Chapter 5: Rank-Up and First Earnings

Author: 十一屋　翠 (Juuichiya Sui)

 

“Congratulations, Rex-san.
Thanks to completing this request, you have ranked up to D-Rank.”

Said Elma-san, the receptionist lady to me, who had just returned to the adventurers’ guild after finishing my first request: to gather herbs.

“Okay?”

That’s strange.
I was only F-Rank, and the herb-gathering request was also only F-Rank.

Furthermore, I only started working as an adventurer today?

“Why am I suddenly being ranked up!?”

I don’t get it!?

“Oh! As expected of big brother Rex! You’re already D-Rank!”

Jairo-kun, an adventurer my age, shouted excitedly.

I had just saved him from a bunch of Evil Boars, and he had started calling me big brother and following me around everywhere.

He even said he wanted to become my underling.

“Yes yes, Jairo, you’re over here.
We have to have them confirm the request for the subjugation of Goblins and Kobolds.”

Ah, he was taken away by his companion the magician-san.

“Biiiiiiigggg brrrrrroooooooooooootthhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

He looks like a dog being forced to go on a walk.

Well, I guess it doesn’t feel that bad to have honest good will directed at you.

In my previous and before-previous lives, everyone around me had just wanted to take advantage of or steal the research of the Hero or Sage.

“First, the reward for fifty bundles of herbs, fifteen silver coins.
Next…”

“Please wait a minute!”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Why am I D-Rank!? It’s really strange!? Didn’t you make some kind of mistake!?”

But for some reason, Elma-san just smiled.

“It is not a mistake.
Really, you are definitely D-Rank.
I will explain why.”

“Ah, okay.”

Oh, she was going to explain it properly.

“First, the case of the herb-gathering request.
We are very grateful for the huge amount of high-quality herbs you brought us.
Adventurers can get injured during work.
And the assessment team also said that how you gathered the herbs was perfect as can be too.”

“Umm, thank you very much.”

To be praised for how I gathered the herbs, I’m kinda happy.

Thank goodness I knew which parts had any medicinal effect thanks to having studied potions in my before-previous life.

“Next, the case of the multiple Evil Boars you asked us to assess.”

Uh-oh, it’s about the Evil Boars.

“It is these Evil Boars that are the reason you were promoted to D-Rank.”

“The Evil Boars?”

“Yes, Evil Boars are actually monsters only B-Rank adventurers and above can defeat.
And then since you defeated multiple of them, leaving you in F-Rank would be a loss for the guild.
We originally wanted to promote you to B-Rank, or at least to C-Rank, but since you were an F-Rank adventurer who hadn’t accepted a single request, we decided to restrain ourselves and make you D-Rank so you don’t get caught up in trouble.”

Oh, I’m glad to hear that.

Both in my previous and before-previous life, I had really stood out and had gotten caught up in a lot of trouble.

To be shown such care by them, the adventurers’ guild really is a good organisation.

“Like that, you selling the materials of a Dragon is also cause for a rank-up, but since if we officially confirm that you were the one who did that, it would likely be even more troublesome, we have decided to temporarily put your rank-assessment for killing a Dragon on hold.”

“Yeah, that’s all right by me.
It’s just a Green Dragon after all.”

It’s only natural.
If assessing something like a Green Dragon causes them trouble, I’d rather they didn’t too.

“No, the important thing is it being a Dragon… No, it’s nothing.”

Huh? For some reason, Elma-san heaved a deep sigh.

Oh, that’s right, weren’t receptionists supposed to be busy at this time of day buying things and logging completed requests?

It’s bad if I dawdle on for too long.

“So then, about the Evil Boars’ materials…”

Yes indeedy, I made sure to hunt them cleanly, so I’m confident here.

I even froze the area around the wound to stop germs from entering it.

“I’m terribly sorry, but there’s so many Evil Boars, and they’re all in such good condition, that this guild branch can’t buy them all.”

“Again!?”

Uwaaan! I won’t get any earnings at all like this!

No, I still got paid for the herbs.

“As such, the guild will buy one, the Lord-sama will buy one, and the remaining three will be put up for auction in the royal capital.”

Eh?

“A large monster like this that was killed so cleanly will be valuable material for the adventurers’ guild.
Thus, we will be purchasing it for research purposes.”

Ooh! The way I killed them was appreciated! It was worth it to do my best to minimize their wounds! I’m a little embarrassed they even turned into research materials.

“So, I hope you don’t mind that happening with the rest of the Evil Boars?”

“Oh, no, it’s okay.”

Thank goodness, I got paid for two of them, for the time being.

Now I might be able to cover my living expenses.

I wonder how much it’ll be!

“The guild would like to purchase one for one-thousand gold coins.”

“…Eh?”

How much did she just say?

“One-thousand gold coins.
We can’t prepare it all immediately, but you will be given one-hundred gold coins and a cheque for nine-hundred more at the guild bank.”

“ONE-THOUSAND GOLD COINS!?”

The people around us stirred at my words.

Not good, I accidentally shouted.

I mean, I mean, one batch of ten herbs is only three copper coins, right!?

Umm, ten copper coins are one silver one and ten silvers are a gold, so a thousand gold coins are a hundred thousand copper coins… so 33,333 batches of herbs!?

“I-isn’t this some sort of mistake!?”

But Elma-san shook her head.

“Rex-san, perfectly defeating a large monster is really difficult.
And if their fur, skin, and/or scales are in such good condition, the monster’s value will skyrocket.
In that sense, a large part of the Evil Boar’s worth is its fur.”

“R-really?”

“Also, the Lord-sama’s servant consulted us about purchasing the Evil Boar, but we have not been presented the exact sum yet.
However, Viscount Grimoa is a noble who possesses a wide and fertile territory, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to purchase it for more than the adventurers’ guild.”

