Missed a week there! Whoops! It's a bit of a busy time of year for me, causing enough stress that it's difficult to focus on translating. But I've got a chapter here now!

A half-dragon awaits below!

Author: Kaburagi Haruka

Translator: s.h.i.+roiKaze/Soyokaze Translations

Chapter 27: Registration

Translator's trivia note: The t.i.tle for this chapter is the same as chapter 13. This is true for the originals as well.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

We quickly gather the herbs along the way, and head for the komodo drake dwelling. Distance-wise it was about a day away.

If we add the travel time and hunting time together, we should just barely make the test's time limit.

We entered the forest and spent the night, then pa.s.sed through a rocky area before managing to find a magic beast's burrow.

"Ugh, they're here all right. Looks like there's quite a lot of them. What do we do, Rimuru?"

Acting as our scout, Amy comes back with a report. According to her information there are about fifteen or sixteen of them.

Scale-wise it could be considered a pretty big burrow. Normally this would probably be a case for four blue parties.

"Let's see… not building up any experience from this would be a problem. Yig, give them a general scorching, and then we'll finish off whatever's left."

"I-I could probably handle just one of 'em, y'know…?"

"Okay then, we'll let Kevin have one of them all to himself."

"It was a joke! Let's do this all together!"

The size of this burrow would originally have been despair-inducing, but the reason we can so casually face it would be thanks to Yig.

Well, I have a feeling I could take them down pretty easily too, of course.

"Eir's looking pretty confident too, so Yig and Eir will stay between the rocks and launch a pincer attack. We'll see if the rest of us can defeat the last one standing."

"Got it, Boss."

"Kevin, the moment you find your injuries are too severe, switch out with Eir and come back to me."

"Sure thing."

"Amy, you give supporting fire when appropriate. Be careful not to hit your allies."

"Okay."

"Yig, you can sit out on the last one. Eir, if Kevin's in trouble, switch with him, okay?"

"Right."

"Okay then… Let's go!"

Knowing everyone's disposition after teaming up a number of times, the meeting goes smoothly.

Yig and I headed towards the komodo drakes, and decisively began our a.s.sault.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

"How to put this… That was friggin' point blank."

The battle ends without incident. The remnants are already being processed. Right now we're removing the parts to prove their defeat, and any materials.

"Kevin, less talking, keep those hands moving."

"Yeah, fine, got it."

Though komodo drakes are huge and tough, they're not so much so that they'd be fine after a single hit from me or Yig.

Once we launched a surprise pincer attack on their burrow and sealed their escape route, they had no time to respond as we hunted them one after another. For the last remaining one, Kevin was pushed to the front to face it.

Kevin must have improved considerably over the past two weeks. While taking a few wounds, he handled the komodo drake's attacks and, with the a.s.sistance of Amy's flame magic, achieved victory.

"But c'mon, did you see those komodo drake heads flying with every single swing of their swords? That's just messed up."

"Seems reasonable for Eir."

"No, Amy, that recognition is messed up."

By the way, I'm using the extremely sharp Gram. Yig annihilated them using Sentinel without going dragon form.

The proof of defeating a komodo drake is the fluid sack containing the fuel it uses to spit its breath. There are plenty of other parts of them that can be sold in shops, so there's quite a lot to strip from them.

Their skin is a material for armor, while the tail and leg meat are used as food. The fangs and claws are also suitable as weapons. And there's sixteen drakes worth of all that.

Their innards and other fleshy parts aren't suitable as food or medicine, so those get buried.

"How the h.e.l.l are we supposed to carry all this back…?"

"We'll use some good logs the grand hedgehog's needles to make sled. Eir and Yig should be able to pull that easily enough."

Sixteen drakes worth of limbs, tails, and skin. That's only gonna weigh a few tons.

I've already shown I can pull that much back with the lumber transporting. Plus I can strengthen my body through "Magic Power Bestowal" now.

