"Today, they're probably not here, huh?"
Yesterday was really tough.
After finishing lunch, they understood that I was at my limit today, and unlike the first half of the day, I was bombarded with questions.
The interactions there were productive since I could confirm things, but I didn't expect it to be non-stop until Nel's mother brought dinner.
Thanks to that, by the ti I got myself together, I couldn't help but glance at the back door.
But no one was there, and I felt relieved.
"Basket, check. Bracelet, check. Wallet, check. Bamboo spear, check!"
Finally, I pointed at my equipnt to confirm everything, then knocked on the back door. A few seconds later, it opened.
"Are you heading out today?""Yes, just to the hill beyond the south gate.""I see. That area is safe, but don't push yourself too hard."
Nel's mother appeared, holding a package in one hand. No one was behind her.
"If you're looking for her, she was up late last night writing sothing. She went to bed late, so she probably won't be up until around noon.""Is that so?"
She noticed my gaze and smirked while handing the package, answering my unspoken question.
"It's rare for her to get so attached to soone. She often clashes with other kids when she plays with them. She must be happy to have soone like you who can handle her maturely.""Is that so?""Yes, it is. Please continue to get along with her.""Okay."
Well, if she's that hungry for knowledge, it's no wonder she doesn't get along with kids her own age.
"I'm off.""Take care."
I felt like there was another aning mixed into her "get along with her" comnt, but I decided it was just my imagination.
I don't even know what tomorrow holds for .I shouldn't think about weird things.
I put the lunchbox in the basket and started walking toward the south gate.
Since it's the sa ti as the day before yesterday, I know there will be people around, but most of the carriages on this side are heading to the port.
There aren't many kids walking around with bamboo spears on their backs, so only the guards of rchant or noble carriages glance at briefly.
If I use the side streets where carriages don't pass and walk along the edge of the path, I don't have to worry about getting tangled up.
And then.
"Make sure you're back by evening. It'll cost ten zeni to get back in. If you don't have it, we'll accept dicinal herbs or other items as paynt.""Thank you."
I received permission to leave from the gatekeeper soldier and stepped outside.
If I were an adventurer, I wouldn't need to go through these procedures, but I have to think about the steps to beco an adventurer, or it'll be troubleso later.
At the very least, skipping these small steps to beco an adventurer casually isn't worth the effort.
Besides, if things go well today, I won't need to leave the town again, so this expense is a necessary cost!
However.
"I underestimated a child's walking pace."
My spirits sank a little after leaving the gate.In the ga, it felt like I could get there in no ti, but a child's walking pace and speed can't match an adult's.
Thanks to taking breaks to avoid getting tired, the sun was already high in the sky by the ti I arrived.
"Hmm, I made it, but I can only stay here for two or three hours at most."
It's farther than the bamboo forest, but I thought I could manage. Still, it took much longer than I expected.
"Should I take a carriage? No, no, I don't have that kind of money."
In the ga, there were various mounts, including horses, for traveling, but with my current funds, I can't afford that.
There is a shared carriage heading to the port, and I could get off midway, but the fare is charged as if going all the way to the port, so the expense would far exceed what I can earn here.
"Sigh, I guess I'll just have to eat and head back early."
If that's the case, I'll have to move efficiently in a short ti.Having decided that, I sat down under a nearby tree to rest.
"Even in the ga, I thought these things were strange creatures."
Then, I took another look at the scenery of my destination.
This is a hill with a small spring.
The area is open, with good visibility.There are only a few trees, making it a perfect spot to rest.
However, it's quite off the beaten path, including the road to the port, so it's not very popular.
Instead, white, round, and squishy creatures are hopping around everywhere.
They have no eyes, mouth, nose, or ears.
Just white, elastic spheres.
In FBO, they're the weakest monsters, and they even have a niche fanbase that's made rchandise of them.
Their na is Mochi.
Yeah, there's definitely soone on the developnt team who loves mochi.Or maybe they have a grudge against it.
In FBO, slis are set as vicious monsters, so these were created to be weaker than goblins and easy for beginners to defeat, or so we players speculate.
In every direction, near the town the protagonist chooses, there's always a habitat for these Mochi.
They're non-aggressive monsters that don't leave their habitat, just hopping around and eating weeds to multiply.
Once they reach a certain number, they stop multiplying. They're the epito of harmless weakness, and the items they drop, with one exception, aren't valuable in terms of drop rate or selling price.
Plus, the experience points they give aren't great either, so there's no reason not to leave them alone, which has led to this area becoming deserted.
This phenonon happened even when the ga was first released.
The only useful thing about them is that they provide a safe way to level up and gain classes.
But you only need to defeat two or three Mochi to do that, and in the story, leveling up with Mochi earns you the label of a coward.
In fact, there's a title you can get called "Weakling" for leveling up with Mochi, so that setting isn't entirely wrong.
"Not knowing this really puts you at a disadvantage."
However, once a certain fact becos known, this place turns into a bonus area that players absolutely visit.
"Alright, I can't waste any more ti resting."
A child's body grows the more you nourish it, and if you can get a good night's sleep, that growth accelerates.
I don't need to shout so old man's battle cry to stand up.
"Having a young body is great."
I was frustrated with the weakness of a child's body, but this part is nice.
"If only I could do sothing about the lack of strength..."
I gripped the bamboo spear I was carrying. Even though it's made of bamboo, it's still quite heavy.
