Volume 1 Chapter 8: First Time Shopping

First Time Shopping

I tried going to the『shop that would buy even from street urchin』 that I heard from the boy. The money I had from the old hag's hidden saving and that woman's money amounted to 15 silver coins and eight small silver coins. I didn't count the bronze coins because I also used them as the weight of my weapon. I left behind half of them with my other luggage at the campsite, so I only had seven silver coins and eight small silver coins in hand right now.

That shop was located in the middle between the slum quarters and low income earner residential area. It didn't seem like there would be much danger if I was here, but sometimes I would feel an unpleasant stare, so I kept my guard up.

When I entered inside the shop, there were few foods placed at the right shelve. The left shelve was filled with sundries, and at the back was an old man with unpleasant look in his eyes glaring at me.

「Look what we got here, an eerie brat with unpleasant look in his eyes.」

「............」

What he said could also be applied to himself. Even so, perhaps because I was erasing my presence or perhaps because he sniffed the "smell of blood", he didn't chase me away, but he seemed to be on his guard.

「I want a small blade that can be used for throwing.」

「I only have those things lined up on the shelve there. Go order to blacksmith if you want something else.」

He pointed with his chin. The shelve there had kitchen knife and iron blade for dismantling animal lined up. There was also smaller size of those blades, but they were a bit heavy for the current me to throw.

「Also do you have appraisal crystal?」

The biggest objective of me coming to this town right now was to obtain appraisal crystal to check my status.

I had to use appraisal skill dozens of times to learn it, but even more important than that was appraising myself to have a grasp on my own strength right now. For that, I judged that I needed appraisal crystal even if I had to use my limited amount of silver coins to buy it.

「Four silver coins per piece.」

「That's more expensive than the market price.」

Feld told me that the market price was three silver coins.

「This is that kind of shop. If you don't want it then go buy it in a proper shop.」

I see. So this was that kind of shop.

「Then do you have scrapped crystals?」

The shop owner scowled when I asked that. So he had them as I thought. New appraisal crystal was transparent and they would turn murky bit by bit as they got used. Most crystals could be used for around ten times, but what happened to the half used appraisal crystals of adventurers who died in their work?

Ignoring the proper adventurers, if adventurers who lived like day laborer every day picked up such thing, they would gather it without using it and sold it wouldn't they?

Even in that woman's memory, she once gathered the appraisal crystals she picked and sold them. It was unknown whether such scrapped crystals could still be used, so a normal shop wouldn't sell them. And so I wondered if perhaps people who wanted to learn to use appraisal would purchase those crystals in this kind of shop, and it looked like I was right.

「They are in the box lying over there. If you buy them all then it's eight silver coins. If you only buy some of them, then it's one small silver coin per piece.」

「Can I choose?」

「Do you have money?」

「I have.」

I took out a silver coin from my pocket and showed it to the shop owner. He still didn't trust me after that, but he permitted me 「Do whatever you like」 to choose from among the scrapped products.

In the case of scrapped appraisal crystals, faulty items that couldn't be used even though they still had slightly remaining magic power in them were mixed in. There should be jackpot among them that could be used for more than three times. There were around a hundred scrapped crystals inside the box. It would be a jackpot if I bought them with eight silver coins and managed to get a use of fifty appraisals from them, but if I was unlucky, it was also possible that all of them were a miss, so I had no intention of making such bet.

「............」

Normally it was impossible to judge the remaining faint magic power in the crystal. That was the reason why they were sold for cheap, but I chose twenty scrapped crystals from among them without hesitation. I brought them to the counter and lined them up there in front of the shop owner.

「I also want a strong shoulder bag, do you have one? They will be to store these too.」

「Don't come complaining to me even if they all don't work. It's two silver coins for all of the crystals. For the shoulder bag, it's eight silver coins for one made from leather.」

「I won't complain. I'm fine with the goods and price. I'll also take a small bronze flask, the preserved food and salt here, also whetstone and......this one too please.」

「Iron skewer huh......」

There were three slightly thick iron skewers lying around, so I also bought them. Was a cook who got fired stole them from his workplace and sold them here? They had soot clinging on them, making them pitch black, but perhaps they were made from steel.

Certainly only a cook or someone who camped every day would have a use for that, but why were you surprised it was sold even though you were the one selling it? After that I bought a small bag of salt, a chunk of dried deer meat, and a bag of dried vegetables. They all cost four small silver coins. The small bronze flask cost slightly expensive, seven small silver coins. The skewers and whetstone cost two small silver coins.

「Here, four silver coins and one small silver coins.」

「You can count even though you're just a brat?」

Since obtaining money, I also started using the "knowledge" to practice counting. I could only do addition and subtraction for now, and I would need to write on the ground to count for counting further than that, but I was able to count the price of my shopping in my head and gave that amount of money. The shop owner weighed the silver coins' weight with a scale while muttering.

「What can you buy from me?」

「I'll buy anything, but don't bring me medicinal herbs that grown anywhere like the brats around here. Just go hunt rabbit or something outside. I'll buy it for one small silver coin if you properly process it.」

「Understood.」

I stuffed my purchases into my shoulder bag before moving to exit the shop, but then the owner called at me with a displeased voice.

