I hated killing, but that's it.
Capturing, crippling, torturing. I'm fine with that.
Even if my actions lead to the death of someone, it didn't matter. As long as I didn't kill with my own hands, it was fine.
As such, leaving a tortured person who was bleeding to die alone in a forest didn't mean much to me.
'...No, that's not true.'
It did hurt my heart a little bit. When I did those actions, I could feel myself being hurt. There's no way a normal person who was raised on earth could do those things without any problems.
But I didn't matter, so I could torture and leave people to die all I want.
It was exactly because of moments like these that knowing that I didn't matter brought me peace. It practically meant I could do things with no regard for my mental well-being.
'Of course, there's a limit to everything, so I should save my mental health for when I need to expend it.'
A couple of droplets might not matter to an ocean, but a lot will. The number will have to be big, but not infinity.
As such, it was better to think of my mental health as a resource. Spend when you have to, don't spend when you don't have to.
It was one of the reasons I helped this village. Not helping would cost me more than helping. The other reason was obviously the reward.
With an impassive face, I walked to the village. There seemed to a be a huge feast and a celebration there.
"Achoo!"
I wiped my nose. It has been a while since I last sneezed, probably due to my stronger immune system.
I could feel my nose becoming itchy again.
'Really? A second one?'
"A-A-ACHOO!!"
I opened my eyes.
...
I closed my eyes and opened them again.
...
This time, I rubbed my eyes and opened them.
...
I did the definition of insanity a couple of times, before rubbing my temples.
'Again... Again! It happened again!'
Despite my thoughts, I kept a calm expression. Unlike last time, I was now surrounded by people, so I couldn't just shout.
'But still, it happened again, for pancakes' sake!'
I had been teleported.
"And it was by a flippin' sneeze... Again..."
I couldn't stop my voice from sounding annoyed.
'Right, I worked on my face and my body, probably time to work on my voice too.'
I looked around myself.
From the sun shining down upon my face, it didn't take a genius to guess that it wasn't night anymore.
From the stone houses, the amount of people, and the tall clock tower, I could easily guess that I was inside a city.
The question was which city.
'At this point, asking why is completely useless.'
I just accepted my circumstances while grumbling.
I had my backpack on me. The things I tortured with are in there, so I had it on me even at that moment.
'More accurately, unless my backpack is strictly bad for me to have on, I will have it on.'
It was a habit I had picked up in my old world. Having your backpack on even on a leisurely stroll has come in handy more times than I can remember.
I patted my belt. My dagger and money were in place too.
Everything was fine. The only real thing I missed out on was the reward for the bandits. I had everything else on me, so there was no need for me to freak out.
But even so, I couldn't stop my fists from clenching.
I was angry, I was sad.
I wasn't able to predict that I would be teleported. I wasn't able to stop it either.
Right after I did something as impressive as helping take down a bandit group, this was a rude reminder that I was still weak in the grand scheme of things.
I took a deep breath. My mind steadied somewhat.
That was when I realized something awful.
'...What about Ispra?'
Ispra was still back there, at Kyoku.
I closed my eyes.
I could feel my connection with her. She was healthy and she was... hurried? That was the best way I could describe that emotion.
It's not as though she was worried, and it's not as though she was afraid. It just felt like she was trying to get to me as fast as possible.
In fact, it felt like she was running, at her fastest at that.
A small smile spread on my face the moment I pictured that scene in my mind. Her running so desperately to try and get to me as quick as possible...
'It just warms the heart.'
I opened my eyes. The world didn't seem nearly as annoying and depressing as before.
With just one look around, I saw someone I have only ever heard about.
Demi-humans.
'I know Jagon's talked about them, but it's interesting to see them first hand.'
If I remember correctly, Kemaito favored demi-humans just a bit more than normal humans. It wasn't explicitly stated anywhere, nor were there any laws that benifited them specifically, but it was the kind of favoring that came from history and general attitude.
'Well, the fact that the rulers of this country are demi-humans probably also helps.'
Even from my meager experiences, I could tell that this 'favoring' existed. After all, I haven't seen any demi-humans in Abut or Kyoku, most likely because they were very remote villages.
'Maybe there were a couple of demi-human merchants who came to Abut, but it's not like I was checking out every single merchant back there.'
So yeah, it was my first time seeing them, but they weren't too different from my imagination.
Ears and tail. That was the only difference between them and normal humans. There weren't any weird ones like lizardmen.
Some of them didn't even have ears, and some of them didn't have a tail. Those kinds looked even more like humans.
While taking in that new information, I walked up to a stall that sold fruit.
"Can I have two apples please?"
"Of course! Here you go!"
I payed for them, but didn't walk away.
"By the way, mind pointing me to the Adventurer Guild?"
"Of course. It's right near the clock tower, you won't miss it."
