The Only Thing I Can Upgrade is Strength chapter 8

Previous Chapter –Table of Contents– Next Chapter

The guild had a series of rankings to determine about how hard monsters were, and let adventurers know whether they needed more people or training to do a job. In a lot of fiction, the ranks are lettered, least to greatest, as F, E, D, C, B, A, S. Thinking about that makes me want to stab someone, or perhaps bash their head in with a club. I know that “S” stands for “special” or something, but that’s still not how the alphabet works! Plus, it gives you a small set of levels to group things into. That’s not really a great idea. Fortunately, I didn’t have to bash anyone’s head in here. Though the alphabet is different, it basically goes from lowest to highest, with starting at A and going through the alphabet. This is better. Numbers might be best, actually, but that might get people confused with levels. The people in this world actually have that concept- It’s not just people from a different world like me who know about levels. It’s weird, but I suppose if you’d grown up with it your whole life, it wouldn’t seem that way. It would just be the way things were. The adventurers also had cards that were used as identification. Though, for lower ranking adventurers they were just wooden plaques.

For scale of ranks, Dragons were somewhere around J-M rank, and there wasn’t much more dangerous than them. There were rumors that there were some M class adventurers- those who could defeat top dragons on their own. It was said they were around level 100. However, there weren’t any in this country, if such people were real. Ah, by the way, this country is named Othya. I haven’t really looked into the geography yet, though it seems to be a fairly large country. Ah, and horned rabbits were an A, of course.

Speaking of horned rabbits, their horns were worth about 1 copper. That means I would have to kill more than 10 per day to survive off of hunting them. However, their skins and meat had value too, so if I could transport all of that, it would be worth more. I don’t think I would have any trouble carrying a bunch of them, except they would take up a lot of room. Even my new bag would only be able to hold a few. I decided to hunt some that day and see how much I could get. They were apparently literally everywhere. It seems they bred even faster than normal rabbits. Frightening.

As I was leaving the guild, I was stopped by the barbarian. “Hey, kid. Joking aside, using a weapon just because it is big won’t do you any good. Can you actually swing that?” Contrary to his gruff appearance, he was kind.

“Ah, thanks for the warning, but I’ll be fine.” I held the club in both hands and swung it a few times. It even made a nice *fwoosh* sound as it went through the air. “I’m actually a lot stronger than I look.”

The barbarian actually looked surprised. “Isn’t that ironwood? No offense, but with how you look, just dragging that along the floor would make you stronger than you look.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I get that. Also, I’m twenty-two. Not a kid.”

He got a strained look on his face. “Is that so? Sorry, I just don’t like to see anyone get themselves killed trying to look cool. It happens way too often. Since you’re still new, though, I can give you some advice if you want. I’d probably stick with fighting horned rabbits until at least level 5, more if you aren’t feeling confident. Make sure to get some armor once you can afford it. It’s a bit expensive, but there’s nothing worth more than your life.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think I like being alive, so I’ll certainly stick with them for a while.”

“Good. I’m Sgar, by the way.” Oooh, a very barbarianish name. Maybe I’m just projecting, though.

“I’m Llyr.” This was only the third person I had told my name since coming to this world. The first being the guild representative a few moments earlier, when he issued my ID card. I also told Torvald and Gregory. Wait, I guess that would be four?

—–

I stuck to Sgar’s advice, and my intentions, and only fought Horned Rabbits that day. I stayed within sight of the city, and killed more than a handful, but they weren’t as plentiful as in the forest. Perhaps that was because there were more people here killing them… but I didn’t see anyone else. On the other hand, it was a large area. The good news was that the rabbits, although more rare, also didn’t come in pairs or more. By evening, I had enough to pay for my expenses at the inn, including meals. I thought I could do it in the future once I learned to control my strength so as to not ruin the fur or break the horns when I killed them. Though I wasn’t amazingly strong, they were, after all, rabbits. Though they were dangerous, they were fragile.

—–

That night is when I contemplated my life choices- and my future ones. Did I regret adding everything into Strength? If I had just added ninety points, my Strength would have been average. With the leftover ten points, I could have started distributing things normally, and sort of one level higher. The way I did it… I supposed I counted as being around two levels higher with the 10% bonus, which was still… not that much better. Nothing amazing. After all, people could have above average Strength. Was I capable of being an adventurer like this?

The rational side of me said “no”. It’s dangerous to be an adventurer. Even though I don’t know that much about this world yet, I know that. I was already lucky not to have been really hurt. A horn could get me in the eye, and that would be it for me. The second part of me said “be a man”. It wasn’t a stupid part that was saying I should just face danger head on no matter the consequences. That wasn’t being a man, but a fool. That part said to make a responsible decision. Think before acting. What is best for you, and the people around you? The third part of me said… you can stand. No, you’re strong, even if just a little bit. You could be stronger. Sure, you can walk and run now, but think of what more you could do!

I thought, and didn’t know what to do, so I fell asleep on the uncomfortable bed… and dreamt of wrestling dragons. Dreams are weird.
Previous Chapter –Table of Contents– Next Chapter