Volume 6 Chapter 25: Gearing Up

After a few moments, the sparring stopped. It was a defeat for everyone. Kaiser smiled, "Alright, I shall give you all your grades. Faelyn and Gabriel are C-rank. D-rank for Herrick, Carolyn, and Sarah. E-rank for the rest."

"Darn it! I couldn't get into C-rank!" Herrick sighed. He thought for sure he would get it.

"You just have to work your way up." Keith smiled. The other way to rank up was to work on quests and sign up for a rank-up exam.

"Keith, are you planning to head to the dungeon with this group?"

"Mmhmm." That was the plan.

"Then I suggest you look at another dungeon." Madison groaned.

"Hmm?"

"Your party has some strong adventurers. And the dungeon I gave you would be finished in a breeze." Those dungeons she gave to Keith were meant for lower-rank adventuers and solo ones. A group of his size could finish it in a few hours.

"But don't you guys want something from there?" Keith tilted his head.

"It's fine. You can do it another time." Madison shook her head.

"..." So I'm still going, huh?

"I see. Please let me see all the dungeons suitable for us."

"Here they are," Madison handed the papers over to Keith.

"There's a lot more." Compared to the first one he got, this one was three times the amount.

"That's because you're going as a party. It opens up more for you." Madison wasn't going to let Keith enter a dungeon all alone.

"I see," The latter placed them into his storage ring.

"Also, who's going to be the leader?"

"Eh?"

Madison sighed, "Keith, isn't it obvious? For such a large group, you would need a leader."

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Makes sense. Keith thought.

"So who would be the leader?" "That would be him!" Everyone answered Madison's question as they pointed at Keith.

"Wait! Are we really not going to discuss this?!" Shouldn't they put more effort into this?

"It's unanimous. Take it." Carolyn remarked.

"You're the only one who can lead us," Sarah added.

"Yeah, You're the one who could control the crazy people here," Alfia added.

"Who are these crazy people?" Herrick tilted his head.

"..." It's obviously you two! Melor and Herrick would go crazy in the dungeon if they didn't have a tight leash. Keith was the only one the two listened to.

"Okay. Put me as the leader." He thought someone else would do it. Alfia, Melor, and Herrick were prince/princess. He thought they would take a crack at it. Guess he overthought it.

"Understood." Madison wrote some things down before she handed the tags over to Herrick and the rest, "Here are your tags."

The others marveled at the tags.

"Guys, we need to go." Since they had registered as adventurers, the next place they needed to go to was Iron Hilde Workshop.

"Yo, Skar!" Keith waved his hand at the dwarf.

"What do you want, Brat?" Skar still had a dirty look on his face.

"We need to buy some weapons."

"...Did you break another sword?"

"Chill out. I only need you to get armor and gear for the others." They wanted to get upgrades.

"I see." Skar sighed in relief.

"..." So it's okay with them but not with me?!

"Go ahead and choose." Keith sighed as he started to look through the information. He didn't need to get any upgrades. While he did,

"OOOO, this axe looks incredible!" Melor marveled at an axe.

"You can try it out in the training ground." "I'll do just that!"

Melor was excited to try as he dashed over to the training ground to swing it. As he did, Herrick was looking through the weapons,

"Do you have any heavy swords other than this?" There were many heavy swords. However, when he waved them around, it wasn't heavy enough.

"If you want a heavier sword, we can make a custom one?"

"No, I don't need one yet. I just want to use a heavier sword." There was no need for a custom sword.

"Then you can check those over there. It's heavier." Skar gestured. As they continued to examine the weapons, Keith looked through the information.

"Are you going to a dungeon?"

"Yep. We're going to be there for quite some time."

"Wait a minute, if you're going to a dungeon with so many people, do you know how to structure them?" Skar questioned.

"Hmm?"

"Like the formation of your team. It's paramount that you know how to structure your team."

"I see." An oversight on his part.

"If you need help, go to the guild for it. They should have information on how to arrange your team set."

"Thanks. Can you watch over them for a bit?"

"They're valuable customers! Of course, I will!"

"..." Money grubber. He could see the dollar signs in his eyes.