Gate of Amitiricia Online

Chapter 3

Procurement

　This was my third login.

　As a result of yesterday’s training at the training ground, I now had 6 levels in [Hand-to-Hand] and 4 in [Spirit Magic]. I think I could now fight outside monsters with ease. I had to play solo because my play style was what it was and since I was a working adult, there would be times when I could not log in because of work. Therefore, I had to be able to do most things on my own. I had no intention of disparaging social players.

　Well then, my plan for today is to get some equipment. It seems that normal players did it on the first day of login and go out on the field. Considering that, I was aware that I started slow.

　I bought the usual Tiokuri chicken and looked for a store while eating it. The things I want to buy are armaments and tools.

　Players had starting equipment. Those were the initial cloth shirt, trousers, and leather shoes that were given when you log in. Naturally, the defensive effect of clothes was zero. They were only to ensure the bare minimum of appearance.

　Then, weapons for combat skills. I chose [Hand-to-Hand] and thought that I had no weapons. But in fact, I did have a weapon. When I opened the item menu, I found a cestus. I looked for it and found it in my pocket.

　A cestus is a type of knuckle duster, which might be better described as a kaiser knuckle or a merikensack. It is a type of weapon worn on the fist. (TLN: Kaiser knuckle or merikensack are other words to describe knuckle duster/brass knuckles.)

　And the cestus, as I recalled, was a leather bandage-like object used by Roman fist fighters. The one in front of me certainly looked like a leather belt, and has studs in it, so I suppose it protected the fist and strengthened the blow. But what about the other hand? Normally, this kind of weapon should be equipped on both hands. And even if it was the initial equipment, the attack power was 1, which was not good. (TLN: historically, cestus are battle gloves.)

　So the first step was weapons and armor. But there was a problem. I had spent a lot of money on the first walk around the restaurant. And yesterday, I spent 170 pedia for the Tiokuri chickens and the use of the training center. The initial amount of money provided was 10000 pedia, and my current amount is 7020 pedia…. Simple calculation showed that I spent about 30,000 yen. Just for food. And in two days, or a few hours if you only count login time.

　No, no, it can’t be helped. If you would allow me to explain myself, this game has a hunger and thirst level for the characters. It is a parameter that indicates hunger and thirst, and when it is maxed out, it causes all sorts of problems. So players will need to eat and drink in this world. So it’s all good.

　But the problem was that even if the hunger and thirst levels go to 0, your belly would never feel full. In other words, you can keep eating as much as you want. In real life, you would feel full and satisfied, but in the game, you’d feel a little satisfied, but not full. In other words, you could eat all the delicious food you would want…

　The result is my current balance of cash. No, I regret that I didn’t restrain myself.

　Anyway, I had to arrange various things with my remaining money. At a minimum, I needed two-handed weapons and upper body armor. Along with restorative medicine, etc.

　

　I headed towards Arms Street. As the name suggests, it was lined with shops selling weapons and armor. Naturally, there were many players who had come to shop. That’s all there is to it.

　”I have no idea where to go…”

　If there was only one weapon shop or tool shop in town, like classic computer RPGs, there would be no need to worry; but with so many shops, the price, quality, and selection of goods would vary widely. I honestly doubt that I could hit the jackpot in such a situation.

　Somehow, though, I think the NPC store is more reliable. They didn’t seem to have any eccentricities. On the other hand, the player’s store seems to offer high quality products with a few quirks.

　And my hunch was right. Using my [Far Sight] skill, I walked around the store, checking the merchandise inside and the prices of the items in the store, and it was exactly as I had expected it to be. However.

　”It’s no good…”

　First of all, there were no stores that carried weapons for my [Hand-to-Hand]. There were some stores that had cestus, but that’s it.

　And the armor was expensive. I took a quick look at the soft leather armor alone, and the lowest price started around 2500 pedia. Since I was a vanguard, I didn’t want delicate armor. If possible, I wanted at least hard leather armor, but even so, it started at around 5,000 pedia. That’s just for the torso. Arranging a complete set was too much.

　If I bought this, I’d have 2000 pedia left. With consumables and tools in mind, how much could I spare for a weapon?

　”…Though, I can also use magic… I should prioritize armor and build around magic…”

　With these thoughts in mind, I walked back the way I came from. I look around the stores again, searching for bargains to be found.

　”Hmm… What’s what?”

　It was a stall. It seemed to be an arms stall with some weapons on display. I had missed it because I was only looking at store.

　I got closer and checked out the items. The price was rather expensive, but the quality seemed to be good.

　”Welcome, what can I get you?”

　The man who owned the stall looked up at me. He looked around 30 years old. He had short black hair mixed with silver. His dark eyes are sharp, but not threatening.

　”Do you have any weapons for hand-to-hand?”

　”Hand-to-hand? That’s unusual. Moreover, with initial equipment.”

　”Yeah, I just started two days ago, and I was watching the town until 　yesterday. More importantly, it’s amazing that you have a stall in a place like this too.”

　Talking about initial equipment, this person’s a player, huh.

　Answering the man, I said what I thought as well. It’s an unusual stall in a place with a high concentration of stores dealing in armaments. He’s got some guts in my opinion.

　However, he smiled wryly,

　”Well, we’re actually setting up store.”

　And pointed behind him. Following it, I saw a building that was currently under renovation. People who looked like craftsmen were working inside.

　”I was bored doing nothing until it was finished. So I opened a stall in front of my store. It’s also a way to advertise.”

　The man took out a piece of paper and handed it to me.

　”Reias (レイアス reiasu) the blacksmith. I specialize in metal weapons and armor.”

　The paper handed to me was the size of a business card, and its contents were exactly the same as a business card. It read “Reias Kobo” (レイアス工房 reiasu koubou).

