Chapter Twelve: What’s Yours is Mine
The sun was high in the sky when I woke up. Raphtalia was waiting for me.
“Are we going back to town? Cough…”
“Yeah.”
She was coughing again. I silently passed her some medicine which she swallowed in silence as well.
We went to an apothecary and tried to sell our wares.
“Well these aren’t bad at all… Hero, do you have a background in medicine?”
He acted like we were already close associates as he looked over the medicine I’d made.
“Nope. Yesterday was my first try. Would it be more profitable to sell these medicines, or to directly sell the herbs?”
“That’s a tough one. Medicine, if effective, is easier to use, and therefore probably easier to sell.”
The owner looked at Raphtalia. He seemed calm, cool. He spoke directly and simply, as if he knew we would doubt his council if his eyes were darting around the room.
“The prophecies are pushing the price of medicine up though, so it’s probably more profitable to sell the medicine.”
“Hmmm.”
It would depend on the risk involved in fabrication, as some percentage of attempts were sure to end in failure. I also had no idea how much it would cost to assemble the necessary tools for the job. But I would need them to do it, regardless.
“Do you have any tools that you don’t use anymore?”
“I thought about telling you two weeks ago, when you came to sell those herbs.”
The owner wore an odd expression, like half of a smile. In the end, he took the herbs as payment for instruction, bought the medicine I’d made, and gave me some of his older, used tools.
He gave me a proper mortar and pestle, as well as some other things: scales, flasks, and the like. I got the impression that, had I bought them new, it would have come to a hefty price.
“They’re all old and clunky, so I don’t know how much you’ll get out of them before they break.”
“Sounds perfect for a beginner like me.”
Regardless, it was plenty of equipment to start experimenting with compounds and fabrication.
Now all we needed to do was sell off the balloon skins we had.
We were on our way to the loot shop when a kid we passed in the street caught my eye. The kid was playing with a balloon, bouncing it up and down like a ball.
Raphtalia was watching him too, jealousy in her eyes.
“Hey, that…”
“Hm?”
I pointed to the ball the kid was playing with and asked the shop owner about it.
“Yes, well it’s made from battle loot. From balloon skins.”
“I get it. Can you make me one too? You can subtract the cost from the amount of skins we sell you.”
The owner calculated the cost, subtracted it from our total, then gave me both the money, and a ball made from the balloon skin.
“Here.”
I threw the ball at Raphtalia. She caught it, looked at the ball, then at me, then at the ball. She was surprised.
“What? You don’t want it?”
“That’s not… Yes…”
She shook her head and smiled.
That was the first time I saw her smile.
… Whatever, it didn’t matter. She was just a kid.
“When we finish our work for the day, you can go play with that.”
“Yay!”
She looked excited. That was good.
The more exited she was, the more money I could make with her.
We went back to the forest and started gathering herbs and fighting off monsters. We went anywhere we could with my current defense rating.
Apparently there was a town on the other side of the woods, but just thinking about the path that womanhad suggested made me angry, so I decided not to go there.
We were doing pretty well and collecting lots of stuff. It felt like we’d gained a little latitude, so I decided to start heading for the mountains.
Huh? A monster I’d never seen before appeared.
It looked like an egg of some kind. If I had to classify it, it was probably related to the balloons somehow.
“There’s a new monster. I’ll go first and see what’s up. If I say it looks okay, run up and stab it.”
“Okay!”
Good answer.
I ran toward the monster. When it saw me approaching, it bared its fangs.
Clamp!
It didn’t hurt a bit. I fought with it for a second, to get a good grip for Raphtalia.
“Hiya!”
She attacked the monster with much more enthusiasm than she’d shown the previous day.
Eggug was what the thing was called.
The Eggug cracked with a loud snap, and its yellow interior ran out onto the ground.
“Ew! Gross!”
Could we sell the shell? It seemed like a waste to just leave it there. But it smelled rotten, so it probably wouldn’t be any good for eating.
My shield absorbed the eggshell.
Soon after, a number of other Eggugs appeared, but Raphtalia took care of them.
Egg Shield: conditions met
Egg Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: cooking 1
Seems like I got yet another ability.
This one was about cooking.
Soon after, more enemies appeared. They were variations on a theme though: various colors of Eggug. We hunted them for a while.
Blue Egg Shield: conditions met
Sky Egg Shield: conditions met
Blue Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: vision up 1
Sky Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: simple recipes
How come I only ever get crafting abilities?
I wondered if it had something to do with the type of enemy. Regardless, as the day went on we also found various types of new medicinal herbs. I was careful to gather as much as I could.
The sun was threatening to fall out of the sky. It was probably too late to start heading into the mountains. Besides, I wasn’t sure that Raphtalia’s equipment was up to the task.
So what did we achieve that day?
I reached level 8.
Raphtalia reached level 7.
