Chapter 101 – There’s no time left apart from the time that’s left.

The hardest part of this researching wasn’t the reading. Finding and gathering all the books took far longer. My initial estimate of 60 days to read everything was optimistic at best.

My next stop was the magic section. I was going to research spells that were similar to my Repair skill, but instead of finding just one book, I decided to randomly read through every book until I found the one I needed.

A lot of the books on magic were concerned with theory rather than practice, so I ignored those and absorbed knowledge on as many spells as I could. By midday, I had an unrivalled repertoire of spells, though I didn’t have the know-how to cast them with any efficiency.

There was a possibility in the future for my MP or mana conversion efficiency to increase, which would allow me to cast the spells. But for the moment I was content with the vast arcane knowledge I had absorbed.

At noon I was done reading through all the books that I wished to learn about. I did not want to waste the entire day away, since I had time-sensitive priorities.

I left the school and got onto the streets of the city. Normally, I was one to walk on the pavement, so I wouldn’t be run over by the carriages that ran down the centre of the streets.

Things were different now.

I pulled out my Mind Balloon and activated it. It inflated to a size large enough to carry me. Pedestrians gasped in surprise as they saw my magic balloon grow.

I climbed into the basket and started floating. With the Mind boost from the elixir I drank, I could now fly at a maximum height of around 3 metres.

“Woah, what an interesting sight,” said an onlooker.

“Is that a new type of transport?”

“That looks so fun!”

My balloon was the talk of the town. Though, I hadn’t activated it to make a spectacle. With this new mode of transport, I could get to places without tiring. Plus, I was allowed to use the centre of the streets, since this was technically a vehicle.

I floated on towards the city gates. My max speed was now closer to a jogger’s pace. It still wasn’t anything amazing, but it was nice. I could feel a refreshing breeze from flying through the city. I didn’t have to watch where I was stepping, or move through crowds. There was also a sense of superiority that I felt from being able to fly while others walked.

Hovering through the streets was both pleasant and peaceful.

Apart from all the carriages that were honking at me. Since my speed was far below an average carriage’s pace, I was creating traffic jams behind the balloon. Carriage drivers had to wait to overtake and in their impatience, they honked at me with bulb horns.

“Hey!” the carriage driver directly behind me shouted. “Balloon boy, can’t you fly that thing higher so we can drive under you? Why are you at street level?”

“This is as high as it goes,” I said.

The clearly frustrated driver was not happy with that answer. “Just put some more air in it or something, genius! I’m in a hurry!”

“I’m in a hurry too!” I said, truthfully. I wanted to move as fast as possible, but this was the fastest speed it was possible for me to move.

“You can’t be serious!” he said with irritation. “I can run faster than you can fly, boy! Next time, summon a horse to pull you along.”

That wasn’t a bad idea actually.

The driver swerved around me and sped off into the distance. After a few moments, the next driver in the line behind me started honking his horn loudly.

While floating along in the balloon, I noted several key factors of its movement. First, a tailwind could speed me up past my normal max speed, and a headwind would slow me down. Second, when at max elevation, my flight height was determined by what was underneath me. If the ground lowered, I lowered. If it raised, I raised.

I would maintain a constant distance from the ground.

Third, using this balloon inside the city made everyone hate me.

“Yarm!” someone shouted.

I looked over to the source of the voice to see Thaxted. He ranked quite low on the list of Earthlings that I despised. But of course, he was still on the list. I descended to his level and deactivated my balloon. “I see you got your gym up and running,” I said while pointing at the newly opened building behind him.

Thaxted nodded his head vigorously and said, “It took some time but it’s finally open. I wanted a better location, but this was all I could afford at the moment. I’m hoping to expand once I get some income coming in.” The building behind him was covered in signs and posters advertising the gym.

Working out was never something I did a lot in my past life, but perhaps now was the time to change that. “What’s the admission price?” I asked.

“10,000 GP,” he said.

I choked on the air that filled my lungs as I gasped. “For a year?” I asked.

“For a month,” he answered.

That was an extortionate price, but I remembered that was his plan in the first place. Thaxted was trying to scam rich folks out of money. Plus, he was providing a service that no one else was, so he could charge whatever he wanted. There were no windows on the property, so I couldn’t see inside. “What kind of facilities do you have?” I asked.

I did not expect the workout machines that we had on Earth to exist here, but at the same time I wondered if Thaxted had some magical gym equipment inside.

“Nothing,” he said.

“What?”

“Nothing. I spent all my money on the property, so I didn’t have anything left to kit the place.” He patted me on the shoulder. “But if you pay for the membership, I can get some weights in there.” He raised his eyebrows up and down at me.

I had made some stupid decisions in my life, but I was not going to pay to enter an empty building. “I’ve got something to do. Maybe next time,” I said and attempted to leave.

