Village

That feeling lasted only a few seconds. Opening his eyes slowly, Haru realized he was in a different place. He remembered his conversation with Gaia and his previous life, but his first need was to unite his fingers to form a fist. Usually, when he was on medication he always felt weak, but here he was different. The force he felt running through his wrist was the proof he needed. Here he had no tumour, he was really reincarnated in the world of Danmachi, in the 17-year-old version of himself.

'Not that I had any doubts, but damn it, I missed the feeling of owning a healthy body.'

Haru sighed it out. The wind moved slightly his hair, the sun was almost down but this time Haru wasn't looking at it from the wall of a hospital, he again had the pleasure of admiring the sunset, something he was grateful for. Before he could celebrate, however, a headache struck him. At first, he was confused, but then he realized that he was receiving the memories of the person who had lived in this village throughout his life. They were also important to him, otherwise he would have trouble finding his way around the village, so he took them to heart, and when the process was over, Haru sighed.

'No matter which world I go to, my personality will probably remain the same in other worlds.'

He had deduced this precisely because not only he had spent every single day training hard, but beyond that Haru had the memory of having fought a goblin, having failed to win however, He was rescued by adventurers who were there to do quests. Since then, he has been recommended not to leave the village without permission

'It's not my memory, but I can understand why I chose to face the goblin.'

Apparently, Haru had a certain passion for the sword, and after getting one from the village blacksmith, he casually found himself in front of a goblin while performing his duties, being armed and physiologically stronger, He was convinced that he could kill the goblin relatively simply, but he knew that wasn't true.

Deciding to move because he had few tasks left to perform before going to sleep, Haru continued to reflect on the memories, trying to assimilate the main factors. Luckily for him, he was curious enough to ask the adventurers how to reach Orario, so he wouldn't have to ask anyone's permission to leave if he wanted to, since the village itself wasn't far from the city.

But these memories were interrupted by a person who called his name.

"Haru! How was the farm?"

His main task was to take care of plants and animals, but he wouldn't have expected that the blacksmith would bother to ask him for something that doesn't fall within his area of competence.

"All right, Gamil-san. I just need to check on the cattle and I'd say I'm done for the day. Is there anything you want to tell me?"

He expected her to have something to say, and just as he thought, Gamil didn't hesitate to explain.

"... Remember your sword that was broken when you were fighting that goblin? I thought it was useless to repair a common sword that had now gone, but I know that your dream is to leave for Orario...How about you come and see in my shop as soon as you're finished? I'm sure there's something that will meet your expectations."

Haru was surprised, not expecting the blacksmith to tell him such a thing, but just when he was going to refuse because he hadn't even the minimum amount of valis needed to buy a new sword, the blacksmith shook her head knowing what he was thinking.

"I never said I'd charge you."

Why would she do such a thing for him? This was what Haru was thinking, but before he could turn down the offer a second time, the blacksmith had already turned her heels towards her shop. No matter how much he looked for an answer in the memories he had of this place, nothing seemed to be enough to explain the reason for that gesture.

Choosing not to make her wait any longer, however, Haru went to great lengths to finish his duties. After checking for the last time that everything was right, he headed for what he knew was the blacksmith's shop.

"..Welcome back. I have you choose between some of these swords, then we move on to armour."

Haru couldn't refrain from asking for explanations, and at his questions the blacksmith looked up to the ceiling with her eyes narrowed.

"As you recall, you've been an orphan since the day you were born. While all the other kids were playing and having fun at your age, you always worked and worked. I may look the other way, but I'm not blind. Even after your hard work to make the living conditions in this village better, no one came to thank you for your help, and yet you continued undeterred. Even a few years ago when I gave you your first sword, it was enough to look at it for a moment and, for the first time, I saw your eyes shining. Now that you've become an adult, I'm sure you would have liked to leave for Orario much earlier, instead you decided to stay here for training and helping in the village, after all this time you've used to help us, even though no one else is going to reward you, I will. Now stop making me say anything else and get the armour and sword you need, it's embarrassing to keep talking about it."

Averting her eyes, the blacksmith ordered him to take the sword and armour he preferred, but Haru remained where he was standing. To be fair, he could understand the blacksmith's feelings, and although she could have helped more, the blacksmith had preferred that Haru lived life as he liked best, he was sure that if he asked for her help once, then the blacksmith would have definitely taken him with her. This kindness reminded him a lot of his mother, and the mere thought made his eyes tear up.

