Leaving the beastfolk district behind, Banxia walked alone down the main street. He reached into his coat and felt the coin pouch tucked against his chest.

Thirty whole silver coins.

If he was frugal, that was enough to live it up at the pleasure houses for an entire week.

He had held himself back for so long out in the wild. Right now, he was bursting with pent-up fire.

Still, before any of that, he looked down at the sword on his hip, the one that had kept him company for a month, now nothing but a hilt, and his thoughts drifted back to the conclusions he had drawn on the road home:

Battle Aura, weapons, combat techniques. Each one more urgently needed than the last.

As for how to spend the money, he had already made up his mind.

Yes. Banxia was just that kind of man, resolute and iron-willed.

...

The next day, Banxia sat up from the absurdly soft bedding in the inner city.

"Mr. Banxia, you were incredible last night... It's my first time meeting such an amazing human, meow~"

The cat-eared girl gazed at him with shy, flustered eyes, the tip of her tail sweeping softly back and forth across the sheets.

Banxia said nothing. He set the silver coins on the bedside table, turned, and walked out.

The morning sun was slowly cresting the distant mountain peaks, washing the entire street, alive with colored lanterns just the night before, in a drowsy, golden light.

He found a tavern that served breakfast and sat down.

Quite a few adventurers were already eating inside. The keeper finished what he was doing, wiped his hands, and walked over.

"Sir, what can I get for you?"

"Ham and eggs, a large beef steak, a piece of soft white bread. Oh — do you have soup?"

"We have... vegetable soup."

The keeper looked the plainly dressed young customer up and down, taking in the extravagant order, and felt compelled to say something.

"Sir, that's going to cost quite a bit."

"I know. Then add a large mug of hot milk."

"..."

The keeper said nothing more, though he quietly made up his mind.

If this kid tried to skip out on the bill, he would make sure the lesson stuck.

He turned and disappeared into the kitchen. Before long, the dishes came out one by one.

Banxia sat there a good while, then untied his coin pouch and counted. Twenty-four silver coins and some loose copper remained.

He stared at the shrunken pile of silver, on the verge of tears.

"Wine and lust have undone me... to think my willpower could wither to such a state..." He closed his eyes, drew a slow breath, then picked up the mug of hot milk that had been set before him and drained it in one go. He set the mug down on the table with a heavy thud.

"From this day forth — I quit drinking!"

With that solemn declaration behind him, he fell on his breakfast like a starving wolf.

Out in the wild, the finest meal they had managed was a hare they had stumbled across by luck. Neither of them knowing the first thing about cooking, they had muddled through by roasting it over an open fire. It was not inedible, but it was nowhere near delicious, and it could not begin to compare to the work of a proper chef hired in the inner city.

"That hits the spot." Full and content, Banxia stretched with a lazy groan. The keeper, who had been stationed in the corner the whole time, immediately came over.

"The bill, please, sir."

"How much?"

"Two silver coins and thirteen copper coins."

"..."

The keeper caught the young man's brief pause and let his voice go flat.

"Something wrong, sir?"

"No. Nothing. I just thought... it's a bit cheap."

"..."

Banxia was not putting on airs. The price genuinely was much lower than he had expected.

During the half-month he had given up training, besides writing his reviews for the Interspecies Pleasure House Guide, he had needed to stretch meager funds across a long stretch of time, counting every coin with care. He had paid close attention to Alterna's basic commodity prices.

In this era, pork was expensive by nature, and cured ham even more so. The platter he had just finished alone had to weigh at least a pound. Add a thick cut of steak, soft white bread, and a mug of fresh hot milk, and under normal circumstances this whole spread would give even a minor noble pause.

"Here." Banxia handed over the coins.

The keeper took them, and the cold expression he had been wearing instantly bloomed into a wide smile. "You might not know this, sir — recently a good number of beastfolk merchants came into the city driving large herds of pigs and cattle. That's what brought prices down."

"I see." Banxia nodded. He had long heard that beastfolk had a real knack for animal husbandry, but this exceeded even what the rumors had suggested.

"And that's not all." Buoyed by the generous customer, the keeper grew talkative. "A while back, a magician improved an old folk spell, the kind that boosts a dairy cow's yield. Doubled it, in fact. These days the city gets plenty of fresh milk at cheap prices every single day. That mug of yours came at exactly the right time."

It was not often a patron came in willing to drop this much on a single breakfast. The keeper opened the floodgates, chatting away about all sorts of recent news from around the city.

Banxia soaked up another round of odd local rumors and trivia, then finally rose and left, thoroughly satisfied.

By this hour, the Continental Adventurers Guild had already opened.

When they had parted yesterday, the two agreed to visit the guild together today and see what the Goblin King's spoils would fetch.

Banxia had not much cared either way, a pile of scrap metal was not going to be worth much, and he had figured he would let Roxy hand him whatever share she thought was fair.

When he said so, however, the girl was not having it. With a perfectly straight face, she gave him a proper lecture.

Things like this had to be settled between them in person, face-to-face, so there was no room for disputes to fester down the line.

Duly lectured, Banxia had no choice but to show up on time at the Continental Adventurers Guild outside the city walls.

