Chapter 12
A week had passed since the Monster Lord's subjugation served as his promotion exam. In that time, he'd received due recognition from the guild's merit distribution for his role in taking down the beast, along with a hefty reward. Things like the magic stone from the Monster Lord itself, or a tidy sum of gold as compensation for the kill. And then...
"...I'm getting promoted to Bronze rank?"
"Yes, Mr. Ian."
"Wait, why?"
It was the words he'd heard from Karen the moment he arrived at the guild for a pleasant date with Cheong-ah—part errand, part reward collection.
What the hell did I even do to deserve a promotion? The trash mobs had been handled by those two parties from other branches, and the Monster Lord itself had been slain by Cheong-ah and Bella. At best, he'd helped clear a few stragglers on the way to the boss. ...Oh, right, there was that one explosion. But that was just flashy noise—Cheong-ah and Bella had done the actual work. What could he have possibly contributed?
Stunned, he listened as Karen explained to clear up his confusion.
"After review by the branch, your contributions to the Monster Lord hunt were deemed sufficient. Things like scouting the Monster Lord, and taking down the monsters under its command."
"But I didn't really do much of anything."
"Plus, all those recent requests you've done with the others have pushed your promotion points over the threshold."
"Ah."
If it was just the Monster Lord hunt alone, he might've argued, but stacking it with everything else made sense. He'd been tagging along daily as a porter and odd-job guy for Cheong-ah, Bella, and Dina's requests. The quests they took were on another level entirely—starting at Silver rank at minimum. Sure, Silver was just because there weren't many Gold or Platinum jobs available, but for an Iron-ranker like him to tag along every time? Of course his record would look promotion-worthy.
Cheong-ah beamed as if it were her own achievement. "Congratulations, my lord."
"Uh, yeah... thanks."
"What's wrong? You don't seem thrilled."
"No, it's just..."
Her question smoothed his furrowed brow for a moment, but it creased right back up. Of course it did—his promotion was riding heavily on Bella and Cheong-ah's coattails. Classic rank bus.
Rank bus. The term for tagging along on higher-ranked adventurers' quests, splitting the credit. It wasn't illegal, but damn if it didn't come with baggage.
People came in all types, just like there were nobles or spoiled rich kids who grew restless with their wealth and status, dreaming of becoming adventurers. Never mind that adventuring was a shitty gig to begin with. Most Bronze and Iron ranks barely scraped by, and bad luck meant sleeping on the streets. Silver and up could afford some luxuries and freedom, but how common were they? Out of every hundred adventurers continent-wide, only thirty made Silver or higher. That left seventy scraping the bottom—and the lowest thirty of those were barely functional.
...And then there were the rock-bottom types like him, once upon a time. Things were different now, sure. A lot different.
Anyway. For those pampered types to idolize adventuring? It made perfect sense, ironically. The adventurers they met were always top-tier. When did a rich kid ever rub shoulders with bottom-feeders? Families like that hired Silver-rank minimums as a matter of course—the elite who could afford to snort derisively at the world.
Hearing their tales of glory? Inevitably, it sounded glamorous. Like asking your boss's kid about your job—would you bitch about the downsides or hype the upsides? Free adventures, thrills, dopamine rushes. They went insane for it. Adventure, beauties, freedom. They wanted to be the protagonist.
Kids who'd never known hardship deluding themselves they'd thrive. So they'd run off, knock on the guild door... and taste society's bitter reality. Lucky ones just got their spirits broken a bit. Unlucky? Limbs lost, crawling home—or dead.
That mess birthed the "adventurer experience course" requests from worried parents. Hand your brat to vetted pros for a taste of the life. Let 'em suffer a little, wise up, come crawling back.
Fantasy boot camp, basically.
And that's where rank bus came in. Pros hauling rich-kid deadweight racked up easy promotion points naturally.
Long story short: "Sigh. Karen, can I skip this promotion?"
"Pardon? Why?"
He was already catching flak as a "parasite" behind his back. Now rank bus to Bronze on top? "But Mr. Ian, you can't refuse a promotion, you know that."
"Yeah, figured. So, do I rank up right now?"
"Oh, no. You have to take the promotion exam first."
"...An exam? You're forcing the promotion but making me take a test too?"
Forced promotion with a test? He knew exams came with voluntary promotions, but this? He didn't even want it. Fuck, I hate this.
His face twisted, and Karen eyed him warily. "Mr. Ian, sorry. It's guild rules..."
Shit. Couldn't snap at his benefactor. "No, no—stomach just cramped up from breakfast. Wasn't mad at you."
"Eh?! M-my lord, are you okay? Should I fetch medicine?!"
"Nah, Cheong-ah, I'm fine. Not that. Just bodily functions."
"Oh... I see."
"So no need to freak out."
He soothed her outburst and turned back to Karen. "Anyway, about that exam—how's it work?"
"One sec."
She ducked behind the counter to a cabinet stuffed with request forms like a bookshelf, rummaged, and pulled one out. "Here."
He took the request slip and unfolded it. "You can read pretty well now, right, Mr. Ian?"
"Yeah, thanks to you."
"Glad to hear it."
(Bella had helped too, but...) He thanked her vaguely and scanned the form as she explained.
"As you'll see, the promotion exam is taken with other candidates."
"...Got it."
Made sense—testing actual skill. No piggybacking on Cheong-ah or Bella.
"Oh... so my lord has to do this quest alone with strangers?"
"Well... loopholes exist, but yeah, basically."
"Loopholes?"
The rank bus was still a top earner for elites. Loopholes were inevitable. But he couldn't blurt that in front of the receptionist, so he nodded vaguely. "Eh, stuff like that. Better not to know."
"Mm... okay."
Ignoring Cheong-ah, he finished reading. It was a goblin village subjugation in the southern borderlands.
Goblins, huh. No great memories of those rat-dick pests, but he wasn't scared anymore. He'd taken down orcs, after all. Goblins? Piece of cake.
"So, Karen, where're my exam partners? Date's listed, but no muster point."
"Two days from now, gather at the south gate when you depart."
"How many in the group?"
"Dunno—other staff handle that. One sec."
She rummaged again, handing over another slip. "This."
"What's this?"
"Dina from your party is on a promotion request too."
"Dina? But didn't she just hit Gold?"
Platinum next? Wouldn't that mean meeting the branch chief directly? Things change?
"Oh, Dina's the leader."
"Leader? That's a thing for promotion exams?"
"Kinda... Branch chief made it a special rule this time. If Dina can't, he said Bella or Cheong-ah could sub in—just pass the word."
"...Ah, gotcha."
Blatant loophole greenlight.
§
After brief prep, two days passed.
For the exam, he and Dina readied early.
"Yaaawn. What, leavin' already?"
"Yeah, sleep more. Be back soon."
"Southbound, right? Grab fruit from market for drinks."
"...Got it."
Post-threesome life meant alternating beds between Cheong-ah and Bella nightly. Tonight was Bella's turn—and last night's workout left her wiped. She mumbled about fruit and crashed again.
He slipped out, heading downstairs. There sat Dina, face-deep in a table piled with food.
"Dina, eating?"
"Mm? Yeonja, early bird. Wait a tick—almost done."
Done? Table still overflowed.
"Gonna scarf quick!"
"No, Dina, take it slow—we got time..."
Too late. Slurp! She inhaled like a black hole, tiny mouth devouring the feast in a flash. Plates empty before he finished speaking.
...Coulda paced yourself...
She flashed a girlish grin, darted over, and grabbed his hand. "Off we go! All done!"
"Y-yeah."
How the hell does that tiny body hold it all?
Puzzled, they headed to the south gate muster.