When the blacksmith realized that Haru had not yet decided to choose a sword and armour, she looked back at him in an angry tone, but what she saw in front of her was a sight she'd never seen.

"...I am honoured to have someone who cares for me. Thank you so much for your help, I will never forget it."

Haru had bowed his head, formally thanking her just as it was normal to do but to the vision of this and his words, the blacksmith had a red face. Her black eyes for a moment had a light in them, in reality she would have wanted to take Haru into her custody from the beginning, but since he had never seemed in need of help, she would have felt as if she was constricting him. So, his gesture of gratitude had struck in the deepest depths of her heart, but that was something Haru didn't know.

"..I-I see. Just choose your equipment already!"

To her hasty words, Haru smiled back. It wasn't new to him this way of behaving, and even if it seemed as if the blacksmith wasn't at ease, Haru had understood that in reality it was not so from before.

'..It would be rude to not choose anything now.'

Accepting her previous offer after discovering the reasons for it, Haru approached the various swords displayed in the shop. There were many and all of a style slightly different from each other, and he thought it would be impossible to choose with the naked eye, and in fact as soon as he got close enough to the swords, words appeared suddenly in front of him, frightening him.

[Reincarnation System: Booting up...]

[16 Grade F, 1 Grade E swords are recognized.]

Although the blacksmith was confused by his surprise, Haru had every reason to be surprised. He recalled that Gaia had proposed to use his points to create a system, but he didn't expect it to be useful from the start

As soon as the first message of the system appeared, Haru saw panels appear in front of all the swords, and reading the contents, he could notice that it was noted with precision the properties of the sword, as well as the requirements to be able to use it without any repercussion, the grade and even the durability before it would be unusable.

Avoiding raising the blacksmith's suspects further, Haru took a look at all the statistics of swords, but what struck him was that only one of them seemed to be of a higher rank than the others. For the most part he didn't understand it by the difference in grade, but by the parameters. Since nothing had been explained to him yet, he didn't know how to evaluate swords, yet he was pretty sure that a sword increasing his attack by 20 was definitely stronger than one that increased the attack by 5.

Feeling interested in the superior ranked sword, Haru picked it up, noting some details that the system did not list, as they are visually simple to locate. A small, thin, straight blade made of iron is held by a grip wrapped in common, scarlet scaled leather. The blade has a jagged, warped cross-guard, which makes sure the blade is both balanced and capable of protecting the owner's hands against any sliding sword. The cross-guard has a basic coil on each side, which is common on many weapons.

"... Did you forge this sword?"

It almost sounded like the work of a pure artist. There was no doubt that the blacksmith had to be very talented for having forged something like this, seeing her nodding satisfied as she had amazed Haru to such an extent, or at least, so she had interpreted his earlier amazement.

"It's one of the most successful sword I've made, if you like it so much, it's yours."

Haru sighed, there was no doubt that the sword was worth at least 8000 valis. Although he didn't have too much information about the currency precisely because he had lived in a village constantly training and performing tasks to earn food to eat, he was at least able to evaluate this sword, And he certainly didn't have 8,000 Valis to pay for it.

But to his 'complaints' about the fact the sword cost too much to give it away for free, the blacksmith sighed.

"Of course you'll never learn, Haru. Accept my kindness now that you still have time to take that sword for free, I don't think you'd rather be indebted to me"

Faced with the sharp gaze of the blacksmith, Haru sighed deciding to take only a piece of armor, he didn't want the blacksmith to lose even more rare pieces.

[20 Grade F, 4 Grade E armour are recognized.]

At the mere thought of the armor, the system didn't hesitate to analyse and make appear panels over every single piece of armor, but this time he had the attention on a pair of vambraces. Although their grade seemed to be lower than that of the other pieces of armor, the damage resistance was increased by 20, the same amount of protection that a larger piece of armor was able to protect, and although he didn't know why, Haru chose to take these, he would buy the rest of the armour with his savings in Orario.

Although the blacksmith wanted to give him a full armor, Haru refused, thanking the blacksmith for her kindness and informing her that in the next few days he would leave for Orario. It was sudden, yet the blacksmith wasn't surprised at all. She only sighed with a little smile on her face.

"That boy... Someday I'll have you pay for the sword."

Closing her eyes silently whispering her last words, she rose from the chair where she was sitting as it was time to close the shop for the day.

---

(..Yeah, I still haven't said at what time in the timeline he is, but I guess you'll know later.)

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