It wasn't like I felt a strong need to do so. I could probably make it work.
Ran had made it specifically for me, and I suppose he had some kind of swordsmithing Skills, because it really was exceptionally well made for me in particular.
But that stray thought led to another one.
'Why don't I teach Lilac how to defend herself?'
Of course, swordplay wasn't very practical in a world with self-loading firearms. In this sort of era, the predominant weapons were knives and guns.
Guns in terms of killing power, and knives in terms of ease of use.
Skills changed that pretty dramatically, which was why people still practiced with other weapons. Not because they were good on their own, but in hopes of gaining a Skill that turned them into a weapon that actually could compete.
But swordplay was the form of combat I liked the most, so I had a bit of bias there.
It reminded me of home.
Still, it seemed like I should try to teach her how to use a knife, and maybe a gun too.
"But a gun would probably be too expensive..."
So for now, I decided to just teach her how to use blades.
***
Lilac was a bit perplexed.
As far as she'd understood, slaves shouldn't be allowed to carry weapons.
It was a good way to get killed.
Of course, the girl who'd become her master carried one, but she was a half-demon, as far as she was aware. It was hard to apply survival rules to a mythical existence like that.
And of course, she'd seen many other non-goblins carrying weapons too.
Mostly in this place that was apparently called the Lost.
Nevertheless, the abundance of exceptions she'd encountered hadn't ever made her think she could be an exception too.
Yet, Na?s had inexplicably started teaching her how to use them.
It was hard to call the small pocket knife she'd been given a weapon. Even slaves had to handle knives from time to time.
After all, goblins weren't very strict when it came to rules. The problem was that brandishing a weapon was a good way to start a fight, and goblins loved to fight.
They didn't usually like to fight fair though, so it usually went badly for any slave they targeted that way.
But Na?s had begun teaching her how to use it as one.
"(You'll want to stab or slice soft targets. You don't want to get your knife stuck, or it might be better to just abandon it. That's why it's a good idea to carry multiple weapons.)"
It was a lot to take in.
Yet, Na?s was, as ever, very patient with her.
Although it felt like forbidden knowledge, something that might end up burning her for daring to learn...
Her desire to impress the girl who'd taken her in outweighed the anxious feeling growing in her stomach.
She wanted to cry a little bit, though crying was also dangerous to do around goblins, so she managed to keep that in check.
But she still did her best to learn.
'But why am I learning this? Is she organizing an uprising...?'
Her half-demon mentor was clearly a figure straight out of myth and legends.
So... it seemed only appropriate that she would do something like that.
***
Popcorn5: So, did you figure anything out yet?
Popcorn5: OutsiderFan71?
OutsiderFan71: Huh?
OutsiderFan71: Oh!
OutsiderFan71: I guess it's just Nais.
OutsiderFan71: She's on the Azure Dragons official website.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Indigo997: She is? That's kinda weird.
OutsiderFan71: No photographs or anything like that.
OutsiderFan71: It just says that she's the dungeon boss of the Lost, and that she has a sword made by Ran.
Indigo997: Huh, who's that?
Hero194: You dunno who Ran is?!
Indigo997: Not really... should I?
Hero194: He's only one of the best sword smiths to ever live!
Popcorn5: Oh no. Look what you've started...
Hero194: He's made swords for nearly all the S rankers. Velitro's more popular among A rankers, but they say the goal for every true swordsman is to graduate from Velitro to Ran.
Popcorn5: Yeah, most don't have a Velitro either...
Indigo997: Does this mean Kid is an S ranker?
Indigo997: Ugh, I mean Nais.
Hero194: Probably not. He also makes swords for promising low rankers. That's why the goal still involves graduating from Velitro.
Hero194: She was pretty good in the tournament, but not... S rank good.
***
Life was so mundanely busy that the days quickly turned into weeks, and then into months.
Before the snow vanished, I went out to play in it one last time with Lilac, though someone from the Azure Dragons came out with us.
I managed to successfully convince them that I didn't need a bodyguard going out on my own, but in turn, they convinced me that Lilac did need one.
So that was the agreement we came to.
It was a bit difficult playing with a sword sheathed to my hip, but the other kids were really interested in it, so it wasn't all bad.
Plus, they were good kids, including Lilac in their games without stressing her out too much in the process.
'I wonder how they'll feel when they see us returned next winter, looking the same as we did this one.'
Well, they'd probably just think it's interesting, but their parents might be a bit less happy about it.
Of course, the snow was just in Terra.
The Lost was temperate year round.
It was truly like a world frozen in time. It didn't even rain.
