An absurd world… (17 days ter.)

  This world is absurd, and can’t be real, Nox mused as she stared up at an orange moon that appeared to not just reflect light from the sun, but to have some sort of inner glow of its own. She figured it might have something to do with the composition of its atmosphere and how it reflected light… then again it could actually have some inner source of light. How would she know? Though that moon wasn’t the only thing that disturbed her. Take the Blessing people got, for example. There was no way that wasn’t artificial. Just like the dungeons which gave people popup messages. Such things disturbed her, but what choice did she have but to accept the reality she'd found herself in?

  The girl sighed and pushed her head up from the cobblestone surface of the alleyway. Aside from the dungeon, things here had continued much as they had back in Gunk. She woke up, made her way to the dungeon where Ginger would be waiting, and when finished there she would do some practice with a spear before heading into the sewers to hunt rats. Her meals were still rat meat baked into bread.

  Pushing herself to her feet, she stumbled towards the alleyway’s entrance where she nodded at a woman who went by the name of Si. The woman handed her a piece of bread which Nox hungrily tore into.

  “The silver coin,” Nox said when she’d finished, and took the coin the woman handed her.

  “Thanks,” Nox told the woman, gd to have what amounted to a personal banker just feet from where she slept. Given the state she was in, going into the adventuring guild each day to withdraw the dungeon fee would’ve been problematic.

  “Luck,” Si told the girl, and Nox nodded her thanks.

  At a quick pace, she made her way to the dungeon where she saw a line had already formed. To one side Ginger was waiting, scowling ferociously. It was an expression Nox knew well by now.

  “You’re te,” the beastkin girl fumed, gring at Nox. “If I’m going to drag you through the dungeon, the least you can do is arrive on time. And don’t you ever wash? You bloody hell stink! And it’s not just a minor stink. You really, really, really, stink!”

  Around them Nox heard others also comment on the way she stunk. Quite a few also sneered as they ridiculed the fact she was a loser who was being dragged through the dungeon.

  “Well,” Ginger demanded. “Do you ever wash? And what do you do that makes you stink so much? Roll around in shit?”

  “I wash when it rains,” Nox replied when the girl stared at her, clearly expecting an answer.

  “Just go to the bathhouse,” Ginger snapped back. “Fuck, do you have to stink so much every day?”

  “If you want someone to go into the dungeon with you, then yes,” Nox replied. “It’s 25 coppers for a bath, so every four times I go to the bathhouse means one less time I can go to the dungeon. 25 coppers is also equal to 12 slices of bread, or 4 days of food. I would think it would be obvious by now, but it seems I have to spell it out to you… I can’t afford the bathhouse.”

  Ginger blinked, and got the expression of someone trying to do complex math in her head.

  “How long can you keep going to the dungeon,” the beastkin girl finally asked.

  “Maybe long enough to reach level 1,” Nox replied. “Or maybe not,” she added.

  Ginger stared.

  “Good,” someone from the crowd said. “Maybe we’ll be rid of both of them.”

  “Why are you so fucking eager to get rid of me,” the beastkin girl roared, whirling around to face the crowd.

  “Bloody beastkin,” a woman snickered.

  “Backstabbing beastkin,” a man added.

  “Grrr.”

  Suddenly one day slipped into the next, and everyone focused on the dungeon as the guards collected the admission fees and let people through. Inside Nox was acutely aware of the distance the beastkin girl put between them, all the while wrinkling her nose.

  Sighing, she silently watched as the girl went about killing the slimes. Having killed them nineteen times now, the beastkin girl had apparently gotten used to the routine, and while she wept each time she pced the tip of her dagger in the fmes, she was otherwise quiet. To the girl who was clearly well-trained with daggers, the slimes quickly fell.

  Ding!

  A blue screen popped up before Nox.

  You have cleared room 1 a total of 20/20 times!

  Base Reward: 10 experience.

  Additional Reward: 2 experience.

  Room 1 Completion Award Generation!

