Chapter 41

Well, what should I do with this? There are a bit too many events happening in the slums.

In such situations, I should probably go to the temple or the knights, based on my personal judgment.

So, I returned to the market street with one of them on each arm. If it were a contagious disease, it would be dangerous to go where there are people, but there are no particular symptoms like coughing, vomiting, or changes in the skin. If anything, they are dry and rough.

More importantly, they are both very light, dangerously light. It’s clear that they haven’t been eating. They don’t even have the energy to talk, leaning against my chest, still listless.

"Sorry, I found some kids. They’re probably on the verge of starving to death. What should I do?"

I called out to the knight who had greeted me when I entered the slums.

It turned out that the cat ear flag I had broken earlier was actually a young girl flag! And it was the kind that shouldn’t be broken at first encounter!

"These are children from the slums... The temple can take them in temporarily," the young knight said, looking perplexed.

His reaction was a bit awkward, but there’s no point in questioning what he thinks about the slums here. I thanked him and headed for the temple. The temple is probably more used to dealing with such situations.

By the way, I just killed someone a moment ago, even though it was in a game.

And now, I’m talking to a priest while the two children are lying in bed.

I thought I was going to have a relaxing day, but it feels like things are moving too quickly. How about you?

"They were on the verge of starving to death, so it was a good decision not to give them solid food or high-nutrient foods right away. If you suddenly feed someone who hasn’t eaten, it can upset their stomach and further deplete their strength," said Ekateryna, an elderly female priest with wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

The temple and the building next to it, which looks like a barracks, are completely different in construction, so I didn’t realize they were under the same jurisdiction. The building next to the temple to the west is a long rectangular structure where orphans live. On the second floor, there are twelve small rooms, each with a triple bunk bed for six people. On the first floor, there are a bath, a dining room, a playroom for young children, and a workroom where candles and other items sold to believers at the temple are made.

In the workroom, older orphans make candles and other small items sold by the temple.

In the morning, they study general education, and in the afternoon, they either serve the temple by making candles or take on simple requests from the Adventurer’s Guild or the Merchant’s Guild, such as cleaning or delivering items, which adventurers don’t usually take. They also learn skills in workshops when they reach a certain age or if they are young but willing to help.

"Most of the beastmen in this city are refugees from the neighboring continent. The demons who live there are not hostile to humans, but they are not friendly either. They control and enslave beastmen with a magic called the slave mark."

They probably came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

"Fortunately, this city is relatively prosperous, but it’s not wealthy enough to support a large number of outsiders. Many beastmen, who are physically strong, often become adventurers because it doesn’t require much capital, but due to poverty, many of them overexert themselves and lose their lives more often than other races."

Specifically, they are lured by money to challenge monsters that are beyond their capabilities, or they are hired as shields for other parties and take on the greatest risks. And the young children who can’t go on adventures are left behind.

By the way, Ekateryna, please stop playing with the silvers I donated while we’re having a serious conversation. Apart from that, her tone is calm, and the way she looks at the two children is full of compassion.

But that one point is quite fatal. Is this temple okay?

"You can stay here until you’re twelve, by which time you should have learned a trade or been adopted. The temple has to take in other orphans, so even if you don’t have a clear plan for independence by the time you turn twelve, you’ll have to leave. This won’t change even if you increase your donations. It’s not good to give children a sense of unfairness in the long run."

I was actually relieved to hear that! If she had said, "It depends on the amount of silvers," I would have been worried!

...Wait, but if Ekateryna had said, "It’s for the good of the temple, and it’s peaceful," while not playing with the silvers, I might have given them without hesitation, to ease my guilt about the children.

Maybe Ekateryna is trying not to make me feel unnecessary guilt...

But that’s not the case.

She’s rubbing her cheek against the bag of silvers with a big smile.

After entrusting the two children to the priest and leaving the temple, I opened the door of a nondescript building in the residential area again.

It was like moving from shadow to light, and then back to shadow.

By the way, can I check the request with my guild card?

"Hey, you’ve completed the request, haven’t you?"

In the dim room, the medium-built man I met first called out to me.

"Yeah, just now."

I wonder if this guy is really the guild master. I have a feeling he wouldn’t tell me even if I asked directly.

"This is the reward from the Assassin’s Guild."

He threw me a bag of silvers. It seems the completion of the request has already been confirmed.

When I took it, my money increased by 50,000 silvers. It’s a bit cheap for a human life, but it’s quite expensive for garbage. It’s hard to judge, but I’ll just donate the money I got from the assassination to the temple. Local production, local consumption.

"Since it’s your first successful request, I’ll give you two skills to choose from."

【Poison Mixing】【Poison Magic】【Curses】【Throwing Weapons】【Shadow Sneaking】【Phantom Blade】【Paralyze Claw】【Illusion】【Threads】

Petro took 【Shadow Sneaking】, and probably 【Throwing Weapons】 as well.

