Chapter 105 : Chapter 105
Chapter : 105
I noticed the man behind the counter was looking at me with a dazed and disbelieving expression.
Me: ?
Why was he looking at me like that? Was that test difficult?
Thinking this, I also voiced the question.
Man: ...
This is showing off, right? This is definitely showing off, right?
The man fell into silence, silently swapping the iron badge he was about to hand me for a silver-white one.
"This is the association's Silver Badge. You can accept any quest up to the silver level."
"Is this the highest level the test can reach?"
"Yes, but with your strength, I believe you will soon be promoted to the highest level of bounty hunter."
The man pointed to the quest board over there, "The association has a special quest board.
You can accept quests on your own, or you can come to the counter and have the association staff help you."
"The condition for advancing to Gold Hunter is to complete at least thirty quests, including 10 silver-level quests and 5 copper-level quests, with a success rate of over 90%."
"Every large city has a branch of the Bounty Hunter's Association. You can accept quests at any branch and submit them at any branch. Please note that some quests have regional requirements, meaning you need to submit the quest at the association branch in the designated city."
"After accepting each quest, there is a specified completion time. If you fail to complete the quest within the specified time, it will be considered a failed quest. If you fail more than five quests, there is a risk of being demoted. Please be careful not to accept too many quests at once to avoid missing the submission time and failing the quest."
"..."
After listening to the rules of the Bounty Hunter's Association, I went to the self-service quest machine to select quests.
I selected all the cities I would pass through from the Free City to Sigret Academy, and a pile of quests popped up, densely packed and dazzling.
A glance told me this machine was also an alchemical product. I could even sense the mana supply.
To be honest, the technology tree of this world was really skewed. The rich and the poor were living in completely different worlds.
Ordinary people were still living in an agricultural society where men plowed and women wove, while nobles and capable mages and swordsmen had already stepped halfway into an intelligent society.
Wasn't the function of this thing in front of me similar to a first-generation old-fashioned computer?
Plus the mana link for real-time updates to the quest board, this was practically a mini-internet.
If someone were to research this thing a bit more, they would surely leapfrog the industrial revolution and enter the technological revolution.
As expected, the technological development in a world with magic was always weird.
I picked out all the quests to kill demonic beasts. I accepted all those with demonic beast levels not exceeding sixty.
However, this wasn't enough for thirty quests, so I took a few more gathering quests.
These gathering quests were not of a low level, and the commission was generous, but they mostly grew in dangerous areas.
There was even a magic plant growing in the territory of a level seventy demonic beast.
I accepted it as well. A gathering quest wasn't asking me to challenge a level seventy demonic beast above my level. Simple.
As I submitted the quests I had accepted, the system panel also popped up, and a long list of quest names followed.
When a bounty hunter who just joined the association accepts quests for the first time, the handler will be notified.
Thus, the man who had just processed my application to join the association received a message notification.
He casually opened the message to take a look and almost thought he had seen wrong.
"1, 2, 3..." The man silently counted and dazedly discovered that I had accepted thirty quests in one go, exactly meeting the condition he mentioned for advancing to Gold Hunter.
The man sucked in a cold breath and murmured, "As expected of a powerhouse who dared to bomb the Barto Royal Palace, to actually dare to accept thirty quests at once."
And most of them were quests to hunt demonic beasts. Was this the reincarnation of a god of slaughter? Terrifying to this extent.
***
The return journey was much smoother than I had expected. When I came to the Free City alone before, I had to be wary of the demonic beasts that would pop out from time to time, and also had to consider reaching the Free City as quickly as possible to start the examination, lest I complete the examination but couldn't make it back in time to submit it, resulting in a failure.
Now that the examination objectives were all completed and there was ample time left, I only needed to return to Sigret Academy before the last day of the examination.
Plus, with Divik by my side to take turns keeping watch at night, my sleep time became much more relaxed.
Sticking to the schedule and completing the quests from the Bounty Hunter's Association along the way, when I returned to Buma City, there were still three days until the examination deadline.
And because I had been constantly killing demonic beasts and doing quests along the way, my level had risen by a small margin again, stuck at level 59, just a little short of level sixty.
This was also thanks to me constantly killing monsters above my level, and the other teammate in the party being Divik who didn't need to share experience, allowing me to achieve such a terrifying leveling speed.
After registering again at the city guard post, having gotten used to the free and undisciplined system of the Free City, I felt a little unaccustomed to suddenly returning to the strictly managed Buma City where registration was required for entry.
Divik looked at the puppet city guard, then at me.
Me: "...You don't have an identification document, do you?"
