DRSW 08

Chapter : 08

I’m getting double experience points!

“Woohoo! Yaaay!”

I danced around by myself in delight, wondering how I should invest them. For Mitchell, freezing was the priority, while for Evan… Detection just seemed useful, and Mining helped me make a living.

Evan Raef

Status: Terminally Ill, Blessing of Urshu

Experience: 0

N) Taming Lv.8 — 800 until next level

N) Riding Lv.8 — 800 until next level

N) Mining Lv.2 — 200 until next level

N) Detection Lv.4 — 1 until next level

L) Cutting Corners

EX) There’s Nothing I Can’t Do to Make a Living

Mitchell Neftis

Status: Terminally Ill, Blessing of Urshu

Experience: 1

N) Freezing Lv.7 — 300 until next level

N) Throwing Lv.6 — 600 until next level

N) Healthy Lv.7 — 699 until next level

R) Noble’s Dignity

UR) Fusion

Haah, I was getting pretty close to unlocking ice magic now. I figured I only needed to change the development a couple more times. Was there anything else I needed to do here?

“Chirp! Chirp-chirp!”

Damn it, why was this bird following me around so much?

The sparrow beastman I assumed was Titi limped after me despite her injured wing. I waved my hand at her in a clear go away gesture, but Titi only shed tears and chirped mournfully.

“Why are you following me?”

“Chirp! Chiiirp! Chirp!”

Maybe because she was a beastman, she apparently had enough intelligence to understand me. Titi made all sorts of pitiful gestures while pointing at her injured wing.

I was dumbfounded.

“I saved you. Isn’t that enough? You expect me to treat your injuries too?”

“Chirp… Chiiirp…”

“Look at this shameless little bird.”

“Chiiirp! Chirp, chirp-chirp!”

Whatever. I don’t care. Figure it out yourself.

Since I’d already changed the development, I happily headed home. Mom was sweeping the yard, so I greeted her cheerfully. Mom, however, coolly ignored her pretty daughter and turned her attention elsewhere.

“Oh my, miss. What’s with the bird? It’s enormous.”

So she was invisible until now because she’d been secretly following me? I tried nudging Titi away with my leg, but apparently the sparrow beastman had finally found a sucker she could cling to. She made all sorts of sorrowful noises and ran straight to Mom.

“Chiiirp! Chirp! Chiiirp!”

“Oh my goodness, look at that injury! We need to treat it.”

“Chiiirp! Chirp! Chiiirp!”

The little bird was getting angry at me. Normally, she seemed to be protesting Mom’s actions… but everyone had their own personality. It was wrong to arbitrarily define the limits of what was normal for individuals.

“You’re pretty badly hurt. Miss, you still have some of that wound medicine, right?”

“It’s mine. I’m not giving it to her.”

“I’ll use it.”

“Hey! I said it was mine!”

“You have plenty left anyway, so let’s share!”

“Aaaargh!”

Don’t hit me with the broom! Brooms hurt! That reed broom hurts! It’s scratchy!

Ever since Mom had fixed my back, her violent tendencies had somehow gotten worse. Was it because she’d been unable to hit me all this time? Or because we were both commoners now? Don’t tell me she’d actually been treating me like a noblewoman until now?

“Ah, whatever! Do whatever you want!”

“Miss! You just got back. Where are you going again?”

“None of your business!”

“How can we be strangers to each other?”

I didn’t know, you idiot! If we’re not strangers, are we related by blood or something?!

As I screamed and ran away, Mom threw the broom after me and shouted,

“Hey! Evan Raef!”

She used my full name.

I was dead if she caught me now.

Cold sweat ran down my back as I hurriedly called out,

“I’ll be back before sunset!”

“Huff… huff…”

I had run like my life depended on it.

I raced all the way down to the village square without stopping, got a cup of water from the fishmonger, and then headed to the blacksmith.

I picked up the harpoon I’d ordered and found that it fit perfectly in my hand. I complimented the blacksmith, saying that although his temper was terrible, his work was excellent.

The old man complimented me in return, saying that although my manners were terrible, I certainly knew how to judge a good piece of equipment.

As expected, people should live by complimenting one another. I complimented him, he complimented me, and suddenly the relationship between the blacksmith and me had become warm and friendly.

“Don’t ever come back, you damn nuisance!”

I grabbed my weapon and ran before the blacksmith could throw molten metal at me.

Then I went to the Adventurer’s Guild, had only some of my skills appraised, and got a certificate proving that I possessed them. As soon as I did, someone who looked like a high-ranking guild official came rushing out and grabbed me by the pant leg, asking if I wanted to register as an adventurer.

But I refused and headed toward the harbor.

I had to become a fisherman.

“Hmm… Fishy smell.”

So this town smelled fishy around the harbor too.

Forget being an adventurer. If I wanted to make a huge score in one go, going out to sea was the best option. In my previous life, I’d spent a month bedridden after working on a shrimp-fishing boat just once, but with my current physical abilities, I should be fine.

It was labor I could handle.

