"I want answers."
I struggled to find the words to say. After stammering for a moment, I paused to collect myself. But before I could open my mouth, the sickness in my stomach broke through the dwindling adrenaline. I felt my body retch before I tossed to the side and began vomiting. My hands trembled as they recalled the sensation of my blade tearing through skin and flesh. The thrashing before they became still. Again, I vomited.
I saw the child step away in disgust. Once I felt I could speak, I turned to them and coughed.
"I'm not your enemy," I choked. The taste of stomach acid plagued my mouth as I desperately tried to spit it out.
"I know that," they tossed the pouch I used as a distraction earlier in front of me. "Where did you get this?!"
"I found it in the--"
"Liar!"
The stone spike inched closer as I threw my hands up into the air in submission. The child took a step but buckled over and fell. It was obvious that they were still afflicted by their wounds.
"That... pouch is my brother's!" they pushed themselves back up before grabbing at my cloak. "This too...!"
The spike revved up like it was about to spiral towards me, but shortly after, the child fell down and hit the ground. I exhaled sharply, hyperventilating while my heart raced. I pulled the child up and laid them against the wall. I wasn't able to get a good look at their face because of their cloak, so I took off their hood.
Short lime-green hair with braids on the side and a pinchable face. Pointy ears and a marking on the side of their head that resembled a Lichtenberg scar. I didn't have the means to tend to them, but judging from how they acted earlier, I assumed they'd be fine. Hopefully.
The smell of roasting meat reminded me of the reason I came here. Turning to the spitroast, I walked up to my precious reward. The grumbling in my stomach grew louder as I used an arrow to cut off a piece of meat. Normally, I would've used my dagger for this, but I didn't want goblin blood to stain my food.
Holding the cut up to my mouth, I quickly devoured it and felt satisfaction as the food fell to my stomach. I sliced more pieces of meat and ate it in quick succession, continuing until I'd fully been satisfied. A wide grin formed on my face, knowing I could finally lay back without feeling the hunger in my gut. I fell back against a tree and sighed happily.
"For now, I guess I can relax."
As I fluffed the ground below me, I felt a strange feeling on the root of the tree. Looking down, I saw a familiar mushroom. My mind flashed back to a video I'd seen about this kind of mushroom, talking about how you could make anti-bacterial bandages with it. There were a few of them crawling from the root to the trunk of the tree. Looking back at the child, I plucked a few mushrooms and moved over. I flipped the mushroom over and made a little cut to peel the skin off.
I tested a small piece on a cut I got from falling and found that it was self-adhesive. There didn't seem to be any adverse effects, so I harvested some more and wrapped the child in mushroom bandages. After finishing the last bandage, the child began to wake up. I stepped back.
"Uh, hello?" I waved my hand in front of them. Suddenly, they jolted awake and threw their hand out as if to cast a spell.
"Piercer--"
"Stop that!" I threw my hands up. "Can you just hear me out?!"
They looked at the wrapping around their arm before placing their hand down.
"Damn, why are children so violent...?"
"C-Children?! I'll have you know that I'm the eldest daughter of my family!"
"Eldest daughter or whatever, you don't look any younger than my little brother."
She huffed, and a silence filled the air for a moment. After some time, she finally spoke.
"So why do you have my brother's gear?"
"I already told you, I found it. I found it in Limea," I sat down and sliced a piece of meat. But when I turned to hand it to her, I saw that her face had run pale.
"Limea...?" she muttered under her breath. After a moment, she looked up with eyes that screamed terror. "Tell me you're lying!"
"No, I'm not."
She looked down for a moment, beginning to hyperventilate. Turning up to me again, she spoke, "Wait, you were in Limea, right? Were there still people there? Or did they evacuate?!"
"They evacuated," I stuttered at her panicked demeanor. "There was an emergency notice, and everyone's things were left behind."
Her expression loosened up before she slumped against the tree. "That doesn't explain why he left his gear behind, but at least there's hope that he's alive..."
I was curious but smart enough not to pry into personal business. With her calming down, I handed her the piece of meat I'd been meaning to give her. Hesitating, she reluctantly grabbed the meat and ate it slowly. Looking around, I looked at the goblin corpses around the clearing. The feeling of sickness wasn't as strong, but it was still present. At the very least, I was able to handle it.
Dragging the corpses into a single pile, I went through their bodies to see if they had anything useful. Lining up their loot on the ground, there weren't many things that I would be able to use. There was one thing, however. A small pouch filled with silver coins and a green vial. I still wasn't sure what colors did what, considering I took them all at the same time during my encounter with the skeleton, but I did know that they weren't anything like poison.
"Can you sell monster corpses and stuff?" I turned to her.
"What kind of question is that?" she sighed. After looking at me for a moment, she shook her head. "Yes, you can. You can sell them at the guild buildings, but only certain parts of the corpses. For goblins, that'd be their ears."
I looked back to the goblins, my face scrunching up. I didn't like the idea of cutting up goblin corpses, but it was necessary to make more money. Taking my dagger, I placed it against the top of the ear and worked my way down. It was a terrible feeling, sawing through the skin and bone, but after the fourth one, it was bearable. I placed the goblin ears into my pockets to avoid contaminating the berries and coins.
"Who are you?" she asked. "I assumed you were an adventurer, but you didn't know about selling corpse parts. That's something even villagers know. Not to mention, you're much too squeamish."
