"Thank you, brother Li Xi," Gariro said, his attitude extremely humble. He handed Li Xi three mission completion certificates.
"Our caravan's post is at 71 Gadoro Street. Brother Li Xi, if you have any good items in the future, you can bring them directly to our post to sell. I guarantee that for anything from Brother Li Xi, I will offer the highest price."
Gariro enthusiastically introduced his caravan's services to Li Xi. Such a major client whose goods were worth a total of 100,000 gold coins had to be treated with utmost care. It would be too much of a shame if he were to be poached by a competitor due to his own disrespect.
However, he soon noticed that Li Xi didn't seem very interested. After a few more pleasantries, he prepared to take his leave. Carrying such a large sum of wealth on him, he didn't feel safe staying out for too long.
But before he left, Li Xi called him back, "I don't want this matter to be known to outsiders. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand, I understand, keep it low-key. I swear by the God of Contracts that no outsider will know about this," Gariro promised Li Xi.
He understood Li Xi's concerns. Five hundred and fifty thousand gold coins – too many people would go mad for such a fortune. If word got out, Li Xi wouldn't be met with envy, but with endless assassination attempts.
After Li Xi and Gariro parted ways, he returned to Ais. Seeing Ais's face full of curiosity, he recognized the person who had pulled Li Xi away earlier. He was a subordinate of the great merchant Bellos and a regular at the Adventurers' Guild. However, he usually sought extremely rare items. Ais was now very curious about what Li Xi had sold to Gariro. Just as she was about to ask, she saw Li Xi hand her the mission completion certificates, "Hurry up and promote yourself. I have a surprise for you too."
"What surprise?"
"You'll know when you get back."
With a surprise waiting, Ais worked with remarkable efficiency, even forgetting to ask what she had sold. She completed the process in less than half a minute.
Li Xi's bronze badge was replaced with silver. Li Xi officially became a D-rank mercenary, and what's more, a D-rank mercenary who had completed two mission progressions. Being a D-rank mercenary meant Li Xi could now take on C-rank missions and his range of available tasks broadened significantly.
Even Sinis of the Black Tiger Mercenary Group took three years to reach this rank, and Taichi of the White Lion Mercenary Group took two years and eleven months. According to Ais's introduction to Li Xi, the average time for a mercenary to advance from the lowest F-rank to D-rank was four years. For him to achieve this in less than half a year was already outstanding. If Li Xi hadn't asked Ais to keep his information confidential, he would have been famous in Cardo City long ago.
[Congratulations to the Master for leveling up, obtaining six ordinary lucky draw opportunities and one super event reward opportunity.]
These were seven opportunities. Li Xi could hardly contain his pounding heart. The surprise came too suddenly!
[Congratulations to the Master for completing two mercenary rank advancements, activating the conditions for the Chunin Exams.]
"I can actually advance to Chunin? There are too many surprises today. What are the conditions?"
[The condition is 80% mission completion. Upon detection, the Master has successfully completed it and can automatically advance to Chunin.]
"Holy crap, you almost scared me to death! Why didn't you say something so important earlier? If some of my previous missions hadn't been completed, wouldn't my advancement time be even longer?" Li Xi couldn't help but complain; it was a close call. His heart had skipped a beat after hearing the advancement conditions. He had considered abandoning several missions before, but looking back now, he was grateful for his persistence.
[Master, please do not blame me. I did not know this before. I can only activate my programs at specific moments.]
"I..."
Li Xi was frustrated that he had no one to vent his anger on. But he truly had to thank himself for not giving up earlier. Otherwise, some trouble would have surely occurred, and if he hadn't met the mission completion rate, he would have had to take on missions relentlessly.
[Master, it's not without benefits. The higher the completion rate, the better the final reward will be.]
"Reward? What reward?"
[Advancing to Chunin will also come with lucky draw rewards. Your completion rate is 100%, so the rewards will surely exceed your imagination.]
"Heh, I appreciate your good words."
After Li Xi had arranged for all these lucky draws, he and Ais returned to Ais's home.
As soon as they entered, a fragrant aroma wafted towards them.
"What is it? It smells so good?"
Li Xi saw that Ais was roasting the dragon meat he had brought back. The aroma was emanating from the dragon meat, its rich scent giving Li Xi a feeling of seeing light, so dazzling. As expected, she was capable of conquering a Magus with ordinary food. With such skill, she was top-tier in the world, top-tier in the universe.
"This is the gift I brought for you, meat from a very, very, very rare magical beast. I asked Madam Aivill to roast it for me. I guarantee it'll be explosively delicious. How is it? Do you like this surprise?"
"Hmph, who cares."
The proud Ais trotted to Aivill's grill and squatted on the ground like a puppy, watching the slightly blue roasted meat.
Li Xi had never told them it was dragon meat from the beginning, but the taste was indeed unparalleled, especially after being roasted by a master chef. Li Xi was almost drunk from the flavor. Ais and Madam Aivill didn't eat much, and Li Xi ended up eating most of it.
In particular, the meat from the dragon's wings was indescribably delicious. It was crispy when bitten into, like countless tiny bombs exploding in his mouth, with sweet, rich oil filling his mouth. Li Xi now wanted to capture a dragon and keep it, not for anything else, but just to cut its meat every day, and then use holy water to heal it and cut it again.
Don't blame Li Xi for being cruel; blame it on its deliciousness.
They ate until the moon was high in the sky. Li Xi and Madam Aivill then took their leave. Finally, Ais quietly said to Li Xi, "Thank you, I really like it."
With the addition of a beautiful woman's compliment, Li Xi returned home in high spirits. He hadn't been back for a month, and everything was covered in dust. But Li Xi was too impatient to wait.
