Chapter 175 Strongest Sage, Rank Up

 

A few tens of minute after we defeated a large amount of monsters.
We safely got back to the town and headed toward the guild we took the quests from.

"We kinda went and completed these quests really quickly... You think they'd doubt us...?"

"Don't even need to think about that, they're gonna doubt us for sure, you know?"

Alma gave an instant reply to the worried Ruli.
True, there's a high chance of that.
That's exactly why we're raising our ranks at a territory that's on friendly terms with Eis Kingdom.

Right about now, the lord here should be informed that my coming here is to fight a demon.
The guild in this country isn't under control of the ruling lords, so you can't get them to raise your rank, but lowering possible obstructions is good enough.

...We arrived at the guild while thinking that.

"Huh, you're back already. We accept paying penalty by installments, although there's a slight interest, so...."

The quest receptionist spoke out the moment she saw my face.
Looks like she thinks I've failed the quests.

"No need for penalty. We've completed all the quests we took."

"Erm... You shouldn't lie, okay? Subjugation parts are needed to prove you've completed a quest, and considering you came into the guild empty-handed..."

I see.
Apparently, she thinks I failed the quests because I'm not holding the subjugation part in my hand.

"Are these acceptable?"

I took some random subjugation parts out of Storage magic and put it on the counter.
The counter can't fit too many, so I only took three out.

"These are... Wraith Scissor's shells! Beating this many so quick, is Mathias-san by any chance, actually not a rookie, but a veteran adventurer?"

"I'm not exactly a veteran, but I've done my fair share of adventuring in Eis Kingdom. My card even has the, Issued at: Eis Kingdom, on it."

I showed my guild card as I said that.
『Issued at: Eis Kingdom Embassy Branch of Raginia Federation Guild』 is written on the back of the card.

"Ah, you're right. How unusual! ...If you're this strong, you might just be able to complete that many quests before the deadline!"

"Or rather, we've managed to do it somehow."

"Managed to, somehow... Don't tell me, these aren't all, and you've defeated all the monsters in the quests you took!?"

"Yeah... Since the counter is full already, I think it's better if we go by them one by one."

I took more random subjugation parts from Storage magic.
However, what caught the receptionist's interest wasn't the parts.

"...Where did you take them from just now?"

"Storage Magic."

Huh, I've seen this flow of events somewhere before.
--Aah. It was at the Adventurer Guild after our first delving into a dungeon.
I can predict what's going to happen next.

"Storage Magic!?"

Yup.
Same reaction as Eis Kingdom's guild.
Explaining this is a pain, I've got make sure to bring my luggage out beforehand the next time I'm doing this.

◇

A few minutes later.
After we somehow managed to get past Storage magic explanation, we got back to the topic.

"Erm... All the subjugation quests are completed. Members participating in the quests are Mathias-san, Iris-san, Alma-san and Ruli-san, is it alright to attribute it to these four?"

"Will our ranks go up if we do that?"

"Yes. There's enough point needed for a party of up to six people to rank up."

"Then, please do so."

Looks like we won't need to do quests for each members.
That'll save us some trouble.

"Understood. Please wait for a moment."

The receptionist withdrew inside with our cards in her hand.
After a bit, she brought back cards with a different color than before.
They were blackish before, these ones are bluish.

"Since all of you have completed 10 rank G quests, and 15 rank F quests, all members have fulfilled the rank up quota. As there is no need for tests to rank up to Rank E, you're all already one now!"

The receptionist presented the guild cards to us.
Looks like the card's color changes with rank.

"By the way, this sets the record for the fastest rank up ever! Ordinarily, it takes one month at least no matter how fast you are..."

1 month just to complete 25 quests huh...

Well, since rank G and rank F are beginner ranks, people probably raise their rank as they train.
Coming here from abroad and raising rank in one stretch are probably a relatively rare case.

"By the way, since we're now Rank E and all, that means we can take Rank E quests right? Could you process the subjugation parts if there are rank D monsters among the monsters we beat earlier?"

"Erm, we can't do that if there is no subjugation quest issued for the particular monster, or if the monster is killed on another territory, otherwise, it will be treated as a quest completion."

"How do you even distinguish if a monster is killed on another territory?"

"From stuff like the material freshness. Bringing materials from a faraway place would spoil it after all... That's also why there are apparently quick-footed people who bring it to other guilds and such."

Freshness huh.
We can cheat all we want by using Storage magic with its time freeze.
Well, this time these are all legit from monsters we beat at a nearby forest.

"Got it. Then, something like that should be..."

I look for rank D like materials from among the ones I have in hand.
I only studied up monsters that appeared in the quests we took so I'm yet to know what kind of monsters are ranked D, but this should be easily remedied by looking up at the quest tags.

I turn my sight at rank D quest tags.
First thing that came into my sight was a subjugation quest for 『Big Horn Turtle』.
Need to subjugate three of them.

