Chapter 11

Eva Lemuria-14 years old

I finally make it back to the guild building and walk in. It seems like everyone is still here except the group members of the guy that I had knocked out earlier. I notice everyone look at me when I walk in. Some of them exchange money from likely a bet on whether I'd come back or not. I also notice the seating arrangements have changed. A lot of the women that belonged to groups before are now sitting together and they are all looking at me with that same admiring gaze. Those admiring gazes actually seem a little more intense than they did before.

I walk up to Susan since no one else is at the counters and I will naturally prefer to go to her, who knows me, than anyone else. She greets me with a smile but then looks me over and goes to shocked and a little worry.

“Miss Eva I'm glad to see you come back, but are you ok? You don't look to be in great shape. There's blood everywhere and it looks like you have rocks sticking out of you everywhere. Also some cuts and bruises here and there. I didn't think Earth wolves could give so much trouble.”

“Well, no the earth wolves mostly didn't give me any trouble at all actually. A mana beast was among them. Here is the crystal.” I open my bag and place the brown crystal on the counter. “Oh, and here are the tails from the earth wolves. There are eighteen tails from earth wolves and the tail plus crystal heart from the mana beast.”

“What?! There was a mana beast? That shouldn't have happened. The chances of it happening were close to nothing? What happened?” Susan looks really flustered. I guess I should tell everything that happened.

“Oh well, I had destroyed the wolves borrow first before leaving and after I reached the plains the mana beast must have tracked me there and attacked with 4 other earth wolves. I would have been fine if there was only the mana beast or just the earth wolves but I had to take out the earth wolves before the mana beast. Anyway, I wanted to know the class of the mana beast. It seemed to have been an earth wolf that grew larger and had hardened stone plates that covered most of its body. I could only cut it with mana infused attacks.” I explain to her and hopefully, she calms down once she realizes how I'm fine. She also seems to be attracting a lot of attention so I spoke quietly hoping she follows.

“That's a 5th tier mana beast called a berserk stone wolf. It's known for having an incredibly hard defense that helps it attack without being stopped. Miss Eva, I'm glad your fine and I think you should definitely consider a rank up test to the 5th tier. You should go and sit down to rest while I process these rewards and I also have to report to the higher up that a mana beast had shown up. Please excuse me.” Susan walks away after informing me so I do as she suggests and find a corner of the guild lounge to sit by myself so I can recover my energy.

While waiting I realize I don't know how the guild tests people for the rank ups. I'm not sure if they will send me on a mission, have me fight a beast, or have me fight another member of the guild. Either way, I want to be ready for it so I keep working on gaining my strength back. I feel like I'm already back up to forty percent of my strength so that's a good sign.

“Ummm excuse me.” I'm interrupted by a small voice so I open my eyes to see a young girl barely older than myself calling out to me. I wonder how such a meek person could be an adventurer. She's dressed in light weight clothes and she has a bow strapped on her back so I can only assume she's an archer. She notices me looking at her and fidgets a bit before asking “I was wondering what your name is. If you don't mind can you tell us about your weapon and if it's true you beat a mana beast?” She's so meek and nervous. It seems like I would be bullying her if I don't respond.

“My name is Eva. My weapon is called a halberd apparently from the dwarves kingdom and yes I did run into and kill a berserker stone wolf 5th tier.” What's up with that shocked look? It was only a 5th tier. I would assume that there are stronger adventures here in the Lemuria capital. “Why are you shocked it's only a 5th tier mana beast? There must be many that can do what I did except without getting injured at all.”

“Well, there are a few adventures that can defeat 5th tier mana beasts, but they are all full parties of 5th tier adventures. There's, not just one 7th tier adventure that beats it with only a few scrapes and bruises. 5th tier adventures are where adventures become stuck at most the time and anything above that can be considered veterans at that point. To go up a tier does get harder with each tier. To get to 4th tier can be very hard for some so most just stay around 5th tier that's why 5th tier beast can be considered difficult to fight.” Adventure girl is very informative about these things and it makes me more curious on what this rank up test will be like. I can only imagine how long it will take to rank up if I chose to just do missions slowly to rank up.

