I'm not hungry. I haven't been hungry since I found myself here, I thought as I walked through the streets of Orario. Between dying, fighting and just walking around the city, by now I should be starving. And yet, I wasn't even peckish despite not eating for a day and a half. Not so much as a cracker or apple or anything.
Same with being thirsty. I was really thankful that I picked Natural Deodorant because I must have sweated gallons down in the Dungeon. Steel armor didn't exactly breathe, after all. Without Natural Deodorant, I would absolutely reek. Maybe I already did -- I was nose blind to my own scent, and unless it made sweat smell like flowers or something. Hopefully, that was the case.
"Gamer Body," I muttered aloud, walking back towards the Tower of Babel. I was still figuring out how it worked, but my Skill had changed me in ways I hadn't really expected. Could I ever get hungry? Thirsty? Did I need to sleep? I mean, I could, but did I need it? I hadn't felt tired when I fell asleep last night, so I might not need any of the most basic needs of humanity. I could still do them, but I didn't need them.
That, I wasn't sure how I felt about.
A sigh escaped me as I ran a hand through my black hair, pushing it out of my face. I know it looked good, but maybe I should have picked a shorter hairstyle. Or I should put it into a braid or something. I had short hair for most of my life, putting any real effort into my hair was a new experience for me.
Straightening out my appearance, my nice button-down a harsh contrast to my torn and bloodied blue jeans, I started to trudge up the stairs and reentered the Guild. I scanned the crowd, seeing some familiar faces. Too many familiar faces. Right. I should have waited longer to come back here. That way the crowd that witnessed that scene would have cleared out.
"Hello Jericho," I heard someone call out to my right. Glancing over, I saw it was Misha. Her eyes darted to my legs, likely spotting the bandages visible between the tears to cover up the fact that my legs were fine. Best keep how fast I heal under wraps for as long as I could.
"Hey," I greeted, "sorry about leaving. Hestia…"
Misha laughed lightly, "you don't have to apologize, I understand. Your goddess seems to worry quite a bit about you already," she noted, her tone warm.
"She does," I agreed with a lopsided smile. "Thank you for pointing me in her direction. I really do appreciate it."
Misha shook her head, "no, I'm glad just glad you were able to keep your promise." She said, her eyes darting down again at my pants, "though, she might have a reason to be so worried." She commented lightly, gesturing at my lower body.
"Eh, it looks a lot worse than it actually is." I dismissed, feeling more than a little embarrassed. It was just...goblins did this to me. The weakest monster there was. "I, ah, kinda got swarmed by a bunch of them on my way back."
Misha frowned, "swarmed? By how many?"
I shrugged, "about eight of them spawned when I reached the entrance to the second floor. Then groups of three or more kept popping up on my way back." Now Misha looked flat out worried, making me frown right back at her. "I'm guessing that's not normal?"
"No, not at all. Well, not for the first floor at least," she explained. "Were they pre spawned or did they come out of the walls? Did you wear any kind of monster bait? Can you tell me exactly how many spawned, or even just a general guess? I haven't heard of any unusual monster mobs from other rookies-, so did you happen to kill them as well?" Misha asked rapid-fire questions, her tone suddenly going all business.
"Uh," I started intelligently. "They were coming out of the walls, no, around thirty or so on my way back and I killed them all," I answered, earning a firm nod from Misha as she made a note on a pad that she pulled from her vest. Then she paused, looking up at me.
"Thirty?" She questioned, looking surprised. Huh. Maybe I could salvage some of my dignity. Apparently what I dealt with was well outside the norm. I mean, it wasn't good because the Dungeon was making an extra effort to murder me, but, you know, it means I sucked a little bit less than I thought I did.
"Yeah, somewhere around there. I killed just over forty in total," I summarized with a nod. Misha hesitantly wrote that down, unsure if she could believe me. I hoped she would give me the benefit of the doubt. The last thing I needed was for her to think I was lying to impress her or something.
"But, you are right that Hestia should be worried. Is worried. I was actually hoping to get my hands on some leg armor before I went back down there since everything on the first floor can only chew on my ankles." I said, nudging us away from the topic.
