Rupegia Ch. 02: Second Day

I saw that there are sixteen gods, so maybe I should learn more about them and start praying to one. Since they also communicate, and they were once people of this world, then perhaps they're reasonable. It also gives me a little comfort in knowing there's a being that could help me if I show a little faith.

I notice something change in me. I open my stats and see that my "Piety" has increased by 1 (it's now 3).

It seems that the peepers in the sky can even read my mind.

--

I enter the dungeoneering guild and ask for the section with information on monsters and dungeons around this area. The attendant guides me to the second floor and shows me a section with dozens of cloned books. This seems to be a common inquiry around here, so the guild prepared a large number of copies of the books: "Monsters of Rabanara," "Dungeons of Rabanara," and "Advice for New Explorers". The creativity in naming is heartwarming.

After taking a look at them, I learned that I'm one lucky motherfucker. The Grey Berserker is the most powerful type of monster in the region. There's always a large bounty on them because they're smart enough to avoid the culling, so they're always a danger in the forest. The advised strategy to defeat it is a group of at least three fully armored people and one healer. The aim is to use blunt weapons to break the bear's bones since they're much more fragile than the hide, which makes most cutting or piercing weapons useless.

Goblins are like in any other game. They grow like weeds and require constant care so they don't choke your plants, which means your life. They give little rewards, but bringing a whole corpse could net some considerable amount of money. The problem is, most people don't have enough carrying capacity to bring a lot of corpses into town. Goblin meat is tasteless and sinewy, but it's the base meat for the poor so they always sell. Most hunters don't bother with the corpses and only bring a proof of extermination, which is the right ear.

Mossy Fangpine is another dangerous enemy. There's a chance the mossy spines will poison the person; another evidence I'm actually lucky. They hunt in packs of three or more, and the one I fought was alone only because of the culling. The strategy is to hide behind a shield and wear at least leather armor, then counter stab it in the face after it jumps to bite, or just use magic since they are vulnerable to it. Arrows are okay to use, but they are fast and the spines can deflect arrows if you are unlucky. They have an extraordinary sensing capability, and they'll likely appear whenever a monster is killed because of the blood.

Another enemy is the Rabid Rabbit. This one, like the Fangpine, only charges and bites. The bunny acts alone and is extremely vicious. The bites are poisonous and can make a person go berserk. The meat tastes good, and the saliva glands are used in potions, so this monster is always hunted, making it hard to find.

In the sky, there's the Dragolite, a small dragon that doesn't have a fire breath. Their meat is somewhat hard to cook and has a strong taste, but it's still valuable. The farmers hate them since they like to kidnap the sheep around here. They don't kidnap the children but just try to kill them, so the children of the farms around here are trained in archery the moment they can hold a small bow.

The last part shocks me a little. This is really a brutal world. Also, this is the enemy that captured my summoned bird.

There's also the Giant Dragonfly. It uses its legs as spears and attacks with high speed. The easiest strategy is to just use a spear longer than their legs. They're weak but annoying to deal with because they are agile, and it's difficult to dodge or escape them, so it's advised for hunters to always carry a simple long spear in their [Item Box]. Due to their nature, they appear mostly along rivers or lakes, and they don't fly too well among the trees, so that's why I haven't met one yet. Their wings and eyes are valuable crafting items, so they sell quite well.

The occasional migrating flock of wyverns is a threat. Wyverns have wings on their arms while dragons have wings on their backs, separate from their arms. Also, Wyverns look more like velociraptors with wings, while dragons are lizards with wings. Wyverns attacks are the most common threat to this settlement, so sooner or later I'll be called to defend the town against them. They only fly as a way of long-distance movement since their huge bodies and low magical capability makes flying awkward for them. Unlike dragons, who can manipulate the wind with ease, wyverns tire easily if they have to be agile during flight, so fighting against them is always done on the ground. The best strategy against them is to fight behind shield walls using pikes and ranged attacks. Finding and destroying wyvern nests is heavily rewarded since this means that the attacks on the town reduce in frequency.

These are the common monsters that are born here. The thing is that migrating monsters are extremely common, so the chance of meeting a random monster is quite high, which means that you really need to read a lot about monsters to be prepared for anything. This discourages me a little about hunting monsters in the forest for money. I also have little experience in tracking, so I think that looking at the nearby dungeons might be a better choice for now.

--

Dungeons have a lot of variety. There are some that are maze-like, whose floors can be many times larger than entire towns. Others are just large underground environments where monsters roam around copied fragments of the world above. Some even have artificial lights, allowing them to sustain some form of plant-life. Plenty are mere dimensional doors to some unknown space, possibly full of traps, randomness, and constant change. The most popular among hunters are the small labyrinths, especially the ones that create a floor exclusively for a single party, which guarantees that no other party will influence your progress, but unfortunately they're much rarer. Most dungeons have some sort of "elevator," which allows adventurers to move to any floor they've previously explored.

