The leader; or the supposed leader, considering the air of authority surrounding the man, the eyes of impunity looking down alongside the chin raised so high even the gods felt offended. It was an air that told everyone around that they were worse, and almost idiotic, by the full sense of that word, without having to mutter anything.
He was tall and skinny, limbs looking like branches of a short tree. His hair was so cleanly cut in a globe that there wasn’t a single strand of hair astrew, the type of hair a man who’d pulled out all the nuts and screws that were unneeded in his head would look like. And his piercing eyes were currently looking right at Rast.
He clapped his hands especially loudly, and the entire room went silent. “It seems that everyone that is to arrive, has come.” The room was filled with roughly fifty people. A big number. “So then we will begin testing.”
A golem, roughly 1 80 cm tall, rose out of the ground. It had a gem red in the front of its face resembling eyes. Stone plated its body like armour but there were gaps that showed a weaker substance. It stood completely still.
“Who wants to be the first party to fight it?” The man asked, and for a short while everyone was silent, until a boy with spiky white hair raised up his hand and shouted for him to try. The fifty some people shuffled into the sides, whilst the party in question walked forward into the middle to fight the golem.
The fight was a disaster for the party. The golem proved to be fast, and strong, and also, strangely intelligent. It would rather hit your face than your arms if it could manage it. Not something a slime behind a cluster of rocks should be able to do.
“You’re disqualified. You go home,” The man said to them.
“What?” The boy with spiky white hair said, “but aren’t we supposed to get stronger. Isn’t that the point? And I don’t even know your name.”
“And you don’t need to know my name because you are disqualified from entering the training camp.”
“This is bu…”
The boy looked visibly upset but the tall black haired man wasn’t alone. In the corner of the room, there was a man that everyone had noticed. A giant of a man, almost three meters talled, his gaze sent chills through your spine. And he was approaching the group.
“That’s enough, get out,” he said, leaving no room for argument. The boy cursed under his breath, and begrudgingly left with his party. Rast swallowed, if they couldn’t beatit, we might as well go home.
“Hahaha,” a voice broke through the audience. It belonged to a woman with a shiny staff, she walked forward alongside her group, oozing confidence in a way only experienced veterans that had never lost did .
“Very well then,” the black haired man said, and stepped out, letting them face the golem.
The fight was quick, and a disaster, but this time for the golem. It had put up a decent fight, requiring them to fully utilize their teamwork to get it down, but they did it. But by no means in a clean way, the execution was messy and sloppy. They smiled as the goblin lay crushed on the ground.
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“You’re disqualified,” the black haired man said. “You can leave.”
“What?” The woman burst out, “but we beat the golem?”
“And?” The man said, giving her a blank stare as if her accomplishment was akin to breathing.
“We beat the test so we should get in.”
“You’ve been sorely mistaken, retard,” a vein bulged out on her forehead, “this isn’t a test of skill but one of potential. Now get out of here you rotten fruit!”
“WHAT DID HE CALL ME!” She shrieked at the notion of being rotten, I’m not old, , and began casting a spell. Two moments later and her head found itself unable to speak, and then she saw the ground turn into the roof, and then everything went dark. Her head had been chopped off, and they threw out the rest of the party.
They just killed… This isn’t a joke.
The fighting continued with almost every single party but five being disqualified. Luther’s party got accepted. The black haired man made a comment about Luther being a great leader but spoiled. In the end the five parties stood in a cluster, and it was only Rast’s party left.
This is going to be a gigantic waste of time.
They stepped up, and Rast felt a hole in his stomach. He couldn’t hold his staff without his hands shaking. Everyone’s eyes stared at them, and he heard whispering. The black haired man stared at them, tapping his finger expectantly.
The fight went horribly. Björn rushed in, and two punches knocked him out. Annie couldn’t hit anything but the golems armour, her arrows wedging in there. Rast couldn’t finish his spell before the golem hit him in the stomach, sending him falling. Loki had somehow climbed up on the golem's back, and tried ripping off his head, but didn’t have the strength, so the golem ignored him. Marie fell down on her knees crying.
“You pass.”
“What?” Rast said, not believing his own ears, “But we got completely crushed.”
“Haha,” the black haired man said, “once again, retard, I am measuring potential, not skill.”
“How did we show any potential?”
“Of course you don’t know, monkey,” the black haired man said, giggling to himself. “The warrior took two punches before falling, that golem is made to hit you precisely hard enough to knock you out, which meant he remained standing on will and will alone.”
“The archer, whilst having terrible accuracy, managed to shoot an arrow hard enough to pierce stone. That is talent.”
“The rogue snuck up behind an opponent with full 360 degree vision, surprising even me.”
“Your fingers moved very elegantly as you cast that spell. The type of elegance you can only be born with, a natural mage.”
“The healer could notice the golems' hate, a trait which when refined is infamously good for revealing the enemies intentions.”
“In conclusion,” The black haired man said, “you’re broken products, all of you have large defects in your kit, but, if you fix a broken product in the right way, they grow better than the original. And that is why I let you pass. Now go on.”