After leaving the magic tower, I went straight back to the inn to have my simple dinner. I don''t have the energy to find another place to eat and I don''t want to risk going around and meeting people I''d rather not meet. They have seen my real face (well most of them) so my illusions won''t work and they will know it''s me.

    I went straight to bed to recharge my tired mind and body. The next morning, I woke up early to check out from this inn and move to another one nearer to the southern gate. I plan to take some adventurer tasks this time like hunting small animals and picking herbs for a start. I just need to buy a few things for my trip. I decided that my 3rd day outside the academe will be spent on a nature trip. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    I dressed up like a normal newbie adventurer and I did not forget to put an illusion spell on myself so that I will look like a young man in the eyes of others. I brought a small bag to put stuff in for show. I''ll put everything else in my inventory space.

    I first went to the general goods store to get some paper and pens to draw maps, some rope to tie things that I caught, a dagger, a simple bow, arrows and a basket for my herb picking. I am enjoying this shopping spree since I feel like a noob in an MMORPG game in my previous world.

    Next stop was the adventurer''s hall to inquire about tasks and if it is possible to take multiple tasks at once. I honestly want to earn money faster and at the same time increase my adventurer rank. Luckily, they allowed low adventurers take up to three connected tasks since they should be relatively easy. I just have to make sure that I finish all of them or I have to take in some penalties. Taking 3 at once will save a lot of time since I would be needing 500 points to get promoted to Rank 9. I chose 2 for herb picking tasks at 25 points each and 1 for hunting small animals for alchemy materials at 40 points. I have a long way to go for that promotion.

    When I was walking towards the southern gate, I noticed from afar, that there was a medium-sized inconspicuous store near the entrance to the entertainment district. The store owner was a man around his mid-50s. This store deals with herbs, materials for alchemy and basic potions. As I went in, I noticed that the items were sparse but well kept. The store smells like freshly cut grass in the morning and a bit of bitter medicine. I approached the old man and asked if they buy off herbs from adventurers here. He smiled at me and said they do but adventurer''s usually sell theirs to the trading hall so he was glad that I am interested in selling my stuff to his shop.

    I have never met this man before but deep in my heart, I wanted to help him and this shop to thrive for some reason. He is old and NO he doesn''t look like my father or anybody I know but I feel like he is already close to me like family. Well, I do things on a whim so why do I have to find a reason to do something good?

    I made a business offer to the old man which surprised him a lot. I offered him a partnership wherein I will give him all my excess herbs after completing adventurer tasks and I will just get a percentage of the sales. I also promised to help him handle the proper storage and inventory of the items in his store. Nobody knows magic and modern technology than I do anyways given that I know the knowledge of all professions. Making some inventions and tools for this store should be much doable for me. For some reason, he agreed and signed a mana contract with me without too many questions. I don''t know why he signed it with a stranger like me though. I guess the feeling of being family was reciprocal.

    He offered me some tea and as a move for us to get a bit closer as business partners, he started to tell stories about himself and his only son. He said that he is a single father of a 20-year old son who is a Rank 8 adventurer (I am currently at Rank 10 which is the lowest). He said that his son is kind and handsome and I should meet him soon. He said that though his son works with harder missions now, he still makes sure to take herb gathering tasks to help the shop at least. He said that his son''s friends sell to their alchemy items to this shop once in a while too. He is a typical victim of the unfair treatment to men. He fell in love, got pregnant but was abandoned. He was just lucky to know about herbs and alchemy so he was able to support himself and his only child.

    On my end, I told him how I came through this world as well as my status as a student of Gnosis. I told him I do not have a family but I have an ever loyal attendant and lover back at the academe. I shared that I was only on a one week break before the classes start and just enjoying the city life. He readily offered to be my foster father in this world which delighted my heart a lot.

    After the heavy topics, I focused more on the business side of things by asking him what herbs are in demand per season and which ones are rare and expensive when sold. We closed the deal and I promised to come back within the next couple of days to fulfill my end of our agreement.

    I went out of the southern gate of the city and ventured to the forest of that area. My target is to map 1/3 of the forest today to fit it in my 1 week trip outside the academe. I used wide range magic to map the terrain and identify the flora and fauna available in the area within a 2-kilometer radius from my point. This was automatically saved in my memories that I can then draw on the map via a magic spell. I was able to complete my 3 tasks within 4 hours with how efficient my magic radar spell was. I plan to create new spells like these which are a combination of my predecessors memories and my life back on earth to make my life more convenient. I focused on completing my tasks first before I started to retrace my steps to go through the Southern forest more throughly. Making sure all animals and plants are identified and recorded. The more detailed my map is, the more money I''ll get for selling it. I picked up different kinds of herbs, edible fruits, flowers, mushrooms, root crops and other useful parts of plants that can be sold in stores in the city. I also hunted animals and made sure to butcher them immediately to keep them fresh while taking note to keep any parts that are usable.

    I totally underestimated my speed though. Making sure that I have snacks while I walk and not needing to rest that much because of my high stamina, I was able to map and gather many items from half of the forest by the middle of the afternoon. I did it in a clockwise direction so I am currently in the western forest area. I guess I''ll enter through the Western Gate later. My bag doesn''t look so full since I have my inventory space anyways. While walking around the forest, I was already formulating the spells and items I will need to create the inventory and storage system for the shop. I think I even overdid it since my OCD is acting up. I made sure that each slot can accommodate up to 100 pieces of each herb and their freshness can be kept indefinitely. It can be set up to fit the store and can be controlled via an inconspicuous looking book. I was thinking of it to be portable too since I am planning on making the store bigger in the future. I was thinking of making it look like a catalogue with realistic looking drawings of the herbs for sale with description of its uses. Creating this book without the inventory space option should sell well too I guess since it focuses on the products within the forest around the city only.

    Being a workaholic, I am enjoying this multi-tasking activity I am doing right now. Being in nature is helping me with my flow of ideas too and in turn making this trip even more productive. After the inventory, I started formulating my ideas for my online bank. I hate carrying tons of coins. I don''t carry them per se but I still have to take out a bunch of them whenever I pay in stores so it is still a hassle. So, why not cashless payments?

    I''ll take the technology of GPS for my maps and those of the ATMs and smart watches for my online bank. I should have like little kiosks that will be used for depositing money to their account and transfers to other banks then connect it to a central storage where all the money is at via magic. I can then take in partners like the academe, adventurer''s hall, magic tower and other businessese and such to support the idea. I can start with the city first then expand it to other places. I''ll have everything patented too in case somebody copies it and lies about him/her owning my ideas. Once I am back at my inn later, I''ll start with the groundwork for the things needed at the old man''s store. The earlier I work on it, the faster I can get the monetary benefits.

    After finishing my mapping task, categorizing the things I got from the forest and hiding some of the other products that are not part of my three tasks, I started walking back towards the western gate.

    Before I could even reach 10 steps, I heard a shout of help somewhere towards the middle of the Wetern forest. It was a man''s voice and he seems to be in a desperate struggle. Out of curiosity, I walked over to have a look. Let''s see if I can offer any help.