Chapter 3 - Section 5 - Business Partners

The following day started much sooner than I'd expected it felt like I had only just closed my eyes when I opened them again to light streaming into them as the twin suns projected beams of searing light right onto my face. Rubbing my face gently as I made my way to my feet, confirming my attire for but a moment before leaving the room and locking the door behind me, before descending the stairs dropping the key off at the desk without a word, and departing from The Last Resort without looking back.

I pulled up the map and made my way back to the main road, knowing that as it stood right now, I would need to accomplish my own goals of getting my registration set so no one could mistake me for Kokei the runaway from the Kingdom.

Once that's done then I can take jobs to buff my professions, since I only have Skinning and First Aid for the moment.

After that I can start my hunt for the warehouse to butcher the remaining drops I have in my inventory then I can reunite with Raisa, if she doesn't find me first that is.

Having arrived at the main road I stopped a passerby and asked for directions to the adventurer's guild, they respond in kind as soon as I produced a copper coin to grease their palm.

I was pointed to a building not even 30 feet away with long draped red flags with a tri-art emblem emblazoned, featuring a shield with crossed sword and bow.

[This must be the sigil of the guild, pretty sure the merchants, and mages each have their own along with dedicated color, though the Kingdom didn't showcase any of this, so perhaps the Meritocracy is just more of a show off]

Deciding it didn't really matter but making sure to mark down the location of the guild with a pin on my map before striding up and into the building, unlike last time when I first entered a guild and just gawked this time I entered and then confidently strode right up to the reception desk.

"Good Morning, here to request a job?"

"No actually I'm here to register with the guild"

"I see well then in that case, please fill out this form; afterwards it'll be a 5 silver registration fee"

Putting the silvers on the counter before even filling out the form, he took it and stepped back to prepare the guild card while I filled out the form.

[I'll go with just Satou from now on, since only nobles, or freemen have multiple names here it seems, next up I need to remember to register my summoning skill, and Kurama as well so I can freely have him out in the city as my pet]

Having put in the barest of essentials I handed the form back to him.

"Oh a summoner that's a pretty rare skill, but work hard so you can level it up a kobold will only get you so far"

I nodded my head, deciding to accept his sage advice since countering would expose my secret, which this isn't true summoning.

Moments later after a flash of blue light the receptionist returned, and handed me my new Onyx guild card as soon as I had it I made sure to press a drop of blood onto the card before pressing the logo to turn off the tracker before turning from the desk and advancing towards the job board.

[Hmmm lots to choose from for G, and F rankers but if I'm looking to grind some professions I should take the limit I'm allowed to in the forest, that way I can get herbs, and possibly some monsters to continue grinding skinning]

After looking over the board I pulled down three requests for herbs that can be located in the forests surrounding the city.

[Oh yeah that's right I still have my monster mats I was going to turn in, better do that before I grab these new jobs]

Taking them back to the receptionist I accepted all three jobs onto my card, once that was done I place the card into my inventory.

"If I defeat a monster not on the request I selected am I allowed to turn in the materials here?"

"Oh but of course do you know what to collect?"

"It's the left ear from humanoids, Fangs, and Claws from others right?"

"Yes that is correct it differs for higher ranked monsters but the ones you'll find in the forest should suffice with that"

I thanked him and exited the guild, before heading out of the city I stopped by a tailor and purchased two large messenger bags that I could put the herbs into so I can hide my item box.

The bags were of good quality and cost a fair bit but the price of exposing my true skills would be even higher, so the loss of two white gold is nothing.

Thankfully with my new guild card leaving the city was a simple task, once I was out of eyesight I pulled the messenger bags into my inventory and took off at a sprint towards the forest.

After only 10 minutes of running I arrived at the edge of the forest, immediately my brain went into job mode, and I began scanning the surrounding everything and anything I could analyze I did, collecting herb after herb, not once but twice, first when I cut they herb from the ground, and then again when I collected the herb drop.

[Nice double growth]

I did a mental fist bump after my first collection; I received for both the item drop and the physical collection.

I had fulfilled all three requests I had taken from the guild within the first 20 minutes of getting to the forest, so I placed those required herbs into the messenger bag, before wandering into the forest further to collect more things for my profession acquisition and growth as well as to assemble ingredients I would need for gaining skill in Alchemy.

"Summon Kurama"

A white flash and my faithful Kobold appeared in the forest, performing and exaggerated stretch like he'd just woken up, before stopping to look around with worry on his face.

"Don't worry she's back in the city, safe and sound"

"Aroo"

A light call out with a simple nod of his head the kobold return to a normal stance.

"Ok so for right now I'd like to find some herbs so I can work on potions, think you can find some for me with your search skill?"

"Arooo"

Kurama raced into the forest, with me tailing after him.

Two hours passed and I finally decided we'd collected far more than enough, though I did get quite a shock shortly after we'd started our search, my Herbalism skill leveled up and as soon as it did each time I went to gather herbs I did so in quite a different way than I had been doing before on my own.

[I wonder if the ones I plucked first are even worth keeping since I know I missed the best parts of the plant… Well it's only for grinding points so it's not like I need the best mats to make a super potion or anything at the moment]

Having decided to end my hunt for the day, Kurama and I ran as fast as we could back towards the city, watching the little fox kid at my side I knew full well he could run faster but stayed by my side instead.

Just before we'd come into view I once again pulled out the messenger bags, one loaded with the herbs and request forms, the other I filled to the brim with Goblin ears and fangs, since it's only been a few hours for safety sake I only placed 20 of each into the bag.

When I returned to the gate, the guard was shocked but after checking my id he waved us through without issue, but not before remarking at how my Kobold look identical to a residents pet.

[Ha little does he know they're both the same thing or close enough since Kurama is now wearing some basic clothes I'd purchased for him, perhaps I should see if I can give Raisa a kobold card to summon her own? But without the gamer skill I'm pretty sure the card wouldn't even look like anything more than paper to her, or even possibly invisible to her eyes]

Walking my way down the street to the guild I drew the eyes of those I passed, or rather it wasn't me but rather Kurama who was so popular, it is pretty rare after all to see a monster within the city walls even more so for one who was wholly domesticated and wearing clothes.

Arriving at the guild and walking straight up to the reception desk.

"Welcome… wait aren't you the guy from this morning? You're not dropping the request are you?"

"Huh no of course not actually I just came to turn them in I have the herbs right here"

Placing the herb filled bag on the counter.

"Also as per my ask this morning I also have defeated monster goods in this other bag"

"You found the herbs already for all three requests? But those herbs are precariously difficult to locate!"

"Oh well that's probably normally true but thanks to my summon it was rather simple he has a search skill"

Peering over the desk to see the child size kobold stand next to me whose head didn't even reach the top of the desk.

"Oh my He's so Cu…!"

Cutting himself off midsentence

"huh rumph I see well you are quite lucky but then again most animal summons do come with skills similar to their species, alright well before we deal with your completed quests do you mind if I examine your monster materials, afterwards we'll update your guild card, and process payment."

At his word I lifted the monster mat bag up to the counter; he started to pulled out the fangs, and ears.

"Goblin's and so many of them!"

"We ran into a couple of squad when we went into the forest since I didn't see the herbs grown anywhere in the field."

"You didn't see any signs of a settlement though did you?"

[Settlement? Like a goblin village, or damn ge thinks I killed the goblins here when really these are just leftovers from before i'd even arrived here in Joquet]

"Nope nothing like that just a couple of small parties"

"Phew that good, though if you found that many it's probably best we send a team to scout just in case."

"Alright well with your three completed quests so you get 2 points each for those along with the payout of 6 coppers, next the goblin ears, and fangs you get 3 points per goblin so that's 60 points there and then the reward for their extermination and purchase of the fangs which comes to 2 copper coins, lastly the reward for bringing back information from the west forest, due to the high encounter rate we'll push it since a true G Ranker wouldn't survive that, so all said and done you'll be awarded a promotion I know you only just got your card, but I'll need to ask for it back."

[Uh ok]

Pulling my Onyx card out I handed it to him, he proceeded to take it and place it atop the guild card station before placing a copper card inside, another blue flash and the black card disappeared in a scattering of light particles, instead I was handed back a Copper card with an F listed in the top right of the card.

"And with that concludes your promotion from G rank to F rank congratulations, usually this takes 3-4 months but you managed it in but half a day, we look forward to your continued growth"

Pocketing my new copper id, and scooping the provided coppers into my wallet, before placing the now empty bags back onto my shoulders, and headed out of the guild to find a market I could purchase more equipment.

Having located a general store not too far away I walked inside and headed straight for the counter without looking around.

"Good Morning Young Sir, what can I get for you today?"

A portly shopkeeper with a trimmed white beard spoke out from behind a counter, he was either sitting or very short, but I couldn't tell with how close to the counter he was pressed.

