“Whoa, you went into the forest all by yourself and survived?”
“Yeah.”
Returning to the fortress city of Exes, I shrugged in response to the astonished gatekeeper I knew and passed through the gate.
The first place I headed was the Adventurers’ Guild.
Having already spent a lot of my funds on poison smoke bombs and exploration equipment, I needed to sell off the contents of my Item Box to maintain a comfortable life at the inn.
(How much will it sell for? I think I gathered some pretty good stuff.)
While I don’t have the skill of Appraisal, I’m aware of the value of the items I collected on my way back, thanks to knowledge from herb dictionaries and the like.
As I calculated in my mind, I arrived at the Adventurers’ Guild and made my way to the request board.
“Let’s see… this one, and this one? Maybe I can take this one too.”
Even though it was already past evening and into the night, I peeled off the request slips that were always posted as permanent requests on the board, held up my status device to accept the requests.
After that, when I headed towards the guild’s reception I was told, “Not over there.”
“Edward-san. If you’re submitting request items, please go to this counter.”
Hearing my name called, I turned to see the smiling receptionist.
The receptionist, Marie. She’s one of the familiar faces at the North City Guild, where I’ve been stationed since my voluntary exile.
“Oh, that’s right.”
Although I had mostly only been doing city wall patrols, I had taken on herb gathering requests to make some pocket money, so I had used this delivery-only counter before.
It hadn’t crossed my mind since I didn’t use it often.
“Well then, please take care of this request for me.”
Marie exchanged the data from the request slip displayed on my status device with the guild terminal she held up.
As I began pulling out the requested items one after another from my Item Box, Marie blinked in surprise.
“Um, Edward-san, did you learn to use an Item Box? You haven’t changed to a Merchant or Baggage Carrier, have you?”
“Ah, it’s the benefit of being a double job, Marie.”
The double job configuration of Bounty Hunter and Hacker was already known to the guild through my status device.
That’s why, people like Marie are aware of what kind of jobs I have.
Since my looks are decent enough for me to be proud of, when I answered with a smile, Marie blushed and complimented me, saying, “Oh, really? That’s amazing, you really are impressive for a double job!”
(Having two jobs is rare, but it’s not impossible. Given the conditions, it’s likely that some people achieve it without intending to.)
However, it’s probably rare to get a combination of jobs that produces such a strong synergy like mine.
There are no strategy sites in this world, and while single job performance might be known, there are no educational institutions where you can share information about combined jobs.
Of course, if what I’m doing becomes known to the public, it will be recognized as a great achievement, but there’s no need for me to vocalize that at this point.
So, Marie, who knows, naturally perceives me as something great and continues to praise me.
Even though I’m still in a weak position in the city, I don’t want to stand out too much, but I keep receiving compliments.
This is a result of prioritizing connections over the drawbacks of fame.
The guild receptionist is among the elite of the urban citizen class.
Regardless of my past life, in this world, I’m from a rural village and incidentally chose the poorly regarded Bounty Hunter during the profession grant ceremony.
So I had been cut off from the fairly well-established connections I had built before the profession grant, which included many influential people.
Considering the future, it’s not a bad idea to raise my worth and let the right people know to build connections like this.
And having someone as beautiful as Marie praise me sincerely certainly feels good.
That said, I can’t chat forever, and as a capable staff member, Marie is already checking the herbs I gathered with her Gathering skill while we talk.
Using a monocle magic tool with the Appraisal skill attached, she confirms the names and qualities of the items I hand over, and says, “Yes, I’ve confirmed. The request is complete. All these items are of such quality that we could use them as samples at the guild. You really are impressive, Edward-san.”
I’ve gathered herbs over ten thousand times during my time in the Hero game era. I’m quite skilled at it.
“Thanks, Marie. Oh, right. I also defeated some monsters in the forest. I’d like to sell the drop items—can I do that here too?”
“Um, since you’ve got an Item Box, you’ll need to take this purchasing sheet and go to the dismantling station instead of this request counter. Once the dismantling and assessment are done, bring back the purchasing sheet, and you’ll receive the payment.”
It seems I can’t just bring the corpses here.
I was handed a wooden board with a sheet of paper attached to it as the purchasing sheet, and I said, “Thanks, Marie,” lightly grasping her hand for some physical contact as I headed towards the guild’s purchasing office.
