Chapter 24: The Old Tree Subjugated and a Promotion

The first thing we did upon returning to Hexi was to go to the adventurers’ guild.

Our objectives were to report the subjugation of the Ancient Plant and to ask the guild about the furball.

“Excuse me, we’d like to sell monster materials…”

“All right.
Please put the materials on the assessment table.”

Said the receptionist, pointing at the assessment table, but That Thing really wouldn’t fit on top no matter how hard we were to try.

“Umm, it’s slightly too big to fit on there though.”

“Shall I show you the way to the dismantling site then?”

“No, it’s too big to fit there either, so could you please confirm it outside the town?”

I can’t very well take that huge thing out inside the town, now can I.

“It’s too big to fit in the dismantling site? Now pardon me, but did you really defeat a monster that large?”

Ohoho, it seems like we’re being doubted.

Hmm, what should I do.
I can’t take out the Ancient Plant here.

“Did something happen?”

Mirisha-san asked, appearing right as we were troubled over what to do.

“Ma’am, these people said that they defeated a monster that wouldn’t fit in the dismantling site and that they wanted us to confirm the subjugation outside the town…”

“A monster that won’t fit in the dismantling site?”

Hearing that, Mirisha-san glanced over at us with a doubtful face, which changed as soon as she saw me.

“Well if it isn’t Rex-san!”

Mirisha-san hurriedly turned back to the receptionist and began scolding them.

“This person is Rex-san! He’s a super-VIP who’s making roads for us throughout the Forest of Magic Beasts!”

“Eeh!? He’s Rex-san the land-clearer!?”

Hang on, wasn’t that some extremely unsettling name just now!?

“Like I keep saying, you have to confirm their guild cards first! …I’m really sorry about this Rex-san.
I deeply apologize for the training of our staff not having been enough.”

“Ah, no worries.
Anyway, what was that about me being a land-clearer…”

“Now then, since you wish to sell materials, I’ll take care of it.”

Ah, uhh… well, it’s fine, I guess.

“Erm, we subjugated an S-Rank monster in the centre of the Forest of Magic Beasts, and we’d like to have it assessed.”

“I see, an S-Rank monster from the centre of the Forest of Magic Beasts…?”

Mirisha-san became confused.

“Pardon me, but I seem to have misheard that.
Could you please repeat what you just said?”

“You didn’t hear it wrong.
We defeated an S-Rank monster in the centre of the Forest of Magic Beasts.”

“I see, I just heard it w-…”

Mirisha-san froze mid-nod.

At the same moment, Liliella-san next to me and the furball in her arms both covered their ears with their hands.

What’re they doing?

“You defeated an S-Rank monster in the centre of the Forest of Magic Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasts!?!?”

…My ears are ringing.

Why did she have to suddenly scream like that.

“Hey, did she just say the centre of the Forest of Magic Beasts?”

“And that he defeated an S-Rank monster…?”

“Wasn’t it just a lie? He’s probably just doing it to get a better price.”

“No, he’s that rookie.
Rex the land-clearer.”

“Rex the land-clearer!? That magician that uses hellfire magic to burn the forest down while exploring it!?”

The guild broke out in an uproar.

I definitely didn’t mishear it the second time.

“Umm, are you… telling the truth? Did you really go to the centre of the Forest of Magic Beasts? Did you really defeat an S-Rank monster?”

Mirisha-san asked me, unable to hide her astonishment and disbelief.

“I went with him, and it is the truth.
I swear upon it as a member of his party.”

Liliella-san said, lending my words more credibility.

“How did you get there!? Even if you were to go straight there, it would still take a few days!?”

“We flew there.”

“…You flew.”

“We flew.”

“…”

Mirisha-san squirmed in agony, holding her head.

Kind of like a plant-type monster, actually.

“…Well, I’ll just not think about that part.
Anyway, may I please see this S-Rank monster?”

“Could we please go outside the town then? It’s kinda long, so it won’t really fit in the dismantling site.”

