Chapter 13
After returning to the Adventurers' Guild, I collected the reward for the 〈Raid〉 at the reception desk.
This quest had been quite lucrative.
First, there was a base reward of 30,000 Gold for participating in the 〈Raid〉.
Then there was 100,000 Gold for my contribution.
On top of that, they added the sale price of the magic stones from the monsters we'd defeated.
“Your reward for this 〈Raid〉 is 130,000 Gold. Then... the purchase price for the magic stones from ten Wights is 200,000 Gold... for a total of 330,000 Gold.”
Watching the bag stuffed with gold coins, I felt my heart leap.
“I had no idea 〈Raids〉 were so profitable.”
“That's because none of the others killed ten Wights. This time, you've earned more than I did.”
Goutan, standing beside me, said with exasperation.
“And... here's the purchase price for the Ghoul Head's... rather, the Mad Head's magic stone. That's 600,000 Gold.”
A much larger money bag was set down with a thump.
“Whoa!”
It slipped out before I could stop myself.
That brought the total to nearly a million Gold.
Add the value of the 〈Mad Oni Shield〉, and it came to four million Gold.
I'd gotten caught up in a troublesome event, but I could say it had been worth it.
The other adventurers were looking at me enviously, too.
I could have deposited the reward with the Guild, but I had no idea how long I'd be staying here in the city of Rondalm.
Since I had a 〈Magic Bag〉, I decided to put it in there.
“So, I'm going to be promoted to E-Rank, right?”
I'd been dazzled by the money, but that had been my main goal all along.
Once I became an E-Rank adventurer, I'd be able to enter the 〈Dungeon〉.
After that, if I built up my record and leveled up, I should be able to raise my Adventurer Rank easily.
“Goutan-san, um... is this really the person who defeated the Wight horde and took down a mutated Ghoul Head...?”
The receptionist asked Goutan uneasily.
“Y-Yeah! Isn't this the guy who was suspected before for bringing in high-Level magic stones? Maybe something shady's going on!”
“How could a defensive-class Heavy Knight hunt that many monsters?!”
If I charged into the enemy ranks and focused on defense, it was actually well suited to killing lots of low-Level monsters early on...
That's why, early in 〈Magic World〉, Heavy Knights were even called 'trash-mob-farming rocks.'
All you had to do was equip heavy armor and spam 〈Rampart Reversal〉 in the middle of a monster horde.
In 〈Magic World〉, though, the experience you could gain from weaker enemies dropped sharply, and higher-Level monsters stopped falling for such obvious attempts to bait them into a counterattack. Before long, there were hardly any chances to activate the Skill.
It seemed that even this much hadn't become common knowledge in this world.
In 〈Magic World〉, Heavy Knight had a very narrow appearance route in the Class diagnosis during character creation, and was so rare that you almost never got it unless you deliberately aimed for it after checking a guide site.
The developers had designed it as a Class for experts, so in that sense, it made sense.
If its appearance rate carried over to this world, perhaps it was inevitable that there was so little information about Heavy Knights.
As I thought this and looked around at the other adventurers, Goutan clenched a fist and slammed it down on the reception desk.
“You dare doubt Elymas? By questioning this person's innocence, you're calling me—a man vouching for them—a bald-faced liar, aren't you?”
At Goutan's voice, the entire Guild fell silent.
D-Rank adventurers commanded a lot of respect in this Guild.
That was because high-Rank adventurers headed to places teeming with high-Rank monsters.
Here in the city of Rondalm, the highest rank was probably C-Rank.
After that, no one spoke ill of me, and I was promoted to E-Rank without a hitch.
【Your Title 〈F-Rank Adventurer〉 has evolved into 〈E-Rank Adventurer〉.】
All right, that raised the cap on my Skill Tree allocations.
And now I could enter the 〈Dungeon〉, too.
“Now then, what should I do from here...?”
For a while, I had been thinking of giving up on leveling and making money in the 〈Dungeon〉 with 〈Rampart Reversal〉.
Once you got past the very early game, chances to activate 〈Rampart Reversal〉 dropped off sharply.
As monsters with Skills became more common, there were almost no opportunities to completely shut them down with my Defense.
Even if I used buffs and debuffs to set up the perfect situation, monsters at that Level range were smart enough to realize their attacks weren't getting through. They'd calmly wait for the buffs and debuffs to wear off instead of recklessly charging in.
〈Disarm〉's Attack reduction effect lasted at most a minute, so since I was generally slower than my opponents, it was hard to stack the effect.
The only reason I could build my strategy around 〈Rampart Reversal〉 now was the Defense-boosting effects in the early Skill Tree and the benefits of wearing armor.
It would get harder to keep leveling this way.
“...I should look around the shopping district, anyway. Maybe I can find a 〈Skill Book〉 for 〈Smoldering Fangs〉.”
A 〈Skill Book〉 for 〈Smoldering Fangs〉...
It was the most important item for a Heavy Knight to realize their true potential.
It was an incredibly rare item, though, so I seriously doubted I'd be able to find one in this city.
Well, it costs nothing to look.