The next morning, after breakfast, we went to the Adventurers' Guild to update our adventurer IDs, check the years of each magic core, sell some magic cores, and ask about quality forging shops.
We queued at Counter No. 3, since there weren't many people. Lina then whispered to me that Sally was handling Counter No. 3. Immediately, it made sense why the line was short—people couldn't wait to be served.
After a long wait, it was finally our turn. Sally became excited the moment she saw us and immediately started firing a barrage of questions. Her ponytail was bouncing energetically too.
"Ah! Lina and Karen! You didn't show up yesterday, were you in the Dungeon? What level did you reach? How many animals did you defeat? Was it difficult? Do you have tons of questions for me…?"
"Stop! Stop! One question at a time."
I hurriedly interrupted Sally's rapid-fire questioning, telling her to ask one thing at a time. Realizing she had gotten a bit too carried away, Sally looked downcast and apologized, her ponytail drooping as well. Clearly, the ponytail was the real expression of her mood.
"Ah… okay… sorry… I got too excited…"
"No problem. Here, take a look at our Dungeon recorder."
Lina and I handed our Dungeon recorders to Sally, which immediately solved most of her questions.
"Alright, let me see what your record is."
Sally placed my record sheet on a device, and a small screen appeared, showing my name and ten little boxes. From my angle, one of the boxes read 18—probably is 81.
Sally stared at the number 81, muttering it aloud repeatedly, then suddenly screamed.
"Huh?… Eight…y-one? Eighty-one! Eighty-one… Level 81!? Eh eh eh!!"
Her scream drew the attention of nearby people, sparking curiosity and whispers.
"Level 81!? Who is it!?"
"It's Sally yelling! The adventurers she's attending to are… the handsome guy and the beautiful girl from the two day ago!"
"No way! Let's go see!"
A crowd pushed forward to see, but Sally was frozen in shock. The receptionists at the counters on either side came over to look at the screen as well.
"It really is Level 81. Check the another recorder too."
They seemed older than Sally and had been doing this for a long time. They weren't very surprised but calmly suspected a malfunction in the device. They placed Lina's record on another machine, and it also showed 81.
"… Also Level 81."
"Go call the guild master, Sally! Wake up!"
Seeing the confirmation, both women's voices quickened. The long-haired receptionist told the short-haired one to summon the guild master while shaking Sally's shoulders. The short-haired receptionist ran upstairs, shouting for the guild master.
"Wow! A rainbow-ranked adventurer has appeared!"
Sally finally snapped out of it. She had been frozen on sight—understandable for seeing rainbow-rank adventurers, which were extremely rare, but still… maybe not enough to be completely stunned.
Soon, the short-haired receptionist returned with a man with slicked-back light brown hair, presumably the guild master.
"Are you really Level 81? You're not mistaken, are you?"
He didn't seem to believe it and questioned the short-haired receptionist's report. Sally turned and saw him, suddenly jumping up excitedly.
"Dad!"
Dad? The guild master is Sally's father? Both had light brown hair—it made sense.
"Sally, in the guild you should call me the guild master. Let me see their records."
"Okay."
Sally stepped aside, letting the guild master sit. His eyes lazily scanned the screen, gradually widening, then narrowing again, before finally looking up at us.
"You are Karen?"
"Yes."
The guild master pointed at me, confirming my identity, then at Lina.
"And you are Lina?"
"Mm."
"So you are the dark-haired boy and the white-haired girl that Wiley mentioned."
The guild master nodded knowingly.
Wiley was the guild master of Bakiko's Adventurers' Guild, the town where we first arrived and became adventurers.
"What did Mr. Wiley say about us?"
I was curious about what he had told them.
"Wiley said you discovered the storage magic and recovered his long-lost greatsword."
"Anything else?"
"He also said your strength is incredible, and you'll reach rainbow rank very soon."
Wiley thinks that highly of us? The guild master seems to know him well… friends maybe?
"Are you friends with Mr. Wiley?"
"We were also teammates in dragon-slaying expeditions!"
Ah, they had hunted dragons together. I didn't have further questions, so I took out my adventurer ID and placed it on the counter. Lina followed suit.
"I understand most of it, but can we first complete the things we came here to do? We can ask questions later."
There would definitely be many questions, but finishing our tasks first seemed wiser.
"…Alright. Sally, update their IDs."
