Chapter 597: Encountering an Old Friend

Parting ways with Scaly in a rather embarrassing manner, Verdell found himself dragging his body through the snow that threatened to swallow him up with a single wrong step. Not because there were any pitfalls along the path leading up the main city of the northern region under the guild. Instead, it was because the snow was far too deep for a small dwarf like himself to traverse without proper gear.

Originally, he hadn’t realized how difficult it was to traverse the northern region without proper snowshoes, but now that he didn’t have a dragon to ride around, he realized just how difficult it was to traverse the place without the proper equipment. Just the short journey to the main city was a battle on its own, as he found himself struggling to move even a few dozen meters.

In the end, what should have been a simple journey taking half an hour or an hour in a worst-case scenario, ended up taking a little over five hours-

"Hey! Are you okay down there?"

"No..."

And that was only because a team of adventurers happened to pass by and spot the dwarf that was struggling through the snow. Helping him out of the snow before carrying him back to the city. After all, to them, it wasn’t much trouble to carry him along given how close they were to the city.

Still, feeling a bit embarrassed over how he had been carried back, he paid them a few silver coins as compensation for their kind assistance before setting off to buy himself a proper pair of snowshoes. Only after having made sure, he wouldn’t end up in a similar situation again in the future should he have to leave the city, did he make his way to the Adventurers Guild.

Although part of him wanted to go over and visit that eccentric blacksmith uncle of his who had decided to settle down in this remote city at the very edge of civilization, he wanted to update his Adventurer Rank first before anything else and also get a proper look at his current status.

Different from a certain someone who could always view her own status whenever she wanted to, the only way for most others to check their status was through specialized equipment generally found inside the Adventurers Guild along with a few unique individuals managing to learn the exceptionally rare inspection skill or other similar kinds of skills that allowed one to view the status of others without the use of special equipment...

"Verdell? Is that you?"

But as he stepped through the entrance to the guild branch at the very center of the city, he was met with a shocked voice followed by a large woman close to twice his height appearing before him.

From a glance alone, it was clear that this woman wasn’t entirely human, as her size alone far surpassed that of most humans. Standing over two meters tall with broad shoulders and thick muscle that would put most knights to shame. A member of a unique tribe of people that were a mix between ogres and humans with no clear origin as to where they had come from, some scholars even guessing they might be a kind of monster that evolved similar to the goblins or gnolls that had later integrated into society.

"Valerie? What are you doing in the north? Weren’t you doing some initiation trial back home?" Still, though he was familiar with this intimidating looking woman, he couldn’t help voicing his surprise upon seeing her. After all, he clearly remembered that the last time he had seen this young woman, she had been about to return to her tribe for the initiation trial every young member of her tribe had to go through to become a proper adult.

And from what he knew about this trial, it was something that would generally take a year or two to finish.

Even if it had been around a year since he had seen her, the distance between the home of her tribe and the northern region would have taken at least half a year to cover under normal circumstances. Her being here was thus odd to say the least.

"Hehe, I passed the trial a bit earlier than the elders anticipated and ended up going north to try and challenge stronger monsters after hearing it was a frontier recently established by the guild. Didn’t expect to get here so fast either, but I happened to run into a senior from my tribe who gave me a lift on their flying mount."

"That... Guess that is to be expected..." Not knowing what else to say as he knew just how difficult the initiation trial of her tribe was, Verdell could only sigh in admiration as he remembered just how terrifying this young woman’s strength had been when they had ended up working together during a dungeon run in the past.

Although members of her tribe were known to be fierce fighters, she was on another level altogether in his eyes, thus passing her trial earlier than others wasn’t that surprising.

As for getting a lift on a flying mount from one of her tribe members? That wasn’t exactly shocking either, as members of her tribe were generally found across the world working as high-tier escorts or guards for powerful kingdoms or empires.

Of course, the main difference between them and ordinary guards you might find was the fact that they wouldn’t willingly work for someone unless they were powerful enough to beat them in combat. Making them rather difficult to employ without the leader who wanted them to work for him or her being a powerful figure in the first place. After all, the weakest of her tribe journeying outside generally had strength comparable to a B Rank Adventurer if not stronger.

As for Valerie herself... The last time he had seen her, she had been a B Rank Adventurer while he had been an A Rank Adventurer. The main reason she ended up befriending him and working with him back then to explore the dungeon was because she saw him as someone strong.

But she was still far younger than he was back then and could be considered a genius in her tribe. Bound to soar high in the future after she finished her trials and began jumping into one deadly battle after the other to increase her strength.

In a sense, she wasn’t much different from the dragon he had been journeying with so far-

"So? How much stronger have you become? How about we go out and test it? Maybe we can go hunt monsters together afterwards?"

And with the passion from those eyes as she happily began asking him questions, Verdell had a feeling he had left behind one Scaly only to end up with another ready to drag him through one deadly challenge after another.

Just when I thought I finally had some time to relax...

Silently thinking this to himself, Verdell let out a sigh before turning to look up at the muscular young woman. "I would love to have a sparring session, but I need to get my status updated and check my progress, it has been some time since I last came to a guild branch."

"Huh? Status updated!? You managed to become an S Rank Adventurer!? Wow, wow, great! And here I thought I was about to surpass you, I still need to complete my class advancement quest!" And unsurprisingly, the young woman picked up the implicit meaning behind what he said as she congratulated him, though it wasn’t without her unintentionally hurting the older dwarf in the process.

"You... You are already at the top of the A Rank...?"

"Yes, it wasn’t that difficult, I should be able to complete my class advancement quest soon enough!"

"That... Is great..."

The pain of hearing this was beyond anything he had felt in the past, as he fell silent for a good few seconds before kindly praising her.

As someone who had spent who knew how many years at the A Rank in the past, hearing about someone essentially breezing through the A Rank in less than a year was painful to say the least.

Still... With the improvements he had managed to make thanks to being dragged around by a certain little dragon, it wasn’t too bad, as he himself had not just reached the S Rank in an even shorter time, but had even managed to make significant progress towards the SS Rank, a level he had never thought he would ever be able to reach in the past before his encounter with Scaly.

Yet now, he didn’t just feel he had a chance to reach the SS Rank in the future but even felt a certain drive towards surpassing the SS Rank in the future after seeing just how powerful beings at that level of strength were in person. Wanting to become that strong himself...