　”So, a hand-to-hand weapon. Unfortunately, I don’t have any weapons, but…”

　While saying this, Reias-san offered me something he took out of a box on his side.

　”Gauntlets?”

　It was a pair of gauntlets. They were a combination of metal and leather, with fingers covered to the second joint, but without thumb protection. The metal part of the arms was also only on the front side. The arms were simple and unadorned, with belts fastening the two arms through the fingers. The material is probably iron. The base is made of–

　”The base is Wolf’s leather.”

　”Whoa, are you a blacksmith as well1?”

　”No, I have animal knowledge, which probably helped.”

　I answered Reias-san’s question. I can’t think of any other reason why the information about the material was displayed. “Ah,” went Reias-san, now satisfied.

　”But why did you think we were in the same profession?”

　”Identification of obtained material must be done by someone who has the production-related skills to handle the material. So, for example, if a player first killed an unnamed animal in the field, which was obviously a wolf, and obtains its skin, the items available, meat and skin. The display will show a [?]. That is, unless you get the item after it gets appraised. It will reflect that, and you’ll know the material.”

　So you thought I had skills in that line of work, having discovered the identity of the material. However,

　”So you’re saying that once you’ve killed a wolf and have access to the wolf’s hide, you’ll know it when you see it?”

　”Once the skin becomes processed leather material, it’s treated as a separate item. Unless, of course, you have eyes on where it’s being processed.”

　”It’s kind of complicated…”

　Anyway, as for material-related items, if you have the relevant skills, you could appraise them. For example, leather materials would normally require a leather-working skill. For ores, it would be blacksmithing, and for medicinal herbs, it would be a pharmaceutical skill. I remembered that there were also skills for gathering and mining. It was a skill that added an extra bonus to the number of plants and ores collected, wasn’t it? It seemed that material knowledge was also included in those skills.

　But if you think about it that way, was animal knowledge quite versatile. Although it was simple and straightforward, I knew the name of the animal when I saw it, and I knew the original when I saw the animal-based material after processing. It would be perfect if I could know the details just by hearing the name.

　”In this world, it’s pretty important to see things for yourself.It can be said that skill holders are privileged in this area. Though, it is not impossible to only rely on the information posted on the forums2.”

　If looking is so important, then you might be able to compensate by looking at a picture book and memorizing, to some extent. Come to think of it, there should have been a library. I could try to study it.

　”Well, let’s get back to the story. This is arm protection, but it’s also good enough to protect your fists. If you only look at the attack power, it would be only a little better than commercial cestus and the like. As a matter of fact, As a matter of fact, I’ve never heard of anyone making weapons for hand-to-hand or foot techniques. There were some who made their own weapons for their own use during the beta, but they never put them up for sale.”

　I had expected Reias-san to say something like this, and sighed to myself. Well, from the beginning, there ws a saying that went “Speak with your fist”, so maybe there was an idea that wearing a weapon was rude. To a fighting player or a weapons craftsman.

　As I thought about that, Reias-san asked me a question.

　”Do you know the common arts3 for all combat skills?”

　”Magic Strike4, was it?”

　As the name suggested, [Magic Strike] was the first art that unleashed a powerful blow infused with magic power. Basically, it was an art that exists in all combat skills, and even projectile weapons such as bows were no exception.

　”Right. Magic Strike is a little special. For hand and foot techniques, the effect lasts for a certain amount of time. On the other hand, it is less powerful than the Magic Strike of other weapon systems.”5

　That was new to me. Does this mean that it was no different from a pseudo-weapon using magic power? The price to pay for this is a decrease in power.

　In addition, it is also a fact that people were avoiding hand-held weapons that could be attached to the fingers or gripped because they would get in the way when grabbing or grappling the opponent in close quarter combat. That’s why there were many who wore gloves and gauntlets, but few who had weapons for hand-to-hand.

　There were separate skills for judo throwing and joint-lock techniques, but if you are not concerned about hitting, it would be an advantage to not have your fingers crippled.

　Unless the developers came up with a unique weapon for hand-to-hand, I was beginning to think that gauntlets and gloves would suffice. Then we would talk about the price.

　”How much would this cost?”

　”It’s a practice piece. It’s at a level I don’t intend to display on the store shelves. How about a special price of 2,000 for one pair?”

　After deduction, I had 5,000 pedia left. That was reasonable, I guess, since I needed to buy other supplies.

　”If you’re going to break it in right next to the city, soft leather armor should be enough to get around. Then you could afford protection for just the torso and still be able to afford the potions and other stuff.”

　It was good advice. I bought the gauntlet, paid the price, and equipped it. It wasn’t as heavy as I had expected. I struck my fist into the open air a few times to see how it felt, but there seemed to be no problem.

　”If you find ores or other materials, bring them in. If it is good, I will buy it from you. I can also take orders for armaments, so come back again if you like.”

　”Thank you very much for your help.”

　I thanked Reias-san and left. Now, next is the armor.

　

END

Chapter 4

TLN: Phew. This took… a while. Anyone into Astro King?

Literal translation was “Are you in the same profession as well?” which I thought was a bit hard to understand.Literal translation was “Bulletin board”. Which is most likely in reference to 2ch. Since a textboard is one form of internet forum, I thought I’d translate it into a more commonly recognizable word: forum.アーツ a~tsu. Katakana for arts. JRPG players may be more familiar with the term arts, but from my understanding its basically skills that are usually weapon-dependent.魔力撃 [Magic Strike].
魔力 magic, 撃 attack/conquer/strike.Most weapons: damage additive/multiplier for one hit,
Hand-to-hand and footwork: damage buff for all hits in X amount of time.He bought the gauntlet from Reias, and hasn’t bought the soft leather armor or potions.