Chapter 33 - Exam

Day 45

Mike's POV:

When Mike and the chief entered the examination room, he found a woman already waiting for them. She was only 1.6 meters tall, had long red hair and Mike would normally call her petite but, the power she radiated stopped all thoughts he had about her appearance.

  "So you're the hotshot that wants to take the advanced entrance exam? We haven't had one of those for a while. Name?"

"Greetings guild master, my name is Michael Mikkelson."

  "Is that your real name?"

"Yes, of course."

  "Then you need to take another one. A hint, the more you use a name, the stronger your connection to it gets. Others can use this connection to harm you. While nobody with that ability would put in the effort to do this to a newbie like yourself, the guild rules need you to join with another name. In a matter of fact, this connection is the reason why the most powerful people of this world often stop to use a name altogether. They often just go with a description like Firefighter or the Black Sorcerer. So what is the name you want to use for the guild?"

"Hmm, let me think about it for a moment - I want to become a heavy armored front line fighter, so how about Iron Mike?"

Mike saw the guild master writing down the name.

  "A little bit fancy for a newbie but, maybe you'll grow into it. For the file, I need you to tell me your current rank and what your F rank was before you started cultivating mana."

"Current rank would be E2 and I was F12 before I reached the E rank."

When he answered the question, Mike for the first time saw genuine interest in the guild master's face.

  "So we have a perfectionist. Don't see them very often. With the work you needed to put in to reach that rank, you could've already be on the border to D rank. But in my opinion, it's probably better in the long term, if you take the time to create a stable foundation. Well, only as long you don't need too long and waste your prime cultivation age only for the sake of maxing out. You should never stay longer in a rank than a quarter of your life expectancy. Otherwise, ranking up will get a lot more difficult."

"So I should rank up to D rank while being younger than 37. Good to know. So what's next?"

  "Next, is a fight against training dummies. We'll start with E0 and then increase them rank by rank. As an advice, the higher the training dummy you beat, the bigger your bonus from the advance entrance exam. The guild takes care of its talented members."

Then the real examination began. The first fight was pretty easy. The E0 dummy didn't use mana techniques and Mike was, because of his previous F12 rank far stronger and far faster than it.

When he was fighting against the E2 dummy, he had to rely on his mana techniques for the first time. But after making use of his Tough Body, he was easily able to beat it too. The next two opponents were a little bit stronger, but Mike was able to overcome them, without having to go all out.

The real challenge was the E5 ranked dummy. It was much faster and stronger than him. Mike had to near constantly using Haste to keep up and was only able to block its attacks when he was using Tough Body. The longer the fight went on, the more he felt the draw on his mana reserves from using his techniques this much. The dummy was showing some openings, but Mike was a freshman when it came to sword fighting and he wasn't skilled enough to take advantage of them. He was getting more and more desperate, until he decided to go for a hail marry. When the dummy attacked him the next time on his left side, he didn't try to block the blow. He just activated Tough Body to its fullest. When he was hit in his side, he used his left arm to grab the dummy's sword, while putting all his remaining strength in the sword blow he executed from his right side. It worked, he defeated the dummy with a blow to its head. After that, Mike sank to his knees, the wound had been heavier than he'd thought.

"I could use some healing." Mike said while spitting out blood.

To his surprise, the guild master came over and put her hand on his wound. The healing magic he felt, was much stronger than the one the chief used. When she finished, she spoke to him.

  "Not bad boy, really not bad. For a newbie you have a good grip on your techniques."

She paused for a moment, Mike saw she wanted to ask a question but, she didn't.

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  "You're alternating between two techniques of different elements. I hope you know what you're doing when you don't concentrate on one element. Your sword technique is horrible and it was hurting my eyes to see but, the last maneuver you used required some guts. I like that. I have to ask this, do you want to fight the next dummy?"

Mike thought about it for a moment but, without this maneuver, he wouldn't been able to win and the E6 would be much stronger and faster than the E5 had been.

"No, thank you. I've had enough for now."

  "Wise decision. So for beating an opponent three ranks higher than yourself in the advanced exam, you can learn three basic techniques from the guild and you don't have to pay fees for three years."

Mike was stunned over this generous offer, he could see the chief's mouth dropped open but, when he thought about it, he came to the conclusion he didn't need more techniques for the moment. He would get some more from his deal with Neo.

"Thank you for your generosity. But like you said, I already have two techniques and my sword fighting is horrible. Is it perhaps possible to get some books about fighting with sword and shield in heavy armor instead?"

