How to Earn Money

"… Okay, so next up: how do we actually go about earning money?"

This, too, was something I ended up having to lean on Leone-san for.

She'd surely be the most knowledgeable about how this world worked.

"Right… There are all sorts of ways to scrape together money, but the basic methods boil down to two. The first is plain old labor. There are plenty of jobs in this world, just like anywhere else. The income you can earn from that is somewhere around 100 to 200G a month, though. If you're aiming to save up 250,000G, it's pretty much out of the question."

Hm? If you converted that into a monthly income of one to two million yen, it actually sounded like a pretty hefty sum…

No, I should probably stop converting everything into Japanese yen.

The level of civilization was different, so a straight conversion wasn't necessarily going to hold up.

"… Of course, with looks like Adelia's or Kazami-san's, working as a prostitute could pull in even more than that…"

The casual way she let the word "prostitute" slip out gave her a very grown-up sort of air.

"Pros…! Y-You've got to be joking!"

Sure enough, Kazami-san flew into a rage.

"I have no intention of putting the two of them through anything like that. Isn't there any more respectable line of work? Like, say, putting otherworldly knowledge to good use to…"

It was a staple of isekai stories, after all…

"Yes, in that case, a high income could certainly be expected."

Lyuka was the one who answered.

"If you possess some technology or idea that could advance this world, you'd be highly valued at a university or research lab. If you have a knack for inventing hit products or a head for business, 250,000G is by no means a pipe dream. If that's the path you wish to take, I can guide you to the university city of Unitia or the merchant city of Faisen."

Lyuka offered me that option, but…

"… Ngh."

I found myself at a loss for words. I was the one who'd brought it up, and yet…

I glanced around at the furniture in the room.

From what I could see, this world's technology was certainly a few decades behind modern Japan. But conversely, that meant they had at least reached that cultural level.

Old cathode-ray tube TVs, blocky-looking refrigerators, washing machines that just spun in circles, that kind of older-generation home appliance already existed here.

The gap with modern society was the gap in computers.

Most likely they were somewhere along the vacuum tube → transistor → IC → LSI progression, around the first or second stage.

Which meant that unless I was an engineer who could design a computer from scratch, succeeding on that front from where I stood was basically impossible.

For me, a lower-middle-of-the-pack student, it was out of the question.

Of course, I had no particular head for business either. I was just an ordinary student who couldn't even make my allowance stretch from day to day. No prospects there either.

… Otherworldly-knowledge wrecking-ball stuff really only worked if you were enough of a genius to stand out in modern society too, huh…

"I'm sorry. Forget I said anything. My apologies. Please, back to the main topic."

I lowered my head as I said it.

Leone-san had clearly said there were two methods, and she was about to explain the other one when I'd cut her off.

She didn't seem particularly bothered, though, and giggled before continuing.

"Right. So, the other method. That's making money through this world's system… earning it through Garumon Battles."

"Garumon Battles…"

The topic had come up plenty of times already, and I'd had one experience with it firsthand: that fight Reichhardt had challenged me to.

"Garumon Battles are the absolute system that governs this world. Here, Masters wager their Garumon against each other, challenge other Masters to Garumon Battles, and are challenged in turn. All of it is natural and proper. Exercising that right, you challenge other Masters to Garumon Battles. For G-Class, the obligations are: - Engage in at least one Garumon Battle per week. - Spend at least 8 hours per week at the battlegrounds. If you win, you can take one or more of your opponent's Garumon."

"If I win, my Garumon count goes up? Then wouldn't they just keep piling up…"

"A G-Class Master can only hold up to three at a time. So if you acquire a fourth or more, you have to sell the extras off. When you do, you'll receive an amount of money equivalent to that Garumon's Value. For G-Class, that's 10% of the Value. The same applies if you decline to take the Garumon in the first place. In that case, though, the Garumon returns to the loser first. If the loser has money equivalent to the Garumon's Value on hand, they can pay it and avoid losing their Garumon. If they don't have the money, the Garumon gets taken by the system."

"Uhh…"

That was a little hard to follow. Let me work through it with a concrete example.

Reichhardt and I had wagered Kazami-san at Value 5,000 and Adelia at Value 5,500.

In actuality, I'd won and acquired Adelia, but… say I had passed on Adelia without taking her in:

I'd get 10%, 550G. Reichhardt, holding 5,500G, could pay it and get Adelia back.

