Surviving as a Useless Bard in a Game

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On a dark night, I climbed the back mountain of the village and it became dark.

Hearing this, one might think it’s no big deal, but the problem was that I wasn’t in a modern city—I had climbed the back mountain of a tranquil medieval countryside village.

Right. There was no “light” anywhere.

No matter how much I looked around, I couldn’t find even a small clue to help me figure out the direction.

In the end, I had to make a choice.

“Spending the night on this mountain… and searching for a way out until I’m on the verge of death with the little stamina I have left.”

Spending a night in this forest, where bears, predators, and maybe even monsters could appear? That was practically a suicide mission.

Even if I somehow survived the night, my status window ‘Penalty’ would reset the next morning.

That meant my narcolepsy or klutzy habits would come back.

If my narcolepsy kicked in while climbing down the mountain, or my klutzy habit led to me getting scratched up or gravely injured? I’d trigger a death event right away.

“Stay calm.”

I absolutely refused to become an idiot again.

Not realizing the sun was setting and spending a long time gathering herbs was a pretty idiotic move as well, but simply lamenting about it wouldn’t change anything.

The best I could do now was to use my brain to escape this situation.

I looked around.

Even if I had strayed far from the path while herb gathering, there would still be a path nearby.

It was an obvious statement, but the radius in which I could operate with my stamina was extremely limited. Even if I busily moved around all day, I wouldn’t be able to go even 1 km before getting exhausted and collapsing.

I hadn’t been continuously moving; I had taken breaks along the way.

That my stamina was quite poor.

Time had passed, but considering I hadn’t strayed far from the path.

Considering all these variables, if I could find a familiar landmark based on my location, I could safely return to the Adventurer’s Guild.

“…Even in the worst-case scenario, wouldn’t an emergency request be issued to find an adventurer who’s been missing for a few days?”

At least I had a safety net.

If an adventurer associated with the guild went missing while on a request, a higher-ranked adventurer would file a missing report, accept the request, and begin a search.

It wouldn’t take long to search this whole mountain, so after 72 hours, I would be discovered.

…Or I could just die of starvation without even getting a drink.

That was also the benchmark from the previous work. At this current point, I had no way of knowing what policies the Adventurer’s Guild had, so it was just speculation.

Maybe in the worst-case scenario, they could leave me here to rot.

I looked up at the sky.

I had heard that in a clean countryside, one could find direction by looking at the stars and the moon. I had been told the mountains were located south of the village, so if I could determine where north was… I could return.

Let’s look for the moon and stars.

“…Wait a second.”

I noticed something strange. There were numerous oddities, but starting with the most important:

I couldn’t find the North Star. The Cassiopeia and Ursa Major I’d seen in books were nowhere to be found.

Of course, it was obvious. The constellations in this world couldn’t perfectly match those in the real world. But still, there was a way for me. I shouldn’t lose hope.

This world has a moon too. The moon rises in the east and sets in the west.

Since it was getting dark and I looked at the sky right away, if I had to estimate the time, it would be around 6 to 7 o’clock? It felt a bit early to call it night, but I couldn’t see the sun.

“No, I don’t even know if this is the northern or southern hemisphere.”

The expectation that the moon would appear exactly like in reality and the assumption that the game developers had implemented such detailed graphics were all things that couldn’t be confirmed.

If I misjudged the direction, I might really die.

Besides, my major wasn’t astronomy. I couldn’t instantly determine direction just by looking at the moon. I couldn’t even distinguish which way was up or down.

Ordinary people usually can’t tell direction by looking at stars or the moon!

Ugh! Status window! Help me! At least show me some options!

…Nothing happened at all.

*

Fortunately, my bag had food and water.

Unhappily, I still hadn’t found my way.

It’s a given, but the basic gear provided for adventurers included some disgusting emergency food cubes and a bottle of clean water.

I must have forgotten this fact because… maybe my intelligence is low?

Well, at least the urgent problem is solved.

I’ll skip over how incredibly dumb I was and instead focus on moving my body to solve the fundamental issue.

I created a makeshift landmark that could be seen from afar. I gathered some branches scattered around and awkwardly tied them with grass like a makeshift rope.

It made for a fairly convincing marker.

