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

Chapter 259

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Chapter 259 – Reopening and Expansion

My mana consumption from the base to Bezart was about 950.

The sudden decrease in mana initially made me feel nauseous, but I’ve gotten used to it. Now, I quickly give away any “leftovers” as souvenirs to people I know:

These include the Hunter’s Guild, Paisa-san’s equipment shop, the Billy Corn Inn innkeeper, the people at the church, the Indian-looking guy at Kaari’s, the shoemaker, and the old man at the food stall.

Carla dismantles the monsters I hunt, but no matter what I do, there’s always a lot of leftover meat.

Alicia is probably on the upper plateau most of the time, but there are only four of us, and even if there were more, there would still only be nine of us to eat it.

Even if we butcher a unicorn, which everyone loves, we can’t eat it all. It’s also not enough to sell to Orgu-san, the big shot in Falmenta. So, I decided to give away the leftover meat before it goes bad.

That’s how it is.

Ril has also safely returned and is apparently secretly patrolling the upper plateau at night. I guess we’ll have even more leftover ingredients from now on.

Maybe we should learn how to make smoked meat, even if we can’t age the meat for a different flavor.

My job is to earn money outside and run errands in town, so I’ll leave the cooking to someone else.

“Good morning!”

“Ara, Loki-kun! It’s been a long time. I heard you came back.”

“Yes, I’m not settling down in Bezart, but I’ve arranged it so that I can stop by anytime.”

“May-chan was so happy! What happened? She should already be on her way to Rocker Plain.”

“Oh, I just brought some leftovers, so don’t worry. Here, have some of this meat.”

I placed the block of meat on the counter, completely blocking May-chan’s mother’s face.

“I-isn’t this a little too much? We can’t eat this much at our house.”

“That’s why I’d like you to ask May-chan to share some with Zink-kun and Potta-kun. I don’t know where they live yet.”

“Arara, my husband will be back for lunch, so I’ll ask him then.”

Now that I’ve come back, I should find out where they live.

I heard that there are a lot of other children at Potta-kun’s house. I’m sure Potta-kun will be happiest if I deliver it to him.

I don’t want to seem like a stalker by using my Flight and Investigation skills to find out where they live. Yeah, I’ll just ask them next time I see them.

“If that’s the case, I’d really appreciate it,” I said. I left some magic tree fruit for May-chan’s house. With my bag lighter, I headed for the entrance to Waltz: “Grille Morg.”

“It’s been a while,” I thought to myself as I headed straight for the mercenary guild.

Today was the day I was resuming my mapping of central Waltz, after all.

I’ve already been to the main hunting grounds, so I checked the hunting ground information just in case. From here to Freyville, though, my main focus would be on defeating bandits.

I also collected all the loot I had buried.

I have to save up money somehow; otherwise, I won’t be able to buy my next book.

I’m not going to take on the hidden boss that will probably appear in the “Isla Wilderness” because I don’t want to die yet.

I’d like to try if I can escape after spawning it, but it’s too much responsibility considering the possibility that it will remain in existence.

It’s probably a good idea to wait until I can reliably defeat the normal surface bosses on my own.

(Hmm, there’s a group of 15 bandits near Vargast Mountain Pass. I don’t know the exact location, but if the reward for defeating them four days ago was 4.5 million Beeke, that’s not bad. I’m currently escaping after killing 16 of them alone. The group is large, but 400,000 Beeke is too cheap.)

For now, I’ll use Jumping to take out anything that catches my eye. Then, I’ll take it to the receptionist, Milfy-san, who is grinning as she watches.

“Long time no see. You still can’t reach me, I see.”

“Ugh! I should be able to reach you soon. Well, probably…”

“Hmm. But you’re still alive, aren’t you? It looks like you’ve completed a few requests.”

“Oh, so you get information from other towns, too?”

“Of course. We share information with neighboring towns. In the mercenary business, fresh information is vital. We can’t afford to be as slow as the Hunter Guild at passing information.”

Does Milfy-san have a grudge against the Hunter Guild?

I think she’s right, but she’s being a bit harsh.

Is it because they’re rivals?

Well, there’s no need to pry.

