In a Different World with a Smartphone (LN) - Volume 16 - Chapter 3

Chapter III: The Rookies 

The William Tell Overture began playing loudly right next to my bed. 
That’s kinda loud... I should’ve chosen the song a little more carefully. 
“Nhh... ’Sup?” I was a little disoriented, since I’d been woken up by the sudden call, so I groggily answered the phone. 
“It’s happening! He’s finally here!” 
Sue’s voice was just as loud and intense as the William Tell Overture that had been playing a few moments ago... I wondered what had her so chirpy so early. 
“...What’s happening...?” 
I yawned a bit and rubbed my eyes before asking for clarification. 
“The baby! He’s here! I have a little brother!” 
Sue’s voice was so full of vigor and joy that it took me by legitimate surprise. Wait... A baby? Duke Ortlinde and Ellen’s?! 
“Amazing! Wow, so he’s a boy? Congrats.” 
“Mhm!” 
Ellen, Sue’s mother, had gone into labor just a little bit after midnight. The child was born without any complications a little while after. The birth didn’t have any complications, so they were happy and healthy. 
With that, the Ortlinde house also had a successor in place. If the child was a girl, then it was likely that my child with Sue would be the one to succeed Ortlinde’s name, but that wasn’t necessary anymore. The duke didn’t know it, but it was actually highly likely that my kid with Sue was going to be a girl, so I didn’t think he’d be getting a successor from me anyway... 
I calmed down Sue a little bit before ending the call. I couldn’t fault her joy, though. She’d been talking about how she wanted a little brother for ages... But frankly, I wasn’t in the right mindset for such excitement. I was sleepy. 
A little while later, as I was getting dressed, Sue sent me a photo of herself holding the little baby. Apparently his name was Edward, Edward Urnes Ortlinde. Little Ed. 
Edward was the name of Sue’s late grandfather on her mother’s side. He was the one who could use the [Recovery] Null spell. 
“Guess I’ll prepare them a gift...” 
I wondered what to give them. Maybe a baby stroller with a [Prison] around it that makes it indestructible? Nah... Bit much. Maybe something like the baby bottle I gave Yamato... I could give them a combo set with a bottle and a stroller, or something. Ohh, maybe I can give them the handheld printer I gave the Refreese princess. They’ll surely wanna be taking a lot of photographs, so I’ll give them one of those and a photo album. That sounds like a nice enough gesture. 
After I left my room, I went to find Yumina and brought her to the Ortlinde estate. 
“Sue was pretty happy, huh?” 
“Well, whenever she’s with us she only has Renne as far as people who are younger than her go. She’s probably happy that she’s an older sister now.” 
We’d returned from the Ortlinde estate in no time at all, and were now enjoying a peaceful teatime date on the balcony. Sue had managed to calm herself by the time we’d visited, and she even had a surprisingly calm and elegant air about her. She was probably ready to be a good older sister. 
While it was nice to see Sue being all well-behaved, a selfish part of me still missed her usual boisterous self... I hoped it wouldn’t be a permanent change, but even if it was... Sue was still Sue. 
The family was happy with the gift I’d given them and immediately asked me to take a family photo of them and Leim. That was the first photo in what I was sure would be a long sequence of photos that tracked little Ed’s life. I was glad to give them the first piece. 
“Mm... It’s a pain to have a little brother who always gets into trouble, you know?” 
“It’s a pain to have an older sister who eats my cookies without asking!” 
I glared at Karen, who had appeared out of nowhere and started eating my food without permission. 
“Don’t sweat the small stuff, Touya... Your hair’ll fall out, you know?” 
“That’s not gonna happen!” 
I’m not gonna go bald, you jerk! The alchemy lab has a hair-growth serum specifically to prevent that! As we squabbled a bit, my smartphone began to ring. It was Relisha from the guild. 
“Touya speaking. ’Sup?” 
“It’s Relisha. Pardon my intrusion, but I wanted to talk a bit about the adventure academy we’d discussed.” 
Oh yeah. I forgot about that. The adventure academy was a facility we’d thought up where trainee adventurers would learn about everything they needed to become an adventurer, from practical techniques to mental prep work. We’d been planning it for a while, and it seemed like they were finally ready to move ahead with it. 
Relisha wanted to hear my thoughts on it from an adventurer’s perspective, so I headed right over. I felt bad leaving Yumina to deal with Karen, but it would probably be okay. 
I walked through the gates into the castle town. It’d been a while since I’d gone in on foot. The town was a lot livelier than it was when it was first founded. I found myself instinctively smiling when I saw that everyone in town seemed to be really happy, too. 
Brunhild sat right on top of the trade route between Belfast and Regulus, so we had a lot of merchants, adventurers, and travelers passing through. In a sense, my Duchy was like a hub for all walks of life. Passing through Brunhild only took a few hours, so people who were dead-set on their destinations didn’t stop by the castle town. But even keeping that in mind, our inns were still fully booked often. 
