I'm sitting outside when Falium finally makes his way out.
"Come on I'm late."
I ran and caught up with him.
"And why are you late? I sat outside for like twenty minutes waiting for you."
"My armor was in the wash, then I got scolded by Freya."
"Really well, whatever."
I jog beside him and everyone on the way is staring at me while others are trembling in fear as we made our way to the guild.
As I open the door to let Falium in a blade of wind almost decapitates me. It wasn't a second later when a barrage of various magic fly's towards me making me have to dodge or cut all the magic heading my direction.
"Déjà vu much."
"HEY! stop it! I realize he is a monster but after the first shot that you all should have realized that he isn't trying to kill you. 'Cause he could have killed you all. Know I'm half tempted to let 'em!"
I look back at him seeing his hair is slightly on fire, and I couldn't help but start laughing.
"Look good Falium."
"Bitch get back here."
Unlike the first time we met, I easily dodge because I analyzed his fighting style and his martial arts skill is pretty low.
"Err... It's Guild Master while I'm in the guild."
"Guild Master, you need to watch your image while in the guild. Also, you need to explain the guild and do his tests."
"Ugh... fine this is Anna she'll do your procedure. I'll set up the exams we have had people on the waiting list for the writing test...blah...blah..."
"Just leave him I'll do your guild card."
Anna looks like your everyday sexy older sister type but something in her aura and eyes tells me that she is something more.
"Well I tell you the short version of the rules real Quick
The guild will protect you from being drafted for wars and by nobles
The guild will not get in between adventurers fighting as long there is no danger to either life
You may not threaten innocents that are not part of the guild (villagers)
if you fail a request you will have to pay 60% of it as a fee unless there are special circumstances or the form has an error
………………..etc"
After she finished explaining.
"Ahh, they are here let's take you all to the written test."
She waved to the group of six that are sitting in the waiting area to have them follow.
We all follow her upstairs to the meeting room into the seats that have a table connecting to the chair.
"The rules are simple you must get above 60% and cheating is an instant fail you have two hours."
She passes all the tests out then sits in the front and reads a book about magic formulas.
The guild test is pretty easy as it about basic skills such as plant collection and life magic spell formulas. I just go through the whole test.
In the end, my test the unique question for me was a large magic formula with various errors in it, but I recognized it as the spell -
Well, I easily solve it.
There is still a whole hour left so I just nap.
"Hey, get up times upgrading is finished she is saying the scores."
I look up to hear her say.
"Everyone passed with above 80% with the lowest being 83% and the highest being...100%" She looked at the paper again "...hey is this right?... Apparently, it is right the highest score is 100%! Owned by Yuuki who was the first one done and took a nap the whole time!"
At her last unnecessary sentence, I was glared at by everyone else in the room.
"Well putting that aside. Next is the combat test."
We once again play follow the leader but instead, we follow her out to the training ground.
Once we enter the training ground there are a few people sitting on the side watching what we do.
In the center Falium… cough... Guild Master was standing there radiating an aura of intimidation, shouldn't he be working?
"I know what you thinking but we had no one else to do the test. All the other adventurers are on a request, so he's doing it."
"Uh-huh"
"Well, anyway you will all go in order from lowest score to highest."
I didn't describe anyone earlier because it wasn't relevant (their names still aren't so I don't remember) but the first one Is a little oni girl a little over 12 holding a huge hammer double her size.
The fight started with the drop of a coin.
The girl dashed forward enhancing her muscles in mana and Qi in her joints and swings her hammer straight down maximizing the force by twisting her entire body to force the hammer down. The speed was further increased by using a lighting enhancement. It was a blow that could instant kill a Wyburn but it is not enough to compare to this muscle brain who takes it head-on with his staff that is clad in Qi in an attempt to blow her away shouting.
"Nice! But not enough"
"Don't underestimate me!"
She used the momentum of his blow instead of being blown away to accelerate her hammer by rotating on her heel.
