After robbing/dealing with the bandit, Nico proceeded on the same road he was robbed on, but now with a shortsword, a bag of useless shit, and some money that he got from the poor man.
A short while went by until Nico saw a giant wall in the distance. Finally reaching a destination caused him to speed up his walking into a run. In the game he could run for a long time, but thanks to his stats being reset, he no longer had that ability. That wasn't to say that only his stats were the reason for his physical ability because Nico had a great body, but the stats did help quite a lot.
Getting closer to the wall, Nico saw a line of people waiting to get in so he jumped in line and patiently waited his turn.
The line was progressing pretty quickly, so he only had to wait for about 5 minutes before it was his turn.
"Next!" Yelled one of the guards at the gate.
Out of habit, while Nico was approaching the guard he couldn't help but scrutinize him. And was thoroughly disappointed.
The guards' readiness was basically non-existent. Nico was confident that if he really wanted to, he would have a pretty solid chance of just barging past the guard and entering the city. The only disadvantage he would have in a fight would be that the guard had better gear than him.
"The entrance fee is 2 copper." Said the guard unenthusiastically. He sounded really sick of his job.
Taking out 2 copper from the bandits bag, Nico handed it over to the guard, who then put it into a giant sac, and entered the city. The moment Nico entered the city he couldn't help but stand there for a second, marveling at the beautiful scenery before him.
Nico was taking in every sight that he possibly could. Coming from a more technology advanced world, he would normally never be able to see all of this. The beautiful architecture, the gorgeous stone paved road which had no cars on it, only people walking with the occasional horse drawn carriage, he loved all of it.
Knowing that the system brought him here and his previous encounter with the bandit forced Nico to accept that this world was not as peaceful as his last one, but right now in this moment, all of his worries washed away, left to only marvel at this world's beauty.
Noticing his thoughts going off track, he reined them in and directed them back towards his goal, finding an inn to stay at. Although he had many things that he needed to figure out, he thought that finding a place to stay was a good first step.
Nico decided to take the left street of the three in front of him. He was glad that everyone spoke the same language as him, that would have made things impossibly hard.
While thinking about such things, he stumbled across what he was looking for.
The Inn's name was "Dreamy Sheep" and was decorated to give off a homey vibe. He didn't feel like searching for any other Inn to compare it to, so he just went with it. He was physically exhausted from the walk and mentally exhausted from…well…just about everything that has happened today.
Entering the "Dreamy Sheep", Nico was greeted by a pleasant smell and gentle voice coming from his right.
"Hello, young man, are you looking to book a room or for something to eat?" Said the woman behind the counter, with a gentle smile.
The woman looked like a neighborhood granny. She reminded Nico of his grandmother before she passed away due to old age, she was a gentle soul and everybody who ever knew her loved her.
Putting on a similarly gentle smile, Nico responded.
"Yes, ma'am. I'm actually looking for both a room and some food. It seems I found the right place, based on the smell." He said in a polite but joking manner.
Hearing the young man's words in front of her, the old woman put on a slightly smug smile before replying.
"Of course, you found the right place. We only serve the best food here. 1 night will be 6 copper and that includes one free meal."
"Haha…Sounds good, book me for one week please and could I perhaps get that meal now?" He replied, letting out a chuckle at the grannies smugness.
"Yep, you came at just the right time, I just finished cooking dinner. Here's your key, go up and drop your stuff off. I'll go prepare you a plate, it's Bulldeer tonight. Oh, yes, my name is Gertrude by the way, it's a pleasure." She said as she handed Nico the keys then went for a handshake.
"It's nice to meet you, I'm Nico. I'm looking forward to dinner." Nico reciprocated the handshake as he spoke.
Gertrude nodded her head.
"As you should."
They then separated with Nico heading up to his room and Gertrude going into the kitchen.
Reaching his room, Nico unlocked it and entered. A bed had never looked so pleasing to Nico, but he knew he had dinner waiting on him so he resisted the temptation and headed back down stairs.
Arriving back on the first floor Nico found an open table and took a seat. He was actually extremely excited for dinner. Gertrude said that she made Bulldeer for dinner, which he had never even heard of but it sounded delicious!
Soon after Nico had taken his seat, Gertrude exited the kitchen with a plate full of food.
Sitting down the food, she explained what it was.
"The main dish is, as I already told ya, Bulldeer. We were fortunate enough to find one of the suckers and it makes for some good cookin'."
"As the sides we have green beans and a packed baked potato."
She finished speaking and looked at Nico as if trying to tell him to try it. Which he was happy to do because just looking at the food made him salivate.
Not wanting to wait another second, he picked up the utensils that Gertrude had brought out with the food, and dug into the Bulldeer he was curious about.
The second the Bulldeer hit his tongue, Nico's body had a foodgasm(food orgasm). The meat was so succulent, it felt like biting into a meat sponge. Not only that but the flavor tasted almost nothing like he expected. Nico expected the Bulldeer to taste like beef and deer meat combined, but instead it tasted like…
"Heaven…" Muttered Nico.
That was the only word that he could use to describe this divine meat.
Seeing Nico's reaction, Gertrude burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, this is why Bulldeer is so expensive, its meat is so different from anything else! Of course, you have to have a good cook for it not to be wasted, though!" She finished her sentence with the same smug smile she had on earlier.
*
The rest of the meal was things he recognized, but nonetheless it was still delicious. Nico even thought that her skills far surpassed even professional chefs from his original world.
Finishing up his delicious meal and telling Gertrude that he was thankful for the meal, Nico headed back to his room.
Entering his room, he dove straight into bed. He had never felt the desire for a calm bed before now. This room gave him the perfect spot to calm himself down, rest, and plan for the future.
Taking a second to bask in the warmth and comfort of the bed, he sat up and began thinking about his future move.
'I need knowledge about this world. I'm not too worried about {skills} at the moment because I can just rely on my fighting skills to get me pretty far. But knowledge is something that I have none of at the moment, the question is…how to get that knowledge?'
'hmmm…Oh! Surely, this city has a library or something in it right? *Yawn* I'll ask Gertrude about the library thing tomorrow, I'm too tired right now.'
With that final thought, Nico took off his clothes and fell into a deep yet gentle sleep.
*
The next morning Nico woke up and went down to the first floor to ask Gertrude about a library.
"Umm… Yes, there is one, I've never been to it before but it should be…." She then proceeded to give Nico instructions to it, supposedly it was on the other side of the city then the inn, which was quite a ways away. But, given the walk yesterday, this one would be child's play.
Following her instructions, Nico quickly arrived at the Library and was "greeted" by two guards.
"5 Copper for entrance." Said the guard on the left.
'Really… Aren't libraries supposed to be free?' thought Nico.
Even though he thought this, he didn't feel like starting a commotion so he just handed over 5 Copper and proceeded inside.
The inside of the library was quite large, it had two floors and many different sections on each of them. The first thing Nico wanted to find out was general knowledge about the world. So he asked the librarian sitting at the counter.
Nico didn't know how to word his question to make himself not look weird, so he just went for it.
"Hello, miss, do you know where I could find some books about general knowledge?" He said, with a friendly smile.
Hearing his question, her face turned in confusion but didn't question it.
"It's on the second floor, in section 15"
Going up to the second floor and finding section 15, Nico picked out a few books that he thought might be helpful and began reading.