Chương 7: Chapter 6: A Rook Candidate Appears to be Promoted

After not being able to convince Himari, I tried to explain further as to why I am still cautious of humans and demons. I asked her, if they find out about my power, do you think I am strong enough to fight both sides to the death? With the sheer amount of powerful people and hidden secrets, I highly doubt it is enough to handle everything. Himari finally calmed down and, thinking about it, could only nod and agree.

She then said, "I guess you still have people to protect, and your high level cannot protect everyone if everyone else is weaker. Fine, I will train, but I will make you my goal. I don't know how long it will take, but someday I, too, will become level 3875 or even higher. I will definitely show you and Lucy, with her level 1154, that I, too, will become strong one day and bring peace to the world." With that, Himari went back to train, suddenly having a newfound drive to get stronger.

I then went with Lucy to the meeting room to discuss what to do next. Currently, all the top members of the organization are out on missions, leaving only me and Lucy. As for those under the Rook rank, they have somewhat restricted access to go outside, as Pawns are far too weak to make a difference, and I had no intention of letting them die. As for Knights and Bishops, they usually range from level 150 to 250, so they are free to go outside on reconnaissance missions and minor tasks.

They are not nearly strong enough to participate in any direct confrontation, so they can be left out of the current meeting. This just goes to show me further how I lack personnel, which causes me to have to get involved sometimes for more minor things like spying on the Demon Lord. I then talked with Lucy about the current situation. It seems the demons have some strange way to get stronger. The current Demon King is already at such a high level in just a few years and might attack the humans soon.

I feel that the demons have gained some advantage over the humans, and we were wrong that the humans were in the lead. Though the current situation is stable, so let's just wait and see. What do you think? Lucy then gave her insight, "I think that is the best course of action, but I also think we should investigate the demons' sudden gain in power. Increasing their power so fast out of nowhere is strange; there might be some conspiracy."

I then said, "We lack manpower right now and I don't feel like sacrificing anyone or taking any unnecessary risks. So, let's let the humans probe the situation first." Lucy then said, "Fine, let's just wait and see; it's not like either side can do anything to us right now with how strong you and I are." With that, the first topic of the meeting was finished. Now, I asked Lucy about current affairs.

"How has Himari been since coming to Equilibrium? Has she settled in and been informed about basic things?" Lucy then said, "I have told her a rough understanding of how to get stronger, how to use the system, and how our organization operates. She should have a firm understanding of the situation." I then said, "How long would it take her to reach Knight rank at the current pace? As with the current situation with the Demon King, she should play a part as the current hero.

With her identity as the hero, we won't have to reveal ourselves in this coming war." Lucy then said, "With her current rate of growth, reaching at least level 150 and gaining recognition would take at least another year." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I then felt it was reasonable, as it was not so long that the kingdom would find it suspicious that the hero just disappeared and had no news of her.

I then ordered, "Then just keep watching her to continue her growth. I want her to be at least strong enough to not die when the time comes." Lucy replied, "I understand. I will continue to help her grow." With that said, I ended the short meeting as there was not much to discuss with just the two of us. With that, I went back to my office to continue my tasks as the head of the organization. I usually hand out missions to those available and make sure that nobody dies.

Days passed like this and I continued my work until something needed my attention on the matter. It was a request to be promoted to Rook rank. This situation wasn't uncommon as being promoted to Rook was quite difficult. There are so few people to give their approval to promote a Rook. So, most of the time when someone wanted to be promoted, they file a request when they felt strong enough. Most of the time, the strength simply wasn't enough and they failed, or they still haven't met the criteria to be promoted.

There was a way to bypass all of it and it was to gain my approval, but as I don't want them to be promoted until they are ready, I usually don't promote. In this way, only seven Rooks exist today, with many failing and retrying again. This time, the one applying for Rook was the strongest Knight currently in the organization. She was from the demonic continent and was recruited by Lucy. She was called Thea and had long silver hair, short horns, a slender body, and looked typical for a demoness.

Though you could describe her as quite beautiful. She was recruited a few hundred years ago when she had a falling out with the demonic continent as she no longer agreed with the current way of doing things. She was one of the generals of the Demon King's army and at the time was level 213, so she was quite powerful. Now, though, after hundreds of years, she has reached level 298 and had long reached the level threshold for being promoted to Rook.

As for why she wasn't promoted: she didn't have the qualities to be promoted as she tends to rush into situations using brute force. I wanted her to become more careful before being promoted; otherwise, she might not fit for any missions. As for why people in the organization want to be promoted enough to constantly apply, it was due to my reward system. In the Outsider system, there is a "Head" system, which is the first person to get the Outsider system.

Everyone else has a "Side" system; though it is quite similar in usage, the head system has a feature that no one else has. This feature is called "EXP Boost." With this feature, I can make you gain more experience points than normal. Whether it be to level up or improve your skills, it lets you do so much faster. The drawback, though, is that it costs points to give it to others and buy it for myself. The points are gained every time I add someone to the Outsider system and when I myself level up.

Currently, I've gathered quite a few points, but I still wanted to be careful who I gave it to. So, when someone gets promoted to Knight or Bishop, I give them a 1. 25 times experience boost. When they reach Rook, I give them a 1. 5 times experience boost. For Lucy, the Queen, I gave her a 2 times experience boost. As for myself, I of course gave myself the best at a 3 times experience boost. This made me level so fast compared to others.

So with such high rewards, of course, people wanted to be promoted whenever they could. Though with each promotion, they are given tasks to match their rank, but compared to growing strong faster, the tasks most of the time seem minor. I then looked at Thea's file again wondering what to do, I then decided to call her in for another assessment. Perhaps this time she won't fail due to her carelessness again. Thea quickly came and greeted me, asking, "What might you have called me for?"

I then replied, "I am going to administer your Rook promotion again. Have you improved what I told you last time?" Thea then replied, "I have, and I will for sure be promoted to Rook this time." Seeing the determination on her face, I was quite expectant that she would pass this time as she was quite close last time but still failed. Thea had failed dozens of times over the years and had improved every time, but correcting her bad habits is quite difficult and could only be slowly changed.

Each attempt of hers was quite spaced out due to this, so seeing her try again after so long, maybe she really has the means to reach Rook rank this time. I then told Thea, "Let's go to the usual training hall to test if you have what it takes this time." Thea then replied, "I understand." I then followed Thea out of the office, heading to the training hall to see if the organization finally gained another Rook after so long.