Chapter 168: Erudite Kingdom (7)

We were presented with a thin booklet, it's something we have to return later so we can't just take it away.

We were asked to take a seat while waiting for the confirmation of the application. Not sure what that was about. During that period of time, Nine used the Bookreader widget to scan and save the contents of the entire booklet. What.. I didn't know you could do that..

Putting that aside, the rules were common sense stuff. Of course, there were other details that would vary depending on the kind of isekai world such as how rewards are divided, what you should do when you encounter a party in need of help, and adventurer's etique like not stealing monster kills from other parties unless it was by accident.

There were also other rules like bar fights and annulment of guild cards if you act like a criminal..

I got through the entire thing half-way when we were beckoned by the female staff again.

On this note, I think it's better that I look up her status to check on her name-- Avice. Okay. Average stats around 40 to 70, I don't know if that's a high value or not.

"Oh shit.. I forgot. I'll need to change everyone's stats, buy some time," Nine whispered.

"Please place your hands here," gesturing, Avice said.

It was a weird orb. You know what that means.

The three of us, Prune, Liliath and I looked at each other-- then at Nine who stood behind us and started fingering the air as if nobody's business. I don't know if the status concealment skill hides our actual stats, but just in case.. Nine has us covered I guess.

"I've properly cleaned it so you don't have to worry about it being contaminated," she said with another stiff smile. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

"Done. Then I'll go first," Nine looked like he was sweating bullets, "Please something good.."

"You don't need to be so nervous. This isn't something that would affect your guild card."

Nine placed her hands on the orb and the light that appeared from it was soft.

"What does this mean?" Nine asked Avice.

"That is.." she shook her head, "The results are normal. You have a healthy amount of mana in your body. Next please."

Nine let out a sigh of relief at Avice's disappointed statement. Hm?

The glow emitted when I placed my hands on the orb was brighter than Nine's but it wasn't blinding. Prune's was similar to Nine while Liliath's was the brightest.

"Thank you very much, please take a seat again at the table," Avice lowered her head and left for the inner room.

"I set everyone's stats to around 50, gosh. That could've been bad," Nine said.

"Yeah."

"I don't understand how this magic and stats works," Prune said.

"I'll return everyone's stats to normal now."

Only Nine can adjust our stats, so it's a funny feeling seeing the numbers in your own status window change. Heeh.. he added the MP stat into our columns even though we didn't have them.

I kinda wonder, do sudden changes in stats not affect us directly? Like if someone suddenly gained 1000 STG, wouldn't that person accidentally break a table of something? It's a mystery to me.

Avice then returned with our guild cards. You know, typical prick your finger and drip some blood activation sequence. Prune was a little hesitant but did it anyway. After that we got a brief rundown on your typical G-rank to S-rank lecture, and that the guild card colour depends on rank. G-rank, our current rank was a rusty bronze colour. The quest board is over there at the wall, or we can ask the staff for recommendations.

Nothing too special. Except that we got reprimanded for not having any weapons on us. Crap, that makes us look suspicious doesn't it? We should arm ourselves soon.

As for the quests, we were given two basic quests to rank up from G to F. One is picking up this medicinal herb called frost thorn, a dozen stalks of it. The second quest was to bring back a Hoppin's horn. What's a Hoppin you ask? It's apparently that cliche horned rabbit you find in novels. Avice did tell us that goblin ears are alright too but since it was the winter and the fact that goblins were over-hunted, she said that hoppin's horns were a better choice.

Each person needed one set of the requirement to rank up so.. 4 horns and 4 dozen stalks of frost thorn.

There's no time limit to the quest because it acts more like an examination so..

"Let's go get lunch," I said.

"Let's go--"

Leaving the stiff smiling Avice behind, we headed for the guild tavern or whatever it's called. It's a separate section from the rest of the hall room with all the counters and instead of the sounds of paper shuffling, you smell alcohol and warm food. The clattering conversations of weapon wielding adventurers around the place also gave this surreal immersion.

We really are in a fantasy world.

But before that..

"What's that?"

There was an odd machine there at the corner of the tavern-cum-hall. Somehow, it looked like a slot machine without a screen. With a knight guarding the machine, you could see a queue of people going there. Most of them were wearing mage-like clothes.

"I see.. this explains why the capital could afford to have these wide-scale lighting models," Liliath said, "It's a mana donation station."

"What? Something like this exist?"

"It's like blood donation isn't it?" Prune said in a slack voice.

"It transfers our magical energy to a mana battery storage, which is then used in powering these lights and perhaps the other tools used in maintaining the temperature in the guild."

Oh yeah. I totally forgot that this was fantasy.. I was wondering why there were electric lights but to think that these are powered by mana?

"You can earn money from that?" Nine said, seeing how the guard on duty distributed coins to the mage that had just completed mana donation.