“All right.
I’ll go call the dismantler so please do go on ahead.”

◆ ◆

“…”

Mirisha-san and the dismantlers stared dumbstruck at the line of Elder Plants and the Ancient Plant outside the town.

“W-what are these big, no, huge trees…?”

“This is an Ancient Plant.
A tree monster.”

“An Ancient Plant!? That legendary monster that’s also called a living forest!?”

Liliella-san said the same thing.

In my previous life, it had been regarded as a monster that could produce huge weeds.

“Please assess this.”

“R-right…”

Mirisha-san assented, still stunned, and began giving out orders to the dismantlers.

“It’s humongous! The hell even is it!?”

“Is this really even a monster!? You sure it’s not just some big-ass tree!?”

“Even if it were just a tree, felling one this big and bringing it back isn’t normal, now is it!? How’d he even cut it down!?”

“Hey now, the Elder Plants look like twigs in comparison.”

“It must’ve been a really abnormal place, and that’s just with this many Elder Plants being there.”

Adventurers who had followed us outside exclaimed upon seeing the Ancient Plant.

I really was just a massive tree monster though.

Then, there was a loud bang and a scream from where the dismantlers had been working.

“It’s no good! The blade won’t go through!”

“It’s too hard, the saw’s teeth broke!”

“Say what!?”

“Ah, my bad.
Elder Plant and Ancient Plants’ barks are harder than iron, so normal iron tools can’t cut them.”

Dang it, I forgot to tell them.

Although, my acquaintances in my previous life would have been able to process any material no matter how hard easily, even humming along.

I seem to remember them saying there was a trick to doing it though.

“Wasn’t their bark being harder than iron a legend!?”

Mirisha-san said shocked, walking up to the Ancient Plant and trying to stick a knife into it.

“It feels like wood, but I can’t even leave a mark with a knife.
Is this really a tree!?”

In the end, the dismantlers were unable to dismantle the Ancient Plant and said they would give up.

“Erm, Rex-san, how did you defeat it? Since its branches have been cut off, there must be some way to cut it, right?”

“Right, I cut it with a sword with strengthened attack and cutting power due to strengthening magic made out of that mutant I defeated the other day.”

“…I see, you made it sharper with magic.
I understand.
Hey, you, head back to the guild and bring an adventurer who can use strengthening magic to make things sharper.
Tell them the guild will reward them!”

“Yes ma’am!”

Mirisha-san immediately gave out instructions to go call an adventurer who could use strengthening magic.

Although, I would feel bad if I made them spend unnecessary money just to assess an Ancient Plant.

“Ermm, since you’re assessing a monster I defeated, I’ll cast the strengthening magic.”

“Eh? Ah, right, right.
Of course you can do that.
Then, could I please ask you to cast strengthening magic on the dismantlers’ tools?”

“Sure.
High Strength! High Slash Boost!”

I cast attack-power-strengthening and sharpness-strengthening magic on the dismantlers’ tools.

“Alright, let’s try again!”

“Yeah!”

The dismantlers began assaulting the Ancient Plant with their saws and axes, full of motivation.

“Ooh!? Whoa!”

“It’s like stabbing a slime.”

The dismantlers let out cries of surprise at being able to cut through the Ancient Plant so easily.

“Wow, it hardly feels like I’m even cutting something!”

“Magic is amazing!”

The dismantlers were surprised at first, but quickly immersed themselves in their work as they got used to it.

“There’s too many materials here to put in the guild’s dismantling site.
And cutting something like this into a bunch of little pieces is not an option either.
Ah, I know, how about we get them to be more or less the same shape and size, attach a guard, and then put them up for auction in the royal capital?”

Mirisha-san whispered into my ear.

“An auction again?”

“Ara, you have experience with auctions already, Rex-san?”

“Yes, I defeated a Green Dragon a while ago, and the guild said they couldn’t buy it, so it was put up for auction.”

