Over the next ten days, Lu Mao repeated this routine. Except for one time when his Slime Cloak ran out of charge and he was jumped by goblins, he completed almost all of his commissions without taking any damage.
Having learned his lesson, Lu Mao would pay Elliot one silver coin to charge his cloak whenever he left or returned.
Although Elliot insisted that teammates didn't need to do this, some things others might decline, but you still had to offer.
Elliot couldn't win the argument with Lu Mao, so he had no choice but to act as a paid “power bank.”
Today, after finishing his morning archery training as usual, Lu Mao was eating alone in the range's self-operated cafeteria.
Lunch was simple: two pieces of dark bread, a bowl of pork rib soup with a large chunk of meat, and some nameless vegetables.
“Did you hear? The headquarters sent several Dragon Rank adventurers to inspect the Rhode City branch today.”
Lu Mao's head tilted slightly in curiosity.
“A Dragon Rank inspection? That's not right... Usually, only one Dragon Rank comes for an inspection... What are they trying to do by sending several of them? Turn Rhode City upside down?”
Dragon Rank, of course, was the title given to adventurers who stood above Gold Rank.
Rumor had it that each of these individuals possessed the strength to solo Overlord-tier monsters, essentially making them humanoid dragons.
Recalling the mountain-like body of the Goblin Hero, who was only an Elite-tier monster... Lu Mao couldn't imagine what someone who could defeat an Overlord-tier monster alone would look like.
If they were a warrior, their muscles would probably be tougher than a bull's.
Lu Mao gnawed the ribs clean, then tore off a piece of dark bread and dipped it into the soup.
A few adventurers at the neighboring table were still chatting. Their voices were lowered, but they couldn't escape his recently improved perception.
“I know, right... I heard that after those guys saw the strength of a few Gold Rank parties in Rhode City, they flew into a rage on the spot. They said those people didn't deserve the Gold Rank rating and demoted them directly.
“Even the guild master got chewed out—and it seems they're going to start checking all the Silver Rank parties this afternoon to see if anyone has been inflating their achievements.”
“Then Deputy Guild Master Dowal is in big trouble! Didn't he just exceptionally promote a few adventurers a couple of days ago? I heard some guy who wasn't even an Apprentice Adventurer got promoted directly to Silver Rank.”
“Exactly—but there are so many Silver Rank parties in Rhode City, they might not be able to get through them all in one afternoon.”
Lu Mao put down his soup bowl, used the dark bread to wipe up the remaining grease at the bottom, and stuffed it into his mouth to chew slowly.
The discussion at the neighboring table continued, but the topic had shifted elsewhere:
One demoted Gold Rank captain slammed his badge on the spot, while another deputy guild master slammed the table to challenge the Dragon Rank, only to be suppressed so hard he didn't dare to breathe.
He didn't listen any further. He stood up, carried his tray to the return area, said goodbye to the old range keeper, and left the archery range.
Rayne and the others had just taken a small commission at the guild this morning. Calculating the time, they should be turning in the quest in the main hall right about now.
He had to bring the news back to them ahead of time.
But when Lu Mao rushed to the Sixth Hall in a hurry, he was dumbfounded. Deputy Guild Master Dowal, Rayne, Misha, the other members of the party, and many more adventurers wearing silver badges on their chests packed the entire hall.
Clearly, he was among the last to know.
Pushing the door open, before Lu Mao could even catch his breath, he was pinned to the spot by the scene in the hall.
Dozens of Silver Rank adventurers crammed the Sixth Hall to the brim, and the air was so stifling it felt like it could be wrung out.
Balen stood at the very edge, his position closest to the door.
Just as Lu Mao took a step inside, he was nudged in the hip by Balen's elbow. The dwarf lowered his voice, squeezing a few words out from his bushy beard:
“Dragon Rank. Checking our files right now. You weren't here just now, and your name was already called. I told them you went to the archery range—be careful, that Dragon Rank doesn't look like much, but her eyes are incredibly sharp.”
As Balen spoke, he jerked his chin twice toward the counter, then quickly pulled it back, returning to a rigid posture of standing at attention.
The entire sequence of movements was completely fluid, like a primary school student caught passing notes in class by a glaring teacher.
Dragon Rank.