I just need to find information on any bad guys in areas I haven’t yet finished mapping.

“I’m heading east, so please let me know if there’s anyone in that direction.”

With that, I resumed mapping the interior of the crack, which I had interrupted when I found Zeo and Carla.

I connected the outer map and continued mapping as I moved up and down.

I had a vague feeling that the base inside Palmera was warmer than here.

It’s about 2,000 km north, so if I fly at high speed, my nose will freeze.

By the way, I got a little carried away when I gained skill points and raised my Mapmaking skill to level 4.

There are various reasons for this, but the main one is that I wanted to improve my mapping efficiency.

When I raised my skill from level 1 to level 2, I felt that my mapping range expanded slightly.

However, this wasn’t explicitly stated in the detailed description, so I was unsure if it was just my imagination or if it had actually happened.

This time, I decided to test it out to find out for sure.

I flew straight through the unexplored black area, leveled up to level 3, and immediately returned to the map screen.

From a certain point, the lines that extended slightly became “thicker.”

This cleared up my confusion, and now I’m certain that the mapping range expanded slightly.

Once I realized this, I raised the skill to level 4 without hesitation, and I have no regrets.

I now have only 16 skill points left, but my mapping progress will accelerate. Once mapping is complete, I’ll be able to move on to the next country with a clear mind.

Besides, these are skills I can’t gain experience in from monsters or people.

If I’m going to use skill points, it’s better to use them on these kinds of skills, so I’m sure it was a good use of them.

I had also heard that there was a “map zoom” function at skill level 4, and I finally learned how to use it.

It’s only about three times the current scale. Before, I had to repeatedly scroll the screen to measure distances and positions. Three times the scale is more than enough for moving around Lagreath and Waltz.

Level 3 was “display or hide movement history at will,” but now that I’ve cleared the traps at Zeo’s place, I don’t think I’ll have any use for it.

And so, about five days passed.

I erased the black parts on the map, as if I were coloring it. After two simple “clean-ups” along the way, I arrived in Entra, the capital of the Kingdom of Waltz.

I had promised to study the country with Riste once I arrived at the capital, so I wandered around the city with her, part exploring and part on a date. With my advisor by my side, I saw aspects of the city different from what I had seen with Lagreath.

“Hmm… I thought it was just my imagination at first, but the food prices really are high, aren’t they?”

“That’s correct. The environment is different, so it’s understandable that some ingredients are expensive. But even the meat from pigs and chickens, touted as local specialties, seems expensive.”

“If the taste were different, I could understand, but my taste buds are ordinary, so I can’t really tell the difference.”

“Me too. I don’t think the quality justifies the price difference.”

The two of us eat street food and groan, “Hmm.”

Prices vary from double to five times as much in some cases.

If the price difference were due to a few special spices or ingredients or limited items, I wouldn’t think anything of it, but for some reason, everything seems expensive.

It doesn’t seem to be limited to food either.

“Clothes and daily necessities also seem a bit expensive.”

“They’re neighbors with a common currency, so why is that? Maybe it’s because of discrimination and tension that caused diplomatic relations to deteriorate?”

“I think the main reason is that information was blocked.”

“If you don’t know about the ‘outside world,’ you might think it’s normal…”

I say that, but of course, that’s true.

Without anything to compare it to, you can’t judge anything.

Even if you are exploited and living in a difficult environment, you will convince yourself that it is better than nothing if that is the norm around you, and there are even worse environments nearby.

When I think about it, it’s probably inevitable that black companies come to mind first for modern Japanese people.

The alleyways were narrow and dirty, and many people who appeared to be homeless were lying on the ground.

Among them were small children.

Although I’ve been in similar environments before, I’ve only just realized that I’ve hardly ever seen such obvious scenes in Lagreath.

“I’m almost done with the map of the Kingdom of Waltz. I hope things will improve as more people come and go.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll do it, I promise.”

Riste is doing what she has to do, but I don’t intervene in the situation before me.

I act with the understanding that this kind of world is normal.

That’s all.

As planned, I only stayed half a day.

Besides coffee, I spotted a few hemp products that might be useful. However, feeling that I would probably never come back here again, I left the royal capital of Entra, shaking off several agents who were following me.

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