Chapter 73 – Giant Serpent Subjugation
Chapter 73 – Giant Serpent Subjugation
“He’s late, huh.”
“I wonder if something happened.”
We’d been ushered into the guild master’s office to report on our completed request, but we’d been left waiting for a long time.
“Yo. Sorry to keep ya waiting.”
Just as I was thinking of slipping out to peek into the lobby, the guild master came stomping into the room.
When he spotted us, he flashed a grin and flopped down roughly onto the sofa.
“Trouble?”
“Nah, just short on hands. Anyway, gimme the report.”
Sure enough, the request board had been plastered with papers.
Probably because it’s winter—no working adventurers around…
“There was a giant serpent in the nest we were told about. It wasn’t hibernating, but it wasn’t active either.”
“Subjugating it shouldn’t have any real impact on the ecosystem.”
Ted handed the guild master the report.
He flipped through the pages idly before slapping it down on the table and crossing his arms.
“I see… A giant serpent deep inside, huh…”
“If you put out a subjugation request, we’ll take it down for you.”
“Marie, you?”
The guild master’s mental image of her was apparently still the little girl version.
Blushing a bit, he chuckled. “Sorry. You’re a grown-up now, aren’tcha.”
“I can use freeze magic, so it’s a perfect matchup for me.”
Ted declared confidently.
“A giant serpent as a D-rank gig? Short-staffed as we are, it’d help… but…”
The guild master scanned the report again, deep in thought.
If we’re taking it out while it’s asleep, rank really shouldn’t matter, right?
“Leave it to us!” “Please!”
After groaning over it forever, the guild master reluctantly gave the okay—on one condition.
It was a magic beast we’d found ourselves, after all. We wanted to handle the subjugation too.
We headed straight to the back to confirm the condition with Master.
“Hmm.”
“Yeah. Guild master said it’s fine if you give permission, Master.”
“Of course I’ll permit it. But… hold on. Yeah…”
Master nodded gleefully and started mulling something over.
Permission granted, but what’s with that?
I exchanged glances with Ted and shook my head.
“Alright! Girl, first freeze that snake solid. Then, condense your magic to the limit and hammer it into the head over and over till it’s smashed. Ted, just focus on guarding the girl. Tailor-made easy job for you two. Don’t slack off.”
Master said it with a shady grin.
Tailor-made easy job for us, my ass…
What the—! As expected of you, Master!
This isn’t easy at all!
As instructed, I froze the snake solid at first. But it started generating its own heat and woke up.
What the hell is this thing!
Even with Ted piling on more freezes, we couldn’t keep up.
“Leave this side to me—focus!”
“Right!”
The endless head-drilling operation was about to break my spirit.
Master! There’s zero sign we can destroy the head!
Even at full power! This thing’s terrifying!
In a frenzy, I packed my magic even denser and slammed it home.
“Ah! Finally pierced the scales! Almost there!”
“Hurry! It’s too strong—I can’t hold on much longer!”
Ted desperately pinned the writhing serpent to protect me.
If I don’t finish soon, it’ll fling us off. Gotta hurry!
Balancing atop the bucking, shaking snake, I blasted wind magic into the fresh hole.
The magic detonated inside, utterly demolishing the head.
“We did it!”
“It’s over?!”
We leaped down in a hurry and watched. The snake’s movements gradually slowed to a crawl.
Ugh. Its thrashing is so gross.
“Hah… hah… So this is your ‘tailor-made easy job’…”
“Hahaha. Maybe for Master, it is.”
Ted heaved with his shoulders and collapsed right there.
“Any injuries?”
Just to be safe, I cast recovery magic and fatigue restoration.
“With Marie here to heal, I can relax.”
Ted looked up at me and extended a hand.
I took it to help him up, but he yanked me down to sit beside him instead.
“Hah. Let’s rest a bit.”
“Yeah.”
This is rare. Ted pushed this hard.
The snake was thrashing like crazy, though…
“Way too big a monster, even for me. Never seen this magic beast before.”
“Huh. Even you don’t know it, Ted?”
Scales hard as concrete? Total cheat.
And self-heating? Nobody mentioned that!
We used space magic to haul the ridiculously huge snake back.
No clue which parts were usable anyway, and we had no strength left to butcher it.
“Been a while. Headin’ home now?”
“Master…”
On the way to the Adventurer Guild, we ran into the chipper Master for the first time in three days.
No, it hasn’t been a while!
“When you call something ‘easy’ by your standards, we could straight-up die!”
“We barely survived.”
“Hahaha. If you make it back without a scratch, it’s easy. Now go report.”
What kinda half-assed benchmark is that? S-ranks are terrifying.
Ted and I shrugged our shoulders and headed off to report.
“Subjugated it. Snake’s in the back plaza. Take it off our hands.”
Too much hassle for details—I rattled it off fast, and the receptionist lady laughed.
“I just wanna soak in a slow bath and flop into bed.”
“Same. Need a break for a good long while.”
While I was facedown on the desk, drained, the guild master yelled “What the hell is that?!” and dragged us out back.
“Snake.”
A snake even Ted didn’t know.
Nothing else to call it.
“That’s a Stonehead Snake.”
Stonehead? Huh. No wonder it was hard as rock.
Ted was frozen in a panic beside me.
Does he know it?
“Th-that’s a hazardous species we subjugate before it grows huge, right!?”
Ted?
He’s freaking out uncharacteristically. What’s the deal?
“Scales turned to orichalcum. Purest damn orichalcum I’ve ever seen.”
Oh. Feels like it’ll fetch a fortune.
“You two took it down solo?”
“Yes. Who’d have thought a Stonehead Snake that size…”
Ted slumped even further.
Haha. Doesn’t sell for much after all?
“Spits petrification venom. Glad you two came back unscathed.”
The guild master was fretting over us, which was rare for him.
Petrification? Haha.
No way, right?
“Master called it a ‘tailor-made easy job’ for us… Haha.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth and laughed in stunned disbelief.
The guild master covered his face with one hand, looked skyward, and muttered, “I got played.”
“Sigh. That’s an S-rank magic beast. For taking down an S-rank, you’re jumping two ranks straight to B.”
“S-rank?”
Ted and I stared at each other.
The guild master, looking exasperated, chuckled. “Yeah.”
“S-rank!” “No shit it’s strong!”
“Ain’t even the half of it. The payout appraisal? Outrageous.”
The guild master patted the snake. “Payment later.”
We were handed guild cards emblazoned with bold B-rank lettering.
Whoaaa. B-rank.
“…We did it, huh.”
“…We sure did.”
We trudged home in a daze. Grandfather and Master had a feast ready and waiting.
The two gleeful old men threw us a lavish celebration.
“You two are pros now.” “As expected of my granddaughter. Thanks, Ted.”
Moo~! Master, you!
I’m happy. So happy. Ehehehe.
Last came Grandfather’s signature cake, and I dove into bed in high spirits.
B-rank, huh.
Wanna tell Gain and the others ASAP.
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thanks for the chapter