Jade Forest, Gray Rock Town.
In the early morning, the wind blowing from the forest awakened this gray border town.
"Jingle jingle—"
The small wind chime hanging on the window frame swayed and collided, producing a crisp sound.
Gauss sat on the wooden bed, reaching out to press the linen beneath him, feeling the texture of the thick straw underneath, and remained silent for a long time.
Fragments of past memories flooded his mind, intertwining the young Hunter who left home to forge a career and the recent college graduate starting a new job, plunging him into a certain confusion.
Who am I? Where am I? Is this a dream?
As if to confirm this, he stood up, walked to the window, and looked out into the distance.
The morning mist had yet to fully disperse; a caravan's cart rolled on the sandstone pavement with creaking sounds, women tucked ceramic pots under their arms, placing goods on display racks outside their shops, and the apprentice from the blacksmith shop opened the door and hung the wooden sign for business.
What unfolded before him was a streetscape filled with an Otherworldly aura, completely different from his past life.
Everything was practically telling him that he had crossed over into a new world.
Gauss was dazed and lost in thought.
If the memories in his mind were correct, this world seemed to be filled with fantastical and magical powers.
Both ordinary creatures like goblins, kobolds, and mud monsters, which even commoners might encounter, and greater threats like the Giant Dragon and Devil that could jeopardize the kingdom's existence, are real and not just fictitious tales spread among the Bard circles.
Besides various monsters, there are Professionals who wield Magic and Combat Skills, such as Mages, Warlocks, Warriors, Druids, Rangers, and so on.
Thinking about these, Gauss's somewhat gloomy heart couldn't help but accelerate its beat.
Although ordinary people in this world find it challenging to become Professionals, he didn't come empty-handed.
Accompanying him to this world was his "golden finger", a magical book that only existed in his mind—"Adventurer's Handbook".
[Attribute Panel] [Monster Atlas] [Map]
The appearance of this book in his mind greatly increased Gauss's sense of security in this sudden Otherworld.
Name: Gauss
Strength: 5 (muscle, load, explosiveness, kinetic output)
Agility: 5 (body flexibility, dynamic coordination ability)
Constitution: 5 (endurance, stamina, trauma recovery, cardio-metabolic rate)
Intelligence: 6 (memory, thinking, Spiritual Power)
Perception: 5 (senses, intuition, judgment)
Charm: 5 (temperament, affinity, appearance, physique)
Skills: None
The Attribute Panel page recorded various values about him; apart from Intelligence being 6, everything else is 5.
His physical condition was quite ordinary; 5 is likely the average attribute level of the general populace.
Could the 6 points of Intelligence be related to the crossover?
Shaking his head, Gauss then looked at the Monster Atlas.
The Monster Atlas divides threats into ordinary, elite, extraordinary, Lord, legendary, and ??
The only accessible section for him now is the ordinary part of the Monster Atlas, while the pages of subsequent levels are firmly stuck together, and he cannot open them.
Even the ordinary interface was still a gloomy gray.
Randomly clicking a dim icon would prompt, "This target has not yet been slain, and the corresponding target in the atlas cannot be illuminated temporarily."
"Tip: Atlas points accumulate based on single species and all monsters. Upon reaching the respective atlas accumulation goal, corresponding stage rewards can be received."
It seems he must first slay monsters before fully unlocking the Monster Atlas and receiving various stage rewards.
Gauss thoughtfully nodded his head.
Then he turned to the last option, "Map".
Focusing his mind inwardly, a map soon appeared in his mind.
The image center should be his own location.
The location is marked with a simple icon of a stone building.
"This building can be named."
"Sofia Inn," he silently thought, and soon the building had been named.
The illuminated area on the map was minimal, only the region close to him.
Other places were enveloped in a fog, and following his intuition, he believed this was related to the extent of exploration.
Since he hadn't even stepped outside the door, naturally he couldn't gather information to complete the map.
As he deepens his exploration of the surrounding environment in the future, the map should also gradually be illuminated.
After reviewing all the features of the cheat, Gauss felt reassured.
After packing his personal belongings, he went downstairs.
"Sofia, one breakfast, please."
The ground floor is the dining area and reception, with several round wooden tables standing empty.
This building, named Sofia Inn on his map, is actually more like some youth hostels from his previous life, converted from residential houses. It serves those like him, freelancers without a fixed residence.
Rental options are divided into short-term and monthly rentals.
A single room's daily rent is 2 copper coins, while the monthly discount rate is 30 copper coins per month, which is much cheaper than the tavern.
