Awakening to a Special-Grade Explorer

After moving back inside the house from the sun-based garden, Tenji first cooled his body with the cold air of the air-conditioner. Once he had dried his sweat enough, he then moved to prepare the breakfast with skilled movements before Chisato woke up.

(She looked so deathly pale when I wasn't able to make proper meals for the past three days. I guess I will add her favourite corn soup she hadn’t in quite a while.)

The corn soup he was making was obviously not a store bought one, but he himself was making it from scratch. With familiar movements, he melted butter, added flour and began making white sauce.

As he skillfully went through dishes, he suddenly recalled the bitter experience he had a few days ago.

"I wonder how long these hell quests will continue for. At this point, I am just 0.5 part motivated, and the rest of 9.5 part is already screaming to quit. This is just getting painfully difficult."

Tenji's heartfelt lament slipped out of his mouth, though only to be drowned out by the sizzling sound of melting butter. His mind recalled the abysmally difficult hell quest of Fire Demon and Snow Demon, so tough to the point he had so many times wanted to just call it a quite midway.

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Once his exam ended, Tenji gave the rest of the day for his body to recover from tiredness. Then, the next day after the exam, he immediately sprang up to clear the two hell quests.

The first one he tackled was Red Flame Quest.

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«Available Hell Quest»

Quest Name: «Meeting with the Red Demon Species - Hell Guard Edition~»

(Completion Pre-requisite)

---Perform 10,000 Burpee Jumps.

---Perform Rapid Jump for 12 hours

---Play with the Flame Demon for 24 hours.

---Spleen

Completion Reward: Unlocking 4th Grade 'Red Demon', 4th Grade Weapon 'Flame Demon Blade'. 4th Grade Equipment 'Flame Demon Ring'.

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The details were more or less the same as his contract with goblin.

In starting, he did the two literal hell-like super-heavy training consecutively.

The first completion condition, 'Perform 10,000 Burpy Jumping', was just as it sounded, it was a workout quest where he just had to repeat the burpy jumping again and again until he met the requirement. It was plain agonising.

The second requirement was 'to perform a rapid jump for 12 hours'. The details of the quest was so wild that Tenji, who had trained in shadow boxing, unconsciously found himself chuckling bitterly. He was constantly being chased by a white-fur rabbit with eerie bright-red eyes, who kept trying to tackle him with full force. The rabbit's tackle that came at him was as fast as 100km/h.

After managing to overcome these two quests, he moved to undertake the next quest. The third condition, 'Play with Fire Demon'.

He thought it would be another desperate face-off but contrary to his expectation, a whole another surprise was waiting for him.

Tenji was greeted by a low-rank Flame Demon with an extremely humble demeanour.

------You, Sir, must be the holder of the Hell King Factor I presume. Please come this way.

Flame spoke such words as soon as they had met.

Though he didn't understand the situation, Tenji followed the Red Demon for about three hours, traversing through a forest.

The place they had arrived was an uncharted territory in the hell region for Tenji. There, a lonesome japanese style one-story house stood, which while being not worn down, was also not appears to be recently built. It was really just a typical Japanese house which could be found anywhere. It was built around the bamboo grove, which filled the air with their pleasant scent.

On the veranda of the house, there was a shogi board placed casually. Next to it were two sets of cushions and shogi piece trays quietly placed.

It looks like the house of an elderly, that was Tenji's first expression. He trailed after the Flame Demon while his attention being taken away by the unexpected scenery, and when he came out of reverie, he found himself sitting opposite of the Flame Demon.

------What I desire is a shogi match. Please be my opponent for the next 24 hours. The outcome doesn't matter.

What turns the event, Flame Demon just wanted a shogi match.

Recalling his childhood where he used to play SHogi with his grandfather on the weekend till his passing, A mild smile appeared on Tenji's face at the nostalgic memories and the drifting scene of shogi's board. Then began a game of shogi between them.

While he was delightful at first as he too was having fun, he finally understood what was the hellish aspect of this quest.

------Can I sit cross-legged?

------It's a breach of manners to sit in any other style but 'seiza' in shogi. If you break your posture, we would have to start from the beginning.

He finally felt it, it was the 'Seiza Hell'.

As the hands of the clock tick by, he loses the sensation from his legs. At one point, he even had the hallucination that his legs had disappeared.

For the remaining time, Tenji anguished at the unbearing pain while thinking about the next move and getting overwhelmed by the Flame Demon's shogi prowess. Even he couldn't tell how he managed to hold on for so long, and after it was over, his legs were on the verge of necrosis.

With this, all that left was the final quest; 'Spleen'.

Similar to the previous quest, he felt an abnormal heat inside his body and following that, the seal of Flame Demon had been engraved on his spleen. The contract was, of course, to "become the king."

One way or another, somehow enduring the challenges, Tenji completed the Flame Demon's Hell Quest. .