Misha nodded, "I looked into our stock after you left with your goddess, but we don't have anything in your size." She said, earning a small blink from me. That was surprisingly attentive of her. "You'll have to contact a smith about making a custom order."
I nodded, "I figured I would have to." At 7'5, 325 pounds of muscle, it was just a fact of life that most stores would have any ready stock for me. "Since you helped me with Hestia, I was actually hoping you could help me find a smith. A Welf Corozzo?" I asked with a smile that I hoped came off as charming.
Misha cocked an eyebrow, "already looking to get your hands on a magic sword?" She teased, making my smile grow.
"As much as goblins irritate me, I'm not annoyed enough nuke them with hellfire. Yet," I returned. "I've just heard good things about his light armor, and, uh, he's in my price range," I explained, stretching the truth.
It worked going by Misha's nod. "I can help you with that. It'll take a second to find where his workshop is, but since he's a member of the Hesphustus familia, odds are it'll be somewhere outside of the city walls." That made sense, from what I remembered Welf lived in a shack that doubled as a forage.
"And," I started, making Misha pause, "could I also get some reading material about...you know, how not to die in the Dungeon? I'm not really sure what I would need to know…" I admitted, earning another firm nod from Misha.
"Yeah, easily! Actually, I could arrange some study lessons if you're serious about it," Misha offered, getting a nod from me.
"That sounds great. Thank you," I agreed.
"Great, now let me get your forms and books," Misha said, dashing off behind a counter, out of sight, with a pep in her step. I saw Eina follow her not long after. With nothing better to do, I took a seat in the waiting room, sinking into a too soft couch to the point that there was probably going to be a permanent indentation of me.
After twiddling my thumbs for a few minutes, wishing I had a phone or something to entertain me, Misha came back with a tall pile of books in her hands. Her hands cupped at her waist, the tower stretched all the way up to her nose. Quickly getting up and taking the stack from her, I noticed that the forms were on top.
"It's a little much," Misha admitted, "but everything in here is really valuable information on the upper floors. If you know all of it inside and out, I promise you that you'll have a much easier time if you apply what you learned in the Dungeon."
"I'll learn it all," I promised. Not only would it help me, you know, not die, but there was the possibility of skill books. Even if there weren't any, then these should help me start grinding my Intelligence stat.
"Good! And this is the address to Mr. Corozzo's workshop. I don't know if he's in or not, though," Misha said, placing a note with the girliest handwriting I had ever seen on top of the pile. "Anything else?"
"Nothing comes to mind. Thank you again for all your help Misha," I said, starting to turn to leave.
"It's what I'm here for!"
I smiled a goodbye, walking out of the Guild with a new destination in mind. As soon as I could, I dumped all of the stuff into my inventory before summoning my map. Now that I wasn't in the Dungeon, the map was a lot less complete. It was a vast map that was mostly left blank except for the paths I had walked.
The blip that marked Welf's workshop was ways out the way, giving me a general direction but not much else. Exactly like a typical RPG.
I slowly made my way through the city, taking my time to explore the other districts to get as much of the map filled in as I could. Looping back to fill in a small blank spot in a game was annoying, doing it in real life would be infuriating. Shops eventually gave way to a housing district, then to a park, then to more shops, then more houses. Eventually, I saw the walls of Orario grow near, a massive ornate gate cut out to let people leave.
"Ais! Look at these! You'd look ssuuuuuuper cute with them," a loud voice managed to cut through the general chatter of the city. Glancing over at the source, interested by the name, I saw a short deeply tanned girl, dark brown hair that brushed against her shoulders. She wore a white tube top that covered a modest bust. Very modest. A tan skirt was tied off at her waist, the back of it dipping down to her ankles while the front was tied into a bow.
She was speaking to a slightly shorter golden-haired girl. Her hair dipped down to her lower back that was left exposed. A white dress covered her front, dipping down to loop around into a short skirt that was black on the back half. Her slender legs were covered by royal blue boots, leaving only a couple of inches of thigh exposed.
Ah. Ais Wallenstein and Tiona Hiryute. Loki familia. I think at this point, both of them were Level 5s.
Ais said something back that I couldn't hear, her golden eyes blank as her expression. Tiona was far more expressive, waving around a pair of earrings, making her own numerous golden necklaces clink loudly.
