The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time
chapter-66-4

Farmaun Gold, the champion chosen by Zantark, the now-fallen god of war, founded an organization following the battle between Alda and Vida. After his death, the organization divided into multiple Guilds. The Guilds reunited again, giving birth to the Adventurers’ Guild of today.

It is an organization that aims to assist in the hunting and resource-gathering in Devil’s Nests and Dungeons, which were previously done individually rather than in groups, so that the gathered resources may benefit society. While Farmaun was still alive, he used Alchemy to develop registration cards, commonly known as Guild Cards, creating the foundation for today’s Guild.

After Farmaun’s death, the number of organizations that would later become the Adventurers’ Guild grew in number as humanity recovered, with different names such as the Hunters’ Guild, Heroes’ Guild, the Frontier Guild, the Braver Guild and the Adventurers’ Guild* emerging. However, the Adventurers’ Guild is now a unified organization under a single name, even across different continents.

TLN*: This one is in katakana.

The Adventurers’ Guild is fundamentally an organization that has no relations with any nation, but like every other Guild, they are not free to do as they please.

This includes the fact that they have to pay taxes. Each Adventurers’ Guild branch deducts tax from the reward money it pays to adventurers. The tax rate differs depending on the nation, but it is generally around ten percent.

Whether Vida’s races such as Dhampirs are treated as monsters, the type of support given to adventurers and rules within the Guild depends on the nation as well.

• Adventurer registration

Adventurer registration is performed by qualified staff through specialized Magic Items.

There are two requirements for registration. First, one must be a person. This is a broad term that encompasses humans, Elves, Dwarves and Vida’s races. However, the definition of this term differs from country to country. For example, Dhampirs are treated as monsters in the Amid Empire, so they cannot register as adventurers.

The other requirement is to be of a certain age. In the Amid Empire, one must be of fifteen or more years of age. In the Orbaume Kingdom, each duchy has a different age requirement, but the age requirement is generally around ten. Duchies with an age requirement of less than ten conduct tests for reading, writing and arithmetic. Those determined to have academic abilities at the level of a ten-year-old are allowed to register.

There are other conditions such as that one must not be a criminal or a slave, but this is common knowledge, so this explanation will not go into detail on these.

A form containing the applicant’s details such as their real name, age, race is handed to a Guild staff member, and a drop of blood is applied to a Magic Item. This causes the applicant’s status to be displayed to the staff member. At this point, applicants are sometimes rejected if there are any inaccuracies in the filled-out form. This is also the point at which the Guild ensures that there is no bounty on the applicant’s head.

If there are no problems, a registration card, commonly known as a Guild Card, is issued. From that moment on, the applicant becomes a member of the Adventurers’ Guild, an adventurer.

• Adventurers’ Cards

The identification documents of adventurers. They are made of a special metal-like substance, and they are the size of business cards on Earth. The name and current class of the adventurer is printed on the front.

The back is usually blank, but it can also display the adventurer’s Attribute Values and skills if they wish.

The first time the card is issued, there is no charge, but there is a fee to replace lost or damaged cards.

• The adventurers’ code

Not breaking the laws of the region.

Helping other adventurers when possible.

Paying a penalty fee for failing to complete a request.

These three rules are strictly adhered to. When they are violated, depending on the severity of the violation, adventurers face fines, class demotions, expulsion or even having a bounty put on their heads and arrested. There are even cases where requests are issued to hunt them down. Such cases would cause the nation to hunt them down as criminals as well.

• Adventurers’ social status

Adventurers are generally self-employed professionals who are responsible for anything that happens in their line of work. However, their social status differs depending on the nation.

This is because the degree of the nation’s reliance on adventurers for dealing with monsters and maintaining public order varies from nation to nation. There are records of large military nations existing in the past that used their own armies to exterminate monsters and keep the highways safe. The adventurers in such countries were treated like yakuza members.

