Chapter 13: Promotion

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Promotion

The guildmaster’s office was located on the top floor of the Adventurer’s Guild building. Allan knew that already, before he even had to make his way to the meeting with the guildmaster. What he had not expected was the silence in the building.

As they made their way up the flights of stairs, the noise of the lower floors gradually faded away. It was the typical noise of an Adventurer’s Guild, where adventurers would compare their kills, clean their weapons, or inspect them.

There were also clerks typing away, doing their paperwork. But as they climbed higher and higher, all of that noise slowly started to disappear. Before long, the only sound left was the sound of their own footsteps.

Some kind of enchantment? Didn’t realize this in the game, but this...this is some high-level stuff.

Mina stopped in front of a pair of heavy wooden doors. "The guildmaster is waiting inside," she said.

"Well, thanks for that, Mina," Allan said.

"Just...don’t cause any trouble, or....make her angry."

"Okay, I feel like there is more to it..." Allan added, expecting some kind of response from the pair behind him. But Seris just looked at him, and so did Lira. He finally gave up. "Yes, all of us, we usually cause trouble," he told her.

Mina opened the door.

The first thing Allan noticed was the window. It was wide and let in lots of light. The second thing he noticed was the woman standing next to it.

She was tall and looked to be middle-aged. She wore a simple, dark adventurer’s coat. Her hair was silver and fell loosely over her right shoulder.

There were several scars on the exposed skin of her arms. She didn’t look old, and she didn’t look young. She looked like someone who had been through a lot of hard times.

As he entered the guildmaster’s office, Allan’s System popped up for him to view.

[Warning.]

[Target Detected.]

[Threat Classification: Beyond S-Rank.]

[Host’s current combat probability: Insufficient.]

[Recommendation: Avoid direct confrontation.]

Allan’s half-smile faded away. S-Rank was hard enough to deal with, but beyond S-Rank...This was the first time in a long while that he wasn’t searching for something to joke about.

She turned to him. Blue eyes. They looked like they were worn out and just cold, like deep water where no light ever reached.

"So you’re Lord Allan Oakwood."

"That’s what people call me."

She looked at Seris and Lira, then back at Allan. "You brought your entire party," she said.

"It’s part of the package. You want me, you get them as well."

"Usually because you require supervision," Seris muttered.

The corner of the guildmaster’s mouth twitched upward for a moment before returning to normal. "Sit."

Allan sat down in the chair opposite her desk. Seris and Lira stood behind him in the small room.

"You know who I am."

"The guildmaster."

"Anything else?"

"The only S-rank adventurer in the city?"

Her gaze sharpened. "Only S-rank?"

There were some technicalities regarding his ranking.

"So why have I been brought here, Guildmaster?" Allan asked.

Her expression flattened. Leaning behind her chair. "The reason you and your party gained fame. The Hollow Root."

The room went quiet.

"I just wanted to ask, how did you survive?"

Allan shrugged. "Simple...I was careful. Very careful."

"That’s not an answer!" She yelled, her lips twitching from all her restraint.

"It’s the only answer I have." He replied, facing her eye to eye.

"You entered the Hollow Root Dungeon. Many parties before you entered it and were swallowed up by it.

You, on the other hand, came out alive, collecting rare treasures no one expected to find there, and even found a secret route that scouts had failed to locate for decades. And you didn’t say anything about it."

"Yes. I have the right to remain silent about it, and I didn’t want it closed, like it is now..."

The guildmaster’s expression hardened, a faint sneer touching her face. Allan’s fingers tapped once against the armrest of his chair.

"You didn’t want it closed," she said.

"No."

Her sneer deepened. "So you’d rather let other adventurers die, just to keep your little secret to yourself?"

Allan’s hand slightly reached his sword, not knowing what could happen right after. He could even die here if he was not careful. "That’s not what I said."

"Isn’t it?" Her voice hardened. "Typical noble."

Lira, suddenly very serious, cut in. "Just because he’s strong and did the impossible, doesn’t mean Master should be treated like this."

"Master? So you carry servants instead of an actual party. Again...typical." she said, now turning to Lira.

"Even still, little girl, that still doesn’t make his decision correct," the guildmaster said.

"She is not a little girl. She is my partner." Allan corrected, as he stood up, both of his hands on the table.