Lu Mao took a deep breath, lightened his steps, and squeezed through the edge of the crowd toward the counter.
An image uncontrollably flashed in his mind—
A heavily armored warrior twice as bulky as Balen, covered in knotted muscles, shoulder guards inlaid with dragon scales, arms capable of tearing giant boulders apart with bare hands, standing before the counter, casting a shadow that covered half the hall.
This image became clearer and clearer as he approached the counter, to the point where he could almost hear the dull thud of heavy iron boots stepping on the stone floor.
Then he squeezed to the front row, right next to Rayne. Just as he was about to report in, he lifted his head and saw the person floating in front of the counter.
He froze.
It was neither a muscle-bound giant nor a masked, silent killer showing only eyes.
Floating in front of the counter was a girl—or more precisely, a petite dragon girl whose height only reached a normal person's waist.
Her feet were at least three inches off the ground, toes pointing downward. Her messy silver-gray hair fell loosely over her shoulders, and a pair of curved dragon horns protruded from the top of her head.
She wore a set of cotton pajamas with a light gray background embroidered with several crooked, chibi-style little dragons.
These little dragons were round and chubby, their wings disproportionately short, their mouths open in small “O” shapes, looking as if they were either breathing fire or yawning.
The pajama sleeves were a bit too long, bunching up at her wrists, and the top button of her collar was misaligned, sticking out askew.
She had casually thrown a guild uniform coat over it. The gold thread patterns on her armband clashed with the chubby chibi dragons on her pajamas; no matter how one looked at it, they didn't seem to belong to the same outfit.
Her eyes had slitted pupils of a molten, dark gold color. She was staring intently at the file cards in her hand, her brow slightly furrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line—
Her expression didn't look like she was conducting an audit; she looked more like a child who had just been dragged out of bed and had a belly full of morning grumpiness with nowhere to vent.
Kind of cute.
In his extreme tension, Lu Mao's brain somehow managed to squeeze out this highly inappropriate evaluation.
And then, those slitted pupils lifted from the file cards.
At that instant, Lu Mao felt as if an invisible hand had pinched the back of his neck.
The thought of “kind of cute” from a moment ago was instantly shattered into dust.
This wasn't cute.
This was a dragon.
This Dragon Rank was actually a real dragon.
Standing behind her were two attendants in the same uniform—one heavily armored and one lightly equipped. Each held a stack of file cards, their expressions solemn, but their standing postures were very subtle—
As if they didn't dare stand too close to the petite figure in front of them, yet didn't dare drift too far either.
Dowal stood behind the counter, his short and stout body completely blocking the liquor cabinet behind him.
He showed no expression on his face, but his knuckles pressing against the tabletop were slightly pale from exerting too much force.
The silver-haired dragon girl flipped the file cards to a certain page and paused.
She lifted her head, her slitted pupils sweeping across the tops of the crowd's heads. Her voice wasn't loud, but every word was delivered clearly into the ears of everyone present:
“There is a party of six. Four were exceptionally promoted from Bronze Rank to Silver Rank. One of the members went directly from Apprentice to Silver. Who is the captain?”
Rayne took half a step forward from the crowd, his stride steady.
“I am.”
The dragon girl sized him up from head to toe, then flipped to the next page of the file.
“The basis for your achievement is slaying the Elite-tier monster, the Goblin Hero, on the ninth floor of the Blood Fiend Dungeon. There is no commission number, no headquarters record, and no accompanying evaluator—
“In other words, you stumbled upon this Elite-tier monster yourselves.”
Her slitted pupils moved away from the file card and landed on Rayne's face. “A party whose highest rank is only Silver, surviving in its entirety and completing the kill without any commission support. How did you do it?”
Rayne's reply was as concise as ever:
“An ambush. We set up explosive traps beforehand, used a Sixth-Circle necromantic scroll to suppress its healing ability, and synchronized Holy Light and physical damage. We unloaded all our damage in the shortest time possible.”
The dragon girl did not respond immediately.
She flipped another page of the file card, her gaze landing on Elliot.
“A Sixth-Circle necromantic scroll. Yours?”
Elliot stepped out from the other side of the crowd, giving a calm, neither-submissive-nor-arrogant “Yes.”
Dowal took out a thumb-length bone handle fragment from a drawer and placed it on the counter.
