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Chapter 164: SS-rank Adventurer

〜Aun’s point of view〜

「The repulsion of the demons at the Council of the Seven Sphin Nations this time was truly an admirable feat. In addition, in light of their achievements so far, the adventurer rank of all members of the [Black Thunder] will be raised to SS, and [Star Supremacy] will be ranked first in the Arto Kingdom’s clan ranking for the next five years!」

「「「「「We humbly accept it!」」」」」

SS-rank means the pinnacle of adventurers in the Arto Kingdom.

In the first place, the Arto Kingdom is a region where the monsters that appear have a relatively low-rank even within the Sphin Continent. Of course, there are places called “Danger Zones” where monsters exceeding rank S live, but these are in the deep valleys called “Raven Valley” which form part of the border with the Ibrudia Empire, and “Nakva Mountain Range” to the east which form part of the border with Ordila.

What these two have in common is that people cannot live around them, and even adventurers and the military cannot easily reach them. So as a result they have no choice but to leave them alone. The only people who enter here are people who want to commit suicide or illegal immigrants.

Princess Luna along with her twp adventurer companions, smuggled themselves into the Arto Kingdom, but her two companions died protecting her. The stage of the tragedy was “Raven Valley”.

Also, in terms of dungeons, the most difficult dungeon in the Arto Kingdom until I became the master of the Plainevelt Dungeon was the “Ruins of Silence” where the Arch Chimera served as the boss. The Ruins of Silence was deep in the forest, a dungeon almost unknown even by the country.

In short, the S rank is basically the end of the adventurer road in the Arto Kingdom, and only a few adventurers have achieved a higher rank in history. This seems to be the reason why there are quite a few S-rank adventurers and S-rank parties in Arto Kingdom.

But that’s not the case if you look at other countries. For example, I have heard that in Ordila, which is beyond the Nakva Mountains, monsters over S-rank could be found roaming in the Nakva Mountains and roam the large desert that occupies half of the land.

In addition, the Ibrudia Empire has the world’s most difficult dungeon, the “Wislo Dungeon”, and there is a high possibility that SS rank monsters appear in it. In which case, the party that can subjugate that monster will inevitably be an SS rank as well. But well, I’m sure there are only a few.

Diverting off topic, Arto Kingdom is a very comfortable land to live in, with few threats from monsters even within the Sphin Continent. Therefore, it is easy for the adventurers’ level to hit a plateau. Furthermore, there is also the aspect that talented and highly ambitious adventurers tend to move to other countries.

By the way, the reason why Satanas brainwashed Emperor of Ibrudia and targeted the Arto Kingdom first was probably because they judged that it would be the easiest to attack in terms of military power.

The king continued to speak as I was thinking about various things.

It seems that the main course of this award ceremony started from here on.

「Next is Ruzark Arto. Not only did he detect the invasion of the Ibrudia Empire in advance, he kept the damage to the Arto Kingdom to a minimum, and saved the lives of numerous people. He has become the light of hope for this kingdom by carrying out reconstruction and development work. This is undoubtedly a “royal quality”. Therefore, I hereby declare that Ruzark Arto is now first in line to the succession of the throne and is appointed as the next king!」

「Y-Yes, Your Majesty! I will push forward for the sake of the Arto Kingdom!」

Ruzark seems so surprised. I don’t usually see that side of him, so I couldn’t help but grin.

…But we’ve finally come this far. The day may not be far off when we can truly call Ruzark His Majesty. Besides, if Ruzark becomes king, this country will definitely move in a good direction.

◇ ◇ ◇ ◇

A few days later. We visited Recuria after a long while.

That’s because the SS-rank made it necessary to renew the adventurer card.

The news of the award was immediately disseminated throughout the Arto Kingdom. Because of this, it seems that we, who were originally regarded as heroes in Recuria, have become even more popular, and a crowd formed as soon as we enter the city.

「Woooo!! It’s Black Thunder!!」

「Aun-sama!! Over here! Look over here!!」

「Drakeeeee!! You are our pride!! Let’s drink together again!!」

「Ki, Kinu-tan… Haa…haa…」

Oi! The last guy… wasn’t he here before as well? That guy really needs to be exterminated…

Anyway, it looks like we’ll be stuck in this crowd if we don’t hurry to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Pushing through the crowd that still continued to gathered, we stepped through the doors of the Adventurer’s guild. As I went to the counter and talked to the familiar receptionist, I was immediately led to the guild master’s room.

「Hey hero! It’s been a while!」

「Sparz, if you knew we were coming, couldn’t you have done something more?」

「Gahaha! I mean, Plainevelt is more lively these days, so isn’t it okay to have a festival in Recuria once in a while?」

「I guess, but I don’t want to be crushed every time I come to Recuria, you know?」

「Just think of it as part of a hero’s job and resign yourself to it!」

「Haa… So, have you made the new adventurer cards?」

「Yeah, it’s done! Cards made specially for Black Thunder!」

He handed me five black cards. It had a glossy feel like glass, and was clearly different from ordinary ones.

「Wow…this is really cool!」

「Nn. It’s so beautiful.」

「Yeah. By the way… what is this material?」

「This thing is made by quarrying obsidian and processing it to be thinner. It can also be, of course, used as an adventurer card!」

「Isn’t obsidian a stone that can only be quaried from a very small part of a volcanic area?! This cards are made from such a rare material?」

「This time it was an order from the king! It seems that they processed something from royal treasury to make these cards. Make sure to never lose it, okay?」

「It’ll be fine. I’ll just put it in my magic bag…」

Even so, the award ceremony and these adventurer cards treatment are completely different when compared to other adventurers.

This means that the country is trying to root us to the kingdom. With our level of ability, there are many who challenge the Wislo dungeon, so the country is probably considering the possibility that we might move our base to Ibrudia.

Well, we’re going to the Wislo Dungeon anyway, and I don’t think Ruzark will do anything to restrict our actions, so it should be fine.

「So… What do you guys plan to do from now on?」

「Hmm, we plan to challenge the Wislo dungeon eventually, but I’m thinking of taking it easy for half a year while helping with the development work of Plainevelt. There’s also the Plainevelt dungeon there.」

The true meaning is “I want to expand the dungeon while accumulating dungeon points”. So, people will conveniently misunderstand that I’m challenging the Plainevelt dungeon.

「I see. Make sure to show your face in Recuria once in a while. It seems that the adventurers in Recuria also get motivated when they see you guys.」

「Alright, I’ll make sure to come over here once in a while. If only this didn’t happen…」

When I said that and looked out the window, I saw a crowd of people gathered from the front of the guild to the plaza. I was puzzled as to how to escape from this building.