"Xiao Fan, start the turntable."
[Master, you currently have three lucky draw activities: one is the ordinary lucky draw for completing missions, one is for mercenary rank advancement, and the last one is for the Chunin advancement lucky draw. Which one would you like to draw first?]
"Of course, I should save the best for last. Let's start with the ordinary ones."
[Understood, Master. Here are two lucky draw opportunities for completing the Demanja mission.]
A phantom, visible only to Li Xi, of a large turntable appeared, filled with countless items. Li Xi's heart couldn't calm down.
First, there were still blades. The Double Rising Dragon Scroll, which had always occupied a spot, was gone, replaced by Sasuke's Kusanagi sword.
Li Xi had really wanted this weapon before, but now he wasn't as interested. After all, his strength was too great, and the sword was too small. It felt light and floaty to wield. Forget the Kusanagi sword; even the Executioner's Blade felt a little unsatisfactory to Li Xi now. Who would use a lighter weapon if they could use a heavier one? While "lightweight is weak" and "heavyweight is strong" are both states of being, if he could one day swing something weighing tens of tons, Li Xi wouldn't bother with a wooden sword; he'd want something that could smash anyone!
The second item on the turntable was a large bag of soldier pills. Li Xi had drawn a small bag of these before, containing a hundred pills. This large bag was labeled ten thousand pills. He still had more than half of the previous small bag of a hundred pills left. If he drew this large bag, it would be enough soldier pills for a lifetime.
No need to eat, just eat soldier pills every day, and save thousands of gold coins. What a thrifty man!
The rest were ninjutsu. This time, there were:
Healing Jutsu,
Shadow Clone Jutsu,
Earth Style: Earth Wall,
Earth Style: Earth Falling Cover,
Earth Style: Earth Flow River,
Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld,
Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire,
Fire Style: Great Ash Pile,
Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique.
There were many ninjutsu. However, Shadow Clone Jutsu, Earth Wall, Phoenix Sage Fire, Great Ash Pile, and Water Dragon Bullet Technique had appeared many times before. The newly introduced ones this time were only three.
The first was Healing Jutsu. This was a medical ninjutsu with excellent healing effects for both external and internal injuries. In the original anime, very few medical ninjas mastered Healing Jutsu. With it, he would essentially have a portable medical kit, completely replacing the function of holy water. Combining the two would yield even more significant effects. Li Xi had only one thing to say about Healing Jutsu: Oh my god, I want it, I want it, I want it!
The second was Earth Style: Earth Flow River. This was a ninjutsu used by the Third Hokage when fighting Orochimaru. It could create a rapidly flowing river of earth beneath the enemy's feet, repelling them and creating distance, while also submerging them. More powerful users could even drown enemies alive. It was very formidable.
The third, which hadn't appeared before, was Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld. This was a ninjutsu used by Jiraiya when fighting Orochimaru. It could summon a huge swamp to trap enemies. With this move, Jiraiya was able to immobilize the giant snake summoned by Orochimaru. It was also quite good.
In summary, the two mission draws from the Demanja Archmage were of average quality. There were no particularly outstanding items, but they were not bad either.
"Start."
The pointer began to spin at an imperceptible speed again. But Li Xi now was not the Li Xi he used to be.
With a confident smile, he closed his eyes slightly. Then, vertical pupils appeared. Li Xi intended to use the Dragon Eye's powerful vision and dynamic capture ability to see the pointer's trajectory and obtain what was most beneficial to him.
Alas, the wish was beautiful, but reality was cruel. Even the power of the Dragon Eye couldn't see through the pointer's speed; it could only see a blur.
Li Xi was somewhat disappointed. If he couldn't see it, then so be it. "Stop."
The pointer slowly rotated, passing the Kusanagi sword, then the soldier pills, and Healing Jutsu. Even the adjacent Earth Style ninjutsu couldn't halt the pointer's progress.
Finally, the pointer stopped when it reached Fire Style: Great Ash Pile.
[Congratulations to the Master, you have obtained Fire Style: Great Ash Pile.]
A surge of memories merged into his mind. He instantly mastered the hand seals for Great Ash Pile, and his chakra also increased.
Although it wasn't the strongest in this list, it was still good. "Not bad, spin again."
The pointer began to spin again. "Stop."
As before, the pointer showed no interest in the Kusanagi sword or the soldier pills in the blade category. Shadow Clone Jutsu also failed to make the pointer linger.
As the pointer's speed decreased, Li Xi clearly saw it stop at Earth Style: Earth Falling Cover.
[Congratulations to the Master, you have obtained Earth Style: Earth Falling Cover.]
"Not bad, not bad. This ninjutsu will eventually allow me to conquer a city with my own hands."
The two draws for Demanja ended. The large turntable disappeared and reappeared. This time, it was a lucky draw for the E-rank mission 'Clue to the Dragon's Feces'.
Because the mission was completed easily, the prizes were not very good: kunai, shuriken, Double Rising Dragon, small bag of soldier pills, explosive tags, clone jutsu, Earth Style: Earth Wall, and even Sexy Jutsu.
Li Xi was speechless. What was all this? Even if the mission was completed particularly easily, they shouldn't have tried to fool him with these items.
In Li Xi's eyes, the most valuable items were the soldier pills and Earth Style: Earth Wall.
As for Sexy Jutsu, Li Xi stated that his orientation was normal and he couldn't, like the protagonist Naruto, reserve the most cherished place in his heart for Sasuke. If he were the protagonist, Hinata would have already given birth to children. Therefore, transforming into a woman was something Li Xi would never do, even if it meant death.