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Volume 10 Chapter 271

E-Rank Promotion Exam

Two weeks have passed since they registered as adventurers.
And Haruto and his group have been visiting the adventurer’s guild in Glendale royal capital day after day to take on requests.
Today, it was time for them to take the promotion exam to E-Rank.
The lowest rank, F-Rank, is a level that checks whether a person can make it as an adventurer, so the guild points required to rank up to E-Rank are relatively low, making it quite easy to take the promotion exam.
By accepting suitable requests and steadily accumulating guild points, you could take the promotion exam in about a month.
On that note, Haruto and his group were a little early.
They had taken on many requests that offered a larger amount of guild points in exchange for less monetary rewards—mainly requests avoided by other adventurers.
「It’s finally time to graduate from being the lowest-ranking adventurers, nya!」
「Being an adventurer is quite challenging, isn’t it?」
「Yeah, I didn’t think it would be this tough」
Meldie, Luke, and Ryuushin reflected on the past two weeks.
They didn’t find being adventurers challenging because they had to fight strong monsters. In fact, if it were just fighting monsters, everyone of them could handle A-Rank monsters.
「I never want to clean the underground tunnels of the royal capital again…… Never again」
Rifa shuddered as she remembered.
Two days ago, the request for cleaning underground tunnels that Haruto had decided they should take on had implanted quite a trauma in the entire family.
「I can’t agree more」
「The smell was especially awful」
「Mm, I thought I was going to die」
Yoko and Shiro, who had a keen sense of smell, seemed particularly affected.
「But it feels like we’ve gained some experience as well!」
「True, now we have no problem telling whether the flowers blooming along the road can be sold or not」
Silph responded to Luna’s words.
「I found this on the way here today」
「Oh, Luna. That’s mistweed, isn’t it? It can be sold for 300 spina」
Silph, the Wind Spirit King, remembered the purchase price of the grass, which was not even enough for a meal.
They had learned to distinguish between weed and a herb that could be sold.
「Silph-sama, you seem to have become quite knowledgeable about herbs. Was that maybe Haruto-sama’s intention?」
「Um, I didn’t think that far ahead…… but I’m glad everyone learned some interesting things」
The Elnor family has many nobles and special races, so most of the members were not familiar with human common sense.
For Haruto’s group, they could have taken the promotion exam much earlier simply by defeating monsters. F-Rank monsters were like dust bunnies to them.
But Haruto thought that wouldn’t mean much.
Common sense for citizens and lower-ranked adventurers wasn’t in the textbooks and magic books of the magic academy. Haruto wanted everyone in the family to learn such knowledge by completing various requests posted by the guild.
And Haruto was satisfied with the results.
「Haruto-san, today is finally the promotion exam!」
The receptionist at the adventurer’s guild called out to Haruto.
Because they readily took on requests that other adventurers disliked, Haruto and his group had gained favour with the guild staff, including her.
「Yes, we are ready」
「I will take you to the examination hall. Everyone, please follow」
Behind the receptionist, the entire Elnor family followed in a line.
This sight was commonplace in the Adventurers’ Guild of the royal capital now and was accepted by the other adventurers.
It was because Kikyo had been subtly brainwashing adventurers and guild staff every day.
Thanks to that, Haruto and his two friends, Luke and Ryuushin, could walk around the guild and its vicinity with Tina and sixteen other beautiful women and girls without attracting major trouble.
　──＊＊＊──

They arrived at the exam hall.
It was a moderately large round arena.
Standing at its centre was a sturdy bald man.
「Haruto and his group, right? I’m Johann, a B-Rank adventurer. As a senior adventurer, I’ll be supervising your promotion exam. Nice to meet you」
「Nice to meet you too」
Johann extended his hand, and Haruto shook it.
「Even though you’ve just become adventurers, you’re polite, and it seems you’re taking on requests that other newcomers dislike. You guys are quite famous」
「Thank you」
「Also, I’ve received reports that you’ve already defeated multiple goblins in monster subjugation requests. Guess you already possess that level of strength…… So there you go」
Johann tossed a scroll roll he held in his hand onto the arena floor—-
Five slimes appeared.
Seems Johann had used a『Magic Sealing Scroll』to capture monsters in advance.
「Think of it as a special test. If you can defeat these slimes, I’ll recognise your promotion to E-Rank」
「We just need to defeat the slimes, nya?」
「It’s easy peasy!」
「You can use stronger monsters we don’t mind」
「Come on, slimes are too easy」
Meldie, Hakua, Yoko, and Ryuushin were licking their lips as they looked at the trembling slimes in front of them.
For them, who could even defeat demons, it was only natural to look down on slimes, the weakest of monsters.
「Now now. Since Johann-san said we only need to defeat these, let’s give it our all」
Saying so, the man who spoke smirked.
Only the maid, who always kept an eye on him, noticed his smile.
The maid, concerned about the smile, subtly probed the magical power of the slimes.
And she noticed.
The slimes were enhanced by the magical power of the man.
Unbeknownst to them, these slimes had been tamed by the world’s strongest sage and greatly enhanced beyond belief.
The man, the sage, had received a tip-off that Johann was going to capture slimes for the promotion exam, and so he ordered these slimes to be captured by him.
The man’s magical power was cleverly concealed within the magical power of the slimes.
If it weren’t for this maid having been exposed to his magical power since his childhood, she probably wouldn’t have noticed.
The maid decided not to attack these slimes.
Defeating them is a necessity to pass the promotion exam, but if they have been enhanced by the man, they couldn’t be ordinary slimes.
She decided to observe the situation for now.
(What could Haruto-sama be thinking? He wants to become an S-Rank quickly, yet he’s increasing the difficulty of the promotion exam himself—)
Johann gave a signal for the exam to begin, despite the maid’s doubts.
「I’ll observe your teamwork as a party for now. I’d like everyone to participate as much as possible. Now then—-let’s begin!」
The battle against the weakest slimes, enhanced by the strongest man, had begun.