CHAPTER 30: MERCENARY ALBERT

The trading bulletin board was relatively empty.

Players have started to disappear from 「Heathrow town」…the peak was probably around the final stage of the turtle event.

At the time, we were busy going around the fields so it wasn’t really inconvenient for us, but when we had to use the facilities in the town it was crowded to the point we were jostling against each other.

They had raised the level cap to 40 now, since the turtle gear you obtained from the event was rather good, the players embarked from 「Heathrow town」.

「How is it? Tobi」 (Hind)

「There’s none…meteo type first-rate gear that is」 (Tobi)

「Well, that’s troubling. I won’t be able to know the market price like this」 (Hind)

「The other weapons cost about 3-4 times that of a fine-quality one when they are first-rate. However, the meteo type fine-quality are already very expensive!」 (Tobi)

「They are generally about 50.000G after all. If we just applied the formula the others use it would be around 150.000G, who would buy that…」 (Hind)

Just for the record, if all 4 of us gathered all our money, it would amount to around 30.000G.

It’s enough to buy plenty of lower grade healing items from shops, but now that they have implemented a hunger system, we’ll have to buy ingredients to cook.

The other players, especially the ones that just focus on fighting, probably won’t see any difference though…

The crafters would use their own weapons too.

「…Shall we just register it? It might get sold somehow」 (Hind)

「We’d want to sell it as soon as possible though. In online games, when some time passes, the performance of gear does get outmatched. Now that they have raised the level cap, the scope of monsters we can beat has widened after all」 (Tobi)

「That’s true…in that case, let’s gradually lower the price. Though it takes 100G each time we register it」 (Hind)

「It’s better than not taking this chance to sell it. Ah, you can leave a comment, so it’s fine if you add a brief comment」 (Tobi)

「Nuu…in that case, something simple」 (Hind)

「It’s the weapon that took 1st place in the rankings」…like that.

It’s quite plain, but there’s a limit of characters you can type so it should be fine.

After that, we both checked the market price for gear and items each one of us was interested in.

「Oh right, Tobi. Who did you buy the ninja gear you have from? You are the clumsy type, so you probably didn’t craft them on your own?」 (Hind)

「Ah, there’s a crafter called Masamune-san that specializes in Japanese style equipment. I haven’t really met him personally but…look, there’s another set today」 (Tobi)

There were papers stuck on the bulletin board written in characters I couldn’t read, once a player gets close enough to read them, a menu opens.

I looked at the menu that was floating close to Tobi’s hand, gear with their names written in kanji were lined up in it.

The seller section was as Tobi had said, they all read 「Masamune」.

「Oh? …Spear and katana and samurai type armor for heavy warriors, even bows and hakama for archers, there’s quite a lot. Naginata…I see, he even sells Kanabos. I’d like to meet him」 (Hind)

「Hind-dono, you can’t make japanese stuff?」 (Tobi)

「Katanas especially, they use different techniques from western swords after all…I’ll gradually make them as I study about them. I do have the motivation to make them」 (Hind)

「In that case, I’ll make a request. If it was possible, I’d like to use a ninjaish Makibishi along with bo-hiyas…」 (Tobi)

「That would be interesting. I’ll think about it」 (Hind)

「Ohh, thank you! As expected of Wacchi, you sure get me!」 (Tobi)

「Hey, what did I say about using our real na-…wait, it’s a nickname so it’s fine. It doesn’t really give away my real name anyway」 (Hind)

Just as I had previously experienced, throwable items are single use, I’d like to make something with a high level of effectiveness if possible.

If the game allows it, something like coating the Makibishi in poison, or smokebomb type bo-hiyas to block their field of vision.

…I’m getting a good image of what I want to make. I should put in some effort and think about crafting them.

While we kept turning over the pages checking the market price of the items, a huge figure appeared behind us.

Is it another player? If we are bothering him, let’s move…

「Hah, hah, I found you…!」

A hand was placed on my shoulder and when I turned around, a big man stood there out of breath.