I nodded and thanked her before walking towards the tall clock tower in the middle of this city.
I looked at the time. It was 11 am.
As I was chewing on an apple, I started bulding a map of this city in my mind.
'This street has many shops that focus on food. The last corner had a fancy restaurant on it.'
I took note of everything like that. Eventually, I noticed a subtle shift in trend. The more I walked, the more things had to do with adventuring.
It started with simple things like backpacks and leather gloves, but it eventually became weapons and steel armor.
Not only that, I started seeing more people that looked like adventurers.
While picking up some random trash from the ground, I also noticed a library. I commited that to memory.
Before long, I saw the Adventurer Guild. The stall clerk lady wasn't kidding when she said I wouldn't miss it.
It was only two stories high and its size wasn't anything to write home about, but right next to it, there was a training field where people were fighting against each other or beating up some dummies.
The huge sign board also helped.
Throwing the last bits of the apple I had in the trashbin nearby, I walked in.
I was welcomed by a sight I saw dozens of times in anime.
Wooden boards with missions on them on a wall. People sitting here and there, some talking, others drinking. And a small line that lead to the receptionist.
I stood in said line and started waiting.
I could see a couple of curious gazes on me, probably because of my backpack, but not too many. I fit in pretty well.
'Thank you Angelica for the clothes.'
While praying to my angel once again, I noticed that not all people who were in line were adventurers. Some of them were normal people who were asking to set up a mission.
'So you can do that personally, huh?'
Just like that, it was my turn.
"I haven't seen you here before. What would you like?"
The receptionist was a cute woman that was pleasant to look at. She looked very professional, her smile invoked happiness. It was a hard smile to make convincingly, I would know.
"I would like to become an adventurer."
I answered with that same smile. Smiling made people have better impressions of you, so it was useful to smile when meeting someone. This does not mean that I will always smile when meeting people, I will only do it with a specific few. Like this receptionist right here.
"An adventurer? At your age? Alright, just wait for a second."
There was a door behind her, which she entered. If I had to guess, that door led to the second floor.
When she came back, a lean normal-looking man was with her.
Well, normal-looking if you don't count the wolf-ears on his head.
His eye met mine.
"You're the boy that wants to become an adventurer?"
I nodded.
"Come."
He casually jumped over the desk and walked towards the training field. I followed him without much thought.
When we finally arrived, all the adventurers who were previously training stopped and looked at us, no, they looked at the man.
"It's Molot, the Guildmaster! If he came out here, that means he's here to fight!"
All of them didn't even try to conceal their gazes.
'It seems they want to see how Molot fights. I can understand them.'
Since he was a Guildmaster, that must mean he was probably very strong. Watching a strong person fight can be very educational.
I looked at Molot.
He did not care about the gazes and the whispers at all. For him it was probably just another Tuesday.
Molot did not look like anything special. Dark hair and beard, brown eyes. His body was lean, but not too muscular. His eyes did not look like those of a warrior either, they felt more laidback than anything.
He felt like an easy-going individual who didn't want trouble.
First impressions were often wrong, so I did take all of my analysis with a grain of salt, but I also didn't ignore it completely.
Molot stopped and turned towards me.
"Fuvetwi."
A small bubble of air appeared around my head, which shielded me from the dirt Molot kicked up.
"Good reaction time. You passed the first test."
I hid my anger behind a poker face.
'You bastard! I was forced to make the Shape myself due to your stupid method!'
It was very dangerous for me to make a Shape without a chant even now. Luckily, I managed to get the Goddess' name out of my mouth, so that helped reduce the load on my mind a bit.
By the way, I knew of this first test. It was a test on whether you can use Air Bubble or not. It was a spell that every adventurer must know how to use.
As such, all adventurers at least dabbled in magic.
It was also the reason why the only magic Angelica knew was Wind Magic. It was a necessity.
I looked at Molot once again.
'Molot... where did I hear that name again?'
I looked through my memories.
'Right! He's the Guildmaster of Toride's Adventure Guild branch!'
Jagon had said to give his recommendation letter to this exact Molot.
'Wait, that means I'm in Toride.'
I was teleported to my destination.
...
Was I actually lucky?
'No, I still lost out on that reward.'
But I also saved some time... maybe. After all, I don't know how much time passed in the time I was teleporting.
So I wasn't lucky. At best, my luck and unluck cancelled each other out, and at worst, I was just unlucky.
While I was thinking all that, Molot had already picked up a huge wooden hammer from the training equipment.
"Your second test will be a fight against me. Take the weapon you're most familiar with."
I took a wooden dagger and took off my backpack, dagger and money.
"Approach me when you're ready."
I looked at Molot's weapon. It was a huge double-sided hammer. I thought of its strengths and weaknesses, before thinking of my course of action.
