Chapter 31: The Promotion Exam

After her words, the room's temperature dropped quite literally. It became so cold in the room that goosebumps involuntarily raced across my body. I wasn't afraid of her, but there was an unusual tension in the air.

"No problems, I just meant that from your appearance, one can't immediately tell that you're a blacksmith," I replied, trying to maintain my composure.

"What's wrong with my appearance? Are you saying I can't be a blacksmith?" she retorted with clear aggression in her voice.

"Of course not. It's just that based on your looks, you seem more like a seventeen-year-old girl who has been doing this for a year at most, if not less," I replied, still restraining my inner fear. Girls with such temperament can be quite aggressive by nature, and you never know when they might come at you.

"Well, if that's the case, I'm not upset about it. Before this, when I used to work directly with people, many refused to work with me because of my age, so I had to buy weapons from the Center's traders. So let's work together," she said with a smile, extending her hand to me.

I shook her hand and replied with a restrained smile, "Certainly, I look forward to a productive partnership."

After that, I left her shop and, instead of further inspection, set out to find the Center's managers. According to Ever's explanations, each Center had around ten managers. Six of them worked with rookies and experienced Awakened individuals, while the remaining four were responsible for evaluating new Awakened and ranking them up. So I needed to find not just any manager but a ranking manager.

Thanks to Ever's help and the Awakened individuals passing by me, it took about five minutes to find a ranking manager. The manager appeared like a typical employee of a government institution that I used to visit in my world, as if he had been plucked out of my world's governmental organization and placed to work here. He was dressed in a blue suit, and a badge on his chest displayed his name and position in large letters.

"Hello, I'd like to upgrade my rank to access the B-rank dungeons," I said with enthusiasm.

"Hello, please state your name and rank. I need to check your data in the database," he replied politely.

"Yes, certainly. My name is Temir, and my rank is C," I quickly responded.

"Please wait for a minute," he said, opening his tablet.

Indeed, it took him about a minute before he turned his attention back to me.

"Verification is complete. Now, let's move on to the payment. Upgrading from rank C to B will cost you two thousand dollars," he said calmly and politely.

His words made me frown as I processed them in my mind. Why should I pay for taking an exam? In all the books and novels I've read, it was never like this. You just show up, take the test to level up, and that's it. But apparently, it worked differently here. Seeing my reaction, he hurried to explain why there was a fee.

"I'd like to explain why there's a fee for the rank-up exam. The reason is the cost of materials. Previously, the government covered the expenses, but due to the large number of futile attempts to increase one's rank, most of the materials were wasted. Therefore, the government decided to charge a substantial fee for materials and to ensure an independent evaluation. However, if you pass the rank-up test and raise your rank, seventy percent of the fee will be refunded to you," he explained slowly.

After his explanation, I understood the reason. There will always be people who believe that anything is possible if they try, and that's why they are now charging for the exam. The price of $600 for the test, though a bit high, is acceptable for experienced Awakened individuals. I also didn't forget that I would get $1,400 back after leveling up, so the total cost would be $600.

"Understood. Thank you for the explanation. Where should I send the payment?" I asked, pulling out my phone. If I hadn't stopped by the shop earlier, I definitely wouldn't have enough money. Even though the "Temir" of this world earned money from dungeons, he spent it on equipment and personal expenses, leaving nothing in reserve.

By the way, the manager's name was Olzhas. Even though I learned his name from his badge, addressing someone by their name without any formalities wasn't considered polite in our country, so I continued to address him respectfully.

"Where should I make the payment?" I inquired.

"You can complete the payment through a QR code or after receiving a request from our Center in your banking application," he responded politely.

"Then let's go with the QR code; it'll be faster," I suggested.

After finalizing the payment, the manager led me into a room, though it would be more appropriate to call it a hall or chamber. It was quite spacious, probably around 250-300 square meters. In the middle of the room, various mannequins were placed, constructed from different materials. He approached them and began explaining their purpose.

"Regrettably, at the moment, we have only two tests for a rough assessment of your rank: a test for physical strength and one for magical damage. Here, before you, are the mannequins that you'll need to defeat using 1 to 5 points of physical strength for the first five and 6 to 10 points of magic for the rest," he explained.

"So, I simply need to break them?" I asked.

"Yes, if you possess only physical abilities, you can leave the remaining mannequins untouched. Similarly, if you have only magical abilities, you can start with the sixth mannequin," he replied.

"Do abilities that enhance physical damage with mana count as magic or physical abilities?" I asked, recalling the 'cleaving strike.'

"If your magical abilities merely amplify the damage from physical attacks, then yes, they will be considered as physical abilities," Manager Olzhas answered. I decided to continue calling him Manager Olzhas; it seemed appropriate.

"In that case, I'll begin," I said. Suddenly, a question arose in my mind, which I immediately directed to him.

"So, each mannequin is something like a rank determiner, right?" I asked.

"Yes, you've guessed correctly, but they are designed only up to rank B, or more precisely, something like B+. You'll be able to understand if you're stronger than the rank you're aiming for, but to reach the rank A level, you'll need to reserve a spot because the exam will cost around ten thousand due to the expensive materials used for the mannequins," the manager responded to my question.

"Understood, thank you for the answer. Then I'll get started," I declared, to which he replied, "Commence."

I summoned a bloody dagger from my inventory, which I had managed to keep from that shop. Charging it with mana for the 'cleaving strike' ability, I went towards one of the mannequins. The strike crushed the mannequin, or more accurately, split it in half. Following this, I continued delivering blows using the 'cleaving strike' ability, eventually reaching the last mannequin. While the previous mannequin had split apart from the blow, I felt some resistance during the strike. Perhaps, if I had lacked a few points of damage, the mannequin might not have split.

"You're right; you had only six points more damage than the mannequin's maximum durability. I advise you to switch to an axe; that way, your damage will increase by a quarter," Ever's voice echoed in my mind.

Listening to her advice, I stowed the dagger in my inventory and drew out an axe. The axe itself provided an additional 25 damage points, which, combined with the increased damage from the 'cleaving strike' ability, should have been enough to destroy the mannequin. Gathering my determination, I charged the axe with 'cleaving strike' and proceeded to demolish it. Well, not entirely; I managed to split it almost in half, but the axe got stuck in the middle of the mannequin.

"Have I passed the strength level?" I asked Manager Olzhas.

"Yes, indeed. Although it falls a bit short of the rank limit, having such strength already grants you the right to enter the rank B dungeons," he replied.

"May I also check my magical abilities?" I inquired.

"Hmm, considering your strength, I assumed you were more of a warrior category. Since you possess magical abilities, you can certainly undergo the magical assessment, especially since you've already paid for the materials," the manager said with a smile.

You might wonder why I chose to test my magical abilities. It's quite simple. I had acquired bullets and the potential to enhance them, but I hadn't tested their strength yet. In this setting, given the materials, I could gauge the potency of my bullets. So, I employed the 'sharpshooter' and 'cleaving shot' abilities. Before me appeared a blue bullet; I hadn't tried creating more than one bullet yet, but I believed I could manage it if I wanted. However, for this exam, one bullet at a time should suffice.

After creating the bullet, I infused it with 'cleaving shot' mana, using 2 mana points to assess its damage. After the shot, the mannequin was left headless. On the next mannequin, I added an additional 2 mana points, resulting in a bullet with a color closer to red, although it still retained some blue hue. Following the shot, the head of the next mannequin also shattered. I repeated this process until the final mannequin. For this one, I saturated the bullet with the maximum mana points. Consequently, the bullet turned a deep shade of red, and all that remained was to release it.