I think part of the draw was that Brunhild had a lot of things other nations lacked, including capsule toys and ether vehicles that could be found at the Strand store. Our food was also a melting pot for cuisine, various delicacies were gathered in this nation. We even had meals that you could only really find in Eashen. Hell, if you paid the entry fee, you could even go through to the beach on the dungeon islands. Unless they were on urgent business, pretty much everyone coming through the trade road stopped here to see what we had to offer. Thanks to their patronage, we made a ton of revenue. 
I peeked into the tavern next to the guild, looking for Suika. I reasoned that if the little gremlin was in there, I’d be able to pick her up on the way back. 
Alas, the horrible little creature wasn’t there. I feared for the safety of whoever she was drinking alongside instead. 
I headed to the guild, and the receptionist led me up to Relisha’s office right away. 
“Sorry to call you out on such short notice.” 
“It’s all good. I was pretty much free anyway.” 
I sat down opposite Relisha and started hearing her out. 
“So, as you know the current guild ranking system works like this. Black rank at the bottom, then purple, green, blue, red, silver, and gold at the top. But we want to add a new white rank at the very bottom. All new guild members will be placed in this white rank.” 
Hmm... Okay. New rank under black, got it... 
“The white-ranks will be put through basic training by the adventure academy. But obviously, not all white-ranks are going to be at the same level of skill. If one of them thinks they should have a higher rank and doesn’t need to sit through the academy, then they can take a ranking test for a nominal fee.” 
That made sense enough to me. If a person felt they were good enough, it’d only be fair to give them a chance to prove it and take on higher-ranked jobs off the bat. I’d already had the whole thing where some guys picked a fight with me just because they were higher-ranked, so that seemed like a good idea. It’d save me trouble, too. I didn’t want to have to come in and beat up every overconfident idiot who rolled into town. 
“So who’ll be teaching at the academy?” 
“Various retired adventurers and a few active ones will come in for demonstrations. After finishing the two-week course, they’ll automatically be ranked up from white to black.” 
“Do white-ranks have to attend the academy?” 
“Nope, it’s optional. If they want to take on quests and slowly rank up that way, it’s fine too. But white-rank quests are typically gonna be stuff like chores or simply finding herbs. Any monster-hunting quests would probably be easy, too... Something like hunting individual wood-spiders, or lone-horned rabbits.” 
Newbie adventurers often loved going monster hunting. If they did tough missions over and over again, they’d put themselves in danger without even realizing it. 
There was a large number of rookies who didn’t heed that kind of advice, and recklessly did whatever they wanted. 
That was one of the reasons why the academy was so important. The veterans would be able to give the newcomers a fighting chance. If they didn’t heed advice even after all that, they’d only have themselves to blame. We just wanted to prevent casualties on average. 
“And what about the fee?” 
“Enrolling in the academy will have a fair price attached to it. They’ll be split into various classes that cover different things, but the price should be fair. We’re working on it.” 
It’d be tough for them if they were grouped up with a teacher that went hard on them, but I had a feeling that such hardships would come in handy down the line. 
“The ranking test will be judged by several instructors. Since the test is to judge the skill of our new recruits, the only ones who can take it are white-ranks.” 
Typically, an adventurer who wanted to rank up would be judged on how many quests he’s cleared, the difficulty of said quests, how many he’s failed, whether he’s started trouble before, etc. Those factors would then be converted into a point-based system, and those points would be referenced to see if the adventurer could rank up or not. You could even have your rank decreased if you weren’t careful. 
Failing quests a lot, arguing with clients, committing crimes, or ignoring guild guidelines were all grounds for demotion. But most cases simply had the person expelled from the guild instead. Letting adventurers like that stay with the guild just made everyone look bad. If a person ended up getting their rank decreased, it would only be because the Guildmaster believed they were capable of redemption. 
“So we’re building the academy in the southern plain, right?” 
“That’s right. It’s already about seventy percent done. Although, there was something I wanted to talk to you about...” 
Relisha frowned slightly. I wondered what the issue was. 
“That other world merge you mentioned... When that happens, what do we do? People like Norn will surely want to join up with us, and they’ll bring those Gollem things with them. When that happens, do we judge them based on the strength of the individual, or their Gollem partner?” 
That was definitely a reasonable concern. Even if an adventurer was a total newbie, they’d be able to clear high-ranking quests with a sufficiently powerful Gollem. 
“I think you should judge them on their own strength. Treat the Gollems as equipment. They could be taken away from their owners, or break down. If that happens, they might get a new Gollem, and we wouldn’t want to fluctuate their rank based on what Gollem they happened to be wielding.” 
“Very well. Norn herself is actually quite skilled, I saw it with my own two eyes. Her Gollem was powerful as well.” 
I pitied those dumbasses who’d gotten their asses beat by Norn, since she looked like a little girl. But still... I worried about Norn. She was a capable adventurer, but she still only had the physical capabilities of a six-year-old. She couldn’t afford to overdo it. 