“I see, a Dragon, I can see why-… a Dragon!?”

Mirisha-san repeated my words back at me with a shocked face.

“Yes, it wasn’t in a very good condition but it still sold for quite a high price.”

“A Dragon up for auction you say, but the other day…”

Mirisha-san muttered something, but I couldn’t hear what she said due to the dismantlers’ loudness and the sound of them dismantling the Ancient Plant.

“Ugh, let’s just ignore that.
Anyway, rather than having the guild buy an S-Rank monster’s materials, putting them up for auction would be better.
If you give us your consent, we’ll send a messenger to the royal capital right away.”

“Then, please do.”

I had already gotten used to being asked to put things up for auction, and leaving the troublesome stuff to them was better anyway.

“This conversation flew right over my head, but is it really all right that I’m in a party with you?”

Liliella-san asked for some reason as I was talking to Mirisha-san.

“What are you talking about, you’re a B-Rank, just like me! You’ll become able to defeat monsters like this in no time!”

“Ugh, you’re just trying to console me.”

No, that’s not true.

She had been able to become B-Rank at an age not too different from mine, so she definitely had the ability.

I had all the knowledge I had accumulated in my previous and before-previous lives, but Liliella-san made it all the way to B-Rank without that.

So, she was definitely talented.

“You’ll be fine! You’ll definitely get stronger!”

“O-okay.
I’ll do my best.”

It happened right as we were having that conversation.

Cheers rose from the dismantlers.

“What’s going on over there?”

“Let’s go see.”

Not just we, but other adventurers also went over to the work site wondering what was going on.

“Awesome, I’ve never seen a magic stone this huge.”

“How much is that thing even worth!?”

The dismantlers had found the Ancient Plant’s core stone.

“Amazing… I’ve never seen a magic stone that big before.”

“That’s a magic stone? I’ve never seen one before.”

Mirisha-san said the former in astonishment.

And it seemed like Liliella-san had never seen a core stone before.

“This is amazing! A magic stone of this size hasn’t been seen since this guild’s beginning! Actually, I wonder if there’s ever been one like this in the history of the whole guild!”

Uhh, is it really that amazing?

Core stones this size were quite common back in my previous and before-previous lives.

“And, the appearance of this magic stone proves that this large tree was indeed a monster!”

“““Woooh!!”””

The adventurers cheered.

Then, Mirisha-san raised one hand and spoke.

“Under the name of Mirisha, the guild chief’s assistant belonging to the Hexi adventurers’ guild, I hereby declare that the S-Rank monster by the name of the ‘Ancient Plant’ was defeated by B-Rank adventurer Rex!”

“““““Woooooooooh!!”””””

The adventurers excitedly cheered at Mirisha-san’s declaration.

“Why are they all so excited?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Because you defeated an S-Rank monster! S-Rank monsters need a large number of high-rank adventurers acting in a group or a large army to defeat them! They’re not something you can normally defeat by yourself!!”

Liliella-san explained, half-shouting.

“Well, I was also so surprised by the sight that I forgot to be excited, but thinking about it, it really is an outrageous feat.”

“Eeh? That S-Rank wasn’t much of an enemy though?”

“That’s because your sense of normal has gone completely numb!”

Huh, really?

“Ah, I guess that Ancient Plant must’ve just been extremely weak for an S-Rank monster? Maybe it was a frail individual?”

““““““““““Definitely not!””””””””””

Everyone immediately rebuked me for some reason.

“Ugh! Aaanyway, you’re definitely becoming A-Rank with this, Rex-san.
There’s also your subjugation of that mutant the other day, so the council won’t oppose it either.”

Huh? I’m becoming an A-Rank already? That was fast.

“…Now just hang on a second.”

Liliella-san said to Mirisha-san.

“What is the matter?”

“So you’re saying he’ll only become A-Rank? He has the strength to defeat an S-Rank monster, so would promoting him to S-Rank make more sense?”

