DAY 19 MORNING- LADY FINGER BOUDOIR

ANOTHER UNFAMILIAR CEILING. It was the first time I could think that

in ages. I really thought I'd go the rest of my life without making that

Evangelion reference again! It really was an unfamiliar ceiling!

It wasn't just an unfamiliar cave in some unfamiliar woods. It sure as

hell wasn't an unfamiliar high school girl—none of them were unfamiliar at

this point. I didn't care whether this place was called the Lady Finger

Boudoir or the Laddy Flinger Boudoir, it had an authentic unfamiliar

ceiling. I may have seen it before I went to sleep, but I think it was still

unfamiliar enough when I woke up!

Seriously, how did it take me nearly twenty days to run into a new

ceiling?

"At last, I've reached a town," I said to myself. "Is this the

completion of my quest? Game over? Credits roll?"

At that moment, Class Rep stepped into the room. "Good morning,

Haruka-kun. I hope it's not game over for you. Reaching a town wasn't

your goal in the first place, so I doubt you've completed your quest. Why

do you phrase everything as a question, anyway?!"

Instead of a wake-up call, this inn offered a wake-up scold.

"Good morning, Class Rep," I said. "You look very classy and

representative today."

"Why do you look like you think you paid me a big compliment?

Don't be smug. And stop calling me Class Rep already! We haven't been in

school for nearly three weeks!"

Apparently the Class Rep didn't understand that I was giving her the

highest form of praise possible, at least in my book.

"So, what's up? Couldn't wait for breakfast? Do you miss grilled

mushrooms that much?"

"Why do you think I'm always looking for food? Are you? I came to

talk, not eat!"

My mistake, she didn't have the Gluttony skill after all. Maybe it was

another one of her skills she…uh, never mind!

"We learned some things at the guild yesterday," she said. "So…I

need to tell you something. You should sit down for this, okay?"

She made it sound like I'd fall into a pit of despair when I heard the

news.

"Oh, you heard about the level wall?"

"What? You knew?"

Yep, she just found out and was trying to find a gentle way to break it

to me. No one wanted to be the bearer of bad news—they always rehearsed

a million different scenarios in their head, trying to find the perfect way to

deliver the truth. But I had to find out eventually, since the level wall was

an unavoidable fact of this world.

All combat techniques required a minimum level in a relevant combat

skill. If I was a sword fighter, for example, my Sword Mastery skill would

need to be level 20 before I could learn basic techniques like Slash and

Thrust. Of course, lacking those techniques didn't prevent me from slashing

and thrusting with a sword, but combat techniques were far more powerful

than any regular attack.

That was the level wall. It was the real reason levels meant

everything in this world—your level determined what techniques were

available to you. High-level defensive combat techniques could completely

neutralize any normal attack. It didn't matter what my stats were, I'd still

lose to a higher-level opponent.

Monsters knew combat techniques, and they never took prisoners.

Without access to combat techniques, I was inevitably doomed. Game over.

That was why the Class Rep came here so early in the morning,

looking so worried. Only she would be so caring and sensitive. That's what

made her the Class Rep. No one wanted to tell someone such bad news, but

it had to be done. In matters of life and death, it was better to know. She

knew I might have blamed her and even hated her, but she did the difficult

thing anyway.

"That one old guy told me. You know, not the first old man or the

second one, but the third guy—do you remember him?"

"Oh, you mean Guild Master Hakiess? Okay, you only know three

old men, but you couldn't remember any of their names or even that one of

them is the guild master?"

"Thanks for trying to tell me about the level wall anyway, Class Rep.

Did you lose sheep on my account?"

The Class Rep had dark circles under her eyes. She must have stayed

up late thinking of ways to tell me.

"Lost sheep? Sheep have nothing to do with it! Sleep, not sheep!"

Huh? Don't you count sheep when you have trouble sleeping? She

looks like she kept losing count. I wonder how all the sheep are doing back

in the real world.

Fish girl dropped by with breakfast—bread! How I missed bread!

Sweet…rock-hard bread. Most rocks are softer than this.

"If it's a world with bread, it's a world with flour! Let's go buy flour

and never look back! And any other ingredients we can carry! It will all

belong to me! All the food will be mine! Bwa ha ha!"

"All the food?" cried Fish Girl. "How did gnawing on that bread turn

you into a megalomaniac?"

Was Fish Girl upset because I didn't like the bread? If she really was

raised by fish like she kept saying, no wonder she had strong feelings about

hunks of bread.

"You're homesick, aren't you?" I said. "It's okay, I feel you. Don't

worry. I'm sure your mom and dad are swimming merrily across the seven

seas."

"My mom and dad are not fish!"

Why was she admonishing me? She said they were fish, didn't she?

Maybe she meant that her parents were named Mr. and Mrs. Fish?!

Sometimes the real world was more fanciful than a fantasy world.

"So, what's our plan for the day?" I asked. "Heading out soon? Think

we should stop by the guild? We should make a quick stop at the guild,

yeah?"

If we wanted to go shopping, we'd need to go to the guild first, since

I was totally broke.

"You make going to the guild sound like getting a morning coffee!"

"Well, I do remember seeing a sign on the wall advertising discount

drinks. What if they have a café?"

It said drinks cost 100 eles on a sign, which meant that an ele was

roughly equal to a yen. Maybe there were 100-ele shops? Definitely no

bookstores, though…

Money was my first concern. I may have turned in a lot of F-class

magic stones, but I doubted they were worth much.

It wasn't like I needed to be rich. At level 9, I couldn't even equip

new weapons or armor—not even leather armor. And I didn't want to

become an adventurer in the first place. Should I just stay unemployed?

However, I was desperate for new food and kitchen supplies,

especially spices! At least I had a seemingly limitless supply of salt. Just

how much salt did Villager A buy?