As I leave the manor I notice that Bik followed by the other two imps who are both carrying pouches about the size of my fist are headed my way. I might mention that the imps themselves come out to about my knees in terms of height. Bik is slightly larger than the other two, but not enough so that you would notice unless you looked at them closely.

“Mao- I mean Mano-sama! We have traded in the gear you gave us.” Bik says as he motions for the other two to hand me the bags.

They both hoist the bags as high above their heads as possible, struggling to keep their balance due to the weight. Both smile at me like children, exposing the large canines in their mouths.

“Oh, that’s right! Bik, I would like you to name these two. Whatever you think is appropriate is alright.” I say as I attempt to stealthily put the bags in my inventory.

The bags have a weird item description when put in

Coin purse (46 coins)

Coin purse (36 coins)

“Please allow me some time to think on the matter Mano-sama. I wish to give them good names” Bik says.

He catches himself trying to bow, and bolts back into a standing position. I’m glad he remembers not to act too formally, but maybe I should have worded that order better. I drop the matter as it doesn’t seem to be a pressing issue at the moment.

“Go and collect Kiel. We are going on a small expedition and I wish for him to come along.” I say.

“I’ll get right to it Mano-sama,” He says struggling to find informal words he’s comfortable saying.

He runs off quickly taking the other two by their pointy ears. Are these three really not drawing that much attention here? I’ve not seen any other monsters, much the less ones running around town. I stop worrying about it when I realize I can just ask the egg shop owner about how common it is.

Finding the egg shop was not nearly as easy as the blacksmith was. I had to ask for directions 2 times more than my pride wants me to admit before I managed to actually find the place. I couldn't help getting lost really; they kept giving me instructions like “The one with a monster sign” or “The one next to the tailor”. I can’t tell them that I can’t read considering my current cover is that I’m a noble.

I finally stand before a rather plain, if not a bit run down shop. It has no windows, and the overall size from the front hardy takes up the space of a stall. In front of it hangs an oval sign with an unfamiliar language.

“What's up?” I hear as I walk through the door.

I would find this much less weird had it been for the fact that I couldn't actually see anybody in the shop. My head darts left and right as I try to find which part of the room the voice was hiding in. I nearly had a heart attack when I looked up and a frog-like face stared back at me.

“Sorry ‘bout that… haven’t had many customers lately, so I was testing out some new toys I came up with” It said as it climbed down the wall and stop upright in front of me.

It wasn’t a frog person at least. Instead what stood before me seemed to be a 15-year-old girl with very short red hair. She wore a hat that resembled a frog-like creature that was a bit cartoonish in appearance. She looked at me with eyes half closed and a grin that was just a tiny bit creepy. I hope I don’t develop some kind of frog trauma from this.

“So what’cha in the market for? I got some good hides in earlier today if you want em’” She says as she meanders over to the counter near the back, sits down, and sets her head on her arms.

She carries herself like she could fall asleep at any moment.

“I’ve got some monsters in my possession that I would like to gear up. Three half imps, one of which can use magic” I say as I look around the shop.

It’s not what I expected for sure. The walls are lined with monster parts, most of which have some kind of stick or other man-made implement attached to them. At the front counter, there is a glass casing with multiple large eggs, along with an array of crystals, as well as a tall vial of crimson liquid.

“Oh ho! Sounds interesting’. You a tamer then?” she asks perking up slightly.

It’s obvious that she not suspicious of me yet… but I don’t want to risk it. She is obviously going to know her stuff on this subject and my cover is going to get blown away pretty quickly if I test my luck.

“Somewhat, I learned a few things in my home country before I set off. I want to learn more about this country's methods though, so if you have any books I could buy on the subject that would be helpful.” I say as I wander over to what seems to be a horn on some kind of gauntlet. It was quite a brightly colored horn, so it caught my eye.

“Must be a place really far away if you don’t even know what a Horned Igna is” The girl says with a wry smile as I touch the horn.

As I touch the horn a flame engulfs it. My finger is caught up in the flame as well… or so I thought. Looking at my hand there isn’t a scratch on it.

“I’ll go get you some ointment.” The girl says as she gets up and turns towards a door behind the counter.

“No it’s okay I pulled away in time,” I say showing my untouched hand to her.

She seems to squint her eyes further when she turns back to look at me, it was over so quickly that I can’t tell if I was imagining it.

“That’s good. In that case, summon your imps and ill find ya some gear.” She says waving her hand at me, and returning to her resting position at the counter.

“In that case, I’ll go and retrieve them I will be back shortly,” I say turning to leave the shop.

“What you can’t summon them?” she says raising an eyebrow at me.

Is she mocking me? ...Well, she’s not wrong.

“How would I do that? I never learned.”

“Don’t worry. It's siii~mple. Just focus on a space nearby where they can fit, and imagine them showing up there.”

I do as she instructs and focus on a space. I imagine Bik and the other two suddenly popping up there… but nothing happens.