  Base Reward: 50 experience.

  Additional Reward: 10 experience.

  Rolling chest… 43

  Bonus chest… 8

  Final chest… 51

  There was a blue light—the same color as the screens that popped up at the dungeon’s behest—and a pilr with a small box atop it faded into view.

  Nox nodded. It seemed her worldly skill was still giving a twenty-percent bonus. It’d given an extra 10 experience, and boosted the chest value from 43 up to 51.

  Ginger dashed for the box and flipped the lid. Her green eyes bright with excitement and hope, she peered inside.

  “Harrumph,” the beastkin girl muttered, taking out a very small bag that she opened and peered inside. “Harrumph,” she again fumed, clearly not pleased with the reward. She slid the bag into her pocket and gred at Nox, daring her to say anything.

  Nox shrugged. Clearly the beastkin girl had put more effort into reaching this point than she had. Besides, the girl’s dagger, poor Toothy, was looking a tad bit on the shabby side after being subjected to such atrocious abuse as being repeatedly heated up in the fire time and time again.

  “Tomorrow,” Ginger said, and fled the room.

  Nox followed suit and aimed herself towards an alley not far from where she was sleeping. Soon she held a spear in both hands and was following the instructions of someone by the name of Yi. Why there were so many people around whose name ended in ‘i’ she wasn’t sure, but she figured she’d better start getting used to it.

  After four hours of instruction on the use of a spear, the girl descended into the sewers to hunt rats. She wasn’t sure what to think of what her life had become since she’d been isekaied—by her own effort apparently if her Pneswalker and ArchMage titles were to be believed. But she wished she could un-isekai herself. Even so, she knew millions of people back on Earth had it worse than she did. She had enough to eat, and a pce to sleep where she was mostly safe. And the odds of someone actually attacking her were slim. She tried to feel grateful for what she had, but her expectations had been so much higher. Nor were there any computers.

  Her path took her to the sewers below the marketpce—the pce where she was most likely to find lost coins with her worldly skill. As she walked, she activated the skill and looked around. When the search failed, she would again activate the skill and do another search.

  Plop!

  Nox whirled around and while she heard cursing from above, her eyes focused on the stream of filth that ran beneath the city. Much to her sorrow, and eversting shame, she could fully understand and sympathize with why people thought she stunk—because she did, in spades.

  Frig, am I really going to do this, the girl asked herself and around where she thought she’d heard—something—fall, she plunged her hand into the stream and rooted around. Her hopes were dashed, but she activated the worldly skill again. And again.

  Realizing the coin—which the cursing from above assured her it’d been—might not have fallen directly to the bottom of the sewer bed, the girl started searching further downstream. She activated her skill, then gnced around… and in the dim, gloomy light of the lichen, her eyes caught a glint of metal atop a turd. She grabbed for it—the glint of metal, not the turd, though her hand did end up closing around the tter. Of course, she also went tumbling in the putrid mess of sewage.

  Cleaning the coin off as best she could in the filthy water, Nox greedily eyed it, and fully understood the cursing she’d heard coming from above.

  Do I try to return it, the girl wondered, but the cursing had stopped and she had no idea who it belonged to. She was also pretty sure if she was to go around the marketpce, asking people if the silver coin with the 50 inscribed on it was theirs, there would be a thousand replies, all cmoring it was. Besides, to be blunt, she wasn’t that altruistic.

  Picking up the dozen rats she’d killed, she made for the exit and made her way towards Yi.

  “Stay away,” the woman yelped, looking a bit green.

  Nox nodded.

  “What did you do down there, go swimming,” the woman asked.

  “Close to it,” Nox admitted. “I was under the marketpce and I dove in after the coin someone dropped.”

  “I, um, see…”

  “Sorry,” Nox said, “I know the service you provide is to teach us how to use a spear, and that we’re supposed to bring the equipment back not so um… filthy. I’ll pay the penalty fee.”

