Gearing Up

The next morning, I woke up, cleaned my teeth with the thin stems I got from the village chief, and then headed out shopping. My goal was to roam around and learn anything relevant to me. I also wanted to get things like daily necessities, food for emergency rations, and maybe an extra pair of clothes and undergarments to suit the city's style. What I wore currently was a rural outfit, so it felt a bit out of place. I also was going to check out the weapon and armor shop. I had been going in simple everyday clothing but I had seen other adventurers wear armor and have the proper equipment and I felt strange when comparing myself with them.

Even though this "job" had no requirements for clothing and such, I had never heard of adventurers not wearing armor when adventuring, be it in here or in novels and manga. So, naturally, I felt the need for it.

I was already an adventurer on paper but I wanted to look the part as well. Plus, it would provide some safety in case I do receive damage I couldn't prevent. My Katana was perfectly fine but I wanted a slightly ordinary-looking sword that I could hang on my waist and not worry about someone seeing a unique weapon and stealing it.

I asked around and found a common recommendation for an armor and weapons store. I went there and asked the owner about the kinds of products he had. He showed me a variety of metal and chainmail armors but they didn't suit my taste.

They were way too loud once you wore them. Wearing them I felt more like a knight than an adventurer.

"This is no good. Do you have something that doesn't look and sound like knight armor?"

I wanted something more flexible and silent. He then recommended me some hard leather armor Their defense was lower but they were easy to move in.

The armor seemed fine and cheap but I didn't really like leather armor. Apart from the slight odor it produced, he told me it would need to be polished and cleaned well otherwise it would start to stink.

I definitely don't want that.

I realized that I still had the Giant Viper corpse with me and asked if they made armor from monsters.

"By Giant Viper do you perhaps mean The Giant Viper? There's no way you have something as valuable as that."

"Let's suppose I have it. Can you make a good armor out of it?"

Wouldn't black armor look really cool?

"Customer, if you can get something as good as that, I can make you one of the finest magic armors in this town. But the catch is you need to get one. I have heard there's one roaming near the Forest of Demise but there's not a lot of people that go to that crooked forest."

Really?

Even the village chief said so but still, other than the monsters, the forest itself was rather normal. I even found a clean river with drinkable water when I was there.

"Then I'll give you the monster. Please tell me how much time and money it'll take to make good armor."

If I'm really gonna do it, I might as well do it properly.

"Don't joke. I can't see you having something as precious as that. Do you even know how dangerous that monster is? He is not a normal-grade monster. He is a commander-grade monster."

Was this perhaps how they measured monster strength here? I wanted to ask more but I decided to ask Kenny about that. She could tell me more.

"If I show you, will you make an armor for me?"

"If you show me, I'll put in 200% effort and create the finest magic armor in this town."

"Very well."

I asked him to take us to a place where we could place monster material. He showed me the way towards his shop's backyard while still in doubt and confusion.

"What the hell?! That's a real Giant Viper? Oh my god, it's the real thing!"

His surprised face almost made him look like a kid who had seen something interesting.

"It seems not that big. Must be a youngling, but still."

He mumbled to himself.

Are you telling me this isn't its adult form? This monster was already bigger than me. Just how big does an adult Giant Viper get?!

"Please let me make armor out of it! I promise you'll not get a better armor anywhere in this county!"

He grabbed my shoulders and won't let go until I agreed.

That was the plan, though.

With that, my armor material was decided.

He told me to just give him the whole thing and he'll get it dismantled himself. It'll charge a little extra but that way he could get the materials properly.

I left the corpse in the backyard after removing the magic stone. He did not need that.

With that done, I looked around the shop for swords and decided on a decent-looking steel sword. Its attack wasn't even comparable to my Katana but the shopkeeper said it was durable and a popular choice for first-time adventurers. It was shorter than my Katana and the blade was much wider but that was to be expected from a western-themed sword. I also purchased a sheath and a belt to hang it on for the time being. My armor was going to have an inbuilt place to hang the sword so the belt was temporary.

The sword, along with sheath and belt, cost me 40 Silvers with a discount added. And the price for the armor was not yet decided. He did properly take my full body measurements and told me it'll take a week for him to finish the thing and handed me a signed parchment for my item.

I came out satisfied and in anticipation of my new armor.

I never thought I'll be buying armor and weapons. It can't get any more fantasy-like than this… Ah, no wait. It can. But they will surely be troublesome.

The Giant Viper had black skin so the armor was most certainly going to be black as well. It would go well with my black Katana, hair, and eyes.

Wait, aren't I going all-black with this one? Hope it doesn't look too cringe.

I then went around and bought other stuff while marking all the shops of interest. I also ate some fast food from the stalls. I couldn't tell what they were without looking at the Appraisal results but they tasted great and didn't cost as much.

I also went to the potion shop to buy some medicine and portions for emergency use. There I sold some extra mushrooms and plants I found on my quest and earned some Silvers. I also showed the shopkeeper one Hue Mushroom that I had found in the Forest of Demise and it was apparently a very rare mushroom. I had a bunch but just receiving one made the shopkeeper lose her mind so I decided not to bring them out. I received 8 Large Silvers from everything. The Hue Mushroom alone had a price of 40 Silvers a piece.

Damn, it was the right choice to take them.

Then I bought Healing Potions, Detoxification Potions, Petrification Potions, and Monster Repellent Potions. I purchased 10 vials of each and it cost me 40 Silvers in total. I didn't haggle since I didn't know the base prices but the shopkeeper lady said they were the market price.

I wish Appraisal also showed the prices of products.

But then again, prices were something that was not fixed and varied from place to place. I doubted there was a law for MRP or something here.

