Promotion Exam (3)
I realized something while watching and experiencing it firsthand. The adventurer job seems to involve way more time wandering around than actually fighting.
“Ughhh……”
The moment we arrived at the entrance to Agros Village, the alcoholic dwarf rolled right off Hamal’s saddle and hit the ground. The guy had puked his guts out from the speed of the riding pet he’d awakened on the very first day, and after that he’d stopped drinking entirely. It was an insanely positive side effect I never would’ve expected, but now that we’d reached the village, he’d probably start knocking back drinks again.
“I’m a little tired. We should find lodging.”
Tirsi said that as she dismounted from Hamal’s back. We’d spent two full days riding across the plains while camping out at night. Since we still had time until the exam, it made sense to recover the stamina we’d burned through traveling.
“Lo-ma. That was a nice drive.”
“Will you shut the hell up already?”
While herding the two idiots who were babbling like that, Tirsi checked us into an inn. For the record, everyone had wanted separate rooms. After suffering through the other guys’ snoring and restless tossing during our wilderness camping, we were all thoroughly sick of each other.
Now that we had rooms, it was time for a strategy meeting. Tirsi addressed the party members with a serious tone.
“Many orcs have an excellent sense of smell. I’ll cast Clean on all of you, but please make sure to wash your bodies thoroughly before tonight. We’ll begin proper reconnaissance first thing tomorrow morning── Any objections?”
“If it’s the mage’s plan, it’s probably better than anything we lowly ones could come up with. Let’s do that and disband quickly.”
Arsus already had his mind on the beer the inn patrons were drinking. Tirsi frowned.
“Understood. We’ll disband here. But I already told you, right? Tomorrow we’re going on reconnaissance. Please refrain from drinking.”
“Kahaha!! What do you take me for? I’ll do just that!”
With a booming laugh, Arsus vanished down the alley. Tirsi covered her face with both hands. An alcoholic who hadn’t touched a drop for two whole days—was there any chance he’d stay sober even after reaching the village? Yeah, right. Wishful thinking.
Once he disappeared, Began ordered food too.
“Master! Give me the meat stew without the meat!”
What a bunch of lunatics. Tirsi and I headed up to the second floor like we were cutting ties with them. It really must be a universal rule in this other world that every promotion exam comes with an ultra-special team of total rejects.
Just endure it until this is all over.
On the way here we’d run into some kobolds, and those bastards had actually pulled their weight once combat started. But that was zero comfort right now.
Orcs are lower Silver-class monsters.
Of course, the adventurer guild’s monster ranking system was such a mess that it wasn’t exactly trustworthy. Still, the fact that they were rated Silver meant that ordinary Bronze-class adventurers were basically being told not to fight them!
And we had to kill eight of those orcs, yet half our party were complete idiots. How the hell was I supposed to hold back a sigh?
I tapped my shoulder with the shaft of my spear and spoke.
“I feel like beating the shit out of them, but I’ll hold back.”
If party members caused trouble among themselves, it would deduct points from their evaluation. Professor Brammaton had written about suffering because of exactly that in his book. Normally my eyes would’ve already rolled back and I’d be smacking every part of their bodies with my spear, but the fact that this was a promotion exam—and that it was for Tirsi—kept my sanity intact.
“I’m sorry, Norde…… At this point, you’re really the only person I can trust anymore……”
Tirsi, who had become noticeably depressed, took my hand and said. I patted her on the shoulder. Honestly, the moment I saw what those two looked like, I’d already decided the two of us would handle everything ourselves, so I wasn’t bothered.
“Well, as long as we locate their positions, it shouldn’t be too difficult, right? Let’s just treat those guys as fillers to meet the headcount requirement. They’ll have to take care of themselves.”
I said while tapping the mask I kept in my pocket.
“I’ll go scout around a bit. You should rest.”
“Yes. I’ll buy dinner, so don’t be late, Norde.”
“Looks like I’m getting a free meal. I’ll be back.”
With that, I left the inn.
After deciding to take the exam with Tirsi, I had come up with several…… strategies, or rather, plans. The solo action I was about to take was for the sake of those plans.
Still, first things first—gather information.
While wandering around the village, I spotted a young woman who looked friendly. The type who would accept every flyer handed out on the street and then awkwardly stammer when university students disguised as religious solicitors asked for signatures. She seemed a bit busy, but that might actually make things easier.
“Excuse me, miss.”
