NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5
……Ha! After realizing this, Haruki saw a big field of onions in front of his eyes.
Those really are fresh onions!
I can’t stop the tears.
He could take 10 onions in one hand by holding them on their green leaf parts. In the second floor, he headed to a small room near the stairs while holding a total of 20 onions.
There was a gate connecting each floor of the dungeon with the outside.
The gate went up and down like an elevator.
But it can bring you to already-visited floors only.
If you’re in one of the dungeon’s floors you have reached, you can go to the gate location by praying silently.
Some people carelessly forgot to activate the gate and their progress was lost.
Even if you’ve reached the 10th floor in a dungeon, when entering another dungeon, you would have to begin at the start again.
Even when the barricades are built, the gate’s position has to be considered.
(As a result, the entrance area becomes somewhat narrow)
By silently praying at the gate, the ground moves slightly up.
It was like going through the esophagus of a gigantic monster.
After the ground was broken, the gate appeared through it.
Being like a magic tool, the mechanism can’t be understood.
Currently, famous universities give all their effort to find a clarification through their studies.
The gate’s ceiling opened and its foothold reached the outside.
Later, in the house’s courtyard, many dried onions without leaves could be seen.
“……who the hell brought all these onions?”
Of course, it was Haruki.
He didn’t realize that he overdid it due to the happiness caused by getting vegetables after a long time.
In dungeons, moving vegetables were no rare monsters.
However, after the vegetable price suddenly jumped recently, endless adventurers came to harvest these moving vegetables, and it was not easy to obtain them even after being targeted.
For now, obtaining those from a dungeon was almost a monopoly!
How wonderful!!
No matter how high the price of vegetables, the selling price limit of onion monsters was 1,000 yen per onion. There was no buyer if it was higher than that.
10,000 yen was a joke for a melon monster.
There was no such monster at present.
But, there was the melon bear in the nearby city.
It didn’t seem delicious.
The obtained onions would receive sun-dry treatment.
Meanwhile, Haruki returned to the dungeon once more to gather the house centipedes’ crusts that he left.
Haruki was suddenly interested to look at skill board appearance.
Then,
“Why?”
Skill Point: 1
The skill point was increased.
*********
I shared the onions with my neighbor – Kitora-san (by walking for 10 minutes), my red eyes full of delight.It surely is because the onions sting my eyes.
“In the old days, I harvested onions with my grandmother. We were attacked by a monster……. Good grief, she went away earlier. I have lost my energy to put my hand on the fields since then. Ah…… it feels nostalgic. I really miss it.”
Haruki’s eyes were a little bit wet.
As expected, these onions are a little bit too much.
The next day, Haruki went to Sapporo after filling the tank with 10 litters – 10,000 yen – of gasoline.
While hunting the onions in a daze, his worn-down knife broke.
So first, a weapon has to be bought……
When he arrived in Sapporo, Haruki went to a material purchase shop, “Mitsubishi Material Purchasing Station.”
He opened the door and stood in front of the counter.
“Excuse me.”
“…………”
“Excuse me!!”
“What the!?”
With a shout, the female clerk finally noticed Haruki’s presence.
(Since when is this fellow here!?)
Her eyes seemed to think that.
……well, that’s okay.
Ignoring the clerk’s response, Haruki brought in the packed house centipedes’ crusts from the car.
“Eh, all of this?”
“Yes.”
“……please excuse me, are you alone?”
“Yeah, you are right.”
The receptionist’s face became slightly stiff.
Do you hate house centipedes that much?
House centipedes’ crusts were piled up in front of the counter.
In total 216 pieces.
To bring the crusts, he was somehow able to load it in the car.
However, the weight was barely inside the car’s limit, the engine was broken when the speed exceeded 40 km/h.
It took more time than usual to come to Sapporo, and the fuel consumption was considerably worse.
At least for gasoline expense…….
The clerk presented her report to Haruki who was still thinking.
“We have appraised the materials. The total of crusts is 216 pieces. Those without scratches are worth 1,000 yen each. Those with scratches are 100 yen. You may check it, and please touch your IC card here if you are satisfied.”
I looked over the report.
A total of 153,800 yen!
It seemed the crusts of house centipedes that I face on the first day were pretty damaged.
Probably, due to Haruki being troubled with dismantling when he was weak.