"[Force Genocide][Power Crash][Earth Shaker]"
A consecutive use of power increasing skills [Force Genocide] for 10x [Power Crash] for 2x and [Earth Shaker] for 5x for a single blow with 100x power but at half speed. To avoid this she timed their activation to be on the exact moment of impact.
…But before she could connect she was completely blown away
"That was impressive Haha, but you need to train a bit more! What's your name?"
She smiled and spoke "Paloma" then fainted
The medical team comes in wearing all white doctor outfits with a stretcher.
They put her in the stretcher and carry her out to the med bay.
"Well don't we have a monster in our midst."
Guild Master looked at me as he said his crappy joke.
"Anyway you, swordsman boy, you're next."
He looked like any other newbie adventurer and his performance reflected it he did about average he will probably get copper class.
"Spearman next."
a young human man dressed as a druid has a spear but the spear is made only wood. The wood used, however, is not normal it is a type of wood referred to spirit wood. It is wood from a tree that is over 1000 years old and has become a guardian spirit.
The material is full of mysteries as even if you analyze it you won't get a real result. You will get its name spirit wood and that's it. the strength one can pull out of the wood depends on their connection with 'The one Power' or the spirit itself.
Druids are pretty rare but not unexpected as they show up outside their groups after completing training to use 'The One Power' to explore all of nature for 5 years as a graduation test.
"It is rare that Druids are in the area. What is your name?"
"Lue, Well I am still an apprentice not part of the council."
"Well, well let's start."
Guild master played defensively while making sure not to stay still to keep himself from going into the reach of the spear and so he couldn't just capture him.
But Lue, unlike normal druids, didn't try to zone and control the movement of Guild master into a superior position. He instead he dashed right a the Guild master and created a drill and armor out of wood.
He thrust his spear forward and when he was parried he sent tendrils out of his armor.
However, they were all calmly hit down the Guild master and countered with a blow against Lue.
"[Flowing Willow][Auto Counter]"
Lue activated two martial skills to one to parry and another to counter while he focused on avoiding.
It didn't take long for him to be overwhelmed and be blown away.
"You surprised me at the beginning but you are still inexperienced and lack any trump cards."
The other 3 weren't special and were knocked down quickly.
"It's your turn next."
It was finally my turn.
I walked forward drawing Tyrhrung.
{You ready Tyr?}
{Yup let's go! Lets beat up this old man.}
Once again the coin is thrown into the sky.
I put prepare the Laido stance ready for the quick draw and use mana and Qi enhancements.
The coin touches the ground and the match begins.
I don't move and instead spread my consciousness around my self to be able to react to anything from a stone falling to the temperature and direction the wind is blowing.
I forgot to explain martial skills because I didn't use them against the red berserker goblin. That was due to the fact that most martial skills have a lag time or some other downside and I was already much weaker than my opponent, and they are made to be used against human opponents.
Originally martial skills did not exist they were just techniques slowly created and refined over time. Until one day a single human who was cursed to be unable to use weapon skills went and mastered every technique and became the strongest martial artist and completed the 'Trial of the Moving Gate' to become the Martial God and created martial skills.
So I use the martial skills to enhance my myself.
"[Lightning Slash Prep.][Dominate Zone][God speed]"
[Lightning Slash Prep.] is similar to [Lightning Slash] but you can't move and it isn't activated instantly. [Dominate Zone] increases reaction speed but makes it impossible to move your legs, and [God Speed] accelerates your next set of actions (in this case my next couple of attacks).
I perfectly relax my muscles to maximize their flexibility.
Now after waiting for a second Guild Master dashes right at me realizing it doesn't matter which direction he comes at me and he might as well gain to maximize his speed.
I'm scared of his huge smile
Unlike all his previous matches he uses martial skills.
"[Meteor Run][Force Genocide][Berserk][Head Crash][Smash]"
[Meteor Run] increases forward momentum and force by 5x. [Berserk] increases damage received and dealt. [Head Crash] increases damage resistance from the front, and [Smash] increases damage output.
