𝗛𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘁ō
I opened my eyes and woke up from a peaceful sleep. "Wow, never knew that waking up could be this good without an alarm clock."
Looking at the bed next to me, Astoria is still peacefully sleeping. 'Is it even humanly possible to drink gallons of alcohol?' I thought to myself.
'Well...she is an elf so I don't know much about how their bodies work in this world but still...' I looked outside the window to see the sun has still barely risen. 'Old habits die hard huh?'
I went downstairs and saw a couple of adventurers eating their breakfast while others are still passed out from all the alcohol. Seeing as everyone is acting, as usual, I guess this is normal for the adventurers guild.
Alcohol in this guild cost about only 1 single gold coin a gallon which would be quite costly since quests in my rank don't even come close to 1 one gold but somehow, Astoria apparently keeps managing to buy the entire guild, multiple gallons of it.
I looked at the billboard where all of the quests are usually are but right now, it was empty, it seems the remaining quest from last night was taken out. 'Looking at them laze around, you probably can't get a quest until a certain amount of time-' I thought to myself as I look around the unusually silent guild.
"Yo Note, your quite an early riser."
An adventurer called out to me, it was the same adventurers as the ones we met yesterday.
The first one who called out was named Alcor, he is an axe-wielding adventurer and also the leader of his party, the one next to him was a quiet woman called Cy, a mage that uses all kinds of magic but specializes in barrier and physic magic, and from what I heard from the party, the third one is called Kinn, a spearman who was a homunculus but now has gone rouge after gaining his sentience.
I nod at his statement then Alcor called the female waiter there and motioned me to go sit. "So how's the first day of adventurer was it good or did Astoria almost get you killed?" Alcor said teasingly.
In response, I gave him a thumbs up saying that we did fine. "Now that's news, you must be quite strong if you can keep up with her then."
I shake my head, denying his claims.
"Oh come on now, for years no one has even been able to keep up with her, not because lots of them were weak but because of her fighting style." He said as he drink a mug of beer which got me thinking. 'Oh right, she likes to fight enemies at close range with a bow.' I nod my head.
Before Alcor could speak, the waiter arrived with my meal which interrupted us, after giving her a nod, I throw her a silver coin for the food. "So then Note, what are you planning for today? You plan to go adventuring with her again?" While eating the soup and bread that I got, I shook my head and then tried to mimic various movements of reading and writing but ultimately failed.
"Well, I don't really know what you are doing so how about you let Cy here use Mind read on ya?" As he said that, I nervously looked at Cy at the mention of mind reading but seeing as this may be an easier way, I nod my head.
After nodding in agreement, she stops eating her soup and pointed a finger to my forehead, and read my mind. "ᦔꫀtꫀᥴt." She said in a common however I could feel something magical about it so I assumed that was the spell. As a second passed after casting the spell, I imagine myself writing and reading in great detail. "Hmmmm...Read...and writing."
"I see...is that right Note? You want to learn how to read and write?" I nod my head and he immediately responded. "Well, you could try going to Alice's Lab."
'A lab? how and why would she even teach me.' I thought then tilted my head, sensing my question, Alcor answers my question.
"Ah, I know that look, don't worry as long you can pay her she'll be willing to teach you." He said, giving me a thumbs up.
"If you're wondering where the money goes, it's for her research since years ago, the funding for her research was cut due to get this "only studying in one field of magic". Now she does anything to fuel her research so it's probably feasible that she'll be willing to teach you how to write and read."
Nodding along with Alcor's explanation, I look at Cy expectantly then she points a finger at me and reads my mind again. "Directions..."
"Oh right! you can find her here, you'll find a really small building there with no signs, that's where she is" Alcor spoke as he points his finger at the map of the city on the wall. I once again nod but before leaving, I went back upstairs to check on Astoria so that we could go on a quest.
Knocking twice, I hear no response so I opened the door only to see a half-naked Astoria looking listlessly outside through the small crack of the window. I looked at her back and saw a really burned mark on it.
