Reincarnated as a Lizard

Following the short interaction with his uncle and Valerie, who were both familiar with one another, Verdell managed to secure a free room at the back of his uncle’s shop. Not much different from where he had stayed during his first visit to the northern region in the past. The only difference being that he was stronger compared to the last time he had visited, being a genuine S Rank Adventurer now.

"So, are you two going out to hunt down monsters together?" And it was as he got his things settled down within the free room, that his uncle followed by Valrie asked him about this, a question that he could only nod his head faced with the overeager expression of the young woman standing next to his uncle. Having already agreed to this back at the guild.

"But though we already agreed to hunt down monsters starting tomorrow, I think it would be more important for us to focus on completing the class advancement quest before anything else. Don’t you think so as well Valrie?" Not that he was entirely set on just hunting down monsters as he threw this suggestion towards the eager young woman who looked like she was about to jump forward and drag him out to hunt down monsters immediately.

"Ah! Don’t worry about that, the more difficult parts of my class advancement quest have already been completed. All that’s left is a slaughter part."

"A slaughter part..." Narrowing his eyes somewhat upon hearing her mention a slaughter part in a class advancement quest, Verdell couldn’t help recalling what he knew about this kind of class advancement challenge.

Generally, what was referred to a slaughter challenge or slaughter part in a class advancement quest, was a section that solely focused on killing monsters without any complicated requirements like the class advancement quest he himself had to go through to successfully become an S Rank Adventurer.

If anything, this kind of class advancement quest was the most common kind of class advancement quest, though the higher the rank, the higher the chance of it just serving as one small requirement in a far more difficult class advancement quest... And... From the way Valrie mentioned it, it was clear that this was the case for her, as she had already completed the more difficult parts of her class advancement quest and only had the slaughter part left to complete before she successfully became an S Rank Adventurer as well.

Although... From how she had to go to the northern region, it was clear that this class advancement quest focused on slaughter was a bit more unique than the normal kill x number of x rank monsters.

"So, what does the slaughter part of your class advancement quest look like?" Feeling himself becoming a bit curious about this class advancement quest requirement he would be helping with tomorrow when both of them set off, Verdell couldn’t stop himself from asking as Valerie was about to leave to get some rest for their journey out the city tomorrow.

"Oh, nothing difficult, here, I have the requirements written down here." Not finding anything wrong with what Verdell said, Valerie happily began rustling around the inside of her clothes before pulling out a small piece of paper in a practiced manner that made him understand that this wasn’t the first time someone had asked her this question.

[S Rank >.< Class Advancement~!]

[According to the class advancement quest, I need to kill 50 A Rank monsters in a frozen environment. So, the northern region it is~ And also 10 S Rank monsters- there is even a need to kill an SS Rank monster... So dangerous! >W<]

Reading through the unserious scribbles that were barely readable, Verdell couldn’t help narrowing his eyes upon seeing what was written.

Setting aside the somewhat childish writing manner, he couldn’t help silently swallowing upon seeing there was a requirement to kill 10 S Rank monsters.

Even with a team of A Rank Adventurers working together, this was a difficult task to accomplish without years of slow progress or a senior lending a hand. Still, this part of the task was at least within the bounds of what was expected for an S Rank class advancement quest.

The requirement to kill an SS Rank monster on the other hand, was impossible for most A Rank Adventurers no matter how hard they worked or how many friends they managed to lend a hand in their class advancement quest.

After all, the SS Rank was far beyond anything an A Rank Adventurer could handle without special assistance from the guild itself or being lucky enough to have befriended several SS Rank Adventurers.

The reason being, to complete the quest, one had to land the killing blow... And to do that on an SS Rank Monster, several SS Rank Adventurers assisting would be required to hold it down and that was without accounting for the simple fact that most SS Rank Monsters were not to be underestimated and could fake weakness to wait for an opportunity to strike.

Sure, dungeon monsters might be weaker, but at that level of strength, it wouldn’t really make much of a difference between a monster inside a dungeon and one outside the dungeon.

"Wow... Quite the difficult class advancement quest you have there, little lady. Almost comparable to this old man’s class advancement quest in the past! Have you thought about asking the guild for a hand?" And not much different from the shock he felt seeing this ridiculously difficult class advancement quest, Dain leaning over from behind also saw the requirements and couldn’t help voicing out his own suggestion.

"Hmph! I won’t ask them for help! This class advancement quest, I can complete on my own- ah! With Verdell by my side!".

"..."

Don’t go dragging me into this mess! There is no way I can help you kill an SS Rank Monster!

"Hahaha, as expected, the little lady sure has some guts, I will give you that. Back in my day I had to kill off a group of SS Rank Monsters on my own to reach the S Rank, I’m sure you and the little lass can handle a single one."

"Yes! I will make sure to reach the S Rank!"

Uncle Dain... Please don’t encourage this kind of reckless behavior...

Not knowing what to say as he looked towards the two standing at the door with a speechless expression on his face, Verdell couldn’t help silently cursing this uncle of his.

Although he had no idea how strong of an adventurer this uncle of his was since he had retired and set up this blacksmith to pass time, he knew for certain that there was no way he had managed to kill off a group of SS Rank Monsters during an advancement quest from the A Rank to the S Rank.

If he had really managed to accomplish something that terrifying on his own without any outside assistance, there was no way he would have just quietly settled down in this kind of place, as there was a good chance he would have surpassed the SS Rank with that kind of terrifying fighting potential.

And from what little he knew about adventurers who reached this level of strength, they didn’t simply retire- not to mention the simple fact that these kinds of powerful adventurers were well known throughout the world and there wasn’t any powerful adventurers fitting of his dear uncle’s description from what he knew.

In other words, it was an old man bragging about his younger days.

Hardly surprising given how his father wasn’t much different from this uncle of his. Always bragging about his own glorious exploits back in the day when he had been an adventurer.

In fact, this kind of thing was awfully common to someone who had grown up with parents that had been adventurers in the past.

For this reason, he filtered out most of what his uncle said when going about explaining his own glorious advancement from the A Rank to the S Rank in the past.

The inexperienced Valerie though, wasn’t like him and was thoroughly awed by the tales of his uncle, as what should have been a quick meeting before they went off to sleep for the night to get rested for setting out tomorrow, ended up dragging on into a rather late night story time that concluded in the living room that Verdell had found himself getting dragged into at some point by Valerie and the overeager Dain, who seemed rather thrilled about having someone listen to his past glory days.

Of course, he could have ended things and just gone to bed, but this kind of thing was fun in its own way and at the same time also a way to properly relax after the deadly journey he had gone through alongside Scaly not that long ago. Managing to mooch off some of the more expensive liquor of this uncle of his in the process...