Chapter 1-8 : Signs (part 2)
「You see the pigs over there?」(butcher)
After he took me outside, the butcher pointed at the pigs at the farm next to the slaughterhouse.
「Yeah, I see them.」(Alice)
「Have you equipped the skill?」(butcher)
「Ah, hold on.」(Alice)
By the way, this game uses a ‘skill equipping’ system where you have to equip the skills you want to use in available skill slots. If you don’t do it, you can’t use the skills even though you have learned them.
However, there’s an exception. For example, the unique skill【Hunter】that I learned from Rick today.
There are some unique skills that don’t require you to equip them. They are already equipped in the special skill slots the moment you learn them.
I don’t know about the NPCs in this world, but players have ten skill slots. That means you can equip up to ten skills aside from unique skills.
I unequipped【Cooking】and【Gathering】which were the skills I didn’t need for now and swapped them with【Butcher】and【Sever】that I just learned.
After that, I turned my gaze toward the pigs again and noticed something different.
「Whoaa…」(Alice)
「Do you see those lines?」(butcher)
I could see red glowing lines all over the pigs’ bodies. I wonder what they are.
「Yes, I can see them.」(Alice)
「When you equip your【Sever】skill, you will be able to see lines when you look at animals or monsters. You can cut much more effectively with much less effort if you follow those lines. Sometimes, a shallow cut can even split your prey’s body in half.」(butcher)
「I see. What a powerful skill!」(Alice)
「It is, but it’s hard to use because your target has to be alive. Using your blade to cut a moving monster while following those thin lines is very difficult after all, especially when your target is quick. You will have a hard time doing that perfectly unless you are a skilled fighter. Well, because of that reason, this skill is kinda useless for us butchers.」(butcher)
「So, it needs a lot of practice, huh?」(Alice)
「Exactly. But, since you’re an Outworlder, I think you will master it in no time.」(butcher)
「I’m not sure, but I’ll do my best.」(Alice)
「Anyway, shall we skin the remaining rabbits and lamb?」(butcher)
「Okay.」(Alice)
We returned to the slaughterhouse and continued skinning the prey I brought in.
ーーーーー
By the time I left the slaughterhouse, my clothes were covered in blood.
I didn’t want to walk around the town like this, so I asked a resident near the farm if there was a place where I could wash my body. They told me that there was a public bath nearby, so I headed there.
The place was huge. It was much bigger than the public bathhouse in my neighborhood.
There were so many players with dirty clothes too. They were covered in mud and blood. I wonder if they just came back from dungeons.
Fortunately, we didn’t need to worry about our dirty clothes because this public bath had hundreds of washing machines that could clean clothes in a second. Of course, it wasn’t free, but it was cheap.
I entered the women’s area, took off my clothes, and washed them with a washing machine. After that, I took the rented bath towel and entered the bath.
By the way, since you can’t fake your gender in this game, you don’t need to worry about perverts who dare to enter the women’s bath.
Luckily, it wasn’t that crowded here in the women’s bath, probably because there were not many female players compared to male players.
The number of female gamers has increased in the past few years, but still, the majority of young females prefer to do other things than playing games.
As soon as I entered the bath, I washed my body and hair with the soap and shampoo provided there.
After that, I entered one of the bathtubs.
There were multiple huge circular bathtubs here. ーNo, instead of bathtubs, I think we should call them pools because of their size.
The temperature of the water was great. It was hot but not too hot. It didn’t feel like I was in a virtual world at all.
As I soaked my body in the water, I noticed there was a group of female players who seemed to be in the same party talking with each other next to me.
Thinking that I might get useful information, I decided to silently listen to their conversation.
「Ahh~ I’m so tired~」(girl A)
「You’ve said that a hundred times today, you know?」(girl B)
「But she’s right. The dungeon was really tiring. The monsters kept spawning like there was no tomorrow but they barely dropped anything.」(girl C)
「Right~? The drop rate was terrible probably because they were low-level monsters. Aa-ahh, I thought I would be able to gather materials to make a new weapon today, but I ended up spending so much money to buy potions… I kinda regret not learning any crafting skills.」(girl A)
「Yeah, me too. I think I will learn【Gathering】and【Compounding】next time so I can make potions myself.」(girl B)
「You’re right. I thought those skills were garbage. That’s why I didn’t spend my precious SP on them, but turns out we really need those kind of skills.」(girl C)
「Well, you can’t survive in this world with only combat skills after all. By the way, I still can’t understand why that NPC was so rude toward us.」(girl A)
「Ah, you mean that old man? Yeah, he was a bit cold even after we completed his quest.」(girl B)
「He acted like that because you upset him, didn’t you?」(girl C)
「Huh? I didn’t do anything!」(girl A)
「Reeeeally~? I think he was mad because you accidentally killed his cow, thinking that it was a monster because of its weird appearance.」(girl B)
「That’s… Ugh… You may be right…」(girl A)
Hoho~ I see, I see. As I thought, they just returned from a dungeon.
From their conversation, I learned three important points.
First, the low-level monsters in dungeons rarely drop items. For most players, a low drop rate is an annoying thing, but not for me.
Since I’ve learned【Hunter】, the monsters I kill will remain as corpses, and I can get materials from their bodies. Well, I need to skin them first, which is kind of troublesome.
The second thing I learned is the fact that you will need a lot of potions to go to a dungeon. You might need less if you go with a healer though.
I think I will go to the western forest and gather some medical herbs to make potions later just in case I will need a lot of them someday.
The third thing I learned is about the NPCs’ attitudes.
The NPCs I’ve met so far treated me well, but it seemed that the NPC those girls met was not very nice toward them. I need to behave carefully toward NPCs so as not to upset them.
It would be a nightmare for me if I somehow made Marl-san upset and she stopped selling me her delicious bread because of that.
Ugh… I don’t even want to think about it…
I’m going to play together with Shougo and Suzu tomorrow, and I think I will share this valuable information with them.
Anyway, I’ve rested enough. It’s time to get out of here and do some more exploration before logging out.
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