A Platinum Rank Appears
The magic knight shattered into pieces and collapsed. As the wreckage fell away, Ran, who had been sealed inside it, was laid bare.
"Khuh!"
I had held back, but the shock to his chest must have lingered — his body crumpled backward. The shattered magic sword went tumbling across the floor. That thing would never serve its purpose again.
Ran sat slumped on the ground and looked around with a dazed expression. Then his eyes met mine, and bewilderment flooded his face.
"Wh-what happened?"
So he really had been unconscious. He asked me with a stunned look, and I answered, a little sheepish.
"I did what I said I would."
His gaze found the magic sword a beat later. And then his face showed that he had finally pieced together what had happened.
"You smashed the magic tool, friend?"
Well, yes. More to the point, that thing had to have been expensive. Expensive enough for the vice-leader of a famous team to wield. Of course it would be worth that much.
"I-I'll pay you back for it."
I told him with an apologetic look, and Ran let out a hollow laugh.
"Pay me back? For what? This was my own sloppy management."
No, that wasn't it at all. None of this was Ran's fault.
"Over here!"
The examiner's voice rang out, and a crowd of monster hunters came rushing in. Word of the magic tool's rampage had reached them — every one of them was fully armed. All of them would be Gold-rank or higher. Even at a glance, you could tell they were formidable.
Wolfgar and Seranea were behind them as well. Seranea looked like she had been dragged here by Wolfgar. She had tried to stay away to keep herself safe, and he had hauled her along anyway. She was something else.
"What's this?"
"Ran's fine?"
"H-huh?"
The examiner looked back and forth between Ran and me, bewildered.
"Ran, what happened here?"
A huge bald man surveyed the wreckage as he asked. To be honest, the training hall was a disaster. After the magic tool and I had gone at each other with everything we had, it would have been stranger if the place were still standing. The bald man's face said he could tell something serious had gone down.
Ran couldn't quite answer that either, his expression awkward — but then he let out a breath.
"I don't really know what happened myself."
He straightened up with my support.
"But there's one thing you all need to take back outside."
He looked at me and flashed a wink of a smile.
"Platinum? Ran, were you taking the Platinum exam?"
A rare beastkin, and the bald man who had appeared after her.
"What are you talking about? Wasn't Ran the one taking the test?"
And a man wearing unusual arm gauntlets. All of them were monster hunters. They looked our way, completely lost. Then, one by one, their gazes started turning toward me. They had realized that the person Ran was talking about was not himself.
"Handsome friend — tell these folks your name."
With every eye on me, Ran gave me a push forward. Somehow this had turned into a grand debut.
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Haren."
Monster hunter Haren. This was the moment I became a rookie all over again — this time, in Grandheim.
Haren, the new rookie up from Laoren, had wanted to ask Ran about the three ruffians. But Ran quietly sent him on his way.
"I've got something to discuss with these friends first."
His tone left no room for argument. Haren had no choice. He led his party out first.
Meanwhile, Ran faced the monster hunters. The ones who had gathered to contain the magic tool's rampage were three Gold-ranks.
The huge bald man in the suit: Kandel of the Blue Wind Association.
A rare fox-type beastkin woman: Raisha of the Wind Wanderers.
The massive man with the unusual arm gauntlets: Liandel of Bellaris.
They were hunters who had made names for themselves even among Grandheim's active ranks. All three were contemporaries of Ran, who belonged to Shadow Moon. They knew one another's strength well. And because of that, they also knew Ran was not the type to speak carelessly.
"Ran, are you serious?"
Raisha asked, her protruding snout twitching as she spoke. Haren had handled the magic tool alone. She wanted confirmation of that fact.
"It's true."
Ran had not seen with his own eyes how Haren had subdued the magic tool. But he had felt the battle taking place inside it. Even with his consciousness put to sleep, his body had clearly been moving. The aftereffects of that fight still lingered in him. The faint trembling in his muscles said as much.
A full-power deployment, triggered by the magic tool's rampage. And yet Haren had resolved the situation before the Gold-rank hunters even arrived, and stood there looking perfectly fine. Ran felt something unsettling in that. Haren was far stronger than he had assumed.
You could read the flow of the fight just from the floor. Driven by the magic sword, Ran had carved out his own footwork and pressed Haren hard. But Haren had taken every bit of it head-on.
He never once gave ground against my blade.
A frontal breakthrough against Ran himself, without a single wound. Ran could not even begin to guess how strong Haren truly was.
But unlike Ran, the others did not know that. And Ran had intended it that way, at least in part. He wanted to bring a powerhouse like Haren into his own team — Shadow Moon.
"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How does that suddenly make this guy Platinum? He could've had some trick for suppressing the rampage."