But it was still more than 100,000 yen!
Those were by hunting for two days.
The house centipedes were awesome.
“Ah, I want to look at ‘Let’s Be an Adventurer’!”
What Haruki said was a password to request utilization of the “Let’s Be” bulletin board.
The way to request the bulletin board of “Let’s Be” was very simple.
By accepting the request to register the IC card account, the client took the requested items to the merchant and told them “I want to look at ‘Let’s Be an Adventurer’.”
The request has been achieved with this.
Since the payment was using the IC card, its number would be linked to “Let’s Be” to increase the adventurer points in the future.
Moreover, if you requested to purchase materials, the assessed value usually increased.
There was no purchase that couldn’t be handled.
“Thank you very much. I have confirmed the customer’s request recipient. The assessed value will receive an extra 5%.”
“Oooh.”
In the end, the total income was 161,490 yen.
In just two days, he earned as much as the maximum income of professional adventurers in one day.
Haruki’s earnings for the last half a day were equal to half a month.
There were various house centipedes.
He held the adventurer exclusive IC card that was taken out from his wallet.
He held his eyes right on the retina scan camera positioned on his face, and the “snap” sound was ringing.
The adventurers were naturally obliged to be taxed similarly to ordinary people.
The reimbursement was single-handedly calculated by the IC card.
The cash earned from adventurers’ activities were saved in the card.
The merchant store where e-money could be earned was the materials and items purchase shop only.
The stored e-money was usable in various shops, like Suica[1] and Waon[2]. (TLN: Suica and Waon are Japanese e-money systems)
The total amount of tax decided on the following year was based on the e-money accumulated in the card by the end of the fiscal year.
The standard deduction was 1 million yen.
All utilized e-money were calculated as expenses.
Of course, you could also cash it, but it would be calculated as income unless there were receipts.
For example, even if you earned 100 million yen, the 99 million yen you use would be tax-free.
There was no trouble to spend the accumulated money in the card.
It was considered as a slightly rough system, but adventurers constantly using their money were thanks to this tax countermeasure.
For that reason, the circle economics were not stagnated in spite of the population reduction.
Haruki left “Mitsubishi Material Purchase Station” with a pleased face; he went to an armor store, “Mitsubishi Armor Dealer,” next.
As its name implied, the purchasing store and the dealer were affiliated subsidiaries of the same large company.
They purchased a large number of monsters’ materials, manufactured armors in the affiliated manufacturing company, and sold them through the affiliated distributor.
It was possible to have high efficiency and low cost by performing purchase, manufacture, and sale in the same line.
Although there are private stores, it could not be compared to a trading company’s pipeline. The oligarchy of large companies would continue for a while.
First of all, the broken weapon must be renewed.
He entered the shop and looked at every shelf one by one.
The [壹], [壱], and [一] series of Mitsubishi Manufacturing that everyone knows. (TLN: All are different variants of saying “One”)
Products in the similar class have existed, the Kawashima Industry’s “KS” series with extraordinary expensiveness.
In medium price range but with a good performance, Harima Industry’s “IBI” series with considerable peculiarity.
Products with their respective logos were lined up on the shelves.
However, since the demands for daggers were low, its sales space compared to other weapons was overwhelmingly small.
——–
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waon
Although the variety of products was low, it was considerably hard to choose.
Every piece seemed to be a good weapon, making his body become hot as if he fell in love.
He was excited while looking at the daggers; it would be a concern if it were a little while ago.
The lowest price for the [一] series of Mitsubishi entry models was 20,000 yen.
While the highest priced item was the middle-class dagger of the [壱] series worth 1 million yen.
As the demands were low, there was no high-end class product from Kawashima and Harima.
“Oh, great.”
However, there were only 1 million yen products in the middle class.
“[壱] Werewolf Dagger” was written on the merchandise display.
There was a slightly rippling pattern in the 50 cm pitch black blade.
Werewolves are monsters emerging in the middle tiers of dungeons.
By using its material, it would be very sharp.
Haruki had wild imaginations, but he couldn’t reach them for now.
In addition,
“……as expected, this is impossible.”
Even if I hold it, I can’t feel the sign of lifting.>
It feels like trying to push a concrete building. >
Except for being heavy, armor manufactured using old-school materials doesn’t choose its user.
However, armor made with materials collected from dungeons chooses its users.
