Waiting for the airship proved to be a downright bore.

Again, this world’s lack of quality entertainment took a bite right out of Lucas’ mental fortitude. Without anything to occupy himself with in his room, he often took walks around the town in an effort to stave off ennui.

And over the course of those walks, he came across plenty of amusing places.

Sure, there was a grimoire shop full of interesting sounding tomes, but none of them were actually easy to read. They were all either completely useless, or so laden with magical terminology that they were beyond Lucas’ understanding. For example, the book Grasping The Mana Within You basically just ended up being a long, obnoxious magical book about fantasy yoga. Even after privately trying some of the poses described and pictured in the book, it did nothing for him other than make this message pop up.

[You learned how to move your mana around your body! Congrats!]

Obviously that message was useless. What did that even mean for him, anyway?

The other book he picked up, Ice Magic and its Properties and Usefullness was so full of jargon he didn’t even know how to being understanding it. What was a magic flail? What was blundidness? Why did it keep referencing historical moments in history without actually explaining why they were important to the chapters? He hadn’t felt this confused since he was a toddler and he tried reading his dad’s old University textbooks. None of it made sense, and trying to make sense of it only gave him a headache.

Since reading was obviously a bust, he took to taking walks around Balsk to try and calm his nerves. The town was kind of boring and just what he imagined the typical isekai town to be, but it had its own charms. One of the more interesting areas was the large, cleared out area near the center of town. No one was allowed to walk in the area because it was a landing zone for airships, yet the fact that airships only came around once every month or so made it a mostly abandoned spot. He could always walk there and expect no one to be around to watch him. It was oddly amusing that such a large spot in the town could be so devoid of people, but it also calmed him. Even back at his private room at the Inn, he could always hear someone talking about something or other through the walls. There was always someone or something making noise there. At this part of town though, there was nothing. There wasn’t even noise from the nearby buildings and streets – only silence.

There were a few other shops that piqued Lucas’ interest. A potion shop, simply called Madamé’s, stocked a few… interesting potions, to say the least. A green potion that smelled like apple juice claimed it could stop you from pooping for an entire two weeks. Whatever the health benefits of that was, he didn’t know, but it was apparently popular with certain groups, or so the owner – a rotund lady who wore a very wide brimmed hat – claimed. There was a lot of it in stock, after all. But Lucas theorized the owner bought the stuff and couldn’t actually sell it to anyone.

Another of her potions, a blue one, reportedly gave its user tremendously great eyesight. Just a couple of drops in the eye over night, then the next morning they’d have better than 20/20 vision. Lucas didn’t know why she advertised it as a potion, but maybe this world didn’t understand the concept of eyedrops, so calling it a potion would be more marketable. Anyway, he didn’t buy that either, because his eyesight was fine with a capital F.

Then there was the obvious potion that men always wanted/dreamed about. It was her most expensive potion, and every guy that walked into the store bought one. Besides Lucas. Obviously.

Moving on.

Another store of note he found was a store selling monster parts. Meat, claws, teeth, livers, poison sacks, magic glands, crystallized hearts, the works. The manager, a burly, shirtless man with way too many scars on his chest, tried way too hard to sell his most expensive products when he learned Lucas was a noble. Even in the new world, Lucas couldn’t get away from overly-excited salesmen. Great.

“Please, try this orc bladder! It’s great for your heart!”

“Or perhaps you want this griffon eye? Eating this extends your lifespan!”

“Or maybe you desire something else? This succubus wing will...”

Yadda yadda yadda. With each and every recommendation, the price rose tremendously. He eventually left without buying anything, because why would he? The owner wasn’t selling a single thing that increased Lucas’ MP, or raised his stats at all. It was all inane stuff that gave him useless passives. No thanks. It was neat to see that this world tried to sell all every part of a monster, though. Capitalism definitely had its roots in deep here.

All those shops had been busts, but they gave Lucas an idea of how this world worked. It was quite frankly similar to a video game, which was both interesting and lame. On the one hand, video games all have their unique traits, and seeing them come to life in an actual world fascinated him. He could actually see some beast people walking the streets! Hell, he even saw an elf! An elf! The character that every nerd living in their parents’ basement always roleplay as!

Okay, maybe that last thought was a little cruel, but still. It was a living, breathing elf!

No dwarves though. Shame.

So, the similarities to the video game/isekai lore gave Lucas certain advantages. Obviously he knew some things and situations he could expect from now on. Elfs being pretentious pricks who lived in forests, dwarves living underground, beast people being really agile, etc.

Now, the bad stuff. He was a human in this world, so by default he probably excelled at nothing. Humans never got anything neat in video games. They were always the jack of all trades, master of none type of character. So that was a bummer.