"You can take others, but they’re more effective if you take them as a different class. If you break the rules, they’ll disappear, though."

That’s right, if you make a mistake, the skills you take as an assassin will disappear.

【Poison Magic】 is intriguing, but if you’re a mage, you can probably get it eventually.

【Shadow Sneaking】 is also hard to get from other sources, but I think I can use ‘Shadow’ to substitute for it.

【Throwing Weapons】... I can probably get it by borrowing a workshop and making some later.

There’s even a 【Curses】 skill. Using curses for assassination suggests there might be onmyoji in this world, or maybe more Western-style curses?

【Phantom Blade】 is a dagger version of 【Phantom Sword】. I don’t use daggers, so I’ll skip this.

【Paralyze Claw】 is a claw skill. Do I need to specialize in claws?

【Illusion】 is a skill to show illusions, and 【Threads】 is a weapon skill.

"By the way, this time the information about the assassination target and the requester was clearly provided, but will that information be disclosed in the future?"

In my experience, unless you’re a top-notch assassin, it’s safer not to tell the perpetrator who the requester is.

"Nope. This time was special because it was a clean request that could be disclosed. In the future, you’ll get information about the target, but not the requester or the reason for the assassination."

Ah, I thought so.

"Then I’ll take 【Illusion】 and 【Threads】."

I want 【Shadow Sneaking】 and 【Curses】 too, but I’ll go with these two for now.

Both 【Illusion】 and 【Curses】 can be used in the city. The skills you get as an assassin are probably designed for that. Some weapon skills can also be used in the city, it seems.

These are new types of skills. I took 【Threads】 because its level 1 effect, ‘Listening Ear,’ allows you to pick up sounds by extending threads.

Yeah, I want to choose skills that won’t affect my regular combat if they disappear. Losing 【Stealth】 would already be a problem.

"Got it, take them. Here’s a new request."

I took the thin board, which disappeared as soon as I touched it.

【You have learned the skill 【Illusion】.】

【You have learned the skill 【Threads】.】

"Read the request and burn it."

I read the request that was handed to me.

I thought the request would remain in the quest list even if I burned it, but it disappears, so I have to memorize it. I might forget it if I don’t do it immediately, unless I’m going to assassinate someone right away.

"By the way, is it okay to talk about skills and the location of the guild with other assassins?"

"Talking about skills is fine to some extent, but don’t talk about the location of the guild."

"Understood."

The ‘to some extent’ part is tricky. I guess it’s okay if I talk about what Petro talked about.

I left the Assassin’s Guild.

I noticed a pattern on the closed door that I hadn’t seen before. When I entered, I thought it was just graffiti, but now it looks like a pattern with a purpose. It’s probably an encrypted mark of the Assassin’s Guild.

The atmosphere inside the guild is completely different from the surrounding streets. With skills like 【Stealth】 and 【Presence Concealment】, or perhaps higher-level versions, the number of people and presences I can consciously perceive is different from what I can see. It feels like there’s a discrepancy between appearance and reality.

After leaving the guild and stepping into the sunlight, I finally realized I had been a bit tense.

I walked slowly, sipping a ruby berry juice.

I should change my mood quickly and start the knight’s training. After that, I’ll produce items until night, take a break, and then go to release Fina. I was going to wait for Roy and the others to release her and go by carriage, but if I run now, I can probably get there in a day.

Today, I trained with Rib.

Rib, who uses a solid sword, corrected my sword techniques.

...Why are we doing basic swings now? Why now?

We repeated the motion of striking down and stopping accurately, focusing on not deviating from the form. I think this should be the first thing to do. I hope he’s not going to make me do strength training next.

Rib and I slowly traced the forms together. It’s like Tai Chi.

Moving your hands and feet slowly in parallel is quite a workout.

Keep your hands steady.

Keep the tip of the sword steady.

Swing the sword.

As my vision gradually widened, I became more and more focused.

The movements of my hands and feet were no longer in my conscious control.

I felt as if I had become one with the air.

Was I moving slowly, or was time flowing slowly?

It was a strange feeling.

Not bad.

I’m considering making it a daily routine.

And after the training, as expected, Rib came to drink tea with me.

"Maintaining the form while moving slowly is quite challenging."

"..."

Yeah, he’s pretty quiet. He hardly talked during the training.

Why did he come?

I silently offered him a cup of tea. He must have wanted it, as he gave a slight nod of thanks.

"Your form was excellent."

He left with those words after finishing his tea.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Right now, I’m synthesizing attribute stones at a production facility. The training with the knight and the production flow feel like déjà vu.

It’s the unattributed stone.

