“Welcome,” a little old lady called out to us.
“Ma’am, aren’t you going to organize these?”
“Oh, I know where things are. It’s fine. If there’s a book you’d like, just let me know.”
“Really? In that case, I’d like a bestiary and something on magic, and it’d be helpful if you had maps.”
“Please give me a moment.” The little old lady headed into the cramped back of the shop. After a while, she reemerged with books.
“These are bestiaries.” She handed me two books. “This one talks about common monsters. This one is about legendary-class monsters. I don’t suppose you need this one?”
“I’d like both.”
“I see. And, this is the one grimoire we have in stock. It’s for beginners, I’m afraid.”
“I’d like that one, too.”
“I only have maps for this town’s immediate surroundings. You won’t be able to get better ones without heading to the capital.”
She handed me a single sheet of paper.
“This works fine.”
I paid and left. I’d expected it to take a lot longer, but we’d wrapped that up in a couple of minutes thanks to the little old lady and her surprisingly good memory. And with the purchase of the books, I’d completed all my basic goals.
“Yuna, what would you like to do next?”
I hesitated before answering. “Right. Thanks to you, I got all the stuff I wanted, so I’m going to read the books in the inn. Plus, you’re probably tired after walking all over the place, aren’t you?”
I wasn’t tired because of the bear shoes, but without them I probably would have tapped out at the weapons shop and collapsed, based on my limited shut-in’s stamina.
“I’m completely fine.” Fina was right as rain. She was the very opposite of a sedentary shut-in like me, of course.
“So, what are you going to do, Fina?”
“It’s early, but I’ll go home after getting the meals from Ms. Elena.”
“Alright, then here’s your payment for today.” I handed her a silver coin.
“Are you sure? But you even ordered me dinner.”
“Like I said, it’s just for today.”
“Thanks, Yuna!”
Once I got to my inn, I parted ways with Fina, and because I had time until dinner, I went back to my room alone. I pulled the books and map from my bear storage.
I took a look at the map first. So, these are the woods where I started, I thought. There were some woods a bit away from the town. If you followed the path through them to the other side, it seemed like that was where the capital was. I couldn’t really tell how far it was without knowing the map’s scale, but it was probably a decent bit of travel.
Maybe it’d be good if I headed over to the capital next? I thought. It looked like there were a few villages around. I memorized the important locations, thinking wistfully about how it’d be great if I had a more detailed map. WFO’s auto-mapping would have been useful.
I pulled out the grimoire next. It was titled Beginner-Class Magic. I wondered if there were intermediate and advanced books, and if so, whether I could pick up copies in the capital. I flipped from page to page. Uh-huh; right, right; I see.
“Guess I’ll give it a shot. First, I collect mana.”
I tried doing it with the same motions I used in WFO. In the game, I would gather mana in my hands, and when I recited a spell, it would activate. If I collected mana in my right hand, I could invoke magic there, or I could collect and invoke it in my left hand. An ambidextrous friend of a friend got some notoriety in the community for using magic with both hands well. As for me? I was right-handed, so I collected my mana in my right hand and chanted the spell.
“Light.”
I couldn’t help but pay more attention to the shape of the ball of light that floated up from my open hand than the sensation of using magic. It was unmistakably a ball of light, but it wasn’t a sphere. It came in the shape of a bear’s head.
I got a bad feeling about it and opened up my status menu.
Name: Yuna
Age: 15 years old
Level: 8
Skills: Fantasy World Language, Fantasy World Literacy, Bear Extradimensional Storage, Bear Identification
Magic: Bear Light
Gear
Right Hand: Black Bear Glove (Nontransferable)
Left Hand: White Bear Glove (Nontransferable)
Right Foot: Black Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Left Foot: White Bear Shoe (Nontransferable)
Clothing: Black and White Bear Clothes (Nontransferable)
Underwear: Bear Underwear (Nontransferable)
I now had an additional tab for magic that was separate from my skills.
Bear Light
Mana collected in the bear glove creates a light in the shape of a bear.
I had to wonder: if it mentioned the bear glove, did that mean I couldn’t use this magic without it? In order to test it out, I took off the glove and tried to invoke the Light magic like earlier. Just as I thought, no light appeared.
I was one with the bear.
I put the bear gloves with their round eyes back on my hand. I wanted to practice attack magic, but I couldn’t do that in the inn, of course. I decided I would just read the magic book and learn what I could for today.
When dinner came around, I went back to the ground floor and ate a great meal. I got in the bath, changed the onesie to the white bear side, and crawled into bed to clear away the exhaustion from that day.
“Goodnight.”
Chapter 9:
Fina and the Bear
Part One
MOM’S MEDICINE RAN OUT, and I don’t have enough money to buy any more.
I live with my mom and sister, who is three years younger than me. I don’t have a dad. Apparently, he died while my sister was still in my mom’s belly. I don’t really remember him much.
Mom can’t move, since she’s sick. I try to work in her place and do the best job I can, but there isn’t a lot I can do, since I’m only ten. Sometimes Mr. Gentz lets me help with harvesting work at the
