Adventure of SSS Rank Idiot

The Guild That Wanted Proof

Chapter 3

Prolin's Adventurers Guild branch occupied an entire fortified block near the military district. Gray stone, iron reinforcements, and three separate training yards. The building looked more like a small fortress than a place for ranking and contracts.

The five of them arrived mid-morning. The streets were already busy with soldiers and lower-rank parties preparing for border patrols. When Miko and the others stepped through the main entrance, the low noise of conversation inside the hall dropped by half.

Reception staff stared. A few S-rank adventurers near the request boards turned their heads. Someone whispered the words "Demon Continent" and "SSS" in the same breath.

A senior clerk recovered first. She was a middle-aged woman with short gray hair and the calm face of someone who had handled dangerous people for years. She gestured them toward the high-priority counter.

"Names and purpose," she said.

Miko placed the black resonance crystal on the polished wood. "Temporary registration. Supplies and information. We leave within three days."

The crystal flared violet. The clerk's eyes flicked to the light, then back to Miko's face. She did not ask the usual follow-up questions. Instead she pressed a small rune on the underside of the counter. Somewhere deeper in the building a chime sounded.

"Please wait in the upper reception. The branch master will see you."

They were led up a wide staircase to a private lounge with thick windows overlooking one of the training yards. The furniture was practical and expensive. Raizu dropped into the largest chair and put both boots on the low table. Killy leaned against the window frame, watching a group of C-rank adventurers spar below. Kordil stood near the door, smiling at nothing in particular. Jusmiyo remained standing behind Miko's chair, quiet and attentive.

Ten minutes passed before the door opened.

The branch master of Prolin was a broad man in his late forties named Commander Halden. SS-rank. Former frontline knight during the last years of the Demon Incursion. His left eye was covered by a dark metal plate, and the scars on his hands showed he had not earned his rank behind a desk. Two S-rank aides followed him in and closed the door.

Halden looked at each of them in turn. His gaze lingered on Miko.

"Four S-ranks and one SSS," he said. His voice was rough gravel. "Traveling together. Living in the Demon Continent. Using a skill most of the continent considers a joke. You can understand why my office is interested."

Miko met his eyes without blinking. "We are not here to cause problems."

"Intentions change when power is involved." Halden walked to the opposite side of the table but did not sit. "The central guild has incomplete records on you. Your last official appearance was four years ago. Rank confirmation SSS. Skill listed as Bond. Then you vanished into the black zone and never reported again. People assumed you died."

Raizu smiled. "We were busy."

"Busy doing what?"

"Training," Killy answered. "The scenery is better there."

One of the aides shifted uncomfortably. Halden ignored him.

"Bond Skill users do not reach SSS," the branch master said flatly. "The skill is support-oriented. It strengthens allies and leaves the user fragile. That is the established limit. Your crystal says otherwise. I need to understand the discrepancy."

Miko tilted his head slightly. "You want a demonstration."

It was not a question.

Halden's remaining eye narrowed. "I want clarity. If you are what the crystal claims, Prolin will treat you accordingly. If the crystal is wrong, or if you are hiding something that endangers the city, I will treat you differently."

Kordil laughed under his breath. "I like this one. Direct."

Jusmiyo spoke for the first time. "A public demonstration would draw too much attention. The training yard outside is sufficient."

Halden studied them for another long moment, then nodded once. "Yard three. Private. My aides and I will observe. No audience."

They followed him back downstairs and across a short covered walkway into a wide enclosed yard. The ground was packed dirt reinforced with suppression runes. High walls blocked the view from the street. Halden and his two S-rank aides took positions near the entrance. A protective barrier rose behind them with a low hum.

Miko walked to the center of the yard and stopped. He did not draw a weapon. He did not take a stance.

"Who first?" he asked.

Halden gestured to the larger of the two aides, a heavy-set man carrying a two-handed axe. The man stepped forward, rolling his shoulders.

"Don't hold back on my account," the aide said. "I've fought SS-ranks before."

