... And giant insects

...

She showed me a paper with a long list of armors on it. I was surprised because, in the game, you had to build everything pretty much from scratch. The prices are also different. Probably because in here there aren't stats, only the defensive capabilities of the material the armor is made of, together with the techniques used to make it of course.

I can remember most of these… I know what to pick, it's price effective at least.

-I want the chain armor.

-Okay sir, that will be 1000 zenny. We will send it to your quarters in a few minutes unless you want to wear it now.

-Send it to my quarters, I still need to buy some things. And doing it with a bulky armor on would be a pain.

After paying up I went back to the central plaza to get my potions and other items.

In fact… How do I make a mega potion?

{Do you see that chest way down there?}

{That was one of the wishes of the champion. To have the chest from the game with all of the abilities from all of the series games in it. From crafting to forging weapons, you can do all there as long as you have the materials.}

Isn't that OP in this scenario? He can just buy potion ingredients and sell them for a higher price. That wasn't possible in the game as everything was made in order to maintain the economy of the game. Also, with the mechanics of the game made real, he could just tank through literally anything. And how is it that no one sees that chest?

{The chest is special in a sense. There are copies of it everywhere, just like in the game. If you interact with it, everyone will ignore you unless it's a special occasion.}

I went to check the chest and as Lylia said, the moment I touched the chest a big game-like screen appeared in front of me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CRAFTING-

ACCESSORIES-

WEAPONS-

ARMOR-

LAYERED ARMOR-

…

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I see how it works now. Wait, can I access the champion's warehouse?

{No, unfortunately, as that would reveal your existence to him later on.}

Okay, It's nothing much anyway. I then went to see how much it would cost to craft some of the consumables. And as I thought, the price was different.

After that, I went to the warehouse merchant, the guy who makes the count of everything in Astera, to buy the materials.

-Hello hunter! What will it be?

-Hello Winstor I would like 50 herbs, 2 jars of honey, 5 sets of …

After spending all of my money I went to the chest and made a set of everything that will be needed for this adventure.

When I finished my preparations I went to my room and got ready to depart, but not before making a clone. The clone will use the basic armor every official hunter gains, but I will also give him a helmet. As for why? He will work some odd-jobs around Astera in order to gain more knowledge in this world and gain some money for later.

{You won't try to obtain this world's fighting and crafting techniques?}

Not really. After all, this knowledge will only end up becoming useless later on, and eventually being useful for reference only. Just like the IS world technology. Everything will eventually become useless, with some exceptions of course, like the IS unit that I will make and bring with me. But in that case, I will spend energy to make it work in other worlds.

{You are right, in a sense. You see, even if the worlds are different, that doesn't mean they are completely apart from each other. A light bulb from your current world doesn't work in a different way from a light bulb in another technological world.}

{That was my fault, in theory. I didn't explain it to you well enough. You see, even though the nexus was created so that all words under it had a common base, that doesn't mean the words didn't have one already, most of them at least. Can you think about what most of these words have in common? Humans of course! Even if a human from a world is different from another or that their origins are different, they are still "human" hence most of the worlds have a very close similarity}

{There are even some worlds that are so similar that you can travel between them without having to pay to alter your powers. In fact, most of them have over 50% similarity. Not that this value is high, but it's pretty decent. The only exception is when they are simply too incompatible. So much so that even adapting your most basic power would be difficult. In those worlds, you would most likely have to start over from zero.}

{So don't forget to get that knowledge, it might not be useful for now but eventually… Who knows?}

I got your message… But I can't really create too many clones here. Since this place is always understaffed, if many workers suddenly appear it would be strange.

For now, I will have my clone work and when he gathers a certain amount of money he will buy a full set of clothing for another clone, and so on, slowly gathering a group while I am away.

I will have them collect knowledge on potion making and crafting in general since the "cheat-chest" almost doesn't explain how to do anything at all, only the material, which is a great help but isn't everything.

… Everything is ready, let's go before he dies.

I went to the gate of Astera and whistled and lo and behold a Wingdrake came and perched on a wooden pillar ready to serve.

I threw it a fish and had it carry me to the ancient forest.

This continent we are in right now is called the New World.

It's not fully explored yet because of the difficulty of its terrain, only when the fifth fleet comes 10 years later will the exploration really explode. Currently, they are still managing things, as the fourth fleet just got here with the mission to send staff with excellent managing skills. I believe this is one of the reasons why I don't have a handler yet(something like a personal manager) since the handlers were paired with hunters during the fourth fleet period.

As for the old world. Apart from what I know from past games, the only thing it does is send in the fleets every 10 years according to what the commander thinks is necessary.

Flying into the distance, I finally saw the hunter base in the ancient forest. It's nothing too fancy, only some tents and basic walls on all sides. It's mostly to make it mobile since a powerful monster could pop up anytime, they need to be ready to leave, there are also many other smaller camps scattered around the forest.

After seeing the camp I had the Wingdrake turn north as that is the place the goddess told me the guy I need to rescue is.

I made the wing drake stop on a large tree since flying in the forest is really dangerous, as if any large monster finds us threatening, well, let's just say I don't find a hundred-meter fall fun.

As for my weapons from the previous world?

I simply don't want to rely on it too much, and using them might make the champion doubt my identity. But the first thing I will do if I find myself threatened is to burst my grenade.

...Where do I have to go now?

{Just keep following north, if you get close to him I will warn you.}

…

-Fucking hell, these vines keep getting tangled everywhere!

{Real-life exploring isn't as fun as shown in the movies.}

-These freaking mosquitos are the size of a hand! With every step, I feel as if I am stepping on hundreds of insects with all of the "crunching" sounds my feet make.

{Wait, don't move.}