Chapter 4 - Adventuring, Lesgo!

After having breakfast with the landlord and his family, it was time for me to go out. The first thing to do was to scout the city with a bit more attention. Last night, I had walked around, but my head was preoccupied with thoughts flowing at a not so normal rate. So, now that I had the peace of mind, and time to look around, I decided that it would be better to have a better look at Monstadt in day's light.

As I walked around the city, I still had a hard time believing that this is what Monstadt was really supposed to look like. But then again, it would make sense. In the developers' vision, making a game at the scale of such realism would be very resource heavy for an average player. Especially so, because the game was released around the time when the highest RAM mobile devices could have would be 4 gigabytes.

Looking at the monstrosities that were the windmills of Monstadt, I felt respect well up in my heart for the traveller, who had to go to such length to procure ascension materials.

As I looked towards the cathedral, I could clearly see the glory it rained upon the people. And right in front of it was, of course, the tall standing statue of a certain bard. Looking up, I smiled at the Barbatos' statue that looked upon the land of wind with care.

That moment felt as unbelievable as any other I've had yesterday. It just brought back the insanity, the impossibility of the idea that I was transmigrated to a fictional world. Now, it was not like I did not believe it, in fact, I felt that I had accepted the reality a bit too easily. But, then again, watching and reading so much Isekai can make a person conditioned, hopeful, and somewhat prepared for such a thing.

Then, I walked around for another few hours, and thankfully, I was glad that, the city, while huge, was not many kilometres in diameter. It was big, indeed, but it was not as big as a city one would have on earth. It was more like a town that one could walk around in half a day.

Finally, done, I was glad to see that, it was just as I remembered. Just as beautiful, in fact, even more beautiful than I remembered, since now, I was seeing it right in front of my eyes.

Now, I slowly walked towards the Adventurer's Guild. And, there she was, standing in front of her work desk, in all her glory, Katherine.

"Ad Astra Abyssosque! Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, dear fellow. I am Katherine, your trusted adviser at the Adventurer's Guild. How may I help you?"

"Hello lady, it's nice to meet you. I was curious about the profession of adventuring. I wanted to know if I could get into it, and what may the requirements be."

"I am glad to know you are interested in adventuring, dear fellow. As long as you are physically fit, mentally stable and have a daring heart to sacrifice your life to be a poor Hilichurl's dinner, you can be an adventurer."

Wait… did she really say that? Yes, indeed, she said that. Katherine… made a joke, and that too, a dark one, albeit dry. I hope.. I hope Teyvat's equivalent of Twitter, if it exists, doesn't cancel her. I definitely wouldn't want our cute adviser to die socially.

"Ah, I.. I see. That was… a good one. You are quite a humorous lady, I must say."

To my words, she let out a tiny laugh, while covering her mouth with her hand.

Honestly, I was not expecting this when I thought of Adventurer's Guild and Katherine. She seemed too real. I was expecting a robotic voice, robotic gestures, and robotic words, but she seemed more real than most humans.

I secretly couldn't help but wonder if there was any guy by the name Sam Altman, who was helping Dottore behind the scenes by helping him build such a realistic bot.

Anyway though, it mattered not. I had spent a good chunk of the day roaming and scouting Monstadt. Now, I was feeling hungry, so I decided to quickly get done with this process of getting registered with the adventurer's guild.

"So, would I count as Physically and mentally fit?" I asked Catherine. It's not that Kazemaru's body was unfit, it was just that, compared to me in the past, who regularly practised martial arts, Kazemaru was a researcher. The most active parts of his body were his brain and his legs. The brain, because of course, he was a scholar, and the his legs, with which he walked around Monstadt to find more and more plants. So, I was definitely a bit sceptical over the idea of being fit for adventuring.

"Dear fellow, you seem better than quite a few Knights I have seen, who spend half their time at night drinking, and remaining half puking. And, it's not that an adventurer needs to fight all the time. In fact, many of the dear members of the guild never take any commission which includes combat. So, you are free to register, and take upon quests and commissions as long as you know your limits."

I see, that would make sense. I remember seeing a few NPCs who had no Vision, yet they were adventurers. In hindsight, it would only make sense for the majority of Adventurer's Guild members to be without Vision. And, most of the general quests in the guild were, actually, the ones with little to no combat. And unlike your regular Adventurer, it was only traveller who could do 4 daily commissions in as little time as ten minutes, what with having the ability to teleport.

"I understand. Then, please tell me what do I need to do to register as an adventurer."

