When Roland returned to the inn, Galvez had just come back from "repairing" the carriage wheel.

The bard was urgently explaining himself to Avril, his face stiff with embarrassment.

The moment he saw Roland, Galvez ducked behind him like a drowning man catching hold of driftwood and lowered his voice in pleading.

"Roland, I know I was wrong. I will never exaggerate our adventures again, so..."

He stole a glance at the short bow clenched in the Elf girl's hand, then at the playful smile in her eyes, and shivered.

"About letting Avril train me... can we call that off?"

"Heh..."

Roland looked at the bard's pitiful expression and let out a soft laugh. Then he clapped his hands.

"All right, Avril. Stop scaring Galvez. Go call Teresa over. We need to discuss whether to accept the Adventurer's Guild certification."

Since Roland had spoken, Avril finally put away her teasing look.

Before long, all four of them were gathered in the room.

Just as the Elf girl had expected, Galvez had no objection to becoming an A-rank adventurer team. He was so excited that he plucked his strings on the spot and launched into a stirring movement.

Matched with his extravagant lyrics, anyone who did not know the truth might have mistaken them for heroes who had saved the world and were on their way to receive the adoration of thousands.

"Enough, Galvez..."

Roland rubbed his aching temples and cut off the impromptu performance.

"Since no one objects, Teresa, Avril, come with me to the Adventurer's Guild tomorrow and see what procedures are left for the certification. As for you, Galvez..."

He turned to the bard, who still looked reluctant to stop, and gave his shoulder a firm pat.

"Prepare all the supplies we need for the road tomorrow morning. If everything goes smoothly, we leave for the Royal Capital at noon."

After a few more reminders, they went downstairs together to the hall.

To celebrate the temporary end of this adventure, they indulged in a large table of rich dishes.

Roland chewed savory food, sipped fragrant wine, and listened to Galvez's singing. The tension that had been strung through him for days finally loosened.

Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they returned to their rooms to rest.

After a simple wash, Roland lay down on the soft bed.

Moonlight shone bright beyond the window. Before he knew it, his thoughts blurred, and sleep took him.

Early the next morning, everyone split up according to plan.

Roland brought Teresa and Avril with him. Along the way, they fielded admiring looks and wave after wave of cheers from passersby before entering the Adventurer's Guild.

However, they did not meet that mysterious woman Lilith today.

The governor of the River Kingdoms Adventurer's Guild seemed to have anticipated that Roland's group would accept the certification, so she had left town the previous night.

The entire certification process was handled by Larry, the fair-featured receptionist.

It went more smoothly than expected. In less than half a day, Roland's four-person team officially advanced from an ordinary adventurer team into an A-rank adventurer team certified by the Adventurer's Guild.

"This badge is so cool!"

After walking out of the guild, Avril lifted the A-rank adventurer team badge Larry had just issued into the sunlight and studied it, her eyes bright with curiosity.

"Roland, do you know what material this is? It looks like gold, but the feel... seems different..."

Hearing the question, Roland examined the badge in his own hand.

The main body was a finely forged, dark-gold, shield-shaped emblem. Relief patterns of intertwined thorns and roses wound around its edge.

At the center of the shield face was a crystal "A." When light refracted through it, a blue halo rose within it like starlight.

When he turned it over, he saw a tiny guild maxim engraved on the back.

Courage and wisdom walk together.

"It is adamantine."

Relying on the knowledge old blacksmith Hawk had taught him, Roland identified the badge's material almost at once. The realization still startled him.

Adamantine, named alongside mithril, was one of the rarest metals on the continent.

Its hardness was enough to shatter ordinary metal and stone with ease, and weapons forged from it were rumored to pierce any defense.

But unlike mithril, which still had fixed places of origin, adamantine veins had no definite distribution pattern even now.

Searching for its ore deposits required enormous manpower and resources. Even after a successful survey, the yield was often pitifully small.

Judging from what Hawk had taught him, this small and exquisite badge alone probably consumed most of the output from an adamantine deposit.

That alone showed the Adventurer's Guild's astonishing depth of wealth.

More importantly, as far as Roland knew, only the Dwarves currently possessed the technique to forge adamantine.