She was catching up so quickly.
I suppose that only made sense; she was the one defeating the monsters after all.
It looked like the majority of the EXP points went to whoever landed the finishing blow, which would explain her quick progress through the levels.
“I’m hungry…”
Her stomach was rumbling. She looked at me, concerned.
“Fine. Let’s head back and get some dinner.”
We gave up on our duties for the time being and went back to Castle Town.
When we entered the town, I made for the loot shop. The Eggug shell wouldn’t be much use for compounding, so I decided to sell it off.
Combined with my sales from earlier in the day, we made 9 pieces of silver.
I couldn’t even imagine what they would use the shell for, but they bought it for a good price, so I decided not to press the issue. Our herbs and medicine sold well too. So what should we get for dinner?
… Is what I was thinking, but Raphtalia had already fixed her eyes on a food cart, and was drooling in anticipation. I didn’t plan on spoiling her, but it seemed like a fair price. It seemed just fine.
“You want to eat that?”
“Hm? Really?”
“Well, you want to eat it, right?”
She quickly nodded.
She was much quicker to respond to my questions now.
“Cough…”
She was still coughing though…
I silently passed her some medicine and placed our order at the cart. They were selling something like thick mashed potatoes, formed into balls and skewered.
“Here you go. Good work today.”
I passed her a skewer, and once she finished swallowing her medicine, she took it and smiled.
“Thank you!”
“Oh… Um…”
She looked genuinely happy.
She chewed on the potatoes as we walked around town, looking for a place to stay.
“You want to stay here tonight?”
“Sure.”
I wanted a place to escape from Raphtalia’s night terrors, and I was tired of fighting off balloons. We entered the inn. The owner made a face when he saw me, something approximating anger, but once we came to the counter he approached us with a business-like smile on.
“My friend here might scream a bit in the night, but can we stay here?”
I didn’t intend to threaten him directly, but I waved my cape a little so he caught a glimpse of the balloons inside.
“That… that’s…”
“It’s fine, right? We’ll try to be quiet.”
“Y…yes.”
I’d slowly realized since I arrived that a measure of tenacity was important when conducting business in this place. All the people in the country thought it was fine to ridicule me, but if anything happened they’d run to the king.
Even if they did, there really wasn’t any other choice but to let me do as I pleased.
Geez. Oh, what a world…
I paid for the room, and we went in and started unpacking.
Raphtalia was holding her ball, and her eyes were shining.
“Come back before dark. And try to stay close to the inn, okay?”
“Okay!”
Geez, what a child…
Apparently demi-humans were subject to a fair amount of persecution but I figured that if she were an adventurer, she’d be left alone.
I watched her playing ball in the street from the window, and turned my attention to studying compounding.
About twenty minutes went by. Then I heard the shouts of children.
“What’s a demi-human playing in our spot for?!”
What the heck? I looked out the window. Down in the street was a pack of children, clearly just a bunch of brats, and they were approaching Raphtalia as if they were picking a fight. No matter what world you went to, there was always someone like this to contend with.
“Aw, look, she’s got something good! Give it here!”
“I… um…”
Raphtalia understood that demi-humans were in a lower class. It didn’t look like she was planning on fighting it.
Huff… I left the room and ran down the stairs.
“Give it here! Can’t you hear me?!”
“But I… Um…”
She looked weak, and scared, and I could tell that the brats were going to take the ball from her by force. They formed a circle around her.
“Hold on a second, you little brats.”
“What the hell? Who’s the old guy?”
Wh… What? Old guy? Whatever, I was twenty. Who knew what age they considered grown up in this place? I guess I was an “old guy” to them.
“What are you trying to take toys from her for?”
“What do you care? It’s not yours.”
“It IS mine. I’m letting her borrow it. If you steal it from her, you are stealing it from me.”
“What are you talking about?”
I didn’t care if they were kids. I wasn’t going to go easy on them. If they felt like breaking the rules, they needed to be punished.
“Okay, Okay. Let me give you another ball that I have.”
Raphtalia looked at me in shock. She turned to the boys and looked ready to scream.
“Run!”
But they didn’t run. They looked right back at me.
I smirked, and grabbed a balloon out from under my cape.
“OUUUUUCCCH!!!”
I let the balloon bite the kid before immediately putting it away again.
“Now then… Are you sure you want to play with my ball?”
“Ouch!”
“What are you talking about? You’re crazy!”
“Die! Argh!”
“What do I care, you brat!”
They ran off down the street, and I called out insults after them before heading back inside.
“Um… I…”
Raphtalia had a hold on my cape.
“Careful, you know there are balloons under there.”
She quickly released the cape, surprised. She was shaking with fear, but she slowly raised her face and smiled.
“Thank you.”
What was that about?
“… Right.”
I rubbed her head, and her face flushed red as she turned away.
