Editing Skill Tree Goddess:Volume1 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 4===

Gilbezos had hoped to hire a carriage through Queen Size to visit the village of Needspart, but all the horses were out of commission at the moment. Was the recent temperature change to blame? So he ended up traveling by bicycle this time. It was slow and exhausting compared to riding a white horse like a rich aristocrat would, but they were reasonably priced and required little upkeep. It was more than enough to reach your destination if there was a well-maintained stone-paved road leading there.

“Hee hee. Now this is the sweet shared ride of my dreams★”

The 18-looking goddess seated behind him seemed to be enjoying herself. But wasn’t she afraid to ride the bike seated sideways like that? Couldn’t her long skirt get caught in the wheel? Both their weights made pedaling the bike a lot of work for the boy. He blessed every gentle downwards slope they came across.

“Are you all right, shorty? If it gets to be too much, I can pedal for you.”

“…I can handle it.”

“Oh, you’re just sooooo cute★ Prove what a strong man you are to your goddess, boy★★★”

The village of Needspart was a fair distance away. They ended up having to stop for a break on the way (mostly due to Gilbezos’s lack of stamina). He sat in the shade and nourished himself with a sandwich and water from a leather bottle while chatting with the goddess.

“Hm? Lady Seliphenia, you smell kind of sweet. Are you hiding some snacks?”

“Hey- my, my, what a troublesome boy. Rubbing your face there isn’t going to get you anywhere, you know?”

“Sniff, sniff. I know elves are so rarely seen they border on mythical, but do they attack people?”

“Who knows. There are different kinds – elves, dark elves, half elves, and high elves – but every type is famous for being extremely prideful. Nhh. I’ve never heard of them eating people, but if someone was disturbing a forest they consider their territory, they might take offense and attack with bows or magic.”

“A forest. Like the one right next to that small village.”

“If they consider the entire forest to be their territory, then the villagers are entirely surrounded by enemy territory. Like being adrift on a small boat in a deadly sea with countless shark shadows visible in the water.”

It was best not to let the picture book image of elves influence him. The village’s lost child really had been attacked.

“Sismond Johnson. Maybe I shouldn’t have read his name.”

“Because now you empathize with him?”

The short boy breathed a heavy sigh and resumed his bicycle journey.

They didn’t arrive in the village of Needspart until the evening. It had a lot of stores and inns for such a small village, but that was likely due to being a rest spot between two major cities.

“We’ve come this far, so let’s see if they have any interesting local specialties. Like an exercise that makes you grow fast.”

“Have you still not given up on that empty dream? I like you better small.”

This might sound like a silly conversation, but hobbies were quite important to adventurers who had to keep their tension up when risking their lives exploring a dungeon or in combat when they were still exhausted from a long journey.

“I still say it’s a better hobby than yours, Lady Seliphenia. Y’know, that weird slimy stuff.”

“Oh, you mean my local massage cream collection?★”

But even if they had a hobby, travelers wanted to keep their luggage to a minimum. Some adventurers would carry a fishing rod or bow with them, some would study wild plants so they could find their own medicinal herbs and antidote roots in the forest or mountain, and others would collect handicrafts or sleep assistance items. And speaking of sleep…

“I suppose securing a base of operations would be our first priority.”

“Oh, this village has a Queen Size inn too. That’s convenient.”

They spotted the standard sign bearing the word “INN”. The chain had only been in business for a few years now, so it was incredible they had spread from the capital and made it all across the kingdom. Gilbezos had only learned of the inns after arriving in the capital. When in other towns and villages, he had used different hotels, inns, and mobile wagon lodging,… but that had all been wasted effort. Ignorance could be a frightening thing.

Gilbezos walked in the inn’s front door. Such a small village shouldn’t have many tourists, but right now the place was full of adventurers. They all wanted the guaranteed full restore to their HP and MP after spending the night in this mysterious facility.

“Hello, little adventurer. Will you be spending the night? Or are you here for a meal?”