"Good Morning, I'm looking to purchase potion bottles and a large amount of cloth if I can"

"Oh I see, how many of each are you looking for?"

"Hmm well I'd like to get as many bottles as I can, as for the cloth does it come in bolts or per swatch of cloth?"

"Oh I see well on hand right now I have two hundred glass bottles for potion storage, packed up that's two full crates worth, you have a cart to haul that?"

Without waiting for my response he continued

"As for cloth we can sell it by the bolt but usually just sell per piece, if you're looking for bulk I can sell 5 bolts right away"

"Uh that sounds good, I'll take both. All of both that is, Thank you"

"Ok well that'll come to 5 white gold then"

Reaching into my wallet I pulled out the white gold, after having silently placed it there from my inventory.

"Just a moment and I will get your order right out for you"

Having scanned over the goods lining the shelves while I waited, just about everything I saw was completely foreign to me, and even using my heads up display to analyze didn't help as the names meant even less to me.

"Here you are two crates of bottles and 5 bolts of cloth"

Turning around I saw the stack of items at the counter.

Taking the 5 bolts in hand I bent over and handed them to Kurama.

"Don't drop these ok?"

'nod nod'

Turning back I hoisted up both crates with little effort.

"Oh I see a tamer, guess you're also an adventurer still your strength is pretty good for a magic user"

"Heh well I'm actually a frontline fighter the only magic I can use is taming but even with that I only have my kobold here so far"

[He called me a tamer, and well no sense spreading the rumor that I'm a rare summoner, since he reacted much less to thinking I was a tamer]

"Ah yes talents can be more of a curse than a blessing if your stats don't grown to match them"

With a stern look on his face the shopkeeper looked pensive for a moment before crossing his arms.

"Well anyway good luck on your adventures and don't stop growing you hear"

"I will"

Leaving the shop, Kurama and I quickly found the first alley we could, before storing the items into my inventory.

"Well what do you think Kurama, time for lunch?"

The little kobold looked up at me rubbing its belly, and low growl escaping its lips.

"Hah hah don't worry we'll get something good to eat"

[Did he really just pretend to have his stomach growl?]

Now unburdened by our shopping luggage we headed off into the market square. Voices called out from all directions.

[Well it is noon so there's going to be a lunch rush]

Quickly getting in line at the nearest stall with the smallest line, my turn came quicker than I expected, so when the cook pressed me for my order, I just asked for 5 of everything.

Paid and left carry quite the large haul of food, there were 6 different kinds of skewers totalling 30 in all, we made our way to a back alley once again before sitting down on the ground, unwrapping the different leaves that acted as container for the skewers.

"Not sure what kind any of these are, since the name doesn't tell me anything but let's say these two are pork, these two are beef, and these ones are chicken"

Reaching out and picking up a pair of different skewers, I took my first bite the meat overflowed with juice.

[Hmm cannot compare to Yggdrasill food, but the taste of fresh meat is so enticing, but there's a total lack of seasoning, feels like all there is to flavor this is salt.]

As I swallowed I looked to my side, at a teary eyed kobold staring up at me.

"Uh feel free to dig in, I did buy this for both of us after all"

"AROOOOOOO!"

Letting out a battle cry howl Kurama, joined in on double fisting skewers but quite unlike me, who ate at a moderate pace, Kurama inhaled skewer after skewer, until every last one was devoured.

"Mmm that hit the spot huh?"

Kurama, and slumped down against the wall his protruding belly being rubbed slowly.

"Well after this comes work, I'm going to be going to the butcher to harvest some monsters I hunted, so do you want me to call you back or do you want to stay out?"

A paw rose up and gripped my arm.

"Alright well don't whine to me when your nose falls off from the smell then"

Getting to my feet, I watched as Kurama followed suit, oddly enough though his beer belly that was prominently pronounced just moments ago was gone, and he was back to looking exactly like he always did.

"Ok well first things first, do you know how to get back to the warehouse we were at yesterday?"

'nod'

Not waiting for my say so Kurama took off through the streets, and I dutifully followed after.

Before too long we stood outside a warehouse, which Kurama confirmed with a small howl was the one I was looking for.

Knocking on the door Raisa had walked through yesterday, there was no reply… Reaching for the doorknob I turned and it opened.

[So it wasn't locked, is it alright for me to just waltz right in?]

Deciding I could always apologize if I was in the wrong, I opened the door and stepped inside, making my way to the section I had dropped off the bandit goods, but where yesterday a mountain of loot had resided now the space was empty once again.

"Did she already sort and sell all of it? Oh well guess I should go to the back since I can't find anybody here so far"

Joined by my faithful Kobold I made my way down the various paths following the scent of iron building in my nose until I reached the heavy wooden doors, pressing hard on the door it swung open.

Inside the view had not changed much, the walls were still lined with bodies, being drained of blood, on the racks rolled up hides were draining, and in the middle of the room on a large wooden table stood Viktor dutifully performing what looked like an autopsy on an unidentifiable piece of meat.

"Yo Viktor hope you don't mind me dropping by"

Jumping a little at my voice before looking up.

"Oh back so soon Satou, most can't wait to stay away from this place once they leave"

"haha well I can understand that, but I had two reason to return"

"Two? I did mention yesterday about how your hides would be sold once they were ready so, you're hear for the Orc's, and those Rams of yours then?"

"Well yes that's part of it, I was going to collect whatever there was from the lizards and hopefully break down some more if you're willing, but the second reason was I forgot to get Mrs Raisa's home location from you, since she was going to sell other goods for me, and asked me to stop by so she could give me my cut once she'd finished"

"Ah yes I recall the young miss mentioning that, well I'm just about finished with your final lizard here, but in the meantime you're welcome to collect the rest that's already been processed. But the hides again will take time before their ready."

Allowing Viktor to return to his work, I collected the materials he harvested from the 6 bodies

Collected:[[ 5 Stone Lizard Claws, 18 Iron Ore, 27 Copper Ore]]

Slipping the materials into my inventory.

"So those lizards are made up of stone, and ore interesting, but that also just means that normal attacks from blades wouldn't work on them, I'm guess the big guys'll handle them?"

Posing my question to the kobold at my side.

'nod'

Receiving confirmation but soon after the kobold dropped his head.

"Hey no reason to get sad or anything, there are plenty of creatures I can't attack either, besides it's just further proof that we needed those two to protect us, after all you didn't want anything to happen to Raisa or me right?"

'nod nod'

"Alright kid, I'm all done here there's still light left in the day, do you want to continue with the harvest? Or are you going to head over to meet up with Mrs. Raisa?"

"Hmm I think it's best if we finish all of this work here first, I don't want to be a bother having to drop by a half dozen times to drop off more and more items to sell when I could just make the one trip."

"Hmm can't say the lady'll see it like that but that's up to you"

[huh, oh well I guess she is a merchant so she probably wouldn't care to much so long as she has something to sell]

"In any case bring on out the next round and I'll show you what we need to do"

Following his prompt, I pulled the 13 Orc bodies out of my inventory, working with Viktor we hauled 2 of them up onto the tables within the room.

"Alright with Orc's it's quite a bit different, since the there's only 4 parts of them worth harvesting. First off are the ears, and fangs."

Next turning towards his tools table he picked up a gelding knife next up you want to collect the medicinal ingredient, quickly working his way between the orc's legs, before returning almost no time later with a leather pouch drawn to the floor from the weight of its contents.

'URP'

Placing a hand over my mouth in an attempt not to get sick.

"Hahaha don't worry kiddo that's the reaction everyone has at first, if you don't think you're up for it, you could always just leave this particular part for me, and your kobold there."

[Huh why Kurama]

As Viktor started carving into the Orc corpse in front of him, removing thick piece of meat one after another from the Legs, arms, and torso, glancing down I saw Kurama was standing by watching Viktors moves while wielding a knife itself, not looking for an opening to attack but studying his moves.

When the time came and the first orc was done, he gave us a look and declared it was our turn. I joined in on the body in front of me removing all I could skillfully.

[Seems the skinning skill also applies to general butchery as my knife seems to just know where it's supposed to go, even though my meat cuts aren't as clean or precise as Viktors]

As I worked to process the orc, Viktor started on his next, while Kurama went around to all the remaining orc's, removing their "parts" along with ears and fangs before returning, and placing them into bags provided to us by the butcher.

As my work continued the pile of meat grew and grew, when we reached the final body my curious nature took over and I prompted Kurama to give it a try.

As we both stood back and watched as the little kobold scrambled up onto the same table, before working it's knife in fluid motions, we spectators only interfered when cuts were complete and only to remove the meat itself.

"That's a pretty skilled Kobold you've got there, I dare say he might even be more skilled than I am"

"What really? But he doesn't even have a Butchering skill or anything?"