Also, while this world was similar to video games / mangas / isekais / novels / just fantasy lore in general, he had no idea if any of that information would actually prove useful. He could go off of his gut, sure. But it wasn’t like he could just go and find that elf he saw, then ask him:

“Hey. Are you an asshole that loves trees?”

That’s now how socialization works! That’s not how life works! Sure, in a video game, that would make sense. It would then lead to some funny scene where the elf kicked the shit out of his character, and he’d get a laugh out of it. But this was real life. He couldn’t just act without thinking and try to get the funniest scenario he could.

He’d already been through enough problems here, he didn’t need to actively seek out anymore potentially dangerous hazards.

Anyway, that was how he spent the first week here. He still had another 13 days to kill, according to the airship schedule, and he’d already seen enough of Balsk.

“...so you’re asking me how to spend your time, m’lord?”

“Yes, basically,” Lucas said as he scratched the back of his head.

The innkeeper sighed and shrugged as he cleaned an empty stone mug with a dirty-looking rag. Big, portly, bald, and with a mustache, the guy looked exactly like he imagined the ideal innkeeper would look like. Lucas hadn’t had much of an opportunity to talk to the man, but now that it was after lunch rush, and now that he had nothing to do, he decided he’d take the chance to try and find out exactly what he could do to amuse himself.

“Look, m’lord, I have no idea what could possibly entertain you,” the man eventually said. It was the answer he’d expected, but not the answer he wanted. Throughout his various social interactions on this planet, he’d learned that commoners only really talked to nobility out of necessity, or when they tried to sell them something. From what he picked up, commonfolk didn’t exactly hold their rules in high esteem. It was that kind of world, where like Lucas predicted, most nobles were assholes.

Neat.

“Come on, I still have two weeks before the airship comes by,” Lucas whined. He hated how much of a child he sounded like here. He wasn’t some sort of toddler, throwing a tantrum in the milk aisle of a grocery store. But he was getting bored and had no idea how to handle it. So, even if he came across as a little immature, he needed to find something to do, and soon.

“I saw you with some heavy-looking books the other day. Are you a mage?” the innkeep asked.

“Yes.”

“Go practice some magic, then.”

“I would if I could,” Lucas grumbled. “Those books weren’t helpful.”

“A pity, m’lord.”

“Yeah,” Lucas said.

“Maybe you could find a teacher, then?” The innkeep asked as he scrubbed away on the mug. The towel made a strangely satisfying squeaking sound as the man rubbed it swiftly over its surface. It was the deeply satisfying sound that Lucas thought a pretentious film maker would put in their movie during a bar scene.

“I’m going to University in a couple of weeks, I don’t want to find a teacher now,” Lucas ran his hands through his hair. The thought obviously came to him. If he couldn’t learn magic himself, he could just have someone teach it to him. But finding a teacher now only to abandon them for a University later seemed cruel. He didn’t want to ask someone for just two weeks of their time, then go off to the most prestigious school in the land and never see them again.

“Probably for the best. Not a whole lot of mages here anyway,” the innkeep grunted.

Silence filled the air between the two. It wasn’t awkward, it was just a lull in the conversation. Lucas didn’t feel the need to have to complain anymore, and the inkeep clearly didn’t seem bothered by his lack of whining.

So he sat there and listened to the guy clean mugs for a while. He didn’t know how long it was, but it was long enough for a couple of customers to come to the bar, order a late lunch, then leave after they ate. They all gave Lucas a side glance, but when the innkeep gave them a glare and shook his head at them, they all left him alone.

“Why don’t you go see Lady Braverton?” the inkeep finally asked.

“Who?”

“The ruler of Balsk. She’s a self-made baroness, you know,” the man said.

“Why would I ever want to do that?” Lucas grumbled. He hated dealing with the Barolts, why would he ever go out of his way to talk to another noble family?

The inkeep shrugged in response. “I can’t exactly give you any ideas on what you should be doing, m’lord. I’m common as mud. Perhaps Lady Braverton can tell you something that’d pique your interest.”

Lucas let out a large groan. Pique his interest? What the hell was that even supposed to mean? He wasn’t some child who was trying to find a new hobby, he was an adult who needed a distraction. Also, what the hell was he even doing here anyway?

Why was he here?

Shit, he still had no idea what he was supposed to be doing in this new world. You’d think that if someone or something bothered to get him here, that someone or something would’ve told him what he should be doing right about now. But no, instead he was asking some random guy about how to live his life.

Freakn’ hell, man. Fine. Fine, maybe going to see this self-made noble would give him an idea as to what he should be doing. Fine. She couldn’t be worse than the Barolts.

“And where would I find her?” Lucas asked.