Whirr.
Ding-a-ling.
“Welcome.”
As usual, the convenience store bell sound and the clerk’s greeting were heard.
I have a lot to buy today.
I need to minimize going out to buy groceries since I’ll be focusing on ‘Astria Online’ for a while.
I went straight to the cup noodle corner and picked out cup noodles that would serve as my staple food for a while.
As I scanned the convenience store’s cup noodle corner, my eyes stopped on one product.
‘Real Ramen’ mild flavor, not too spicy and with delicious broth.
I don’t dislike packet ramen either, but cup noodles are more convenient to eat and clean up as they don’t require washing dishes.
Okay, I’ve decided on this for meals for the time being.
Since becoming this body, my stomach seems to have shrunk too, as one cup noodle and a triangle kimbap were enough for a day’s meal.
Of course, I had to eat more when I was doing hero work due to higher activity levels.
Triangle kimbaps have a short shelf life, so they’re not good for stocking up. But even just one cup noodle wasn’t that insufficient for a day’s meal.
With a small box of six cup noodles on my lap, and picking up one triangle kimbap as an extra special meal for today, I operated my electric wheelchair toward the checkout counter.
“…?”
The male convenience store clerk behind the counter looked at me with a puzzled expression.
I could easily guess what he was thinking.
Usually, I buy one or at most two cup of noodles.
But today, despite my limited hand capacity, I came with a whole box of cup noodles, so he must be curious about my intentions.
But I was not under any obligation to explain. As a customer, I needed to buy products, and as a clerk, he needed to ring them up.
Beep.
He suddenly spoke to me as he was scanning the barcodes of the items I put on the counter.
“Um, is today your last day shopping here?”
Gasp.
I looked up at him with slightly surprised eyes.
This was troublesome.
The biggest reason I had been stopping by the convenience store at this time was because this early 20s male who seemed uninterested in others was working part-time.
Excessive interest was burdensome.
A businesslike relationship, this level was just right.
I could tolerate people looking at me with pitying eyes, but I really hated when they showed interest and pried into my circumstances.
It was regrettable but unavoidable.
I’ll have to use an unmanned convenience store a bit further away or hope that the next part-timer will be someone like this.
“…Thank you for your hard work all this time.”
I said in a small voice, bowing my head slightly.
And I could see the clerk’s eyes widening.
“…I think this is the first time I’ve heard your voice?”
“Is that so?”
“I’m not- ah, no!”
I tilted my head.
I just hadn’t spoken because there wasn’t much need to, not because I was mute.
I couldn’t help but smile a little, amused by his flustered waving of hands.
“Kik.”
With the purchased items and the box of six cup noodles on my lap, I bowed my head again and headed towards the exit.
Whirr.
I heard the clerk’s voice behind me as I left the convenience store.
“It’s nice to see you smile! Keep smiling often from now on!”
I was about to frown timidly but stopped myself.
Since returning to Earth, I have felt extremely averse to dealing with people and minimized interactions.
Well, since it’s the last time, this much is okay.
I don’t know if the next part-timer will come, but I hope it’s a pretty older sister if possible.
Someone who doesn’t approach too closely doesn’t engage in conversation beyond customer service, with just this level of interest.
Do people become more expressive when they have something to immerse themselves in?
It was also the clerk’s last day of work, but I would have sent him off without a word if it were the usual me.
The fact that I even had a brief conversation with the part-timer was probably due to the change in my mood.
And the factor that caused this small change in my mood was probably…
[Welcome to Astria Online]
Well then, shall we work hard on leveling up today, too.
* * *
Hop hop.
I jump in place a few times with both legs.
My silver hair sways, tickling my eyes.
Stretch stretch.
I stretch my body long and sway it left and right.
Even with a short girl-like body, it should look longer when I stretch my waist.
Hmm, good.
Today too, my body here moves well.
“Eek.”
A few users passed by my side as I was doing stretching exercises in place.
I quickly shrank back and pulled the hood of my adventurer’s robe down.
I feel like I’ve returned to my outgoing personality here, but when people come close, I shrink back again.
It’s still difficult to deal with people.
I calmed my startled heart and went outside the city.
Clang, clang.
I steadily blocked attacks while facing three goblins that rushed at me as initial monsters.
Taking advantage of the goblins’ attack delay, I activated a skill that chained from blocking.
Swoosh!
“Kieeek!”
The HP of all three goblins was depleted, and they collapsed.
[Block]
-Blocks attacks from the front 180 degrees.
[Strong Slash]
-Delivers a strong slashing attack to the front 180 degrees.
-(Instant activation) When blocking succeeds
[Strong Thrust]
-Delivers a strong thrusting attack to a single target.
-(Instant activation) When blocking succeeds
I looked over the skills I had gained after changing to Swordsman.
“Hmm, good.”
‘Block’, the most basic attack negation skill for Swordsmen.
And the basic attack skills, ‘Slash’ and ‘Thrust’.
However, the skill forms of Slash and Thrust had a large pre-delay.
The condition to activate them instantly without that delay was ‘When blocking succeeds’.
Basically, all of the Swordsman’s skills could be used with an advantage if activated after a successful block.