Judging from its name, it should be a big sized turtle with a horn.
There were two kind of turtle monsters with horns on them, it's probably the bigger one.

There were only three of those big ones, just enough to complete the quest.

"First, Big Horn Turtle subjugation quest. The subjugation part is, the horn right?"

I haven't checked to see if it's really the horn, but it generally is the case with monsters that has horns.
Would be nice if it applies here too...

"Yes. That is correct."

"Then, here you go."

I took out the Big Horn Turtle's horn.
The turtle was about five meter long, and the horn alone is about one meter long.

It's big alright, but it's ultimately a turtle, hard to consider this monster as rank D... but so long as I can use it to raise our rank, it'll do.
By the way, the smaller turtles were even weaker than this one.

"Eh... Isn't this a bit too big?"

"...Well since it's called Big Horn Turtle, it has to be big right?"

"No, normally it should be around this big..."

The receptionist spreads out her arms to make about 30-cm wide space.
30 cm, then...

"This one?"

I took out the smaller horn.

"Yes! That's it! We have 10 batches of the same quest for Big Horn Turtle, how many do you have?"

The smaller ones seems to be the correct answer here.
I've got a lot of these horns, but is it really alright for this to be rank D.
You sure it's not a mistake.

"10 huh, then 30."
<TLN: If you're reading this novel at any other site than Sousetsuka .com you might be reading an unedited, uncorrected version of the novel.>
"30!? How were you able to kill so many!?"

"How you ask, well."

I try to recall the battle that time.
But, those turtles didn't really leave a lasting impression on me.

"I just cut them with my sword..."

"Shot them with my bow..."

"Blew 'em away with my spear. I just swung my spear around randomly though, so I don't really remember what kind of monsters I beat..."

Looks like the three are under the same impression.
Rather, Iris doesn't even distinguish them.

"Its hardness is such that you can't normally kill it that way though..."

The receptionist muttered so when she heard us.

"Now that you mention it, they might be a bit tough. I mean sometimes my arrow could only pierce through two even though I was gunning for three."

"Ah. That's right, it did feel a bit tough when I cut them with my sword."

"Really? I thought they were all the same..."

Except for Iris, the girls nodded giving their consent when they heard about its hardness.
Indeed, they might be a tiny bit sturdy.
Putting that aside...

"Then whose horn is this?"

I point at the horn that was refused for being too big.

"Erm... Was the monster this horn from about three times as big as an ordinary Big Horn Turtle?"

"Yea. It might have been a bit bigger, but yeah, it was around that size."

"...That's a rank B Huge Horn Turtle! How did you beat it!?"

"I just swung my sword and shot magic haphazardly whenever they got close."

That turtle... rank B?
Its sturdiness was its only merit, it didn't have a particularly strong attack or special ability.
The receptionist asks me a question while looking tired.

"I've heard rumors that there's a lot of students with monstrous strength at Eis Kingdom, perhaps those students are..."

Who the heck spread such rumors.
While I was looking for the culprit in my mind, the receptionist speaks as if she recalls something.

"C-come to think of it, what about the materials! Huge Horn Turtle materials!"

"You mean this one here."

I point at the horn.

"Not that, other parts besides the horn!"

"We threw them away... You're not telling me, there are other parts besides the horn as subjugation parts, are you?"

Storage magic is the kind of magic that decrease your maximum mana the more you store something in it.
Even though the maximum mana returns when you get the item out, I'd prefer not to lower mine too much.
Thus, we discarded everything but the subjugation parts.

"No, only the horn is needed for that... How wasteful..."

"You can have them if you want to. They should be around this area."

I draw a map on a paper with magic and put a marker on the location where we beat the monsters.

"Eh, what was that magic!? A blank paper turned into a map!"

"I've got to start from that huh..."

After several derailments as such, we proceeded with the quest reports.
About an hour later.

"This concludes the 100th quest completion for rank C!　...Which means, Mathias-san and his party are now qualified to take Rank B promotion test! Waa, amazing! Ah, by the by, needless to say, you've set record for the fastest rank up ever!"

The receptionist shouted out loud passionately, and we received the qualification to enter the rank B promotion test thingy.
Looks like we need to pass the test to qualify into rank B.

"What do we need to do for the rank B promotion test?"

"...You mean you got the qualification without knowing that!"

"Yeah."

"Erm... In short, it's a test where an examiner accompanies you to complete a quest. As you can clear ordinary quests with a party, sometimes there are people whose rank doesn't match their actual ability. Once you get to rank B and above, quests that come from the country itself and such begin to appear, therefore, this test is intended to prevent people without sufficient ability from becoming into rank B."

"...I see. So where can we take the test?"

"Erm, since only large branches are allowed to carry out rank B promotion test... The closest one from here is the central city of Fredia Territory, Frejia Branch!"

...The central city of Fredia territory huh.
Things should go smoothly there, convenient.

"Got it. Then let's get on to it and get our rank up."

"Yes!"









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