Chapter 103: The Rank E Test

Will this man buy anything if he sees a business opportunity!?

There was a limit to how businessminded someone could be!

Rogue lowered his shoulders and sighed. "That’s unfortunate."

Please stop trying to put a price on everything.

[ Nuoya, who is this person? ]

"You don’t need to remember him, Mochi. Come on, go over there and wait."

[ No! I want to fight alongside you, Nuoya! ]

Mochi clearly had no intention of leaving Qiu Nuoya’s side. With no other choice, Qiu Nuoya placed Mochi on his shoulder and decided to take the test with him.

"Rogue, is it okay if we begin?"

"Of course. Good luck." As Rogue answered, the open door closed.

At the same time, just like before, the space in the center of the arena twisted and warped.

A Ghoul and a Skeleton Knight immediately appeared.

[ Nuoya, that one looks gross. ]

Were monsters food to Mochi? Well, undead monsters certainly did not look particularly appetizing. The Skeleton Knight did not even have any flesh to eat. "You’ll get a stomachache, so don’t eat them, okay?"

[ Okaaay! ]

With his cheerful reply, Mochi began swelling up before Qiu Nuoya’s eyes.

After that Mochi use body slam.

The Ghoul was sent flying, and Qiu Nuoya immediately followed up with a Fireball. The Ghoul was engulfed in flames. One, then two, were defeated that way. As for the third, Mochi stomped on it and began digesting it.

Qiu Nuoya had told him not to eat them!

That left two Ghouls and the Skeleton Knight.

Qiu Nuoya decided to try the Flame Thrower spell he had only just learned.

Flame Thrower was a combination of fire and wind magic. It generated flames and then carried them along with the wind, allowing the caster to burn an entire target. It was particularly effective against multiple enemies.

Qiu Nuoya used Flame Thrower and defeated both remaining Ghouls in one go.

Finally, only the Skeleton Knight remained.

[ Hey, hey, Nuoya! What was that just now? I want to do it too! I wanna do it! ]

Mochi was extremely excited after seeing the Flame Thrower. He had been sleeping inside Qiu Nuoya’s robe until just now, so he had missed the practice. But how was Mochi supposed to use Flame Thrower?

"Mochi, don’t ask for something unreasonable!"

[ I can do it! If you burn it like you did just now, Nuoya, I can do it too! ]

Qiu Nuoya blinked his eyes.

Hmm? Does he mean I should use Flame Thrower on Mochi? Wouldn’t that just set Mochi on fire?

But something similar had happened before. Mochi had told him to throw him into the middle of the enemies, and when Qiu Nuoya did, Mochi had grown huge and defeated the goblins.

Mochi surprisingly seemed to know what he could and could not do.

"Mochi, are you really sure you’ll be okay?"

[ I’ll be fine! ]

Trusting Mochi’s words, Qiu Nuoya cast Flame Thrower directly at him.

To his surprise, Mochi absorbed the flames. His body swelled up another size, and after a brief pause, a massive torrent of fire suddenly erupted from him.

The flames were several times more powerful than Qiu Nuoya’s own Flame Thrower, turning the entire arena into a sea of fire in an instant.

"Whoa..." Qiu Nuoya could only stand there in stunned silence.

The Skeleton Knight was engulfed in flames almost immediately. It burned to ash and disappeared.

The inferno rose nearly to the ceiling of the arena. Even the Skeleton Knight seemed to have been destroyed before it had any chance to let out a final scream.

"Th-that was quite impressive." Rogue applauded, but his cheek seemed to twitch slightly.

Yeah. I didn’t expect this to happen either.

Meanhwile, Mochi was completely oblivious to everyone’s bewilderment. He just happily bounced around while shouting.

[ I did it! I did it! ]

After waiting for the flames in the arena to die down, Rogue handed Qiu Nuoya his certificate of subjugation as well.

I did it! I’m a Rank E adventurer now!

Rogue then stared intently at Mochi, who was perched on Qiu Nuoya’s shoulder. In a quiet voice, he asked, "How about three gold coins?"

"Excuse me?"

"Is three still not enough? Then how about five! Five gold coins! What do you say!? You could live comfortably for several years with that!"

Ah, he definitely saw Mochi’s current combat ability and decided that Mochi could be sold for a fortune.

"I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. No matter how much money you offer, I absolutely will not sell Mochi!"

"Nuoya, you did it!" Warren ran over from the spectator stands, and he and Qiu Nuoya high-fived.

Now that they were both Rank E adventurers, the range of requests they could accept would be even wider.

"Still, your Mochi makes absolutely no sense, as usual." Igor poked Mochi’s squishy body with one finger as the slime stretched and contracted on Qiu Nuoya’s shoulder. "Perhaps Nuoya simply has enough character that even such a rare variant of slime would become attached to him."

Character...

Qiu Nuoya was not sure that was quite right.

His meeting with Mochi had been nothing more than a complete coincidence. Qiu Nuoya had simply been lucky.

"You two guardians do not seem particularly surprised by what you witnessed in that battle."

"Well, it’s Nuoya we’re talking about."

"He is my beloved disciple, after all."

Rogue’s words seemed to leave Igor with an expression of someone who had already gotten used to it, while Viktor looked strangely proud.

Was that supposed to be a compliment?

"To be honest, aside from the young swordsman, I did not expect this little boy to pass the test. He did not seem particularly confident about it, and he is also rather young to be challenging for Rank E."

Huh? Really?

"Our Dungeon Castle operates under the concept of being a dungeon that anyone can enjoy. Since you wished to take the challenge, I had no intention of stopping you. However, I had been fully prepared to send a rescue team at any moment. Your success was completely unexpected."