The New Gate (LN)

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You can grab the PDF here .

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Extinct . That’s what Tiera had said .

The entire race of high humans was extinct .

“ . . . . . . Then what about humans, are there still humans?”

“Oh, there are a lot of humans around . Those people from the Knights Order just now were all humans, remember?”

“Oh, they’re still around, huh . ”

Clearing up the misunderstanding helped Shin regain some small measure of relief .

“It’s the high humans that went extinct, not the humans . ”

“What’s the difference?”

“Of course they’re different . In the past, a group of merely six high humans ruled over this entire continent of Leidimunt . If you pitted them against tens of thousands of humans the humans would still lose . They’re on a completely different dimension . ”

“Six people ruled over the continent?”

The whole six people and continent ruling thing caught his attention and seemed to stir something in his memory . He felt like something like that did happen back then .

“May I hear more about that?”

“Most people already know this, but fine . I can tell you . Before, around 500 years ago, high humans ruled over this whole continent . There were only 6 of them, but their overwhelming strength was such that there was nothing any of the other races could do to them . ”

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

“But suddenly, their rule ended . ”

“It ended?”

“Yes, it ended . It was not only the high humans, but a lot of people disappeared, including the long-lived species like high elves and high lords, the short-lived species like high beasts and high dwarves, and every race’s royalty, elders, heroes, generals, and other influential people . I heard that it all happened very suddenly . According to Master, there were many others aside from these influential people who also disappeared . Now, we call that day『Dusk of the Majesty』 . ”

“Dusk of the Majesty . . . . . . I see . ”

“Because the high humans also disappeared back then, it is now thought that they are extinct . There were only 6 of them, after all . ”

Sudden disappearance . Shin happened to know a little bit about that .

If it’s a phenomenon where a large number of people suddenly disappeared, it’s probably that .

(It’s that day . The day I defeated Origin and everyone logged out . I don’t have any conclusive evidence, but that’s most likely the true character of this Dusk of the Majesty . )

When she was talking about kings and heroes, she was probably referring to the guilds and guildmasters . The number of people who were released that day numbered in the tens of thousands . Shin didn’t know the exact number, but he was sure that there were tens of thousands of people trapped inside the game . To the eyes of the residents of this world, it must have looked like a sudden mass disappearance .

(Following that train of thought, then the six high humans who used to rule over the entire continent must have been . . . )

Shin finally understood what it was that had caught his attention . Six high humans . Unmistakably,

(That was us . . . . . . )

Indeed, it was all the way back before THE NEW GATE became a death game, when it was still a normal VRMMO . In THE NEW GATE was a guild that was said to have been unbeatable .

That guild was comprised of 6 high humans and was called『Rokuten [Six Heavens]』 . They had wiped out every major guild in THE NEW GATE, and within a month there was no player that did not know their name . They gained the reputation of mercilessly PKing any player who rose a voice in protest .

In this way, Shin had also been one of the six members of Rokuten . When he started playing he was frequently mocked for choosing the human race, so in a fit of “other races aren’t such hotshots anyways!!!” he and his guildmates decided to let loose and go ballistic on everyone else . To be honest, Shin considered it a really dark part of his past that he would never tell anyone about .

It goes without saying that all of the founding members were high humans . And they weren’t just any high human, all of them were mad players who had almost capped every stat . Even their weakest member had maxed out his HP and MP and had all other stats above 950 .

They had slapped every major guild with a written challenge, then removed the limit on the number of participants for the guild war and taken on thousands of opponents at the same time with only the six of them . It was a crazy battle in which they had deployed ridiculously powerful AoE spells that reduced the entire field to cinders before ending it by giving all of the enemy leaders a thorough thrashing .

After that, the number of people who would pick a fight with Rokuten went from “very few” to “none,” and the number of people who made fun of humans went down . It wasn’t only because of the fighting strength that Rokuten had displayed, but also because everyone learned how significant high humans’ resistance to magic was . Regardless of the effect, be it poison, paralysis, confusion, charm, burn, freeze, distraction, petrification, or any other debuff, a few seconds was all that was needed for a full recovery .

With such overpowered characters around, Shin wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or a misfortune that he was the only member of Rokuten who got stuck inside the death game . If there was at least one more member with him, Shin was sure that they could have broken free at least 3 months faster .

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

“What happened? You suddenly got all quiet . ”

“Nah, nothing . So, we were talking about the currency?”

Shin had a feeling that if he continued this conversation about high humans he would only be digging his own grave, so he steered the topic back to the currency .

“Yea . So, this was the currency that you had been using?”

“Yes . ”

“Haaaa, taking out something so priceless just like that, I can almost believe your claim of being a high human . ”

It seems that she still doesn’t believe that he’s a high human .

While sighing, Tiera picked up the Geyl gold coin and stared at it fixedly . She was apparently checking its authenticity .

Shin was puzzled at Tiera calling the coin “priceless . ”

“Is it really that valuable? A single Geyl?”

In the game, 1 Geyl corresponded to 1 yen . The exchange rate to real money was 1:1000 . Incidentally, there were hundreds of millions of Geyls in Shin’s inventory . It was a mystery why despite being gold coins and having the symbol ‘G’ they were not actually called ‘Gold . ’

“Now Geyl gold coins, or G gold coins for short, are not things that you can get your hands on whenever you wanted . You might not know this, but Geyls are magical items that can amplify magical power . Sometimes people find them in ruins and auction them for at least 10 pieces of Jul white gold coins, which equals 1 billion Juls . Oh, Juls are the common currency nowadays . We usually say how many J gold coins or how many J silver coins or just simply how many J .

“For a single piece to equal hundreds of millions . . . . . . ”

“Magic casters would go to enormous lengths to own even one of these . Not counting the time Master showed me one, this is my first time seeing it . I’m going to say this just in case, but 1 billion is merely the minimum price for one . People who really want it usually end up paying more than 10 times that . ”

“This single piece would fetch that much, huh . . . . . . Incidentally, how frequently are they found?”

“ ‘Seldom’ is all I can say . Even when new ruins are found, there’s no guarantee that there would be Geyls . ”

“Is that so . I guess I would attract a lot of attention if I tried to cash this in, then . ”

Shin had originally planned to sell them as capital, but hearing how valuable they were he had to abandon even the plan of exchanging them for the current currency .

“That’s a wise decision . You look like someone who’d be careless about that sort of thing . ”

“That’s harsh~ Oh right, but if I can’t exchange my money then I literally have no money on hand . ”

“Do you have anything to sell? For starters, if you have any raw materials or items then we can buy them from you . ”

“That’s a good idea . How about these?”