I could only say nothing, figuratively and quite literally so looked away and then coughed loudly to make my presence known. Astoria slowly turns around before realizing that she was half naked.
"Ah...you saw it huh?"
Astoria said, without her usual smile or enthusiasm and with a calm yet sad face.
"You're not gonna ask about it?" She asked so I pointed at my mouth. "Oh right hahaha, hold on let me get dressed first." She said as she goes to the bed where her clothes were and I immediately left the room, closing the door.
"Yosh, all done should we eat breakfast?"
Astoria opens the door and declares seemingly back with her usual energy. "Or did you already eat?" She asked after a lack of response from me.
After a pause, I nod my head at the second question. "I see, well looks like you'll have to wait for me, let's go." Astoria goes downstairs and orders her food. I looked at the lobby again and saw an increased amount of adventurers waiting, it seems the time for when the quests appear is almost up. Astoria was even almost choked by her food because she was eating so fast.
The bell tower in this city rang 7 times saying that it was 7:00 AM.
And with that, multiple receptionists came out from their offices at the back and started posting today's quest as we all waited for them to go back to their offices.
As the click of the door resounded after they entered, immediately the adventurers started pushing each other, trying to get the quest they want. 'Now that I think about it, most of the veteran adventurers are waiting for them to be done.' I looked to my right to see most of them waiting for the rookies to leave so I also waited with Astoria on the sides.
After 10 minutes or so, the ones who waited on the side went to the billboard which had barely any quests left and only had about 30 or so quests that happen to be difficult.
Astoria immediately grabbed one and read it to me. "How about this, we only have to-"
Agreeing to whatever quest Astoria gave me, I hurriedly left the guild and finished it, we returned at noon, quite early than most adventurers since the quest was quite close to the city.
This gave me quite a lot of free time so I immediately headed to Alice's Lab.
Arriving in front of a small building which took quite a while due to Alcor's vague descriptions, I entered the building.
Looking inside, the room was messy full of documents laying about, empty cups everywhere, weird things in jars, and many, many books. 'Exactly what I expected.'
But there is one thing I also saw.
A dark-haired petite girl wearing a lab coat and circular glasses sleeping on her table while still holding a cup of something in her hand.
'That's not Alice right?' A heavily sleeping girl about half of my height was at the table in the corner of the room.
'Well, only one way to find out.' I loudly walked towards her hoping to wake her up but she was still sleeping heavily and shakes her lightly. "Hmmmm, summon...ing.." I shook her again, this time, a bit more harder.
"What dya want....don't...you see I'm...doing a test?" Not wanting to waste anytime longer, I keep shaking her gradually getting harder and harder eventually waking her up. "Huh!? ah um hi..." She greeted, quite surprised.
"..." I only looked at her silently.
"Do you want something?" She asked, in a tired tone, and in response, I shake my head.
"Okay want do you want then?" Asking that, I tried to convey that I wants to learn reading and writing but was unsuccessful.
"What are you trying to say? just come out and say it." I point at my mouth and then used my arms to make an X symbol while shaking my head.
"Is he illiterate or something?" I nod my head, confirming what she said.
"Eh? you heard that? wait no, I mean you wanted to learn how to read?" I nod my head again.
"I see, but sorry, I don't really teach anyone her-" She said, apologetic but I presented her a gold coin which was the max that I could go which was probably a bad idea when negotiating prices.
But thankfully, Alice was speechless then she started drooling at the sight of my gold coin. "Buuuuuut, I didn't say I couldn't, but only for a day!" With a small smile, we finally started our language learning session on the third day in this world.
On the first day of our learning session, Himura learned about the Common's alphabet which is similar enough to English, though I still wonder, how I didn't notice such similarities, maybe the shock and realization that I was in a new world made my brain go numb?
The following is how Common is written:
Ꮧ = A
Ᏸ = B
ፈ = C
Ꮄ = D
Ꮛ = E
Ꭶ = F
Ꮆ = G
Ꮒ = H
Ꭵ = I
Ꮰ = J
Ꮶ = K
Ꮭ = L
Ꮇ = M
Ꮑ = N
Ꭷ = O
Ꭾ = P
Ꭴ = Q
Ꮢ = R
Ꮥ = S
Ꮦ = T
Ꮼ = U
Ꮙ = V
Ꮗ = W
ጀ = X
Ꭹ = Y
ፚ = Z
And after learning that I could write it somewhat competently, she moves on to the second most common language, Arcanum.
