Arms Otome- Chapter 4 (Patreon)

「And that’s why, today we need to go hunt monsters, to provide money for lodging!!」

「I understand, Master.」

With Ente accompanying me, we moved out of the city early in the morning. I recovered my strength after a night of rest. And as expected, resting at an inn is really better than sleeping outside.

Before going for a hunt, I was thinking, if I go too far from the village, I might get lost and won’t be able to come back to the village, so we decided to hunt just around the village. Hearing about places where demons come out from the inn lady. It seems that demons are more likely to be found in places with high vegetation or rocky areas. So I was warned not get close to that area, but we can’t really avoid that.

「Horya!!!」

Ente quickly found a monster and swiftly dealt with it. And it’s amazing to watch. Wait, did leaving me unprotected and watching me get attacked yesterday take a toll on her? She focuses all of her attention to the surroundings, while staying so close. She is such a hard worker. We haven’t encountered any other kind of demon aside from those that we encountered yesterday.

These are the same kind demon that surprise attacked us yesterday, but they don’t seems to be any stronger than the ones that attacked us. The only difference is that the surprise attack manage to hit me yesterday, even if they were powerless when fighting Ente head on. Ente sure is strong.

We’re starting to encounter green versions of those demons, they must be the forest version of those demons. I think it’s the environment where they live that affects their image. Well, we can still take them down with ease, so there’s no problem.

There is also a demon called the forest boar. This is a boar demon that has green fur and long tusks. It seems that charging is its main way of attacking. I wonder if that attack is stronger than the club swing. Since its attack is very straightforward, defeating it is easy with Ente’s fighting power.

But she isn’t acting like an imouto (little sister) at all. No, instead of an imouto protecting her Ane (big sister), isn’t it me who is treated as the imouto? While going around having such delusions, our money keep increasing.

I can now earn more than enough to pay for lodging again. It sure is quite easy having Ente around. ‘Arms Girls’ uses money to level up their abilities. So I think collecting money is like gaining XP. There are certain formulas to calculate needed requirements for leveling. Based on characters rarity, number of stars x Total Ability level x 1000 Veils. That means, if I want to level up using veils, it would be ability to damage demons / undead. 3000 Veils would be needed to level it up by 1 level, And from lvl 2 to lvl 3 will be 6000 Veils. (n-stars x SLvL x 1000). Just thinking about how much money needed to raise their level make my head hurt.

At the time of [Arms Otome], picking up valuable items to sell and gaining quest rewards is the main source of income to use for leveling them. However in reality, there are many things that need the money. Unlike in the game, we still needed money to live our everyday lives.

For now our target will be reaching the maximum level of girls. It seems like a dream but we will definitely strive for it.

We return to the village around lunch time. My stomach starts to growl since I haven’t eaten breakfast. You know, since we didn’t have any money, there was no choice but to go out without a meal. So the first thing we decide to do is have a meal at the inn. Upon returning, we see the inn lady talking to a person who seems to be a hunter.

「Oya? Did you just return? Are you girls staying again for the night?」

「Yeah, that is the plan.」

There is no problem with lodging fees, for now.

「Well that’s good. Since I have received some fresh ingredients, the meals prepared will be special tonight.”

I see, so that hunter came to sell in prey. Anyway, I didn’t know monsters could be sold like that.

「Doesn’t it disappear and become light when you kill it?」

「Well, I haven’t heard of that happening. We wouldn’t be able to eat it if it disappears when you kill it, you know?」

That’s makes more sense, because hunters hunt it and then sell it to be used as ingredient for food and other things. It definitely wouldn’t make sense for it to disappear and turn into Veil the moment it is killed. Even I think that prey disappearing shouldn’t be a normal thing. We need to verify what kind of logic is involved when demons turn into light particles, so for now we should probably refrain from killing monsters in front of other people.

The lunch served was a hard bread, which contains grains and nuts. It has a kind of rustic taste, but since we’re hungry, there’s nothing to complain about it. Hunger is, one of the best seasoning after all.

After finished, it’s time to go shopping. Oh by the way, the old man mentioned before that they have set up their tents in the village till they can finish their business. And because there weren’t that many items in [Arms Otome], I’m looking forward to see what’s around here. However, it seems that there is only one miscellaneous shop in this village, and it’s just an ordinary store that is easy to locate. Also the everyday items doesn’t seem to be different that much.

But there are some tools that couldn’t be found in Japan. Like lighting equipment that uses the shell of a demon beast called light turtle. It stores light during day and glows at night, it’s like a solar lamp. There are sign boards that use forest boar fur for decorations. There are tools to place on a field to ward off monsters, isn’t that a scarecrow? There’s darkness grass that is used as medicinal herbs for eye drops. Apparently it allows you to see in dark places, isn’t that convenient.

Our next destination is the peddler’s tent, that person was not from this village. It looks like a bunch of old ladies gathering on a bargain sale. Am I also considered as one of those aunties? When I was younger, I would see them as nothing more than adults. Oops, that’s bad, I was starting to remember some strange things again. Apparently, today is the first day of opening, a lot of people were gathering around to check out the goods.

While looking around to see what is being sold, there are a lot of cloth products. There are rolls of cloth, fastened around uncut, and there are also those that were processed into clothes, you know things like that. Some other villages might be flourishing in processing cloth.

It’s one of those business strategies where you buy the materials somewhere cheaply, and sold it to other places at a higher price. And this is definitely within their peddling route.

I also saw a small section of suspicious tools placed around the corner. They’re magic tools. There were also tools used for daily needs, it’s a little more expensive compared to the ones available here though. There are only a few of them and they don’t seem to sell that well in the village.

「So there’s not that much demand for it in this village, it must be more for showing than selling.」

The merchants’ goods for selling are mainly from dungeons, frontiers, and other places that hunters often visit. It seems as though not everything will be sold in this town, but the bulky items and others things are sold cheaply in the village to convert to cash. Some of them are more expensive than I thought, sometimes the villagers will try to haggle with the dealer for a lower price. Showing magic tools like this is something like a display of goods. There’s something in the shape of a fan or a wooden box showing. Even this box seems to be a magic tool.

There were a lot of different things and my pocket feels too light, I’m not sure if I can afford any of this with the price tag on them. But I set my sight on a bow. Checking it out, this bow resembles an item in [Arms Otome].

「Excuse me, what kind of effects does this bow have?」

「It’s called a flash bow, the arrows it shoots are arrows that can purify.”

Yup, no doubt about it. This bow seems to be the flash bow Erina. Although it’s rarity is 2-stars, Since it has enhanced effects on demons and undead just like Ente, in quests that has many enemies, they play an active part in diminishing the number of enemies for quick leveling.

Hmm, I really want this bow but it’s expensive. It is a magic tool after all, but maybe if I work a little harder I can get it.

「Anou, I’d like to buy this bow, but can you save it until tomorrow?」

「Oh, this bow? It’s fine until tomorrow, no one will probably but it anyway.”

The seller responds with a bitter smile. Nice! It’s decided what we’ll be doing for the rest of the day.

「Ente, let’s go.”

「Yes Master.”

I’ll let Ente-sensei help out with work until the sun goes down.