Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

Book 2: Chapter 43

Chapter 43.

An hour after the selection began, Tenji's name was finally called.

Only four participants were left in this square in front of the red brick warehouse. Tenji, without looking at them, knew they were the team he was going to test with.

Tenji felt a little gloomy.

[Huh, I kind of feel wrong about this. Why am I picked at last?]

Just as Tenji thought, the other remaining participants looked at Tenji with hostile eyes. He was wearing the uniform of Japan Explorers High School.

And so, they walked into the multiple tents before the gate, just as Kujo had said.

After the three of them entered, Tenji also went under the tent. He saw a board marked "Entrance."

The tent was large and seemed to be made up of large military-style tents that were connected horizontally for a long time.

As soon as he entered the tent, Tenji saw a white gate and some oil slick from the sub-dungeon. Apparently, the tent was set up in this location so that he could dive through the gate directly from this tent.

Inside, nearly ten regular Chariot members were going about their businesses. Godo was also there, staring at a document on his desk with his glasses on.

Then there was one professional explorer who greeted the four members of the 26th group with a huge smile.

"Hey hey, are you guys the last of the 26th group? I'm Fukuyama Yohito, a member of the guild [Chariot]. I'm a second-grade explorer and I will be joining you as your examiner and captain, so please look forward to it."

Fukuyama smiled with a fresh, handsome smile and tried to win the heart of a woman in the 26th group - Rikka Tachibana, a 19 years old college student.

Of course, Rikka didn't feel wrong about being looked at so passionately by her respected seniors.

There, Godo coughed a lot.

"Oops, sorry about that. I'm a sucker for cute girls. I'll explain the test, but first things first... I'm going to ask you to sign a contract, so take one from the table there and sign it. Give them to Mr. Godo. Now! Hurry up! Move!"

Without showing any remorse for his previous behavior, Fukuyama quickly pushed the four test participants and led them to the table where the contracts were placed.

There were four contracts and ballpoint pens on the table. The four of them skimmed through the contract details.

[There doesn't seem to be anything unusual about this. It just says that the test contents from here on out must not be shared with anyone other than Chariot's guild members. Anyone who breaks this rule will have to face punishment or penalty. That doesn't sound like a problem.]

Tenji quickly judges that it is a perfectly fair contract and signs it with his practiced hand in the signature line.

There are many opportunities to sign a contract like this when you are an explorer. That is why there is even a lecture on contracts in the first year of high school.

Tenji had experience looking over and signing contracts as a luggage carrier, so he looked up before the other three and went above Godo sitting in a chair.

"Godo-san, please."

"Oh, Mr. Tenji. Good luck to you. I'm only here as an examiner so, I can't give you any advice but, in terms of field experience alone. There are very few people who can compete with Tenji-kun... I have high hopes for you."

"Yes yes, I'll do my best."

"Oh, and here..."

Godo made it clear that he was neutral, and then he took out a stamp-like object about five centimeters in front of Tenji and gestured as if he was asking him for his hand.

Tenji was puzzled by the item but, he did as Godo asked and held out his right palm.

Tenji moved his hand towards Godo.

"No, no, no. Give me the back of your hand."

"Uhh, yes."

Tenji hurriedly flipped his hand palm down as he was asked to show the back instead of the palm.

On the back of his right hand, Godo stamped something with a pop. There was a strange formation of figures on it.

And after three seconds, the formation quickly entered and slushed into his body.

"Uhm... This is... "

"This? Uh, yeah. It's an item that seals all the benefits of physical abilities and skills from your calling. Well, the potency of this item is not so great that it will last for more than eight hours or so. You heard the Commander's explanation of the item's effectiveness, right? She already had this ready for all of us to use at that time."

Tenji, who was checking the 'Book of Enma' while listening to the Godo explaining, was reminded of the peculiar nature of his calling.

The 'Book of Enma' still floated softly in Tenji's vision, and the red demon ring on the index finger of his right hand had not disappeared.

On the contrary, when he checked his own status in the Book of Enma, he noticed that his attack power was still at 96, and even the physical benefits that Godo had mentioned were not sealed.

[I knew it. On the phone, Mr. Kaido said, "The calling measurement tree is a first-grade item and cannot interfere with higher grades." From that, I think that the sealed item used in this test would not be able to interfere with my calling.]

In fact, that guess was correct, and the original item that Godo used, the Shu Seal ver. Kushira Whale 7 was a first-grade item. It was an item that couldn't interfere with any grade higher than the first.

Of course, a zero-grade explorer was not someone who comes to the dungeon for a test, so the Chariot was not worried about any of that.

"I'm surprised you've been preparing for this for such a long time. I feel like I've been taken for a treat."

"The Commander has always been this kind of weirdo who likes to get behind people's backs. Come on! Go for it! Tenji-kun!"

"Yes!"

Godo's current words were loaded with the skill 'Language Inspiration.' Tenji thanked Godo for secretly cheering him up as he was naturally filled with motivation.

And so, it is back to Fukuyama. Who is chattering again but with a fresh smile on his face.

Fukuyama didn't speak in particular but observed the participants closely from beginning to end with eyes that seemed to be assessing them.

Tenji found this somewhat eerie.

"Are you sure you don't have any questions about the contract?"

When all four of them had gathered again, Fukuyama threw such words at them.

No one asked any questions, and Fukuyama nodded yes.

"Then I'll explain about this test briefly."

Rikka Tachibana, who was right next to him, gulped.

Kusatsu Gouta - a 22-year-old college student-- and Mizue Katsunari - a 17 years old senior in high school - The two men in the group also turned more serious.

"This sub-dungeon is riddled with prolific monsters. What's even more special is that it's also a private room type dungeon. Therefore, the test you guys will be doing is to conquer one route of a fifth-grade sub-dungeon. That's all, any questions?"

"Oh, uhm... Can I ask you something? What are prolific monsters are?"

"May I call you Rikka-chan?"

"Yes!"

"I'm sure you're a regular college student..." he said. "That's not very deep in monster knowledge, is it?"

"Excuse me?..."

"I didn't know the first thing about monsters when I joined Chariot! I was just a nobody to begin with."

Tenji saw Rikka and Fukuyama's white teeth shining bright.

And Tenji was surprised by that fact, Fukuyama said. He wonders how good someone who is originally a nobody can be selected for Chariot's A-team.

"Nobody?"

"Yeah, well, we'll talk about that in the sub-dungeon, but let's get back to the subject. I mean, I'm the one who went off topic! Haha, sorry, sorry. So, fertile monsters, as the name implies, are monsters that give birth to a large number of children and create a succession of subordinates, so to speak, having characteristics like ants."

"Is it like ants?..."

Rikka clearly had a look of dislike for insects.

"But don't worry, it's not insectoid this time. Normally, new monsters don't re-pop in sub-dungeons, but they can spawn. So, it is advisable to attack sub-dungeons with prolific monsters as soon as possible. However, this time I dared to leave this sub-dungeon for about a month."

They abandoned it for a month.

There was no one who didn't know that fact, or rather, it was easy to guess from the context.

At that moment, the tension between them increased several notches.

"Well, the early answer is that you're going to show me how you're going to take on a sub-dungeon crawling with monsters." Fukuyama said again.

Fukuyama's white front teeth sparkled a bit.