Chapter 138.1

Chapter 138: Monster Affinity and a Great Achievement in the Past (1/2)

“Yes, you may pass. Do your best at your exam.” [Guard]

“Thank you very much.” [Ryouma]

The guard watching the gates seemed to have misunderstood since he encouraged me, but either way, I passed through the gates.

When I did, a scene unlike the north or the south greeted me.

“So this is how it looks here…” [Ryouma]

Wooden fences were erected on either side of the road and cattle and horses could be seen inside of the enclosure. There were also large-type monsters I’ve never seen before peacefully passing their time. It was like a farm.

After walking for a while, a large building came to view. That’s probably the tamer guild branch. But because of the silo-like towers lined up beside it, the whole place really looked like a farm.

“Excuse me.” [Ryouma]

The atmosphere inside was also different from the guild. Everyone was wearing work clothes. If I didn’t know any better, I would have mistaken this place for a resting area. When I took a closer look, I saw that the people standing directly in front of the receptionist were wearing casual clothing that seemed easy to move in.

“Welcome.” [Receptionist]

The female receptionist must’ve thought I was confused, as she called out to me.

“Good day. I heard I could get the monster affinity diagnosis here. Here are my documents and guild card.” [Ryouma]

“Thank you. Ryouma Takebayashi-kun… I see it’s your first time. The assembly hall is inside. If you go straight through that passage, you’ll find a room at the end. Please enter that room and pass this to the staff inside.” [Receptionist]

“Thank you very much.” [Ryouma]

I did as the receptionist told me to and passed by the left of the reception desk, then went through the hallway inside.

When I entered the room at the end, I noticed there were benches lined up along the right side of the room, while on the left side were five counters.

It was like the waiting room of a bank.

There weren’t a lot of people taking the affinity diagnosis, though.

Only two of the counters were open and there wasn’t even a single person waiting on the bench.

“Ah, please take a seat in front of an open counter and wait.” [Receptionist 2]

The woman in charge rang a bell. She was probably calling the staff.

I took a seat in front of the nearest counter, and at roughly the same time, I heard the sound of a door opening from the direction of the counter.

“Sorry to keep you wait— Oh?　Ryouma-kun.” [Taylor]

“Branch Head!” [Ryouma]

The staff that came was for some reason Branch Head Taylor himself.

“What are you doing here?” [Ryouma]

“This is also a part of the tamer guild. So from time to time, I go here to do work while observing. If I don’t do stuff like this, I won’t have any opportunities to meet the youths and I’ll forget what the current atmosphere at the guild is like.

So you came here for the affinity diagnosis, huh. Come to think of it, I didn’t recommend you to take it during your registration.” [Taylor]

“We went straight to the adventurers guild afterwards, so it can’t be helped. Besides, I didn’t have any intention of changing my monsters at the time, so… Oh, but please don’t be mistaken, I still don’t plan on changing my monsters.” [Ryouma]

“It’s fine. I don’t mind. There’s no harm in knowing what monsters you’re compatible with.” [Taylor]

The branch head filled out some documents on the other side of the counter, then as he carried those with him on one hand, he pointed toward a door opposite the door I entered.

“Let’s get this started quickly then. The monsters meant for the diagnosis are gathered on the other side of that door.” [Taylor]

There were two doors beside each other across the counter. When I passed through one of the doors, a stench immediately wafted up to my nose.

This stench… Zoo? No, I think the stench might actually be closer to that of a pet shop.

There were a large number of cages inside the room, inside of which were various monsters. There was a slime, of course. There were also small rats and cave bats that I’ve already gotten used to seeing since coming to this town. There’s also the crew bird that I once formed a contract with.

“This is the room where we gather small-type monsters. If you go further in, you’ll find the slightly bigger medium-type monsters. Further in and you’ll find the large-type monsters.” [Taylor]

Branch Head Taylor explained as he came out of the other door.

“As you can see, all of these monsters have been prepared here for you to form a contract with, but we can forget the slime and the rimel birds since we already know those. Are there any other monsters you’ve formed a contract with before?” [Taylor]

“I’ve contracted with the crew bird once.” [Ryouma]

“Did you experience any problems then?　Did it properly listen to you? Could you understand its emotions?” [Taylor]

I was fine at both of those. I was even able to share vision with it.

“If that’s your first time practicing with it, then your compatibility with it must’ve been good…” [Taylor]

The branch head started filling out the paper. I took a peek at the paper, and it turns out he was putting a mark on a table on which was listed the names of many monsters.

“Curious?” [Taylor]

“Yes, a little.” [Ryouma]

I honestly answered that and the branch head faintly smiled.

“This table covers which monsters you’ve successfully formed a contract with and which ones you failed with. In the case of success, the examinee’s thoughts on the contract are requested and the examiner then grades the contract in four levels. The diagnosis will look for the common points from these results to find out which monsters you’re likely to be compatible with. It’s because of that that there’s so many monsters here.” [Taylor]

If I’m supposed to form a contract with every monster here, this is going to take a lot of time and mana.