Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

Book 3: Chapter 111

Chapter 111

The morning after the exam had ended, Tenji was sleeping soundly in his bed when he was abruptly awakened by his phone's vibration.

"Hmm?"

Rubbing his heavy eyelids, Tenji checked the screen of his phone that had been placed next to his pillow, only to find an unfamiliar number displayed on it. Tenji always made sure to register the name, number, and guild of his contacts, so it was rare for him to receive calls from unknown numbers.

Puzzled, Tenji answered the call with his groggy voice, "Hello, who is this?"

"It's me, I heard about your report from Chigo," said a rough, unmotivated voice on the other end of the line.

"Leon-san!?" Upon hearing that gruff voice, Tenji immediately recognized who it was. He couldn't believe that he was receiving a call from Leon, and without thinking, he pushed aside his blanket and sat up straight on his bed.

"Why are you so surprised? Also, what time is it over there?" Leon asked.

"Well, I'm surprised... It's 5 in the morning," Tenji replied honestly, still feeling shocked.

"That's why you sound sleepy. Anyway, I heard you defeated Black Keroberos," Leon said matter-of-factly, even though it was still early in the morning.

Tenji couldn't help but smile wryly at Leon's familiar pace and replied, "Yes, it was quite a struggle, but I managed to do it."

"I heard the details from Fuyuki. You still have a long way to go," Leon said.

"I'll keep working hard," Tenji responded earnestly.

"Just keep growing with Chigo. I talked to Limey myself. It was lucky that we settled it for a hush money of 2 billion yen."

"2 billion yen!?"

"Well, don't worry about such a small amount of money."

"Huh? A small amount of money? 2 billion yen..."

Upon hearing Leon's crazy sense of money from the moment he woke up, white steam rose from Tenji's head.

"You defeated Black Keroberos... So, you've reached about half-first grade level of strength, I guess."

"Well, my physical ability is still equivalent to that of a second-grade explorer. If I use summoning, it would be about half-first grade level. I still have a long way to go."

"I see. For now, don't come back until you can beat Black Keroberos with ease, that's all."

The call ended abruptly, as usual, leaving Tenji with no choice but to smile wryly.

"Let's go back to sleep...Oh, I should have asked about the Nine Kings. Well, I'll ask next time."

In his air-conditioned room, Tenji crawled back into the warm bed and went back to sleep for a while.

Waking up a little later than usual, Tenji was making breakfast for Chigo, who was sitting in the living room with her stomach growling.

Chigo didn't seem to have the idea of making it herself, so she had been waiting for Tenji to wake up.

"Chigo-chan is like a pet."

"Munch munch... Why?"

"If you're hungry enough to make your stomach growl, you should make some bread yourself. You're just waiting for me to wake up, like a cat I used to have."

"Hmm... oh, the scrambled eggs are delicious today."

Chigo, who didn't seem very interested, was eating the scrambled eggs on her plate with plenty of ketchup. She spread jam or something on the bread and enjoyed it."

"That egg, yesterday on the way back, the kitchen truck guy gave it to me saying 'I have some leftovers'. I think he wanted to say 'congrats on finishing the exam'. It looks like a pretty fancy egg, doesn't it?"

"Mmm, this is delicious," said Chigo, continuing to eat with single-minded focus. Once finished, she flopped onto the sofa and lay on her back, turning on the TV and lounging around.

She really was like a cat.

Meanwhile, Tenji washed the dishes, did some laundry, and cleaned the house. Since he had some time until 10 o'clock, he went outside to tidy up the lawn in the yard.

When the clock struck 10, Chigo, who had turned into a squishy-like a cat, spoke to him through the balcony window.

"Tenji, do you have to go to school?"

Wiping the sweat off his hands with his gloves, Tenji answered calmly, "No, it's fine. I don't know how many points we got for defeating Black Keroberos, and I don't really want to see Pyne and the others right now."

"I see~ Well, I think Black Keroberos got zero points."