It didn't even take a tenth of a second for him to reach my area of control.
I maximize and input all my mana and Qi into my enhancements, cladding, and fairy marks.
At the same time, Tyrhrung lends me her mana and activates all of her various magic to maximize my status to accelerate it further until both of us exhaust all our mana.
A basic movement. A single draw and slash.
I use my arms as springboards, twist my waist take a step forward. My foot dings into the ground as it assists the whole body movement of the single perfect slash.
All of this created a single slash that could only be called a flash of light.
The living cannonball meets this head on...
...And everything goes black.
Ding
skill
skill evolution
skill gained
intrinsic skill gained
Technique created [God flash] added to martial skill list
title gained
title gained
title gained
I see a ceiling I don't recognize.
I heard the stronger the practitioner the shorter the battle would be. I never imagined that I would experience it for myself due to my level never increasing and inability to gain skills.
The battle with Falium literally ended in an instant.
I turn into my human form and check to make sure I didn't lose any cores. I also notice I don't have Tyrhrung on me but I didn't worry as Falium probably had her
It was at this point that I sat up as I heard the door open.
An older woman walks in and looks at me
"Good morning, you have been out for a couple of hours. A message was left that your result will be given tomorrow with all the other examinees. The guild master is in his office getting ready to leave so you should go meet him."
"Got it, thanks."
I stand up and follow her out, but I soon split from her and go upstairs to the guild masters room.
I get to the door and I hear Falium being scolded and knock on the door.
"Come in" I hear Freya's voice call me in.
I walk in and see Falium in a seiza. He seemed to have a few bandages over what seemed to scratch.
"I'm sorry for interrupting."
"It is no problem. If anything I have to apologize for this muscle brain, he went way too far. According to Guild regulations, the examiners are not supposed to use martial skills and spells above the intermediate rank."
"No...oo...its Ok."
"I was called over by a receptionist to pick up my husband and fix the training ground. Who would have guessed that he'd be in a pit that only was stopped because of the barrier at the cost of all the mana the magic stones had remaining. Lucky you to be blown out of the barrier due to him using his skills otherwise you'd still need to recover your mana."
She picked Tyrhrung off the desk and hands her to me.
"This one is still recovering her mana and seems to be sleeping." She took a breath and deeply sighed "But, seriously, you did a number on my husband and the training ground. You managed to injure him even though he maximized his defense to counter your swing using
"Thanks for the compliment but I still lost." I had a mildly displeased face.
"Yeah yeah, you hurt a retired adamantine class adventurer who is stronger than his active years." Freya rolled her eyes as she said that.
"What! Adamantine class!?"
"Yeah, I take it you did not know who we're then?"
"No, I didn't, I just heard that you related to Cecily in some manner."
"You're way too trusting, you know that."
"But that's right we were a pair of adamantine class adventurers." She seemed to start reminiscing "We were called Falling Meteor. We got it thanks to his [meteor rush] martial skill and my [Mountain Drop] spell. However, that is a story for later.
Well, he finished all his work lets go home early so you can eat and rest. Tomorrow is when you get your ranking and have the paper test for the mages guild."
"Yeah I'm exhausted"
"Well, let's go. this man here will be pulling the carriage." A cold glare was cast toward the big man on the floor. "Don't think that your preaching is over it is just put on pause. We can't have our guest accidentally catch some stupid."
"Yes, mam."
He escaped at the maximum speed down the stairs.
"Well, let's go."
"Un." I followed closely behind Freya swearing in my heart to never anger her.
We had an uneventful ride home but I still had
{DINNER IS READY} is reported to us as we enter the mansion.
"Let's eat then get ready for bed, don't worry some will be put to the side for Tyr-chan. "
I eat the dinner consisting of cockatrice, blast corn, and some salad.
As I was eating Cecily heard about today from Freya and Falium seeing me so tired.
"It is just the after effect of exhausting one's mana he should be better tomorrow."
