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Over the Infinite – Prologue (4)

 

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Translator: mii

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－２－

We said our farewell to the lizardman uncle. While lining up in the inspection queue for the strict (?) entrance to the Labyrinth City, Yuki brought up a silly topic.

It was about my name, which I didn’t want to talk about that much.

「By the way, your name sure really makes people doubtful whether you are a Japanese person, eh. Is your original name ‘Canned Tuna’?」

「No way.」

If my name was normal, then this topic was just a guileless matter. But then, taking about my name to me was something you had to avoid.

Even in this world, having『Tuna』as a name was still considered weird. It sounded more unique than in modern Japan. Yeah, unlike Yuki, my name was originally Tsuna.

When Japanese heard about Tsuna, they mostly would remember about ‘tuna can’ first. It was the registered trademark, but ‘canned tuna’ like what Yuki just said was also passable. Both of those nicknames were used in my previous life, and other people called me with those nicknames even more than my real name.

「By the way, what is the character for your name?」

「It’s『rope/綱』’s Tsuna. People often mistook the character as『net/網』’s Tsuna.」

Even after knowing the kanji character, it was still a strange name.

「Ah, then, your last name was Watanabe[1. Watanabe no Tsuna, a samurai who fought demons.], right? How amazing, it sounded like you could exterminate demons. Did you have a friend that named Kintarou[2. Watanabe no Tsuna’s retainer’s retainer. Fellow retainer?]?」

「So you knew, huh. …Yeah, my original last name is Watanabe. Tsuna Watanabe. Anyway, I didn’t know anyone who were named Kintoki and Yorimitsu[3. Watanabe no Tsuna features in many of Yorimitsu’s legendary adventures.], stop making fun of me.」

That’s right. In Heian era, Watanabe Tsuna’s name was like a parody. However, my parents weren’t familiar with the history, and it seemed like they only looked up a great man’s name who had Watanabe as their surname. It was almost like a DQN name[4. DQN name is a shortened form of the Japanese word “Dokyun.” “Dokyun” was the name of TV programs. Strange people often appeared on the program. So “DQN name” means “strange name.” For example, a child was named “白”. “白” means “white” in Japanese and we pronounce it as “Shiro.” However, her parents called her “cream.” This name may sound strange. Nevertheless, it’s real. (mindblown)].

My buddies who were close to me would forcefully get nicknames that made us into combinations of salad. There was even a guy who was happy being called as Tomato.

Kintarou, who Yuki referred before, was the person who served Minamoto Yorimitsu with Watanabe Tsuna in the Sakata Kintoki. They were great people who were famous to the children who read picture books.

Of course, I didn’t have friends who had those names.

「It seems like one could easily learn skills in this dungeon according to their characteristic, so maybe you should learn《 Wielding Swords 》to follow your name?」

「So what if I learned it? I’ve never seen a katana at this world.」

If I had a katana with me, I was okay with using it, but in the first place, I never touched the sword when I was still in Japan. Hatchet and katana were classified as completely  two different thing, right?

Generally speaking, the katanas from the Heian era were made differently from the so-called katana all of us knew.

「I’ve never seen it before, but I think katana exist in this world.」

Yuki was looking at the profound Labyrinth City gate.

It’s true that it was not impossible. Since they had the power to build such a huge city, of course they would be able to make a Japanese sword.

「Even so, I never used a sword in my previous life. I didn’t have kendo class in my school anyway. I also didn’t join that club.」

At best, the only experience I had with sword was the wooden sword I bought as a souvenir from a school trip. If I was not wrong, I only swung it several times and it ended up being a manure at my closet.

「Why? You don’t want to be a swordsman protagonist that was often seen in different world fantasy?」

Now that he said it, there were many protagonists who were using swords.

「Rather than that, what should we do about our weapons? Other than the sword that I picked up in my hometown before, I only had experience with knife and club.」

「You really want to become an adventurer with that preparation, huh.」

We spoke about it in the carriage, but I had no other choice, okay.

「What about you, protagonist in the different world fantasy?」

「I’m good at single-handed sword and shortbow. I don’t have that much physical power, so the size is also small.」

Damn it, it was normal. Considering Yuki’s physique and weapon weight, it was a realistic choice.

If he said something like a big sword or scythe, I could call him a chuunibyou[5. Derisive Japanese slang term for the embarrassing behavior of 13-to-14-year-olds].

「Since I’m heading to the Labyrinth City, I thought that they must’ve sold a lot of weapons here, that’s why I only have a daily-use knife with me.」

I couldn’t say where the source was from, but since I was betting everything in this city, I had a fair amount of savings with me. Plus, the lizard man’s uncle carriage was somehow free as well.

That being said, I started to wonder if bringing one weapon and see what would happen with only that was too reckless.

I didn’t buy anything in the capital so I could buy better things in the Labyrinth City, but… I hope I could buy weapons with low price.

Maybe bringing knife in dungeon search was really no good… In the worst case, I still had my hand to wield log or timber, but I wanted to have proper weapon.