"Well there is no butchering skill you know, butchering is just a common term used but there are a number of skills that actually influence it, I assume you have one yourself and the Kobold another one."

"hmm well I have the skinning skill myself, but as for Kurama the only skill of his I can think that might match is the survival skill"

"Well survival sure sounds like a match to me though it's surprising to see that even animal skills can be applied to intelligent craft, but even still with the way the bold is moving its gotta be at least a level 3 skill, is it a trained summon, or did you contract with it?"

"Uh contract with it?"

"Hmm well that answers that, still the amount of time spend to train it would be insane"

"Well actually he started with the skill from the beginning, or at least that's what it appears to be since we do most jobs in the forest hunting for herbs, and small monsters to complete jobs at the guild"

"Ah yes not uncommon but still to get a summon with that level of skill is pretty rare, almost like getting a head start"

As our conversation continued Kurama wrapped up the rest of his carving, before jumping to the ground and once more taking his victory pose.

"Alright well that end the last of the Orc's so we should dispose that which we don't need to make room."

Nodding my head, the three of us worked together to toss the now lightened bodies into the pit.

Walking back I collected the materials and meat into my inventory.

Collected:[[ 13 Orc Teste pairs, 50Kg Orc Meat, 6 Orc Fangs]]

"Phew you two are working this old man hard, hahaha but not that I'm complaining we've still got plenty of time so bring on those Rams with the three of us working we should be done in no time."

Taking the last of the bodies out of my inventory, the seventy something rams lay in a pile, as we sifted our way through, Viktor and I strung them up from the ceiling hooks, Kurama meanwhile went to collect a pair of boxes to use as a step ladder to be able to reach the hanging bodies.

"Ok so when it comes to Ram's first up you want to save the wool, so we shear it off, afterwards we'll skin them, prep the hides, afterwards comes the butchering for meat"

As the description was finished the three of us settled in and started pouring over the numerous bodies, as the work progressed, I couldn't help but notice I was being left behind, both Viktor and Kurama were moving at a blind speed compared to me, but since this will boost my skinning skill I refused to give up and accepted the gauntlet thrown down by the pair of them.

After hours of repetitive work finished the challenge was completed, Kurama had just barely lost out to Viktor in terms of numbers, meanwhile I was the complete loser, and in my haste I had accidentally damaged some of the hides.

"That's the last of it right?"

"Huh oh yes that's right I don't have anything else to butcher at the moment"

"Well it was a pleasure working with you two, should you ever need a space to work just hit me up, whether the miss allows it or not you're always welcome to use this space, and if your master ever tries to get rid of you little guy come to me and I'll take care of ya"

"Aro?"

Tilting his head to the side in confusion before looking up to me.

"Don't listen to him Kurama, I would never abandon you, oh but on the topic of taking care of, Viktor you wouldn't happen to know anywhere nearby that's got decent rooms for rent that are fairly large?"

"Hmmm well if you don't care about location we could always rent you one of the warehouse rooms? We usually only ever use then for the apprentices or when I pull all-nighters to complete a job"

"That should work well and avoid any prying eyes from those interested in Kurama. Who do I talk to towards renting one?"

"Hoh no worries I can handle it for you, how long a stay you thinking?"

"Well I'd say at least a week, we've just been promoted to F rank so we're not in a huge hurry to take any further jobs at the moment and I'd like to work on strengthening my craft"

"I see I see, well no matter here"

Tossed a key over to me "The room is on the second floor of the main building, as for the cost just inform the lady about it when you meet up with her and she can subtract it from your sold goods"

"Got it, thanks now I think it's about time we get some food after a long day of working like this"

"hahaha sounds like I plan, I'd join you but I must get home now that works done today, stay out late again and my wife is going to change the locks on me… but I must say if you two are planning on going out, a change of clothes in order at the very least and your kobold will need a bath."

Staring down at the two of our bodies, blood splattered and caked my clothes, and dried blood matted Kurama's fur.

[Please let this work]

"Recall Kurama"

With a flash Kurama, disappeared from beside me.

"Summon Kurama"

A second flash and a fresh Kurama free from blood stood next to me.

"Quick Change"

In an instant the clothes I was wearing were replaced with a new set of clothes I'd picked up in town when we'd gone shopping.

"Hoh!"

Eyes as wide as saucers the look on his face reminiscent of when I'd first unloaded the mountain of bodies into his workshop.

"You mages always surprise, though can't say I've heard of that spell before, sure wasn't a language I've heard of in my long life"

[Huh but I just spoke normally, but if that's the case when I use commands from my menu does everyone else hear me speaking the earth's languages?]

"Then again this world of ours is sure vast, and I haven't traveled even a third as much as the young miss has"

With that he waved us off as me and Kurama took off out the side door.

Pretending to wander into town but really just circling the building I made sure to put a map pin down so I could always return on my own, we reached the front door entered and ascended to the second floor after a small handful of attempts we found the door to our room, entering and closing the door behind, I told Kurama it was ok to do whatever he wanted as I was going to be shopping in my menu for a bit.

Walking over and taking a seat on the sofa, Kurama meanwhile climbed up to and curled into a ball before falling asleep on the bed.

Pulling my menu up, I pathed into the game store, first I placed a couple of items for supper into the checkout, then moved onto the profession goods tab there were numerous items listed, but sadly no ingredients or materials themselves so I couldn't just spam crafting in my room.

Deciding to purchase what I would need for now, I placed a Mortar & Pestle, Retort, Alembic, and Calcinator into the checkout.

Once that was done I confirmed the purchase and paid.

All the items jumped straight to my inventory, where I removed the four and placed them on the table, then pulled out a handful of the herbs we'd gathered placing them on the table.

[I have no idea what it is I'm actually doing right now but just got to try until I gain the first proficiency point after all]

Grabbing up the herbs I tossed a small bit into the mortar, and began grinding them into a paste with the pestle, once that was done I took the ground up paste and placed it in into the other tools, lit a simple bunsen burner below and adding water from my water skin.

The mixture began to boil changing color all the while until the vapour shot up the pipe before dripping down into the second bulb watching this process take place was oddly calming.

[This whole process reminds me of that time back in school when we tried to make our own still, that ended in failure as it was always destined to, but this time I have help from the system as it can tell me what it is I've actually made and as I level up my understanding will grow]

Once the mixture had completely boiled away, the new sum had condensed into the bulb I used my skill to analyze the mixture.

<>

Cleaning up from my first attempt, I pulled up the menu sighting the new skill Alchemy Level 1, when I clicked into the profession similar to the First aid skill the crafting menu appears and showed that I was capable of creating 2 different potions, and 2 poisons at this time though looking at the ingredients required, water was going to be a tricky one, at present the only water I have is what is in my water skins, so to resupply or collect more I'll need to buy a bunch from the store, or locate a well in town and place a good amount in my inventory.

[Well that's thoughts for another time, for now I'll just focus on my First aid skill for tonight]

Pulling up the first aid section I selected the bandages I'd like to craft, and then set the amount to the maximum I could make at this time from the bolts of cloth in my inventory, before hitting the confirm button.

As soon as I did, a weird sensation passed through my body.

I could still look around but when looking at my hands I saw cloth after cloth materialize, and then get worked by my flurry of hands until a rolled bandage like gauze appeared only to disappear and the process repeat itself.

[So it's just like the game, when crafting through the menu the system take over, until I move to interrupt the action, well I guess since it's doing all the work I'll check out the progress, i should experiment on whether i can do the same with skinning later.]

The cloth bolts in my inventory finally ran out, and the crafting finally stopped after verifying my progress I had leveled up and reached Level 2 in First Aid, 92 total thick bandages were created, capable of healing 25health each.

"Seems like a good stopping point didn't know how many I could make or how long It'd take but still for this many to be made in so short a time, seems like no time at all considering it was just turning a strip of cloth into a rolled up bunch… then again given they provide instant healing it's more likely they receive a healing enchantment so I guess it's not too farfetched but the overall process i'd imagine should take many time more time per bandage than what i just did."

"Arwoo?"

Performing a full body stretch waking up from the short nap, before sitting on the edge of the bed and looking over to me.

"Yeah time for dinner"

Pulling out the food I'd purchased and placing it on the table, the pair of us dug in heartily to the steak, and veggies on the plates in front of us.

As was common by now the Yggdrasill food was orders of magnitude better than any Terra food I'd come across so far, Kurama seemed extra elated at the steak before him.

With dinner finishing off I decided since it was already dark out, and the materials required for Alchemy were still missing I should turn in for the night.

Heading to the bed and falling into the folds of the blanket, Kurama joined and took a position at the foot of the bed.