In the Bahn Gaia continent, on both the Amid Empire’s side and the Orbaume Kingdom’s side, there are not enough men available to do this. Adventurers are acknowledged as those who will fight in times of emergency and as those who defend the people from monsters, so the people rely on them. Higher-class adventurers are particularly well-respected.

Of course, the largest factor determining an adventurer’s social status is his own everyday activities.

Politically, they are ordinary people unless they hold a court rank, but adventurers of B-class or higher possess power that cannot be ignored and greater wealth than lower noblemen. There are differences between adventurers based on their class and past achievements, but they are considered to have some political influence.

Because of this, the reality is that adventurers cannot stay uninvolved with politics as they climb through the classes.

The Mirg shield-nation is an exception; it has a custom of not hiring adventurers for large-scale military activities. This is because it has learned a bitter lesson from when large numbers of adventurers were once mobilized for war. This caused the monster-hunting within the nation to be neglected, causing a large monster rampage.

However, it is merely a custom. Many exceptions are made for small numbers of adventurers to participate in some activities.

• Adventurers’ Attribute Values

There are combat-related Jobs that provide bonuses to acquiring combat-related skills and an increased rate of increase in Attribute Values, and there are creation-related Jobs that provide bonuses to acquiring creation-related skills but give a low rate of increase in Attribute Values.

At first, there is not much difference between the two different types of Jobs, but the differences become larger as one undergoes more Job-changes, to the point that it becomes difficult to believe that two people with different types of Jobs belong to the same race.

• Example – Humans

Before undergoing a Job-change, the Attribute Values of adult humans (around fifteen years of age) are as follows: Vitality is 30, while the other Attribute Values, including Mana, are a little above 10. This would be considered ‘average’.

D-class adventurers who fight at the frontline would have 500 Vitality, Strength and Stamina, 100-150 Agility, 50-60 Intelligence and around 100 Mana.

Higher-ranked adventurers keep information such as their Attribute Values and skills hidden, but B-class adventurers that are considered first-rate masters have either 10,000 Vitality or Mana, and one or two of their other Attribute Values would be at least 1,000.

There is a large difference between D-class and B-class, but this is to do with the fact that specialized Jobs such as Magic Swordsman and Axeman provide better Attribute Value gain than apprentice-type Jobs and generic Jobs like Warrior. There is also the fact that only those who have high Attribute Values to begin with can acquire such specialized Jobs.

• Courses and training

Various courses and training can be taken at the Adventurers’ Guild. There are lessons taught by retired adventurers for the acquisition of battle-related skills, such as Swordsmanship, Archery and Spear Technique, lectures on how to harvest herbs and disassemble various kinds of monsters for their parts, courses in magic taught by instructors invited from the Mages’ Guild, and even lessons in basic things like reading, writing and mathematics. There are all kinds of things that can be learned.

These courses and training cannot be taken constantly. Students of the adventurers’ school take priority, so normal adventurers must apply for courses at reception.

If intensive training is desired, it is more efficient to enroll at the adventurers’ school. However, the adventurers’ school system doesn’t exist in the Amid Empire and its vassal nations.

• Adventurers’ school

In the Bahn Gaia continent, this can only be found in the Orbaume Kingdom, but it is compulsory for adventurers who have not yet come of age to attend the adventurers’ school.

The system was changed a hundred years ago. Underage adventurers undergo a simplified registration and the enrolment procedure, pay the enrolment fee (a small sum, but those who cannot pay it can defer the payment) and become students treated as G-class adventurers.

Each school has different requirements for enrolment, but like registration to become an adventurer, one can enroll if they are a person. However, certain duchies may have rules that prohibit members of certain races from enrolling.

The school uses a credit system, and the enrolment period is between one and three years. Students can graduate once they earn enough credits or three instructors acknowledge them as being capable. However, many students graduate within two years.

Most underage adventurers form their first parties with those who attend the school at the same time as them.

