Chapter 5-first day

It seems luck just isn't on his side. If he had summoned a Valkyrie, things might have turned out differently in the fight.

The forest wasn't particularly large. Guided by the coordinates Vicky provided, he quickly made his way out of the woods in the direction of the anchor. The sun was at its zenith now; his clothes, dried and put back on, were passable enough for human interaction.

He wanted Vicky to confirm his geographical location, but such a macroscopic request was beyond her divine capabilities. He had to figure it out on his own.

According to his memory of the world, Rubihart was a planet with two poles and an equator, but its continental structure was relatively simple. Besides scattered islands, there were only two continents connected by ice bridges in the polar regions, forming a lung-shaped landmass. The ocean in the middle, known as the Inner Ocean, was relatively small, while the outer ocean was vast and perilous, essentially a restricted navigation zone.

Using the Inner Ocean as a landmark, Rubihart was roughly divided into the Western Continent and the Eastern Continent. Unfortunately, he could only determine that the latitude here was equivalent to the temperate zone on Earth based on the plant names and distribution areas identified through his divine senses in the woods. He couldn't discern whether it was north or south or which continent he was on.

Frank silently prayed that it was the Western Continent because his vague impression from memory told him that the dominant races in this world were divided into the factions of Light and Darkness. As a member of the lower race, humans, that's his current identity, he naturally preferred to stay in the territory ruled by the Light faction, as the name suggested.

However, the power balance between the two continents was only slightly different, and neither was completely dominated. He still had to rely on luck.

After leaving the forest and crossing a grassy slope, Frank finally stepped onto a clearly compacted earth road. Such roads didn't lead to large cities, but they were perfect for finding towns and villages where he could exchange his Harvesting skills for some local currency. Although gold had broad circulation, he couldn't conjure it up yet; he'd have to wait until his faith level increased.

Being an atheist, he had no experience deceiving people into believing in gods. But he had experience in sales, and even if his performance wasn't great, those sales techniques should work on the common folk of the otherworld. Besides, he had real skills.

Creating food out of thin air was enough to convince at least half the planet's believers.

It's just that he's unsure about the level of technological development in this world. Hopefully, it's similar to many novels he's read, where all geniuses are obsessed with studying magic and martial arts, keeping the world's technology stagnant. A bunch of ancient monsters continue to live in wooden huts and stone towers.

But soon enough, a carriage passed by Frank.

It wasn't an ordinary carriage; the cheerful little horse at the front seemed to only handle steering and a small part of the pulling force. What was propelling the carriage forward, laden with cargo, was a mechanical device attached underneath the carriage.

Frank decisively used his divine senses to identify and activate the memory information related to it.

It was called a magic crystal, a rich and precious mineral in this world, divided into six types according to its attributes: earth, fire, water, wind, dark, and light. Apparently, the clever people of Rubihart hadn't all focused on studying magic; instead, they invented magic engines and gradually promoted and popularized them.

So, even on these rural-style dirt roads, one could see carriages propelled by magic engines leaving behind trails of magical mist.

This was bad news. The more advanced the economic technology, the harder it was to deceive people with divine tricks.

Frank frowned slightly, then gave himself a light tap on the head with a hint of self-reproach.

Divine tricks? No way. There really is a god behind me. I am an executor of the goddess, the legendary divine messenger, not here to deceive anyone.

With this belief firmly entrenched in his mind, he hurriedly caught up and enthusiastically hailed the coachman, exchanging one of the large apples he had conjured earlier for a ride.

Once aboard, he could clearly feel that the level of mechanical development was still quite primitive, probably driven by the structure of gears powered by magic crystals, with no real shock absorption. The journey was quite bumpy, leaving his posterior sore.

But thanks to the carriage, he arrived at a small village in less than half an hour.

The village didn't have a name; it was referred to by the surname of its village chief, so it was currently called Uluut Village. And there were probably thousands of such casually named places in this world, making it impossible to pinpoint their exact location.

And this place was too small. Frank felt like a traveler with a globe, utterly lost when faced with the village names he had gathered. He had to temporarily abandon his habit of judging locations based on the open-world maps he was used to from games and focus on solving his most important newbie task: finding the anchor, damn it.

