Chapter 109: The Bear Rises to Adventurer Rank C

Chapter 109:
The Bear Rises to Adventurer Rank C

 

I HEADED TO THE TRADE GUILD to ask about the honey, but I couldn’t find Milaine there—she normally would have been skipping out on her guild master duties and hanging around the reception desk. She really was busy with all the Mileela stuff, I guess? Huh. Maybe I wouldn’t see Milaine sitting at the reception desk for a while. Bummed me out a little.

Okay, so…no Milaine. Then which reception desk would I go to? I thought that over when I caught sight of Lianna, who helped me out with buying land a few days ago. Yeah, she could probably help.

“Ms. Yuna, welcome. What brings you here today? Your new building isn’t having issues, is it?”

“Nah, that’s all fine. In fact, I’m still amazed I got it so cheap—it feels like I ripped you off.”

“Oh, not at all. A few days ago, I asked the guild master about what you did for Mileela. You deserve far more than a discount—come to think of it, you should actually be raised to Merchant Rank A status.”

Whoa, hold on, that seemed a little dramatic. I heard that A-Rank merchants were on the level of the high rollers trading in the capital. No way would I end up as big as them…in fact, no way did I want to. “Rank A seems like a long shot.”

At that, Lianna glanced around, came closer, and started to speak to me in a lowered voice: “No, it’s no long shot. I heard that a portion of the tunnel toll will be deposited into your card during the guild meeting a few days ago. You’ll earn a great deal of money from that. There is no doubt in my mind that you’ll be at Rank A in a few years.”

Whoa, wait— “Milaine’s not supposed to talk about that!”

According to Cliff and Milaine, getting a portion of the profit was the right of the person who made the tunnel. They considered buying the tunnel from me outright, but apparently that hadn’t been practical. I was no Cliff: extra cash was always nice, so I decided to accept it.

Seeing the shock on my face, Lianna put her finger to her mouth. “Shh. Rest assured that only a few of us know about you, Ms. Yuna. The only staff who know are the ones managing the books and the people working directly for the guild master.”

“Isn’t Milaine the guild master? Aren’t you all working for her?”

“I should have phrased it differently. By ‘for’ I meant the people who can act in place of the guild master when she’s not here..”

“In other words, you sub for Milaine?”

“I’m not anything that special. I’m just in charge of reception duties for you when the guild master isn’t here.” What the heck did that mean? She was in charge of receiving me? Like what, it took someone special to put up with me? “I think it’s because I helped you the other day with the building. When the guild master is gone, please come to me any time. And if there’s anything I can’t do, I’ll let the guild master know.”

Well, it was better than some stranger being in charge of me. “Why would my guild rank go up if I get some of the tunnel tolls?”

“You’re a merchant, so a portion of your profits from the tolls will be taxed. Simply put, that will bring up your rank.”

Weird. I hadn’t thought of the tunnel as some kind of business venture, and I wasn’t sure how useful a “merchant rank” could even be.

“Now, Ms. Yuna,” she continued, “what have you come here for today?”

Oh yeah, I had come here for a reason. I got down to business before I could get sidetracked again. “I heard that it’s harder to get honey now because of some monster, right? What’s up with that?”

“Ah, that business.”

“Yeah. I need honey for my shop, and the price hike is messing that up.”

“There’s a quest to slay the monsters that have appeared at the bee tree. Once those are slayed, the price should go back to normal.”

A bee…tree? No, I must’ve heard that wrong, she must’ve meant a beehive. “A quest to slay the monsters at the beehive. Got it.”

“No, Ms. Yuna, it’s not a beehive. It’s the bee tree.”

O…kay then. “Uh, so what’s a bee tree?”

“Ms. Yuna, do you really not know?”

“It’s my first time hearing about it.”

“When nectar-collecting bees gather, they create a bee tree: a gigantic tree where several tens or even hundreds of thousands of bees gather to transform the entire tree into a nest.”

A…hundred thousand bees? Just the concept wigged me out a little. “Wouldn’t it be dangerous to gather honey with that many bees?”

“Oh no, Ms. Yuna, nectar-collecting bees are docile. You should be fine as long as you don’t attack them. As for the honey collection itself, we have specialists for that. There’s no danger involved.”

Specialist honey collectors, huh? Well, I guess Japan had some of those too. “Do you know what the monsters are?” Hopefully weak ones. I wanted to get this done pronto.

“The honey collectors say it was a horde of goblins. They saw the monsters gathered at the bee tree and submitted a quest to the adventurers’ guild a few days ago. Someone should slay them soon.”

Oh, just goblins? Adventurers could handle that just fine, no need for me to butt in.

“If you’d like the status of the situation,” she continued, “you could ask at the adventurers’ guild.”

“Sounds good. I’ll pop over and ask them what’s up—thanks.”

With that, I was off to the adventurers’ guild. When I went inside, I saw that there were fewer adventurers than usual…and the ones who were there took a step back at the sight of me. C’mon, I wasn’t going to do anything to ’em, it’s not like I was menacing at all!

Wondering about that, I headed over to the reception desk where Helen worked.