“She’s got a point.”

“Only letting him become A-Rank sounds fishy too.”

Other adventurers chimed in, backing Liliella-san up.

Although personally, I’d be fine with A-Rank too.

Mirisha-san had this to say in reply:

“To put it simply, because it’s a rule of the adventurers’ guild.
As per guild regulation, adventurers’ ranks usually only go up one level at a time.
There are, of course, exceptions, but such an exception will never happen to someone with an already high rank.”

“What the hell?”

“To put it even simpler, it’s to limit the number of promotions to S-Rank.”

“To limit the number of promotions to S-Rank?”

“Yes, S-Rank adventurers are the highest level of beings in the adventurers’ guild, and it would be no overstatement to say that ‘S-Rank adventurer’ is a title given to those who have done truly heroic things.”

Huh, I didn’t know that S-Rank.

“As such, if we were to promote someone to S-Rank just because they did something an S-Rank would do, there would be the danger that the prestige that came with the title ‘S-Rank’ would be lowered.”

“What do you mean the prestige that came with it would be lowered?”

“Adventurers don’t have prestige!?”

The adventurers began shouting questions at Mirisha-san.

“You all know how request completion rate, strength, and personality are all needed to be promoted to the next rank, do you not?”

“Eh? Really?”

“No one ever told me that..”

I’d never heard it either.

“However, none of those are much of a problem if you actually have something in your head.
Even then, remarkably uncouth people might still be barred from getting promoted even at a low rank.
For example, you wouldn’t want to introduce an adventurer who, let’s say, has the ability to complete an escort request from a merchant, but instead steals their goods, as a high-rank adventurer to someone, would you?”

I can certainly understand that.

If they caused trouble, the client might be endangered, and the guild would be responsible.

“And on top of that, most of the clients for high-ranked requests are nobles or merchants from large companies.
And if a troublemaker of an adventurer were to be introduced to such people and actually caused trouble, the adventurer might even be arrested.
The reason we’re so cautious about promoting someone at higher ranks is to protect the adventurers themselves.”

Having had to listen to all that, Liliella-san and the others were all silent.

“Although, having achieved so much in such a short amount of time, I doubt Rex-san’s promotion to S-Rank is all that far in the future.
And honestly, even without the subjugation of the mutant, just countering the expansion of the Forest of Magic Beasts and the road establishment are enough for a promotion to A-Rank.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes, so, the reason your promotion is so late is because you did too many things in such a short period of time.”

I didn’t even know I was being that active!?

“Eh? But high-rank adventurers should be able to defeat something like an Ancient Plant, right? So S-Rank adventurers should be able to defeat them with a snap of their fingers, right?”

“Rex-san, just what do you think S-Rank adventurers even are…”

For some reason Mirisha-san sighed, an exhausted look on her face.

“Anyway, please wait for a bit until the Ancient Plant has been dismantled and put up for auction.
Also, we’ve finished calculating the reward for the mutant and the blade wolves, as well as for all the forest removal and road building, so please collect them from the reception later.”

“All right.”

In the end, since it seemed like the dismantling of the Ancient Plant would still take quite a while, we decided to go back inside the town.

◆ ◆

Having arrived back at the guild, we immediately went over to the reception to collect the rewards.

“First, the reward for the special subjugation request will be 600 gold coins for the subjugation of the mutant, and 4050 gold coins for the subjugation of twenty-seven Blade Wolves.”

“600 gold coins and 4050 more!?”

Liliella-san stared at me, stunned.

I didn’t do anything that major though?

Actually, wasn’t I getting too mu- …huh?

“Erm, I seem to remember only bringing back ten?”

Yeah, that should be around how many I brought back after defeating the mutant.
I left all the Blade Wolves I defeated on the way to save Liliella-san where they were because I didn’t have the time to spare to collect them.

“Regarding that, Ivan-san’s team said that was how many you defeated, so we added the appropriate number of them to the reward.”