Shin took out some item cards from his inventory . Back in the game, if you turned an item into a card and stored it in your inventory as a card, any more of that item that you put into your inventory would automatically be converted into card form and stack with the stack that you already have . Items in card form were basically a picture of that item . Afterwards you could return the item to its real form anytime you wanted .

What Shin placed on the counter in front of him were teeth, claws, hides, and meat from Tetra Grizzlies, Twin-Head Snakes, and Flame Boars and some brown jewels . There was a wide range of things you could do with raw materials, such as crafting things with them or selling them, so back during the game there were many places you could visit to trade them . Jewels were rare drops from defeating monsters that you could bring to a blacksmith to enhance or add an attribute to your weapon or equips . As such, they were worth a lot more than raw materials . The jewel cards that Shin had brought out this time were Grade 7, the lowest grade .

“Item cards . . . . . . ”

“Nn? Is there something strange?”

“No, if you have an inventory I’m sure this is pretty normal for you . I don’t think you know this, so I’ll also say this just in case . Item cards are also relatively expensive, so you shouldn’t take them out all willy-nilly either . ”

“That sounds so bothersome . I have to carry raw materials around in their normal form?”

“That’s what everyone does! You’re the one who is weird!”

“I-I understand . I get it already, so please calm down . ”

“Mou, you just keep on throwing off my pace!”

So saying Tiera deftly materialized the items from the cards and began to appraise them . Despite her surprise at seeing them it seems that she does know how to use them .

“These are drops from Tetra Grizzlies, Twin-Head Snakes, and Flame Boars . They’re all materials from ferocious monsters found only deep inside forests . Seriously, who are you?”

“Even if you say that . . . . . . I just defeated them on the way here . I didn’t think them particularly ferocious, though . ”

“But every single one of these monsters would take several knights to hunt . . . . . . Forget it . There would be no end to it if I kept on being surprised at every single thing you say . ”

Shin had thought that they were monsters only for beginners but apparently they were surprisingly dangerous .

“Well, don’t worry about it . Rather than that, how’s the appraisal coming along?”

“Let’s see . They’re all in great condition and you can turn them into cards so these raw materials amount to a total of 1 gold Jul and 27 silver Juls or 1 . 27 million Juls . The jewels are Grade 7 but their purity is high so I can give you 25 gold Juls or 25 million Juls for them . ”

“Since the currency is all different I’m not sure if that’s a lot or very little . . . . . . ”

“To be honest, the price that I’m offering is a little on the high side . Market price of the jewels fluctuate all the time, but they’re on the rise right now . This rank and purity would normally fetch 20 to 23 million Juls . ”

“Ohhh, lucky me . I gained a profit of more than 2 million . ”

“What will you do? If you’re fine with these prices then we can buy them from you immediately . ”

“Alright, yes please . Ah, you can keep that . Think of it as a gift to cement our future business relationship . ”

So said Shin while pointing at the Geyl gold coin that he’d left on the counter .

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . you’re joking, right?”

“Why would you think that?!”

“Of course I would! Were you even listening to what I was saying just now?! In what world would someone simply give away a G gold coin worth hundreds of millions?!?!”

“This one . ”

Shin pointed at himself .

“ . . . . . . I’m not going to give this back even if you come asking for it later!”

“No way I would!”

The reproachful looking Tiera apparently lost to her fascination with the gold coin . She grabbed the coin with a quick motion and embraced it to her chest . Shin found himself unable to tear his eyes away from Tiera’s breasts, which had been emphasized by her arms pressing in from both sides .

“Ahhh, the G gold coin that I’ve even had dreams of~!”

The reproach in Tiera’s face had been completely replaced by a rapt expression . Perhaps due to her slightly reddened cheeks, Shin felt a curious sex appeal from her . Shin chastised himself and lightly shook his head in an effort to dispel the unbidden improper thoughts .

“Ahem, I’m glad that you like it . I’m sure that as an elf you’d be using magic-”

“Wait a second!”

“ . . . . . . What?”

Shin was about to say “often anyways” when Tiera suddenly interrupted him . Her face was now filled with fright and shock at what she’d just heard .

“ . . . . . . . What is it?”

“Just now . . . . . . did you say ‘elf’?”

“Ah, yes I did . . . . . . eh? You’re not an elf?”

Shin confirmed from his memory that small, pointed ears was a characteristic unique to only elves and high elves . He tilted his head in confusion, wondering if there was a race that he didn’t know of .

“Right now you’re supposed to be seeing a red-haired black-eyed cat person!”

“Red-haired black-eyed cat person?”

Cat people was a sub-race under Beasts that was highly popular with female players and a niche group of male players . There were numerous sub-races under Beasts, cat people being one of them, and there were further sub-classes within the cat people race, including Persian-type and calico-type . Their avatars had modeled hands, animal ears, and a tail, while some even had their body covered with feathers .

“Huh?” thought Shin as he looked at Tiera again, but all he saw was a black-haired golden-eyed beautiful young elf girl . There was no red-haired black-eyed cat person to be found .

“All I can see is a black-haired golden-eyed beautiful young elf girl . Yep . ”

“How can this be . . . . . . ”

He did intentionally emphasize the “beautiful young girl” part, but it was like she didn’t notice it at all .

“How come? Master had cast illusion magic on me!”

“Illusion magic?”

Illusion magic was usually used to confuse an opponent or trick them into falling into a trap . There was a member of Rokuten who specialized in it, so Shin had a very vivid impression of it .

“Uuu . . . . . . to think that it would be seen through . . . . . . ”

Tiera was looking downcast like it was the end of the world . Shin frantically thought of a way to hearten the suddenly depressed Tiera, but no matter how hard he wracked his brain nothing came up . So he decided to explain the reason behind how he saw through the illusion .

“Ummm, Tiera?”

“Wha-what?”

He’d intended to speak to her softly, but Tiera looked almost excessively afraid .

“It’s about me being able to see that you’re an elf . It’s actually due to my constitution . ”

“Your . . . . . . constitution?”