Early as it was, that familiar blue figure was already waiting outside the guild doors.

The blue-haired girl stood poised and straight, looking as though she had been there for some time.

"Mr. Banxia, you've arrived quite early."

"No... you're the one who came far too early..."

They exchanged a few words, then set off toward the guild's appraisal counter, carrying everything they had accumulated over the past few days.

Banxia had no fixed place to stay, and light-fingered types had a way of drifting through his vicinity, so the whole haul had spent the night in Roxy's rented room. He had originally intended to come help carry it over, but the girl had been so thorough about everything already that it made him, the hands-off one, feel a little sheepish.

Before long, the two walked out through the guild doors with smiles they could not quite hide.

Just as they had figured, the pile of scrap metal was worth barely anything.

But there was someone senior in the guild who had taken a particular interest in the Goblin King's ears, an ultimate mutant strain of the species, and wanted to purchase them as a display piece.

Goblin ears were common enough to find anywhere. Goblin King ears were another matter entirely.

When the offer of ten gold coins came in, the two of them made a show of probing for more. Finding the other side completely immovable, they promptly bundled up the entire lot and handed it over.

Both parties walked away convinced they had come out ahead.

"Here, Mr. Banxia, your five gold coins." Out on the street, Roxy extended several gleaming gold coins toward him, the smile still not quite gone from her face.

Even for her, five gold coins was a considerable sum.

Banxia accepted the coins, heavier than they looked, and let out a quiet sound of wonder.

"I never expected a windfall like this."

It was the kind of amount a skilled craftsman might take nearly two years of unbroken labor to save, going without food or drink the whole while.

For an adventurer, it could land in your hands from a single quest.

He curled his fingers around the gold coins, still warm from the girl's palm, and felt the iron law of this world settle into him once more, deep and certain, the way it always did.

All callings are base. Only adventurers reign supreme.

Chapter 18

"Mr. Banxia, will we have another chance in the future?"

Hearing that, Banxia took a careful look at the girl standing before him.

She was petite to begin with, but standing beside the stone steps at the guild entrance, she barely cleared the height of the quest notice board next to her.

A pointed witch hat sat on her head, its brim slightly upturned, the soft tip drooping backward and swaying gently with each tilt of her head. Light blue twin tails spilled out from beneath the brim. Her brown trench coat hung to her calves, collar turned up to shield her slender neck.

The coat hung open, showing a white top underneath and a crisp black miniskirt. White boots hugged her calves.

In a certain kind of way, she had pushed that aesthetic to its absolute limit.

"Let me ask something first — Miss Roxy, are you an adult?"

"Hm?" Roxy tilted her head. The hat tip swayed.

She had no idea why her sincere invitation had earned a completely off-topic question in return, but she answered honestly anyway.

"By the general standards of this world, yes, I'm an adult. And given my race, my actual age might even be a bit older than yours, Mr. Banxia."

"So a legal loli," Banxia said with a nod. Then he gave his answer.

"I'm sorry, I'm not into that. You're cute, and you're beautiful, Miss Roxy, but personally I prefer them big—"

"Wha—?!" Roxy's face went red in an instant. Her hat tip whipped backward, her voice jumping half an octave. "Mr. Banxia, wh, what are you even saying?!"

"Weren't you asking if we had a chance together?"

"I was asking about a chance to take quests together —!"

"Oh." Banxia didn't miss a beat. "Then anytime."

"..."

Roxy opened her mouth, then closed it. She couldn't decide whether to explain what she'd actually meant first, or to push back on the "legal loli" comment first.

Banxia, for his part, faced the flustered girl who looked about two seconds from venting steam, and showed absolutely zero awareness that he'd said anything wrong.

.

After parting with Roxy, Banxia made his way alone to a training ground in the inner city.

It was still early morning, but the plaza was already full of figures swinging swords. This was where Alterna drilled its soldiers, many of the "heroes" summoned by the Church who lacked qualifications for any other class ended up here as warrior candidates.

A month ago, Banxia had been one of them, grinding away day after day alongside everyone else.

He thought back on that miserable, utterly fruitless stretch of time and felt something.

A vague kind of reflection.

That was all.

If anyone actually made him go back and waste time flailing around like that again, he'd rather go chop down a few goblins. At least that would accomplish something.

His actual destination wasn't the plaza itself but the weapons merchant street nearby.

The area was packed with combat-related books and higher-grade combat techniques, the best place in all of Alterna for a warrior to find proper gear and training materials.

He headed inside, fresh windfall still warm in his pocket, with a spring in his step.

When he came back out, the smile was gone. In its place was the hollow expression of a man whose soul had been quietly removed.

One gold coin for a copy of Sword Qi Slash, the cheapest, most common combat technique around, bundled with the most basic Battle Aura cultivation method.

Forty silver coins for one antidote, effective against most common poisons.

One gold coin for a resistance potion offering temporary protection against curses.

One gold coin for a pair of men's underwear inscribed with defensive runes, advertised as providing excellent protection for vital areas, boasting exceptional defense, with a built-in temperature regulation function.

Then a handful of small odds and ends he couldn't even name.

