In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 356: The Academy, and Rank-up.

Im sorry for the sudden request.

Hohoho. Dont mind it. Being the great-former king is boring beyond belief anyway. I was also curious to how Hilda was doing, so this is perfect for me too. (Note: I made the term up on the spot. Great-Former King. Praise me.)

The great-former king of Lestia Knight Kingdom, Galen Yunas Lestia, laughed and said that. Hes the grandfather of Hilda, and also a gold-ranked adventurer like me.

Although he looks like a nice grandpa with a cane, hes truly strong. Excluding people like me and Hilda who are part of gods retainers or in similar positions, hes probably in the category of humanitys strongest.

Kya!?

Hohoho. Fumu fumu, not bad.

The guild receptionist onee-san close by jumped up while holding her butt. If only he didnt have that. His ero spirit is the same as usual, I see.

You never change, Galen-sama.

Oh, Rerishia-dono. I cannot give this up, you know. Its the secret to my longevity, after all. If I stopped, Ill probably be taking a dirt nap the next day.

It might be surprisingly easy to defeat one of the humanitys strongest.

Without even bothering to hide her exasperated expression, Rerishia-san talked to Great- Former King Galen in the reception room were guided to.

I thought he would immediately jump at a beauty on Rerishia-sans level, but theres no signs of it happening. Since they seem to know each other, I wonder if he had already cupped a feel before this.

This grandpa has a weird policy of not touching a woman he had touched once again. Also, his targets are women above 20, so Yumina and the others are excluded. (Note: the age-old question: if he actually touched the fiance group, what would Touya do?)

I had jumped to Lestia with [Gate], explained the situation to Elder Galen, and brought him over to the guild in Brunhild. Of course, I had gotten the permission of the current king, Hildas brother, Reinhardts permission. (Note: on second thought, Great-Former King Galen is too long each and every time so Ill just use Elder.)

Several knights of Lestia had followed along as escorts, but in actuality theyre probably here to keep an eye on him. The one being escorted is far stronger than the escorts anyway, so theres not much point in guarding him in the first place.

And? By being an examiner, you mean Ill be fighting the newbie adventurers or something?

No, that role will be mine. For Galen-san, it would be good enough for you to watch and give evaluations.

The rank-up test will have three examiners giving out evaluations. Two of them are us.

The final person seems to be a silver-ranked adventurer; in my case as well, Ill be changing my appearance and will participate in the judging as a silver-ranked or red-ranked adventurer.

And Galen-san would give out the final judgment, so to speak. Nobody should be able to object to the opinions of a true gold-ranked adventurer.

Actually, why would you hide your identity? I dont think it would pose any trouble for you even if you dont.

Were a small country unlike Lestia, after all. Since theres a good chance I might meet the test takers in town sometime, Id rather not have them carry some kind of weird grudge against me.

I think youre overthinking this, really. And its not like them holding a grudge against you would amount to anything.

Well, that might be true. Whats the king doing in a place like this, go work! Is also something I feel I might hear, but well.

Ido have the self-awareness that Im a rather free-spirited king

Im troubling Galen-san right now, too. Well, although its not exactly a proper compensation, when the time comes for Lestia to hold a rank-up test in their country, I would be willing to appear there as a gold-ranked adventurer too.

Fumu. Regarding the test contents, what do you people have in mind? Would having strength alone be enough?

Im also curious about that part. Whether its a good idea to increase someones rank based solely on their fighting ability.

The type of adventurers who are proud of their strength and usually rely on brute force to solve problems could be found mainly in the blue ranks. As for why, its because most of them would not be able to rise up to red.

The wall between blue rank and red rank is high. Within the requests given to red-rankers, who are said to be first-rate adventurers, are ones from countries as well. If the guild made some unbecoming individual a red-ranked adventurer, it may give the guild itself problems.

Thats the reason why, in order for a blue-ranker to rise in rank, that person would require the approval of the guild master in charge of that area. Its not easy to go up to red.

In my case, it seemed that the fact that I contributed to building a friendly relationship between countries, namely the case between Belfast and Mismede, counted a lot towards my promotion.

In terms of actual strength, I did defeat that black dragon back then. At the point where I defeated the mithril golem, theres already no problems for my promotion to red rank. The approval had already come down, really.

A lot of the adventurers who suffered setbacks on their careers came from the blue rank too, it seems. The fact that they couldnt rise to red made them build up frustration towards the guild, and eventually they start refusing to listen to the guilds instructions, and got their adventurers registration erased as a result.

In my opinion, if they would fall down from something like that, they never had what it takes to be a red-ranker in the first place, really.

In general, the test content would be decided by the examiners, but I do agree with Galen- samas opinion that its not a good idea to decide based on only their fighting ability. The rank

of an adventurer doesnt reflect only that adventurers combat power. As for the detailed judging, thats also part of the examiners skill, I suppose.

Fumu. So youre telling us to think of a proper test ourselves, yes?

Yes. Of course, well also be participating in the process to see if the contents are good.

