The Reason He Had to Land Face-First

Shane didn't know how to describe how he felt right now.

It was just so damn ridiculous.

[Shane]

Status: Mental Strength · Ordinary (Recovering from depletion)

Entry: [Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity (Legendary)][Thought Acceleration (Legendary)][Time Mastery (Legendary)]

Evaluation: A person.

After stripping the entry, he had immediately passed out. In his daze, he heard something hit the ground.

Now that he thought about it, he must have landed face-first.

Had he hit the entry directly?

"People can have entries enchanted onto them, too? Am I a special case, or can it happen to everyone?"

Shane couldn't figure it out.

And it seemed there was no way to find out for sure.

The act of stripping an entry caused the item it was stripped from to disintegrate and disappear, so he didn't dare experiment on himself. And if he experimented on someone else, then once the enchantment took hold, it couldn't be changed. It would completely alter that person's life. That would be utterly shameless.

But, on the other hand, could he do it to a corpse...

At the thought, Shane shook his head and immediately cut off that line of thinking. No, he couldn't do that. At least, he shouldn't!

Without meaning to, those blood-red eyes, wild with madness, surfaced in his mind again.

Was he being affected?

Looking at the words in his status panel—"Mental strength depleted (slowly recovering...)"—Shane figured his mental strength must be too low, and his brain was a little out of control.

He pulled the covers over his head and went to sleep.

When he woke again, it was already afternoon.

Shane first went to knock on Frieren's door, but there was no answer.

Thinking of how much she liked to sleep in, he figured she wouldn't get up until the next morning, at the earliest. So he went downstairs, grabbed a bite to eat, slung a bag full of mushrooms over his shoulder, and prepared to take a look around the Adventurer Guild.

First, he could exchange the mushrooms for money. Second, now that he had the [Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity] entry, he could simplify complex magic formulas and principles into "entries" and master them directly. Did that mean he could learn magic?

When he had first arrived in this world, he had been full of anticipation about that.

Unfortunately, he had no talent for magic.

If he could learn magic through entries now, though, becoming a "magic swordsman" would be pretty good. He could attack or defend as needed.

"Adventurer Guild—Lamir Regional Branch"

After checking the sign above the entrance, Shane walked into the hall.

Unlike the Adventurer Guild halls he'd seen in novels and anime, this place had no little groups drinking and playing drinking games, no walls covered in quest notices and wanted posters, and, of course, no pretty catgirl attendants.

Instead, it looked more like a shop.

Rows of shelves on the left were packed with bottles and jars, along with half-processed herbs, ore, and all sorts of miscellaneous goods. The right side was filled with weapons and armor. In the very center of the hall stood a single long counter, with notices like "Magic User Rank Examination Schedule and Rules" and "Adventurer Code of Conduct" hanging on the wall behind it.

Hearing Shane's footsteps, a beautiful middle-aged woman popped her head up from behind the counter.

The moment she saw Shane, her eyes lit up. After a clatter of movement, she hurried out from behind the counter, smoothing her dress and tidying her hair as she came.

"Welcome to the Adventurer Guild. You must be Shane."

"?"

"Haha, don't be nervous. I just heard about you from the landlady at the Iron Hoof Inn. She said you were the most handsome adventurer she'd ever seen. Oh, Goddess above, I've been looking forward to your visit for ages." The woman winked at Shane.

"Uh..."

Shane was momentarily at a loss for words.

The innkeeper sure had a lot of close friends.

"So, what can I get you? Whether it's a potion for an upset stomach or armor made of refined iron, we've got it all. Of course, if you need a magic tome, you'll have to go to the Grand Library in [Gostan City]. I don't have anything that precious here..."

They didn't have magic tomes? He'd wanted to buy one and test out the effects of the [Great Wisdom Looks Like Stupidity] entry.

Going to [Gostan City] wasn't out of the question. It was the largest trading city in the Lamir region, about three to five days' walk from the town.

The woman kept enthusiastically recommending things, leaving Shane feeling like he couldn't get a word in edgewise. Shopkeepers in another world didn't seem all that different from the ones in his previous life.

At last, the woman paused for breath. Shane quickly swung off his backpack and seized the opening.

"Oh! Ghostlight Mushrooms. They're a really rare ingredient! I haven't bought any in years. Give me a moment while I check the current market price... Oh, here it is. Seven silver coins per pound."

"These have gone up a lot. Last time I bought them, they were only six silver coins per pound. Look at them now—up a whole silver coin."

Though the woman never stopped talking, her hands moved quickly. She immediately brought out a scale and began weighing the mushrooms.

"Let's see how much you've got here. Oh, that's quite a lot... Exactly three pounds. That makes twenty-one silver coins."

While the woman chattered away, Shane's attention was on the equipment section nearby.

He inspected the displayed weapons and armor one by one. Most of the entries he saw were white ones like [Sharpness], [Heavy], [Basic Resistance], and [Magic Conduction]. Nothing particularly valuable.

This confirmed what Frieren had told him earlier. Ever since the Unified Empire era, the Sages who excelled at alchemy and forging had disappeared.

The weapons and armor of the current era didn't have powerful enchantments. They could basically only provide basic protection and support.

Even Frieren's staff had only a basic entry like [Magic Conduction].

Adventurers of this age relied entirely on talent and physical ability.

Someone like Shane, a "blank slate" with no talent whatsoever, had no choice but to stack up his gear.

If he wanted powerful equipment, it looked like he'd have to make it himself.

Still, now that he had money, he could buy a few small pieces of equipment and strip their entries to use as material for upgrades.

"Ma'am, I'd like nine [leather bracers], please."

"Sure, no problem. Nine leather bracers come to forty-five silver coins. Would you like me to wrap them up for you?"

"No, never mind. I suddenly realized I don't actually need them that much."

With twenty silver coins and the hundred copper coins he'd exchanged, Shane returned to the inn.

Frieren was still asleep in their room.

Worried she might sleep for so long that she'd wake up hungry in the middle of the night, Shane wanted to ask the landlady to send some bread and water to her room.

But after looking around, he couldn't find the landlady.

"Strange. Not only is the landlady gone, there's not a single person in the inn. What's going on?"

He looked around again in confusion, then was stunned to discover that not only was the inn empty, but the people who had been coming and going outside moments ago had vanished too.

The whole street was deserted. Not a single person was in sight, and the shops along the street, some of which were still open, had suddenly emptied as well.

Shane's heart gave a sudden lurch.