2 02. The beginning of a new life




'We might not drop anything this low.
Wait a minute, is S low?
'What? Because of the ABCD at ......

 Emily breaks her fingers and counts as she did before.
 It's true that if you're in alphabetical order, S is pretty far back, so it's reasonable to say it's low.

 But to my sense, from the sense of a generation that has had video games since they were born.
 S is above A. I actually looked at the board again.

 In fact, I looked at the board again.

---2/2---
Plants S
Animals S
Minerals S
Magic S
Characteristic S
--------- ...

 Is this good or bad?
 My sense is that it's incredibly good.
 It just looks like an all-S high spec, cheat character.

 But Emily says it's low.
 Which is just.

'I'll give it a try,'

 I looked around, in order to check the drop rate, I have to defeat the monster ...... slime.
 First, I need a weapon for that.

 Of course, there's no way you'll find much of a weapon by looking around.
 It would be nice if you could find a stick piece of something: .......

"What are you looking for?
"Weapons to take down the slime. Make sure the drop rate S is really low.
Would you like to use mine?

 Emily held out the hammer.
 I took it.

'Ugoge!'

 His body was dragged by the hammer and he almost fell down.
 He tried to lift the hammer off the ground.
 I put my back into it and gritted my teeth.
 I put all my strength into it, but it wouldn't lift at all.

It must weigh a hundred pounds or something!
I'm sorry!

 Emily apologized and lifted the hammer with a flourish - with one hand, by golly!
 I shuddered.

 A pretty girl with a 130 centimeter appearance is holding up a hammer that lightly weighs over a hundred pounds with one hand.

 Come to think of it, she was swinging it around earlier!
 A shiver ran down my spine. The backs of my thighs were drenched in cold sweat.

'Well, how about this then?'

 Completely oblivious to the fact that I was frightened, Emily took a green stick out of her pack.
 I looked closer and saw that it wasn't a stick, it was knobby and knotted, with a sharpened and pointed tip.
 It was a bamboo spear.

 I took it - this time with great trepidation - and found it to be ordinary bamboo.
 It's a good weight and the thickness feels good in the hand.

It feels good in your hand.
The slime is here.

 I looked in the direction Emily had given me.
 An underground passage - a single slime appeared from the end of the cave.

 Pong, pong, pong.
 It bounced like a rubber ball and came toward me.

 I readied my bamboo spear.
 The first move is winning. I pounced on the slime from this side.
 I buckled down and thrust the yari horizontally.

 With a thud, the bamboo spear caught the slime and pierced it.
 I could feel a strange sensation in my hand.

 The slime, pierced through the center of his body, stopped moving just like that.
 It melted and spilled out of the bamboo yarns onto the ground.

 Eventually, the corpse disappeared - and the sprouts dropped.
 A massive amount of sprouts, like the kind you'd find in a commercial supermarket, about two kilo packs!

'Wow, wow. I've never seen so many drops before.
'Didn't the higher the drop, the higher the quantity?
Yes, sir.
'How long would it be if Emily did it?'
Um, .......

 A slime appeared from the other side.
 Emily grabbed her hammer and waited for the slime.
 She withstood a blow from the side of the slime and smashed it with the hammer when its movement slowed for a moment.

 Receive it and strike.
 Emily has been fighting like that for a while now.

 The smashed slime disappeared and became a sprout again.
 This time they are the kind of sprouts you normally see in supermarkets, a pack of sprouts that cost less than ¥10 when they are on sale.

 At a cursory glance, it's about ten times bigger than mine.

'It's like this,'
'I have more than you. Does Emily have any experience in getting this much out?
No. I've been in the basement of the tellurium for about two years and I've never seen anything like this.
Well, if you go to ...... then I guess that means S is above A after all.
How can S be on top of A? That's odd.
That's just the way it is.

 I don't know why either.
 I don't know, but I do know that the S is above the A.
 Come to think of it, there's also SS and SSS above S.

...... Emily, have you seen any other S's?
No, I haven't. I've never heard of it. I've never heard of it, because it's common knowledge that A is the greatest.
Well: ......