All told: roughly four gold coins gone.

His savings had instantly dropped below two gold.

Money was hard to earn and gone faster than a bunny-eared half-beastwoman in heat.

The merchants kept talking, kept pitching, but Banxia was done. He wasn't pulling out another copper.

His entire family line had been poor. Generationally, ground-in poor. He had never seen people spend like this.

He'd vaguely planned to pick up a new weapon and some armor while he was at it, but one lap around the street killed that idea fast.

The cheapest thing that caught his eye started at ten gold coins. Anything that would actually make a real difference? He couldn't afford it, not even secondhand.

In the end he walked away with only what he needed most. Everything else would have to wait.

Heavy-hearted, he headed back to his cramped room in the outer city.

He ran into the landlord on the way, the man was there to collect rent, but since Banxia had no intention of renewing, he turned him down flat.

He'd be moving out in a few days anyway.

He dropped onto the open bed without ceremony and flipped open Sword Qi Slash, the cheapest, most widely circulated combat technique on the market.

[Held Monster Time: 224 years.]

Good thing he'd held himself back out in the countryside earlier. He'd almost surrendered every last year he had to Basic Sword Technique on impulse.

He took a slow, steady breath, then decided to start with ten years and see where things landed.

[Year One. You read through the entirety of Sword Qi Slash and begin attempting to practice it on your own.]

[Year Three. You remain unable to find the entry point. The "Battle Aura" described in the text is still completely beyond your grasp.

According to the book, enveloping the body in Battle Aura is a prerequisite for every Silver-rank adventurer, without it, breaking past the level 15 threshold is impossible.

Yet you had already reached level 20 long ago, stepping into Gold-rank territory, without ever having gathered so much as a trace of Battle Aura. You did it on raw physical ability alone.

This confuses you greatly.]

[Year Seven. You are still very confused.]

[Year Ten. You remain extremely confused.]

[Held Monster Time: 214 years.]

Banxia: "..."

He stared at the word "confused" showing up again and again on his status panel, sat in silence for a while, then suddenly realized something he'd overlooked entirely.

"...Wait, I'm already level 20?"

He pulled out his Class Card and checked. Sure enough, it read twenty, up from eighteen when he'd started.

He had Execution Hand Blade now, and both hands were significantly stronger than before.

That was probably what the two levels accounted for.

He let out a sigh, reopened Sword Qi Slash, and took another careful look at the section on Battle Aura theory.

The book explained that the human body has limits.

Those limits vary from person to person, but no one can truly transcend the category of "human" through physical training alone.

Against powerful monsters, the flesh simply isn't enough.

So humanity found another path, Battle Aura, a way to strengthen oneself beyond the body's natural ceiling.

Banxia found this largely convincing.

He had personal evidence: Basic Sword Technique at lv.1 had produced extraordinary gains in his physical ability, while Basic Dodge had contributed comparatively little. The pattern was clear, stacking pure physicality was producing diminishing returns.

He looked at the ten years now burned from his panel, then looked at the book in his hand, the only window he had into Battle Aura, and clenched his jaw.

"All in."

[Year Twenty-Seven. You finally catch the "burst" sensation described in Sword Qi Slash.]

[Year Fifty. You can now swing your sword and produce a faint Sword Qi measuring roughly one centimeter. Progress, but still far from the "Battle Aura wrapped around the body, one-meter burst" standard the text describes.]

[Year One Hundred. After decades of accumulated effort, you have reached that standard at last. A casual swing now releases a full meter of Sword Qi.

You have officially achieved entry-level mastery of Sword Qi Slash.]

[But you are not satisfied.]

[Year One Hundred and Eighty. After countless repetitions, you begin to sense, faintly, that some kind of mysterious force genuinely exists within the world.

Unfortunately, you cannot draw it into yourself.]

[Year Two Hundred. You reach another realization.

Those transcendent external forces, they are still just external forces.

You look down at your body, long since tempered far beyond what any human should be, and it becomes obvious.

Those forces? They are beneath you. A lower-tier approach.

A true powerhouse doesn't need them. After two hundred years of refinement, your body has left human limits so far behind that even the mysterious forces of heaven and earth seem wary of you, unwilling to draw near...]

[Sword Qi Slash, Mastered Perfectly.]

[One sword strikes out. Heaven splits. Earth cracks. You stand alone.]

[Sword Qi Slash lv.3 (1/?)]

[Current Remaining Time: 24 years.]

Banxia: "..."

"Hey. That's not how Sword Qi Slash is supposed to work. Did you take a wrong turn somewhere..."

Worried about the state of his body, he moved to stand up.

He pressed one palm against the bed frame for support.

The wood, previously sturdy enough, let out a dull groan and caved in, leaving a palm-sized crater.

He froze in place, half-risen, and stayed like that for a long moment before slinking off the bed and onto the floor with the careful, guilty shuffle of a delinquent who absolutely does not want to be caught at the scene.

And yet, he could feel it clearly now. The brutish, barely-contained force flowing through this body of his.

But inside, there was nothing else. No Battle Aura stirring. Not a single flicker of any mysterious energy, let alone a burst of Sword Qi.

"..."

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