If he didn't have that money, Adelia would be sold to the system, and Reichhardt would lose her.

If I'd taken Adelia first and then let her go… no, there was no way I'd ever let her go. This was just hypothetical.

I'd get 10%, 550G. Since she'd be sold directly to the system, she'd never return to Reichhardt's hands.

If I let her go later, after becoming F-Class, then I'd get 20%, 1,100G.

That was how the system worked.

… In other words, if I lost, I'd absolutely lose them unless I had 5,000G for Kanan or 5,500G for Adelia.

Well, there was no way anyone who acquired Kanan and Adelia would ever let them go, so the moment I lost, it was over anyway.

"At G-Class, most Garumon are N-Class, with an average Value of about 100, so a single win earns you around 10G. But if you rack up ten wins in a day, that alone is 100G, many times more than what labor brings in. And if you keep winning Garumon Battles, you'll climb the ranks: F-Class, E-Class, D-Class. As your rank rises, F-Class income is 20% of Value. HN-Class Garumon worth 500 or more start showing up too, so income grows at a doubling-or-better pace. By the time you reach D-Class, saving up 250,000G shouldn't be too difficult."

That was only if I kept winning, though…

Well, no point worrying about what happened if I lost.

At any rate, I now understood that as long as I kept winning Garumon Battles, money would gradually pile up.

But still…

"Um… will it really go that smoothly? Do ranks go up easily?"

"Well, of course, all I can really say is that it depends on the person. Win, and you earn. Your rank goes up, you earn more. Lose, and you lose everything. Lose your Garumon, and there's no coming back. Once you're down, all you can do is crawl along the ground… That's all there is to it. The worst case for a G-Class Master is after losing all your Garumon. You lose everything, and in the end… you fall to H-Class, the lowest, slave-tier status. To climb back up from there, you can either get lucky and find a free Garumon, or save up 100G and bet on a gacha. But for a slave Master to scrape together 100G is a Herculean task."

… So Leone-san wasn't just kindly hand-holding us through everything, it seemed.

Her expression as she explained had said something like, "It's pitiful, but that's just how it goes."

"In case there's any misunderstanding, we are simply being kind because we have hopes that you look promising. If we're mistaken in that, and you lose easily and come back having lost your Garumon, that is no concern of ours. We'd merely be disappointed in our own poor judgment."

Lyuka spoke harshly too.

… Well, the moment she said "we have hopes that you look promising," it put a question mark over how harsh she really was being.

If that was the case, then I wouldn't be a man if I didn't live up to those expectations.

I… got fired up.

Alright. Let's go ahead and try out this Garumon Battle of theirs.

"How do you actually request a Garumon Battle? Is it okay to just challenge someone on a whim?"

"Once you find a suitable Master, just request it from your system screen. There's no need to hold back. There's the obligation I mentioned earlier, and in this world, challenging someone to a Garumon Battle is unequivocally the proper thing to do."

That was the kind of system this world ran on.

Garumon Battles were basically a free-for-all.

That seemed to be the gist of it.

When a winner and loser were decided, the winner took either money or Garumon from the loser. In the case of money, a percentage of it got siphoned off by the system.

This way, the system got fattened, the winner got fattened, win-win.

… The losers' sacrifice wasn't factored in.

Well, no point thinking about losers' sacrifices right now. I'll think about it after I lose. Better yet, win so I don't have to think about it at all.

"Garumon Battles are designed to be fair.

"First, a higher-ranked Master can't challenge a lower-ranked Master.

"For Masters of the same rank, there are three battle types: Even Match, Disadvantageous Battle, and Advantageous Battle.

"Even Match

"… You can challenge if the average LV difference is within ±3 AND the Value of the wagered Garumon is 0.8x or more.

"Refusal is not permitted; refusing results in an automatic loss.

"Advantageous Battle

"… You can challenge if your own Garumon's average LV is higher and the LV difference is within 10 OR the Value is less than 0.8x.

"The challenged party can refuse with no risk.

"Disadvantageous Battle

"… If your opponent's Garumon's average LV is higher and the LV difference is 4 or more, you can challenge if the wagered Garumon's Value is 0.5x or more.

"Other than that, it's the same as an Even Match."

