It took me a second to remember where I was when I logged back on.
“Ah, right. I logged out in the Beast Hybrid Village.”
I had stayed in the village’s only inn, which Weris had shown us to last night.
Despite this place being a tiny village hidden in the wilderness, it offered all the normal amenities like shops, guilds, and an inn. It had obviously been built with the expectation that players would be making use of it.
“Kee-hee?”
“Aye!”
“Growl.”
“Morning, guys.”
I tried to get up, but found that I couldn’t. Lilith and Bear Bear were snuggled up to me on both sides, and Fau was lying on top of my stomach, having at some point crawled into the small bed with me. It had been a while since we had slept like this together.
I roused my monsters awake and we left the inn. Kettle was nowhere to be found, which must have meant that yokai were sent back home upon log-out.
“Where’s Akari? Oh, there she is. Hey, over here!”
“Good morning, Yuto.”
“Morning.”
Akari and I were both up bright and early, so we would be teaming up together again today.
“And good morning to you too, monsters!”
“Sneeh.”
“...♪”
“Neigh!”
Akari had already summoned her Sunekosuri. She seemed to really like being able to walk around with a yokai at her side.
“Oh, they’re so precious!” Akari gave a happy wiggle at the sight of her Sunekosuri and my monsters greeting one another.
“Should we head out? I was thinking we’d map out the village while we checked out the shops and guilds. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds fun! No objections from me!”
With Akari on board, we all walked around the village together. We didn’t know where the shops were, but I figured we’d find them one way or another. There were only one hundred buildings here, so with a little patience, it wouldn’t be all that difficult to visit them all. Besides, it was fun enough just walking around underground like this.
Besides, for being underground, the village was surprisingly well lit. This was thanks to the luminous moss that was growing densely on the ceiling of the cave. Fascinatingly enough, the glow of the moss became dimmer at night. I wondered if it was the same type of luminous moss that I grew on my farm, or if it was a different variety. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on something new, if so.
In the center of the village was a small spring where water was freely available. It was just ordinary water, but I was thankful I could replenish my stock.
There had been a few people around last night, but even more villagers were out and about now that it was daytime. Naturally, all the villagers were beast hybrids. There were all types of hybrids, not only the more commonly seen ones like wolf, cat, and bear hybrids, but also less common ones like weasel, koala, and seal hybrids.
It was interesting to see beast hybrids outside of the basic ones that players could choose from. I had a feeling there were people out there who’d want to play as one of these more exotic animals. I wondered if that was possible.
I saw some parents and children around and noticed there were some interesting combinations, like a horse-hybrid child with a cat-hybrid dad and a dog-hybrid mom. I guessed the characteristics of children of beast hybrids were just randomly generated.
“Oh, look! There’s a sign!” Akari pointed out.
“Oh, what is it? A blacksmith?”
We approached a building that had a sign hanging out front and saw that it was a shop selling all types of metal products that a village might need, from weapons to tableware, along with other miscellaneous goods. There wasn’t anything particularly novel here that we couldn’t find in any one of the bigger towns, though.
The other stores we stopped at offered more or less the same products. All the items here were pretty generic, nothing particularly rare. Since we were in Zone Ten though, the quality of the products was pretty high, so at the very least it was a good chance to restock on some things.
That wasn’t to say there were no interesting shops at all, though. One place sold a variety of equipment exclusively for beast hybrids. There were swords that raised attack power only when equipped by wolf hybrids and shoes that raised the agility of cat hybrids. They were interesting to see, even if I couldn’t wear them.
The equipment made use of furs and plants to give off a wild look that would complement a beast hybrid’s appearance. I had a feeling Weris’s own fur equipment was from this shop.
However, it was surprising to learn that there was race-specific equipment in the game at all. Or maybe I was alone in not knowing about it and this type of equipment was actually widely available? I would happily buy Halfling-specific equipment, if it existed. While there wasn’t really a point in trying to raise my attack power, something that gave a bonus to Dexterity or Intelligence would be nice.
Another interesting shop was one that sold avatar skins, items which only changed the appearance of your avatar. As was to be expected from a skin shop in a place like this, it sold skins for animal ears and equipment made with fur.
After we had walked around most of the village, we decided to head to the Adventurers’ Guild, thinking that there might be some quests specific to this area.
“How about this one?” Akari suggested, pointing a quest out to me. “Although, it’s not really something unique to this village...”
“Gathering mushrooms? I don’t think very many mushrooms grow in this area.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say we’re supposed to gather them here in this cave.”
“Huh? Do you think this cave keeps going?”
“Maybe, but I’m not sure. But asking players to gather twenty mushrooms in the wilderness seems like a pretty difficult task, don’t you think?”
“Hmm, when you put it like that, it makes sense.”
Other than the mushroom-gathering quest, there were other requests that asked for deliveries of ore and monster materials. They were all monsters that were not found in the Great Wilderness: Dark Rats, Black Bats, and Dark Bugs.
Akari was right. There had to be more to this cave than we had seen.
We asked the guild’s receptionist where we could gather items, and she readily told us. Incidentally, the receptionist was a deer-human hybrid.
“Do you know about the pond near the back of the village?” the receptionist asked.
“Oh yeah, I do remember seeing a small pond,” I replied.
I had spotted it while we were walking around. Unlike the spring in the middle of the village, the water in the pond was somewhat murky.
“Behind that pond, there is a narrow path. Though you’ll have to look hard for it,” the receptionist explained. “If you follow that path, you’ll find a gathering spot.”
So this cave did extend farther. We had to investigate it.
“Yuto!” Akari said excitedly.
“Yeah, we’re right on the same page.” It looked like we’d spend today doing some cave exploration.
And so, we followed the deer receptionist’s directions and headed to the back of the village. There, we found the small pond, which was about ten meters in diameter. I had already checked the area out during our tour of the village.
Moss grew thickly around the edges and inside of the pond, which made the water opaque and obscured the bottom, but also gave the impression that it was thriving with pond life. Although we hadn’t accepted any this time, there had been fish delivery quests at the guild as well, so I was pretty sure there had to be some fish in this pond. Once we found the time to, I wouldn’t mind doing some fishing here.
As for right now, our goal was finding the passageway that led deeper into the cave.
“Hmm...”
“Yuto! I found it!” Akari called out.
“Nice! That receptionist wasn’t lying, it is hard to find unless you’re right next to it.”
There was a big rock blocking the pathway, which meant the path was almost impossible to see when searching from the village side. Even if you knew there was a path to look for, you still had to search around the pond to find it. At first glance, it just looked like a dead end.