Promotion (Part 2)

Hyoran and I went to the guild again to get another quest. This time it is to find an elderly woman's lost cat. Simple enough that it was black with white spots around the eyes. It was no problem because it is simply stuck on the tree, got it for 80 copper for that. Then, it was the weed removal for 30 copper. Those two quests didn't even last 50 minutes.

We returned to the guild to turn in our weed removal quest.

"Now that you reached the requirements, you can take the exam to rank up. You have to go through this door past me." The receptionist said.

We nodded and went to the giant door with golden plated handles and hinges. We turned the handles and the door creaked open to reveal a large flight of stairs out of stone, descending to another floor decorated with lanterns to prevent this passage from getting dark.

We walked downstairs and we happened to see a hall much bigger than the one above. We can hear the metal clanging, more people are walking around with higher quality weapons and armor. As we walk by, there are weapons of high quality inside the display of glass with a hefty price tag.

There's one weapon that caught my eye. It has a golden handle and guard with green gemstones placed upon it. The length of the blade is 44 inches long and the color of that blade is bright white with a faint green shine if you see it at an angle. The scabbard is made of wood reinforced by lightweight metal, adorned with golden designs. The entire thing giving off a green shine means this sword is imbued with Wind Magic.

"System, scan this weapon."

[Scanning..complete.]

Wow. This is the weapon Anna Zailhouse used. I also got that sword when I raided Noltia back when I was a Ogre Warlord. I never worried about Wind Dominance nor Earth Ward because I had Lightning Magic, but Evil Slayer is a problem. Evil Slayer deals 25% more damage against anyone with Evil alignment. But 25% less damage against anyone with Good alignment. It's good at first, but that skill is too dependent on luck. Even if you dedicate on Good alignment, there's a chance you'll fight someone on the Good alignment.

We come to the door that said 'Rank up arena' where adventurers fight to rank up. In the grand scheme of things, completing 3 quests of the same rank, rank up and repeat does take a while. Also, the quests don't come as often than the previous. Therefore, some adventurers get stuck in their ranks for weeks if not months, maybe years.

We opened the door to see multiple people waiting for their rank ups. Many people of different races and ages wait around for their promotion. Some are children like me and Hyoran, some teenagers, some are even adults who are even at Soil ranks either because they have no stable income, spent years training, or some certain circumstances.

We see another receptionist, but this time, it is a bearded man with glasses.

"Welcome to the Promotion Center." he said in a friendly manner. "Are you here for your battle promotion? The two of you?"

"Yes." I answered. I know that you can bring your party to the promotion exam ONLY if that same party reaches the requirement. The only catch is that they'll have to take on 20% more monsters.

The bearded man smiled. "Great, also the participant before you is close to finishing."

Heavy footsteps came from below and here shows a man in armor, covered in blood wielding a large broadsword also covered in blood. He gives off a menacing aura as if he went through a bloody battle. I also noticed that he is in the Bronze Rank and ascending to Silver.

"Looks like you're next, I wish you good luck." said the receptionist.

"I can bring my wolf with me, right?" I asked.

"You can, but that counts as an extra person. The limit you can bring is 5." The receptionist answered.

I bring Gris and Hyoran along and walked downstairs until we reached the arena where there are many people sitting in the stands.

"Two kids and a wolf. You don't see that everyday."

"That female Beastkin...she looks like a mini version of The Frozen Fang."

"That black haired human looks like he knows what to do...or hiding the fact he's nervous."

Many people spoke comments that aren't compliments or insults either. However, we reach the center stage and see a man in a white priest robe and another man in a green cloak.

"Are you prepared?" said the man in a green cloak.

"We'll stop the summoning if you are unable to continue." the priest said.

We nodded. With that response, the cloaked men floated upwards to a platform out of metal and the green cloak summoned a magic circle in front of us and in a flash of light, it summoned various low-ranked monsters. Such as Colorless Slimes, White Horned Rabbits, Sporeflies, and Cave Spiders. All of them are J ranked and amounted to 40.

"The promotion exam shall begin!" Said the green cloak and the monsters came rushing in.

"Gris, intimidate." I said.

With my command, Gris eyes glowed and bore his fangs at the other creatures. With this, he growled and snarled at the monsters, emitting a menacing aura.

The monsters that are caught in it were frozen in fear. Since Gris is now E+ rank, there will be less monsters to worry about.

"Take them down, Gris!" I commanded. Gris now dashed towards the paralyzed enemies and began clawing and gnawing his way through them effortlessly.

[40 J rank targets slain. 4000 EP acquired.]

"Woah...that kid's wolf is amazing." one spectator said.

"He's fighting like an adult rather than a child wolf." another one said.

I grinned at Gris's domination on those J ranked monsters where it is cakewalk to him. I looked at Hyoran who is less than happy.

Her hands are clenched, her wrists arching back, she looked at me dissatisfied with her cheeks puffed up. Hyoran is pouting.

"Hyoran?" I said. "What's wrong?"

"You stole my chance to have fun." Hyoran answered with her cheeks still puffed up.

"I'm sorry. I'll let you take it once we promote to Stone." I said as I hugged her. When she pouts, she tends to stay like that for minutes. Hyoran's tail swayed gently.

"Promise?" Hyoran said, still pouting.

"Yeah."

With my answer, her ears and tail perked up and jumped out of my arms and smiled at me as if her pouting face never happened.

"Then it's a promise!"

The cloaked men looked at each other and nodded.

"This concludes the exam. Hyoran, Kain, you are hereby promoted to Wood Rank." said the priest.

The two men floated down towards us hands us our newly issued rank plates, the new Wood Rank. We took the new plates and put it around our necks. With this, we can go to more difficult ones.

We walked upstairs to be greeted by onlookers with compliments.

"That kid's beast is strong. He must be a prodigy as a Beast Tamer." one man said, impressed

"For him to have that strong beast, he must be strong himself." one woman said.

She ain't entirely wrong though, for Beast Tamers as Adventurers, the monsters must be weaker than the users AND must be at low enough HP under normal circumstances unless the user is an Elf or Beastkin. If they complete quests for said monster, they'll join without combat which takes time. Also, there are skills for a workaround called 'Empathy' which increases the chances of taming a stronger monster and bond gain. In the games outside Evolutionism, they either stuck with one, doesn't evolve, or even if they do, it's one and done or a set path.

"That was great! Keep that up and you'll be high ranked like me and your mother." Ezo said, clapping. "So, you're up for the Wood ranked quests?"

"Yeah!" Hyoran said so excitedly.

Now that I became a Wood rank, I should have better chances of getting a new monster.