The following is how Arcanum is written:
A = ꪖ
B = ᥇
C = ᥴ
D = ᦔ
E = ꫀ
F = ᠻ
G = ᧁ
H = ꫝ
I = ꠸
J = ꠹
K = ᛕ
L = ꪶ
M = ꪑ
N = ꪀ
O = ꪮ
P = ρ
Q = ꪇ
R = ᥅
S = ᦓ
T = ꪻ
U = ꪊ
V = ꪜ
W = ᭙
X = ᥊
Y = ꪗ
Z = ƺ
Himura also found out that the concept of uppercase and lowercase does not exist in this world.
On the second to the fourth day, Himura found out how to pronounce common individually which was also how Arcanum is pronounced:
A = "Ac"
B = "Vi"
C = "Kac"
D = "Du"
E = "E"
F = "iiF"
G = "Ge"
H = "Hech"
I = "Ie"
J = "Jei"
K = "Ki"
L = "El"
M = "Imm"
N = "Inn"
O = "Ou"
P = "Pe"
Q = "Kyu"
R = "Err"
S = "Iss"
T = "Teh"
U = "Yu"
V = "Bi"
W = "DubliU"
X = "Ikss"
Y = "Wai"
Z = "Hezze"
On the fifth day, I was going back to Alice's Lab for my lessons but when I entered, there was no one there.
Looking around I saw crates with writing on the side saying "Cocoa beans", a crate of milk, and another crate with something blue in it.
I also saw the back door which led down to a basement opened, so I went inside out of curiosity, I saw a giant glowing circle and a blue feather and bones of a bird in the middle.
Alice was pouring all of her mana to fuel what was in that circle however it was clearly not enough as she collapse on the spot.
Reacting quickly, I caught Alice and tried to treat her. "Ah...Himura...didn't expect you here..." Alice said weakly.
Her body was cold, very cold, it was one of the effects of running out of mana. I immediately lay her down on the couch in the lobby of the lab, then immediately gave her chocolate milk from the cocoa bean and milk mixed with a bottle of a bright blue liquid which turned out to be liquefied mana, a more pure version of a mana potion.
Alice's explanation was long but in summary, the brown liquid I saw her drink on various occasions was a mix of cocoa beans since she liked chocolate milk and liquefied mana.
Immediately after drinking it, Alice's body begins to warm up, as if she was resurrected.
"Ah...that feels way better, thanks Himura." I grabbed my pencil and notepad and began writing on them. "Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine, this always happens anyway." She said sadly.
"Always?" I asked, then she speaks "Yep," She only says briefly.
"That was summoning circle." She said after a pause. I tilt my head in confusion, Using the books I found around Alice's bookshelves, I found out that to summon a creature, it barely takes any mana except mythical creatures and that goes true as well when using a (mana circle) meaning she must be summoning a mythical creature but my question was why though.
"It's fine if you don't get it, All you need to know is that I'm fine." Alice smiles cutely but I wasn't a fool, I know that she was hiding something but I also know that we only met four days ago so he didn't question deeper. "Oh you also came at the right time, our lessons will have to be postponed for a bit due to some "personal issues" that I need to deal with." She said as she stands up.
'Could those crates be?' I began to think but I stopped myself and began writing instead. "Alright, just me don't overdo it"
"I'm an alchemist and a summoner, wasting energy is inefficient for us," Alice said with a hint of irony.
"Okay I'll come back in 3 days, will that be alright?" I asked using my notepad and she happily smiles "More than enough."
"Good, then I'll see you in three days, I hope you finished your business with a good outcome."
"Of course." With that confirmation, I leave, a bit dissatisfied.
"Yeah, I hope so too Himura..." Alice said as she watches me leave.