“Once again, due to complications, Leon was unable to learn magic until very recently. If you continue making a fuss about this, I will get angry.” Miss Camille said to Guildmaster Borus.
“Even if you say that, I just cannot help but feel frustrated at the wasted talents before me!” He sighed out loud.
“I understand your frustrations, but there is nothing we can do but to move forward. Leon may be late to the party, but he’s still very young. It’s not impossible for him to catch up if he works hard enough.”
“You’re right… He may have started late, but his talents are still there. As long as we can train him properly, he will definitely become a future S-Rank Adventurer!” Borus agreed with Miss Camille’s sentiment.
Guildmaster Borus proceeded to write down Leo’s results into the clipboard he was holding.
[Magic Talent: S-Rank]
[Magic Affinity: Dark(S), Wind(F)]
[Mana Capacity: 900]
[Note: Only started training magic 3 weeks ago. Potential S-Rank Adventurer.]
“All right, let’s move onto the next part of the examination. Follow me.”
Guildmaster Borus led them to a more spacious room, where a human-shaped golem was resting in the center of the room.
‘Am I going to fight that thing?’ Leo wondered to himself the instant he saw the golem.
“This is a Human Golem. It has prowess equal to a F-Rank monster. Your goal is to defeat it. However, you are not allowed to use artifacts or potions during the fight, and you have 10 minutes to defeat it.”
“Any questions?”
Leo nodded and asked, “As long as it’s not an artifact, I can use it, right? I would like to use a sword.”
“What? You’re a magician. Why would you want to use a sword?” Guildmaster Borus was puzzled by his request.
“Actually… I have more experience with a sword than I do with magic…” Leo explained.
“What?!” Borus immediately turned to look at Miss Camille and shouted, “What is the meaning of this?! I thought you were teaching him magic!”
“I am, but he’s also training in swordsmanship.”
“That’s ridiculous… He’s already years behind his peers in magic, yet you’re still wasting his time by teaching swordsmanship? What in god’s name are you thinking, Camille?”
“How I train him is none of your business, Borus. Are you here to lecture me or manage the examination?”
Guildmaster Borus sighed, “Do you have a sword? If not, I can lend one to you.”
“I have a sword. Miss Camille?” Leo turned to look at her.
Miss Camille retrieved his training sword and handed it to him.
Once the sword was in his hand, Leo nodded at Guildmaster Borus, who begrudgingly activated the Human Golem.
The golem started moving a few seconds later.
Although its movements were stiff at first, it got realistic and fluid really quickly, and before Leo realized, the golem was already running at him.
The golem started throwing punches at Leo once it was close enough.
‘While its punches are quite heavy, its movements are incredibly slow! I can dodge it with ease!’
Leo wanted to test his training results on the golem, so he didn’t attack it immediately.
However, he quickly grew bored because of how slow the golem moved.
‘This golem is weaker than I thought… Let’s just end it…’
Whoosh!
Leo suddenly used the first combo of the Formless Sword Dance, sending out three strikes in a quick succession.
The golem stopped moving for a second before it collapsed on the floor, breaking into 3 different pieces.
‘That’s it?’ Leo stared at the broken golem with raised eyebrows, almost as though he couldn’t believe how easy he’d defeated it.
“Congratulations, you have defeated the golem and passed the Adventurer’s Examination… if this was a normal examination.” Borus said to him with a profound smile on his face.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Leo asked.
Borus suddenly stomped the floor with his large feet, causing the entire room to tremble.
The Human Golem that had been lying on the floor suddenly transformed into a pile of sand.
The sand started moving shortly after, growing bigger and bigger until it transformed into another golem, but it looked nothing like the Human Golem and was twice as large.
“This is a Sand Golem, and it has the prowess of an E-Rank monster. If you want to pass the examination and become an Adventurer, you must defeat it! However, you are only allowed to use magic!” Borus explained to him.
“Borus! What is the meaning of this?! This isn’t part of the Adventurer’s Examination!” Miss Camille called him out with a frown on her face.
Borus looked at her and said, “Camille, this is my Guild. If you want to be recognized as an Adventurer here, you will have to follow my rules. If you don’t like it, you can go to another city and take the examination all over again there.”
“I just need to defeat it with my magic, right? I will do it.” Leo suddenly said.