“Yes . Illusion magic is for confusing an opponent and making them see an illusion . However, it doesn’t work on someone with an extremely high magic resistance . That’s why I can see your real form . ”

“But . . . . . . regardless of how high your magic resistance is, to see through an illusion cast by Master . . . . . . ”

Tiera looked like she was having a hard time believing Shin’s explanation . According to Shin’s memory, Tiera’s Master, Schnee, was a level 255 high elf . Being a magic-focused elf and also belonging to one of the higher races must have made her magic very powerful, but there was still a lot of room for improvement to her stats, especially when compared to Shin . In combination with the extra magic resistance from Shin’s high human race, the illusion had failed to even register in Shin’s eyes .

Shin sighed and wondered what to do .

“Hey . ”

“Nn?”

“You can see what I really look like, right?”

“I can clearly see a black-haired golden-eyed beautiful young elf girl . Are you her?”

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

There was no response . It’s pretty tough being ignored, thought Shin despondently .

“ . . . . . . You’re not scared?”

As Shin was regretting making stupid jokes that he wasn’t used to making, Tiera let out a voice that he almost missed . That voice was like that of a very frightened child .

“What is there to be scared of?”

Shin started taking it seriously and talked to Tiera as gently as he could .

Asking if herself was a monster .

When Tiera asked that in a trembling voice, the face of one of the previous members of Rokuten floated into Shin’s head .

Because of how fun he found the game, Shin was proud of having logged so many hours that he was called a gamer addict, but this other member who had been hospitalized for a long time considered even that “just more time to play . ”

When this topic came up in one of their offline meet-ups and this member confessed to feeling this way, the feeling that he got from that member back then bore strong resemblance to what Tiera was giving off right now .

In clearer terms, that feeling was the fear of having revealed your true self to someone else .

Shin remembered that fortunately, there wasn’t a single person in Rokuten who actually minded something like that, so that member was very relieved .

Since he’d experienced something similar before, this time Shin was able to maintain his composure and handle the situation appropriately .

“ . . . . . . You also don’t know this, huh . . . . . . Black-haired elves are symbols of misfortune . ”

Tiera answered with her head still bowed .

“Symbol of misfortune, huh . ”

“Yes, symbol . You see, all elves are born with white hair . As they grow up, it gradually changes to other colors, like blond, silver, green, or blue . I don’t know if you can believe it or not, but my hair also used to be silver . ”

Tiera mumbled with a self-deprecating look on her face .

“But now it’s jet black . Elves’ hair don’t turn black . Ever . ”

“They don’t turn black?”

“Yes, that’s why elves with black hair are unnatural and attract disasters . It was the same in my case . For example, really strong monsters would always come attack me . Due to that, I was chased out of my village .

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

“When I was wandering around, with nowhere to go, Master found me . She said that the area around this store was surrounded by a powerful barrier so monsters wouldn’t come here . I haven’t left this store for more than a hundred years now . ”

“A hundred years . . . . . . that’s really long . ”

“It is, but here I am able to live without causing problems for anyone else, so it’s fine like this . ”

Shin wanted to shout, “There’s no way that it’s fine!” He really wanted to tell her that being stuck inside the store for a hundred years is definitely not a good state to be in . However, he knew that just saying them wouldn’t change anything, so he kept it in . He held his fist so tightly that it hurt .

It hasn’t even been a whole day since their meeting, so Shin was also not sure why he was feeling such indignation and resentment on her part . However, he couldn’t just sit still after seeing her like this, so he wracked his mind thinking of how he could help her .

According to Shin’s knowledge, there was no such backstory for elves . If this world was truly THE NEW GATE, then there has to be a proper reason for her situation .

“ . . . . . . Tiera, I want to confirm something . ”

“What . . . . . . do you want to confirm?”

“So, from what you were saying, if your hair used to be silver, why is it black now?”

Shin felt that understanding that might lead to a hint .

“One day, it just suddenly turned black . ”

“Suddenly?”

“Yes, suddenly . I went to sleep like normal and when I woke up it was all black . At that time, I didn’t know what was happening, and was so scared . ”

Tiera hugged herself as her body started to shake from reliving the memories . Shin’s mind whirred into high gear comparing the facts from Tiera’s story to all the information inside his head .

“Hair color changing suddenly . . . . . . being attacked by monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . hair color . . . . . . changing a character’s color scheme . . . . . . monsters . . . . . . numerous attacks . . . . . . many times . . . . . . strong . . . . . . . . . . . . changing a character’s color scheme and making them susceptible to monster attacks? That’s . . . . . . !!”

Sure of the existence of an answer, Shin was muttering to himself when a light went off in his head . If he remembered correctly, then there is one possibility that matched with these conditions .

“There is . . . . . . There is one!! There is one status that fits the story exactly!”

“Eh? Wh-what?”

Shin suddenly shouted and fixed Tiera with his stare . At his sudden shout, Tiera shook with nervousness .

“Why did I even forget? But this . . . . . . hm? Strange, why doesn’t the status show up? I seem to remember setting it to automatically activate, though . ”

Shin was staring at Tiera because he was trying to see her status screen . If Shin’s prediction was correct, then it should show up clearly on her status .

“OK, open the Skills window, analyze . . . . . . analyze . . . . . . f-found it . Oh, I have it to “Show only for monsters and players,” huh . If I just turn this back on, then . . . . . . ”

After fixing the settings, Shin stared at Tiera again . From Tiera’s point of view, though, all she saw was Shin squinting at empty air and moving his fingers . She was a bit apprehensive at what he was doing, but a small seed of hope which had taken root inside her chest gave her courage and dispelled the apprehension .

“Alright, I can see your status now . As long as I have that . . . . . . I see your name, level, race, and . . . . . . ! YEAAAHHHH IT’S HEREEEE!!!!!!”

Shin couldn’t help making a “guts pose” at seeing his guess confirmed . From a while ago, Tiera had been jumping at every eccentric mannerism from Shin .

(T/N: “Guts pose” is a “yes I did it!” pose . Google image it if you’re curious . )

“Tiera, be glad! I found out the real reason behind the misfortune!”

“Huh?”

“Not ‘huh . ’ There’s no doubt, since it’s showing up on the display . The reason why your hair colored changed and you started getting attacked by monsters is because of【Cursed Gift】 . ”

“【Cursed Gift】?”

Tiera didn’t understand what he was saying and looked at him blankly .

In THE NEW GATE,【Cursed Gift】was a random occurrence . As implied by its name, it’s a curse .

Players could earn titles, otherwise called “Gifts,” inside the game through certain determined actions, such as clearing a quest or obtaining the relevant item . Depending on the Gift, the player could get a small bonus to their stats or even be able to learn a new skill .