"Goodnight"

"ara"

The following morning we awoke and ate some Yggdrasill porridge before I decided to just purchase a Bottomless Water skin from my in game store, setting myself up once again on the couch I pulled up the crafting menu and selected to create as many of the two potions and as I could.

The morning sun passed through the air as the flurry of movements my hands made intensified until finally I ran out of herbs to process from my inventory.

[Well that sure is strange…]

Staring dumbfounded at my inventory I had used up all of the required herbs and in their place was a vast quantity of both potion types, however what struck me was not their amount, but rather the fact that the newly created potions were in bottles, but the ones I'd purchased were not used to house them.

[So I wasted money after all huh, oh well not like it was a lot and I can always grind them up for crystals later on]

'Clap'

I clapped my hands in front of me before springing to my feet, Kurama similarly did the same bolt to the floor from his place on the bed.

"We should grab some lunch and then head back out to gather more herbs, since I'm out of stock now"

'nod'

Leaving the warehouse behind and heading off in a familiarish direction towards the only other pin on my map, I walked straight to, and then into the guild going over to the job board.

[I'm F rank now which mean I can take up to E rank jobs, but I'm looking for herbs to grind my alchemy skill so I want to pick a job that's going to be based in the forest]

In the end I settled for a pair of F rank herb collections, and a E rank extermination request taking the pamphlets over to the desk I pulled my guild card out and registered.

[The herbs should be easy enough to find thanks to my analyze skill, and Kurama should be able to sniff out the goblins, plus it give me a good chance to turn in more fangs and ears again… though if we kill the gob's I'll wind up with double collection from them again, and the misunderstanding of how many are in the forest will just increase…]

'sigh'

"the wheel never stops turning"

"Oro?"

Tilting his head in confusion

"Let's get going we've got some hunting to do"

While patting Kurama's head

"Ara!"

The pair of us set off, down the main street through the checkpoint at the guard station, then taking off at a sprint to the forests once again.

After 20 minutes we arrived at the verge of the forest once again.

"Kurama can you go into the forest and kite the goblins over to me? If you just go out and defeat them then we won't be able to dispose of the bodies and something worse might happen then drawing out more monsters."

"Ara Ara"

Jolting off at a blinding pace into the depths of the forest

"Well I'd best start my hunt for the herbs while he's off getting the gob's attention."

Walking into the forest the suns only appeared in patches where the canopy above was clear; the entire time I walked my eyes darted left to right, spying out a bunch of various herbs littering the forest floor, which my Herbalism skill must be pointing me to.

Collecting both the plants themselves along with the duplicate drop as I continued to make my way through the forest, the stores of my ingredients grew exponentially.

My walk continued for quite a while until in the distance I heard a loud howl.

"Hmm seems Kurama must be on his way back, I'd better get ready"

Storing away the herbs I had just collected before drawing my twin one handed long swords and taking a stance facing the direction the howled come from.

After only a few minutes of waiting a blaze of orange flashed before my eyes, before skidding to a stop in front of me, doing a quick comical bow before once again launching off up into the tree branches above.

Shortly thereafter a horde of goblin's tore their way through the bushes Kurama, had just emerged from.

This was no mere group, and if it was Kurama had kited numerous parties he'd found until we wound up with the stampede of goblins making their way towards me.

[Huh, uh well I know I said bring me gobs but seriously Kurama, that's too many]

Staring a bit shocked at the army of goblins now charging towards me the lone target in their vision, before me over a hundred goblins screamed, and cried out in anger their eyes bloodshot and foaming at the mouth.

[Uh yeah a bit too much for just me to handle, guess I play my trump card then]

As the goblin were about to enter close combat range I tensed up .

"Summon Rocky" "Summon Creed"

I shouted out my summoning command

Two blinding flashes of light later and the goblins stopped their charge, only to blink rapidly once the light faded to spy the pair of stone golem standing in front of them their arms raised preparing to drop their heavy boulder like fists onto the goblin army's heads.

'Boom' 'Boom'

Both their fists dropped with surprising speed crushing the goblins unlucky enough to be caught beneath them, as soon as the small shockwave passed I took my chance and leapt into the fray between them slicing and slashing rather recklessly at the stunned goblins.

Meanwhile Kurama had leapt down behind them and was working away at picking off any who attempted to flee, while also whittling down their rear line.

Each swing of my swords another goblin was felled but compared to what the Golems were doing this was a mercy to the goblins, each punch or kick causing the goblin unlucky enough to be struck to rocket across the ground until coming in contact with a tree and seemingly exploding upon contact.

Even with their numbers compared to our superior stats and strength the hundred odd goblins were dealt with in less than an hour, after which Kurama and I went around collecting their ears, and fangs. While we were doing that I had the golems dug a mass grave we could place the bodies into.

The suns were well into the afternoon before we'd finished our task, so I called back the golems, and continued my walk through the forest hunting down any and all herbs I could find.

Kurama tried multiple times to set off in search of more goblins but I refused seeing as how we didn't need to attract that much attention right away, at least not until I'm sure we can protect ourselves from anything or anyone who might try to do us harm.

Setting off back for town once the darkness started creeping over the horizon, we could always stay outside town and camp if we miss the chance to enter when the gates are closed for the night but I'd rather return now that way I can have an early start to go shopping tomorrow and get more cloth to further level up my first aid, or gain the tailoring profession.

[Perhaps it would be better to stay outside though, since the longer we are gone the more goblin materials we can turn in and have it be believable]

For a single afternoon's worth of hunting to turn in over 100 goblin's worth would break most people's idea's of reality.

Stopping our run, I told Kurama of my plan to not go back to the town tonight but instead camp outside, so instead we headed away until we can upon a small cave, with the last light disappearing into the distance, I placed down two bedrolls, and then summoned my golems once again but this time placing explicit rules to only attack something that comes in range, not to go out looking for anything.

Eating a quick purchase from the in game store before turning in for the night

The night passed peacefully with no wandering monster coming across our little cave so with the rising of the sun's I pulled back my guardians and set off for the town.

When we returned the guard who checks id's stopped us.

"Oh hey, welcome back when you didn't return last night got pretty worried you know, after all you were going after goblins solo, err semi-solo weren't you"

"Yeah sorry about that, there were quite a few more than we ever expected to find and got stuck fighting through the night"

"Wait you don't mean!"

Glancing down at both satchel bags hanging from my shoulders, both bags and the backpack upon my back were bulging to the point of spilling their contents.

"Yeah the rumor that there's a goblin settlement might not be just a rumor after all"

"But still to hunt that many alone, you're lucky you didn't get yourself killed"

"Well not like I had much choice but to fight when they came upon us in waves, plus I didn't want to run and lead an army back to town"

"Right Right, well good work you should head to the guild right away and report your findings"

Receiving my guild card back Kurama and I headed off up the main street until we came upon the guild we entered and headed straight for the desk.

Placing all three request forms onto the desk as I receive the usual welcome.

"All right please provide the goods requested and we can process your mission completion"

Starting off I pulled the requested amount of herbs out and place them on the counter after a quick check the receptionist smiled before confirming the requests were completed, next when asked for proof of the goblin's I'd hunted, I hoisted all three of my bags onto the counter.

The bags landed with a 'Thud' the receptionist's face blanched and another guild employee ran over to assist her.

After waiting at the desk as they removed and counted every single ear, and checked on the fangs we'd stored away as well.

"Mr. Satou we're deeply sorry the report from our scouting team in the forest did not specify this level of goblin activity, to think you were misled like this and put in such a level of harm's way"

She stated while bowing deeply behind the counter.

"huh uh well I mean it's fine, we survived after all but I can't wait to get to an inn to sleep"

[Lying here is for the best to make it seem like we spend a lot more time fighting than we really did]

"Well it's safe to say your mission was a success, we'll process your reward for all three requests along with the additional reward for the extra goblins right away, but since the amount of goblins is so great you will certainly receive another promotion if you'll just wait a little bit, while we await the guild masters approval"

Only a moment passed before a staunch man entered the room.

"You Satou?"

I nodded in the affirmative

"Get in here!"

His command gave me a bit of a jump, but I steeled my nerves and entered the back room of the guild with Kurama dutifully tagging along.

The room I entered must've been a meeting room or break room for the guild since there were four couches arranged in a square around a central table various maps, weapons, and shields lining the walls.

"Well take a seat wherever"

Another booming command resonated through my brain, hoping to get this over with asap I took the nearest seat to me, half expecting Kurama to jump up and join me only to be scolded by the guild master, Kurama on the other hand chose to take a seat on the floor to the side of the couch I had chosen. The guild master meanwhile made his way to the couch seated opposite me.

"So I hear you took on quite a few goblins yesterday huh?"

"Uh well I mean not really by choice"

"Hah makes you an unlucky bastard then doesn't it?"

