Book 2: Chapter 39
Book 2: Chapter 39
Chapter 39.
The sun had already set and the street lights were dappled in the darkness of the night.
Tenji changed from slippers to outdoor shoes at the entrance of the guild office. He turned back to Kaido and Chigo and bowed lightly.
"I'm sorry I bothered you for so long.
"It's fine, please come again."
"Yeah, yeah. Let's play another game sometime!"
Kaido looked tired and Chigo waved at him with a big smile as reply.
After all that had happened since then, Tenzi was to stay in the guild office until around eight o'clock at night.
At first, he was just going to talk to Kaido, but then we had sushi delivered. After that, for some reason, Chigo, Kaido and he were playing a big brawl game over and over again.
And so, he became late.
By the way, all the games ended in victory for Chigo. She is the woman who always plays games.
"Yes, thank you for your time."
After thanking them, Tenji turned his back to the office and started walking towards the station.
Midsummer will be here soon.
The night in Tokyo was humid and sticky. Tenji began to make his way home from his school uniform. He was sure that a five minutes' walk would bring him to the nearest Yutenji station.
On the way to the station, Tenji decided to record the information he got from Kaido in his phone's notepad.
[I guess the first thing is the existence of 'White Eyes'. I think it might have something to do with the 'special grade'. I knew that Kaido-san, who is said to be the confidant of zero-grade explorers, seems to have a lot of knowledge that ordinary people don't know about. I'm really glad I came here today.]
Tenji was waiting for the train at the station thinking about Kaido's wealth of knowledge. He heard the announcement that the train will be arriving soon, and he takes his eyes off to his phone and stares at the tracks from the distance.
After a few seconds, the train arrived at Yutenji station. Tenji boarded the train and headed home.
He found a seat on the train and decided to note it again in the notepad as he sat down.
[It seems that the calling of summoning creatures is still an undiscovered possibility, or at least a category that Kaido-san has never heard of. And I also found out that the grade of Red Demon Sword would be impossible to determine with the MP Atomic Measuring Pearl. Moreover, it was clearly revealed that the Red Demon Sword was so highly powerful that it could easily destroy a fourth-grade weapon.]
Looking at it objectively. Tenji laughed, saying that it is not often that a calling is so uncanny.
A hell weapon labeled as a fifth-grade easily snaps off a fourth-grade weapon of this world.
This kind of thing was not normal. But Tenji's red demon sword had done it.
Kaido and the others don't know that the red demon sword is a fifth-grade weapon, but it would be too eerie a sight to witness its power. It is a power that a young man who has just awakened to his calling should not have.
Just because someone has awakened to their calling doesn't mean that they will be strong right away.
It takes many dungeon experiences, months and years of study to become a strong explorer who is then called a veteran.
Tenji quickly summarized what he had talked about with Kaido and Chigo so that he wouldn't forget.
[The more monsters you defeat, the more you can use your calling. The duration differs depending on the monster grade. The higher the grade, the greater the potential for growth, but it is said to be harder to grow.]
Zero-grade explorer Leon still seems to be growing. It is said that the higher the grade, the more difficult it is to grow.
He was advised to keep it a secret from others because of the rarity of summoning.
Kaido had heard from an acquaintance of his, a zero-grade explorer, that he had stopped growing after acquiring his eleventh skill.
He was told to keep his vocation a secret until he was strong enough to be a first-grade explorer. Kaido did not think much of the association.
Chigo Shiroushi is an E cup.
"...Oh, that's not right."
Tenji hurriedly erased the last string of words he had written, 'E-cup', which was inappropriate to make sense even to himself.
Chigo had casually mumbled her cup number during the game. Tenji was sitting next to her and was lucky enough to hear it. The words were so stuck in his mind that his hand moved of its own accord and he found himself trying to take a note of it.
Quickly shaking off his bad thoughts, Tenji went to his notepad again.
Leon's calling is a zero-grade calling called [Spiral Mage].
The reason why he was able to appraise Tenji's calling was also due to the effect of the skill 'Spiral Eye Rasendo'. This is not like the status of the Book of Enma, but it seems to be the ability to forcibly determine only the official name and grade of another person's calling that you have eye contact with.
The ability to visualize like a level has not been discovered. The explorer has no choice but to take the time to determine his or her abilities.
"Well, I guess that's about it. I got more than I thought I would."