  "A weird request. You know, getting a new mana technique is much more difficult and expensive than getting trained in sword fighting?"

"Yes, but the only good fighter I know is the chief and he was never the front line tank of his party."

  "Ok, I will write it down, so you can get access to ten fighting manuals. This would be all, your examination is finished and you can get your membership badge and certificate at the reception."

"Thank you very much guild master but, we have to talk about something else, the real reason we are here for, you could say. I've found a dungeon near our village."

  "That's not funny boy. If you say you've found a dungeon and our exploration team can't find it, you'll have to pay a 1000 gold fine for it. So you better think twice about it."

"Yes, I found a dungeon. Let me explain why I'm sure about it."

  "Wait, here take this stone in your hand first. It will tell me if you are lying."

Mike took the stone in his hand and started to talk about his hunt for the bear. He didn't say her anything about Neo or Luna.

  "Damn, that fucking cunt of a count is really lucky. What he deserves is being hit over the head and not this."

"You mean the count of Geldern? You're wrong, the dungeon is not on his land, it's on our own."

When Mike explained the status of their frontier village and the location of the dungeon, the guild master started to smile and to laugh.

  "Hahaha, I'd like to see his face when he gets to know there is a dungeon so close to his city and it's not his to claim. You really made my day here Mike and you can call me Sonja. I need a few days to gather an exploration team, it's probably best for you to go back home and us meeting there. Most high ranking adventurers would be seriously annoyed if they have to travel as slow as a newbie."

"Ok, sounds like a plan. Can you say how long it will take you?"

  "Shouldn't take more than a week for the team to arrive. Before you go, I saw you were using Tough Body. That's a very rare and expensive technique. It is a combination of Giant Strength and Iron Skin. While it's a bit weaker than activating both of them together, it's especially tailored for new adventurers who aren't able to use more than one technique at the same time. It is, as far as I know, the best technique for a new fighter. I'd like to know where you got it, even I don't have access to it. In addition only very few people know about the advanced exam, I wonder how someone from a small village like yours was able to get this information."

Mike hesitated for a moment. Sonja left a good impression on him but, he didn't know if he could trust her. While he was pondering of it, the chief took the decision out of his hands.

    "When Mike found the dungeon, he'd met a man who called himself Neo. Mike was tasked by him to hunt animals and bring them to the dungeon. When he was hunted by a group of goblins and he brought them to the dungeon, Neo killed them and thanked him for his effort with a very good book that contained basic techniques and a lot of useful tips and tricks about the path of an adventurer. In addition he mentioned the exam and told him only to give the information about the dungeon to the higher ups of the guild."

When the chief mentioned the name Neo, Mike was able to see all color leaving Sonja's face and she gulped heavily.

"Is something wrong, guild master, ahmm Sonja? You look like you've seen a ghost."

  "You could say so. I don't know if I'm right but, under no circumstances mention the name Neo to somebody else."

"Ok, I won't. Can you tell me why?"

  "I only know of one powerful person who would be able to have a book like you mentioned and is living in this area. That would be the immortal Black Sorcerer who earlier went by the name Neo."

"What's an immortal?"

  "An immortal is the highest rank that I know of. When you leave the SSS rank behind, you'll no longer age and become an immortal. In addition I've been told that this Neo is even powerful for an immortal. I would be very interested in having a look at this book. Don't worry, I won't take it away from you, I just want to read it. In exchange you can keep the fighting manuals and I'll look after you a bit in the future."

Now it was Mike's and the chief's time to grow pale. A being beyond the SSS rank was inconceivable for them and to have him take notice of Mike could either spell doom for him or it could be his greatest fortune. Mike accepted Sonja's offer and he collected ten manuals from the guild library. The librarian made an angry face when he was told Mike would keep the books.

Mike and the chief didn't say a word when they left the guild. Even when they met back up with Gunthar and Anna they were still silent. A few hours later, after they'd already left the city, Mike broke the silence.

"Wow!"

    "Yes boy, Wow is the right word." the chief commented.

"But why did you tell her about Neo?"

    "Sonja Blade has a very good reputation for being just and honorable. When you are an adventurer, dungeon's aren't the only danger. Others will try to take advantage of you, maybe even kill you and take your stuff if you find something good. It will be very good for you to have an S rank looking after you. She probably thinks you have some kind of connection to this Neo, so she can't risk you being hurt under her watch."

"Did you think about what happens if Neo doesn't like to have his involvement with the dungeon known?"

The chief went silent after that question.