If it doesn’t work, try adding them together. When I combined the ‘Dark’ and ‘Light’ attribute stones, I got an unattributed stone!

I could probably get it by mixing ‘Wood’, ‘Fire’, ‘Earth’, ‘Metal’, and ‘Water’ attribute stones, but that would be cheaper, and it would take a long time to mix five stones. ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ are expensive, as is ‘Wind’.

The first thing I can synthesize is two substances or magics. At level 10, I can synthesize three.

Combining opposing properties is more likely to fail.

Combining the same thing, like ‘Fire Attribute Stone’ and ‘Fire Attribute Stone’, increases the evaluation. An item with an evaluation of 4 increases by one point each time the same item is combined. The higher the evaluation, the more likely it is to fail.

Alchemy is about combining something with something else to create something new, or combining the same thing to increase the evaluation.

In synthesis and cooking, an evaluation of 1 is the worst failure, but in alchemy, the items explode or turn into a mysterious object X and become unusable. When you fail, the items disappear and don’t remain in your possession. The success rate increases with dexterity, alchemy level, and luck.

If you can’t alchemize something from the beginning, nothing happens.

There’s also a rare occurrence called an irregularity, where something other than what you intended is created. This can happen in production as well, not just in alchemy.

So, I alchemized a lot of low-evaluation magic stones and completed several level 10 stones. Level 10 should increase the success rate of weapon enhancements.

Combining the same items, even if you have enough dexterity, can increase from 7 to 8, but from 8 to 9 and 9 to 10, there’s always a negative modifier, and there’s a certain probability of breaking.

I broke a lot at 8 to 9, but I kept alchemizing, thinking of it as leveling up. Strangely, I felt it was easier to succeed from 9 to 10. It’s a production skill with a lot of gambling elements.

Combining different items has a terrible modifier with the ‘Gloves of Skill’ and ‘Master Ring’. It’s very helpful.

The alchemy circle I bought has five circles arranged in a pentagon, surrounded by complex patterns.

When I channel mana, three of the circles glow. When I put the materials in the circles and channel mana again, the alchemy is complete. If I use the ‘Enchantment’ of fire for the final mana, I get an item with the ‘Fire Attribute’. If I place an ‘Unattributed Stone’ and cast the ‘Return’ spell, I get a ‘Return Stone’. However, if I use a spell instead of mana, I have to leave one circle empty.

I made an ‘Unattributed Stone’ and a ‘Return Stone’.

While making high-rank attribute stones, I thought about how to make magic stones that increase intelligence for weapon and armor production. They sometimes drop from monsters, but is there another way?

It’s probably the enchantment of a holy mage.

The druid magic that Crow used also had spells to increase and decrease abilities. I’ll make a lot of ‘Unattributed Stones’ and have Ochazuke enchant them.

In that case, I should channel mana to activate the circle and have Ochazuke use magic, right?

Tasha said it would be fine if she had someone else put in the ‘Purification’, but maybe she meant ‘Have a purification-capable alchemist put it in’.

Again, I’m leveling up my production skills because I have silvers.

Synthesis, which was difficult to level up from around 15 due to low material rank, went up to 20 when I used ‘Healing Grass’ made from two synthesized herbs and water. The result was an HP Potion EX. I thought it would be a Hi-Potion, but I made an MP Potion EX and an Activation Potion EX in the same way.

I think my production skills will go up if my combat skills are in the 30s, but it’s getting harder to level up around 20.

Cooking, which I obtained first but had been struggling to level up, improved when I changed a lot of bear meat, which I had been neglecting, into stew. Yeah, I’ve been using mostly materials from around Fast, which I make the most often.

The bear stew is surprisingly warming and delicious, despite its name. However, it’s early summer now.

What should I do? Should I do a food distribution in the slums? It feels a bit off to make dishes that aren’t in demand. I don’t mind with potions, though.

By the way, the bear stew had a 3% increase in strength. I might as well put it up for consignment at level 10. After preparing other items for sale, I made a meal for myself to recover EP.

I made tempura with the mountain vegetables I got in Narun.

I ate it with salt. It’s a slightly bitter taste of spring. The hot, crispy tempura is so satisfying!

Materials obtained from sources other than gathering are fixed at rank 2 for now. This is probably one of the reasons why my cooking skills aren’t going up. Why, it’s so delicious!

And then, the alchemy I’ve been trying to ignore.

【ALL】【Restriction Removal】

This... apparently, there are materials that can only be handled if alchemy is your main profession. Both are effects of being Tasha’s disciple.

Eh, is there a ‘Disciple of Mage’?

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• Increase

Skills

【Illusion】【Threads】

Alchemy

【ALL】【Restriction Removal】

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Homura Lv.32

Rank D

Occupation: Magic Swordsman, Alchemist (Assassin)

HP: 10