“The Guild Master has been fired. It seems he’d been causing problems for a while now. Along with that, we retested all the guild staff, and surprisingly, half of them didn’t meet the passing grade. It seems the Guild Master had also hired some unqualified people. Their salaries were ridiculously low, and it seems he was arbitrarily adding points to some adventurers’ ranks and unfairly deducting points from others. Everything is being reviewed, so some people might get a rank down.”
Kuuga-san, who came again three days later, told me about the Guild Master’s fate.
“Eh! Then, could it be that my rank might also…”
“Don’t worry. You might even go up. I believe you were Rank D with that strength, right? Considering your achievement of defeating 100 of the Demon Lord’s Army and the fact that a guild staff member arbitrarily deducted your points before, you might even go up to Rank C.”
There’s no way that’s going to happen.
A Rank C adventurer is a veteran adventurer.
They make up the top 15% of all adventurers, and it takes at least 10 years, usually 20 years, to reach Rank C.
Many adventurers retire in their 30s.
So, everyone tries to reach Rank C before retiring and then retires after a while.
There are rare cases of people ranking up at an incredible speed, but even so, mine is too fast.
It’s only been about half a year since I became an adventurer.
“I hope so,” I replied, not expecting much.
“By the way, is it true that you defeated an Archdemon? Honestly, if that’s true, you’d be comparable to a Rank B adventurer…”
“It’s true. But it was just a good match-up. I don’t have the ability of a Rank B adventurer.”
“Hmm… Well, if you don’t mind, would you like to spar with me?”
“Eh, why?”
“I want to put a marker on promising talents, and I also want to know how strong you are.”
“Umm… I refuse.”
“Eh! Why!”
“Because I’ll definitely lose, and there’s no benefit for me.”
That’s a lie.
Kuuga Bark, the vice-captain of the 6th Knight Order.
He’s famous, though not as much as ‘Raijin’.
His power is said to be so tremendous that he can cut through steel.
There aren’t many opportunities to spar with someone like that.
But if I fight now, there’s a high chance my Skill will be exposed.
If it’s just my high Strength stat, it could be explained away as having a strong Skill.
However, if we fight, I’ll have to go all out to even put up a fight.
I’d have to use my Throwing Skill.
But my current Throwing Skill has such a high accuracy bonus that even if I throw in the opposite direction, it will hit as long as I’ve seen it once.
If I use my Throwing Skill even once, my Skill’s true value might be exposed.
This person is also a member of the country. If that happens, nobles might try to take me in, or I might be forced into the Knight Order.
I’m afraid of that happening, so I’ll wait until my Sword Skill improves and I can properly fight in close combat…
“I see… Then, how about this? If you win against me, I’ll issue you a pass to the Royal Capital?”
“I’d be very grateful for that.”