In contrast to that, all players were susceptible to a randomly granted Gift called【Cursed Gift】 . It could only be removed through the item【Droplet of Purification】or the Holy Arts-Type Skill【Purification】 . As long as it remained, the player would experience lowered stats, inexplicable unnatural debuffs, and random attacks from unique powerful monsters . The way to get it was completely random, and a part of the body of the player would automatically turn black . It would be marked on the player’s character screen by an icon of a laughing shinigami mask .

And indeed, on Tiera’s character screen Shin clearly saw the icon of the laughing shinigami mask .

“Alright . Now that we know what it is, the solution is simple . Tiera, would you mind coming out from behind the counter and stand here in the middle of the store?”

“Su-sure . . . . . . ”

Confused and unsure of what was going on, Tiera obediently walked to the middle of the store without much protest .

“I’m going to start . Activate【Purification】!!”

To exorcise the curse, Shin faced Tiera, stuck out his right hand, and activated the Holy Arts-Type Skill【Purification】 . It’s a skill normally to priests but due to certain circumstances Shin had also acquired it .

Slowly, golden light gathered around the right hand that Shin was holding out . At the same time, golden light enveloped Tiera’s entire body .

“What . . . . . . is this . . . . . . It’s warm . . . . . . ”

Tiera was surprised at the light but due to the warmth it conveyed, she felt no danger . She stood there basking in the sensation of being completely cleansed that originated from somewhere in her body .

After about 5 minutes, the light gradually dimmed, then disappeared .

Even after the light was gone, Tiera remained still for a while, feeling peaceful and blissful until she suddenly returned to her senses and looked around with a “what just happened?” look on her face .

“ . . . . . . The icon is gone, but . . . . . . was it . . . . . . a success?”

So muttered Shin in bewilderment . He was looking at Tiera’s status window, and the shinigami icon was indeed gone . However, a successful exorcism of the curse normally also reverted the effects of the color change . In this case, Tiera’s hair still remained black, but now there was silver highlight in it .

As it was still unclear whether the curse was gone or not, an indescribable atmosphere filled the air .

“Sooo . . . . . . how did it go?”

“Mmm, the curse is gone, but . . . . . . yea . I guess the hair color didn’t fully revert back to its original color . ”

Before the celebration was the bad news .

“Hair?”

“Ahh . . . . . . I’m sorry, only a small part of your hair regained its color . Just in case . . . . . . you might want to confirm it . ”

Shin spoke despondently . He retrieved a mirror from his inventory and offered it to Tiera . Hearing the word ‘hair,’ Tiera snatched the mirror from Shin’s hand and held it in front of her eyes .

Tiera saw her own face in the mirror . It looked the same as ever . However, the single tuft of hair covering her face had changed to a dazzling silver color .

That was without a doubt the color that Tiera’s hair had before .

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . *sobs* . . . . . . *sobs*”

When she saw it, her eyes misted over, and a trickle of tears flowed down her cheek .

As the first drop left her cheek and fell through the air, it was as though a dam behind her eyes had burst open, and her tears gushed out seemingly without end .

“Uuuu . . . . . . *sobs* . . . . . . eeeuuuuhhh . . . . . . ”

Tiera cried silently while wiping her tears with her sleeves .

In front of Tiera stood a man who looked like the very culmination of confusion .

Needless to say, that man was Shin .

If it was a little child it would be one thing, but seeing a girl who who he couldn’t deny being an adult crying in front of him, added to the knowledge that he himself might have been the reason for the tears, placed Shin in a position that pushed the very limits of his mind’s processing power .

“*sniffle* . . . . . . wait a . . . . . . *hic* . . . . . . mo-moment . . . . . . I’ll calm down . . . . . . soon, so . . . . . . ”

“I-I understand . It’s fine to take your time, alright? I’ll wait here as long as you need . ”

Coming back to his senses after being talked to, Shin finally thought to take out a towel (there were no handkerchiefs in the game so he made do with an accessory item instead) and handed it to Tiera . He then pulled the chair out from behind the counter and had her sit on it . After that, he just stood there awkwardly waiting for her tears to stop .

Volume 1 Chapter 2 Part 2

After about five minutes, Tiera raised her face from the towel . Though the tears had stopped, her eyes were still red .

“I’m sorry, I’m fine now . ”

“Is-is that so, ma’am . ”

“What’s with the ‘ma’am’?”

“No, well, it’s just that even though the curse has been lifted, most of your hair didn’t go back to its original color, so I feel kinda sorry about that . . . . . . ”

The whole time when Tiera was crying, Shin had felt like he was on pinpricks . He was filled with trepidation that they were going to repeat that scene again .

From what he was seeing so far, though, Tiera wasn’t giving off any indication that she was angry . Shin was getting jumpy with anticipating her mood . Ironically, their positions had been reversed .

“Oh, please don’t start acting formal with me because of that! The thing with the hair is over . I haven’t seen my own hair color for more than a hundred years, so I’m actually really happy about getting even a little bit of it back . ”

Tiera smiled, and she really did look very happy . She was smiling the peaceful smile of someone who had retrieved something precious that she had lost for a long time . There was no longer any vestiges of when she had been quaking with fear .

“I’m a bit relieved at hearing you say so, but . . . ”

“But I thought girls’ hair was their life,” Shin wanted to say . His mom had told him so . So had his little sister and his female friends . Therefore, he found it a bit hard to be fully satisfied with how things turned out .

“It’s my hair and I’m saying that it’s alright, so let’s just leave it at that . Rather than that, is it true that my curse is gone?”

“Ah, there’s no doubt on that count . I think that if you try stepping out of the store you’d be able to confirm it . ”

Since Tiera herself was insisting on it, Shin decided to acquiesce and consider the issue over .

The main effect that Tiera had been suffering from was『Increased Encounter Rate with Unique Monsters』, so unless she stepped out of the monster-warding barrier around Tsuki no Hokora, there would be no way to confirm that the curse was gone .

It was Shin who had set up this barrier, therefore it was so high level that even unique monsters could not invade . Perhaps due to THE NEW GATE’s attempt to make the game world as real as possible, there were very few indestructible objects in existence . On the other hand, there were bandit players who would target player shops like what Shin was running . Therefore, there existed numerous Barrier-Type skills to discourage or even prevent intrusion .

“Honestly, I’m still a bit afraid . There’s this nagging fear in me that the curse has not yet been lifted . ”

“No worries there . I know from experience, because I’ve had that curse before . ”

“Eh? Eehhhh??? You’ve also had this curse before?!?”