Divik blinked and didn't make a sound.
I facepalmed. I forgot, Divik was of another race, and a powerful dragon at that. He didn't need identification documents to go anywhere, because he could just turn into a dragon.
Whether it was crashing through the front gate directly or secretly flying in from above at night, these city walls couldn't stop Divik.
The puppet city guard had no intelligence. It just stared blankly at Divik and me, waiting for Divik to present his identification for registration, turning a blind eye to our whispering in front of it.
If a real city guard were standing here, they would probably have treated Divik as some kind of lawbreaker by now.
...Although the real lawbreaker was me.
I thought for a moment, "Right, didn't you say you're an honorary professor at Sigret? I remember the academy students are issued badges.
Teachers should also have something to prove their identity, right? Try to recall if you've put it somewhere?"
Each of the other races had their own racial skills. The dragon race was naturally fond of wealth.
From birth, they would begin to build their own treasury and use a special racial skill to link the treasury to themselves, allowing them to access things from their treasury no matter where they were.
This was also a type of spatial magic, but its usage was singular and required mana to activate, not as convenient as my player backpack.
Following my words, Divik thought back, rummaged through his treasury, and finally found a dust-covered badge in some obscure corner.
It was dusty and severely worn. I saw many scratches on the badge and couldn't help but ask:
"What did you use this thing for before?"
Why did it look even more battered than a beer bottle cap?
Divik touched his nose and answered very honestly: "I used it to sharpen Amos's claws before."
Seeing my speechless expression, he added: "Isabelle's was used by Amos to pick his teeth."
Me: ...
So you two just did this in front of Merlin? Did Merlin not get angered to death?
Forget it, maybe Merlin even used his own magic staff as a cat teaser wand for the little dragon cub to play with.
Isabelle liked that cub so much, Merlin probably loved everything associated with her and treated Amos as his own son.
Divik presented his badge at the city guard post.
The puppet city guard identified it for a long time, so long that I almost thought this puppet was broken, before it finally showed 'pass'.
...Alright, it seems the badge was just too battered, and the not-so-intelligent, practically mentally handicapped puppet city guard had a hard time recognizing it.
Bringing Divik into the city, I followed the route in my memory and successfully found Sigret Academy's office.
It was now winter. The people coming and going on the streets were all wearing thick clothes.
Teacher Walkley from the office was nowhere to be seen, replaced by a granny in a thick magic robe with graying hair sitting at the desk, holding a thick book and reading carefully by the light of a blazing charcoal fire.
I knocked on the door. The granny didn't even raise her head, turning a page of the book, "Come in."
As soon as I entered the door, I felt a wave of warmth wash over me, drying the damp cold I had brought in. It was so warm that the roots of my ears felt a little hot.
"What is it?"
The old granny continued to flip through the book in her hands, having no intention of looking up at me.
I took a step forward, "I'm the one who came for the entrance examination with a letter of recommendation before.
I have now completed the examination quest. Could you help me contact Ms. Alison? I need to submit my examination quest."
"Hm?" The old granny finally deigned to look up upon hearing this, pushing up the glasses perched on the bridge of her nose as she looked at me.
I took out the letter of recommendation and placed it on the table.
The old granny took the letter and glanced at it twice, her brows furrowing. She looked at me with a bit of scrutiny.
"Level fifty-nine? Quite impressive, to have actually completed the examination for recommended admission."
Her gaze fell on Divik behind me, and a trace of vigilance flashed in her eyes when she realized his level surpassed her own.
"And this one? The guard your family sent to follow you?"
The old granny said slowly, her tone not exactly friendly, "Sigret does not allow students to bring guards to school."
I was stunned. I could clearly feel a slight hostility emanating from the old granny.
It wasn't obvious, but I was very good at perceiving emotions and could see the hidden dislike in her at a glance.
What was going on? I had just met her and I've already offended a teacher?
My gaze fell on the letter of recommendation still on the table. It seemed this old granny had shown her dislike and vague hostility towards me right after seeing this letter.
Divik sensed it too, and was about to take a step forward but I beat him to it.
I tilted my head innocently, "No, this person seems to be a teacher from the academy, right? We met at the city guard post and came in together."
The old granny was taken aback, "A teacher?"
Her gaze fell on Divik, sizing him up, as if trying to recall if there was such a teacher in her memory.
I turned sideways and gave Divik a meaningful look.
Divik got the message, once again taking out that dragon-chewed badge and pinning it to his chest, proudly puffing out his chest.
Me: ...I can't bear to look.
Old granny: ...? It really is an academy professor's badge, but how did it get so battered?