Besides, this time I wasn’t going to haul in nets. I was going to borrow some connections, hitch a ride on a boat, head out to sea, and catch nothing but tuna.

I snuck onto Uncle Thomas’s boat, which I’d had my eye on for a while, and hid in the food storage.

I’d exchanged greetings with the crew a few times, so I told them I just wanted to look around Uncle Thomas’s boat. I ran around all over the place, and they dismissed me as an immature brat before quickly losing interest in me.

After waiting for about an hour, the boat finally started moving and headed out into coastal waters.

I didn’t get seasick.

Amazing. My body is incredible.

Evan Raef is the best.

I threw open the food storage door and emerged with my harpoon in hand.

The wind and rain were raging, and the waves were rising high. As expected, there was no way to judge the weather at sea from land. The harbor had been peaceful, but out here it was practically a deadly typhoon.

“You crazy bastard!”

Uncle Thomas spotted me and shouted.

He came running over, slipped on the rainwater covering the deck, and went tumbling with a loud crash, but even while falling, he never stopped cursing at me.

“You crazy bastard! You completely insane bastard! If your mother finds out, I’m dead!”

“Fifteen degrees to port, around five hundred meters! There’s a school of fish! Judging by their size, they’re mackerel!”

“What nonsense are you talking about?!”

“Praise me! I came back with a Detection skill!”

I handed Uncle Thomas the skill certificate I’d gotten from the Adventurer’s Guild.

He looked at the partially appraised skills—Freezing, Throwing, Taming, Riding, Mining, and Detection—then his mouth fell open.

“Evan, what the hell have you been doing?!”

“I’m an ordinary part-timer!”

I stood on the deck and laughed excitedly before quickly suggesting that Uncle Thomas turn the bow around.

Since we’d already come out to sea, there was no turning back anyway. Uncle Thomas cursed and cursed as he gave orders to the crew.

“Captain! There really are fish ahead!”

“Of course there are! His Detection skill is level four!”

“No! It just reached level five!”

“Shut up! You’re going to get yourself killed when you get home!”

Hahahahahaha!

I’m not falling for that anymore.

I’d figured out that Uncle Thomas was actually a tsundere.

And after throwing out the nets and hauling them back in, confirming that we’d hit a huge school of fish, the capitalist smile spread across Uncle Thomas’s face before he could hide it.

“Uncle! How much do they pay for blue marlin around here?”

“Twenty thousand crowns per kilogram! Why?!”

“Just make sure you rescue me!”

I’d already figured out that where there were schools of fish, there were likely to be larger fish nearby.

Ideally, I wanted tuna, but I couldn’t expect to hit the jackpot on my very first attempt. I’d have to settle for this today.

I used a running start and leaped off the boat, driving my harpoon downward.

Uncle Thomas had been staring at me with his eyes bulging as I jumped. The moment he heard the splash, he screamed another curse.

“You crazy bastard—aaagh!”

“Captain! What do we do about him?!”

“What do you mean, what do we do?! Throw him a rope!”

It was a good decision.

I’d managed to pierce the blue marlin with my Throwing skill, but my strength wasn’t enough to haul something this heavy up myself.

I tightly tied a rope to the end of the harpoon, and Uncle Thomas shouted again, telling me to tie the rope around my own life rather than the fish.

But I was fine.

A little seawater wasn’t going to kill me.

I held tightly onto the rope and endured as the crew pulled for more than ten minutes. Eventually, I managed to get back onto the boat.

I collapsed onto the deck and vomited seawater with a series of violent retches, and Uncle Thomas kicked me.

“You damn idiot! What are you going to do if you die?! What about your mother?!”

“It’s fine. I won’t die.”

“Ugh! Aaaargh!”

Uncle Thomas pounded his chest in frustration, but perhaps because it was winter, I felt my entire body freezing solid from the tips of my hair downward.

N) Cold Resistance Lv.1 skill has been created.

So apparently, nearly freezing to death could grant me Cold Resistance.

Then if I went to a sauna, would I get Fire Resistance?

Surely I wouldn’t have to jump into an actual fire, right?

I felt warmth spreading through my body, and in an instant I shook off the icy, salt-encrusted frost that had formed on my clothes.

Then, to ease Uncle Thomas’s worries, I spoke with extremely lively enthusiasm.

“Uncle, next time let’s go farther out. There’s something I need to do.”

“Hey, hey, Evan Raef.”

“Hmm?”

“I think I’m going to die because of you.”

“People don’t die just because they get a little shocked.”

This guy worries about everything.

I laughed as I patted Uncle Thomas’s shoulder, and he tried to hit me before suddenly bursting into tears.

Apparently, this guy had a surprisingly weak tear gland.

When I returned home around dawn, Mom collapsed.

She cried that she couldn’t go on living because of me, and Uncle Thomas comforted her. Then he persuaded her by saying that wasn’t it better for me to cause trouble on his boat than to get into accidents somewhere she couldn’t see me?

And so, I became an official crew member of Uncle Thomas’s fishing boat.

It had been inevitable.

I had the Detection skill, and to a fisherman who made his living catching fish, I was a valuable asset.