“Ah, I also had a lot of high level monsters come after me . There’s no doubt that【Purification】clears this curse . ”

Shin had gotten the curse when his stats were somewhere in the mid-800s . For him, though, the endless waves of unique monsters was merely a good opportunity to gain levels .

“Well, let’s see . So far, out of all the monsters that have come to attack you, what’s the highest level that you have seen?”

“The strongest was probably the Horn Dragon . I think it was around level 200 . ”

“The ones above Lesser Dragons?”

“Oh, you know of them?”

“Ah, if it’s only that much, then it’ll be a cinch . ”

Horn Dragons looked like Lesser Dragons (Wingless Small Dragon) but were roughly double in size and had a single horn growing from their forehead . Lesser Dragons were around level 100, but Horn Dragons surpass that and are around level 200 . He had just confirmed that Tiera was level 57, so there was no way that she could have beat them .

In THE NEW GATE, the max level for players and their support characters was 255, but the max level for monsters was 1000 . Roughly 4 times stronger than the players . This was for the high level players like Shin who repeatedly reincarnated to play with . For players like the members of Rokuten, who could easily beat many bosses by themselves, to not get bored, the game had monsters that even they can’t handle without proper preparation .

For Shin, level 1000 monsters was the norm . As such, level 200 were lower than trash mobs in his eyes .

“ ‘A cinch’ . . . . . . when a Horn Dragon comes out the Knights Order’s Elite Squad would have to come, you know . ”

“Elite Squad? Why would those elite-sounding guys have to come over?”

“They’re not ‘elite-sounding,’ they are real elites . The best of the best . When you came here, you saw the castle walls on your way, right?”

“Oh right, the one with all sorts of enchantments on it . ”

“That’s the fortified wall that encircles the Berylricht Kingdom . The Squad Leader of the Elite Squad of the Knights Order of that country is level 158, if I remember right . The Horn Dragon is around level 200, so it’s still 40 levels higher than the Squad Leader . If you claim to be able to easily beat such an overpowered monster, then people would think that you either have a screw loose somewhere in your head or that you’re making an empty boast . ”

“158 . . . . . . you said?”

“Yes, it would be unreasonable for even the 2nd most powerful person of the kingdom to handle it alone . ”

It appears that Tiera thought Shin was surprised at how high the Squad Leader’s level was .

In reality, Shin was shocked at how low it was . By the standards of the players, it was a level at which if you didn’t invest heavily in your stats, you would only barely reach the middle ranks .

If there were two or three monsters with higher levels than a Horn Dragon, then this Order would be overwhelmed, thought Shin . He didn’t say it out loud, though .

“ . . . . . . Well, it’s true that it wouldn’t be a problem, so come on, let’s step out of the shop . ”

“Wait a moment, were you even listening to what I just said?”

“I was listening . More like, after hearing it I was even more reassured that there wouldn’t be a problem . ”

“ ‘Not a problem,’ you say . What, you can beat a Horn Dragon?”

“Yep . ”

“ . . . . . . Hey, I’m just confirming, but what’s your level?”

“It’s 255 . So?”

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

She became quiet . Shin was saying it as it was, but Tiera found it hard to believe .

“Tiera?”

“255 . . . . . . ? The same as Master?”

“Yes, my level is 255 . For what it’s worth, my level is indeed the same as Schnee . ”

“Really?”

“Really . ”

“Really really?”

“Really really . ”

“Really rea—”

“Stop, stop! How many times are you going to repeat that?!”

“— nn . . . . . . ”

It was becoming a Really Relay so Shin put a stop to it .

(T/N: 対決 is more like ‘confrontation’ or ‘showdown,’ but puns are fun! :P)

“Can’t you use【Analyze】? I’ve the restriction off so if you just take a look you would know . ”

“There’s no way I can use it . Only skill inheritors can . ”

“What are skill inheritors?”

“ . . . . . . I am starting to have strong doubts about your common sense . ”

It appears that this was another thing that everyone who lived in this world knew . However, Shin had just arrived in this world, so talking to him with the assumption that he’d know this world’s common sense would get nowhere . So much had changed since it was a game that if someone just gave him an astounded look he wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of it .

“I’ve been living by myself for such a long time that I don’t know much of the common sense of this world . ”

He couldn’t really say that the last time he was here it was a game, so he went with the story of being someone who had lived away from society for a long time . He figured that this way, he would have an excuse for lacking information regarding this world .

“I see . From now on, I can teach you everything that you need to know, so if you have any questions then feel free to ask me . ”

“Yoroshiku onegaishimasu . ”

Shin bowed his head while feeling thankful for the Tiera that had been answering all of his questions so far .

“So, about skill inheritors . As you can tell from the name, these are people who inherit long-lost skills . Ever since the Dusk of the Majesty, a lot of skills have been lost . Nowadays, there are probably less than a hundred skills left . ”

“Less than a hundred . . . . . . ”

Shin was unable to hide his shock . He knew that there were a lot of skills in THE NEW GATE, but the number that Tiera gave was less than a tenth of the original number .

“Nowadays, just being able to use a skill would merit you favorable treatment . People like adventurers or knights who fight for a living use ‘Arts,’ a weakened version of skills . The names and effects remain the same, but Arts only have a third of the power of skills . I’m a magic-caster too, but the skills that Master had shown me were on a completely different level from the Arts that I had been using so far .

“Gotcha, so Arts are a weakened version of skills . Can you level up each of the Arts separately?”

There are levels to skills . An example would be【Analyze X】 . After the skill name is a number from I to X (T/N: 1 to 10 in Roman numerals), which makes for easy recognition . The lowest is I, the highest is X . Most attack skills don’t have levels, it’s mainly the Support-Type skills that do .

“I know that there are skills that have levels, but Arts don’t . ”

“So they have to rely on Arts when they fight, huh . Sounds tough . ”

Shin himself had a wide range of skills, so he couldn’t help thinking how tough it would be to be using weakened versions of them .

“What about you, how many skills can you use? From the way you were talking just now, you don’t only have one, right? Two? Three? Don’t tell me you have 4 . ”

“Single digits? Really? There are more than a thousand skills out there . I’ve never actually counted so I don’t know the exact number . ”

“Hah? A thousand? What? Did I hear wrong?”

Tiera thought she had misheard and tilted her tilted quizzically at Shin, who was now saying how there were a lot of them that he’d never actually used before . Well, she knew what she had heard, but it was so far removed from this world’s common sense that she couldn’t help but think that it was a joke .