It's probably lighter than a regular one since it's made for a child's body, but swinging it around will definitely tire out.
"Considering I have to go back... hmm, managing my stamina is going to be tricky."
For now, I took the stance I practiced in the ga.
FBO has a ga assist system that helps even those who are bad at sports move their bodies to so extent.
But people who know how to move their bodies still perform better.
I even downloaded a VR spear training program to study how to use a spear.
In real life, a spear is too heavy to use for long, but when I tried it once at a dojo, I was praised for my clean movents.
I spread my legs, lowered my hips slightly, turned my left side forward, gripped the end of the bamboo spear with my right hand, and held it a little wider than shoulder-width with my left hand.
The spear was level.
"Practice makes perfect. Here goes!"
I took a deep breath and prepared for my first real battle in this world.
Even though Mochi are non-aggressive monsters, they will retaliate if attacked.
I'm level zero, and even though they're the weakest, they're still classed monsters.
Without base stats, I have to rely purely on the weapon's attack power.
"Alright!"
Other than that, my player skills are my weapon.The movents I repeated until they were ingrained in my mory and muscle mory are a bit rusty, but my body moves as I imagine.
The sharp thrust pierced near the center of the Mochi's body.
I quickly pulled back and thrust again.
The strength of a spear lies in its reach.
The Mochi, having been attacked, recognized as an enemy and tried to counterattack, but being the weakest, its movents were slow. Another thrust stopped it in its tracks.
In other words, if I keep hitting it, I can attack unilaterally.
Since they're not link monsters, I don't have to worry about other Mochi attacking .
One-on-one, and with the ability to attack unilaterally...
"First one down."
After about five thrusts, the Mochi stopped moving and turned into black dust before disappearing.
"This place is the sa too."
Even the monster defeat animation is the sa.That's why, for a mont, I almost thought this was the ga world.
"I didn't feel this tired in the ga."
Defeating monsters doesn't bother .I know why monsters exist, so that's not an issue.
But I felt physical fatigue, not ntal.
"No ga assist either."
And there was no feeling of being restricted by sothing like a forced cast.
Even at level zero, the beginner tutorial assists your movents.You can disable it later in the settings, but there was no such assistance in my current movents.
Noticing these differences one by one is fun.
"Thanks to the Training Bracelet, I can't level up, so I can defeat monsters without worrying about it!!"
I held up the accessory that perfectly handles my desire not to level up yet, trying to cool down the excitent of my first victory in battle.
I know, but I don't know.
This subtle feeling is what makes it enjoyable.
"Alright, let's go for the next one! Aim for that 0.3% drop rate!!"
Fighting isn't a problem. I just need to be careful not to get too carried away and end up camping out. I'll continue battling like this.
Fortunately, there are plenty of Mochi, so I don't need to search around, which makes things very efficient.
After defeating one, I took a breath, then went for the next. Repeating this, my body gradually rembered how to move, and my movents improved.
"Oh, first drop."
On the tenth Mochi, it finally dropped an item.
A small purple stone, about the size of a bead, remained where the Mochi had been.
"It's the lowest grade, so this is about right."
This is a magic stone.
All monsters drop this item, and its uses vary, but the magic stones dropped by Mochi are only worth about one zeni for ten.
In other words, this single magic stone is only worth about ten yen.
Plus, the drop rate is only ten percent.
It takes about a minute to defeat one, and with breaks, I can defeat about fifty in an hour.
Yeah, that's an hourly wage of about fifty yen.
Mochi drop two other items, but one has a five percent drop rate, and the main one has a staggering 0.3 percent drop rate.
If I get the five percent drop, my hourly wage goes up, but even then, getting two in that ti is lucky.
The other one is more of a "nice if it happens" thing.The main one has a drop rate where you'd need to defeat three thousand to have a ninety percent chance of getting it.Since I'm doing other tasks alongside this, I'll just have to be patient.
Or so I thought at first.
"After three days, I've only earned four zeni..."
Three days later, I was slumped on the floor of the stable, feeling defeated.
Beside was a pile of magic stones I'd worked so hard to collect over the past three days.
Just magic stones.
Forty-one of them.
No other drops.
"The desire sensor is working too well."
For an MMO gar like , the desire sensor is the worst enemy.
The mont you want sothing, even items with high drop rates fall below their usual probability.
"Why, just why?"
I should have gotten at least a few of the five percent drop items, and my daily earnings should have been at least ten zeni.
But instead, this is the result. I lost thirty zeni on entry fees, and now I only have forty zeni left.
Not only did I not get the main drop, but the side tasks didn't bear fruit either. Three days of effort for this result is hard to take.
"Curse you, desire sensor."
This is just taking out my frustration.In the end, it's my fault for having bad real-life luck.
"...This is the worst. Do I need to change my plans?"
Nel's mother prepares my als every day, and I don't have to pay for lodging. This ideal situation won't last forever.
I need to show so results soon, or I won't be able to face the innkeeper.
Is this what it feels like to worry about being evicted for not paying rent?
Should I focus on making money, or stick to my original schedule?
I never expected to be hit by such an external obstacle.
"I'll just sleep for now. Worrying about it won't solve anything."
I can think of a few ways to get out of this tight spot using my ga knowledge, but I'd rather not use them now.
So are dangerous, so are inefficient, and so take too much ti.
I could do them, but I'd rather not.
With that in mind, I went to sleep to heal my tired body for tomorrow's plans with Nel.
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