*
“……Phew, phew.”
Exhausted, I leaned against a building near the city and slumped down. To put it simply, I had somehow managed to complete my month-long exploration mission.
‘This is really tough.’
The reason I chose to explore was straightforward. In the game, if there was nothing specific for subordinates to do, they were sent out to explore. If lucky, they could meet new talents or find items, although with a very low probability. For characters without much else to do, [exploration] was a command that could yield some money.
However. Even if this is a world within a game, to me, who had been incarnated here, this place was reality. What does exploration involve? Tirelessly wandering around. And the only thing moving me was my two legs.
‘Sigh.’
But it wasn’t all fruitless. First, I managed to earn some money. Not much, just a little – by helping people in the village who needed assistance. Small tasks day by day allowed me to gather a modest sum. In the game, exploring just magically brought in money, but it made sense now that it worked this way internally.
In total, I had gathered 75 gold. Not a substantial amount, but better than nothing.
Secondly, I learned that the security around this area wasn’t great. It was no surprise given the troubled state of the village, but there was something strange.
‘When Luna came to fetch me, she came alone, on foot…’
It would not have been surprising to encounter bandits on the way. Hence, I limited my exploration to within the city walls. Venturing out and encountering bandits would have been fatal for someone as physically weak as me.
Yet, she had walked to meet me several times, all by herself. I hadn’t observed her closely for a long time, but I could tell she wasn’t foolish. She didn’t act without thinking.
In the game, there was indeed a random chance of encountering bandits while traveling between cities and territories. To prevent this, one had to spend money on hiring a few guards. It was a system that was annoying at first because it cost money and later because it was tedious to manage.
However, there were ways to avoid these random encounters. First, possess the rare item [Lantern of the Dead], which prevented bandits from appearing. Second, have a strength of 90 or above. With high strength, bandits wouldn’t dare to provoke.
‘…It must be the strength stat.’
Was Luna’s strength much higher than I thought? She was quite strong, but I remembered it being less than 90. However, the game had this thing about [modifiers], so I couldn’t be sure about her exact strength in this world line based on the game information. If only there was a darn status screen, but, of course, the old game didn’t provide such convenience.
Thinking back, she didn’t seem tired at all from walking uphill all day, and she even managed to carry me, an adult man.
‘Is there something special about Lunarien Iniagn’s status modifiers?’
Indeed, the prediction of ‘Lunarien Iniagn will unify the continent’ was already an anomaly. If only I had a bit more concrete information to be sure…
‘Enough of this. No use thinking about it now.’
Still, such idle thoughts somehow rejuvenated me a bit. Being a character with low strength is really inconvenient. Do I have to live like this forever? If only there was a way to train and increase my stats. There are ways to increase stats, but they’re too difficult to consider right now.
I stood up and headed towards the castle for the meeting.
*
“Ah, you’re here… or rather, you’ve arrived.”
“This way!”
Entering the castle, Luna and Tifa greeted me. However, one person was missing.
“Where is Lord Cain?”
Luna answered my question.
“Cain had to leave for a bit. He had some business to attend to.”
I nodded lightly.
“Well, now that the strategist has arrived, shall we open this?”
Tifa tapped something on the table.
“What is that?”
“Oh, this? While helping a market vendor rebuild his collapsed shop, I dug up the ground and found this.”
“You didn’t do the commercial task?”
“How was I supposed to know how to do that! I just helped rebuild a house. Right, next time assign me to commerce again. I haven’t finished there yet.”
It seemed she hadn’t achieved much. But the intelligence 100 prediction had assigned her to commerce, so if there was anything hidden, it must be inside that box.
“So, what is that?”
“We’re about to open it. It’s very heavy, so there must be something inside, but it won’t budge. There’s a crack, though.”
“Did the vendor know anything about it?”
Luna’s casual tone towards Tifa was refreshing. She was comfortable talking to her childhood friend.
“Yeah. He said he’d never seen it. He was grateful for the help and said I could take it.”
“Then…”
I picked up a stick that looked like a lever.
“Let’s open it.”
“Ah! That might work. Thanks! You’re really smart!”
I wasn’t particularly thrilled by the compliment…
Tifa took the stick, inserted it into the crack, and began to exert force.
“Hr-ugh! Hrgh!”
One, two, three tries. But the box didn’t budge.
