Souta smiled inwardly when he saw the communicator from the merchant. The merchant was a fat man wearing luxurious clothes. Although the merchant was looking like that, Souta knew that he was as strong as him.
With the merchant wearing the communicator, he would be able to converse with them.
'Okay, let's ask if he's selling a communicator.' Souta thought as he walked forward to the merchant.
Yuko followed behind him quietly. She glared at the people around them but she still followed Souta's order so she could only glare at these people.
The merchant looked at the female guard beside him and said, "Brianna, lend him your communicator."
Brianna, the female guard, nodded and removed the communicator on her neck. She then threw it towards Souta.
Souta caught it and placed it on his neck.
The merchant saw Souta walking towards him. He checked if the communicator was running before he opened his mouth and asked, "I'm Jimmy of the Lanny Corp. and who are you, sir?"
The merchant called himself Jimmy. Jimmy asked Souta with a polite tone. A demi who could tame a Red Fur Bear was hard to find. Souta was extraordinary in his opinion and worth befriending.
"I'm Souta Ieshi and this is my partner Yuko." Souta introduced himself and Yuko to the merchant named Jimmy. He then goes straight to the point, "Do you have another communicator? I can pay for it."
"Oh?!" Jimmy was surprised but he didn't show it on his face.
The fact that Souta knew the existence of a communicator means that Souta came from a large city or kingdom. A rural village could hardly get news from those countries. It didn't have any access to advanced technology. Airship, communicator, automatic vehicle, etc. couldn't be found in a rural village like this one. People of this village didn't even know what an airship was.
"I'm sorry, the only thing I brought were the items that were approved by the Mechanic Country." Jimmy shook his head in regret.
"Is that so?" Souta could understand that. The Mechanic Country and the other powerful countries don't want to sell their technology to rural villages and small countries. 'Weak country should stay a weak country' was what they say. Those who violated this would be completely destroyed. There was once an ambitious merchant that sold their technology here and there. That merchant and the place he sells the technology vanished in one night.
"Sir Ieshi, do you mind if I ask where you come from?" Jimmy walked beside Souta and asked. He waved his hand to his guards and nodded. The guards help the crowd to calm down.
Souta turned his head and saw a beautiful female wearing a silver-colored breastplate. He felt his blood rising from his body. He gulped unconsciously.
"S-sir Ieshi?" Jimmy called him as he saw Souta was in daze.
"Huh?" Souta turned to look at Jimmy.
The instinct of a goblin was something he couldn't imagine. The instinct to engage in sexual intercourse with a beautiful female. This was something he didn't expect. He hasn't met a single female ever since he came here. No, actually he met female kobolds, goblins, and other monsters. He just couldn't differentiate with their appearance. Also, Yuko was a female bear.
Biting his tongue slightly to calm down his nerves, Souta asked Jimmy.
"What is it?"
"Where do you come from?" Jimmy repeated his question while looking at his female guard. It seemed that he guessed what Souta was thinking.
"I just came out of the Deep Woods and luckily I managed to tame a Red Fur Bear." Souta came while looking around the village. This village was much worse than a newbie village.
"Oh?" Jimmy turned to look at the Red Fur Bear behind Souta. He then turned back his gaze to Souta and asked, "Where do you plan to go now?"
"Border city of Hebrei Kingdom, Ladros city. I plan to enroll in the Ladro Institute." Souta said.
"Carriage?"
"I'm sorry, since you know the communicator, you must have seen the automatic vehicles. I'm just an ordinary merchant so I don't have the luxury to buy those things." Jimmy said with an apologetic tone.
"It's okay," Souta nodded in understanding. The three great countries were far away here so they have no influence here.
Jimmy glanced at Souta. He was sure that this demi really knew the things inside the huge kingdom and countries. To even know the Institute of Ladros city.
The two talked for a while. Jimmy offered Souta to join them as they were also going to the Hebrei Kingdom. Souta agreed to him. This will slow down his journey but it's worth befriending a merchant. He could get inside the city without much inspections with a merchant backing him up.
...
At night...
Souta, Jimmy, and the guards were around a bonfire. They were roasting some meat that they hunted this afternoon.
