Chapter 585 – A Guild Report on an Unprecedented Scale

The special room for high-ranking adventurers had fallen into a minor uproar over Tauro’s quest-completion report.

The Swen Adventurers’ Guild branch chief arrived first, astonished that Black-Gold Wings, a B-minus team in the B-rank band, had defeated a monster that clearly belonged in the A-rank band.

“Is this report really true!?”

The branch chief had two reasons to be alarmed. A B-minus team had defeated an A-rank-band monster, and the appearance of such an enemy meant the guild’s original difficulty assessment for the quest had been insufficient.

“Chief, the previous adventurers repeatedly failed against the Bloodsucking Wolves, so placing that species in the B-rank band seems appropriate. But according to Lord Tauro’s report, the apparent leader was a Bloodsucking Wolf King – Subspecies. A king of a B-rank-band species, and a subspecies on top of that, should be placed in at least the A-rank band. We can make a more precise judgment after examining its magic stone.”

The receptionist pointed to the monster corpses Tauro had taken from [Magic Storage] as she explained.

“In that case, we’ve already removed the magic stone from the subspecies.”

Tauro handed the stone to the receptionist.

“C-chief! Even with my B-plus-level appraisal, I can’t identify it properly. This degree of appraisal obstruction means the stone is at least A-rank class!”

The receptionist’s eyes widened as she carefully held the magic stone in both hands and reported her result.

“I can appraise it. It’s actually A-plus class,” Tauro added casually.

“A-A-plus!?”

The branch chief and receptionist repeated his words and froze.

“…Oh… Chief, they also succeeded in gathering the Rainbow Grass…”

Exhausted by the succession of surprises, the receptionist barely had enough energy left to add that report.

“The Rainbow Grass too!? That request has been sitting uncompleted for an entire year! That’s a tremendous relief… Black-Gold Wings is currently B-minus. I’ll write a recommendation for the full B-rank promotion examination. You still need the required achievements before you can be promoted outright, but after this performance, I can certainly recommend you for the exam.”

The branch chief wiped the sweat from his brow and formally offered to recommend Black-Gold Wings for the promotion examination.

“Thank you. There’s one more matter. Because of special circumstances, we also defeated an unusually large number of the new species called Olog-Hai… far more than the quest’s subjugation limit. How will that be evaluated?”

“More than the limit!? You defeated more than the thirty we specified to keep adventurers from pushing themselves too far!? …Well, after hearing about an A-rank-band monster, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised. How many was it? Don’t tell me you went past fifty.”

The chief laughed a little too loudly as he braced himself for the answer.

“More than fifteen hundred.”

“…What?”

The branch chief and receptionist both assumed they had misheard.

“More than fifteen hundred.”

“…Lord Tauro, you’re joking, right? Numbers like that would require a massive monster stampede. A newly discovered species doesn’t simply appear in such quantities… Hahaha… Wait. You’re serious?”

“I’m serious.”

Tauro answered with a faintly amused smile.

“Not one hundred and fifty… fifteen hundred?”

The branch chief checked one last time.

“Yes. The investigation expedition should return in a few days and give you a detailed report, but it encountered a mixed force of soldiers, Olog-Hai, Bloodsucking Wolves, and other monsters. We joined the battle to help and spent the next several days hunting the retreating monsters. Even we couldn’t finish all of them, so we left the remaining forces to the military and came down from the mountains.”

“You mean the same incident the military reported!?”

The branch chief finally connected Tauro’s explanation with the rumors already circulating in the guild about the investigation expedition’s crisis.

“Yes. We were involved.”

“And what happened to the investigation expedition?”

“They didn’t escape unharmed. There were many casualties. But the accompanying adventurers and soldiers fought extremely well, especially considering the size of the enemy force. The expedition’s formal report will give you the details.”

“…I understand. But… more than fifteen hundred?”

“They’re in [Magic Storage]. Would you like me to bring some out as proof?”

“…Yes, please. We need to verify the count.”

Still unable to quite believe him, the branch chief followed Tauro into the guild courtyard. Because space was limited, Tauro brought out only part of the haul: three hundred Olog-Hai and one hundred Bloodsucking Wolves, piled high in the yard.

“!!!”

The branch chief, receptionist, nearby guild staff, and even adventurers training in the courtyard were left speechless.

“If I bring out everything, the courtyard will overflow, and you won’t be able to process the bodies before they start to smell. What should we do?”

Tauro asked the stunned branch chief.

“Processing all of this will take several days! Please keep the rest stored for now! Call every dismantler and disposal worker we can find in the city—this is going to be a massive job!”

The branch chief began issuing orders, and the staff scattered to carry them out.

“I apologize for doubting you. Could you also put the circumstances into a written report? I’d like to get as much of this processed as possible before the investigation expedition returns…”

The branch chief stared up at the mountain of monster corpses and sighed.

“Of course. I’ll leave the processing to you.”

Feeling slightly guilty about the enormous workload he had just created, Tauro sat down with Aeris in a corner of the room and began compiling the report.