“Which other countries are you going to be building the academies in?” 
“Ah, well. Right now, we’re in talks with Belfast, Regulus, Roadmare, and Lestia. Brunhild’s academy will be the first, however. We’ll be able to use it to iron out the kinks and refine the process.” 
As my conversation with Relisha continued, I asked her something I’d been wondering. 
“This isn’t exactly related, but where’s the Guild HQ located? And who actually runs the guild?” 
“You’ll have to forgive me, but the location of our headquarters is a secret that can’t be divulged to anyone. There’s also no leader as far as the guild goes. Only several Guildmasters such as myself that serve as trusted administrators.” 
Hmm... I wonder if the Guildmasters are all species with long lifespans like elves or fairies. Maybe some of them are even older than Leen... I think I recall Doctor Babylon saying that the guild even existed during her time. 
Hell, it was even possible that some of the original Guildmasters could still be in place, but I didn’t think that was especially likely. 
“Actually, um... Your Highness, or rather... I’d like to speak to you as the gold adventurer, Mochizuki Touya. I have a request.” 
“Hm? What’s up?” 
I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I asked her to continue. 
“Actually I was wondering if you could act as an examiner for the first ranking test. I won’t ask any more of you afterward, but I’d like you to do it the first time.” 
“Hmm...” 
Guh... This is kind of a pain in the ass, honestly. I guess I can gauge people’s strength pretty decently... But the people who apply for the ranking test are gonna be people who are already self-confident. I want them to accept whatever I say, ideally... But I have a feeling I’ll just get people pissed off at me. 
Still, the final call is the guild’s in the end. They’d need to put up and shut up. Taking those things into account, I was ready to accept on a condition. 
“Can I hide my identity? You just want me to judge their strength, right? There’s no need for them to know who I am, is there?” 
“That’s understandable, but... I was hoping that we could use your identity as a gold adventurer to have the people taking the test accept their results more easily. I also wanted to use you as an example of not judging a book by its cover.” 
Relisha stared at me quietly. Aw, c’mon... You wanted to use me as an example? I mean, I guess it’s fair... I don’t exactly look strong or anything. 
“Would you even be able to hide your identity, Grand Duke? There are plenty of people who know how you look, and I see you walking around town often. Would you be donning a mask, perhaps?” 
“Ah, nope. I did that kind of thing once but it didn’t prove popular. I can use [Mirage] to change my appearance on command, see?” 
I quickly looked up a random person online and synchronized my appearance to match theirs. Height, weight, and general body shape were a bit awkward to change with [Mirage], though. Since a person would be able to put their hands through any part that extended past my actual body. 
If I magicked myself up a disguise and introduced myself as a red or even silver adventurer, then that would be more than enough. 
“Very well, then. I think this’ll be okay. But if I am honest, I really was hoping to add a little more importance to the whole affair by including a gold adventurer.” 
Relisha sighed softly after speaking. Hmm... Geez... Now I feel kinda bad, don’t look at me like that... Wait, I have an idea! 
“Why don’t I bring along the other gold adventurer to help out instead?” 
“Hwuh...?” Relisha blinked a few times in confusion. 
 
“Sorry to bug you out of the blue like this.” 
“Ohoho. Think nothing of it, nothing at all. Life as a former king is rather dull, let me tell ya. I’d also like to see how my little Hilde is doing.” 
The former king of Lestia, Galen Yunas Lestia, chuckled softly as he spoke. He was the only other gold adventurer in the world, and also happened to be Hilde’s grandpa. He looked like an innocent old man with a walking stick, but that gentle appearance concealed his true power. Putting aside people like me and Hilde, who were imbued with divinity, he was definitely among the strongest people in the world. 
“Eek!” 
“Ohohoh. Mm... Not bad at all.” 
The receptionist at the guild cringed and clutched at her rear. This was the only downside to the old man. He was a relentless lech. 
“You’re the same as ever, Master Galen.” 
“How could I stop, Ms. Relisha? It’s the secret to my old age, I’ll have you know. If I ever stopped doing what I do, I’m sure I’d fall down dead in seconds.” 
...Maybe defeating him wouldn’t be so hard after all. Relisha shrugged and rolled her eyes as she continued to talk with Galen. 
I thought for sure that he’d immediately try to touch her or something, but that didn’t seem to be happening. Given that they already seemed to have been acquainted, I wondered if he’d ever tried to have a go at her in the past. 
The old man apparently had a method to his madness. He claimed that he would never touch a woman that he had touched before. He also only went for girls over twenty, so Yumina and the others were safe from his leery gaze. 
I’d gone to Lestia through a [Gate], explained the situation, and then brought him back to Brunhild’s guild. I’d gotten permission from King Reinhard first, of course. There were a few Lestian knights here as escorts, but they were probably actually here to keep him in check. He was far stronger than any of them, anyway. 
“So you want me to fight the newcomers or something?” 