"Good!" Souta exclaimed as he bit a mouthful of meat in his hand. He reached his hand towards Yuko. Yuko looked at the meat and his hand before she opened her mouth and bit the meat.
"Eat well." Souta smiled and patted Yuko's head.
"You really treat your pet well," Jimmy said while looking at their interaction.
"It's not that bad," Souta answered with a smile. He recalled the time he met Yuko. Both of them tried to kill each other at that time.
"It's really rare for someone to be a tamer."
It's rare for someone to become a tamer. The fact that finding some monsters was dangerous so no one would take a tamer lightly. The tamer also needs to provide his/her pet its meal.
"What course do you plan to take in the Institute?"
"Mage," Souta replied without hesitation.
In the Institute, he could learn a variety of basic spells. He'd be a full-fledged mage after learning two more spells. He would not, under any circumstances, change his class. He knew the most about this class. He'd become just how he was in the game or stronger.
"Then, I would congratulate you in advance that you passed the entrance examination," Jimmy said.
"Hahaha, thank you!" Souta laughed and asked while looking at the guards, "By the way, what rank are they?"
Jimmy looked at his guards before he answered, "They were the Rank D adventurers that accepted my quest."
"Rank D, huh?" Souta observed the guards or the hired guards.
The Adventurers Guild was a very influential faction. In terms of influence, the guild had more influence than the three great countries. The main base was situated in the Nivari Kingdom.
Adventurers were divided into eight ranks. S rank was the strongest and F rank was a newbie. The power of a D rank Adventurer was much stronger than the current Souta.
"So they are powerful, huh?" Souta said in a low voice while looking at the five of them.
Two of them were female and three were men. The woman that has honey-colored hair was the leader. She has long silky hair that draped down to her back. Wearing silver-colored armor was proof that they weren't ordinary Adventurers. An Adventurer would be called a veteran once they became a rank D.
"Hahaha, of course, I wouldn't hire them if they weren't powerful," Jimmy laughed in response to Souta's words. "Brianna, this is Souta. He will join us on our journey, so get to know each other," he said to the female guard.
"Hello, I'm Brianna, leader of the Gale Group." The leader introduced herself as Brianna.
"I'm Souta, an aspiring mage," Souta said while looking at her honey-colored eyes.
Then, the rest of the Gale Group introduced themselves. By the way, Gale Group was the name of their party.
"I'm Tidor, oh? An aspiring mage, huh? You can ask our mage some questions if you like, right Tim?" Tidor was a huge man wearing full plate armor. He's almost two meters in height. Black hair, black eyes, and his sharp features make him popular with women.
"Ah! I don't know." Tim said with a lazy tone. He was a short man wearing a red robe with blue linings. His black hair almost covered his brown eyes.
"I'm John," A man with cat ears introduced himself. He was wearing leather armor and black pants. There's a dagger hanging on his waist. It seemed that he was a rogue.
"Hello, I'm Jane," she had shoulder-length black hair and was wearing glasses. She had a beautiful face but unfortunately the scar on her left cheek ruined it.
"You were lucky that you found a young Red Fur Bear! The ones I know were five meters tall!"
"Yeah, that must be a level 39 adult Red Fur Bear."
"Level 39?"
"Nothing, forget about that."
"Hahaha, you're quite a funny guy Souta!"
They talked for a whole night and got to know each other.
...
Souta woke up early in the morning before the sun rose. He stood up and did some morning exercise to warm himself.
He found that the hired guards were awake. It seemed that they were used to this lifestyle. As expected of an Adventurer.
He woke Yuko and went to hunt for food. She wasn't included in the food that Jimmy provided. After all, she was just a pet and her master should be the one taking care of her.
If Souta became a tamer rather than a mage, then he would be able to open up the inner world to store his pet. But sadly, he doesn't have any plan to become a tamer.
"I might neglect you once we go to the city," Souta said as he caressed Yuko's head.
"Muu..." Yuko looked at Souta with her one eye. It seemed that she understood what he said.
After they finished hunting food for Yuko, they went back to the village.
"Come on, let's go Souta!" Jimmy shouted.
"Alright, alright," Souta sighed and smiled.
Today was the day that they will leave this village and will go to the Hebrei Kingdom. It will take two weeks to go there using the carriage.
And so two weeks had passed and they arrived at their destination.