Vol. 1 - Ch. 69 - Explorer's Tavern (3)

Just as I was cradling my throbbing head from thinking how much rea the beer these folks were gonna guzzle down was going to cost, the Boss stepped in to give me a rundown.

"Worry not, this store doesn't sell any expensive liquor, at best it would cost around 50,000 rea even if they drank all of the tavern's stored liquor under the table. You know, just think of it as an investment and forget about it. Your skills have long outgrown the current equipment that you're wearing, not vice-versa. I mean, yeah, it's better to focus on one thing than being the master of none but at least buy something that’ll last longer. Right, don't forget to keep checking your equipment, you're someone with wind on your legs when it comes to growth."

Haa, there goes half of my windfall... But, the Boss's words were indeed correct. I would, and by extension <Apple House>, have fewer punks daring to underestimate me. The less trouble there was, the easier it was to work.

Honestly, I had taken a liking to that knife, but at the end of the day its purpose was to help in gathering and it sucked at dismantling. It would be great if I could use it like a sword, so I guess my next choice would be something with a longer reach.

"Alright. I’ll put it in priority and have a talk with the people from the arms store where I’m a regular."

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"I’ve been meaning to ask you, why haven't you raised your rank yet? Your problem of money can be easily solved by accepting higher rank requests."ÚpTodated novels on no(v)el()bin(.)com

"Hmm? I’m surprised you know about my explorer rank situation...... Well, I have two reasons. I wanted to experience the work of an explorer from the ground up, and the second is, well, quite a lot of embellished rumors about me are spreading. I don't want to give any more food to the rumor mill and have them spout things like breaking through the ranks with unprecedented speed or something like that."

"Well, of course, I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I’ve heard things from Satowa. Man, and here I had given the order to rank you up as soon as possible even with simple grass medicinal herb requests just so that I could check your abilities with my own eyes in the nomination request, and here you are, like a bear in hibernation, as if you have swore to not rank up. I thought it was just the knightly work delaying you when I heard you join one, but look at you sneakily letting the kids dismantle the low vultures you hunt in the garden. So that was all just a pretense."

Wait a minute. He sounded like he was one of the association employees and someone in one of those bigwig positions to boot. Oh yeah, he just said Satowa, didn't he?... Damn, so much for the tight-lipped. This made it the second time now.

"Are you an employee at the association, Uncle? You know, Satowa has such a cheap mouth to spread embellished rumors about me. Can you believe it, he said he’ll only tell the president."

"Huh, you still don't know? He’s none other than the President of the Explorer Association."

The Boss, who was listening in on our discussion, suddenly dropped a bomb with a breezy expression.

"E-Ehhh!? You surely jest, Boss. How in the world does this person look like anyone important!? I really wonder how the association is doing with a person as financially inept as him at the head."

"Dahaha! It would flop, of course. I have my excellent Vice-Presidents to deal with pain in the butt work. Me? Call me Mr. Fighting Specialist! Anyway, I received a report from Satowa, and I was the one who issued the rank-up at any achievement order for you!

And you see, I hardly get such amusing stories so the next thing I knew, I talked about it at the tavern. Then some upper-class nobility came to Satowa for intel which he couldn't turn down so he snitched in the end! Hahaha— owww!"

My hand involuntarily decked Uncle's head.

"Aren't you the root of all evil then!? Really, just give me a break!"

I was just getting into an argument with Uncle when Pan-san came pushing an absurdly huge cart loaded with meat. Just a sniff of the rising aroma from the meat was enough to make my mouth water. The meat was as huge as a rice bag, which I believe should be 60kg. Hey, hey, could we really finish it off with just us four?!

"It's grilled! The oval part is the rib roast, the circle is the tail, and on the bone is the belly meat. Regrettably, there’s only that much cheek meat. Who is going to eat it?"

"Well, it's a treat for Ren today, and besides, he was the one who took down the queen as well. We’ve already eaten it many times, so let him have it."

Damn, why was he considerate only at this time? Kuh, I can't even bring myself to complain.

"Sure, sure. It's your first time, right? Here, try out every part."

"Thank you very much."

"And I’m saying I kept quiet to avoid forming any prejudice because you saaaaid you wanted to see him with your own eyes!"

"And I’m saying then you should have just told me already for damn sake! How many months have gone down the gutter because of that, haaaa!?"

"No joke, I ain't free! No one’s stopping you from coming to visit!"

"So you want to do it, you bastard?"

"Damn, bring it on!"

I just looked at them and shook my head. My body was already screaming for rest, no way was I gonna stick my neck in there and shoot myself in the foot.

"I have no reason to stop them from fighting. See, even Saki-san is focusing on his beer, so just leave them alone. Aaa~~h, delish! I can eat this for days without getting bored, really!"

"...Pat You sure are going to be something big, kid."

Bert-san said while patting my shoulder. He then returned to his seat.

I was about to continue when the Boss, having been tossed by Uncle, crashed on where I was, and took down the apple of my eye, the cheek meat steak, with him. The dish and whatever meat was on it was now eating dust, literally.

"A-AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

A despair-filled scream escaped from my mouth. Uncle turned to glance at what it was all about and spouted, "Hnn, what's the big deal? It just fell, it’s not the end of the world. Just give it one or two 'fu-fu' and eat it!"

?!

D-Did he just tell me to 'fu-fu' the food from the floor, the same floor that who knew how many mud-covered shoes have walked on? To me who had been raised in a gourmet superpower and a clean-freak nation that was Japan!? Damn you old fart, now you’ve done it!!

"Y-Y-Y-You dare to say that even after everything that happened?! Fuck you baldie! Boss, let's take him down!!"

Afterward was a tragedy.

He was shit strong when it came to a fistfight. The Boss and I tag-teamed him and managed to put up a good fight at the start, but eventually, we were both overpowered. And when I thought there wasn't enough force on our side, a few people joined in the fray for fun and it eventually turned into a store-wide brawl.

In the end, the owner finally snapped and had it settled with a drinking contest. But we lost even in that, and all the cost of tables and dishes destroyed in the brawl was put on my bill to pay. Yeah, all the 100,000 rea that I hadn't even seen once went down the drain in one night. Down to the last dime.

The following day, I was promoted to B-rank.

It seemed like Uncle only left a half-assed explanation, so when I visited the headquarters with my license the next day, I was directly promoted to B-rank. I protested to the receptionist sister but I was once again told the 'because it's the rule' line. What else could I have done there?

The day after that, I directly protested to Uncle, but he had apparently forgotten it all in the hangover and said to let bygones be bygones. I just couldn’t get through to him at all.

This damn baldie, he surely hid his con-man-like shrewdness behind his muscle-brain appearance. And I walked into his trap. Haa......

E/N - Lots to comment this chapter. I lol’ed at Shell’s proposal for the MC to use his Ren alias as if it wasn’t already known that Ren=Allen based on Jeu’s chapter. Then the meat description made me so hungry I had to buy food while I was editing this ????. Lastly F to the cheek meat

T/N - Only known to very few people, as Jeu mentioned that ‘they have a headstart over others.’ From the next chapter starts the blood bat—I mean Mc’s sister arc. It will touch on that incident as well.