"I can't really deny that, I mean I went out looking for a single party, and wound up fighting day and night for survival"

"Yeah well so I'll get right to the point the main reason I called you in, is because promotions within the guild don't ever happen back to back, you're kind of breaking the mold here advancing to F in only a day and then being qualified to advance to E only a few days later, your paperwork says you're a summoner and seeing that kobold there I believe it but what I can't believe is that you and that bold there took on over a hundred gob's in just one night fighting for survival or otherwise"

"Well you see, it wasn't just me and Kurama though sir"

"Oh?"

"It's true as it states on my paperwork that I am indeed a summoner, however I only registered Kurama since I keep him out to wander around town almost like pet, my other summons though I never bothered to register"

"Other summons, hmph and what pray tell are they?"

"Oh uh well I have a pair of stone golems, they act as my wall to allow only a handful of anything to come near me so I can control the flow of the battle better"

"Mmmm"

The guild master accepted my statement before leaning back and stroking his chin.

"So a summoner with the power to create a party at will huh, well that's much more believable than you having done all this solo, I'd ask you to prove your case but bringing out a golem here would just destroy my guildhall. Though I will require you to get them registered to your guild card, otherwise this situation may happen again"

"Alright I can agree to that"

"Now onto the topic of your promotion, while I agree you qualify for E rank I do have one condition before I grant you the promotion"

"And that is?"

"Since you and your 'team' seem exceptionally well versed in combating goblins, I'd like you to go out and clear out the settlement that's got to be based in that forest somewhere especially since you've been unanimously been given the title in the hall as 'The Goblin Slayer'"

"Wait what you want me to take on an entire goblin village, given how many we found wandering the forest, just how many would a village make?"

"About a thousand or so"

"To say that so calmly if we charge in there we're sure to die!"

"I didn't say you had to go there right now, sheesh whittle it down bit by bit, just as you have been doing already until its strength is sapped and empty"

"Oh… well in that case if there's no time limit then we can agree, and I can still complete jobs in the forest while we are taking on the gobs?"

"Of course this isn't an official request after all but more a personal one, I'll pay for each goblin you kill, and if you manage to take down the settlement after all then you'll get a big reward from the town itself."

"I see well we'll do our best then."

"With that give me your guild card"

Nervously I handed over my card

The guild master took it gave it a quick glance before sliding his thumb over the section listing my rank, like magic the F changed into an E, once that was done he tossed the card back to me promptly got up and headed off through a door at the back

[Well that was odd, but at least it's over now]

Heading out of the meeting room, I was about to leave when the receptionist called out to me.

"Mr. Satou!"

Spinning around to face the voice.

"The guild master informed us you need to update your ID if you would please follow us"

[Ugh… he did mention that but did it have to happen right now?]

Following the lady through the back hallway exiting into a green square behind the guild building.

"If you could please produce your summons for verification we can update your ID right away"

"Uh sure… yeah right away"

[Damn ok well time to fudge it since I've already been told they don't understand my 'spells']

"By the power's of heaven and earth I call upon you to serve me ~Summon Rocky~"

A Flash of light and a stone golem appeared.

"Join your companion in the sun and protect me ~Summon Creed~"

A second flash of light and the second golem appeared, into the square.

[Oh my freaking gods I am so embarrassed that I just did that embarrassing pair of chants but I can't have everyone thinking I can use summoning like it was nothing, but it'd be worse if someone tried to copy me]

"Oh my so it's true you do have two stone golem summons, if you provide me with their names I can get the registration finished for you"

"Oh yeah sure the White one is Rocky, and the black one is Creed"

Upon my announcing of their names the golems waves one at a time to us.

I don't know if it was nerves or just reflex but the receptionist waved back at the two of them, before heading inside with my guild card, as soon as she was gone they did a mutual fist bump.

'sigh'

"c'mon guys what are you teenagers, Return!"

Once both golems had dispelled Kurama and I returned inside to retrieve my updated Guild card at the reception desk.

Well now turning in those quests sure took quite a bit more time than I had hoped or expected, I should get back now so I can convert all those herbs to potions then afterwards head out to secure cloth from as many merchants as I can to grind experience.

Making our way back to the warehouse, and returning to our rented room on the second floor, I opened and started the alchemy crafting process right away before once again turning all my focus into the menu.

[hmm the more I look at the menu the more it seems stranger and stranger to me, not because of the user interface or anything but the potions, and things I can craft so far along with the items and gear I'm allowed to purchase in the store. Yggdrasill spanned the 10 realms of the world tree in the game, but from what I can tell so far I'm only seeing the goods, and crafting for a single world. My race is listed as human so even from the starting of the game the world goods I should have access to would be from Midgard, otherwise known as the Human Realm or Earth, but given the goods I can find and the apparent use of magic I have access to I think the "home" world of mine is not Midgard, removing the Higher realms that a human could never be born from, only two other realms remain as a possible to which one I belong to now, Alfheim the land of the fairies, or Vannaheimr home of the Aesier a colony realm for those who ventured forth from Asgard, blessed with strong magical talent due to their world's deep mana well's but having that power mutated them reducing their life spans from the long lived Asgardians. If I had to guess now I couldn't say but looking at the store I would declare I currently belong to Vannaheimr, since there are Companions and Mounts one would not find in Alfheim. Perhaps there's a way to also level up my Gamer Skill and unlock the other Realms? If I can then I might find a way to return home, and if not at the very least I would gain access to real earth foods again.]

'Ding'

The windows shook to announce the completion of the alchemy queue.

[Oh finished already, err rather wow that flew by faster than I thought has it really been 4 hours since I started… well I should check the progress of my skill before we head out shopping and to grab lunch]

<>

[Hmm so I leveled up to level 3 however with the sheer amount of potions I made I'd assumed my level would be higher I can only assume that means I've hit the cap with the herbs I can find in the forest for the potions I can make, perhaps I should find an Alchemy shop in town that has a cookbook perhaps I can import the recipes into my skill, or rather since it's a game skill usually you'd have to return to the profession trainer to purchase new recipes so, since I don't have access to that would they just appear as i level up?]

Quickly flipping open the profession tab and selecting alchemy I did not see any changes still only showing the pair of potions i had been crafting all morning.

"Kurama wakey wakey it's time for lunch"

Snapping away as soon as the word lunch left my lips the little kobold scurried to the door.

"heh heh so full of life for one who was just asleep"

The pair of us walked down the now slightly familiar streets towards the market where we had lunch the day before.

"Did you hear the Kingdom used their Hero summoning ritual?"

"Really that's bold of them, guess they're the country to watch for signs of aggression now"

"Really? But I was just about to head to the kingdom, guess I should change my plans now"

As we walked along the voices of those passing by seemed to all be talking about only one thing.

The heroes that group of high school kids who were summoned and dubbed as heroes.

Seems my guess was right on the mark, given the goings on it looks like everyone expects the Kingdom to be the aggressor not using the Heroes to save themselves like the trope in most light novel or animes back on earth.

All I really saw was a group of brats who were so full of themselves with everyone parading around calling them heroes.

Though not too sure if they'd go with the kingdom to attack other humans, but if it was demihumans, spiritfolk, or demons I doubt they'd hold back.

"Satou is that you?"

Rooting myself to the spot, after hearing someone call my name scanning the crowds around me, until I finally spotted the familiar face, there wading through the crowds was the red headed woman Raisa, today she was wearing a flowing yellow dress, that shocked me more than anything for our entire journey and even when we were in the kingdom I never saw here in anything grander than leather or cloth trousers, and shirts.

Yet here now she was a glowing picture of femininity truly the dots connected in my head as to why Viktor kept referring to her as Lady Raisa.

Finally making her way through the crowd and stopping in front of us.

"Oh hello Lady Raisa surprise to see you in town"

"Pft. Really Viktor got you already huh, just go on and drop that Lady business Satou I'm just Raisa."

"But…"

I started to protest but was cut-off by her next statement.

"If you call me Miss, Milady or anything like that I will call you by your other name, understood?"

'gulp'

"Uh yea yeah I got it… Raisa"

[Great here I thought she was reasonable but she's almost as bad as everyone else one my scared of scale that gaze alone could freeze someone solid]

"So what brings the pair of you out into the city? I figured you'd still be holed up in the warehouse dismantling all your prey"

"Huh oh no we finished that work yesterday actually, at this point Viktor's just waiting on the hides, and furs to salt before deciding what to do with them all, as for why we're in town"

'grrowwwll'

[ugh he's going to do that again]

Looking down at Kurama standing at my side, a pleading look on his face as he gazed over at Raisa.

[If she falls for this, he's got ownership over her with his guilt trip begging]

"Oh dear me, did I stop you from going out to lunch, poor little Kura darling here must be starving his stomach growled so loud… Satou you are feeding him properly are you not?"