"It seems so."

I guess it's a good way to both generate energy and not waste excess mana produced by the body. Actually, how fast does one's mana recover?

Moving on, we found a long table and took a seat. Following that, a waiter came over and asked for our orders. Funny as it sounds, there were only two options for the guild meal, either a small portion and big portion. The menu changes each day, so what you get is random. The small portion costs 5 copper each while the large portion costs 7 copper.

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Honestly, I have no idea how much that is at all..

I really should stop being ignorant and read up the guide Unknown placed in my mail.

As for the drinks, water was complimentary while ale costs 4 large copper per mug.

Okay, to make sense of it all, 20 copper equals 1 silver, one large copper is equivalent to 2 copper coins.. but it sometimes has the value of 3 copper coins depending on the situation of copper stock price.. what the fuck.. I didn't know currency value is volatile here. Oi.

1 gold is equivalent to 100 silver, so it's like a big currency that commoners don't really use. It's hard to exchange, to put it in a sense. There's also large silver, and just like the large copper, it's value fluctuates between the value of 2 to 4 silver coins.

Many factors affect the stock prices of these coins but.. it's usually to do with the mining industry in Imagi or criminal syndicates that resmelt the coins into ingots to be sold-- based on the guide.

Maybe I should invest some time learning about the economy of this world. Though protagonist correction may very well help us earn money as adventurers.. I feel like that's too orthodox. Why not experiment with other aspects of a fantasy world that most protagonists in novels never really try to experience?

"Nine, Noel, Liliath, this is real right? I still find it incredibly hard to believe.." Prune said.

"It's real alright," Nine said.

"There should be no problems surviving if we depend on each other," Liliath said, consoling Prune by stroking her back. Nine and I sat on the same side, Liliath and Prune sat on the other. You know, Nine is a male now.

Nine kept glancing at the mana donation machine. He's interested in getting some free money..

"Nine, maybe you can go try it out? Maybe earn some freebies along the way?"

"Yeah sure, since the MP stats of those mages are around 100 to 200, I think I should be fine with 150 right?"

Nine said with a swag and went to the queue.

"Excuse me.."

Our meals arrived just in time. Looks like metal trays are a thing in this world.

It's hard brown bread and some meat stew with some yam-like cubes seen floating around.

Nine was still in line, he looked at us like some sort of clown. It seems that his curiosity got the better of him so he didn't leave the queue.

"Thank you," I paid for it all. 3 small portions, one large. So it's 23 small pieces of copper in total. I gave 1 silver and 3 copper.

The difference between the larger portion and smaller portion is that the larger portion has 2 loaves of bread and a bigger bowl of stew. Asides that, there's not too much difference.

"I'll keep it warm as for now, I'm curious to see the amount paid out for a meager amount of mana."

Meager.. in Liliath's words. I was thinking maybe Liliath's base pool is way higher than an average person since she's both a demon lord and prodigy when it comes to magic. It's just a speculation on my end but maybe a stat of 50 for Liliath's MP may beat Nine' 100 MP stat in terms of mana volume.

The three of us waited as Nine made his way to the machine, he placed his hands on the orb and..

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"Hey, it's better than the mercenary food we tasted last time."

"It matches well with the bread."

"I believe Prune's cooking is much more appetising."

"..." while the rest of us chatted, Nine remained silent.

You could tell the stew had been cooked over a long period of time from the meat fibres found inside it. The bread, though crude, had this strong wheat-like taste. Combine that with the slightly creamy stew, and thanks to the yam-like ingredient, it created this nice combination.

By the way, the bread was about the size of an adult hand, or about half the size of the rabbit plushie, Qui.

…

Reality hit me again huh? To think that we'd be separated from everyone we knew for who knows how long. The only thing to hang on is the fact that our return to the modern world is determined.

I decided to put aside the thought and just enjoy the meal.

The glass windows in the food hall were fogged up, beads of condense water formed on the interior side of the glass. If you look up, you could see multiple magic light sources dangling like some Christmas decorations. There were upper floors which I believe is the guild's inn because there were many rooms with number plates.

Looking around, you could see a group of seriously equipped adult adventurers discussing something over a large table-top map, mages taking turns using the mana donation machine to earn a few extra cents, youthful adventurers having a nice chat, waitresses sashaying as they approached each adventurer that came in, chefs yelling in the kitchen..

It's unreal..

"Liliath, teach me magic.. you have to teach me magic." Nine said after a long silence, a scary sound came from his clenched fist.

If you're curious about how much Nine got from the machine, it was none. He didn't know how to properly channel mana into the machine. Go figure. Though, it's odd how he managed to channel mana into the knife he used to intercept the sentry before this. Maybe it's beginner's luck?

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Author's Notes:

Illustration of Bleu here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUyb2y5hLsY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

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