"I"ll take them all."Those four words didn"t just startle the two guild-masters, it straight up punched them in the face with how sudden they were. Johann opened and closed his mouth like a guppy before managing to put words together, "You... you said all three? Are you sure? Even one of these would immediately qualify you for S-rank, this was already decided by the retired guild-masters and I by consensus, and most of the other guild-masters on the continent agreed to it."
Seran nodded, "I"m completely sure. I"m going to take all 3 quests at once. Two of them are too important to wait around for any longer, so it"s best that someone takes them immediately. I just need to have my card rank changed. After all, an F-rank taking three rank quests doesn"t make sense. Is there an S-rank (Provisional) version?"
Johann thought briefly, "There isn"t, but this is important enough to make one for you... June, as the head guild-master of the continent, I"m giving you the permission to change his card"s rank to the provisional S-rank he suggested." The old man gave Seran a solemn look before saying simply, "G.o.dspeed, Seran. G.o.dspeed."
Seran gave a respectful bow to Johann, who then switched off the mirror. June remained silent as she changed his card to read his current job and his new rank before handing it back to him. "Sir Johann said it best, but I must tell you the same. G.o.dspeed, Seran."
The white-haired boy smiled as he walked to the front of the guild building with her in tow, "Thank you, June. I"ll do the best I can." Then, in front of dozens of adventurers in the building, he turned to her and said, "When I come back, it"ll be with an Alpha Chimera"s head and Theodore as well."
June had a graceful smile as she gave him a respectful adventurer"s salute, fist over the heart, "Good luck, kiddo."
The guild then watched as the little grey figure set out of the building and disappeared in a flash of light.
The half-elf receptionist curiously asked, "Ma"am, where is he going..?"
With that same smile on her face, the guild-master said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "To clear the three highest rank quests on the continent, all by himself."
---
As the sun rose in the morning sky, shadows of birds and clouds began to cover the ground, along with an unusual shadow of a... person. Flying as high as some of the birds in the sky, Seran sped through the sky towards the battlefield where the Alpha Chimera was sealed. He"d decided in advance to resolve this situation first, since doing so would result in having undead specialists in case something went wrong with the subjugation quest and some of them escaped the area. He hadn"t been able to receive the Priest job, as it was a tricky one to get without joining a church.
He"d flown non-stop since he"d gotten the quests the day before, moving at well over supersonic speeds. The sooner he finished the first two quests, the better, especially with how urgent the undead one was. It would take about a week to reach it by normal means, but with the obnoxiously fast speed he was moving at, he"d be able to make it in the next twenty or thirty minutes. As Seran flew, he kept his eyes on the horizon, scanning for his destination: a giant pillar of light.
Sure enough, he did find what he was looking for after another half-hour of flight: a huge tower of light coming from a crater in the ground with numerous cracks around it. From a distance, he didn"t see anything major, but the closer he got, the more dried blood and scattered shards there were. Even with the rain over the nearly two years, there was so much dried blood in the ground that couldn"t be washed away. From some closer investigation upon landing nearby, Seran concluded that the dried blood that still remained was from the Chimera. For it to last so long means it is highly toxic, or at least the dried ones had been. The toxins were gone now, absorbed by the dirt, keeping it from disappearing with the rain and wind.
Seran walked a few paces forward to stand at the edge of the pillar of light, examining the ma.s.sive seal that froze s.p.a.ce-time within. "This is one high-grade seal spell. I think it"s based on an ancient devil sealing spell."
[You"re not wrong. It"s an extremely downgraded version of [Four Skies Devil Seal], a spell designed by one of the Mage King"s disciples. The original is also derived from the five seals that keep the Devil Emperor"s body parts sealed up, the [Nine Divine Devil Seal] made by the Mage King himself. For someone to be able to downgrade it enough to be used by rank mages is amazing, since only those surpa.s.sing S-rank could even cast the original version, let alone the Mage King"s version.] William had more insight into the spell than Seran did, without much surprise. At one point during his journey in the Primeval Forest, he"d gained the bloodline of Hecate, the G.o.ddess of magic. Seeing as she knows everything about magic, it makes sense that the information of such things would be included with the new bloodline.
"Well, either way, not important right now. What is important is dealing with the Alpha Chimera here." Seran"s gaze focused on the gnarly creature that was the cause of the seal.
A disgusting amalgamation of who knows what, the somehow naturally-born Alpha Chimera had two heads, one of a lion and one of a lesser dragon, a body of a lion and a snake for a tail, fangs and all. It seemed to have originally had lesser dragon wings, but only stumps remained of them now. Covered in arrows and numerous wounds, the ferocious abomination was locked in mortal combat with a female Paladin with silver-blonde hair marred with black blood, some of her skin partly melted from the toxicity of the liquid. This woman was certainly Adrianna Skybreaker, the genius Paladin that June had mentioned. Similarly stuck in battle with the Alpha Chimera was a large, well-too-muscular man with a great-axe bigger than himself attempting to cleave off one of the fiend"s fore-paws, as well as a middle-aged man who was starting to grey wielding two hook-swords covered in green flame. Up in midair, the snakehead was pitting fang against longsword as a female a.s.sa.s.sin in kunoichi garb attempted to distract it from defending the rest of its body. Several archers stood at the edge of the crater, raining arrows from above. Behind them were several wounded adventurers, one of which was tending to the others with holy spells, a Bishop at the least considering the effectiveness of her spells. Dead or dying adventurers were scattered all over the crater, along with numerous metal shards and sc.r.a.ps of items.
A brutal battle, no matter how one looked at it.