He pulled me back. “Wait, wait,” he said. “I’ll give you a 1% discount if you refer 50 friends.”

I shrugged his hand off of me. “No thanks. I don’t even have 50 friends. And that discount is laughably small.”

He finally gave up on scamming me and said, “Alright, no worries, bro. But if you find anyone in need of a job, tell them to come here and apply.”

“You’re hiring staff?” I asked. For some reason, that surprised me.

“Yeah. I was going to buy a slave and make them work here, but it’s cheaper to hire people since there’s no minimum wage in this world.”

Hearing such a disgusting sentence really dampened my mood. I turned to leave but Thaxted still had more for me. He tapped me on the shoulder and then handed me a slip of paper. “What’s this?” I asked.

He smiled fondly at me and then slapped me hard on the back. “I heard you won Sports Day. Congrats. Have that as a gift from me to you.”

I looked at the paper and it read, ‘One-month free membership to Thaxted’s Gym.’

He said, “I’m happy for you. Enjoy your present.” He was completely sincere.

I wondered how rude it would be to say that I didn’t want his worthless gift. Free admission to an empty building was not particularly valuable, although Thaxted probably thought the paper was worth 10,000 GP. “Thanks,” I said and left it at that. When I walked off, I saw Thaxted trying to lure people into buying a membership.

After leaving that unwelcome chat, I realised there was something that resonated with me. Thaxted wanted to hire people to help him. Even a dimwit like him knew he needed help to accomplish his goals.

I had also come to that same realisation. Sports Day made me truly understand how valuable help from others was. I wasn’t going to be able to do the things I wanted to do alone.

If I had infinite workers at hand to help me, I would set them all sorts of tasks. For one, I would create a covert squadron whose sole mission would be to free slaves. They would be a group of elite stealth agents that could secretly unshackle slaves and help them to safety without themselves or the slaves getting caught.

On top of that, I would have a group of charismatic messengers who would spread the concept of morality to the public. They would explain how horrible genocide and slavery and littering is. Their methods would vary between being town criers, writing hit pieces, persuading influential people, and whatever else they came up with.

I would also want a team of peacemakers to try and form alliances between monsters and humans. I could even have them try to learn the languages of monsters for better communication.

One of the more realistic groups I could have would be a squad dedicated to running a soup kitchen for the sick and hungry.

But that was all just fantasy.

The trouble with it had always been where to get that help. I didn’t have the funds to hire people and pay them fairly for their labour. And it would be highly difficult to find volunteers willing to do any of that.

In all the time I had spent here, all I was able to do was get two children on my side. Convincing more people was going to be a slow and arduous process.

I supposed I could free slaves and then ask them if they would like to help in my goals, but that felt wrong. First, I was putting them in danger. They could be caught and enslaved again by the authorities at any time. Second, they would feel pressured into helping me because I freed them.

Since I did them a favour, they would feel an obligation to repay that debt. I did not want that. It would be taking advantage of them.

As was written in the Bhagavad Gita, let not the fruits of action be thy motive.

[Name: Yarm] [Age: 45] [Level: 20]

[HP: 110] [MP: 60] [XP: -16,728] [LP:0] [GP: 1402]

[Body: 1] [Mind: 39 (26)] [Soul: 4]

[Titles: Villain, Lockpicker, Charmer, Explorer, Iron Will] [Skills: Cleanse, Spare Monster, Repair] [Items: Silent Picking Homing Returning Sturdy Super Needle, Wall Compass, Pocket Telescope, Lesser Mana Potion, Old Man Costume] [Recipes: Tranquiliser] [Boosts: XP Boost (1 day left), Mind Boost (Permanent)] [Properties: Eastern Forest Hidden Dungeon, Mind Balloon] [Cosmetics: Silhouette]

I stared at the boost section of my status page. There was only one day left on my XP Boost which increased the amount of XP that I lost. I hadn’t made much use of it at all. The main issue with it was that I was simply too far away from large numbers of monsters. It was uncommon to see a lot of monsters in the heart of the Kingdom of Humans.

If I spent all day searching nearby, I could only find a few monsters at most.

“Everybody! Big news!” A person ran down the street shouting out for all to listen. He sprinted at quite a fast speed, and his shouts were unnaturally loud. His body was amplified to get the attention of as many people as possible, like an ice cream van. “Everybody! A monster hole has appeared at the Eastern Forest. Spread the word! A monster hole has appeared at the Eastern Forest!”

I turned to a person next to me. “What’s a monster hole?” I asked.

The person answered, “It’s a hole where a great number of monsters come out of.”

“Oh, sweet,” I said. That was convenient. It seemed that I could squeeze some use out of the boost after all.