Ranking-up

Arad stretched his arms, getting ready for the test in the training ground; everything was simple.

"Will fight, and you will rank up if you were good enough," Alcott said with a big smile, lifting his sword.

"Are you going to fight him barehanded?" one of the adventurers watching screamed, "He's right. Get the kid a weapon." All the adventurers started shouting.

Amber approached Arad, "Here, you can have this." She handed him a large wooden staff. "I said I will buy you a staff if you ranked within a weak. I say you did good enough."

{She already bought one?}

"Thank you, I will use it well," Arad replied, smiling as he looked at his new and first staff.

**********

{Quarterstaff]

{Item Rank: F}

{Stats}

[Increase spell base damage: +1]

{Special abilities}

{The quarterstaff double as a two-handed melee weapon; 1d8+ strength modifier}

**********

Arad swung his staff around, engulfing his hands with flames. Swosh! Swosh! BAM! He smacked the tip on the ground causing a small explosion.

"Hoho!" Alcott smiled, "I only felt such pressure when fighting real dragons. Their blood is strong within you."

"START!" Nina screamed.

Thud! Arad pointed his staff toward Alcott, KA-DON! KA-DON! KA-DON! He immediately cast three [Firebolt]

THUD! Alcott rushed ahead, swinging his sword. He could perform four swings per second while Arad could only cast three [Firebolt] CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Alcott sliced the spells one after the other and reached Arad in one second. With the flat of his blade, he swung at Arad.

CRACKLE! A spark ignited in Arad's chest. SWOSH! KA-DON! His whole body burst into flames.

Alcott stopped mid-swing as the flame assaulted him, "First-tier?"

All the adventurers, including Amber, stared with their mouths open.

KA-DON! As Alcott started getting into a stance, Arad emerged from the flames, swinging his flaming staff.

"You can't take anyone with wide swings." Alcott swung his blade, quickly disarming Arad. "It's over."

CLANG! Arad gripped Alcott's sword with his bare hand. "Who said that?"

KA-DON! He swung his other fist, engulfed in flames.

Thud! Alcott grabbed Arad's fist, "You lost your staff. Why fight?"

"Cause I can. Give me the new rank." Thwack! Arad swung a kick at Alcott, hitting him straight in the stomach.

"I see. You're a hot-blooded one." Alcott smiled, unfazed by Arad's kick. "You pass!" BANG! Alcott said, headbutting Arad into the dreamland.

An hour later, Arad woke up in the guild's office with a touch on his forehead. "What happened?"

{That man knocked you out with one headbutt. Your flames barely burned the fine hair of his beard.}

Arad looked around. The room looked simple, having one bed and a small table. "Where am I now?"

{You won't like the answer. The guild's dormitory.}

Arad was about to nod, but then it came to his mind. "You said dormitory?"

{The guild seems to have a small dorm where you can rent a room for 50 copper per night.}

Arad sighed. He spent the night outside, and they had this dorm here. Why didn't Nina tell him?

Arad stood and walked toward the door opening it. He looked into the hallway, and it was empty, but he could hear the adventurers celebrating in the guild hall underneath.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Nina walked up the stairs and saw Arad standing in the hallway, "Did you wake up?"

"No, I'm still asleep," Arad replied as he walked past her.

"You could at least stop to talk." she looked back at him.

"You could have told me you had a dorm here." He growled, staring at her.

"I tried to tell you but left quickly," She looked at him with a sad face, "Did you spend a lot on an inn?" She asked.

Arad didn't want to tell her he slept outside, so he just nodded, "What's going on down there?"

Nina smiled, "The adventurers are celebrating your win against Alcott. They never expected an F-rank to stand his ground."

"I lost, didn't I? He knocked me out."

"But you fought longer than any other adventurer of your rank did. It was unbelievable to see you clash with him like that." Nina smiled, guiding Arad to the hall after giving him his guild card.

***********

<Arad Orion><Level: 1><Class: Sorcerer>

<Guild Rank: E><Rank Up: 0/10><Reliability Rank: 14/14>

***********

The adventurers shouted when they saw him walk in, "He's here," One stood on top of a table. "The blazing newbie!" They started cheering and drinking even though it was noon.

Arad stared at them for a moment and then walked toward the quest board, "Nina, I will be going out." He said with a smile.

"Now? They are still celebrating your rank-up." Nina said with a gasp. Amber approached him with the staff, "You dropped this." she handed it back to him.

"Do you want to go questing now?" Amber asked.

Arad nodded, "I can't stop working. I will finish the F-rank quests I still have and then start doing the E-rank missions from tomorrow."

Alcott approached them, "Then I suggest you find a party to join. E-rank quests need a party." He explained, "You can do some A-rank and S-rank quests solo, as they sometimes need a specific talent."

"If we had a quest to investigate the source of a strange forest fire, that can be a quest you can take a solo at A-rank." Nina tried to explain, but Alcott stared at her with a strange face.

"You're always bad at explaining. High quests are just difficult problems in a simple matter. Nobody can finish an assassination but an assassin. It's that simple." He explained, but Arad already understood what it meant from Nina's explanation.

{We can't join a party that we don't completely trust. What if you had to go all out, and they spilled the beans about your nature?}

Arad couldn't agree more. Until he finds his first mate, he will keep adventuring solo.

"Sorry, but I don't intend on joining a party I don't trust," Arad replied.

"Trust is built with time. How can you trust a party if you never went on quests with them?" Alcott stared at him.

"I will figure it out. Until then, I'm adventuring alone." Arad replied.

Alcott seemed to think about it for a few moments, "Well, I have some free time now, Amber isn't currently at a party, and the guild master will let Nina out for a day or two." Alcott looked at Arad with a smile.

"Shall we form a temporary party for you?" He smiled, "You can trust us, right?"

{A dragon slayer is the last person we should trust.}

"You're the last person I should trust," Arad replied immediately, and Alcott stared at him with a sad face.

"But I can take you to cool places. Do you want to check the dragon mount to the east?" Alcott tried convincing Arad, but he got rejected.

{The second to last thing we want is to meet another dragon this early}

Arad shook his head immediately and denied Alcott, "I will go alone." Arad walked out of the guild.

"He's a determined one. I told you he won't join a party." Amber said with a smile, "With all that strength, he's better off building a name for himself first."

Nina stared at her, "It's safer to operate at a party."

Alcott shook his head, "He still had the strength to spare. Let's see how he will fare alone." He remembered seeing Arad teleport in the forest and deduced that he was hiding his true power.

"To someone like him, being at a party is far more dangerous than being alone," Alcott said seriously and quickly realized how hard it was to explain as he saw Nina's face glaring at him.

"Well, you see, his fire is all-powerful. He could burn his teammates. I'm sure he will find a party when he can control his flames more precisely." Alcott made it up on the spot.

"So he has power but lacks control." Amber thought, "I will find a way to help gain more control." And she left.