Miko looked at him the way someone looks at a piece of furniture that is slightly out of place.

"I won't."

The aide charged. His first swing was fast and heavy, the kind of blow that could split a reinforced shield. Miko stepped inside the arc with almost lazy timing. His open palm touched the man's chest.

There was no flash of light. No visible technique.

The aide left the ground. His body flew backward in a straight line and slammed into the far wall hard enough to crack the stone. He slid down and did not get up immediately. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.

Silence filled the yard.

The second aide, a woman with dual short swords, moved next without waiting for an order. She was faster, her blades aimed at joints and throat. Miko avoided the first three cuts by shifting his weight less than a step each time. On the fourth exchange he caught her right wrist, twisted, and redirected her own momentum. She hit the ground shoulder-first. The swords skittered away across the dirt.

She tried to rise. Miko's foot pressed lightly on the back of her neck. Not enough to break anything. Just enough to keep her still.

"Enough," Halden said.

Miko stepped back. Both aides were alive, but neither would fight again that day.

Halden stared at the cracked wall, then at Miko. His expression had changed. The earlier skepticism was gone, replaced by something colder and more practical.

"That was not a support skill," he said.

"No," Miko agreed.

"Explain."

Miko glanced at his party. Raizu gave a small shrug. Killy looked bored. Kordil was still smiling. Jusmiyo simply waited.

"Bond Skill has layers most people never reach," Miko said. "The common version only shares strength outward. With enough mana control and the right connections, it works both ways. I take what they can do. They take what I can give. The rest is training."

Halden's jaw tightened. "You are telling me an SSS-rank is built on a skill the textbooks call trash."

"Textbooks are written by people who never left the safe cities," Raizu said.

The branch master was quiet for several seconds. Then he deactivated the barrier.

"You will have no trouble in Prolin," he said. "Buy what you need. Stay out of the military districts after dark. If any local parties try to test you, handle it cleanly. I do not want my streets rebuilt."

He paused.

"And if the central guild asks for a full report, I will tell them the crystal is accurate. Nothing more."

Miko nodded once. "Appreciated."

They left the yard and walked back through the main hall. Conversations stopped again as they passed. By the time they reached the street, two different groups of adventurers were already moving toward the guild entrance with questions in their eyes.

Killy stretched her arms. "That was shorter than I expected. I thought he would ask for a second round."

"He is smart," Jusmiyo said. "He saw enough."

Kordil looked disappointed. "I didn't even get to move. Next time someone stronger should try."

Raizu glanced at Miko. "You held back."

"Of course," Miko answered. "Breaking an SS-rank's building would have been inconvenient."

They spent the rest of the day moving through the market district. Killy bought spices and three changes of clothes. Raizu found a craftsman who could reinforce the spatial sheath for his shifting blade. Kordil disappeared for an hour and returned with new knives and a suspicious grin that Jusmiyo chose not to question. Miko purchased dried rations, two detailed maps of the eastern dynasties, and a small sealed information crystal from a discreet broker.

By evening they were back at the inn. The common room was fuller than the night before. Several tables of adventurers watched them openly now. No one approached.

Upstairs, Jusmiyo activated the information crystal. Soft light projected a series of reports into the air above the table.

Border tensions between Prolin and the Ice Dynasty had increased. Two S-rank parties had gone missing near the eastern marches in the last month. Strange light phenomena had been recorded above the Magma Dynasty three nights ago. And in the capital, the central guild had quietly raised the threat level for "unidentified celestial activity."

Raizu read the last line twice. "Celestial."

Miko's expression did not change, but his fingers tapped once against the table.

"Reseters," he said quietly.

Killy crushed the remains of another cigarette. "So they finally moved."

Kordil's smile widened. "Good. I was getting tired of waiting."

Outside the window, Prolin's night watch lit the wall torches one by one. Far beyond the city, past the roads and the borders and the black mountains they had left behind, the first true report of a white-winged figure destroying a forward outpost was already racing toward every major dynasty.

The five of them did not know the details yet.

They only knew that the boredom was about to end.