After our early return, we immediately headed towards the government office. As usual, the place was bustling with activity. Looking around, only one counter was vacant, so I immediately headed there.

“Good afternoon. I want to submit some proof of subjugation.”

As I said so, I lumbered the heavy rucksack full of essence crystals on top of the counter. Seeing the number of crystals, the brown-haired lady’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s a lot! And here I thought I haven’t seen you in days. You must have been gathering a lot of crystals.”

She probably thought that all these crystals were hunted over several days. Given that it was a number that would normally be impossible to achieve in a single day for a new tamer, much less in half a day.

“Well, let’s just say I got lucky.”

After she took all the essences while telling me to wait for a while, I sat on a vacant chair inside the office. It took a few minutes before she returned with a tray full of cash.

“There’s a total of 444 small essence crystals for 1,200 Credits each and 55 low essence crystals for 3,000 Credits each. Overall, you get 697,800 Credits.”

Seeing a large pad of money, I felt exhilarated. Earning a lot of money in one go does lift your mood. I quickly grabbed the money and carefully placed it inside my rucksack. I should probably buy something like a wallet soon.

“Dear customer, please wait.”

The brown-haired lady stopped me as I was about to leave. There’s this slightly uneasy but hopeful look in her eyes. Don’t tell me it’s “that” sort of development. 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.

“First of all, can you come with me to the drawing room?”

“Sure!”

Hearing her invitation, I’m more than positive that this is “that” kind of development. Of course, as a gentleman, I wouldn’t let her down. Following her lead, we entered the room at the back of the receiving counter.

After sitting down on a soft sofa, the lady sat across from me on the other side of the small coffee table.

“Thank you for your cooperation. First of all, let me formally introduce myself. My name is Fina, and I’m the vice chief of the government office.”

After hearing her introduction, which was quite formal, I hastily introduced myself in return.

“You can call me Will. This here is my tamed beast, Ember, a big slime.”

“I see, let me call you Mr. Will. Then, let me get straight to the point. Mr. Will, could we ask you to participate in the Newbie Tamer’s Tournament as our branch’s representative?”

When I heard her request, I immediately threw out the pink thoughts hanging around my head. Though honestly, I was a bit disappointed.

“Ahem. That, may I ask why’d you choose me?”

Logically speaking, rather than a hatchling tamer like me, other more experienced tamers are a better fit for the role. As long as they only have a single tamed beast under the 3rd stage of evolution, they are eligible to participate in such newbie events. Thinking logically, Ember, who just entered the 1st stage of evolution, had little to no chance in such a tournament.

Vice Chief Fina, who heard my question, smiled wryly.

“Yes, a valid question. To tell the truth, there are no eligible newbies in our town right now. Other than you, the youngest tamer available already had their third tamed monster.”

“I see. So you want me to act as filler? With my big slime, we have no chance of winning the tournament after all.”

“Fu fu fu. A big slime able to hunt hundreds of undead skeletons a day is way stronger than most newbie tamers. I genuinely think that you have quite a good shot at this tournament.”

So she eyed me because of the large number of demons I hunted? If I told her that Ember hunted those nearly 500 monsters in just half a day, then it would be even harder to avoid participating.

Seeing me hesitating greatly, Fina added a few more things.

“Of course, we aren’t asking for your help for free. Just for participating, we would provide you with a single piece of high-energy essence crystal. With that, your big slime should be able to evolve into a humanoid slime instantly.”

A high-energy essence crystal! In terms of rank, it would be five or six stages higher than a small essence crystal. If sold, it would fetch at least a few million credits. Using such an item for merely the second stage of evolution is plain overkill. However, this is good for me too, since all excess energy during evolution gets transferred to the tamer.

With just that offer, I am already more than willing to participate. However, considering the pocket of the government office, this is just pocket change for them. So, I decided to add a few more items to my wage.

“If you grant me a day’s worth of access to a special training room, then I would gladly participate.”

Special training rooms contain advanced magical tools that can measure a monster’s parameters accurately. Such a training room costs a million credits an hour to rent.

As I have guessed, this was still within their passable range. As soon as I said my piece, Fina immediately agreed.

After leaving for a moment, she returned with a contract in hand. There, all the terms we discussed were already written. A penalty for breach of contract was even added. After reading it through twice to confirm, I signed the contract.

“Thank you, Mr. Will. With this, we can avoid the disgrace of not having a participant available.”

Fina said with a sweet smile. Remembering the misunderstanding I had earlier, I sighed deeply in my mind. I stood up to leave, and Fina extended her hands, offering to shake hands after the successful negotiation.

After I shook her hand, I felt that there was something on her palm. Probably a piece of paper. I took it stealthily and left the government office.

After entering a random alley, I opened the piece of paper and read its contents.

[Mr. Will, if you win the competition, I’ll invite you to an “extravagant” dinner, as you wish. (Kiss mark)]

Reading this, I was both embarrassed and expectant. Embarrassed as she had seen through my mind when she invited me to the drawing room, and expectant of the promised reward.

“Ember, let’s do our best training for the tournament next week!”

Hearing my hearty cheer, Ember jumped around excitedly too.

Thinking about my bonus reward, I felt more motivated than a few moments ago. I’ll definitely win this tournament!