Reincarnated as the Strongest Dragon

Chapter 11: Rank Up II

I gave a quick summary of what happened up until I came back with Mira. 

Chloe frowned. “We had a sleeping dragon that close to town… How did no one discover it before now?” 

“I used earth magic to close the entrance so someone would have had to climb the mountain and go from the top,” I said and shrugged, “But it looked like a crack had appeared in the mountain and opened a way in while I was asleep.”

“What about the two men that held Mira captive?”

“They lost some weight.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “... Lost some weight?” 

“Yeah, about a head's worth,” I said nonchalantly. "Speaking of those guys, I found this in their hideout.” I took a vial out of my inventory and put it on the table.

Chloe, deciding to ignore the fact that I just said I killed two men, looked at the potion, "What is this? It’s rare to find a potion that level five [Identify] can’t get any information out of.”

“It’s worse than that,” I said with a bitter look, "Level ten only gives the name Mindflayer Extract. Effects are still hidden.”

“How is it even possible to fail and see information with level ten [Identify]?”

“That’s what I would like to know,” I said, annoyed. "The only thing I know is that it drugs you out of your mind and that they got the crate from someone in Kaydossa.”

“Kaydossa again… Could it be connected to that previous case?” Chloe rubbed her chin.

“Nobles trying to get sex slaves is one thing, even if they try to get magic users… But taking adventurers from this country? While a device meant to make monsters stronger finds its way into a dungeon? Might be a coincidence but it’s probably worth keeping in the back of your head. I don’t know what kind of country Kaydossa is but I already dislike them.”

“They have a plethora of mines, both different metals and valuable ones like gold, but their agriculture and amount of fertile lands leaves them dependent on food imports. They also believe themselves superior to the southern kingdoms and have had many border disputes in the past. We have had an amicable relationship for the past ten or so years. I don’t know much other than that, it’s not easy to travel there.”

“Why not?”

“They don’t let just anyone cross the border and they don’t have an adventurers guild. From what I understand their soldiers handle monsters.”

“Hmm so their army might be stronger than the average country? Sounds troublesome.”

“Hard to say, our soldiers also defeat monsters occasionally.” 

I looked at the map on the wall. “I see… But in the end it’s only speculation.”

“I suppose so. I think that was all I needed to discuss with you today, do you have something else?” Chloe asked.

“I would like to get the subjugation points for the monsters I defeated and any potential quests I might have completed,” I said and pointed at the display device that still had my card inserted.

“Give me a moment.”

"I would also like to get rank SSS or get told what to do to get it,” I said and batted my eyelashes.

“I can’t just promote you to SSS rank just like that, even knowing you are an absurdly powerful dragon,” Chloe said and tapped a finger on her desk, "You would need to have achievements to back up your promotion and I don’t even know what that would be, we have never had an SSS rank before.”

“I guess these won't cut it?” I asked and picked out seven cards from my [Inventory].

“What are those?” Chloe asked and walked over to the table.

“My guild cards from the past.”

Both Chloe and Hanna looked at the cards that I spread out on the table.

“There are several different ranks here,” Chloe said and pointed at a few of them.

“Different rankings for different time periods,” I said and pointed at one of them. "This one had G to SSS just like today, This one I think was H to S and this one went from rank one to ten with ten being the max.”

“But this one says rank eleven?” Hanna pointed out.

“Yep,” I replied, looking smug.

“It’s interesting to see the history of the adventurers guild. What about this one, A1?” Chloe pointed at another card.

“That one was confusing to say the least. You had your F to A ranks but you also had 1 to 3 added after each letter. A1 was higher than A2 and A3 but a lot of people thought a higher number was better. Don’t know who thought that was a good idea.”

“What about this one that says A+++?” Hanna asked, pointing at another one.

“That one I think had E to A and they added a - or + after so you started at E- then advanced to E and then to E+ for example. Also a weird system.”

“This one says D, isn’t that low?” Chloe pointed at the sixth card.

“That version of the guild was horrible so I went back to my lair,” I said and shrugged.

“In what way was it horrible?”

“You couldn’t take more than one quest, even the standing ones like kill five dark wolves. So if I took the quest, went out and encountered a pack of ten wolves I would still only get one quest completion since they checked the time I acquired the magic stones with a magitech device. They also had bounties if an unusual monster popped up somewhere but They could only be done on rank.”

