If we're talking about the best source of money in the early stages of the game, it could be nothing other than the Adventurer's Guild. The Adventurer's Guild is a building that gathers requests for help from the villagers around the city, and it also has various minor quest slips from the nobility. To put it simply, it's a good place for the unemployed to find work.
Even so, some high-level adventurers might gain fame and great honor from defeating powerful monsters. If someone helps with a slightly higher-level mission, like suppressing monsters around the city or dealing with monsters causing trouble in other villages, they might even be hailed as heroes. Well... because modern people hear such rumors, the profession of an adventurer has become a dream for all the new generation of kids. This has led to the establishment of several Adventurer's Guilds in this city to accommodate the increasing number of adventurers each year.
But still... quantity doesn't equate to quality. Even with more adventurers, there are just as many requests popping up. Being an adventurer isn't just about fighting monsters to find things to sell; it's about doing the various tasks assigned by the Adventurer's Guild. Especially during the time I was playing the game, there was news that many trainee adventurers had died from overexerting themselves by trying to take on monsters far stronger than they were, leading to pitiful ends.
There might be some who survive and return, but most of those people quit being adventurers because they've already experienced the fear of death. It's just how it is... where there are those who stand, there are those who walk away. Humans are weak and love life; everyone wants to keep on living, including me.
Although this world has many races, that doesn't mean we are all that different. Everyone has their own unique characteristics. Humans are well-balanced in all aspects but can be trained. The same goes for other races. Some might have high physical strength but low magic, or there might be races with both high magic and physical strength but have weaknesses in certain types of magic they are not proficient in. But things like that can be trained with effort. Therefore, no one in this world is truly weak; it is only their mindset that leads them to their lowest point.
I stared at the seven quest slips in my hand before walking to the counter to hand them to an old man with a long, bushy beard.
"Gathering herbs, wild vegetables... Odorless Mushrooms?... Hey kid, are you sure you want to take on these quests?" the old man asked again for confirmation. From his perspective, the young man in front of him looked like any other ambitious new adventurer who wanted to go hunt monsters outside. But when he saw those slips, the old man immediately looked confused.
"Yeah... or do you think I'm a blind man who can't read?" As usual, my mouth uttered harsh words at the old man. The old man, hearing that, looked a little surprised.
"Haha, not at all. In that case, work hard, little adventurer," the old man chuckled softly upon hearing my words, then stamped the quest slips and handed me a symbolic medal of some sort. It was the mission confirmation. I took it, put it in my pocket, and walked out of the place.
After leaving, I headed straight for the forest area outside the city. Even though it was dangerous for me, there was no need to worry. I wasn't going to go too deep.
Because what I was going to do was just gather herbs and various items, not hunt monsters or anything. The reason I accepted these quests was because they were the fastest source of money in the game. Some people might focus on fighting monsters outside, but for me, it was different. The only thing I was interested in right now was money.
But since I would have to carry quite a lot of things, I decided to go straight to a shop to buy a small magic storage bag first. It was annoying that this Alan guy didn't have one on him. And a small magic storage bag was also incredibly expensive. You could say it ate up about 50 percent of my current funds.
If anyone were to ask me why Alan, the son of the king of the Land of Darkness, didn't have that much money, I'd have to explain a little. It was because of Alan himself. Alan was a big spender, and most of his money was spent on nonsense. You could say he wasted money day by day until Alan's father announced he would cut his allowance and force Alan to live on a modest monthly budget. That's why I have to earn money now.
Sigh... Even though I'm in the body of a rich person, why do I have to struggle so much?
Oh well... in the game I played, I started from zero too. So I won't get angry about this and will try to solve the problem.
My body moved, gathering herbs growing on trees and around the grass. I had seen these herbs many times in the game, so there was no way I could mistake them.
Plus, I have this... a magic specifically for finding things. That magic is called Eye of the Wind. It's a beginner-level spell that is quite difficult to master. But luckily, this Alan guy had this magic with him because his private tutor had trained him for times of need. But Alan chose never to use it, seeing it as a useless spell. Although I want to smack that fool's head for many things, I have to admit that this Alan guy is quite skilled in magic.
He can't be compared to the top prodigies, but among students of the same grade, Alan's skill level could be called quite good. He has a lot of magic power but lacks the training to master it, which is why he loses to everything he encounters. If he had just trained a little more, he might have become somewhat famous. Sigh... he's a loser I don't even know how to insult properly.
I gathered various herbs until, before I knew it, my bag was full. Even though I was a bit annoyed, thinking I had gathered too little, if I forced myself to carry too much, the herbs would just get crushed and become worthless. So I stopped pushing myself and walked back to the guild to report.
What I managed to find was as follows:
Wild Herbs x17 Odorless Mushrooms x31 Wild Vegetables x39 Magic-Coated Stones x10 Blood-colored Flowers x3 Antidote Herbs x24 Numbing Poison Mushrooms x14
The total money I got was 45,000 G. If you ask if this amount is enough, I can say with full confidence that this money could buy the things I bought yesterday three times over. Even though it wasn't as much as I had predicted, it might be due to the tax deduction for being an adventurer. I'm still a student, after all, so the tax rate is a bit high. But even so, this amount is sufficient.
I headed straight to the market within the city and started looking for necessary items. This time, I focused on quality. The magic gauntlet I made yesterday still had several weaknesses. The first was durability. That's because malleable iron is easy to buy and not very strong, so one day it might break. But even so, I don't have the knowledge to make thicker iron. It seems I'll have to study more about invention and modification.
The next important thing was the Power Processing Crystal. Its price was quite high. The one I bought yesterday cost about 5,000 G per piece.
Price and quality are crucial for this item. If I get a crystal core that's too weak to handle the power, what happened yesterday could happen again. So I have to choose carefully.
After looking around for about 30 minutes, I decided to buy one from a luxurious-looking shop in the city. It was a well-known shop in this city, and of course, with a famous shop, the quality of the goods would be higher.
Its value was as high as 20,000 G. Even though it was extremely expensive, I thought it was worth it to install it in my equipment.
And the next most important thing... was the magic crystals.
The fastest way to get magic crystals is to kill monsters. And if you want higher-level crystals, you need to kill stronger monsters. As I said, the price difference between Basic and Intermediate-tier crystals is 100-fold. A Basic-tier crystal costs 200 G per piece, while an Intermediate-tier crystal costs as much as 20,000 G per piece.
The reason for this huge price gap is the difference in their power. Basic-tier crystals are for kids to practice using their power or to play with. For practical use, you need Intermediate-tier crystals.
The reason I chose to use Basic-tier crystals instead of Intermediate ones is because I know a certain secret about the basic stones.
Basic stones can be made more powerful by absorbing energy. I haven't built the absorption device yet, but even if I did, I would still need to find a power source to channel into it. This is different from the other absorption method, which requires finding a fire spell strong enough to be absorbed.
To put it simply... I have to get hit by a fire spell to charge the power. Hmm... but that method seems a bit risky. I would never let myself get hit directly by those spells from monsters. No, wait.
I thought of something. A smile spread across my face. There's still that thing.
With that thought, I headed straight back to the mansion to grab the iron gauntlet before heading back to school, even though it was already noon.