Ossan Boukensha no Jimichi na Isekai Tabi - CH 8

An Assignment for Tomorrow

“Ahahaha…hahaha… No, in any case, that was highly amusing. Thank you.”

“I was hoping you’d die from laughing so hard.”

Oh, I didn’t mean to say that.

“Ah, don’t be angry. I’m sorry. Now, uh, you waited too long before attacking. There ain’t no need to give your opponent a chance to attack. And you were in range of its sword in spite of wielding a spear. You won’t be able to turn and will just get hit instead. Also, while holding your shield so high when fighting goblins will block the spear, you could have still targeted its legs. Well, the real problem is that while the enemy was raising its weapon and completely

open to attacks, you just held your shield and waited without stabbing it with your spear… Bahaha!”

“You’re exactly right, but you’re laughing so much that it’s ruined.”

“Now let’s hurry up and take out the magic stones and continue.”

The magic stones in goblins were generally close to the heart. I opened its chest and removed the stone. It seemed slightly larger than those in Horned Rabbits? Like a pachinko ball.

Apparently, if you were going to make a report at the guild, you were supposed to take their left ears. But no one from Ruyana village worked at the guild.

As the goblin’s sword was very brittle, I decided to take it to the smithy, as they could use the iron.

“Ah… I never really thought about which hand goblins use to hold their weapons.”

“It was a low level fight with some high level wasteful movement.”

“Aye, we’ll be joking about that over our cups for a while.”

Really, they were laughing too much.

It did not take long after that for us to meet more goblins. This time there were two of them that wielded clubs. Zuky killed the first one with his bow, but the other came at me while raising its club, and so I held the shield low and thrust out the spear. The goblin’s forward momentum also helped, and it was skewered with a thud.

It was so easy that it wasn’t even satisfying.

“Alright, next time you can take on two at once.”

They said.

But when I tried to fight two at the same time, I was attacked from the side while stabbing the first goblin. And so I ended up dropping my spear and was chased around. Zuky laughed too hard to use his bow, and so it was Gein who saved me.

My second attempt at facing two at once had me taking care of the goblin on the right first, and then I blocked the left one with my shield, pulled out my spear and succeeded in skewering it.

By the time I had killed five goblins, I felt a sensation. It was as if I had become lighter. It had been a while since I last leveled up. When I checked my status, I saw that I was Lv6 now, though my MP was the same. But I did acquire a Shield Art skill.

I wanted to put it to the test immediately, but I was out of time, and we would retire for the day.

“It’s been a while since I laughed so much. Ajifu, you’re quite a wonder.”

“That doesn’t sound like a complement.”

“It is!”

“It is!”

It was definitely a lie. Their eyes were still laughing.

“Today, I was able to overcome my fear of goblins and return in one piece. Gein, Zuky, it’s because of you two. Thank you.”

“Stop that. We’re not strangers.”

“That is good, but goblins are still a threat depending on the environment and their numbers. It’s not unusual to hear stories about high-ranking Adventurers being killed by them. ‘Those who laugh at goblins will be laughed at by goblins.’ It’s an old saying they have. Don’t forget it.”

“How about, those who laugh at Ajifu will be laughed at by Ajifu?”

“We wouldn’t want that! But let’s have a round of drinks and see what happens.”

“You two were just drinking yesterday! We’re all tired today, so only drink a little.”

In the end, the two drank as they always did, and so I left partway.

Still, I had accomplished a lot today, but there were also a lot of regrets. Of course, being able to face goblins was the biggest thing, but there was also the level up, skill and issues with my current fighting style and gear.

While I needed to repair the shield, it wouldn’t be much use if I was going to stay out of striking distance. But if I was too close, I wouldn’t be able to use the spear. It would be fine if I was going to fight with other spear wielders, like soldiers do, but if I wanted to become an Adventurer later on, it might be better to use a sword.

They say that you needed to be three times better if you wanted to fight a spearman with a sword. But what if you have a shield as well?

I would have to ask Gein about it later.

When I asked him the next day, this was the result.

“The way weapons hold up against each other, eh? To put it simply, a spear is strong against a two-handed sword, but about equal against a one-handed sword and shield. A two-handed sword is strong against a one-handed sword with or without a shield. Shields and spears are good in group battles, but…”

“So spears really are best with their longer range?”

“Now, listen. Two-handed swords use a lot of metal, and can endure powerful magic enchantments. While you might be at a disadvantage at first, that will change the stronger you get. Shield-wielders are popular because they are strong against magic and arrows. But a broad two-handed sword can have great defense ability as well. Spears with enchantments are great for attacking, and can have a power that is difficult to match. But they are hard to balance.”

“Magic, huh…”

“These are really just generalizations that don’t take into account special weapons and armor. However, spears and two-handed swords are weapons that really test the qualities of the wielder. Ah, there are no more group battles with spears and shields, as they are easily targeted by wide-area magic.”

“But wouldn’t a shield for defense and a spear for attacking be a good combination?”

“It is not terrible. However, if you are holding a shield with one hand, then you will not be able to use the spear outside of thrusting.”

“That’s true.”

Based on all of this, I decided to try the combination of one-handed sword and shield. And so I asked Gein to occasionally help me train with the basics. My body wouldn’t last if I did it every day.

As they did not sell swords in the village, I asked Gein to buy one when he visited the city. Besides, it wasn’t as if I knew how to pick out a sword myself. I had no knowledge and no appraisal skill that would allow me to pick up a bargain.

He ended up buying me a basic long sword. It was quite heavy, and so for now, I only practiced my swings and polished it.

It cost me two pieces of gold. That was nearly half of my entire fortune. That may sound like a small amount for working three years, but life in the village was generally about making your own food and trading for items. There was little actual income.

As for the monetary values,

Copper: 5 coppers would get you a loaf of black bread.

Great copper: 10 coppers(Around 100 yen?)

Silver: 10 great coppers(1000 yen)

Great silver: 10 silvers(10,000 yen)

Gold: 10 great silvers(100,000 yen)

Great gold: 10 golds(1,000,000 yen)

Platinum: 10 great golds(10,000,000 yen)

I used black bread as the standard. I would go up if there was war, and go down if there was a good harvest. I converted it to yen for reference.

To be honest, the coins were quite heavy. It was a pain to have to carry them around. The great coins were supposed to help alleviate that, and so there was actually less metal than their value would suggest.

But they were circulated because whether ally or enemy, all the countries guaranteed that you could trade with them. It was a wonder that some power didn’t try and exploit this, but it was said that doing so would earn the wrath of the gods. The gods must be quite thorough, if they were also guaranteeing the ability to exchange.

Up until now, I was able to get by through trading things. But if I was going to the city, then I would need money. In this village, the things you could acquire that could be sold were mainly things like, fur, food items, magic stones, woodcrafts, monster materials etcetera.

Furs, food and woodcrafts had to regularly be sold in the city, and there were already people in charge of that. As for monster materials, I wasn’t able to hunt monsters that gave materials good enough to sell.

The only thing left was magic stones, but Mrs. Mefica had taught me a little trick. If you dried herbs, antidote grass, un-paralysis grass and other leaves from medicinal plants, and took care to remove the veins and stems, you could crush them into a fine powder that city pharmacists would pay money for. And so I borrowed Mrs. Mefica’s mortar.

Not only that, but she said that doing this could help me acquire a skill for medicine making.

And so I had no choice but to try it!