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I was back at the guild, not at the counter where I had registered, but at another one that was used for requests. The receptionist earlier had told me about that. At said counter was also a beautiful elf (temporary) receptionist lady.

“Excuse me, I’m here about a completed request…”
“Certainly, please show me your guild card.”

When I held out my card to her, she told me to wait for a moment and went further inside the building. She returned right away.

“Alright, it was a request to exterminate slimes, is that correct? Could you give me three or more F-Rank magic cores?”

Since slimes didn’t leave behind a corpse, completion of the request was apparently judged by their magic cores. I handed her five F-Rank magic cores… the ones that had emerged from the normal slimes.

“Indeed, five of them! It’s 20 bells per defeated slime and another 20 bells for each magic core, which makes a total of 200 bells.”
“Yes, please.”
“Here are your 200 bells, please make sure the amount is correct.”

I took the 200 bells, or 2000 yen from her.

Thanks to doin’ that request, I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of how adventurin’ works. Now, as for what do to next… let’s bring those cores that are probably D-Rank to the adventurer counter I was first at to increase my rank. Though she didn’t tell me how many magic cores I need to move up to E-Rank… For now, guess I better only turn in two of ’em.

“Excuse me.”
“Huh, you’re the boy from earlier…? Weren’t you going to do that request?”
“I’ve already finished it. Uhm, I would like to increase my rank.”
“Did you obtain additional magic cores, in that case?”
“Yes, while I was on that quest.”

I produced two D-Rank magic cores from my magic bag and gave them to the receptionist.

“It’s these…”
“Huh…! Were there two D-Rank magic beasts nearby!?”
“Ah, no, it was a single magic beast, and when I defeated it, I got five magic cores at once from it…”
“Huh…! Was it a subspecies!?”

Either way, seems to have been a surprising incident… Did I get lucky? Nah, thinkin’ of it as encounterin’ a strong foe, wouldn’t that be bad luck…?

“Yes, that might be it.”
“Those are rare, aren’t they…? Still, I’m glad that you were able to defeat it after encountering it. In some rare cases, there are new adventurers that already have some combat experience, like you Mr. Shuu, and suddenly end up skipping several ranks, but if you weren’t one of those and truly a beginner… such an encounter would be horrifying.”
“R-Right…”

In that case, guess I did the right thing. Yup. Gotta have some luck to live a normal life, y’know.

“On that note. Due to you handing in D-Rank magic cores that you obtained by your own power, you will be a D-Rank adventurer from now on, Mr.¹ Shuu. Please give me your adventurer card. Once I have increased your rank, I will return your magic cores.”

I did as she had asked me to and handed her my card. The receptionist took it and went from the counter further inside the building. She returned right away, holding the two D-Rank magic cores I had given her, and a guild card of a different color.

“Here you go.”
“Thank you very much.”

I thanked her and went to leave, but on the way, four men encircled me for some reason.
The hell, why’re they crowdin’ around me? Is that a shakedown?

“Hey, man. We heard that, y’know? You defeated some subspecies, didn’t you?”
“Yes, what about it?” I asked them.
“Ka-ha-ha², in other words, if you sell it, you’ll get tons of money, dude.”

These people are probably talkin’ like that, since they’re higher ranked than me. It was a good call, after all, not to take Rir with me today, right? Would have caused her way too much stress.

“So, what do you want?” I asked them.

To be honest, I don’t think I can hurl all four of them away. Moreover, I dunno how strong people are in this world. When push comes to shove, I gotta obediently hand over that subspecies thingy, or whatever it’s called…

“To make it short… why not gamble for it with us… with some Reversi. If we win, you give us that magic beast you hunted. If you win… that’s if you beat all four of us, we’ll give you 10’000 bells.”

Wha-!? Did he say “Reversi”? Why do they have that in another world? The hell’s goin’ on?
Still… I want those 10’000 bells… I can’t do anythin’ ’bout it in the first place, since I’m encircled by brawny guys, so… Guess I gotta accept.

Back in middle school, I was both in the Judo and the board game club, so it might not be a bad idea to play against them. Much less to say that this ain’t Japan, so you probably won’t be told off for bettin’ here.

“Understood,” I accepted the challenge.
“Alright! That’s the spirit…!”

____
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_

“…Here’s the cash as promised.”
“Dude, you’re way too strong…”

The tallest of the men gave me a gold coin³ worth 10’000 bells. In other words, 100’000 yen. At any rate, those guys were way too weak. Even Ayumu wasn’t that bad at the game. The only one who managed to play a serious game was the guy who always called me “dude⁴“.

“I give up, you always win, don’t you?”
“Seriously, Dude… On first glance, you look like some country hick, it’s crazy you’re that skilled at Reversi, seeing it only got popular recently…”

The hell, does that mean Reversi was recently invented in this world? Guess it has to be.

Those four matches took around 30 minutes, didn’t they? I gotta buy lunch for Rir and me. Also, I should sell that subspecies slime in the store next to the guild which sells everythin’ adventurers need. As for the cores… I’ll use ’em for skills.

“Well, I’ll be off.”
“Ah, right, take care.”
“Let’s play Reversi again, dude!”

I left the guild and entered the store next to it. It was several times wider on the inside, and there was tons of stuff on sale. I looked for the purchase area and made my way to a counter specialized in magic beast materials.

“Excuse me, Sir, I’d like to sell something.”
“Alright, what magic beast do you have?”
“Ah, well, it’s a huge slime…”
“A huge slime…? Oh, the Large Slime. Come this way,” the middle-aged man told me and went further inside the shop from the counter.

I followed him into a room that was even wider than the one I had entered earlier.

“Then, take it out here.”
“Yes.”

I took out the white Large Slime from my magic bag and placed it on top of a clean, white pedestal.

“Oh-ho!? That’s a subspecies, you know! Seriously… that one’s rare. Where did you find it?”
“Well, it was near the city.”
“Oh, that’s definitely an unusual find. We get roughly one of these per year… no, more like one every two years,” he told me, while he used various tools to look at the Large Slime subspecies. Finally, after some time, he crossed his arms and nodded. “Good, I’ll give you 70’000 bells for that.”
“7… 70’000 bells!?”
“Yeah, it’s more than the usual 5000 to 10’000 bells D-Rank magic beasts go for, but… Subspecies are rare, they’re stronger than normal magic beasts, and there’s various other reasons. So, are you fine with 70’000 bells?”
“Y-Yes! Absolutely.”

In other words… I made 800’000 yen today, though I did get lucky. That’s crazy.

I took the 70’000 bells from the man and went back to Rir in high spirits.

TL notes:
And here I thought we’d finally get a “hazing the newbie” scene in this story, after Alim dodged it by being cute (though Two as one Princesses shows that this does not always work). But instead of a fight, it turned into a wager over a board game and the guys actually took their loss in stride without accusing Shuu of cheating and resorting to violence, as one would have expected.

1. She calls him sama (“sir/lord”) in the original here. This might be a typo, so I changed it to Mr. for consistency’s sake, but might change it again, if sama is always used from now on.
2. The original is キシェシェ (kisheshe), which might either be some weird laugh or a badly mangled English “cash”.
3. It’s a large gold coin in the original, but that would be 100’000 bells, not 10’000.
4. The original is しぇー, which might be something like “holy cow” or “whoa” according to Jisho.