In addition, those who are not underage can also enroll if they wish. However, the enrolment of former knights and such who are already as capable as adventurers of D-class or greater are not very welcomed. (Because the students would be stronger than the instructors.)

• Adventurer classes

Adventurers are divided into 8 classes between G-class and S-class, as detailed below.

The Guild decides which requests they can accept based on their class. Adventurers can accept requests up to one class above their own class.

• G-class adventurers

This is the class bestowed upon those who have just registered as adventurers. This is the starting line for adventurers, and this is when they make their preparations.

The requests they can accept are generally those within towns and villages, so they do not experience battles. These are tasks like cleaning the insides of the Guild’s facilities and other forms of manual labor.

The rewards they are paid are small, and there are sometimes days where there are no such requests. Because of this, adventurers of this class are barely able to afford to stay at cheap inns with crude meals.

In exchange, they are able to take beginner-oriented courses and training at each Guild basically for free.

The G-class is a preparatory period for adventurers who were poor people and peasants who struggled to afford food, so there are no adventurers who stay at this class. They are not even taken into consideration. They earn meagre wages to pay living expenses while taking courses and training at the Guild to acquire skills, gain knowledge regarding things like herbs and aim for the higher classes. There are a small number of individuals who become Guild employees rather than advance to the next class, but these are rare cases.

However, because hunters and farmers can take the parts that serve as proof of monster extermination from weak monsters such as Goblins and Horned Rabbits caught in their traps, they register as adventurers in order to sell those parts for money. In this case, they often remain G-class.

Other than those who were formerly soldiers or mercenaries, adventurers of this class have no real skills to speak of.

• F-class adventurers

One can become an F-class adventurer after taking multiple G-class requests and having the Adventurers’ Guild deem them to be motivated to be of benefit to society or after passing instructional courses. There are also many who are designated as F-class to begin with due to their innate ability (but not those who are underage).

The requests adventurers of this class can take are things like gathering herbs, mushrooms and wild plants in normal fields that are not Devil’s Nests, hunting rabbits and doves, or gathering fish and shellfish from rivers and lakes.

There is a chance that they will be forced to fight monsters such as Goblins during these requests, but they are not allowed to accept requests to directly exterminate such monsters. Also, it is recommended that they do not enter Devil’s Nests.

The exception is when they are working under a senior adventurer. They then carry equipment and harvest materials while learning the basics of being an adventurer. It is an old tradition that the senior adventurers hand down old weapons that they once used as a reward.

Though the lifestyles of F-class adventurers are better than those of G-class adventurers, they cannot be called plentiful. Because of this, many adventurers who remain in F-class actually have other occupations as their main occupations while doing adventurer work on the side.

These are farmers who spend their off-seasons hunting rabbits and squirrels while exterminating Goblins, and fishermen who fight Sahagins while defending their fishing grounds.

Also, some nations permit their soldiers to hold secondary occupations, so they spend their days off hunting and gathering herbs from plains to sell for money. Such soldiers live somewhat more abundant lives.

The ability of F-class adventurers falls somewhere between average people who haven’t experienced a Job-change and people who have acquired an apprentice-type Job. They have no skills suited for combat, or if they do, the skills are level 1 at most.

• E-class adventurers

After an F-class adventurer continuously accepts F-class requests, a promotion to E-class is considered.

The condition for becoming an E-class adventurer is to at least be able to use martial skills that can be used in battle or possess magic-related skills.

However, mages capable of using magic to a standard that it would be useful in real battles are often promoted straight to this class.

It is from E-class that adventurers start resembling the world’s general perception of adventurers.

It is common for E-class adventurers to be the most capable adventurers in a small village; there are almost no cases where such villages constantly have active adventurers above this class.

The variety of requests that can be accepted widens greatly at this class. E-class adventurers can accept monster extermination requests and caravan escort requests. There are still herb-gathering requests as well, but they are often in more dangerous locations than requests of F-class and below.