How water flowed from the mountains regardless was a mystery, but it would remain one until I could explore them properly.
So it only took about two months since I started planting vegetables for some to grow in, and by three or four months, we were able to eat the whole variety.
Well, except for aloe and olives of course. Olives would take a few years to reach harvest, since they were essentially growing on miniature trees.
There were larger species, but that wouldn't work very well in the Lost.
But we now had corn, barley, sweet potatoes, spring wheat, a couple types of beans, tomatoes, peppers, basil, thyme, and sage.
If I lived there on my own, there'd be no real tension around eating it.
After all, even in the extremely unlikely event it was toxic in a way my body couldn't handle, I would just reincarnate somewhere else anyway. It wasn't a desirable outcome, but it also wasn't likely to happen in the first place.
My body was extremely resistant to most toxins, after all.
But Lilac and Savi weren't me, so there were serious concerns about potential long-term health risks from eating plants cultivated using alien soil.
Though... Lilac had survived an unknown length of time with goblins, so she must have eaten many such things before. She might have even had a level of resilience comparable to mine.
But she might have also just gotten lucky, or any food that was fed to her had already been preselected as edible for goblins and their slaves.
Over those months, I still hadn't learned Scan, but that was to be expected. It could take years to acquire a Skill.
As for aglaophotis, moly, and haoma...
They were all growing at least.
It would likely also take a few years before aglaophotis and moly began to flower. Although the aglaophotis had started growing leaves, the flowers were the useful parts.
The exact timeline depended on how much mana they could gather from their environment. In extremely mana rich dungeons, it only took a couple of months to reach that point, but the Lost wasn't that rich in mana.
The fact it was deemed one of the lowest quality beginner dungeons was probably due either to low mana quality or difficulty in alien life forms processing said mana. In either case, that was bad for growing aglaophotis and moly.
There was a loose, but not guaranteed, correlation between Skill gain and aglaophotis or moly growth.
The haoma would also probably take a couple of years to grow properly, according to what Zaitenmodi told me.
Since they were more dependent on mana than soil quality, if they grew well enough, it could eventually lead to alternatives to ordinary composting.
I could even try to graft the other vegetables to the mana-dependent plants, and see if they're able to grow that way.
Supposedly, if I got a Skill related to gardening, I might even be able to crossbreed them in some way or another. It's how Terra was able to develop all sorts of strains of plants. Of course, none of the ones they grow on Terra are mana dependent, since Terra has virtually no ambient mana for them to grow from.
But despite trying to feel the mana in them using the method Zaitenmodi taught me, I couldn't. Well, his method only let me feel the mana circulating through my body, so it'd be more accurate to say that I couldn't feel any mana in my surroundings.
It was pretty vexing, but to continue practicing it, whenever I went to the portal alone, I took a shortcut.
'If only I could make this Skill teleport me there without needing to nearly die in the process.'
***
One day, after going to the portal that way, a couple of guild members approached me.
"Hey, uh, Na?s. Are you having trouble?"
It was Van.
"No? I'm practicing my Skill."
"Oh, I see..."
For some reason, he looked uncomfortable. Was I going to be told to die less often again? I hadn't been using it that much though, perhaps only once a week.
"Well," he eventually continued, "We are concerned with you walking around the city all by yourself."
"I can handle myself, though?"
"We'd just like to test that. This is Milio. He's an A ranker like me, but he specializes in combat. You don't necessarily have to beat him, but if you can't offer up a challenge, or at least run away, then we might have to reconsider."
I looked over at Milio.
His name and picture had indeed been in the guild's roster as an A ranker.
By the way, I was marked as both a D ranker, an S ranker, and a boss.
S rank just means special. Apparently, having Beginner meant that I didn't neatly fit into the ordinary ranking system... but they still evaluated me as approximately equivalent to a D ranked adventurer.
People who were just S rank were just beyond the ranking system altogether.
It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me that I was deemed to not fit in the ranking system, yet simultaneously given a rank. Apparently, that's just what they did for people who had S rank Skills.
But how Skill ranks were decided was also beyond me. Did Skills go up in rank, as you advanced them? Or were they set in stone? And what did those ranks mean?
Unfortunately, nobody had clear answers, because they got these ranks by using other Skills, like Appraise.
Adventurer ranks weren't decided by Skills though. They meant that you could expect to clear a same ranked dungeon. Of course, dungeons seemed to decide their own rank, so it was still a fairly broad categorization, but generally speaking, it was difficult fighting someone even a single rank higher.
He was three ranks higher, and given that he had a sword of his own, albeit currently sheathed...
They really didn't expect me to win.