am most comfortable with, the name of my character.

“Tek.” I spoke, placing my palms on the strangely warm stone.

As I spoke the name, the Yamato Stone started to glow with a dim blue light, some words appeared in its surface. It used the same letters as the signpost earlier, but now I could properly read it thanks to the Shiga Language Skill.

“Alright, kid, it’s fine to release your hand now.” The guard spoke, his tone becoming slightly more animated again.

The words on the screen read: ‘Race: Human’, ‘Level: 1’, ‘Class: Commoner’, ‘Affiliation: None’, ‘Job: Management’, ‘Titles: None’, ‘Skills: None’, ‘Reward and Punishment: None’.

Heh?

Isn’t my level much different from what is displayed?

Not seeming to notice my puzzlement, the soldier wrote the words onto a piece of paper, using a quill. With a flourish, he stamped the bottom of the paper below the line: ‘Approving officer: Knight Soun -- Retainer of Earl Seryuu’ with the ring he wore on his right hand; there was a sizzling noise and a symbol appeared, which he quickly added a signature next to it.

“Here, don’t lose it next time,” he grinned as he rolled the paper up, giving it and a wooden card to me.

I quickly hand him 1 silver coin, and 5 copper coins--which I took from my storage, disguising the movement, so it looked like I took them from my pocket.

“You kept your money in your pocket, instead on the horse which ran? Aren’t you smart! Keep your ID safe from now on.” He suddenly grinned and winked, as though he figured something out, “Also, don’t forget. This residence permit is for 10 days, but can be renewed for free. Just make sure to do so, otherwise, if you are caught in town with an expired permit the penalty is 1 silver coin--if you can’t pay it, you’ll be forced to become a slave.”

He spoke smoothly, without many breaks for breaths, and no time for thoughts; it was as though he said this explanation quite a few times.

Well, let’s be careful not to forget.

Of course, I have more than enough silver, but why would I waste it when it is so simple to keep it?

“Thank you very much.” I say to the guard as I subtly place the paper and wooden tag into my storage.

“By the way, feel free to stop by the guard station for consultation if there’s any trouble.”

I nodded to him, bidding him a polite farewell.

It seems that I took quite a bit of time inside the guard station, the main road outside the gate, which was so empty before, was now filled with people.

***

There is a semicircular space, with a radius of around twenty meters between the gate and the town--I’m not sure why it is like that, it may be to allow the defenders to place defenses in the case of a war.

Let’s look for a change of clothes, while strolling the main street, for now; even though I washed them enough that they are clean, I don’t really like wearing the same set of clothes for almost two weeks.

“You there! If you haven’t decided on an inn, come to ours! I’ll give you some service!”

“What?” I couldn’t help but leak out a voice of confusion as a cheerful female voice ran out beside me, and someone pulled on my arm; a random, high tension, girl embraced my arm and pulled on it.

“It’s fine, my inn is cheaper than all the others--just kidding, but it is filled with a devotion to delicious food and good service!” She spoke with a giggle and grin.

I’m dragged to a building that looks like a bar…while thoroughly enjoying the soft feeling on my arm.

Because of coming straight from the bright outdoors, the interior seems slightly dim.

“Mum! Mum! I brought a guest!”

Out of consideration for the delicious softness pressing on my arm, I feel my hesitation melting away, and I decide to stay at this inn.

“It’s the first customer since the stars fell, isn’t it? Oh? He doesn’t have any luggage…is he really a guest?” An older woman, with a large body, came out from behind the counter.

Contrary to her figure, she has a beautiful face which is filled with dignity.

I look closely at the daughter, drawing my eyes from her chest and see her face, which is beautiful like her mother. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she is quite fat…Why must she be so overweight…

If she lost 30kg or so, she would be in my strike zone.

Though it may also decrease the size of her chest.

“Because of that…er, starfall? My horse ran away with my luggage, due to panic. Fortunately, my wallet is safe, and I managed to make it to this city.” I stopped dwelling on the regret which welled up in me, and responded to the mother.

“That’s a disaster. Our inn charges three copper coins for a night, two copper coins if you are willing to sleep in a large room with other guests. Meals are served at the bar, only one serving however, no seconds. This is included in the cost, and you get breakfast and dinner.”

I’m not sure the value of copper coins, but the price seems more than reasonable.

Luckily, the landlady has the Arithmetic and Cleaning Skills, so she shouldn’t make many mistakes.

“Alright, then 10 days please?” I said.

“That will be 3 silver coins then.” The woman nodded as she made the mental computations.

I take out three silver coins and pass them to the landlady.

It seems like 10 copper coins are equal to 1 silver coins.

“Is it okay if I have a meal now?” I ask cautiously, since I am unsure if it is still breakfast.

“Well, we have oatmeal, bread, or some left over vegetable stew from last night--there is no meat available at the moment.”

“Then bread, and stew please.”

“Okay, I’ll bring it immediately, so just take a seat. Martha, write in the guest book for our customer.” The landlady goes into the kitchen, taking her daughter with her.

It seems that her daughter isn’t the Martha girl.

A girl who looks like a librarian--well, her hair is shoulder-length and well groomed, her green eyes were hidden behind glasses; she is also holding a notebook which is tied with string--she skips over to me.

She is really cute, though she looks about the same age as my body now is.

“Hello, can you please give me your name?” Her tone is polite, and she has a small smile on her face.

“I am Tek,”

“Okay Tek, your occupation and age please?”

I almost said 25 year old programmer, which is my true age, but in this dream I seem to be much younger. According to my Status screen, I am sixteen, “I am a traveler, and 16 years old.”

Martha smoothly fills in the notebook, her handwriting is incredible.

Just as Martha seemed to be attempting to chat, after she finished writing in the guest book, the landlady came out from the kitchen and told her to clean the 2^nd floor.

The landlady placed a bowl of stew, which was a deep brown and had vegetables floating in it, on the table in front of me; as well as two slices of rather flat, brown , bread--which, while it doesn’t look too tasty, when I bite into it out of curiousity, I find it isn’t too bad.

After quite a long time, I feel satisfied with a meal.

Hmm?

Come to think of it, the landlady, her daughter, and Martha all spoke words like oatmeal, guest books…etc, in what sounded like English.

With that thought in mind, I looked over at where the landlady and her daughter were speaking, I saw that their lip movements didn’t match their words.

>>Skill: Lip Reading Acquired.

I walked up the the mother-daughter pain, waiting patiently for them to finish their conversation, I spoke when they paused, “I intend to buy some groceries and a change of clothes. Are there any places which you would recommend to me?”

Although I know the locations of every store in Seryuu, there are too many, and they don’t list what they sell; and I don’t want to walk around all day.

“If you want something created from a high quality material, then the tailor in the central district of the city would be the best. For something more reasonable, but cheaper, the tailor is good; but if you want something cheap and don’t care about the quality, there is a shop in the west. There are also General Goods shops near the clothing stores,” The mother placed a finger on her third chin, tilting her rather round head up as she thought.

Why is such a good looking, and rather young looking, face on such a body…oops, I have to stop thinking about that. Well, it had been many, many years since I last had a relationship--or even got laid.

“Thank you very much, I’ll go to the tailor to the east.” I shook myself from the bad thoughts and spoke cheerfully to the landlady.

As I leave the inn, after thanking the landlady for the advice, I see the face of Martha peeking down from the stairs to the second floor.

Well, I am fairly sure by now that this definitely isn’t a dream.

I will make sure to work hard. It is possible that I died from overwork and came here.

I can finally have a more relaxing life, but I don’t want to die again, possibly going to a worse place.