Promotion Exam (1)

An adventurer’s promotion exam was extremely simple: defeat a designated monster, and you passed.

Mount Theol, located about an hour’s walk from Eto, had recently seen an increase in monsters, and extermination requests had been coming in from nearby villages and towns.

For the exam, candidates had to defeat monsters listed in those extermination requests.

In other words, they only had to do the same kind of work they normally did, except they had to challenge monsters above their current rank, with an examiner watching nearby.

At the foot of Mount Theol, there appeared to be several other people besides Yuri taking promotion exams, and every last one of them was a burly man.

“Oh, did the little boy come to take the exam too?”

“If you’re gonna quit, now’s the time, kid.”

The men openly mocked Yuri when they saw how small and slender she was.

To a bunch of hulking brutes like them, she probably did look like nothing more than a frail boy.

Yuri was currently wearing a breastplate over men’s clothing, so she looked like an androgynous, handsome young man.

I reassuringly patted Yuri’s back when she lowered her head somewhat uncertainly.

“Do your best. With your ability, A-rank or higher is definitely within reach.”

“Roy…”

Yuri looked relieved.

The men who noticed me hurriedly moved away.

No, it wasn’t because of me. The examiner had arrived behind me.

The examiner’s name was Wolk Grace.

He was also the branch chief of the Eto Adventurers’ Guild.

He was a huge man over two meters tall, a canine beastman with ears atop his head and a thick, fluffy tail.

“Hey, Roy. Thanks for taking care of that Gigant Lizard request the other day.”

“That was nothing. Mind if I keep borrowing the wyvern a little longer?”

“I’ve got no reason to ride it for a while, so go ahead.”

The Black Wyvern I’d been using for transportation actually belonged to Wolk.

Only a handful of adventurers could properly ride that wyvern, and Wolk was one of them… Well, so was I.

Wolk slapped me on the shoulder.

“Why don’t you finally graduate from being an eternal B-ranker and take the S-rank exam?”

“I’m good. Doesn’t seem like becoming S-rank would benefit me much.”

“There are plenty of benefits, aren’t there? You’d get requests from the royal family, and plenty of jobs guarantee absurdly high rewards.”

“You know I’m not interested in that sort of thing.”

“You’re still only in your thirties, aren’t you? Couldn’t you stand to have a little more ambition?”

Wolk laughed heartily as he repeatedly slapped my shoulder.

He probably thought he was tapping me lightly, but my back was making some pretty impressive sounds.

I placed a hand on Yuri’s shoulder and introduced her to Wolk.

“I’m here as her escort today. Yuri Claudevel. She’s got a lot of potential, so don’t worry about taking her somewhere with strong monsters.”

“Her? …I thought she was a boy. So she’s a girl?”

Wolk’s eyes widened in surprise when he got a good look at Yuri.

Then he looked back and forth between us and nodded as though he’d figured something out.

“Are you two dating?”

At that sudden question, Yuri and I both turned bright red.

W-What the hell are you saying!?

“We met for the first time the day before yesterday. Of course we’re not.”

“Hoh… You only just met? You’re not old acquaintances?”

“I told you, we’re not.”

“Hmm. You somehow smell like people who’ve known each other for a long time.”

“You know better than anyone that I don’t have female acquaintances. Quit messing with me.”

What the hell did he mean, we smelled like old acquaintances anyway? Was that some beastman instinct?

I didn’t understand him at all.

Wolk stood before the examinees and gave a concise explanation.

“The rules are extremely simple. If you want to advance to C-rank, defeat a Mad Rabbit. For B-rank, defeat a Saber White Wolf. For A-rank, defeat a Thunder Snake. And for S-rank, defeat a Windwood Dragon. You must do it alone. You may use items, but relying on too many will count against you.”

…Come to think of it, I hadn’t given Yuri any items.

I took a stamina recovery pill and a mana recovery pill from my pocket. They were tiny pills about the size of beans and essential items for adventurers.

“Yuri, you probably won’t need these, but take them just in case.”

“Th-Thank you!”

The others grinned when they heard our exchange.

They looked at Yuri mockingly.

“Shouldn’t you get a few more?”

“Yeah, yeah. Better make sure they’re the strongest medicine too. Ah, though you probably won’t even have enough stamina to need anything that strong!”

The group burst into laughter.

Good grief. They were judging her entirely by appearances.

Wolk lightly smacked them one after another on the head with his palm.

“Owwww!”

“Whoa!?”

“O-Ow, ow, ow!”

He’d meant to hit them lightly, but they crouched down clutching their heads in pain.

“Shut up, all of you. Let’s get to the testing grounds.”

The monster used for the C-rank exam was the Mad Rabbit.

Apparently, they descended into populated areas and stole crops from village fields.