"Yes, Dad… Guild Master!"
Sally almost blurted out "Dad" but corrected herself just in time. She took our IDs and ran to the back.
But the guild master stayed at the counter, watching us. Was he staying to serve us? Fine, let him.
"We have many magic stones to sell and check the years on, and some animals to see if they can be used?"
"Animals from Level 81?! Bring them out!"
The guild master stood up excitedly, urging us on. I turned to see a crowd behind us, leaving no space for the animals' corpses.
Every guild had a disassemble room, which would be better. We could take them there instead of handling them at the counter.
"There's a disassemble room, right? Let's go there; we can also process them at the same time."
"Good, I'll take you there. Jessica, bring me the Dungeon Animal Compendium."
"Here's the compendium, Guild Master."
The long-haired receptionist handed a book titled Dungeon Animal Compendium to the guild master, who then led us to the disassemble room.
The interior of the disassemble room was surprisingly spacious, with ten workbenches. We piled the animals we had killed into separate heaps according to their species. The guild master opened a book to check each animal's name.
"Ohhh—ape, brown bear, hyena, and wolf, all from level 81! I can actually see them in person! I'm so glad I became the guild master, this is incredible!"
He looked at each animal with genuine excitement, then straightened up and spoke seriously about studying them. It seemed he truly loved animals.
"I need to study them to see if they are usable, so I can't dismantle them for the magic stones just yet. We'll have to calculate all the prices later. Can you wait?"
The fur and meat of the animals? Judging by the amount here, it would probably take a long time, but we weren't short on money.
"Sure. But I'll need to check the year on each magic core before deciding whether to sell them."
The year of a magic core was crucial—the higher, the better. My sword needed core embedded with protective layers, and Lina's staff could also increase its power.
"Of course. You probably have defeated metal-type animals, right? Can you sell them to us?"
"The animals from level 70 and above? Of course. Which ones do you want?"
Probably the diamond one from level 80—after all, that would fetch a high price.
"We want all of them."
"All of them? Are there very few adventurers accepting quests lately?"
All of them? Even the ones before Level 75? No one else takes quests? The guild master hesitated but eventually explained.
"…Actually, the Red-rank adventurers in the guild have rarely been taking Red-rank quests recently."
"Why?"
"The reports say a particularly powerful white tiger appeared on level 69. Even five red-rank adventurers together couldn't defeat it, so people have to take a long detour to avoid it."
That must be the white tiger! Was it a rare species or just another mass-produced one? It was time to find out. I asked the guild master.
"Is that white tiger rare?"
"Normally, they have orange fur. That one is a mutated variant… Wait, since you reached level 81, that means you defeated it?!"
So it really was a rare species we had slain. Good thing I guessed right!
The guild master pieced it together as I spoke naturally.
"How can we move to the next level if we don't defeat it? But I won't sell this one—it's too rare."
When he realized we had actually defeated it, the guild master got excited and grabbed my hand.
"Can… can I see it?! No, please, let me see!"
He held my hand so tightly it felt like he wouldn't let go until he saw it. I had no choice but to agree.
"Fine, I'll take it out for you."
Finally satisfied, he released my hand. I rubbed the sore spot and opened the storage pocket, taking out the flawless white tiger.
"Ohhh! Apart from its color, its body is no different from a normal tiger…"
While the guild master examined it, Lina and I sorted the metal-type animals. After finishing, we realized there were only nine species because the level 77 ostrich hadn't attacked us, so it wasn't included. The guild master then raised a question.
"…Not a single wound? Could it be…"
"Could it be?"
I prompted him, and he seemed to remember something.
"I heard from Wiley that when you first came to the guild, you brought back unharmed monsters, saying you used water to suffocate them. Did you do the same with this tiger?"
"Yes."
Since it was a rare species, we didn't want to leave any marks. Why did I even keep it? As a keepsake? To show off? Never mind, into the storage it goes.
The guild master looked troubled but then asked about our strength, clearly impressed.
"You… you actually managed to kill such a powerful tiger without a scratch… How strong are you?!"
His voice even cracked from excitement. I raised my hand to calm him.
"Stop. We can discuss that later. The metal animals are all set; now we need to check the years of the magic cores."
"…Alright, I'll note it down and ask you later."
He pulled out a notebook to write it down, and I returned the white tiger to the storage pocket. We then headed back to the guild hall.