Chapter 11: Jumping Three Ranks

"This is your evaluation this time. It seems I really scored you too low last time..." 

Wozwal Hus sat back at his desk, thought carefully for a while, inputing my test results into my identity card.

"What rank now?"

I anxiously asked, feeling my strength slowly recovering after resting for a while. I hurriedly got up to pick up my identity card, looking at it again and again, simply unbelievable to my own eyes.

"No...can't be, really sixth rank? Did you score me wrongly?"

"I would never make such a basic mistake! Although in my eyes you just barely reached the sixth rank standard, no doubt you have sixth rank!"

Seeing how excited I was, he suddenly couldn't help but laugh. 

"In any case, you forced me out of the arena. If this was a competition, then by the rules I have certainly lost. However, your swordsmanship is average and needs improvement. Your magic abilities are remarkably strong, leaving me in awe. This evaluation is completely fair."

"So I'm not third rank anymore?"

I held the card excitedly and asked. I couldn't resist giving the "Rank" column a kiss.

"Of course! Congratulations, from now on you are a high rank adventurer of the association. If I remember correctly, high rank adventurers can enjoy some privileges in the association. Go ask at the service counter!"

Wozwal Hus smiled and waved me out of the testing room. I left without another word.

"I heard a lot of noise inside just now. What were the results of your retest?"

As soon as I walked out the door, I saw Hayden waiting there. He asked me with concern.

"Huh? Weren't you off on a quest just now?" 

I was a bit surprised to see him still here and asked.

"I already finished the quest and came back! I happened to see you go in for a while, so I waited for you to see the results. It was only five minutes or so."

He took the card and was also a bit surprised when he saw the rank.

"Sixth rank! So you jumped three ranks in one go?"

"I didn't expect it either. I thought reaching fourth rank would have been enough."

I said modestly. 

"You can't look at it that way!"

Hayden shook his head and gave the identity card back to me.

"If it was only fourth rank it would still be too low. Don't forget you already have six wings! You should at least have the level of fifth and a half rank."

"You're right..."

After all, the abilities of eight-winged angels generally far exceeded the sixth rank. So for a six-winged angel, reaching six ranks was not actually that high of an evaluation.

"But at least the rank column is back to a normal number. Now my rank is higher than Nicola's."

At least I've got one up on her! I'm easily satisfied. I figured I could brag about this sixth rank evaluation for a while.

Naturally I wanted to do some quests to get a feel for it after getting the new rank! And being in the Adventurer's Association, I could accept quests after just walking a few steps.

Unfortunately Hayden had to leave for some other business, so we couldn't form a team together.

"Miss, your rank entitles you to special privileges in the Adventurer's Association. Please follow me to the room on this side!"

After a long wait, it was finally my turn to accept a quest. The clerk looked at my identity information and hurried out from behind the counter to lead me through a small side door.

"Um...since I already waited in line, can't you just give me a quest card directly?"

I looked back at the long line and was suddenly at a loss. I didn't expect it to be so troublesome. Another clerk immediately took over the spot at the service counter.

But he didn't answer my question right away. Only after entering this small room did I realize it was a cozy little waiting room. 

Comfortable sofa, private quest display board, and complimentary tea and snacks...

"I checked your information just now and saw that you just advanced to six ranks today. So according to the rules, I will explain..."

The clerk poured me a glass of water and cleared his throat before continuing.

"This rank is valid across all human nations on the continent. You can enjoy three special privileges from the association:

"First, you have access to the VIP room. You can now accept and turn in quests from this room, avoiding the queue, and with dedicated service staff.

"Second, you can accept quests of mid-rank and below without depositing points, and only need to deposit half the points for high rank quests. 

"Third, you have free use of all transportation provided by the association, including but not limited to carriages, airships, dragon riding services, inter-city teleportation magic arrays, and more."

"Isn't that too luxurious?" 

I got excited all of a sudden and couldn't help but ask more.

"The first two privilege benefits are understandable, but what are the dragon riding service and inter-city teleportation magic arrays in the third one?"

"The inter-city teleportation magic array is a dedicated transfer array set up in the Adventurer's Association. It allows free travel between Adventurer's Associations in other cities that also have teleportation arrays. Since this service was just launched recently, the number of connected cities is not high yet."

He patiently explained in detail.

"As for the dragon riding service, it uses a type of unintelligent lesser dragon as a mount. After years of domestication they can carry people for long flights. But for safety, riding training is usually recommended first. However, based on your information, you are an angel, so you probably wouldn't need it..."

"Have there been other registered angels who reached six ranks?" 

Hearing this, I tried asking the question I had wanted to ask for a long time.

"Of course, our Adventurer's Association has a history of nearly a thousand years on the continent. In that time, a few dozen angels registered as adventurers. But the highest rank reached was only six ranks."

"So there were that many huh..." 

After the response from the clerk, I nodded thoughtfully. The number actually far exceeded my expectations. I figured even more angels would come register after Elara's new policies were implemented.

After that I didn't have much else to ask. Although I could now accept mid-rank quests without depositing points, I still chose the low-rank quests I had looked at before. After all they were simple. I didn't have the mindset for complex quests that might take too much time yet.

Luckily the clerk didn't show any anomaly at me choosing a low-rank quest despite being a high-rank adventurer. As he was leaving, he suddenly reminded:

"Since you registered at this association, you should pay attention to your nationality and citizenship issues. The Kingdom of Astralrealm requires its residents who reach six ranks to be received by the king within three days, otherwise it is against the law."

"Huh? As an angel shouldn't my citizenship default to Edenmere?" 

I was a bit confused at this.

"This is just a routine reminder, please disregard if you are not a registered resident of this country!"

He quickly explained when he heard me.

"It's because there have been cases of angels marrying humans in the past and automatically obtaining the husband's nationality..."

"Of course I'm not married, so there is no such circumstance!"

I quickly waved my hands to end this topic and left the VIP room.

...

Overall the quest went pretty smoothly. After turning it in at the VIP room, it was already afternoon.

"Time to head back and see, Cyra's probably been out wandering long ago right? I wonder if she's back home yet?"

I walked out of the association hall excited to share my new results. 

But as I was passing through the square in front of the association, I happened to overhear a group of adventurers discussing holy water.

"Hey did you guys hear? There's a new vendor that opened today in the east district, selling holy water real cheap, just a few dozen silvers a bottle."

"Really? Then I'll go take a look too. It's good to stock up on some, then later when facing monsters, the holy water boost will save a lot of effort."

"Sold out already if you go now right? Must be some merchant clearing out old inventory. Wouldn't have much stock."

"You're right, then no point rushing over. After all we just fought some monsters recently, probably won't run into too many dark creatures in the short term...

"You are wrong. The value of holy water isn't just in fighting monsters, this stuff is also a particularly precious cosmetic, stocking up more can't hurt!"

...

This east city district is right where my rented room is located! Hearing these people praise holy water so highly, I suddenly found it a bit funny.

The so-called holy water is just water infused with the light element, I personally confirmed this last time at Preston Cathedral. For angels, holy water is just a useless gimmick.

Oh right! I remember trying to sell holy water myself, and discussing it with Nicola. It would be hugely profitable business! But after getting teleported to the Dark Continent, I forgot about it.

Unfortunately we probably won't stay in the city for too long now, otherwise I would definitely restart that money-making business.

After all, earning money from True Church would be delightful!

I was in a good mood today. Humming a tune as I walked back, when I got close to home, I discovered a crowd gathered below at the bookstore, seemingly scrambling to buy something.