I turned around and thought about how to answer. I didn't want to just say I was from another world since she'd probably think I was crazy. There wasn't any way I could answer this without screwing myself over somehow. If I lied about being a native, then my lack of knowledge would be weird. But if I said the truth, I'd probably be taken in...
"You'd figure a person asking that would introduce themselves first," I responded. Better to just prolong the dialogue while I figure out an excuse.
"...That's fair," she sighed. "My name is Summer. As I've said, I'm the eldest daughter of my family, the Wilter family. I'm an adventurer who was sent out to patrol the forest."
I stopped for a moment before turning back, "Nico. That's my name."
"Okay, Nico. That doesn't answer my question," she struggled to stand up. "You're clearly not an adventurer, so why are you in such a dangerous forest?"
There was nothing I could say as an excuse. I had to come up with something ambiguous, something that you don't wanna ask more questions about. But something that explains my situation.
"I'm just a wanderer."
"Even wanderers know about the guild."
"I was a sheltered child."
"Who was your family, then?" she seemed like she was getting impatient.
A memory popped up in my head. An unwelcome one, but nevertheless, it gave me an idea on how to escape this conversation. As much as I didn't like recalling these memories, I'd have to channel these emotions if I wanted to make it believable. Engrossing myself in the uncomfortable feeling, I turned around and answered.
"...I don't have a family. Not anymore."
She froze, but after a moment, I felt the tense atmosphere loosen up. There was nothing else to harvest from the goblins, so I walked up to her and handed her the green vial.
"You're injured, right? I'll hand you this if you take me to the nearest city."
She grabbed the vial and drank it. Her face twisted, probably from the bitter taste of the potion. I had a similar expression when I drank the potions earlier. Placing the empty vial into her pocket, she shook her head and grumbled.
"Fine, let's go."
Without waiting, she started walking. I followed shortly behind. The travel was mainly silent, but there wasn't much awkwardness between us. I assumed she'd laid off the questions because of what I said earlier, which made it easier for me. On the way, I plucked a few more mushrooms and berries and stuffed them into my pouch, which lost a lot of its content from when I threw it to distract the goblins earlier.
After around an hour of walking, I finally started to see the exit of the forest. And beyond it was a large city guarded by a large wall. After leaving the forest, we followed the path and walked up to the large gate guarded by two guards.
"State your purpose," the guard spoke without looking me in the eye.
"You know who I am," she spoke.
"Yes, ma'am, but who is the boy beside you?"
"It's none of your concern."
The guard nodded before opening the gate and letting us through.
As we walked through the city, I couldn't help but be amazed again. It was an even larger city than Limea. I saw people of all kinds walking up and down the street. There were elves, orcs, dwarves, and even humans that had animal-like features. It finally began to sink in, and I was in another world. The feeling wasn't very present in Limea, given that it was completely empty. And it wasn't very present in the forest either since I was too worried about food and survival. But now that I was able to be in the moment, the excitement began to build.
After bringing me to a large building in the center of the city, she handed me a gold coin.
"Welcome to Wilt's adventuring guild," she spoke. "You'd do good to register as an adventurer. While you might be squeamish, you aren't terrible. This gold coin should cover the cost."
"Are you sure?" I grabbed the gold coin.
"As embarrassing as it is for me, you saved my life," she crossed her arms. "With this, our debts are settled. And... sorry about your family."
Without saying goodbye, she quickly started walking away. A strange character, a bit rude, but I can't say I was the kindest person either. After taking a deep breath, I turned to the adventurer's guild and smiled. Something told me that this was where things would turn around. I might've started off roughly, but this was the true start of my life in another world.
Walking inside, it was everything I imagined and more. The design was similar to Limea's building, except there were actually people inside. People of all kinds and sizes grouped up at their tables, drinking and eating. Others were sifting through quests and laughing. With high hopes, I walked up to the receptionist.
"I'd like to register as an adventurer!"
"Alright, that'll be one gold coin," he responded dully, drawing smoke from a cigarette.
I handed him the coin, and he gave me a paper to fill out. It was strange. The language seemed to be foreign, yet I was able to understand it. Not allowing myself to get distracted, I chalked it up to some reincarnation magic skill and continued reading. I read over the paper again and again...
"Sir, is there a problem?" he asked.
"Uhm... I don't know what these things are," I muttered. "Pledge? Style? School?"
He looked at me as if I was insane. "Those are... basic things you get when you're a child. You know... the deity that guards you? The style of fighting you have...?"
I looked at him clueless before trying to explain. "I was a sheltered kid, so..."
"I guess there really are people like you, huh?" he sighed before walking towards an old door. After fiddling with the handle, the door finally let up, and a gust of smoke seeped through the cracks. "C'mon, let's go."
"Alright?"
He pulled me into the room, where a large crystal hovered in the center. He sat me down and grumbled as he kicked the crystal over and over. After a few kicks, the crystal began to glow and spins slowly.
"We haven't used this damn thing in a while," he said. "But it should still work, probably. You're a sheltered kid, right? This is a mana catalyst. We use it to check your body's mana type, along with a couple o' other things."
Grabbing my wrist, he placed it against the mana catalyst. Suddenly, I felt something in my body being pulled away. It was like water flowing out of a hole in my hand, pouring out into the catalyst. After a moment, he sat me down and looked into the catalyst. But once the mana fully settled into the catalyst, it turned a dark black. His expression shifted as he pulled the cigarette out of his mouth.
He turned to me, "Well, that's real unfortunate."
"Huh? What happened?" I asked.
"Sorry, friend, but I don't think you can be an adventurer."
...What?