I woke up with a smile on my face. Unlike yesterday, I had actually slept on the bed, so I felt extra refreshed.
"This is the good stuff."
I stretched and started on my mourning routine.
***
There was a weird thing with people of this world. They could somehow feel the atmosphere.
By that I mean the atmosphere of a room or of a person.
In fact, sensing killing intent is just an extension of that.
So even before walking into a room, they could feel the pressure emanating behind the door. Without looking at a person, they could guess how strong that person was just by sensing that person's 'aura'.
I didn't have any of that, all I could do was see with my eyes.
I looked at the expressions of people to understand the atmosphere of a room. I looked at how a person carried themselves to estimate how strong they were.
From the sight in front of me, it was pretty clear what conclusion I came to.
'I got myself in trouble.'
With a beautiful short-haired woman walking towards me, and with the expressions of everyone at the Guild, my thoughts ran wild.
I cracked my neck and started Thinking.
The moment the woman ― the Spear Valkyrie ― stopped right in front of me, I looked up at her.
"What's up?"
I acted casual, completely opposite of the serious and even a bit angry expression she had. Unlike people of this world, I couldn't feel the pressure she was emanating, and that meant I could act just fine even in front of such a strong person. I used that fact to my advantage.
She didn't beat around the topic at all.
"Where did you learn the technique you taught Mitsuki?"
I Thought for a split second.
"From a book."
"Where is that book?"
"It's burned, just like everything else."
She glared at me in silence.
"What other techniques did you learn from that book?"
I couldn't help but chuckle.
"That was the only technique in the book, so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to learn any more."
Her face showed surprise.
"Ah, before you ask, that book was a fantasy book. It wasn't a book about techniques or anything, it was just about the adventures of a person and his allies. That technique was performed only once within that story, and by a third-rate side character no less, so I don't know anything dangerous."
Her face became angry again.
"Are you really saying to me that a random book writer just managed to come up with such a technique?"
I shrugged.
"Coincidences happen."
Of course, it wasn't just any book, it was a book from earth. A webnovel more accurately.
'Just remembering it is making me think.'
It was my number one favorite webnovel.
"It were the adventures of a man who Understands people, nothing more."
She glared at me, before sighing.
"Alright, I believe you. It's good that thing is gone, I guess."
"You hate that technique to that level?"
"Of course I do. It's a technique made by a madman with the express purpose of killing people. How could I not hate it?"
I nodded. Indeed, that technique only worked against humans, and only against experienced fighters at that.
At its core, the technique wasn't anything special. You thrust with your spear, but at the last moment, you put more mana into your muscles to speed up that spear.
It is simply a thrust that is slow in the first half and fast in the second half. But that is exactly what makes it so effective against humans.
You see, humans are weak creatures. To fight against creatures that are faster, stronger and bulkier than humans, they have no choice but to minimize their movements.
If there's a claw coming for your face, step back so that only an inch is between that claw and your face. That way, you spend less energy and can retaliate faster. That is the only way for humans to be above other animals and monsters.
Eventually, once you've fought enough battles, you will be able to recognize the amount you should dodge instinctively. While an amateur might step back more than necessary, the more experienced will be able to easily judge the speed and trajectory of an object and dodge accordingly.
That judgement is what the technique takes advantage of. By starting off slow, an experienced person will immediately judge the speed they should move their head with to dodge the spear, but they can't move just yet, because feints could come, so they wait for the last possible moment until they are sure where the hit will land, and then start moving at the predetermined speed.
But with the spear being faster in the second half, the predetermined speed turns out to be wrong, and the experienced person gets hit.
The worst part is that monsters don't have the intelligence to predetermine speed, they immediately get out of the way of the strike. Because of that, the technique is useless against monsters.
And since newbies also dodge more than necessary, it doesn't work against them either.
'If I remember correctly, his name was Caragyugujesta Domitorkofucon. That scene is still etched so vividly in my mind...'
It was after the moment where the main characters got completely beaten, and an old man came out to show exactly why he was able to live so long. Just remembering it made me shiver.
'But that's enough fanboying.'
I shook my head and refocused on the real world.
I could immediately tell that the atmosphere in the room became normal, not everyone was nervoursly staring at us anymore.
The Spear Valkyrie was still standing in front of me with a displeased face, but she wasn't glaring anymore at least.
"So, will you be training Mitsuki?"