“Thank you for informing me. Is there anything else that you needed to know?” She's just stood there while I thought. I assume it because she had something else to say.

“Yes, I was wondering if we could see you without your hood on so we can recognize you outside of adventuring? If you don't mind of course.” Adventurer girl

“I'm sorry but I prefer to keep my features hidden. I have some scars that I want to keep hidden so forgive me for keeping my hood on.” I hope my lie I prepared beforehand works on her and starts rumors so people don't become curious about my features.

“Ahh, I'm sorry I was insensitive. Of course, its fine we were just curious is all. Thank you ill just leave you to be then. Have a good day!” She becomes flustered before running away to talk to her friends. It seems like she's reporting her findings to the other girls. I'm not sure what their fascination is. Well, for now, ill just keep trying to recover my strength because I want to take that test before I go back to the castle today.

I keep recovering my strength till I feel that my mana is at eighty percent and I get up. I make my way towards the receptionist counter. I go in line after some adventures I haven't seen before who I assume are adventures who actively go on missions. They finish their work and go to the guilds bar to grab a drink and then it is my turn. I approach Susan to ask about the test.

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“Hello, Susan I'm here to take that rank up test. By the way, what is the test?”

“The test is actually ready for you now Miss Eva. It consists of fighting a higher level adventurer who will gauge your strength and then recommend a level for you. Are your ready to begin now?” Susan

I nod to Susan then she walks out from the counter and beckons me to follow her. I do and she leads me down a hallway and then down some stairs to the basement. She leads me into a room with a steel door. The room is very plain with only small windows around the edge of the top of the room. There are heavy engravings all around the room. It looks like there is even more here than our training room in the castle.

In the center of the room is a man with a weird single edged greatsword across his back. He has a very lazy look on his face and he seems about to fall asleep. He is a more of a lean man but I can tell he is strong. He has black leather armor that is covered in steel plates in vital areas. I guess this is the man that's going to determine my rank.

“Ok, Miss Eva this here is Jones. We won't tell you his tier till after the duel because it's better not to. You simply have to attack him to try to knock him out. You probably won't, but the point is to go at him with everything you have.” Susan

“Is everything here going to be confidential? I want the least amount of people to know about me as possible.”

“Yahhhh, you don't have to worry about that. We will keep everything confidential. Don't worry just come at me.” Jones even has a lazy voice, but if he's here I guess I can trust him. I look towards Susan wondering if she's going to stay. She seems to get my message and leaves while shutting the steel door. I was going to ask a few more questions, but Jones seemed to rather just start the fight.

He charged and swung his blade towards me. I react by bringing my halberd up to defend. I stop his blade but the strike is really heavy. I felt like I almost lost the grip on my weapon just from this first clash. I need to avoid blocking and just deflect all his strikes. I let his blade pass me and then strike him with a flame edge. He deflects my halberd and the flames strike the ceiling.

“Black flames? So that's why you asked about the confidential things. It is truly unique I suppose, but nothing that crazy. Besides the color, are they different in any way?” Instead of answering his question I swing repeatedly from multiple directions trying to get past his differences. “Wow its kinda like you're dancing with that thing.” Ah, this guy is annoying. I swing a wide arc and he jumps back. With my leg, I kick creating a flame arc going the opposite way from my halberd. While he's still in midair I know it will hit. He Instead swings his swords with a mana edge and cuts my flames in half. He lands perfectly fine and dashes towards me. I dash the same way and we go for another round of me attacking him as much as I can and him easily defending. I strike him, but when he tries to parry I lock our blades. I infuse my left arm with mana to strengthen it before removing my palm from my halberd and pointing it at Jones. I channel enough mana and release a burst of uncontrolled arcs of lighting towards Jones at close range I know there's nothing he can do. So my attack hits him, but all he does is jump backward and I realize he had put up a mana shield at the last second. “ Hey, that was dangerous. Well, it's not like you're the only one that knows how to use mana.” He then positions his sword horizontally and the wind gathers around his blade. I instinctively jump up as he swings his blade in a horizontal line. Wind slices right where I was.