"Come on! We're about to spend two weeks in the Dungeon, they won't be here by the time we get back." She protested, holding the earring up on each side of Ais' head, her hands were in the way so I couldn't see what they looked like.
Ais said something else, her lips moving but I sucked at lip-reading. And I lacked a subtitles function.
Tiona groaned, passing the earrings back to a disappointed looking vendor. "No fun. They would have looked really nice on you," the tanned girl pouted, puffing out her cheeks as she crossed her surprisingly defined arms. The two of them started to walk my way, Ais' eyes going forward, then flicking up to look at my face.
She blinked once and other than that, there was nothing else. I walked towards the two of them as they chatted -- well, Tiona chatted at Aiz. During the split second we walked past each other, I half expected one of them to say something. Neither did, leaving each other in peace.
Neat. I met more main characters. Well, met might be a strong word, but the point stood.
Still, two weeks until canon would start since they were coming back from the expedition at the start of the anime. Though...speaking of main characters, what about Bell? Shouldn't he be showing up soon? He and Hestia met...on chance, hadn't they? She was looking for her first familia member, she saw Bell get rejected, then accepted him into her own.
Except she wouldn't be looking for her first familia member. So she wouldn't run into Bell. So Bell was…
"Hm," I hummed, stepping out of the city, letting my map guide me. Should I try to find him? Bring him in? He was the protagonist after all. More than that, of all the harem protagonists in anime, he was one of the few that I actually liked. Mostly because if there was ever a justification for a harem obsessed horndog, then being raised by Zeus was it.
I thought about it as I walked towards Welf's workshop. I gave it a good long think. There were good reasons for including him. It wasn't guaranteed that he would get Liaris Freese, which was probably the most overpowered Skill in this setting. Once he leveled up a couple of times, between the two of us, the Hestia familia would be fairly formidable. Not to mention that he had the attention of several important gods, like Zeus and Hermes.
But...at the same time...well...Hestia fell in love with Bell in canon.
"I need to stop thinking with my dick," I told myself, putting a pin in the issue for now. Welf's workshop was completely unassuming. The grass that surrounded a small building was tall, hiding a stone path. The house itself was compact, only a brick chimney and piles of wood marked it as anything other than a hastily built shack.
"At least he's home," I muttered, spotting smoke coming from the chimney. Walking up to the door, I heard the sharp ring of metal banging against metal. I knocked on the door, a little harder than normal to make sure that he heard me, before stepping back. The sound stopped instantly, letting me hear a low curse.
"Uh, just a minute! I'll be right there!" Welf yelled out, almost drowned out by something hitting the floor followed by an even louder curse. I heard him stumble his way to the door before it slid open with a bang, revealing a soot streaked man around my age, his short red hair plastered to his face with sweat.
"Uhhhh…" Welf gaped, his gaze looking up and up and up until he looked me in the eyes. "can...I help you?"
"Yeah, actually," this time I came prepared. "I was hoping to commission some armor from you. For my legs. But if I came at a bad time…?" I trailed off, slightly unnerved by how Welf kept staring at me.
"Er, no," Welf said, straightening up to his full height, bringing him my chest. "I was just finishing up a piece, but...you...want armor from me…?" He stumbled out, looking lost. Then his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why?"
He was suspicious. Corozzo magic swords were apparently the equivalent of a nuke in a high fantasy world. I couldn't imagine how often he must have been bothered by people with good and ill intentions to make one for them. What I did know was that his constant refusal had cost him a great deal, and he accepted the price to save his pride.
"Do you want the truth or do you want me to kiss your ass?" I asked bluntly, getting a blink of surprise from Welf. He dealt with all kinds of liars, tricksters and traitors, all of them hoping to make him create a magic sword for him for one reason or another. I couldn't imagine that he wouldn't find blunt honesty refreshing, even if he didn't like what was said.
"The truth, then kiss my ass to make it better," Welf decided, getting a genuine smile out of me.
"The truth is that I'm pretty broke, and I know you don't have a lot of customers." I started honestly, an indignant expression appearing on Welf's face. "It's not that you don't do good work or anything like that. I just know that since everyone only ever wants magic swords, the armor you make gets overlooked-"
"More like shoved in a box and left in the back," Welf cut in, grumbling, the indignant expression fading.