Dungeons increase in depth the more they're allowed to remain undisturbed. Damaging the core forces the dungeon to reduce in depth to repair itself, while destroying the core makes it fall apart. The nobility is the one responsible for culling the forests and managing the dungeon depth. In the book, it is implied that a noble that doesn't fight doesn't deserve their title. It sounds quite interesting, so I need to ask more about this later.

It's quite tiring and time-consuming to keep reading all this information, so I don't really have time to go out of town today. I decided to go to a nearby dungeon tomorrow, Royd's Kerfuffle. The adventurer that discovers a dungeon gets the right to name it, so quite a lot have some ridiculous names.

This dungeon in particular isn't that popular since the monsters there do not reward much, but it could be a perfect training ground for me. It's a labyrinthine dimensional door dungeon that has an "elevator." At the lower levels, I just need to look out for traps. The worst of them teleport their victims to a random place on the same floor, so things only start to become difficult after the tenth floor, but the floor traps are always at the same place, so it's easy to avoid them.

Right now I still have some free time until sunset, so I decide to go look for the hunters training grounds.

--

The training grounds is a large dirt field. There's a large area for sparring, an archery range, a wide, long, and secluded place where I can see some mages throwing some flashy spells, a place where a few freakish pieces of armor float and fight some people, a small building with barred windows, and a small fountain for people to drink.

Is that fountain magical or is there plumbing in this town?

I pay the toll to enter and approach one of the idle men with the symbol of the hunters guild engraved on his leather armor.

"H-hello, I'm new around here. Could you tell me how I can use this place?" I ask the man.

He's not big or burly, but he has a menacing gaze. He sports a buzz cut, his skin and face are full of small scars, and his posture is intimidating.

How does one get scars on a world with magical healing?

He says in an eerily calm voice, "Hm? Well, the archery range is free, and we can lend you a bow and arrow, but you'll pay for anything you break. The magic range is free, too, but you have to work with the manager so you don't hurt other people. The Living Armors are rented, and the manager also deals with that. I'm an instructor, and I can give you training with weapons, but you can't monopolize me, so we have the students spar with each other once you're at a proper level." His gaze is unwavering, it makes me want to spontaneously look away, but I resist it for now.

"Then, could you teach me the sword?" I ask.

He nods energetically. "Alright, let's spar so I can measure your skill. Put away your sword and I'll give you a wooden one."

He goes into what I assume is the warehouse while I put my sword in my "Items," then he comes back with two wooden swords and throws one at me.

"What's your name?" He asks.

"Wolf Ryder."

Now that I've said it again, I think that I've made a mistake, this name certainly doesn't suit me. My parents were right, my original name was better.

"I'm Toga. You make the first move, and I will start attacking after a while."

So I start my session. I rush and attack, but I have no idea what I'm doing. Because the skill system takes over some of my movements I'm at least confident that I've shown I know how to slash and thrust.

Toga effortlessly blocks, parries, and dodges my attacks. It feels like I'm a child throwing a tantrum while he holds me back by simply holding my head. Then he starts attacking and in three strikes my sword falls out of my hand.

"Well your technique is a mess, who taught you the sword?" He asks while frowning.

"Self-taught," I answer meekly.

"Mystery solved," he responds and laughs out loud. "You know how to attack, but you're lacking a 'flow,' so it's easy to find openings to counterattack. The first thing you should learn is how to defend yourself. Now, do you want to train the proper way, or the easy way?"

I get a chill when I hear that. I know what's coming. It's going to be painful, but this is an opportunity to see what true sword fighting is like, and what kind of man or boy would say no to that?

"The... proper way," I answer.

He grins evilly and says, "Then defend yourself like your life depends on it, because it does."

He beat me up.

--

My body is bruised and bloody. I didn't imagine that a blunt wooden sword could make such a cut. Toga crushed me and he's barely out of breath. He's certainly a scary man. Did I choose the worst instructor by any chance?

While I'm sprawled on the ground, Toga calls someone. Another instructor comes by and touches my arm, then he starts singing something like a prayer, and my body stops hurting little by little. I see the bruises return to normal color, and the cuts stop bleeding then close up, all in just a few seconds. This must be healing magic, and it's much faster than my [Regeneration] spell.

Oh wait, was that a chant? Do people normally need to sing something so that the spell activates? I don't know anything about that, but it's a common trope in video games to balance magic, and they make it that powerful magic takes a long time to chant.