Sometimes going too far loses all sense of reality .

“You don’t have【Analyze】? Hmm, I guess you still wouldn’t be able to see my level with only【Analyze I】 . It won’t hurt to still have it, though . Okay, I’ll use【Book of Secrets Creation】now . ”

“?”

Tiera tilted her head again at Shin, who was now moving his fingers around in midair .

“It’s done . Here you go . ”

“What is this?”

What Shin had handed to Tiera was a scroll .

Skills are developed separately from character level . When a skill has been leveled up to a certain point, the player gains special bonuses like increased damage or getting to learn another related skill . Some special skills also allow the player to make a『Book of Secrets』 .

『Book of Secrets』is the physical manifestations of a skill and looks like a scroll . When someone else uses the scroll, they learn the skill written on it . Of course, the number of times that a player can make a『Book of Secrets』of a skill is limited, and the person who just learned the skill would have to fulfill the same requirements before being able to make a『Book of Secrets』by themselves . The stronger a skill is, the fewer『Book of Secrets』that can be made of it, and there are many skills for which a『Book of Secrets』cannot be made at all .

Some skills also have level requirements, so it’s not possible to use skills beyond your level by learning them through a『Book of Secrets』 .

It would not be an exaggeration to say that every player had【Analyze】 . There were no requirements for using the skill, and it was so low level that there was practically no limit to the number of『Book of Secrets』that each player could make of it . Thus Shin had no qualms about making one right on the spot .

“It’s the『Book of Secrets』for 【Analyze】 . I think that if you read that, you would learn the skill . ”

He was quite certain that『Book of Secrets』would work even for support characters . If it didn’t actually work, he was prepared to just make an apology . For this kind of thing you wouldn’t know until you actually tried it .

“I can learn a skill just by using this? But I don’t have anything to give you as compensation . ”

“Compensation?”

He had meant to give it to her without any recompense, but it looked like Tiera would not accept it .

“As I said just now, skills are extremely valuable! Being able to learn a skill is an enormous deal, and usually involves large piles of money or taking someone in as an apprentice or disciple . You aren’t going to tell me that you’re giving it to me for free, right?”

“Well, that was my intention . What’s wrong with it?”

“For now, stop giving it to every random person you meet . It would be a very big deal . Depending on the circumstances, people might come after your life . ”

“THAT big a deal?!?”

It hadn’t crossed his mind that a single skill would be a big enough deal for people to die over . Shin decided in his heart to only ever give『Book of Secrets』to people that he could trust .

“Don’t be too anxious . Anyways, you’re fine, so could you try using this for me?”

“You won’t ask me for compensation after I use it?”

“Like I would!!”

Shin wanted to retorted, “What am I, a vicious swindler?”, but if there was a real possibility that people might target their lives then her caution was understandable .

“Is giving away skills for free your modus operandi?”

“If I was scamming you, I’d be offering a higher level skill . ”

“To me, this is already plenty valuable . Anyone in possession of multiple skills would already be a huge deal . ”

“I can’t use any arts, though . All I have are skills, and for me only skills feel natural, so I don’t really feel like a huge deal . ”

“What a luxurious worry . . . . . . Fine, alright . If you’re going to insist on it so much, I’m going to accept it without restraint . ”

“Yes, I offered it to you so that you would accept it . Rather, it would be problematic for me if you didn’t . ”

For now, it seems Tiera was finally convinced, and she accepted the『Book of Secrets』 . At Shin’s urging, she opened it right there and then .

As she started reading, a pale light green glow surrounded Tiera’s body, lasting about 10 seconds . This was the visual effect of a character successfully acquiring a skill . It appears that she had indeed successfully learned the skill .

“How is it?”

In the game,『Book of Secrets』didn’t have actual text . When they are used, they just disappear, so Shin was curious how it felt to use them now .

“It was a very strange feeling . When I opened the scroll, the usage and effects of【Analyze】just automatically came into my head . It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling, though . ”

“Heh, it was like that, huh . ”

While verbally expressing his admiration, inside he was feeling relieved at the success . If it didn’t work, it would have been very awkward for him .

“I can see your name, but everything else is a weird symbol that I don’t recognize . ”

“Oh, so you can actually see my name, huh . The weird symbol everywhere else is called a ‘question mark,’ and it appears when the level and stats difference between you and the other party is too great . Therefore, it’s to be expected that you can’t see the rest . ”

“Ehh, so by all rights, I shouldn’t even be able to see your name . I also now know about the skill’s levels and what each field is . So even though I can’t see your level, I understand that that very fact is proof that you are quite powerful . ”

“Will you now believe me that even if we go outside and monsters come, it would be alright?”

“You’ve already done so much for me that I have no choice but to believe you . ”

Due to having received【Analyze】, Tiera could now somehow believe Shin’s words . However, there was still a fear of being attacked by strong monsters that had been ingrained in her from experience .

“Just in case, I’ll leave first and look around before calling out to you . When you hear my voice, please come out . ”

“Understood . ”

To make sure, Shin first left Tsuki no Hokora and surveyed the surroundings . He also used【Search】at the same time, and confirmed that there were no monsters nearby .

“It’s clear!”

Tiera stuck out her head from the door of the store, looked around, gathered her resolve, and stepped out .

Both【Barrier X】and【Wall X】had been cast around Tsuki no Hokora . 【Barrier X】is an invisible wall that completely shuts out all monsters within level 900 to 1000 and below (level is derived from the entity’s stats) and nullifies and deflects attacks from them . Similarly,【Wall X】is an invisible wall that completely nullifies attacks from all players within level 230 to 255 and below (here, too, level is derived from stats) . Both were the strongest versions of their respective skills, so even someone using the skill【Ignore [Slip Through]】would be unable to invade .

Incidentally, with the wrong permission settings on【Wall X】even normal customers would be refused entry, so it needed to be used carefully . When Shin was running the shop, he had set it so that on top of shutting out armed invaders, it was also forbidden to use skills or equip anything while inside .

At the moment, the two spells were deployed in a 20 mel radius around Tsuki no Hokora .

“Come over here . ”

“O-okay . ”

At Shin’s beckoning, Tiera slowly walked over . Shin was standing 1 mel outside the barrier, so standing next to him would inevitably mean leaving the barrier .

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

“ . . . . . . . . . . . . ”

Shin was keeping an eye on their surroundings, and Tiera was feeling very nervous so for a while there was no conversation between them .

