Chapter 21 – Future Dream (1)
I woke up at lunch the next day.
“Good lunch. Breakfast is 1 copper.”
“Oh shit, I forgot.”
“Quack.”
Last night I stopped at the bathhouse and returned to the inn to write my thesis and fall asleep. After enduring without caffeine, I got into bed and passed out, so I never thought of having breakfast.
‘This is why I shouldn’t eat out.’
Others last a month with 20 copper, but I think I already spent 30 copper.
I understand the hardships of the youngsters who continue to work for a 3-cooper wage every day without a day off. This is why they live in 1-2 copper inns, prepared to be stabbed in their sleep.
‘Or am I not good at managing money?’
Probably something like that.
This was the sorrow of foreigners. With no fixed income and no home, the money keeps going out. Starting tomorrow, I’ll have to buy something like bread in moderation and leave it in my room to eat. It was very terrible to see the money not being made, but only being reduced.
I ran down the stairs while screaming. It seemed that there was a slight hint of low blood pressure since the waist was heavier than usual since the morning. I was tired, so I didn’t stand up for jogging in the morning.
“Hey, adventurer man. You have to pay.”
As I was about to leave the inn with my voice ringing, Dorca stopped me. It’s like this baby pigeon.
“Wait a minute. I will exercise and eat breakfast.”
“Not that, but the lodging fee.”
“Shit.”
Has it already happened Today was the 3rd update day. It had already been six days, or nearly a week, since he had come to this inn.
Whiik-! Widely!
Fire 10 copper coins forward. Dorca, who caught it lightly, grinned.
“Today’s breakfast is specially provided for free for our excellent customers. Instead, bring the leftover bread from your room.”
“Hey, I’m so happy. But you won’t warm up the food and serve it.”
Small cooking utensils are rarely used in inns in other worlds. The inn business required mass cooking. That’s why I use a pretty big pot like an army kitchen.
Since the pot is big, of course the furnace is fucking big too. It was honestly a waste of firewood to put firewood in that big stove to heat up a little bit of my cooking.
“I’m sorry about that. Because of you alone, I can’t reuse that big pot and wash the dishes.”
“Where do you get a free meal? Next time, I’ll wake up early even after I go to work, so look forward to it.”
Even in the 21st century, hotel breakfasts are not available if you are late. However, this is a different world where cooking is more expensive and cumbersome than on Earth. On the contrary, I should be grateful to Dorca for preparing the food for me to eat.
─Kiik.
I went to the well next to the inn.
What made this world better than the Middle Ages on Earth was drinking water and sanitation. Since the city even has a sewage system, the level of water supply facilities was high.
But I didn’t come here to drink well water. Even when I was on Earth, I didn’t drink much water. At most, coffee, cola, and alcohol were all of the beverages consumed.
I came here for morning exercise.
‘I can’t break the floor while lifting weights on the second floor.’
Coincidentally, the rolling rock in the space next to the well was just the right weight, so I got permission from Dorca and used it to hit weights.
Actually, I only wrote it once a few days ago. I didn’t do upper body exercises every day.
“Turn it off.”
After stretching my upper and lower body and wrists and ankles, I picked up the rock I always use. It was a rock about the size of a sink. The tip is slender, making it easy to grip.
“Det?”
But today, somehow, the weight was a little light. It’s not that it’s not heavy, but the load on the arm was not enough. I couldn’t use this for weights.
‘What the fuck?’
Was it the right weight until the last time?
Did your strength increase as you leveled up while catching goblins? No, it wasn’t a game, and it wouldn’t be. I put down the rock and tilted my head.
‘… It must be because of Beast Return?’
That was the only variable.
My mana began to circulate around my body in earnest from the time I used Beast Return. Do they normally strengthen my body?
People who start to manipulate mana in another world gain power that transcends the limits of the human body based on mana. That’s why I was able to cut kobolds in half or throw Francesca at once even before I got Beast Regression. From then on, I was already very slightly accustomed to mana. Long live Professor Brahmaton.
Anyway, the effect of the mana catheter I felt the moment I used Beast Return might be feeding back into my body.
I opened my top to check the condition of my body. He said that he does not exercise for the sake of his body, but that rice cakes that look good are good to eat.
So, I also checked my body from time to time. Because real angels check their bodies in front of the mirror every day and take pictures to record them.
─Rubberly.
My body shape and appearance haven’t changed much. As always, a strong six-pack and pectoralis major.
─Kuk kuk.
I put my finger on the pectoral muscle to test its hardness. There was no significant change in tactile sensation. It was a machoism body with the same 10% body fat as usual.
No, even if you train mana, doesn’t your skin harden? I heard that it only increases resistance to damage.
So I threw a light self-injury punch at my own body.
─Puck!
“Five?”