To convince a people who valued rare metals more than life itself, and whose tempers were harder than mountain stone, to use adamantine to forge a badge with no practical combat value...

The Adventurer's Guild's relationship with the Dwarves had to be extremely close.

"Adamantine?"

After hearing Roland's judgment, Teresa and Avril cried out softly in unison.

Although Teresa was not as widely traveled as Galvez, the knowledge granted by the God of Truth meant she had heard of this rare metal.

As for Avril, that went without saying.

Before the Final Era, the Elves and Dwarves had once enjoyed a brief "honeymoon period," so her people's ancient texts must contain detailed records about adamantine.

"That is... extravagant..."

After learning the badge's material, the Elf girl played with it in high spirits, then blinked at Roland with mischief in her eyes.

"Roland, if one day we get so poor we can't put food on the table, can we sell this thing and make a comeback?"

Roland shook his head and laughed.

"In theory, yes. But... I hope we never need that fallback."

Chatting and laughing, the three returned to the inn.

Galvez had already prepared the supplies for the return journey.

After accepting the badge, the well-traveled bard recognized its material almost immediately, just as Roland had. What he said next made Roland rub his aching brow.

"Roland! This thing is adamantine, right?"

"I remember your forging skill is pretty good. Can you melt this thing down, cast it into a tulip, and inlay it onto my harp? Right here... I think this spot would be perfect!"

He gestured excitedly across the body of the harp, while Avril actually stood beside him and offered suggestions with a completely serious face.

Looking at this pair of troublemakers, a strange thought popped into Roland's mind.

"Are the Elves in this world... all this restless?"

He shook off the odd idea and called everyone onto the carriage.

With the horses' neighs, Galvez skillfully drove the carriage toward the city gate.

The guards respectfully let them pass without even inspecting them.

Before long, the carriage vanished beyond the horizon.

Because they had accepted commissions one after another and subjugated monsters along the way, Roland's group was now some distance from the Royal Capital. Fortunately, the return trip was peaceful.

Aside from the occasional monster foolish enough to attack their camp at night, only to be dealt with easily, the journey went smoothly.

However, they encountered far more mercenaries and adventurers along the road than they had on the way out, and the change left Roland uneasy.

Through the carriage window, he saw a young mercenary showing off his trophies by the roadside, then lowered the curtain without a word.

"As Mana Elements recover, monster activity is becoming more frequent..."

Roland thought to himself.

"I have to improve my strength as quickly as possible. Right now, even a monster like a Bugbear, recorded in ancient texts as merely average, requires me to fight with everything I have and rely on my companions' help to defeat it. Then what about the other powerful monsters that vanished into history because Mana Elements dried up?"

With that thought in mind, Roland listened to Teresa and Avril talking about food beside him and closed his eyes.

Before long, his chest began to rise and fall in a steady rhythm. His breathing turned even, and the battle aura in his body, hot as flame, began to circulate in a stable pattern.

The journey passed without incident.

Under Galvez's skilled handling, the carriage traveled day and night, reaching the Royal Capital in only half a month.

"We're finally back!"

After passing the gate guards' inspection, Avril was the first to jump down from the carriage. She stretched, then waved goodbye to Roland.

"Roland, I have to report to Shadow Veil first. If nothing unexpected happens, I'm coming over tonight to eat stew you made!"

Before her words had fully landed, the Elf girl had disappeared into the crowded street, light on her feet as a deer in the forest.

Watching her leave, Galvez's tense body visibly relaxed. He turned to Roland with a smile.

"Then we..."

"Go home, of course."

"Gladly!"

As the carriage moved forward, the familiar salty sea breeze blew against their faces.

Although they had not spent very long in the River Kingdoms, that familiar scent made Roland feel especially close to home.

"I wonder if Mr. Bronson has been eating on time..."

Thinking of the scholar who had become even more neglectful of sleep and meals after receiving research funds, Roland shook his head.

Although he had asked Hobby to look after him before leaving, Bronson's habit of losing himself in experiments was probably enough to give even that good-tempered Halfling a headache.

However, when the carriage entered the courtyard, the scene before Roland was entirely outside his expectations.