"Huh?"

"Illonka has always been that way, purposely giving low scores to the most difficult obstacles. I had the same thing happen to me in the past."

"So...?"

"Yeah, it means we're higher up on the rankings than we thought! We did it! We reached our goal!"

"Well, I mean...it's not like a bad score is a good thing."

Tenji felt dissatisfied with this ambiguous situation. Even though he had defeated Black Keroberos, it seemed like he wasn't being properly recognized.

Still, for Tenji, who was content with being inconspicuous, it was okay.

Currently, I can only barely defeat Black Keroberos. I manipulate strategies, endure grueling training, and was able to win against a newborn demon only by luck. In order to fulfill the promise made by my true supporter, Leon, to achieve "the level of strength and technique equivalent to a professional first-grade explorer", I must work harder in Mallorca.

While pondering about this under the scorching sun in the garden, he heard someone call his name from outside.

"Good morning, Tenji. Working in the garden in the morning?"

"Good morning, Fuyuki-kun. Yeah, I had some free time, so I thought I'd tidy up the lawn. I'm pulling out weeds and mowing the lawn."

"You're still as hard a worker as ever. Our garden is full of weeds, you know?"

"Then, next time, I'll do housework for you, Fuyuki-kun. You always take care of me, so it's the least I can do."

"That'd be great. Can I come in?"

"Sure. But Chigo-chan is acting like a cat."

"What's that?"

Although he was curious, Fuyuki entered the house from the front entrance, and even murmured his thoughts, which could be heard through the glass.

On the other side of his gaze was Chigo, stretched out on the floor like a cat.

"Sure enough... she's a cat," Fuyuki muttered, amazed by the sight.

And so, it was already 10 o'clock.

"Tenji, it's already 10 o'clock."

"Oh, really? Hold on, I'm coming over."

"It's okay, I'll check it for you."

Fuyuki took out his tablet from his bag and started to check the results of the first-year practical exam.

Tenji put the weeds in a garbage bag and tightened his lips. Then he put the garbage bag at the edge of the garden and took off his gloves before going up to the veranda.

On the sofa were Fuyuki, operating the tablet, and Chigo, the cat, peering at it curiously.

Tenji was impressed by the coolness of the air conditioner as she slowly approached behind Fuyuki.

"Tenji..."

"Mmm..."

As she leaned in to look, for some reason, the two of them showed an unsatisfied expression.

"W-what is it?"

"Anyway, take a look at this."

Fuyuki showed the tablet, and Tenji's reaction was also a "Huh?"

There are exactly 45 first-year students enrolled.

Although it was a different exam, the results were displayed in the order of the 45 students.

1st: Demilia Garcia 5246 points'

2nd: Carlos Torne 2123 points

3rd: Mohammed Pyne 1658 points

4th: George McToine 1298 points

5th: Amagi Tenji 977 points

...

...

...

"..." "... "...

The voices of the three people hummed together.

They never imagined they would get a single-digit ranking out of 45 people, and they groaned "Hmm" at the result.

To be honest, it wasn't their original goal.

But...

"Nice job, Tenji."

"Well, it can't be helped. Why don't we celebrate today?"

The two of them seemed happier than disappointed.

And it made sense.

Tenji had been unfairly evaluated for a long time. These two had spent enough time with him to not like it.

They were happy because they knew how much it meant to Tenji to be truly evaluated.

Although the result was somewhat frustrating, Tenji chose to smile and accept it.

"I got 5th place for the first time in my life. By the way, how many points did you get when you were a first-year, Fuyuki?"

"109,878 points."

"What is that..."

Fuyuki, who had obtained the best reward in the history of Mallorca Esquela, was indeed a monster outside of the norm.

Knowing this fact, Tenji and Chigo involuntarily reacted.

Thus.

After completing the first half of the program at Mallorca, Tenji finally climbed up to level 5.

And Tenji finally opened the second gate to hell.

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