Even when I was in a relaxed state, there was no pain as much as when I was giving strength. I don’t know the process, but it was certain that mana had an effect on my body.
─Glance.
At that time, a rock that was one turn bigger than the one I was using stood out. It also weighs a lot more than the original one.
“Hehe.”
I pulled out the rockcalibur stuck in the floor and lifted it.
A cool touch and a heavy weight on the arm. It was now a satisfactory weight.
High weight was the instinct of Hellchang.
***
‘I need to sharpen my sword.’
It was a thought that came to my mind when I was full after eating.
Recently, there have been many opportunities to use poisonous weapons. As a result, the blade got chewed up, but I haven’t done any serious cleaning yet other than cleaning and drying the sword.
The sword received from Carmine University is a mid-priced model. If you take care of it on time, there will be no regrets later.
Originally, about half of a warrior’s combat power is equipment. The effort spent on equipment should not be spared. The grooming method is not difficult as it is explained in detail in my bible, Professor Brahmaton’s book, ‘Adventurer’s Alchemy’.
‘The problem is the whetstone.’
The whetstone he was originally using received a lot of criticism from the red and skinny adventurer combination he met on the carriage to Sardigas.
– Noraengi. Do you mend your weapon with this? I’m going to brush my teeth with dog glue.
—Even if the equipment is cheap, you have to use expensive tools for maintenance.
Those humans said, “Even the whetstone needs to be managed.”
Since I usually left the whetstone I had acquired during my college days in my dormitory room, it was in ruins.
But damn, you have to trim the trimming tools too. It was so blasphemous and unrealistic. It’s literally a culture shock comparable to seeing a toothbrush sanitizer in a friend’s bathroom as a kid.
Grooming for Grooming!
It was as contradictory as sterilization for sterilization and war for peace.
Still, as an adult, I now know why I need to sterilize my toothbrush. A toothbrush left in a damp state is a good environment for germs to breed. It may be a similar reason that there is no point in sharpening a sword if the whetstone is in poor condition.
A whetstone is a tool used to sharpen the blade of a sword.
In other words, it is a kind of ona hole for the sword.
Thinking like that made me feel enlightened. What man is not careful in choosing an ona hole? There were people who didn’t write, but no one wrote anything.
I couldn’t give my partner a cheap real-stone as a gift. Even if I change my weapon in the future, this sword will be the weapon I will entrust my life with for the time being.
“So I came. Smithy.”
– With daughters and daughters.
I entered the simple smithy with the sound of a bell on the door.
A blacksmith’s room with red-toned lights from candles hanging from the ceiling, like an old bar. In a place where iron weapons flashed, a man was holding a smoking pipe and his whole body was dominated by Gao.
“Whoa—”
The old man who was exhaling cigarette smoke didn’t even want to look this way. It’s like a part-time job at a convenience store full of spare time.
They’re not a G store, so even so, that old man is a G store, but he didn’t seem to have any fucking intentions of selling anything. It wasn’t surprising since it wasn’t uncommon in a different world full of machoism, tear-chungs, and Gao.
—It is said that in the past, ramen masters in Japan took away the ramen they made from customers who ate the noodles before the broth.
Then, returning the money, he told me to quit because you don’t deserve to eat my food. I don’t know what to say about the time I wasted waiting for your food during a fucking busy lunchtime.
Anyway, those bastards have all disappeared from the 21st century earth with the flow of the times, but in this world of Amdu Gatdem, such ‘self-proclaimed artisans’ were still common.
But I, too, have long been addicted to machoism in order to survive in this world.
I, Nord, who walks the path of a real man, no longer say “Excuse me” Or “Are you there?”
“Let me see some things.”
Stride.
I deliberately said as if to declare and entered the store. I didn’t forget to use Hao Che like the fucking Paragon.
Like a real man, he approached the man sitting at the counter without paying attention to the weapons on display.
The middle-aged man had a cloth wrapped around his forehead. If he had a circlet on his forehead, he might have suspected he was a ninja, but it was just a white cloth. Anyone can see that it was the blacksmith itself.
“Did Mom run an errand? Greenhorn.”
As soon as I approached, Ajae started talking to me. It was like a cowboy kid straight out of a fucking western movie.
‘Fuck. I can’t stand it, oriole.’
I couldn’t stand it and closed my eyes.
It was proven that my machoism was not yet up to the real trupatta gattori forage pups.
─The ground! Land land!
From inside the building, the sound of hammering could be heard incessantly, as if someone was working. I concentrated with my eyes closed.
‘I am a cowboy. I’m a cowboy and a sheriff…’
Reciting suggestions as if hypnotizing myself, I merge myself with the polite but blunt macho. Then he said it as if he were reciting his lines.
“I’m here to buy a whetstone. Give me one.”
“Go away. I have nothing to sell to the kid.”
In this neighborhood, it is a repertoire as common as ‘You guys were brought in by the army?’.