Being a genuine Fafnir, Yig can, of course, pull it.

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

We nimbly a.s.semble a sled, and drag it all back to the city. Along the way several wild dogs, drawn by the smell of blood, a.s.saulted us, but Kevin fended them off himself.

It would seem his skills have raised to a level comparable to orange rank.

We remove their fangs as proof of their defeat, and skin them for the material. Their flesh is of no use, so we bury the rest.

"Getting more spoils is great and all, but any more baggage is a problem…"

"It's fine, we've got physical laborer number two for that."

"Is that me? It's me, ain't it?!"

Kevin shouts out when Master points to him.

Fortunately we managed to make it back to town without having to make a third sled.

Since we entered the town pulling ridiculously huge sleds, we stand out to an amazing degree. Walking in the lead (because he was forced to), Kevin stands out even more.

"Hey, what in the heck is that…?"

"That guy in the lead, it's the "Disaster Beast Slayer" Kevin."

"Aren't those komodo drakes on those sleds? Just how many did he kill?"

"Looks like more than ten… fifteen maybe?"

"Komodo drakes are usually killed by three or four blue parties working together, right? That many with just a single party… that's amazing."

"Alone they annihilated them… this'll be a new legend."

"Those kids pulling the sled are incredible too. They're acting like that weight is nothing."

"And the fact he's leading them… he sure is something."

Master is showing absolute delight hearing the surrounding commotion. A villainous smirk spreads across his face as he mutters.

"The propaganda's impact is outstanding."

"Cut it out already! Could ya cut me some slack?!"

"No way. I need you to stand out more so we can use you as cover. In exchange I intend on providing you plenty of backing, so relax, okay?"

""Relax" my b.u.t.t!"

Master's expectation is to use Kevin's fame as a s.h.i.+eld, while also increasing our own merits. Elevating our achievements alone would make us stand out, but if Kevin takes the brunt of it, that will serve as a smokescreen for us.

With Master still smiling like a villain, Kevin grabs him by the collar and, with no outlet for his anger, shouts. Seeing that, the onlookers are further excited.

"Look, he's friggin' raging…"

"He fought all that, and it's still not enough…?"

"He's a total berserker."

"Ahh… sheesh…"

At this point anything he says is turned into an exploit. Hail Kevin.

While dragging those spectators along, we return to the guild and deliver our report to the woman at the reception desk.

"Good work. Do you need me to explain the details?"

"Hm, I heard about it when Master registered, so I'm good."

"I'm all~ good~ too~"

"So then, on to Mister Kevin's request… we have confirmed its completion as well. May we purchase all of the materials?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

"Wait, give us the meat from one of them please. We'll use it for food."

"Understood. Then the reward for completing the komodo drake extermination is one hundred gold coins. The materials from fifteen of them is twenty-one gold coins. The wild dog furs are sixty silver coins."

"Then forty gold to us, and forty to Amy. Kevin will get the forty-one gold coins and sixty silver coins."

The total is one hundred twenty-one gold coins and sixty silver coins. Pretty decent sum.

Kevin is nominally the leader, so he gets a slightly larger cut.

"E-eh? Is that okay? Can I really have that much? Actually, wasn't it supposed to be split five ways?"

"Right? With five people, each of us should get twenty-four gold and thirty-two silver."

"No, these two are still trainees, and Kevin is the leader so he gets more. Besides, we completed a medicinal herb gathering request."

Our herb gathering with the three of us is netting us ninety silver coins.

"If you guys are cool with it, then I ain't gonna object, but still…"

"Yeah really, I feel kinda bad about this."

"Don't, we're getting one drake's worth of meat out of it, so you're actually getting cheated a bit, Amy."

"Oh not at all. All I did was sit in the back and launch magic. I had the easiest job."

"In that case I had it even easier."

Master can use healing magic, making him the party's lifeline, so that's just fine.