There are also many requests that require the adventurers to enter Devil’s Nests, but their helpful seniors will often stop them from venturing too deep inside.

Many E-class adventurers live similar lifestyles to ordinary people living in urban areas. But they do not have much surplus income; they buy cheap arms and equipment while wishing they could earn just a little more.

It is difficult for an E-class adventurer to think about getting married, retiring and living a stable life. The vast majority of them leave thoughts about marriage until after another promotion.

The ability of E-class adventurers falls somewhere between those with apprentice-type Jobs and those who have acquired Jobs such as Warrior and Thief. Their skills are at least level 1. Many of those aiming to become D-class adventurers have skills at level 3.

An average E-class adventurer can defeat a Rank 2 monster in a one-on-one battle.

Also, adventurers of this class are able to make deposits and request loans from the Adventurers’ Guild. However, the amount they can borrow is quite small.

• D-class adventurers

From this class onwards, there are promotion examinations. The examination for promotion from E-class to D-class consists of an interview with Guild staff as well as a practical test to ensure that the adventurers are capable of completing requests to kill other people.

As adventurers of D-class and above accept requests to kill or capture people like bandits, pirates or criminals with bounties on their heads, they must be capable of killing people without losing their sense of morals.

Because of this, there are a small number of individuals who give up on being an adventurer after failing to promote to D-class due to mental reasons. This is commonly referred to as the D-class wall.

However, most adventurers are capable of reaching D-class as long as they can overcome this wall.

Those with sharp tongues often say that D-class is a gathering place for people with average talent who put in an average amount of effort.

However, it is not uncommon for a D-class adventurer to be the number one adventurer in Guilds of small towns that only have small Devil’s Nests or easy Dungeons nearby. Many villages do not even have any D-class adventurers.

D-class adventurers can accept requests that are more dangerous and pay better than E-class requests. Also, the Adventurers’ Guild considers adventurers to be independent from this class onwards.

Adventurers of this class live better than the average farmer, but not as well as merchants who own stores in towns. They are somewhere between the top of the lower class and the bottom of the middle class.

They sleep in inns instead of houses. They have more surplus income if they spend less on their equipment, but their work requires them to risk their lives. They spend their days contemplating this dilemma. Also, many D-class adventurers who live more modest lives than their income allows so that they can make deposits at the Guild in case they suffer severe injuries or lose limbs.

Marriage isn’t impossible, but if D-class adventurers continue to live in towns, they can’t live what can be called financially stable married lives. This means that they would have to find new jobs after retiring.

For adventurers with working spouses, their lifestyles depend on the income of their spouses.

Because of this, when a Guild employee or merchant looks to hire private escorts, there is often a flood of D-class adventurers who have decided that they have reached their limits.

The ability of most adventurers of this class falls somewhere between those who have reached level 50 in a Job like Warrior or Mage, and those who have undergone Job-changes to core Jobs such as Swordsman or X-Attribute Mage.

Most have skills between level 3 and 4.

D-class adventurers are able to at least defeat Rank 3 monsters on their own, and it is considered only natural for veteran D-class adventurers to be able to defeat Rank 4 monsters.

• C-class adventurers

To be promoted to this class, one must pass a simple etiquette test and a written examination.

Also, most people experience a “talent wall” at which it becomes incredibly difficult to level up, at least once before becoming capable of being promoted to C-class. Thus, it is necessary for them to be able to overcome this wall.

Because of this, C-class adventurers are relied upon more than usual, and if they return to their hometowns, they are welcomed back as accomplished individuals. Also, adventurers of this class and above are recruited by noblemen and merchants.

Direct requests from noblemen and wealthy merchants become mixed with their regular work, and some of these employers will try to monopolize the adventurers, so caution is needed for these adventurers if they wish to maintain a free social status.

Many C-class adventurers live like wealthy middle-class citizens. They live about as well as those with equestrian and knight court ranks, and honorary barons without land.