"And...even if I agreed it was my fault, that wouldn’t change the fact that everyone suddenly decided to run into the place because they heard I survived."

The guildmaster stayed silent, even slightly surprised, seeing his change of attitude. She looked at his anger and how he tried instantly to defend a servant.

Hmm...so the rumors are true. He is different than other nobles. She thought, as Allan continued.

"I didn’t have to advertise it. I didn’t have to invite them. I didn’t have to tell them there was treasure inside. They found out I’d been there and survived, and they went in looking for treasure on their own."

Her stare held for several long seconds before she spoke. "I see. I understand." There was no emotion in the word, and Allan knew within moments that she had expected such a simple acknowledgment of the point.

"You don’t..." Allan paused. "Wait, you understand."

"Yes, I do." She folded her hands on the desk. "People lie. Adventurers exaggerate. Nobles hide things. Guild records can be falsified. But a living person who walked out of the Hollow Root is much harder to ignore."

Allan smiled slightly. "I see. So you want to know what I am..."

"I want to know what level you are."

The silence between them was palpable. Allan, still smiling, said nothing. The guildmaster looked at him expectantly, one eyebrow raised.

"You aren’t going to answer."

"Not particularly."

"Why?"

"Because I don’t know how much I should tell you."

Her eyes narrowed. "That’s an honest answer. I respect that."

The guildmaster stood up from her seat and walked over to the door. She opened it and looked back over her shoulder at Allan. "Then we won’t ask."

Allan blinked. "...?"

"We’ll test you instead. You wanted a promotion in your rank, yes?"

Allan nodded.

The sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the hallway. First one set of feet stopped in front of the door, then another, and finally a third came to rest in the doorway. Allan looked over to see three adventurers standing there.

The first was a massive man, easily as tall as the guildmaster, carrying an axe almost as tall as she was.

He had scars across his arms, and Allan could feel the pressure of his mana even from several meters away. Next to him stood a woman, lightly armored, carrying two curved blades at her hips. And behind her stood a young man.

Allan froze as a familiar notification appeared.

[Investment Opportunity Detected.]

[Target: Unknown Adventurer.]

[Potential Return: High.]

Then another.

[Investment Opportunity Detected.]

[Target: Unknown Adventurer.]

Satisfied with his read on the System’s notifications, Allan’s focus shifted to the adventurers before him.

An A-rank party. All three were high-ranked enough to warrant it. Would they be willing to join his party? And could three of them, together, produce high enough returns to warrant an investment notification?

The guildmaster noticed his expression. "Interesting."

Allan looked at her. "What?"

"You recognized their strength."

"Anyone with eyes can."

"No." She smiled faintly. "Not like that."

Just as Allan finished answering, another person entered the room. A young woman with red hair, adjusting the strap of her leather gauntlet. She looked bored, irritated. Allan’s eyes widened in shock as he recognized her.

His heart stopped.

Diva.

More importantly, this was a name that would be etched into history as a future catastrophe. A final boss, of sorts.

Yes, right now, she looked tired. Annoyed. Completely uninterested in the fact that in a little over a year, she would single-handedly bring about the downfall of this city on an unparalleled scale, starting the plot for Amelia as well.

The System appeared again.

[Investment Opportunity Detected.]

[Target: Diva.]

[Potential Return: ???]

Allan stared. Diva looked at him.

"You."

He smiled. "Me."

"Stop staring. What, you fell in love with me or something?"

"Nothing like that. I was thinking that we’ve met before."

Her eyebrow shot up. "I don’t remember meeting you, and I don’t remember weak people..."

"Yes, we haven’t..."

Yet.

The guildmaster spoke again. "Diva, remember, we’re here for the evaluation of these three adventurers. Not to judge them and dissect them."

Diva sighed. "Hmm...fine."

At the barracks, where everything was ready for the test, another batch of adventurers also came for the same test, like Allan. The other adventurers stood in front of him, weapons at the ready.

The guildmaster raised one hand. "Begin."

The first to attack was the large, burly man, his face a mass of scar tissue, swinging his massive axe in a wide, heavy arc.

BOOM.

The force of the blade meeting the edge of Allan’s sword sent him flying backward several meters.

Damn, that was a heavy hit. What level is he? A hundred?