"Then here it is. But really, you only got here two weeks ago and you've already made this exploit. That's the "Disaster Beast Slayer" for you."

"Naw, it wasn't even my own strength."

"And a humble att.i.tude to boot… this is the confidence of the strong…"

"Ahh, friggin'… I blame you guys for this."

Master puts an arm around careless Kevin's shoulder and secretively whispers in his ear.

"I do feel bad about this. In exchange, there's something I'd like you to do for me though."

"What is it?"

"I'd like you to keep achieving more and more in the next month. And then once you've raised your fame, I'd like you to negotiate with the academy to let me bring Eir in as an attendant."

"They're not gonna listen to some small-fry like me about that."

"That's why I want you to get more famous. For that purpose we'll cooperate with you as much as we can. Naturally you'll be getting plenty of money out of this. Just like today."

When Master talks all secretly like this, he seems almost like a con-man.

"Once you've gained renown, the academy can't very well ignore you, right? Moreover they'll want a direct pipeline to the fighting power to fend off a Fafnir so much they can just taste it."

"I ain't got that kind of power!"

"Well yeah, but they don't need to know that."

"Urrgh."

"Besides, the end result is the same either way. The real fighting power will just be ours, see?"

"Why the h.e.l.l do you guys want to avoid publicity so much?"

"Everyone has their circ.u.mstances. I've convinced Eir and Yig on this."

We've already heard his reason of course. Sure enough, we can't go around letting other people hear about developing [Resurrection] magic.

"s.h.i.+t, going and treating people like p.a.w.ns…"

"I really feel bad about this. That's why I'm saying we can help you out on the financial front, see?"

Forty gold coins in three days. They say a normal citizen earns between twenty and forty coins a month.

Considering that, it's quite the profit. This reaches four times an average blue rank's compensation.

"Plus I saw your skills improved significantly this time, right?"

"Well, sure, yeah…"

They handled some normally higher rank monsters well. Kevin and Amy have both improved a lot.

If we keep teaming up like this, he may even get strong enough to match his rank.

With a road to getting stronger right in front of him, Kevin, with his powerful desire to improve, wouldn't have been able to hold himself back.

"Ahh, s.h.i.+t! Fine, I'll dance in the palm of your d.a.m.n hand. And you've gotta make me stronger in exchange!"

"Leave it to me. Though that's actually Eir's job."

"Ain't you Eir's master anyway?"

"Aah, I set Eir free, so she's not a slave anymore."

"Oh, really? I'm so happy for you, Eiiir!"

Amy picks me up and spins me around. Her blessings make me very plainly happy.

"But I still have to support Master Rimuru."

"Of course. I'm rooting for you!"

"Mm, thanks."

"But it's kinda too bad I won't be able to see Eir wearing a collar anymore…"

"Eh?!"

"I mean, it excited a kind of s.a.d.i.s.tic feeling in me."

"Sorry, Amy, back away from me a bit."

"Eh, why?!"

"I actually don't know why you're surprised."

While I'm feeling a bit repulsed, Kevin calls over, irritated.

"You guys are ruining the tension, just shut up!"

"Hey, that's a horrible thing to say to someone lending you her strength."

"It's not your strength I'm borrowing!"

For some reason Amy was the one to respond.

"Well anyway, we've got some moving out of the inn to do tomorrow, so we'll take another request the day after. We can't take blue rank requests without Kevin, so we'll be counting on you."

"Yeah, I'll grab the request tomorrow night. Wouldn't wanna pick it out on my own, so you mind comin' by then?"

"I should have some time open at night, so sure, I don't mind."

"Ah, just taking Kevin isn't fair. I wanna get stronger too; let me join in."

"Tch, I do owe you for treating me to those meals… can't really refuse, huh?"

Translated by Soyokaze Translations: soyokazetranslation . Com

And so, along with Kevin and Amy, a system of cooperation built on a smattering of desires was constructed.