I turned my spear behind my back so it wouldn’t look threatening and spoke to her. Even though weapons were as common as shoes in this world, if someone approached while shoving a shoehorn into your shoe, the first impression would be absolute garbage.
“Yes? Yes? What can I do for you?”
The village girl answered while looking over my appearance. I bowed at the waist—in the style of this world—and greeted her politely.
“Not at all. I only wanted to ask you something, but you seem quite busy. If it wouldn’t be a bother, may I help you with your work in exchange for answering a few questions?”
“H-help me……?”
The village girl’s eyes widened. Country folk tended to be wary of outsiders. That’s why the give-and-take, “you help me, I help you” approach was perfect.
Apparently realizing I was an adventurer, the girl’s wariness eased a little and she said,
“Then…… could you help me find our dog?”
“Your dog?”
“Our Samri, who guards the chickens in our yard, has been missing since this morning. He’s still young, so I’m really worried.”
“So that’s why you looked so anxious. All right, I’ll help. If you can’t find him, please come back to this spot later.”
I accepted the village girl’s request with the same feeling as taking on a sub-quest.
Finding a dog? Piece of cake.
Agros Village was tiny, as expected of a rural settlement. A request like this was easier for me than eating cake.
“Woof!! (Person!!)”
“Woof. Arrr ruff heh-heh. (Oh. Let me ask you something.)”
Carrying some jerky, I wandered the back alleys, asking stray dogs and cats about a dog named Samri, and soon found him. After waiting about ten minutes at the earlier spot, the village girl who hadn’t found her dog came running back with a bright face.
“Samri!!”
“Yip! (Mommy!)”
—Whoosh!
The puppy burst out of my arms and leaped into the village girl’s embrace. A touching family reunion—my heart was practically oozing Cooper’s fluid.
The village girl hugged Samri and bowed deeply.
“Thank you so much! I never imagined you’d find him so quickly!”
“It was nothing. Samri seemed bored, so teaching him the way home might be good too.”
I relayed what I’d heard from Samri himself. The village girl now looked at me with eyes full of trust, almost bordering on admiration.
It made sense now why internet stories always said that if you want to win over a woman living alone, you should get close to her dog first.
Damn. I guess I was popular before becoming a married man.
It wasn’t disappointing, but it felt strangely hollow. Anyway, among the people of this world, villagers really were gullible. No wonder they were so wary of outsiders—to avoid being scammed by traveling merchants.
She looked like the type who would even tell me where the village grain warehouse was, so I decided to ask only what I truly needed.
“My name is Norde, an adventurer. I came here with the Audumla Guild for a charity monster extermination project.”
“Ah, so that’s why! How wonderful!”
“Yeah. You already noticed? You’re quite sharp, aren’t you?”
“Hehe. People often tell me I’m smart.”
After giving her a bit of flattery, her reaction was great. I pulled out the plate hanging around my neck and showed it to her.
“So, about that—have any adventurers like us visited the village recently? If there are friends who arrived first, I should greet them and divide up the sectors for monster subjugation.”
“Adventurers? No. As far as I know, the only outsiders who’ve come to the village lately are your party, Mister Norde!”
“Not even anyone traveling alone?”
“That’s right! It’s been completely peaceful for the past month!”
So she said. Since I’d done her a favor, she probably wouldn’t lie about something like this. I nodded seriously.
“Understood. Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Ah! Thank you so much! Please be careful!”
“I will.”
After parting with her, I typed the information into my elite brain.
─ No personnel dispatched before the exam.
─ No competition with other adventurer parties.
─ No damage from monsters reported yet.
Perfect.
This was enough for preliminary investigation. The examiners were human too; they wouldn’t have skipped staying in the village. If no one else had come, then there would be no one watching us either. In other words, even if I went full lone-wolf mode, I wouldn’t get any penalty points!
Maybe because this exam also evaluates image management, they scattered examiner parties in every village that previously requested subjugation.
It was basically an A/S service. A very satisfying investigation result.
Since there are no competitors, I can take my time.
Just like how I found that village girl’s dog, if I acted like a druid as usual, it would be over quickly. Locating the orcs’ position should be easy.
─Rustle, rustle.
I left the village and entered the forest. I carved the Kenaz rune on my forehead and put on the Kenaz mask I had brought.
“──Transform.”
For the first time in a while, I even struck a pose as I activated Beast Regression. Vector-Assassin Norde, complete.
