Chapter 647

Chapter 647

Judges, Guild Staff Perspective
I’m Beggad, an employee of the Adventurers Guild.
Today, the Adventurers’ Guild is hosting a dismantling event.
The purpose is for those who have never seen a monster before to see how dismantling is done.
For new adventurers to see how well they can dismantle demons.
And for those who can dismantle to have a friendly competition with each other and hone their dismantling skills.
This event is filled with a variety of ideas.
Today, those who are 19 years old or younger will be doing the dismantling work.
If they compete with us veterans, the younger participants will surely lose. The difference in dismantling skills between them and us may even make them lose their motivation. The purpose is to let them compete and grow among the younger participants.
So, from my point of view, everyone is a novice.
No, those two guys, Garde and Deed, are good. They are a step or two ahead of the other participants.
They are fast at dismantling and careful in their processing.
Not only that, but they are as good as any of us when it comes to dismantling things. If they can process any kind of monster, they can join our ranks.
Amidst all these hopefuls for the future, there is a little girl who looks out of place.
She is smaller than my daughter.
I am not sure if she can hold a knife.
I heard that the Guild Master recommended her. Not only that, but I asked her about it, and she said it was to inspire the young people.
In the first place, can such a girl dismantle monsters?
If it were my daughter, I would ban her from even going near a dead monster, let alone dismantle it.
I had come from the Adventurers’ Guild to grade the event as a judge, and I was assigned to the girl and a few others.
No matter how much of a recommendation it was from the Guild Master, I was going to make sure the scoring was correct.
Then, as soon as the master of ceremony said the opening words, the dismantling of the wolves started all at once.
The girl holds her knife and cuts the wolf’s belly without even bothering to look at it.
She is fast.
She is also very good with the knife.
If it were my daughter, I would be too scared to let her hold the knife. But the girl in front of me is not afraid and handles the knife well with her small hands. Even with blood on her hands, she dismantles the wolf without worrying about it.
If it were my daughter, she would cry and hate it if she got blood on her hands. It’s the same for children everywhere.
I wonder what kind of environment a child has to grow up in to acquire this level of dismantling skills at such an early age. Above all, she has a strong heart.
While I was thinking about this, the master of ceremony and the Guild Master began to talk about the girl’s background.
Hearing this, I almost started to cry.
I couldn’t cry at a place like this.
I never thought I would be this sensitive.
What was I like when I was 11 years old?
I was running around with my friends.
I know what the Guild Master meant when she said she would inspire people. If a girl like her is doing dismantling, there is no way for them to stay idle.
They will be thinking that they cannot show their embarrassing side.
My eyes followed the girl.
It is not only the girl that I am grading. There are five people I am in charge of. However, I can’t help but notice the girl. I can’t help but look at the girl’s work.
But it’s not just me. Other graders who are not in charge of the girl also glanced at the girl.
Don’t stare at her. You guys are in charge of someone else.
But I don’t blame them.
That’s how impressive the girl’s dismantling is.
I take my eyes off the girl momentarily and check the others’ dismantling.
That’s my job.
Then, one after another, the participants finish dismantling the wolf. The girl is nearing the end.
Fast.
Among the more than 100 participants, her dismantling speed is among the fastest.
If she continues like this, there is no denying that she will make it through to the first round.
Also, the girl does not slow down until the end, raising her hand to indicate that she has finished dismantling.
I begin the final scoring.
The dismantling procedure, the skill, the handling of the dismantling tools, and the condition of the dismantled wolf.
There is nothing to deduct points from.
The only word that comes to mind is “Amazing”.
Where did the guild master bring such an amazing girl from?
The girl’s final ranking was 13th out of more than 100 participants.
Even though only 19 years old or younger participated, it is still an astounding rank.
After the first round, my friends who were judging together with me gathered around me.
“Hey, what the heck. That girl.” (Judge 1)
“Are you sure she’s 11 years old?” (Judge 2)
“She’s smaller than my son.” (Beggad)
They start fussing about the little girl.
“Damn, I wish I could have seen her up close.” (Judge 1)
“I was pretty close so I could see her, but she was pretty good with the dismantling equipment and procedures.” (Judge 2)
“To put it bluntly, more skillful than any of the new adventurers.” (Judge 1)
“That’s true. Rookie adventurers have never done much dismantling before. It would be a pity to compare them with someone like that.” (Judge 2)
“Everyone is like that in the beginning.” (Beggad)
New adventurers gain experience and grow.
Everyone starts out as a novice. They grow through repeated experiences.
That’s why I wonder.
“If that’s the case, how long has that girl been dismantling?” (Beggad)
How long did it take her to master the art of dismantling? Those of us who have been dismantling for many years can figure it out.
Dismantling one or two bodies is not enough to acquire such skill.
Even if a person has mastered the technique, the mind might be unable to do so. Everyone is afraid of monsters, even if they are dead.
Those who have experienced it know how hard it is to dismantle a bloody body initially.
That little girl used to smile every once in a while. It would take more than a few jobs to reach that level of expertise.
“If what the Guild Master said was true, she had been doing it to support her family.” (Judge 1)
Would my daughter do the dismantling and processing of monsters for us if my wife and I were sick or injured and unable to work?
I know it’s a bad idea, but I can’t help but compare it to my own daughter.
My daughter, who has never struggled in her life, would not make it.