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I go upstairs shower, change, then collapse in bed with Tyrhrung in her sheath.
I can't help but look forward to tomorrow.
I wake up early and see that Tyrhrung is already awake somewhere.
I dress myself, look out the window to see that it is still dark outside and decide that I should go to the living room to read some books.
I walk down the stairs while trying to not make too much noise.
I get to the living room and pull out a book on the synchronization of spells.
It is in ancient gladius empire script it describes basic magic and what happens if you cast the same one in rapid succession. Synchronization is the phenomena where if you cast a spell on top of the exact same spell you can use the previous spell circle and reduce mana cost and increase the cast speed every time it is repeated.
{Would you like tea?} an automata who seemed to be cleaning saw me and asked.
"Yes, please"
The automata stopped cleaning and walked to get the things necessary for tea.
I look back down at the gook and see a passage that seemed out of place but had a large effect on current magic theories.
'Magic circles were created to alter the fabric of mana, to dumb down and mass produces mages for wars. Originally magic was cast without a medium, it was cast using mana to directly bend reality. These were the original mages.'
Well, there is no evidence for this but it is worth looking into this at a later date.
{Tea is ready.} the automata returned with some herbal tea prepared.
It is just now that I realized that these automata sound different as it sounds much more human compared to all the other ones.
I look closer at it and see that it had a higher quality pseudo-skin and used purified magic stones as eyes. Its actions seemed much more smooth. I decided to examine its neck and see it as a magic transmission device that seemed to use a synchronization based design.
Knock Knock
"Come in!"
Freya came in and saw the book on the table and me looking at the automata. She was wearing a night robe.
"Sorry to interrupt I was getting a midnight snack. That book you're reading is the first one I translated when I moved here but I didn't fully understand it until recently when I examined the natural structure of monster stones.
It is a good read I suggest you read it if you can't sleep."
"Thank I'll continue for now."
She walked back upstairs.
I got a thing I'll have to examine myself at a later date.
So I kept reading until morning came.
{Breakfast is ready} came from the kitchen.
It seems a couple of hours passed.
I stand up and set down the book I have been reading. It is perfect timing as I have just finished.
I start to make my way to the kitchen and as I pass the stairs I bump into Tyrhrung...and I was tackled.
on the ground, my stomach was being ground away and getting covered in tears from the mass of hair in the shape of a person.
"Onii-chan!! When I woke up you weren't there I was so worried! I didn't know if you were okay, especially after the fight."
I keep rubbing her back.
"I woke up while you were still sleeping, and went to the bath after eating a snack that was prepared, and then you were gone!"
"Why didn't you look for me?"
"Onii your so mean. I thought it'd be rude walking in someone's house at night without permission."
I start fixing her hair and wiping her tears as she continues to throw insults at me and small punches.
"Hello wh... never mind I'll be eating breakfast have fun you two."
...It seems Freya has misunderstood that we were doing something erotic. Well, I can't blame her I in light night clothes and I'm being pressed into the ground by a beautiful woman whose clothes are in a mess. Also, said woman is pressing her face into my shoulder nuzzling me as if to smell me and et all my scent.
After about a minute she calms down, and I have finished fixing her appearance.
"Let go to the kitchen, we won't want to hold up everybody else's breakfast."
I stand up and drag her before she can switch gears.
We arrive in the kitchen.
"So what were the two love birds doing to be so late for breakfast."
I seem she has every intention to tease us for this misunderstanding.
"It is just a misunderstanding."
"Yes, yes, that is what I told my mother too when she caught me flirting with my boyfriend."
"No, it really is a misunderstanding. Come on tell her Tyrhrung."
"Don't call onto a girl that you ravaged so thoroughly that she started to cry."
This placed an image in my head that shouldn't be there causing me to blush.
"She is teasing you, and you're falling for it perfectly." and to her statement, everyone started laughing. It was at this moment I realized that I walked right into this.
"Come on, sit down, Aunt Freya stops messing with Yuuki and Tyr. If you guys continue we will never eat breakfast until its cold."
