When I woke up in the morning with a splitting headache, the memories of the meeting with a God called Izor flooded my head...or was it a dream? He had given me new skills in the meeting, so I opened up my status page to confirm if I really received those gifts.
[Exchange] Use skill points to unlock and exchange items from this world and Earth. Exchanges cost one-tenth of the unlocking amount. (Some items are banned).
[Appraisal] Provides basic information about target individuals or objects.
[Radar] Displays a map of the surroundings whilst showing nearby friendlies and foes.
[Warp Points] A Divine Skill granted by a Senior God. Allows the user to place points, which then the user can teleport to from any location.
And then I remembered that Izor also gave me a Random Skill ticket, which I found in my storage. I was about to take it out when there was a knock on my door, and I heard Lilliana's voice.
"Excuse me, Masato, are you awake?"
"Yes, I am. Just give me a second." I replied as I quickly put on my clothes and opened the door. "So, what's up?"
"Oh, I just wanted to check that you are awake. But since you are, please join us for breakfast. We plan to depart as soon as we are done with the rest of the preparations," explained Lilliana.
"Yeah, sure, that's fine; give me a second."
"Sure, I'll wait outside."
I gently closed the door and fired up my [Exchange] skill. A screen opened up, explaining that I just needed to think of it to find an item.
I thought of the item I wanted, unlocked it for 10 Skill points and exchanged one for 1 Skill point.
I opened the door once again and asked Lilliana to put out her hand and close her eyes. At first, she was confused, but she then understood my intentions and followed my instructions.
"You can open your eyes now."
"Sure...Ummm, this is?"
What I had given her was a bottle of perfume. However, since I wasn't knowledgeable about girl's perfume, I took the safe route of going a lavender-scented perfume. I tried explaining to her what it was, but I felt that she was more captivated by the blue glass bottle.
"Masato, I can't possibly have this. This container alone is priceless."
"Don't worry about it; I can make plenty of it. Wait, the container?"
"This purity and the colour of blue, this kind of glass can't even be found in a royal treasury. Masato, are you sure I can have this?"
"Yeah, sure, as I said, I can make plenty. Since I'll probably rely on you a lot when we get to the capital, so let's say this is an early thank you gift."
"Of course, you've done so much for me already, so it's only natural for me to help you out. So don't worry. I will gladly lend you my assistance." Lilliana announced as she stuck out her chest with pride, and my eyes could not help but get drawn towards them.
<<
"Sure.."
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♦ ♦ ♦
We had breakfast, which was the same bland Forest Bull soup, then packed our things. I stored all our belongings, though most of them did belong to me. The Village Chief and I decided that we would split the Forest Bull's meat and material, even though the Village Chief was very much against it, but he accepted in the end.
I also stored all the food that the villagers had prepared for our journey. Even though we needed one or two meals, I had a whole forest bull cooked, probably enough meat for five people.
I packed the sword that was made of 15% mithril and 85% steel, the [Clean] and [Small Fireball] scrolls.
I had forgotten entirely, but we also had to transport Estiel, who was our prisoner. So his cage was attached to the modified wagon which Kumo was pulling. By the way, Estiel fainted when he saw Kumo.
We finally left at around 10 AM, and Rolph had predicted that we would arrive at around 8 PM. However, that was before he had learnt Kumo's speed and proficiency on the treacherous path. The now estimated time was 5 PM if Kumo continued at the same rate. Don't worry; it was not the same speed that I had experienced, or else the wagon would've broken down with 10 minutes.
During the first three hours, it was relatively peaceful. I had finally experience riding something that didn't have suspension, and it wasn't enjoyable.
Rolph was guiding Kumo whilst Lilliana was still admiring the bottle of perfume that I had given her. Her eyes were glistening for some reason.
I was checking out my new skills in the meantime. I tried out [Radar], and a map of the surroundings appeared. There were three green points around a blue point. I assume that the greens were Lilliana, Rolph and Kumo, and the blue was me.
Occasionally, a couple of red and grey dots would appear and selecting it shows the details of the target. The red signified enemies such as monsters or bandits, whilst grey meant that the individual had no ill intentions against my party or me. The red ones spotted by [Radar] were some goblins, but they immediately ran away. I assumed this was because of Kumo's presence.
When we took our first break in an open field to stretch ourselves, I used [Exchange] and bought some sandwiches for our lunch. I also took out one of Kumo's Forest bulls that I had stored for her to snack on. However, I placed them slightly away from the main eating area to avoid the gruesome eating scene. I felt somewhat horrible for separating her from the group, but Kumo happily tore the Forest Bull apart and started eating.
I instructed Kumo to come back when she was done, and then I walked back to Lilliana and Rolph to explain what Kumo was doing, which they understood and thanked me for making a wise decision.
After our lunch, we carried on our journey. Don't worry, we did give some food to Estiel, but once again, he fainted at the sight of Kumo.
The journey went on, and I carried on testing my new skills. This time I used [Appraisal] on Lilliana.
[Name] Lilliana Lucera
[Age] 15
[Level] 7
I was surprised to find that Lilliana was only 15 years old! I had thought that she was around the same age as my current body. I wondered if there was a difference in this worlds calendar, so I asked about it without saying I was from another world.
"Wait, Masato, do you not even know about the calendar!?"
I realised that I had made an obvious mistake. I had told them that I lived in a remote village, but even then, I should at least know how many days are in a year. At that point, I started to panic, trying to think of an excuse, but Lilliana gave a loud sigh and began explaining.
It turns out that, like Earth, there were seven days a week, 30 days in a month, but 14 months in a year.
In other words, converting Lilliana's age to Earth age, she would be around 17 as well. But on the other hand, I was technically a 26-year-old inside, so I wasn't sure how old I was exactly. Maybe I should try and ask Izor if I see him next time. I was also thankful that Lilliana didn't question my lack of basic knowledge, but I still had to make sure not to slip up again. After that, Lilliana said that she was a bit tired and took a nap. I tried my best not to stare at her too much and continued looking through my abilities.
I couldn't test my final ability. Even though Lilliana was sleeping opposite me, there was still Rolph, and there was no possibility that Lilliana might notice me suddenly disappearing through some skill she might have. However, just before we left, I placed a [Warp Point] near the outskirts of the village so that I could test it out from the capital. So I also decided to take a nap.
About two uncomfortable hours later, I woke up from Guardian's loud alarm that was only ringing in my head. The reason was that [Radar] had picked something up—a lot of things.