“What do you mean?” 

“For example If I, as a D rank, went out and killed a B rank they wouldn’t give me the bounty because I had to be C to complete it. They would also refuse to buy any materials from invalid bounties forcing you to sell to shady underground dealers that gave you a pitiful price instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if the guild got the materials on the cheap from those dealers afterwards.”

“That sounds like a nightmare for adventurers,” Chloe said with an annoyed look.

“Truly, they also looked down on women so I couldn’t deal with it and left.”

“What about the last one? It’s just a piece of metal with your name on it.” Hanna took it and flipped it over.

“It was the first version of the guild I joined. I say guild but in reality the only thing they shared is that they accepted that card. Anyone could open a guild and give out quests. I think one town had three of them, all no bigger than normal houses.”

“How did they handle quests like that?” 

“When someone wanted to put in a request they gave it to a person, without any real knowledge about monsters, who would put an arbitrary difficulty rank on it from one to ten. The higher the rank the higher the reward money, all of which differed from guild to guild. Then some adventurer had to pay up to 10% as a deposit of the reward to take the quest. If he failed the guild kept the money and if he succeeded he got his deposit back but the guild took up to 20% as a service fee.”

Chloe and Hanna just looked at me, saying nothing.

“That’s why they didn't give out any ranks. They just wanted as many adventurers as possible to get money from deposits and rewards. If someone died they still got the deposit so it was a win in their book. They also took no responsibility for quests with faulty information which happened a lot. For example if someone wanted to put in a request for a werebear close to a village and paid the reward for a rank five but in reality there were two werebears but he didn’t want to pay for a rank seven so he lied.”

Chloe frowned. “Why would anyone want to be an adventurer then?” 

“It was a profession for the young, brave and dumb. The mortality rate was… modest at the best of days,” I said and looked at Chloe. "Anyway, that was my history lesson on some of the past versions of the adventurers guild.”

“It was very interesting. I would love to hear more sometime,” Chloe said and walked back to her desk.

“Maybe if I find the time. So what about my subjugation points and rank?”

Chloe started scrolling through the subjugation list again.

“Oh!” I bopped my fist into my palm and turned to Hanna, "I almost forgot. On my way back from the dungeon I ran into a carriage along the road being attacked by bandits, about twenty of them or so. The carriage only had a few guards so I helped them out. I don’t remember what the girl said her name was but she said they would come and report it as a quest in a few days or something.”

“That’s rather vague,” Hanna said and raised an eyebrow.

“I was distracted, okay! But she had long blonde curly hair and a fancy dress and looked like a noble.”

“Blonde curly hair… Did the carriage have an emblem on it?”

“Uhm, yeah, it was something like this,” I said and drew something resembling a maple leaf in the air.

“... You mean like that?” Hanna asked and pointed at a plaque on the wall.

“That’s the one.”

“That would make the girl you saved Tessilia Riese, daughter to the lord of this town.”

“Oh? Well that’s good I guess,” I said and smiled, "Shouldn’t she travel with more guards if the roads are that unsafe?”

“We don’t get many bandits around here. It’s unusual to have an attack of that size.” Chloe interjected. “I will have to send a message to the knights about that.”

“Sorry for giving you more work.”

“Still less work than chasing the bandits down,” She said as she finished looking through my subjugation list. "From what I read on the subjugation list I can bump you up to A rank. Technically you should be bumped up to S or higher right away but only the capital guild has the authority to promote anyone higher than A.”

“I see,” I said and tapped my chin, "I guess I should go to the capital then?”

“If you want to advance your rank you are pretty much forced to go there. They can also decide on what you would have to do for higher ranks. I would love for you to stay here and take on a few requests for me though.”

“I can always come back after my trip to the capital,” I said and tried to weasel my way out of what sounded like a pain. “What about any quests I might have completed? Embarrassing as it is to say, I'm flat out broke.”

“Can you take care of it? Also don’t forget to promote her to A rank.” Chloe took my card and handed it to Hanna. “Did you bring any materials from the monsters you killed? Some materials from those monsters would give you a hefty amount.”

“I brought the bodies if you have a dismantling service?”