"Of course, I don't go back on promises. I just wanted to make sure that technique doesn't spread, or that the person she learned it from isn't a bad one."
I nodded. She might've had an intense reaction, but she wasn't a bad person. In fact, it's because she's a good person that she had such a reaction in the first place.
"It was nice meeting you then. I'll go back to my normal schedule now."
I walked away without wasting any more time.
***
There was this thing called compatibility with magic in this world, which was a bit different from talent.
Talent was something you have from birth, but compatibility could be nurtured.
If you were to stare at fire and bask in its warmth for a very long time, you will become more compatible with Fire Magic. If you were to swim around in water for most of your life, you will become more compatible with Water Magic.
That compatibility allowed you to better instinctively understand Shapes with that element, and also spend less mana on spells of that type.
This was the reason why the requirement to know Air Bubble wasn't too big of a problem for adventurers.
After all, they have been breathing air their entire lives, so casting Wind Magic was very easy for them.
In exchange, wind was a pretty weak element, since it had basically no mass. The only reason it is considered stronger than Water is because of that compatibility and ease of use.
Easy to use but weak > Hard to use but a bit stronger.
That's why Wind was above Water.
'―――'
...But that is not the case for me.
I have zero compatibility with everything. And since compatibility is something that comes with time, and more effective during the early stages of life, it will probably stay that way until I'm 50.
At this point, I was losing way too much. I did not have compatibility, I couldn't instinctively control mana like everyone else, I had way too small of a mana capacity.
So I had to take drastic measures to be on the same level as everybody else.
One of those drastic measures is Extreme Mana Capacity Increase.
―To combat all the things I'm lacking because I'm from another world, I have to use the things I'm better at because I'm from another world.
The thing I take advantage of in Extreme Mana Capacity Increase is that I can live without Natural Body-Strengthening.
You see, the reason why increasing your mana capacity is so difficult, is because it's a balancing act.
You have to take in a specific amount of mana and keep that exact amount, but some of your mana is constantly used on Natural Body-Strengthening, so you have to carefully replenish that lost mana. If you take in too much mana, your body will make you pass out and you might end up with permanent damage, if you take in too little mana, the effectiveness is greatly reduced. Combine that with excruciating pain that makes it hard to focus, and it's a technique that is almost impossible to do perfectly.
But I can ignore that problem, since I don't need mana to live. I can just take in the exact amount of mana, and keep it.
...But I had to go a step further. I wasn't just trying to be on the same level as everybody else, I had to be in the top percentile.
The real deal of Extreme Mana Capacity Increase... is that I do it constantly.
Or I try to, at least.
It's not easy. I have to turn off Natural Body-Strengthening, fake using it, use Extreme Mana Capacity Increase, and then also deal with the pain.
But even so, eventually, I will get used to it. I will be able to do it all the time after a long time.
In the future, I will be used to it...
***
Life goes by quick. Before I noticed it, I got into the weird rhythm of things.
I would just take a mission, complete it, and then go home. Sometimes an occasional encounter with someone I know would stir up a conversation, but nothing much beyond that.
I could feel a bit more gazes on me compared to the start, but that's probably because of my encounter with the Spear Valkyrie. Those curious gazes will go away with time.
'Well, I guess it's finally time.'
It was time to make my strength rise severalfold.
***
"Yo, I need your opinions on this. Mind having a taste?"
It was the first time I have ever called out to them, so they seemed a bit surprised.
The fact that I was holding out three popsicles probably didn't help their confusion.
"What is this?"
Souma was the first one to take the popsicle.
"That's what I call a popsicle. Try licking it, and tell me how it tastes."
The moment he did, his eyes widened.
"Eh?"
He licked again.
"This has the same taste as strawberries, doesn't it?"
"Yep. Do you like it?"
He nodded.
"It's a bit weird, but it's refreshing and it lasts a long time compared to a normal strawberry."
I held out the two other popsicles to Leila and Mitsuki.
"Just take these already, my hands are getting tired holding them."
Once they licked it, they also showed surprised faces.
"It's not quite as tasty as a strawberry, but it is most certainly more refreshing."
As always, Mitsuki's words were the most useful ones.
I looked at Leila, she had stars in her eyes. It seems she took very big interest in this treat. Surprising, I thought people who do physical work would take a bigger liking. Did she perhaps like strawberries? Or did she like the feeling of having her brain get colder?
"What did you call these again?"
"A popsicle."
"I see, a popcikle..."