C-class adventurers own a house that they use as a base, installed with magical stoves and other household Magic Items, allowing them to live in luxury.

Many of them also equip themselves with arms made of monster materials or magical metals such as Obsidian, as well as Magic Items of Middle-class or higher.

Adventurers of this class have at least gained specialized Jobs such as Swordsman and Axeman, and the majority of them have already undergone a further class-change from there.

Those who have just become C-class have the main skills they use in battle at level 4 at the very least. The average C-class adventurer has skills at level 5 or 6.

C-class adventurers are expected to be able to defeat Rank 5 monsters on their own. Veteran C-class adventurers should be able to defeat Rank 6 monsters on their own, and a party of C-class adventurers should be able to defeat Rank 7 monsters, which include Dragons such as Earth Dragons.

• B-class adventurers

Reaching this class requires one to have multiple significant achievements – such as hunting Dragons alone and clearing dangerous Dungeons.

There is an examination, but it is just an interview, so there are almost none who fail. Those who are told to take the examination have their promotions practically decided already.

B-class adventurers can accept all kinds of requests, and if they complete them successfully, they are paid large sums of money as rewards.

Also, B-class adventurers have higher social statuses than knights or lower noblemen, even if they were born commoners. Even in large nations, they live only in large cities with tens of thousands of people. It isn’t rare for a B-class adventurer to be the strongest adventurer in a small nation.

B-class adventurers are generally heroes and are acknowledged to be superhumans. B-class adventurers are so revered that a village producing a B-class adventurer can be used as grounds for revitalizing the village. In towns, B-class adventurers are asked to participate in ceremonies and frequently receive handwritten invitations to the weddings of young celebrities they have never met.

Generally, those who are promoted to B-class should give up on living as they like.

B-class adventurers live just as the average person would expect successful adventurers to live.

It is possible for them to make the success story of “buying a mansion, hiring some servants and marrying a beautiful woman” a reality. It isn’t rare for them to marry the beautiful Guild receptionist that all of the adventurers admire. Marrying a daughter of a noble family is possible as well.

Even after retirement, they do not have to worry about finding other work. They can work as staff of all kinds of Guilds or serve as combat instructors for noble families. There are more than a few B-class adventurers who have saved enough or have a successful side business, which enables them to not have to work for the rest of their lives.

Their wealth far exceeds that of lords of regions that have only a few villages.

Many B-class adventurers have gone through at least five Jobs, including apprentice-type Jobs.

Their skills are level 6 at minimum; the average B-class adventurer has level 7 skills.

Also, more than half of adventurers at this class possess Titles.

B-class adventurers are expected to be able to defeat Rank 7 or 8 monsters, monsters that would be able to destroy entire towns on their own. Parties of B-class adventurers are sometimes requested to exterminate Rank 9 monsters designated as disasters.

• A-class adventurers

The criteria for promoting to A-class varies depending on the times. It can be said that the criteria is that one must be someone who would leave their names in history through deeds such as defeating monsters designated as disasters alone.

They are national heroes, with more influence than noblemen during times of crisis. Even during times of peace, they cannot be ignored. In smaller nations, they receive offers of marriage to members of royal families, and agents are dispatched from larger nations to recruit them.

A-class adventurers are generally acknowledged as heroes that appear in legendary folk songs. They are so prominent that even undesired stone and bronze statues of them will be built and songs, plays and biographies will be written about them. Because of this, they must preemptively nominate artists themselves and give them authorization to create such works.

A-class requests generally ask for adventurers by name, so there are almost none posted on walls of Adventurers’ Guild branches.

Their rewards are great, and some of these requests must be treated with confidentiality as they can influence the fate of the entire nation.

However, there are also requests for adventurers to visit daughters of important families under the pretense of acting as an escort.

The moment one becomes an A-class adventurer, he must stop believing in the illusion of adventurers being self-employed, free individuals who are free from matters concerning nations and power.