“... The bodies, like in whole bodies? All of them?” Chloe looked at me with wide eyes.

“Yeah, I tossed them in my [Inventory] so they are still fresh.”

Chloe looked at me and just sighed before taking my card from Hanna and putting it back into the device. She then proceeded to write down a list of monsters before giving the card back to Hanna. “Go take care of the quests while I take Luna down to the dismantling warehouse.”

We walked out of the office and back down the stairs. There I saw Liz looking bored out of her mind. I gave her an apologetic look.

Wow she actually waited for me all this time? I’m touched.

“Here is the list of monsters I want. We can’t buy everything you have today without going bankrupt but at least it’s a start. If you are going to the capital they have a bigger budget.”

I took the list and saw a decent amount of monsters ranking from average to high difficulty. The behemoth was understandably not there.

After reviewing the list I pointed at a few monsters. “That is fine but I would like to keep the magic stones from these six. Oh, and also two pieces of the pure entwood. Everything else is fine.”

“That should be fine. If you can put the bodies in the cold storage we can start dismantling them. We will probably be done by tomorrow so you can come and pick up your money and materials by then.”

I put the monster bodies on the floor in the storage room, taking up most of the storage. “I will come back tomorrow then,” I said and walked back out to the lobby, ignoring the stares from the guild dismantlers.

Halfway through the corridor I met Hanna who held a pouch jingling with coins and a gold card. “Congratulations on your promotion to A rank,” She said with a smile. "When you said you would show me orichalcum I thought you were just being silly but I guess you were actually serious.”

“Of course,” I said and grinned.

“I’m looking forward to it, for real this time!” She laughed, "And here is your money for the completed quests. You really did clean up the entire area. Normally people would put some of their money in the adventurers guild but since you needed money I gave you the full amount.”

“Put it in the guild?” 

“Yes, if you put money in the guild you can withdraw it at any guild location with your guild card. It’s convenient if you don’t want to travel with large amounts of money.”

The guild card doubles as a credit card now? That's convenient, except that I have [Inventory] and don’t need to use it of course.

“That does sound convenient. Thank you for all your help today, I had to bother you far longer than I expected.”

“It was my pleasure. More interesting than sitting by the counter, that's for sure,” She said with a smile, "Also I would like to thank you for everything you did yesterday. Liz and Mira are both friends of mine and without you I would have lost them both,” She said and gave me a deep bow.

“It’s fine, it just kind of happened.”

“I’m constantly worried about Liz. She doesn’t really party up with people and tries to tackle everything herself. Due to that she has had some trouble raising her level enough to get the next class advancement. And when she finally did join a party that happened…”

“Aren’t you talking about stuff you aren’t supposed to talk about now?”

“Ahem, by the way…” She said, trying to change the subject, "Would it be okay to ask you something personal?”

She just told me personal information about one adventurer and now she wants to ask me about something else? Be honest now, half of the guild staff probably already know I'm a dragon, don’t they?.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at her, "Sure, but I reserve the right not to answer.”

She looked around and leaned forward, "I know you probably said it as a joke but have you actually ever eaten someone?”

That is what she wants to know? I expected something less stupid.

I rolled my eyes. “No, I haven’t.”

“Oh, okay. I was just curious.”

“You have the opportunity to speak to an ancient dragon with a font of knowledge and you choose to ask if I have snacked on someone before…”

“Looking back it was a silly question,” Hanna said, embarrassed.

Thinking back I have actually never eaten a human, it just sounds gross. There is also the whole thing where dragons don’t have to eat since they can sustain themselves by the mana around them like monsters do. Don’t have to eat and don't need to eat are two completely different things though. Without food and booze I would probably never bother going outside my lair again.

I walked back to the hall and to the table where Liz was twiddling her thumbs. “I’m so sorry it took so long. I apparently had more things to do here than I thought.”

“No worries, I kind of figured it would take a while when you came back after killing every monster to the north and west and getting dragged off to the guildmaster.”

“I did leave a few, you know,” I said with a pout, "How about we go back to that inn you mentioned? I haven’t eaten anything other than that one skewer since I woke up.”

“That sounds good. Mira is probably awake now as well.”

“Then let’s go celebrate,” I said as we walked out the doors.

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