 I can't be sure, but maybe it's not SS or SSS.
 Drop rate all S.
 For a moment, I broke out in a cold sweat, wondering if I was going to be forced to go through another (,) day of hell, where nothing I did would be rewarded (、、、、、、、、、、).
 This seemed to be okay.

 And when I was relieved, I was hungry.
 Geez - my stomach rumbled so much that it echoed through the cave.

 I glanced at Emily, a little embarrassed in front of the girls.

'I'll have rice, sir.'

 She smiled and said with a smile like a mother's smile.

     ☆

 I made a fire on the spot and filled a pot with water and brought it to a boil.

'There's water in the cave, isn't there?'

 I looked at the puddle of water at a distance.

'When you kill a monster and nothing - say, a slime doesn't drop a sprout, air and water drop instead.
Yeah, I heard something like that earlier.
It's piling up all over the cave.
I see.

 A few moments later, the water boiled and Emily quickly cooked.

 She put the dropped sprouts from the slime and took the chives out of her pack and tore them into bite-sized pieces.
 I put them both in a pot of boiling water, drained the water in about ten seconds, and mixed the dressing with the chili oil and seasonings.

 It's a great trick, but it feels like it's a bit lazy.
 Well, since we're outdoors, or rather in a dungeon, I guess that's about it.

Here you go.

 I took a bite of the recommended sprouts and put them in my mouth - yum!
 The crunchy texture of the bean sprouts and the slightly spicy texture of the rayu dressing go well together.
 The freshness, sweetness, and spiciness are combined in a nice way.

This would go great with a snack.
Is that so?
You don't drink?
That's a lot of booze.

 I pretended I didn't hear a sad reply.

 I munched on the sprouts.
 They were insanely good and I could get in as much as I wanted.

 In the meantime, Emily made another dish.
 A soup of bean sprouts from the massive amount of sprouts we'd killed and dropped.
 The steamy, steamy, red, green and white color of the sprouts make it a very appetizing dish.

The white color of the red and green bean sprouts is also very appetizing.

 I took it and sipped it.
 The umami taste of the bean sprouts and the warmth of the soup permeated my body.
 It was also ...... soaked into my heart.

 I couldn't help but ...... tear up.

''Eeeeeeee! Dude, what's wrong with you, Yoda? I'm tearing up, but wasn't it ...... delicious?
No, it's not.

 I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand.

'It's been a long time since I've shared a hot meal with someone like this.

 I've been eating alone lately ...... so I've been eating alone.
 I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make it work.
 It was that way until I got sick and was hospitalized.

 I sipped on the bean sprout soup.

Thank you...

 I was about to look up and thank him when my eyes went dark.
 Warm and soft.
 I didn't know what was going on.

'Mr. Yoda,'

 I heard Emily's voice above my head and for the first time I understood that she was hugging me.
 She was six feet tall, and she hugged me.

'I've heard this before. A person's hard work always pays off. There's a difference between early and late, but those who work hard will always be rewarded.
It's not...
Moreover, sir.

 Emily patted the back of my head gently.

'The longer you work hard but don't get rewarded, the bigger the reward. It's the same as when you decapitate, you have to google ...... it with your thumb. The longer you google it, the stronger you become. So the most amazing thing is to be reborn and be rewarded in the next life.
......
'I think Yoda-san has worked very hard. So I'm sure it's only going to pay off now.

 Emily whispers to me in a compassionate voice, like a mother.
 I found myself clinging to her, wrapping my hands around her waist and holding her close.

     ☆

 After the meal was over, I settled down to be ...... distraught.
 I suddenly mumbled.

'Speaking of which, is it noon now? Night?
'I think it's night, sir. That's my third meal of the day, my supper.
So I guess I'll just have to find a place to stay.
In that case, you're just outside the dungeon and you're in town, so you can find a place to stay.
Okay.

 I got up and tried to get out of the dungeon.
 Meanwhile, Emily, who told me, is not moving.

'Are you going to take down the monsters again?
I'm going to bed.
Do you want to go to bed? Instead of leaving?
'I live in a dungeon. The drops are low and I don't make much money. My dream is to rent an apartment one day.

 Emily said flatly.
 Isn't that - isn't that like being homeless?

