Translator: Haruto.

A large lobby is located on the first floor of the Adventurers’ Guild.

On the left, there’s a bulletin board in front of which two adventurer parties are standing, and on the right, you can see a large reception desk and a few guild workers sitting behind it. Everything looks quite similar to the games I used to play long ago.

I take another step on the wooden floor and head straight to the reception desk. As I get close to it, a young guild worker who appears to be in her late teens talks to me.

“Welcome. What may I do for you today, sir?”

“Hello, my name is Okuno Soushi, and, um, a resident of this town told me to come here…”

“Aah, are you perhaps a new ‘Awakened’?”

“Sorry, I don’t really understand what you mean by ‘Awakened.’”

“I see. In that case, I should probably explain how the whole adventurer system works. Please follow me.” The girl motions for me to follow her and guides me to a table in the back.

“Errr, you said your name was Okuno Soushi? That means your family name is Soushi, correct?”

“Ah, no, it’s Okuno.”

It seems one’s family name goes second in this world, or at least in this country.

“Very well, Okuno-san, please put your hands on this plate.”

I do as the guild girl says and grab the long and narrow metal plate she just brought out. The moment I do so, a faint red light begins to emanate from it.

“Okay, it’s official. You’re indeed an Awakened, Okuno-san, which means that just like basically all other Awakened in this continent, you’re obligated to work as an ‘adventurer.’”

“Huh…”

“Ah! My apologies, I haven’t even told you what being an Awakened entails,” the guild girl says before beginning her explanation.

Here’s a brief summary:  

• When a regular person “awakens,” they gain the ability to use powerful techniques known as “skills.”
• Nobody knows the requirements to awake. Both men and women are capable of it, but it’s a fairly rare phenomenon, and in most cases, it only occurs from the age of fifteen to twenty-five.
• The Awakened must become adventurers.
• Adventurers are people who earn a living fighting monsters and most of them work in “Dungeons.”

And that’s the gist of it. I may be wrong but it appears I became a sort of RPG character after being thrown into this world.

I try to come to terms with my current situation the best I can as I tell the guild girl, “I came here with nothing but the clothes on my back. What should I do?”

“That’s okay. You’re not the first one. You can borrow some money from the guild and pay it back in installments using your quests’ rewards.”

“Ohh, that’s convenient.” It seems I’ll have a much easier time in this world than the descendant of a hero in a certain game I used to play.

I asked the guild girl a couple more questions, received something called an “Adventurer Card,” and borrowed some money before walking out the door.

Later that day I went to buy equipment as the Guild’s novice guide suggested, and rented a room at one of the two cheapest inns in the town of Tolson, which is what I believe this place is called. Thank goodness I was able to borrow money from the guild, or I would have had to sleep at a stable or out in the fields. My room has just one very simple bed, but it definitely beats sleeping outdoors. I heard there are feral dogs and even bandits outside of town.

I take a seat on the hard bed, and check the equipment I bought today: a backsack, a dagger, a canteen, packed food, a piece of cloth to be used as a towel, a mace that can be held in one hand, a small shield, and finally, a sort of half-face helmet. All of them look ancient, but I guess that’s normal in this world.

“Still, to think I’d buy weapons…”

Obviously enough, I never once held or owned a weapon when I was still in Japan. I bought this mace simply because that’s what the guy at the weapon shop recommended for beginners, but even I can tell this thing can deal a lot of damage. From now on, I’ll have to use this weapon to attack and kill monsters that I haven’t even seen yet, however, the mere thought of it makes me feel incredibly uneasy. Although, it doesn’t compare to how disturbing the idea of having been thrown into this world is.

“I’ll just hit the sack as soon as I’m done eating.”

I put my equipment in my backsack and head to the inn’s dining room located on the first floor.

The dining room looks about sixty percent full. Half of the people here are without a doubt adventurers and the other half are merchants. Apparently, those are the only two types of people that come to this town. I can also pick out at a glance my fellow newbie adventurers, and there are a ton of them. The only difference between us is the fact that they’re all sitting with their respective parties.

I sit at an empty table, call the innkeeper, order my food, and patiently wait for her to bring it.

“Oh, hey, pops! You’re an adventurer, too?” a young man in his early twenties talks to me all of a sudden. His cheeks are flushed, so I guess he must be drunk.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Huh. It’s pretty rare to see an adventurer your age. Ain’t that right, guys?” he asks his companions—a group of men and women in their early twenties as well—and they all nod apathetically in response. Judging from the way they’re acting, this guy must have a tendency to bother other people when he’s drunk.

“Now, the real question is, are you strong, pops…? Nah, no way. You wouldn’t stay in a shithole like this if you were strong.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, dude, strong people are always loaded, so they get to stay in fancy hotels and stuff.”

“Interesting. But what about you, then? You look pretty strong to me.”

It’s not just flattery. This guy is definitely stronger than me. We’re about the same height, but the muscles of his arms and other parts of his body are way bigger than mine. His equipment has evidently seen a lot of use, too.

“Huh? Nah, I’ve got a long way to go, my man. I’m still E-rank. I’m just slightly better than a newbie.”

“If you’re still E-rank, that must mean raising one’s rank is harder than I imagined,” I say, and the young man seems to have taken it as a compliment since a wide smile appeared on his face.

“Haha! Yeah, it ain’t easy. It took me two whole months to reach E-rank, and that’s considered fast, you know? You’d better work hard, too, pops,” he says, returning to his table.

A young girl from his party then bows her head to me in apology, which leaves me with a positive impression of their group.

Adventurer ranks, huh. According to the guild’s receptionist, adventurer ranks go from A to F, and the more great feats you accomplish, the higher your rank gets. I’m F-rank like all other newbies, but she told me that if I work hard, I might make it to E-rank in three months. In that case, I guess I was right to assume that the guy from earlier was pretty skillful.  

“Here you go,” the innkeeper says as she places my food on the table.

It’s some sort of soup made with vegetables and meat. It has a rather familiar and yet unusual taste to it. Either way, it’s not bad. High motivation in Japanese people is directly correlated to how full our bellies are, so I can’t overstate how glad I am to know that I’ll be able to enjoy this world’s food just fine.

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