39 Episode 38 Exams and Marathons

After I finished setting up the store, I headed to the guild.

I was going to accept a lucrative request for an escort.

The guild was much larger than Herrera's and Eine's.

First of all, the building was long and wide. It's made of stone and looks very sturdy. There were at least 15 counters. They were lined up in a row, and there were many adventurers. Some of the counters are empty.

The number of requests is about the same. There are even a few B-rank requests. I've never gotten a single request in the city before. No A's, as expected.

I tried to find an escort request.

Nothing.

There are escort requests to other cities like Tubai and Dolin, but none to Desibatore.

I looked around from G rank to A rank, but I couldn't find a single request for Desibatore. I had no choice but to ask the receptionist.

"Excuse me, where can I find a request for an escort to Desibatore?

"You can find it over there. Do you have the qualifications?

The receptionist points to a request board at a distance.

But do I need qualifications?　Not adventurer rank?

"Qualifications?　Isn't the Adventurer's Guild qualification enough?

Yes, because there are many differences in the abilities required from the normal escorts that adventurers receive, we have our own set of qualifications.

Is escorting a cart full of goods into an item box and escorting it from the sky considered normal escorting?

Where can I get those qualifications?

"You can get it at the counter over there, but the exam is only held in the morning. It will take another whole day.

It sounds like a very big test. I thanked him and went to the counter he pointed me to. This is the counter for requesting transportation between Phoren and Desibatore.

Transport?　Not an escort?

The receptionist is an old man. I feel like I'm missing out.

Excuse me, I'd like to take the certification test.

What's your rank, adventurer?

E. They say I'm good enough to fight, so they want me to do some escort work to get my rank up.

That's why they call it Decibadre Transport. Are you stupid?

Rude. I want you to say "courage" or "manly spirit.

No, I don't think so. ...... Decibatore transport was recommended by the guild leader, and he said they were short on manpower.

It is true that there is a chronic shortage of manpower, but ...... it is not so tight that we have to send them to their deaths, which branch chief said such a joke?

Herrera, the branch chief.

Herrera. ......?　I'm sure Herrera was a very good one. ...... Well, that's all right, let them take the test. The test starts in the morning and takes a whole day.

That's what I heard earlier. I'm a very busy man, no problem.

Do you have a fee for the exam?

If you pass, you get it back. If you don't pass, you get it back.

If you pass, it's free. Is that to prevent cold feet?

"Okay, so I just come back tomorrow morning?

"Yes, tomorrow's assignment is ......, and you're the only one who signed up. You're wonderfully unlucky, you know.

Oh, is that what you're like?

Well, as long as you do the exam perfectly, you'll be fine.

What happens if you don't? ......

I stayed at the hotel feeling quite anxious, and the next morning.

The next day morning, I stayed in the hotel feeling quite uneasy.

An old man with a strange hat was standing in front of me.

"Answer me!

Yes, sir.

Stop messing around!　Shout!

I have no choice but to respond like this.

Sir!　Yes, sir!　Sir!

I know what the guy was talking about yesterday.

He's not Gun-soo, he's a sergeant. A little milder than the sergeants I've known, but I guess that's the difference between a senior sergeant and a regular sergeant.

"All right, follow me then!

He got the message. Well done, translation magic. I'll give you the right to translate my wonderful name.

The sergeant took me out of the city.

It's on the Decibatore side, and of course there's still a battle going on with demons.

The density of demons is much higher than in the forest, there are at least 20 demons in the area we can see. There are at least 20 of them in the area you can see, and they look as strong as Gargon.

The walls themselves look reasonably solid, and you can see adventurers fighting in the distance.

There's a straight path running through it. You want me to carry it here?

About 50 meters away, you see a black wolf, about a meter tall. It's hard to distinguish between a dog and a wolf, but it looks vaguely like a green wolf.

"I see a black wolf over there!　Kill it!

What, out of the blue?

What's wrong!　If you can't do it, you don't pass!

Sir!　Yes, sir!　Sir, yes, sir!

It's your superior's order. I'll use wind magic to accelerate and get close enough to kill him with my sword.

