By the Grace of the Gods (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 26

Chapter 4 Episode 26: Monster Aptitude And Past Achievements

“Alright, you may pass. Good luck on the exam.”

“Thank you.”

The guard didn’t seem to understand that this exam wasn’t a pass-or-fail gambit, but offered his encouragement all the same as I exited through the east gate. What I saw looked distinct from the north or south gates. Wooden fences stood on each side of the road. There were pens containing cows and horses, and there were even large monsters I had never seen before. It felt like a farm.

I walked a bit further to a large building that belonged to the Tamer’s Guild. A tower that looked like a silo was next to it, so I could really only see this place as a farm. Many of the people there were in work clothes, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought this was a rest area. Right in front of me as I entered the building, the people standing at the reception desk were in casual and comfortable outfits.

“This way, please!” a woman at the reception desk said. She seemed to think I was lost.

“Nice to meet you. I heard that this is where I can take the familiar aptitude exam. Here are my documents, and here’s my guild card.”

“I’ll take those, thank you. Ryoma Takebayashi? I see this is your first time. The meeting grounds are back there. Just go straight down the hall and enter the room at the dead end. Then give this to an employee, as long as they’re not busy with anything.”

“Thank you.”

I followed the path to the left and entered the room at the end of the hall. There were benches on the right side of the room and five counters on the left. It was like a waiting room at a bank. I didn’t see a lot of people waiting for the aptitude exam, though. Only two of the counters were open and taking customers, and only one person was waiting on a bench.

“Oh, sit down at an open counter and wait your turn, please,” a woman said and rang a bell, presumably to call an employee. I sat at the counter closest to the front of the room right around when I heard a door open on the other side of the counter.

“Sorry about—Oh? Ryoma?”

“Mr. Smit! Why are you here?”

“This is part of the Tamer’s Guild, you know. I do work here sometimes when I come around for inspections. It’s the only chance I get to speak to the young people, and I forget what it’s like for the low-level employees otherwise. So you’re here for an aptitude exam? That reminds me, I don’t think I recommended that you take one when you first registered.”

“I went straight to the Adventurer’s Guild after that, so that’s probably why. I also had no intention of trading out my familiars for different ones. And I still don’t, honestly.”

“That’s fine, but it doesn’t hurt to know what monsters you’re compatible with,” Taylor said, then wrote something down on a document and pointed to a door across from the one I entered through. “Let’s get started right away. We have some monsters for exam purposes back there.”

On the other side of the counters, there were two adjacent doors. When I passed through one, I smelled something rotten. It was like I was at a zoo, or maybe a pet shop. There were many small cages in the room that contained a wide variety of monsters. There were slimes, of course, as well as small rats and cave bats that I’d seen plenty of since coming to this city. There were even crew birds like the one I formed a contract with before.

“This is where we keep the small monsters. There are medium-sized monsters a little further back, and space for large monsters even further back than that,” Taylor explained as he entered through the other door. “As you can see, we have quite a number of different monsters to work with. I’ll be having you try to form contracts with them, but we can skip the slimes and limour birds. Have you made contracts with any other monsters?”

“I did it with a crew bird one time, just for practice.”

“Did you have any trouble with that? Did it follow your orders? Could you understand its feelings?”

“No, I had no issues. I could even see through its eyes.”

“If you could do that after practicing one time, it sounds like you could be compatible with crew birds,” Taylor said and jotted something down. I peered at his notes. They listed the names of many different monsters. “You curious about how this works?”

“Yes, a little bit,” I answered honestly.

Taylor faintly smiled. “I use this chart to record whether you were able to form a contract with a monster, then ask how it felt to you if you were successful in order to rate your level of compatibility with that specific monster. We analyze those results for any commonalities, and then figure out what monsters would work best for you. That’s why we have this room full of monsters. Forming a contract with all of them would take a lot of time and magical energy, but for most people, we can figure out their aptitude without having to go through all that. Most tamers will be satisfied after finding that they’re broadly compatible with insect types, mammal types, bird types, or some such other class of monster. What takes more time is figuring out which specific monsters you’re best suited to within your specialty class, or if there’s some more unique criteria in your specific case. That’s how it is with the Jamil family, for example.”

“That’s true. Reinhart’s most compatible with four-legged monsters, Elise is compatible with wolf monsters, and Reinbach is compatible with scaly monsters, if I’m remembering right.”