"Well then, dear fellow, here, please take this form and fill your personal details. I will take a picture of you, add it to your adventurer's handbook, and your adventurer's identity card. One copy of your identity card will stay with us in the guild, and then you'll be good to go."

"I see, that seems very simple. Okay, then. Here I go." I took the form and the fountain pen from her hand. I'm not going to lie, but her hand felt as real as any girl's hand I have ever touched in my life. Considering the fact that, it was not that many hands that I had touched, it was still very unreal. Thankfully, I was able to keep myself from holding her hand that gave me the pen longer than one second, which prevented my social death.

Taking the pen, I gave the form a quick read. It was just as simple as it had sounded. The only details which were compulsory to be filled were my name, my age, my sex, preferred weapon and your nationality. Other abstract things like interests, or non-abstract things like parents and family were optional. I naturally chose to leave the part about my family blank. Once done, I returned the pen and the form to Katherine.

"I see, everything seems right, Fujimura-san."

And then, I realised that I had not introduced myself to her.

"Ah, I'm sorry, Katherine. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Fujimura Kazemaru, and my given name is Kazemaru."

"Finally! I almost thought I had offended you with that joke earlier." She giggled as she covered her mouth with her hand in a very ladylike manner.

"No, no. Don't worry. Dark jokes don't offend me, in fact, I believe I have a strange kind of love for humour of that sort. I really seem to like them for some reason. So, you are free to let out your fun side when it's with me."

"I see. You are quite a gentleman, Fujimura-san. I will keep your words in mind. Anyway, here is your adventurer's identity card, your adventurer's handbook, and your free weapon coupon. Since you chose a Claymore, you can take this coupon to Wagner, the blacksmith, and get your first weapon, issued for free by the guild as a welcome gift."

"Very well. Thank you for your services, lady Katherine. I will take my leave now."

"You are welcome, Fujimura-san."

Once done with that, I went to Wagner's forge. Since it was on the way to my house, I thought it would be better to just go and get the "beginner's" sword. I was actually surprised, though. I had not expected that the guild would be giving a free sword. There was nothing like that in the game.

At Wagner's shop, I saw only his apprentice, whose name I never tried to remember. It was possible that Wagner may have gone to the Stormterror's Lair to get minerals for forging. I walked up to his apprentice, who seemed busy with sorting some ores in the back of the shop.

"Hello! Mr! Can you help me here?"

"Oh, yeah! Yes! Coming, dear customer! Welcome to the Schulz's Blacksmith Shop, dear customer, how may I help you?"

"Actually, I just registered with the Guild, and got this coupon to get a

Claymore." I showed him the coupon that Katherine gave me.

"I see. I see. This seems legit, dear customer. You can indeed retrieve a sword from our forge. Here, sign your name on this agreement, and you can have the sword."

He gave me a single sheet which, in summary, just said that I had bought a sword from the Schulz Blacksmith's, and the payment mode, it said was the adventurer's guild coupon. Seeing nothing shady with the agreement, I signed it. Then, he took the coupon and attached it to the agreement using a device which looked like an old-school stapler.

"Now, here we go, sir. Right now, we only have two types of claymores available for sale. Please choose the one you like."

Of the two swords in front of me, I could clearly see which one of them was more superior. One was a two-star weapon, called the Old Merc's Pal, if I remember correctly, and the other was the Skyrider Greatsword, which was a three start weapon. Now, you might wonder how I remember these, well, the pain of getting a 4 start pull at ninth or tenth pull so many times fills one's mind with these failures that I get as 3 stars. In fact, I had seen Cool Steel so much, it became one of the reasons why stopped playing the game.

Now, looking at these swords, the decision was easy to make. I chose the Skyrider Greatsword.

"I'll take this one." I said to Wagner's apprentice, who had introduced himself as Schulz.

"I see. A fine pick, dear customer. However, I would recommend you to buy a sheath as well. It would make carrying a sword this big, a lot easier and safer."

Indeed, I had not thought about it just yet, but I would need a sheath for Reid as well.

"Alright then, I'll take two sheaths. How much do those cost?"

"This one here, gentleman, is a very simple but sturdy one. It will cost you no more than 8000 Mora, non-negotiable."

"I see. Interesting. It's quite plain and simple, but it does the job, so who am I to complain? I'll take two of them."

"Very well sir."

Then he put the sword in one of the sheaths, packed them both in a cloth and gave it to me. I paid him with the Mora I had bought, and then, I was on my way home to have lunch and relax. After all, I had to go to the City Centre in the evening as well, to tell a story. What story I will be telling, though? I had a very good idea for that. A very popular Rakugo from earth, that I remembered for various reasons.