Chapter 3 – Promotion and the Mass Subjugation Mission
“Um, Okuno-san, you’ve been promoted to E-rank. Congratulations. That’s the fastest promotion this Guild has on record.”
“…Sorry? It’s only been two weeks since I made F-rank.”
This was the day after I’d reported the two bosses in the Giant Tree Dungeon and sat through a full round of questions on account of it being the first case of its kind. I’d barely finished my usual dungeon run and training when Kisara, the receptionist, called me over to tell me I’d moved up.
“Materials recovered inside the dungeon, the Boarwolf subjugated outside it, the higher-grade goblins from the subjugation request, the Rare Boss, two bosses. More than enough points. Your card, please.”
“Ah, right.”
Itemized like that, it sounds like a great deal to have packed into two weeks.
I handed over my adventurer card as told, and Kisara disappeared into the back with it, returning a minute later.
“Here you are. Your E-rank card.”
“Thank you.”
The metal card she gave back had an ‘E’ floating on its face. This thing is a fair mystery in its own right—apparently it keeps a running record of your subjugation counts and the like.
“That qualifies you for E-class dungeons, Okuno-san. Could I ask you to hold off on leaving town a little longer, though? The inquiry results on that horn still haven’t come back.”
“Understood. How long should it take?”
“Normally about a week, so another three or four days.”
A week ran seven days here too, same as home. No custom of a day off at the end of it, mind you. The whole world a black company, then. An outfit that grinds you up and calls it your duty, as we said back home. Though in fairness nobody here works hard enough for that to stick, which is a mercy.
“I’ve got something on order at the weapon shop myself, so I’ll be here until then anyway.”
“That’s a help. Collecting materials in F-class dungeons still earns points at E-rank, so I’d be grateful if you kept on as you have been.”
“Of course. Moving on to another town takes money, so I’ll earn what I can while I’m here.”
I was busy setting Kisara’s mind at ease when a carriage pulled up outside. Two people came through the door.
The first was a man in middle age, a little younger than me, wearing expensive Western clothes and wearing them crisply. He had the aura the genuine high-fliers give off—you could tell he was sharp before he opened his mouth.
The second was a young woman, silver hair loose to her waist, crimson light armor, an ornately worked longsword at her hip. Neither of them read as ordinary at a glance, but the woman in particular carried the atmosphere only an ‘Awakened’ has.
She said something to the nearest Guild employee, and the pair of them were shown through to a back room.
“Who were they?”
“The man is the steward of the Viscount Barius house, which governs this whole region. I’ve seen him here once before. The woman is the more famous of the two—Anatoria-san, a former A-rank adventurer, now a knight of the viscount’s house.”
Kisara’s face has gone stiff. Associates of the nobility, and one of them a steward, which puts him among the closest of the inner circle. Fair enough that she’d tighten up.
There’s a route, then, that takes an adventurer into a noble house as a knight. Will I have to start thinking about a career plan eventually?
“If people of that standing have come out, does that mean something serious enough to warrant it?”
“Yes. I think the lord has probably settled on how to handle that goblin settlement from the other day.”
“Don’t tell me adventurers are getting called up for it?”
“They are. And for the record, E-rank and above is mandatory.”
“…Huh?”
Come on. Not with that timing. Don’t tell me the Guild set me up… no, that’s self-regard well past anything the facts support. Record or no record, I’m one E-rank adventurer among a great many.
“Buhahahaha! Rotten luck, old man!”
That evening I was out drinking with Keim and the others, ostensibly to celebrate the promotion, when the lord’s messengers came up in conversation.
Every adventurer in the place had already worked out that a large-scale goblin subjugation was coming.
So when Keim worked out that my promotion had conscripted me on the day it arrived, he found the arrangement magnificent.
“Soshi-san’s promotion makes sense once you hear the reasons. Still, isn’t it fast?”
“Apparently my subjugation points got a multiplier for being solo.”
When I answered the kid’s question, Ranan, the party’s spear user and no hardship to look at, nodded along.
“That follows. Going into a dungeon solo should be credited.”
“In the old man’s case it’s just that nobody’ll partner with him. Hehehe.”
“Keim, that’s rude!”
Meribel the mage brought a fist down on Keim’s head while he was still riding the joke. It made a genuinely good sound, though he’s still laughing, so he’ll live.