After five minutes, there was still no change in their surroundings . A warm wind ruffled their hair .

“Nothing’s happening, eh?”

“Nothing’s happening indeed . ”

They waited five more minutes before Shin judged that there were no longer any problems . If the curse was still active, it would have called at least one monster already within the past ten minutes .

“Not seeing any monsters, eh?”

“Indeed . ”

The first five minutes were extremely nerve-wracking, but Tiera gradually gained the composure to look around .

“The curse has been lifted, see?”

“It seems so, yes . ”

Tiera answered Shin’s questions while looking up at the sky .

The sky reflected in Tiera’s eyes was the same expansive, blue sky that one could see anywhere . It was not the cut out sky that she could only see through the store’s windows .

She could feel the wind, drink in the light from the sun, and breathe in the fragrance of the forest . An overwhelming sense of nostalgia blossomed inside Tiera’s chest .

Shin felt greatly relieved while looking at Tiera, who was in turn looking at the sky . With this, Tiera no longer had to fear the shadow of monsters nor fear bringing disaster to people around herself . She was now free to step outside of the store whenever she wanted .

“The sky is really broad, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is . ”

Tiera murmured that fact as if she’d just remembered it .

For a while after that, Shin and Tiera just stood there and gazed at the sky .

At the corner of Tiera’s eye something sparkled, but Shin remained silent .

“Shall we go back in sometime soon?”

When Tiera said that, Shin turned to look at Tiera .

“Let’s do that . ”

In the first place, they had left the shop to confirm that the curse had been dispelled, so without any further objections they went back into the store .

“At any rate, it seems that the curse has really been removed . ”

After returning behind the counter, Tiera was earnestly muttering to herself . Though she understood it with her head, it would take quite some while for it to start feeling real .

“Just saying, but【Purification】is also a skill . If I had to say, it’s one of the rarer ones . It took me a lot of trouble to get it, so it would have been problematic for me if it didn’t work . ”

“So the curse could really be dispelled with【Purification】 . Even if I knew that, it would have been hard to get someone to cast it on me . ”

“How come? Though it is indeed a skill, shouldn’t most of the priests have it?”

“That’s not exactly true . The priests who can use【Purification】are mostly very high ranked, so it would be quite difficult to get to meet one . In my case, the nature of my curse wouldn’t really allow me to go to them, and I couldn’t very well ask them to come to me either . ”

“I guess if the effect was just lowering your stats then you might have been able to do something about it, huh . ”

That that would have been dangerous in its own way was left unsaid . The moment the curse affected her, her stats would have been dropped to a tenth of their previous value, making her easy prey for any trash monster . That would have been scary in its own right .

“Now that it’s been lifted, there’s no need to dwell on it any longer . ”

“That’s true . Now you can even brazenly take walks outside . ”

“Yep . Black-haired elves might still be feared and hated, but now that not all of my hair is black I’m sure they won’t hate me as much anymore . ”

“Nn? It’s fine if it’s not all black?”

“That’s right . When affected by the curse, even when I dyed my hair it would immediately go back to being black, so just having a part that’s not black would show people that I’m not cursed anymore . ”

“Is that so . ”

Back during the game, nobody tried dyeing their hair for that reason, so Shin was thinking, “So that’s how it is . ” In the first place, every player who got the curse would immediately use an item or visit a priest, so it was just that nobody had ever thought of it .

“Oh right, I’d almost forgotten, but here is your payment for the raw materials and jewels . ”

Tiera placed a bag bulging with coins onto the counter as she spoke . It was filled with more than 50 pieces of gold and silver coins, so it was pretty big .

“Would I be able to put this into my inventory?”

He tried just in case, and thankfully on top of the line showing G currency, a new line for J currency appeared and noted down the 26 J gold coins and 27 J silver coins .

“The money disappeared . . . . . . how convenient!”

Tiera’s face looked like she really wanted an inventory too, but this was one thing that really couldn’t be helped, so Shin just smiled wryly . It would be a different matter if he had the item for expanding inventory, but he didn’t have one on hand .

“At any rate, it appears that I won’t be in want for an inn tonight . ”

“Are you planning on going inside Berylricht Kingdom?”

“Ah, there are a few things that I want to check up on . Do you know of any good places for information gathering?”

“I see . In that case, please wait a while, I have something good to give you as an extra service . ”

So saying, Tiera went inside the door behind the counter that led to the house side . According to Shin’s memory, there was a break room back there .

About three minutes later, Tiera reappeared, and held out a piece of paper towards Shin .

“And this is?”

“A letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora . With this in hand, you won’t need to line up to get into the kingdom . ”

So it seems that one needs to line up to get into the kingdom . This letter was a great help to Shin, who wanted to find an inn before nightfall .

“This would be a great help . I’m going to pass on having to sleep outside after coming this far . But are you sure? Wouldn’t it be a problem giving this letter of introduction to someone that you’d met just today?”

Shin knew that it would be bad if this fell into the wrong hands, but Tiera shook her head vigorously .

“You dispelled a curse that I didn’t think could be dispelled, and on top of that you are really strong . In addition, you’re really good-natured . . . . . . This isn’t nearly enough to pay you back for what you’ve done . ”

“ ‘Good-natured,’ you say . . . . . . I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the last part, could you please repeat it again?”

“Don-Don’t worry about it! Anyways, there’s no problem, so just take it already!”

So saying, Tiera pressed the letter of introduction upon Shin . She was trying to hide her blushing face by looking down, but since her ears were all red it was all too obvious .

“I get it, I get it . Very well, I will accept this gratefully . ”

Shin failed to notice the blushing, though . If it was happening to anyone else, he would notice, but because he didn’t get many opportunities to get thanked, he was very thick about these kinds of things .

(T/N: Lol where would we be without our thick-headed main characters?)

“Well then, I’ll be going . When I get more drops from killing monsters I’ll come back and sell them to you, so please take care of me then . ”

“I know you’re pretty strong, but don’t overdo it . If you die, everything would come to naught . ”

“I got it . Seeya!”

“We will await your future patronage . ”

Like a proper salesclerk, Tiera bowed respectfully while seeing off Shin, who lightly waved back and left Tsuki no Hokora behind him .

Volume 1 Chapter 2 Part 3

After leaving Tsuki no Hokora, Shin cut straight through the forest, arrived in front of the castle walls, then started walking along them . He didn’t know where the entrance was, so he just followed his intuition . He figured that there would be one somewhere along the wall, so he set off at a quick pace .