Very muscular and with a face full of wounds, tea colored hair and he gave the impression of being a very stern person.

He was really intense and I noticed how Tobi’s face had stiffened.

「I apologize for surprising you…could you hear me out for a bit?」

He was an honest man contrary to his appearance, seems like he has something to talk about with us.

We moved a bit away from the bulletin board, we moved to a place where we wouldn’t bother the other players to hear him out.

The feeling of oppression lasted just a moment, I thought we were going to get PK’d…oh wait, we can’t get attacked inside a town.

Besides, with the level cap being raised, PK’ing has been disabled in 「Donderry forest」 and 「Homa plains」.

This was a measure to protect the beginners…wait, I’m going off topic here.

I have to think about how to deal with this macho man with his bulging muscles.

「My name is Mercenary Albert but…do you recognize this name?」 (Albert)

I exchanged looks with Tobi.

Well, that was a name that we were curious about recently after all…

So it was this guy.

「The event’s 2nd…cough cough! You are the person that was in first place throughout the event, right?」 (Tobi) * Tobi switches to a more formal tone to address the man

「No, there’s no need to be so considerate. It’s true I’m the Albert that lost to you and got 2nd place. It was my utter defeat. It was an excellent tactic」 (Albert)

「I see. From the way you said that, I assume you didn’t come here to get revenge…but what do you want to talk about?」 (Hind)

「I’ll get straight to the point. I was charmed by the sword that girl used in the video. Sell me that greatsword!」 (Albert)

…We got more details from him, he didn’t really participate in the event to obtain the aura.

He was as his name implied inside the game, a mercenary…seems like he plans to roleplay that and join parties in exchange for money.

For the sake of advertising himself, he challenged the event to make a big name for himself.

「That’s nice…roleplaying as a mercenary. If you are really skilled, you would be able to help with really difficult quests」 (Tobi)

「Or something like asking him to come when there’s an event that needs a large amount of people? It does fit the image of the world of TB after all…there sure are quite a lot of people with different play-styles」 (Hind)

「It’s like that. This might be a bit off-topic, but I’m a civil servant in real life」 (Albert)

Was that to earn our trust? He revealed his real life occupation to us.

…Wait, he’s a civil servant with that appearance!? You are kidding!

I thought he would work in something related to sports with that appearance…like rugby, or at least something like a gym coach.

「C-Civil servant…you say?」 (Tobi)

「I’m in charge of the counter in the city hall’s welfare services…Ah, I’ll say this, but these wounds on my body and body are part of my avatar. My way of speaking is usually polite too…would you rather I spoke that way with you?」 (Albert)

「N-No, it’s fine! It might be rude of me to say this, but it doesn’t really match your image…haha…」 (Hind)

「My hobbies had been games and weight training. They are both really good to relieve my stress from work…oh, sorry. I ended up talking about trivial things about myself」 (Albert)

The money he offered was 130.000G.

It’s lower than the amount registered in the bulletin board, but this is genuinely all he owns.

He coincidentally found it in the bulletin board and hurried up to try and make a direct transaction before anyone managed to buy it, he probably came here to search for us.

Anyway, I was planning to gradually lower the price if it didn’t sell, the amount he showed is a big amount and we’ll sell it for sure this way.

I cancelled the registration in the bulletin board, and sold the meteo greatsword to Albert-san.

After that, we went to a field and he displayed himself trying out the weapon but…

「Uoh, that’s really impressive…his muscles are throbbing…you can even hear the sounds of the slashes from here…」 (Hind)

「So cool! Can I call you aniki!?」 (Tobi)

「I don’t mind. However, this is a splendid sword…I could get used to this weight. I really appreciate it! Hind, Tobi! There!」 (Albert)

With the vigorous display of the 40kg greatsword due to the weight correction of the heavy warrior stats, Tobi was moved.

In the end, they even exchanged friend requests…wait, are you fine with that? Tobi…

Anyway, we have handed the greatsword we used in the event to the heavy warrior 「Mercenary Albert」