Chapter Twelve: What’s Yours is Mine
The sun was high in the sky when I woke up. Raphtalia was waiting for me.
“Are we going back to town? Cough…”
“Yeah.”
She was coughing again. I silently passed her some medicine which she swallowed in silence as well.
We went to an apothecary and tried to sell our wares.
“Well these aren’t bad at all… Hero, do you have a background in medicine?”
He acted like we were already close associates as he looked over the medicine I’d made.
“Nope. Yesterday was my first try. Would it be more profitable to sell these medicines, or to directly sell the herbs?”
“That’s a tough one. Medicine, if effective, is easier to use, and therefore probably easier to sell.”
The owner looked at Raphtalia. He seemed calm, cool. He spoke directly and simply, as if he knew we would doubt his council if his eyes were darting around the room.
“The prophecies are pushing the price of medicine up though, so it’s probably more profitable to sell the medicine.”
“Hmmm.”
It would depend on the risk involved in fabrication, as some percentage of attempts were sure to end in failure. I also had no idea how much it would cost to assemble the necessary tools for the job. But I would need them to do it, regardless.
“Do you have any tools that you don’t use anymore?”
“I thought about telling you two weeks ago, when you came to sell those herbs.”
The owner wore an odd expression, like half of a smile. In the end, he took the herbs as payment for instruction, bought the medicine I’d made, and gave me some of his older, used tools.
He gave me a proper mortar and pestle, as well as some other things: scales, flasks, and the like. I got the impression that, had I bought them new, it would have come to a hefty price.
“They’re all old and clunky, so I don’t know how much you’ll get out of them before they break.”
“Sounds perfect for a beginner like me.”
Regardless, it was plenty of equipment to start experimenting with compounds and fabrication.
Now all we needed to do was sell off the balloon skins we had.
We were on our way to the loot shop when a kid we passed in the street caught my eye. The kid was playing with a balloon, bouncing it up and down like a ball.
Raphtalia was watching him too, jealousy in her eyes.
“Hey, that…”
“Hm?”
I pointed to the ball the kid was playing with and asked the shop owner about it.
“Yes, well it’s made from battle loot. From balloon skins.”
“I get it. Can you make me one too? You can subtract the cost from the amount of skins we sell you.”
The owner calculated the cost, subtracted it from our total, then gave me both the money, and a ball made from the balloon skin.
“Here.”
I threw the ball at Raphtalia. She caught it, looked at the ball, then at me, then at the ball. She was surprised.
“What? You don’t want it?”
“That’s not… Yes…”
She shook her head and smiled.
That was the first time I saw her smile.
… Whatever, it didn’t matter. She was just a kid.
“When we finish our work for the day, you can go play with that.”
“Yay!”
She looked excited. That was good.
The more exited she was, the more money I could make with her.
We went back to the forest and started gathering herbs and fighting off monsters. We went anywhere we could with my current defense rating.
Apparently there was a town on the other side of the woods, but just thinking about the path that womanhad suggested made me angry, so I decided not to go there.
We were doing pretty well and collecting lots of stuff. It felt like we’d gained a little latitude, so I decided to start heading for the mountains.
Huh? A monster I’d never seen before appeared.
It looked like an egg of some kind. If I had to classify it, it was probably related to the balloons somehow.
“There’s a new monster. I’ll go first and see what’s up. If I say it looks okay, run up and stab it.”
“Okay!”
Good answer.
I ran toward the monster. When it saw me approaching, it bared its fangs.
Clamp!
It didn’t hurt a bit. I fought with it for a second, to get a good grip for Raphtalia.
“Hiya!”
She attacked the monster with much more enthusiasm than she’d shown the previous day.
Eggug was what the thing was called.
The Eggug cracked with a loud snap, and its yellow interior ran out onto the ground.
“Ew! Gross!”
Could we sell the shell? It seemed like a waste to just leave it there. But it smelled rotten, so it probably wouldn’t be any good for eating.
My shield absorbed the eggshell.
Soon after, a number of other Eggugs appeared, but Raphtalia took care of them.
Egg Shield: conditions met
Egg Shield: ability locked: equip bonus: cooking 1
Seems like I got yet another ability.
This one was about cooking.
Soon after, more enemies appeared. They were variations on a theme though: various colors of Eggug. We hunted them for a while.
Blue Egg Shield: conditions met
Sky Egg Shield: conditions met
Blue Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: vision up 1
Sky Egg Shield: ability locked:
equip bonus: simple recipes
How come I only ever get crafting abilities?
I wondered if it had something to do with the type of enemy. Regardless, as the day went on we also found various types of new medicinal herbs. I was careful to gather as much as I could.
The sun was threatening to fall out of the sky. It was probably too late to start heading into the mountains. Besides, I wasn’t sure that Raphtalia’s equipment was up to the task.
So what did we achieve that day?
I reached level 8.