Let’s take a light spin around.
Carrying my spear and bait for the animals, I ran deep into the forest—the orcs’ habitat.
“……Keng? (Not here?)”
When I darted through the forest like a ninja and asked the beasts, every single animal gave me the same answer. I was left completely dumbfounded.
“Grrrr. Keng. (Scary thing. None.)”
The wild dog that had charged at me because it couldn’t handle the wild and got beaten flipped onto its back and answered. It wasn’t big enough to be called a wolf. More like a wild Pomeranian. I felt bad hitting it, so I grabbed it and did the airplane high-high about ten times until it calmed down.
But damn, that wasn’t the important part right now.
The orcs are gone? WHY?
I knew they’d been busy because of the ruins, but had the Audumla Guild gone and “Audumla’d” again?
My head hurt, so I smacked my masked forehead with my palm.
What the hell…… If there really isn’t even one, isn’t this the guild’s fault? Will they let me retake the test?
No, it felt a bit early to be thinking that. Despite how ridiculously small Agros Village was, the forest where the orcs were said to appear was insanely vast. How vast? Big enough to fit two entire territories inside. It was precisely because it was this huge that monsters like orcs could pop up.
Right now, dozens of different monster species were probably filming their own version of a wilderness documentary in this forest.
Maybe they were subjugated and stopped coming near the village.
Although we lump them together as “monsters,” intelligence varies greatly by species. Orcs should have enough brains for that. Very few predatory animals that hunt other creatures are actually stupid. Except for things like kobolds—the advanced rats that rely purely on their insane breeding rates.
After all, even hobgoblins, despite their low level, could use magic. If their kin had gotten completely wrecked in Agros Village, they would’ve at least realized that place was dangerous.
“……Grrrr, keng. (Go on.)”
“Arf!! (Yessir!!)”
Thinking that, I released the wild dog. This was only the forest entrance at best. If I went deeper, something beyond the level of wild beasts might be happening.
What to do.
Go deeper? Or pull back here?
──Let’s go.
After weighing a few conditions, I decided to advance a little further. Since I could hide myself, I wouldn’t get caught, but if I brought those idiots, it would turn into a nonstop battle with a full party. In situations like this, they say rogues move better alone. Of course, if Franc were scouting, I’d definitely follow her.
─Swish.
Almost without making a sound, I leaped from tree to tree like an acrobat. The skills I learned from Larilura were always useful. To the point I was thinking I should buy her some snacks next time.
While advancing like that, hidden in the shadows of the trees and checking my map, a familiar smell hit my nose. I stopped my ninja dash on the trees and frowned.
……The smell of blood?
This was a forest where all kinds of creatures ate and were eaten. So it was an extremely natural smell. But no matter how you looked at it, the scent was too thick.
I folded the forest map, put it carefully in my bag, and came down from the tree. I wasn’t a monkey, after all. A muscular macho with actual body weight could hide better on the ground than up in the trees.
I approached while silencing my footsteps. When I reached the source of the blood scent, I hid in the grass and discovered its origin.
……Holy shit.
A primitive settlement with a bunch of crudely built tents that looked like they’d been pitched by someone with only one hand! And in that settlement── orc corpses were strewn everywhere.
Thirteen, fourteen── fifteen?
Just the visible corpses numbered that many. I checked their noses. There were no signs of their noses being torn off. Just as I’d heard in the village, no other examinees had come here.
Even so, I wasn’t stupid enough to think, “Jackpot. Exam cleared, easy mode~”
Tension straightened my spine. Like an assassin who had found his target, I calmly and stealthily held my breath. The one who had turned these walking-pig bastards into fertilizer might still be nearby.
Using the tricks I’d learned in the other world from those bug bastards, I scanned for any presence. There were── no moving objects.
I’d been worried because the corpses looked fresh, but it seemed the attacker who had swept through here had finished their work and left. If this was the work of a wild monster, it would be perfect. I could think “Exam cleared, easy mode~” and no one would complain. The fact that I wouldn’t have to suffer with those troll bastards made me want to passionately support this hypothesis.
However, I couldn’t turn my eyes from reality here. A scholar begins by making hypotheses, but right now I wasn’t here as a scholar.
If they died this recently──
I carefully approached the area where the orc corpses were scattered and carved a rune into the ground.
“──ᚨ(Ansuz).”
The souls of the orcs who had not yet departed for the underworld rose from the corpses.