God's Tree-Chapter 195: Rank Beyond Reason

The city was strange.

Not a ruin, not a sanctuary, but a militant outpost carved from steel and stone. The streets were orderly, patrolled by soldiers with sharp eyes and stricter discipline. Dozens wore standard military gray, but more impressive were the figures in black armor, each adorned with a glowing pendant denoting their rank.

Adventurers.

Not one pendant was below diamond.

He passed a trio gathered outside a tavern—two with twin daggers, one with a massive cleaver slung across his back. Their pendants gleamed like stars, and their movements were lazy, confident, lethal.

Argolaith quickened his pace.

Soon, he reached a wide stone building marked by an iron sigil: the image of a sword plunging through a mountain. frёeweɓηovel.coɱ

The Adventurers Guild.

He stepped inside.

The main hall was loud and alive. Soot-dark chandeliers hung from high rafters, casting gold light over long tables, stacks of bounty posters, and a bar filled with hardened warriors drinking at midday.

All activity stopped when Argolaith walked in.

It wasn't his presence alone—it was the way he moved.

Calm. Collected. Purposeful.

He walked to the counter, where a young woman in a black jacket leaned over a thick registry book.

She looked up. "Need a bounty sheet? Information? Or a resupply request?"

"I'd like to reevaluate my rank."

Her expression sharpened. "Of course. We have several tests available. When were you last ranked?"

Argolaith hesitated, then answered honestly.

"Silver rank. But… it's been months since I stopped at a guild."

The words echoed across the room.

Silence followed.

It wasn't a respectful silence. It was sharp, frozen, uneasy.

Several adventurers had paused mid-drink.

One of them dropped his mug. Another choked.

The woman at the counter blinked, then gave a tight smile. "Silver… and you want a reevaluation. You understand how rare diamond rank is, yes?"

He nodded. "I'm not asking to skip. Just to show what I've done."

She narrowed her eyes. "Then we'll need proof of a recent kill."

Argolaith glanced over his shoulder, as if trying to gauge how many eyes were on him.

"Alright," he said.

He reached into his storage ring and tapped its inner vault.

With a faint hum, six shimmering bodies materialized behind him, their massive forms reduced but still unmistakable—six high-tier Saint Beasts, their bodies marked with fatal wounds, their auras still lingering with the weight of their power.

The guild fell silent.

One man dropped to his knees.

Another passed out.

At least three mugs of ale shattered on the floor.

The counter girl stared in disbelief.

Argolaith tilted his head. "Will six be enough? If not, I can go kill some more."

The girl's hand trembled as she straightened the collar of her uniform.

"N-No. Six is more than enough."

But her voice dropped slightly.

"You'll still need to take the trial to evaluate your physical and magical capacity. It's policy."

Argolaith frowned.

"I haven't awakened my magic yet. I haven't gathered all five of my trees."

The room, which had just begun to recover from the earlier shock, froze again.

No magic.

Six Saint Beasts.

The implications hit them like a thunderclap.

The woman at the counter inhaled slowly. "You… defeated these without magic?"

Argolaith nodded. "With sword, tactics, and grit."

A slow ripple passed through the room.

No more laughter. No more doubt.

Only a heavy, growing fear.

Because if this boy had done that without magic-

What would he become once his fifth tree awakened?

The girl at the desk—whose nameplate read Marene—cleared her throat and turned slightly, her voice crisp and commanding as she called toward the hallway behind the guild counter.

"Get the advanced evaluation suite ready. Full test battery."

Several staff members poked their heads out from behind a half-curtain.

"Full battery?" one of them blinked. "What for? It's barely midday."

Marene didn't even glance at them. "We've got a Silver rank who wants a reassessment."

A few muffled snorts echoed from the back.

"You woke us up for a Silver?"

"Does he even know what the advanced test is?"

"He'll faint halfway through the strength test like the last two did—"

Marene's voice snapped like a whip. "Just. Set. It. Up."

They grumbled but obeyed, disappearing into the halls.

Argolaith watched with mild interest. "What's the advanced test, exactly?"

Marene turned back toward him, brushing her gloves clean. "Five phases. Designed for high-gold adventurers and up. You will be pushed."

"I'm listening," Argolaith said, crossing his arms.

She raised a finger. "First is the Strength Test. Simple—punch a mana-calibrated crystal as hard as you can. It'll record and display your physical power."

"Second," she continued, "is the Speed Trial. No explanation needed. Don't fall behind."

"Third—Combat Arena. One-on-one. You can use any method, tool, or skill to win. But no killing the evaluator. Try not to break anything… important."

Argolaith gave a slight nod.

Marene then held up four fingers. "Fourth is the Written Evaluation. History, tactics, survival, bestiary ID. If you've wandered the wilds without knowing what bit you, you're probably dead anyway."

She paused, sighed heavily, and then raised her fifth finger with a kind of militant disgust.

"Fifth—Cooking."

He blinked. "Cooking?"

"Yes, cooking!" she snapped, now speaking louder, clearly launching into a well-practiced rant. "Let me tell you something, Mister Heroic-Saint-Beast-Slayer—do you know how many adventurers die of food poisoning? Of starvation? Of misidentifying root stalks from acid thorns? Do you?!"

Argolaith opened his mouth, but Marene didn't wait.

"I've seen Diamond-ranked knights too proud to cook themselves a meal starve halfway to the border! And don't even get me started on the moron who tried to roast a Flame Basilisk like it was poultry!"

She pointed a sharp finger. "If you can't cook, you have no place walking into the abyss. You'll just become part of it."

Argolaith raised his hands slightly in surrender. "Then I'll have to cook a feast."

Marene blinked, momentarily off balance. "A… feast?"

He nodded, smiling faintly. "Can I use the ingredients from my storage ring?"

There was a long pause.

"…yes?" she said slowly, glancing sideways at him as if he'd just asked to build a house out of cloud-matter. Her thoughts raced—What ingredients does he even have? Saint Beasts aren't edible… are they? And magic plants are too volatile for cooking unless you know how to balance them…

But Argolaith was already turning toward the back corridor where the test room had been prepared.

The Strength Test was first.

A glowing crystal the size of a boulder floated at chest height, its surface covered in runes that pulsed gently with magic.

"Place your palm here and strike when ready," a bored attendant said, holding a clipboard.

Argolaith drew a steady breath.

Then he punched.

BOOM.

The crystal flared violently. Runes spiraled like shattered glass, and the whole room shook.

The number blinked into existence: 9,240.

The attendant nearly dropped his clipboard.

"That's… that's above Diamond threshold," he stammered.

Argolaith rolled his shoulder once. "What's next?"