“That’s right. Lady Elise has an aptitude for mammal types, but she’s most compatible with wolf monsters and can form contracts with any monster of that variety. She can also possess a far greater number of such familiars than average. Reinhart can form contracts with any four-legged monster regardless of type. The only class of monster he can’t have as a familiar is bird types.” That reminded me of back when I got my limour birds. Elia’s limour birds wouldn’t even let Reinhart get near them.

“What about Reinbach?”

“He’s something else entirely, like a combination of everything good about Reinhart and Elise’s aptitude without any downsides. He can form contracts with anything from lizardmen to dragons as long as they have scales, and he can possess a lot of familiars too. But unlike his son, he can also form contracts with some monsters of any type. There are some that he’s worse with than others, but not to a point that it’s detrimental.”

“I knew that Reinbach uses dragons, but I wasn’t sure exactly how great his abilities are. That sounds pretty impressive.”

“You didn’t know? There are whole books about him. I thought the whole country knew.”

“Really?!”

“Sounds like you’ve been living under a rock.”

“I heard he’s done some great things in combat in the past and that he’s on a level greater than Elise, but that’s about it.”

“The most famous stories about him would revolve around his fights, yes. And he is certainly on another level. Nobody compares to him.”

“Why is that?”

“There are special monsters known as divine beasts that have been blessed by the gods. The gods charged each of them with the duty of protecting different lands, which they have guarded as their personal turf since ancient times. No human can compare to their power, of course, and they’re even greater than the monsters we classify as S Rank.”

“And you’re telling me that Reinbach has formed a contract with one of these monsters?”

“That’s correct. It was back when he was a young man in the military. One of this country’s borders is drawn upon the Fire Dragon Mountains,” Taylor said and gazed off into the distance.

“There are still a number of active volcanoes there, so it’s harsh territory for humans. The center of the Fire Dragon Mountains is a divine beast’s turf, and many other powerful monsters thrive there as well. But many jewels and magic stones can be found there too; it’s a treasure trove of valuable resources. Seeking those resources, a neighboring nation once sent troops to the area. Those troops incurred the wrath of the divine beast, and they were swiftly wiped out. If it had ended there, that country would simply have gotten their just desserts, but only humans concern themselves with the borders we draw. The divine beast became hostile to both of our countries, and its dragon servants went on a rampage all around the border. The army was sent to protect the country, one of the squads being led by Reinbach.”

“And that’s when he formed a contract with the divine beast?”

“Yes, that was the only solution. It costs many lives to slay a single dragon, but there were up to a dozen at once on the battlefield. They say that attempting to fight would have brought about our demise. Thankfully, they took a gamble on using taming magic to negotiate instead. And because of his high compatibility and prestigious family, Reinbach was selected to be the negotiator. Nobody expected it to work, though.”

“But he was able to negotiate with the divine beast?”

“Yes. Thankfully, it was intelligent enough to negotiate with. There were fairy tales that said as much, but Reinbach was probably the first to confirm it. According to Reinbach, the divine beast demanded that the humans do something to prevent their fellow humans from attacking again in the future.”

He continued. After that, the army set its sights on the neighboring country instead. Nobody stood a chance against the dragons, so it was the safer option. Rifall’s troops had greater morale, and because they first chose to negotiate rather than fight, they didn’t suffer as many casualties previously. The other nation did try to fight the dragons, so their numbers were greatly diminished and their morale was at rock bottom. The results were predictable. The battle lasted not even three days before the enemy retreated from the Fire Dragon Mountains.

“There were a lot of political issues between those countries after that, but a conflict with the divine beast and the dragons was successfully avoided. Reinbach was permitted to keep his contract with the divine beast, he formed contracts with the dragons as well, and we were given the right to collect resources in the area, as long as we did no harm to the divine beast’s turf.”

“That’s a heck of a story.”

“No kidding. Simply gaining safe access to the resources in the Fire Dragon Mountains would be an incredible feat in itself, to say nothing of the many powerful dragons he now commands.”

Reinbach’s existence had an influence on much of society, both politically and militarily. His nobility and his achievements made him such a major player in the world that it became difficult for him to work within an organization. In the end, he left the army.

“If he were to sincerely support some faction or other, it would utterly destroy the power balance between factions and cause a great deal of needless chaos. Right around when this was taking place, something unfortunate happened to his older brother. He focused all his attention on taking his brother’s place as the head of Jamil’s territory, distancing himself from politics and the military.”

“Sounds like he’s had quite a remarkable life. I can hardly even imagine it,” I said, meaning every word. One thing was for sure: Reinbach was even more OP than me.