  Yi nodded. “You know Si won’t let you sleep in the alleyway in that condition. You’ll need to get cleaned up.”

  Nox looked up at the sky, as if expecting a sudden downpour. None came. Nor did she expect a bathhouse would allow her inside, not with the state she was in. But to her the most horrifying thing was that while she knew what she was soaked in—she couldn’t smell it as more than a minor odor. Nor, aside from the fact that it would deny her a sleeping space in the alley, could she bring herself to really care. It seemed her fall from computer girl to sewage girl was complete.

  Trudging her way back to the alleyway where she slept, she found being so attired had its benefits in that people always made way for her. Why, it was almost as if she was royalty with the way they scampered to get out of her path.

  “Stay away,” Si commanded, staring.

  “Know any pce where I can get cleaned up,” Nox asked.

  Si pointed. “Go far enough that way and you’ll come to the ocean,” she stated. “Jump in, and you’ll be clean in a jiffy.”

  Nox stared. “The ocean is hundreds of kilometers away,” the girl pointed out.

  Si nodded. “But it’ll get you clean,” the woman replied.

  Silence.

  Nox again looked up at the sky, hoping for rain.

  “One of the bathhouses for the workers will do the trick,” Si said, amused. “But it’ll cost you.”

  Nox winced, but nodded.

  “Try Old Granny Cran’s bathhouse,” the woman suggested, and the girl turned to saunter off.

  The path took her past the gate and Nox saw Ginger there, apparently coming back from somewhere. The beastkin girl was staring with her mouth open. By her side were two other beastkin, both female and both around her age.

  Nox waved. “Hey, I took the bath you told me to,” she cheerfully called out to the girl with the biggest and brightest smile she could manage. “Be no worries tomorrow about the way I smell. See…” She held out a hand and approached the trio.

  Aside from the fact that she’d fallen into a world where there were things such as Blessings, magic and beastkin, Nox found another reason to doubt the reality of the world around her. There was no way anyone, human or not, could turn pale as quickly as the beastkin girl did. And the color—exquisitely amusing.

  “Wanna hug, my dungeon delving buddy,” Nox cheerfully asked, and took another step towards the girl with her arms raised.

  As one, the two amused beastkin girls beside Ginger raised a hand and shoved the girl forward, only to have her twist away and streak off, her face as white and pallid as that of a ghoul with her tail stuck out straight behind her.

  Nox shrugged. “No hugs today I guess,” she mused and nodded at the two beastkin girls before continuing her trek to Old Granny Cran’s bathhouse.

  At the bathhouse she found herself beneath an outdoor shower where, refusing to strip in an area that was in an open view of any number of people, she washed away most of the filth as best she could while still clothed. Then she found herself inside in a private bath where with some soap she scrubbed herself and her clothes. After that, to ensure she was clean, she had the tub refilled and took another with even more soap. Sure, she might be accepting her role as sewage girl, but she still understood what bacteria and viruses were. Of course all that water and soap didn’t come without a hefty price of 2 silvers and 50 coppers.

  Back at Si, Nox handed over the rest of the coinage she’d lucked into. As she did so, she pondered her future… something which wasn’t an uncommon experience for the girl.

  For one, there was her practice with spears. She would never get the spears skill, which was a skill many Blessings gave, and hence would never be able to do the same damage with one that a guard, or soldier, or hunter might. By now she was more than skilled enough to use one to kill a rat, but much as she practiced, it wouldn’t help her in a dungeon. That time might be better spent on things that would net her more coinage. After all, so long as she was partnered with Ginger, ck of coinage was her limit on entering the dungeon.

  Nox nodded to herself. The only reason so many kids like her practiced with such weapons was because it helped dictated what Blessing they got. Those kids were people aiming to be something like a guard or soldier or hunter. Now that she had her Blessing… there was no point.

  Sighing, the girl looked up at the sky only to have a rge, plump raindrop fall into her mouth. In shock, realizing if only she’d waited she could’ve had a free bath, she gred at the sky.