Right on cue, the protest came from Raisha. Beastkin tended to be straightforward, not given to overthinking. Sure enough, she had not picked up on Ran's intent. Undervaluing Haren's ability here would actually be good for Shadow Moon. They would be able to monopolize the recruitment offer.
But Ran was the kind of man who believed that those with ability deserved to be evaluated fairly. Monopoly or not, he did not want to diminish a powerhouse like that with his own mouth.
"Then let me ask you one thing. Is there anyone here who could have stopped me when I was rampaging with that magic tool?"
That was why he asked the question with a serious look in his eyes. Shadow Moon's leader would have sighed, no doubt — but this was just who Ran was.
The hunters glanced at one another. None of them spoke rashly. They had all been through too many fronts together to put on airs. They knew one another's skill, and in matters like this, they were honest.
"And the one that went berserk this time wasn't an ordinary magic tool."
Ran gathered up the broken magic tool, a twinge of pain in the gesture.
"It was one of the Fang of the Night Spirit series."
"What?"
"He destroyed a Fang of the Night Spirit?"
"Is that even possible?"
Shock flickered across the hunters' faces. The Fang of the Night Spirit series ranked at the very top among recently sold magic tools. Its performance was so exceptional that even money could not easily buy one, and every monster hunter coveted it. Everyone here knew exactly what it was worth.
"So if Haren smashed a Fang of the Night Spirit, what else could he be but Platinum?"
Ran insisted that Haren was unquestionably Platinum rank. The other Gold-rank hunters wore uneasy expressions. They had not even seen how Haren fought. They could not easily accept that he was a rank above them. But they had Ran's testimony and a shattered Fang of the Night Spirit. Witness and evidence, both at once.
"A talent like that..."
The bald man, Kandel, spoke up again.
"In the end, whoever claims him first owns him."
He had seen through Ran's intent, and his eyes gleamed. Ran swallowed a sigh, but he did not regret it. A powerhouse like Haren — the rumors would have spread soon enough regardless.
At Kandel's words, the other two hunters' expressions shifted. Ran had personally vouched for the kid's skill. It could not be a lie. Which meant one thing was certain: a rookie who would stir up a storm had just arrived. And whichever team claimed that rookie would see their stock rise.
"Hah, so that's what this is about?"
Liandel of the Silver Mist Garden's eyes lit up. He had something to report to his leader immediately.
"Ugh, always talking in circles. That's the problem with you humans — you never just say it straight."
Raisha's ears twitched as she grumbled. Being a beastkin, conversations with humans always went like this. And every conversation came down to scouting.
"I'll be going first."
Kandel left first to make his report. The other two hunters moved just as quickly.
Watching the three of them go, Ran swallowed a sigh — and quietly, his eyes gleamed. There was one fact he had not told them.
The three who came from Laoren.
He knew Haren was looking for them. All three already had their own teams, but a conversation would still be possible. If he got to them first, Haren would naturally follow.
Things are about to get busy.
Ran turned and left the training hall.
Haren's life in Grandheim. The storm was already bearing down on him. Of course, it was a storm he had brought upon himself.
My first stretch of capital life in Grandheim taught me one important fact.
"Why is everything so expensive?"
The inn I had rented this time cost twice what the one in Laoren had. And the room was not any better. The price had gone up, pure and simple — nothing else. I let out a sigh, floored. I had heard the capital was expensive, but I had not expected this. People piled in, supply ran short, and inflation followed as naturally as breathing.
How do the capital's monster hunters even afford to eat?
If inns cost this much, you would go bankrupt in no time.
"The room is fairly clean for the price."
Seranea, standing beside me, looked completely unbothered. Unexpected. Given that she was of noble birth, I had figured a room like this would be hard on her. She must have caught the meaning in my look, because she gave a bitter smile.
"I've been living as a fugitive, you know. Honestly, it's been a long time since I spent a night in a proper room."
That tough, stubborn streak of hers must have come from a life like that. She did not even mind sharing a room with us. When your life was on the line, you could not afford to be picky about men and women.
"Haren, what do we do first?!"
Wolfgar asked, his face lit up with excitement. We had just finished the rank exams. In my case, it would take time for Ran's recommendation to work its way up the chain, so I had not received a rank yet. Wolfgar, on the other hand, had become a Silver-rank monster hunter on the spot. He could take hunter work whenever he wanted, and it showed — he was practically vibrating.
The capital had one thing no other region did. The Monster Front. I was interested in that myself.
As for the three ruffians, I had looked into it — they happened to be out on a sortie.
To learn more about mages, I needed Seranea to fall asleep. There was still time before nightfall. And after facing that magic knight, my body was nicely warmed up.
Grandheim had a place called the Monster Front, separate from regular missions.
"Let's go hunt some monsters."
That was where we were headed.