Day 151-160/Day 152

Day 152
Another morning of training was completed, so I decided to wander around the Royal Capital today. When I did so, I was swarmed by people interested in joining Parabellum. Based on a quick head count, I’d guess that around 60 people have gathered.
There was a soldier who wore typical light leather armor, a tiger-eared [Beastman], a warrior who uses a short bow, a young warrior equipped with a sword, flail and buckler, and quite a few other people. The people gathered here were from various races and possessed various jobs and skills. I didn’t go out yesterday, so I didn’t understand the situation at first. Apparently, a group of adventurers and mercenaries were waiting around the Amber Palace where we have been staying.
Having waited all day long, the group reacted to my presence and quickly scrambled in the hopes of joining first. In the end, the commotion attracted the attention of the curious onlookers who then formed a huge mob that one could barely hope to move around in.
Since I thought it might be a problem if I try and get through them, I screened the crowd for suspicious people. In doing so, I was able to catch several hidden assassins that were prepared to target me, all of which I plan to eat later.
It will probably end up being bothersome if I stayed in front of the gate for too long, so I decided that a rough interview would be conducted by the large fountain at the central park. I let a small smile leak out as I thought that from behind, the figure of the applicants moving in succession looked just like a line of spot-billed ducks waddling along. Naturally, this caused me to smile wryly. Still, it really would be troublesome if they all ran off at once.
It also seems that a good number of them went off to call their companions from other places as we moved. I resigned myself with a sigh and hurried to the destination, since I didn't want the number of people to increase any further or else it would be troublesome to listen to them all.
By the time we arrived at the central park, the number of people seemed to have swelled up well past the original number. If I had to give a rough estimate… sigh… it’s probably nearly 200 people.
Since it would be sad if I expected something interesting only to find not a single soul of note, I tried to keep my expectations as low as possible. For my mood’s sake if nothing else. Ah, by the way, even though an interview is important in general, nearly thirty people who saw the process lost their interest and left.
Every last one of them was really no different from the others. Even though there were a few who seemed useful, it felt like it was a general waste of time. I didn’t know how long that line would get, but as time passed, the number of people just kept getting larger and showed no signs of getting smaller.
To be honest, there wouldn’t have been any issues even if I didn’t take in a single one of these people into our group. The base already has a good number of members as it is, and with the new Goblins and Hobgoblins being born at a constant rate, the population's growth rate is under no real threat of slowing down in the future.
There’s plenty of war potential in reserve, though it’s necessary to train and teach them until they are usable. I can improvise and supply more than enough war potential with my hordes of black skeletons in less than 10 minutes. On top of that, the Black Fomorians can be used during the daytime without any problems.
Even though it’s a bit late to do so now, in the future, they might be able to help out in many ways in terms of defense. After giving it a slight bit of thought, I made up my mind to at least finish all the interviews.
At the same time, it would be beneficial to immediately find talented people who could help out in various operations. There should be many that could prove useful at the very least. I have to at least figure that there’s probably plenty of trouble waiting to get mixed up with me in the future as well.
Saying that, I decided to present a single condition to the members who had gathered in order for them to officially join Parabellum. It was something along the lines of, “All you need to do is win 3 rounds during the Tournament of Heroes.”
The Tournament of Heroes is a fighting tournament that's often held these days, which is set up for the general populace to compete and show off their strength. Occurring once every 3 years, it’s a large event that is held in the Royal Capital of the Sternbild Kingdom’s Colosseum. This year marks the 50th time it’s been held.
From what I can gather, the event is always advertised on a large scale, with posters and banners spread all around the Royal Capital. The Royal Capital is currently filled with far more vigor than usual, as the number of human visitors and participants who brought their own gear increases.
Due to it being the 50th occasion, the number of members from the nobility and royal families of other countries has also increased. Naturally, civil servants were negotiating with the [Chivalric Order of Knights] from other countries for their safety, so there’s probably going to be a large number of representatives from them participating in the festival as well.
In other words, there’s a small possibility that I can actually legally eat the Heroes and [Great Heroes] from other countries. Just the thought of this made me hungry. I kind of have the expectation that Heroes and Great Heroes taste like bacon. Just thinking about the unknown quality of the meat, the hardness of their bones, the taste of their blood, and the abilities that I could obtain… It all just makes me drool at the thought. Sigh, can’t they arrive any faster?
Returning to the tournament’s explanation, it’s said that several thousand people participate on average. The reason why so many participants gather time after time is that the champion and the top 16 all receive great prizes. The premium prizes given out to the winners change each year, but based on my investigation of previous years, it seems that various goods are included as prizes, such as the following:
* 【Dragon’s Wisdom】, a well known Dragon slaying blade made from materials taken from a Dragon.
* 5 war Golems made from rare magical metals along with plenty of spare components.
* A Thunder Dragon Spear for training beasts made from the scales of a Lightning Wyvern. It seems to have been capable of producing thunderclouds.
* Disclosure of special information on a number of concealed dungeons within the Sternbild Kingdom, as well as Royal permission to enter them.
* A large amulet containing a jewel that substantially raises one’s vitality.
* The list goes on and on.
They’re all quite extravagant rewards. Personally, along with the information on some dungeons, I’d really like the location of the Lightning Wyverns and of other rare ingredients to be mixed in the package as well. Since the meat that I had from the Jadar Wyvern was really good, I wanted to have some meat from other Wyverns as well.
I expect that the amount of money that gets awarded to the 16th through 9th place participants will be 5 gold plates, eighth to fourth will get 10 plates, with an additional 5 gold plates from the third prize to the Champion’s prize. The Champion of the tournament will probably get 25 gold plates.
It’s so much money that I could probably live my entire life without working or… probably in my case, several years of enjoyment. That is, of course, if you don’t spend it extravagantly. Well, that’s my thoughts on it at least.
Winning and advancing to the 3rd round in the festival in itself is enough proof that you're strong. Hundreds of people will lose in the 1st round, since it's a battle royale format that’s designed to drastically reduce the number of applicants. In addition, like it or not, there’s the possibility of them simply being sacrificial pawns in the future. However, even sacrificial pawns need food, which is an unnecessary burden when you compare it to my black skeletons who live idly and don’t need to eat a scrap of food.
When I presented the condition, I had the thought that they should resign themselves to death and was quite pleased with that. I became motivated as those interested in joining scattered while showing various reactions. Once the interview session ended, I went back as the time had come for us to wander around while we went shopping, as we had actually planned to do from the beginning.
Today’s dinner is grilled steak taken from the remaining meat of the Jadar Wyvern from the other day. With a high temperature, I burned the exterior brown to trap the juices in the meat. I then seasoned it with special salt from a dungeon and a homemade sauce procured in the Royal Capital which gave it a nice smell.
When I took a large bite, the irresistible juices began to overflow as I repeatedly chewed it. I have to say, my appetite has risen greatly these days, I ended up enjoying 5, no 6 huge Wyvern steaks when this happened:
【Ability learned: Wyvern Eye】
...What the hell? Why did I suddenly get an ability? It’s already well past the time limit for that, so I wonder why...
...Wait, now that I think about it, it’s actually strange that I was able to learn abilities from the Red Bear. The time limit might have actually passed back then as well, but I had gotten so confused after that fight that I can’t be certain.
If that’s the case, then maybe my【Absorption】ability may have changed when I came to this world. While speculating about this with serious confusion, I decided to investigate the cause. After encountering such a strange occurrence for the first time, I probably won't manage to get any sleep tonight.
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Category:Novel
Category:Re:Monster Volume 4