“No, I’ll be doing that. You should just give your personal evaluations of them.” 
The ranking test had three examiners. The old man and I made two. The third examiner was a silver adventurer. I’d also be changing my appearance and disguising myself as a red or silver-rank. 
Then Galen, as the gold-rank, would pass final judgment. Nobody would be able to object, given his status. 
“Why should you hide your identity, sonny? Is it really that much of an issue?” 
“We’re a much smaller country than Lestia is. There’s a chance I could run into the examinees in town, and I wouldn’t want them to hold it against me.” 
“Seems like you’re making a big deal outta nothing. Not like anyone holding anything against you means anything, does it?” 
He sort of had a point... But I also felt like people might have an issue with the country’s leader wasting time on guild affairs. 
Even I was aware of the fact that I played it pretty fast and loose for a monarch. I kind of knew that I was making Galen go out of his way, too. I did promise that I’d show up to judge Lestia’s eventual ranking test, but that didn’t really feel like appropriate compensation either. 
“Mm... So what are you testing them on? Just strength alone? Or are you going to examine their other assets?” 
I wondered that as well. There was more to it than mere fighting, after all. Most adventurers who prided themselves on physical force and just beat their way through everything typically found themselves staying in blue-rank. Without any more complex form of thought, they just couldn’t get up to red. 
There was quite a wide gap between blue and red rank. Red-rank missions were often given out by foreign nations, as well. If some random guy who had a bad attitude was granted red-rank status, it could cause diplomatic issues. 
That was why each and every red-rank had the personal approval of their relevant Guildmaster. It definitely wasn’t a simple feat. Apparently, my own red-rank promotion went so smoothly because of how I contributed to peaceful relations between Belfast and Mismede. 
In terms of strength, I was fine, too. I’d killed the Black Dragon by that point, and had no issues with stuff like mithril golems. I was approved in an instant. 
A lot of adventurers who had trouble in their careers were blue-rank, too. Those that failed to rise up to red ended up taking out their frustration on their guildmates, and they often had their licenses revoked as a result. Personally, I thought people like that never had what it takes to become red-rank in the first place. 
“In general, I think the qualities would be determined by whoever’s examining, but Master Galen has a point. Judging on fighting power alone isn’t right. The guild rank doesn’t just reflect combat ability, after all. It’s up to the examiner to pick out these finer aspects, as well.” 
“Mmh... So we need to think of the test criteria ourselves, then?” 
“Yes. But we’ll obviously oversee it and make sure it all fits.” 
We definitely did need to take their combat power into account, at any rate. If we just handed out ranks to anyone willy-nilly, then we’d cause a lot of problems down the line. 
After all, the people we increased the ranks of would be tied to us from that point on. 
As I was about to open my mouth, there was a knock at the door. 
“Guildmaster, the third examiner is here.” 
The receptionist bowed her head before smiling and letting another person in. The third one was a silver adventurer, right...? 
I looked at the doorway and blinked in confusion. I was completely taken aback. 
“Karina?! Sis? What’re you doing here?!” 
“Hm? I was called here, wasn’t I? Didn’t you know I was coming?” The one in front of me was the god of the hunt, Karina. She looked the same as ever, her light armor strapped to her body in various places, and her emerald-green hair tied up. 
 

“What?! The third one’s you? When did you hit silver-rank?” 
I knew that Karina had registered as an adventurer, but I didn’t know that she’d climbed so high. I thought she was just trying to hunt stuff at her own pace, so I didn’t expect her to have reached such a high level... 
“I hunted most of the prey I could get my hands on, so I ended up going to the dungeon islands. There just happened to be a Dragon in the area at the time, so I killed it after accepting the quest from the guild. The whole ranking-up thing was basically just a bonus.” 
“You killed it... with just a bow and arrow?!” 
I knew that she was first-class even without her divinity, but the fact that she could shoot down a Dragon was seriously impressive... 
“It’s no big deal. All you have to do is aim for the right tendons to ground it. Then, when it’s on the ground, you just have to slit the right vein open with a machete. Easy peasy.” 
Hitting a tendon with an arrow and then piercing it is still kind of insane... Damn, I didn’t know I had a silver-rank so close at hand... Wonder if she’ll be the third gold before long. 
“Wait... is this girl your sister?” 
“Oh, no... I said sis, but she’s actually my cousin. Karina, this is the former king of Lestia, Galen.” 
“Eheh, nice to meet you.” 
“Hohohoh... You certainly must be a member of the grand duke’s family... There’s not a single blindspot or opening on you at all.” 
Galen sighed quietly as his fingers wriggled. He must’ve tried groping her. I remembered that he’d tried to do it to Karen and almost got pulverized. Given that Karina’s physical abilities were far higher than Karen, the old man didn’t have a chance. 
We quickly briefed Karina on the ranking test and carried on from there. We were quite the line-up, I almost felt bad for the examinees. 
“So, how do we judge them?” 

