NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5 – Examination
A knock on the wooden door woke me up from my thoughts, and I sat on the edge of the bed.
“Is it alright to come in?” The Village Chief asked.
“Ah? Yeah, sure.”
This isn’t good…his politeness is making me almost feel pride.
“We have collected the equipment of the dead thieves, please have a look at it all.”
“Sure.”
Even though I say that, I’m not sure why he wants me to examine the equipment--does he want me to take some of it?
When I leave the room, I am following the Village Chief.
“Is it okay for me to take the equipment?” I ask him while we walk.
“Yes. You defeated them, so their equipment belongs to you now.”
“I see.”
“The others defeated two of the thieves, so I would like to give two portions of the equipment to them, would that be alight?” The Chief asks, he looks at me with a calculating look in his eyes.
It seems to be some kind of test…unless I am seeing things.
“Sure, I don’t mind.”
I don’t know what is considered normal in this world, so I’m going to accept the proposal.
“Thank you very much.” He nods to me.
I don’t like when people show a lot of respect towards me--and this is an old man and the chief of the village…it is rather uncomfortable for me.
The place I was guided to, was at the edge of the village, and they had placed the equipment there, having sorted everything.
There was a man standing there.
Name: Bikka
Age: 31
Sex: Male
Class: Merchant
Level: 6
He is the Merchant that I saw this morning.
“This is Bikka, the main Merchant in our village.” The Village chief said, indicating the man.
“My name is Bikka. You have saved the village and everyone in it--I cannot express my thanks.” He speaks fluently.
“My name is Alex…umm, you’re welcome.”
Bikka grinned, before turning and pointing, “Here is the equipment of the thieves.”
I examine the equipment and it all seems like everything is ordinary--there doesn’t seem to be any effects or anything, and the swords are copper.
The Chief and Merchant spoke about the equipment of the two thieves that the villagers killed, and they speak in that language that I can’t understand.
“Do you have any room left in your Space?” Bikka asks me, having finished handing out the equipment to the villagers.
“Space?” I can’t help but ask.
“Is my Brahim unskillful? It’s Space to store equipment.” Bikka looked at me for a moment before nodding, “You aren’t an Adventurer?”
I don’t answer.
“If someone has the Adventurer Class, they can create a personal Space, which they can store items and equipment. There is also a similar Skill for Mages as well.” Bikka says.
“Maybe it is currently full because you stored your sword?” The Village Chief throws a lifeline.
So, it seems that Adventurers have something similar to one of the abilities of my ring--it’s good to know.
“...What’s wrong?” Bikka asks.
“I’m afraid to say, my Space is full.”
“Well, at dawn tomorrow, I’m going to the town of Vale, to sell my goods--if you don’t mind, you can transport your equipment in my wagon all the way to town. There is both an armour and weapon shop in Vale--you can sell them in the city.” The Merchant, Bikka, offers.
“Thank you for the offer, I will take you up on it.”
I ask him to load everything, except an iron sword, which I use myself, in his wagon for tomorrow.
He nods, and the chief gets the men to take everything away, other than the iron sword and a leather sheath, which I attach to my belt.
“Here are the Intelligence Cards,” Bikka brings out a card the size of a credit card, “Among the thieves, there are some who have bounties. Present this to the Knights in Vale to receive the rewards.”
“Thank you.” I accept the card from him and move as though to put it in my pocket--but store it in my ring.
This seems to be common sense, and everyone in this world knows about it--I need to be careful, I don’t want to be mistaken for some kind of spy or something if I slip up.
While considering this, I look through the equipment, and find:
Equipment - Weapon: Copper Sword
Weapon-Type: Sword (2-Handed)
Skills: Empty
I wonder what this means, since most of the other swords didn’t have this ‘Skills’ in their information.
However, Excalibur had this as well.
It shouldn’t be a skill called ‘empty’ -- my guess would be that it’s an open Skill slot; which means that Skills or Enchantments can be added to. But…I didn’t know how to add Skills to slots.
“What are Skills, in weapons?” I ask the Merchant.
“Hmm, well,” He paused and then looked at the weapon in my hands, “I have heard that a blacksmith can attach a skill to some items using a Monster Card. Does that sword have any Skills?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
“I see.” He looked away from the weapon.
It is likely that Blacksmith is a class, not a normal blacksmith--I wonder if there is a difference between Classes and normal jobs. The Chief said that the level 25 Villager was an Adventurer.
But, I can’t exactly ask the Merchant or the Village Chief--it’s probably common sense.
With a shrug, I continue looking through the equipment, and there doesn’t seem to be any others with Skills or a Skill Slot.