11 Border Town

We finally reached Border Town. Here is where typical MC's would gasp in awe and marvel at the size of the town.

Not me though! I've personally overseen the building of a city more than 100 times larger than this town, so this much isn't enough to impress me.

However, the layout of the town is somewhat ingenious. There are three rings; and inner, middle and outer.

The inner ring is where the administrative part of the town is located, from the Lord's manor to the Adventurer's Guild, and other such buildings. The middle ring has three different sections. The Eastern half, which is facing the Alphari Desert, is assigned to the military. They have training fields and barracks there.

A quarter of the Western half is given to markets and merchants, while the other quarter is given to industry like blacksmithing or tailoring.

The outer ring is where all the residents live. The Western half is the proper residential area, since it is away from the threat of the desert. The other half is home to slums, which is rather unfortunate.

Any person from the modern era knows that people are the main assets of a town. If I were the lord, I would be injecting money into developing the walls and defensive system, as well as jobs, so that everyone feels safe and strives to work harder.

But enough of that. I'm not here to make a fool of the lord, who I'm told is called Khardin. I'm unsure of the way nobles work in this world, but Khardin is a Viscount. According to the ranking on Earth and my first world, that's neither low nor high. But, I'm a firm believer that the ranking of a noble does not denote their capability. I'll reserve that judgement for when I actually meet him.

After splitting up with the trio, I make my way to the inn they recommended.

"Welcome, nya~! How nyaong are you staying, nya?" (???)

Wh-what is this?! A cat beastman? What are they doing in human territory?

"U-Um… are you a beastman?" (Daniel)

"Indeed I nyam! Is something wrong, nya?" (???)

"No, nothing. I'd like to stay for a week. I might stay a bit longer, but I'll pay when the time comes." (Daniel)

"Nyo problem, nya! My nyame is Catherine. What's yours?" (Catherine)

"Daniel. Do you guys serve breakfast and dinner here? Also, is there a bath?" (Daniel)

"We sure do nya! The bath will cost an extra 5 coppers every time you nyuse it. Your total will come to one gold coin." (Catherine)

Phew. Luckily, I extorted some money from Arkan. The money system in this world is as follows; 1 gold coin is worth 10 silvers, while 1 silver is worth 10 coppers. Coppers are the lowest denomination. I won't bother comparing it to Earth money. That conversion is overrated anyway.

I currently have 5 gold coins in my inventory, all 'borrowed' from Arkan.

1 gold coin for a week means approximately 14 or 15 coppers a night, which seems rather affordable. Bork said that the average newbie quest at the Adventurer's Guild has a reward of 20 coppers, and it's repeatable as well.

After paying Catherine, I received my 'key', which was just a small wooden token. How does this thing unlock doors, exactly?

Ooh! A magic array! I'm an expert at these. Buuut… I can't solve this one. Once again, I lack the knowledge of this world's magic. What a fat load of good my past lives are! I may as well have reincarnated straight from Earth in this case.

I enter my room and lie straight down onto the bed. I cast a quick Clean and Duster on myself and fall asleep.

Ah, a comfy, soft bed after so long. And the pillow! I was expecting a bunch of straw with a hemp wrapping, but this is actually made of cloth and feathers! How blissful!

I am starting to see why adventurers are so lazy. If working for a single day can get a room like this, then why bother working?

Alas, I still have a lot of things on my to-do list. I need to buy new clothes, sell my leathers, dismantle my scorpion corpse, read up in the library, maybe sign up at the Adventurer's Guild, check out the average quality of the items in this town,… I'm getting sleeping remembering all of this. Welp, let's sleep for a couple hours first…

---

Aaaaand I overslept.

'Ed! Why didn't you wake me up?' (Daniel)

'You never told me to.' (Ed)

'Never mind then. It's good to see you back in your usual form.' (Daniel)

'Hmph!' (Ed)

I was planning to take a quick nap for a maximum of two hours, so I could get up in time for a quick stroll, bath and dinner.

But due to a certain system's lack of alarms, I ended up sleeping straight till midnight.

Now, with nothing to do in the dead of night, I'm wide awake. This always happens! Whenever I pull an all-nighter, I can never resist the urge to sleep during the next day. When that happens, I am forced to pull another all-nighter, and soon I become nocturnal!

In fact, I almost stuffed up my cultivation in my second life because of this! I was so absorbed in getting stronger that I failed to notice my own fatigue. My technique required the sunlight, but I was only awake during the night! Sigh… I could only disperse my own cultivation and choose a night-time technique. What a waste.

Anyway, that's why in that life, I was nicknamed 'The Owl'. Leaves quite a bad taste in the mouth if I do say so myself. It's not like I have particularly big eyes or can turn my neck 180°, so why am I named after an owl?

That was also the time I forcefully changed my name to an anagram of Burce Wyane, and my undercover name was named after a bat…

Sigh… I really don't want to remember that part. Imagine your chuunibyou when you were young. Now, multiply it by 100 times. Then, imagine it being broadcast live across the entire world. Congrats! You've just experienced less than half the embarrassment as I did back then!

Anyway, I really shouldn't be idling around like this. Revelling in my chuunibyou and talking with Ed is fine and all, but what I really should be doing is levelling up my magics.

Tonight, I'm going to push myself. I really want to get my Mana Regeneration to max level and see if I get anything special.

Therefore, I create a total of three Skeleton Warriors, and one level 30 skeleton. Aaaaand I faint again. The last thought on my mind was for the Warriors to kill the skeleton, and for Ed to store them. Let's hope my skills level up while I'm asleep…