"What!! he eats more than I do"

Taking one glance to the side I swear I saw that little kobold grin from ear to ear.

[He's got her eating out of the palm of his hand; I wouldn't be surprised to see if he develops the Deception or manipulation skill]

"Well standing here talking to me won't feed him, we should go to a café and order some food, we can talk business while we're at it as well, I actually finished up with the work you gave me just now"

"Oh uh sure, but will a café let Kurama dine with us?"

"You'll be on your best behaviour wont you Kura?"

'nod nod'

"See, and if anyone tries anything I'll vouch for him, after thank to rumors of when we arrived everyone seems to think I have a pet kobold myself you know"

"Riiight"

[Well this could give me a chance for that experiment]

The three of us walked along the street, Raisa and Kurama walking hand in paw, with me trailing behind.

Finally arriving at a café that had outdoor dining on a terrace the hostess lead our party to a 4 person table, Kurama selected the chair next to Raisa instead of me.

[Feels like I should be just transferring his ownership to her, since he's openly abandoning me here]

Staring at the menu with wide eyes.

[None of these dishes make any sense at all, I can read all the words easily but I have no idea what half of them mean, and it certainly doesn't help that there aren't pictures]

"You ok Satou?"

"Uh well, it's just 'gulp' I can't fathom these dishes, I can read fine but it's like I don't know what the words themselves mean…"

Raising a hand to conceal a laugh before returning to her composure.

"Well in that case I'll order for both of you then, Kura's going to want meat I'm sure"

'nod nod nod'

"As for you Satou what's your favorite food?"

"Hmm, well usually I would go for a dish that uses rice, like the food I served in the tunnel, but otherwise I like dishes with beef"

"Huh, with what?"

"Beef"

"What the heck is gun.. i.. cu"

[huh so wait words that don't exist here appear as the original language, great now what do I do, i served her food before using earth words but she must've just eaten having trusted me without knowing exactly what she was eating]

"Hmm let's see it's cow meat."

Her head tilted a bit.

"'ugh' bull, tauren, tauros"

I starting to fire off every bovine animal I know from mythology to videogames.

"Oh I see, do you mean mino?"

"No clue, ha ha, what kind of creature does mino come from?"

"Well it's a bipedal animal similar in height to an orc, but with massive horns on either side of its head their usually C or B ranked monsters who live in mountainous regions but occasionally can be found on grasslands"

[Hmm from that description that would mean it's most likely a Minotaur, well that's kind of a cow]

"Sounds pretty close so that would be my primary choice for meat, but I'll eat just about anything"

"I see well then that make my job simple"

Having placed our order when the waitress returned the air around Raisa heightened once we were alone again.

"So like I said before Satou I've finished dealing with those 'goods' of yours"

Reaching into a tiny wallet at her side she strained a bit before hefting a large sack out, before dropping it on the table once it hit the entire thing shook, and the unmistakable clatter of coins rang out from within.

"Wha… Wha… Wha the heck is this!"

"What does it look like; it's a bag of Gold Coins"

"G.. Gold!"

"Yup to be precise it's 1242 small gold's, I can exchange them up for you if you'd like but with your skill that shouldn't be an issue"

"Hah!"

[That's a ton of money and she just went and dropped it on the table in the open, talk about tactless]

Reaching out with desperation I quickly absorbed the sack into my inventory.

"Was it really safe to just drop something like that out in the open and then declare its contents?"

"Yeah I mean we're alone here, and besides not like anyone here even knows who you are right, they probably would think you're a noble and if that's the case no way they'd mess with you"

"I see that makes sense I guess"

"So back to what I'd asked before what are you two doing in the town? You said work on the monsters was finished so were you just grabbing lunch?"

"Oh well actually we were going to also go out and get a large quantity of Cloth, and perhaps Silk if I can get my hands on it, along with a sewing kit. Then head to an alchemist shop to see if they've got a 'recipe book' or I guess you might call it a 'formula book' and then lastly checking in to see where one can sell potions"

"Well most of that is simple, but potions huh did you keep the ones you took from the bandits?"

"No I made my own"

"WHAT!"

'Clatter'

Raisa slammed her fists down on the table causing the metal cutlery to all shift and bump into one another, even Kurama jumped a little bit in his seat.

"Let me get this straight, you're an alchemist Satou?"

"Well I can't deny that now, but I would use a different term from my world, but yeah since we had collected a large amount of herbs from the forests I dabbled at creating potions and well the results were highly successful"

"That's amazing; do you know what kind of potions they are?"

"Yeah.. Their Minor Heals, and Minor Stamina, I'm still just a novice so that's the best I can do right now, especially with the herbs I've been able to find so far"

Figuring it's easier to just show them, I pulled one of each potion out of my inventory before placing them on the table.

'Gasp'

[Damn, that's not the reaction I was hoping for]

"SATOU! You must allow me to appraise these potions and sell them for you!"

"Uh yeah sure no worries"

Waving my hands in front of myself to brush off the clear aggressive nature of her words.

"Thank you for waiting please enjoy your meal"

[Saved by the bell]

The waitress returned and placed our plates on the table follow shortly by Raisa's chosen drink's.

[Hmm this is mino, well looks just like a steak with potatoes to me, but when in Rome]

Kurama and I didn't hesitate, both raising our hands and giving our quick grace before diving into the meal before us.

Raisa likewise joined in but with less gusto, having read the room and knew she'd get no further in the discussion so long as the two of us were still starving.

Not too much time passed before all three plates had been picked clean.

[Not bad, but if I was to compare it this would be grade b beef back on earth, like shoulder, or a similar cut it would be great if they used a different cooking method other than just grilling it, but their culinary practices are quite behind those of earth]

"Glad you enjoyed you food"

The waitress returned to bus our plates, Raisa chose that moment to drop payment into her hand as well.

After that we set off back to the street.

"Satou, so are you really ok with me working with you on selling your potions?"

"Yeah I don't see why it wouldn't be"

"That's great! But you've still got your errands to run today, I could always push to make you do them another day but this deal would again be already in my favor so making extra demands would be wrong"

"I see well I get your point but what we're doing isn't really important"

"No no.. You stick to your plans I'll have work to do to prepare anyway, so just come to my place tomorrow morning ok? Viktor told you the way right?"

"Uh yeah he kind of gave me vague directions but I should be alright I think, worst case Kurama could lead me there"

"Huh really but how?"

"That's a trade secret"

[Yeah right like I'm going to brave the level of hell that would come from declaring he could track her by her scent, that's like walking up to someone and saying they stink, making it 100x worse to be saying it to a lady]

"Hmm sounds kind of shady to me, but I'll leave it be for now so I'll see the pair of you tomorrow, make sure he doesn't sleep in ok Kura"

'nod nod'

[Oh for goodness sake]

"Oh actually before you go Raisa, do you have a quick moment?"

"Huh oh uh yeah I should why?"

"Follow me"

I quickly sped off at a fast walking pace to the guild's back square, once there I materialized a kobold summon card into my hand, and handed it over to Raisa

"Huh what's this?"

"It's a magic tool"

"This, piece of paper is a magic tool?"

"Yup if this works then you will have the ability to summon your very own kobold just like Kurama here"

"R.R.REALY!"

"If it works yes…"

[Wow you can almost feel the intensity radiating off of her now, wait is she muttering something? From the sounds of it it's like she's praying, ha ha guess she really really wants this to work]

"Ok so this part could be tricky since you're going to have to learn to say the 'spell' using a different language"

[This is trickier than I thought, if I try to write the word summon, it comes out in Terra language, but if I break it down I should be able to manage the individual syllables and train her to say the full word quickly from those]

Having finished breaking down the words summon, and kobold in my head I then turned to Raisa.

"Ok so before we begin do you know what you'd like to name your Kobold if you get one? This is going to be tied to the summoning itself, so even if you rename it later on the original name is going to be what you'd use to re-summon it if you ever dispel it."

"Hmm well whatever I summon should look pretty close to Kura here right?"

"Uh yeah I've only ever summoned Kurama myself and one other that looked like him so I'm not sure if the next one would be the same or not"

"Well I'll just have to pick something that'll work whether that's true or not"

A couple of intense moments passed with Raisa locked in deep mental warfare with herself.

"I've got it, I'm going to go with Ruby, that way it work's if she's red like Kura, and even if she isn't then she's still going to be a precious gem to me"

[hmmm well I named Kurama after I had summoned him so I was already guaranteed of his gender but this method's different for all I know she could wind up with a male kobold too.]

"Ok if you're sure"

"Yes!"

Securing her approval of her own choice I moved back to the dirt and placed the syllable breakdown of the name in the dirt as well.

"Ok now comes the hardest part, I need you to listen carefully to what I'm about to say memorize it and then say all of it as once when the time comes"

"Mmmm"

A fire blazing in her eyes, hands cupping her ears to listen to every utterance out of my mouth.