—Though calling it a marker might be a stretch; it was just some long sticks shoved solidly into the ground. They could easily topple over with even a slight breeze.

“I could have made this better, but…”

One might ask what could possibly be marked with a mere stick, but areas where herbs grow tend to be open spaces. They don’t grow in dark places where trees block the light.

To sum it up, it stands out more than I thought. Once you come close, you’d realize, “Ah, this is where I started.”

Good. Now it’s time to head into the forest and search for the path.

*

I don’t know how much time had passed.

I finally succeeded in finding a path where people had walked.

Thankfully, I didn’t get any scratches, didn’t encounter any monsters, and didn’t collapse from lack of stamina.

Having successfully overcome the world’s stupidity, I started to follow the human footprints back, tearing up with joy.

Just as my stamina was about to hit the floor, I could finally see the lights of the village.

I was back.

“…An adventurer in the beginner’s first request facing such a crisis. This is just absurd.”

Not only was my goal of returning to reality in question, but so was shaking off the stamina and health debuffs. If I kept searching for items in this state, I would be dead in no time.

Dragging my tired body, I moved forward steadily, step by step.

And then… I opened the door to the Adventurer’s Guild.

“…Oh.”

“What a mess you’re in.”

“Is that the girl from the morning?”

The time was night.

It was the perfect time to drink to recover my tired body and mind.

The first floor of the Adventurer’s Guild doubled as a tavern, so they began eating and drinking, making me the subject of their chatter and entertainment.

My ears were too worn-out to hear their conversations, and all I could think about was quickly submitting my herbs and lying down in my room.

Receiving attention from others felt nice.

But not now.

The waitress and receptionist looked taken aback by my appearance, but soon started serving with smiles.

I submitted 15 herbs, excluding the ones I would use for recovery potions and those I would sell to the alchemist.

“C-confirmation complete.”

“…Yes.”

“Here’s your reward. I’ve added it to your experience.”

After hesitating slightly, the receptionist quickly regained her composure and splendidly finished the transaction.

The adventurers who had just been chatting about me suddenly fell silent. They stared at me without saying a word.

I pocketed a copper coin in my hand and looked back at them.

This time, I didn’t look away.

They subtly turned their heads. Once I confirmed their gaze disappeared, I headed towards the second floor.

I couldn’t understand what kind of courage or pride led me to act that way… I guess I just didn’t like it.

Others talking about me. That alone bothered me so much… Yeah. Just that.

If they were going to gossip about me, I’d prefer to hear compliments over a tale of coming back battered from a simple request. Yes. I… wanted to hear praises.

It was a mere desire for acknowledgment.

For some reason, I felt the urge to receive attention from others.

Was my character’s personality affecting me? Or was it that the suppressed desires from living as a quiet commoner were finally being released?

I couldn’t understand.

Right now, I just wanted… to rest.

Before another tomorrow comes, I just needed a good break.

*

Even after the bard with black hair went up to the second floor, the heat on the first floor did not easily cool down.

It was partly because alcohol tends to go down smoother at night, and also because adventurers, compared to ordinary folks, could drink a lot, but the biggest factor was simple.

“…What happened?”

“Who knows. But the fact that she’s been rolling around in the woods until this hour can only mean one thing.”

“There aren’t any idiots who would get lost on a hill like that.”

Good-looking fellow adventurers or guild receptionists always make for juicy gossip.

Especially when it’s a new adventurer who had just shown up today.

Late at night, is there even a regular idiot who would take more than an hour to complete an herb gathering mission? That’s just nonsense.

“Did she run into bandits…?”

“No, maybe it was goblins.”

“She was unlucky. She looked about the same age as my daughter.”

Due to the nature of the adventurer’s job, where people can easily disappear or die, rumors spread quite quickly across the guild floor.

At the same time, camaraderie is also pretty common.

When an adventurer dies, it’s pretty common for their equipment and belongings to be taken by their comrades, and there’ve even been cases where funerals were held in place of their families.

Yeah. Right now, they were worrying about the rookie adventurer, the Bard Girl, who had fallen asleep on the second floor, totally unaware of anything.

What kind of ordeal had she gone through in the forest to return in such a state?

The atmosphere grew somber as everyone raised their beers.

The lively chatter from just moments ago had subdued considerably.