"Ugh…" I let out. He's so loud.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm up!" I said to Tael. It seems that my affirmation has made him calm down since he's no longer jostling me.
"I thought you were the type to wake up early, man! I've been up for the past 30 minutes!" Tael said with a cheeky smile on his face.
"What? That just means that you haven't slept yet. It's probably like, 3 A.M. or something."
"Nope! It's already 8 A.M.! Kany and Erana are already awake and waiting on you."
"Huh?" I said as I bolted up from the bed. This was a bad call as I felt a sharp pain in my head.
"Oof!" I let out as I grasped my temple. I have a headache.
"Pfft! Wow, you must be super hungover! That's hilarious!" Tael pointed at me and began to snicker. Is this really what being hungover is like? Why does anyone get drunk in the first place? This is awful!
I very slowly got out of bed and stood up. I nearly stumbled and fell on my face, but fortunately I was able to grasp the wall to catch myself.
"Woah… Are you okay man? Are you still drunk or something?" The smile on Tael's face was slowly shrinking as he saw the state I was in.
"Y-Yeah… I'm fine. I just… I'm never drinking beer ever again." I decided to make a declaration. Water is the true man's drink anyway.
"Alright man. I'm gonna go and head down to our table. I'll order you some breakfast. Just get dressed, alright?"
"Yeah, alright I'll do that. Thank you."
Tael stepped out of the room and left me to myself.
"Ugh…" I rubbed my temples again. This feels awful. I hope this doesn't impede the investigation…
I slowly put my clothes on. My body feels sluggish, as if I had just run a marathon. Putting my armor on and tying the belt to my sword has become far more difficult since my fingers aren't as precise as they were before.
After I finally managed to put on my armor, I stepped out of the bedroom and into the inn.
The light is REALLY bright. I instinctually shielded my eyes. I now know what it was like for the goblins that I killed a few days ago.
Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the blinding lights and I was able to walk down the stairs. I looked around and found the rest of my party waiting for me at the table we had sat at yesterday.
"Um… Onii-san, are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Is there any water I can drink?" I asked as I began to sit down.
"Y-Yeah man. Here, have this." Tael said as he slid a gla.s.s of water over to me.
I immediately grabbed the water and chugged it. I didn't realize just how thirsty I was but I just can't get enough water right now.
"Y-You look a little pale, Kenji-san. Let me heal you. Cure Light Wounds." Erana said as she brought out her small tree branch.
I slowly felt myself recover. The water and the healing is rejuvenating my body. I feel like I'm back to at least 90%.
"Ah… Thank you both. I feel much better now."
Erana merely let out a gentle smile while Tael decided that it was time to taunt me.
"Hah! That's what you get for drinking that much beer that quickly! Shorty over here is also a wreck, but you're definitely the one that got it worse."
"Yeah yeah." I said as I began to eat the breakfast platter in front of me. Sausages, toast, and eggs were strewn about on a small wooden plate.
"So, what's our plan for today? Do we investigate the surrounding forest? Do we track the people that have gone missing?" Erana asked as she watched me eat my breakfast.
I quickly swallowed my food and answered her.
"First things first. We need to question the wives of the farmers that have gone missing. We need to know anything that may be pertinent to the investigation. Habits, people they spent their time with, possibly even blood type. Anything we can use to commit a more thorough investigation and get to the right answer is necessary. As a result, before we can go and investigate our surroundings, we need to learn about what is in our immediate area."
I then grabbed another sausage with my fork and began to cut it.
"Huh. Is that really necessary? We're a party of adventurers. If it's taking down a few farmers then we should be capable of handling it." Tael asked.
"Tael-san, that's too risky!" Erana reprimanded.
"Huh? Why's that?" Tael asked back.
"Sheesh, leave it to Mr. Bathrobe to not get the bigger picture." Kany chimed in.
I finished eating my second sausage and answered Tael's inquisition.
"We have no idea what we're up against. Ideally it's just a few wolves or something, but from the information we already have, that's unlikely. Remember how I said it could be a disease?"
"Huh? Y-Yeah…"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not immune to diseases. If it really is a disease or something like that then we're in a danger rating of 5."
"D-Danger rating of 5?" x3
"Oh, this is a system I've decided to use to explain the danger that we could face. I want you guys to adopt it too."
"Oh, that's interesting Kenji-san. Could you explain it?"
"Okay. It goes on a scale of 0 to 5. 0 is basic. A slime like the one we fought two days ago is 0. We don't face danger from it and it's essentially free experience. 1 is slight danger. A lone goblin has a danger rating of 1. I think any of us could handle a goblin on our own fairly easily at this point, but it's not as if the goblin would just let us do it."
The party was staring at me as I was explaining. Honestly, their stares are slightly embarra.s.sing me.
"2 is something that imposes real danger. A pack of wolves would have a danger rating of 2."
"Really? Why would wolves be more dangerous than goblins?" Kany asked me while tilting her head.
"Wolves work as a pack or a unit. It's not easy to focus down a single wolf because if you're not careful then you'll be blindsided by another wolf."
"I see…" Erana muttered as she cupped her chin.
"Danger rating 3 is where we get into notable problems. A danger rating of 3 is something that we need to work together to defeat."
"So, like the hobgoblin?" Tael asked as he scrunched down and rested his chin on the table.
"No. The hobgoblin was danger rating 4. The only reason that we defeated the hobgoblin in the first place was that I got lucky. Realistically speaking, 99 out of 100 times we would all have been killed by that hobgoblin. It just happened to use my sword and my sword just happened to have been previously damaged."
"So then what's the difference between 4 and 3 Onii-san?"
"3 is brute force that we can handle as a group. 4 is something that we have to devise a strategy to effectively handle."
"Oh I see. 3 is something that needs no to little preparation to defeat, but a 4 requires heavy preparation." Erana stated.
"Exactly. 10 points for you!"
"Alright, I get zero to four, but what about five?" Kany asked.
"A danger rating of 5 is not possible for us to handle. That's essentially the 'run away' danger rating."
"What? Run away? Why's that? That's way too cowardly!" Tael asked me as he shot up from his scrunched position.
"It's better to live and fight another day than to throw yourself at a wall and die. As an example, if this problem in this village is a disease then we need to get out as soon as possible and contact someone that can handle it. We literally are not equipped to handle something like that. What's more, if Tael or I get infected then we'd be theoretically down for the count. We don't even know if this would be curable."
"*Gulp*" Tael let out. It seems that my explanation got to him.
"Okay Onii-san. I get what you're saying, but if this really is something that we can't handle, then why are we here?"
"Simple. We don't know what danger rating this is yet. Theoretically it could be a 3 to a 5. We just don't have enough information to know yet."
"And that's why we need to question the farmers wives!" Erana let out. It seems like she has arrived at the same conclusion I had.
"Exactly! 10 more points for you!"
Erana gave me a big smile at my proclamation. It seems like everyone else got onto the same track after Erana answered.
"Okay, so first things first, we need to question the farmers wives, right?" Tael asked me while standing up.
"Yep. If you guys are ready then let's do this."
"Alright! Let's head out!" Kany shouted out.
"Oi oi oi, hold up. You still need to pay for your food." The innkeeper's son showed up out of nowhere.
"Ah, right. Sorry about that." I said as I handed over 10 juns.
"Okay, NOW let's head out!" Kany shouted out.
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