Ranking Test: Part 2

"James, be on standby outside the dome in case something goes wrong. " Darius ordered James without taking his eyes off the screen.

"On it. " James gave a quick reply and stepped out of the monitoring room. 'I hope I don't have to interfere... ' He thought while walking towards the dome.

'I wonder what you will show me, Adam... ' Darius thought with an excited expression on his face.

_____________

In the simulation dome,

"GWOOOOINK! "

'What the hell is this?! " Adam screamed internally at the sight of the giant twin-headed Orc that appeared in front of him.

He had a breeze dealing with the weak goblins and wolves, but the sudden emergence of a monster he had never seen before confused him.

Twin-headed Orcs shared the normal Orc's appearance, except for the additional head they possessed. The difference in strength, however, was huge because a single twin-headed Orc could defeat two normal Orcs.

"GRWOOINK! " The Orc made the first move by running towards Adam while swinging one of its wooden clubs down with incredible speed.

*BOOM*

Adam dodged the club before creating space between him and the Orc to think about the current situation.

'Is this part of the test? It's too advanced, though! '

'Do I need to defeat it? '

'These holograms can still hurt me, so I need to proceed with caution. '

'Let's try inspecting it first. ' Adam's train of thought led him to gather information first before acting.

[Error]

[Unable to inspect]

'Sh*t! Is it because this is a hologram?! ' Adam cursed at the recent notification while circling the Orc. 'I have no choice... I need to fight. '

The young man decided and sped up towards the Orc while gritting his teeth; a determined look appeared on his face.

"GROOOINK! " The Orc noticed Adam's sudden approach and swung its wooden club horizontally to squat him.

*SWOOSH*

Creating great air pressure.

Adam, however, expected the attack and jumped to avoid the violent swing before gracefully landing in front of it.

"WROINKK! " The monster's second head 'spoke' for the first time while glaring at Adam with eyes full of killing intent. It used the second club to squash Adam.

*BOOM! *

The ground shook at the impact of the attack.

"Ugh! " Adam exclaimed while holding on to the wooden club with his bare hands. The moment he saw the club descending on him, he placed the sword in the inventory and used both his hands to withstand the blow.

'This is tough! I don't think I can last long... ' He thought with a pained expression, trails of cold sweat trailing down his face.

'I need to consider my next attack. ' An icy glint flashed in Adam's green eyes as he scrutinized his opponents for any weak spots.

"AAAAH! " Adam let out a roar as he pushed the club upward and dashed forward.

*BAM! *

The giant club collided with the solid ground.

"Now! " Adam used the momentary imbalance of the Orc to slide underneath it and cut both of the tendons of its feet, using the two swords he pulled out of the inventory.

""GWOOOORRRK!! "" The two heads roared in anger while green blood splattered across the floor.

"Fall. " Adam said in a low voice; his eyes glowing in an ominous green hue.

*STOMP! *

*STOMP! *

The twin-headed Orc staggered, trying to hold its balance before collapsing. Granting Adam the perfect opportunity to execute his next attack.

Adam immediately jumped without missing a beat. He turned around mid-air before reaching the dome's ceiling and pushed against it with his legs to speed up his descent, making him look like a falling meteorite.

"This is the end. " Adam whispered as he performed a double slash, cutting off the two heads in a single motion.

*SLASH! *

The sound reverberated through the dome while the Orc's corpse turned into small light particles and disappeared.

[Basic Sword Mastery: level up!]

*CRACK! *

*CRACK! *

His old sword started making cracking noises before shattering.

'Goodbye, partner... ' Adam looked at the blade-less hilt in his hand with a nostalgic expression before storing it in his inventory. He knew the sword was bound to break, as it had incredibly low durability.

'Using two swords made it easier, too. ' Adam thought with a smile. The fighting ability, he showed, satisfied him and the skill level up was a sweet bonus.

*Clap! *

*Clap! *

The sound of clapping surprised Adam. He turned around and found out it was James.