Attempt after attempt passed by, as she spoke the words individually and broken at first. But after nearly an hour of hard practice the individual words sounded just right.

With a visible bead of sweat starting to work its way down from her forehead, I made my announcement.

"Ok that should be more than good enough for the spell, all that's left if to combine everything at once and see if it works"

"it will work! It has to!"

"Ok well Kurama and me will step back then when you're ready hold the paper I gave you in front of you, and speak the words all at once"

Distancing ourselves to the side of the square while Raisa stood in the center gaze fixed upon the card in her hands.

"Koborudo shōkan: Rubī" (Summon Kobold: Ruby)

Hearing her speak out the words, it reflected back to me as a foreign language but what i had taught her was English so I suppose this is what that reverse translate to in her language.

A second passed but nothing happened, with my summons a flash of white light occurs and the summon appears before me, so did this on fail.

As I watched on, I noticed a grimace on Raisa's face until I noticed that the look was caused by pain, her gaze still fixed on the card in her hands.

When I joined her gaze and looked at the card, I could see small flames were burning the card up and scorching her hands briefly.

[So it failed after all]

Once the card had fully burnt up a Raisa's face filled with sadness, tears welling in her eyes.

But then.

'FLASH'

A great white light like a lightning bolt filled both our visions with light shoot our hands up to shield against this unexpectedly bright light.

"what's going on out here!"

I heard a woman's voice shout out from behind me, as the light faded and disappeared turning my head a bit to respond to her.

"Oh sorry about that we were just performing a summon"

"Oh my Gods, She's so CUTE!"

Her voice rocketed through the square, the guild employee merely nodded at my reply before heading back inside I guessed to inform everyone else not to worry, so I returned my gaze over to Raisa but what I saw there was outside my realm of expectations.

There in the square being hugged in the air by Raisa while she twirled around and around was a Pure white Kobold, with Deep red eyes.

[Hmm I want to say Albino, but the fur looks more like an arctic fox, but those red eyes well whatever it work with her chosen name of ruby, but I should do a quick appraisal of the creature]

<>

[Hmm that's not too bad at all, but I can't see its level so she's probably gotten lower skill levels due to Raisa herself having a lower level, but since she's meant be a pet that's not essentially a bad thing]

"Congratulations Raisa that's a nice looking Arctic Kobold you've got there"

"Arctic? But it's not even cold here?"

"Oh well that's just the term to describe the color of her fur, as White as snow"

"Oh yes I see that makes sense, so I got a different species afterall then?"

"Nope that's just my own term, I ran a quick appraisal on her and she's 100% kobold, now just remember as a summon she'll need to stick pretty close to you, if you go too far away she could be dispelled or forced to return to you against your commands to stay put, additionally like with a normal animal if something or someone kills Ruby that's it, but if you want I can teach you the spell to dispel her, then you just need to repeat the words we used before to summon her again"

"Never! Ruby'll stay by my side until the end of time"

Her declaration was still loud but this still never caused her to stop moving and squeezing her new Kobold pet.

"Hey Raisa… uh you might want to let go now, if you hug her any tighter she might lose all of her health"

'GASP'

Promptly dropping Ruby to the ground where she landed with a thud.

"Oh my, poor Ruby I am so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you"

"Well our jobs done here Kurama should we leave the two of them to their new partnership and head off?"

'mmm nod'

After a second of contemplation my own Red Kobold responded with a nod, clearly not wanting to leave Raisa's side but also knowing nothing would really be happening for a while now.

"Don't worry buddy, we'll see both of them tomorrow anyway"

"ara"

Leaving Raisa and her new companion who are still completely in their own little world to be in the guild square, I headed off down the street and wandered into a handful of shops, managing to acquire another 10 bolts of cloth, but only a single one of silk, along with a simple sewing kit, I found an alchemy shop but there weren't any recipe books or the like, the shopkeeper informed me that alchemist don't really share their secrets, so if I want a recipe I'd have to buy one directly from another alchemist.

[Well guess I'm stuck doing things the old fashioned way then with elbow grease hah]

Making one final stop before heading back to our lodging I purchased a handful of foods from the stalls lining the street and placing them all in my inventory.

"That should be enough for supper right?"

'mmm, nnoodd'

[ Hm a slow nod, guess he doesn't really believe that or he's covertly trying to say he wants more, well not like I'm strapped for cash so from just one more stall can't hurt]

After purchasing everything we'd meant to, we'd made our way back to the warehouse and up into our room, it was still pretty early into the evening by now for supper so I settled in to get started on my newest profession to see just what I could manage with Tailoring.

Pulling out a bolt of cloth along with the sewing kit, I cut a simple strip of cloth off thread the needle and started to sew carefully by hand until a simple square with three and a half sides sewn up was completed, then I pulled out a bundle of Golden Ram wool and stuffed it inside, prodding the square a few time to ensure it never got to hard but instead retained its fluffiness before picking up the needle once again to finish sewing up the end.

"There we are easiest thing to make I think but, now I have a proper pillow, would be better with cotton but eh wool should work fine, after all that wool was really smooth, and fine"

Tossing the completed pillow onto the bed, I whipped open my menu and went straight to the professions page.

<>

"Alright I got it, now to see what I can let the system create for me"

Clicking on the profession the crafting menu opened up.

"Let's see, I can create basic clothes, shirts, pants, even underwear along with simple hide armor like gloves, belts, capes, hoods, and tunics. Perhaps I should stop by and see Viktor tomorrow before I set out to let him know I plan to keep all the furs and hides, I could use them for my tailoring or just save them up for when I unlock leatherworking, for right now let's just use up the cloth I do have on some basic clothes since I only have the one set thanks to all that carnage in the slaughterhouse"

After having pulled out the food I'd bought earlier and consuming it all with Kurama I'd thought about what to use the limited cloth I did have for as I ate, should I keep leveling up first aid, with it or make some clothes with tailoring.

Making the decision to create an identical amount of pants, shirts, and underwear and use up all the cloth I had.

The hours rolled by until I had finished but at that point I had already queued up my second round having selected to create silk bandages using the single bolt of silk I managed to acquire.

Once again my hands moved on their own in a furious pace cutting, and roll bandage after bandage.

By the time all my crafting had finished night had fallen and the moons hung high in the night sky.

"Well that should do it for today, best get to sleep or I'll get scolded for coming late tomorrow, or even worse being woken up early by Kurama. Perhaps I should dispel him so he won't have the chance"

'grrrrrrrr'

"Kidding kidding, geez"

Crawling onto the bed and dropping my head into the new pillow.

"Ahhh now this is better, this worlds pillows feel like they just stuffed grass in a bag or something, I'm sure to sleep soundly tonight"

Closing my eyes and slowly drifting off into sleep.

Morning came at me like a ton of brick, not once but twice first when the in game alarm I'd set sounded off inside my own head like a church bell ringing when you're right next to it, and after I'd finally made it stop Kurama started nudging me every second till I finally got up.

Once my wakeup alarms finally finished I quickly changed clothes via my menu, the style of the clothes made through my skill were quite a bit different from those sold in town, but that actually made them more comfortable, almost like a cross between modern patterns, and primitive fabric, and perhaps thanks to the skill the clothes were fitted, so there was no need for a belt, or cinching up the sleeves of the shirt.

Eating a simple Yggdrasill breakfast we'd set out with the direction we'd obtained from Viktor guiding our way, Kurama meanwhile was sniffing the air, when we got to the general location he took the lead and I followed behind until we arrived at a massive 5 story building made of pure white stone, iron gates surrounding the property, a well manicured lawn with numerous flowerbeds.

"Are you sure this is it? I'm not doubting you its more just general fear rising up right now out of how powerful Raisa really must be!"

"ara"

'nod'

"I see same for you, well at least we can say were not on her bad side"

With that we walked onto the property and knocked at the front door.

After a short while the thick wooden door opened just enough for a middle aged man wearing a full suit with gloves, to be seen his face clean, and his hair well kept if only just recently starting to grey.

The very picture of a high class butler, if this was a light novel his name would surely be Sebastian, or Sebas or something cliché like that.

"Can I help you?"

"Uh yes, is Lady Raisa Salide in?"

"Oh and what business do you have with the masters daughter"

His response was gruff and his tone changed to become very stern.

"Oh well uh I have an… appointment. To well, you know see here… and"

My response was little more than a stammer as the old man pressured my response from me.

"Alfred!"

With that shout the door was swung wide open Alfred the butler was now standing with his head slightly bowed towards the woman who had ripped the door open and out of his grasp, standing there before us was Raisa.

"Seriously! Did I not tell you yesterday that Satou was coming? Now stop trying to scare him and let him inside already!"