“Judging them on fighting alone isn’t right, but they still need to be strong. I think all ranks green and under can be based on brute force alone.” That was reasonable. If a person applied for the test, it meant they were self-confident. We’d need to be sure who was actually confident, and who was just arrogant. If the participants weren’t strong enough to reach green rank, then the test would basically be done. 
“So what if we see someone who makes the criteria for green rank?” 
“Then we’ll have them take a quest and judge them based on how they handle it. We need to see their priorities.” 
“Seems reasonable...” 
We all slowly cobbled together the details of the first ranking test. 
A month later the adventure academy opened its doors. 
The academy would stand as a cornerstone to the skills and knowledge any adventurer should know. Weapon handling, monster identification, survival skills, and other basics were all to be taught. Basically, anything that a more experienced adventurer would consider second nature. In other words, we raised a school that would raise inexperienced people into equipped and ready rookie adventurers. 
This place basically didn’t have much to offer to people who were already experienced due to different fields. Former knights, or game hunters, were the people who’d be jumping straight into the ranking test. Ultimately, the academy was created to prevent inexperienced people from dying needlessly. It wasn’t made to help people who already knew the basics. 
In the end, the student roster wasn’t very big. There were only a few young boys and girls. After two weeks of education, they’d be automatically put into black rank and sent out into the world. 
The first ranking test would also be allowing black-rank members to participate, as a way of appeasing the newcomer adventurers who had just applied before the opening of the academy and the introduction of the white rank. 
There were people from other ranks who wanted to join as well, but ultimately the whole point of the test was to gauge the potential of people with no real adventuring experience. 
The guild’s official statement said there was no need to re-evaluate anyone who had enough guild experience already. 
There were twenty-seven applicants for the ranking test. A little more than I expected. The examinees had all been assembled within the academy’s training field, and after a small introduction from Guildmaster Relisha, the test began. 
“Welcome to the ranking test. First up, we have a few introductions in order. I am Galen. I’m no longer in service, but I’m a gold adventurer. This young lady here is Mochizuki Karina. Karina is her given name. She’s a silver adventurer, and quite impressive. And this young man here is, er... Regin Leif. He’s a red adventurer!” 
Before I ascended to gold, Galen was the only one who had reached that rank. He was a legendary hero who had married into the Lestian royal family. His name ended up turning quite a few heads, so most eyes were on him. But Karina, with her strong body and dashing good looks, attracted a fair share of attention as well. 
I’d used [Mirage] to turn myself into a generic-looking guy with brown hair and a normal face. I didn’t want to leave too much of a deep impression. There were a few people in the crowd that looked up at Karina and I with unhappy or even irritated faces. Seemed like they had issues with a woman or a young man having such high ranks. 
“First things first, a basic strength test. You’ll be fighting against Regin for one minute. You can use whatever kind of weapons you’re used to.” 
Once Galen stopped speaking, one of the examinees raised his hand. 
“Shouldn’t we be using training weapons for this? A lot of us use weapons that could cause serious harm.” 
The speaker was a young man with long brown hair, he vaguely gestured toward a bald-headed older man that stood nearby. The older man grinned slightly and folded his arms. 
The older guy wore a tiger-stripe vest, tanned skin, and a huge battleax hanging about his waist. He kind of looked like a bandit. If something like that hit a person head-on, they probably wouldn’t get back up. Judging from the smirk plastered on its owner’s face, he knew that quite well. 
Galen looked to me for guidance, so I took a step forward. 
“It doesn’t matter what kind of weapon you use against me. You can use magic, as well. I won’t make a single offensive motion until five seconds before the end of the match. I’ll be playing defensively. Also, I’ll be wielding this.” 
I took out a small weapon that barely extended beyond seventy centimeters in length. It was flimsy and made of wood. A basic cypress stick. 
The participants in the crowd ended up having mixed reactions, but they could easily be sorted into two camps. There were those who relaxed at the sight of the stick and those who became enraged. 
Some were relieved because they were glad they weren’t going to be beaten too badly, while the others were probably upset that they were seemingly being looked down on. The bandit-looking guy with the battleax looked especially pissed-off, though. He was glaring at me furiously. 
“So, who’s first?” 
“Heh, pretty interestin’ gimmick. I’m up first, pal.” 
As I’d expected, the bandit-looking fella came stomping right up. I didn’t really mind who came first, so I nodded toward him. The man’s irked expression twisted into a grin as he gripped his battleax in both hands. 
“Alls I gotta do is beat ya down, right? That’ll make me tough as one a’ them there red-rankers, right?” 
“Well... it’s not just strength alone, but yeah. If you beat me down, we’ll recognize you have at least red-rank strength. But are you sure you wanna use that thing? There’s still time to change your weapon out.” 
“Pssh. You getting’ cold feet after seein’ me ax? Thought you was hot shit, didn’t ya?” 
