Rising of the Caped Baldy

Chapter 10: A Good Egg

Saitama walked down the streets of the capital as Raphtalia tailed close behind. He sighed as he watched the seconds tick down to the next wave. Staring at the clock that his shield presented to him as the next minute rolled by. The moment the seconds hit 59 again he let his arms flop to his sides.

 "Forty-five days until the next wave?" Saitama sighed. "What're we gonna do until then?"

"There's a lot we could do, but I think we should focus on leveling up and getting more money." Raphtalia walked beside Saitama as she spoke. "We also need to increase our supply stock. We're running low on... " Raphtalia paused and opened a torso-sized sack, "on everything, actually." She finished.

It was true, Saitama hadn't prepared much ahead of time other than grabbing whatever interesting-looking shrubs he found in the forest. Even then, those were running low due to him messing around with them, or even using them as kindle when he gets too lazy to find dead brush nearby. Despite the kindling happening within forests and grasslands, areas that usually teem with dry, burnable bio-material to use. 

Although they do have one kind of item that was abundant to them. Pounds of medicine that Saitama had made in his boredom. They would still go bad, however, so they had to get rid of it soon no matter what. The only reason he knew they would go bad was because of a small timer that loomed above the medicine. '

Nifty.' He thought to himself. His eyes wandered onto a pharmacy-at least that's what he thinks they're referred to as here-on his right. "Think they would buy it?" He pointed to the shop and looked at Raphtalia.

"Maybe." She muttered. Saitama hadn't waited for her to elaborate, instead, taking the two fist-sized pouch out of the bag and walking into the store.

"Welcome." The old lanky man idly said from behind the counter. 

Saitama walked towards him with his arm raised to place the pouch onto the counter. "Would you buy this medicine from me?" 

The old many looked Saitama up and down before examining some of the medicine. "It's not of very high quality." The old man glanced at a few empty shelves. "You're lucky that the last wave disrupted my supply chain." He said as he pulled the pouch behind the counter, producing a handful of copper coins.

The old man inhaled on some kind of smoke pipe, eyeing Saitama again as he did. His eyes locked onto Saitama's shield. He burst into a fit of violent coughs, putting out his smoke pipe as he did. 

"You're the shield hero, aren't you?" He went to dig something out from behind his counter. After a second he pulled out a book, slightly worn, and with a title on the front.  Saitama stared at the cover as the old man spoke, his words going through one ear and straight out the other. The old man exhaled all the smoke that lingered in his system as Saitama realized a problem.

He couldn't read.

Not to say he was completely illiterate. More specifically, he couldn't read the text commonly used in this world. To be fair, he wasn't a very avid reader back home, mainly just looking at the pictures and skimming over the majority of the paragraphs in his books, but he could read enough to get by in life, but here was an entirely different case. In this world, he couldn't read a lick of anything.

The old man's words began to register as Saitama's concern over his realization died down. "Consider it thanks for saving a relative of mine in Lute." The old man shrugged. "Though you look a lot different than how they described you. You don't exactly fit into the 'shining hero' description." He said, not taking his eyes off of Saitama's shiny dome for a second.

"Oi, old man, what's that supposed to mean." It was less a question and more a warning.

He seemed not to even hear Saitama's response as he continued. "By the way, that old woman in the magic shop wanted to thank you as well. Tell who you are, the coot's eyes may be too rotten to work right." He chuckled as he leaned against the counter. "Over to the left, can't miss it." He gestured towards the shop's location.