T-they’ll be buying it for more than a thousand gold coins!?

But, it’s just an Evil Boar!?

Is it okay for them to buy it for so much!?

Many higher-quality monsters exist in the demon world!?

“As for the ones to be auctioned off, I’m afraid it will be the same as with the Dragon, and you will have to wait until the money makes its way back to you.”

“Ah, okay, I’m fine with that.
Speaking of which, what about the Dragon’s auction?”

I ask that, but it’s only been a day, so I shouldn’t be expecting anything.

“The Dragon was carried away to the royal capital early this morning.
The auction will be held in three days at the earliest, but the better informed nobles might already have begun contesting for it amongst themselves.”

“Is that so!?”

Nobles’ information networks are amazing.

“The Dragon will definitely be sold for a higher price than the Evil Boars, so please look forward to that!”

Elma-san said, crossing her fingers and winking at me.

“Y-y-yes… I will.”

If an Evil Boar was a thousand gold coins, just how much would a Dragon be?

“Oh, that’s right, I nearly forgot to tell you something important.”

I had just put away the hundred gold coins that were part of my payment for the Evil Boar into my magic bag when Elma-san said that out of nowhere.

“Something important?”

“Yes, it’s an invitation to dinner from Viscount Grimoa-sama, the Lord.”

“Oh, no, I’m good.
I’ll decline.”

It would be a pain, so I’ll pass.

“Is that so.
All right.”

Elma-san said, accepting my decision.

“…wait, eeeeeeeeeeeh!? W-why did you decline!? It’s an invitation from the Lord-sama!?”

Or not.

“Dealing with nobles seems like a pain.”

“No but, it’s an astounding honour!? With your achievements, you might even be knighted!?”

That would be even more of a pain.

“No, I really do refuse.
I want to live a simple life.”

“Eh!?”

Elma-san somehow made a “What the hell are you saying!?” face.

I don’t think you should make such a face when you’re such a beauty.

“Then, I’ll be going now.”

I hurriedly left the guild so as not to get into any more trouble.

“Please wait, Rex-saaaan!”

I can’t hear you I can’t hear you.

Now then, once I’ve returned Aug-san the money, I’ll have a magnificent dinner!

◆ ◆

“Have you heard the rumours?”

We were talking about a certain rumour.

“Yeah I have.
It’s about the Dragon going up for auction, right?”

“Moreover, isn’t the Dragon’s corpse apparently supposed to be in a surprisingly good condition?”

“I heard that its head had been cut off.
Just what kind of magic sword would you need to accomplish that?”

It seemed like they had all also caught wind of the Dragon.

For auctioneers, your life depended on having keen ears.

But, even this well-informed circle didn’t know this information.

“Have you heard that someone apparently witnessed the Dragon being killed?”

“Say what now!? Who saw it!?”

Fufu, it seems that just as I thought, they haven’t gotten a hold of that information.

No, it seems like one of them already knew.

“Lord Leo.
It seems he encountered the Dragon while on a top-secret mission.”

“A top-secret mission!? I never even heard of that!”

“I see, no wonder I haven’t seen Lord Leo about for the past few days then.”

The ten other people here, my colleagues, each gave their own opinion about my information.

The one especially surprised about the word ‘mission’ had been Lord Argyle, from the military faction.

That a knight being on a mission hadn’t been relayed to him seemed to have quite surprised the man.

“What was Lord Leo’s mission!?”

“Come now, Lord Argyle, the current topic is the Dragon.
Also, to ask after the contents of a top-secret mission is somewhat disrespectful.”

Oho, Lord Muuji from finances has gotten irritated.

Saying it was disrespectful was basically the same as saying it was orders from our higher-ups.

It also meant “You’re not trusted by the higher-ups”.

“Ugh”

Lord Argyle groaned with regret.

Well, the military and financial factions have always been at odds.

“According to Lord Leo, a to him unfamiliar young boy descended out of the sky all of a sudden, cut off the Dragon’s head, then jumped and disappeared into the sky again.”

“From the sky!? What the hell was Lord Leo saying!?”

“Thanks to that, we’re being told from above that an angel did it.”

The salon was filled with laughter at my joke.

But their eyes weren’t smiling.

With what little information we had, we now had to try to figure out what Lord Leo’s top-secret mission had been, who the mysterious boy who had killed the dragon was, and what weapon had been used to decapitate a Dragon.

The most important thing, though, was obviously winning the bid for the Dragon at the auction.

Now then, how will this go?

Who to join forces with to get the desired materials?

Deciding that would be difficult.

It seems our night is nowhere near over yet……

“We have a problem! It seems there will be Evil Boars also put up for auction!”

“““WHAT!?”””

The room broke out in an uproar at the information that had been brought in all of a sudden.

“First a Dragon and now an Evil Boar?”

“No, the Dragon’s still more impressive.”

“Moreover, the Evil Boar’s in an unbelievably good condition, apparently so much so that the fur could be made into a rug!”

““““SAY WHAT!?””””

I can’t believe it, the fur of an Evil Boar, which exceeds 10m, is whole!?

If something like that were listed, it could even be put in the royal castle’s hall!

“Also, it seems like there will be a total of three Evil Boars, all in the same condition, for sale!!”

““““WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?””””

The high-quality materials of monsters that are terribly difficult to subjugate are continuing to be put up for auction!?

Something like this happens once only every few years, or even once in a decade!?

“Moreover, the ones putting the Evil Boars up for auction are the adventurers’ guild branch from the town of Tougai who also put up the rumoured Dragon!!”

“W-what did you say!?”

Wh- just what’s going on in that town!?