"Yes Milady"

With a small body bow the butler moved away from the door and waved his right hand in a low arc ushering me inside.

"Honestly Alfred you're always treating me like I'm still that helpless little girl from all those years ago, I know it's been quite a few years since I was last back but still! And you! Satou no need to be so tense around here and what was with all that 'Lady' title you were using didn't forget our deal did you? You're a good friend after all we've been travel with one another for a while now"

"Raisa!"

Feeling as my eyes were burning a bit with her words following shortly after the butlers suspicions this could be headed in the wrong way of misunderstanding.

"Forgive my rude action's Miss Salide"

"Ha ha no worries Alfred… Sorry about that Satou, Alfred has been with our family for a long time, actually since I was born even so he can be a bit… er overprotective when it comes to me."

"Huh uh well I mean I understand so um…"

"Ah right you're here to discuss business right?"

"Well that was sure part of it, but on the other hand how are things with Ruby?"

"Ah yes my darling Ruby, she's actually right here"

Taking a side step to reveal her Arctic white furred Kobold standing behind her, currently dressed up like a doll with a simple skirt, and princess vest, necklaces and bracelets also adorning her.

Kurama took one glance before turning to take a look at me.

[Dude seriously, I mean I can understand giving you armor or weapons but I'm not going to play dressup with you, not to that extent at least i mean sure clothes when we're strolling around town but i'm not going all out to kit you up like that]

"Ah yes that's good to see, I kind of had some worries that the summon wouldn't last but I'm glad to see my worries were unfounded"

"She's my faithful companion nothing will ever take her from me! Now Kurama, do you want to go play with Ruby while me and Satou talk business?"

'mmmm nod'

After taking a moment to consider Kurama agreed, and Raisa raised a command to Alfred to escort the two Kobold to somewhere in the mansion.

Raisa meanwhile lead me in another direction into a room that looked more like a modern earth store front with glass cases filled with various things.

"Good Morning Mrs Salide how can I help you today?"

"Good Morning Emire, this is Satou he has a couple potions I'd like you to appraise for me if you could"

"But of course Milady that's no problem at all"

I swear I just saw her face twitch every time someone called her anything but Raisa, she must really hate not being on first name basis with people.

"Well c'mon Satou bring em out!"

Not choosing to fight back at this point I opted to retrieve the same pair of potions as I'd shown her yesterday and placed them both on one of the glass counters.

Emire meanwhile approached holding an object that looked like a coaster, after placing the 'coaster' atop one of the potion bottles a holographic display shone above listing the name and properties of the potions, both he and Raisa poured over the details of the potion.

"Satou! This is… you made this?"

"Um yes why is that a bad thing?"

"No No, I think the lady is just shocked at how good a potion it is given your age young sir"

"But it's just a potion of minor heal isn't it?"

"Nope you're wrong there Satou, this isn't just a simple Minor heal potion it's a (Superior) Potion of Minor Healing"

[Superior… that didn't show in my menu at all, it was just a regular potion]

"uh"

"To think one could be so young and create a potion of minor healing that could recover 30 health, it's stronger than even some normal potions of healing, you sir are a prodigy I can see why the lady has chosen to do 'business' with you"

He cracked a grin when saying this

"So this is the young man then"

The new voice entering the room drew everyone's attentions away from the appraisal, into the room walked a man I would place in his 50's with Alfred trailing behind him, in a word his attire was exactly what I think one would expect a noble to wear, ruffles and jewels everywhere one could look.

On instinct I bowed forward.

"Good Morning Sir"

Remaining bowed over the entire room froze up.

"Satou no need to bow to my father, he's not that special"

Hearing the words from Raisa's mouth I still remained fixed still not choosing to move.

"Hah hah ha, not special huh how cold the words from my daughter's mouth are. Please raise your head young man."

Complying my head raised as he continued.

"I don't mean to interrupt for too long, I merely came to meet the young man my daughter has become to enamoured with"

Raisa's face went beet red in an instant.

"En.. Enamored?"

"Oh my yes, pretty much all of yesterday you wouldn't stop going on and on, about how amazing he is, not to mention we haven't been able to get to stop talking about how grateful she was for your gift of teaching her how to use magic to summon that kobold of hers"

As his speech continued this time I could feel my own ears start to burn, while Raisa's face looked like she might start pouring steam out of her ears.

"DADDY!!"

Finally breaking down from the situation she launched towards her father and Alfred, grabbing each by their collars and literally dragging them out of the room.

"Uh… what just happened?"

"Oh don't mind that, the master was just having some fun, it's been a while since she was last home and he's been trying to convince her lately to find a suitor since she already well past the marriageable age after all"

"Oh I see, so he was just teasing then?"

"Mmm Hmmm"

Having only received a neutral answer I decided it was best to continue on with the investigation into my potions. Emire jotted down all the relevant information regarding my heal potion before moving on to perform the same appraisal and note taking.

Just as he put the final point down on the page the room's door opened once again, and in traipsed Raisa, coming to a stop before us and exhaling in one large huff.

"So Satou, judging from the first potion I'm sure the stamina one is just as good"

She glanced at Emire who nodded silently back.

"And without having to guess this is going to net us a big profit, so I'd like to make you my business partner with a contract"

"Uh you mentioned that before but what does that even mean?"

"Oh are you a new merchant sir, what the young miss is talking about is a written agreement between a merchant and a supplier that would detail what the rate would be, these are legally binding, but depending on the scale one could use a magical contract to force compliance to the agreement, this is to protect the parties themselves from exposing the means or secret recipes."

"Oh I see, but which type would be used here then?"

"Well if it's just potions you should be fine with a simple contract"

"We can draw up a quick one right away I just need to know how many potions you've got ready to let us sell for you"

"Hmm well I've only been making them for the past three days but right now I've got 647 of the stamina ones, and 1284 healing ones"

"…"

"…"

"Satou… I'm sorry how many did you just say?"

"I said I've got about 1800 total potions"

Emire's face froze up, while Raisa's once again become fully flushed.

"Do you have any idea what you just said!? EMIRE get me a magical contract on the double!"

[A magical contract, oh god I screwed up again, why didn't I saw it was a lower number of potions… great now I need to make sure I read this contract or I could end up a slave or something]

When he returned Emire placed a piece of parchment and a bottle filled with blue ink that sparkled.

Raisa quickly raised the quill and drafted up a contract in no time at all, before pushing it over to me to read and see if anything should be added.

[hmm the terms are decent, 15% of the selling price goes to Raisa, well that's fair I already agreed to that before, next the source and creator of these potions are confidential and no one can reveal it, and lastly that either party can choose to end this agreement at any time but clause 2 will remain in effect indefinitely]

"Seems good to me I think."

Upon my say so both Emire, and Raisa moved to quickly sign the document before taking a pin and pricking their fingers rubbing some blood on their thumbs and pressing it down on the paper, next to their signatures, before turning to look at me.

"Uh so last question what name do I sign?"

"Oh right, uh use the one that appeared when you used the oracle stone"

Upon her say so I signed my name but the characters came out in foreign characters rather than this worlds letters, so I didn't need to worry about emire leaking my real identity before applying my blood seal to the page.

As soon as my finger left the page, blue flames sprang up and the entire contract burned up in an instant, once the last vestige of flame disappeared a simple blue light emanated from all three of us present.

"And with that the contract is complete, congratulations on the successful negotiation"

"Now before we head to the storehouse, Emire I want you to forget about my little outburst before"

"Oh no worries at all Milady I'm sure if you hadn't I would've"

With that Raisa grabbed my hand and started leading me through a series of door leading to the back of this mansion, as we passed through a sitting room, Alfred and her father could be seen who both beamed big smiles as we passed by.

"See sir"

"hmm yes just as you said"

I barely caught those words as we were leaving the room.

[Seems they knew that Raisa would storm the storehouse pretty much no matter what value my potions had, she must be desperate to prove herself to her family and be worthy of the family name]

When we finally arrived in the storehouse Raisa's face went red once again before she quickly withdrew her hand from holding my own.

And so my Partnership with Raisa of the Salide merchant family began, we spent the rest of the day packaging up my potion bottles into wooden containers with some sort of straw or hay and a lattice grid big enough for the bottles without allowing for movement.

24 bottles per box with a lid sealing them off.

More containers were brought in as we continued to package, part way through Ruby and Kurama returned though Kurama was now sporting a white bandana around his neck bearing the sigil of the Salide family, the pair of new arrivals quickly joined their masters in placing the bottles and moving the filled crates.

When the work finally finished Raisa called in a servant and requested food to be brought for the four of us.

The day at the mansion finished after dinner when Raisa shook my hand vigorously before sending us off with a shout.

"We're really gonna score some big coin Satou!"

[And to think she called me crazy before, perhaps I should call her Miss Money-Mania]

"Arooooo!"