Its not as if we cannot judge them solely based on their fighting ability. However, it will cause us no end of troubles later if we just hand out ranks to people irresponsibly.

Its because the ranks of those people would be linked to our names, who gave the ranks to them.

If you think about that, its best not to do this casually.

As I was thinking about stuff like that, knocking sounds came from the door.

Guild master. The last examiner has arrived.

Seems like the final examiner has been brought here by the receptionist nee-san. I think they said its a silver-ranker

When I saw the person who entered the room, my eyes turned into dots. Eh?

Wai-, why is Karina nee-san here!?

Well, I was called here, duh. You didnt know?

The one who appeared in front of me was none other than the Hunting God, Karina nee-san. She looked the same as usual, with her emerald-green hair tied in a ponytail and light leather armor on her body.

Eh, the examiner, is Karina nee-san!? Wait, when did you get to silver rank!?

I did know about the fact that Karina nee-san registered with the guild as an adventurer, but I thought she only wanted to hunt stuff

Wasnt she aiming for the fact that she can sell the parts of the monsters she hunted at the guild, instead of being able to receive requests and getting promoted?

Well, I had already hunted most of the prey that could be found around here-ne. So I went to the dungeon islands for a bit. And when I did that, a stray wyvern showed up there, you see. So I defeated it after accepting the request from the guild. The rank up was a side benefit.

Defeated it With only a bow and arrows!?

I mean, I know her bow skills are beyond first-rate even if she doesnt use her powers as a god, but is that enough to shoot down a flying wyvern!? (Note: Touya, did you forget about your uncle who shot down a wyvern with his bare hands? Tsk tsk.)

Its nothing, if you just cut the tendons in the wings with an arrow it wont be able to fly anymore. And once it falls on the ground, just one swing of the machete at a major artery and its as good as gone.

No, cutting the tendons in the wings with an arrow is The only one who can do something like that against a wyvern in the sky is you.

Still, to think theres a silver-ranker this close to me I wonder if the third gold-ranked adventurer would be born soon too.

From what I can gather, the ojou-san over here is an elder sister of His Majesty the Sovereign King?

Ah, no. Although I call her nee-san, shes technically my cousin. Karina nee-san, this is the Great-Former King of Lestia Knight Kingdom, Galen-san.

Hee, nice to meet you.

Hohoho. As expected of His Majestys cousin. Theres no openings.

Galen-san said that with a somewhat disappointed face while wriggling his hands. He mustve tried to go for a touch. He did get spun around by Karen nee-san before when he tried to

touch her; since Karina nee-sans physical abilities are even higher than Karen nee-san, it should be basically impossible for him to touch her.

Since Karina nee-san is here now, we went through the details regarding the rank-up test once again.

Still, the ones being examined by this line-up of ours must have it rough too

And so, whats it going to be?

Even if we say judging someone based solely on fighting strength is bad, having none is unacceptable as well, isnt it? For up until green rank, I think basing it on strength only should be fine.

Thats true. To apply for the rank-up test means that the person has that much confidence in his/her strength. If its judging whether that is true confidence or just arrogance, it would be easy to do.

If all the participants dont have enough strength to reach green rank, then the test would be over at that point.

And what if there is someone with green-ranker levels of ability?

How about we let them receive a request and judge them based on their performance while completing that? I think we should be able to understand the things they put importance on pretty easily with that.

Thats a good point. In that case

While exchanging ideas, we solidified the content of the first rank-up test.

A month later, the Adventurers Academy, sponsored by the Adventurers Guild, opened.

Within the academy, the basic knowledge and skills which are important for adventurers are taught.

Things such as handling of weapons, characteristics of magic beasts, survival skills, and other adventuring basics are taught. Mostly, these are things that a somewhat experienced adventurer would consider as common sense.

To put it bluntly, its a school where a complete beginner would be raised to the level of a somewhat-novice adventurer within a short period of time.

On the other hand, for people who were not adventurers but were doing similar jobs, this place doesnt have a lot of new things to offer them.

People like former knights or hunters, those with a decent foundation and sufficient strength already, are mainly the ones who would be taking the rank-up tests.

Well, in the first place, this academy was built to prevent things like inexperienced novices dying due to a lack of knowledge and skill. Its not in its purpose to help those with enough experience already.

With that kind of reason, the number of people who expressed their intent to enroll wasnt very large. Its only several young boys and girls. After passing through two weeks of training, they would automatically be promoted to black rank.

As for the rank-up test, for this first time only, black-ranked adventurers would be able to apply for the test as well. Its a helping hand towards the new black-ranked adventurers who registered with the guild before the new white rank was implemented, apparently.

Of course, there were people from other ranks saying they wanted to take the test as well, but this test is, to the end, a test used to measure the strength of those who have no experience as an adventurer.

The answer from the guild was that theres no need to re-evaluate those who already had experience working as an adventurer and had been evaluated by the guild through the default process.

In the end, the number of people taking the rank-up test was 27. Quit