"Dude! That was amazing!! " James said in a joyful tone while walking towards Adam.

"Do you think I'll get a good ranking? " Adam asked with a hopeful expression.

"That was at least C-rank worthy. You should be proud! " James said while tapping Adam's shoulders, "right? Darius. "

"Yeah, that was amazing, but I think we should move on to the next part of the test now. " Darius spoke through the microphone in the monitoring room.

"What is the next test? Do I need to fight more monsters? " Adam asked with a serious expression.

"Relax haha, the next stage is measuring your magic power. "James chuckled and slapped Adam's back before walking towards the dome's exit. "Follow me. "

Adam silently walked behind James with many fears and expectations running rampant in his head.

_____________

After meeting up with Darius, the trio walked towards a nearby crystal mounted on a strange device, while professor Newman stood beside it with a slightly nervous expression.

They greeted the professor once more before he started explaining the mechanism behind the strange device to Adam.

The red crystal on top of the device is a rare magic stone that is only found in an S-class monster's corpse. The magic stone absorbs magic power, and the device measures the amount before displaying it in numerical values.

"You can just touch the magic stone. " The professor said after his explanation.

"Okay. " Adam stepped forward and placed his hand on the crystal.

The crystal started glowing in bright red light, forcing Adam to cover his eyes while numbers appeared on the device.

"50. "

"90. "

"120. "

"160. "

"180. " The numbers stopped increasing, and the crystal stopped glowing. Adam removed his palm and looked at the result.

'It's the same as my MP stat... "

"Woah, that's not bad at all! With such high magical power, you should've awakened magical abilities instead. " James said with a smile.

"Is it good? " Adam asked with hopeful eyes. Although he had general information about the abilities of High Humans, he did not know the details.

"Y-yes! Based on this value alone, you're around C-rank. " Professor Newman said while fixing his glasses with an excited expression.

Adam unknowingly flashed an innocent smile at the professor's words. A month ago, he was a weakling that nobody even looked at, but now he was a powerful High Human.

"When will the license be ready? " Darius spoke while looking at professor Newman with an annoyed expression.

"A-ah, apologies, it will be out in a week. " The professor immediately backed away while talking in a meek tone.

"Good, we will be back in a week. " Darius replied curtly before turning to James and Adam, "you two, go ahead, I want to talk with the professor about a private matter. "

"We'll be waiting outside the hall. " James understood Darius' intentions and turned around and started walking.

Adam walked towards the professor before handing back the sword he used for the test and walking alongside James.

After the two left the scene, Darius walked closer to the professor.

"So, what's his ranking? " Darius asked with an intrigued expression.

"It's upper C-rank, sir. " Professor Newman mumbled an answer.

"Good~. I trust that the footage of today's test will stay between us. " Darius said with a devious smile.

"Y-yes, Mr. Darius, but my superiors are going to be infuriated if they found out about this. " The professor had a nervous look as he spoke.

"Don't worry about it. I will deal with the consequences, okay? " Darius said before turning around, "your reward will be at your house before the end of the day. " He continued while walking out of the hall.

____________

After selling some of the monster materials he collected during his last hunt in The Bronx, Adam walked out of the building along with James and Darius with a whopping 2000 dollars in his pockets.

He knew that monster materials would sell for a good amount of money, but the amount surpassed his expectations. Adam walked out of the building with a blissful expression.

Thankfully, he carried his bag with him, which allowed him to pretend to take the materials out of the inventory while pretending it was in the bag all along to avoid attracting attention from the workers.

'Now, I won't have to worry about money for a while! ' Adam thought with a gleeful smile.

"How long are you going to stand there for? " James asked Adam while sitting inside the car.

"I thought it was time to part ways... " Adam said with a tilted head.

"Actually, there's something I wanted to discuss with you, Adam. " Darius spoke from beside James. "We can drop you off on the way. "

"Okay. " Adam entered the car and sat across from the two.