It seems that I still have an ally in Cecily.
"Ah, but seems we only have one seat left so I guess they have to share."
Or not, she shoved one of the chairs in storage leaving only one left while bearing a huge sadistic smile.
"Okay, okay, Cecily put the chair back and let's start breakfast."
"Thank you for the food."x5
"Falium, you've been there the whole time?"
"Yes, it seems that I became no different from air. I might gain a stealth skill at some point at this rate."
Breakfast finished without further interruption and everything went well. Falium and I made it to the adventurer guild and didn't encounter any incidents.
I arrive at the adventurers guild. It's a bit earlier in the day and the guild full of people taking quests.
"Hello, You're the first one in, please come to the waiting room." said a blue-haired receptionist
I follow her upstairs pass the testing room but before the Guild masters room. The room has a desk in the back with two chairs in front of it, there are multiple bookshelves with couches beside them.
"Wait here."
She then left the room.
I take a look at some of the books on the shelves. there are encyclopedias, dismantling guides, monster information, and simple magic guides.
It seems that anyone can ask to come up here to read and study unless it is being used for things like today.
I pull out a dictionary like a book that's in elven language, it seems that it is a spirit magic starters guide.
Sadly right now I don't have time to read it, so I remember where it is and look at some of the other bookshelves.
After a few minutes, Paloma walks in not wearing armor but instead wearing loose clothing that are a magic item.
Oni's are a rare type of demon race who look like humans except for having horns that come from their head. The horns size and location determine the amount of physical strength and magical power they have before they start training. She has two long thin horns coming from her forehead normally associated with the chief of the one tribe. It means she has a lot of physical strength, probably around 10x your average adult man.
That being the case I don't know why she is becoming an adventurer, I probably shouldn't butt in though.
Normally humans and fae would discriminate against those of demon races due to the fact the previous demon king tried to conquer the world but that isn't the case for the Kingdom of Leaores.
I understood why everyone else did but I didn't care one way or the other.
The Kingdom of Leaores Is apparently where we are right now, I don't think they told me no doubt because they thought I already knew. But yeah apparently we're in The Kingdom of Leaores according to the map on the desk.
"Hello, Paloma your fight against that battle crazy old man is impressive."
She looks at me glares then turns her head to the door where then all the other applicants come in with Mrs. blue hair.
"The guild master will report your final scores in thirty minutes, please hand me your guild cards."
We all hand her our guild cards and take a seat and start some small talk...except not everyone else talks but clearly... avoids me.
As much as it bothers me... I can't blame them, I am a monster. An ex-human monster but as I can't tell anyone that to them I'm just a monster.
Thirty minutes later
The door open and Guild master Falium walks in with a clipboard and all our guild cards.
"I'm not good with ceremony so I'll just tell you who got what so line up."
We line up with me on the right end and Paloma on the complete opposite end.
"I'll start from the left, Silver, bronze, silver, bronze, bronze, silver, and for Yuuki gold class. Now a carriage I prepared to the mages guild so anyone wanting to sign for the mages guild jump on it."
Everyone thanks him and I head to the carriage with Lue behind.
I get on and sit down in the corner away from the other two people who are already on. One is an older woman who seems like a retired court magician and the other is an apprentice mage looking, young man.
Lue gets on and sits beside the other two.
"Last call for mages guild transport." I hear from the driver's seat.
A couple of minutes later he calls out and we make our way to the mages guild.
We arrive at the mages guild in a bit over half an hour, instead of just sitting there I meditated the whole time.
I was the first to jump off the carriage and I slowly walk in careful to be ready to dodge any and all magic that could come flying at me
I get inside and nothing come sent at me.
"Don't worry, Guild master Freya already told everyone not to attack you."
"Is that so." I calmed down, relaxed and let down my guard
"Yes, please follow me to the testing room the test will start in an hour"
We head to the end of the room, out the side door, down the hallway, up to the fifth floor of the tower. After finishing, what seems to be a maze, we finally find ourselves inside a large room with 10 rows of heavy wood long desks.