Again. There was that weird feeling again. They are saying it correctly, but I feel like something is wrong.
"So you would consider this a good refreshing snack, right? Something you would want to eat after finishing your mission?"
Leila and Mitsuki nodded, while Souma wryly smiled.
"I guess we won't be eating these for free again, huh?"
I smiled like a fox.
***
I sit down and start to wait. I knew business would be slow at the start, so I could relax for now.
I was behind a stall that said 'Popsicles! A refreshing treat, perfect after working hard to cool down! Only 3 bronze!'
I bought this place to have permission to set up a stall here. I also bought a merchant license, to have persmission to sell stuff in the first place.
I ended up with barely any money left.
But that was fine.
It's not like I needed that money, so it was better to invest it in something else.
In this case, that something else was even more money.
I had specifically bought a place next to the Adventurer's Guild.
I stocked up on a lot of popsicles, for now, all of them were strawberry flavored.
They were kept in a tightly sealed metal box that had some ice in it to keep it cold.
I was ready for business, there was just none.
I laid back in my chair and let my strength do its thing.
***
Just as usual, Souma, Leila and Mitsuki were walking and talking with two friends.
Since they had lived in Toride for their entire lives, they had a lot of friends. Those friends was what I was betting on.
Eventually, Leila noticed my stall. She told the others about it, and the whole group started walking towards me.
Souma was, as always, the first one to talk.
"You really did end up doing what I thought you would."
I shrugged.
"You want some?"
He chuckled.
"Well, Leila seems crazy for them, so i'll buy one for her, at least."
"I also want one."
Mitsuki added.
"Alright then, two popsicles coming up."
Souma gave me six bronze and I gave the two popsicles.
"Who is this? And what is this?"
One of Souma's friends started talking.
"Oh, this is Faun. The one that helped us take down those bandits."
"Ah, that assassin guy?"
"I'm not an assassin."
Do I really give off the impression of an assassin that much?
"Wait, he's also a merchant?"
"Yes, I'm a merchant too."
Both of the friends looked at Mitsuki and Leila, who were enjoying their popsicles.
"Can we also get popsicles?"
"Sure."
I earned another 6 bronze.
The two friends had complete opposite reactions. One of them didn't like it due to the cold, and the other considered it tasty.
The five of them walked away, I was left to my devices once again.
I considered my success rate. Leila was obssessed with it, one of Souma's friends liked it, both Souma and Mitsuki liked it, but not to the point of bying it all the time, and one of Souma's friends hated it.
It was a good success rate. Now, with a couple of months, word of mouth should do its thing, especially since it is Souma who is spreading it, he is a guy who has a lot of friends.
'Most of which are female.'
I disregarded that thought.
***
It was late in the evening, barely anyone was walking around.
I got lucky and managed to get some random guy to buy a popsicle too, which he liked, but other than that I got no one.
But I was fine with that. It's not like I was expecting this to be something big in the first place, just something to get a little bit extra cash.
Before I could pack up my things though, I noticed a girl who was clearly walking towards my stall.
I patiently waited for her.
When she arrived, she nervously looked around before sighing in relief. But then she looked at me and her face changed.
"Wait, aren't you an adventurer?"
"Yes, I am."
"And you're selling treats?"
"Because I can."
She furrowed her brows with a frown.
"Don't you have pride as an adventurer? You're supposed to be getting stronger and helping people, and yet you're just sitting here?"
"Well, I'm doing just that am I not?"
She looked at me in slight anger.
"...What kind of bullshit are you saying?"
"I'm helping people who want a cheap, refreshing treat. And I'm getting stronger by getting more money. So I'm doing exactly what you said."
"Helping people is... not that. You're just making excuses."
"Am I? I'm making other people's days better. Isn't that helping people?"
Her eyes darted around, she was trying to find flaws in my logic, but couldn't find any.
'There are a lot of flaws there if you look though...'
"Then how is getting money becoming stronger? That's definitely an excuse."
"Is it? You see, if I want to eat, sure, I could go ahead and hunt down a monster and gather some plants. But do you know how else I can satiate my hunger?"
Her face became even more displeased.
"That's right, I can just buy some food, with money. That's not even talking about how armor costs money, weapons cost money and everything inbetween costs money. So by getting money, I'm getting stronger."
...
"You're just stretching the definition until it becomes suitable for you."
I shrug.
"Maybe, but I personally think that strength is the ability to achieve goals. Anything that helps me achieve goals is my strength. Everything ranging from physical strength to money."
