According to Luna’s explanation, the Omoreo Region was three times larger than the Alhen Region, and the portion occupied by Volter Mountain was only a tiny part of it.
If one looked at the Omoreo Region as a whole, it was an agriculture-based granary region, but if one looked only from the perspective of tourism, there was nowhere to visit except Volter Mountain.
We headed straight for the village south of Volter Mountain.
“After my brother and I began making a name for ourselves as hunters, we would often receive requests for support from other regions.”
“Have you ever been called here to Volter Mountain too?”
“I remember being called five or six times over the past ten years. The last time I stopped by was three years ago.”
She said she had been called here quite a bit, so it was not as if she knew nothing of the roads.
Thanks to Luna knowing the way, we did not get lost and were able to head straight to an inn with a hot spring.
“I know an inn, so let us go there.”
While following Luna toward the inn, I looked around inside the village.
Stores and private homes had been built in tiers along the slope.
One peculiar point was that every home had a stone wall, and inside each stone wall, there were at least two buildings.
One was a house where people lived.
The other was a chicken coop.
The chicken coops were all as large as the houses people lived in.
And inside those chicken coops were chickens three times larger than ordinary chickens.
It felt as if I had come to a chicken expo.
I tossed a joke at Luna.
“One of those would feed six people until they were full.”
As if saying it was still too early to be amazed, Luna glanced at the private home we happened to be passing and gestured with her chin.
“A chicken’s size does not even count as unusual here. Look a little closer.”
What else was there?
I sharpened my vision and examined the chicken coop inside the house, and only then did I understand what Luna meant.
Inside the chicken coop was a small hot spring about one meter in diameter.
One in every chicken coop of every house, at that.
Inside the small hot springs, chickens were enjoying half-body baths with their bodies half-submerged.
I deliberately spoke as if for Luna to hear.
“Even chickens are soaking in hot springs so diligently.”
“You will not sway me by provoking me.”
“Sniff, sniff.”
“Trying to find fault with me through smell will not work either. I do not smell.”
“By the way, if they add medicinal herbs and seasoning in there, it will turn straight into samgyetang.”
“Samgyetang?”
“There is a dish like that. It is a chicken soup dish from my country.”
“People around here do not eat much chicken and mainly eat eggs. Spa Chicken meat is too tough to be edible.”
Spa Chickens.
Apparently, they were a breed raised near Volter Mountain.
If raised normally, their egg production was no different from that of ordinary chickens.
Instead, if a single special condition was met, their egg production increased geometrically.
They had to be provided with a hot spring they could enter and leave every day.
Depending on the presence or absence of a hot spring, their egg production increased twentyfold.
What was unfortunate was that distribution could not keep up with mass production.
It was not as if this place had refrigerated trucks like our world did, so there were limits to the range they could supply.
Usually, the eggs were consumed within the villages of Volter Mountain, or at most, within the Omoreo Region.
As a result, inside the villages of Volter Mountain, where the eggs were produced, people handed them out for free.
As proof, the standing signboards placed outside every shop read.
[Unlimited Boiled Eggs]
Whether it was a restaurant, a blacksmith’s workshop, or a souvenir shop, everyone was providing boiled eggs.
Just like how people gave out tangerines wherever you went on Jeju Island.
Pointing to several buildings larger than the other shops, Luna spoke.
“Because the residents hand out eggs so generously, every year, people keep eating free eggs to their hearts’ content, end up getting sick, and have to rely on the clinic.”
“So in effect, they are using eggs to increase medical income.”
“What is funny is that even the clinic provides boiled eggs for free.”
“Pfft, is that not completely direct from the source?”
As we moved while exchanging quiet conversation, we nearly reached the first exploration point of the Omoreo Region.
The location pointed to by the exploration point was an ultra-luxury inn.
On a site that looked to be about 1,650 square meters, a single-story brick building shaped like a square had been built, and on both sides of the path leading to the front gate stood rows of stone statues dressed like infantrymen who would have worn such clothes, by the standards of our world, in the late nineteenth century.
No matter how I looked at them, they seemed to be statues honoring dimension travelers.
As for me, rather than the owner’s reverence toward dimension travelers, the luxurious interior kept catching my eye.
It was definitely not an inn that cost only a coin or two.
I moved close to Luna and whispered quietly into her ear.
“This place looks far from cheap. Are you sure it will be all right?”
“I came here often with my brother, so it is fine.”
“Ah~ You came here often. Then I can relax.”
“Whenever we passed by this place, we used to joke that the cost of staying here for one day would be enough for a week of living expenses.”
“So when you said you came here often, you meant you often passed in front of it?”
Even the people going in and out of the building smelled of money, or perhaps dignity.
Among the people staying in the lobby, Luna and I were the only ones dressed shabbily.
How much money did I have right now?
I put a hand into my pocket and counted the remaining coins with my fingers.
Clink.
Two silver coins caught against my fingers.
To stay for one night at an inn located in an out-of-the-way place, I had to pay one gold coin, or five silver coins.
On top of that, additional expenses had occurred as I paid for meals.
“For reference, two silver coins are my entire fortune.”
“I will ask them for a room suited to two silver coins.”
When we approached the desk, employees dressed like waiters lined up in a row on both our left and right sides, bowed, and welcomed us in loud voices.
“Welcome!”
Oh dear, how burdensome.
