The Test Commences!

The looks on Sango's bruised face showed just how badly his body and pride had been damaged. There was no fury on his face, however.

… Just pure reflection.

"I'm sorry, Boss! I'll take full responsibility for all this!" Sango groveled even further, perhaps to satiate their Party Leader's anger, but his actions were misdirected.

The Boss wasn't upset at all.

Instead, he appeared curious—having a smile on his clear and youthful face.

"How interesting. Tell me more about those two Adventurers."

"Well, they called themselves Jet and Lux."

"Jet and Lux? Hmm… go on." The Party Leader said with a smile on his face.

"Well… also…"

Sango went on to fully describe the entire incident, including how he shamefully got his arse handed to him and couldn't remember what happened after that.

His story was met with a round of laughter from the leader—naturally.

"Well, you guys are definitely going to apologize to him." The Boss finally stopped his laughter, wiping away the beads of tears that formed on his face.

"Don't worry, I'll go with you." He smiled.

"B-but—!"

"No buts. A Party Leader has to take responsibility for those in their party." The silhouette commented with a broad grin.

"Besides… I'm a bit curious about those two."

Narrowing his gaze, almost as if something new dropped in his mind, the Boss rubbed his chin and parted his lips.

"This Jet… did he have a mask on?"

"Um… no."

"Then you saw his face? How did he look?"

"He was… very attractive, or so I hear. I was knocked out cold before I could get a good look, and those guys were too drunk to serve as any reliable source of information."

Of course, Sango's retort was met with loud comebacks from his kneeling subordinates.

"W-we saw!"

"He was very handsome!"

"The lady with him was also pretty! So pretty that I sobered up the moment I saw her!"

Their words seemed exaggerated, but everyone knew it would be unwise to lie to the Party Leader.

The moment the seated man heard this, he rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes even further in order to scrutinize the information even more.

"It's not him, then…" He muttered, barely audibly. "This doesn't seem like his style at all."

He sighed, the wide grin on his face vanishing as he rose to his feet, his frame seeming like an intimidating silhouette compared to his kneeling comrades.

"I still want to meet him, though. This Jet fellow…" He walked past them, his hand in his pockets as his jet black coat fluttered flailed behind him and his Six Star Badge gleamed under the dim light of the room.

"… He seems interesting."

*********

[The Next Day]

"Good afternoon, you two. My name is Britta, and I will be the one supervising your Heroic Rank Test today."

A fierce-looking woman with dirty blond hair stared at both Jet and Lux with a piercing stare.

She wasn't particularly beautiful, but she had a certain cuteness that came with being so serious and stern all the time. A few freckles could be seen on her nose, and a black birthmark in the form of a dot sat underneath her left eye.

She was dressed in full gear—light armor that seemed to be made from a combination of Monster hides. Her chest was covered with proper breastplates, with her back, shoulder, hands, lower legs, and other relevant areas covered in denser armor than the rest of her body.

Most of everything else were fabric, though based on the way they gleamed under the sun, it was clear that they weren't just normal clothes.

Britta was garbed with her full set of Enchanted Items; including a blade behind her, a dagger strapped to her waist, and several pouches attached to her belt.

Her boots were squeaky clean, but they looked aged due to how many times they had been used.

Last, but not least, her Six-Star Badge was firmly placed at the center of her belt, perfectly enunciating her Adventurer Rank to the two candidates.

All in all, she was the perfect representation of an Adventurer—

the pinnacle of what everyone in the City strived to be.

"Good afternoon, Britta. We will be in your care." Jet responded with a slight bow.

"What's with that casual tone? Call me Miss Britta."

"Ah, apologies… Miss Britta." Despite Jet correcting himself and even bowing lower than before, Britta couldn't help but frown even more.

Somehow, she felt like he was being sarcastic.

"Well, whatever." She sighed, shrugging the whole matter aside.

Britta didn't consider herself petty enough to get hung over little things like that.

"We're going to be taking a bit of a tour inside there." Pointing towards the dense forest that stood to their left, she went on to explain.

"This place is known as the Dead Zone. It's considered dangerous, even by Adventurer Standards, and that's because powerful Monsters reside inside."

It was home to an entire ecosystem where the strong devoured the weak, creating a boiling pot for Monsters to grow and evolve into stronger entities.

The only reason Adventurers didn't bother clearing the forest—

assuming it was even possible to do so—was because the Dead Zone helped them to breed Monsters for free.

As long as they occasionally patrolled the forest at scheduled times, and conducted the systematic culling that held every year or so, there was no risk to the City.

An outbreak had only happened once, and after that there had been more safety measures put in place to ensure it was not a danger to the City despite being a dangerous place by every right.

"I'm sure you were already told this by the Receptionist when you returned to the Guild and she directed you here, but your goal for this Test is pretty simple."

Britta folded her arms and gave a wide smile, with a deadly gleam explicitly exposed within her eyes.

"Both of you must defeat at least one A-Tier Monster each."