Yeah, this guy’s definitely no good. He has no tact about him at all. Karina, seemingly seeing this guy’s nature just as clearly as I had, sighed softly and left the area. 
“Eat this!” 
The man swung down his battleax toward my head. I was honestly a little taken aback by how readily he’d gone for the lethal shot. 
I sidestepped and avoided the shot, resulting in the battleax lodging itself in the ground. In terms of physical strength, he was definitely pretty up there. 
“Tch... Don’t get cocky!” 
The man continued swinging his ax over and over again. But each swing took far too much time to come at me, and as such, I had no difficulty avoiding them. I could see clearly where his attacks were coming from. It was actually kind of boring. Plus, he was rapidly running out of stamina. I could see his breathing was strained after only a few swings. The man definitely wasn’t good at using his own weapon. 
“Thirty seconds left.” 
Karina muttered over in our general direction. The lack of interest in her voice was palpable. She wasn’t even watching the fight, she was just staring down at her phone. Though that might’ve been because she was keeping a close eye on the stopwatch app. 
“Get over here already...” 
“You weren’t prepared for this of all things? My build isn’t heavy, and neither is my weapon. Didn’t you think it might be hard to hit me? There are fast-moving monsters out there too, you know? If you aren’t versatile with your weapon choices, you’ll just die out there.” 
His battleax was actually a pretty solid hunting weapon, but he definitely should’ve brought in a side weapon like a machete. 
I even tried to warn him subtly before the fight began, but he ignored me. He wasn’t thinking about how to hit me, he was only thinking about the act of hitting me. That was why he’d never ever get a shot in. 
“Gh... B-Bastard... You...!” 
“Five seconds left.” 
“Time to wrap it up, then.” 
When Karen told me how much time was remaining, I immediately jabbed the stick into the side of the man’s head. 
“Gwauugh!” 
The rough-looking guy, who was almost certainly twice my size, stumbled backward uncontrollably. He fell on his back and rolled a few times before coming to a stop. His eyes had rolled into the back of his head. 
I didn’t even hit him especially hard... He definitely didn’t have much in the way of training. I was honestly disappointed in him. 
“He’s purple.” 
“Mhm, purple.” 
“Purple it is.” 
The three of us agreed right away. He had a bit of strength, so I was fine to have him start higher than black. But he wasn’t quite strong enough to make it to green-rank. Purple was best for him at this point because I figured if he took on more than three lone-horned wolves at the same time, he’d probably get himself killed. 
Thus, that man’s run with the test was over. A few guild staff members picked him up on a stretcher and carried him off to the academy’s infirmary. 
“So, who’s next?” 
I smiled as I called out to the rest of the entrants. 
 
“That’s it, then?” 
I’d just finished up the mock battles against all twenty-seven attendees. Not a single person had even managed to lay so much as a finger on me. All that really meant was that there wasn’t a single applicant who was on gold-rank level, though. 
Of the twenty-seven, only seven of them were what I’d considered worthy of green-rank. The other twenty failed to reach that level. Thirteen were assigned to black-rank, while seven were assigned to purple. 
The blacks and purples would be ending their tests there. They’d be able to leave after handing their cards over to the guild staff and recording their promotions. 
Galen turned to the seven we’d judged worthy of green-rank. 
“Very well... There’s only seven of you here now. You’re all considered to be at least on par with a green-rank adventurer. But all that really means to us is that you pass in terms of combat proficiency basics, nothing else. Adventuring takes more than just strength, and there are many different kinds of quests. There’ll be quests that you excel at, and quests you underperform on.” 
Adventurers needed to be aware of what did and didn’t work for them. In my case, I couldn’t stand escort missions. 
It was definitely difficult to do missions for complete strangers without issues cropping up now and then. There were also certain employers who’d be rude or snappy, too, so we needed to be sure they’d be able to handle it. Plus, there were also times where adventurers would have to work with others, and that could cause trouble now and then. Other times they went well. The mission where we met Sue went relatively smooth, for example. 
“Let’s imagine there was a monster right in front of you. If you were a knight or a blade for hire, perhaps you’d want to strike efficiently to bring it down quickly. You’d want to stab it through the heart, or crush its head... right? But does anyone here know why an adventurer shouldn’t actually do that?” 
A small-statured girl raised her hand in response to Galen’s question. “Oho. You know, little missy?” 
“Yes! If we killed it like that, it could damage valuable parts that we could have otherwise sold as resources.” 
“Ohohoho, exactly! If a certain creature’s pelt is valuable, but you burned its fur with Fire magic, then you made a mistake! If a horn used for crafting is shattered or damaged, then it’s not going to sell for nearly as good a price! Adventurers need to consider the monetary value of their prey, but not to the extent that you’d put your own life at severe risk.” 
The girl flashed a self-assured and proud grin, but I just glared daggers at her. I’d specifically told her not to stand out in particular... She seemed to notice, since she looked away and started innocently whistling. What a pain she was... 