[au. note: think college lecture hall]
"Take a seat that isn't already taken."
"Yes, thank you for leading me."
She bows and then leaves.
On the way here I was quite surprised that the entire building is just thousands of interconnected magic tools or enchanted items. Each room has a magic tool that expands the space of the room. The hallways are enchanted bricks to increase durability and every couple of bricks is one that is also a magical tool that uses mana, casts clean once a day and then automatically gathers mana again. The stairs are a magic tool that restores the person walking on them. Each of these desks has a durability increasing enchant and the chairs have a magic tool for temperature control.
The price would normally be insane to gather this many tools and enchanted bricks, but the mages guild has a training program to train the
I walk to the back corner of the room and sit in the corner as all the other examinees fill in from the front row back.
About 40 minutes later
A woman wearing a long robe with a concealment effect enters and shouts to gather everyone's attention.
"Okay, everyone, look down here! We will hand out the test to determine your base ranking of the magic guild. It will determine your basic knowledge of magic circles, magic history, magic detection, magic tool creation and more you have until dark. Oh yeah, dark today is 20:00 so you have plenty of time."
Well, this is once again my specialty, information, I memorized everything in every library I have ever visited. I could never learn skills but I was great at learning everything else while on my adventure I have visited all of the ten different Sage Towers and memorized every single page of all the tens of thousands of books in there. I could have even been a sage candidate...but I had... absolutely... no magic talent. None what so ever it was depressing. I had a bit of mana but I couldn't fire a single attack spell.
The woman finally makes to my row and puts the test in front of me.
I made my way through the test... but it was to easy all the questions on the first fourth of the test could be answered by anyone who passed the first layer of the sage towers.
The second quarter was magic history this was a bit difficult as there were a few names I didn't recognize but I could use the process of elimination.
The next half of the test was various miscellaneous magic skills and tidbits. It was hard but still manageable, that was until the last question. Like, seriously what is this. It is a question on the construction of the building, it basically wants an 80% accuracy blueprint from scratch.
2 hours later
I walk up to the front and drop the test in front of the professor looking person sitting at the big guest take the food with my name label and head to my desk.
I ate it quickly it was a good but not great sandwich and went to sleep waiting for Mr. prof. to grade it. This should allow me an hour nap.
"W...ak...e...u...p!"
I was nudged to make sure I woke up.
[Get up, times up everyone else finished] Tyrhrung used gist to wake me up.
I start to sit up.
"I'm sorry, how long have I been asleep."
"About four hours, they are about to say the scores."
I'm more awake now and I see the person waking me is the same person who was at the front of the room earlier she seems excited for some reason.
"I'll go from the lowest score to the highest."
I ignore most of it taking note of 5 people; Paloma, a large man who looks like a warrior, a small pixie, a blue haired elf, and Lue.
"The highest score was gotten by... Yuuki! with a near perfect score of 99.9% only getting a single question wrong. He also didn't cheat we watched the whole time and even had things to track all magic uses."
Everyone started talking to one another and spreading gossip, but I splendidly ignored all of it.
"Okay, everyone you are all dismissed."
I decided to wait to be the last one to leave but I was caught by miss blue hair.
"Go to the Guild Masters office, you have been summoned."
I make my way through the maze and eventually reach the guild masters office and knock on the door.
"Come in."
I walk in and see towers of paperwork
"What happened here?"
"Recently the margrave ordered a review of mage guild members due to some having a connection with a dark guild."
"Do you need help?"
"No, give me a minute I'm almost done today's quota."
"Then why did you call me?"
"So I could let you ride the carriage on the way home."
"Got it."
I sit and wait till she's done, playing the word chain game with Tyrhrung.
"FINISHED!"
I was surprised by the sudden shouting and proceeded to fall off my chair.
"Sorry, for surprising you. Anyway, let's go to the carriage."
I get up and follow her out and we proceed home while having an idle conversation.