I don't think I can keep fighting slowly like this so I form my flame armor. I take one step forward before rushing straight at Jones. I begin another barrage of attacks but instead of just using my halberd I also use my whole body in my attacks. Through my barrage, I can tell that the few attacks that get through have been weakening his mana armor. I jump back creating distance between us and then condense my flames in my fist before covering those with lightning. I notice Jones' eyes widen before he fully focuses and what seems like the first time he looks awake. I punch my fist forward and a column of black flames and lightning blast straight towards the other end of the room. I wasn't sure how Jones would deal with this attack considering its raw force. I thought maybe I actually got him with this attack but a cylinder of air burst upwards from the middle of the destruction. My attack was completely blown away and I see Jones through the gaps in his mini tornado. He is back to his lazy look and his seriousness is gone. I take my stance and prepare to keep going.

“Well, that was certainly a dangerous attack you have there. Geez, you are a troublesome girl you know that? Anyway, I think we can end it here. I have enough to give you a rank now and I want to go back to napping.” He tells me that was done, but I don't lower my guard considering he's been talking this whole time to try and mess me up. “Calm down were really done. Look I'll open this door and let Susan in ok?” Susan is then let in and looks over the room with some shock and I can really blame her. The whole room is pretty messed up. There's no physical damage to the room because of the heavy enchantments, but the whole room is basically scorched black. “Now then, to be honest, I want to recommend you to go to 4th tier, but I think you do need more experience before reaching that level so I'll just recommend 5th  tier and my personal advice is to go and fight a few 5th tier beasts and a couple of 4th tier beast as well. You should spend some time to rank up to 4th tier the old fashioned way through missions. After that, it's up to you. Now I'm going to bed.” He really just leaves without giving me the chance to ask questions or anything. What an irritating guy he is.

“Um well if he says 5th tier then we are going to offer you to rank up to 5 tier. Congratulations on rising from 7th tier to 5th tier in a day! Now please follow me to the front so I can upgrade your status.” Susan begins walking so I naturally follow.

“By the way who is Jones and what rank is he?”

“Jones is a veteran adventurer who likes to work in this capital. He is a 3rd tier solo adventurer. He says he likes working here because he only rarely has to go out and subjugate anything. I think he's just too lazy to go anywhere else, but either way, we can put him to work sometimes.” We reach the counter and Susan begins her paperwork. “Miss Eva now that you are a 5th tier adventure you can take 4th tier missions and below. Please be careful taking any 4th tier missions. It's highly recommended to take those with a party.”

After she finished all the paperwork she told me it was complete and that everything was official now. She told me I can now take the higher tier missions if I wanted. I was far too tired to continue doing anything today so I just said my goodbye and started walking back towards the castle. Today I feel as if I've accomplished my goals and I feel proud to start off as a 5th tier adventurer and even being told I could qualify as the 4th tier with a bit more experience.

I reach the side gate of the castle and enter before moving straight to my room where I leave all my gear before moving towards the baths. I'm glad no one saw me come in. It gives me the chance to peacefully wash off the blood covering me and clean my wounds. I hear a racket outside the baths, but I ignore it till my little sister burst into the room with a panicked look.

“Big Sis hurry and run! Momma heard you got injured while adventuring today and she's really mad. She's looking all over for you.” Lora

I immediately get up to jump at out of the bath and run, but the water shakes and my entire body is enveloped with a bubble of water with only my head sticking out. I start panicking because I can't move at all and I'm completely naked. How did she do this I don't even see her anywhere in here? I then notice mother walk in with a very friendly smile but for some reason, it's very scary. She looks my body over while it's floating and I feel she became even scarier. The worst wound that I have are the cuts on my shoulder and then it's only a few cuts and bruises. I don't know why she's so angry but I'm scared.

“Sweetheart, can you explain these injuries to me? I didn't agree to you getting injured while adventuring. Now tell me how you got injured.” All my instincts are telling me the danger is right in front of me so I tell mother everything that happened today. I feel sorry for Jones but Mother is too scary. “Now I'm going to have to spend a long time treating your wounds and making you feel better” Did mother just lick her lips? Why does it feel like the water is tightening around me? Sister don't try to sneak away! Help me!