The female owner at the counter looked to be around 18. She had pink hair, horns on her head, and an arrow-tipped tail slowly swishing side to side. From head to toe, this was someone he knew.

“What are you doing here, Enoisa? Hey, Enoisa?”

“I think you have me mistaken for someone else. My name is Eucesa Holysign. I’ve been running the Queen Size Inn Needspart Branch for a while now.”



In that moment, some kind of sharp crack formed in the overly smooth skin of her right cheek.



A dry sound followed. It resembled the young woman behind the counter slapping her cheek, but that wasn’t what happened. Had she just, um, rubbed some kind of cream into her cheek with her finger???

“Huh? Then do all the inn owners look the same? But, wait? That can’t be, can it???”

“Little adventurer, a one night stay will be 3000 yeno and a week long stay will be 18000 yeno.” The owner gave him a perfect business smile. “Or will you camp out and receive no healing at all? That will make exploration and combat much more difficult. Perhaps even deadly.”

He decided it was best not to ask any more questions. This felt like much too great a risk for something unrelated to the main quest. Learning Queen Size’s secret, earning the owners’ displeasure, and getting banned from using these mysterious inns that fully healed your HP and MP when you spent the night would make everything else so much harder.

After checking in, he tossed his bag in his second floor room and returned to the first floor.

There were a lot more people than when he first came in. With so many adventurers, the first floor dining room was full of armed people. There were only so many rooms in the inn, but a lot of people would visit just for the food or to exchange information.

“There’s a wide variety of people here.”

The ones armed with bows and machetes were probably material hunters. There were also some who looked like mercenaries or bounty hunters. Since they would be battling in the tree-filled forest, more of the adults had small weapons instead of giant spears or big swords.

In an extreme case of that, a group of girls in miniskirts and course cloths wrapped around their chests appeared to be boxers who fought with their fists instead of a weapon. Gilbezos had heard that bare-handed job considered even headbutts and kicks to be off limits. But why were they being led by a whip-wielding tamer dominatrix?

“Hmm, the vanguard boxers all have completely identical skills. That’s a sign of calculated growth. They might have been taken in as young orphans and raised this way. And the rear guard tamer plays a support role where she provides offense, defense, and healing with the Consumables Mastery skill that gives a 300% buff to all consumable item effects.”

“Why are you revealing our allies’ skills, Lady Seliphenia?”

“Yes, I wonder why.”

But that tamer used consumable items not just for healing but for things like fire type attack and applying the poison status effect? There may have been some reason why she went to such lengths to avoid using magic. For example, a bad past experience where she was beaten up by monsters after running out of MP deep in a dungeon or being inflicted with the seal status effect that kept her form using magic.

And despite this small village being so far from the capital, Gilbezos spotted a familiar store in a corner of the village.

The Necessities Emporium that dealt in weapons, armor, equipment, medicines, food, and more.

He took a peek inside.

“Shirayuri.”

As a shut in, the 10-year-old normally did business through a lattice window that hide her face like in a confessional booth, but she was willing to appear before Gilbezos.

“Are you okay traveling this far? Don’t you want to stay at home?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m ‘okay’ with it, but the Necessities Emporium must always be found at the hottest event or dungeon.”

Her store summoning was a convenient piece of magic that could summon her base no matter where she was, but it could only summon it to her. It didn’t work the other way around, so Shirayuri would have to hike all the way to her destination on her little legs and summon the store to shut herself in and then repeat the process when it was time to move on. Quite the work ethic for someone her age.

“Also, Gilbezos, you forgot something.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tah dah! Reyvaslafe Mk II!  Pretty sweet, right!?”

As you can see, it was the sword’s maker, Shirayuri, who named it. It wasn’t a case of its owner, Gilbezos, being weird.

“Hm? How is it different from before?”

“It’s a completely new yet it was made to feel so similar in use that even the original owner can’t tell the difference and countless skills have been seamlessly worked in. Why do I need to spell this all out for you, you dummy?”

…Truly deadly power was actually a lot harder to use when you had too much of it.