I get up and notice there's a small amount of people watching me, and quite a few of them are grinning. Embarrassment fills my heart and makes me blush.

What's so funny?

"Good job surviving, boy," says one of the grinning men.

I try to stop my smile. They're making fun of me for getting beaten up, but I just can't deny it must've been a spectacle.

Toga stops in front of me, and I notice a hint of kindness in his tone as he says, "Your body is weak and your technique is poor, but you got enough 'Willpower.' Keep coming and you'll be a proper swordsman in due time."

I'd noticed people greet each other with a clear nod, so I mimic that and say, "Thank you for the session, teacher. I'm way very tired now, so I'm going to retire."

I'm not sure what's the etiquette when dealing with the instructors here, so I just call him "teacher" instead of saying his name.

"Goodbye," he calmly says and nods.

I turn around and wash my face in the fountain, then I leave. Now I'm just gonna pass by the hunters guild for a quick look.

--

Near the entrance, I notice something I'd ignored the first time I came here due to nervousness. On a wall, there are two large black boards where I can see something written in white. "Notable Hunts" is written on top of the first one, and below it, there's a magically scrolling list of hunter names with monster names next to them. I get a chill when I see my name with "Gray Berserker" right next to it. The second board says "Confirmed Kills'' on top. It scrolls much faster and has a list of the hunter names coupled with the number of monsters killed. It seems that the second one is about the number of proofs of extermination you sell to the guild.

I walk towards the notice board and see that most of the notes there are about the prices for the bounties or corpses of the common kills around here, like the goblins, Dragolites, or monsters from the dungeons. The rest are bounties on specific monsters sighted. Some contain a rough drawing, but they all contain the name, the last seen location, a short description of the monster, and a threat level.

From what I understood by reading monster books, the threat level goes from 0 to 10, the numbers have the following meaning: 0 = harmless, 1 = capable of killing a child, 2 = capable of killing an untrained adult, 3 = capable of killing the common soldier, 4 = capable of killing a soldier squad, 5 = capable of killing a knight squad, 6 = capable of killing veteran hunters, 7 = capable of killing a soldiers company (100 men), 8 = capable of killing a division (10,000 men), 9 = capable of destroying a fortress, 10 = unkillable.

Why are knights ranked lower than veteran hunters? Is it a matter of specialization? I see that there's a permanent bounty on the Grey Berserker, and his threat level is four. Dragolites are threat level one and Mossy Fangpines are threat level two.

When I decide to leave, I notice that there are a few people looking at me. I recognize that at least two people were here in the morning when I sold the bear. Do these people do nothing besides sit here and drink?

It's probably what Sonny said: other parties will be interested in me since I killed a Grey Berserker all by myself. It doesn't matter that it was half-dead, they don't know that.

I decide to leave quickly and go back to the inn for rest.

--

Dinner is a red bean paste with minced meat and spices to put on the bread. Feels like it's spiced with paprika and cumin, so now it only needs some spicy pepper for it to be just like chilli.

After dinner and a bath, I go back to my room and reflect upon today. I look at my skills and see that they all have a "plus" sign on their level. [Sword Use], [Dodge], [Parry], and [Block] all have a 1 on the right side of the plus. These are new skills that I gained after I trained. Does this mean that trained skills are different from the ones assigned with the system?

I try to remove [Parry], but it doesn't allow me, so I guess this means that I can't learn [Parry], then remove the skill, then learn it again, and repeat as a way to accumulate skill points. No exploits in this game eh? Mine not included.

This is how my skills are right now:

-

['Wolf Ryder Skill Report']

['Physical']

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Sword Use: 5+1 | Dodge: 3+1 | Parry: 0+1]

[Block: 0+1]

['Magical']

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Mana Efficiency: 3+0 | Mana Recovery: 1+0 | Electric Magic: 4+0]

[Nature Magic: 5+0

['Miscellaneous']

[Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level | Skill Name: Level]

[Andraste Language 10+0]

-

After that, I almost doze off thinking about the Tale of Creation. The name "Reigurando" reminds me of something familiar. Then something hits me. The Japanese language lacks some things required for them to pronounce foreign words properly, and the way around it creates an accent that some even find funny. After a while, you start to notice the patterns in their speech and easily manage to understand what foreign word they're trying to say.

The Japanese way of pronouncing the English word "Playground" is "Pureigurando". RPG, Role-Playing-Game, is pronounced "Arupegi," which is incredibly similar to Rupegia. I'm truly stuck into a fantasy video game, and it's made by the Japanese. And finally, "Demon King'' is also a common trope on Japanese stories.

I'm really an "isekai" protagonist...