Starting Out

Xia Lin · Tolemo struggled to summon every ounce of willpower in his body to fight the churning urge in his stomach.

The stench of the sewer seeped into every crevice, so thick that one could suspect ten thousand Goblins had just held a sock-removal party here.

He had been transported here for three months now, yet this kind of "surprise" was still a little too much for him.

He lowered his head and glanced at the leather boots on his feet, soaked through with filthy water. A sense of shared misery, mixed with doubled irritation, rose in his heart.

[Tattered Travel Boots]

[Durability: 12/30]

[Enemies Defeated: 0]

[Evaluation: Worn in many places. The sole of the left boot is already cracked, and its waterproofing is basically nonexistent. Friendly reminder: Replace them as soon as possible, or your feet may experience the taste of rot first.]

Pale blue text appeared before his eyes like an illusion, accompanied by the familiar faint swelling pain in his head.

This was the only "benefit" he had gained from being transported here: [Item Appraisal].

It cost nothing to use, but whenever he inspected a complex living creature, his head felt fuzzy, as if he had run ten kilometers without drinking water.

That cold evaluation reminded him that if he did not earn enough money for a new pair of shoes soon, he might have to visit the temple and ask a Priest to look at his feet first.

Oh, and seeing a Priest cost money too.

Just as Xia Lin was getting irritated over his ruined boots, the Dwarf Bochi Iron Anvil's signature booming voice came from ahead.

"I'm telling you, Leaf Ears, your eyes aren't going bad, are they?"

The Dwarf turned around and roared at the tall yet exceptionally nimble figure behind him, spittle flying around his beard.

"Are you sure the Adventurer's Guild notice got the place right? This damned place is supposed to be a rat nest? Looks more like an Ogre's toilet to me!"

The Half-elf Aila Starlight gracefully avoided a puddle of suspiciously colored water. A gray cloth covered her mouth and nose, leaving only a pair of calm brown eyes exposed.

Her voice came muffled through the cloth, carrying a distinctly cool, clear quality.

"The reward is thirty copper coins. The mission is 'Sewer District 1 Rat Infestation Cleanup.' The location is correct."

Aila's gaze swept over the Dwarf's face, which had reddened slightly with anger.

"Unless you want to go back to the dock and keep dealing with those dead fish."

Bochi let out a string of meaningless Dwarf slang from his throat, like a boiling kettle.

Listening to the Dwarf's pointless complaints, Xia Lin silently sighed, and his thoughts drifted back to three months ago.

Back then, he had still been an ordinary Earthling struggling every day to make a living.

When he woke up one day, he had become the only son of a merchant family in this fantasy world: Xia Lin · Tolemo.

The original owner?

A textbook wastrel. He ate, drank, gambled, and whored around, spending money without restraint. His only virtue was probably that he looked reasonably presentable.

As for how he died... that was even more ridiculous.

Simply put, he got overly excited while engaging in a certain kind of cross-species Athletics with a lady Lizardfolk whose scales resembled flames, and dropped dead on the spot.

And he, a perfectly healthy young man with utterly normal values, had taken over this body at precisely that moment.

Compared to that, the sewer's foul stench now seemed... almost refreshingly elegant.

But his misfortune did not end there.

When he had first arrived, relying on the original owner's family wealth and his passable face, he had not thought much of it and continued living a life of indulgence.

After all, who would not want to enjoy life as a wealthy young master in another world?

Other than keeping a respectful distance from Lizardfolk, he had thoroughly sampled all the other pleasures: the strongest ale served in Dwarf taverns, Swamp Crocodile Tail roasted by Halfling cooks, and ladies of every race at balls who fit his tastes...

He had simply been living for the moment.

But who knew the good days would end so quickly?

His cheap Old Man, after racking up a mountain of unpayable debt, chose to perform a free fall from the spire of the city's tallest Bell Tower, smashing both the family fortune and the debts to pieces along with himself.

His mother?

She was even more ruthless.

On the very night his Old Man became an airborne man, she swept up the last valuable jewelry and belongings in the house, fled overnight, and vanished without a trace. There had been no news of her since.

As for the younger sister he had never met, Xia Lin's only impression of her was the bills that arrived home punctually every week.

House Toremo had officially declared bankruptcy.

And he, Xia Lin · Tolemo, had fallen at light speed from a young master who ate, drank, and played to a beggar who did not even know where tomorrow's meal would come from.

To survive, he had no choice but to pick up a weapon—a Second-hand Shortsword he had bought cheaply.

Then he walked through the battered doors of the Adventurer's Guild and became a proud... bottom-rung cannon fodder.

That was life, Xia Lin silently reflected.

"Alright, alright, old Anvil, stop getting mad at the air."

Xia Lin bent down and patted the Dwarf's rock-solid shoulder, trying to make his voice sound lighter while also chasing away the gloomy thoughts in his head.

"We only have two choices now. Either we kill those squeaking things, or we wait for your growling stomach to kill us first."

He winked at Bochi.