 Maybe it's close to that.
 As I recall, I've been taking out pots, pans, spices, and other things from my luggage since a while ago.
 At first I thought they were camping gear, but then I saw .......

...... Yeah.

 I stood up, determined to do something.

'Mr. Yoda, I'm taking this with me.
Bamboo Yari...... okay?
It's hard to be without a weapon.

 Emily smiled at me.
 I was more and more touched by her kindness and thoughtfulness.

I'm going to borrow it. I'll get it back to you in time.
Yes. I'm always in the basement level of this tellurian.
Okay.

 I nodded, and once I was out of the dungeon.

     ☆

 I got the minimum amount of information I needed from the city and redeemed the dropped sprouts.
 That's where I found out a few things.

 First of all, the currency unit of this world is Piro. It's worth about the same as the Japanese yen.
 That business pack of bean sprouts is 200 piro, a cheap hotel for sleeping only is 2000 piro for a night, and a bowl of ramen-like food is 500 piro.
 There are various errors, but it's like we can spend about 1 yen = 1 pillow as a sense.

 After checking that and the price of what I wanted (、、、、、), I went back to the dungeon.

 Tellurian dungeon, first basement floor.
 So I went around looking for the slime and defeating it.

 Beat it and drop the sprouts.
 Take it back to the city and redeem it, then go right back and beat the slime again.
 If I got tired, I slept in that area just fine.
 The ground in the dungeon was hard, but I didn't mind because it wasn't that different from sleeping under my desk at work.

 And so I repeated the sleep, carry, and earn.

 First day's earnings, 5123 piro.
 Second day's earnings, 4,970 piro.
 Third day's earnings, drop delays and 10210 piro.

 I only got about an hour of sleep in three days, but I did my best and reached my goal.
 For sprouts, 20,000 piro (yen) for three days.
 That's--.

     ☆

 Ciclo, an agricultural town of tens of thousands of people with five dungeons.
 On the outskirts of Ciclo, an 87-year-old rundown apartment building.
 I brought Emily there.

'What is this place?'
I got it. I made three days' worth of money.
'In three days! That's great, Mr. Yoda.
'But it's old, no key money and no deposit. That was the most I could do in three days.
It's still great. How much is it?
20,000 pillows a month.
20000...... is amazing.

 As she said this, Emily looked around the room.
 It wasn't a flattering room, a room that was 87 years old and 20,000 pirouette worth of rent.
 Still, Emily looked around with envious eyes.

 I'm glad I did it, she thought.

'So, here's the key.'
"Yes, ...... why are you giving me the keys?
Because I'm going to live here today.
Who did?
You did.
...... yeah.

Of course, I'll pay your rent next month and the month after that, so don't worry.
Don't do this. This is not--
Thanks for the soup.
"--

 Emily gulps and looks at me in disbelief.

'That soup was good: ...... It was warm.'
......
Thanks for that. It's not a nice room, but I want you to live there.
...... Okay,

 After staring at me for a moment, Emily nodded slowly.
 I was relieved and happy.

 I was so relieved to be able to repay her for the soup.

"Well, I guess I'll just...

 I was about to turn myself around and go outside, when...
 My clothes were caught and I was held back.

"Emily?
My hands are ...... covered in blisters.
'What? Oh I'm sorry, there's probably blood on the bamboo yarns I borrowed from you, but I'll wash them properly and return them.
There are dark circles under my eyes too: ......
Do you have more? Haha, the bear has to be gone before it can be a reality.

 I'll stay up all night and it'll be gone before you know it, oddly enough.

......
Emily?

 Shut up Emily, I don't know what's going on.
 Just as I was thinking that, she looked straight at me and said.

"I'm making soup.
Well, I'll just have one drink with you then.
I'll make you a drink and we'll drink it together.
'What? ...... That's it.

 The next thing I knew, she was holding my hand.
 She looked at me with the same compassionate, motherly eyes as she did then - the same eyes.

 I kind of knew what she was going to say.
 Are you sure? That's what I thought.

'Hey.'

 She smiles at me, and I nod my head as if I were caught in the act.
 This is how my life with Emily - living together - began.