Chapter 5*

Waking up by dawn, I got up and went for my daily workout in the back of the inn. Starting with the regular 'Saitama' workout, before running around Mondstat for about 10 km. finding an empty corner by the wall, I start practicing my spear techniques despite my aching body, only feeling some relief by circulating mana around my body. Going like this helps my multi-tasking by a bit, so I continue despite the mental fatigue. After going till the sun starts to rise, I rest for a bit while watching the sunrise. I smile feeling the warm rays of sunlight on my body, feeling like my fatigue has been reduced a bit.

Getting up and making my way back, I greet the guards at the entrance before going back to the inn for a bath. Going to the dining area, I greet "good morning". "Morning" she replies. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes" "I'll wait, thank you" I smile. She nods and goes back to the kitchen. I start to plan my day 'I'll do the daily quests before going to the library. I hope I meet some of the characters though' I smile inwardly.

Bringing breakfast to my table, I see some pancakes and orange juice. "Enjoy your meal" she chuckles as I hear my stomach rumbling rather loudly. Smiling a little embarrassed, I nod and start to enjoy my breakfast.

Leaving after a while, I head to the adventurers guild. Greeting Katherine "morning Katherine" "Good morning Mr. Noctis. Would you like to check the available quests?"

"No, I will just be doing the daily quests for a while if it's no problem?"

"Except for the fact you have to do a quest at least once every month, it's not a problem"

"I see, why is that?" I ask. "it's to avoid people who want to make some cash without working for the guild, and it's also a requirement to complete some quests before applying for an increase in adventurer rank". I nod since that makes sense. After completing the daily quests for 20k mora and 60 primogems, I thank her and head over to the favonius headquarters, stopping over at Good Hunter for a quick lunch, since it's already noon.

Getting there, I am stopped by the guards "Halt! State your name and identification"

"I'm Barry Noctis, and I want to go to the library" I reply as I give them my adventurer card, and they nod as they let me in, warning me not to make any trouble. I thank them as I go in, revealing a roman-like architecture with different doors leading to different rooms.

I look around, noticing it's bigger than expected and there are many doors leading to a few locations including the library doors and the officers rooms. I also see the solitary confinement room, but I quickly ignore it with a sweat drop seeing the iron door with a lot of bolts to keep the 'Bomb Knight' Klee inside.

Going to the library door and nodding to the guard, I open it and I see what could only be described as a book-worms wet dream. Damn, there are a lot of books. Categorizing from art to adventure, thriller to comedy, and economics to fiction and so on. Looking around and seeing a few people, I ignore them and look for books about teyvat in the history version. Picking a few, I start reading for a few hours.

(We already know the general situation so I'm just gonna skip it ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

Quite a few things caught my attention, such as the fact that there are treasure chests, but the spawn rate is abysmal to the point you are called lucky if you find any chests above exquisite. The spawn rate goes like this; 1 month(ordinary), 3 months(exquisite), 6 months(precious) and 1 year(luxurious). Also the degree of opening the chests are exponentially harder the larger the chest, from simple combat of a hilichurls group for an exquisite chest to fighting a ruin guard in a specific amount of time to get the precious quest. The less said about the luxurious, the better. They even had to limit who could attempt it to A-rank adventurers and above for safety purposes, and it's actually recommended for a group of three A-rank adventurers or more. I wince, knowing it won't be as easy as I expected to become rich in three months. 'Oh well, I will just wing it I guess' I muse to myself.

Frightened by a tap on my shoulder, I turn around and I'm lost in the teal eyes that look at me worriedly. Coming back to my senses, I cough lightly with a small blush as I smile and ask "yes, what can I do for you miss?" "I'm Noelle, maid of the knight of favonius"

Seeing her, I'm sure she is prettier than in the game. Noelle is a beautiful young girl with short, lilac hair styled in a braid above her forehead and light green eyes. Her headpiece is white and gold and resembles a crown with a pair of roses at both sides by the ends. Her dress resembles a suit of armor and matches her headpiece. It had long black sleeves with pleats around the shoulder on her left one and a piece of metal on the right one. It has a large piece of pleated magenta fabric at the collar and a black skirt with a magenta layer underneath lined in white trimming and an apron above it. She wears a black belt with a gold shield-like piece of metal at the left adorned by a magenta bow. Seeing the geo vision in her waist does give a quick glance at her thin waist.

I'm brought out of my thoughts by her asking "are you okay?" I chuckle and reply "ah sorry, I was lost in thought for a while. I'm Barry Noctis and I just got here yesterday."

"Ah, I see. Welcome to the city of freedom, Mr. Noctis"

"Please call me Barry, Mr. Noctis makes me feel old"

She smiles and replies okay. I ask "so what's a beautiful lady like you doing here?" She blushes and reply "It-It's time for the library to close, it's almost dark". I look around and notice the lamps are on, indicating its turning dark. I look at Noelle, nodding as I pack the books in my hand, with her helping me put the books back in the shelf.

I chat with Noelle as I go back to the entrance, with her enlightening me about the various places to relax around here, and me telling her about my travels (fake) from sumeru to mondstat. When she asks why I left home, I told her that I ran away because I was feeling constrained and I wanted to go out for and adventure.

Getting to the door, I tell her "it's been a lovely chat, Noelle. I hope we can continue this another day" "Me too Barry" she replies and smiles at me. I look at her in a daze before smiling back and kissing her hand in a gentleman's bow. "Good night, my lady" I tease before walking away. I smile as her face goes red, while muttering something about 'maiden', before bowing and going back inside the building. I got back to the inn and eat dinner, before going to the room and sleeping since I was tired mentally after reading for a few hours.