Once he’d laughed himself out, Keim dropped into the seat beside me and nudged me with an elbow.
“So you saw her, right, old man? ‘Crimson Anatoria.’ Word is she’s a real beauty—how’d she look?”
“Sorry, no. I was looking at her gear the whole time and barely got to her face. Staring at it seemed like a good way to get shouted at, besides.”
“What, that’s no fun. I should’ve knocked off early myself… ow!”
Meribel had pinched him, by the look of it.
Rabert watched all this with a grin he wasn’t trying to hide.
“‘Crimson Anatoria’ might turn up for the goblin subjugation, you know. That’s your chance to look good in front of her.”
“Oh, right. Put in a performance she can’t miss, get myself introduced… ow, that still hurts!”
“Is a goblin King really the sort of thing that brings out a former A-rank?”
Even at E-rank I’ve got strength no ordinary person comes close to. An A-rank must be operating on something else entirely…
“Honestly, one C-rank would make it comfortable. The thing is they need bodies on the field, so they need bait.”
“Bait…? Ah, so they use a famous name to pull a crowd.”
“Exactly. Everyone eats that up. It’s half a festival, really.”
“That’s shrewd of them. Or adventurers are just tougher than I gave them credit for.”
There isn’t much in the way of entertainment in this world, honestly. I can see why a mass subjugation mission gets treated as a festival.
I was wetting my throat when Meribel turned to me, still holding her pinch on Keim.
“So, Soshi-san, once this goblin subjugation is over, will you be moving on to another town?”
“That’s the plan. I want to get around as much as I can and collect skills, and I’d like to try an E-class dungeon. Once I’m ready, I’ll go.”
“I see… Soshi-san is from abroad, after all. Nothing holds you to this town.”
There was something a little envious in Meribel’s face, and that was what tipped me off.
“Is ‘Silver Wheel’ all still in this town because you’re from here?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Everyone’s got family. The idea’s to make a decent living here and keep at it.”
That was Keim, finally let out of the pinch attack.
“Right. Home and family matter.”
“Sure. There’s been talk about heading out, making D-rank, then coming back, but nobody can quite commit, and it’s one thing after another.”
“Going out costs money and time both. And your families would worry, so you can’t just up and move.”
“That’s the size of it. In a way I do envy you, old man. There are days I think I’d like to get stronger too.”
Keim said it and let his eyes drift somewhere past the wall, and Meribel watched him with an expression I couldn’t put a name to. So they have their own knots to work through. Of course they do. Still, young as they are, they’ll find a way to square it and go after what they actually want. Maybe the useful move is to get my own rank up first, so that when that day comes, I’m the one in a position to lead them.
I finished my routine the next day as well and went down to the Guild in the evening, where a decent crowd had gathered at the bulletin board. The call-up for the goblin mass subjugation mission had gone official.
A quick read gave me the shape of it: the viscount’s house leading, all adventurers E-class and above required to attend, pay running fifty thousand to two hundred thousand roms per person per day depending on rank.
Departure was set for three days out, which struck me as awfully short notice, though from the reactions around me it seemed to be standard. Kisara and several other staff were working the board, reading the notice aloud for adventurers who couldn’t manage the text themselves. The Guild clearly rated this one near the top of its list.
With what I needed off the board, I finished my buyback and went straight on to the weapon shop. My funds had some room now, and I wanted new gear—between the levels, the skills, and the special skills I’d picked up, my current mace had stopped being enough.
“Oh, young man, that order of yours came in.”
I’d barely got my greeting out at the counter before the shop’s old man came through with that. A handcart followed him, two metal bars lying on it. The Dark Metal rods, for training.
“Thank you, I’ll take them. And my current mace has stopped being enough, so I’d like a new one.”
“‘Stopped being enough,’ he says. That’s big talk. You’ve only had it two weeks, haven’t you?”
“Yes. Like this, see.”
I gave the mace a couple of easy swings, wrist only, and his eyes went round.
“Hold on, what kind of strength is that? You don’t see that at D-rank.”
“Ah, I did make E-rank yesterday, for what it’s worth…”
“Huh? Seriously… no, you’re serious. You’re going to turn into something serious yourself, young man. Right, mace again, then? There was talk of you going for a spear.”