I begin to hear the girl snicker. I look sharply at her and her snickering gets slightly louder.

“I’m leaving,” I say turning swiftly to exit the shop.

“Oh cmo~n, I’m just having a bit of fun. You can summon any monsters ya’ contracted by saying "Summon" while imaginin’ which monster, or monsters ya want.” She says beckoning me with her hand.

I look at her sharply with distrust but decide to try it anyway.

“Summon!” I say while imagining the three imps.

The word seems to resonate when I say it and it sends a shiver down my spine. This time all three imps show up. This is quite interesting I wonder how I could use this. By the way, the imps, including Bik, are all looking around the room in surprise.

“Cool, three Imp-nots. The big one the one that knows magic?” She says pointing at Bik.

Bik’s not much bigger than the other two, for her to notice so quickly is pretty impressive. Also what in the world is an imp-not? Gero referred to them as half-imps. Even the menu referred to them as half imps. Does the menu just call them whatever I know them as?

“Correct” I respond.

I give a few quick hand gestures to the imps to wait quietly for a moment.

“Kay’, in that case, they can go ahead and go back to whatever they were doing,” She says waving them away as if shooing them off.

“Can I send them back like I summoned them?” I ask.

“Nope, one-way street,” she says as she roots around for something around the bottom of the counter.

“Here I’ll call you when you order is ready, I’ll prepare something for you to learn more ‘bout taming as well.” She says as she tosses me a communication stone.

It looks a lot like Tea’s but the quarts is jagged in different parts, a lot of how normal rocks look different from one another.

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I look at the imps who look back at me in confusion.

“I suppose we will be leaving then,” I say as the imps and I slowly leave the store.

“ ’Kay” we hear her say as we go out the door.

She was easier to deal with than Tea but… are all the people in this town as weird as this? Or do I have the devil's luck?

“Did you manage to get to Kiel before I summoned you?” I ask the imps attempting to realign myself.

“Yes we were following him here when we suddenly appeared next to you,” Bik says, still scratching his head.

I guess nobody gave him the memo about summoning either.

“Oi!” I hear in a voice that I’m already far too used to yelling towards me.

I see Kiel running in my direction, full of vigor once more. He sure bounces back quickly for whatever it is that he keeps getting depressed over. Once again he is attracting the eyes of lots of people on the street. I was joking before, but he would really make excellent bait with how loud and attention-grabbing he is.

“Never a dull moment with you lot is there?” He says and he jogs to a stop next to us.

“Funny I was just thinking the same about you,” I say as I try to figure out what to do with the communication stone.

“I was told we are headed out, did the geezers at the manor already chase you out of town?” He said wryly while poking me with his elbow.

“No. We are going to do a favor for the merchant’s guild in return for the use of their library. We are going to go and exterminate a goblin camp north of here.” I respond

“...”

There is silence between us as he looks at me in disbelief.

“You’re trying to get us killed aren't you? How are we going to take out a goblin camp exactly? They are going to outnumber us like 12 to 1 even if we catch them off guard!” He says now pacing back and forth with his head in his hands.

What? Are goblins meant to be that strong? They were a stable weak monster in RPG’s from what I can remember. Though, in most games, they were meant to be strong in numbers.

“Don’t worry, we aren’t going to go straight there. First, we are going to a nearby hunting ground and we are going to train.” I say attempting to re-assure Kiel

Our equipment won’t be ready until tomorrow anyway, and I’ve completed my errands for today already. I’ve been anxious to see how good I am in a fight. I have this weird compulsion to fight. I can’t tell if it has something to do with being the Maou or if I’m just a bit of a battle maniac.

“Ah I see. I would like to leave the town soon, but I suppose we have to get a bit stronger before heading out.” He says relaxing visibly

“Ya, we can’t head to the camp till tomorrow. Tea should be done with our gear in the morning, we can have till lunch to get used to the new gear and head out.” I respond looking through my menus to see if there is a clock anywhere.

Surprisingly there is, it’s currently 4:58 which makes sense considering the position of the sun. The clock is surprisingly in the status tab I checked earlier. I don’t remember it being there before. I wonder if it showed up because I was looking for it. There is also a timer next to it currently counting down from 271h:02m:42s. Off the top of my head I can say that a little over ten days from now.

Before I have too much time to ponder what this timer represents, I notice Kiel staring at me like I just told him unicorns exist… Wait in this world they might.

“I can’t believe you think we can get strong enough to beat a goblin camp in one night…" He says as he goes back to pacing.

" ...Screw it if you think it can be done then I suppose I’m going to have to believe you. I mean you didn’t even stop messing with your cargo when we attacked you, you must have some reason to be so confident.” He says stopping any sighing.

I suppose he finally decided to resign his fears. …I don’t want to tell him my confidence is mostly baseless, it may make him start panicking again. If I think we can’t handle it though, I’m not going to have us attack the camp. And with that, we set out to fight our first monsters.