"How about this? Once we finish this job, I'll buy you a drink. Beauty and Flame, that tavern in the west of the city, just got a new batch of rye beer. I heard it packs quite a punch."

Bochi's eyes lit up instantly, and his previously stormy face immediately brightened as though the clouds had parted.

"Boy, you said it!" His booming voice shook dust from the sewer ceiling. "I want the biggest mug! And the strongest stuff!"

"Hmph."

Aila's cold voice cut in like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head.

"As long as you do not end up like last time, hugging that peeling pillar outside the tavern after three drinks and crying about your one-eyed mining mule named Jenny."

Bochi's face flushed crimson in an instant, even redder than before.

He waved his Mining Pick, spraying spittle everywhere.

"Zonkul! That's nonsense! I was... I was expressing my profound longing for my homeland, the Ironbeard Mountains! It's a sentiment you beardless people could never understand!"

"Besides!" He abruptly changed direction and launched into the speech Xia Lin had long since memorized backward. "If those bastards at the Miners' Guild, with brains stuffed full of gears, had not introduced those cold, hard Golem Puppets, would I have fallen so low as to crawl through sewers with you... you..."

He faltered, seemingly searching for an appropriate word that would hurt less.

"With you rookies?!"

In the end, he could not hold it in.

"Back in the day, in the Ironbeard Mountains, I was the chief prospector! Which mine owner would not politely offer me a cup of top-grade ale when they saw me? With my skill, I could smell the location of a mithril vein with my eyes closed!"

"What a pity," Aila's voice drifted over again, "that mine owners now prefer Golems that do not drink, do not complain, do not demand raises, do not secretly hide a few high-quality ores after finding a vein, and can work overtime for free."

It was as though she had struck a sore spot. Bochi began howling, launching into an endless tirade about how those "emotionless lumps of iron" had stolen his livelihood and how his wife, who had "run off with the blacksmith next door," had no eye for men.

Xia Lin listened silently and sighed inwardly.

Bochi Iron Anvil had once been an experienced miner. His skills had been rendered obsolete by the times, his wife had run away with someone else, and he was middle-aged—two hundred years old—frustrated and down on his luck.

Aside from a Dwarf's naturally powerful physique, some combat instinct, and the Mining Pick in his hand, he had nothing.

As for Aila Starlight...

At first, Xia Lin had only known that she had drifted into Changhe City about half a year ago, like a genuine vagrant.

After that, she had worked as a tavern waitress, serving dishes and washing cups, barely scraping by.

He had heard that during that time, she turned down the "special work" offered by several "gentlemen," work that would supposedly help her "escape poverty faster."

She saved her meager wages bit by bit until she had gathered enough money to register as an adventurer and buy basic equipment.

Her skills were passable, but her personality was like ice-tempered steel. She did not speak much, but every word she said could strike precisely at a person's weak spot.

Last time, the three of them had finally managed to complete a job clearing spiderwebs from a temple and received a fairly decent reward.

That day, after drinking a few extra cups of bad ale, Aila had unusually become talkative.

Using the alcohol for courage, she haltingly explained that she had wandered all the way to Changhe City to escape debt collectors.

The cause was her supposedly handsome ex-boyfriend, who had borrowed a large sum of high-interest loans in her name before vanishing with the money.

"Before he disappeared, we really loved each other!" Aila had sobbed, tears and snot streaming down her face.

After saying all that, she had collapsed on the table and fallen asleep. The next morning, she refused to mention it and returned to her usual icy demeanor.

Thinking of that, Xia Lin's gaze involuntarily drifted toward the waist outlined by Aila's leather armor, as well as the smooth lines of muscle beneath her wheat-colored skin, faintly visible through the gaps in the armor.

Well... the inn room had been cold that night, and the blanket had been thin.

They... had only been keeping each other warm.

Xia Lin told himself.

Yes, that was all.

Purely temporary, a way to resolve physical needs... mutual aid between comrades.

He tried not to think about anything else.

"Rather than listen to you complain about your mining mule Jenny," Aila interrupted Bochi's latest round of reminiscing, "I care more about whether these thirty copper coins are worth the three of us breathing poison gas here for half the day and risking a fight with a group of creatures that might carry plague."

"Risk?" Xia Lin shrugged. "Having no money is the greatest risk, my Lady."

There was no helping it.

One useless young master from a ruined family who could do nothing but spend money.

One hot-tempered Dwarf miner abandoned by the times, whose wife had run away.

One cold-natured Half-elf burdened by romantic debts and wandering from place to place.

The three of them had ended up together only because the lowest-paying "missions" in the Adventurer's Guild, the ones nobody wanted, were accepted only by desperate newcomers like them who needed money to survive and did not even qualify as professionals.

If it were not for making a living, who would be willing to crawl into a hellhole like this?

Xia Lin calculated silently.

Ten copper coins.

If he gnawed on the roughest Black Bread every meal, the kind that could chip his teeth, and carefully made sure not to lose a single crumb... it would probably last him three days.

Life was not easy. Xia Lin sighed.