“Ivan-san!?”

When did they have the time to!?

“They said you were too busy flirting with someone called Liliella-san, so they submitted the amount for you instead, saying to treat them to dinner.”

…I can’t thank them enough.

Although, my reward did grow significantly, so I guess I should actually thank them.

Thank you, Ivan-san and co.

“Next, the price for the mutant’s materials…”

“Eh? But I just got the reward for the mutant?”

What’s going on?

“No, that was the reward for its subjugation.
That mutant is important research material, so we added the price of its materials on top separately.”

What a surprise! I never thought they would buy the materials separately!

“I-it’s still going up…”

Liliella-san whispered, stunned.

“We will be buying its pelt, one large blade, four small blades, its full set of bones, its magic stone, as well as its internal organs and meat, the latter two for research.
The total for all that is 1500 gold coins.”

“So, 6150 gold coins in total!?”

“No, since the reward for the work preventing the forest’s expansion and building roads is 420 gold coins, the total is 6570gold coins.”

“6570 gold coins!?”

Liliella-san kinda turned into a machine that just repeated the number of gold coins just now.

I put the rewards in my magic bag and left the reception window.

“Shall we go eat, then?”

Pulling the stunned Liliella-san along by her hand, I headed to the tavern part of the guild.

◆ ◆

“Kyuu kyuu!”

The furball was tucking into some meat on the table with gusto.

“Is it tasty?”

“Kyuu!”

The furball raised a paw as if to say ‘Yes!’.

Ahaha, how adorable.

Speaking of which, I feel like its attitude has changed somewhat compared to when we first met it… or am I just imagining it?

“…”

However, in contrast to the furball, Liliella-san had been silent for a while now.

She hadn’t eaten much either, so perhaps she wasn’t feeling well?

“Umm, Liliella-san? Are you feeling ill?”

“…”

Liliella-san looked up when I called out to her.

She had a complicated look in her eyes, as if she was worrying about something.

“Hey, aren’t I holding you back?”

“Eh? What, no…”

Where’d she get that idea from!?

“Mm, I can tell though.
You don’t even treat me as someone that’s holding you back, but just as someone so weak you have to protect.”

“N-no I don’t.”

“No, I can tell, since we’re talking about me.
I can’t keep up with you.
And even if I do somehow manage to follow along, it just causes extra work for you.”

“Liliella-san…”

What should I do? I wasn’t thinking that at all.

“But, I swore to repay your favours to me! You cured my ill mum and saved everyone from the village… and that’s not all.
You even took back our hometown.
I can’t just give up on repaying all those favours just because I can’t do anything for you!”

Liliella-san slammed her fist on the table, standing up.

“Please, help me train! I just want enough strength not to hold you back! I’ll endure any training, no matter how harsh!”

Her eyes as she said that were full of determination.

“Training…?”

“Yes, I’ll do anything!”

My heart trembled a little at those words.

“You said you’d do anything?”

“Eh? Yes…”

“I see, anything…”

“Ehm, what, what’s up?”

I see, so she’s that determined.

“All right.
I can see your resolve is true.”

“S-so!”

“Yes! In order to properly respond to your determination, I will seriously train you! I will! Seriously! Train you up into a top adventurer!”

Things are starting to heat up! Liliella-san said she would train her inexperienced self with unwavering resolve!

It reminded me of when I enrolled as my master’s disciple in my previous life in order to defeat the demon king.

The me from back then, who said he would go through even the harshest of training to defeat the demon king resembled Liliella-san.

Liliella-san said she would complete those days of training I regretted so much I wanted to die afterwards!

“U-umm… actually, I’d be happy if you held back a little after all…”

Liliella-san said with a slightly pale face, taking a sip from her mug, trembling from what I could only assume was excitement.

I get it.
We’re going to be training seriously, so of course you’d lose your composure a little!

“Kyuun”

The furball comfortingly placed a paw on Liliella-san for some reason.