Who Says I'm Not a Proper Adventurer?
Chapter 19: Fire Thief

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Fire Thief

For such a special Profession, conventional attribute stacking and skill practice were nowhere near enough to meet the threshold.

Its only mandatory requirement is that the aspirant must achieve a certain kind of accomplishment in this world.

Just as its name implies, it is a heroic feat—a mortal reaching for myth.

The most typical example is the widely renowned Heroic Profession from history, the Fire Thief.

To qualify for this Profession, a challenger must successfully steal a top-level core secret or piece of Knowledge from a massive organization that wields absolute authority.

And reveal it to the public.

But even that is not enough.

After revealing the secret, the challenger cannot flee. They must remain where they are and wait calmly.

Only by surviving the organization’s most brutal retaliation is the "heroic feat" considered finally complete, thereby granting the qualification for the Profession.

Although Gideon didn’t know the specifics of the heroic feat the Rosenthal Clan needed to complete.

But it was well known that to undertake that final Heroic Profession, the family heir’s initial Profession had to be a Rare Profession. This was a strict requirement.

This was also why the path of a common Profession was simply not an option for Cecilia.

Within Violet Academy’s current repository of Professions, the available Rare Magic System Professions had far too many restrictions for a Half-Elf like her.

At this thought, Gideon fell into deep contemplation.

’If I keep her at Violet for my own selfish reasons, I’d just be wasting a child with the talent for Legendary potential.’

’In the age of the Hero, only the Hero’s Legendary companions possessed this level of Talent.’

The office fell silent.

Seeing the professor’s deeply furrowed brow, Cecilia lowered her head.

She felt a deep sense of guilt for causing the professor so much trouble.

Gideon finally let out a long sigh.

’As a mentor, I can’t hold this girl back for the sake of the academy’s pride.’

He made his decision.

He planned to write a letter of recommendation for the young woman, sending her to study with their old rivals at the Southern Mage Alliance.

’This will be a tremendous loss for Violet Academy.’

His heart aching, Gideon pulled open a drawer, preparing to take out his quill.

However, his gaze fell on a half-written letter inside the drawer.

The reply, originally intended to mock his old friend in Gray Rock Town, seemed to glow at this very moment.

An idea suddenly flashed through Gideon’s mind.

"Cecilia."

He suddenly raised his voice, startling the guilt-ridden young woman.

"Present!"

Cecilia quickly straightened her back and responded.

Gideon looked at her, a smile returning to his eyes.

"Moving forward, Violet Academy will be establishing a collaborative off-campus internship program with the Gray Rock Town Adventurer’s Guild."

"The Guild President in Gray Rock Town might just have a lead on a Rare Mage Profession that has no racial restrictions."

Gideon steepled his fingers under his chin, his tone serious.

"I can recommend you for this internship team."

"If you can achieve an excellent score in the internship assessment, you will receive the information needed to acquire this Profession."

"Do you have the confidence to face this challenge?"

It was an incredible turn of events.

Cecilia’s previously dim eyes instantly lit up, her face breaking into an expression of unconcealable, pleasant surprise.

She immediately stood up from her chair and gave Gideon a deep bow.

The young woman lifted her head, her face blooming into a radiant smile that revealed several of her neat teeth. It was less demure, but held more of the liveliness befitting her age.

"Thank you, Professor! I will definitely achieve an excellent score!"

Seeing his student so revitalized, Gideon smiled in gratification.

"However, this internship is two weeks from now."

"Go back and prepare well. Focus especially on studying the Wilderness Survival content in the Adventurer’s Manual."

"Go on now."

Cecilia thanked him again and left the office with a light step, her very footfalls radiating joy.

As the door closed.

Inside the office.

The smile on Professor Gideon’s face, present just a moment ago, instantly vanished.

With a pained look on his old face, he slowly took the letter out of the drawer.

Magic Power surged from his fingertips.

On the page, the harsh, gloating words meant to mock the recipient’s predicament were erased bit by bit by the Magic Power.

Gideon took a deep breath, picked up his quill, and wrote a new line at the top of the letter:

"My dear old brother, Necros..."

...

「Seven days later.」

「Early morning, Gray Rock Town, Adventurer’s Guild.」

Lance sat behind the Guild counter, mechanically sorting through the week’s mission reports while his mind took stock of his recent gains.

The past week had been both full and intense.

He had found time to go to Copper Creek Forest twice more, specifically choosing less-traveled routes, and had finally gathered enough Blood Coagulation Moss.

According to the system’s progress bar, he just needed to complete the final drying process when he got back tonight, and the research quest for the improved hemostatic ointment formula would be complete.

This gave him a slight sense of security.

But coexisting with his gains was a growing sense of unease.

During these last few trips, Lance had kept the system entry that monitored the environment active the entire time.

The results of his observations weighed heavily on him.

The green entry representing the region’s status still read "Agitated," but the note following it had changed alarmingly.

[The fluctuation range of this area’s environmental stability has been adjusted to 8%.]

A week ago, that number had been 5%.

That extra 3% meant the instability within the forest was intensifying.

The daily increase in casualty reports at the Guild also confirmed this.

This sense of urgency meant Lance didn’t dare to slack off.

He had been training like a madman all week.

In addition to his unwavering Swordsmanship drills, he also forced himself to practice with his Bow and Arrow for a full hour in the training room each day.

Lance called up his system panel, his gaze sweeping over the two lines in the Skills section.

[Castro Swordsmanship Level 3 (176/250)]

After this period of intense training, this military Swordsmanship was on the verge of breaking through to the Master Level (Level 4).

And below it, a new line of text had appeared.

Inspired by his last experience with the Botany book, this time he hadn’t looked for a teacher to learn the Skill. Instead, he spent 6 Silver Coins on a book about Archery.

’It turns out that also generates a Skill. I guess paying for a teacher last time was a bit of a rip-off.’

’Then again, the guy was from the veterans’ guild. Maybe that connection will come in handy later.’

[Levin Archery Level 2 (42/240)]

But the difference between them led him to discover a pattern.

’At the same Level, the experience required to level up the Archery Skill is much higher than for Swordsmanship.’

’And the Attribute bonuses they provide are completely different.’

’From the entry level until now, Swordsmanship has sporadically given me about 3 points in Basic Attribute bonuses.’

’But leveling up my Archery Skill once didn’t give me any Attribute increase at all.’

’So it seems it’s not true that the harder a Skill is to train, the greater the boost.’