After submitting the Kaiser Minotaurus to the guild, the stampede commotion was officially over.
They said they'd send out an investigation team later to confirm whether it had truly subsided, though.
"Alan, I'm grateful. Thanks to you, we didn't need to call for reinforcements from headquarters, and it looks like we were able to prevent damage to the town before it even happened."
He was thanked in Gilmas's room.
"Right. By the way, don't you have adventurers periodically hunt monsters to prevent the next stampede?"
"That was certainly attempted in the past, but it's not something adventurers take to very well. I believe they even tried offering special rewards at one point, but..."
"It didn't work?"
"People would lie and say they'd hunted monsters when they hadn't, or demand extra pay since monsters were being thinned out in other dungeons too — it was an endless headache."
Huh, so these adventurers really do have...
a rotten...
disposition...
"In the end, they settled on only calling for recruitment when a stampede looks imminent. Now then, Alan — accept your reward for defeating the Kaiser Minotaurus."
"Sure."
"Also, I'm officially recognizing your Orichalcum rank on behalf of the Meigrant Kingdom Guild. If you can take down a Kaiser Minotaurus, you've more than earned it. Stop by the reception desk later to get your card updated."
Maybe this will finally free me from the national rankings...
I'll accept the rank promotion without complaint.
And then for a little bonus — [Reverse], let me flip the rank of a treasure chest in the Mithril-rank dungeon.
◇◇◇
A few days after Alan left Surmey.
Gilmas received an astonishing report from a staff member in his office.
"Gilmas, it seems an Elixir appeared from a treasure chest in a Mithril-rank dungeon!"
"What? Is that true?!"
Gilmas stood up from his chair in spite of himself.
The content of the guild staff's report was, to say the least, difficult to believe.
"Also, multiple adventurers have reported that high-rank weapons, accessories, and other items equivalent to Mithril-rank have appeared."
"I... see."
"If everyone starts diving into dungeons, we might be able to stop the stampedes, Gilmas!"
Setting aside the excited staff member, Gilmas tried to think of a cause for this phenomenon.
Normally, it was an impossibility, but this was the young adventurer who had soloed the Kaiser Minotaurus—an opponent that even the Orichalcum Party would have to tackle with all their strength—without a scratch.
"Could it be... no way."
Changing the contents of a dungeon's treasure chests, no matter how strong one was, shouldn't be possible.
Gilmas stopped thinking about it any further.
◇◇◇
Riding in a carriage, they headed further west from the town of Surmey.
No one in the carriage behaved suspiciously.
He wouldn't go so far as to use [God's Eye] to check the passengers, but he was using [Gentleman Thief]'s detection skill to sense if any skills were being activated.
They arrived without incident at Forceleu, a town characterized by the white outer walls that enclosed it.
This was the headquarters of the Holy Cruel Church, and a somewhat unusual place even within the Maygrant Kingdom.
The Holy Cruel Church was the main branch of the Holy Misery Church located in the Raging Kingdom.
What they do is revere the gods and spread the faith, or accept donations and provide healing... but still.
◇◇◇◇◇◇
The treasure chests that drop in a Mithril-rank dungeon were originally Iron-rank (second from the bottom), but I reversed them so they become Mithril-rank (second from the top).
Skills: [Reverse][Divine Eye][Sword God][Fist God][Spear God][Blazing Heat Magic][Frozen Ice Magic][Clear Storm Magic][Rock Iron Magic][Holy Magic][Dark Magic][Space-Time Magic][Thunder God Blade][Phantom Thief Gentleman][Ninja Master][Seeker of Truth][Superhuman Strength][Pain Relief][Complete Status Ailment Resistance][Dark Spirit's Protection][Super Intuition][Heaven's Gate][Abyss Contractee][Magic Hand][Treasure Search][Temptation][Eloquence][Fortune][Tenfold Growth Speed]
Rank: Orichalcum
Thank you for reading!