“Ugh, why won’t this open? There’s no lock or anything!”
“…Tifa, shall I give it a try?”
Watching the scene, Luna spoke up, and Tifa nodded.
“Maybe it’s something you need to do.”
Luna took the lever.
“…Hrgh…!!!”
With one strong effort…
Bang!
“It’s open!”
The box that Tifa couldn’t open no matter how hard she tried, burst open with a loud noise as Luna exerted her strength.
“…!”
This scene revealed one fact: Luna was stronger than Tifa. Despite Luna looking delicate and Tifa muscular, in this game, the stats determined everything. If Luna and Tifa fought one-on-one, Luna would probably win.
And secondly, Tifa’s strength was in the high 80s to low 90s. Even with modifiers, the stats of non-ruler characters don’t fluctuate that wildly.
So, a shining revelation: Luna’s strength is in the mid-90s.
‘Luna is really strong.’
“This is…!”
“…Incredible.”
Luna and Tifa, having opened the box, were astounded at its contents. Curious, I moved closer to see.
And I immediately realized why they were so surprised.
“…Gold, isn’t it?”
Inside the box, a heap of dust-covered gold coins was revealed. Who could have imagined that such a thing would be inside an old, rusty box?
“Wow! How much is this? Wait a minute!”
Tifa, more excited than anyone, poured out all the gold coins and started counting rapidly.
“Hey! This totals up to 6,833 gold! This is amazing!”
“!!!”
Luna was surprised, but I was even more astounded. Was there an event in the game where carrying out a commercial command rewarded thousands of gold? I had played this game for 10,000 hours. I thought I had seen every event. But I can assert there was no such overwhelmingly rewarding event.
Then I understood why my intelligence 100 brain had instructed Tifa to engage in commerce. If you could pick up that much money in one go, of course you should go for it.
“…Tifa, where did you find this box?”
“Huh? Didn’t I tell you? I found it while digging to lay the foundation for rebuilding a house.”
Usually, engaging in commerce meant overseeing the market, not rebuilding a merchant’s house. This box was essentially found because Tifa went there.
‘As expected.’
I was already sure, but this event confirmed it 100%. My intelligence is 100. Only this stat could explain such incredible fortune. Now, there was no doubt.
“What shall we do with this? Recruiting more soldiers seems the best option, right? What do you think, strategist?”
Tifa posed the perfect question.
‘What should we do with the accumulated money?’
And the answer was-
“…I have a request for everyone.”
“?”
Luna, suddenly interrupting, spoke with a very serious expression.
“I want to distribute this money… to the people of the village.”
“???”
Tifa immediately showed reluctance.
“Hey, what are you talking about! We’re short on funds for our activities! Aren’t you recruiting? We only have 2,000 capable soldiers in our army! Do you want to just watch and be destroyed if enemies attack?”
“But… the typhoon hit recently, and the villagers are struggling. It’s our territory, after all… This box came from the land of the village.”
“Hey! This is our territory! Anything found here is basically ours! That’s common sense!”
“But still…”
“Ha.”
Tifa roughly ran her hand through her hair. Frankly, her actions and tone were a bit rough, but she looked quite attractive when she was silent.
“Luna. I get where you’re coming from. I agreed to help you because you wanted to help people in need. But using this money right now to spread around isn’t the best idea. Even someone who never set foot in an academy like me knows that. We need to use this to build a foundation so we can help more people later. You’re smart, so you should know this better.”
“…That’s… true?”
Luna looked down, deflated by Tifa’s words.
Certainly, the state of the village was dire, something I knew too well from my month of exploration. Luna must have been frustrated seeing it and not being able to do anything as a leader.
“Hey, strategist. Say something to Luna. You’re smart, so you should be able to persuade her more eloquently than me.”
Persuasion. Truthfully, I had been thinking of persuading her too. I wasn’t unaware that idealism doesn’t feed people.
But.
“It’s best to follow the lord’s will in this matter.”
“…What?”
“What did you say?”
Both Luna and Tifa were surprised by my words. They probably didn’t expect that. I understood. I didn’t expect it either.
But what could I do?
‘What should we do with the accumulated money?’
And the answer was-
[Provide relief to the poor of the territory.]
Thinking with my intelligence of 100, distributing this money to the villagers seems to be the best option.