“Still, this wall really does look pretty sturdy . ”

Now that he was getting a closer look, he was slightly impressed again . 【Analyze】only gives detailed information about monsters and players, so he couldn’t see much information about the wall . However, he could tell that each of the enchantments cast on it were at least level V . According to what Tiera had said about how valuable skills are, Shin guessed that there must be pretty excellent skill inheritors around .

After walking for about 15 minutes, he spotted a line in front of the castle walls . It seems that the castle gate was over there .

Drawing near, he saw a large variety of people and clothing . There was a human young man wearing tattered clothing, a Beast woman covered with armor, and a dwarf leading a small dragon . There was someone wearing a robe who was most likely a mage, and there was someone riding a large wagon who was probably a merchant . Shin looked around curiously at the diversity in the slow moving line . While inside the game, all of the players had dressed up all neatly and tidily (given that there were those who chose to not do so), so Shin was slightly surprised at the how different it was now .

By the time he got close enough to see the castle gate, he also noticed soldiers who were probably townsguards checking people’s identification papers and briefly inspecting the luggage in the wagons . Tiera had told him that with the letter of introduction she gave him he wouldn’t have to line up, so he continued walking straight up to the gate .

As a result of him walking outside of the line, when he got to 20 mels of the gate the townsguards noticed him . They looked suspiciously at Shin, who was approaching without lining up .

When he got within 10 mels of the gate, one of the four townsguards came over to him .

“You there! If you want to enter the town, you have to line up! If you don’t line up, you won’t get to go in . ”

So saying, the townsguard jerked his thumb in the direction of the end of the line . From where Shin was standing, the end of the line was so far away that it couldn’t even be seen .

“Excuse me, I’ve been told that if I show this to you, I would be allowed to enter the town without having to line up . ”

He took out the letter of introduction from his inventory and handed it to the townsguard . He didn’t forget to disguise his motion by pretending to take it out from his breast pocket .

With a suspicious look on his face, the townsguard accepted the letter that Shin was holding out and began looking over the contents of the letter . By the time he finished reading, his hands were shaking .

“A letter of introduction . . . . . . from Tsuki no Hokora . . . . . . ”

“Yes, I received it from a salesclerk there . ”

Shin didn’t know how important a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora was, so he didn’t understand why the townsguard was so shocked .

Instead, he even worried about the townsguard, thinking in his mind, “This guy’s hands are shaking, is he alright?”

“I will need to confirm the authenticity of this letter . Would you mind coming along with me?”

“Understood . ”

Whether he couldn’t tell if it was real or not, or that he couldn’t believe that it was real, the townsguard promptly returned the way he came and gathered the rest of the townsguards for a furious discussion .

With nothing particular to do, Shin just stood in front of the gate and stared at a large horse 1 . 5 times the size of a normal horse .

As Shin gazed blankly at the horse, the townsguard who had talked with Shin earlier returned .

“I’m sorry for the wait . Please, this way . ”

“Haa, understood . ”

In sharp contrast to before, the townsguard was now extremely courteous and polite, to the level of making Shin feel slightly uncomfortable .

(Was that letter of introduction that powerful?)

While feeling the stares of the people in the line, Shin passed through the gate and stopped to behold a large plaza on the other side . Large wagons were going back and forth, while the people themselves moved with equal intensity . At the edge of the plaza were lines of street stalls selling anything from food to armor to accessories to strange items that he’d never seen before .

“I will now proceed to guide you to the Adventurers’ Guild . Would that be acceptable to you?”

“Eh? Ah, yes . Please do . ”

A different townsguard from the one who had approached him earlier was now speaking to him . The townsguard had gone ahead before noticing that Shin had stopped following him and thus turned back . For his part, Shin had thought that the townsguard would leave him after escorting him through the gate, so he was caught off guard and answered absentmindedly .

“Do you perhaps have arrangements at any other places? If it is agreeable with you, I will have the honor of serving as your guide . ”

“No, I have no particular arrangements, so the Adventurers’ Guild is fine . Also, stop using honorifics and being overly polite to me . ”

“However, to show discourtesy to a bearer of a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora . . . . . . ”

“Don’t worry about it . I’ll also speak normally, so you do that too . ”

“ . . . . . . If you say so . Underst—”

“Honorifics . ”

“ . . . . . . Fine, fine . I just have to drop the honorifics, right?”

For Shin, it felt like he had received the letter of introduction mainly by chance, so he had no intention of throwing his weight around just for owning it . Having understood that, the guard tasked with guiding him switched to a much more casual way of talking . This was probably how he normally talks .

“Thank you for understanding . ”

“Good grief, each and every one of you people with those letters of introduction . What’s wrong with a little bit of honorifics?”

“It just felt uncomfortable . For me . I’m Shin . Yoroshiku . ”

(T/N: You will see yoroshiku and yoroshiku onegaishimasu many times in this part, as Shin is meeting a lot of people for the first time . The latter is just a more formal version of the former, and there is a super formal versionyoroshiku onegaiitashimasu; all of them mean something between “nice to meet you” and “please take care of me from now on” and “please teach me a lot of things from now on” and “I’ll be in your care from now on . ” If I translate it any single way, then it’ll lose part of its meaning, so I’ll leave it untranslated . )

Shin was just a student in real life . Having someone older speak to him with honorifics felt very strange to him .

“I’m Beid . I’ve lived in this town my whole life . Just ask if there’s anything you don’t get . ”

Beid laughed . With his trimmed brown hair and mustache, he gave off the impression of a bear when he laughed . From【Analyze X】Shin knew that Beid was level 100 . With just the benchmark of the strongest member of the Knights Order being level 158, Shin didn’t know if Beid was strong or weak .

“Thanks, I’ll ask you about the town later . For now, why are you leading me to the Adventurers’ Guild?”

Indeed, Shin had intended to go to the Adventurers’ Guild, but he didn’t remember telling any of the townsguards . Then he remembered that he’d asked Tiera about good places for information gathering .

“It was written on the letter of introduction for us to do this . Knowing that it was written on a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora, anyone would have done the same . ”

“Is that so? Oh right, just confirming, but exactly how power is a letter of introduction from Tsuki no Hokora?”

“You showed it to us without knowing that?!”

For some reason, Beid looked shocked .

“Well I mean, it’s my first time in this country . It was kind of like a coincidence that I went to Tsuki no Hokora, too . ”

“You just coincidentally went there and came back with a letter of introduction fr