Blinding white light covered my vision again. I closed my eyes and when I opened them I found myself in a completely dark room again. ๐๐ถ๐ฉ? ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ฏ'๐ต ๐ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ? Before I could think much more, I heard a door behind me open.
"Congratulations on passing the practical part of the examination."
I turned around and saw Brianna standing there, a small smile on her face.
"While I had faith you would pass, I didn't expect you to actually defeat the illusionary trial."
".... E-everything was j-just an illusion?"
"Correct. You are standing in an illusion array that draws out what you believe to be your arch nemesis. It then will increase that enemy's strength to make the scenario nigh unbeatable. It is more to test a candidates resiliency, fortitude, quick thinking, and skills in the face of death. It is quite rare to see anyone actually conquer it."
"D-does everyone g-go through this?"
"No. This is reserved for people who we believe to already have basic combat abilities. Normally you would face one of our instructors for the practical. However, since you were able to slay a Draft, many deemed you worthy to take this more advanced trial. Here."
So Snarf continues to make my life more difficult in all aspects even in death. ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ.... ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข๐บ๐ฆ๐ฅ. Hopefully this will be the end of Snarf shenanigans for my lifetime. My second lifetime that is. Brianna then stepped forward and handed me a handkerchief.
"Please use this to wipe your face down. I do not know what you faced in the illusion, no one does, but it must of been terrible."
"T-thanks."
I brought the handkerchief to my face and sporadically wiped it down. It quickly was soaked in sweat, I guess I was under a lot of strain there for a while. ๐๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ด ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข, ๐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ฑ ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ...๐ฆ๐ฉ?
"...."
๐๐ฐ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ฎ๐ช๐ด๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ! ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ฑ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ง๐ข๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ญ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ธ๐ฆ๐ข๐ต๐บ! ๐๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ค! ๐๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐ณ๐ง ๐ด๐ค๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต?!? ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ด๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ต....
"You can keep that. Follow me."
As I was trying to explain the situation to....myself, Brianna started walking. The small smile she had when she opened the door was gone. I started after her and quickly stuffed the handkerchief into my pocket for future needs.....very important needs. I'm sorry.
*************************************************
"Congratulations once again. You are now officially member of the Adventurer's Guild. While you still start as a ๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐ข๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ซ, but since you passed the advanced trial you will be given double the points after completing quests until you reach ๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ซ. "
"A-ah.... thanks."
After the practical trial I ended up in a room with three people similarly dressed to Brianna. They had a magical device on the table that could apparently detect falsehoods. After asking me a barrage of questions that seemed to try and suss out if I was a murderous criminal or not, I was given a passing grade. I had thought it would of been more intense, but according to Brianna this was mainly to make sure my personality would not be a detriment to the guild.
She said that, while it wasn't flawless, it was the best they could do without using the very rare truth serum they used on me.
"Here is your official identification plate, it is magically enchanted uniquely to you. Don't lose it, otherwise it will cost 5 silver for a replacement."
She handed me a silver looking plate with strange characters on it. For some reason I could tell it said my name, Deminas, but I knew the characters were foreign to me. It was like I had a translation and its original side by side. While I didn't understand the original text, I knew what it meant due to the translation next to it. This was probably the same phenomenon that allowed me to speak this world's language even though I didn't know it.
Never mind, I shouldn't worry about that stuff for now. I don't know why I am in this world or how I am able to do any of the things I can do. I won't be figuring any of that out right now anyways. I should worry about things I can actually control.
I took the plate she handed me and wore it around my neck. I couldn't help but smile. In my previous life I didn't have the greatest job. Dog food taster seemed to be fairly underappreciated and overly judged for some reason, but someone needs to make sure it is good enough for your dogs right? You're welcome dog lovers of the world.
However, things are different in this world. In this world I am now an adventurer! ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ! ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด! ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ญ๐ข๐บ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ข๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด! ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด! ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐บ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ด.... ๐ธ๐ข๐ช๐ต ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฃ๐บ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฉ๐ด? ๐๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ช๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฅ๐ฐ ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฎ! ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด! ๐๐ช๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐'๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด๐ฆ๐ญ๐ด? ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐บ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ข๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ.
"Once again, congratulations. Also, you look much better when you smile. You should try it more often. It almost made me forget how heavily you sniffed the handkerchief I gave you earlier."
"...............I-I'm sorry a-and thank you."
With that it was official! I am an adventurer!