Chapter 16: The 3rd 'Me' Who Was Ambushed and Killed by an Ekans (Patreon)

Renan took the broadsword and first checked the blade carefully for cracks, rust and nicks. Then he gripped the hilt and gave it two quick swings.

Only after he'd confirmed that the blade's balance was fine did he give his answer: "This one will do."

Seeing that he wasn't the nitpicky sort of customer, Tsubaki said nothing, but quietly sighed with relief.

She was easygoing by nature, and she hated haggling for half a day over a few hundred thousand Valis.

Next, the "One-Eyed Master Smith" led Renan to the rack that sold casting staves and quickly picked out three wands that looked slightly different from one another.

In Orario, casting gear sold for far more than warrior gear of the same grade.

Stretched to the limit, the 10 million Valis Renan had in mind could barely buy a piece of casting equipment that brushed the lower edge of the second tier of weapons.

Still, for him right now, that was already more than enough.

Right in front of Tsubaki, he cast "Scourgify" three times in a row. In the end he chose a wand forged from elven tree branches fused with a peach-wood core. It had no magic stone set in it, and had been made with the craftsmanship of the Magic Kingdom of Altena.

The price was 9.7 million.

When they reached the armor section, Renan's shopping went even faster.

When Tsubaki asked what he wanted, he gave only two requirements. First, the armor had to be thick enough to withstand slashes and heavy blows without breaking easily. Second, it had to allow good mobility.

After another round of careful sifting, Renan finally spent 31.7 million Valis on a full-coverage suit of armor that incorporated one-fifth of a dragon scale from the floor boss Amphisbaena.

"You bought a lot of gear in one go, so you count as a big customer of our shop. I'll throw in one Elven Ward Cloth for free, the water-attribute one. The other three elements come to 300,000 altogether," Tsubaki declared. As the highest-ranking member of the Hephaestus Familia after the goddess Hephaestus herself, the captain had the final say.

Then, curiosity written all over her face, she asked, "What else were you planning to buy earlier?"

Renan stood across from her, thoroughly upgraded by now. A broadsword hung on one side of his waist and a short wand on the other. Only his eyes showed through the slit of his visor, and the rest of him was sealed away inside silver-white plate armor.

At her question he paused briefly, then answered in a fairly flat tone: "I want to buy a carving knife. Um, one that can cut through this plate armor I'm wearing, and the broadsword too, without much trouble."

What kind of strange request is that?

Tsubaki tilted her head. "We don't sell carving knives," she replied.

Renan: "Then can I place an order for one?"

Tsubaki had no idea what the boy was scheming, but nobody ever complained about having too much money, and a carving knife wasn't much trouble to forge anyway. After two seconds of hesitation, she nodded. "If I make it to your specs, it'll most likely need a good deal of [Adamantite] and [Diamond] mixed in, so the price won't be low. Hmm... let's say 3 million. Put down 1 million as a deposit, and you can come pick it up this time tomorrow."

Renan wasn't short of money right now. He nodded and took 46.9 million Valis out of his backpack. "Then I'll come by tomorrow evening."

"Sounds good."

After striking the deal with the One-Eyed Master Smith and saying goodbye, Renan made a trip to a nearby potion shop. He spent 70,000 Valis and bought five stamina recovery potions and ten mind recovery potions in one go.

He could now earn plenty of money from rune scrolls. There was no need to pinch every Valis like he had a few days ago, when a little extra from magic stones and materials had been worth cutting his own monster-farming efficiency in the Dungeon.

Besides, having two high-grade weapons gave him a way to deal with being swarmed by larger groups of enemies.

He could sweep up the monsters in several of the nearby caverns all at once.

The result was that in less than ten hours, Renan's monster kill count jumped in an instant from a little over 500, just shy of 600, to over 1,000.

When the black-haired boy walked out of the Dungeon entrance a little past seven that evening, the prerequisite for activating his [Rabble] skill had been triggered once more.

He bolted down a couple of mouthfuls of dinner in the inn's first-floor hall, then went straight back to his room without hesitation and locked the door.

Following the elusive pull inside his body, his consciousness entered his cheat: the shared space.

A flash of white light, and Renan opened his eyes.

Then he saw the scene a short distance ahead. He'd half expected it, but at that moment he still let out a helpless sigh.

"So the third 'me' didn't escape the fate of death either?"

Five meters directly in front of Renan, a black-haired boy sat on the ground. He looked barely any older than Little Renan from the Harry Potter world.

But unlike Little Renan, this self, from some world Renan couldn't yet identify, had died in terrible shape.

His clothes were riddled with tears, and dark red blood kept seeping out of them. Faintly, Renan could even smell something foul and rank.

Add to that his blackish-purple complexion, and it was obvious at a glance: he'd been struck by a deadly poison!

With an unreadable look, Renan walked over, crouched halfway beside his other self, and slowly reached out an arm.

Then a memory flowed slowly into his mind. It was nothing grand or sweeping. If anything, it was excessively plain.

The third self Renan had met was still named Renan.

He'd been born in the world of Pokémon. His parents were League Inspector who had died in an accident when he was two, leaving him as their only child.

In Renan's previous life, the internet had been full of conspiracy theories claiming that the League was riddled with factions and powerful families, and that it never let commoner Trainers rise.

But one thing was certain: the League treated its own direct lineage quite well.

Even though the Renan of the Pokémon world had lost his family early, the house his parents left in Celadon City was never taken from him by fraud or force. A sum of League currency was deposited into his bank card on schedule every month, and at six he was admitted straight into Viridian Academy without taking an exam.

You could say that as long as he followed the proper path and didn't get ideas, the Pokémon-world Renan could have lived out this life in quiet security, if not great wealth.

However, unlike the Renan of the DanMachi world and the other two selves who had appeared before in the shared space, the Pokémon-world Renan hadn't started forming memories when his parents died. Afterward, his parents' superiors, colleagues and friends had protected him well. So before the age of ten he never suffered any major mental shock, and naturally never awakened his past-life memories.

Steeped in that environment, he decided early on to follow in his father's footsteps and become a League Inspector. Before that, like the vast majority of his peers, he planned to first become a Pokémon Trainer, clear the Kanto League, and win the Indigo Plateau Conference.

So when he turned ten, was counted as an adult and was allowed to travel, the Renan of the Pokémon world didn't hesitate for a moment. He collected a Charmander from Nurse Joy at the Celadon City Pokémon Center and set out on his Gym challenge journey.

Then, thanks to type advantage and his status as a rookie Trainer, he won his first badge. Soon after, he was attacked by an Ekans in the wild, hit by several poison needles, and died.