“If I were injured and unable to work, would my son do it for me?” (Judge 2)
Like me, I have a buddy who compares her to his own child.
We all might be thinking about it.
But where did she hone such an amazing degree of dismantling skills?
It is a rule that guild employees work on the monsters that gather at the Adventurers’ Guild. We don’t ask outsiders to do it. And even if the child asked the Adventurers’ Guild to allow them to do the dismantling, there is no way they would let the child do it.
They would normally be kicked out of the guild.
The only other possibility would be being the daughter of an adventurer.
That, too, is unlikely.
It’s not likely that they would take her with them to kill monsters, and in the first place, would they even let their daughter do the dismantling?
The Guild Master mentioned it was for the sake of the family.
Or maybe some big bear-like man forced her to do it, saying, “Look, you want money for your family, don’t you?”.
If my own daughter grew up in such an environment, I would not be able to stop crying.
“What was the next monster dismantling challenge?” (Beggad)
“Same as last year, Horned Rabbit.” (Judge 1)
The first round is determined to be a Wolf just as it is every year, and the second round is not an uncommon monster, although it changes from time to time.
From the third round, it gets a little more difficult and becomes a different monster from last year.
“Horned Rabbit. Next to the Wolf, it’s a good monster to check out the contestants’ dismantling ability.” (Beggad)
A monster that is somewhat different from Wolf, but if you have the basics down, you can dismantle it with no problem.
“Let’s stop talking in this place and start getting ready.” (Beggad)
We start preparing Horned Rabbits.
Then, the second round of 60 people begins.
I’m assigned to that girl again.
And then the second round begins, and the girl dismantles the Horned Rabbit with the same familiarity as the Wolf.
No hesitation.
That means she has dismantled it many times, just like the Wolf.
Those judging around her are also glancing at the girl.
They must be curious.
That’s for sure. A girl smaller than their own children is dismantling things. It won’t be strange for them to not be curious about her.
And they want to cheer her on.
As a judge, I can’t favor her, but there is a part of me that is inclined to be lenient in scoring.
But I don’t need to worry about it right now. The girl’s dismantling of the Horned Rabbit was excellent, and she finished the dismantling of the Horned Rabbit with great care. There were no points to be deducted, and she moved up a little higher than her previous position in the order in which she finished the dismantling, and made it through to the second round.
The third round was a Gator.
The master of ceremony signaled the start of the third round.
In our opinion, we all agreed that the gator is impossible.
This is different from the Wolf and the Horned Rabbit. To dismantle it would require a different set of skills and knowledge.
The gator is a monster that only sometimes younger members of the Adventurers’ Guild comes across.
So, the advantage is limited to participants working in the Adventurers’ Guild and those adventurers who can defeat Gators.
At the start, five people offered to abstain.
Those who could not continue would receive a free dismantling lesson later on. So, getting to the third round will not be in vain.
If they can’t do it, they just have to learn.
I thought the girl might also volunteer to abstain, but she is dismantling the Gator.
Not as fast as when she dismantled the Wolf. Sometimes, her hand stops to think, but she dismantles it according to procedure.
She knows how to dismantle a Gator!
I and the other judges around me look at the girl in amazement.
She may be a little inexperienced, but she knows how to dismantle a Gator.
All the judges are cheering her on.
Good luck.
Then, one after another, the top ranker finished dismantling the gators.
Each time the master of ceremony announced the order in which they finished, the remaining ones increased the speed of dismantling.
But even among them, the girl is keeping her own pace in dismantling.
She has great mental strength.
If it were a competition for a position, I would be tempted to increase my own speed because I’m concerned about those around me.
And every year, there are several people whose dismantling products become a mess because of that.
But the girl is not distracted by her surroundings and carefully dismantles the monster.
I want her to pass the third round.
I look around.
The girl’s current ranking is right on the edge of making it through to the third round. Moreover, there are a number of people who are also working fast around her current ranking.
I want you to finish the dismantling as soon as possible.
If the condition of dismantling is the same, the one who finishes the dismantling as soon as possible will be ranked higher.
At first, I was not planning to favor her, but if she finished dismantling the gator so willingly, I would want to cheer her on.
Soon after, the girl finished dismantling the gator.
She was ranked number 20, but three other people also finished at the same time, making a total of four people who finished at number 20 at the same time.
I graded their work.
I am tempted to play favorites, but I must not.
I was almost tempted to be lenient in my scoring.
But regardless of my feelings, the dismantling was excellent.
There was no problem in the dismantling procedure, the use of tools, and the final state of dismantling.
Excellent.
It was perfect.
If we take out the speed of disassembly, it gets a perfect score.
Now, we have to compare it to the other participants.
“Is this correct?” (Beggad)
We show each other our scoring sheets.
“You might want to tell them about this before they get themselves in trouble.” (Judge 1)
“Right. Some of them had complained before about favoritism and made a fuss.” (Beggad)
We head over to the 17th and 18th participants who have finished dismantling before the rankings are announced.
We don’t normally do this, but we do when we feel the event should run smoothly.
The two men who finished 17th and 18th were immediately convinced and didn’t make a fuss when we told them that we had deducted points from them because they had prioritized dismantling speed so much that it was a terrible dismantling, and when we showed them the quality of dismantling work of the other participants.
And no one complained about the ranking, and that girl came in 18th and made it through the third round.
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