Surviving as a Useless Bard in a Game

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The village we arrived at was far more shabby than I had expected. It was even smaller than the village where I met Nisha and Propertyius, and it seemed to be even less impressive than the village near the Song Forest where I first opened my eyes.

“It’s seriously better to sleep in the wagon.”

Skylar said this as soon as he caught sight of the guild building. This place consisted of just a two-story wooden structure, with the first floor serving drinks and the second used as an inn, but… the hygiene left a lot to be desired.

“Is it really okay?”

“It doesn’t matter as long as we give the coachman enough money; nothing will happen.”

Saying this, Skylar loosened his purse slightly to count the silver coins and clicked his tongue.

“…Tsk.”

Every time he did something like that, he strangely appeared older than he was. His looks and personality didn’t seem to mesh, creating a cognitive dissonance in my brain.

In any case, the fact that Skylar clicked his tongue meant he didn’t have enough to spare for the coachman.

The scroll-user always had to replenish scrolls, and scrolls were definitely not cheap, so even if he did have money, he probably couldn’t spend it now.

“Should I lend you some money?”

“I didn’t want to borrow from anyone…”

“Are we strangers?”

“It’s more problematic that we’re not. We’re traveling together. Friends start hounding you for repayments if you’re even a bit late, you know.”

This guy must have some experience with loans.

“…Couldn’t you just pay it back right away?”

“Ah.”

Skylar looked at me blankly for a moment.

I couldn’t believe he was stumped by logic like that—he was looking at me with a strange look, and it made me feel oddly bad.

“How much do you need?”

“A denarius.”

“That’s cheap.”

“It’s for the lodging, after all. A denarius is on the expensive side. How about you get a bit of an economic sense right now?”

“Speaking of which, I just thought of something I want to ask.”

“Yeah?”

“How much do enchanted items or objects that improve stamina or health cost?”

Skylar fell silent for a moment, seeming to ponder something deeply.

Since this kid remembered that I had coughed up blood, he probably had some connection in mind related to this.

I patiently waited.

“It depends on the strength of the effect. It varies depending on what item you enchanted. You also have to consider the year of production…”

“If you were to roughly express the strength of the effect in numbers?”

“If the effect strength is level 10, you’d need 80,000 ducats.”

“…What?”

“Items with an effect strength of level 10 are impossible to make artificially. There are only three in this world.”

“What are they?”

“One is the cursed holy sword, another is the cross necklace owned by the first saint, and the last is the iron brand used to burn the eyes of sinners.”

…It seems like there’s an item that doesn’t quite fit the genre.

Nevertheless, if there are only three items in the world, I can understand the exorbitant price. After all, the item I needed was merely about resolving my negative stats.

“Right now, I need strength at level 3 and health at level 5, right?”

–
[ Strength: 0(-3) ]
[ Health: 0(-5) ]
–

As soon as my thoughts concluded, a status screen summarizing my two types of stats popped up.

The moment I needed it, it didn’t come out, but when I didn’t need it, it popped up right away. A tad annoying.

“There are ways to raise it with exercise or proficiency systems, but… with this condition, the efficiency would be terrible. How can I raise it when just moving a little makes me collapse? It would take forever.”

Why didn’t they implement a level system like in other games? Were they enjoying seeing players writhing in agony?

No matter how I thought about it, my thoughts drifted to the game developers being sadists.

“No, that’s not the point.”

Let’s just ask Skylar about the prices of other items.

“How much do items around level 3 to level 5 cost?”

“That level is possible to create artificially. Roughly calculated… the cheapest would be about 2 ducats.”

…That’s cheap.

I could buy that.

Or, rather, if I had to be specific, it’s not really cheap. Since one silver coin would equate to about 200,000 won, it means I’d be spending 1.8 million won on one item.

At that rate, I could buy a decent piece of armor and a sword with a shield and still have enough money left over for accessories.

“Let’s think about it for a bit.”

It wasn’t something I needed right away, and I couldn’t even get it before reaching Regan anyway.

As I was lost in deep thought for a while, Skylar halted his steps and started walking around me in circles. His expression looked quite complicated.

“Do you need it?”

“Huh?”

“I’m a scroll-user, but I’m also a wizard, you know? From the Mage Tower at that.”

“You can make it?”