“That’s what I am talking about! The golem will start moving in ten seconds, so you better be prepared before then!” Borus said.
“Ten seconds, huh?”
Leo quietly stood there and waited for the Sand Golem to move.
Ten seconds later, the Sand Golem suddenly twitched.
However, before it could even move an arm, Leo raised his hand and pointed his finger at the golem.
‘Black Bullet!’
The Black Bullet easily blew a hole in the golem’s face, but it did not stop there and continued flying at the wall behind it, creating a fist-sized hole in it.
A few seconds later, the Sand Golem returned to being a pile of useless sand.
“Seriously?” Borus muttered in a dazed voice after witnessing the whole thing.
‘During the ten second wait, he had silently cast Black Bullet and overcharged it. Once the ten seconds had passed and the golem was activated, he released the magic, destroying it in an instant.’
‘However, even though he had a plan, it wouldn’t have worked if his magic power wasn’t strong enough. In order to damage the Sand Golem, he needed at least 1,500 magic power. That Black Bullet just now should be close to 2,000 magic power…’
A slight smile appeared on Miss Camille’s face when she realized what Leo had just done.
“Did I pass the examination?” Leo asked Borus a moment later.
“Hahaha!”
Guildmaster Borus suddenly started laughing out loud.
“Not bad! Not bad at all! Alright, I will accept this loss! Congratulations, Leon. You have officially passed the Adventurer’s Examination. And I apologize for my little prank just now. I wanted to see your magic potential and couldn’t help myself.”
“It’s fine. I also wanted to test my magic.” Leo shook his head.
Sometime later, Guildmaster Borus personally handed Leo his Adventurer’s License.
“You will need this if you want to leave the city by yourself or accept missions from any Guilds out there.”
“Thank you.” Leo accepted his Adventurer’s License that took the form of an identification card.
[Name: Leon] [ID:1505737101]
[Adventurer Rank: F]
[DOB:04/29/2022] [Blood: O+]
[Sponsor: Camille Light(ID:646090913)]
[Date Created: 01/01/2040] [Expiration: 01/01/2050]
“Now that you’re an official Adventurer, let’s start your training.” Miss Camille said to him.
“Already? Shouldn’t we prepare a little more? How about a lesson on monsters first?”
“You’ll learn as you fight them. That’s the fastest way for someone like you to learn.”
“Good luck, greenhorn. I can’t wait to see what you’ll become.” Borus said to Leo.
“It’s also good to finally see you back outside the city again, Camille.”
Guildmaster Borus turned around and disappeared into the building shortly after.
Meanwhile, Miss Camille brought Leo to another room that had dozens of computers, almost as though they had entered an internet cafe.
“What kind of place is this?” Leo asked.
“This is where you can accept guild missions and requests,” she explained.
‘Huh. In fantasy novels, they would be posted all over the walls like some kind of busy office, but this is pretty neat and more convenient.’ Leo thought to himself.
Once they found an empty computer, Miss Camille instructed him, “Insert your card there. You’ll only be shown missions that are at your grade or below for now.”
Leo scrolled through the missions on the screen after inserting his card.
There were four categories of missions that Leo could pick from.
Transportation missions, subjugation missions, territory control, or special missions.
“Do subjugation missions.” Miss Camille said.
“All right…”
After clicking on the subjugation mission category, Leo automatically received a mission.
[Kill F-Rank Monsters]
“Huh? That’s it? Shouldn’t it be more specific?” Leo looked at Miss Camille.
“Is that not specific enough for you?”
“I mean, how many am I supposed to kill? What kind of monsters?”
“The amount doesn’t matter. You can kill a hundred or none. The type of monsters don’t matter either. Just kill whatever comes your way.” Miss Camille said.
“Really? This isn’t really a mission at all.”
“It’s not. Unless there are monsters causing trouble near our city or blocking trade routes, the guild won’t hand out official subjugation missions. However, in order to leave the city as an F-Rank Adventurer, you must have a mission, hence this kind of vague mission— it’s mostly just to let the guild know what you plan on doing outside.”
“I see…”
“Now that you have a mission, let’s go hunt some monsters.” Miss Camille said a moment later.
“Okay.” Leo nodded in a nervous manner.
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AN: Don’t forget to vote!
