A little while after saving the vampire kid and her mother.
I made it to a big town that same day.
Actually, considering the distance, it's probably the same town where that mother-daughter pair lives.
There's no castle, but there's a massive mansion sitting right in the center of town.
Could that be the vampire kid's place?
Born with cheats and from a rich family to boot.
Jealous.
Well, no point envying what I can't have.
I can't just charge straight into town, so I use my Clairvoyance from a nearby forest to scope things out.
This place makes the farming village from before look like nothing.
Population around thirty thousand, maybe?
This is the first real town I've seen since coming to this world.
So many people.
Just watching them could kill days.
But first, let's find what I'm actually looking for.
I do a quick scan of the town.
Oh, a fruit stand.
No, no.
That's not what I'm looking for right now.
Wait — a sweets shop?!
No way.
This world actually has proper confectioneries?
I wanna eat some.
No, no.
That's not what I'm looking for right now.
I wander around, getting distracted by everything while searching for my target.
Found it.
Soldier garrison.
A town this big would naturally have soldiers for protection.
The question is how many and how strong they are.
There are nine garrisons total.
One at each of the four edges — north, south, east, west — and one large central headquarters.
The remaining four are positioned roughly midway between the center and the outer four.
Hmm.
Numbers-wise, each outer post has about forty.
Central has around a hundred.
Factoring in patrols and those not currently at their posts, the total comes to roughly five hundred.
Is that a lot or not enough?
Hard to say, but personally, it doesn't seem great.
The soldiers train, patrol, do paperwork — all sorts of things.
Watching them train, they don't look all that strong, but I can't really tell without using Appraisal.
It'd be nice if I could Appraise through my Clairvoyance.
Also, I noticed there are armed people other than soldiers milling about.
They scream "adventurer" from a mile away.
And they all tend to funnel into the same building.
The second-largest structure in town after the central mansion.
Could this be the adventurer's guild that every fantasy world has?
No way.
Surely there's no organization that cliché.
...Right?
But when I peek inside the building that the so-called adventurers are entering, half of the first floor is a tavern and the other half has a counter.
It's got city hall vibes.
There's a line of adventurers at the counter discussing something.
On the wall, there's a huge board covered in countless posted papers.
The second and third floors look exactly like office workspaces.
Oh.
Yup.
This is an adventurer's guild.
Seriously?
Adventurer's guilds actually exist here?
This world really is fantasy.
It's like that, right?
They start out gathering herbs, then slay
Well, I don't know if this world actually has Goblins, but...
It probably does, knowing the kind of world this is.
And then, once you become a famous adventurer, you go slay dragons and whatnot.
"Oh my, is that the legendary dragon-slayer adventurer?!"
Something like that.
Ah, that's cool.
But, sadly.
I'd be the one getting slayed.
If I became famous enough, would quests pop up to take me out?
Actually, they might already exist.
I slaughtered knights inside the dungeon and destroyed the fortress at the entrance.
Yeah.
A subjugation request wouldn't be out of the question.
Huh?
Wait, wouldn't that actually work in my favor?
That means capable adventurers would come flooding in to take me down.
If they're dead set on killing me, I'm free to fight back, right?
Use myself as bait and reel in adventurers left and right.
Brilliant plan, no?
In that case, maybe I should set up somewhere permanent?
Hmm.
Should I build My Home somewhere conspicuous?
Set up there and take on adventurers as they come.
Could work.
Actually, wouldn't this spot already be perfect?
Close to town.
Adventurers are around.
Soldiers too.
And the vampire kid is probably nearby, so I could help out if something happens.
Ah.
Am I actually worried about that vampire kid?
Hm.
That said, I hate hassle.
I do, but being close by and then abandoning her when something happens feels wrong too.
Ugh.
Well, whatever.
That's a problem for then.
First, let me build My Home here.
I'll keep an eye on things from here for a while, and if I spot a better location, I'll move there.
Oh, can I get food around here?
With this many people living here, there probably aren't many Monsters nearby, right?
Which means there's nothing for me to eat.
Ugh.
Guess I'll have to venture out somewhere and hunt for it.
There are still a lot of unknowns — what I'm lacking, what comes next — but things have a way of working out.
Alright then, time to build a home.