The first thing that caught my eye upon arrival at the Tamers' Guild were the
carts and monsters tied around the rest stop. As a mining town, the main use
for monsters was in transportation, so all the monsters I could see were large
ones. As far as I could see, there were many monsters that resembled cows and
horses, as well as some boar-like ones. Smaller monsters were allowed inside
the guild, so I could take my slimes inside once they used their minimize skill.
The inside of the guild was mostly populated by people, but I could see goblins
carrying things around here and there. Within all that, Reinhart led us to the
front counter where the receptionist was working.
"Welcome to the Gimul branch of the Tamers' Guild. What might be your
business today...?"
"I'd like to register this boy and my daughter, as well as submit some
information."
"Understood. Please come inside."
The receptionist led us to a deeper room, where we waited while drinking
tea. Several minutes later, a man wearing slightly fancier clothes than the other
workers appeared, holding a writing utensil. He had white and red hair in an 8:2
ratio hardened with styling products, and looked rather old. The light reflected
off his hair as he entered, and he peered at us through his gold-rimmed glasses
as he spoke.
"Long time no see, Reinbach. You too, young Reinhart and Elise."
"It's good to see you again."
"Glad to see you're doing well, Taylor."
It seemed like the man was acquainted with the duke's family.
"I've been doing well enough. I haven't met the two over there before. My
name is Taylor Smit, head of the Gimul branch of the Tamers' Guild. That said...
Reinbach, did you have two grandchildren? I'm fairly sure I heard it was one,
but my memory has been failing me as of late... I apologize if I'm mistaken."
"My only grandchild is Eliaria, the girl there. The boy's name is Ryoma. We
became acquainted a few days ago, by some twist of fate. I'd like to register
him in the guild alongside my granddaughter. And I'd like you to raise his rank
as fast as possible."
Can you even make such a request?! So I thought, looking at Reinbach's face,
but he merely appeared cool and composed.
"Taylor and I are old friends; he's a trustworthy man. You don't need to
worry, Ryoma."
Taylor supported those words with a casual remark.
"If you're being recommended by Reinbach, I can accommodate you to a
degree. However, you need an appropriate amount of competency and
achievements to raise your rank. I cannot bend on that area."
"That won't be a problem. I'm only making this request because Ryoma's
competency far exceeds his age."
"This is just in order to keep any unwelcome fellows away... I'd like to hear
more, but first we'll take care of registration. Just registering won't be an issue
at all."
Taylor took two sheets of paper out of the stack he was carrying under his
arm, then handed them to me and Eliaria.
"First, I'd like you to fill in your details on this form. Do you need someone to
write for you, Ryoma?"
"Thank you for your consideration. I should be able to manage writing it
myself."
I quickly filled out the form and handed it in. The details needed were: name,
age, race, and how long I had learned taming magic or summoning magic for.
"...The young lady made her first contract just the other day, I see.
Congratulations."
"Thank you very much."
"I pray that you'll become a wonderful tamer in the future."
Taylor turned a friendly smile towards Eliaria, before looking at the form I
filled out next.
"And Ryoma's first contract was three years ago. What are your familiars
now?"
"Slimes."
When I answered slimes, Taylor made a conflicted face.
"Slimes make things a little more difficult... After all, the main job for tamers
in this town is transportation between the mines. If you had at least goblins or
kobolds, it would make it easier to recommend jobs. We have a rule against
referring any jobs through our service which are clearly unsuitable. You need
achievements to increase your rank, which means successfully completing jobs
little by little. But if you can't take on the jobs, then there's no way to raise your
rank."
If the job wasn't completed successfully, then trust in the guild would drop, so
there wasn't much to be done about that. What if I told him about my
research? With that thought, I looked at Reinbach to confirm before showing
him the two new species of slimes and the method of contracting big slimes I
had discovered. Taylor listened to the information about the two new species
without any particular reaction, then stopped me before listening to how to
form a big slime contract and made an even more conflicted face.
"Hmm... While I would normally consider the method of contracting a big
slime an achievement..."
"Is there a problem?"
The branch head explained with a bitter expression.
"In recent times, the Tamers' Guild has had a tendency to value stronger
familiars as a sign of an excellent tamer."
"That's nothing new, people thought the same back when we were still
fledglings."
"You are correct. But it's gotten worse in recent years, and people who think
that way have increased among the upper members of the Tamers' Guild, too.
While this guild still has me, strong familiars suited for transportation gather
here, so those who think that way won't be going anywhere soon. A tamer's
skill shouldn't be determined by just the strength of their monster and rank, so
it is quite saddening to see."
The conversation went a little off-topic, but it was apparently possible to raise
your rank with research achievements. However, whenever you ranked up, that
information would be sent to the capital along with the reason why. A review
would be held to see if the promotion was legitimate, and an investigation
would be held if it was determined otherwise. Furthermore, because of the
trend mentioned earlier, slime-related information wasn't taken very seriously.
Thus, even if the big slime information was approved, there was a high chance
of no promotion. Even if a promotion was approved, it wouldn't be a high
enough position to act as any control. In which case, announcing the results of
my research would just be selling my name half-heartedly, creating more
trouble than it solved. It might be better to give up...
"It seems like things have changed quite a bit here since my time."
"That's the changing of the times for you. One or two of the veterans retired,
so younger faces started appearing among the upper management.
Accompanying that was the change in opinion towards monsters. Ah, I
shouldn't say any more than that or I'd just be complaining. For now, let's go
ahead with the process. If you're registered, the food you buy for your familiars
will be discounted, and you can also request guidance. Even if you don't need
that, the guild card will act as identity verification, so it wouldn't hurt to have
that. There were no problems with your documents, so all that's left is to
confirm your taming magic. Could you show me the taming skill on your status
board, or the familiar you have tamed?"
