Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp

[Worn Standard-Issue Longsword]

Type: One-handed Sword

Grade: Common (White)

Description:

25 Gray Fur Rats, 12 Goblins, and even a Bear Goblin... buddy, how could you ask any more of it?

Note:

"Be! Gin! Ner!"

—Thousand Iron Flow Legendary Sword Saint · Vice Captain of the "Eternal Throne" Adventuring Party · Titus

"Could this be my Golden Finger?"

Beside the campfire, Xia Nan stared at the longsword laid across his knees and muttered to himself.

This was his second day after transmigrating into this world.

Xia Nan had never experienced any great upheavals in his Previous Life. Born into a moderately well-off family, he had studied hard and tested his way into a fairly respectable university.

After graduation, he had followed the crowd into an internet company, enjoying the blessings of the 996 schedule. In the end, on his thirty-second birthday, he had become a department supervisor.

After the celebration ended, drunk as a skunk, he had refused his colleagues' offers to see him home. He had planned to walk back while letting the night breeze clear his head.

Yet not long after leaving the restaurant, as he walked down the dark road, he heard a sharp honk and the screech of brakes behind him.

Then everything went black, and he arrived in this world, reborn in the body of an eighteen-year-old young man.

"Ah..."

Xia Nan silently sighed, his memories leaving him slightly distracted.

The Attribute Panel floating above the One-handed Sword before him, visible only to him, vanished along with it.

Having inherited all the youth's memories, he had gained a rough understanding of the world he had transmigrated into.

The good news was that this was a fantasy world where Transcendent Power truly existed.

Whether it was the few tricks performed by the Bard who had stayed in the village during his childhood to pay for his meals, or the Hand Axe on the back of the burly Barbarian Xia Nan had seen passing a tavern not long ago, glowing with a Glimmer, both proved that point.

But the bad news was that in this life, he was merely the most ordinary of farmers, one who had to worry about putting food on the table.

Other than the bits and pieces he had brought from modern society in his Previous Life, the knowledge filling his mind consisted mostly of techniques completely unrelated to this world's Transcendent Power, such as how to till the land with less effort and which crops to sow in which seasons.

It was not that Xia Nan held any prejudice against a profession that supplied the source of life for countless people. In fact, in his Previous Life, he had often imagined that once he had earned enough money, he would leave the big city, rent a small plot of land somewhere pleasant, and live an idyllic life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

But in this world, a few poor fields simply could not support an entire family.

That was precisely why the original owner had left the village where he had grown up and come to this dangerous wilderness.

Xia Nan withdrew his gaze from the One-handed Sword.

He raised his head slightly and looked ahead.

This was the most rudimentary camp imaginable. There were not even any tents, only several sleeping bags scattered haphazardly around the campfire.

Several figures of varying builds sat separately around the fire.

Amid the crackling of the flames, faint murmurs could be heard, though it was impossible to tell what they were saying.

A human, a Gnome, and a Half-Orc.

It seemed like the classic four-person adventuring party setup.

But in truth, Xia Nan could say without hesitation that they were a band of Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp.

The Gnome Elki's race had a lifespan of up to five hundred years, but at just over twenty years old, that gave him no advantage whatsoever.

His knowledge and experience did not even compare to that of the original owner, an eighteen-year-old farm boy who had spent his life with his face to the soil and his back to the sky.

The two daggers at his waist made him look the part, as if he were some kind of assassin.

But Elki was actually a genuine right-hander. Forget holding a knife in his left hand—even gripping a fork was a struggle for him. Xia Nan had personally watched him spend a full three minutes undoing the bracer on his right arm with his left hand.

The only thing that slightly set him apart from ordinary people was probably his cheerful mindset, which he claimed had been passed down through his family, and his poorly timed sense of humor.

The Half-Orc Ga Gu.

Though he was supposedly a Half-Orc, Xia Nan estimated that Orc blood made up only one thirty-second of him, perhaps even less.

Aside from his slightly sharper canine teeth and sturdier build, he looked almost no different from an ordinary human.

Still, he barely counted as a frontliner—"At least the beasts in the jungle can take a few more bites out of him," as the Gnome Elki had put it.

The last member was also the captain of the Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp team.

Maji, a human Hunter.

He was probably the most reliable member of their party.

It was said that he had once been a famous Hunter in several villages along the kingdom's western border, but after offending some noble, he had been forced to conceal his identity and flee his homeland.

Elki seemed to know a little about the inside story.

"Ah, women," he had once said when Xia Nan brought it up.

All in all, a right-hander, a mongrel, a Hunter, and a farmer made up their entire party.

Normally, at least in Xia Nan's understanding, a standard adventuring party should have consisted of a Warrior, a Priest, a Mage, and an assassin or Ranger.

The classic Warrior-Mage-Priest lineup.

But for the Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp team, that was undoubtedly too much to ask.

Forget rare Spellcasters; their group did not even have a single entry-level classholder.

Even Maji, the most experienced Hunter, was still miles away from becoming a Ranger and obtaining his first Profession Level.

In a sense, calling their group an "adventuring party" was already giving Xia Nan and the others far too much credit.

Of course, it was not as if this world lacked classholders.

It was simply that the requirements for entering every profession were rather demanding. Unless one was exceptionally lucky or came from a wealthy family, ordinary people could never reach that level in their entire lives.

After all, the bounty for a single Goblin was three silver coins and seven copper coins—nearly two days' wages for a dock laborer!

High risk, high reward. That was the consensus every intelligent creature in this world held about adventurers.

And that was precisely why the Stinky Fish Rotten Shrimp team had come here.

"Half a day remains until the sighting location mentioned in the mission report." Hunter Maji sat by the campfire, sorting through his quiver. "We should arrive around tomorrow morning."

"Tsk tsk, that's an entire group of Goblins. Buddy, I've never taken on a job this big!"

Elki waved a dagger in his right hand. Excitement showed on his face in the firelight, though his small stature made him look rather comical.

"What, scared?" The Half-Orc on the other side grinned, saying nastily, "Don't worry. They're just little green rats about your size. I could crush two of them with my toes."

"Of course!"

Elki nodded theatrically, his face full of agreement.

"A tough guy like you definitely doesn't cry for his mommy in his sleep."

%@#*&! (Orcish slang)