Adventurers Rank Exam

Hours later I returned to the guild, all the thing I needed stored inside my new storage ring.

My outfit went from tattered rags to neat but plain leather armor, and a cloak with a hood that could shade my face.

It was a deep black color that swallowed my body, but could be easily discarded should the need arise.

My feet were now covered by leather boots, that felt heavy on my previously bare feet.

My pants were made of a typical cloth material and they were a dark brown that matched my upper torso.

My short bright blonde hair was brushed backward out of my face.

I caught the attention of numerous people inside the guild as I walked in and made my way to my room to grab the rest of my stuff.

I planned to dump the tent and some old things I used while apart of the bandits since I upgraded the quality of the those items.

With that finished it was time for the final thing I needed before I left the city.

My adventurer rank and card.

I approached the desk and the receptionist gazed down at me with skepticism.

"I'm here to take my rank placement test." I spoke up and she frowned but began leafing through the papers in front of her.

"Name?"

"Malcius." I responded and her eyes widened, but quickly scribbled the name down.

"Affinity and core stage?" She looked back up.

"Fire augmenter, dark orange stage."

Once again her eyes widen and several other people nearby seem to lean closer to hear everything.

"U-uhm and what's your age Malcius?" She asked unsure if she wanted to know the answer.

"9" I sighed and regretted not giving an older answer as the several people began to burst out into laughter.

"Hahahaha! C'mon kid you expect us to believe you're a dark orange stage at 9!

You probably haven't even formed your core yet, just trying to play at adventuring!"

People laughed along with the heavily scarred and bald man.

I turned to him with an impassive face and sighed before speaking.

"Whether you believe or not does not matter to me.

If you wish to see my abilities then come to the rank exam."

I said before taking the paper the receptionist had been writing on and headed toward the testing site.

The man and his posse stepped in front of me and I let my annoyance show on my face.

"Where do you think you're going kid, the door to leave is that way!" He pointed over my shoulder and he and his group laughed again.

I reached into my cloak and he eyed my movements and upon seeing a small needle he laughed once more.

"Hahaha! Whatchu gonna do kid, sew me up?"

I felt my eyebrow twitch at this guys annoying personality.

Truly I was I could see him up, his mouth at least.

I flicked the needle at him and the point stuck into his skin but went no further.

Not that it needed to.

They all glanced at the needle sticking out of his arm and began laughing uproariously.

He drew his great sword strapped to his back, but before he could get it all the way out his whole arm went slack and blade fell upon his shoulder digging in to the meaty flesh.

A smirk appeared on my face as he stared at the wound as it began to spurt blood.

This paralytic didn't amplify pain like the novia extract did.

Eventually the paralysis spread to the rest of his body and fell to the floor looking panicked as did the rest of his comrades.

Another drew a weapon and yelled as he raised his sword.

This caught the attention of everyone in the hall to the current situation.

"You fucking brat!

What did you do to Lark?!"

Fire pumped through my veins and his movements became slower, but still quite fast.

Seems he's not as weak as the others I've fought.

I flicked several needles into positions between my finger of my right hand.

I stepped outside his swing and buried a needle into his arm.

He ripped the needle out but it was already too late, the paralytic is fast acting and I can already see his arm falling with the sword.

The other 2 draw their weapons as well but I throw my remaining 2 needles and stick them in the foolishly exposed area of the their chests.

They quickly joined their friends on the floor looking up at me from their prone positions.

"You'll regain control of your limbs in a couple of hours.

Unless there is a healer here with knowledge of paralytics, then it could be just a few short minutes.

Don't mess with me again, or I'll use something a little less pleasant next time."

I finish as I pull the last of my needles out of them and return them to my storage ring.

I would need to reapply the paralytic later, fortunately I still have over a thousand needles with various substances on them.

I step over the men on the floor and continued to the door.

For a moment nobody moved as they watched me disappear through the doorway.

But as soon as I passed the threshold I heard call for a healer and I tsked in annoyance.

Damn I was hoping they would be stuck like that for a while longer.

I can't believe that guy dropped the blade of that heavy ass sword on to his shoulder like that.

Once inside the examination room I'm met with bleacher like stands on the side of a dirt field.

I head to the desk off to the side and hand a woman my paper before heading to the stands.

There were quite a few people in the stands with me, but none seemed to be near my age which I wasn't surprised by.

The youngest seemed to only be about 17 and there were even people that seemed to be in their 40s.

The ones that caught my attention though were 3 girls sitting next to each other in Xyrus academy uniforms.

I knew this because I had seen the uniforms on some other students while shopping earlier and had asked the shopkeep about them.

The 3 girls were all around 17-19 years old by my guess and probably fresh graduates from the academy.

One seemed stronger than the other at least that's what my senses told me.

I couldn't see any of their cores so they must have been of a higher stage than me.

"Varay Aurae, water conjurer with a deviance in ice, dark yellow stage, come to the field for your test." A woman called.

I eyed her in appreciation at her strength, dark yellow wasn't too shabby for someone who hadn't even hit 20 yet.

She was the strong one that I had seen sitting between the 2 girls and she had a faint smile as she stepped down to the field.

I wanted to watch this match closely as it would be my first time witnessing someone with a deviance and I wanted to learn how to advance my own fire to lightning.

Another woman entered the field opposite of Varay and drew a wand, Varay doing the same.

"Begin!"

A man from the side called and the instructor waited for Varay to make the first move.

She took the advantage and fired off many ice shards toward the woman, who conjured an earthen wall to block them.

However I noticed the shards dig in a bit deeper than I expected.

Varay changed the direction of the shards that were lagging behind to go around the sides and up above the wall.

The instructor didn't panic though and conjured a rotating wall of sand that captures the shards and threw them to the ground.

Only her victory was short lived as Varay had soaked the floor in water and then froze the ground solid.

She fired another ice shard, and when the instructor tried to summon another wall she realized she couldn't.

She dived out of the way only to find the shard hovering above her neck.

"Stop! The match is over.

Varay Aurae will be granted A rank.

You can receive your rank at the front desk."

The judge at the side called and Varay nodded with a smile before joining her companions in the stands.

Soon her friends were called and they had strong showing also, but not to the level that Varay had.

Their names were Anna, a fire augmenter sword and shield user, apparently at the light orange stage.

The other was Lacy, a light orange stage wind conjurer.

A few other would be adventurers went before me but they weren't much, especially compared to the prior three tests.

"Malcius, dark orange stage fire augmenter, please come to the field for your test."

I undid my cloak and the gasps from other contestants caught the attention of Varay, Anna and Lacy.

For some reason they had stayed behind the watch the following examinees.

Perhaps they wanted to see if their was anyone they wanted to add to their group to round them out?

I shook the thoughts out though as I stepped onto the field and drew my sword.

It would do no good to use my various paralytics or poisons during a ranking test, so I'll use my good ole sword and fire.

"Begin!"

I channeled fire through my body and watched as the man with a single handed sword surged forward.

His speed slowed slightly from my use of fire mana pumping through my veins and I readied myself for the fight.

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Apologies for the cliffhanger.

See ya next chapter.