“Blockemon!”
I raised my training iron sword high and shouted.
Swordsman is Blockemon!
I hunted field monsters diligently while getting a feel for the Swordsman’s attack methods and skills.
[Drizzle Rain]
[Swordsman]
[Level 9 (11.18%)]
How many hours had passed since I started hunting?
I began to feel that growth was slowing down just from hunting goblins.
Thud, thud!
A nearby Fighter quickly dispatched one goblin and moved on to find the next one.
“Oh.”
Unlike me, who blocked all the goblins’ attacks while hunting, that Fighter was hunting quickly, taking most attacks on their body.
A Mage visible a bit further away was safely shooting fire and ice from a distance to hunt goblins.
Certainly, both of them hunt faster than my job, Swordsman.
“Uh, umm.”
I fell into contemplation.
Although the attack power is lower than other jobs, my leveling speed shouldn’t be much slower as I can handle multiple enemies simultaneously.
Still, for faster growth, I needed a more innovative method than this.
I left the goblin zone.
The orc zone is a hunting ground for level 10 and above.
As I’m still level 9, hunting here won’t be easy.
But if I stay in the goblin zone like this, I might fall behind in levels.
For now, let’s give it a try.
Clang, clang clang!
“Eek.”
I boldly jumped between two orcs but felt a strong impact even though I was blocking the attacks.
My HP fluctuated.
The orcs’ strong attacks couldn’t be completely offset even by the Swordsman’s block.
Still, I managed to steadily block and diligently deliver slashes between blocks to take down both orcs.
“Haah.”
I sighed and sat down on the spot.
Just facing two orcs took quite some time and consumed half my HP.
Even if the background is a world similar to my memories, I have not regained the abilities I had before.
What was lost remains lost.
Now, I don’t have much.
No holy sword to assist my physical abilities, no infinitely gushing mana.
No sword aura comes out of the sword, and it’s hard to even grip the sword path without using ‘skills’ that are forcibly activated by the ‘system.’
All I have now are ‘stats’ fitting for a small girl’s body.
I guess it’s fortunate that I can at least move my legs freely.
When my agility and strength stats increase significantly, I may be able to mimic my previous movements to some degree.
In the end, I have no choice but to adapt to this world’s ‘system’.
The experience of enjoying RPG games in my previous life, now a faint memory, was somewhat helpful.
“By the way, HP recovery speed is slow.”
Since I’m not afflicted with status ailments like bleeding, it should recover if left alone, but with this hunting speed, it’ll be challenging to keep up with the advance party’s growth.
There were already quite a few users hunting in the orc zone. They were still hunting by enduring attacks with their bodies, just like in the goblin zone.
The damage must be pretty strong. Is such a hunting method effective here, too?
That question was quickly answered. All the nearby users were drinking something while hunting.
“Potions!”
HP recovery potions.
Certainly, if you use those, you can continue hunting for a long time without taking long recovery times.
I temporarily stopped hunting and returned to the city.
* * *
“Umm… hmm….”
“What’s this? If you’re not buying, get out.”
“Ah, no! I’m buying!”
The middle-aged male NPC at the general store spoke to me with a bored expression.
I replied in surprise.
While real people and users are a bit difficult, I didn’t feel much aversion to talking with virtual reality NPCs.
I glared slightly at the unfriendly NPC uncle with a sulky expression.
I know he’s an NPC, but he’s just like a real person.
AI technology is really amazing.
I took my eyes off him and rechecked the potion’s performance.
[HP Recovery Potion (Small)]
[Cooldown 30 seconds]
[Recovers 100 HP over 10 seconds]
My current HP is 300, so it recovers a total of 1/3 of HP over 10 seconds.
It was more than enough to offset the damage coming in while blocking orc attacks.
Certainly, with this recovery amount, hunting while just taking attacks would be possible.
The bigger problem was, of course, the price of the potions.
“30 copper each.”
The profit I earned from killing goblins for about five hours while doing monster kill quests was about 5 silver.
100 copper is 1 silver, so a total of 500 copper.
The money I earned in five hours wasn’t even enough to buy twenty potions.
I closed my eyes tightly and bought five potions.
“It, it’s a necessary expense.”
In fact, most of the advance party users seemed to be spending all the gold they earned from hunting on potion costs.
I guess investment is natural if fast growth is the goal.
Fortunately, my job, Swordsman, has blocking, so I can hunt while minimizing HP consumption, which makes it okay to hunt while saving money.
On my way out of the general store, I also stopped by the weapon shop.
[Vigilante’s Sword]
[Attack Power 20]
[10 silver]
“Eek.”
Expensive!
Is the very next tier weapon this expensive?
It was an enormous amount to use in the early stages when game currency hadn’t been circulated yet.
There were people using vigilante weapons in the orc hunting grounds.
Rather than earning 10 silver alone, they probably bought gold from users with cash for quick early growth.
It was a dream-like story for the poor me.
But, but.
While this weapon would certainly speed up hunting, is there really a need to buy a weapon that is sold in shops without any special options?
I can just get a better weapon later from places like dungeons and use that.
I left the weapon shop, licking my lips in regret.