"Uh, um…"

The restrictions felt incredibly tedious. It took me a moment to grasp them.

"The basic premise is that you're only meant to fight Garumon of similar Value and similar level. A battle where the strong one-sidedly toys with the weak is impossible. Basically, you can leave it to the system. If 'Advantageous Battle' is displayed, picking 'No' is fine. For 'Even Match' and 'Disadvantageous Battle,' picking 'No' results in an automatic loss. As long as you remember that, you'll be fine."

"Naoto-san, you currently hold Garumon with the highest Values in the world. There's no way for someone whose Garumon are worth less than half of yours to challenge you to a Garumon Battle. In that sense, you won't be on the receiving end of a Garumon Battle for a while."

"But I had one picked on me right after I got here…"

"That's an extremely rare case. Higher-ranked people can't challenge lower-ranked ones, and there's basically nobody at G-Class who has a Garumon with a Value over 4,000."

That was her explanation.

So that guy really was a rare case, huh. Now that I thought about it, he had mentioned being a noble.

"I, too, recommend that you actively take on Garumon Battles, raise your rank, and increase your income."

Lyuka echoed her.

"To repeat, I am not guaranteeing that you'll be able to do it. I simply have no intention of waiting on you for ten or twenty years… Having one's expectations betrayed is a common enough occurrence even outside this world. This is a trial from me. Gaining a Magus, a being rare even in this world, is an exceptional stroke of luck. Don't think it can be achieved so easily."

That was Lyuka going tsundere on me.

… Hmm, isn't she cute? I'm starting to feel the urge to obtain her at all costs.

"Lastly, let me give you a few pieces of advice."

Leone-san went on to explain various small details about the Garumon Battle system, plus some other odds and ends.

It'd get too long to recount, so I'll skip that for now.

I'd taken in a lot of explanations, but it was still early afternoon. Too early to call it a day, and being penniless had made me restless besides.

"… Alright then, let's head out and earn some money in a Garumon Battle right away."

I stood up.

"Mm, agreed. Let's hurry up and rake in cash so we can say goodbye to this place!"

"Adelia will do her best for Goshujin-sama too, nya!"

Kanan and Adelia both stood up after me.

And so, with high spirits, the three of us set out…

… And now we were tasting the harshness of this world firsthand.

"Are they here?"

"Nope, no sign of them. Damn it, where are they…? There's no way they wouldn't show up on my sensor…"

"Roller-search formation! Advance at 25-meter intervals! First come, first served!"

"It's a bonus chance for the first two to find them! Two of those top-tier Garumon, and the Master's a small fry! Total ducks-with-onions situation!"

Right now, I was being targeted and run down by a whole crowd of G-Class Masters.

"Garumon Battles inside town are basically prohibited, so if you want to battle, you have to head outside town. There's a battleground on the western side of town where the young guys who want to do Garumon Battles hang around."

"Their whole goal is to challenge and be challenged, so go ahead and pick fights left and right."

After Leone and Lyuka told us that, we'd made our way to the battleground on the western side of town.

About ten or so young men were loitering around there.

… With ten of them all in one place, I wondered briefly why they weren't battling each other…

They glanced over at us, each pulled up their system, checked something…

And in that instant, the air shifted, and they all stood up.

I, for my part, had been checking my system screen for which of the ten I should challenge.

"… Yo, kid. New face? Pleased to meetcha…"

One of them, a man with buck teeth, called out to me.

"Ah, hello."

Uhh…

I quickly glanced at the system.

That was what showed up in the status display.

A G-Class Master can only hold up to three Garumon at a time. Apparently the cap rises with rank, but…

He was holding three Garumon, all LV10. So he was a tier above me.

But still… the Values were low!

Huh, was that what Garumon Values were usually like? Now that I thought about it, Leone had mentioned G-Class averaged around Value 100…

So 5,000 or 5,500 Value was exceptionally high?

"… Gulp…"

Geral compared the status screen to Kazami-san standing beside me, and a vulgar grin spread across his face.

"N-Niiice… so she's Kanan Kazami-chan, huh… and a rainbow-shimmering otherworldly Garumon to boot…! H-Holy shit, that's amazing…"

Slurp, gulp…

Geral had sucked his drool back in… Disgusting.

"Don't come any closer!"

Kazami-san shouted at him.