The dragon girl didn't reach out to touch it. She merely lowered her head to take a closer look, her slitted pupils contracting slightly—it was so quick that most people didn't notice it at all.
But when she straightened up, there was something indefinable added to her tone. It wasn't exactly softer, but at least it was no longer pure scrutiny.
“A necromancer's scroll. A Sixth-Circle scroll capable of affecting an Elite-tier monster... the material cost alone is worth a full set of Silver Rank party equipment. You certainly didn't hold back.”
Elliot's expression didn't change, though his fingers tightened slightly around his staff for a brief moment. He did not reply.
The dragon girl didn't press further either. She pushed the fragment back to Dowal, picked up the file cards again, flipped to the last page, looked down for two seconds, and then raised her eyes.
Her slitted pupils bypassed Rayne, bypassed Elliot, bypassed everyone else, and locked precisely onto a young man at the edge of the crowd wearing ranger leather armor with a recurve bow slung over his back.
“Lu Mao.”
When she pronounced the name, the ending syllable rose slightly, as if she were chewing over an uncommon foreign word.
“Promoted directly from Apprentice to Silver. The file says that in the battle to slay the Goblin Hero, you provided 'intelligence and tactics.' Tell me the details.”
All eyes in the hall turned toward him. It seemed many present had already heard of this “one-step-to-the-top” Silver Rank adventurer and wanted to see what kind of skills he actually possessed.
Balen's bushy beard twitched as he started to say something, but Gerak held his arm down.
Lu Mao felt a thin bead of sweat slide down his neck along his collar, but his face remained expressionless.
He stepped forward from the edge of the crowd and stood next to Rayne.
As he did so, he locked eyes with her.
“Scan.”
【Target: Novia】
【Race: Dragon (Humanoid Form)】
【Level: ???】
【Magicule Characteristics: Dragon Breath type. The internal mana circuit structure is non-human standard and cannot be classified under conventional magic systems. High-density magic core detected, located in the center of the chest cavity, roughly twice the size of a human heart. Magicule output limit cannot be estimated.】
【Physical Strength: Scaled skin, normal defense equivalent to dragon scales. Strength output in humanoid form is approximately thirty percent of her true form.】
【Status: Mild sleep deprivation. Significant emotional volatility.】
【Analysis: Based on the intelligence recently gathered by the host, she is highly likely to need to make an example of someone to intimidate the Rhode City branch.】
【The host simultaneously possesses three suspicious labels: “Apprentice promoted directly to Silver,” “unidentified source of intelligence,” and “unknown origin.” You are the most suitable target.】
【The presence of the two attendants behind her means the auditing process will be recorded and reported—she must carry out this accountability publicly, regardless of her personal thoughts.】
“I have an intelligence source. I locked onto the target's location, weaknesses, movement route, and the specific mechanism of its healing ability in advance.
“The dwarf's explosives were buried along its path, the mage's scroll was activated only after it was blown into the pit, and the swordsman's charged slash was held until its healing ability was completely negated by the scroll—every step was planned beforehand.”
The dragon girl closed the file cards, her slitted pupils staring at him for about three seconds.
“An intelligence source? Locked on in advance?”
“I have a special source of intelligence.”
Although the guild turning a blind eye to private intelligence sources was already an unspoken rule mutually respected by everyone, it actually went against the guild's regulatory codes.
Some things were lighter than a feather if left unmeasured, but weighed a thousand tons once placed on the scales.
Lu Mao finally understood. By asking this, she was looking for a way to make an example of someone.
He figured that since he could just reset through Death Return anyway, what was there to fear? His attitude instantly hardened. “The details are inconvenient to disclose.”
The hall fell dead silent for a beat. To dare speak to a Dragon Rank adventurer like that... Although many present had previously harbored quite a few objections to Lu Mao's “direct promotion,” they couldn't help but break into a cold sweat on his behalf now.
Dowal coughed softly from behind the counter, adding:
“This kid probably has someone backing him. Certain intelligence sources... it's normal for them to be inconvenient to disclose.”
Although Dowal didn't know if Lu Mao actually had anyone behind him, seeing how calm Lu Mao was, he figured it was best to play along and help him out.
After all, he was the one who had personally promoted the kid. If things really went south, he would be the one to suffer.
Rate on N.U.
