We reach the border. The destination of the merchant group I escorted. And we split up.
The adventurers go to the guild to receive our rewards. Since all the bandits were dead and there's no bounty, Hal and I only receive the reward for the escort. The other five embarrassedly sold their loot from the monsters they defeated.
They're embarrassed because they were acting tough in front of me. If I want to, they will not be able to even stand up at all. They know that and that's why after the bandits encounter they were being extremely polite to Hal and I. Although it's mostly me, Hal's magic that melt flesh and bones scare them so he's also being respected but that's still within their common sense for some reason. I guess making someone slip is out of common sense.
It's just Hal and I now outside of the guild with cigarettes on our mouth. Maybe because of the cigarette those five believed that we're in a party together.
"…Miroslav. I have something to ask," says Hal just when I'm about to leave.
"What? And just Miro is fine," I say.
"Alright. Miro, do you want to make a party with me?"
Hal invites me to create a party with him. That's an interesting offer. The two of us makes a great team. I make the enemies fall and Hal burns them to death.
But I can't do that. At least not yet.
"Thanks for the offer but I have something important to do. It could take years for me to finish it and I don't want to bother you on my journey," I reply honestly. Though I keep it a secret that I'm going to fight the demons.
At the moment, no one believes that demons exist. Demons are just from children stories to scare children. It's because it has been so long since demons appeared in this world and no one remembers them anymore. It was so long ago that even though I read as much books as possible from the bookstore and the library about history that there's no one saying anything about demons. No historical records of their existence for some reason.
I don't know why there's no record about them. It's not mentioned in the game but I can guess after living in this world for fifteen years.
Kingdoms raise and fall easily in this world. Even Vassel, the kingdom I was born and about to leave is only about five hundred years old. Even if there were records of demons, if the records were older than five hundred years old, it's normal for them to be gone.
History can be erased. Maybe some demons did it.
Anyway, that's why I can't have anyone to partner up with me while they still don't believe about demons. And I don't want to bring it up because I don't know how he will react. Maybe I don't trust him enough with secrets.
"Well, if you say so. But maybe we can team up once in a while in the future. Can I know what you're going to do?" Hal asks me.
"I will try to get stronger first and in three years I will try to go to Dahlia Academy. Going there is important to me. That's why I can't be in your party knowing that I will stay there for a few years," I say.
In the game, you will play as the protagonist and will study in the academy for four years. If I team up with Hal now, I will eventually leave.
"Okay. Then, farewell. Good luck with what you want to achieve. I will also try to get stronger thanks to your teaching about what a talent really means," Hal says.
Many people in this world still stuck in the belief that talent is everything. And I only taught Hal a bit but that worked. Next time I see him in the future, he should be many times stronger than he should be in the game.
It's still early because we arrived here in the morning. I buy some supplies so I can leave this place right away.
My destination is… I'm still thinking about it.
Near where I am, there are several places where I can get useful items at. Not legendary items but they will be useful even if I won't use them. I'm going to collect as much as possible but I don't know what I should take first.
And then an adventurer in a shining armor walks past me. I don't know him but he has great equipment. They must be expensive.
"Ah! Money is important. The first thing I should do is to fill my pocket. I know where to go now."
Goldys! That's what I want to get.
By the way, Goldys is the currency in this world. Gs for short. We use them for transaction. It has been used for a long time.
As for the name, I thought the creator of the game was just lazy. But now that I live in this world, it's not the creator of the game who was lazy. It's the people of this world. They're too lazy to make a name for their currency that is used in this world.
Because of that, I know where to go. There's a place where a legendary thief hid the items he stole in the past. He even stored all his money there. But he died locked in that place because the place wasn't built to be opened from the inside.
It's in the game. He died in his hidden storage from being locked in.
It was explained that the thief died because he was injured when he stored some new things he stole in there. Since he never wanted anyone to trace him, he was quite careful so he closed the door to the storage when he enters. He could open the door forcefully before with his strength because he was quite strong.
But habit is harder to defeat than monsters. He was injured and lost one of his arms. But he lived and stored his wealth. His habit made him close the door before putting the items he stole and he was locked until his death.
I found that place while exploring the game. It's a place I have to go in the game all the time because by going there I didn't have to worry about money in the game. I almost forgot to do it this time because I'm not playing a game and I'm not the protagonist so I never thought of it.
While playing, I'm thinking of what the protagonist should do. Now in real life, I have to think first about my survival. There's no restart so I must not die.
With this, I have an idea where to go. So after I gather enough supply to last for a while, I leave the border and going to enter another country.
My first time going to another country. I'm kind of excited.
After leaving the city, I walk quite a bit until I don't see anyone else. I'm going to use slip magic to slide myself away for quite the distance and I don't want to be discovered. I don't want them to think I'm weird even if they're right.
Once I'm out of people's sight, I look at the direction of where I need to go.
Based on the map of the game and how long it took me to reach here from the capital, from here to the hidden treasury of the legendary thief should take a week to reach. But I don't like long travel.
Good thing I have slip magic. And I'm going to train myself in using it to travel from here to there.
"Alright, let's go! Slip!"
And I slide only for three meters before I fall. Not because the magic malfunctioning. But because of the uneven ground.
Even with the uneven ground, my body is still sliding toward where I need to go. And I end up hitting a tree with my face. Good thing nothing is broken.
"Trying it on a plain sounds better."
So I walk to where there's no obstacle for about ten meters. And from there, I try using slip magic on myself again.
And I fall again. It's hard because of something not related with my talent in this magic. It's my balance. I need to work more with my body balance.
"Let's pretend like I'm skateboarding. Now, slip!"
This time I went farther than before. But I still fall. Trying to stay balanced is harder than I thought. Even more when I have never tried skateboarding even in my past life.
After I keep falling over and over again, I decided to build a camp there and rest. I also gained an extra respect to skateboarders. There's a reason why skateboarding was in the Olympics.
The next day, I learn something new. It's harder for me to learn how to balance myself but it's easy for me to make my body slippery and will not be stopped by any obstacle. So I just lie on my stomach on the ground and slide away like that.
It works. But this is much more ridiculous than I expected. I guess I will continue training to balance myself.
Because of the rest, it took me one day to reach the hidden treasury of the legendary thief. If I know how to do it sooner, I could have just reach this place in a matter of hours. Maybe one day I can go even faster. I could be faster than any speedster because I don't have to run.
Anyway, let's pack up some money.