Eliaria and I displayed the taming skill on our status boards.
"Good. Then, if you could place your status board on this stone plate."
The stone plate he took out had a rectangular dent, just like the pedestal in
the church. Only this time, there was a metal sheet inserted in the dent, and the
status board was to be placed on the empty part of the plate. Eliaria went first,
followed by me. When I placed my board on the plate, writing appeared on the
metal sheet.
"That's both of you registered. Welcome to the Tamers' Guild."
Taylor said, before asking for my circumstances once again, to whatever
extent I was willing to reveal. Thus, I told him the same details that I gave the
duke's family.
"...In that case, how about you make your rank at the Tamers' Guild a longterm goal, and try registering at the Adventurers' Guild instead? If you could
live in isolation for three years in the forest and have the skill to take down
numerous black bears, that should be more than enough."
"I was hoping to leave him in your capable hands, though."
"I see. Sorry I couldn't be of help."
"It's not your fault. Ryoma will be fine at the Adventurers' Guild anyway."
The Adventurers' Guild didn't offer services to people who didn't have the
ability to accomplish them either, but that judgment was made entirely based
on one's survival ability and combat power, which meant that shouldn't be a
problem.
"I cannot be of assistance regarding ranks, but you can come to me whenever
you're in a pinch. I will hear you out any time."
Taylor said in conclusion, before we headed straight for the Adventurers'
Guild.
Thus, we arrived at the Adventurers' Guild, where we were immediately
harassed by thugs... psyche. That played-out trope didn't happen, and we
received a basic explanation from the receptionist like normal. First of all, the
Adventurers' Guild had eight letter-based ranks, which went from G to A and S
at the top. In general, you could only take on jobs of the same rank you had.
However, you could form parties or participate in large groups gathered by the
guild to lower the difficulty and take on jobs one or two ranks higher.
I also cleared the age restriction of ten years old. But the guild would check
your abilities up until you were thirteen, and even if you selected a job at your
own rank, the guild would have to approve it first. This was a safety measure to
prevent overeager children from being reckless. This limitation was removed at
fourteen, after which failing a job became your own responsibility. You would
be penalized for breach of the job contract, and potentially even put your own
life in danger. Furthermore, if the town was ever in danger, the guild would
send a summons to everyone present in town. Refusing the summons was
possible, but doing so required a justifiable reason or large exemption fee. If
either option was chosen in favor of inactivity, or an attempt to escape
occurred, penalties up to and including guild expulsion could be applied. After
receiving the explanation, I had to sit a combat ability test, but...
"I'm meant to go all-out?"
"Let's see... it would be better to use all your strength here, to show your true
abilities."
"Indeed. That would be for the best."
"If anything happens, we'll back you up."
"Please do your best!"
"Don't worry, just run free."
Everyone encouraged me with their opinions at a corner of the training arena
the guild prepared. The receptionist and one other person — a muscled man
with tough-looking face — entered the training arena.
"You the applicant for today?"
"Yes, I'm Ryoma Takebayashi. It's nice to meet you."
"Right. Those your chaperons?"
"That's right. Pleased to meet you."
"You're free to watch, but I ask that you don't interfere with the exam."
"Of course."
With that, the man turned back to me.
"So a bow's your pick. All right, let's begin. First, you have five shots to hit
those five targets over there. One arrow per target."
He pointed out five targets that were lined in a simple row. I followed his
directions to stand before a line and aimed at the targets. Placing my feet as
wide as my shoulders, I nocked my arrow, drew the string, and aimed. There
were no hesitations to my movements, and I smoothly fired one arrow after
another while changing targets. Without panicking, without fuss.
After making my shots quietly, five arrows were sticking into the center of the
targets. My skills with the bow had increased significantly after coming to this
world. I used to do it in the past, but I was nowhere near this swift in my past
life. Incidentally, the style I followed wasn't of modern archery, but the ancient
Japanese way of the bow, which didn't require pausing in movements unlike
the eight stages of shooting in modern archery. I could stop midway if needed,
but the archery taught in my family was about how swiftly and accurately you
could shoot a target. In the past, if I paused even for a moment, my father's
fists and yells would come flying at me. Such recollections came to my mind
after firing the arrows, but I remembered I was mid-exam and immediately
looked back at the supervisor. He was already walking towards the targets to
inspect them all, before he returned.
"Bullseye on all of them. Though they weren't moving targets, you did good.
Next are the moving targets, look at the wall over there."
The man pointed to the wall opposite the entrance with his thick finger. Part
of the wall was a pillar, and along the pillar was a trench-like hole.
"That's a magic training tool for projectiles that an adventurer named Kengo
designed long ago. He was famous for using a magic weapon called a shotgun."
Um, hello? That was absolutely an otherworlder. He brought a shotgun to a
world with swords and magic?
"He stopped at rank C because he became unable to use his magic weapon,
but he lived pretty comfortably for the rest of his life, thanks to this invention of
his. That's how valuable this tool is for training, you know?"
Unable to use his weapon? Did his gun break, or did he run out of bullets? He
must have pissed Gain and the others off, didn't he?! Otherwise, he would have
received the ability to restore his weapon and shells... If he'd shown basic
decency, they would have granted him that kind of support easily... But while
those thoughts crossed my mind, the explanation continued.
"Targets will fly out of the hole in the pillar, you just have to shoot at them.
Fifty targets will fly out, and the number of arrows you have is fifty. Your grade
depends on how many you can drop."
So basically, it was clay pigeon shooting with a bow and arrow...
"I understand."
"Right. My whistle will be the signal. Do your best."
Having said that, the man handed me a quiver and backed away while I held
my bow at the ready and awaited the signal.