She was looking at me as if she was looking at an ant.
"Fucking dumbass."
She mumbled and walked away.
I held up a popsicle in front of her face, so she was forced to stop.
"I think you're the dumbass here. What? You're really hiding something as trivial as having a sweet tooth? Why would you be embarrassed about that? It's nothing special. Is not liking treats a part of your pride? In that case, you are hypocritical. You talk about pride, but you're fine destroying yours as long as nobody sees it?"
She was about to say something dumb, so I just shoved the popsicle in her mouth.
"I don't care for your troubles, I don't care what you went through or what kind of biased image you have of adventurers. But you don't just get to call me a fucking dumbass and walk away with it."
I whispered into her ear.
"You're no better than me, hypocritical bitch."
Snap.
I ducked down and dodged the fist coming for my face.
"How dare you―?!"
I jumped away to dodge a kick.
"Call me a bitch?!"
She tried to follow, but I quickly took out my dagger and―
"Kh!"
She was forced to stop in her tracks.
But it wasn't because she was in danger, it was because I was in danger.
I was pointing my dagger towards my own heart.
"What are you―?!"
"Did you regain reason?"
Her hand twitched.
"This is why I called you hypocritical. You insulted me and didn't think twice about it, but the moment I insult you, you go straight to punching? You're quite egoistic too, huh?"
She clenched her fist, so I raised my dagger towards my neck.
"Do anything stupid, and I die."
It was a dumb threat, but it worked. She wasn't moving, just repeteadly clenching and unclenching her hands.
"You're not a bad person at heart, but you're stupid. You don't even realize the fact that you don't have any pride, and yet you preach about it."
"You fucker, do you even―?!"
I brought my dagger closer.
"Hk!"
"No I don't. Think about it, if you had pride, would you have even considered bying a treat in the first place? Of course not, clearly bying treats is something extremely bad in your mind."
Her knee twitched.
"And yet, you still decided to buy it. Only once you noticed that I was an adventurer did your demeanor change. So it is not pride that you have, it is fear. Fear of being found out."
I could practically hear her teeth grinding.
"What you are afraid of? I have no idea. Perhaps you were made fun of when you were a child because you were too girly, perhaps it's because of your family that you don't want to disappoint, or maybe it's because you have very biased opinions on how an adventurer should be."
She clearly tensed at the 'family' part.
"But once again, I don't care. What I do care about is that attitude of yours. If you cuss, prepare to be cussed at. If you start throwing punches, be prepared to get hit in the face. And if you make me upset, be prepared to have your view of life be turned upside down."
I pointed my dagger at her.
"But the things that need the most fixing in your attitude are you priorities, they are all over the the place. You're 16, you're an adult now. If your wishes as their child clash with your own wishes, then you have to either go all in, or compromise. You think your mom is so great that she doesn't have even one guilty pleasure? You think your father didn't go to a strip club even once? It's just that their good qualities overshadow their bad qualities. You can be the same. Buy all the treats you want, just make sure that your adventuring career overshadows those treats."
"You fucker..."
Her hands were reaching for her sword now that my dagger wasn't pointed at my neck.
"it was tasty, right?"
Confusion flashed across her face.
"The popsicle."
Her entire momentum came to a sudden halt.
When I called her a bitch, she bit down so hard that the popsicle broke, even the stick snapped from her bite, so most of the popsicle fell on the ground. But that also meant some of the popsicle went in her mouth.
But just as fast as her momentum was halted, it was regained with more fury.
'Figures.'
"Go on, beat me up. That'd be what your parents would do, right?"
I put my dagger back in its sheath. I wouldn't be able to resist if she attacked me right now.
But I judged that she wouldn't. No, I made sure she wouldn't.
Just like I thought, her hand stopped reaching for her sword.
"You think... Y-You fucker... Do you really think if you just f-fucking say that, I won't beat you up?"
"Yes."
Her fists clenched with rage.
"W-what do you―"
"Like I said, I don't know anything about you, and I don't care. I'm just saying you should get your priorities in order, and stop snapping at other people when they call you out."
I walked back to my stall and took the metal 'freezer'. Since it was cold, I had to cover it in magic-made earth to protect myself.
I looked at her, she was gritting her teeth.
"Buy treats if you want to, just make sure you work extra hard to make up for those treats. ―That's what I would do."
Just like that―
'I gained another potential customer.'