In Lamigium, Vivian was not the strongest adventurer, but she was the captain of the finest adventurer party.
Moreover, every member of that adventurer party had received Vivian's care as a rookie and had grown into Lamigium's foremost adventurers under her guidance.
Not only that, but thanks to Vivian's naturally gentle and kind personality, she had guided many rookies and helped them mature.
As a result, Vivian enjoyed great fame—or rather, popularity—not only in Lamigium but in other towns as well.
Gentle, kind, approachable, a guide for so many rookies, a beautiful young woman, and someone who donned heavy armor and raised a massive shield to protect her companions—without exaggeration, calling her the goddess in people's hearts would not have been an overstatement.
Ryley and Vivian had known each other for a long time, and Ryley trusted Vivian greatly. Whenever the Adventurer's Guild received a troublesome request, she would recommend Vivian to handle it. Whenever something happened at the guild, Ryley would often discuss it with Vivian as well. If a particularly promising rookie appeared, Ryley would even directly recommend that person to join Vivian's adventurer party and receive her guidance.
This strange rookie who had appeared this time could not yet be called especially promising, but if he truly possessed a Unique Skill or Special Skill, then he was worth paying attention to.
"You know as well as I do that Unique Skills and Special Skills often have extraordinary effects unlike ordinary skills. Unique Skills in particular—even if some are completely useless in battle, they can still achieve great things in other fields. Some can even completely change a person's future, allowing them to overcome every disadvantage and ultimately rise above the rest."
Ryley had grown quite serious.
"Basically, anyone who awakens a Unique Skill has the potential to become outstanding in their field. The best examples are the Kingdom's two current royal advisers."
Those two royal advisers were both extremely low-level, neither even having reached Level 10, and neither had learned a single combat skill.
Yet their status in the Kingdom was higher than that of most high-level individuals.
That was because one of the two royal advisers possessed a Unique Skill that greatly increased the success rate of the Taming skill. As a result, he could tame high-level monsters like wyverns in large numbers, providing the Kingdom's Knights with countless wyverns as mounts and creating Dragon Knights one after another. The other possessed a Unique Skill that could rapidly ripen any type of plant, providing a tremendous safeguard for the Kingdom's food supply while drastically shortening the growth periods of countless medicinal ingredients used to craft Magic Potions. He had made a tremendous contribution to turning the Kingdom of Mithra into a famous grain-producing nation and potion-producing nation on the continent.
For that reason, the Kingdom placed extremely high importance on those with Unique Skills. The Adventurer's Guild likewise kept an eye on those who might possess Unique Skills or might awaken them.
If not for that, Shien's information would never have reached Ryley's desk.
"Although the chances of this rookie possessing a Unique Skill are rather low, even having some kind of Special Skill makes him worth watching. It would be even better if he were a genius whose growth had been stunted for some reason. In short, there is no harm in observing him for a while."
That was what Ryley had in mind.
Naturally, Vivian did not mind helping out a rookie.
Or rather, these days, there were not many adventurers left besides Vivian who still had both the patience and goodwill to guide rookies.
What was more, word had already spread about Shien undergoing magical measurement at the Adventurer's Guild today. Putting him into someone else's adventurer party at random was one thing, but whether they would accept him was another. More likely, the adventurers in that party would regard him as trash who could not even learn a skill, then neglect or even insult him.
Taking that into consideration, assigning him to Vivian's adventurer party was a good choice.
It had to be said that Ryley had made an incredibly thorough and appropriate arrangement for a rookie who had only joined today and whose ability to become a full-fledged adventurer was still uncertain. She truly was diligent and responsible.
Even if she had done so because she considered the possibility that Shien possessed a Unique Skill, judging from Shien's situation, that possibility was indeed very low. It was far more likely that he was truly a worthless failure who could not learn even one skill, hardly worth such careful effort.
Perhaps Ryley had gone this far simply because she cared about others?
However—
"My adventurer party has not accepted a male rookie in a very long time. This is a little troubling."
Vivian's troubled words made Ryley shrug as well.
It could not be helped. Besides being exceptional, Vivian's adventurer party had another well-known trait.
That was that every member of the party, Vivian included, was a beautiful young woman.
There were quite a few women in this world who chose to become adventurers, but women adventurers who were both beautiful and capable were equally rare.
Whenever such people appeared at the Adventurer's Guild, they would inevitably become targets for every party to compete over. That would eventually lead to all sorts of disputes, even drawing the ill intent and malice of certain people.
Fully aware of that, Vivian had deliberately built this adventurer party in order to protect these female adventurers from all kinds of ill intent and malice.
Even so, several unpleasant incidents had occurred in the past.
As mentioned earlier, Vivian was kind and friendly toward rookies, and Ryley often entrusted promising newcomers to Vivian for guidance. But having potential did not necessarily mean having decency.
There had been incidents in the past where people who joined Vivian's adventurer party developed improper intentions toward the girls in the party and ultimately laid hands on them.
Therefore, Vivian had not allowed rookies to join her adventurer party for a long time. Unless they were women, she would only offer help within her means.
This time, however, Ryley had arranged for a male adventurer to join them, so Vivian truly hesitated.
Naturally, Ryley had considered that.
"With Tier around, if this rookie truly fails to know his place, have her break his arms and legs like the previous times. Then I will revoke his adventurer qualification and drive him straight out of the guild."
Ryley gave those instructions without hesitation.
"All right, then."
Vivian considered it for a moment before finally nodding.
And so, Shien's destination was decided.
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