「Oi, "ash smeared". If you want to get a proper weapon then go to the dwarf blacksmith at the end of this street. He is an eccentric old man, but if you tell him that the general store old man is the one who tell you to go there, he will make you a weapon as long as you can play.」

「......Yes.」

Ash smeared......did he mean me? Besides about this dwarf, if even this old man called him an eccentric, then how eccentric he could be?

「......What?」

Those siblings were waiting for me when I got out of the shop. Did they still have business with me? When I glared at them, the big brother made a somewhat fearful face.

「I-it's that, I have properly threw it away so-」

「Right.」

So it was about that.

「A-also, ......we won't say anything to anybody.」

「Right.」

「A-also-」

Was there still more? The boy was looking around restlessly. Then the little sister tugged at the sleeve of her indecisive brother.

「I-I am Gil! Remember that-!」

「Hm?」

「I'm Shuri-」

The little sister said that from behind her flustered big brother. What's with the sudden self introduction? Could it be that they wanted to know my name? I didn't understand why these two were approaching someone who had threatened them like that this insistently, but if these siblings didn't have any intention to do anything strange, I guessed it would be fine to at least tell them my name.

「I'm A......」

No, it would be better to not use my real name I guess. Perhaps there were children who remembered my name in that orphanage, and it would be a drag if a noble who claimed to be my relative got involved like in that so called 『otome game』.

「I am, Aria.」

It seemed to be really sloppy to use that name, but if I used a fake name that was too different from 『Alicia』, I wouldn't be able to recognize myself, so it would be better to not change my name too drastically. When I told my name, the big brother Gil muttered 「It's like a girl's name......」 while the little sister Shuri kept hiding behind her brother while nodding up and down with blushing cheeks.

「......?」

Why did she turn red? For some reason Shuri's gaze at me was sparkling. It made me felt strangely awkward. ......Well, it didn't matter I guess. I wouldn't get involved with them too deeply anyway.

.

After that, I checked what kind of shops could be found at this area. I bought a smallish chunk of black bread from a stall that was selling bread. It was heavy despite its small size. But it would last for a while with this.

Perhaps because the slum quarters were nearby, I felt some gazes coiling around me when it became clear that I was a child and furthermore I had money with me. Unlike that drunkard, it was still impossible for me to fight an adult who was planning to attack me from the start. When having money, staying inside a town was far more dangerous than staying inside a forest. There were a lot of necessities that could be obtained in town, but perhaps it would be better for me to keep staying in the forest and trained until I became stronger.

「............」

「「......」」

Even while I was doing such thing, those siblings were following me from slightly behind me.

Could it be that they wanted to have a street urchin comrade? I might considered it a bit if I could trust them and they could fight, but the current me already had my hands full with just taking care of myself so I could only ask them to give up. I consciously erased my presence and shook them off, then I immediately went outside the city from the hidden hole. There I was finally able to take a breather.

Perhaps using this area around here as my temporary base would be fine, but there was a possibility of monster appearing from the north of this town, so as expected, it would be better to return to the campsite where it was near the road and few dangerous creatures would appear. It also had a stream nearby.

But before going back, let's do something first. I put down my shoulder back for the time being and took out one appraisal crystal from there. I could only feel a faint magic power from the half used crystal. But my "eyes" were able to see the "color" of the magic power that was leaking out from there.

The twenty appraisal crystals had 『thick colors』 that radiated multiple elements. They might be still usable for three or four more appraisals. I felt sorry for the shop owner, but there was no idiot who would intentionally buy defective product when they could actually discern the good product, so I asked him to let me chose.

I would have to use appraisal dozens of times until I could learn it as skill. If possible I was planning to learn appraisal using only the crystals here. And then I peered into the crystal once more while thinking 『Appraisal』. Then my current status was displayed inside the crystal.

.

▼ Aria (Alicia) Race : Human ♀

[Magic Power : 37/45]△ 32 UP[Stamina : 23/32]△ 6 UP

[Strength : 3][Endurance : 4][Agility : 5][Dexterity : 5]

NEW NEW

NEW NEW NEW

[Overall Combat Strength : 23]△ 2 UP

.

......Surprising. As expected I hadn't learned even one combat skill but, my skill that should be completely nonexistent was suddenly increasing by so many. Most likely by becoming able to see magic particle's element as "color", the magic power type skill like Stealth, Night Vision, and Search were liberated in me. If I learned short sword skill next, it would make me look like a thief or assassin apprentice.......

My stamina was still not full like before. I didn't have any injury, but perhaps it was because my current life style didn't allow me to fully recover from fatigue. My magic power had increased drastically might be thanks to the daily life magic and magic power type skills. Perhaps when skill was 『seared』 into the soul, the 『foundation』 on where magic power could be accumulated also got expanded by that much. That was my hypothesis.

But it was just the right time for my magic power capacity to increase. If I had 45 magic power amount, I should recover around 4 MP each hour. With this much MP, I would be able to increase my training in magic power type skill.

The day was approaching noon. I shaved the dried meat with knife and nibbled on a bit of black bread, then I shouldered my luggage and began to move while also training my body strengthening. As expected the luggage was heavy, but I was able to somehow return until the campsite using the same amount of time when I was departing.

I......was growing little by little.