“Forcing it through with a mace seems to suit me better. Though I am a little curious about a longsword.”
“A longsword, eh. Harder to handle than a mace by a long way.”
“I know. One for practice, to start with. And for the mace, something about three times the weight of this one.”
“Three times… Right. Hang on.”
He vanished into the back and came out with a second cart, three maces and three longswords on it.
“That’s what I’d recommend out of current stock. For the longsword I’d normally tell you to go cheap, but nothing cheap survives a swing with that strength behind it, so buy something decent.”
“Understood. Let me have a look.”
I picked each of them up in turn and went with whichever sat best in the hand. The mace was quick—my skill is high enough now that the right one announces itself. The longsword I’ve got no standard to judge by at all, so I settled for whichever was easiest to hold.
“These, then, please. And put a belt on the longsword’s sheath while you’re at it.”
“Done. Five hundred ten thousand roms for the lot. Can you cover it?”
“Yes, no problem. Thank you.”
That took a serious bite out of my funds, but call it an investment in the future and it stops mattering.
Spending on that scale without flinching—two weeks in this world and I’ve changed more than I’d have guessed.
The next day I skipped the dungeon and gave the whole day to the training ground (provisional).
First order of business: getting used to the new mace.
It’s a little longer than the old one, and the head is more than a size bigger. The weight looks to be every bit of the three times I asked for, and swinging it felt much like the first time I swung the old one.
I ran the monsters I’d fought so far through my head and swung the mace through them, vertical and horizontal, flattening each one in turn.
Swinging something that heavy around should drag your body along after it. Thanks to the special skill ‘Stability,’ mine barely moves. The official line is that ‘Stability’ steadies your footing; what it actually does is haul your center of gravity in close to your own body, which is a casual dismissal of the laws of physics and an outrageous thing for a skill to do. From the inside it feels like your body weight spikes for an instant and plants you, and apparently the effect scales with the level.
It’s only [Stability Lv. 2] right now, and even so I can feel it working more than well enough.
An hour of nothing but practice swings and the mace started to sit right in my hands. Most likely the level went up at the same moment the feel did.
Right. Longsword next.
Why a longsword and not the spear I’d talked about…? No sense pretending: ‘Crimson Anatoria’ had one at her hip the other day and she looked good carrying it.
An hour of swinging in a form that advertised the amateur holding it, and right as the thing began to sit properly, something pinged through me from head to foot. I knew how to swing a sword. My edge alignment settled, my feet started going where they should, and another hour after that I’d apparently reached [Longsword Lv. 2].
“All right. Anything past this waits for real combat.”
There’s nothing more practice swings can teach me until I’ve put it against something that fights back.
I set the longsword down, took a Dark Metal rod in each hand, and slung a third across my back in a sack.
That should put me somewhere near three hundred kilos of load.
Go for a run like this, then… except no shoe on earth was surviving that. I took mine off and ran barefoot. The special skill ‘Steel Body’ hardens the soles of my feet for the instant they need it, so stones don’t register. I really am drifting out of the human range.
A full day of that kind of work and I could feel both halves coming up, the skills and the plain body underneath them. Yeah. This is still fun. Tomorrow I’ll go put it into some monsters.
The next day was the eve of the mass subjugation mission, so I spent the morning having my armor adjusted and bought a new buckler.
After that I took the longsword into the Boulder Dungeon and worked through goblins and Rock Lizards with it, letting my body learn the feel of an edge. To a body trained on mace work, opening a monster up with a blade was a new sensation entirely, and it taught me more than I wanted to know about what an edge does. Western swords are supposedly more about the impact than the cut… or so I remember hearing. A blade is its own thing.
That said, with the strength this body is carrying now, a mace still puts out more raw power. Even a boss Bearwolf’s head simply ‘bursts’ if I swing at it with everything I have. Mass and speed make a violence of their own, and it is a frightening thing.
So, everything I could reasonably do before the mass subjugation mission, I’ve done. As I am now, I could put a ‘would-be King’ down from the front.
Measured against the other adventurers around me that feels well out of scale for an E-rank… no, no. Getting cocky helps nobody. I’ve been an adventurer for a shade over two weeks. Best not to forget it.