“Ms. Yuna, what’s wrong?”

Wrong? Nothing at all—I was just another adventurer coming into the adventurers’ guild. Maybe she asked because it had been a while since I stopped by. “I had something I wanted to ask real quick.”

“A question? Before we do that, could I see your guild card, Ms. Yuna?”

“Why?”

“The guild master asked me to increase your rank when you come by.”

“My rank?”

“Yes. The other day, our guild master and Lord Cliff met together. It seems like they were talking about you. I don’t know the details, but the guild master clutched his head afterward when he ordered me to increase your rank.”

Cliff hadn’t told the guild master about the kraken…right?

“We also have a message from the guild master. It seems that ordinarily we would increase you to Rank C after that discussion, but the guild master is willing to increase you to Rank B if you so wish.” She gave me a look. “Ms. Yuna, just what did you do?”

Boiled a big squid, that’s all…not that I could tell her that.

I didn’t answer, so she continued: “Would you like to be raised to Rank B?”

“Ehh. I’m fine staying at my same rank.” I didn’t like the idea of hitting Rank B without doing any of the general quests. Ranks and stuff were fun because you got to climb that ladder. Skipping the steps missed the point.

Helen cleared her throat. “The guild master further said, and I quote: ‘If we don’t increase her rank, it’ll make me look bad, so bump her up by any means necessary.’”

Fine, fine. “I guess I’ll take Rank C.” Just one step up didn’t seem so bad.

“Are you sure? You could go up to Rank B. That’s not something just anyone can ask for.”

“If I told anyone I was in Rank B, they’d never believe me anyway. I’m happy with the rank I’ve got.” Then again, not like anyone was going to believe I was at Rank C either.

“Are you really sure about this?” she asked, and I nodded. “Very well. In that case, I will increase your rank by a level to Rank C.” Helen operated the crystal panel and changed the guild rank on my card. “It’s amazing you’ve even reached Rank C in these few months. Really, what did you do that warranted skipping all the way to Rank B?”

I gave a big, dramatic shrug. “Who knows? I sure don’t.”

“You’re serious?” Helen looked dubious. They really had hidden the whole kraken thing. If that was on my slaying record, no way would Helen be hounding me like this. Maybe it was invisible to everyone except the guild masters, like the seal of Elfanica.

After I got my guild card back, I had to change the subject—couldn’t have her keep questioning me about this forever, after all. “I came here to ask you about something.”

“Hmm. All right, but you can’t hide this forever. I’ll get it out of you next time. What was it that you wanted to ask about?”

“We got a monster infestation at the bee tree, right? I wondered how that quest is going.”

“Ah, the bee tree? Umm. Please wait just one moment.”

Helen operated the crystal panel. “There was an adventurer party that accepted the quest a few days ago, but it seems they haven’t completed the quest yet.”

“Are they all right?”

“Yes, I believe so. It’s a quest to clear out thirty goblins, so it shouldn’t be trouble.” Well, that was a relief. I guess the honey would get back to flowing in a couple of days. “Oh! Look at that—those adventurers are back.”

Helen looked at the entrance. A party of five adventurers came in, all guys, but…there was something up about them. Most adventurers would be on cloud nine after finishing a quest, talking about gettings drinks or food or something. These returning adventurers looked kinda mad.

They started shouting as they headed to the reception desk. “Hey, that quest was totally different from how it was described!” one of them roared. Helen jumped.

“Wh-what kind of quest was that?” she asked, shrinking back a little.

The rowdy guys went on to ask why there were orcs on a goblin-horde slaying quest. They hadn’t even bothered to take on the orcs, coming right back instead. I couldn’t blame them, I guess. There was a pretty big difference between orcs and goblins, strength-wise, though they were both nothing special in my book.

The adventurers were applying now to get the quest scrubbed from their record, and I was curious about that. “Does this quest end up getting treated as a failure, then?”

Helen shook her head. “It gets put on hold. If the next adventurers who take the quest see orcs, then this party here won’t get a failure on their record, as the quest information was incorrect. If there were actually only goblins, though, then they would get a failure.”

Interesting. “What if there are both?”

“Well, it depends on the situation. Are the goblins and orcs operating together or separately? If they’re together, then the quest information would have been incorrect. If they operate separately, then not defeating them would be considered a failure.”

Wow, there were a lot more ways this sort of stuff could turn out than I thought. Seemed like a lot of hassle for the people submitting and accepting the quest; the adventurers grumbled as they left the guild.

And now no one was taking care of the orcs at the bee tree. This was bad. “Helen, can I accept that quest?”

“I don’t see why not, but…are you planning to go alone?”

“Yeah, I am. Why?”

“I know you defeated a black viper, and I’m sure you’ll be fine, but you are a young girl. Please don’t push yourself too hard.”

“Thanks. I’ll be careful,” I said, and it sounded a little meek out loud.

“Good. One moment, please: let’s go through the proper procedures.” I presented my guild card again and she registered the quest on it.

Helen told me where the bee tree was, and I still remembered the location of the orcs from those adventurers earlier, so I was set: somebody had to do something, because there was no way these orcs were gonna bee-hive.