When we reached a Mad Rabbit den near the foot of Mount Theol, two monsters were already standing ready and glaring at us, apparently having sensed our presence.

Mad Rabbits were medium-sized monsters about as large as a short adult. Their eyes glowed red, and their fur was brown.

“Perfect, there are two of them. You two C-rank candidates, begin the exam.”

A blue-haired man and a large-built man, presumably the two C-rank candidates, stepped forward to face the monsters.

Both Mad Rabbits attacked the adventurers at the same time.

The blue-haired man, whose hair was tied back, raised his sword and swung.

Oh, come on. You shouldn’t just charge blindly at them.

The Mad Rabbit jumped over the blue-haired man’s head.

After landing several meters away, it turned around and charged straight back at him.

“W-W-Whoa! Eek!”

The blue-haired man panicked but still swung his sword downward.

The blade struck the Mad Rabbit squarely on the head.

“…Well, I can’t deny there was a fair amount of luck involved, but you pass.”

Wolk made his judgment while looking at the Mad Rabbit, which had collapsed with its eyes spinning.

The rest would come with actual combat experience. He’d probably decided the man could handle them once he got over his fear.

The other candidate was an especially large man. He was probably a fist fighter. With his bare hand, he punched the monster directly between the eyes and knocked it unconscious.

Naturally, the large man passed the C-rank exam too.

Next came the B-rank Saber White Wolf.

It was the same kind of monster we’d fought in the forest near Twai, and they usually made their nests in caves and burrows.

This time, there was one Saber White Wolf living inside a burrow… Just one, huh.

They usually traveled in packs, but perhaps it had become separated. Or maybe it had been driven from its pack after losing a struggle for leadership.

The Saber White Wolf emerged from its burrow and snarled threateningly.

“Fireball!!”

A male mage wearing a purple hooded cloak, one of the B-rank candidates, chanted the spell.

A single small fireball about the size of a fist appeared. Depending on how much mana was poured into it, this spell could launch multiple fireballs, but one seemed to be his limit.

The Saber White Wolf grimaced in pain when the fireball struck it, but immediately bared its fangs and lunged forward.

There wasn’t much mana behind that attack.

It had about enough power to leave a whole roasted chicken half-cooked.

The mage drew a sword and slashed at the Saber White Wolf. So he could use swordsmanship too—apparently he was a Magic Swordsman.

Claaang!!

But the monster caught the blade between its fangs.

The Saber White Wolf continued its charge.

The force sent the man flying backward.

“That’s enough. You’re not ready for B-rank yet. Hey, you two who passed C-rank, want to try for B-rank while you’re here?”

The blue-haired man and the large man turned pale and shook their heads as they looked at the snarling Saber White Wolf with its fur standing on end.

“N-No way.”

“We’re not as strong as that guy.”

They pointed toward the Magic Swordsman, who had been knocked onto his backside by the Saber White Wolf.

Wolk sighed, then looked toward the monster, which seemed ready to attack again at any moment.

“…!?”

The instant Wolk glared at it, the Saber White Wolf froze with a visible flinch.

Beastmen could subdue beast-type monsters weaker than themselves with nothing more than their gaze.

Still, for people who’d mocked Yuri so much, these guys weren’t exactly impressive themselves.

Without taking his eyes off the Saber White Wolf, Wolk addressed Yuri.

“Yuri Claudevel. You seem to intend to start with the B-rank exam. Can you really defeat that thing by yourself?”

“It’s fine. I killed some during our last job too.”

“…Wasn’t that because Roy was there?”

Wolk glanced toward me.

Well, it was only natural he wouldn’t believe her.

A monster like that wasn’t something an E-rank adventurer should have been able to defeat alone.

“It’ll be fine.”

Yuri nodded and stepped forward.

The male examinees stared at her in shock.

There was no way someone smaller than them could defeat a B-rank monster.

Surely she’d just get knocked away. If things went badly, she might even die… Some of them turned pale at the thought.

The moment Wolk looked away, the Saber White Wolf’s red eyes flashed, and with a fierce roar, it charged Yuri.

ROOOOOOOAR!!

The monster leaped at her as though intending to tear her body apart.

But by the time its saberlike fangs reached the space above Yuri’s head, she was already moving.

“—!”

Before the fangs could reach her, Yuri stepped inside the Saber White Wolf’s guard and swept her sword horizontally in a single straight line.

The monster collapsed without even making a sound.

She had severed its head.

Every man present stared wide-eyed, mouths hanging open so far their jaws looked ready to fall off.

Yuri turned toward Wolk.

“Was that enough?”

“Ah… y-yeah. You pass. At that level, you could probably handle the A-rank exam too. Want to continue?”

“Of course.”