That TIme I was Sent to Another World with Nothing but a Backpack

"Cody!" Akari exclaimed, racing towards me. I groaned in pain as I slowly got back onto my feet, brushing myself off.

"You just flew!" she joked with a smirk.

"I'm guessing that I failed," I asked with a tad of disappointment. The shirtless blacksmith suddenly let out a chuckle from behind me.

"Well, you did technically fail, but that was the most entertainment I've had in years, so I'll just give you a permit as thanks."

"Isn't that illega-" Akari quickly slapped a hand over my mouth and gave me a devious whisper. "It's only illegal if someone finds out about it."

I quickly nodded agreement, slightly shaken by her shift in personality. The large blacksmith slowly handed me a piece of paper with a fancy stamp on it.

"Here's your sword permit."

I smiled at the shining license, proud of achieving such a official looking reward.

"Hey Mister Wong, how many ridges would it be for a sword?" Akari questioned with a slight head tilt of curiosity.

I quickly surmised that 'ridges' were the currency of this city.

"Well, let's see here, a sword from a blacksmith of my reputation, factoring in the recent tax increase, and of course, there's the new customer fee..."

I nervously glanced at Akari as the blacksmith rattled off fee after fee after fee.

"Alright, if my calculations are correct, a new blade for the boy along with an obi to attach it... that would be about ten thousand ridges, plus tax, more or less," calculated the blacksmith with a money-hungry grin.

"Ten thousand ridges!?!" exclaimed a baffled Akari, "That's practically extortion!"

"Well, if you kids wanted to collect the minerals from Wyvern Peak yourselves, I could make you a sword for about ... a thousand ridges?"

"Sold!" replied Akari with a relieved sigh. "What materials do you need from the peak?"

"Hmm, let me write a list of them down for you," said the blacksmith as he began jotting things down on a strange-looking piece of paper.

I curiously asked Akari, "What's that thing he's writing on?"

"What, this thing? It's what we like to call a tracking sheet. It's made out of a leaf from a mystical tree found only in the human kingdom. It's used by trackers to find certain desired resources hidden in the peak."

"Done!" declared the blacksmith, tossing the tracking sheet to Akari.

"Thanks Mr. Wong," she said as she grabbed me by the hand. "Now come on Cody, we have a sword to make!"

I waved goodbye to the maniac blacksmith as we practically left him in the dust. Once we were about halfway through the town, we slowed our pace to a smooth hike.

"So, what's the Wyvern Peak like?" I asked Mochi, feeling slightly nervous about my first adventure in this new world.

"It's one of the tallest peaks in Okashina. It sits right on the border between the human kingdom and the dwarf territory, and it's home to some of the most sought after metals."

"Okashina?"

Mochi slapped his forehead with his paw.

"Its the name of our world you idiot, is it really that hard to guess?"

I frowned as i decided to simply suck up the criticism instead of arguing with the canine.

"Also, did you say something about dwarves, let me guess, they're small people who like precious metals?"