This time, Tenji's victory was the gain of information from Kaido without giving out as much information about himself as possible.
He knew in his bones that Kaido was a pretty trustworthy person, but he still couldn't bring himself to tell Kaido everything after meeting him once.
Today Tenji disclosed to Kaido about the ranks of his special calling, the existence of the red demon sword, that it might be a summoning system, and that he can see his own abilities in writing - he spoke withholding that he can see almost everything, and lied that he can only sort of see his skills and his calling.
Of course, Tenji had noticed that since Kaido had been cooperative in the first place and had not gone into it too deeply, he would have been able to get away with this much information.
But there were still some things that didn't add up.
Why were they interested in Tenji? Why did they show interest in Tenji, and why did they try to watch over him without getting too involved?
That was the only thing Tenji still couldn't figure out.
Still, in his heart, he was thankful for what had happened today.
"I think I've got my course of action somewhat settled. I'm going to keep my calling under the radar for now. For the time being, I'm going to work part time and look for opportunities to enter the dungeon. Then, I will repeatedly analyze my calling and try to find a way around this during the summer vacation."
The thing Tenji wanted to verify at the moment was the Gobin's combat ability.
However, in order for students to engage in combat with monsters, they need to join a raid or party as an assistant explorer. It is best to join as an assistant explorer, if possible, since he can't expect much combat if he was carrying luggage.
"I don't know what to do... Oh!"
Then Tenji suddenly realized a possibility.
If he can't do it yourself, why not ask someone else?
As luck would have it, he had a friend close to him who was rich, whose father was a famous explorer. He felt guilty about Tenji, and Tenji thought that he must be willing to help.
[Well, it's a bit of a tricky idea. It's not very pleasing to treat people in a way that makes them uneasy, but I don't have a choice. I don't have the connections or the talent.]
After changing stations several times, he got off at the final station.
So Tenji slowly took out his phone and tried to contact him.
He, of course, was the young man named Inagaki Rui.
He is a young man whose father is a first-class explorer, and he is filthy rich that Tenji envies him sometimes. Rui also has a very close relationship with [Chariot], which is called the top 10 guild in Japan.
Frankly, it would be rare to find a child more blessed than he was.
As he was thinking about this and putting in a call to Inagaki, he finally got an answer to his incoming call.
"Yes, I'm Inagaki."
"Ah, it's... Amagi."
"Oh, Tenji? What's going on? What are you doing here?"
"...I know this is out of the blue, but I was wondering if there are any plans to dive into a fifth-grade sub-dungeon? I was wondering if there might be a chance for that."
"What, you're one of those people who want to get a head start during summer vacation? Just in time. I just got a call from Asagiri, too, and we had just got permission to a fifth-grade sub-dungeon together. It's scheduled for the day after tomorrow."
"Oh, really? Can I ask you for one too?"
"I have no reason to refuse Tenji's wish. Of course, the day after tomorrow morning at ten o'clock, we will meet at Yokohama station."
"Thanks, I'll see you the day after tomorrow. Thank you so much, Rui."
"Oh, I'll be waiting. And I'm sorry about for not keeping my promise because my dad suddenly went on a business trip to Spain."
"I'm totally fine. He said we'd meet someday, so there's no need to rush. I'll see you the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you too. I'm not sure how many people we have left, and to be honest, it's been a big help. I'll see you in Yokohama the day after tomorrow."
"Yeah, the day after tomorrow in Yokohama."
That's where the call went dead.
As soon as Tenji hung up the phone, he inwardly got excited in public.
In the first place, all the students of Japan Explorer High School were thinking the same thing.
Curriculum changes in calling acquisition have resulted in early calling acquisition.
Once that was decided, many students thought that they would make a good start during the summer holidays and stand out from everyone else. Tenji is just one of them.
Many new second-generation children with thoroughbreds, or explorers as parents, are enrolled in the Japan Explorers High School.
They had plans to acquire a calling that their parents had kept secret, they were on the verge of receiving a calling from a famous guild like Rui did, and there were surprisingly many students like Asagiri who had already been promised a scout from a major guild.
Therefore, he wanted to be recognized by the guild as soon as possible to officially acquire his calling.
It is inevitable that everyone would want a higher rare calling than the mediocre one that can be obtained from the association.
Tenji, who had realized this fact through Rui's words, was naturally motivated.
"I have to work harder. Harder than ever."
Tenji was very determined.