The Only Thing I Can Upgrade is Strength chapter 7

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I don’t know why it was, that even though I was strong(ish) now, I didn’t want something like a greataxe, or a two handed sword. Part of it was comfort, certainly. The club was the only thing I’d ever used as a weapon. Before I left the shop, I discovered another reason. Those other weapons were expensive. Even a really nice club was quite a bit cheaper than something made out of metal, I guess. Except the swords I’d sold, because they were only slightly better than scrap metal. It seemed the cheapest greataxe was 1 gold coin, after I thought to look. Good thing I didn’t get the idea of using one in my head, because I would have been disappointed. Great, now I thought about it. It’s okay, Club. I won’t abandon you.

Next, Torvald was kind enough to take me to a tailor, where I bought some very cheap clothes (with a belt!) and a bag to hold stuff. Like, say, rabbit horns. I still didn’t know if those had value.

I wanted to go to the adventurer’s guild too, but it was getting very late. So, we went back to the inn recommended by Torvald. He even paid for my room! (1 silver. That’s was an important number to know). Well, I suppose having your life saved was probably worth at least that much. He didn’t seem to be rich based on the relatively inexpensive looking items in his wagon, so I wasn’t going to ask for more. He’d already helped me out in other ways.

As I lay back on the bed (it was more comfortable than outside by many times, but it wasn’t anything like my own bed at home) I thought about my situation. Maybe coming to a fantasy world wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I could easily have been dead every night before that one, and every day. Plus, I’d killed humans earlier. Ugh, I didn’t want to remember that. I didn’t know how I was going to sleep.

The good news was, I was tired enough to fall asleep quickly. The bad news was… the nightmares.

I hadn’t seen the faces of the bandits I killed, except one of them, briefly. Then, their faces were mangled. Comparing what I’d seen from the bounty posters, it was completely mangled. Though, that wasn’t to say their faces were pretty to begin with. Still, I couldn’t help but seeing their faces morph back and forth between their smashed and unsmashed states. It was a mercy when I woke up at dawn.

—–

In the morning, the memories of the nightmares were more vague. I was glad of that, but I still didn’t feel good at all, mentally. Surprisingly, my muscles didn’t ache at all. Every cloud has a silver lining, right? Though, I heard that’s just the indication they’re going to be dropping lightning upon you. Upon reaching the lower floor, I greeted Torvald and Gregory, who also happened to be there for breakfast.

After breakfast, which was a cheap? two coppers, I headed to the adventurer’s guild. It was, somewhat like I was expecting, a large building. Inside, I saw a bunch of people immediately recognizable as adventuring types. They just had this certain look about them. Probably it was the fact that nobody had the same exact equipment as any others. In fact, most of them didn’t even have complete sets of their own armor, but whatever pieces fit. It was so much, in fact, that I thought maybe they were mismatched on purpose. I had no way to prove that, but I honestly felt it was right.

The guild also seemed to double as some kind of tavern, as almost everyone had drinks, or food. Some people were also idling around by what I presumed to be the job board. Conveniently recognizable features like that were nice. Otherwise, I would probably be completely at a loss for what to do.

As it was, I headed for the counter, where I planned to register with the… *tch* man behind the counter. On the way over, I heard some voice obviously targeted at me. “Oh, can a little guy like you actually handle that big club?” I saw someone that I would call a barbarian looking at me. Maybe he wouldn’t have called himself that, but why else would he have no shirt and a big greataxe? Though the words hit a little close to home due to my former weakness, but the tone of voice told me could tell they were actually good natured. Therefore I just grinned and raised my eyebrows.

By the way, I don’t think my muscles are visibly much bigger at all. They’re still just as emaciated, though my clothing covering them makes it harder to tell. The belt line might give away some of it though. Combined with the fact that I’m still short, the club definitely doesn’t look like something I could wield, and that’s without knowing that the wood it’s made out of is pretty dense.

I reluctantly stepped up to the man at the counter. Sadly, it wasn’t a beautiful woman, but I couldn’t really expect something that nice. “I’m here to hear about registering as an adventurer.”

I’ll skip the exact words, but everything seemed pretty reasonable. Though, I suppose not everyone knows about the idea of adventurer’s guilds, so I’ll explain. In such a world as this, where there are monsters, you need people to fight them. This is what adventurers do. In this case, you would bring an identifiable part of the monsters you defeated to get paid. Some monsters were just dangerous to have around, and their parts were thrown out. However, there were others that had valuable horns or fur, or other things, and these could be sold. Adventurers often also did odd jobs.

As for why I would want to register… I needed to at least sell the rabbit horns. Plus, I needed a job. I didn’t think I had many marketable skills. Sales? Nope. Crafting? I’d done a science project or two… and then helped plan them, but honestly I couldn’t say I was great even when I could move my own hands. Receptionist? I supposed I could do that. If they had a position available, that is. I could do math and could read and write (even the stuff here, which was good to know). I thought that should put me at a decent level of employability, but I would need to find somewhere with free jobs first.

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