"Hmph, jealous, are we, seniors? You're scared I'll catch up! And you too, Gilmas — letting someone like this participate just makes the Surmey Guild look bad!"
Crap — this guy's picking a fight not just with me, but with Gilmas too.
"I can see 'em, y'know — his equipped skills! [Swordsman], [Archer], [Alchemist], [Healer] — every single one is straight-up garbage!"
Hey, why are you putting someone's skill build on blast in front of all these adventurers?!
They're just fake skills I cobbled together with [Divine Eye], though.
Freed from [Intimidation], Eric picked up steam and kept running his mouth.
"Eric, even I can't cover for that one. If you get backstabbed, don't come crying to me."
"As if! Gilmas, I was just explaining why this guy doesn't deserve to be Orichalcum. And while I'm at it — the talent shortage in that dump of a country, Raging—"
It's not like I have any deep attachment to the place, but why does he keep trash-talking the country?
Is that the standard gear for adventurers around here?
◇◇◇
One adventurer had made things tense, but after a thorough explanation, the verdict was clear: gather enough intel so nobody dies, but if you can take out the root cause, you're free to do so.
After that, for some reason, Gilmas called only me over.
Don't tell me I'm about to get chewed out alone.
Is the Slave Choker about to make its move?
"Ah, Alan, first of all — I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I didn't call you here to blame you. I've heard about you from Baron Minits."
Then I should be in for a decent evaluation.
"Right. So, about that Eric—"
"Well, of course he's getting cocky. I mean, he's got a skill like [Tenfold Growth Rate]. And now that he has [Sword Demon], it won't be long before he reaches the pinnacle of swordsmen."
"Did you look at Eric's skill? If that's true, then his sudden leap in power lately makes perfect sense... He was a dead-end adventurer, but he suddenly started growing stronger."
It's like how kids go through growth spurts at breakneck speed.
"Just the other day he was Bronze Rank, and now he's already climbed to Mithril. He's getting cocky, but his power is the real deal. His growth is so fast that the rank evaluations can't keep up."
I see.
Just [Tenfold Growth Rate] alone is such a cheat that you could practically write an entire story about it.
"Adventurers are all a bunch of oddballs, one way or another—but I'd hate for you to think all of Sulmi's adventurers are like him. He's probably had his own share of hardships."
"What? He just got lucky, that's all. He happened to open a treasure chest and found the [Tenfold Growth Rate] skill."
That was right after that adventurer named Eric had seen my skill, so I immediately used [Divine Eye] to look up his information.
"......You can tell even that much? Fine, I won't say anything more."
"Please don't."
◇◇◇◇◇◇
Alan's skill loadout has been falsified using [Divine Eye] (anti-appraisal measure).
[Tenfold Growth Rate]
Drastically accelerates the acquisition speed of skills and similar abilities. Does not make you age ten times faster.
Skills: [Reverse], [Divine Eye], [Sword God], [Fist God], [Spear God], [Scorching Magic], [Frost Magic], [Clear Storm Magic], [Stone-Iron Magic], [Holy Magic], [Dark Magic], [Space-Time Magic], [Thunder God Sword], [Gentleman Phantom], [Ninja Master], [Truth Seeker], [Monstrous Strength], [Pain Dampening], [Complete Status Ailment Resistance], [Dark Spirit's Protection], [Hyper Intuition], [Heaven's Gate], [Abyssal Contractor], [Mage Hand], [Treasure Search], [Seduction], [Eloquence], [Great Fortune]
Rank: Orichalcum
Thank you for reading!