Additionally, by paying extra, the innkeeper Sofia can also provide meals.
Breakfast is 1 copper coin per serving, while lunch and dinner, as proper meals, are 2 copper coins per serving.
Cheap, filling for the stomach, but don't expect anything special from the dishes.
Meat is definitely out of the question; black bread, homemade pickles, wild vegetable soup, stewed beans, and oat porridge are the most common dishes.
"Alright." A plump blonde woman emerged from under the reception counter, looking close to thirty years old, but her features didn't look old and instead had the charm of a mature woman. "Little Gauss, did you oversleep today?"
"Yes, I had trouble sleeping last night, the catchable prey has significantly decreased." Gauss casually found an empty wooden table to sit.
"Still, make sure to rest, okay."
In no time, Sofia heated the prepped dishes and handed them over.
Today's breakfast was black bread with stewed vegetable soup.
The black bread on the plate was already sliced, looking very hard.
Seeing Sofia had returned to the kitchen, Gauss picked up a slice and tapped it on the wooden plate, producing a crisp knocking sound as the black bread slice collided with the wooden plate.
Can this thing really be eaten?
He suspiciously eyed the unidentified object in his hand, which felt more like a stone, seemingly containing tiny splinters of wood mixed inside.
No matter!
According to the eating method from his memory, he placed the black bread into the steaming hot vegetable soup.
After quite a while, the black bread finally soaked and softened, absorbing the soup, becoming a somewhat edible-looking state.
Picking up a piece with a wooden spoon, he dunked it in soup and popped it into his mouth.
Chewing several times, he swallowed it down.
As the food passed down his throat, it brought a sticky, unpleasant sensation, slightly with a scratchy feeling in the throat.
Um? This taste, this texture... indeed not tasty.
Even though Gauss mentally prepared himself, the actual swallowing was even more awful than he imagined.
No choice, in his past life he lived in a world rich in resources, even as a regular working person, he ate far better three meals a day than this basic sustenance meal in the Otherworld.
Gauss numbly finished his first meal in the Otherworld life.
In the store manager Sofia's caring words "be careful along the way," he waved his hand and officially embarked on his journey in the Otherworld.
The newly risen sun had climbed to the mountain top in the distance.
Morning's dawn light spilled over the gray stone rooftops of Gray Rock Town, as this border town near the Jade Forest began to bustle.
People moved around the streets, besides trading merchants, occasionally clusters resembling adventurers were seen, though the majority were freelancers like the original body.
The original body was a half-baked hunter living by hunting, his daily work was mingling at the outermost edge of Jade Forest, setting up some hunting traps.
Catching prey like wild rabbits and pheasants could fetch 20 copper coins per animal, as meat is a rather expensive resource for ordinary people in this world.
However, the hunting results depend on luck; there are quite a few hunters active on the outskirts of Jade Forest, so hunting resources aren't as abundant as imagined under the competition and division.
On lucky days, Gauss caught up to 3 wild rabbits at most in a day, earning a daily wage of 50-60 copper coins.
If unlucky, he might not open for four or five days, even longer.
Fortunately, after setting traps, on his way back, he could still gather wild vegetables, fruits, and herbs in the forest outskirts, allowing him not to return empty-handed.
Additionally, he occasionally did odd jobs such as buying farm products from villages to sell at stalls in town. Bit by bit, life wasn't as hard.
The original body left home over a year ago, relying on inherited trap-making skills and diligent thriftiness, he saved a little bit of money.
3 silver coins and 65 copper coins.
His savings goal was to buy a house in town, and the cheapest houses in town start from 90 silver coins, not to mention the continuous payment for various property taxes afterward, so his savings are actually far from enough. Without any miraculous encounters, he would have to struggle for at least another thirty plus years to possibly purchase a property.
Gray Rock Town is located near the frontier, but after all, it's not a village. Plus, bordering the Jade Forest, adventurers and merchant groups frequently come and go, creating commercial prosperity and full services. Owning a house here is naturally not an easy task for ordinary people.
Yet precisely because of this, the original body, forced to leave home, worked independently, wanted to buy property here to settle down, establish himself, to prove to his family that he could succeed.
"Sadly, the money you've painstakingly saved for over a year, intended to buy a house, will be used by me today," Gauss shook his head, seemingly talking to himself.
Today, he doesn't plan to continue hunting but intends to challenge a monster to light up the Monster Atlas and see what special rewards he might receive afterward.
He hopes to break free from being a low-level freelancer identity; currently, his hope lies with this "Adventurer's Handbook."