Chapter 25: Skill 1

I’d acquired a large sum of money.

Receiving thirty silver coins at once was an amount beyond anything I’d experienced at this point in my life.

Shaken after receiving it all at once, I’d fled back to the inn.

Then I spent the remaining half of the day training and went to sleep even earlier than usual.

“I thought it might’ve been a dream, but it’s real…”

When I woke the next morning, I checked the money pouch I’d placed in the safe in my room at the inn.

The silver coins I’d received yesterday were unquestionably inside.

I was truly glad this inn provided a safe.

Without one, I probably wouldn’t have managed to sleep last night.

“I need to raise my adventurer rank as soon as possible…”

One of the Adventurers’ Guild’s systems allowed people to deposit money with it.

However, not every adventurer could do so.

The service was available only to adventurers of Copper rank or higher who’d accumulated a certain record of achievements.

Apparently, all adventurers had originally been able to use it.

However, many people had registered as adventurers solely to store their savings there.

The result was nothing but an increase in the Adventurers’ Guild’s administrative workload.

On some days, the counters couldn’t even function because so many people were depositing and withdrawing savings.

The Adventurers’ Guild finally recognized how serious the situation had become and imposed a rank restriction.

Even reaching Copper rank didn’t guarantee that you could open an account.

You could do so only if you’d established a proper record at the Adventurers’ Guild branch where you were active.

“Even if I build up achievements, I don’t know whether requests inside the city count toward them… Perhaps I need to show my strength as an adventurer by properly taking requests outside too.”

While considering that, I began the day with my laundry as usual.

“Thanks to training for half the day yesterday, I accumulated quite a lot of EXP.”

◇

[Swordsmanship] training completed.

1 EXP acquired.

EXP until skill acquisition: 91/100.

◇

I’d already passed ninety.

Perhaps mindlessly training to forget about the money yesterday had helped.

“I’ll acquire the skill today. If I keep going at this pace, a little training in the afternoon should be enough.”

I continued my [Swordsmanship] training until Amanda arrived.

The way I swung the sword had changed considerably compared with the beginning.

My improvement was great enough that I could feel my own growth.

“Delicious again today.”

Amanda eventually came into the backyard, and we did the laundry together.

Apparently, my recent help had made things somewhat easier for her.

She happily told me that there had previously been jobs she couldn’t complete because doing the laundry in the morning exhausted her, but now she could finish them before noon.

I once again received a slightly larger breakfast and ate it slowly.

After breakfast, I returned to my room, prepared for the request, left the inn, and went to the Adventurers’ Guild.

“Erik, here’s the request form Harold submitted yesterday. You’ll accept it, won’t you?”

“Yes. Please process it for me.”

When my turn came at Reina’s counter, she’d already prepared yesterday’s request form.

It looked just like all the other request forms, and I once again thought about how quickly Reina worked.

After completing the procedure, I went to Harold’s shop.

“Harold, I’ve accepted the request.”

“Oh, you came, boy!”

When I arrived, Harold was waiting for me.

After we exchanged greetings, he led me to the back of the shop.

“This is quite a state.”

He showed me the warehouse where I’d be working.

Shelves that must once have held materials had fallen over, while tools and materials covered the floor in a terrible mess.

“Believe it or not, I’ve already cleaned up what I could. But there were too many things, and I decided it was beyond me.”

“With a mess this bad, an ordinary person would lose the will to begin. Still, I can clean up something like this quickly enough. I’ll get to work immediately.”

After telling Harold that, I began.

It was important to investigate what had left the warehouse in this condition, but at the moment, it wasn’t even possible to walk across the floor.

I moved the items to secure a path while also searching for the cause.

“Ah, the floor collapsed.”

After spending about an hour organizing the tools and clearing a path, I found the cause.

There was a hole in the back of the warehouse.

It had opened directly beneath the footing of a shelf, and when that shelf collapsed, it had brought down the others.

That explained how the warehouse had ended up in this condition.

“I never imagined the floor would collapse like that. I’ve lived here a long time, but nothing like this has ever happened before.”

“Really? Then perhaps there was some particular cause behind the hole too.”

I continued working in the warehouse.

I cleaned while organizing, quickly sorting the tools and materials as I secured a path.

After completing a fair amount of that work, I cleared the area around the hole.

While searching for something that might reveal the cause, I noticed a stain on the shelf that had stood above it.

Some of the wood remained beneath the hole, and it was slightly damp.

“Harold, do you remember what you kept here?”

“…I think it was materials from aquatic creatures.”

“Then that may be the cause. I think the water weakened the floor, and it couldn’t endure the shelf’s weight.”

I explained while showing Harold part of the shelf.