"!?"

Geral's eyes flew wide in shock.

"What a cheap-looking bunch. But hey, even guys like these, if we clean them out down to the roots, ought to bring in a decent income, right? … Come on, let's hurry up and crush them! We can't afford to stand still if we want out of a place like this!"

Kazami-san declared boldly.

… Honestly, this person. She really never changed no matter where she went…

I gave a wry smile, thinking I might as well challenge this guy to a battle, when,

"Ger… you ain't gonna get anywhere. Step aside."

A self-important-looking man called out from behind him.

Uh, system check.

Sice, huh. He looked just like the head of a delinquent gang, rough and thuggish.

The type who would have intimidated me a little if I'd run into him in my old world.

"… H-Hey there, Sice-san."

Geral stepped back.

Clearly a notch above Geral. It looked like he was the top dog of the ten gathered here.

"… I've seen 'em myself, y'know. C-Class Masters out in town… Those guys walking around with dazzling, top-grade bitches on their arm. I used to envy them, figuring they must've been born under a lucky star…"

What was with this guy…? Suddenly launching into a monologue.

"Guess gods really do exist! Goddesses of fortune like these, dropping right into my lap! Oi, you bastards, surround him and kill him, right now! Offer up these two top-grade bitches to me this second!"

"Come, Ira!"

"Get him, Maari!"

"Go, Rio!"

"Crush him, Dea!"

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Women appeared one after another… no, Garumon.

A whole crowd of Garumon were glaring at us with sharp eyes…

"K-Kazami-san, we're running for it!"

I broke into a run.

"Wha, Naoto?! You're running away?!"

Kazami-san followed.

"… This is an Out-of-Battle Battle! Let your guard down and we die!"

Things had jumped straight to the climax.

A little earlier, Leone-san had given us an explanation just to be safe.

"There won't be any G-Class Masters in this town who can challenge you to a regular Garumon Battle… So, as I said, you'll have to be the one doing the challenging. But… The two Garumon you have with you are truly, exceptionally high-Value Garumon. So there will be some who'll decide they want to take them, even if they have to kill you to do it. What happens then is what's called an Out-of-Battle Battle… a real fight. Without having to follow Garumon Battle rules, attacks can be launched completely freely."

The rules of a real fight were, in a sense, simple… Die and you lose.

Let me check my own status while I was at it.

G-213th, Naoto Akai, HP 10/10

That was my current status. Beating Reichhardt had bumped my ranking up.

I had HP, just like a Garumon.

"Masters have HP too. It's a form of protection from the system. A Master's HP, unlike a Garumon's, takes a fixed 1 damage from any attack. In other words, up to ten times, no matter what attack hits you, you don't have to worry about being injured… However, take ten hits and your HP reaches 0, and that's it. The system's protection runs out. If you get caught in a Garumon's attack with HP 0, you lose your life without mercy. In a normal Garumon Battle, the Garumon are wrapped up inside the battlefield, and the Master only gives orders from outside it, so it's safe. But in an Out-of-Battle Battle, the Master can also be attacked. So pay close attention to your own HP."

"… Yes."

"If a Master dies, their Garumon's contracts are dissolved and they become free. They get forcibly ejected from their capsules, and at that point it's first come, first served, free for the taking. Plotting to murder a Master in order to claim them… unfortunately, there are no small number of such Masters out there. The system does have a few brakes in place to deter Out-of-Battle Battles, technically."

(1) A higher-ranked Master can never carry out an attack on a lower-ranked Master.

However, if the lower-ranked Master attacks the higher-ranked Master first, this restriction is lifted.

(Higher-to-lower attacks prohibited.)

(2) Once you've challenged someone to a Garumon Battle, for 24 hours afterward you cannot perform any attack against them, Garumon Battles included.

(Follow-up attacks prohibited.)

(3) Within 10 minutes after a Garumon Battle ends, no other Master may attack the participants.

(Many-on-one attacks prohibited.)

That kind of thing. Within these bounds, Masters were protected.

Which meant outside these bounds, there was a very real danger of death.

Same-rank Masters ganging up to attack you wasn't prohibited by the system either.

"Higher-ranked Masters can't attack directly, but they can order their subordinate lower-rank Masters to attack you. Be careful."

Leone-san's advice described the current situation with brilliant accuracy.