The welcome was so intense that there was no atmosphere in which we could possibly back away.
Luna went one step further and carelessly tossed one sentence to the employee at the desk.
“Give us the most expensive room.”
I whispered into Luna’s ear.
“I hear black cats are expensive. You would probably fetch enough to cover the lodging fee here.”
“There is no way a stray cat would be expensive.”
“True. Since you are a scruffy cat who does not wash, it would be hard to get full price.”
“Let’s just work hard washing dishes together.”
The employee was quietly smiling as he waited for our conversation to end.
We had lowered our voices, thinking we were talking among ourselves, but it seemed our voices had reached the employee too.
When I gave him an awkward smile, only then did the employee ask Luna whether we had a reservation.
Luna gave the reservation name.
“It was reserved under the name of the manager of Cypher Village Adventurers’ Guild.”
“Ah! We received word in advance! Then is the person beside you perhaps him?”
“Yes, he is the dimension traveler.”
“I will call the owner. Please wait a moment.”
The employee forgot even to maintain his dignity and hurriedly slipped out from behind the desk, entering the corridor connected to the lobby.
Realizing the arrangement had been made from the beginning, I demanded an explanation from Luna.
“When did you arrange this?”
“When we stayed at my brother’s house for a day, my brother told me. While we were away, the guild manager had apparently visited. He said that unless we had a specific reason to get certain lodgings in Omoreo, we should go to a luxury inn in any village.”
“We are indebted to Mr. Nadan at every turn.”
“There is no need to be grateful. It is not as if my brother paid for it.”
“Is your evaluation of your brother not too harsh?”
“It is true.”
Not long afterward, a middle-aged man in a suit busily walked out from the corridor.
He was a man with a two-to-eight parted hairstyle, a body thin enough that his cheeks were hollow, and an impressive goatee.
The man stood before me and bowed politely with proper courtesy.
“Welcome, honored dimension traveler. I am Larsson, the owner of South Volter.”
“I am Jo Seong-jin. I hope I am not being rude by coming so suddenly.”
“Oh my, rude? It is the opposite. Ever since we received word from the Adventurers’ Guild yesterday, I have been waiting eagerly for when you would arrive. Let us not stand here. Please come to my office.”
From what I heard, the guild in Cypher Village had contacted the Adventurers’ Guild in the Omoreo Region.
They had said that a dimension traveler would soon cross into the Omoreo Region, and asked them to make arrangements so he could stay comfortably wherever he went.
The Adventurers’ Guild in the Omoreo Region then contacted several luxury lodgings and asked if they would cooperate.
Amusingly enough, far from refusing, the owners had apparently begged the guild in reverse, insisting that the dimension traveler be sent to their own lodgings no matter what.
After we moved into the owner’s office, Larsson took the finest liquor from a cupboard, offered it to me, and spoke.
“For myself and for the residents around here as well, the fact that we can live this well is entirely thanks to dimension travelers. We could thank you countless times and it still would not be enough.”
When I said I was fine without liquor, Larsson hurriedly called someone and ordered tea to be brewed and brought in.
I held a cheap candy that had been placed there in lieu of snacks in my mouth, and only when more than half of the candy had melted did I open my mouth.
“To begin with, I am planning to stay in this region for about four days.”
“Hahaha, and here I wondered what serious thing you were about to say. Will a mere four days be enough? Since you have come all this way, why not stay for about a month? Of course, I will not take any lodging fees.”
Indefinite free lodging at a place where the cost of one night was a week’s living expenses for a two-person household.
They treated me so well that it was frightening instead.
“My immediate primary goal is to stop by each of the hot springs in the east, west, south, and north. So I think I will likely only stay here for one night.”
“Mm, is your purpose perhaps to obtain the Stamina Recovery Skill?”
“The Stamina Recovery Skill?”
“There are many large and small hot springs on Volter Mountain. Among them, there are exactly four hot springs with special effects, one in each of the villages to the east, west, south, and north. Entering all four of those hot springs is the acquisition condition for the Stamina Recovery Skill.”
This was not information included in Traveler Package’s message.
I had thought it strange that they presented an event that practically forced me to soak in the hot springs, and it turned out their hidden intention was to strengthen my specs.
I shook my head.
“I did not particularly set my schedule while being conscious of the skill.”
“I thought so. If you had said you intended to learn it, I would have stepped forward and stopped you first.”
“Is the skill not very good?”
“In truth, even among us locals, there are not many who have learned the Stamina Recovery Skill. It only becomes useful once the skill level reaches 20. To invest as many as 20 points into something like recovery... It is a waste.”
A skill that cost 1 point per level up and became useful starting from skill level 20.
Even if it was a useless skill to the people of this other world, it was no problem at all for me because my skill level rose by 5 each time.
In this place, stamina was no different from the fuel for skills, so possessing the ability to recover stamina meant I could fire off skills in rapid succession.
At this point, I was starting to suspect whether they were really trying to collect travel information.
Whether there was a hidden intention or not, I only needed to enjoy myself in my own way.
In any case, the fact remained that enjoying hot springs would build up my Travel Reward Fund.
Around the time we each emptied the tea the employee had brought.
As if the real business began now, Larsson clasped his hands together and spoke in a rather serious tone.
“There is actually something I must tell you. Before we get to the main point, may I ask what weapons you currently possess?”