Low-class adventurers are most likely disliked.
As senior adventurers, it seems that they can equip most armor.
It is currently confirmed that it is difficult to equip other armor except for the frequently used main armor.
Even an adventurer, who can equip any kind of sword, can’t equip a bow with the same facility.
There seems to be something like proficiencies, which don’t become numerical values, or suitability.
In Haruki’s skill board – there was the one-handed sword skill in the column of techniques, but there was no bow or large-sword skill.
Haruki perhaps has adequacy for a sword, but not for other weapons.
Even if his level was increased, he might not be able to equip the large swords made out of dungeon materials.
“A large sword looks very cool.”
The appearance was gaudy but it lacked individuality.
But it was not noticeable on the Air-like Haruki.
It seemed like it didn’t appear in the picture.
Although it was not efficient, Haruki wanted to go to the front line.
Anyway if his presence increases, “now” is good.
There was no problem with dagger and knife equipment unless it hit the wall.
He gave up the 1 million yen dagger (though it was natural), and moved his eyes to another weapon.
Haruki’s eyes caught a dagger.
The price was 98,000 yen
It was a 40 cm black knife with a rough blade pattern.
“[一] Silver Wolf’s Dagger” was written on the display.
It was a Mitsubishi’s entry model.
The weight of the blade and the center of gravity are just right.>
It could be understood even without an appraisal eye.>
“Yeah, let’s take this.”
Without hesitation, Haruki put the knife on the counter.
“Welcome, do you want to purchase this item?”
“…!?”
At that time, Haruki was more excited than when he faced a monster for the first time.
After his existence transparency has been increasingly polished in recent years, Haruki never met anyone who was aware of his existence before being addressed.
Nevertheless, the female clerk at the counter was completely aware of Haruki’s existence.
The clerk had a slightly red ponytail and wore a white shirt. Her black apron and shorts gave a pretty refreshing impression.
Whether her shirt was fortunate or not, the fabric’s condition around her breasts was wonderful.
She didn’t seem to have something to instantly see through Haruki’s appearance.
However, she was definitely beautiful.
It really was not a level that Haruki can acquire.
His face blushed when he looked at her eyes directly.
Haruki, who was not used to being seen by someone, was shaken violently as his eyes meet hers.
Of course, this wasn’t love.
He purely just wasn’t used to it.
It was the same phenomenon as people who only stayed in a room being dazzled simply by exposure to the sunlight.
“What’s the matter?”
“No, please give me this dagger.”
“Certainly…, I am sorry, but can you equip this dagger?”
“Yes.”
Haruki, being questioned, raised the knife with its sheath in front of the clerk.
After he swung it lightly, the clerk lightly moved her jaws as she was convinced.
“Well, there is no problem if you can equip it.”
“Yeah ……do you perhaps not accept items that you can’t equip?”
“No. I sometimes received complaints from people who purchased it by just its appearance and prices but can’t equip it afterward. I beat and kick them out of the store……”
Hmm?
“Because it is troublesome every time they fuss over…”
“Eh…… you beat them?”
“Yes. Ah, it’s only a blow, isn’t it? At most, the shape of their face will change……”
“It’s enough.”
Although she seemed pretty, she was quite a frightening woman.>
Adventurers who explore dungeons become arrogant after defeating monsters.>
Nevertheless, they were excited and drunk on their power.>
Or they used their physical abilities to commit theft.>
“I’ve never seen you, did you join an expedition?”
“No, I just became an adventurer recently.”
“I see. Because your leather armor is so damaged, I thought you are an intermediate adventurer.”
“I, I, I, I’m not that strong! I’m still a beginner.”
I’m always seen as weak…… and unnoticeable.>
No, that’s wrong, I want you to look!
…or not!!>
Haruki was very confused by the shame.
“So, you are a beginner. It has a lot of scratches, seems like you are doing the impossible……”
The clerk was slightly slipped, her eyelash shaking due to uneasiness.
<……Eh? This person perhaps.>
“I don’t want you to lose your life…… is it strange?”
She used her deadly “glancing up” technique.
This was irresistible for Haruki.
“Well, it’s not weird!”
“Then, could you equip a little better armor? Or else I might…”
“I, I, I will buy it for your sake!!”
In response to Haruki, the receptionist woman’s eyes shined suspiciously.