I nodded, agreeing with him. "Pretty much. I need some armor for my legs, and you're one of the few I know can make good armor and would be willing to do it for cheap."
Welf seemed to mull that over for a minute, wiping sweat from his brow with the oversized sleeve of his kimono thing. Slowly, he nodded, "and to make it better?"
"I purchased some of your work before and I can't imagine myself using anything that wasn't crafted by your hands," I said with a smile, earning a smirk and a huff of laughter from Welf. He nodded again, this time more to himself.
"I guess I should be more careful what I wish for," he commented to himself, looking up at me again. He stared at me, trying to find any hint of deceit, only to find none. Even still, he asked, "you don't want a magic sword?"
I shrugged dismissively, "I became an adventurer about five hours ago. What would I use one on?"
That got a full-blown smile out of Welf, his expression warming. "You could want to sell it though," he countered, still trying to poke a hole in my story even if he didn't want there to be one.
"I guess," I admitted, "but me asking you to make one would imply I have enough money to pay you to make one. And I did mention that I was broke, right? Because that's kinda important."
Welf finally gave in, sticking out a hand as a friendly smile tugged at his lips. "Welf Corozzo," he introduced himself. I took his hand, trying to not think about how small if felt in comparison to mine.
"Jericho," I returned, shaking his hand firmly. My hand might be bigger, but Welf was a fairly accomplished adventurer despite still being Level 1 and it showed. His grip was like iron.
"Come in, sorry about the mess, I was finishing off a dagger," Welf said, stepping into his sweltering home, revealing a messy workshop. Weapons of all sizes lined the walls, the floor was made of dirt darkened with years of soot and ash, a pile of wood was tucked next to a forage that dominated the small building. Tools of all kinds laid around an anvil with a knife laying on top of it.
"You said you were looking for leg armor? Anything specific you were looking for?" Welf asked, hastily cleaning things to make everything look a little more organized. I pondered the question for a moment, having not thought about that. Did I want anything specific? I just needed armor.
"I have a black chest piece already, so I guess if it could match that?" I spoke, earning a nod from Welf.
"I can do that. What kind of black are we talking about here?" Welf asked, grabbing a long tangled piece of string. He fumbled to untie it, letting me think of how I could describe the color black.
"It's...that color," I said, pointing to a patch of built-up soot. It looked about right.
"I can manage that easily enough. And I'll need to check your measurements," Welf said, grabbing one end of the string. Without further ado, he placed one end at the center of my thigh and wrapped it around. I shifted, letting it happen and after a moment, I heard him let out a breath. "Not surprised the Guild didn't have anything for you," he noted, marking the string.
"What kind of armor are you looking for? Light, medium, heavy? Full coverage?" He asked, going down to my calf.
"I don't know to be honest. I just need to keep monsters from chewing on my ankles. What would you recommend?" What did I see myself in the future? What was my end goal? In D&D, I always ended up becoming a walking wall of armor, but that didn't have to be the case here. I wanted mobility.
In this setting, there were people as fast as lightning. I didn't know if having thick heavy armor would offer up the kind of protection that I needed. What's more, being slow and big was a major disadvantage. Look at every boss battle ever -- the big guy that could deal major damage, but since he never hit, none of that mattered. Then his health bar would get chipped down until it hit zero.
That couldn't be my fate. I needed to start taking steps now to make sure that it wasn't.
"If maximum protection is what you're looking for, then I'd have to go with heavy armor. I'll fully encase yours legs, except for your knees for mobility. You can cover up the weakness with some chainmail," Welf explained, making another mark on the string.
"Will it affect my mobility?" I asked with a thoughtful frown. I could make up for any loss in Dexterity with training at the moment, but I doubt that would hold for when my stats leave the single digits. From what I've seen, most of my stats were going to come from direct combat, exactly as Hestia said. What I used would inevitably become my higher stats.
But, at the same time, I was ridiculously fragile at the moment. All it would take was a hundred goblin scratches and I'd die. I needed armor. At this point, the more armor the better.