Preparation

East Blue

Berry Vine Village

In the afternoon time, the sun was shining over the head; agricultural fields were shining with a beautiful glow.

Between the field through a narrow passage road a kid was walking by, on looking at the kids characteristic he seem to be 8-9 years old, brown hair, green eyes glowing brightly.

Yes, the kid was our MC. [A/n: who else if not MC will get such screen time]

Rudeus decided to go on a walk to clear up his mind; he was walking through the village when he remembered, he still hasn't prepared anything for the hunting test.

So, he decided to go to the only so called weapon shop in the village, which was more like a farming tools shop run by a self proclaimed bounty hunter of the village.

Rudeus, thinking about what to buy went to the village shopping area; just as always this area was filled with people, atleast compared to the other areas. Rather than buying and selling people were exchanging items in here, the only reason for some monetary exchange was the presence of Navy due to which ships from a few neighbouring islands were coming here more often than before.

Berry Vine Village's main source of income was from the Red Berry Wine produced by the red berries farmed on the island. So, when the export of the berry wine increased; it was a joyous moment for all the islanders as they could trade there wine for a variety of products.

Rudeus looking through the market finally reached infront of his destination; the weapon shop, more like farming shop.

Seeing Rudeus coming through the door the shopkeeper said; "Rudeus-chan, are you out of arrows again?"

Rudeus replied, "Shin-san, I do need some arrows, specifically 20 arrows and they should be stronger than the others I brought from you, I also need a pair of knifes"

The shopkeeper Shin was quite familiar with Rudeus as he comes here to buy arrows for his training and practice sessions; so hearing he needed 20 stronger arrows, he was confused.

"Rudeus-chan, can you tell me why do you need such strong arrows as for knifes; I do have some good knifes, do you want me to help you pick or you will look on your own" Shin-san asked.

"Well I would appreciate your help as I don't know anything about knifes, as for the arrows, Captain Rasa is going to conduct a hunting test tomorrow" Rudeus explained.

Usually Shin-san doesn't ask kids to choose things on their own, but Rudeus during his previous visits, in hope of getting a mysterious prize from the weapon shop started to look through things on his own only to realize that he at the end collected the worst products possible. Damn, those novels lied was the only thing he could say at last.

"Now that you say I remembered, most of the kids came yesterday to buy things for the hunting test" Shin-san said as he started to pack the arrows for Rudeus, he continued, "Rudeus-chan, the forest is dangerous, you have to be careful, if something happens to you I will lose a little customer" Shin-san said worriedly.

Rudeus, knew that even though Shin-san said jokingly, he was worried; so Rudeus said, "Don't worry; I will not die before complaining about the tools I bought from you."

After sometime Shin-san brought a pair of knifes and showed to Rudeus and asked "Will this be fine?"

Rudeus checked the knifes by holding it in his hands and tried to wave it like a sword, the knife looked nothing special, it was little broad than regular knifes and the handle was good, that's all; so Rudeus confirmed "This will be fine."

"So, how much will I have to pay?" Rudeus asked.

"Well, let's see, 5 bellies for 1 arrow, so 100 bellies for 20 and 100 bellies for the knife pair, so total 200 bellies" said Shin-san.

Rudeus paid for the things and said goodbye to Shin-san before coming out of the shop.

'The price may not look too much but even the best quality arrows from the village could not compare to the worst quality of the marines, even the knife was not to the level where it could be used in a battle; the only hope of people dying from this knife will be if the person gets infection or poison in the wound' thinking about it Rudeus sighed.

In the past two years Rudeus, did some saving and he was thinking whether he should buy more things or should go home, after a few arguments with himself he decided to buy a few more things.

Rudeus then went to the medicine shop to buy some necessary items, which may come handy. Then, he went to the food store to buy something for dinner.

After buying everything he started to walked towards his home, as he was passing by he saw a clothing shop, till this day Rudeus hasn't paid much attention towards his dress but looking at the clothing shop he had an idea.

He thought, 'If I stay like this, the day I become famous the world government will be able to track me down easily, but what if I start to hid my face like Kakashi, I don't think many would recognize me, and when I want, I can just remove my mask to travel freely and as for my eyes, sunglasses will do the thing.' Rudeus was getting excited thinking about this as he entered the shop.

As he was looking through the thing he realized that even if he cover half of his face it would not do him much better, so he along with the mask he should go with something like Shino from Naruto or from Assassin's Creed.

Rudeus spent 90% of his savings in all these items. Coming out of the shop he was almost crying at his silly behavior and impulse to buy such thing right now.

He started to make his way to home carrying all the things between his arms and promising himself again and again about not spending money like this again, unless too necessary.

He was in the edge of the market place when he heard someone running and shouting;

"PIRATES ARE ATTACKING THE VILLAGE, THEY ARE FIGHTING WITH THE NAVY"