Her hair was cut short and a little bit messy. She wore a small scarf and clothes that allowed for easy mobility, which was good given her role in Brunhild. She was one of our intelligence corps members, Sarutobi Homura. 
I wanted to have a woman on the inside during the ranking test, so I had her join the entrants after getting permission from Tsubaki. 
Since she was basically a spy, I asked her to keep quiet and pay attention... But the girl was probably just a little bit too excitable for her own good. Given that she was a ninja, you’d think she’d be used to staying still... Karina glanced over at her and then sighed in my general direction. I’d told Galen and her about Homura in advance. 
“So here’s what’ll happen. We’re going to have you all accept a quest as part of the ranking test. The client will be the guild itself. It’s a full quest, all filed through the proper channels. That means you’ll be rewarded if you succeed. But if you fail, it’ll also be marked on your record as well. Remember to take care out there.” 
If you failed a quest, it damaged your credibility as an adventurer and affected how the guild saw you. Even if two adventurers were of the same rank, the guild would typically favor the adventurer with the cleaner track record of success. 
One of the people in the group, a young man, raised his hand. It was the long-haired man who’d asked the question about weapons earlier. He seemed the patient and methodical type. 
“Will this quest be classified as a personal mission?” 
“It won’t. It’s a party mission, which means that you’ll all shoulder the burden of success or failure together.” 
Galen’s words made the group murmur in surprise. Homura didn’t have much of a reaction, since she was informed ahead of time, but there was also another person who didn’t seem all that bothered. 
She was a cat beastwoman who was probably from Mismede. She looked to be in her early twenties and had black hair. Her black cat ears poked out from her hair as well. 
She wore light leather armor with a heavy knife at her waist. Her cat tail was tipped with white and flicked around behind her. Her outfit was clearly based around being speedy. She focused on agile slashes during the mock fight as well. 
As I looked the girl over, a man from among the seven spoke up. 
“Hold on now... Doesn’t that mean if someone here acts as a dead weight and fails, then we all fail?” 
“That’s correct. You’ll all be sharing the burden.” 
“Tsk... That’s ridiculous...” 
The man grumbled quietly. He was almost two meters tall and had a pretty buff physique. He looked to be close to thirty and occasionally itched at his vibrant red hair. He wore armor that covered his torso and upper arms. He also had his hands, legs, and midsection covered securely as well. His weapon of choice was a broadsword. 
I remembered being impressed when I fought him. He was definitely at least in the top two when it came to strength in the group. He was definitely used to fighting against people, so he had probably worked as a knight or hired blade before applying for the test. 
“I wonder who the dead weight’ll be, hm? Depending on the quest, we might not need any meatheads...” 
“You sayin’ somethin’?” 
A woman sent a few biting, teasing words in the man’s general direction. She wore a sleeveless vest, and a pair of shorts with a heavy belt tied around them. Her right shoulder bore a snake tattoo, and she wore a whip around her waist. 
She wore her dark, greyish hair tied up around the back of her head in order to keep it out of the way. She seemed to be in her early twenties. 
Her arms were folded as she sidelong glanced toward the red-haired guy. Her chest already threatened to burst out of her shirt, but her folded arms just pushed them up even more. They were big... Really big... 
Galen was already staring her up and down with a predatory gaze, despite his soft laughing. He wasn’t even blinking... 
“You’re sayin’ someone as tough as me is dead weight?!” 
“You definitely seem good at fighting folks, but how’s that gonna help us against monsters or beasts? You should go stock up on antivenom before we head out, or you’ll bite the dust fast.” 
“Wh-What...?” 
Seemed like the guy hadn’t even considered the possibility of poisonous attacks. That wasn’t a huge deal, though. Low-ranked adventurers typically didn’t get quests to kill poisonous creatures, and if they ever did, they’d be warned by the guild staff about it. 
“Good grief... We’re going to be in a party, aren’t we? You two shouldn’t be squabbling already.” 
The long-haired man from earlier stepped in between the two. He seemed fairly unassuming at first, but he was actually pretty powerful. He was at least on par with the red-haired guy. I wondered if he was of noble descent, given his general behavior... But his gear was all banged up and dirty. The only thing his sword had going for it was how resilient it was. It was possible he was from a disgraced noble family. 
“Huh? Why do I gotta listen to someone like you...?” 
“Because we’re sharing the burden. Emphasis on sharing. This isn’t an issue that’s just yours anymore.” 
“Just so you all know, you can drop out here and now. You’ll be placed into the guild as a green-rank member, and start taking quests tomorrow.” 
Everyone went quiet in response to Karina’s words. All seven of them were strong enough to be judged as green-rank, so we’d be fine with them stopping and simply going into the guild as-is. 
“I got no plans’ve steppen oot, lassie. If ye pests wanna clear oot, then go fer it. But I’m stayin’ reet put.” 
A dwarven man suddenly spoke up. He looked like a typical dwarf. Massive beard, short stature, broad shoulders. I had no idea how old he was. Even young dwarves tended to have big beards, and the older ones often lived much longer than a hundred years. 