Several sheets of parchment were scattered across the small stone table, and ink that had not yet dried glimmered faintly in the sunlight.

At this time of day, Bronson should normally have been shut inside the house with his head buried in research. Yet now, breaking completely from habit, he stood by the table and gestured wildly while explaining something.

His face was flushed with excitement, and flecks of spit flew from his mouth as he spoke.

Clearly, the scholar had made full use of Roland's absence.

And his loyal audience, the Halfling Hobby, sat properly on a stone chair, listening to Bronson's explanation with great interest while writing at speed.

The quill scratched across the parchment almost without stopping.

Only after the carriage stopped and Roland's group walked closer did Bronson finally come back from his excited state. He scratched his head awkwardly.

But in the next second, his eyes lit up. He rushed forward in three quick steps, grabbed Roland's shoulders, and spoke in a trembling voice.

"Roland! You're finally back! I have tremendous good news to tell you!"

"Good news?"

Seeing Bronson's excitement, Roland did not rush to ask.

He first nodded to Hobby and invited him to stay for dinner, then made a "do as you please" gesture to Teresa and Galvez before pulling Bronson into the room.

In complete contrast to its messy state before his departure, the room was now clean and orderly.

Scattered items had been neatly put away, and all kinds of research materials had been sorted by category and placed on the bookshelves.

"Looks like Hobby has been taking good care of Mr. Bronson..."

After looking around, Roland sat down on a wooden chair and asked eagerly,

"Mr. Bronson, has your elemental fusion theory made a breakthrough?"

He clearly remembered the idea Bronson had proposed before.

Using a specific method to fuse Mana Elements of different attributes.

If this theory could truly be put into practice, it would not only greatly increase the power of his [Fire Bolt], but also produce many varied effects, greatly benefiting his strength.

"Uh... that... not yet, for the time being..."

Bronson scratched his head in embarrassment, then took a silver-chain pendant from his coat.

The teardrop-shaped obsidian pendant carried dark-red lines beneath the sunlight, like threads of coagulated blood.

"Roland, do you still remember this thing?"

"This is..."

Roland recognized the item at a glance.

This was the trophy he had obtained after defeating the avatar of the mastermind behind the Church of Truth during the incident at Far Harbor.

Although he had judged at the time that it was a magical item, he did not know the spell effect engraved within it, so he had temporarily handed it to Bronson for safekeeping and research.

"Roland, you absolutely cannot guess what spell is engraved in this magical item!"

Bronson paused deliberately, but before Roland could ask, he hurried to reveal the answer.

"It is [Death Ward]!"

"[Death Ward]?"

Roland's pupils contracted.

As a fourth-circle spell, [Death Ward] had a simple but powerful effect.

It could resist one instant-death attack.

As long as the damage did not reach the threshold of breaking the laws, this spell could let the user escape disaster, essentially granting a second life.

Thinking of this, Roland's breathing quickened.

"Mr. Bronson, then... can I use this magical item to cast [Death Ward]?"

"Of course!"

Bronson answered without hesitation.

"The original purpose of creating magical items was to make spellcasting more convenient while reducing mental power consumption. However..."

He added with some embarrassment,

"Like other magical items, this one has already cast [Death Ward] once, so the Mana Elements inside have been completely exhausted. But..."

The scholar strode to the bookshelf, pulled a thick stack of notes from the layered parchment, and placed them on the table.

"During this period, I made a major discovery! Although it is still only theoretical, if I combine it with the Mana Element extraction circuits I researched before, I can absolutely restore this magical item to working condition with a bit more time!"

At this point, Bronson added with regret,

"However, the material of this magical item is truly too poor. Even if the restoration succeeds, it will probably only be able to use [Death Ward] one more time."

Hearing this, Roland felt no disappointment at all.

After all, this was a fourth-circle spell.

With his current strength, even with the help of the occupation panel, it would normally take a very long time before he could touch power at this level.

Now, obtaining a one-use life-saving method was already an unexpected delight.

Looking at Bronson's confident appearance, Roland laughed softly and took out a ring set with a cloudy crystal from his belt pouch, placing it in the scholar's hand.

"Mr. Bronson, then I'll have to trouble you... to help me restore the function of this magical item as well."