「How about buying some weapons before registering? I told you to make a party with me, but I don’t want to be relaxed enough to wait for you to train your skill.」

「It’s fine, I have a gift of《 Mellee Combat 》and《 One-handed Weapon 》, so it’ll be fine as long as I use a weapon that match one of those two skills. I could manage even with just using a club.」

「Uwahh, how amazing. They are completely useless skills for farmers.」

『Skill』had the exact same meaning like how you read it. Having them would improve your technique and physical ability. It seemed like with specific skill, someone could even use magic.

There were so many skills that I wondered if all actions and talents existed as skill. And then, there was a difference in every sense if someone compared whether other people had the same skill as them or not.

For example, there was a skill called as《 Sword Technique 》. It might be categorized as the skill that would let the user could do anything as long as their weapon was sword, but it would actually revise the user’s technique. The user would somehow know how to use sword by then.

However, as a rough guide, it took around one year of training to acquire a skill from nothing. Of course, no matter how hard you tried, you wouldn’t be able to learn something that wasn’t suitable with you.

Moreover, there were instances where someone trained to learn《 Sword Technique 》, but learnt《 Two-handed Weapon Technique 》skill instead. Aiming for a skill was difficult.

Also,《 Swords Technique 》and《 Small Sword Technique 》were two different skill, and there seemed to be《 Short Sword Technique 》and《 Thin Sword Technique 》as well. There were too much subdivision.

『Gift』referred to skills that a person naturally acquired. There was no distinction between the performance of skill and gift, they were only displayed in the different position at the status column.

However, there were people who had unique skills in rare instances, and we called them as ‘the gifted’.

In my case, I had《 Melee Combat 》and《 One-handed Weapon 》since I was born.

Basically, reincarnations were often born with the skills from their previous life in the form of gift, but for some reason, I was extremely skillful in combat.

Was it because I was a warrior at the MMORPG I played in my previous life? If that was the case, the one who gave this skill was really irresponsible.

「By the way, I also have《 Survival 》and《 Food Appraisal 》as my skills.」

「Uh huh, I already thought that you will have that kind of thing.」

《 Survival 》and《 Food Appraisal 》were the skills I had acquired. You could even say that I acquired it because I was living in desparation.

I didn’t have talent in《 Bows 》,《 Hunting 》,《 Animal Dismantling 》, or something like that, so I didn’t have those skills. I wished to have them so I could secure quality animal protein, though.

「How about you?…Ah, you can tell me if you’re fine with it.」

In this world, you basically wouldn’t tell others about your skills, and if you didn’t have any special skills, no one would be able to assess that immediately.

There were also privacy issues, since lifestyle habits often appeared as skills.

However, there was no law that forbid us to tell others our skill, and if you were an adventurer who wanted to make a party with others, you might want to tell them about your combat-related skills.

「If it’s the one related to combat, I think I have《 Sword Technique 》and《 Throwing 》, and I also have《 Arithmetics 》. I think you have that as well.」

「Well, you’re right about the《 Arithmetic 》. It seems like anyone will acquire it just by learning simple arithmetic in their previous life.」

If someone had mastered mathematics to the extent that they could perform four arithmetic operations in their previous life, they were generally gifted with《 Arithmetic 》skill. This was something I heard from a former Nepalese.

However, it was quite difficult to learn arithmetic skills from the beginning in this world, and even if you learnt the arithmetic that the merchants used, it didn’t appear as a skill.

This kind of thing made me feel relieved that I had studied in my previous life, although this skill had never helped me ever since I was born.

Actually, this《 Arithmetic 》was a skill that could be quite advantageous if I became a merchant’s apprentice, but I couldn’t read letters, so that was also out of the option.

…Well, it might sound weird that I couldn’t read letters, but the literacy rate in this world was actually less than ten percent. Most people couldn’t even read their status.

「Then, both of us mostly have vanguard skills, huh.」

「I think it’s still better than having both of us as a rear guard, but I want to be able to use recovery. Maybe we can look for a magician.」

If this was a game, we needed thief (scout), magician, and priest to make a good balance.

「You mostly won’t see any magician in this world, you know.」

「I know that. I just want to try saying it.」

There was also those fantasy-like magician and sorcerer in this world, but they were mostly an existence that was above the clouds. I never saw them before.

Even if there was magic power in this world, learning magic was extremely difficult, and the technique that allowed that was not made available to the public. I didn’t even know whether they need to chant it or not. The skills in this world was mostly only inherited within the family.

Magicians who keep all of their technique to themselves were generally rich. There was no need for those people to become dangerous adventurer.

That’s why, it was almost impossible to find those OP guy who trained their magic since they were a baby like those webnovels trope.

By the way, the priests in the church had the skill to see people’s status, but they couldn’t use recovery magic. Being able to use recovery magic was also a part of being a magician.

No one treated others using their recovery power in the name of God. Most of the magicians were mostly quite serious. …Anyway, I’d never heard anyone talking about God even though church existed here.

「Well, maybe both of us will have to do uncouth fist fight for a while.」

「That sounds rough.」

There was no fragment of gorgeousness at all. Even though we reincarnated into a different world, reality was this kind of thing after all.

But, we would be able to taste a little bit of fantasy here. As a boy, I felt somewhat excited.

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