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Volume 1 Chapter 10-2: Preparations Complete

「I think we chose well for initial equipment. If we care for it properly then I think we won’t have to replace it for quite some time.」
「I see, then what do we need next?」
「Let’s see…wound ointment and tools…and we need water canteens and food. For the moment we are simply entering the tower as compensation for entering the town without paying the toll so I do not think we will be in there for long, but you never know what might happen so we should prepare the minimum necessary for the worst case scenario.」

It was like Sistina said. It was only in games that you wouldn’t get hungry and thirsty during a long dungeon.

If Sistina lost consciousness at some point we would lose our healing abilities and if we got lost for a long time then we might starve or suffer from thirst.

We needed to properly prepare ourselves.

And so Sistina guided us to the drug store. It was there that we bought 5 potions/salves and 3 antidotes. The potions were 300 each and the antidotes were 500 mars each so we spent 3,000 mars total.

It was at that point that I realized we hadn’t gotten anything to carry our goods in. It felt a bit weird that not a single one of us had realized it, but I feel like it was due to the excitement from our first Tower Exploration.

Either way, we needed something to carry the monster drops and items that we would find in the tower so I decided to buy a bag at the next shop we went to.

The auntie behind the pharmacy counter gave us our potions in a small pouch so we were saved. Because of that Sistina laughed and decided not to bargain with her. Truthfully it seemed like Sistina really liked negotiating.

「Alright Soujirou-sama, now we need to have a small discussion about what we’ll buy next.」

Sistina said as she turned to face us outside the pharmacy.

「What?」
「It is whether we will continue to enter the tower, or aim to clear the tower itself some day. That will determine what kind of canteen we buy.」
「What? Aren’t they all the same?」
「No they are not. First of all water is bulky and heavy to carry around.」
「Yeah I know.」
「Based on that premise there are several varieties of items to carry water. First is a water bag. It is simply a waterproof bag that you fill with water and carry around.」

Somehow that felt like a very other worldly dungeon item.

「The second is a normal canteen. It can maintain the water temperature for a while.」

Oh! So it’s basically a thermos? Or maybe it’s something like a 『magic』 bottle?

「These two types are only able to carry as much as their size allows. However, the final one is different…do you remember the bathing area yesterday?」

Bathing…oh!

「A water magic stone?」
「That’s right. Inside the canteen a small water stone is inserted and will continually restore your water supply. Of course that increases the price but…if we plan on continually entering the tower or staying inside for a long period of time, the large amounts of water we would need to haul otherwise would be a nuisance. In that case we would require a water stone canteen.」

I see, the longer we went in, the more water we would need. However, that large amount of water would be hard to bring. If we had a canteen that continually produced water then we wouldn’t need to worry about that burden.

「Hotaru-san…」
「Indeed ja…it appears that entering the Tower is the fastest way to earn money in this world so we might as well.」
「Alright, I understand. Then we shall proceed without compromise.」

We followed Sistina into a store with various goods line up around the shop. Image-wise it reminded me of a Hardware store. Well obviously not as large.

Sistina entered further into the shop until she reached the counter with a fairly pretty young lady manning the counter.

「Excuse me, we’re looking for a canteen.」
「Welcome, if you’re looking for canteens then browse our wares over there to the right.」
「No, we’re looking for a water stone canteen.」

The lady looked a bit surprised, but upon looking at the equipment the three of us wore she seemed to understand and asked us to wait a moment as she entered the back room.

「Goods with magic stones in them are quite expensive so they won’t be displayed on the shelves.」

Sistina explained. Probably some kind of shoplifting prevention. It’d be ridiculous to hire someone expressly there to prevent shoplifting and there weren’t any surveillance cameras, so this measure was the easiest and most effective.

「Thank you for waiting.」

The lady reappeared with four different sized canteens in her arms.

「This is the largest one, it will get fairly heavy but since it has plenty of capacity many different parties utilize it. Furthermore it has enough water that you can use it to make food as well.」

The lady explained as she placed a bottle that looked to be about 2 liters large. Certainly that size was enough for a party of six to get a good drink from it.

「This is the second largest size. The capacity is smaller, but it is also lighter so many people buy this one as well.」

This one appeared to be around 1.5 liters…but still around 1.5 kg…it’d be bulky to carry around.

「This is the third size. At this size it’s quite portable and convenient so many parties bring this along as an extra in case their large one gets broken.」

This one was around 1 liter. This size should be good…honestly since the water would replenish itself I don’t really think we need one with high capacity unless we plan on guzzling it.

「This is the smallest one. This size is used mostly so that everyone in the party can carry one. There are also races that hate placing their mouths to something that someone else used as well.」

This was was 500 ml sized. I’d in fact prefer having an indirect kiss with Sistina but…I don’t want to request that since I don’t want to be unpleasant.

This was the time for me to show my composure as a newly non-virgin man.

「Sistina, if it’s too big then we’ll have trouble moving, so why don’t we each take a small one?」
「Soujirou, I don’t need a portion for myself ja. It was originally not necessary for me. If there is a time when I want it, then I can just take a sip from either of you ja.」
「I understand, then please take out two of the smallest ones. We also want to look around the store some more so please hold them up here for us.」
「I understand, then please call for me when you’re finished.」

We then walked around the store and grabbed two rucksacks, Hotaru-san didn’t want to wear such a thing so we got her a pouch that could easily attach to her obi.

Then we bought a portable food set and a simple cooking set. The food set was some dried meat, dry fruits, some salt, and a small amount of flavoring. The cooking set was a small fold up pot, frypan, portable stove, fuel, and flint.

We grabbed all of those and went back to the counter to finish our purchase.

Canteen 30,000 mars x2, rucksack 200 mars x2, pouch 100 mars, food set 100 mars x2, and cooking set 500 mars. In total it would cost 61,200 mars, but thanks to Sistina she bargained each water canteen down by 1,000 mars so we ended up spending 59,200 mars in total before leaving the store.

「Our preparations should mostly be complete with this. Let’s head back to the inn.」

We had headed out fairly late and gone to various stores, so the sun was fairly low in the sky so it was an appropriate time to head back.

But still we had moved around a lot today and hadn’t had anything to eat since this morning so I was fairly hungry. I wanted to hurry back and get something to eat.