With my shopping finished, I went around to look for something like a bookstore. I was craving some proper information gathering about this world I was in. I couldn't ask people fearing they might become suspicious of me, so the next best thing was books and manuscripts. Humans had been writing for a very long ago in history. There were traces of primitive languages found even in the caves from thousands of years ago. So, it wasn't much of a doubt that books were prevalent here. They obviously had paper, a pen, and a written form of language.

But before that, I entered a clothing store and bought 2 pairs of city-themed clothing. The city people wore clothes that were less loose and open. Some even had embroidery on them but it was nothing gaudy. With a black and white T-shirt pair and light-colored pants, I also bought men's underwear which... wasn't as good as my elastic underwear but the fabric seemed soft enough to not be itchy. Apparently, this was the best they had. To get anything better than this, I would have to visit the nobles' market in the inner district to get silky undergarments. But the prices would be much higher than here, so I decided to just go with the ones they had.

I also enquired about a bookstore and was told the direction to a certain street which split from the main street to deeper parts of the town.

I followed it and found it in a shady area— shady as in where not much light was passing, not suspicious— there was a sign with books and a lamp drawn on it.

This must be the place.

I entered the shop and was greeted with a whiff of old paper. It gave off the feeling of entering an old library that had been accumulating books for quite a long time.

The counter in front had books lying on it. I couldn't see anyone behind so I decided to call out.

"Excuse me, is this bookstore open?"

"Yes, yes. Close the door once you enter. The sunlight will damage the books."

What sunlight?

I wanted to retort. There was no sunlight in the street this bookstore was situated. But I did as told and move closer to the counter.

Some books moved and a figure of an old lady with a book in her hands was shown. From the looks, she seemed well over 60. She had those characteristic glasses on with strings attached to the side instead of plastic or metal frames. A picture-perfect librarian lady.

She adjusted her glasses and closed her book.

"So, what kind of books are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for ones on Magic, about a brief history of this worl— I mean, this country and some books on cooking meals and stuff."

I was interested in learning more about magic. A history book would tell me more about this country and its culture, allowing me to not act in a way that would make the locals form me to death and burn me on the town square. Well, the people didn't seem that barbaric, but who knows? Even if I was being ridiculous with my delusions I still did want to learn more about this place so it was a good investment. As for the cooking book…

Yeah… I think I'm wasting my money on that one but I'll keep it just in case.

"Hmm. Give me a second."

The old lady replied and moved around, gathering a bunch of books, and then placing them on the table.

I looked at the book titles.

"Introductory Magic by R. H. Dwitt, Vol. 1"

"The Vestia Kingdom and its brief history By Marcus C. and Tucker C."

"Outdoor cooking for Adventurers and Travelers by Lord Ramen Bullhood (includes 50+ recipes)"

I opened the books to glance over their contents. The first thing I noticed was that these books were actually handwritten.

Still, the text seems so regular that it feels like it's written in a fancy font.

They were probably handwritten copies of the original book the author wrote and sold. That must have been a tedious task. This world didn't seem to have the convenience of the modern-day high-speed printing press. Each book must take great effort to write, from research to compilation. But that also meant that there could be errors inside the books which were probably unavoidable.

My knowledge of history was refreshed here. I was practically living in a time when hand-written books were the norm. Although, it wasn't earth's past. Earth's people must have gone through something similar during the 12th to 15th centuries when the printing press was still being invented in Europe.

Ah, but I remember learning from a YouTube documentary that China had something like a printing book in the first millennium AD… Not that I care. I don't even know why I have this fact stored in my head. How come I can't store my college textbook's knowledge like this? Whatever.

Of course, here they had magic. There could be some way to do it using that. But it was still not that common that you'll see people using it without care on the streets and in their daily lives.

I kept the books back on the table after checking them.

"Yes, they seem fine. How much for it all?"

"15 Silvers for the Introductory Magic and 10 each for the other two. Total 35 Silvers."

"Wow. That's quite a lot."

The books weren't that thick, other than maybe the history book, and they were very plain looking.

"Well, books are a precious commodity after all. Not everyone buys them and there aren't that many being circulated around here."

"Yeah. I guess that'll make them expensive."

"Don't worry boy. I'm not trying to extort you with extravagant prices. This is just the market price. You can check other bookstores around the town to check. Though, don't go to the ones in the noble district. They just make beautiful covers for books and charge unreasonable prices from rich folks. Sigh. Books are meant to acquire knowledge, but some people just try to flaunt their wealth with them. I would like to see how much they actually learn from those books, other than those silly poems and short stories about romance and adventure. What's so good about them? Back in my days, we didn't have these many books. Learning vocally was the norm. And yet, kids these days have no value for them. Who cares if these are not pretty looking? It doesn't matter! The content does."

"I-I see."

Yikes, are these the ramblings of someone from an older generation?

I had met a few old people, including my grandparents, but no one really said such cliché things. She even unironically used the phrase "Back in my days…".

She seemed to have plenty of scorn for the rich and young. Well, it didn't really concern me. I purchased the books and went back to my inn.

I had done a lot of shopping and my funds were starting to get low again but I was going to get the money from monster materials soon. That would hopefully cover my expenses without a problem. I still had about a few Silvers and 10 Coppers left so I hadn't yet run out of money. But I would have to pay some to the innkeeper today to extend my stay.

At the inn, I extended my stay for another 5 days.

Finally, I entered my room which I was starting to be familiar with, and lay on the bed after removing my footwear.

I had already summoned Shiro who was now jumping around on the bed and sometimes snuggling near me.

Cute.

Maybe Shiro was actually a healing slime. It was pretty looking, soft on touch, and had cute actions; cuddling it at night felt nice too. It would probably make for a very soft pillow but I won't do that to Shiro.

Once I had relaxed enough, I took out the books and started reading them one by one starting with the history book.

[New ability "Comprehension" acquired!]

"Huh?"

***