A-class adventurers live like upper-class noblemen. They possess a mansion fully-equipped with convenient Magic Items, own several villas and employ numerous exceptional servants. It would be difficult for them to live difficult lives.

It is normal for them to be married to several women, and there are many who engage in charitable work such as the management of orphanages as well.

They are exactly as wealthy as commoners imagine noblemen to be.

It is difficult to measure the abilities of A-class adventurer. The average A-class adventurer has experienced at least seven Jobs and the main skill that they use in battle is level 10.

Also, it is normal for them to possess multiple Titles. It isn’t rare for them to have unique skills or the divine protection of a god.

It is expected that they would be able to exterminate Rank 9 monsters, which would cause a national crisis for a smaller nation if they emerged from a Devil’s Nest, on their own.

• S-class adventurers

The requirements for promotion to this class are ambiguous. It is a status bestowed upon those whose power exceeds A-class adventurers, who are considered superhumans among superhumans themselves. Their achievements are left behind in not only legends, but also in myths.

As S-class adventurers are powerful enough to annihilate a small nation on their own, they generally have strings attached to them from somewhere.

Their influence is so great that if one were working in a small nation, even a large nation wouldn’t be able to ignore his presence and would willingly cancel their own plans of invading that nation.

There are no requests that are limited to S-class adventurers only. In general, they accept tasks that are personally requested of them.

What is known about how they lived is only what has been left in the records. These are full of imaginable things such as purifying entire Devil’s Nests to turn them into habitable land on their own, and defeating corrupt kings to usurp their thrones.

The Thunderclap Schneider is the only person to become an S-class adventurer in the past hundred years. If he is to be taken as an example, S-class adventurers live absurd lives. He has taken countless lovers, engaged in multiple charitable efforts and possesses a mansion with so many servants and slaves that they could make a small village.

S-class adventurers are more powerful than A-class adventurers, but there are no clear standards. However, they often possess a superior skill.

They are expected to be able to defeat enemies such as Elder Dragons and evil gods, mythical beings that can threaten the very existence of great nations.

Bonus information:

1. The Green Wind Spear Riley was an A-class adventurer, but he was fraudulently promoted to this status due to the Guild Master in the Mirg shield-nation being bribed and blackmailed by Earl Thomas Palpapek.

Because there are no clear requirements for promotion to A-class, there are past cases where such fraudulent promotion has occurred.

Also, the largest reason for Riley’s bad reputation in the Adventurers’ Guild and elsewhere is because he had taken Gennie among his criminal slaves that he used as party members.

Gennie was a C-class adventurer who became a slave because he did inhumane things to adventurers who were supposed to be his relatives. Riley strutted through the Adventurers’ Guild with such an individual accompanying him, so it was only natural for his reputation with not only the reception lady, but the other adventurers as well, to fall.

1. Marrying the reception lady is a goal for any male adventurer, but it is not as if every Adventurers’ Guild receptionist is young, beautiful and single, nor does the Guild require receptionists they hire to meet these criteria.

However, a successful marriage with an adventurer is acknowledged as a much more realistic dream than marrying the son of a nobleman or a prince on a white horse, and the salary is high as well. Thus, it is a popular occupation that has a great number of applicants whenever the Guild is recruiting.

The Adventurers’ Guild is also aware of the popularity of such receptionists, so while they maintain that such criteria do not exist, they often choose to hire beautiful women.

1. Talosheim, a city of five thousand people, had multiple A-class adventurers including the Sword King Borkus, as well as a great number of B-class and C-class adventurers.

This would normally be considered abnormal, but as there were multiple Devil’s Nests around the city and it was in an environment where the nation would face difficulties if Dungeons were not explored, Talosheim had an abnormal number of powerful individuals.

1. Vandalieu’s Attribute Values, such as Vitality and Strength, are low compared to adventurers because of his young age. He has yet to undergo his second growth period, so his Attribute Values are lower.

It can be assumed that this will be resolved as he grows older.