Will I End Up As a Hero or a Demon King (WN)

Chapter 180

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Chapter 180 – A New Way to Spend Money

The sky above the Calcum Forest.

I hang my basket on a branch and use Flight to rise about 30 meters into the air to have a look at the forest.

This is the starting point for the umpteenth time today.

“Lock on. Let’s go.”

As soon as I said that, I activated the Investigation and dove down.

I didn’t slow down until I was almost on the surface, approaching my target in a straight line.

(Oh, three of them… This is heating up.)

The target, of course, is the monster trying to escape, the Layard Fairy.

Looking down almost directly from above, she is completely at peace, a complete change from yesterday.

It has no idea that I am in the sky above it and shows no sign of being on guard.

(Let’s start with the first one.)

So I pierce it right through from right above.

As long as I’m not in their line of sight, there’s nothing to worry about.

As I said, the other two Layard Fairies noticed my presence and moved away.

I stop them in their tracks.

“I won’t let you get away.”

I quickly grab the one closest to me and…

――Provoke――

And immediately to the other side.

I stomp my feet on the spot, my gaze fixed on the third Layard Fairy, who is now a reasonable distance away.

“Run underground, ‘Mine Arrow.'”

――Bang!

After a pause, when I saw the target collapse in a spasm, I slashed the supposedly cute fairy as she ran towards me with her sharp fangs bared.

‘You have acquired Healing Magic Lv.2.’

‘You have acquired Insight Lv.2.’

‘You have acquired Escape Lv.2.’

“Good, good!”

The tenth in about an hour.

At this rate, I’m doing pretty well, and I can’t help but smile at my success so far.

The strategy I came up with last night is going pretty well.

I look at my skills and prepare three arrows for the Layard Fairy.

The first, Insight, is a skill that activates when you can see your target, regardless of distance. If that’s the case, there’s no need to be in their line of sight in the first place.

In other words, if I suddenly appear from above like a hawk swooping down on its prey, there is a good chance that I will not be noticed, and even if I am noticed, the only place they can escape is the ground.

This reading that they would not be able to gain distance by moving quickly back and forth was correct.

They had never seen a flying monster before, and I don’t think the Layard Fairies had any experience of being attacked from the sky.

Since they were not on guard against the sky, I could easily hunt them down one by one.

And the second and third arrows were my backup plan.

I had only used the Provoke skill once to support Lulub’s fourth squad.

I had completely forgotten about it because I didn’t use it often, but without thinking too much, I was sure that this skill was the best solution for this monster.

Even if it notices and flees, my Provoke skill is level 2 and has a range of 20 meters.

Assuming that it would approach from above, I was prepared for it to come back at me even if it escaped.

And then there’s the additional Lightning Magic.

I was secretly shaking with excitement.

I had finally chanted the name of my own magic like a special move in practice, and the result had come.

I don’t think I was that confident. The boy’s heart that was making a big fuss inside me was cheering and shouting.

(I’m glad I practiced…)

This was the result of practicing magic on the west side of Malta after defeating King Ant.

I think the idea of making lightning run not only on the surface of the ground but also underground worked better than before.

If you think about it, that place didn’t have many trees, and the earth was a reddish-brown, dry-looking land.

In contrast, this is a rich forest that seems to have a high water content.

If I had fired it on the ground like yesterday, I would have smelled the burnt smell coming from the leaves and trunks, and I would have been worried that I might have become an arsonist, but if I fired it underground, there doesn’t seem to be any such worry for now.

If we’re talking about power, it would probably be much more efficient to fire it as it is.

If the goal is to fire it without being noticed, this technique might be really good.

Dear spirits.

Thank you for reading my image and properly activating the Mine Arrow.

“I need at least 30 more. I’ll make it to level 3 first, with a little twist.”

As I say this, I fly into the air again.

It’s still before 8 a.m.

If it’s just about the quota, I think I can do it all in the morning.

▽ ▼ ▽ ▼ ▽

That night.

After trying out my Insight at the Hunters’ Guild and exchanging it for money, I finished all the things I had to do, like eating dinner, and sat down in my chair with a snort.

In front of me was my usual notebook―not that one, but a thick, dark brown book with a leather cover.

The book was called Pharmaceutical Encyclopedia, and the name was written on the cover in very clear letters.

This was among the kidnappers’ belongings confiscated the other day.

In the same leather bag were a large number of gold coins and a comb with a carved somewhat unusual design.

There were also other items, such as white powder, that looked like cosmetics, so it can be concluded that a woman who was probably wealthy in this world was attacked by these men and had her belongings stolen.

“My heart is pounding…”

“I will make good use of this, thank you,” I said as I carefully picked it up and opened the contents.

However, I’m not particularly interested in pharmacology.

What I’m interested in is the existence of the books themselves.

Even though I’ve only been looking for them on a casual level, what I’ve been looking for is right in front of me.

Ever since I decided to leave Malta, I’ve been casually looking for bookstores because I had some money to spare.

“A bookstore? There can’t be such a place in this world, can there?”

The words of the gorilla mayor I had dinner with the other day came back to me.

In this world where paper itself is rare, I thought I had a rough idea of how expensive books are.

That’s why the Hunters’ Guild goes into trouble by chaining them up.

So, if you think that they are about as valuable as precious metals, they are even more valuable than that.

This was the “book” of this world.

There aren’t any stores that have these things on display, and they wouldn’t have them in stock either―the way to get them is to give the outline of the book you want to a big store that has connections with people who make a living from “manuscripts” and wait for them to arrive.

Alternatively, there are people like me who have obtained books through some sort of process, such as used or antiquarian books, and then sell them for cash, so you can negotiate a price with a store that happens to have such purchases in the back room.

There are also exchanges and sales between individuals, which are said to be popular among the rich.

Gorilla Mayor said that these are the three main methods.

By “main,” I think he means that if you eliminate the option of stealing from someone, then that’s it.

Since ordinary townspeople would not be looking for it, the distribution method seems fine as long as it’s only through the channels created by the rich.

That’s why I couldn’t find a place that sold books, even though I walked around the city imagining a big store.

“…..”

It’s a thin booklet of only about 30 pages, more like a pamphlet than a book.

Still, the content it contains makes my hands shake involuntarily.

“This is exactly…”

The information itself is quite limited.

It’s not like the Internet, where you can just go to a site and get all the information you need.

Still, it lists the names and effects of the herbs.

It also includes illustrations showing the characteristics of the herbs themselves, and it even lists the typical places where they grow, as well as the approximate difficulty of obtaining them.

It’s a shame that there are no maps showing where the herbs grow, as they have been erased, but when it comes to medicinal herbs, this book is the very definition of a ‘strategy guide.’

The authenticity of its contents is unknown.

Its author is also unknown, and it may not have been written with the same level of responsibility for information accuracy as it is today.

Still, “I’ll spend my money on the equipment… and then I’ll decide about the ‘book.'”

I naturally came to that conclusion.

If I can get my hands on more books, I’ll be able to learn more and more information about this world.

Besides, if I show those books to the goddesses, who have a strong bias toward knowledge, it will surely be a positive thing for this world.

That’s enough for now.

My basket is already quite full of things like bags and shoes, including the armor that I can’t throw away even if it has a hole in it, so even if I could buy a large quantity, it would be difficult to carry around.

But after I’ve sorted out my luggage and set up a base in Palmera’s forest,

Thinking about it like that, I decided that it was a pretty high priority, and I started to rack my brain about how to develop a route to get it.

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