Kays Translations

Chapter 62: Emergency Quest Completed

When Tauro returned to the village, Bob and Chloe were waiting for him at the entrance.

“You were so late that I got worried. I was just about to go looking for you.”

Bob said this as he pulled Tauro into an embrace.

“Thank you again…! We managed to defeat them because of you, Tauro!”

Overcome with emotion, Bob began to cry.

“N-no, you saved me at the end, Bob! We helped each other!”

“I suppose we did. But when the Knight cut me down, I lost consciousness thinking I was dead. Without your quick judgment, I wouldn’t be alive. Of course I’ll reimburse you for the potions you used on me.”

“In addition to the reward for completing this emergency quest, the guild will pay you a special bonus. It was our decision to involve you despite your F rank, Tauro. Thank you very much for your assistance.”

Chloe, the guild receptionist serving as the emergency acting branch chief, bowed deeply.

“Please thank Bob instead. If he hadn’t noticed the problem and taken action, I wouldn’t have done anything. And please don’t worry about the potions. I made them myself and gathered the ingredients, so they cost me almost nothing.”

“What?!” Bob and Chloe exclaimed together, stunned by his answer.

“What?”

Their reaction startled Tauro. Had he said something strange?

“You can make potions? So you have a [Pharmacist] skill too? You’re incredible, Tauro.”

It was no wonder Bob was surprised.

From what they had seen, Tauro could use a bow and a sword, and he must also possess a woodworking skill. On top of that, he apparently had [Pharmacist]. Considering abilities such as [Presence Detection], he probably had a thief-type skill as well. That made at least five skills.

Alternatively, he might possess higher-tier skills that covered several of those abilities.

“Unfortunately, I only have one skill: [Garbled Text].”

Tauro’s answer froze the atmosphere around them.

The garbled-text skill was also known as the unfortunate skill or the useless skill. It had several other names, but not one of them was favorable.

In other words, Bob and Chloe concluded that this boy had come this far through effort alone, without any support from a skill.

“I’m sorry, Tauro… You must have endured so much…”

“I’m sorry. I spoke so thoughtlessly without knowing anything… You’ve worked so hard…”

Their imaginations sprouted wings and carried them far into the distance, leaving Tauro to watch them go.

He certainly had endured plenty, but their reaction reminded him just how strongly society associated [Garbled Text] with misfortune.

“A-anyway, that’s why you don’t need to repay me for the potions!”

Tauro emphasized the end of his sentence, as though calling the pair back down to earth.

“R-right! I understand. Then I’ll find some other way to thank you later.”

Bob apparently had no intention of backing down. Tauro genuinely didn’t need a reward, but he gave up refusing before he became the obstinate one.

Naturally, Bob and Tauro split the emergency quest reward equally.

Since Chloe couldn’t appraise the magic stones, Tauro received the Goblin Knight’s stone because he had defeated it, while Bob received the Goblin Sorcerer’s.

When Tauro later appraised them with [True Eye], the Goblin Knight’s magic stone was worth an impressive five gold coins, while the Goblin Sorcerer’s was worth three.

Huh? Wasn’t the Knight the Sorcerer’s subordinate? When Tauro examined it more closely, he discovered that the Goblin Knight had been on the verge of evolving into the higher species known as a Goblin Rider.

That was dangerous! Thank goodness we defeated it before it became one…!

Tauro stood alone, mentally retorting at the magic stone.

For his part in the emergency quest, Bob was promoted from E rank to E+.

Tauro remained F-.

Guild rules stated that when low-ranked adventurers completed high-ranked quests they hadn’t been authorized to accept, the achievement wouldn’t count toward promotion.

Allowing it would encourage low-ranked adventurers to seek high-ranked quests and could cause the casualty rate to soar. The rule existed to prevent that.

Consequently, neither the goblin extermination nor the defeat of rare variants affected Tauro’s rank.

“I’m sorry. We were the ones who urgently asked you to do it…”

Chloe bowed apologetically.

“No, it was an emergency. It couldn’t be helped this time.”

Waiting for other adventurers to arrive could have led to the worst possible outcome, so there had been no alternative.

Tauro accepted that without complaint.

Besides, he wasn’t particularly interested in promotion.

He was far more concerned about the shrine.

I’ll return to the shrine tomorrow, Tauro decided.

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