Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

Two weeks had passed since Halt and his comrades registered as adventurers.

They received commissions from the Royal Capital’s Adventurer Guild day after day, and finally, today was the day they would be taking the advancement examination.

The purpose of F, the lowest rank, was to gauge whether or not the people could become adventurers, so the required guild points for advancing to E-rank was low. It was also relatively easy to take the advancement examination.

The adventurers could take the advancement exam in a month or so after receiving suitable commissions and accumulating enough guild points.

Thinking of this, it could be said that Halt’s team had been quite fast.

This was because they received a lot of commissions that didn’t provide good monetary compensation but gave them more guild points instead — such commissions were mainly being avoided by the other adventurers.

“We’ll finally graduate from the lowest rank, meow!”

“Being an adventurer is quite hard.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect it to be this harsh.”

Merdie, Luke and Ryuushin were reminiscing about the past two weeks.

Their mindset was not because they had to fight strong monsters. If it was just about battles against monsters, then all the members here would easily pass as A-ranks.

“Cleaning the underground canals… Ugh, I never want to do that again.”

Leaffa shivered as she recalled that instance.

Halt accepted a commission to clean the underground canals yesterday, and it had caused quite a huge trauma to the entire family.

“Yeah, I totally agree.”

“Particularly the stench, that had been horrible.”

“Hmm, I thought I was gonna die.”

Youko and Shiro apparently suffered the most because of their keen sense of smell.

“Still, I think we did well in the lower class!”

“Yup, you’re right. You can now judge in an instant whether a flower blooming by the street can sell or not.”

Sylph replied to Luna’s comment.

“I discovered this on my way here.”

“Oh, Luna. That's a showy baby’s breath! You can sell that for 300 spina.”

Sylph, the Wind Spirit King herself, remembered how much this grass was worth — which was less than the cost of a single meal.

She could now judge whether a grass is just plain weed or a medicinal plant.

“Even Sylph-sama has become quite knowledgeable about medicinal plants. Has this been your goal all along, Halt-sama?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think that far ahead, but… I’m glad that everyone learned a lot.”

Most of the Ernol family members were royalty or else belonging to special races, so most of them weren’t familiar with the knowledge of humans.

Halt’s comrades could probably take the advancement examination earlier if they slay monsters. F-rank monsters were equivalent to rubbish for these people, after all.

However, doing that would be meaningless.

They had to gain the common knowledge of civilians and lower rank adventures that could never be found in the textbooks and grimoires of the magical academy.

Halt hoped that his family could acquire such knowledge.

And he was pretty pleased with the outcome.

“Mr. Halt, today is the day of the advancement examination, finally!”

The receptionist lady of the adventurer guild called out to Halt.

Starting with her. all the guild members were fond of Halt and the others, especially since they had steadily dealt with the commissions that the other adventurers were unwilling to fulfill.

“Yes. We are under your care.”

“I will guide you to the examination site. Please follow me, everyone.”

The entire House of Ernol followed behind the receptionist lady.

It was a usual sight in the Royal Capital Guild, and even the adventurers had already accepted it as such.

It was because Kikyou had been gradually and steadily brainwashing the adventurers and the guild staff everyday.

Thanks to her, they didn’t encounter any huge problems even if Halt, Luke and Ryuushin, these three guys, accompanied 16 gorgeous beauties and beautiful girls inside and around the guild.

──＊＊＊──

They arrived at the examination site.

It was a relatively huge, round arena.

A burly, skinhead guy stood at the center.

“So, Halt and his comrades, huh. I’m Johann, a B-rank adventurer, your senior and proctor of you advancement examination. Nice to meet you.”

“The pleasure is ours.”

Johann extended his hand, so Halt shook it.

“You guys are quite famous, you know. You guys are courteous despite just starting out as adventurers, and you even take the initiative to take on jobs that other rookies didn’t want to.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Even regarding monster subjugation — we also received reports that you already defeated several goblins, so I guess you guys are quite powerful…So”

Johann threw the scroll he was holding to the floor of the arena —

Five slimes appeared.

Johann used the [Scroll of Sealed Monsters], a scroll that could seal the monsters that had been captured beforehand.

“This is a special service for you. If you defeat these slimes, I’ll acknowledge your advancement to E-rank.”

“So we just have to defeat some slime, meow?”

“Waaayy too easy!”

“We won’t have any problems with stronger monsters.”

“It’ll be a landslide victory against the slimes for sure.”

Merdie, Hakua, Youko, Ryuushin were underestimating the jiggling smile in front of hem.

It was only natural that they would look down on these slime since they could defeat majins.

“Well, well. Sir Johann here gave us an exception and agreed to promote us if we defeat them, so everyone, let’s give our best!”

A guy smirked after saying that.

The only person who noticed that smirk was the maid who had been constantly paying close attention to him.

The maid was bothered about that grin, so she tried probing the slime monsters.

It was then that she realized.

These slime monsters had been strengthened by the man’s mana.

In truth, these slime had been tamed by the world’s strongest sage, and they had been strengthened to the point that it was unbelievable.

The sage caught wind that Johann would depart to hunt slime for the advancement examination, so he ordered the monsters to get themselves captured.

The man’s mana was cleverly hidden within the slime’s mana.

If not for this maid who had been exposed to that guy’s mana from when he was young, nobody would probably notice this.

The maid decided not to attack these slimes.

They wouldn’t be able to pass the advancement examination if they didn’t defeat these monsters, but they were anything but ordinary after being strengthened by that man’s mana.

She decided it would be best to monitor the situation.

(Just what is Halt-sama thinking? He said he wanted to become an S-rank as soon as possible, and yet he raised the level of his own advancement exam —)

Without any regard to the doubting maid, Johann gave the signal to start the advancement examination.

“I want you to show me how you move as a party. I want everyone to participate in the attacks as much as possible. Then — Begin!”

The battle with the strongest slimes had begun.