He wore a heavy battleax on his back and a little hatchet at his waist. He used both weapons well during the fight against me. 
He probably came from the kingdom of Ryle. I wondered if he had connections to the team of dwarven technicians and engineers I’d met some time ago. 
“I don’t intend on quitting here and now, but I’d like to hear the quest details before I actually lock myself into it.” 
Another man from the group raised his hand. He looked to be in his late twenties and had a fairly stern face. He didn’t particularly stand out in any kind of way, except for his fanciful brown coat and the staff in his hands. It wasn’t like Galen’s cane, it was a legitimate magical tool, a staff to aid in the casting of spells. 
The well-used staff had two spellstones embedded in it. One was brown, and the other was yellow. Respectively, they represented light and earth, and he wielded spells from both schools. 
He’d used a lot of magic during the mock battle against me. He’d managed to chain together good spell combos like [Earthbind] and [Light Arrow], but took an awful lot of time to focus. He wouldn’t be able to win against anyone with sufficient experience against mages. I’d pretty much been able to dodge all of his spells, even if they were set up well. 
His abilities were much better suited to fighting monsters or beasts, rather than people. He was basically the opposite of the red-haired guy. 
“Mm... It seems fair to ask for more details, very well. The quest is to take place on the dungeon islands through Brunhild’s teleportation gates. You’ll be tasked with heading to one of the islands in particular and obtaining some spinfire weed from the mountains to the northernmost region. Look here.” 
Galen held up an illustration I’d prepared. It was a grassy herb with blazing red leaves that spiraled off in a few different directions. 
“You have three days to find it. There are a few dangerous monsters in the area, so you’ll be granted two platinum coins each.” 
Hearing that caused a few of the group to open their eyes wide. I could understand why. Two platinum coins were basically close to two-million yen. Getting that much for only three days of work was unbelievably good. 
This quest was deliberately designed to be a little too difficult for green-rankers. We’d also included our ninja and made sure there’d be no casualties during the quest either. 
Also, the quest reward was irrelevant to whether or not they were promoted further. Even if they didn’t do well enough to be judged higher than green, they’d still get their coin if they succeeded. 
But obviously, if they failed, that’d be a mark against their permanent records, too... 
When all was said and done, nobody dropped out. Though they had a few individual issues, they ultimately agreed to take on the challenge as a seven-strong party. 
The guild staff went around to collect their signatures, and the Guildmaster gave the go-ahead. With that, they’d formally taken on the quest. 
The ninja girl, Sarutobi Homura. 
The stoic catgirl, Mew. 
The red-haired warrior, Garron. 
The busty tattooed girl, Rose. 
The young man with long brown hair, Abert. 
The rough-around-the-edges dwarf, Dom. 
And finally, the all-too-serious mage, Surges Partes. 
Aside from Homura and Surges, none of them had surnames. This was pretty common amongst adventurers. They were usually dirt-poor commoners who never knew their birthrights, or just didn’t get surnames. Though there were also those that hid their family names for whatever reason. 
A lot of beastmen and demi-humans didn’t have surnames either. Or rather, they just used the name of their clan or where they were born as their surnames instead. 
“The guild will cover your fee for entering the dungeon island zone, but any other costs need to be incurred on your own backs.” 
“Huh? You aren’t even gonna give us rations or nothin’?” 
“We already told you, did we not? We filed this as a proper quest. Why would the client care enough to put aside provisions for whoever decided to take it?” 
“Tsk.” 
Garron rolled his eyes in response to Galen’s words. That definitely varied by client. Some of them would provide supplies, while others wouldn’t care enough. There was also the option for the adventurer to negotiate before taking a quest, but ultimately it boiled down to “Don’t like it? Don’t take it.” 
I almost forgot to tell them one other thing. 
“You’ll be followed by an invigilator from the guild.” 
“Huh?! What for?!” 
“This is still part of the ranking test. They’ll be there to judge you all individually. But don’t try to show off, either. If you end up failing because of that, you’re gonna get hefty negative marks.” 
I answered Rose as best I could. I didn’t know why she was so surprised. The whole point of this was to evaluate them in the field. 
If things got too bad, the invigilator would also step in to help them. It’s true it was a proper quest, but it was also a test. I didn’t want anyone dying on my watch. 
“Any other questions?” The cat-eared girl, Mew, raised her hand slowly. 
“Tell me about the weed.” 
Some of the other wannabe adventurers looked confused as to why she asked that, but I just grinned toward Karina and Galen. Mew was more perceptive than I’d expected. 
“Spinfire weed is a plant that grows in high altitude areas, typically appearing between summer and fall. It has a strong aroma, which lends itself well to spicy seasoning in food. The monster species known as the Fire Lizards adore eating this plant... which means that wherever you find it, you’ll surely find a Fire Lizard nest.” 
When I finished speaking, some of the test participants had already gone white in the face.