Raphtalia reached level 7.
She was catching up so quickly.
I suppose that only made sense; she was the one defeating the monsters after all.
It looked like the majority of the EXP points went to whoever landed the finishing blow, which would explain her quick progress through the levels.
“I’m hungry…”
Her stomach was rumbling. She looked at me, concerned.
“Fine. Let’s head back and get some dinner.”
We gave up on our duties for the time being and went back to Castle Town.
When we entered the town, I made for the loot shop. The Eggug shell wouldn’t be much use for compounding, so I decided to sell it off.
Combined with my sales from earlier in the day, we made 9 pieces of silver.
I couldn’t even imagine what they would use the shell for, but they bought it for a good price, so I decided not to press the issue. Our herbs and medicine sold well too. So what should we get for dinner?
… Is what I was thinking, but Raphtalia had already fixed her eyes on a food cart, and was drooling in anticipation. I didn’t plan on spoiling her, but it seemed like a fair price. It seemed just fine.
“You want to eat that?”
“Hm? Really?”
“Well, you want to eat it, right?”
She quickly nodded.
She was much quicker to respond to my questions now.
“Cough…”
She was still coughing though…
I silently passed her some medicine and placed our order at the cart. They were selling something like thick mashed potatoes, formed into balls and skewered.
“Here you go. Good work today.”
I passed her a skewer, and once she finished swallowing her medicine, she took it and smiled.
“Thank you!”
“Oh… Um…”
She looked genuinely happy.
She chewed on the potatoes as we walked around town, looking for a place to stay.
“You want to stay here tonight?”
“Sure.”
I wanted a place to escape from Raphtalia’s night terrors, and I was tired of fighting off balloons. We entered the inn. The owner made a face when he saw me, something approximating anger, but once we came to the counter he approached us with a business-like smile on.
“My friend here might scream a bit in the night, but can we stay here?”
I didn’t intend to threaten him directly, but I waved my cape a little so he caught a glimpse of the balloons inside.
“That… that’s…”
“It’s fine, right? We’ll try to be quiet.”
“Y…yes.”
I’d slowly realized since I arrived that a measure of tenacity was important when conducting business in this place. All the people in the country thought it was fine to ridicule me, but if anything happened they’d run to the king.
Even if they did, there really wasn’t any other choice but to let me do as I pleased.
Geez. Oh, what a world…
I paid for the room, and we went in and started unpacking.
Raphtalia was holding her ball, and her eyes were shining.
“Come back before dark. And try to stay close to the inn, okay?”
“Okay!”
Geez, what a child…
Apparently demi-humans were subject to a fair amount of persecution but I figured that if she were an adventurer, she’d be left alone.
I watched her playing ball in the street from the window, and turned my attention to studying compounding.
About twenty minutes went by. Then I heard the shouts of children.
“What’s a demi-human playing in our spot for?!”
What the heck? I looked out the window. Down in the street was a pack of children, clearly just a bunch of brats, and they were approaching Raphtalia as if they were picking a fight. No matter what world you went to, there was always someone like this to contend with.
“Aw, look, she’s got something good! Give it here!”
“I… um…”
Raphtalia understood that demi-humans were in a lower class. It didn’t look like she was planning on fighting it.
Huff… I left the room and ran down the stairs.
“Give it here! Can’t you hear me?!”
“But I… Um…”
She looked weak, and scared, and I could tell that the brats were going to take the ball from her by force. They formed a circle around her.
“Hold on a second, you little brats.”
“What the hell? Who’s the old guy?”
Wh… What? Old guy? Whatever, I was twenty. Who knew what age they considered grown up in this place? I guess I was an “old guy” to them.
“What are you trying to take toys from her for?”
“What do you care? It’s not yours.”
“It IS mine. I’m letting her borrow it. If you steal it from her, you are stealing it from me.”
“What are you talking about?”
I didn’t care if they were kids. I wasn’t going to go easy on them. If they felt like breaking the rules, they needed to be punished.
“Okay, Okay. Let me give you another ball that I have.”
Raphtalia looked at me in shock. She turned to the boys and looked ready to scream.
“Run!”
But they didn’t run. They looked right back at me.
I smirked, and grabbed a balloon out from under my cape.
“OUUUUUCCCH!!!”
I let the balloon bite the kid before immediately putting it away again.
“Now then… Are you sure you want to play with my ball?”
“Ouch!”
“What are you talking about? You’re crazy!”
“Die! Argh!”
“What do I care, you brat!”
They ran off down the street, and I called out insults after them before heading back inside.
“Um… I…”
Raphtalia had a hold on my cape.
“Careful, you know there are balloons under there.”
She quickly released the cape, surprised. She was shaking with fear, but she slowly raised her face and smiled.
“Thank you.”
What was that about?
“… Right.”
I rubbed her head, and her face flushed red as she turned away.
