Chapter 74: Unknowingly entered the topWinter. I spent my time in hand-to-handbat training with Barack-san at the Adventurers Guild, and at some point, Sophia, Maria, and even the rear guard Laeva started participating and it turned into training for our whole party.


    「Ha!」「Ya!」「Haa!」


    Intense sounds of weapons and our battle cries reverberated in the training center.


    Even Laeva, the newest member to join us, who serves as rear guard is making full use of her staff is in an intense mock battle with Sophia and Maria.


    This winter, I’vee to admire Laeva who is doing her best to raise her level for alchemy by subjugating monsters and is doing this shitty old man’s difficult training at the Adventurers Guild. Thanks to that effort, she is manifesting the physical abilities distinctive of beastmen, and her growth might be the best amongst us.


    <em>Kan</em>!


    「<em>Kyaa</em>!」


    Laeva’s staff spun midair and she fell on her behind.


    「Are you alright Laeva? Still, you’ve improved greatly.」


    Sophia, who made her opponent’s staff fly midair with her spear, extended a helping hand.


    「<em>Haa</em>, <em>haa</em>, yes, thank you very much.」


    Even though it can be said that she has grown the most, her starting line is still different from ours. She hasn’t leveled that much this winter, so she has yet to catch up to Sophia and Maria. Nevertheless, Barack-san said that our party is already top ss in Volton.


    「Still, Takumi. Speaking strictly of destructive power, I think your party is at the top in Volton.」


    「Please cut it out, Barack-san.」


    I think I had apletely unpleased face.


    「We are a party of Alchemist and cksmith and guards. We registered at the Adventurers Guild so we could collect materials.」


    「Even if you say that about your party, all of you can use magic, right? There is no adventurer party like this anywhere. Moreover, those magic aren’t just Fireballs and those basic stuff, all your members can use intermediate level attribute magic. The Oneechan, Sophia, can even use Spirit magic. So, being at the top shouldn’t be strange.」


    In the middle of a break after finishing the mock battle, Barack-san assessed our party.


    「Volton’s top party, Heath’s bunch, the 『Lion’s Fang』 is a purely physical party. If we consider thebined strength of physical attacks and magic, I think your party would be better when fighting against monsters.」


    「<em>Haa</em>~, please give us a break. I train <em>because</em> I don’t want to die and I also don’tpromise on equipment. That’s all.」


    This is a world where there is a danger of monsters even when going out to forage or mine. That’s why I am desperate.


    「I think that if your party is joined by pure attacker or a tank , it would be the top even in the country」


    Nonono, please give me a break. I’ve said that we are not maining as adventurers countless times, but it seems that for Barack-san, it’s valuable having several high ranking adventurer parties in town. But our adventurer party rank isn’t even D rank yet. Given that I am D rank, Sophia and Maria are E rank, Laeva is F rank, our party’s rank is E. Nevertheless, I only need to take a promotion exam so I’m almost C rank, Sophia and Maria have cleared the D rank promotion requirements. Laeva will be E rank soon too. Doing that, we will immediately be a D rank party.


    Speaking of D rank parties, it’s the rank with the most number of adventurers and the rank one would be considered fully fledged.


    「Hey, how about doing an escort request? If youplete the escort request, the Oneechans will all rank up.」


    「Hmm, how many days would it take?」


    「Well, it’s at the town of Quilbas so it will be 4 days if using Takumi’s carriage.」


    「Isn’t it useless if only our carriage is fast?」


    「Ah, no worries. They have a Demon Horse carriage because it’s the Papeck Company, so it’s alright.」


    <em>Haa</em>, I guess we could do it.


    Sophia nodded when I nced at her.


    「I understand. We’ll ept that request.」


    「Ooh, I see, that’s good. We have information that in between Volton and Quilbas, there have been a stream of thievesing from the direction of Triaria Kingdom. Heath and the other high ranking parties are unavable. You’ve saved me some trouble, if it’s your party then Papeck Company would have noints either.」


    「Wait a minute Barack-san, I didn’t hear anything about the thieves.」


    「What, you guys have already suppressed thieves before, no?」


    「Oof, well, that’s true, butー」


    「Then there’s no problem.」


    I’ve somehow been forced into doing the escort request. And there’s even information that thieves appear frequently too…………


    「It will be all right Takumi-sama. Maria, you, and I have gotten stronger since that time, and we have Kaede and Tsubaki as well.」


    「That’s right, Takumi-sama.」


    Was my face filled of worry? Sophia and Maria were cheering me up.


    「Takumi-sama, we will win easily against things such as thieves.」


    「No, it hasn’t been decided that we’d encounter them.」


    Even Laeva is saying extreme things.


    「It’s gonna be fine. Your ranks are based on the number of requests that you’vepleted, but if we’re talking about your true strength, Takumi and Sophia, whose true strengths are higher than B rank, are more than enough. Maria is a solid C rank. Even Laeva being F rank is because she hasn’t been registered for that long.」


    Staying hesitant at this point would definitely be uncool. I am the sole male in this party, after all. If I keep saying only pathetic things then I’d exhaust everyone’s graces.


    「When will the departure be?」


    「Assembly will be at the south gate in the morning of the day after tomorrow. I’ll process the eptance of the request.」


    And so it has been decided that we’ll leave for another town for the first time in a long time.


    ***