“Only if I retrieve my heart.”

“Which means you can’t make it.”

“Right.”

“Then why mention it?”

“If I push myself a bit like when I teleported last time, I might be able to.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“I obviously don’t want to do that, but if you’re about to die and the only way to save you is for me to risk my life, I’m saying I’d at least attempt it.”

“…Do you really have to?”

“When someone you adventured with dies, the dream gets really bad.”

Skylar said this with a slight smile and ended the conversation, cutting me off as if to prevent me from learning more about him.

It felt a bit strange.

In that moment, another face overlapped behind Skylar’s smile. A handsome man seemed to be watching me with a faint smile.

Suddenly, my chest felt tight. I wanted to leave the spot.

“…I’ll stay at the guild for a bit.”

“Okay. Don’t take too long. I parked the wagon near the guild, so you should find it easily.”

“Yeah.”

My choice was to escape the place.

If I climbed onto the same wagon as him and stayed on the narrow floor together, I felt like something problematic might arise.

My eyes grew slightly stinging.

I rubbed them with my hand.

*

When I opened the door to the guild and entered, only awkward silence greeted me.

‘Oh my god, is this really a guild?’

From the moment I stepped in, the smell of dust hit my nose, along with spiders descending from the ceiling. I understood why Skylar had decided to avoid such a place.

If the intention was to offend my senses, it would have earned a 120% success rate; it was in such terrible condition.

I could see why Skylar hadn’t even approached the guild’s door and headed straight for the wagon.

Normally, if it were a typical situation, typical city, and typical guild, I would have at least checked for requests, but… this was a bit much.

“…Huh?”

From a little distance, I noticed an adventurer looking at me with his head turned.

‘I recognize that face.’

He looked familiar, as if I had seen him somewhere. He had a neatly shaven head with a rugged expression, a tall stature, and a solid build, along with an unkempt beard that wasn’t properly groomed.

Who was he again?

No, I thought he recognized me too. He had just made a sound after all.

Wait a minute… rugged expression?

There were very few people with rugged expressions I had met at the Adventurer’s Guild.

“……Harun?”

“Fancy seeing you here.”

He was the adventurer from the village near the Song Forest, the one who had provoked me when I first opened my eyes.

I had cursed his parents due to his clumsy habits, but we had ended up apologizing to each other and parting on good terms. Despite his appearance, he had a surprisingly decent personality.

‘…I have the same silver badge as him.’

The fact that someone like him and I were treated the same as silver badges meant there was a problem with the ranking system of the Adventurer’s Guild.

“What brings you to this remote place?”

“Oh, um… I had some business in the north.”

“That quickly?”

“I asked a wizard for teleportation.”

“The costs wouldn’t be trivial. Are you perhaps a noble? There was a rumor among the adventurers in the guild when we first met that you might be a lady experiencing commoner life.”

“That’s not the case. I just had some money from doing bard work instead of being an adventurer.”

“…Are you in that business?”

“No, I mean, I just play my flute, that’s all.”

“My bad.”

“Anyway, why are you here?”

“I came to take a decent break. I can’t be living off requests all the time. By the way, have your ranks gone up? That little wizard disappeared with you; I figured you’d have gotten an upgrade or something.”

Hmm, I had been waiting for this moment.

I pulled out an adventurer’s badge from my pocket.

The silver badge that had my name and occupation written on it.

“What do you think?”

“…You beat a silver badge adventurer with that body?”

“W-well, for now.”

Ah, wait a minute.

Did that information get recorded too?

Let’s just cover it up for now.

After chatting a bit more, time passed.

How long had it been? It was about time to get up from my seat. To be more precise, I wanted to get up from my seat.

“By the way, how long do you plan to stay in this town?”

“I’m staying for just one day and heading to the next city after.”

“Hmm, I see. If you have time, I’d like to do a request together. Are you still traveling with that wizard?”

“Yes.”

“I see. How about you three come to the guild tomorrow for a chat?”

“Yeah?”

“…Since I’m resting in this small town, I don’t know anyone here, you see.”

“I’ll ask Skylar first.”

“Sure. I’ll be here all day, so whenever you come is fine.”

I exchanged polite farewells and left the guild.

In the end, I couldn’t find a single useful request, and I simply bought some bread and milk from a vendor on the street before heading back to the wagon.