He hoped that Ivanka, after having her soul tossed into this world, would coincidentally still be a virgin. Just to be safe, Frank didn't dare to start spreading his faith right away. After learning that the village had limited currency circulation and still maintained a very simple barter system, he decisively asked for directions and set off towards the nearest town.

The place he found out about this time was called Losiy, a somewhat unique name. After communicating with Vicky, he finally upgraded the map in his mind from a global scale to a provincial level.

Losiy was a small town subordinate to the city of Lorsa, which was part of the kingdom of Locktis, and Locktis was part of the Locrara Federation, the largest human-dominated area in the Western Continent. In terms of Earth's position, it was probably around the Tropic of Capricorn.

With a lower race identity being able to co-rule such a large area, this place undoubtedly belonged to the faction of Light.

Frank breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed that Vicky's placement wasn't entirely random. Starting him off in this human-dominated, peaceful area undoubtedly made him much safer. With the map lit up, he could mark the location of the sensing point. The location prompted by his divine senses was just outside Lorsa.

In areas where slave trade still exists and where the ideology isn't particularly advanced, Frank's confidence in his mission of faith has understandably risen.

The town of Losiy already had trading guilds established, and Frank, being one for stability, spent an entire afternoon wandering around the vicinity of the trading posts, gathering intelligence. The skill of divine sensing was indeed convenient; he hardly needed to communicate with people and risk arousing suspicion, as he could directly identify various pieces of information.

Of course, not much of it was useful. For instance, he learned that the current date was the 4th of May, 1410 in the divine calendar, known as the Day of Light, which corresponded to Saturday in his understanding. However, the day of offering would affect the performance of corresponding elements and skills, and he also had to consider the corresponding effects of the offerings he made with his sacrificial skill. He had to force himself to remember this approximate system of ordering days, akin to various weekdays in games.

The tax regulations in Losiy were set by the lord of Lorsa. Commercial transactions exceeding a certain amount would be subject to fixed taxes per transaction, effectively imposing a tax cap on individual transactions, which was a means of encouraging guilds. After some calculation, Frank realized that he had less than four pounds of Harvesting capacity left for the day. It would be better to create goods for small transactions and make some money, then stay in a nearby inn.

According to his divine senses, skills limited by the day would be restored when the sun reached its zenith the next day. So, sleeping in and replenishing five pounds of production before making a single large sale would maximize profits.

Of course, he could also try his luck with the untaxed black market, but Frank always remembered that he was a weakling with no combat abilities. He had to tread carefully and prioritize safety.

Frank spent a considerable amount of time on product selection.

Harvest level is tied to faith level, and currently, both are only at level 1. At this level, there were hardly any extremely rare specialties. From the memory data he accessed, both herbs and minerals from the Eastern Continent, regardless of their properties, sold well at level 3 or above.

He had to find a way around the weight limitation. Nine pounds of cotton could fill a large sack, while nine pounds of iron ore would probably only amount to three pieces.

After careful consideration, he closed his eyes in a secluded corner and used the remaining weight allowance in his pocket to create the most basic herb - honeycore reeds. With almost four pounds of produce, the pocket space was clearly not sufficient; the created herbs were almost squashed into a lump, and a few even popped out when he opened the mouth of the pocket.

The items produced by "Harvest" were processed to some extent; the honeycore reeds had their useless leaves and outermost hard skin removed, leaving only the usable inner core for alchemy.

He tied the mouth of the bag securely, took a few deep breaths, and walked in a circle to avoid arousing suspicion due to the change in the pocket's appearance. He had previously learned about the market; there were no herb growers near Losimi, and supplying the adventurer guilds with wild honeycore reeds was difficult, keeping the prices consistently high. Also, Losimi was far from areas where powerful monsters frequently appeared. Bulk cultivation of herbs would lead to oversupply, driving prices down, which wouldn't be profitable.

So, a traveling merchant like Frank, suddenly appearing with goods, was warmly welcomed by the guild. Claiming to have a bag of goods stored in the inn, Frank negotiated a good deal and reached a verbal agreement with the guild to trade all his goods the next day for a deposit of 30 copper coins.

The accommodation fee at the inn was 25 copper coins, leaving him with 5 copper coins. Frank spent 4 coins on the cheapest hard bread and used the last one to buy a farmer's sack filled with fodder.

He spent a half-sleepless night on the hard bed in the inn, marking the end of his first day in the new world.