***
"Isn't this a bit too much though? Fighting against a Guildmaster feels like way too above a new adventurer's paygrade."
The boy in front of me brought up a good point. I scratched my head.
"Well, that's true, but you know I'll go easy on you, right? So there's no need to worry."
"But it's still weird that this is the standard procedure."
I chuckled.
"It's not. The standard procedure is completely different, it's just how I do things."
"Why not do the standard one?"
"Because that procedure is best used to test a lot of people at the same time. This is a pretty remote city, so there's not many new adventurers here, which means that this way is more convenient, and also cheaper."
The boy nodded.
"Also, I suggest to not look at my ears. You won't get many tells from that."
He smiled awkwardly.
"Ah, you figured that out."
The boy entered a stance, which I answered with my own. Even before the battle started, I had things to analyze.
'This guy is pretty attentive. He tries to use every advantage he can get, which is a good mindset. His stance also isn't random, which means he at least trained.'
I smiled. There are so many children who want to become adventurers, but don't even train for it. Dealing with those has been an annoyance for me, so this was a welcome breath of fresh air.
The boy in front of me cracked his neck and fingers.
"Eislehdi, Goddess of Ice, give me your aid."
'Chanting?'
I was confused. Chanting was very rarely used in battles, as it was slow and gave ample time to react. What was he trying to achieve here?
And nobody is going to just let the opponent finish a chant, so I started closing in immediately.
For now, I was only going to rely on my Natural Body-Strengthening. I'll up my limit depending on how the fight goes.
I swung my hammer, which he easily dodged.
'Still chanting, huh? Impressive.'
That required concentration and ability to focus on multiple things. It's not something that everybody could do.
I continued swinging my hammer, and he continued chanting.
"Create the unshakeable ice, and pierce my enemies."
A Shape was moved below my feet, and it quickly made a rotation.
I stepped back and dodged the spike of ice that erupted from the ground.
'Fast.'
The speed at which he rotated the Shape was fast. Almost way too fast.
But that speed didn't matter due to the fact that he was chanting. He just gave me too much time to react.
'What's his plan?'
This boy was smart, I could tell that from our conversation and his attitude, so there's no way he was doing this without a plan. The question was which plan.
'is he going to pretend to only be able to chant, and then he'll surprise me with a Shape out of nowhere?'
That was my best guess on his course of action.
The ice spike was soon gone, and I continued my attack.
That was when I realized something.
'I see, he's pretending to be a mage!'
His movements and use of Body-Strengthening were way too good compared to his skills in magic.
He was probably trying to trick me into thinking he was a mage, and surprise me with an explosive use of Body-Strengthening.
'Smart.'
He managed to fool me there for a second.
"Eislehdi, Goddess of Ice, give me your aid."
Yeah, he was totally trying to pass off as a mage. No real mage would ever use Chanting in a real fight.
'Not that I know his course of action, all the signs are clearly pointing to it.'
"Create the unshakeable ice, and pierce my enemies."
I noticed something. This Shape had way more mana than the last one, and it felt more threatening.
'Feels like it'll be big.'
I did a big jump backwards, and the Shape finished its spin.
But I didn't see any spike before me.
'Wrong.'
Before I realized I made a blunder, my feet slid on the floor, and he flew at me with incredible speed.
Within a split second, I stomped on the ground hard ― breaking the ice underneath me and allowing me to stand properly ― I dropped my hammer, and I caught the wooden dagger with my two hands before it could hit me.
We stayed in that position for bit, mostly because I had to understand what exactly happened back there.
When I finally did, I smiled.
"You pass."
***
I breathe a sigh of relief. I had only a bit more mana left, so that was my only chance to impress Molot. It seems my tactic worked.
"The way you tricked me with the Ice Spike spell was really creative, I gotta give you that. I can't not pass you after seeing that."
'Yessss! Let's gooo!!'
It was the exact thing I was banking on.
You see, the Ice Spike spell had four characteristics: height, width, sharpness and durability.
With my first Ice Spike, I implanted the idea that I was only going to use the normal variation. But for the second one, I exchanged the height for width, which essentially made it an ice floor. It was the exact thing that made Molot slip and gave me that small advantage.
The most nasty thing about this idea was that the spell 'Ice Floor' already existed. And it was way more cost effecient at its job.
So it was not just a trap of an Ice Spike turning the floor to ice, it was a trap specifically built for knowledgeable and experienced people who knew about the existence of the Ice Floor spell.
Basically, I banked on the fact that Molot was a very experienced fighter.
"Alright, since you passed, follow me. We'll get you your card."
I allowed myself to smile to fully experience the excitement I was feeling.
But it was not just because I became an official adventurer.
'I successfully hid the fact that I don't use Natural Body-Strengthening even from him.'
I fooled someone even as strong as Molot.