"Aren't you gonna take a quest, Renji?"
Despite the lively night filled with precious information, morning eventually came knocking at my door.
Once awake, I put on my clothes and headed toward the slums.
"Nah, I need equipment first," I said honestly to Kazuma and Aqua.
Both were confused by my words, but they kept walking with me.
It seems I wasn't clear enough about my refusal to join their party.
"Interesting..."
"Those idiots are with a beauty on our turf, lech."
"Lucky for us, I wonder if our alley wasn't more profitable."
There were the idiots, the clique I was desperately looking for in the alleys of Axel's slums.
Thugs.
"K... Kazuma, go talk to them," Aqua declared in a failed attempt to stay back, but Kazuma stopped her.
"What?! I'm telling you, you're the one who wanted to follow him!" he said, pulling a reluctant goddess off his back.
I just ignored the duo as I punched the man licking his knife.
Bam
Boom
After hitting him with a direct punch in Kyokushin karate style, I immediately followed up with a front kick.
The man holding the knife was immediately sent flying into a makeshift trash can not far away.
"W... who are you?"
"G... get lost... or"
Unfortunately, he didn't finish his words before receiving a Brazilian kick properly placed on the neck.
Without wasting another minute, I finished off the last one with an uppercut to the chin.
That was simple, thanks to my small size.
"Interesting... thanks to my customization, my physical strength alone is 2 times higher than my peak."
If we use Baki logic, a great ordinary athlete is around 1.5 times the strength of an ordinary person.
So I'm 3 times stronger than a normal person.
My strength stat of 15 is no joke.
"Oh, what are you doing!!?"
Kazuma was alarmed by my actions, but I just ignored the still-ethical Japanese guy.
After recovering three ordinary knives and some Eris, I finally got up.
"Sorry for the uncomfortable show, but I really need starting funds for my adventure," I said in an honest tone.
The quality of the knives wasn't good, but it would do for now.
I didn't have a weapon, and martial arts are originally used to face humans, not beasts or monsters, but I'll have to adapt.
"You know, you could've just taken a construction-related quest."
I refuted Kazuma's words by shaking my head, as that's too slow and inefficient a path.
In the original story, they lost several weeks working on various construction sites and drinking at night at the guild.
I can't afford such a waste of time.
"Say Kazuma, didn't he just earn more than our salary in one go?"
Kazuma remained silent at Aqua's words, but I preferred to dissuade them quickly.
It would be unfortunate for Kazuma to deal with Sera so early in the story, since he doesn't have Darkness's political support.
"You should avoid confronting thugs, Lady Aqua. They're weak in small groups but..."
Thugs are very organized and ruthless when pushed into a corner.
If I hunt them often, they'll start gathering and forming bigger gangs.
At first, it'll be a windfall, but it can quickly escalate into total war between me and the slums.
So I won't continue attacking thugs after today, and Kazuma should avoid Aqua's dangerous idea.
"Hehe~ I was just saying that."
I smiled at Aqua's antics before finally going to the guild to take my first quest.
The protagonist duo soon took a construction-related quest in town, and I chose the quest related to the abnormally large frog.
"I'll take this quest, but also... I'd like to recruit an adventurer companion and find an available adventurer to teach me intermediate and basic magic," I explained my requests to the unknown receptionist.
She was a woman with green hair who wore masculine clothes.
She didn't ask questions and filled out the paperwork, which allowed me to officially accept my quest and post my announcement.
"Basic magic can be learned with one skill point, but intermediate magic... 10."
Currently, I can only learn one intermediate spell and no more, because of my limited skill points.
That's why I ended up standing in front of this abnormally large frog.
(Image.)
I needed to gain enough levels.
I hid my knife under my clothes, since I knew this creature fears sharp weapons, before charging toward it.
My speed was amazing.
In my past life, I was fast, but not this much.
The frog shot its tongue at me.
Lick
"Shit..."
In the anime, it doesn't really seem that fast. But seeing it and experiencing it are two different things from knowing it.
The frog's tongue almost caught me.
Stab
I barely dodged it before stabbing it with my knife on its tongue.
I kept the dagger stuck in, turning it like a key.
Because of the pain, the frog quickly pulled its tongue back by reflex, toward its mouth.
"Thanks for the ride."
I immediately pulled out a second knife to drive it between the creature's eyes.
After a few minutes of struggle between her and me playing rodeo, she finally died from several stab wounds to the skull.
"One down... I need a total of 5 to finish the quest."
I ended up spending the whole afternoon searching for and killing the giant frogs living in the prairie outside Axel town.
According to my manual, it's their breeding season.
That's why they're so active.
"You've completed the quest twice and sold the frog carcass, but I'll deduct the transportation costs for the latter..."
Finally, Luna gave me the nice sum of 50,000 Eris.
It's still far from the 300 million Eris bounty for a demon king general.
But Rome wasn't built in a day.
"You've already completed two quests in one day, it seems your earlier words weren't just bragging, hehe~"
I just displayed a slight humble smile before answering her.
"I got lucky, since I read the manual and discovered a trick to beat them."
Even though I call it a trick, it's not useful for an ordinary beginner adventurer.
Luna was surprised for a moment before displaying an "understood" expression.
"Are you gonna take another quest?"
I thought for a moment before declining the offer.
"No, my equipment got dull and also a bit damaged."
The three knives weren't really first-rate anyway, and I already knew I'd have to replace them sooner or later.
"What about my recruitment and magic learning announcement?"
"Oops, I almost forgot."
Luna went to talk to someone who was part of the guild staff before coming back to me.
"You can wait here, he'll contact the two people in charge of fulfilling your request."
I thanked Luna before settling into a chair and ordering giant frog legs.
I hadn't eaten anything really substantial since arriving in this world, since I had too limited a budget.
Maybe it's because she had enough time to recover from my earlier bold words, but Luna chatted calmly with me.
She was even a bit teasing.
Yet she didn't mention the three quests.
"She must surely be waiting until I'm no longer a beginner adventurer."