You used magic!　You used magic! What if you use magic in a stupid situation and you run out of power when you need it?

"Sir!　Don't worry, sir!　Sir!

You'll find out when you're done!　I'll take the test for now, you've passed the test, decide how much you want to pack.

Oh, that's normal. You look like a sergeant because you had the same line at the beginning.

What should I do? I answered in a weird way. Let's hope the translation magician is using common sense.

"Weight?

Oh, it's the weight of the cargo you're carrying at one time, you're supposed to keep your cargo within that range when transporting it, and you're supposed to take the test fully equipped and carrying that amount of weight.

...... Hey, why are you talking like you're carrying your own luggage?　Isn't it an escort?

I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but I think it's a good idea.

"I have an item box, is it possible to use it?

"...... You're a swordsman with magical abilities?　I thought magic was just for non-combat assistance.

No, I use both, in combat.

No, I use both, in combat. ...... Are you already a Desi Battler before you took the exam?

I don't know, I feel like if it was a book or something, it would have been written as "freak".

"No, I'm just an average magic swordsman.

I'm not lying. If I'm the only one, then I'm the average.

All right, I was wrong to try to teach common sense to the Decibator Trees, so I'll just carry a 0kg item box, and we'll measure the capacity later.

Accepted. Something doesn't add up, but it was probably accepted.

"Okay, what's the test like?

"First, you'll take this card and do 50 laps around the perimeter of Photoren, and then, if necessary, a combat test.

He handed me a board slightly smaller than a guild card. It says "0" on it. It may be a similar system to the guild card.

"Okay, is it now?

Yeah, it takes a while, so the test will be in the morning.

The distance from the entrance to the Photoren to this side is about one kilometer. If it's a square, it's 4 kilometers per lap, or 50 laps, or 200 kilometers.

At 80km/h, that's 2.5 hours, which is a long time. And the speed may be slowed down by demons. ...Hmm?

Well, even if we run, there'll be demons, right?

Of course, you have to run by kicking them away or running away, that's what the test is for. If you kill a single demon along the way, it will be recorded on your card, and you will not be rewarded, but depending on the number and type of demons, you will be exempt from the D class and below combat tests.

How many will be exempted?

Fifty Kuro Wolves, a hundred Hami Crabs.

That's a lot. I guess I'll just kill the ones I see with magic.

I'm going for a run.

Yeah, go ahead.

And so I start off.

I don't have any particular meaning, but to make me feel like an athlete, I crouch start.

...... I didn't feel like I was getting any faster. That's true. The main source of acceleration at the start is magic.

I'm going counterclockwise from the front of the wall, the side with the demons. My speed, accelerated by wind magic, is about 100 km/h, so it shouldn't take me more than three hours to complete a lap, even if I have to slow down for corners and kill monsters. That's about three minutes per lap.

It was two minutes later that I reached the first corner.

It's not a mile wide by any stretch of the imagination, this fort.

Well, it's still the same thing. Taking advantage of the fact that I wasn't tired and had plenty of magic power, I didn't slow down and went around the corner as fast as I could.

What?　I've lost my footing. I hurriedly used magic to fly back to the course.

There seems to be an ocean next to the fort. The path seems to have been made by shaping the cliff. It may have originally been a rocky beach or something.

It's not very wide, only about three meters, but it's not a bad road.

As I regained my composure and ran, a further threat fell on me.

It was a beach, a training facility familiar from sporty comics. Halfway down, the road became wider, but it turned into a sandy beach. It was extremely difficult to run.

I gave up running and flew away, floating slightly above the ground. Finally, the sandy beach was over, and we came to the next corner. The narrow road and the sandy beach made a total of about one kilometer. It seemed like a long time, but in fact it took less than a minute.

This was the same grassland that we had seen when we first came here, with some trees here and there. The grass was low and it was very easy to run.

After about three minutes of running, I was grateful for the terrain and came to the next corner. After another combo of sandy beach and narrow road, we turned the last corner and reached the starting point in about a minute. It took me less than 9 minutes to get here. The distance is about 12km.

...... How many hours does it take to do 50 laps of this?