He struggled to keep his grip on the hilt, his arms numb. His boots scraped against the wooden floor as he tried to regain his footing. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

The man grinned. "Oh, still standing?"

Allan smiled. "Apparently. But not for long at this rate."

The second attack, another massive swing of the axe, came suddenly. But Allan had anticipated a blow of that force and twisted aside in time. The axe-head shattered the floorboards mere inches from his head.

He sprang into a crouch, drew his sword, and struck at the man’s side in a wide, overhead arc.

As he fought, Allan started to realize that even though the man’s level was high, he wasn’t a typical opponent for that level.

He had experience, and a body that had been through many fights. His instincts were sharp.

A tough opponent to the bone.

The woman, similar in build to Diva, attacked next in a blur of steel. Allan blocked her first, second, and third strikes. The fourth cut his sleeve as he tried to block. The fifth grazed his left shoulder, but he avoided any serious injury.

"Too...fast," he said.

She smiled. "You’re slow."

"Can we stop bullying me for a couple of seconds? Why so aggressive, really?"

Just as she seemed to be going easy on him, she delivered a hard kick to his chest. Lira let out a shocked cry of "Master!" as Allan flew backward across the wooden floor.

Allan got to his feet and grinned at her. "I’m fine, Lira. Totally fine," he said, relieved he hadn’t suffered any serious injury.

Then Diva appeared behind him, her speed far surpassing the others. He barely managed to turn in time to face her, her fist stopping just an inch from his face, the wind of her movement brushing his cheek.

Diva looked at him, surprised. "You almost didn’t see that."

Allan stared at her in surprise of his own. "You’ve already gotten pretty strong, haven’t you?" he asked, almost as if amazed she’d grown that much stronger.

She frowned. "What did you say?"

"Nothing."

In the middle of it all, Allan knew he would lose. He needed a B-rank in order to access better dungeons without drawing the guild’s suspicion.

He was no longer a C-rank, not really, but an A-rank would bring far too much attention. Everyone would wonder why someone that powerful wasn’t already in the higher ranks. That kind of scrutiny was the last thing he wanted.

So he made the decision. He would not win, but also not lose.

The four test-takers charged him at once. Diva struck his shoulder with a sharp blow while he used his sword to block the other two. His sword broke, and the twin blades of the last two adventurers crossed over his chest.

The guildmaster raised her hand. "Enough."

Dropping to one knee, Allan was still breathing heavily as the four adventurers stepped back, silent.

The guildmaster looked at him. "You...held back."

Allan’s heart skipped. He smiled. "Did I? I feel like I was on the verge of death there..."

She stared at him, then a small smile formed on her lips. "...crazy guy."

"Yeah, I guess I’m just not strong enough to join."

"Strong enough to be dangerous," she said, a cold glint in her eye. "In the Adventurer’s Guild, we don’t award rank based on potential. We award it based on actual ability. And you, Lord Oakwood, have proven yourself very, very capable."

She turned toward the guild clerk. "Rank evaluation."

The clerk swallowed. "Yes, Guildmaster."

The results were displayed one after another: F-rank, E-rank, D-rank, C-rank.

B-RANK.

No one said anything as the four adventurers stepped back. Lira looked utterly stunned. Seris wore a faint, knowing smile.

Even the A-rank adventurers seemed to look at Allan differently now.

The guildmaster crossed her arms and studied him.

"Congratulations, Lord Oakwood."

Allan stood. "B-rank."

"Yes."

Even now, Allan’s focus wasn’t on his rank, but on the one before him. Diva.

She stood before him now.

Diva caught him staring. "Can you really stop that? You’re staring at me too much. It’s really weird."

Allan forced a smile and held out his hand. "Well, I do that from time to time. Friends?"

She looked at his hand in confusion, then took it. "Sure," she said. "I don’t mind, weird or not, unless one is strong enough."

"Ha, am I strong now? You called me weak before."

"You were, until I realized the guildmaster was right."

"Right about...?"

"You were holding back...crazy guy."

He let her hand go as he waved to Seris and Lira. Both of them were gazing back at him with disappointed eyes...or jealous eyes.

Aaaa...I am gonna get an earful from Lira again.

He turned back to Diva, who was already walking to her party.

He had already begun thinking of a way to invest in her, long before she ever destroyed the city. They were friends now, and...

I conquered you once...I will conquer you again. He thought.