So I calmly unsheathed the sword and showed it to my father-in-law. I didn’t forget to slightly pull the handle to show the blade.
“I know my skills are lacking. But at this rate, the blacksmith who gave me the sword has no face.”
“Therefore?”
“I am not asking you to sell me anything. As a fellow artisan, I am asking you to be considerate of the artisan who made my sword.”
Pestilence. Do I have to say something like this to buy something? While I was talking, Hyeonta came and I said about that and shut my mouth.
He even wrote a tone that gently scratches the craftsman’s gambit based on the standards of people. If you hear this, fuck it, then just fuck it and go to another smithy.
“Huh. Give it to me.”
The blacksmith took my sword as if snatching it away. I thought he was taking back what he had left me..
“Tsk. It doesn’t make sense.”
He checked my sword here and there and clicked his tongue.
“It needs a lot of grooming. Let me look after you.”
“No need. Please sell me only whetstones.”
The scam of saying that, take it, fix it, and give me a few coopers has become commonplace. It is the same kind of sales scam as when you ask for the price of ice cream at a tourist spot in Japan, put it in a cone, serve it out, and sell it for 500 yen.
“You said you didn’t want to feel sorry for the craftsman who sold the sword?”
“If I can’t take care of myself, there’s no point in the future.”
“Ah, you did well. Okay. I’ll bring it, wait.”
When he firmly refused, the blacksmith went into the forge without returning the sword. The bastard’s way of speaking is nonstop like a dick, really.
He returned a few minutes later with a rag, a whetstone, and an iron bottle of oil in his hands.
“The whetstone is 10 coppers. For an extra copper, I’ll give you a cloth and oil to use with you.”
─What the fuck?
I freaked out as if I saw taiyaki sold in front of the damn station for 3,000 won each. What? 100,000 won for a whetstone?
“… 11 coopers in all. Are you crazy?”
Only a whetstone costs 110,000 won? By any chance, is that whetstone named Emily? It was an unacceptable amount unless it was made through human sacrifice.
Certainly—as far as I know—the average price for an ona hole is around 110,000 won. However, a whetstone is an object that is almost the same as a smartphone charger in terms of its use and structure.
What kind of crazy bastard judges a charger for 100,000 won? It was absurd to even stick a little oil on a surplus cloth and hit it with a 1 Cooper.
‘Is this bastard a dragon-armed bastard?’
I couldn’t buy a square stone that had been beaten for 100,000 won. Thinking that way, I frowned, and Yong-pal, no, blacksmith, who should be called quack because he was digging whetstones, came out with the attitude of saying, “I’m the second one.”
“If you don’t like it, go to another forge. You can’t get it cheaper than here, though.”
Even fixing the fucking price? My eyes went dark.
Was this not Sargadis, but Yongsan? Wow, I never knew there was a way to get back to Earth in the fucking town forge.
─Bubbling.
It’s been a while since I met a 100% pure, spicy, foreigner, and the free soup that I emptied out was b-boying in my stomach. I chewed the phosphorus I had to endure three times with the madness resistance unique to graduate students and smiled.
“Okay. I will do so, so will you return the sword?”
“Hem? Are you going to ask for the price of the goods? Are you kidding me right now?”
Fuck you, go if you twist it.
─Puddeuk.
I finally broke the thread of patience when I saw the quack kid using my sword like a massager to hit his shoulder. I thought I didn’t like the fact that he looked like an asshole.
─That’s it. I’ve endured this a lot.
I felt the thread of patience snap and break.
“10 Cooper. Yeah, 10 Coopers?”
I picked up the whetstone the quack had brought. Then, in a voice that trembled as hell from the rage, he cracked his brain.
“Pray to the Sky God (yáǵeswō deiwōm dyēus)”.
Kuhwaaak!!
As if responding to the anger, my right arm was wrapped in mana. It was a partial invocation of beast return. The dragon power of the earth warrior dwells in the hand holding the whetstone!
Damn… !
As I squeezed it with my grip, the whetstone started screaming.
It is normal that sharpening stones for sharpening knives should be strong by using special rocks. He said that no matter how much I had the strength of a bear, it shouldn’t be cracked so easily.
‘Is this cheap stone whetstone worth 10 copper?’
The strength of the grip increased. I became a ruthless Realdoll destroyer and completely smashed the whetstone.
─Kwajik!!!
Patter!
The whetstone that had been shattered in my hand fell to the floor. I asked, looking straight at the quack.
“Now, how much is it?”
“Uh, uh… ?”
The quack was at a loss for words as the stone was crushed with one grip. It wasn’t even an apology, it was natural that I was going crazy because I just smashed a stone, but that wasn’t what I wanted to hear.
I roared with blinding anger.
“How much now!!!!!! You fucking bastard!!!!!!!!!!!”
Crazy MC lol